Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 02

Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 26

16
NOTICE OF
may be crossed, who was produced from a portion of MAITREYA uniting with the light of RATNACHÚÞA' in the forest rock, be propitious to you ---I adore it.
8. May GOKARNEŚWARA, the son of KHAGANJA, in the form of a Lotus, assumed on the bank of the Vágmati, by desire of LOKANÁTH, to preserve the wicked GOKARNAengaged in austere devotion, and who, for the benefit of mankind and their progenitors, is still at the confluence of the rivers “, be propitious to you—I adore him.
RATNACHIÚVA or MAŃICHÚVA, he of the jewel - crest: he is said to have been a King of Saketa Nagar, on whose head grew a gem of inestimable value, which he offered to the Gods, and which was united with the portion of MAITREYA to form the Jewel- Linga. The Srivatsa is, properly, the Jewel worn by KŔishŃa, but is here understood to imply a waving flame. Amongst the ancient Bauddha sculptures at Amaravati, on the Krishná, and removed by Colonel MACKENZIE, was one of a Lingan, surmounted by a flame of this description.
2 The l'itarága is styled Khaganja Tanaya, meaning, however, emanation or derivation, not literally son.
3 GOKARŇA is said to have been a prince of Panchala. The name of the Titarága, in conjunction with his appellation, is a clear indication of a Linga being intended, these symbols, throughout all India, being commonly named from some circumstance connected with their first erection; with Íswara, the name of Siva, affixed. Gokarneswara is, therefore, the Linga set up by GOKARKA. It is probable, however, that GOKARŃA is a fabulous person, and that the real origin of the name is the existence of a similar Lingam on the Malabar Coast, which has been very celebrated for some centuries.
4 Of the Vágmati and Amoghavati, where oblations to ancestors are offered.