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Nov. 1, 1872.)
DONDRA INSCRIPTION,
331
earliest mention of Dew-nuwara that I have found is in the Raja Ratnakara (verse 82 of my MS). where it is said :-Ohu bê sulu Siri Sanga-bo raja Piyangul-wehera adi wihara karawi Downuwara Dew-rajan pihituwâ lo weda sasun-weda keleya :
His nephew the younger Siri Sanga-bo, the king, built the Piyangul and other wiharas established the king of the gods at Dewnuwara, and showed favour to the world and to religion.'
This is confirmed by Upham's extracts from the Rajawaliya, and is probably correct, and the " establishment" referred te may be the same act as the building of the image house, and the dedication to it and to Vishnu of the lands referred to in our inscription.
If so the inscription would date from about 712 A. D., the king referred to having reigned from 702 A. D. to 718 A. D. according to Turnour.
The form of the letters would favour this view; they are a good deal older (especially the r and m, which are test letters in the Elu, corruptions of the old Pali alphabet) than those of the long inscription of Nissanka Malla Parâkrama Bahu the Great at Dambulla : and there is no other Bangabo between the one who came to the throne in 702 and the 4th of the name crowned A. D. 1071, whose epithet is known to have been Wijayabâhu and not Parakrama Bahu.
Secondly, as to the name of the god. Vishnu is commonly called in this (Anuradhapura) district, Utpala waruna diwya rajayan wahanse, and is always represented in the temples as of a blue colour. The Buddhists think Brahma the highest god, the next to be Sakra, and the third
Vishnu. Brahma is too exalted to receive much worship. Bakra is sometimes painted on vihara walls, but I have never seen his image. Vishnu is both painted and his image sculptured with Maitri Diwya râja's (for so they call the coming Buddha) near to the sacred image of Śákya muni. Bat I have never heard the title Diwya râja used alone of any one god, nor the word Nila applied as a name to Vishnu.
Thirdly, as to the numerals: the Elu numerals are given by Prinsep as far as 107 and by Alwis as far as 1000. These numerals have never, I believe, been noticed in any inscriptions, or in any books,-in Pali and Ela books, the words being always given in full; and neither Prinsep nor Alwis give any authority for their lists. In this inscription, however, the character before the warush (varsha) is clearly that for 10 and the signs following the word gas (trees) and succeeded by yi, (used for cardinals like our -th after ordinals) are certainly figures: the second seems to be the 2 of the lists: the preceding figure probably represents, therefore, either tens or hundreds : it is very like the figure for 100 minus the last part. Is it possible that the figure showing the number of hundreds, instead of being written before the figure for 100 was sometimes written after it, and that then the last stroke of the 100 figure may have been omitted? If so our figures would represent 200: but in the absence of any examples with which to compare them, no certain decision can be arrived at. It only remains to be noted that the sign for two hundred is very like the figure of the Valabhi plates, slated by Prof. Bhandarkar to represent 200.
NÁRÁYAN SWÁMI.
COMPILED BY THE EDITOR. One of the most numerous of the modern ten in Sansksit, and a translation of it will be Hindu sects in Western India is that of Narayan given hereafter. Swami in Gujarat and Käthiâwâd. The facility Swami Narayan is supposed by his followers with which multitudes have been led to regard to have been an incarnation of the god Narayana this impostor as an incarnation of the deity is and the following legend is told to account for an average specimen of Hindu credulity. The this avatar :-On a certain day in the Dwâpara Siksha patra or book of instructions, pro- Yog, while Narayana was engaged in the pervided by the Swâini for his disciples, and which formance of the rite tapaschary a surroundmay be regarded as the creed of the sect, is writ- ed by eighty-eight thousand Rishis, who were
• Upham, Vol. II p. 248. I regret that writing away from $ Indian Antiquary, p. 60. my library, lokanot refer to the Mahawansa or to the originRájawaliya.
This and some subsequent paragraphs are taken, with Thomas's edition, Vol. II. p. 72, Plate XL.
little alteration from a paper in the Daydnodaya, Vol. VIII. Sedal Sangardwa, PI. IIL
pp. 276-278.
