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MARCH, 1875.]
THE BHÅNDAR OF SANSKRIT MSS. AT JESSALMIR.
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of the Indian writings, it certainly signifies the or may not be true of blukti; but sraddha place reached by going," " resort," "refuge." (together with its cognates, participial and Ramanuja explains gati in the second passage verbal) is found even in the hymns of the thus : gati-Sukra-loka-prabhriti prápyaatha- Rigveda in the sense of belief in the existnam, i.e. "the abode which is to be attained in ence and action of a Deity, at least, if not also (or by the heaven of Indra."
of devotion to his service. In pp. 103 ff. of the It is further to be observed that whilst Jesus fifth volume of my Original Sanskrit Tests a designates himself as "the way, the truth, and number of passages are cited and translated the life," Krishna, in one of the verses referred in which the word occurs, together with a great to, calls himself only the "unequalled abode or variety of other expressions, in which the worresort ;" and in the other "the resort, the sus- shipper's trust in and affectionate regard for tainer, the lord, the witness, the abode, the the god Indra are indicated. He is called a refuge, the friend, the source, the dissolution, the friend and brother; his friendship and guidance stay, the receptacle, the undecaying seed;" so are said to be sweet; he is spoken of as a father, that, in any case, the resemblance would be but and the most fatherly of fathers, and as being partial, while some of the ideas in the Bhagavail both a father and a mother; he is the helper of Gita are foreign to the New Testament. Most the poor, and has a love for mortals. In other of the verses cited from that poem by Dr. Lo- texts adduced in the same volume from those rinser as parallel to texts in the Bible appear to ancient compositions, there may be found interme either to exhibit no very close resemblance mingled no doubt with many ideas of a dif. to the latter, or to be such as might naturally ferent and much less elevated character) the have occurred to the Indian writer, and to offer most lofty conceptions of the power, omnitherefore only an accidental similarity. Dr. science, and righteousness of the same god, or of Lorinser considers (see the note in Ind. Ant. vol. other deities, --conceptions which, I apprehend, II. p. 286, and in p. 56 of the German original) are quite sufficient to show that, however the that two Sanskrit words denoting faithful and question regarding the introduction of Christian reverential religious devotion (Sraddha and doctrines and sentiments into Indian writers in bhakti), which often occur in the Bhagavad later times may be determined, the people of Gitá, do not convey original Indian conceptions, Hindustan were not deficient in high and debut are borrowed from Christianity. This may vout religious sentiment from the earliest ages.*
DR. BÜHLER ON THE CELEBRATED BHANDAR OF SANSKRIT MSS. AT
JESSALMIR. Translated from the Transactions of the Berlin Academy, March 1874,
BY SHANKAR PÅNDURANG PANDIT, M.A., DEPUTY COLLECTOR, SURAT. Prof. Weber presented a short letter from tificate of Jina Bharasûri, to which were Prof. G. Bühler, dated Bikanir, 14th February, gradually added six o her temples dedicated to on the subject of the collection of MSS. in the different Tirthankanıs. Through this temple Temple-Library in Jessalmir. +
and the wealth of the Jain community, which In Jessalmir, which was founded about the has spread its trade and banking business over middle of the twelfth century, after the destruc- the whole of Rajpûtâna, Málva, and Central tion of Lodorva, the old capital of the Bhat- India, Jessalmir has obtained a high fame as ti Rajpûts, there is a large colony of Jains. one of the principal seats of the Jain faith. According to tradition the forefathers of these Especially, however, is the renown of the Bhânpeople came from Lodorva along with the dûr or Library everywhere celebrated, which, Rajpûts, and from thence brought with them according to the statements of the Gujaratis, to Jessalmir a most holy image of Paras- surpasses all similar Bhåndars in the world. It nath (Párávanátha). For this image a temple was therefore one of the chief objects of my was built in the fifteenth century under the pon- journey to obtain admittance to this Bhåndár,
Part of this article is a reprint from pages -vii of Edin. 1874.).- ED. the preface to the author's Religious and Moral Senti- See Dr. Bühler's letter of the 29th January in the ments freely translated from Indian Writers (pamph. Indian Antiquary, vol. III. p. 89 (March 1874).-ED.
