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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
Concerning the relation between the Prâtisàkhyas and such Sikshâs as are enumerated under B, which may be called the Sikshas kar fox, my views are, shortly expressed, as follows:
Much of what is taught in these Sikshâs was taught before them in the Prátisakhyas, but as the latter were found to contain many rules with which the reciter of the Vedic texts had no concern, manuals-such as the Sik
SRADDHA CEREMONIES AT GAYA. BY PROF. MONIER WILLIAMS.
The city of Gayâ is most picturesquely situated on the river Phalgû, about 60 miles southwest of Patna, near some isolated hills, or rather short ranges of hills, rising abruptly out of the plain. The town itself crowns two low ridges, whose sides, covered with the houses of its narrow, tortuous streets, slope down to an intervening hollow occupied by the temple and sacred tank dedicated to the Sun. But the most sacred temple, and the great centre of attraction for all Hindus who wish to perform once in their lives a Gaya-sráddha for their forefathers, is the Vishnupada temple, situated on one of the ridges, and built of black stone, with a lofty dome and golden pinnacle. It contains the alleged footprint of Vishnu in a large silver basin, under a silver canopy, inside an octagonal shrine. Pindas and various kinds of offerings are placed by the pilgrims inside this basin round the footprint, and near it are open colonnades for the performance of the śráddhas. About six miles from the city is the well-known place of pilgrimage called Bodh-Gayá, celebrated for a monastery and numerous temples, but chiefly for the ancient tower-like structure said by the natives to be more than 2200 years old, and originally a Buddhist monument. It has near it other alleged footprints of Vishnu (probably once assigned to Buddha), under an open shrine. Behind the tower, on an elevated stone terrace reached by a long flight
[JULY, 1876.
shás are which are known to us-had to be composed which professed to give only the rules required for the correct recitation of the Vedas, and to give them in both an intelligible and an easily remembered form; the composition of such manuals became the more necessary when the recitation of the Vedic texts had become so artificial that it no longer was suffi ciently accurately described by the comparatively simple rules of the Prátiśákhyas.||
I cannot conclude these remarks without a word of thanks to the gentlemen whose kindness has enabled me to collect the treatises described in the above. The Secretary of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta has placed at any disposal all the Siksha MSS. which belong to the Society. Dr. Rajendralâl Mitra has, with his usual kindness, furnished me with copies of the Amoghânandini, Katyayana, and Lomasi Sikehas. My friend Dr. Bühler has collected
of steps, is the sacred pipal tree under which, according to popular belief, the Buddha attained supreme knowledge. The tree must be many centuries old, but a succession of trees is secured by planting a new one inside the decaying stem of the old. In a chamber at the bottom of the tower-like Buddhist monument-now used as a temple-a substitute for the original figure of Buddha (carried off by the Burmese about a hundred years ago) has been placed, for the sake of the Buddhist pilgrims who come to repeat prayers and meditate under the tree; and in the same place a linga has been set up, to which the Hindus do pújd. When I visited the spot many persons were in the act of worshipping, and several members of the Burmese embassy, who had come to meet the Prince of Wales at Calcutta, were to be seen reverentially kneeling, praying and meditating under the sacred tree.
Before describing the śraddhas at Gayâ, I may state that I asked several pandits in different parts of India to give me the reasons for attaching special efficacy to the celebration of religious rites for ancestors in that locality. The only reply I received was that in the Gayamahatmya and Gayd-śráddha-paddhati it is declared that a powerful demon (asura), named Gaya, formerly resided there and tyrannized over the inhabitants. Vishnu took compassion on them, fought and killed the demon, and for me, on his travels in Gujarat, Rajputana, and Kashmir' besides the Sikshåpanjika, no less than eight Sikshas: the Amoghanandini, Apisali, Kesava, Chârâyaniya, Náradi. Mândûki (3 copies), Madhyandini, and Yajn.. alkya. And to the kindness of Colonel Malleson of Maisur I owe copies of the Aranya, Bharadvaja, Vasishṭha, Vyasa, Sarvasam mata, Siddhanta-sikshas, and of the Siksha-samuchchaya, together with their commentaries.
