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JUNE, 1880.)
INSCRIPTIONS FROM NEPÅL.
163
But there is nothing to prove that Parsva was to these myths of the Puranas abont Rishabha, the founder of Jainism. Jaina tradition is un- whether they are founded on facts, or were animous in making Rishabh a the first Tîrtha- merely suggested by the legendary history of kara. Though he is stated to have lived 840,000 the Jainas, it is wholly impossible to decide. great years, and have died something less than Of the remaining Tirthakaras I have little to 100,000,000 oceans of years before Mahavira's add. Su mati, the fifth Tirthakara, is appar. Nirvana, yet there may be something historical ently identical with Bharata's son Sumati, of in the tradition which makes him the first Tir- whom it is said in the Bhagavata that he "will thakara. For the Brahmans too have myths in be irreligiously worshipped, by some infidels, their Puranas about a Rishabha, son of king as a divinity" (Wilson, ibid). Nábhi and Meru, who had a hundred sons, Arisht a nemi, the 22nd Tirthakara, is conBharata and the rest, and entrusting Bharatanected with the Krishņa-myths through his wife with the government of his kingdom, adopted Ragimati, daughter of Ugrasena. the life of an anchorite.---Wilson, Vishnu Purana, But we must close our researches here, convol. II, p. 103 sqq. All these particulars are tent to have obtained a few glimpses into the also related by the Jainas of their Rishabha; prehistorical development of Jainism. The and from the more detailed account in the last point which we can perceive is Pars va; Bhúgavata Purá na it is evident that the fabulous beyond him all is lost in the mist of fable and founder of the Jaina sect must indeed be meant fiction. (ibid, p. 104, note 1). But what value belongs Münster, Westphalia, 18th March 1880.
INSCRIPTIONS FROM NEPAL. BY PANDIT BHAGVÅNLÅL INDRAJI, AND DR. G. BÜHLER, C.I.E. No. 1.-An Inscriptioa of Mánadeva, dated fall, a royal physician, called Chakrapâni, about Sarkat 386.
twenty years ago, had a new capital made for This inscription is incised on the lower partit, consisting of a gilt lotus and a Chakra, and of a broken pillar placed to the left of the door put it up in its present position. In doing so of the temple of Changu-Narayaņa,' about five the Vaid neglected to add a new base. He simply miles to the north-east of Katmandu. The planted the pillar in the ground. Hence a porpillar is abont twenty feet high without the tion of the inscription, which is incised on three capital. Its lower balf is square, half of the sides of the square lower part of the pillar, has been upper part is octagonal, higher up it becomes buried in the earth. In spite of my entreaties the sixteen-cornered, and finally round. Originally priest at Chåriga-Narayana would not allow me it was crowned by a lotus-capital surmounted to lay the buried lines bare. I have, therefore, by a Garuda, about four feet high, shaped like a been obliged to present the inscription in a mutiwinged man kneeling on one knee. The work- lated form. inanship is very good, and the figure shews the The form of the letters agrees exactly with flowing locks, which occur frequently on the that of the Gupta inscriptions. They are sculptures of the Gupta period. The weight clearly and sharply incised. With the excepof the Garuda seems to have been the cause tion of the first part the preservation is good. of the pillar's fall from its old base, which is The language is Sanskrit, and excepting the two still to be seen just opposite the door of the first lines, the whole is in verse. The numtemple, where numerous fragments of its capitatbers of the verses are marked by the ancient and of the Garuda also are lying about. After its figures. .
Transcript. Part I. [1] संवत् ३८६ ज्येष्ठमासे शुक्लपक्षे प्रतिपदि १ [२] [रोहिणीनक्षत्रयुक्ते चन्द्रमसि मुहूर्ने प्रशस्तेभिजिति
This temple stands in the centre of a small village on spur of the hills, at the base of which flows the river Man- mati. Ch&ngu, literally he with a bill,' is in the Nepali
anguage name of Garuda, and the compound' means therefore Garuda and Vishnu. The temple contains an
old composite image of Vishnu riding on Garuda. The present building is new, having been erected in Nepala Sarhvat 814, or 1694 A.D. by Queen Riddhi-Lakshmi, ay is shewn by an inscription : 80e also below.
