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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1881.
4. Bansa Rani, Queen of the Fairies, is commonly believed in in the Panjab: she is said to be worshiped in the Kångra district as a god dess. She is apparently a forest or jungle goddess, and the name may represent the Sans. krit form Vand-rajni. Information required.
5. Any information from officers in the Panjáb that may throw light on the following points
will be most thankfully received :-Origin, history and habits of the Chammars, Bawarias, Gandhelas or Gandhflas, sansis, Hárnis and Means. Extracts from any District or Settlement Reports which may contain information relating to these castes and tribes, will be most useful, excepting from the Firozpur District Settlement Report, which I know. B. C. TEMPLE, Firozpur.
ASIATIC SOCIETIES. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. XIII, these names are also found in the Sutasoma, and part i. (Jan. 1881). The first paper in this part is also in invocations or charms where they are called Prof. Monier Williams's on Indian Theistic Re-| bhadra (bhattara). formers,' already noticed (ante p. 55). The second A few Tamil and Persian words are found even is Notes on the Kawi Language and Literature,' in the earliest Kawi: thus, pane or paney a kind of by Dr. H. N. van der Tunk, of Bali,-a paper com- jar to grow the lotus in, is undoubtedly Tamil: jon municated by Dr. Rost from letters received in lia, taraju sjl, and guld (Javan. jula, throat) 1878 and 1879. The Kawi or Old Javanese , are Persian. manuscripts having been transcribed by Balinese The third paper is by the Rev. Dr. Edkins of Peto whom Javanese is a foreign language, are king on 'The Nirvana of the Northern Buddhists.' disfigured by numerous misspellings. The lan- The Nirvana of the Indian Buddhists is a doc. guage contains both Indian and Malayan words. trine of death suited to a monkish system which deAmong the works in the language is a Tantri, clares all the joy of life to be deception, and looks which must be derived from some Indian collec- with philosophical pity on the grandeur of kings tion of fables, but the greater part of the stories and the glory of heroes. All things are born but are unlike those in the Panchatantra or the to suffer and to die. Even death does not, withHitopadeda. The names of jackals and dogs out the aid of Buddha's wisdom, extricate them occurring in the poem are partly Sanskrit, partly from the wheel of successive births and deaths Malayan. of the Tantri there are three recen- in the wider world of which this world forms a sions.-one in prose called Kamandaka, which is part. From this evil destiny the Nirudņa sets the least complete of the three, and two in verse. them free for ever. The Tibetans and Mongols It is hardly possible yet to say whether many exchanged their old religion for Buddhism with Prakrit words have found their way into Kawi. its hope of the Western Paradise Amitabha and its The Brahmanda-purdna introduces at the com- Nirvana. The Lamas accept the Buddhist denial of mencement a king Dasamakrěshna or Dilima- the reality of the world, and receive the Nirudna. krēsbna, and the two bhagawans Romaharshana The inferior Lamas and the common Tibetans and and Nemisheya, who are interrogated by him about Mongols believe in the metempsychosis and in the the Manubaņsakrama. Then follows a tedious souls of faithful worshippers being conveyed to the account of Brahma's creation of four Rěshis, who Paradise of Amitabha; and this doctrine tends very would not marry; then he created the gods ; next much to keep the Nirvana out of sight. The same the nine divine Rěshis were born; and then is true of the Ghorkhas. In China, Buddhism has Brahma created Siva. Of the eighteen parvas of been much kept in check by Confucianism; in Corea, the Mahdbharata only eight have been preserved, Confucianism is strong and Buddhism is despised viz., Adiparva, Viratap., Udyogap., Bhishmaparva, by the educated; in Japan, Buddhisın is stronger and the last four. Among the most important because it was favoured by the Sioguns, in the poems of the Kidung class are the Malat, the time of whose rule the Paradise of the Western Wasió, and the Wanbar Wideya-three voluminous Heaven was much thought of,--and this once acceptcompositions on the exploits of the Prince of ed the belief in Nirvana has become dim. The Koripan after his loss of the Princess of Daha. use of animal food in China and Japan has acted Another popular poem is the Blindswarga relat- against the belief of the soul ever transmigrating ing the liberation of Panda from hell (Kawah) into an animal body. In Cochin-China, Buddhism by Bhima. Nawaruchi relates the treachery of is an offshoot from that of China. The three Drons towards Bhima. One of the Buddhist Southern Buddhist nations in Birma, Siam, and kēkawin class of poems is the Arjunawijaya Ceylon have the doctrines of transmigration which mentions Amitabha, Amoghasiddha, Wairo- and Nirvana as articles of faith and universal chana, Akshobbya, and Ratnasambhawa. Some of education. These southern peoples are more readily
