Indian Antiquary Vol 17

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 387

DECEMBER, 1888.]
MISCELLANEA.
355
block of the valuable stone, like which there person is filled with blessed joy. In the Fifth, has been nothing produced since the time of a Sixth and Seventh Centuries Avalokitesvara was god. There was no one to act as my guide to the honoured throughout all India 10 His greatness quarry, and I could not reach it, and I was alto. and mercy are spoken of in the Saddharmapun. gether occupied in seeking it. I spent eight days darika, that is, in the book translated from Sansin the search in this mountainous country, and I krit into Chinese between 265-313 A.D. The repredid not know where I was. Then I fell down sentation of Avalokitesvara and many legends before the god Khem, the goddess Maut, the concerning him are found in Elura, Aurangabad, goddess Urt-khekau and all the gods of the place and Kanhêri. and offered them sacrifices." There are also According to a legend Avalokitesvara first hieratio graffitti and rude representations of appeared on Mount PAtala, a mountain, in all animals on these rocks.
probability, somewhere in the Dakhari, some (h) The Embassy of Spafar.-The text is however place it outside of India, in China or given by A. Ivanovski, consisting of forty-one in Tibet. In Hlassa at this time still lives pages in the Manchd-Tatar language. Notes the incarnation of Avalokitesvara in the person are added on various readings but nothing of the Dalai Lama. There the merciful one explanatory. The original seems to refer to some shews himself to thousands of worshippers and relations between Russia and China as far back addresses a few words to the richer and more as the reign of Alexis Mikhailovich (1645-1676). eminent of them. He is also the Creator of
(1) Buddhist Prayers, by I. Minayev.-A the world. From his eyes rose the moon and hymn to Avalokitesvara, taken from a collec- sun, from his forehead Mahêsvara, from his tion of various prayers and hymns brought by the shoulders Brahmâ, &c., from his heart Närañjana, author from Nepal. The text is written in the from his teeth Sarasvati, from his mouth the usual Nepali alphabet on a long leaf folded in the wind (Vậyu), from his feet the earth, from his shape of a book. As the Buddhists in Nepal stomach Varuņa, from his navel, fire, from his often do not understand Sanskrit at all, or know left knee, Lakshmi, from his right Srid. And it badly, the texts of these hymns are sometimes many other gods arose from his body for the in a very corrupt state. Besides the above-men- use of the world, and they are all subject to tioned manuscript the writer has made use of two Avalokitesvara. In China he is sometimes repre. others belonging to the Cambridge University sented in the form of a woman (Kwanyin). Many Library. At the conclusion the author of the suggestions have been made as to the origin of the hymn is called Charpati, of whom Taranatha cultus of Avalokitôšvara, by Professors Vasiliev speaks and who is perhaps the same as the Bud- and Beale among others. Prof. Kern finds in it dhist magician and poet.
traces of a solar myth. Perhaps it is impossible to Avalokitesvara, to whom Charpati composed answer the question in a satisfactory way for want the hymn, is prayed to in all Northern Asia, of materials. in Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia, and Japan. (1). Miscellaneous Notes. Millions of voices every minute reiterate his (1) On the graves of three Sultans in Kasimov prayer-Om mani padme hun. Millions of hands who died in the seventeenth century. have written and still write this great sentence (2) The khutba of the Harijite Abd Hamza. of six syllables on the walls of temples, on flags In the chief work of the Arabian polyhistor and on rocks. Millions believe that the repetition Jahiz, among other curious specimens of Arabian of these words is sufficient for salvation. In the eloqnence, is included a khutba or sermon of the biography of Hiuen-Tsiang and in the travels of Harijite Abo-Hamza. Fa-hian we have examples of the efficacy of (8) Archeological discoveries in Sidon.--A very prayer to Avalokitesvara.
interesting discovery has recently been made of Minayev cites a legend of how Avalokitesvara which information has been communicated by a cured a sick Brâhman in the city of Visála, who correspondent from Beyrout, who writes as was learned, but an unbeliever. This legend is told follows:-"Two weeks ago, the Director of the in one of the redactions of the Svayambhupurana Museum, Haradi Bey, arrived from Constan(pp. 37-39) an extract from which work is given. tinople ...... with a commission to transfer He always appears in splendour to believers. He the monuments which have been found here to has a million eyes and a hundred thousand hands. that place. The discovery has been made in a Whomsoever his splendour has touched, that cave, cut in the rock, lying about half an hour's
• 1.8. since the time the gods ruled Egypt.
. Cf. Weber, Verz. deh skr. Handschriften Charpatt- nátha, cited in Subhashitaunli.
10 See Peterson, The Subhashitavali, Bombay, 1886, page 86.