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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1892.
There is no such Pâļi word, but the term has been coined to designate a monster with one human head and two lions' bodies. The origin of the manussiha is thus recorded in the Kalyani Inscriptions -
“The town (G6ļamattikanagara the modern Ayetbema in the Shwgyin district) was situated on the sea-shore ; and there was a rakkhasí, who lived in the sea, and was in the habit of always seizing and devouring every child that was born in the king's palace. On the very night of the arrival of the two théras, the chief queen of the king gave birth to a child. The rakkhasí, knowing that a child had been born in the king's palace, came towards the town, surrounded by 500 other rakkhasas, with the object of devoaring it. When the people saw the rakk hasi, they were stricken with terror, and raised a loud cry. The two théras, perceiving that the rakkhase and her attendants had assumed the exceedingly frightful appearance of lions, each with one bead and two bodies, created by means of their supernatural power) monsters of similar appearance, but twice the number of those accompanying the rakkhast, and these monsters chased the rakkhasas and obstructed their further progress. When the pisdchas saw. twice their own number of monsters created by the sapernatural power of the two théras, they cried out: Now we shall become their prey, and being stricken with terror, fled towards the sea."
Fergusson, in his History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (page 622), makes the following pertinent remarks on the origin of this monster: "This illustration (of the Shwedagôn Pagoda at Rangoon) is also valuable as showing the last lineal descendant of these great haman-headed winged lions that once adorned the portals of the palaces at Nineveh ; but after nearly 3,000 years of wandering and ill-treatment have degenerated into these wretched caricatures of their former selves."0
In an image-house at the foot of the hill is a brass bell on which the old Talaing inscription has beon effaced, and a modern Burmese one engraved. It is, perhaps, hopeless to recover a copy of the ancient inscription.
On the 1st January 1892, I visited the Tigaung Pagoda at Zokthók village, which is about 6 miles to the north of Bilin. The basement of the pagoda is constructed of blocks of laterite, each about 2 feet by 1} feet by 1 foot in dimension. Some of the images, as well as the receptacles for offerings, &c., placed around it are of the same material, and bear traces of ornamentation. In the neighbourhood are sculptures in relief engraved on large laterite blocks, which are so arranged as to form pagels on the face of a wall or rampart of earth 450 feet long and 12 feet high. They are known as the sindát-myindàt (elephants and horses of war); but the representations are those of elephants and tigers, or lions, alternately with those of nats interspersed between them."
The Kolaba (Kolasa) Pagoda - the Kel&sabhapabbatachétiya" of the Kalyani Inscriptions - was visited on the 2nd January. It is situated on a steep hill about 2,000 feet high, and appears to have been renovated. It derives its sanctity from the tradition that, like the Kyaiktiyo and Kôkbênnâyon Pagodas, it contains one of the three hairs given by Gautama Buddha to the Rishi Kelâsa. Near the pagoda are two stone insoriptions cut by King Dhammach@ti. They are in the Talaing character. The engraved portion of one has been entirely destroyed and only the socket remains standing, while half of the other has been broken. Only one manussiha, facing seawards, is found on the pagoda platform. Numbers of square bricks with the representation of a lotus flower impressed upon them are lying about the place.
* [The very remarkable resemblanan of the chin 88 of Burma (out of which, no doubt, grow the manualna) to the winged lion of Nineveh, down to the very beard, has often impreened me. So also has that of the to of Burma to the winged ball. An intermediary form of the chinge is perhaps to be seen in the two lions couchant (chin8") from the Amaravati Tope in the British Museum.-ED.)
21 [They probably were intended to represent a military expedition. See below, note 29.-ED.)
12 The syllable bha in this word is remarkable, and oocurs, apparently as focal peculiarity, in other Pulicisms of the Talainge. E.., Tikumbhachiti - the modern Palicized name of the Shwedagon Pagoda.-ED.)
