________________
AUGUST, 1895.) SPECIMENS OF MODERN BRAHMANICAL LEGENDS.
241
kamandalu56 and said: - I am going to throw this water down to the earth. Whicheyer one of you can drink it all up in the air without letting any of it reach the earth, will be looked upon as the wiser and braver of the two, and he shall be as happy as if he had bathed, given tithes, observed ceremonies and worshipped on the earth. So saying he threw a little water in a very thin stream into the déva-tirtha. Shanmukha and Vinayaka tried very hard to drink up all the water, while it was in the act of falling, but they did not succeed (in doing so). The water fell down on to the earth in the Sahyadri mountains, and it fell so quickly that it would have been impossible for even Vậya to have caught it. Being very angry and disappointed, they (i. e., Shanmukha and Vinayaka) began to pray to Siva. He and his wife Gaigas7 came and said : -'Your efforts are vain, you had much better do as Brahmi tells you. The water that fell from the hands of Brahmâ shall be known as the Brahma-Tirtha, and he who bathes in it shall go to heaven. On hearing this, Kamåra took some water, charged with the efficacy of his austerities, and threw it down in front of the Brahma-Tirtha. He then bowed down before Mahesa and prayed to Brahma, whereupon Brahmi, being pleased, told him that the water he had thrown down should be known as the Kumara-Tirtha. He who bathes in these two tirthas shall obtain the same amount of merit as if he had bathed in the Ganges and in the Godavari. This Kumara-Tirtha is at the foot of the mountains. The two springs are in the same forest as is the Panchalinga-Tirtha." . “Para mêávara hurried to the spot where Ganapati and his wives were turned into stones
in consequence of his curse. He observed their condition from a distance, and being very sorry for them he began praying to Vishņu, facing towards him and begging of him to release them from the effects of the curse. He was feeling hungry and thirsty, wherefore Vâyu-deva brought some tila,58 and pat it in his mouth. Paramêśvara eat it, and in consequence became a little refreshed (strengthened). Meanwhile, by the grace (or interposition) of Hari the curse was removed. Närada who had come to the place, when he saw this, treated Ganapati and his wives with great respect, and held a conversation with them. He (Nâ rada) could not find any water wherewith to worship Siva, so Vinayaka made a trench with the little finger of his right hand into which water flowed, and this water was used by all for the purpose of worshipping Sira. To this water Narada gave the name of the Vinayaka-Tirtha." A translation 59 of the tradition of the Manjguni Temple as obtained from the
authorities, (i. e., from documents in their possession). In Saka-St. 1341, on the fifteenth day of the month Chaitra in the Samvatsara Vilambi, I, Madhava, minister of the brave and learned monarch, Matkari Maharaja, have, in accordance with orders received from the king, assigned the revenues of the six villages of Kalhalli, Kalugar, Savale, Barasguni, Badagi, and Mañjguni to the name of the god Tirumalesa of Manjguni, the husband of Lakshmi; a most powerful monarch among the gods, ready to grant to his devotees whatever they may desire: who thus granted a boon to Prahlada and who conferred on Vibhîshana the sovereignty of Lankî: the possessor of such ornaments as a kaustubha, and other (ornaments), also of a golden throne (pálki), studded with precious
06 A vessel for keeping holy water in. Brahmi is sometimes depicted as holding it in his hand. Siva likewise. It is specially used by sannyåsis. Ascetics alone are privileged to carry the kamandalu. The name is also used for the gourd of the Cucurbita angenaria, which is carried by ascetics for receiving alms such as handfuls of rice, etc.
57 This is curious. Siva is called Ganga-dhara, occasionally. Gangadhara means the upholder of the Ganges,
allusion to the legend which represents him as receiving the river on his brow as she fell from heaven on the intercession of the saint Bhagiratha, but nowhere else is he described as the husband of Ganga. She is said to have been the wife of king Santanu, to whom she bore eight sons.
68 Sesamum.
" The whole of this account seems garbled. Matkari, the king alludad to, is unknown to history. He was probably one of the petty chiefs belonging to one of the branches of the great Chalukya family. The attempt to connect the great Madhava, who must bave flourished some eighty to ninety years earlier than Slatkari, is somewhat ludicrous.
