Indian Antiquary Vol 33

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 84

80
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MARCH, 1904.
to a Rishi called Kharoshtha. The name is certainly not flattering, but there are analogies among the names of saints. On the other hand, European savants have made ingenious comparisons to Kharöshtra, particularly with such names as Zardusht, Zarathustra,
Other information, also of Chinese origin, seems to open up fresh theories as to the source of the name Kharūshthi. This is independent of the schools of the Siddhan, where the Sanskrit characters were studied with regard to their mystic value. It is not offered in support of any theory, but as [247] an independent fact, so that critics may accept it without any doubt as to its honesty and correctness.
I borrow from the Sin-yi Ta-fang-kuang Po-hua-yen-king yin-yi of Haei-yuan. This is one of the texts, which have fortunately been preserved in the Corean collection, and which, in the excellent Japanese edition of the Tripitaka, are now at the service of science. The author, Huei-yuan, according to the catalogue, lived under the T'ang Dynasty. The biographical dictionary of celebrated monks, which I brought from Japan, confounds him with the priest Hiuan-yuan, also called Fa-yuan and Huei-yaan, whose biography may be found in the Siu-kao-seng-ch'oan,.ch. xxviii.; but this priest flourished in the Cheng-kuan period (627-649) and lived in the Monastery of P'a-kuang, wbilst the author of the Yin-yi resided at the Monastery of Tsing-fa; besides, the Yin-yi is, as its complete title indicates, an explanation of the difficult words of the new translation of the Avatainsakasutra," by Sikshānanda, 695-699. The work cannot be earlier than the 8th century.
In the 45th chapter of the new translation of the Avatasisaka (Jap. ed. 1. fasc. 3, p. 226), which corresponds to the 29th chapter (Jap. ed. I. fasc. 8, p. 46b) of the old translation by the Indian monk Buddhabhadra, of the family of the Sakyas (between 399 and 421), the Buddha enumerates the localities predestined to serve for all time as residences for the Bodhisattvas, and the Bodhisattvas destined for all time to preach the law in each of these localities.
The list opens with a series of imaginary mountains, situated at the cardinal points, at the intermediate points, and also in the sea ; then comes the real world.
To the South of Pi-che-li (Vaisāli) is a place called Good Resting-place (Susthāna ?); from earliest antiquity the Bodhisattvas live there.
In the town of Pa-lien-fu (Pätsliputra) is a place named the Seng-kia-lan of the Lamp of Gold (Suvarna-dipa-samghārāma); from earliest antiquity, &c.5
In the town of Mo-t'u-lo (Mathnra; Buddhabhadra writes Mo-yu-lo : Mayūra) is a place named the Grotto of Abundance (Man-180-k'u ; Buddhabhadra says : "the Merit of the Upkeep which yields Increase," Ch'ang-yang-kong-tő); from earliest, &c.
In the town of Kiu-chen-na (Buddh.: Riu-chen-na-ya, Kandina) is a place named the Seat of the Law (Dharmasana); from earliest, &c.
1 Bühler, Wiener Zeitschr. . d. Kunde der Morg, Bd. IX., S. 66. . Weber, Ind. Streifen, Bd. III, 8. 8-9.
M. Levi has bere added a note, follows:- I have since ascertained that the edition of the Ming contains still another recension of the same work; it is entered under No. 1606 in Nanjio's Catalogne. The author's name, written Hwui-wan by Nanjio, Eguren in Appendix III. of the same Catalogue, under No. 32: "Hwui-wan, a priest who in about A. D. 700 compiled 1 work, vie., No. 1606." The Sung-kao-seng ch'oan, compiled in A. D. 988, gives a biographical notice of that person (Japanese ed. XXXV. 4, 946): it does not contain any precise date; but it is inserted between two biographies, of whioh one refers itself to A. D. 766 and the other to A. D. 789. We might thun bé tempted to place Huei-yuan about that same period. But he is certainly earlier, because his name and his book are mentioned in the K'ai-yuon shi-kino lu (Japanese ed. XXVIII, 4,88), a catalogue compiled in A. D. 730. Huoi-yuan is there shewn after I-tsing and Bodhiruchi, -of whom the former died in A. D. 713 and the latter in A. D.727, -and immediately before Tobe-yen and Vajrabodhi, of whom the former began to translato in A. D. 721 and the latter in A. D. 729. Huoi-yuan, then, composed his work in the first quarter of the eighth century.
• This is wanting in the translation of Bikshananda.