________________
289
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1906.
The description of the goddess Sakti, as armed with bow and other weapons, has already been referred to. In the Mantramahoda thi the military array of the goddess is thus described :
पाशं चापं स्त्रकपाले सणीषून् T artai ir रक्तोदन्वत्पोतरक्ताम्बुजस्थां देवीं ध्यायेत्प्राणशात त्रिनेत्राम् ।।
Stanza 61, Chap. I. The goddess — who bears in her hands a rope or noose, a bow, a garland or a chain, a skull a bulb-headed cudgel, arrows, and a trident, who being of red colour is standing on a red lotus flower, situated in a boat launched in the ocean of blood, and who is the vital power and is possessed of three eyes - the devotee has to contemplate.
While describing the weapons of the guardian deities of the ten quarters, the hieroglyphics of the weapons are thus identified with alphabetic letters :
वस्येऽधुना मनोस्तस्योद्धारं ध्यातसुखावहम् । पाशं मायां मृणि प्रोच्य यादीन्समेन्तुसंयुतान् । सारान्वितं नभस्समवर्षे मन्त्रं ततो जपेत् ।।
Verses 70, 71, Chap. I.
I shall now talk of the extraction of that mantra which is comfortable to the meditator. Having pronounced the three syllables that stand for the nose, the goddess Maya, and the cudgel, and baying also pronounced the seven letters, beginning from ya and ending with sa, together with h combined with o (the sky combined with the star), all these, eight letters being combined with the nasal sound (Indu, moon), the devotee has to chant the seven-lettered mantra (namely, ya, ra, la, va, sa, sba, and se).'
.
It has been seen how the ancient Devanagari letters la, va, ra and ya are, as the bijaksharas of the earth, water, fire and air, the exact representations of the lega, the waist, the arm or a line going up from the navel, and of the uose. Hence, it seems probable that, owing to the loss or misunderstanding of tradition, the same letters are here called as sacred to the weapons, such as a noose, a bow, a chain, and a cudgel. In his commentary on Lalitásahasrandma, 38 BbåskarAnanda regards the dental letters tha, da and dha as the bijaksharas of the bow. Likewise, Lolla, in his commentary on the Saun laryalahari, 39 calls the compound syllables dram and drim as the bijaksharas of the arrows. Hence, we may take any one of the letters tha, da, dha, preferably dha, as having once been the hieroglyphics representing dhanus, the bow. Also it can be easily perceived how the letters da and tha have a better and clearer affinity to the Tantric symbol of the bow than to the Semitic daleth. It may therefore be taken for certain that the hierogylphic representing dhanus, the bow, was selected to stand for the initial sound of its name. The derivation of the letters tha and da from the same symbol, or probably the selection of different kinds of the symbols of bow for tha and da, is more evident than their derivation, as fancied by Prof. Bühler from the Semitic daleth. (See Plates I. and VIII.)
Equally clear is the selection of the letter ba, from the symbol representing sara, arrow. The symbol of trident, súla or trisala, seems to have been selected for sha, while any one of the symbols of pasa, noose, and srak, garland or chain, seems to have stood for sa, the initial sound of srak.
3* Soo under the name Krodhákarkukubojjvala, Lalitásahastranama,
* Stanza 19, Saundaryalahari.
