Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 202

184
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ BPTEMBER, 1930
that these three women-not only one-gave poison to the rishi of old. Round this temple there are several tombs of the past yishis, in a state of great decay. At the foot of the hill southcastwards there is an inscription in Hale-kannada. On top of the inscription there is a man worshipping the sankha. This seems to be the only Vaishnava inscription at Basrur.
There is still another temple in the town, called Venkata Ramana temple. At its entrance there is an inscription on a slab paving the way to the shrine, but it is absolutely worn out. To the right there is a Saiva inscription, half-buried. To the left is another Saiva inscription, also half-buried, inscribed on both sides. On the slabs before the shrine are carved the figures of three men in an attitude of worship.
Near the river one may still see two gateways in the old walls of Basrur, about ono hundred yards apart. One is known as Kotle-baghil, and the other as Nandi-baghil, so called on account of a rishi named Nandi, who used to live in its neighbourhood.
This detailed survey of the antiquities of Basrur will clearly show that the Portuguese had never been in possession of this town; otherwise all these relics of antiquity and Hinduism would have perished at their hands.
Basrur was the real "Baroelor" marked in the above map as "Upper Barcalor" and often spoken of by travellers and even by the same Portuguese Viceroys in their correspondence with their sovereigns. Hence it remains now an obvious fact that the Portuguese Fort of Barcelor is to be located in the centre of the modern town of Kundapur.
SCRAPS OF TIBETO-BURMAN FOLKLORE.
BY SIR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, Bt.
Prefatory Remarks. The general argument of this paper is that if the ethnologist is right in predicating the existence of a Tibeto-Burman race, there must be a corresponding identity in the folklore of the Tibetans and the Burmese. The bases of the paper are Dr. McGovern's To Lhasa in Disguise, which is an account of his remarkable secret expedition in 1922-3 through what he calls "mysterious” Tibet, and my own article "Burma " in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, some other studies of the Burmans, and a few analogies in Indian folklore. I was much struck with the likeness to the mental habits of the Burmese in much of what Dr. McGovern observed during his journey and have thought it sufficient for my present purpose to compare his observations with the papers above-mentioned.
Dr. McGovern undertook his journey under appalling difficulties, travelling from Darjeeling to Lhasa in the winter months, disguised as the meanest Tibetan servant of his own Tibetan Secretary. But his knowledge of the people, their language, their manners and customs was complete enough to enable him to pass through that spy-ridden country without discovery, for he was not found out, but disclosed himself at Lhasa itself when it suited him to do so. It was an extraordinary achievement and his qualifications as a linguist make his observations of peculiar value. Previous travellers have had to depend on interpreters, whereas he could talk directly with the people of all classes, and therefore could ascertain their ideas with an accuracy not possible to the others. It was for this reason that I extracted from his book some 80 odd instances, where he describes the ideas, the manners and the customs of the Tibetans he met. In these extracts we ought to get the folklore they contain beyond dispute as to accuracy.
Dr. McGovern's book is lightly written, and unfortunately he throughout shows himself to be a human being unable to get away from his upbringing. He is the superior Oxford Ph.D. always, and this attitude to some extent mars his observation of the Tibetan mentality. He cannot get away from himself and his European education and throw himself into the mind of the utterly different people among whom he travelled. This is a common failing, and I have observed it in the accounts of educated Hindu travellers when recording observations on "wild tribes" in India. This failing should not, however, seriously affect McGovern's statements as to the actual facts of the folklore he records,