chandana of Malaya. This occurred in a legend of the Suvarna-prabhása, which relates how a prince gave his body to feed a hungry tigress. But there is a distinct reference to some such legend as that of our drama, in the second Nepalese Buddhist tract translated by Wilson, in the 16th vol. of the "Asiatic Researches." We read there, "May the holy Tírtha be propitious to you, where the Nága obtained rest from Társkshya (Garuda)." This is explained by the Nepalese as referring to a local shrine called Gokarna, but it no doubt originally referred to the far more celebrated Gokarna of Malabar. The Nágas play an important part in many Buddhist legends (as, for instance, in that of Sangha-rakshita); and Mr Fergusson has shown that they are introduced in the Buddhist sculptures at Sanchi and Amaravati, and in the latter as objects of worship. The description of the Nágas in the fifth act, with their human forms, but scaly skins and three hoods, singularly agrees with some of the drawings in his book.
The appearance of the goddess Gaurí is a curious feature of the drama, and seems to point to that gradual mixture of Buddhist with Śaiva notions, which we find fully developed int he Tantras of Nepal. There female Śaiva deities, such as Durgá, Mahákálí, &c., are continually invoked to grant protection to the Buddhist worshipper. Wilson supposes that the Tantras were introduced into Nepal between the seventh and twelfth centuries, but Burnouf has pointed out some traces of Śaiva influence even in the "Lotus de la bonne Loi," and other "developed Sútras." E. B. Cowell.
