APRIL 5, 1872.]
127
CORRESPONDENCE, &c.
(samodhánesi) the jataka to the matter in hand: and after the explanation of the four verities, the husbandman” attained the path. D as a rath a of that period is now king Su d d h o da na, the
mother (of Rama)—M a h 4 m a y á, Si tā–Rā hulam étá—Bh a r at a, An and a, Lakkh an a Sárip utta, the retinue—theattendants of Bu d dha, and Rá m a [am] I.”
CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, AND QUERIES. Dinajpur, 16th February 1872. I SHOULD be glad if some of the readers of the Indian Antiquary would supply some information as to the history of the district of Dinajpur. The only work to which I have access on the subject is Dr. Buchanan's Report, and the writer unfortunate ly omits to state from what authorities his informa tion was derived, so that I am able to form no esti mate of its value. There are scattered about the
district numerous pieces of carved stone, horn
blende I think, some of them highly ornamented, and apparently of about the same date, which local
tradition declares to have been brought from Bán nagar, a place now a jungle, but said to have been the royal residence of Rája Bán, or Wan, mention ed in the Mahābhārat. Bān-nagar is situated about sixteen miles south of the town of Dinajpur, on the Purnabhoba river, and four or five miles further down is the mart of Kordoho (“hand-burning”), said to derive its name from the burning of 998 of Bána's thousand arms by Krishna. I know of
the remains of at least four highly carved door ways, and some plain ones, besides numerous stones,
have been broken when in course of removal in con
sequence of some alterations,thirty or forty years ago. The inscription,t in three lines, is as follows:–
Durvvárári-varáthini-pramathane déne cha Vidyā dharaih sá nandam divi yasya márgganagana-gráma-graho giyáte | Kām bojánvayajena Gauda-pati ná tenendu-maulerayam prásádo niramáyi kuri jara ghata varshena bhābhūshanah. || Babu Rájendralála Mitra has been good enough to send me the following translation :“By him, whose ability in subduing the forces of his irresistible enemies, and liberality in ap preciating the merits of his suitors, are sung by the Vidyādharas in celestial spheres, by that sovereign of Gauda, by him who is descended from the Kambojan line. This temple, the beauty of the earth, was erected for the selene-cephalous (Shiva) in the year 888.” Babu Rájendralálafurther remarks: —“The figures I derive from the words kunjara ghata, kunjara being equal to 8, the eight elephants of the quarters, and ghata three-fold or plural. The two dots at the end might be allowed to re -
generally hewn on one or more sides, often with
main to make it correspond with the masculine
mouldings, and the marks of metal clamps for holding them together. There are also, in different places, some score of pillars, of similar workman ship, though by no means uniform pattern. Four of them are set up at the four corners of the tomb
prasadah, though the word bhūshana does not take the masculine affix. This appears to me to be the true meaning. But if the word varshe be a mis lection of varshmano, it would mean a temple which has many elephants carved on it.” The pillar in question has eight elephants carved upon it, two on each face, crouching each under a tiger, or some similar animal, which is rampant upon it. The
of Sultan Shah, in the middle of the Bán-nagar jungle, where there are also a number of the carved
stones to which I am referring, though evidently not in the position for which they were cut, but
Bábu afterwards told me that the date 888 must refer
taken by the Musalmans from some earlier building. Some time ago I sent to the Bengal Asiatic Society a transcript of an inscription on a pillar,
to either the Samvat or the Shaka era, and would be either A. D. 833 or A. D. 967, more probably, judging from the style of writing, the later, and that he at tributed it to one of the Shaiva dynasty of Bengal. This, if correct, shows that the remains can have nothing to do with Bána, whose story is told
more richly carved than any of the others that I
have seen, now lying at the Rajbari Dinajpur, and to which I hope to find the fellow, as it is said to mayana (Book VI) in A. (pāda 3; vitas'okabhayakro dho) in C. (pada 3: evamgunasamāyukto), and in the
upásyeha Ser., upásitvá, Schl. Bomb.; rājyam upás'rityá
Bombay edition, VI, 130, 104, in which, likewise, strange to
Ser', brahmalokán Bomb, and for gamishyati—prayásyati
say, only pádas 1 and 4 are found); it does not occur in Gorr. at all. Further, in the Mahabhar. VII, 2244 Páda 3: sarvabhātamanahkānto). XII, 954 (pāda 3: Ayo dhyádhipatir bhūtvá). Hariv. 2354 (pāda 3: Ayodhyāyam ayodhyāyām). In the Mahābh. III. 11219, the second hemistich runs somewhat differently ; rajyam káritavān Rámas tatah sva(r)bhavanam gatah.—The first hemistich occurs also in the first chapter of the Rām., and indeed in the whole of the texts, in Schlegel (I. 1,93) and Gorr. (I. 1, 100), also in the editions of Serampore (I. 1, 114) and of Bombay (I. 1, 97), and in ABC.; and it is found in combination with the following second hemistich, which, in accordance with the context in which it occurs, is regarded
Schi. Bºm.
as prophetic :—
Rámo rājyam upásyá 'sau brahmalokam gamishyati. The various readings in which are—for up is ya—
'sau, B. sec. m. for b r a h m a lo k a m—vishnulokam ABC.
- This refers to Buddha's telling the story of Ráma (as
the introduction of the Jataka informs us) for the comfort
of a husbandman who had lost his father, and who “over come with grief, left off all his avocations and began to lament”; the story is told as an example from the olden time:—“wise men of old, who knew the eight realities of life (attha lokadhamma) did not at all sorrow on the death of a parent.” We are to find here therefore “a test of true Buddhism” (Max Müller on Buddhist Nihilism).
W.".
This subject was undoubtedly a favonrite theme in Bud dhistic preaching; compare on this point the legend (in Fausb üll, Dhammap. p. 359, 360) of the father mourning over the death of his son, as also the legend of Kistigotami f See Plate VII.
