280 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dzc. 
The mystic charms and mantras and gesticulations which the bet- 
ter class of these works inculcate have, further, almost entirely 
superseded the rituals of the Vedas, and in the present day scarce- 
ly a ceremonial is performed, or a prayer repeated by a Hindu, 
which does not borrow its primary elements from the Tantras. 
For a correct understanding of the modern Indian forms of religion 
it is necessary, therefore, that these works should be carefully 
examined, and their true character thoroughly brought to light. It 
may be added also that, however offensive some of these works 
may appear in the light of modern European civilization, they were 
held in peculiar esteem by: the dreamy monastic followers of the 
Buddhist creed in the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries, who translated a 
great number of them, and compiled others, with a view to engraft 
their doctrines on Buddhism, and we find in Csoma de Korosi’s 
essay on the Buddhist literature of Nipal and Tibet hundreds of 
Tantras noticed as forming parts ofthe sacred scriptures of those 
places. Mr. Hodgson describes them as containing the esoterics 
of the Buddhist religion of Nipal, and in connexion with the Bud- 
dhism of the north, these works, therefore, are also of importance. 
10. According to the Nila Tantra, the original Tantric revela- 
tions of S‘iva are reckoned at 64, but their number has of late 
multiplied manyfold, and in the collection of Raja Yatindramohana 
Thakura, there are upwards of three hundred different works. Most 
of them are, however, fragmentary, and others are avowed compi- 
lations. In the notices already published I have given brief ac- 
counts of upwards of a hundred of these works, and I hope ere 
long to add considerably to that number. In Europe there are not 
a score of these works to be met with in the India House, the 
Berlin, the Bodleian, and other collections. 
11. Altogether notices of about six hundred manuscripts have 
been compiled, and are now ready for the press. 
12. The publication of the notices has not been carried on so 
expeditiously as could be wished. The form originally suggested 
by me and approved by the Society, did not meet with the appro- 
bation of the Government of India, and the correspondence which 
thereupon ensued, prevented me from pushing on the work. I 
have, therefore, to report the publication of only two numbers of 
