244 Mr. B. H. Hodgson's Sketch of Buddhism. 



Answer. 



Yes. For it is written in the Jdtaka Rldla, and also in the Lalita Vistcira, 

 that SAkya, after having transmigrated through five hundred and one bodies, 

 obtained Nirvana Pada or Mukti in the last body ; but so long as we cannot 

 acquire Mukti, so long we must pass through births and deaths on earth- 

 Some acquire Muksha after the first birth, some after the seventy-seventh, 

 and some after innumerable births. It is no where written that Muksha is 

 to be obtained after a prescribed number of births ; but every man must 

 atone for the sins of each birth by a proportionate number of future births, 

 and when the sins of the body are entirely purified and absolved, he will 

 obtain absorption into A'di Buddha. 



Question XVIII. 



What and from whence are the Nervars, from Hindustan or Bhote ? (see 

 note 30), and what is the word Neivnr, the name of a country or a people ? 



Answek. 

 The natives of the valley of Ni'pal are Niwars. In Sanscrit the country 

 is called Naipdla, and the inhabitants Naipdli ; and the words n^wiir and 

 neu'dri are vulgarisms arising from tlie mutation of p to v, and 1 to r. Thus 

 too the word Bandy a, the name of theBuddhamdrgi sect (because its followers 

 make handana, i.e. salutation and reverence to the proficients in B6dhiJ7uina'), 

 is metamorphosed by ignorance into Bdnra, a word which has no meaning. 



Question XIX. 

 Do the Newars follow the doctrine of caste or not ? 



Answer. 

 As inhabitants of one country they are one — ^but in regard to caste, they 

 are diverse. 



Question XX. 



How many castes are there amongst the Bdnras ? 



Answer. 



Bdnra, according to the true reading, is Bandy a, as explained above. 

 According to our Purdnas, whoever has adopted the tenets of Buddha, and 

 has cut off the lock from the crown of his head, of whatever tribe or 

 nation he be, becomes thereby a Bandya (see note 31). The Bhotiyas, for 

 example, are Bandyas because they follow the tenets of Buddha, and have 



