Notes to Mr. B. H. Hodgson's Sketch of Buddhism. 253 



According to the same work, A'di Dharma's (or Prajna's) manifestation in Nipfil is in 

 the form of water [jal surupa.) 



(22) This is the true solution of a circumstance which has caused much idle specu- 

 lation : though the notion is, no doubt, an odd one for a sect which insists on tonsure ! 



(23) These are Padma Pa'ni's names in his character of active creator and governor 

 of the ^re«e«< world. Three Dhyi'mi Bodhiscitwas preceded him in that character, and 

 one (the fifth) remains to follow him.* 



(24) I have already stated that these deities, conformably with the quiescent genius 

 of Buddhism, rfo nothing; they are merely the medium through which creative power 

 is communicated to the Bodhisatwas from Adi- Buddha. It is the Bodhisatwas alone who 

 exercise that power, one at a time, and eaoli in his turn. It is a ludicrous instance of 

 Bauddha contempt for action, that some recent writers have made a fourth delegation of 

 active power to the three gods of the Hindu Triad. 



(25) Until he attained bodhi jmtna ; and even then, while yet lingering in the flesh, 

 he got the name of Sa'kya Sinha. Tliis name has caused some speculation, on the 

 asserted ground of its not being Indian. The Bauddha scriptures differ as to the city in 

 which Sa'kya was born ; but all the places named are Indian. They also say that the 

 Shakvansa was an Indian race or family; as was the Gotamavansa, in which also Sa'kya 

 was once bom. 



(25 bis) This must be received with some allowance. The Lalitd Vistard gives 

 ample details of Sa'kya's numberless births and acts, but is nearly silent as to the 

 origin or actions of his six great predecessors : and the like is true of many other 

 Bauddha scriptures. 



(26) These works are regularly worshipped in Nipal as the " Nava Dharma." They 

 are chiefly of a imrrative kind. The most important work of the speculative kind now 

 extant in Nipdl is the Baksha Bhagavati, consisting of no less than 125,000 slocas. 

 This is a work of philosophy rather than of religion, and its spirit is sceptical to the 

 ■very verge of pyrrhonism. The Bauddhas of Nipil hold it in the highest esteem, and I 

 liave sent three copies of it to Calcutta. Its arrangement, at least, and reduction to 

 writing, are attributed (as are those of all the other ^wrft/Aa scriptures) to Sa'kya Sinha. 

 Whatever the Buddhas have said (sugutai desitaj is an object of worship with the 

 Bauddhas. S'akya having collected these words of the Buddhas, and secured them in 

 a written form, they are now worshipped under the names Sutra and Dharma. The 

 aggregation of nine Dharnms is for ritual purposes ; but why the nine specified works 

 have been selected to be thus peculiarly honoured I cannot say. They are probably the 

 oldest and most authentic scriptures existing in Nipal, though this conjecture is certainly 

 opposed to the reverence expressed for the Baksha Bhagavati, by the Buddhists. 

 That work (as already stated) is of vast extent, containing no less than 125,000 slocas, 

 divided into five equal parts or khands, which are known by the names of the five 

 Pdrmitas and the five Bakshas. 



* For a representation of Padma Pa'ni, as Lo'ka Na'tha, see Plate IV. fig. 



