102 REV. G. U. POPE, D.D., ON 



hermitage near at hand was plunged in mystic meditation. 

 Thus bidden by the God he comes forth, and a vast assem- 

 blage is convened. The Cora king, his courtiers, and the 

 (^aiva saint are on the one side, while the king of Ceylon, 

 his attendants, and the Buddhist saint are on the other. 

 The Sage on a lofty seat is enthroned as the champion of 

 the (jJaiva faith. Brahma and all the gods and immortals of 

 every rank form the audience. The Qoya, king addresses the 

 Sage, bowing with lowly reverence, in the following words : 

 " holy one, to establish the Caiva wisdom over all the 

 world is your province : to exterminate these Buddhists is 

 mine." We shall not go into the details of the disputation, 

 reserving its fuller translation for another place, (Note 

 VIII.) The whole turns at length upon the argument 

 which the ^aivite urges with great force, that according 

 to the Buddhist system there can be " neither God nor 

 soul nor salvation.'* At the close of the discussion, the 

 Saint makes his appeal to Sarasvati, the goddess of speech : 

 " How canst thou who dwellest on the tongue of Brahma 

 allow these men by use of speech to revile the Eternal ? " 



She acknowledges the appeal by striking the heretics 

 dumb. The Ceylon king, convinced by the arguments, and 

 overwhelmed by the miracle, confesses himself a convert, 

 and prays that his dumb daughter may have the gift of 

 speech restored to her. The prayer is heard, and she, her 

 tongue being loosened, begins at once to refute the ab- 

 surdities of the Buddhist gurus. The substance of her words 

 is supposed to be given in the twelfth (or (^aral) song. 

 Finally all the Buddhists put off the insignia of their religion, 

 besmear themselves with the sacred ashes, and take up their 

 abode in the precincts of sacred Tillai ; thus the victory is 

 complete. 



No mention is made of the use of any violent measures.* 



§ 8. His beatification. 



The last canto relates the final beatification of the saint. 

 After his triumph over the heretics he is supposed to have 

 sung four of his most beautiful songs, in which the note of 

 jubilation is very perceptible [xlvi, xlix, 1, li]. At length 

 one day a venerable devotee, ostensibly a stranger from the 

 Pandian land, presented himself before the saint with the 



* A fuller account of this disputation is given in Note VIII. 



