SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST, &C. Q6g 



bated to king Muxja, the uncle of the famous 

 Bhoja, who hvcd in the latter end of the tenth 

 century. It is nearly the same with the former, 

 including some amendments and additions. These 

 two geographical treatises cannot but be curious 

 and interesting, but unfortunately, they are not to 

 be found in this part of India. They are however 

 pretty common in the Western parts of it, and par- 

 ticularly so in Gurjarct', where they have been 

 seen by several respectable pandits of that country. 

 The Trai-Locya-darpan'a, which I mentioned be- 

 fore, is according to the system of the followers of 

 Budd'ha, and is written in an uncouth dialect of 

 the inland parts of India; with a strange mixture 

 of Sanscrit words and phrases. 



The Cshetra-Samha is another geographical tract 

 by the Jainm, which I lately procured. It is writ- 

 ten in PracfH, asserted by some to be the same 

 with 'the Bali or Mdgad'hi dialect, but probably 

 somewhat different from that used in the Barman 

 empire, Siam and Ceylon. The Bali or Magadlii^ 

 was the language used at the court of the emperors 

 of India., kings of Magadlia or Bahar, and called 

 also Bali-piUras, because they were descended from 

 the famous Bali, or Nanda; and their kingdom 

 is denominated after them PoU by the Chinese. 

 This last is accompanied by a copious commentary, 

 "with several fanciful delineations of the world, and 

 of mount Meru. 



With regard to history, the Hindus really have 

 nothing but romances, from which some truths oc- 

 casionally may be extracted, as well as from their 

 geogra}3hical tracts. Those in Sanscrit are the 

 Ckaritras, or actions of Vicrama'ditya, of king 

 ]];i6.rA, and others. 



