310 OBSERVATIONS ON 



sdtray he was born at Banarasi*^ and commenced 

 his series of religious austerities at thirty years of 

 age ; and having completed them in 70 years, and 

 having consequently attained the age of 100 years, 

 he died on Mount Sammeya ox Samet-\. This hap- 

 pened precisely 250 years before the apotheosis of 

 the next Jin a : being stated by the author of the 

 Calpa sutra at 1230 years before the date of that 

 book. 



24. Vard'hama'na, also named VIra, Maha- 

 vi'ra, &c. and surnamed Charama-tirtliacfit, or last 

 of the Jinas : emphatically called 'Sraman'a, or the 

 saint. He is reekoned son of Sidd'ha'rt'ha by Tri- 

 s'ala'; and is described of a golden complexion, 

 having a lion fo;- his standard. 



The subject of the Calpa sutra before cited is the 

 life and institutions of this Jina. I shall here state 

 an abstract of his history as there given, premising 

 that the work, like other religious books of the 

 Jainas, is composed in the Preterit called Magad'hi ; 

 and that the Sanscrit language is used by the Jainas 

 for translations, or for commentaries, on account of 

 the great obscurity of the Pracrit tongue J. 



* Bhelupurd, in the suburbs of Benares, is esteemed holy, as the 

 place of liis nativity. 



t Samet ak'hara, called in Major Rennel's map Parsonaut, is si- 

 tuated among the hills between Bih6r and Bengal. Its holiness is 

 great in the estimation of the Jainas : and it is said to be visited by 

 pilgrims from the remotest provinces of India. 



X This Pr&crit, which does not differ from the language introduced 

 l)y dramatic poets into their writings, and assigned by them to the 

 female persons in their dramas, is iormed from Sanscrit. I once 

 conjpctn«ed it to have been formerly the colloquial dialect of the 

 Sdrasivt'ta Brdhmens (As. Res. vol. 7, p. 219;) but this conjecture 

 has not been confirmed by further researches. I believe it to be the 

 game language with the P^li of Ceylon. 



