110 Journal of the Asiatic Society of BenyaL [February, 1907. 



■c 



messengers to Tibet to bring the celebrated Sakya Pandita Kuu- 

 gali Gyal-tsian to Hor. This hierarch of Sakya bad, abont tbis 

 time, defeated several Brabminical disputants ^vbo bad cballenged 

 liim to prove that Buddhism was superior to the Brabminical 

 cteed. Sakya Pandita was' versed in tbe five divisions of Arts- 



Mo 



•on 



prediction 



Sakya Pandita had 



sors, to the effect that an invitation would come to one of his suc- 

 cessors, from the Hor, a people that wore hawk-shaped caps and 

 shoes resembling pig's snout. Accordingly, he proceeded to Hor, 

 accompanied by his nephews Phya-gna and Phag-pa. In the year 

 {Fire'sheep) the Lamas came to the Mongolian Court where they 

 had an audience of king Gutan and received royal favours- Sakya 

 Pandita became the king's spiritual tutor, and is said to have per- 

 formed many miracles and magical exhibition of his occult powers. 

 At tlie wish of the king to introduce writing for the use of his people, 



and particularly that they might be trained in the Buddhist 

 religion, Sakya Pandita designed the Mongolian character, to suit 

 the tongue of the Hor people. He shaped the new chai-acter aftei 



the teeth of a saw, and taught his pupils to write them from top 



to bottom in the manner of the Chinese writinor. The Monsrolian 



O' ---"^ ^^^ — o 



tongue was not capable of producing the peculiar tones, half-tones, 

 and quarter-tones which were peculiar to the Chinese. The Mon- 

 gols, however, were able to pronounce fully all poUysyllabic words. 



The first series of letters, comprising vowels and consonants 



;and their compounds, which Sakya Pandita had designed, were the 

 following, aiTanged in groups of thi*ee ; 



A, e, i ; na, ne, ni ; pa, pe, pi ; ka, ke, khi ; ga, ge, gi 

 ine, mi ; la, le, li ; ra, re, ri ; ta, te, ti ; tha, the, thi ; tsa, tse, tsi ; 

 tsha, tshe, tshi ; ya, ye, yi ; wa, we, wi. Tliese were afterwards 

 .inci'eased to 148 letters. 



Some Tibetan historians say that the sixth youngei- brother of 



the Great Khan (Emperor Khublai) named Torta visited Tibet, at 

 ^;he head of a large army, to consolidate tlie Emperor's authority 

 over the country. Being struck with the elaborate, religious cere- 

 monies of the Tibetan Lamas, and also being impressed with the 

 importance of the literature of Tibet, he took with him Lama 



Sakya Pandita to Hor fur teaching tbe Lamaic cult to the 

 Mongols. 



During the reign of ]Mung-khe, in Hor, the Karmajja Lamas, 



<under Bakshi, who had established spiritual relations with that 



monarch, attempted to improve the newly -formed Avritten language 



*of the Mongols, but no appi^ciable success attended their efforts. 



It wa^ Lama Phag-pa Lha, the spiritual tutor of Emperor Khablai, 



who in the year Iron-horse framed the square-shaped Mongolian 



.character. After Mung-khe's death, his younger brother, Secheu 



Khublai (the Great Khan of Marco Polo), who was bom in the year 



Tree-dog, succeeded to the throne in the year iToU'monkey. He 



conqnei-ed the Jang country, and within the year Iron-sheep, 



^stablislied his authority over the whole of China, Mongolia and 



