140 Gaurdas Bysack — Buddhistic Monastery at Bhotebdgdn. [March, 



S. R. Elson, Esq. A. Pedler, Esq. 



Dr. G. M. Giles. Hon. Dr, Mahendralal Sarkar. 



S. A. Hill, Esq. Dr. J. Scully. 



E. J. Jones, Esq. Dr. W. J. Simpson. 



Rev. Father Lafont. D. Waldie, Esq. 



J. J. D. La Touche, Esq. 



The Philological Secretary exhibited a silver Bactrian coin and 

 two gold Indo-Scythian coins, forwarded by Mr. A. Sinison. 



The following papers were read — 



1.- Notes on a Buddhistic Monastery at Bhotebagan (Hoiorah) , on 

 two rare and valuable Tibetan MSS. discovered there ; and on Puran Gir 

 Gossain, the celebrated Indian Achdrya, and Government Emissary at the 

 Court of the Tashi Lama, Tibet, in the last century. — By Babu Gaurdas 

 Bysack, (postponed from, last meeting). 



Opposite to Calcutta on the right bank of the river, in the village 

 of GhiTsari, behind a range of temples, stands a two-storied house of 

 worship of an old construction partaking of a Tibetan character, and 

 having no arches in any part of it. 



The locality is called Bhotbdgdn, the structure Bhotmandir or math, 

 and its priest Bhot Gosain. Among noticeable objects here are various 

 deities of the Hindu and of the Tibeto-Buddhistic* mythology, 

 worshipped together within the math, and a Tibetan Dungten like 

 cubiform Samddhi mandir or tomb surmounted by Siva's Phallus, and 

 sheltered within a low-roofed small room having a Bengali inscription 

 on its door-top. The following questions arise from a cursory examina- 

 tion of the place : — 



What is the origin, and what the history of this Buddhistic temple 

 so near Calcutta ? How Hindu gods and goddesses with those of 

 Tibet receive joint worship ? Who was Puran Gir Gosain Mohant, 

 described on his tomb with all the veneration of an apotheosized being', 

 claiming worship and honour from Hindus, Musalmans and other reli- 

 gionists ? 



From the Sanads and a Tibetan Passport produced by the present 

 Mohant, Umrao Giri Gosain, the following facts have been gathered. 



Warren Hastings granted to Teshu Lama, the great sovereign pontiff 

 of Tibet, rent-free lands in the village of Ghusari on the riverside, for 

 the establishment of a house of worship in 1774 and 1783 and, the 

 Lama, in his turn at the same time, granted the same lands to Puran 



* Tard, Mahdkdlabhairava, Sanibhara Chakra, Samdja Quhi/a, and Vajrabhru- 

 kuti. 



