Rol I. No. 5.] Sarvajna-mitra. 157 
ENE S\ 3] 
Bahadur, C.I.E. According to this work Sarvajiia-mitra, though 
born in Kasmira, was a student of the monastery at Nalanda in 
Magadha where he became a great master of sciences. The king 
to whom he sold his person is called Vajra-mukuta in the Sanskrit 
Sragdharastotratika, while he is called Sarana in the Tibetan, 
Pagsam-jon-zang. The story contained in the Pagsam-jon-zang 
(p. 102) runs thus :— 
“ A little bastard childof the King of Kasmira was carried away 
by a vulture from the roof of the palace and dropped on the top 
of the Gandhola (the great central temple) of Nalanda in Maga- 
dha. The Pandits of the Vihara, taking mercy on it, nursed it. 
As he grew up the child acquired great knowledge and became 
a scholar. He propitiated the goddess Arya Tara and thereby 
acquired great wealth. He gave away all his riches in charity, and 
when there was nothing left he started on a journey to Southern 
India. Meeting on the way an old blind Brahmana who was 
being led by his son, he inquired where he was going. Being 
told that the blind Brahmana who was very poor had started on 
his distant journey to beg help from Sarvajfia-mitra of 
Nalanda, he was overpowered with pity and determined to sell his 
own body to give gold to the helpless beggar. At this time he 
learnt that King Sarana, who at the advice of his wicked spiritual 
guide had undertaken the performance of a Yajiain which 108 
human sacrifices were necessary, was in search of one more victim 
which was wanting to complete the full number. The king was 
convinced that if he successfully performed the Yajnia he would 
attain the longevity equal to the sum of the longevity of 108 souls 
that would be sacrificed init. Sarvajia-mitra sold himself to the 
king and paid the gold that he had obtained therefrom to the blind 
Brahmana, While waiting one night fordeath ina dark dungeon 
he invoked the goddess Tara with the utmost concentration of his 
“mind. When fire blazed up from the piled firewood and all the 
108 men were led in chains to the pyre, a heavy shower of rain fell 
which extinguished the fire within a short time and converted the 
whole plain where the sacrifice was being performed into a large 
sheet of water resembling a lake. The king and his ministers 
hearing that this was due to the mercy of the goddess Tara who 
was invoked by the victim who had sold himself to save others, 
now acquired faith in the religion of Buddha and havingreleased all 
the 108 victims of the unholy sacrifice sent them to their respec- 
tive homes loaded them with presents. Sarvajfia-mitra before 
whom the goddess had miraculously appeared, held fast a corner 
of her celestial robe and was carried to the land of his birth.” 
The same story is related in Lama Taranatha’s history of 
Buddhism (wide A. Schiefner, p. 168 ff.). 
Neither in the Sragdhara-stotra nor in its commentary is there 
any mention of the date of either of the two works. Dr, Rajendra 
Lala Mitra who notices the two works in his Buddhist Literature of 
Nepal, p. 228, says nothing about their dates. The Rajatarangini, the 
well-known chronicle of Kasmira, supplies us, however, with some 
