164 Haraprasad pastri — Burmese Inscribed Pottery. [Dec. 



The Secretary reported the death of the following members : — 

 S. E. Peal, Esq. 

 Captain E, Y. Watson, F.Z.S. 



The President laid on the table a letter from Mr. Patrick J. 

 Donnelly, giving probable dates of sailing of the " Orotava " in con- 

 nection with the observation of the forthcoming total Solar Eclipse. 



The President announced that Mr. P. Finn had resumed charge of 

 his duties as Natural History Secretary from Mr. L. de Niceville. 



Pandit Haraprasad pastri exhibited some ancient Burmese Inscribed 

 Pottery. 



The E-everend Dr. K. S. Macdonald obtained these three bricks or 

 rather inscribed pottery in Upper Burma. The large broken one was 

 obtained at Tagoung on the river Irrawaddy half way between Manda- 

 lay and Bharao where any number of the same kind may any day be 

 found. The large unbroken brick was picked up by his son along with 

 others at Pagan, the old Capital of Burma. He had a number of these 

 at his house in Myingyan. The third smaller one was picked up by 

 the Doctor himself from among these. There is no inscription on the 

 smaller one. There are five figures of Buddha sitting in what is known 

 as the hhumispargd-mudra the earth touching pose or witness attitude 

 calling the earth to bear witness to his devotion. The patting together 

 of five sacred objects of the same kind is known among the Jains as 

 Fancatlrtha. This is perhaps the first time that we find a Pancatirtha 

 among the Buddhists. The others contain inscriptions which consist 

 only of the well-known formula of Buddhist faith, ' ye dharmma, 8fc.,^ 

 written in the character which was common in Eastern India during 

 the reign of the Pala kings. The peculiarity of the figure in the large 

 unbroken brick is that Buddha is sitting with his legs hanging from his 

 Sirhhasana and resting on a foot-stool. Both the Simhasana and the foot 

 stool have the decoration of lotus leaves. This is rather an unusual 

 position for Buddha. But we have in the Indian Museum in the Maga- 

 dha Section of the Archaeological gallery no less than three statues of 

 Buddha seated in the European fashion. Dr. Waddell in page 336 

 of his work entitled, ' Buddhism in Tibet,' says that this is the 

 pose of Maitreya the coming Buddha. The position of the hands 

 indicates as if he was explaining something to his hearers with emphasis. 

 The palm of his left hand is turned towards himself, while that of his 

 right hand is turned towards his hearers with two fingers of the one 

 resting on the two fingers of the other. I at first thought this to be one 

 of the mudras. But the explaining attitude accounts for the position 

 of the hands better. 



