1837.] on the Inscription of the Bhitari Ldt. 15 



Reduce once more to water — and behold 

 I drink it up. 

 Buddhist. Alas ! poor Kapalika, this is just what I said. You have been de- 

 ceived by some juggler, spreading out false images before you. 

 Soma-Siddhanta. What, again, thou sinner I Dost thou dare to call the great 

 Mahesvara a juggler ? This thy malignity must not be forgiven. Lo, therefore, 

 With foaming floods of gore that gush amain 

 From throat well severed with this sabre's edge, 

 I make my sacrifice to him that calls 

 With beat of drum the hosts of creatures after him, 

 Dread Siva — and with these rich ruddy streams 

 Delight his consort well, Bhavani. 



(Draws his sword.) 

 [How the hand of the Tantric zealot is arrested from smiting the unfortunate 

 Buddhist, — how he then enters on a psychological defence of Lis opinions, — 

 how he is then joined by Sraddha' (or Faith !) in the character of a Kapalini, 

 who by her blandishments leads both the Brahman mendicant and the Buddhist, to 

 deport themselves like Tantrists, — and how they all then join Soma-Siddhanta 

 in a meditative dance ; — all this and other wonders may be found by the curious 

 in the drama above cited.] 



Note B. 



In once more expressing the opinion, that the Gupta dynasty of our 

 present monuments is posterior to the Christian era, I am by no means 

 insensible to the new light that Mi-.Turnour has thrown on the history 

 of Sandracottus in the extracts he has given from a learned commen- 

 tary on the Mahd-wanso, pp. lxxi — lxxxii. of his very interesting pre- 

 face to that great historical work. That some of my objections to 

 the identity of the two Chandra-guptas are removed, or at least 

 greatly weakened, I freely admit : there certainly appears ancient 

 Buddhist authority (for such is apparently the Atta-kathd or Astata- 

 fcathd of the Uttara-vihara priests alleged by the commentator) for 

 making the Mauryas a branch of the Solar race ; utterly inadmissible 

 as is the etymology assigned for that name in the Tikd (p. lxxvi.) as 

 well as for the name of Sisuna'ga, ancestor of the Nandas, (pp. lxxii. 

 lxxiii.) It is also very remarkable, in relation to this subject, that 

 the latter prince is there represented as the son of a Licchavi Raja, 

 that being apparently the name of a distinguished family in Magadha : 

 Licchavi being also the name, in the inscriptions of Allahabad and 

 Bhitari, of the father-in-law of our Chandra-gupta I. and maternal 

 grand-father of Samudra-gupta. Nevertheless, there still appear 

 to me insurmountable objections to identifying Samudra-gupta with 

 Vindu-sara, the son and successor of Chandra-gupta Maurya on 

 the Magadha throne . while a still more evident impossibility is now 

 added of identifying his son, the Vaishnava Chandra-gufta II. of our 

 present monument, with Asoca, son of Vindusara, the zealous ad- 



