1835.] Further Note on the Inscription from Sdrndth. 211 



P. S. — I have added the above table of the days in the ensuing rainy 

 season (1835) in which the declination of the moon is greater than 

 17° 30' and less than 5°, in the hope that those who keep rain gauges 

 in different latitudes and who have not the Almanacks to refer to, may 

 take an interest in the subject, and favour us with some further in- 

 formation. 



V. — Further Note on the Inscription from Sdrndth, printed in the last 



No. of this Journal. — By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



[In a Letter to the Secy. As. Soc, read at the meetiug of the 6th May.] 



I have just got the 39th Number of the Journal, and hasten to tell 

 you, that your enigma requires no CEdipus for its solution at Kathmandu, 

 vhere almost every man, woman, and child, of the Bauddha faith, can 

 repeat the confessio fidei (for such it may be called), inscribed on the 

 Samath stone. Dr. Mill was perfectly right in denying the alleged 

 necessary connexion between the inscription, and the complement to it 

 produced by M. Csoma de Koros. No such complement is needed, nor 

 is found in the great doctrinal authorities, wherein the passage occurs 

 in numberless places, sometimes containing but half of the complete 

 dogma of the inscription ; thus: — " Ye Dhartnd hetu-prabhavd ; helu 

 teshdn Tathdgata." Even thus curtailed, the sense is complete) 

 without the " Teshdn cha yd nirodha, evang fvddt) Maha Sraman'a," 

 as you may perceive by the following translation : 



" Of all things proceeding from cause, the cause is Tathagata ;" or, 

 with the additional word, " Of all things proceeding from cause ; the 

 cause of their procession hath the Tathagata explained." To complete 

 the dogma, according to the inscription, we must add, " The great 

 Sraman'a hath likewise declared the cause of the extinction of all 

 things." With the help of the commentators, I render this passage 

 thus, " The cause, or causes of all sentient existence in the versatile 

 world, the Tathagata hath explained. The Great Sraman'a hath like- 

 wise explaiuedthe cause, or causes of the cessation of all such exis- 

 tence." 



Nothing can be more complete, or more fundamental, than this 

 doctrine. It asserts that Buddha hath revealed the causes of (ani- 

 mate) mundane existence, as well as the causes of its complete cessa- 

 tion, implying, by the latter, translation to the eternal quiescence of 

 Nirvritti, which is the grand object of all Bauddha vows. The ad- 

 dition to the inscription supplied by M. Csoma, is the ritual application 

 merely of the general doctrine of the inscription. It explains espe- 

 cially the manner in which, according to the scriptures, a devout 

 Buddhist may hope to attain cessation from mundane existence, \iz. 

 d d 2 



