1835.] Notes on the preceding Inscription. 395 



the next epithet 7T3T«rxi^if^%r : TT3T^? JT, the Shakspearean expression 

 ** Heuven.kissing hill," appeared more seemly in English than the literal 

 translation " whose extended horn or peak licks the path of Heaven." 



XXXV. This and the six following verses are again in the heroic 

 measure of the Puranas. 



A Naisthika is one who abides perpetually in the duties of the first order 

 of brahmanical life, that of a Brahmachdri or religious student, as they are 

 laid down in the 2nd book of Mam's Institutes, without proceeding to 

 either of the other three orders, that of the married householder, the 

 eremite or the mendicant. The second chapter of the Dig-Fijaya-Snn- 

 scepa above-mentioned, written by Sankara's eminent disciple Ma'jihava- 

 A'cha'rya, contains a friendly altercation between Sankara's father Siva- 

 Guru when a student, and his religious preceptor, in which, while the 

 latter urges the propriety of his accomplished pupil's marriage, the other 

 declares his wish to remain attached to his spiritual father. 



" I, O sage, embracing the blessed order of a Naisthika, — dwell as long 

 as I live, attached to thy side perpetually, — with my pupil's staff, and my 

 pallet of deer-skin, ever meekly submissive, sacrificing with the sacred 

 fire, perusing the Veda, anxiously desirous to cut off the possibility of 

 forgetting what I have perused already." 



In the second half of this verse (of which the first syllable is somewh.-.t 

 obscure on the stone), a great Vedantic doctrine is contained, which the 

 Uttara Mimansa and Patanjala schools practically inculcate, viz. that 

 by the practice of austere meditation on the One all-pervading Essence, 

 and abstraction of the mind from all surrounding objects, to which 

 conclusion self-torture (Tapas), is one introductory step, union is 

 obtained with the eternal Divinity in his (or rather its) transcendental, 

 primary form, existing independently of that triad of qualities which 

 was emitted for the creation, preservation and destruction of the 

 world. The liberated man (Mukta) who is thus absorbed into the 

 essence of deity, and freed from all future transmigration, or recompense 

 of works, whether for weal or woe, is freed at the same time from all re-, 

 spect whatever to the three qualities above-mentioned ; i. e. freed from 

 the purity (^"FT or 5^) which preserves, as well as from the passion (^5f^r 

 or ^tj^i which creates, and the defilement (Turgor ?TW) which destroys. 

 This character of the Hindu perfect man (as all the Vedantic writers 

 teach, after the Upanishads or mystical parts of the Vedas), is distinctly 

 contained in the single epithet of our inscription ^^irrg^rTT^H'"?!^^: 

 3 jd 2 



