29 



of the sea, and, as one of the eight Lokapalas, guardian of the 

 West '. It is remarkable that there were apparently two beings 

 of the same name, both deities of the water and of the West, 

 Varuna the deva and Varuna the Naga king. 



After Takshaka \ Dhrtarashtra ' and Vasuhi *, of whom the first 

 and the third both belong to the eight great Naga kings of 

 Northern Buddhism ^, Mucilinda ", also called Mahamucilinda, 

 who, as we have seen above, protected Qakyamuni during the 

 seven days of meditation, and Elapatra % who consulted the 

 Buddha about rebirth in a higher sphere, are enumerated, followed 

 by 176 others. 



The same Naga kings, except Mucilinda and Elapatra, are 

 mentioned in the so-called Anumantrana, an invocation of the 

 Nagas found in the Bower MS. from Mingai, about which R. 

 Morris® writes the following: "As regards to the contents of the 

 MS., fol. 3 apparently contains a charm which is intended to 

 force the Nagas or snake-deities to send rain. The mutilated 

 line 1 enumerates, it would seem, various plants which are to be 

 used as ingredients for an oblation. Line 2 gives the Mantra for 



the oblation The end of line 2 and the following lines to 



the end of the page contain the so-called Anumantrana, a further 

 invocation of the snake-deities, intended to propitiate them by a 

 declaration of the worshipper's friendly relations with various 

 individual Nagas. This snake-charm, which appears to be Buddhistic, 

 was probably composed in Southern India. For it mentions *the 



district on the banks of the Gola', i. e. the G-odavari The 



language o'f this piece is the incorrect Sanskrit, mixed with Prakrit 

 forms, which is' common in the Buddhist works of' the early cen- 

 turies of our era, as well as in the Buddbist and Jaina inscrip- 

 tions of the same period". 



Morris compares the list of names found in the Anumantrana, 



1 Cf. ElTEL, 1.1., s.v. 



3 t^ ^ Jll B"E ' ^^^'^ <^^"^ hi™ Ditaraksha, but Morris writes Dhritarashtra 

 (Dhrtarastra). 



5 See above p. 4, cf. pp. 20, 21, 23. 



' PM^^^ (Elapatna). 



8 Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1891—3, pp. 63 seqq.. Notes and queries by the 

 Rev. R. Morris, nr 44. Cf. the Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 

 Vol. V, nr 2. 



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