96 Opening of the Topes at the Caves of Kanari. QNo. 109. 



Buddhism, one of the principal attributes of Adi Buddha is ^IJTTOfTT 

 Suvarna-warnata. The above sentence, as Mr. Hodgson remarks, 

 contains the confessio fedei of the Buddhaist, and is in the mouth of every 

 one at Kathmandu. The discovery of it at Kanari confirms an opinion 

 long prevalent, that the cave temples of Western India are exclusively 

 Bauddha, and seems to strengthen the theory regarding the origin of 

 the Dehgopes of Kanari, Manikyala, and Afghanistan, that they are 

 Bauddha Mausolea, built over the remains of persons of this faith, 

 either of a royal or priestly character. Little doubt can exist of the 

 ashes found in the two copper urns being those of the persons buried, 

 one of whom, according to the larger copper inscription, was the chief 

 of the great Vihar, or large arched temple at Kanari. The object of 

 these monuments was, as Mr. Prinsep says, twofold : a memorial of the 

 dead, and in honour of the deity, of which the enshrined saint was only 

 a portion, and as legitimately entitled to be worshipped as the source 

 from which he had emanated, and to which, according to their creed, he 

 could after a life of virtuous penance and abstraction return. The 

 monuments in the Punjab and Cabul appear to be consecrated tombs 

 of a race of princes, who were of the Buddhaist faith ; whose coins 

 are inscribed on one side with Greek letters, and the other with those 

 of Bactrian Pali, and whose tribe is called Khoranon. They were a 

 Grseco-Indo-Scythic race, mentioned by Marco Polo, and called by him 

 Karaunas, a tribe of robbers who scoured the country, and plundered 

 every thing within their reach.* 



I abstain now from offering any remarks on the general prevalence 

 of the Buddhaist faith on this side of India, or its connexion with the 

 worship of the sun, as my only object is to bring to notice the relics 

 found at Kanari, and their similarity to those discovered in the 

 Punjab. 



* Travels of Marco Polo by Marsden, page 86. 



