1838.] Chatur Vimsati Purdnam. 191 



count of persons who by evil actions incurred the pains of Ndraca (or 

 hell.) Description of the various places of torment, and the punish- 

 ment inflicted: being instructed, or purified, thereby: the persons so 

 punished subsequently attain to happiness. Mention of persons who 

 obtained beatification in the Isana-calpam. There follow details of 

 capital towns, each the metropolis of a state or kingdom. Prophetic de- 

 claration as to the future birth of Vrishab'ha svdmi, his incarnation ; 

 Brahma and other gods did him homage. Many matters follow con- 

 cerning that incarnation and its praises. An account of the instruc- 

 tions given by Vrishab'ha svdmi seated on a lofty seat, or throne; 

 Bharata and others received his lectures, an account of their panegy- 

 ric on the teacher. The glory of the Jaina system dwelt on. The 

 Chacraverti afterwards returned to Ayodhya, and received homage 

 from the Vidyddharas ; in a dream he had a vision of the god who 

 announced to him that persecutions and sufferings would arise from the 

 Pdshandis (a contemptuous epithet applied to the Saivas), and also 

 from the Mlechchas (outcasts or barbarians), detailed at length. The 

 Chacraverti in the morning performed the rite of ablution, in order to 

 remove the evil of the dream, or to avert its accomplishment. Details 

 of Prabasan, Cumb»ham, and many others, are given, as coming 

 from the mouth of Gautama, delivered to Srenica, that is to say, of 

 what kind of birth or form of being, they before were, (on the system 

 of the metempsychosis,) what kind of actions they performed, afterwards 

 being instructed in the Jaina system, they acquired beatification. 

 These various accounts in much detail occupy the rest of the work. 



Note. This palm-leaf manuscript on examination was found to be 

 complete, and in good order ; with the exception of about fifty leaves 

 at the beginning. These were restored on other palm-leaves, and added 

 to the book, for its more certain preservation. 



The work it will be seen carries up the origin of the Jaina system 

 to the very birth of time ; yet as the whole turns on the alleged incar- 

 nation of Vrishabha svdmi (considered by some to be a subordinate 

 incarnation of Vishnu), and as Vrishabha svdmi was posterior to 

 Gautama Buddha, the evidence for such high antiquity may receive 

 as much credence as any one may choose to bestow. In truth the 

 Jaina system, at its origin, was a modification of the Vaishnava one. 

 To me it seems that the Pali work (about to be published in Ceylon), en- 

 titled the Mahawanso (or great genealogy), clearly fixes the origin of 

 the Bauddha and Jaina systems at Mdgadha, three or four hundred 

 years antecedent to the Christian era. Nothing in this work, as it 



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