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Translation of the Naipdliya Devata Kalydna> with Notes. By B. H. 

 Hodgson, Esq. Resident at Kathmandoo. 



1. May the first born, the holy Swayambhu, Amitaruchi, Amagha, 

 Akshobhya, the splendid Vairo Chana, Manibhava, and the supreme 

 spiritual preceptor Vajra Satwa preserve us in all our journeyings and 

 in all our abidings : May Prajna, Vajradhatwi, the all-bountiful Arya 

 Tar&, and the rest be propitious to us. I adore them. 



I. Fully to explain the substance of the stanzas comprised in this little manual, 

 would require a comment ten times as large as the text : I must therefore content my- 

 self with simply announcing a few of the general principles of Buddhism, which 

 may serve to connect the sense of the stanzas, leaving the exposition and proof of 

 those principles to a future occasion, if not, to more competent ability. Buddhism, as 

 it is to be found not only in the recent writings and present practise, but also in the 

 very ancient Bouddha scriptures of Nipal, recognises a theistic, as well as an atheistic, 

 system of the universe. According to the former, from an eternal, infinite and im- 

 material Adi Buddha proceeded, divinely and not generatively, five lesser Buddhas, 

 who are considered the immediate sources (Adi Buddha being the ultimate source) of 

 the five elements of matter, and of the five organs and five faculties of sensation. The 

 moulding of these materials into the shape of an actual world is not, however, the 

 business of the five Buddhas, but is devolved by them upon lesser emanations from 

 themselves denominated Bodhisatwas, who are thus the tertiary and active agents of 

 the creation and government of the world, by virtue of powers derived, immediately 

 from the five Buddhas, ultimately from the one supreme Buddha. This system of five 

 Buddhas provides for the origin of the material world, and for that of immaterial 

 existences, a sixth Buddha is declared to have emanated divinely from Adi Buddha, 

 and to this sixth Buddha, (Vajra Satwa by name,) is assigned the immediate originiza- 

 tion of mind, and its powers of thought and feeling. The five, as well as the six 

 Buddhas, are constantly invoked collectively under the names of the Paneha and 

 Shata, Buddha and Ratna. All these Buddhas are often styled Ripopadaka, Manasi 

 and Dhyani, titles which would seem necessarily to distinguish them, not only from 

 the mere mortal Buddhas of the Swobhavika sect, but also from any generatively 

 produced beings* Nevertheless in the first stanza of this manual (no very good 

 authority) a sakti or spouse is assigned not only to each of the five Buddhas, but also to 

 Adi Buddha himself: and I suppose therefore that with respect to these Bouddha 

 goddesses of the Aishwarik, as we must adopt the fantastic theory of the Vedantika 

 Brahmanists, and consider them mere nominal deities ; until we can assert (as I think 

 we shall soon be able to do) that the theory of Sakties is a modern corruption of Bud- 

 dhism derived from Brahmanism. I am aware that the Swobhavika Saugatas typify 

 the innate powers of matter by a Goddess, but this is a notion totally different from 

 the assignation of a female medium of activity to creators working declaredly by voli- 

 tions, or (as the Bouddhas phrase it) by Dhyanas : and such is the statement which I 

 have found in respect to the " Paneha Buddha" of the Aishwarikas in works of higher 



