502 Examination of the Pdli Buddhistical Annals. [July, 



thor — and those annals the recorded repositories. Fortunately for the 

 interests of oriental research, at that particular juncture, the Asiatic 

 Society received the assistance of Mr. Csoma Korosi in analyzing 

 the Tibetan version also of those works ; whose labors being of a more 

 analytic and less speculative character, (although exerted in the exa- 

 mination of the Tibetan which appears to be translated from the 

 Sanskrit version) are better adapted than those of Mr. Hodgson to 

 aid the prosecution of the particular description of investigation to 

 which I am about to apply myself. 



In the recently published 20th Volume of the Asiatic Researches is 

 contained Mr. Csoma Korosi's analysis of the first portion of the 

 Ka'h-gyur, which is readily recognized, and indeed is admitted to be, 

 the Tibetan name for the Pitakattayan ; from which analysis I 

 extract his introductory remarks, as they are explanatory of the 

 character of that compilation collectively, while the analysis itself is 

 confined to the Dulvd portion of the Ka'h-gyur. 



" The great compilation of the Tibetan Sacred Books, in one hundred volumes, 

 is styled Ka-gyur or vulgarly Kan-gyur, ("EJ^Q'QSJX, hkah-hgyur) i. e. ' trans- 

 lation of commandment,' on account of their being translated from the San- 

 skrit, or from the ancient Indian language (|> TE ]I. T Sf^, rgyagar skad), by which 

 may be understood the Pr&crita or dialect of Magadha, the principal seat of the 

 Buddhist faith in India at the period. 



" These books contain the doctrine of Sha'kya, a Buddha, who is supposed by 

 the generality of Tibetan authors to have lived about one thousand years before 

 the beginning of the Christian era. They were compiled at three different times, 

 in three different places, in ancient India. First, immediately after the death of 

 Sha'kya, afterwards in the time of Asoka a celebrated king, whose residence 

 was at Pdtaliputra, one hundred and ten years after the decease of Sha'kya. 

 And lastly, in the time of Kani'ska, a king in the north of India, upwards of 

 four hundred years from Sha'kya ; when his followers had separated them- 

 selves into eighteen sects, under four principal divisions, of which the names both 

 Sanskrit and Tibetan, are recorded*. 



11 The first compilers were three individuals of his (Sha'kya's) principal 

 disciples. ' Upa'li',' (in Tib. * Nye'-va'r-Akhor,') compiled the • Vinaya 

 S^tram,' (Tib. Dul-vedo ,) « Ananda' (Tib. • KuN-dGA'vo,') the « S&trantah,' 

 (Tib. the Do class;) and ' Ka'shyapa,' (Tib. * Hot-srung,') the ' Prajnyd- 

 pdramita,' (Tib. Sher-ch'hin.) These several works were imported into Tibet, and 

 translated there between the seventh and thirteenth centuries of our era, but 

 mostly in the ninth. The edition of the Kd-gyur in the Asiatic Society's pos- 

 session appears to have been printed with the very wooden types that are men- 

 tioned as having been prepared in 1731 or the last century ; and which are still in 

 continual use, at Sndr-Vhang, a large building or monastery, not far from Teshi. 



w \/ 



Ihun-po (^5)^^'^*^ 5 \>kra-shis-\hun-pd). 



* See p. 25 in the life of Sha'kya, in the Ka-gyur collection. 



