1847.] Notes on the Viharas and Chatty as of Behar, 273 



travels prove interesting ; at any rate I feel that I am partly carrying 

 out the wishes of my late amiable and learned patron, James Prinsep, 

 who oft expressed a wish that I should ramble over the district of 

 Behar and cater for him . To be thus able (even at this late period) to 

 carry out the views of my benefactor, is in itself delightful, but I hope 

 that I am at the same time partly meeting those of the Honorable 

 the Court of Directors, and of the Royal as well as of the Parent 

 Asiatic Society. I however labour under great disadvantages, viz. want 

 of means and want of an establishment of good draftsmen and a good 

 pundit. I have only one of the former and of the latter none. Accurate 

 drawings occupy much time, and a single idol will require a whole day, 

 a group will take more, for all those which are worth drawing have 

 most elaborate ornamental details. A complete and interesting port- 

 folio could be filled either at Gyah or Bodh Gyah ; to copy these again 

 fairly, takes an equal if not longer time, indeed I have in a few days 

 sketched more than can be reduced to order in as many weeks. 



To enable me to do the subject of this paper justice, it would be 

 requisite to visit the whole of the country included in ancient Behar 

 or " Vihara," for the name has undoubtedly been derived from the 

 numerous "Viharas" or Monasteries of which the present town of 

 Behar, was probably the principal, though Bodh Gyah was perhaps the 

 most sacred of the whole on account of its being the site where Sakya* s 

 miracles are supposed to have been performed ; the term of doubt I 

 apply to the miracles only, for, that such a lawgiver as Sakya existed, 

 I see no reason to question, the accounts of his life and death when 

 sifted of their fabulous interpolations ; are too circumstantial for us to 

 take a different view, and of such the Ceylon books seems particularly 

 free — in this respect the Budhist works are far better than the Brah- 

 minical ; the best of these perhaps is the Mahabharut, which if likewise 

 parted from its impurities, would prove a history of real and great 

 events of however less remote date. 



In page 517, Vol. VI. of the Journal Asiatic Society, in Tumour's 

 examination of the Pali Budhistical annals, mention is made of a 

 dispute about the repairs of the " eighteen great Viharas surround- 

 ing Raja-griha." The question is, where were these said Monas- 

 teries, which, from their requiring repairs, may be supposed to have 

 existed for a long period, even before the advent of Sakya himself, 



