328 Notes on ancient Inscriptions. [No. 4 



From an attentive examination of these and such like mantras 

 and the religious terminology of the Brahmans to which the Bud- 

 dhists are very largely indebted, it appears that the phonetic parti- 

 cles which constitute the peculiar characteristic of mantras are crude 

 terms, coined to indicate the essence of the divinities to whom they 

 are assigned and to stand as their representatives. They are formed 

 generally, though not invariably, by the addition of the anuswar or 

 the visarga or both to single or compound consonants, and are used 

 either singly instead of the name of the gods or goddesses to whom 

 they are sacred, or in connexion with their names as compound 

 terms, without being subjected to any grammatical regimen. When 

 inflections are used the names are put in the nominative, the 

 accusative, the locative or the vocative case, the meaning being in 

 the three former cases that the emblem stands for or exists in the 

 divinity of that name, and in the latter a mere interjection. The use 

 of the locative, however, is confined among the Buddhists. In man- 

 tras adapted for the destruction of enemies, or for the neutralization 

 of poisons, — the name of the god to whom they are addressed is 

 generally put in the nominative case ; but this construction is con- 

 fined to the mantras of the minor divinities. 



According to the above deduction the three formulae of the in- 

 scription may be explained as follows : — 



1st. Om the deity is in Arapachani who (or whose emblem) is hrih. 

 2nd. Om the deity is in Manipadma who (or whose emblem) is 

 in hum. 



3rd. Om the deity is Vajrapani who (or whose emblem) is hriiih. 

 Both the Buddhists and the Brahmans regard their vija mantras 

 with the greatest veneration as the most sacred emblem of the Deity, 

 but while the former, actuated by the exclusive spirit of their reli- 

 gion, hold out the most dreadful imprecations against him, who should 

 venture to repeat a vija mantra in the presence of a fellow-man, the 

 latter proclaim it every where and at all places, alike on the road 

 side and at the market place, as in the viliara and the closet, and 

 in the same breath invite the most revered Lama and the detested 

 Chandala to avail themselves of its aid, and secure for their erring 

 souls, immediate and eternal salvation. 



]N T o. 3 of Plate XV. is the facsimile of an inscription found by 

 Capt. Pearse, of the Madras Cavalry, in a small mound in the village 



