2 SATIS CHANDRA VIDYABHUSANA ON 



unknown in India. The Hindu Tantrikas used Kurma-cakra (fi»IR3i) or diagram of 

 tortoise as a source of divination. The Rudra-yamala, Tantra-sara, etc. lay down 

 rules for drawing omens from a spread tortoise on the different parts of whose body 

 Sanskrit letters are placed in a peculiar order. Everybody notices the close similarity 

 of the Kurma-cakra of the Hindus with the Rus-sbal of the Chinese, but no one has 

 been able to say definitely which of them is the prototype of the other. 



The Central Portion of the Chart. The Chinese Picture of 



Tortoise (^'3^)1 

 It has already been observed that the chart ' contains at the centre a spread 

 tortoise (designated in Tibetan ^'fjp Rus-sbal) z whose mouth gapes and whose 

 paws grasp four poles surmounted each by a frog. The frogs are evil Nagas who are 

 kept in control by Mahiusri transformed into a tortoise. On the horns and the 

 tongue of the tortoise there are snakes while on the tail there is a Vajra (^' | 

 thunder) of iron. The whole body of the tortoise emits flames which frighten evil 

 spirits and prove disastrous to enemies. On the belly there are figured the I,o-skor 

 Spar-kha and Sme-wa. 



Lo-skor °\'$^ is the cycle of twelve years named respectively as mouse (3 byi), 

 ox (§F' glan), tiger (^ stag), hare (»W yos), dragon P\^\ h brags), ser- 

 pent (|pi s brul) , horse (5 rta), sheep (<^R|lug), ape (fj spre), hen (3 bya), 



Cv 



dog (|5 khyi) and hog (Spj phag). 



Spar-kha fj^'P consists of eight mystical marks representing fire (called in Tibetan 

 ^ me, in Chinese L,i), earth (in Tibetan $J sa, in Chinese Khon), iron (in 

 Tibetan ^^ lcags, in Chinese dvo),sky (in Tibetan ^Sp gnam, in Chinese 

 khen), water (in Tibetan § chu,in Chinese kham), hill (in Tibetan ^ ri, in 

 Chinese Gin), tree (in Tibetan -Pf.' sin, in Chinese zin) and wind (in Tibetan 

 §£" rluh, in Chinese zon). 



■SB 



Sme-wa fj"^ consists of nine spots of which the ist, 6th and 8th are white, 

 being symbolical of iron ; the 2nd and 3rd are black and blue representing 

 water, the 4th, which is green, represents wood; the 5th, which is yellow, 

 represents earth; while the 7th and 9th, which are red, represent fire. The 



1 Compare Waddell's Lamaism, p. 453. 



2 $*rg«I Rus-sbal which is a tortoise literally signifies a frog of bones. It is perhaps the syllable ^<2J sbal (frog) in 

 5,^-gaj Rus-sbal that has led to the introduction of four frogs round the picture of the tortoise. In some charts of Srid- 

 pa-ho there are no frogs at all. 



