31g SANSCRIT INSCRIPTIONS 



The circumstances under which the Arbuda mountain first acquired a 

 character for sanctity, are only obscurely alluded to in the inscriptions, with 

 one exception. In the inscription in the temple of Vasishtha, (No. XXX.) 

 it is narrated, that the Muni, after finishing his devotions in the Himdlaya, 

 obtained the permission of Siva, to transplant with him a favourite por- 

 tion of the range to the seat of his own destination. This portion formed 

 Arhuda in its present site. Other inscriptions are contented to shew, 

 that the mountain was the scene of Vasishtha's devotions, and of 

 the miraculous origin of a regal race ; the descendants of Paramara, who 

 sprang from the sacrificial fire in which the Mani offered his oblations. A 

 Rajput tribe, called Paramdray or Pamar, does exist in Guzerat, and is the 

 same with the Puar or Powdr tribe, and is of considerable importance in the 

 traditions which Abulfazl has preserved. 



The greater number of the inscriptions are Jain; but even their ge- 

 neral tenor bears testimony to the original appropriation of the mountain to 

 the worship of Siva as Aclialeswara, the Lord of the mountain, or as a Linga, 

 with such a denomination. This form of the Hindu religion may have existed 

 as early as the 7th century, of which period one fragment bears indication in 

 the date Samvat '"/Tjly (a. d. 67I, No. XXVIII.) From the abundant reliques 

 of the same system "of religious belief that occur upon the mountain, it seems 

 probable that the Saiva faith enjoyed considerable popularity through a pro- 

 tracted period upon this spot. 



According to the record of one inscription, dated a.d. 131S, (No. XXII.) 

 the Jain faith appears to have been engrafted upon the sanctity of the Arbuda 

 mountain in the commencement of the eleventh century (Samvat 1088, a. d. 

 1032,) when Vimala Sah constructed there a temple of Adindth, the first 

 of the Jinas, or Jai?ia sages. Of this Vimala Sah, we have no other 

 notice, nor is there any further account elsewhere. About a century and a 

 half from this, the vestiges of the Jaifia faith are frequent, and in 1245, 



