1 



XIII. 

 NOTICE 



OF 



THREE TRACTS RECEIVED FROM NEPAL. 



By HORACE HAYMAN WILSON, Esq. 



Secretary to the Asiatic Society. 



JL HE accounts hitherto published of the Reh'gious System of the Nepalese, 

 are far from being comprehensive or satisfactory. They only establish the 

 general conclusion that there are two predominant forms of belief, as well as 

 two principal divisions of the People, the Pdrbatiya, or Mountain Hindus, who 

 follow the faith of the Brahmans, and the Newdrs, or original inhabitants, who 

 adhere to the worship of Buddha. 



The indistinctness and inaccuracy that pervade the descriptions of 

 KiRKPATRicK and Buchanan, are not however, in all probability, the fault of 

 the describers. Much is, no doubt, attributable to their want of access to 

 original authorities, on which alone dependance can be placed for a correct 

 view of any mode of faith in India. The Spirit of Polytheism, always an 

 accommodating one, is particularly so in this country, and the legends and 

 localities of one sect are so readily appropriated by another, that it speedily 

 becomes difficult to assign them to their genuine source. In like manner, 



