11. 



ANALYSIS OF THE DULVA, 



A PORTION OF THE 



TIBETAN WORK ENTITLED THE KAH-GYUR. 



By Mr. ALEXANDER CSOMA KOROSI, 



SICULO-HUNGARIAN OF TRANSYLVANIA. 



The great compilation of the Tibetan Sacred Books, in one hundred 

 volumes, is styled Kd-gyur or vulgarly Kdn-gyur (^'^Q'Q^x, hlmh-hgytir) 

 i. e. " translation of commandment ;" on account of their being translated 

 from the Sanscrit, or from the ancient Indian language, (^^^^u^'^^ vgyagar 

 skad), by which may be understood the Pracrita or dialect of Magadha, 

 the principal seat of the Buddhist faith in India at the period. 



These Books contain the doctrine of Shakya, a Buddha, who is 

 supposed by the generality of Tibetan authors to have lived about one 

 thousand years before the beginning of the Christian era. They were 

 compiled at three different times, in three different places, in ancient India. 

 First, immediately after the death of ShXkya ; afterwards, in the time of 

 AsHOKA a celebrated king, whose residence was at Pataliputra, one hundred 

 and ten years after the decease of Shakya. And, lastly, in the time of 

 Kanis'ka, a king in the north of India, upwards of four hundred years 

 from Shakya ; when his followers had separated themselves into eighteen 

 sects, under four principal divisions, of which the names both Sanscrit 

 and Tibetan, are recorded.* 



* See p. 26 in the Life of Shakya, in the Kd-gyur collection. 



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