IA BRANCH — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



"Cease ye from jour affliction. Lo ! Vathavuren ( a ), 

 stirred up by love, has come over, and is abiding at the 

 termination of our town; should he hear of this matter, he 

 would (come and) defeat the Buddhist by the art of dispu- 

 tation. Ye men of arduous penance ! go and call him." 



Having thus dreamed, they awoke, and meditating on 

 what the spouse of the damsel wearing resplendent bracelets 

 (b ), had compassionately revealed to them, became over- 

 joyed, raised their clasped red hands to the head, and re- 

 paired to the Mandapa of the temple. 



Those who were before dejected at the words spoken by 

 the Buddhist of little knowledge, now became cheerful by 

 the words which the Lord of boundless mercy imparted to 

 them in the dream, even as the lotos flower, contracted 

 during the darkness (of the night), opens itself again at 

 the rising of the sun. 



All announced the dream, saying, That the God, who 

 danced the sacred dance in the divine sanctuary, besmeared 

 with ashes, wearing a braid of red hair, and carrying a fine 

 staff, appeared to each of them in the murky night, and 

 gladdened them in this manner. 



Admiring the God, who danced in the sanctuary, they 

 were respectively inspired with love, and freed from the 

 affliction of their minds, and saying (to each other) "let us 



(a) Vathavuren, called also Manikavasagar or " Ruby 

 Mouthed" on account of his great eloquence, was born of a 

 Brahman family at Vathavur, a town on the Vaigai river, during 

 the time of Arimarta Pandian, king of Madura, and by the 

 superior talents which he displayed, he attracted the notice of 

 the king, who made him his prime minister ; but having imbibed 

 an aversion to mundane enjoyments, he quitted his post, and re- 

 tired to Chillambaram, where assuming the habits of a Siva 

 ascetic, he continued during the remainder of his days in the 

 excercises of penance and devotion. In the Tiruvilliyadel P li- 

 ra n a,, as well as in the one from which this acconnt of his Dis- 

 putation with the Buddhists has been extracted, a great many 

 things are related with reference to the appearance of Siva to 

 him in his journies to the sea coast to buy horses, the changing 

 of jackals into horses, and the persecutions which he underwent 

 at the hand of the king ; but they are so evidently fabulous that 

 I have thought proper to pass them by as the narration can serve 

 no good purpose. He is placed by Mr Wilson between the fifth 

 and eight century of the Christian era. R, A. S. Journal vol. 

 iii. p. 216. 



(b) Parvati. 



K 



