amongst the Singhalese. 



245 



being merely an affix for the sake of euphony, and isa in 

 "ganisa " being an abbreviation of the word Isivara, or c chief,' 

 whence as s the chief of a class ' it is applied to the Hindu God 

 of wisdom. But, ganitaya is derived from gana c to count. 5 



The principal terms, however, for a Budhist Priest are 

 four; 1, Srdivaka from Sri 6 to hear.' 2, Sramana (Sans.) 

 Samana (Fali) Mahana (Singhalese), signifying the perform- 

 ance of ascetism ; whence it is probable that the epithet 

 Samanean, as applied in the religious system of Tartary, is 

 derived. Sir Emerson Tennent, in his work on " Chris- 

 tianity," has the following note in reference to the use made 

 of this term by other nations. 



"It is remarkable that this name (Samenero) which to the present 

 day is preserved as the designation of the Budhist priesthood in Si am 

 and Ceylon, should be the same by which the Samaneans or Budhists of 

 Bahar are described by Magasthenes, who, B. C. 300, was an ambassador 

 from Seleucus to their King; and whose lost work on the state of India 

 at that period is quoted by Strabo and Pliny. The same designation 

 for the priesthood, Samana, is applied equally by Clemens Alexandrinus 

 in the second century, and by Porphyry in the fourth." — p. 216. 



Referring to the same use of this word, the Rev. Mr. 

 Hardy extracts the following passage from " Relation des 

 Royaumes Bouddhiques," p. 60, quoted from San tsang hi 

 sou, liv. xxii. p. 9. 



" When the four rivers fall into the sea they no longer retain the 

 name of river : when men of the four castes become Samanians, they re- 

 ceive the common name of sons of Sakya (synonymous with bhikchou.) 

 Eastern Monachism, p. 11. 



The word Samana becomes Hamana by the well-known 

 transformation of s and h ; and the last, by a process of in eta - 

 theses, assumes the form of Mahana* See Sidath-Sangarawa, 



* The proper designations of a priest are pabbaja, one separated from secular 

 life, and Bikku, a mendicant. The common Singhalese term is Mahana, which is 

 represented as being only a different pronunciation of Samana ; one devoted to 

 religious meditations for the purif; 

 Essays in Reibeirfs Ceylon, p. 272, 



1858.] 2 K 



