1838.] 



Report 071 the Mackenzie Manuscrifts. 



11 



1810, and No, 4 in November 1810 ; thus shewing that information 

 concerning the College was earliest sought. 



In general, the writing remains legible; but the paper is somewhat 

 damaged by insects. A.11 the matter is however sufficiently detailed 

 in my abstract of the Madura St'hala Purana published in vol. I, 

 Or. Hist. MSS. It has seemed to me, by consequence, useless to incur 

 the expense and labour of restoring this book, which can offer nothing 

 new. I examined it with attention, from conjecturing that the title 

 of the book might be confounded with another termed Pandiya-rajakalf 

 and from wishing to ascertain if matter ascribed to the Pandiya- 

 rajakal was herein contained. (See notice of palm-leaf MSS. No 107. 

 countermark 71 going before). My opinion of the Madura St^hala 

 Purana, and by consequence of these stories taken from it, will there 

 appear: at the same time not denying a foundation of truth in some 

 of them ; for there doubtless are real incidents recorded, though irre- 

 coverably clouded by Saiva intolerance, fiction, and fable. 



By comparing the titles of this, and the preceding MS. it will ap- 

 pear, that the mistake which led to a confounding the two together in 

 the Des. Cat. may possibly have turned on the word Kuladiyaf 

 which is a compound of the Sanscrit words cula a race, and ddi a be- 

 ginning. The first syllable of the former word may have been con- 

 founded with the Tamil plural kal in rajakal, kings. I offer the con- 

 jecture simply as a probable solution. 



Manuscript book, No. 1.— Countermark 755. 



Section 1. Account of Chitambaram (or Chillambram) in the Chola 

 country. 



This is a S^hala Mahatmya, or legend of the Smva4?iwe. 



Some stanzas extracted from different St'hala Puranas, in praise of 

 Siva, are prefixed. 



The purport of several adhydyas, or sections of the legend, is briefly 

 intimated: the contents of the tenth are more fully given. The for- 

 mer sections relate to Siva^s assuming the form of a mendicant, tempt- 

 ing the rishis, or ascetics, of the neighbouring village, and also to 

 Patanjali, a rishi, half man, and the lower part a serpent ; whose story 

 is closely connected with the place. The tenth narrates a transforma- 

 tion of himself by Siva, first into an old man, and then into a young 

 one. Such tales, at first, appear to offer singular specimens of Brah- 



