1890.] 
at TJi of Sagan in Howrah. 
87 
Gir, the present Mahantaof Bhot Bagan, is, as already stated, a passport. 1 
in Tibetan, which had been given to Puran Gir by the Tashi Lama for his 
pilgrimage to the celebrated sacred Lake of Mana Sarovara, the source 
of the Sutlej, 800 miles from Lhasa. This document shows what great 
regard and respect the Lama had for our Gosain, for whose comfort 
and convenience most minute injunctions were given in it. A facsimile 
of the text (see Plate II) with a translation by Babu Sarat Chandra Das 
is annexed. 
Some particulars about the Gosain have been gathered from the 
statements of the said Mahanta. According to him Puran was a Brali- 
mana by caste, though as a Sandi * he had cast off his sacrificial thread. 
His title Gir (or Giri) shows he was a follower of S'ankardcharya’s teach- 
ings and one of the Damnamt dandis, and must have been initiated at the 
Jyosi math. In the passport the Tashi Lama describes him as an 
Acharya. He was a young man when he went to Tibet as a pilgrim, he 
had fair features, and was tall, strong and sinewy. His usual dress consist- 
ed of the Sannyasi’s kaupina, with a short red ochre-dyed piece of cloth 
wrapped round his loins, and a tiger skin thrown over his shoulders, but 
on certain public occasions he wore a kind of toga, and covered his head 
with a turban. He was also a good rider, as testified to by Messrs. 
Bogle and Turner, with whom he rode races on the Himalayan plateau. 
His habits were simple and his heart pure, he took a single spare meal, 
and cooked his own food consisting of rice and vegetables only. He 
never ate before feeding his guests. Pious men of all sects frequented 
his monastery, and many of them lodged there, lie used to bo entrusted 
with valuable commodities, chiefly gold, for sale in Bengal, and he had 
a concern of his own also, but he never amassed any fortune, which ho 
could easily have done, but he bestowed what he gained in large and 
open-handed charities. It was the special wish of the Lama that in the 
1 The passport granted to Puran Gir by the Tashi Lama, from Tashi Lhnnpo, may 
be compared with the one granted by the Dalai Lama, from Lhasa, to an Armenian 
in 1688, published with a translation by Osoma de Korcis in the 2nd volume of this 
Journal. Though indeed they are for different purposes. It may be here stated 
in passing that the seal attached to Puran Gir’s passport is the oval signet seal of the 
Tashi Lama, and that on the Armenian’s passport is a squaro soal of the Dalai Lama. 
If the engraving in the latter had been shown, there would have been an opportunity 
of comparing it with the seals on the Persian sanads given to Puran Gir. Puran 
Gir is described in the passport as an A churya. 
! DaniU, lit. one who carries a danda in his hand. Though this term applies 
generally to' a mendicant oarrying a staff, it is the peculiar appellation of a mendi- 
cant of that particular order which follows the teachings of S'ankaracharya. 
“ Kaupina is a strip of cloth worn crosswise between the thighs to cover the 
privities. 
