60 H. P. Qastri — Buddhism in Bengal. [$fo. 1, 
class man. This I succeeded in getting from a small village near the 
Rajbandh station in Bankura. 
Though this version is nearer to grammatical Sanskrit, yet it 
contains one serious grammatical blunder, and though the form in 
which it is put, looks like the Dhyana or Mantra for meditating on 
a Hindu deity by saying , I fail to understand how 
• • # # # 
the mind can be fixed on a void without beginning and without end, 
without legs, without arms, without head, and so on. This is in fact 
an attempt to give to a high Buddhist spiritual conception, a Hindii per¬ 
sonified form, and the attempt is a miserable failure. The Mantra too, 
appears to have been written by an ignorant man in some form of 
ancient Prakrit, which many have tried to put in a sanskritised form. 
Many would not like to believe that this low worship, accom¬ 
panied with the sacrifice of pigs, and with Dhyana and other Hindu forms 
of worship, can have anything to do with Buddhism, whose first vow 
was to refrain from killing animals, and which in its earliest forms at 
least, did away with worship altogether. But that it is so, will appear 
from translations from the history of Buddhism, by Lama Taranatha 
of Tibet, kindly made for me by Babu farat Chandra Das, C. I. E. and 
appended to this article. 
I beg to draw attention to one passage of this translation. ‘ He 
(the Domacarya) preached the Tantrik doctrine of Buddhism, called 
Dharma, to the people of Tippera, and obtained numerous followers. 
Many among them became Siddhas too. He was then invited to the 
country of Radha, called Rara in the common language of the people. 
The Raja of that country was a bigoted follower of Brahmans, but 
seeing the supernatural powers of Domacarya, and his goodness and 
learning, he became changed in his views, and henceforth the “ Dharma ” 
Buddhism, in its Tantrik phase became greatly honored and followed 
by the people of Bengal, Radlia and Tippara. By the worship of 
Dharma, is meant, that of the Buddhist deities, such as Yajra-ydgini ; 
Yajra-varalii; Vajra-bhairava (Ksetra-pala); Vajra-dakini; the Natha, 
and so on. In fact, in the latter days of Buddhism, tbe Dik-palas, 
Dliarma-palas and other spirit protectors of Buddhism, became the 
object of worship to the exclusion of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.’ 
That Yajra-yogini, Yajra-bhairavas, and other Buddhist Tantrik 
deities used to be worshipped in Bengal, there is no doubt. Many of 
them are still worshipped in a Hinduized form. But Ksetra-pala is 
still worshipped under his proper name in a non-]brahmanic form by 
low-caste priests. Ksetra-pala is represented by some tree. The earth 
on which it grows has the miraculous power of removing barrenness, 
and producing male children in one who gives birth to daughters only. 
