1898.] H. P. Shastri— Discovery of a woi'k by Aryadeva. 
175 
The discovery of a work by AryadBva in Sanskrit.—By Mahamahopadhyaya 
Haraprasad Shastri, Professor of Sanskrit , Presidency College. 
[Read January, 1898.] 
When in Nepal I paid a visit to His Excellency Deva Shamsher 
Jang Rana Bahadur, Comraander-in-Chief of the Nepal Army. At the 
interview were present a Hindu Pandit and a Buddhist Bsda. There was 
a collection of Manuscripts and I was asked by His Excellency if I knew 
anything of these Manuscripts. There were some volumes of the fata- 
sahasrika-prajna-paramita, a MS. of the Astasahasrika-prajna-para- 
mita written in the reiga of Ramapala who is said to have been a king 
of Eastern Bengal and who reigned about the year 1000 A.D.; a 
MS. of a work on the influence of the heavenly bodies on human diseases* 
But there was a bundle of palm-leaves which I could not identify at 
first sight. It had no beginning and apparently no end. I solicited 
the permission of His Excellency to give me an opportunity of examin¬ 
ing the MS., once more. It was therefore deposited with the Head 
Master of the Durbar School, Babu Phanibhusana Adhikari. I called 
on him a few days later, examined the MS. very carefully and took a copy 
of it in Bengali. It was written iti old Nevari and was in many places 
altogether obliterated. The first leaf was missing. There were eight 
leaves from 2 to 9 but the obverse side of the 7th was altogether ille¬ 
gible. There were altogether 125 verses from 6 to 131. Of the 6th verse 
only the last two caranas remain. Of the 3rd carana the first letter 
was missing. That letter I had no difficulty in guessing. It was Ma 
because the second leaf begins with the letters hay Hue. After the 131st 
verse the following statement occurs. 
Pnfacw i fsm; htjbt: sufapti «r«rr i 
The name of the work is not given but it is stated in the colophon 
that it was the work of Aryadeva a name familiar to every reader of 
Buddhist Literature, and especially of the Siyuki. He was a disciple 
