176 
H. P. Shastrl— Discovery of a ivorTc by Aryadeva. [No. 2, 
of Nagarjuna and one of those great men who helped the spread of the 
Mahayana doctrines of Buddhism. Beal says, “ he had a great contempt 
for external forms of worship. ‘A Spirit’ he said, is ‘ Spiritnul.’ We are 
not surprised to find therefore, that his teaching was of a mystical 
character.” I find, the same thing exemplified before me. Thus he 
speaks of the bathing in the Ganges in my Manuscript:— 
5KJ fiUTSt fraf'ereftcr: I 
*r aif^r?ff n i ® 11 
•gsrs i^r: i 
fwtsfir *r n <(» 11 
Bereft Ji^x^ri gfsflvfir i 
cTQJTcT g fttlpw || II 
bwt *r%<r ^xifai senw i 
aft’ERi w^jrft’rng srsit i u 
*rcft n n 
Thus this lump (of flesh, meaning the human body) is produced 
by and is full of impure substances. How can it be purified by bath¬ 
ing in the Ganges ? An impure waterpot though washed again and 
again by water, cannot be pure; so the lump full of impurities can 
never be pure. A dog swimming in the Ganges is not considered pure, 
therefore the bathing in holy places is absolutely useless. If bathing can 
confer merit the fishermen are very meritorious, not to speak of the fishes 
and others who are immersed in water, day and night. It is certain 
that from bathing sin even is not dissipated because people who are in 
the habit of making pilgrimages are full of love, hatred, &c. 
Thus in the course of five short verses, Aryadeva denounces the 
uselessness not only of bathing in the Ganges but of all bathings and 
pilgrimages. They are not only incapable of conferring merit but are 
also incapable of dissipating sin. 
The ninth verse of the MS. corresponds to the first verse of the 
Dhammapada in Pali but the Pali verse has six caranas while my verse 
has four only. The last letter of the second carana is mandjavdh in my 
MS. while in Pali it is manbmaya. 
The work appears to be a complete one as at the end Aryadeva says : 
