1884.] 
81 
of Religion in the Himalaya. 
mula :— Oin Jclia, glory to the heart; Om hlii to the head, svahd, (here mean¬ 
ing ‘ Hail ’) ; Om him., to the top-knot, vashat (here meaning ‘ Hail ’) ; Om 
Ichai, to the mystical armour of the mantra, liun ; Om kliau, to the eyes, 
vaushat (like vashat') ; 0)n khd, to the mystical weapon of the mantra, 'phat 
The Shashthi-nydsa differs little from the Anga-nydsa formula already de¬ 
scribed. Then follows the meditation on Shashthi as Maha-devi, of the laro-e 
breasts, four-armed, the consort of S'iva, swollen out like a peacock, clad 
in yellow clothes, beautiful, bearing a lance in her hand, Mahesvari, &c. 
After the worship of Shashthi has been finished a garland of sweetmeats 
is thrown around the neck of a male kid. The ears of the kid are pulled 
until it bleats loudly some five or six times in order to frighten and drive 
away the evil spirits who are supposed to seek to disturb the ceremony. 
Shashthi is again addressed to protect the boy from evils by flood or field, 
by hill or dale, from wild animals by night or day ; whilst the father 
takes the child in his lap and again touching the several parts of the body 
listens to the appropriate prayers for strength, wealth and long life. The 
ceremony ends with a story illustrating its origin. The above fairly 
represents the character of the mantras used in the ceremonies, and that 
these are of Tantrika origin and common alike to Buddhism and the 
Hinduism of the present day may be distinctly shown. Cunningham in 
his Ladak (p. 384) gives several mantras collected by him from Tibeto- 
Buddhist sources which in form and character are the same as those in 
use in the Kumaon Himalaya. Compare his mantra of S akya Thubba 
(Buddha) :— Namah Sdmanta huddhdndm sarvaJdesha nisuddhana sarvva« 
dharma vahiprapta gagana sama sama svdhd —‘ glory to the chief of Bud¬ 
dhas, reliever of all sulfering, master of all virtue, equal, equal to the 
heavens, hail.’ Again we have:— Namah sdmanta vajrdndm chanda 
mahdroshana hun —glory to the chief of Yajras, fierce and greatly 
hungry, hail ” ; and :— Om vajra — krodha, hdyagriva hulu hulu hun phat 
—Om 0 wrathful Vajra, flame-necked, hulu hulu hun phat. This last ‘is 
addressed to the supreme Buddha (Bhageswara), to the celestial Bodhi- 
sattwas, Padmapani and Vajrapani (the lotus and sceptre-bearers) and to 
the Tantrika divinity Iswara.’ The same ideas permeate the mystical for- 
mnlee used by Musalmans of the lower classes, descendants of Hindu 
converts, only the names of Jibrail, Azrail, &c., are generally used instead 
of the names of the Indian and Tibetan spell-compelling deities. In a 
curious figure given by Herklots we have names derived from all three 
systems and common to the Tantras of all. It represents the double 
Haga emblem of the male and female principle, and is used by exercisers 
in avoiding the influence of evil spirits. It is shown in Plate I, fig, 2, as 
giving a fair example of a magic figure and showing how wide practices 
here referred to are. 
L 
