1882.] 
Sarat Chandra Das -—Contributions on Tibet. 
67 
of which Sakya Pandita cured him by the mystical invocation of the 
Simhanada dharani. The king and his ministers heard from him the 
mystical worship of Gye-va-dorje. 
He secured to himself their sincere faith by performing various miracles. 
Prior to this period the Mongolians possessed no written language. Sakya 
Pandita became desirous of designing a new alphabet for them. Once 
he observed a certain woman rubbing (softening) a piece of hide with a 
piece of timber of the shape of the teeth of a saw. He shaped the Mongolian 
characters after the teeth of that implement. By arranging the letters, 
divided in masculine and feminine characters, # with hard or tight, loose or 
slack, and weak or soft powers he invented the system of writing of the 
Mongols. In the year iron-hog (corresponding with A. D. 1252) both Sakya 
Pandita and the king died. The remains of the former were deposited in the 
Chhorten of Dulpai-de outside the fortress of Lah-ju. Subsequently in the 
reign of Munkhe, Karma Bakshi and others from Tibet visited Hor. Mun- 
khe’s younger brother named Khublai became very powerful. He conquered 
China, Tibet, the whole of Hor, and about half of India up to the furthest 
boundary of Kashmir. He invited Phagpa-Lodoi-Gyaltshan,f the nephew 
of Sakya Pandita, from Tibet. On his coming to Hor in the year 
water-ox , the Emperor met and held long discussions on religious matters 
with him, and imbibed much faith in him. Previous to this, he had showed 
much attachment to Karma Bakshi. Although Phagpa’s acquirements in 
grammar and sacred literature were great, on the other hand the acquire¬ 
ments of the bearded Lama, as Karma Bakshi was called, in judicious 
learning were eminent, Once under the secret advice of the Emperor, the 
Empress, named Jema-ssahmo, who revered Phagpa above all, asked him 
to enter into competition with Karma Bakshi in the performance of 
miracles. This was done with a view to amuse the Emperor. The parties 
having agreed to the proposal, the Bakshi, in the presence of the Emperor 
and his ministers, mounted the sky where he sat cross-legged, as in yogct J 
and passed right through mountains, &c. Phagpa also performed miracles 
by decapitating himself, then severing the five limbs and turning them 
into five Dhyani Buddhas. He afterwards accomplished their re-union 
to restore to himself his own body. 
* Of the consonant characters, every individual was formed by the combination 
of a vowel and a consonant, such as— 
Ka pa gha la ta 
Ne pe ghe le te 
Ni pi ghi li ti 
and so on. 
t Ary a Mati Dvaja. 
