1902.] 
J. PL. Vogel— Triloknath. 
35 
Triloknath. — By J. Ph. Vogel, Fsq. 
[Read 8th January, 1902.] 
In the course of a summer-tour in the Kangra District I had the 
opportunity of making some notes, which may help to elucidate the 
connection between the Bodhisattva Avalokite9vara and the brah- 
manical god f iva. 
An endeavour has been made to explain the former as the 
Buddhist counterpart of the Hindu deity Brahma, chiefly on account 
of iconographical observations. 1 This connection however seems a 
priori highly improbable, considering the place occupied by these 
deities in the Pantheon of both Religions. The Bodhisattva in its 
origin the vague creation of monastic contemplation—in order to obtain 
so prominent a place in the Mahayana system, must have assumed the 
shape and attributes of the much-honoured and beloved pi va, not of 
Brahma, himself merely the personification of an abstract conception, 
who by his passiveness never appealed to the popular imagination. 
The close relation between Avalokite 9 vara and Qiva has lately been 
vindicated by M. A. Foucher. 2 The following facts connected with 
the name of Triloknath will, I believe, corroborate the same view. 
One of the most famous tirthas of the Western Himalayas is 
Triloknath, situated on the left bank of the Candrabhaga river, some 
thirty-two miles below the junction of its constituents, Candra and 
Bhaga. Though geographically belonging to Patau, which is the name 
of the lower part of Lahul, the place has been included in the territory 
of Camba. Its inaccessibility, no doubt, enhances greatly the merit 
resulting from a pilgrimage. Moorcroft 3 when passing through 
Lahul on his way to Bukhara met “ two half-starved Hindu fakirs: one 
of them had come from Chapra, the other from Ougein: both were 
going on a pilgrimage to Triloknath.” 4 
1 L. A. Waddell in J.R.A.S., 1894, p. 57 sqq. 
2 Etude sur l’iconographie Bouddhique de l’Inde Paris, 1900, p. 172 sq. 
s Travels, I, p. 193 sq. 
4 Kangra Gazetteer, Part III, p. 18. It is therefore strange to find that only 
three pages further on in the same volume the word Triloknath is said to indicate; 
