PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL EDITED BY Jhe JTonorary Secretaires. ❖ JANUARY TO DECEMBER, 1879. CALCUTTA: PRINTED BY G. H. ROUSE, BAPTIST MISSION PRESS, AND PUBLISHED BY TIIE ASIATIC SOCIETY, 57, PARK STREET. 187.9. QQT 4 1886 CONTENTS. Page 1-16 Proceedings for January 1879, .•. Do. for February, including Annual Deport, . 17-72 73-116 Do. for March, 1879, . 117-150 Do. for April, » . 151-170 Do. for May, ,, . 171-184 Do. for June, „ .* 185-198 Do. for July, „ ...*. 199-242 Do. for August, „ . 243-272 Do. for November, „ . 273-292 Do. for December, „ .... 293-303 Index, ...... • • • •. List of Members of the Asiatic Society of Bengal on the 31st December, 1878, Appendix to February Proceedings. Abstract Statement of Receipts and Disbursements of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for the year 1878, Appendix to February xvii Proceedings,....... LIST OF PLATES. V\. Plates of characters and Monograms on Coins from the Alim Posh Tope, (p. 123). 1" II, III. Coins from the Ahin Posh Tope, (p. 122). y jy Coins of Khusrau Shah and Kharran Malik, (p. 178). V'V. Sculptured Group from Kanauj, (p. 189). WI. Inscriptions from Sandwe, (p. 201). *. VII. Conjectural Sketch of the Country to the South of the lower portion of the Great Sanpo River, (p. 203). V^ym, XX, X. Ahin Posh Stupa, (p. 205). ^ xi. Plan of Encampment used at the Installation of the Dalai Lama, (p. 275). ERRATA. Plate VI should be Plate V 99 VII 99 99 VI 99 VIII 99 99 VII 99 IX 99 99 VIII 99 X 99 99 IX 99 XI 99 99 X 99 XII 99 99 XI OCT 4 1883 ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. EDITED BY JHE jJoNORARY ^SECRETARIES. No. I. JANUARY, 1879. “ The bounds of its investigation will be the geographical limits of Asia: and within these limits its inquiries will be extended to whatever is performed by man or produced by nature.”—Sib. William Jones. Annual Subscription,. ■*> ruPee8, Price per Number, ... saunas. Postage in India, (Additional),. 1 anna. Price in England, with postage, .. J-s. iu. •jag- The publications of the Society consist - of the Proceedings, one num- berof which is issued, as soon as possible, after every monthly meeting and of oer oi , f^nicLia divided into two Parts: Part I being *oSSlI to Natural Science: each part is separately" fa'ed and provided with a special index, and one number of eacn partis publi&d quarterly. Single numbers for sale at the rates given on the last page of cover. * * It is requested that communications for the Journal or Proceedings may be sent under cover to the Honorary Secretaries, Asiatic Soc„ to whom all orders for these works are to be addressed in India; or, m London, to the Society s Agents, Messrs. Triibner and Go., 57 Sf 59, Ludgate Hill. N B -In order to ensure papers being read at any monthly Meeting of the Society; they should he in the hands of the Secretaries at least a week before the CALCUTTA: PRINTED BY 0. H. ROUSE, BAPTIST MISSION PRESS, AND PUBLISHED AT THE ASIATIC SOCIETY’S ROOMS, 57, PARK STREET. 1S79. In a folio volume of 180 pages, with thirty-six Lithographs and fifty wood-cuts. Price Bs. 35. THE ANTIQUITIES OF ORISSA. Er RA'JENDRALA'LA MITRA, LL. D. Volume I. *** second volume, to complete the work, is in the press- it will extend to about 210 pages folio, and will be illustrated with sixty photo graphs and lithographs. J * PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, j^OR January, 1879, --==HH=—-- The monthly General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was held on Wednesday, the 8th instant, at 9 p. m. W. T. Branford, Esq., F. R. S., President, in the Chair. The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed :— The following gentlemen, duly proposed and seconded at the last Meeting, were ballotted for and elected Ordinary Members—- R. Sewell, Esq., M. C. S. J. F. Browne, Esq., C. E., M. R. A. S. Capt. W. E. Gowan. The following are candidates for ballot at the next meeting— 1. Lieut. C. R. Macgregor, Quarter Master, 44th N. I., Shillong, proposed by Dr. Anderson, seconded by G. H. Damant, Esq., C. S. 2. Major J. Sconce, B. S. C., Depy. Surveyor General of India, propos- ed by Col. J. T. Walker, R. E., C. B., seconded by Capt. J. Waterhouse. 3. J. F. Duthie, Esq., Superintendent Botanical Gardens, Saharun- pore, proposed by Dr. G. King, seconded by Capt. J. Waterhouse. The Secretary announced that Dr. W. J. Palmer had intimated his desire to withdraw from the Society on proceeding to England. In the absence of Dr. Hoernle, Philological Secretary, Mr. C. H. Tawney read the following note on Jainism received from Mr. E. Thomas : Jainism. Among other questions put down for consideration and discussion at the ‘ Congres des Orientalistes’ at Lyons, on the 31st of August last, there was formulated a subdivision devoted to “ Les Dja'inas sont-ils d’anciens Bouddhistes anterieurs a Sakia Mouni, ou des Bouddhistes modifies depuis les persecutions brahmaniques ?” As I have paid some attention to this subject,* though unable to attend the Congress, and therefore unaware of the course taken in the dis- * ‘ Jainism; or, the Early Faith of Asoka’ (Triibner, 1877) ; J. E. A. S., IX, p. 155. 2 E. Thomas—Jainism. [Jan. cussion, you will, perhaps, allow me to advert in your columns to a very important item, bearing upon the relative priority of the creeds of Jainism and Buddhism which has not hitherto been noticed ; that is to say, liow their reputed dates balance and adjust themselves inter se within the bounds of reasonable probability. The Jains have a fixed and definite date for the Nirvana of “ Mahavi- ra,” their great saint, which is established by the concurrent testimony of their two sects, whose method of reckoning varies in itself, thereby secur¬ ing, as it were, a double entry. The Svetambaras date in the era of Vikra- maditya, 57 B. C. ; the Digambaras reckon by the Saka samvat, 78 A. D , and both arrive at the same figures of B. C. 52G-7 for the death of Mahavi- ra. This calculation is equally supported by the dynastic lists, which satis¬ factorily fill in the period from the accession of “ Palaka, the lord of Avanti, [who] was anointed in that night in which.Mahavira entered Nirvana,” “ to the four years of Saka,” who immediately preceded Vikra- maditya.* On the other hand, Buddha’s date varies according to different authori¬ ties from the extreme points of B. C. 2420 to 453, and even is reduced so low-as 370 B. C. ; so that up to this time modern inquirers have been una¬ ble to concur in the determination of this epochf further than to suspect, as we are taught by the Chinese, that the period was antedated from time to time, with the direct purpose of arrogating priority over other saints. Now, if the ascertained Jain date will serve to determine the era of Buddha, under the theory that Buddha himself was a disciple of Mahavira, it will, in the fact, go far to establish the priority of the latter, and the pre-existence of the creed of which he was the twenty-fourth or last pro¬ phet. The date of Buddha most largely accepted has been adopted from the Ceylon annals, which supply the figures 543 B. C.J But, as was remarked by Mr. Tumour, who first investigated the local traditions, the accep¬ tance of such a date involved an error, in default of the required period of sixty years (sixty-six) ; or, to use his own words, “ the discrepancy can only proceed from one of these two sources ; viz., either it is an intentional perversion, adopted to answer some national or religious object, which is not readily discoverable ; or Chandra Gupta is not identical with Sandra- * Dr. Biihler, ‘ Indian Antiquary,’ Yol. II, 3G3; J. E. A. S., IX, 15, note 2. f Prof. Wilson, J. E. A. S., XVI, 247; see also IX, n. s. 170; Beal, ‘Travels of Bah-Hian,’ pp. xxvi. 22 ; and Hioun-Thsang- (Paris, 1857), I, p. 163. X Lassen; St. Hilaire; M. Barth, Revue Critique, 13th June, 1874; Prof. Weber, ‘ History of Indian Literature’ (London, Triibner, 1878), p. 287 ; Childers, Pali Dic¬ tionary. I myself am only a recent convert, J. E. A. S., I. 463, 1879.] E. Thomas—Jainism. 3 cottus.”* A partial reconciliation of the error was proposed by the method of restoring to the dynasty of the Nandas the full hundred years assigned to them by some Pauranik authorities, in lieu of the forty-four allowed for in the Ceylon lists ; but if the local annals were so dependent for their accuracy upon extra-national corrections, their intrinsic merits could have stood but little above zero ; and any such summary introduction of sixty- six years from outside sources could scarcely have been held to be satisfac¬ tory, unless the assumed total of 543 years B. C. were proved to be a fixed quantity by better external testimony than has hitherto been adduced. To General Cunningham belongs the merit of having first proposed, in 1854, the fixing of Buddha’s Nirvana in “ 477 B. C.”+—a result which he obtained from original figure calculations; while Max Mfiller, m 1859, independently arrived at the same conclusion, from a more extended critical review of the extant literary evidence.]: General Cunningham has lately enlarged the sphere of his observations, and in adopting Colebrooke’s view in regard to the fact that Gautama Buddha was “ the disciple of Mahavira,” has materially fortified his early arguments—in re-asserting that the Nirvana of Buddha must be placed in “478 B.