Nov. 1, 1872.]
CORRESPONDENCE, &c.
took this opportunity of learning by heart some part of the Vedas and made himself acquainted with all the duties of a Brahman. When this lad had ac
complished this he put on a sacred thread and gave out that he was the son of a Brahman and easily passed for a such because he had learned everything that a Brahman is expected to know. He then went to the house of the Brahman who taught the Vedas and asked his permission to learn with the other
boys. This the Brahman readily gave ; for his strong memory and intelligence gave promise that he would turn out a celebrated Vaidika (one who knows Vedas by heart.) The boy soon gained the favour of his teacher, who gave him his daughter in marriage. After residing for a few months after his marriage with his father-in-law he went back to his native place and made his parents acquainted with all his adventures. He built a separate house that
he might live in it with his wife, and after binding the people of his caste by a promise that they would not divulge the secret of his caste to his wife, he went again to his father-in-law's house and took her to his newly built house. Notwithstanding the precautions, the Brahman girl heard enough of his low caste. No words can describe her indigna tion when she learned that she was wedded to a
Māhār. Immediately she returned to her father's house and poured a torrent of abuse on him. After this she returned to her husband and attempted to kill him ; but he escaped from her grasp and enter ed the body of a buffalo which was killed by her. She also set fire to the house in which her mother-in
law was residing, and finally became a devi or goddess after her death. It is in honour of this goddess that the fairs are celebrated and buffaloes killed.
I have given the substance of what I was able to gather from inquiries among the common people of this place. In Belgäm a large car of the height of about fifty feet is prepared every twelve years, and a statue of the goddess is placed on it and carried in procession through the thoroughfares of the town. The car of this year was so heavy that it required three days to draw it through the town though some two hundred men were pulling it. When this car reached the green between the town and the fort of Belgám, twelve buffaloes and hundreds of goats were killed. A large concourse of people was assembled on the green. There was a dispute as to
who should kill the first buffalo between two Patels, each of whom claims the right. Everywhere on the green the work of slaughtering went on on the 14th July last. The head of the buffalo which was borne in procession before the car was carried round the town and buried in the ground and over it a small hut was built. During the twelve days on which Lakshmi remains in a temporary shed on the green, no mills are allowed to grind.
- See Indian Antiquary p. 251 and Aufrecht's Catalogue
209a there cited.
f P. 30. Prof. Cowell's Preface to Mr. Boyd's Nagananda
353
THE NYAYA/KUSUMA'NJALI.
SIR,-Since I wrote my paper on the age of the Nyāyakusumānjali which appeared in the Indian Antiquary p. 297, I have come across some additional information which appears strongly to corroborate the conclusions at which I arrived. One of the princi pal arguments there adduced was, that Udayana being older than Sri Harsha, and Sri Harsha older than the Sarasvatikanthābharana, and the Kanthābharana in its turn older than the beginning of the twelfth cen tury of the Christian Era, Udayana at the latest must be placed in the eleventh century. I now find that the date of the Sarasvatikanthābharana has
been fixed with somewhat greater precision than it was in the sentence quoted by me from Dr. F. E. Hall. I find that the Sarasvatikanthābharana “ dates
probably from the end of the tenth, or it may be from the beginning of the eleventh century.” It clearly follows from this that the terminus ad quem for the date of Udayana may safely be transferred back from the eleventh century into at least the close of the ninth century, if not even to an earlier date. It
will be observed that we are thus making near approaches to that contemporaneity of Udayana and Sankara which, as I have shown, Madhav takes for granted. I have also recently observed the bearing on this investigation of the conclusion as to the age of Sri Harsha at which Dr. J. G. Bühler arrived in the
paper which he read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society on the 9th of November last, a summary of which appears in the Indian Antiquary, f viz., that Sri Harsha flourished somewhere about the middle of the twelfth century. This evidently con flicts with that to which the foregoing argument leads, and the question comes to one of the balanc ing of evidence on either side. Now I take it that the only vulnerable point in my argument, is the age of the Sarasvatikanthābharana—while on the other hand, Dr. Bühler's argument must proceed first upon the assumption that Rājasekhara, the Jain biographer of Sri Harsha, is a perfectly trustworthy guide, and secondly, on the assumption, that the identification of Rájasekhara's Jayantachandra, the son of Govindachandra, with Jayachandra “who reigned over Kányakubya and Benares in the latter half of the twelfth century,” is fully established. The correctness of this last date (supposing the identity proved) would also require consideration. But that question is common to both the arguments, and on striking a balance, it results that the one argument involves two assumptions, while the other involves none at all.
The other argument corroborative of the princi pal one which I based upon the circumstance of Văchaspati Misra's having answered Sri Harsha has also received additional
confirmation.
I was
aware, that Vāchaspati Misra is stated by Professor also mentions some other dates to which Sri Harsha has
been assigned. Bābu Rajendralāla's, if I remember rightly, comes nearest to mine.
