266 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [September, 1873. number of inscriptions cut in the Yock both on the summit and around the sides. The char¬ acters in which they are engraved are of a curious elongated form, measuring a foot or more in length, strikingly distinct in the rays of the sun, but scarcely distinguishable when in shade. The inscriptions consist mostly of three or four lines apiece, and are scored about in all directions, without any appearance of order. The learned men attendant on the Jain pontiff of the neighbouring math can neither read the characters, nor give any account of the inscrip¬ tions. After various attempts I succeeded in getting a clue to the letters, some of which resemble those of the Kanarese alphabet. On applying the key thus obtained, the inscriptions are found to be written in the ancient Kanarese dialect. The one of which a facsimile and ren¬ dering are now given proves to be an epitaph to a Jain saint. None of the inscriptions I have seen contains a date, and in the present in¬ stance there is nothing on which to found a con¬ jecture as to its antiquity except the archaic' forms of expression, and these hardly form a suf¬ ficiently definite basis on which to proceed. I hope, however, in a future contribution, to give renderings of others which contain more his¬ torical information, and from these an approx¬ imation to the age of these inscriptions may be more safely made. Transliteration. Sura chapam bole vidyul lategala tern vol manju vol t6ri begam piridhu sri rflpa lilA dhana vibhava maha ra- sigal nillav argge paramarttha mechche nan i dharaniyul iravan endu sanyasana ga- yduru satvannadi Sena Pravara muni vara deva lokakke sandar. Translation. Rapidly scattering like the rainbow, like clustering flashes of lightning, or like a dewy cloud, to whom are the treasures of beauty, pleasure, wealth and power secure P Should I, who love the chief good, remain attached to this world ? Thus saying, he assumed the state of a sannyasi, and by his virtue the eminent muni SenaPravara reached the world of gods (deva lolca). Bangalore, 19th July 1873. THE MRITYULANGALA UPANISHAD. BY A. C. BURNELL, M.C.S., M.R.A.S., Ac., MANGALOR. For a long time our knowledge of the Upa- nishads was derived from Anquetil du Perron’s strange translation of a Persian version of fifty, made about two centuries ago, to gratify the curiosity of a Muhammadan Prince.* Of the large number mentioned and paraphrased in this work the original Sanskrit texts have been discovered except in a few instances ; one of these exceptions is the forty-second of du Per¬ ron’s list, the Mrat-lankoul, which he explains as “ Halitus mortis.” Prof. A. Weber, who has thrown light on all the “ burning questions” of Sanskrit literature, has, in the ninth volume of his Indhchc Studien, also discussed this missing Upanishad, and by his almost intuitive knowledge of the Upanishad literaturo suc¬ ceeded in restoring whole sentences of the ori¬ ginal. On examining the Tanjor Library in • It is said to have been made by, or for, D&ra SUakoh, whose unhappy story is so graphically told by Bernier. As regard! the Muhammadans’ study of Sanskrit, see Prof. Blochmiiun’s translation of the kbari, pp. 104-5, especially the interesting quotations in the notes. The 1871-2, I, however, found two MSS. of this tract. One (No. 7210) is written in Devana- gari, and is about 100 years old ; the other (No. 9727) is a palm-leaf MS. in the Grantha cha¬ racter, and much injured. It is probably 200 years old. This tract is perhaps wrongly included among the Upanishads—it rather be¬ longs to the Tantric worehip.f Yet, as it is included by so good an authority as the Persian translators, it may be worth while to give an account of it. The Tanjor MSS. present dif¬ ferent recensions, —a shorter, the Devamigari; and a longer, the Grantha. This last seems to be the nearest to what the Persian translator had before him. The text runs as follows:— Asya srimrityula n galainah amantrasya nlu- khaldiigala rishih ; anushtup chandah ; Kalag- Muhammiulans seem to luive formed a very low opinion of the Sauskrit literature. t Inasmuch as the mantra is not Vcdic, though its use is evidently imitated from Y'edic rituals.
