November, 1873.] JAIN INSCRIPTIONS AT SRAVANA BELGOLA. 323 famine, by old age, or by disease for which there is no cure, to obtain liberation from the body for the sake of merit the Aryds call sallekhana. He who is perfect in knowledge possesses the fruit of all penance, which is the source of power; therefore should one seek for death by the per¬ formance of some meritorious vow, so far as his means wall permit. Having purified his mind by renunciation of friendship, hatred, ties and acquisitions; having forgiven his relations and dependants, and with kind w'ords sought forgive¬ ness from them ; viewring writh a strong mind im¬ partially (or with indifference) all that he does, causes to be done, or desires; should a man enter upon the performance of a great vow, not to be completed save by his death. It goes on further to say:— Aharam parihapya kramasah snigdham nivar- tayetvannam Snigdham cha varjayitva karapanam pfirayet kramasah || Karapanahapanam api kritvA kritvopavasam api saktya Panchanamaskaramanas tanum tyajet sarva- yatnena. || Jivitamaranasamsabhayamitrasmritividhanana - manah Sallekhanaticharah pancha Jinendraih samud- dishtah. || He should by degrees diminish his food, and take only rice seasoned with oil (or clarified butter). Then, giving up the oily seasoning, he should gradually reduce himself to only a handful of drink.* Then, abandoning even the handful of liquid, he should, according to his strength, remain entirely fasting; and thus, with his mind intent upon the five kinds of reverence, should by every effort quit his body. Desire of life or of death, remembrance of fear or friendship, action, these five are transgressions of salle¬ khana—thus say the Jinendras. The inscriptions before us are in the oldest dialect of Kanarese. The expression mudip- pi Jar, with which most of them terminate, is one which seems peculiar to the Jains. Modi occurs among the verbal roots of ancient Ka- narese, and is explained by kesabandhme, to bind the hair, and nirvaluine, to end.f The latter w'ord is derived from nirvah, to which Benfey gives the meanings “ to extricate one¬
- I understand that thiB should be milk,
t Sabdn Moni Darpaiyim, Kittel’s edition, p. 311,No. 268. self, to pass awuy ”—the first on the authority of Lassen. Mndippidar appears in these in¬ scriptions to include all three ideas of ceasing, liberating oneself, and passing away. I have translated it by “ expired,” proceeding on the evident analogy between nirvahina atid the Buddhist term nirvdm, derived from nirvd, to be extinguished. |Amara explains the latter thus :—nirvuno muni vahny ddau, which means blown out or gone out—applied either to a sage or to fire ; extinct. X Mudi also becomes mudu, as in the following quotation from the section on Nompi, or religious vows, in the Sruti Shindi :— Tapascharanam geydu samadhi vidhiyim mudupi Achyuta kalpadol Achyutendranagirddam. 1 nompiyan ondu bhavadolu nontavar ananta sukhaman aiduvaru. Regarding the names of places mentioned in these inscriptions, reasons will be given in a future paper for supposing that Chittur and Kittur may be Chittor the capital of Me war in Rajputana. Before concluding, however, the question may well be asked whether the vow of sallekhana is ever now put into practice. On this point’ it is not easy to obtain information, but it is admitted to be resorted to in the case of persons whose death seems near. Their end is hastened by withholding nourishment, just as in other sects persons borne to the banks of the Ganges to die are sometimes suffocated with the holy soil. It may be doubted whether in any other circum¬ stances the custom is enforced. But a Jain Brah¬ man informed me that if he were committed to prison, for instance, he should feel himself under the necessity of performing this penance. Transliteration. II. Adeyarenada Chitt&ra mauni guravadigala si- sliittiyar Nagama Tigantiyar mfiru tingal nontu mudip- pidar. III. Svasti sri Jambu naygir tingal nontu mudip- pidar. IV. Sri Neduboreya hanada Bhataran nontu mndippidar. X See my edition of Amara Koii, Yiieskya Nighna Yarga, 96.
