3. ORIGIN OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. SIR,-I must express my thanks to Mr. Sinclair for his valuable contribution, which adds to our knowledge of the localities in India where tombs have been erected in the form of Saiva temples. I mentioned one I had seen myself in Jellalabad, this is in Afghanistan; and I found references to them in Kumaon, in the Himalayas; they are also found among the Canarese, the Telugus, and the Tamils; and Mr. Sinclair now informs us that they are common in the Deccan and the Konkan. This is a wide extent of ground, and shows that they are not peculiar to any one locality. It is to be hoped that others will follow Mr. Sinclair's example, and give us details of such temples; this can be done best by men living in a place where they are familiar with the people, and their ideas regarding them. Since writing my paper I have come upon some references to temples which are sepulchral monuments in the Râs Mâlâ, by Alex. K. Forbes; these are in Guzerat. One is the temple of Devee Boucherâ,1 which "grew up out of a rude stone placed to commemorate the death of a Chârun woman. Another is in the Run of Kutch, on the road from Hulwud to Âreesur, and marks the place where Wurnâjee Purmâr, a Rajpoot, was slain; and the temple of "Devee Sudoobâ." Forbes does not indicate whether these are Saiva temples or not; in that of Devee Sudoobâ the details would point to its being Vaishnava. Forbes gives in his account of funeral ceremonies a description which agrees exactly with Mr. Sinclair's: "He who fires the pile collects seven pieces of bone, and enclosing them in a mould commits them to the earth in the place on which the head of the corpse rested. Over the spot the poor raise a simple mound, and place thereon a water vessel and a cake of bread, but wealthy persons erect upon the site of the funeral pile a temple, which is consecrated to Muhâ Dev."3 Here we "2 1 Vol. ii. p. 90. VOL. XX.- -[NEW SERIES.] 37 have the Saiva temple as a tomb, and not exclusively for ascetics. The poorer people raise the simple grave mound over the relics, and "place thereon a water vessel." This "water vessel" evidently belongs to the primitive forms of burial, and the proper understanding of it would in all probability give us the solution of the Kalasa which surmounts the Sikhara. The funereal customs point to the conclusion that it is a water vessel; Mr. Sinclair suggests that it may have contained the relics, and he has undoubtedly native habits, which he refers to, in support of the idea. The question, so far as I know, is a new one, and as yet so entirely speculative that we must wait till further light turns up to guide us to the solution. Mr. Sinclair's suggestion that the Amalaka is a cushion or base for the Kalasa, seems at first blush to be a very happy one-so far it matters not whether the Kalasa may be a water jar or a relic holder—if it was looked upon as sacred, it would no doubt be entitled to something honourable to rest upon. As a cushion the Amalaka would realize this, as it would be a Guddee. We require more knowledge of the rites and ceremonies, of the details of old shrines, etc., which still exist in out-of-the-way places in India, and men like Mr. Sinclair, who have to visit their districts, are in a position to become acquainted with them. The most important point dealt with in my paper is that of the tomb-origin of the Saiva temple, because it is not merely architectural. If my view of the case should be ultimately made good, it will place Siva and his worship in a new light. It was with some hesitancy that I ventured on a suggestion that had this far-reaching result as a possibility, but I felt that I had grounds which were sufficient to justify me in so doing, and Mr. Sinclair's letter widens these grounds in more ways than one. As an instance he mentions that the sculptures on the sepulchral monuments often represent the deceased making his "appearance in heaven, where he worships the lingam or otherwise, according to his creed on earth." The idea under which this is done is not very definitive; still, to find the linga and its worship on a tombstone is at least suggestive. Among the sculptures on the rock at Gwalior I found a Suttee monument, in which the man and the woman are shown performing the Linga-pujah. At the time the idea of the Saiva temple having been derived from a tomb had not occurred to me; but seeing the deceased persons represented as worshipping Siva in this form, struck me then as peculiar, and suggested that it had reference to a re-birth through death, a principle not out of keeping with Brahmanical teaching. The Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society. 4. WILLIAM SIMPSON. Greens Norton, Towcester, Sept. 27, 1888. DEAR SIR,-I should like to address a few words to you, for the consideration of the Members of your Society, as to the meaning of the emblems, found (in pl. xxxiv. Tree and Serpent Worship, 1st ed.) in the hand of the Prince there represented. Mr. Fergusson was quite at a loss to explain the meaning of these emblems (p. 133, o.c.). I think the two figures on the plate named refer to the young Prince Siddârtha going out to the joust, of which we have such ample record in the Buddhist legends. This appears to be proved by the figure of the elephant in the first group. We read that "when the young Prince was hardly grown up, the Licchavis of Vaisâli offered him an elephant of exceptional beauty. . . which they led to Kapilavastu, and covered it with jewels," etc. (Rockhill, "Life of the Buddha," p. 19). This is the elephant that Devadatta killed, and Nanda pulled on one side, and the young Prince raised and hurled over the walls, into the elephant-ditch. I think this and the whole entourage of the scene shows that the design of the sculptor, or donor of the gateway, was to represent the exit of the Prince from the Gate of Kapilavastu on his way to the games about to be held between the Śákya youths. What then is the emblem in the hands of the Prince ? Mr. Fergusson compares it to the form of a dumb-bell, "two balls joined together like a dumb-bell." But I think it has a curious meaning, viz. that of the mappa, "which was held in the right hand of a Consul, which he threw into the arena as a signal for the games to commence." For a representation of the shape of the mappa I will refer you to plates xxiii. and xxiv. of Marriot's "Vestiarium Christianum." The plates there shown are photographed from facsimiles in fictile ivory, published by the "Arundel Society." It is almost certain that the Indian custom of Public games, or jousts, was an extension of the same custom prevalent from earliest date in the Western portions of Asia, as at Dindymus; and as the image of Cybele worshipped there was carried to Rome during the Punic wars, it is likely that the customs observed at those games were borrowed also by the Romans; and this is all the more likely as the word mappa is said to be a Punic word: so that the use of this folded towel as a signal to begin the games (something like the modern sponge in prize-fights) was probably borrowed by the Northern Tribes who passed into India, and especially by the Sâkyas, a chivalrous and exotic race. Comparing then the mappa, as seen in the plates of Marriott's book, with the "dumb-bell" instrument in the hand of the Prince Siddârtha in "Tree and Serpent Worship" in the plates (referred to above), I think we may find an explanation of the emblems there represented. I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours, The Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society. NOTES OF THE QUARTER. (June, July, August.) NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF MSS. obtained by Dr. Gimlette, of the Bengal Medical Service, at Kathmandu, and now deposited in the Cambridge University Library, and in the British Museum. By CECIL BENDALL, M.A., M.R.A.S. Since I first proposed to the Society some years ago a scheme for publishing notes on uncatalogued MSS., little has been done to forward the scheme. I am now glad to be able to give a specimen of the notes that I should like to see made on uncatalogued MSS., and hope that other members will contribute information similar or more detailed. The collection of MSS. now described was made in Nepal by my friend Dr. G. H. D. Gimlette, Residency Surgeon at Kathmandu. He brought them to me when he came home on furlough last autumn, in order that I might identify them and dispose of them for him to such libraries as might desire them. I found the chiefs of the two collections of MSS. that I am most interested in, those of Cambridge University and the British Museum, very willing to entertain Dr. Gimlette's offer, and I have therefore suggested an apportionment between these two institutions (which has been accepted), bearing in mind, when so suggesting, the needs and the specialities of each collection, in the same way that I had done in the case of the MSS. I had myself brought from Nepal some years ago. As however it may be some time before either library gives an official printed account of these books, I send, for the information of scholars, a list of the books, their location, and a few notes on some |