124

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

messenger (which has very little to do story), they are probably interpolations.

with the

RAMKRIs HNA G. BHANDARKAR.

Dravidian numerals, at least up to 10, are original and not taken from the Sanskrit, a view which,

regarding 5 and 10, had been called in question by a well-known scholar.

SERPENT.WORSHIP.

SIR,--In his Essay on “Vasta-yaga and its bearing upon Serpent and Tree Worship in India,” published in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society (Part I. No. 3–1870), Babu Pratāp Chan dra Ghosha, B.A., asserted that no temple has ever been raised by Aryans for the sole worship of the Serpent in India, though the Hindus enter tain a kind of respect for the allegorical characters Ananta and Vasuki. Now in Prayåg (Allahabad) an ancient temple still stands dedicated solely to the worship of the Naga Vasuki. Perhaps it is the only

[APRIL, 1873.

How clearly the Dravidians

are marked out by their numerals | That the Pengu Porjas, Tagara Porjas, and Durwa Gonds use Uriya words for some of the lower numbers is curious indeed, and the cause of their doing so deserves thorough inquiry. Is there any unsur

mountable objection to the supposition that the Dravidian numbers known to be used by them are the remnant of a complete set P or that by a more intimate intercourse with the tribes the original

series may still be found to exist among them It may have been necessary for the tribes to adopt some numbers from their neighbours, who by way of intercourse learned to know and use a few of

one of its kind in the N. W. Provinces, for I have have seen none elsewhere, not even in Benares.

It is called by natives Ríja Vasuk or Dussésumádh. The spot is associated with several legendary traditions, one of which is that Brahma, in ages gone by, performed there the sacrifice of a thousand horses, hence its sacredness. The temple is beautifully situated amidst a grove of trees, overlooking the Ganges, which flows just under it. The scenery is charming. It is a massive building on an elevated terrace, and looks quite new, for we learn that a hundred years ago it was all repaired, and the pakka stone ghāt under it constructed by the millionaire of Daraganj, a detached village of Allahabad lying on the bank

theirs, but did not care to acquire and use all.

Concerning the Köis and Selliya Porjas, I should like to know whether their having borrowed some Telugu words is a fully established fact P The so called Telugu words may be as original with them as with the Telugus, and prove that the two tribes once lived in a more favourable position in union with their kinsmen, the Telugus, and also with the other large Dravidian tribes. It is interest

ing to observe that the expression for “one” in Köi is orrote, in Togara Porja—vakat, in Telugu– okati, the Köi being next to the root. The tom (another form of om, the first part of “nine” in Köi aud Telugu) does not appear in other dialects

of the river. The image of the Nāga Vasuki is

before 19.

carved out of a black stone set in the front wall of

With reference to Dravidian derivations, I take the liberty to state the Dravidian rule that a noun may be formed by simply lengthening the verbal root; the inverse process would be against the spirit of the language. On this rule rests the derivation of mălu, ndlkw (Köi nálár, Durwa Gond mdilu, Togara Porja—málu, Telugu-mălugu, nilgu). The root mal, to be lovely, is very common with the Southern Dravidians; a root akin to it is nar, to be fragrant. Both roots have been adopted by the

the temple, and is about a foot and a half high. It is neatly sculptured as a hooded snake standing erect when enraged. There are other idols of less note. A large fair is held here on Niigapanchami, to which many of the Hindus from Allahabad and neighbouring villages come, to secure the double merit of bathing in the sacred stream and wor shipping the serpent-god on the auspicious

occasion. The temple is resorted to by every pilgrim to Prayºg, with whom it is a belief that the merit of bathing in the sacred confluence of Gañgā and Jamunā is not complete until he visits the temple of the king of Serpents. Pilgrims to other sacred places in India take Ganges water from this place only, as it is considered purer than elsewhere in Prayåg.

Aryas, as a study of the words beginning with their letters in a Sanskrit Dictionary will show. (Some of those words are to be referred to the Dravidian root mad, to be erect, to be planted; d = LE

1.) F. KITTEL.

Merkara, 25th March 1873.

KAŠINATH.

Sirsa, Allahabad, 2nd December 1872.

THE GUJARAT LION.

-

It is erroneous to suppose that the Käthiàwäd

(Gujarāt) Lion is maneless, although in the speci NOTE ON DRAVIDIAN NUMERALS.

mens I have seen the mane has been consider

I have read with much interest the remark on

ably shorter and of lighter colour than that of the

the note concerning ancient Dravidian numerals (Ind. Ant. II. 97). It corroborates the view that the

have been eight years old from its containing that

African species. One that I shot, supposed to