265

ŠRAVANA BELGOLA.

SEPTEMBER, 1873.] settle or to remain there.

In the north-eastern

T a probane. This king of the Hindus had

Dakhani highland the Jainas constitute so small a portion of the population that they are not worth mentioning. Their chief seats are partly in the southern half of the Dakhani highland, partly in Tuluva or South Kanara, on the Malabar coast.* Their chief seats in this portion of Southern India are as follows:—M a ley ur, Ball a g o da or Belligola, and M adu giri, where also are a few famed temples of the Jainas.t. Of these holy places Belligola or B a la g o da appears to be the principal one, because we possess a special list of the

his seat in the Ch at a gia mountains. The Hindus worshipped Apollon, Here, and Artemis

teachers there.f

As the reports of Byzantine authors about India are too insignificant to be treated in detail, I prefer to utilize their communications of this kind, whenever they are worth discuss ing, for the history of Indian commerce, or to put them on suitable occasions before my readers and to explain them. The only information to be considered in this place occurs in the history of Lao nikos Ch a l k on dy las, and refers to a period immediately after the time of Taimur Š. The material contents of this passage are, that this bellicose monarch had been attacked by nine kings, among which was also an Indian king named Tºxaráns; but he marched over the Araxes or Oxus, victoriously repelled these attacks, and subjugated, besides other countries, also the whole of India as far as

as gods, and sacrificed annually to the first deity horses, to the second cows, and to the third new-born boys. In order to understand this report, it is first to be noticed that after the occupation and

appalling devastation of the capital, Dehli, in A.D. 1398, Tai mur caused himself to be

proclaimed Emperor of India, and on his de parture from India left the former emperor, Ma h m ſi d To g h luk, a fugitive. It is an error that he subjugated the whole of India and T a probane. How the name of the Hindu

king Tzach a tač s is to be explained defies me; and further, there is no region in India the

name of which bears any resemblance to Cha tagia. In the asvamedha, the equine sacrifice, two horses are offered, not to Apollon or Surya however, but to one of the two great popular

gods. It may properly be questioned whether at that time the Hindus sacrificed cows, which

they deemed sacred, to the honour of Here, although bloody offerings were made to Durga, who alone can be meant here." The report that young boys were sacrificed to the moon

goddess is just as incredible; the only true fact is that to Káli or to Chánundd small inoffensive animals were offered,” and therefore the Byzan time historian called his Hindu goddess Artemis.

-

JAIN INSCRIPTIONS AT SRAVANA BELGOLA. BY LEWIS RICE, BANGALOR. At the Jain

village of Śr a van a Belgola,tf

the loftier Ch a n dra B

it! a on

which stands

on a smaller hill named In dra B it ta, facing

the colossal image of G om a t e S v ar a , are a

• This results first from Francis Buchanan, A Journ

from Ferro, and is situated 50 English miles west of M u d ga Ind. Ant. II. 129.-E.D.] As. Res. IX. p. 264 seqq. III. p. 16% of the Bonn edition. The passage here alluded to relates to the beginning of the year 1405. The

from Madrus, &c. I. p. 113, p. 240, p. 333, and p. 421; II. p. 74 seq. and p. 80; III. p. 19 se 11., p. 80, p. 89, p. 109, p. 27, p. 421, p. 93, p. 120, p. 131 bis, p. 134, p. 391, and p. 101; further from a dissertation by the same author in As. Res. IX. p. 279 seqq. bearing the title: Particulars of the Jainas, entract from a Journal by Dr. Francis Buchanan.

... ſ."

-

other statements of Lao nikos Chalk on dyl as about India either contain matters already familiar, or are

Accurate information about the Jainas of those parts is contained in the following tract Account of the Jains,

exaggerated and incorrect.

collected from a Priest of this Sect, at Madgiri, translat ed by Corelly Boria, Brahman, for Major Mackenzie, ibid. IX. p. 244 seqq. The latter wrote also Extracts from a Journal of Major C. Mackenzie, ibid. IX, p. 272 seqt. + J. A. Dubois, Mºgurs, Institutions, et Cérémonies des Peuples de l'Inde, II. p. 502. The author gives on p. 499 seqq. an interesting report about the doctrines and manner of living of the adherents of this sect in those parts. Male jur is a village situated in Southern Mai sur; Mudug her ri or Mud geri may be the same with

to an unusual size, which however this author greatly exaggerates. The magnitude of the Bamboo-reeds, from

It is well known that the

Hindus are divided into castes, and that there plants grow which the Hindus manufacture river-boats, was reported

upon according to above, II. p. 623, by Herodotus, already. Besides the known rivers Ganges, Indos, Hydraspes (sic), Hydraotes, and Hyphasis, he mentions also the Anaathiwes, which may perhaps be a gross corruption of the name Akesines. | Ferishta by Briggs, I. p. 472 se11.

• See Ind. Alt. IV. p. 634.
  • See Ind. Alt. IV. p. 637.

++ This spelling is adopted on the authority of an inscrip tion at the place. The name according to this version is derived from Old Kan. bel, white, and kolu, softened in -

Mud dukh rai, which town, according to Edward Thornton's Gazetteer, &c. I. voc., is situated in the Madras

Presidency 17°54' N. Lat. and 91242 E. Long, from Ferro. B a lag oda, which is also spelt Bali kota, is, according to the same work, in 16° 10' N. Lat. and 930 36' E. Long.

combination to go! I, pond or tank. There is a very large and fine tank between the two hills.