266

[SEPTEMBER, 1873.

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

number of inscriptions cut in the rock both on

hope, however, in a future contribution, to give

the summit and around the sides.

renderings of others which contain more his.

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.

-

torical information, and from these an approx. imation to the age of these inscriptions may be more safely made, TRANSLITERATION.

Sura châpam bûle vidyul lategala tera völ manju völtöribºgam piridhu Sri rāpa lilä dhana vibhava mahā ra. Šigal nillav firgge paramārttha mechche nån i dharaniyul iravān endu sanyasana ga yduru satvannadi Sena Pravara muni vara deva

After various attempts I succeeded in getting lókakke sandir.

a clue to the letters, some of which resemble TRANSLATION.

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

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 ? Should I, who love the chief good, remain attached to this

world Thus saying, he assumed the state of a sannyſisi, and by his virtue the eminent muni Sen a Pravara reached the world of gods (deva loka). Bangalore, 19th July 1873.

THE MRITYULANGALA UPANISHAD. BY A. C. BURNELL, M.C.S., M.R.A.S., &c., 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

1871-2, I, however, found two MSS. of this

has thrown light on all the “burning questions”

tract. One (No. 7210) is written in Devanā gari, and is about 100 years old; the other (No. 97.27) 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 worship.t 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 Devanāgari:

of Sanskrit literature, has, in the ninth volume

and

of his Iulische Studien, also discussed this

to be the nearest to what the Persian translator

missing Upanishad, and by his almost intuitive knowledge of the Upanishad literature suc ceeded in restoring whole sentences of the ori

had before him.

ginal. On examining the Tanjor Library in

Āhaláàgala Fishih : anushtup chandah ; Kālāg

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

• It is said to have been made by, or for, Dārā Shakoh,

whose unhappy story is so graphically told by Bernier. As regards the Muhammadans' study of Sanskrit, see Prof. Blochmann's translation of the Ain-i-Akbari, pp. 104.5, especially the iuteresting quotations in the notes. The

a longer,

the Grantha.

This last seems

The text runs as follows:—

Asya Śrimrityuláñgalamahāmantrasya ulti Muhammadans seem to have formed a very low opinion of the Sanskrit literature.

+ Inasmuch as the man tra is not Vedic, though its use is evidently imitated from Vedic rituals.