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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

certainly have been one of the easiest ways of getting from the coast to Bijã pur, and though perhaps not quite so short as that by Sã ta vali, yet it was probably much more easily guarded, and safer for unprotected tra vellers.

I can give no particulars of any old route to the south of this. Go a was always a much coveted port, but I have only seen the Fond a Ghà t mentioned in connection with it, which is a long way north. I have no doubt, how ever, that any one having a better acquaint ance than I possess with the district lying between Goa and the Ghâts would be able to

find traces of the Musalmāns along some more direct route.

I must end this by acknowledging that there are many points of interest regarding even the places I have written about which require fur ther elucidation, as I have now only been able

[Novey BER, 1873.

to put into shape some rough notes made at different times. And I must particularly men tion that the villages on the B fin kot creek, about which I have said nothing, contain a larger and more prosperous Musalmān popu lation than any of the places I have mentioned. But I have never found any reference to any of these towns or villages in history previous to the time of the Marāthās; and I am inclined to

think that the Musalmāns of this part (known in Bombay by the too general name of Kon kani Musalmāns), who differ so strongly from others of their religion in physical appearance, in dress, and in some of their customs, must be descended from seafaring Arabs who settled on this coast, and not from the Musalmān

conquerors of India. I know no evidence, however, in favour of this theory, and must leave it as a mere hint to any one who may be able to investigate the subject properly.

JAIN INSCRIPTIONS AT SRAVANA BELGOLA. BY LEWIS RICE, BANGALORE. (Continued from p. 266.)

picture have been from the absence of the sur

II.

A long series of the rock inscriptions at Šra vana Belgola, in the same old characters, con

rounding buildings, which were most probably not erected at the time to which the inscriptions

sist of what may be termed epitaphs to Jain

refer.

saints and ascetics, both male and female, or

The vow which these unhappy ascetics under went appears to be known by the singular name of sallekhana. Regarding this penance a work

memorials of their emancipation from the body.

Specimens are given below, with literal render ings and translations. It is painful to imagine the pangs of slow starvation by which these pitiable beings gave themselves up to death and put an end to their own existence, that by virtue

Upasarge durbhikshe jarasi rujāyām chanish pratīkāre

of such extreme penance they might acquire

Dharmāya tanuvimochanam ahuh sallekhanàny

The bitterest satir

āryah. I Antahkriyādhikaranam tapah phalam sakala darśinastu gate, Tasmãd yāvadvibhavam samādhimarane pra yatitavyam. || Sneham vairam sangam parigraham châpahāya

merit for the life to come.

ist of human delusions could hardly depict a scene of sterner irony than the naked summit of this bare rock dotted with emaciated devotees,

both men and women, in silent torture awaiting the hour of self-imposed death, in haste to be quit of the human form, which yet from the

opposite hill the gigantic granite image dis played in colossal proportions as that of the deity for whom they made such a sacrifice look ing forth unmoved upon them with its impassive features. The irony is complete when we re

called the Rita, Karandaki gives the following directions:—

šuddhamanáh,

Svajanam parijanam apicha kshäntwā kshama

, yet priyair vachanaih. I Alochya sarvam inah kritakāritam anumatam

, chanirvyājam,

member that avoidance of the destruction of life in whatever form is a fundamental doctrine

Aropayen mahāvratam âmaranasthāyinihše sham. || Which may be freely translated as follows:–

of the sect. All the more striking must the

When overtaken by portentous calamity, by