Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 1.djvu/432

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
390
Analysis of the Kah-gyur.
[Sept.


the Ndgas, or serpents, the charge of the rains, which they are made to promise they will send down in due season, in Jambudwipa, or India. Nos. 18 and 19 are the Mahd Ganapati Tantra and Gana- pati Hridayct) and describe the worship of Ganesa, and the prayers sacred to him. Works with similar titles are not uncommon in Hindus- tan. The first was introduced into Tibet in the 11th century. No. 25 furnishes another analogy in nomenclature, being the Devi Mahdka'li' Dhdrani. This goddess, however, is called the sister and wife of Yama, the mother of Mara or Love, and queen of the region Kdmarupa. She is described as visiting Sakya, and receiving instruc- tions and Mantras from him.

There are some other tracts on the same subject. Towards the end of the volume are several Dhdranis^ of which the hero is the Bodhisatwa Avalokiteswaiia or Chen-re-sik, who is re- puted to be the particular patron and tutelary divinity of Tibet. The last numbers are dedicated to the goddess Tara, the mother of all the Tathdgatas, and origin of many things ; her names (108) are enumerated, and worship described, and Mantras addressed to her repeated.

The fifteenth volume is chiefly devoted to the Tdntrika worship of Amoghapasa and the goddesses Saraswati and Mahasri'. One ar- ticle, the last, entitled Bhuta damana, treats on the means of bringing Bhuts or imps, ghosts and goblins, under human controul. Part of the process is the use of the sundry gesticulations known in the Hindu system by the term Mudrd.

The 18th volume contains but one work, the Bhagavati Aryd Tdrd Mala Kalpa : — a detailed description of the powers of Ta'ra the goddess, the incantations addressed to her, and mode of offering her worship. It is attributed to Sakya, and was revealed by him to his disciples, when Avalokita was sent to him by Amitabha from the Sukhdvati region.

In the 19th volume, the two first works are the Dhdranis of Manibhadra, the Yakshciy and son of Kuvera. The Mantra of this personage is Namo Retna traydya, Namo Manibhadrdya Mahdyaksha Senapataye. Salutation to the Holy Three — salutation to Manibhadra, general of the Yaksha host. The 12th article, Sarva Mandala sdmdnya Vidhdna, or general ritual for all Mandalas, is a copious account of the figures of these diagrams, mode of making them, and ceremonies to be observed on the occasion. In one place the symbols of different deities to be placed in the divisions of the diagram are described, as a trisul or trident for Rudra, a discus for Vishnu, a lotus for Brahma,