September, 1873.] MISCELLANEA. 273 on that hallowed spot for ever. The god gracious¬ ly consented, and was instantly transformed into the black idol which ever since has stood there. A temple was built round him, and he acquired a •wide reputation. But VithobA is broken and dead, and his priests have given out that the great god may perhaps be induced, by prayers and fasts, to signify his gracious consent to retake possession of the muti¬ lated idol. So, already, thousands of religious Hindus are seeking, by extravagant vows and mor¬ tifications, to persuade VithobA not to depart from Pandarpur ; and the aid of the press wilt doubtless he sought, to spread the news of the disaster wherever there are Hindus to pray, fast, and make ■offerings. The fall of the Pandarpur shrine, and the stoppage of the pilgrimages, would be one of the greatest blessings that could befall the country, as the fairs are a source of annual expense and harass¬ ment to the authorities all over the presidency: for many virulent outbreaks of cholera are traced every year to the return home of the pilgrims with the fatal disease among them. Before and after each fair, sanitary precautions are taken along all the principal routes, at great trouble and expense. But the Hindus, who never appreciated this action of the British Government, are now fearful lest the angry god should plague the country, and are also warning the authorities of the certain falling off of the revenue from the cessation of the tax of four annas a head levied on every pilgrim to the temple. Those who understand the priesthood, hundreds of whom are living on the fat of the land by means of the offerings of VithobA’s worship¬ pers, can foretell that they will never allow the shrine to be deserted. The holiest man of them will one of these days be favoured with a vision or dream, in which VithobA will intimate his plea¬ sure to hear the prayers of his servants and continue at Pandarpur. In this case the popular veneration of the idol will become greater than ever, and yet larger numbers will repair to Pan¬ darpur to worship the god who was wounded to death, and whose deadly wound was healed. This result seems to be regarded as a foregone conclu¬ sion. The damage done to the idol has been repaired by a stone-mason, many of the most ardent devotees on the spot tasting neither food nor water till the god was made whole. So that everything is ready for VithobA to take possession again. The police saved the impious gosdvi from the fury of the people, and he now awaits his trial under some mild section of the Penal Code about “ voluntarily committing injury to property/* Pandarpur is a town on the BhtmA, of about 20,000 inhabitants, situated in the SatArA collec- torate, and distant 112 miles from PunA.— Abridged from “ Bombay Gazette" 28th July. PEHLEVI INSCRIPTIONS. During a recent tour through the Cochin and Travancor States I found some Pehlevi inscrip¬ tions which go to prove that there were once large settlements of Persians, probably Manich»ans, in S. India. This fact will be of interest to Sans- kritists since Prof. Weber's admirable essay on the Rdmdyana. Prof. Weber has shown reasons for suspecting Greek influences in the composition of that poem; and it will now, in consequence of this discovery, be possible to prove that much in the modern philosophical schools of India comes from some form of Christianity derived from Persia: and this fact at once explains also the origin of the modern VedAnta sects in Southern India exclusively. In a Syrian (i.e. Nestorian) church at Kottayam in Travancor, said to be one of the oldest in the country, I found at the back of a side-altar a granite slab with a cross in bas-relief on it, and round the arched top a short sentence in Pehlevi; at the foot of the cross a few words in Syriac. On looking round the church I found a similar but evidently older tablet built into the wall. This tablet is nearly covered by whitewash, but shows only a Pehlevi inscription. There is a similar tablet in the Mount church (near Madras), which has long been the property of the Portuguese. Since my return to Mangalor I have found in Friar Vincenzo Maria’s Viaggio aXV Indie Orientali, p. 135 (Roma, 1672), mention of several such tablets; he particularly mentions the ones at Cran- ganor and Meliapor (£. e. Madras), and takes them to be relics of the mission of St. Thomas to India. As there is hardly a trace left of Cranga- nor, it would be useless to search there; but the older Syrian churches (at Niranam, KAyam- kulam, &c.) will no doubt furnish other copies. In this very out-of-the-way place I have nothing to help in deciphering the Pehlevi inscription, which is nearly the same on the three tablets I have seen; the first few signs only differ. The last word in all looks like aft&d (may it be in¬ creased !). As soon as I can get it lithographed I shall send copies to the principal European schol¬ ars who occupy themselves with Pehlevi. The number of these tablets proves that there must have been communities in several places, and those large enough to have churches both on the S. W. and S. E. coasts of India. Cosmas (beginning of the sixth century a.d.) mentions Christians in Male {i.e. S. W. India), and that there was a Persian bishop at Kalliana, i.e. Kal- yAnapfir, near Udupi, and in this province—a place
