Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/297

 September, 1873.] &RAVANA BELGOLA. 265 settle or to remain there. In the north-eastern 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 1 e y u r, Balagoda or Belligola, and Madu- g i r i, where also are a few famed temples of the Jainas. + Of these holy places Belligola or Balagoda appears to be the principal one, because we possess a special list of the teachers there.£ 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 Laonikos Chalkondylas, and refers to a period immediately after the time ofTaimur§. 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 T^ardys; but he marched over the A r a x e s or Oxus, victoriously repelled these attacks, and subjugated, besides other countries, also the whole of India as far as Taproban'e. This king of the Hindus had his seat in the Chatagia mountains. The Hindus worshipped Apollon, Here, and Artemis 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, D e h 1 i, in a.d. 1398, Taimur caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor of India, and on his de¬ parture from India left the former emperor, Mahmfid Toghluk, a fugitive. || It is an error that he subjugated the whole of India and Taprobane. How the name of the Hindu king T z a c h a t a 0 s is to be explained defies me ; and further, there is no region in India the name of which bears any resemblance to C h a - t a g i a. In the asvamedha, the equine sacrifice, two horses are offered, not to Apollon or Siirya 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 Dnnjd, who alone can be meant here.^f The report that young boys were sacrificed to the moon- goddess is just as incredible ; the only true fact is that to Kdli or to Chdmundd small inoffensive animals were offered,** and therefore the Byzan- ! tine historian called his Hindu goddess Artemis. JAIN INSCRIPTIONS AT SRAYANA BELGOLA. BY LEWIS RICE, BANGALOR. At the Jain village of S r a v ana Belgola,ft on a smaller hill named IndraBitta, facing from Madras, &c. I. p. 113, p. 240, p. 333, and p. 421; if. p. 74 seqq. and p. 80 ; III. p. 19 seqq., p. 80, p. 89, p. 109, p. 27. p- 421, p. 93, p. 120, p. 131 bis, p. 134, p. 391, and p. 401 ; further from a dissertation by the same author in As. lies. IX. p. 279 seqq. bearing the title : Particulars of the Jainas, extract from a Journal by Dr. Francis Buchanan. Accurate information about the Jainas of those parts is contained in the following tract Account of the Jains, collected from a Priest of this Sect, at Madqiri, translat¬ ed by Cavelbj 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 seqq. t J. A. Dubois, Moeurs, Institutions, et Gdr4 monies d-es Peoples de VInde, 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. Malejuris a village situated in Southern Maisur; Mudugherri or Mdger 1 may be the same with Mnddukhrat, which town, according to Edward Thornton’B Gazetteer, &c. I. voc., is situated in the Madras Presidency 17° 54' N. Lat. and 91° 42’ E. Long, from Ferro. Balagoda, which is also spelt Balikota, is, according to the same work, in 16° 10’ N. Lat. and 93o 36' E. Long. the loftier Chandra Bittaon which stands the colossal image ofGomatesvara, are a from Ferro, and is situated 50 English miles west of M udgal.—rSee Ind. Ant. II. 129.—Ed.] $ As. Res. IX. p. 264 seqq. § III. p. 163 of the Bonn edition. The passage hero alluded tj relates to the beginning of the year 1405. The other statements of Laonikos C h a l,k o n d y 1 a s about India cither contain matters already familiar, or are exaggerated and incorrect. It is well known that the Hindus are divided into castes, and that there plants grow to an unusual size, which however this author greatly exaggerates. The magnitude of the Bamboo-reeds, from which the Hiudus 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 Augathines, which may perhaps be a gross corruption of the name Akesincs. || Ferishta by Briggs, I. p. 472 seqq. f See Ind. Alt. IV. p. 634. ft 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 kola, softened in combination to poll, pond or tank. There is a very large and fine tank between the two hills.
 * 1) This results first from Francis Buchanan, A Journey
 * • See Ind. Alt. IV. p. 637-