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his sakti give us the explanation: it is the same idea which meets us in the numerous representations of the sexual union between a god, a Buddha, or a Bodhisattva and his sakti. And in our case the meaning is clear: the eternal power or sakti, which has caused the evolution of the world of rebirth, has united herself with her own child, the Bodhisattva, in order to bring about a new generation, the nirvṛtti, leading to emanci⚫ pation, to Nirvāņa.

He who in faith and understanding mutters or makes use of the sacred formula has a share in the cosmic force which it symbolizes and embodies, and he may confidently hope to be carried on by its current to the ultimate, the highest goal. He has attained to a mystical union with the force itself and with the powerful being personificating it.

That being cannot be Avalokitesvara, because it is conceived as a female. But it must be closely connected with him. That is evident from the history of the saḍakṣarī itself, and that is in accordance with Buddhist belief. We must therefore necessarily infer that the dharani is directed to Avalokitesvara's female counterpart, t› his sakti.

This sakti is usually named Tārā, and she is conceived in various shapes and forms, and the syllable hum is sometimes actually used as her bīja. The red lotus and the rosary, however, which are mentioned as attributes of the sadakṣari in the Kāraṇḍavyuha, and the definite statement in the poetical version of that work, rather point to the Prajñāpāramitā, as has already been remarked. But then we have also seen that the sakti of the individual Bodhisattvas are, after all, nothing else than manifestations of the eternal Pāramitā, and Tārā is also actually identified with it. 1

The şaḍakṣari therefore apparently dates back to a period when mythical fancy had not yet created all the individual Bodhisattvas and their female counterparts, to a time when the idea of sakti was only beginning to crop up in Buddhism. And this idea is, as is recognized by all scholars, no new creation 1 Cf Aryatarabhaṭṭārikānāmāṣṭottar asatakastotra 32

of Buddhism, but belongs to the common Indian mentality, and has been especially developed in Saivism, from which sphere also the physiognomy of Avalokitesvara has borrowed several of its features. It is possible that the saḍakṣari is older than the amalgamation of Buddhism with the idea of sakti, and that it is not, from the beginning, a Buddhist formula. That question does not, however, interest us in the present connexion. It might be taken up in a general survey of the development of the sakti theory. The history of the saḍakṣarī however shows that the connexion of Buddhism with the sakti idea is old, and that the development which in China led to the transformation of the male Avalokitesvara to the female Kwan-yin had already taken its beginning on Indian soil.

II-Annual Meeting, Bihar and Orissa Research Society.

Review of the work of the year 1924 by the Hon'ble Sir Hugh McPherson, K.C.I.E., C.S I., Vice-President of the Society.

YOUR EXCELLENCY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

It falls to the Vice-President to give the Society at its annual meeting a brief review of the work of the year. It is impossible for me to undertake this duty on the present occasion without a great feeling of sadness. List March I stool up for this purpose side by side with that eminent scholar and great Indian, Sir Ashutosh Mukherji, whose untimely and suden death a few months later filled not only this province and our neighbour Bengal, but all India and the whole world of scholars, with the deepest sense of regret. He was cut off at a time when he had just retired from the service of Government and had still the normal expectation of many useful years before him. To none was the loss greater than to the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, of which he was a most distinguished member. None of us who heard him last year will forgot his keen interest in the progress of our society, his comprehensive review of the work done by its various members since its foundation in 1915, his scholarly indication of the fields still to be explored within. and without the province, and his warm encouragement to all lovers of research.

"Learning," he concluded, "is its own reward and no people can thrive or survive the wreck of time, who love not, cherish not, treasure not, learning. Let us give ourselves and set ourselves to do our duty, for daty, and sacred duty, it is to study our past, to unearth our treasures, to shed light all around us, and to hand down our heritage richer and greater than it came to us."

Although he has been taken from us, these, his last words to us, will continue to be an inspiring memory to members of the Society, both present and future.

I have another sad loss to chronicle, before I pass on to the business of the day. We have just heard a few days back of the death of another distinguished scholar, Dr. Spooner, whose name will always be intimately connected with Pataliputra, and who was a personal friend of many of us here in Patna. He took a prominent part in the work of our Society during the first years of its foundation and always maintained a kindly interest in our deiugs. I am sure that you will all join with me in sending a message of heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Spooner in her sad bereavement.

I will now endeavour to give a short sketch of the work done during the past year. I am glad to say that the Society has continued to function vigorously since our last annual meeting, thanks to the keen interest taken in its labours by the General Secretary, Mr. Horne, the Joint Secretary, Mr. Sen, and the Journal Committee, Messrs. Jayaswal, Banerji-Sastri and Mazumdar. The Council has met several times during the year and the finances of the Society are in good order. I should like here to record our special thanks for this result to our late Treasurer, Mr. Duke, who worked hard to improve the financial position of the Society. Since Mr. Duke's departure to Muzaffarpur, Mr. Sen has kindly agreed to take over the work of the Treasurer in addition to his duties as Joint Secretary.

It is to our Journal of course that the world of scholars looks for evidence of our vigour as a Research Society and I think I can justly say that under the fostering care of Mr. Jayaswal and his coadjutors the journal has fully maintained its output and reputation during the past year. All four issues have been duly brought out and the volume for the year covers some 500 pages of original research work.

Perhaps the most notable contributions have been the publication of two interesting Sanskrit texts, the Bhagavadajjukam, which was published in the March-June issue, by

Dr. Banerji-Sastri, and the Rājanīti-Ratnākara, which was published in the December issue, by Mr. Jayaswal.

The Bhagavadajjukam is a Sanskrit comedy, of which the date and authorship are unknown, but from internal evidence Dr. Banerji-Sastri attributes it to the second or third century A.C. Its author was a Hindu Aristophanes, who criticised in the most humorous way the foibles of his times, attacking indiscriminately all religious sects and beliefs, both orthodox and heterodox, Brahminical and Buddhistic. The hero, Bhagavat, exposes the mercenary nature of all the cults prevalent in his time and deplores the absence of any true philosophy of life. The publication has already attracted outside notice and one leading vernacular paper has asked for permission to publish a translation. Dr. Banerji-Sastri has promised a further critical study of the comedy in a subsequent issue of the Journal.

The manuscript of the Rājanīti-Ratnakara was discovered in the course of the search for Sanskrit manuscripts initiated by Sir Edward Gait, of which I have something to say later. The author was the famous lawyer of Mithila, called Chaṇḍesvara, who lived at the court of Hari Sinha Deva, the last of the Karṇāta dynasty, in the beginning of the fourteenth century a c. Mr. Jayaswal has edited the Rajaniti, which is a work on Monarchy and Hindu politics, adding valuable critical notes and an introduction, which deals with the author's time, his family history, and the class of literature described by him as the Digests of Hindu Politics. This type of literature arose in the same period as the Digests of Hindu Law. It is interesting to note that Chandeśvara, writing about the time when the Muhammadan power became firmly established on this side of India, discarded the traditional theory of caste in kingship, and held that the protection of the people is the only criterion of kingship and not the orthodox ceremony of coronation or membership of the Kṣattriya caste, as emphasised by earlier writers.

I should add here that the Society is indebted to Rai Bahadur Radha Krishna Jalan for a contribution of Rs. 500 which he

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