exclusive of an entrance porch. It is of somewhat rude or plain workmanship. Its ground plan shows three chambers with a cloister or veranda before them. The upper story has been converted into a dwelling house, the lower is untenanted, but I could not, amidst the rubbish which encumbers it, see any image. On either side of the entrance, tablets have been inserted in the wall for inscriptions, but one inscription only has been begun and two-thirds of what was designed is still unwritten. The language is Sanscrit, but the letters, which are beautifully cut, are Pracrit or Mugadha, or such as are still read by the Jain priests. The subject is the sun and the glories of that great luminary, but no date or name helps to fix the era of its erection or the faith of its builders, and it is perhaps tradition, rather than certain knowledge or probable criticism, which makes the several "Beeja mundurs" of this part of India to be Jain temples. In structure however this one at Oodehpoor closely resembles the low-roofed Buddhist temples or shrines still visible around the Tope at Satcheh. Ehrin.-Ehrin, in the Saugor territory, is now a village on the left bank of the Beena, near its junction with the Betwah, about 25 miles N. E. from Serong-but it appears once to have been a town of some local repute-small copper coins can still be found after each successive annual denudation of the mounds which mark its site, and several adjoining monuments of stone, the remains perhaps of an extensive integral series, make the place well known for many miles around. Some of the coins accompany this letter, but nothing perhaps can be made of them.* The most remarkable of the monumental remains is Vishnu manifest as the Boar. The animal stands about 10 feet high with his snout in the air, and it is in length perhaps 12 feet. The body is carved all over with successive rows of small figures having the short tunic and high cap or head dress remarked at Oodehghir and Satcheh. A band, ornamented with human figures seated, encircles the neck of the animal. The tongue projects and supports a human figure erect on its tip. A young female, here, as at Oodehghir, hangs by the arm by the right tusk, while the breast is occupied with an inscription, of which a copy has been made as accurately as its mutilated state and the short Small, square and much worn copper coins, with the bodhi tree, the swastica, and other Buddhist emblems. --EDS. ness of time would allow.* The Boar itself is ill-shaped, but the human figures show more skill in design. To one side of this "Owtar" stands a four-armed Divinity, 12 or 14 feet high. His habiliments are Indian, that is, his loins are girt. He has a high cap or head-dress, while round his neck and reaching to his feet there is a thick ornamental cord resembling a modern "Boa," with its ends joined. The vestibule of a small cupola which once probably covered this statue is still standing. On these entrance columns are seen figures who wear the Juneeao or thread of the noble Indian races, in addition to the ornamental cord above described. Other devices consist of twisted snakes, suspended bells-of figures of elephants, fishes, frogs-of women naked, recumbent, and giving suck to children, and of seated Buddhas. There are also many faces of Satyrs, filling bosses or compartments. Behind a small pillared temple there still stands a figure with the face perhaps of a lion-but with a human body and with human limbs. The above three figures form one row or series, with however, other undescribed remains between them or beyond them. In front of them there are three figures of couching lions, and in front of these again, are two columns or rather one pillar and a fragment, and a small temple half buried in the soil. The column has a broad base; for about 15 feet the shaft is square, and for about 10 feet more it is round. The bell capital, described at Satcheh, occupies perhaps two feet, a second capital, so to speak, adds three feet more to the height, and forms a pedestal for a small double fronted four armed statue. On this column there is likewise an inscription which has been copied as well as time and decay would allow. Among the many figures carved on fallen pillars, the use of the Juneeao may be observed, and the whole of the remains are attributed to one Raja Behrat. At Putaree, in the same quarter of the country, I heard of a stone representation of an animal of some kind, or of a stone which was in someway remarkable, but I had not an opportunity of visiting it. The monuments at Ehrin are perhaps antecedent to those at Oodeh This inscription has been published with a translation, in Vol. VII. p. 632 of the Journal.-EDS. ghir, and although they mark the prevalence of Brahminism, they look like adaptations from Buddhism. Soondursee.-There are other remains of value or interest in this vicinity, which I may hereafter have an opportunity of visiting, and the three inscriptions noted below may deserve to be recorded. The first is on a small temple to Shiv at Soondursee (or Sindersee) on the Kalee Sindh river, about 25 miles to the south of Sarungpoor. It gives a date 1220 Sumbut, and states that the temple was built by Baba Bulwunt Dukhunee. The temples at Soondursee are rude, and the usual marked spire is replaced by a plain pyramid of an attitude not exceeding the side of its base. This rudeness may be provincial only, for although art doubtlessly declined in upper India about that period, a temple to Mahadev at Nimawar on the northern bank of the Nerbudda, about 50 miles below Hosungabad, and which gives a date 1253 Sumbut, shows some taste and skill. It is however much inferior in both points to the temple at Oodehpoor. Sehore. At Sehore, 20 miles west of Bhopal, a traditional "Beejamundur" now forms a somewhat rude mosque, giving a date of 732 Hijree (1331-32) which like the Musjid at Oodehpoor, marks the period of Toghluk's sway. POSTSCRIPT.-I have referred to the "Maru" of the Jeins as illustrating the belief of the old Buddhists, and as expressing an idea common to all the ancient Indians, and not merely peculiar to the brahmins and borrowed from them by a recent sect. The Jewel-footed Parishnath of the Jeins, may also perhaps throw some light on the well known formula of the modern Buddhists of Tibet, which has been variously interpreted by European scholars,-Mr. Hodgson's little volume on the literature and religion of the Buddhists, p. 171, &c. may be referred to, and it will be seen that M. Klaproth gives two translations, while M. Csomadekörös, Sir Wm. Macnaghten, and Mr. Hodgson himself give each one. All of these versions turn upon "Padm" as meaning Lotus, and M. Csomadekörös, states that such is the interpretation put upon it by the Lamas themselves. Padm however means foot as well as Lotus, and the Jeins still worship " Mani Padom," or him of the Jewel-foot, while the idea of feet so enriched or adorned is common to the whole Indian world as implying Divinity, although perhaps, like the silver-footed Thetis of the Greeks, the image may have been poetical only in the first instance. The accompanying transcripts satisfy the Sanscrit scholars of this quarter, and they seem accurately to represent the two originals, the "Ranja" and Tibetan copies respectively. It will be observed that the Tibetan makes the Godhead or the Divine essence or emanation to be feminine, if the rendering now given is admitted to be correct. The last word of the formula may apparently be regarded as a "Beej" (vija) mystic root or germ equally with the first, and the meaning will thus become "The Lord, the Jewel-footed, the preserver." This translation does not affect the characteristic of Mr. Hodgson's "Padma Páni" or present Lotus-handed Regent "Dhyani Bodhisatwa," but it interferes with the functions of the "Oon," gone bye, he of the Jewel-bearing hand, Jewel-footed scems to be the more ancient notion of the two, and it will be curious should the Nepalese Buddhists appear to have founded a distinction between themselves and other worshippers of representatives, by removing the essence or symbol of Divinity from one limb to another. On the Tibetan Badger, Taxidia Leucurus, N. S., with Plates. By B. H. HODGSON, Esq. Carnivora. Subplantigrada. Arcto galida. H. Smith. Genus meles. Subgenus Taxidia. Species new. T. Leucurus, Mihi. Túmphá of the Tibetans. Habitat. The plains of Tibet. There is not yet, I believe, any record of the Badger as an inhabitant of the east. The occurrence, however, in the sub-Himalayas of the allied forms of Helictis, Urva and Ursitaxus, has led me for some time past to expect such a discovery in the Himalaya or Tibet, and my anticipations have just been fulfilled by the receipt of a very fine specimen of the Badger from the neighbourhood of Lassa. The spoils obtained by me are those of a female of mature or advanced age, as is proved by the obliteration of the cranial sutures and by the flaccid enlargement of the teats. The animal was killed in the preceding autumn when in full fur, and, as the skin is well prepared without distortion, and as it is provided with perfect head and limbs, these spoils afford excellent materials for description, exclusive of the soft viscera and their long case, which are wanting. The Badger of Tibet, called Túmphá by the inhabitants, falls under the North American instead of the European section of the Genus. In other words, it is a Taxidia not a Meles, of systematists, having only four molar teeth on each side of either jaw, whereas the European type has five molars above and six below, on either side. The Tibetan Túmphá is a smaller animal than the Badger of Europe or than the Carkajou of America. It is contra-distinguished from both these animals by a considerably longer tail, and also by a locomotive structure not plantigrade, but only subplantigrade, or, in plainer terms, by having a third of the sole of the hind feet thickly covered with hair instead of the whole being nude to the heel. From the Carkajou of America the Túmphá of Tibet differs by the very inferior size of the claws of the posterior extremities,* a point in which the Túmphá agrees with the European Badger, as it also does so remarkably in colours that there is some difficulty, without having both animals before one, in noting their difference in this respect. On the other hand, the disagreement of the Túmphá with the American Badger in point of colour is as striking as is its craniological conformity with that animal and deviation from the Badger of Europe. The last named animal is from 2 to 23 feet long from snout to vent, and the tail, inclusive of the hair, is from 6 to 7 inches more. The head to the nape, is 6 to 7 inches, and the mid fore claw 14 inches. I have no equally accurate details to refer to for the Carkajou, but it is, I believe, about the size of the European Badger, or somewhat less; and H. Smith says it has a shorter head but stands rather higher on the legs. These references to the Badgers of Europe and America, will I hope, enable the reader better to appreciate the following description of the Badger of Asia, now first noticed as a tenant of this quarter of the globe. The Túmphá or Tibetan Badger is in total length 37 inches, whereof the tail, with the hair, is 10 inches, and without it, 7. The head is 5 inches, the palm and nails 3, the planta or rest of the hind foot, *II. Smith, describing the Carkajou from life, expressly says that "all the extremities are armed with long powerful claws," or I should have supposed the forefcet only are so armed, as in the Badger and Túmphá. See Note, Lib. XI. 211. |