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” In Persian mythology the Homa was also personified as a god, and converses with Ahura-Mazda with regard to the origin of all things, as if he were co-equal, in knowledge with the great god of the Persians himsclf. Whatever form, however, it may have taken, our author adds, the Soma was unquestionably the greatest and holiest offering of ancient Indian or Iranian worship.} It would require a much more intimate knowledge of the subject than can be obtained from such translations.as have been made, or such. books as have been published, to speak at all definitely regarding the Homa. From such data as are “available it would appear that the Homa had its origin in the same myth as the Trees of Life and Knowledge which grew in Paradise, and that it passed through a stage of Bacchie mystery, though whether the vine or some other plant was then the Homa is by no meas clear; and at last’ it sank into the present innocent Soma form, which, however, can hardly be regarded .as anything but'a reminiscence of its former greatness and importanee. : Haug Essays, p. 247 ff. Wilson, Introduction to { Windischmann, Zoroastrische Studien, Pp- 89, _, the Rig-Veda-Sanhita, vol. J. p. xxxvi. et seq. 167, 251. + Weber den Somacultus der Arier. p. 131. FQ AA INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. , We shall have frequent occasion to speak of the Bodhidruma or Tree of Knowledge of the Buddhists, in the sequel. It is the principal object of worship af, AS wiehi, and among the most important at. Amravati. It will only be possible ty. wa Tein what connexion may have existed between it, and the Gaokerena of the Lr ts itis, or the Iloma, when some competent scholar, familiar with both ‘Zend and Sanskrit, looks through the original authorities with special reference to this inquiry. Though sufficiently absurd, the following legend from the Shah Nameh is curious. Sikander, after the conquest of India, went to Mekka, and thence to a country where there were two trees, one male, one female. The first spoke during the day, the latter at night. Whoever had a wish went there to have his desires accomplished. Sikander longed for length of days. When he came under the tree a horrible sound arose and rung in his ears; and on his asking what it meant, the attendant priest replied that fourteen’ years of his life still remained. Again he asked, “Shall I see .“* Ram and my mother and children before I die?” The answer was, “Thou wilt * die at Karshdn.”* The oldest known authority for this jepena is the Pseudo- Kallisthenes, ale wrote apparently about the year 200 a.p.t As he relates. it, there were two trees, one of the “Sun, which spoke in the Indian language, and one of the Moon which: spoke Greek.{ ~ In the Medizeval fables, the “leafless tree” was introduced between these two. This tree is mentioned by Marco Polo,§ and under the name of. the “Arbre Sec” was one of the favourite myths of the Byzantine and of early Christian travellers, though it is even now by no means clear where it grew (my impression is that it was in Seistan, though others place it in Khorassan), nor what exact meaning the Medizevalists attached to the fable. Unfortunately the classical authors afford us little or no assistance in. regar’ d to Tr ee Worship in the countries westward of Ihidia, except the incidental remark of Quintus Curtius, in speaking of the inhabitants on the banks of the Indus, “ Arbores maxime colunt,”|| there is no passage bearing, so far as I know, directly on the. subject. The Chinese: ‘ttavellers are hardly more communicative; -but Hiouen-Thsang - -doés mention a great Pipal tree of Peshawar,{{ under whose shade the four preceding Buddhas had reposed, and under it the last had predicted the appearance of’ the ereat Kaniskha, who in consequence had erected alongside of it, about the Christian era, the’ largest and tallest of all the Stwpas of which we have any record. This tree seems to havé, existed and been reverenced down to the time of Baber (in 1504), who mentjons it as the great tree of. Bekram.* * The Gdrh Katri he describes as. ‘close to it wails. probably the remains of the Monastery of Kaniskha. Even its site __ cannot now he ascbr tamed. CASHMERE. Although from its position, on the | rhap, Cashmere might fairly be "considered as an integral part of India, still its circlet of mountains has been sufficient to keep it distinct and BOparON and we > gnnsequently find there vestiges of the old faith better _ * Atkinson, Granslaions 4 p. 607. | ye ise | Hist. Alex. VIL. 9. "+ Zacher, Pseudo- -Kallisthenes. Halle, 1867, p. 102. , | ~@. Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thad: L p. 83. t Loc. p, 161. 7 ' #* Leyden’s translation of Memoirs of Baber, 157, § Marsden, p. 109. | 264. , CASHMERE. ; . AS pe reserved than in. most places on the nine Another circumstance which has tended ~ also in the same direction is that the Aryans on entering India do not seem to have turned aside to conquer or at least permanently to occupy the valley. _ If they entered India by crossing the Indus. at or near Attock,—and there seems no good reason for doubting that this was so,—this seems so strange that we feel almost inclined to believe that Cashmere was really then in the state described in the carliest legends, a great lake, or at least a valley so filled with water and so swampy as to be unfit for human. habitation. Though this may not be quite true we are no doubt justified in assuming that 4,000 or 5,000 years ago a much larger portion of the valley was under water than is the case now, and the real snakes may then have been relatively moré important than their Naga successors afterwards became. : Be this as it may, Cashmere has always been considered, in historical times, as one of the principal centres of Serpent Worship in India, and hitherto it has been principally from her legends that what little was known of the Nagas has been gathered. Cashmere is also fortunate in possessing in the Raja Tarangini something more like a connected history than almost any other country of India, and from its pages, with the incidental notices by classical, Chinese, and Mahomedan authors, we are enabled to form a tolerably distinct view of the subject. Although from the context there is a strong presumption that Snake Worship) prevailed in the valley from a very early period, still we have no direct testimony to the fact till the century before the Christian eva, when the King D&modara havi: ¢, it is said, offended some Brahman was converted into a snake,* and still, it is said, haunts the spot. He was succeeded by three Tartar princes, known from history and from their coins to have been Buddhists, and to have reigned about the Christian era. In the reign of their succcssor Abhimanyu we are told that “in consequence “ of the disuse of the prescribed institutes, and the abolition of every form of sacrifice, “ and a departure from the Icssons of the Nila Purana, the Nagas were particularly incensed, and visited the offences of the people with severe and unseasonable storms “ of rain and snow, and those especially perished who had adopted the Bauddha “ heresy.’+ Gonerda IIL., who succeeded: this king, pyosceuted the reform which that prince had commenced. The ancient ritual, according to the Nila precepts,{ was restored, and the worship of the Nagas and the offering of sacrifices re-established.§ During the following centuries we have several legends of Nagas, but the faith of the kings is seldom mentioned, and seems to have oscillated between Snake Worship, Buddhism, and Hinduism, but as our historian belonged to the latter faith his testimony is not ~ always quite to be depended upon. When Hiouen Thsang entered the valley in 632, eens -_ * Wilson’s Abstract of the Raja Tarangini in Vol. XV. Asiatic Researches, p. 22. All the future references to this work are derived from the same source, which seems better and more trustworthy than the translation ‘by Troyer. The volume and the page will, therefore, only be quoted. 7 A. S. XV. p. 24. tAS, XV. p. 25. § The Nila Purana has not hitherto been seen by any European, but I trust to being able to add an abstract of its contents in an Appendix to this work, At my request Mr. J. Muir, the well-known Sanscrit scholar, Wrote out to Sir D, Macleodsthe Chief Commissioner in the Punjab, and he procured two eopies from Cashniere, | whieh are now in the hands of Professor Cowell, who has kindly undertaken to make the required analysis. ; * ‘ 46 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY’ in the reign of Baldditya the last king of the Gonerdiya race, he found the Buddhist — religion still very prevalent in the valley, though he admits that the king only interested himself in the heretics and in the temples of their gods, and despised the faith of Buddha.* He repeats the usual story of the. valley having been a lake,. but adds, “50 years after the Nirvana (B.c. 493?) a disciple of Ananda converted the Naga ‘* Raja, he quitted his ‘tank, built 500 monasteries, and sated sages and saints to ‘“* come and dwell in them.’’+ It is not, however, only in the valley that our Chinese traveller repeats the Ilindu. legends about serpents and their power, but at every stage of his journey from Cabul to Cashmere, he everywhere finds some spot where a dragon king or Naga Raja resided, and played an important part in the legendary history of the: land. These legends, as might be expected, were found in the seventh century very much altered from their more primitive forms, but they are interesting, in the first place, as showing how essentially the north-west corner of India: was at one time the seat of Serpent Worship, and also, in what manner it was eventually —except perhaps in Cashmere—amalgamated with Buddhism. . Among these legends one of the most pertinent to our present purpose is that — of a member.