p.752

            A NEW POEM OF ASVAGHOSA

            I should  like to call attention  to a remarkable
        work which has appeared as No.  xv of the Bibliotheca
        Buddhica    under   the   title   Kien-ch'ui-fan-tsan
        (Gandistotragatha), edited with elaborate  commentary
        and  indices  by Baron  A.  von  Stael-Holstein  (St.
        Petersburg, 1913).  The  work, which  is a noteworthy
        literary  achievement, might  in this country  escape
        observation, as the commentary is in Russian.

            The poem is unknown  from Indian  sources.  But a
        Chinese   transliteration--if   the   expression   is
        allowable--  appears  in Nanjio's  Catalogue  of  the
        Chinese Tripitaka, under No. 1081, where the title is
        rendered   as   Ghanti(ka?  )   samskrita-stotra   or
        Ghanti-sutra; and in the volume of the Tibetan Tanjur
        which  contains  the  collection   of  hymns  (Bstod.
        tshogs), it is represented by a translation. With the
        aid of these materials  Baron von Stael-Holstein  has
        succeeded in restoring practically the whole Sanskrit
        text.  The difficulty of such an undertaking  will be
        apparent  when we consider  the varying  or uncertain
        phonetic  values of Chinese signs.  It was aggravated
        by


                           p.753

            the fact that the transliterator, or the original
        Sanskrit  MS., had  not seldom  confused  the similar
        aksaras (e.g. v and dh, nj and jj, cch and tth, y and
        p,) of the Indian alphabet.

            A much more serious  difficulty, however, resided
        in the  character  of the  poem, which  is a Buddhist
        equivalent  of, say, a Christian  hymn on the message
        of church bells. It is a very fine work, quite worthy
        of Asvaghosa, and characterized  by all the  metrical
        and literary  subtlety  of that  master  of Sanskrit.
        Moreover, a number  of  the  lines  consist  of  mere
        experiments in musical sound, the various rasas being
        conveyed phonetically  by meaningless syllables.  But
        for the fact  that  these  syllables  are necessarily
        preserved  in the Tibetan  the task would  here  have
        been a hopeless one.

            The text appears interlined  with the Tibetan and
        Chinese equivalents, and subsequently in its separate
        shape.  It is followed by two other, shorter and less
        important, Buddhist hymns, the Saptajinastava and the
        Manjusrinamastasataka,  which   have  been  similarly
        restored and treated.

            The notes deal with the  critical  and exegetical
        questions;  and they are followed  by a full index of
        the Chinese signs, giving all their occurrences.  The
        reader  is  therefore  in a position  to control  the
        regularity  of the Chinese  " transliteration", which
        is very strict, allowing little scope for conjecture.
        I gather that this index is also important, as we may
        understand, in  regard  to  the  phonetic  values  of
        Chinese  signs  at the  date  of the  transliteration
        (A.D. 973-81).

            The gandi, quite  different  from  the ghanti  or
        "bell", is  a  long, symmetrically  shaped, piece  of
        wood, whence sounds are produced by striking  it with
        a short  club, also of wood;  it may be seen depicted
        and described on pp. xxi-ii of the work  of Baron von
        Stael-Holstein, who himself possesses a specimen.

                                               F. W. THOMAS.