On which it stood; and 4th, because
the bricks of which it was built would be very useful to them for building
purposes.'
"The Chief Engineer, who meanwhile had himself examined the edifice, and
had directed the District Engineer to prepare a small estimate for its
repair, reported that the first only of the above reasons had any weight,
and that it would be met if Colonel O'Connell's estimate, prepared under
his own orders, received the sanction of Government. He therefore
recommended that this should be given, and the tower allowed to stand....
"The Chief Engineer's proposal did not meet with approval, and on the 28th
August 1867, the following order was made on the Jesuits' petition: 'The
Governor in Council is pleased to sanction the removal of the old tower at
Negapatam by the officers of St. Joseph's College, at their own expense,
and the appropriation of the available material to such school-building
purposes as they appear to have in contemplation.
"The Fathers were not slow in availing themselves of this permission. The
venerable building was speedily levelled, and the site cleared."
In making excavations connected with the college a bronze image
representing a Buddhist or Jaina priest in the costume and attitude of the
figures in wood and metal brought from Burma was found; it was presented
to Lord Napier, in 1868; a reproduction of it is given in Sir Walter
Elliot's paper.
In a note added by Dr. Burnell to this paper, we read: "As I several times
in 1866 visited the ruin referred to, I may be permitted to say that it
had become merely a shapeless mass of bricks. I have no doubt that it was
originally a vimana or shrine of some temple; there are some of
precisely the same construction in parts of the Chingleput district."
XVI., p. 336 n.
NEGAPATAM.
We read in the Tao yi chi lio (1349) that "T'u t'a (the eastern stupa)
is to be found in the flat land of Pa-tan (Fattan, Negapatam?) and that it
is surrounded with stones. There is stupa of earth and brick many feet
high; it bears the following Chinese inscription: 'The work was finished
in the eighth moon of the third year hien chw'en (1267).' It is related
that these characters have been engraved by some Chinese in imitation of
inscriptions on stone of those countries; up to the present time, they
have not been destroyed." Hien chw'en is the nien hao of Tu Tsung, one
of the last emperors of the Southern Sung Dynasty, not of a Mongol
Sovereign. I owe this information to Prof. Pelliot, who adds that the
comparison between the Chinese Pagoda of Negapatam and the text of the
Tao yi chi lio has been made independent of him by Mr. Fujita in the
Tokyo-gakuho, November, 1913, pp. 445-46. (Cathay, I., p. 81 n.)
XVII., p. 340. "Here [Maabar] are no horses bred; and thus a great part of
the wealth of the country is wasted in purchasing horses; I will tell you
how. You must know that the merchants of Kis and Hormes, Dofar and Soer
and Aden collect great numbers of destriers and other horses, and these
they bring to the territories of this King and of his four brothers, who
are kings likewise as I told you..."
Speaking of Yung (or Woeng) man, Chau Ju-kwa tells us (p. 133): "In the
mountains horse-raising is carried on a large scale. The other countries
which trade here purchase horses, pearls and dates which they get in
exchange for cloves, cardamom seeds and camphor."
XVII., p. 341.
SUTTEES IN INDIA.
"Suttee is a Brahmanical rite, and there is a Sanskrit ritual in existence
(see Classified Index to the Tanjore MSS., p. 135a.). It was
introduced into Southern India with the Brahman civilization, and was
prevalent there chiefly in the Brahmanical Kingdom of Vijayanagar, and
among the Mahrattas. In Malabar, the most primitive part of S. India, the
rite is forbidden (Anacharanirnaya, v. 26). The cases mentioned by
Teixeira, and in the Lettres edifiantes, occurred at Tanjore and Madura.
A (Mahratta) Brahman at Tanjore told one of the present writers that he
had to perform commemorative funeral rites for his grandfather and
grandmother on the same day, and this indicated that his grandmother had
been a sati." YULE, Hobson-Jobson. Cf. Cathay, II., pp. 139-140.
MAABAR.
XVII., p. 345. Speaking of this province, Marco Polo says: "They have
certain abbeys in which are gods and goddesses to whom many young girls
are consecrated; their fathers and mothers presenting them to that idol
for which they entertain the greatest devotion. And when the [monks] of a
convent desire to make a feast to their god, they send for all those
consecrated damsels and make them sing and dance before the idol with
great festivity. They also bring meats to feed their idol withal; that is
to say, the damsels prepare dishes of meat and other good things and put
the food before the idol, and leave it there a good while, and then the
damsels all go to their dancing and singing and festivity for about as
long as a great Baron might require to eat his dinner. By that time they
say the spirit of the idols has consumed the substance of the food, so
they remove the viands to be eaten by themselves with great jollity. This
is performed by these damsels several times every year until they are
married."
Chau Ju-kwa has the following passage in Cambodia (p. 53): "(The people)
are devout Buddhists. There are serving (in the temples) some three
hundred foreign women; they dance and offer food to the Buddha. They are
called a-nan or slave dancing-girls."
Hirth and Rockhill, who quote Marco Polo's passage, remark, p. 55 n.:
"A-nan, as here written, is the usual transcription of the Sanskrit word
ananda, 'joy, happiness.' The almeh or dancing-girls are usually called
in India deva-dasi ('slave of a god') or ramjani."
In Guzerat, Chau Ju-kwa, p. 92, mentions:
