After this follows Csoma’s exact translation of the whole passage with the original text in Tibetan, and its translation in Roman characters, from which those to whom this object is of interest will readily estimate for themselves the superiority of Csoma’s labours if they compare them with the text and the previous translations. [[181]]
IV.
Note on Kála-Chakra and Adi-Buddha Systems.
The peculiar religious system entitled the Kála-Chakra is supposed to have been derived from Shambála, a fabulous country in the North. Its capital was Kalapa, a splendid city, the residence of many illustrious kings, situated beyond the river Sita or Yaxartes, where the increase of the days from vernal equinox till the summer solstice amounts to twelve Indian hours—that is, four hours and forty-eight minutes of our reckoning.
This system was introduced into Central India in the latter half of the tenth century A.D., and afterwards, viâ Kashmir, found its way into Tibet, where, in the course of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries several works were published on it.
Padmo Carpo thus describes its introduction into Nalanda in Central India by a certain pandit called Chilu. Having designed over the door of the Vihar the ten guardians of the world, he wrote underneath the pictures thus:—
“He that does not know the chief first Buddha (Adi-Buddha) knows not the circle of time (Kala, time; Chakra, a wheel, a circle).
“He that does not know the circle of time knows not the exact enumeration of the divine attributes.
“He that does not know the exact enumeration of the divine attributes, knows not the Supreme Intelligence.