1. Tabun Minggan = "containing five thousand." (Jülg.) The
tale-repeater again gives a name of his own language to a town which
he places in India.
2. Cows and oxen were always held in high estimation by the ancient
Indians. The same word that stood for "cow" expressed also "the earth,"
and both stand equally in the Vêda for symbols of fruitfulness and
patient labouring for the benefit of others. The ox stands in the Manu
for "uprightness" and "obedience to the laws." In the Ramajana (ii. 74,
12) Surabhi, the cow-divinity (see the curious accounts of her origin
in Lassen, i. 792 and note), is represented as lamenting that over
the whole world her children are made to labour from morning to night
at the plough under the burning sun. Cows were frequently devoted to
the gods and left to go whithersoever they would, even in the midst of
towns, their lives being held sacred (Lassen, i. 298). Kühn (Jahrbuch
f. w. K. 1844, p. 102) quotes two or three instances of sacrifices of
cows but they were very rare; either as sacrifices to the gods or as
rigagna ("sacrifices to the living") i. e. the offerings of hospitality
to the living. The ox was reckoned peculiarly sacred to Shiva, and
images were set up to him in the temples (see Lassen, i. 299). Butter
was the most frequent object of sacrifice (ib. 298). The Manu (iii. 70)
orders the Hôma or butter-sacrifice to be offered daily to the gods,
and the custom still subsists (see Lassen, iii. 325). Other names
for the cow were Gharmadhug = "giver of warm milk;" and Aghnjâ =
"the not to be slain;" also Kâmadhênu or Kâmaduh = "the fulfiller of
wishes," and (in the Mahâ Bhârata) Nandunî = "the making to rejoice"
(Lassen, i. 721). See also the story of Sabala, the heavenly cow
of the Ramajana, in note 8 to "Vikramâditja's Youth." Oxen were
not only used for ploughing, but also for charioteering and riding,
and were trained to great swiftness. Ælianus (De Nat Anim. xv. 24)
mentions that kings and great men did not think it beneath them to
strive together in the oxen-races, and that the oxen were better
racers than the horses, for the latter needed the spur while the
former did not. An ox and a horse, and two oxen with a horse between
them were often harnessed together in a chariot. He also mentions
that there was a great deal of betting both by those whose animals
were engaged in the race and by the spectators. The Manu, however
(d. p. c. ix. 221--225), forbids every kind of betting under severe
penalties. Ælianus mentions further the Kâmara, the long-haired ox
or yak, which the Indians received from Tibet.
3. The "Three Precious Treasures" or "jewels" of Buddhism are
Adi-buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, which in later Buddhism became a sort
of triad, called triratna, of supreme divinities; but, at the first,
were only honoured according to the actual meaning of the words
(Schmidt, Grundlehre der Buddhaismus, in Mem. de l'Ac. des Sciences
de S. Petersbourg, i. 114), viz. Sangha, sacred assembly or synod;
Dharma, laws (or more correctly perhaps, necessity, fate, Lassen,
iii. 397), and Buddha, the expounder of the same. (Burnouf, Introd. à
l'Hist. du Budd. i. 221.)
Consult Schott, Buddhaismus, pp. 39, 127, and C. F. Köppen, Die
Religion des Buddha, i. 373, 550-553, and ii. 292-294.