42 Dr. Hamilton's Description of the Ruins of Buddha Gay a. 



when I was in Ava, I very seldom heard the term Buddha used. The same 

 would also seem to be the case in Ceylon : for although Captain Mahony 

 o-enerally calls Gautama by the name of Boodha, yet that is probably 

 in compliance witii the common custom of the Hindus : and in his ac- 

 count there is a passage (p. 39) which would seem to cojidemn the practice 

 as improper. In the Amarakosha this doctrine mentioned by the convert is 

 also fully implied. Gautama is not mentioned among the synonyms of 

 Buddha, which are, Sarvagna, Siigata, Buddha, Dharmardja, Tathdgata, 

 Samantabhadra, Bhagavdn, Mdrajit, Locajit, Jina, Shatabhigna, Dasabala, 

 Advdyavad'i, Vindyaka, Mumndra, S'rivvanah, S'dstd, and Muni, but he is 

 called a Muni, and might have been in the same manner called a Buddha, 

 a Bhagawdn, or any other of the above-mentioned synonyms ; but, in speak- 

 ing of him, such appellations should be joined to some of his various names, 

 as Sdkyamuni, Gautama-Buddha, or the like. These names, by which Gau- 

 tama is known according to the Amarakosha, are S'dkyamuni, S'dkyasimha, 

 Sarvdrthasiddha, Sauddhudani, Gautama, Arkabandhu, and the son of Mdyd- 

 devi. It must be observed, that in the commentary (tikd) annexed, this 

 person is said to have been descended from Sdkya, who by the convert is 

 called the third lawgiver of the Buddhns, and must not be confounded witli 

 his descendant, one of whose names is, indeed, very similar. 



Among the orthodox Hindus, Buddha is not considered as synonymous 

 with Bhagavdn, a deity, or Muni, a saint, but is always spoken of as one 

 personage, an incarnation of Vishnu ; and in an inscription found at Buddha 

 Gdyd, of which a translation has been published in the Asiatic Researches 

 (vol. i. p. 284), this is fully stated. It is, therefore, mentioned by the 

 author of the inscription, that Buddha, tlie incarnation of a part of Vishnu, 

 and the same with Hari, appeared at the commencement of the Kali-yug, in 

 a wild and dreadful forest, and that Amara, one of tlie nine jewels of the 

 court of Vikramaditya, having discovered this place of the supreme being 

 in the forest, caused an image to be made and a holy temple to be con- 

 structed ; and therein were set up the divine foot of Vishnu, the images of 

 the Pdndus, of Brahma, and the rest of the divinities. This place, accord- 

 ing to the inscription, is called Buddha Gdya, and the forefathers of him 

 who shall perform the sraddha at this place shall obtain salvation, as is men- 

 tioned in the Vdyu-purdn. And that it may be known by a self-evident testi- 

 mony that Amara erected the house of Buddha, the author of the inscrip- 

 tion has recorded the event on a stone, in the year of the era of Vikrama 



