Ixxviii APPENDIX. 



period, and in what country, did these modifications take place? And how far are they 

 entitled to be considered part and parcel oi genuine Buddhism? That they originated in 

 India, the cradle of Saugatism, and that ihey were received by the Buddhas of that 

 country, and consequently are entitled to be regarded as an integral portion of the 

 system, are inferences which seem to me legitimately to flow, as well from the intrinsic 

 considerations above adverted to, as from the fact, that the Raksha Bhagavati, the Piajna 

 Parmita, and other of the most ancient Buddha works of authority, still extant in Nipal, 

 exhibit a strange complication of ideas purely Saugata, with others which are clearly 

 drawn from the same fount with, or are borrowed from, that heterogeneous mass which 

 we call Hinduism. 



It is unquestionable that the books above adverted to are not peculiar to Nipal ; for 

 they exhibit a system of doctrines, or at least of discipline, which is materially different 

 from that which has prevailed for ages, and still continues to prevail there ; and they are 

 besides composed in the Sanscrit language — a language radically differing from the Nipali. 

 True it is that the learned Saugatas of Nipal understand that language, and regard it as 

 their sacred dialect; but from time immemorial they have possessed too little science, 

 and too little literary encouragement to produce such vast and abstruse works as the 

 Baksha Bhagavati, which alone contains 125,000 sentences, and was, I am persuaded, 

 composed in India : such, too, is the decided opinion of every well-informed Buddha 

 with whom I have conversed. The Buddhism of the Rahslia Bhagavati, of the Prajna Par- 

 mita, and the rest of the nine Dharmas, is certainly not the simple and consistent creation 

 of a single mind; but a vast mass compiled piece-meal, and at long intervals, by several 

 persons, and owing its present scriptural form only to an individual. And upon the 

 authority of these great works I venture to assert, not only that the founders of Buddhism 

 differed among themselves, but also that many new teachers arose at various times, who 

 modified each and all of the ancient doctrines ; and that many of these new opinions 

 were ultimately incorporated with the sacred writings of the sect. 



It is obvious that such a system, prevailing, as it did, for ages in India before it was 

 uprooted by violence, and subjected to the changes inseparable from transplantation 

 into other climes, must be studied historically as well as philosophically, before we can 

 hope to acquire a just conception of its entire or genuine character. My own opinion 

 (as I have already intimated) is, that in the Baksha Bhagavati and the nine Dharmas are 

 contained most of the essential opinions and practices inculcated by the Buddhism of 

 India : but the following sketch and notes, not having been drawn from a direct or 

 adequate acquaintance with those works, cannot pretend to exhibit the true features of that 

 system, considered without reference to local interpolation. The sketch, however, 

 assuredly exhibits many glimpses of those features, and therelbre I have denominated it 

 a " Sketch of Buddhism." The cautious may, if they please, regard it as merely dis- 

 playing some traces of the local Saugatism of Nipiil, in which they will perceive a large 

 admixture of Saiva and Sdkta principles. Owing to the viist extent and complexity of 

 Buddhism — to its philosophy embracing a variety of very opposite opinions — to its 

 mythology being blended with its philosophy — to a great number of leading terms in the 



