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" This place is renowned, and it is celebrated by the name of 

 Booddha-Gaya. The forefathers of him who shall perform the 

 ceremony of the Sradha at this place shall obtain salvation. The 

 great virtue of the Sradha, performed here, is to be found in the 

 book called Vayoo-Poorana ; an epitome of which hath by me been 

 engraved upon stone. 



" Veekramadeetya was certainly a king renowned in the world. 

 So in his court there were nine learned men, celebrated under the 

 epithet of the Nava Ratnanee, or Nine Jew els; one of whom was 

 Amara-Deva, who was the king's chief-counsellor, a man of great 

 genius and profound learning, and the greatest favourite of his 

 prince. He it certainly was who built the holy temple which 

 destroyeth sin, in a place in Jamboodweep, where, the mind being 

 steady, it obtains its wishes, and in a place where it may obtain sal- 

 vation, reputation, and enjoyment, even in the country of Bharata, 

 and in the province of Cicata, where the place of Buddha, purifier 

 of the sinful, is renowned. A crime of a hundred fold shall un- 

 doubtedly be expiated from a sight thereof, of a thousand fold from 

 a touch thereof, and of a hundred thousand fold from worshipping 

 thereof. But where is the use of saying so much of the great 

 virtues of this place? Even the hosts of heaven worship with joyful 

 service both day and night. 



" That it may be known to learned men that he verily erected the 

 house of Buddha, I have recorded, upon stone, the authority of the 

 place, as a self-evident testimony, on Friday, the fourth day of the 

 new moon, in the month of Madhoo, when in the seventh, or man- 

 sion of Ganisa, and in the year of the era of Veekramadeetya 1005." 

 As the period of Buddha's incarnation is of the highest conse- 

 quence in the arrangement of the chronology of India, Sir William 

 Jones has very much laboured, and, 1 think, as far as possible, has 

 determined, that difficult point. He tells us, that the priests of 



