[ no ] 



colossal image of that ancient deity still remains : it seemed to him 

 of black stone ; but, as he saw it by torch-light, he could not be po- 

 sitive as to its colour, which may, indeed, have been changed by 

 time. 



The Brahmins, he adds, univerally speak of the Buddhas 

 with all the malignity of an intolerant spirit, yet the most orthodox 

 among them consider Buddha himself as an incarnation of Veeshnu. 

 It seems highly probable, therefore, that the Buddha, whom 

 Jayadeva celebrates in his hymn, was the Sacyasinha, or lio n of 

 Sacya, who, though he forbad the sacrifices of cattle, which the 

 Vedas enjoin, was believed to be Veeshnu himself in a human form, 

 and that another Buddha, one perhaps of his followers in a later 

 age, assuming his name and character, attempted to overset the whole 

 system of the Brahmins, and was the cause of that persecution from 

 which the Buddhas are known to have fled into very distant regions. 

 May we not reconcile the singular difference of opinion among the 

 Hindoos, as to the time of Buddha's appearance, by supposing that 

 they have confounded the two Buddhas, the first of whom was born 

 a few years before the close of the last age, and the second when 

 above a thousand years of the present age had elapsed ?* 



Of the account given of this curious Avatar, and the doctrines of 

 Buddha, in the Ayeen Akbery, the following is the substance: His 

 father, according to Abul Fazil,-j- was Rajah Siddown, prince of 

 Bahar, and his mother, named Maia, was delivered of him through 

 her navel. At his birth there shone forth a wonderful light; the 

 earth trembled, and the water of the Ganges rose and fell in a most 

 astonishing manner. The very hour he was born he walked seven 

 steps, and discoursed with an eloquence that ravished the hearts of 



* Sir William Jones in Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 93. 

 f Ayeeri Akbery, vol. iii. p. 157. 



