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account both of Buddha and his doctrines. To me, however, it 

 appears exceedingly singular, that both Sir William Jones and him- 

 self should coincide in assigning to Buddha an Egyptian origin ; for 

 surely the Brahmins, so devoted as they are, and ever have been, to 

 their native country and ancient rites, would never have conferred 

 the exalted dignity and distinguished rank of an AVATAR on a 

 foreigner ? The matter is inexplicable, except by the supposition, by 

 no means improbable, that this Avatar took place at the remote 

 period when Misrasthan, or Egypt, formed a permanent part of the 

 great Indian empire ; though even that supposition will not account 

 for the asserted difference in features of the images of Buddha from 

 those of the old Hindoo idols. 



" Most of the Brahmins insist, that the Buddha, who perverted 

 Divodasa, was not the ninth incarnation of Veeshnu, whose name, 

 some say, should be written Bauddha, or Boddha ; but not to men- 

 tion the Armacosh, the Mugdhabodh, and the Gitagovinda, in all 

 of which the ninth Avatar is called Buddha ; it is expressly declared 

 in the Bhagavat, that Veeshnu should appear ninthly in the form 

 of ' Buddha, son of Jina, for the purpose of confounding the Dityas, 

 at a place named Cicata, when the Cali age should be completely 

 begun.' On this passage it is only remarked, by Sridhara Swami, 

 the celebrated commentator, that Jina and Ajina were two names of 

 the same person, and that Cicata was in the district of Gaya ; but the 

 Pandoos, who assisted in the Persian (that is, the preceding) transla- 

 tion of the Bhagavat, gave the following account of the ninth 

 Avatar : The Dityas had asked Eendra by what means they could 

 attain the dominion of the world ; and he had answered, that they 

 could only attain it by sacrifice, purification, and piety ; they made 

 preparations accordingly for a solemn sacrifice and general ablution ; 

 but Veeshnu, on the intercession of the Devas, descended in the 

 shape of a Sanyassi, named Buddha, with ///.s hair braided in a knot 



