325 



CHAP. II. 



THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF CEYLON. 



DIVESTED o the insipid details which overlay them, 

 the annals of Ceylon present comparatively few stirring 

 incidents, and stiU fewer events of historic importance 

 to repay the toil of their perusal. They profess to record 

 no occurrence anterior to the advent of the last Buddha, 

 the great founder of the national faith, who was born on 

 the borders of Nepaul in the seventh century before Christ. 



In the theoretic doctrines of Buddhism " Buddhas" 1 

 are beings who appear after intervals of inconceivable 

 extent ; they undergo transmigrations extending over 

 vast spaces of time, accumulating in each stage of 

 existence an increased degree of merit, till, in their last 

 incarnation as men, they attain to a degree of purity so 

 immaculate as to entitle them to the final exaltation 

 of " Buddha-hood," a state approaching to incarnate 

 divinity, in which they are endowed with wisdom so 

 supreme as to be competent to teach mankind the path 

 to ultimate bliss. 



Their precepts, preserved orally or committed to 

 writing, are cherished as bana or the " word ; " their 

 doctrines are incorporated in the system of dharma or 

 " truth ;" and, at their death, instead of entering on a 

 new form of being, either corporeal or spiritual, they 

 are absorbed into Nirwana, that state of -blissful uncon- 

 sciousness akin to annihilation which is regarded by 

 Buddhists as the consummation of eternal felicity. 



1 The most profound and learned j Manual of Buddhism, Lond. 1853. A 

 dissertations on Buddhism as it exists j sketch of the Buddhist religion will 

 in Ceylon, will be found in the works j be found in this work. Vol. i. Part 

 of the Rev. R. SPENCE HARDY, East- iii. ch. xi. 

 em Monachism, Lond. 1850, and A 



T 3 



