326 



THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. 



rp ART in. 



Gotama, who is represented as the last of the series 

 of Buddhas 1 , promulgated a religious system in India 

 wliich has exercised a wider influence over the Eastern 

 world than the doctrines of any other uninspired 

 teacher in any age or country. 2 He was born B.C. 

 624 at Kapila-Vastu (a city which has no place in the 

 geography of the Hindus, but which appears to have 

 been on the borders of Nepaul) ; he attained his superior 

 Buddha-hood B.C. 588, under a bo-tree 3 in the forest of 

 Urawela, the site of the present Buddha Gaya in Bahar ; 

 and, at the age of eighty, he died at Kusinara, a doubtful 

 locality, which it has been sought to identify with the 

 widely separated positions of Delhi, Assam, and Cochin 

 China. 4 



In the course of his ministrations Gotama is said to 

 have thrice landed in Ceylon. Prior to his first coming 

 amongst them, the inhabitants of the island appear to 

 have been living in the simplest and most primitive 

 manner, supported on the almost spontaneous products 

 of the soil. Gotama in person undertook their conver- 

 sion, and alighted on the first occasion at Bintenne, where 



1 There were twenty-four Buddhas 

 previous to the advent of Gotama, 

 who is the fourth in the present 

 Kalpa or chronological period. His 

 system of doctrine is to endure for 

 5000 years, when it will be super- 

 seded oy the appearance and preach- 

 ing of his successor. Rajaratnacari, 

 ch. i.p. 42. 



2 HARDY'S Eastern Mvnachism, 

 ch. i. p. 1. There is evidence of 

 the widely-spread worship of Buddha 

 in the remotely separated individuals 

 with whom it has been sought at 

 various times to identify him. " Thus 

 it has been attempted" to show that 

 Buddha was the same as Thoth of 

 the Egyptians, and Turni of the 

 Etruscans, that he was Mercury, Zo- 

 roaster, Pythagoras, the Woden of the 

 Scandinavians, the Manes of the Mani- 

 chaeans, the prophet Daniel, and even 

 the divine author of Christianity." 

 (PROFESSOR WILSON, Joiirn. Asiat. 



Soc., vol. xvi. p. 233.) Another 

 curious illustration of the prevalence 

 of his doctrines may be discovered 

 in the endless variations of his name 

 in the numerous countries over which 

 his influence has extended : Buddha, 

 Budda, Bud, Bot, Baoth, Buto, Buds- 

 do, Bdho, Pout, Pote, Fo, Fod, Fohi, 

 Fuh, Pet, Pta, Poot, Phthi, Phut, 

 Pht, &c. POCOCKE'S India in Greece, 

 appendix, 397. HARDY'S Buddhism, 

 ch. vii. p. 355. HARDY in his Eastern 

 Monachism says, " There is no country 

 in either Europe or Asia, except those 

 that are Buddhist, in which the same 

 religion is now professed that was there 

 existent at the time of the Redeemer's 

 death," ch. xxii. p. 327. 



3 The Pippul, Ficus rclif/iosa. 



4 Professor H. H. WILSON has 

 identified Kusinara or Kusinagara 

 with Kusia in Gorakhpur, Journ. 

 Hoy. Asiat. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 246. 



