BUDDHISM AXD DEMOX WORSHIP. 



[PART IV. 



adjusted by the results of Oriental research. 1 It is, how- 

 ever, established by a concurrence of historical proofs, 

 that many centuries before the era of Christianity the 

 doctrines of Buddha were enthusiastically cultivated in 

 Bahar, the Magadha, or country of the Magas. whose mo- 

 dern name is identified with the Wiharas or monasteries of 

 Buddhism. Thence its teachers diffused themselves ex- 

 tensively throughout India and the countries to the east- 

 ward ; upwards of two thousand years ago it became the 

 national religion of Ceylon and the Indian Archipelago ; 

 and its tenets have been adopted throughout the vast re- 

 gions which extend from Siberia to Siam, and from the 

 Bay of Bengal to the western shores of the Pacific. 2 



Looking to its influence at the present day over at 

 least three hundred and fifty millions of human beings 

 exceeding one-third of the human race it is no ex- 

 aggeration to say that the religion of Buddha is the most 

 widely diffused that now exists, or that has ever existed 

 since the creation of mankind. 3 



had lived prior to Gotama, in 

 periods incredibly remote ; but that 

 they had entirely disappeared at 

 the time of Gotama's birth, so 

 that he re-discovered the whole, 

 and revived an extinguished or 

 nearly extinct school of philoso- 

 phy. Notes on Buddhism by the 

 Kev. Mr. GOGERLY, Appendix to 

 LEE'S Translation of Eibeyro, p. 



1 The celebrated temple of Som- 

 nauth was originally a Buddhist 

 foundaton, and in the worship of 

 Jaggernath, to whose orgies all ranks 

 are admitted without distinction of 

 caste, there may still be traced an 

 influence of Buddhism, if not a direct 

 Buddhistical origin. Colonel Sykes 

 is of opinion that the sacred tooth of 

 Buddha was at one time deposited 

 and worshipped in the great Temple 

 of Kalinga, now dedicated to Jagger- 

 nath, by the Princes of Orissa, who 

 in the fourth century professed the 

 Buddhist religion. (Colonel SYKES, 



Notes, &c., Asiatic Journal, vol. xii. 

 pp. 275, 317, 420.) 



2 FA HIAJJ- declares that in the 

 whole of India, including Aftghanistan 

 and Bokhara, he found in the fourth 

 century a Buddhist people and 

 dynasty, with traditions of its endur- 

 ance for the preceding thousand years. 

 "As to Hindustan itself, he says, 

 from the time of leaving the deserts 

 (of Jaysulmeer and Bikaneer) and 

 the river (Jumna) to the west, all the 

 kings of the different ki>tf/<hns in 

 Indict arejirmh/ attached to the laic of 

 Buddha, and when they do honour to 

 the ecclesiastics they take off their 

 diadems." See also MAUPIED, Essai 

 stir rOriffine des Principaux Peiqrfes 

 Ancitns, chap. ix. p. 209. 



3 See ante, p. 326. So ample are 

 the materials offered by Buddhism 

 for antiquarian research, that its doc- 

 trines have been sought to be iden- 

 tified at once with the Asiatic philo- 

 sophy and with the myths of the 

 Scandinavians. Buddha has been at 



