﻿PF-THE HINPWS, 1^1 



shining like a blue cloud, or like the water of Ya- 

 muna tripping towards thee through fear of thy fur- 

 rowing ploughshare, O Cesava, assuming the form of 

 Bulla Rama. Be victorious, O fieri, lord of the 

 universe ! 



9. " Thoublamest (Oh, wonderful !) the whole Vedq, 

 when thou seest, O kind-hearted, the slaughter of cattle 

 prescribed for sacrifice, O Cesava, assuming the body of 

 Buddha. Be victorious, O Heri, lord of the universe 1 



10. " For the destruction of all the impure thou 

 drawest thv cimeter like a blazing comet (how tre- 

 mendous!) O Cesava, assuming the body of Caki, 

 Be victorious, O Her'i, lord of the universe!*' 



These itwAvataras are by some arranged according 

 to the thousands of divine years in each of the four 

 ages, or in an arithmetical proportion from four to 

 one ; and, if such an arrangement were universally re- 

 ceived, we should be able to ascertain a very material 

 point in the Hindu chronology ; I mean the birth of 

 Buddha, concerning which the different Pandits^ 

 whom I have consulted, and the same Bandits at dif- 

 ferent times, have expressed a strange diversity of 

 opinion. They all agree that Calcl is yet to come, 

 and that Buddha was the last considerable incarnation 

 of the Deity ; but the astronomers at Varanes place 

 him jn the third age, and Radhacant insists that he 

 appeared after the thousandth year of the fourth. The 

 learned and accurate author of the Dahistan, whose 

 information concerning the Hindus is wonderfully cor- 

 rect, mentions an opinion of the Pandits, with whom 

 he had conversed, that Buddha began his career ten 

 years before the close of the third age; and Go~ 

 verdhaua of Cashmir, who had once informed me 

 thai Crishna descended two centuries before Buddha, 



