﻿OF THE HINDUS. 12$ 



Buddha, the Goswami supposes to have been Dher- 

 maranya, a wood near Gay a, where a colossal image 

 of that ancient deity still remains. It seemed to me of 

 black stone : bat, as. 1 saw it by torch-light, I can- 

 not be positive as to its colour, which may indeed 



have been changed by time. 

 f 



The Brahmans universally speak of the Banddlias 

 with all the malignity of an intolerant spirit, yet rhe 

 mosr orthodox among them consider Buddha himself 

 as an incarnation of Vishnu. This is a contradiction 

 hard to be reconciled, unless we cut the knot, in- 

 stead of untying it, by supposing with Giorgi, that 

 there were tzvo Buddhas, the younger of whom esta- 

 blished the new religion, which gave so great offence 

 in India, and was introduced into China in the first 

 century of our sera. The Gashmirian before men- 

 tioned asserted this fact, without being led to it by 

 any question that implied it ; and we may have reason 

 to suppose that Buddha is in truth only a general 

 word for a Philosopher. The author of a celebrated 

 Sanscrit Dictionary, entitled from his name Amara- 

 cosha, who was himself a Bauddha, and flourished in 

 the first century before Christ, begins his vocabulary 

 with nine words that signify heaven, and proceeds to 

 tho c e which mean a deity in general ; after which come 

 different classes of Gods, Demigods, and Demons, all by 

 generic names ; and they are followed by two very 

 remarkable heads ; first (not the general names of 

 Buddha, but) the names of a Buddha-in-general of 

 which he gives us eighteen, such as Muni, Sastri, 

 JSIunindra, Vinayaca, Samantabhadra, Dhermaraja, 

 Sugata, and the like ; most of them significative of 

 excellence, ivisdom, virtue, and sanctity ; secondly, the 

 names of a particular-Buddha-Mum-who-descended- 

 in-the-family-of-<Stff}Yz (these are the very .words of 

 the original) and his titles are, Sacyamuni, Sacyasinha, 



