﻿OF THE PEOPLE OF CEYLON". 599 



this egg, they M'ould no doubt answer that the 

 Supreme Being had hiid it ; therefore the world has 

 been created. In tlie opinion of the Boudhists there 

 has been no creation; Maha Brahma, all the 

 Sakreia, and Brahmes, have existed from all time, 

 and so have the worlds, the gods, the human race, 

 and all the animated beings. 



They do not believe in the history of the egg*, 

 and though they hold the flower of lotus in respect, 

 it is for a very different reason from the Brahmins, 

 According to the latter, animated nature is subject 

 to perpetual transmigration. The soul, given to all 

 animals, departs from the body of one to enter that 

 of another, and so on ad infinitum. The Boudhists 

 believe that the soul exists from all time ; that they 

 are to transmiorate in the course of a time infinitelv 

 long, to be determined by their good or bad be- 

 haviour, and then cease to exist. The end of the 

 soul is called, in Slngalese, Niva)ii, and I am told 

 in Sanscrit, Nirgwani. This is the passive happi- 

 ness to M hich all the Boudhists look up. A criminal, 

 that was lately hanged at Point de Galle, declared 

 he was happy to die, as he would then become 

 Nivani. But in this he shewed his ignorance of his 

 religion, as he could not become Nivani till he 

 first had been one of the Boudhous. The Brahmins 

 calculate the antiquity of the v/orld beyond what 

 can be conceived by the most extravagant mind; 

 but these, calculations are supported by astronomical 

 periods ingeniously combined togethei-. As the 

 world never was created in the opinion of the Boud- 

 hists, their calculations only relate to the immense 

 number of transmigrations of Boudhou, from tlie 

 time he first thought of becoming Boudhou, till 

 that when he became Nivani ; and this period they 

 compute at an unit followed by sixty-three Ztros, 

 being the result of some combinations so intricate, 



3 that 



