PS ORIGIN AND DECLINE QF TJJjE 



thus thrown into rivers, lakes, ponds, and sometimes 

 •whole strings of them. Be this as it may, the fol- 

 lowers of Budd'ha did not fail to retaliate whem ver 

 it was in their poM-er ; for Dr. F. Buchanan informs 

 me, that in the Dckhin the Jainas make their boast 

 of the cruelties that they exercised at diiferent times 

 upon the Brdhmens, and that there are even inscrip- 

 tions still extant in which they are recorded. This 

 general persecution was begun by ^ Brahmen called 

 Cuma'killa-Bhatta'cha'rya, and carried on after- 

 >vards by Sancaka'cha'rya, who nearly extirpated 

 the whole race. It is difficult to say when this 

 took place ; but as there were vast numbers of 

 Bauddliists in the Peninsula^ in the Gangetic 

 Provinces^ and Giijai^/ct, in the ninth, tenth, 

 and eleventh centuries, this general proscription 

 could not of course have taken place at these pe- 

 riods. It is ver}' probable that the CImstians were 

 occasionally involved in tliese persecutions, as the 

 Christians of St. Thomas are considered as Baud- 

 d'hists in the Dekkhiy and either their divine legisla- 

 tor, or his apostle Thomas, is asserted to be a form 

 of Budd'ha. 



The Hindus, and more particularly the followers 

 of Budd'ha and J in a, fancy, that there are hidden 

 piysteries in certain numbers. It was so formerly 

 in the west, among the heathens, the JezvSf and the 

 Christians. All over the world, the numbers one and 

 thxe were considered as radical ; and their combina- 

 tion was subject to whimsical rules. They are by 

 no means to be added together, for one and thixe, 

 in a mystical sense, are but one and the same thing. 

 We might suppose, that the square, . and cube of 

 three would be sacred numbers ; but it is by na 

 means the case. Eight is the mystical number, and 



