CffHTSTTAN" RELIGION^ IN INDIA. ^$ 



three times eight, or twenty-four, is a sacred num- 

 ber; and being multiplied by three, the product 

 is mystical also, and the number of years of Jina's 

 life. The reason is, that one stands in the centre 

 'representing Jin a, who is three and owe. Eight 

 forms sprang from this toward the eight corners* 

 of the world, and each of these is three and otiez 

 but we cannot say, that these eight forms, with 

 the original one in the center, make either nine, or 

 txventif-seven ; for though each collateral form is per- 

 fectly distiftct from each otl^.er, yet it is individually 

 the same with the original one. Sectaries, at aa 

 early period entertained accordhigly strange notions 

 concerning the number of years that Christ lived 

 concealed, performed the duties of his ministry, and 

 lastly about the length of his life. They conceived 

 that every circumstance relating to so exalted ^ 

 character, was mysterious. Some insisted that he 

 lived thirty, thirty-three, forty, and others nearly, 

 but not (\u\tQ.ffty years. Stephanus Gobarus has 

 collected many of tliese idle notions, in the extracts 

 made of his works by Photius. 



It is not obvious at first, why 'Sa'liva'hana is 

 made to have lived eighty-four years ; but it appears 

 to me, that this number was in some measure a 

 sacred period among the first Christians, and also the 

 Jews, and introduced in order to regulate Easter- 

 day; and it is the opinion of the learned, that it 

 began five years before the Christian Era, and the 

 ffth year of that cycle was really the Jifth of Chris't, 

 but the first only of his manifestation to tlie world, 

 according to the Apocryphal Gospels ; and it was 

 also the first of the Christian Era. In this manner* 

 the cycle of eighty-four years ended on the 79th 

 of the Christian, which was the first of 'Saliva'- 



