234 ^^ "^^^ RELIGION' AND 



lowers, we may conclude that he was a near neigh- 

 bour of Thibet : we may fuppofe, that he had feen 

 the fnowy mountains, and had heard of the great rivers 

 running from thence into the Siberian, Chineje^ and 

 Cajpian feas : and from his particularizing the branches 

 of the fouthern river, we may conclude, that he 

 dwelt on its banks. Had he been a native of Thibet^ 

 he never could have formed the grofs mifconception 

 of the common origin of the Bengal and Oude rivers, 

 nor of their manner of penetrating through the Sewa- 

 lick mountains. I find that fome perfons* have aU 

 ledged Bouddha to have been a native of Aria or 

 Korofan. On what reafons this opinion is fupported, 

 I have not learned: but I think very ftrong ones will 

 be required to invalidate this topographical argument, 

 for his having been a native of the north of Hindujlan. 

 Upon confulting a Brahmen of Bengal^ who is ac- 

 quainted with the Sanfcrit language, he fays, that 

 Bouddha was king oi Rahar, which, according to him, 

 is bounded on the eaft by the river of Moor/kedabad, 

 and from thence extends to Benares, being nearly the 

 fame with the foubah of Beharf. 



As far as relates to Hmdujlan, the Brahmens have 

 adopted very nearly the geographical ideas of their 

 predeceffors the RcihclnsX : but having come from 

 Egypt, their knowledge of the weftern parts of the 



world 



* Encyclopedia Bntannica, article Samanians. This opinion may have 

 originated from two pafTagcs in the fathers with which I have met in Pau* 



LINUS, fMus. Borg. pag. :86 187.) xa< ex. hxur^-.y Ti,» rif^aota* 

 "Za/xacvxioi Cyrill. Alex. Tom. 2. pag. 133. xxi I.a.ux»xioi BxxT^xv 

 Clemens Ai.exand. Strom, lib. 1, pag. 3,59. The knowledge 

 ■which the fathers of the church had of the feet of Bouddha, being 

 chiefly obtained from fuch of the Savianians as refided in the Perfian 

 empire, and who muft have entered Iran from Hindufian by the com- 

 Tnon route of BaSlria, may readily account for thefe two paffages. 



+ Buddha, the fon of Jin a, according to the iJAa^awai, would ap- 

 pear at Cicata, which by a learned Hindu was faid to mean Dherma- 

 ranga, near Goya, fAJiatick Rckuches, II. 122.) But whether this 

 BiJDDHA be the fame with the author of the Burma reWgion I do not 

 know. 



^ See atreaiifeby the learned Mr.BuRROws in (heAftatick Refcarchcs,- 



