532 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON 



" C^H-sge being past," is, I find, open to another 

 reading, whiclii makes it the second thousandth year, 

 or the" year 2000, instead of 1002. At least it 

 was so interpreted to me by Ra'dha'ca'nt, the 

 very Pundit who is mentioned by Sir William 

 Jones, as having- produced to him the book, from 

 which tlie passage in question is quoted, and who 

 is now one of the Pundits of the court of Sudr 

 Deetvanee A'dahit. His interpretation was also 

 confirmed to me by Surv6 Te'waree, the other 

 Pundit of the court; but in justice to our revered 

 Founder, whose regard to truth I have -but imi- 

 tated in this remark, I must add, that Mr. Bla- 

 quiere, whose knowledge of the Sanscrit lan- 

 guage is too well known to need my testimony, 

 concurs in the reading and version of Sir Wil- 

 liam Jones. 



Another point yet to be ascertained is, whether 

 Buddha, the ninth ^Avatar of the Hindus, be the 

 same with the heretic Buddha, now worshipped 

 at Ceylon, and in the eastern peninsula ; as well as 

 in China, Bootan, 2it\dTibet. Sir William Jones, 

 in his dissertation on the Gods of Greece, Italy, 

 and India*, observes on Buddha, that "he seeiils 

 " to have been a reformer of the doctrines con- 

 " tained in the Vedas; and though his good na- 

 " ture led him to censure these ancient books, be- 

 " cause they enjoined sacrifices of cattle, yet he is 

 *' admitted as the ninth A'xatar, even by the 

 *' Brahmens of Cas'i" Captain Wilford, in his 

 dissertation on Egypt and the Nile-f, after men- 

 tioning the subversion of the religion and govern- 

 ment of De'va'da'sa, the sovereign of Benares, by 



* Asiatic Researches, Volume I. 

 ■^ Asiatic Researches^ Volume III. 



