a'nugaxgam, &c. 41 



from the Sanscrit llacsha, pronounced Rckha in 

 tiie spoken dialects : and Rachifa, or Rachia is a 

 derivative from. It is the name, or rather the 

 title, of one of the heroes of the Puranas. Another 

 derivative form is Racshita, and is the name of 

 a priest of Budd'iia in Ceylon, mentioned in the 

 sixth vol. of the Asiatic Researches*; where, ac- 

 cording to the idiom of the spoken dialects, he is 

 called Ra'c'hita-budd'ha : and I suppose, that 

 neither RacsJia, nor Racshita, can be properly used, 

 but in composition. Yarchas, the name of a 

 Brahmen, mentioned in the life of Apollonius, 

 is probably a corruption from Rachyas. The Em- 

 peror Claudius began his reign in the 44th year 

 of the Christian Era ; and the predilection of the 

 Chinese for the people of India, and Ceylon, was 

 very natural. Thus \ve see that the people of 

 that island traded to China, at the very beginning 

 of our Era, and by land. There can be no doubt, 

 that they went first by sea to the country of 

 Magadlia, or the Gangetic provinces ; where 

 their legislator Budd'iia was born, and his religion 

 flourished in the utmost splendor. There they 

 joined in a body with the caravans of that 

 country, and went to China, through what Pto- 

 lemy, and the author of ihe Periplus, call the 

 great route from Palibothra to China. It was in 

 consequence of this^ connnercial intercourse, that 

 the religion of Budd'ha was introduced into that 

 vast empire, in the year 60 A. C. and from that 

 FiVa we may date the constant and regular in- 

 tercourse between Magadlia and China ; till tlie 

 extirpation of the religion of Budd'ha, and the in- 

 vasion of the Musulmans. 



The account given by the son of Rachias, has 

 nothing very extraodinary in it, when the whole is 



* p. 450. 



