292 OBSERVATIONS ON 



Bruhmanas at their ceremonies; and, for want of 

 Brahmanas of their own failh, they even have re- 

 course to the secular clergy of the orthodox sect. 

 This subject is sufficiently explained by Major Mac- 

 kenzie and Dr. Buchanan ; I shall, however, add, 

 for the sake of a subsequent remark, that the Jainas 

 apply the terms Yati and ^Sramaria, (in Prdcrit and 

 Hindi written Smnana,) to a person who has devoted 

 himself to religious contemplation and austerity; and 

 the sect of Budd'ha uses the word Sraman'a for the 

 same meaning. It cannot be doubted, that the Sovi- 

 mo7iacodo7n of Siam is merely a corruption of the 

 words \Sramana Gautamay the holy Gautama or 

 Budd'ha*. 



Having been here led to a comparison of the Indian 

 sects which follow the precepts of the Vedas, witb 

 those which reject their authority, I judge it neces- 

 sary to notice an opinion, which has been advanced, 

 on the relative antiquity of those religions ; and 

 especially the asserted priority of the Baudd'has be- 

 fore the Brahmanas. 



In the iirst place, it may be proper to remark, that 

 the earliest accounts of India, by the Greeks wha 

 visited the country, describe its inhabitants as dis- 

 tributed into separate tribes f. Consequently a sect 

 which, like the modern Bauddlias, has no distinction 

 of cast, could not have been then the most prevalent 

 in India, 



It is indeed possible that the followers of Budd'ha 

 may, like the Jainas, have retained the distribution 

 into four tribes, so long as they continued in Hindustan, 



* See As. Res. vol. 7, p. 41 5. 

 f Seven tribes are enumerated : but it is not difficult to reconcile 

 the distinctions wluch are stated by Arrian and Strabo, with the 

 present distribution into four classes. 



