426 Continuation of observations on [Sept. 



Buddhas (p. 446, 449) : I observed that the Buddhas named in the 

 Buddhist scriptures were " as numerous as the grains of sand on the 

 banks of the Ganges ;" but that, as most of them were nonentities 

 in regard to chronology and history, the list actually furnished would 

 probably more than suffice to gratify rational curiosity ; on which ac- 

 count I suppressed another long list, drawn from the Samadhi Raja, 

 which was then in my hands, (p. 444.) By fixing attention on that 

 cardinal dogma of sugatism, viz. that man can enlarge his faculties 

 to infinity, I enabled every inquirer to conclude with certainty that the 

 Buddhas had been multiplied ad libitum. By tracing the connexion 

 between the Arhantas and the Bodhisatwas ; between the latter again, 

 and the Buddhas of the first, second, and third degree of eminence and 

 power • I pointed out the distinct steps by which the finite becomes 

 confounded with the infinite, — man with Buddha ; and I observed in 

 conclusion that the epithet Tathagata, a synonyme of Buddha, ex- 

 pressly pourtrays this transition. (London Transactions, vol. ii. part 

 i.) Facts and dates are awkward opponents except to those, who, 

 with Rem usat's compatriot, dismiss them with a ' tant pis pour les 

 faits!' For years before I published my first Essay, I had been in pos- 

 session of hundreds of drawings, made from the Buddhist pictures 

 and sculptures with which this land is saturated, and which drawings 

 have not yet been published, owing to the delay incident to procuring 

 authentic explanations of them from original sources. All the gen- 

 tlemen of the residency can testify to the truth of this assertion ; 

 and can tell those who would be wiser for the knowledge, that it is 

 often requisite to walk heedfully over the classic fields of the valley of 

 Nipal, lest perchance you break your shins against an image of a 

 Buddha ! These images are to be met with every where, and of all 

 sizes and shapes, very many of them endowed with a multiplicity of 

 members sufficient to satisfy the teeming fancy of any Brahman of 

 Madhya Desa ! Start not, gentle reader, for it is literally thus, and no 

 otherwise. Buddhas with three heads instead of one — six or ten arm3 

 in place of two ! The necessity of reconciling these things with the 

 so called first principles of Buddhism*, may reasonably account for 

 delay in the production of my pictorial stores. Meantime, I cannot but 

 smile to find myself condoled with for my poverty when I am really, 

 and have been for 10 years, accable des richesses ! One interesting 



This delay was and is a necessary evil of the publication of an occasional volume 

 of Researches. It was to obviate the inconvenience in some measure that the pre- 

 sent form of the Journal was adopted, but still this is inadequate to the productioa 

 of papers of any magnitude, as we fear Mr. Hodgson feels by experience ! — Ed. 



* See Erskine's Essays in the Bombay Transactions. 



