1864.] 



On the JRuins of Buddha Qayd. 



185 



ment of a temple built for Buddha having for its chief penates the 

 image of Vishnu's feet, those of the five Pandu brothers and of the 

 several incarnations of Vishnu, is equally so. 



It was not expected that a distinguished scholar like General Cunning- 

 ham with his thorough knowledge of Indian antiquities, should accept the 

 figments of this inscription as true. He has however taken for granted 

 that the great temple was built by Amara Siiiha, and, as that individual 

 was a contemporary of Varaha Mihira and Kalidasa who, according to 

 Bentley and others, lived in the 5th century, inferred that the temple 

 must have been built in A. D. 500. His arguments are, first the non- 

 existence of any temple in A. D. 400 when Fa Hian visited the place ; 

 second, the recorded erection of a large one by Amara Deva about A. D. 

 500 ; and third the exact agreement in size as well as in material and 

 ornamentation between the existing temple and that described by 

 Hiouen Thsang between A. D. 629 and 642. 



Of these, the most important argument is the first, in which it is 

 said that there was no large temple in existence at Buddha Gaya when 

 Fa Hian visited the place between A. D. 399 and 414. It would at 

 once establish the fact of the great temple of Buddha Gaya being 

 subsequent to the date of Fa Hian's pilgrimage. But on referring to 

 the itinerary of that traveller, I find that instead of his saying that 

 there was no temple, he reiterates the fact that there were several 

 temples in Buddha Gaya at his time, and that the temple near the 

 Bodhi tree was one of them. The account of his travels is unfor- 

 tunately very meagre. It is a simple recital of names of places and 

 their distances, with a superabundance of legends, but with no topogra- 

 phical details. Still it is very precise as to the existence of temples near 

 the Bodhi tree. Thus in the 31st Chapter (p. 277) we find it stated 

 that at the place where Foe obtained the law i. e. near the holy pepul 

 tree, " there are three Sang hia Ian, and hard by are establishments for 

 the clergy who are there very numerous. The people supply them 

 with abundance, so that they lack nothing." In another place in 

 the same chapter, Fa Hian, describing the approach and residence 

 of S'akya at Buddha Gaya, says : " The Phousa rose, and when 

 he was at the distance of thirty paces from the tree, a god gave him 

 the grass of happy omen : the Phousa took it and advanced fifteen 

 paces farther. Five hundred blue birds came and fluttered three 



mm 



