BOO 



Antiquities, 70 years after the Chriftian sra. Bcfides tlie 

 attributes of BooJh and Odin art very different. The deity, 

 whofe doftrincs were introduced into Scandinavia, was a god 

 of terror, and his votaries carried defolation and the fword 

 throughout whole regions; whereas the ninth Avatar (fee 

 Maurice's Hilh of Ilindollan, vol. ii. part,?.) introduced 

 the peaceful olive, and appeared in the world for the pur- 

 pofe of preventing fanguinary afts. He feverely cenfured 

 the facrifice of cattle, or depriving any being of hfe, and is 

 denominated the author of happinefs. His place of reti- 

 dence is ^aid to have been difcovered at Boodha Gaya in 

 Bengal, by the ilhiifrlous Amara, renowned amongfl m;.n; 

 and according to an infcription in Sanfcrit, found on a Hone 

 in this place, and trantlated by Mr. Wilkins, (Afiatic Re- 

 fearches, vol. i. p. 2S4,) he caufed an image of the fuprcme 

 fpirit BooJ-dha to be made, and wor(hipped it according to 

 the law, with perfumes, incenfe, and the like ; and he thus 

 gloiified the name of that fupreme being, the incarnation of 

 a portion of Veefhnoo : " Reverence be unto thee in the 

 form of Bood-dha ! reverence be unto the lord of the earth ! 

 reverence be unto thee, an incarnation of the deity and the 

 eternal one! reverence be unto thee, O God, in the form of 

 the God of mercy, the difpeller of pain and trouble, the 

 lord of all things, the deity who overcometli the fins of the 

 Kalce Yoog, tlie guardian cf the univerfe, the emblem of 

 mercy toward thofe who ferve thee!" &c. As the doftrines 

 of Boodh and Woden are different, and their seras are very 

 remote, they mnft of courfe be different perfons. The 

 Buddha of the Hindoos is unquelHonablv, fays lir W. Jones, 

 the Foe or Fo of China ; and M. de Guignes, on the au- 

 thority of four Chincfe hiilorians, affcrts, that Fo was born 

 about the year before Chrill 1027, in the kingdom of Calh- 

 jnir. Mr. Chambers, following M. Geiitil, and followed 

 by Paulinus, conceives, by a very forced train of etymology, 

 the Fo or Fohi of the Chincfe to be a corruption of Boud- 

 dha. Nor is the derivation of Taautos, Toth, or Touth, 

 the Egyptian name for Hermes from Bouddha, lefs fanciful; 

 and yet Fo-hi, the progenitor of the Chintfe, a mihtary 

 tribe, whom the Hindoos call the Chandravanfa, or children 

 of the moon, was, according to their Puranas or legends, 

 Buddha, or the genius of the planet Meicury. 



Among the various appellations by which the deity Buddha 

 is known in ieveral parts of the Eaft, that of Godama is very 

 common. This Godama, Gaudma, or Gotma, &c. as his 

 name is differently expreffed, is faid to have been a philofo- 

 pher, and is believed by the Birmans to have flouridied above 

 3 ;oo years ago ; he is faid to have taught in the Iiu'ian fchools 

 the heterodox religion and philofophy of Boodh. See G<j- 

 DAM.i. The image that reprefents Boodh is called Gaudma or 

 Goutum, which is now a commonly received appellation of 

 Boodh himfelf : this image is the primary objeft of worfliip 

 in all countries fituated between Bengal and China. The 

 feftaries of Boodh contend with thofe of Biahma for the 

 lionours of antiquity, and are certainly far more numerous. 

 Tlie Cingalefe in Ceylon are Boodhills of the pureft fource, 



BOO 



effential fpirit of their Wifhna(Vi(hnou) or their deity, who 

 made his ninth appearance in the world under this name : the 

 Peguers call him Samana Khutama." Where he treats con- 

 cerning the introdutlion of Boodh into China, he fays, (id. 

 ibid.) "about the year of Chrift 51S, one Darma, a great 

 faint, and twenty-third fucceffor in the holy fe; of Seaka 

 (Buddha), came over into China from Seitcnfeku, as the 

 Japanefe writers explain it, that is, from that part of the 

 world, which lies weftward v.ith regard to Japan, and laid, 

 properly fpeaking, the firll firm foundation of the Budfdoifin 

 in that mighty empire." Others fay, that the fed of Boudha 

 was introduced into Cliina in ihe year of our ira 630, and 

 that from China it extended itfelt to Japan, Tonquin, Co- 

 cbincliina, and the moil remote parts of Tartary. 



Whatever may be the antiquity of the worfliip of Boodh 

 or Buddha, we can entertain no doubt of the v/ide extent of 

 its reception and prevalence. In the illand of Ceylon, in 

 the extenijve Birman empire, in the kingdoms of Siam and 

 Cambodia, the prevailing religion is that of Bouddha or 

 Godama, aixi Mr. Chambers (i\liatic Refearches, vol. i. 

 p. 162, &c.) has given very good reafons for believing 

 that the worfhip of Bouddha extended all over India, and 

 was not rooted out by the Bramins in the Deccan, fo latel)'' 

 as the 9th, or even the 12th century of the Chrii\iau aenii 

 From the hiffory of Cafhmire, prefented to the fultan Ac- 

 bar, on his firft entrance into that kingdom, we learn, that 

 Jelowk, one of its moft powerful princes, tolerated the doc- 

 trine of Bouddh ; and that it was not till the reign of Nerkh 

 the 59lh prince, A. D.342, that^the Brahmins acquired 

 the alcendcncy over the followers of Boodh, and burned 

 down their temples. In Nepal the motf ancient religion is 

 that profefled by a fed who call themfelves " Baryefu," 

 and who feera to be worfliippers of Bouddha. In Narhoara 

 or Nehrvvaleh, the capital of the kingdom of Guzerat, we 

 find that even after the Mahometan invafion, in the i Ith 

 century of our aera, EdnC, who wrote in the 12th century, 

 informs us, that the people continued in the worfhip of the 

 idol Bodda or Bud. This Arabian geographer adds, that 

 the worfliip of the prince of this country, who reigned on 

 the Malabar coaft, with the title of Balhara, and whofe 

 dominions extended over Guzerat, and the grcatefl part, if 

 not the whole of Vifiapour, was addreffed to Bodda, who, 

 according to St. Jerome and Clemens Alexandrinus, was 

 the founder of the left of the Gymnolophifts, in like manner, 

 fays M. d'Anville, as the Brahmins were ufcd to attribute 

 their inllitution to Brahma. If the coiijectures of fir WiUiain 

 Jones, relating to the iafcriptions found at Mongheer, and on 

 the pillar of Buddal, be well founded, the governing powers 

 on the banks of the Ganges, as late as about the time of the 

 birth of Chrift, were of the feft of Bouddha ; and however 

 idle and ridiculous the legends and notions of the wor- 

 fliippers of Bouddha may be, they have been in a great mea- 

 fure adopted by the Brahmins ; but with all their defefts 

 and extravagances much aggravated, rajahs and heroes being 

 converted into gods, and impoiTibilitics accumulated on im- 



and the Birmans acknowledge to have received their religion probabilities. From various authorities, to which we might 



from that ifland, which they call Zehoo. From thence it refer, it fufficiently appears, that the worfliip of Bouddha, 



was brought, as the Rhahaans fay, to Arracan, and it was or Buddou, has prevailed in fcveral parts of India at a period 



_ . ^, r prior to that of the Brahmins ; and that this has been the 



then introduced into Ava, and probably into China ; for 

 the Birmans confidently affert, that the C'hinefe are Boodh- 

 ifls. Kxmpfer, fpeaking of the Budz, or Seaka, (Shaka, Sha- 

 kya, Sjaka, or Sakya, denoting, according to Paulinus, 

 the cunning, or the god of good and bad fortune,) fays, 

 (Hifl. Japan, b. iv. c. 6.) " I have flrong reafons to believe 



cafe even fo late as the 9th and the 12th centuries of the 

 Chriftian xra ; and that this fyftem forms the bafis of that 

 religion which the Brahmins have brought with them into 

 the fouthern parts of the pcninfula of Hindoftan, into Ma- 

 - - . - ^ - dura, Tanjore, and Myfore. In thofe parts of India, and 



botti from the aflinity of the name, and the very nature of chiefly on the coaft of Coromandel, and in Ceylon, the god 

 this rehgion, that its author and founder is the very fame Baouth, fays M. Gentii, of whom, at prcfent, they know 

 pcrfon whom the Bramins caU Buddha, and believe to be the no more in India than the name, was the objeit of worfhip ; 



but 



