JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY 



FEBRUARY, 1849. 



General Observations on the contending claims to antiquity of 

 Brahmans and Buddhists, by Lieut.-Col. Low. 



It is only very lately that I had an opportunity of seeing the 

 CLXVII. No of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta of 

 1845 ; and of perusing the luminous and able critique it contains of 

 M. Burnouf's work on Buddhism, by Dr. E. Roer. 



But although the writer, seems to have convinced himself that the 

 question respecting the disputed antiquity of the Brahmanic and Bud- 

 dhistic systems of religion, has been fairly set at rest, he can scarcely 

 hope that every body will be quite prepared to follow his example. I 

 will confess that some of the arguments adduced were to a certain 

 extent in accordance with my own views, while others claimed the 

 reader's close and unbiased attention, yet it appeared, and does still 

 appear to me, that many preliminary conditions require to be fulfilled, 

 and many points, however plausible, to be established by solid proof, 

 before we can be called upon to give our final assent to the conclu- 

 sions he has arrived at. 



If I might be allowed to propose a theory which should serve to cool 

 down the fervor of dialectics, and give time for a patient and scrupu- 

 lous search after such facts as can at this day be only obtained from 

 ancient Indian MSS. and from architectural remains, and their accom- 

 panying numismatic, religious and civil, records and inscriptions, it 

 would be in some such terms as these :— 



No. XXVI.— New Series. n 



