96 General Observations on [Feb. 



and apparently at a later period into India. Western Buddhism would 

 rather seem to have had its origin in the Persian empire, or in some 

 other region of western Asia. 



The learned Wilford, in his 6th Essay, apparently deems Meru a tem- 

 ple to God, but says, the Buddhists consider it as the tomb of the son 

 of the spirit of heaven, and that their pyramids, in which the sacred 

 relics are deposited, he their shape what it will, are imitations of the 

 worldly temple of the Supreme Being, and which is really the tomb of 

 the first of his embodied forms or of his son — and also that the real 

 place where the Thakur's bones are deposited should be unknown, to pre- 

 vent profanation, as in the case of Osiris' s tombs. Therefore it is said 

 that the Thakur's bones are not placed in the pyramid, but in a small 

 vault deep under ground at some distance from it, as at Sarnatha near 

 Benares.* His secret vault is called Cuti.* 



This practice seems to have belonged to the followers of the former 

 Buddhas, for we find from the Mahawanso, from the accounts given in 

 the above translated book, Phra Thorn and from all disclosed I believe of 

 the topes or Chaityas, which have been opened, that the relics were de- 

 posited openly in presence of multitudes of spectators, in a vault either 

 in the centre of the lower portion of the spiral structure, some feet above 

 the ground, or else in one under, or in, the middle of the foundation. 



Wilford observes that " although the brahmans are not addicted to 

 the worship of dead men's bones, still he knows one instance to the 

 contrary. At Jagannatha, they have a bone of Krishna, which is 

 considered a most precious and venerable relic. It is not allowed to be 

 seen, and neither Hindus nor Bauddhas are fond of making it the subject 

 of conversation." It is most probable that the temple built at " the 

 Diamond Sands," stood on the site of Jagannatha, and that the heretical 

 brahman Buddhists would, along with the mass of the people, have per- 

 petuated the ancient veneration for the relics, but under a new name. 

 Balas is one of the titles of Buddha but now little known. This word, 

 properly pronounced, sounds exactly like Belos in Greek and Belus in 

 Latin. May we not then reasonably suppose that the temple and tomb 

 of Belus at Babylon was a monument precisely like one of Buddha, and 

 calculated for the very same purpose ?f 



* As. Res. Vol. X. p. 129, et seq. f As. Res. Vol. X. p. 134. 



