1 18 General Observations on [Feb. 



gical theories may have been alternately accepted and rejected during 

 that period. 



M. Remusat seems to have believed that Buddhism travelled from 

 the banks of the Ganges to central Tartary — in the neighbourhood of 

 the lake Lob, — amongst the Ouigours — at Khotan, and in all the small 

 states to the N. of the Himalaya mountains — also in Afghanistan — 

 Oudyana — Gandhaza, &c. But was there not a germ, if not a fully 

 expanded blossom of this religion existing long before away towards 

 Persia and Turkistan ? Buddhism, he also observes, [the Buddhism I 

 suppose of Sakya he means, originating in central India, between 

 the mountains of Nepal and the rivers Jumna and Gogra] was carried 

 back by tradition as far as the tenth century before our era — and 

 monuments of which still subsist, and the others now in ruins, confirm 

 the testimony of these traditions.* 



It would be satisfactory if we could discover a solid base for the 

 latter supposition — for I am not aware than any of the decyphered 

 Pali or other inscriptions will carry us back so far. 



He then, in his Gth head of facts, states, that " we are satisfied that 

 Buddhism had penetrated into the Dekkan in very ancient times, and 

 there exist there from that period excavations in the form of temples, 

 the construction of which is carried back to epochs so remote as to be 

 comprised within the age of fable. 



It would, as supporting my argument, be rather gratifying to us to 

 find these assumptions confirmed — but until the full and solid grounds 

 for them are exhibited, it will be prudent I think to withhold our assent. 



M. R. first says (head 5) that Buddhism had penetrated to the 

 mouths of the Ganges A. D. 500 — as if it had only been then able to 

 get so far from its source in the N. "W. ; and if his sixth position be 

 correct, then the Buddhism of which he sees traces in the Dekkan, could 

 not have been that which Sakya promulgated, or rather which he is 

 believed to have originated — but may have been a prior stage of Bud- 

 dhism — that of one of the three Buddhas before Sakya. 



He goes on to say that in Fa Hian's time the Ceylonese counted 

 1497 years since the Nirvana of Sakya Muni. 



Now the Mahawanso of Ceylon declares the period of the Nirvana 



* Lieut-Col. Sykes quoting M. Landresse, Tr. R. A. S. Vol. XII. p. 256—7 

 et seq. 



