HISTORY OF CASHMIR. ll3 



circumstances in favour of the date laid down are adverted to in the con- 

 cluding' observations, and we may here add, that there seems to be a strange 

 connexion between the circumstances and dates of the Zerdushts of Persia 

 and the Buddhas of India, which deserves a more particular investigation 

 than we have hitherto had materials to undertake. 



The passage relating to the prevalence of the Bauddha faith in Cashmir 

 includes the mention of an individual, whose history is fully as obscure, if 

 not as important as that of Buddha- 



Nagarjuna as a Bodhisatwa (see note in page 21) may be either a religi- 

 ous or a secular character: he was probably the former, as a hierarch, the 

 prototype of the modern Lama of Tibet; his other title however, JBhumU 

 swara may mean a Prince, and has probably induced Mr. Colebrooke t<? 

 translate the text generally thus : 



" Damodara was succeeded by three kings, of the race of Turushca, 

 and they were followed by a Bodhisatwa, who wrested the empire from them 

 by the aid of Sdcya Sinha, and introduced the religion of Buddha into Cash- 

 mir. He reigned a hundred years, and was followed by Abhimanyu. — « 

 As. Res. ix. 295. 



In differing from Mr. Colebrooke, there is great probability of committing 

 error, but in this case, the state of the Manuscripts, full of obscurities and 

 mistakes, is a sufficient vindication of a difference of interpretation, and 

 until we can ascertain what the reading of the original should be, we may 

 alledge in support of the translation above preferred, the following consider- 

 ations ; 



1. The ascendancy of the Bauddhas according to the original, continues 

 some time after Abhimanyu's accession, as well as the superintendance 

 of Nagarjuna ; he could not therefore have been at that time king of 



o 



