from the Ancient Books of the Hindus. 413 



rupas., or forms, at the fame time, for the purpofe of dirTeminating his doc- 

 trine, but to have exifted really and wholly in all and each of thofe forms at 

 once, though in places- very remote : but thofe rupas were of different orders, 

 according to certain myfterious divifions of twenty-four, and the forms are 

 confidered as more or lefs perfect according to the greater or lefs perfection 

 of the component numbers and the feveral compounds, the leading number 

 being three, as an emblem of the TrimUrti : again the twenty-four rupas, 

 multiplied by thofe numbers, which before were ufed as divifors, produce 

 other forms ; and thus they exhibit the appearances of Jin a in all poffible 

 varieties and permutations, comprifing in them the different productions of 

 nature. 



Most of the Brahmens innfl, that the Buddha, who perverted Divo'- 

 da'sa, was not the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, whofe name, fome fay, 

 mould be written Bauddha or Bo'ddha ; but, not to mention the Amar* 

 cojh, the Mugdhabodh, and the Gitagovinda, in all of which the ninth ava- 

 tar is called Buddha, it is exprefsly declared in the Bhdgavat, that Vish- 

 nu mould appear ninthly in the form of " Buddha, fon of Jina, for 

 " the purpofe of confounding the Daityas, at a place named Ckata, when 

 " the Call age mould be completely begun:" on this pafTage it is only 

 remarked by Sri'j>hara .Szuami, the celebrated commentator, that Jina 

 and A j in a were two names of the fame perfon, and that Ckata was in 

 the diftricl of Gayd ; but the Pandits, who afTifted in the Per fan tranfia- 

 t.ion of the Bhdgavat, gave the following account of the ninth avatara. 

 The D-iityas had afked Indra, by what means they could attain the do- 

 minion of the world ; and he had anfwered, that they could only attain 

 it by facri (ice, purification, and piety : they made preparations according- 

 ly for a folemn facrifice and a general ablution ; but Vishnu, on the i.:- 



