BAUDDHAS, &c. OF NEPAL. ' 423 



forget the distinction of divine and human nature, the analogy must be 

 essentially defective ; and, in fact, the Sutra of the Bauddhas often compre- 

 hends not only their own proper Buddha Vachana but also Bodhisatwa and 

 BJiikshu Vachana; which latter the Brahmans would denominate Rishi 

 Vachana, and, of course, assign to the Smriti, or comments by holy men 

 upon the eternal truth of the Sruti. The Newdrs and Hhotiyas are agreed, 

 that of the original body of their sacred literature, but a small portion now 

 exists. A legend familiar to both people assigns their destruction to Sankara 

 AcHARYA : and the incomparable Sakkara of Sir W. Jones, is execrated by 

 every Bauddha as a blood-stained bigot. 



Of the existing Bauddha writings of Nepal, by far the most important 

 of the speculative kind, are the five Khands of the Racha Bhagavati, deno- 

 minated the five Rachas, and the five Parmitas together with the Prqjnd 

 Pai^mita of the narrative kind : eight of the nine works called the nine 

 Dharmas, the ninth being the Prajna Parmita mentioned above ; and which, 

 though classed with the Dharmas for ritual purposes, is, in its character, much 

 more a-kin to the Rachas. 



The five Rachas are enumerated in order in the subsequent detail. Each 

 contains twenty -five thousand stanzas, and the whole, consequently, one lac and 

 fifty thousand. The Rachas are of a highly speculative character, belonging 

 rather to philosophy than religion. The cast of thought is sceptical in the 

 extreme : endless doubts are started, and few solutions of them attempted. 

 Sakya appears surrounded by his disciples, by whom the arguments on each 

 topic are chiefly maintained, Sakya acting generally as moderator, but some- 

 times as sole speaker. The topics discussed are, the great first principles of 

 Buddhism ; the tenets of the four schools of Bauddha Philosophy are mention- 

 ed, but those of the *Swd(^/i^z^i/m alone, largely discussed. The object of the 

 whole work seems rather to be proof of the proposition, that doubt is the end 



4 L 



