468 NOTICE OF 



REMARKS. 



Besides the peculiar purport of the allusions contained in the preceding 

 verses, they suggest a few general considerations which may be here briefly 

 adverted to. 



It is clear that the Bauddha religion, as cultivated in Nepal, is far from 

 being so simple and philosophical a matter as has been sometimes imagined. 

 The objects of worship are far from being limited to a few persons of mortal 

 origin, elevated by superior sanctity to divine honours, but embrace a variety 

 of modifications and degrees more numerous and complicated, than even the 

 ample Pantheon of the Brahmans. A portion of the heavenly host is borrow- 

 ed, it is true, from the Brahmanical legends, but a sufficient variety is traceable 

 to original sources, both amongst the Swabhdvikas and Aiswarikas, and either 

 spontaneously engendered, or created by some of the manifestations oiiheAdi 

 Buddha^ or Supreme Being. Such are the Bodhisatwas, and the Lokeswaras^ 

 and a number of inferior divinities, both male and female, that are not bor- 

 rowed from either the Saiva or Sdkta sects. 



It is a subject of important inquiry, in what degree these divinities are 

 peculiar to Nepal, and whether they are acknowledged by the Bauddhas in 

 other countries. There can be little doubt, that they are recognised by the 

 Bauddhas of Tibet and Chinese Tartary, and some of them are traceable in Chi- 

 na. It is very doubtful, however, if they form part of the theocracy of Ceylon, 

 Ava, and Siam. In the first of these we find inferior divinities, some of them fe-^ 

 males, worshipped ^ but they do not, as far any description enables us to judge, 

 offer any analogy to the similar beings reverenced in Nepal, In Ava and 

 Siam^ nothing of the kind apparently occurs, although in the existence of NatSs 



