8 



CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



number of the sermons scattered throughout the works 

 attributed to him. 



It has been supposed by some that different systems of 

 Budhism exist, and that the Budhists of Nepal and other 

 places hold that there is a great first Cause, a Creator, styled 

 Adi Budha, while the Ceylon Budhists are of an atheistical 

 school. It may here only be remarked that the term Adi 

 Budha properly signifies a former or ancient Budha, for the 

 system proceeds on the principle that Truth is invariably the 

 same throughout all generations : that from time to time, 

 and at very long and incalculably distant periods, wise men, 

 perfectly holy, free from the influence of the passions, have 

 arisen, whose desires towards every existing object, and even 

 to existence itself, were entirely extinguished ; and who, by 

 their persevering virtue, having attained a perfect knowledge 

 of universal truth, proclaimed it to others, especially so far 

 as it relates to morals and freedom from the bonds of con- 

 tinued existence : that after a period their doctrines became 

 extinct, no vestige of their teaching being left ; but that 

 after an indefinitely long period, another person, equally wise 

 and pure has arisen, who perceiving the truth proclaims it. 

 As truth remains unchangeably the same, and each of these 

 holy and wise men perceived the whole truth, the doctrines 

 of each successive Budha were identical with those of his 

 predecessors. Goutama's illustration of it is,— That a city, 

 once the capital of a flourishing kingdom, becomes deserted, 

 the country depopulated, and the whole region covered with 

 thick jungle, so that no remembrance of its existence is 

 among men ; but an intelligent person passing through that 

 tract of country, arrives at the site, marks its divisions and 

 boundaries, and is able to erect afresh every edifice which 

 formerly adorned it, so that the new city shall, in all respects, 

 resemble the old one. Thus the successive Budhas built on 

 the eternal foundations of immutable truth. The number of 



