12 



JOURNAL R, A. S. (CEYLON). [Vol. Ill, 



It rests on Jala-poloiva* or the world of waters, 7,680,000 

 miles in depth ; and this is supported on Wd-poloiva, or 

 world of air, 15,360 miles deep ; and this again rests in a 

 vacuum called Ajatdkdsa. 



" Thales," says a late writer, " entertained the idea, that 

 the earth floated on the ocean, whilst Democretes taught 

 that it rested on the air like a bird with its wings outspread." 

 The Buddhist doctrine is in accordance with these opinions. 

 When Milindu, king of Sagal, said to Nagasena, that he could 

 not believe that the earth was supported by the world of 

 water, and this by a world of air, the priest took a syringe 

 and pointed out to him, that the water within the instru- 

 ment was prevented from coming out by the exterior air ; 

 by which the king was convinced that the water under 

 the earth might be supported by the Ajatdkasa.\ Professor 

 Wilson, in his Vishnu Pitrdna, says, " The supreme being 

 placed the earth on the summit of the Ocean, where it floats 

 like a mighty vessel, and from its expansive surface does 

 not sink beneath the Avater." 



One of our poets, in extolling the praises of Buddha to 

 the skies, says, that " the beams of his rays dived through 

 Wd-polowa, and thence proceeded to the end of the immensity 

 of space, Bawaga, — and thence spread themselves throughout 

 the whole Sakwala or universe :" 



£b®e3(3©£)£9 efi© q eestf£)(3z 8eS q 



<£>zE)8 ©03383} o)e)c55 q dltdsa q 



Kd viy ds4khara . 



* According to some of the Hindu legends, the earth rests upon the 

 hack of a tortoise. Thus, in the play entitled Malaii and Madhava : — 



' Thy foot descending spurns the earthly globe, 

 Beneath the weight the broad-hacked tortoise reels.' 



Hindu Plays, ii. p. 58 



According to another passage in the Mudra Eaksha, the earth is 

 supposed to rest on the heads of Sesha, a snake of innumerable heads- 



'A weary burden is the cumbrous earth . 

 On Sesha's head, but still he bears the load.' — ib. p. 185. 



f One of the causes of an earthquake, according to Buddha ; see 

 Bengal A. S. Journal, vii. p. 1,001. 



