Bo. 11.-1858-9.] 



SINHALESE MYTHOLOGY. 



279 



Sixty two artifices, of which Mara was guiity, are 

 spoken of by the votaries of Gautama ; and it is generally 

 believed by them, that he was the founder of all the systems 

 of religions on earth, except Buddhism ; and that he sent our 

 blessed Lord Jesus Christ into the world to set aside Buddh- 

 ism, which was at the time captivating the minds, and 

 winning the affections of thousands in the East. In a little 

 work* extant among the Sinhalese, the following passages 

 occur in reference to the belief above referred to : — 



* This appears to be a fragment of a larger work, entitled the 'His- 

 tories of Milindu and Krista (Christ).' There is no mention whatever of 

 the person by whom it was written. It contains, among other matters, 

 a narrative of the circumstances attending the birth and crucifixion of 

 ' Christ ' of 'Nazareth,' It combines a life of our Saviour, with a few 

 particulars connected with the controversial dialectics of Milindu and 

 Nagasena. The writer does not (as he would, if it were a fabrication 

 give it a show of inspired authencity, by stating it to be the production 

 of a Rabat ; but merely says, that the two stories (whether a tradition 

 handed down, or a written work, it is not clear), were brought down by 

 certain Buddhist priests, who arrived on a religious mission on this 

 Island, during the reign of Vialagam Bahu, which was, according to 

 "Mahavansa," A D., 519: when indeed, we find from the "Mahavansa," 

 a body of priests were assembled, for the first time in the island, to commit 

 to writing the oral traditions concerning the national religion of Lanka. 

 (See " Mahavansa," p. 207. ) The countries too from which the priests 

 came are mentioned, and they are those which frequently occur in other 

 Buddhistical works — " Aramana, Malawa, GUiandara, Pygoa, l elalup, 

 Rakkadu, and Sagal. " The birth of Christ is stated to be in the time of 

 Nagasena 485 A. B. This, it is important to observe, is at variance with 

 the date for the same event assigned in other Buddhistical works. [The 

 v Mahavansa," says that Buddha had predicted the birth of this sage 500 

 years after his death. In the Tibetan annals (see Asiatic Researches, 

 xx. p. 400) the same prediction is recorded and that Nagarjuna would 

 appear 400 years A- B. The Rajd Tarangini shows that this celebrated 

 personage visited Kasmir about 460 A. B. See Bengal Asiatic Society's 

 Journal, v. p. 536.] These discrepancies which unsettle the date given 

 in the " Mahavansa." a book which is considered as sacred as any 

 of the Buddhistical Scriptures, are invested with much importance in a 

 historical point of view, shewing clearly the correctness of Tumour's 

 belief that the Buddhistical era was antedated by Mahanama, or the early 

 historians to whom he was indebted, to the extent of 60 or 65 years. 

 They also intimate, consequently, a strong circumstance in favor 

 of the genuineness of the work here noticed. But it must be borne in 

 mind that this history bears date 2305 A. B. (which is 1762 A. D.) after 

 the Dutch had introduced Christianity amongst the Sinhalese, and long 

 afte- the Portuguese had made the natives acquainted with the history 

 of Jesus Christ. From the language too, in which it is written (and 

 which contains amongst other words the Portuguese word kdnu instead 

 of the Sinhalese nesun for ''ditch,") this appears beyond all manner of 

 doubt to be what it does not disguise to represent— the production of a 

 modern date. Whether, therefore, it is an invention of the Buddhists, a 



