No. 11.— 1858-9.] SINHALESE MYTHOLOGY. 



291 



To return however to the subject of the remarks :— 

 Vishnu is worshipped by the Buddhist as a deva whose name 

 is hallowed by historical and religious associations ; whilst 

 the Hindus treat Buddha as an avatdr or incarnation of 

 Vishnu. The story in the Puranas, is thus related by 

 Wilford, in his Essay on Egypt and the Nile.* 



" The Daityas had asked India, by what means they could attain the 

 dominion of the world ; and he had answered, that they could only attain 

 it by Sacrifice, purification, and piety : they made preparations accordingly 

 for a solemn sacrifice and a general ablution ; but Vishnu, on the interces- 

 sion of the devos, descended in the shape of a Sannydsi, named 

 Buddha, with his hair branded in a knot on the crown of his head, 

 wrapt in a squalid mantle, and with a broom in his hand. Buddha 

 presented himself to the Daityas, and was kindly received by them ; but 

 when they expressed their surprise at his foul vesture, and the singular 

 mplement which he carried, he told them, that it was cruel, and 

 consequently impious to deprive any creature of life ; that, whatever 

 might be said in Vedas, every sacrifice of an animal was an abo- 

 mination, and that purification itself was wicked, because some small 

 insect might be killed in bathing or washing cloth ; that he never 

 bathed, and constantly swept the ground before him, lest he should tread 

 on some innocent reptile : he then expatiated on the inhumanity of giving 

 pain to the playful and harmless kid, and reasoned with such eloquence* 

 that the Daityas wept, and abandoned all thought of ablution and sacrifice. 

 As this Maya, or ' illusive appearance' of Vishnu, frustrated the 

 ambitious project of the Daityas, one of Buddha's titles is ' the son of 

 Mdyd.' He is also named Saya Sinha, or, ' the lion of the race of Sakya ' ' 

 It is probably upon the belief of Gautama being an in- 

 carnation of Vishnu, that the Hindus regard the superficial 

 hollow on Adam's Peak, as the impression which that deva 

 left by stamping the mountain with his foot, t But I may 

 remark, that even intelligent Buddhists of the present day 

 ignore the statement in one of their religious books,— I 

 believe the Sadharmdlankdra—" that Gautama left the print 

 of his foot as a seal, to declare that Lanka would be the 

 inheritance of Buddha." 



* Sir William Jones' works, ii. p. 577. 



f Spence Hardy's ''Eastern Monachism," p. 277. 



