108 



as 217 b. c. ;* that Buddhism obtained so great a hold and spread 

 so widely throughout the Chinese dominions, that by 65 A. d. it 

 was officially recognized as the third religion of the state ; and 

 that high state functionaries were about that time sent to India 

 by the Emperor Ming-ti of the dynasty of Han, for the purposes 

 of studying its doctrines at the fountain-head, and translating into 

 the Chinese language its most important works ;f it is by no means 

 likely, that, if a belief existed amongst the Buddhists of India at 

 that early period, that the Founder of their Faith had left behind 

 him so tangible a memento of his presence in Ceylon, as his foot-print 

 on the summit of the Samanala— such belief would not have been 

 carried to and become prevalent in China. But, as we have seen, and 

 other writers have shewn, neither in the antient Burmese annals,! 

 nor in those of Cashmire, Nepaul or Thibetia, nor yet in the narrative 

 of the original propagation, of Buddhism in Ceylon by Mahinda, as 

 recorded in the Mahawanso, is there any ground for supposing that 

 such a belief existed; and as there is no mention of any such belief 

 in the account of Buddha's three mythic visits to the island, given 

 in the Dipawansa, it follows, that it is exceedingly unlikely such a 

 belief could have obtained currency in China ; and therefore, that 

 the supposition, — that " the sacred foot-mark impressed by the first' 

 created man " spoken of by the Chinese in the beginning of the 



* Foe Koue Ki, p. 41, and xxxviii. preface. 



f Professor Max Muller's ' Chips from a German Workshop,' article 1 Buddhist 

 Pilgrims,' vol. i. pp. 258-9. 



% The modern Burmese are as devout worshippers of the Srf-pada as the modem 

 Sinhalese ; the Buddhists on the banks of the Irrawady having apparently accepted 

 the legends current in Ceylon without inquiry or demur. But some of the more 

 intelligent of their priesthood, as well as those from Siam, have had their faith 

 rudely shocked, when at the end of their toilsome pilgrimage up the Samanala, 

 they have looked upon the chiselled and cemented hollow which they were told 

 was the veritable Foot print of Gautama Buddha. 



