us 



An Essay on Early Relations 



[No. 37, 



few false, and dazzling, etymological resemblances, or perverted 

 comparisons. Sir W. Jones did not run into such extremes ; 

 though, at times, sufficiently desultory and fanciful. Thus 

 with his mind full of the Dionysiacs of the monk Nonnus, 

 he sought for resemblances between the hero, and the Sacya, 

 whom his researches had led him to identify with Budd'ha ; 

 and then came the curly hair of the images of Budd'ha, with 

 the conclusion that Sacya or Budd'ha, must have been an 

 African negro ; followed by discussions, whether he invaded 

 India from Egypt or Assyria ; issuing in the greater probabi- 

 lity of the latter hypothesis ! A magnificent house of cards, blown 

 down by the breath of a not very learned sepoy. Here I can- 

 not but again acknowledge (as I have variously done heretofore) 

 the service done to inquiries into past Indian ages by the late 

 Honorable G. Turnour in his translation of the Mahawanso, (a 

 genuine book of Pali or Bauddhistical annals), because of its 

 clear statement of the origin of Bauddhism at Magadha in Bengal, 

 and the manner of its origination. It has become clear, that the 

 first stages in the process of the great schism, were not perceptible 

 to the Brahmans of that day, because it only assumed the aspect 

 of carrying Brahmanism itself on towards greater refinement, and 

 purity ; and Buddha, though of royal descent, was at first a close 

 ascetic ; so that from the union of royal blood and abstracted de- 

 votedness, we may readily perceive how the Brahmans were dis- 

 posed to consider him as an avatar of Vishnu : a circumstance 

 not easily to be read back again afterwards : though now the 

 Brahmans generally execrate the idea, and contrive a double ava- 

 tdra in the family of Crislina to supply the chasm. But Budd'ha, 

 while simply a devotee, wore the before-mentioned devotee's cap 

 of curly hair ; proved by his images, and pictures, every where ; 

 and the long ears and flattened nose are not peculiar characte- 

 ristics of Africans : for they are found in Assam, and provinces 

 contiguous to the ancient Magadha, and may have been common 

 there also. A very simple explanation thus seems, to me, to be 

 afforded of a knotty point, which it cost Sir W. Jones extraordi- 

 nary pains, and learning to endeavour to untie ; in consequence 

 of too hastily assuming that Budd'ha Sacya must have been an 

 African ; and without after all succeeding beyond mere hypothesis ; 

 crumbling at the simplest touch of the wand of truth. 



