12 On the Code and Historical MSS. of the Siamese, [July 



Java. The fixing any dale for the first introduction of Buddhism 

 into Java must perhaps mainly depend upon that of the expulsion of the 

 Buddhists from the peninsula of India by Brahminical persecution ; 

 without we entertain the supposition that this religion was in the first 

 place introduced and taught by the early Buddhist traders from India 

 or Siam, and afterwards established by the subsequent colonizations of 

 the refugees. To the later settlers may be ascribed the erection of 

 temples and idols to Buddha and the formation of a regular priesthood. 

 The Javans we know, date the commencement of their era (A. D. 75) 

 from the arrival in Java of a personage named Adi-Saka or rather Saca, 

 which according to Sir Wm. Jones is a name for Buddha, and at all 

 events is the title, according to Major Wilford,* of the six glori- 

 bus monarchs, who gave rise to six subordinate periods, into which 

 the Caliyuga is divided. The third of these, Salivahana Saca was 

 "born at Sa'leya Dha-ra in the Deccan, and established an era 

 nearly corresponding to that of the Javanese Saca, and which 

 is used by the Buddhists and natives of Southern India to this 

 day. In a chronological work of the Javans, said to be written by 

 AjiJdya Bdya, we are told that in the 10th yearf of the Javan era 

 20,000 families were sent to Java by the prince of Kaling (or Kalinga) 

 who prospered and multiplied. Most of the Buddhist temples in Java 

 appear to have been built between the 11th and 14th centuries, cor- 

 responding with that ascribed to the final expulsion of Buddhism from 

 India. From Java it may be traced eastward to the now Brahminical 

 island of Bali. From those of Lombok, Sumbaiua, Floves and Timor to 

 the confines of New Guinea little is known. The vast unexplored 

 island of Borneo is said to contain ruins of temples, in which are found 

 inscriptions in characters unknown both to the natives of the island, 

 the Chinese, and the Malays. In Celebes is said to exist an ancient 

 and recondite language, like the Pali of the Siamese, or the Kdwi of 

 the Javans. Many of the best informed Pugis assert their Hindu origin, 

 and their language bears evident traces of Sanscrit or Pali. 



"Whether it ever reached the Philippines is matter of doubt — the 

 Spanish missionaries on the islands have, it is said, taken great pains 

 to extirpate all the ancient records of the Tagdla races, in which the 

 history of their religion and the deeds of their heroes were celebrated 

 in poems and songs. 



Malay Peninsula. South of the Siamese provinces, few indications 

 are found on the Malay peninsula of the Hinduism which is supposed 

 by many intelligent Malays to have formed the religion of its chief 

 princes, prior to the introduction of Islam, from wOiich the commence- 

 ment of the authentic history of the Malayan nation can alone be 



* Chrouoloey— Kiugs of Magadha. As. Res, is. 83. + Rafflea's Java vol. n. page 69„ 



