BUDDHISM. 
237 
enjoy divine meditations in the wilderness. There 
needed only an individual of this class to appear,, en- 
dowed with superior intelligence and favoured by cir- 
cumstances, to collect admirers, followers, disciples ; to 
become the founder of a new religion, and perhaps the 
reformer of the political system. The Brahmins, re- 
lying on their prescriptive power, he would probably 
find at once arrogant and indolent ; he would disco- 
ver the lower classes deprived of knowledge by their 
superiors, and at the same time he would see this 
ignorance made an excuse for withholding their civil 
rights. His first appeal would be made to the poor, 
and it would be eagerly welcomed by a host of par- 
tisans. Such a reformer was found in the person of 
the Buddha Sakia Muni, that is to say, the holy 
hermit Sakia. The dates of his appearance vary con- 
siderably, not only in the different Buddhist nations, 
but in the histories of each nation Schmidt, in his 
Mongolian History, says that he found among the 
Tibetans thirteen different dates, of which the ex- 
tremes are more than a thousand years asunder. 
The latest of these eras is the one adopted by the 
Singhalese, which places Sakia between the years 
b. c. 638 and 542. 
In accordance with the merits attributed to a life 
of celibacy, the Buddhists believe that Sakia was 
born of a pure virgin, that he was a divine incarna- 
tion, and that on his appearance in the world, all the 
inferior deities paid him homage. His supposed father 
was king of Mogadha, in Southern India, and was so 
delighted with the beauty of the boy, that he de- 
clared him heir to his kingdom. 
