40 
farat Candra Das — Note on Dokalzang. [Feb. 
be very indistinct. “Dokalzang” is considered holiest among the 108 
volumes of the Kahgyur collection, on account of its containing the 
names of 1,005 Buddhas of the present Kalpa, a forecast of future Bud¬ 
dhism and its power for leading humanity to the state of Bodhi , or En¬ 
lightenment. There is a small picture at each end of the title-page. [See 
Plate No. I.] One of them is Buddha ^akya Muni with a disc of Saint’s 
glory of blue light round his head, and the other is Maitreya, the coming 
Buddha. On the back of these two figures of Buddhas there are two rain¬ 
bows shewing their celestial position. An equal number of disciples and 
followers attend them both. In the picture of pakya Muni his two 
disciples, ^ariputra and Maud Galyayana, are offering him food from 
their alms-bowls. Ananda, his personal attendant, is waiting for orders^ 
and Subhuti is standing in a devotional mood to note down whatever 
may drop from his lips in the way of instruction. An Indian king with 
his wife and child sits on the floor at the foot of Buddha’s seat, in 
anxious expectation of hearing his sermons. The child is looking to 
the father for wisdom who is dressed in blue typifying worldliness. 
The Tibetan artist having no idea of the dress of an Indian Nani has 
made the queen look like the wife of a Dokpa chieftain of Northern 
Tibet. In the picture of Maitreya, his disciples are offering him burnt 
incense, and a basket full of gems, gold and silver. A Tibetan high¬ 
lander, sitting on his knees, with his wife and child, is offering him a 
large blue gem, called Indra Nila. The child is looking to his mother 
in love for love. The father is dressed in yellow shewing more of re¬ 
ligion. The coming Buddha Maitreya—the personification of love — will 
bring the Mahay an a Buddhism to perfection. He can, therefore, accept 
gold and silver. Buddha fakya Muni was an ascetic, and called Mahd 
Qramanaoi the highest order, he having absolutely renounced the world, 
and preached the (Jravaka doctrine of perfect poverty, and not touch gold, 
silver, &c. In some pictures and wood engravings of Tibet, Maitreya, the 
coming Buddha, is seated on a chair—a posture which is evidently foreign 
to India. As the Mahayana School of Buddhism obtained its highest de¬ 
velopment in the Bactrian Empire of the Greeks, which included in it 
Kashmir, Cabul, Kandahar, Herat, and the valley of the Oxus, &c., it is 
probable that from there the Light of the East was transmitted 
Westward, or that Christianity was foreshadowed in Sanskrit Bud¬ 
dhist works. The similarity of Christianity to Mahayana Buddhism is 
striking and Maitreya, the coming Messiah of the Buddhists, who is 
now the Regent of the Lord in Heaven, called Tushita, will come to 
this Earth to make all mankind blessed and glorious. 
The two pictures represent the two stages in the spiritual progress 
of Humanity. The first picture shows a condition of progressive self- 
