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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
The particulars to be brought forward in this paper relative to the travels of the Siamese Budd‚ha, and the Phrabát, or divine Foot, have chiefly been derived from Bali and Siamese books. It must be premised, that this Budd‚ha is the Bali Thakaro Srí Sacya Muní Khodama, or Khodom, who is venerated by all the Indo-Chinese nations, and whose doctrines and ordinances materially cóntribute to form their national character. It is impossible, however, to treat these subjects without being led back to times long antecedent to those of the Siamese Budd‚ha; for his worshippers have frequently mixed up with his history traditions respecting the elder Budd‚ha. The learned Mr. Wilson, as quoted by Mr. Crawfurd in the interesting account of his mission to Siam, describes the original Budd‚ha to have been a Tartar or Scythian, who flourished 1000 years B.C. But the age of the Siamese Budd‚ha was 542 B.C.; and the Bali writings rate it at ten antara calpas of years subsequent to the appearance of the third of that name, or Phokaro Kassapho P‚hutdo. The same number of calpas is supposed to have intervened betwixt each Budd‚ha and his successor. The Siamese one, according to the Bali Ratana Kalapa (head Maha Samatí Wangsa), was Sídd‚hatta Kumara, son of king Sudod‚hana and his queen Maha Maya. Sídd‚hatta married Bimba, alias Subhadda Kachaiyena, and they had a son named Rahula.
page 57 note * Bud‚ha denotes a sage; Budd‚ha, a prophet. (Asiat. Res.)
page 57 note † The writers on Indian chronology assert, that Budd‚ha, the ninth avatar of Vishnu, was born to confound the demons or idolaters, in the 156th year of the Kali yug; and that his age includes five thousand years; which last is the exact period allotted by the Siamese for that of their Budd‚ha, as specified in the Milinda Raja, a Báli work. Some have supposed that this avatar has reference to Noah, and that he visited India. Like Brahma and Bacchus, he planted the vine in the countries through which he travelled; but the parallel betwixt them and the latter Budd‚ha cannot be carried go far; since this last, during his peregrination, inculcated, as a main article of his doctrine, a total abstinence from wine. According to Bryant, Dionuses, Bacchus, and Budd‚ha, all, in respect to worship, have reference to the sun.
page 58 note * This description may remind the reader versed in Indian lore, of the White Island of the Sanscrit legend, supposed by a celebrated writer to allude to Britain, (a) No account, however, is given by the Buddhists, as far as I have yet been able to discover, of the place where this island, Kírí Dwípa, rested. Perhaps the fable may have reference to some catastrophe by which Ceylon was separated from the continent.
page 58 note † If Budd‚ha really visited Ceylon at this period, it could scarcely have been his first visit: for he went to Vamian, to defeat the schemes of the Daityas, when he was “seven years above eight old;” (b) and “he obtained a victory over Mara and his hosts on the “sixth month of the ninth year of the cycle.” (c)
page 58 note ‡ According to Wilford,(d) Ceylon was depopulated by the wars of Rávan (the Thotsakán of the Siamese), and remained in that state for 1845 years. Which Rávan was, according to the Puranas, the brother of Cavéra, and flourished ann. 1800 B.C. This account seems to correspond with that-supplied by Lieut. Mahony, in his work on Ceylon; who observes, that Vijiraja and his followers came in a ship from the eastward in the sixth century B.C. Nearly about the same period, when according- to the text, Budd‚ha entered into Niván, or Immortality; and when
(a) Asiatic Researches.
(b) Asiatic Researches.
(c) Bali Ratana Kalapa.
(d) Asiatic Researches.
his religion was probably first disseminated among the Indo-Chinese nations. This was about twelve hundred years anterior to the time when the Siamese branched off from their parent stock, the Northern Lao or Laos.
page 59 note * Mr. Crawfurd's Mission to Siam.
page 59 note † The Siamese only recognize one Lanca, or Ceylon; and have no traditions, that have yet been ascertained, of the Hindú Lanca. The Salmala Dwípa of the Puránas, according to a preface (therein adverted to) to the Surya Sidhanta, commented on by Sir W. Jones (a) lies at a distance of four hundred and twenty-two yojanas, or 3,800 miles, to the east of Lanca; bringing it to the Gulf of Siam, and to that part beyond or east of Malacca.
(a) Asiatic Researches.
page 61 note * The site of this town or place is not described, nor shall it be here attempted to fix it. A speculative etymologist might, perhaps, find it in Egypt, where Mr. Wilford has placed the shell king Sanchásura A country called Sangkaya Pariwana, is described in the Milinda Raja as that of a celebrated Arahanta, named in the Bali Ayupala.
page 61 note † Nanda was the prince who afforded one Budd‚ha protection when he fled from Cars, a tyrant of the East, about A.M. 2400.(a) The third Budd‚ha, son of Jaina, according to the author of the “Key to Hindu Chronology,” might have been Noah. “He visited Magadha, according to Hindu accounts, in the year 2100 B.C., or two years after the period when king Pradyata, son of the king of Magadha, was put to death by his prime minister. This latter placed his own son on the throne, which dynasty endured till Andhara, about 452 B.C., when Magadha ceased to be an independent kingdom.” This date was 90 years prior to the death of Budd‚ha, and nearly agrees with that of his birth, viz. B.C. 462.
(a) Asiatic Researches.
page 62 note * Perhaps this king was the Samalya Raja, a contemporary of Chandragupta and of Alexander the Great, according to the Asiatic Researches, (a)
page 62 note † Sir W. Jones assures us, that in the Purmas mention is made of a white mountain on which king Sravana sate meditating on the divine foot of Vishnu at the station Trivirama.
page 62 note ‡ In M. de la Loubère's map, however, it is placed on the left or east bank. It is about ten miles distant from the banks of that river. Vide M. de la Loubère's account of the Phrabát in his History of Siam.
(a) Vol. v. p. 262.
page 63 note * Although I cannot at once agree with the learned Wilford, in supposing that Arahan was the Siamese Budd‚ha, since the Siamese distinctly avow the contrary, by enumerating no less than eight chief Arahans; yet the following remark is curious and deserving of attention, viz. “That it was this personage who left impressions of his feet on rocks in very remote countries, as monuments of his extensive travels.” (a) And it will have appeared from the Bali account; here given, that the Siamese describe P‚hra P‚hutt‚ha to have been no despicable traveller, as he traversed the four quarters of the world.
page 63 note † Essay on Egypt and the Nile in “Asiatic Researches.”
page 63 note ‡ The genuineness of this table has, however, been called in question by some writers; although not so in “Maurice's Indian Antiquities.”
(a) Essay on Egypt and the Nile in “Asiatic Researches.”
page 64 note * Mr. Crawfurd, in his mission to Siam before noticed, seems to be of opinion that the Hindu gods are only tolerated.
page 65 note * Asiatic Researches.
page 65 note † Asiatic Researches vol. iii.
page 66 note * Asiatic Researches, vol. iv.Google Scholar
page 67 note * In the Ratana Kalapa, a Bali Work.
page 67 note † Researches on the Tenets, &c. of the Jeynes and Budhists, p. 181.
page 68 note * The Siamese, independent of their belief, in common with all Asiatics, in the possibility of transmuting various substances into gold, are also attached to the quixotic search for it over distant regions.
page 69 note * Plate II.
page 70 note * Asiatic Researches, vol. xii. p. 283.Google Scholar
page 71 note * Plate III.
page 72 note * Wilkins's Bhagavat.
page 72 note † Maurice's Indian Antiquities.
page 72 note ‡ Asiatic Researches, vol. viii.Google Scholar
page 72 note § Ibid.
page 72 note ‖ In the Ratana Kalapa the Chakkra, there termed Wajéra Aúd‚ha, is described as one of the missile weapons of India.
page 72 note ¶ Maurice.
page 73 note * Bombay Literary Transactions, vol. iii. p. 310.Google Scholar
page 74 note * Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 77.Google Scholar
page 74 note † Ibid. vol. xi. p. 113.
page 77 note * Meru was the seat of the ruler of the world (Asiatic Researches, Vol. v.Google Scholar); consequently Indra was king of some powerful empire. It is also supposed to have been a mountain near the city of Naishada, or Nysa, or Dionessopolis (Ibid.); and again, Meru is supposed to have stood in latitude 45°, in Tartary. ( Vide ibid.)
page 77 note † In the third volume of the Milinda Raja, already quoted, it is stated that the earth u suspended like water in the inside of an exhausted receiver, d‚hamma karka.
page 78 note * Vol. viii. p. 260.
page 78 note † Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 260.Google Scholar
The ranges of Meru have been supposed to represent parallels of latitude; and hence the Jainas make the outermost largest.
page 79 note * But (as Dr. Buchanan has observed, citing Sangermano's translation respecting the Burman Zadumaharit), with this exception, that in coitu non semen, sed solum cera vel ventum emittunt.
page 79 note † Vide Sangermano's account given by Dr. Buchanan. Asiatic Researches, vol. vi.Google Scholar
page 82 note * Yama is also a name of the cheif ruler in Naraka, or hell; but Budd‚ha according to the Ralana Kalapa, said that “there is no such personage, but that the wicked see him only in their minds.”
page 83 note * All these gradations seem only intended to shadow out the abstraction from earthly affections and passions, supposed to accompany the gradual rise of the beings alluded to on the ladder to perfect virtue.
page 83 note † Vide Maurice for these remarks.
page 84 note * In Dr. Buchahan's account of the Burman religion, we find that Sangeraiano describes the world as being, out of sixty-four times, destroyed fifty-six times by fire, seven times by water, and once by wind; and Lieut.-Colonel Francklin states, that the Indian Buddhists are taught that there are four superior heavens, which are not destroyed at all, at the end of a Kalpa, or given period of time.
page 85 note * It may be here remarked, that Ireland had its Calpa Vricsha, or tree of knowledge and plenty, (a) It is the Padeza Bayn of the Burmans, mentioned by Dr. Buchanan.
(a) Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 56.Google Scholar
page 90 note * This might lead us to suppose that there were two hells, or Maha Naraka, below each Dwípa. Sangertnano's description of the Burtnan religion, quoted by Dr. Buchanan, very closely agrees with this: and I think they have derived their knowledge from the same source originally, but somewhat more corrupted in its passage to them than towards the Siamese. He has also, no doubt, made his extracts from Burman versions of the sacred text, or his proper names would have retained an orthography more consistent with the Sanscrit. I have not room here to quote any of his translations on this subject. The Burmans and Siamese agree in thinking that “Sin by its own weight sinks the offender to hell.”
page 91 note * Colonel Wilford describes the Merupa, or Meropes of Homer, to be lords of the mountain Meru, called Ila; hence Ileyam, Ilium. The Meropes are immortals, and fight, at each renovation of the world, with the giants for the Amrit, or nectar of immortality, and for Lacshmé, or Helena, Helen. In Ila there is a Troiam, or triad, of towers, dedicated to the three great gods.
page 92 note * Asiatic Researches, vol. vi.Google Scholar
page 93 note * In the Bali works, Milínda Raja and Ratana Kalapa, the Manutsa are divided into four classes; viz.
1. Manutsa Merayéka, who sin by killing living things.
2. Preta, who wander about in poverty and distress, like ghosts.
3. Téa-chana, who are like beasts, and despise human institutions.
4. Manussa, who discriminate betwixt good and evil, and adhere to virtue.
Their ideas, conveyed in the latter work regarding original sin, may be gathered from the following curious passages:
Some mothers go seven months only with child, and they eat acid things: it must be deemed that their children are animated by souls which have escaped from Naraha, or hell. Others eat clay, and go eight months with child; their children get souls from the Prettas, or spirits. Some eat leaves, grass, and the like; they give birth in nine months to children, whose souls are derived from animals. And lastly, many pregnant women eat flesh, and after ten months give birth to children, whose souls are derived from the human species.
page 95 note * Esculapius, the Grecian god of physic, according to Lieut.-Colonel Francklin, has the emblem of a serpent among his attributes.
page 95 note † The Milínda Raja.
page 95 note ‡ Vol. viii. Asiatic Researches, p. 74.Google Scholar
page 95 note § Vide Asiatic Researches.
page 96 note * In the preface to the Phrá Pat‚hama, the Siamese work already quoted, Raja Naga's brother is represented as having secreted the Manì, or inestimable jewel. He is followed by a priest of Lanca to Meru; where, finding him asleep with his mouth wide open, he speedily regains the precious treasure.
The Indian Parus Nauth, the deified mortal, has generally five expanded Jaina serpents' hoods to point him out.—Lieut.-Colonel Francklin on Serpent Worship.
page 96 note † Asiatic Researches, Maurice, and other writers.
page 96 note ‡ It has also been discovered by Wilson, that in the temple of Ipsambúl, in Nubia, the serpent is represented climbing round a tree. And, in a drawing in my possession of the incarnations of Budd‚ha, he is pourtrayed as a snake climbing up a pyramid.
The serpent is found depicted in Javanese temples, according to the late Sir S. Raffles.—History of Java.
page 97 note * In Lieut.-Colonel Francklin's interesting researches on the Jeynes and Booddhists, published since the foregoing remarks were written, he has given an interesting account of the Serpent Worship. He observes, that it was mixed with the Jewish ordinances; that the dragon, or great serpent, was worshipped in Babylon, in the reign of Cyrus, as recorded in the Apocrypha. Bryant observes that, in the orgies of Bacchus, the persons who performed the ceremony carried serpents in their hands, calling with horrid screams upon Eva, or the Serpent. Thermutis, or Ob-oub, or Basileus, was the royal serpent of Egypt. The Cuthites had always some legends of a serpent. At Colchis, Thebes, and Delphi, the same worship prevailed. The serpent, according to Montfaucon, was a symbol of the sun: and Eusebius has observed that a serpent within a circle, touching it at the two opposite extremes, signifies the good genius, the Eudaimon of the Greeks. Vossius, in his 63d chapter, on Pagan Idolatry, details the origin of the serpent worship, affirming that it commenced in Chaldea. Pythagoras brought the worship from Egypt Ur Greece, and thence it passed into Italy. The serpentine pillar of the Hippodrome, and the temple at Delphi, were erected in honour of Apollo, in commemoration of his victory over the great serpent Python. Esculapius, the Grecian god of physic, has a serpent emblem amongst his attributes.
In Persia, Zoroaster, or Zerdusht, is represented as girded by a serpent: and in one hand of the figure, which represents the planet Saturn, is the serpent.
In India the serpent Vasuka, whom the Surs and Assurs used as a rope in churning the ocean, is too well known to need description.
In the time of Pausanias a statue of Minerva was to be seen at Argos made of marble, and which exhibited two serpents unfolded at her feet, and protected by her shield.
Colonel F. further notices that the serpent worship prevailed in Russia, and other northern nations, and also in Mexico and Peru. Faber describes the Vitzliputuli, or deity of Mexico, as holding in his right hand a staff, cut in form of a serpent; while the four corners of the Mexican ark terminated in carved representations of serpents' heads. Here also was the Cihnacohuatziti, or “woman of our flesh,” who was represented with a great serpent. The Evil Being of the Goths is said to have had two children, Death and an immense serpent; the latter of which winded himself round the whole globe of the earth. The Goths were a branch of the Cuthites, who came from the Indian Caucasus; and Thor, or Woden, is the Budd‚ha of India, the great father of Scandinavian mythology, who dragged the serpent Midgard from the bottom of the sea. In Stonehenge the serpent Hu was venerated: and the circle at Ahury enclosed two other circles, and was attached to an enormous snake formed of upright stones, with a fourth circle for its head, (a) This god is represented with wings. In conclusion, he observes, that it would appear that the royal sacred serpent of Egypt, the serpent Canophis, or Cneph, as seen in the temples of Thebais;—the serpentine deity of Persia, as represented on the walls of Persepolis, and at Nakshi Rustam;—the serpentine devices of the Chinese;—the globe and winged serpent of the Chaldean Magi;—the great serpent Ananta Sesha Naga, and Vasuka, of Hindu mythology;—the Mexican serpent;—and the Midgard of Scandinavia, all spring from one and the same source.
page 98 note * I believe, the author of the Key to Hindu Chronology.
page 98 note † Vol. viii. Asiatic Researches.Google Scholar
page 98 note ‡ Asiatic Researches.
(a) Faber.
page 101 note * Key to Hindu Chronology.
page 102 note * The Siamese Kings use a seal with a lion impressed thereon, especially on great occasions. A seal engraved with a flowering lotus is ordinarily employed; sometimes a Yaksha is pourtrayed. Lieutenant-Colonel Francklin states, that the statue of Budd‚ha, as large as life, in the Bhilsa temple, is seated on a throne supported by four lions couchant. Lions are frequent at the portals of Burman temples; but they appeared to me of a very nondescript species.
page 104 note * Mr. H. T. Colebrooke informs us, that a bull is the characteristic mark of the first deified saint of the Jainas, whose name was Rishab‚ha. He is the bull of Isoura or Iswara, Apis or Ap, the “Golden Bull:” and we learn from Mr. Maurice, that the white bull of Siva corresponds to that bull which is the emblem of Osiris, and is sacred to him. It seems also, that the ancient Britons used to sacrifice the bull, like the Aswamedha Jug, or horse-sacrifice of India; the Druids on the 1st of April (a) being accustomed to immolate two white bulls which had never known the yoke.
page 104 note † Asiatic Researches, vol. vii.Google Scholar
(a) In this month, April, the sun enters Tanrus; but the idea of Sol in Tauro was derived by the Druids from their Brahman progenitors, and from them it decends to the Romans.
In the next month the English May-pole was erected, which we can scarcely doubt, with reference to the religion of which it formed a part, Was a Phallic emblem. The Hindus erect a May-pole on the same day. The Druids on the 1st of April kindled fires, typical of the solar ray.
page 105 note * It is well known that cow dung is profusely used by the Hindus of the present day, both as a personal unguent, and as a purificatory wash for their house-floors and temples.
page 107 note * Wilford says, “We are assured by Tacitus, that one of the oldest and most powerful of the German nations worshipped Isis in the form of a ship. From Egypt the type was imported to Greece, and an umbilicus of white marble was kept at Delphi.”
page 108 note * Mr. H. T. Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches—The Jainas, according to Maurice, worshipped the lotus because it was the product of water, supposed esse initium rerum.
page 108 note † Asiatic Researches, vol. v.Google Scholar
page 109 note * One of this description has been known to have been sold for two hundred pounds sterling, according to Mr. Crawford. The left-handed buccinum, as Sir W. Jones remarked, is an accompaniment to the paintings of Crishna; and the Pluto of the Hindu mythology holds in his hand the holy shell.
page 110 note * Asiatic Researches, vol. v.Google Scholar
page 110 note † Crishna used the conch which he drew from the oceanin his search for two lost children; and the Jamabos, or mountain priests of Japan, as Kempfer tells us, employ a shell of the same species as an emblem of their sect. According likewise to Mr. Colebrooke's account of the Jainas, the chank is a characteristic symbol of their twenty-second god, or Nemi Nath.
page 111 note * Asiatic Researches, vol. iii.Google Scholar
page 111 note † A tortoise is the emblem of Munisuvrata, the twentieth deified saint of the Jainas, according to Mr. H. T. Colebrooke.
page 112 note * Mr. H. T. Colebrooke mentions, that the Macara, or marine monster, is the mark of the ninth Jaina god, called Pushpadanta.
page 112 note † Tab. ix. fig. 7.
page 112 note ‡ The woods of Siam, and the Peninsula of Malacca, shelter birds of the most splendid plumage, from the quail up through the numerous varieties of the partridge and jungle cock, to the peacock and Argus pheasant. It is much to be regretted, that in these regions the pursuits of the naturalist can only be continued as it were by stealth, the jealousy of barbarous governments combining with the unhealthiness of thinly peopled and thickly wooded countries, to retard all systematic investigation.
page 115 note * The Chippewans believe that a mighty bird, whose eyes were fire, whose glances were lightning, and the clapping of whose wings was thunder, was once the sole inhabitant of the globe.—Vide Mackenzie's “Pacific Ocean.”
page 116 note * The antient records of Egypt show that the first king of the world was killed by an amphibious animal, or “Lord of the River,” i.e. the Lunar race; implying that he was overcome by a prince of the Lunar race.
page 117 note * In their Histories of Phra Pat‚hom he seems alluded to under the title of Utt‚hakhut (Assagutta in Bali), who performed sundry miracles. The Maha Rishis are elsewhere the seven preceptors, or great saints; Adam being the first. This Maha Rusí has his rosary of 108 beads, to note so many prayers or sentences. The Brahmans, the Buddhists, the antient Mexicans, the Romans, the Chinese, the Mussulmans, and the Roman Catholic Christians, all use beads.
page 120 note * Lieut-Colonel Tod's Méwar.
page 121 note * In the Bali writings air is represented as contending with air. The Siamese say that Ramasun (they cannot pronounce the r final in Sur) fights, or fought with Phra Een, or Indra; i.e. the Assurs contend with the god of the firmament.
page 121 note † Bombay Literary Transactions, vol. iii.Google Scholar
page 121 note ‡ Burkhardt describes an oval sacred stone as existing at Mecca, which pilgrims kiss.
page 122 note * Colonel Tod's Mewar, in the second volume of these Transactions.
page 122 note † Ibid.
page 122 note ‡ Vide Foreign Quarterly, No. vii. Art. Elder Edda.
page 122 note § Lieut.-Colonel Tod's Mewar.
page 122 note ‖ Elder Edda, Foreign Quarterly.
page 122 note ¶ Ibid.
page 122 note * The Rev. Professor Lee's Translation, published by the Oriental Translation Committee, p. 30.Google Scholar