The image of white marble, which the mūnshī at Allahabad informed me is that of Parisnāth, see [Vol. i. p. 324], is six inches high; the position differs slightly from that of Buddha, the right palm is laid over the left, and the soles of the feet are shown, one on each side the hands; the head is raised conically; the hair is straight on the crown, and the woolly portion is so managed as to resemble a fillet of beads round the temple. A raised and quadrated lozenge is on the breast, and in the palm of the hand is a small ball. In the centre of the pedestal on which the image is seated is a crescent. The lobes of the ears are elongated to reach the shoulders. Moor informs us that in the museum at the India House, is an image “about fourteen inches high, of a whitish, and I think calcareous, sort of stone: an inscription is on the pedestal, under the crescent, but it is not easily to be made out or copied. This image is, I think, of a very singular and curious description: its curly hair, thick lips, and position mark it decidedly of Buddhaic origin, while its seven heads refer it to a sect of Sauras: hence the appellation of Surya Buddha, appropriately applied to it. The quadrated lozenge on the breast and in the palm of this image, is also unaccounted for, and singular.”
The image of Parisnāth agrees perfectly with the above description, with the exception that it has only one head, and there is no inscription on the pedestal.
Buddha signifies a wise man, and sacya, his other title, means a feeder upon vegetables; he inculcated a total subjugation of sense, and an utter annihilation of passion. According to the religion of Buddha, there are no distinctions of caste. Polygamy is not forbidden by the Buddha doctrine, and it is not uncommon for a man to have a plurality of wives. Priests are forbidden to marry; they are to live by mendicity; are to possess only three garments, a begging dish, a girdle, a razor, a needle, and a cloth to strain the water which they drink, that they may not devour insects. To account for the short, crisp hair on the head of the idol, resembling that of an African, it is said that Buddha, on a certain occasion, cut his hair with a golden sword, and its appearance in consequence was meant to be represented on his images.
There is a tradition among the Cingalese, that one of the kings of Hindūstan, immediately after Buddha’s death, collected together five hundred learned ascetics, and persuaded them to write down on palmyra leaves, from the mouth of one of Buddha’s principal disciples, all the doctrines taught by Buddha in his lifetime. The Cingalese admit they received their religion from the hands of a stranger. The Burmans believe that a Brahman was deputed to Ceylon to copy the histories of the incarnations of Buddha; and it is fabled that the iron stile with which he copied this work, was given him by an heavenly messenger. With the images of Buddha from Ava, were also presented to me four leaves of the palmyra-tree, twenty-three inches in length by two and a half in breadth, on both sides of which are engraved with a stile the religious doctrines of the Burmese. The leaves are held together by two pieces of ribbon passed through holes in them, and are a portion of a work of about three or four inches in thickness. In the plate entitled “[Pūja of the Tūlsī],” the Brahman is reading from palmyra leaves of the same description.
10. KALKĪ, OR THE HORSE.
The Kalkī, or final avatar, is yet to come; in which Vishnŭ will appear incarnate in a human form, for the purpose of dissolving the universe. The Kalkī will be incarnate in the house of the Brahman Bishenjun, the apparent offspring of the sage by his wife Awejsedenee, and will be born in the city of Sambal, towards the close of the Kalī period or Yug, in the month Vaisach, the scorpion. In one hand he is represented bearing aloft a “cimetar, blazing like a comet,” to destroy all the impure, who shall then inhabit the earth; and in the other he displays a circular ornament or ring, the emblem of cycles perpetually revolving, and of which the existing one is on the point of being finally terminated. The Kalkī is represented leading a white horse, richly caparisoned, adorned with jewels, and furnished with wings. The horse is represented standing on three feet only, holding up, without intermission, the right fore-leg; with which, say the Brahmans, when he stamps with fury upon the earth, the present period shall close, and the dissolution of nature take place. Jayadeva thus describes the tenth avatar: “For the destruction of all the impure thou drawest thy cimetar, blazing like a comet: (how tremendous!) O Kesava, assuming the body of Kalkī: Be victorious, O Heri, lord of the universe!”
End of the Kalī-yug, or fourth Indian period, and of the history of the ten avatars.
THE DESCENT OF VISHNŬ AS KRISHNA.
The Preserver appeared on earth in the form of Krishna, who is regarded as Vishnŭ himself, and distinct from the ten avatars. For the history of this god I refer you to [page 118], in which, under the title of Krishnŭ, or Kaniya, is given the history of his life, up to the time that he disappeared from amidst the gopīs, and left them mourning for his absence.
Here, it may be as well to remark, in consequence of an error in that part of my journal, that Dewarkī, the mother of Krishnŭ, was the daughter of the tyrant Kansa; and that Vasudeva, who carried him across the Jumna, was his father.