[321] Lieut. Cole, ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,’ p. 23, plates 37 and 38.
[322] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ 1866, p. 101, et seqq.
[323] ‘Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,’ p. 11, plates 6 to 11.
[324] Cunningham, ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ Sept. 1848, p. 256.
[325] ‘Raja Tarangini,’ vol. i. verse 170.
[326] ‘Vie et Voyages,’ vol. i. p. 96.
[327] Nepal is fortunate in having possessed in Mr. Brian H. Hodgson one of the most acute observers that ever graced the Bengal Civil Service. At the time, however, when he was Resident in the valley, none of the questions mooted in this work can be said to have been started; and he was mainly engrossed in exploring and communicating to others the unsuspected wealth of Buddhist learning which he found in Nepal, and the services he rendered to this cause are incalculably great. Nor did he neglect the architecture. I have before me a short manuscript essay on the subject, only four sheets foolscap, with about one hundred illustrations, which, if fully worked out, would be nearly all that is required. Unfortunately there are neither dates nor dimensions, and the essay is so short, and the drawings, made by natives, so incomplete, that it does not supply what is wanted; but, if worked out on the spot and supplemented by photographs, it might be all that is required.
[328] A curious mistake occurs in Buchanan Hamilton’s ‘Account of the Kingdom of Nepal.’ At page 57 he says: “Gautama, according to the best authorities, lived in the sixth century B.C., and Sakya in the first century A.D. The doctrines of Sakya Singha differ most essentially from those of Gautama.” In the writings of any other man this would be put down as a stupid mistake, but he was so careful an observer that it is evident that his informers confounded the founder of the Saka era—whether he was Kanishka or not—with the founder of the religion, though they seem to be perfectly aware of the novelty of the doctrines introduced by Nagárjuna and the fourth convocation. He adds, page 190, that Buddhism was introduced into Nepal A.D. 33, which is probably, however, fifty years too early—if, at least, it was consequent on the fourth convocation.
[329] Buchanan Hamilton, ‘Account of the Kingdom of Nepal,’ p. 12.
[330] Ibid., p. 49.