[693] "Dhammapadam," v. 300.
[694] Supra, p. 339, 357. Köppen, loc. cit. s. 63-118.
[695] Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 381. Köppen is undoubtedly right in regarding the worship of relics as older than the worship of images. The worship of relics and pilgrimages was in vogue when Açoka became a convert to Buddhism, but nothing is there said of the worship of images. I do not think it a certain fact that there were no images in the grottoes of Buddhagaya which date from Açoka and his grandson Daçaratha; sockets and niches for images are found there (Cunningham, "Survey," 1, 46), and the images may have been removed later; it is more decisive that in the transference of Buddhism to Ceylon, nothing is said of the transportation of images, though we do hear of relics. Rajendralala Mitra ("Antiq. of Orissa," p. 152), concludes from Panini, who as we have seen lived, according to M. Müller and Lassen, in the second half of the fourth century B.C., that at that time there were little idols of Vasadeva, Vishnu, Çiva, and the Adityas. We may assume that the worship of images came into vogue towards the end of the third century, and afterwards rose rapidly.
[696] Burnouf, "Introd." p. 170.
[697] Burnouf, "Introd." p. 180, 195, 262.
[698] This date would be fixed if the passage in Clement of Alexandria: "The Indians who follow the doctrines of Butta, whom they regard with the greatest reverence as a god," certainly came from Megasthenes. Megasth. fragm. 44, ed. Müller.
[699] Burnouf, loc. cit. p. 132, 139.
[700] This is the Mahastupa of king Dushatagamani of Ceylon. Lassen, loc. cit. 2, 426, 454.
[701] Köppen, "Relig. des Buddha," s. 402, 430.
[702] "Dhammapadam," v. 44, 235, 237.