[77]Buddhism began to lose ground in India about the fourth or fifth century after Christ, but it maintained a chequered career for several succeeding centuries even after Hiouen Thsang’s time. See [p. 161].
[78]First, the Vedic triad of gods, Agni, ‘Fire,’ Indra, ‘wielder of the thunderbolt,’ and Sūrya, ‘the Sun,’ followed by the Tri-mūrti or Brahmā, Ṡiva, and Vishṇu. Then the three Guṇas or constituents of the material Universe, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, and lastly the triple name of Brahmă, Sać-ćid-ānanda.
[79]Sarat Chandra Dās, in his interesting Tibetan journal, describes them as the ‘three Holies.’
[80]Edited by Childers. See Journal R. A. S., N. S. iv. 318, and Kern’s Buddhismus, ii. 156.
[81]Legge’s Fā-hien, pp. 112-116.
[82]Capt. Temple states that the Saṅgha is personified in Sikkim under the form of a man holding a lotus in his left hand, the right hand being on the right knee.
[83]Probably all the images of Dharma are meant to be female, as described in the [note on the same page], and at [p. 485].—Corr.
[84]According to Capt. Temple, Dharma, ‘the law,’ is personified in Sikkim as a white woman with four arms, two raised in prayer, the third holding a garland (or rosary), the fourth a lotus.
[85]One legend says:—‘Thus, O monks, Buddha was born, and the right side of his mother was not pierced, was not wounded. It remained as before.’ Foucaux, p. 97. Hiouen Thsang relates that there is a Vihāra at Kapila-vastu indicating the spot ‘where the Bodhi-sattva descended spiritually into the womb of his mother,’ and that there is a representation of this scene drawn in the Vihāra. I have myself seen many representations of it in Buddhist sculptures.
[86]Beal’s Records, i. 228.