Chapter BUCK to BUDDHA of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

great and superb Pagodas.”—Couto, Dec. V., liv. vi. cap. 2.

[1615.—“The image of Dibottes, with the hudge collosso or bras imadg (or rather idoll) in it.”—Cocks’s Diary, i. 200.]

c. 1666.—“There is indeed another, a seventh Sect, which is called Bauté, whence do proceed 12 other different sects; but this is not so common as the others, the Votaries of it being hated and despised as a company of irreligious and atheistical people, nor do they live like the rest.”—Bernier, E. T., ii. 107; [ed. Constable, 336].

1685.—“Above all these they have one to whom they pay much veneration, whom they call Bodu; his figure is that of a man.”— Ribeiro, f. 40b.

1728.—“Before Gautama Budhum there have been known 26 Budhums—viz.:.…” —Valentijn, v. (Ceylon) 369.

1753.—“Edrisi nous instruit de cette circonstance, en disant que le Balahar est adorateur de Bodda. Les Brahmènes du Malabar disent que c’est le nom que Vishtnu a pris dans une de ses apparitions, et on connoît Vishtnu pour une des trois principales divinités Indiennes. Suivant St. Jerôme et St. Clément d’Alexandrie, Budda ou Butta est le legislateur des Gymno-Sophistes de l’Inde. La secte des Shamans ou Samanéens, qui est demeurée la dominante dans tous les royaumes d’au delà du Gange, a fait de Budda en cette qualité son objet d’adoration. C’est la première des divinités Chingulaises ou de Ceilan, selon Ribeiro. Samano-Codom (see GAUTAMA), la grande idole des Siamois, est par eux appelé Putti.”— D’Anville, Éclaircissemens, 75. What knowledge and apprehension, on a subject then so obscure, is shown by this great Geographer! Compare the pretentious ignorance of the flashy Abbé Raynal in the quotations under 1770.

1770.—“Among the deities of the second order, particular honours are paid to Buddou, who descended upon earth to take upon himself the office of mediator between God and mankind.”—Raynal (tr. 1777), i. 91.

“The Budzoists are another sect of Japan, of which Budzo was the founder.… The spirit of Budzoism is dreadful. It breathes nothing but penitence, excessive fear, and cruel severity.”—Ibid. i. 138. Raynal in the two preceding passages shows that he was not aware that the religions alluded to in Ceylon and in Japan were the same.

1779.—“Il y avoit alors dans ces parties de l’Inde, et principalement à la Côte de Coromandel et à Ceylan, un Culte dont on ignore absolument les Dogmes; le Dieu Baouth, dont on ne connoit aujourd’hui, dans l’Inde que le Nom et l’objet de ce Culte; mais il est tout-à-fait aboli, si ce n’est, qu’il se trouve encore quelques familles d’Indiens séparées et méprisées des autres Castes, qui sont restées fidèles à Baouth, et qui ne reconnoissent pas la religion des Brames.”—Voyage de M. Gentil, quoted by W. Chambers, in As. Res. i. 170.

1801.—“It is generally known that the religion of Bouddhou is the religion of the people of Ceylon, but no one is acquainted with its forms and precepts. I shall here relate what I have heard upon the subject.” —M. Joinville, in As. Res. vii. 399.

1806.—“… The head is covered with the cone that ever adorns the head of the Chinese deity Of, who has been often supposed to be the same as Boudah.”—Salt, Caves of Salsette, in Tr. Lit. Soc. Bo. i. 50.

1810.—“Among the Bhuddists there are no distinct castes.”—Maria Graham, 89.

It is remarkable how many poems on the subject of Buddha have appeared of late years. We have noted:

1. Buddha, Epische Dichtung in Zwanzig Gesängen, i.e. an Epic Poem in 20 cantos (in ottava rima). Von Joseph Vittor Widmann, Bern. 1869.

2. The Story of Gautama Buddha and his Creed: An Epic by Richard Phillips, Longmans, 1871. This is also printed in octaves, but each octave consists of 4 heroic couplets.

3. Vasadavatta, a Buddhist Idyll; by Dean Plumtre. Republished in Things New and Old, 1884 . The subject is the story of the Courtesan of Mathura (“Vasavadatta and Upagupta”), which is given in Burnouf’s Introd. a l’Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, 146–148; a touching story, even in its original crude form.

It opens:

“Where proud Mathoura rears her hundred towers.…”

The Skt. Dict. gives indeed as an alternative Mathura, but Mathura is the usual name, whence Anglo-Ind. Muttra.

4. The brilliant Poem of Sir Edwin Arnold, called The Light of Asia, or the Great Renunciation, being the Life and Teaching of Gautama, Prince of India, and Foundér of Buddhism, as told in verse by an Indian Buddhist, 1879.

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