DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0082
Chap. III.
STUPAS.
50
flourishes there, not oiily in all probability occupies the same spot,
but the worship now celebrated there is the same, mutato nomine,
as that which was once performed in honour of this tooth. Be this
as it may, it seems to have remained there in peace for more than
eight centuries, when the king of the country, being attracted by
some miracles performed by it, and the demeanour of the priests,
became converted from the Brahmanical faith, to which he had
belonged, to the religion of Buddha. The dispossessed Brahmans
thereon complain to his suzerain lord, resident at Palibothra, in
the narrative called only by his title Pandu, but almost certainly
the Gautaniiputra of the Andrabhitya dynasty. He ordered the tooth
to be brought to the capital, when, from the wonders it exhibited, he
was converted also; but this, and the excitement it caused, led to its
being ultimately conveyed surreptitiously to Ceylon, where it arrived
about the year 311 ;1 and in spite of various vicissitudes still remains
in British custody, the palladium of the kingdom, as it has done
during the last fifteen centuries and a half.8
About the same time (a.d. 3243) another tooth of Buddha was
enshrined in a tope on the island of Salsette, in Bombay harbour,
apparently in the time of the same Gautaniiputra, but what its
subsequent fate was is not known.4 When the tope was opened for
Dr. Bird, it was not there, but only a copper plate, which recorded its
enshrinement, by a noble layman called Pushyavariuan.5
Almost as celebrated as these was the begging-pot of >5akya Muni,
which was long kept in a dagoba or vihara erected by Kanishka at
Peshawur, and worshipped with the greatest reverence.11 After paying
a visit to Benares," it was conveyed to Kandahar, and is still said to be
preserved there by the Mussulmans, and looked upon even by them as
a most precious relic.s
1 There may lie an error in this date 4 The same lute had overtaken another
to the extent of its being from fifteen to tooth relic at Xagrak in northern India,
twenty years too early. Fa Hian.n.e. 400, describes it as perfect in
2 The principal particulars of this story his 13th chapter. ' Hiouen Thsang,'vol.
are contained in a Cingalese work called ii. p. 97, describes the stnpa as mined,
the 'Daladavamsa.' recently translated by and the tooth having disappeared.
Sir Mutn Comara Swamy. I have col- 8 For a translation, &c, see 'Journal
lected the further evidence on this subject Bombay Branch of the Koyul Asiatic-
in a paper 1 road to the Asiatic Society, Society,' vol. v. p. 33. See also Bird,
and published in their ' Journal' (X.S.), ' Historical Researches,' Bombay, 1847.
vol. iii. p. 132, el scqq., and again in 'Tree 6 ' Foe Koue Ki,' ch. xii. p. 77.
and Serpent Worship,' p. 174, el segq. 7 ' Hiouen Thsang,' vol. i. p. 83.
3 The date beiuggiven as 245, Samvat • 8 'Foe Koue Ki,' p. 353. A detailed
has generally been assumed to be dated account of its transference from the true
from the era of Vicramaditya. I am not Gandhara—Peshawur—to the new Gan-
uware, however, of any inscription of so dhara in Kandahar will be found in a
early an age being dated from that era, paper by Sir Henry Kawlinson, 'Journal
nor of any Buddhist inscription in which of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xi.
it is used either then or thereafter. , p. 127.
STUPAS.
50
flourishes there, not oiily in all probability occupies the same spot,
but the worship now celebrated there is the same, mutato nomine,
as that which was once performed in honour of this tooth. Be this
as it may, it seems to have remained there in peace for more than
eight centuries, when the king of the country, being attracted by
some miracles performed by it, and the demeanour of the priests,
became converted from the Brahmanical faith, to which he had
belonged, to the religion of Buddha. The dispossessed Brahmans
thereon complain to his suzerain lord, resident at Palibothra, in
the narrative called only by his title Pandu, but almost certainly
the Gautaniiputra of the Andrabhitya dynasty. He ordered the tooth
to be brought to the capital, when, from the wonders it exhibited, he
was converted also; but this, and the excitement it caused, led to its
being ultimately conveyed surreptitiously to Ceylon, where it arrived
about the year 311 ;1 and in spite of various vicissitudes still remains
in British custody, the palladium of the kingdom, as it has done
during the last fifteen centuries and a half.8
About the same time (a.d. 3243) another tooth of Buddha was
enshrined in a tope on the island of Salsette, in Bombay harbour,
apparently in the time of the same Gautaniiputra, but what its
subsequent fate was is not known.4 When the tope was opened for
Dr. Bird, it was not there, but only a copper plate, which recorded its
enshrinement, by a noble layman called Pushyavariuan.5
Almost as celebrated as these was the begging-pot of >5akya Muni,
which was long kept in a dagoba or vihara erected by Kanishka at
Peshawur, and worshipped with the greatest reverence.11 After paying
a visit to Benares," it was conveyed to Kandahar, and is still said to be
preserved there by the Mussulmans, and looked upon even by them as
a most precious relic.s
1 There may lie an error in this date 4 The same lute had overtaken another
to the extent of its being from fifteen to tooth relic at Xagrak in northern India,
twenty years too early. Fa Hian.n.e. 400, describes it as perfect in
2 The principal particulars of this story his 13th chapter. ' Hiouen Thsang,'vol.
are contained in a Cingalese work called ii. p. 97, describes the stnpa as mined,
the 'Daladavamsa.' recently translated by and the tooth having disappeared.
Sir Mutn Comara Swamy. I have col- 8 For a translation, &c, see 'Journal
lected the further evidence on this subject Bombay Branch of the Koyul Asiatic-
in a paper 1 road to the Asiatic Society, Society,' vol. v. p. 33. See also Bird,
and published in their ' Journal' (X.S.), ' Historical Researches,' Bombay, 1847.
vol. iii. p. 132, el scqq., and again in 'Tree 6 ' Foe Koue Ki,' ch. xii. p. 77.
and Serpent Worship,' p. 174, el segq. 7 ' Hiouen Thsang,' vol. i. p. 83.
3 The date beiuggiven as 245, Samvat • 8 'Foe Koue Ki,' p. 353. A detailed
has generally been assumed to be dated account of its transference from the true
from the era of Vicramaditya. I am not Gandhara—Peshawur—to the new Gan-
uware, however, of any inscription of so dhara in Kandahar will be found in a
early an age being dated from that era, paper by Sir Henry Kawlinson, 'Journal
nor of any Buddhist inscription in which of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xi.
it is used either then or thereafter. , p. 127.