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96
abbot of Biruaah,
BIRMAH.
at the solicitation of a Roman
Catholic bishop, drew up an account of their tenets,
in which the gods who have appeared in the present
world, and who have obtained the perfect state of
niffban, are said to be four ; viz. Chau-cha-sam
(or Kau-ka-than), Gonagom (Gau-na-gon), Gaspa
(Katha-pa), and Godama. * The Sakya-muni of
Ceylon (the Sogomon-barchan of Marco Polo, and
the Shakhu-moonee of Bengal), has generally been
they call him Yama." We are not aware on what authority Rama
is called the elder Budha. Ramu, or Rama, is the seventh incarnation
of Vishnoo, Bulurama the eighth, Boodhu the ninth but
;
the origin of Buddhism is not to be found in these legends, which
are of a more modern date. There are acknowledged to be four
Buddhas but there seems no connexion between this succession
;
of sages and the nine incarnations of Vishnoo.
* This document then proceeds by question and answer. " Q. Of
which of these gods ought the law at present to be followed?
A. Of the god Godama. Q. Where is the god Godama? A. Godama,
at the age of thirty-five, having attained his divinity,
preached his law for forty-five years, and brought salvation to all
living beings. At eighty years of age he obtained nigban, and this
happened 2362 years ago [from 1795]. Then Godama said : after
I shall have departed from this earth, I will preserve my law and
disciples for 5000 years ; and he commanded that his images and
relics should be worshipped, which has accordingly been ever since
done. Q. What is meant by obtaining nigban T A. When a person
is no longer subject to any of the following evils, weight, old
age, disease, and death, then he is said to have obtained nigban.
Nothing, no place can give us an adequate idea of : nigban we can
only say, that to be free from the four above-mentioned miseries,
and to obtain salvation, is nigban. In the same manner, as when
any person labouring under a severe disease, recovers by the assistance
of medicine, we say he has obtained health; but if any person
wishes to know the manner or the cause of his thus obtaining
health, it can only be answered, that to be restored to health
signifies no more than to be recovered from disease : in the same
manner only can we speak of nigban. And after this manner
Godama taught." Reckoning the 2362 Birman years as equal to
2341 Julian years, this would place the death of Godama about
546 years B. C. Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 265. See also Ward's View,
&c., vol. ii. p. 212.