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102 BIRMAH.
unsuccessfully contending on the plains of Hindoost'hanu.
" We have no authentic documents to prove how
long this persecution lasted ; but it is a pretty current
opinion among the most learned Biirmans, that the
religion of Booddhu was introduced into that country
about 450 years after his death. According to this
statement, (admitting that the persecution began with
Dhoorundhurii,) it will years."
appear to have continued 183
*
According to this view of the subject, Godama, the
fourth and last deity, and the founder of the present
system of atheology which goes under the name of
Buddhism, was an ascetic of royal birth, who lived
about 2,370 years ago.f Having, like Zoroaster,
Manes, Mahommed, and Abdul Wehhab, professed
himself a religious reformer, he travelled over India,
Ceylon, and other countries to propagate his doctrines.J
His image uniformly represents him with
Ward, vol. ii. pp. 20710. See also Asiat. Res. vol. ix.
f A native of Ceylon assured Mr. Ward, that the Cingalese considered
it to be about 2,500 years since the death of Gautama.
Mr. Felix Carey, on the authority of the Birman history, made it,
in 1813, 2,357 years since the birth of the god. According to other
authorities, cited by Dr. Buchanan, both the Siamese and the
Cingalese make Budha's death to have happened either 542 or 546
years B.C. The Chinese authorities state that Shaka lived 1028
years B.C. (see note p. 106.) . If any reliance could be placed on
this opinion, it would go far to prove that Sakya-muni preceded
Gautama by nearly 500 years.
J " When the Budhuist superstition was first introduced to the
island of Ceylon, has never been satisfactorily determined ; but the
circumstances attendant on its introduction are set forth by the
Singhalese historians in all the extravagant hyperbole of Eastern
fable. According to their writings, Budhu visited Ceylon for the
purpose of rescuing the natives from the tyranny of the demons,
who covered the'whole island, and exercised the most cruel tyranny
over the inhabitants. So numerous were these malignant spirits,
that, on the arrival of Budhu, they covered the whole ground, and