Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 02

Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 14

NOTICE OF
more authentically explained; but as far as we may infer from what has yet appeared in the Asiatic Researches, or elsewhere, on the Buddhism of Ceylon and Ava, many and important varieties occur between the heavenly hierarchy oi those countries and of Bhot. Of the scale of Buddhas which prevails in the latter, we have no trace whatever in the communications of BUCHANAN, MAHONY and JOINVILLE. Their enumeration of the human Buddhas, the only Buddhas of whom they speak, differs also from that of Mr. Hodgson. Amidst the perplexity that this disagreement is calculated to occasion, any further illustration that is available will be, no doubt, welcome to the Society, and I have therefore thought that the following notice of the only works sent down by Mr. Hongson, which I have been able to distinguish as connected with the religion of Nepal in any language known to me, might not be unacceptable. The works are short, and are evidently of a popular, not a scriptural character. As authorities, therefore, they are of no great value, although they may be taken as guides to common and corrupt practice and belief. They evidently, however, spring from the mythological system sketched by Mr. HODGSON, and so far corroborate his statements, as well as derive confirmation from his remarks, whilst they serve also to shew how far the Buddha creed has been modified by Tántrika admixture.
The works in question are three tracts, comprised in one volume, and severally entitled-Ashtami vratu Vidhána, Ritual for the religious observance of the