Book Title: Essays Lectures on Religion of Hindu Vol 02
Author(s): H H Wilson
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

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Page 354
________________ 344 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM. Tibet, one for the royal tribe of Baluka, one for the royal tribe of Krodtya, one for a Brahman of Vishnudwípa, one for the Sákyas, one for the Lichhavis of Allahábád, and one for Ajátaśatru, king of Magadha: they all built chaityas over them and paid them worship. The urn in which the reliques had first been placed was given to the Brahman who had mediated, and another Brahman received the cinders: they also erected chaityas. Of the four eye-teeth, two were distributed to the deities called Trayastrinsats, and the Nágas; one was placed in "The Delicious City", and one in the country of the king of Kalinga, whence in time it found its way to Ceylon, where it is still preserved. Hence originated the practice of constructing the monuments called Sthúpas, or Topes, which have excited so much interest of late years, and of which a subsequent sovereign of Magadha, Aśoka, is said to have constructed 84,000. In many parts of Tibet, where they are more usually termed Chaityas, or Chaits, they are numerous but small, containing, it is supposed the ashes of distinguished Lamas. Chaitya, which is a Sanskrit term, is in fact equally applicable to any sacred object, a temple, or a tomb; every Sthúpa may be a Chaitya, but a Chaitya may be also something else of a religious character*. These accounts of Sákya's birth and proceedings, laying aside the miraculous portions, have nothing very impossible, and it does not seem improbable that * [Koeppen, 1. 1. I, 533 ff. Lassen, Ind. Alt., II, 266.]

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