Brahme-Maia.[1] This I suppose to be described in the prints in Moore’s Pantheon, where Buddha is rising from the navel of Brahme-Maia, with the umbilical cord uncut.
Mons. De Guignes[2] states that Fo, or Buddha, was brought forth not from the matrix, but from the right side, of a virgin, whom a ray of light had impregnated. The Manichæans held that this was the case with Jesus Christ, and by this single fact, without the necessity for any other, they identify themselves with the Buddhists.
St. Jerom says,[3] Apud Gymnosophistas Indiæ, quasi per manus, hujus opinionis auctoritas traditur, quod Buddam, principem dogmatis eorum, è latere suo virgo generavit.
We see here that the followers of Buddha are called Gymnosophists. It has been observed that the Meroe of Ethiopia was a Meru. This is confirmed by an observation of Heliodorus, that the priests of Meroe were of a humane character, and were called Gymnosophists.[4]
When we treat of some doctrines held by a gentleman of the name of Bentley, I must beg my reader to recollect that in the account of Jerom, the Mythos of Buddha, the same as that of Cristna, was known to him in the fourth century, and therefore cannot have been invented to oppose Christianity, about the sixth century, or to deceive Mohammed Akbar in the sixteenth.
Jayadeva thus addresses Buddha: “Thou blamest (O wonderful) the whole Veda when thou seest, O kind-hearted! the slaughter of cattle prescribed for sacrifice—O Kesava! assuming the body of Buddha. Be victorious, O Heri! lord of the universe.”[5] It may be observed that Heri means Saviour.
There was a Goddess called Jayadevi, i. e. the Goddess Jaya.[6]
6. Buddha as well as Cristna means shepherd. Thus, he was the good shepherd. M. Guigniaut says, there is a third Guatama, the founder of the philosophy Nyaya. I ask, may not this be the philosophy of a certain sect, which in its ceremonies chaunts in honour of Cristna the word IEYE, in fact, the name of the Hebrew God Ieue, or Jehovah as we disguise it?[7] We know that names of persons in passing from one language into another, have often been surprisingly changed or disguised; but there is in reality no change here; it is the identical name.
This is one of thousands of instances where the identity of the Eastern and the Western names is not perceptible, unless recourse be had to the sixteen-letter system, which I have exhibited in my Celtic Druids; and here I must stop to make an observation on the identity of languages. I do not consider the identity of common names, though it is not to be neglected, as of half so much consequence as the identity of proper names. I think no person who has made himself master of my doctrine respecting the ancient system of sixteen original letters, can help seeing here the identity of the IEYE and the Ieue of the Hebrews, nor can at the same time help seeing its great importance, in diving to the bottom of the ancient mythologies. The two words are identical; but write the Hebrew word in the common way Jehovah, and the truth is instantly lost. It matters not how they are pronounced in modern times; when they were originally written with the same letters, they must have been the same in sound.—Iaya-deva is said to have been a very celebrated poet, but we see he had the name of one of the Hindoo Deities. From the practice of calling their distinguished personages by the names of their Gods and Goddesses, the confusion in their history is irremediable. Iayadevi was the wife of Jina, one of the incarnations of Vishnu.[8]
- ↑ Ratramn. de Nat. Christ. Cap. iii. ap. Fab. Pag. Idol. B. iv. Ch. v. p. 432.
- ↑ Hist. des Huns, Tome I. Part ii. p. 224.
- ↑ Hieron. in Jovianum.
- ↑ De Paw, Recherches sur les Egyptians, Vol. II.
- ↑ Moore’s Pantheon, p. 234.
- ↑ Moore’s Pantheon, p. 235, and Asiatic Res. Vol. III. art. 13, also Vol. IX.
- ↑ See Maur. Hist. Hind. Vol. I. p. 339, ed. 4to.
- ↑ Moore’s Panth. p. 235.
