Mr. Moore says, “Most, if not all, of the Gods of the Hindoo Pantheon, will, on close investigation, resolve themselves into the three powers, and those powers into one Deity, Brahm, typified by the sun.”[1] Again, “In Hindu mythology every thing is indeed the Sun.” Nothing can be more true. Mr. Moore adds, “We may here, as usual with all Hindu deities, trace Kama’s genealogy upwards to the sun, who is Brahm.”[2]
It is admitted that Surya is the Sun, and that he is Buddha: hence Buddha is the sun. He is described with seven heads. Here he is the sun, attended by five planets and the moon. At other times, he is described sleeping on a coiled serpent with seven heads, overshadowing and protecting him, his and the serpent’s heads making eight. The first is a mythos probably adopted before the earth was discovered to be a planet, like the other five, which were only called שמים smim, or disposers, the angels or messengers of God.
11. About the city of Bamiam, in the kingdom of Cabul, are many caves of immense size without any sculptures. The formation of these caves is attributed, by tradition, to the Buddhists. They are in ancient Persia, not far from Balch. The city has been of very great size, and has been compared to Thebes in Egypt. It is called in Sanscrit Vami-Nagari, or the beautiful city. The Buddhist caves, without image or sculpture, seem to bespeak the most remote period. In the oldest of the caves in India, those of Ellora, Salcette, Elephanta, the sculptures attest the identity of Buddha with Cristna. In most of the temples, of which the architecture bespeaks a more recent date, nothing is found relating to Buddha, but he is found in the temple of Jaggernaut, where there is no distinction of castes or sects. The date of these temples is generally totally unknown. The colossal Bull in front of that at Jaggernaut evidently betrays Buddhism.
These circumstances confirm the hypothesis that Buddhism was the first religion, and I shall hereafter prove that the religion of Cristna was engrafted into it, when the festival was changed from Taurus to Aries.
Colonel Franklin says, “That as the figures in the caves at Cabul all bear the stamp of an Indian origin, we may justly ascribe them to the votaries of Boodh, who has already been identified with the Mithras of Persia.”[3]
M. Creuzer has observed, that the doctrines of Buddha are said to have come to India from the north. Of this I have no doubt. I think that the place of his birth was in a far higher latitude than either that of Upper Egypt, or of Lower India—in a latitude where the month of Maia, his mother, would be the month of flowers and delight. This would be the case in Northern Thibet, or in a climate very similar to it, but not in a climate where, in the month of May, all verdure was withering away by the excess of the heat, and the ground fast reducing to a parched desert.
Buddha is stated by Sir W. Jones to be Woden, and not a native of India.[4] But it is remarkable, that Woden is his Tamul name, and the Tamulese are now in South India. This will be found of importance hereafter.
Mons. Guigniaut, in his notes on Creuzer, has very justly observed that the earliest notice we have of the Persian religion has come from the north, from the ancient Aria or Balch, the ancient Bactriana. He says, “Nous avons déjà parlé des temples souterrains de Bamiam, à quelque distance de Caboul. Ici la Perse et l’Inde, Hom et Brahma, Bouddha et Zoroaster, semblent se donner la main.”[5] The doctrine of Buddha extends throughout China and its tributary nations; over the great empires and states of Cochin China, Cambodia, Siam, Pegu, Ava, Asam, Tibet, Budtan; many of the Tartar tribes, and, except Hindostan perhaps, generally all parts east of the Ganges, including vast numbers of large and populous islands.[6]
