miércoles, 3 de diciembre de 2014

"The lost tribes and the Saxons of the East and of the west, with new views of Buddhism, and translations of rock-records in India"


)-' 



TJIE LIBRARY 
,1 YOUNG UNI 
PROVO, UT\H 



^.aOHAM VOCNG UNIVEMm 




THE 



LOST TEIBES 



AND 



THE SAXONS OF THE EAST AND 
OF THE WEST, 



WITH 



NE^W VIE^^TS OF BUDDHISM, 



AND 



f nitslati0iis 0f |lotk-|lei:0rh m |iiMa- 



BY 

GEORGE MOORE, M.D., 

HEHBEB OF THB BOTAIi COLLEOB 09 ]^HTSICIAIfS, LONDON, ETC. 



Not dull or barren are the winding ways 
Of hoar antiquity ; but strewn with flowers. 

Babtoit. 



LONDON: 
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. 

MDCCCLXI. 
[The right of translation is reserved.} 



Those wild tribes [the Gothic'] were bringing with them into the magic 
circle of the Western Churches influence the very materials which she re- 
quired for the building up of a future Christendom. The new invaders 
divided Europe among themselves^ — Charles Kingslet. 



HAROLD B. LEE LIBRARY 

BRiGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 

PROVO. UTAH 



THE LIBRARY 

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 

PROVO, UTAH 



^-'>'' 



PREFACE. 



The inquiry pursued in this volume was undertaken 
as an occasional diversion from the pressure of severer 
demands upon the mind, and formed only an inci- 
dental part of a larger investigation concerning the 
ethnology of the East. Though the several subjects 
considered in this inquiry may for the most part be 
unpromising to the multitude of readers who make 
a pastime of books, and to interest whom would re- 
quire a very different treatment, yet it is hoped that 
the appearance of this work before the public will be 
justified by proving worthy of the attention of those 
numerous intelligent persons who look for meaning 
in the distribution of mankind. 

1 have thankfully to acknowledge the kindness of 
Mr. Norris, through whom I have been permitted to 
copy and to publish anything contained in the publi- 
cations of the Eoyal Asiatic Society. In recording 
kindness, I cannot but mingle deep regret with sin- 
cere gratitude in recalling the great obligation I am 
under to the late very learned Professor of Sanscrit 
at Oxford, H. H. Wilson, who first directed my atten- 
tion to Buddhism, and indicated the books best suited 



IV PREFACE. 

to assist my Inquiry. I have infringed upon a right 
in copying an engraving from a work by Lieut. -Colonel 
Cunningham, on " The Bhilsa Topes," but I believe 
he will forgive the liberty in consideration of the fact 
that I would have sought his permission, but found 
he was engaged in his important duties in India. He 
will not be displeased if this volume in any degree 
promote the fuller knowledge of those interesting 
antiquities which he has so admirably laboured to 
discover and elucidate. 

I would only add that, should it be my privilege 
to have readers capable of correcting any errors con- 
cerning matters of fact referred to in this volume, 
or of throwing any light on the inquiry itself, I shall 
be thankful to receive any communication to that 
effect. 

Since the completion of this work, I have dis- 
covered a Hebraic inscription, which, graven in 
ancient Pali characters, stands mysteriously manifest 
on the wall of a rock-temple in Kanari, about twenty 
miles from Bombay. As this remarkable record may 
afford a clue to the meaning of certain obscure pas 
sages in other inscriptions given in the latter chapters 
of this work, a literal translation may be properly 
admitted in this place, the full vindication of the 
rendering being reserved for a more convenient 
occasion. Hitherto the original seems to have 
remained without any attempt at interpretation. A 



PREFACE. V 

fac-simile, taken by James Bird, Esq., Secretary of 
the Bombay Asiatic Society, will be found in his 
interesting volume entitled " Historical Researches 
on the Origin and Principles of the Bauddha and 
Jaina Religions."* 

The numbers merely indicate the lines of the 
original. 

(1) The soft flowing f of the winepress from the white gushing fruit is 
as that which sets me at rest ; my drink, the refining of the fruit, (2) is the 
very grace of his mouth. Behold what thou possessest, yea, even theglad- 
soraeness in it that is ministered to thee. (3) Lo, the worship [or blood] 
of Saka is the fruit of my lip ; his garden \_paradise\ which Cyrus laid 
low was glowing red; behold it is blachened. (4) His people being 
aroused would have their rights, for they were cast down at the cry of the 
parting of Dan, (5) who being delivered was perfectly free. . . every 
one grew mighty ; your religion had saved (6) even him from uncleanness. 
And his \_Salca's] mouth, enkindling them, brought the Serim J together 
from the race of Harari.^ (7) My mouth also hastened the rupture, and 
as one obeying my hand thou didst sing praise. unclean one, his reli- 
gious decree is his bow. (8) He who complains of the presence of the 
inflicted equality turns aside. My gift is freedom to him who is fettered, 
the freedom of the polluted is penitence. (9) As to Dan his unloosing was 
destruction, oppression and strife; he stoutly turned away, he departed 
twice. (10) The predetermined thought is a hand prepared. The re- 
deemed of Kasha wandered about like the [flock] over driven. (11) The 
prepared was the ready, yea, Gotha, that watched for the presence of Dan, 
aiforded concealment to the exile whose vexations became his triumphs ; 
and Saka also, being reinvigorated by the Calamity, purified the East, the 
vices of which he branded. 



* Plate 44. 14. 

t Rakak — rakt, applied to the refining of wine, &c. Letters, as if by 
another hand, stand above, in the original, which give the sense of perfect 
emptiness of fruit. 

J Serim — Seres (free, or princes [?]). A people called Seres have been 
the cause of much doubtful discussion. See Latham's Ethnological Essays. 

§ People of the hill-country of Ephraim are so called — 2 Sam. xxiii. 11, 33, 



VI PKEFACE. 

Assuming the correctness of this rendering, it pre- 
sents a singular and most suggestive corroboration of 
the conclusions arrived at in this volume, as to the 
connexion and origin of the Danes, the Goths, and 
the Saxons f"* since we here find a people or tribe 
named Dan distinctly associated with the Goths and 
the people of Saka, while Cyrus, who can only be the 
well-known king of Persia, is poetically referred to as 
the desolator of the teacher of Buddhism, Saka, who 
was certainly the same as Godama^ the king of Kasha; 
and therefore it may not unfairly be inferred that the 
destruction of Kasha, mentioned in other inscriptions 
n this volume, was caused by Cyrus, whose con- 
quests extended over Northern India, as well as 
Bactria and the country of the Massagetae, amongst 
whom, as Herodotus relates, he met his death. In 
considering the relation of the tribe of Dan with the 
Goths, whom I have endeavoured to identify with 
the Gittites (p. 149, n.), it may be interesting to re- 
member that in the distribution of the Israelitish 
tribes that of Dan embraced the country of the Gittites 
or people of Gath. 

G. M. 

Hastings : 
Dec, 15, 1860. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

paob 
THE HEBBEW BOOK A.ND THE HEBEEW PEOPLE ... 1 



CHAPTER I. 

EZEKIEL'S TISION — THE LIGHT I:N^ THE CLOUD . . .17 

CHAPTER II. 
Israel's perveesion, waexing, a;n^d eecovert . . 47 

CHAPTER III. 

HOW AND WHERE DID THET GO ? 67 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE HEBEEW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON EACE . . 80 

CHAPTER V. 
Israel's new names . . ~ 105 

CHAPTER VI. 

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES 123 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES .... 143 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI 161 



Vlii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DOCTEINES OP SAZTA-BTJDDHA 180 

CHAPTER X. 

BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS I THEIE OBIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE . 206 

CHAPTER XI. 

BUDDHISTIC CAYES AND INSCEIPTIONS .... 227 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE INSCBIPTIONS AT GIENAE AND DELHI .... 265 

CHAPTER XIII. 

SEPULCHEAL INSCEIPTIONS IN AEIAN CHAEACTEES . . 288 

CHAPTER XIV. 

INSCEIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI 301 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE INSCEIPTION ON FEEOZ's PILLAB .... 320 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE EELATION OF THE INSCEIPTIONS TO PEOPHECY . . 332 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE SAXON DEEIVATION AND DESTINY .... 349 

^ CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE KABENS AND THEIE TEADITIONS 359 



APPENDIX 381 

INDEX ... 409 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Plate of Coins to face page 156 

A Bas-relief at Sakchi 171 

Illustrations from a Buddhist Medal 196 

Symbols from Bas-reliefs 215 

Alphabets 232 

Inscriptions from " Joonur" 233 

Illustrations from Cave-temple at "Joonur" 243 

Inscription from Btrath 251 

Fag-simile of the Girnar Inscription 269 

Sepulchral Inscriptions and Coins from Jelalabad and 

Maniktala 293 

Delhi Inscriptions: — 

North Compartment 303 

West Compartment 306 

South Compartment . . .- 309 

East Compartment 312 



THE LOST TEIBES AND THE SAXONS OF THE 
EAST AND OF THE WEST. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 

The history of the world predicts the consummation 

of all history in a higher standing of our common 

humanity. The darkness of the past is to become 

the enlightenment of the future. Hence with every 

prophecy, of good or of evil, we find a picture 

of the moral condition on which that prophecy is 

grounded ; and the general upshot of all foreseeing 

is a vision that reveals the dominion of knowledge 

over ignorance, and of light over darkness. There 

are, however, specific predictions in that marvellous 

Book on which Christians found their faith, and the 

fulfilment of such predictions has hitherto sustained 

the authority of that Book, not only as a record, but 

as a means of throwing light into the dark passages 

of current history, onwards to the end. It is with a 

feeling that the truth of that Book will, in some 

slight degree, be elucidated by this volume, that the 

attention of the general reader is solicited to the 

subject of it, which, though interesting in itself to in- 

B 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

quisitive minds, Is doubly so to Biblical students. 
The Bible first gave Englishmen an interest in the 
East, and now by its demands upon their hearts, 
binds them to concern themselves about all that is 
transpiring there. But to understand the present, it 
is necessary to see its connexion with the past and 
the future. 

A portentous cloud has long hung over all that is 
Oriental, and that cloud spreads, with the elements 
of a terrible conflict in its bosom. A mighty, and 
perhaps final struggle is coming amongst the leading 
tribes of men in defence of their traditional creeds 
and superstitions, against the faiths that are based 
upon positive intelligence, the knowledge of what the 
Divine Mind has actually done, and is doing. The 
religions that are respectively symbolized by the 
Lotus, the Crescent, and the Cross, are energising 
their votaries afresh. The Crescent, the emblem of a 
dimly reflected and changeful light, symbolises the 
religion inculcated by the sword-bearer, Mahomet. 
It comes between the highest form of traditional 
heathenism, that feeling after God, whose purest em- 
blem is the water-born Lotus, and the Cross, which 
is the sign of the divine self-sacrifice that destroys sin 
and death. To the Crescent, as partaking of the 
ignorant presumption of a deistic paganism with its 
lunar archaism, belonged the power of beating do^vn 
idolatry; but it also held sword to sword against that 
form of the Cross which was borne as a banner 
before such Christian conquerors as Constantine and 



THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 3 

Charlemagne. When such conquerors cease, when 
Greek Church and Roman Church, East and West, 
find no defence in emperors with great guns and 
plausibilities, the Crescent will wane into the morning 
starlight of a better promise, and Turks and Arabs 
will listen to the Word that speaks of eternal peace. 
If Christian nations, so called, wield the sword with 
greater force than other nations, it is not because 
their power is in armaments alone, but because there 
is an energy belonging to their belief which enables 
them to discern where all strength lies, and which, 
while conferring validity on their social and civil or- 
ganizations, inspires them with an irrepressible love 
of general intelligence and freedom. The idea 
represented by the Cross is divine, and therefore 
gives a sense of authority to those who receive and 
obey it. As a faith pertaining to the individual, 
it subdues the man ; as a faith only so far received as 
to modify the theory of government and policy, it 
tends to render a nation determined and ready to 
subjugate other people to its own laws. Commer- 
cially speaking, the Cross represents the Hebrew 
element as well as the Christian, and so it would 
conquer only to tax and supply trade, but, religiously 
speaking, the Cross represents the missionary spirit. 
In both respects the Cross is necessarily aggressive. 
It converts the peoples that have no previous religious 
literature, no Koran, no Shasters, no Vedas, but it 
wars with those that have. Mere idolaters are to 
bow down to the physical power and scientific skill 

b2 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

possessed, as a matter of course, by the nations that 
worship the Author of law and creation ; but those 
who are spiritually ruled by a written creed which 
assumes a divine authority will oppose Christianity or 
the Cross with the obstinacy of mental conviction. 
Hence the difficulty of dealing with the people sym- 
bolized by the Crescent and the Lotus. As the 
Crescent took the sword, it will perish by the sword. 
But the Lotus represents another principle, which 
logically brings it into contact with Christianity as a 
rival appealing to the minds of men on the grounds 
of conscience and truth. A quarter of mankind are 
Buddhists, of whom the Lotus is the symbol. It will 
probably assist us to understand the relations of 
Buddhism to the earlier states of society and to other 
creeds, if we trace the origin of that symbol. In the 
first place, we find that the Lotus was a sacred 
symbol with the ancient Egyptians, and thus this 
beautiful symbol, like very much of the mythology of 
India, connects it with Egypt ; a circumstance, ethno- 
logically considered, of much interest and importance. 
The Lotus, as a sacred symbol, assumes this conven- 
tional form amongst the hieroglyphics. 
T'^ The normal number of the petals of 
\[ the lotus is twelve. Here we see six 
of them in profile, divided by the calyx 
into threes, thus presenting a triple triplet ; which, in- 
terpreted Buddhistically, as well as after the manner 
of the Egyptians, would probably signify perfect 
potentiality, that is to say, existence sustained by 



THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 5 

Omnipotence.* Now, it is interesting to observe that 
from a very early period the Israelites used the 
symbol of the lily. It may be disputed whether the 
lily introduced by Solomon amongst the sacred sym- 
bols of the temple was the lotus (1 Kings vii. 26); 
but there is reason to think that it was, and that 
it was the accepted symbol representing the twelve 
tribes of Israel. If so, it had probably been their 
symbol from the time of their sojourn in Egypt, 
where Moses acquired that learning, so much of which 
appears in his writings. That the common lily of 
Palestine might afterwards supersede it is likely, be- 
cause the lotus was not there indigenous. The lotus, 
however, might well S3^mbolise the tribes by the 
twelve overlapping petal-leaves, seemingly divided, 
as Moses divided them, into four bands, consisting of 
three tribes in each. The Jews retain this significance 
of the lily to this day. In their service on the day of 
atonement they use these words : " Thou, who hast 
chosen this day in the year, and appointed it as a 
balm and cure for the nation likened unto the lily, 
when thy temple existed aforetime in Jerusalem. "f 
( The Jew^ by Myer, p. 390.) Whether the lotus was a 
symbol of Israel or not, its use as a symbol by the 
Buddhists is Avell known, and if we succeed, as we 

* " The lotus leaves and flowers are supported upon stalks about a yard 
long. The calyx is divided into four, embracing the flower, resembling a 
gigantic magnolia flower, the ideal of elegant cups, a foot in diameter, oi' a 
rosy colour, very brilliant towards the edges. These rosy petals, or leaves 
of the corolla, are normally a dozen, and overlap each other like tiles upon 
a rool"."— ♦' Household Words," Sept. 5, 1857, p. 230. 

f " Israel shall grow as the lily." — Hos. xiv. 5. 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

hope, In tracing Buddhism to an Israelitish origin, the 
force of what has been stated concerning the lotus 
will be more evident. 

But, for the present, let us turn away from this 
symbol to our own ; it is the Cross that is conquering 
the enemies of civilization, and, with the open Bible, 
gives especial energy to the Saxon race. Though 
reason and the teaching of history would convince us 
that heathendom must perish, yet it is from other 
pages than those of history that we gather the in- 
telligence that associates the downfal of heathendom 
with the diffusion of Israelitish ideas. The burdens 
of the prophets are heavy with predictions, pointing 
to two grand events — the dispersion and the restora- 
tion of the Hebrew people. These things are trifles 
only to triflers. That people are the proof that their 
prophets spoke the truth, and the Western world 
feels much of their significance. There is a Hand 
ever amongst them pointing to their past and to their 
future. This we see only in relation to the tribes of 
Judah and Benjamin. Where are the other tribes? 
Emphatically lost, and yet there must be a spirit 
stirring amongst them that stirs the world. Can 
they ever be found ? Perchance not ; but that their 
influence, position, and transformations may be indi- 
cated, though, as a nation, they may be no more 
distinguished, will be shown in this volume. 

The way of the kings of the East, or rather the 
kings that come from the sunrising, is to be prepared 
by the drying-up of the Euphrates. Whatever that 



THE HEBREW BQOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 7 

may mean, it is generally understood that the people 
referred to are Hebrew, and, if so, they must be of 
the Lost Tribes, Israelites, Beni-Israel, since the Jews 
have never been hidden, and their seat is not the far 
East. Our research may throw some light on this 
question; but, as the mode and manner of it may 
present some new ideas, like images seen in obscurity, 
the reader will kindly refrain from hasty conclusions, 
and consent to feel his way along with the ^vriter. 
The interest of the subject is not small, for the nature 
of the inquiry involves the consideration of some of 
the greatest problems of man's history. 

Could the Ten Tribes be traced, we should find a 
key to much that is hidden in the history of the 
world and in the Bible, our understanding would 
be enlarged, and our faith confirmed. By fixing 
attention in the right direction we should see the 
face of Time more clearly through the veil thrown 
over it, and obtain a fuller insisrht of tlie wisdom and 
the providence concerned in the distribution of the 
human races, for the higher development of man's 
intellect and energies in the commerce and the war- 
fares of the world. 

Traces of the Lost Tribes have been supposed to 
be found in Mexico* and in Malabar,f in England J 
and in Japan. § The Afghans claim to be the very 



* See Simon's work on Israel in America. 

t C. Buchanan on the Hebrews in Malabar. — " Christian Researches.' 

J Wilson on our Israelitish origin. 

§ Dr. Bettelheim on Loochoo and Japan. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

people, and their claims are sustained by many intelli- 
gent witnesses. Abyssinia is also said to possess 
some of them, and even Central Africa is not without 
evidence of their presence.* In short, the learned 
have discovered Israelitish influence in every land, 
" from China to Peru." What is our inference? Why, 
that there is truth in that prophecy which said that 
Israel should be sown among the nations, swallowed 
up, and yet not lost. (Hos. viii. 8.) 

Amongst the most civilized nations the Hebrew 
influence is known and acknowledged; but this, as 
already observed, is due to the Book which we have 
derived from the Hebrew nation, and to the disper- 
sion of the Jews, who are popularly supposed to 
include the whole house of Israel; but the Jews 
themselves very properly regard themselves as dis- 
tinct from the Ten Tribes who revolted from the 
throne of David. We perceive that prophecy is ful- 
filled in relation to the Jews as dispersed; but we 

* There are multitudes of Jews, in every variety of condition, in the 
north of Africa ; but there are probably more of the Hebrew race far within 
the interior, about Timbuctoo and the Lake Tsad, and still further to the 
south. To the latter we should look for traces of their connexion with the 
Lost Tribes. It is well known that the Gha and other Negro tribes have 
numerous well-marked Jewish characters in their religious observances. 
A paper by Mr. Hanson, a native preacher, read before the British Associa- 
tion of Science, at Swansea, 1848, leaves no doubt of the fact. Now, unless 
we suppose that the Hebrews were derived from the interior of Africa, we 
must suppose that the Hebrews have penetrated there, and thence diffused 
the elements of civilization, and prepared the centre of the land of Ham for 
the blessings of Christianity and the new order of universal government to 
be at last established. Christian and scientific missionaries will probably 
soon afford us more light on the subject. — See Latham's ** Varieties of 
Man," p. 476. 



THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 9 

require larger views, both of nations and of prophecy, 
in order to discover the influence of the Ten Tribes. 
The dispersion of the Jews is a testimony to those 
nations who have received Christianity ; but, viewing 
the principle on which prophecy is constructed, we 
should expect to find the history of other nations 
illustrated by the prophecies that refer to the disper- 
sion and influence of the Ten Tribes. The following 
pages are intended to point attention to them, with 
a view to trace their connexion with the nations of 
India, and with all the civilized kindreds of the 
earth. As the Bible will be quoted as authoritative 
testimony, it may be well to state the writer's views 
with regard to the character and scope of that testi- 
mony. The Book assumes to be the record of the 
direct and divine teaching which its writers enjoyed, 
and it appeals to two especial modes of proof 
in respect to the truth of its pretensions — first, the 
adaptation of its doctrines to the spiritual wants of 
man; and, secondly, the fulfilment of its predictions 
in human history and in individual experience. The 
first proof is the pleading of the Inspirer of the Book, 
through the words contained in it, with a man's own 
soul; the second is a demonstration to those who are 
sufficiently instructed to observe the coincidence 
between the events foretold and the real history of 
Divine Providence amongst mankind. The appeal is 
that of the Perfect Being to man as an intelligent 
being, capable of understanding that worlds and 
souls are governed on the principles of righteousness 



10 INTRODUCTIOK. 

and love. We are called on to observe the connexion 
and relation between the moral and religious condi- 
tion of man and the history of his race. As humanity 
is one in nature, so is providence. There is a unity 
of working towards man in the revelations of that 
Being who made man. The Creative Spirit who 
made the worlds, moulded man of dust, and inspired 
the breathing soul with self-consciousness and will, is 
represented as of course concerned, that a being 
whom He has so endowed should apprehend the prin- 
ciple on which He necessarily acts towards man from 
first to last. If this be true, then every glimpse of 
the connexion between prophecy and history will 
help us to connect the beginning of man with the end 
of man, the design of his creation with its fulfilment. 
In short, research of any kind is only so far really 
interesting and important as it enables us to perceive 
new evidence of the fact that the Maker of man is 
ordering man's circumstances with respect to a foreseen 
and predicted end, in which the moral relation of 
man to his Creator shall be demonstrated. That is 
to say, all knowledge is perverted that does not 
increase our faith in the perfection of the superin- 
tending Intelligence, by proving to us that justice, 
love, wisdom, and omnipotence are one, and presiding 
alike over all the outo-oino-s of existence. To know 
anything truly is to know the will of God in that 
thing, whether in relation to history, creation, or 
individual experience. That the Divine Mind is 
expressed in man's united history is the doctrine of 



THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 11 

the Bible ; and it is only in that Book that we find a 
bond of connexion between man and man through 
all his kindreds, from the beginning to the present, 
and to the end. Without that Book each man has a 
tendency to isolation, limited only by the interests of 
his immediate relationships; but with that Book we 
become conscious of our relation to all that can be 
known and all that can be felt by any people in any 
period of the world. These observations bear largely 
on our subject, for we propose seeking after the 
remnants and ramifications of that peculiar people 
who were selected, trained and judged, and scattered 
for the very purpose, as the prophets inform us, that 
mankind in general might learn more concerning the 
methods of the divine government, as that of a just 
God and a Saviour. 

Our inquiry instructs us as to the value of an 
authentic, inspired, and well-preserved book of doc- 
trine. Without a Bible every man who could might 
write his own Bible, and constitute his doctrines and 
his decaloo^ue accordinof to his own desires, and as far 
as other men would let him, act accordingly. We 
cannot find a man who needs no record of divine 
deeds, no divine doctrines, no history, no prophecy to 
instruct him, and to keep him up to the height of his 
own capacity for improvement ; and where there are 
none of those things the mind dwindles down to a 
state of spiritual inanition, or lapses into barbarism 
and savageness. Man must believe in moral prin- 
ciples evinced in deeds and doctrines above his own 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

impulses in order to his elevation. " Unless a man 
erect himself above himself, how poor a thing is 
man!" He must have faith in God as revealing 
Himself, that is, His will, through some medium, as 
the Author and Finisher of all that pertains to the 
well-being of man, before he can be improved. As a 
man cannot intend to act if he believes he cannot, so 
neither can he aim at a higher position morally and 
intellectually without evidence that man may attain 
it. He must see a human example of the fact, and 
know how it may become his. Divine teaching 
implies communication in words as to what is desir- 
able and possible, and it further implies its commu- 
nication as felt truth from one human mind to 
another. Hence revelation has always taken two 
chief forms, alike interesting to thinking men — first, 
prophesying as foreshowing the working out of 
divine moral government in relation to human his- 
tory; and, secondly, the mode and medium of wor- 
shipping God as evinced in doctrines and taught by 
divine deeds in the past history or experience of men. 
Hence, the book containing a record of such deeds is 
essential to the perpetuation of pure religion; and 
hence, too, the necessity for the general diffusion of 
the instruction contained in that book. 

Men everywhere believe that there has been or that 
there still is a revelation. All men believe in the 
best book, morally speaking, of which they know; 
hence, every people that has a literature has its 
authoritative book or books, and every nation respects 



THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 13 

other nations just according to that nation's estimate 
of the written religious code belonging to those 
nations. Is not the government of India in English 
hands partially paralysed, notwithstanding our con- 
quests, because, though professing to be Christian, it 
has yet been afraid, from the first, to set the Bible 
open before those whom it would govern? The 
Mahomedans in India have been truer to their Pro- 
phet than Englishmen have been to their God; and 
therefore, though they would compel idolaters to 
submit to the Koran, yet the Hindoos were ready 
rather to band themselves with* those consistent alike 
in their creed and their cruelty, than submit to milder 
masters whose faith seemed to be only a compromise, 
if it were not the mere worship of Mammon. The 
Indian government have charged the preachers of 
the Cross with worse than foolishness, and yet the 
seed sown by those very preachers has saved that 
land. Our Bible is our only credential, and woe be 
unto us if we are ever ashamed of it ! 

Common sense in every country having a book, 
believes in the need of a permanent word, or written 
revelation; and hence the multitude of false Bibles 
in the world. The necessity of a moral law is felt ; 
but that law is really found written out plainly in no 
book, and in no heart, but as it is transcribed from the 
volume of the Hebrews ; and yet it is from the history 
of Israel that we derive the deepest insight of the 
consequences of breaking the laws of worship and 
sociality. It was a speculative idolatry which led to 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

the deportation and final dispersion of the Ten Tribes ; 
for that idolatry, produced by the most degrading 
conceptions of the Divine attributes, gendered a wor- 
ship of symbols that at once blinded the common 
mind, and hindered the people^s reception of God's 
teaching in their history and by their inspired pro- 
phets, while it also brought down their morality to 
the low level of the heathen. The Holy Land rejected 
them. It will be no vain pursuit if we endeavour to 
trace some of the results in the dispersion of Israel. 

Since Rome with iron rule subjugated the nations 
and trampled down the Holy City, where the Son of 
God taught the words of life to those who crucified 
Him, the scattering of the Jews amongst the peoples 
has been everywhere recognised as the judgment of 
God for their rejection of his mercy. The trampling 
down of the Holy Land by the worst of the Gentiles 
(Ezek. vii. 24), and its division by the Turks, has 
been so visibly the fulfilment of prophecy, that, even 
according to the creed of Mahomet, the Turks do not 
own it, but only hold it in keeping tiU God requires 
it for some purpose still in reserve, or till the punish- 
ment of the Jews is complete, when they are again 
to possess it. The Jews themselves wait for their 
restoration, and expect it soon. But still the scattered 
families of Judah, as a wonder, a sign, and a witness, 
stand apart, belonging to no nation, though ruling 
the money-markets of the world. At least seven 
millions of such witnesses testify to the people of 
Christendom that prophecy is the light of God to 



THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE. 15 

man. There is warning and promise, as well as pro- 
phecy, to the whole civilized world, in the present 
state and known history of those scattered Jews. 
But there are other Hebrews besides these who are 
telling upon the world. There are those tribes that 
never returned from beyond the Euphrates to the Land 
of Promise. Their history, too, will indicate the 
wisdom, power, and love of Him who scattered them. 
They are representatives of Joseph and Ephraim and 
Manasseh; and the blessings that fell from the pro- 
phetic mouth of the aged Isaac, in whom all the 
families of the earth are to be blessed, are not void to 
the Lost Tribes. The Hand that rules the waves and 
directs the streams of life is upon them ; though they 
seemed but as a wild herd choosing their own way in 
the desert, yet they are really led as if by a shepherd 
amongst the mountains. Now that the winding up 
of the world's history is at hand, some sudden light 
is likely to fall upon their history which shall show 
that the Author of prophecy is the God of providence. 
The direct descendants of those who crucified their 
King are seen in every Christian land with the veil 
upon their heart, but still reading the holy books 
and observing the traditions of their fathers, and 
proving to us the truth of prophecy in a manner 
scarcely less than miraculous. What the Jews are 
to Christendom, the other outcasts of Israel, " the 
remnant left from Assyria," will be to the heathen 
in the East. We seem to hear the voices of the dead 
in the significant language put by the prophet into 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

the mouth of that outcast Israel, " After two days he 
will revive us^ in the third day he will raise us up, and 
we shall live in his sight.^^ (Hos. vi. 1, 2 ) This life, 
then, is in faith, faith in their king Iinmanuel, " de- 
clared to be the Son of God with power, by the 
resurrection of the dead." We are in the midst of 
the third day from the date of IsraePs captivity if, 
according to St. Peter's call to remembrance, we are 
to regard a day as literally a thousand years ; and a 
Jew would scarcely understand the idea of an indefi- 
nite period. But, not to discuss such points here, we 
will now pass on in search, first, of prophetic indi- 
cations, and then of facts, concerning the dispersion 
of the Ten Tribes and their influence on the world. 
When we have followed some of the traces of their 
I dispersion, we shall be prepared to consider what con- 
/ iiexion can be discovered between that event, the 
religious system of Buddhism, and the formation of 
the Saxon and Gothic nations. 




THE TEEE OF BUDDHA. 



17 



CHAPTER L 

EZEKIEL'S VISION — THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 

As the prophet Ezekiel addressed the words of 
Jehovah to the captives of Israel, and was himself 
one amongst them, we turn to his prophecies as the 
most likely to contain those guiding indications of 
which we are now in search. The prophet witnessed 
the varied and degrading idolatries into which the 
professed people of God had fallen. Instead of testi- 
fying against the heinous sins connected with the 
worship of idols and deified ideas, those who possessed 
the holy oracles had mingled the words of God with 
the ritual of idols, confounded the doctrines of Heaven 
with those of Hell, and, no longer seeking forgiveness 
of sin by the appointed sacrifices, and at the mercy- 
seat beneath the wings of the golden cherubim, they 
had profaned the holy place and the holy Name ; and, 
no longer looking for the Shechinah of Jehovah's 
presence, they gloried in painted and gilded gods of 
their own making, and sought no honour but such as 
accorded with the obscenities, cruelties, and blasphe- 
mies of their own abominable habits. The prophet 
witnessed this and was astonished. He foresaw the 
obstinate adherence of this people to their adopted 
idolatries; and, the Holy Spirit stirring his heart 



18 ezekiel's vision — 

with holy indignation and abhorrence, caused the 
words of burning truth to burst from his lips while 
he denounced them as outcasts. But yet, in the 
feeling of Jehovah's retributions, because of his 
holiness, he felt, too, that the wisdom and the love of 
the Almighty must still find utterance ; and therefore, 
through the terrible array of wrath he saw, also, the 
triumphs of mercy. Hence, in the prophecy spoken 
against the rebellious house of Israel, the wondrous 
course of a redeeming Providence is depicted upon 
the cloud that bears the lightning and the thunder; 
even the judgments that pursue the people in their 
wanderings point ever to the eternal refuge. 

The prophet opens his stupendous mission in awful 
symbols, and in a manner worthy of the grand occa- 
sion, his words and his thoughts being alike divinely 
appropriate to the purpose. Like St. John the divine, 
in the Spirit on the Lord's day, an exile, alone in 
soul, but that angels came to him, the prophet seems 
to look as if into the opened heavens, and, beholding 
with the Spirit's eye future times and existences 
unformed except in spirit, he foretells, with the dis- 
tinctness of one describing what he sees, the destinies 
of Israel, and the results of their dispersion in rela- 
tion to the world. 

Let us imagine ourselves amongst the rocks above 
the green and flowery banks of the river Chebar,* 
as it flows in silvery smoothness through the open 
valley, fed by many a murmuring streamlet gushing 
do^v^l from the brown hiUs and scattering the gleams 

* " Per solitudines aboraeque aranis herbidas ripas," says Ammiauus of 
the river Chebar. — M. 1. xW. c. iii. 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 19 

of the declining sunshine like things of life rejoicing 
in the light. A lonely man slowly paces the green- 
sward ; now with fixed gaze he bows his face towards 
the ground, intent on reverent thoughts, and now 
with keen eye upraised to the cloudless heavens, as if 
he would penetrate the profoundity of the Infinite, 
and see God. 

He stands Avith covered brow as he seems to con- 
template some wondrous scene spreading out before 
his eye on the wide plain towards the north. A 
whirlwind is rolling on from thence with a vast cloud 
upon its wings, turning rapidly upon its centre, 
carrying fire in its bosom, and shedding an amber- 
coloured radiance around its path. The appearance 
of four living creatures proceeds from the whirling 
cloud, and they look in the distance like human 
beings. But each has four faces and four wings, and 
their feet are like those of a young heifer, narrow 
and sharp, and hollow-soled and cloven, and they 
shine like burnished brass. On each of the four sides 
of the advancing mystery there are faces and wings ; 
and under the wings, human hands. Their wings 
meet together above their heads, and they fly straight 
forward in each direction, expanding as they fly, and 
yet continuing united by their wings above. Each 
of the living beings has the face of a man, with the 
face of a lion on the right side. There are the faces 
of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle appropriate to 
each of the living beings. They have each four 
wings and four faces. Two of the four wings of each 
creature are stretched out above ; and these join the 
wings, each of the other, on all sides, and with the 

c 2 



20 ezekiel's vision — 

other two wings each creature covers its body. 
Thus w^inged and protected they go straight forward 
as the spirit in them wills to move ; they turn not a? 
if to determine where to go, but they move straight 
on to every quarter of the world. There is a bril- 
liance about them as of burning coals or flaming 
lamps, and a flashing as of lightning. Their whole 
appearance is that of a fire of glowing coals, or of 
torches in the wind flaring out sudden gleams of 
brilliance, or, like the aurora-borealis^ with intercurrent 
flashes of brightness, or, as we witness often in a 
rising storm, the lightning plays, with continuous 
flashes, amidst the dark, rolling clouds. The living 
beings themselves seem to change places, and pass 
and repass with the speed of lightning. See the 
first chapter of Ezekiel. 

The meaning of the wondrous symbols is not mani- 
fest, and, alas, our commentators give us little learn- 
ing, and less light on the subject. Will it not be 
better to view the subject in the light of common 
sense, and of scriptural, as well as of classical usage 
in the emplojnnent of symbolical language? By this 
means we may possibly obtain a clear meaning with- 
out any display of particular research, and that, too, 
without presumption. We must remember that the 
prophet is standing on the banks of the river Chebar, 
in Kurdistan, and looking towards the northern 
heavens. From this quarter he beholds the whirling 
fiery cloud advancing towards him, and then he 
descries the wondrous appearances proceeding out of 
it. Now, according to prophetic usage, a whirlwind, 
a cloud, and a fire signify a multitude of people 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 21 

scattered by some violence, and spreading mischief, 
and therefore the first idea we derive from this de- 
scription is that of an invading army from the north. 

We need not stay to prove that the symbol of a 
cloud signifies a multitude, and by implication a great 
power of accomplishing either good or evil. This 
figure is a natural one, and frequently used by poets ; 
thus, in Homer (11. ver. 273), a cloud of foot is a 
great company of foot soldiers. Jeremiah (iv. 13), in 
announcing the approach of an invading army, em- 
ploys several of the figures here introduced. " Be- 
hold^ he shall come up as clouds^ and his chariots shall 
be as a whirlwind ; his horses are swifter than eagles''' 
Ezekiel, in describing the descent of Gog, uses 
similar terms (xxxviii. 15, 16, and also 9, 10). A 
cloud very aptly symbolizes a multitude in motion, 
for in Eastern countries a cloud of dust from the dry 
soil usually accompanies an army. Xenophon, in his 
Anabasis^ finely notices this fact. When Cyrus was 
approaching Artaxerxes, over a vast plain, like that 
over which the prophet was looking when he saw the 
future in his vision, the first indication of the 
enemy ^s approach was " a white cloud seen in the 
distant horizon, spreading far and wide. As the 
cloud drew nearer, the bottom of it appeared dark 
and solid. As it still advanced, it was observed in 
various parts to gleam and glitter in the sun ; and 
soon after, the ranks of horse and foot, and armed 
chariots were distinctly seen." 

As regards the symbolical meaning of winds we 
may find sufficient evidence in the Holy Scriptures, 
or we might refer to profane and classical writers. 



22 ' EZEKIELS VISION — 

In Jeremiah (xlix. 36, 37), the symbol is again em- 
ployed, and again explained — " And . wpon Elam I 
will bring the four winds from the four quarters of 
heaven^ and I will scatter them towards all those winds; 
and there shall he no nation whither the outcasts of Elam 
shall not come. For 1 will cause Elam to be dismayed 
before their enemies^ and I will send the sword after 
them until I have consumed them,^^ 

The fire and the coloured brightness proceeding 
from it are less familiar symbols. What does the 
language of prophecy teach concerning fire? When 
associated with other indications of evil, it denotes 
sickness, affliction, torment, destruction, and purifica- 
tion, as we find in such passages as the following : 
''Therefore he hath poured ui)on him the fury of his 
anger and the strength of the battle^ heJiath set him on 
FIRE round about, and it bwMt^Thim^ yet he laid it not to 
heart. For behold^ the Lord will come with fire, and 
his chariots like a ichirlwind^ to render his anger with 
fury^ and his rebuke like flames (?/fire." (Isai. Ixvi. 15.) 
" Yea^ I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire 
of my wrath^ and ye shall be melted in the midst,^^ " / 
will bring the third part through the fire, and I will 
refine themJ^ (Zech. xiii. 9.) 

With the significance of colour the readers of the 
Bible in general are, unfortunately, very little ac- 
quainted, and hence they lose very much of the 
beautiful truth so frequently expressed by it. The 
symbolical meaning of colours and of their combina- 
tions was comparatively well understood by the 
ancients; and even in the Middle Ages this variety of 
symbolism was in some degree preserved amongst us. 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 23 

though now the cloud of the dark ages, without its 
Iris, seems to have settled down on the colleges of 
heraldry, and we look in vain to the learned in coats 
of arms to tell us what they mean by the colours, 
yet so religiously preserved in their distinctness by 
the emblazoners of shields and crests. The spirit 
and sense of religious truth was once expressed in 
heraldry, but now, perhaps, more of the spirit of pride 
and pretension. In our cathedral windows we may 
see the Apostles and their Lord, robed in the hues of 
light, as significant of the individual character attri- 
buted to each of them by ancient artists, who painted 
with conventional meaning in their colours. But we 
know not where now to look for an interpretation of 
their luminous language, though it appears that 
modern artists, in reverent ignorance, perpetuate the 
symbols, while they have lost their significance. If 
we may receive the testimony of those who, like 
Moses, were learned in Egyptian lore, or in that of 
the Etruscans and the Hebrews, all the colours of 
light were to them expressive of spiritual truths. 
The Israelites seem clearly to have understood the 
varied renderings of light on the gemmed breast- 
plate of the high priest, and every tint, as well as 
every form in the furniture, and the decorations of the 
tabernacle and the temple, spake with intelligence to 
the wise amongst them. This symbolism of colour 
was calculated to become a universal language. Thus, 
in India and China the characters of their deities and 
their doctrines are expressed by colours understood 
by the initiated. In Hue's translation of the Chinese 
records of Christianity we read of the luminous 



84 EZEKIEL^S VISION— 

religion berng conveyed in the blue chariot, and its 
doctrine being a blue cloud, because it is truth from 
heaven. We read of the vermilion palace, and the 
adornments of all colours^ and, as usual, we take what 
we do not understand for mere poetry, instead of 
perceiving what the fathers of the world intended to 
tell us, namely, that they believed all moral and social 
excellences to stand in relation, first, to the pure white 
light of heaven, and then to the primitive colours 
blue, yellow, and red, as expressive of faith, hope, 
and love in their earthly manifestation. The days 
of the week are beautifully, though, alas, now idola- 
trously, associated with Divine qualities by the 
Brahmins : thus, Sunday is pure sun-light; Monday 
or Moonday, as its reflection is white, that is purity ; 
Tuesday, flame-coloured coral, or love and hope in 
action; Wednesday, the emerald, kindliness and ac- 
commodation; Thursday, the topaz, holy knowledge; 
Friday, the diamond, light embodied as in a teacher ; 
Saturday, the sapphire, truth, slow and sure. Each 
day of the week is thus connected with the mani- 
festation of some deity, which is expressed by the 
appropriate colour. The seven precious things 
honoured by Buddhists, in China, and elsewhere, are 
gems, or other substances of various colours. These 
are used to express virtues, and are accordingly 
found in the tombs of Buddhist notables in India.* 

The science of colour as a symbol has been too much 
neglected ; for, while the facts of material action and 
phenomena have been sufficiently regarded, their 
moral meaning has been overlooked, and is now 

* See Mythology of India, and Major Ounningham's Bhilsa Topes. 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 25 

almost lost to us. But, if we would apprehend the 
sure word of prophecy, and throw its light into dark 
places, we must give more heed to the language of 
symbol, lest the Apocalypse of heaven should have 
been written in vain for us. 

The amber-coloured or golden brightness proceeding 
out of the midst of the fire and cloud described by 
the prophet would, to a learned Oriental, probably 
signify love and mercy accompanying the infliction 
of the wrath denounced against the people on whom 
the invasion was to fall. It is not the colour of pure 
unclouded light, but of light seen through a hazy 
medium, a difi'used mixture of red and yellow, such 
as we sometimes witness in a summer sunset or in 
the glow of the rising day. Whether in the words of 
prophecy, or in the sky, or in the hedgerow flower, 
this colour always means the same thing. It means 
that, whatever wrath may prevail, and whatever 
clouds may surround us, hope and love still live, 
and that the divine character is still written upon 
nature with the same finger that moulded man and 
put the bloom upon his cheek in token of love and 
hope, as the natural expression of healthful Hfe. 

God's own names of love and light are written 
by the ancients in letters of gold and vermilion. 
Though the accommodating glories of the Omnipotent 
arise out of a profundity too deep, and therefore too 
dark, for an angel's ken to penetrate, yet all above 
us and around, says, " Look, man, to Him who made 
you, and raise your eye towards heaven ; and, even 
in the midnight you shall see the glories of His 
wondrous hand more sweetly and yet more vastly 



26 ezekiel's vision — 

than in the meridian day. The light of eternity 
beams forth in golden radiance from immeasurable 
darkness, all space is full of eyes piercing with their 
gentle brightness into your soul, man.^ if you will 
but believe in it. The colours of all the stars are 
those of truth and love." 

Next to the whirlwind, and the cloud, and their 
attendant glory, we have presented to us in the pro- 
phet's vision the results of those phenomena. Out of 
the cloud came, as it were, four living beings re- 
sembling man (ver. 5). This scarcely needs expo- 
sition, as life, or living being, is the ordinary Oriental 
term for collective existence, especially in relation to 
mankind as existing in connected societies. Hence, 
from the general appearance of the whole vision, we 
are taught that, out of this invasion from the north, 
four varieties of human institutions should spread in 
all directions in association with men having amongst 
them the same elements and means of intelligence, 
industry, endurance, and success. 

Each division, having four faces and four wings, 
intimates four modes of manifesting the mental 
character under all circumstances, together with as 
many modes of advancement and defence. All these 
appearing under the form either of one cherub, 
viewing their faces collectively, or as four cherubs, 
viewed separately, signifies that the movements and 
peculiarities of the collective bodies of living beings 
are especially appointed, qualified, and directed by 
Divine Power, with reference to the ultimate revela- 
tion of wisdom, truth, justice, and mercy, as evinced in 
all the ways of Providence, both in the physical and 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 27 

spiritual history of the human race ; or, at least, of 
that part of it here signified. 

Layarcl, in his work on the Nimroud sculptures, 
points out the resemblance between the symbolic 
figures employed by the prophet Ezekiel in his 
sublime vision, and the Assyrian religious emblems 
supposed to be typical of divine attributes. Ezekiel, 
no doubt, had seen those emblems ; but the figures of 
a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, as emblematic of 
Divine I^ower in relation to the chosen tribes were, 
as we shall show, employed and understood by the 
Israelites long before their captivity; and, therefore, 
if the prophet meant to refer to Assyrian ideas at all, 
which is very doubtful, he certainly would, by that 
reference, teach the Israelites, to whom he addressed 
his prophecies, how all the attributes of the true God, 
Jehovah, and not a confusion of divinities, were con- 
cerned in carrying out his purposes with regard to 
his chosen people. 

The feet of the living beings are first particularized 
(ver. 7). The feet are the inferior extremities of 
the body, and signify the lower form of what is 
natural and necessary to the carrying out of any 
physical efibrt or design. Thus our Lord, in washing 
the feet of his disciples, taught them not only humi- 
lity, but that even those parts of their nature most 
exposed to defilement were perfectly cleansed by Him, 
and if they walked together aright and according to 
his Word, should be preserved pure. To sit at the 
feet is to take the place of the humble scholar, and to 
set foot on a place is to take bodily possession of it 
and to rule there; as in Deut. i. 36, xi. 24; Rev. 



S8 ezekiel's vision — 

X. 2; Ps. xliv. 5, xci. 13; Isai. xxvi. 6; Dan. vii. 23; 
Mai. iv. 3. Pharaoh is said to trouble the waters 
with his feet (Ezek. xxxii. 2); which in the Targum 
is interpreted to mean that his auxiliaries, or bor- 
rowed soldiers, trampled down the people whom they 
invaded like a river rushing over the ground. The 
feet of the symbolic creatures are said to be straight 
or narrow, and flat at the base like the feet of a calf; 
probably to indicate the fitness of the power or people 
typified to walk through difficulties, just as creatures 
of the ox kind can pass over the most difficult and 
miry places in conseqence of their feet expanding as 
they descend into the mire, and, from their peculiar 
construction, immediately contracting again when 
drawn up; thus rendering it easy for them and 
naturally agreeable to traverse those countries in 
which other creatures would be lost, or find no foot- 
ing and no food. Thus, the head of the ox, together 
with the feet of the calf, indicates their fitness to 
occupy the course of rivers, and reap advantage from 
those lands which, from their abounding in water, 
may,« by industry and proper natural appliances, be 
rendered most productive of food for man and beast. 
The colour of the feet, sparkling like burnished brass, 
expresses a furbished firmness and preparedness, with 
means of action and of progress, both strong and 
bright. The Grecian empire is symbolized by brass 
in Daniel. St. John, in the Apocalypse, saw Jesus 
with feet like fine brass as if burning in a furnace 
(Rev. i. 15), and, in Daniel's vision at Hiddekel, the 
army and the mighty one whom he there saw, and 
which mighty one predicted war and divisions, 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 29 

appeared with feet, in colour, like polished brass, as 
if to signify that the angel was commissioned to 
employ natural means, as the minister of Jehovah, to 
conquer and subdue, by power and violence, the 
natural opposers of righteousness. (Dan. x. 6.) 
Just as now, in China and in India, Jehovah is 
at war with oppressors by means of those ap- 
pointed. 

''''The hands of a man were under their wings on their 
four sides y This sentence expresses the fact that 
human agency and skill were spontaneously, and as 
if with perfect freewill, engaged in carrying out the 
movements and desires of the living creatures, or 
collective bodies of men. The hands are the instru- 
ments of reason. Throughout the Holy Scriptures 
the actions of the hands are employed to express 
those of the heart and mind in the exercise of power. 
Thus, to give the hand is a token of submission (as 
in 2 Chron. xxx. 8; Ps. Ixviii. 31; Lam. v. 6). 
Horace (Epod. xvii. ) uses the same expression. These 
hands, or the peculiar human instruments of the in- 
telligent will, were employed in all directions under 
the united wings, or under the protection and sus- 
taining power of an ever-connected and connecting 
Providence. There is no break, no interruption to 
God's purpose and proceedings ; and as the cherubim 
over the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies had their 
wings joined above and below, so it is all through 
nature and providence. The ministry of Jehovah's 
messengers is unbroken and unceasing, and man's 
agency and volition break not the chain of Divine 
causations. Thus Solomon placed the two cherubim 



30 ezekiel's vision — 

within the oracle, with wings extended from wall to 
wall. (1 Kings vi. 27.) 

The Persians understood wings to symbolize power 
and possession. Thus Cyrus, in his prognostic 
vision, when sleeping in the country of the Massa- 
getae, saw Darius, the eldest son of Hystaspes, with 
wings on his shoulders, like a cherub, one of which 
overshadowed Asia, and the other Europe; a vision 
fulfilled in that Darius who befriended Daniel. " So 
this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in 
the reign of Cyrus the Persian." Dan. vi. 28. The 
Hebrew word that signifies a wing also means a 
covering. Eagles' wings are mentioned as symbols of 
Divine protection and conveyance in Exodus xix. 4. 
The phrase " the wind hath hound them up in her 
wings^'' is used by Hosea (iv. 19) to denote the con- 
dition of Ephraim, or the tribes of Israel, when torn 
from their native land, and scattered by the Assyrian 
conqueror, and afterwards to the four quarters of the 
world, and never suffered to rest, but still, under 
Divine protection, supplied with power and guidance. 

The faces are the outward expressions of inward 
characters, and these are symbolized by a union of 
the human face with that of a lion on one side, and 
that of an ox with that of an eagle on the other. To 
explain this we must refer to the legionary standards 
of the hosts of Israel, headed by Judah, Reuben, 
Ephraim, and Dan. (Num. x.) Under each of these, 
according to the Targum, marched three tribes. 
Each standard was of three colours, like the precious 
stones in the breast-plate of the high priest, on which 
the names of the tribes were engraven. Now, be- 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 31 

sides these appropriate colours, it is stated, by 
Abenezra and others, that the banners had embla- 
zoned on them the emblems of each tribe. That of 
Reuben was the form of a man ; that of Judah, a 
lion ; that of Ephraim, an ox ; that of Dan, an eagle. 
Thus, we have ancient, and in this matter, good au- 
thority, for believing that the Israelites understood 
the emblems employed by the prophet Ezekiel to 
mean their own tribes collectively.* 

As in each of the four living beings the whole of 
these emblems of the Israelitish tribes were united, as 
if under one system of co-operation — and as these 
fourfold manifestations of Divine order over-ruling 
human effort issued from the whirlwind and the 
cloud — it is reasonable to conclude that the wise 
amongst the Israelites, to whom the prophecy was 
addressed, understood it to signify that, under the 

* The cherubim, or four living creatures of St. John's vision, are similar 
to those of Ezekiel, and they are attended by similar evidences of the 
dominion of God in their presence, as indicated by lightnings and thunder- 
ings, and voices, and the seven lamps of burning fire, i.e., the seven spirits 
of God. The character in which the power of Him who sits on the throne 
is manifested amongst them is represented by the colours of the sardine 
and jaspar being compared to his appearance, while the rainbow around his 
throne is like an emerald. Eacli living creature has six wings, and is full 
of eyes before and behind, and within. The glacial, sea-like crystal, too, is 
there. All these things may be fairly understood to signify that it is the scat- 
tered seed of Israel, far and near, who are to cry night and day, " Holy, 
holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was and is to come." The type is 
carried on from the literal Israel to the Christian Church, so that our in- 
terpretation of the cherubim or living creatures being symbols of the 
Israelites is here confirmed. He who is the root of David, of Judah, the 
lion tribe, is also the lamb in the midst of the throne, to whom ihefour 
living creatures, namely, a lion, a calf, a man, and a flying eagle, symbo- 
lizing the chosen tribes, sing " Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy 
blood." (Rev. iv. 4.) So that this triumphant song is that of Israel in 
then* conversion, the future being realized as present to the Seer of 
Patmos. 



32 EZEKIEL*S VISION — 1 

violent incursion of an army from the north, they 
should be scattered, and that yet in that scattering 
all the tribes should be involved and driven forth, as 
if by the winds, towards the four quarters of the 
heavens, and over all the earth. But yet, amidst the 
seeming confusion, they were taught that an exact 
providence should preside over them, and mercy be 
visible in judgment ; for the purposes of Jehovah in 
the separation of Israel from the nations should not 
be frustrated, notwithstanding the entire failure of 
the chosen tribes in the covenant made with them and 
with their fathers. We may also learn from this 
symbolic portraiture that in this fourfold, and yet 
united system of living beings spreading their influ- 
ence over all the earth, the characteristics of one 
division were the characteristics of the whole. 
1. There are the human faces and human hands, 
with their power of expressing and evincing in- 
tellect, afifection, and skill. 2. There is the face of 
the lion, expressive of courage and daring. 3. There 
is the face of the ox, speaking of patience, toil, and 
plenty. 4. There is the imperial eagle-face of keen- 
ness, far-seeing and decisive, and armed for rapine. 
We might sustain our interpretation by quoting 
authorities concerning the appropriateness of these 
symbols ; but probably a reference to the benediction 
and comprehensive prophecy of Moses will be suffi- 
cient to indicate the propriety with which one of the 
emblems is made to embrace three of the tribes. As 
an example, we may observe that, though Judah was 
designated by the dying Jacob as a lion's whelp, the 
comparison of the lion is also applied to the tribes of 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 33 

Dan and Gad by the dying Moses in his triumphant 
blessings on Israel. (Deut. xxxiii.) The symbol of 
a lion to convey the ideas of courage and strength is 
too frequently used in the Bible and other books to 
need explanation. That the ox was applied as the 
symbol of the tribes descended from Joseph we learn 
from the words of Moses : " His glory is like the 
firstling of his bullock, his horns are like the horns of 
unicorns ; with them shall he push the people together 
to the ends of the earth. ^' (Deut. xxxiii. 17.) Here 
industry is indicated as the source of wealth and 
power, Avhich push aside all opposition. Wherever 
agriculture has made any advancement, there the ox 
is admitted to be the appropriate symbol of industry 
and plenty and power. 

With regard to the eagle it should be remarked 
that the prophet seems to mention the eagle almost 
in a parenthetical manner at the end of his descrip- 
tion : " They four had also the face of an eagle^^^ as if 
this symbol were especially required, above all, to 
designate the tribes of Israel in their dispersion over 
the earth. The prophet Ezekiel himself applies this 
symbol to express an idea of kingly power. (Chap. 
xvii. 3, 7, 12.) In Isaiah the eagle denotes Cyrus, 
whose ensign was an eagle. JEschylus applies the 
same symbol to Xerxes. (Cheoph. v. 245.) This 
symbol may fairly be regarded as most remarkable 
when applied to the scattered tribes, since it indicates 
that, notwithstanding their dispersion, they should 
acquire kingly authority. This symbol is the more 
significant, since it is as kings from the East, or the 
sun-rising, that the tribes are to be recognised, when 

D 



34 EZEKIEL^S VISION — 

their way is prepared by the drying up of Euphrates. 
It is then to be observed, " that they four ^''^ that is, all 
the tribes, " had also the face of an eagle^^ as if to 
show that each of the four divisions under which the 
tribes were classed, should be possessed of regal 
dignity, however disguised. 

With regard to the symbol of a man, which, though 
the first in order, we consider last, there is more to 
be said than can here be conveniently admitted. But 
that the idea intended to be conveyed is that of intel- 
ligence and affection need hardly be observed. More, 
far more, however, is probably designed to be taught 
by the symbol, since, in several parts of the prophecy 
of Ezekiel, the man is spoken of as especially in- 
structing him in the purposes of God. The man who 
measures the departments of the temple, and marks 
out the localities for all the tribes is understood to be 
Immanuel, and it is He who still accompanies the 
dispersed and desolated people, bringing them by 
ways they knew not at last to recognise Himself as 
their Saviour and their King. 

" Thy judgments are as the light^^^ says the prophet 
Hosea to the Ten Tribes. The judgment sent upon 
the tribes goes with them as a present, instructing 
spirit, everywhere. The burning coals of purifying 
afiliction or of destroying fire, and the flashing light 
of severe instruction, accompany them, and going up 
and down amongst them in all directions, shooting out 
lightnings, not only enlightening, while discomfiting 
themselves, but also all amidst whom they come. 
They bear the lightning with them in all their 
goings (ver. xiv.), they carry light or destruction to 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 35 

their opposers, and become mighty by their trials. 
This is the especial prediction concerning the descen- 
dants of Isaac, known and unknown ; and we believe 
that history confirms the prophecy in all its bearings. 
Without further enlargement of the subject, at 
present, we here obtain the idea of a vast commingling ' 
of Israel with some northern power, rushing in upon 
the country over which the prophet is supposed to be 
lookinof. He and his Israelitish brethren were then 
exiles in the valleys and hills of Mesopotamia and 
Media. The tribes were to be involved in this 
northern cloud, and by it scattered to the four 
winds. The wisdom and goodness of God are to be 
seen in the providence which appoints and accom- 
panies this wide and ultimate dispersion. The 
spheres and regions of government under which the 
outcasts shall be brought, are to illu state the might 
and the mercy of the Omnipotent Ruler of all the 
cycles of time, and all the revolutions alike of nations 
and of worlds. The wheels within wheels, the 
spheres within spheres, the cycles upon cycles, how- 
ever vast and distant in the prospective, however 
dreadful and unsearchable in their extent, are all 
informed by an indwelling Intelligence. Like the 
vault of heaven on a starry night, the terrible extent 
and seeming depth of darkness is full of revolving 
order, and there are eyes looking through it, and 
pervading it; revolving bands of light are tying the 
universe together; and, go where we may, we cannot 
escape their influence, and their hold upon us. The f 
Divine attention is on the multitudes of people in 
their dispersions, and, however human energy may f 

D 2 



36 ezekiel's vision — 

be called into action, and seemingly be causing and 
determining consequences, yet all the evolutions of 
humanity are but working out and fulfilling the 
purposes of the Almighty, within the bounds first 
appointed, as regards time as well as space, for He 
lias fixed the laws of all iDeing. The angels of God 
are as his eyes, searching into all things pertaining 
to our nature, and going up and down, so to say, 
amongst the branches of the two olive trees that 
stand before the Lord of the whole earth. (Zech. iv. 3 ; 
Rev. xi. 4.) The spirit of the living beings, that is, 
life itself, with human will, intelligence, and activity, 
is in the movements everywhere. Through all re- 
gions, and in every cycle. Providence overrules and 
regulates the movements of the vast host passing 
along on wings, with the noise of many waters, like 
the voice of the Almighty in the thunders of his 
power, though still the articulate voice is that of man, 
speaking alike in reason and affection (ver. 24). 
The firmament is stretched over them from the re- 
gions of the terrible crystal,* or the icy boundaries 
of the frozen north, even to the burning south : that 
firmament is like a sapphire throne of truth and 
justice, above which sits a man having the amber- 
coloured glory around him from head to foot, as if 
beaming forth from all his body in the purifying 
brightness of commingled judgment and mercy. In 
the end of Ezekiel's prophecy the man appears sur- 
rounded by the sevenfold harmony of pure light, as 

* As the word here translated crystal is rendered ice (Job vi. 16) and 
/ro5^ (Gen. xxxi. 40), we should be quite justified in rendering it ice or 
frost in this place instead of crystal. 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 37 

seen by the beloved and loving disciple in the rain- 
bow around the throne. That is, the very glory of 
the risen, reigning Lord, who occupies the throne as 
a Larab slain, and who ultimately reveals Himself to 
the whole worshipping universe, according to the 
covenant made with Noah in behalf of all living 
creatures,* when the rainbow was set in the clouds 
of heaven as a sign of mercy for ever. (Gen. ix. 16.) 
Thus, John saw the Lord Jesus enthroned amidst 
the adorning hosts above, the centre and the glory 
of all livinof beinofs, the source of life and W^ht to 
all the systems of life in all worlds. As the Sun of 
riofhteousness He shines forth in all the attributes of 
beauty and of power, the centre and source of all 
attractiveness, life, and blessing, penetrating and 
possessing with the beams of his love all who are 
willinor to receive and transmit the lio^ht of his 
gloiy. 

When the prophet was instructed to address the 
captives of Israel, it was foreseen that they would not 
receive his words (chap. ii. 7); audit was because 
of their love of idolatry and will-worship that the 
prophetic denunciations were heard amongst them. 
In the spirit of prophecy, w4iich is the testimony of 
Jesus, the prophet went to the rebellious house of his 
brethren, declaring the woe that should come upon 
them there ; but, nevertheless, as he went he heard, as 
if behind him, in intimation of what should follow, a 
voice of a great rushing, yet distinctly saying, ''Blessed 

* The Hebrew word for living creature is the same as that of 9th of 
Genesis, where the covenant with Xoah and everj/ living creature is re- 
corded. 



38 ezekiel's vision — 

he the glory of the Lord frorii this 'placed (Chap, 
iii. 12.) 

In all the prophet^s progresses and visions and 
prophetic missions the sight and the sound of the 
living beings and of the wheels accompanied him, as 
if to afford an ever-present sustentation to his spirit 
under the trials of his commission; for he was to 
utter words of fire against the impudence and hard- 
heartedness of his kindred, who would scorn and 
despise him and his godly messages. It is remark- 
able that in each of the chief divisions of his pro- 
phecies Ezekiel recurs to the vision which he saw 
from the banks of the river Chebar, as if this vision 
afforded a key in his own mind to the mystery of 
God's providential proceeding in relation to his chosen, 
but now outcast people. He still saw, wherever he 
went, the golden glory beaming from the fiery cloud, 
and the bi'ightness shining from the man whose body 
was brilliant as burnished brass, or as the molten 
metal pouring in a glowing stream from the opened 
furnace. (Chap. iii. 13; iii. 23; viii. 12.) Thus, 
when the elders of Judah sat with the prophet in his 
own house (viii. 12), the vision of the cherubic pre- 
sences, and of the glory of God in the plain, by the 
river Chebar, recurs to him; but most particularly 
when, in reference to the departure of the Shechinah 
from the temple at Jerusalem, it was seen by him 
that the sapphire throne, the seat of truth and of 
righteousness, was still occupied, and the man in 
linen, the interceding high priest, was directed to go 
in between the wheels and the cherubim, or systems 
of living beings, and seize the burning coals, and 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 39 

scatter them over the city, as if to destroy its polity 
for ever. And then a loud voice cried to the wheels 
in the prophet^s hearing, " 0, wheel ! " as if to say in 
one word, mighty in its meaning as the revolutions 
of the universe, '' though there be wheels in wheels, 
spheres in spheres, worlds in worlds, imperia in im- 
perils^ still they are all turned by the Divine Hand, 
and in that Hand they are one." The wheel seems to 
be the symbol of the ongoings of the Almighty, as 
seen in the Assyrian monuments, and amongst the 
symbols of Buddha; but an earlier employment of 
the symbol existed probably amongst the Hebrews. 
At least the voice cried, " 0, wheel ! '^ to the pro- 
phet's spirit, when in vision he saw the four 
wheels with the face of a cherub, a man, a lion, and 
an eagle (Zech. x. 13), just as they appeared in 
that temple of Solomon called the house of the 
Lord Jehovah, which was erected about 1004 B.C. 
The whole of the tribes appeared to be symbolized by 
the twelve oxen in the house of Solomon, and the 
eao:le is wantino- because he himself was the eao^le. 

CO o 

It has been questioned what kind of wheel was 
meant ; but we are told that " the work of the [sym- 
bolic] wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel,'' 
having axletrees, naves, felloes, and spokes complete 
in all parts. (1 Kings vii. 33.) That a wheel signi- 
fies the proceeding superintendence of the Supreme 
Power was understood by the Greeks and Persians, 
as well as by the Hebrews, is sho^vn by the address 
of Croesus the Lydian to Cyrus : '' There is a 
wheel in human affairs, which, continually revolving, 
does not suffer the same persons to be always success- 



40 • ezekiel's vision — 

fill." (Herod, i. 207.) It is remarkable, also, that in 
the tenth chapter (verse 5), Avhere the prophet is re-^ 
ferring to God's providence in Jerusalem, the beings 
having life, that is to say, the cherubim, are dif- 
ferently distributed ; and, instead of the face of an 
ox, there appears the face of a cherub, in the first 
place. (Chap. x. 14.) 

This vision, apparently, relates to the after capti- 
vity and ultimate dispersion of Judah, for whom at 
that time the symbolic cherubs still spread their 
wings over the mercy-seat, and stood gazing on the 
golden tablet, as if to read what the finger of God 
would still in mercy write thereon for all Israel. 

As was the life, so was the providence. It is still 
with the use of Divine Power that the human will 
is working. While free as the winds and the electric 
forces that move the clouds and form them, yet, like 
them, all wills are moving according to fixed laws, 
by which the Divine Will subdues all things to eternal 
purposes. The wheels moved as the spirit of the 
living beings moved; and as the faces, or outward 
characters of the divided hosts were determined, so 
they went, that is to say, they went straightforward 
to the end necessarily resulting from the disposition 
manifested (ver. xv. 21). In this awful vision we 
witness the potency of the human spirit for good or 
for evil: good, in adapting itself to the gracious 
leadings of God's providence, and to the laws of his 
moral government, thus proceeding direct to the 
difi'usion and maintenance of all natural and spiritual 
blessings; while evil, on the other hand, consists in 
resistance to the teachings of Heaven, and leads only 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 41 

fo war and wasting, though, in these results, also, the 
Divine character shall be glorified. According to 
the state of man's will and intelligence collectively 
and individually, will be the result nationally and 
personally. Even when lifted up, or removed from 
the sphere of earth, the spirit of the life remains in 
the living beings ; and according to the ordinance of 
Him who constituted both life and death, the sphere 
in which we choose to move accompanies us, like the 
atmosphere of our existence, in whatever worlds we 
dwell, for it is the state of our wills with respect to 
God's law that determines our position and consti- 
tutes the essence of our being. We must not over- 
look the important fact that when the glory of God, 
the Shechinah, departed from the Lord's house at 
Jerusalem, it stood over the cherubim which the 
prophet saw by the river Chebar. He mentions the 
cherubim in this new relation as only one living 
creature (chap. x. 20), but as proceeding in a four- 
fold manner from the east gate of the Lord's house 
with the glory of the God of Israel over them above. 
(Chap. X. 19.) " This is the living creature [or com- 
pany of people] that I saw under the God of Israel 
by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the 
cherubim.''^ These went forth, and the sound of their 
" wings teas heard^ even to the outer court [that is, 
amongst the Gentiles], as the voice of the Almighty 
God when He speaketh^ (Chap. x. 5.) From this 
chapter we gather that, from the dispersion of Judah, 
and from the casting out of Israel, Jehovah would 
speak with power concerning his providence, right- 
eousness, and mercy to the Gentiles, in all lands; but 



42 ezekiel's vision — 

that Israel, then in Assyria, should be mainly 
scattered eastward, but not utterly destroyed; ''/<9r 
thus saith the Lord God^ although I have cast them far 
off among the heathen^ and although I have scattered 
them among the countries^ yet will I be to them as a little 
sanctuary in the countries where they shall come^ 
(Chap. xi. 16.) Thus we are again brought back to 
the starting point, from the river Chebar ; from whence 
we are to look for the fourfold outgoings of Israel, 
as under the wings of God to every quarter of the 
world; and by the judgments manifested in their 
dispersion preparing the world for the final harvest, 
when the angels from the four quarters of the 
earth shall be sent forth with their sickles to 
reap the ripened fields, and bring the wheat, that is 
to say, all that is good, and with living power in 
it, the true Jezreel^ the seed of God, unto the garner 
of heaven. 

In the vision the prophet was looking towards the 
north ; but he describes what he sees thus : " As for 
the likeness of their faces ^ they had the face of a man 
and the face of a lion on the right side ; and they four 
had the face of an ox on the left side ; they four^ alsOj 
had the face of an eagle, ''^ " They turned not when they 
went^ they went every one straight forward^ The right 
side of the four divisions was towards the east, and 
in the direction they faced they went. If then, the 
Targum is correct in describing Judah's division as 
symbolized by a lion and Reuben^s by a man, it fol- 
lows that the dispersion of those classed under these 
tribes, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and the one half 
tribe of Benjamin; Reuben, Simeon, Gad was to- 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 43 

wards the west; and, for the same reason, it also 
follows that the four tribes symbolized by the ox, 
Ephraim, Manasseh, and the other half tribe of Ben- 
jamin, and those symbolized by the eagle, Dan, Asher, 
Naphtali, took their direction to the east. It is 
traditionally, and with good reason held that only 
some of the tribe of Judah, and a part of the tribe 
of Benjamin, were recognised as occupying Judea 
after the Babylonish captivity. Hence, we may fairly 
infer that the remnants of the other tribes who re- 
mained beyond the Euphrates were involved in what- 
ever influences led to the general dispersion of the 
children of Israel as distinct from those who, from 
dwelling in Judea, were afterwards called Jews ; so 
that portions of all the tribes are not insignificantly 
represented as symbolically appearing under the forms 
of the four living creatures seen proceeding out of 
the midst of the whirlwind, the cloud, the fire, and 
the brightness of the prophet's visions at the river 
Chebar. 

It is important to observe that, though Ezekiel was 
a prophet of Judah, he is expressly directed to " set 
his face against the mountains of Israel and to pro- 
phecy against them '' (vi. 2). He is consulted both 
by the elders of Judah and the ancients of Israel. 
Throughout his prophecies he keeps distinctly before 
them the diflference in their condition and prospects. 
To the elders of Judah he exhibits the cause of 
Jerusalem's destruction (chaps, viii. ix. x. xi.); to 
the elders of Israel, as distinct from Judah (chaps, 
xiv.-xx.), he points out their iniquity, and says 
that God will not be inquired of by them through the 



44 ezekiel's vision — 

prophets, but that God will answer the house of 
Israel directly by Himself, without the intervention of 
a prophet (xiv. 7; xx. 3). There is remarkable 
stress laid on the peculiar abominations of the false 
prophets of Israel, who seduced the people by divining 
lies (»iii. 7), and promising peace concerning Jeru- 
salem, as if all Israel might expect deliverance 
because of the prosperity they foretold for the people 
of Judah. The symbol these false prophets employed 
to express their promises to the people was the 
erection of a "slight wall" (xiii. 10), which others 
" daubed with untempered mortar," as if to indicate 
their hope of restoration and of being built up 
together in their own land. But God, by the true 
prophet, says of the wall, " I will rend it with a 
stormy wind in my fury — an overflowing shower in 
mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury " 
(xiii. 13). This symbol of a slight wall of loose 
stones daubed with clay, as expressing the hopes of 
the false prophets, will throw some light upon usages 
to which reference will be made in future chapters of 
this volume. The contrast is between (Ezek. xiii. 10) 
a mere stone hedge and the wall of a city (xiii. 12) ; 
that is to be the defence of the rebellious Israel, this 
of the restored to Jerusalem. There are clear inti- 
mations throughout the prophecies of Ezekiel that 
there would be a new writing or record of the 
reunion of Israel as a whole; but the deceived of both 
houses, Judah and Israel, would be excluded, " they 
shall not be in the secret [assembly] of my people, 
nor written in their writing [or register] of the house 
of Israel, nor enter into the land of Israel" (xiii. 9). 



THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD. 45 

Those who called themselves more especially Beni- 
Tsrael, the house of Israel, the whole house of Israel, 
those who were separated from Judah by the rebellion, 
are most frequently styled by the prophet the re- 
bellious house. He shows that a new Israel will be 
formed out of the pious of both parties who should 
be restored ultimately to the land of Israel. This 
he symbolizes by the two sticks (xxxvii. 16-19), 
one having written on it " For Judah, with his com- 
panions of the children of Israel;" and, on the other, 
'' For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the 
house of Israel his companions." '' Thus saith the 
Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, 
which is in the hand of Ephraim, the tribes of Israel 
his fellows, and will put them with him, even the 
stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they 
shall be one in my hand." This seems to have been 
fulfilled in a measure by the restoration under Ezra 
and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, though an ultimate 
greater restoration and reunion is still foretold. The 
idolatrous people of both Judah and the rebellious 
house of Israel called Joseph, Ephraim, and the tribes 
remained in the countries beyond the Euphrates; the 
rebels were purged out from those who were to enter 
into the land of Israel (xx. 38). "As for you, 
house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, Go ye, serve 
ye every one his idol, if ye will not hearken unto me " 
(xx. 39). The judgments that are to come upon the 
rebels are summed up thus : " I will take the house of 
Israel in their own heart;" " I, the Lord, will answer 
every one by myself;" " I will set my face against 
that man [the idolater], I will make him a sign and 



46 ezekiel's vision, etc, 

a proverb, and will cut him oif from the midst of my 
people;" "If the prophet be deceived ( nriH)'' ) when 
he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived 
(■'JI^'JIB) that prophet; and I will stretch out my 
hand upon him;" "The punishment of the prophet 
shall be as the punishment of him who seeketh unto 
him " (xiv. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10). We shall probably see 
the force of these words as we proceed. 



47 



CHAPTER 11. 

ISRAEL'S PERVERSION, AVARNING, AND RECOVERY. 

We have seen the beams of glory bursting from the 
cloud in the prophet^s vision; we have seen that 
Jehovah, in human manifestation, sits on his sapphire 
throne erected above the firmament of heaven and 
above the cherubim ; we have seen the glory spread- 
ing from the icy regions of the terrible crystal to the 
torrid zone ; and we have seen that, however involved 
the ways of God to man may seem to be, yet the 
spheres and systems of all life, animal, human, or 
angelic, still run onward, in a path prepared, to an 
appointed end; and that, however devious from the 
course directed by the law of God may be the chosen 
determination of man's will, yet all the discordances 
of man are harmonized by the Omnipotent, according 
to the wisdom of his own will. The cycles of time, 
the circuits alike of worlds and of ages, the move- 
ments of all intelligences, become involved in the 
universal Power in which all the agencies of heaven 
and of earth are working out the development of 
Divine order, and rolling on with all the worlds to 
the eternal revelation, when God shall be kno^vn as 
all in all, the Origin and the End of all existence. The 
general idea of the prophet's vision seems to be, that 






48 Israel's perversion, 

the Spirit is everywhere, subduing the rebellious will 
of man by sure methods, however slow, to the ac- 
knowledgment of God's goodness and perfection, and 
that to this end the watchfulness that never tires 
would have us look, in all our attempts to under- 
stand the mysteries of Providence ; but now especially 
as revealed in the history of Israel and of Judah. If 
we look a little into the details of EzekieFs addresses 
to the exiles by the river Chebar, we shall be better 
able to see where we should look for the outcast tribes 
at this time, and probably be better qualified to un- 
derstand other prophecies concerning them. 

WeAi^tMnd that they would not listen to the pro- 
phet ^^mTi), and then that he portrayed to them the 
destruction of Jerusalem, as if to show them the 
fruitlessness of hope from thence. After which, he 
tells them they should be driven out amongst the 
Gentiles to eat defiled bread, and that only a third 
part of them should escape from the sword, |^^4?^5^k^^ 
lence, and the famine that should pursue theT^(v. 12) ; ^^ 
but that, after the nations had witnessed the Divine 
judgments upon them, the remnant of them should 
be signally blessed and made a further evidence of 
the wisdom and goodness of the Divine government, 
by their recovery from idolatry and pollution to true 
faith and patience; and thus also become, by their 
example and their teaching, a blessing to the nations 
amongst whom they had been hidden and oppressed. 
if(Ezek. vi. 9,f20, f40, /^44.) It may be questioned 
whether the prophet spoke these things to the ba- 
nished Israelites in general. In the 7th chapter of his 
prophecy he seems to limit his threatening predic- 



j6U 



WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 49 

tions to a certain class of his countrymen, namely, 
the whole multitude of them who should not return 
t (ver. 13) ; probably meaning those who should refuse, 
or not be permitted, to avail themselves of the oppor- 
tunities afforded to the Jews under Ezra and Nehe- 
miah to repeople their own land, and again build the 
walls of Jerusalem (ver.fl3]^icWhen Hosea prophe- 
sied to the Israelites in Samaria, under the name of 
Ephraim, he told them that they should go into 
bondage similar to that their fathers experienced in 
Egypt : " Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of 
rebuke among the tribes of Israel : I have made known 
that which shall surely J^""(ver. 9). They sought help 
against Judah from the Assyrian king Jareb ; there- 
fore that golden calf which the people of Israel wor- 
shipped in Bethaven shall be a present to king 
Jareb; and the king of Samaria ''shall be cut off as 
foam upon the waters. ^^ " Ephraim," says God by 
Hosea (xi. 12), " compasseth me about with lies, and 
Israel with deceit; but Judah yet ruleth with God, 
and is faithful with the saints." There is divine 
tenderness in the upbraiding which the prophet ad- 
dresses to the Israelites concerning their persistence 
in the idblatry and great wickedness which necessitate 
their utter removal from the Holy Land. ''When ^sm^ 
Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my '^Ajjj 
son out of Egypt. I taught Ephraim to walk, taking 
them by their arms. I drew them with cords of a 
man, with bands of love. He [Ephraim] shall not 
return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall 
be his king, because they shall refuse to return T (Hos.^' 
//i 1-5). This interchange of the singular and the plural 

E 



50 ISRAEL'S PERVERSION, 

personal pronouns is common in speaking of a people as 
personified in the name of an individual. The point 
of the passage is this : those who boasted of being pecu- 
liarly Israelites, descended from Ephraim, the most 
highly blessed son of Joseph, might well be sent back 
to Egypt as a punishment for their worship of Baalim ; 
but, instead of that, th<^y should become and remain 
subjects to the Assyrian, whose help they sought 
against Judah, because, or when, they shall refuse 
to return. Of those who escape from the sword, pes- 
tilence, and famine, it is said, they shall escape to the 
mountains like^dom^of the valleys^ out of place and in 
sorrow. (O^^^Vir. 16-22.) In answer to the be- 
wailing supplication of the prophet, Jehovah declares 
that He will not make a full end of Israel as a nation, 
notwithstanding their total removal. When the Assy- 
rian took the inhabitants of Samaria captive, and led 
the whole of Israel away into bondage beyond the 
Euphrates, the Jews of Jerusalem, from whom they 
had been so much and so long divided by their reli- 
gious and political feuds, cried to them, upbraidingly, 
" Get ye out far from the Lord^ unto us is this land 
giveny (Chap. xi. IG?)'' The Jews were fearfully 
tested afterwards, as to their fitness to possess 
the Holy Land. When the Prince of Peace came 
amongst them in the name of the Father, teach- 
ing salvation by words and signs and wonders, 
they saw about Him nothing of this world, the world 
they loved, and they cried out, " His blood he upon us 
and upon our children.''^ The dispersed, the out- 
\^sts of Israel, had no voice in the rejection and cru- 
cifixion of Jesus. His miracles they never witnessed, , 



WARNING, ANi/ RECOVERY. 51 

of his resurrection they never heard; and they 
resisted not the testimony of God against themselves 
when the Holy Spirit, as the witness of Christ's as- 
cension to the right hand of God, to reign in the 
power of his risen life, was preached in many tongues 
kindled into lustrous utterance as by fire from Heaven. 
The Ten Tribes, though apostates, were not in a 
position thus to deny their Lord and Saviour, as 
Judah ultimately did ; so it appears from the prophecy 
that the remnants of Israel shall be converted first ^ and 
that they shall enjoy the blessings of the new cove- 
nant, while yet the dispersed of Judah shall be availing 
themselves of all the secular powers of the last days, 
to re-establish themselves in the land from whence 
their iniquities expelled them. It was when the 
whole house of Israel were bowed down in the miseries 
of banishment that the Jews taunted their brethren 
in the words above quoted (xi. 15); and it was then 
that the word of Jehovah came to Ezekiel, saying, " Al-"^ti/^ 
though I have cast them far off among the heathen, and 
although I have scattered them among the countries, 
yet will I be to tliem as a little sanctuary in the 
countries where they shall come. Therefore say. Thus 
saith the Lord God, I even gather you from the people, 
and assemble you out of the countries where ye have 
been scattered, and will give you the land of Israel. 
And they shall come thither, and they shall take away 
all the detestable things thereof, and all the abomina- 
tions thereof, from thence. And I will give them one 
heart, and I will put a new spirit in you^ and I will 
take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them 
an heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, 

E 2 



52 Israel's perversion, 

and keep mine ordinances, and do them ; and they 
shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as 
for them whose heart walketh after their detestable 
things, and their abominations, I will recompense 
their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord God. 
Then did the cherubim lift up their wings and the 
wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of 
Israel was over them above. And the glory of the 
Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood 
upon the mountain which is on the east side of the 
city. Afterwards, the Spirit took me up and brought 
me in vision, by the Spirit of God, into Chaldea, to 
them of the captivity ; so the vision I had seen went up 
from me. Then I spake unto them of the captivity 
all the things that the Lord had shewed me " (ii. 
16-25). 

In order to understand these words we must re- 
member that the prophet is addressing the people of 
Judah and Jerusalem concerning themselves, as well 
as the rebellious house of Israel ; hence the change of 
person in the address : " I have cast them off, yet I 
will be to them as a little sanctuary amongst the hea- 
then, but I will re-assemble you after being scattered, 
and bring you into the land of Israel." It was when 
the prophet had heard these words that he saw the 
cherubim lift up their wings, with the wheels beside 
them (the mercy and providence of God), and the 
glory of the God of Israel over them. Then the 
glory went forth from the city of Jerusalem, and 
stood on the mountain to the east of the city, that is, 
the Mount of Olives, from whence the Lord Jesus 
ascended into Heaven, and where the angels were 



WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 53 

heard by the disciples to say: ''''This same Jesus ivhich 
is taken up into heaven^ shall so come in like manner 
as ye have seen him go into heaven^ (Acts i. 11.) 
May we not with propriety conclude that this refer- 
ence to the Mount of Olives as the seat of the glory, 
or the last place on which it was seen, is intended to 
convey the idea that the Israelites should be truly 
restored in heart and spirit, by faith in Him who is 
the Resurrection and the Life ; and who "has ascended 
up into heaven to receive gifts for men, for the re- 
bellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among 
them?" 

Immediately after the vision the prophet went into 
Chaldea, to tell the captives there also ail theyfetiings 
that the Lord had shown him. (0^^x17^2-25.) 
He informs us what he said and did amongst the pro- 
phets, the princes, and the elders of Israel and Judah, 
in the land of exile. The elders of Israel obeyed him 
not, but preferred to worship Baal, the god of fire, 
and the calf in high places. Though they still pre- 
tended to reverence the name of Jehovah as the 
Supreme God, to whom the gods of the heathen were 
as servants, the place to which they desired to go was 
Bamah, the high place. Probably mth a voluntary 
humility, like other worshippers of angels, they 
proudly professed to be too humble to address their 
prayers and open their hearts at once to Jehovah, 
though He had revealed Himself as the Father of all 
that truly honoured Him. They could come to the 
prophet indeed as to a mediator, or a medium of 
access to God, Jehovah, still ; but that was not the 
way that the Holy One required to be honoured. 



34 Israel's perversion, 

Obedience to his laws in life and practice, was the 
only appointed mode of approaching Him, and obtain- 
ing blessings. TWjelderg^f Israel still went up to 



worship on high ^^es! ' Then said the prophet unto 
them, when they, in mock humility, came to inquire 
what they should do: ^^ Are ye polluted after the 
manner of your fathers ? As Ilwe^atth the Lord God^ 
I will not be inquired of by you^^x' 30, 31]. Neither 
shall it be as you think to be like the heathen^ to serve 
wood and stone^ but as I live^ saith the Lord^ surely 
with a mighty hand^ and with a stretched out arm^ and 
icith fury "poured out^ will I rule over you. I will 
bring you into the wilderness of the people; and 
there will I plead with you^ face to face^ as I pleaded 
with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of 
Egypt, I will cause you to pass under the rod [like 
counted sheep\ and I will bring you into the bond 
of the covenant ^^ [xx. 29-39]. The address of Ezekiel 
to the elders of Israel in this chapter (20th) is 
a recapitulation of the mode of God's dealings in 
grace and judgment with their fathers from the first. 
They are upbraided with their idolatry, and told the 
result. Their rebellion is charged upon them. The 
Author of life is represented as pledging Himself by 
his own life to accomplish his words, which are the 
more forcible from the fact that the Israelites were 
accustomed " to swear by the sin of Samaria, and say. 
Thy God, Dan, liveth; and the manner of Beer- 
sheba liveth." (Amos viii. 14.) As much as to say the 
golden calf there worshipped is as much a living God 
as Jehovah Himself. They are told that those who 
are purged from their idolatry shall be restored to the 



WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 55 

Holy Land, and that the rebellious shall be cast out. 
This separation of the Israelites into two classes, one 
to return, and the other to be scattered, has been 
overlooked. Hence the prophecy has appeared pecu- 
liarly obscure, and even contradictory, since within a 
few verses a return is promised, and yet a thorough 
casting out and rejection is threatened. The point to 
which the reader s particular attention is invited in 
connexion with our inquiry is this — a certain class of 
Israelites, and that a large one, is not to be restored to 
Palestine, and yet they are as a body to be removed 
from the place of their exile : " / will purge out from 
among you the rebels^ and them that transgress against 
me; I will bring them forth out of tjie country where- 
they sojourn^ and [o;; J)ixt] ^i'^y^&Mf^^ enter into the 
land of Israer (^fev/Zo), ' Notwithstanding this, > 
mercy accompanies the rebels. A devouring fire, an 
unquenchable flame, g^a^fopth to burn all faces from 
the south to the north (v^: 47, 48). It is a purify- 
ing flame, a flame of Divine vengeance, a convincing 
process ; it is heavenly fire : " All flesh shall see that 
I the Lord have kindled it ; it shall not be quenched^ 
Well might the prophet exclaim, at the end of his 
address, " Ah^ Lord God I they say of me, Doth he not ^^^^''^ 
speak parables .^" The same will be said of any one ' ^^ 
who sees and announces the Divine judgment in a 
Divine method. 

Do not the preceding statements express with 
sufiicient plainness the fact that, when the remnant 
of Israel, scattered in lands but little known, the 
wilderness of the people {Midbar Hdammim), shall 
have lost sight of their original, the goodness of God 



$6 Israel's perversion, 

shall in grace be abundantly fulfilled to them by 
their restoration through his correcting providence to 
a right state of heart ? Daniel and Jeremiah appear 
to have foretold the gospel dispensation as that of the 
especial or holy covenant, and it is this into which 
the outcasts are to be ultimately brought when, feeling 
and acknowledging their evil dispositions, they re- 
nounce their own pretensions, forsake all idols, and 
from the heart obey the gospel.* 

The prophets testify of the history of Israel. Each 
prophet personifies God in relation to the peculiar 
people. Deity humanizes Himself to reason with 
them, to warn and to prognosticate. He puts Himself 
into all the human relationships which can best illus- 
trate His love for man as manifested through the 
chosen people. Thus Hosea puts Divinity before us 
as in his own person, and as acting the part of a 
loving husband to a deceitful and abominable wife. 
Israel is that wife; but the ^vife takes the name of 
the husband, and the true Israel is really represented 
by the prophet. Her proceedings and names symbo- 
lically indicate the history of Israel both at home and 
abroad, in Palestine and in other lands. The prophet 
represents himself as married to Gomer, the daughter 
of Diblaim (Hosea i. 3). Here, we conceive, Israel 
in its northern, or Scythian connexion is alluded 
to. It is the house of Israel as distinct from 
Judah that is represented as the adulterous wife 
by Hosea (i. 3). Why does he name her Gomer, 

* See Dan. ix. 27; xi. 22, 28, 30, 32 ; Jer. xxxi. 31 ; xxxiv. 18 ; Heb. 
viii. 8, 13; Ezek. xxxvii. 26; Heb. xiii. 20; Isai. xxx. 18, 19; xlviii. 
xlix. The messenger of the covenant is the Messiah. (MaL iii. 1.) 



WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 57 

the daughter of Diblaim? It is an interesting fact 
that Gomer, as a country, is identified with that 
of the Scythians by the ancients.* May not the 
representative marriage of Hosea with Gomer be 
prophetic not only of the peculiar apostacy of the 
house of Israel, but also of their association with the 
Scythians in that apostacy? If so, we have this 
additional ground for seeking Israel in Scythian con- 
nexion. According to the figure of the prophet, 
fulfilment of the holy bond is only on one side. Israel 
is unfaithful to God, but the unselfish love, the 
highest, the divine, the law-giving love, triumphs 
over all the defects of its unfaithful object. Forgive- 
ness, not indulgence, is the ground of the Divine 
conquest of fallen humanity. Detesting and punish- 
ing the wrong, the love goes on to evince its unfailing 
nature until it begets love like itself, and the heart 
of man and the heart of God beat, so to say, in 
unison. 

The whole scheme of the prophecy of Hosea is in 
the first chapter. The result of this nominal marriage 
with a people of false religions (whoredoms) is first 
a son called Jezreel (the seed of God), to signify the 
cessation of the kingdomj^L^^^J, but yet the pre- 
servation of a godly race (ver. 4). Then a daughter 
named Lo-ruhamah (not having obtained mercy) ^ is'^jsje^ 
said to be born, because, as it appears, the people Nf 
of Israel in their exile did not trust to God like Judah 

* Gomer signifies that which is fulfilled or thoroughly brought to pass. 
It is also the name of the son of Japhet, from whom the Scythian nations 
are descended. Diblaim is a dual word, and signifies two (people) brought 
together by outward pressure ; it is a dual word, doubtless adopted by the 
prophet to express the fact by a verbal symbol. 



58 ISRAELIS PERVERSION, / 

(ver. 7), but to armed power ^^^^refore, says God, 
^'' I will utterly take them away (ver. 6). Afterwards 
another offshoot arises, called Loammi (not my people), 
no longer recognised as Israel. Yet Israel is in 
number numberless, and where it was said, " Not my 
people^ there they are called sons of the living GodJ^ 
To find Israel, the descendants of the rebel tribes, 
the Lo-ammi, in the latter day, we must look for 
the people which most readily and willingly received 
the Gospel, or are most ready to receive it, when 
properly presented to them. 

We must not forget that the predictions concerning 
the seed of Isaac, repeated and enlarged in the pro- 
phecies concerning the offspring of Joseph, are not 
fulfilled in anything that history has taught us in 
relation to the dispersed of Judah. Notwithstanding 
the direful defection of Israel, it is yet promised that 
in them shall all the families of the earth be blessed, 
that their seed shall yet be countless as the sea-side 
sands, and that where it was said " Ye are not my 
people^ THERE it shall be said^ Ye are the sons of the 
living God,'''' (Hosea i. 10.) Their way is indeed 
hedged up with thorns and enclosed as by a wall, but 
that is to the end that they should not be able to 
follow their own devices, but only the more remark- 
ably manifest the marvels of Divine Providence, 
When Jehovah reasons with them through the 
prophet, he addresses them under the figure of a 
faithless woman betrothed to him for ever, and yet 
by their idolatries behaving faithlessly; to be re- 
covered, however, at last, in righteousness and judg- 
ment, and lovingkindness, and tender mercies, and 
divine faithfulness, so that she should know and love 



WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 59 

her Lord without the possibility of defection ever- 
more. (Hos. ii.) 

But the most striking part of the figure thus em- 
ployed by the prophet is most overlooked. In the 
review of Hosea^s prophecy, which is peculiarly ap- 
plied to Israel in distinction from Judah, it appears 
that the whole earth is remarkably interested in the 
recovery of the outcast people. Their perfect recovery 
is, in fact, the harvest of the world : " I will sow her 
unto me in the earth^^^ saith the prophet, in Jehovah's 
name. Through the scattering of Israel, like wheat 
broadcast from the sower's hand, the wide earth shall 
yield her increase. The day of Jezreel^ the day of the 
seed of God^ the day of judgment, the day of decision, 
the day of love, the day of God's vengeance, that is 
the day in which Israel and eludah, now divided as if 
never more to meet, shall choos^pnp head, and be 
indeed the visible sons of God. (Chap. i. 11.) Their 
restoration is the establishment of the final kingdom, 
an anastasis, as if of life from the dead, the actual 
regeneration, when that adoption shall be manifest for 
which the apostle of the Gentiles looked forward, " to 
wit, the redemption of the body from the bondage of 
corruption, the manifestation of the sons, or seed, of 
God," the true Jezreel. (Rom. viii. 23.) Then these 
words shall be fulfilled, " It shall come topass^ saith the 
Lord^ that I will hear the heavens^ and the heavens shall 
hear the earthy and the earth shall hear the corn^ and the 
wine,, and the oil^ and they shall hear Jezreel,^^ the seed 
or sons of God. (Chap. ii. 20.) All shall then visibly 
operate after the Adamic order, the Divine plan of 
government, in which God rested in love and in 
blessing with man as the head of creation ; from the 



60 Israel's perversion, 

lowest ordinances of nature upwards to the highest 
offices of intelligence, all shall hang in conscious 
dependency on the Spirit, the Power, and the 
Presence of the Supreme, the only Lord whose best 
last name is Love, love manifested in perfect 
humanity. 

To quote all the passages in the Bible in which we 
find, or fancy we find, predictions of blessing to all 
the dwellers of earth through the literal descendants 
of Abraham, would be to transfer a large part of that 
wondrous book ; for all the prophecies relate more or 
less to the history of that people, either in their dis- 
persion, consequent on their unbelief, or in their re- 
covery, through faith in their Redeemer. When God 
called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans, he made 
him the representative and federal head of a new dis- 
pensation, in which separation in heart and mind from 
all idolatries unto the worship of Jehovah, should 
be always accompanied by Divine favour and blessing. 
It was this going out from all the practices of idola- 
trous heathenism to seek a heavenly rest, a land of 
promise and immortality, in the devotion of his soul 
to the God who by his word fabricated the heavens and 
the earth, that distinguished Abraham, and, despite 
his infirmities, caused him to be designated " the friend 
of Gody Now it was to Abraham that the promise 
was made that he should be the father of many 
nations, and that in his seed all the families of the 
earth should be blessed. (Gen. xvii. 19, 20; xxi. 10.) 
It is to be observed that the promise was made under 
very unpromising circumstances, or, as St. Paul 
expresses it, a promise of life and blessing to proceed 



WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 61 

from one as good as dead. (Heb. xi. 11-16.) All 
along, from the first to the last, from the time that 
Abraham was a childless wanderer to our age of Mam- 
monism, it has always appeared a most unlikely thing 
that the whole world should be blessed through and 
in the seed of Isaac, for, as Tacitus says, " The Jews 
of all nations are held the vilest." (Book v. 8.) The 
land of Canaan was the seat of the worst forms of 
idolatry, and consequently of the most hideous vices. 
This land was punished by Israel as the hand of 
Jehovah, and occupied by the Hebrews in fulfilment 
of the promise made to Abraham ; nevertheless, for 
their idolatries, the chosen people were themselves 
cast out. The land was given as an everlasting pos- 
session on terms which they neglected. But the co- 
venant of God still stands on His part sure, and the 
central land shall be again and for ever the dwelling 
of the faithful seed of Israel, whence the whole earth 
shall be filled with praise. 

But where is the select seed now ? Scattered we 
know not where. And yet Jehovah said, " / will sow 
them in the earth ;" the seed of Isaac shall spring up 
countless as the sea-side sands. Has not the word of 
prophecy been fulfilled ? Probably many will say that 
the language of the prophecy is to be understood with 
a large poetic licence, or in a spiritual manner. Pro- 
phecy with a limitless licence might answer amongst 
the believers in the Sibylline leaves, but it will not 
serve the purpose of those who place their faith in a 
positive, plain-speaking God. Believers in the Bible 
take that book to be God's truth because it does not 
allow us to exercise the craft and cunning of imagi- 



62 Israel's perversion, 

nation in the invention, or in the interpretation, of 
either its facts or the doctrines connected with them. 
What Jehovah means He says and does, and that 
both as a Creator and a Saviour; and it is the coin- 
cidence between the truths of creation and history, 
with the truths of salvation, that renders the Bible, in 
its old and new covenants, a trustworthy book. It 
agrees alike with man and man's world. If, then, 
the book is to be consistent in all respects, as it ap- 
pears to be in so many, we may expect a literal ful- 
filment of the prophecies concerning the seed of Isaac, 
and the blessing of the world in his name. Does it 
U/ appear that the Jews, as they now stand, in any 
r degree represent a fulfilment of the promises? We 
^mmm f trow not. Are they hereafter to possess and bless all 
lands? If they do, surely it will not be as Jews, 
unless Judaism is to supplant Christianity, and tram- 
ple down the Saxon race, with their New Testament, 
the Gospel and its comments, in the Epistles and the 
Apocalypse. 

Amongst the earliest prophecies there is one pre- 
eminent, which perhaps may afford a clue to others. 
When Jacob blessed his grandsons Ephraim and 
Manasseh, he designedly and significantly crossed his 
hands, so that, contrary to custom, the right hand 
rested on the head of the younger, and the left on 
that of the elder. Joseph would have corrected the 
supposed mistake; but the devout and blind old 
grandfather said : "/ know^ I know^ my son, Manasseh 
shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be 
greater. The angel which redeemed me from all evil 
bless the lads I and let my name be named upon them, 




WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 63 

and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac^ and. 
let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earths 
(Gen. xlviii. 16.) The promises of overflowing 
blessings on the house of Joseph and his children 
have not been fulfilled in anything that history has 
yet brought to our knowledge concerning the Jews. 
They have not become a multitude of nations yet, 
nor are all lands blessed by them, nor are they blessed 
themselves. If the prophecy be fulfilled, there must 
be another people hidden, yet vastly diffused, in 
whom it is fulfilled. Where is the tribe of Ephraim? 
Certainly not known on the exchange by that name, 
nor in the name of Jacob, nor of Abraham, nor of 
Isaac, as far as we can ascertain. The prophecy was 
not fulfilled in Palestine, nor is it now in the course 
of fulfilment amongst the Jews; and yet, if the 
times of the Gentiles are nearly completed, as all the 
signs of the times distinctly indicate, then we must 
believe the prophecy fulfilled in some manner yet 
to be discovered. The vulo-ar starers after crlarino* 
wonders will never see prophecy converted into fact ; 
but those will who watch the Hand that works 
silently. By the insertion of one seed vitalized by 
His touch God filled the whole earth with the highest 
forms of life and adoration. The word of God un- 
folds itself like life, ever expanding and never seen 
but by the seers of the Spirit as well as the letter. 
Look at the Jews. The promises made to Isaac 
indeed embraced the Jews, but the promises to the 
children of Joseph^ extend beyond them. The tribe 
of Ephraim belonged to that division of the Hebrew 
people who remained amongst the idolaters when the 



64 . Israel's perversion, 

captivity was relaxed by the decree of Cyrus. 
Ephraim is especially mentioned by the prophets, and 
the words of Hosea are peculiarly strong concerning 
the estrangement of this tribe : " Ephraim is joined 
to idols; let him alone''^ (chap. iv. 15, 16, 17); and it 
appears that Ephraim was so prominent a leader in 
idolatrous innovations, as that the name stood in that 
respect as the representative of the whole of the 
house of Israel, as we find in that divinely tender 
address: "0 Ephraim^ what shall I do unto thee?*^ 
(Chap. vi. 4.) '' There is idolatry in Ephraim — Israel 
is defiled y 

Observe the result. Ephraim is mixed with the 
peoples (vii. 8). Because he made many altars to 
sin, altars shall be to him to sin; and through his 
idolatry Israel is swallowed up among the Gentiles as 
a vessel in which is no pleasure (viii. 8) ; like an un- 
clean and broken urn cast into the sea as worse than 
useless. He forgot his Maker, and yet huilt temples. 
In consequence of this attempt to do God service by 
flattering their own vanity, the very people who 
deemed themselves the peculiar inheritors of divine 
blessings are now outcasts alike from their fatherland 
and their fathers' hopes. They have forgotten all their 
traditions of Jehovah's covenant with their fathers, 
they are to know themselves as utterly desolate and 
hopeless, incapable of recovery but through a mani- 
festation of grace of which they have no record. 
Speaking of Ephraim and Israel as one, the prophet 
Hosea says : " My God shall cast them away, and 
they shall wander among the nations." (Chap. ix. 17.) 
Thus confirming and repeating the prophecy of 



WARNING, AND RECOVERY. 65 

Moses, who, foreseeing the disobedience of Israel, said 
to them all : *' The Lord shall scatter thee among all 
people from one end of the earth even unto the other, ''^ 
(Deut. xxviii. 64.) Nevertheless, the end of their 
wanderings is this : " Ephrahn shall say, What have 
I to do any wore with idols ? I have heard him and 
observed him saying^ I am like a green fir-tree , From 
me is thy fruit found. Who is wise^ and he shall 
understand these things ? prudent, and he shall know 
themV (Hos. xiv. 8, 9.) "'0 Israel^ thou hast destroyed 
thyself: but in me is thine help. The iniquity of Ephraim 
is bound up^ his sin is hid. I will ransom them from 
the power of the grave ! I will redeem them from 
death. death^ I will be thy plagues. grave^ I 
will be thy destruction.''^ (Hos. xiii. 9-14.) We must 
look then for the fulfilment of these prophecies among 
a people not known as Israelites, and who can be 
recovered from the degradation of their habits and 
position only by that operation of the Holy Spirit 
which causes a belief in . the resurrection, and raises 
the soul from death by the word of Christ. We 
must look for the descendants of the literal Israel 
amongst those who now are, or are ready to become, 
the spiritual Israel ; in short, among Christian nations, 
and among those who are willing to receive the word 
of God, the truth as it is in Jesus, as soon as they 
shall have it fairly presented to them. 

We will proceed in our endeavours to substantiate 
this conclusion by examination of the history and the 
existing facts of the world, as far as we can trace 
their connexion with Israel. But there is one point 
in the prophecy most striking in connexion with the 



66 Israel's perversion, warning, and recovery. 

grand revolution now proceeding in the East, the 
greatest that ever happened. It is this: when 
Ephraim, or the outcast house of Israel, is beginning 
to be recovered, he awakes, so to say, with the ques- 
tion, " What have I to do any more with idols V Thus 
indicating that, up to the moment of the sudden 
change, these hidden Israelites are idolaters, but 
throw their idols off in haste and altogether, just as 
the old races in China now do, and as those of India 
will ere long. This is only an illustration, an argu- 
ment, and an inference may be connected with the 
fact by and bye — " A nation shall he horn in a day^ 

All times and all means spring from one source 
and terminate in one end, the manifestation of the 
Divine Beigg, the revelation of the Author and 
Finisher of life. Such, at least, is one of the grand 
lessons we shall learn by contemplating the facts to 
which our inquiry now conducts us, and it is itself 
worth our patience. 



67 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW AND. WHERE DID THEY GO? 

Having arrived at the conclusion that the prophet^s 
symbohc vision signifies the scattering of the re- 
beUious Israelites and Jews through the wide world, 
ill proof alike of judgment and of mercy, we pro- 
ceed to inquire by what instrumentality this was 
effected. It has been intimated that they were to be 
involved in the cloud and the whirlwind, and mixed 
up with a vast multitude of people in the north ; from 
Avhence they are to be borne, as on the wings of the 
wind, unto every part of the habitable globe. How 
they were thus involved and scattered we have no 
certain evidence to inform us; but we shall discover 
much reason for the inference that they voluntarily, 
as a body, went forth from the place of their exile 
into the land offering them the asylum and the 
liberty they desired. They refused to listen to the 
''prophet's warning; God rejected them, and we know 
that they did not and could not return to Palestine. 
They who were of the Ten Tribes had altogether 
separated themselves from the Jews as a body by 
apostacy and relentless warfare against the house of 
David; and, had they desired again to occupy 
Samaria, that land could not receive them — it was 

f2 



68 HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 

filled by a people who had been placed there by the 
Assyrian monarch in exchange for themselves. There 
was, therefore, no room for them in their own former 
country, had they been inclined or permitted to re- 
turn. They were completely outcasts; they were 
rejected alike of God and their country. An invasion 
of the land of Media and Mesopotamia, through some 
of the most fertile provinces of which they appear to 
have been scattered, might indeed have facilitated 
their escape. A foe to their oppressors would have 
been a friend to them, and one mighty enough to 
meditate and effect such an invasion would probably 
have promoted their rebellion, encouraged their band- 
ing together, and have hailed them as the best auxi- 
liaries. But we find nothino^ distinct enouo^h in the 
history of those countries and those times to afford 
us any proof that they were drawn into the northern 
whirlwind and the cloud by such means. It is at 
least most probable that, if they left the place of their 
exile at all, they went out in peace, still deceiving 
themselves with hopes to which they had no title, 
since they had forsaken the covenant with the house 
of David, in which " the sure mercies " promised by 
Jehovah were alone to be found. But, if they could 
leave the place of their exile peaceably, it is evident 
that the power of their oppressors must have been 
previously subdued by some other power which 
proved itself friendly to themselves. That power we 
believe to have been Scythian, since this was the only 
invading force of which we have any information that 
could in any degree fulfil the requirements of the 
vision of a whirlwind and a cloud coming from the 



HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 69 

north and involving the captives of Israel who so- 
journed in Media and Mesopotamia, and bj the banks 
of the Tigris and the Euphrates. We shall present 
evidences of the connexion of the Israelites with this 
northern power as we advance in our inquiry. But, 
in order more fully to understand the condition of the 
revolted tribes, and of such of the tribes of Judah 
and Benjamin as were seduced by them after their 
removal from the Assyrian and Persian dominion, we 
must revert to the words of prophecy, which show 
us that theirs was a condition resulting from their 
wilfulness and obduracy of heart in choosing a reli- 
gion for themselves in keeping with their temper of 
mind. Instead of receiving and obeying the religious 
ordinances which had been enjoined upon them, they 
only ostensibly reverenced them as oracles to be in- 
terpreted according to their liking and convenience, 
just as the heathen interpreted the utterances of their 
Sibvls. 

In the second book of Esdras (chap, xiii.) it is said 
that the Ten Tribes went forth under circumstances 
peculiarly favourable. " The Most High showed 
signs for them, and held still the flood until they 
were passed over." It is stated that ^' they entered 
into [passed?] Euphrates by the narrow passages of 
the river." If we look into a map, we shall see that 
such a course would lead them through Armenia, 
northward, into the midst of nations of Scythian 
origin. We may take this evidence as so far indi- 
cating what Jews believed concerning the Ten Tribes 
at a very early period. Since Esdras, however, is 
apocryphal, we ask what other indication is there that 



70 HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 

the Ten Tribes ever had an opportunity of withdraw- 
ing from the place of their exile? And, supposing 
them to have thus withdrawn, where were they likely 
to go? The record of the Scythian invasion of Media 
and Mesopotamia will afford us the reply. The 
Scythians once occupied those countries under cir- 
cumstances in which the Israelites were very probably 
greatly favoured. As alike enemies of Persia and 
Assyria, it was natural for the Scythians and the 
Israelites to seek to be on good terms with each 
other. But the history of the Scythians is remark- 
ably involved and obscure. It may be that this very 
obscurity concerning a people with whom the 
Israelites must have had association is one of the 
peculiar providences by which the path of the wan- 
dering tribes has been concealed. Notwithstanding 
this obscurity, traces of the Ten Tribes are found 
amongst the Scythians to the east of the Caspian Sea, 
in Sogdiana, Bactriana, Independent Tartary, and 
Bokhara, and, indeed, amongst all people sho^vn by 
history or language ever to have had any connexion 
with that part of the world. There was a bond of 
sympathy between the Scythians and the Israelites. 
Their foes were the same. Scythia was doubtless, 
open to the sons of bondage whenever they could 
avail themselves of an opportunity to escape. Why 
should they not seek refuge in the land of freedom? 
Jewish historians, perhaps confounding the captivity 
with the after diffusion of the Jews, relate that the 
Ten Tribes were carried not only into Media and 
Persia, but also into countries north of the Bos- 
phorus. Ortelius also speaks of them as being in 



HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 71 

Tartary. We may then deem it probable at least 
that the Israelites in Media were in correspondence 
with the Scythians, and this would go far to account 
for the attack of those people upon Assyria, as well 
as for the remarkable fact that, in their vast in- 
cursion, they went to the borders of the Hebrew 
country, but then turned aside, as if to avoid disturb- 
ing the sacred land, at that time unprotected, except 
by Providence. We have the evidence of Herodotus 
as to the singular fact, that the Scythians were bent 
upon invading Egypt, but were diverted from their 
purpose by large presents from the Egyptian king 
Psammetichus. They are said, however, to have 
robbed the temple of Ascalon on their return, and to 
have been afflicted with some strange malady in con- 
sequence, (Clio. 104.) 

But are there any people with a name in any 
degree indicating the connexion of the house of 
Israel with that of the Scythian ? Yes ; we find the 
Sacce placed by Ptolemy beside the Massagetae, and 
the very name Sacce suggests the possibility that the 
sons of Isaac^ as the Israelites delighted to call them- 
selves, became, in fact, the neighbours of those vic- 
torious Scythians, the Massagetae, and blended with 
them, or became allies, in their eventful wars with all 
the nations around them. Nor is it without some 
probability that the Scythians, who overran Asia for 
twenty-eight years, were themselves led on by the 
Israelites, if, indeed, the great body of them were not 
of Hebrew origin. This would account for their 
being first found in Media and Mesopotamia. These 
very Scythians were afterwards all called Sacce by 



72 HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 

the Persians. Their incursion took place in the reign 
of Cyaxares, son of Phraotes, king of Media. The 
Nebuchadnezzar who took Jerusalem married the 
daughter of this Cyaxares of Media.* When this 
king Cyaxares was in revolt against Assyria, and 
while in the very act of besieging Nineveh, with the 
aid of the Babylonians, these so-called Scythians came 
down upon these besiegers, overpowered them, and 
seized the empire of Asia, which, as we have said, 
they retained for twenty-eight years, (b.c. 641.) The 
especial fact to be observed is this, the Scythians and 
SacaB were afterwards confounded together. 

These overpowering hosts came through Media and 
Mesopotamia, where the vast multitudes of exiled 
Israelites had been located, and growing into power 
for more than a hundred years. The Asiatic domi- 
nion was ultimately recovered for the Medes and 
Persians under Cyrus the Great. Thus the way was 
prepared for the restoration of the Jews, the tribes of 
Judah and Benjamin, according to prophecy, while 
we hear nothing of the house of Ephraim or Israel. 
Where, then, were they? There is one great event in 
the history of Cyrus that may throw some light on 
the subject. This king was desirous of conquering 
the Massagetae. He went into their country, and, while 
there, dreamt that Darius had subdued Asia and 
Europe. This occurred on the banks of the Araxes. 
(Herod, i. 209.) Now we must remember that it 
was to the borders of this river, which is the same as 
Kir, that Tiglath-Pileser deported the people of Da- 
mascus when he subdued Syria, (b.c. 740. — 2 Kings 

* Dr. Angus's Chronology, Bible Hand-book, p. 536. 



HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 73 

xvi. 9.) These people, therefore, were amongst the 
Massagetce who defeated Cyrus, and they had been 
formerly friends and allies of the Israelites, and spake 
the same or a similar language. It is probable, there- 
fore, that the Ten Tribes afterwards passed into that 
country, if in united bodies they went out from 
Media and Mesopotamia. We shall find proof here- 
after that the Israelites, the Sacae and the Getae, or 
Gothi, are ultimately blended together in some of 
their migrations. 

Names, dates, and events are involved in too great 
a confusion in the histories of those countries and 
times to be now unravelled, so we must content our- 
selves with the light we possess, and follow it to the 
best of our ability as far as it will lead us. We only 
gather up hints as we go on at present. We have 
imagined some reasons for supposing the Scythian 
Sacae to be connected with the house of Isaac ; but 
we shall find other and stronger reasons as we pro- 
ceed to investigate the subject in the higher and 
clearer light of prophecy. In this place, however, a 
sketch of the kings and chronology of Assyria, in 
relation to the Israelites and the Jews, will aid us in 
forming a clearer idea of the statements already 
made. 

Pul, or Phul, is the first Assyrian king mentioned 
in Scripture. As he gave his kingdom to Tiglath- 
Pileser, they are associated together. Pul made the 
Israelites pay tribute to him in 769 B.C. He also 
probably deported some of the people ; at least the 
captivity of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of 
Manasseh is attributed to him as well as to Tiglath- 



74 HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 

Pileser in 1 Chron. v. 26. These tribes were removed 
to Halah, Habor, Hara, and Gozan. 

Habor is supposed by some to be the same as 
Chebar; Hara was the mountainous country of 
Media, and Gozan probably the district now known 
as Buhtan. If Habor be the same as Chebar, now 
Khabur, we have the fact that some of the Israelites 
deported by Pul were located where others of their 
tribes were afterwards located by Tiglath-Pileser. 
There Ezekiel the prophet addressed their elders and 
beheld his vision. The people dwelling by the Chebar 
are named Sucki (Soki or Saaki) in the Assyrian 
records translated by Rawlinson.* This name might 
well be applied to the Israelites, either by themselves 
or their masters, whether we suppose the name de- 
rived from 11:; or from ira. In the first case it 
would mean a people poured from one place into 
another; and in the second it would be but the 
appropriate patronymic, in short, which Amos ap- 
plies to them, namely, sons of Isaac — hence, perhaps, 
Sakhi= Saxons. 

Tiglath-Pileser was invited by Ahaz, king of 
Judah, to assist him against Pekah, the king of 
Israel, who, with the aid of the Syrians, endeavoured 
to expel the descendants of David from the throne of 
Jerusalem. f Tiglath-Pileser on this occasion sub- 
dued Syria, and brought the whole of the country of 
Gilead and Naphtali, east of the Jordan, under his 
dominion, leaving only Samaria to the kingdom of 
Israel. He sent his prisoners into Assyria, or, as 

* See note to Herodotus. 
1 2 Kings xvi. 7-9. 



HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 75 

some think, the country on the banks of the Kir, a 
branch of the Araxes which flows into the Caspian 
Sea, in lat. 39° N. This was about 740 B.C. This 
king of Nineveh was master of Media, Armenia, Kur- 
distan, Syria, and the northern parts of Palestine. 
Amos foretold this captivity : " I will break also the 
bar of Damascus, and the people of Syria shall go 
into captivity into Kir, saith the Lord." (Amos 
i. 5.) 

Shalmaneser, named Shalman by Hosea, led an 
army against the kingdom of Israel, which was now 
confined to the narroAv limits of Samaria. He com- 
pletely subdued the Ten Tribes, and removed 
27,280* families from Samaria at once into Halah, 
Habor, Gozan, and the cities of the Medes. It ap- 
pears that his death for a short time suspended the 
removal of the rest of the Israelites. This was about 
725 B.C. We observe that the Israelites, on this 
occasion, were exiled to the same parts of the empire 
of Assyria as those transported by Pul and Tiglath- 
Pileser; the cities of the Medes being also now 
mentioned, though some authorities have it that, at 
the time the Ten Tribes were carried to Assyria, the 
Medes had revolted, and Babylonia was a separate 
kingdom. But this occurred seven years from the 
building of Rome, in the second year of the eighth 
Olympiad, 748 B.c.f 

Sennacherib, or Jareb,J succeeded Salmaneser B.C. 

* See Eawlinson's translation of Assyrian records. ^Athenaeum, Aug. 
23, 1851. 
f Diod. Sic. lib. ii. Justin, lib. i. c. iii. 
J Hosea x. 6. • . 



76 HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 

720. He completed the removal of the Israelites, 
brought the whole of Galilee and Samaria under his 
dominion, and then sent an army of 180,000 men 
against Hezekiah, king of Judah. But, in consequence 
of the faith and prayer of this king, this vast army 
was utterly destroyed by the angel of God beneath 
the walls of Jerusalem.* After this the Assyrian 
empire began to decline and that of Babylon to in- 
crease. Hence we learn, in the story of Tobit, who 
resided in Nineveh, that the overthrow of Nineveh 
was anticipated by the Israelites. He exhorts his son 
to leave that place,f and to go into Media, where the 
Israelites dwelt. 

It was under Nebuchadnezzar (605 B.C.) that 
Babylon dominated over all the East. During his 
reign the Chaldeans marched upon Jerusalem and 
carried away a large number of Jewish nobles into 
Babylon ; among whom were Daniel and his friends. J 
This deportation of Jews was very different from 
that of the Israelites, and at least a hundred years 
subsequent. 

The return of the Jews took place after Cyrus had 
united the kingdoms of Media, Persia, and Babylon, 
and it is likely that he gave the Jews authority to 
rebuild their temple in Jerusalem in consequence of 
their aid in the conquest of Babylon. 

In the restoration of the Jews as related by Ezra 
and Nehemiah we hear nothing of the Ten Tribes ; 
and the reason for this may be found in the entire 



* 2 Kings xix. Herodotus, lib. i. 1. 

t Tobit xiv. 4, 10-15, Rollin, lib. iii. c. ii. 

J Jer. xxiv. 5 ; xxv. 12 ; Ezek. xii. 13 j Dan. i. 1, 2 ; Athenaeus, lib. xii. 



HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 77 

apostacy of Israel, and in the circumstance of their 
separation from the Jews, and also in the events that 
had occurred in the countries to which they were 
banished. It was the chiefs of Judah and Benjamin 
that promoted the return as stated by Ezra (i. 5). 
These were assisted by the priests and Levites. 
Some remnants of the house of Israel who were 
willing to submit to the new order of things appear to 
be named by Ezra (x. 25.) as all that were recog- 
nised. 

The circumstances that must have tended to pro- 
duce a permanent separation between the Ten Tribes 
and the Jews, or men of Judah and Benjamin, are 
numerous; but perhaps the most remarkable are the 
great changes that took place in the relations between 
Media, Nineveh, Babylon, and Israel during the 
interval between the reign of Sennacherib and that 
of Nebuchadnezzar; in which period the Ten Tribes 
must have been entirely dissociated from all their 
brethren in Palestine, and liable to all the abuses 
which opposing tyrannies could exercise over an op- 
pressed, a captive, and a homeless people. 

Esarhaddon, the third son of Sennacherib, took 
Babylon, and reigned over it, together with Nineveh, 
in 680 B.C. In this change the people of the tribes 
must have been involved. From 667 B.C. Sardochus 
reigned over Nineveh, Babylon, and Israel for twenty 
years, and over Media also, until that country re- 
volted, which happened in the thirteenth year of his 
reign (654 B.C.). All these changes no doubt greatly 
influenced the position of the Ten Tribes in Assyria 
and Media. The revolt of Media was very likely 



78 HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 

indeed to have been much assisted by the presence in 
its cities of multitudes of Israelites, men famous for 
stratagem and the restlessness of tried bravery and 
fanaticism. But the most marked change in the 
position of these people, who, from their religious 
prejudices, would still endeavour to keep themselves 
distinct, probably occurred when the hardy Scythians 
came down from the north and trampled under them 
alike the despotisms of Media and Assyria (b.c. 633). 
The Median empire at that time contained, besides 
JVTedia-Magna and Media- Atropatene, Persia, Assyria, 
Armenia, and Cappadocia.* They occupied Media, 
Mesopotamia, and great part of Assyria immediately 
after the revolt of Media, and while civil war was raging 
between Nineveh and Babylon. The Scythians, occu- 
pied, in fact, the very provinces in which the Ten Tribes 
dwelt, and from whence they overran the whole of 
Asia as far as Egypt on the south and the Indus on 
the east. May we not, then, regard this incursion as 
that predicted in the vision of Ezekiel under the 
image of a whirlwind and a cloud from the north? 
It alone, of all events in the history of those countries, 
fulfils the requirements of the prophet's vision. This 
vast and marvellous invasion of rugged hosts seems 
to have as completely altered the aspect of central 
Asia at that time as did that of a kindred people 
under Alaric the Goth change the destinies of 
Romanized Europe. The Hand Divine guided the 
cloud; in all its seemingly lawless evolutions is seen 
" the fire unfolding itself,'* and the self-moving Spirit 
rules in all the rollings of the whirlwind. 

* Eawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 373. 



HOW AND WHERE DID THEY GO? 79 

The facts about to be presented will probably 
justify the inference that the overflowing of these 
Scythians from the steppes of Tartary led to the ulti- 
mate removal of the Israelites, as a body, from Media, 
Mesopotamia, and Assyria into the land of the Tartars ; 
and thence into all parts of the habitable globe, ac- 
cording to the literal force of the prophecies ad- 
dressed to Israel, and now proclaimed to the whole 
world, that men may everywhere look for their fulfil- 
ment, and understand that the destinies of nations 
and of men are determined by their obedience to the 
laws of uprightness, truth, and justice, or of the 
charities of earthly life under the kindred but higher 
charities revealed from heaven. Into the considera- 
tion of this world-wide dispersion of Israel it is not 
now my purpose to enter. Enough for my present 
purpose will be found in a very limited department 
of this inquiry, and I shall confine attention in 
this work to such evidences as we may be able to 
discover of the connexion of Israel, under another 
name, alike with Scythia, India, and England. 



80 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON RACE. 

However infidels may cavil and sneer at the oldest 
book in the world, they have the facts in connexion 
with it to account for, which the truth of that book 
alone explains. The people who wrote the Bible 
and transmitted it to us have altered the whole aspect 
of politics and religion; they have remodelled the 
world, and that, without intending anything more 
than to express their own convictions. Their faith 
has cast mountains into the sea. The contemptible 
people, as the Grecians and Eomans called the 
Hebrews, have turned the pillared temples of Athens 
and the Eternal City into dust, to be blown away into 
oblivion by the breath of Time. 

The names of old heroes once worshipped there, 
now serve for little but to round the nonsense 
verses of our schools ; the philosophers who haunted 
the porticoes of temples and the groves of the aca- 
demies in long garments, uttering their proud 
attempts at wisdom with the gravity and mysterious- 
ness of that miserable ignorance of God and of them- 
selves which all their most oracular discourses 
expressed ; — these, with all their honours, give place 
in silence to the dauntless prophets of Jehovah and 



HEBREW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON RACE. 8 I 

the ruder disciples of the holy Jesus. There is the 
fact — philosophy without the Bible has done nothing 
to improve the moral world as yet. The seed of 
Abraham — the man who so long ago strangely sepa- 
rated himself and his family from the pantheists of old 
Asia in order to assert faith and to worship a personal 
and a speaking God, the God manifest in humanity — 
have by their books and their ideas altered the habits of 
the whole civilized world, and now regulate, or will 
soon regulate, the intercourse of nations in all that 
relates alike to commerce, religion, and law. The man 
who was called '' the Friend of God " is acknowledged 
by Europe, Asia, and America, and by multitudes in 
Africa also, as the father of the faithful, thus pro- 
fessing to be the true seed of Abraham in spirit, just 
so far as they obey the God who called him to seek 
for a country beyond this world. What if those 
Christian nations that profess the faith of Abraham as 
the proper pattern of their own should not only be 
spiritually his descendants by faith, so far as they 
possess it, but be even bodily influenced by an infu- 
sion of his blood throuo^h the scatterin^^ of his lineal 
descendants, the tribes of Israel, lost amongst the 
Gentiles? But, if not so, they have at least received 
the Word of life from the children of Abraham, and 
the people thus ostensibly his seed are the models of 
humanity. In their records we possess the highest 
examples of all that is most ennobling in our nature, 
because there we see man influenced by the highest 
motives, and enabled, by the apprehension of divine 
relationship, in all their eflbrts to aim at the honour 

G 



82 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

of Him who is " glorious in holiness^ fearful in praises^ 
doing wonders^^ 

Disregrardino; for a moment the Jewish mission to 
the Gentiles at all times of their history, but especially 
the Apostolic ministry in all lands with the Gospel of 
the crucified King of the Jews in their hands, the 
presence of the dispersed of Judah among us is suffi- 
cient to remind us of our indebtedness to them as 
men teaching us a grand lesson of the deepest in- 
terest. We see in their origin and history more of 
the use of history than in that of all the world besides ; 
for in that we see the direct connexion of national 
and individual well-being with obedience to God's 
laws. Here is the secret of Providence. To know 
God in the abstract is impossible. He reveals Him- 
self relatively, that is, in good and in evil. Man 
must study these in relation to the outward worlds 
of creation and history, and also in his own soul. 
He is to distinguish good from evil, to feel the beauty 
of holiness, and love that beauty. To appreciate the 
character of the just God, and to imitate Him who is 
manifested as the Saviour in whom righteousness and 
love are united, are spiritual duties now. These are 

* The literal Jews are a wonderful people, even in respect to their 
physique. They resist the causes of disease and death better than most 
people. According to the investigations of Dr. Gaiter, of Wieselburg, the 
mean life of Jews is 45'5 years ; of Germans in general, 26"7 ; of Croats, 
20'2. He ascribes the difference altogether to the influence of race. Out 
of a thousand Christians at Frankfort, 39 reach 70 years, while of the same 
number of Jews 73 attain that age. This is the more remarkable, since 
Jews intermarry so much amongst themselves ; for Dr. S. M. Bemis shows 
that, of 6321 marriages between cousins in Kentucky, 3677 produced in- 
firm children — 1116 deaf and dumb, 468 born blind, 1854 idiots, and 
239 scrofulous. — Ranking's Med. Obs., vol. xxix. arts. 6 and 7. 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 83 

the purposes of revelation and faith ; and all specula- 
tion that takes the mind away from contemplating 
these truths confounds, distresses, and destroys us. 
With this form of revelation the whole course of 
Providence coincides. But the plainest evidence 
remaining for us of the connected history and in- 
terests of human nature is found in the Bible and in 
the history of the Israelites ; not only as recorded in 
their books, but as now visible in the effects of their 
dispersion and their presence in all civilized lands. 
The Jews at least cannot but testify to their past 
history; they cannot but point to Jerusalem; they 
cannot but appeal to their laws; they cannot but 
quote their prophets ; they cannot but sing the songs 
of Zion ; they cannot but lament in the language of 
Jeremiah ; they cannot but indicate their hopes, and, 
while testifying alike of judgment and of mercy, they 
cannot but thus direct the eyes of all thinking in- 
quirers to the Jews* future as the only future fore- 
told with any sign of promise worth having. The 
Hebrews' past has involved the well-being of the 
nations with whom they have mixed, and so will it 
be with their future. How marvellous their story ! 
How blended with the destinies of empires ! Egypt 
and Babylon, and Assyria and Rome have meddled 
with them and come to ruin, because they dealt with 
them unrighteously. And there is a controversy 
still pending with the Russian, the Mahometan, and 
Roman Catholic empires, as also with the Persian, 
the Mogul, the Chinese, the Burmese, and the Indian 
empires in connexion with their past conduct towards 
the outcasts of Israel. The history of the world, as 

G 2 



84 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

God's and man's world, is the history of the Hebrews. 
And if the British empire and the republics of the 
Western hemisphere be not ruinously involved in the 
approaching and universal struggle, it is because of 
their better standing in relation to the Jews in con- 
sequence of receiving the Word that went out from 
Jerusalem. Those nations which submit by choice 
to the Word that smote down with violence the re- 
sisting Caesars now own the kindred of their Saviour, 
and acknowledge their obligation to the Jews for 
having conveyed to them the models of the wisest 
constitutions, and taught them to look before and 
after, to trace the meaning of God's handwriting con- 
cerning the origin and ultimatum of our race. Thank 
God, the influence of Jewish history and prophecy is 
deeper in our literature and habits of thinking than 
is the influence of Jewish Mammonism on our money 
markets. The purpose of both these efifects is to be 
seen yet, and that probably soon. If, without the 
consent of Jews as money dealers, the nations cannot 
fio^ht, so neither can those nations that adhere to the 
Bible be much troubled by the contentions that arise 
about the Greek, Armenian, and Romish churches as 
represented at Jerusalem by idolatries that are there 
the proper derision of the Moslems and the scandal 
of true Christians, and an abomination in the eyes of 
those very Jews who look upon the whole land in 
which the objects of contention stand as their own 
inheritance. Through the favour of the God whom 
they still worship, and through whose interference 
they rightfully expect to be ere long reinstated, they 
still ply every art at their command to accomplish 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 85 

the end they desire, that is to say, the destruction of 
all those powers who pretend to any authority in the 
land of their fathers. The Holy Land is prepared to 
receive them back. These points are full of interest 
at the present turbulent and maturing and finishing 
period of history; but the largest element in the 
world's present condition is unknown, and therefore 
it cannot be taken into the calculation concerning 
comino^ events. We do not know how the ten out- 
cast tribes of Israel, to whom so much of unfulfilled 
prophecy belongs, now stand in relation to the other 
peoples. They are only hidden, however, not lost. 
Not a seed is to fall to the ground in the winnowing 
process. And if it is difficult to find them as a 
separate people, or to discover where they are, if 
mixed up with others, yet it cannot remain for ever 
impossible, since the world is to see the light that 
shall arise upon them. (Isaiah Ix.) 

We are already well informed by trustworthy his- 
tory that only a portion of the Hebrews who were 
carried captive into Assyria and its provinces returned 
to Palestine. All attempts to account for the re- 
mainder are unsatisfactory. Probably the most 
plausible attempt to find their locality is that of Dr. 
Grant, who, being a missionary among the Nestorian 
Christians, occupying many of the hills of the country 
over which the Israelites were probably dispersed by 
their conquerors, has arrived at the conclusion that 
these Nestorian Christians are the descendants of the 
Ten Tribes, and that the Scriptures are fulfilled by 
their discovery and conversion. But if Dr. Grant's 
views do not come up to the terms of the prophecies 



86 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

concerning Israel, to which we have in a former 
chapter directed attention, it will be unnecessary to 
follow his several arguments in order to expose their 
fallacy. What Dr. Grant wished to prove, of course, 
under the circumstances, became very evident to him- 
self; but he has not shown that the Nestorians are 
numerous, nor that they are " swallowed up as an 
empty vessel amongst the nations.''^ (Hos. viii. 8.) The 
Nestorians are very probably descendants of the few 
Israelites who did not leave the land of their captivity ; 
this small remnant were distinguished in the early 
ages of Christianity, that is, the sixth and seventh 
centuries, in a most marvellous manner, by their 
sending out Christian missions to the east and the 
north, the traces of which still remain to a remark- 
able extent among the Chinese, the Tartars, and pro- 
bably more southern nations in the Eastern hemi- 
sphere. We have in general but a small conception of 
the influence that early Christians, through converted 
Israelites, exerted over the views of the heathen 
world. It is at least a noteworthy fact that the early 
Syrian churches have left visible evidence of their mis- 
sionary zeal and power, both in China and in India. 
Those early Syrian churches were Nestorians, and, in 
as far as the modern Nestorians aflbrd strong evi- 
dence of their Israelitish descent, as well as of their 
actual connexion with the early Syrian churches, so 
called, it is probable that their missionary efforts in 
China and India originated in the fact that people of 
their own kindred were known to be in those countries. 
If we go back into the records of ancient history, 
we find, as before observed, one marked period of 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 87 

great obscurity, especially in relation to the country to 
which the Israelites were exiled. The wars of the 
Medes and Persians, which desolated those parts of 
Armenia, Media, and Assyria in which the captives 
dwelt, are not so narrated by any historian as to give 
the least clue to the relation in which the Israelites 
stood to those people, either during their continuance 
in their neighbourhood or afterwards. But there is 
one remarkable people beginning, for the first time, to 
take a name and a place in history. The Sacae are 
now mentioned, but only incidentally, as a tribe of 
Scythians, or indeed as being the ver}^ Scythians 
themselves. It appears as if the existence of the 
Saca3 could only be accounted for by the Greeks and 
the Eomans by supposing them to have come from the 
north. Nearly all that geographers and historians 
have preserved or intimated concerning this people, in 
respect to their early locale^ is succinctly stated bv 
Turner in his History of the Anglo-Saxons.* " The 
Saxons were a Gothic or Scythian tribe ; and, of the 
various Scythian nations which have been recorded, 
the Sakai, or Sacas, are the people from whom the 
descent of the Saxons may be inferred with the least 
violation of probability. Sakai-suna, or the sons of 
the Sakai, abbreviated into Saksun, which is the same 
sound as Saxon, seems a reasonable etymology of the 
word Saxon. The Sakai, who in Latin are called 
Sacae, were the most important branch of the Sc}i:hian 
nation. They were so celebrated that, as already 
observed, the Persians called all the Scythians by 

* Vol. i. p. 100. 



88 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

the name of Sacae; and Pliny, who mentions this, 
remarks that they were among the most distinguished 
people of Scythia.* Strabo places them eastward of 
the Caspian, and states them to have made many in- 
cursions on the Kimmerians and Treves, both far and 
near. They seized Bactriana and the most fertile part 
of Armenia, which from them derived the name Saka- 
sina ; they defeated Cyrus, and they reached the Cap- 
padoces on the Euxine.f This important fact of a part 
of Armenia having been named Sakasina is mentioned 
by Strabo in another place ; J this seems to give an 
[early] geographical locality to our primeval ances- 
tors, and to account for the Persian words which 
occur in the Saxon language, as they must have 
come into Armenia from the northern regions of 
Persia. 

"That some of the divisions at least of the 
people were called Sakasuna, is obvious from Pliny ; 
for he says that the Sakai who settled in Armenia 
[implying that they had come from another country], 
were named Sacassani,§ which is but Sakasuni, spelt 
by a person unacquainted with the meaning of the 
combined words. And the name Sacosena,|| which 
they gave to the part of Armenia they occupied, is 
' nearly the same sound as Saxonia. It is also im- 
portant to remark, that Ptolemy mentions a Scythian 
people, sprung from the Sakai, by the name of 

* Pliny, lib. vi. c. 19. f Strabo, lib. xi. pp. 776, 788. 

J Strabo, p. 124. Mr. Keppel, in his late travels, calls this " the beau- 
tiful province of Karabaugh." In a letter to the Koyal Literary Society 
he says, " I have traced 262 words in the Persian, Zend, and Pehloi lan- 
guages like as many in the Anglo-Saxon." 

§ Pliny, lib. vi. c. 11. || Strabo, lib. xi. pp. 776, 778. 



AND THE SAXON KACE. 89 

Saxones. If the Sakai who reached Armenia were 
called Sacasani, they may have traversed Europe with 
the same appellation ; which, being pronounced by 
the Romans from them, and then reduced to writing 
from their pronunciation, would have been spelt with 
the X instead of the ks, and thus Saxones [or Saxons] 
would not be a greater deviation from Sacosani or 
Sacksuna, than we find between French, Fran9ois, 
Franci, and their Greek name Phraggi ; or between 
Spain, Espagne, and Hispania.'* 

Saca-suni being the name of this people in Armenia, 
is itself a clue to their origin ; for the word would 
mean, in Hebrew, the changed Saks — •'^t^roii^ ; not 
sons of Sak, but Saks that had altered their abode or 
their character. 

The Persians of old distinguished the Sacae into 
those of Saka Huma-verga [Amyrgian], and those of 
Saka Tigra-khuda^ that is to say, the Tribes seated 
on the confines of India, and those scattered through 
the Persian empire. The name Sacce was applied to / 
them first as simply the Tribes^ perhaps adopted from 
themselves ; but ultimately it came to signify bowmen, 
because they, like the Ephraimites and the English, 
were so famous for the use of the bow.* 

The country called Sakai is one of those which were 
subject to Darius, according to Norris's interpretation 
of the Scythic Behistun in script ion. f The locality 
of this country is not indicated except by its con- 
nexion in the inscription; and from that we gather 
that it was on the borders of Media to the north-east, 

* See Rawllnson's Herodotus, note, vol. iv. p. 65. 
t See Journal of Royal As. Soc. vol. xv. pp. 136-139. 



/ 



90 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

the known seat of some of the Sakai after the Scythian 
invasion of Armenia and Assyria. 

Our Anglo-Saxon historian Turner points out the 
probable manner in which this bold and enterprising 
people were impelled westward until settled in our 
own land. We will not follow him ; but from another 
source we are interested to learn that the White 
Island in the west (England?) was in India denomi- 
nated Sacana, from the Sacas or Sacs, who conquered 
that island, and settled there at a very early period, 
as we find from the fact being mentioned in the 
Pur&.nas named Varada and Matsya.* Captain Wilford 
has shown from these Puranas that the British Isles 
are to be understood by Sacam, as well as certain 
adjacent parts of the Continent, such as Saxony.f 
That these Sacas, or Sacs, were of a race iden- 
tical with those that entered north-western India 
and overran a great part of Asia, is either implied 
or expressed by all historians who mention them, 
whether in the East or the West. The fact, then, seems 
pretty well established that the Saxon race sprung 
from the East, and that these have opposed and super- 
seded the dominion of old Rome wherever they have 
reached in the West. The spreadings and doings of 
the Saxon race constitute the chief parts of modern 
history. There is no land where they are not, and 
no people that has not been stirred up by them. 
They now take the Bible with them wherever they 
go, and found their commerce with the wide world 
upon the rights and liberties which Christianity has 
taught them to value as their lives. Here, then, as 

* Asiatic Res. vol. ii. p. 61. f Asiatic Res. xi. p. 54 



AND THE SAXON KACE. 91 

far as the Western world is concerned, we discover a 
people in whom are fulfilled most of the conditions v 
of the prophecies concerning Ephraim, the son of 
that Joseph who was sold by his brethren and hidden 
in Egypt until the whole family of Jacob and the 
famished nations needed his manifestation as a man 
made wise and provident by wisdom from above. 
Thus Ephraim, too, is hidden, and yet from him shall 
flow the blessings of both earthly and heavenly 
nature to enrich humanity in every clime. 

The fact that we have six or seven hundred words 
in our language of Persian origin agrees with our 
own origin, amongst the Persians, but not of them. 
Hebrew roots, too, are not few amongst our homeliest 
words. If we are related to the Sacae, our stirring, 
restless, conquering spirit is in keeping with that of our 
forefathers, ever famous for the bow and the battle- 
axe. A glance at the ancient Sacas in the East will 
show the likeness. They had detached themselves 
from Persia before Alexander's invasion. Indepen- 
dently they fought, as allies of Darius, at Arbela. 
They contended with Alexander's army without dis- 
honour. A century later they established their rule 
from the Aral lake to the mouths of the Indus. 
They then invaded central India, but then fell under 
the dominion of the Parthians, probably of the same 
race, and finally were absorbed in the kingdom of the 
Sassanidce^ also Saxon, pretty much as the Saxons of / 
England have become blended with the Normans, or "^ 
Northmen, and the Danes, all traceable to the same 
Saxon source. 

The revolutionizing influence of the Saxons who. 



92 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

in olden time, took possession of a great part of 
India, was certainly no less marked than that of the 
Saxons who emigrated westwards. So that, if it can 
be shown that the Saxons had any connexion with 
the descendants of Isaac, or were in their origin of 
the same race, then it follows that we ought to find 
indications of their dominance through their opinions 
in the East as well as in the West, but more espe- 
cially in India. And if we Englishmen are only a 
branch of the same stock that at an early period re- 
volutionized India, and still maintain the influence of 
their religious ideas throughout the East, how won- 
derful and interesting is the providential position of 
England at present in respect to our Eastern do- 
minion! If we could but clearly demonstrate our 
unbroken descent as Englishmen from the house of 
Isaac, and believe the prophets, with what interest 
we should look upon the promises made to Israel, and 
try to read our destiny in the Bible ! Now, whether 
we succeed in this or not, it is plain that, the Hebrew 
Bible being truly ours, we are involved, in respect to 
ultimate results, in all that interests or ever did in- 
terest, the Israelites. And we may be sure that, so 
far as we too have a revelation, and that not merely 
through men and angels, but by the direct teaching 
and institutions of God through his Spirit in the 
Church, as we Christians profess to believe, the con- 
sequences of our neglecting rightly to employ our 
means will be proportionately met by condemnation 
and dismay. If Israel has suffered as an outcast, 
and been lost as a distinct people, for worshipping 
Baali instead of the Holy One, shall professed Chris- 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 93 

tians escape, who only worship Mammon, and make 
a market of God's holy temple? 

Spiritually, at least, and therefore, doubtless, in the 
truest and highest sense, the prophecies concerning 
the chosen tribes are fulfilled in us. We hold the 
oracles of God, are blessed with the dews of heaven 
and the fatness of the earth. Nations serve us, and 
bow down to us, and are the better for it. We are 
lords, yea, lords over our own brethren, and " cursed 
is every one who curseth us, and blessed is every one 
who blesseth us." (Gen. xxvii. 28, 29.) We Saxons 
are heirs of the world, not by right, but by divine 
favour and providential training. We are bringing 
the ends of the world together and binding mankind 
into one compact community, by the sacred ties of the 
highest intelligence and religion, involving, of course, 
all material blessings. This is as it should be, for 
earth is one orb rolling round in eternal love, and em- 
braced in the light of Divine benevolence. But the 
true glory is not altogether an outward and visible 
thing. There is a glory which the eye of the spirit 
alone can see or endure, and that glory is the unfolding 
of the divine government in the history of the human 
race, and especially as manifested in the fulfilment of 
those prophecies contained in the sacred book by 
which God will demonstrate his attributes of fore- 
knowledge and wisdom, and prove Himself to be, in 
one word, the Omnipotent, that is. Good Will in infi- 
nite operation. So says the true Christian. 

We are involved in the fulfilment of the prophecies 
inspired by Jehovah, but how and to what extent the 
future must make known. If these Sacie can be con- 



94 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

nected with the Israelites, we can see how the union 
of Israel and Judah is to be effected. From Judah 
sprung the human and Divine Saviour of men, and 
Israel receiving his Word hails Him as their Salvation 
and as the reigning Sovereign of a redeemed world. 
Thus all nations shall be blessed by the faith that 
unites Jews and Gentiles alike to Christ. 

A work was published some time since (by Mr. 
J. Wilson, of Brighton), entitled Our Israelitish 
Origin. This was too much opposed to the views of 
popular expositors to be received with the candour it 
deserved; but it must be acknowledged that Mr. 
Wilson in that work has done much more to meet 
the requirements of prophecy than any that preceded 
him ; and although we dare not follow him into all the 
results to which he would lead us, still he has shown 
a large amount of probability, and indeed very much 
of the letter of Scripture, in favour of the opinion he 
has advocated, namely, that the Saxons are the 
descendants of Israelites as distinguished from the 
Jews. It is not to the purpose, however, here to 
follow in this track. Mr. Wilson has not advanced 
any direct evidence of Saxon connexion with Israel 
by descent, but he has indicated a great deal in the 
Anoflo' Saxon character and customs which accords 
better with the notion of our Israelitish origin than 
with any other explanation of our peculiarities ; but 
he lays most stress upon the circumstance that the 
prophecies concerning the family of Joseph are not 
fulfilled, unless in the Anglo-Saxons; a mode of 
treating the subject in the highest degree question- 
able, since it is necessary to the validity of such an 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 95 

argument, first to prove our Israelitish origin by de- 
monstrating, not only that we are derived from the 
Sac£e, but also that the Sacae were certainly Hebrews. 
Could we but find the broken link in the chain by 
which the Sakai or Sacae are supposed to have been 
connected with the Israelites, we should be at no loss 
to discover some of the modes in which the wondrous 
prophecies, so apparently contradictory and para- 
doxical, concerning the outcast tribes have been ful- 
filled in their descendants; for here are we, the 
Anglo-Saxons, with mind and heart imbued with the 
history and hopes of Israel, elevated and enlarged 
by the sublime doctrines and predictions of their 
sacred seers, sages, kings, and prophets, singing the 
songs of Zion in our temples, living in the noble 
expectation of universal blessedness under the 
glorious reign of the King of Salem, and desiring and 
endeavouring to promote the coming of his kingdom 
in all lands. The Saxons embrace the world, and 
the devout amongst them realize in faith and spirit 
the visions of all true prophets and seers that have 
been since the world began, and now anticipate the 
period when a King shall reign in righteousness, and 
princes rule in judgment. (Isai. xxxii.) What could 
converted Israelites do more? 

But the Imk is broken — the connexion between the 
Sakai and the house of Israel has not yet been found. 
But we think we have found it at last, as we are 
about to show something very like positive proof that 
the Sacae and the Getae, who formerly invaded India, 
sprang from the same source as the Saxons and 
Goths of the West, and were directly connected with 



96 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

Israelites, or with a people who employed their lan- 
guage. This, however, will scarcely serve to prove 
that the Gothic and Saxon races are the direct 
descendants of Joseph, to whom were promised all 
the blessings of increase and abundance. The facts 
and arguments accumulated by several writers may 
well suffice, however, to convince us that an Israelitish 
influence has been infused into tlie people from whence 
we sprung, and that the spirit of Israel's training, in 
war, legislature, religion, and all outward endeavour, 
has been operating amongst us to qualify our popula- 
tions to colonize all countries ; and while preparing 
the ground for the highest culture, penetrating the 
everlasting hills for gold and treasure, traversing all 
seas, building docks in every harbour, intersecting the 
mountains and the valleys with roads of wrought 
iron, riding on fiery chariots with the speed of tem- 
pests, sending forth their thoughts and words on 
lightning wings from land to land, and declaring 
everywhere, this earthly earnestness notwithstanding, 
that this world is not our rest. These, however, are 
not the positive marks by which the offspring of the 
escaped remnant is to be known at last. 

Still these Sacce are too peculiar in their rise and 
history not to be intended by Providence as one of 
the grand way-marks by which the patient and 
humble inquirer after evidences of Divine purpose in 
the distributions of mankind may expect to be 
directed in the right road to the end he seeks; for he 
knows that all that stands prominently forwards in 
the world's history is intended in a special manner to 
elucidate some point in the prophetic Word. The 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 97 

ways of God to man, as verbally revealed on the prin- 
ciples of moral law in the books and in the experiences 
of the Hebrew people, are also revealed in the world's 
history. There is indication that the Sacse, if they 
took not their name from the house of Isaac, were at 
least connected with Isaac's descendants. The word 
Sacce or Sakai is remarkable in the history of lan- 
guage, and the philologists have been unable satisfac- 
torily to trace its origin. The word Isaac is equally 
remarkable, but we are told its derivation in the 
story of Isaac's parentage and home-life. (Gen. 
xvii. 17.) It is from pTO, and means laughter, 
either as expressive of derision, incredulity, or joy. 
The initial I is not essential to it, and is perhaps 
prefixed to make it a personal as well as prophetic 
designation. Now, as we find this name adopted by 
the house of Israel and applied to them by the pro- 
phet Amos, who denounced them and their idolatries 
in this name not long before their banishment, we 
have only to discover reason and occasion for their 
using this designation afterwards, to account at once 
for the name Sacae and all that is connected with it. 
In Amos (vii. 9) the word Isaac is employed as 
synonymous with Israel. It was after the tribes of Israel 
had separated themselves from Judah, and thus also 
from the hopes and promises connected with the house 
of David, that they acquired this name. After they had, 
in their pride and independence, sought another king, 
and one of their own, rather than accept any in the royal 
line to which the prophecies had pointed for the 
Messiah and the everlasting kingdom, the prophet 
calls them the house of Isaac. This is memorable. 

H 



98 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

They did not think by this rejection of God's Anointed 
to reject the hopes of Israel, but rather in their wil- 
fulness appeared to fall back upon the anterior 
promise, and to look for blessing and power in the 
name of Isaac, the true seed of Abraham, in whom all 
the nations of the earth should be blessed. They 
arrogated the right of dominion in this name when 
occupying the hills of Samaria; and it is therefore 
highly probable that, when the conquering Assyrian 
king drove all their families from their fatherland, 
they still boasted of their descent from Isaac. They 
preferred to mingle idol- worship on high places with 
their traditional ritual, and thought, perhaps, with 
the opinionated and Cainlike spirit of refiners of 
God's ordinances, to honour Jehovah more by calling 
Him Baal^ or Lord of all^ than by worshipping Him as 
the God of their fathers and the chosen people only. 
The origin of the name Sacce^ or SaJcai^ for the inha- 
bitants of that part of Armenia which the Sac^ 
occupied after the expulsion of the Scythians, is 
thus naturally accounted for. That they should be 
confounded with the Scythians is equally natural, 
especially as there is reason to suppose that they 
afterwards colonized amongst that wide-spread race 
of marauders, and gave their name to the country 
they occupied beside the Massagetae. They attained 
so conspicuous a position amongst the Scythian 
nations, from superior arts, prowess, and industry, as 
at length to give their royal name to the dominant 
part of that race. It is at least remarkable that the 
name Sacce is not applied by the classic historians 
and geographers to any tribe of the Scythians until 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 99 

some time subsequent to the exile of the liouse of 
Isaac, 

History assures us that the Israelites were per- 
mitted to exercise very remarkable influence dut-ing 
their captivity. It was a family of the exiles named 
Shambat that reigned in Armenia for a considerable 
period, as it is said, contemporary with Nebuchad- 
nezzar.* Then, again, Daniel and his compatriots of 
the royal house of David were elevated to positions 
of the highest influence during the reign of Darius, 
and by the wonders that God wrought through the 
holy name of Israel's Jehovah, became dreadful and 
revered throughout and beyond the Persian dominion, 
which extended from this side of the Euphrates to 
the Indus, and from the Caspian to the Arabian Sea. 
After the Persian empire came under the power 
of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the name of 
Daniel's God was known to many tongues ; and all 
people, nations, and languages that could be reached 
by the messengers of the mighty despot, now restored 
to his reason, were exhorted by him to praise, extol, 
and honour the King of Heaven — the self-existent 
Deity of the Jews — " all whose works are truth, and 
his ways judgment, and who abases all who walk in 
pride." (Dan. iv. 37.) If that strangely beautiful 
episode of history, the book of Esther, relates to the 
condition of those Jews who remained in the land of 
their exile after the return of their brethren to Jeru- 
salem (b.c. 536), as it appears to do, we have evi- 
dence that they were at that time very numerous and 
influential. The events related in the story are said 

* See Armenia, in Penny Encyclopedia. 

h2 



100 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

to have occurred in the reign of Ahasuerus, who is 
supposed to be the same as Artaxerxes (b.c. 462). 
It is stated that his dominion extended from India* 
to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven pro- 
vinces. (Esther i. 1.) It must, therefore, have em- 
braced all the countries into which the Ten Tribes 
were deported by the Assyrians. If, therefore, the 
Ten Tribes, as a body, were still in those countries in 
the time of Esther, we might reasonably expect to 
find something concerning them in this book ; but we 
do not. Throughout, the Hebrews are named by the 
designation invariably and distinctively applied only 
to those attached to the house of Judah — Judeans or 
Jews (DmiiTi). This is remarkable, as the circum- 
stances related would necessarily have involved all 
the Israelites then in those countries. Esther had 
been providentially elevated to an influential partner- 
ship in the throne of the splendid tyrant Ahasuerus. 
Haman, one of his nobles, in envious and ignoble 
pride, endeavoured to resist the encroachments of 
Jewish influence ; and he contrived to obtain an edict 
for the entire destruction of the Jews, on the ground 
that the national and established religion was endan- 
gered by them. (Esther iii. 8, 9.) A day was ap- 
pointed for a general massacre of the ambitious 



* India is here called 'lliT, or Hodhu. Is it not probable that this name 
is from Aj^odhja (? HIVIDj now Gude, which, accordinof to the Raraa- 
yana, once ruled over all India ? The first dynasty of Gude is said to have 
been founded by Raraah, a sort of hero-divinity, who came from his holy 
mountain west of Caubul, probably Indo-Koosh. Now Raamah is the son 
of Gush, or Koosh, the grandson of Noah. (Gen. x. 7.) Indo-Koosh takes 
its name from this Gush, the son of Ham. May not the hero Bamah be 
the same as this Raamah ? 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 101 

exiles ; but in the meantime Haman's craft was de- 
feated. The king's heart, strong in wilfulness, was 
weaker than the voice of woman ; for it is ordained 
that the eloquence of beauty, love, and faith shall 
be always stronger than the changeless laws of the 
Medes and Persians ; for such laws are made in the 
strength of man, but nature is the strength of God. 
The Jews were to be slaughtered ; the word had gone 
forth, and could not be recalled ; their enemies were 
armed, and animated with the hope of a rich and 
easy spoil. (Esther ii. 16.) But a counter-edict gave 
the Jews the right to defend themselves, and they 
vindicated their right like men possessed of noble 
hearts and trained to the high thoughts and deeds of 
a patriotic and divine creed. '' They gathered them- 
selves together in their cities throughout all the pro- 
vinces of the king'' (ix. 2), and " slew seventy -five 
thousand of their enemies," and " had the rule over 
those that hated them," though " they took no prey " 
(ix. 16). Now, in all this none of the Ten Tribes 
were concerned, but only the Judeans; from which 
we infer that the Israelites, who delighted to call 
themselves Beni-Israel, had before that departed as 
a body from Media and Persia. During the twenty- 
eight years in which the Scythians kept the Medes, 
Persians, and Assyrians in subjection, the Israelites 
must have enjoyed ample opportunity to become 
acquainted with them, and afterwards to join them, 
if, as we have reason to believe, the Scythians were 
friendly to them. And if they went, where were they 
so likely to go as into the countries on the borders of 
the Caspian Sea, where the Scythians predominated? 



102 THE HEBREW INFLUENCE 

We know that Ezekiel was consulted by the elders of 
Israel when on the banks of Chebar, and when at Tel- 
abib he visited his exiled brethren. This was about 
594 B.C. He then told them of his vision, and they 
appear to have spoken of their desire to go into some 
country beyond ; probably some place that might be 
known as the Highland, or high place, such as the 
steppes of Tartary ; for he states, as if in reference 
alike to their desires, their destiny, and their idolatry, 
that he " then said unto them. What is the high place 
whereunto ye go? the name thereof is even called 
Bamah [a high-place] unto this day." This play 
upon the words the high-place and a high place is 
utterly unaccountable, except on the supposition of 
their having mentioned their going collectively to 
some land to which they gave the name of Habamah. 
The places in which they were accustomed to conduct 
their idolatrous worship were called high -places; but 
it is evident such places were not here meant, for the 
prophet, after telling them how God would judge and 
scatter them and pour his fury on them, and purge 
out the rebels and not let them enter the land of 
Israel, adds," As for you, house of Israel, thus saith 
the Lord God, Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, 
and hereafter [also], if ye will not hearken unto me, 
but pollute ye my holy name no more with your 
gifts and your idols." (xx. 39.) God declares He 
will "bring them out from the people and gather 
them from the countries where they are to be scat- 
tered;" "and will bring them forth out of the 
country where tliey sojourn, but they shall not enter 
into the land of Israel" (xx. 33-39). As heretofore, 



AND THE SAXON RACE. 103 

SO hereafter, they shall go and still serve idols. They 
talk of going to some high place called the Bamah ; 
were they not always going to Bamah, for is not that 
the name of the places in which they were constantly 
committing idolatry with steady devotion ? Go, says 
the prophet, go to your desired Bamah ; serve your 
idols, when there, as you do now; but know, God, 
whose name you pollute, will judge you there. We 
may possibly see more of the meaning of this Bamah 
as we proceed. We must not here lose sight of the 
significant fact that the prophet foretells that, though 
these Israelites desired to be like the heathen, they 
should not be so. " That which cometh into your 
mind shall not be at all, that ye say, we will be as 
the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve 
wood and stone" (xx. 32). They are to be distinct 
from ordinary idolaters in their idolatry, not actually 
worshipping wood and stone as gods. According to 
the best chronology we can get on the subject, it 
appears that the prediction of their exodus from 
Assyria was delivered about the year 594 B.C., or 
seven years after the captivity of Jehoiachin (com- 
pare Ezra i. 2 with xx. 1), two years after the vision 
on the banks of the Chebar (now Khabur). The 
Scythians had been expelled but a few years before, 
for Cyaxares 1. reigned forty years (Herod, i. 106), 
and died 600 B.C., soon after his conquest of Nineveh, 
which he undertook immediately subsequent to their 
expulsion. There was, doubtless, sympathy between 
the Scythians and those Ephraimites who were given 
up to idolatry and the worship of high places ; they 
were alike prone to intoxication and famous for the 



104 HEBREW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON RACE. 

use of the bow. In Persian, Sacai, that is, a Sacian, was 
synonymous with glutton and drunkard,* which are 
terms applied by the prophet to the house of Isaac ; 
and, if historians may be trusted, the Saxon branch 
of the Scythian family have always taken so very 
kindly to their food and their drink as to worship their 
gods with gluttony and drunkenness. 

But where shall we find any record of the exodus 
of the Ephraimites, the house of Israel, the house of 
Isaac, the house of Joseph, the rebellious house ? By 
all these names had the prophets addressed them; 
but, after Ezekiel, no prophet mentions them. Daniel 
ignores them ; Haggai has no message for them ; Ezra 
and Nehemiah fail to account for them. Where are 
they? We may better answer that question when 
we have considered another, which shall form the 
subject of a distinct chapter. 

* An. Hist. Un. vol. xx. p. 15. 



105 



CHAPTER V. 

Israel's new names. 

Did the Israelites acquire other names during their 
captivity ? 

At the time that Ezekiel visited the captives by the 
river Chebar, Nebuchadnezzar was ruler, not only over 
the kingdom of Babylon, but also over the whole of 
Assjnria, Nineveh having been taken and added to 
Media, so that all the Hebrew captives were under 
his dominion. The Israelites of the captivities under 
Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser were in Media and 
in the country about the Chebar. They had been 
there nearly a hundred years, and were probably 
very numerous at the time when Nebuchadnezzar 
founded the Babylonian empire and conquered Judea. 
We should therefore expect to discover some traces 
of their existence in the profane historians of the 
Babylonian and Median empires. It would be in 
vain, however, to look for them under the name of 
Israelites or Hebrews, seeing that as such they had 
lost their nationality. We should therefore seek 
them under some name expressive of their condition 
at present, rather than as indicating their nation. I 
think that those who dwelt in Assyria acquired the 
name of Sacae, and that those in Media will be found 
in the Budii (BovStot), said by Herodotus to be a 



106 Israel's new names. 

tribe of the Medes. (Herod, i. 101.) The Budii ap- 
pear to be the same as the Putiya of the Persians, 
and are supposed by Rawlinson to be the Budii of 
the Babylonian inscriptions. This able writer also 
regards these Budii as a Scythian people, and deems 
it probable that they may be identified with the Phut 
of Scripture; but I would accept the Persian name, 
Putya or Puthya^ as a name likely enough to be ap- 
plied to the Israelitish people by themselves — n''n9= 
broken of God. That the Budii are mentioned by 
Herodotus as a Scythian people, and also as a tribe of 
the Medes, may be accounted for very easily, if it can 
be shown that they were neither, but really Israelites 
hidden under this name, both in Media and Scythia; 
and, of course, on the same ground, their supposed 
identification with Phut is at once disposed of. As, 
however, the Budii will be fully considered in a suc- 
ceeding chapter, I will leave them at present with 
a simple assertion of their being most likely Israelites, 
a people to whom the word Budii would very well 
apply, seeing that, as a Hebrew word, it would signify 
the separated people (''Hi). There is another people, 
named SuJchi^ in the inscriptions deciphered by Raw- 
linson. This people dwelt by the Chebar; probably on 
the site of the modern Zacho or Sacho. These people 
may possibly be identified with the Sacae, or Sakhai, 
who afterwards get confounded with the Scythians, in 
consequence of their being mixed with them. All 
the reasons for this identification cannot be at present 
stated ; but one strong reason appears in the fact that 
they occupied the situation between the Tigris and 
Euphrates by the Chebar, where Ezekiel met the 



ISRAEL'S NEW NAMES. 107 

Israelitish captives, whom I have endeavoured to 
identify with the Sacae, on the supposition that they 
adopted this name in remembrance of their descent 
from Isaac; but the word itiot having come to us with 
its original orthography, we reason on the subject with 
the more difficulty. Could we find the word Sacae 
spelt in characters equivalent to the three letters that 
form the root of the word Isaac — pn^, the ques- 
tion would be almost decided, for the word is too 
peculiarly Hebrew in its form to have any other 
derivation ^han that assigned to it in Holy Writ. 
(Gen. xxi. d.)/;'Now, I think we have the word pre- 
cisely in those equivalents in the Scythic version of 
the Behistun inscription, so ably presented to us in the 
memoir thereon by Mr. E. Norris.* This version may 
or may not be Scythian ; it is enough for our purpose 
that we find the word we want inscribed on a rock in 
Persia about the time of Cyrus. The word consists 
of three characters, which Mr. Norris renders Saakka, 
but which in Hebrew equivalents would probably 
stand as pra, the very word Isaac without the initial 
yod^ which properly makes no part of the name. If 
we suppose the name Sukhi to be derived from any 
other Hebrew word common to the Chaldees also, 
we may perhaps find it in ^^^ ; which would still 
apply to the Israelites, for, as a name, it would mean 
a people emptied from one place into another. We 
have the same word in use amongst us, and to sack a 
city is to empty it of treasure. We might imagine 
several derivations of the word; but we need not 
wander into further conjecture, as it is enough that • 

* Journ. Eoj. As. Soc. vol. xv. art. 1, p. 206. 



108 Israel's new names. 

the country inhabited by the Israelites had a name 
which so far connects them with the Sacae, or Sakhai, 
for by and bye we shall discover this name in dis- 
tinct connexion with a people that used the Hebrew 
tongue. The only Hebrew equivalent for the name 
of the people called by the Latins Sacae and the 
Greeks Sakai (Sd/cat and SaVac) is that already given 
as the equivalent of the Behistun inscription, and in 
English the Sacs or Saxons. That the Sacae had 
some remarkable bearing upon the Babylonians is 
evident from a singular festival celebrated amongst 
them called Sacca or Sacea. Athenaeus, after Be- 
rosus, informs us that the festival was instituted 
in consequence of a signal victory obtained by Croe- 
sus, King of Lydia, over the Sacae, said by Athenaeus 
to be a Scythian people. This took place about 
562 B.C. The Babylonians were at that time the 
allies of the King of Lydia ; but the circumstances of 
the festival celebrated by the Babylonians in remem- 
brance of that event are of too remarkable a character 
to be explained by the mere fact of the alliance. 
Five days every year were devoted to this festival 
by the Babylonians; during which the slaves or 
servants commanded their masters, one of them being 
for the time constituted chief over the house, and 
wearing a kind of royal robe, which they called 
Zagana.* It would appear, therefore, that this 
victory of Croesus over the Sacae in some way 
related to the mastery of the Babylonians over 
their slaves. Is it not, then, probable that these 
Sacae were at one time in the position of slaves or 

* Anc. Hist. Univ. vol. iv. p. 121. 



ISRAELIS NEW NAMES. 109 

captives to the Babylonians, and that they had es- 
caped from their dominions, and for a time assumed 
a royalty of their own, and possessed a power which 
even Croesus might boast of having checked? That 
the Babylonians had reason to rejoice in his victory 
is evident ; and perhaps their rejoicing may be ex- 
plained, if we suppose that the Sacoe and the Scythians 
were encountered by Croesus when on their way to 
invade the Babylonians, who would not only remem- 
ber that the Scythians had not long before '' become 
masters of all Asia'* (Herod.) for twenty-eight years, 
but were the more to be dreaded now as led on by 
the Sacae, who desired to avenge themselves upon 
the tyrants who had enslaved them. Zagana was 
probably the name of the robe worn by the chiefs or 
prefects, D''^:iD, a title among the Babylonians and 
Persians, and amongst the Jews also, after their 
return from captivity. In the Behistun inscription 
we find three classes of Sacae referred to (p. 150); 
namely, the Sacae named next to India, the Sacae 
who use arrows, and the Sacae who are said to be 
beyond ( ?) the river. We therefore find them scat- 
tered very ^videly, and no longer constituting one 
people or nation, although evidently one race; which 
is just the condition in which we should expect the 
house of Isaac to be found at that time, under the 
circumstances to which we know they must have 
been exposed, first, from their separations in their 
early captivity, and then from the wars and divisions 
in the countries they occupied. The river referred 
to must have been either the Tigris or the Euj)hrates. 
The word rendered beyond {yittuvanna) would, I 



110 Israel's new names. 

conceive, be better rendered gone beyond, implying 
their voluntary removal from their original seat (by 
the Chebar) ; a fact which would fully accord with 
the testimony of Esdras and the facts already stated. 
The Ephraimites, or house of Isaac, were notable as 
bowmen (see Ps. Ixxviii. 9) ; and here the use of the 
arrow is given as characteristic of one division of the 
Sacae, as it was of the Sacae that Cyrus and Alexander 
the Great encountered to their cost ; and we know the 
Saxons that fought their way to England were also 
famous bowmen. 

As one class of these SacaB, at the time of the 
Behistun inscription, dwelt in the north about the Cas- 
pian sea, and another at the north-west of India, we 
may well imagine the third class, seemingly a peace- 
able people, on the west of the rivers Tigris and 
Euphrates, desirous of being united with their breth- 
ren, whom they could have no hope of reaching 
through Media and Persia, which were now the lands 
of their foes; and therefore their course could only 
be through the passes of the Massa, or Mount Mesha, 
on the western side of the Caspian, through which 
the Scythians are said by Herodotus to have entered 
Armenia. The Massagetas and the Scythians were 
probably ready to let them settle amongst them, or to 
pass on ; and, in fact, the early history of the SacaB is 
mixed with those nations, so nmch so, that they have 
been confounded together. In looking over the his- 
tory of Media we find that Ctesias* leaves the SacaB 
and the Medes at peace with each other after a long 
struggle together, the SacaB having been led on by a 

* Diod. Sic. 1. ii. c. 3. 



Israel's new names. Ill 

wonderful heroine named Zamara.* This may be in 
some measure fabulous as to date, but is likely to have 
been asserted on other grounds than that of imagina- 
tion. Such a statement points to some such reality. 
Then, again, the Parthians are said to have revolted 
from the Medes under the protection of the Sacae who 
inhabited Mount Haemodus, which separates India from 
Scythia. Thisagain points to the standing of these Sac^e 
in relation to the Medes, and also indicates the direc- 
tion in which we are to look for " the peculiar people.'* 
There were no impediments in the way of their 
colonization among the Scythians, and, in fact, the 
existence of a new people under the name of Sakai, 
or Sacae, about the east of the Caspian Sea and on the 
northern side of the Imaum mountains, is proved by re- 
ference to the historians already quoted in the extract 
from Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, and also 
by the name of the country being given in the Be- 
histun inscription as under the protection of Darius, 
the son of Hystaspes (b.c. 555). The Sacae, like 
most of the tribes of Israel, who once inhabited the 
mountains of Samaria, were a pastoral as well as a 
warlike people, and the country into which we shall 
trace the Sakai, or Sacae, was peculiarly adapted to 
the wants and habits of such a people. That a large 
body of Hebrews did proceed northward from Ar- 
menia, and were resident in the neighbourhood of the 
Caspian Sea, appears probable, as already stated, from 
the circumstance that, after the Jews were permitted 
to return to Palestine, Ezra sent to the chief of 
the place, Casiphia (Ezra viii. 7), for ministers. 

* Anc. Hist. vol. v. p. 25. 



112 Israel's new names. 

It is important to observe that the Caspians are 
mentioned by Herodotus in connexion with the Sacae 
as united tributaries to Darius, son of Hystaspes. 
(Herod, iii. 93.) This Darius was king of Babylon, 
Media, and Persia. (Dan.xi. 2). Here we again observe 
also that the Babylonian title Sacae is not vernacu- 
lar but foreign, and, as used by them, simply means 
*' the tribes," corresponding to the Greek Haju^vAot.* 
Ezra's message is remarkable, and proves that Hebrews 
were not only dwelling near the Caspian, but ob- 
serving Hebrew rites there, and were subsisting under 
a government of their own. Ezra states : " I sent 
them [the messengers] with commandment unto 
Iddo, the chief of the place Casiphia, and I told them 
what they should say unto Iddo and to his brethren 
the Nethinims at the place Casiphia, that they should 
bring unto us ministers for the house of God." We 
have the authority of Dr. Henderson for interpreting 
the word Casiphia as the name of a country border- 
ing on the Caspian Sea.f Hebrew remnants of the 
captivity are still resident on the eastern borders of 
the Caucasus. But when we come to speak of the 
Sacae in northern India we shall find distinct evidence 
that the Nethinim were there also, and known by the 
name of Botans. It is not unlikely that the people 
called Isicki, who were for the first time allied with 
Rome in the consulate of Nero, were Hebrews ; and 
their name certainly associates them with the house 
of Isaac. But Tacitus, in alluding to their usefulness 
in the Roman invasion of Armenia under Tiridates, 

* See note in H. C. Rawlinson's Herodotus — Cimmerians, 
f Kussian Researches. 



ISRAEL'S NEW NAMES. 113 

implies that they so effectually aided Carbulo because 
they were good horsemen and well acquainted with 
Armenia; characteristics that would well accord with 
remnants of the Sacae, who conquered that country, 
according to Strabo, and whom we suppose to have 
gone through that country in their passage to the 
land of the Scythians. 

We seem to get a glimpse of the Sacse again in the 
mightiest dynasty of the Parthians. The Sassani, or 
Saxani, threw off the authority of the Assyrian kings 
and founded an independent kingdom, which subse- 
quently extended from the Indus to the Euphrates, '^'^ 
and from the Oxus to the Persian Gulf. Were not 
the Saxani, Saxons? The last of the Sassanide kings 
was Yesdigird, who set himself to harass the Jews 
in Persia (Heb. Liter, p. 217); but it is remarkable 
that those who sided with the house of David, or the 
so-called Davidic family, were all put to death. This 
took place about a.d. 651, when the Chalif Omar's 
all-subduing arms had made Persia desirous of the 
triumph of the Crescent. This distinction between 
Jews of the Davidic family and other Israelites in- 
dicates that the majority of the great multitude of 
Hebrews in that country, at that comparatively recent 
period, were Beni-Israel, and that they ultimately sub- 
mitted to Mahometan influence ; so that, if we are to 
find any of their descendants there now, we are to 
find them as Mahometans. 

This dynasty, according to Justin, was called Par- 
thian, from a Scythian word signifying the banished 
or the exiles. Some say the Parthians were the 
same as the Getse, Massagetae, or European Goths. 

I 



114 Israel's new names. 

Strabo says that Arsaces, who founded the kingdom of 
Parthia, was a Sacean or Saxon. But the fact seems 
to be that the first Saxons who reigned in Parthia 
took this name because they were Sacae from the pro- 
vince Aran — hence Arsaces, This titular appellation 
was first assumed by the princes of Parthia 254 B.C. 
The first who took this name was a native of Balkh 
in Bactria. He revolted from Antiochus Theus, slew 
Agathocles, the governor of Parthia, and took the title 
of Great King. The country of the Sacae, or Sachae (or 
the tribes — Sanscrit), is called in the Puranas Saca- 
dwipa^ a country among the fountains of the Oxus ; 
and from this name, Saca-dwipa^ the Greeks composed 
the word Scythia — ^KvBai* They are the same 
people who destroyed Cyrus and his hosts (according 
to Herodotus), who paid tribute to Darius, who as- 
sisted Xerxes, and who overthrew the dominion of 
the Seleucian dynasty in Bactria, about 130 B.C. 
Parthians and Medes were amongst the devout Israel- 
ites who were present on the day of Pentecost in 
Jerusalem. Israelites must have been mixed with the 
Parthians on any hypothesis; and if, as Josephus 
asserts, the descendants of the captives of Assyria 
were dwelling in countless numbers beyond the Eu- 
phrates in his day, then there is nothing improbable 
in the opinion that the Parthian dynasty of the 
Sassani, if not Israelitish, was sustained at least by 
Israelites. And if they were one with the Sacae and 
Sassanes, we discern how, in the usual order of Provi- 
dence, the people once oppressed by Assyrian tyrants 

* So says Major Tod in his account of Greek and Parthian medals j but 
we find the word Skuta for Scythia in the Babylonian and so-called Scythian 
of the Behistun inscriptions as early as Cyrus. 



ISRAELIS NEW NAMES. 115 

should become the means of destroying their power, 
so that Nineveh and Babylon and Persepolis should 
perish and be interred under the wanderers' feet. We 
at least discover in the changes in the country of 
Israel's exile, subsequent, if not previous, to the Jews' 
return from captivity, abundant opportunity for a 
people so well trained to warfare and toil as these 
Israelites were, to have proceeded into another country, 
if they had desired it. They did desire it. It is 
true we have found few traces at present, and we do 
not expect to find positive proofs of the progresses of 
the Beni-Israel until we have advanced further. It 
appears to have been the purpose of Providence, in 
connexion with the fulfilment of the Scriptures, to 
conceal the paths of the outcast tribes until the final 
winding up of history, when it shall be demonstrated 
that the Spirit which inspired the prophets is the self- 
same Spirit that set bounds to human revolutions, and 
scattered the nations like seed from the sower's hand 
into ground prepared to produce fruit for the garner 
of God. 

^ut did the Ten Tribes ever leave the land of their 

captivity? If we had found it plainly written in the 

j)ages of Herodotus that the Ten Tribes did desire to 

l^ave that land, and did accomplish their desire, but 

few among us would question the fact. Now, we 

Jiave already appealed to historic evidence of a fact 

guite as well preserved and quite as authentic as any^ 

in Herodotus, or Xenophon, or Pliny, and it is only 

^called apocryphal, or doubtful, in comparison with ouj* 

£anonical^ Scriptures. In the 2nd Esdras xiii. 39-46, 

^re these words: ^^ And jvhereas thou sawe^st^ th at he, 



116 ISRAEL'S NEW NAMES. 

£2.^.3 the Son of God] gathered another peaceable 
jjiultitude unto him ; those are the Ten Tribes which 
^re carried away prisoners out of their own land in 
^the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar, the King 
iif ^ Assyria, led away captive, and he carried them 
gyer the waters, so they came into another land. 
VjBut they took thi*^ counsel among themselves, that 
they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and 
^0 forth into 2, further country, where never mankind 
dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, 
which they never kept in their own land. And they 
entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the 
river [in Armenia]. For the Most High then showed 
signs for them, and held still the flood till they were 
passed over. For through that country there was^a 
great way to go, namely, of a year and a half; and 
the same region is called Arsareth. Then they dwelt 
there until the latter time ; and now, when they shall 
begin to come, the Highest will stay the springs of the 
stream again, that they may come through ; therefore 
sawest thou the multitude with peace." I presume 
that the word rTlt:^lK (Arsareth) may be fairly and 
properly rendered by its exact equivalent Oriens, th^ 
Orient, the land of the far East, the country always 
called Oriental. Unfortunately we do not possess the 
^ebrew word which would decide the point, as the 
books of Esdras have reached us only in Greek. Let 
us take this remarkable passage at its value as an 
early historical evidence in proof of the fact that the 
Ten Tribes left the place of their captivity for an 
abode more to their minds in the East, while the 
people that might otherwise have prevented it wei::^ 



Israel's new names. 117 

^strained by the providence of God.* In chap. xx. 
jof Ezekiel, verse 38, there is a strong confirmation of 
this passage ; God says, " / will bring them forth out of 
the country where they sojourn^ and they shall not enter 
into the land of Israeli When denouncing the false 
prophets of Israel the prophet Ezekiel also declares 
that " They shall not be written in the writing of the 
House of Israel^ neither shall they enter into the land of 
IsraeV (xiii. 9). We must remember that EzekieJ 
was himself at that time an exile, and amongst the 
Jsraelites by the river Chebar. (Ezek. i. 1, 3.) Now, 
Jf the captives are conducted forth from the land of 
their captivity, and yet they do not return to Pales- 
tine, where do they go? Hosea prophesied that they 
would refuse to return after they had been sent into 
Assyria (Hos. xi. 6) ; and Amos, in predicting the wan- 
jderings of outcast Israel in search of divine direction, 
^ays, " They shall wander frovfi sea to sea^ and erom the 
NORTH even to THE EAST, and shall run to and fro to 
seek the word of theLord^ and shall not find it,'''' (Amos 
^viii. 12.) This prediction could not have been 
J5^erified by any wandering to and fro in Palestine, 
j£[)r the word of the Lord was always there. ^^ And 
_ besides, from sea to sea, could not be from the north 
to t he east in their own land. Other passages from the 
jprophets concerning the same subject guide us to 
the locality in which the peculiar and j)ure remnant 
of Israel, escaped from Assyria, is to be found in the 
^tter day; for when Judah and Ephraim are to be 

X * When questioning the authority of Esdras, it will be right to remem- 
ber that our Lord appears to quote that book. Compare Matt, xxiii. 34 
with 2 Esdras i. 32, and Matt, xxiii. 37 with 2 Esdras i. 28-33. 



118 Israel's new names. 

called home together, it is to be from the West and 
from the East. 

Jeremiah, who prophesied to the Jews concerning 
their captivity and restoration, while exulting in the 
redemption of Judah, and anticipating the song 
of joy on the height of Zion, when the Jews 
should be ransomed from the hand of the strong, in- 
troduces a beautiful episode in remembrance of the 
Israelites who had long been banished. Personifying 
the people under the name of their Kamah, he pre- 
dicts comfort for the weeping Rachel. Then bursting 
forth with Divine remonstrance and tenderness, 
Ephraim is called to remembrance as a dear child. 
But, as if this idea were not tender enough, the whole 
people is called back as by a father's voice addressed 
to a wandering daughter. The refusal of Israel to 
look to Zion is foreseen, the outgoing of the nation 
to a further country is foretold, and she is recalled. 
'' Set thee up waymarhs^ and make thee high heaps ; 
set thine heart towards the highway, the way thou 
wentest; turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to 
these thy cities. How long wilt thou go about, 
thou backsliding daughter?" (Jer. xxxi. 21, 22.) 
I believe that the course which the Israelites took Z5 
marked by those tumuli and high heaps which extend 
from the north of the Caspian into Western India. 

Writers whose theories concerning the Israelites 
would be disturbed by the testimony of Esdras above 
quoted, endeavour to dispose of it by a bold stroke. 
Thus Dr. Grant, believing that the Israelites as a body 
never left Assyria, but are now in Kurdistan, says that 
Esdras, in the passage referred to, meant only to 



Israel's new names. 119 

describe the captivity by Shalmaneser (2 Kings x\di. 
6), and adds, that as the Israelites on that occasion 
crossedthe Euphrates, and thatas the Tigris unites vdih 
that river, therefore it was probably included under 
the same name, and the country of Arsareth may be 
the same as Hattareh (i.e, Halah), or Ararat.* But 
why assume that the distance between Palestine and 
Armenia would require, in ordinary Oriental parlance, 
a year and a half for a caravan to traverse? Then 
too, it is evident that the writer of the second book 
of Esdras speaks of himself as once among the cap- 
tives, and therefore we may be well assured that, 
when he spoke of their going forth into a further 
country, he did not mean to say that they only went 
from Samaria to Assyria ; for it is while in Assyria 
they resolve to go into a further country, and that 
country requiring a year and a half to reach. 

A fatal objection to Dr. Asahel Grant's hypothesis 
is the fact that the number of these remnants of 
Israel is so small, being only about 200,000 as the 
whole progeny of the Ten Tribes. It is calculated 
that the Jews descended from Judah and Benjamin 
alone, at the present time, amount to nearly nine mil- 
lions. When we remember that it is to the tribes 
descending direct from Joseph that the blessing of 
increase is especially promised, it is evident that the 
few Israelites remaining in Kurdistan cannot repre- 
sent them : " I will be as the dew unto Israel ; he 
shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as 
Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty 
shall be as the olive-tree. Ephraim shall say. What 

* Murray's third edition of Grant's " Nestorians," p. 202. 



120 ISRAELIS NEW NAMES. 

have I to do any more with idols; I have heard him, 
and observed him ; I am like a green fir-tree. From 
me is thy fruit found." (Hos. xiv. 6-8.) 

We will take it for granted, then, that the Ten 
Tribes, that is, the rebel house of Israel or Isaac, did 
leave the land of their captivity and pass into the 
north, and that from thence they were dispersed in 
various directions, but that the main body of them 
ultimately settled in the East. Mr. Forster observes 
that " there is great probability that the Arsareth, or 
Hasarah [why drop the r?], to which the Israelites 
went, is the very nation and country named by 
Ptolemy Bar-Zaura, Bar meaning sons in Syriac. 
The Hebrew definite article Aa, being prefixed to 
Zaura, or Sara, would form the very word Hasarath, 
for Sarath is but the fuller feminine form of Sarah. 
Hence we obtain another indication of the Hebrew 
or Syrian origin of the name of the people inhabiting 
that country, according to Ptolemy; for, in fact, the 
name he applies signifies the sons of Sarah, that is, of 
Abraham's wife, the mother of the promised seed.*' 
Hazara is the name still retained by that country, as 
we find in Mr. Elphinstone's " Kingdom of Caubul " 
(p. 669). It lies along the Helmund river, the largest 
river of Khorasan. This country may have been oc- 
cupied by Israelites, and I believe we shall, as we 
proceed in our research, discover evidences that it was. 

In the meantime, though it appears not improbable 
that the Sacae really derived their name from Isaac, 
and that they were, in fact, Israelites who had either 
adopted that name, or had it imposed upon them by 
way of distinction, yet we shall obtain evidence 



Israel's new names; 121 

that the name of Sacas might be associated with 
Israelites from other circumstances. The harder 
vowel of the patronymic being dropped, and the sibi- 
lant softened, the sons of Isaac become the sons of 
sackcloth ; it is literally but the change of a breathing. 
The one name indeed signifies laughter, and the other 
grief; but the transition is as easy and common in 
fact as in sound, and surely the history of the Sacae 
more than that of any other people proves that both 
triumph and trial are providentially associated with 
their name. 

It is still the Saxon race of which we are in search. 
If so, say our readers, why trouble yourself to go 
beyond home? Is not Britain the abode of Saxons, 
and is not the vast continent of Northern America 
peopled by that energetic and subduing race? Yes; 
doubtless we are Saxons. We have sprung from a 
tribe of fierce barbarians cradled in the East, nur- 
tured amongst the Heavenly, or Himalaya mountains, 
trained to arms among the hordes of the Tartarian 
steppes, forced to become marauders for a mainte- 
nance, driven back again by Roman conquerors into 
the frozen zone, and now, independent and robust, 
from the necessities fixed upon us by a kind Provi- 
dence, we Saxons dwell upon all the borders of the 
world — the wonder of its peoples. But yet we are not 
the pure descendants of the sons of Isaac, not pure 
Saksuns ; but rather, perhaps, a balanced mixture of 
extremes, the offspring of savages and wildmen, the 
outcasts of the family of Japhet, united with a 
Semitic race inured to the difficulties and dangers of 
forest life, and contending for existence with beasts 



122 Israel's new names. 

of prey and fiercer beings. But we believe that the 
savage worshipper of all the elements — most adored 
when most in conflict — in thunder, tempest, and in 
earthquake — has been tutored by admixture with 
wanderers of that race whose faculties had been of 
old most elevated by converse with divine and re- 
vealed truth. The blood of Israel has mixed with 
ours, and it may be that the admixture of eastern 
and northern souls has made the Saxons the most 
abstruse, the most metaphysical, the most tempted, 
the most daring, the most practical, and the most 
^ commanding people in the world. '"The savage Saxon, 
indeed, confounded inspiration with inebriety, and 
once, like the Ephraimites, made drunkenness a part 
and proof of his devotion to his deities ; but now the 
book of God is open among his children, and the Voice 
that spake alike on Sinai and on the Mount of Olives 
is heard with reverence and love. The contemplative 
and devotional spirit of Isaac and his own true sons 
is become apparent and predominant among us, and 
the seed of heavenly truth is rooted and vigorously 
blooming in our midst, and our right to the name of 
Saxon is proved alike by our Oriental derivation, by 
the character of our nation, and by the fulfilment of 
the prophecies in our own persons. But still we are 
but partakers of a larger portion of the incidental 
blessings resulting from the wanderings of Israel, and 
not the literal Israel ourselves. But higher far are 
we, if indeed partakers of the heavenly calling. 



123 



CHAPTER VL 

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAAIES. 

From the antecedents of Israel, what is to be expected 
from such a people when resolving to separate them- 
selves from heathens and to set up an independent 
kingdom, not in obedience to any divine command, 
but in confident reliance on their own piety and pre- 
tensions? In the land of their fathers they proved 
themselves perversely devotional, zealous in altar- 
building, worshipping the heavenly host in groves 
and high places, addicted to necromancy and adora- 
tion of the dead, reverencing every form of life, even 
to the worship of creeping things, mixing the attri- 
butes of Jehovah and every syllable of His holy Name 
with idolatries of every kind. The sophistry of senti- 
ment, as usual, turned them from the obedience of 
faith to the delusions of fancy, and persuaded them 
to believe that they honoured the Creator of all living 
and moving beings by worshipping as they liked. 
They were religious simpletons, and great perverts, 
only because they did not learn God's law, and do it ; 
and now left, so to say, to themselves, wherever they 
go their characteristics will appear like the stamp of 
a divine signet, a mark from the finger of God upon 
them : " Ephraim is turned to idols, let him alone.'' 



124 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

They are still to be looked for as separatists, prose- 
lytizers, and idolaters, and yet with high pretensions 
to priestly purity ; having, as of old, colleges and con- 
vents for unmarried prophets and prophetesses, monks 
and nuns ; believing in a Messiah always present and 
always coming; blending a theocracy with a kingly 
power; neglecting all the institutions of God for for- 
malities of their own ; and strong and wrong alike in 
heart and head, madly deifying their own ideas, and 
taking their dreams for oracles. In consequence of 
not distinguishing the God of all the prophecies and 
all the promises from such gods as Egypt and Assyria 
honoured, they confound the Branch of renown, the 
Branch of righteousness foretold by their true prophets, 
with the fabulous traditions of heathendom. The 
hopes of restoration from the Fall through the perfect 
offshoot of the tree of life in Paradise, the holy 
seed of the woman, are merged and lost in confusions 
without record ; and so, in imitation of their Assyrian 
captors, they hold up the branch to their nose before 
a figurative god, in honour of their own conceits as a 
people worthy of especial favour. Their habits of 
idolatry are so ingrafted as to be rooted in their stock 
and incorporated with all the outgrowths of their life. 
It was always with them as it is with ourselves, all 
promises of amendment were in vain, because made 
in self-dependence and with neglect of the expressed 
will and written word of God. Pride even took the 
garb of Divine benevolence, and compassed sea and 
land to proselytize the abject kindreds of humanity; 
but, like the self-appointed mission of Satan into 
Eden, it is only the propagandism of a restless spirit 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 125 

that converts the weak, ignorant, naked, and sim- 
ple dependents upon Providence and Mercy, into will- 
worshippers endeavouring to reach up to Heaven 
by the use of their own wits, unrestrained by the 
dictations of the Wisdom that in love would rule 
them by truth from His own lips. It is for such a 
people we are to look, and we shall find traces of their 
influence to the world^s end. But the prophets of 
Jehovah, who warned them, and now warn us, have 
afforded us light, by which we learn that the people 
thus made outcasts of their own accord, while endea- 
vouring to establish an all-embracing kingdom in the 
name of the God of truth and love, only succeed in 
establishing delusions in their progress, and in the 
end are themselves lost altogether as a nation, never 
to be recalled into existence, but as by the Voice 
that awakens the dead, and says to the dry bones live, 
and to the sleepers in the dust arise. 

It is said of Israel (Hos. viii. 5, 9), '^ Thy calf^ 
Samaria^ hath cast thee off ; mine anger is kindled 
against them;^how long will it be ere they attain inno- 
cency ; for from Israel was it also ; the workman made 
it ; therefore it is not God ; hut the calf of Samaria 
shall be broken in pieces, 'For they have sown the 
wind^ and they shall reap the whirlwind ; it hath no 
stalk ; the bud shall yield no meal ; if so be it yield^ the 
strangers shall swallow it up. ^Tsrael is swallowed up : 
now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein 
is no pleasure p for they are gone up to Assyria^ a ivild 
ass alone [liu] by himself. I^p This state of loneliness 
or, literally. Buddhism , is to be the characteristic of 
Israel in Assyria. Here is an abrupt and inexplicable 



126 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

reference to the bud of green corn which should be 
unfruitful to them, and the product of which should 
be devoured by strangers. They looked for fruitful- 
ness in the development of their idolatry, but all they 
gathered was to be consumed by the strangers, 
amongst whom like a wild ass they should wander. 
This appears to have been precisely the result of 
Israel's separation. We have supposed them scat- 
tered by the whirlwind, and now their own religion, 
and chosen idols, cast them off; and while those 
whom they indoctrinated seized the good and bad of 
their instruction, they themselves sink into helpless- 
ness and degradation, and wither away, becoming 
no longer recognisable as a people called of God to do 
wonders. The remainder of this volume will show 
why especial emphasis is laid on the state of separa- 
tion, and yet commingling absorption, in which these 
people are to exist. 

The Israelites practised idolatry in high places, and 
associated the idea of Jehovah as the highest Being 
with the idea of height in a literal sense ; and thus 
thought to honour God by erecting altars on the 
highest points they could reach, just as the Druids 
and the old patriarchal worshippers appear to have 
done before them. Hence their attachment to hills 
and mountains. In their first revolt from the house 
of David, when they cried, " What portion have we 
in David? To your tents, Israel; now see to thine 
own house, David," Jeroboam, in order to win them 
back, met their general inclination to idolatry in high 
places by building altars in high places for them. 
In Bethel and Dan he placed golden calves, saying. 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 127 

"Behold thy gods, Israel, which brought thee up 
out of the land of Egypt." (1 Kings xii. 28.) Thus 
we see that the worship in high places, and the idola- 
try of the sacred calf or heifer, w hich both prevail in 
Jjidi^? w.£r£ also the sins of revolt ed Israel. In this 
form of veneration for high places and the sacred 
heifer, they were in sympathy with many other 
Oriental idolaters ; and it is not unlikely that this dis- 
position to worship on eminences, or at least to vene- 
rate lofty elevations, may have induced some of the 
Israelites to hava xliDsejiulLe,. neighbourhood of the 
Himalayas for their abod e, a^a \ f t,l)ns to see God on 
His throne, and abide in the presence they adored. 
T he very name Himalayas^ oi;, Heavenly mountainS t 
indicates the fact that the Eastern nations associated 
sacred ideas with the immaculate snows of those sub- 
lime and inaccessible heights, bearing up as if upon 
pillars of " terrible crystal" the very firmament of 
heaven, on the starry floor of which the throne of the 
Eternal for ever stood. Amongst these mountains 
all the Eastern nations believe Paradise still stands. 
Here is the home of their gods; here departed spirits 
pass for retribution ; thence are sent the good and 
evil genii that divide all the regions of the world 
between them. Here, too, it is that the physio-phi- 
losophers have supposed mankind to have originated 
when the earth began to emerge from the fervid sea. 
And here we shall find traces of the outcast tribes. 
To these mountains, also, we trace home the streams 
of jhe Gothic and Saxon jiations, who all call their 
heaven by the Oriental name. Thus, in Maeso-Gothic 
(4 00 A.D.) , Heaven is Eimji i ; in Alemannic (720), 



128 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

nimele; in Frankic (900), Himile ; in Old German 
(1300), Humele ; in recent German, HimmeL The 
most remarkable word for Heaven, however, is that 
of the Old Saxon (900 a.d.), namely, Himil-arikea^^ 
which is a combi natio n pf the Sanscrit word Himil^ 
Heaven^ wjth the H^l;)rew word signifying the ex- 
pansp. (Gpti. i\J^ This One word, connected as it is 
with many others of the same origin, will serve inci- 
dentally to confirm the observations offered in our 
fourth chapter. 

It was said by the prophet Hosea concerning the 
Israelites, " They shall go with their flocks and herds 
to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him^^ (v. Q)^^^ti^ 
He also says that, as a result of their own counsels, 
they should refuse to return from under the Assyrian 
king. (Hos. xi. 6.) Though they were warriors, they 
were also shepherds ; and, like the girdled Shepherd- 
kings of Egypt, they took their flocks with them in 
their wanderings, and their families were fed on 
butter and milk from land to land. The neighbour- 
hood of mountains was thus most favourable to their 
progress, as affording shelter from foes in case of 
need, being comparatively little inhabited, having 
suflBicient grass, and where the streams, though more 
numerous, were more easily fordable. The Saca^ ar e 
l ocated on the north pf. tl^e Hin^alayas by Strabo and 
Ptolem y ; hutjare ^aJl presently trace them also into 
tllS^sputh. Where, also, Dionysius (Anc. Myth, 
vol. iii. p. 226), as rendered by Bryant, says — 

" Upon the banks of the great river Ind 
The southern Saithae [or Sacae] dwell." 

* See M. Mallet's Northern Antiquities (Bohn), p. 47. 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 129 

In ideally looking over the localities associated with 
the Israelitish people, two places of similar character 
and name occur to memory : one the province called 
Bhutan, in Koordistan, and through which a river 
Chebar flows ; the other in India, at the further ex- 
tremity of the Himalayas. This word Bhutan, or 
Bhootan, is peculiar, and its derivation appears to be 
very obscure. The inhabitants of Tibet Proper and 
Tangut are all called Bhots, from their religion being 
derived from Bhootan or But an. The names of places 
serve as a clue to the people dwelling in them, exiles 
and wanderers bearing with them thus a record of 
their former home. Thus the Pilgrim Fathers took 
with them the familiar names of places dear to them 
in Old England, and thus throughout the new world 
of America the names of cities, towns, and hamlets 
famous or beloved in Europe are repeated, to remind 
the growing nations of the lands of their fathers. 
So, doubtless, was it with the wandering tribes of 
Israel, and hence we may be able to associate this 
name Bhotan with them. We will first endeavour to 
account for the origin of the name in Koordistan, a 
country so called after the Karduchi, who now in- 
habit it. Koordistan is the name now given to the 
country anciently known as Atyria, or Assyria. This 
country, according to Ptolemy, Avas bounded on the 
north by Armenia; on the west, by the Tigris; on 
the south, by Susiana; and on the east, by Media 
and the mountains of Choatra and Zagros. It was 
probably into this country that the captive Israelites 
for the most part were conducted by the kings of 
Assyria. (1 Chron. v. 26.) On the first occasion the 

K 



130 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

Eeubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh 
were thus exiled ; but afterwards the remainder of the 
Ten Tribes were forced by the conqueror Shalmaneser 
to follow their brethren. (2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11.) 
Now, if we compare the statements in the book of 
Chronicles with that in the book of Kings, we shall 
receive a clearer idea of the localities occupied by the 
banished tribes. It is said that Tiglath-Pileser 
''brought them into Halah, and Habor, and Hara, 
and to the river Gozan" (1 Chron. v. 28); and that 
Shalmaneser placed his captives in Halah and in 
Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the 
]\Iedes. (2 Kings xvii. 6; and xviii. 11.) By this 
comparison we discover, as before stated, that the 
captives were on each occasion conducted to the same 
localities and became again as one people, after an 
interval of twenty years from their separation in 
Samaria. There is, however, a little difficulty in the 
use of the word Hara, which occurs only in relation 
to the first division of the captivity. The word is in 
italics in our translation, as if it were expletive, and 
it is generally understood to have been added as a 
gloss to indicate that the part of the country in which 
the exiles dwelt was the mountainous region about 
the Habor. Gesenius renders the passage clearly and 
literally thus : " He placed them in Halah and on the 
Ghabor, a river of Gozan." In our authorized trans- 
lation we should understand at first sight that 
Gozan was a river. We, however, have a proof in 
the 2nd book of Kings (xix. 12), and also in Isaiah 
(xxxvii. 12), that it was a country and not a river; 
for Sennacherib is represented as boasting that his 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 131 

fathers had destroyed Gozan, which certainly could 
not be said of a river. '* The country to which the 
Ten Tribes were deported is one of the most moun- 
tainous in the world," says Dr. Grant. " As the in- 
habitants of Gozan and Haran had first been destroyed 
or driven out, it is reasonable to infer that the Ten 
Tribes had entire possession of this region. Its 
natural strength would enable them to maintain their 
position entirely distinct." It is the very country in 
"^hkhjiifiJLOjOOO^GTe^ the greatest difficulties A 

tgjgi^d^uTe injtheir_triumph and retreat. Gozan was 
probably that part of Kurdistan now known by the 
name of Buhtan, or Bhutan. This transformation 
in the name probably occurred very early, and was, 
it may be, introduced by the exiles themselves. Whe- 
ther so or not, it is well known that the common 
Aramean pronunciation of the letters G-o-z-a-n would 
convert them into Bhutan; for, as Gesenius shows, 
the Hebrew ^, or gh^ is most frequently interchanged 
with its kindred palative 6, or bh^ and the z^ named 
tsade, tsad, zad, or even dad, is interchanged with 
any of the consonants included in its sound. Hence, 
then, the conversion of the word Gozan into Bhotan. 
We shall see the bearing of this derivation when we 
come to inquire concerning the people named Botans. 
There is a river, a branch of the Tigris, named Habor, 
or Chabor, still running through the borders of that 
province, and giving the name of Chabur to part of 
the country through which it runs. Ammianus 
mentions the Chebar under the name of Abor.* It 
is curious to trace this name : in Isidorus it is 

* Am. lib. xiv. c. iv., and note, edit. Lud. 1693. 
k2 



132 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

Hahouran ; in Strabo, Haborras ; in Zosimus, Haho- 
ran ; in Procopius, Uaborrhas ; in Ptolemy, Chaboras ; 
in Theopliylactus Simocatus, Habboras ; and, lastly, 
the Turks call it Alchabur^ which is very nearly the 
scriptural name, the al being the definite article. 

The ancient geography of the Euphrates and the 
Tigris is open to much dispute, but this is the fact to 
our present purpose. There is an extensive district 
called Bhutan, and a river named Chebur, Chebor, or 
Abor, in the country where some at least of the Ten 
Tribes once dwelt. This country of Bhutan is both 
mountainous and pastoral, well watered, and abound- 
ing in grass. Xenophon, in his retreat with the ten 
thousand Greeks, passed over the Chebar, on his way 
from Batrai to the plains of Zakko, or Sacho. It 
must have been in these plains that the Israelites, 
the sons of Isaac, mostly dwelt during their captivity. 
It is here at least that Ezekiel conferred with their 
elders. This name Sacho seems to be the same as 
Sukhi and Saakka, as already indicated. If we would 
discover relics of the exiled Israelites, we should, 
therefore, dig among the ruins of the ancient Zacho, 
the name of a town and a country on the banks of 
this Chebur. The mounds and ruins of Bhutan are 
numerous, and would, doubtless, repay a Layard for 
any amount of exploration. 

There is another Bhutan at the north-east of Hin- 
dustan, and another Abor, or Chabor, immediately 
adjacent; and these regions are in character very 
similar to those of Kurdistan. This itself is re- 
markable ; but it would be still more so, if we could 
discover traces of the Israelites in this neighbourhood 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 133 

also; and this we shall. But it will enlarge our view 
of the marvellous proceedings of divine Providence, 
if we endeavour to obtain some glimpses of their 
transit to that land. 

The only distinct intimation of the exodus of the 
Israelites from Assyria which we possess, assures us 
that they went out under the influence of religious 
zeal, with the purpose of separating themselves from 
heathenism. AVe suppose they attempted to efifect 
this distinct standino^ under a name not recoo^nised 
as connecting them with Jews, and that they jour- 
neyed into the regions north-east of the Caspian, 
hoping to establish themselves and their religion in 
some land in that direction. They go forth in a vain 
hope ; they depart further and further from the place 
of God's manifestation to their fathers; they turn 
away from Judea and Jerusalem, perhaps believing 
that its walls will never again be erected, or that the 
glory of Jehovah will never more appear there. The 
temple was not dear to them when in their own land^ 
and in their rebellion against the seed of David they 
rejected the hopes which the Spirit in the prophets 
had associated with that royal line.* It was their 
temper always to build temples at their own discre- 
tion, and to erect altars to gods of their own choosing 
upon high places and in groves. As Hosea, their 
especial prophet, told them, '' Because Ephraim hath 
made mayiy altars to sin^ altars shall be unto him to 
sM' (viii. 11). The Israelites, that is, the Ten Tribes, 

* " Howbeit the Lord will not destroy the liouse of David, because of the 
covenant that he made with David, and as he promised to give light to him 
and his sons for ever." (2 Chron. xxi. 2-4.) 



134 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

seem to have revolted in their confidence of blessing 
in connexion with Ephraim, hence their name, 
Ephraimites. The birthright was Joseph's — Reuben's 
birthright was given to Joseph. " Judah prevailed 
above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler ; 
but the birthright was Joseph's." (1 Chron. v. 1, 2.) 
The Jews, or Judeans, are first named, as distinct 
from the Beni-Israel, in 2 Kings xvi. 6. What could 
these accomplish, except the establishment of some 
new form of idolatry? We might probably, with 
great propriety, adopt the description given of them 
by Zechariah (v. 6), as especially applicable to this 
people now. They hide the woman within an ephali 
— they conceal true religion under a mysterious dis- 
guise — they cover her down with a weight of lead.* 
Being carried away, as on the wings of a stork, by 
two false forms of religion, in which the natural afifec- 
tions and the instincts alone lift the soul up between 
heaven and earth — elevated by fancies, but without a 
faith in which to rest — they hurry away from the Land 
of Promise, burying the truth under a dull and heavy 
and dead idolatry. They build temples to falsehood, 
and attempt to honour God by disobedience to his law. 

* The reference to wings reminds us of the Assyrian and Egyptian 
emblem of power and protection. The wings of a stork are especially sig- 
nificant, as that bird was celebrated by the ancients for its afiection to its 
parents. The word translated stork means pious, confiding, kind, loving, in 
the sense in which ^/w5 was used by the Latins. Hence the appropriateness 
of applying it to that form of religion in which veneration and even adora- 
tion of parents constitutes a remarkable feature, as amongst the Buddhists 
of China and elsewhere, for they regard their departed parents as guardian 
deities to whom they look for blessings. It is remarkable that the prophet 
states that the ephah shall be borne into the land of Shinar, and built there 
upon her own base (v. 11). 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 135 

They felt that law too broad and embracing for their 
libertine spirits, and then wrote statutes for them- 
selves a thousand times broader, and as formal, as false, 
and as useless as they were indefinite. (Zech. v. 6-11.) 

This may be regarded as a description of the 
religion founded by the grand prophet of the Sakai 
race, who introduced Buddhism into India. This 
religion is a mixture of the truths of the patriarchal 
dispensation with the forms of heathenism, with which 
they were familiar, and especially with the higher 
idolatries of the Brahmins and of the worshippers of 
the elements, making of the mixture that form of 
Buddhism now prevalent in the East. 

In the history or chronicles of Cashmir,* as recorded 
by native authorities, we find that the Hindus date 
the commencement of a remarkable era amongst them, 
from the time when the prince Asoka abolished Brah- 
minical rites, and substituted those of Jina Sassana, 
Now we know that the new religion of Asoka was 
that of the Sacas^ or Sacce; and here we find that 
religion called Sassana ; so that we have evidence 
from native authority that Sassana signifies what 
pertains to the Sacce ^ and is in fact equivalent to our 
word Saxon^ as we surmised when speaking of the 
Parthian dynasty named the Sassani^ which extended 
its power so widely over India. The Sacas^ then 
known as Sassani^ or Saxons, conveyed their religion 
into the country of Asoka. There is nothing insuper- 
able to this opinion in the dates that have been 
hitherto established. This Sakian era appears to have 
commenced about 307 years before Christ. The 

* Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. Paper by H. W. Wilson. 



136 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

chronology of such records is, however, very un- 
certain, and only to be verified by concurrent testi- 
mony. This much is, however, certain — about that 
time the Saca era began in India. During the reign of 
Asoka that country was overrun by the Sacas, who, 
according to the Ay in Acberi, were expellee! by his 
successor Jaloca. We find that country afterwards 
divided under three princes of Scythian extraction, 
named in the Chronicle Hushca, Tushca, and Canishca, 
who are stated to have reigned about 150 years after 
the death of Sakya-sinha^ the founder of Buddhism 
as at present existing. Thus we learn from the 
chronicle two interesting facts ; first, that the Sacas 
came into India and founded Buddhism; secondly, 
that the Sacas were connected with Scythians, but 
properly distinguished from them. As Professor 
Wilson, in the article referred to, observes, " the 
dates only corroborate the general fact, that at some 
remote period the Scythians [or rather the Sacae] did 
govern Cashmir, and gave their sanction to the reli- 
gion of Buddhism." About the year 720 a.d. Lali- 
tdditya. King of Cashmir, warred against his Bud- 
dhist neighbours, and overran Nepal and Bhotan with 
his conquering armies. These facts serve to connect 
all those places with the Sakai race and the Sakai 
religion. 

Here we might recur to the traditions of Cashmir, 
from which we learn that the people of that country 
suppose themselves generally to be descended from a 
race who came from Turkestan, and who taught them 
their religion. With this relation, however, they 
mix up the notion that Solomon, King of Israel, 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 137 

visited them, and that Moses himself came amongst 
them to teach them the worship of one God. All these 
remarkable traditions are easily reconciled with the 
fact that they were really instructed in certain ideas 
peculiar to the religion and history of the Israelites, 
and that the people that thus taught them were 
known under the names of Sakai, and came from 
Turkestan, the country of the Sac^e. It is clear from 
records concerning the King Sagara, that he drove 
the M'lech'chas and Sacas into Xepal, Assam, and 
Bhutan, and endeavoured to re-establish the old 
Brahminical religion. Now, it is worthy of especial 
remark that this king, when he destroyed the insti- 
tutes of the APlech^chas (foreigners) in his kingdom, 
ordered the heads of the Sacas to be partly shaved, 
while all the hair was ordered to be removed from 
the heads of the Yavanas and the Camhogas^ while the 
Paradas were compelled to wear beards. These were 
all mixed up with the Sacas; and, though differing 
somewhat in their forms of worship, they were all 
Buddhists. If these Sacas or Sakai were Israelites, 
here was a literal fulfilment of prophecy with respect 
to them. Baldness and beardlessness were sio^ns of 
mourning amongst the Hebrews; but the prophets 
declare that, in their apostate state, to be bald and 
shaven shall be the signs of their degradation. In- 
stead of well-set hair, baldness. (Isai. iii. 24.) Bald- 
ness shall be upon all their heads. (Ezek. vii. 18 
and Amos viii. 10.) As these tyrannical orders were 
endured and submitted to with a religious pride, and 
as a proof of unflinching attachment to their own 
faith by those subjected to them, we should naturally 



138 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

expect these peculiarities, thus at first despotically 
enforced by this bluif Harry of the East, to be after- 
wards preserved amongst the marked tribes as 
honourable badges of their faith; and this is precisely 
what we find at the present day. The partial shaving 
of the head is retained as a peculiar mark amongst 
most of the Buddhists, while with many an entirely 
naked head is more in honour. These peculiarities, 
so tenaciously preserved, may hereafter aid us to 
identify the existing races of the East with those 
from whom they derived their religious peculiari- 
ties. 

Probably we shall not experience much difficulty 
in identifying the Sacas here spoken of, seeing that 
classic historians have taught us to associate the 
name with that nation of so-called Scythians which 
we have endeavoured to show are likely to have 
sprung from the house of Isaac. And now this 
chronicle of Cashmir, together with the traditions of 
that country, enable us to connect the Sacas at once 
with Hebraism and Buddhism, and to trace them 
from the north. The Yavanas may at once receive our 
attention, as they appear remarkably mixed with the 
Sacas^ not only in Cashmir, but much further to the 
south. Thus, in the early history of Orissa, the 
records called the Panji assure us that a mighty man 
name Salivahana Saca Hara^* or Saca Deo Baja, 
came from the north with a large army and conquered 
the country of Delhi, and fixed his empire there ; and 
that from this period the era named Saca^bda^ or the 

* Hara was the name of a province to which part of Israel was de- 
ported. (1 Chron. v. 8.) 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 139 

era of Saca, began.* It appears that some of these 
Sacas became afterwards confounded or mixed up 
with the Yavanas, and it is not unlikely that some of 
the Sacas really accompanied the Yavanas in their 
inroads on the south of India. There can be no 
doubt that the term Yavanas was originally applied 
to the troops of Alexander the Great, especially those 
vetei^ns that he left to garrison the country on his 
return to the west. '* The cavalry of this conqueror 
were many of them Sacs." The historians of Orissa 
state that in the reign of Bajranath Deo the Yavanas 
invaded that country, and that they came from Babul 
Des ; that is, the country of Babylon, from which 
Alexander did come. With this is mixed up a strange 
story of a large army from Himarut. These names 
were probably obtained from the Yavanas themselves, 
and they at once conduct us to the kingdom of Baby- 
lon and the kingdom of Armenia, with which both 
the Sacas and Yavanas were familiar. Throuo^h these 
countries Alexander entered on his Eastern conquests. 
The Yavanas reached Orissa through Cashmir and 
Delhi. Now, on recurring to the history of Cashmir, 
we find that the M^lech^chas^ of whom the Sacas 
were one class, came to that country from Scythia, 
and mingled with the Yavanas, Buchanan says f 
that the Yavanas are understood to be Europeans. 
The term Yavanas seems to have puzzled Oriental 
scholars; but when we consider that the Yavanas 
and Jabans are synonymous, we are at once conducted 
to an explanation; and turn, as a matter of course, to 

* Stirling's Account of Orissa, p. 21. Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. 
t Buchanan's Res. vol. iii. chap. xv. p. 133. 



140 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

the country of Javan or Jaban, which includes great 
part of Asia Minor, the isles of Greece and all Ionia. 
lonia^ in fact, is only another form of the name 
Yavana; and thus Rawlinson, finding the word 
Yavana in the arrow-headed inscriptions of Behistun, 
does not scruple to translate it lonians. To associate 
this name with the veterans of Alexander's army and 
the Seleucidae is natural; and we have reason to be- 
lieve, from the history of Alexander's invasion, that 
troops of Sacas were in his pay and among the bravest 
of his companions. In fact, the Sacce were so well 
known in Alexander's time as brave cavalry and 
bowmen, that the term seems to have been adopted to 
designate the best mercenary forces. The dominion 
of Seleucus Nicator, and Antiochus Soter, in Bactria, 
extended over the Sacas at first, but was afterwards 
destroyed by them and the Goths, who forthwith 
unitedly ruled over the whole of the provinces ex- 
tending from Bactria to the Indus. The mixtures of 
Sacs with Javanas is then explained. Here we can- 
not but observe the wonderful providence by which 
it was so ordered that the descendants of Japhet, 
brought ready-armed and trained by Alexander into 
India, should there meet and sustain the Sacas and 
MHecKchas from Scythia, and thus advance the ful- 
filment of prophecy. 

It is also interesting, and perhaps not without im- 
portance, that the nations of India, at an early period 
of their history, were accustomed to designate the 
Western World by the name of Javan^ who was the 
representative and grandson of Japhet, and the 
founder of the race now most influential on the 



CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 141 

earth. It is not a slight privilege to be taught to 
look for the fulfilment of Divine purpose and predic- 
tions in all the ongoings of Providence in the form of 
history; and happy is the man who sees and feels 
that Wisdom is regulating the distribution of mankind 
with regard to glorious spiritual results. It is the 
bearing of the present on the coming world, in re- 
ference to the ultimate elevation of the whole race of 
mankind to a higher standing, that gives interest 
alike to the records of man and the prophecies of 
God. The prophecy of Noah will, we are convinced, 
become distinctly legible as the light of ethnology and 
of history falls on it. The merchant- princes of the 
Saxon nations are the descendants both of Japhet and 
of Shem, if, indeed, it be not found that a blending of 
the blood of the whole family of man, in a new form, 
as in England and America, be not necessary to the 
production of the most energetic and the most 
thoughtful, that is to say, the most inwardly devout, 
people on the earth. If the views we herein advance 
be correct, the descendants of Shem, religiously 
trained in all the trials of faith as the true seed of 
Abraham, have mingled with the hardiest and most 
independent and self- relying of the ofi'spring of Japhet 
to constitute the Anglo-Saxons; and it may be that 
in our Western World beyond the wide Atlantic, now, 
so to say, brought near to the Old World by steam and 
electricity, the children of Ham have been with fraud 
and force enslaved by their more daring brethren to 
check the pride of Saxons, and with a burning re- 
proach to stir them up to the greatest and noblest 
of efi*orts, that thus they may practically declare, by 



142 CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES. 

all the self-sacrifices involved in their declaration of 
belief, that God has indeed made of one blood all 
the nations of the earth, that they may dwell toge- 
ther as brethren. 

In this desultory chapter we have seen the Sacae, 
whom we have assumed to be Israelites, coming from 
Bhutan, or Gozan, in Kurdistan, into the north, and 
then from the north into the south, exercising influ- 
ence, religious and civil, in India, mingled with 
lonians there, these Sacae being recognised as Bud- 
dhists, and, then again scattered, some of them finding 
refuge in another Bhutan. This will serve as an outline 
now to be in part filled up. 



143 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

We have endeavoured to find traces of the Tribes in 
the course indicated by prophecy. We have con- 
sidered their probable position in captivity, and their 
possible connexion with the Sacae of history. We 
have sought them under new names, and as professing 
a new religion ; we now proceed, if possible, to dis- 
cover evidences of their passage through the countries 
they must have traversed, if our surmises are well 
founded. 

We are attracted at once to a country of vast im- 
portance in the present aspect of the East, and the 
more interesting to us, as we there find a people who 
profess to be the Beni-Israel, or descendants of the 
Ten Tribes, namely, Afghanistan and the adjacent 
countries. The mountains of the Indian Caucasus, 
the mountains of Cabul, are said to be visible, in clear 
weather, from a distance of two hundred and fifty 
miles ; lifting their hoar heads sublimely into the clear 
calm heavens, they well represent "the terrible 
crystal" of the prophet. Roving myriads of people 
have been attracted by this sight, as if to travel 
onwards and upwards, in imagination, along the 
mountain pathway, to the realms of glory and of rest. 



144 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

The traditions of the whole world celebrate these 
stupendous heights, many of whose light-crowned 
pinnacles are supposed to stand more than twenty 
thousand feet above the common level of this earth. 
Their magnificence and their mystery have drawn 
nations together in adoring wonder into the hills and 
valleys, so fruitful and bounteous and beautiful, 
around their feet. This region might well be thought 
the seat of Paradise. There are found specimens of 
nearly every form of living thing, whether animal or 
vegetable, elsewhere found in any country of Europe 
or of Asia; and there, too, almost every civilized 
nation has its representative. The oldest nations 
believe that thence mankind first sprang into exist- 
ence, and that God even now there sits enthroned, 
waiting to judge all the human souls which He has 
made. Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Persians, the fol- 
lowers of Buddha, of Brahma, of Mahomet, and even 
believers in Jehovah, have looked up unto these awful 
solitudes, and bowed in soul before their majesty, 
thinking of God. Here was a high place (Bamah)* 
for the worshippers of Bamah worthy of the name, 
and here the wandering tribes might believe them- 
selves in the especial presence of Him who made the 
heavens and the earth. To the skirts of these moun- 
tain fastnesses many of the outcast Israelites un- 
doubtedly resorted after their escape from Assyrian 
or Persian domination, and after their wanderings 
in the north. Traces of their former possession of 
this neighbourhood, as well as of Bactria and Bok- 

* " Then, T said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go ? And 
the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day." (Ezek. xx. 29.) 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 145 

hara, are still extant, not only in existing monuments, 
but also in the traditions of the power and majesty of a 
national religion and polity once capable of awakening 
the attention of all the East, but now lost in the mist of 
ages. The prominent reasons for thinking that certain 
classes of the people of Bokhara and Afghanistan 
are of Israelitish origin are these : — 1st. Their per- 
sonal resemblance to the Hebrew family. Thus Dr. 
Wolff, the Jewish missionary, says : "I was wonder- 
fully struck with the resemblance of the Youssouf- 
szye [tribe of Joseph], and the Khybere, two of their 
tribes, to the Jews." Moorcroft also says of the Khy- 
beres, " They are tall, and of singularly Jewish cast 
of features." 2nd. They have been named by them- 
selves Beni-Israel, children of Israel, from time imme- 
morial. 3rd. The names of their tribes are Israelitish, 
especially that of Joseph, which includes Ephraim 
and Manasseh. In the Book of Revelation the tribe 
of Joseph stands for Ephraim. (Rev. vii. 6, 8.) In 
Xumbers xxxvi. 5, Moses speaks of Manasseh as " the 
tribe of the sons of Joseph;" so that it is clear that 
both Manasseh and Ephraim were known by the 
name of the tribe of Joseph. 4th. The Hebrew 
names of places and persons in Afghanistan are of far 
greater frequency than can be accounted for through 
Mahometan association ; and, indeed, these names 
existed before the Afghans became Mahometans. 
5th. All accounts agree that they inhabited the 
mountains of Ghore from a very remote antiquity. 
It is certain that the princes of Ghore belonged to the 
Afghan tribe of Sooree, and that their dynasty was 
allowed to be of very great antiquity even in the 

L 



146 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

eleventh century. " They seem early to have pos- 
sessed the mountains of Soliniaun or Solomon,* com- 
prehending all the southern mountains of Afghan- 
istan." (Elphinstone.) 6th. Afghan is the name 
given to their nation by others, the name they give 
their nation is Pushtoon, and Drs. Carey and Marsh- 
man assert that the Pushtoon language has more 
Hebrew roots than any other. 7th. The Afghans 
are also called Botans (or, by corruption, Patans). 
They account for this name by stating that they lived 
as Jews until the first century of Mahometism, when 
Kaled the caliph summoned them to fight against 
the infidels. Their leader, Kyse, on that occasion, was 
styled Botan, or mast. This word is Arabic, and 
signifies the possession of authority, and, indeed, the 
staff held in the hand as a sign of authority, such as 
the marshals staff, is so called by ourselves ; and the 
term baton was derived, through the French, from 
the East, during the Crusades. A staff was used as a 
sign of authority by the ancient Israelites. This 
name was adopted by all the Mahometan conquerors 
of India, and the present Mahometan leaders of the 
Indian rebellion are proud to be called Botans, or 
Patans, meaning thereby that they are the first, or 
hischest caste of men. Another derivation of the 
name Botan has been already given, and the name 
is shown to have existed in northern India before the 
Mahometan incursion ; the modern use of the term is, 
however, a consistent appropriation. The more ancient 
name of Afghanistan was Cabul, and it still retains 

* The fact that the highest peak of this range is called Solomon's throne 
fixes the derivation of the name by which these mountains are known. 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 147 

this name as a kingdom. Now it is very remarkable 
that Ptolemy, in his geography of these parts, locates 
the Aristophyli^ that is to say, " The Noble Tribes,'' 
in juxtaposition with the Caholitce ; a name which 
probably also means the tribes, Cabail being the 
Arabic for tribe. Cabul was the name applied 
by Hiram to the land of Galilee, or that part of it 
containing the cities which Solomon gave him. 
(1 Kings ix. 13.) The Talmud tells us the word 
signifies sandy ; and this term certainly would well 
apply to much of Afghanistan. 

The antiquity of the name of the country Cabul, 
or Cabool, is then established; and it is also shown 
that some peculiar people known as " The Tribes,'' 
and " The Noble Tribes," dwelt there at a very re- 
mote period. There is, therefore, good evidence that 
the present inhabitants of Cabul may be justified in 
asserting that from the earliest period of history they 
and their ancestors have occupied Cabul, and that 
from time- immemorial they have been known as 
" The Tribes." That is to say, Israelitish tribes, 
such as they now assume themselves to be. It is no 
mean argument in favour of their assumption that 
their Mahometan conquerors assert by their histo- 
rians, that the Afghans are Israelites, and that they 
observed the Hebrew worship until the seventh 
century, when they were converted by the sword of 
the Arab to the profession of belief in the Prophet of 
Mecca. According to Sir W. Jones, the best Persian 
authorities agree with them in their account of their 
origin ; and resident and competent authorities, such 
as Sir John Malcolm, and the missionary Mr. Cham- 

L 2 



148 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

berlain, after full investigation, assure us that "many 
of the Afghans are undoubtedly of the seed of Abra- 
ham." One tribe of the Afghans, now named Door- 
anneds, rules the whole nation, and at one period of 
their history this tribe exercised dominion from the 
Caspian Sea to the Ganges, and even as far as the 
capital of the Mahrattas, Poona.* Thus, then, we 
succeed in connecting the Israelites — the Tribes — 
with the Caspian Sea, and with India through Afghan- 
istan. Now we require to proceed further, and 
connect these tribes with the Sacae. This we do at 
once by the fact well known that the so-called Tartar 
tribes, the Chozars or Kosi, were the lords otcentral 
Xindia from the sixth Jo Jlie_tenth_centurj^* KT hey 
came from the borders of the Caspian Sea, the seat 
of the Sacae. Gibbon states that their country was 
known to the Greeks and the Arabians under the 
name Kosa, that is, Cush. By this name they were 
also known to the Chinese. Their alliance was 
courted by the rival empires of Persia and Rome. 
The Cush, or Cosa, known as Indu-Cush, belonged 
to them, and probably gave rise to their name amongst 
the Greeks and Arabians. The circumstance most 
worthy of note concerning these Chozars, or Kusites, 
as respects our inquiry, is the fact that, as early as 
the tenth century we learn that their sovereigns had 
from time immemorial been Hebrews. The Beni- 
Israel of Malabar, also, have a history, clearly written, 
well preserved and continued to the present time, in 
which it is recorded that the Ten Tribes, with the 
exception of colonies in Spain and India, migrated 

* See Elphinstoue's Kingdom of Caboul. 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 149 

towards the Caspian Sea, some on the borders of 
Media and Persia, and others in the direction of 
Chinese Tartary. The tribes of Simeon, Ephraim, 
and Manasseh are represented to have settled on the 
north-east of the Caspian Sea, the country of the 
Chozar Tartars, in a region named in the record 
Makhe.* Thus we have evidence sufficient to prove 
that a people who were connected with the country of 
the Sac£e and under Hebrew rulers, held dominion 
over Central India and Afghanistan previous to the 
Mahometan invasion. Mr. Forster points out, as a 
curious confirmation of the Malabar record of the 
Beni-Israel, that Ptolemy places the Tos Manassa 
(^' The far-hanished ManasseK^) in the land of the 
Chomari or Gomeri (the Gomer of the Bible), and to 
the north of them a people called Macha-geni^ or 
people of Macha. May it not be worthy of inquiry 
whether Macha-geni, as the name of a people, is not 
the same as Massa-geta6? And may not the country 
named Mash in Genesis (x. 23) be that of the 
Massa-getCB (the Goths of Masha), who dwelt about 
the mouth of the Araxes or Kir, where we know 
from Herodotus that Cyrus encountered them? And 
may not the very name of these people (Getae) be 
derived from that of the inhabitants of Gath ( Hebrew, 
••n:) — Gete). Incidentally we remark that Hero- 
dotus (iv. 94) says the Getas thought themselves 
immortal; not dying, but going, at their decease, to 
Zalmoxis^ which Herodotus supposes to be the name 
of a god. Is not this a Greek mode of spelling the 
Hebrew word Zalmoth, the shadow of death. (Psalm 

* See Forster on Primeval Lanoruagre. 



150 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

xxiii. 4.) The Getse are mixed up with the Sacae as 
the Gittites were with the Israelites, and by and bye 
we shall see that they used the same language. The 
M£eso-Gothic of Ulphilas's New Testament, written in 
the fourth century, contains Hebrew, Greek, Sanscrit, 
and Tartar words. There were Gittites (GetaB), men 
of Gath, amongst the body-guard of David. It is 
also worthy of note that, in the voyage of Eldad, the 
seat of the three lost tribes of Simeon, Ephraim, and 
Manasseh is said to be Macha ; a name agreeing per- 
fectly with that given in the Malabar history as the 
locality of those tribes. Whether, with Mr. Forster, 
we can find Zebulun by the Helmund^ and Issachar 
by the Isagurus near Cashgar, remains to be proved. 
We agree with him in believing that " by every kind 
of evidence it is ascertained, and by every class of 
author admitted, that a large proportion of the Chozar 
Tartars were Israelites professing the Jew's religion, 
and practising the rite of circumcision."* There is 
a curious Kabbinical tradition to the eiFect that 
the Ten Tribes passed over the river Sambatioun, 
which flows through the land of Gush. Now, what- 
ever river may be meant by Sambatioun, we know 
the Rabbins meant by Gush not Ethiopia or Libya, 
as some Christian commentators have imagined, but 
Indu-Cush, the country bordering on Bokhara and 
Cabul. Herodotus distinguishes the Ethiopians, 
the Cushites of the sun-rising, the eastern Ethio- 
pians, from those of Libya; and says they differed 
from the latter by their hair being straight instead of 
curly, and that they did not at all differ in appearance 

* Primeval Language, part iii. p. 312. 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 151 

from other Indians. Mr. Forster, by limiting the 
distribution of the Ten Tribes of Israel to Afghan- 
istan, confirms prophecy but to falsify it ; for prophecy 
declares that they " shall be swallowed up" amongst 
all nations. Not lost, indeed, but hidden, like seed, 
only to become more. '' I will not utterly destroy 
the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For, lo, I will 
command and will sift the house of Israel among all 
nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not 
the least grain fall upon the earth.'' (Amos \\\i, 7-9.) 
" Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians [Cushites] 
unto me, children of Israel? saith the Lord." (Amos 
ix. 7.) This is said in relation to their position after 
their captivity in Assyria, and we shall see in another 
chapter that the religious head amongst the Sac£e 
assumed the Ethiopian characteristics as emblems of 
his dominion. We find in the heathen geographer 
clear names of Israelite tribes, on the one hand, on the 
borders of the Caspian Sea ; on the other hand, in the 
mountains of Chinese Tartary. We find the Jewish 
account quite independently bearing ^vitness to the 
emigration and settlement of the very tribes named 
by Ptolemy in those very parts. We find the national 
character of those wandering Israelites correspond- 
ingly delineated in the accounts of the Jews, and in 
the history of the Chozars. And we find the very 
national character of Israel, as there described, in its 
restlessness, its turbulence, its roving propensities, 
its insatiable appetite for war and plunder, re-appear 
in all its life and reality in that of the whole Afghan 
nation — a people naming themselves " Beni-Israel," 
and universally claiming to be the descendants of the 



152 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

Lost Tribes. The nomenclature of those tribes and 
districts, both in ancient geography and at the present 
day, confirms this universal national tradition. Lastly, 
we have the route of the Israelites from Media to 
Afghanistan and India marked out by a series of 
intermediate stations bearing the names of several of 
their tribes, and clearly indicating the stages of their 
long and arduous journey. Sir William Jones in- 
clines to the opinion that the Ten Tribes migrated to 
India about Tibet and Cashmir; and that opinion 
derives support from several circumstances. In the 
year 1828 the following statement appeared in the 
German papers : — it If 

" Leipsig, June 30th.— After having seen for some 
years past merchants from Tiflis, Persia, and Armenia 
among the visitors at our fair, we have had, for the 
first time, two traders from Bucharia with shawls, 
which are there manufactured of the finest wool of 
the goats of Tibet and Cashmire, by the Jewish 
\_IsraelitisK\ families^ who form a third part of the 
population. In Bucharia (formerly the capital of 
Sogdiana) the Jews have been very numerous ever 
since the Babylonian captivity, and are there as re- 
markable for their industry and manufactures as they 
are in England for their money transactions. It was 
not till last year that the Russian government suc- 
ceeded in extending its diplomatic missions far into 
Bucharia. The above traders exchanged their shawls 
for coarse and fine woollen cloths of such colours as 
are most esteemed in the East.'* 

The number of these Israelites must be very great, 
if the account be at all correct, as to the proportion 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 153 

which they bear to the whole population, this being 
stated by the most accurately informed writers to be 
from 15,000,000 to 18,000,000. But this information 
is confirmed in a very satisfactory manner from 
other sources. With regard to the country of Bok- 
hara, it is worthy of remark that certain Jewish 
writers have regarded it as the Hara into which some 
of the Israelites were exiled by the King of Assyria. 
This country appears to have been known in India at 
an early period by the name of Hara; the addi- 
tion Bok, or Buck, only distinguishes it from some 
other notable Hara (mountain range). As Hara is 
Hebrew, so is Bok, signifying mixed or confused. 
At an early period of history the dominion of Bokhara 
extended from the Caspian Sea into Khorasan ; and 
when Seleucus, after Alexander's death, took posses- 
sion of those regions, many Jews went there as colo- 
nists, and their progeny have ever since continued 
there, but kept distinct from the Beni-Israel, also 
resident there in large numbers. Yahoodeyah^ in 
Merv, was probably one of their early cities. It is 
not unlikely that the seats of early Jewish coloniza- 
tion amongst people to whom the name of the Beni- 
Israel was familiar, were always known as Yahoode- 
yah^ and this is precisely the name by which Oude 
was first known. The Jews, both of Bokhara and 
Afghanistan, are kept distinct from those who call 
themselves Beni-Israel. When Sir Alexander Burnes 
asked Dost Mahomed Khan as to the descent of the 
Afghans from the Israelites, he replied that his people 
had no doubt of that, though they repudiated the 
idea of being Jews, whom they treat with hereditary 



154 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

contempt. They found their belief not merely on 
tradition, but on an ancient record in their possession 
named Mujnoo i unsab. The Urz Bede, of Hajee 
Feroz, at Herat, possesses genealogies tracing their 
descent from famous Israelites. True, the claim of 
the Afghans is no proof of their right to the name of 
Beni-Israel ; but their claim, so long maintained, proves 
this much at least — the Ten Tribes must have been 
famous in those parts at a very early period, or a 
dominant people, despising the Jews, would not have 
been proud of their assumed name for so long a period. 
The incidental evidences in favour of the descent of 
the Afghans from the Ten Tribes, or from some of 
them, are : First. They are found where the Ten 
Tribes were expected to be found. Second. Their 
traditions and customs. Third. The agreement of 
their traditions with those of other Mahometans, who 
assert that the Israelites that came from the river 
Khabor were called Khyberees, and that some of them 
went to Afghanistan, or, as they more properly call 
the country, Cabul, while others went into Arabia, 
and that these acknowledge their relationship to the 
Afghans. 

These traditions of the Afghans fall in with the 
history of the tribes who resisted the Greeks, and 
took possession of Media and Persia, and constituted 
a Parthian kingdom. When Arsaces the Second, 
Artabanus, son of the First, fought against Antiochus, 
he called in the aid of the Sacae ; and being then at the 
head of 100,000 men, Antiochus was glad to make 
peace with him, leaving him in possession of Parthia 
and Hyrcania, in consideration of his aid in the war 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 155 

against Bactria and Aria — that is to say, Bokhara 
and Afghanistan; thence, however, the Sacse and 
the Goths afterwards expelled the armies of the 
Greeks. The Arsacian king, Mlthridates II., called 
the Great, came to terms with the Sacae, who held 
dominion in Cabul. The Saka-rauU became so power- 
ful as to place a king on the Parthian throne called 
king of kings. These Saka-rauli were probably Af- 
ghans, having descended from the north-eastern 
borders of Sogdiana, through Bactria, into the 
country then known as Ariana, now Afghanistan. 
These are the people, the Sacse, that Alexander could 
not subdue, and therefore courted as friends. From 
that period to that of the last of the numerous Greeks 
who assumed sovereignty over Bactria and Cabulistan, 
these people were in frequent conflict with the Greeks, 
and as often nominally under their dominion, as we 
find from their numerous coins discovered in Afghan- 
istan (Cabulistan), on which both Greek and so-called 
Arian inscriptions and devices appear.* Professor 
Lassen quotes this passage from Strabo : " The Asii 
or Asiani, and the Tochari and the Saca-rauli, took 
Bactria from the Greeks." The Asiani were the 
kings of the Tochari and the Saca-rauli. The Asiani 
were Sacas. I regard these names as only different 
classes of Saks recognisable in Hebrew as ''^T^^ nnn 
and "h^;!^ ; that is, those who superintended, those 
distinguished by their armour Kinn (Ex. xxviii. 
32), and the javelin men or slingers.f Coins of the 
Parthian " king of kings " have also been found in 

* See Prinsep's Historical Kesults, deducible from Recent Discoveries in 
Afghanistan. f See Prinsep, p. 82. 



156 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

Afghanistan. Professor Lassen confines the Asian 
kings of the Getae to Upper Bactria and Sogdiana, 
but regards the Sakas as occupying the Cabul valley 
and the Punjab, having a king of their own towards 
the end of the second century before Christ. This 
serves as another link between the ancient Sakas and 
the modern Afghans, and this is all we wish here to 
establish, having already shown the probability that 
the Afghans are of Hebrew descent. 

For the purpose of showing the connexion of the 
Greek power with the Saxon, the annexed engravings 
of coins found in Afghanistan are worthy of note. No. 
1 is that of Euthydemus— BA2IAEQ2 EYGYAHMOY. 
(B.C. 220.) The wild horse on the obverse is perhaps 
an emblem of Bactria, but also, certainly, of the 
Saxon race. No. 2 is that of Antimachus Nike- 
phorus. (155 B.C.) The figure on the obverse, with 
the word Su^ will be illustrated in another chapter. 
Su has very much puzzled the learned. No. 3 
is another of the same king, with a Victory ( ?) on 
one side; and the king seated on the horse on 
the other, to indicate his conquest and power over 
the nation symbolized by the horse. This king as- 
sumed the title of Tlieus — God; and I would here 
observe that probably the word Su^ or Zu^ is only 
another form (Spartan) of the word Theus; adopted, 
however, with particular reference to the people of 
Afghanistan at the time, as will be indicated here- 
after. Nikephorus is a title of Jupiter, but I believe 
not so applied till subsequent to the conquest of 
Porus, or Phorus, by Alexander in India. This word 
is both Greek and Hebrew, and in both languages 
would signify the smiting of Porus, this name Porus 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 157 

being a title of distinction in Hebrew, signifpng 
widely known; a title appropriate enough to the 
Porus whom Alexander conquered on the banks of 
the Jhilum (now Jelum), in July, 327 B.C. 

On the coins found in Afghanistan, Greek legends 
are continued from Seleucus Xicator (280 B.C.) to the 
middle of the second century of our era. 

Having been once established by a people so 
superior in art and intelligence, the Greek character 
seems to have been retained on the coinage, partly 
as expressing the retention of the Greek power by 
the successive kings, and partly because Greeks were 
largely mixed as colonists with the nations over whom 
they reigned. Thus we have first pure Greek coins, 
next Arsacian, and then Sassanian, when the Greco- 
Parthian dominion in Central Asia closed. There 
was, during great part of this period, an Ario-Par- 
thian dynasty reigning over Cabul and the Punjab; 
but after a.d. 80 a new order of coins, bearing the 
name of Kanerkes, with legends in corrupt Greek, 
is found. These are ascribed to a new race of 
Scythian kings who immediately succeeded those 
named Kadphises, of which name three kings are 
recognised by their coins. I here present one of 
them (4 in plate) in evidence of the fact, that under 
his dominion Buddhism was recognised as the State 
religion. 

The Greek leo^end is kino^ of kinoes, the orreat 
saviour, Oomen Kadphises,* the letters being very 
corrupt, and the z of the Lat inscriptions being 
used for that of the Greek 2. 

The legend on the obverse is in the so-called Arian, 

* No. 10, plate ix. in Prinsep's Historical Results. 



158 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

which reads from right to left.* No satisfactory 
translation has been offered; but I transliterate the 
words into modern Hebrew letters, and thus find this 
Hebrew sentence : — 

i^b'? TTD niK TiD b:i d? Dibt:^ ninio 

lb b^r2::li '2 

which literally translated is, From my glory prosperity 
extended to them alU light extended^ but only because his 
recompense was with me. 

It appears that, during the reign of Kadphises, 
Buddhism was for a time suppressed by the Hindu 
king Nikramaditya and his successors. It was pro- 
bably then that Augustus Caesar received a letter in 
Greek from a king of those parts, calling himself Porus, 
praying for assistance. Whether this Porus received 
any aid or not is not known ; but there is evidence 
before us that Roman influence was extended to 
the successors of Kadphises, namely, the Kanerki 
kings, who established a new order, though retaining 
Buddhism, as will be pointed out in another chapter. 
All these kings employed the Arian language, that is, 
the language of Afghanistan at that time. It appears, 
then, that the religion of Buddha, or Godama, was 
restored by the king whose remarkable effigies we 
have before us. There is another Kadphises, on the 
obverse of whose coins (5 in plate) is this remarkable 
inscription in Arian letters :f Damma cacarata kiiju 
lakasa saba saka Kadphises ; which, as Hebrew, I would 
render, Kadphises worships according to the cutting off 
[or covenant"] of the burning of Kash^ the seat of Saka. 

* Plate xiii. p. 14, in Prinsep's Historical Results, 
f Prinsep, idem, plate ix. p. 10. 



THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. l59 

I \vill not here attempt an explanation of these words, 
as their meaning will appear as we proceed. The 
identification of the Szu Scythians with the Asii, and 
these, again, with the Sacae, who took Bactria and 
afterwards occupied Afghanistan, will account for 
certain coins having the name of Azes and the title 
" king of kings " upon them. This title associates 
them with the kings who, up to the second century 
of our era, used the same title, and held dominion 
over the same country, and employed the same lan- 
guage, at least on their coins, and, as we shall by and 
bye see, also on their tombs. We hope to prove that this 
language is Hebrew, and therefore that the people of 
Afghanistan used Hebrew in the period extending from 
the commencement of the Greco-Bactrian dominion to 
the commencement of the third century of our era. 

By way of introduction to the next chapter, a 
few remarks on the coins before us will suffice. 
First, the superscription — the great king of kings 
— reminds us that Nebuchadnezzar, to whom 
Daniel the Jew was prime minister, employed the 
same title. (Dan. ii. 37; Ezra vii. 12; Ezek. xxvi. 7.) 
This title was adopted by the kings who followed 
Godama, or Saka, and adopted his doctrines. AVe 
shall by and bye give evidence to indicate how the 
monograms on, those coins came to denote the Bud- 
dhist religion and dominion. One such is seen beside 
the king, who is bearded and arrayed in true Saxon 
style — long coat, boots, and cap; and he wears the 
royal fillet. Like a true Hebrew, he stands with head 
covered before the altar of incense — for such we sup- 
pose the stones raised four deep to signify, after the 



160 THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES. 

Buddhist manner. He holds the trident, the Saxon 
token, in his right hand. This was not borrowed 
from Neptune — he borrowed it from the Saxons ; but 
in either case it means the same thing — potentiality. 
Below his left hand is an unknown emblem, regarded 
by some as a club ; if so, an emblem of Hercules, the 
destroyer of evil-doers and the righter of the wronged, 
a figure of whom is seen on the Graeco-Arian coin 
No. 4. Hence we infer that the Buddhist kings 
adopted this emblem after the destruction of the 
Greek power in North-western India. On the obverse, 
in one case, we have Siva (ov Su) also holding the 
emblem of Buddha's power, as indicated by the 
monogram of Godama. Behind him stands the 
sacred bull Nandi honouring Buddha. On the other 
obverse we have what appears to be Hercules with his 
club and lion's skin — the devices in each case being 
expressive of the same power to set matters right 
by main force. 

Concerning one of the Kanerki kings we shall have 
occasion to speak when examining the remains found 
in his tomb. Enough has been said to indicate the 
connexion of Afghanistan with the Greeks, the Sacae, 
and the Buddhists, and we will now proceed to con- 
sider the Sacae and the Buddhists more fully. 



161 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

In a former chapter it was intimated that the Israelites 
might have been classed by Herodotus amongst the 
tribes of Media, under the name of Buddhi ; a name 
that re-appears in his account of tribes of Scythia. 
We now proceed to show that the SacaB were Bud- 
dhists and Hebrews. 

We have seen, from the facts already stated, that 
a peculiar people, known as the Sacs, or Sakai and 
Buddhii, arrived in India at a period about a hundred 
years after the return of the Jews from Assyria to 
Palestine. These people were mixed up with the 
Yavanas, who have been identified ^vith the Greeks 
left by Alexander to garrison the banks of the Indus, 
and who long occupied a naval station at the mouth 
of that river, called Pattala, supposed to be the pre- 
sent Tatta. This took place about 325 years B.C. 
We know that, by some untold circumstance, Alex- 
ander was prevented from invading the Sacae, or at 
least from prevailing over them, as he did over the 
Bactrians. The Sacae were then a distinct people, 
and their knowledge and influence appear to have been 
employed by Alexander in his incursion into India. 
It is said that certain Sacae, being famous for the use 
of the bow, and also as skilful horsemen, were of great 

M 



162 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

use to his army. With these remarkable people a 
new religion appears to have been introduced into 
India. This religion has been ever since known as 
Buddhism, said to be first taught, in its present form, 
by Sahya, Now Buddha is said to have been born 
B.C. 618.* It is remarkable that this Buddha is 
called Maga (a Magian) by the Burmahs;f and, in 
Burmah, Arracan, Ceylon, and Siam the sacred lan- 
guage of Buddhism is called the language of the 
Mags or Magi ; J and, indeed, the priests of the Per- 
sians, Bactrians, Charasmians, Arians, and Sacae are 
equally called Magi, and are described as so many 
tribes descended from the Sacas.§ To connect the 
Sacai of the East with those of the West, we observe 
that the White Island England — Sacam or Saxum, 
as pronounced by our Saxon ancestors — is stated in 
the Purana named Varaha to have been in the 
possession of the Sacs (or Sacae) at an early period. || 
From the origin of this religion of Buddha com- 
menced a new era in the East, named the era of the 
Sacas. Hence we infer that Sakya belonged to this 
people. They proceeded from the north into Cashmir. 
We have shown that a people of this name were 
recognised by ancient geographers and historians as 
a tribe of Scythians residing to the north of Cashmir, 
and we have found some reasons to imagine that 
these Sacas sprung from the house of Isaac ; a division 
of the Israelites who did not return from Assyria to 
Samaria. We now proceed, if possible, to discover 
any additional reasons for supposing these people to 

* Asiatic Researches, vol. ix. p. 90. f Idem, p. 75. 

J As. Res. xi. 76. § As. Res. xi. SO. || As. Res. xi. 61. 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 163 

be Israelites. The Sacas must have come into India 
through Cabul; it is therefore probable that some 
traces of their name may still be found amongst the 
Afghans, a people who have retained their pecu- 
liarities for many ages, and who, from their occupa- 
tion of mountain fastnesses, and from their hardy, 
independent, and warlike habits, engendered by their 
position, have been able to preserve themselves from 
foreign dominion. These people have many indi- 
cations of a Hebrew origin, or, at least, the facts 
advanced bv the Eio-ht Hon. Sir G. H. Rose and the 
Rev. C. Foster, as already stated, together mth other 
facts presented by preceding writers, such as Sir W. 
Jones, certainly warrant the conclusion that an ex- 
tensive Israelite influence must have been from a 
very early period exerted amongst that people ; and it 
is by no means improbable that the purer tribes 
amongst them are really descendants of the Israelites, 
as they believe themselves to be. What we seek, 
however, is a connexion between the word Sacce^ or 
Sakai, and the Israelites, and that, I think, we dis- 
cover in certain tribes of the Afo^hans. The folio win o^ 
passage is from a letter* written by an officer on the 
staff of the commander-in-chief in India. It is dated 
from Head Quarters, Camp, Munikiala^ 20th January^ 
1852: — "Having just been through a part of 
Afghanistan Proper, I cannot help writing to tell you 
how I was struck mth the Jewishness of the people ; 
and not only their appearance, but every possible 
circumstance tends to convince one that they are the 
descendants of the Ten Tribes. They call themselves 

* Quoted by Sir G. H. Rose in his work ou the Afghans. 

m2 



164 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

Bunnie Israeel (Bunnie being exactly synonymous 
with ' Mac * in Scotland, and ' Fitz ' in England), 
and are proud of it ; whereas to all other Mahometans a 
more severe term of abuse cannot be applied than 
Yahoodee, or Jew. We may observe that these so- 
called Benee-Israel despise the Jews almost as much 
as any Mahometan people can. They pride them- 
selves on being sons of Israel in contradistinction 
from the people of Judah ; a strong presumptive evi- 
dence that they are really derived from the Israelites, 
especially as this distinction has been maintained 
from time immemorial amongst them. One of the 
tribes that at present are giving us a good deal of 
trouble, is called ' Yousufzyes^^ or tribe of Joseph, 
'zie' meaning 'tribe;' and next to them are the 
Izahzie^ or tribe of Isaac.'' This is the point to be 
observed, Joseph and Isaac are not properly names of 
either of the tribes into which the Israelites were 
divided by lot in their own land ; but the application 
of those names affords proof that, if the Afghans are 
descendants of Israelites, they adopted distinctive 
appellations in those names, and it is therefore clear 
that the name of Isaac was chosen as oi^e mark of 
Israelitish descent. This is a point which we needed 
to establish in order to sustain the opinion that the 
SacaB, or Sakai, might have derived their name origi- 
nally from Isaac. If the name be adopted to designate 
one tribe, it might formerly more suitably have been 
used to designate all the tribes, for every tribe was 
equally interested in the name, the descent, and the 
words of the covenant with Abraham: "i/z Isaac 
shall thy seed he called,''^ (Gen. xxi. 12.) The fact is 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 165 

evinced in the existence of an extensive tribe actuallv 
using that name as professed Israelites from time 
immemorial, and these are situated where we might 
naturally have looked for them under the circum- 
stances supposed. The Hebrews in Mowr, as well as 
those in Bokhara, assured the Rev. J. Wolff that there 
are many of the children of Israel of the tribes of 
Naphtali and Zebulun, in the Hindu Cush, among the 
Balkhwee, and that they lived by robbery, and knew 
the excla^oation " Shama Yisrael !" — Hear, Israel.* 
If the Sacas were of Israelitish oriofin, we miofht 
naturally expect to find some wild remains of them 
in the country through which we suppose them to 
have passed ; and that they should retain the Israel- 
itish passwords was likely in a country which was 
probably colonized by Jews at a very early period. 
These facts at least serve to connect the Sacas^ or 
Sakai^ whom we find in Cashmir and Orissa, with the 
Isalczie of Independent Tartary and Bokhara; these 
countries being, in fact, precisely the seats of the 
ancient Sacce^ or at least of the people so called by 
the Persians in the time of Herodotus. (Zd^ai and 
Za/cac.) 4Jt would be very strange if, having, from 
other circumstances, been induced to believe that the 
Ten Tribes went into those regions, we there found a 
mffltitude of people who declared themselves to be the 
descendants of these tribes, and yet that they should 
not be so. We have supposed them to have been 
named Sacre, or Sakai, after Isaac; and here, in the 
very seat of the Sacas of old, we find large numbers 
of people professing to be Israelites, calling themselves 

* WolflTs Mission to Bokhara, vol. ii. p. 165. 



166 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

Isakzle, a name readily converted into Sakai by the 
Greeks, who habitually rendered the names of the 
barbarians only into approximate sounds. Is it pos- 
sible to account for these facts but on the supposition 
that they are derived from the real Beni-Israel? Why 
should these people thus name themselves, in spite of 
the prejudice of all the nations around them against 
everything Jewish? Had they not been accustomed 
so to denominate themselves from a period when they 
had reason, from their influence, to be proud of the 
name, we can scarcely understand why they should 
be proud of it now, when anything but high hopes or 
noble aspirations is associated with it, even by them- 
selves. Now, if the Sacas, or Sakai, of Independent 
Tartary and Bokhara, were the predecessors of the 
so-called Beni-Israel now resident in those countries, 
and, if they were also called Isakzie after Isaac, then 
it is fair to infer that the Sakai who came into India 
through those countries were of the same origin. 

Amongst the names of the six tribes into which 
the inhabitants of Media are divided by Herodotus* 
there ought, as already observed, to be one to repre- 
sent the Israelites, who certainly occupied the country 
in large numbers at the period referred to in his 
history when writing of those inhabitants. This has 
been a stumblingblock to some inquirers. But 
should we not expect their Hebrew origin to be dis- 
guised under some name adopted by themselves as 
expressive of their condition? Whether so or not, 
we find, in the enumeration of the tribes of Media 
as given by Herodotus, the very name by which we 

* 1. 101. 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 167 

believe the Sakai designated themselves when intro- 
ducing a new religion into India; that name is 
Buddhii, or Buddhists (QH^); which, in Hebrew, 
signifies the detached or separated people. There are 
no direct evidences that the Israelites were ever 
so called by their own people; but yet there is a 
passage in itself remarkable, as prophetically applied 
to the children of Israel under the name of Ephraim, 
in which passage the word Baddhi refers to them in 
some especial manner which our translators have 
failed to understand. This misunderstanding is indi- 
cated by the fact that the word is translated so 
differently in those passages where it occurs, and as 
if to make a sense not to be found by a literal ren- 
dering, or by retaining the words as terms of deno- 
mination. The word Baddhai occurs, with the same 
pointing, both in Isai. xvi. 6, and in Hos. xi. 6 ; in 
the former the word is rendered lies, and in the latter 
branches, but both cannot be correct. It will throw 
some light on our inquiry to reflect at full on both 
those passages as denouncing a rebellious people: 
*' We have heard of the pride of Moab : he is very 
proud; even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and 
his wrath; but his lies [Baddhai] shall not be so." 
(Isai. xvi. 6.) In Hosea xi. 5, 6, it is said of 
Ephraim : " He shall not return into the land of 
Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because 
they refused to return. And the sword shall abide 
on his cities, and shall consume his branches ['^''7? 
— Baddhai], and devour them [the Baddhai], because 
of their own counsels." Now, comparing the word 
Baddhai, or Budii, in these passages, it is clear that 



168 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

the reference is to the separate parties or divisions of 
the people in connexion with cities ; for, even if we 
take the term in any case to mean branches, yet it 
can only be branches of the people, for they are 
represented as taking counsel. If so, then it is easy 
to see that the term was familiar to the Israelites as 
signifying certain collections of their own people, and 
therefore it would probably be similarly employed by 
them in Assyria and elsewhere; so that, speaking 
of their different portions as pertaining to the dif- 
ferent places or cities which, in Media and Assyria, 
they inhabited, they would call them Baddhii, or the 
separate parts as branches, and thus, at length, be 
known as a body of people under this appellation, 
that is to say, as Buddhists. 

A people of the same name are also mentioned by 
Herodotus as amongst the Scythians, and he repre- 
sents them as a great and populous nation, who had 
adopted Scythian customs, and amongst whom many 
Greeks had settled at an early period.* We discover 
indications of the presence of the Sacae and the 
Buddhii, that is, the Saxons and the Buddhists, in 
northern India, about sixty years after the Scythians 
had overrun Media and Mesopotamia. Their incur- 
sion occurred in the reign of Cyaxares, who succeeded 
Phraortes, the first king of Independent Media, pro- 
bably about 625 years B.C. The Israelites were 
probably still dwelling for the most part in Media at 
this period. The Scythians, who had mastered all 
Asia,f were expelled about 598 B.C. J Their course 

* iv. 108. t Herodotus, i. 104. 

{ Volney, Chronologie d'Herodote. 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 169 

is very remarkable ; they were driving the Cimme- 
rians (or Gomeri) before them into Asia, when they 
encountered the Medes at a place inhabited by the 
Massa-Getce^ or Goths of Masha, on the right of 
Mount Caucasus, between it and the Caspian Sea. 
They subdued all before them until they reached 
Palestine; and, as if their object were there accom- 
plished, they then proceeded to prey upon Assyria 
for twenty- eight years. But, like the Ephraimites, they 
were given to drunkenness, and their chiefs being 
invited to a feast by Cyaxares and the Medes, they 
were intoxicated and put to death. After which, the 
Medes recovered their dominion, and expelled the Scy- 
thians. The Scythian invasion came in from the north ; 
the direction whence the prophet Ezekiel, in a vision, 
saw the advancing cloud, the whirlwind, and the fire 
in which the Israelitish people seemed symbolically 
involved. Now, supposing the prophecy fulfilled by 
this incursion, we should expect to find traces of the 
Israelites in the north and the east after the expul- 
sion of the Scythians ; since we regard these people 
as mingling with the Israelites and preparing a way 
for their departure from Media and Mesopotamia. 
Esdras says the Ten Tribes took counsel together 
and went out peaceably, crossing over the narrow 
passages of the river Euphrates. This would take 
them in the course indicated, namely, through 
Armenia, and between Mount Masha and the Caspian 
Sea; the very course by which the Scythians had 
come in. Now, we cannot discover any period, in 
the history of Media and Mesopotamia, in Avhich the 
great body of the Israelites could have so departed. 



170 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

except that of the time when the Scythians held do- 
minion over those countries, and were, as we supposed, 
friendly to the Israelites. It is after this that the 
Sacae begin to be confounded with the Scythians. 
An interval of nearly sixty years passes between the 
expulsion of the Scythians and the appearance of the 
Sacae, the Getae, and the Buddhii in India. They 
flow in through Bokhara and Afghanistan, where we 
find remnants of people still dwelling, who claim to 
be called children of Israel. The Sacaa and the 
Buddhii took possession of Cashmir in the year 340 
B.C., according to the history of that country.* We 
now proceed further to show that the Buddhists, the 
Sacas, and the Geti, or Goths, who spread over India 
from Cabul and Cashmir, were connected with the 
house of Isaac, both in name and in language; and 
the evidence we offer is the record written on the 
rock with a pen of iron. 

There was, in the early part of our era, a large 
Buddha establishment, and the capital of a kingdom, 
named Sanchi^ on the banks of Betwa, and about 
twenty miles to the north-east of Bhupal. It was 
the centre of a kino-dom called Sanaka-nika. and be- 
longed to the Sakya tribes, so famous for the use of 
the bow, and their entire devotion to Buddha. This 
kingdom was also called Sachi^ which would be the 
same as Sakai, Here, then, we are at once con- 
ducted to the Saxon tribes in India; and, looking 
over the account of the topes of S4chi, which were 
explored by Major Cunningham,f we find some in- 
teresting particulars, and are presented with bas-reliefs 

* As. Ees. vol. XV. p. 112. f Now Lieutenant- Colonel. 




X 

o 

z 

^< 

CO 

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< 

UJ 

-J 

Ul 

tt: 
I 

CO 

< 

CQ 



O 

a: 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 171 

of the people themselves, in their various domestic 
scenes and religious ceremonies. At the south gate 
of the great tope of Sachi stands a pillar surmounted 
with four lions, at the right of the entrance, and on 
that pillar a bas relief, which is represented in the 
accompanying engraving, copied from that of Major 
Cunningham. Each gateway is formed of two 
square pillars 2 feet 3 inches thick, and 13 feet 8 
inches in height. The capitals of the pillars on the 
western gate are four human dwarfs; those of the 
southern gate four lions ; those of the other gateways 
four elephants surmounted by their riders. The 
total height of the gateway is 18 feet 2 inches, and 
its breadth is 7 feet.* The inscription is conspicuous, 
and exceedingly well preserved. Major Cunningham 
says, " I cannot even make a guess at its meaning.'^ 
If, however, it be transliterated into modern Hebrew 
characters,! its meaning becomes evident ; thus — 

D^pniD n:in in ijidi :n^ '^wn mn 
That is — 

Sak, my glory, thine image [or assimilation] 

shall he for a festival, a mountain of refuge 

for those who came from afar, from MaJchath, 

We shall find, from numerous other inscriptions, that 
the person honoured by such celebrations under the 
name oiSak is the same as Godama. Sakya seems to be 
the Sanscrit name of this individual, and his history is ex- 
tensively known in Buddhistic annals as the founder of 
Buddhism in its recent forms. The Chinese Buddhists J 

* From Major Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, p. 189. 
f The reason for doing this will be seen in the next chapters. 
J Fo-kwe-ki, c. xvii. note 17. 



172 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

say the name Saki signifies " repose or silence/' As 
Hebrew it will admit of that meaning, but only in the 
sense of ceasing to resist, as in Numbers xvii 5 : 
'' I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the 
children of Israel." It is especially interesting to 
discover that the invocation of Sak was known in 
Britain at a very early period, for this fact connects 
the first arrival of the Saki, or Saxons, in Britain 
with Buddhism as known by the Saki of India; thus 
proving the similarity of their origin. My authority 
for this statement is found in that singular and very 
ancient Druidical hymn known as Gwawd Lludd y 
Mawr, or the Praise of Lludd the Great. It is 
quoted from Welsh Archaiology (p. 74), by the Rev. 
E. Davies, in his work on the Mythology of the 
British Druids (Appendix No. 12). Four short lines 
are given in this poem as the prayer of five hundred 
men who came in five ships. The words of this prayer 
were suspected by Mr. Davies to be Hebrew, in con- 
sequence of Taliesen the bard (600 a.d.) having 
declared that his lore had been delivered to him in 
Hebrew or Hebraic* Mr. Davies therefore tran- 
scribed the passage in Hebrew letters thus : — 

^;ir jnnn •'nnni O-BritU Brith oi 

nn ^^ y;; i^ Nu oes nu edi 

'':^^ nni ••Tinn Brithi Brith anhai 

"!P1 in ^^r\ nn yD Sych edi edi eu roi. 

He does not attempt to give the meaning ; but, after 
familiarly puzzling out ancient Buddhistic inscrip- 
tions, I venture to give this literal rendering : — 

* His words are Yn Efrai, yni Efroeg Eilgweth ym rhithad. (Talieseu's 
Angar Cyvyndavvd.) 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 173 

And I have made a covenant — a Heap, 

A home of wood is a home, my guide, 

I have made a covenant, ship, — 

Sah is my guide, my guide, he is my Friend. 

The Being they worshipped is also called Adonai^ 
the Hebrew name of the Lord Almighty. The appeal 
to the Heap is significant, as will fully appear in 
another place; but even the tope or tumulus erected 
over Sak at Sdchi will afford a clue to the secret ; since 
such mounds were at first only heaps of stones, as wit- 
nesses of devotion or of vows, or as memorials of the 
venerated dead, and as signs of the course taken by 
the Israelites, according to the prophet. (Jer. xxxi. 21.) 
These uses of the heap are illustrated by many pas- 
sages in the Hebrew Scripture. See, heap of witness, 
Gen. xxxi. 52; Deut. xiii. 16; Josh. vii. 26; viii. 
28; 2 Sam. xviii. 17. 

There is an obscure passage in Job xxx. 24, which 
these observations may illustrate. In this passage 
the word translated " grave" in our version is heap in 
the orio;inal : " Howbeit he will not stretch out his 
hand to the grave [at the heap], though they cry in 
his destruction." In Job xxi. 23 we have " Yet shall he 
watch in the heap " (at the heap). The wanderings of 
the sons of Isaac are to be traced, in fact, by their graves 
being marked by peculiar heaps of ruin, and these are 
erected in expression of a covenant with destruction. 
The Jews are described as making a covenant with 
death in Isaiah xxviii. 18. The only other word to 
detain us over this inscription is the name of the place 
from which the worshippers are said to have come. 



174 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

namely, Makheih, This is confirmatory of the re- 
cord preserved by the Malabar Hebrews, which states 
that some of the scattered Israelites went to Makhe, 
in Tartary, Makheth being only the full form of the 
same word. Makha is named in the Behistun in- 
scriptions. Was it Moecia? The connexion of the 
Sakai, or Sachi, with Tartary will be show^n presently. 
As to the mountain of refuge, it is to be observed 
that a mountain amongst the Hebrews was under- 
stood to be the proper place for a house of worship, 
as in Isaiah ii. 3 : " The mountain of the Lord's house 
shall be established in the top of the mountains." 

The bas-relief over which the above inscription 
stands represents the adoration of the relics of Sak- 
YA SiNHA, the last of the mortal Buddhas, who at 
death is supposed to have attained Nirvdn^ or free- 
dom from transmigration. This word is peculiar to 
Buddhism, and is variously explained; but may it not 
be a Hebrew word signifying the state of being fully 
satisfied — ]n')1^[?]. Major Cunningham names the 
scene depicted in the engraving '' The Casket Scene 
in the Palace. '^ " The king, with his family and mi- 
nisters, seated in the foreground to the left. In the 
centre a relic-casket, with two attendants holding the 
chatta [umbrella] and chaori [mace] over it. To the 
left a seated female is beating a drum, and a female 
dancer naked to the waist, with the arms extended be- 
fore her in a peculiar manner still practised in India. 
In the background are two male figures, and one female 
figure with a round cap, similar to those worn by 
the Kashmir women of the present day. To the right 
are numerous figures, all standing; two having their 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 175 

hands joined in adoration appear to be the Raja 
and his minister" (p. 213). 

The figure of a head with a peculiar head-dress 
lying near the relic-basket is overlooked by Major 
Cunningham. The position of the head gives one 
the idea that it was intended to represent the dead 
person to whom the relics belonged. The whole 
scene may be intended to represent the inauguration 
of a statue of Sak^ for the statue erected at the 
northern entrance of this tope is no doubt that of 
the last Buddha. His assimilation to God is ex- 
pressed by the erection of his likeness to be wor- 
shipped. This idea would well agree with the fore- 
going translation of the inscription. The head-dresses 
of most of the figures remind us of the kerchiefs for 
the head (Ezek. xiii. 18), which were charms. The 
traditional head-dress of the Jewish women in the 
East is called chalebi. and consists of balls of linen rao-s 
tightly compressed, over which a shawl is carefully 
wound, just as we see in the engraving.* The bracelets 
and anklets of gold are precisely such as were found 
in the tumuli on the north of the Caucasus described 
by Dr. Clarke in his Travels, and thence we suppose 
these people to have come. As all the faces but that 
of the naked figure are carefully grouped and turned 
towards the spectator, it would appear that they were 
intended to be portraits. Our rough sketch in the 
engraving is but a rude imitation of the original. 
The figure, naked, as if by way of humiliation, is pro- 
bably that of the king, whose face it would not be 
lawful to represent. 

* See Jews in the East, by Dr. Fraakl. 



176 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

Some of the figures in other bas-reliefs are evi- 
dently Scythian or Tartar, particularly the dancing 
women. I regard the whole scene as representing 
individuals of different nations under the dominion 
of the Sakas. 

In respect to the indirect evidence of Israelitish 
origin presented by the Sakai as chiselled on the 
pillars of these Sakai topes, or, as the natives in some 
places call them, Buddha — hitha^ in this place I 
would specify the dress of the soldiersf and the trial 
of the bow. Major Cunningham was so struck with 
the peculiar and picturesque manner in which the 
quiver is fastened to the soldier's back, that he 
was at once reminded of the Psalmist's words con- 
cerning the children of Ephraim, who, being harnessed 
and carrying hows^ turned back in the day of battle. 
(Ps. Ixxviii. 10.) The whole costume resembles that 
of the Scotch Highlanders, the kilt being the marked 
part of their clothing. The ornament on the shields 
of the cavalry and foot is a double cross, the St. 
George's, or sometimes a crescent and two stars. See 
symbols of Buddhism in Chap. X. 

The trial of the supposed founder of Buddhism in 
India, Sakya^ is represented as being a triumphant 
shooting with a bow strung by himself, and which it 
required a thousand persons to bend. The trial 
begins with piercing a horse-hair by shooting at it 
under the obscurity of dense clouds, which can only 
signify subtlety in religious discussion; a relic of 
which accomplishment we seem to have retained in 

* Hebrew — house or temple. 

t As described by Major Cunningham, from the bas-relief of a siege on 
a pillar at Sanchi. (Bhilsa Topes, p. 215.) 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 177 

our habits of hair-splitting. In the Sakian sense the 
bow and arrow are persuasive teaching. The form 
of the bow is precisely that of the Saxons of the 
West. When Sakya's trial was accomplished, the 
Sakya tribes sent their daughters superbly decorated 
to the young prince, with forty thousand dancing and 
singing girls. All this must be figurative of the con- 
quest of Sakya over the opposers of his religion, for 
it is said that, after having pierced seven iron targets 
with his arrow, it reached the mountains of the iron 
girdle and then pierced the earthy and caused a spring 
of water to gush forth. The complete victory is fol- 
lowed by beating of drums and instrumental music, 
when he mounted his horse (his horses are always 
supposed to be white), and returned to his palace. 
The trial of skill is with his brothers Devadatta 
and Nanda ; Nanda typifying Brahminism, or the 
worship of the sacred bull ; and Devadatta^ Davidism 
or Judaism : both which, there is reason to believe, 
opposed the spread of Buddhism in Central India. 
The drums ^ music^ and mounting the white horse 
symbolize religious conquest, the religion itself being 
symbolized by a spring of water supplying wells built 
for the supply of travellers.* 

It is quite a matter of dispute when the Saca era 
began in India ; but the probability is that there was 
more than one such era, the earliest being that of the 
rise of Sakya's religion amongst the Sakya, or Saxon 
tribes, in the sixth century B.C., and the last when 
the Scythian Sakas, or SacaB, came again under the 

* See Fo-kwe-ki, c. xxii. note 7, and Turnour in Prinsep's Journal, vii. 
p. 804. 



178 THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 

dominion of a king of their own, who governed the 
whole of Khorasan, Afghanistan, the Punjab, and 
nearly all India, (b.c. 78.) 

For the present it is enough to prove the existence 
of a Saxon kingdom extending its dominion through 
its religious teachers throughout the East and over 
half mankind. We have sought a peculiar people of 
Saxon name, and found them. We supposed these 
people were known in Assyria and Media as Sakai 
and Buddhii. We supposed them to have gone into 
the north and mingled with the Scythian tribes ; and 
here, in Central India, we find a people precisely of 
the character we seek, under various designations, 
but always bearing the same marks, being peculiar 
alike in religious and secular habits. The Tribes is 
their earliest name. Ptolemy calls them the Noble 
Tribes ; the Buddhist annals acknowledge them as the 
Sakya Tribes, their kingdom is Saka-nika^ and their 
religious dominion is felt from Persia to China, and 
from Ceylon to the centre of Mongolia. They seem 
to belong to the same race as the various tribes of 
Afghans, but are separated from them by the religious 
creed and denomination known as that of the Buddhii 
and the Pali, As Buddhii we looked for them, because 
the term in their tongue we believed to indicate their 
separation ; but the term Pali, as applied to this sepa- 
rated people, is difficult to explain, until we remember 
that in Hebrew the term exactly expresses the fact 
which fixes it upon them ; for, as Buddhii means sepa- 
rated^ so Pali means set apart and peculiar: both 
terms alike indicating how completely these people 
regarded themselves as the chosen. As Buddhii sig- 



THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI. 179 

nifies branches or separate divisions of people, the 
term might at first have been equivalent to tribes ; and 
possibly the term Pali^ or Phali^ was not adopted 
by the Sacae until the Greeks came amongst them ; for 
the Greeks would call the tribes Phyli; which word a 
Hebrew people would adopt in their own sense of it 
—set apart or distinguished — adding, it may be, some 
ennobling designation; and hence perhaps the name 
conferred by Ptolemy on the people who dwelt in or 
near the region now spoken of — the Noble Tribes — 
Aristophyli, Their central land was called Maqadha^ 
which, in Hebrew, means nohle. Their name as a 
whole was Sacae, Sakai, Sassani, or Saxons; a name 
more interesting to us, and the most aristocratic in 
the world. 

At a period perhaps 500 years before our era we 
find these people represented in a bas-relief at the 
entrance to a Biiddha-bitha^ a house of the holy one, 
whose synonyme is Light.* They are here seen in a 
place named after themselves, and in the act of wor- 
shipping the relics of a prophet who came to them in 
their own name ; and over their heads is inscribed 
the record that they owned this man as their moun- 
tain of refuo^e after their wanderinojs from afar, from 
the place of affliction, that is, from Makhe ( HDD), and 
gathered together to hold regular festivals in his 
honour. We will now proceed to consider some of 
the doctrines of Buddhism. 

* A large tope at Sachi is dedicated to the Supreme Buddha as Light. 



n2 



180 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

It is related in the Buddhistic Scriptures of Tibet 
that the doctrines of Adi-Buddha^ the Supreme God 
(^Ad\on]i-Buddha ?), were adopted and taught by Sakya 
in consequence of instructions he received from the 
King of Sambhala^ a fabulous place on the north 
of the Jaxartes,^ This king is said to have visited 
Sakya at Cuttack, in Orissa. This tradition is pro- 
bably founded on the fact that Sakya derived his doc- 
trines from the Sacas ; some tribes of whom, at the 
first promulgation of Sakya's Buddhism, certainly 
dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Jaxartes, for that 
river arises in the land of those Sacae who arrested 
the progress of Alexander's army in that direction. 
It appears that the future coming of the Lord of the 
world, who, destroying the serpent, should bring peace, 
and who should spring from the Sakian race, was the 
doctrine especially connected with the name of Adi- 
Buddha^ whom Buddhists now regard as the Intel- 
lectual Being (or Essence) by whom all things were 
created. This is but another form of the Hebrew 
prophecy handed down from the first man, concern- 
ing the coming of a Divine Man who should trample 
on the serpent's head and restore man to his lost 

* See Csoma de Koros' Tibetan Grammar. 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 181 

Paradise. As this prophecy advanced towards fulfil- 
ment the intimations concerning the Messiah's cha- 
racter and advent became more and more distinct, as 
portrayed in the language of inspiration; but the 
very calling of Abraham as the father and founder 
of the families and the hopes of Israel, was immedi- 
ately connected with the promise of that Son of Man 
of whom Isaac was the type ; and so from the day 
that Abraham's faith foresaw the coming of Messiah 
as the conqueror of Death, the word was spread 
abroad by his people that the promised Saviour should 
spring from the seed of Isaac. Here, then, we see the 
connexion between the predicted Messiah and Sakya's 
announcement of the future coming of the Lord of 
the world, springing from the Sakian race and bearing 
in his hand the symbol of his creative and protecting 
power in the restoration of man to Paradise. The 
unopened lotus, so frequently seen in Buddhistic 
temples and even in the hand of Godama himself, 
points to this final Buddha as foretold by Godama 
the present one. As stated in our Introduction, the 
lotus was held, even by the Egyptians, as an emblem 
of the Divine power protecting man. Hence we see 
that in the celebrated Zodiac on the ceiling of the 
temple of Tentyris, the Virgin Mother appears sus- 
tained by a lotus. The Buddhists of China have the 
same symbol, and the title of the Queen of Heaven is 
applied almost with as much devotion as if it were 
adopted from the creed of Rome. The opening 
flower, together with the fruit of the pomegranate, 
like the knops and flowers in the tabernacle (Ex. 
xxxvii. 19, &c.), and in the cedar mouldings of Solo- 



182 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

mon's temple (1 Kings vi. 18), were symbols of the 
nation in respect to the promises amongst the early- 
Buddhists as amongst the Israelites. The moulding 
of the fresco representing the Buddhas springing from 
the lotus in the cave-temple of Ajanta, has precisely 

this form of " knops and flowers," 
the flowers being lotuses, or lilies,* 
thus. And, as if to show the all- 
embracing and purifying brother- 
hood of the Divine Man, the Ethiopian, or negro, 
is also here seen standing on the lotus, and covered 
with an ample white robe, and having a glory round 
his woolly head ; a lesson which the Western Saxons 
are but slowly learning.f Buddha himself is also fre- 
quently represented as a negro. 

"We must not forget the probability that Sakya 
himself was of the Sacian, or Saxon race, though, per- 
haps, he had been separated from his people, or per- 
tained to a tribe that was the first to penetrate into 
India, and encounter the pride and cruelty of caste 
with ideas derived from the knowledge of a law that 
declared all men equal in the sight of their Maker, 
and required the neighbour to be loved as oneself. 
The Sacian strangers that poured into Orissa from the 
north and the west were sojourners with the Ethio- 
pians of Indu-Cush, but they were no barbarians, for 
they brought with them a religion vastly superior to 
that prevailing through India. The doctrines of Sakya 
were a refinement upon the worship of the elements, 
Paramath, and the hosts of heaven, to which the 
Persians and some of the corrupted Israelites are 

* See Bird's Historical Researches, plate 20. 
f Idem, plate 3. 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 183 

known to have been addicted; neither did Sakya 
honour the hereditary priesthood of the Brahmins, 
who, as we learn from the Vedas, sacrificed animals in 
a manner not unlike that of the Hebrews. Neither did 
he sympathize with their opponents, the Swastikas^ 
who promised man nothing but annihilation at last. 
But he blended the Brahminical notion of the trans- 
migration of souls and ultimate immortality with the 
idea that the spirit's return to Him who gave it, or 
union with God, was the highest state of man. Thus 
he reconciled the creed of the rationalistic fatalists, 
who said "so be it," with a morality that forbade 
atheistic indifi*erence, while it encouraged the sup- 
pression of merely selfish desires as alike inconsistent 
with the good of society and the souFs final emanci- 
pation from sin and suflFering. I will not repeat 
what, on doubtful authority and contradictory record, 
has been stated concerning the faith of Sakya, as 
I hope to quote his creed from the rock-records of the 
period immediately succeeding that of his teaching. 
It will be interesting to observe the similarity be- 
tween some of the doctrines of Buddha and those of 
Anaxagoras and Pythagoras; a similarity that has 
been skilfully pointed out by Major Cunningham,* 
and for which the intimacy of the Greeks with the 
seat of Buddhism at an early period will sufficiently 
account. The point of especial interest is the fact 
that Sakya becomes a real anti-Christ, or substitute 
for Christ, verily representing himself as God, and 
continuing to sit permanently in God's temple as the 
only object of worship. 

* Bhilsa Topes, p. 33. 



184 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

Of course, amidst so many elements of religious 
discord as must have existed amongst converts from 
all varieties of creed in India, dissension rapidly 
sprung up after the decease of the authoritative 
teacher whose inspiration was devoutly believed by 
all his disciples. The man who, during forty years' 
preaching, had overturned many tyrannies — inculcated 
charity and chastity where both had been unknown — 
declared perfect equality between high caste and low, 
and founded hospitals for the halt, the blind, and the 
destitute, placing a trained physician at stated inter- 
vals, for the help of the afflicted, along the highways — 
who had sent out his missionaries, fired with his own 
zeal and enlightened by his intelligence, to teach 
kindness everywhere, and the performance of a 
thoughtful devotion as the means of delivering the 
soul from evil — the man that had raised woman to her 
right place, at the side and in the heart of man — the 
man that had not only erected a new system of reli- 
gion upon thought concerning the perishable and the 
everlasting, but also thus promoted and enforced the 
highest moral reform known in the world before 
Christianity appeared — the man that had remodelled 
the language as well as the ideas of the people over 
whom he reigned by directing the compilation of 
new Sanskrit and Pali grammars* — the man qualified 
to accomplish such things was a man likely to be 
missed ; and not one amongst his chief disciples was 
likely to be better fitted to fill his throne than were 
any of the Seleucidae to succeed Alexander the Great. 
His doctrines were not, like Mahomet^s, to be carried 

* Probably with a view to the incorporation of Hebrew in a Pali form. 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 185 

out b}' presenting the sword in one hand and a Koran 
in the other; but by inviting both man and woman 
equally to consider the best use and highest end of 
this life. His successors needed mind, and they had 
it; but they also needed unity, and had it not. The 
rule of many minds, instead of that of the one master 
mind, soon followed; and by and bye sjmods were 
invented as a substitute for the centralization of a 
will and a purpose; but this invention was but a 
feeble substitute. Three exti^ordinary assemblies of 
this kind were summoned under the auspices of the 
learned fraternities that continued heartily to propa- 
gate the doctrines of Godama. We will not go into 
the consideration of all their discussions about what 
was allowable, or what not, but at once run on to 
the year 270 B.C., when Asoka^ formerly surnamed 
the Furious^ but, since conversion to Buddhism, 
known as the Pious^ began to perceive the necessity 
of clearing his country of heretical sects. Alas, eight 
sects were found amongst the monkish priests alone, 
and sixty thousand of them were stripped of their 
gowns. Here, by way of note, it is worthy of remark 
that this Asoka, King of Magadha, is said, in the 
annals of Cashmir (of very early date), to have been 
converted to the religion of the Sakai, or Saks; so 
that it was then understood that the Sacas, who over- 
ran the land, were all Buddhists. Asoka was assisted 
by a thousand Arhats, or religious counsellors, who 
assembled with him at Pataliputra; and who, when 
they had disposed of the heretics, sat for nine months 
rehearsing the doctrines and praises of Sakya-Godama ; 
and then, at the conclusion of the synod, sent out 



186 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA BUDDHA. 

a number of authentic teachers to the folio win of 
countries: — 1. Cashmir and Peshdwar. 2. The 
country about the Narbada. 3. Mewar and Bundi. 
4. Northern Sind.* 5. The Maharatta country. 6. 
The Greek province of Cabul, Arachosia. 7. The 
country of the Himdlayas. 8. Ava, or Siam — that 
is, the golden land, Aurea Regio^ or the Aurea Cher- 
sonesus, 9. Lanka^ or Ceylon. The narrative of 
these missions is preserved entire in the Singalese 
sacred books Dipawanso and Mahawanso, • 

I have referred to these missions to show that 
Cabul Proper, and that part of the Punjab which we 
have supposed the Sacas to have occupied, had no 
occasion for missionaries, being, as we may infer, 
already Buddhists, and that because they were Sacae. 
As we may have reason to recur to Asoka, some of 
the incidents of his zeal may not be uninteresting in 
this place, as elucidating the doctrines of Sakya and 
their origin. When first Sakya introduced his 
novelties of doctrine and modes of worship he was 
stoutly resisted by the adherents to the old form of 
things, and especially by the priests. But such a 
man was not to be put down; he knew his mission. 
What was it to him that the Dewadatha and his 
kindred disapproved? In courtesy he acknowledged 
their good intentions, but begged to convince them 
that the claims of Heaven were superior to theirs. 
Had he not seen angels, and talked with the dead, 
who bade him remodel the world's ideas like a re- 
former self-reformed? Had it not been written on 
the tables of his heart that the scholar must sacrifice 

* The missionary here was a G.-eek, 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 187 

himself and expiate his errors with his bodily life? 
He was ready to suffer anything in defence of the 
faith he was called to preach, and so he defied all 
opposers, and so he conquered them. Nevertheless, 
there was division ; and Sakya, though he defied the 
sorceries of the Turs and the fire-worshippers, could 
not suppress the schisms amongst those who pro- 
fessed to be his followers.* It is true he as- 
sumed authority in consequence of direct inspi- 
ration; for, as he told his disciples, a thousand 
lights had been kindled by his angel upon his body 
to purify him from his former sins, and the doctrines 
of truth had been written on his own body with a 
pen formed out of his own bones, and dipped in his 
own blood instead of ink. They accepted all this, 
and many volumes of experiences besides; but still 
they held their own opinion about forms and cere- 
monies, if not about faith and acceptance. It is 
evident that they appealed to pre-existing usages and 
written authorities preceding the new assumption, 
and endeavoured to reconcile their belief in Sakya's 
calling with the truth of former prophets. During 
Sakya's life his authority checked divisions ; but after 
his death disputes speedily spread discord in Magadha, 
where the new Buddhism was first set up. The earlier 
divisions were settled by synods, and within a century 
after Sakya's death two remarkable synods were held, in 
both of which the written laws in relation to religious 
usages and assemblies were appealed to, and the 
schismatics judged accordingly. The English reader 

* The Turs, or Turi, were a sort of wandering friars, so called evidently 
from ''"11/1, signifying those who go about to spy out a country. 



188 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

would be struck with the resemblance which the 
synod bears to that of a trial by jury, in which we 
have the hearing of both parties in reply to questions, 
the retirement of the jury to consider their verdict, 
and the sentence of the judge according to law;* a 
mode of proceeding vastly different from the usual 
judicature of the East. On a future occasion, when 
the dissentients became too numerous to be dealt 
with by synod, a readier mode was adopted. Such 
was the state of things in the commencement of the 
reign of Asoha. (274 B.C.) He was surnamed the 
Furious ; and when he was converted to Buddhism, 
he carried his fury into his religion, and in four 
years compelled "the whole of Northern India, from 
the mountains of Kashmir to the banks of the 
Narbadda, and from the mouths of the Indus to the 
Bay of Bengal," to receive his own views. The 
schism then seems to have been settled by the pre- 
dominant party appealing to the king, who, of course, 
employed his only authority, that of the sword, and, 
as usual, effectually proved where the heresy lay, by 
threatening, like other defenders of the faith, death 
to all who did not believe as he did. The orthodox 
receivers of the new religion were so strict in their 
ideas that they contended that acceptable worship 
could only be offered up by ordained men, or ap- 
pointed priests, and that only in places especially 
consecrated for the purpose. The higher order of 
priests in the kingdom of Asoka were also so strict 
that they deemed it a sin of the first magnitude to 
worship in the company of any that did not submit 

* See Major Cunningham's account, Bhilsa Topes, p. 77. 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 189 

in all things to their orders. Hence it happened 
that, since they could not obtain consecrated places, 
nor contrive to exclude from their assemblies all 
doubtful characters, they had resolved to confine all 
the benefits of worship to themselves and the few 
introduced to their private assemblies by the ob- 
servance of especial and purifying rites. In this 
exclusiveness they persisted for seven years, when 
the king Asoha^ being scandalized that public wor- 
ship should have been suppressed for so long a period 
by these sanctimonious priests, resolved to put an 
end to their exclusiveness, and sent his chief minister 
to persuade them to submission as best he might. 
This led to a fine scene. The heads of the establish- 
ment, or monastery, a school of the prophets, in which 
these rigid priests were congregated, refused to sub- 
mit to the dictation of the king. They would not 
come forth from their convent to conduct public 
worship in places where heretics of all kinds were 
admitted. Thereupon the king's minister ordered 
several of them to be beheaded on the spot, in the 
order in which they sat at worship. The king^s 
brother was among the recusants, and he placed him- 
self on the seat to which the executioner first came, 
and held out his head for decapitation. This was a 
martyrdom not expected and not to be desired. The 
king was referred to; but, instead of following out his 
own orders, he saw that he had proceeded already too 
far; he therefore humbled himself, and begged ab- 
solution from the holy brotherhood. Thereupon a 
convocation was commanded, and the Buddhist 
church was forthwith purified by the expulsion of 



190 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

60,000 heretical priests ! So says the record ! Now, 
what was their heresy? It appears that there were 
adherents to the old written laws amongst them. 
These appear to have been mixed with fire-wor> 
shippers ; in short, the circumstances altogether seem 
to indicate that they were Hebrews somewhat cor- 
rupted by association with the Magi of Persia, and 
willing to connive at certain accommodations to the 
heathenish taste of those about them for the sake of 
maintaining their influence. They were, however, 
unwilling or unable to observe the severe discipline 
which Sakya-Sinha, or -Godama, had imposed on 
them, or perhaps they conscientiously adhered to 
older ideas. But the main dispute was concerning 
the propriety of continuing to sacrifice animals. The 
Buddhic religion, as propounded by Sakya, forbade 
the shedding of blood; but the religion of Sakya's 
kinsmen, and, therefore, probably the religion whicli 
Sakya himself professed before he became inspired 
with his new ideas, required that clean animals 
should be offered up as an atonement for sin. These 
Turs also admitted outer-court worshippers. Another 
point of contention was concerning vestments, as 
we learn, from the annals of Buddhism, that the 
priests that were expelled were clothed in white 
garments, which were prescribed for sacrificing 
priests under the Mosaic law. Whether these vest- 
ments were adopted by themselves or forced upon 
them amounts to the same thing, they were insisted 
on as the proper habiliments of those who sacrificed 
animal life. 

The new doctrines of Buddha were evidently de- 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 191 

livered as a refinement of the old system, whatever 
that was. Sakya had declared that God did not 
demand atonement by the shedding of blood as the 
sign of yielding up of life to his service, but he 
demanded self-dedication. Thus men addict them- 
selves to conceits until no longer perceiving any truth 
in the words of Heaven. The laws of their own folly 
thus supersede the laws of eternal wisdom, and, in- 
stead of a gospel, or God's news, concerning a salva- 
tion perfected, they produce a prescription of rugged 
incongruities by following which some sort of Heaven 
may perchance be gained, if, indeed, it be worth the 
trouble. Thus it was with the inventor of Buddhism. 
He substituted his own ten laws for the ten laws of 
Moses. He takes hold of all the first elements of 
morality indeed, and therefore his commandments 
are so far good ; that is, they are so far like God's laws. 
He says: — 1. Do not kill. 2. Do not steal. 3. Do 
not commit impurity. 4. Do not bear false witness. 
5. Do not lie. 6. Do not swear. 7. Shun scandal. 
8. Do not covet. 9. Seek not revenge. 10. Be not 
bigoted. These laws are the foundation of the reli- 
gion taught by the inventor of Buddhism,* and many 
nominal Christians would be the better for observinsr 
them. They commend themselves to the conscience, 
but all reference to the love of God as the Creator is 
avoided. Sakya, indeed, was not an idolater; he 
worshipped one supreme God, and exhorted others to 
do the same ; but his system necessarily led to idolatry 
in consequence of the manner in which the attributes 
of Divinity were figuratively associated by him with 

* Klaproth's Leben des Buddha. 



192 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

their manifestations in created things. The Divine 
authority is overlooked, or only implied, and his own 
authority, on the ground of a new revelation, is substi- 
tuted and enforced. The devotion of the life to God, 
as the Author of life, in gratitude, and the thorough 
yielding of the mind, heart, and soul in love to Him 
because of his infinite goodness, is not in his practice 
overlooked ; but then the whole economy of salvation 
from sin is founded on mercy alone, and yet, with an 
inconsistency by no means uncommon, that mercy is 
said to be secured by horrible penances and by re- 
fusing to enjoy the riches of God's providence. In 
the Pali work, styled Oossathaka Lankara, or Orna- 
ment of the Devout, Gaudama, or Gotama, also called 
Sakya, is represented as undergoing, for forty-nine 
days, the impregnation that rendered him a Boodh, 
each change, or advancement towards perfection, oc- 
cupying seven ;* that is to say, he was engaged in his 
spiritual struggle for regeneration during a week of 
weeks — a very Hebraic mode of expressing the com- 
pleteness of his endeavour after holiness. The cor- 
ruption of human nature is implied in the fact that 
Sakya, though tracing his origin to the kingdom of 
God, owns that he derived a sinful disposition through 
his birth from an earthly mother. After a long series 
of trials, and after having sought diligently the means 
of living in obedience to the laws of God, and in har- 
mony with nature and mankind, he is enabled to 
apprehend and appreciate the ten first laws of mo- 
rality. He then perceives that the death due to 
sinners is vaster than all the planetary worlds, and 

* See Bengal As. Journal, vol. xiii. p. 573. 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 193 

that sin is not to be atoned for by any abundance of 
bloodshedding, even though it should fill the channels 
of all the rivers and all the seas. Enlightened, as he 
says, by the teaching Spirit, he informs us that he at 
length obtained a knowledge of his wickedness, and 
abhorred himself.* But, unhappily, together with 
this awful Job-like apprehension of the heinousness of 
sin, he does not, like Job, obtain a just conception of 
the Divine character. He repents, indeed, in dust 
and ashes ; but he seems never to get out of the dust 
and ashes until his metamorphosis in death, the 
death he sought being the annihilation of desires. 
He entreats the instructing Spirit to submit him to 
every proof by which the sincerity of his repentance 
may be tested, he pleads his having forsaken his king- 
dom and his throne in evidence of the strength of his 
convictions; but, in order to avert the consequences of 
his former sins, under a consciousness of which he 
was labouring in despair, he begs to be tortured suffi- 
ciently. Thus, on his entreaty, his teacher laid him 
down and covered his body with lighted tapers. 
This, however, he found was not sufficient for his 
purification, and all he learnt from the process was, 
he tells us, summed up in these four sentences ; — 

" All treasures must be emptied. 
All loftiness must fall. 
All earthly union must be broken. 
All that lives must die." 

We cannot but perceive a profound idea in these 
sentences. They seem to teach the insufficiency of 
all sacrifice to make atonement for sin; and that, 

* " UUigerim Dalai," quoted by Klaproth in Asia Poljglotta. 

O 



194 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

in order to be restored to purity and heaven, it is 
first of all essential that a man should be emptied of 
all self-reliance, all pride, all earthly attachment, all 
love of this life merely for its own sake. It appears 
that this degree of knowledge only augmented his 
avidity for holy doctrine, so that, day and night, he 
could not rest. He was saved from despair only by 
understanding the necessity of renouncing all he 
valued in this life for the sake of a higher life ; but 
still he thought to expiate his offences by sufi'ering, 
and therefore, in vision, he thought himself pierced 
as by a thousand nails, under the hand of his angel 
guide. The result of this process was a new amount 
of conviction, expressed in these words : — 

" The visible must perish, 
And all things born must mourn. 
Faith has a kingdom yet unseen; 
The real is in the mind." 

Still, not satisfied, he entreats for further light, and, 
in order to this, it appears necessary that he should 
be subjected to deeper sufi'ering still, and then, with 
the poetry of a true seer, he seems to enter into a 
heated furnace, the flames of which reach up to 
heaven, but in which the angelic instructor still 
attends to teach him wisdom, while, to soothe his 
sufifering, the refreshing dew of flowers is shed over 
him from the hands of a thousand angels. Hence he 
learns these sentences : — 

" The strength of mercy is firmer than a rock. 
Faith in unbounded mercy is the rule. 
The path to holiness, the way to heaven.*' 

There is something beautiful in this, and, as a Chris- 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 195 

tian sees, it is true. Truth and beauty are really 
one, and hence " a thing of beauty is a joy for ever." 
So Sakya says he was perfectly possessed by this idea 
of infinite mercy, and that it filled him with unutter- 
able joy. He went forth inspired by this thought, 
and it is no wonder his eloquence prevailed with 
kinoes and heroes and all that suflfered with a strong 
will. 

His lips were touched with holy fire, and at his 
words Magi and Brahmins, and Shiva and the Sun- 
gods began to disappear. He preached repentance, 
pardon, self-negation, and regeneration ; in dark say- 
ings truly, but with faith in the Spirit of Mercy ; and 
hence, his doctrines meeting in some measure the 
wants of man's soul, his disciples grew by millions. 
Now, where can we discover any source from whence 
such a conception of mercy as the essential perfection 
of Divinity could be derived but in the Hebrew Bible ? 
It was in reflection on the three epochs of religion 
which had preceded him, and after he had meditated 
on the ten commandments first given unto men, and 
on the ways of God to man, that Sakya obtained his 
doctrines. This is stated as his own account of the 
matter. But when we add that Sakya's baptism of 
sufi^ering was represented by himself very nearly in 
the words of Isaiah, as the means by which he was 
qualified to bear the sins and carry the sorrows of 
others, so as to heal them by his stripes while he 
bore the government on his shoulders, the source of 
his ideas can scarcely be doubted. The ancient 
Buddhistic creed is probably concealed in a great 
degree by the comments and expositions of compara- 

o2 



196 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

tively modern Buddhistic writers ; but, if we carefully 
examine the Buddhist coins and medals that have 
been preserved, we shall, with the help of the learned 
explanations afforded us by Palic scholars, discover 
much of its mystery. Thus, with a drawing of a 
Buddhist medal now before us (see plate), we may 
learn several particulars of great interest. Fig. 1, «, 
represents a tsedya, or small pagoda (tl'^n^ [?])> 
in which are supposed to be deposited some 
sacred relic, with the volumes of the sacred law 
called " Tdra." This object is usually seen in Bud- 
dhist coins. The rolls of the law were deposited, with 
sacred relics also, in the ark of the Israelites. It 
appears the more remarkable from the fact that the 
sacred law is named " Tara," and that this law is 
represented by ten upright glyphs, rolls, or pillars. 
The law contained in the two tables of Moses has 
also this name, in Hebrew, Torah ; and it also consists 
of ten divisions, which some of the Rabbi regard 
as consisting of three orders of commandments, 
divided, as in this case, three, three, and four. On 
either side of the recess, or ark, in which the law is 
deposited, the head of a cobra capella erects itself. 
Here we recognise the serpent as represented on 
Egyptian monuments in connexion with the tree of 
life. We know that all Semitic nations at least 
associate the serpent with the introduction of sin. 
Would not this signify that the temptation ever 
stands beside the law, and that the law is given, 
as St. Paul says, because of transgression, but that 
the fulfilment of it is life. Above the law the sun 
and moon are seen, representing the heavenly souroes 



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THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 197 

of light and intelligence ruling the day and the night. 
On the left side of the law we have the triglyph, the 
usual emblem of the Buddhist Triad, representing 
the embodiment of the Divine nature in the Buddha; 
that is to say, the manifestation of God in Buddha, 
in the law, and in the congregation ; or, as we say, 
the manifestation of God in Messiah, in the law, and 
in the Church. When these are joined together to 
represent the essential attributes in Trinity, called 
Thdrdnd Goon^ the triglyph is united into the form of 
a trident, the summit being crowned with the ancient 
symbol of Deity, consisting of three yods^ and being 
the letter T, J, or Y of the ancient Palic alphabet. 
This, as before stated, was the emblem of the Supreme 
amongst the ancient Hebrews, and is equivalent to 
the same symbol in Hieratic Egyptian and Coptic, 
implying potentiality. In Arabic, the word Allah^ 
God, is also expressed by three upright strokes united 
at the base. At the lower part the united triglyph 
rests upon a cross, or swastika. The cross is a 
favourite device with the Buddhas, and, when stand- 
ing alone, it resembles that of the Manicheans, and is 
placed on a kind of Calvary, as among the Roman 
Catholics. It simifies the tree of life and knowledofe, 
putting forth leaves, flowers, and fruits, and, being 
placed in the terrestrial Paradise, it is there productive 
of all that is good and desirable.* Thus, the essential 
attributes of the Trinity are represented in the form 
of a trident, having the emblem of Deity on its summit 
and the cross at its base ; the Divine Manhood, the 
law, and the Church, being united into one between 

* See As. Res. vol. x. p. 123. 



198 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDiDHA. 

the cross as the tree of life, and the Godhead above 
all, and through all. The other parts of this emble- 
matic medal are equally expressive. Thus we have on 
the obverse (Fig. 2) the architectural symbols re- 
presenting the handiwork of the Great Architect or 
Geometrician of the universe. The two symbols 
united represent the letters P and M, meaning their 
law. They are surrounded by the twenty-eight cha- 
racteristics of the Maha-gahba — the grand period 
(Heb.), of which this present world (dispensation [?]) 
is the last number ; but the whole period is itself repre- 
sented by the five Boodhs, or embodiments of Deity, 
placed above these emblems of creative power. The 
circumstances altogether clearly indicate the Israel- 
itish origin of this earliest form of Buddhism. The 
three epochs of religion are indicated in the Hebrew 
Bible — the early patriarchal, the Abrahamic, the 
Mosaic; and mercy was the essential quality of each 
advance in revelation, from the first promise to the 
penitents in Eden, until Moses summed up the law as 
love to God and our neighbour — to God as Himself 
the perfect One, and to man, as God's image; the 
coming of the Saviour-God, born of woman, being 
associated with all the epochs, as it was also with 
those of Sakya. 

It should be remembered that Buddhism as it now 
exists in India, Ceylon, and the Indo-Chinese terri- 
tories, does not fairly represent that form of it which 
originated with Sakya. It has been corrupted by 
various pagan additions, and has assumed shapes ac- 
cording to the idolatries it has encountered, until at 
length but little of the original creed appears in its 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 199 

pure form. For instance, the celibacy of the priests 
of Buddha is now universal, and yet, according to 
their own records, it appears that Sakya himself was 
married tmce, and that he gave his disciples precepts 
concerning the qualities which should determine their 
choice of a wife.* Most of the countries professing 
Buddhism have corrupted the doctrines of Godama- 
Buddha; but still the complete equality of men and 
women has been produced by Buddhism in Burmah 
and Siam ; and Father Bigaudetf says that " women 
are in those countries really the companions, and not 
the slaves of the men ; a high proof of its civilizing 
tendency, notwithstanding its absurdities." Though 
Burmah has been forced into war with us, yet the 
priests protested against the war, as contrary to the 
doctrines of Godama. The pure Buddhists repudiate 
war and all bloodshed — their doctrine is non-resist- 
ance and submission; they also declare against the 
folly and pride of caste, and while preaching the ne- 
cessity of yielding to law, assert the equality of all 
mankind as subject alike to sin and ruin, and alike to 
be elevated only by truth and benevolence. 

It is curious that this new religion introduced from 
the north-west into the furthest borders of India 
should have led even the priests of the ghastly Jagan- 
nath to put something like a spiritual construction 
upon their hideous worship. They say, " Hear, now, 
the truth of the Darn Avatdr. [An Avatar is a new 
manifestation of the Deity.] What part of the uni- 
verse does not the Divine Spirit pervade? He sports 

* Vide Lalita Vistara, chap. xii. 
t Quoted by Sir J. Bowring. 



200 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

in different forms. In the heaven of Brahma he is 
Brahma ; in the upper world he is Indra ; on earth he 
is found in all the Khetris, here in one shape, there in 
another/* The Brahmins say the Sri Yeo^ the Holy 
Spirit, is worshipped by them at Arka, in Kanarah.* 
They are very accommodating, and, like pantheists 
everywhere, philosophically contrive to countenance 
all forms of idolatry, by allowing every one to dress 
up any deformity of his own mind and worship it at 
his liking, provided he declares himself moved by a 
Sri Yeo. This reference to a Darn Avatar reminds 
us of the decree addressed by Nebuchadnezzar the 
king unto all people, and nations, and languages 
(Dan. iv.), and which for a time probably modified 
and restrained idolatrous ideas in all the East, as far 
as the Indus at least, and thus far fulfilled the pur- 
pose for which that strange king was raised up by 
Providence, namely, to tell all men that there is a 
" Most High, a King of heaven, all whose works are 
truth, and his ways judgment." (Dan. iv. 37.) 

It may not be uninteresting, nor without advantage 
to our argument, here to introduce a brief notice of 
the oldest mythological compositions extant in India 
— those marvellous poems, the Purdnds, the Mahaba- 
rata and the Ramayana. From these works we 
obtain the earliest notice to be found of the ancient 
history of India, especially in relation to the 
struggles of religious systems. The writers affect 
to relate circumstances as occurring at immensely 
ancient periods; but it is evident that this air of 
extreme antiquity is only assumed for the sake of 

* Asiat. Res. vol. xv. p. 318, &c. 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 201 

adding a venerable mystery to the stirring incidents 
and grandeur of the scenes depicted. The style of 
composition proves these works to be of comparatively 
modern production, and can scarcely be referred to 
any period much anterior to the Christian era. 

The Ramayana^ as shadowing forth the remotest 
known conditions of the two typical stocks and 
national religions of India, is most to our present 
purpose. It is written after the Homeric manner, 
and betrays many indications that mingled Greek and 
Hebrew ideas pervaded the minds of the writers. 
The subject is the hero divinity of the first dynasty 
of the kings of Oude^ which arose before any other of 
the sovereignties of India were conquered by the 
bearded race. The countries and races with whom 
this hero carried on a successful warfare are per- 
sonified as giants. Rama is the name of this hero. 
The point most worthy of remark is, that he is stated 
to be the son of Buddha and the grandson of Meru. 
Now, as the whole story personifies nations or people 
as individuals, we must understand Rama to mean a 
people — that is to say, an exalted nation. What, then, 
is signified by this nation being the ofi*spring of 
Buddha and Meru? Buddha means separated, and 
Meru his rebellion, that is to say, that the nation 
mentioned became exalted in consequence of a sepa- 
ration that arose from rebellion. The original abode 
of this Rama agrees well with this derivation, for it 
is stated that he dwelt at first in the holy mountains 
of the West. Another hero, or nation, is associated 
with Rama^ denominated Bali-Rama (high lord), who 
is represented as the oflFspring of Des-Aratha (the 



202 THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

country of Armenia). This hero crosses the Indus 
and Punjab with a large army, distinguished by the 
names of wild beasts, probably their ensigns ; and he 
founds a kingdom in AyodKya^ now known as Oude. 
Ay'odh^ya, as Hebrew, would mean " the praising of 
God." It would be highly interesting if it could be 
shown that the people of Oude, with whom we have had 
so deadly a quarrel, are of Jewish origin, inheriting 
the treachery of Judah. This hero, Bali- Rama, with 
his brother, Krisma, an Indian ally, vanquishes Java 
Saudha^ King of Bahar, and afterwards goes forth to 
conquer other countries, and wars with giants in 
Ceylon. This war of races and religions is termi- 
nated by the return of the conqueror to Ayodhya^ 
where he reigns in piety and peace. This country 
was at one time the centre of Buddhism. 

In the Mahaharata Ave find mythological circum- 
stances parallel with those of Egypt, Greece, and 
Rome, and the warfare is between the tribes who ad« 
here to the Arkite lunar doctrine, and those who wor- 
ship the sun. By the former, the moon is adored as 
a representative of the ark, in which the parents of 
a new world were preserved from the deluge. In 
some of the mythical tales we find conflicts deli- 
neated with the extravagance of Eastern romance, in 
which the tribes of Yadhu (n"* his hand [ ?]) are broken 
and scattered. They are described as departing with 
Ardjoon ( ]V1'ltk fugitives — 1 Chron. viii. 3 ) to 
unknown regions. In other descriptions the Ashurs 
(people from Assyria [ ?] ) are spoken of as an eminently 
religious and virtuous people until, being induced to 
adopt the new tenets of Buddha, as more humane, 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 203 

and forsaking those of their old books, they are said 
to fall away from the true religion. 

These Ashurs may be the same as the Hasaures^ or 
Asii^ of Indo-German history ; and if so, they are pro- 
bably identical with the Sacce. However that may 
be, the period of their first appearance in India is 
tolerably well marked, since they are said to have 
adopted Buddhism in its earliest establishment. It 
is worthy of remark that these Ashurs are described 
as the sons or people of Kasyapa^ a name similar to 
that of the country to which Ezra sent for ministers 
for the house of God, on the return of the Jews to 
Judea (Ezra viii. 17). Kasyapa is identified with 
Cashmir by Orientalists. May not this name be traced 
back to the Caucasus? Diodorus Siculus informs 
us that the Scythians transplanted a Median colony 
into Sarmatia ; this was in the seventh century B.C., ac- 
cording to Klaproth. In the year 948 a.d. remains of 
these Median colonists of Sarmatia lived on the nor- 
thern side of the Caucasus and north of Kasachia' 
These people called themselves As and Ashurs. They 
are also associated with Kasog, Kasacks, or Cossacks 
(all Sacae), in the Russian chronicles. The descend- 
ants of those colonists now existing in the Caucasus 
speak an Arian dialect, though surrounded by people 
of a far different language.* Were not these Medians 
Asheri, or people of the tribe of Asher, who accom- 
panied the Scythians into the country of the Massa- 
getae, when they were expelled from Media? 

In addition to these observations on the doctrines 
of Buddhism, we remark that indications of Hebrew 

* See Miiller on the Languages, &c., p. 35. 



204 THE DOCTRINES OP SAKYA-BUDDHA. 

influence on India appear in the following circum- 
stances: 1. The laws of Menu strikingly resemble 
those of Moses. 2. When the people of Ceylon were 
subdued by Buddhist invaders, they were forced, like 
the Israelites, to make bricks for their masters. 3. 
When the Great Dagoba, the Euanwelle^ at Anaraja- 
poora^ was built ( B.C. 161), the materials were pre- 
pared at a distance, as in the building of Solomon's 
temple. (Mahawanso, xxvii.) 4. The parting of the 
Red Sea has its counterpart in the exploit of the king 
Gaja Bahu (a.d. 109); who, in bringing back the 
Singalese from captivity in Sollee, smote the waters 
of the sea, so that he and his army marched through 
without wetting the soles of their feet. (Rajaratna- 
cari^ p. 50.) 5. King Maba Sen (a.d. 275) received 
his mantle from Heaven, and Buddha, in designating 
his successor, is said to have transmitted his robe, as 
Elijah did to Elisha. (Eajavali^ p. 238.) 6. When the 
Singalese king was dying, a car, descending from the 
sky, received his spirit; reminding us of Elijah's 
translation. 7. Constant allusion is made to the 
practice of kings washing the feet of priests and 
anointing them with oil. {Mahawanso^ chap, xxv.- 
XXX.) 8. In consonance with the Hebrew doctrine, 
the sins of the fathers are said to have been visited 
on their children. {Rajavali^ pp. 174-178). 9. The 
story of Bel and the Dragon has a close resemblance 
to that of King Batiya Tissa, who by a secret passage 
entered the Ruanwelle Dagoba. 10. The inextin- 
guishable fire on the altar of God (Lev. vi. 13) is 
like the perpetually-burning lamp in honour of 
Buddha. 11. The preparation of the high road for 



THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA. 205 

the procession of the Bo-tree, and the march of the 
king, reminds us of Isai. xl. 3. 12. The prophecy of 
the kingdom of peace by Isaiah, in which the dif- 
ferent animals (peoples) repose together, resembles 
the state of things predicted to arise under the 
religion of Buddha. (Mahaicanso, v. 22.) 13. The 
judgment of Solomon has its parallel in a story in 
the PansyiapanaS'jataha,^ 

* See Tennent's Cejlon, vol. i. p. 525 ; and Roberts's Illustrations. 



206 



CHAPTER X. 

BUDDHISTIC SYIVIBOLS: THEIH ORIGIN AND 
SIGNIFICANCE. 

A FEW observations on certain points in the rise of 
the Sacian Buddhism, and on the nature of the sym- 
bols most reverenced by the learned devotees of that 
religion, will prepare us the better to interpret the 
ancient Buddhistic inscriptions, and to demonstrate 
their origin. 

It is possible that, although Sakya, the supposed 
founder of modern Buddhism, be a real personage, 
yet the incidents of his early life might afford ground 
for a mythical storj^, expressive of circumstances in 
relation to the people whom he represented ; at least, 
much that is written concerning him may be made to 
resolve itself into a history of the rise and progress 
of the Buddhistic religion, or of the people who pro- 
fessed it. The name Sakya, or Sachia, is Hebrew 
noti^, and it appears amongst the Benjamite " heads 
of the fathers " in 1 Chron. viii. 10. Our lexicons 
give it as if derived from a word that signifies '* to 
wander;" but it may mean repose in the sense of ces- 
sation, rest as arrest, and so may approximate closely 
to the sense attributed by the Chinese traveller al- 
ready mentioned to the name of the city or kingdom 



BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS. 207 

Sachi. Sakya is said to be the son of Maya^ by 
Suddhodana^ Raja of Kapila, Maya signifies delu- 
sion in Sanscrit, but in Hebrew it means anything as 
a judgment from God; but let us transliterate the 
words thus, tib^2 yi T^TlM^ rT'D — we get the sentence, 
" there were destruction and judgment from God : He 
divided the government in two." Sakya's original 
name is said to have been Siddharta^ which is a Chaldee 
word signifying an effort made for oneself, or inde- 
pendence. He is said to have descended on his 
father's side from Iksliwdku^ of the Suryavansa race, 
Nt:r:inm::r-iDnit:^p^ — " they were ensnared and smitten : 
God became an enemy, and carried [them] away." At 
the age of sixteen Sakya is said to have been united 
to Yasodard, also called Subhaddachhdnd n"iT-(^)*);:;^ 
n^n 11 ti2W ; that is, "' her race was saved ; the afilicted, 
repenting, found mercy." These words, no doubt, ap- 
proximate in sound to Sanscrit, and may in that lan- 
guage, or in Pali, have a meaning, on principles to be 
shown in another chapter; but this hidden Hebrew 
sense appears also to belong to them; and it is 
so remarkably applicable to the people indoctrinated 
ty Sakya, the last mortal Buddha, that, to suppose it 
quite accidental, is to imagine it possible to form ex- 
pressive sentences by a chance disposal of letters. 
The origin of Sakya is almost expressed in the 
legends concerning his contests with the e\dl beings 
called Ashurs (Assyrians), whom he conquered by 
the use of the bow when known under the name of 
Sakko, This name, it will be remembered, is that by 
which we concluded that the Sacae were known on 
the banks of the Ghebar, in Assyria. It is curious 



208 BUDDHISTIC symbols: 

that the legend should add that Sakya had previously 
driven out the Ashurs from the land of the Devadas, 
the name by which I believe the Sacae designated 
Palestine — the land of those who obeyed the successors 
of David, and whose religion I suppose to have been 
personified by the Sacae under the name Dewadatta^ 
or Davidism. The name of this great teacher is that 
of one of " the heads of the fathers *' amongst the 
Israelites — with whom, certainly, Divine judgment, 
destruction, and a divided rule were no unknown 
things ; and it is equally evident that the calamity of 
Israel arose from an attempt at independency, and 
that they were entrapped and smitten and forsaken 
of God, and carried away, are historical facts. After 
the alliance with another people, success and prosperity 
follow ; and this prosperity we find attributed to the 
use of the bow after the manner of the Sakai and 
the Ephraimites. At twenty-nine years of age, after 
an abundant experience of the joys and sorrows of 
life, Sakya takes his standing as a teacher. He is re- 
presented as being converted thus : he is proceeding, 
as usual, to his pleasure-garden, drawn by his four 
white steeds, when, encountering a decrepit old man, 
he at once reflects upon decay. 

Four months later he meets, under like circum- 
stances, a squalid wretch afflicted with disease^ and 
reflects on that. 

Four months later he meets a corpse. He then 
reflects on death. 

Four months later he noticed a healthy, well-clad 
person, wearing the robe of one devoted to religion, 
and the prince resolves at once to secure health of 
body and cheerfulness of mind by religion. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 209 

Such are "the four predictive signs/' or marks, 
which all who would be perfect in the worship of Bud- 
dha must observe. 

In short, the prevalence of decay^ disease^ and 
death renders it essential that a people should secure 
in religious faith and practice the expectation of a 
deliverance from suffering, and of an entrance into 
the joys of a higher life, when death liberates the 
soul from the thraldom of the body ; and this is pre- 
cisely what Sakya taught when preaching the eflScacy 
of Damma as both faith and works, in charity, 
abstinence, and reverence for life.* If it be ob- 
jected that those words which I have pointed out 
as possibly of Hebrew origin have also a Pali or 
Sanscrit signification, I reply that, though in general 
the words peculiarly related to Buddhism and its 
founder have some sacred and secondary meaning 
attached to them as Pali words, vet that meaninof is 
always conventional ; and that in many instances the 
meaning of such words is Avholly inexplicable and 
unknown to the most learned amongst the Buddhists 
of the present day ; and that many of those words are 
explained on insufficient grounds from comparison 
with Sanscrit words having only some approximate 
similarity to them. Thus Sakya, in pursuing his 
alms-pilgrimage, acquired from certain priests a 
knowledge of Samdpatti. Now, this word is supposed 
to be the same as the Sanscrit SamddhL meaninsr 
silent abstraction. So, again, Padhan is supposed to 
mean the same as Pradhdn^ nature or concrete 
matter. But, if we remember that Samdpatti was a 

* See Tumour's Mahaicanso, and extracts from the Attakatthaf. 

P 



210 BUDDHISTIC symbols: 

mode of religious mortification by which he hoped in 
vain to perfect himself, we may see the appropriate- 
ness and force of the word as Hebrew — ^J13 HDt^ 
desolation is my foolishness or deception. He for- 
sakes this starving, self-afflicting mode for the study 
of Mahd padhan (pS) nriD, waiting for redemp- 
tion), and ultimately he finds the way to perfection 
in using proper food and proper exercise, while ob- 
serving all that was essential to the propagation of 
charity and religion. While under the Bodhi tree 
it is said that he was assailed by the terrors or 
demon of death, but he acquired calmness in 
Damma and in hope of Nirvana,^ Now, the words 
supposed to mean the Demon of Death are Namuchi- 
Mara, which being Hebrew HID Trb^, mean rather 
the removal or wiping away of bitterness. Of 
Damma much will be said hereafter; but Nirvana is 
clearly the Hebrew word njm")J, signifying to be 
fully satisfied or prosperous. Bodhi means, in 
Hebrew, solitary ; and in this state of solitary medita- 
tion, under difi*erent trees, during a week of weeks, he 
obtained the state called Bodhi-juydn, by which Bud- 
dhists are said to understand supreme wisdom. The 
werds in Hebrew may mean individual derivation, 
Vi''-n2, as if to signify that the souVs rest was to 
be found only in understanding its own nature. 
This meaning of the word is quite in keeping with 
the Buddhistic doctrine that a priestly assumption of 
mediation between a man and his Maker is impious, 
and that the soul's perfection is to be at one with 
God, through Buddha. Sakya divided his doctrines 

* Tumour's extracts inPrinsep's Journal, p. 811. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 211 

into three classes adapted to the comprehension of 
three kinds of hearers: 1, Bindya^ for the com- 
monalty; 2, Sutra, or the principles of faith fitted 
for peculiar intellects; and, 3, Abhi-damma, or the 
supreme law of worship imparted only to Bodhi- 
satwas. Now we can perceive the fitness of such 
divisions when we find that these terms are Hebrew : 
1, Bindya, the discerning of God; 2, Sutra, dis- 
criminating, or severing asunder (int:^) ; 3, Ahhi- 
damma (ddi Uh^), the father of worship, i.e., some 
esoteric doctrine, fit only for the Bodhi-satwa, 
7^^rWJ^11, he who drinks in the doctrine alone, as if 
in the experience of solitary meditation — the actual 
experimental religionist. 

It is not intended to deny that such a religion was 
propounded by an individual to whom the name of 
Sakya was given, but only to show the probability of 
his being himself one of the Sakian race, as well as 
taught by Buddhists, who were also of that race, and 
that this race was Israelitish. The father of Sakya 
is said to have been Raja of Kapila. Now, this place 
was situated between Oude and Gorakhpur, and the 
Sdki dwelt there, and there they built a Buddha- 
Bitha over the relics of Sakya immediately after 
his death, said to have taken place 543 B.C.* If 
Sakya derived his religion from an Israelitish source, 
or was influenced by Hebrew ideas, we may ex- 
pect to find the fact confirmed by the symbols of his 
religion, as found in all Buddhist temples, but espe- 
cially at the topes of Sachi, or Sanchi, dedicated to 
Buddha, and described by Major Cunningham, whose 

* See Tumour's extracts, Prinsep's Journal, vol. vii. p. 1013. 

p2 



212 BUDDHISTIC symbols: 

antiquarian labours, both in his research and in his 
writings, are worthy of the greatest praise. 

The topes at Sachi are themselves Sakian works, 
and symbols of the religion of the people of that 
place as existing 300 years B.C. They are but slight 
refinements upon the mounds of stones erected over 
the remains of the remarkable dead amongst Bud- 
dhists in other regions, and common in the early 
ages of the Hebrew people of Palestine. Greek art 
was evidently employed on the sculptured pillars by 
these topes; but the topes themselves are the most 
simple and unadorned structures imaginable, being 
formed to represent a hemisphere. I will not now 
dwell on these strange buildings, but come at once to 
that most interesting symbol of Buddhism, the wheel. 
As to the meaning of this symbol we need not go 
beyond the traditions of the Buddhists ; but, in refer- 
ence to an observation of Major Cunningham that it 
symbolizes the sun-worship as well as that of Buddha, 
or Buddha himself,* I would remark that the figure 
of the wheels at Sachi is precisely that of the wheel 
described in 1 Kings vii. 33 (1012 B.C.), which had 
axletree, nave, felloe, and spokes just like a chariot 
wheel, so that it would appear to symbolize the re- 
volutions of Providence as a distributive power by 
which all things are fitly framed together to proceed 
in regular cycles. That such a meaning was asso- 
ciated with the wheel by the Buddhists is evident; 
for their traditions say that, after the revolution of 
four thousand years of man, the King of the Golden 
Wheel appears. This person is born in a royal 

* * The Bhilsa Topes, p. 352. 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 213 

family, and attains supreme dignity on being baptized 
in the water of the four oceans. But this is the part 
of the tradition to which I would direct especial 
attention : " If the king would proceed towards the 
east, the wheel turns in that direction, and the 
king, accompanied by his troops, follows. Before 
the wheel are four spirits, who serve as guides. 
Wherever it stops there does the king in like manner 
stop. The same thing takes place in the direction of 
the south, the west, and the north — wherever the 
wheel leads, the king follows ; and where it halts, he 
does the same. In the four continents he directs the 
people to follow the ten right ways"* (that is, to 
keep the ten commandments.) " He is called the 
King of the Golden Wheel, or the Holy King turning 
the golden wheel." '' The wheel turns and traverses 
the universe, according to the thoughts of the king." 
This is the symbol adopted by Sakya to represent to 
his people the fact that God had illuminated and 
directed him to go forth teaching and governing the 
four quarters of the world. Therefore his people 
must have been familiar with the symbol. It was 
while amongst those people that the Chinese traveller 
learnt this tradition of the Wheel King. Now, where 
shall we turn to discover any possible origin of such 
a wonderful symbol? The prophet whom the elders 
of Israel consulted by the river Chebar, presented to 
them precisely such a symbol in these words : " Now 
as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel 
upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four 
faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work 

* From Fo-kwe-ki, c. xviii. note 12, quoted in the " Bhilsa Topes," p. 309. 



214 BUDDHISTIO SYMBOLS: 

was like unto the colour of a beryl; and they four 
had one likeness; and their appearance and their 
work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 
When they went, they went upon their four sides; 
they turned not when they went. As for their 
rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; 
and their rings were full of eyes round about them 
four. And when the living creatures went, the 
wheels went by them ; and when the living creatures 
were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted 
up. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, 
thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were 
lifted up over against them; for the spirit of the 
living creatures was in the wheels. When they went, 
^A^5^ went; and when those stood still, fAes^ stood; 
and when those were lifted up from the earth, the 
wheels were lifted up over against them; for the 
spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." 
(Ezek. i. 15-21.) 

^'And the likeness of the firmament upon the 
heads of the living creature was as the colour of the 
terrible crystal . . . and under the firmament were 
their wings straight, the one towards the other, 
every one had two." {Ibid, vers. 22, 23.) It can 
scarcely be necessary to prove that the resemblances 
here cannot be merely the accidental result of two 
minds thinking about a wheel ; and therefore, instead 
of commenting on the remarkable and coincident 
ideas contained in these two passages from such 
widely different sources, I point the reader to the at- 
tached engraving, which presents certain symbols of 
Buddha as the Supreme Intelligence. They are taken 




FROM BAS-RELIEFS AT SANCHI 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 215 

from Major Cunningham's interesting work on " the 
Bhilsa Topes," and faithfully copied from the gates 
of the square enclosures of those topes. 

Figs. 1 and 2 present the wheel above four living 
creatures, or, as the word is often translated, beasts. 
These are supposed and understood by Buddhists to 
signify people brought into obedience to the ten com- 
mandments of Buddha ; the elephants are the people 
of India, the lions are doubtful, but I believe they 
here represent the tribes of Dan and Gad, according 
to the prophecy and blessing of Moses: Gad — "he 
dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the 
crown of the head." "Dan is a lion's whelp." (Deut. 
xxxiii. 20, 22.) Now, though but one wheel appears, 
a wheel is understood to turn towards each quarter of 
the heavens, as the living creatures stand. Figs. 3 
and 4 represent the frequent form of this symbol of 
Buddha; that is, wheels within wheels, united in a 
fourfold manner by a cross, to signify their straight- 
forward course towards each quarter of the heavens, 
or, as the legend of the Golden Wheel renders it, 
east, south, west, and north — that is, in the course 
of the sun. There is no turning back; thus inti- 
mating that the ways of God are in unerring wis- 
dom. When Buddhists would speak of the Unerring 
Intelligence ruling the universe, they name Buddha 
as the Great King who hath turned the Golden Wheel, 
and by the Great King they mean God as embodied 
or manifested in Godama, or Sakya, the last Buddha. 
Fig. 6 combines the name of Godama with the 
wheel of the Great King and the open lotus, also 
called the precious gem. The topes, or relic-tumuli, 



216 BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS: 

are built in a perfectly circular form, circle within 
circle at the base ; and in their elevation they contain 
a sphere, in the centre of which the relics are laid, in 
a chamber of a square form (fig. 5); that is to say, 
pointing to the north, east, south, and west, precisely 
in the directions of the four gates of the outside 
enclosure, which is laid out in exact correspondence 
with the four cardinal points. This union of four- 
sided with circular figures is constantly repeated 
in these and other Buddhistic symbols, reminding 
us of the wheels and rings and the four faces, 
four sides, and fourfold character of the symbols of 
Ezekiel's vision. At the base of the pillar on which 
the fourfold living creatures and the wheels are 
" lifted up " we see a square enclosure, each side 
having four divisions, and each division divided into 
three parts. Here we have the four-square and the 
twelve divisions, which to the Hebrew mind would 
signify the Israelitish community and their perfect 
equality. Thus the symbol is used in the book of 
Revelation in relation to the heavenly Jerusalem. 
The square railing around all the topes signifies the 
equality of all men, according to Buddhistic doc- 
trine. At each side of the base of the column, the 
tail of the Tibetan yak, or bullock {Bos grunniens)^ is 
seen bound together with three bands ; which I may 
here incidentally state, I believe signifies the Scythian 
nation subdued to Buddha. Two worshippers, male 
and female, ascend the steps above this yak's tail, in 
the act of perambulating around the object of wor- 
ship, or going up the steps, and as if passing round 
the tope to its summit. This is a proof of the re- 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 217 

verence in which the wheel symbol was held; but, as 
the early Buddhists were forbidden to worship images, 
we must understand the real object of worship to be 
the Supreme Intelligence Himself as expressed by 
the wheel of his providence. The female holds in her 
hand an object which I take to be similar to the cone 
which worshippers hold in their hands in the Nineveh 
sculptures, a sign of w?2fruitfulness. She holds it 
above her head. It may represent an unexpanded 
lotus, or sacred lily, a symbol elsewhere considered, 
in relation to Buddhism and Israel. A similar object 
stands on either side of the capital, with what I sup- 
pose to be the conventional representation of wings (or 
wreaths), two on each side, depending from it, perhaps 
meaning divine protection. These wings, two on each 
side, form the canopy* above the wheel, with stars above, 
enclosed in circles or wheels indicating the firmament 
of heaven above, and the rule of the Supreme Intel- 
lio^ence there in the other worlds of lio-ht. Around 
the wheel appear objects which, as Buddhist symbols, 
mean divine watchfulness and protection, for they 
seem to be chattas and topes. The latter, when dedi- 
cated to Buddha, are said to be inhabited by light, and 
symbolically they are represented with eyes. The 
sacred cliatta^ or umbrella, signifying protection, is 
usually seen surmounting sacred Buddhist buildings. 
These together, then, are equivalent to the eyes in the 
wheels of the prophet's vision. f It is worthy of note 



* This word canopy seems to be derived from the Hebrew word meaning 
covering or wing. 

t Dr. Adam Clarke says, the eyes are the nails that fasten the spokes of 
the wheel. 



218 BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS: 

that the capitals, or chapiters, are adorned with pahn 
leaves, as in the Temple of Solomon, where also the 
wreaths about the chapiters are especially marked. 
These symbols, adopted by Sakya, together with what 
is said of the Holy King of the Golden and other 
wheels, aflford a demonstration that Buddhism is in- 
debted to Ezekiel for some of its grandest ideas ; and 
would suggest the possibility that the prophet of Bud- 
dhism might even have conversed with the prophet of 
Jehovah, whose glory he imitates and assumes. If 
the date of Sakya's birth be correctly given (623 
B.C.), he was contemporary with Ezekiel, and cer- 
tainly was not beyond the reach of his prophecies. 
According to our Bibles, his vision was imparted B.C. 
595; but other chronologies place it considerably 
earlier. The four thousand years of the legend of the 
Golden Wheel are completed by the appearance of a 
divine man. The completion of the four thousand 
years from the origin of man corresponds with the 
period when the Israelites and other nations were ex- 
pecting the Messiah ; and it was then the Saviour 
actually came. The golden wheel is first seen in the 
East, and it advances to the place where the man 
born of royal race who is to assume all power stands. 
In the symbol, fig. 1, we find a star in the wheel in 
the firmament. Would not this accord with the lan- 
guage of the Magi who came to see Him who was 
born King of the Jews, and to whom they ofi*ered 
their precious things as unto God? Their reason for 
going up to Jerusalem they stated to be — " We 
have seen his star in the Easf^ Is not the sur- 
mise expressed in a former chapter a reasonable 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 219 

surmise; namely, that those Magi were Israelites? 
and is not the additional fact concerning the Golden 
Wheel coming from the East, connected as the wheel 
is, in Buddhist symbol, with a star, an indication 
that the Magi who came to Jerusalem were Bud- 
dhists, seeing also that they occupied so long as a 
year and a half in coming? The advent oi Krishnu^ 
in India, which is generally supposed to be founded 
on a rumour of Chrisfs mission, corresponds with the 
time of that mission and that of the visit of the Magi ; 
and we know from Indian history, that both Buddha 
and Krishnu, though introduced by heretics, were 
artfully adopted by the Brahmins to stand amongst 
their gods, in conformity to a popular impulse, which 
they could not otherwise resist or compromise. 

The pillar inscription, when written in Hebrew 
letters, reads — 

nyi '»n-D "»:)m ••n3''V''n-D rhiys 

T 

That is, " And his passing away was as a lamentation, 
and my beauty and my grace are as lamentation, 
Judges."* 

As in Ezekiel, so with the symbols around the tope 
of Buddha, we find the figure of a man pre-eminent ; 
as, for instance, that erected on the polished pillar on 
the north of the grand tope at Sachi, 

He stands above the remarkable symbol of the 
twelve squares, which in this case is at the top of the 
pillar instead of the base, as in that just now referred 
to. The man, then, seems to be represented as ruling 
over these twelve divisions. These square divisions 

* This tope is dedicated to the four Buddhas, also called Judges, the 
chief being Godama, whose departure is lamented. 



220 BUDDHISTIC symbols: 

remind us also of the breastplate of gems on the 
breast of the high priest, which represented the whole 
house of Israel. The man is girt about the loins with 
linen, but otherwise naked, though a nimbus, or glory, 
rays forth from his head. All these peculiarities 
point to the Divine Man of the Buddhistic creed 
as possessing characteristics prefigured in Ezekiel. 
Unfortunately, whatever colours might originally 
have been painted on these symbols are now lost, but 
we find the limbs and face of Godama, or Sakya, the 
mortal Buddha, always represented as bright as gold 
laid upon vermilion can make them, and he is usually 
seated on a throne ; therefore, so far, in keeping with 
this description — " And above the firmament [ex- 
panse] that was over their heads was the likeness of 
a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire-stone ; and 
upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as 
the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw 
as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire 
round about within it, from the appearance of his 
loins even upward, and from the appearance of his 
loins even downward, I saw as it were the appear- 
ance of fire, and it [he] had brightness [a nimbus] 
round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in 
the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of 
the brightness [nimbus] round about. This was the 
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." 
(Ezek. i. 26-28.) 

In enumerating the symbols of Buddhism we must 
not overlook the prominence given to the man, the 
lion, and the ox, all of which are erected on pillars at 
the topes of Sanchi and Sonari. These, together 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 221 

with the eagle, are mentioned by EzekieL The 
eagle, however, seems to be wanting in the Buddhist 
symbols; and, instead, we have, in some places, the 
horse, and in others the elephant. The horse pro- 
bably stood for the Gothic tribes, and the elephant 
for those of India. The architraves over the chief 
entrance of the Grand Tope at Sachi are surmounted 
by winged lions, and the bell-shaped capitals of the 
pillars of a palace represented in the bas-relief at the 
eastern gateway are surmounted by recumbent winged 
horses. Whatever these might symbolize, the fact of 
their being winged conducts the mind to their com- 
parison with the winged figures of the Nineveh and 
other Assyrian sculptures, and also to the winged 
living creatures (or beasts) of Ezekiel's vision; in 
both which the straightforward progress or determi- 
nate purpose of the powers signified appear to be 
symbolized. (Ezek. i. 9.) That both winged lions 
and winged horses are found together in so promi- 
nent a situation, implies that the nations thus sym- 
bolically represented were united in the worship of 
Buddha. In the opening chapter of this volume 
the lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle are ex- 
plained as the standards and emblems of the leaders 
of the hosts of Israel. We have, then, three of these 
symbolized as in connexion with Buddha; the wheel, 
the symbol of Buddha's supremacy, being lifted up 
over them, in sign of their subjugation to his doc- 
trines. In addition, we have the obedient tribes 
of India symbolized by the elephartt, and those of 
Gothland by the recumbent horse. The eagle, the 
emblem of the leader Dan, and his three associate 



222 BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS: 

tribes forming his host, is wanting ; but possibly the 
wings themselves may be significant of the eagle- 
power being incorporated with the lion and the horse ; 
and, if I mistake not, the inscriptions to which atten- 
tion will hereafter be directed, will show that the 
dominant people of Saka in India were themselves 
Danites or Danes ; so that the eagle symbol may be 
superseded by that which represents potentiality, 
which will be found united with the wheel and the 
wings in the monogram of Godama^ to be explained 
in a future chapter. 

The two magnificent polished pillars reared before 
the Great Tope of Buddha at Sanchi, remind us of 
the two pillars erected by Solomon before the house 
of the Lord. (2 Chron. iii. 15.) It is remarkable 
that all the old Buddhist pillars were highly polished^ 
after the Hebrew manner. The pillars at Sanchi, 
from the base to the crown of the capital, were forty- 
five feet and a half high, and those of Solomon were 
thirty- five cubits ; which, at fifteen inches the cubit, is 
about the same. The shaft was in one piece, thirty-two 
feet in height. The bell-shaped capital, adorned with 
an imitation of palm leaves (as in plate), is also Jewish 
(1 Kings vi. 29) ; and the two wreaths hanging over the 
capital may, perhaps, give us some idea of the meaning 
of the words, " And the two wreaths [were] to cover 
the two pommels of the chapiters which were on the 
pillars." (2 Chron. iv. 12.) 

In further illustration of the Israelitish origin of 
the wheels, oxen, and lions, in their fourfold con- 
nexion, we may refer to 1 Kings vii., xx., xxxii., 
xxxvi., where they are all particularized: "And 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 223 

under the borders were four wheels; and the axle- 
trees of the wheels were joined to the base," or, rather, 
fixed together ; see figs. 3 and 4 of plate. The pecu- 
liar significance of the four-square divisions enclosing 
the base of the pillar, and always seen as the rail- 
ing around ancient Buddhist topes and all sacred 
objects, is intimated by the direction given by Solo- 
mon, that the gravings around the borders were to 
be "four-square, and not round" (ver. 31). The 
height of the wheel was to be a cubit and a half. 
The pillars on each of the gateways of the topes 
resemble those at the gates of the Temple, which 
Ezekiel describes as facing towards the cardinal points, 
as in the Buddhist topes. (Ezek. xl.) 

From coins discovered in those countries in which 
Buddhism first prevailed, it appears that the Sakas 
held dominion over the whole of Khorasan, Afofhan- 
istan, Sindh, and the Punjab up to the year 80 B.C. 
A few years later the Sakas seem to have been dis- 
possessed of their conquests in Afghanistan and the 
Western Punjab by the Yuchi or Tochaoi Scythians 
(Goths [?] ). But the remarkable feature of this sup- 
posed conquest is the fact that these conquering 
Yuchi and their leader were at once converted to 
Buddhism. Is it not more probable that these people 
were incorporated with the Sakas in a friendly man- 
ner as Buddhists, until the time of Vikramaditya^ 
surnamed Sdkdn^ the foe of the Sakas, who drove 
them into Khorasan ; the south-west parts of which 
were hence called Sdkdstan or Saea^tene^ now named 
Sistan. But, as these points may incidentally be re- 
considered, we hasten over them now, in order to 



224 BUDDHISTIC symbols: 

examine a few of the oldest Buddhistic inscriptions, 
which may throw farther light on this mysterious re- 
ligion and its originators. Yet we must first direct 
attention especially to thdse symbols which, adopted 
by the Sacee and the Buddhists, have been received 
by ourselves, and remain with us as national em- 
blems and marks of our origin from those Saxons of 
the East. Amongst the emblems seen on the coins 
of Buddhist kings the trident has been mentioned. 
This is now peculiar to English coins; but the shield 
of Britannia, and the lion at her feet, are also Bud- 
dhist and ancient Saxon symbols (see plate at end of 
this chapter). Our banner of union, with the cross 
of St. George on it, may be seen engraved on the 
gates of the large tope at Sanchi or Sachi ; it is re- 
markable that the star banner is also there. The 
lion and unicorn (or their prototypes) may be seen 
crouching in peace at the feet of Buddha, as he sits 
on his marble throne at the entrance of the vast 
rock temple of Ajanta. The creature we vulgarly 
call a unicorn is more naturally portrayed there ; for 
the people who chiselled out that cavernous cathe- 
dral knew its nature better than to present but one 
horn, though they well knew, as we know from 
Assyrian monuments, that it was often conventionally 
so represented. Our unicorn is a strange anomaly, a 
bizarre, un-English beast, and yet not a mere heraldic 
invention — it combines somewhat of the figure of a 
horse with the foot and leg of an antelope, and in fact, 
it orio^inated in the desire to combine two creatures in 
one, the antelope and the horse. These were both 
emblems of the Saxon race, but are found separate in 



THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE. 225 

the Buddhistic monuments of India. The original 
of the unicorn is probably the Hippelaphus of Aris- 
totle, which is the Equicervus^ or Horse-stag^ of Cuvier.* 
This creature being usually sculptured in profile on 
the bas-reliefs, its two erect horns of course appear 
as one. Ignorant sculptors would suppose this its 
characteristic, and represent it in all positions as one- 
horned. Hence the traditionary heraldic emblem — 
a unicorn. There is, however, a large Tibetan goat 
the horns of which grow so closely together as 
to be almost united, and even recent travellers 
in the neighbourhood of Tibet have assured us 
that they have seen a live unicorn. In the woodcut 
on the next pagef it will be observed that the ante- 
lope has much of the outline of the horse. It is the 
large antelope common in the former country of the 
Sacae and in Tibet. It has been affirmed that 
it is sometimes seen with but one horn, but this 
arises from the two horns appearing as one when seen 
in profile. This antelope is the emblem of a Bud- 
dhist hero whose history is unknown ; but we are told 
that it is the symbol of the tribes descended from 
Joseph, who by the prophet is described as '' an 
antelope at a spring, and his hinds go up towards 
the ambuscade, and the archers harass him and shoot 
at him." (Gen. xlix. 22; see Heb.)J However we 

* Regne Animal, ii. 2, §§ 3, 4. 

t The lion and the antelope are copied from Dr. Bird's Historical Re- 
searches on the Buddha and Jain religions. 

* The above seems to be the more correct translation of the passage. 
There is a curious scene depicted in the frescoes of Ajanta (plate 22 

of Bird's Researches), which seems like a picture of this prophecy concern- 
ing Joseph. The antelope and his hinds are represented as surprised by a 



226 



BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS. 



may explain the symbol, we here see the origin of our 
royal arms, together with the source of the flag 
that for more than two thousand years has braved 
the battle and the breeze, and which will brave them 
still. 

number of hunters, while the lion is seen roaring on a distant hill. If this 
scene represents, as is supposed, some former transmigration of Buddha, it 
is not unlikely that his transmigrations will be found very much to re- 
semble the history of our Old Testament patriarchs. 




227 



CHAPTER XL 

BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

The mighty people who of old levied the pious sub- 
sidies of kings to adorn the peaceful dominion of Bud- 
dhism have left many stupendous monuments of their 
influence throughout India, Ceylon, Burmah, China, 
and Tibet. These people were Saxons and their con- 
verts. Mountains have been chiselled into polished 
temples at their bidding; temples which, for their 
vastness and design, have been contemplated with ad- 
miration by men who have gazed in awe upon the 
gigantic ruins of Egypt. Thus men leave the im- 
press of their creed alike upon their monuments and 
upon the manners of the people that succeed them, 
while their own history, and the origin of their ideas, 
lie buried in their forgotten tombs. Yet, as to the 
early Buddhists, the records of their devotion and 
their polity seem to be written on the rocks; and 
amidst the debris of cities vast as Nineveh fra^men- 
tary inscriptions attest their aspirations after a me- 
morial immortality and "their feeling after God." 
Shall the mystic characters remain unread? No! 
Though these people and their language be unknown, 
and not a tradition of them remain amongst the 
present dwellers amidst the ruins of their temples, 

q2 



228 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

they shall yet speak to men who desire devoutly to 
trace the providence of God in the history of their 
race. Let us look for meaning in all the records of 
humanity, because we believe that He who scattered 
man in various distinct great families through all 
lands will yet demonstrate to coming generations that 
He has seen the end from the beginning, and that the 
distribution of the races has been no fortuitous oc- 
currence, but that He who made them has marked 
the bounds of their habitation, and caused them to 
flow in different streams in fulfilment of his own 
word ; or, to speak more definitely, I believe that the 
nations which possess the Bible will be taught to see 
the literal fulfilment of all the prophecies in relation 
to all peoples, but especially as respects the connexion 
of the heathen with the Hebrew tribes. 

The monuments of Buddhism may be traced from 
Bactria, close upon the eastern borders of the Cas- 
pian Sea, through Mongolia and Tibet, to China ; and 
through India to Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and the 
islands of Formosa and Japan. The earliest and 
chief ancient seats of Buddhism appear to have been 
Giyah and Buddha- Bamiy am. The latter was in 
ancient Bactria. It was a city of temples cut out of 
the solid rock of an insulated mountain, the remains 
of which are still magnificent, though the sculptures 
have been nearly destroyed by the Mohammedan 
conquerors. Two colossal statues, however, at least 
eighty feet high, still claim the attention of travellers. 
These are supposed to represent Adam and Eve, the 
spot on which they stand being traditionally regarded 
as that on which the first man was created. Colonel 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 229 

Wilford traces the origin of the chief deities of the 
Hindus to this spot, and identifies them with the pro- 
genitors of mankind. I refer to this place because 
Buddhism seems to have extended its dominion from 
this point into Xorth- western India, in connexion with 
the entrance of the Saca? into that country, some time 
before the conquests of Alexander the Great. I am 
not, however, aware of any inscriptions having been 
found either in Giyah or in Buddha-Bamiyam. It 
is worthy of remark, however, in connexion with our 
present inquiry, that Giyah ^ov Giah^ is also the name 
of a place in Samaria. (2 Sam. ii. 24.) Buddha- 
Bamiyam may be also Hebrew, and, if so, it would 
mean the Buddha by the waters of the sea. As 
this holy mountain, the chief seat of early Bud- 
dhism, stands as an insulated mass of rock amidst a 
wide plain, it is not unlikely that it was at one time 
surrounded with water, as it is traditionally affirmed 
to have been ; hence, possibly, the name. 

Bactria was a district of Persia under Darius;* 
and subsequently the Greeks, the Getae, and the Sacae 
held dominion over it. A Bactrio-Saxon government 
extended its influence over Xorth-western India imme- 
diately before the time of the Seleucae. These facts 
will serve to explain the existence of the coins al- 
ready mentioned, which have been found so widely 
scattered over those parts, bearing inscriptions both in 
Greek and so-called Arian characters, while the sym- 
bols and other figures upon them are evidently Bud- 
dhistic. Now, if the Budii^ called by Herodotus a tribe 
of the Medes, were the same as the Buddhists, and were 

* Herod, iv. 204. 



230 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

Hebrews, as surmised, then in the early inscrip- 
tions on the rocks and cave-temples of North-western 
India, which are known to be Buddhistic, and supposed 
to have been engraved at or before the time of Alex- 
ander, we ought to find indications of the existence of 
Hebrew influence together with Buddhistic in those re- 
gions. In short, as I suppose that the Budii of Hero- 
dotus were Hebrews, and actually the first receivers 
and earliest teachers of Buddhism, and were, under the 
name of Sacae, mixed with the Getae, who also em- 
ployed a similar language, though in a different cha- 
racter, we ought to find that the inscriptions in the 
so-called Bactrian, Arian, Scythian, or Buddhistic 
character consist, for the most part, of Hebrew 
words, and bear evidence of being addressed, in some 
places at least, alike to Budii^ Getce^ and Sacce. 
This might have been inferred from considerations 
already presented, but now the proof will be found 
in the inscriptions themselves. But first it should be 
stated in what manner this discovery was made. 

While engaged in comparing the various alphabets 
employed in the East, with a view to trace them to 
their sources, I met with the eighth number of the 
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which there 
are several curious inscriptions from the so-called 
Budh caves near " Joonur," in the " Dukhun." 
They were communicated by Colonel Sykes to Sir 
John Malcolm, who forwarded them to the Journal 
as remarkably well-preserved specimens of such in- 
scriptions. He did not attempt any interpretation, 
for indeed, at that time, the powers of the letters 
were quite unknown. Colonel Sykes, however, drew a 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 231 

conclusion which, as it accorded with my own obser- 
vation, induced me more closely to examine the letters 
and analyse the words of these records. He says that 
"• Budh letters are prevalent in old Sanscrit inscrip- 
tions in the ratio of the antiquity of the inscription." 
" Can it be," asks the colonel, " that these letters are 
a very ancient form of the Sanscrit alphabet, and 
that the inscriptions are in the Sanscrit language?'' 
So far as the letters are concerned, those competent 
to judge, such as Mr. James Prinsep and Professor 
Wilson, agree in thinking that the ancient Budh al- 
phabet is really the simpler and more elegant origin 
of the refined Sanscrit alphabet ; as it is at least far 
more probable that the more complicated arose from 
the simpler forms than the reverse. As characters 
of this form are found only in places known to have 
been connected with Buddhistic worship, they have 
been called Budh letters. Being found also on 
pillars at Delhi, Allahabad, and elsewhere, they have 
been named the Ldt (or pillar) character. They 
are engraved also on many rocks, to some of which 
reference will be made. 

The powers of the letters are in general indubitable, 
from the known fact that the Tibetan alphabet is 
mainly derived from that of the country in which 
these inscriptions are found. The Budh alphabet, 
however, has several letters, the equivalents of which 
do not appear in the Tibetan. Mr. James Prinsep 
very skilfully traced their powers through several 
channels ; but I conceive it will be shown that in seve- 
ral instances he has mistaken them. I have appended 
an alphabet of the Budh inscriptions with what I 



232 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

consider, after a very diligent search, the equivalent 
of each letter in the Hebrew alphabet; the three 
letters, to which Mr. Prinsep gives other powers, are 
marked with a X . 

It was merely as consisting of specimens of very 
ancient characters that the inscriptions referred to 
first became interesting to me; but, in copying them, 
with their equivalents in Hebrew letters, as they 
stood in the few inscriptions found at Joonur, a new 
interest was excited in my mind by the fact that the 
words themselves appeared to be Hebrew. I there- 
fore tested the matter with other inscriptions in the 
same, or a similar character, and the result will be seen 
in the following pages. (See plate and alphabets 
attached). 

Attention was first directed to the inscription No. 
1. It was discovered over the doorway of a large 
hall surrounded by small cells or dormitories, the 
whole being excavated from the solid rock and ex- 
ceedingly well preserved. The initial monogram 
ofi'ered the only difficulty. It had long been deemed 
an inexplicable symbol of Buddhism. On careful con- 
sideration, the figure resolved itself into three Budh 
letters, namely, */, or soft G^ with the vowel mark 
known as in the Tibetan, below it, in conjunction 
with H. The next letter is one precisely similar to 
our own D turned the opposite way, and it is the 
capital D of the Budh inscriptions ; the point within 
it always stands for m. Now, it is understood that, 
where no vowel mark is found, the consonant takes, or 
may take, a after it; hence the word before us con- 
stitutes the name of the supposed founder of Bud- 



Modern 

English. Hebrew. Budh or Lhat. Arian or Bactrian 

BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 233 

dliism, Godama^ or, more exactly presenting the 
equivalents of the letters in Hebrew characters, we 
have the word r\tyin\ which at once suggests its 
derivation and significance ; for, as a Hebrew word, it 
means God-like, 

The character surmounting the monogram resem- 
bles the object that marks those spots where relics 
of Godama are supposed to be deposited. When 
surmounting any building in China and Tibet^ it is 
regarded as a sign of dedication to Godama^ and is 
supposed to possess the power of protecting the 
neighbourhood in which it stands from the invasion 
of evil agencies of all kinds. The power of the 
figure, as a letter, is precisely that of the Hebrew 
Yod. It will be observed that it consists of three 
branches, and in this instance each branch is termi- 
nated in a cross. The exact import of this peculiarity 
is unknown ; but there is little doubt that it is 
expressive of peculiar sacredness. Certain priests 
of Buddha informed a friend of the writer that it 
symbolizes the Eternal, whom they say they worship, 
using words almost exactly equivalent to those of 
Milton : '' Him first. Him last, Him midst and with- 
out end." In short, like the Yod of the Hebrews, 
it expresses the incommunicable name. It is a sym- 
bolic letter, and in its form ( U) ) closely resembles the 
Coptic letter t, , which also stands for Yod, and 
signifies " potentiality," like the Hieratic Egyptian 
#, which in Hieroglyphic is formed thus '■ j VI V l ; . 
This would be an expressive Budh symbol, namely, 
the indwelling Deity. Three Yods, with Kamats 
underneath, according to the Chaldee paraphrases, ex- 



234 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

press the Holy Name. Thus the high -priest amongst 
the Jews, to signify that Name, was accustomed to 

extend his three fingers thus M making a figure 

similar to this Budh letter. The name Allah in 
Arabic is written also with three upright strokes 
joined at the base. Galatine* has proved that the 
sacred Name was also indicated by three radii in 
the fiDrm of a crown ^y . The head-phylacteries of 
the Jews also consist of three radii ; but they now 
place them together in the form of tt^, as the initial 
letter of the incommunicable name Shaddai, The 
relation of the initial letter in our first inscription 
to the sacred Name is, therefore, very probable, irre- 
spective of the evidence derived from the inscription 
itself. We may infer that the whole monogram is 
symbolic; the upper part, or covering, representing 
the sacred name, the lower part the temple, and 
the letter like a half-moon at its side symbolizing 
the worshippers, according to the lunar doctrine, or 
that supposed to be derived from the ark — pre- 
served forefather of the world after the deluge ; 
so that the name Godama hieroglyphically signi- 
fies the Supreme, the Temple, and the worshippers; 
while phonetically it means resemblance to God. 
This very word God, as the name of the Su- 
preme, is derived to us from the East through 
a Saxon channel, and seems to be from the same 
source as God'ama, the name of the founder or im- 
prover of Buddhism. Godama is the word which 
gives us our name for the Deity, and Wodensday as 

• Lib. ii. cap. x. fol. 49 and 60. 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 235 

his day, the word T\"oden being known in Saxon 
first as Goadem, and then Goden, and ultimately 
AVoden. The whole inscription Xo. 1, in Hebrew 
letters, reads thus : — 

Which, literally translated, is — 

Godama ''or tTodaina^, King of Kash, founded these rocJc- 
chambers for us, and, to him devoted, the jpenitent* 
will worship in silence. 

The terminal word is often seen in Buddhistic 
inscriptions, both at the beginning and the end, as 
in several now before us. The letters forming it 
are combined in the form of a wheel-like cross. A 
similar figure is found in certain tombs in the cata- 
combs at Rome, and may possibly have had a similar 
significance with some of the early Christians, instead 
of being used as a sign of the cross, as asserted by 
Dr. Wiseman. Or it may have indicated the country 
from whence the martyr came, namely, the country 
of Poonah, in India, to which the power of Rome 
had at that time reached. 

It is remarkable that the district or collectorate in 
which these inscriptions are found is named Poonah^ 
or Pujiah, which is precisely the word here trans- 
lated penitent. It signifies a turning away of the 
mind from any evil; but possibly the word stands 
for the country being personified in the Hebrew style 
and addressed as representing the nation. Poonah 
is a city in Aurungabad, formerly the capital of the 
Western Mahrattas, and now gives name to a dis- 
trict in the Presidency of Bombay. Lon. 74°-2 E. 
Lat. 18°-!20 X. 

* Or " he who turns away.** 



236 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

That the Hebrew equivalents of the characters in 
this inscription are correctly given will scarcely be 
disputed by any competent person. We have then a 
Hebrew inscription on a rock-temple in India, not 
indeed in Hebrew characters as now known, but in a 
variety of letters, which seems to have formed the 
basis of the Sanscrit alphabet, the vehicle of the 
sacred language of the Brahmins; a fact sufficiently 
suggestive of thought to detain us here. We will, 
however, only pause to remark that the Hebrew 
character now in use was adopted after the Baby- 
lonish captivity, and that the character previously 
employed in writing Hebrew was, according to 
Jerome, of a squarer form than that now employed 
for the purpose. This so-called Budh character 
might then have been the very character originally 
used, for in its squareness it answers to the descrip- 
tion, since all the letters consist of parts of a square; 
at least, they do so in the oldest inscriptions dis- 
covered, though in more recent inscriptions the 
letters V and T are sometimes written round and 
sometimes square. There is no violence, therefore, 
in the supposition that the character before us may 
have been the original Hebrew character, and the 
children of Abraham by his concubines, who, as some 
think, went into India,* may have conveyed it there ; 
if, indeed, Abraham himself did not come from 
Mheysh'Ur^ as Major William Stirling has laboured 
to prove. f May not a confirmation of this idea be 
yet found on the rocks of the Wady-en-Nehiyeh^ in 

* He sent them away " eastward, unto the east country." (Gen. xiv. 6.) 
t The Rivers of Paradise, chap. iii. 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 237 

that part of Canaan where Abraham first abode after 
his entrance on that land ? The Rev. H. Bonar 
found inscriptions there, which, if we may judge from 
the few specimens of the letters he has given us in 
his book,* resemble those on the rocks in India. 
The intercourse of Judea with India was very early, 
and in the Maccabees we read of elephants being 
employed in their war, with Indians to rule them. 
(2 Maccabees vi. 37.) But, dismissing this consi- 
deration, we have proof in these inscriptions that the 
disciples of Godama and the people who worshipped 
at Joonur at the time used Hebrew words. But, 
before we proceed to the proof in other inscriptions, 
let us inquire what country or place it was over 
which Godama is said to be king. Kash, or Cash, 
we know was anciently the name of the holy city 
Benares and of the country around. But probably 
the name extended to districts very wide apart ; and 
certainly if Godama^ or Sakya^ the founder of modern 
Buddhism, was acknowledged as prince where his 
religious influence extended during his lifetime, it 
must have been very wide indeed, since we find 
Buddhistic remains similar to those of Benares in 
Delhi, and elsewhere, even from the Oxus to the 
mouth of the Indus. Cutha, Gotha^ Touran^ and 
Kash-gar were probably included in the dominion of 
Godama or his Buddhist successors. Kash was a 
very ancient name — the Philistim came out of Kash- 
lulim (Gen. x. 4) ; and it is worthy of remark that the 
Philistim and the Hebrews spoke a similar language. 
Probably Cush is a word of the same derivation as 

* The Desert of Sinai, p. 309. 



238 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

Cash^ or Kash. The country kno^vn as Indo-Cush is 
the original Cush of Scripture, Oriental Ethiopia, the 
land compassed by Gihon^ one of the rivers of Para- 
dise. The grandson of Noah, and son of Ham, gave 
name to this country. This Cush was the father of 
Kimrod, the founder of Nineveh, some of the grand 
remains of which we may see in the British Museum. 
It is interesting to find that the traditions of the 
Brahmins agree so well with the records of Holy 
Writ as respects the sons of Noah. They say that 
the ark-preserved saint, the seventh of the holy ones, 
is the father of the race now inhabiting the earth, 
and that the names of his sons were Char ma (Ham), 
Shama (Shem), and Jyapeti (Japhet). The names 
agree better with the Hebrew than the English, but 
they are quite near enough to prove their derivation 
from a similar source. Now, the tradition in India 
further affirms that Cush^ the son of Charma^ or 
Ham, gave his name to the country known as Indo- 
Cush. From this land came the Palic people, who 
overran Ethiopia Proper (outer Cush)^ and also gave 
their name to Palestine. The Pali (so called by them- 
selves) are numerous still in Matsyadesa^ a country 
north-east of the junction of the Ganges with the 
Kosi^ or Cushi, near RajinahaL The force of this 
name Pali will appear in reference to some of the in- 
scriptions to be considered in the succeeding chapters. 
Our next step is to find some association between 
Godama, King of Kash, and Sakya, Sak, or Saka, 
other names applied to the founder of Buddhism. 
The inscription, of which No. 2* is a facsimile^ will 

* No. 13, in the work already mentioned. 



I 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 239 

furnish the intelligence we seek. Here we have a 
ruder form of the monogram already explained. The 
J, or soft G, surmounts the wing-like expansion which 
is known to signify the same as the fuller form pre- 
sented in the former inscription ; the upper parts of 
the letter, equivalent to iii or ho^ being taken for the 
whole, as in the Tibetan. Thus, room is made for the 
D to be placed under with the point, meaning M, in it. 
The D is observable from its rounder form, resemblin^r 
the Budh letter, that is, like an 0, but which has the 
sound of the Hebrew teth — T ; and thus also we 
find in Buddhist writings the D and the T are apt 
to be used interchangeably, at least in this sacred 
name, as when transferred to Ceylon, Burmah, and 
Siam, where it is as often Gotama as Godama, 
This form of the monogram is seen in several coins 
of ancient date discovered where Buddhism formerly 
prevailed. An engraving of one 'will be found in 
plate 9, No. 10, of Prinsep's Historical Eesults ; 
and amongst the coins referred to in Chapter VII. of 
this volume. Inscription No. 2 in Hebrew characters 
would read thus : — 

y:^ n:):"i> •':]^;; u^ nni •'SD-q n:**^^ niyv nt:^ 

Godama, this name is that of Sak, the shelter of him 
who is penitent and ajffiicted ; let him worship the Lord 
Almighty ; abiding beside the protection of the re- 
nowned religious law, the poor shall sing of him who 
made me. 

The name Godama seems to have been given to 
Sakya after his death, when, as Buddhists believe, he 
became like God. The word translated Almighty 
has a peculiar vowel-mark that occurs in no other 



240 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

word found in the Budh inscriptions, and so far it 
resembles the equivalent Hebrew word. This inscrip- 
tion was found quite perfect, deeply engraved on the 
side of the rock-chamber, being nearly the most 
western of the caves in the picturesque hill about 
two miles from " Joonur." All the inscriptions in 
that hill are well preserved; a reddish, ochry, hard 
cement having been laid over the smooth panels 
chiselled in the rock, and the letters then having 
been cut through this cement, so as to preserve the 
fine edge of the stone from the action of air and 
moisture. This method of preserving stone affords 
a hint as to our Houses of Parliament, the fine 
chiselling of which is already suffering from our 
damp atmosphere. 

The large temple of this rock monastery is very 
imposing. The vast arched roof appears as if sup- 
ported by stone ribs, that meet and rest on numerous 
octagonal pillars, on each of the capitals of which 
repose two elephants and two lions, probably signi- 
fying the two nations united in worship at this place. 
The whole is tasteful and grand. The people who 
formed such a place must have been skilful and in 
earnest. Near this temple, in the vestibule of which 
the first inscription containing the name of Godama 
was found, there is a chamber which seems to have 
been a refectory. It is fifty-seven feet deep by fifty 
in width. On each side runs a stone seat, and there 
are eighteen cells opening into this supposed refec- 
tory, with a stone bench in each. From the resem- 
blance of the whole to other places now occupied 
by Buddhist monks, there is great probability that 



I 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 241 

the ancient occupants of these chambers were also 
Buddhist monks. An inscription (No. 3)* over the 
door of the temple will illustrate in some degree the 
Avorship there observed, as it conveys a sentiment 
which we may suppose was held of importance, since 
it occcupies so conspicuous and prominent a position. 
Given in Hebrew characters it reads thus: — 
HtDt:^ mi:^-^ '^v^ ji"is)-d ^:h int^ l^^ b'\D n:s3 

O penitent, all is but as the early dawn to us ; as the 
vermilion fruit-tree is to afield of thorn, so are the 
six divisions [roots'] of my judgments. O devoted one, 
let us cultivate the forest ; let the penitent worship 
in silence. 

Probably the vermilion fruit-bearer is the pome- 
granate, which appears to have been the tree both of 
life and of knowledge with the Egyptians, and no 
doubt with the Israelites also. The fruitful tree is 
the symbol of the family and of the blessing of 
Joseph. (Gen. xlix. 22.) It seems in this place to 
designate the people of Godama, and in the next 
inscription the same word is distinctly used as the 
name of a race, which suggests the possibility that 
the Parthians (Prath) derived their name from the 
same source. The following inscription (No. 4) is a 
modification of the preceding one, and in Hebrew 
characters reads thus : — 

mni iw^i^ niH) ii^ pt^r.D ■]^^ b^:i n^S) 
(? i^ni) n^s DDi'' mn mn t^p ^d^ ]di^d 

penitent, all is but as sackcloth to the generation of 
the vermilion fruit-tree ; and behold, as to be in want 
is my renown, the praise of the devoted is Kash [or 
endurance] ; let the penitent worship [or wait in 
silence]. 

* No. 10 of Colonel Sykes'. 



242 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

The final word, like the initial, forms a cross, but 
of a shape somewhat dififerent, as if turned in the 
opposite direction. As we must suppose this de- 
signed, it probably stands for another word, which 
seems to make in our Hebrew characters linn, the 
wanderer^ or turner of the wheel ( ?) ; a name adopted 
by the roaming priests of Buddha in Bhotan and 
Tibet. These strange men ^travel about, turning 
the wheel of prayer like a child's toy in their hands, 
constantly muttering the mysterious words, Om mani 
pad me hum. These words have received explana- 
tions as mysterious as themselves. I obtained a copy 
of the words from Darjeeling, which was written by 
an intelligent Lama of Bhotan ; but his explanation 
is none, except so far as he states that they are a 
prayer for all living creatures, the words them- 
selves being inexplicable. It is beautifully written in 
Tibetan characters ; which, being exactly transliterated 
into Hebrew letters, read thus Din-"'0 IS) ''^Q Din ; which, 
literally translated, is trouble^ my portion redeem from 
destruction. 

The Tibetans say that the fair high-nosed people 
who came from the West and taught them their 
religion, were called SaM (or Sacce), This fact is 
stated by Csoma Korosi, who resided amongst them 
for three years. The heaps of ruin and rubbish 
which they venerate and call mani (my portion [?]) 
are probably similar to the objects of worship which 
formed part of the idolatry with which Isaiah up- 
braids the Israelites (Ixv. 11). The name is lost 
by translation — " that number" indeed, it conveys no 
idea to us ; but the term in Hebrew is m'nz, a short 
pronunciation of mani, my portion, that is, ruin. 



r 




Z 

o 
o 

h 
< 

LiJ 

_J 
a. 




ui 

h 
I 

UJ 

> 

< 



o 
a: 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 243 

But, to return to our inscription No. 4. The word 
Sah here is evidently equivalent to sackcloth, and 
suggests the probability that Sakya derives his name 
from this sign of mourning. Kash, as a name, may 
refer to the ruin of Benares by some catastrophe. 
The inhabitants of that city, now partly rebuilt 
amidst extensive ruins, are still called Kashi. 

We have in inscription No. 4 the important fact 
that the vermilion fruit-tree symbolized the generation 
then existing. Inscription No. 5 reads thus : — 

IT TIT /imn '^n^ >^ ')^^ •'t^n w^p 
ITS) '♦Qi ti'n no '2'p 'b ^p n:^ ^b r\y osnn 

Silently gather together, alas for me ! the calamity 
of this injury is my renown, in the overturning of the 
injury thereof the grievousness of my lamentation 
was my hailing, the blood of his purifying was the 
sprinkling of woe. 

The inscription No. 6 was also found in the temple 
under the fort at Joonur. In this temple there stands 
one of those remarkable emblematic monuments which 
the natives called dhagope^ supposed always to indi- 
cate that some sacred relic of Godama is deposited 
beneath. 

The plate opposite presents a rough drawing of 
this relic-chamber erected in a recess of the temple. 
We here see probably the earliest specimens of Gothic 
arches in existence, which, together with Fig. 2, be- 
longing to the exterior of the same temple, indicate 
pretty plainly that we Western Saxons derived our 
Gothic architecture from the same source as our 
ancient brethren the Saxons of the East. We had 
imagined that the idea of the arch was borrowed 
from the outstretched arms of forest trees, meetinor 

e2 



244 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

as if about to embrace ; but we find that the Saxon 
Buddhists of the East meant to represent an inverted 
ship by their Gothic arch, in reference to the salva- 
tion of the righteous family from the Deluge by a 
ship or ark; and the idea intended to be conveyed 
was that of the protection Heaven affords to those 
who fly for refuge to the Ark provided. An idea 
surely as proper to our churches as to their dark 
temples in the rock. 

The ceiling of this temple is flat, chunamed, and 
painted in small squares; each square having within 
it concentric circles of white, orange, and brown. 
These colours, squares, and circles have meaning 
here, for the temples of the Buddhists, unlike our 
own, admit not of ornament without significance. 
Probably the three circles enclosed in a square repre- 
sent Heaven, Earth, and Hades as existing under 
one dominion, perfect and equal, like the vision of 
the spiritual Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, which is 
described as four-square. The colours would signify 
purity, love, and humanity. The initial letter of 
Inscription No. 6 is M, in the form of a votive 
off*ering of fruit in a basket. Four pieces of fruit 
stand at the top, either to signify four persons, or the 
four divisions of the worshippers, and the dedication 
of their works unto the divinity. We are reminded 
by this symbol of the words of Amos addressed to 
the Ten Tribes : " Thus hath the Lord showed unto 
me^ and behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, 
Amos, what seest thou ? And I said, A basket of summer 
fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon 
my people Israel (Amos viii. 1, 2.) May not this 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 245 

signify their adoption of Cain's offering of the fruits 
of the ground, and their rejection of the prescribed 
typical sacrifice of animal life as the medium of 
atonement ? It is at least remarkable that the 
founder of Buddhism thus expresses the fact of the 
commencement of a new religious era, as we find 
from the inscription No. 6, which, in our Hebrew 
characters, reads thus : — 

D^ ^:nt:r irr^HD o'r'Qti; i^nsB '•jj')");^^ vdih ddt 

T/ie change of ITash* being effected, my doctrine was 
extended that the people who worshipped-\ me might 
moreover worship the Almighty. Sis inflictions 
stripped me naked; he who is my hing, according to 
his graciousness, made us fruitful ; the people dealt 
bountifully with me. 

Here we have further evidence that some cata- 
strophe, in relation to the holy city Kash, over which 
Godama was king, gave rise to a new order of 
worship. In succeeding inscriptions it will be seen 
in what the change consisted. We might speculate 
concerning the nature of the catastrophe referred 
to. Certain passages in the inscriptions mention fire, 
while others frequently allude to water, as if both 
fire and water had been engaged in the destruction. 
Possibly some such cataclysm of the Indus then 
occurred as happened at Ladak twenty years ago. 
During December, 1840, and January, 1841, the 
river was low. A orlacier had formed in the vallev 
of Khunden, shutting up water enough to fill a lake 
twelve miles in diameter and two hundred feet deep. 
In the following June this weight of water suddenly 

* Or, the grievous change. 

t Or, submitted quietly to him. 



246 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

burst its barrier, and rushed towards the sea in one 
sublime irresistible wave, sweeping everything before 
it from Ladak to the Indian Ocean ; a space seven- 
teen hundred miles in length. 

The origin of the Buddhist religion is hidden in the 
mists of time ; but there is a tradition amongst the 
Buddhists of Northern India, which, together with 
the evidence here given, may throw some light on the 
subject. The tradition is that their religion is the 
primitive worship, as observed by the children of 
Seth. Now, whence was this notion derived? Who 
was Seth^ and what was his worship? He was the 
fourth son of Adam. His name signifies set^ or ap- 
pointed. His descendants appear to be the first who 
used the name of Jehovah in their worship, for it is 
said: '^ And to Seth also there was born a son; and 
he called his name Enos; then began men to call 
upon the name of Jehovah." (Gen. iv. 26. Heh.) In 
keeping with this, the word Jehovah does not occur 
in Genesis before this passage ; a reason rather un- 
reasonably assigned by some persons for supposing 
the former parts to have been written by a diiFerent 
hand. The progenitor of the Hebrews, Eber, is 
traced by the writer of Genesis through Shem in a 
direct line from Seth. Now, let us imagine a de- 
vout Israelite, who, like the Ephraimites, had already 
repudiated the pretensions of the house of David, 
being a leader of his people, and yet frustrated in his 
endeavours rigidly to maintain the Israelitish worship, 
or any other, by some sudden stroke of Providence 
which rendered its observance impossible. He and 
his nation being thus set free from the bonds of the 
Hebrew, or adopted ritual, what can we imagine more 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 247 

probable than that he should regard the force of cir- 
cumstances as a proof that some other mode of worship 
was demanded by the Almighty? And if so, what 
more likely than that he should revert to what he 
supposed to be the earlier patriarchal worship, which 
appears to have commenced amongst the offspring of 
Seth? Residing now with his brethren amongst a 
people who reverenced the name of Seth, and called 
themselves Sethites, and believing themselves, as the 
people of Northern India still do, the direct descend- 
ants of Adam's holy son, what more natural than 
that he should claim kindred with them? He might, 
indeed, represent himself and those with him as of 
greater sanctity than others, seeing that they had 
come into India from the country of the holy moun- 
tain, where Adam was supposed to be interred, and 
where the holiest Sethites dwelt.* We suppose 
Godama endowed with enthusiasm, piety, and influ- 
ence; no greater than is proved by all we know of 
the history of Buddhism, if we suppose him to have 
re-established what he believed to be the primitive 
worship, only with the exception of animal sacrifice, 
the suppression of which, circumstances imposed by 
Providence had rendered necessary. The promise of 
the incarnation of the Messiah he might believe to be 
fulfilled in his own person, as the accepted Buddha ; 
and think that all the blessings entailed on the seed 
of Isaac pertained to him and his disciples. If we 
mistake not, these rock-records contain appeals to 
the name of Jehovah as the Disposer of all events, 
and we know that Buddhism contains the sentiment 

* See Universal History, vol. i., and Asiatic Res., vol. x. p. 136. 



248 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

SO well expressed by Senault, and plagiarized by 
Pope: " God applies Himself to all creatures in 
their operations ; and, without dividing his unity or 
weakening his power, He gives light with the sun, He 
burneth with the fire. He refresheth with the water, 
and He brings forth fruit with the trees/** Buddha 
is so far like the Messiah that he is born of woman, 
and in human form conquers sin. In his own person 
he endures a baptism of suiferings, and teaches that 
the true life is return to God in the negation and 
death of self. The term Damma^ employed by Bud- 
dhists to signify worship, designates also all that can 
be conceived of virtue, reverence, holy mystery, and 
conformity to Heaven. Regarding it as a Hebrew 
word, it serves to express a silent waiting on the 
object of reverence, and a process of thought by 
which the meditative soul becomes like the object of 
its worship, as by an actual reflection. An intelligent 
Buddhist would regard devotion as an endeavour of 
the soul to see itself in the Divine Mind as in a 
mirror, just as the clear heavens appear at one with 
the calm deep. Water permeated with light would 
convey the Buddhistic idea of the soul's absorption 
into Deity. The universal benevolence of early Bud- 
dhism, the reverence for life, the adoration of one 
God, the reunion with Deity through the observance 
of every moral and religious law, would lead a serious 
mind to hope and believe that all true followers of 
Buddha would fully have believed in Christ our Lord, 
had his character been fully known to them. And 

* Use of the Passions, by J. F. Senault, pdt into English by Heury, 
Earl of Monmouth, p. 11, 1649. 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 249 

it is a happy thing to believe that the multitudes, 
amountino: at one time to half the inhabitants of this 
earth, were mostly converts to the benevolence of 
Buddhist doctrines, and may be finally judged as in 
a measure partakers of the spirit of Him who really 
took away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 

We will not, however, here enlarge on Buddhism, 
but proceed, by other inscriptions, to show its con- 
nexion with Israel. The following inscription (No. 7) 
is imperfect, but the first two lines are complete; the 
lacuncB in the other lines are indicated by dots. The 
transcript, in Hebrew characters, reads thus : — 

rMT\^ ]v^ ••n'' "»nn nin ny n: rwr^ i 

')y)r:i'^iJD ^u;3: mn^ rvTi r^p' di in dsjd 

^''irr\ "rn^ r\:h^ injii— • . 3 in'» • • • i?^ d^ rv^ 

r^nr^r^i • • • 4 anin inn '•ir niti^n • . • "-t^^p 1332 

TTiV niD n^i^ a: an^s nm n^vr\ >T7 

an^ r^'pyn 5 Dnnt^^n .13 ns'' ij^ mn r]w 

'Tvz r\^'i Jinn hid n^-n ^m^^ i^mn oi ns 

(1) strangers bore rule; their oppression, the calamity 
of my chosen ones, was their rejoicing, their speech was 
Pr'tha [Parthian (?)]. The bringing forth of Badh 
was as the violent severance of the Remnant occupying 
Kash, the abode of Jews, their own people. (2) We 
were put to silence ; they decreed destruction to us ; a 
strife of blood brought them to an end ; the Euler 
obeyed. He whom my soul seeks, whom we worship, 
is an overflowing sea, Jehovah is Light ... (3) his dis- 
tinguishing religious ordinance produced union, and the 
mere humiliation of the inhabitants of Kash . . . causing 
equality became my splendour; for their calamity pro- 
duced union. (4) . . . thou waitest in silence, sub- 



250 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

missive one. The decree of their mouth was baldness ; 
moreover, the bowing down extended my research, the 
calamity was equality ; surely their setting at liberty 
was here becoming. (5) Thou wast made comfortless ; 
the infliction of our calamity, even the necessity of the 
injury, became my fruit. The Feast of the Covenant 
was neglected, my house had obeyed; the calamity 
caused it to be neglected ; behold, there was great afflic- 
tion within us. 

If this bare rendering be correct, we have the 
demonstration required to prove the Israelitish origin 
of these strange inscriptions ; for here the Jews are 
by the authors of the record acknowledged as their 
own people, though opposed to them. The word 
translated Jews is very distinct. The word given as 
Jehovah is peculiarly pointed, and preceded by a sign 
like a Yod, found in no other instance in the known 
Budh inscriptions, and therefore of doubtful meaning. 
The initial letter is J, the middle one o, with the i 
point, and the third v or w^ also with the i point and 
with an open base, giving the word altogether an 
unique character, which reminds us of the Jewish 
usage in pointing this unpronounceable Name, re- 
quiring it to be read by the substitution of a less 
sacred word. In pointing out the connexion of the 
worship of Jehovah with the family of Seth, it was 
indicated that this sacred word might be expected to 
appear in Budh inscriptions, and I think it will be 
found unmistakeably in some of them to which we 
shall refer. 

I am not aware of any previous attempt to trans- 
late the preceding inscriptions. The transcription 
was made from the Budh characters into those of 
Hebrew \ at first without the slightest idea of making 



o jO 

a. ' 

-a 



d 




4i^ 


'-) 


4) 


-o 


"^ 


1^ 


4^ 




r^ 


^J-^. 


ffi 

< 

X 


-< 

"P 
.J) 

•-0 


^ 

-D 

^ 




OQ 


-T^ 


rO 


S 


£ 


T_D 


~P 




cfc 




< 


r< 



? r< -:? -f . -< 

S ^ -^ -^ ^ ^ -^ 

"^ I ■>— I -n 

-^ -P ,1 ^ 

S H -5 -^ 5 

.: ^ r< ^ i 

; d -3 ^ y ^ '^ ^ io 

J DC , '^ -, -^ ^ 

>■ -'-P '-0 Mj ^ T-^ r< 

'"^ P H^ '33 3> ^ H S3 

^ -^ < ^ o ■+ 



ce 



< ^ 



u.; 



•« .-, 5 i-< p ,-f- 1: lO 



"D ■ r-L -I— j U2L J 

-^ .^ ^ ^-< ^ '^ -^ ^ 



f 3- ^ :2 < ^s ^ fa . 

§ "^ ^-^ < "7 -? r-- ■•-< ^ 



CM 



'o r^ 00 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 251 

Hebrew words of them, but merely because Hebrew 
letters are the oldest, except perhaps the Sanscrit, with 
powers positively defined. Now, if, under these cir- 
cumstances, we find the characters resolve themselves 
into connected Hebrew words, there is an incalculable 
probability that those words were intended to be ex- 
pressed by them. Lest, however, this should only be 
a wonderful coincidence, let us test the matter by 
transcribing other inscriptions in the same character. 
There was one found in a orood state of preservation 
by Captain J. S. Burt, at By rath, near Bhabra, be- 
tween Delhi and Jeypoor, which Captain M. Kittoe 
endeavoured to translate according to the approxi- 
mate resemblance of the words to Sanscrit or Pali, 
as read by himself and corrected by Pundits. But 
undoubtedly he has mistaken the powers of some of 
the letters, and fused the words together in a manner 
that a full analysis of those words will by no means 
warrant. But, whatever their meaning may seem to 
be by combining the words so as to form approxi- 
mations to Sanscrit, the transliteration into Hebrew 
presents a clear sense in keeping with the inscriptions 
already given. 

That such readers as may be qualified and disposed 
may compare the original with the transcription in 
Hebrew characters, d^ facsimile of the inscription is an- 
nexed, as given in No. 202 of the Journal of the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal. The lines are numbered for more 
convenient comparison. The commencement of the 
first line seems to be wanting, the stone being broken 
at that part. The inscribed stone is in the Calcutta 
Museum. A corrected reading of the last four words 



252 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

is given from the Asiatic Journal, 1855, No. IV., 
p. 324. 

Inscription found at Byrath, transliterated into 
modern Hebrew characters : — 

"in ^i^ DHjinni u?^ d;; n^ Dn:)D ayb w t? i 
r.Dn ^D\s riDi mnn ni 2 tjdj-i ^m w >n ^ori 

roDn:) •'inD '•n:^n n^ n:ij< ^:t:; in"' '''?^^ 5 t:;p (t:::^ ^:i ^n:^ 

••n:'' n^ •'^3 D?::i nnn '':)J1^^ Ji'^tr^n ini njrn:)! >^>:)^^^ 
t:r^n HBi id:^; •'3'^ ninn Dinn 8 nirt^ >^^n m3i iv: w 

(1) There was destruction for the people, the Magadhim, 
the name of my father's nation ; but it decided their 
cause, brother ; yea, Badh is thy perfection, a life of 
calamity and pain is thy perfection ; (2) and that which 
is the token of the high-place [hamatK], shall be thy 
mark, even the wrath of Buddha. Damma is the 
name I have devised for the revelation thereof; the 
place of the spreading of thy hand is surely that of a 
high-place. (3) At the elevation of Budhen, at the set- 
ting-up of the alabaster [image] of Su [calamity], at it 
there shall be the sign ; surely it is as a high-place. 
My hotness [wrath] shall be that which is God [Jah], 
whose worship [^damma] is the wall of defence ; (4) for 
to him I have set up, I have set up what is strong ; the 
God of my wrath is wise, mark the sign thereof. Why are 
the portions [mani] of the high-place those of utter 
destruction ? God, my ruin and lamentation are a 
memorial of Kash. (5) The years of the suffering of 
Gath, with the oppression of the times of Gomatta^ 
were mine [or are upon me] ; behold they are set up, 
and the breaking of my speech is appropriate for the 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 253 

going up, (6) as to the hand alike of Moses and your- 
selves. I will greatly multiply you by the exaltation of 
Budhen, by setting up the gifts of the high-place. The 
worship is wonderful, God of my oppression ; these 
are as the waters of (7) the affliction of thy proving ; the 
ruin is a propitiation with me; thy ruin is become 
my possession. my father, their lamentation is the 
calamity the woe of which was thine, but the praise 
of Jehovah redeemeth ; (8) he hath made known the 
wall of defence, even the doctrine of thy Saha, even 
the doctrine that is thine own ; the high-place is my 
might. [Dan. vii. 7.] Why ? Because my sea is my 
rock [or protection]. my father I have dismayed 
them in the name appointed [or, I have made my nation 
their dread]. 

[The last three words are nearly obliterated.] 

We here find a people called Magadhim^ that is 
to say, noble. (Heb.) This agrees with history, for 
Magadha is stated in the Pali Buddhistic annals* to 
be the kingdom whence Buddhism was introduced 
into Ceylon. It also appears, from these annals, that 
some of the sacred books of Buddhism, the Singhalese 
Atthakatha^ were, according to certain peculiar rules 
of grammar, translated by Buddhaghoso into the lan- 
guage of the Magadhi, which is stated to be the root 
of all languages. This is supposed to be Pali, or 
more properly '' Pracrit, the dialect of Magadha,"" 
This word Pracrit rinDn"13 is, literally, the jfruit of 
separation, and points at once to a Hebrew origin; 
and the fact that the inscription just given was ad- 
dressed to the people of Magadha^ affords a demon- 
stration that Hebrew was their sacred lano^uao^e at 
least ; so that we may fairly infer that the Magadhi 
language, said to be the root of languages, was 

* See An Examination of the Buddhistical Annals, by the Hon. 
George Tumour. — Journal of Asiatic Society, No. 67. 



254 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

Hebrew. May we not, then, suppose that the so- 
called Pali is only the transfusion, for the most part, 
of Hebrew roots into Palic Sanscrit, the aspirates 
being softened down, just as those of Latin are in 
Italian. 

The kingdom of Magadha was in Anu-Gdngam^ a 
province of South Bahar. It is said, in mistake, to be 
so called from the Magi (wise men), who came from 
the Saxon country, Dwipa-Saca^ and settled in the 
country previously called Cicata^ from which its prin- 
cipal river is named Cacuthis by Arrian. According 
to Kemper, the Japanese have a tradition that Sakya, 
the teacher of Buddhism, was born in Magatta, The 
Chinese call it Mohiato and Mokito. The Arabian 
and Persian writers convert the g into 6, and call it 
Mabada,* 

The inscription found at Byrath has the vowel 
marks more clearly and neatly engraven than those 
of " Joonur," in the '' Poonah ^' district, and the in- 
formation it contains distinctly associates the names 
Badh and Buddha with that of a people to whom the 
lifting or going up of the hands of Moses was sig- 
nificant of superiority over all adversaries. This 
idea could only have arisen from a knowledge of the 
circumstance recorded in Exodus (xvii. 11), where 
it is stated that Israel prevailed over Amalek when 
Moses held up his hands ; and when they sank down 
from weariness, they were supported by stones placed 
under his arms. This fact also seems to be here 
alluded to. The name of Moses alone, however, 
being unmistakeably found in this inscription (line 6), 

* As. Res., vol. ix. p. 33. 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 255 

is itself a proof that it was addressed to a people who ' 
revered this name. The association of water with a 
rock also reminds us of the rock smitten by Moses. 
The word Badh^ which we found in one of the in- 
scriptions at Joonur, is here again presented (line 1). 
We know that this word signifies the incarnation of 
the Deity, according to the creed of the Buddhists, 
Buddha being generally understood to be equivalent 
in meaning, though admitting of application to 
various persons attaining a peculiar degree of sanctity 
by pious contemplations. The Hebrew meaning of 
the word m, Badh, is perfectly in keeping with its 
Buddhistic use, as it signifies a state of separation or 
abstraction, a standing alone or apart. Our word 
bud expresses the same idea as the Hebrew word ; 
for we find it used to signify the shoot or branch of 
a tree, and in the plural is applied even to princes. 
A like word signifies anything having a new, distinct, 
or original existence. Badh or Boodh is, then, the 
peculiarly sacred person worshipped in the manner 
indicated by the word Damma^ a name for the wor- 
ship, which it appears was invented by the author of 
the last inscription, a word sufficiently expressive of 
dumb and inactive waiting, in consequence of some 
terrible calamity beyond the help of man. The 
Psalmist uses a form of the word when exhorting the 
devout to wait on Jehovah. In this inscription the 
word Bamath, occurs (line 2). This word is onlv 
the fuller feminine form of the word Bamah, the 
name applied by Ezekiel and other prophets to the 
worship in high-places, of which the Israelites or 
Ephraimites, as distinct from the Jews, who adhered 



256 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

to the house of David, were gnilty. Buddhism cer- 
tainly took this form of idolatry, and the word 
Bamath very appropriately stands in this inscription 
as applied either to the system of worship or to the 
place of worship. According to some lexicographers, 
the word is used to signify the high altar erected in the 
place of worship. The word Yoovah is also distinct 
in this inscription (line 7), and could be expressed 
in Hebrew letters only by Jehovah, with a different 
pointing. Gomatta is a name full of circumstance. Pro- 
bably he was the Magian who pretended to be Bardes, 
the son of Cyrus, whom Cambyses, his brother, had 
secretly slain. His name and usurpation are men- 
tioned in the Behistun inscriptions. He endeavoured 
to destroy all the people who knew the real Bardes. 
The Sacoe^ under his influence, revolted from Darius, 
son of Hystaspes (Dan. ii. 2), while he was at Babylon 
(522 B.C.) : so it can be well understood how troublous 
were his times, since Darius mustered all his forces to 
encounter him. As he was a Magian, and seems to 
have been in the midst of the Sacce^ or at least arose 
amongst the Arakadres {Ariaka-ana) mountains, the 
Sacae must have been involved. These mountains are 
close on Drap-Saca^ or Dwipa-Saca^ whence the Sacas 
came into India, as already shown. Gomatta sub- 
dued Persia, Media, and all the adjacent provinces. 
He seems to be the same as Smerdis* There is 
another word, namely, Mani (line 4), of peciiliar sig- 
nificance. It is still applied in Northern India and 
other countries where Buddhism prevails, especially 

* See Behistun Inscription, Journal of Roy. As. Soc, vol. xv. p. 136, 
and Herod., iii. § 70. 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 257 

in Tibet and Bhotan, as the names of those mingled 
heaps of broken things which are raised up in notable 
places and hills, as objects of peculiar veneration, the 
devout always muttering their prayers at approach- 
ing them, and never passing them but on the right 
hand. The Israelites, as already stated, worshipped 
objects of a similar name, as we learn from Isaiah 
Ixv. 11, where the word in our translation is ren- 
dered " number^ Of these Mani further mention 
will be made in another place. 

Can we, with such evidence before us, doubt the 
connexion of Buddhism with a Hebrew people, in 
its earliest appearance in India? From Ezekiel we 
learn that the Ten Tribes, to whom he addressed his 
warning and denunciations, would go and serve their 
idols (xx. 39), and yet he says, "That which cometh 
into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, we 
will be as the heathen." (xx. 32.) Thus intimating 
that, though adopting a new mode of worship, they 
should nevertheless be remarkably distinguished from 
the heathen in general. 

The people to whom our inscriptions pertain cer- 
tainly established a mighty religious system, which 
even now prevails over nearly a third of the inha- 
bitants of the earth. The inhabitation of a divine 
person in the form of Buddha seems like a fulfilment 
of the Israelitish hope concerning the Messiah ; but 
the remarkable declaration of Godama, as preserved 
in the sacred books, should not be overlooked, for he 
stated that the ultimate Buddha was yet to come, 
namely, the Bagava-Metteyo. The meaning of those 
words is not known, but the resemblance of Metteyo 



258 BUDDIiiSTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

to Messiah is worthy of note, and certainly the term 
is meant to desio^nate a divine messenger. The sound 
of these words would be most nearly conveyed by 
i;7[0D-niNj:i, signifying, In the excellency or victory of 
his Branch or Plant, reminding us of the language ad- 
dressed by Ezekiel to the elders of Israel, when, having 
predicted their defections, he foretells the restoration of 
blessings to the shattered flock: "They shall no more 
be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beasts de- 
vour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none 
shall make them afraid. I will raise up a Plant of 
renown [^tOD Metteyo (?)], and they shall no more 
be consumed of hunger in the land, neither bear the 
shame of the heathen any more." (Ezek. xxxiv. 29.) 
A similar prediction is found in Isaiah xi. : " There 
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a 
Branch out of his roots." Sakya planted a branch as 
a symbol and a prophecy. This Godama, or Sakya, who 
is the Buddha worshipped in Ceylon and Burmah, was 
King of Kash, and the same Godama, or Jaudama, to 
whom is attributed the founding of the rock chambers 
of Jenoor (or Joonur), according to our first inscrip- 
tion ; we, therefore, possess presumptive evidence that 
he was a Hebrew. There is enough of the sublime 
and beautiful in the doctrines of this Buddha to 
account for their rapid diffusion amongst a people to 
wdiom self-negation, equality, patience, benevolence, 
and reverence for life came recommended by the high 
pretensions to direct inspiration and the possession 
of Divine virtues, by the contemplation of which 
the human soul might be divested of all its earth- 
liness and lose itself as if by absorption into the 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 259 

Eternal. But still the highest teacher and most 
glorious deliverer was yet to come in the Bagava- 
Metteyo^ which, as Hebrew, means precisely what the 
prophets of the Old Testament predicted in relation 
to the Messiah. It is not improbable that the Bodht- 
tree {hodhi^ branch [?]), under which Sakya is said 
to have meditated, and also the branch planted by 
the relic chambers and memorial tumuli of Buddha, 
and sent from Central India to Ceylon on the esta- 
blishment of Buddhism there, all had a prophetic sig- 
nificance in reference to the incarnation of Divinity 
yet to be expected. This Branch of renown in the 
Buddhist soil, planted as if amidst the divisions of 
the people, is associated with the one wheel, the 
fourfold wheel, the wheel of teaching or penitence, 
the monogram of Godama, signifying Godlikeness, 
the fourfold sign of power around the wheel, the 
sacred tau, the winged bull, and the sacred mount ; for 
all these symbols are seen together in an ancient Bud- 
dhist medal, and the Branch there, as seen at the end 
of our introduction, takes the form of a mystic cross, 
the most sacred of symbols amongst the Buddhists. 

There is reason to believe that some great natural 
calamity, as already shown, gave rise to the incul- 
cation of the self-denying doctrines of Godama. 
Probably some extensive natural phenomenon, such 
as an earthquake or a vast inundation, producing a 
necessary and immediate change in religious ob- 
servances was taken advantage of to enforce the 
doctrines promulgated by Godama. The reference 
in the inscriptions, however, is always to fire and 
burning. But, before we seek for further indications 

s2 



260 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

of the circumstances under which the existing form 
of Buddhism arose, attention should be directed to a 
country named Gath in the By rath inscription, line 5. 
This must be the land of the Getoe^ or Geti^ a Gentile 
name, precisely similar to the Gittite of the Bible. 
(2 Sam. vi. 10, 11, 15, 18.) From this land, it ap- 
pears, the author of the inscription came. Now, this 
was the early seat of the Goths^ and in the immediate 
neighbourhood of that of the Sacce, It is not impro- 
bable, then, that the house and lineage of the modern 
Saxon Gothas, with whom our interests as a nation 
are so well allied, may be traced back to the land 
from whence the metaphysical religionists and strong- 
minded civilizers, both of the East and the West, have 
sprung. In the Buddhistic inscriptions on the rocks 
of India, at least, we shall find that the Goths and 
Saxons were associated in the establishment of a 
religious dominion extending from Bactria to all 
parts of the East. Philologists have discovered 
that both the eastern and western civilized nations 
have derived words and thoughts from some common 
source, called by them Indo-Germanic. What if this 
source should prove to be mainly Israelitish? Would 
not this prove the literal fulfilment of prophecy with 
regard to the influence of the dispersion of the Ten 
Tribes amongst all the nations? We, at least, find 
an ancient Gothland^ as well as a Saxon race men- 
tioned in the earliest records of Buddhism; and this 
Buddhism is, I conceive, unmistakeably connected 
with a people using the Hebrew language. The 
name of Goth, as already surmised, was probably 
transferred from Palestine to the neighbourhood of 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 261 

the Caspian Sea, where the Getcs and the Saca^ the 
Goths and Saxons, are historically found together. 
If, as we suppose, the house of Isaac, as Hosea calls 
the Ten Tribes, went into the country of the Getce, 
they must, according to this hypothesis, have found 
there multitudes descended from the people witli 
whom their forefathers mino^led in Palestine. With 
the Gathites their heroes did valiantly ; amongst them 
Samson was born and trained; from them came the 
giant whom David slew; and from them, also, David 
afterwards obtained some of his faithful body-guard. 
Theinhabitantsof the country of Gath, or Goth, spoke 
the same lanOTaofe as the Israelites. There is another 
people who formed a sect amongst the early Bud- 
dhists, namely, the Jains, as they are now called. 
They were distinct in origin from the Saca and the 
Getcs^ and were probably Greeks, or Javans^ a desig- 
nation well known in India, and probably corrupted 
into Jains. In this origin we obtain an explanation 
of their great excellence in architecture and sculp- 
ture, as seen in their vast temple at Allora,* and also 
of their worship of the fecundating Power which 
was worshipped by the Grecians, or at least by the 
Thracians and Phrygians, many of whom were left 
in Western India by Alexander. 

It is interesting to find that the Gothic and the 
Saxon races are as well known in Asia and the far 
East as in Europe and the far West. They over- 
threw the Greek and Syrian dominion in Bactria and 
India, and overran Asia in the vigour of their con- 

* This temple, witli its splendid statuary and noble columns, is hewn 
out of solid rock and polished in every part. 



262 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

quests, as they did Europe in later times, infusing 
new manhood into peoples become utterly effeminate 
and corrupt. 

The Saxons of the East became nominally Bud- 
dhists, the Saxons of the West became nominally 
Christians. In both directions they have been, and 
are, the missionaries of thought and charity to the 
world. If, as we believe, they were derived from the 
apostate house of Israel, we see those prophecies 
fulfilled concerning Israel, which, as to general import, 
declare that, though absorbed amongst the nations, 
and lost as to name, they are yet the seed preserved 
of God, and by no means to remain unfruitful in the 
earth, but rather, as having amongst them the bless- 
ing of Joseph, are to realize a multitudinous increase 
and prosperity. 

The prophecy of promise said, " Israel shall blos- 
som and bud, and fill the face of the world with 
fruit." (Isaiah ii. 6.) And if that prophecy be ful- 
filled or fulfilling in any people, it is the Saxon. In 
the East they have not been unproductive of good 
jruit, for they not only promulgated a creed that 
promised life from death, but they infused an energy 
of mind into their metaphysics only less refined than 
that of Germany, and a working power into their 
daily life only inferior to the practical industry of 
England. 

We believe that the earliest Buddhists of North- 
western India were Saxons, sent forth into the Eastern 
world to prepare the ground for the missionaries of 
the West. We have proofs of their religious prowess 
still extant in all Eastern Asia. The influence of 



BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 263 

their efforts two thousand years ago is still felt in India, 
Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and China. They broke down 
caste and destroj^ed brute worship, by demanding 
thought as the foundation of belief, and by teaching 
equality and good- will as the ground of moral excel- 
lence. Their disciples and descendants still profess 
to be open to new truths, and they are expecting 
another Messiah. They everywhere multiply books, 
and teach their children to read. The ground they 
occupy lies fallow, but ere long to be broken up to 
receive the seed of a heavenly harvest. On the 
vigorous oiFshoots from the same stock have been 
grafted those buds of the tree of life which shall ex- 
pand until they overshadow the whole world with 
fruitful branches. The Saxon tribes, like those fore- 
shadowed in the forms of life seen in Ezekiel's vision, 
have mingled with the cloud of people from the 
IS'orth, and imparted to races, otherwise too sensual to 
be anything but slaves, an intellectual and character- 
istic independency of spirit. They have gathered 
spoils of language and thought from all the suc- 
cessive races that have held dominion near them. 
They have conquered all the conquerors. The kings 
of Assyria, Media, and Persia subdued them only to 
be supplanted by them. Grecian prowess and intel- 
lect lived only till the Saxon energies were fully 
kindled by contention with them; and now the 
writings of their sages live but to illustrate the 
Saxon Bible and discipline the Saxon intellect. 

The study of the forces inherent in creation goes 
along with the unshackled teaching of revealed doc- 
trines, for these teach men understanding, and to seek 



264 BUDDHISTIC CAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS. 

the laws of God in the works of his hand, as well as 
in the logos of reason addressed to their moral con- 
sciousness. Hence the best believers are the best 
explorers, expositors, and practical workers, for they 
are working with knowledge of God's methods; so 
true is it that " He hath showed his people the power 
of his worJcs^ that he may give them the heritage of the 
heathen" (Ps. iii. 6.) 

Roman valour merely prepared the way for Saxon 
advancement; and now, after twenty centuries of 
social metempsychosis, the Saxon race, bearing phy- 
sical and intellectual regeneration in the manliness 
of their social institutions, scientific enlightenment, 
and religious faith, under the guidance of an all- 
wise Providence, hold dominion over those Indian 
nations from whom their forefathers seem to have 
obtained some of the germs of their civilization ; and 
thus we believe is fulfilled the promise, that the scat- 
tered seed should fill the world with fruit. 



265 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE INSCRIPTIONS AT GIRNAR AND DELHI. 

Before proceeding to other inscriptions which may 
serve further to ilhistrate Buddhism, we may well 
contemplate with interest what we have already seen. 
First, we ask, what is meant by those vast mounds 
and strange memorial heaps of ruin held sacred to 
desolation and to Buddha? We shall find an answer 
at full in the rock-records before us, and also in the 
fact, that heaps were to be the signs of the progress 
of the Ten Tribes in their wanderings, as intimated 
by the prophet Jeremiah (xxxi. 21). Seeing that 
from the earliest period of the Saxons they may be 
traced by similar signs, as we discover in Moecia, 
Scythia, Cabul, Western India, Saxony, and England, 
can we avoid an inference that the Lost Tribes and 
the Saxons were related, not only in those relics, 
way marks, and tokens of their dispersion, but also in 
their origin, as a distinct race? Such memorials have 
always marked the Saxons, until the religion of the 
Highest taught them to build churches. And now 
those churches, in their arched and Gothic gloom, 
remind us of the cavernous cathedrals of Kanari, 
Karshi, Ajanta, and Junur. True, our churches are 
illumined by a more radiant lamp of life than that of 



266 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

Godama; but yet his prophetic branch, and budding 
cross, and expanded lily, and perpetual light seem fa- 
miliar to us ; and the orient wheel, chiselled in rnarble, 
seems uplifted as a window, to receive the coloured 
rays, in which the light of heaven is softened to our 
vision, while still serving as a sign of the preserit 
Spirit that rolls all the worlds along. We ask, w^hat 
could induce those earnest Saxons of the East to 
carve the mountains into temples, and immure them- 
selves in gloom? They, too, felt '' the burden of the 
mystery of all this unintelligible world." Perhaps, 
Avith a terrible sense of the sinfulness of their hu- 
manity, they felt after the Almighty Deliverer, and 
yet, seemingly left only to the deluder, they, with 
glimmering lamps, sought the Author of light and 
heaven in caves and dens of the earth. They be- 
lieved in the Everlasting as the Ever- changing, and 
held their creed with the reprobate tenacity of des- 
peration. To them the humanity of God was not 
the charity that makes men's homes lovely, by making 
worship consist in working together for each other's 
happiness; and so they rested their souls in darkness, 
expecting to become more Godlike by becoming in- 
human. Their devotees taught social duties to all 
but themselves. They must have once entertained 
grand hopes of an especial favour in the sight of 
Heaven, but found their aspirations met only by 
calamity, and so they worshipped that. They adored 
Ruin, and their holiness was the extinction of their 
hearts. They found this life vanity, and sought their 
perfection in abnegation. To them Omnipotence was 
desolation, and the Immanuel they chose for them- 
selves was a mad prophet, who taught them that 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 267 

nakedness and suffering, emptiness and death, would 
lead them to the possession of an eternal state of ab- 
straction in perpetual fellowship with solitude. Thus 
was fulfilled unto them the prophesied " days of visi- 
tation," when " the prophet should be a fool, and the 
spiritual man mad ; for the multitude of their iniquity 
and the great hatred." (Amos ix. 7.) Still Godama 
appears to have taught, with the shadow of an eternal 
truth, that resignation to the will of Heaven would 
secure victory over sin and death. According to the 
Litany of the Tibetan Buddhists, Godama professed 
to have taken upon himself the nature of man, in 
order to suffer for the o:ood of all livin^: bein^i^s, and 
that, when himself free from sin, he also desired to 
free the world from sin.* 

There are many points of resemblance to the 
Psalms of David in the Psalms chanted by the Bud- 
dhists of Tibet. The priest and congregation sing 
alternate verses in honour of Godama, praising him 
as the Saviour from sin ; thus imitating the character 
in which the Messiah is predicted in the Psalms and 
other parts of the Old Testament, as the following 
words, taken at random from multitudes of others of 
like kind, will show : — Priest : " The Illuminator of 
the world has arisen; the world's protector; the 
maker of light, who gives eyes to the world that is 
blind, to cast away the burden of sin." Cong, : 
'' Thou hast been victorious in the fight ; thy moral 
excellence has accomplished thy aim ; thy virtues are 
perfect; thou shalt satisfy men with good things." 
Priest : " Godama is without sin ; he is out of the 

* See Hymn translated b}- Csoma Korosi, Prinsep's Tibet, p. 153. 



268 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

miry pit; he stands on dry ground." Cong. : " Yea, 
he is out of the miry clay; he will save others." 
These words seem like a response on behalf of Godama 
to these of the prophetic Psalms : " In thy majesty 
ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, 
and righteousness." (Ps. xlv. 3.) "He brought me 
up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and 
set my feet upon a rock." (Ps. xl. 2.) Such coinci- 
dence cannot be accidental, and can only point to a 
common source. 

Thus we have in Buddhism a mock Messiah, in 
accommodation to the felt wants of men demanding a 
really divine Saviour in their own nature. The 
records of early Buddhism, the express teaching of 
Sakya, and the symbols represented in the most 
ancient memorials of his religion, prove, however, 
that its first form was far higher in character and 
purpose than at present appears amongst the wor- 
shippers of Buddha, except, perhaps, in some parts of 
Tibet, where, according to the Jesuit missionary Hue, 
the doctrines of Christianity, as presented by him, 
were recognised as precisely similar to the Buddhism 
of their creed. But Godama, while presenting himself 
as a Saviour from sin, too palpably manifested his 
madness by insisting upon a multitude of meritorious 
sacrifices in the form of an asceticism that unfitted a 
man for all the holiest duties of life, and positively 
made him incapable of obeying any of the known laws 
of God in relation to his place, either in the family or 
society in general ; for the very benevolence incul- 
cated was only that of fellowship in a hopeless ruin, 
from which there was no escape but in the entire loss 



268 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

miry pit; he stands on dry ground." Cong, : " Yea, 
he is out of the miry clay; he will save others." 
These words seem like a response on behalf of Godama 
to these of the prophetic Psalms : " In thy majesty 
ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness, 
and righteousness." (Ps. xlv. 3.) "He brought me 
up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and 
set my feet upon a rock." (Ps. xl. 2.) Such coinci- 
dence cannot be accidental, and can only point to a 
common source. 

Thus we have in Buddhism a mock Messiah, in 
accommodation to the felt wants of men demanding a 
really divine Saviour in their own nature. The 
records of early Buddhism, the express teaching of 
Sakya, and the symbols represented in the most 
ancient memorials of his religion, prove, however, 
that its first form was far higher in character and 
purpose than at present appears amongst the wor- 
shippers of Buddha, except, perhaps, in some parts of 
Tibet, where, according to the Jesuit missionary Hue, 
the doctrines of Christianity, as presented by him, 
were recognised as precisely similar to the Buddhism 
of their creed. But Godama, while presenting himself 
as a Saviour from sin, too palpably manifested his 
madness by insisting upon a multitude of meritorious 
sacrifices in the form of an asceticism that unfitted a 
man for all the holiest duties of life, and positively 
made him incapable of obeying any of the known laws 
of God in relation to his place, either in the family or 
society in general ; for the very benevolence incul- 
cated was only that of fellowship in a hopeless ruin, 
from which there was no escape but in the entire loss 






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GIRNAR AND DELHI. 269 

of individuality by return to God. This system of 
religion was probably instituted in consequence of 
some overwhelming catastrophe, whicli destroyed the 
metropolis of Godara^'s kingdom, and rendered it 
impossible to observe the ritual previously established. 
He turned the desolation to account, and gave forth 
Lis edicts for a new order of things. In evidence of 
this, we will now examine the inscription found at 
Girnar. It consists of about 100 lines, in two divi- 
sions. The fourteen sections in the engraving repre- 
sent only the junctions in the muslin on which the 
impressions of the inscription were taken. On a rock 
at Kapur-di-Giri there is nearly a verbatim repetition 
of the Girnar inscription, and that inscription is in 
the so-called Arian or Bactrian character, and reads 
from right to left; the Girnar inscription, however, 
reads from left to right, so that the direction of the 
line seems to have differed even among people usino* 
the same language. 

The Hebrew transliteration is transferred to the 
Appendix. 

The translation is made as literal as possible, and 
elegance has been altogether disregarded, the inten- 
tion being to give the sense of the original in its own 
idiom, not ours. That the ideas may stand out as 
clearly as the literal rendering will allow, each senti- 
ment is given in a sentence beginning with a capital, 
like a line of verse, as by this means the parallelisms, 
the peculiarity of Hebrew poetrj^, become more appa- 
rent, and the force of the "refrain,'* with which, 
indeed, the lament commences, and which is so fre- 
quently repeated, becomes more manifest. 



270 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 



THE GIRNAR INSCRIPTION IN ENGLISH. 

(1) TJte waters are my worship, my damma,* my doctrine !f 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their causey 
Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 

Go forth, diligently persuade them ; 

Dan, arise for their overthrow j 

My doctrine hath broken the Arab in pieces, 

The day of affliction is become the season of life ; 

He heareth the stroke of his ruin ; 

Your trial shall be a life of fatness. 

He heareth I make Destruction Life ; 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction hath become a friend. 

His breaking to pieces I have made thy fruition. 

He heareth the Almighty Lord of the dead j 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 

people, forget the fatted bull ! 

The mouth of Ruin hath decided theib cause 

Whose Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 

The endurance thereof shall be even renown ; 

Their doctrine is established by that which dismayed me; 

Calamity [/Sm] hath brought down the years of the Arab; 

Calamity \_Su'] hath set up the mouth of uncleanness. 

Desolation, bear witness, terrible is my worship ; 

M}' doctrine is that of my shattering to pieces. 

Behold, Arab, my doctrine is desirable ! 

The mountain set up is a law of uncleanness ; 

See, their uncleanness is the longing of my lip ; 

The mourning of the polluted is a sign of my breaking to pieces ; 

Their doctrine, Arab, is a graven statue ; 

(2) The name of the mountain is equity and a time of destruction. 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded theie cause. 

Whose Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 
Desire my doctrine, your doctrine is that of the dead. 
Calamity \_Su'] hath rendered thee unclean, 



* See damma-^ihe law of worship. 

f Or mouth — the instrument of teaching put for the thing taught. 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 271 

On it, on it, I establish my doctrine ; 

Thou shalt be fair, the broken wall shall here 

Become a chamber of perfection by my presence ; 

My Truth shall be restored by Ruin, 

A heap of ruin shall be my lamp ; 

Yea, my Truth is a mouth of fire, 

It shall smite the prey from their mouth, 

My equity shall become their friend ; 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 

He smote that my burning might be the shattering of Manu, 

That my burning might be as the turning away of Calamity [5w], 

That my buniing might be as that of Calamity, 

That my judgment might be as the ruin of Manu* 

Be content, the affliction of Life shall be my festival; 

Be content, affliction shall be a shining light. 

It shall be, it shall be, the parching up of a burning equity. 
The breaking inflicted shall heal the breakiug inflicted, 
The infliction shall be as a circumcision, 
The infliction shall be a setting-apart ; 

It shall be, it shall be, the parching up of a burning equity, 
The breaking inflicted shall heal the breaking inflicted. 
He hath set up the Wrath that caused uncleanness ; 
So thy mouth shall be my lamp. 

My token shall be as the healing of the ruin of my burning. 
Go to, the Calamity of Manu, their change, shall be my restoration ; 
(3) The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 

Destruction shall be a friend of desires, O brother beloved [Davd] ; 

My state being equal shall become their hire, God. 

What then ! is not my doctrine perfection ? 

Their perfection shall be equality, even a ruin-heap. 

That which oppresses shall be thy friend, 

Severe as it may be, it shall be thine own. 

Like the burning wrath [heat], like the Calamity \_Su'], 

Even the Calamity which there they endured. 

my posterity, you shall be a ruin, 

Even I have been made unclean. 

Why is our worship [_Damma~\ a thing of Ruin, 

A thirsty waste that only renders unclean ? 

B}' ruin the Lord of the dead shall kindle them. 

There is nought but breaking to pieces, nought but Calamity, 

The state of the Nethinim is a dreadful renown, 



* Manu is said to be the author of certain Brahminical laws. 



272 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

The fame of their offspring is in their destruction, 
The Lord Almighty hath judged them ; 
Exalted suffering is the law of their offspring, Lord ; 
Be it so ; yet surely thou, God [Jav'], wilt be with them, 
Thou, Lord Almighty, wilt be in their midst. 
The fruit of my speech is Calamity ; 
Is not my life a garden thereof? 

sea, as in the day of thy trouble, thou breakest to pieces. 
(4) The hidden treasure of exalted truth is with me. 
By that which dismayed he has also established me, 
The sacred decree is desired, their doctrine is exalted ; 
Go to, even Life is but Sackcloth ^Sak'], 
Botans, my endowment is Woe \_Su\ ! 
A fragment of my breaking shall be a sin-offering. 
The fame of their offspring shall be in their destruction ; 
A fragment, a fragment of wood, shall be a siu-offering,* 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 
posterity, your worship [damma'] is exalted ; 
my chosen, perform it, 

brother, perform worship ; 

My doctrine shall be the manna of thy fatness, 
The life I have established shall be thy fatness ;f 

1 will myself confirm thyjudgment. 

That, Greek \_Jaont], shall be the endurance of affliction, 

And my presence shall be fatness. 

The breaking of the meek shall be an inheritance. 

And in the shattering of Life there shall be a sixfold Life ; 

The heights here are my safeguard, desolation bearing witness ; 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 

Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 

Our worship is a dry waste, God, an exalted suffering ! 

Go to, the law of their offspring is a living desire ; 

O Botans, Nethinim, my breaking is a pure name. 

The fame of their offspring shall be in their destruction ; 

My breaking to pieces shall be a pure renown. 

How is the course of my mouth a course of renown ? 

It setteth up that, which causeth uncleanness. 



* A fragment of wood, or any broken thing, is now a sin-offering with 
Buddhists, at least, in Siam. — See Sir J. Bowring's Embassy to Siain. 

f This word refers to the ashes remaining after the consumption of the 
burnt sacrifice ; the word is translated fatness in our Bible, but it seems to 
signify prosperity. 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 273 

Calamity is its spring ; the fire of thy suffering 
Shall be the trial and the triumph of thy worship, 
I make thy affliction the joy-song thereof and the sign ; 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause^ 
Destruction hath become a friend. 
Thy worship shall be their joy-song. What then ! 
Thy nakedness shall beautify thee, my doctrine is thy beauty. 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 
Destruction hath become their enlightenment. 
And that is what I have accomplished, 
Why then is thy worship their song of rejoicing ? 
This equality is desirable, it averteth [evil], 
Damma [worship] is that which obliterateth [sin], 
For my blotting out is a complete extinction ; 
Those who worship endure what I have done. 
The dole of our worship is the bowing down that laid you waste ; 
These changes are thy worship, the joy-song of my mouth ; 
My heights are my fires for the bowing down thereof 
How by blotting out am I rendered unclean ? 
That which blotteth out shall cause thee to glory. 
I will propitiate thee, Lord Almighty ; 
Ruin shall be my token, I am rendered unclean. 
What then ! Go forth, earnestly persuade them ; 
Why ? because what made me unclean became a protection ; 
Enough, they are His people whom He favoureth. 
Glory thou in that which God [_Jav^ inflicteth, Beloved \_Davd'], 
The equality of my state is what he hath appointed ; 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction hath become a friend of desires, brother ; 
What then ! Go forth, earnestly persuade them ; 
(5) The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction hath become a friend of desires, brother ; 
Every one of them [desires] is thrust through, 
The glory of them all is become as a ruin ; 
Be content ! according to my conception they are slain, 
God \Jal{\ hath made an end of them ; 

He hath proved them all, their perfection is shattered to pieces ; 
Thy nakedness shall be thy beauty, 
Thy devotion to destruction he hath appointed. 
Surely he hath raised up a sea, a desirable name. 
And total failure becomes a covering, a protection, 
The endurance thereof is my sacred decree. 
Be at liberty, thou mayst be unclean ; 
Be content ! Calamity [<Sw] is a treasure secured, 
For I make the ruin thereof as prosperity j 

T 



274 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

I have made my doctrine a covering protection. 
Be content ! Calamity is a treasure secured, 
For I make calamity as the exaltation of life 
For those who are covered, concealed. 
The hidden treasure of lofty Truth is with me, 
The heights [^Nebos] here are even those of the worship of Wrath, 
The groans of the trouble that is equal in judgment; 
The worship of Wrath is a beating to pieces that causeth equality, 
As to Calamity, go to ! they are flourishing ; 
God [«7aw] breaketh to pieces,* he maketh the woe a worship, 
. . . The sackcloth of their ruin is worship [^damma]. 
Badh, confirm the generation of the enlightened ; 
A dry waste, a rock, shall be my hire. 
Ruin and a mouth of Truth are their possession, 
The perfection of Rain, Calamity and Truth, is my diadem, 
... he hath made it the ornament of the head. 
God shall be my sufficiency. 
The breaking to pieces of Bama-Dan-Budhen-\ 
Shall be both my purification and my judgment. 
. . . The shattered heap before me is as the mount of Calamity, 
Even the mountain of Calamity that causeth uncleanness ! 
But, Lord [Jav], the breaking to pieces shall be my purification, 
Here the choicest part of thy Calamity is its oppressiveness. 
. . . and I have made the Truth their doctrine, 
For the equity of God [Jav] is the breaking to pieces of Ruin, 
Terrible is my worship, my endowment is a thirsty waste, 
. . . the worship of Wrath is a sign that I am unclean ; 
Terrible is my worship [damma], my doctrine 
Is my shattering to pieces. 
(6) . . . My doctrine is a friend of desires, hrother^ 
The hidden treasure of exalted Truth is with me ; 
The heights here . . . these are for your uncleanness, 
And its purification is judgment, 

Yea, the perfection of God \JaK\ is the crushing of desires. 
The high assembly of the people is a vain thing ! 
Why ? hath he forgotten them ? Ah, the Judge hath conceived 
The utter destruction of the pride of the stranger. 
Whose utter destruction shall be like his destructiveness 
In striving to accomplish thy utter destruction ; 
And their god [?] Sw [or Sav\ shall be as my equity \8utk, or 

SavatJi] ; 
His purification shall be the affliction of my thirstfulness, 



* Or persuadeth. 
f The High One, the Judge, the Lonely One. 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 275 

I will deem them unclean, 

The tax of his purification shall be the shout of the unclean.* 

The mortification of my equity shall be as a tax, 

I will deem [him] unclean according to my conception ; 

Who shall be smitten for them since thou wast mocked ? 

Is not the mouth of God that of Su [Calamity] ? 

The sea shall be your destruction. 

And your life shall be equal, 

And ruin and pining away shall remove the uncleanness of Su. 

Surely there shall be, as I thought, a perfect doctrine, 

I will deem the abode of desolation unclean. 

And I will also establish my judgment. 

And the hotness of my burning, that shall be a sea [to purify]. 

Thou shalt exalt those who endure suffering ; 

His purification is a sacred decree, a sea of equity ; 

The desired assembly is vain, an illusion ; is not my law perfect ? 

The withering away of life, the putting to death of the lamb. 

And the smoke of destruction I deem unclean, 

What I have appointed is my song of rejoicing. 

Even the day of the dead, the breaking to pieces ; 

Their life is equal, thy boast shall be a perfect life. 

Clothe in sackcloth, pine away, praise the fire of the dead ; 

And as I deem their smoke unclean, I have appointed a joy-song, 

According to the withering away of your life, the dead being ex- 
alted. 

Boast of my equality, as the life of one broken to pieces ; 

He was smitten for them, therefore my fruit shall be as abundance 
of brethren. 

For when the Botanim, the Aanim, the Sanaim, were heathens. 

How was he afilicted ! my posterity. Calamity \_Su\ was the hand 
of God {JaK]. 

What is my fruit ? The oppressiveness of Calamity ; 

Yea, I conceive that sea given as my sign that J am deemed 
unclean. 

Terrible is my damma, my doctrine. Go forth, diligently persuade 
them. 

For since my struggle became my exaltation. 

What doth your uncleanness produce ? 

Thy nakedness shall beautify thee, my doctrine shall be thy beauty 

The suffering thereof is a high decree ; 

Boast of equality ; Life is desolate, the slain are his ; 



* " The leper shall cry unclean, unclean." — Lev. xiii. 45. 

T 2 



276 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

What then ! where is there a garden -chamber* of fruit so abun- 
dant ? 

(7) The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 
Destruction hath become the friend of equity ; 

Those whom Vanity [^Sav] afflicted shall prosper thereby, 

And the sea of equity \_Savath'] shall be their sea, 

Even as Calamity [_Su'] thereby defendeth thee. 

Why have I raised up a heap of ruin ? 

Behold it is even thy direction, the appointed guide, 

Even thy direction, that is, the meditation of things equal ; 

For surely what I have done shall cause prosperity, 

Even according to what I have done ; 

And the Intricacy thereof is a parable ; 

Lo ! the sea is parched up whereby the Calamity came ; 

As it is perfect [or ended], the sign is sufficient, 

Behold, the sign is the submission of my house, 

The injury, the affliction of the Baddhists. 

(8) The hidden treasure of exalted Truth is with me, 
Friend, lo even burning maketh perfect ; 

Behold, God, the Calamity \_Su'] is [with] the Magian [fire- wor- 
shipper], 

God [Jav], he sufiereth affliction ; 

Thou art my origin, my Father exalted \_Abii-ram], 

My possessions are reeds, assuage the Calamity. 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 

Destruction hath become an acceptable friend ; 

And thou hast appointed my return. 

Thou hast accomplished my aim, the fame of my separation ; 

Thou, who didst produce their destruction, 

Shalt be the sea of my dread : 

The renown of their offspring shall be in their destruction, 

That which caused affliction shall be thy prosperity, 

That which caused uncleanness shall be their song of rejoicing, 

Thy prosperity shall be an exalted life ; 

Behold even that which afflicteth is my purification ; 

humble one, buy sackcloth, humble one, that is their prosperity ; 

Our worship [damma'] is that of an arid waste, 

As is the blood of the fruit here so shall thine be. 

Conduct thou the servicef of fire whereon I have laid my abode 
[boothi^ J 



* Or garden enclosure, a garner, 
t Pojah, so Buddhists name their religious service ; perhaps from H^^Sj 
to speak {Arabic), or perhaps n''")S)> God is here {Heb.). 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 277 

The mouth of Euin hath pleaded their catLsCf 

Destruction hath become their light, O house of Truth. 
(9) The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 

Destruction hath become a cJioice friend, O brother ; 

I have made even these heaps thy direction. 

Because the mounds thus afford a conception 

Of the havoc the calamity produced. 

And fitly they declare the violence of the calamity. 

Even the spreading of the flame of the calamity. 

Presenting alike a memorial of the destruction, 

And also a token of the destruction ; 

As it was not thy destruction, 

These heaps become thy direction. 

Because the mounds afford a conception, 

A sign, of the consumption of life in the ruin, 

The trial [or proof] is raiied up as a trial [or proof}. 

And thy judgment shall be as a judgment, 

Even the lamp of thy uucleannesses ; 

Because the mouuds afford, as it were, a conception 

Of the shattering to pieces of the day of his deadly destruction ; 

Because the mounds are truly wonders in the midst thereof, 

Bec-ause the mounds of ruin are the sign decreed. 

TeiTible was the consumption of life, appalling ; 

One shall worship from a mound, from a mound 

Shall be rendered the thanksgiving of the Sabbath [rest], 

As from the utter destruction of fertility [oil]. 

The fragments of the breaking to pieces amidst humiliations 

Are truly the shatterings of the Lord Almighty. 

Turn to Calamity, for that is the sea of the Lord Almight}' ; 

The renown of their offspring is in their utter destruction ; 

The Lord Almighty was their judge; 

Thy suffering is thy sign, da mm a* is the sign decreed, 

From the mounds their moaning betokens that day : 

My doctrine [mouth] is here the sign appointed, 

For therein is the sign of the calamity that smote my abode; 

What then, Almighty, what then was the shattering of the day ! 

The mounds are tokens that I deem unclean 

The years of the accomplishment of my mourning; 

I make even what he hath done as my mouth. 

The Lord Almighty is the judge [Dan'], 

My mortification is his gift, the sign decreed j 

I have established his judgment, 



* Silent waiting as worship. 



278 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

Endure the extension thereof; 

He decrees the worship [^damma] of judgments, 

And our worship is to extend the injury he inflicted. 

Even the severe calamity of Kuin. 

Behold me smitten of woe, bowed down of woe, 

Alas, that is even the sacred decree of the day ; 

my mouth, thou shalt destroy, thou shalt destroy their feasts. 

What judgment is like your judgment ! 

What judgment was like the destruction of my dead ! 

Why was it mine, Sak ! 

[Or what was it besides sackcloth !] 

Yea, Calamity I regard as the shout of his dead ; 

Since such it is, what should there be besides affliction ! 

Thou shalt exalt God l_Jav'], he causeth uncleanness ; 

Calamity, stranger, shall be my sufficiency. 

(10) The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction hath become my friend. 

Be still ! and both the affliction and its uncleanness 

Shall be removed, and the burning wrath* shall not be. 

The gift that destroys them is your knowledge, ye meek, 

The worship of Calamity [_Su'\ shall be their Calamity ; 

The Calamity, my calamity, is the perfection of worship and your 

perfection ; 
Yea, the endurance thereof maketh perfect in weakness ; 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction hath become my friend. 
Be still, afflicted, even those I have afflicted. 
His ruin shall be but for fruits of desire [longing] ; 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause; 
Those who are equal destruction befriends; 
My failure shall be my fruition, 
My affliction being weighed [as a price]. 
Verily my fruits are vanity, I set them on fire, 
And behold the fruits of my vanity are reeds. 
Ye are as those who are thrust through in the midst. 
Afflicted like ourselves, people of posterity, our kindred ; 
Where is there a garden -chamber of fruits so abundant ? 
Your fruit shall be equally a heap broken with violence. 
And those are our kindred who are as those thrust through ."f* 

(11) The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 
Destruction hath become a pleasant friend, O brother. 



* Or sun-worship — Jl^QH. 
f Like those who are impaled. 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 279 

A parching up is the sign decreed,* 

God [Jah] hath decreed judgments, 

The worship of judgments is a worship renowned [or the worship 
of Shem], 

He hath set up Avaf [ruin], even the worship renowned, 

And therein is woe, even the worship renowned, by his hand con- 
ferred [or given by his direction]. 

What then ! my rest [bootki] is that of a Sabbath as from fertility 
[oil]. 

As to the breakings of my breaking to pieces, 

Why is the course of my doctrine the course of the Almighty ? 

Calamity, Calamity, that putteth to death, 

That is the basis of these my possessions ; 

The renown of their offspring is in their utter destruction ; 

The Lord Almighty hath judged them ; 

The doctrine of their offspring is great suffering, O Almighty. 

As to the signs of the day, my doctrine is the sign here given. 

And by that sign dying is the basis of these things that I possess. 

Yea, rather his purification is a living ruin ; 

The Lord Almighty hath judged them, 

God [_Jav'], breaking to pieces, hath judged them. 

Be content, thou mayest be unclean, he hath shattered them to 
pieces ; 

Go forth as a remnant guided by what I have done ; 

Thy breaking to pieces is Truth, Soundness is Pining away : 

Behold, posterity, he hath made worship \_damma] my rest. 
(12) The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their causey 

Destruction hath become a Jit companion ; 

By the infliction of my law they flourish. 

Even now the smiting of my city % l^^-th established it. 

As to the infliction of the ruin of my overthrow, 

That, Posterity, is become my hope. 

Even the breaking that was inflicted on my people. 

Behold the Calamity \_Su'] of my overthrow. 

Was the cause of the uncleanness of the Danites, 

Even the breaking to pieces of an entire overturning ; 



* Perhaps referring to these words, " When the poor and needy seek 
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth [is parched] for thirst, I 
the Lord will hear them. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, the 
dry land springs of water." (Is. xli. 17.) The Buddhists call themselves 
the poor and needy, and their worship a thirst in a dry land. 
t nin in Keth, HT? Aja. (Job vi. 2; xxx. 13.) 
J Or enemy [?]. 



280 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

The mouth of Huin hath pleaded their cause, 

Because what was done occasioned uncleanness. 

Be at liberty, ye contrite ones, my law is an equal fire, 

The prudent shall prosper; be at liberty, 

My doctrine is the end of trial and judgment ; 

Thou shalt regard its accomplishment j what then ! 

Those who are circumcised shall be for my Goths, 

Since I am persuaded they shall be prosperous ; 

By the breaking of the burning overthrow they flourish. 

Declare these things to the stranger, yea, to him. 

Like the noise of the destruction of Lehi,* burnt of fire. 

my mouth [or doctrine], thou shalt utterly destroy, destroy. 
Like the noise of the breaking at the time of its ruin. 

Or rather my doctrine shall become their prosperity, 

Through the gift that my doctrine conferreth, 

According to the joy-song [triumph] of desires shattered to pieces. 

1 am persuaded they shall prosper; the blackness of burning is hope; 
They shall flourish by Sak [or in sackcloth], 

Even the doctrine according to my thought [or conception] 

Behold, thou shalt be deemed unclean as thou wast conceived. 

I am persuaded they shall flourish, as I behold fruit. 

They shall flourish in sackcloth [or hy Sah], even my doctrine ; 

According to my conception ruin shall be thy life ; 

So therefore am I persuaded they shall flourish ; 

The breaking to pieces of my overthrow shall be my fruit ; 

And, stranger, my dread shall be equality. 

I am persuaded they shall flourish in the house of God {Jahl, 

Therefore I am persuaded they shall flourish amongst themselves j 

The doctrine being a sea is my sufficiency. 

man of sackcloth [*Sa^], repent [pine away], 
Thou art unclean as thou wast conceived ; 

1 am persuaded they shall flourish ; exalt thou JBadh, 
And celebrate the doctrine of my graciousness, 

And ruin shall become the desire of the field ; 

For since by these things, by these things they become worshippers, 

Calamity [<Sm], behold they are thy people ; 

Calamity, Calamity, the emptying of desires is Life. 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded theib cause, who are despised. 

For they equally flourish by the trial of Calamity, 

His fire having oppressed every one of them. 



* Lehi or Lecha (a jaw-bone). See Judges xv. 14, 15, where the burning 
of Lehi and the deeds of Samson are described. This sustains the surmise 
as to the origin of the Getce, here called Goths — Gathites — ''Jl^. 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 2 81 

Moreover, as his fire was thy ruin [lamentation], 

The groaning of the living creatures of God* 

Is appointed to be their prosperity. 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 

Their judgment is the infliction of uncleanness ; 

The breaking of the overthrow, because of what hath happened, 

Causeth uncleanness ; therefore be at liberty j 

My doctrine is a fire of equality ; 

Those who are prudent shall prosper ; 

The trial of burning shall be my token ; 

God [Jav], I am unclean, dread is the worship of thy Wrath ; 
Why doth thy wrath, even thine, cause only uncleanness ? 
Therein who is like thee ? Am I not thine, God ? 

TeiTible as is that which causeth my separation, 

1 am persuaded they shall flourish thereby; 
My doctrine shall be as my dread dismay. 

The worship of Sak shall be my sufficiency ; be Thou gracious. 
(13) . . . my speech is upright ; Thou, Trial, art the seal ; 
Your tokens are the gift which the Lord [Adoni] 
Hath poured out by the hand of Calamity ; 
His breaking to pieces is worship and ruin. 
. . . Their sickness shall be a song of rejoicing, 
Yea, and the manifestation of meekness 
Shall be the drink of his Baddhists [recluses]. 
The judge of thy dead is the guard of thy dead . . . 
. . . Thou madest their calamity the explanation of Calamity ; 
The mistakings of Calamity were their calamity, 
I make the name the basis of my humiliation ; 
Calamity, that smote what pertained to me, healeth . . . 
... as to the things that pertain to me, years are as a day. 
Here have I set my doctrine in a speech neglected. 
And the outcry of my dread is my purification. 
Through meditation of that which causeth equality. 
. . . The years shall be the withering away of Manu, 
But the era of destruction shall be their prosperity ; 
By the destruction their offspring are living ; 
The triumph of thy existence shall be afiliction . . , 
. . . Sak was, and his dying, God [Jah], and then my mouth, 

even ruin ; 
The mouth of Ruin pleaded their cause . . . 



* The word translated " living creatures" is the same as that in the first 
chapter of Ezekiel, where the living creatures seem to mean the tribes of 
Israelites, as shown in our second chapter. 



282 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

My doctrine was the ruin-heap of my destruction, 

... I was equally broken to pieces, ye Botans, 

Their day was grievous [kasK], according to the name [i. e. Kash\ 

. . . Thy exaltation shall be more than thy pollution. 

God, we will deal evilly with the calves, 

As he who made likewise broke to pieces the evil thing he con- 
ceived.* 
Behold it was thy ruin being an imposition ; 
Thy possession shall be thy mourning. 
. . . The triumph of my mouth shall be exalted, 
The triumph of calamity shall be equality. 
My mouth hath pleaded their cause, 
Our worship [damma] shall be Zimf [a thirsting] ; 
The endurance thereof is even the purpose of my parables. 
... A heap of ruin is similar to the unclean, penitent. 
Even my life was a heap of ruin ; 
My life shall be a source of consolation. 
What was my dismay shall be worship. 
And a heap shall be my sea [to purify] . . . 
What even now, to-day, is thy root, Desire, 
From these things, even the ruin-heaps of thy shattering to pieces ? 
. . . Why go for an expiation ... go for expiation ? 
... Do thou equally, the life I set up is equal ; 
Proceed, Calamity, take possession of their thoughts. 
(14) Terrible is my worship \_damma], my doctrine ; 
The mouth of Huin hath pleaded their causey 
Destruction hath become their enlightenment; 
Go forth, diligently persuade ; 

1 have set up a desirable memorial, 
For I have set up what he hath given, 
I have set up the bitterness of trouble. 

And the foundation of my offspring shall be as their equality. 
To show forth the strength of piety .J 

my doctrine, thy strength is even a perfect heap, 
Trial shall be a weapon for the perfect ; 

My rock shall be a memorial, 

1 set up that which is erected as your sign ; 
Pining away, pining away is even perfection ; 
Thou shalt experience that I was rendered unclean, 
My desolation is the astonishment of the age, 



* See Exod. xxxii. 
f Zim is said by Buddhists to be the principle of all things. 
X Or to manifest that my strength is perfect. 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 283 

The shattering to pieces of a heap of ruin. 

Behold, thou shalt be rendered unclean, 

The outcry of the unclean shall be purification, 

My endowment is only that of the fire. 

My integrity shall be for the perfect, 

His prosperity [or his fatness] shall be a fire, 

My fading away shall be as songs of rejoicing, 

And I shall depart ; as to my breaking to pieces [or enlargement]. 

My doctrine shall be a feast of the fruits of his judgment. 

Though there must necessarily be considerable 
obscurity in a document intended to be understood 
only by the initiated, yet we can so far discover the 
meaning of this long rock-inscription as to see that 
the sum and substance of the doctrine enjoined is to 
turn evil to fin^l account by submitting to it in silent 
reliance upon the Almighty. This is the doctrine 
of SaJcya or Godama, The frequent reference to the 
waters and the sea reminds us of their significance 
in relation to purifying under the Jewish economy 
and worship; but in the inscription as here inter- 
preted, the calamity endured is represented as not 
only causing impurity, but being the means of its 
removal by the suffering endured. What was the 
nature of the calamity giving origin to such a re- 
markable exhortation we have no means of deter- 
mining, but that burning and slaughter were connected 
with it is evident. The probability is, that some violent 
assault of enemies, combined in their attack, over- 
threw the established polity and religion of the Bud- 
dhists throughout the whole extent of their dominion ; 
which, judging from the rock-records in the same 
language at Delhi, Allahabad, Behar, Cuttack, 
Guzerat, and Afghanistan, was very extensive indeed. 
Of course it could only be the predominance of either 



284 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

a conquering or a more doctrinally imposing race. 
We have seen proof that the Sacce, being Buddhists, 
really asserted their dominion in those parts, both as 
teachers and as conquerors. We find the Arab men- 
tioned in the first section. This name, however, was 
applied by the Hebrews to any wandering and un- 
civilized people, the term meaning a lier-in-wait or 
bandit ; and therefore, probably, it here refers to the 
aboriginal hill-tribes, who lived then, as they do now, 
by depredation. The Greek is named in the fourth 
section in such a manner as to imply that he had a 
part in causing the calamity inflicted, and it is not 
unlikely that other enemies took advantage of the 
Greek invasion of North- Western India to overwhelm 
the Sacae. Concerning the Goths^ so plainly named 
in the twelfth section, the language there employed 
sufficiently indicates that they were involved in the 
same trouble, and are invited to receive the doctrines 
inculcated on equal terms. It would appear from 
this that the Goths were not the predominant party, 
but the Sacoe. The period at which the Goths and 
the Sacce coalesced in those countries was, as far as 
we can gather from the very imperfect history of 
those regions we possess, about the year 100 B.C., 
when the Parthians, with Scythian aid, restored their 
dominion in Cabul and the Punjab, which had been 
interrupted by the inroads of the Goths. It was then 
that the Goths of those parts became Buddhists, and 
henceforth co-operated with the Sacce^ they being 
peoples, as we have seen, using the same language 
and, as indicated in former chapters, being, from their 
origin and in their dispersion, intiaiate with each other; 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 285 

but from other circumstances it has been inferred 
that these inscriptions are of an earlier period. 
Perhaps the most remarkable word in these Bud- 
dhistic inscriptions is Su or Skeo^ which we find 
so frequently used in the Girnar inscription. This 
word was cursorily considered in connexion with the 
Byrath inscription, and its occurrence in all these 
inscriptions confirms the propriety of the rendering 
there given to it, as the impersonification of Cala- 
mity, or the destroying or levelling power, the power 
that brings all perishable things down to an equa- 
lity. That the state of mind inculcated is in 
keeping with this idea of necessary submission to 
the destroying Power is expressed by the equality 
amongst the materials of a heap of ruin. In the first 
inscription from the " Joonur" cave-temples, given at 
p. 235, Godama is stated to be King of Kasli ; and 
in the Girnar inscription the destruction of Kash, 
that is, Benares, is referred to as if it were the city 
of the author of that inscription. Its restoration, or 
at least the institution of a new polity, founded on 
its very ruin, is implied in the commencement of the 
12th section ; the completeness of the overthrow 
beino^ the reason for the new order of thincrs, in 
which the judgment inflicted becomes the ground of 
worship. It would appear, then, that Godama him- 
self was the author of the Girnar inscription, for he 
mentions the time existing as that of the smiting of 
his city; and that, according to the best computa- 
tions, would conduct us back to a period preceding 
543 B.C., as in that year Godama-Sahya died. We 
might otherwise imagine that Su^ as the name of the 



286 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT 

destroying Power, was derived from the Greeks, with 
a Hebrew adaptation, and that the authors of the 
destruction so remarkably lamented, and yet turned 
to religious account, were Greeks. It was shown 
(p. 156) that the word Su stands on a coin of An- 
timachus Nikephorus^ as if it were in some sense 
equivalent to Nikephorus^ a title of Jupiter, as the 
god of conquest; so that, whatever may have been 
the source of the word as employed in the rock 
inscriptions, we are at no loss to understand why 
Antimachus adopted the word as appropriate to a 
coin to be iised in a country he had conquered, when 
he found that word employed there to designate a 
Power to which the inhabitants were required to 
submit on religious principle.* 

By the play upon the words Sav^ Savath^ and Su^ 
in the 7th section, the derivation of the words is 
shown to be from the same root, which in the Hebrew 
is very evident. Hence the connexion between Vanity, 
Equality, and Calamity, or Ruin. It is probable that 
the worship of Siva^ or Shiva, the Hindoo god, is 
indicated as equivalent to Sav, Vanity, in the passage 
mentioned. The completeness of the Calamity is 
represented as consisting in the completeness of the 
uncleanness produced by it ; but, as it was unavoid- 

* " The Greeks gave the most absurd derivation for their title of Deity — 
Theos ; nor have we observed it and its kindred terms, though obvious, to 
be anywhere clearl}' explained. Zeus is merely Deus contracted into one 
syllable, as is seen by the genitive Dios. Theos, again, is Deus, the D 
changed into Th by an aspirate. But if the Pelasgians called Jupiter Zeu, 
then it is apparent that they are of the same race and the same tongue with 
the Latins, who named the Deity Deus ; and the Greeks, who denominated 
Him Theos; and the Spartans, who softened Zeu into Seu." — "Passing 
Thoughts," p. 108, by James Douglas, of Cavers. 



GIRNAR AND DELHI. 287 

able, the patient endurance of the uncleanness is 
declared to be its own cure ; a notion to be ac- 
counted for only on the supposition of its Hebrew 
origin. This inscription thus sufficiently expresses 
what is meant by a covenant with a heap which 
appears to have been part of the worship of the 
Saxons, who at a very early period visited Britain, 
as stated at p. 173. The idea is that all men were 
to be deemed equal ; and that as a heap of ruin was 
the end of all earthly possession, all difficulties were 
to be endured bravely in sight of that end ; but still 
that, according to the doctrine of Sak^ there was to 
follow a redemption from destruction to those who 
endured in submission to Adoni^ the Lord Almighty, 
a name applied to the Deity by those early Saxons of 
the West, by the author of the Girnar inscription 
(Sect. 13), and by the Hebrew people; a coincidence 
not easily accounted for but on the fact of their 
common origin. In short, the belief in a final de- 
liverance from the fallen state of man, and in a new 
standing, after passing through trouble, death, and 
destruction, by the favour of a Divine Man, who 
himself had encountered and conquered them all, is 
the belief that, however modified, alone constitutes 
the inspiration of all true heroes, and that belief can 
be traced to no other than the Hebrew source. 

This inscription would admit of prolonged com- 
ment, but the ingenious reader who may consider 
the rendering, with all respect now submitted to his 
judgment, in a spirit of appropriate patience and 
intelligence, will find comment unnecessary. 



288 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 

Sepulchral inscriptions are found in the same 
character as that of the Kapur-di-Giri inscription, 
which is nearly a transliteration of the Girnar in- 
scription, which I have again transliterated in modern 
Hebrew characters and given in full. The Kapur-di- 
Giri inscription is engraved on a rock on the side of 
a rocky and abrupt hill near a village of that name 
in the district inhabited by the Yusufzai^ the Afghan 
tribe named after Joseph, and which has been men- 
tioned in pp. 145 and 164 ante. This inscription, 
like Hebrew, reads from right to left. A facsimile of 
it was taken by C. Masson, Esq., on muslin prepared 
for the purpose and applied to the face of the pre- 
viously-blackened rock, and carefully pressed on it 
with the hand, so that every point should be brought 
out clearly. The narrative of Mr. Masson s excur- 
sion for this purpose is interestingly told by himself 
in No. XVI. of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal ; 
and in the same number a plate, representing the 
engraved rock, is given, together with clear specimens 
of the characters and an exposition of the alphabet, 



INSCRIPTIONS IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 289 

by Mr. E. Norris, Secretary of the Royal Asiatic 
Society. We are indebted to this gentleman's pa- 
tience and ingenuity for the discovery of the means 
of reading the Kapur-di-Giri inscription, and other 
writings in the so-called Arian or Bactrian character 
— a character in use for several centuries throughout 
that extensive line of country over which the Seleu- 
cidae and their successors held dominion ; that is to 
say, from the Paropamisus, or Caucasus, to the upper 
part of the Punjab, including all Bactria, Hindu- 
Cush, and Afghanistan. It appears, then, that two 
classes of people at least employed the language ex- 
pressed in this character; one using this character, 
and another using the character found on the Girnar 
rock and in the pillar and cave-temple inscriptions. 
In both cases the language is that of Buddhists only, 
as far as can be ascertained from the coins and monu- 
ments on which we discover it- As, then, it has been 
shown in this volume that the teachers of Buddhism 
were of Hebrew origin, we conclude that they were 
instructors and rulers over two classes of people 
using the same language, but in two different charac- 
ters. The only two classes of people having such 
distinctions and such similarities, to whom our 
researches conduct us, are the Getae and Sacae — the 
Goths and the Saxons — which we know were to- 
gether scattered as conquerors over the countries in- 
dicated. We cannot here stay to prove to which the 
characters respectively belonged; but the evidence 
already advanced, together with much which cannot 
now be adduced, points to the probability that the 
so-called Arian character was that employed by the 

u 



.200 SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS 

Getce^ and that the so-called Lett character, of which 
we have given so many specimens, was that of the 
Sacce. In both cases the alphabets are very simple 
and perfect — the Arian^ like Hebrew, has three sibil- 
lants, if not four, the other has seemingly but one ; at 
least, the inscriptions present no marked distinction 
between s and sh, A curious circumstance, if this 
alphabet be that of the Sacse, and the Sacae be, as we 
suppose, descendants of the Ephraimites ; for the 
inability to pronounce the 5/iibboleth was their pe- 
culiarity in Samaria. It might be shown that the 
characters of this alphabet more nearly resemble the 
objects named in the names given to the letters 
than the modern Hebrew letters do. The Avian is 
constructed more on the principle of the Phoenician 
or Punic. But these incidental remarks are rather 
out of place here, except so far as they naturally arise 
out of our observations on the Arian character in 
which the inscriptions we will now examine are 
written. We will confine attention to those found in 
two only of the numerous topes that have been de- 
spoiled and desecrated by Britons, namely, the tope 
at Manihyala^ opened by General Court, and that at 
Jelalahad^ opened by Mr. Masson. A full description 
of both these explorations will be found in the ^'His- 
torical Results ded icible from Recent Discoveries in 
Afghanistan," an interesting and learned work by 
H. T. Prinsep, Esq., and abundantly illustrated with 
plates of coins, and also the relics and inscriptions 
found in the topes just named. 

Jelalabad lies in the Cabul valley ; there are very 
many of those sepulchral topes there, and also at Da- 



IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 291 

ranta and at Hidda, or Iddo* near Jelalahad. Mani- 
kyala is situated not far from the city oi Jhelum^ which 
lies on the banks of a river of the same name, known 
to the Greeks as the Hydaspes. The tope of Manikyala^ 
which was "first opened by General Court, and after- 
wards more deeply explored by General Yentura, is a 
vast and massive dome-like building. It stands amidst 
many lesser erections of the same kind on the site of 
an ancient city of unknown origin; but, from the 
extent of the ruins and the numerous coins there dis- 
covered, it was probably the capital of the country 
between the Indus and the Hydaspes at the time of 
Alexander's conquest. f The village of Manikyala lies 
on the high road from Attok to Lahore. The tope, or 
tomb, is eio;htv feet hio^h, with a circumference of 
three hundred and twenty feet. It is built of quar- 
ried stones with lime-cement. General Ventura, pro- 
ceedinof downwards from the summit, throu^^h laro^e 
masses of masonry, found at different depths various 
deposits. Thus, at ten feet he found detached coins 
of comparatively modern date ; at the depth of twenty 
feet he came on an urn, or covered box of copper, 
havinof a small box of o^old within, which contained a 
gold coin of the Kanerki type, several unstamped 
coins, and also a gold seal-ring, with a sapphire set in 
it. One Sassanian silver coin was also here disco- 

* Mark the similarity of this name to that of the person to whom Ezra 
sent for Nethinim to minister after the return from the captivity. 

t See Prinsep's Hist. Results, p. 113. A great number of coins from 
this region may he seen at the India House, showing a succession of king? 
from the time when Nicanor, the lieutenant of Antigonus (305 B.C.), seized 
the whole of Media, Parthia, Aria, and all the countries as far as the Indus. 
Greek legends with Arian are found on nearly all these coins. 

u 2 



292 SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS 

vered, having on its margin what Professor Wilson 
read as the Mohammedan Bismillah, Carrying the 
excavation to the depth of sixty-four feet, a large slab 
was reached, on the removal of which a chamber was 
laid open, having its sides parallel with the cardinal 
points, according to the Buddhist custom. Here was 
discovered a copper box filled with a semi-liquid 
substance of an animal nature. In this box was 
another of turned brass, on the cover of which an 
Arian inscription was punctured, and within it five 
coins of the Kanerki and Kenarano type, as also a 
small gold cylinder containing fragments of amber or 
crystal, a piece of string, a small gold coin of the 
Koran OS, and a disc of silver with Arian words on 
it. Another but rather smaller tope was opened 
by General Court about a mile from the preceding. 
Three feet from the top he found coins of the Kad- 
phises and the Kanerkes. Then, cutting do\vn ten 
feet through solid masonry, he opened a square cell 
similar to that found in the above. This cell was 
covered with an immense slab covered with inscrip- 
tions, and within the cell were discovered a copper 
urn closely wrapped in white linen, eight copper 
coins of Kadphises and Kanerkis type, and seven 
silver coins of the Caesars and the Triumvirate. In 
the copper urn there was also a silver one, having 
within it a brown pasty animal substance, a knotted 
string, and also a small gold vessel, having in it four 
golden coins, all Kanerkis, two precious stones, and 
four decayed pearls. 

With this introduction we shall the better un- 
derstand the inscriptions found in those topes, 







f^ 



bo u — >^ 



« ill. ^^^ C/v 



o 

o 

< 









VD 



V^ 



-^^ 



6 



r- 



u 

a: 
u 
z 
< 



2 ^723:: 
^ 00 



r 












-C. 















?^ 






> 



X 







On the lid. | 



IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 29 3 

to the interpretation of which we will now pro- 
ceed. 

The inscription on the brass cylinder found in a 
tope, or tumulus^ at Jelalabad, being transliterated 
from the Arian character into that of modern Hebrew, 
reads thus : — 

ns)T an ^n^y hd -n:in nt^ b':hbi fy 
an o ''HiH) b'l o t:^ip n^Q nn t:r> 

X//?:e ^Ae generation of the deceased, Kadiphesh was 
holy ; their race was that of the Pabadas, abiding in 
the wheel of the Almighty. Why is the covering I 
bestow on them that which destroyeth ? The mountain 
of the dead [i.e. the Tumulus] shall be holy for the 
poor, my Paeadas [scatteeed], even for them. Their 
bows are their covering.^ 

The Kadiphesh here named may be the same as 
the king called Kadphises^ on the coin represented in 
fig. 5 of the plate at p. 156. He reigned over the 
Arian regions, Afghanistan, and part of the Punjab, 
about 50 B.C. The Arian sentence on the obverse of 
his coinage, surrounding a figure which is probably 
intended for Godama, will now be understood, since 
sufiicient has been said to show why a king reigning 
ov^er Buddhists might declare that he worshipped 
according to the covenant of the burning of Kash, 
the seat of Saka (see p. 158, ante). 

It will be remembered that the Paradas are said 
to be bearded (see p. J 37, ante)^ and the king, Kad- 
jjhises^ or Kadiphesh^ is represented with a beard, as 
are also the kings named Kanerkes, who succeeded 

* The word rendered " covering " may mean, a treacherous concealment. 



294 SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS 

him, two of whose coins are seen in the annexed 
plate, figs. 2 and 3. The king represented on these 
coins is habited precisely like Kadphises^ except that 
he has horns on his head, after the manner of some 
Greek kings ; and he also carries a bow slung across 
his shoulders, which affords an illustration of the 
otherwise obscure words of the inscription just given, 
where the bow is called a covering or garment. 
While pointing to an altar with his right hand, he 
holds a trident in his left hand, a symbol of his 
power over the waters ; that is to say, peoples, trials, 
and doctrines. The Greek words for king of kings, 
standing before the name Kanerkes^ end in Leon^ and 
this part of the word is so placed as to give the im- 
pression that it is intended to be regarded as also 
belonging to the name of the king, this double appli- 
cation of words not being uncommon. In the one 
coin, Leon is spelt with the short 6>, and in the other 
with the long, showing that the Greek then and there 
in use was not that of scholarly precision. The coins 
of this king of kings, perhaps Leo Kanerkes^^ bear 
two remarkable words, in the one case being 
Nanajah^ and in the other Elias, These words stand 
at the back of figures of Godama ; that the figures 
are those of Godama we learn from the monogram 
containing his name, as shown in a former chapter. 
The words referred to are in Greek letters, but as 
Greek they have no meaning; as Hebrew, however, 
they are full of significance when applied to Godama : 
for Nanajah signifies the offspring of God ; and Elias 
is the Greek rendering for the Hebrew word Elijah^ 

* Kanerkes, as Hebrew, me-dXis. possessor of tceallh. 



IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 295 

as we find in the New Testament, and in the version 
of the Seventy, well known to the inquiring Greeks, 
and probably to those numerous Greek colonists over 
whom Godama^ at least through Kanerkes and Kad- 
phises, reigned. 

In remarking on coins having Nanajah or Nanaia 
on them, Professor AVilson, in his " Antiqua Ariana^''^ 
traces the use of the term in a religious sense to 
Armenia^ but he does not give us its meaning. The 
apf>licability of the names Nanajah and Elias to 
Godama will become apparent, when we remember 
that Godama assumed the character of the Messiah, 
or at least of his precursor. When our Lord pre- 
sented himself as the Messiah to the Jews, even his 
disciples were in doubt, because they understood 
that ^/zas was first to come and restore all things; 
that is to say, to instate the Hebrew people in their 
prophesied dignity. The names Nanajah ( God's 
offspring) and Elias (the restorer or possessor of 
miraculous power) are especially significant when 
applied to Godama ; for we know that he daringly 
claimed to be what the Buddhists always acknowledge 
him to be — a Divine Restorer^ the very son of God, 
with power over the living and the dead. We observe 
that in one coin he holds a sceptre, like an arm with 
a hand opened, signifying his authority to teach and 
do wonders ; while in the other coin his own hand is 
raised as expressive of the same power. But the 
most remarkable object is the wheel of glory round 
his head, reminding us of the fact that Godama is 
called the Lord of the Golden Wheelj thus illustratino^ 
the words of the foregoing inscription, which indicates 



296 SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS ' 

that to abide in the wheel of the Almighty is to be 
in some way the peculiarly protected ministers of 
Providence. It is worthy of remark that the word 
Shaddai^ in the original, is written or pointed in an 
exceptionable manner, as the word is also by the 
Hebrews. In this case, the letter standing for i is 
turned upside down, and the letter preceding has the 
mark signifying a pointing towards it. 

We now turn to the inscriptions found in the prin- 
cipal deposit in the tope at Manikyala, opened by 
General Ventura. The inscription (4) on the brass 
vessel in which the animal substance was contained 
will demand attention. The precious things em- 
bedded in that substance were gold, pearl, and crystal, 
probably signifying the virtues of the deceased — 
truth, purity, and perfection. In Hebrew characters 
the words read thus : — 

Wy^ Din DDSID 

Thus was tJie exalted deceased also released ; raise v/p 
your heart, the deceased, their healer reposes* in per- 
fect happiness. 

Here we find the mysterious word niran ; but it is 
clearly the Chaldaic emphatic of nzV, light, and meta- 
phorically signifies perfect well-being. 

The sentence on the silver disc (fig. 5) is — 

: 11") 11 l^D p 
that is, A protection from the hand of Badh, even 
Badh; from which it would appear that, like the 
Greeks, the Buddhists of Kanerkes' day thought the 
dead needed a passport to guard them on their pas- 

* The word means " retiring to sleep." 



IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 



297 



sage to Hades — a kind of viaticum from the hand of 
priestly authority. If Badh be the same as Buddha, 
the said silver disc is a great curiosity, being at least 
reputed to come from his own hand. 

The next inscription is that on the stone which 
covered all those relics. The characters are some- 
what modified, and in parts are a little defective ; but 
yet without much difficulty they resolve themselves 
into the following sentences : — 

o -r;;-) uni2 ns^ op □i"' ni cxx 21 
bb^ D11 \)v " ^^^ p^ DJ ^jT't:* 

]D mjran^i i:?> nDni nn ind n I'^nn Tnn ^'p^ai 
p n'?'?ni pn am m'' t •»niD'? 

T)*? n D"i mn D")nD p cd?^'^ 

Contrary [to custom], but unblamed, I caused a vessel of 
blood* to be enclosed. Afire of wood consumed a hun- 
dred and twenty [CXX.] in it; the dead body was 
raised on high by them. Trembling because I also de- 
posited the sackcloth of his mourning . . . sackcloth 
and blood complete ; what was unintentionally wrong 
therein that the exalted deceased exonerates; my trou- 
ble was that of a leader when the heathen people of 
liAM t smote Aphen [the wheel (?) ]; NAGO-Aifoii 
, punished Ram; he smote their stores [baskets] with 

want, and adjudged Tovan to pay a tax that was 



* Literally " blood a vessel." 
t Ram is worshipped by the Hindoos. 



298 SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS 

large for it and oppressive^ and their power \hand^ 
was certainly thus subverted. 
My teaching shall smite, shall guide even them ; and 
thus there shall he nothing hut praise ; the unclean- 
ness of the rebellious is folly, yea even the love thereof, 
for it shall smite, it shall smite them; let us abide 
at peace, O people; my sacred ordinance ^Jiall be yours, 
even smiting of hands; ^the damma \_worskip~\ of 
Dan shall be as exalted,\ the love of Ram remaining 
with it ; and the conqueror of M.A.GOGiiL[^Scythia (?)]. 
wy beloved, was like the pomegranate {or like RiM- 
mon] that is cut off, even my beloved. 

This inscription admits of much animadversion in 
respect to the circumstances mentioned in it and the 
names of persons and places referred to. Why the 
inscriber should use the Roman numerals, and why 
Roman coins were enclosed among the relics, we have 
no means of knowing. It would appear that the 
number applies to bodies that were burnt at the same 
time. The inscription accounts for the finding of 
moist animal substance in the vessel containing the 
relics, and also for the coarse white linen in which the 
vessel was wrapped, since it mentions the deposit both 
of blood and sackcloth, the emblem of mourning. It 
may be asked what was the use of an inscription buried 
beneath such a mass of materials? We must remember 
that the deceased was probably a Buddhist prince, 
and that probably, until some succeeding prince had 
his remains, after incremation, interred above, there 
was some way of access to the first deposit ; for it was 
the custom of the Buddhists to visit the topes at 
regular festivals instituted on purpose to venerate 
and to examine the remains last deposited in them ; 

* The line here passes round to the right side of the inscription, 
f Or, like that of Ram. 



IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 299 

SO that the inscriptions themselves might be read, 
and thus continue as records handed down from one 
generation to another. The interest of those records 
to us mainly consists in the fact herein, I hope, suffi- 
ciently shown, that the so-called Arian inscriptions are 
Hebrew, and that this language was employed with 
some Greek in Cabul, Bamean^ the Huzdra country, 
Lagman^ and in the Punjab^ where similar monu- 
ments, relics, and coins are found. The Roman coins 
discovered in the topes being those of the first Cassars 
and the Triumvirate, prove that the date of the 
inscriptions we have presented must be about the 
beginning of our own era. The coins of the Kanerki 
kings having only Greek letters on them, coins of the 
Kadphises line and those oi Sassanian kings are found 
mixed together in some topes that have been ex- 
plored; and the facts altogether go to prove that the 
Arian language, which we have shown to be Hebraic^ 
was in use as the vernacular language of the predomi- 
nant people of the Paropamisan range^ Afghanistan;, 
and part of the Punjab^ at least up to the third and 
fourth century after Christ ; a conclusion that confirms 
the statement as to the Hebrew orio;in of the Afo^hans 
and the Sacae, who occupied those countries and ruled 
over them until the Buddhist dominion was sup- 
planted by Hindu power and Persian conquest. 

Before proceeding to other inscriptions, we may 
observe that the fact of Roman coins being found in 
the tombs of those ancient Buddhist princes is 
interesting in connexion with the circumstance that 
ambassadors were received from this part of India in 
the time of Trajan, whose conquests extended over 



300 INSCRirTlONS IN ARIAN CHARACTERS. 

Armenia, Assyria, Parthia, and probably even to the 
banks of the Indus. Hence we see how those princes 
might have become intimate with Rome, and used 
Roman numerals, and placed Roman coins in their 
tombs, *in evidence of their good understanding with 
Rome. If, then, the Buddhist Magi knew Rome, 
might they not also have known Jerusalem, and have 
gone up under guidance of their star to worship the 
newborn king ? The journey of the Magi of the East 
who did come occupied a long time, and the treasures 
they offered were such as India produced. The 
Buddhists of North-western India expected the 
guidance of a star to their king, as we learn from 
Chinese Buddhistic authority. The Magi who came 
to Jerusalem from the East inquired for the child 
born King of the Jews, and therefore they were pro- 
bably themselves of Hebrew descent, as we believe, 
from the evidence before us, the Buddhists of Afghan- 
istan and the Punjab were, and that their teachers 
were also called Magi has been already shown. 



301 



CHAPTER XIV. 

INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 

Having seen the Hebrew significance of inscriptions 
in the so-called Arian character on the rock of Kapur- 
di'Giri^ and in the tombs of Jelalabad and of Mani- 
hyala^ three hundred miles apart, we again turn to 
inscriptions in the other character, namely, that 
known as the Ldt^ or early Pali ; though the letters 
differ from the Arian, yet the language they express 
is the same ; and it is surprising to find that this lan- 
guage is inscribed on rocks more than a thousand 
miles apart, as at Kapur-di-Giri in Afghanistan, and 
at Cuttack, The inscriptions to which attention will 
next be directed are found at an intermediate point, 
namely, at Delhi, now so well known in connexion 
with the glorious achievements of our own noble 
Saxons in India. Those inscriptions are similar to 
others found on pillars at Allahabad^ Betiah^ Mattiali^ 
and Eadhia,* That the reader may compare those 
inscriptions with that inscribed on the rock at Girnar, 
they are here presented in the plates annexed, being 
faithfully copied from fac-similes taken from the pillar 

* Different writers have a most puzzling variety in their spelling of the 
same names, but I follow that of Professor Wilson. 



302 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 



on which they are engraved. This pillar is square, and 
on each side, facing the cardinal points, appears a 
framed inscription, as if complete in itself; but all 
those separate inscriptions are repeated as one inscrip- 
tion on the other pillars referred to. There is, how- 
ever, another pillar near Delhi^ known as Feroz's pil- 
lar, which has an inscription in a similar character, 
the reading of which somewhat differs from that of the 
others, and will therefore be given after the Delhi in- 
scriptions. It will be observed that, though resem- 
bling the Girnar inscription in general purport, thesein- 
scriptions differ considerably in the structure of cer- 
tain sentences ; thus serving to confirm the truth of 
our interpretation, and also indicating that the people 
who wrote and understood those inscriptions, being 
so widely scattered, had yet essentially the same lan- 
guage, though slightly modified by situation. The 
Delhi inscription seems to have been directed to a more 
refined people ; and as it was found in a temple, it was 
probably there chanted as a hymn, for it is evidently 
written with intervals, as if to indicate pauses, each 
line being composed in a kind of rhythm. The reader 
will scarcely fail to observe the elegance of the cha- 
racter, and he will see, from the comparative length 
of our literal translation, how very comprehensive 
the original is, being in this respect precisely like the 
Hebrew. In another place it will be shown how ad- 
mirably this character is adapted for the expression 
of any language in a brief and clear manner; and it 
is indeed well calculated to form a universal mis- 
sionary alphabet. 



North. DELHI INSCRIPTIONS. 

3. t.>AUA ^rULc^OX HlXHAXD-y+yAX 
4 HAXLJiC HAX^^XX >!AXn'XX 

5. HAXLrCxl i>/id"i-yw v^J^^G>x 

G. D-y'Ll D-y+^AcT r^^SA^ldiK 6<l'^Xd4 
7. U/rCCd'y L+rCcT A6Xcr yK'ycTHXcSdxX' 

• I 

a A;L(^C:3XXcf HJ-dUXy^^uXAi V\i5'H-A 
9. WG-tfAC t>rlt.(5tJ Xvj:D-'yj,UI D^lc^Dl 

:o. D^di^rVTXj: D"y^AXX 1^51 ex Cx^^Xxe 
I XA-H[; D\;^D -HXdD-'yX ncXxi ^i^+xx 
2.^x^1 xaxdx dn^XL'y ni^iD^x ^l> 

3. d^U">rV LTiJdJ^ (^(5D'HHlAlr+< H-Cl 
14. ?TXX HXlCd"Uai^X +Xll+e-i i>AX"« 
HoX ■■■XDyj6j'TCA X6V^i,ULe-^ d'j- 
cyA-FdXA.XX XdX6XL(:L^A.i! 'A.X+C+6vt!X 
>61LX tX^X-J£-X6H(^ +X±^i">nX.X'b 
a +X1+<A iy'i,LX">lX :X'yCX+-CX :X(5H-Xii 
19. IbTA ^Ui1d"TI>X U6d7t>X"^7X :y"i 

H^jiA^Jliy )Hod/x IqJx ^Dyi >^ 
. -Fjxiiu+ yuXlV^XAv X ^rLOd'^TX^x'y 
tr>X-fx :xyi>^ c-oX+x 



20 
21 
22. 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. \303 



r 



THE DELHI INSCRIPTIONS.— NORTH COMPARTMENT. 

n^ rrriDp-D,'::! n^ ^:^^^ n^D>^ '•n is ns ]::;T n^S) m^n 

^pr^ 'D'^ ^Ti nniT in w in ji*^-d nn^p ;dd"t n^sn nD^n 

••ji^^ m 1:^* i^n:: np'-i :in intr^i □d'^b::; >^s) 

J1p^<1 ann in ^^3i not' d^sd D^i^ ^d "-n.^D^ ns ns a'l^ 

in ni i:^Di n:i^3 i:3,t2Qi d^ no n** ]l^ ^n t:^>^ >S) njir^n:^ 

ld:;) ^' 1^3 ^n ^3 D:iinn ^n^n n:n i^ddi ny "d v^ i:)QQn 

]n n^ linn in: ::r> n^^^ ^n^Dnnb d^ o nt:^ dqi nm^ ninn 

^37 n:n '•n nni ma Dn^3 n^n ^n p::;n p\i; n n^.n 

]3>^ n^n:^ m i:i^ diii r^:^ b:^ 'b^ 03 r^ in mm 

DM nn>^ "^nrnD ^:n:o ••mnn nD^3 '':: LD^^ ^nn: >Dn 

ino;r3 "73 i:]X ninn nn3 HDb "^3 ^^ a::n D^an ^n nlD^* 

wjvn 'PiV ^d;?3 13 a*^:^ mnnn •'n MMinnnn im^n-"Dro 

MDini nn n:jo nn>^ ainn d;?^ t:^^ 1^3 m "•s D:jiin 

DnD\'::n 

mrn ci3n n3 Dn n-an mnin d::^3 i:d n:n mrnn lo 

in: "'t:rKi D\'Dn 

M nDih t:^i< n2n nb ainn nt:^^^ nnnnn ini3 3i m^n: 

"JD Dn 

]nDin r\Dn "-n •''? nto-: m ^n aDD^D^^ n:: >\d: in: '^i^ 

>n^ an 
□n a'on ^n oin m ;:^^^ mot:; ^n"* t:>n ••^sd DDn in:: b^ 

MnD "•n'^3 Dn:n ZDrz't^n 'nn2 -ni^n 



304 INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 



NORTH COMPARTMENT OP THE DELHI INSCRIPTION. 

(1) The mouth of JRuin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction is the wall of the nation, O brother. 
My state and experience and that of my father shall be their hire, 
The waters are my worship ; my doctrine ; 
Continue diligently expounding the wondrous parable, 
Ruin hath procured a pure prosperity. 

God, I will meditate on [or mourn over] faithful matters, 

1 will meditate, God, on the worship thou hast raised, 
I will meditate, God, on the marvels of my hand, 

I will meditate, God, on the woe that Ruin hath wrought, 

I will meditate amidst the oppressiveness thereof, 

I will meditate and the fire which smote shall be my grace, 

Because its suffering, God, is that of my uncleanness ; 

The worship thereof shall be its subversion. 

The worship thou hast raised shall be as established. 

The Calamity itself shall be even a sacred decree. 

And that which I have set up shall be my hope. 

Your language shall be my distinction, 

But put away thy hardness and obey. 

The suffering thereof shall be thy exaltation, 

And ray sea shall be sufficient. 

My sea hath procured a pure renown. 

For unto them who are as those set apart 

The desolation of my stroke is a sign of wrath and of truth ; 

The defence of my doctrine* is living fire, even the judgment of God. 

Whv is our worship a sea ? It is a separation j 

Our worship is also a judgment; 

Our worship is a calamity because it oppresseth. 

Our worship is my affliction. 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 

Destruction is the wall of the nation, O brother. 

Worship the Almighty, for thus do I worship the sea, 

The anger thereof is a lamentation ; 

Behold God hath proved thee. 

Behold the direction is sackcloth, the sackcloth of Ruin, 

So judgment becometh their doctrine ; 

Behold my sufficiency is trial and triumph ; 

The stroke of his infliction is severe, 

Calamity is my cruse, my all is Calamity, 

* Or the zeal of my mouth. 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 305 

Yea, even blood, its suffering being extended after tbis manner. 

wheel ! O infliction of woe ! 

If, my offspring, your doctrine be that which dismayed me. 

As it oppressed, so did it sprinkle me ; 

Thou art the sea, Ruin, I am rendered unclean, 

The waters are my worship, my doctrine. 

Continue diligently expounding, declare its suffering, 

For to them its purpose is purification ; 

1 have deemed thee unclean according to my fears ; 
Ruin shall be as a wall of renown ; 

I made purification my object ; 

As Calamity was determined so I confirmed it ; 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 

Destruction is a wall to the nation, O Brother. 

As they were oppressed I also was afilicted. 

As their waters were their injury so I sprinkle them, 

Thereby my affliction becomes their prosperity, 

The doctrine turns their waters to my sprinkling; 

The water shall be even the fire of lamentation ; 

The groanings of the afflicted shall be his purifying ; 

So the fire that affli(;teth shall be the defence ; 

As the fire that afflicteth is the infliction of Ruin ; 

These are my portion \mani\ the fires of woe are my treasures, 

ye who are their offspring I regard you as unclean. 

Ruin is mine, ruin is stretched over me. 

The smitten, the broken, these are my offering j 

all ye posterity, and ye that are wise, 
From the setting apart that causeth shame, 

1 have made the smiting of Ruin the fire* of Sadh. 
These waters, like the ruin, are my parable. 

Because these waters, like the ruin, are my Distinction. 



* Fire meaning burnt sacrifice. 



306 INSCKIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 

WEST COMPARTMENT. 

an ^n);b nns hd*? ••s) "^b am d'^dh djjih ^d'^ >2^i 

••ni^ >n Di:^ run '•k ti^^ wn:^ ^\DJDll n^ nm ns w ina 

nn^ai^ hqio ')t:^i^ id;^'? •'/id hthd onn'^n ••jis) ni^ nn ]l^ '^n 

DJTinn 131 Dp it:^ i^^n-u^ "tb i:)d:i? ''u;:):ir rivn jt)3 •'^d op 

i:)nn '•qqt •'riDti^ '':d:j^ aT '^'^d ii n:> >^d ^u} ii^n •'m '):^i 

IDjn bn iDJi n ••n ••jip ms) i:i?D:ir d:);; ^jidi:^ m •'ni 

Dn>3 •'^t:; >^3 dd iji ""^d ns) nn^n ^^3 o r));b >nvn i^j^ 

T • 

inrn nbn DDit^ D:ir3 Dn>n;rD '♦/n n^i '^nnn aron it:^j«^ 
^rT'n^^ jii^ ^n •'n n^ it:^ rr-nt^ i3 m;r no id;; h^dd nr^Min 
D:p id;;^ d:)Jik >nvn jtib •'^dd n:iro ^')^^ dji di:^ hdzo 1t:^^^ 
nt:^^^ ^n ^'^ nn ""D dh nrn^ •'n nn3 /ik nn p"^ bn >nK 

^Dix DH yB nnn Mk inriDi:^! H ^n t:;^ injiDt:; ^n n^m 
an'^^m n^^Ji d:i iji •'B ]2 n ri^'p^n DJitir >:)iq nnn'^'non 
a:n "TT njn^v;r •'n^n ^n'> ^in^:) >:pi T-n:! p nrinn\i 
''nr^p:^') am^^ aynbii •'Jidh n d:"t n/T* c^n^^i dji d::;: 
••nvn i^j< Dn ^s w^'b yn t:^> -r"?: nDinn dh-'to dh 

• T 

Ti:; i:d;? 



* Here the words DTn D''^V ^i^ occur on the Mathia pillar, which 
otherwise is the same as at Delhi. See Bengal Journal, No. 67, 1837, p. 578. 



West. DELHI INSCRIPTIONS. 

4. :^:>^6 halXX'H+x +/!js+ h.-^oHoj'a 

5. +y±L4AX^ £lrl.&±L>^ [^Aa^7LU>X(;?. 

6. HI,AUl6(f rVTJ^^ ^TX±^_L.A.X D'>iXxXd 

7. (^Xi^A^X eiiei^L;^' 4^J(t.>Ad uja- d 

8 HODX^/ J^+Cj'l^X UO^Ajy Uj'rClC'W 
9. ci)- >XXlC dJr{:X ACd+I(^Xi^rtA XIWJ^-F 

) dU.XH^DXA6 MoC^ie c^xxdXx IXea. 

1. Hr^^TDXA (^XADX dLuX"HLE- rH^^XXCrCJ 

2. V6ytfX&^+£ ei,L>fLtrArV']-X XlOXHr/jC 

3. HA^OrCA Hc^yl+yXLiAX^X t>Xl"80^+J: 

4. Hr/C.06^^5 HALXX+r :<iA<^X t.t>rC-f^X 

<^xuJ^yxdXx ii^riyxo Mi:xCd"yH<)X 

D-DlDCX^XXr XJA^-rJ"! LA4[5l AX^AA:X"y 

XI ft. lA-fi+j! iPiXuX ^(?xxx± 

Irl;A6laj!.X ?±>uXljX+ Ll<?rt6+6X 
a :iUy lxAlJDX(r-P jX CJAHXDX^X e.^A.d 

20 AdAic^DDydJi rLx'y 5l^<^r/AX 

On ine Mattia pillar these woras are inserted: 
HI 1 6± '?lr- 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 307 



WEST COMPARTMENT OF THE DELHI INSCRIPTION. 

The mouth of Huin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction is the defence of the natioyi, O brother ; 

My state and my experience and that of my father shall be their 
hire, 

The waters shall be my dam ma, ray doctrine. 

Continue diligently persuading ; these things are for thy time; 

Trial, Calamity, a parched mouth, the bowing down of that Cala- 
mity, 

Shall be my tax where there is the name of Ruin. 

my father, sorrow even this of defilement, 
With the breakings of their ruin after this manner, 

Are my afflictions for thy people ; their fire* being unclean, 
Thou desiredst the raising up of portions of the nakedness, 
To be the tax of our people, that the life of Calamity might be re- 
deemed ; 
Arise and redeem their lives; they endure an extension of th}' 

calamity ; 
They bemoan the calamity of my burning, 
My burning oppresses those who are with me. 

1 have made my worship thy recompense. 

Even that which I have also made a lamentation, 

people, those who are humble are the redeemed. 

The afflictions of life are your perfection, suffering is your per- 
fection, 

1 bring forth my experience, the wonders of my wrath are for your 

time. 

My perfect purity was a sign from the setting-apart of their doc- 
trine ; 

Arise, then, my posterity, my purification is perfect, 

I have made my doctrine as my possession. 

Even that which I also made a lamentation ; 

The afflictions shall be for thy time ; 

The society I produced is accordingly a sign 

That I deem life as perpetually unclean, 

And my sacred decree was ruin, the time thereof being ruin. 

My dread shall be his fire who is rendered unclean. 

And my decree is, according to their seasons, perpetual. 



* Perhaps meaning that burnt sacrifice- was unclean, or it may refer to 
the fixe which the Buddhists, like the ancient Isjca^lites,. preserve in their 
temples to signify their life before God. 

s:2 



308 INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 

Calamity is yours, painful is the vision thereof ; 

After this manner the cutting oflf of thy people is a defence. 

The life of calamity as a ruin redeemeth the humble, 

Ruin is the token I have selected ; 

A perfect name shall be his fire who is unclean, 

Alas, a portion according to the portions of the nakedness I ex- 
perienced ! 

I bestow them on his people for their possession. 

my father, sorrow and this defilement. 

With breaking of ruin after this manner. 

Are theirs for signs that Life is a lamentation [or a ruin]; 

Fire of affliction and ruin was the pain that slew thee ; 

Since mortification was thy doctrine, 

One shall be judged by that which slew thee. 

These are the tokens of Bamah-Dan-Budhen, the portions of 
the years. 

Consider [or build up] this threefold sign,* my doctrine is the sign 
of the judges [or the Danites]. 

Thou shalt be removed and their years ; there shall be ruin enough ; 

Behold I give thee my possession, my wrath shall be appeased, 

The overturning of ruin shall be their recompense, 

Their judgment shall be the breathing of perfection and repose. 

That which was my wrath shall be your separation, 

And they shall flourish even according to my earnest desire ; 

They shall be according to their life ; my doctrine being produced 
as a defence [or wall]. 

Thy life shall be as a marvel of perfection. 

J have produced my experience, our people of Sak, 

And behold [the Greeks (Jivanim) being indeed compelled] f 

My ordinance shall be also the religion of all ; 

That is the sea, the equal judgment, whereon I have meditated. 



* Or TT'mitj—Teleth (?). 
f This occurs only in the inscription on the pillar at Mathia or Mattiah , 
which in all other respects is similar to that at Delhi. 



Soutk. DELHI INSCRIPTIONS. 

1, '>6XUa. L.JL>rb -Je Ui-H Cr A^dSdjKbfl 

3. rV+ rCJ-F >1JJL d+5+ UrL ±^5^"] AJ-C 

4. 8^-FH•l:>+t^-F It' HXO+al i> 6Ju + 

5. AAi^L^c^ ^-tfcbi +bCfi/vL+ u±^^Xb^] 

6. rUiJ+ 1+LP UOrLA A.A+tX A« + LA 

7. riidAU^ vLU(i.fA-it>A ±d7^JuX H£-FXJl 

8. >/+d ^y^+-Jd Ar/X6tJoy'X6 H6DJI.LA+ 

9. Cd+1 Hri^^'rC^ 6D'+X< i+Cc^X AA^X^i 

10. XrXA(^X ^iHXo-X.6 6CX.3u6 IKXAc^X 

11. ^ix^j xi^r^Ac^x /Cx(rAyXx XXx.i^.xhr^x- 

12. XI^6XX (f<)'P^ CXHX biUSX D6Xd' 

13 MXX^O•«a)Hi[^X Xt(^+A(^J. WXX5^AXi 

14. IA6XC ^6C.?aX XXHXIC ^6X+XI 

15. XUAc^Xl Hoi^L^X d"4>XX bXHXX ' XXX 

16. VIAXX A.d'AbrXxX ^A'iX AXXl^J7A(^X 

17. He+ t>^X X+^ t>6CHX i^TXA XiOTA^X 

18. J^XX t^X6l^X d"Ay^X aA:yXL7X H^XAXX 

19. jqX XtCc^X XiX[:^c?xX6X Hr/XAX"y ^AX 

20. haJ-^^x UXi'XA aDXV7X+eX 

ADDED TO THE ALLAHABAD INSCRIPTION. 

">5X CX Xi dXXXiAiUbA 
4A(^X OXA ^XXX>^X?X 
E CT6 / X(5 HXHi >XXOI> 
-f^(^A±XAX "^AX XXXHi 

>Axx i'ix aXa oy/. ^<5+x 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 309 



SOUTH COMPARTMENT. 

nrn r^b^n tid hd^ t:^Dn ijpD ]n ^^ n^^^t:^ imt:; 
T'mn iHD i^HDiD i:i< ''21 i^"?? hdi D^^ iin;? 

JiiisriD a:) nnsnD nnt^^n n::;'?^) nn nsD in 11 d::^ 

'22 i;r^^ ''n> n 13:1 ^tm^ n^n d:i nan nsj "'n ns3 no it^r 

1J13'' n^>^ im •'D'' •'31 "'^u:) ybD nu;'^ ^2^? 

in^;;-.u^::rn •'m nrna n:n ntn-nb ini it:;'' na nt:;?^ ^:p -|>3 

^n >iji ein n:m •'n t:;*' '^n^^ ^n nazo n:i< n 'n ^^n ^1 n^r^ 

' T • • T ' X 

'nw ]D'' nD DDD It:; '•n^n •'iJi t:^** nh ]n m*'^;; ]n in^^y 

•'jiD*' t:;^ nD piS) D^ ^'> 
1>n nn ^n niE) n3 Dt:/a p3 ]t:;n ^^p^ '^^m n: 
^:n>* ''n ^in im •'B n:in >n mj^ ppt2 ddio Dt:; nsn •):]h^ 

"^^m m "-n 
•»:); ^\y;^ y >h) ^:i: dj< ^t •'t:;:) nanr it:;> n:):! 
^ntj; '»n>n nt:^n 1:3 n^ ]i^i ip >n na3 >d io>^ •»:); ••iji nn n:)n 
in n:n ''n t;> 1 n it:; nmt:; t:;-* nD Dha it^^'-n in it:; 1: 13 

' T 

^n '•in '^^b ^^22 
>n •'in ''d'? >i:n >ji> ^d'? >::in dk •'3 niN b^ n^ i^x ']yi^ 
nD3 t:;^ nD dijid >n t:;^ nD ana t:;n v in: 13 \n nt:;^n 

nt:; pn-t:; it:;^^ ^n 
••n nnN nn^jin t:;** •»ni^-t:;i >nnt:^i ••nat:; in'' mi nra n:n ]2b 
••^no op nDn p^ ''nt:; >i: Dn >n ^a 'b nDi^ 



310 INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 



SOUTH COMPARTMENT OF THE DELHI INSCRIPTION. 

(1) The mouth of Huin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction is the defence of the people , O brother ; 

My state and experience and that of my father shall be their hire. 

These are my portion, people, these are ray hire ; 

My injury is my strength ; as that which polluteth hath sprinkled me. 

Your calamity shall be your rest ; God \_El\ 

Behold according to thy burning shall be the Wrath* of the years. 

That which afflicteth, this is the revelation of thy times ; 

If weeping be your distinction, meekly submit. 

Who endureth my uncleanness as from Him, praiseth Him, 

Yea, He only who smote shall be your purifier. 

Who thus are His people, as He purifieth whom He afflicteth, 

Lest he who is debased forget the name that is in thee. 

Oh bow down, yield ; He maketh the prostratef as the excellent, 
yea as the excellent. 

Shatter Vanity, buy Ruin, even my purification; 

Go to, behold thy affliction was also with me. 

That shall be your wood [or tree], my posterity. 

Your perfume, the setting of your weapon ; 

Lamentation is my defence, my doctrine is woe. 

Your beauty shall be destruction, your mouth shall be my possession. 

What shall be your trespass-offering ? Even such a thing as this ; 

Behold it shall be even a ruin like this ; 

Thou shalt be regardless that it is a mere ruin-heap j 

Behold what is frail is a token of ruin ; 

Be polluted, endure the uncleanness of ruin, 

For behold, even life is but a ruin. 

And lo frailty is the token of ruin ; 

Behold the heaps of it, behold the heaps of it, 

Here are tokens of ruin, my calamity was as complete. 

Why was my calamity a sea within ? What is the sea P 

"Wandering to and fro and years of waiting for prosperity ; 

By the name within, ruin, the pollution of your ruin procureth puri- 
fication. 

The suffering thereof beautifieth those whom wretchedness hath 
polluted. 



* Cham or Ham — wrath, hotness, blackness, 
t One who wallows as in the dust. 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 311 

Behold the strength of Ruin is my doctrine and yours j 

Ruin was my token, Ruin was my endowment. 

Both that and the years of music [?] shall be yours ; 

And the extension of my Ruin shall be gold, 

Though my doctrine, posterity, be a heap and the smiting of my 

ruin. 
Behold wrath [or heat] is the token of my ruin, 
I was rendered unclean by the pouring out of ruin ; 
Wait for the acceptance of God, the shame of ruin is within; 
You shall disregard the ruin, lo calamity is here a pleasant abode ; 
My calamity is as perfection ; why is their calamity a calamity ? 
That which is even a ruin shall be a meditation ; 
Lo, my posterity, the signs of ruin are yours ; 
Your tree, your fruit, is the fulfilment of every desire of my mouth ; 
If, my posterity, it be yours, posterity, the signs of ruin are for 

you. 
You shall forget the ruin, here calamity shall be a pleasant abode. 
The ruin shall be as that which maketh perfect. 
Why is ruin like perfection ? What is the pouring out of ruin ? 
His fire is that of meditation which shall therefore be like this, even 

ruin. 

God, my state and experience and that of my father shall be their 

hire; 
Thou, Ruin, art Truth to me because thou art a ruin ; 

1 have made wrath my habitation, O Budhen; 
These are my possession according to my idolatry.* 



* Or, as he hath sprinkled me. 



312 INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 



EAST COMPAKTMEKT. 

"^^2 nn HHK HDinn aynb ^'^ i^s rvn "•s Q^nn 

rwp iibn njiB hd^ ^s) ^^ ddi Dn:inn ^'^ •'n^^-t:r i 

nsn ns) m ddt dji dd ntn ^^^^ Dn-t:^n ••nnj •)::; n"'n 

ornin CDiDX ^hd:) inns ^nijm /inn nu^p nSn nDinm 

tt:; DroHD «^^* nDinrr it:^ ]n a^'> ^ns nDinn it:; nvnj 

Dnrr ^;!:n pi id^oji >n''Dn ')^^ Dp it:; '•^pDD o 

nr\y J13 Dn^3 na di:;s) nit:; ^"TD^ inns it:; ^n ny^ r^w^ 

in d:i ^3 IDS n:nj^ a^on iDi< n> ay ns ••nii 

D:ir)n t:;'' UK"t:;i ''nnt:;i ••nat:; jionDD^ nDt:;n 

nj-)3 nD^ "^s "'^ D^i D^Dn 

/ID ••n^^ \n nni^ noinn d;;^ t:;^ n^9 %n ^3 D^iin 

n^n a:; D^'QtoD It:; ■'d nD nDinn nt:;n ]n D:i;n^ a"? jij^ 

n"» n iDDn n'^ns i^ i:i>< ]n d;; n^^n n^ nni n^ m ddi 

nni< nDinn a^^nb t:;^ t3 ••n "'3 D^iin ar\i^ nnro m 

Dt:;^ 

nzn ayb w •'D nD nDinn d*? d/ik idddd ''Jik no^ in 

n:n d;; d^dzo d 

n-'ns 1^ i:k n:n d;; nD:in •'nnnni n> n idd"t n>n3 ^b ^2i^ 

n> d;;3 n3 i:ik n:n d:i; it:; ]yvr\ nDi:^ m n^ n iddi 

^:p It:; p ^Ji^ nn i n^ n iddt n^n3 ^b 1:^^ njjn ay nm o 

ti;> T3 'n ^3 D:iin Dn^^ "n^ n iddi Dn \n nor n^ 

nDinn Dj/n*? 

i^DDi •'D n''n3 nit:; >:: i^ ddi nDiD in nDt:;^ nni< 

^^^Diot:; 

]:iTK "'/It:; ^d;;3 ^ns i:i< ini^ mn d;; D/^^^ >nDt5r2; i^j< 

••/It:; >D 



East. DELHI INSCRIPTIONS. 

2. Art Hr/r^AXly D-y-jXjJLA ^ + rL 

6. 4y-f^^'|- H6C.VA AOdc^-^C.y' V66 

9. ;L"y"« 1 «A r'oF'irLXirt Hr/ftA.L"y 

10. ■jtD-yjL JtCa 

11 ■';36±tX tJL>X X& "Ui . H-c xhX+a 

12. HAJ- X£-l UrL Vi-.C^rV +0- £± 

13. O-yAc^ul. i3X ±df-l H_L^GX D-«A<^X 

14. i(^G> AA >5±CX Cxt>X X& VAHi; ^A.y 

15. l/C> HX+Ad HAJ- XA- ■:cErV ^61+ 0-&1 

16 H±JLX OWAc^X 6(^XA la&l HXJCX 

17 ay6(^X Ado- X-f±^£-l Hi^LdL&X 

18. ^u^ &1 Hj,^cxa-"WA<iXiaxX +±a^+I 

19. H^ ^WXl^ D'HAc^XA AAl^AlCX tXiirtJ&U- 

2a H-C Arl"H>o DW^All rCilXy" Dtf_L,rLG>l 

21. yi±ii\/ i>A&i rVA. H_^La^^XH(I;■li/xA 



1 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 313 



EAST COMPARTMENT OF THE DELHI INSCRIPTION. 

^ The mouth of JRuin hath pleaded their cause. 
Destruction is the defence of the people, brother, 
A shameful defilement, even that, my father, shall be their hire. 
Go on diligently expounding my damma [law of worship], ray doc- 
trine, 
Boast of its hardness, the life of Calamity is as a ruin ; 
That is perfection, yea the vision is perfect ; 
Perfect is the worship [damma'] that is alike the doctrine and the 

defence. 
Boast of its hardness, the dread and the affliction of his purifying 

were my earnest desire ; 
I was rendered unclean, the waters are the lamentations [JIVH^] 

of calamity ; 
My breaking shall be called the wall of defence ; 
Lo the Calamity is the defence, even though Calamity cause un- 

cleanness. 
For the calamity arose from my possessions ; 
Or rather my burning thou shalt deem thy uncleanness. 
And then the hotness of the burning, and the equality of the ruin 

inflicted, 
The calamity, shall become its purification ; 
As from the equality there shall be prosperity, 
Through it the present breaking to pieces becomes their doctrine, 
Yea and the breaking to pieces of the people of God shall be my 

sufficiency. 
Where shall I bestow the waters, that flow out of my mouth ? 
Behold, even desolation shall be very desirable, 
My state and experience and that of my father shall be their hire. 
Go on, diligently pei'suade, the waters are my damma, my doctrine. 
The mouth of Huin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction is the defence of the people, O brother, 
Ruin is my sign, a shattered thing shall be a sign for them ; 
For the people, behold silence shall be the wall of defence. 
Why ? Because of the calamity, as the people are as those who are 

deemed unclean. 
Behold the worship is even that of God [JaA],for the hand of God 

hath smitten the nation. 
Behold the suffering thereof shall be their Pojah,* 



* The religious service of the Buddhists is called Fojah [here God is (?) ]. 



314 INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 

The worship \_damma] is even that of God [Jah~\, 

Yea, even that which hath made you unclean. 

The mouth of Huin hath pleaded their causey 

Destruction is the defence of the people ^ O brother , 

The trespass-offering shall be the life of him who is unclean, 

I [or my sign] will be as your security, I will make the wall of 

defence complete for them. 
Why ? Because of the calamity of the afflicted people, 
The people are as those who are rendered unclean ; 
Behold the suffering thereof shall be their Pojah ; 
The worship [damma^ shall be even that of God, 
Since the hand of my God hath smitten the people ; 
Behold the suffering thereof shall be their Pojah ; 
The worship is even that of God, even that which causeth unclean- 

ness, 
Which is certainly the calamity of the people ; 
Behold the suffering thereof is the purification of him who cries out 

unto God; 
Because the people are withering away ; 
Behold their suffering shall be their Pojah ; 
The worship is even that of God, even the hand of my God ; 
Surely calamity shall be my possession [or my establishment]. 
Attend, consider, the Ruin, the Burning, the worship also, are as to 

you those of my God ; 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 
Destruction is the defence of the people^ O brother , 
The trespass-offering shall be the life [or showing] of him who is 

unclean ; 
The worship is equal, my posterity, the mouth [doctrine] of my 

sea is equal, 
Our worship is that which hath made me unclean. 
As to you, people, the suffering thereof that is my renown [or my 

heaven]. 
Behold their calamity, I make the suffering thereof my purification 

perpetually. 
Attend unto what I have accomplished. 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 315 

The inscription on the pillar at Allahabad is simi- 
lar to the inscription at Delhi^ with the exception 
that five short lines are added at the foot of the pillar. 
These lines, when transliterated into modern Hebrew 
characters, read as follows : — 

nriDm nw r\^T^ iit^ r^^r\ ••s) nTnr\ 
\i ^:) iJiD"^") ''•'Jiri ^n •'nn n''r\'' •'•'m 

The mouth of Huin hath pleaded their cause ; 

Behold thy Vanity ; Equality and Wrath are alike God's signs ; 

God's decree is ruin, my uncleanness is ruin, 

In it hath he judged the people, their God is my hope. 

Even the Judge of the mouth that is defiled. 

Because that thou, Ruin, art become my garden ; 

As to my defilement, God [Jah]. 

Those who are my posterity desire my ordinance, 

The defilement of ruin shall be my endowment, 

And for their dead is it appropriate because it is ruin. 

Though these inscriptions express the same general 
notions as to the instruction to be derived from the 
contemplation of calamity and the destroying power, 
as the inscription on the rock at Girnar, yet the Delhi 
inscriptions contain no such direct allusion as the 
Girnar inscription does to any catastrophe to the in- 
fluence of which the Buddhistic doctrine of entire 
submission to calamity and uncleanness may be traced. 
We find, however, reference to the fact that the 
father of the author of those Delhi inscriptions had 
substituted the making of heaps of ruin by the 



316 INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 

people instead of offering sacrifice* in consequence of 
the fire of sacrifice having itself become unclean; 
which may be explained on the Hebrew prin- 
ciple, that any fire but that which was derived 
from the altar on which God Himself had kindled 
it, was not to be employed in burnt offerings. It 
was for despising this condition, and offering 
" strange fire," that Nadab and Abiram were de- 
voured by fire from heaven. The priests Avere to 
take fire of burning coals from the altar, where it 
always burnt before the Lord.f Circumstances had, 
it appears, rendered it impossible for a proper sacri- 
ficial offering to be made, and hence the institution 
of presentations of broken things instead of burnt 
offerings, which have continued amongst Buddhists, 
in token of their humiliation, from that to the present 
time. If, then, the Buddhistic doctrine and mode of 
worship were devised by Godama or Sakya, he was 
the father of him who promulgated the sentiments 
expressed in the Delhi inscriptions, which therefore 
must have been made public immediately after the 
inscription at Girnar; which, from internal evidence, 
appears to have been produced by Godama himself, 
since it not only promulgates a new law and order of 
things, but also gives the reason for this change in 
the overwhelming calamity which it describes. In 
the inscriptions both at Delhi and at Girnar the 
mouth of Ruin is said to plead for the people ; but 
in that of Girnar, Destruction is said to be their en- 
lightenment; while in that of Delhi, Destruction is 

* West compartment, 
f Compare Lev. xvi. 12 ; Lev. ix. 24 ; Lev. x. 1 ; and Exod. xxx. 9. 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 317 

declared to be their wall of defence: a difference 
arising probably from the fact, that Ruin and De- 
struction had not only raised the religious character 
of the people, by the religious reflections which cala- 
mity is always found to inspire, but that the state of 
equality which general poverty produced had proved 
advantageous to their peace and piety, and that their 
destitution had really defended them from their foes. 
" The mouth of Ruin " is an odd phrase, but it is 
quite in keeping with the Hebrew mode of expression. 
As used at Delhi, it probably had especial reference 
to the law which required the idea of ruin to be as- 
sociated with the decease of Sakya, whose relics had 
probably at that time been distributed in topes or 
sepulchral tumuli in the various districts where his 
religious teaching had been adopted. It is remark- 
able that those monuments are erected, for the most 
part, amidst evidences of natural convulsion, where 
rocks and ruins abound, as at Bhilsa, for instance. 
The Delhi edict, or whatever it may be called, was 
probably sent forth on the occasion when Ajatasatta, 
twenty years after Sakya's death, re-collected the 
fragments of his remains which had been distributed 
in different districts, and erected over them a great 
stupa or tope at Rajagriha, Sakya's body was burnt 
in a metal oil vessel, and the remains, after being 
worshipped by the people for seven days, were distri- 
buted to eight provinces, which had sought the 
honour of possessing some fragment over which to 
build a tope, around which worshippers might as- 
semble at stated festivals to venerate their emanci- 
pated Buddha. But Ajatasatta^ being king of Ma- 



318 INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 

gadha^ was instigated by his priestly advisers, doubtless 
with a view to centralization, to claim all the sacred 
relics for his own, and to make them the treasure 
of his OAvn land, with all the avidity which such 
worshippers have always evinced for such remains. 
It is not unlikely that this king of Magadha^ the 
immediate successor of Sakya^ may have acquired 
his surname Ajatasatta from the very zeal with which 
he promoted the worship of those remains, for there- 
by he aspired, doubtless, to honour himself in his 
father's name as the setter up of Ruin ; for the cogno- 
men Ajatasatta^ by which alone history has handed him 
down to us, as Hebrew, signifies this. In assigning 
the pillar inscriptions to Ajatasatta^ however, I must 
acknowledge a difficulty, in consequence of reference 
to the Greeks, who are not supposed to have had in- 
timacy with India until long after his reign. Possi- 
bly, however, Greeks may have been in India, as we 
know they were in Scythia, before Alexander's inva- 
sion ; or possibly reference to the Greeks may have 
been inserted where it occurs after that period. 
Certainly the circumstance that they are mentioned 
as expelled, or compelled, in the Mattiah inscription, 
is against this hypothesis, and would rather point to 
Chandra- Gupta^ who founded the Maury an dynasty 
of Magadha^ and established his sway throughout the 
Punjab and from the Indus to the mouths of the 
Ganges, after the complete expulsion of the Greek 
troops of Alexander.* This was in 316 B.C. At 
this period the capital of India was Palibothra^ which 
Megasthenes informs us was nearly nine miles in 

* " Auctor libertatis Sandrocottus fuerat." — Justin, xv. 4. 



INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI. 3 1 9 

length, and two miles in breadth, being surrounded 
with wooden walls pierced with loopholes for the dis- 
charge of arrows.* This name Palihothra appears 
to me to be an epithet rather than the real name of 
the metropolitan city; for, as a Hebrew word, it means 
''''the wonder of the separated [nation\''^ and might 
apply to Magadha or to Kash (Benares); both of 
which were worthy of the distinction, as successively 
the centres of Buddhistic piety and power. As 
Palihothra was the capital of Magadha^ it probably 
took different names during the various dynasties 
that governed that country. This, however, is the 
striking point in relation to those names, Palihothra^ 
Kash^ and Magadha are all of Hebrew significance. 

* Arrian, Indica, x. and Strabo, xv., both quoting Megasthenes,] 



320 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ'S PILLAR. 

The pillar on which this inscription is engraved is 
near Delhi, and is known by the name of Feroz's pillar 
because it stands on the summit of a large building 
supposed to have been erected by Feroz Sliah^ who 
reigned in Delhi between 1351 and 1388 a.d.* That 
part of the pillar which is seen above the building is 
thirty-seven feet in height; but it is said to reach 
the foundation, and that only one-third of the whole is 
visible, the building having been raised around it as 
it stood in its original site. Even if but thirty-seven 
feet high, it is a marvellous relic of antiquity, and 
affords an interesting proof of the skill of those who 
formed and erected it there ; for it consists of a single 
stone of the hardest kind chiselled into a round 
column of the finest proportions, and polished as per- 
fectly as any Egyptian obelisk. Its circumference 
where it joins the building is ten feet and a half. 
There is no doubt that it originally stood apart, like 
the pillar bearing a similar inscription at Allahabad. 
It seems to have been appropriated as a trophy of 
victory by Feroz, and he built his menagerie around 
it in contempt of the conquered people who vene- 
rated it. 

* Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. p. 180. 



THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ's PILLAR. 321 

We learn from Muhammed Amin^ the author of the 
Haftaklim^ that in the time of Feroz " the most in- 
telligent of all religions were unable to explain the 
literal characters engraved on it." There was, how- 
ever, an inscription in more modern character below 
the more ancient. This has been satisfactorily inter- 
preted, and proves to be a record in Sanscrit, to the 
effect that the Raja Vigraha^ or Visala Deva^ had in 
1169 A.D., caused this pillar to be inscribed afresh to 
declare that the said Raja, who reigned over the 
Sdcamhari^ had subdued all the regions of the lands 
between Himavat and VincThya. He exhorts his de- 
scendants to subdue all the rest of the world. This 
Sanscrit inscription terminates with the sign so well 
known by us, namely, the trident, which in this case 
represents the power and right of Siva to reign as 
the universal monarch ; proving that then and there 
Brahminism was announced to be the dominant reli- 
gion. Therefore it is to be inferred that the pillar 
was of great antiquity in 1169, seeing that the power 
of Buddhism had there passed away after a long 
supremacy. Indeed, such pillars had been erected to 
enjoin the doctrines of Buddhism on the commence- 
ment of that religion in India ; so that we are carried 
back to about 500 years B.C. as the probable period 
when this pillar was first erected. 

The Himavat^ above mentioned is the Emaus^ 
Imaus^ and Emodus of ancient geographers : that 
is, the Himal of the Sanscrit and the Himin of the 

* See Prinsep's Journal, No. Q7y p. 566. 

t Probably pronounced Hemauth, and hence by the Greeks JEmaus 
and the Romans Emod-us. 



322 THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ'S PILLAR. 

Moeso-gothic, the Hemel of the German and the Heven 
of the Anglo-Saxon. The term Himavat seems to 
have been applied more particularly to the western 
portion of the Himalaya range, where it bifurcates 
and embraces the land occupied by the Sacce in the 
time of Alexander the Great. Vind'hya is the name 
of that irregular line of hills which passes through 
the provinces of Bahar and Benares. 

The most interesting part of the inscription record- 
ing the exploits of this Visala Deva^ at least as it 
relates to our inquiry, is the name of the country 
over which he reigned — Sdcambari. Now, if we look 
over a map showing the extent and contacts of the 
Roman power in the era of Augustus Caesar, we shall 
light upon a name precisely similar on the north of 
the Rhine, extending over a considerable area, namely, 
SicamhWi ; it was the country of a Saxon race, and 
was coterminous with that of the Mar-Sakii* and 
probably the Saxons about the Elbe were only an- 
other division of the same people, or in fact the very 
same, having shifted their position according to their 
habit, for the Saxons were on principle a roving race, 
and took to the neighbourhood of navigable rivers 
and the sea as if with a sense of inherent fitness for 
efnterprise and with a love of the great waters. Sicam 
is but Sdcam with a Latin spelling ; the word Bari^ 
or jBVz, is only an expletive appended, meaning 
chosen or beloved, 

Caesar found the SicawhWi more difficult to deal 
with than any other of his foes on the banks of the 

* Query ^ti^ HD = the rebel Sales 1 



THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ'S PILLAR. 323 

Rhine; and Tacitus says* that they could not be 
brought into submission but by policy ; that is to 
say, as allies rather than as enemies. Horace thought 
it a compliment fit for Augustus, to say : — 

Te ccede gaudentes Sicamhri 
Compositis verier antur armis.f 

Augustus, however, never conquered them; but, 
according to the imperial maxim, he divided with the 
hope of ruling them, and so induced many thousands 
of them to separate from the rest and take up their 
abode on the Gallic side of the Rhine, where he ex- 
pected the better to manage them. After this, Tacitus 
and other historians assert that they were extermi- 
nated; a very unlikely end, seeing they possessed 
multitudes of ships and boats, with which they in- 
fested the broader parts and the mouth of the Rhine. 
In fact, after they had received into their country the 
defeated Tenchheri and Usipetes^ they crossed over 
the Rhine with 2000 horse, pursuing the Romans 
and despoiling them of very much booty, as Caesar 
acknowledges. J A people that could do that and 
retreat to the forests or the coasts, with all their 
possessions, as the historian tells us, were not likely to 
be exterminated by the colonization of a compara- 
tively few of their people, who, after all, only obeyed 
their own impulse in settling where they best found 
means to live and enlarge themselves. 

Now, when we remember that the coasts about the 

* Book ii. chap. xxvi. 
•f- The poetic allusion to their arms is a nice turn, for the Sicamhri in the 
west as well as the east had emblems of their worship on all their armour, 
X Com., bk. vi. chap, xxxvi. 

y2 



324 THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROz's PILLAR. 

Elbe, and also the British isles, had the name Sdcam 
applied to them at an early period in the Puranas^ 
or sacred records of India, and that because they 
were inhabited by Sakas^ or Saxons^ can we avoid 
concluding that the Sakii^ or Saks^ of Germany and 
Saxony were akin to those known by the same name 
in the East ? For the same reason that the country 
of the Saks of the West was called Sacam, we may 
reasonably conclude that the country inhabited more 
or less by the Sakas of the East at the time of the 
record was also called Sdcam. The territory over 
which the Rajah above named held dominion extended 
from Benares^ along North- Westenifindia, up through 
Cahul as far as Bokhara^ ^iaw^s^xherefore known 
as Sacam-hari during his reign. There were Sakas ^ 
or Saxons^ throughout his region, which was sub- 
dued by Visala-Deva just when the Anglo-Saxons 
were beginning to merge their distinctions under the 
rule of another conqueror, who, like Visala^ belonged 
to a more refined offshoot of a kindred race, for the 
Normans also own a Saxon origin. The record above 
referred to informs us that the people of Sdcambari^ 
the Sakas^ are the most eminent of the tribes that 
sprang from the arms of Brahma ; which is only an 
Oriental mode of saying that the Saxons are the 
most energetic and intelligently-powerful people ever 
created, a character from which the Saxdns of the 
West have not yet declined, and to which we are not 
willing to doubt their claim. As the Saxons of the 
West '' know not when they are conquered," so those 
of the East, mainly represented by the Afghans or 
the Patans, possess a manliness that surmounts their 



THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROz's PILLAR. 325 

conquerors, and makes them more than a match on 
the field for all but their Western kindred, who ought 
rather to diplomatize than to fight with them. 

But I am forgetting the most ancient inscription 
on Feroz's pillar. As it presents in ideas and ex- 
pression some variations that it may be useful for 
our better understanding of Buddhism to observe, 
I proceed to give a rendering which those who are 
capable and inclined may themselves verify or dis- 
prove, transliterating the original, which will be 
found, as corrected by Mr. James Prinsep, in the 
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (No. 67, 
p. 600). My purpose here is not to discuss the 
correctness of the version which Mr. James Prinsep 
has there given, with many guesses at the possible 
meaning of the possible Sanscrit words of which it is 
supposed to consist. It is a well-known fact that 
neither Brahminical nor Buddhist pundits understand 
the literal language in which these pillar inscriptions 
are composed ; for, as Mr. Prinsep himself says. " they 
are neither Pali nor Sanscrit^ By way of showing 
the similarity of some of the words to Saxon, I ap- 
pend a transliteration into English letters, only ob- 
servino; that where in the orio^inal I find what I deem 
the equivalent of the Hebrew letter ^, the mark ^ 
stands over its English representative, and over that 
of the i^, ~. I do not regard the A as a letter, and 
therefore it appears only with c to mark/ the Hebrew 
cheth. Neither do I distinguish between p and ph^ 
nor between s and 5 A, the object being not to show 
the pronunciation but only the Hebrew root. 



326 THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ's PILLAR. 



INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ'S PILLAE IN ENGLISH 

LETTERS. 

(1) Dammo bi jak'bad o'di seti aita ayam at*ma 
ay dam sav vanani sava pi tani dammanu s-toaini vi 
vi dani an pi tani iza ipa pi b'chun an aam nesim aait 
aat pali ajja odi samti pi chavi tala chamti pi laam 
capi b'chunak su pa nesit ch'as su aaita at pi am an 
pita achuma caach'va capali ajja oda-t'ma. 

(2) anim damma jutam ad'vanam pi ay piid is 
achuma aach aaitam cam anuav kama an dam t'ma 
bani caizani damma mechamata caaza dam . . . lea 
aza adVanam pi ay piid is laam achuma aacha mag 
SU pi-am niaga chani al pa pitani caayapa gani chi 
samti pasu m'mani sanim am bav bi iqaal pa pita ad 
acasa janai piam udupi nani. 

(3) cana pa pitani nimshi ... pa cacala pita 
apa naniam b'chun qani tet tet cala pi tani pezii aba 
gaay pasu muni sanim ... as pezii ab ag'nam vi vi 
dajachi su cayana japuliam chi pi laamii chi mm-ja 
kasu ca iai atalak amm c'dammanu pezii petii anu 
pezii pamtuti at d' t'maam. 

(4) as c-iza ad'vanam pi ay piid is achuma acha 
damma-m'chamata pi amat b'chu vi ed su aat'ma su 
anu gachi ak su vi japaza aspu amii tanam aqu 
gichi t'manam c-sava pasem ab su piak vi japaza 
as-sem at is piam c'aza anam vi japaza chacham- 
titi cham vababan su aaii viak su piam c'aza 
(5) amam vi japaza chachamtiti niga atma su piam 
caaza amam vi japaza chachamti nana pasam ab su 
piam caiza amam vi japaza chachamtiti pezi vi is 
itma pezii vi is tma at su at su atet mechamta damma 



THE INSCRIPTION ON TEROZ's PILLAR. 327 

mechamta kam at su aqVa vi japaza sav suka amen 
su pasam ab su ad' van am pi ay piid is laam 
achavama acha (6) atka anka b'chu kam cadan saga 
is vi japaza asamma aq'va ad'vanam casava is kam 
au alia dan is at b'chu viadan el natani natitau t'ma 
itnani pazit chi dacu di s-asuka dal qanam pikam 
caaza am nanam caadavi co malanam amam dan vasaga 
VI japaza apa chamtiti (7) damma padanu t'ma ay 
dammanu pezi peti ay as chi damma padanu damma 
pezii petika ja amim da-yada an saq asaqaav madav 
s-adavaka allu kas achuma vidi setiti ad'vanam pi ay 
piid is laam achuma acha janai chi qani ki mmi ja is 
duni caazani tam alak anat pezii panan tamka anu vidi 
imti atan viditaka (8) vidi samti qamta pitii su su su 
sa aja gulu su su su sa aja viyam chal qanam anu pezii 
pati ja baban sem an su capanu lak su auda sabaza 
ca-su sem pezii pati ja ad'vanam pi ay piid is laam 
achuma acha muni sanam c-ja amyam dam vidi vidita 
davav chi ay va-acal chi dammani yam niga niriti ja 

(9) c-tet CO b'chun as-dammani yam niriti iai u-bu ay 
dammani yam cu aka as ayam amim ca-asa am mani 
c-am mani am tani audi janai am nani pi c-b'chun 
dammani jamini janiam c-azani niriti ja u-c-bu ay 
muni sanim damma udi udita avi chim sa-ay botanim 

(10) ana laba ay pananam as-ata ay at'ma ay amim 
c-iza puta pi apatica qam dan m'su li iaiak achatati 
tit'ma c-anu pezii pamtuti achuma chi anu pezii pani 
tam at'ladat alad achiti s'tavi seti us abi is at'nam 
amim damma libi li capa pitati at ad'vanam pi ay acha 
amim (11) damma libi at at'ma is lat'ma bani va-is 
ladal qani vatet caaza vijaana as ci lat'miti qasi ja. 



328 THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ^S PILLAR. 



A TRANSLATION OF THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ'S 

PILLAR. 

{The numbers marh the lines of the inscription.) 

(1 ) His worship, even that which I have set up, shall be glorious be- 

fore me ; 
Tliou who art the Sea, I am rendered unclean by calamity ; 
[Or, thou art the sea, uncleanness of Calamity.],' 
Blood is in vain, my posterity, the equality of my doctrine shall 

be my hire ; 
We worship Him who hath rendered me unclean, yea even my 

Judge [Dani']. 
The suffering of my doctrine is my hire. The doctrine of trial shall 

sprinkle, shall beautify ; 
Behold the bringing in of notable ruin* is my taxing, 
Even that which I have imposed ; 

My doctrine is the showing forth of the dew of my wrath ; 
My doctrine shall be to the nation as the doctrine of thy trial, 

calamity \^Su] ; 
A parched mouth, a bowing-down, that is the calamity which shall 

become their doctrine ; 
Endure, persuade, the wall is as that declared, 
According to the wonders of ruin, even that which hath caused un- 
cleanness. 

(2) ye humble ones, our worship \_damma] is perfect; 
The mouth of Ituin hath pleaded their cause. 
Destruction is the wall of the nation, O brother; 

It is to them, even to them who suffer it, a desirable thing ; 

Behold, my son, the worship that causeth uncleanness 

Is as that which sprinkleth me. 

The worship of Wrath is as that which sprinkleth, 

As it sprinkleth . . . blood. 

TJie mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction is the wall of the people, O brother Magian; 

We will meditate on calamity as their doctrine. 

On the grace of the doctrine, the doctrine of my hire ; 

So the garden of life I have set shall produce beauty, 

For numbers of years shall they flourish 

Since the mouth [or doctrincj that breaketh to pieces 



* Literally, wonder of ruin ; the word is pali, signifying anything re- 
markable or standing out in unusual distinctnesss. Hence pal means a 
heap of stones in some of the Saxon dialects, and probably our own word 
pile has the same derivation. The Saxons were also called Pali or Phali. 



THB INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ's PILLAR. 329 

Shall call them together within it by me ; 

The smoke of the grievousuess of my oppression, 

Even the de-troying stroke, shall be their doctrine, my offspring. 

(3) Call the mouth that persuades me IS^imshi* . . . 
As it is a mouth that completely persuadeth, 
Surely their posterity approve my title, 

The gift, the gift, hath fully persuaded me ; 

Go to, my recovery shall be my purification, 

The numbers [or portions] of the years do flourish . . . 

My purification is that of fire ; 

Go to, even that which maketh alive is their protection, 

Calamity \_Su^ according to its oppressiveness 

Shall cause them to be distinguished; 

My doctrine is Life, Life from God for the nation ; 

Thy calamity shall be thy exultation. 

Tribulation shall be as our worship [^damma]. 

My purification was my breaking to pieces, 

The sutFering thereof was my purification, 

That which defileth them I have experienced, 

[Or, my foot-prints are those of their uncleanness]. 

(4) As it sprinkleth fire, the mouth of Ruin pleadeth their cause. 
Destruction is become a wall of defence, O brother ; 

The worship of wrath is the doctrine of the dead. 

The trial and the shout of calamity is the uncleanness of calamity, 

The suffering thereof is thy extension, calamity. 

But the speech [lip] of my people shall be purified ; 

To wait the extension of their defilement shall be their hire. 

According to the equality shall they prosper. 

Go to, thy doctrine is Calamity ; 

But he whose name is hidden shall purify it ; 

Their doctrine shall be after this manner. 

But the hotness of his wrath shall purify their trouble ; 

Thereon, Calamity, build up thy wood and mine; 

Atler this manner shall Calamity be their doctrine. 

(5) The hotness of wrath shall purify even their trouble, 
Calamitv shall be the extension of a shininsr lif'ht ; 
After this manner shall Calamity be their doctrine, 
My wrath shall even purify their trouble ; 

Posterity shall prosper, Calamity being after this manner their 

doctrine. 
My wrath shall even purify their trouble ; 



♦ Jehu was the son of Nlmshi (1 Kings xix. 16). Nim.shi means 
rescued from danger, drawn out of the toater. 



330 THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ's PILLAR. 

My purif3nng shall be even that which causeth defilement ; 

My purifying shall be even that which defileth them; 

Calamity, calamity, the perfection of wrath. 

The worship of wrath, is yours with calamity that burneth, 

But the vanity of calamity shall purify it. 

As calamity is Truth by calamity they flourish ; 

The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause. 

Destruction is the wall of the nation, O brother. 

(6) Thy sign is thy suffering; in thy wisdom there are judgment and 

error, 

Which shall also be purified by burning; 
. According to your equality hath he adjudged them, 

Alas, the judge is both the tempter [trier] and the judge. 

God hath bestowed on me his gifts, uncleanness hath He given me ; 

The purification of life is that of burning ; 

That which is thy calamity is a door of possessions ; 

Such is your doctrine ; if posterity be as the unclean so was it de- 
creed them ; 

The calamity is trouble, judgment, and error, 

But the doctrine of the wrath inflicted shall purify it, 

(7) The worship redeemeth the uncleanness of ruin, 

Our worship is the purification of the breakings of ruin, 

The worship that redeemeth is a living fire. 

The worship is the purification of thy breaking, God. 

Behold the waters which he hath cast forth ; 

Drink of the overflowing thereof, the measure thereof is that of thy 

uncleanness ; 
Is not Kash [grievousness] the wall, even that which I have set up ? 
The mouth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, 
Destruction is the wall of the nation, O brother j 
The oppressiveness of life is my possession, 
For ray judgment as that which sprinkleth me is from God. 
Continue upright [perfect], the suffering of my purifying shall be 

thy perfection within. 
He hath made the suffering thereof, even my sea, sufficient. 
And thy sacred ordinance shall be even that which I have established, 

(8) As my doctrine is as that which putteth to death, 
Calamity, calamity, calamity shall be in their midst, 
Calamity, calamity, calamity there shall be. 

And a sea of suffering shall be their possession, 

The endurance thereof, the breaking of God, was my purification ; 

Behold thereon calamity hath builded renown ; 

Calamity' shall be a rock of habitation for thee ; 

I will glory in that which is thy spoil, calamity ; 

The breaking of God shall be the fame of my purifying, 



THE INSCRIPTION ON FEROZ's PILLAR. 331 

The mouth of JRuin hath pleaded their cause^ 
Destruction is the wall of the nation, brother ; 
The numbers of their years shall be as God, 
The waters are blood, and that which he also hath decreed 
Is a living uncleauness, ruin and a devouring of life. 
My worship, the sea of affliction, is my enlightenment, God. 
(9) As is the gift so is the trial of my worship ; the sea shall be my 

enlightenment, 
Though Ruin was thereby, the sea is my worship ; 
So likewise the sea shall be a tire [to purify], 
The waters are as a sprinkling, thej^ are my portion [mani^y 
As they are my portion, people, they are my hire. 
Or rather my injury becomes my sufficiency ; 
Since, my posterity, my doctrine is as a trial. 
My worship is my right hand; these injuries are as that which 

sprinkleth me ; 
God is my enlightenment, as b}' him ruin becomes the portions of 

years. 
That is even the worship which also he decreed. 
Alas, their life is that of ruin, Botanim, 

(10) The anguish of the heart is a ruin within them. 
What thou art is ruin, I was polluted, a ruin ; 

The waters are as a sprinkling, nakedness shall be thy beauty. 

Arise, be astonished, my calamity shall be thine. 

Thou shalt thyself be rendered unclean by my terrors, 

The suffering thereof was constantly my purification, 

My endowment was a living wall of defence. 

The suffering thereof was my purification, a perpetuity of perfection, 

The birth that I have brought forth is my own dismay. 

That have I made my sign and my experience shall be their hire ; 

The worship of my heart is as the doctrine I have propounded 

[or the rock I have broken to pieces] 
That is The movth of Ruin hath pleaded their cause, brother. 

(11) The waters are the worship of my heart, the sign that I am rendered 

unclean, 
They are for the unclean, my son, 
They are for the poor of my establishment. 
And they are bestowed as a sprinkling. 
But one might endure fire for the removal of my hardness, God. 



332 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE RELATION OF THE INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 

Does prophecy throw any light on these dark inscrip- 
tions? If there be any truth resulting from our 
inquiries into the character and position of the people 
to whom they were addressed, it is that they were the 
very people concerning whose dispersion so much is 
written in that marvellous depository of marvellous 
intelligence — the Bible. And I think that if we look 
a little curiously into the dark sayings engraved on 
the rocks and pillars amidst which we have been 
mentally wandering,' we shall find very direct evi- 
dence, that the people who inscribed and perused 
them more than two thousand years ago, had them- 
selves been previously described, and their peculiari- 
ties of endurance predicted. As, for instance, in 
Ezekiel. This prophet was sent to the captive and 
rebellious Bern-Israel (Ezek. i. 1), and when he found 
they were proof against his remonstrances, and re- 
solved upon carrying out their own system of polity 
and religion, he seems to rise into the region of the 
spirit where the past and the future are equally 
present to the eye of the God-moved soul, and he 
exclaims, '' Behold, a hand was sent unto me : and lo, 
a roll of a book was therein ; and he spread it before 
me; and it was written within and without; and 



RELATION OF THE INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 333 

there was written therein lamentations and mourninof 
and woe " (ii. 10). This was the substance of the 
words to be delivered to the rebellious house of 
Israel. In bitterness, in the heat of his spirit, 
the prophet went to the captivity at Tel-abib^ by the 
river Chebar^ and in testimony of his anguish of soul 
at having such a message to deliver, he sat astonished 
among them seven days,* and then uttered the warn- 
ing from God with this express commission, " Give 
them warning from m^." But this warning being 
useless to the rebels, the sign in relation to them is 
henceforth only silence. When he would have gone 
in and out amongst them to expostulate, they even 
restrained him with the strong hand ; and then God 
spake to them by the dumbness of the prophet. Even 
a reprover was denied them, and henceforth lamenta- 
tion and mourning and woe remained upon them as 
the mark of their rebellion.' Lamentation, mourning, 
woe — ""^J '7-1'7t ^^""i?? these are the very words which, 
peculiar and specific as they are, constitute the sub- 
ject matter of all the foregoing inscriptions on rock 
and pillar. Finding them anywhere, we could say 
at once, they are the marks God set upon the rebel- 
lious house of Israel. So marked are these words in 
themselves, and in their union, that they do not again 
occur together in the Old Testament, nor any one of 
them in the same sense or pointing in any other pas- 
sage in the Hebrew language, as far as we possess it ; 
and the last word of the climax, standing for all that is 
conceivable of woe, is found only in this denounce- 
ment of the prophet as addressed to the rebellious 

* Observe the seven days' mourning for Sakya also. 



334 THE RELATION OF THE 

house of Israel, the people who preferred to worship 
in their high-place, bamaJi^ to anything he could 
promise to the repentant. This, surely, is sufficiently 
remarkable; and yet those very words, with precisely 
the prophet^s meaning, are graven thickly in these 
Buddhistic inscriptions, and the last and most em- 
jjhatic word translated woe, forms the very burden 
of them all. How can this be accounted for but on 
the principle that the people to whom they were 
addressed, had taken the impress and the stamp that 
God^s own hand had sealed upon them? The very 
words of those inscriptions seem to have been seen 
by Ezekiel, in the roll written within and without, 
which the spirit-hand held before his eyes. 

The largeness of the meaning of the words ren- 
dered in our authorized version lamentation, and 
mourning, and woe, though doubtless perfectly cor- 
rect, does not quite appear without an acquaintance 
with the original Hebrew. Our inscriptions are like 
a comment to exhibit their full force. The word 
rendered lamentation is, in the singular, applied to 
the lament for the dead, but it implies the very 
possession of all that is deplorable. The word ren- 
dered mourning, indicates a meditated deliberate 
sorrow, a murmuring in self-isolation, just as it is 
used with all the iteration of grief in the north com- 
partment of the Delhi inscription. The word trans- 
lated woe, sometimes with its feminine termination, 
and sometimes without, is that which occurs most 
frequently in our inscriptions, and always in con- 
nexion with destruction, and calamity, and unclean - 
ness. It is evidently the same in root and power as 



INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 335 

the word rendered calamity in Job vi. 2 ; and xxx. 
13. In the inscriptions, it manifestly includes the 
idea of Avoe, as necessarily resulting from what had 
come to pass, namely, the calamitous destruction 
which forms the substance of its parallel; and there- 
fore Ruin can be its only equivalent, as I have 
rendered it in all the passages in italics, for it indi- 
cates that existence itself, under the circumstances, 
was necessarily nothing but ruin and woe. 

In the allusions to the overwhelming catastrophe so 
emphatically repeated in the inscriptions quoted, we 
have, so to say, proof that the people who read them 
on the rocks, saw therein the fulfilment of denuncia- 
tions with which they were familiar, and submitted 
to them with a feeling that it was their destiny to 
endure calamity, as the hand of God was upon them, 
in consequence of the unfaithfulness of their fathers, 
or of their own incapacity to observe the terms of the 
covenant on the observance of which their prosperit}^ 
depended. In fact, what their prophets had foretold, 
they prove to be fulfilled to the letter in their own 
experience, and they have left us the record of its 
truth engraven on the rocks. Thus always has it 
happened that the scattered Israelites have borne 
testimony to the fact that their prophets spoke the 
words of God, who must ever remain true to the prin- 
ciples on which His government of Israel was founded, 
namely, that strict obedience to the Mosaic laws was 
alone their safety, and that to follow their own 
devices was to fall into calamity. 

The prophets whose mission it was to Warn the 
house of Israel, and to denounce those who heeded 



336 THE RELATION OF THE 

not the warning, in foreshadowing the doom of the 
rebellious, appear to have perceived the natural 
operation and result of their peculiar delusions and 
predilections. While under the influence of that 
Spirit which sees and can reveal what will be^ as 
clearly as that which is^ or which has been^ those 
prophets pictured the future of Israel in language 
glowing with the light of the present time, for the 
insight of the Spirit is that of mood, rather than of 
tense. Bearing this in mind, it cannot but interest and 
enlighten the inquiring reader to compare the words 
of the prophets who predicted the judgments to come 
upon apostate Israel, with what we know of those 
who, under the name of Buddhists, have, as I judge, 
been proved in this volume to belong to those for- 
sakers of their God. A few passages from Amos, 
the prophet especially directed to address the recu- 
sants of Israel, immediately before their captivity, 
will suffice to elucidate the coincidence between the 
facts of Buddhism and the predictions of the prophet 
in respect to them. In the inscriptions, the frequent 
reference to jire^ as the expression of the judgment 
endured, is very remarkable Now, Amos says, that 
the rebellious Israelites shall be carried into captivity 
''beyond Damascus," that is, into Assyria (ver. 27), 
if they regard not his warning and repent. They 
sought Life in some peculiar sense; Life was wor- 
shipped by them at Dan and Beersheba. Hence the 
force of the appeal to them — " Seek Jehovah^ and ye 
shall live ; lest He break out like fire in the house of 
Joseph^ and devour it^ and there be none to quench it in 
Bethel'' (ver. 6). The idea is this: Seek Jehovah as 



INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 337 

the Life^ or He will be manifested to you as the Fire 
unquenchable, fire that none can quench in Beth-el^ 
that is to say, even the house of God will be un- 
availing then. Now, we see the idea of God Himself 
being as a fire in the inscriptions, while the prosperity 
sought is still supposed connected with the house of 
God, as in the 12th section of the Girnar inscription. 

It has been sufficiently evidenced in the early 
chapters of this work, that the house of Joseph sig- 
nifies all those Israelites who repudiated the house 
of David, that is to say, the tribes of Ephraim and 
Manasseh, all the Ten Tribes constituting the re- 
bellious kingdom first established under Jeroboam 
(b.c. 976). We shall presently see how the worship 
which Jeroboam encourao^ed amon2:st the Ten Tribes 
bears upon some of the ideas connected with Bud- 
dhism as exhibited in the light of our inscriptions. 

Another remarkable allusion in Amos is to the 
circumstance that silence shall mark the necessity of 
the time predicted — Therefore the prudent shall keep 
SILENCE in THAT tivae^ for it shall be an evil time (v. 13). 
The word in relation to silence is the same from which 
we derive our word dumbj and the Buddhists that of 
Damma. Another striking allusion in Amos is to the 
Israelites^ worship of the seven stars and of Orion, 
supposed by the Israelites to preside over the alterna- 
tions of the seasons and the movements of the great 
waters. This idolatry of the Israelites gives the 
prophet's language a fine and peculiar significance 
when he exhorts them to seek Him ''''who maketh 
the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of 
death into morning; and maketh the day dark with 

z 



338 THE RELATION OF THE 

night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and 
poureth them out upon the face of the earth " (v. 8). 
Buddhistic coins show that the seven stars at least 
had place in their devotional symbolism. The spe- 
cific reference to the pouring out of the sea upon the 
face of the earth cannot be, as commentators imply, 
a mere poetic figure of speech — there is really nothing 
strictly of that kind in the Bible ; what seems orna- 
mental to truth is like the beauty of the flower, only 
the perfection of its essential life and development ; 
and so the simplest minds get the clearest ideas from 
the word of true inspiration, because they take it to 
mean what it says. The prophets appear rhetorical 
only because their facts appear like figures to those 
who do not understand what they refer to ; but we 
can see how full of meaning are the prophet's words 
concerning the subserviency of the waters to Jehovah's 
mandate when we find these words addressed to a 
people who, like the Buddhists, adored the waters. 
Their records point to the fact that their very religion 
as now known sprung from some overwhelming 
calamity in which the fire and the flood played an 
equal part, for both are acknowledged in their silent 
worship as the expression of God's mouth. This 
allusion to the waters is more fully carried out by 
Amos in the 24th verse of the chapter already quoted, 
where, after enumerating the woes and lamentations 
of those there called the remnant of the house of Joseph^ 
he calls them to let judgment run down as waters^ thus 
indicating that, if they did not learn righteousness, the 
waters themselves would prove a judgment upon them. 
The peculiar turns of thought throughout the pro- 



INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 339 

phet's warning expostulation point constantly to a 
people whose worship, like that of the Buddhists, should 
be nothino^ but a lamentation. " Wailino* shall be 
heard in the streets, and they shall say in all high- 
ways, Alas ! alas ! and they shall call the husbandman 
to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation 
to wailing." The final signs of their utter apostacy 
are thus summed up — " The songs of the temple 
shall be bowlings in that day" — '' There shall be many 
dead bodies in every place ; and they shall cast them 
forth with silence." " Shall not the land tremble 
and every one mourn that dwelleth therein?" "It 
shall rise up wholly as a flood, and it shall be cast 
out and drowned as by the flood of Egypt " (ch. viii. 
2-14). Now the land referred to was not Samaria, 
and could only be the land to which they should be 
led in that day, when their songs of worship should 
be bowlings of woe, a prophecy fulfilled to the letter, 
if, as we suppose, the early Buddhists were Israelites, /p ^ 
and their worship of Calamity and Ruin resulted from >^ / 
some natural convulsion, in which their land was ^ 
inundated, leaving, as we have it in the Girnar inscrip- 
tion, only a possession of reeds. 

The prophet addresses the Israelites by their 
adopted names "the house of Joseph" and " the house 
of Isaac," and tells them that they should go to Calneh^ 
or the banks of the Tigris, to Hamath^ that is Ha- 
madan or Acbatana^ and to Gath of the Philistines 
(ch. vi.) and consider their borders, and not trust 
to the mountain of Samaria. Is there not prophetic 
meaning here? Is it not thus in fact intimated that 
they should yet be brought into closer intimacy with 

z2 



340 THE RELATION OF THE 

the people of those countries. That Hamath was 
beyond the Euphrates is evident, from its being named 
with Babylon and Ava as one of the places whence 
the king of Assyria brought men to occupy Samarja 
after the Israelites were taken captive. (2 Kings xvii. 
24.) 

The history of Buddhism is the only history that 
illustrates the following prophetic denunciations from 
the 8th chapter of Amos : — 

It shall come to pass in that day, 

Saith the Lord Jehovah, 

That I will cause the sun to go down at noon, 

And will darken the land in clear day. 

I will turn yoxxT festivals into mourning, 

And all your songs into lamentations ; 

I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, 

And baldness upon every head ; 

I will make it as the mourning for an only one, 

And the end of it a bitter day. 

Behold the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, 

When I will send a famine into the land. 

Not a famine of bread, not a thirst of water, 

But of hearing the words of Jehovah ; 

And men shall wander from sea to sea. 

And shall run up and down, from the north even to the east, 

Seeking the word of Jehovah, 

And they shall not find it. 

In that day the fair virgins shall faint. 

And the young men also for thirst ; 

That swear by the sin of Samaria, 

And say By the life of thy God Dan I 

And By the Life of the way of Beersheha ! 

They shall fall and rise no more.* 

These words are represented as applying to the 
people when they " shall be brought to an end " as 
Israel, and are expressly limited to those who should 

* Dr. Henderson's translation. 



INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 341 

" go captive with the first that go captive ;" that is 
to say, those Israelites who occupied Samaria and 
were banished thence and carried into Assyria by 
Shalmaneser, as related in 2 Kings xvii. " The Lord 
was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of 
his sight; there was none [no tribe] left [complete] 
but the tribe of Judah only." " The Lord rejected 
all the seed of Israel and afflicted them, and delivered 
them into the hand of spoilers." '' For he rent Israel 
from the house of David."* 

Now, in looking diligently into history since that 
wonderful deportation, we can find no trace of the 
Ten Tribes, here called Israel, beyond the place of their 
exile; their actual entrance into the lands to which 
prophecy predicted they should go is shown us by 
Ezekiel, who ^'isited them ; and then their utter defec- 
tion being stated, and their further scattering foretold, 
we hear no more of them in the records of Holy Writ, 
so completely is the word fulfilled in them which said 
they should be brought to end as Israelites and 
swallowed up amongst the nations. But yet the 
truth of the description which the spirit of prophecy 
gave as pertaining to them after their removal so 
to sav out of God's sio-ht, as no lonsfer recoo'nised 
Israelites, is to be indicated. We gather from the 

* I would direct attention to the unusual frequency of the word Adoni 
conjoined with Jehovah in Amos as one name — the Lord-Jehovah. The 
word Adoni seems to have been more familiar with the tribe of Dan, 
and the prophet seems to urge upon them the fact that Jehovah is tlie only 
Adoni or Lord. Probably they referred this word in their worship as one 
associated in their minds with Dan, their great forefather, as containing in 
his name the root of the word Adoni. We find the word in the Girnar 
inscription as evidently synonymous with Jehovah, and the use ot the word 
by theeai'ly visitors to Britain, who invoked Sah^ was pointed out at p. 1/3. 



-V 



342 THE RELATION OF THE 

general import of prophecy concerning them that 
they are to become so marked by the Divine Hand, 
before their final absorption, as to be distinguished 
from all other nations; and then to be scattered 
over the world to produce a seed that shall, together 
with their fathers' energy and endurance, inherit the 
blessings predicted for the offspring of Isaac and of 
Joseph. But first we are to look for the signs by 
which they are to be distinguished when about to be 
lost as Israelites and yet to become notorious as a 
people that shall, as Moses says of him whose symbol 
is the unicorn^ push the people together to the ends of 
the earth. (Deut. xxxiii. 17.) 

And where can we discover a people in the world, 
except the early Buddhists of Northern India, the 
Sacce., to whom the words quoted from Amos in any 
degree apply? 

Observe the signs which mark them. There is an 
order in them, as if the prophet, in his marvellous fore- 
sight of their future, were describing from the life. 
First, a certain day of desolation is seen coming like 
a tempest passing over the face of the great deep, and 
the things of life that proudly walked upon the waters 
are seen no more — " The end is come upon them f 
"they are swallowed up;" the sun is gone down, the 
land is darkened ; and yet it is still noon, and the day 
is clear. We know what that means — woe had fallen 
on perverse spirits; the ordinances of Heaven were 
useless to them ; their chosen path had brought them 
to a land where God Himself seemed not to see them, 
and yet they are not out of his sight ; no, the Hebrew 
metaphysics is true, and literally as the prophet says, 



INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 343 

tliey are without sight of Him, they are not con- 
scious of his presence, and in such a state the sun- 
beams themselves are darkness. 

What the prophet Amos predicted Ezekiel saw 
commencing in the actuality of Israelis experience; 
the day of darkness and the end foretold on Israel, 
Ezekiel announces as at hand. His words are specific 
and definite — "An end is come; the end is come; it 
watcheth for thee; behold it is come." '^Behold the 
day, behold it is come ; the warning is gone forth." 
The whole of the 7th chapter of Ezekiel points in 
each particular to the fulfilment of the woes which 
the preceding prophets, sent especially to the Ten 
Tribes, declared should come upon them. The very 
forms of the trouble are specified in terms similar to 
those in our inscriptions. The renunciation of all 
property is thus described: ''Let not the buyer 
rejoice, nor the seller mourn ; for wrath is upon all 
the multitude thereof. For the seller shall not return 
to that which is sold, although their life is yet among 
the livinor; for the vision is touchino; the whole mul- 
titude thereof, which shall not return." In short, 
Ezekiel furnishes a complete exposition of the earlier 
j3rophets in respect to the doom of the rebellious 
Israelites ; but I would direct attention particularly 
to the word used to designate their mourning ;* namely, 
homoth^ the plural of the very word so peculiarly 
sio^nificant amono; the Buddhists, that it is the 
initial word of their perpetuated prayer, and without 
which all their mantras and incantations would be 
deemed unavailing. '' They shall gird themselves with 

* Chap. vii. 16. 



344 THE RELATION OF THE 

SACKCLOTH, and HORROR shall cover them ; and 
SHAME shall he upon all faces^ and baldness upon all 
their heads'' " The king shall mourn^ and the princes 
shall he clothed with desolation, and the hands of the 
people of the land shall he trouhled.'' " And they shall 
know that I am Jehovah [the Lord].'' '' My wrath 
[or hurning] is upon all the multitude thereof" 

Now, all these predictions are literally fulfilled in 
those Israelites whom we have proved to have become 
Buddhists, and who assumed desolation, death, un- 
cleanness, and wrath as the very essentials of their 
worship, which was but a dumb adoration of the 
calamity that fell upon them, as the inscriptions so 
abundantly exhibit. Are they not, then, the people of 
whom Hosea said : '^ Rejoice not for joy as other people," 
" Their sacrifices shall he unto them as the hread of 
mourners ; all that eat thereof shall he polluted !" 

Recurring to the passage quoted from Amos, it 
might be shown how closely the words describe the 
worshippers of Buddha. Their festivals are mourning ; 
their songs are lamentations; all who are devoted to 
the service of Buddha adopt sackcloth as their clothing, 
and baldness is on all their heads. The bald-headed 
devotees of Buddha are sons of Sackcloth, and the 
ordination of the priests is to this day a refinement 
of austerity; since, according to the Karma Wdkya^ or 
Book of Ritual, they are required to wear a robe of 
filthy rags, and subject themselves to every form of 
degradation. But I conceive that, in reference to the 
sin of Samaria., and the oath connected with it, we 
have a clue to the monastic institutions of Buddhism, 
and to much that is obscure in its ritual and expres- 



INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 345 

sion. The language of the passage (Amos viii. 13, 
14) is exceedingly remarkable, and commentators 
are quite at a loss for an explanation of the terms 
employed. Our knowledge of early Buddhism, as 
presented in the inscriptions on the rock at Girnar 
and the columns at old Delhi will perhaps throw some 
light on them. It is evident, in the first place, that 
the sin of Samaria pertained especially to some vow 
binding on virgins and young men. Xow, what can 
the fainting of " the fair virgins,^* and the failure of 
the young men signify, but that the oath assumed by 
them involved them in a surrender of their natural 
hopes and endearments as men and women ? - What 
could this sin be but a vow binding them to a course 
of life inconsistent with God's natural laws ; in short, 
a vow of celibacy? The literal formula of the oath 
is, " Thy God, Dan, liveth," '' The way of Beer-sheba 
liveth f or perhaps, rather, " Thy God, Dan, is Life," 
^' The way of Beer-sheba is Life." I conceive that the 
formula is a declaration of their readiness to devote 
their life to the idolatrous worship established at 
Beersheba, which was probably similar to that which 
Jeroboam set up in Bethel and in Dan ; when, having 
made golden calves, he erected them in the high 
places there, and said, " Behold thy gods, Israel, 
which brought thee out of the land of Egypt." 
( 1 Kings xii. 28.) In addition to his adoration of the 
sacred heifer, the hosts of heaven were probably also 
worshipped, and, together with a kind of nominal 
acknowledgment of Jehovah, the peculiar rites of 
Astarte, the goddess of the Zidonians, called the^ 
Uueen of Heaven by Jeremiah (xiv^iQ^i wer^lso"^ "^ 



346 THE RELATION OF THE 

observed. This latter form of idolatry was intro- 
duced by Solomon, but principally^ encouraged by 
Jezebel. (2 Ki^i^^xiii. 13; J^Knws4vin^ That 
the worship of the heavenlyiiosiA^^connfected with 
this idolatry is evident from ancient coins, on which 
the sun, moon, and seven stars, with thunderbolts, 
are represented, together with Astarte as a robed 
female bearing a double crescent on her head. Astarte 
is probably the same as Astrea, the daughter of 
eTupiter and Themis, the goddess of justice amongst 
the Romans, now represented by Virgo in the Zodiac, 
and known by the Buddhists in China and other 
countries of the far East by the very name which 
Jeremiah applies to her — the Queen of Heaven. In 
certain Buddhistic coins we find the moon, the seven 
stars, the thunderbolt, and the heifer depicted. But 
the point of interest, in relation to the sin of Samaria, 
which involved the especial service and suffering of 
virgins and young men, is the fact that those devoted 
to the Queen of Heaven, like those of Rome devoted 
to the Virgin, were bound to celibacy. Now, that a 
similar vow to a queen of heaven is conjoined with 
the worship of Buddha in many parts of the East, is 
well known ; indeed, in all countries professing Bud- 
dhism, the priests are sworn to a life of celibacy, and 
the number of nuns is enormous; so far, at least, ful- 
filling the prediction concerning Israel in that day of 
utter defection, that " the fair virgins do faint, and 
the young men, also, for thirsty In respect to Bud- 
dhism, as presented in our inscriptions, we see the 
peculiar force of the word thirsty for the whole system 
is described as a thirsty which I conceive throws con- 



INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 347 

siderable light on the fact that Amos hiys such 
otherwise inexplicable emphasis on the word thirst 
in connexion with the oath of devotedness to the life 
of the way of Beersheba, the sin of Samaria. If we 
consider that Astarte was a personification of justice, 
the appropriateness of that worship to those who 
boasted of their descent from Dan^ and probably 
venerated and adored him as their God and their life, 
will be evident ; for in that name Dan they included 
the idea of the Great Judge, according to the signifi- 
cance of the name, which we see also in Buddhism, 
since Dan is one of the three names of Buddha given 
in the inscriptions both at Girnar and at Delhi.* It 
is worthy of observation, that Life is associated with 
Dan in the inscriptions in a manner very similar to 
that in which they are associated by Amos when 
alluding to the oath of those who swore by the sin 
of Samaria. There is evidently reference to some 
custom, a knowledge of which is necessary to a full 
understanding, or even a correct translation of the 
passage quoted from Amos. 

We might dwell on the casting forth of the dead 
with silence, they being neither burned nor buried, 
as a sign of the end on Israel foretold by the prophet 
Amos, and point to that part of Tibet where Bud- 
dhism earliest prevailed, and where the custom is re- 
tained to this day. Indeed, very many particulars 
of comparison between the remarkable predictions of 
the prophets, and the equally remarkable religion, 
polity, and social usages of the early Buddhists, might 
be followed out with interest, and perhaps with in- 

* See Girnar Inscriptions, sect. 9. 



348 RELATION OF THE INSCRIPTIONS TO PROPHECY. 

struction; but probably enough has been indicated 
for the fulfilment of the purposes contemplated in the 
present volume. 

It is pleasanter to turn to the final end of the 
scattered seed of Joseph,* for the Word which we hold 
fast has said, " I will save the house of Joseph, and 
will bring them again to place them; for I have 
mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had 
not cast them off; for I am the Lord their God, and 
will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be like 
a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through 
wine; yea, their children shall see it and be glad; 
their heart shall rejoice in the Lord." (Zech. x. 6, 7.) 
Zephaniah, who addressed the Ten Tribes imme- 
diately before their captivity, predicts a time of final 
gathering after the consummation of judgments: the 
assembling, however, is not to be in any particular 
locality, but in the spirit of the new covenant. " For 
then," says God by the prophet, " will I turn to the 
nations a pure language, that they all may invoke 
the name of Jehovah, that they may serve him with 
one accord " (iii. $)9i' 

* All the terms applied to the Ten Tribes by the prophets Amos and 
Hosea are applied to themselves by the Afghans; namely, Beni-Israel, 
the house of Isaac, the remnant of Joseph, the house of Joseph, they of 
Ephraim, the remnant of Israel, &c. 



349 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 

The peculiar interest of the inquiry concerning the 
origin of Buddhism and the dispersion of the Lost 
Tribes arises from the circumstance that we can trace 
our connexion with both; and that by the inquiry 
those who belong to the Saxon family may be induced 
to consider their own standing in relation to the pro- 
phetic spirit, and to the predictions in which their 
own history has been foreshadowed by the marvellous 
images thrown upon the roll of inspiration from the 
Divine all-seeing Mind, through the medium of minds 
operating like our own, and employing written words 
to convey to others a perception of their visions. 
The demonstrated connexion of the Buddhists with 
the Israelites and both with the Sacce^ and the Sacce 
with the Saxons, brings home to ourselves the pro- 
phecies that relate to the struggles, " the sufferings, 
and the glory that should follow" the scattering of 
the house of Israel, This is the term or title applied 
to the Ten Tribes, who were to be sifted among all 
nations (Amos ix. 9), and with whom a new cove- 
nant is to be made ; but it is the house of Joseph to 
which especial earthly blessings are to come, "the 
precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof;" 
" the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush.'' It is 



350 THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 

to the descendants of Joseph that these words apply : 
'' His horns are the horns of a unicorn ; with them 
he shall push the people together to the ends of the 
earth ;" that is to say, the descendants of Joseph shall 
prevail over all opposition ; the horns are the emblems 
of their power, for " they are the myriads of Ephraim 
and the thousands of Manasseh." (Deut. xxxiii. 17.) 
It would best become our Saxon temperament to 
profess, like the Buddhists, to be ready for all kinds 
of self-sacrifice and abnegation ; only, however, that 
we should be special favourites of Heaven after all; 
so that, if we are to deem ourselves descendants of 
any part of the Israelitish family, we should doubtless 
put in our claim for the inheritance of Joseph's bless- 
ings ; and certainly, if we possess any indications of our 
descent from such a lineage, it is in the heritage we 
really hold by right divine, being blessed alike '' for 
the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for 
the deep that croucheth beneath;" ''for the chief 
things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious 
things of the lasting hills." And it is possible that 
we may discover in our family armorial bearing, so 
to say, together with the collateral evidences of our 
pedigree, that we do belong to the family of him 
whose "horns are the horns of an unicorn." This 
expression is very striking and remarkable. Those 
who are best acquainted with the Holy Scriptures of 
the Hebrews are most thoroughly aware that they 
are constructed on those strict principles that all 
unmeaning use of terms is entirely excluded, and 
that wherever any peculiar and specific language is 
employed to describe a fact, whether historic or pro- 



THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 351 

phetic, there exists specific and peculiar reason for 
its employment ; and, therefore, this unique mention 
of the creature called a unicorn, must possess a 
unique significance. 

When we reflect that all the nations most promi- 
nently presented in the Bible, in connexion with pro- 
phecy, were symbolized by emblems derived from the 
forms and habits of living creatures, such as those 
applied to the successive empires by Daniel, and to 
the Israelitish tribes by Moses and the other prophets, 
we may not be presumptuous in believing that the 
lion and the unicorn are not accidentally associated 
with the ensign of the Saxon nation. It is true that 
the horse was the ancient ensi^^n of an Enoflish or 
Saxon clan, and is still borne in the arms of our 
royal house, and the lion belonged to the Franks of 
northern derivation, while the bear pertained to some 
of the Goths, all alike from the East; yet the horse- 
stag^ or large antelope, apparently combining in it 
some of the attributes of the horse, was the oriofin of 
the unicorn^ and so called of old; and this was the 
symbol of one of the divisions of the Sacce in Northern 
India more than two thousand years ago ; this also 
was the emblem of the tribes descended from Joseph, 
and this is our emblenu The young lion passant and 
rampant is the symboUof Dan, with which the tribes 
of Ephraim and Manasseh were associated ; and these 
tribes, as the offspring of Joseph, are declared to be 
symbolized by the unicorn. May not this heraldry 
of ours, coming down as it does from an antiquity 
beyond record, be in itself evidence of our derivation 
from those united sources ? We cannot now enlaro-e 



352 THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 

upon the evidence which could be presented to show 
that the Danes, who have blended with the Saxons 
in our land, were really Danites, whose characteristic 
of old was their maritime enterprise, for they occupied 
the coast and " dwelt in ships." It is enough that 
we have blended, and that in the East to which we 
have traced our origin, we have also traced the em- 
blematic living creatures upon our united national 
standard. But, as collateral evidence in support of 
the facts already offered of our descent from the 
house of Joseph, our possession of the emblem of 
that house as our ensign from time immemorial is no 
mean argument in favour of our right to it, especially 
as we find no people who ever so employed it but 
the Sacae of the East, from whom we, as a branch of 
the same great family of peoples, have derived it. If 
we are not of the race signified by it, unique as it 
is, our possession of it is most unaccountable. The 
language of the Hebrew, in the text in which the 
unicorn is mentioned, is so remarkable, that our 
translators deemed it necessary to deviate from their 
rule in rendering the passage ; and instead of abiding 
by the literal sense of the original, altered its con- 
struction, as if to make a better sense, for the original 
seems to contain a contradiction in terms, but which, 
indeed, only thereby becomes the more expressive. 
The Hebrew reads, " His horns [Joseph's] are the 
horns of an unicorn ;" but our authorized version is, 
" His horns are like the horns of unicorns ;'' thus 
altogether overlooking the idea conveyed in the con- 
text, that the union of the powers of Ephraim and 
Manasseh is expressed by the seeming union of two 



THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 353 

horns into one, as seen in the conventional represen- 
tation of the antelope, meant by the word unicorn, 
and which in ancient monuments always appears in 
profile. The creature's name in Hebrew signifies 
also high, precious, sublime; but, as the name of an 
animal, it is doubtless correctly rendered in the 
Septuagint version by monokeros — single-horned. 
Bochart regards it as the oryx^ or long-horned ante- 
lope; but, whatever its derivation, we Saxons, like 
the SacaB of the East, have the unique symbol, together 
with the lion; and the two together there, as here, 
signified the united blessings similar to those uttered 
in the names of Dan and of Joseph upon their de- 
scendants, by the mouth of Moses, the seer of God. 

The earliest period of the Saxons' appearance 
in Britain is not known, but there are indications of 
its being much earlier than authentic history affirms. 
In the Sicambri of the Maine and the Rhine of the 
Augustan age we found the name of a people con- 
nected with the Saxons, and the same name also in 
Northern India, which was associated with the Sacas ; 
thus, with the aid of other incidental notices, sustain- 
ing the conviction that the Sacae and the Saxons were 
identical in their origin. So in the time of Caesar's 
invasion of Britain we find a people bearing a name 
precisely similar to that adopted by the Buddhists in 
the most ancient period of Indian record, and even 
now lingering among the higher class of religionists 
in Northern India, and tenaciously held by them as 
a peculiar mark of distinction. This name in the early 
period of Sakian dominion in that land, pertained to 
the people holding that dominion, and extended over 

A A 



354 THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 

a very wide range of country, as we discover from the 
circumstance that the name is employed as a distin- 
guishing characteristic in the rock- records already so 
largely quoted, and which present the name in the 
same language in Afghanistan and in Cuttack ; that is 
to say, from one side of Northern India to the other, 
more than a thousand miles apart. The name is 
Cassi or Kashi, The orthography and derivation of 
the name is doubtful; but that in the East, if not 
in the West, it belonged to a people who used the 
Hebrew language or a Hebraic dialect, and who boasted 
of their unyielding endurance under difficulties as 
their distinction, it is very likely to have been de- 
rived from the Hebrew word which meant hardihood. 
However that may be, the name is sufficiently remark- 
able to surprise us at its application to a people in 
Britain when Caesar invaded it, did we not know 
from Druidical record that a people using Hebraic 
lano:uao:e did visit Britain when Druidism was the 
dominant religion there, and prove their connexion 
with the Sacae and the Buddhists of the East alike by 
their language and their religion. That the Cassi 
mentioned by Caesar* were not natives of Britain, but 
warlike and powerful invaders, is indicated by him. 
They were probably derived from the Chauci^ who 
were also called Endia-bone in the German of the 
middle ages. Endia is evidently India^ and bone^ a 
Hebrew word, means sons. These were the earliest 
German denominations of the people ultimately known 
only by their generic title of Saxons, who always 
boasted of their As-khan^ that is, Asian prince. An 

* Com. bk. V. chap. 20. 



i 



THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 355 

old MS. in the Vatican states that they came from 
( 1) Esco or Yisico (Isaac?), (2) Armenius (Armenia?), 
and (3) Ingo or India, The Cassiterides were probably 
peopled by Cassi, Strabo describes the people of 
those islands as wearing " long beards, black cloaks, 
tunics reaching to their feet, and girt about the 
breast," a very Israelitish style of habiliment. Some 
of the " Eald Seaxam " were called Buri (the chosen), 
a name conjoined with Sacam in the Sacam-huri. 
Some were called Phali^ hence Westphalians and 
Eastphalians, from whom came the Anglo-Saxons. 
All these names were also applied to the Oriental 
Sacse ; can we then doubt the origin of the Saxons, 
seeing that they also worshipped Godam? * 

We are anxious to discover every possible trace of 
people having signs of connexion with the Sacce^ be- 
cause they will again be connected together from one 
end of the earth to the other, if, as we believe, they 
are remnants of the Lost Tribes, for to them the pro- 
mises of prophecy yet to be fulfilled in an especial 
manner belong. They are to be brought into the 
bonds of the new and everlasting covenant, and to 
become the means of the regeneration of the world 
under the operation of that faith which shall cause 
them to co-operate with the Almighty in obedience 
to his laws, both natural and spiritual. They are all 
to become Christians, so far as to stand out in that 
name distinct from all the other nations, with a 
mutual understanding of their relationship to one 



* See Mengel's History of Germany, aud Latham's Ethnology of the 
British Islands. 

aa2 



S-P 



356 THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 

another, and with power to encompass the earth with 
their influence. 

Let us, therefore, see what signs at present exist of 
this wonderful upspringing of the scattered seed 
which, as the prophet affirms, has been '' sifted" over 
the countries. We are to look for these people where 
our own influence extends, and see who they are who 
are most ready to be attracted to ourselves as bearers 
of the glad tidings of good-will towards man and 
glory to God in the highest, according to the angels' 
carol at the birth of Him whose right it is to reign. 

The Goths seem to be but a mixture of the refuse 
of the SacaB with the old Pali or Philistines of the 
East, and their mission is fulfilled in metaphysical 
wranglings with wrong-headed heathenism and the 
Roman and Greek admixture of mythology with the 
Gospel. They are not distinguished but as a power 
so far influenced by the old Saxon and Israelitish 
temperament of indomitable obstinacy as to qualify 
and subdue the Roman remnants of the old iron rule, 
as to form new kingdoms called Gotho-Roman, but 
which partake of the clay commingled with the iron 
in the feet of the image in Daniel, and are therefore so 
easily disposed to fall to pieces when smitten by the 
stone cut out of the mountain — that is to say, the 
Saxon race and the Saxon principle of free govern- 
ment and worship. The Gothic races have been, 
however, the providential allies of Saxons from time 
immemorial, and will remain to the end their helpers 
against the inroads of old despotisms, whether in the 
form of priestly superstitions or of imperial assump- 
tions. Space is not left us to adduce all the evidences 



THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 357 

of the truth of this assertion, and it must suffice to 
appeal to facts now patent to the world in proof of 
our standing in relation to our German cousins. 
Without all controversy prophecy points to a period 
which seems to be at hand when the race which drew 
their life-blood and their beliefs from the grand patri- 
archs of faith in God and patient endurance of His 
^vill, which has been scattered over the earth as a 
seed to fructify in blessings to all lands, shall again 
stand out, after a long obscuration of their pedigree, 
as the very people to whom the promise of a number- 
less increase and a large prosperity under accumu- 
lated troubles was given. They shall be taken one by 
one into the new and everlasting covenant, and at last 
unitedly appear in possession of a world-wide inheri- 
tance, "' pushing the nations together to the ends of 
the earth," and brino-ino; the blessino^s of the best 
policy and the highest revelations to bear upon every 
people. And now, if the occasion permitted, it might 
be shown that the Saxon race who seized the word of 
faith and reformation with a full recurrence to the 
testimony of the Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew Chris- 
tian Covenant, on which to stand and erect the rights 
of man, are being separated from all other people by 
the out-speaking freedom of their spirit, the liberality 
of their institutions, and their indomitable protest 
against all despotisms, whether secular or spiritual. 
The hand of the Almighty, in shaking the founda- 
tions of European kingdoms pertaining to the Greek 
and Roman Churches, is bringing out the Saxon 
element from its admixtures and vindicating the 
Bible as the strength of those who make its doctrines 



358 THE SAXON DERIVATION AND DESTINY. 

" part and parcel of their laws.'^ And they will 
gather to their own creed the remnants of the same 
seed scattered over the far East, for they too will 
receive the Bible, and that from the hand of their 
brethren of the West, who are bringing the ends of 
the earth together, and pushing the nations aside that 
would obstruct them. 

If we look into the East for traces of the people 
akin to the Saxon, we shall find them by the same 
signs by which we discover our own relation to the 
early Buddhists and the Lost Tribes. Of the Afghans 
enough has been said elsewhere and by abler writers ; 
but I would conclude this long and yet too hurried 
research by pointing the attention of the patient 
reader to an obscure people who bear in their tradi- 
tions, their appearance, their customs, their expecta- 
tions, and their readiness to receive the Holy Scrip- 
tures, plain indications of their descent from the 
scattered and yet preserved seed of Israel. I mean 
the Karens, some notices of whom will not inaptly 
furnish us with opportunity to introduce allusions to 
other people bearing interesting indications of the 
like relationship. 



I 



359 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

Christian missionaries are not the less the lights of 
the world because witlings and worldlings, overlooking 
the power with which they work, are apt to deride 
their seeming insignificance, suspect their sincerity, 
or fancy their faith a mere fanaticism and their 
simplicity but a foolishness, calculated only to disturb 
the policy that would make a market of heathenism 
and ignorance. These are the persons, however, 
whose position and pursuits bring them directly in 
contact with the souls of men, and from them we 
gather all the particulars concerning the interesting 
people of whom it is my purpose here to speak. Mr. 
Mason, an American missionary, was the first to make 
us intimately acquainted with the Karens, he having 
laboured amongst them in Tavoy and neighbouring 
parts in Tenasserim, which formerly belonged to Bir- 
mah, but are now ceded to the British. Their habits 
and peculiar readiness to listen to the Gospel strongly 
excited Mr. Mason's curiosity to learn all he could of 
their antecedents, and the result was the publication of 
a little work concernino: them containin Of a laroe amount 
of very interesting intelligence.* But before pro- 

* The substance of the work referred to is found iu the Calcutta Christian 
Observer, 1835, and from this inj quotations are taken. 



360 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

ceeding to consider what Mr. Mason relates of the 
Karens, a few observations or facts derived from 
other sources may enable us the better to connect the 
Karens with the Sacoe ; for, if this connexion can be 
shown, the peculiarities of the Karens will in a great 
measure be accounted for. First, it is evident that 
the Karens are a conquered people. The inquiry 
then arises, when were they conquered, and what was 
their condition previous to that period ? The history 
of Arracan, compiled by the Mughs or Magi of that 
country, mentions an empire under Kowalea which 
in 530 of our era extended over the whole of Ava, 
Assam, Siam, and part of Bengal ;* and it is stated 
that afterwards his dominion in Birmah was de- 
stroyed by the Birmese,t and the inhabitants of that 
country were either enslaved or driven into the moun- 
tains and forests. The condition of the Karens is then 
accounted for by the records of the land in which we 
lind them. They are the remains of a nation once 
possessors of Birmah. It is stated on the same 
authority that two brothers, one named Antra The^ 
and the other Amra Kho^ came from the Kaladyne 
hills and became mixed with the royal race of Arracan. 
The people to which these brothers belonged were 
known as Ehom or Ahom. Now, it is especially 
worthy of remark that a people of the same name 
once ruled in Assam, and that their religion was the 
purest form of early Buddhism, as we learn from 
the remains of their religious records known to the 

* Vide a Sketch of Arracan, by T. Paten, Asiatic Res. vol. xvi. p. 353. 
t The Birmese afford every evidence of their Malayan origin. 
THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 361 

curiously-learned amongst Orientalists. Then, again, 
the word Am7^a points to the fact that, instead of two 
brothers being signified by The and Kho^ two tribes 
or classes of people are meant, for Amra is an Arabic 
if not a Hebrew word, and as now used in Arabia 
signifies expressly The Tribes^ that is, the Hebrew 
Tribes. The terms The, or Thai^ and Kho indicate 
that one class was free or unrestricted, and the other 
bound by vow — a mark of distinctions known alike to 
the Israelites, the Buddhists, and the Karens. The 
Shans (or Shyans)^ who occupy great part of Laos 
and Siam, as well as the bordering districts of Bir- 
mah, call themselves The or Thai, Now, in personal 
appearance, customs, and language the Shans and the 
Karens are shown to be but offshoots of the same 
stock ; and here it is important to remark that the 
Laos^ the Shans^ and the people called Ahom are, 
or originally were the same, and once held Assam 
and Bhotan under their dominion. 

From the language of the Girnar inscription, 
sect. 6 (p. 275 ante)^ we should infer that Bhotan, 
Anam, and the island of Hainan were converted by 
Godama. Laos and Ahom belong to Anam, that is, 
Cochin China; and it appears that all those places 
were formerly united under one Buddhist ical govern- 
ment. Vhai is the native name of the Siamese, and 
their chief divisions are Laos, Shyans (or Ahom), 
and Khamti. Their general complexion is light 
brown, their hair is black and abundant, the nose not 
flattened. The original conquerors were Ahom^ the 
alphabet Ahom^ the language Ahom, The literature 
of this language, preserved in the books of the Assam 



362 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

priesthood, is remarkable for the entire absence of 
doctrines that are expressly either Buddhist or Brah- 
minical ;* which may probably be accounted for by the 
circumstance asserted in the Buddhistic annals, that 
Godama or Sakya himself instructed the Bhots and 
Assamese ; so that of course there would be no refer- 
ence to himself as the Buddha to be worshipped — a 
doctrine not inculcated until after his death. The 
antiquities existing in Assam prove that it was for- 
merly occupied by a people very superior to those 
now holding it, who certainly are incapable of con- 
structing works like the handsome bridges of stone 
which with noble arches span some of the rivers, and 
the erection of which the present inhabitants attri- 
bute to the gods in an ancient period called by them 
the time of the kings. f 

Now, looking at the words Laos and Ahom as terms 
applied to the same people, we obtain a very significant 
y A^i;^ication ; for, supposing we wrote Laos in Greek 
y'^^yvietters and Ahom in Hebrew, we get two words that 
mean the same thing, namely, the people, or nation — 
the term especially applied to the Hebrews by them- 
selves. If we remember that the Sacce and the 
Buddhists were driven from North-western India by 
their Hindoo conquerors into Assam and Bhotan, and 
Greek converts were known to be mixed with them, 
two undefined names of people — Laos and J/i6>m — may 
be easily accounted for; and their strange connexion 
with the Karens, at least in the north of Birmah, is 
explained, since the Ahom or Ehom was the designa- 

* See Latham's Natural History of the Varieties of Man, pp. 21 and 22. 
f American mission. — Maga. 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 863 

tion of the races mixed with the royalty of Arracan, 
and opposed to the pretensions of the King of Ava* 
at a very early period of Birmese history. 

I claim, then, for the Karens a right to Birmah as 
the preoccupiers of the land, not as conquerors with 
the sword, but with the doctrines of a people origin- 
ally instructed by revelation ; and now I will proceed 
to prove this by their own traditions. These people 
are scattered over twelve degrees of latitude. On 
the river Salwen they maintain a degree of indepen- 
dence, but in all other parts of Birmah they are in 
a most depressed condition. Besides the name of 
Karens, they very tenaciously hold their right to a 
name of sacred import to them, that is, P'lai, Now, 
the similarity of this denomination to that of Pali^ 
which we know was the appellation of the early Bud- 
dhists, whose capital was Pali-Bothra^ and that the 
name with the Buddhists, the Karens, and the He- 
brews signifies separated and distinguished, we can 
scarcely avoid believing that it sprung from the same 
origin. In Pegu they are called Kadwni, the He- 
brew for ancients. 

But the Israelitish characteristics are fully seen — 
1st, in their domestic habits; 2ndly, in their per- 
sonal appearance and dress ; and Brdly, in their reli- 
gious traditions and expectations. Notwithstanding 
that oppressors insist on their confining themselves 
to the laborious cultivation of the land for the sake 
of drawing taxes from them, they are really higher 
in their domestic civilization than almost any people 

* This name reminds us of the Hebrew word avaj and of the city and 
district oi Aven in Samaria. 



364 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

of the East, for their women hold the same position 
among them as ours with us, and there too prove 
themselves w^orthy by their virtue and intelligence. 
This higher character of the women doubtless arises 
from the nobler ideas of the men with respect to the 
domestic relations. They regard polygamy as a sin, 
and honour the wife and mother as entitled to rule 
alone in her department of the household. Their 
general morality is superior, except with one dire 
exception, namely, their intemperance. This, how- 
ever, is not as with our sots, the degradation of a 
daily madness, but is only exhibited in honour of 
visitors and in their festivals. Their hospitality to 
strangers of every class is extremely generous. 

Their houses are better arranged for preserving the 
decencies of life than amongst our poor, for they 
always contrive to have several apartments for cook- 
ing and sleeping, while one more open and larger is 
reserved for visitors, or, in their absence, is used for 
spinning or other home-work. 

Their industry is evinced in the fact that from the 
soil they raise large supplies for themselves and for 
the market. Their personal appearance and dress are 
Jewish. Mr. Mason says their Jewish look cannot 
fail to strike any one. They have a saying with regard 
to the wearing the beard which sufficiently indicates 
their distinction from the people of the same land — 
••' A man with a beard belongs to the race of ancient 
kings." No people ever honoured the beard more 
than the Hebrews, but the Birmese pluck out their 
beard. 

Their dress, as Mr. Mason observes, may be de- 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 365 

scribed in the words of Jahn concerning that of 
ancient Hebrews. The tunic of the men is embroi- 
dered in the weaving, but that of the women with 
the needle, as it was with the Hebrews as far back as 
the time of Moses. Their clothing is in all respects 
dissimilar from that of the Birmese. 

The derivation of their language is said to be un- 
known, but I find from Mr. Brown^s vocabulary that 
about a fourth of their words are Birmese, and the rest 
mostly like the Singpo and Jili, which is just what 
might have been expected from their associations, 
in the absence of any literature among them. Yet 
there is this remarkable peculiarity in their speech — 
their words always terminate in a vowel, thus im- 
parting a mellifluous tone to their words, greatly dis- 
tinguishing it from those of other people of that 
country. This, again, connects them with the Pali, 
and also with the Bhotans and the Ahom, whose 
language was likewise so distinguished; indeed, the 
Karens have many words in common with those 
people, especially in relation to religious ideas ; a cir- 
cumstance that confirms the notion that they had a 
common origin. 

The most striking of their sacred words is their 
name for the Deity, that is, Yoowah^ a word precisely 
similar to that in the inscriptions of Girnar and 
Delhi. The importance of this word may well de- 
tain our attention awhile. Javo^ evidently a con- 
traction of Jehovah, is the word signifying the 
Supreme in Tibet and Bhotan. The singular term 
Owah-n^chu is also used to designate the Deity amongst 
the intelligent Lamas of Bhotan ; a term which, re- 



3-66 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

garding Owah as equivalent to Jehovah, being indeed 
the same word without the initial, in Hebrew means 
the Lord is his guide. When a Lama of Bhotan was- 
asked why he did not bow the head or even look at 
an image, he replied, '' Owah is all around my head, 
and it is not right to bow before images, as if he 
were more before than behind me and everywhere."^ 
When we consider this reply in conjunction with the 
fact that in Bhotan the image of Buddha is shut up 
out of sight, within a tomb-like shrine built in the 
form of a parallelogram, like the Hebrew temple, with 
the sides opposite the cardinal points, we find a two- 
fold indication that the worship taught of old in 
that country repudiated idolatry and pointed to IJim 
who fills all space. When God revealed Himself to 
Moses He said, " This is my name [Jehovah^ for ever, 
and my memorial to all generations." The presence 
of this name in the worship of any people is, then, a 
notable circumstance. We have traced it to the Sacse 
and Buddhists of Northern India, Tibet, and Bhotan, 
and also among the Karens. Are not these people, 
then, interested in the promises connected with those 
who revere that name? Wherever this name is re- 
corded God says he will bless those who use it in 
supplication. (Exod. xx. 24.) The triple blessing 
on Israel is thus declared : '' And they shall put my 
name on the chikjren of Israel, and I will bless them." 
(Numbers vi. 2fe.) This name is to be dreadful 
among the heathen. (Mai. i. 14.) In sanctifying 
this name the seed of Jacob is to be preserved from 

* Account of Bhotan, by Kishen Kant Bose, Asiatic Res. vol. xv. p. 128. 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 367 

utter shame. (Isai. xxix. 23.) In this name those 
who erred in spirit should come to understanding, 
and the murraurers learn doctrine. (Isai. xxix. 24.) 
In this name the wisdom of God's providence is to 
be justified. (Isai. xli. 25.) The multitudes brought 
through the fire calling on this name shall be 
heard. (Zech. xiii. 9.)yiThis name, then, -will guide 
us to the remnants of Israel. 

Tlte traditions of the Karens are the most striking 
indications of their Israelitish origin : but even their 
corrupt usages indicate the same. Thus, although 
acknowledging the Supreme, they, as the corrupt 
Israelites did, propitiate evil spirits. They are divided 
into two sects, one sacrificing hogs and fowls to evil 
spirits ; but the other, called Purai^ will not sacrifice 
to those beings, and regard hogs with detestation. 
They say that formerly they ofi'ered oxen in sacrifice. 
They account for their use of the bones of fowls for 
divination in a singular manner, asserting that God 
(Yoowah) in ancient tiui^^ g^Yii ihktm his word writte7i 
on leather^ but that the family to whose custody it 
was committed having laid it by on a shelf, a fowl 
scratched it down, and it was destroyed by swine. This 
gave rise to the employment of the bones of the fowl 
for superstitious purposes. Compare with this the 
sacrifice of fowls by the Yezidees of Koordistan, the 
worship of the cock by the Assyrians, and the ofFerino- 
of the fowl, male and female, as an atonement for 
man and woman, by Jewish families in the East.* 
Socrates, too, desired a cock to be sacrificed to the 

* See Narrative of a Mission to the Jews from the Church of Scotland, 
p. 405. 



368 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

god of health, as if to express his hope of well-being 
after death. This form of sacrifice amongst the 
Karens connects them, therefore, with other people 
than those who surround them, as does, also, their 
employment of wizards or prophets to curse their 
enemies, as Balak employed Balaam, though they 
acknowledge a traditional law forbidding the practice, 
and their saying is, '' Curse not, lest you curse your- 
selves." 

They praise their Maker in these words : — 

" He was in the beginning of the world ; 
God is endless and eternal ; 
He was in the beginning of the world ; 
God is unchangeable and eternal : 
He existed in ancient time at the beginning. ^^ 

Now, remembering that they call the Creator 
Yoowah^ or Yoovah, we cannot avoid connecting this 
hymn in praise of his power with the words of the 
seer, who, with the sublimity of simple truth, lays 
the foundation of all faith in the grand words — 

" In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." 

But the original of the Karen thought is more 
plainly manifest in the following passages of tradition 
obtained by Mr. Wade, a missionary, from a Moul- 
main Karen, who had no knowledge beyond what he 
acquired amongst his own people : — 

" God created heaven and earth. The creation of 

heaven and earth was finished. 
" He created again, creating man. At first he 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 369 

created earth, and then he created man. The 
creation of man was finished. 

" He created woman. He took a rib out of man, 
and created again, creating woman. The 
creation of woman was finished. 

" He created again, creating life. Father God 
said I love my son and my daughter, I will give 
them my great life. He breathed a little of 
his life into the nostrils of the two ; they came 
to life, and became real human beings. The 
creation of man was finished." 

In similar language the creation of food and drink, 
water and fire, quadrupeds and birds, is described as 
finished. Comment is unnecessary. 

They account for the origin of death thus : " In 
the beginning God, to try man, created the tree of 
death and the tree of life, saying of the tree of death. 
Eat it not." " But man disobeyed and ate fruit 
from the tree of death, and the tree of lite God hid, 
and since that time men die." 

They say that Satan introduced sin, which they 
call adultery against God, as the Hebrew prophets 
also do. They believe that Satan was once a holy 
being, who for some sin was cast out of heaven, and 
then he deceived the son and daughter of God. Satan 
came into the garden and said to them : '' Why are 
you here?" " Our Father God put us here." " What 
do you eat?" " The fruit of many trees, but of one 
tree God said. Eat not; if you eat, you will die." Then 
said Satan, " The heart of your Father God is not 
with you: this is the sweetest of all. Let each one 

B B 



370 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

eat a single fruit, then you will know." The man 
replied, " Our Father God said. Eat not," and so 
saying he went away; but the woman listened to 
Satan, who said to her, " Now go give the fruit to 
your husband." So she coaxed her husband, and 
Satan laughed. On the following morning they were 
silent before God, and God said, " You have ate the 
fruit that is not good ; you shall die." 

They look for a Saviour Avho is the Supreme God, 
and yet a sufferer, for it is Yoowah who is to come to 
suffer, that all men may be happy. 

They speak of the dispersion in these words : — 

" Men were all brethren ; 
They had all the language of God, 
But they disbelieved the language of God, 
And became enemies to each other. 
Because they disbelieved God, 
Their language was divided." 

Their moral code, which contains the substance of 
every injunction in the decalogue, is the more re- 
markable that in the midst of image worshippers it 
forbids idolatry. They say, "We have no king, 
because we feared not God," using the very word of 
Hosea (x. 3). Though they deem themselves wan- 
derers and outcasts, under a curse for their transgres- 
sions, attributing the loss of their king and their 
books to this cause, they yet assert that God loves 
them above all other people, and will yet save them. 
But the strangest point of their confidence in God 
amidst persecution, is the expectation of being re- 
stored to a royal state^ when they " shall dwell in the 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 371 

city with the golden palace." They expect their 
king and Saviour shortly to appear, and exhort each 
other to pray for his coming in these words : — 

'' Though the flowers fade, they bloom again. 

At the appointed time our fathers' Jehovah 
will return. 

That Jehovah [YoowaK] may bring the moun- 
tain height^ 

Let us pray both great and small, 

That Jehovah may prepare the mountain height^ 

Friends and brethren, let us pray.'' 

Almost all that is past or promised of greatness in 
Israel is connected with mountains, as if the Divine 
majesty were, so to say, naturally associated with the 
sublimer parts of the earth. But the language of 
the poor Karen's prayer especially reminds us of 
the words of Isaiah : " It shall come to pass in the last 
days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
established in the tops of the mountains . . . and all 
nations shall flow unto it" (ii. 2). Ezekiel also 
predicts a like exaltation : " This is the law of the 
house upon the top of the mountain ; the whole limit 
thereof round about shall be most holy" (xliii. 12). 
In anticipating the results of the conquest of death 
by Him who " led captivity captive," the Psalmist 
exclaims, " Why leap ye, ye high hills [or literally 
mountains of heights^ ? This is the mountain which 
God desireth to dwell in, yea the Lord will dwell in 
it for ever." (Ps. Ixviii. 16.) We know not whence 
the Karens could have derived their ideas of the 
mountain height as the peculiar abode of Jehovah but 

bb2 



372 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

from Hebrew tradition, unless, indeed, it came to 
them from Tibet and Bhotan, where the same notions 
prevail, being conveyed there by the teachers of 
Buddhism, and, therefore, clearly from a Hebrew 
source; thus accounting for the establishment of an 
ancient mountain centre of religious dominion, both 
in Bhotan and in Tibet, the Red or Golden Mountain, 
near Lha-sha, being still the residence of the Grand 
Lama^ the supposed incarnation of Deity.* 

The coming of the Karen king, bringing the holy 
mountain, is associated with the expectation of bless- 
edness to all nations, as in Isaiah. 

" When the Kareti king arrives 
There will be but one monarch, — 
There will be neither rich nor poor. 
Everything will be happy; 
The beasts will be happy, 
Lions and leopards will lose their savageness." 

That the Karens did not derive their ideas from a 
Christian source is evident from the fact that they 
are not trustino^ to a Saviour that has come, but that 
is coming. Besides, neither the cross, nor baptism, 
nor the Lord's supper, nor any circumstance con- 
nected with Christ, not even the name, is mentioned 
in their traditions. Nor do they trace their opinions 
to any teacher, but always assert that what they 
believe to be true was communicated to them by God 
Himself, through men inspired, or rather through a 
book which God Himself wrote. The phraseology of 

* Csoma Korosi, Tibet Gram. p. 198. 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 373 

their traditions is as Hebraic as their ideas. Their 
poeras are arranged " in parallelisms with a certain 
equality or resemblance between members of the 
same period, so that in two lines or members of the 
same period things shall for the most part answer 
to things, and words to words, as if fitted to each 
other by a kind of rule or measure." For instance, 

" The judgment is a rope of seven coils, 
The law is a rope of seven coils, 
Freed from one, a coil remains, still another coil, 
Delivered from one, a coil remains, still another 
coil." 

These verses are worthy of attention, not only for 
their structure, but also as referring to the law in a 
definite sense, and that also in connexion with its 
perfection and comprehensiveness as expressed by 
the number seven. This use of the number seven 
is common among them. The Karens, like the 
Hebrews, not only compose their songs in corre- 
sponding parts, but also chant them, with the aid of 
instrumental music, alternately by opposite choirs. 

It would occupy too much time to enumerate all 
the particulars in which the Karens indicate their 
descent from Israelites ; and if we could, some would 
say, they cannot belong to them, because the seal of 
the covenant, circumcision, is wanting. But this 
looking for the seal of the covenant in a people who 
were cast out because they had forsaken the cove- 
nant, seems somewhat absurd. How could they 
have been lost with the seal upon them, for it could 
be no seal or sign if not acknowledged by themselves, 



374 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

or else the Turks are as good Israelites as any in 
Palestine? If we are to abide by the words of pro- 
phecy, let us abide by them ; but from them we learn 
that the outcast Israelites despised the covenant 
(Ezek. xvii. 15, 18, 19), and were recompensed ac- 
cordingly; though, ultimately, anew and everlasting 
covenant is to be established with them, not by 
circumcision, but the law in their hearts. 

The Karens are remarkably prepared for evangeli- 
zation, for they expect white foreigners from the West 
to be their enlighteners, and are, therefore, more 
attentive to missionaries, and more rapidly receiving 
Christian ideas than any other people in the world, 
which I regard as itself a sign to which we do well to 
give heed. They look for the restoration of their 
God- written book, and in the Bible they recognise it. 
One of their prophets composed some verses, which 
are sung through many parts of their country, with 
a firm belief in their speedy fulfilment. 

" The clouds rise up in the dark dark heavens. 
The end of the world draws near ; 
The clouds rise up in the pale pale heavens ; 
The end of the world has come. 
The grand mother has finished weaving. 
Happiness will return to the land, and peace like 
a river. 

*' The ten virtues, the nine virtues, the duties of 
virtue, 
All the virtues will return to us now; 
With strong desire I thirst for mother^s milk, 
Without partaking of which I cannot live. 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 375 

" The time draws near, 
Act with one accord together ; act virtuously. 
The wooden staiF, the iron staff, 
Is stretched forth; people are produced; 
The wooden staff, the silver staff. 
Is stretched forth, the town is obtained, the city 

raised. 
The harmonious people, the united. 
Shall dwell in the new town, the new city. 
Sing praise to God, sing pleasantly — 
Worship as evening comes. 
Praise God with one accord, 
Worship at evening tide, 
Unitedly praise God." 

The ten virtues seem to refer to the ten laws, but 
the distinction between the nine and the ten points to 
the abstract and relative virtues of the Buddhistic 
creed. The ancient Israelites called Jerusalem the 
mother^ hence St. Paul calls the Church Jerusalem, 
"the mother of us all." Mother's milk means the 
food of the soul, true religion. The Karens, like the 
Israelites of old, use staves or rods as emblems of 
authority and power. Putting these ideas together, 
with the mention of "peace as a river," we have 
several of the most striking passages of prophecy 
brought to mind. Isaiah, in describing the city of 
God, represents Jehovah as saying, '' I will extend 
peace to her like a river" (Ixvi. 12), having first 
compared the satisfaction arising from the abundance 
of her glory to drawing milk from breasts of consola- 
tion. And Ezekiel says, " Thy mother is like a 



376 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

vine planted by the waters . . . she had strong rods 
[staves] for sceptres of them that bare rule" (xix. 
10, 11). 

The wail of the Karens over their dead affords us 
a point of association with old Saxon superstitions. 
The assembled company, in answer to one of their 
number who six times exclaims, "What is the matter?'* 
chant these words: 1. Ascending the trunk, 2. Taking 
the fruit, 3. Descending the branch, 4. Descending 
the trunk. 5. Depositing the fruit. This is repeated 
in several languages, one of which is called the old 
language^ but what that is has not been stated. The 
gathering and depositing the fruit must signify the 
fruit of life. Those who are conversant with northern 
antiquities will be reminded of the Yggdrasil, or 
tree emblematic of life, at the root of which vices 
gnaw like snakes, but the soul that ultimately 
climbs it gathers fruit, and rests amidst perennial 
verdure. 

When the body is buried, a bone is taken to repre- 
sent the person,* and at a convenient season a feast 
is made, booths are erected by some stream, and the 
friends of the deceased assemble in the evening to 
sing a long dirge around the bone. At the close of 
the ceremony, a bangle is suspended by a string over 
a cup of rice; the departed spirit is then called. 
When the spirit answers the string trembles, the 
bangle turns round, and the string snaps as if by 
miracle. If no answer is returned, the spirit is sup- 
posed to have gone to a bad place. We must leave 

* The Hebrews use the term bone for person, and think there is one bone 
that never decays. 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 377 

those of our day who are themselves familiars, or at 
least intimate with the legerdemain of spirits, to 
account for the fact that any spirit ever answers in 
so singular a manner. 

The Karens are not a scanty and scattered people, 
nor bound to a small tract of country as if the remains 
of some ancient colony ; but they extend at intervals 
over at least twelve degrees of latitude, and ten of 
longitude, and are calculated by some authorities to 
equal in number the inhabitants of England. The 
white Miaou-tse^ a people occupying the hill country 
of central China, present many points of resemblance 
to the Karens. They are very brave and independent, 
and at certain periods sacrifice an ox without blemish 
to the Great Father, as Karens state they formerly 
were accustomed to do. Were not this volume already 
too large, it would be interesting to follow out the 
points of similarity between these two remarkable 
peoples, so completely standing apart from those 
around them; but I refer to the Miaou-tse here only 
to observe that it is amongst them that the Old Tes- 
tament is said to have existed from time immemorial. 
One of them among the insurgents at Chim- 
Eiang-foo^ told Sir G. Bonham, in 1853, that the 
sacred volume came to them from Heaven two thou- 
sand years ago.* 

The Karens have a singular custom of painting 
two of the posts or pillars of their houses, the one 
white and the other red^ in reference to their deliver- 
ance from danger; which possibly may be derived 

* The Times, Aug. 1853. 



378 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 

from the smearing of blood on the door-posts of the 
Hebrews at stated seasons as an ordinance for ever, 
in remembrance of the Divine interposition on their 
behalf when the destroying angel destroyed the first- 
born of Egypt, and spared them on the appearance of 
this sign. (Exod. xii. 22.) 

The Karens walk round the dead to make, as they 
say, a smooth or even path back to the starting point, 
by which they appear to mean a complete religious 
service. There is a curious coincidence between 
this practice and that of the Bhotans, whose only 
form of public worship used to be just such a proces- 
sion around the shrine of Buddha. The Lamas of 
Tibet deem it of the first importance that their cere- 
monial circumambulations of holy places should be 
performed in a smooth or even line, as the least devi- 
ation would vitiate their devotion and destroy its 
merit. The Hebrew priests were accustomed to walk 
round the altar at the time of oblation (Ps. xxvi. 6), 
and the Jews to this day walk seven times round the 
coffins of their departed friends. These usages ex- 
plain the frequent mention of treadings by the pro- 
phets, as if they were appointed parts of worship. 

Some of the offerings of the Karens resemble the 
first-fruits presented by the Jews; others resemble 
the peace-offerings, in which part of the sacrifice 
belongs to the priest, while the remainder is partaken 
of by the offerer and his friends. The hill tribes of 
Assam, as well as the Karens, consider the touch of 
a dead body a cause of pollution ; which, however, 
may be removed either by sprinkling or washing 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 379 

with water, as amongst the Hebrews : " Whosoever 
toucheth the dead body of a man and purifieth not 
himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord ; because 
the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, 
he shall be unclean." (Num. xix. 13.) 

I might revert to the strange position of our friends, 
the Hebrews of Malabar, who call themselves Beni- 
Israel ; and I mio^ht enlaro^e concernino; the Israelitish 
people in the heart of China, and direct attention to the 
Sikhs, who, in spite of their seeming recent rise as a 
nation, offer many marks of Israelitish origin, but who, 
like the Karens, are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder 
with Britons to fight our enemies ; and much might 
be said to strengthen the argument of this volume by 
facts in relation to them all, both as fulfilling pro- 
phecy and as showing signs of the linking together of 
the remnants of the peculiar people for great purposes 
speedily to be consummated in respect to the whole 
earth ; but the field of inquiry is too extensive to be 
now surveyed. 

Having thus in some sort accomplished my endea- 
vour to set before the reader a few of the more evi- 
dent reasons for regarding the Saxons of the West as 
the descendants of the Saca3 of the East, and shown 
the connexion of these with the Buddhists and the 
Buddhists with the children of Israel — having also 
pointed to a remarkable but hitherto an obscure 
people as exhibiting indications of the same deriva- 
tion as our own — in conclusion I commend the subject 
and its treatment to the generous consideration of the 
reader, if only on ethnological grounds, though the 



380 



THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. 



writer cannot but believe that the facts presented 
tend to indicate how a man 



May find a stronger faith his own ; 
For Power is with him in the night, 
Which makes the darkness and the light. 

And dwells not in the light alone, 

But in the darkness and the cloud. 
As over Sinai's peaks of old, 
While Israel made their gods of gold, 

Although the trumpet blew so loud." 



APPENDIX. 



Tlie Lotus (see p- 5). 

It is evident that the lotus was not borrowed from India, 
as it was the favourite plant of Egypt before the Hindoos had 
established their religion there. The Npnphcea lotus grows in 
ponds and small channels in the Delta during the inundation ; 
but it is not found in the Nile itself. It is nearly the same as 
our white water-lily. The remarkable circumstance connected 
with the Buddhists' use of it is the name by which they espe- 
cially distinguish it, at least in Tibet and the north of India, 
where it is called nenupliar; a name so similar to that applied 
to it in Arabic, nufdr, that it can scarcely have had a different 
origin. The Egyptian god Nofr- Atmoo bore it on his head, and 
the name nufar is probably related to nofr, signifying good. 

See a note by Sir J. G. Wilkinson in Rawlinson's Herodotus, 
vol. ii. p. 149. 



Kings of the East (see p. 6, &c.). 

The Kings of the East are supposed by some learned persons 
to be found at present in our little island home and the India 
House. But even if we were the dominant and king^-like 
powers of the Orient hemisphere, we should not quite fulfil the 
terms supposed to be conveyed in the passage of Scripture 
which announces the drying up of the Euphrates in preparation 
for the passage of those kings, as unfortunately the original 



882 APPENDIX. 

words do not mean kings of the East^ but Jrom the East. 
(Rev. xii. 16.) I know not on what grounds it is understood 
that those predicted kings are to be Israelites, unless it be such 
passages as that of Isaiah, which declares that there shall be a 
highway for the remnant of God's people, '^ which shall be 
left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he 
came up out of the land of Egypt." (Isai. xi. 16.) There are 
other kings to come from the sun-rising, and they are coming 
even now. The younger Sacs, the States' men, are going 
forth from the Western hemisphere, with the authority of 
might and knowledge, to claim kindredship with the Japanese, 
or Jabans, in the furthest East ; but they will meet with Saxon 
blood already there, and the eagle sign of royalty will be 
found amongst the rulers of the eastern isles. There is 
another mighty Saxon branch in China, too, who makes the 
Tartars tremble. He calls himself King of the East Countrj^; 
and, if we mistake not, there is Saxon blood in the grand rebel 
who has turned the old '^celestial" empire upside down. 
Capt. Eishbourne says that one of the insurgent chiefs whom 
he saw ^^ sitting as a judge, was a fine handsome man, with a 
long brilliantly-black beard, and rather a European counte- 
nance, somewhat Jewish.""^ (See p. 377 supra.) 

" An important element in the early success of this revolu- 
tionary movement in China was the fact of its rising in the 
vicinity of the mountains occupied by the Miou-tze, a race of 
independent mountaineers, who never submitted to the Tartar, 
nor, indeed, to any yoke, or adopted their badges of slavery 
or any custom indicative of it. There must have been some 
principles and some influences more than ordinary amongst 
them to have kept them thus separate in the midst of a people 
who seem to have had more than ordinary power to permeate 
and pervade other races, showing them to possess an inde- 
structibility of race li^e the JewsV-\ 

We may, then, look even to China for kings from the East, 

* Fishbourne's Impressions of China, p. 152. 
t Idem, p. 37. 



APPENDIX. 383 

who yet may gather from the Hebrew Scriptures, which they 
have ah'eady adopted as their own, that there is some country 
in the West to which prophecy points them as their rightful 
possession and their home. The presence of a Hebrew people 
in the heart of China who have preserved amongst them the 
Hebrew worship from time immemorial is a remarkable fact, 
and may yet be found to bear upon the pretensions of the 
iconoclasts of the Flowery Empire. 

But the revolutionists will meet the kindred blood of Saxons 
from the West, and be persuaded into peace because they have 
power. Alas ! they, too, like all Saxons, wield the sword in 
the name of Jesus Christ ; but therein is prophecy fulfilled, 
for the Lord and Prince of Peace has sent not peace, but a 
sword amongst all who know Him not in spirit. The Saxons 
of the faith from the West shall mingle with those from the 
East, and shall persuade them, and that not with steel, but 
with ideas, until there shall not be found a laud unopened to 
the commerce and the Christianity of the Saxons, except, 
perchance, where some Antichrist lifts up the crucifix to defy 
the cross ; or, like the Moslems, appeal to a fading crescent 
and a contradiction — as if the moon had not borrowed all her 
light from the sun — as if Mohammedism had any good in it 
not derived from Christ. 

Tlie Word Saxon (see p. 89). 

Of the fanciful derivations of the name Saxon, Higden, in 
his Polf/cronicon (i. 26 ; quoted in Mallet^s " Northern An- 
tiq2/.ities),a.&ovds an odd instance, for he derives the etymoloo-y 
of the word by a mere play upon the Latin for a stone ; for, 
quaintly says he, " Men of that countree ben more lyghter 
and stronger on the sea than other scummers and thieves of 
the sea, and pursue theyr enemyes full hard by water and by 
londe, and ben called Saxones of Saxum, that .is a stone ; they 
ben as harde as stones, and as uneasy to fore with." May 
their enemies always find them so. 



384 APPENDIX. 

Weapons 'portrayed in Buddhistic Bas-reliefs 
(see Chap. X. and p. 176). 

The weapons represented in the bas-reliefs at Sanchi belong 
to a period immediately preceding our era, and no doubt they 
were the weapons of the people who are also represented 
in those bas-reliefs. Those people we have shown to have been 
worshippers of SaJc, to have been designated by a Hebrew 
superscription as those who come from afar, and to have 
been known as the Saks, A trident like that in the hand of 
Britannia forms their flag-staff, and their banner, blue and 
red, bears on it the cross of St. George. All their weapons 
are ornamented with emblems of their religion, namely, that 
of Sakya, and consist of bows and arrows, shields (with the 
St. George^s cross), spears, and battle-axes. Their axes, how- 
ever, are of two kinds, one of iron and the other evidently 
of stone. This is a point worthy of especial observation. I 
here present a copy of an axe as sculptured on a memorial 
pillar at Sanchi (or Sachi), and which Major Cunningham"^ 

"^ calls a felling axe. Now, an 
instrument of this construc- 
tion can be no other than a 
flint axe, the flint being fastened into the slit handle with a 
moist thong, which becomes exceedingly firm when dry. It 
is interesting to find that the early Saxons and Goths of the 
West also employed similar instruments, in addition to those 
formed of iron. In the late discussion on the flint instru- 
ments found in the drift, it has been asserted that those who 
used them must have been savages incapable of manufacturing 
iron. This assertion is an error, for flint implements of the 
same form are found, together with iron, in the tombs of 
ancient Germans, according to Brotier ; and, indeed, we find, 
from the Annals of Tacitus, bk. ii. s. 14, that iron being 
scarce, was provided only for the foremost ranks amongst the 

* Now Lieutenant-Colonel. 




APPENDIX. 3S5 

Germans in battle. The flint implements discovered in the 
drift at Abbeville, Amiens, &c., a number of which I have 
seen, in general form precisely resemble the drawing above 
given. With respect to the flint implements found in the 
drift, the antiquity of their deposit may be very fallaciously 
exaggerated if we do not remember (1) that our Saxon fore- 
fathers used exactly such weapons ; (2) that they are dis- 
covered only in such drift as may have resulted from com- 
paratively recent flood or upheaval ; and (3) that the strata 
of such drift lie according to the specific gravity of their 
materials — first mould, then clayey soil, then chalk debris, then 
fine calcareous sand, wnth recent and comminuted shells, and 
at bottom flinty gravel — flint with those flint implements, 
and flinty fossils here and there. This is precisely the order in 
which they would be deposited if now mixed all up together 
with water, left at rest, and drained; and, indeed, if we ex- 
amine similar deposits which we know to be recent, and where 
similar materials abound, as in the borders of Romney Marsh 
and Pevensey Level, a similar stratification will be found. 

Those who claim a vast antiquity for those flint implements 
found in the drift should consider more than they seem to 
have done that gravitation is constantly at work with the help 
of water on the loose materials of our earth, and arrano-ino* 
them by imperceptible, but yet, in process of time, very measur- 
able degrees into order according to their weight. This is said 
with a strong feeling on the subject, but yet with the highest 
respect for the very admirable geologists who, doubtless re- 
specting only truth, have judged that the flints found in the 
drift afford demonstration of vastly higher antiquity for the 
human race than any other evidence will allow us to believe. 

Tlie Doctrines of Buddha (see Chap. IX. p. 180). 

Euddhism was introduced into China about the year 70 
A.D., and from the literary character of the Chinese we may 
expect to see the doctrines of Buddha well preserved in that 

C C 



386 APPENDIX. 

country. Tliey are taught in colleges to the priests alone^ 
reminding us of the schools of the prophets among the 
Israelites. In a work quoted by Mr. Medhurst,* the doc- 
trines of Buddha are summed up in brief as an exhortation to 
fix the mind on Buddha, and thus draw the soul to good 
thoughts ; since, if men truly think of Buddha and pray men- 
tally, they must necessarily become like him and ascend to 
heaven, according to his oath, that if men faithfully repeated 
his name they should attain life in his kingdom, in that 
golden land where all beauty abounds, wisdom is perfect, and 
no sorrow can come. This paradise is said to be in the West, 
to which the faithful are to turn in their prayers, always re- 
peating O-me-io-Fuh ; that is, Amitit Buddha, which is really 
Hebrew, and means Buddha is his truth or faithfulness. 
Believers are to act as always in the presence of Buddha and 
of death, that heaven may rejoice with them. The Supreme is 
represented, in a passage quoted by Hue from '^ the Forty-two 
Points of Instruction,^' as uttering his commandments in the 
formula of Moses, thus : — " The Supreme Being spake these 
words and said: There are ten kinds of evil acts,'' &c. From 
Csoma Korosi f we learn that Buddhism is compendated by 
Tibetan Lamas in this 8loha : — 

** No vice is to be committed, 
Virtue must be perfectly practised, 
Subdue your thoughts [lusts] entirely, 
This is the doctrine of Buddha." 

From the same authority we learn that Buddha is said to 
have comprised all his commandments in these words : ^' What- 
soever is unpleasing to yourself never do to another." 
" Whatever happiness is in the world arises from a wish for 
the welfare of others." Sentences so Christian in their spirit 
appear as if borrowed from the New Testament. And that 
Sakya founded his mission on the right principle is evident 
from his saying, " As gold is tried by burning, cutting, and 
filing, the learned must examine my doctrines and receive 

* China, by W. H. Medhurst, p. 206. f Tibetan Diet. p. 168. 



APPENDIX. 387 

thein accordingly^ and not out of respect to me.""^ Whether 
these sentences are really Sakya's or not, so far as the 
Buddhists of China and Tibet adopt thera_, they are prepared 
to repudiate mere dogmatism ; and this accords well with their 
declared desire to seek truth through all channels ; and, there- 
fore, when the Tartar rule of China over Tibet is brought to 
an end, as it soon will be, a fine field for Christian effort will 
be open, and many millions of readers be ready for the Bible. 

On the Budh Alphabet (see p. 231). 

The names of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet do not so 
fully correspond with the forms of the Hebrew letters now in 
use, as they do with the forms of the ancient Budh letters. 
This is a fair aro^ument in favour of these beings the letters 
originally designated in the Hebrew alphabet. The Aleph of 
the present Hebrew is not nearly so like a bull's head (with 
horns) as the equivalent letter of the Budh, which, seen as in 
the direction it is supposed to stand to one going towards it, 

really represents two horns. This \ / was its earliest form, 

precisely resembling the Phoenician and ancient Hebrew. Its 
position does not alter its character. In the Budh alphabet 
the triangle below, or on the right side of the line, is some- 
times used for A, and sometimes the other part of the letter 
stands for it, as when pointed, but altogether it is essentially 
the same as our capital A, only with a longer line across it. 
The Budh letter B is square, so more like Beth, i.e., a house. 
The Budh G is more like the head and neck of a camel than 
the modern Gimel. The D is exactly a door c^ U which the 
modern LaletJi is not. The modern He is not like an airhole, 
the Budh letter is ". The modern Van is not a hook, but 
the Budh V is. The Zain is less like a weapon than the 
Budh equivalent, which resembles the Assyrian boomerang. 

• Tibetan Diet. p. 168. 

cc 2 



388 APPENDIX. 

The ClietTi is of doubtful meaning; but^ if it meant a fender, as 
is probable, the Budh letter most resembles this in its earliest 
forms. Teth signifies a serpent with its tail in its mouth, as 
the ancients represented eternity ; the circle is the Budh Teth. 
Yod means a hand ; the Budh Yod is a hand with the thumb 
bent on the palm and either three or four fingers extended. 
Caph is the closed hand, which we see in the Budh letter 
more plainly than in the modern Hebrew. Mem is water in a 
vessel which the Budh M represents. The Budh Nun is very 
similar to that of the modern Hebrew ; how far it is like a 
fish is a matter of fancy. Samech signifies an arm-chair or 
support, which the Budh letter S resembles. The Budh 
Ain represents the eyebrows -v^ , quasi eye, something like the 
Greek Epsilon, of which it is the equivalent. Peh is a vessel 
with its mouth uncovered, an open B, like the Budh P. 
SaddS in the Budh is formed of S and D united, representing 
a hook well fitted to seize anything, which the word Sadde 
signifies. The Budh Koph j- is more like an axe than that of 
the modern Hebrew. The Rabbinical Resh is like that of the 
old Budh R, a curved line l = the back of the head. The 
Budh Tau is precisely that of the Samaritan when unpointed, 
like Y inverted, /, being part of the cross originally used as 
a mark on cattle, as the name of the letter signifies. The 
transition of form between the Budh letters and the modern 
Hebrew is seen in the Cabul alphabet. 

The vowel marks of Budh letters are very simple. As 

may be seen thus : — |-^ ^ 

XL (T 

The basis of the vowels is an upright line like the Arabic 
Oliph ; on this the vowels form a regular scale from i the highest 
vowel, down to u the lowest; the i being placed upright and 
pointing upwards at the top, and the other vowels descending 
at different tangents from the side of the upright line, accord- 
ing to the depth of their sound, double vowels or diphthongs 



f 



APPENDIX. 389 

being formed by two lines at different depths^ — a mode of 
proceeding that gives a scientific simplicity and precision to 
the writing of the language. 



Naneh Ghat Inscription (p. 250). 

There is one other inscription found at " Joonur/' on the 
wall of a rock-chamber near the summit of Naneh Ghat. As 
this inscription is in keeping with those on the Girnar rock 
and the pillars at Delhi, I will append what appears to me its 
correct rendering:. The characters indicate that it is one of 
the most ancient of Buddhistic inscriptions : — 

Jodama hath changed them, 

Ha Saka-sinha hath prospered them ; 

He hath made Calamity plead for them, 

Even for the Gunites,* . . the Botans, and the Timnites ;+ 

The sea going forth set them apart, 

The race and their offspring rejoicing obeyed, 

Thus the bitterness and the prosperity thereof 

Became that af my song. 

The nation was set at liberty, 

A mockery of Calamity and wrath became a rejoicing. 

... A smiting of the thigh became my judgment, 

The aflBiction thereof . . . was my possession ; 

As to ray obedience, nought of value was mine, 

So bitter was his ordinance, 

So bitter was my liberation ; 

My course resembled the calamity and burning. 

The fame of his mouth [doctrine] was perfect. 

His perfection was that of one purified. 

Burning coals were the light of their fires [burnt-offerings], 

The guilt- offering of those who were polluted. 

He conceived a sea [for purification]. 

Behold, my house [or temple] was a ruin, 

My generation was polluted, we were unclean j 

The fire became a means of healing, 

A root of exalted piety shot forth ; 

The contempt of the affliction 



* Oovanim, Gunites ("painted with colours"), Gen. xlvi. 24; Numb. xxvi. 
48 ; Chron. v. 15. 
+ Timnath was a city of the Philistines, Judges xiv. 



390 APPENDIX. 

Here produced our protection, 

What was conceived was for their recovery. 

. . . My poverty became a wall of defence, 

The desolation of nakedness was propitious, 

Even the endurance of our race . . . 

The burning of uncleanness was the spreading of a sea ; 

My faithfulness was my affliction, 

His affliction was mine ; 

Through the neglect of the descendants of the stranger, 

And the poverty, uncleanness extended ; 

But the calamitous change was the sea of the polluted, 

The equity [or equality] of Badh was set up . . . 

The poor were enlightened, 

Calamity, overruled by Saka, became a triumph and delight, 

His prosperous era was prolonged. 

During those years I was enlarged. 

Then was I delivered from the vanity of Menu, 

According to his name [Menu, from him] ; 

And my right hand held dominion, 

The bowing down of the day. 

Even the affliction of burning, 

Became ray deliverance ; 

The silence of my bitterness was exaltation, 

And the richness of the sea was fulness of hands ; 

Lo, their calamities became their majesty, 

My impoverishment became my joy ; 

That which caused error was my strife ; 

Life, Life, is unclean . . . 

But I will protect the manim [remains (?)] ; 

Behold, their vexations shall be their fatness ; 

Fornication [or idolatry] of the body is unclean, unclean — 

My truth is even a fire ; behold the sea of my greatness ; 

He shall judge our generation. 



Mani and Rum-heaps (see p. 257). 

Buddhism, like Judaism, expresses itself in symbol and 
comparison. This principle is so fully carried out in Bud- 
dhism, that the idea of Uuin and Destruction being a defence, 
as expressed so fully in the Girnar and Delhi inscriptions, is 
represented by an actual wall enclosing a ruin in some of the 
mani, or venerated heaps of rubbish, at the sight of which 
Buddhists, especially in Bhotan and Tibet, are accustomed to 



APPENDIX. 391 

utter their prayers. This is exemplified on a large scale in 
certain parts of the Western Himalayas, as travellers'^ tell 
us that they have seen inani more than half a mile long, con- 
sisting of two parallel walls, fifteen feet apart and six feet 
hisrh, the intervals of which were filled with stones and other 
fragments ; the whole heing covered with a slanting roof 
which rises at a gentle angle to the central ridge midwaj^ be- 
tween the two walls. The words Om mani pada mi liom, the 
permanent mantra, or prayer of Lamas, are carefully engraved 
on slabs of marble, here and there, on this roof; thus evidently 
making a superstitious use of a mere figure of speech, as in our 
inscriptions, doubtless regarding the very presence of ruin 
as an actual security against the inroads of evil agencies, ju^t 
as Chinese Buddhists believe whole districts to be defended by 
the presence of the symbols of Godama's name and power. 
Buddhism was at a very early period introduced into Tibet 
direct from the country of its origin, where the inscriptions 
given in this volume are found, and of the significance of 
which the Tibetan usages present so remarkable an illus- 
tration. 

The words of the perpetual Lama prayer, always found in 
connexion with the mani, or memorial ruin heaps, are the more 
worthy of our observation, since each one of them was in use 
amongst our Saxon ancestors, and, with a somewhat different 
sense, indeed, are retained even by ourselves. Thus, Om meant 
with the Saxons, as it did with the Hebrews, the sound ex- 
pressive of trouble, and hence also trouble itself, a crash of 
destruction ; and as in the inscription, and in the prayers of 
the Buddhists, it seems to be applied to Buddha himself, so 
amongst our Saxon forefathers it was applied to Odin, also 
called Godan, which name we have identified with that of 
Godam, the last Buddha. The moon was called Mani, as if 
from her broken look, and many only expresses the remains of 
sundry parts severed from the whole ; that is to say, the pieces 
or fragments of a portion referred to. The wovd. j^ad, ov joada, in 

* Western Himalayas and Tibet; by Thomson, p. 184. 



392 APPENDIX. 

Hebrew meaning purchased^ becomes in Saxon 'English paid, re- 
ferring always to a price delivered as an equivalent. Mi had, in 
old Saxon, certainly often the meaning olfrom, in the sense of 
keeping from ; and. Kum meant in Saxon, as in Hebrew DIH' 
lilackj dark ; and hence extreme distress^ outer darkness, 
burning wrath. 

The Wonderful Tree (see p. 258). 

The Buddhism of Tibet, like that of Northern India and 
Ceylon, is connected with the veneration of an especial tree ; 
but that of Tibet is even more marvellous than the veritable 
branch which Buddha himself planted, and which the Brahmins 
in vain attempted to destroy ; for, when it seemed to be torn to 
pieces by them, it still sprung up in its pristine vigour. That 
of Tibet, however, bears on every leaf a fresh evidence of 
Godama's power ; if, indeed, the marvels related of it are in- 
tended to confirm the authority of that Buddha^s teaching, and 
not rather that of a certain reformer of the fourteenth century 
named Tsong-kaba, who seems to have acquired some knowledge 
of Christianity from a Catholic missionary, the tree, according to 
the legend, having sprung from the reformer's hair. It is 
thus described by M. Hue : " Our eyes were first directed 
with earnest curiosity to the leaves, and we were filled with 
an absolute consternation of astonishment at finding that, in 
point of fact, there were upon each of the leaves well-formed 
Tibetan characters, all of a green colour, some darker, some 
lighter, than the leaf itself. Our first impression was a sus- 
picion of fraud on the part of the Lamas ; but, after a minute 
examination of every detail, we could not discover the least 
deception. The characters all appeared to us portions of the leaf 
itself, equally with its veins and nerves ; the position was not 
the same in all — in one leaf they would be at the top of the 
leaf, in another in the middle, in a third at the base or at the 
side J the younger leaves represented the characters only in a 
partial state of formation. The bark of the tree and its 



APPENDIX. 39 



branches, which resemble those of the plane-tree, are also 
covered with these characters. When you remove a piece of 
old bark, the young bark under exhibits the indistinct outlines 
of characters in a germinating state ; and, what is very sin- 
gular, these new characters are not unfrequently different from 
those which they replace.^' "The perspiration absolutely 
trickled down our faces under the influence of the sensations 
which this most amazing spectacle created. Our readers may 
possibly smile at our ignorance.^^^ The tree seemed of great age. 
Three men with arms outstretched could scarcely embrace it. 
The branches spread out in the shape of a plume of feathers, 
and were extremely bushy. The leaves are always green, and the 
wood, which is of a reddish tint, has an exquisite odour, some- 
thing like that of cinnamon. The tree produces large red 
flowers of an extremely beautiful character. The Lamas said 
that another such tree nowhere exists, and that all attempts to 
propagate it by seeds and cuttings have been fruitless. It is 
a pity that the good travellers were not botanists enough to 
inform us what class and order it belonged to, seeing their 
knowledge was not sufficient to enable them to make sense 
of the Tibetan reading: which the said lettered leaves afforded 
them. 

The Girnar Inscription in Modern Hebrew Characters 

(see p. 269). 

The Nos. in brackets are those of the Sections, the other numbers, 
those of the corresponding lines in each Section of the Engraving. 

n^n nv "^s nnz '•nns cvr ^"d'J cp ]i cnnn'^D r{':hii 
no nc7 ^w "^mw ^-ixo nxo nw n:^ "^s "snn-n ^ crDi 

* Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China in 1844-5-6, by M. Hue. 



394 APPENDIX. 

^^ iw >nr\^^ <b ^^ <b ddt d^s n^T^v Stt?n '^ ^^niz^ 

-in aa? >a-is ^pn nnsn ^'O '*\nc nw nani'i ^dhd ^^ 
nan >-iDn tt?'> tc-k? n-^n >c ddiih •'na n:?") nw ' ^^^ 
nnD*" ^nti? nn *^d nn hd n^to^ itz? no t^ '^o-d "i« ^ 
'•Di "^n "^3? •'-i3n ii>n Tip^ \'-ias "^^DDn ^ nn sn id bnon 

•»'':: ^D 12?"^ 13!2 ^ nnD3 '»''D "^d^ -fin nDn'^^nn w^ i^^'w 
''^n non id):^ •^an'*^ "^^t itr^ in n^D >>d >3 1^7 nsDD 
nn^D nnn nniti? \nu:D n^ n*" nD*^: n^a non >n ^ n::^3 
n** n** nD>3 nbo nD>3 nbiD ' n^^a nn^s ncn^ n^-^D 
on ^ nD'^a nrf'D ns-r^ nD^'D nn^Q mn nm::? '^nt:?^ 
nnn •'-in nn^-s nsnn n^D ^in "^nrD ts hd na? n^rcn 
nnw CIS VI w^ -r>D nNi ^d D3iin ^ ^^^ oaa? 13» il:?-^? "^m 
*»ri niLy ^ nn "^d pw ]-r nD n^ D3nn d^ "^iitt; '^id m 
•):s itt7-t:7i i:i7D WD cn-s i::?'* inD 'inrn -jn v C!:nn 
''i^-^? i^Dtti n^na n!2 ^nnrosi "^n nns n^ "^a: '^n'' ^ cd 

T 

in'^Dtt? itr? pn no pn n^niti:; n^n^ cp-^tt?^ ^ nDs ct:}*' 
•^Q C3"T '^im; D32n na? ^ nan nnn D3\nDn nnw rzw 
nn> Dnn nnn nw nn** in*^ p)W nnn en nas '^'ntt? naan 
nninnn d** maa \nc7 '^'•n ]s nnn^n ^^w "»-id ^ ^M'^ 
'*2^\nlD'w^ *'Dnnn q-i hds nn^ ^ns ^ ^^^ -fnnay dvd 
\n3n n^amn (^pa?) ^rr >m nnn an nan •'D iw nnm 
n\n5 >nD nti^s aaan am? nan nn:^ ^^^hd \no cLy« ^ i::? 
]an on -[DDT ^ nan nan!, tt;^ ^^d"^? *'n •»d aann ys 
^2Wi '^nw ^n "i^wi p ^^ nwvn dd-i nns nn?3;n '^^''^n 
oar nns "^n*^ ]i:;-r ^aoi "^av ''T n^^a nas t^^ t:p\ns * 
nns; stt^n >-inin id nina ^ ••n nww "^n nna ^7-i'> 
Di nas n"' '»!>-:i7 laD^ai nan nan tt7> T^D-tr n'^n "^d nann 
HDn ^\nD nD ca; □'^a^nan D^anin w^ ^n "^is oaan ^^d nzin ^ 
ntt? nw ^ nn ^d nn na "^^ns ns ca? naan nw nan 
''n'»"i inni laan ^ddi ini inn ^as i:;s w ^w itrn cisn-^? 
p nD cna-i ^qdi rn i:;"^ td ^ n'^n ^^d oann i^n ''n::? 
nan nan tt7'« i^D"tt7 n^ >d aann ^ncn '•d innsn inio 
''nn Dm nsD nt nii:; is cnai ^12^21 ]i nn \n12w ^nm ^ 
-t^n ••na? '° \nntt7 w^'w las nnm nnnnij >n^nnb w^ 
•jnDb ''^a^s "^nina . ^^ nai -]nm nau:; ::?> lanm n'^nn C3n::n 



APPENDIX. 395 

i^o ^>n *»D cDtnn ]nn w^ "^nw ''^w m in'» n^n nbbn '^ 
T'D n^n ^D D^-iin ^ ^^^ Dn^D n^bn p nn nan n: U7"» 
mpiT non tr?'* nanbD ns "^n cnpi n:nbD nns dis v) 
"^nn^n "iniD osn n^ nanbD ina n** nnn ^ ^nnnn:: 
nitron -ij:? "^m *ids n^D •'tdi c:r is' Dp n^ □'• inn "j^nn 
non \"itt7 T]n '•d ]Ci7in ns inn^n ^nu: id dhd i^T' non 
m^: * □-) n^s chd \ns nsn ^n q-td itt? ^nw ^d dhd itr? 

• • • la-tr ni::? mc?-! nnn n^an ni^n: nnanD cdi ani id 
n^?!7 •»! c!2i r\n^ in" 1^7 nn c::?2 nr^ nnnD nn^nxs c^di 
"^2 ^'-la mi ns izn cp mn n^n ptt? n'» q!di • • • ^ ^m 
^n** ^ • • • 1 1U7 '•n ana \n-i2s pw '•21 "^n D2p "^ann ?i3 

• • • • ^^2l^ "^T2-iS7 ]iin-]i"njDn nnnD in> '^'•1 nnnncs 
^b nTD nnn2 in^ i i::? nn n^t^m la? -inD ''n nnD '•v • • • ^ 
nniDD \n2n ]):2« on^si • • • ^ • • . -711^ nn^na inn id 
□»2i ...'<' • • • 1 \nnn •^!i "^212^1 o^s n^n nnn^D in^ 
•,3 ... 1 (6) . . j-y^3 ^1^ >^2 >^ a^-j Q>j^ ^noiDS "^nns nn^ann 

C3^t2sb • • • ID mna ^ • • • dt nas anD \nw nns ciw vi 
cn^72 nD^ n!2in bnnp w ^ n^nj d'^is n^ cm nai inTDi on 
1C7 ]nn''i "fn*: n^an * vnn^ vn^s n:i nnri •^na p nnn in 
\n!2n ciD in inTD ^ w^v DnDians ^n"*:? nsi inTD ^nwj 
n*" ^D ]^s ^ nnDi!2 ''D an "^d t ^^ "ninD orans tTD^D \ni::7 
M** IS "^ ')w n!2iD nn:D ]1di '•m ns^n nitri dd^'Di d^ ^w "^:t2 
c-a? inn nn!:ni ''\n''::7 >2inii ^nciis \nn ^ma cn'^s ninsD 
cn'tD ]S n^D Dis bnnp irp nnii:? d> nin inTD nin d"3S ^ 
nDi •'nai \n^t:7 n!2r::s ^na ]tt7ri ^ nirn nn!:n "^n n^K73 
bbn n!3 irs ]1d ptt7nn ^° on "n inbbn ^1^7 cn^n na 2V 
inbbn ^md ^^ ni no c^^n ''ntt;:^ nn3i '•''n^ir' ctDSD D2ti73?i 
D^Dnia \"iQ "^D D^ns \^nDnD ^id "^d en "^d t "'^"'^ n^nD 
i::? iniD ^12 n> ^^dd itt? >3: nDi n^ ^^ d'^i:i D^n:n d^:s 
n^bn >^D >b n^i d'^s ^^ \-t!:3tos ^nns r\^n n^'i nins 
inDn nniD DDn!^:^ n\n n!2 ">n:^n \n!3n '•^ \na '•d nn^D 
no in Dipii '•nn "^n inbbn nia? ni ni 13S ^* ^n^n ^d 
vn tt?'' i^D n''n "^d c:iin * ^^^ pnD >id pn sn ]S p 
m7inaD ^ cri''-tZ7 ma? n^'n^n inn ctt?D la? \nD an nitt? 
D1L27 nmn-1 iipi nm cp iipi on mn "^r '^nr^p no i:n 



396 APPENDIX. 

\ns ^ ^^^ Dnn n3>D in \-q "n "in ]n dhd \n '^i itt? tnn 

■ T ' T 

n^**: n3S ^n^ nn nw *itt? n> p nrr^ nni nsn ^n m nr^s dhd 
T'^D n'^n "^D DDnn non la? mns ••ap □-) >''3S ^ ^3tt7n nns 
nann ^ niDn ctit? ^n^w hht^w nn^a? •»n'*tt7i n3tt?T rn w'> 
DiDn IDT i3tr7i D23n nw n^n n^nn \"nnn d** ns nn'^ niw 
uzwi w^v pw Ts Tinv 131*1 no n^n on ^n '^ i3C?i ddt 
\nn> *)n i2?w n-'^D ninn ^ id iq *'-id did '*''!5 ti?'* i3»tt"T 
D3i-Tn ^ ^^^ ps n^n n:n ^n^n a?^ Ts-a? >n >5d D^nn ^rr^n 
nbnnD I'lpi n3n^3? n^tt?s nns q'iw 5?n tt?'» -t'^d n^n >q 
nini itr? nnb ni3i ic? m '^'•in ^is") ^ itt? "^ins nnnnD 
nmnD ob^QD -fipi n3n ^-r Tnn ]kd '•'♦hd nwi ^'nn aa? 
Db3>3!3 i^ntD n^3i 113 1311 *innD op inn n^nn ^^n Din ns ^ 
l^^n ns * iin obo ?is nb^^n ini^n nv nD n3n'nnD 
''nnD nna? nin nn b^riD qdt bn^sD bs •'n am n'^s nba^n 
•»iitr c>-tt7 itt? n3nD ^ ^iia? \nD ?]S D3137 13 "^^ns \ns pa? 
Db3Dn DDi itt?''! nns 13S -jns D3i >mw D33n 012? n3n nnn 
71 n!3 >i3 in ^Q itt? mnnni inn id * in ^d dv nin ona 
Dm >DD n^a7S ^712 nwv •^3127 ctDS-a? nis Db3!3tt cv n^ 
ctt?!"^ inn3 n3S i3i n'^w^ nw>n nns in3 ^n^n nsi "^irr ^ 
n3pn \n3n ^ rn in ^w^ )r\ "^a iin nin3 13^^11 t23i ddi 
DDD 11 nD n3n ^iD ^Q "^non ^-n^n dv m^ in ni3 ''nna^i 
ID >nn inin nnns 03 la? ^ pa? ''3^q na •^na la? 11 na 
n^n "^D C3iin ^ ^^^^ ^n n3 ia? '^)Dto*' D^n in** n:i "^3'»a nn 
nsi nn is n3n oni n^ts nno3i ^n^'Di non "^n w> tq 
n^i on-a? '•la? la? w^ ma? la; n^i ^ n^v oD'^m nsn 
non ri w> I'^o n'^n *'0 D3iin '^nD ns am ^11 13s i!3ni 
i"^s n^-n ''O D3iin nn^D ^"id ^d "^d inn>n \no am \n''Di 
ima?s a?s (s)ia? no ?is bDa? ^n:) "^nD \n-iD n^ia? nin a?^ 
13n nv 13D1D nns iin mpi * in nins a?"^ (s)i^ >iq 
-fin ns ns •'r i">-)D ma? pnD ns pn sn is I3nn-a7i 
nns D-^is vn w^ tq n^n >^ D3iin * ^"^ nipi iTn'a?i 
nin na? ca? n?:3i D'^31 o^i na^'^n n** d^31 Da?n nns n^a?3 
\mD 11 n!3 nn ^ in inn ca? D!31i nan nm Da? ddii 
n^72W ia? ia? •'la? '•nn •^d ''"in no >^n^ ^n^ pa? ^ti^d nna?*! 
D33n "n ^ D'^ai 11a? D33n oa? n3n nonn csp \n3n nina? 
nina?-a? n^D innni inn. 15 in ^d dv nins 11a? nni n3S 



APPENDIX. 397 

in> n2 ]i en na? ]i nn >n >n W' *inn3 "is I2pn \n2n 
cn!2 ps ins "^nir^n mrr nsa7"3 ibn cnn3 ctan non * 
tt7'« TD n'^n >2 0211.-1 * ^'^^ '•D2n-i n^i ]nn >nu ]n ]*i3 

D31 nrjt^ nin: ^ p \T'37 ns "^ar ns t"^"! ''"'P P^""t 
B7N '»'»2i "la? \n*»D nnrD** nan n^ n>n "^d cDnn mm nsi 
n!D ma? n:rn ^ • • • pi inn cin ''"ci "itt? can ctt?D ma? 
la-n c^rs nn 13? ns-n ctt^o nss "nn "^d •'\n2 "^3 vn abia ]"t 
^s m!Dn >nDn * ds niD "'nb ^n:^ n:-i-3 ?)« inn nan-nin 
CIS n2D-)-D "^2 ]n^ ]nnn c^^r^s nn is inn-^n npn n2 nD-rn 
\nmn-n '•m iTw^-n ct:72 nn \nn ip en 2^72 n^s □"nn 
Dies ns >nn2n nnn en DlCs nss nnnnn-n nata ]n pn ^ 
>n"r nn en ctt^s nss '•n ^n n^n ^nnnn-n ^^ ""n pwn 
nss \nQ ''n m \nn~n c*^s nss ma? ^ ''nn -121 on 0^72 nn 
Dn nss nnnnn-n eian ]1d p::7n \n!2 2'»n '»d ''n en etr^o 
]nDQ ^n^ \nD '•n ^ m::? is n^ni nwn *»n2n "Sj^ e-in -rn 
>o eann ''n d'^in pn-a^n eitrr ')tt7 -far n:n la? uj^t^i'w 
03 njnbn v^s in ^w inn nn 027D ma? >no ^n nno a?" 
mn '•Q eann im nrn nna 0272 nn nnn i'«n ^ itt7S 
a7S ''''21 -127 ''nn ''n noia'' nnanoo iy n2i ddi njsia nmn 
e!2i nnn ^^^ noDS ^ "^nns mn inn 02n Dtt7D ma? 
n"> TDn ]S nnn '•o in nni in^^na p^^n nn^sra no innono 
nan '•n pa? coi \nnnn •^"2 in ca72 n2« ''bs-a; nsn o'^n 
nnn no epn in ]inn enn nns ono w^ ^21:7 ni2 • • • ^ ^^^^ 
ennn • • • ^ n^n1 eoi in\n2 ao •'bn la? in-b ^anK nns 

• . • in ino p ino ]i mam na7ar mnni ?isi ea-i 
nina7 ca7 n^oa? cia7 127 "niaa? e''ia7 1^7 ^^in '^2 nnoa? • . • ^ 
e:a7 evn-n \n3n n^n • • • * • • • n2i 1^7 in \nan mna? 
. . . n^w'w nnann ns ''nn nnrsi a7nn >2tr7n nw \n:n 12 ''S 

• • • 0272 ''no -in IS eatz7 lao \nc7a nnn "n • • • ^ 
nn^v '•Q • . • >2 eann n>ni ts "21 m inn^oi pa7-n"a • • • ^ 
ion • . • etrn eo*- a7p \nns eann ma? • • • ^ • • • >nma7 
no nin"' nan vn n-in nn2n ]nnn e-)2 37-ia n'^ • • • ^ • • • ino 
"2 eann nia7 1^7 in on >2 in • • • ^ • • • laao lap ns inNn 
nm7 n'^n '»3?i . • • ^^ • • • Mil "»d nnni las w^i^'w laooi w 
^171 eoi ''nnn \n'"'n d'' nibtr na?-) ''n''''n nm ''ri ]12 noo 
'»^i isJ 1^7-1^7 nan co 011 nrm no 2'' ti • • • ^^ • . • ^o'' 



398 APPENDIX. 

• • • nsD >:: ^dbn • • • 15:: ''D "^dhn tid- -- '^^ • • . T\n:):: -n 
c>K . . • ^ ^*^^ D3n-in np iir^ -^bn ''127 n^w ••n nnitt?ni • • • ^^ 

n^tt7w npn 0^7 •♦n'^ n^ ^"^ en >d ^bD ]inn en "'r'l ^d ibnn ' 
\np Mn >-n rifzw nr^^i^'W nwn am i^d ]*i5 * ODnwD 
o "^b DHD trw n ■]« \'-in ^ ^-xstD nyd htd nrjisn n^n ^^v 
nnD ''D "^b nriD ^bsi ^ Dnan ''D "^nnD w^ ]wiii tr?s an 

lain ''-ID 

0/z ^A^ Translation of the Girnar Inscription 
(see pp. 231 and 269). 

A few remarks on this translation will explain the prin- 
ciple on which it has been made. Every word has been 
taken apart, the frequency of its occurrence observed, and 
its meaning tested by its collocation wherever it stood, so 
as to determine its value as a Hebrew word before any render- 
ino" of the sentences in their connexion was attempted, the 
translation being made direct from the original, and not from 
the transliteration.^ By this method all the supposed Pali words 
resolved themselves into distinct Hebrew words. The Pali words, 
in fact, are not found in the inscription except by running the 
Hebrew words together with a large amount of acknowledged 
licence as to orthography and grammar, by the help of which 
indeed a curious approximation to Pali words and sentences 
may be produced ; and on this principle Mr. J. Prinsep and 
Professor Wilson have succeeded in giving us a very remark- 
able rendering of the Girnar and some other inscriptions, to 
which attention has been directed. We are indebted to the 
learned and laborious ingenuity of Mr. J. Prinsep for the 
knowledge of the powers of nearly all the characters found in 
these inscriptions. For all that has been hitherto known con- 
cerning them we are indebted to those admirable and most 

* In another work I hope to publish a vocabulary, with renderings of all the 
known ancient Buddhist inscriptions, and to show the connexion of their words 
and meanings with the old Saxon language and literature. 



APPENDIX. 399 

patient scholars. In vol. xii. part 1^ of the Journal of the 
Royal Asiatic Society we have a revision of Mr. Prinsep's 
translation by Professor Wilson_, in which it appears how 
widely they differ in their interpretation, and how great was 
the difficulty of making out the words and sentences accord- 
ing to the grammar and orthography of either Sanscrit or 
Pali. It is obvious that, if we are at liberty to supply what is 
necessary to complete a resemblance in form or sound between 
any words existing or producible by running words together 
as existing in this inscription, in order to obtain Sanscrit or 
Pali words, then the only limit to the power of translating 
them as Pali or Sanscrit would be the ingenuity of the trans- 
lator. Surely we have no right by any means to make up the 
words to be translated, if they are not found in toto in the 
original ; to imagine errors in that original, according to our 
fanc}^, is in fact to falsify the record. We must take the words 
as they stand, and if they do not so convey a meaning to us, 
it is evident we do not understand them. Now, in res'ardino" 
the inscriptions as Hebrew, we have had no occasion to imagine 
anything, but have given every word and letter of the origi- 
nals their full value. 

Mr. Prinsep truly says, ^' The language [with all his licence] 
differs from every existing written idiom of either Sanscrit or 
Pali /^"^ a sufficient reason for doubting whether it can be 
either of those languages, since, by no imagined similarity in 
sound, with the aid of other spelling, can it be made to appear 
like any written or known idiom either of Pali or Sanscrit. 
Professor Wilson pointedly states that Mr. Prinsep trusted 
to his pundit, who, ^^ by ingenious conjecture, made up the 
deficiency of his knowledge and the imperfections of his 
text.'^t There is no presumption, therefore, in questioning the 
authority of the translation. 

There is one sentence which occurs more than twenty times 
in the Girnar inscription, namely, that which forms the first 

* As. Journal, vol. xii. p. 237. 
t Journ, of Roy. As. Soc. No. xvi. p. 313. 



400 APPENDIX. 

line of what I have called " the refrain/* or burthen of the 
inscription. Professor Wilson, adopting Mr. Prinsep's idea, 
writes it thus : Bevanam Tiyadasina Rana, and renders it. 
The beloved of the gods, Baja Piyadasi, Here we see Raja put 
for Rana, and Piyadasi for Piyadasinay and this merely on the 
supposition that Mr. Prinsep was correct in believing there 
was a prince named Piyadasi^ and that these were his edicts. 
Here we have a slight specimen of the liberty taken with the 
spelling of a name, which one would suppose would be most 
faithfully preserved in the original, and which it would be 
most desirable to render correctly, because on the letters of 
this very name the inferred power of so many letters depends. 

Professor Wilson may well ask, " Who was Piyadasi, the 
beloved of the gods ?" and reply, " This question is not easily 
answered. We have no such name in any of the Brahmanical 
traditions, and find it only in the [Ceylon] Buddhist as indi- 
cating a sovereign to whom it could not have been applied 
consistently with chronological data.'* " A monarch to whom 
all India, except the extreme south, was subject, must surely 
have left some more positive trace of his existence than a mere 
epithet complimentary to his good looks.**"^ Now, if we look 
at this celebrated name as faithfully transliterated in Hebrew 
characters, we see an evident meaning, as distinct Hebrew 
words, the variations of which, in the different passages in 
which they occur, serving to prove the correctness of our 
interpretation ] while, on the supposition of the words forming 
one name, the variations are utterly unaccountable. 

Professor Wilson observes that his proposed translation '' is 
subject to correction in every phrase.^f That is to say, he 
was doubtful of every word of his rendering. This is not 
surprising, seeing that the very first announcement states that 
" the putting to death of animals is to be entirely discon- 
tinued," and yet, that in " the great kitchen of Raja Priyadasi, 
the beloved of the gods, every day himdreds of thousands of ani- 
mals have been slaughtered for virtuous purposes," &c. Pro- 

* Asiatic Journal, vol. xii. p. 249. t Ibid. p. 164. 



APPENDIX. 401 

fessor Wilson, after such an announcement, very naturally 
questions whether such edicts were intended to disseminate 
Buddhism. 

Mr. Prinsep's error lies mainly in the manner in which, 
judging from analogies, he assumed that, whether the vowel 
mark stood before or after the consonant, it was always to be 
read as if following. Thus, when finding one before and 
another after, as very frequently occurs, he gives them a com- 
pound sound without any sufficient reason for so doing but the 
necessity of his theory, which thus destroys itself. No trans- 
lation can carry any evidence of its faithfulness if grounded on 
a supposed imperfection of the text to be amended by the 
translator's ingenuity. TThere the word or letter is defective 
in the inscription from the action of time or other accident, of 
course the defect admits of surmise and comparison for its 
correction. 

Cardinal Points and Consecrated Places (see p. 216). 

The selection and consecration of places of devotion amongst 
the Buddhists reminds us of the encampment of the Israelites 
described in the 2nd chapter of Numbers. In Bhotan, the 
shrine of Buddha, the chief place of worship, presents four 
sides facing the cardinal points, with twelve banners, three 
erected on each side, as if in remembrance of the direction 
given to Moses and Aaron, that " everi/ man of the children of 
Israel shall pitch hy his own standard, with the ensign of his 
father's house about the tahernacle^^ east, south, west, north. 

This arrangement with respect to the cardinal jjoints was 
observed by the Egyptians in erecting their pyramids and 
temples ; but the careful manner in which the Buddhists 
squared the chambers of their sepulchral ^^ topes" in respect to 
those points, w^hich was observed also in consecrating a place 
for public worship, in the absence of any edifice devoted to the 
purpose, is especially Israelitish. According to their present 
mode, a fast is appointed to be kept at each quarter of the 

D D 



402 APPENDIX. 

moon, and a space is consecrated for the assembly of the 
devout on those occasions in this manner.^ A spot being 
determined on, the high priest says, '' What is the boundary 
to the Ea3t T' Another priest replies, '^ A stone/' " What 
to the West?'' " A stone/' " What to the North ?" "A 
stone." ''What to the South?" "A stone." Then the 
high priest says, '^ Within these boundaries the place for the 
duties of worship is consecrated." 

The use of stones for this purpose is significant. Twelve 
stones were carried by the Israelites from the channel of 
Jordan to Gilgal, and there set up as a memorial of their 
entrance into the promised land at a time when the river was 
miraculously dried up. (Joshua iv. 5.) And stones were also 
set up as boundaries in the division of the lots of the tribes, 
the borders of the divisions being thus marked with a stone, 
in distinct reference to the cardinal points. (Joshua xviii. 11- 
20.) The breast-plate of the high priest was formed of twelve 
stones to represent the tribes of Israel, but its four-square 
character is especially mentioned. (Ex. xxxix. 9.) Corner 
stones are frequently named in the Bible ; but it appears from 
the Hebrew word designating them, that they rather marked 
the ^\(\q^ facing the four quarters of the heavens than as corner 
stones in our sense of the words. 

When we find that the Hebrews and the Buddhists had a 
religions meaning in their reference to the cardinal points, and 
that their most sacred buildings, erected to the honour of the 
Supreme, were especially disposed with attention to these 
points, we are led to conclude that the Egyptians, in always 
erecting their oldest and grandest monuments, the pyramids, 
with so exact a bearing north, east, south, and west, that the 
compass may be corrected by them, had also a religious idea 
and design in the four-square basis, and the perfect triangle of 
those wondrous structures. That they are their oldest monu- 
ments is proof of the fact that their civilization was, in reality, 
loftiest at their earliest period, when their religious conceptions 

* See the Ritual — Kannawa'kya. 



APPENDIX. 403 

were simplest and noblest, as if nearest to the source of the 
intelligence derived direct from the Maker of man. We may 
infer what their feeling was in placing a mountain of stone 
over the dead body of their king — a mountain constructed on 
the most perfect geometrical principle — when we consider that 
they believed in the immortality of the soul, and that the dead 
were judged by the God of eternal rectitude. It seems as if 
this stupendous form of monument were intended by the 
monarch who erected it for his own body, to signify that he 
committed body and soul to Him to whom both belonged, and 
whose perfections as the Great Geometrician of the universe, 
qui omnia permeat, were founded on equity and truth. This 
we know was the idea contained in the Buddhist topes 
or stupas, dedicated to the dead and to the Supreme. The 
sepulchral chambers in those monuments bear the same rela- 
tion to the cardinal points as those in the pyramids ; and there 
is abundant evidence to show that the Buddhists held many 
notions in common with the Egyptians, and probably, there- 
fore, in this particular also. The words in the Buddhistic 
inscriptions which I have rendered equity and equality 
evidently point to the same thing as the word used by 
Aristotle to express the shadowing forth of Divine rectitude 
in the symmetry of nature ; namely, [(joTrtQ, esotees, which 
looks as if derived from the full form of the Hebrew, nmii^H 
esotha — a term as applicable to the physical equity on which 
creation is planned, as to the moral equity of God^s govern- 
ment. That a similar idea is conveyed by that vast hiero- 
glyphic, a pyramid, is at once seen if we ask ourselves the 
meaning of its perfect geometric form when interpreted in a 
religious sense, as the builder surely intended. 

Tlie Name Birmali (see Chap. XVIII. ). 

At the risk of appearing fanciful, I venture to suggest that 
the name of the country Birmah, or Burmah, was given to it 
by the ancient people, who were accustomed to name places 

DD 2 



404: APPENDIX. 

on religious grounds like the early Buddhists and the Israelites. 
There are strong indications in the traditions of the Karens 
that Birmah was once wholly their own, and regarded by them 
as the central seat of religious authority, and by them called 
Bamah — that is, the especial high place. Their traditions con- 
stantly point to the high place, the place of heights, to the 
golden mountain and the golden palace of their king, who was 
also the pontifex, the religious chief of all their tribes."^ As 
with the Birmese, so with them, those phrases refer to their 
country, their metropolis, and the ruler of their country as 
well as their worship. Supposing that the Karens are truly 
descendants of Israelites, we can understand why they should 
have named the country in which they ultimately settled 
Bamah, for indeed the very terms of prophecy as addressed to 
the elders of Israel by Ezekiel seem to imply that the country 
to which they should go would be so named by them. When 
they pretended to consult the prophet for advice, he at once 
pictured before them their present and future profanations of 
the Holy Name, and charged them with making a mere pro- 
vocation of an offering by burning ^^ things of sweet savour^f 
(ch.xx. 28) on high places ; and then he abruptly exclaims. 
What is the high-place to which you go ? The name thereof 
is called Bamah unto this day (v. 29), or even more literally 
still. What is the high-place to which {or where) you are going ? 
the name thereof shall even he called Bamah when this day 
shall he. And then he proceeds to specify what shall come to 
pass during the especial period predicted. We must under- 
stand that this day signifies a day foretold, or we cannot 
understand the connexion ; and it is evident that Bamah must 
refer to a place to be so called and to which they should go, 
since it cannot mean simply a high-place, for that would be to 
assert that a high-place shall be called a high-place, which 

* The Karens are called Kadun or Kadumi in Pegu, and this name is Hebrew 
or Chaldaic, signifying the ancient people. — Judges v. 21. 

+ ** Offerings of fragrant substances are the chief of all sacrifices," is a 
maxim of S.ikya, quoted by Csoma Korosi in his Tibetan Dictionary, p. 166. 



APPENDIX. 405 

would be nonsense. Our translators clearly understood it as 
the name of a place or country, and therefore do not translate 
the word. The prophet seems to see with the eye of the spirit, 
before which there is neither time nor distance, that, in punish- 
ment of their devotion to Bamahs or high-places, they should 
go to a place called Bam ah, and there at length suffer as their 
forefathers did in Egypt, as we find from the latter parts of 
the chapter. 

Now we do not find any country so called except Birmah. 
It will be said that Birmah is not Bamah ; the high-land of 
Tibet might rather be called Bamah, We shall see presently 
that in Tibet the word Bamah is in use in a peculiar manner, 
but first we may see that Bamah and Birmah are similar 
names, when we reflect that the r in the latter word is a 
cerebral vowel and not a consonant, and that an educated 
Birmese pronounces the name very much as a Polish Jew 
pronounces Bamah, without any Bur, but rather as if written 
Byamah, This cerebral vowel r or ra is not only sounded like 
ya by the Birmese, but ya and ra are interchangedly employed 
one for the other by theni.^ Bamah and Birmah are then 
essentially the same word in root and form, being expressed in 
Pali as in Hebrew by equivalent letters, and in Tibetan 
simply by h and m, both letters having the a inherent in their 
sound, so as necessarily to be pronounced Bama or Bamah, 
In relation to this name, it is interesting to find that Brimirf 
is described in the ancient Saxon poem Vbluspd as one of the 
places where righteous and right-minded men abide in bliss 
with Odin, even after the dissolution of the universe. It is 
coupled with the golden hall called Sindri, on the mountains 
of Nida, in the region of Okolmi, all pointing to traditions 
derived from the East. Odin is written by the Westphalian 
Saxons as Godan, which is equivalent to Godama, " qui omnia 
permeat,^' as Lucan says of Jupiter. 

* See Mr. Hodgson's article thereon. — Asiat. Res. vol. xvi. p. 277. 
t See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, by J. A. Black well, Esq., pp. 456 
and 500. 



406 APPENDIX. 

The constant reference of the Chinese Buddhists^ and those 
of Tibet also, to the Golden Land as that of the holiest and 
happiest people, points to the same country as that Golden 
Land which the Karens believed their own to have been pre- 
vious to their conquest by the Birmese ; and this again reminds 
us that Buddhism was established in Ava at the time of 
Sakya's decease (see p. 1S6). Now Ava probably included 
Birmah as well as Siam. Ava is now the name of the capital 
of Birmah, but of old it seems to have applied to the whole of 
the Aurea ChersonesuSj the Golden Begion of the old Greeks and 
Romans ; a name probably applied to it by them only because 
the inhabitants themselves so called their country ; and, if so, 
we have a definite meaning in the frequent reference of the 
Buddhists and the Karens to the Golden Begion, as that in 
which the early doctrines of Godama were most happily 
established, and which we suppose was also as a whole known 
as BamaJiy the very centre and chief seat of the high worship), 
known by Israelites and Buddhists by that name. 

That the introduction of Buddhism and the worship of 
Godama into Bhotan and Tibet had reference to Bamahj both 
as a place and a mode of worship, is seen in the name applied 
there to the chief priest and his subsidiary ministers, that is. 
Lama J for this word is spelt in Tibetan in a remarkable manner, 
thus, J^; the L standing under the b expressing the dative 
case, to signify that the person so designated belongs to Bamahj 
so that though, from the nature of the Tibetan language, the b 
is not sounded in pronouncing the name, it is always under- 
stood as if written La-Bam.ah. 

The universal prayer of the Lamanesque Buddhists is fre- 
quently commenced with the mystic letters l^^; when in- 
scribed on the mani and on other sacred things, meaning their 
devotion to Bamah, This prayer is supposed to prevail in 
proportion to its repetition, and devout Lamas write it on 
paper and paste it on the praying cylinders, which are made to 
revolve rapidly either by the help of a water-wheel or by the 
hand, since they believe that every revolution is equal to a new 



APPENDIX. 407 

utterance of the wonder-working words^ which are thus sup- 
posed to save the soul from low transmigrations or so much 
purgatory, according to the numbers of turns the written prayer 
may be subjected to — a contrivance and conception worthy of 
the faith of those who pray by machinery. 

In concluding this disquisition, it should be remembered 
that the early Buddhists employed the word Bama, that is, 
the High One^ as one of the three names of Buddha^ so that 
probably the Tibetan Lamas use it in this sense as well as in 
reference to their worship in high-places ; and it is not un- 
likely that the Israelites also thus applied it in respect alike 
to the place of worship, and to the Being adored. This em- 
ployment of the title Lamay c." Blama, as of a person devoted 
to Bama, the exalted Buddha, the God-man, and also to his 
worship, is consistent with the foregoing observations. 

The Jews in China^ and the Karens (see p. 377). 

At the Oxford meeting of the British Association, held in 
1860, Dr. D. T. Macgowan, from China and Japan, read a 
paper on the Jews resident in China anterior to the Christian 
era. Having shown that a temple, probably built by them 
during the Han dynasty, existed in Yihchau, the capital of 
the kingdom of Shuh (now Ching-tu), and that this temple 
was burnt, he supposes that when the Huns were expelled 
from China, the Jews retired to the mountain fastnesses of 
the west. He then adds, ^'^If we are right in the conjecture, 
then have we cleared up the mystery of the Karens. The 
numerous Old Testament traditions of those tribes can be 
easily accounted for; and if not actually of Jewish origin, it 
seems conclusive that they were long in contact with Jews.'^ 

Dr. Macgowan does not advance any positive evidence that 
the temple referred to was for Jewish worship, though doubt- 
less built by a Hebrew people ; and from the remains of the 
architecture, such as parts of lotus columns, a pool called the 
Eye of the Sea, and even the quantity of pearls found, it 



408 APPENDIX. 

would, I conceive, appear rather that it was devoted to 
Buddha. 

This idea is not incompatible with the history of Buddhism 
in China; for, though that form of Buddhism now prevalent 
there seems to have been introduced by missionaries from 
Northern India in the first century of our era, yet an earlier 
introduction of that mysterious worship was probably effected 
through the intercourse of the Hebrew tribes lying along the 
great pathway of commerce from Persia to China. 

But whether the temple was for Jewish worship or not, it 
is evident that a Hebrew people were once widely scattered in 
China, and that before the Christian era. But I conceive 
it is important to distinguish this people from the Jews be- 
longing to the tribe of Judah. The expulsion, from the cities 
at least, of the Hebrew people known in China by the name 
of Sabbath-keepers, accounts for the traces of Hebrew in- 
fluence and descent among the mountaineers called Miau-tse, 
who have by some hasty writers been supposed to be abori- 
gines of China (see p. 382, supra). 

The points of resemblance between those people and the 
Karens have been already indicated; but I would further 
observe, the mourning of the son for a parent through a week 
of weeks, the sacrifice of the perfect and unblemished ox to the 
Great Father, and the meat and drink offerings laid out on 
an altar like a table, which are spoken of by Tradescant Lay*^ 
as an explanation of the phrase used in Isaiah — " Ye have 
prepared a table for that number.^' The Hebrew cast of 
countenance amongst their chiefs, at least, is no slight evi- 
dence of their origin, standing as they do amongst a people 
like the Chinese, so widely different in physiognomy .Y Their 
traditions are worthy of closer investigation ; and it is to be 
hoped that our missionaries in China will soon have the 
opportunity of becoming better acquainted with this inte- 
resting and remarkable people. 

* The Chinese as they are, p. 310. 



INDEX. 



A. 



Abhi-damma, Hebrew meaning of, 
211 

Abor, one of the names of the Che- 
bar, 131; its various names, 132; 
another Abor at the north-east of 
Hindustan, ib. 

Abraham, caUing of, out of Ur of the 
Chaldeans, 60 ; the promise made to 
him, ib. ; seed of, 81 ; the father of 
the faithful, ib. 

Abyssinia supposed to possess some of 
the Lost Tribes of Israel, 8 

Adi-Buddha, doctrines of, 180 

Adonai, the Hebrew name of the Al- 
mighty, 173 

Adoni, a name applied by the Saxons 
and the Hebrews, 287 ; its frequent 
use by the prophet Amos, 341 
note 

Afghanistan, route of the Israelites 
from Media to, 152 ; coins found 
in, showing the connexion of the 
Greek power with the Saxon, 156 
et seq. 

Afghans, descendants of the Lost Tribes 
of Israel, 7, 8 ; their affinities, 143 
et seq. ; Beni- Israel, or descendants 
of the Ten Tribes, 143, 145 ; their 
different names, 146 ; evidences in 
favour of their descent from the 
Ten Tribes, 154; their Hebrew 
origin, 299 

Africa, number of Jews in, 8 et note. 

Ages at which diflferent races arrive, 
82 note 

Ahasuerus, reign of, 100 ; his intended 
persecution of the Jews defeated, 
101 

Ahaz, King of Judah, 74 

Ahom, the, 361, 362 



Ajatasatta, King of Magadha, 317, 

318 
Allahabad, inscription on the pillar at, 

315 
Allora, vast temple at, 261 
Afmighty, wisdom and love of the, 

18 
Amber-coloured brightness, symbol of, 

25 
Amos, the prophet, his warnings to 
the rebellious Israelites, 336 et 
seq. ; his prophetic denunciations in 
Chap. VIII. illustrated by the his- 
tory of Buddhism, 340, 342; de- 
scribes the worshippers of Buddha, 
344 
Amra The, and Amra Kho, 360, 361 
Anastasis, the, 59 
Anglo-Saxons, Turner's History of the, 

87—90. (See Saxons.) 
Antelope of Thibet, 225 ; its symbolic 

meaning, 225 
Antimachus Nikephorus, 286 
Arian characters, sepulchi-al inscrip- 
tions in, 288 ; employed by the 
Getse, 289, 290 ; their peculiarities, 
290 
Arian inscriptions are Hebrew, 299 
Arian language and letters, 158 
Aristophyli, the noble tribes, 147, 179 
Armenia, anciently named Sakasina, 

88 
Arracan, historical notices of, 360 
Arsaces, founder of the kingdom of 

Parthia, 114 
Arsaces, the Second, of Parthia, 154 
Arsareth, country of, 119, 120 
Ashurs, of India, 203 
Asiani, allied to the Sacae, 155 
Asoka, introduces the new religion of 
Jina Sassana into Hindustan, 135, 
136 ; King of Magadha, 185 ; his 



410 



INDEX. 



religious teachings, 185, 186; the 
different countries to which he sent 
missionaries, 186 ; enforces his doc- 
trines, 188 ; expels 60,000 heretical 
priests, 190 

Assyria, sketch of thie kings and 
chronology of, in relation to the 
Israelites and the Jews, 73 — 78; 
exodus of the Israelites from, 133 

Assyrians, Ephraim subject to the, 49, 
50 ; lead the Samarians captive, 50 

Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, 
345, 346 

Athens, the pillared temples of, turned 
into dust, 80 

Avatar, Darn, a manifestation of the 
Deity, 199; his different appella- 
tions, 200 

Ayodhya, country of, 202 



B. 



Baal, the god of fire, and the calf in 

high places, 53 
Babylon, captured by Cyrus, 76; by 

Esarhaddon, 77 
Bactria, 140 ; taken from the Greeks, 

155; a district of Persia under 

Darius, 229 
Badh, signifies the incarnation of the 

Deity, 255 ; name of, 296, 297 
Bagava-Metteyo, prophecy respecting, 

257—259 
Baldness, a sign of mourning, 137 
Bali- Rama, the Indian god, 201, 202 
Bama-Dan-Budhen, 308 
Bamah, a high place, 102, 103, 

144, 324 ; country and religion of. 

Appendix, 404—406 
Bamath, explanation of the word, 

255, 256 
Beardlessness, a sign of mourning, 137 
Behistun inscription, 107, 108, 110 
Beni-Israel, styled the rebellious 

house, 45 ; the prophet Ezekiel sent 

to the, 332 ; the prophet's warning 

to, 333 et seq., 341 
Bhutan, in Koordistan, associated with 

the Israelitish people, 129, 131 ; 

derivation of the word, 129, 132 ; 

another Bhutan at the north-east of 

Hindustan, 132 



Bible, the first one gave Englishmen 
an interest in tbe East, 2 ; assumes 
to be the record of divine teaching, 
9 ; an authentic, inspired, and well- 
preserved book of history, 11 ; 
plainest evidence of the connected 
history and interests of human 
nature, 83, 84; the depository of 
marvellous intelligence, 332 

Binaya, Hebrew meaning of, 211 

Birmah, on the name. Appendix, 403— 
406 

Blue chariot, a Chinese symbolism, 
24 

Bodhi, Hebrew meaning of, 210 

Bodhi-tree, under which Sakya medi- 
tated, 259 

Bokhara, people of, descendants of the 
Ten Tribes, 145 ; country of, 153 ; 
its extent, ib. 

Botans, of Northern India, 112 ; con- 
sidered an honourable appellatiou, 
146 

Brahmins, their days of the week sym- 
bolized by colours, 24 ; worship of 
the, 200 

Branch of renown, 259 

Bucharia, number of Jews resident in, 
152 

Buddh alphabet, allied to the San- 
scrit, 231 ; where found, ib. ; re- 
marks on the. Appendix, 387, 388 

Buddha, meaning of, 201; in many 
respects like the Messiah, 248 ; 
Godama's prophecy respecting, 257 ; 
sublimity of his doctrines, 258 ; the 
worshippers of, described by the 
prophet Amos, 314; doctrines of. 
Appendix, 385 

Buddha-Bitha, bas-relief at the en- 
trance to a, 179 

Buddhii, the religious denomination 
of, 178, 179 

Buddhism, of Israelitish origin, 6 ; in- 
troduced into India by the prophet 
of the Sakai, 135, 136 ; suppressed 
for a time by the Hindu kings, 
158; inscriptions appertaining to, 
174, 175 ; Sakya's triumphant trials 
in support of, 176, 177 ; history 
and doctrines of, 180 et seq. ; mis- 
sionaries sent to different countries 
for the promulgation of, 186 ; new 



INDEX. 



411 



doctrines of, 190, 191 et seq. ; 
Israelitish origin of the earliest 
form of, 198; its three epochs of re- 
ligion, ib. J its doctrines corrupted, 
199 ; symbols and inscriptions of, 
their origin and significance, 206 
et seq., 220, 221 ; its high anti- 
quity, 227 ; monuments of, 228 ; 
its origin hidden in the mists of 
time, 246 ; its connexion with Is- 
rael, as shown by ancient inscrip- 
tions, 249 ; its early connexion with 
a Hebrew people, 257; its preva- 
lence, ib. ; unmistakeably connected 
with a people using the Hebrew 
language, 260 ; its history illustra- 
tive of the prophetic denunciations 
of Amos, 340, 342, 344 

Buddhist medal, representations on a, 
196 

Buddhist monks, 241 

Buddhistic bas-reliefs, weapons por- 
trayed in, 384 

Buddhistic inscriptions and symbols 
examined, 224, 225, 227 et seq.; 
at Girnar and Delhi, 265 et seq. ; 
at Girnar translated into English, 
270 

Buddhists, gems and colours honoured 
by, as precious things, 24; their 
origin and history, 161 et seq.; 
their religion, 162; proofs of, dis- 
covered in Northern India, 168 ; 
early sects among the, 261 ; their 
litany and religious formulas, 267, 
268 ; their connexion with the Ro- 
mans, 299, 300; their connexion 
with the children of Israel, 379; 
cardinal points and consecrated 
places among the. Appendix, 401 

Budii, the Israehtes dweUing in Media 
so named, 105; account of the, 
186 ; a tribe of the Medes, 229, 
230 

Byrath, Buddhist inscription found at, 
*254, 260 



C. 



Cabolit^, tribe of the, 147 
Cabul, mountain ranges of, 143, 144 ; 
application of the name, 147 ; its 



antiquity, ib. ; its inhabitants the 
descendants of the Ten Tribes, ib. 

Calf, in high places, worship of the, 
53, 54 

Cambogas, the, 137 

Canaan, the seat of the worst forms of 
idolatry, 61 

Carbulo, the people so called, 113 

Cardinal points among the Buddhists, 
Appendix, 401 

Cashmir, chronicles of, 135, 136 ; tra- 
ditions of, 136, 137; historical no- 
tices of, 139 ; taken possession of 
by the Sacse and the Buddhii, 
170 

Caspian Sea, its neighbourhood the 
early seat of the Goths and Saxons, 
261 

Caspians, the, 112 

Cassivelaunus, king of the Cassi, 354 ; 
meaning of the name, 355 

Caucasus, Hebrew remnants of the 
captivity resident on the eastern 
borders of the Caucasus, 112 ; 
mountains of the, J 43, 144 

Cavern cathedrals of Kanari, &c., 
265, 266 

Caves, Buddhistic, examined, 257 et 
seq. 

Celibacy, ancient vows of, 345, 346 

Cessi, the, 354 ; invaders of Britain, 
354, 355 

Chaldea, Ezekiel goes into, 53 

Chalebi, the head-dress of the Jewish 
women in the East, 175 

Cham, means wrath, 341 note 

Chandra-Gupta, founder of the Mau- 
ryan dynasty, 318 

Characteristics, &c. of the Israelites, 
124 et seq. 

Chebar, a river of Kurdistan, 18, 20, 
41, 42; Ezfikiel standing on its 
flowery banks beholds the whirling 
fiery cloud advancing, 20; its 
geographical position^ 131 ; its va- 
rious cognate names, 132 ; another 
Chebar at the north-east of Hin- 
dustan, ib. 

Cherubim of St. John's vision simi- 
lar to those of Ezekiel, 31 note ; 
difierently distributed, 40, 41 

China, characters of the deities of, 
expressed by colours, 23 ; old races 



412 



INDEX. 



of, throwing away their idols, 66 ; 
revolutionary movements in, 382 

Chozars, tribe of the, 148 

Cloud, light in the, 17 ; in prophetic 
language signifies a confused mul- 
titude, 20, 21 ; a figure frequently 
used by poets, 21 ; phenomena 
thence resulting, 26 

Coins found in Afghanistan, showing 
the connexion of the Greek power 
with the Saxon, 156 et seq. ; re- 
marks on, 159, 160; discovered 
where Buddhism prevailed, proof of 
the Saka dominion, 223; emblems 
found on the, 224; emblems of, 
peculiar to the Buddhists and to 
modern times, ib. 

Colour, symbolical meanings of, 22, 
23 ; heraldic uses of, 23 ; all the 
colours of light among the ancients 
expressive of truths, 23 ; symbolism 
of, calculated to become a universal 
language, 23 ; expression of the 
different days of the week among 
the Brahmins, 24 

Common-sense believes in the need of 
a permanent word or written re- 
velation, 13 

Consecrated places among the Bud- 
dhists, Appendix, 401 

Creation, account of by the Karens 
similar to that of Moses, 368, 369 

Creative Spirit, who made the worlds, 
and inspired the breathing soul with 
self-consciousness, 10 

Crescent, the Mohammedan symbol of 
religion, 2 — 4 

Cross, the Christian symbol of reli- 
gion, 2 — 4 ; is conquering'the ene- 
mies of civilization, 6; a favourite 
device of the Buddhas, 197; its 
signification, ib. 

Crystal, regions of, 36; the word 
rendered ice in the books of Job 
and Genesis, ib. note; "the ter- 
rible,'* represented by the moun- 
tain ranges of the Indian Caucasus 
and Cabul, 143, 214 

Ctesias the Mede, 110 

Cunningham, Major, his Indian ex- 
plorations, 170, 171, 174, 176 

Cush, derivation of, 237, 238 

Cyaxares, King of Media, 168, 169 



Cyrus the Great, advance of his army 
against Artaxerxes, 21; historical 
notices of, 72, 73 



D. 



Dagoba, Great, building of the, 204 

Damma, signifies worship, 248; ex- 
plained, 270 note ; the Buddhist 
word for silence, worship, 337 

Dan, standard of the tribe of, 31 ; 
meaning of, 3l7; the young lion- 
passant the symbol of, 351 

Daniel, the Gospel dispensation fore- 
told by, 56; his elevated position 
during the reign of Darius, 99 

Darius, King of Babylon, Sec., 112 

Davidic family, 113 

Dead, wail of the Karens over the, 
376, 378 

Death, prevalence of, 209 

Decay, prevalence of, 209 

Delhi, Buddhistic inscriptions at, 265 
et seq. ; in the Lat character, 301 
et seq.; Hebrew transliterations of 
the, 303, 306, 309, 312, 315; 
translations, 304, 307, 310, 313, 
316; critical remarks on the, 315 — 
319. 

Dewadatha, the, 186 

Diblaim, Gomer, the daughter of, 56, 
57 ; its signification, 57 note 

Disease, prevalence of, 209 

Dispersion of the human family, tra- 
ditions respecting, 370 

Divine Mind, expressed in man's united 
history, 10 

Divine order, development of, 47 

Divine Power, symbols emblematic of 
the, 27 ; use of the, 40 ; subdues 
all things to eternal purposes, ib. 

Dooranneds, a tribe of the Afghans, 
148 

E. 

Eagle, figure of an, emblematic of 
Divine Power, 27 j symbol of the, 
221 

Eagle-face, in Ezekiel's vision, 19 ; 
expressive of keenness, &c., 32, 33 

Eagle's wings, symbols of Divine pro- 
tection, 20 



INDEX. 



413 



East, the first Bible gave En^Hshmen 
an interest in the, 2 ; reli^ons of 
the, and their symbols, ib. ; kings of 
the, 6 ; grand revolution now pro- 
ceeding in the, 60 

Elias, 294, 295 

England in India denominated Sa- 
cana, 90 

Ephraim, standard of the tribe of, 31 ; 
Hosea's prophecies respecting, 49 ; 
greatness of, predicted, 62 — 66 ; 
results of his idolatry, 6-4; fulfil- 
ment of the prophecies concerning, 
91 

Ephraimites, exodus of the, 104 ; no- 
table as bowmen, 110 

Esarhaddon, King of Babylon and 
Nineveh, 7 

Esdras, his mention of the route of 
the Ten Tribes, 69 

Esther, book of, a beautiful episode of 
history, 99 

Euphrates, drying up of the, 6, 7 ; 
banks of the, 69; ancient geo- 
graphy of the, 132 

Evangelization, the Karens remarkably 
prepared for, 374 

Existence, origin and end of, 47 

Ezekiel, his vision of the light in the 
cloud, 17 et seq. ; opened in awful 
symbols, 18 ; on the flowery banks 
of the Chebar, 19; foretells the 
destinies of Israel, ib. ; his spirit of 
prophecy, 43 ; sets his face against 
the mountains of Israel, ib. ; the 
object of his prophecies, 43, 44 ; 
words of Jehovah to, 51 ; and their 
explanation, 52 ; goes into Chaldea, 
53 ; his vision of the fourfold living 
creatures, 213 et seq. ; sent to the 
rebellious Beni- Israel, 332 ; gives 
them warning, 333 et seq-, 341, 
343 et seq. 

P. 

Faces of the symbolic creatures of 

Ezekiel's vision, 30, 32 j likeness of 

the four ones, 42 
Faces and wings on each of the four 

sides of Ezekiel's mystery, 19 
Feet of the symbolic creatures of 

Ezekiel's vision, 19, 27, 32 



Feroz Shah, King of Delhi, 320 

Feroz's pillar, inscription on the, 302, 
320 ; description and history of, 
320 et seq. ; inscription translated 
into English characters, 326 ; into 
English, 328 

Fire, in prophetic language signifies a 
confused multitude, 20, 21 ; its 
symbolic meaning when associated 
with indications of evil, 22 ; fre- 
quent reference to, in the Eastern 
inscriptions, 336 

Firmament, the, 36 

Flint axe, represented in Buddhistic 
bas-reliefs, 384 

Flint implements of our ancestor^, 
Appendix, 385 

Four living creatures with four faces 
and four wings each, 19; the em- 
blems of the Israelitish tribes 
therein united, 31 

Friday, symbolized by colour among 
the Brahmins, 24 

Funeral ceremonies of the Eastern na- 
tions, 378 



G. 

Gath, country of, 260 

Gathites, or Gittites, the, 261 ; spoke 
the same language as the Israelites, 
ib. 

Gems, honoured by the Brahmins as 
precious things, 24 

GetiB, sprang from the same source as 
the Saxons and Goths of the West, 
95 ; origin of the, 149, 150 ; land 
of the, 260 ; Arian characters em- 
ployed by the, 289, 290 

Gliore, mountains of, possessed by the 
Afghans, 145, 146 

Girnar, Buddhistic inscriptions at, 
265 et seq., 269 ; translated into 
English, 270; Godama their 
author, 285 ; inscription in modern 
Hebrew characters. Appendix, 
393 ; on the translation of the, 398 

Giyah, the name of a place in Sa- 
maria, 229 

Glacier, tremendous effects of a, 245, 
2 46 

Godama, Godi\ma- Buddha, or Godama- 



414 



INDEX. 



Sakya, the names of Salcya, l7l ; 
doctrines of, 199 ; derivation and 
sacred meaning of, 233, 234; the 
founder of modern Buddhism, 237 ; 
his connexion with Sakya, 238, 
239 ; the name given to Sakya after 
his death, 239 j his prophecy re- 
specting Buddha, 257, 258 ; his 
self-denying doctrines, 259 ; his 
teachings, 267, 268 ; verses in 
honour of, ib, ; inscription in honour 
of, 270 ; his doctrines, 270—283 ; 
noticed as the King of Kash, 285 ; 
the author of the Girnar inscrip- 
tion, ib. ; time of his death, ib. ; 
called the Lord of the Golden 
Wheel, 295 

Gog, descent of, as described by Eze- 
kiel, 21 

Golden brightness, symbol of, 25 

Golden calf, of Israelitish vv^orship, 
49; w^orship of the, 54 

Golden glory beaming from the fiery 
cloud, 38 

Golden land of the Karens, Appendix, 
406 

Golden wheel, Godama the lord of 
the, 295 

Gomatta, notices of, 256 

Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, 56, 
57 ; signification of, 57 note 

Goth, the name transferred from Pa- 
lestine to the neighbourhood of the 
Caspian Sea, 261 

Gothic architecture, whence derived, 
243 

Gothic races, well known in the East, 
261; their early conquests, 261, 
262. (See Saxon.) 

Gothland, mentioned in the earliest 
records of Buddhism, 260 

Goths, early seat of the, 260 ; noticed 
in the Girnar inscription, 284 ; be- 
came Buddhists, ib.; a mongrel 
mixture of the refuse of the, 356 

Gozan, locality of, 130, 131 

Grant, Dr., his hypothesis respecting 
the exodus of the Israelites, 118, 119 

Graves of the Hebrews, 173 

Greek power, its connexion with the 
Saxon, shown by the coins found in 
Afghanistan, 156 

Greeks, noticed in the Girnar inscrip- 



tion, 284 ; their derivation of the 
title of Deity, 286 note 
Gwawd Lludd y Mawr, an ancient 
Druidical hymn, 172 

H. 

Habamah, land of, 102 

Habor, the river, in Assyria, 74, 131 

Haman, punishment of, 100, 101 

Hamath, situated beyond the Eu- 
phrates, 340 

Hands of the symbolic creatures of 
Ezekiel's vision, 19, 29, 32 

Hara, in Assyria, 74 ; use of the word, 
130 ; province of, 138 note 

Hasaures, of Indo-German history, 
203 

Hazara, country of, 120 

Heap, Hebrew uses of the word, 173 

Heap of ruin, its symbolical meaning, 
287 

Heaven, different names for, in dif- 
ferent languages, 127, 128 

Hebrew, employed in Cabul, the Pun- 
jaub, &c., 299; the Girnar in- 
scription in. Appendix, 393 

Hebrew influence on India, 504 

Hebrew inscriptions, 172; in a rock 
temple in India, 235, 236 ; of the 
Buddhist caves, 235, 239, 241, 243, 
245, 249, 252; their elucidation, 
249—253 

Hebrew nation, its influence among 
civilized nations, 8 

Hebrews, their influence, 80; their 
marvellous history, 83 ; their his- 
tory is that of the world, ib. et seq.; 
under the dominion of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, 105 ; the Chozar sovereigns 
descended from the, 148 ; of Mala- 
bar, 379 

Heraldry, colours in, expressive of cer- 
tain trutlis, 23 

High-places for idolatrous worship, 
102 ; the Israelites practised idola- 
try in, 126, 127 

Himalayas, the Heavenly mountains, 
127 ; Paradise believed to stand 
in the, ib. 

Himavat, geography of, 321, 322 

Hindoos, their creed and their cruelty, 
13; the commencement of a re- 



INDEX. 



415 



markable era among; them, 135; 
the religion called Sassana intro- 
duced, ib.; chronological records of 
the, 136 

Holy Land, trampling down of the, 
visibly the fulfilment of prophecy, 
14 

Horse, the ancient sign of a Saxon 
clan, 357 

Hosea, his prophecies in Samaria under 
the name of Ephraim, 49 ; the whole 
scheme of his prophecy, in the 
first chapter, 57; prophecy of, ap- 
plied to Israel in distinction from 
Judah, 59; his description of Israel 
and the Israelites, 125 — 128 

How and where did the Israelites go, 
67 et seq. 

I. 

Idolatry, speculative, which led to 
the final dispersion of the Ten Tribes, 
14 ; the Israelites upbraided on ac- 
count of, 54; of the Israelites in 
high places, 102, 103, 1 26, 127, 345, 
346 

Idols of the East will be thrown away, 
66 

Immanuel, faith in, 16 

India, misgovernment of, 13 ; charac- 
ters of the deities of, expressed by 
colours, 23 ; old races of^ will soon 
throw away their idols, 66 ; Hebrew 
name of, 100 note; route of the 
Israelites to, 152 ; varieties of creed 
in, 184; oldest mythological com- 
positions of, 200 ; Hebrew influence 
on, 204 

Indo-Cush, country of, 238 

Indus, cataclysm of the, 245 

Inscriptions appertaining to the Bud- 
dhist religion, l72 — 177; examined, 
224, 225, 227 et seq.; in Hebrew, 
235, 239, 241, 243, 245, 249, 252; 
their Israelitish origin, 250 ; sepul- 
chral ones in Arian characters, 288 
et seq.; at Girnar, 265 et seq.; at 
Girnar translated into English, 270; 
translations of, 293, 296, 297; 
found at Delhi, in the Lat charac- 
ter, 301 et seq.; at Delhi, Hebrew 
transliterations of, with translations, 
303 — 316; critical remarks on, 315, 



316; on the pillar at Allahabad, 
315 ; on Feroz's pillar, 302, 320 et 
seq.; translated into English charac- 
ters, 326 ; into English, 328 ; their 
relation to prophecy, 332 

Isaac, predictions concerning the seed 
of, 58, 61 ; house of, 97, 99, 261 ; 
tribe of, 164, 165 

Isicki, the people so called, 112 

Israel, prophecy that she should be 
" sown among the nations," 8 ; 
Ezekiel's prophecy against the re- 
bellious house of, 18; its destinies 
foretold, ib.; EzekieFs prophecy re- 
specting the captives of, 37; false pro- 
phets of, 44 ; her perversion, warn- 
ing, and recovery, 47 et seq.; his- 
tory of, testified by the prophets, 
56 ; Jehovah reasons with, through 
the prophets, 58 ; Hosea's prophecy 
peculiarly applicable to, 59 ; de- 
scendants of, to be looked for among 
Christian nations, 65 ; new names, 
105 et seq.; Hosea's description of, 
125, 128. (See Ten Tribes of Israel.) 

Israelites, Buddhism and other ancient 
religions traceable to the, 6 ; their de- 
struction and dispersion prophesied, 
48 ; upbraidings of the, 54 ; a cer- 
tain class of them not to be restored 
to Palestine, 55; how and where did 
they go, 67 et seq.; a bond of sym- 
pathy between them and the Scy- 
thians, 70 ; their removal into Tar- 
tary and all parts of the habit- 
able globe, 79; their history, as 
found in the Bible, 83 ; their in- 
fluence during their captivity, 99 ; 
in Assyria called Sacse, 105; in 
Media named Budii, ib. ; Dr. Grant's 
hypothesis respecting their exodus, 
118, 119 ; their characteristics, 
traces, and names, 123 ; their ido- 
latrous practices in high places, 125, 
126, 345, 346; Hosea's description 
of the, 128; localities associated with 
the, 129, 130; their exodus from 
Assyria,133; their route from Media 
to Afghanistan and India, 152 ; the 
prophetic warnings of Amos to the, 
336 et seq.; their idolatrous and 
rebellious spirit, 337; addressed as 
the "house of Joseph," and the 



416 



INDEX. 



** house of Israel/' 339 ; warnings 
and prophetic denunciations of Eze- 
kiel, 333 et seq., 341, 343 et seq.; 
when outcast, despised the covenant, 
374 ; their connexion with the Bud- 
dhists, 379. (See Jews.) 

Israelitish origin of the Saxon race, 
94 

Izakzie, the trihe of Isaac, 164, 165 

J. 

Jabans, 139. (See Yavanas.) 

Jacoh blesses his grandsons Ephraim 
and Manasseh, 62 

Jagannath, a spiritual construction put 
upon its hideous worshi]), 199 

Jains, an early sect of Buddhists, 261 

Japliet, descendants of, 140 

Jara Saudha, king of Bahar, 202 

Jareb, king of Assyria, 75 

Javan, country of, 140 ; the western 
world so designated, ib. 

Javo, a contraction of Jehovah, 365 

Jaxartes, the river, 180 

Jehovah, words of, to Ezekiel, 51 ; 
reasons with Israel through the 
prophets, 58 ; means what He says 
and does, 62 ; presence of the name 
in the worship of any people a no- 
table circumstance, 366; adjura- 
tions to, among the Karens, 371 

Jehu, son of Nimshi, 329 note 

Jelalabad, tope at, opened, 290; its situ- 
ation, ib. ; inscriptions found at, 
293 

Jeremiah, his explanation of the symbol 
of the winds,22 ; tlie gospel dispensa- 
tion foretold by, 56 ; his prophecies 
concerning the captivity and resto- 
ration of the Jews, 118 

Jeroboam, his encouragement of idola- 
try, 126 

Jerusalem, destruction of, portrayed, 
48 ; the mother church, 375 

Jews, numbers of in Africa, 8 et note ; 
their dispersion a testimony to those 
nations who have received Chris- 
tianity, 9 ; scattering of the, every- 
where recognised as the judgment 
of God for the rejection of his mercy, 
14 ; are waiting for their restora- 
tion, ib. ; what they are to Christen- 



dom, so are the other outcasts of 
Israel to the heathen in the East, 
15; fearfully tested when the Prince 
of Peace came amongst them, 50,51 ; 
a wonderful people in respect to 
their physique, 82 note; a large 
number carried into captivity by 
Nebuchadnezzar, 76 ; their return, 
ib. ; the blest of all nations accord- 
ing to Tacitus, 61 ; saved from the 
treachery of Haman,101; Jeremiah's 
prophecies concerning their capti- 
vity and restoration, ] 18 ; those de- 
scended from Judah and Benjamin 
amount to nine millions, 119; num- 
ber of, resident in Bucharia, 152 

Jezreel, the true, 42 ; the seed of God, 
57 ; the day of, 59 

Jhelum, city of, 291 

Joonur cave-temples, inscriptions from 
the, 285 

Joseph, the stick of Israel, 45 ; pro- 
phecy respecting him and his chil- 
dren, 63 ; tribe of, 145, 164, 165 ; 
those Israelites who repudiated the 
house of David, 337, 339 ; final end 
of the scattered seed of, 348 

Judah, standard of the tribe of, 31 ; 
the dispersed of, sufficient to remind 
us of our indebtedness to them, 82 ; 
Saviour of men sprang from, 94 

Judgments, are as the light, 34 ; their 
characteristics, ib. 

K, 

Kadiphj:sh, identity of, 293 
Kadphises, reign of, 158, 293, 294 ; 

coins of, 299 
Kanerki type, coins of the, 291, 292 
Kapur-di-Giri inscription, 288 ; a 
fac-simile traced by Mr. Masson,ib. ; 
its elucidation, 289 
Karens, their history and traditions, 
359 et seq.; Mr. Mason's informa- 
tion respecting them, 359 ; Israel- 
itish characteristics seen in the, 363 ; 
their habits, houses, industry, and 
dress, 364 ; their language, 365 ; 
their sacred words, ib. ; their tra- 
ditions, 367; their views of the 
Deity, 368 ; their account of the 
creation, ib.; their traditions re- 



INDEX. 



417 



specting Satan, 369; their moral code, 
370; are trusting to a saviour that 
is coming, 372 ; phraseology of their 
traditions as Hebraic as their ideas, 
373 ; remarkably prepared for evan- 
gelization, 374 ; verses composed by 
one of their prophets, ib. ; their wail 
over the dead, 376; their funeral 
ceremonies, 376, 378 ; country of 
the, 377 ; their manners and customs, 
ib. ; their offerings, 378 

Kash, a very ancient name, 237 ; an- 
cient city of, 243, 245; Godama, 
king of, 285; destruction of noticed, 
ib. 

Kashi, the, 354 

Kasyapa, the people of, 203 

Khybere, tribe of the, 145 

King of the Golden Wheel, 212, 213, 
215, 218 

Kings of the East, 381 ; we may look 
to China for, 382, 383 

Koordistan, why so called, 129; its 
boundaries, ib. ; probably the resort 
of the captive Israelites, ib. 

Kowalea, empire of, 360 

Krishnu, advent of in India, 219 

Krisma, the Indian hero, 202 

Kusites, tribe of the, 148 



L. 

Lamb, slain, 37 

Laos, the, 361, 362 

Lat character, employed by the Sacge, 
290; inscriptions in the, found at 
Delhi, 301 et seq.; transliterated in 
Hebrew, 303, 306, 309, 312, 315; 
translations of the, 304, 307, 310, 
313, 316; critical remarks on the, 
315—319 

Lehi, burning of, 280 note 

Leo Kanerkes, 294 

Light in the cloud, Ezekiel's vision, 
17 

Lily, symbol of the, as used by the 
Israelites, 5 

Lion, face of a, in Ezekiel's vision, 19 ; 
figure of a, emblematic of Divine 
Power, 27 ; expressive of courage, 
32, 33 ; symbol of the, 221 ; of 
Israelitish origin, 222 



Lion passant, the symbol of Dan, 351 

Living creatures of Ezekiel's vision, 
213 et seq., 281 note 

Loammi, an offshoot of Israel, 58 

Lord Jesus, as seen by John enthroned 
on high, 37 ; his ascension into 
heaven, 52, 53 

LostTribes of Israel,! et seq., 6; traces 
of the, 7, 8. (See Ten Tribes.) 

Lotus, the Egyptian symbol of reli- 
gion, 2 — 4 ; botanical description of 
the, 5 note ; a symbol of the Bud- 
dhists, 5 ; an emblem of Divine 
Power, 181 ; fresco representing the 
Buddlias springing from the, 182 ; 
not borrowed from India, Appen- 
dix, 381 

Love, the best last name of the Lord 
Jesus, 60 

Love and light, symbolized by the 
ancients in letters of gold and ver- 
milion, 25 

M. 

Maba Sen, king, 204 
M'lech'chas, from Scythia, 140 
Magadha, central land of, 179; an- 
cient kingdom of, 253 ; the early 
seat of Buddhism, ib. ; the language 
of supposed to be Hebrew, 254 ; its 
geographical situation, and different 
names of, ib. ; king of, 318 ; the 
Mauryan dynasty of, ib. ; of He- 
brew signification, 319 
Magi, descended from the Sacas, 162 ; 

of the East, 300 
Mahabarata, Indian mythology of the, 

200, 202 
Mahomedans, in India, truer to their 
prophet than Englishmen to their 
God, 13 
Makheth, explanation of, l74 
Man, must believe in moral principles 
as evinced in deeds and doctrines, 
11; and have faith in God, 12; he 
everywhere believes that there has 
been or still is a revelation, 12; Eze- 
kiel's vision of the face of a, 19 ; 
figure of, emblematic of Divine 
Power, 27 ; symbolic of intelli- 
gence, &c. 34; surrounded by the 
sevenfold harmony of pure light, 

E E 



418 



INDEX. 



36 ; brightness shining from the, 
38 ; symbol of the, 221 

Manasseh, greatness of, predicted, 62 

Mani, the word explained, 256, 257 j 
and Ruin-heaps, Appendix, 390 

Manikyala, tope of, opened, 290, 291 ; 
situation of, 291 ; inscriptions found 
in the tope of, 296, 297 

Manu, the author of certain Brahmi- 
nical laws, 271 note 

Mason, Mr., his information respecting 
the Karens, 359, 360 

Massagetae, history of the, 71, 72, 
73, 110 ; country of the, 149 

Masson, C, his account of the Kapur- 
di-Giri inscription, 288 

Mathia, pillar at, 308 note 

Maury an dynasty of Magadha, 318 

Maya, its meaning in Sanscrit and 
Hebrew, 207 

Medals of the Buddhists, 196, 197, 
198 

Medes and Persians, wars of the, 87 

Media, kingdom of, 68, 69, 168, 169 ; 
revolt of, 77, 78 ; extent of the em- 
pire of, 78 

Median colony, transplanted into Sar- 
matia, 203 

Meru, meaning of, 291 

Mesopotamia, kingdom of, 68, 69, 168, 
169 

Metteyo, resemblance of to Messiah, 
257, 258 

Miou-tze, race of the, 382, 408 

Mithridates II. of Parthia, 155 

Monday, symbolized by colour among 
the Brahmins, 24 

Monuments of ancient Buddhism, 228 

Moral law, necet^sity of a, 13 

Mountains, promised greatness in Is- 
rael connected with, 371 

Mujnoo i unsab, an ancient Indian re- 
cord, 154 

Multitude of people, in prophetic lan- 
guage, denoted by a whirwind, a 
cloud, or a fire, 20, 21 

N. 

Namuchi-Maea, Hebrew meaning of, 

210 
Nanajah, 294, 295 
Naneh Ghat inscription. Appendix, 389 



Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, 
77; carried into captivity a large 
number of Jewish nobles, 76 ; ex- 
tensive dominions of, 105 
Negro tribes have well-marked Jewish 
characters in their religious obser- 
vances, 8 note 
Nestorian Christians, 85, 86 
Nethinim of Northern India, 112 
Nikephorus, a title of Jupiter, 1 56 
Nimroud sculptures, the religious em- 
blems typical of Divine attributes, 
27 
Nimshi, meaning of, 329 
Nineveh sculptures, winged figures of 
the, 221 ; of Israelitish origin, 222, 
223 
Niran, the mysterious word, 296 
Nirvana, Hebrew meaning of, 210 
Noah, covenant made with, 37 ;ecl8 

of, 238 
Norris, E., his reading of the Kapur- 
di-Giri inscription, 289 

0. 

Olives, Mount of, 53 
0mm, meaning of. Appendix, 391 
Orissa, early history of, 138, 182 
Oude, kingdom of, its first foundation, 

202 
Owah, the eastern name of Jehovah, 

365 
Ox, face of an, in Ezekiel's vision, 19 ; 

figure of an, emblematic of Divine 

Power, 27 ; expressive of patience, 

&c., 32, 33 ; symbol of the, 221 ; of 

Israelitish origin, 222 
Oxen, twelve, the whole of the Tribes 

symbolized by the, 39 

P. 

Pali, the people so called, 178, 179, 
238; the ancient dialect of Ma- 
gadha, 253, 254; meaning of, 
328 note 

Palibothra, the ancient capital of In- 
dia, 318, 319, 363 ; of Hebrew sig- 
nification, 319 

Panji, records so called, 138 

Paradas, the, 137, 293 

Paradise, believed to stand in the 



INDEX. 



419 



Himalayas by the Eastern nations, 
127 

Parthia, historical notices of, 154, 155 

Parthian kings, coins of the, 155 

Parthians, the. 111 ; dynasty of the, 
113; Arsaces their founder, 114; 
probable derivation of the name, 
241 

Pattala, the river, 161 

Pekah, king of Israel, 74 

Perversion of Israel, 47 

Philosophy has done nothing without 
the Bible to improve the moral 
world, 81 

Pilgrim Fathers, 129 

Pillar inscription written in Hebrew 
letters, 219 

Pillars before the great tope of Bud- 
dha at Sanchi, 222 

Pojah, a Buddhist religious service, 
276 note 

Pomegranate, the Tree of Life and 
Knowledge with the Egyptians, 
241 

Poonah, district and city of, 235 

Porus, the Indian king, 156 

Pracrit, the word explained, 253 

Prophecies, fulfilment of, to be looked 
for among a people not known 
as Israelites, 65 ; as concerns the 
Chosen Tribes confirmed in the 
Saxon race, 93 

Prophecy, a picture of the moral con- 
dition on which it is grounded as 
regards the seed of Isaac, 61 ; re- 
specting Joseph and his children, 
63 ; fulfilment of in history, 141 ; 
relation of the Eastern inscriptions 
to, 332 et seq. ; period pointed to 
by, 357 

Prophets, false ones of Israel, 44 ; 
the true ones testify of the history 
of Israel, 56 

Providence overrules and superin- 
tends the movements of all, 36; 
operations of, 40 ; mysteries of, 48 

Pul, or Phul, the first Assyrian king, 
73,74 

Purai, one of the sects of Karens, 
367 

Puranas of India, 200 

Putya, a Persian name applied to the 
Israelites, 106 



R. 



Rainbow, set in the clouds of heaven 

as a sign of mercy, 37 
Raja Vigraha, king of the Sacambari, 

321 
Ram, worshipped by the Hindoos, 

297 note 
Ramayana, contains the mytholo- 
gical history of India, 200, 201 ; 

Rama the hero of the, ib. 
Recovery of Israel, 47 
Religions of the East, symbols of the, 

2 
Reuben, standard of the tribe of, 31 
Revelation, the chief forms of, 12 ; men 

everywhere believe that there has 

been or still is a, 12 
Rock monastery of the Buddhists, 240 
Rock records of Buddhism, 265 et 

seq. 
Roman coins found in the tombs of the 

ancient Buddhist princes, 299 
Rome subjugated the nations with 

iron rule, 14 ; the pillared temples 

of, turned into dust, 80 
Royal arms, their origin, 226 
"Ruin, mouth of," 304, 307, 310, 313, 

315; oddity of the phrase, 317; 

general predictions associated with, 

334 et seq. 
Ruin-heaps, Appendix, 390 



S. 



Saca'bda, the era of Saca, 138, 139 
Sacae, origin and history of the, 71, 72, 
73, 161 et seq. ; a tribe of Scythi- 
ans, 87 ; their belligerent: qualities, 
91; sprang from the same source 
as the Saxons and Goths of the 
West, 95 — 97; the Israelites dweU- 
ing in Assyria so named, 105 ; his- 
torical notices of the, 106 et seq. ; 
three classes of the, 109; on the 
east of the Caspian, 111; known as 
brave cavalry and bowmen, 140; 
proofs of their being Buddhists and 
Hebrews, 161, 284; proofs of dis- 
covered in Northern India, 168 ; 
their revolt from Darius, 256; Arian 
characters employed by the, 290; 
their Hebrew origin, 299; the words 



420 



INDEX. 



of the prophet Amos applicable to 
the, 342 j all destined to become 
Christians, 355 ; Goths and mon- 
grel mixture of, the refuse of the, 
356; Saxons of the West descended 
from the, 379. (See Buddhists.) 

Sacai, synonymous with glutton and 
drunkard, 104 

Sacambari, the, 321 ; a Saxon race, 
322 ; never conquered by the Ro- 
mans, 323 

Sacana, the Indian name of England, 
90 

Sacas, conveyed their religion into 
Hindustan, 135 ; the founders of 
Buddhism, 136 ; their identifica- 
tion with Cashmir, 138; historical 
records of the, 138,139. (See Saca^.) 

Saca-suni, name and oiigin of the, 89 

Sacca, Babylonian festival of the, 108 

Sachi, kingdom of, 170 ; pillar at, 171 ; 
topes at, 212, 216, 219, 221, 222 

Sacrifices of different animals in the 
East, 367; form of among the 

' Karens, 368 

Sacrificing of animals, disputes respect- 
ing, 190 

Sagara, king of Cashmir, 137 

Sak, the Sanscrit name, 171, 172 

Sakai, or Sacaj, the Saxons derived 
from, 87 ; their conquests, 88, 89 ; 
subject to Darius, 89; grand prophet 
of the, 135; introduces Buddhism 
into India, ib. (See Sacae.) 

Sakai topes, inscriptions on the, 176 

Saka-rauli, the powerful tribe of Par- 
thia, 155 

Sakas, their extensive dominion in the 
East, 223 ; of the Saxon race, 324 

Sakasina, a name of Armenia, 88 

Saki, the Tibetans taught their re- 
ligion by, 242 

Saks of the East, 382, 384 

Sakya, the founder of Buddhism, 162 ; 
the Sanscrit name of Godama, 171 ; 
monumental inscription represent- 
ing his trial of skill, 176, 177; rise of 
his religion among the Sacae or Saxon 
tribes, l77 ; his moral doctrines, 
184; substitutes his own ten laws 
for the ten laws of Moses, 191 ; his 
moral teachings, 192 et seq. ; of 
Hebrew origin, 206 ; said to be the 



son of Maya, 207 ; mythological 
history of, 207 et seq.; his doctrines 
divided into three classes, 211 ; his 
connexion with Godama, 238, 239 ; 
probable derivation of the name, 
243 ; the teacher of Buddhism sup- 
posed to be born in Magatta, 254; 
doctrines of, 283; disposal of his 
remains, 317 

Sakya- Buddha, doctrines of, 180 et 
seq. ; of the Sacian or Saxon race, 
182 

Sakya Sinha, adoration of the relics 
of, 174 

Salivanha Saca Hara, the conqueror of 
Delhi, 138 

Samapatti, a mode of religious morti- 
fication, 210 

Samaria, led captive by the Assyrians, 
50, 339 ; occupied by the Assyrians, 
340 ; sin of, 344, 345 

Sambatioun, the river, 150 

Sambhala, king of, tradition respect- 
ing, 180 

Sanaka-nika, kingdom of, 170 

Sanchi, city of, 170; memorial pillar 
at, 384 

Sardochus, king of Nineveh, Babylon, 
and Israel, 77 

Sarmatia, a Median colony trans- 
planted into, 203 

Sassana, a new religion introduced into 
Hindustan, 135, 136 

Sassani, independent kingdom of the, 
113, 114 

Sassanian kings, coins of the, 299 

Sassanidae, kingdom of the, 91 

Satan, traditions of among the Ka- 
rens, 369 

Saturday, symbolized by colour among 
the Brahmins, 24 

Sav, Savath, Godama's play upon the 
words, 286 

Saviour, expected by the Karens, 370 

Saxani. (See Sassani.) 

Saxon Buddhists of the East, 243, 244 

Saxon derivation and destiny, 349 et 
seq., 383 

Saxon-Gothas, house and lineage of 
the, 260 

Saxon kingdom, proofs of its existence 
throughout the East, 178 ; extent 
of its religious dominion, ib. 



INDEX. 



421 



Saxons, and Saxon races, of the East 
and the West, 1 et seq., 80; a 
Gothic or Scythian trihe, 87 ; de- 
rived from the Sakai, or Sacse, a 
Scythian tribe, 87, 88 ; their wide- 
spread dominion, 90 ; many of their 
words of Persian or Hebrew origin, 
91 ; revolutionizing influence of the, 
91, 92 ; heirs of the world by Divine 
favour, 93 ; prophecies concerning 
the Chosen Tribes fulfilled in the, 93; 
of Israelitish origin, 94 ; inquiries 
respecting the, 121 ; their early sa- 
vage characteristics, 122 ; coins 
showing their connexion with the 
Greek power, 156 et seq.; tribes 
of in India, 170 ; their various 
Oriental names, 179; our origin 
from the Saxons of the East, 
as shown by Buddhist symbols, 
224, 227; their early seat in 
the East, and their conquests, 260, 
261, 262 ; those of the East became 
nominally Buddhists, and of the 
West, Christians, 262; their ex- 
tended and beneficial influence, 263, 
264 ; ancient country of the, 322 ; 
of northern Germany, 324; same 
as the Sakas of the East, ib. ; 
the earliest period of their ap- 
pearance in Britain not known, 353; 
identically the same with the Sacse 
of the East, ib. ; their ultimate 
destiny as shown by prophecy, 357, 
358; people akin to them found 
in the East, 358 ; those of the 
West were descendants of the Sacse, 
379 ; will mingle with those from 
the East, 383 

Scythia, origin of the name, 114 ; con- 
quests of, ib. 

Scythian power, 68 

Scythians, early history of the, 70, 71; 
a bond of sympathy between them 
and the Israelites, 70; seize the 
empire of Asia, 72 ; overran Asia as 
far as Egypt and the Indies, 78 ; 
their conquests led to the ultiiiiate 
removal of the Israelites into the 
land of the Tartars, 79 ; their ex- 
pulsion from Assyria, 103 ; from 
Asia, 168 ; their belligerent career, 
169 



Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 75 ; his 

army destroyed beneath the walls 

of Jerusalem, 76 
Sepulchral inscriptions in Arian cha- 
racters, 288 et seq. 
Seth, the fourth son of Adam, 246 ; 

his religion, 246, 247 
Shaddai, the incommunicable name, 

234, 296 
Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, 75 ; 

subdues the Ten Tribes of Israel, 

ib. 
Shambat, a family of Israelitish exiles, 

99 
Shans, the, 361 
Shechinah of Jehovah's presence, 17 ; 

its departure from the temple of 

Jerusalem, 38, 41 
Shem, descendants of, 141 
Silence, prophetic allusion to the word, 

337 
Sin introduced by Satan, 369 
Siva, worship of, 286 
Smerdis, 256 
Standards of the hosts of Israel, 30 ; 

of the tribes of Reuben, Judah, 

Ephraim, and Dan, 31 
Stars, colours of the, symbolic of love 

and truth, 26 
Su, or Zu, disquisition on the word, 

156; frequent use of the word in 

the Girnar inscription, 285 ; its de- 
rivation, 286 
Sucki, or Sukhi, the people dwelling 

by the Chebar, 74, 106, 107 
Sun-worship, 278 note 
Sunday, symbolized by colour among 

the Brahmins, 24 
Superintending intelligence, 10 
Sutra, Hebrew meaning of, 211 
Swastikas, the, 183 
Sykes, Colonel, his examination of the 

Buddh letters, 231 
Symbols of rehgion, the lotus, the 

crescent, and the cross, 2 ; their 

influence, 3 
Symbols of the mystery of EzekieVs 

vision, 20; Buddhistic, examined, 

206 et seq., 227 
Syria, subdued by Tiglath-Pileser, 74 
Syrian churches, evidences of their 

missionary zeal, 86 
Szu Scythians, 159 



422 



INDEX. 



T. 



Temple of the Buddhists, 243, 244 

Ten Tribes of Israel, 7, 8 ; not in a 
position to deny their Lord and 
Saviour, 51; separated themselves 
from the Jews as a body by apos- 
tasy, 67 ; direction in which they 
travelled through the eastern na- 
tions, 70, 71 ; subdued by Shalma- 
nezer. King of Assyria, 75; cir- 
cumstances that tended to promote 
their permanent separation fi'om the 
Jews, 76 ; did they ever leave the 
land of their captivity ? 115 et 
seq. ; the country to which they 
were deported, 131; the Afghans 
profess to be descended from them, 
143 et seq. ; evidences of that de- 
scent, 154; Ezekiers warning to 
them, 257; their wanderings as 
intimated by Jeremiah, 265 ; wor- 
ship encouraged among them by 
Jeroboam, 337 ; addressed by Ze- 
phaniah immediately before their 
captivity, 348 

Thai, the native name of the Siamese, 
361 

Tharana Goon, the essential attributes 
in Trinity, 197 

Theos, derivation of, 286 note 

Thirst, api^lication of the word, 346, 
347 

Throne, likeness of a, above the fir- 
mament, 220 

Thursday, symbolized by colour among 
the Brahmins, 24 

Tibetan alphabet, derivation of the, 
231, 232 

Tibetan Buddhists, litany of the, 267, 
268 

Tibetans, their legends respecting the 
origin of their religion, 242 

Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, 73, 
74; deported the people of Da- 
mascus, 72; subdues Assyria, 74 

Tigris, banks of the, 69 ; its ancient 
geography, 132 

Topes at Sachi, 212, 216, 219, 221, 
222; at Manikyala and Jelalabad, 
and other places, 290 et seq. ; 
inscriptions found in the, 293, 
296 



Trajan, extent of his conquests, 299, 

300 
Tree, the wonderful one of Tibet, 

Appendix, 392 
Tribes, the lost ones of Israel, 1 et 

seq., 6 ; traces of the, 7, 8 ; the 

representatives of Joseph and of 

Ephraim and Manasseh, 15 ; their 

symbolical representations, 43 ; 

their revolt, and condition, 69 
Trinity, representation of the essential 

attributes of the, 197 
Tuesday, symbolized by colours among 

the Brahmins, 24 
Turks do not own the Holy Land, but 

only hold it in keeping, 14 
Turs, a sort of wandering friars, 187 

note, 190 

U. 

Unicoen, Buddhistic representation of 
the, 224 ; not a mere heraldic in- 
vention, ib, ; its origin, 225, 351 — 
353; symbol of the SacsB in Northern 
India, 351 

V. 

Vermilion palace of China, 24 

Viaala Deva, King of the Sacambari, 
322 

Vision of Ezekiel, 17 ; opened in aw- 
ful symbols, 18 ; relates to the after 
captivity and ultimate dispersion of 
Judah, 40 

Voluspa, of the Saxons, Appendix, 
405 

W. 

Wady-en-Nehiteh, rocks of the, 
236, 237 

Wall of loose stones, symbol of, 44 

Warning of Israel, 47 

Waters, prophetic allusions to the, 338 

Weapons portrayed in Buddhistic bas- 
reliefs, 384 

Wednesday, symbolized by colour 
among the Brahmins, 24 

Week, days of the, symbolized by 
colour among the Brahmins, 24 

Wheel, its symbolic meanings, 39 ; the 
four wheels with the four faces, ib.; 



INDEX. 



423 



the golden one, 212, 213, 215, 218; 
symbol of Buddha's supremacy, 221; 
of Israelitish origin, 222 

Wheels of the living creatures, 213 
et seq. 

Whirlwind, picture of the, 19 ; in pro- 
phetic language signifies a confused 
multitude, 20, 21; phenomena 
thence resulting, 26 

Winds, symbolical meaning of, 21, 22 ; 
explained by Jeremiah, 22 

Winged figures of the Nineveh sculp- 
tures, 221, 222 ; of Israelitish ori- 
gin, 222, 223 ; of Ezekiel's vision, 
.222 

Wings on each of the four sides of 
Ezekiel's mystery, 19 ; of the sym- 
bolic creatures of Ezekiel's vision, 
19, 30 ; emblems of Egyptian and 
Assyrian power, 134 note ; of the 
living creatures, 214, 217 

Woden, the Saxon deity, 235 

X. 

Xenophon, the country through 
which he retreated with the ten 
thousand Greeks, la^ ^^^ 



T. 



Yahoodee, a term of reproach, 164 

Yahoodeyah, city of, 1 53 

Yavanas, historical notices of the, 137 

—140 
Yesdigird, the last of the Sassanide 

kings, 113 
Yod, symbolic meaning of, 234 
Yoovah, meaning of the word, 256 
Yousufzyes, the tribe of Joseph, 145, 

164, 165 ; the Afghan tribe named 

after Joseph, 288 
Yoowah, the eastern name of the 

Deity, 365, 367 
Yuchi Scythianj, 223 



Z. 



Zagana, a royal Babylonian robe, 

108, 109 
Zalmoxis, probable derivation of, 149 
Zamara, the wonderful heroine, 111 
Zeus, derivation of, 286 note 
Zim, the principle of all things, 282 

note. 



THE END. 



LONDON : 

BAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, 

COVENT GARDEN. 

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