museum at the India House, is an image "about fourteen inches high, of a whitish, and I think calcareous, sort of stone: an inscription is on the pedestal, under the crescent, but it is not easily to be made out or copied. This image is, I think, of a very singular and curious description: its curly hair, thick lips, and position mark it decidedly of Buddhaic origin, while its seven heads refer it to a sect of Sauras: hence the appellation of Surya Buddha, appropriately applied to it. The quadrated lozenge on the breast and in the palm of this image, is also unaccounted for, and singular."
The image of Parisnāth agrees perfectly with the above description, with the exception that it has only one head, and there is no inscription on the pedestal.
Buddha signifies a wise man, and sacya, his other title, means a feeder upon vegetables; he inculcated a total subjugation of sense, and an utter annihilation of passion. According to the religion of Buddha, there are no distinctions of caste. Poligamy is not forbidden by the Buddha doctrine, and it is not uncommon for a man to have a plurality of wives. Priests are forbidden to marry; they are to live by mendicity; are to possess only three garments, a begging dish, a girdle, a razor, a needle, and a cloth to strain the water which they drink, that they may not devour insects. To account for the short, crisp hair on the head of the idol, resembling that of an African, it is said that Buddha, on a certain occasion, cut his hair with a golden sword, and its appearance in consequence was meant to be represented on his images.
There is a tradition among the Cingalese, that one of the kings of Hindūstan, immediately after Buddha's death, collected together five hundred learned ascetics, and persuaded them to write down on palmyra leaves, from the mouth of one of Buddha's principal disciples, all the doctrines taught by Buddha in his lifetime. The Cingalese admit they received their religion from the hands of a stranger. The Burmans believe that a Brahman was deputed to Ceylon to copy the histories of the incarnations of Buddha; and it is fabled that the iron stile with which he copied this work, was given him by an heavenly
