The Bhilsa Topes: Or, Buddhist Monuments of Central India: Comprising a Brief Historical Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Buddhism; with an Account of the Opening and Examination of the Various Groups of Topes Around Bhilsa

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Smith, Elder, 1854 - Art, Buddhist - 368 pages

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Page 184 - There is a stern round tower of other days, Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone. Such as an army's baffled strength delays, Standing with half its battlements alone, And with two thousand years of ivy grown, The garland of eternity, where wave The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown: What was this tower of strength? within its cave What treasure lay so lock'd, so hid ?— A woman's grave.* c.
Page 46 - Professor Wilson admits that the Pali was most likely selected for his edicts by Priyadasi, ' that they might be intelligible to the people,' but he is of opinion that the language of the inscriptions was rather the common tongue of the inhabitants of Upper India than a form of speech peculiar to a class of religionists ; and he argues that the use of the Pali language in the inscriptions is not a conclusive proof of their Buddhistical origin.
Page 159 - Wretch of a Buddhist ! Well, hear what is our religion : — With flesh of men, with brain and fat well smeared, We make our grim burnt...
Page 68 - But the explanation which Major Cunningham received in Ladak, which is the same as that obtained by Fra Orazio in Lhasa, is simple and convincing. The Grand Lama is only a regenerated bodhisatwa, who refrains from accepting buddhahood, that he may continue to be born again aud again for the benefit of mankind. For a Buddha cannot possibly be regenerated, and hence the famous epithets of Sathagata, " thus gone," aud Sugata, " well gone
Page 173 - Thrice over do I dedicate my kingdom to the redeemer of the world, the divine teacher, the bearer of the triple canopy, the canopy of the heavenly host, the canopy of mortals, and the canopy of eternal emancipation.
Page 51 - Muni simply as the founder of a new religious system, but as a great social reformer who dared to preach the perfect equality of all mankind, and the consequent abolition of caste, in spite of the menaces of the most powerful and arrogant priesthood in the world.
Page 44 - Kachhyayana was one of the principal disciples of Sakya, by whom he was selected for the important office of compiling the first Pali grammar, the rules of which are said to have been propounded by Tathagata himself. This statement seems highly probable ; for...
Page 164 - BuddhaGupta, and the accession of Toramana, therefore, both took place during the lifetime of Dhanya Vishnu ; but there must have been an interval of some years between the two events, as Dhanya's elder brother, Matri Vishnu, who is not even mentioned in the pillar inscription, had since assumed the title of Maharaja, and was then dead. Dhanya himself then became regent, apparently, to the young prince, Toramana ; for, in another inscription from the Fort of Gwalior, I find Toramana described as...
Page 310 - ... then ascends an elevated tower, surrounded by his ministers and courtiers. Suddenly there appears a golden wheel in the east, shedding a brilliant light, and advancing to the place where the King is standing. 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 genii, who serve as guides. Wherever it stops, there does the King in like manner. The same thing takes place in the direction of the...
Page 53 - The sanguinary career of the Islamite was lighted by the lurid flames of burning cities; the peaceful progress of the Buddhist was illuminated by the cheerful faces of the sick in monastic hospitals,* and by the happy smiles of travellers reposing in Dharmsdla* by the road-side.

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