Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/266

 222 ANCIENT RELTGTOl^ OV THE ceiving offerings from his votaries, because this last practice is no part of the Hindu forai of worship. If these inferences be just, the religion which is pourtrayed in the relics of Hinduism in the prin- cipal temples of Java, may be looked upon as a ge- nuine example of the reform ascribed to Buddha, and the testimony which they afford will be con- sidered as a proof that the religions of Brama and Buddha are essentially the same, the one being, as for some time suspected by oriental scholars, nothing but a modification of the other. If this reasoning be admitted as conclusive, we shall be compelled to consider the religion of the Burmans, Siamese, and Cingalese, as corruptions of genuine Buddhism, most probably superinduced by local causes and superstitions, which, operating upon the original system, produced, in the course of ages, a form of worship differing essentially from its purest form. Such appears to have been the form of Hindu worship which prevailed on Java, when the most perfect and finished of the temples were construct- ed. At the moment in which these temples were con- structed, there is ground to believe that a body of emigrants must have arrived from India. From the earliest date, to the latest authentic date deter- mined by figures, which these antiquities afford, is only a period of ^6 years ; and the utmost lati- tude, giving implicit credit to the traditional ones^