Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 34, Part 1.djvu/9



[Received 15th April, 1864.]

The fact that Benares is the birth-place of Buddhism and that in it Sékya Mnni ﬁrst “turned the Wheel of the Law” or in other wands pmlnulgated the peculiar dogmas oi the Buddhist creed, is generally believed to rest on good historic grounckt. This circumstance alone7 independent of the concurrent testimony of Hindu writers, gives a high antiquity to the city. If, as there is reason to believe, Sékya Mimi in the early part of the sixth century, B. C., in his own estimation attained to the mystelious and mystical condition of Buddhahood under the Bodhi tree at Gya, and thence proceeded to Benares, we may fairly imagine that he did so because it was then a city of much inﬂuence, it not also of great sanctity, among the Hindus, especially the Brahmins. In this case the true epoch of ancient Benares must date from an earlier period still.

Had the Hindus been imbued with the desire of recording the memory of themselves in huge buildings of brick and stone, as the