Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/299

Rh birth of Christ. According to the accounts of his followers, he had lived before this birth in millions of shapes, having been born successively as fowl, fish, beast, insect, and man, in innumerable shapes and conditions. His last birth, after having attained to immense holiness in previous modes of existence, was as the son of this king. Having given his instructions to his followers, he was received into the Deity at about eighty years of age, and is now worshipped, by millions in various lands, as the last Budh.

The Hindus of the Brahminic faith say that Budh is an incarnation of their god Vishnu. According to the account given me by a learned munshi, certain men had attained to immense religious merit by practising abstinence, austerities, penances, and mediation. At last, the merit of these holy men became so great, that it bade fair soon to exceed that of the gods. In such a case, they could, in virtue of this merit, dethrone Indra, the king of heaven, and rule in his stead. Fearful of such a catastrophe, the inferior gods besought Vishnu to save them. Vishnu, accordingly, descended to earth, appeared as Budh, taught these men a false religion, and so destroyed all their merit and their