Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/200

 large tiger: and here it may be remarked, that, among works of the highest merit, one is the feeding of an hungry infirm tiger with a person's own flesh, and the highest state of glory is absorption. The following may explain the painting:—In the midst of a wild and dreary forest, flourishing with trees of sweet-scented flowers, and abounding in fruits and roots, infested with lions and tigers, destitute of human society, and frequented by the munis (virtuous and mighty sages), resided Buddha, the author of happiness, and a portion of Narayana. Once upon a time, the illustrious Amara, renowned amongst men, coming here, discovered the place of the Supreme Being in the great forest. He caused an image of the supreme spirit Buddha to be made, and he worshipped it as the incarnation of a portion of Vishn[)u]: "Reverence be unto thee, in the form of Buddha;—thou art he who rested upon the face of the milky ocean, and who lieth upon the serpent Sesha; thou art Trivikrama, who at three strides encompassed the earth. I adore thee, who art celebrated by a thousand names, and under various forms, in the shape of Buddha, the god of mercy." The illustrious Amara-Deva then built the holy temple of Buddha Gaya, and set up the divine foot of Vishn[)u].

"The forefathers of him who shall perform a sradda (funeral obsequies in honour of ancestors) at this place, shall obtain salvation; a crime of an hundred-fold shall be expiated by a sight thereof; of a thousand-fold, by a touch thereof; and of a hundred thousand-fold, from worshipping thereof."

The image of white marble, which the mūnshī at Allahabad informed me is that of Parisnāth, see Vol. i. p. 324, is six inches high; the position differs slightly from that of Buddha, the right palm is laid over the left, and the soles of the feet are shown, one on each side the hands; the head is raised conically; the hair is straight on the crown, and the woolly portion is so managed as to resemble a fillet of beads round the temple. A raised and quadrated lozenge is on the breast, and in the palm of the hand is a small ball. In the centre of the pedestal on which the image is seated is a crescent. The lobes of the ears are elongated to reach the shoulders. Moor informs us that in the