The Gospel of Buddha, Compiled from Ancient RecordsCarus, Paul
ReligionEastern
The Gospel of Buddha, Compiled from Ancient Records
Carus, Paul
Buddhism; Christianity and other religions -- Buddhism; Gautama Buddha; Gautama Buddha -- Teachings
placed at my disposal in the so-called Library Department reserved for
students.
Indian art has been greatly neglected by archeologists and connoisseurs
at the expense of the so-called classic style, and explorers seem to be
more interested in the geographical and political conditions of the
country, or even look down with contempt and lack of understanding on
the early artistic monuments of India, although they have enriched our
European middle ages. Thus there are great gaps in the history of Indian
art which I was obliged to fill up for myself, and certainly a very
different kind of study was needed to illustrate a Gospel of Buddha than
for a pictorial construction of the life of a Plato or a Jesus.
Fräulein Emily von Kerckhoff, an artistic and highly cultured lady of
Laren in Northern Holland, sailed on November 9, 1909, to join her
family in Java where she remained for some time. Her journey occurring
just at this time was of great help to me, for she complied with all my
wishes in the most accommodating manner and filled up many gaps in my
knowledge of India.
In Colombo she became acquainted with the Dias Bandaranaike and other
refined Singhalese families, who were very friendly in answering my
questions. Further she met Sister Sudham Machari of Upasikarama,
Peradeniya Road, Kandy, a prominent Singhalese nun, who with the
assistance of Lady Blake, the wife of a former governor, had founded the
first modern Buddhist nunnery in Ceylon where she now lives as lady
superior. She is well posted on Buddhism, for she has studied Pāli,
Sanskrit, and Burmese for nine years in Burma, and has received
ordination. Through her, Fräulein von Kerckhoff had an opportunity to
visit the temple in Kandy where the strange relic of the "Sacred Tooth
of Buddha" is preserved, and on this occasion was able to obtain some
leaves from the sacred Bodhi tree which I wished to possess. She also
became acquainted in Kandy with Dr. Kobekaduwe Tikiri Banda, a
Singhalese physician who belonged to a Buddhist family and is the son of
a Kandian chief. He had studied in England for a long time and possesses
a remarkable knowledge of the country and people of India and Ceylon, by
which I thus had an opportunity to profit.
Fräulein von Kerckhoff gathered further material for my purposes in
Gampola, a place in the mountains about an hour's ride from Kandy, on
the occasion of a visit to the family of the district judge, Mr. De
Livera, and by the acquaintance with Mr. J.B. Yatawara Rata-Mahatmaya,
Governor of the District and a zealous Buddhist, who has translated into
English part of the Jātakas (stories of the various rebirths of Buddha)
in collaboration with the late Prof. Max Müller, of Oxford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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