Buddhism and Odinism,-their similitude; illustrated by Extracts from Professor Holmboe's Memoir on the " Traces de Buddhisme en Norvége.”—By Bábu RáJendralál Mitra.

The obscurity in which the early history of India is enveloped, has led the antiquary to hope that some light may be cast upon it by the acquisition of monumental evidence. In that hope he has laboured with assiduous care on inscriptions, coins, ancient buildings and sepulchral mounds. He has met with relics which keep alive his hope, and induce further investigation, and he has clung to the expectation of one day finding enough to fill up the gap which has been left in the annals of the country by the poverty of its historic muse. Experience has taught him not to anticipate great results from any particular research, for the unremitting labour of days and months often brings him nothing better than a rude mouldering urn, or a simple heap of ashes; but he knows that little as such results are, they still add that little to our scanty stock of knowledge, and will in time accumulate, and be the means of elucidating much in connexion with the manners and customs of the ancient inhabitants of this land and their relation to other nations of antiquity.

The gleanings which have thus been brought together during the last fifty years in connexion with the history of Buddhism, are already considerable. The era of Sákya Siñha has been established on the most authentic testimony, and his biography is now nearly as well known as of any other individual who lived two thousand five hundred years ago. Viháras, chaityas and pillars point out the city of his birth, the places where he sojourned, the spot where he died, and the monuments that were erected on his mortal remains. The history of the religion he taught is being daily more and more developed, and the darkness which hung over the course that religion took in its spread over the different regions of Asia is well nigh dispelled.

Sir William Jones was the first who was struck by the similitude of the words Buddha and Odin, and others noticed the coincidence of their use in designating the fourth day of the week; but fifty years ago there was nothing but vague suspicion that in its onward

course, Buddhism had travelled across the bounds of Asia and gone on beyond the furthest limits of the European continent to the freezing isle of Iceland, or that Odinism was nothing more than a modification of the religion taught by the renowned prophet of Magadha. The fact, however, has now emerged from the region of crude conjectural speculation, and though not yet established as a positive antiquarian discovery, has an array of evidence in its favour, which will direct the course of subsequent inquiry and lead to a definite consequence. Professor Westergaard and others have shewn that the old Icelandic language bears a strong resemblance and, most probably, owes its origin to the Sanskrita, and the work, of which we propose to make this paper a brief summary, points out the relics which still exist both in Iceland and Scandinavia of the former predominance in those places of a religion akin to Buddhism.

It is much to be regretted that our enquiry into this subject has to be conducted under serious disadvantages. History in Scandinavia, until after the eleventh century, was as sterile as in India, and the reader of Pagan literature knows even less of the doctrines and usages of the Paganism which existed among the Northmen, than does the Puránic, with reference to the Hinduism of the middle ages. Of the doctrines and institutions of the religion of Odin we have little that can be used for historical purposes. They are vague and mystified, and evidently never formed the subject of the records (Eddas) which have been handed down to us. Nor are we more fortunate in the material remains of Odinism. more poor than the East in relics of temples, statues, emblems, images and symbols. The little, however, that are still available both of legends and antiquities, bear so strong a resemblance to Buddhist relics in India, that it would be bold indeed to declare that their similitude is the result of an accidental coincidence.

The North is even

Buddhism is characterised as eminently spiritual and free from idolatry, so was the religion of the Germanic race from whom Odinism was taken into Norway. Tacitus says that the Gerinans held that God is the Ruler over all; every other thing is subject to and obedient to him, ("regnator omnium Deus, cetera subjecta * Chapter 35.

atque parentia,"); and again in another place ;* "They do not think that they can confine God within walls, nor liken him to any form of the human face, as the greatness of the celestial bodies." Herodotus says, "the Getes (ancient Norwegians) were theists and held the tenets of the soul's immortality;"† and the Buddhists hold that these doctrines are intimately connected with their religion. The esoterics of Buddhism inculcate a trinity of Gods as supreme Arbitors of the universe; and Odinism doth the same. The Buddhists have their Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and their counterparts appear among the Scandinavians as Odin, Thor and Frigga. Adam of Bremen, who lived about the middle of the 11th century, in describing the principal temple of Odin, says, "This nation has a most noble temple which is called Upsala, situated not far from Sictona or Birka. In this temple are statues of three gods entirely made of gold. The people worship them. Of them Thor the most powerful, occupies the floor in the centre, Woden and Fricco have places on the sides." This position of the Odinic Trinity is unmistakeably the same as that which the Buddhist trinity occupy to this day on the covers of Tibetan Manuscripts or on the Sanchi gateway. Nor are they different in their attributes. According to Grimm and other German writers, Odin, Woden and Goden were names of the Supreme divine power among the Germanic race, and Thor and Frygga were impersonations of Divine attributes. With the Buddhists, Buddha is Primitive Intelligence, and Dharma and Sangha its attributes.

Very little is known of the literature of Odinism, and of that little we have but an imperfect knowledge. From the Edda of Sæmund or that portion of it which is still extant, it would seem that the religious books of Odinism were divisible into three parts; the first or "Voluspa" referred to the creation and destruction of the earth, the doings of the gods and the futurity of the soul. The * Chapter 9.

"Ceterum nec cohibere parietibus Deos, neque in ullam humani oris speciem assimilare ex magnitudine cœlestium arbitrantur."

+ Tod's Rajasthan I. 63.

"Nobilissimum illa gens templum habet quod Upsala dicitur, non longe positum a Sictona civitate vel Birka. In hoc templo, quod totum ex auro paratum est, statuas trium deorum veneratur populus, ita ut potentissimus eorum Thor in medio solum habeat triclinium, hinc et inde locum possident Woden et Fricco."

second or "Havamal" included the moral precepts; and the third was devoted to the magic powers of Odin. With the Buddhists, the division of their books is equally threefold: they too have their Sutra, Vinaya and Dharma, or fundamental principles, morals and metaphysics; and if we make a sufficient allowance for the altered physical condition and social states of the two races, the difference will be but slight.

Laing, in his translation of the Heimiskringla, after a careful examination of geneological data, deduces the date of Odin to be about the end of the third century before Christ. That would be nearly three centuries after the death of Buddha. But if we bear in mind that the Buddhist colonists to the West must have progressed but slowly, and many of them started from India even in the middle of the third century before Christ, in the reign of Asoka, and that in their translation from their Indian or Scythic homes to the banks of the Baltic, their religion suffered considerably in its purity, we will be at no loss to find the cause for the anachronism in question. To the same cause may be attributed the confusion that may be noticed in the name of Buddha. Gautama is his name elect, and this name is curiously enough reproduced in Norway as that of his son. This may be an accident. But the fact of the name being well known in two such distant places, is of itself a matter worthy of notice, and offers strong temptation to the enquiry, is Tuisto a Norwegian reproduction of the Buddhist Tusita?

In the Buddhist mythology, the greatest opponent to goodness is an immortal named Mára. He plays the same part as an adviser of evil that Satan does according to the Christian theologians. For years he tried to mislead S'ákya Siñha from his resolve to attain Buddhahood, and invariably stood in the way of all who attempted to excel in knowledge or religion. In his career of mischief he has travelled to Scandinavia, and without even much altering his name. still rides the modern Saxon in his sleep (nightmare) as he did the Yngling king Vanland."* He commanded a prominent position in the Odinic mythology, and was known exactly by the same appella. tion (Mara) and for the same disposition which has given him an infamous notoriety among the Buddhists.

* Laing's Sea Kings of Norway I. 92.

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