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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
328
MARCO POLO BOOK III.
i
the original of all the versions of our Book, shows that this original was a Christian adaptation of the Legend of Buddha. Mr. Jacobs seeks vainly to lessen the force of this proof in showing that this Parable has parallels in Buddhistic literature."—H. C.]
NOTE 3.--Marco is not the only eminent person who has expressed this view of Sakyainuni's life in such words. Professor Max Müller (u. s.) says : " And whatever we may think of the sanctity of saints, let those who doubt the right of Buddha to a place among them, read the story of his life as it is told in the Buddhistic canon. If he lived the life which is there described, few saints have a better claim to the title than Buddha ; and no one either in the Greek or the Roman Church need be ashamed of having paid to his memory the honour that was intended for St. Josaphat, the prince, the hermit, and the saint."
NOTE 4.—This is curiously like a passage in the Wisdom of Solomon : " Neque enim erant (idola) ab initio, neque erunt in perpetuum . . . acerbo enim luctu dolens pater cito sibi rapti filii fecit imaginem : et ilium qui tune quasi homo mortuus fuerat nunc tamquam deum colere ccepit, et constituit inter servos suos sacra et sacrificia" (xiv. 13-15). Gower alludes to the same story ; I know not whence taken :-
` Of Cirophanes, seith the booke,
That he for sorow, whiche he toke
Of that he sigh his sonne dede,
Of comfort knewe none other rede,
But lete do make in remembrance
A faire image of his semblance,
And set it in the market place :
VVhiche openly to fore his face
Stood euery day, to done hym ease ;
And thei that than wolden please
The Fader, shuld it obeye,
Whan that thei comen thilke weye. "—Confessio A,na,itis. *
NOTE 5.—Adam's Peak has for ages been a place of pilgrimage to Buddhists, Hindus, and Mahomedans, and appears still to be so. Ibn Batuta says the Mussulman pilgrimage was instituted in the loth century. The book on the history of the Mussulmans in Malabar, called Tokfat-ul-Majahidín (p. 48), ascribes their first settlement in that country to a party of pilgrims returning from Adam's Peak. Marignolli, on his visit to the mountain, mentions " another pilgrim, a Saracen of Spain ; for many go on pilgrimage to Adam."
The identification of Adam with objects of Indian worship occurs in various forms. Tod tells how an old Rajput Chief, as they stood before a famous temple of Mahádeo near Udipúr, invited him to enter and worship " Father Adam." Another traveller relates how Brahmans of Bagesar on the Sarjú identified Mahadeo and Parvati with Adam and Eve. A Malay MS., treating of the origines of Java, represents Brahma, Mahadeo, and Vishnu to be descendants of Adam through Seth. And in a Malay paraphrase of the Ramáyana, Nabi Adam takes the place of Vishnu. (Tod. I. 96; J. A. S. B. XVI. 233 ; J. R. A. S. N.S. II. 102 ; J. Asiat. IV. s. VII. 438.)
NOTE 6.—The Pâtra, or alms-pot, was the most valued legacy of Buddha. It had served the three previous Buddhas of this world-period, and was destined to serve the future one, Maitreya. The Great Asoka sent it to Ceylon. Thence it
was carried off by a Tamul chief in the 1st century, A.D., but brought back we know not how, and is still shown in the Malagawa Vihara at Kandy. As usual in such cases, there were rival reliques, for Fa-hian found the alms-pot preserved at Pesháwar.
* Ed. 1554, fol. xci. v. So also I find in A. Tostati Hisp. Comment. in printam ptent. Exodi, Ven. 1695, p p. 295-296: " Idola autem sculpta in Aegypto primo inventa sunt per Syrophenem primum Idolotrarum; ante hoc enim pura elementa ut dii colebantur." I cannot trace the tale.
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