It is a question not perhaps completely decided, whether the religion of Booddhŭ, now spread over the Burman empire, Siam, Ceylon, Japan, Cochin-China, and the greater part of China itself, be not in reality the ancient religion of India, and the bramhinical superstition the invention of later times, and raised to predominancy by the superior influence of the bramhŭns with the princes of Hindoost'hanŭ. The author, however, declines entering on this subject, made so difficult by the want of authentic historical evidence.

It is certain, that amongst the six schools of philosophy formerly famous among the Hindoos, two of them inculcated doctrines respecting the First Cause of things that were decidedly atheistical, or such as the followers of Booddhŭ maintain at this day; and it is indisputable, according to the Hindoo writings, that these two sects were numerous before the appearance of Booddhŭ.

About 700 years before the commencement of the Christian era, Vēērŭ-Vahoo, of the race of Goutŭmŭ, a person attached to one of these sects, destroyed his sovereign Bodhŭmŭllŭ, and immediately seized the throne of Delhi. This king, and his three immediate successors, reigned one hundred and eight years. Mŭhēē-pŭtee, or the lord of the earth, was the name of the third of these monarchs; and as most of the writers on this subject agree in placing the era of Booddhŭ in the sixth century B. C., it seems reasonable to suppose, that Booddhŭ was the son or near relation of Mŭhēē-pŭtee.