Shah Jehan always did the like. But Jehangir once chose to
laugh at what I said, and made his drums and trumpets sound; the
consequence was he nearly lost his life.'" (Bernier, Amst. ed. 1699, II.
290.) A successor of this hermit was found on the same spot by P. Desideri
in 1713, and another by Vigne in 1837.
NOTE 3. - Though the earliest entrance of Buddhism into Tibet was from
India Proper, yet Kashmir twice in the history of Tibetan Buddhism played
a most important part. It was in Kashmir that was gathered, under the
patronage of the great King Kanishka, soon after our era, the Fourth
Buddhistic Council, which marks the point of separation between Northern
and Southern Buddhism. Numerous missionaries went forth from Kashmir to
spread the doctrine in Tibet and in Central Asia. Many of the Pandits who
laboured at the translation of the sacred books into Tibetan were
Kashmiris, and it was even in Kashmir that several of the translations
were made. But these were not the only circumstances that made Kashmir a
holy land to the Northern Buddhists. In the end of the 9th century the
religion was extirpated in Tibet by the Julian of the Lamas, the great
persecutor Langdarma, and when it was restored, a century later, it was
from Kashmir in particular that fresh missionaries were procured to
reinstruct the people in the forgotten Law. (See Koeppen, II. 12-13, 78;
J. As. ser. VI. tom. vi. 540.)
"The spread of Buddhism to Kashmir is an event of extraordinary importance
in the history of that religion. Thenceforward that country became a
mistress in the Buddhist Doctrine and the headquarters of a particular
school.... The influence of Kashmir was very marked, especially in the
spread of Buddhism beyond India. From Kashmir it penetrated to Kandahar
and Kabul,... and thence over Bactria. Tibetan Buddhism also had its
essential origin from Kashmir;... so great is the importance of this
region in the History of Buddhism." (Vassilyev, Der Buddhismus, I. 44.)
In the account which the Mahawanso gives of the consecration of the great
Tope at Ruanwelli, by Dutthagamini, King of Ceylon (B.C. 157), 280,000
priests (!) come from Kashmir, a far greater number than is assigned to
any other country except one. (J. A. S. B. VII. 165.)
It is thus very intelligible how Marco learned from the Mongols and the
Lamas with whom he came in contact to regard Kashmir as "the very original
source from which their Religion had spread abroad." The feeling with
which they looked to Kashmir must have been nearly the same as that with
which the Buddhists of Burma look to Ceylon. But this feeling towards
Kashmir does not now, I am informed, exist in Tibet. The reverence for
the holy places has reverted to Bahar and the neighbouring "cradle-lands"
of Buddhism.
It is notable that the historian Firishta, in a passage quoted by Tod,
uses Marco's expression in reference to Kashmir, almost precisely, saying
that the Hindoos derived their idolatry from Kashmir, "the foundry of
magical superstition." (Rajasthan, I. 219.)
NOTE 4. - The people of Kashmir retain their beauty, but they are morally
one of the most degraded races in Asia. Long oppression, now under the
Lords of Jamu as great as ever, has no doubt aggravated this. Yet it would
seem that twelve hundred years ago the evil elements were there as well as
the beauty. The Chinese traveller says: "Their manners are light and
volatile, their characters effeminate and pusillanimous.... They are very
handsome, but their natural bent is to fraud and trickery." (Pel. Boud.
II. 167-168.) Vigne's account is nearly the same. (II. 142-143.) "They are
as mischievous as monkeys, and far more malicious," says Mr. Shaw (p.
292).
[Bernier says: "The women [of Kachemire] especially are very handsome; and
it is from this country that nearly every individual, when first admitted
to the court of the Great Mogul, selects wives or concubines, that his
children may be whiter than the Indians, and pass for genuine Moguls.
Unquestionably, there must be beautiful women among the higher classes, if
we may judge by those of the lower orders seen in the streets and in the
shops." (Travels in the Mogul Empire, edited by Archibald Constable,
1891, p. 404.)]
NOTE 5. - In the time of Hiuen Tsang, who spent two years studying in
Kashmir in the first half of the 7th century, though there were many
Brahmans in the country, Buddhism was in a flourishing state; there were
100 convents with about 5000 monks. In the end of the 11th century a King
(Harshadeva, 1090-1102) is mentioned exceptionally as a protector of
Buddhism. The supposition has been intimated above that Marco's picture
refers to a traditional state of things, but I must notice that a like
picture is presented in the Chinese account of Hulaku's war. One of the
thirty kingdoms subdued by the Mongols was "The kingdom of Fo (Buddha)
called Kishimi. It lies to the N.W. of India. There are to be seen the
men who are counted the successors of Shakia; their ancient and venerable
air recalls the countenance of Bodi-dharma as one sees it in pictures.
They abstain from wine, and content themselves with a gill of rice for
their daily food, and are occupied only in reciting the prayers and
litanies of Fo." (Rem. N. Mel. Asiat. I. 179.) Abu'l Fazl says that on
his third visit with Akbar to Kashmir he discovered some old men of the
religion of Buddha, but none of them were literati. The Rishis, of
whom he speaks with high commendation as abstaining from meat and from
female society, as charitable and unfettered by traditions, were perhaps a
modified remnant of the Buddhist Eremites.
