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.
