r_ or Incarnation of the god
Vishnu, though he still sits upon the lotus cushion and holds the
sacred flower in one hand. This inclusion of Sakya Munyi within the
Puranic Pantheon was a masterly feat of strategy accomplished by
reviving Brahminism, the heresy of the Jains supplying the link between
the rival creeds. All the sculptured figures, leaning forward in
veneration of the mystic statue in the central cupola, are invested
with the sacred thread of the Vishnavite Brahmin. The images of the
highest circular terrace are carved in four symbolical attitudes. The
"teaching" Buddha rests an open palm on one knee; in the posture of
"learning" his hands are outstretched to receive the gift of knowledge.
In "exposition," one hand is raised towards Heaven, and in the act of
"demonstration," thumbs and index fingers are joined. Ferguson points
out that within the grey lattice of each lotus-bell _dagoba_, the right
palm of the enthroned Buddha curves over the left hand. This restful
posture indicates the state of final comprehension, when the aspiring
soul, raised to the different spheres of Nirvana by steps of ascending
sanctity, receives increasing peace and satisfaction from gradual
absorption into the Infinite. No creed passes unaltered through any
crucible of national thought; Indian Buddhism borrowed both form and
colour from races which, in accepting the new faith, retained their own
individuality and modes of assimilation. They gave as well as received,
and the value of the gift depended on the character of the giver.

No inscriptions exist on the stones of Boro-Boedoer. The sculptured
reliefs tell their own story, which admits of diverse interpretations.
The relics of the world-renowned Mystic were dispersed throughout Asia
in the sudden impulse of missionary enterprise three centuries after
his death, and every Buddhist temple received some infinitesimal
treasure. No record is found of the date when the precious relic,
probably a hair or an eyelash, was deposited in the great _dagoba_ of
Boro-Boedoer, but an Indian prince sailed with an imposing fleet to
found a Buddhist empire in Java at the opening of the 7th century A.D.,
and a subsequent inscription discovered on the coast of Sumatra
commemorates the completion of a seven-storeyed _Vihara_, evidently the
colossal Temple of Boro-Boedoer, by the contemporary King of "Greater
Java," the ancient name of Sumatra. In the tenth century, a reigning
monarch sent his sons