The History of Indian Literature c8.252.5

c8.252.5

For we have probably to identify him with the Bṛihadratha, king of Magadha, who according to the Mahá-Bhárata (ii. 756) gave up the sovereignty to his son Jarásaṃdha, afterwards slain by the Páṇḍus, and retired to the wood of penance. I cannot forbear connecting with the instruction here stated to have been given to a king of Magadha by a *Śákáyanya* the fact that it was precisely in Magadha that Buddhism, the doctrine of *Śákyamuni*, found a welcome. I would even go so far as directly to conjecture that we have here a Brahmanical legend about Śákyamuni; whereas otherwise legends of this kind reach us only through the adherents of the Buddhist doctrine. Maitreya, it is well known, is, with the Buddhists, the name of the future Buddha, yet in their legends the name is also often directly connected with their Śákyamuni; a Púrṇa Maitráyaṇíputra, too, is given to the latter as a pupil. Indeed, as far as we can judge at present, the doctrine of this Upanishad stands in close connection with the opinions of the Buddhists,¹⁰⁵ although from its Brahmanical origin it is naturally altogether free from the dogma and mythology peculiar to Buddhism. We may here also notice, especially, the contempt for writing (*grantha*) exhibited in one of the *ślokas*[^asterisk] quoted in corroboration.