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OF
GOTAMA ,■
THE
BUDDHA
AND THE
GOSPEL OF |
JESUS
THE CHRIST "
CHARLES FRANCIS AIKEN, STD.
Marlier, Callanan & Co., Boston, will bring
out during the present month ‘The Drama of /
Gotama the Buddha and the Gospel of Jesus *
the Christ/ by the Rev. Charles F. Aiken,
S.T.D.
^ I017.il •
T
MAY 6- is 1 1 4-4-3
The Rev. George William Knox, professor
of religion in the Union Theological Sem-
inary, died on Friday in the Philippines,
after a short illness. He was born at Rome,
N. Y., in 1853. In 1874 he graduated from
Hamilton College, and three years later
from the Auburn Theological Seminary.
Soon after being ordained, he went as a
missionary to Japan, and for the efficiency
of his work there during the fifteen years
of his stay, received from the Emperor ■
Order of the Rising Sun. Among hisj
works, mostly on religious subject^
“The Direct and Fundamental Proofs^
Christian Religion,” “Japanese Lij
Town and Country “The Spirit of thj
ent,” and “The Religion of Jesus.”
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The
Dhamma of Gotama the Buddha
and
The Gospel of Jesus the Christ
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o
The Dhamma of Gotama
the Buddha
AND THE
Gospel of Jesus the Christ
A Critical Inquiry into the Alleged Relations of
Buddhism with Primitive Christianity
By
Charles Francis Aiken, S.T.D.
Instructor in Apologetics in the Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C.
BOSTON
MARLIER AND COMPANY, Limited
1900
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NIHIL OBSTAT.
Carolus P. Grannan, S.T.D., Censor Deputatus.
IMPRIMATUR.
* Joannes Josephus, Archiepiscopus Bostoniensis .
Co Pyright> iqoo
By Charles Francis Aiken.
All rights reserved
Printed at Boston, U. S. A.
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Preface
T HE work in hand is partly the outcome of a
series of lectures on Buddhism delivered by
the author in the Catholic University of America.
It has been written to meet a want keenly felt in
the field of Christian Apologetics. The specious at-
tempts to lay the Gospels under ob ligat i on to Bud-
dhist teaching have shaken the faith of not a few
Christians. The need of a thorough refutation is im-
perative. The few works in English vindicating the
independent origin of Christianity against Buddhist
usurpation, — all of them by Protestant writers, —
excellent as they are, dwell too largely on the com-
parative superiority of Christian teaching, and do
not enter in sufficient detail into a critical scrutiny of
the alleged proofs of Buddhist influence on Chris-
tianity. It is to the latter point that the author of
this little volume has given his chief care, contenting
himself with a brief exposition of the inferiority of
Buddhism to the religion of Christ. The detailed
rejection of spurious evidence has necessitated a
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Preface
more frequent reference to the writers refuted than
would otherwise have been made; but in the con-
troversial parts he has sought to be courteous and
fair. The exposition of Brahmanism and Buddhism,
so necessary for the proper understanding of the
main thesis, will be found to have a value independ-
ently of the part that follows. While striving at a
cost of much labor to attain to thoroughness and
accuracy, the author has aimed to produce a work
that may be read with interest and profit by those
who are strangers to the subject of which it treats.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I.— THE ANTECEDENTS OF
BUDDHISM — BRAHMANISM
CHAPTER I
Page
Vedic and Brahman Rites 3
The Aryan invaders of India — Their gods chiefly nature-
deities — Monotheistic tendencies — The sacrifices —
Worship of the pitris — Rude superstitions — Transition
to Brahmanism — Elaborate liturgy — Sacredness of the
sacrifice — The Agni-hotra — The sacred Vedas — Sacred
formulae — Purificatory rites — Retribution of good and
evil deeds, transmigration, karma — Brahman religion
more than an empty formalism.
CHAPTER II
Social and Religious Institutions 16
The caste-system — Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras
— Brahmans first in dignity — Unequal distribution of
privileges — Rigid caste-rules — Sudras excluded from
the Vedic rites — Studentship of the three upper castes —
Ceremony of initiation — Ascetic life of the student —
Marriage — Rigid caste-rule for the choice of the first
wife — Polygamy allowed — Low estimate of woman —
Duties of the wife — The religious duties of the house-
holder — Sraddha feasts in honor of the dead — Ascetics
— Their rule of life — Their incredible mortifications —
The practice of Yoga — Vows of the ascetic.
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CHAPTER III
Rules of Conduct
Multiplicity of Brahman restrictions — Arbitrary and ab-
surd rules — Food-restrictions, especially as to flesh-meat
and spirituous liquors — Penalty for drinking sura — Con-
tempt for manual labor — Occupations held to be degrad-
ing and impure — Precautions observed in drinking and
walking out of regard for insect life — High standard of
ethics — Insistence on forgiveness of injuries — Moral
significance of thoughts clearly recognized — Choice ex-
amples of Brahman wisdom.
CHAPTER IV
Pantheistic Speculations
The development towards monotheism : Prajapati-Brahman
— The rise of pantheistic speculations — The Upanishads
— Brahman-Atman-Purusha identified with all things —
The incomprehensibility of Brahman — Maya — Rebirth
and misery due to maya — Brahman pessimism — Recog-
nition of man’s identity with Brahman the only means of
salvation — Absorption into Brahman the true end of
man — Pantheism subversive of traditional Brahmanism,
though nominally in harmony with it.
Pagb
3 2
PART II. — BUDDHISM
CHAPTER I
The Founder, Buddha 63
Brahman pantheism popular with the caste of warriors —
It gives rise to rival sects, one of which is Buddhism —
Of Buddha but little known for certain — His father
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xi
Page
not a king but a petty raja — His birthplace — His
various names — His education and marriage — His
abandonment of home for the ascetic life — His long
period of missionary activity — The Buddha-Legend —
Miraculous conception and birth — Asita — Life in the
palace of pleasure — The flight from home — Mortifica-
tions — The Bodhi-tree — Mara’s temptations — Supreme
enlightenment — First preaching at Benares — Conver-
sions — Devadatta — The fatal meal with Chunda — The
painful journey to Kusinara — Under the Sala-trees —
Subhadda — Buddha’s last words — Obsequies — Divi-
sion of relics — Estimate of Buddha’s character.
CHAPTER II
The Law, Dhamma 87
Deliverance from suffering the aim of Buddhism — The
Four Great Truths — (1) The truth of suffering —
Buddhist pessimism — (2) The cause of suffering: desire
and ignorance — Karma and rebirth — (3) The extinc-
tion of suffering through the extinction of desire — Nir-
vana, of the living, of the dead — The Buddhist view of
the soul — The joyful element in Buddhism — Nirvana
supplemented by the Brahman paradise, swarga — The
latter the more popular conception — (4) The eightfold
path to Nirvana — Comparison of the Buddhist with the
Brahman standard of ethics — The five great duties —
Attitude of Buddhism towards suicide — Gentleness and
forgiveness of injuries — Examples of Buddhist wisdom.
CHAPTER III
The Buddhist Order, Sangha 108
Celibacy exacted of Buddha’s followers — Severe attitude
towards marriage — Poverty and asceticism also requi-
site — Excessive austerities avoided — Alms the means of
subsistence : hence the name Bhikkhus — Neither manual
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labor nor works of charity in harmony with Buddhist
discipline — Distinctions of birth ignored — Buddha not
asocial reformer — The Novitiate — Rite of initiation —
Rule of life — Clothing and food — Avoidance of luxuries
and worldly amusements — Cleanliness exacted — Precau-
tions to be observed in traversing the village and in the
presence of women — The rite of confession, the Patimok-
kha — The retreat during the rainy season, Vassa — Med-
itation — Grades of perfection — Bhikkhunis — The lay
element in Buddhism.
CHAPTER IV
The History of Buddhism 129
Religious Developments — The existence of the Brah-
man gods recognized in primitive Buddhism, but man’s
dependence on them denied — Hence no rites of worship
— Devotion to the gods tolerated in the Buddhist layman
— Rise of religious rites after Buddha’s death — Vener-
ation of his relics, stupas, and statues : pilgrimages,
processions, and festivals — Worship of the Buddha to
come, Metteyya — Divinization of Gotama Buddha as
the Adi-Buddha — The Bodhisattvas — Mahayana and
Hinayana — The Growth of Buddhism — The dubious
councils of Rajagriha and Vaisali — Asoka — His rock-
inscriptions — His zeal for Buddhism — Unreliable tradi-
tions, especially concerning Mahinda and the council of
Patna — The introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon —
The evangelization of Kashmir, Gandhara, and Bactria
— King Menander — King Kanishka — The council of
Kashmir — The introduction of Buddhism into China —
Chinese pilgrims: Fa Hien and Hiouen Thsang — The
character of Chinese Buddhism — Mito and Fousa Kwan-
yin — The introduction of Buddhism into Tibet — The
character of Lamaism — Resemblances to certain feat-
ures of Catholicism — The spread of Buddhism over
Southern Asia — The decline of Buddhism in India — The
number of Buddhists greatly exaggerated.
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CHAPTER V
Page
The Buddhist Sacred Books 153
The twofold Buddhist canon, the Northern (Sanskrit) and
the Southern (Pali) — The character of the Southern
canon — The Vinaya-pitaka , Sutta-pitaka , and Abhi-
dhamma-pitaka , constituting the Ti-pitaka — Extra-canon-
ical works: the Dipavansa, Mahavansa, Commentaries of
Buddhaghosa y Milittda Panha — Works peculiar to the
Northern canon: the Buddha Charita , Lalita Vistara ,
Abhinishkramana Sutra , Saddharma-pundarika — Trans-
lations — Age of the Ti-pitaka greatly exaggerated — The
view that it was fixed for good in the time of Asoka un-
warranted — The Legendary Biographies of Buddha
— Critical examination of the age of the Buddha Charita
— Critical examination of the age of the Lalita Vistara —
Date of the chief Chinese biography — Other Chinese
versions — Tibetan versions — Dates of the chief biog-
raphies of the Southern school : the Nidana Katha and
the Commentary on the Buddhavansa — More recent
forms of the Buddha-legend.
PART III. — THE ALLEGED RELATIONS
OF BUDDHISM WITH CHRISTIANITY
EXAMINED
CHAPTER I
Survey of the Chief Works Written to Show
the Presence of Buddhist Thought in the
Gospels 173
The theory that primitive Christianity was influenced by
Buddhism not held by the majority of scholars — The
three chief advocates of the theory — (1) Ernst von Bun-
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Page
sen — Outline of his argument — Critical view of his
defects — (2) Prof. Rudolf Seydel — Outline of his argu-
ment — Critical view of his defects — (3) Arthur Lillie —
The untrustworthy character of his works — Outline of
his argument — Critical view of his defects — Jesus not
an Essene — Neither Essenes nor Therapeuts Buddhists
— Futility of the attempt to make John and Paul out to
be Gnostics.
CHAPTER II
Exaggerated Resemblances 198
Spurious evidence used to impugn the originality of the
Gospels classified under three heads : exaggerations,
anachronisms, fictions — Exaggerations — The pre-exist-
ence of Jesus in heaven contrasted with that ascribed to
Buddha — Divergent circumstances of birth — Simeon
versus Asita — The fast of Jesus compared with that of
Buddha — Unfair attempts to exaggerate the resem-
blances between the temptation of Jesus and that of
Buddha — The transfiguration of Jesus without a close
counterpart in the Buddha-legend.
CHAPTER III
Anachronisms 211
Resemblances drawn from Buddhist sources plainly pre-
christian, alone legitimate in the present comparison —
Kanishka's conquest of Northern India in 78 a. d. the
probable cause of separation of the Buddhists of the
North from those of the South : hence Buddhist parallels
not known to both Northern and Southern schools are of
doubtful prechristian origin — Further means of control
afforded by the different early versions of the Buddha-
legend — Anachronisms — The genealogy of Buddha
— The presentation of the infant Buddha in the temple
— The corresponding Gospel story not out of harmony
with Jewish custom — The school-scene — The gift of
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Pagb
tongues — The augmenting of food at the marriage-feast
— Lamentation of women over Buddha's corpse — The
Chinese variant — Buddha’s descent into hell — The Bud-
dhist parable of the lost son — Parallels to John> viii. 57,
and to Matthew , v. 28 — Sadhu — Lamaistic resemblances
to certain features of Catholicism — The Kwanyin liturgy
— The swastika.
CHAPTER IV
Fictions 234
Vain attempts to find a Buddhist parallel to the Holy Ghost
— Maya not a virgin — Spurious parallels to the angelic
announcements to Mary and to Joseph — The star in the
East — Buddha not bom on Christmas -day — Pretended
counterparts to the offerings of the Magi — Bimbisara not
the prototype of Herod — Habba not synonymous with
Tathagata — Lack of resemblance between the story of
the lost child Jesus and the Jambu-tree incident — Pre-
tended baptism of Buddha — Untenableness of the state-
ment that Buddha and Christ began to preach at the
same age — The Bodhi-tree incident not the source of
the story of Nathaniel and the fig-tree — The Gospel inci-
dent of the man born blind independent of the Buddhist
notion of karma — Yasa not the prototype of Nicode-
mus — Lack of resemblance between Buddha’s entry into
Rajagnha and Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem —
The Last Supper of Jesus wholly unlike the final meal of
Buddha — Unwarranted ascription to Buddha of words
spoken by Christ — Spurious Buddhist parallels to the
abandonment of Jesus by His disciples, to the thief on
the cross, to the parting of Christ’s garments, to the resur-
rection, to Matthew , v. 29, and xiii. 45.
CHAPTER V
Resemblances not Implying Dependence . . . . 258
Abuse of the principle that resemblance means depend-
ence — Resemblances often of independent origin —
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Examples from comparative ethnology and religion —
Explained by similarity of conditions and by the uniform-
ity of the laws of thought — Further instances — Enumer-
ation of the Buddhist parallels wrongly taken to indicate
the influence of Buddhism on Christianity.
CHAPTER VI
Arguments for the Independent Origin of the
Gospels 269
The apostolic origin of the Gospels of Matthew and of Luke
incompatible with the adoption of mythical elements, and
especially of features of the Buddha-legend — The alleged
presence of Buddhist lore in Palestine and Greece an un-
warranted assumption — The second Girnar Edict not an
indication of Buddhist activity in the western possessions
of Antiochus — The meaning of Yavana (Yona), and of
Yavana( Yona)-loka — The thirteenth edict not conclusive
evidence of the existence of Buddhism in the Greek-
speaking world — The latter disproved by the silence of
Greek literature and the total absence of Buddhist re-
mains — Inconsistent also with the silence of the Bud-
dhist Chronicles — Alasadda, capital of the Yona country,
not Alexandria of Egypt — Zarmanochegas not a
Buddhist.
CHAPTER VII
The Possible Influence of Christianity on Bud-
dhism 288
Parthian Jews converted by Peter — Reliability of the tra-
dition that the apostle Thomas preached to the people
of Parthia, Bactria, and Northwest India — Gondophares
— The early mission of Pantaenus in India — The testi-
mony of Cosmas — The ancient episcopal sees of Merv,
Herat, and Sistan — Christian influence in Panjab in the
fifth century shown by the Jamalgiri sculptures — The
spread of Nestorianism over the East in the fifth and
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following centuries — The Nestorian monument of Si-
ngan-fu — Likelihood that some of the incidents related
of Christ have been incorporated into the Buddha-
legend — Is the Asita-story one of these ?
CHAPTER VIII
Buddhism Viewed in the Light of Christianity .
The miracles of Christ above comparison with those
ascribed to Buddha : the latter unvouched by contempo-
rary witnesses and tainted by absurdities — Examples —
Buddhism a religion not of enlightenment, but of super-
stition and error — Karma and its implied transmigration
a false assumption — The failure of Buddhism to recog-
nize man’s dependence on the supreme God — Bud-
dhism lacking in the powerful Christian motives to
right conduct — Buddhist morality utilitarian — Nirvana
not an appeal to unselfishness — Buddhist pessimism a
crime against nature — Its injustice to the individual, to
the family, to society — Buddhist propagandism far infe-
rior to the Christian — Alliance of Buddhism with local
superstitions — Buddhist benevolence greatly surpassed
by Christian works of charity — The impotence of Bud-
dhism to elevate the people of Asia — Sad state of
morals in Buddhist lands — Slavery and polygamy un-
touched by Buddhism — The degenerate condition of
the Buddhist order — The transcendent excellence of
Christianity.
Bibliography
Index . .
xvii
Page
304
325
345
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PART I
The Antecedents of Buddhism — Brahmanism
I
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The Dhamma of Gotama the Buddha
and
The Gospel of Jesus the Christ
PART I
The Antecedents of Buddhism — Brahmanism
CHAPTER I
VEDIC AND BRAHMAN RITES
The Aryan invaders of India — Their gods chiefly nature-deities —
Monotheistic tendencies — The sacrifices — Worship of the
pitris — Rude superstitions — Transition to Brahmanism — Elab-
orate liturgy — Sacredness of the sacrifice — The Agni-hotra —
The sacred Vedas — Sacred formulae — Purificatory rites — Retri-
bution of good and evil deeds, transmigration, karma — Brahman
religion more than an empty formalism.
I N the history of human thought and action we find
that great movements do not spring indepen-
dently into being. Whether philosophical, political,
economic, or religious, they are largely the outcome
of what has gone before. To this rule Buddhism
forms no exception. It bears an intimate relationship
with the religion from which it sprang. To appreciate
it rightly, one must first have some acquaintance with
Brahmanism.
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4 Antecedents of Buddhism
The beginnings of Brahmanism carry us back
through the vast interval of more than three thou-
sand years to the time when the small bands of
intrepid Aryan invaders pushed their way through
the mountain passes of Northern India, and, bearing
down the opposition of the native tribes, took pos-
session of the fertile valleys of the Indus and its four
tributaries. There they made their home, an ener-
getic, industrious, and progressive people, victorious
in the frequent wars waged with the hostile natives,
and none the less successful in the tillage of the
soil and in the raising of cattle. It was a period of
prosperous growth. It was likewise a period of
earnest religious thought, to which the gifted bards
gave expression in hymns that, like the psalms,
became the favorite forms of prayer for succeed-
ing generations.
Many were the gods that claimed their worship,
the personal representatives of the striking phe-
nomena of nature : Varuna, the all-embracing heaven,
maker and lord of all things, and upholder of the
moral law; the sun-god, variously known as Surya,
the enemy of darkness and bringer of blessings, as
Pushan, the nourisher, as Mitra, the omniscient
friend of the good, and avenger of lying and deceit,
as Savitar, the enlivener, arousing men to daily activ-
ity, as Vishnu, said to have measured the earth in
three strides and to have given the rich pastures to
mortals; the god of the air, Indra, also like Mars
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Vedic and Brahman Rites 5
the mighty god of war, who set free from the cloud-
serpent Ahi (Vritra) the quickening rain, and who
gave a happy issue to battles ; Rudra, later known as
Siva, the destroying one, and his sons the Maruts
gods of the destructive thunderstorm, dreadful to evil-
doers, but beneficent to the good ; Agni, the fire-
god, the friend and benefactor of men, dwelling on
their hearths, and bearing to the gods their sacrificial
prayers and offerings ; Soma, the god of that myste-
rious plant whose inebriating juice was so dear to gods
and men, warding off disease, imparting strength, and
securing immortality.
These and many others of less importance were the
devas, the shining ones, to whom they offered praise,
sending up petitions chiefly for the good things of
life, — children and cattle and health and length of
days, — but not unmindful, too, of the need of crav-
ing their forgiveness for sins committed. Though
thus directed to many gods, their worship was char-
acterized by strong monotheistic tendencies. Each
god to whom the worshipper addressed himself was
for the time being praised as the supreme lord of all
things, having the attributes of omnipotence, creative
power, unlimited knowledge, and allwise providence.
There were no temples at this early period. The
sacrifices were performed under the open sky. The
altar was very simple, consisting of a small mound of
turf, the surrounding ground being carefully cleared of
grass and shrubs to guard against a possible spreading
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6 Antecedents of Buddhism
of the fire to the surrounding fields or woods. The
sacrifices were chiefly private, being offered by the
head of the family, the members of which alone were
supposed to profit thereby. The more complicated
sacrifices, however, were performed by priests in union
with the householder. Such were the soma- and the
horse-sacrifices, both of which were held to be pre-emi-
nently solemn and efficacious.
Devotion to the pitris (fathers), the spirits of de-
parted ancestors, was also part of their religion. They
firmly believed in the persistence of the individual
after death. When a good man died, his body mingled
with the earth, but his soul mounted to the realms of
bliss above to live in unalloyed contentment under
Yama, the first man, now lord of the dead.
But the happiness of these pitris was not altogether
independent of the actions of the living. It could be
greatly increased by offerings of soma, rice, and water.
Hence the surviving children felt it a sacred duty to
make sacrificial offerings at stated times to their de-
parted pitris. It was the ambition of every man to
have at least one son to survive him and contribute to
his future happiness by abundant offerings. On the
other hand, the living profited by this generosity to
the dead; for the grateful pitris secured them in
return health and wealth and posterity.
Nor was their religion free from the lower forms of
nature-worship, and the superstitions that entered
Into the belief of other Aryan peoples. The cow
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Vedic and Brahman Rites 7
was held in religious reverence; worship was not
withheld from serpents and trees. Magic and divin-
ation were widely practised. Formulae abounded for
healing the diseased, for driving off demons, for
averting evil omens, for obtaining the object of one's
desire. Witchcraft was dreaded, and recourse to
ordeals was common for the detection of guilt
Such was the religious system which the Aryans
brought with them into India. It seems to have
maintained much of its primitive simplicity during
the period of expansive conquest, whereby the in-
vaders made themselves masters of all Northern
India from the valley of the Indus to that of the
Ganges. In the long period of peace and plenty
that followed, it developed little by little into the
highly complicated, sacramental system known as
Brahmanism.
This transformation was chiefly due to the influ-
ence of the priests or Brahmans. Owing to their
excessive fondness for symbolic words and forms, the
prayers and hymns became greatly multiplied, the
details of ritual more and more intricate. Each kind
of sacrifice came to have a liturgy proper to itself.
Some of them were so elaborate as to require the
service of sixteen priests. In the performance of the
liturgy, the greatest care had to be observed ; for it
was believed the omission of a word or the mispro-
nouncing of a syllable, or the failure to carry out
any ceremonial detail would render the sacrifice void
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8
Antecedents of Buddhism
and even dangerous. It partook of the nature of a
sacramental rite, the due performance of which was
sure to produce the desired effect. The sacrifice
became the all-important centre around which the
visible and invisible world revolved. On it the very
gods of heaven depended. Through it all the legit-
imate wishes of the human heart could find their
realization. It is true, the Brahmans did not fail to
insist on generosity to the sacrificing priest as an in-
dispensable condition of the efficacy of the sacrifice.
Still it was not a mere perfunctory ceremony. It
was of so sacred a character that, if performed by an
unworthy priest, it was accounted sacrilegious and of
no avail . 1 Nor could the individual in whose behalf
a sacrifice was offered derive any benefit from it
unless he was in the proper disposition. He had to
prepare for it by a day of abstinence from food and
conjugal intercourse, and by a purificatory bath. At
the sacrifice offered at the beginning of the rainy
season, the wife of the sacrificer had to confess to
the officiating priest any sin of conjugal infidelity of
which she might be guilty . 2
1 ** The Bahishpavamana chant truly is a ship bound heavenwards :
the priests are its spars and oars, the means of reaching the heavenly
world. If there be a blameworthy one, even that one [priest] would
make it sink : he makes it sink, even as one who ascends a ship that
is full would make it sink. And, indeed, every sacrifice is a ship
bound heavenwards : hence one should seek to keep a blameworthy
[priest] away from every sacrifice.” Satapatha Brahmana, iv. 2, 5,
10. — Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXVI. pp. 310-31 1.
2 Sat. Brah. ii. 5, 2, 20. — S. B. E. XII. p. 396.
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Vedic and Brahman Rites 9
One form of sacrifice, however, remained in the
hands of the householder ; that was the simple offer-
ing of milk, butter, grain, and wood to the hearth-fire
every morning and evening. This offering, called the
Agni-hotra , was a sacred duty, to which the greatest
importance was attached. It was taught that the
sun would not rise were it not for the morning offer-
ing to the fire, and that the faithful performance of
the morning and evening Agni-hotra secured a happy
hereafter.
In keeping with the complicated liturgy of sacri-
ficial worship was the multiplicity of prayers and
purificatory rites that entered into the daily life of the
Brahman. Here the threefold Veda (Wisdom) held
the first place. This was the devotional lore created
by the piety of earlier generations, and transmitted
orally from old to young as a venerable and sacred
deposit. It consisted of a collection of ancient riks
or hymns in praise of the many gods, the so-called
Rig- Veda, and of two sacrificial rituals, one known as
the Sama-Veda , compiled from parts of the Rig- Veda
as a song-service for the soma-sacrifice, and the
other called the Yajur-Veda, a liturgy composed in
part of ancient hymns, in part of other prayers, invo-
cations, and benedictions, for use in the various
elaborate forms of sacrifice. In course of time this
threefold Veda came to be looked upon as having
existed from eternity, and as having beeq communi-
cated supernaturally to early man. Its preservation
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Antecedents of Buddhism
was a sacred duty of the Brahmans. As writing was
unknown, it had to be memorized and taught orally
to others. Great merit was attached to the recitation
of passages from the Veda, a privilege, however, from
which all women were debarred, as well as men of low
caste . 1
Besides these, certain formulae consisting of short
extracts from the Rig-Veda were much in vogue and
were held to be of great efficacy. The most import-
ant was the so-called Savitri y a prayer which the
devout individual was careful to address every morning
and evening to the sun as Savitar, the Vivifier. It
ran as follows: “Let us meditate on that excellent
glory of the divine Vivifier. May he enlighten our
understandings.” 2
Associated with it were two sacred ejaculations of
wonderful power, that served as an indispensable in-
troduction to every important act of devotion. One
was the divine monosyllable OM (aum), whose three
1 The incantations, exorcisms, and other magic formulae in-
herited by the Aryan invaders of India from their remote ancestors,
seem not to have been brought together into a fixed collection till
after the formation of the threefold Veda. This collection, known
as the Atharva-Veda (Priestly Veda), was not long in winning recog-
nition as part of the sacred canon. The latter also came in time to
include the so-called Brahmanas, — verbose and miscellaneous ex-
planations of Vedic texts, rites, and customs, — and the so-called Sutras
in which the contents of the Brahmanas were greatly abridged and
given an orderly arrangement. To this class of sacred literature be-
long the ancient law-books, of which the most famous is the metrical
treatise known as the Laws of Manu.
2 M. Williams, Indian Wisdom , London, 1876. p. 20.
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Vedic and Brahman Rites 1 1
letters were a mystical compendium of the threefold
Veda. The other consisted of the three magic words,
Bhuh , Bhuvahy and Svah (Earth, Air, and Heaven).
Great was the efficacy of these two formulae when
joined to the Savitri and accompanied by suppressions
of breath. Devoutly recited every morning and even-
ing by the learned Brahmans, they procured as
much merit as the recitation of the Vedas. Their
frequent repetition by way of penance had the effect
of effacing from the soul the guilt of grievous sin . 1
A scrupulous solicitude for ceremonial purity, sur-
passing even that of the Jewish Pharisee, gave rise in
Brahmanism to an endless succession of purificatory
rites, baths, sprinkling with water, smearing with
ashes or cow-dung, sippings of water, suppressions
of breath, all of them sacramental in character and
efficacious for the remission of sin . 2
The retribution of good and evil deeds both here
and hereafter, so clearly expressed in the Rig - Veda ,
formed likewise part of later Brahmanic belief; but
the character of that retribution came to be differently
conceived. The idea of heaven as the final reward of
the just remained unchanged. But the abyss of dark-
ness to which, according to the ancient Vedic hymns,
the wicked were consigned, gave place to a great
variety of hells, the positive torments of which were
1 The Laws of Manu , ii. 75-83; xi. 249. — S. B. E. XXV. pp.
44, 479-
2 Afanu, v. 57 ff. — Baudhayana , iv. 5. — S. B. E. XIV. pp. 323 ff.
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12
Antecedents of Buddhism
graded to suit different kinds of crime and different
degrees of guilt . 1 These harrowing torments were
most vividly and circumstantially depicted. They
were not, however, eternal, nor were they the only
forms of retribution of evil after death. Besides
these, there was recognized a long graduated scale of
less severe punishments suited to sinners whose guilti-
ness was not great enough to deserve hell-torments,
or whose debt of suffering had been sufficiently re-
duced by infernal punishments to allow them to pass
on to a more endurable state of expiation. This was
the progressive series of rebirths from those of plants,
through those of less and less ignoble animals, up to
that of man. Thus from the lowest hell to the high-
est rebirth as man, a formidable series of states of
retribution was recognized, gradually diminishing in
severity. According to the degree of guiltiness, King
Yama, the first man, now lord and judge of the dead,
determined the grade in this long series of punish-
ments to which each sinner should be assigned. From
that grade, the condemned culprit had to pass by a
slow transition through the rest of the ascending series
until his birth as man was once more attained . 2
In the Vedic hymns, we find sickness and other
kinds of misfortune regarded as punishments sent by
the gods for the evil deeds of earlier years. Brahman-
1 In Manu , iv. twenty-one different hells are distinguished. Cf.
Institutes of Vishnu , xliii. ; S. E. B. VII. p. in.
2 Jlfanu, xii. 21-22, 52-58, 61-67, 73-81.
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Vedic and Brahman Rites 13
ism improved on the more ancient belief by teaching
that certain kinds of sickness and deformity were due
to the unexpiated misdeeds of a former existence, and
hence ought to be supplemented by fitting penances.
“ A twice-born man having become liable to perform a
penance, be it by [the decree of] fate or by [an act] com-
mitted in a former life, must not before the penance has been
performed, have intercourse with virtuous men. Some
wicked men suffer a change of their [natural] appearance in
consequence of crimes committed in this life, and some in
consequence of those committed in a former [existence].
He who steals the gold [of a Brahman] has diseased nails ; a
drinker of [the spirituous liquor called] sura, black teeth ;
the slayer of a Brahman, consumption; the violator of a
Garu’s bed, a diseased skin ; an informer, a foul smelling
nose; a calumniator, a stinking breath, ... a stealer of
[cooked] food, dyspepsia. . . . Thus in consequence of a
remnant of [the guilt of former] crimes, are born idiots,
dumb, blind, deaf, and deformed men, who are all despised
by the virtuous.” 1
In this way the idea of retribution was made to em-
brace the most rigorous and far-reaching conse-
quences, from which, save by timely penance, there
was no escape. As every good action was certain of
its future recompense, so every evil action was des-
tined to bear its fruit of misery in the next life. This
law that every good and evil action would inevitably
result in future weal or woe, was known as karma
(action).
1 Manu, xi. 47-53.
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Antecedents of Buddhism
14
To the devotee of Brahmanism, however, a means
was held out of securing liberation from the sad con-
sequences of evil deeds. This means was the prac-
tice of penances and purificatory rites. Evil deserts
could be offset and nullified by the merits of good
works, — alms, confession, baths, suppressions of
breath, recitation of the Savitri and other Vedic texts,
fasts, and various kinds of self-torture, some of which
were unto death . 1
It is customary to see in these practices, which
figure so largely in the sacred law-books, naught else
than a perfunctory formalism. But this view scarcely
does justice to Brahmanism. There is reason to be-
lieve that the consciousness of guilt for sinful conduct
was keen and vivid, and that in the performance of
these rites, so liable to abuse, a penitential disposition
of soul was largely cultivated. A remarkable pas-
sage in the Laws of Manu sets forth the nature and
efficacy of penance in a manner that leaves little to
be desired.
“ By confession, by repentance, by austerity, and by re-
citing [the Veda] a sinner is freed from guilt and, in case no
other course is possible, by liberality.
“ In proportion as a man who has done wrong, himself
confesses it, even so far he is freed from guilt as a snake from
its slough.
“ In proportion as his heart loathes his evil deed, even
so far is his body freed from that guilt.
1 Manu , book xi. — Baudhayana , iii. 4 to iv. 8. — S. B. E. XIV. pp.
294 - 333 -
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Vedic and Brahman Rites 1 5
“ He who has committed a sin and has repented, is freed
from that sin, but he is purified only by [the resolution of]
ceasing [to sin and thinking] * I will do so no more/
“Having thus considered in his mind what results will
arise from his deeds after death, let him always be good in
thoughts, speech, and actions.
“ He who, having either unintentionally or intentionally
committed a reprehensible deed, desires to be freed from
[the guilt of] it, must not commit it a second time.
“ If his mind be uneasy with respect to any act, let him
repeat the austerities [prescribed as a penance] for it until
they fully satisfy [his conscience] ” 1
1 Manu, xi. 228-234. Cf. Baud hay ana, ii. 5, 10. — S. B. E. XIV.
p. 176. *' Let him always be sorrowing in his heart when he thinks
of his sins, [let him] practise austerities and be careful; thus he will
be freed from sin.”
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CHAPTER II
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
The caste-system — Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras —
Brahmans first indignity — Unequal distribution of privileges —
Rigid caste-rules — Sudras excluded from the Vedic rites — Stu-
dentship of the three upper castes — Ceremony of initiation —
Ascetic life of the student — Marriage — Rigid caste-rule for the
choice of the first wife — Polygamy allowed — Low estimate of
woman — Duties of the wife — The religious duties of the house-
holder — Sraddha feasts in honor of the dead — Ascetics — Their
rule of life — Their incredible mortifications — The practice of
Yoga — Vows of the ascetic.
I NTIMATELY bound up with the religious system
of Brahmanism, so as to constitute one of its
most important features, was the division of society
into rigidly defined castes.
From the earliest times the people had been sub-
ject to class-distinctions. Besides the class of Ksha-
triyas (also called Rajanyas) or warriors, which then
stood first in importance, there were recognized three
others, — that of Brahmans or priests, that of Vaisyas
or farmers, and last as well as least of all, the servile
class of Sudras, composed chiefly of the conquered
natives. Between the three first classes no hard and
fast lines of separation had been drawn.
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Social and Religious Institutions 17
But with the development of Brahmanism there
came a notable change. The four ancient divisions
of society became stereotyped into fixed and exclu-
sive castes, while at the same time the Brahmans
took precedence of the warriors and assumed the first
place of dignity and importance. As guardians and
teachers of the sacred Veda, and as the officiating
priests of the august sacrifices, they professed to be
the very representatives of the gods, and hence the
peers of the human race. No honors were too great
for them. Their persons were inviolate. To lay
hands on them was a sacrilege. Even the king had
no right to do or say what was apt to stir them to
anger.
The share which the various castes had in privi-
leges was very unequal. The Brahman, as the
superior of all, enjoyed the largest amount of advan-
tage, while the despised Sudra had scarcely any
rights at all. On the other hand, the penalties for
wrong-doing, with but few exceptions, lay heaviest
on the Sudra, and diminished by very considerable
degrees as they affected the three other castes in the
ascending scale . 1
The comparative worth in which the four castes
were held, is revealed by the following text from the
Laws of Manu, “ One-fourth the penance for the
murder of a Brahman is prescribed as expiation for
intentionally killing a Kshatriya ; one-eighth for killing
1 Manu , viii. 267 ff.
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1 8 Antecedents of Buddhism
aVaisya; know that it is one-sixteenth for killing a
virtuous Sudra .” 1
These caste-distinctions, declared by later Brahman
teaching to have existed from the beginning by right
divine, were maintained by the most stringent laws.
Members of the upper castes might forfeit their rank
through a violation of some caste-rule, and thus sink
to the degraded condition of Sudras. But no one
could rise above the caste in which he was born.
Moreover, to be a Brahman, or Kshatriya, or Vaisya,
it was necessary that both parents should belong to
the caste in question. Children of a mother married
to a husband of the caste above, inherited the caste-
rights of the mother only. Marriages between
women of a higher and men of a lower caste gave
rise to mixed castes . 2 Most contemptible of all was
the Chandala, the offspring of a Sudra and a woman
of the Brahman caste. The very touch of such a
person was avoided by the Brahman as defiling.
Only the three upper castes had the right to know
the Vedas, and to take part in the sacrifices; for
Brahmanism, far from being a religion open to all,
was exclusively a privilege of birth. From its saving
rites the Sudra was most rigorously excluded.
Woe to the Sudra who sought to gain a knowledge
of the sacred Veda. “ Now if he listens intention-
ally [to a recitation of] the Veda, his ears shall be
1 Manu, xi. 127.
2 The minor castes are all enumerated in the tenth book of Manu.
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Social and Religious Institutions 19
filled with molten tin or lac. If he recites the [Vedic]
texts, his tongue shall be cut out. If he remembers
them, his body shall be split in twain .” 1
It was solely in the acquisition of Vedic lore that
the education of the youth consisted ; and as none
but a Brahman had the right to teach the Veda, the
training of the youthful mind was wholly in his
hands. This was one of the sources of his great in-
fluence ; for in the capacity of guru or teacher, he
had the moulding of the minds and dispositions of all
who constituted the strength and mainstay of the
nation. Every youth of good family had to spend
some of his tender years as a student in the service
of a Brahman.
The entrance into this period of studentship was
marked by a most important ceremony, correspond-
ing to the Christian rite of baptism. It was the in-
vestiture with the sacred girdle and cord. The time
for this ceremony was from the eighth to the six-
teenth year after conception for a Brahman, from the
eleventh to the twenty-second year for a Kshatriya,
and from the twelfth to the twenty-fourth year for a
Vaisya. If not brought to a Brahman for this initia-
tion before the end of the allotted period, the youth
forfeited his caste-rights and was excluded from all
participation in the Brahman religion.
As a preparation for the ceremony, the novice took
a bath and had his head shaved. Then with the
1 Gautama , xii. 4-6. — S. B. E. II. p. 236.
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20 Antecedents of Buddhism
tufts of hair which served as his family mark neatly
arranged, he presented himself in festive attire to his
chosen Brahman teacher, bearing a new mantle, a
girdle, a cord, and a staff. Sacrifice having been
offered, the Brahman, standing near the fire, invested
the novice with the mantle, girdle, and sacrificial
cord, accompanying each act with an appropriate
prayer. The novice then signified his desire to serve
under him as a student, whereupon the Brahman,
sprinkling the joined hands of the novice with water,
and then seizing them in his own, pronounced the
formulae of initiation and adoption, and finally,
touching his right shoulder, said, “A student art
thou. Put on fuel. Take water. Do the service.
Do not sleep in the daytime. Keep silence till the
putting on of fuel. Be devoted to the teacher and
study the Veda.”
He was then taught the Savitri prayer, and became
dvi-ja> or twice-born, with the right to learn the
Veda and to participate in the sacrifices. “ Three
castes, Brahman, Kshatriya, and Vaisya [are called]
twice-born. Their first birth is from their mother;
the second from the investiture of the sacred girdle.
In that [second birth] the Savitri is the mother, but
the teacher is said to be the father. They call the
teacher father, because he gives instruction in the
Veda.” 1
Thus prepared by a solemn consecration, the
1 Vasishtha , ii. 1-4. — S. B. E. XIV. p. 9.
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Social and Religious Institutions 21
young novice applied himself to the study of the
sacred Veda, learning, not from the written page,
but from the spoken word of the teacher . 1 Day after
day, at the appointed time, he presented himself to
his teacher, and sitting upright upon the ground,
with legs crossed and hands respectfully clasped, he
committed a portion of the Vedic text to memory.
A year or two of study sufficed, as a rule, for mem-
bers of the warrior or farmer caste, of whom only
a partial knowledge of the Vedas was expected. But
the young Brahman had to keep up his studentship
till he knew the three Vedas by heart. The very
brightest could not hope to reach this degree of
proficiency in less than nine years.
The student generally resided with his teacher,
whom he was bound to serve with docility and rever-
ence. Everything in his daily life was calculated to
impress upon him the sacredness of the Vedas and
the holiness requisite for their proper study. He
began and ended the day with prayer, reciting the
Savitri in honor of the rising and setting sun, and
making offerings of wood to Agni (Surya) on the
household fire. He had to rise before the sun, nor
could he recline again in sleep till after sunset. He
was allowed a morning and an evening meal, but of
the simplest kind. Meat could not be eaten, nor
honey, nor rich and dainty dishes. Between these
1 The sacred books were not committed to writing till long after
the art of writing became familiar to the people of India.
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22 Antecedents of Buddhism
meals a strict fast had to be observed. He subsisted
on alms, proceeding every morning and evening to
the village to beg his food of worthy people who
lived according to the Vedas. He was expected to
observe the strictest chastity. Any violation of this
virtue broke the vow of his studentship and had to
be atoned for by severe penance. He was also
bound to avoid music, dancing, gambling, falsehood,
disrespect to superiors and to the aged, covetous-
ness, anger, and injury to animals . 1
The student’s life was thus a life of stern moral
and intellectual discipline. In it the three monastic
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience found their
realization. Coming as it did at the critical period
of youth, when the will needed to be strengthened
against the demands of unruly instincts, and when
the mind was most susceptible to influences from
without, this discipline must have helped in no small
measure to develop a sturdy moral character, as well
as to foster a deeply religious spirit and to cultivate
a quick and retentive mind. Theirs was indeed a
religious education.
A Brahmana text declares that a Brahman comes
into the world burdened with three debts. To the
gods, he owes the debt of sacrifice ; to the rishis, or
ancient bards, the debt of reciting the Vedas ; to the
pitris, or departed fathers, the debt of begetting sons . 2
1 Manu , ii. 177-181 ; xi. 1 19-124.
2 Taittiriya-Brahmana> vi. 3, 10, 5. — Cf. S. B. E. XIV. p. 271-272.
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Marriage was thus one of the religious duties of a
twice-born man. Freed from his vow of studentship,
he soon entered into the state of the householder.
Characteristic is the advice given in the Laws of
Matiu for the choice of a bride.
“ A twice-born man shall marry a wife of equal caste who
is endowed with auspicious [bodily] marks. . . . Let him
not marry a maiden with reddish hair . . . nor one who is
sickly . . . nor one who is garrulous or has red eyes. . . .
Let him wed a female free from bodily defects, who has an
agreeable name, the graceful gait of an elephant, a moderate
quantity of hair, small teeth, and soft limbs.” 1
The rule that the bride should be of the same caste
as the groom was strongly insisted upon. It was
necessary for the maintenance of the castes. To be-
come a householder through marriage with a Sudra
woman was a crime and a lasting disgrace, the guilti-
ness of which was the greater, the higher the rank of
the offender. A Brahman who would thus debase
himself was destined to sink into hell . 2
It was only of the first and principal marriage that
this rule held good. It did not apply to the secondary
marriages, which were the privilege of the' twice-born ;
for as in all oriental peoples of antiquity, polygamy
had the sanction of religion. A man could take an
inferior wife only from a caste below his own ; nor was
he ordinarily allowed more than one wife from the
1 Manu } iii. 4, 8, 10. 2 Matiu , iii. 17-19.
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24 Antecedents of Buddhism
same caste. Hence the higher the caste, the larger
the privilege. A Brahman could have four wives, one
from each caste, a warrior three, a farmer two ; while
the Sudra was expected to content himself with one.
Monogamy, however, seems to have been largely
practised by the Brahmans, while the wealthy nobles
maintained harems proportionate to their means.
In Brahmanism, woman’s freedom of action was
subject to many restrictions that did scant justice to
her deserts. The wife had the right to participate
with her husband in the sacrifices, but all knowledge
of the Veda was withheld from her. “ The nuptial
ceremony,” runs a text of Manu } “ is stated to be the
Vedic sacrament for women [and to be] equal to the
initiation; serving the husband [equivalent to] the
residence in the house of the teacher ; and the house-
hold duties [the same as] the daily worship of the
sacred fire.”
The speculative estimate of womanly worth was
decidedly low. To seduce men was thought to be the
instinctive impulse of women. Laziness, excessive
fondness for ornament, sensuality, dishonesty,
malice, heartlessness, and instability were imputed to
them as dispositions inherent in their very nature.
The prudent man was warned not to remain alone
and unguarded with females, even his nearest rela-
tions . 2 It was laid down that a woman must never
be independent, but always live in subjection, in child-
1 Mattu i ii. 67. 2 ii. 213-215; ix. 15.
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Social and Religious Institutions 25
hood to her father, in youth to her husband, in her
widowhood to her sons . 1
To her husband, especially, she owed the greatest
obedience and devotion, undertaking no vow or fast
without his permission. A faulty, unruly wife could
be beaten. Bound by an indissoluble tie to her hus-
band, she had to bear with him in patience and fidel-
ity, and worship him as a god, even if he were harsh
and cruel. But if she herself proved unworthy, she
could be repudiated by her husband and supplanted
by another. This one-sided privilege of the husband
was, however, limited by certain restrictions . 2 Nor
did the obligation of the wife to the husband cease
at his death. She was not to marry again even if
childless, but was to remain chaste and single, faith-
ful to the memory of her departed lord, if she ex-
pected to be honored on earth and to be happy with
him in heaven . 3
But despite her many disabilities, the right of the
wife to be treated as an honorable, if inferior, help-
mate, was not overlooked. The sacred books did not
fail to remind the householder of the sympathy, kind-
ness, and affectionate fidelity that he owed to her whom
he had received in intimate union from the very gods . 4
1 Manu f v. 147-148.
2 v. I 54 -IS 5 ; 77-82.
8 v. 156-157. The cruel Hindu custom known as sutteeism, by
which widows were instigated to seek death on the pyres of their
husbands, seems to have formed no part of early Brahmanism.
* iii. 55-62 ; ix. 45, 95, 101.
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26 Antecedents of Buddhism
The householder, like the student, had to rise be-
fore the sun, bathe, recite the Savitri, and pour out
libations of water to his departed relatives. Similar
devotions were expected of him every evening. In
addition, the Brahman householder had to recite
devoutly every day portions of the Veda and, if a
guru, communicate them to his pupil.
One of the first duties of the newly married house-
holder was to set up the domestic fire. The mainte-
nance and worship of the household fire secured the
presence and blessing of the fire-god Agni, without
which no family could prosper. It was kept always
burning. Every morning and evening, offerings
(Agni-hotra) were made to it of hot milk, butter, rice,
barley, and sesamum . 1
These daily offerings to the fire, together with the
sacrifices of burnt offerings at every new and full
moon, at the beginning of each of the three seasons,
at the two harvests, and at the solstices, as well as the
soma-sacrifice at the end of the year, constituted the
sum of his obligations to the gods, as regards sacri-
ficial worship.
Scarcely less important than these offerings to the
gods were those he had to make to his departed rela-
tives. Once a month, at the time of the full moon, he
had to provide the sraddha , or sacrificial feast in
honor of the dead. To this feast, which was of a joy-
ful nature, one or more pious Brahmans and a num-
1 Asvalayana-Grihya-Sutra, i. 9. — S. B. E. XXIX. p. 172.
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Social and Religious Institutions 27
ber of near relatives were invited. Great care had to
be exercised in the choice of guests, for it was taught
that unworthy persons would rob the sacrifice of its
efficacy. Of the dead supposed to take part in this
feast, the relatives up to the third generation were
to derive most profit . 1
The strong tendency to asceticism, which has as-
serted itself in the chief religious systems of India,
seems to have taken its rise very early in Brahman-
ism. It found expression in the fasts preceding the
great sacrifices, in the severe penances for transgres-
sions, in the austere life exacted of the student, in the
laws prescribing conjugal abstinence for the first three
days after the nuptial rite and on certain specified
days of every month, but, above all, in the rigorous
life of solitude and privation to which not a few de-
voted their declining years. These were the so-called
hermits and ascetics.
The majority of Brahmans remained householders
to the end. But a goodly number, having paid their
three debts to the gods, the pitris, and the rishis, felt
called by the spirit of devotion to increase their store
of merit by renouncing the comforts of home life and
withdrawing to the forest to spend the rest of their
days in seclusion, meditation, and severe discipline.
The Laws of Manu recommend old age as the proper
time for embracing the ascetic life. “ When a house-
holder sees his skin wrinkled and his hair white and
1 Manu , iii. 122 ff.
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28 Antecedents of Buddhism
the sons of his sons, then he may resort to the
forest. ,, 1
This rule seems at first to have been rigidly ob-
served ; but, in the course of time, exceptions came to
be made in favor of young and even unmarried men,
when the influence of pantheistic speculations led to
a strong prepossession for the contemplative life and
to a corresponding indifference towards sacrificial
rites . 2
In withdrawing to the solitude of the forest, he
could take his wife with him if he so chose. There,
as a hermit, he set up a rude hut, maintained the
three sacred fires, if a Brahman, and continued to
perform the sacrificial rites. The morning and even-
ing purificatory bath had to be observed. A skin or
tattered garment was his only clothing. Abstaining
from honey and rich foods, he had to subsist on
water, fruit, grain, and herbs, giving freely of his store
to those who sought his hospitality. He was allowed
to lay aside food enough to last him for a year . 8
Besides these hermits, there were the so-called
ascetics, who devoted themselves to a life of even
greater austerity. Renouncing the society of their
wives, and incorporating the sacred fires within their
bodies by inhaling the smoke, they condemned them-
selves to live without fire and with no shelter save
1 Mann, vi. 2.
2 Cf. Baudhayana , ii. io, 17, 2-5. — S. B. E. XIV. p. 273.
8 Mann, vi. 3-18. — Baudh, ii. 6, 11. — S. B. E . XIV. 259.
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Social and Religious Institutions 29
that of a spreading tree. They subsisted on roots
and herbs, and # on alms collected at the kitchen-door
when meal-time was past and only cold victuals
remained. Water was their only drink. Meat could
not be eaten.
It was the rule for ascetics to eat but once a day,
and then scarcely enough to keep away the pangs of
hunger. “ Eight mouthfuls are the meal of an as-
cetic/* runs a sacred text, “ sixteen that of a hermit,
thirty-two that of a householder, an unlimited quantity
for a student.’* 1
The severity of life adopted by the ascetic was not
so much a penitential discipline for past offences, as a
means of acquiring religious merit and superhuman
powers. The severer the mortification, the greater
was deemed the holiness of the ascetic, the richer his
future reward. It was commonly believed, too, that
by extraordinary austerities one could obtain so
great a mastery over the body as to become invisible
at will, or to float in the air, or to move with light-
ning-speed to distant places. And so the more am-
bitious gave themselves* up to a variety of self-
tortures as fanatic as they were absurd. Listen, for
example, to the methods recommended by the Laws
of Matin for the practice of bodily mortification.
“ Let him either roll about on the ground or stand
during the day on tiptoe, or let him alternately stand
and sit down. In summer let him expose himself to
1 Vasishtha, vi. 20. — S. B. E. XIV. p. 37.
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Antecedents of Buddhism
3 °
the heat of five fires, during the rainy season live
under the open sky, and in winter be^ dressed in wet
clothes, thus gradually increasing the rigor of his
austerities .” 1
The most common means of rigorous self-discipline
was fasting. Various were the forms devised, all in-
credibly severe, and some of them grotesque. They
would eat at every fourth meal-time, or at every
eighth; or they would conform their fast to the rule
of the lunar penance. Proceeding from an absolute
fast on the day of the new moon, they would increase
their meal daily by the addition of a single mouthful
of food, till at full moon the maximum of fourteen
mouthfuls was reached, and then during the days of
the waning moon diminish the amount of food in a
corresponding manner . 2 Others lived on water alone
for wonderfully long periods of time.
But mortifications were not the only occupation of
the ascetics. The practice of yoga, or contemplation,
was also a prominent feature of their daily life. As-
suming a motionless posture, and fixing their gaze
steadily on some object before them, they would think
intensely on an abstract subject till they lapsed into a
trance and fancied they were brought into intimate
union with the supreme deity, Brahman. The fruit of
these contemplations was the pantheistic conception
of the deity, the soul, and salvation, which gave rise
to new schools of thought, and to a new class of
1 Mattu , vi. 22-23. 2 y i* * 9 > 20 *
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Social and Religious Institutions 31
sacred literature, — the so-called Upanishads . The
abler ascetics thus came to assume the r 61 e of
teachers and to gather about them disciples.
In becoming an ascetic, ten vows were taken.
Five were known as the greater vows, and embraced
(1) avoidance of injury to all living things, (2) truth-
fulness, (3) respect for the property-rights of others,
(4) absolute chastity, (5) liberality. The five minor
vows were (1) to avoid anger, (2) to obey the guru,
(3) to avoid rashness, (4) to be cleanly, (5) to observe
purity in eating. 1
1 Baudh. ii. io, 18. S. B. E. XIV. p. 279.
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CHAPTER III
RULES OF CONDUCT
Multiplicity of Brahman restrictions — Arbitrary and absurd rules
— Food-restrictions, especially as to flesh-meat and spirituous
liquors — Penalty for drinking sura — Contempt for manual labor
— Occupations held to be degrading and impure — Precautions
observed in drinking and walking out of regard for insect life —
High standard of ethics — Insistence on forgiveness of injuries
— Moral significance of thoughts clearly recognized — Choice
examples of Brahman wisdom.
T HE influence which Brahmanism exercised on
the conduct of those who acknowledged its
claims was remarkably far-reaching and comprehen-
sive. There was not a customary action, however
private, of daily life that was not regulated by pre-
scribed rules. Innumerable restrictions, partly of
the nature of religious taboos, partly prompted by
strange notions of expedience and propriety, ham-
pered freedom of action at every turn. These pre-
cepts and prohibitions were held in equal respect
with the recognized ethical duties, from which they
were but dimly distinguished. Nowhere, in fact, do
we find a greater confusion of the laws of conduct
based on the divinely established order with those
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Rules of Conduct
33
resting on inherited superstitions and ceremonial and
social observances. In the sacred law-books setting
forth the rules of moral and religious conduct, there
is a hopeless entanglement of what is truly noble
with what is trivial, an incredible mixture of gold
with dross. In the most unexpected manner, the
Brahman expounder of right conduct gravely links
together sound moral precepts with rules of action
the most silly and ludicrous ; for all are of equal
importance in his eyes. Here are a few examples
from the Laws of Manu.
“ Keeping his hair, nails, and beard clipped, subduing his
passions by austerities, wearing white garments and [keep-
ing himself] pure, he [/. <?., the householder] shall always be
engaged in studying the Veda and [such acts as are] con-
ducive to his welfare.
“ Let him not step over a rope to which a calf is tied, let
him not run when it rains, and let him not look at his own
image in water.
“ Let him pass by [a mound of] earth, a cow, an idol, a
Brahman, clarified butter, honey, a cross-way, and well-
known trees turning his right hand towards them.” 1
“ Let him never play with dice nor himself take off his
shoes, let him not eat lying in bed, nor what has been
placed in his hand, nor on his seat.
“ Let him eat while his feet are [yet] wet [from the ablu-
tion], but let him not go to bed with wet feet.” 2
“ Let him who desires prosperity, indeed, never despise
a Kshatriya, a snake, any learned Brahman, be they ever
so feeble .” 8
1 Manu , iv. 35, 38, 39. 2 iv. 74, 76. 8 iv. 135.
3
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34
“ Let him never offend the teacher who initiated him, nor
him who explains the Veda, nor his father and mother, nor
[any other] guru, nor cows, nor Brahmans, nor any men per-
forming austerities. Let him avoid atheism, cavilling at the
Vedas, contempt of the gods, hatred, want of modesty, pride,
anger, and harshness.” 1
“ Let him never bathe in tanks belonging to other men ;
if he bathes [in such a one], he is tainted by a portion of
the guilt of him who made the tank.
“ He who uses without permission a carriage, a bed, a
seat, a well, a garden, or a house belonging to another [man],
takes upon himself one-fourth of [the owner’s] guilt.” 2
To the Christian reader, this hopeless confusion
brings a constant series of surprises, producing alter-
nately feelings of admiration and amusement, sym-
pathy and disgust. One marvels how religious
minds that possessed so clear a vision of many
moral truths could be so blinded as to give their
unshaken approval to a multitude of absurd and
puerile superstitions.
In the matter of food, the religious restrictions
were numerous and severe. Almost all kinds of
fish were forbidden, as well as many kinds of land-
animals, such as carnivorous and web-footed birds,
village-fowls, village-pigs, camels, horses, and other
one-hoofed beasts. Even the lawful kinds of fish,
fowl, and meat could not be used as ordinary articles
of diet. It was only on occasions of entertaining
guests, and of sacrificing to the gods and pitris, that
1 Manu , iv. 162, 163. 2 iv. 201, 202.
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Rules of Conduct
35
they could be eaten without sin. The animals slain
on such occasions were thought to be greatly bene-
fited, inasmuch as their immolation was rewarded by
a rebirth in a higher and more blessed existence.
" Herbs, trees, cattle, birds, and [other] animals that have
been destroyed for sacrifices, receive [being reborn] higher
existences.
“ On offering the honey- mixture [to a guest], at a sacri-
fice and at the rites in honor of the manes, but on these
occasions only, may an animal be slain ; that Manu
proclaimed.
“ A twice-born man who, knowing the true meaning of
the Veda, slays an animal for these purposes, causes both
himself and the animal to enter a most blessed state.” 1
But to slaughter an animal for ordinary purposes
of consumption was accounted a grave injury, the
guilt of which was shared by those who used any of
its flesh as food.
“ Meat can never be obtained without injury to living
creatures, and injury to sentient beings is detrimental to [the
attainment of] heavenly bliss ; let him therefore shun [the
use of] meat.
“ Having well considered the [disgusting] origin of flesh
and the [cruelty of] fettering and slaying corporeal beings,
let him entirely abstain from eating flesh.
“ He who permits [the slaughter of an animal], he who
cuts it up, he who kills it, he who buys and sells [meat],
he who cooks it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it,
[must all be considered as] the slayers [of the animal].
1 Manu , iv. 40-42.
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36 Antecedents of Buddhism
“ There is no greater sinner than that man who, though
not worshipping the gods or the manes, seeks to increase
[the bulk of] his own flesh by the flesh of other
[beings].” 1
Other articles of food were likewise put under the
ban. It was wrong to use the milk of sheep, camels,
mares, and even of cows within ten days of calving.
So vigorous was the prohibition against mushrooms,
onions, leeks, and garlic, that to use such food know-
ingly was accounted a crime involving loss of caste.
To the Brahman, all sorts of spirituous liquors were
forbidden under pain of forfeiture of all caste-privi-
leges. The very dignity of his position demanded
that he should be a total abstainer. Members of the
other castes were allowed the use of liquors distilled
from molasses and from Madhuka flowers. But the
so-called sura , a highly intoxicating drink distilled
from ground rice, corn, and barley, was solemnly
forbidden to all without distinction. To indulge in
this form of beverage was held to be one of the
greatest of crimes, the expiation of which called for
penances appalling for their severity.
“ A twice-born man who has [intentionally] drunk through
delusion of mind [the spirituous liquor called] Sura, shall
drink that liquor boiling hot ; when his body has been
completely scalded by that, he is freed from guilt;
“Or he may drink cows’ urine, water, milk, clarified
butter, or [liquid] cow-dung boiling hot till he dies ;
1 Manu. iv, 48-52.
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Rules of Conduct
37
“ Or, in order to remove the guilt of drinking Sura, he may
eat during a year once [a day] at night grains [of rice] or
oilcake, wearing clothes made of cow-hair and his own hair
in braids, and carrying [a wine cup as] a badge .” 1
No less subject to rigorous restrictions was the
manner of gaining a livelihood. As in the civiliza-
tions of Greece and Rome, so too in Brahmanism,
the dignity of manual industry failed of recognition.
It was held to be a defilement for a Brahman or a
Kshatriya to support himself by the labor of his
hands. If hard pressed by lack of means, he was
permitted to practise through the agency of others
the occupations lawful to the Vaisya, namely, agri-
culture, cattle-raising, and a few kinds of trade. But the
contempt in which these pursuits were held may be
judged from the fact that shepherds, shopkeepers,
and those who subsisted by agriculture were ex-
cluded as unworthy guests from participation in the
sraddha feasts in honor of the pitris . 2
More contemptible still were the numerous occu-
pations that necessitated contact with substances held
to be defiling, or that tainted the purity of fire and
water, or that involved the slaughter of animals and
the felling of trees. All who engaged in such forms
of business were treated as outcasts. A Brahman
could not accept food from a carpenter, a tailor, a
worker in leather or metals, nor even from a physi-
cian; for they were all held to be impure.
1 ManUy xi. 91-93. 2 iii. 154, 165, and 166.
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38 Antecedents of Buddhism
“ Let him never eat [food given] by intoxicated, angry, or
sick [men]. . . .
“ Nor the food given by a thief, a musician, a carpenter,
a usurer, ... a miser, one bound with fetters. . . .
“ Nor [the food given] by a physician, a hunter, a cruel
man. . . .
“ Nor the food [given] by an informer, by one who hab-
itually tells falsehoods, nor by one who sells [the rewards
for] sacrifices, nor the food [given] by an actor, a tailor, or
an ungrateful [man],
“ By a blacksmith, a Nishada, a stage-player, a gold-
smith, a basket-maker, or a dealer in weapons,
“By trainers of hunting dogs, publicans, a washerman,
a dyer.” 1
The scrupulous regard for all forms of animal and
vegetable life, developed by the doctrine of transmi-
gration, gave rise to restrictive rules of conduct that
bordered on the absurd. Insects, however repulsive
and noxious, could not be killed. Water could not
be drunk till it was first strained, lest minute forms of
life should be swallowed and destroyed. We have
just seen how carpentry, basket-making, working in
leather, and other respectable occupations were held
in disrepute, because they could not be carried on
without a certain cost of plant and animal life. Some
zealots went so far as to question the blamelessness
of tilling the ground on account of the unavoidable
injury done to worms and insects in ploughing . 2
But it was of ascetics that the greatest precautions
1 Martu, iv. 207-216. 2 x. 84.
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Rules of Conduct
39
were exacted. In walking, they had to scan the
ground carefully before them so as to avoid crush-
ing any living creature. It was forbidden them to
tread on a ploughed field. During the rainy season,
when insects swarmed on the ground in greatest
number, they were allowed to move about as little as
possible . 1
Through these superstitious restrictions and many
others of minor importance, freedom of action was
very narrowly circumscribed for the devotee of Brah-
manism. This was especially true of the Brahman
himself, who was obliged to eschew many things that
were lawful for members of the other castes. It is
not surprising that the more scrupulous felt life to be
a burden, and became imbued with the spirit of
pessimism.
But if we abstract from this superstitious and arbi-
trary limitation of human conduct, and take into con-
sideration the Brahman teaching of right and wrong
in the recognized sphere of ethics, we are confronted
with a largeness and depth of moral discernment that
justly excites our admiration.
Truthfulness, honesty, self-control, obedience to
parents and superiors, the moderate use of food and
drink, chastity, and almsgiving were strongly incul-
cated. Especial stress was laid on the duty of acting
charitably towards students, ascetics, the sick, the
aged, and the feeble. Though allowing, like other
1 Afanu, vi. 46 ff.
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40 Antecedents of Buddhism
religions of antiquity, polygamy and repudiation,
Brahmanism strongly forbade adultery and all forms
of unchaste indulgence. It condemned, likewise, in
severe terms suicide, abortion, perjury, slander,
drunkenness, gambling, oppressive usury, hypocrisy,
and slothfulness. Its Christian-like aim to soften the
hard side of human nature is seen in its many lessons
of mildness, forbearance, respect for the aged, kind-
ness towards servants and slaves, and in its insisting,
though to an excessive degree, on not causing death
to any living creature. Wanton cruelty to animals,
met from the Brahman the reprobation it deserves.
Nothing is more striking than its insistence on the
duty of forgiving injuries and returning good for
evil. In the Laws of Manu, we read of the ascetic:
“ Let him patiently bear hard words, let him not insult
anybody ; and let him not become anybody’s enemy for the
sake of this [perishable] body.
“ Against an angry man let him not in return show anger,
let him bless when cursed, and let him not utter speech, de-
void of truth, scattered at the seven gates.” 1
Nor did this standard, so remarkable, of moral right
and wrong, apply simply to external acts. It pene-
trated to the secret chamber of the heart. It de-
manded recognition of the very will. The threefold
division of good and bad acts into thoughts, words,
and deeds, finds frequent expression in Brahmanic
teaching.
1 Manuy vi. 47, 48.
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Rules of Conduct 41
“ He, forsooth, whose speech and thoughts are pure and
ever perfectly guarded, gains the whole reward which is con-,
ferred by the Vedanta.” 1
“ Let him not even, though in pain [speak words], cutting
[others] to the quick ; let him not injure others in thought or
deed ; let him not utter speeches which make [others] afraid
of him, since that will prevent him from gaining heaven.” *
“Neither [the study of] the Vedas nor liberality, nor
sacrifices, nor any self-imposed restraint, nor austerities,
ever procure the attainment [of rewards] to a man whose
heart is contaminated with sensuality.” 8
“The wife who keeps chaste in thoughts, words, and
body, and remains faithful to her husband, attains to a re-
union with him in the next world and is called virtuous.” 4
The Laws of Manu abound in noble sentiments
like these. The more striking ones have been culled
out by Monier Williams and finely translated in his
work entitled Brahmanism and Hinduism . It is from
this collection that the following choice sentences
have been taken : —
“ From poison thou mayest take the food of life,
The purest gold from lumps of impure earth,
Example of good conduct from a foe,
Sweet speech and gentleness from e’en a child, —
Something from all ; from men of low degree
Lessons of wisdom if thou humble be.” 5
“ He who by firmness gains the mastery
Over his words, his mind, and his whole body,
Is justly called a triple governor .” 6
1 Manu , ii. 160. 2 ii. 160-161. 8 ii. 97.
4 v. 155 ; cf. xi. 232, 242; xii. 3-10. 6 ii. 238, 239.
6 xii. 10.
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42 Antecedents of Buddhism
“ E’en as a driver checks his restive steeds,
Do thou, if thou art wise, restrain thy passions,
Which, running wild, will hurry thee away .” 1
“ Pride not thyself on thy religious works ;
Give to the poor, but talk not of thy gifts,
By pride religious merit melts away,
The merit of thy alms by ostentation.” 2
“ None sees us, say the sinful in their hearts ;
Yes, the gods see them, and the omniscient spirit
Within their breasts. Thou thinkest, O good friend,
‘ I am alone/ but there resides within thee
A being who respects thy every act,
Knows all thy goodness and thy wickedness.” *
“ If with the greatest Divinity who dwells
Within thy breast, thou hast no controversy,
Go not to Ganges’ water to be cleansed,
Nor make a pilgrimage to Kuru’s fields.” 4
“ Contentment is the root of happiness,
And discontent the root of misery.
Wouldst thou be happy, be thou moderate.” 5
“ Thou canst not gather what thou dost not sow,
As thou dost plant the tree, so will it grow. ” 6
“ Depend not on another, rather lean
Upon thyself ; trust to thine own exertions, —
Subjection to another’s will gives pain ;
True happiness consists in self-reliance .” 7
1 Manu, ii. 88. 2 iv. 236, 237. 8 viii. 85, 91.
4 viii. 92. 6 iv. 12. 6 ix. 40.
* iv. 160.
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Rules of Conduct
43
“ Strive to complete the task thou hast commenced ;
Wearied, renew thy efforts once again ;
Again fatigued, once more the work begin,
So shalt thou earn success and fortune win.” 1
“ Be courteous to thy guest who visits thee ;
Offer a seat, bed, water, food enough,
According to thy substance, hospitality ;
Naught taking for thyself till he be served ;
Homage to guests brings wealth, fame, life, and heaven .” 2
“ Though thou mayest suffer for thy righteous acts,
Ne'er give thy mind to aught but honest gain.”*
“ Fidelity till death, this is the sum
Of mutual duties for a married pair.” 4
“ Then only is a man a perfect man
When he is three, — himself, his wife, his son, —
For thus have learned men the law declared,
4 A husband is one person with his wife/ ” 5
“ When Goodness, wounded by Iniquity,
Comes to a court of justice, and the judge
Extracts not tenderly the pointed dart,
That very shaft shall pierce him to the heart.” 6
“ Daily perform thine own appointed work
Unweariedly ; and to obtain a friend, —
A sure companion to the future world, —
Collect a store of virtue like the ants,
Who garner up their treasures into heaps ;
For neither father, mother, wife, nor son,
1 Mattu , ix. 300. 2 iii. 106; iv. 29. 8 iv. 171.
4 ix. 101. 6 ix. 45. 8 viii. 12.
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44 Antecedents of Buddhism
Nor kinsman will remain beside thee then ;
When thou art passing to that other home,
Thy virtue will thy only comrade be.
Single is every living creature born,
Single he passes to another world, 1
Single he eats the fruit of evil deeds,
Single, the fruit of good ; and when he leaves
His body like a log or heap of clay
Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away;
Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb,
And bears him through the weary, trackless gloom.” *
The following passage, not translated by Mr. Wil-
liams, reminds one of the familiar utterance in Wisdom,
iv. 8 : —
“No man is old because his hair is gray ;
Who knows the Veda, though he still be young,
Is by the gods accounted rich in years.” 8
1 ** Je mourrai seul.” — Pascal.
8 ManUy Iv. 238-242. 8 ii. 156.
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CHAPTER IV
PANTHEISTIC SPECULATIONS
The development towards monotheism: Prajapati-Brahman — The
rise of pantheistic speculations — The Upanishads — Brahman*
Atman-Purusha identified with all things- The incomprehensi-
bility of Brahman — Maya — Rebirth and misery due to maya —
Brahman pessimism — Recognition of man’s identity with Brah-
man the only means of salvation — Absorption into Brahman the
true end of man — Pantheism subversive of traditional Brahman-
ism, though nominally in harmony with it.
W E have already seen that the religion of the
Vedic hymns was characterized by a strong
monotheistic tendency. The need was felt of a
supreme god endowed with the attributes of omnip-
otence, omniscience, and retributive justice ; but in the
choice of the deity there was great uncertainty. To
different gods, Varuna, Mitra, Agni, Indra, Soma,
was accorded in turn the honor of supremacy. The
worshipper who yesterday praised Varuna as supreme,
was found to-day bestowing the same compliment on
Indra or some other deity. For a while, indeed,
Varuna bid fair to outshine the other gods and win
his way to exclusive supremacy. But a stronger
current of popularity set in favor of Indra, who in
turn soon found a formidable rival in Agni.
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46 Antecedents of Buddhism
The inconsistency of thus attributing to several
gods properties that, strictly speaking, could belong
to one alone, seems to have made itself felt in the
minds of the priestly class. And so in the later
Vedic hymns we find a new deity coming into recog-
nition. This was Prajapati, lord of creatures, omnip-
otent and supreme, the upholder of the moral order.
The gods of the ancient pantheon came to be viewed,
now as the creatures of Prajapati, now as the various
forms under which he made himself known. This
new deity seems to have been a priestly, rather than
a popular, conception. It won its way into the
liturgy; but meanwhile Indra, Agni, Soma, and the
other gods continued to hold their old place in
worship and in popular esteem. Another designa-
tion of Prajapati was Brahman, and it is by this latter
name that the supreme deity came in the course of
time to be commonly addressed. In the popular
religion, however, Brahman had a rather shadowy
existence, being more remote than the gods of
ancient tradition and hence less prominently the
direct object of worship.
Such was the development towards monotheism in
the popular Brahmanic religion. But besides this,
there was a parallel movement towards pantheism.
That the gods of the Vedas were but feebly in-
dividualized is plainly shown by the readiness with
which the attributes of one god were transferred to
another. Hence when the new conception of the
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Pantheistic Speculations 47
supreme deity Prajapati or Brahman came to be
recognized, it was an easy step to identify with him
the various gods of tradition. But herein lay a grave
danger of lapsing into pantheism, owing to the asso-
ciation of these gods with material phenomena. For
if the sun-god, fire-god, earth-god, heaven-god, and
the rest were nothing more than manifestations of
the supreme deity, then the conclusion seemed
legitimate to many that the very sun, fire, earth,
heaven, and other parts of the visible universe were
identical with Brahman.
It was but another step to identify man himself
with this great underlying deity, and the .pantheistic
theory was nearly complete.
This school of thought was not a popular one.
It was esoteric in its teachings. Not all Brahmans,
even, were initiated into its mysterious but precious
wisdom. It was chiefly the possession of those who
lived apart in the forest as hermits and ascetics. The
more influential assumed the r61e of teachers, founded
schools, and by the accumulation of their aphorisms
gave rise to a new class of literature, the philosophic,
mystical, pantheistic treatises known as the Aranyakas
and Upaniskads .
Like the New Testament, the Upanishads do not
attempt to give a systematic exposition of doctrine.
Nor do they agree in all details, for they are the
products of various rival schools of thought. They
consist largely of dialogues and tracts setting forth
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Antecedents of Buddhism
48
in a mysterious manner the pantheistic way of salva-
tion. Thrown together without orderly arrangement,
these teachings are mingled with many absurdities
and puerile explanations. In the course of time they
took their place with the Vedas and Brahmanas as
inspired books, being also known as the Vedanta (End
of the Veda). They became the authoritative basis
for the Vedanta school of religious philosophy, which
has maintained its existence down to the present day . 1
The fundamental tenet of the pantheistic school
was the absolute identity of all existing things with
one self-existent, spiritual being. This being went
by various names. Now it was called Prajapati, now
Brahman, now Purusha (the Male or Person), now
Atman (the Self). By Atman was meant primarily
the principle of life and personality in each individual.
Not till after the identity of each individual self with
Brahman was recognized, does the word Atman
seem to have become a designation of the highest
deity.
Like the materialists, the pantheistic Brahmans
sought to reduce all things animate and inanimate
to terms of one simple substance. But while the
former declare that all things are matter, the latter
held all things to be spirit. The material world with
its endless variety of forms was Brahman. Man was
Brahman. The very gods were Brahman. Out of
1 The principal Upanishads have been translated in vol. I. and XV.
of the Sacred Books of the East \
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Pantheistic Speculations 49
Brahman, by a process of emanation, came all in-
dividual beings, and into Brahman they were des-
tined ultimately to be absorbed and to lose their
individuality, just as the drops of spray tossed up
from the surface of the ocean fall back to become
one again with the great parent mass.
“This is the truth. As from a blazing fire sparks like
unto fire fly forth a thousandfold, thus are various beings
brought forth from the Imperishable, my friend, and return
thither also. . . . From him [when entering on creation]
is born breath, mind, and all organs of sense, ether, air,
light, water, and the earth, the support of all. . . . From
him the many Devas too are begotten, the Sadhyas [genii],
men, cattle, birds. . . . The Person is all this.” 1
“ All this is Brahman. Let a man meditate on that [visi-
ble world] as beginning, ending, and breathing in it [the
Brahman]. . . . He from whom all works, all desires, all
sweet odors and tastes proceed, who embraces all this, who
never speaks and who is never surprised, he, myself within
the heart, is that Brahman.” 2
What was the nature of this all-embracing, all-
pervading deity? In the answer to this question,
we see the wide difference between the anthropo-
morphic conception of the traditional nature-gods
and the pantheistic notion of Brahman. Brahman
is as hard to describe as pure matter. He is without
1 Mundaka Upaniskad f ii. I. — S. B. E. XV. pp. 34-35. Cf. Katha
Upan. ii. 5. — S. B. E. XV. p. 19.
2 Chandogya Upanishad, iii. 14. — S . B. E. I. p. 48.
4
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50 Antecedents of Buddhism
parts, without form, a subtile essence that cannot
be apprehended.
“ That which cannot be seen, nor seized, which has no
family and no caste, no eyes nor ears, no hands nor feet,
the eternal, the omnipresent [all-pervading], infinitesimal,
that which is imperishable, that it is which the wise regard
as the source of all beings. ,, 1
In his own domain of eternal, unchangeable exist-
ence, he is all but unconscious; for according to
Hindu thought, there is nothing for him to perceive
since he himself is all that is, and since perception
implies duality, a distinction between the perceiver
and the perceived.
“ Verily, beloved, that Self is imperishable and of an in-
destructible nature. For when there is, as it were, duality,
then one sees the other, one smells the other, one tastes the
other, one salutes the other, one hears the other, one per-
ceives the other, one touches the other, one knows the
other ; but when the Self only is all this, how should he see
another, how should he smell another, how should he taste
another, how should he salute another, how should he hear
another, how should he touch another, how should he know
another? How should he know him by whom he knows
all this? That Self is to be described by no, no ! He is
incomprehensible, for he cannot be comprehended; he is
imperishable, for he cannot perish ; he is unattached, for he
does not attach himself ; unfettered, he does not suffer, he
does not fail.” 2
1 Mund. Upan. i. I .—S.B. E. XV. p. 28.
2 Brihad-aranyaka Upattishad , iv. 5. — S. B. E. XV. p. 185.
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Pantheistic Speculations 51
This recognized unity of all things in the incom-
prehensible Self, or Brahman, necessarily implied the
corresponding persuasion that the things of sense
were not what they seemed. The manifold external
world was tnaya , illusion. It had no real existence,
being but a passing manifestation of Brahman. Even
the gods were not real entities, having an existence
of their own. Like man, like the tree and the stone,
they were but transitory emanations of the one, un-
changing, incomprehensible spirit. Brahman alone
existed. He alone was eternal, imperishable.
It was the misfortune of men at large not to real-
ize this double truth. To take maya for reality, to
delude himself into the belief that he was a distinct
individual with a personality of his own, was the
fatal mistake of the ignorant and thoughtless man.
It was this false view of things that lay at the root
of all misery. For, ignoring his identity with Brah-
man, he did not see that his true end, and conse-
quently his highest bliss, consisted in being absorbed
into the great spirit from which he sprang. He was
led to set his heart on a merely personal existence.
He became a creature of desires, and attaching him-
self to objects unworthy of his affection, stained his
soul with guilt.
“ Carried along by the waves of the qualities, darkened in
his imaginations, unstable, fickle, crippled, full of desires,
vacillating, he enters into belief, believing, ( 1 am he/ ‘ this
is mine * ; he binds his self by his self, as a bird with a net,
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52 Antecedents of Buddhism
and overcome afterwards by the fruits of what he has done,
he enters on a good or bad birth ; downward or upward is
his course, and overcome by the pairs, he roams about.” 1
According to popular Brahmanic belief, the obli-
gation of being born again was incurred only by
those whose transgressions in the present life, as well
as in past forms of existence, had not been expiated
by proper penance. Rebirth was nothing else than
a form of punishment. The man who died rich in
merit and free from guilt was promised a personal
existence of endless bliss above.
In the Upanishad school, a different view prevailed.
Tortures in hell, and vile rebirths continued to be
recognized as the punishments of wickedness. But
freedom from all rebirth was also denied to the
virtuous man who, ignorant of his identity with
Brahman, counted on a personal existence. By
virtue of his good works, he would mount to heaven,
he might even win a place among the gods. But
this individual life of rest and bliss was at best but
fleeting. It could not last forever. After a while,
his store of merits would give out like oil in a lamp,
and he would then have to descend once more to
earth to taste in a new birth the bitterness of earthly
existence.
“ Fools dwelling in darkness, wise in their own conceit
and puffed up with vain knowledge, go round and round,
1 Maitrayana-Brahmana Upanishad , iii. 3. — S. B. E. XV. p. 297.
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Pantheistic Speculations 53
staggering to and fro like blind men led by the blind.
Children when they have long lived in ignorance, consider
themselves happy. Because those who depend on their
good works are, owing to their passions, improvident, they
fall and become miserable when their life [in the world
which they had gained by their good works] is finished.
Considering sacrifice and good works as the best, these fools
know no higher good, and having enjoyed [their reward] on
the height of heaven gained by good works, they enter again
this world or a lower one.” 1
“ But they who, living in a village, practise [a life of] sacri-
fices, works of public utility, and alms, they go to the
smoke, from smoke to night, from night to the dark half of
the moon, from the dark half of the moon to the six months
when the sun goes to the south. But they do not reach the
year. From the months they go to the world of the fathers,
from the world of the fathers to the ether, from the ether to
the moon. That is Soma the King. Here they are loved
by the Devas, yes, the Devas love them. Having dwelt
there till their [good] works are consumed, they return
again that way as they came.” 2
The prospect of being thus condemned to go
through the experiences of earthly life again and
again was calculated to arouse the deepest concern ;
for Brahmanic speculations had led to a very pessi-
mistic view of human existence.
“ O Saint,” a converted king cries out, “what is the
use of the enjoyment of pleasure in this offensive, pithless
1 Mundaka Upatiishad i. 2. — S. B. E. XV. p. 32.
2 Chandogya Upatiishad v. 10. — S. B. E. I. p. 80. Cf. S. B. E.
XV. p. 176.
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54
body — a mere mass of bones, skin, sinews, marrow, flesh,
seed, blood, mucus, tears, phlegm, ordure, water, bile, and
slime ! What is the use of the enjoyment of pleasures in
the body which is assailed by lust, hatred, greed, delusion,
fear, anguish, jealousy, separation from what is loved, union
with what is not loved, hunger, thirst, old age, death, illness,
grief, and other evils. . . .
“ In such a world as this, what is the use of enjoyment of
pleasures, if he who has fed on them is sure to return [to
this world] again and again. Deign therefore to take me
out ! In this world I am like a frog in a dry well. O Saint,
thou art my way, thou art my way.” 1
How, then, was man to escape from the fatal neces-
sity of being born again and again? What was the
true way of salvation? The Upanishads gave answer,
the perfection of existence is to be gained, not by
the storing up of merits through prayers, fasts, sacri-
fices, and virtuous deeds, but by the saving knowledge
of man’s identity with Brahman. As soon as one
could say from conviction “ I am Brahman,” the
bonds were broken that held him fast to individual
existence and to ever-recurring births. He attained
to that blessed state of passiveness and inactivity, of
freedom from all desires, in which he was no longer
disposed to do evil, no longer anxious to lay up
merit for a transitory enjoyment of bliss in heaven.
Mortifications and austerities were still welcome as a
help to freedom from desires, to tranquillity of life, to
1 Maitrayana-Brahmana Upart. i. 3-4. — S. B. E. XV. pp. 288-289.
Cf. Manu , vi. 76, 77. — Institutes of Vishnu , xcvi. — S. B. E. VII. p. 279.
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Pantheistic Speculations 55
concentration of mind on Brahman. Thus, peaceful
and tranquil, he lived on till death put an end to the
seeming duality, and he became absorbed in Brahman,
like a raindrop in the mighty ocean.
" Verily in the beginning this was Brahman, that Brahman
knew [its] Self only, saying, * I am Brahman/ From it all
this sprang. Thus, whatever Deva was awakened [so as to
know Brahman], he indeed became that [Brahman] ; and
the same with rishis and men. The rishi Vamadeva saw
and understood it, singing, 4 1 was Manu [moon], I was the
sun/ Therefore now also he who thus knows that he is
Brahman, becomes all this, and even the Devas cannot pre-
vent it, for he himself is their self." 1
“ Their deeds and their self with all his knowledge become
all one in the highest Imperishable. As the flowing rivers
disappear in the sea, losing their name and their form, thus
a wise man, freed from name and form, goes to the Divine
Person who is greater than the great. He who knows that
highest Brahman, becomes even Brahman. ... He over-
comes grief, he overcomes evil, free from the fetters of the
heart, he becomes immortal.” 2
In this way was complete emancipation to be ob-
tained. Nor did absorption into Brahman, with its
attendant loss of personality, and its adoption of a
quasi-unconscious existence for all future time, count
as a disadvantage. By being thus identified with
Brahman, the soul passed from its unreal to its real
condition ; it became raised to the blessed existence
1 Brih.-Aran. Upatt. i. 4. — S. B. E. XV. p. 88.
2 Mund. Upatt . iii. 2. — S. B. E. XV. p. 41.
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56 Antecedents of Buddhism
of divinity itself, and thereby attained a lot beyond
comparison with any known to man on earth or in
heaven.
“ If a man is healthy, wealthy, and lord of others, sur-
rounded by all human enjoyments, that is the highest bless-
ing of men. Now a hundred of these human blessings make
one blessing of the fathers who have conquered the world
[of fathers]. A hundred blessings of the fathers who have
conquered this world make one blessing in the Gandharva
world. A hundred blessings in the Gandharva world make
one blessing of the Devas by merit [work, sacrifice], who
obtain their godhead by merit. A hundred blessings of the
Devas by merit make one blessing of the Devas by birth, also
of a Srotriya 1 who is without sin and not overcome by de-
sire. A hundred blessings of the Devas by birth make one
blessing in the world of Prajapati. ... A hundred bless-
ings in the world of Prajapati make one blessing in the world
of Brahman. And this is the highest blessing.” 2
Such, in brief, was the teaching of the pantheistic
school as set forth in the Upanishads. While profes-
sing to be in perfect harmony with the ancient Vedas,
it was a wide departure from the traditional religion.
The happiness of heaven, of which the ancient bards
had sung, and which had been the hope and inspira-
tion of so many generations, it robbed of all sta-
bility and permanence, and set up instead, as the
supreme end of man, the questionable bliss of losing
one’s individuality by absorption into Brahman and
1 A Brahman thoroughly versed in the Vedas.
2 Brih.-Aran. Upan . iv. 4. — S. B. E. XV. pp. 1 71-172.
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Pantheistic Speculations 57
thus sinking into his eternal sleep of unconscious
repose.
It degraded the Vedic gods, and Prajapati the
personal deity as well, to a condition of comparative
insignificance, by declaring them to be but transitory
emanations of Brahman, and by making the salvation
of each individual depend, not on them, but on his
personal effort. For the same reason it greatly di-
minished the importance of the Vedic rites, — the
prayers, the sacrifices, the penances, — since it was
not in virtue of these, but by the recognition of one's
identity with Brahman that one could bring to a happy
issue the great task of final deliverance. The ideal
man was no longer the Brahman, intent on the per-
formance of the multitudinous Vedic ceremonies and
on the recitation of the Vedic texts, but rather the
ascetic, far removed from the active walks of life, ab-
sorbed in contemplation and the practice of austerities.
While thus bringing the Vedas down from the high
place of honor they had heretofore enjoyed, the pan-
theistic innovators gave them a nominal veneration
and allegiance. Though the higher Upanishad teach-
ing could alone bring salvation, and thus rendered
superfluous the lower Vedic teaching, yet the latter
was recognized to be better suited to cruder minds.
It was not to be contemned because it did not lead to
the highest good. They even went so far as to insist
on the necessity of learning the Vedas and perform-
ing the Vedic rites before one could enjoy the privi-
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58 Antecedents of Buddhism
lege of acquiring the higher knowledge of salvation.
The lower knowledge was declared to be an indis-
pensable preparation for the higher. But the step
was easy to the more radical and consistent view
that Vedic rites had no claim on man’s attention at
all. This step was taken by the heretical schools,
notably by Buddhism.
REFERENCES
The following works are recommended for the study of
Brahmanism :
I. Texts.
F. Max MOller, Vedic Hymns. Sacred Books of the East,
XXXII.
H. Oldenberg, Vedic Hymns. S. B. E. XLVI.
J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of
the People of India, their Religions and Institutions. 5 vols. London,
1868-70.
M. Bloomfield, The Atharva Veda. S. B. E. XLII.
J. Eggeling, The Satapatha Brahmana. S. B. E. XII., XXVI.,
XLI.
M. Haug, Aitareya Brahmana, Text, Translation, and Notes.
Bombay, 1863.
F. Max MOller, The Upanishads. S. B. E. I., XV.
H. Oldenberg and F. Max Muller, The Grihya-Sutras, Rules
of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies. S. B. E. XXIX., XXX.
G. Buhler, The Sacred Laws of The Aryas as Taught in the
Schools of Apastamba, Gautama, Vasishtha, and Baudhayana.
S. B. E. II., XIV.
G. Buhler, The Laws of Manu. S. B. E. XXV.
J. Jolly, The Institutes of Vishnu. S. B. E. VII.
J. Jolly, The Minor Law-books. S. B E. XXXIII.
G. Thibaut, The Vedanta-Sutras. S. B. E. XXXIV., XXXVIII.
II. General Treatises.
A. Barth, The Religions of India; Translated by J. Wood.
London, 1882.
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Pantheistic Speculations 59
A. Bergaigne, La religion v^dique d’apr&s les hymnes du Rig-
Veda. 4 vols. Paris, 1878-97.
H. T. Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, Edited by E. B. Cowell.
2 vols. London, 1873.
P. Deussen, Das System des Vedanta. Leipzig, 1883.
P. Deussen, Die Philosophic der Upanishads. Leipzig, 1899.
A. E. Gough, The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient
Indian Metaphysics. London, 1882.
E. W. Hopkins, The Religions of India. Boston, 1895.
A. Kaegi, The Rig-Veda; Translated by R. Arrowsmith. Boston-,
1886.
C. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde. 4 bde. Bonn-Leipzig,
1847-1861.
J. M. Mitchell, Hinduism Past and Present. London, 1885.
F. Max Muller, A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature.
London, i860.
F. Max Muller, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion
as Illustrated by the Religions of India. (Hibbert Lectures.)
London, 1878.
H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda. Berlin, 1894.
Chantepib de la Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte.
2 bde. Freiburg, 1897. Vol. II.
C. P. Tiele, Outlines of the History of Religion ; Translated
from the Dutch by J. Estlin Carpenter. London, 1877.
A. Weber, The History of Indian Literature; Translated by
J. Mann and T. Zachariae. London, 1892.
Monier Williams, Indian Wisdom, or Examples of the Re-
ligious, Philosophical, and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindus.
London, 1876.
Monier Williams, Hinduism. (S. P. C. K.) London, 1897.
Monier Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, or Religious
Thought and Life in India. London, 1891.
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PART II
Buddhism
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PART II
Buddhism
CHAPTER I
THE FOUNDER, BUDDHA 1
Brahman pantheism popular with the caste of warriors — It gives
rise to rival sects, one of which is Buddhism — Of Buddha but
little known for certain — His father not a king but a petty
raja — His birthplace — His various names — His education and
marriage — His abandonment of home for the ascetic life — His
long period of missionary activity — The Buddha-Legend — Mir-
aculous conception and birth — Asita — Life in the palace of
pleasure — The flight from home — Mortifications — The Bodhi-
tree — Mara’s temptations — Supreme enlightenment — First
preaching at Benares — Conversions — Devadatta — The fatal
meal with Chunda — The painful journey to Kusinara — Under
the Sala-trees — Subhadda — Buddha’s last words — Obsequies —
Division of relics — Estimate of Buddha’s character.
T HE pantheistic teaching embodied in the
Upanishads and reduced to a systematic form
in the so-called Vedanta school of religious philos-
ophy was a radical departure from popular Brah-
manism. It was a new religion under the thin
disguise of orthodoxy. While professing allegiance
to the sacred Vedas, it was a menace to the tradi-
1 The references throughout this volume to works on Buddhism
apply to the editions indicated in the bibliography.
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Buddhism
64
tional religion. It might insist on the traditional
observance of the Vedic rites as a necessary prepa-
ration for the reception of its own saving truths.
But in declaring the popular religion utterly helpless
to secure true salvation, it prepared the way for more
consistent minds to reject Brahmanism completely.
From the first the new pantheistic religion seems
to have found a welcome in the caste of nobles or
warriors. Doubtless they felt the burden of a reli-
gion which put so many restraints on their freedom
of action, whose forms of worship were so many and
so complicated, whose liturgical language was an
archaic tongue that few could fully understand,
whose official ministers were exalted to a position of
importance far above themselves. They would nat-
urally look kindly on a movement which offered them
an escape from the tyranny of the popular religion
without at the same time exposing them to the
charge of unorthodoxy. And so, in fact, we are told
in the Upanishads of kings and nobles professing the
new faith and taking part in discussions and conver-
sations concerning it.
But pantheistic Brahmanism was not without rival
movements in the claim of having discovered the true
way of salvation. They started with the same mor-
bid view that conscious life is a burden and a mis-
fortune, not worth the living, so that true happiness
was to be had only in the state of soul like dreamless
sleep, a state free from all desires, free from con-
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The Founder, Buddha 65
scious action. They, too, took for granted the
Upanishad doctrine of the endless chain of births.
But they differed from pantheistic Brahmanism both
in their attitude towards the Vedas and the Vedic
rites, and in the manner by which emancipation from
rebirths and from conscious existence was to be
obtained. In their absolute rejection of Vedic rites,
they stamped themselves as heresies. Of these the
one destined to win the greatest renown was
Buddhism.
Of Buddha, the founder of this great movement,
very little is positively known. The portrayal of his
life which tradition has handed down is so strongly
colored with the fanciful and marvellous that one is
tempted to doubt whether it is not all a fiction. One
of the foremost of living scholars 1 of Buddhism has
argued with no little persuasiveness that the main
features of the legendary account of Buddha’s career
are nothing more than adaptations of sun and storm
myths, clustered about an historical character of
which little for certain can be known.
Still with the aid of the ancient Buddhist monu-
ments, scholars have marked out what seems to be a
fairly probable sketch of his career.
The family from which Buddha sprang, was of the
warrior-caste. They were a family of feudal princes,
known as the Sakyas, with the cognomen of Go-
1 E. Senart, Essai sur la Ugende du Bouddha, son caractlre et ses
origines .
5
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66
Buddhism
tama. His father, called in the Buddhist records
Suddhodana, was a petty raja, ruling over a small
stretch of country along the southern border of the
district now known as Nepal.
The capital of this little kingdom was Kapilavastu,
a town famous in Buddhist annals, but fallen centuries
ago in ruins, the very site of which was unknown till
of late, when it was brought to light by the patient
researches of the archaeologist Dr. A. A. Fiihrer . 1
Eighteen miles southwest of this site is the traditional
spot Lumbini, where, about the middle of the sixth
century B.C., Buddha was born . 2
There is reason for suspecting the tradition which
asserts that his parents gave him the name Siddhattha , 3
so prophetic of his future greatness. It is more
likely that the name assigned to him in his infancy
was Gotama , 4 the cognomen of his father, the name
by which he is very commonly designated. Later in
life, he became known to his disciples by other
names, as Sakya-muni (the Sakya-sage), Sakya-
1 Cf. A. A. Fiihrer, Monograph on SakyamunCs Birthplace in the
Nepalese Tarai , ch. viii.
2 Here Dr. Fiihrer unearthed a pillar of stone containing this in-
scription of Asoka (250 b.c.) “King Piyadasi, beloved of the gods,
having been anointed twenty years, came himself and worshipped,
saying, * Here Buddha Sakyamuni was born/ And he caused to be
made a stone representing a horse, and he caused this stone pillar to
be erected. Because here the worshipped one was born, the village
of Lummini has been made free of taxes and a recipient of wealth.”
Op. cit. p. 27.
8 He that succeeds in his aim.
4 Sanskrit, Gautama.
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The Founder, Buddha 67
sinha (the Sakya-lion), Bhagavat (the Blessed One),
Sugata (the Welcome One), Jina (the Conqueror),
Tathagata (the Perfect One), but most common of
all, Buddha (the Enlightened).
A raja’s son, he must have received the education
deemed indispensable to the youths of his caste, and
was very likely sent to some learned Brahman to
spend a number of years in the study of the Vedas.
Following the immemorial customs of the East,
he married at an early age, and if we may trust tra-
dition, exercised a prince’s privilege of maintaining a
harem. His principal wife bore him a son. But his
heart was not at rest. The pleasures of the world
soon palled upon him. He became convinced of the
vanity of life, and resolved to renounce his home and
high station. He put on the hermit’s garb and re-
tired to the forest, devoting himself to penance and
meditation, studying doubtless the way of salvation
as taught in the Upanishads. But even this did not
satisfy his soul. After several years of austere life as
an ascetic, he became convinced that perfect peace
could not be obtained by rigorous fasts and mortifi-
cations. He gave himself to long and serious
thought, the fruit of which was the persuasion that
he had discovered the only true way of escaping from
the misery of rebirths and of attaining to Nirvana.
He then set out to preach his gospel of deliverance,
beginning at Benares. His attractive personality and
his earnest, impressive eloquence soon won over to
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68 Buddhism
his cause a number of the warrior-caste. Brahmans
too, felt the persuasiveness of his words, and gave
adherence to his doctrine. It was not long before
he had a band of enthusiastic disciples gathered
about him, in whose company he went from place to
place, making converts by his preaching. Those of
his disciples who were sufficiently versed in the new
doctrine were also sent through the length and
breadth of the land, carrying the good news of salva-
tion to high and low, rich and poor, and inviting
members of all castes to put on the yellow robes of
the followers of Buddha and seek the rest of Nirvana.
The converts soon became numerous, and were formed
into a great brotherhood of monks. Such was the
work to which Buddha gave himself with unsparing
zeal for over forty years. At length, worn out by
his long life of activity, he fell sick after a meal of
dried boar’s flesh, and died in the eightieth year
of his age. The approximate date of his death is
480 B.C.
The tendency to myth-making is natural to man.
In the present age of positive, critical science, it is
kept fairly in check. But in the uncritical and over-
credulous ages of the past, it had almost an unlimited
range of play. Heroes and saints were hardly re-
moved from the walks of life when the luxuriant
growths of legend intertwined themselves with the
sober records of their lives, often to such a degree as
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The Founder, Buddha 69
to overshadow and render insignificant what belonged
to the domain of historic truth. The apocryphal gos-
pels and some mediaeval lives of saints are illustra-
tions of this . 1 So likewise the records which have
come down to us of the founder of Buddhism.
The meagre facts of Buddha’s life have been embel-
lished with an abundance of fanciful and wonderful
events, some of which bear a curious though imper-
fect resemblance to certain features of the life of our
blessed Lord.
Legend tells how the future Buddha raised himself
by a vast series of virtuous lives to the dignity of a
heavenly spirit, and how, realizing the future great-
ness that was in store for him, he chose the time and
place for his birth as the redeemer of suffering hu-
manity. He chose for his mother the virtuous Maya ;
for she alone answered to the conditions requisite for
giving birth to a Buddha, namely, to be of high fam-
ily, never to have tasted strong drink, and to have
been distinguished for chaste and virtuous conduct
during one hundred thousand worlds.
In her he was miraculously conceived while she lay
asleep, and dreamed that he had passed through her
right side in the guise of a small white elephant. At
that moment a light of surprising brightness illumi-
nated ten thousand worlds. Prodigies took place on
1 In the admirable studies of the Bollandists (Acta Sanctorum)
this legendary element of Catholic hagiography is noted with the
greatest care.
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Buddhism
70
earth. The blind saw, the deaf heard, the dumb
spoke, the lame walked. Sufferings of all kinds
ceased. The birds cut short their flight. The rivers
ceased to flow. Flowers of all kinds burst into richest
bloom. The air was filled with sweetest odors and
stirred by gentle, refreshing zephyrs. It bore to the
ears of astonished peoples the music of heavenly
spirits . 1
Wonderful as was his conception, wonderful, too,
was his birth. His mother, obtaining permission to
visit the royal garden at Lumbini, repaired thither in
a splendid chariot, escorted by thousands of gods,
warriors, and waiting women. As she entered the
garden the shrubs and trees burst into bloom. She
directed her steps to a Sala-tree, the boughs of which
bent down over her. While she stood admiring its
blossoms, the child was born. Emerging miraculously
from her right side, he took seven steps towards the
north, and exclaimed, “ This is my last birth. I am
the greatest of beings. ,,
The prodigies that had marked the time of his con-
ception were now once more displayed. With min-
gled songs of joy from gods and men, the child and
mother were conveyed to the royal palace. Seven
days later the mother died, and was reborn in the
Tusita heaven, being rendered too sacred by Buddha’s
birth to bear other children.
1 Rhys Davids, Buddhist Birth Stories , p. 64. Bish. Bigandet,
Legend of Gaudama f pp. 26 ff.
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In the Himalaya region lived a venerable rishi ot
ascetic, Asita by name. On the day of Gotama’s
birth, having mounted, as was his wont, to the upper
heavens to refresh himself after his morning meal, he
came upon the gods waving their robes and shouting
with joy, and was told that to King Suddhodana was
born a son who would one day become a Buddha.
At once he directed his course towards the kingdom
Suddhodana, and by his power of rapid flight soon
reached the city of Kapilavastu. He asked to see
the wonderful babe, and, having discerned on his tiny
form the thirty-two marks of a supreme Buddha , 1 he
told of the glorious career to which the child was
destined, weeping, however, because he would not
live himself to see the day.
Passing over the wonderful incidents of his child-
hood and early youth, — his marvellous trance under
the Jambu-tree, his wonderful progress in the arts,
whereby in a few lessons he surpassed his teachers,
his easy victory over his youthful competitors in the
athletic contest, — we come to the critical period in
his life, when, in the society of his wife Yasodhara and
innumerable singing girls, he devoted himself wholly
to a life of pleasure in the splendid palace his father
had prepared for him. Anxious to have his son be-
come a universal monarch, the king had taken the
greatest care to keep from the eyes of the prince
1 For the thirty-two marks of the Buddha, see H. Alabaster, The
Wheel of the Law , pp. 110-115, also 312-313.
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every spectacle of human misery. But the gods
foiled his plans. One day, as Gotama took a drive
beyond the precincts of his palace, they brought be-
fore his sight the four objects which were destined to
turn him to the homeless state, — namely, a man en-
feebled with old age, one wasted with sickness, a
corpse, and a monk. By these sights the vanity and
impermanence of things were brought home to him,
and he returned to his palace with the resolve to
abandon all he had thus far held dear, and to become
an ascetic. * In vain that night did his many singing
girls try with seductive wiles to win him back to his
customary life of pleasure. At length, overcome by
weariness, they fell asleep, sprawled about in hideous
and revolting attitudes. This sight filled Gotama
with renewed disgust for the world. He felt that the
time for his act of renunciation was come. At mid-
night, with the aid of his trusty attendant, he got
ready his favorite horse, and without a word of fare-
well, even to his wife and son, galloped off* in the
darkness. Invisible hands opened the gates of the
palace of the city. At this juncture, Mara, the Lord
of Death and Pleasure, appeared, and tried to dis-
suade him from his purpose. “ Depart not, O lord,”
he cried out, “ in seven days from now the wheel of
empire will appear, and will make you sovereign over
the four continents and the two thousand adjacent
isles. Stop, my lord ! ” Gotama heeded not the
tempter, but sped on through the darkness of the
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night, and did not stop till break of day, when he
found himself at the farther shore of a distant river.
Here he cut off his hair with his sword, and, ex-
changing his princely robes for the garments of a
hunter, he sent back his attendant and steed, and be-
gan to practise the life of an ascetic.
Many were the Brahman sages he consulted in the
hope of finding the peace his heart yearned for, but
in vain. After six years of ever-increasing austerities,
which reduced him to mere skin and bones, and all
but caused his death, he became convinced that the
goal he sought was not to be attained by these exces-
sive mortifications. He began to take food. His
five companions in asceticism now abandoned him as
having lapsed from the life of perfection.
The great day of his enlightenment was now at
hand. Having bathed in the river Nairanjana and
partaken of the rice and cream, especially prepared
for him by a shepherd’s daughter, he proceeded to
the Bodhi-tree (the tree of knowledge), and sitting
cross-legged beneath it, with his face to the east, he
made the vow not to rise until he had attained com-
plete enlightenment.
In this purpose of Gotama, Mara, Lord of Death
and Pleasure, saw that his own power was being put
in jeopardy. He recognized the necessity either of
enticing or of driving him from the Bodhi-tree.
First, he tried the method of artful persuasion. At
his bidding, his three daughters sought to turn the
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heart of Gotama to the pursuit of sensual pleasures.
Their efforts proved in vain.
Then Mara exerted all his power to drive him from
the Bodhi-tree. He sent against him a frightful
tempest and a shower of burning rocks and cinders.
The very gods fled in dismay, but Gotama sat impas-
sive. As the falling rocks seemed about to crush
him, they were turned into a shower of blossoms.
Hot with rage at being thus balked, the tempter
assumed a form of hideous appearance, with a thou-
sand hands holding every conceivable kind of weapon,
and having mounted his war-elephant one hundred
and fifty leagues high, came rushing like a flood with
his host of frightful monsters against the saint ab-
sorbed in meditation. Calm and undisturbed he sat,
while the terrible missies hurled at him were changed
into garlands of flowers. This signal failure caused
Mara to despair. He withdrew for good with his
army. Meanwhile the scattered gods took courage,
and returning to the Bodhi-tree, chanted the victor's
praises.
That very night supreme enlightenment was at-
tained, and as he seized the prize for which he had
toiled so long and patiently, he burst into the song
of joy sung by every Buddha.
“ Long have I wandered, long !
Bound by the chain of life,
Thro* many births ;
Seeking thus long in vain
Whence comes this life in man, his consciousness, his pain !
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The Founder, Buddha
“ And hard to bear is birth,
When pain and death but lead to birth again.
Found ! It is found !
O Cause of Individuality !
No longer shalt thou make a house for me
“ Broken are all thy beams,
Thy ridgepole shattered !
Into Nirvana now my mind has past.
The end of cravings has been reached at last ! ” 1
Seven weeks he spent near the Bodhi-tree, enjoy-
ing the bliss of emancipation. Then, having partaken
of food offered him by two merchants, he repaired to
Benares, where he set in motion the wheel of the law.
His first converts were the five ascetics, his former
companions, who had deserted him when he gave up
the practice of fasting.
Among the disciples who soon rallied in great
numbers around him was his cousin, Devadatta. Like
Judas, this disciple sought to thwart the plans of his
master. Several times he plotted to destroy him.
At one time he hired thirty bowmen to slay him; but
as they drew near, awed by the majesty of his
presence, they fell at his feet craving forgiveness,
and, after listening to his words of wisdom, were
converted. On another occasion, he rolled a huge
stone down a steep slope below which Buddha was
walking. It split into fragments on the way, and
only a piece struck the master, wounding his foot.
It was dressed by a physician, and found completely
1 Rhys Davids, Buddhist Birth Stories , p. 103.
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well the next morning. Another time an infuriated
elephant was turned upon him in a narrow street.
As it seemed about to crush him in its wild onset,
it checked its course and bent in submission before
him. Finally, the evil-minded disciple sought to slay
Buddha with his own hand. But as he approached
to carry out his purpose, the earth beneath him
opened and he was cast headlong into hell. His
punishment consists in having his feet sunk ankle-
deep into the burning ground. A red-hot pan caps
his head to the ears. His body is transfixed with
five red-hot iron bars. This torment he will have to
endure for a whole revolution of nature.
The story of Buddha's last days as told in the
Mahaparinibbana Sutta, or Book of the Great Decease ,
belongs to a much earlier tradition, and while not
without exaggerations, is marked by much pathos and
beauty.
As he sees that his life-work has been accomplished,
he warns his disciples of his approaching end.
“Behold, now, O brethren, I exhort you, saying: ‘All
component things must grow old. Work out your salvation
with diligence. The final extinction of the Tathagata 1
will take place before long. At the end of three months
from this time the Tathagata will die ! * ” 2
The occasion of his fatal illness is the meal pre-
pared for him and his disciples by Chunda the
smith.
1 One of Buddha’s appellations. 2 S. B. E. XI. p. 6i-
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“ Now at the end of the night, Chunda, the worker in
metals, made ready in his dwelling-place sweet rice and
cakes and a quantity of dried boar’s flesh. And he
announced the hour to the Blessed One, saying, ‘ The hour,
Lord, has come, and the meal is ready.’
“ And the Blessed One robed himself early in the morn-
ing, and, taking his bowl, went with the brethren to the dwel-
ling-place of Chunda, the worker in metals. When he had
come thither, he seated himself in the seat prepared for him.
And when he was seated, he addressed Chunda, the worker
in metals, and, ‘ As to the dried boar’s flesh you have made
ready, serve me with it, Chunda, and as to the other food,
the sweet rice and cakes, serve the brethren with it.’ ”
Having eaten the meal set before him, Buddha
addresses his host with words striking for their uncon-
scious humor.
“ ‘ Whatever dried boar’s flesh, Chunda, is left over to thee,
that bury in a hole. I see no one, Chunda, on earth nor in
Mara’s heaven, nor in Brahma’s heaven, no one among
Samanas and Brahmanas, among gods and men, by whom
when he has eaten it, that food can be assimilated, save by
the Tathagata.’ ‘ Even so, Lord ! ’ said Chunda, the worker
in metals, in assent, to the Blessed One. And whatever
dried boar’s flesh remained over, that he buried in a hole.
“ And he went to the place where the Blessed One was ;
and when he had come there took his seat respectfully on
one side. And when he was seated, the Blessed One
instructed and aroused and incited and gladdened Chunda,
the worker in metals, with religious discourse. And the
Blessed One then rose from his seat and departed
thence .” 1
1 5 . B . £ . XI. pp. 71-72.
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In consequence of this meal, Buddha is seized with
illness accompanied with intense pain, but mindful
and self-possessed, he bears it without complaint, and
sets out for Kusinara.
“ Now the Blessed One went aside from the path to the
foot of a certain tree; and when he had come there, he
addressed the venerable Ananda, and said : 1 Fold, I pray
you, Ananda, the robe, and spread it out for me. I am
weary, Ananda, and must rest awhile ! 9
“ ‘ Even so, Lord ! ’ said the venerable Ananda, in assent
to the Blessed One, and spread out the robe folded
fourfold.
“ And the Blessed One seated himself on the seat prepared
for him ; and when he was seated, he addressed the vener-
able Ananda, and said: ‘Fetch me, I pray you, Ananda,
some water. I am thirsty, Ananda, and would drink.’”
Ananda asks him to wait until they come to another
stream but a short distance away, for several hundred
carts have just passed over the stream at hand and
have made the water muddy. But Buddha repeats
his request, so that Ananda, taking a bowl, goes down
to the stream, when, lo ! the water, but a moment ago
so foul and muddy, is found to be perfectly clear.
The pangs of illness do not dull his delicate
consideration for the unsuspecting author of his
trouble.
" And the Blessed One addressed the venerable Ananda,
and said ; 4 Now it may happen, Ananda, that some one should
stir up remorse in Chunda the smith, saying : 4 This is evil to
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The Founder, Buddha 79
thee, Chunda, and loss to thee in that when the Tathagata had
eaten his last meal from thy provision, then he died.”
He bids Ananda comfort Chunda by the thought
that there is no greater merit than that which is
acquired in offering food to a Buddha, either just
before his enlightenment or just before his death . 1
Ananda, seeing that the end is drawing nigh,
clothes his master in robes of burnished gold ; but
their splendor is paled by the exceeding brightness
of his body. Ananda expresses his astonishment :
“ ‘ How wonderful a thing it is, Lord, and how marvellous,
that the color of the skin of the Blessed One should be so
clear, so exceeding bright ! For when I placed even this
pair of robes of burnished cloth of gold, and ready for wear
on the body of the Blessed One, lo ! it seemed as if it had
lost its splendor/
“ 6 It is even so, Ananda. Ananda, there are two occasions
on which the color of the skin of a Tathagata becomes clear
and exceeding bright. What are the two ?
“ ‘ On the night, Ananda, on which a Tathagata attains to
the supreme and perfect insight, and on the night when he
passes finally away, in that utter passing away which leaves
nothing whatever to remain, on these two occasions the skin
of a Tathagata becomes clear and exceeding bright/ ” 2
Having come with a large number of brethren to
the Sala-grove near Kusinara, he addresses his favorite
disciple : —
1 B. E . XI. p. 83. 2 Ibid. p. 81.
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Spread over for me, I pray you, Ananda, the couch
with its head to the north, between the twin Sala-trees. I am
weary, Ananda, and would lie down/
“ ‘ Even so, Lord ! ’ said the venerable Ananda, in assent to
the Blessed One. And he spread a covering on the couch
with its head to the north, between the twin Sala-trees. And
the Blessed One laid himself down on his right side, with
one leg resting on the other; and he was mindful and
self-possessed.
“ Now at that time the twin Sala-trees were all one mass
of bloom with flowers out of season ; and all over the body
of the Tathagata these dropped and sprinkled and scattered
themselves, out of reverence for the successor of the
Buddhas of old. And heavenly Mandarava flowers too and
heavenly sandal-wood powder came falling from the sky,
and all over the body of the Tathagata they descended and
sprinkled and scattered themselves, out of reverence for the
successor of the Buddhas of old. And heavenly music was
sounded in the sky, out of reverence for the successor of the
Buddhas of old. And heavenly songs came wafted from the
sky, out of reverence for the successor of the Buddhas of
old.”
Buddha explains the meaning of these prodigies,
and says : —
" ‘ Now it is not thus, Ananda, that the Tathagata is rightly
honored, reverenced, venerated, held sacred, or revered.
But the brother or the sister, the devout man or the devout
woman, who continually fulfils all the greater and the lesser
duties, who is correct in life, walking according to the pre-
cepts, — it is he who rightly honors, reverences, venerates,
holds sacred, and reveres the Tathagata with the worthiest
homage. Therefore, Ananda, be ye constant in the fulfil-
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The Founder, Buddha 81
ment of the greater and the lesser duties, and be ye correct
in life, walking according to the precepts ; and thus, Ananda,
should it be taught.* ** 1
“ Now the venerable Ananda went into the vihara, and
stood leaning against the lintel of the door, and weeping at
the thought, Alas! I remain still but a learner, one who
has to work out his own perfection. And the Master is
about to pass away from me, he who is so kind ! ”
Buddha calls Ananda and consoles him.
“ 6 Enough, Ananda. Do not let yourself be troubled ; do
not weep ! Have I not already, on former occasions, told
you that it is in the very nature of all things most near and
dear to us that we must divide ourselves from them ? . . .
For a long time, Ananda, you have been very near to me
by acts of love, kind and good, that never varies and is
beyond all measure. ... Be earnest in effort, and you too
shall soon be free from the great evils — from sensuality,
from individuality, from delusion, and from ignorance.* ** 2
The chief representatives of Kusinara are allowed
to pay their respects to the dying Buddha. A men-
dicant, Subhadda, not of Buddha’s order, asks three
times of Ananda permission to consult his master,
but each time receives the same answer of refusal :
“ Enough, friend Subhadda, trouble not the Tatha-
gata. The Blessed One is weary.”
“ Now the Blessed One overheard the conversation of the
venerable Ananda with the mendicant Subhadda. And the
Blessed One called the venerable Ananda, and said : ‘ It is
enough, Ananda. Do not keep out Subhadda. Subhadda,
1 S. B. E. XI. pp. 86-87. 2 MM- PP- 95-97-
6
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Ananda, may be allowed to see the Tathagata. Whatever
Subhadda may ask of me, he will ask from a desire of knowl-
edge, and not to annoy me. And whatever I may say in
answer to his questions, that he will quickly understand/ ”
Subhadda is admitted. His mind is enlightened
and his doubts solved by the admonition of Buddha.
He exclaims : —
“ ‘ Most excellent, Lord, are the words of thy mouth, most
excellent ! Just as if a man were to set up that which is
thrown down, or were to reveal that which is hidden away,
or were to point out the right road to him who has gone
astray, or were to bring a lamp into the darkness, so that
those who have eyes can see external forms : — just even so,
Lord, has the truth been made known to me, in many a
figure, by the Blessed One. And I, even I, betake myself,
Lord, to the Blessed One as my refuge, to the truth and to
the order. May the Blessed One accept me as a disciple,
as a true believer, from this day forth, as long as life
endures ! ’ ” 1
“ Then the Blessed One addressed the brethren, and said :
* Behold, now, brethren, I exhort you, saying, Decay is in-
herent in all component things. Work out your salvation
with diligence 1 *
“ This was the last word of the Tathagata.
“ When the Blessed One died, there arose, at the moment
of his passing out of existence, a mighty earthquake, terrible
and awe-inspiring ; and the thunders of heaven burst forth.” a
“ When the Blessed One died, of those of the brethren
who were not yet free from the passions, some stretched
out their arms and wept, and some fell headlong on the
1 S. B. E. XI. pp. 103 ff. 2 Ibid p . „6.
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The Founder, Buddha 83
ground, rolling to and fro in anguish at the thought : ‘ Too
soon has the Blessed One died ! Too soon has the Happy
One passed from existence ! Too soon has the light gone
out in the world ! ’ ”
“ But those of the brethren who were free from the pas-
sions [the Arahats] bore their grief collected and composed
at the thought : ‘ Impermanent are all component things.
How is it impossible that they should not be dissolved ? * ” 1
The body of Buddha is properly prepared and
laid on the funeral pile for the burning. But, in
spite of all efforts, the kindling-wood refuses to take
fire. Meanwhile the venerable brother Maha Kas-
sapa arrives with five hundred brethren.
“Then the venerable Maha Kassapa went to the place
where the funeral pile of the Blessed One was. And when
he had come up to it, he arranged his robe on one shoulder ;
and bowing down with clasped hands, he thrice walked
reverently around the pile ; and then, uncovering the feet,
he bowed down in reverence at the feet of the Blessed One.”
The five hundred brethren do the same.
“ And when the homage of the venerable Maha Kassapa
and of those five hundred brethren was ended, the funeral
pile of the Blessed One caught fire of itself.” 2
The bone relics are divided into eight portions,
and taken to as many different cities, where mounds
(stupas) are built to preserve them as objects of
worship.
1 S . B. E. XI. p. 1 1 7. 2 Ibid. p. 129.
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84 Buddhism
If we eliminate the miraculous from the records of
Buddha’s career, how much of the residue can we
accept as reliable information? The answer to this
question is not easy. The historical basis on which
the biography of Buddha rests is not to be compared
with that which belongs to the personality and life-
work of our blessed Saviour. The Book of the Great
Decease is, at the very least, a century and a half
later than the events it describes, and the authorities
for the earlier portions of Buddha’s life are much
later still. Hence the opportunities for legendary
growths were ample. But confining our attention to
the oldest Suttas and Vinaya texts which treat of
Buddha’s missionary career, we shall not go far
astray, if we take much of what is recorded of him to
be at least typical of his character and of his work.
Not all the anecdotes told of him may be historically
true. But of his reputed sayings and arguments the
substance is doubtless in great part his. When we
consider how profound must have been the influence
he exercised on his generation, when we bear in
mind that he spent the best part of his long life in
building up the system that was to immortalize his
name, that by years of intimate association he had
made his disciples thoroughly familiar with his re-
ligious views, his disposition, and his habits of life,
we need not deem it likely that in the memory of
those who carried on his work of zeal, his character,
words, and deeds should quickly fade away. In
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The Founder, Buddha 85
these earlier traditions, we have, in the main, a fair
indication both of the man and of his method of
teaching.
There is something inspiring in that man of high
birth and fine culture, leaving all the world holds
dear, to bend his life’s energies to the unselfish task
of making known to suffering humanity the precious
deliverance he thought he had discovered. In his
idea of salvation he missed the mark, but he was
none the less sincere. It was this sincerity, coupled
with true greatness of soul, that carried him to the
successful accomplishment of his plans. None but a
great and strong soul, none but a lofty and com-
manding personality, could have exerted so powerful
an influence on his contemporaries and on succeed-
ing generations. In the eyes of his admiring follow-
ers, he was sinless, free from all defects, adorned with
every grace of mind and heart. We may hesitate
before taking the highly colored portrait of Buddhist
tradition for the exact representation of the original.
But we may credit him all the same with the qualities
of a good and great man. The records depict him
moving about from place to place, regardless of com-
fort, calm and fearless, mild and compassionate, con-
siderate towards men of every walk of life, absorbed
with the one idea of freeing them from the bonds of
misery, and irresistible in the eloquence and skill of
argument with which he set forth the way of deliver-
ance. In his mildness, his readiness to overlook
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Buddhism
insults, his zeal, his chastity, his simplicity of life, he
reminds one not a little of Saint Francis of Assisi. In
all pagan antiquity, no^character has been depicted
more noble and more winsome. If the portrait is in
advance of the original, it is nevertheless of great
value, as setting forth the Buddhist conception of the
ideal man.
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CHAPTER II
THE LAW, DHAMMA
Deliverance from suffering the aim of Buddhism — The Four Great
Truths — ( i ) The truth of suffering — Buddhist pessimism — (2)
The cause of suffering : desire and ignorance — Karma and re-
birth — (3) The extinction of suffering through the extinction of
desire — Nirvana, of the living, of the dead — The Buddhist view
of the soul — The joyful element in Buddhism — Nirvana supple-
mented by the Brahman paradise, swarga — The latter the more
popular conception — (4) The eightfold path to Nirvana — Com-
parison of the Buddhist with the Brahman standard of ethics —
The five great duties — Attitude of Buddhism towards suicide —
Gentleness and forgiveness of injuries — Examples of Buddhist
wisdom.
T HE sum and substance of Buddha’s teaching,
known as Dhamma, the Law, centred about
one supremely important point, namely, deliverance
from suffering.
“ As the great sea, O disciples, is permeated with but one
taste, the taste of salt, so also, O disciples, this doctrine
and this law are pervaded with but one taste, the taste of
deliverance.” 1
To set men free from the sufferings of conscious
existence was the great end for which Buddha toiled.
1 H. Oldenberg, Buddha , His Life , His Doctrines , His Order , p. 265.
The quotations drawn from this admirable work are versions of texts
not to be found in the Sacred Boohs of the East.
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To accomplish this purpose, to lead men to everlast-
ing rest, he had to win their assent to the four Great
Truths concerning Suffering, the Cause of suffering,
the Extinction of suffering, and the Path leading to
the extinction of suffering. It is under these four
heads that Buddha’s law is summed up. Let us
examine them one by one.
The first truth was the truth of suffering.
“ This, O Bhikkhus, is the noble truth of suffering : birth is
suffering ; decay is suffering ; illness is suffering ; death is
suffering. Presence of objects we hate is suffering ; separa-
tion from objects we love is suffering ; not to obtain what
we desire is suffering. Briefly, the fivefold clinging to
existence is suffering.” 1
Life in all its forms is suffering and is not worth
living. This pessimistic view, the fruit of Brahman
pantheistic speculation, finds expression in language
almost identical with what we find in the Upanishads.
The body is held in the same morbid contempt.
“ Look at the dressed-up lump, covered with wounds,
joined together, sickly, full of many thoughts, which has no
strength, no hold ! This body is wasted, full of sickness,
and frail ; this heap of corruption breaks to pieces ; life in-
deed ends in death. Those white bones, like gourds thrown
away in the autumn, what pleasure is there in looking at
them? After a stronghold has been made of the bones, It is
covered with flesh and blood, and there dwell in it old age
and death, pride and deceit.” 2
1 Mahavagga , i. 6, 19. — S. B. E. XIII. p. 95.
2 Dhammapada y 146-150. — S. B. E. X. p. 41. Cf. S. B. E. X. Pt
ii. p. 32.
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The Law, Dhamma 89
In the world of life and action, all is impermanent
and subject to decay, all is disappointment and
bitterness, vanity and vexation of spirit.
“ There are five things which no Samana or Brahman and
no god, neither Mara, nor Brahma, nor any being in the
universe can bring about. What five things are these?
That what is subject to old age should not grow old ; that
what is subject to sickness should not be sick ; that what is
subject to death should not die ; that what is subject to
decay should not decay ; that what is liable to pass away,
should not pass away : — this can no Samana bring about,
nor any Brahman, nor any god, neither Mara nor Brahman
nor any being in the universe.” 1
Life is thus strongly flavored with the bitterness of
disappointment, of fear, of anxiety, of pain, of sorrow,
of loss, of decay. And of this misery there is no end ;
for as soon as one wretched life is ended, another
follows in its place.
“ The pilgrimage of beings, my disciples, has its beginning
in eternity. No opening can be discovered, from which
proceeding, creatures mazed in ignorance, fettered by a
thirst for being, stray and wander. What think ye, disciples,
whether is more, the water which is in the four oceans, or
the tears which have flowed from you and have been shed by
you while you strayed and wandered on this long pilgrimage,
and sorrowed and wept because that was your portion which
ye abhorred, and that which ye loved was not your portion?
A mother’s death, a father’s death, a brother’s death, a sister’s
death, a son’s death, a daughter’s death, the loss of relations,
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit p. 217.
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the loss of property, — all this ye have experienced through
long ages. And while ye experienced this through long ages,
more tears have flowed from you and have been shed by you,
while you strayed and wandered on this long pilgrimage, and
sorrowed and wept . . . than all the water which is in the
four oceans/ 1 1
What is the fundamental cause of this misery of
life? The answer to this question constitutes the
second of the four great truths.
u This, O Bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the cause of
suffering : thirst that leads to rebirth, accompanied by pleas-
ure and lust, finding its delight here and there. [This thirst
is threefold], namely, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence,
thirst for prosperity.” 2
The source of the mischief thus lies in the will. It
is the desire to live, to preserve one's individual exist-
ence, the desire to satisfy the cravings of sensual
nature, the thirst for name and wealth and power,
that subjects man to the endless round of rebirths
with their unavoidable accompaniments of decay, im-
permanence, sickness, misery.
But is desire, after all, the ultimate source of re-
birth and its attendant misery? It seems not; for in
the abstruse chain of cause and effect which it was
the duty of every perfect monk to understand, igno*
ranee is put down as the primary cause of suffering.
This chain, which scholars find hard to explain, runs
as follows : —
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. pp. 216-217. 2 S. B. E. XIII. p. 95.
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“ From Ignorance spring the Sankharas.
“ From the Sankharas springs Consciousness.
“ From Consciousness spring Name and Form.
“ From the Name and Form spring the Six Provinces [of
the six senses].
“ From the six Provinces springs Contact.
“ From Contact springs Sensation.
“ From Sensation springs Thirst [or Desire].
“ From Thirst springs Attachment.
“ From Attachment springs Existence.
“ From Existence springs Birth.
“ From Birth spring Old Age and Death, grief, lamenta-
tion, suffering, dejection, and despair.” 1
If we ask what is this ignorance which lies at the
root of all suffering, we are told, the ignorance of the
great four truths. It is the “ delusion which conceals
from man the true being and the true value of the
system of the universe. Being is suffering : but igno-
rance totally deceives us as to this suffering : it causes
us to see instead of suffering, a phantom of happiness
and pleasure.” 2
In thus attributing the origin of misery to ignorance
and desire, Buddha was practically in harmony with
the Upanishad teaching, according to which igno-
rance of one’s identity with Brahman gave rise to the
desire for individual existence with its attendant
misery. But while the pantheistic Brahman laid chief
1 Mahavagga , i. I, 2. — S. B. E. XIII. pp. 75-77.
2 Oldenberg, Op. cit. p. 241.
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stress on ignorance, Buddha seems to have empha-
sized desire, as the principal cause of rebirth and
suffering.
In connection with this, we may note another point
of doctrine for which Buddha was indebted to Brah-
manic theology. It is the doctrine of karma . Like
the Brahman, Buddha recognized that in the unceas-
ing chain of births, the character of each successive
existence of the individual was the net result of his
good and evil deeds in the preceding life. Grades of
punishment proportionate to the degree of guilt
awaited the sinner at death, varying from rebirth as a
man of lower caste down to a life of appalling but
limited duration in one of the numerous hells. On
the other hand, various other forms of existence on
earth and in heaven were the expected rewards of
those who, though not yet ripe for Nirvana, acquitted
themselves as men of virtue. This inheritance of a
sanction after death of good and evil deeds — presup-
posing, in the last analysis, belief in man’s dependence
on a supernatural being — is one of the incongruities
of Buddhism.
It was the aim of popular Brahmanism to help man
to ward off by suitable penance the sad consequences
of his transgressions and attain a happy existence in
heaven.
Buddhism, on the contrary, sought, like the Upan-
ishad pantheism, to secure for man liberation from all
individual, conscious existence, even life in heaven ;
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The Law, Dhamma 93
for all forms of individual existence were held to be
impermanent, subject to decay and suffering.
This brings us to the third great truth as set forth
by Buddha, that of the extinction of suffering.
w This, O Bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the cessation of
suffering : [it ceases with] the complete cessation which con-
sists in the absence of every passion — with the abandoning
of this thirst, with the doing away with it, with the deliverance
from it, with the destruction of desire.” 1
Here again, the strongly developed ethical charac-
ter of Buddhism asserts itself. The pantheistic Brah-
man said: recognize your identity with the god
Brahman and you thereby cease to be a creature of
desires, you are no longer subject to rebirths. He
laid chief stress on the act of the intellect.
Buddha, on the contrary, puts abstruse specula-
tion in the background, and insists on the saving act
of the will, the suppression of all desire, as the one
thing needful.
With the pantheist, salvation is chiefly through
knowledge. With the Buddhist, it is chiefly through
volition. Yet the value of right knowledge is not
overlooked.
“ While he thus knows and apprehends [the four sacred
truths], his soul is freed from the calamity of desire, freed
from the calamity of becoming, freed from the calamity of
error, freed from the calamity of ignorance. In the deliv-
ered there arises the knowledge of his deliverance, ended
1 S. B. E, XIII. p. 95.
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is rebirth, fulfilled the law, duty done; no more is there
any returning to this world : this he knows.” 1
What is this extinction of desire which leads to
extinction of suffering? Is it the extinction of lust,
of consuming ambition, of every selfish, unbridled
craving that finds its satisfaction in sin? It is this
but not this only. The extinction of evil desires will
save a man from the punishments of vile rebirths,
but it will not release him from the misery of exist-
ence. To this end, the extinction is needed of all
desire save, perhaps, that of being rid of miserable
existence itself. Deliverance from rebirth and its
attendant suffering seems to have been a legitimate
object of yearning. But to attain this great end, all
other forms of desire must be absolutely quenched,
— the natural cravings for the solace and comforts
of married life, the desire for lawful pleasures and
satisfactions of all kinds, the desire even to preserve
one's conscious existence. It is only in the extinc-
tion of every desire that cessation of misery is to be
attained. It is this state of absence of desire and of
pain which is known as Nirvana (Nibbana).
The word Nirvana was not coined by Buddha. It
was already current. Yet in the mind of Buddha it
doubtless assumed a new shade of meaning. In the
new religion it conveyed the notion of complete
repose, of perfect freedom from desire and pain.
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. p. 263.
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The word Nirvana means a “ blowing out,” an
extinction, primarily, of the fire of desire, of ill-will,
of delusion, of all, in short, that binds the individual
to rebirth and misery. In this sense, it is the pos-
session of every follower of Buddha as soon as he
has fully mastered the four sacred truths and thereby
attained to the perfection of the arhat. “ The dis-
ciple who has put off lust and desire, rich in wisdom,
has here on earth attained the deliverance from death,
the rest, the Nirvana, the eternal state .” 1 It was
thus, in the living saint, a state of calm repose, of
indifference to life and death, to pleasure and pain,
a state of imperturbable tranquillity, where the sense
of freedom from the bonds of rebirth caused the dis-
comforts, as well as the joys, of life to sink into in-
significance. It was the state which enabled one of
Buddha's prominent disciples to say : “ I long not
for death, I long not for life, I wait till my hour
comes, like a servant waiting for his reward ; I long
not for death, I long not for life, I wait till my hour
comes, alert and with watchful mind .” 2
Between this form of Nirvana as attained by the
perfected Buddhist before death, and the tranquillity
of soul of the Brahman ascetic after recognizing fully
his identity with Brahman, there is little difference.
Of the latter it is said : “ Let him not desire to die,
let him not desire to live ; let him wait for [his ap-
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. p. 264.
2 Ibid*] p. 265.
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pointed] time as a servant [waits] for the payment
of his wages.” 1
But it is not till the Buddhist arhat has passed
from earthly existence that Nirvana is realized in its
completeness. In this strict sense, it implies much
more than a peaceful indifference to pleasure and
pain. He who has entered into Nirvana through
death has no longer any conscious existence, nothing
resembling the life of men or of gods. “ The body
of the Perfect One, O disciples,” runs an old text
concerning Buddha, “ subsists, cut off from the
stream of becoming. As long as his body subsists,
so long will gods and men see him. If his body be
dissolved, his life run out, gods and men shall no
more behold him.” 2
When asked the meaning of the cloud of smoke
which flurried about the corpse of the arhat God-
hika, Buddha is made to say: “That is Mara, the
wicked One, O disciples ; he is looking for the noble
Godhika’s consciousness. But the noble Godhika
has entered into Nirvana; his consciousness nowhere
remains.” 3
Eternal, unconscious repose — such is the state of
Nirvana. Such, too, was the state of absorption in
Brahman, the goal towards which the pantheist
directed his religious thought and action. The
beatific state to which the latter aspired implied
1 Manu , vi. 45. 2 Oldenberg, Op. cit. p. 26 6.
8 Ibid, p. 266.
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eternal existence of identity with Brahman. Did
Nirvana likewise imply continuity of existence or
did it mean annihilation?
Many scholars have taken Nirvana to be synony-
mous with annihilation. And, in truth, if the psy-
chological speculations found in the sacred books
are part of Buddha’s personal teaching, it is hard
to see how he could have held aught else as the
supreme goal of noblest endeavor.
According to these speculations, there is no such
thing in man as a permanent soul, surviving after
death and preserving one’s personality unchanged.
Every individual is a compound of various elements
which admit of classification into five groups: (1)
bodily form, (2) sensations, (3) perceptions, (4)
conformations ( sankharas , inner workings of intellect
and will), (5) consciousness. None of these by itself
constitutes the ego, which is the joint product of
all combined, just as the chariot is a complex unit not
to be identified with any one of its component parts. 1
The proportions in which these constituent elements
combine vary in each individual, being determined by
the karma resulting from his previous existence. At
death they fall away, to be forthwith succeeded by
a new combination. The element of consciousness
seems to be the connecting thread running through
the constant succession of new existences, but in
1 Cf. Questions of King Milanda, ii. i, i. — S. B. E. XXXV. pp.
42 ff .
7
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reality each new combination gives rise to a different
personality. The logical result of this philosophy is
that when in Nirvana these constituent elements part
company, never to be recombined into a new ego,
there is no further existence, but absolute annihilation.
If Buddha really held this view of human personal-
ity, he carefully abstained in his teaching from draw-
ing its logical conclusion. Neither did he declare
Nirvana to be, as some scholars think, “ the very per-
fection of existence, the beatitude of repose beyond
comparison with earthly joys.” 1 The researches of
Professor Oldenberg and others have made it clear
that, in the beginning, positive teaching on the nature
of Nirvana after death was expressly avoided.
When asked by the venerable disciple Malukya, in
the most direct manner, whether he, the Perfect One,
would live or not after death, Buddha refused to give
any information, on the ground that it was irrelevant,
not conducive to peace and enlightenment. It was
sufficient to know the four truths, and hence that
Nirvana was liberation from suffering. “Therefore,
Malukya, whatsoever has not been revealed by me,
let that remain unrevealed; and what has been re-
vealed, let it be revealed .” 2
On another occasion a wandering monk, not of his
order, asked him two questions: “Is there the ego?
1 Cf. Max Muller, in his introduction to Buddhaghosha's Parables ,
by T. Rogers.
2 Oldenberg, Op. cit. pp. 275-276.
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Is there not the ego ? ” These questions Buddha met
with absolute silence. When asked later by his faith-
ful disciple Ananda why he had not answered, Buddha
replied that to have said “ the ego is ” would have
confirmed the heretical doctrine of the permanence
of things, while to have said “ the ego is not ” would
have confirmed the doctrine of those who believed in
annihilation. It would have caused the monk to be
thrown from one bewilderment into another : “ My
ego did not exist before? But now it exists no
longer.” 1
To pronounce, then, either upon the existence or
upon the non-existence of those who entered into
Nirvana was declared wrong by Buddha. As was the
teaching of the Master, so was that of his intimate
disciples.
A monk, who interpreted Nirvana to mean annihil-
ation, was taken to task by the venerable Sariputta,
who by a series of pointed questions convinced him
that he had no right to hold such a view, since the
subject was involved in mystery . 2
The answer which the nun Khema made to the
King of Kosala, when inquiring about the existence
of the deceased Buddha, was in a similar vein.
Whether the Perfect One exists after death, whether
he does not exist after death, whether he exists and
at the same time does not exist after death, whether
he neither exists nor does not exist after death, has
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. pp. 272-273. 2 Ibid. pp. 281-282.
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not been revealed by Buddha. Why not? Because
the existence of the Perfect One is a subject too deep
to be fathomed, like the ocean. “ ‘ The Perfect One
exists after death/ this is not apposite ; ‘ The Perfect
One does not exist after death/ this is also not appo-
site ; ‘ The Perfect One at the same time exists and
does not exist after death/ this is also not apposite ;
* The Perfect One neither does nor does not exist
after death/ this also is not apposite .” 1
Since, then, the nature of Nirvana was too mysteri-
ous to be grasped by the Hindu mind, too subtile to
be expressed in terms either of existence or non-
existence, it is idle to attempt a positive solution of
the question left purposely unanswered by Buddha.
It suffices to know that it meant a state of unconscious
repose, of endless tranquillity, undisturbed by feelings
of joy or sorrow. Between such a state and that of
positive annihilation, there is practically nothing to
choose. The Buddhist ideal is that of an eternal
sleep which knows no awakening. In this respect it
is practically one with the ideal of the pantheistic
Brahman.
A religious system that persuades its votaries that
life at its best is not worth living, that offers as its
highest consolation an eternity of unconscious repose,
seems melancholy enough in our eyes. Its natural
fruit would seem to be pessimism and despair. Yet
with the Indian Buddhist it was not so. For him,
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. pp. 278-280.
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The Law, Dhamma
liberation from the misery of individual existence was
a consummation devoutly to be wished. Nirvana
was the summutn bonum. It was to him what heaven
is to the zealous Christian, — the one great object of
yearning and of hope. And so the dominant tone in
Buddhism is that of joy.
“Let us live happily, then, free from ailments among the
ailing ! . . . Let us live happily, then, though we can call
nothing our own ! We shall be like the brightest gods feeding
on happiness ! . . . Health is the greatest of gifts, contented-
ness the best riches ; trust is the best of relationships ; Nir-
vana the highest happiness.” 1
But the recognition of this heroic ideal by Buddha's
followers does not mean that it was for all alike an
object of enthusiastic longing. As may well be
imagined, only the more resolute souls bent their
energies to the stern task of attaining at death to
Nirvana. It is only of the noble few that the
Buddhist verse holds true : “ Even in heavenly
pleasures he finds no satisfaction, the disciple who
is fully awakened delights only in the destruction of
all desires." 2
Buddha's system conveniently provided for those
who accepted in theory the teaching that Nirvana
alone was the true end of man, but who still lacked
the courage to cut aloof from all individual existence.
The various heavens of Brahman theology, with their
1 Dhammapada , 198, 200, 204. — S. B. E. X. pp. 53, 55.
2 Dhammapada , 187. — S. B. E. X. p. 51.
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Buddhism
positive, even sensual, delights were retained as the
reward of virtuous souls not yet ripe for Nirvana.
To aspire after such rewards was permitted to the
lukewarm monk ; it was commended to the layman.
Hence the frequent reference, even in the earliest
Buddhist scriptures, to heaven (swarga) and to future
delights as an encouragement to right conduct.
“ Follow the law of virtue ! The virtuous rest in bliss in
this world and in the next.” “ This world is dark, few only
can see here ; a few only go to heaven, like birds escaped
from the net.” “ The uncharitable do not go to the world
of the gods.” “ Some people are born again ; evil-doers go
to hell ; righteous people go to heaven ; those who are free
from all worldly desires attain Nirvana.” 1
Buddha himself is made responsible for the state-
ment that they who die on a pilgrimage to the four
holy places “ shall be reborn after death, when the
body shall dissolve, in the happy realms of heaven.” 2
Sufficient prominence is not generally given to
this more popular side of Buddhist teaching, with-
out which the followers of Buddha would have been
limited to an insignificant and short-lived band of
heroic souls. It is this element, so prominent in the
inscriptions of Asoka, that tempered the severity of
Buddha’s doctrine of Nirvana and made his religion
acceptable to the masses. It was destined in course
of time to triumph over the primitive notion of
1 Dhamtnapada , 168, 174, 1 77, 126.
2 Book of the Great Decease , v. 22. — S. B. E. XI. p. 91. Vide infra ,
pp. 127, 134-
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The Law, Dhamma 103
Nirvana itself, reducing it to a heaven of positive
and never-ending delights.
But how was man to attain to the extinction of
desire and thus share in the supreme bliss of Nir-
vana? The answer is found in the last of the four
great truths.
“ This, O Bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the path which
leads to the cessation of suffering, that holy eightfold path,
that is to say, right belief, right aspiration, right speech, right
conduct, right means of livelihood, right endeavor, right
memory, right meditation.” 1
In this eightfold path, we have an abstract sum-
mary of the laws of conduct to which every one
aspiring to Nirvana should conform. They fall
naturally under two heads: first, those belonging
to the domain of morals; secondly, those touching
on discipline. The latter division will be sufficiently
treated when we speak of the Order, the Sangha.
It is chiefly to the ethical code recognized by
Buddha that we now turn our attention.
If we compare the ethical code of Buddha with
that recognized in the Brahman law-books, we note
two chief points of difference. The first is the
absence in Buddhism, to a large extent, of those
puerile precepts and prohibitions that must have
made life under the old religion so irksome. The
second is the severe, though logical, attitude which
Buddha took towards married life. With the excep-
1 s. B. E. XIII. p. 95.
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tion of these two points, Buddhist ethics differ but
little from those of Brahmanism. If we may trust
the evidence drawn from Buddhist sources, the
Brahmans of Buddha’s day were far from exhibit-
ing in their manner of life the realization of the high
moral standard we find in the Laws of Manu . The
followers of Buddha, fired by the enthusiasm of the
new movement, gave examples of moral earnestness
that put the Brahmans to the blush and told strongly
in favor of the Buddhist claims. Yet, in theory, the
moral code of Buddhism was little more than a copy
of that of Brahmanism.
Buddhist morality, like the Brahman, did not con-
sist in mere outward conformity to the standard of
right and wrong. It had its source in the will. A
man’s thoughts, no less than his words and deeds,
formed the basis of his moral worth.
This important ethical truth finds abundant expres-
sion in the Buddhist scriptures, notably in the Bud-
dhist book of proverbs known as the Dhammapada
(Path of the Law).
“ All that we are is the result of what we have thought :
it is founded in our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows
him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the
carriage. ... If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves
him.” 1
1 Dhammapada , 1-2. S. B. E. X. pp. 3 and 4.
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The Law, Dhamma 105
“ Let the wise man guard his thoughts, for they are diffi-
cult to perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they
list : thoughts well guarded bring happiness.” 1
“ Even the gods envy him whose senses, like horses well
broken in by the driver, have been subdued, who is free from
pride, and free from appetites. . . . His thought is quiet,
quiet are his word and deed, when he has obtained freedom
by true knowledge .” 2
“ Not nakedness, nor platted hair, nor dirt, nor fasting,
nor lying on the ground, nor rubbing with dust, nor sitting
motionless can purify a mortal who has not overcome
desire.” 8
The five great duties, constituting the “ fivefold
uprightness ” are an echo of Brahman teaching.
They are: (i) not to kill any living creature; (2)
not to steal; (3) not to act unchastely; (4) not to
lie; (5) not to drink intoxicating liquors.
The lawfulness of hastening one's entrance into
Nirvana by suicide would seem to be a natural de-
duction from the pessimistic premises laid down by
Buddha; and in fact there are a few instances on
record of Buddhist arhats dying by their own hands
without any blame attaching to their conduct. But
these instances are rare exceptions. To incite any-
one to take his own life was an offence rendering a
monk liable to expulsion from the community.
“Whatsoever Bhikkhu shall knowingly deprive of life a
human being, or shall seek out an assassin against a human
1 Dhammapada , 36. S. B. E. X. p. 12.
3 Ibid. 94 and 96, p. 28. 8 Ibid. 147, p. 38.
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being, or shall utter the praises of death, or incite another to
self-destruction, saying, ‘ Ho ! my friend ! what good do
you get from this wicked, sinful life? Death is better to
thee than life ! ’ — if, so thinking, and with such an aim, he,
by various argument, utter the praises of death or incite
another to self-destruction — he too is fallen into defeat, he
is no longer in communion.” 1
Lust, covetousness, envy, pride, harshness, are
fittingly condemned. But what, perhaps, brings
Buddhism most strikingly in contact with Chris-
tianity, is its spirit of gentleness and forgiveness of
injuries. To cultivate benevolence towards men of all
classes, to avoid anger and physical violence, to be
patient under insult and injury, to return good for
evil, all this was inculcated in Buddhism and helped
to make it one of the gentlest of religions. Buddha
did not originate this notion of gentleness and for-
giveness of wrongs. It already existed in Brahmanic
teaching. But in Buddhism it seems to have been
brought into greater prominence.
“ Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him
overcome all bondage! . . . He who holds back rising
anger like a rolling chariot, him I call a real driver ; other
people are but holding the reins. Let a man overcome
anger by love ; let him overcome evil by good ; let him over-
come greed by liberality, the liar by truth ! Speak the truth,
do not yield to anger ; give, if thou art asked for little ; by
these three steps thou wilt go near the gods .” 2
1 Patimokkha.—S. B. E. XIII. p. 4.
2 Dhammapada , 221-224. Cf. 231-234.
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The following thoughts from the Dhatntnapada are
further illustrations of Buddhist wisdom in its highest
form.
“ Let no man make light of evil, saying in his heart : it
will not come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-
drops, a water-pot is filled. The fool becomes full of evil,
even if he gather it little by little.” 1
“ If one man conquer in battle a thousand times a thou-
sand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the
greatest of conquerors.’ ’ 2
“ Better the life of one day, if a man is virtuous and re-
flecting, than that of a hundred years, if he is vicious and
unrestrained.” 8
“ A man is not an elder, because his hair is gray. His age
may be ripe, but he is called Old-in-vain. He in whom
there is truth, virtue, love, restraint, moderation, he who is
free from impurity and is wise, he is called an elder.” 4
“ It is easy to see another’s faults, it is hard to see one’s
own. A man winnows his neighbor’s faults like chaff, but
his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides a bad die from the
gambler.” 6
1 Dham. 121. 9 Ibid. 103. 8 Ibid . no.
4 Ibid. 260-261. 6 Ibid. 252.
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CHAPTER III
THE BUDDHIST ORDER, SANGHA
Celibacy exacted of Buddha's followers — Severe attitude towards
marriage — Poverty and asceticism also requisite — Excessive
austerities avoided — Alms the means of subsistence: hence the
name Bhikkhus — Neither manual labor nor works of charity in
harmony with Buddhist discipline — Distinctions of birth ignored
— Buddha not a social reformer — The Novitiate — Rite of initia-
tion — Rule of life — Clothing and food — Avoidance of luxuries
and worldly amusements — Cleanliness exacted — Precautions to
be observed in traversing the village and in the presence of women
— The rite of confession, the Patimokkha — The retreat during
the rainy season, Vassa — Meditation — Grades of perfection —
Bhikkhunis — The lay element in Buddhism.
T HE extinction of suffering through the extinc-
tion of desire is the keynote of Buddhism. The
path to Nirvana was marked by the gravestones, not
only of every unworthy passion, but of every legiti-
mate desire of human nature. The perfect life, of
which Buddha set the example and to which he in-
vited his fellow-men, was a life of celibacy and
asceticism.
It was first of all a life of celibacy. Conjugal life,
being founded on the reproductive instinct, was in-
compatible with the quenching of desire and the ex-
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The Buddhist Order, Sangha 109
tinction of individual existence. Hence detachment
from family life was the first requisite of a true fol-
lower of Buddha.
The attitude which Buddha took towards marriage
was excessively derogatory and severe. “ A man
should avoid married life,” he taught, “ as if it were
a burning pit of live coals.” 1 A converted house-
holder is represented as saying : —
“ Full of hindrances is the household life, a path defiled
by passion : free as the air is the life of him who has re-
nounced all earthly things. How difficult it is for the man
who dwells at home to live the higher life in all its fulness,
in all its purity, in all its bright perfection ! Let me then cut
off my hair and beard, let me clothe myself in orange-colored
robes, and let me go forth from a household life into the
homeless state ! ” 2
But detachment from family life was not the only
sacrifice demanded of Buddha's followers. They had
to stand aloof from all that binds the heart to indi-
vidual existence ; they had to give up worldly pos-
sessions, and worldly power, to detach themselves from
everything that could minister to pride and softness
and ease. They had, in a word, to live a life of pov-
erty and asceticism.
It is easy to see in all this the influence of Brahman
asceticism. Still, in exacting of his followers a life of
1 Dhammika Suita , 21. Quoted by Monier Williams, Buddhism,
p. 88.
2 Tevijja Suita , i. 47. — S. B. E. XI. p. 187.
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severe simplicity, Buddha did not go to the extremes
of fanaticism which characterized most of the ascetics
of his day. He chose a more rational course, which
excluded a life of unrelenting austerity no less than
one of ease and abundance. In his first sermon
preached at Benares to the ascetics who had been his
former companions in the practice of excessive mor-
tifications, he said : —
“ There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which he who has
given up the world ought to avoid. What are these two
extremes? A life given to pleasure, devoted to pleasures
and lusts: this is degrading, sensual, vulgar, ignoble, and
profitless ; and a life given to mortifications : this is painful,
ignoble, and profitless. By avoiding these two extremes, O
Bhikkhus, the Tathagata has gained the knowledge of the
middle path, which leads to insight, which leads to wisdom,
which conduces to calm, to knowledge, to the Sambodhi, to
Nirvana.” 1
In an interesting dialogue between Buddha and a
monk who, in his reaction from a life of undue asceti-
cism, was tempted to adopt the opposite extreme of
reckless enjoyment, the middle path of moderate as-
ceticism is compared to a lute which gives forth the
proper tones only when the strings are neither too
tight nor too slack . 2
To secure perfect detachment from the world,
Buddha adopted for himself and his followers the
1 Mahavagga, i. 6, 17. — S. B. E. XIII. p. 94.
* S. B. E. XVII. p. 7.
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quiet, secluded, contemplative life practised by the
ascetics of his day. Their means of subsistence was
alms ; hence the name commonly applied to Buddhist
monks , 1 Bhikkhus , beggars, mendicants. It was for-
eign to his plan that his followers should engage in
any works of manual labor or in charitable ministra-
tions to the unfortunate. The traditional contempt
of the Brahman for industrial pursuits was largely
shared by the Buddhist. Then, too, manual labor
would have been productive of riches, would have
entangled the aspirant to perfection in worldly cares,
and enfeebled him for the great business that de-
manded his undivided attention, the thorough knowl-
edge and observance of the law.
In like manner, works of charity, such as the care
of the sick and destitute, would have been a hin-
drance to Buddhist perfection. Not indeed that the
needs of the sick and helpless were utterly ignored.
Through Buddhist influence, centres were established
where the suffering could repair for medicine and
treatment. But these charitable offices were admin-
istered by laymen, not by monks. Nevertheless,
there is not in Buddhism that keen sympathy for indi-
vidual suffering and that corresponding impulse to
alleviate it for which Christianity is pre-eminently con-
1 The application of the Christian terms, monks and nuns, to
members of the Buddhist order is regrettable on account of the con-
fusion of thought to which it is apt to lead. But having the sanction
of modem usage, it cannot well be avoided.
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Buddhism
spicuous. Buddha's chief concern was to teach men
to escape the misery of rebirth by the extinction of
all desire. Hence the tendency to view present suffer-
ings with indifference. To nurse the sick and minister
to the needs of the destitute, would have helped to
confirm the afflicted in their delusive attachment to
individual existence, the very thing which Buddha
sought to undo. It would likewise have been too dis-
tracting. The life which Buddha felt to be alone
suited to the pursuit of Nirvana was one, not of active
participation in the world, but of quiet solitude and
contemplation. In the Tevijja Suita the conduct of
the Buddhist monk is contrasted with that of certain
heretical monks who gain a livelihood “ by prescrib-
ing medicines to produce vomiting or purging, or to
remove obstructions in the higher or lower intestines,
or to relieve headache-; by preparing oils for the ear,
collyriums, catholicons, antimony, and cooling drinks ;
by practising cautery, midwifery, or the use of root
decoctions or salves ." 1 The only act of beneficence
which Buddha inculcated on his disciples was to
preach to others.
Such are the main characteristics of the religious
life, if we may call it religious, to which Buddha
invited his fellow-men. And in thus opening up
what he felt to be the true path of salvation, he
made no discrimination of social conditions. Herein
lay one of the most striking contrasts between the
i S. B . E. XI. p. 200.
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old religion and the new. Brahmanism was founded
on caste-distinctions. Full participation in its ad-
vantages belonged to the Brahmans alone. The
religious privileges accorded to members of the next
two castes, were of an inferior grade, while Sudras,
and members of still lower classes, were absolutely
excluded.
Buddha, on the contrary, extended the hand of
welcome to men of low, as well as high, birth and
station. Virtue, not birth, was declared to be the
test of superiority. In the brotherhood which he
built around him, all caste-distinctions were put aside.
The despised Sudra stood on a footing of perfect
equality with the high-born Brahman. All were
brothers; and if greater esteem attached to some,
it was owing to their greater zeal in the practice of
virtue. In this religious democracy of Buddhism
lay doubtless one of its strongest influences for con-
version among the lower masses.
In thus putting his followers, irrespective of birth,
on a plane of perfect equality, Buddha had no inten-
tion of acting the part of a social reformer. Not a
few writers have attributed to him the purpose of
breaking down caste-distinctions in society, and of
replacing them by a democratic system which would
insure a more equitable distribution of privileges.
This is a mistake. Buddha had no more intention
of abolishing caste than he did of abolishing mar-
riage. It was only within the limits of his own order
8
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1 14.
that he insisted on social equality, as he did on celi-
bacy. It was not part of his plan to secure the
amelioration of the less favored classes. Neither
did his followers anywhere pose as social reformers.
Wherever Buddhism has prevailed, the caste-system
has not been abolished. On the contrary, the later
Buddhist scriptures imply the permanence of castes,
for it is laid down as a principle that a Buddha is
never to be born into a family of the peasant or
servile caste, but only as a warrior or as a Brahman . 1
Let us now look more closely into the mode of
life which Buddha prescribed for his followers.
Before being admitted to the full privileges of the
Sangha , or order of monks, the members had to pass
through a period of probation as novices. Although,
as has been said, men of every station in life could
present themselves as novices, yet those alone were
accepted who were free from certain disqualifica-
tions. Thus, confirmed criminals were debarred,
men afflicted with serious deformities and diseases,
debtors, slaves, soldiers whose term of service was
not yet ended, sons whose parents had not given
their consent. As a rule, the novice had to be at
least fifteen years old (from the time of conception),
but exceptions were sometimes made in favor of
children only twelve years of age . 2
1 Cf. Foucaux, Lalita Vistara , p. 21; Warren, Buddhism in Trans-
lations % p. 41.
2 S. B. E. XIII. p. 204.
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The ceremony of reception was simple. No ab-
juration of previous religious belief was required.
Having cut off his hair and beard, and having put
on the yellow robes peculiar to the order, he squatted
at the feet of the monks, and, with hands joined above
his head, recited three times the Buddhist formula of
faith : “ I take my refuge in Buddha, I take my
refuge in the Law [Dhamma] ; I take my refuge in
the Order [Sangha] .” 1
He then chose as preceptor a worthy monk of at
least ten years* standing, and served under him till
his novitiate was ended. The shortest term of pro-
bation was four months.
From the beginning the novice had to observe the
ten precepts exacted of every Buddhist monk, namely,
to abstain from destroying every form of life, from
stealing, from unchaste indulgence, from lying, from
strong drink, from eating at forbidden times, from
dancing or singing, from the use of perfumes, oint-
ments and flowers, from the use of high and broad
beds, from accepting gold or silver . 2
The ceremony by which the novice was received
into full membership was somewhat more solemn.
Having satisfactorily spent the period of probation,
and being at least twenty years old, he appeared
with his preceptor before the assembled monks . 8
1 B. E. XIII. p. 115. 2 Ibid p . 2II .
8 It was the rule that at least ten monks should assist at the rite
of ordination, but in remote districts four were declared sufficient.
S. B. E. XVII. pp. 33 and 38.
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He adjusted his robe so as to cover one shoulder,
and, squatting at their feet, with his hands joined over
his head, recited three times the formula of refuge
in Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
He was then asked the following questions, to
which a truthful answer had to be given : —
“ Are you afflicted with the following diseases : leprosy,
boils, dry leprosy, consumption, and fits ?
“ Are you a man ?
“ Are you a male ?
“ Are you a freeman?
“ Have you no debts ?
“ Are you not in the royal service ?
“ Have your father and mother given their consent?
“ Are you full twenty years old ?
“ Are your alms-bowl and your robes in due state ?
“ What is your name ?
" What is your preceptor’s name ? ” 1
If the answers were satisfactory, the preceptor
turned to his assembled brethren, announced the
worthiness of the candidate, and then three times
asked them to show their approval by silence or their
disapproval by speaking. If, after the third request,
no objection was raised, the candidate was declared a
full member of the order. The mode of life to which
he had to conform was then briefly rehearsed to him,
and he was reminded of the four great prohibitions,
whose violation brought expulsion from the order.
They were (i) to avoid every form of sexual indul-
1 B. E. XIII. p. 230.
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gence ; (2) to take nothing but what was given to
him, not even a blade of grass; (3) not to deprive
any creature of life, even a worm or an ant ; (4) not
to boast of any superhuman perfection. 1
In thus becoming a member of the order, the
monk did not bind himself by any vows. If after a
time he came to the conclusion that he was not suited
to the severe life he had adopted, he was free to
withdraw from the order and to go back to the world.
Sometimes after returning to a worldly life, he re-
pented and again sought admission into the order.
Such admission was very rarely refused.
The asceticism which Buddha demanded of his
followers, while not of extreme rigor, was what we
should call severe. Each member was allowed but
one set of garments, which had to be of yellow color
and of cheap quality. They consisted of a piece of
cloth encircling the waist and falling below the knees,
of an upper garment covering the back and breast,
and of an outer robe. These, together with his
sleeping-mat, razor, needle, water-strainer, and alms-
bowl, constituted the sum of his worldly possessions.
His single meal, which had to be taken before noon,
consisted chiefly of bread, rice, and curry, which he
gathered daily in his alms-bowl by begging from door
to door. Water or rice-milk was his customary drink,
wine and other intoxicants being rigorously forbid-
den, even as medicine. Meat, fish, and delicacies
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. pp. 346-351.
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Buddhism
were rarely eaten, except in sickness or when the
monk dined by invitation with some patron. “ What-
soever Bhikkhu,” runs a Vinaya text, “when he is not
sick, shall request for his own use, and shall partake
of delicacies, — ghee, butter, oil, honey, molasses,
fish, flesh, milk, curds, — that is a Pakittiya” (i. e an
offence requiring a penance ). 1
During the day he had to stand or sit upright with
legs crossed. Only at night could he lie down, but
not on a high or broad bed. He was forbidden not
only to use wreaths, ornaments, and perfumes, but
also to take part in worldly amusements. Among
the latter were included many that seem innocent
enough to our degenerate minds, as the following
interesting passage from the Tevijja Sutta makes
known : —
“Whereas some Samana-Brahmans 2 who live on the food
provided by the faithful, continue addicted to occupying
their time with games detrimental to their progress in virtue :
that is to say, with a board of sixty-four squares, or of
one hundred squares ; tossing up ; hopping over diagrams
formed on the ground; removing substances from a heap
without shaking the remainder ; dicing ; trap-ball ; sketch-
ing rude figures ; tossing balls ; blowing trumpets ; plough-
ing matches ; tumbling ; forming mimic wind-mills ; guessing
at measures ; chariot races ; archery ; shooting marbles from
the fingers ; guessing other people's thoughts ; and mimick-
ing other people's acts ; he, on the other hand, refrains from
such games detrimental to virtue.” 8
1 S. B. E. XIII. p. 40. 8 Brahman ascetics.
8 S. B. E. XI. p. 193.
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At first, the monks lived in temporary shelters of
the rudest kind ; for except during the rainy season
(from the middle of June to the middle of October)
they were constantly moving from place to place.
In course of time, parks and gardens were made over
to them, and there they erected solid and permanent
clusters of cells. Cloisters were thus formed, called
viharas , but the furnishings were of a very simple
kind. Some of these viharas were provided with
hot-air baths . 1
We note with pleasure that Buddhist asceticism
was characterized by a scrupulous regard for cleanli-
ness. Dirt and foul smells formed no part of Bud-
dhist sanctity. Every member of the community was
expected to bathe once a fortnight, and to keep his
garments, sleeping-mat, alms-bowl, and cell in neat
condition . 2
The life which Buddha felt to be alone suited to
the pursuit of Nirvana was one, as we have already
noted, not of active participation in the world, but
of quiet solitude and contemplation. For this reason,
his followers, like the Brahman ascetics, were not
allowed to live in the villages and towns, but only on
the outskirts. They were not even to visit the towns,
except in the early morning, when they went in quest
of alms.
Contact with worldly life was felt to be a source of
1 s. B. E. XX. p. 103.
2 Ibid. XIII. pp. 44, 157-160; XX pp. 295-296.
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Buddhism
danger for one who was striving after Buddhist per-
fection. Hence, in his daily rounds through the vil-
lage, he had to observe the greatest precaution. “ As
one who has no shoes, walks over thorny ground,
watchfully picking his steps, so let the wise man walk
in the village/* 1 With sober gait and with eyes
modestly cast on the ground, he proceeded from door
to door, holding out his bowl in silence and receiving
the alms without looking on the face of the giver.
As soon as his bowl was filled, he made his way back
to the convent. He was then expected to examine
his conscience to see if his visit to the village was
free from blame.
“A monk, Sariputta,” Buddha is reported as saying,
u must thus reflect : ‘On my way to the village, when I was
going to collect alms, and in the places where I collected
alms, and on my way back from the village, have I in the
forms which the eye perceives, the sounds which the ear
perceives, . • . experienced pleasure, or desire, or hatred,
or distraction, or anger in my mind? * If so; then must this
monk, O Sariputta, endeavor to become free from these evil,
treacherous emotions. But if the monk, O Sariputta, who
submits himself to this test finds : 6 1 have not experienced
pleasure, or desire, or hatred, or distraction, or anger/ then
should he be glad and rejoice. Happy the man who has
long accustomed his mind to good.” 2
Among the seductive influences of the world against
which the true follower of Buddha had to guard him-
self with utmost vigilance, was association with women.
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. p. 307. 2 Ibid.
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The Buddhist Order, Sangha
He was forbidden to converse alone with a woman,
however respectable, and all communication with
women was to be avoided as far as possible. Char-
acteristic is the advice which Buddha gave Ananda
on this subject: “ How are we to conduct ourselves,
Lord, with regard to womanhood ? ” “ Don’t see
them, Ananda.” “ But if we should see them, what are
we to do? ” “ Abstain from speech, Ananda.” “ But
if they should speak to us, Lord, what are we to do? ”
“ Keep wide awake, Ananda .” 1
As a further aid to correctness of conduct, a public
examination and confession of faults took place every
fortnight, on the days of the new and full moon. At
this ceremony, known as the Patimokkha (the unbur-
dening), all the monks of the locality had to be pres-
ent. The meeting was held at evening, and the most
venerable monk of the community presided. Having
solemnly announced the purpose of the meeting, he
proceeded to enumerate the various kinds of offences
which it was the duty of every monk to avoid. This
list of sins, subject, doubtless, in the beginning to
constant variations, became in course of -time a ster-
eotyped formula, a sort of liturgical rite, which had
to be strictly observed . 2 It was divided into several
classes of offences, beginning with the class of trans-
gressions that entailed expulsion from the order, and
1 Book of the Great Decease , v. 23. — S. B. E. XI. p. 91. Here again
the Buddhist joins hands with the Brahman.
a This Patimokkha formula may be found in the first part of Vol.
XIII. 5-. B. E.
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Buddhism
proceeding to others of less and less consequence.
After enumerating the sins comprised in each class,
the presiding monk put three times to the assembly
this question : “ Venerable Sirs, are you pure in this
matter? ” If no one spoke, it was understood that all
present were guiltless. If a monk confessed himself
guilty of some one of the offences enumerated, a pen-
alty proportionate to the seriousness of the offence
was laid upon him.
Such was the Patimokkha in its original form. But
later on, the confession of faults was exacted of the
monk outside the Patimokkha. A monk, guilty of
some offence, was expected to confess it to a brother
monk that very day, and to receive the fitting pen-
ance. Every day’s delay in confessing increased his
guilt and called for a greater penance. It was only
after thus unburdening his conscience by private
confession of guilt, that he had the right to be present
at the Patimokkha . 1
It is to be remarked that the Buddhist confession
had nothing of a sacramental character. Again,
only external offences had to be confessed, and of
these the majority were infringements of community
rules.
Another ceremony having a similar end in view
was the public accusation of faults known as the Pa -
varana (invitation). During a period of three months,
beginning with June or July, — the rainy season, called
1 Cf. B. E. XX. p. 409.
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The Buddhist Order, Sangha 123
Vassa , — the monks were forbidden to travel, and had
to reside together at their various monasteries, spend-
ing the time in quiet contemplation. At the end of
this period, before setting out again on their wander-
ings, the monks met in solemn assembly, and each
one in turn, raising his clasped hands, asked to be
reminded of any faults of his committed during the
rainy season that his fellow-monks had observed.
“ Reverend Sirs,” the formula ran, “ I invite the or-
der, if ye have seen anything on my part, or have
heard anything, or have any suspicion about me, have
pity on me, Reverend Sirs, and speak. If I see it, I
shall atone for it.” 1
This necessity of making known and atoning for
external offences was, doubtless, of great efficacy in
securing that observance of outward decorum which
Buddha demanded of his followers.
But mere outward observance of the rules of the
order was not enough. To enable the members to
assimilate the true spirit of the order, to advance in-
teriorly towards the perfection of Nirvana, the practice
of profound meditation was enjoined. This practice
— the counterpart of the yoga of the Brahman ascetic
— was adopted by the monks with very unequal de-
grees of success. One of the surest marks of perfec-
tion and of ripeness for entering into Nirvana was the
aptitude for sinking one’s self into abstract meditation,
in which the monk, regardless of everything about
1 Oldenberg, Op. cit. pp. 374-375. Cf. S. B. £. XIII. p. 329.
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1 2 4
him, concentrated his mind on the unconditioned
state of Nirvana. There were certain rules for bring-
ing on this meditative condition of soul. Selecting
some quiet spot, the monk would sit with crossed
legs, erect and motionless, dwelling on more and more
abstract subjects, till often he sank into a trance. In
this morbid state, various hallucinations, mistaken for
realities, would affect his mind. He saw heavenly
visions and heard heavenly sounds. He peered into
the remote past and future, saw what was happen-
ing in distant places, and read the thoughts of
others.
As we have seen, the object of Buddha’s monastic
system was to lead men to a state of perfection which
at death would secure their entrance into Nirvana.
But not all the members of his order attained in their
lifetime to this ideal state of perfection. Only some
of them succeeded in becoming arhats , u *., perfect
ones, free from all rebirth and destined at death to
enter into Nirvana. Others attained to a degree of
holiness which destined them to a new life with the
gods in heaven, to end by absorption into Nirvana.
Others were destined to reach the desired goal only
after another life on earth . 1 But the more worldly
monks were under the necessity of being reborn
a number of times before they could hope to acquire
perfection. The Buddhist records show that worldly,
even vicious, monks were by no means uncommon,
i s. B. E. XI. pp. 25-26.
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The Buddhist Order, Sangha 125
and that the peace of the community was often dis-
turbed by them . 1
It seems to have been Buddha’s original intention
to confine his monastic system to men. But, yielding
to entreaties, he established a supplementary order of
nuns (Bhikkhunis). These communities of nuns,
while living in the vicinity of the monks, were
entirely separated from them. The strictest rules
regulated the relations of the one with the other.
A monk was forbidden to converse alone with a
nun; they could not travel together. Only the
monk especially appointed for the purpose could
preach to them, and then it was not in their place
of habitation, but in the neighborhood of the mon-
astery, where the presence of a second monk was
required.
The status of the nun was much inferior in dignity
to that of the monk. “ A Bhikkhuni,” runs one of
their eight rules, “ even if of a hundred years* stand-
ing, shall make a salutation to, shall rise up in the
presence of, shall bow down before, and shall perform
all proper duties towards, a Bhikkhu, if only just
initiated. This is a rule to be revered and rever-
enced, honored and observed, and during her long
life never to be transgressed.” 2
1 These disturbers of the peace were generally designated as the
Khabbaggiya Bhikkhus, Cf. S. B. E. XVII. pp. 343-344, 347 ff . ; XX.
pp. 147, 296.
2 S. B. E. XX. pp. 322-323.
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1 26
A nun was never allowed to reprove a monk for
any misdemeanor, while the monk had always the
right to admonish an erring nun.
They had to conform to the same rule of life as
that prescribed for monks, living on alms, and lead-
ing a life of retirement and contemplation. They
were never so numerous as the monks, and became
a very insignificant fraction of the Sangha as time
went on.
Strictly speaking, Buddha's order was composed
only of those who had renounced the world and given
proof of their purpose to live a life of contemplation
as monks and nuns. But the very character of their
life made them dependent for their subsistence on the
charity of men and women who preferred to live in
the world and to enjoy the comforts of the household
state. Those who thus sympathized with the order
and helped to contribute to its support, formed the
lay element in Buddhism. These lay associates were
called upasakas 9 if men, and upasikas , if women.
Not being monks or nuns, they could not hope to
attain to Nirvana at the end of the present life. But
through their association with the order, and their
acts of beneficence to it, they could ensure for them-
selves a happy rebirth in the traditional swarga or
heaven, with the additional prospect of being able
at some future birth to attain to Nirvana if they so
desired. The majority, however, did not share the
enthusiasm of the Buddhist arhat for Nirvana, being
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quite content to look forward to a life of positive,
though impermanent, delights in heaven . 1
To become a upasaka, no rite of initiation was re-
quired beyond the simple declaration before a monk
of refuge in Buddha, the Law, and the Order. There
was no obligation of renouncing the various popular
forms of worship. To contribute to the support of
the order was their chief duty and their privilege as
well. They supplied the monks and nuns with food,
clothing, and medicine. They vied with one another
in having the monks dine with them at their homes.
The more wealthy donated parks, and stood the
expense of building suitable cloisters. In return,
the monks gladdened them with religious discourses
and assured them of abundant rewards for their
beneficence.
“ Whatsoever woman upright in life, a disciple of the
Happy One, gives, glad at heart and overcoming avarice,
both food and drink — a heavenly life does she obtain ;
entering on the path that is free from corruption and im-
purity, aiming at good, happy does she become and free from
sickness, and long does she rejoice in a heavenly body.” 2
These lay brethren were exhorted to observe
chastity in keeping with their state of life, to avoid
1 This accounts for the frequent reference to heaven, and the
apparent ignoring of Nirvana in the inscriptions of Asoka, a fact
wrongly taken by Senart to imply that the speculations on Nirvana
were unknown in Asoka’s day. Cf. Lcs Inscriptions de Piyadasi , II.
P- 3 2 3-
a Mahavagga % viii. 15, 14. — S, B . E. XVII. p. 225.
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Buddhism
lying, stealing, the use of intoxicants, and the taking
of life, even that of animals. But failure to conform
to these precepts of moral conduct did not, except
in very flagrant instances, prevent them from enjoy-
ing friendly relations with the order. But it was
otherwise with those who reviled and slandered the
monks or their revered founder, or who openly re-
jected any point of Buddha’s teaching. They were
cut off from all association with the monks. Their
invitations to dine out were refused, and the alms-
bowl was turned down in their presence. But if they
apologized for their offensive conduct, they were re-
instated in the good-will of the order.
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CHAPTER IV
THE HISTORY OF BUDDHISM
Religious Developments — The existence of the Brahman gods
recognized in primitive Buddhism, but man’s dependence on
them denied — Hence no rites of worship — Devotion to the
gods tolerated in the Buddhist layman — Rise of religious rites
after Buddha’s death — Veneration of his relics, stupas, and
statues : pilgrimages, processions, and festivals — Worship of the
Buddha to come, Metteyya — Divinization of Gotama Buddha as
the Adi-Buddha — The Bodhisattvas — Mahayana and Hinayana—
The Growth of Buddhism — The dubious councils of Rajagriha
and Vaisali — Asoka — His rock-inscriptions — His feal for Bud-
dhism — Unreliable traditions, especially concerning Mahinda and
the council of Patna — The introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon
— The evangelization of Kashmir, Gandhara, and Bactria —
King Menander — King Kanishka — The council of Kashmir —
The introduction of Buddhism into China — Chinese pilgrims : Fa
Hien and Hiouen Thsang — The character of Chinese Buddhism
— Mito and Fousa Kwanyin — The introduction of Buddhism
into Tibet — The character of Lamaism — Resemblances to cer-
tain features of Catholicism — The spread of Buddhism over
Southern Asia — The decline of Buddhism in India — The number
of Buddhists greatly exaggerated.
I T may appear strange that in our survey of Bud-
dhism no account has been taken of religious duties
and practices. But the fact is that religious duties,
in the strict sense, form no part of Buddha's teaching.
For the attainment of Nirvana, religious rites were
9
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accounted of no avail, just as in pantheistic Brahman-
ism they were held to be useless for securing absorp-
tion into Brahman. But while the pantheist clung to
the Vedas, and insisted on the necessity of Vedic
worship as a preparation for the higher religion,
Buddha, with greater consistency, rejected both the
Vedas and the Vedic rites.
Buddha was not an atheist in the sense that he
denied the existence of the gods. Nor can he be
called an agnostic. To him the gods were living
realities. In his alleged sayings, as in the Buddhist
scriptures generally, the gods are often mentioned
and always with respect . 1 But like the pantheistic
Brahman, he did not acknowledge his dependence on
them. They were held to be subject like men to
karma and rebirth. The god of to-day might be
reborn in the future in some inferior condition, while
a man of virtuous conduct might succeed in raising
himself in his next birth to the rank of a god in
heaven. The very gods, then, no less than men, had
need of that perfect wisdom that leads to Nirvana, and
hence it was idle to pray or sacrifice to them in the hope
of obtaining the boon which they themselves did not
possess. They were even inferior to Buddha, since he
had already attained to Nirvana. In like manner,
they who followed in Buddha’s footsteps had no need
of worshipping the gods by prayers and offerings.
1 One of the names of the famous Buddhist king, Asoka, was
Devanampiya (dear to the gods).
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History of Buddhism 131
On the other hand, much as Buddha felt himself
above the need of Brahman rites, he looked with
indifference, if not with complacency, on the worship
of the gods by those who still clung to the delusion
of individual existence, and preferred the household
to the homeless state. For souls like these, gifts to
the gods were after all not wholly in vain, since it lay
in the power of the grateful deities to confer benefits
in return. This view finds expression in the seem-
ingly incongruous words that Buddha is said to have
addressed to two high officials of Magadha : —
u Wheresoe’er the prudent man shall take up his abode,
Let him support there good and upright men of self-control.
Let him give gifts to all such deities as may be there.
Revered, they will revere him ; honored, they will honor him
again;
Are gracious to him, as a mother to her one, her only son.
And the man who has the grace of the gods, good fortune
he beholds. ,, 1
Bloody sacrifices were abominated by Buddha
because they involved the killing of living things;
but how far he was from setting himself in bitter
antagonism to other features of Brahman worship, is
shown by the benediction he pronounced on Keniya,
the Brahman ascetic, in which he praises the tran-
scendent excellence of his own religion without dis-
paraging that of his host.
1 Book of the Great Decease , i. 31. — S. B. E. XI. p. 20.
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“Of the offerings, the fire sacrifice is the chief, of sacred
verses, the chief is the Savitthi ; 1
“ Among men the king is chief, and of waters the ocean ;
Of constellations the moon is chief, and of heat-givers the
sun ;
But of them, the conquering ones, who long after good,
the Sangha verily is chief .” 2
But while worship of the gods was tolerated in the
Buddhist layman, it was not inculcated as a duty.
It was rather discouraged indirectly by the inferior
degree to which it was assigned in the scale of meri-
torious works. Virtuous conduct and loyal devotion
to the Sangha, were taught to be of incomparably
greater value than religious rites.
“If a man for a hundred years sacrifice month after
month with a thousand, and if he but for one moment pay
homage to a man whose soul is grounded [in true know-
ledge], better is that homage, than a sacrifice for a hundred
years.” 8
Benefits derived from the worship of the gods
were at best but fleeting. They were not to be
esteemed by the monks and nuns, who set their hearts
on Nirvana.
This lack of all religious rites in the order was not
keenly felt in the presence of their venerable founder.
Their intense devotion to him took the place of
religious fervor. But he was not long dead when
1 Pali form of Sanskrit word Savitri.
2 Mahavagga , vi. 35, 8. — S. B . E. XVII. p. 134.
5 Dhammapada , 106.
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this very devotion to Buddha began to assume the
form of religious worship. His reputed relics, con-
sisting of his bones, teeth, alms-bowl, cremation-
vessel, and ashes from the funeral pyre, found their
way to the chief cities of India, and, being enclosed
in dome-shaped mounds, called dagobas, chaityas,
topes, or stupas, were honored with offerings of
lights, flowers, and perfumes. This was represented
to be in accordance with a provision of Buddha
himself.
“ At the four cross-roads, a dagoba should be erected to
the Tathagata. And whosoever shall there place garlands,
or perfumes, or paint, or make a salutation there, or become
in its presence calm in heart, that shall long be to them a
profit and a joy.” 1
Likewise, the places of his birth, supreme enlight-
enment, first preaching, and death were accounted
especially sacred, and became the objects of pious
pilgrimages, and the occasion of recurring festivals.
To give these rites a greater dignity and importance,
the dying Buddha is alleged to have been himself
their author. It is he who reminds Ananda of the
four places to be visited with feelings of reverence
and awe, and says : —
u And there will come, Ananda, to such spots, believers,
brethren and sisters of the order, devout men and devout
women, and will say, ‘ Here was the Tathagata born/ or,
i Book of the Great Decease , v. 26.
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* Here did the Tathagata attain to the supreme and perfect
insight/ or, < Here was the Kingdom of righteousness set on
foot by the Tathagata,* or, 1 Here the Tathagata passed away
in that utter passing away which leaves nothing whatever to
remain behind.*
“ And they, Ananda, who shall die while they with be-
lieving heart are journeying on such pilgrimage, shall be
reborn after death, when the body shall resolve, in the
happy realms of heaven .** 1
Of these places of pilgrimage, the most sacred
and the most popular was the spot where he attained
to perfect enlightenment under the Bodhi-tree. This
tree, a pipala or variety of the fig-tree, became the
object of extravagant veneration.
Besides these, pictures and statues of Buddha
came into vogue, and were multiplied on every side.
Offerings were made to them of lights, flowers, and
perfumes. Festivals were instituted at which statues
of Buddha were carried about in solemn procession . 2
But the craving for religious worship was not yet
satisfied. Buddha, having entered into Nirvana,
could not be conscious of the religious honors that
were heaped upon him. The need was felt of a
living personality worthy of religious veneration,
and at the same time sensible of the honors paid to
1 Book of the Great Decease , v. 16-22.
8 The fifth Girnar edict of Asoka refers to religious processions.
Cf. Senart, Les Inscriptions de Piyculasi \ I. p. 113. A very good
account of Buddha's relics and other objects of veneration is given
by K. F. Koppen, Die Religion des Buddha, I. pp. 516JT.
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History of Buddhism 135
him. Such a personality was brought to light by
the later speculations of Buddhist monks. This was
Metteyya , 1 the loving one, now living happily as a
Bodhisattva in heaven, but destined in the remote
future to become a Buddha, and again to set in
motion the wheel of the law. For the religion
founded by Gotama Buddha was not destined to
persist for all time. In this world-age, three Buddhas
had preceded him at long intervals of time, and the
teachings of each had after a while utterly vanished
from the minds of men. So in like manner his
order was destined to last only five hundred years . 2
Then would ensue a long reign of darkness and
ignorance till Metteyya, the fifth and last Buddha,
would appear and renew the work of salvation. To
this Metteyya in heaven, the Buddhists turned as
the living object of worship of which they had so
long felt the need, and they paid him religious
homage as the future saviour of the world.
Such was the character of the religious worship
observed by those who departed the least from
Buddha’s teachings. It is what we find to-day in
the so-called Southern Buddhism, as held by the in-
habitants of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam.
But even devotion to the Bodhisattva Metteyya
1 Sanskrit, Maitreya.
* It would have lasted a thousand years, had not the disciples
prevailed upon Buddha to admit women to membership in the
order. Chullavagga , x. i, 6. — S. B . E. XX. p. 325.
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failed in the long run to give satisfaction to the
majority of Buddhist believers. The idea of Brah-
man, the eternal lord of gods and men, came to be
transferred to Buddha himself. To reconcile the
contradiction between this conception and the Buddha
of tradition, the latter, Sakyamuni, was declared to
be an incarnation of the eternal and unchanging
Buddha, later known as Adi-Buddha, — dwelling in
the highest heaven. Around this supreme Buddha
were grouped a countless number of Bodhisattvas,
destined in future ages to become human Buddhas
for the sake of erring man. To raise oneself to the
rank of Bodhisattva by virtuous and meritorious works
was the ideal now held out to generous souls. In-
stead of Nirvana, Sukhavati became the object of
religious hope, the heaven of sensuous delights,
where Amitabha , 1 an emanation of the eternal
Buddha, happily reigned. For the attainment of
this end, the necessity of virtuous conduct was not
altogether forgotten, but an extravagant importance
w r as attached to the worship of relics and statues, to
pilgrimages, and above all to the reciting of sacred
names and magic formulae. Many other gross forms
of Hindu superstition were also adopted.
This innovation, so utterly foreign to the teaching
of Buddha, took its rise in Northern India about the
first century B. c. It was known as the Mahayana
1 The Buddhist substitute for Yama, the lord of the Brahman
paradise.
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History of Buddhism 137
or Great Vehicle, in distinction from the earlier form
of Buddhism contemptuously styled the Hinayana
or Little Vehicle . 1
The new movement grew apace, and in the next
few centuries supplanted the older Buddhism in
Northern India, Kashmir, and Bactria. The Buddhist
order thus became separated into two great schisms,
the Mahayana or Buddhism of the North, and the
Hinayana or Buddhism of the South.
It was this Northern Buddhism that was propa-
gated in China, Japan, Tartary, and Tibet, the very
countries that furnish to-day the overwhelming ma-
jority of Buddhists. But they are Buddhists in name
only, adhering to forms of religious belief and practice
in open contradiction to what Buddha took pains to
inculcate. It is only by the few millions of Southern
Buddhists that primitive Buddhism has been even
fairly preserved.
For more than two centuries after the death of
Buddha, nothing positive is known of the history of
the religion that he founded. The later Buddhist
scriptures tell how a council of five hundred monks
was held at Rajagriha in the summer following Bud-
dha’s death, to give a fixed and authoritative expres-
sion to his dogmatic and disciplinary teachings ; also
how, a century later, another council of seven hundred
1 According to some, it was called the Great Vehicle because it
opened up the highest salvation to laymen as well as to monks,
whereas the Little Vehicle held out Nirvana to monks alone.
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monks convened at Vaisali, to suppress the lax inno-
vations that threatened the integrity of Buddhist dis-
cipline. But the historical character of these accounts
as found in the last two chapters of the Chullavagga
and elsewhere is called in question by many . 1
That Buddha’s order must have grown rapidly and
soon become conspicuous in Northern India is very
likely; for in the third century B.C., we find it in a
flourishing condition, enjoying the patronage of
those in power. The fact that Buddha came himself
from the caste of warriors, and the welcome extended
in his system to men of every rank, must have helped
in no small measure to win for the new religion the
good-will of rulers, whose inferior origin debarred
them from Brahman privileges. Political influence
has been set down as one of the important factors in
the spread of Buddhism in India.
The first reliable evidence we have of the growth
of Buddhism, is that offered by the inscriptions of King
Asoka . 2 He was the grandson of Chandragupta
(Sandrokottos), who, after the death of Alexander
the Great, successfully resisted the encroachments
1 Cf. de la Saussaye, Religionsgeschichte , § 84. J. H. C. Kern, Der
Buddhism us und seine Geschichte in Indien , II. pp. 288 ff.
2 The most complete and reliable account of Asoka and his in-
scriptions is to be found in Senart’s monumental work in two volumes,
Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi. Cf. also his interesting article, Un roi
de lTnde au III sifecle avant notre fere ; Asoka et le bouddhisme. Rev.
des deux Mondes t 1889, I. pp. 67 ff. A translation of Senart’s In-
scriptions may be found in the Indian Antiquary , vols. IX., X.,
XVII., and XXI.
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History of Buddhism i 39
of the Greeks, and founded a vast empire in
Northern India. Asoka mounted the throne about
273 B.C. 1 and enlarged the empire by new conquests.
But softened by the frightful havoc of war, he be-
came converted to Buddhism in about the thirteenth
year of his reign, and setting himself against all
thought of future conquest, devoted his energies to
the promotion of the welfare of his subjects. His
dominion embraced all of India as far south as
Mysore, and extended north as far as the Kabul
valley. His reign lasted thirty years or more. 2
In the interest of the religion he had adopted,
Asoka published a number of interesting edicts,
which have fortunately been preserved to our day.
They were engraved on the faces of huge rocks and
on stone pillars, the same edict being published in
different parts of the empire. Several duplicate sets
of inscriptions have thus far been found. Of these
the most important are the fourteen rock-inscriptions
existing in a partially defaced condition, at Mansehra
on the Afghan frontier, at Kapur di Giri in the upper
valley of the Indus, at Girnar in the Gujerat penin-
sula, at Khalsi near the source of the Jumna, and
at Dhauli and Jaugada in Orissa. At the last two
places, edicts XI., XII., and XIII. are wanting, but
in their stead are two other important ones known as
the first and second separate edicts of Dhauli.
1 Senart, Op. cit. II. p. 257.
2 The eighth Delhi edict is dated from the 28th year of his conse-
cration as king.
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Besides these, there is the edict of Bhabra, engraved
on a small granite rock now preserved in Calcutta ;
the rock-edict common to Rupnath, Sahasaram, Bairat,
and Mysore ; and eight column-edicts found at Delhi,
Allahabad, Mathiah, Radhiah, and the Nepalese
Tarai.
In these inscriptions, the king, styling himself now
Piyadasi (the Benevolent), now Devanampiya (Dear
to the gods) shows himself to be a convert to Bud-
dhism, devout and zealous. Indeed, in the Bhabra
edict, he acts as if he were the authoritative head of
the Buddhist order, for he enjoins on the clergy of
Magadha the frequent rehearsing to both monks and
laymen of certain sacred compositions, which he
enumerates. He tells of his zeal in sending out
missionaries to make known to men the law of kind-
ness to all living creatures, and boasts of its obser-
vance in the realms of Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus,
Magas, and Alexander. While interdicting bloody
sacrifices, he displays a tolerant and kindly spirit
towards Brahman and other heretical sects. He
recommends to every sect the spirit of forbearance
and generous emulation in the teaching and practice
of virtue. It is in virtuous conduct that he finds re-
ligion chiefly to consist, inculcating docile obedience
to parents, masters, and all other superiors, respect
for the aged, almsgiving to Brahmans and monks,
compassion for the destitute, kind treatment of ser-
vants and slaves, a merciful regard for animal life,
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History of Buddhism 141
gentleness, purity, and truthfulness. He sets a good
example himself by dealing with his subjects as a
tender-hearted father to his children. He bestows
alms generously on Brahmans and monks of every sect.
He appoints inspectors to promote the welfare of the
people by suppressing all forms of injustice, especially
arbitrary imprisonment and torture. He ordains for
criminals condemned to death a respite of three days,
that they may have the opportunity of preparing for
a better future by almsgiving and fasting. He pro-
vides for the importation and cultivation of plants and
trees useful for man and beast, especially medicinal
herbs, and sees that the highways are properly fur-
nished with watering places. While abolishing the
use of animal food at his own table, he puts restric-
tions on the slaughter of animals for the market, and
absolutely prohibits the religious sacrifice of bird or
beast. Not unsuitably has he been called the Con-
stantine of Buddhism.
The silence of these monuments throws grave doubt
on much that is told of Asoka in the traditions em-
bodied in the Mahavansa , a Ceylonese chronicle of
the fifth century. Here we read that Asoka, con-
verted by a miracle to Buddhism, built 84,000 stupas
throughout his realm ; also that, under the direction
of the monk Tissa, a great council was held at Patna,
in which the canonical books were definitely recog-
nized. This council, as we shall see in the following
chapter, is most likely a mere fable.
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In like manner, the story that Asoka's son Mahinda
became a monk, and having gone as a missionary to
distant Ceylon, converted to Buddhism both king and
people; and that Sanghamitta, Asoka’s daughter,
who had likewise renounced the world, introduced
into the newly converted country the Buddhist order
of nuns, is not without grave suspicion of being a
pious invention of the Ceylonese clergy, prompted by
feelings of local pride.
This much is doubtless true, that Buddhist mission-
aries, inspired by Asoka, carried the knowledge of
their religion into Ceylon. For it is largely due to
the impetus given to the growth of Buddhism by the
king, that the name of Buddha was made known to
the surrounding nations. At any rate we find Bud-
dhism flourishing in Ceylon about 150 B.c. under the
Buddhist king Duttha Gamini. He built for the
order a large monastery and two magnificent stupas.
Buddhism has ever since been the prevailing religion
in Ceylon.
The Mahavansa tells of other missionary enter-
prises successfully carried out under the auspices of
Asoka. Besides the conversion of the extreme north-
ern and western peoples of India, missionaries were
sent to evangelize Kashmir, Gandhara (Kandahar),
and the so-called Yavana country, identified by most
scholars with the Greek settlements in the Kabul
valley and vicinity, later known as Bactria. 1
1 Tumour — Mahawanso , p. 71.
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History of Buddhism 143
In these parts, Buddhism quickly took root and
flourished, especially under the Yavana or Greek
King Menander, who held sway about 1 50 B.C. over
a large empire comprising Bactria, Kabul, and the
northwest portion of India. Being himself a convert
to Buddhism, he did much to promote the welfare of
the order. He figures prominently in Buddhist tra-
dition as the royal patron of orthodoxy . 1
More important still for the history of Buddhism in
the northern countries, is the reign of Kanishka, or,
as he is called on his coins, Kanerkes. A successor
of the Scythian conquerors who had overthrown the
Greek kingdoms of Parthia and Bactria, Kanishka ex-
tended his empire by a series of conquests till it
embraced all of Northern India, as well as Kashmir,
Kabul, the Bactrian country to the north. The time
of his reign was formerly a matter of conjecture, most
scholars contenting themselves with the estimate of
Lassen, that it embraced a period of thirty years or
more, beginning about 10 A.D. But the correctness
of this view was called in question when the accumu-
lating evidence of Indian archaeology pointed to the
reign at that very time in Northern India of a Par-
thian King Gondophares. In 1880, James Fergusson
published an essay in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society on the “ Saka, Samvat, and Gupta Eras,” in
which he advocated the view that Kanishka established
the Saka empire in India in 78 A.D. This view has
1 Cf. Questions of King Mi/inda, S. B, E. XXXV. and XXXVI.
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been fully confirmed by numismatic evidence, and is
now accepted by the majority of scholars . 1
Kanishka was an ardent Buddhist and did much for
the prosperity of the religion he professed. It was
under his auspices that a great council of monks was
convened in Kashmir about 100 A.D., 2 at which three
commentaries were drawn uj^n the threefold canon, ^
the Tri-pit^aka. The tradition that this council
definitely fixed the canon of Sanskrit Scriptures rec-
ognized in the Northern school of Buddhism, is, how-
ever, untenable ; for a number of books belonging to
the Northern canon are undoubtedly later than this
date.
That this council should be unknown to the South-
ern Buddhist school is not remarkable. It was held
primarily at least for the benefit of Buddhism within
Kanishka’s empire; and in view of his recent con-
quests, it is hardly to be supposed that Buddhists
elsewhere were invited to take part in it. It is not
unlikely that this very conquest of Northern India
by Kanishka was the occasion of that separation of
the Buddhists of his empire from the members of the
order throughout the rest of India, whereby the
former, being soon won over to the Mahayana inno-
1 Cf. Percy Gardner, The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of
Bactria and India in the British Museum , p. li. — Silbernagel, Der
Buddhismus , p. 50. — Barth, Rev. Hist . Re/. XXXVIII. p. 247. —
Kern, Der Buddhismus und seine Geschichte in Ittdien , II. pp. 448 ff.
2 Kern, Op. cit. II., 449. — de la Saussaye, Religionsgeschichte , II.
p. 106.
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History of Buddhism 145
vations, grew up into the so-called Northern school,
with a literature and with traditions partly common to
those of the South, and partly peculiar to themselves. 1
Meanwhile missionary zeal was carrying the knowl-
edge of Buddha into the distant land of China. 2 In
the year 61 A. D., the emperor Ming-ti sent a delega-
tion to India to procure Buddhist books and Buddhist
teachers. After six years the embassy returned with
books, pictures, and relics, in company with two Bud-
dhist monks. The new religion was officially recog-
nized, and given a place of honor by the side of
Confucianism and Taoism. In the following cen-
tury, conversions began to multiply, and more monks
came from the far west to China to carry on the work
of zeal. Prominent among these was the Parthian
monk An-tsing (An-shikao), who arrived at the
Chinese capital about 150 A.D., bringing with him
sacred books which he translated into Chinese. 8
The religious communications between China and
India became very close during the next few cen-
turies. Not only did Buddhist missionaries from
India labor in China, but many Chinese monks
showed their zeal for the newly adopted religion, by
making pilgrimages to India to visit the holy places,
and to bring back to their country sacred books,
relics, statues, and pictures.
1 Vide infra , p. 213.
2 Silbernagel, Op. cit. pp. 119 ff.— de la Saussaye, Op. cit. § 86.
8 Ci.Journ. Roy. As. Soc . 1856, p. 327.
10
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146 Buddhism
A few of them wrote valuable accounts, still extant,
of what they saw and heard in their travels. Of
these pilgrims the most noted are Fa Hien, who
journeyed in India and Ceylon in the years 399-414
A. D., and Hiouen Thsang, who travelled extensively
in India two centuries later (629-645 A. D.). 1
The form of Buddhism first introduced into China
was the early traditional type, now represented ex*
clusively by Southern Buddhism, but still prevalent
in the first century of the Christian era in the North-
ern empire of Kanishka. But the absorption of the
latter by the Mahayana movement, gave occasion for
a corresponding change in the Buddhism of China.
The later missionaries, being in great majority from
Northern India, brought with them the new doctrine,
and in a short time, the Hinayana was abandoned in
China in favor of Northern Buddhism.
Two of the Bodhisattvas held in high honor in the
latter school especially commended themselves to
the Chinese, and became the favorite objects of
worship. One was Amitabha, the lord of the Suk-
havati paradise. The other was Avalokitesvara, the
1 Cf. James Legge, A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, Being an Ac -
count of the Chinese Monk Fa Hien , of his Travels in India and Cey-
lon. Oxford, 1886. — S. Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World.
2 vols. Lond. 1884. This work contains the narratives of Fa Hien
and Hiouen Thsang, and also describes the journeys of two other
pilgrims, Sung Yun and I-Tsing. J. Takakusu, a Japanese pupil of
Max Muller, has published I-Tsing's narrative under the title, A
Record of the Buddhist Religion as practised in India and the Malay
A rchipelago , by /- Tsing. Oxford, 1 896.
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History of Buddhism 147
Bodhisattva so extravagantly praised, in the Lotus
of the True Law } as ready to extricate from every
sort of danger and misfortune those who think of
him or cherish his name. The former is known
to the Chinese as Amita or Mito. Offerings of
flowers and incense made before his statues, and
the frequent repetition of his name, are believed
to insure a rebirth in his distant western paradise,
where delights of mind and sense are to be enjoyed
unceasingly.
Fousa Kwanyin is the name under which the Chi-
nese worship Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, now as a
male deity, now as the goddess of mercy, who comes
to the relief of men in every strait
An excessive devotion to statues and relics, the
employment of magic arts to keep off evil spirits, and
the observance of many of the gross superstitions of
Taoism, complete the picture of Buddhism in China,
so utterly unlike the system which Buddha taught
to men.
From China, Buddhism was introduced into Corea
in the fourth century. Two centuries later, missiona-
ries from Corea made it known in Japan. In both
these countries local superstitions were incorporated
into the new religion, but in its main features it
preserved its identity with the Buddhism of China.
Annam was also evangelized by Chinese Buddhists at
an early day.
1 Ch. xxiv.
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The introduction of Buddhism into Tibet 1 dates
from the seventh century. Influenced by his two
Buddhist wives, one a Nepalese, the other a Chinese,
princess, the king of Tibet, Srong-tsan Sgam-po,
whose life covers the first half of the seventh century,
invited Buddhist monks from Northern India to
preach their religion in his kingdom. It was not till
the ninth century, however, that Buddhism in Tibet
began to thrive. 2 Monks from India devoted them-
selves to the translation of the sacred books, and
monasteries arose to meet the needs of the increasing
native clergy. Persecutions broke out, and several
times the religion was in danger of extermination.
But it perseveringly struggled against opposition, and
in the thirteenth century was the prevailing religion
of the land.
In the middle of the thirteenth century, the Mon-
gols conquered Tibet. The royal family was dis-
persed, and in 1260 the head lama, a monk of the
great Sakja monastery, was raised by Kublai Khan,
who also professed Buddhism, to the position of spir-
itual and temporal ruler. To this action of Kublai
Khan, and to the reforms in discipline and liturgy,
made by the famous Tsong Khaba, in the beginning
1 Silbernagel, Op. cit. pp. 154 ff. — de la Saussaye, Op. cit. § 85.
2 Rockhill ( Life of the Buddha p. 221) gives evidence that in the
middle of the eighth century Tibet was hardly recognized as a Bud-
dhist country. Most of the Tibetan translations of Buddhist works
date from the ninth and following centuries. Ibid. p. 214. — Cf. Bum-
ouf, Introduction a VHistoire du Bouddhisme Indieji, pp. 577-578. —
Weber, History of Indian Literature t p. 294.
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History of Buddhism 149
of the fifteenth century, Lamaism, as Tibetan Bud-
dhism is called, owes many of its peculiarities.
Lamaism is based on the Northern Buddhisri
of the Middle Ages, which was a degraded form of
the Mahayana teaching, saturated with the gross and
disgusting elements of Tantra and Siva worship. Its
deities are innumerable, its idolatry without limit.
In the use of magic formulae, and in the endless
repetition of sacred names, it rivals the Buddhism
of China. Its favorite formula is, Otn tnani padme
hum , “O jewel in the lotus, amen,” which written
on streamers exposed to the wind, and multiplied
on paper slips turned by hand, or wind, or water,
in the so-called prayer-wheels, is thought to secure
for the agent unspeakable merit.
The highest deities of Lamaism are five Dhyani-
Buddhas, or Buddhas of contemplation. They are
the eternal, heavenly types of which the five human
Buddhas of the present world-age are only incarna-
tions. Each Dhyani-Buddha has, besides, his corre-
sponding Bodhisattva. Of these the most important
is the Dhyani-Buddha Amitabha, whose Bodhisattva
is Avalokitesvara, and who became incarnate in
Gotama Buddha.
The Dalai-Lama, residing in the great monastery
at Lhassa, passes for the incarnation of Buddha Ami-
tabha. When he dies, Amitabha is believed to as-
sume flesh in a new conception. Accordingly, nine
months later, a newly born babe is selected by divin-
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ation as the reincarnate Buddha. He is carefully
nurtured and surrounded with religious honors, and
when of mature years assumes authority as the Dalai-
Lama.
Between such a religion and Catholicism there is a
world-wide difference. Yet in its elaborate ceremonial
and hierarchical constitution, it presents a number of
resemblances to points of Catholic liturgy and disci-
pline. “ The cross,” writes the Abb6 Hue, u the
mitre, the dalmatic, the cope which the Grand Lamas
wear on their journeys or when they are performing
some ceremony out of the temple, the service with
double choirs, the psalmody, the exorcisms, the cen-
ser suspended from five chains and which you can
open or close at pleasure, the benedictions given by
the Lamas by extending the right hand over the
heads of the faithful, the rosary, ecclesiastical celi-
bacy, spiritual retirement, veneration of the saints, the
fasts, processions, litanies, the holy water, — all these
are analogies between the Buddhist and ourselves.” 1
He might have added to this list the infallible head
of the church, and grades of the clergy corresponding
to bishop and priest. The wide propagation of Nes-
torianism over Central and Eastern Asia in the Middle
Ages offers a natural explanation for such of these
resemblances as are accretions on early Buddhism. 2
In the twelfth and following centuries Buddhism
1 AbW Hue, Travels in Tartary, Tibet \ and China , Vol. II. ch. ii.
2 Vide infra , pp. 299 ff.
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History of Buddhism 1 5 1
spread over Tartary, through the missionary zeal of
Tibetan Lamas.
While Northern Buddhism was thus exerting a
widespread influence over China, Japan, Tartary, and
Tibet, the earlier form of Buddhism was extending
its peaceful conquests over the countries and islands
of Southern Asia. Missionaries from Ceylon evangel-
ized Burma in the fifth century. Within the next two
centuries, it spread to Siam, Cambodia, Java, and
adjacent islands . 1
When Fa Hien visited India, in the beginning of
the fifth century, he found Buddhism in a flourishing
condition. Everywhere he saw splendid stupas and
monasteries, and temples adorned with precious stat-
ues. Two centuries later Hiouen Thsang found some
of the monuments described by his predecessor in
ruins, but as yet there were no signs of general de-
cay. In later centuries a reaction against Buddhism
set in, and Hinduism rapidly gained ground on its
rival. Whether its decline was hastened by persecu-
tions is still a subject of dispute, but with the Arab
conquest of India, Buddhism came to an end in the
land that gave it birth. Only in the small district of
Nepal, in the extreme north, and in Ceylon, in the
extreme south, has it succeeded in maintaining its
existence.
- The number of Buddhists throughout the world is
commonly estimated to be about four hundred and
1 Silbemagel, Op. cit. p. 66.
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fifty millions, or one-third of the human race. But in
this estimate the error is made of classing all the Chi-
nese and Japanese as Buddhists. The majority of the
Chinese are Confucianists and Taoists. A large part
of the people of Japan adhere to the traditions of
Shintoism. Professor Legge declares that the Bud-
dhists in the whole world are not more than one hun-
dred millions, being far outnumbered, not only by
Christians, but also by the adherents of Confucianism
and Hinduism. To this estimate Professor Monier
Williams 1 gives his approval. Whatever their exact
number may be, this much is certain, that the vast
majority adhere to forms of religion which Buddha
himself would be the first to repudiate. It is the
Southern Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam who
alone deserve to be identified with the order founded
by Buddha. They number at the most but thirty
millions of souls.
1 Buddhism, p. 15.
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CHAPTER V
THE BUDDHIST SACRED BOOKS
The twofold Buddhist canon, the Northern (Sanskrit) and the
Southern (Pali) — The character of the Southern canon — The
Vinaya-pitaka, Sutta-pitaka , and Abhidhamma-pitaka , constituting
the Ti-pitaka — Extra-canonical works : the Dipavattsa, Makavansa,
Commentaries of Buddhaghosa, Milinda Panha — Works peculiar
to the Northern canon: the Buddha Charita , Lalita Vi star a,
Abhinishkramana Sutra, Saddharma-pundarika — Translations —
Age of the Tipitaka greatly exaggerated — The view that it was
fixed for good in the time of Asoka unwarranted — The Legend-
ary Biographies of Buddha — Critical examination of the age
of the Buddha Charita — Critical examination of the age of the
Lalita Vistara — Date of the chief Chinese biography — Other
Chinese versions — Tibetan versions — Dates of the chief biog-
raphies of the Southern school : the Nidana Katha and the
Commentary on the Buddhavansa — More recent forms of the
Buddha-legend.
B OTH the Northern and the Southern school
possess a canon of sacred books. The North-
ern canon, preserved by the Buddhists of Nepal is
in Sanskrit ; the Southern, belonging to the Buddhists
of Ceylon, is in Pali, a softer language bearing the
same relation to Sanskrit that Italian does to Latin.
The two canons are not identical in contents, being
made up only in part of the same books. The
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Southern canon is the more ancient and the more
respectable; for while not without serious defects,
it is free from the disgusting Tantra literature and
the Mahayana absurdities that disfigure the Northern
canon.
The canonical books of the Southern school, twenty-
nine in number, are for the most part compilations
of numerous short themes and tracts by unknown
authors, the fruit of many ages of Buddhist moraliz-
ing and speculation. Stripped of their endless repeti-
tions, they would be about equal in amount to the
Sacred Scriptures, though, on the whole, far inferior to
them in depth of thought and richness of expression.
They abound in commonplaces, and are marred by
many puerilities and ridiculous superstitions. Despite
the praise lavished on them by enthusiastic scholars
like Rhys Davids , 1 they deserve the name of being to
a large extent dull reading.
They are grouped under three heads, or, as the
Buddhists would say, in three baskets (pitakas) : The
Vinaya-pitaka , a collection of books dealing with the
disciplinary rules of the order ; 2 the Sutta-pitaka ,
consisting of the alleged discourses of Buddha and
his early disciples, as well as of didactic and histori-
cal tracts ; 3 and the Abhidhamma-pitaka y comprising
1 Cf. his American Lectures on Buddhism , Lect. II.
2 Most of the Vinaya-pitaka may be found translated in S. B. E.
XIII., XVII., and XX.
8 A few of these have been published in English dress in S. B. E.
X. and XI.
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more detailed treaties on subjects chiefly doctrinal . 1
These three baskets constitute the Buddhist Bible of
the Southern school known as the triple basket,
Ti-pitaka (Sanskrit, Tri-pit^aka).
Besides these canonical books, there are a few,
dating mostly from the fourth and following cent-
uries, that are held in great esteem. These are the
Ceylonese chronicles known as the Dipavansa and
the Mahavansa, in which a history of Buddhism is
essayed from the death of the founder down to about
303 A. D. ; the commentaries on the canonical books,
in part composed, in part compiled, by Buddhaghosa,
the famous master of Buddhist wisdom belonging to
the fifth century; and the Militida Panha , made
known to English readers by Rhys Davids under the
title, The Questions of King Milinda , 2
Northern Buddhism also has its Tri-pitiaka , to
which belong the legendary lives of Buddha known
as the Buddha Charita , 8 the Lalita Vis tar a* and the
Abhinishkramana Sutra ; also the favorite work of
the Mahayana school, known as the Saddkarma-
pundarika , or Lotus of the True Law?
Only part of the Northern canon is included in
1 The Abhidhamma books have not yet been made accessible to
English readers.
« 5*. B. E. XXXV. and XXXVI. Its date is placed “ at or a little
after the beginning of the Christian era.” Op. cit. Introd.
* Translation by E. B. Cowell in S. B. E. XLIX.
4 French translation by Ph. E. Foucaux, in AnttaUs du Mush
Gutmety t. VI. with supplement t. XIX.
6 Translation by H. Kern in S. B. E. XXI.
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156 Buddhism
the Tri-ptt^aka. The rest consists of Tantra and
Dharani literature, works abounding in obscene and
magic superstitions.
In the chief countries abroad where Buddhism took
firm root, the sacred books were made known to the
people through translations. These have been nearly
all preserved, so that to-day the sacred literature of
Tibet contains the complete Northern canon, while
the Southern is equally well represented in the
sacred literature of Siam. The Buddhist literature
of China is also of great extent. It is made up of
translations from both the Northern and the South-
ern canon, but the works peculiar to the former
predominate.
In Burmese, too, there are a number of translations
of works belonging to the Southern canon.
The attempt has been made by various scholars —
notably Max Muller, Rhys Davids, and Professor Old-
enberg — to determine the age of the different parts
of the Southern canon, but the data on which they
rely are not such as to inspire confidence in their
estimates. That the confession-formula, known as
the Patimokkha> and some other parts of the Vinaya ,
go back to the early years of the order, and that
many of the sayings attributed to Buddha in the
Suttas are in substance, at least, authentic is not
improbable. But to determine even approximately
the time when the various parts of the canon took
permanent form is a matter of the greatest uncer-
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tainty, on which scholars are widely divided. Even
the question when the canon was finally closed does
not admit of a positive answer.
There is no reason to doubt that the threefold
collection, known as the Ti-pitaka % was already in
existence when the sacred traditions were first com-
mitted to writing. This took place, according to the
Ceylonese chronicles, during the reign of Vattha
Gamini (88-76 B. c.). 1 But was this Ti-pitaka co-ex-
tensive with the canon known to Buddhaghosa six
centuries later? There is no positive evidence avail-
able to establish this absolute identity. On the con-
trary, the fact that the life of Buddha, forming the
introduction to the canonical Jataka was composed
in the fifth century, creates the strong suspicion that
additions were made to the canon in the next few
centuries following its inscription on palm-leaf
tablets.
Max Muller and Rhys Davids, relying on the testi-
mony of the Ceylonese chronicles, say that the Pali
canon was fixed definitely at the so-called council
of Patna held in the reign of Asoka. But the very
existence of this council is a matter of grave doubt 2
In the first place, there is no reference to it in the
edicts of Asoka. The Bhabra edict it is true, was
formerly taken to be a memorial letter to this coun-
1 Tumour, Mahawanso , p. 207. Cf. Dipavansa, xx. 20, 21.
2 Cf. Kern, Der Buddhismus , II. pp. 351-352. In his Manual of
Indian Buddhism , p. no, he sees in the so-called Council of Patna
nothing more than a mere party-meeting.
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cil; but it is now recognized to be naught else than
a proclamation to the Buddhist order enjoining the
frequent use of certain tracts held to be the authentic
sayings of Buddha . 1
Secondly, the existence of this alleged council is
unknown to Northern Buddhist tradition. This
silence is alone almost convincing evidence that the
council is a myth. For the Buddhists of the North
were evangelized by missionaries from Magadha in
the reign of Asoka ; nay, according to the Ceylonese
tradition, their evangelization was one of the fruits
of that very council. A council of such importance
could not have been ignored by Northern tradition,
had it really existed.
1 Cf. p. xxvi of Professor Oldenberg’s Introd. to vol. XIII. of S. B.
E. E. Senart, Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi , II. pp. 304-305. This list is
interesting, for while it is perfectly compatible with the existence at
that time of a much more extensive canon, it bears witness to the
fact that in Asoka’s day but few suttas were credited with an origin
derived from Buddha himself. The edict is thus rendered by Senart.
“ King Piyadasi greets the clergy of Magadha and wishes them
prosperity and health. You know, sirs, with what respect and good-
will I regard Buddha, the Law, and the Clergy. All that has been
said by the Blessed Buddha has been well said, and as far, sirs, as my
own will goes, I desire that this religious law may long abide. Here,
sirs, for example, are religious works : the Teaching of the Disci-
pline, the Supernatural (?) Powers of the Aryas, the Perils of the
Future, the Verses on the Hermit, the Questions of Upatishya, the
Sutra on Perfection, and the Homily on Lying, pronounced by
the Blessed Buddha before Rahula. These religious works I would
have the frequent object of rehearsal and meditation for communities
of monks and nuns, and for the devout laity of both sexes as well. It
is for this reason, sirs, that I make this inscription, that you may
know my will.” — Translated from Senart, Op. cit. II. pp. 207-208.
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Buddhist Sacred Books 159
Again, had the Ti-pitaka received its final and
permanent form as early as the time of Asoka, it
must have been known in its entirety to the Bud-
dhists of the North as well as to those of Ceylon ; for
both were evangelized at the same time. But the
presence in the Southern canon of many works not
found in the Tri-pitt^aka of Northern Buddhism and
vice versa f shows that on both sides the number of
sacred works commonly recognized in the third cen-
tury B. C. was greatly augmented by later accretions.
In the face of such evidence, it is idle to assume as
an established truth the final formation of the Pali
canon in the time of Asoka, especially when the
sole ground for the assumption is a Ceylonese tradi-
tion six hundred years later than the alleged event . 1
Still more hazardous is it to assert on the basis of
equally uncertain traditions that the great bulk of the
Vinaya and Sutta texts were passed upon by the
so-called council of Vaisali, a century after Buddha's
death . 2 The existence of this council rests on too
slender a foundation to serve as a reliable datum for
fixing the age of the oldest parts of the canon. It is
1 The value of Indian traditions may be judged from the follow-
ing statement of the judicious scholar James Fergusson : “ Any one
who has travelled in India, knows what sort of information he gets
even from the best and most intelligent Brahmans with regard to the
dates of the temples they and their forefathers have administered in
ever since their erection. One or two thousand years is a moderate
age for temples which we know were certainly erected within the last
two or three centuries.” — Rude Stone Monuments f p. 493.
2 Cf. Kern, Manual of Indian Buddhism , p. 109.
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Buddhism
160
probably nearer the truth to say that part of the
Vinaya and not a few of the Suttas are posterior to
the time of Asoka. So profound and discriminating
a scholar as A. Barth has said : “ With the excep-
tion of two or three events, the memory of which
has been handed down to us by the Greeks, the
chronological history of India begins with the in-
scriptions. The most ancient of these, the famous
edicts of King Piyadasi-Asoka . . . are also the
earliest documents undoubtedly authentic that we
have of Buddhism. It is very probable that among
the elements that go to make up the Tri-pit^aka there
are some that belong to a past more remote still;
for it is certain that the Buddhism of the inscriptions
— a sort of religion of state in the vast and mighty
realm of India — was already in possession of a
literature. But there are many reasons for doubt-
ing that the Buddhists of that time had come to
recognize a canon. At any rate, there is not a
single portion of this canon in its present form, Pali
as well as Sanskrit, that can be assigned with certi-
tude to so distant a period .” 1 Similar views are
held by E. Senart 2 and others.
From these considerations it is plain that the
larger estimates of the translators of vol. X., XI., and
XIII. of the Sacred Books of the East are to be re-
ceived with prudent reserve. This caution is espe-
1 Revue de C Histoire des Religions , XXVIII. p. 241.
2 Op. cit. II. pp. 304-305.
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The dhamma of Gotama the Buddha and the gospel of Jesus the Christ; a critical inquiry into the alleged relations of Buddhism with primitive Christianity
Aiken, Charles Francis, 1863-1925