Chapter M: M.-W (1)

88 Onslow Gardens, London.
_January 15, 1889._

CONTENTS.

PAGE
Preface v
Postscript on the common error in regard to the comparative
prevalence of Buddhism in the world xiv
List of Illustrations xxix
Rules for Pronunciation xxxi
Pronunciation of Buddha, etc. Addenda and Corrigenda xxxii

LECTURE I.
Introductory Observations.

Buddhism in its relation to Brāhmanism. Various sects in Brāhmanism.
Creed of the ordinary Hindū. Rise of scepticism and infidelity.
Materialistic school of thought. Origin of Buddhism and Jainism.
Manysidedness of Buddhism. Its complexity. Labours of various
scholars. Divisions of the subject. The Buddha, his Law, his Order
of Monks. Northern Buddhism 1-17

LECTURE II.
The Buddha as a Personal Teacher.

The Buddha’s biography. Date of his birth and death. His names,
epithets, and titles. Story of the four visions. Birth of the
Buddha’s son. The Buddha leaves his home. His life at Rāja-gṛiha.
His study of Brāhmanical philosophy. His sexennial fast. His
temptation by Māra. He attains perfect enlightenment. The
Bodhi-tree. Buddha and Muhammad compared. The Buddha’s proceedings
after his enlightenment. His first teaching at Benares. First
sermon. Effect of first teaching. His first sixty missionaries.
His fire-sermon. His eighty great disciples. His two chief and
sixteen leading disciples. His forty-five years of preaching and
itineration. His death and last words. Character of the Buddha’s
teaching. His method illustrated by an epitome of one of his
parables 18-52

LECTURE III.
The Dharma or Law and Scriptures of Buddhism.

Origin of the Buddhist Law (Dharma). Buddhist scriptures not like the
Veda. First council at Rāja-gṛiha. Kāṡyapa chosen as leader.
Recitation of the Buddha’s precepts. Second council at Vaiṡālī.
Ćandra-gupta. Third council at Patnā. Composition of southern
canon. Tri-piṭaka or three collections. Rules of discipline, moral
precepts, philosophical precepts. Commentaries. Buddha-ghosha.
Aṡoka’s inscriptions. His edicts and proclamations. Fourth council
at Jālandhara. Kanishka. The northern canon. The nine Nepālese
canonical scriptures. The Tibetan canonical scriptures (Kanjur)
53-70

LECTURE IV.
The Saṅgha or Buddhist Order of Monks.

Nature of the Buddhist brotherhood. Not a priesthood, not a hierarchy.
Names given to the monks. Method of admission to the monkhood.
Admission of novices. Three-refuge formula. Admission of full
monks. Four resources. Four prohibitions. Offences and penances.
Eight practices. The monk’s daily life. His three garments.
Confession. Definition of the Saṅgha or community of monks. Order
of Nuns. Lay-brothers and lay-sisters. Relation of the laity to
the monkhood. Duties of the laity. Later hierarchical Buddhism.
Character of monks of the present day in various countries 71-92

LECTURE V.
The Philosophical Doctrines of Buddhism.

The philosophy of Buddhism founded on that of Brāhmanism. Three ways
of salvation in Brāhmanism. The Buddha’s one way of salvation. All
life is misery. Indian pessimistic philosophy. Twelve-linked chain
of causation. Celebrated Buddhist formula. The Buddha’s attitude
towards the Sāṅkhya and Vedānta philosophy of the Brāhmans. The
Buddha’s negation of spirit and of a Supreme Being. Brāhmanical
theory of metempsychosis. The Buddhist Skandhas. The Buddhist
theory of transmigration. Only six forms of existence. The
Buddha’s previous births. Examples given of stories of two of his
previous births. Destiny of man dependent on his own acts.
Re-creative force of acts. Act-force creating worlds. No knowledge
of the first act. Cycles of the Universe. Interminable succession
of existences like rotation of a wheel. Buddhist Kalpas or ages.
Thirty-one abodes of six classes of beings rising one above the
other in successive tiers of lower worlds and three sets of
heavens 93-122

LECTURE VI.
The Morality of Buddhism and its chief aim—Arhatship or Nirvāṇa.

Inconsistency of a life of morality in Buddhism. Division of the moral
code. First five and then ten chief rules of moral conduct.
Positive injunctions. The ten fetters binding a man to existence.
Seven jewels of the Law. Six (or ten) transcendent virtues.
Examples of moral precepts from the Dharma-pada and other works.
Moral merit easily acquired. Aim of Buddhist morality. External
and internal morality. Inner condition of heart. Four paths or
stages leading to Arhatship or moral perfection. Three grades of
Arhats. Series of Buddhas. Gautama the fourth Buddha of the
present age, and last of twenty-five Buddhas. The future Buddha.
Explanation of Nirvāṇa and Pari-nirvāṇa as the true aim of
Buddhist morality. Buddhist and Christian morality contrasted
123-146

LECTURE VII.
Changes in Buddhism and its disappearance from India.

Tendency of all religious movements to deterioration and
disintegration. The corruptions of Buddhism are the result of its
own fundamental doctrines. Re-statement of Buddha’s early
teaching. Recoil to the opposite extreme. Sects and divisions in
Buddhism. The first four principal sects, followed by eighteen,
thirty-two, and ninety-six. Mahā-yāna or Great Method (vehicle).
Hīna-yāna or Little Method. The Chinese Buddhist travellers,
Fā-hien and Hiouen Thsang. Reasons for the disappearance of
Buddhism from India. Gradual amalgamation with surrounding
systems. Interaction between Buddhism, Vaishṇavism, and Ṡaivism.
Ultimate merging of Buddhism in Brāhmanism and Hindūism 147-171

LECTURE VIII.
Rise of Theistic and Polytheistic Buddhism.

Development of the Mahā-yāna or Great Method. Gradual deification of
saints, sages, and great men. Tendency to group in triads. First
triad of the Buddha, the Law, and the Order. Buddhist triad no
trinity. The Buddha to be succeeded by Maitreya. Maitreya’s heaven
longed for. Constitution and gradations of the Buddhist
brotherhood. Headship and government of the Buddhist monasteries.
The first Arhats. Progress of the Mahā-yāna doctrine. The first
Bodhi-sattva Maitreya associated with numerous other
Bodhi-sattvas. Deification of Maitreya and elevation of Gautama’s
great pupils to Bodhi-sattvaship. Partial deification of great
teachers. Nāgārjuna, Gorakh-nāth. Barlaam and Josaphat 172-194

LECTURE IX.
Theistic and Polytheistic Buddhism.

Second Buddhist triad, Mañju-ṡrī, Avalokiteṡvara or Padma-pāṇi and
Vajra-pāṇi. Description of each. Theory of five human Buddhas,
five Dhyāni-Buddhas ‘of meditation,’ and five
Dhyāni-Bodhi-sattvas. Five triads formed by grouping together one
from each. Theory of Ādi-Buddha. Worship of the Dhyāni-Buddha
Amitābha. Tiers of heavens connected with the four Dhyānas or
stages of meditation. Account of the later Buddhist theory of
lower worlds and three groups of heavens. Synopsis of the
twenty-six heavens and their inhabitants. Hindū gods and demons
adopted by Buddhism. Hindū and Buddhist mythology 195-222

LECTURE X.
Mystical Buddhism in its connexion with the Yoga Philosophy.

Growth of esoteric and mystical Buddhism. Dhyāni-Buddhas. Yoga
philosophy. Svāmī Dayānanda-Sarasvatī. Twofold Yoga system. Bodily
tortures of Yogīs. Fasting. Complete absorption in thought.
Progressive stages of meditation. Samādhi. Six transcendent
faculties. The Buddha no spiritualist. Nature of Buddha’s
enlightenment. Attainment of miraculous powers. Development of
Buddha’s early doctrine. Eight requisites of Yoga. Six-syllabled
sentence. Mystical syllables. Cramping of limbs. Suppression and
imprisonment of breath. Suspended animation. Self-concentration.
Eight supernatural powers. Three bodies of every Buddha. Ethereal
souls and gross bodies. Buddhist Mahātmas. Astral bodies. Modern
spiritualism. Modern esoteric Buddhism and Asiatic occultism
223-252

LECTURE XI.
Hierarchical Buddhism, especially as developed in Tibet and Mongolia.

The Saṅgha. Development of Hierarchical gradations in Ceylon and in
Burma. Tibetan Buddhism. Northern Buddhism connected with
Shamanism. Lāmism and the Lāmistic Hierarchy. Gradations of
monkhood. Avatāra Lāmas. Vagabond Lāmas. Female Hierarchy. Two
Lāmistic sects. Explanation of Avatāra theory. History of Tibet.
Early history of Tibetan Buddhism. Thumi Sambhoṭa’s invention of
the Tibetan alphabet. Indian Buddhists sent for to Tibet. Tibetan
canon. Tibetan kings. Founding of monasteries. Buddhism adopted in
Mongolia. Hierarchical Buddhism in Mongolia. Invention of
Mongolian alphabet. Birth of the Buddhist reformer Tsong Khapa.
The Red and Yellow Cap schools. Monasteries of Galdan, Brepung,
and Sera. Character of Tsong Khapa’s reformation. Resemblance of
the Roman Catholic and Lāmistic systems. Death and canonization of
Tsong Khapa. Development of the Avatāra theory. The two Grand
Lāmas, Dalai Lāma and Panchen Lāma. Election of Dalai Lāma.
Election of the Grand Lāmas of Mongolia. List of Dalai Lāmas.
Discovery of present Dalai Lāma. The Lāma or Khanpo of Galdan, of
Kurun or Kuren, of Kuku khotun. Lāmism in Ladāk, Tangut, Nepāl,
Bhutān, Sikkim. In China and Japan. Divisions in Japanese
Buddhism. Buddhism in Russian territory 253-302

LECTURE XII.
Ceremonial and Ritualistic Buddhism.

Opposition of early Buddhism to sacerdotalism and ceremonialism.
Reaction. Religious superstition in Tibet and Mongolia. Accounts
by Koeppen, Schlagintweit, Markham, Huc, Sarat Chandra Dās.
Admission-ceremony of a novice in Burma and Ceylon. Boy-pupils.
Daily life in Burmese monasteries, according to Shway Yoe.
Observances during Vassa. Pirit ceremony. Mahā-baṇa Pirit.
Admission-ceremonies in Tibet and Mongolia. Dress and equipment of
a Lāmistic monk. Dorje. Prayer-bell. Use of Tibetan language in
the Ritual. A. Csoma de Körös’ life and labours. Form and
character of the Lāmistic Ritual. Huc’s description of a
particular Ritual. Holy water, consecrated grain, tea-drinking.
Ceremonies in Sikkim and Ladāk. Ceremony at Sarat Chandra Dās’
presentation to the Dalai Lāma. Ceremony at translation of a chief
Lāma’s soul. Other ceremonies. Uposatha and fast-days.
Circumambulation. Comparison with Roman Catholic Ritual 303-339

LECTURE XIII.
Festivals, Domestic Rites, and Formularies of Prayers.

New Year’s Festivals in Burma and Tibet. Festivals of Buddha’s birth
and death. Festival of lamps. Local Festivals. Chase of the
spirit-kings. Religious masquerades and dances. Religious dramas
in Burma and Tibet. Weapons used against evil spirits. Dorje.
Phurbu. Tattooing in Burma. Domestic rites and usages.
Birth-ceremonies in Ceylon and Burma. Name-giving ceremonies.
Horoscopes. Baptism in Tibet and Mongolia. Amulets.
Marriage-ceremonies. Freedom of women in Buddhist countries.
Usages in sickness. Merit gained by saving animal-life. Usages at
death. Cremation. Funeral-ceremonies in Sikkim, Japan, Ceylon,
Burma, Tibet, and Mongolia. Exposure of corpses in Tibet and
Mongolia. Prayer-formularies. Monlam. Maṇi-padme or ‘jewel-lotus’
formulary. Prayer-wheels, praying-cylinders and method of using
them. Formularies on rocks, etc. Man Dangs. Prayer-flags. Mystic
formularies. Rosaries. ḍamaru. Manual of daily prayers 340-386

LECTURE XIV.
Sacred Places.

The sacred land of Buddhism. Kapila-vastu, the Buddha’s birth-place.
The arrow-fountain. Buddha-Gayā. Ancient Temple. Sacred tree.
Restoration of Temple. Votive Stūpas. Mixture of Buddhism and
Hindūism. Hiouen Thsang’s description of Buddha-Gayā. Sārnāth near
Benares. Ruined Stūpa. Sculpture illustrating four events in the
Buddha’s career. Rāja-gṛiha. Scene of incidents in the Buddha’s
life. Deva-datta’s plots. Satta-paṇṇi cave. Ṡrāvastī. Residence in
Jeta-vana monastery. Sandal-wood image. Miracles. Vaiṡālī, place
of second council. Description by Hiouen Thsang and Fā-hien.
Kauṡāmbī. Great monolith. Nālanda monastery. Hiouen Thsang’s
description. Saṅkāṡya, place of Buddha’s descent from heaven.
Account of the triple ladder. Sāketa or Ayodhyā. Miraculous tree.
Kanyā-kubja. Ṡilāditya. Pāṭali-putra. Aṡoka’s palace. Founding of
hospitals. First Stūpa. Kesarīya. Ruined mound. Stūpa.
Kuṡi-nagara, the place of the Buddha’s death and Pari-nirvāṇa
387-425

LECTURE XV.
Monasteries and Temples.

Five kinds of dwellings permissible for monks. Institution of
monasteries. Cave-monasteries. Monasteries in Ceylon, Burma, and
British Sikkim. Monastery at Kīlang in Lahūl; at Kunbum; at Kuku
khotun; at Kuren; at Lhāssa. Palace-monastery of Potala. Residence
of Dalai Lāma, and Mr. Manning’s interview with him. Monasteries
of Lā brang, Ramoćhe, Moru, Gar Ma Khian. Three mother-monasteries
of the Yellow Sect, Galdan, Sera, and Dapung. Tashi Lunpo and the
Tashi Lāma. Mr. Bogle’s interview with the Tashi Lāma. Turner’s
interview with the Grand Lāma of the Terpaling monastery. Sarat
Chandra Dās’ description of the Tashi Lunpo monastery. Monasteries
of the Red Sect, Sam ye and Sakya. Monastery libraries. Temples.
Cave-temples or Ćaityas. The Elorā Ćaitya. The Kārle Ćaitya.
Village temples. Temples in Ceylon. Temple at Kelani. Tooth-temple
at Kandy. Burmese temples. Rangoon pagoda. Temples in Sikkim,
Mongolia, and Tibet. Great temple at Lhāssa; at Ramoćhe; at Tashi
Lunpo 426-464

LECTURE XVI.
Images and Idols.

Introduction of idolatry into India. Ancient image of Buddha. Gradual
growth of objective Buddhism. Development of image-worship.
Self-produced images. Hiouen Thsang’s account of the sandal-wood
image. Form, character, and general characteristics of images.
Outgrowth of Buddha’s skull. Nimbus. Size, height, and different
attitudes of Buddha’s images. ‘Meditative,’ ‘Witness,’
‘Serpent-canopied,’ ‘Argumentative’ or ‘Teaching,’ ‘Preaching,’
‘Benedictive,’ ‘Mendicant,’ and ‘Recumbent’ Attitudes.
Representations of Buddha’s birth. Images of other Buddhas and
Bodhi-sattvas. Images of Amitābha, of Maitreya, of Mañju-ṡrī, of
Avalokiteṡvara, of Kwan-yin and Vajra-pāṇi. Images of other
Bodhi-sattvas, gods and goddesses 465-492

LECTURE XVII.
Sacred Objects.

Sung-Yun’s description of objects of worship. Three classes of
Buddhist sacred objects 493-495

Relics. Hindū ideas of impurity connected with death. Hindū and
Buddhist methods of honouring ancestors compared. Worship of the
Buddha’s relics. The Buddha’s hair and nails. Eight portions of
his relics. Adventures of one of the Buddha’s teeth. Tooth-temple
at Kandy. Celestial light emitted by relics. Exhibition of relics.
Form and character of Buddhist relic-receptacles. Ćaityas, Stūpas,
Dāgabas, and their development into elaborate structures. Votive
Stūpas 495-506

Worship of foot-prints. Probable origin of the worship of foot-prints.
Alleged foot-prints of Christ. Vishṇu-pad at Gayā. Jaina pilgrims
at Mount Pārasnāth. Adam’s Peak. Foot-prints in various countries.
Mr. Alabaster’s description of the foot-print in Siam. Marks on
the soles of the Buddha’s feet 506-514

Sacred trees. General prevalence of tree-worship. Belief that spirits
inhabit trees. Offerings hung on trees. Trees of the seven
principal Buddhas. The Aṡvattha or Pippala is of all trees the
most revered. Other sacred trees. The Kalpa-tree. Wishing-tree.
Kabīr Var tree 514-520

Sacred symbols. The Tri-ratna symbol. The Ćakra or Wheel symbol. The
Lotus-flower. The Svastika symbol. The Throne symbol. The
Umbrella. The Ṡaṅkha or Conch-shell 520-523

Sacred animals. Worship of animals due to doctrine of metempsychosis.
Elephants. Deer. Pigs. Fish 524-526

Miscellaneous objects. Bells. Seven precious substances. Seven
treasures belonging to every universal monarch 526-528

Supplementary Remarks on the Connexion of Buddhism with Jainism.

Difference between the Buddhist and Jaina methods of obtaining
liberation. Nigaṇṭhas. Two Jaina sects. Dig-ambaras and
Ṡvetāmbaras. The three chief points of difference between them.
Their sacred books. Characteristics of both sects as distinguished
from Buddhism. Belief in existence of souls. Moral code.
Three-jewels. Five moral prohibitions. Prayer-formula. Temples
erected for acquisition of merit 529-536

LECTURE XVIII.
Buddhism contrasted with Christianity.

True Buddhism is no religion. Definition of the word ‘religion.’ Four
characteristics constitute a religion. Gautama’s claim to be
called ‘the Light of Asia’ examined. The Buddha’s and Christ’s
first call to their disciples. The Christian’s reverence for the
body contrasted with the Buddhist’s contempt for the body.
Doctrine of storing up merit illustrated, and shown to be common
to Buddhism, Brāhmanism, Hindūism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism,
and Muhammadanism. Doctrine of Karma or Act-force. Buddhist and
Christian doctrine of deliverance compared. Buddhist and Christian
moral precepts compared. The many benefits conferred upon Asia by
Buddhism admitted. Religious feelings among Buddhists. Buddhist
toleration of other religions.

Historic life of the Christ contrasted with legendary biography of the
Buddha. Christ God-sent. The Buddha self-sent. Miracles recorded
in the Bible and in the Tri-piṭaka contrasted. Buddhist and
Christian self-sacrifice compared. Character and style of the
Buddhist Tri-piṭaka contrasted with those of the Christian Bible.
Various Buddhist and Christian doctrines contrasted. Which
doctrines are to be preferred by rational and thoughtful men in
the nineteenth century? 537-563

OBSERVE.

The prevalent error in regard to the number of Buddhists at present existing in the world is pointed out in the Postscript at the end of the Preface (p. xiv).

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH DESCRIPTIONS.

PAGE

1. Brass Image of Gautama Buddha obtained by the Author from Ceylon
_Frontispiece_
He is seated on the Mućalinda Serpent (see p. 480), in an
attitude of profound meditation, with eyes half closed,
and five rays of light emerging from the crown of his
head.

2. Vignette, representing the Ćakra or ‘Wheel’ Symbol with Tri-ratna
symbols in the outer circle and Lotus symbol in the centre (see
pp. 521-522) _On Title-page_
Copied from the engraving of a Wheel supported on a column at
Amarāvatī (date about 250 A.D.) in Mr. Fergusson’s ‘Tree
and Serpent Worship.’

3. Map illustrative of the Sacred Land of Buddhism _To face_ 21

4. Portrait of Mr. Gaurī-Ṡaṅkar Uday-Ṡaṅkar, C.S.I., now Svāmī Ṡrī
Saććidānanda-Sarasvatī _To face_ 74
See the explanation at p. xiii. of the Preface.

5. Magical Dorje or thunderbolt used by Northern Buddhists 323

6. Prayer-bell used in worship 324

7. Magical weapon called Phur-pa, for defence against evil spirits 352
Used by Northern Buddhists. Brought from Dārjīling in 1884.

8. Amulet worn by a Tibetan woman at Dārjīling in 1884 358
Purchased at Dārjīling and given to the Author by Mr. Sarat
Chandra Dās.

9. Hand Prayer-wheel brought by the Author from Dārjīling 375

10. ḍamaru, or sacred drum, used by vagabond Buddhist monks 385

11. Ancient Buddhist temple at Buddha-Gayā, as it appeared in 1880
_To face_ 391
Erected about the middle of the 2nd century on the ruins of
Aṡoka’s temple, at the spot where Gautama attained
Buddhahood.
From a photograph by Mr. Beglar enlarged by Mr. G. W. Austen.

12. The same temple at Buddha-Gayā, as restored in 1884 _To face_ 393
From a photograph by Mr. Beglar enlarged by Mr. G. W. Austen.

13. Bronze model dug up at Moulmein, representing triple ladder by
which Buddha is supposed to have descended from heaven (from
original in South Kensington Museum) 418

14. Remains of a colossal statue of Buddha _To face_ 467
Probably in ‘argumentative’ or ‘teaching’ attitude (see p.
481). It was found by General Sir A. Cunningham close to
the south side of the Buddha-Gayā temple. The date (Samvat
64 = A.D. 142) is inscribed on the pedestal.

15. Terra-cotta image of Buddha dug up at Buddha-Gayā 477
Half the size of the original sculpture. Buddha is in the
attitude of meditation under the tree, with a halo or
aureola round his head. Probable date, not earlier than
9th century.

16. Sculpture found by General Sir A. Cunningham at Sārnāth, near
Benares _To face_ 477
Illustrative of the four principal events in Gautama Buddha’s
life—namely, his birth, his attainment of Buddhahood under
the tree, his teaching at Benares, and his passing away in
complete Nirvāṇa (see p. 387). Date about 400 A.D.

17. Sculpture of Buddha in ‘Witness-attitude’ on attaining Buddhahood,
under the tree (an umbrella is above) 478
Found at Buddha-Gayā. Date about the 9th century. The original
is remarkable for its smiling features and for the
circular mark on the forehead. The drawing is from a
photograph belonging to Sir A. Cunningham.

18. Sculpture of Buddha in ‘Witness-attitude’ on attaining Buddhahood
under the tree 480
From a niche high up on the western side of the Buddha-Gayā
temple. It has the ‘Ye dharmā’ formula (p. 104) inscribed
on each side. It is half the size of the original
sculpture. Probable date about the 11th century.

19. Sculpture found at Buddha-Gayā representing the earliest Triad,
viz. Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha 485
The drawing is from a photograph belonging to Sir A.
Cunningham, described at p. 484.

20. Votive Stūpa found at Buddha-Gayā _To face_ 505
Probable date about 9th or 10th century of our era.

21. Clay model of a small votive Stūpa 506
Selected from several which the author saw in the act of being
made by a monk outside a monastery in British Sikkim in
1884. This model probably contains the ‘Ye dharmā’ or some
other formula on a seal inside. The engraving is exactly
the size of the original.

RULES FOR PRONUNCIATION.

VOWELS.

_A_, _a_, pronounced as in rur_a_l, or the last _a_ in Americ_a_; _Ā_, _ā_, as in t_a_r, f_a_ther; _I_, _i_, as in f_i_ll; _Ī_, _ī_, as in pol_i_ce; _U_, _u_, as in b_u_ll; _Ū_, _ū_, as in r_u_de; _Ṛi_, _ṛi_, as in mer_ri_ly; _Ṛī_, _ṛī_, as in ma_ri_ne; _E_, _e_, as in pr_e_y; _Ai_, _ai_, as in _ai_sle; _O_, _o_, as in g_o_; _Au_, _au_, as in H_au_s (pronounced as in German).

CONSONANTS.

_K_, _k_, pronounced as in _k_ill, see_k_; _Kh_, _kh_, as in in_kh_orn; _G_, _g_, as in _g_un, do_g_; _Gh_, _gh_, as in lo_gh_ut; _Ṅ_, _ṅ_, as _ng_ in si_ng_ (si_ṅ_).

_Ć_, _ć_, as in dol_c_e (in music), = English _ch_ in _ch_ur_ch_, lur_ch_ (lur_ć_); _Ćh_, _ćh_, as in chur_chh_ill (_ć_ur_ćh_ill); _J_, _j_, as in _j_et; _Jh_, _jh_, as in he_dgeh_og (he_jh_og); _Ñ_, _ñ_, as in si_n_ge (si_ñ_j).

_Ṭ_, _ṭ_, as in _t_rue (_ṭ_ru); _Ṭh_, _ṭh_, as in an_th_ill (an_ṭh_ill); _ḍ_, _ḍ_, as in _d_rum (_ḍ_rum); _ḍh_, _ḍh_, as in re_dh_aired (re_ḍh_aired); _Ṇ_, _ṇ_, as in _n_o_n_e (_ṇ_u_ṇ_).

_T_, _t_, as in wa_t_er (as pronounced in Ireland); _Th_, _th_, as nu_t-h_ook (but more dental); _D_, _d_, as in _d_ice (more like _th_ in _th_is); _Dh_, _dh_, as in a_dh_ere (more dental); _N_, _n_, as in _n_ot, i_n_.

_P_, _p_, as in _p_ut, si_p_; _Ph_, _ph_, as in u_ph_ill; _B_, _b_, as in _b_ear, ru_b_; _Bh_, _bh_, as in a_bh_or; _M_, _m_, as in _m_ap, ja_m_.

_Y_, _y_, as in _y_et; _R_, _r_, as in _r_ed, yea_r_; _L_, _l_, as in _l_ie; _V_, _v_, as in _v_ie (but like _w_ after consonants, as in t_w_ice).

_Ṡ_, _ṡ_, as in _s_ure, ses_s_ion; _Sh_, _sh_, as in _sh_un, hu_sh_; _S_, _s_, as in _s_ir, his_s_. _H_, _h_, as in _h_it.

In Tibetan the vowels, including even _e_ and _o_, have generally the short sound, but accentuated vowels are comparatively long. I have marked such words as Lāma with a long mark to denote this, but Koeppen and Jäschke write Lama. Jäschke says that the Tibetan alphabet was adapted from the Lañćha form of the Indian letters by Thumi (Thonmi) Sambhoṭa (see p. 270) about the year 632.

OBSERVE.

It is common to hear English-speakers mispronounce the words Buddha and Buddhism. But any one who studies the rules on the preceding page will see that the _u_ in _Bud_dha, must not be pronounced like the _u_ in the English word ‘_bud_,’ but like the _u_ in b_u_ll.

Indeed, for the sake of the general reader, it might be better to write Booddha and Booddhism, provided the _oo_ be pronounced as in the words ‘wood,’ ‘good.’

ADDENDA and CORRIGENDA.

It is feared that the long-mark over the letter A may have been omitted in one or two cases or may have broken off in printing.

[In this electronic edition, corrections were incorporated in the text; additions were inserted as new footnotes and tagged—_Corr._]

BUDDHISM.

LECTURE I.
_Introductory. Buddhism in relation to Brāhmanism._

In my recent work[3] on Brāhmanism I have traced the progress of Indian religious thought through three successive stages—called by me Vedism, Brāhmanism, and Hindūism—the last including the three subdivisions of Ṡaivism, Vaishṇavism, and Ṡāktism. Furthermore I have attempted to prove that these systems are not really separated by sharp lines, but that each almost imperceptibly shades off into the other.

I have striven also to show that a true Hindū of the orthodox school is able quite conscientiously to accept all these developments of religious belief. He holds that they have their authoritative exponents in the successive bibles of the Hindū religion, namely, (1) the four Vedas—Ṛig-veda, Yajur-veda, Sāma-veda, Atharva-veda—and the Brāhmaṇas; (2) the Upanishads; (3) the Law-books—especially that of Manu; (4) the Bhakti-ṡāstras, including the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahā-bhārata, the Purāṇas—especially the Bhāgavata-purāṇa—and the Bhagavad-gītā; (5) the Tantras.

The chief works under these five heads represent the principal periods of religious development through which the Hindū mind has passed.

Thus, in the first place, the hymns of the Vedas and the ritualism of the Brāhmaṇas represent physiolatry or the worship of the personified forces of nature—a form of religion which ultimately became saturated with sacrificial ideas and with ceremonialism and asceticism. Secondly, the Upanishads represent the pantheistic conceptions which terminated in philosophical Brāhmanism. Thirdly, the Law-books represent caste-rules and domestic usages. Fourthly, the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahā-bhārata, and Purāṇas represent the principle of personal devotion to the personal gods, Ṡiva, Vishṇu, and their manifestations; and fifthly, the Tantras represent the perversion of the principle of love to polluting and degrading practices disguised under the name of religious rites. Of these five phases of the Hindū religion probably the first three only prevailed when Buddhism arose; but I shall try to make clear hereafter that Buddhism, as it developed, accommodated itself to the fourth and even ultimately to the fifth phase, admitting the Hindū gods into its own creed, while Hindūism also received ideas from Buddhism.

At any rate it is clear that the so-called orthodox Brāhman admits all five series of works as progressive exponents of the Hindū system—although he scarcely likes to confess openly to any adoption of the fifth. Hence his opinions are of necessity Protean and multiform.

The root ideas of his creed are of course Pantheistic, in the sense of being grounded on the identification of the whole external world—which he believes to be a mere illusory appearance—with one eternal, impersonal, spiritual Essence; but his religion is capable of presenting so many phases, according to the stand-point from which it is viewed, that its pantheism appears to be continually sliding into forms of monotheism and polytheism, and even into the lowest types of animism and fetishism.

We must not, moreover, forget—as I have pointed out in my recent work—that a large body of the Hindūs are unorthodox in respect of their interpretation of the leading doctrine of true Brāhmanism.

Such unorthodox persons may be described as sectarians or dissenters. That is to say, they dissent from the orthodox pantheistic doctrine that all gods and men, all divine and human souls, and all material appearances are mere illusory manifestations of one impersonal spiritual Entity—called Ātman or Purusha or Brahman—and they believe in one supreme personal god—either Ṡiva or Vishṇu or Kṛishṇa or Rāma—who is not liable (as orthodox Brāhmans say he is) to lose his personality by subjection to the universal law of dissolution and re-absorption into the one eternal impersonal Essence, but exists in a heaven of his own, to the bliss of which his worshippers are admitted[4].

And it must be borne in mind that these sectarians are very far from resting their belief on the Vedas, the Brāhmaṇas, and Upanishads.

Their creed is based entirely on the Bhakti-ṡāstras—that is, on the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahā-bhārata, and Purāṇas (especially on the Bhāgavata-purāṇa) and the Bhagavad-gītā, to the exclusion of the other scriptures of Hindūism.

Then again it must always be borne in mind that the terms ‘orthodox’ and ‘unorthodox’ have really little or no application to the great majority of the inhabitants of India, who in truth are wholly innocent of any theological opinions at all, and are far too apathetic to trouble themselves about any form of religion other than that which has belonged for centuries to their families and to the localities in which they live, and far too ignorant and dull of intellect to be capable of inquiring for themselves whether that religion is likely to be true or false.

To classify the masses under any one definite denomination, either as Pantheists or Polytheists or Monotheists, or as simple idol-worshippers, or fetish-worshippers, would be wholly misleading.

Their faculties are so enfeebled by the debilitating effect of early marriages, and so deadened by the drudgery of daily toil and the dire necessity of keeping body and soul together, that they can scarcely be said to be capable of holding any definite theological creed at all.

It would be nearer the truth to say that the religion of an ordinary Hindū consists in observing caste-customs, local usages, and family observances, in holding what may be called the Folk-legends of his neighbourhood, in propitiating evil spirits and in worshipping the image and superscription of the Empress of India, impressed on the current coin of the country.

As a rule such a man gives himself no uneasiness whatever about his prospects of happiness or misery in the world to come.

He is quite content to commit his interests in a future life to the care and custody of the Brāhmans; while, if he thinks about the nature of a Supreme Being at all, he assumes His benevolence and expects His good will as a matter of course.

What he really troubles himself about is the necessity for securing the present favour of the inhabitants of the unseen world, supposed to occupy the atmosphere everywhere around him—of the good and evil demons and spirits of the soil—generally represented by rude and grotesque images, and artfully identified by village priests and Brāhmans with alleged forms of Vishṇu or Ṡiva.

It follows that the mind of the ordinary Hindū, though indifferent about all definite dogmatic religion, is steeped in the kind of religiousness best expressed by the word {deisidaimonia}. He lives in perpetual dread of invisible beings who are thought to be exerting their mysterious influences above, below, around, in the immediate vicinity of his own dwelling. The very winds which sweep across his homestead are believed to swarm with spirits, who unless duly propitiated will blight the produce of his fields, or bring down upon him injury, disease, and death.

Then again, besides the orthodox and besides the sectarian Hindū and besides the great demon-worshipping, idolatrous, and superstitious majority, another class of the Indian community must also be taken into account—the class of rationalists and free-thinkers. These have been common in India from the earliest times.

First came a class of conscientious doubters, who strove to solve the riddle of life by microscopic self-introspection and sincere searchings after truth, and these did their best not to break with the Veda, Vedic revelation, and the authority of the Brāhmans.

Earnestly and reverently such men applied themselves to the difficult task of trying to answer such questions as—What am I? Whence have I come? Whither am I going? How can I explain my consciousness of personal existence? Have I an immaterial spirit distinct from, and independent of, my material frame? Of what nature is the world in which I find myself? Did an all-powerful Being create it out of nothing? or did it evolve itself out of an eternal protoplasmic germ? or did it come together by the combination of eternal atoms? or is it a mere illusion? If created by a Being of infinite wisdom and love, how can I account for the co-existence in it of good and evil, happiness and misery? Has the Creator form, or is He formless? Has He qualities and affections, or has He none?

It was in the effort to solve such insoluble enigmas by their own unaided intuitions and in a manner not too subversive of traditional dogma, that the systems of philosophy founded on the Upanishads originated.

These have been described in my book on Brāhmanism. They were gradually excogitated by independent thinkers, who claimed to be Brāhmans or twice-born men, and nominally accepted the Veda with its Brāhmaṇas, while they covertly attacked it, or at least abstained from denouncing it as absolutely untrue. Such men tacitly submitted to sacerdotal authority, though they really propounded a way of salvation based entirely on self-evolved knowledge, and quite independent of all Vedic sacrifices and sacrificing priests. The most noteworthy and orthodox of the systems propounded by them was the Vedānta[5], which, as I have shown, was simply spiritual Pantheism, and asserted that the one Spirit was the only real Being in the Universe.

But the origin of the more unorthodox systems, which denied the authority of both the Veda and the Brāhmans, must also be traced to the influence of the Upanishads. For it is undeniable that a spirit of atheistic infidelity grew up in India almost _pari passu_ with dogmatic Brāhmanism, and has always been prevalent there. In fact it would be easy to show that periodical outbursts of unbelief and agnosticism have taken place in India very much in the same way as in Europe; but the tendency to run into extremes has always been greater on Indian soil and beneath the glow and glamour of Eastern skies. On the one side, a far more unthinking respect than in any other country has been paid to the authority of priests, who have declared their supernatural revelation to be the very breath of God, sacrificial rites to be the sole instruments of salvation, and themselves the sole mediators between earth and heaven; on the other, far greater latitude than in any other country has been conceded to infidels and atheists who have poured contempt on all sacerdotal dogmas, have denied all supernatural revelation, have made no secret of their disbelief in a personal God, and have maintained that even if a Supreme Being and a spiritual world exist they are unknowable by man and beyond the cognizance of his faculties.

We learn indeed from certain passages of the Veda (Ṛig-veda II. 12. 5; VIII. 100. 3, 4) that even in the Vedic age some denied the existence of the god Indra.

We know, too, that Yāska, the well-known Vedic commentator, who is believed to have lived before the grammarian Pāṇini (probably in the fourth century B.C.), found himself obliged to refute the sceptical arguments of Kautsa and others who pronounced the Veda a tissue of nonsense (Nirukta I. 15, 16).

Again, Manu—whose law-book, according to Dr. Bühler, was composed between the second century B.C. and the second A.D., and, in my opinion, possibly earlier—has the following remark directed against sceptics:—

‘The twice-born man who depending on rationalistic treatises (hetu-ṡāstra) contemns the two roots of law (ṡruti and smṛiti), is to be excommunicated (vahish-kāryaḥ) by the righteous as an atheist (nāstika) and despiser of the Veda’ (Manu II. 11).

Furthermore, the Mahā-bhārata, a poem which contains many ancient legends quite as ancient as those of early Buddhism, relates (Ṡānti-parvan 1410, etc.) the story of the infidel Ćārvāka, who in the disguise of a mendicant Brāhman uttered sentiments dangerously heretical.

This Ćārvāka was the supposed founder of a materialistic school of thought called Lokāyata. Rejecting all instruments of knowledge (pramāṇa) except perception by the senses (pratyaksha), he affirmed that the soul did not exist separately from the body, and that all the phenomena of the world were spontaneously produced.

The following abbreviation of a passage in the Sarva-darṡana-saṅgraha[6] will give some idea of this school’s infidel doctrines, the very name of which (Lokāyata, ‘generally current in the world’) is an evidence of the popularity they enjoyed:—

No heaven exists, no final liberation,
No soul, no other world, no rites of caste,
No recompense for acts; let life be spent,
In merriment[7]; let a man borrow money
And live at ease and feast on melted butter.
How can this body when reduced to dust
Revisit earth? and if a ghost can pass
To other worlds, why does not strong affection
For those he leaves behind attract him back?
Oblations, funeral rites, and sacrifices
Are a mere means of livelihood devised
By sacerdotal cunning—nothing more.
The three composers of the triple Veda
Were rogues, or evil spirits, or buffoons.
The recitation of mysterious words
And jabber of the priests is simple nonsense.

Then again, the continued prevalence of sceptical opinions may be shown by extracts from other portions of the later literature. For example, in the Rāmāyaṇa (II. 108) the infidel Brāhman Jāvāli gives utterance to similar sentiments thus:—

‘The books composed by theologians, in which men are enjoined to worship, give gifts, offer sacrifice, practise austerities, abandon the world, are mere artifices to draw forth donations. Make up your mind that no one exists hereafter. Have regard only to what is visible and perceptible by the senses (pratyaksham). Cast everything beyond this behind your back.’

Furthermore, in a parallel passage from the Vishṇu-purāṇa, it is declared that the great Deceiver, practising illusion, beguiled other demon-like beings to embrace many sorts of heresy; some reviling the Vedas, others the gods, others the ceremonial of sacrifice, and others the Brāhmans[8]. These were called Nāstikas.

Such extracts prove that the worst forms of scepticism prevailed in both early and mediæval times. But all phases and varieties of heretical thought were not equally offensive, and it would certainly be unfair and misleading to place Buddhism and Jainism on the same level with the reckless Pyrrhonism of the Ćārvākas who had no code of morality.

And indeed it was for this very reason, that when Buddhism and Jainism began to make their presence felt in the fifth century B.C. they became far more formidable than any other phase of scepticism.

Whether, however, Buddhism or Jainism be entitled to chronological precedence is still an open question, about which opinions may reasonably differ. Some hold that they were always quite distinct from each other, and were the products of inquiry originated by two independent thinkers, and many scholars now consider that the weight of evidence is in favour of Jainism being a little antecedent to Buddhism. Possibly the two systems resulted from the splitting up of one sect into two divisions, just as the two Brāhma-Samājes of Calcutta are the product of the Ādi-Samāj.

One point at least is certain, that notwithstanding much community of thought between Buddhism and Jainism, Buddhism ended in gaining for itself by far the more important position of the two. For although Jainism has shown more tenacity of life in India, and has lingered on there till the present day, it never gained any hold on the masses of the population, whereas its rival, Buddhism, radiating from a central point in Hindūstān, spread itself first over the whole of India and then over nearly all Eastern Asia, and has played—as even its most hostile critics must admit—an important rôle in the history of the world.

To Buddhism, therefore, we have now to direct our attention, and at the very threshold of our inquiries we are confronted with this difficulty, that its great popularity and its wide diffusion among many peoples have made it most difficult to answer the question:—What is Buddhism? If it were possible to reply to the inquiry in one word, one might perhaps say that true Buddhism, theoretically stated, is Humanitarianism, meaning by that term something very like the gospel of humanity preached by the Positivist, whose doctrine is the elevation of man through man—that is, through human intellect, human intuitions, human teaching, human experiences, and accumulated human efforts—to the highest ideal of perfection; and yet something very different. For the Buddhist ideal differs toto cælo from the Positivist’s, and consists in the renunciation of all personal existence, even to the extinction of humanity itself. The Buddhist’s perfection is destruction (p. 123).

But such a reply would have only reference to the truest and earliest form of Buddhism. It would cover a very minute portion of the vast area of a subject which, as it grew, became multiform, multilateral, and almost infinite in its ramifications.

Innumerable writers, indeed, during the past thirty years have been attracted by the great interest of the inquiry, and have vied with each other in their efforts to give a satisfactory account of a system whose developments have varied in every country; while lecturers, essayists, and the authors of magazine articles are constantly adding their contributions to the mass of floating ideas, and too often propagate crude and erroneous conceptions on a subject, the depths of which they have never thoroughly fathomed.

It is to be hoped that the annexation of Upper Burma, while giving an impulse to Pāli and Buddhistic studies, may help to throw light on some obscure points.

Certainly Buddhism continues to be little understood by the great majority of educated persons. Nor can any misunderstanding on such a subject be matter of surprise, when writers of high character colour their descriptions of it from an examination of one part of the system only, without due regard to its other phases, and in this way either exalt it to a far higher position than it deserves, or depreciate it unfairly.

And Buddhism is a subject which must continue for a long time to present the student with a boundless field of investigation. No one can bring a proper capacity of mind to such a study, much less write about it clearly, who has not studied the original documents both in Pāli and in Sanskṛit, after a long course of preparation in the study of Vedism, Brāhmanism, and Hindūism. It is a system which resembles these other forms of Indian religious thought in the great variety of its aspects. Starting from a very simple proposition, which can only be described as an exaggerated truism—the truism, I mean, that all life involves sorrow, and that all sorrow results from indulging desires which ought to be suppressed—it has branched out into a vast number of complicated and self-contradictory propositions and allegations. Its teaching has become both negative and positive, agnostic and gnostic. It passes from apparent atheism and materialism to theism, polytheism, and spiritualism. It is under one aspect mere pessimism; under another pure philanthropy; under another monastic communism; under another high morality; under another a variety of materialistic philosophy; under another simple demonology; under another a mere farrago of superstitions, including necromancy, witchcraft, idolatry, and fetishism. In some form or other it may be held with almost any religion, and embraces something from almost every creed. It is founded on philosophical Brāhmanism, has much in common with Sāṅkhya and Vedānta ideas, is closely connected with Vaishṇavism, and in some of its phases with both Ṡaivism and Ṡāktism, and yet is, properly speaking, opposed to every one of these systems. It has in its moral code much common ground with Christianity, and in its mediæval and modern developments presents examples of forms, ceremonies, litanies, monastic communities, and hierarchical organizations, scarcely distinguishable from those of Roman Catholicism; and yet a greater contrast than that presented by the essential doctrines of Buddhism and of Christianity can scarcely be imagined. Strangest of all, Buddhism—with no God higher than the perfect man—has no pretensions to be called a religion in the true sense of the word, and is wholly destitute of the vivifying forces necessary to give vitality to the dry bones of its own morality; and yet it once existed as a real power over at least a third of the human race, and even at the present moment claims a vast number of adherents in Asia, and not a few sympathisers in Europe and America.

Evidently, then, any Orientalist who undertakes to give a clear and concise account of Buddhism in the compass of a few lectures, must find himself engaged in a very venturesome and difficult task.

Happily we are gaining acquaintance with the Southern or purest form of Buddhism through editions and translations of the texts of the Pāli Canon by Fausböll, Childers, Rhys Davids, Oldenberg, Morris, Trenckner, L. Feer, etc. We owe much, too, to the works of Turnour, Hardy, Clough, Gogerly, D’Alwis, Burnouf, Lassen, Spiegel, Weber, Koeppen, Minayeff, Bigandet, Max Müller, Kern, Ed. Müller, E. Kuhn, Pischel, and others. These enable us to form a fair estimate of what Buddhism was in its early days.

But the case is different when we turn to the Northern Buddhist Scriptures, written generally in tolerably correct Sanskṛit (with Tibetan translations). These continue to be little studied, notwithstanding the materials placed at our command and the good work done, first by the distinguished ‘founder of the study of Buddhism,’ Brian Hodgson, and by Burnouf, Wassiljew, Cowell, Senart, Kern, Beal, Foucaux, and others. In fact, the moment we pass from the Buddhism of India, Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, to that of Nepāl, Kashmīr, Tibet, Bhutān, Sikkim, China, Mongolia, Manchuria, Corea, and Japan, we seem to have entered a labyrinth, the clue of which is continually slipping from our hands.

Nor is it possible to classify the varying and often conflicting systems in these latter countries, under the one general title of Northern Buddhism.

For indeed the changes which religious systems undergo, even in countries adjacent to each other, not unfrequently amount to an entire reversal of their whole character. We may illustrate these changes by the variations of words derived from one and the same root in neighbouring countries. Take, for example, the German words selig, ‘blessed,’ and knabe, ‘a boy,’ which in England are represented by ‘silly’ and ‘knave.’

A similar law appears to hold good in the case of religious ideas. Their whole character seems to change by a change of latitude and longitude. This is even true of Christianity. Can it be maintained, for instance, that the Christianity of modern Greece and Rome has much in common with early Christianity, and would any casual observer believe that the inhabitants of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Edinburgh, London, and Paris were followers of the same religion?

It cannot therefore surprise us if Buddhism developed into apparently contradictory systems in different countries and under varying climatic conditions. In no two countries did it preserve the same features. Even in India, the land of its birth, it had greatly changed during the first ten centuries of its prevalence. So much so that had it been possible for its founder to reappear upon earth in the fifth century after Christ, he would have failed to recognize his own child, and would have found that his own teaching had not escaped the operation of a law which experience proves to be universal and inevitable.

It is easy, therefore, to understand how difficult it will be to give any semblance of unity to my present subject. It will be impossible for me to treat as a consistent whole a system having a perpetually varying front and no settled form. I can only give a series of somewhat rough, though, I hope, trustworthy outlines, as far as possible in methodical succession.

And in the carrying out of such a design, the three objects that will at first naturally present themselves for delineation will be three which constitute the well-known triad of early Buddhism—that is to say, the Buddha himself, His Law and His Order of Monks.

Hence my aim will be, in the first place, to give such a historical account of the Buddha and of his earliest teaching as may be gathered from his legendary biography, and from the most trustworthy parts of the Buddhist canonical scriptures. Secondly, I shall give a brief description of the origin and composition of those scriptures as containing the Buddha’s ‘Law’ (Dharma); and thirdly, I shall endeavour to explain the early constitution of the Buddha’s Order of Monks (Saṅgha). After treating of these three preliminary topics, I shall next describe the Law itself; that is, the philosophical doctrines of Buddhism, its code of morality and theory of perfection, terminating in Nirvāṇa. Lastly, I shall attempt to trace out the confused outlines of theistic, mystical, and hierarchical Buddhism, as developed in Northern countries, adding an account of sacred objects and places, and contrasting the chief doctrines of Christianity. In regard to the Buddhism of Tibet, I shall chiefly base my explanations on Koeppen’s great work—a work never translated into English and now out of print—as well as on my own researches during my travels through the parts of India bordering on that country.

And here I ought to state that my explanations and descriptions will, I fear, be wholly deficient in picturesqueness. My simple aim will be to convey clear and correct information in unembellished language; and in doing this, I shall often be compelled to expose myself to the reproach contained in the expressions, _ćarvita-ćarvaṇam_, ‘chewing the chewed,’ and _pishṭa-peshaṇam_, ‘grinding the ground.’ I shall constantly be obliged to tread on ground already well trodden.

To begin, then, with the Buddha himself.

LECTURE II.
_The Buddha as a personal Teacher._

It is much to be regretted that among all the sacred books that constitute the Canon of the Southern Buddhists (see p. 61)—the only true Canon of Buddhism—there is no trustworthy biography of its Founder.

For Buddhism is nothing without Buddha, just as Zoroastrianism is nothing without Zoroaster, Confucianism nothing without Confucius, Muhammadanism nothing without Muhammad, and I may add with all reverence, Christianity nothing without Christ.

Indeed, no religion or religious system which has not emanated from some one heroic central personality, or in other words, which has not had a founder whose strongly marked personal character constituted the very life and soul of his teaching and the chief factor in its effectiveness, has ever had any chance of achieving world-wide acceptance, or ever spread far beyond the place of its origin.

Hence the barest outline of primitive Buddhism must be incomplete without some sketch of the life and character of Gautama Buddha himself. Yet it is difficult to find any sure basis of fact on which we may construct a fairly credible biography.

In all likelihood legendary histories of the Founder of Buddhism were current in Nepāl and Tibet in the early centuries of our era; but unhappily his too enthusiastic and imaginative admirers have thought it right to testify their admiration by interweaving with the probable facts of Gautama Buddha’s life, fables so extravagant that some modern critical scholars have despaired of attempting to sift truth from fiction, and have even gone to the extreme of doubting that Gautama Buddha ever lived at all.

To believe nothing that has been recorded about him, is as unreasonable as to accept with unquestioning faith all the miraculous circumstances which are made to encircle him as with a halo of divine glory.

We must bear in mind that when Gautama Buddha lived—about the fifth century B.C.—the art of writing was not common in India[9]. We may point out, too, that in all countries, European as well as Asiatic—notably in Greece (witness, for example, the familiar instance of Socrates)—men have thought more of preserving the sayings of their teachers than of recording the facts of their lives.

And we must not forget that in India—where the imaginative faculties have always been too active, and anything like real history is unknown—any plain matter-of-fact biography of the most heroic personage would have few charms for any one, and little chance of gaining acceptance anywhere.

Hence it has happened that the ballads (gāthā) and legends current about Gautama among Northern Buddhists, bristle with the wildest fancies and the most absurd exaggerations.

Yet it is not impossible to detect a few scattered historical facts beneath stories, however childish, and legends, however extravagant. We shall not at least be far wrong, if, in attempting an outline of the Buddha’s life, we begin by asserting that intense individuality, fervid earnestness, and severe simplicity of character, combined with singular beauty of countenance, calm dignity of bearing, and above all, almost superhuman persuasiveness of speech, were conspicuous in the great Teacher.

The earliest authorities, however, never claim for him anything extraordinary or superhuman in regard to external form. It was only in later times that Buddhist writers pandered to the superstitions of the people, by describing the Buddha as possessed of various miraculous characteristics of mind and body. He is said to have been of immense stature—according to some, eighteen feet high—and to have had on his body thirty-two chief auspicious marks (mahā-vyañjana), regarded as indications of a Supreme Lord and Universal Ruler, eighty secondary marks (anu-vyañjana), besides one hundred and eight symbols on the sole of each foot, and a halo extending for six feet round his person.

All that can be said with any degree of probability about his personal appearance is, that he was endowed with certain qualities, which acted like a spell, or with a kind of irresistible magnetism, on his hearers. These must have formed, so to speak, the foundation-stone on which the superstructure of his vast influence rested.

Unhappily, no authoritative Buddhist scripture gives any trustworthy clue to the exact year of the Buddha’s birth. The traditions which refer back his _death_ to a date corresponding to 543 B.C. are now rejected by modern European scholars. Nor can we as yet accept as infallible the results of the latest researches, which making use of various other data, such as the inscriptions on coins, rocks, and columns, place his death more than a century later. We shall not, however, be far wrong if we assert that he was born about the year 500 B.C. at Kapila-vastu (now Bhūila)—a town situated about half-way between Bastī and Ajūdhyā (Ayodhyā) in the territory of Kosala (the modern Oudh, see pp. 29, 48), about sixty miles from its capital city Ṡrāvasti (a favourite residence of Gautama), and about one hundred miles[10] north-west of Benares, and near the borders of the kingdom of Magadha (now Behār).

His father, named Ṡuddhodana, was a land-owner of the tribe of the Ṡākyas (a name possibly connected with the Sanskṛit root Ṡak, ‘to be powerful’), whose territory in the Gorakh-pur district extended from the lower Nepalese mountains to the river Raptī in Oudh. It has been conjectured that the Ṡākyas may have been originally a non-Āryan tribe, connected perhaps with certain nomad immigrants from Tibet or Northern Asia, who may have immigrated into India at various periods; but even if this could be proved, it would have to be admitted that the Ṡākyas had become Āryanized. It is said that the chief families claimed to be Rājputs, tracing back their origin to Ikshvāku, the first of the Solar race. It appears, too, that though belonging to the Kshatriya caste, they were agriculturists, and mainly engaged in the cultivation of rice. It is also asserted that Ṡākya families were in the habit of taking the name of the family of the Brāhmans who were their spiritual guides and performed religious offices for them, and that the family of Ṡuddhodana took the name Gautama, that is, descendant of the sage Gotama. It does not, however, seem necessary to account for the name in this manner. It was an auspicious name, which in ancient times might have been given to the child of any great land-owner as a proof of orthodoxy, or with the view, perhaps, of pleasing the Brāhmans and securing their prayers and good wishes on its behalf.

The father of the Founder of Buddhism was simply a chief of the Ṡākya tribe—certainly not a king in our sense of the term—but rather a great Zamīndār or landlord, whose territory was not so large in area as Yorkshire. His name Ṡuddhodana, ‘one possessed of pure rice,’ probably indicated the occupation and ordinary food of the peasantry inhabiting the district belonging to him and subject to his authority. Those who have travelled much in India must often have met great land-owners of the Ṡuddhodana type—men to whom the title Mahā-rāja is given much as ‘Lord’ is to our aristocracy. For example, the Mahā-rāja of Darbhanga is probably a more important personage than Gautama’s father ever was, and his territory larger than that of Ṡuddhodana ever was.