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+Project Gutenberg's Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3), by Charles Eliot
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3)
+       An Historical Sketch
+
+Author: Charles Eliot
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15255]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Shawn Wheeler and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
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+
+
+
+HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
+AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
+
+
+BY SIR CHARLES ELIOT
+
+
+
+
+In three volumes VOLUME I
+
+ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL LTD Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane, London,
+E.C.4.
+
+_First published_ 1921 _Reprinted_ 1954 _Reprinted_ 1957 _Reprinted_
+1962
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
+
+LUND HUMPHRIES LONDON {~BULLET~} BRADFORD
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The present work was begun in 1907 and was practically complete when the
+war broke out, but many circumstances such as the difficulty of
+returning home, unavoidable delays in printing and correcting proofs,
+and political duties have deferred its publication until now. In the
+interval many important books dealing with Hinduism and Buddhism have
+appeared, but having been resident in the Far East (with one brief
+exception) since 1912 I have found it exceedingly difficult to keep in
+touch with recent literature. Much of it has reached me only in the last
+few months and I have often been compelled to notice new facts and views
+in footnotes only, though I should have wished to modify the text.
+
+Besides living for some time in the Far East, I have paid many visits to
+India, some of which were of considerable length, and have travelled in
+all the countries of which I treat except Tibet. I have however seen
+something of Lamaism near Darjeeling, in northern China and in Mongolia.
+But though I have in several places described the beliefs and practices
+prevalent at the present day, my object is to trace the history and
+development of religion in India and elsewhere with occasional remarks
+on its latest phases. I have not attempted to give a general account of
+contemporary religious thought in India or China and still less to
+forecast the possible result of present tendencies.
+
+In the following pages I have occasion to transcribe words belonging to
+many oriental languages in Latin characters. Unfortunately a uniform
+system of transcription, applicable to all tongues, seems not to be
+practical at present. It was attempted in the _Sacred Books of the
+East_, but that system has fallen into disuse and is liable to be
+misunderstood. It therefore seems best to use for each language the
+method of transcription adopted by standard works in English dealing
+with each, for French and German transcriptions, whatever their merits
+may be as representations of the original sounds, are often misleading
+to English readers, especially in Chinese. For Chinese I have adopted
+Wade's system as used in Giles's _Dictionary_, for Tibetan the system of
+Sarat Chandra Das, for Pali that of the Pali Text Society and for
+Sanskrit that of Monier-Williams's _Sanskrit Dictionary,_ except that I
+write s instead of s. Indian languages however offer many difficulties:
+it is often hard to decide whether Sanskrit or vernacular forms are more
+suitable and in dealing with Buddhist subjects whether Sanskrit or Pali
+words should be used. I have found it convenient to vary the form of
+proper names according as my remarks are based on Sanskrit or on Pali
+literature, but this obliges me to write the same word differently in
+different places, e.g. sometimes Ajātasatru and sometimes Ajātasattu,
+just as in a book dealing with Greek and Latin mythology one might
+employ both Herakles and Hercules. Also many Indian names such as
+Ramayana, Krishna, nirvana have become Europeanized or at least are
+familiar to all Europeans interested in Indian literature. It seems
+pedantic to write them with their full and accurate complement of
+accents and dots and my general practice is to give such words in their
+accurate spelling (Rāmāyana, etc.) when they are first mentioned and
+also in the notes but usually to print them in their simpler and
+unaccented forms. I fear however that my practice in this matter is not
+entirely consistent since different parts of the book were written at
+different times.
+
+My best thanks are due to Mr R.F. Johnston (author of _Chinese
+Buddhism_), to Professor W.J. Hinton of the University of Hong Kong and
+to Mr H.I. Harding of H.M. Legation at Peking for reading the proofs and
+correcting many errors: to Sir E. Denison Ross and Professor L. Finot
+for valuable information: and especially to Professor and Mrs Rhys
+Davids for much advice, though they are in no way responsible for the
+views which I have expressed and perhaps do not agree with them. It is
+superfluous for me to pay a tribute to these eminent scholars whose
+works are well known to all who are interested in Indian religion, but
+no one who has studied the early history of Buddhism or the Pali
+language can refrain from acknowledging a debt of gratitude to those who
+have made such researches possible by founding and maintaining during
+nearly forty years the Pali Text Society and rendering many of the texts
+still more accessible to Europe by their explanations and translations.
+
+C. ELIOT.
+
+TOKYO,
+
+_May_, 1921.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
+
+The following are the principal abbreviations used:
+
+
+Ep. Ind. Epigraphia India.
+
+E.R.E. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (edited by Hastings).
+
+I.A. Indian Antiquary.
+
+J.A. Journal Asiatique.
+
+J.A.O.S. Journal of the American Oriental Society.
+
+J.R.A.S. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
+
+P.T.S. Pali Text Society.
+
+S.B.E. Sacred Books of the East (Clarendon Press).
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+BOOK I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+1. INFLUENCE OF INDIAN THOUGHT IN EASTERN ASIA xi
+
+2. ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF HINDUISM xiv
+
+3. THE BUDDHA xix
+
+4. ASOKA xxii
+
+5. EXTENSION OF BUDDHISM AND HINDUISM BEYOND INDIA xxiv
+
+6. NEW FORMS OF BUDDHISM xxix
+
+7. REVIVAL OF HINDUISM xxxiii
+
+8. LATER FORMS OF HINDUISM xl
+
+9. EUROPEAN INFLUENCE AND MODERN HINDUISM xlvi
+
+10. CHANGE AND PERMANENCE IN BUDDHISM xlviii
+
+11. REBIRTH AND THE NATURE OF THE SOUL l
+
+12. " " " " lviii
+
+13. " " " " lxii
+
+14. EASTERN PESSIMISM AND RENUNCIATION lxv
+
+15. EASTERN POLYTHEISM lxviii
+
+16. THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF HINDUISM lxx
+
+17. THE HINDU AND BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES lxxii
+
+18. MORALITY AND WILL lxxvi
+
+19. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL lxxix
+
+20. CHURCH AND STATE lxxxi
+
+21. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND CEREMONIAL lxxxiv
+
+22. THE WORSHIP OF THE REPRODUCTIVE FORCES lxxxvi
+
+23. HINDUISM IN PRACTICE lxxxviii
+
+24. BUDDHISM IN PRACTICE xcii
+
+25. INTEREST OF INDIAN THOUGHT FOR EUROPE xcv
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+EARLY INDIAN RELIGION: A GENERAL VIEW
+
+
+I. RELIGIONS OF INDIA AND EASTERN ASIA 5
+
+II. HISTORICAL 15
+
+III. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN RELIGION 33
+
+IV. VEDIC DEITIES AND SACRIFICES 50
+
+V. ASCETICISM AND KNOWLEDGE 71
+
+VI. RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRE-BUDDHIST INDIA 87
+
+VII. THE JAINS 105
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III
+
+PALI BUDDHISM
+
+
+VIII. LIFE OF THE BUDDHA 129
+
+IX. THE BUDDHA COMPARED WITH OTHER RELIGIOUS TEACHERS 177
+
+X. THE TEACHING OF THE BUDDHA 185
+
+XI. MONKS AND LAYMEN 237
+
+XII. ASOKA 254
+
+XIII. THE CANON 275
+
+XIV. MEDITATION 302
+
+XV. MYTHOLOGY IN HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+1. _Influence of Indian Thought in Eastern Asia_
+
+
+Probably the first thought which will occur to the reader who is
+acquainted with the matters treated in this work will be that the
+subject is too large. A history of Hinduism or Buddhism or even of both
+within the frontiers of India may be a profitable though arduous task,
+but to attempt a historical sketch of the two faiths in their whole
+duration and extension over Eastern Asia is to choose a scene unsuited
+to any canvas which can be prepared at the present day. Not only is the
+breadth of the landscape enormous but in some places it is crowded with
+details which cannot be omitted while in others the principal features
+are hidden by a mist which obscures the unity and connection of the
+whole composition. No one can feel these difficulties more than I do
+myself or approach his work with more diffidence, yet I venture to think
+that wide surveys may sometimes be useful and are needed in the present
+state of oriental studies. For the reality of Indian influence in
+Asia--from Japan to the frontiers of Persia, from Manchuria to Java, from
+Burma to Mongolia--is undoubted and the influence is one. You cannot
+separate Hinduism from Buddhism, for without it Hinduism could not have
+assumed its medieval shape and some forms of Buddhism, such as Lamaism,
+countenance Brahmanic deities and ceremonies, while in Java and Camboja
+the two religions were avowedly combined and declared to be the same.
+Neither is it convenient to separate the fortunes of Buddhism and
+Hinduism outside India from their history within it, for although the
+importance of Buddhism depends largely on its foreign conquests, the
+forms which it assumed in its new territories can be understood only by
+reference to the religious condition of India at the periods when
+successive missions were despatched.
+
+This book then is an attempt to give a sketch of Indian thought or
+Indian religion--for the two terms are nearly equivalent in extent--and of
+its history and influence in Asia. I will not say in the world, for that
+sounds too ambitious and really adds little to the more restricted
+phrase. For ideas, like empires and races, have their natural frontiers.
+Thus Europe may be said to be non-Mohammedan. Although the essential
+principles of Mohammedanism seem in harmony with European monotheism,
+yet it has been deliberately rejected by the continent and often
+repelled by force. Similarly in the regions west of India[1], Indian
+religion is sporadic and exotic. I do not think that it had much
+influence on ancient Egypt, Babylon and Palestine or that it should be
+counted among the forces which shaped the character and teaching of
+Christ, though Christian monasticism and mysticism perhaps owed
+something to it. The debt of Manichaeism and various Gnostic sects is
+more certain and more considerable, but these communities have not
+endured and were regarded as heretical while they lasted. Among the
+Neoplatonists of Alexandria and the Sufis of Arabia and Persia many seem
+to have listened to the voice of Hindu mysticism but rather as
+individuals than as leaders of popular movements.
+
+But in Eastern Asia the influence of India has been notable in extent,
+strength and duration. Scant justice is done to her position in the
+world by those histories which recount the exploits of her invaders and
+leave the impression that her own people were a feeble, dreamy folk,
+sundered from the rest of mankind by their sea and mountain frontiers.
+Such a picture takes no account of the intellectual conquests of the
+Hindus. Even their political conquests were not contemptible and were
+remarkable for the distance if not for the extent of the territory
+occupied. For there were Hindu kingdoms in Java and Camboja and
+settlements in Sumatra[2] and even in Borneo, an island about as far
+from India as is Persia from Rome. But such military or commercial
+invasions are insignificant compared with the spread of Indian thought.
+The south-eastern region of Asia--both mainland and archipelago--owed its
+civilization almost entirely to India. In Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Camboja,
+Champa and Java, religion, art, the alphabet, literature, as well as
+whatever science and political organization existed, were the direct
+gift of Hindus, whether Brahmans or Buddhists, and much the same may be
+said of Tibet, whence the wilder Mongols took as much Indian
+civilization as they could stomach. In Java and other Malay countries
+this Indian culture has been superseded by Islam, yet even in Java the
+alphabet and to a large extent the customs of the people are still
+Indian.
+
+In the countries mentioned Indian influence has been dominant until the
+present day, or at least until the advent of Islam. In another large
+area comprising China, Japan, Korea, and Annam it appears as a layer
+superimposed on Chinese culture, yet not a mere veneer. In these regions
+Chinese ethics, literature and art form the major part of intellectual
+life and have an outward and visible sign in the Chinese written
+characters which have not been ousted by an Indian alphabet[3]. But in
+all, especially in Japan, the influence of Buddhism has been profound
+and penetrating. None of these lands can be justly described as Buddhist
+in the same sense as Burma or Siam but Buddhism gave them a creed
+acceptable in different forms to superstitious, emotional and
+metaphysical minds: it provided subjects and models for art, especially
+for painting, and entered into popular life, thought and language.
+
+But what are Hinduism and Buddhism? What do they teach about gods and
+men and the destinies of the soul? What ideals do they hold up and is
+their teaching of value or at least of interest for Europe? I will not
+at once answer these questions by general statements, because such names
+as Hinduism and Buddhism have different meanings in different countries
+and ages, but will rather begin by briefly reviewing the development of
+the two religions. I hope that the reader will forgive me if in doing so
+I repeat much that is to be found in the body of this work.
+
+One general observation about India may be made at the outset. Here more
+than in any other country the national mind finds its favourite
+occupation and full expression in religion. This quality is geographical
+rather than racial, for it is possessed by Dravidians as much as by
+Aryans. From the Raja to the peasant most Hindus have an interest in
+theology and often a passion for it. Few works of art or literature are
+purely secular: the intellectual and aesthetic efforts of India, long,
+continuous and distinguished as they are, are monotonous inasmuch as
+they are almost all the expression of some religious phase. But the
+religion itself is extraordinarily full and varied. The love of
+discussion and speculation creates considerable variety in practice and
+almost unlimited variety in creed and theory. There are few dogmas known
+to the theologies of the world which are not held by some of India's
+multitudinous sects[4] and it is perhaps impossible to make a single
+general statement about Hinduism, to which some sects would not prove an
+exception. Any such statements in this book must be understood as
+referring merely to the great majority of Hindus.
+
+As a form of life and thought Hinduism is definite and unmistakeable. In
+whatever shape it presents itself it can be recognized at once. But it
+is so vast and multitudinous that only an encyclopedia could describe it
+and no formula can summarize it. Essayists flounder among conflicting
+propositions such as that sectarianism is the essence of Hinduism or
+that no educated Hindu belongs to a sect. Either can easily be proved,
+for it may be said of Hinduism, as it has been said of zoology, that you
+can prove anything if you merely collect facts which support your theory
+and not those which conflict with it. Hence many distinguished writers
+err by overestimating the phase which specially interests them. For one
+the religious life of India is fundamentally monotheistic and Vishnuite:
+for another philosophic Sivaism is its crown and quintessence: a third
+maintains with equal truth that all forms of Hinduism are tantric. All
+these views are tenable because though Hindu life may be cut up into
+castes and sects, Hindu creeds are not mutually exclusive and repellent.
+They attract and colour one another.
+
+
+2. _Origin and Growth of Hinduism_
+
+The earliest product of Indian literature, the Rig Veda, contains the
+songs of the Aryan invaders who were beginning to make a home in India.
+Though no longer nomads, they had little local sentiment. No cities had
+arisen comparable with Babylon or Thebes and we hear little of ancient
+kingdoms or dynasties. Many of the gods who occupied so much of their
+thoughts were personifications of natural forces such as the sun, wind
+and fire, worshipped without temples or images and hence more indefinite
+in form, habitation and attributes than the deities of Assyria or Egypt.
+The idea of a struggle between good and evil was not prominent. In
+Persia, where the original pantheon was almost the same as that of the
+Veda, this idea produced monotheism: the minor deities became angels and
+the chief deity a Lord of hosts who wages a successful struggle against
+an independent but still inferior spirit of evil. But in India the
+Spirits of Good and Evil are not thus personified. The world is regarded
+less as a battlefield of principles than as a theatre for the display of
+natural forces. No one god assumes lordship over the others but all are
+seen to be interchangeable--mere names and aspects of something which is
+greater than any god.
+
+Indian religion is commonly regarded as the offspring of an Aryan
+religion, brought into India by invaders from the north and modified by
+contact with Dravidian civilization. The materials at our disposal
+hardly permit us to take any other point of view, for the literature of
+the Vedic Aryans is relatively ancient and full and we have no
+information about the old Dravidians comparable with it. But were our
+knowledge less one-sided, we might see that it would be more correct to
+describe Indian religion as Dravidian religion stimulated and modified
+by the ideas of Aryan invaders. For the greatest deities of Hinduism,
+Siva, Krishna, Rāma, Durgā and some of its most essential doctrines such
+as metempsychosis and divine incarnations, are either totally unknown to
+the Veda or obscurely adumbrated in it. The chief characteristics of
+mature Indian religion are characteristics of an area, not of a race,
+and they are not the characteristics of religion in Persia, Greece or
+other Aryan lands[5].
+
+Some writers explain Indian religion as the worship of nature spirits,
+others as the veneration of the dead. But it is a mistake to see in the
+religion of any large area only one origin or impulse. The principles
+which in a learned form are championed to-day by various professors
+represent thoughts which were creative in early times. In ancient India
+there were some whose minds turned to their ancestors and dead friends
+while others saw divinity in the wonders of storm, spring and harvest.
+Krishna is in the main a product of hero worship, but Siva has no such
+historical basis. He personifies the powers of birth and death, of
+change, decay and rebirth--in fact all that we include in the prosaic
+word nature. Assuredly both these lines of thought--the worship of nature
+and of the dead--and perhaps many others existed in ancient India.
+
+By the time of the Upanishads, that is about 600 B.C., we trace three
+clear currents in Indian religion which have persisted until the present
+day. The first is ritual. This became extraordinarily complicated but
+retained its primitive and magical character. The object of an ancient
+Indian sacrifice was partly to please the gods but still more to coerce
+them by certain acts and formulae[6]. Secondly all Hindus lay stress on
+asceticism and self-mortification, as a means of purifying the soul and
+obtaining supernatural powers. They have a conviction that every man who
+is in earnest about religion and even every student of philosophy must
+follow a discipline at least to the extent of observing chastity and
+eating only to support life. Severer austerities give clearer insight
+into divine mysteries and control over the forces of nature. Europeans
+are apt to condemn eastern asceticism as a waste of life but it has had
+an important moral effect. The weakness of Hinduism, though not of
+Buddhism, is that ethics have so small a place in its fundamental
+conceptions. Its deities are not identified with the moral law and the
+saint is above that law. But this dangerous doctrine is corrected by the
+dogma, which is also a popular conviction, that a saint must be a
+passionless ascetic. In India no religious teacher can expect a hearing
+unless he begins by renouncing the world.
+
+Thirdly, the deepest conviction of Hindus in all ages is that salvation
+and happiness are attainable by knowledge. The corresponding phrases in
+Sanskrit are perhaps less purely intellectual than our word and contain
+some idea of effort and emotion. He who knows God attains to God, nay he
+is God. Rites and self-denial are but necessary preliminaries to such
+knowledge: he who possesses it stands above them. It is inconceivable to
+the Hindus that he should care for the things of the world but he cares
+equally little for creeds and ceremonies. Hence, side by side with
+irksome codes, complicated ritual and elaborate theology, we find the
+conviction that all these things are but vanity and weariness, fetters
+to be shaken off by the free in spirit. Nor do those who hold such views
+correspond to the anti-clerical and radical parties of Europe. The
+ascetic sitting in the temple court often holds that the rites performed
+around him are spiritually useless and the gods of the shrine mere
+fanciful presentments of that which cannot be depicted or described.
+
+Rather later, but still before the Christian era, another idea makes
+itself prominent in Indian religion, namely faith or devotion to a
+particular deity. This idea, which needs no explanation, is pushed on
+the one hand to every extreme of theory and practice: on the other it
+rarely abolishes altogether the belief in ritualism, asceticism and
+knowledge.
+
+Any attempt to describe Hinduism as one whole leads to startling
+contrasts. The same religion enjoins self-mortification and orgies:
+commands human sacrifices and yet counts it a sin to eat meat or crush
+an insect: has more priests, rites and images than ancient Egypt or
+medieval Rome and yet out does Quakers in rejecting all externals. These
+singular features are connected with the ascendancy of the Brahman
+caste. The Brahmans are an interesting social phenomenon without exact
+parallel elsewhere. They are not, like the Catholic or Moslem clergy, a
+priesthood pledged to support certain doctrines but an intellectual,
+hereditary aristocracy who claim to direct the thought of India whatever
+forms it may take. All who admit this claim and accord a nominal
+recognition to the authority of the Veda are within the spacious fold or
+menagerie. Neither the devil-worshipping aboriginee nor the atheistic
+philosopher is excommunicated, though neither may be relished by average
+orthodoxy.
+
+Though Hinduism has no one creed, yet there are at least two doctrines
+held by nearly all who call themselves Hindus. One may be described as
+polytheistic pantheism. Most Hindus are apparently polytheists, that is
+to say they venerate the images of several deities or spirits, yet most
+are monotheists in the sense that they address their worship to one god.
+But this monotheism has almost always a pantheistic tinge. The Hindu
+does not say the gods of the heathen are but idols, but it is the Lord
+who made the heavens: he says, My Lord (Rāma, Krishna or whoever it may
+be) is all the other gods. Some schools would prefer to say that no
+human language applied to the Godhead can be correct and that all ideas
+of a personal ruler of the world are at best but relative truths. This
+ultimate ineffable Godhead is called Brahman[7].
+
+The second doctrine is commonly known as metempsychosis, the
+transmigration of souls or reincarnation, the last name being the most
+correct. In detail the doctrine assumes various forms since different
+views are held about the relation of soul to body. But the essence of
+all is the same, namely that a life does not begin at birth or end at
+death but is a link in an infinite series of lives, each of which is
+conditioned and determined by the acts done in previous existences
+(karma). Animal, human and divine (or at least angelic) existences may
+all be links in the chain. A man's deeds, if good, may exalt him to the
+heavens, if evil may degrade him to life as a beast. Since all lives,
+even in heaven, must come to an end, happiness is not to be sought in
+heaven or on earth. The common aspiration of the religious Indian is for
+deliverance, that is release from the round of births and repose in some
+changeless state called by such names as union with Brahman, nirvana and
+many others.
+
+
+3. _The Buddha_
+
+As observed above, the Brahmans claim to direct the religious life and
+thought of India and apart from Mohammedanism may be said to have
+achieved their ambition, though at the price of tolerating much that the
+majority would wish to suppress. But in earlier ages their influence was
+less extensive and there were other currents of religious activity, some
+hostile and some simply independent. The most formidable of these found
+expression in Jainism and Buddhism both of which arose in Bihar in the
+sixth century[8] B.C. This century was a time of intellectual ferment in
+many countries. In China it produced Lao-tz[u] and Confucius: in Greece,
+Parmenides, Empedocles, and the sophists were only a little later. In
+all these regions we have the same phenomenon of restless, wandering
+teachers, ready to give advice on politics, religion or philosophy, to
+any one who would hear them.
+
+At that time the influence of the Brahmans had hardly permeated Bihar,
+though predominant to the west of it, and speculation there followed
+lines different from those laid down in the Upanishads, but of some
+antiquity, for we know that there were Buddhas before Gotama and that
+Mahāvīra, the founder of Jainism, reformed the doctrine of an older
+teacher called Parsva.
+
+In Gotama's youth Bihar was full of wandering philosophers who appear to
+have been atheistic and disposed to uphold the boldest paradoxes,
+intellectual and moral. There must however have been constructive
+elements in their doctrine, for they believed in reincarnation and the
+periodic appearance of superhuman teachers and in the advantage of
+following an ascetic discipline. They probably belonged chiefly to the
+warrior caste as did Gotama, the Buddha known to history. The Pitakas
+represent him as differing in details from contemporary teachers but as
+rediscovering the truth taught by his predecessors. They imply that the
+world is so constituted that there is only one way to emancipation and
+that from time to time superior minds see this and announce it to
+others. Still Buddhism does not in practice use such formulae as living
+in harmony with the laws of nature.
+
+Indian literature is notoriously concerned with ideas rather than facts
+but the vigorous personality of the Buddha has impressed on it a
+portrait more distinct than that left by any other teacher or king. His
+work had a double effect. Firstly it influenced all departments of Hindu
+religion and thought, even those nominally opposed to it. Secondly it
+spread not only Buddhism in the strict sense but Indian art and
+literature beyond the confines of India. The expansion of Hindu culture
+owes much to the doctrine that the Good Law should be preached to all
+nations.
+
+The teaching of Gotama was essentially practical. This statement may
+seem paradoxical to the reader who has some acquaintance with the
+Buddhist scriptures and he will exclaim that of all religious books they
+are the least practical and least popular: they set up an anti-social
+ideal and are mainly occupied with psychological theories. But the
+Buddha addressed a public such as we now find it hard even to imagine.
+In those days the intellectual classes of India felt the ordinary
+activities of life to be unsatisfying: they thought it natural to
+renounce the world and mortify the flesh: divergent systems of ritual,
+theology and self-denial promised happiness but all agreed in thinking
+it normal as well as laudable that a man should devote his life to
+meditation and study. Compared with this frame of mind the teaching of
+the Buddha is not unsocial, unpractical and mysterious but human,
+business-like and clear. We are inclined to see in the monastic life
+which he recommended little but a useless sacrifice but it is evident
+that in the opinion of his contemporaries his disciples had an easy
+time, and that he had no intention of prescribing any cramped or
+unnatural existence. He accepted the current conviction that those who
+devote themselves to the things of the mind and spirit should be
+released from worldly ties and abstain from luxury but he meant his
+monks to live a life of sustained intellectual activity for themselves
+and of benevolence for others. His teaching is formulated in severe and
+technical phraseology, yet the substance of it is so simple that many
+have criticized it as too obvious and jejune to be the basis of a
+religion. But when he first enunciated his theses some two thousand five
+hundred years ago, they were not obvious but revolutionary and little
+less than paradoxical.
+
+The principal of these propositions are as follows. The existence of
+everything depends on a cause: hence if the cause of evil or suffering
+can be detected and removed, evil itself will be removed. That cause is
+lust and craving for pleasure[9]. Hence all sacrificial and sacramental
+religions are irrelevant, for the cure which they propose has nothing to
+do with the disease. The cause of evil or suffering is removed by
+purifying the heart and by following the moral law which sets high value
+on sympathy and social duties, but an equally high value on the
+cultivation of individual character. But training and cultivation imply
+the possibility of change. Hence it is a fatal mistake in the religious
+life to hold a view common in India which regards the essence of man as
+something unchangeable and happy in itself, if it can only be isolated
+from physical trammels. On the contrary the happy mind is something to
+be built up by good thoughts, good words and good deeds. In its origin
+the Buddha's celebrated doctrine that there is no permanent self in
+persons or things is not a speculative proposition, nor a sentimental
+lament over the transitoriness of the world, but a basis for religion
+and morals. You will never be happy unless you realize that you can make
+and remake your own soul.
+
+These simple principles and the absence of all dogmas as to God or
+Brahman distinguish the teaching of Gotama from most Indian systems, but
+he accepted the usual Indian beliefs about Karma and rebirth and with
+them the usual conclusion that release from the series of rebirths is
+the _summum bonum_. This deliverance he called saintship (_arahattam_)
+or nirvana of which I shall say something below. In early Buddhism it is
+primarily a state of happiness to be attained in this life and the
+Buddha persistently refused to explain what is the nature of a saint
+after death. The question is unprofitable and perhaps he would have
+said, had he spoken our language, unmeaning. Later generations did not
+hesitate to discuss the problem but the Buddha's own teaching is simply
+that a man can attain before death to a blessed state in which he has
+nothing to fear from either death or rebirth.
+
+The Buddha attacked both the ritual and the philosophy of the Brahmans.
+After his time the sacrificial system, though it did not die, never
+regained its old prestige and he profoundly affected the history of
+Indian metaphysics. It may be justly said that most of his philosophic
+as distinguished from his practical teaching was common property before
+his time, but he transmuted common ideas and gave them a currency and
+significance which they did not possess before. But he was less
+destructive as a religious and social reformer than many have supposed.
+He did not deny the existence nor forbid the worship of the popular
+gods, but such worship is not Buddhism and the gods are merely angels
+who may be willing to help good Buddhists but are in no wise guides to
+religion, since they need instruction themselves. And though he denied
+that the Brahmans were superior by birth to others, he did not preach
+against caste, partly because it then existed only in a rudimentary
+form. But he taught that the road to salvation was one and open to all
+who were able to walk in it[10], whether Hindus or foreigners. All may
+not have the necessary qualifications of intellect and character to
+become monks but all can be good laymen, for whom the religious life
+means the observance of morality combined with such simple exercises as
+reading the scriptures. It is clear that this lay Buddhism had much to
+do with the spread of the faith. The elemental simplicity of its
+principles--namely that religion is open to all and identical with
+morality--made a clean sweep of Brahmanic theology and sacrifices and put
+in its place something like Confucianism. But the innate Indian love for
+philosophizing and ritual caused generation after generation to add more
+and more supplements to the Master's teaching and it is only outside
+India that it has been preserved in any purity.
+
+
+4. _Asoka_
+
+Gotama spent his life in preaching and by his personal exertions spread
+his doctrines over Bihar and Oudh but for two centuries after his death
+we know little of the history of Buddhism. In the reign of Asoka
+(273-232 B.C.) its fortunes suddenly changed, for this great Emperor
+whose dominions comprised nearly all India made it the state religion
+and also engraved on rocks and pillars a long series of edicts recording
+his opinions and aspirations. Buddhism is often criticized as a gloomy
+and unpractical creed, suited at best to stoical and scholarly recluses.
+But these are certainly not its characteristics when it first appears in
+political history, just as they are not its characteristics in Burma or
+Japan to-day. Both by precept and example Asoka was an ardent exponent
+of the strenuous life. In his first edict he lays down the principle
+"Let small and great exert themselves" and in subsequent inscriptions he
+continually harps upon the necessity of energy and exertion. The Law or
+Religion (Dhamma) which his edicts enjoin is merely human and civic
+virtue, except that it makes respect for animal life an integral part of
+morality. In one passage he summarizes it as "Little impiety, many good
+deeds, compassion, liberality, truthfulness and purity." He makes no
+reference to a supreme deity, but insists on the reality and importance
+of the future life. Though he does not use the word _Karma_ this is
+clearly the conception which dominates his philosophy: those who do good
+are happy in this world and the next but those who fail in their duty
+win neither heaven nor the royal favour. The king's creed is remarkable
+in India for its great simplicity. He deprecates superstitious
+ceremonies and says nothing of Nirvana but dwells on morality as
+necessary to happiness in this life and others. This is not the whole of
+Gotama's teaching but two centuries after his death a powerful and
+enlightened Buddhist gives it as the gist of Buddhism for laymen.
+
+Asoka wished to make Buddhism the creed not only of India but of the
+world as known to him and he boasts that he extended his "conquests of
+religion" to the Hellenistic kingdoms of the west. If the missions which
+he despatched thither reached their destination, there is little
+evidence that they bore any fruit, but the conversion of Ceylon and some
+districts in the Himalayas seems directly due to his initiative.
+
+
+5. _Extension of Buddhism and Hinduism beyond India_
+
+This is perhaps a convenient place to review the extension of Buddhism
+and Hinduism outside India. To do so at this point implies of course an
+anticipation of chronology, but to delay the survey might blind the
+reader to the fact that from the time of Asoka onward India was engaged
+not only in creating but also in exporting new varieties of religious
+thought.
+
+The countries which have received Indian culture fall into two classes:
+first those to which it came as a result of religious missions or of
+peaceful international intercourse, and second those where it was
+established after conquest or at least colonization. In the first class
+the religion introduced was Buddhism. If, as in Tibet, it seems to us
+mixed with Hinduism, yet it was a mixture which at the date of its
+introduction passed in India for Buddhism. But in the second and smaller
+class including Java, Camboja and Champa the immigrants brought with
+them both Hinduism and Buddhism. The two systems were often declared to
+be the same but the result was Hinduism mixed with some Buddhism, not
+_vice versā_.
+
+The countries of the first class comprise Ceylon, Burma and Siam,
+Central Asia, Nepal, China with Annam, Korea and Japan, Tibet with
+Mongolia. The Buddhism of the first three countries[11] is a real unity
+or in European language a church, for though they have no common
+hierarchy they use the same sacred language, Pali, and have the same
+canon. Burma and Siam have repeatedly recognized Ceylon as a sort of
+metropolitan see and on the other hand when religion in Ceylon fell on
+evil days the clergy were recruited from Burma and Siam. In the other
+countries Buddhism presents greater differences and divisions. It had no
+one sacred language and in different regions used either Sanskrit texts
+or translations into Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and the languages of
+Central Asia.
+
+1. Ceylon. There is no reason to doubt that Buddhism was introduced
+under the auspices of Asoka. Though the invasions and settlements of
+Tamils have brought Hinduism into Ceylon, yet none of the later and
+mixed forms of Buddhism, in spite of some attempts to gain a footing,
+ever flourished there on a large scale. Sinhalese Buddhism had probably
+a closer connection with southern India than the legend suggests and
+Conjevaram was long a Buddhist centre which kept up intercourse with
+both Ceylon and Burma.
+
+2. Burma. The early history of Burmese Buddhism is obscure and its
+origin probably complex, since at many different periods it may have
+received teachers from both India and China. The present dominant type
+(identical with the Buddhism of Ceylon) existed before the sixth
+century[12] and tradition ascribes its introduction both to the labours
+of Buddhaghosa and to the missionaries of Asoka. There was probably a
+connection between Pegu and Conjevaram. In the eleventh century Burmese
+Buddhism had become extremely corrupt except in Pegu but King Anawrata
+conquered Pegu and spread a purer form throughout his dominions.
+
+3. Siam. The Thai race, who starting from somewhere in the Chinese
+province of Yünnan began to settle in what is now called Siam about the
+beginning of the twelfth century, probably brought with them some form
+of Buddhism. About 1300 the possessions of Rāma Komhėng, King of Siam,
+included Pegu and Pali Buddhism prevailed among his subjects. Somewhat
+later, in 1361, a high ecclesiastic was summoned from Ceylon to arrange
+the affairs of the church but not, it would seem, to introduce any new
+doctrine. Pegu was the centre from which Pali Buddhism spread to upper
+Burma in the eleventh century and it probably performed the same service
+for Siam later. The modern Buddhism of Camboja is simply Siamese
+Buddhism which filtered into the country from about 1250 onwards. The
+older Buddhism of Camboja, for which see below, was quite different.
+
+At the courts of Siam and Camboja, as formerly in Burma, there are
+Brahmans who perform state ceremonies and act as astrologers. Though
+they have little to do with the religion of the people, their presence
+explains the predominance of Indian rather than Chinese influence in
+these countries.
+
+4. Tradition says that Indian colonists settled in Khotan during the
+reign of Asoka, but no precise date can at present be fixed for the
+introduction of Buddhism into the Tarim basin and other regions commonly
+called Central Asia. But it must have been flourishing there about the
+time of the Christian era, since it spread thence to China not later
+than the middle of the first century. There were two schools
+representing two distinct currents from India. First the Sarvāstivādin
+school, prevalent in Badakshan, Kashgar and Kucha, secondly the Mahāyāna
+in Khotan and Yarkand. The spread of the former was no doubt connected
+with the growth of the Kushan Empire but may be anterior to the
+conversion of Kanishka, for though he gave a great impetus to the
+propagation of the faith, it is probable that, like most royal converts,
+he favoured an already popular religion. The Mahāyāna subsequently won
+much territory from the other school.
+
+5. As in other countries, so in China Buddhism entered by more than one
+road. It came first by land from Central Asia. The official date for its
+introduction by this route is 62 A.D. but it was probably known within
+the Chinese frontier before that time, though not recognized by the
+state. Secondly when Buddhism was established, there arose a desire for
+accurate knowledge of the true Indian doctrine. Chinese pilgrims went to
+India and Indian teachers came to China. After the fourth century many
+of these religious journeys were made by sea and it was thus that
+Bodhidharma landed at Canton in 520[13]. A third stream of Buddhism,
+namely Lamaism, came into China from Tibet under the Mongol dynasty
+(1280). Khubilai considered this the best religion for his Mongols and
+numerous Lamaist temples and convents were established and still exist
+in northern China. Lamaism has not perhaps been a great religious or
+intellectual force there, but its political importance was considerable,
+for the Ming and Manchu dynasties who wished to assert their rule over
+the Tibetans and Mongols by peaceful methods, consistently strove to win
+the goodwill of the Lamaist clergy.
+
+The Buddhism of Korea, Japan and Annam is directly derived from the
+earlier forms of Chinese Buddhism but was not affected by the later
+influx of Lamaism. Buddhism passed from China into Korea in the fourth
+century and thence to Japan in the sixth. In the latter country it was
+stimulated by frequent contact with China and the repeated introduction
+of new Chinese sects but was not appreciably influenced by direct
+intercourse with Hindus or other foreign Buddhists. In the twelfth and
+thirteenth centuries Japanese Buddhism showed great vitality,
+transforming old sects and creating new ones.
+
+In the south, Chinese Buddhism spread into Annam rather late: according
+to native tradition in the tenth century. This region was a battlefield
+of two cultures. Chinese influence descending southwards from Canton
+proved predominant and, after the triumph of Annam over Champa, extended
+to the borders of Camboja. But so long as the kingdom of Champa existed,
+Indian culture and Hinduism maintained themselves at least as far north
+as Hué.
+
+6. The Buddhism of Tibet is a late and startling transformation of
+Gotama's teaching, but the transformation is due rather to the change
+and degeneration of that teaching in Bengal than to the admixture of
+Tibetan ideas. Such admixture however was not absent and a series of
+reformers endeavoured to bring the church back to what they considered
+the true standard. The first introduction is said to have occurred in
+630 but probably the arrival of Padma Sambhava from India in 747 marks
+the real foundation of the Lamaist church. It was reformed by the Hindu
+Atīsa in 1038 and again by the Tibetan Tsong-kha-pa about 1400.
+
+The Grand Lama is the head of the church as reorganized by Tsong-kha-pa.
+In Tibet the priesthood attained to temporal power comparable with the
+Papacy. The disintegration of the government divided the whole land into
+small principalities and among these the great monasteries were as
+important as any temporal lord. The abbots of the Sakya monastery were
+the practical rulers of Tibet for seventy years (1270-1340). Another
+period of disintegration followed but after 1630 the Grand Lamas of
+Lhasa were able to claim and maintain a similar position.
+
+Mongolian Buddhism is a branch of Lamaism distinguished by no special
+doctrines. The Mongols were partially converted in the time of Khubilai
+and a second time and more thoroughly in 1570 by the third Grand Lama.
+
+7. Nepal exhibits another phase of degeneration. In Tibet Indian
+Buddhism passed into the hands of a vigorous national priesthood and was
+not exposed to the assimilative influence of Hinduism. In Nepal it had
+not the same defence. It probably existed there since the time of Asoka
+and underwent the same phases of decay and corruption as in Bengal. But
+whereas the last great monasteries in Bengal were shattered by the
+Mohammedan invasion of 1193, the secluded valley of Nepal was protected
+against such violence and Buddhism continued to exist there in name. It
+has preserved a good deal of Sanskrit Buddhist literature but has become
+little more than a sect of Hinduism.
+
+Nepal ought perhaps to be classed in our second division, that is those
+countries where Indian culture was introduced not by missionaries but by
+the settlement of Indian conquerors or immigrants. To this class belong
+the Hindu civilizations of Indo-China and the Archipelago. In all of
+these Hinduism and Mahayanist Buddhism are found mixed together,
+Hinduism being the stronger element. The earliest Sanskrit inscription
+in these regions is that of Vochan in Champa which is apparently
+Buddhist. It is not later than the third century and refers to an
+earlier king, so that an Indian dynasty probably existed there about
+150-200 A.D. Though the presence of Indian culture is beyond dispute, it
+is not clear whether the Chams were civilized in Champa by Hindu
+invaders or whether they were hinduized Malays who invaded Champa from
+elsewhere.
+
+8. In Camboja a Hindu dynasty was founded by invaders and the Brahmans
+who accompanied them established a counterpart to it in a powerful
+hierarchy, Sanskrit becoming the language of religion. It is clear that
+these invaders came ultimately from India but they may have halted in
+Java or the Malay Peninsula for an unknown period. The Brahmanic
+hierarchy began to fail about the fourteenth century and was supplanted
+by Siamese Buddhism. Before that time the state religion of both Champa
+and Camboja was the worship of Siva, especially in the form called
+Mukhalinga. Mahayanist Buddhism, tending to identify Buddha with Siva,
+also existed but enjoyed less of the royal patronage.
+
+9. Religious conditions were similar in Java but politically there was
+this difference, that there was no one continuous and paramount kingdom.
+A considerable number of Hindus must have settled in the island to
+produce such an effect on its language and architecture but the rulers
+of the states known to us were hinduized Javanese rather than true
+Hindus and the language of literature and of most inscriptions was Old
+Javanese, not Sanskrit, though most of the works written in it were
+translations or adaptations of Sanskrit originals. As in Camboja,
+Sivaism and Buddhism both flourished without mutual hostility and there
+was less difference in the status of the two creeds.
+
+In all these countries religion seems to have been connected with
+politics more closely than in India. The chief shrine was a national
+cathedral, the living king was semi-divine and dead kings were
+represented by statues bearing the attributes of their favourite gods.
+
+
+6. _New Forms of Buddhism_
+
+In the three or four centuries following Asoka a surprising change came
+over Indian Buddhism, but though the facts are clear it is hard to
+connect them with dates and persons. But the change was clearly
+posterior to Asoka for though his edicts show a spirit of wide charity
+it is not crystallized in the form of certain doctrines which
+subsequently became prominent.
+
+The first of these holds up as the moral ideal not personal perfection
+or individual salvation but the happiness of all living creatures. The
+good man who strives for this should boldly aspire to become a Buddha in
+some future birth and such aspirants are called Bodhisattvas. Secondly
+Buddhas and some Bodhisattvas come to be considered as supernatural
+beings and practically deities. The human life of Gotama, though not
+denied, is regarded as the manifestation of a cosmic force which also
+reveals itself in countless other Buddhas who are not merely his
+predecessors or destined successors but the rulers of paradises in other
+worlds. Faith in a Buddha, especially in Amitābha, can secure rebirth in
+his paradise. The great Bodhisattvas, such as Avalokita and Mańjusrī,
+are splendid angels of mercy and knowledge who are theoretically
+distinguished from Buddhas because they have indefinitely postponed
+their entry into nirvana in order to alleviate the sufferings of the
+world. These new tenets are accompanied by a remarkable development of
+art and of idealist metaphysics.
+
+This new form of Buddhism is called Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, as
+opposed to the Small Vehicle or Hīnayāna, a somewhat contemptuous name
+given to the older school. The idea underlying these phrases is that
+sects are merely coaches, all travelling on the same road to salvation
+though some may be quicker than others. The Mahayana did not suppress
+the Hinayana but it gradually absorbed the traffic.
+
+The causes of this transformation were two-fold, internal or Indian and
+external. Buddhism was a living, that is changing, stream of thought and
+the Hindus as a nation have an exceptional taste and capacity for
+metaphysics. This taste was not destroyed by Gotama's dicta as to the
+limits of profitable knowledge nor did new deities arouse hostility
+because they were not mentioned in the ancient scriptures. The
+development of Brahmanism and Buddhism was parallel: if an attractive
+novelty appeared in one, something like it was soon provided by the
+other. Thus the Bhagavad-gītā contains the ideas of the Mahayana in
+substance, though in a different setting: it praises disinterested
+activity and insists on faith. It is clear that at this period all
+Indian thought and not merely Buddhism was vivified and transmuted by
+two great currents of feeling demanding, the one a more emotional
+morality the other more personal and more sympathetic deities.
+
+I shall show in more detail below that most Mahayanist doctrines, though
+apparently new, have their roots in old Indian ideas. But the presence
+of foreign influences is not to be disputed and there is no difficulty
+in accounting for them. Gandhara was a Persian province from 530 to 330
+B.C. and in the succeeding centuries the north-western parts of India
+experienced the invasions and settlements of numerous aliens, such as
+Greeks from the Hellenistic kingdoms which arose after Alexander's
+expedition, Parthians, Sakas and Kushans. Such immigrants, even if they
+had no culture of their own, at least transported culture, just as the
+Turks introduced Islam into Europe. Thus whatever ideas were prevalent
+in Persia, in the Hellenistic kingdoms, or in Central Asia may also have
+been prevalent in north-western India, where was situated the university
+town of Taxila frequently mentioned in the Jātakas as a seat of Buddhist
+learning. The foreigners who entered India adopted Indian religions[14]
+and probably Buddhism more often than Hinduism, for it was at that time
+predominant and disposed to evangelize without raising difficulties as
+to caste.
+
+Foreign influences stimulated mythology and imagery. In the reliefs of
+Asoka's time, the image of the Buddha never appears, and, as in the
+earliest Christian art, the intention of the sculptors is to illustrate
+an edifying narrative rather than to provide an object of worship. But
+in the Gandharan sculptures, which are a branch of Gręco-Roman art, he
+is habitually represented by a figure modelled on the conventional type
+of Apollo. The gods of India were not derived from Greece but they were
+stereotyped under the influence of western art to this extent that
+familiarity with such figures as Apollo and Pallas encouraged the Hindus
+to represent their gods and heroes in human or quasi-human shapes. The
+influence of Greece on Indian religion was not profound: it did not
+affect the architecture or ritual of temples and still less thought or
+doctrine. But when Indian religion and especially Buddhism passed into
+the hands of men accustomed to Greek statuary, the inclination to
+venerate definite personalities having definite shapes was
+strengthened[15].
+
+Persian influence was stronger than Greek. To it are probably due the
+many radiant deities who shed their beneficent glory over the Mahayanist
+pantheon, as well as the doctrine that Bodhisattvas are emanations of
+Buddhas. The discoveries of Stein, Pelliot and others have shown that
+this influence extended across Central Asia to China and one of the most
+important turns in the fortunes of Buddhism was its association with a
+Central Asian tribe analogous to the Turks and called Kushans or
+Yüeh-chih, whose territories lay without as well as within the frontiers
+of modern India and who borrowed much of their culture from Persia and
+some from the Greeks. Their great king Kanishka is a figure in Buddhist
+annals second only to Asoka. Unfortunately his date is still a matter of
+discussion. The majority of scholars place his accession about 78 A.D.
+but some put it rather later[16]. The evidence of numismatics and of art
+indicates that he came towards the end of his dynasty rather than at the
+beginning and the tradition which makes Asvaghosha his contemporary is
+compatible with the later date.
+
+Some writers describe Kanishka as the special patron of Mahayanism. But
+the description is of doubtful accuracy. The style of religious art
+known as Gandharan flourished in his reign and he convened a council
+which fixed the canon of the Sarvāstivādins. This school was reckoned as
+Hinayanist and though Asvaghosha enjoys general fame in the Far East as
+a Mahayanist doctor, yet his undoubted writings are not Mahayanist in
+the strict sense of the word[17]. But a more ornate and mythological
+form of religion was becoming prevalent and perhaps Kanishka's Council
+arranged some compromise between the old and the new.
+
+After Asvaghosha comes Nāgārjuna who may have flourished any time
+between 125 and 200 A.D. A legend which makes him live for 300 years is
+not without significance, for he represents a movement and a school as
+much as a personality and if he taught in the second century A.D. he
+cannot have been the _founder_ of Mahayanism. Yet he seems to be the
+first great name definitely connected with it and the ascription to him
+of numerous later treatises, though unwarrantable, shows that his
+authority was sufficient to stamp a work or a doctrine as orthodox
+Mahayanism. His biographies connect him with the system of idealist or
+nihilistic metaphysics expounded in the literature (for it is more than
+a single work) called Prajńāpāramitā, with magical practices (by which
+the power of summoning Bodhisattvas or deities is specially meant) and
+with the worship of Amitābha. His teacher Saraha, a foreigner, is said
+to have been the first who taught this worship in India. In this there
+may be a kernel of truth but otherwise the extant accounts of Nāgārjuna
+are too legendary to permit of historical deductions. He was perhaps the
+first eminent exponent of Mahayanist metaphysics, but the train of
+thought was not new: it was the result of applying to the external world
+the same destructive logic which Gotama applied to the soul and the
+result had considerable analogies to Sankara's version of the Vedanta.
+Whether in the second century A.D. the leaders of Buddhism already
+identified themselves with the sorcery which demoralized late Indian
+Mahayanism may be doubted, but tradition certainly ascribes to Nāgārjuna
+this corrupting mixture of metaphysics and magic.
+
+The third century offers a strange blank in Indian history. Little can
+be said except that the power of the Kushans decayed and that northern
+India was probably invaded by Persians and Central Asian tribes. The
+same trouble did not affect southern India and it may be that religion
+and speculation flourished there and spread northwards, as certainly
+happened in later times. Many of the greatest Hindu teachers were
+Dravidians and at the present day it is in the Dravidian regions that
+the temples are most splendid, the Brahmans strictest and most
+respected. It may be that this Dravidian influence affected even
+Buddhism in the third century A.D., for Aryadeva the successor of
+Nāgārjuna was a southerner and the legends told of him recall certain
+Dravidian myths. Bodhidharma too came from the South and imported into
+China a form of Buddhism which has left no record in India.
+
+
+7. _Revival of Hinduism_
+
+In 320 a native Indian dynasty, the Guptas, came to the throne and
+inaugurated a revival of Hinduism, to which religion we must now turn.
+To speak of the revival of Hinduism does not mean that in the previous
+period it had been dead or torpid. Indeed we know that there was a Hindu
+reaction against the Buddhism of Asoka about 150 B.C. But, on the whole,
+from the time of Asoka onwards Buddhism had been the principal religion
+of India, and before the Gupta era there are hardly any records of
+donations made to Brahmans. Yet during these centuries they were not
+despised or oppressed. They produced much literature[18]: their schools
+of philosophy and ritual did not decay and they gradually made good
+their claim to be the priests of India's gods, whoever those gods might
+be. The difference between the old religion and the new lies in this.
+The Brāhmanas and Upanishads describe practices and doctrines of
+considerable variety but still all the property of a privileged class in
+a special region. They do not represent popular religion nor the
+religion of India as a whole. But in the Gupta period Hinduism began to
+do this. It is not a system like Islam or even Buddhism but a parliament
+of religions, of which every Indian creed can become a member on
+condition of observing some simple rules of the house, such as respect
+for Brahmans and theoretical acceptance of the Veda. Nothing is
+abolished: the ancient rites and texts preserve their mysterious power
+and kings perform the horse-sacrifice. But side by side with this,
+deities unknown to the Veda rise to the first rank and it is frankly
+admitted that new revelations more suited to the age have been given to
+mankind.
+
+Art too enters on a new phase. In the early Indian sculptures deities
+are mostly portrayed in human form, but in about the first century of
+our era there is seen a tendency to depict them with many heads and
+limbs and this tendency grows stronger until in mediaeval times it is
+predominant. It has its origin in symbolism. The deity is thought of as
+carrying many insignia, as performing more actions than two hands can
+indicate; the worshipper is taught to think of him as appearing in this
+shape and the artist does not hesitate to represent it in paint and
+stone.
+
+As we have seen, the change which came over Buddhism was partly due to
+foreign influences and no doubt they affected most Indian creeds. But
+the prodigious amplification of Hinduism was mainly due to the
+absorption of beliefs prevalent in Indian districts other than the homes
+of the ancient Brahmans. Thus south Indian religion is characterized
+when we first know it by its emotional tone and it resulted in the
+mediaeval Sivaism of the Tamil country. In another region, probably in
+the west, grew up the monotheism of the Bhāgavatas, which was the parent
+of Vishnuism.
+
+Hinduism may be said to fall into four principal divisions which are
+really different religions: the Smārtas or traditionalists, the
+Sivaites, the Vishnuites and the Sāktas. The first, who are still
+numerous, represent the pre-buddhist Brahmans. They follow, so far as
+modern circumstances permit, the ancient ritual and are apparent
+polytheists while accepting pantheism as the higher truth. Vishnuites
+and Sivaites however are monotheists in the sense that their minor
+deities are not essentially different from the saints of Roman and
+Eastern Christianity but their monotheism has a pantheistic tinge.
+Neither sect denies the existence of the rival god, but each makes its
+own deity God, not only in the theistic but in the pantheistic sense and
+regards the other deity as merely an influential angel. From time to
+time the impropriety of thus specially deifying one aspect of the
+universal spirit made itself felt and then Vishnu and Siva were adored
+in a composite dual form or, with the addition of Brahmā, as a trinity.
+But this triad had not great importance and it is a mistake to compare
+it with the Christian trinity. Strong as was the tendency to combine and
+amalgamate deities, it was mastered in these religions by the desire to
+have one definite God, personal inasmuch as he can receive and return
+love, although the Indian feeling that God must be all and in all
+continually causes the conceptions called Vishnu and Siva to transcend
+the limits of personality. This feeling is specially clear in the growth
+of Rāma and Krishna worship. Both of these deities were originally
+ancient heroes, and stories of love and battle cling to them in their
+later phases. Yet for their respective devotees each becomes God in
+every sense, God as lover of the soul, God as ruler of the universe and
+the God of pantheism who is all that exists and can exist.
+
+For some time before and after the beginning of our era, north-western
+India witnessed a great fusion of ideas and Indian, Persian and Greek
+religion must have been in contact at the university town of Taxila and
+many other places. Kashmir too, if somewhat too secluded to be a
+meeting-place of nations, was a considerable intellectual centre. We
+have not yet sufficient documents to enable us to trace the history and
+especially the chronology of thought in these regions but we can say
+that certain forms of Vishnuism, Sivaism and Buddhism were all evolved
+there and often show features in common. Thus in all we find the idea
+that the divine nature is manifested in four forms or five, if we count
+the Absolute Godhead as one of them[19].
+
+I shall consider at length below this worship of Vishnu and Siva and
+here will merely point out that it differs from the polytheism of the
+Smārtas. In their higher phases all Hindu religions agree in teaching
+some form of pantheism, some laying more and some less stress on the
+personal aspect which the deity can assume. But whereas the pantheism of
+the Smārtas grew out of the feeling that the many gods of tradition must
+all be one, the pantheism of the Vishnuites was not evolved out of
+pre-buddhist Brahmanism and is due to the conviction that the one God
+must be everything. It is Indian but it grew up in some region outside
+Brahmanic influence and was accepted by the Brahmans as a permissible
+creed, but many legends in the Epics and Puranas indicate that there was
+hostility between the old-fashioned Brahmans and the worshippers of
+Rāma, Krishna and Siva before the alliance was made.
+
+Sāktism[20] also was not evolved from ancient Brahmanism but is
+different in tone from Vishnuism and Sivaism. Whereas they start from a
+movement of thought and spiritual feeling, Sāktism has for its basis
+certain ancient popular worships. With these it has combined much
+philosophy and has attempted to bring its teaching into conformity with
+Brahmanism, but yet remains somewhat apart. It worships a goddess of
+many names and forms, who is adored with sexual rites and the sacrifice
+of animals, or, when the law permits, of men. It asserts even more
+plainly than Vishnuism that the teaching of the Vedas is too difficult
+for these latter days and even useless, and it offers to its followers
+new scriptures called Tantras and new ceremonies as all-sufficient. It
+is true that many Hindus object to this sect, which may be compared with
+the Mormons in America or the Skoptsy in Russia, and it is numerous only
+in certain parts of India (especially Bengal and Assam) but since a
+section of Brahmans patronize it, it must be reckoned as a phase of
+Hinduism and even at the present day it is an important phase.
+
+There are many cults prevalent in India, though not recognized as sects,
+in which the worship of some aboriginal deity is accepted in all its
+crudeness without much admixture of philosophy, the only change being
+that the deity is described as a form, incarnation or servant of some
+well-known god and that Brahmans are connected with this worship. This
+habit of absorbing aboriginal superstitions materially lowers the
+average level of creed and ritual. An educated Brahman would laugh at
+the idea that village superstitions can be taken seriously as religion
+but he does not condemn them and, as superstitions, he does not
+disbelieve in them. It is chiefly owing to this habit that Hinduism has
+spread all over India and its treatment of men and gods is curiously
+parallel. Princes like the Manipuris of Assam came under Hindu influence
+and were finally recognized as Kshattiyas with an imaginary pedigree,
+and on the same principle their deities are recognized as forms of Siva
+or Durga. And Siva and Durga themselves were built up in past ages out
+of aboriginal beliefs, though the cement holding their figures together
+is Indian thought and philosophy, which are able to see in grotesque
+rustic godlings an expression of cosmic forces.
+
+Though this is the principal method by which Hinduism has been
+propagated, direct missionary effort has not been wanting. For instance
+a large part of Assam was converted by the preaching of Vishnuite
+teachers in the sixteenth century and the process still continues[21].
+But on the whole the missionary spirit characterizes Buddhism rather
+than Hinduism. Buddhist missionaries preached their faith, without any
+political motive, wherever they could penetrate. But in such countries
+as Camboja, Hinduism was primarily the religion of the foreign settlers
+and when the political power of the Brahmans began to wane, the people
+embraced Buddhism. Outside India it was perhaps only in Java and the
+neighbouring islands that Hinduism (with an admixture of Buddhism)
+became the religion of the natives.
+
+Many features of Hinduism, its steady though slow conquest of India, its
+extraordinary vitality and tenacity in resisting the attacks of
+Mohammedanism, and its small power of expansion beyond the seas are
+explained by the fact that it is a mode of life as much as a faith. To
+be a Hindu it is not sufficient to hold the doctrine of the Upanishads
+or any other scriptures: it is necessary to be a member of a Hindu caste
+and observe its regulations. It is not quite correct to say that one
+must be born a Hindu, since Hinduism has grown by gradually hinduizing
+the wilder tribes of India and the process still continues. But a
+convert cannot enter the fold by any simple ceremony like baptism. The
+community to which he belongs must adopt Hindu usages and then it will
+be recognized as a caste, at first of very low standing but in a few
+generations it may rise in the general esteem. A Hindu is bound to his
+religion by almost the same ties that bind him to his family. Hence the
+strength of Hinduism in India. But such ties are hard to knit and
+Hinduism has no chance of spreading abroad unless there is a large
+colony of Hindus surrounded by an appreciative and imitative
+population[22].
+
+In the contest between Hinduism and Buddhism the former owed the victory
+which it obtained in India, though not in other lands, to this
+assimilative social influence. The struggle continued from the fourth to
+the ninth century, after which Buddhism was clearly defeated and
+survived only in special localities. Its final disappearance was due to
+the destruction of its remaining monasteries by Moslem invaders but this
+blow was fatal only because Buddhism was concentrated in its monkhood.
+Innumerable Hindu temples were destroyed, yet Hinduism was at no time in
+danger of extinction.
+
+The Hindu reaction against Buddhism became apparent under the Gupta
+dynasty but Mahayanism in its use of Sanskrit and its worship of
+Bodhisattvas shows the beginnings of the same movement. The danger for
+Buddhism was not persecution but tolerance and obliteration of
+differences. The Guptas were not bigots. It was probably in their time
+that the oldest Puranas, the laws of Manu and the Mahabharata received
+their final form. These are on the whole text-books of Smārta Hinduism
+and two Gupta monarchs celebrated the horse sacrifice. But the
+Mahabharata contains several episodes which justify the exclusive
+worship of either Vishnu or Siva, and the architecture of the Guptas
+suggests that they were Vishnuites. They also bestowed favours on
+Buddhism which was not yet decadent, for Vasubandhu and Asanga, who
+probably lived in the fourth century, were constructive thinkers. It is
+true that their additions were of the dangerous kind which render an
+edifice top-heavy but their works show vitality and had a wide
+influence[23]. The very name of Asanga's philosophy--Yogācārya--indicates
+its affinity to Brahmanic thought, as do his doctrines of Alayavijńāna
+and Bodhi, which permit him to express in Buddhist language the idea
+that the soul may be illumined by the deity. In some cases Hinduism, in
+others Buddhism, may have played the receptive part but the general
+result--namely the diminution of differences between the two--was always
+the same.
+
+The Hun invasions were unfavourable to religious and intellectual
+activity in the north and, just as in the time of Moslim inroads, their
+ravages had more serious consequences for Buddhism than for Hinduism.
+The great Emperor Harsha ({~DAGGER~}647), of whom we know something from Bāna and
+Hsüan Chuang, became at the end of his life a zealous but eclectic
+Buddhist. Yet it is plain from Hsiian Chuang's account that at this time
+Buddhism was decadent in most districts both of the north and south.
+
+This decadence was hastened by an unfortunate alliance with those forms
+of magic and erotic mysticism which are called Sāktism[24]. It is
+difficult to estimate the extent of the corruption, for the singularity
+of the evil, a combination of the austere and ethical teaching of Gotama
+with the most fantastic form of Hinduism, arrests attention and perhaps
+European scholars have written more about it than it deserves. It did
+not touch the Hinayanist churches nor appreciably infect the Buddhism of
+the Far East, nor even (it would seem) Indian Buddhism outside Bengal
+and Orissa. Unfortunately Magadha, which was both the home and last
+asylum of the faith, was also very near the regions where Sāktism most
+flourished. It is, as I have often noticed in these pages, a peculiarity
+of all Indian sects that in matters of belief they are not exclusive nor
+hostile to novelties. When a new idea wins converts it is the instinct
+of the older sects to declare that it is compatible with their teaching
+or that they have something similar and just as good. It was in this
+fashion that the Buddhists of Magadha accepted Sāktist and tantric
+ideas. If Hinduism could summon gods and goddesses by magical methods,
+they could summon Bodhisattvas, male and female, in the same way, and
+these spirits were as good as the gods. In justice it must be said that
+despite distortions and monstrous accretions the real teaching of Gotama
+did not entirely disappear even in Magadha and Tibet.
+
+
+8. _Later Forms of Hinduism_
+
+In the eighth and ninth centuries this degenerate Buddhism was exposed
+to the attacks of the great Hindu champions Kumārila and Sankara, though
+it probably endured little persecution in our sense of the word. Both of
+them were Smārtas or traditionalists and laboured in the cause not of
+Vishnuism or Sivaism but of the ancient Brahmanic religion, amplified by
+many changes which the ages had brought but holding up as the religious
+ideal a manhood occupied with ritual observances, followed by an old age
+devoted to philosophy. Sankara was the greater of the two and would have
+a higher place among the famous names of the world had not his respect
+for tradition prevented him from asserting the originality which he
+undoubtedly possessed. Yet many remarkable features of his life work,
+both practical and intellectual, are due to imitation of the Buddhists
+and illustrate the dictum that Buddhism did not disappear from India[25]
+until Hinduism had absorbed from it all the good that it had to offer.
+Sankara took Buddhist institutions as his model in rearranging the
+ascetic orders of Hinduism, and his philosophy, a rigorously consistent
+pantheism which ascribed all apparent multiplicity and difference to
+illusion, is indebted to Mahayanist speculation. It is remarkable that
+his opponents stigmatized him as a Buddhist in disguise and his system,
+though it is one of the most influential lines of thought among educated
+Hindus, is anathematized by some theistic sects[26].
+
+Sankara was a native of southern India. It is not easy to combine in one
+picture the progress of thought in the north and south, and for the
+earlier centuries our information as to the Dravidian countries is
+meagre. Yet they cannot be omitted, for their influence on the whole of
+India was great. Greeks, Kushans, Huns, and Mohammedans penetrated into
+the north but, until after the fall of Vijayanagar in 1565, no invader
+professing a foreign religion entered the country of the Tamils. Left in
+peace they elaborated their own version of current theological problems
+and the result spread over India. Buddhism and Jainism also flourished
+in the south. The former was introduced under Asoka but apparently
+ceased to be the dominant religion (if it ever was so) in the early
+centuries of our era. Still even in the eleventh century monasteries
+were built in Mysore. Jainism had a distinguished but chequered career
+in the south. It was powerful in the seventh century but subsequently
+endured considerable persecution. It still exists and possesses
+remarkable monuments at Sravana Belgola and elsewhere.
+
+But the characteristic form of Dravidian religion is an emotional
+theism, running in the parallel channels of Vishnuism and Sivaism and
+accompanied by humbler but vigorous popular superstitions, which reveal
+the origin of its special temperament. For the frenzied ecstasies of
+devil dancers (to use a current though inaccurate phrase) are a
+primitive expression of the same sentiment which sees in the whole world
+the exulting energy and rhythmic force of Siva. And though the most
+rigid Brahmanism still flourishes in the Madras Presidency there is
+audible in the Dravidian hymns a distinct note of anti-sacerdotalism and
+of belief that every man by his own efforts can come into immediate
+contact with the Great Being whom he worships.
+
+The Vishnuism and Sivaism of the south go back to the early centuries of
+our era, but the chronology is difficult. In both there is a line of
+poet-saints followed by philosophers and teachers and in both a
+considerable collection of Tamil hymns esteemed as equivalent to the
+Veda. Perhaps Sivaism was dominant first and Vishnuism somewhat later
+but at no epoch did either extinguish the other. It was the object of
+Sankara to bring these valuable but dangerous forces, as well as much
+Buddhist doctrine and practice, into harmony with Brahmanism.
+
+Islam first entered India in 712 but it was some time before it passed
+beyond the frontier provinces and for many centuries it was too hostile
+and aggressive to invite imitation, but the spectacle of a strong
+community pledged to the worship of a single personal God produced an
+effect. In the period extending from the eighth to the twelfth
+centuries, in which Buddhism practically disappeared and Islam came to
+the front as a formidable though not irresistible antagonist, the
+dominant form of Hinduism was that which finds expression in the older
+Puranas, in the temples of Orissa and Khajarao and the Kailāsa at
+Ellora. It is the worship of one god, either Siva or Vishnu, but a
+monotheism adorned with a luxuriant mythology and delighting in the
+manifold shapes which the one deity assumes. It freely used the
+terminology of the Sānkhya but the first place in philosophy belonged to
+the severe pantheism of Sankara which, in contrast to this riotous
+exuberance of legend and sculpture, sees the highest truth in one Being
+to whom no epithets can be applied.
+
+In the next epoch, say the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, Indian
+thought clearly hankers after theism in the western sense and yet never
+completely acquiesces in it. Mythology, if still rampant according to
+our taste, at least becomes subsidiary and more detachable from the
+supreme deity, and this deity, if less anthropomorphic than Allah or
+Jehovah, is still a being who loves and helps souls, and these souls are
+explained in varying formulae as being identical with him and yet
+distinct.
+
+It can hardly be by chance that as the Hindus became more familiar with
+Islam their sects grew more definite in doctrine and organization
+especially among the Vishnuites who showed a greater disposition to form
+sects than the Sivaites, partly because the incarnations of Vishnu offer
+an obvious ground for diversity. About 1100 A.D.[27] the first great
+Vaishnava sect was founded by Rāmānuja. He was a native of the Madras
+country and claimed to be the spiritual descendant of the early Tamil
+saints. In doctrine he expressly accepted the views of the ancient
+Bhāgavatas, which had been condemned by Sankara, and he affirmed the
+existence of one personal deity commonly spoken of as Nārāyana or
+Vāsudeva.
+
+From the time of Sankara onwards nearly all Hindu theologians of the
+first rank expounded their views by writing a commentary on the Brahma
+Sūtras, an authoritative but singularly enigmatic digest of the
+Upanishads. Sankara's doctrine may be summarized as absolute monism
+which holds that nothing really exists but Brahman and that Brahman is
+identical with the soul. All apparent plurality is due to illusion. He
+draws a distinction between the lower and higher Brahman which perhaps
+may be rendered by God and the Godhead. In the same sense in which
+individual souls and matter exist, a personal God also exists, but the
+higher truth is that individuality, personality and matter are all
+illusion. But the teaching of Rāmānuja rejects the doctrines that the
+world is an illusion and that there is a distinction between the lower
+and higher Brahman and it affirms that the soul, though of the same
+substance as God and emitted from him rather than created, can obtain
+bliss not in absorption but in existence near him.
+
+It is round these problems that Hindu theology turns. The innumerable
+solutions lack neither boldness nor variety but they all try to satisfy
+both the philosopher and the saint and none achieve both tasks. The
+system of Sankara is a masterpiece of intellect, despite his
+disparagement of reasoning in theology, and could inspire a fine piety,
+as when on his deathbed he asked forgiveness for having frequented
+temples, since by so doing he had seemed to deny that God is everywhere.
+But piety of this kind is unfavourable to public worship and even to
+those religious experiences in which the soul seems to have direct
+contact with God in return for its tribute of faith and love. In fact
+the Advaita philosophy countenances emotional theism only as an
+imperfect creed and not as the highest truth. But the existence of all
+sects and priesthoods depends on their power to satisfy the religious
+instinct with ceremonial or some better method of putting the soul in
+communication with the divine. On the other hand pantheism in India is
+not a philosophical speculation, it is a habit of mind: it is not enough
+for the Hindu that his God is lord of all things: he must _be_ all
+things and the soul in its endeavour to reach God must obtain
+deliverance from the fetters not only of matter but of individuality.
+Hence Hindu theology is in a perpetual oscillation illustrated by the
+discrepant statements found side by side in the Bhagavad-gītā and other
+works. Indian temperament and Indian logic want a pantheistic God and a
+soul which can transcend personality, but religious thought and practice
+imply personality both in the soul and in God. All varieties of
+Vishnuism show an effort to reconcile these double aspirations and
+theories. The theistic view is popular, for without it what would become
+of temples, worshippers and priests? But I think that the pantheistic
+view is the real basis of Indian religious thought.
+
+The qualified monism of Rāmānuja (as his system is sometimes called) led
+to more uncompromising treatment of the question and to the affirmation
+of dualism, not the dualism of God and the Devil but the distinctness of
+the soul and of matter from God. This is the doctrine of Madhva, another
+southern teacher who lived about a century after Rāmānuja and was
+perhaps directly influenced by Islam. But though the logical outcome of
+his teaching may appear to be simple theism analogous to Islam or
+Judaism, it does not in practice lead to this result but rather to the
+worship of Krishna. Madhva's sect is still important but even more
+important is another branch of the spiritual family of Rāmānuja,
+starting from Rāmānand who probably flourished in the fourteenth
+century[28].
+
+Rāmānuja, while in some ways accepting innovations, insisted on the
+strict observance of caste. Rāmānand abandoned this, separated from his
+sect and removed to Benares. His teaching marks a turning-point in the
+history of modern Hinduism. Firstly he held that caste need not prevent
+a man from rightly worshipping God and he admitted even Moslims as
+members of his community. To this liberality are directly traceable the
+numerous sects combining Hindu with Mohammedan doctrines, among which
+the Kabir Panthis and the Sikhs are the most conspicuous. But it is a
+singular testimony to the tenacity of Hindu ideas that though many
+teachers holding most diverse opinions have declared there is no caste
+before God, yet caste has generally reasserted itself among their
+followers as a social if not as a religious institution. The second
+important point in Rāmānand's teaching was the use of the vernacular for
+religious literature. Dravidian scriptures had already been recognized
+in the south but it is from this time that there begins to flow in the
+north that great stream of sacred poetry in Hindi and Bengali which
+waters the roots of modern popular Hinduism. Among many eminent names
+which have contributed to it, the greatest is Tulsi Das who retold the
+Ramayana in Hindi and thus wrote a poem which is little less than a
+Bible for millions in the Ganges valley.
+
+The sects which derive from the teaching of Rāmānand mostly worship the
+Supreme Being under the name of Rāma. Even more numerous, especially in
+the north, are those who use the name of Krishna, the other great
+incarnation of Vishnu. This worship was organized and extended by the
+preaching of Vallabha and Caitanya (c. 1500) in the valley of the Ganges
+and Bengal, but was not new. I shall discuss in some detail below the
+many elements combined in the complex figure of Krishna but in one way
+or another he was connected with the earliest forms of Vishnuite
+monotheism and is the chief figure in the Bhagavad-gītā, its earliest
+text-book. Legend connects him partly with Muttra and partly with
+western India but, though by no means ignored in southern India, he does
+not receive there such definite and exclusive adoration as in the north.
+The Krishnaite sects are emotional, and their favourite doctrine that
+the relation between God and the soul is typified by passionate love has
+led to dubious moral results.
+
+This Krishnaite propaganda, which coincided with the Reformation in
+Europe, was the last great religious movement in India. Since that time
+there has been considerable activity of a minor kind. Protests have been
+raised against abuses and existing communities have undergone changes,
+such as may be seen in the growth of the Sikhs, but there has been no
+general or original movement. The absence of such can be easily
+explained by the persecutions of Aurungzeb and by the invasions and
+internal struggles of the eighteenth century. At the end of that century
+Hinduism was at its lowest but its productive power was not destroyed.
+The decennial census never fails to record the rise of new sects and the
+sudden growth of others which had been obscure and minute.
+
+Any historical treatment of Hinduism inevitably makes Vishnuism seem
+more prominent than other sects, for it offers more events to record.
+But though Sivaism has undergone fewer changes and produced fewer great
+names, it must not be thought of as lifeless or decadent. The lingam is
+worshipped all over India and many of the most celebrated shrines, such
+as Benares and Bhubaneshwar, are dedicated to the Lord of life and
+death. The Sivaism of the Tamil country is one of the most energetic and
+progressive forms of modern Hinduism, but in doctrine it hardly varies
+from the ancient standard of the Tiruvacagam.
+
+
+9. _European Influence and Modern Hinduism_
+
+The small effect of European religion on Hinduism is remarkable. Islam,
+though aggressively hostile, yet fused with it in some sects, for
+instance the Sikhs, but such fusions of Indian religion and Christianity
+as have been noted[29] are microscopic curiosities. European free
+thought and Deism have not fared better, for the Brahmo Samaj which was
+founded under their inspiration has only 5504 adherents[30]. In social
+life there has been some change: caste restrictions, though not
+abolished, are evaded by ingenious subterfuges and there is a growing
+feeling against child-marriage. Yet were the laws against sati and human
+sacrifice repealed, there are many districts in which such practices
+would not be forbidden by popular sentiment.
+
+It is easy to explain the insensibility of Hinduism to European contact:
+even Islam had little effect on its stubborn vitality, though Islam
+brought with it settlers and resident rulers, ready to make converts by
+force. But the British have shown perfect toleration and are merely
+sojourners in the land who spend their youth and age elsewhere. European
+exclusiveness and Indian ideas about caste alike made it natural to
+regard them as an isolated class charged with the business of Government
+but divorced from the intellectual and religious life of other classes.
+Previous experience of Moslims and other invaders disposed the Brahmans
+to accept foreigners as rulers without admitting that their creeds and
+customs were in the least worthy of imitation. European methods of
+organization and advertisement have not however been disdained.
+
+The last half century has witnessed a remarkable revival of Hinduism. In
+the previous decades the most conspicuous force in India, although
+numerically weak, was the already mentioned Brahmo Samaj, founded by Ram
+Mohun Roy in 1828. But it was colourless and wanting in constructive
+power. Educated opinion, at least in Bengal, seemed to be tending
+towards agnosticism and social revolution. This tendency was checked by
+a conservative and nationalist movement, which in all its varied phases
+gave support to Indian religion and was intolerant of European ideas. It
+had a political side but there was nothing disloyal in its main idea,
+namely, that in the intellectual and religious sphere, where Indian life
+is most intense, Indian ideas must not decay. No one who has known India
+during the last thirty years can have failed to notice how many new
+temples have been built and how many old ones repaired. Almost all the
+principal sects have founded associations to protect and extend their
+interests by such means as financial and administrative organization,
+the publication of periodicals and other literature, annual conferences,
+lectures and the foundation of religious houses or quasi-monastic
+orders. Several societies have been founded not restricted to any
+particular sect but with the avowed object of defending and promoting
+strict Hinduism. Among such the most important are, first the Bharat
+Dharma Mahamandala, under the distinguished presidency of the Maharaja
+of Darbhanga: secondly the movement started by Ramakrishna and Swami
+Vivekananda and adorned by the beautiful life and writings of Sister
+Nivedita (Miss Noble) and thirdly the Theosophical Society under the
+leadership of Mrs Besant. It is remarkable that Europeans, both men and
+women, have played a considerable part in this revival. All these
+organizations are influential: the two latter have done great service in
+defending and encouraging Hinduism, but I am less sure of their success
+in mingling Eastern and Western ideas or in popularizing Hinduism among
+Europeans.
+
+Somewhat different, but described by the Census of 1911 as "the greatest
+religious movement in India of the past half century" is the Arya Samaj,
+founded in 1875 by Swami Dayanand. Whereas the movements mentioned above
+support Sanātana Dharma or Orthodox Hinduism in all its shapes, the Arya
+Samaj aims at reform. Its original programme was a revival of the
+ancient Vedic religion but it has since been perceptibly modified and
+tends towards conciliating contemporary orthodoxy, for it now prohibits
+the slaughter of cattle, accords a partial recognition to caste, affirms
+its belief in karma and apparently approves a form of the Yoga
+philosophy. Though it is not yet accepted as a form of orthodox
+Hinduism, it seems probable that concessions on both sides will produce
+this result before long. It numbers at present only about a quarter of a
+million but is said to be rapidly increasing, especially in the United
+Provinces and Panjab, and to be remarkable for the completeness and
+efficiency of its organization. It maintains missionary colleges,
+orphanages and schools. Affiliated to it is a society for the
+purification (shuddhi) of Mohammedans, Christians and outcasts, that is
+for turning them into Hindus and giving them some kind of caste. It
+would appear that those who undergo this purification do not always
+become members of the Samaj but are merged in the ordinary Hindu
+community where they are accepted without opposition if also without
+enthusiasm.
+
+
+10. _Change and Permanence in Buddhism_
+
+Thus we have a record of Indian thought for about 3000 years. It has
+directly affected such distant points as Balkh, Java and Japan and it is
+still living and active. But life and action mean change and such wide
+extension in time and space implies variety. We talk of converting
+foreign countries but the religion which is transplanted also undergoes
+conversion or else it cannot enter new brains and hearts. Buddhism in
+Ceylon and Japan, Christianity in Scotland and Russia are not the same,
+although professing to reverence the same teachers. It is easy to argue
+the other way, but it can only be done by setting aside as non-essential
+differences of great practical importance. Europeans are ready enough to
+admit that Buddhism is changeable and easily corrupted but it is not
+singular in that respect[31]. I doubt if Lhasa and Tantrism are further
+from the teaching of Gotama than the Papacy, the Inquisition, and the
+religion of the German Emperor, from the teaching of Christ.
+
+A religion is the expression of the thought of a particular age and
+cannot really be permanent in other ages which have other thoughts. The
+apparent permanence of Christianity is due first to the suppression of
+much original teaching, such as Christ's turning the cheek to the smiter
+and Paul's belief in the coming end of the world, and secondly to the
+adoption of new social ideals which have no place in the New Testament,
+such as the abolition of slavery and the improved status of women.
+
+Buddhism arising out of Brahmanism suggests a comparison with
+Christianity arising out of Judaism, but the comparison breaks down in
+most points of detail. But there is one real resemblance, namely that
+Buddhism and Christianity have both won their greatest triumphs outside
+the land of their birth. The flowers of the mind, if they can be
+transplanted at all, often flourish with special vigour on alien soil.
+Witness the triumphs of Islam in the hands of the Turks and Mughals, the
+progress of Nestorianism in Central Asia, and the spread of Manichaeism
+in both the East and West outside the limits of Persia. Even so Lamaism
+in Tibet and Amidism in Japan, though scholars may regard them as
+singular perversions, have more vitality than any branch of Buddhism
+which has existed in India since the seventh century. But even here the
+parallel with Christian sects is imperfect. It would be more complete if
+Palestine had been the centre from which different phases of
+Christianity radiated during some twelve centuries, for this is the
+relation between Indian and foreign Buddhism. Lamaism is not the
+teaching of the Buddha travestied by Tibetans but a late form of Indian
+Buddhism exported to Tibet and modified there in some external features
+(such as ecclesiastical organization and art) but not differing greatly
+in doctrine from Bengali Buddhism of the eleventh century. And even
+Amidism appears to have originated not in the Far East but in Gandhara
+and the adjacent lands. Thus the many varieties of Buddhism now existing
+are due partly to local colour but even more to the workings of the
+restless Hindu mind which during many centuries after the Christian era
+continued to invent for it novelties in metaphysics and mythology.
+
+The preservation of a very ancient form of Buddhism in Ceylon[32] is
+truly remarkable, for if in many countries Buddhism has shown itself
+fluid and protean, it here manifests a stability which can hardly be
+paralleled except in Judaism. The Sinhalese, unlike the Hindus, had no
+native propensity to speculation. They were content to classify,
+summarize and expound the teaching of the Pitakas without restating it
+in the light of their own imagination. Whereas the most stable form of
+Christianity is the Church of Rome, which began by making considerable
+additions to the doctrine of the New Testament, the most stable form of
+Buddhism is neither a transformation of the old nor a protest against
+innovation but simply the continuation of a very ancient sect in strange
+lands[33]. This ancient Buddhism, like Islam which is also simple and
+stable, is somewhat open to the charge of engaging in disputes about
+trivial details[34], but alike in Ceylon, Burma and Siam, it has not
+only shown remarkable persistence but has become a truly national
+religion, the glory and comfort of those who profess it.
+
+
+11. _Rebirth and the Nature of the Soul_
+
+The most characteristic doctrine of Indian religion--rarely absent in
+India and imported by Buddhism into all the countries which it
+influenced--is that called metempsychosis, the transmigration of the soul
+or reincarnation. The last of these terms best expresses Indian,
+especially Buddhist, ideas but still the usual Sanskrit equivalent,
+_Samsāra_, means migration. The body breaks up at death but something
+passes on and migrates to another equally transitory tenement. Neither
+Brahmans nor Buddhists seem to contemplate the possibility that the
+human soul may be a temporary manifestation of the Eternal Spirit which
+comes to an end at death--a leaf on a tree or a momentary ripple on the
+water. It is always regarded as passing through many births, a wave
+traversing the ocean.
+
+Hindu speculation has never passed through the materialistic phase, and
+the doctrine that the soul is annihilated at death is extremely rare in
+India. Even rarer perhaps is the doctrine that it usually enters on a
+permanent existence, happy or otherwise. The idea underlying the
+transmigration theory is that every state which we call existence must
+come to an end. If the soul can be isolated from all the accidents and
+accessories attaching to it, then there may be a state of permanence and
+peace but not a state comparable with human existence, however enlarged
+and glorified. But why does not this conviction of impermanence lead to
+the simpler conclusion that the end of physical life is the end of all
+life? Because the Hindus have an equally strong conviction of
+continuity: everything passes away and changes but it is not true to say
+of anything that it arises from nothing or passes into nothing. If human
+organisms (or any other organisms) are mere machines, if there is
+nothing more to be said about a corpse than about a smashed watch, then
+(the Hindu thinks) the universe is not continuous. Its continuity means
+for him that there is something which eternally manifests itself in
+perishable forms but does not perish with them any more than water when
+a pitcher is broken or fire that passes from the wood it has consumed to
+fresh fuel.
+
+These metaphors suggest that the doctrine of transmigration or
+reincarnation does not promise what we call personal immortality. I
+confess that I cannot understand how there can be personality in the
+ordinary human sense without a body. When we think of a friend, we think
+of a body and a character, thoughts and feelings, all of them connected
+with that body and many of them conditioned by it. But the immortal soul
+is commonly esteemed to be something equally present in a new born babe,
+a youth and an old man. If so, it cannot be a personality in the
+ordinary sense, for no one could recognize the spirit of a departed
+friend, if it is something which was present in him the day he was born
+and different from all the characteristics which he acquired during
+life. The belief that we shall recognize our friends in another world
+assumes that these characteristics are immortal, but it is hard to
+understand how they can be so, especially as it is also assumed that
+there is nothing immortal in a dog, which possesses affection and
+intelligence, but that there is something immortal in a new born infant
+which cannot be said to possess either.
+
+In one way metempsychosis raises insuperable difficulties to the
+survival of personality, for if you become someone else, especially an
+animal, you are no longer yourself according to any ordinary use of
+language. But one of the principal forms taken by the doctrine in India
+makes a modified survival intelligible. For it is held that a new born
+child brings with it as a result of actions done in previous lives
+certain predispositions and these after being developed and modified in
+the course of that child's life are transmitted to its next existence.
+
+As to the method of transmission there are various theories, for in
+India the belief in reincarnation is not so much a dogma as an instinct
+innate in all and only occasionally justified by philosophers, not
+because it was disputed but because they felt bound to show that their
+own systems were compatible with it. One explanation is that given by
+the Vedānta philosophy, according to which the soul is accompanied in
+its migrations by the _Sūkshmasarīra_ or subtle body, a counterpart of
+the mortal body but transparent and invisible, though material. The
+truth of this theory, as of all theories respecting ghosts and spirits,
+seems to me a matter for experimental verification, but the Vedānta
+recognizes that in our experience a personal individual existence is
+always connected with a physical substratum.
+
+The Buddhist theory of rebirth is somewhat different, for Buddhism even
+in its later divagations rarely ceased to profess belief in Gotama's
+doctrine that there is no such thing as a soul--by which is meant no such
+thing as a permanent unchanging self or _ātman_. Buddhists are concerned
+to show that transmigration is not inconsistent with this denial of the
+_ātman_. The ordinary, and indeed inevitable translation of this word by
+soul leads to misunderstanding for we naturally interpret it as meaning
+that there is nothing which survives the death of the body and _a
+fortiori_ nothing to transmigrate. But in reality the denial of the
+_ātman_ applies to the living rather than to the dead. It means that in
+a living man there is no permanent, unchangeable entity but only a
+series of mental states, and since human beings, although they have no
+_ātman_, certainly exist in this present life, the absence of the
+_ātman_ is not in itself an obstacle to belief in a similar life after
+death or before birth. Infancy, youth, age and the state immediately
+after death may form a series of which the last two are as intimately
+connected as any other two. The Buddhist teaching is that when men die
+in whom the desire for another life exists--as it exists in all except
+saints--then desire, which is really the creator of the world, fashions
+another being, conditioned by the character and merits of the being
+which has just come to an end. Life is like fire: its very nature is to
+burn its fuel. When one body dies, it is as if one piece of fuel were
+burnt: the vital process passes on and recommences in another and so
+long as there is desire of life, the provision of fuel fails not.
+Buddhist doctors have busied themselves with the question whether two
+successive lives are the same man or different men, and have illustrated
+the relationship by various analogies of things which seem to be the
+same and yet not the same, such as a child and an adult, milk and curds,
+or fire which spreads from a lamp and burns down a village, but, like
+the Brahmans, they do not discuss why the hypothesis of transmigration
+is necessary. They had the same feeling for the continuity of nature,
+and more than others they insisted on the principle that everything has
+a cause. They held that the sexual act creates the conditions in which a
+new life appears but is not an adequate cause for the new life itself.
+And unless we accept a materialist explanation of human nature, this
+argument is sound: unless we admit that mind is merely a function of
+matter, the birth of a mind is not explicable as a mere process of cell
+development: something pre-existent must act upon the cells.
+
+Europeans in discussing such questions as the nature of the soul and
+immortality are prone to concentrate their attention on death and
+neglect the phenomena of birth, which surely are equally important. For
+if a soul survives the death of this complex of cells which is called
+the body, its origin and development must, according to all analogy, be
+different from those of the perishable body. Orthodox theology deals
+with the problem by saying that God creates a new soul every time a
+child is born[35] but free discussion usually ignores it and taking an
+adult as he is, asks what are the chances that any part of him survives
+death. Yet the questions, what is destroyed at death and how and why,
+are closely connected with the questions what comes into existence at
+birth and how and why. This second series of questions is hard enough,
+but it has this advantage over the first that whereas death abruptly
+closes the road and we cannot follow the soul one inch on its journey
+beyond, the portals of birth are a less absolute frontier. We know that
+every child has passed through stages in which it could hardly be called
+a child. The earliest phase consists of two cells, which unite and then
+proceed to subdivide and grow. The mystery of the process by which they
+assume a human form is not explained by scientific or theological
+phrases. The complete individual is assuredly not contained in the first
+germ. The microscope cannot find it there and to say that it is there
+potentially, merely means that we know the germ will develop in a
+certain way. To say that a force is manifesting itself in the germ and
+assuming the shape which it chooses to take or must take is also merely
+a phrase and metaphor, but it seems to me to fit the facts[36].
+
+The doctrines of pre-existence and transmigration (but not, I think, of
+karma which is purely Indian) are common among savages in Africa and
+America, nor is their wide distribution strange. Savages commonly think
+that the soul wanders during sleep and that a dead man's soul goes
+somewhere: what more natural than to suppose that the soul of a new born
+infant comes from somewhere? But among civilized peoples such ideas are
+in most cases due to Indian influence. In India they seem indigenous to
+the soil and not imported by the Aryan invaders, for they are not
+clearly enunciated in the Rig Veda, nor formulated before the time of
+the Upanishads[37]. They were introduced by Buddhism to the Far East and
+their presence in Manichaeism, Neoplatonism, Sufiism and ultimately in
+the Jewish Kabbala seems a rivulet from the same source. Recent research
+discredits the theory that metempsychosis was an important feature in
+the earlier religion of Egypt or among the Druids[38]. But it played a
+prominent part in the philosophy of Pythagoras and in the Orphic
+mysteries, which had some connection with Thrace and possibly also with
+Crete. A few great European intellects[39]--notably Plato and
+Virgil--have given it undying expression, but Europeans as a whole have
+rejected it with that curiously crude contempt which they have shown
+until recently for Oriental art and literature.
+
+Considering how fixed is the belief in immortality among Europeans, or
+at least the desire for it, the rarity of a belief in pre-existence or
+transmigration is remarkable. But most people's expectation of a future
+life is based on craving rather than on reasoned anticipation. I cannot
+myself understand how anything that comes into being can be immortal.
+Such immortality is unsupported by a single analogy nor can any instance
+be quoted of a thing which is known to have had an origin and yet is
+even apparently indestructible[40]. And is it possible to suppose that
+the universe is capable of indefinite increase by the continual addition
+of new and eternal souls? But these difficulties do not exist for
+theories which regard the soul as something existing before as well as
+after the body, truly immortal _a parte ante_ as well as _a parte post_
+and manifesting itself in temporary homes of human or lower shape. Such
+theories become very various and fall into many obscurities when they
+try to define the nature of the soul and its relation to the body, but
+they avoid what seems to me the contradiction of the created but
+immortal soul.
+
+The doctrine of metempsychosis is also interesting as affecting the
+relations of men and animals. The popular European conception of "the
+beasts which perish" weakens the arguments for human immortality. For if
+the mind of a dog or chimpanzee contains no element which is immortal,
+the part of the human mind on which the claim to immortality can be
+based must be parlously small, since _ex hypothesi_ sensation, volition,
+desire and the simpler forms of intelligence are not immortal. But in
+India where men have more charity and more philosophy this distinction
+is not drawn. The animating principle of men, animals and plants is
+regarded as one or at least similar, and even matter which we consider
+inanimate, such as water, is often considered to possess a soul. But
+though there is ample warrant in both Brahmanic and Buddhist literature
+for the idea that the soul may sink from a human to an animal form or
+_vice versā_ rise, and though one sometimes meets this belief in modern
+life[41], yet it is not the most prominent aspect of metempsychosis in
+India and the beautiful precept of ahimsā or not injuring living things
+is not, as Europeans imagine, founded on the fear of eating one's
+grandparents but rather on the humane and enlightened feeling that all
+life is one and that men who devour beasts are not much above the level
+of the beasts who devour one another. The feeling has grown stronger
+with time. In the Vedas animal sacrifices are prescribed and they are
+even now used in the worship of some deities. In the Epics the eating of
+meat is mentioned. But the doctrine that it is wrong to take animal life
+was definitely adopted by Buddhism and gained strength with its
+diffusion.
+
+One obvious objection to all theories of rebirth is that we do not
+remember our previous existences and that, if they are connected by no
+thread of memory, they are for all practical purposes the existences of
+different people. But this want of memory affects not only past
+existences but the early phases of this existence. Does any one deny his
+existence as an infant or embryo because he cannot remember it[42]? And
+if a wrong could be done to an infant the effects of which would not be
+felt for twenty years, could it be said to be no concern of the infant
+because the person who will suffer in twenty years time will have no
+recollection that he was that infant? And common opinion in Eastern
+Asia, not without occasional confirmation from Europe, denies the
+proposition that we cannot remember our former lives and asserts that
+those who take any pains to sharpen their spiritual faculties can
+remember them. The evidence for such recollection seems to me better
+than the evidence for most spiritualistic phenomena[43].
+
+Another objection comes from the facts of heredity. On the whole we
+resemble our parents and ancestors in mind as well as in body. A child
+often seems to be an obvious product of its parents and not a being come
+from outside and from another life. This objection of course applies
+equally to the creation theory. If the soul is created by an act of God,
+there seems to be no reason why it should be like the parents, or, if he
+causes it to be like them, he is made responsible for sending children
+into the world with vicious natures. On the other hand if parents
+literally make a child, mind as well as body, there seems to be no
+reason why children should ever be unlike their parents, or brothers and
+sisters unlike one another, as they undoubtedly sometimes are. An Indian
+would say that a soul[44] seeking rebirth carries with it certain
+potentialities of good and evil and can obtain embodiment only in a
+family offering the necessary conditions. Hence to some extent it is
+natural that the child should be like its parents. But the soul seeking
+rebirth is not completely fixed in form and stiff: it is hampered and
+limited by the results of its previous life, but in many respects it may
+be flexible and free, ready to vary in response to its new environment.
+
+But there is a psychological and temperamental objection to the doctrine
+of rebirth, which goes to the root of the matter. Love of life and the
+desire to find a field of activity are so strong in most Europeans that
+it might be supposed that a theory offering an endless vista of new
+activities and new chances would be acceptable. But as a rule Europeans
+who discuss the question say that they do not relish this prospect. They
+may be willing to struggle until death, but they wish for
+repose--conscious repose of course--afterwards. The idea that one just
+dead has not entered into his rest, but is beginning another life with
+similar struggles and fleeting successes, similar sorrows and
+disappointments, is not satisfying and is almost shocking[45]. We do not
+like it, and not to like any particular view about the destinies of the
+soul is generally, but most illogically, considered a reason for
+rejecting it[46].
+
+
+12.
+
+It must not however be supposed that Hindus like the prospect of
+transmigration. On the contrary from the time of the Upanishads and the
+Buddha to the present day their religious ideal corresponding to
+salvation is emancipation and deliverance, deliverance from rebirth and
+from the bondage of desire which brings about rebirth. Now all Indian
+theories as to the nature of transmigration are in some way connected
+with the idea of _Karma_, that is the power of deeds done in past
+existences to condition or even to create future existences. Every deed
+done, whether good or bad, affects the character of the doer for a long
+while, so that to use a metaphor, the soul awaiting rebirth has a
+special shape, which is of its own making, and it can find re-embodiment
+only in a form into which that shape can squeeze.
+
+These views of rebirth and karma have a moral value, for they teach that
+what a man gets depends on what he is or makes himself to be, and they
+avoid the difficulty of supposing that a benevolent creator can have
+given his creatures only one life with such strange and unmerited
+disproportion in their lots. Ordinary folk in the East hope that a life
+of virtue will secure them another life as happy beings on earth or
+perhaps in some heaven which, though not eternal, will still be long.
+But for many the higher ideal is renunciation of the world and a life of
+contemplative asceticism which will accumulate no karma so that after
+death the soul will pass not to another birth but to some higher and
+more mysterious state which is beyond birth and death. It is the
+prevalence of views like this which has given both Hinduism and Buddhism
+the reputation of being pessimistic and unpractical.
+
+It is generally assumed that these are bad epithets, but are they not
+applicable to Christian teaching? Modern and medieval Christianity--as
+witness many popular hymns--regards this world as vain and transitory, a
+vale of tears and tribulation, a troubled sea through whose waves we
+must pass before we reach our rest. And choirs sing, though without much
+conviction, that it is weary waiting here. This language seems justified
+by the Gospels and Epistles. It is true that some utterances of Christ
+suggest that happiness is to be found in a simple and natural life of
+friendliness and love, but on the whole both he and St Paul teach that
+the world is evil or at least spoiled and distorted: to become a happy
+world it must be somehow remade and transfigured by the second coming of
+Christ. The desires and ambitions which are the motive power of modern
+Europe are, if not wrong, at least vain and do not even seek for true
+peace and happiness. Like Indian teachers, the early Christians tried to
+create a right temper rather than to change social institutions. They
+bade masters and slaves treat one another with kindness and respect, but
+they did not attempt to abolish slavery.
+
+Indian thought does not really go much further in pessimism than
+Christianity, but its pessimism is intellectual rather than emotional.
+He who understands the nature of the soul and its successive lives
+cannot regard any single life as of great importance in itself, though
+its consequences for the future may be momentous, and though he will not
+say that life is not worth living. Reiterated declarations that all
+existence is suffering do, it is true, seem to destroy all prospect of
+happiness and all motive for effort, but the more accurate statement is,
+in the words of the Buddha himself, that all clinging to physical
+existence involves suffering. The earliest Buddhist texts teach that
+when this clinging and craving cease, a feeling of freedom and happiness
+takes their place and later Buddhism treated itself to visions of
+paradise as freely as Christianity. Many forms of Hinduism teach that
+the soul released from the body can enjoy eternal bliss in the presence
+of God and even those severer philosophers who do not admit that the
+released soul is a personality in any human sense have no doubt of its
+happiness.
+
+The opposition is not so much between Indian thought and the New
+Testament, for both of them teach that bliss is attainable but not by
+satisfying desire. The fundamental contrast is rather between both India
+and the New Testament on the one hand and on the other the rooted
+conviction of European races[47], however much Christian orthodoxy may
+disguise their expression of it, that this world is all-important. This
+conviction finds expression not only in the avowed pursuit of pleasure
+and ambition but in such sayings as that the best religion is the one
+which does most good and such ideals as self-realization or the full
+development of one's nature and powers. Europeans as a rule have an
+innate dislike and mistrust of the doctrine that the world is vain or
+unreal. They can accord some sympathy to a dying man who sees in due
+perspective the unimportance of his past life or to a poet who under the
+starry heavens can make felt the smallness of man and his earth. But
+such thoughts are considered permissible only as retrospects, not as
+principles of life: you may say that your labour has amounted to
+nothing, but not that labour is vain. Though monasteries and monks still
+exist, the great majority of Europeans instinctively disbelieve in
+asceticism, the contemplative life and contempt of the world: they have
+no love for a philosopher who rejects the idea of progress and is not
+satisfied with an ideal consisting in movement towards an unknown goal.
+They demand a religion which theoretically justifies the strenuous life.
+All this is a matter of temperament and the temperament is so common
+that it needs no explanation. What needs explanation is rather the other
+temperament which rejects this world as unsatisfactory and sets up
+another ideal, another sphere, another standard of values. This ideal
+and standard are not entirely peculiar to India but certainly they are
+understood and honoured there more than elsewhere. They are professed,
+as I have already observed, by Christianity, but even the New Testament
+is not free from the idea that saints are having a bad time now but will
+hereafter enjoy a triumph, parlously like the exuberance of the wicked
+in this world. The Far East too has its unworldly side which, though
+harmonizing with Buddhism, is native. In many ways the Chinese are as
+materialistic as Europeans, but throughout the long history of their art
+and literature, there has always been a school, clear-voiced if small,
+which has sung and pursued the joys of the hermit, the dweller among
+trees and mountains who finds nature and his own thoughts an
+all-sufficient source of continual happiness. But the Indian ideal,
+though it often includes the pleasures of communion with nature, differs
+from most forms of the Chinese and Christian ideal inasmuch as it
+assumes the reality of certain religious experiences and treats them as
+the substance and occupation of the highest life. We are disposed to
+describe these experiences as trances or visions, names which generally
+mean something morbid or hypnotic. But in India their validity is
+unquestioned and they are not considered morbid. The sensual scheming
+life of the world is sick and ailing; the rapture of contemplation is
+the true and healthy life of the soul. More than that it is the type and
+foretaste of a higher existence compared with which this world is
+worthless or rather nothing at all. This view has been held in India for
+nearly three thousand years: it has been confirmed by the experience of
+men whose writings testify to their intellectual power and has commanded
+the respect of the masses. It must command our respect too, even if it
+is contrary to our temperament, for it is the persistent ideal of a
+great nation and cannot be explained away as hallucination or
+charlatanism. It is allied to the experiences of European mystics of
+whom St Teresa is a striking example, though less saintly persons, such
+as Walt Whitman and J.A. Symonds, might also be cited. Of such mysticism
+William James said "the existence of mystical states absolutely
+overthrows the pretension of non-mystical states to be the sole and
+ultimate dictators of what we may believe[48]."
+
+These mystical states are commonly described as meditation but they
+include not merely peaceful contemplation but ecstatic rapture. They are
+sometimes explained as union with Brahman[49], the absorption of the
+soul in God, or its feeling that it is one with him. But this is
+certainly not the only explanation of ecstasy given in India, for it is
+recognized as real and beneficent by Buddhists and Jains. The same
+rapture, the same sense of omniscience and of ability to comprehend the
+scheme of things, the same peace and freedom are experienced by both
+theistic and non-theistic sects, just as they have also been experienced
+by Christian mystics. The experiences are real but they do not depend on
+the presence of any special deity, though they may be coloured by the
+theological views of individual thinkers[50]. The earliest Buddhist
+texts make right rapture (sammā samādhi) the end and crown of the
+eight-fold path but offer no explanation of it. They suggest that it is
+something wrought by the mind for itself and without the co-operation or
+infusion of any external influence.
+
+
+13.
+
+Indian ideas about the destiny of the soul are connected with equally
+important views about its nature. I will not presume to say what is the
+definition of the soul in European philosophy but in the language of
+popular religion it undoubtedly means that which remains when a body is
+arbitrarily abstracted from a human personality, without enquiring how
+much of that personality is thinkable without a material substratum.
+This popular soul includes mind, perception and desire and often no
+attempt is made to distinguish it from them. But in India it is so
+distinguished. The soul (ātman or purusha) _uses_ the mind and senses:
+they are its instruments rather than parts of it. Sight, for instance,
+serves as the spectacles of the soul, and the other senses and even the
+mind (manas) which is an intellectual _organ_ are also instruments. If
+we talk of a soul passing from death to another birth, this according to
+most Hindus is a soul accompanied by its baggage of mind and senses, a
+subtle body indeed, but still gaseous not spiritual. But what is the
+soul by itself? When an English poet sings of death that it is "Only the
+sleep eternal in an eternal night" or a Greek poet calls it [Greek:
+atermona nźgreton hupnon] we feel that they are denying immortality. But
+Indian divines maintain that deep sleep is one of the states in which
+the soul approaches nearest to God: that it is a state of bliss, and is
+unconscious not because consciousness is suspended but because no
+objects are presented to it. Even higher than dreamless sleep is another
+condition known simply as the fourth state[51], the others being waking,
+dream-sleep and dreamless sleep. In this fourth state thought is one
+with the object of thought and, knowledge being perfect, there exists no
+contrast between knowledge and ignorance. All this sounds strange to
+modern Europe. We are apt to say that dreamless sleep is simply
+unconsciousness[52] and that the so-called fourth state is imaginary or
+unmeaning. But to follow even popular speculation in India it is
+necessary to grasp this truth, or assumption, that when discursive
+thought ceases, when the mind and the senses are no longer active, the
+result is not unconsciousness equivalent to non-existence but the
+highest and purest state of the soul, in which, rising above thought and
+feeling, it enjoys the untrammelled bliss of its own nature[53].
+
+If these views sound mysterious and fanciful, I would ask those
+Europeans who believe in the immortality of the soul what, in their
+opinion, survives death. The brain, the nerves and the sense organs
+obviously decay: the soul, you may say, is not a product of them, but
+when they are destroyed or even injured, perceptive and intellectual
+processes are inhibited and apparently rendered impossible. Must not
+that which lives for ever be, as the Hindus think, independent of
+thought and of sense-impressions?
+
+I have observed in my reading that European philosophers are more ready
+to talk about soul and spirit than to define them[54] and the same is
+true of Indian philosophers. The word most commonly rendered by soul is
+_ātman_[55] but no one definition can be given for it, for some hold
+that the soul is identical with the Universal Spirit, others that it is
+merely of the same nature, still others that there are innumerable souls
+uncreate and eternal, while the Buddhists deny the existence of a soul
+_in toto_. But most Hindus who believe in the existence of an ātman or
+soul agree in thinking that it is the real self and essence of all human
+beings (or for that matter of other beings): that it is eternal _a parte
+ante_ and _a parte post_: that it is not subject to variation but passes
+unchanged from one birth to another: that youth and age, joy and sorrow,
+and all the accidents of human life are affections, not so much of the
+soul as of the envelopes and limitations which surround it during its
+pilgrimage: that the soul, if it can be released and disengaged from
+these envelopes, is in itself knowledge and bliss, knowledge meaning the
+immediate and intuitive knowledge of God. A proper comprehension of this
+point of view will make us chary of labelling Indian thought as
+pessimistic on the ground that it promises the soul something which we
+are inclined to call unconsciousness.
+
+In studying oriental religions sympathy and a desire to agree if
+possible are the first requisites. For instance, he who says of a
+certain ideal "this means annihilation and I do not like it" is on the
+wrong way. The right way is to ascertain what many of our most
+intelligent brothers mean by the cessation of mental activity and why it
+is for them an ideal.
+
+
+14. _Eastern Pessimism and Renunciation_
+
+But the charge of pessimism against Eastern religions is so important
+that we must consider other aspects of it, for though the charge is
+wrong, it is wrong only because those who bring it do not use quite the
+right word. And indeed it would be hard to find the right word in a
+European language. The temperament and theory described as pessimism are
+European. They imply an attitude of revolt, a right to judge and
+grumble. Why did the Deity make something out of nothing? What was his
+object? But this is not the attitude of Eastern thought: it generally
+holds that we cannot imagine nothing: that the world process is without
+beginning or end and that man must learn how to make the best of it.
+
+The Far East purged Buddhism of much of its pessimism. There we see that
+the First Truth about suffering is little more than an admission of the
+existence of evil, which all religions and common sense admit. Evil
+ceases in the saint: nirvana in this life is perfect happiness. And
+though striving for the material improvement of the world is not held up
+conspicuously as an ideal in the Buddhist scriptures (or for that matter
+in the New Testament), yet it is never hinted that good effort is vain.
+A king should be a good king.
+
+Renunciation is a great word in the religions of both Europe and Asia,
+but in Europe it is almost active. Except to advanced mystics, it means
+abandoning a natural attitude and deliberately assuming another which it
+is difficult to maintain. Something similar is found in India in the
+legends of those ascetics who triumphed over the flesh until they become
+very gods in power[56]. But it is also a common view in the East that he
+who renounces ambition and passion is not struggling against the world
+and the devil but simply leading a natural life. His passions indeed
+obey his will and do not wander here and there according to their fancy,
+but his temperament is one of acquiescence not resistance. He takes his
+place among the men, beasts and plants around him and ceasing to
+struggle finds that his own soul contains happiness in itself.
+
+Most Europeans consider man as the centre and lord of the world or, if
+they are very religious, as its vice-regent under God. He may kill or
+otherwise maltreat animals for his pleasure or convenience: his task is
+to subdue the forces of nature: nature is subservient to him and to his
+destinies: without man nature is meaningless. Much the same view was
+held by the ancient Greeks and in a less acute form by the Jews and
+Romans. Swinburne's line
+
+  Glory to man in the highest, for man is the master of things
+
+is overbold for professing Christians but it expresses both the modern
+scientific sentiment and the ancient Hellenic sentiment.
+
+But such a line of poetry would I think be impossible in India or in any
+country to the East of it. There man is thought of as a part of nature
+not its centre or master[57]. Above him are formidable hosts of deities
+and spirits, and even European engineers cannot subdue the genii of the
+flood and typhoon: below but still not separated from him are the
+various tribes of birds and beasts. A good man does not kill them for
+pleasure nor eat flesh, and even those whose aspirations to virtue are
+modest treat animals as humble brethren rather than as lower creatures
+over whom they have dominion by divine command.
+
+This attitude is illustrated by Chinese and Japanese art. In
+architecture, this art makes it a principle that palaces and temples
+should not dominate a landscape but fit into it and adapt their lines to
+its features. For the painter, flowers and animals form a sufficient
+picture by themselves and are not felt to be inadequate because man is
+absent. Portraits are frequent but a common form of European
+composition, namely a group of figures subordinated to a principal one,
+though not unknown, is comparatively rare.
+
+How scanty are the records of great men in India! Great buildings
+attract attention but who knows the names of the architects who planned
+them or the kings who paid for them? We are not quite sure of the date
+of Kālidāsa, the Indian Shakespeare, and though the doctrines of
+Sankara, Kabir, and Nānak still nourish, it is with difficulty that the
+antiquary collects from the meagre legends clinging to their names a few
+facts for their biographies. And Kings and Emperors, a class who in
+Europe can count on being remembered if not esteemed after death, fare
+even worse. The laborious research of Europeans has shown that Asoka and
+Harsha were great monarchs. Their own countrymen merely say "once upon a
+time there was a king" and recount some trivial story.
+
+In fact, Hindus have a very weak historical sense. In this they are not
+wholly wrong, for Europeans undoubtedly exaggerate the historical
+treatment of thought and art[58]. In science, most students want to know
+what is certain in theory and useful in practice, not what were the
+discarded hypotheses and imperfect instruments of the past. In
+literature, when the actors and audience are really interested, the date
+of Shakespeare and even the authorship of the play cease to be
+important[59]. In the same way Hindus want to know whether doctrines and
+speculations are true, whether a man can make use of them in his own
+religious experiences and aspirations. They care little for the date,
+authorship, unity and textual accuracy of the Bhagavad-gītā. They simply
+ask, is it true, what can I get from it? The European critic, who
+expects nothing of the sort from the work, racks his brains to know who
+wrote it and when, who touched it up and why?
+
+The Hindus are also indifferent to the past because they do not
+recognize that the history of the world, the whole cosmic process, has
+any meaning or value. In most departments of Indian thought, great or
+small, the conception of [Greek: telos] or purpose is absent, and if the
+European reader thinks this a grave lacuna, let him ask himself whether
+satisfied love has any [Greek: telos]. For Hindus the world is endless
+repetition not a progress towards an end. Creation has rarely the sense
+which it bears for Europeans. An infinite number of times the universe
+has collapsed in flaming or watery ruin, aeons of quiescence follow the
+collapse and then the Deity (he has done it an infinite number of times)
+emits again from himself worlds and souls of the same old kind. But
+though, as I have said before, all varieties of theological opinion may
+be found in India, he is usually represented as moved by some
+reproductive impulse rather than as executing a plan. Sankara says
+boldly that no motive can be attributed to God, because he being perfect
+can desire no addition to his perfection, so that his creative activity
+is mere exuberance, like the sport of young princes, who take exercise
+though they are not obliged to do so.
+
+Such views are distasteful to Europeans. Our vanity impels us to invent
+explanations of the Universe which make our own existence important and
+significant. Nor does European science altogether support the Indian
+doctrine of periodicity. It has theories as to the probable origin of
+the solar system and other similar systems, but it points to the
+conclusion that the Universe as a whole is not appreciably affected by
+the growth or decay of its parts, whereas Indian imagination thinks of
+universal cataclysms and recurring periods of quiescence in which
+nothing whatever remains except the undifferentiated divine spirit.
+
+Western ethics generally aim at teaching a man how to act: Eastern
+ethics at forming a character. A good character will no doubt act
+rightly when circumstances require action, but he need not seek
+occasions for action, he may even avoid them, and in India the
+passionless sage is still in popular esteem superior to warriors,
+statesmen and scientists.
+
+
+15. _Eastern Polytheism_
+
+Different as India and China are, they agree in this that in order not
+to misapprehend their religious condition we must make our minds
+familiar with a new set of relations. The relations of religion to
+philosophy, to ethics, and to the state, as well as the relations of
+different religions to one another, are not the same as in Europe. China
+and India are pagan, a word which I deprecate if it is understood to
+imply inferiority but which if used in a descriptive and respectful
+sense is very useful. Christianity and Islam are organized religions.
+They say (or rather their several sects say) that they each not only
+possess the truth but that all other creeds and rites are wrong. But
+paganism is not organized: it rarely presents anything like a church
+united under one head: still more rarely does it condemn or interfere
+with other religions unless attacked first. Buddhism stands between the
+two classes. Like Christianity and Islam it professes to teach the only
+true law, but unlike them it is exceedingly tolerant and many Buddhists
+also worship Hindu or Chinese gods.
+
+Popular religion in India and China is certainly polytheistic, yet if
+one uses this word in contrast to the monotheism of Islam and of
+Protestantism the antithesis is unjust, for the polytheist does not
+believe in many creators and rulers of the world, in many Allahs or
+Jehovahs, but he considers that there are many spiritual beings, with
+different spheres and powers, to the most appropriate of whom he
+addresses his petitions. Polytheism and image-worship lie under an
+unmerited stigma in Europe. We generally assume that to believe in one
+God is obviously better, intellectually and ethically, than to believe
+in many. Yet Trinitarian religions escape being polytheistic only by
+juggling with words, and if Hindus and Chinese are polytheists so are
+the Roman and Oriental Churches, for there is no real distinction
+between praying to the Madonna, Saints and Angels, and propitiating
+minor deities. William James[60] has pointed out that polytheism is not
+theoretically absurd and is practically the religion of many Europeans.
+In some ways it is more intelligible and reasonable than monotheism. For
+if there is only one personal God, I do not understand how anything that
+can be called a person can be so expanded as to be capable of hearing
+and answering the prayers of the whole world. Anything susceptible of
+such extension must be more than a person. Is it not at least equally
+reasonable to assume that there are many spirits, or many shapes taken
+by the superpersonal world spirit, with which the soul can get into
+touch?
+
+The worship of images cannot be recommended without qualification, for
+it seems to require artists capable of making a worthy representation of
+the divine. And it must be confessed that many figures in Indian
+temples, such as the statues of Kālī, seem repulsive or grotesque,
+though a Hindu might say that none of them are so strange in idea or so
+horrible in appearance as the crucifix. But the claim of the iconoclast
+from the times of the Old Testament onwards that he worships a spirit
+whereas others worship wood and stone is true only of the lowest phases
+of religion, if even there. Hindu theologians distinguish different
+kinds of _avatāras_ or ways in which God descends into the world: among
+them are incarnations like Krishna, the presence of God in the human
+heart and his presence in a symbol or image (_arcā_). It may be
+difficult to decide how far the symbol and the spirit are kept separate
+either in the East or in Europe, but no one can attend a great
+car-festival in southern India or the feast of Durgā in Bengal without
+feeling and in some measure sharing the ecstasy and enthusiasm of the
+crowd. It is an enthusiasm such as may be evoked in critical times by a
+king or a flag, and as the flag may do duty for the king and all that he
+stands for, so may the image do duty for the deity.
+
+
+16. _The Extravagance of Hinduism_
+
+What I have just said applies to India rather than to China and so do
+the observations which follow. India is the most religious country in
+the world. The percentage of people who literally make religion their
+chief business, who sacrifice to it money and life itself (for religious
+suicide is not extinct), is far greater than elsewhere. Russia[61]
+probably comes next but the other nations fall behind by a long
+interval. Matter of fact respectable people--Chinese as well as
+Europeans--call this attitude extravagance and it sometimes deserves the
+name, for since there is no one creed or criterion in India, all sorts
+of aboriginal or decadent superstitions command the respect due to the
+name of religion.
+
+This extravagance is both intellectual and moral. No story is too
+extraordinary to be told of Hindu gods. They are the magicians of the
+universe who sport with the forces of nature as easily as a conjuror in
+a bazaar does tricks with a handful of balls. But though the average
+Hindu would be shocked to hear the Puranas described as idle tales, yet
+he does not make his creed depend on their accuracy, as many in Europe
+make Christianity depend on miracles. The value of truth in religion is
+rated higher in India than in Europe but it is not historical truth. The
+Hindu approaches his sacred literature somewhat in the spirit in which
+we approach Milton and Dante. The beauty and value of such poems is
+clear. The question whether they are accurate reports of facts seems
+irrelevant. Hindus believe in progressive revelation. Many Tantras and
+Vishnuite works profess to be better suited to the present age than the
+Vedas, and innumerable treatises in the vernacular are commonly accepted
+as scripture.
+
+Scriptures in India[62] are thought of as words not writings. It is the
+sacred sound not a sacred book which is venerated. They are learnt by
+oral transmission and it is rare to see a book used in religious
+services. Diagrams accompanied by letters and a few words are credited
+with magical powers, but still tantric spells are things to be recited
+rather than written. This view of scripture makes the hearer uncritical.
+The ordinary layman hears parts of a sacred book recited and probably
+admires what he understands, but he has no means of judging of a book as
+a whole, especially of its coherency and consistency.
+
+The moral extravagance of Hinduism is more serious. It is kept in check
+by the general conviction that asceticism, or at least temperance,
+charity and self-effacement are the indispensable outward signs of
+religion, but still among the great religions of the world there is none
+which countenances so many hysterical, immoral and cruel rites. A
+literary example will illustrate the position. It is taken from the
+drama Mādhava and Mālatī written about 730 A.D., but the incidents of
+the plot might happen in any native state to-day, if European
+supervision were removed. In it Mādhava, a young Brahman, surprises a
+priest of the goddess Chāmundā who is about to immolate Mālatī. He kills
+the priest and apparently the other characters consider his conduct
+natural and not sacrilegious. But it is not suggested that either the
+police or any ecclesiastical authority ought to prevent human
+sacrifices, and the reason why Mādhava was able to save his beloved from
+death was that he had gone to the uncanny spot where such rites were
+performed to make an offering of human flesh to demons.
+
+In Buddhism religion and the moral law are identified, but not in
+Hinduism. Brahmanical literature contains beautiful moral sayings,
+especially about unselfishness and self-restraint, but the greatest
+popular gods such as Vishnu and Siva are not identified with the moral
+law. They are super-moral and the God of philosophy, who _is_ all
+things, is also above good and evil. The aim of the philosophic saint is
+not so much to choose the good and eschew evil as to draw nearer to God
+by rising above both.
+
+Indian literature as a whole has a strong ethical and didactic flavour,
+yet the great philosophic and religious systems concern themselves
+little with ethics. They discuss the nature of the external world and
+other metaphysical questions which seem to us hardly religious: they
+clearly feel a peculiar interest in defining the relation of the soul to
+God, but they rarely ask why should I be good or what is the sanction of
+morality. They are concerned less with sin than with ignorance: virtue
+is indispensable, but without knowledge it is useless.
+
+
+17. _The Hindu and Buddhist Scriptures_
+
+The history and criticism of Hindu and Buddhist scriptures naturally
+occupy some space in this work, but two general remarks may be made
+here. First, the oldest scriptures are almost without exception
+compilations, that is collections of utterances handed down by tradition
+and arranged by later generations in some form which gives them apparent
+unity. Thus the Rig Veda is obviously an anthology of hymns and some
+three thousand years later the Granth or sacred book of the Sikhs was
+compiled on the same principle. It consists of poems by Nanak, Kabir and
+many other writers but is treated with extraordinary respect as a
+continuous and consistent revelation. The Brahmanas and Upanishads are
+not such obvious compilations yet on careful inspection the older[63]
+ones will be found to be nothing else. Thus the Brihad Aranyaka
+Upanishad, though possessing considerable coherency, is not only a
+collection of such philosophic views as commended themselves to the
+doctors of the Taittiriya school, but is formed by the union of three
+such collections. Each of the first two collections ends with a list of
+the teachers who handed it down and the third is openly called a
+supplement. One long passage, the dialogue between Yājnavalkya and his
+wife, is incorporated in both the first and the second collection. Thus
+our text represents the period when the Taittirīyas brought their
+philosophic thoughts together in a complete form, but that period was
+preceded by another in which slightly different schools each had their
+own collection and for some time before this the various maxims and
+dialogues must have been current separately. Since the conversation
+between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi occurs in almost the same form in two
+collections, it probably once existed as an independent piece.
+
+In Buddhist literature the composite and tertiary character of the Sutta
+Pitaka is equally plain. The various Nikayas are confessedly collections
+of discourses. The two older ones seem dominated by the desire to bring
+before the reader the image of the Buddha preaching: the Samyutta and
+Anguttara emphasize the doctrine rather than the teacher and arrange
+much the same matter under new headings. But it is clear that in
+whatever form the various sermons, dialogues and dissertations appear,
+that form is not primary but presupposes compilers dealing with an oral
+tradition already stereotyped in language. For long passages such as the
+tract on morality and the description of progress in the religious life
+occur in several discourses and the amount of matter common to different
+Suttas and Nikayas is surprising. Thus nearly the whole of the long
+Sutta describing the Buddha's last days and death[64], which at first
+sight seems to be a connected narrative somewhat different from other
+Suttas, is found scattered in other parts of the Canon.
+
+Thus our oldest texts whether Brahmanic or Buddhist are editions and
+codifications, perhaps amplifications, of a considerably older oral
+teaching. They cannot be treated as personal documents similar to the
+Koran or the Epistles of Paul.
+
+The works of middle antiquity such as the Epics, Puranas, and Mahayanist
+sutras were also not produced by one author. Many of them exist in more
+than one recension and they usually consist of a nucleus enveloped and
+sometimes itself affected by additions which may exceed the original
+matter in bulk. The Mahābhārata and Prajńāpāramitā are not books in the
+European sense: we cannot give a date or a table of contents for the
+first edition[65]: they each represent a body of literature whose
+composition extended over a long period. As time goes on, history
+naturally grows clearer and literary personalities become more distinct,
+yet the later Puranas are not attributed to human authors and were
+susceptible of interpolation even in recent times. Thus the story of
+Genesis has been incorporated in the Bhavishya Purana, apparently after
+Protestant missionaries had begun to preach in India.
+
+The other point to which I would draw attention is the importance of
+relatively modern works, which supersede the older scriptures,
+especially in Hinduism. This phenomenon is common in many countries, for
+only a few books such as the Bhagavad-gītā, the Gospels and the sayings
+of Confucius have a portion of the eternal and universal sufficient to
+outlast the wear and tear of a thousand years. Vedic literature is far
+from being discredited in India, though some Tantras say openly that it
+is useless. It still has a place in ritual and is appealed to by
+reforming sects. But to see Hinduism in proper perspective we must
+remember that from the time of the Buddha till now, the composition of
+religious literature in India has been almost uninterrupted and that
+almost every century has produced works accepted by some sect as
+infallible scripture. For most Vishnuites the Bhagavad-gītā is the
+beginning of sacred literature and the Nārāyanīya[66] is also held in
+high esteem: the philosophy of each sect is usually determined by a
+commentary on the Brahma Sutras: the Bhagavata Purana (perhaps in a
+vernacular paraphrase) and the Ramayana of Tulsi Das are probably the
+favourite reading of the laity and for devotional purposes may be
+supplemented by a collection of hymns such as the Namghosha, copies of
+which actually receive homage in Assam. The average man--even the average
+priest--regards all these as sacred works without troubling himself with
+distinctions as to _sruti_ and _smriti_, and the Vedas and Upanishads
+are hardly within his horizon.
+
+In respect of sacred literature Buddhism is more conservative than
+Hinduism, or to put it another way, has been less productive in the last
+fifteen hundred years. The Hinayanists are like those Protestant sects
+which still profess not to go beyond the Bible. The monks read the
+Abhidhamma and the laity the Suttas, though perhaps both are disposed to
+use extracts and compendiums rather than the full ancient texts. Among
+the Mahayanists the ancient Vinaya and Nikayas exist only as literary
+curiosities. The former is superseded by modern manuals, the latter by
+Mahayanist Sutras such as the Lotus and the Happy Land, which are
+however of respectable antiquity. As in India, each sect selects rather
+arbitrarily a few books for its own use, without condemning others but
+also without according to them the formal recognition received by the
+Old and New Testaments among Christians.
+
+No Asiatic country possesses so large a portion of the critical spirit
+as China. The educated Chinese, however much they may venerate their
+classics, think of them as we think of the masterpieces of Greek
+literature, aS texts which may contain wrong readings, interpolations
+and lacunae, which owe whatever authority they possess to the labours of
+the scholars who collected, arranged and corrected them. This attitude
+is to some extent the result of the attempt made by the First Emperor
+about 200 B.C. to destroy the classical literature and to its subsequent
+laborious restoration. At a time when the Indians regarded the Veda as a
+verbal revelation, certain and divine in every syllable, the Chinese
+were painfully recovering and re-piecing their ancient chronicles and
+poems from imperfect manuscripts and fallible memories. The process
+obliged them to enquire at every step whether the texts which they
+examined were genuine and complete: to admit that they might be
+defective or paraphrases of a difficult original. Hence the Chinese have
+sound principles of criticism unknown to the Hindus and in discussing
+the date of an ancient work or the probability of an alleged historical
+event they generally use arguments which a European scholar can accept.
+
+Chinese literature has a strong ethical and political flavour which
+tempered the extravagance of imported Indian ideas. Most Chinese systems
+assert more or less plainly that right conduct is conduct in harmony
+with the laws of the State and the Universe.
+
+
+18. _Morality and Will_
+
+It is dangerous to make sweeping statements about the huge mass of
+Indian literature, but I think that most Buddhist and Brahmanic systems
+assume that morality is merely a means of obtaining happiness[67] and is
+not obedience to a categorical imperative or to the will of God.
+Morality is by inference raised to the status of a cosmic law, because
+evil deeds will infallibly bring evil consequences to the doer in this
+life or in another. But it is not commonly spoken of as such a law. The
+usual point of view is that man desires happiness and for this morality
+is a necessary though insufficient preparation. But there may be higher
+states which cannot be expressed in terms of happiness.
+
+The will receives more attention in European philosophy than in Indian,
+whether Buddhist or Brahmanic, which both regard it not as a separate
+kind of activity but as a form of thought. As such it is not neglected
+in Buddhist psychology: will, desire and struggle are recognized as good
+provided their object is good, a point overlooked by those who accuse
+Buddhism of preaching inaction[68].
+
+Schopenhauer's doctrine that will is the essential fact in the universe
+and in life may appear to have analogies to Indian thought: it would be
+easy for instance to quote passages from the Pitakas showing that
+_tanhā_, thirst, craving or desire, is the force which makes and remakes
+the world. But such statements must be taken as generalizations
+respecting the world as it is rather than as implying theories of its
+origin, for though _tanhā_ is a link in the chain of causation, it is
+not regarded as an ultimate principle more than any other link but is
+made to depend on feeling. The Māyā of the Vedanta is not so much the
+affirmation of the will to live as the illusion that we have a real
+existence apart from Brahman, and the same may be said of Ahamkāra in
+the Sānkhya philosophy. It is the principle of egoism and individuality,
+but its essence is not so much self-assertion as the _mistaken_ idea
+that this is _mine_, that _I_ am happy or unhappy.
+
+There is a question much debated in European philosophy but little
+argued in India, namely the freedom of the will. The active European
+feeling the obligation and the difficulties of morality is perplexed by
+the doubt whether he really has the power to act as he wishes. This
+problem has not much troubled the Hindus and rightly, as I think. For if
+the human will is not free, what does freedom mean? What example of
+freedom can be quoted with which to contrast the supposed non-freedom of
+the will? If in fact it is from the will that our notion of freedom is
+derived, is it not unreasonable to say that the will is not free?
+Absolute freedom in the sense of something regulated by no laws is
+unthinkable. When a thing is conditioned by external causes it is
+dependent. When it is conditioned by internal causes which are part of
+its own nature, it is free. No other freedom is known. An Indian would
+say that a man's nature is limited by Karma. Some minds are incapable of
+the higher forms of virtue and wisdom, just as some bodies are incapable
+of athletic feats. But within the limits of his own nature a human being
+is free. Indian theology is not much hampered by the mad doctrine that
+God has predestined some souls to damnation, nor by the idea of Fate,
+except in so far as Karma is Fate. It is Fate in the sense that Karma
+inherited from a previous birth is a store of rewards and punishments
+which must be enjoyed or endured, but it differs from Fate because we
+are all the time making our own karma and determining the character of
+our next birth.
+
+The older Upanishads hint at a doctrine analogous to that of Kant,
+namely that man is bound and conditioned in so far as he is a part of
+the world of phenomena but free in so far as the self within him is
+identical with the divine self which is the creator of all bonds and
+conditions. Thus the Kaushītaki Upanishad says, "He it is who causes the
+man whom he will lead upwards from these worlds to do good works and He
+it is who causes the man whom he will lead downwards to do evil works.
+He is the guardian of the world, He is the ruler of the world, He is the
+Lord of the world and He is myself." Here the last words destroy the
+apparent determinism of the first part of the sentence. And similarly
+the Chāndogya Upanishad says, "They who depart hence without having
+known the Self and those true desires, for them there is no freedom in
+all worlds. But they who depart hence after knowing the Self and those
+true desires, for them there is freedom in all worlds[70]."
+
+Early Buddhist literature asserts uncompromisingly that every state of
+consciousness has a cause and in one of his earliest discourses the
+Buddha argues that the Skandhas, including mental states, cannot be the
+Self because we have not free will to make them exactly what we
+choose[71]. But throughout his ethical teaching it is I think assumed
+that, subject to the law of karma, conscious action is equivalent to
+spontaneous action. Good mental states can be made to grow and bad
+mental states to decrease until the stage is reached when the saint
+knows that he is free. It may perhaps be thought that the early
+Buddhists did not realize the consequences of applying their doctrine of
+causation to psychology and hence never faced the possibility of
+determinism. But determinism, fatalism, and the uselessness of effort
+formed part of the paradoxical teaching of Makkhali Gosala reported in
+the Pitakas and therefore well known. If neither the Jains nor the
+Buddhists allowed themselves to be embarrassed by such denials of free
+will, the inference is that in some matters at least the Hindus had
+strong common sense and declined to accept any view which takes away
+from man the responsibility and lordship of his own soul.
+
+
+19. _The Origin of Evil_
+
+The reader will have gathered from what precedes that Hinduism has
+little room for the Devil[72]. Buddhism being essentially an ethical
+system recognizes the importance of the Tempter or Māra, but still Māra
+is not an evil spirit who has spoilt a good world. In Hinduism, whether
+pantheistic or polytheistic, there is even less disposition to personify
+evil in one figure, and most Indian religious systems are disposed to
+think of the imperfections of the world as suffering rather than as sin.
+
+Yet the existence of evil is the chief reason for the existence of
+religion, at least of such religions as promise salvation, and the
+explanation of evil is the chief problem of all religions and
+philosophies, and the problem which they all alike are conspicuously
+unsuccessful in solving. I can assign no reason for rejecting as
+untenable the idea that the ultimate reality may be a duality--a good and
+an evil spirit--or even a plurality[73], but still it is unthinkable for
+me and I believe for most minds. If there are two ultimate beings,
+either they must be complementary and necessary one to the other, in
+which case it seems to me more correct to describe them as two aspects
+of one being, or if they are quite separate, my mind postulates (but I
+do not know why) a third being who is the cause of them both.
+
+The problem of evil is not quite the same for Indian and European
+pantheists. The European pantheist holds that since God is all things or
+in all things, evil is only something viewed out of due perspective:
+that the world would be seen to be perfect, if it could be seen as a
+whole, or that evil will be eliminated in the course of development. But
+he cannot explain why the partial view of the world which human beings
+are obliged to take shows the existence of obvious evil. The Hindus
+think that it is possible and better for the soul to leave the vain show
+of the world and find peace in union with God. They are therefore not
+concerned to prove that the world is good, although they cannot explain
+why God allows it to exist. The Upanishads contain some myths and
+parables about the introduction of evil but they do not say that a
+naturally good world was spoilt[74]. They rather imply that increasing
+complexity involves the increase of evil as well as of good. This is
+also the ground thought of the Aggańńa Sutta, the Buddhist Genesis (Dig.
+Nik. XXVII.).
+
+I think that the substance of much Indian pantheism--late Buddhist as
+well as Brahmanic--is that the world, the soul and God (the three terms
+being practically the same) have two modes of existence: one of repose
+and bliss, the other of struggle and trouble. Of these the first mode is
+the better and it is only by mistake[75] that the eternal spirit adopts
+the latter. But both the mistake and the correction of it are being
+eternally repeated. Such a formulation of the Advaita philosophy would
+no doubt be regarded in India as wholly unorthodox. Yet orthodoxy admits
+that the existence of the world is due to the coexistence of Māyā
+(illusion) with Brahman (spirit) and also states that the task of the
+soul is to pass beyond Māyā to Brahman. If this is so, there is either a
+real duality (Brahman and Māyā) or else Māyā is an aspect of Brahman,
+but an aspect which the soul should transcend and avoid, and for whose
+existence no reason whatever is given. The more theistic forms of Indian
+religion, whether Sivaite or Vishnuite, tend to regard individual souls
+and matter as eternal. By the help of God souls can obtain release from
+matter. But here again there is no explanation why the soul is
+contaminated by matter or ignorance.
+
+It is clearly illogical to condemn the Infinite as bad or a mistake.
+Buddhism is perhaps sometimes open to this charge because on account of
+its exceedingly cautious language about nirvana it fails to set it up as
+a reality contrasted with the world of suffering. But many varieties of
+Indian religion do emphatically point to the infinite reality behind and
+beyond Māyā. It is only Māyā which is unsatisfactory because it is
+partial.
+
+Another attempt to make the Universe intelligible regards it as an
+eternal rhythm playing and pulsing outwards from spirit to matter
+(pravritti) and then backwards and inwards from matter to spirit
+(nirvritti). This idea seems implied by Sankara's view that creation is
+similar to the sportive impulses of exuberant youth and the
+Bhagavad-gītā is familiar with _pravritti_ and _nirvritti_, but the
+double character of the rhythm is emphasized most clearly in Sākta
+treatises. Ordinary Hinduism concentrates its attention on the process
+of liberation and return to Brahman, but the Tantras recognize and
+consecrate both movements, the outward throbbing stream of energy and
+enjoyment (bhukti) and the calm returning flow of liberation and peace.
+Both are happiness, but the wise understand that the active outward
+movement is right and happy only up to a certain point and under certain
+restrictions.
+
+That great poet Tulsi Das hints at an explanation of the creation or of
+God's expansion of himself which will perhaps commend itself to
+Europeans more than most Indian ideas, namely that the bliss enjoyed by
+God and the souls whom he loves is greater than the bliss of solitary
+divinity[76].
+
+
+20. _Church and State_
+
+I will now turn to another point, namely the relations of Church and
+State. These are simplest in Buddhism, which teaches that the truth is
+one, that all men ought to follow it and that all good kings should
+honour and encourage it. This is also the Christian position but
+Buddhism has almost always been tolerant and has hardly ever
+countenanced the doctrine that error should be suppressed by force[77].
+Buddhism does not claim to cover the whole field of religion as
+understood in Europe: if people like to propitiate spirits in the hope
+of obtaining wealth and crops, it permits them to do so. In Japan and
+Tibet Buddhism has played a more secular role than in other countries,
+analogous to the struggles of the mediaeval European church for temporal
+authority. In Japan the great monasteries very nearly became the chief
+military as well as the chief political power and this danger was
+averted only by the destruction of Hieizan and other large
+establishments in the sixteenth century. What was prevented in Japan did
+actually happen in Tibet, for the monasteries became stronger than any
+of the competing secular factions and the principal sect set up an
+ecclesiastical government singularly like the Papacy. In southern
+countries, such as Burma and Ceylon, Buddhism made no attempt to
+interfere in politics. This aloofness is particularly remarkable in Siam
+and Camboja, where state festivals are usually conducted by Brahmans not
+by Buddhist ecclesiastics. In Siam, as formerly in Burma, the king being
+a Buddhist is in some ways the head of the Church. He may reform lax
+discipline or incorrect observances, but apparently not of his own
+authority but merely as an executive power enforcing the opinion of the
+higher clergy.
+
+Buddhism and Hinduism both have the idea that the monk or priest is a
+person who in virtue of ordination or birth lives on a higher level than
+others. He may teach and do good but irrespective of that it is the duty
+of the laity to support the priesthood. This doctrine is preached by
+Hinduism in a stronger form than by Buddhism. The intellectual
+superiority of the Brahmans as a caste was sufficiently real to ensure
+its acceptance and in politics they had the good sense to rule by
+serving, to be ministers and not kings. In theory and to a considerable
+extent in practice, the Brahmans and their gods are not an _imperium in
+imperio_ but an _imperium super imperium_. The position was possible
+only because, unlike the Papacy and unlike the Lamas of Tibet, they had
+no Pope and no hierarchy. They produced no ą'Beckets or Hildebrands and
+no Inquisition. They did not quarrel with science but monopolized it.
+
+In India kings are expected to maintain the priesthood and the temples
+yet Hinduism rarely assumes the form of a state religion[78] nor does it
+admit, as state religions generally have to admit, that the secular arm
+has a co-ordinate jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters. Yet it affects
+every department of social life and a Hindu who breaks with it loses his
+social status. Hindu deities are rarely tribal gods like Athene of
+Athens or the gods of Mr Kipling and the German Emperor. There are
+thousands of shrines specially favoured by a divine presence but the
+worshippers think of that presence not as the protector of a race or
+city but as a special manifestation of a universal though often
+invisible power. The conquests of Mohammedans and Christians are not
+interpreted as meaning that the gods of Hinduism have succumbed to alien
+deities.
+
+The views prevalent in China and Japan as to the relations of Church and
+State are almost the antipodes of those described. In those countries it
+is the hardly dissembled theory of the official world that religion is a
+department of government and that there should be regulations for gods
+and worship, just as there are for ministers and etiquette. If we say
+that religion is identified with the government in Tibet and forms an
+_imperium super imperium_ in India, we may compare its position in the
+Far East to native states under British rule. There is no interference
+with creeds provided they respect ethical and social conventions:
+interesting doctrines and rites are appreciated: the Government accepts
+and rewards the loyal co-operation of the Buddhist and Taoist
+priesthoods but maintains the right to restrict their activity should it
+take a wrong political turn or should an excessive increase in the
+number of monks seem a public danger. The Chinese Imperial Government
+successfully claimed the strangest powers of ecclesiastical discipline,
+since it promoted and degraded not only priests but deities. In both
+China and Japan there has often been a strong current of feeling in the
+official classes against Buddhism but on the other hand it often had the
+support of both emperors and people, and princes not infrequently joined
+the clergy, especially when it was desirable for them to live in
+retirement. Confucianism and Shintoism, which are ethical and ceremonial
+rather than doctrinal, have been in the past to some extent a law to the
+governments of China and Japan, or more accurately an aspect of those
+governments. But for many centuries Far Eastern statesmen have rarely
+regarded Buddhism and Taoism as more than interesting and legitimate
+activities, to be encouraged and regulated like educational and
+scientific institutions.
+
+
+21. _Public Worship and Ceremonial_
+
+In no point does Hinduism differ from western religions more than in its
+public worship and, in spite of much that is striking and interesting,
+the comparison is not to the advantage of India. It is true that temple
+worship is not so important for the Hindus as Church services are for
+the Christian. They set more store on home ceremonies and on
+contemplation. Still the temples of India are so numerous, so
+conspicuous and so crowded that the religion which maintains them must
+to some extent be judged by them.
+
+At any rate they avoid the faults of public worship in the west. The
+practice of arranging the congregation in seats for which they pay seems
+to me more irreligious than the slovenliness of the heathen and makes
+the whole performance resemble a very dull concert.
+
+Protestant services are in the main modelled on the ritual of the
+synagogue. They are meetings of the laity at which the scriptures are
+read, prayers offered, sermons preached and benedictions pronounced. The
+clergy play a principal but not exclusive part. The rites of the Roman
+and Eastern Churches have borrowed much from pagan ceremonial but still
+they have not wholly departed from the traditions of the synagogue.
+These have also served as a model for Mohammedan ritual which differs
+from the Jewish in little but its almost military regularity.
+
+But with all this the ordinary ritual of Hindu temples[79] has nothing
+in common. It derives from another origin and follows other lines. The
+temple is regarded as the court of a prince and the daily ceremonies are
+the attendance of his courtiers on him. He must be awakened, fed, amused
+and finally put to bed. This conception of ritual prevailed in Egypt but
+in India there is no trace of it in Vedic literature and perhaps it did
+not come into fashion until Gupta times. Although the laity may be
+present and salute the god, such worship cannot be called
+congregational. Yet in other ways a Hindu temple may provide as much
+popular worship as a Nonconformist chapel. In the corridors will
+generally be found readers surrounded by an attentive crowd to whom they
+recite and expound the Mahabharata or some other sacred text. At
+festivals and times of pilgrimage the precincts are thronged by a crowd
+of worshippers the like of which is hardly to be seen in Europe,
+worshippers not only devout but fired with an enthusiasm which bursts
+into a mighty chorus of welcome when the image of the god is brought
+forth from the inner shrine.
+
+The earlier forms of Buddhist ceremonial are of the synagogue type
+(though in no way derived from Jewish sources) for, though there is no
+prayer, they consist chiefly of confession, preaching and reading the
+scriptures. But this puritanic severity could not be popular and the
+veneration of images and relics was soon added to the ritual. The former
+was adopted by Buddhism earlier than by the Brahmans. The latter, though
+a conspicuous feature of Buddhism in all lands, is almost unknown to
+Hinduism. In their later developments Buddhist and Christian ceremonies
+show an extraordinary resemblance due in my opinion chiefly to
+convergence, though I do not entirely exclude mutual influence. Both
+Buddhism and Roman Catholicism accepted pagan ritual with some
+reservations and refinements. The worship has for its object an image or
+a shrine containing a relic which is placed in a conspicuous position at
+the end of the hall of worship[80]. Animal sacrifices are rejected but
+offerings of flowers, lights and incense are permitted, as well as the
+singing of hymns. It is not altogether strange if Buddhist and Catholic
+rituals starting from the same elements ended by producing similar
+scenic effects.
+
+Yet though the scenic effect may be similar, there is often a difference
+in the nature of the rite. Direct invocations are not wanting in Tibetan
+and Far Eastern Buddhism but many services consist not of prayers but of
+the recitation of scripture by which merit is acquired. This merit is
+then formally transferred by the officiants to some special object, such
+as the peace of the dead or the prosperity of a living suppliant.
+
+The later phases of both Hinduism and Buddhism are permeated by what is
+called Tantrism[81], that is to say the endeavour to attain spiritual
+ends by ritual acts such as gestures and the repetition of formulae.
+These expedients are dangerous and may become puerile, but those who
+ridicule them often forget that they may be termed sacramental with as
+much propriety as magical and are in fact based on the same theory as
+the sacraments of the Catholic Church. When a child is made eligible for
+salvation by sprinkling with water, by the sign of the cross and by the
+mantra "In the Name of the Father," etc., or when the divine spirit is
+localized in bread and wine and worshipped, these rites are closely
+analogous to tantric ceremonial.
+
+The Buddhist temples of the Far East are in original intention copies of
+Indian edifices and in the larger establishments there is a daily
+routine of services performed by resident monks. But the management of
+religious foundations in these countries has been much influenced by old
+pagan usages as to temples and worship which show an interesting
+resemblance to the customs of classical antiquity but have little in
+common with Buddhist or Christian ideas. A Chinese municipal temple is a
+public building dedicated to a spirit or departed worthy. If sacrifices
+are offered in it, they are not likely to take place more than three or
+four times a year. Private persons may go there to obtain luck by
+burning a little incense or still more frequently to divine the future:
+public meetings and theatrical performances may be held there, but
+anything like a congregational service is rare. Just so in ancient Rome
+a temple might be used for a meeting of the Senate or for funeral games.
+
+
+22. _The Worship of the Reproductive Forces_
+
+One aspect of Indian religions is so singular that it demands notice,
+although it is difficult to discuss. I mean the worship of the
+generative forces. The cult of a god, or more often of a goddess, who
+personifies the reproductive and also the destructive powers of nature
+(for it is not only in India that the two activities are seen to be
+akin) existed in many countries. It was prominent in Babylonia and Asia
+Minor, less prominent but still distinctly present in Egypt and in many
+cases was accompanied by hysterical and immoral rites, by mutilations of
+the body and offerings of blood. But in most countries such deities and
+rites are a matter of ancient history: they decayed as civilization
+grew: in China and Japan, as formerly in Greece and Rome, they are not
+an important constituent of religion. It is only in India and to some
+extent in Tibet, which has been influenced by India, that they have
+remained unabashed until modern times.
+
+If it is right to regard with veneration the great forces of nature,
+fire, sun and water, a similar feeling towards the reproductive force
+cannot be unphilosophic or immoral. Nor does the idea that the supreme
+deity is a mother rather than a father, though startling, contain
+anything unseemly. Yet it is an undoubted fact that all the great
+religions except Hinduism, though they may admit a Goddess of
+Mercy--Kuan-yin or the Madonna--agree in rejecting essentially sexual
+deities. Modern Europe is probably prudish to excess, but the general
+practice of mankind testifies that words and acts too nearly connected
+with sexual things cannot be safely permitted in the temple. This remark
+would indeed be superfluous were it not that many millions of our Hindu
+fellow-citizens are of a contrary opinion.
+
+Such practices prevail chiefly among the Sāktas in Bengal and Assam but
+similar licence is permitted (though the theoretical justification and
+theological setting are different) in some Vishnuite sects. Both are
+reprobated by the majority of respectable Hindus, but both find educated
+and able apologists. And though it may be admitted that worship of the
+linga may exist without bad effects, moral or intellectual, yet I think
+that these effects make themselves felt so soon as a sect becomes
+distinctly erotic. Anyone who visits two such different localities as
+Kamakhya in Assam and Gokul near Muttra must be struck with the total
+absence in the shrines of anything that can be called beautiful, solemn
+or even terrible. The general impression is of something diseased,
+unclean and undignified. The figure of the Great Goddess of life and
+death might have fired[82] the invention of artists but as a matter of
+fact her worship has paralyzed their hands and brains.
+
+Nor can I give much praise to the Tantras as literature[83]. It is true
+that, as some authors point out, they contain fine sayings about God and
+the soul. But in India such things form part of the common literary
+stock and do not entitle the author to the praise which he would win
+elsewhere, unless his language or thoughts show originality. Such
+originality I have not found in those Tantras which are accessible. The
+magical and erotic parts may have the melancholy distinction of being
+unlike other works but the philosophical and theological sections could
+have been produced by any Hindu who had studied these branches of Indian
+literature.
+
+
+23. _Hinduism in Practice_
+
+After reviewing the characteristics of a religion it is natural to ask
+what is its effect on those who profess it. Buddhism, Christianity and
+Islam offer materials for answering such a question, since they are not
+racial religions. In historical times they have been accepted by peoples
+who did not profess them previously and we can estimate the consequences
+of such changes. But Hinduism has racial or geographical limits. It
+proselytizes, but hardly outside the Indian area: it is difficult to
+distinguish it from Indian custom, as the gospel is distinguished from
+the practice of Europe: it is superfluous to enquire what would be its
+effect on other countries, since it shows no desire to impose itself on
+them and they none to accept it. It is, like Shinto in Japan, not a
+religion which has moulded the national character but the national
+character finding expression in religion. Shinto and Hinduism are also
+alike in perpetuating ancient beliefs and practices which seem
+anachronisms but otherwise they are very different, for many races and
+languages have contributed their thoughts and hopes to the ocean of
+Hinduism and they all had an interest in speculation and mysticism
+unknown to the Japanese.
+
+The fact that Hinduism is something larger and more comprehensive than
+what we call a religion is one reason why it contains much of dubious
+moral value. It is analogous not to Christianity but to European
+civilization which produces side by side philanthropy and the horrors of
+war, or to science which has given us the blessings of surgery and the
+curse of explosives. There is a deep-rooted idea in India that a man's
+daily life must be accompanied by religious observances and regulated by
+a religious code, by no means of universal application but still
+suitable to his particular class. An immoral occupation need not be
+irreligious: it simply requires gods of a special character. Hence we
+find Thugs killing and robbing their victims in the name of Kali. But
+though the Hindu is not at ease unless his customs are sanctioned by his
+religion, yet religion in the wider sense is not bound by custom, for
+the founders of many sects have declared that before God there is no
+caste. A Hindu may devote himself to religion and abandon the world with
+all its conventions, but if like most men he prefers to live in the
+world, it is his duty to follow the customs and usages sanctioned for
+his class and occupation. Thus as Sister Nivedita has shown in her
+beautiful writings, cooking, washing and all the humble round of
+domestic life become one long ritual of purification and prayer in which
+the entertainment of a guest stands out as a great sacrifice. But though
+religion may thus give beauty and holiness to common things, yet
+inasmuch as it sanctifies what it finds rather than prescribes what
+should be, it must bear the blame for foolish and even injurious
+customs. Child marriages have nothing to do with the creed of Hinduism,
+yet many Hindus, especially Hindu women, would feel it irreligious, as
+well as a social disgrace, to let a daughter become adult without being
+married.
+
+A comparison of Indian Mohammedans and Hindus suggests that the former
+are more warlike and robust, the latter more intellectual and ingenious.
+The fact that some Mohammedans belong to hardy tribes of invaders must
+be taken into account but Islam deserves the credit of having introduced
+a simple and fairly healthy rule of life which does not allow every
+caste to make its own observances into a divine law. Yet it would seem
+that the medical and sanitary rules of Hinduism deserve less abuse than
+they generally receive. Col. King, Sanitary Commissioner of the Madras
+Presidency, is quoted as saying in a lecture[84]: "The Institutes of
+Vishnu and the Laws of Manu fit in excellently with the bacteriology,
+parasitology and applied hygiene of the West. The hygiene of food and
+water, private and public conservancy, disease suppression and
+prevention, are all carefully dealt with."
+
+Hinduism certainly has proved marvellously stimulating to the intellect
+or--shall we put it the other way?--is the product of profound, acute,
+and restless minds. It cannot be justly accused of being enervating or
+melancholy, for many Hindu states were vigorous and warlike[85] and the
+accounts of early travellers indicate that in pre-mohammedan days the
+people were humane, civilized and contented. It created an original and
+spiritual art, for Indian art, more than any other, is the direct
+product of religion and not merely inspired by it. In ages when original
+talent is rare this close relation has disadvantages for it tends to
+make all art symbolic and conventional. An artist must not represent a
+deity in the way that he thinks most effective: the proportions,
+attitude and ornaments are all prescribed, not because they suit a
+picture or statue but because they mean something.
+
+Indian literature is also directly related to religion. Its extent is
+well-nigh immeasurable. I will not alarm the reader with statistics of
+the theological and metaphysical treatises which it contains. A little
+of such goes a long way even when they are first-rate, but India may at
+least boast of having more theological works which, if considered as
+intellectual productions, must be placed in the first class than Europe.
+Nor are religious writings of a more human type absent--the language of
+heart to heart and of the heart to God. The Ramayana of Tulsi Das and
+the Tiruvwēagam are extolled by Groāse, Grierson and Pope (all of them
+Christians, I believe) as not only masterpieces of literature but as
+noble expressions of pure devotion, and the poems of Kabir and Tukaram,
+if less considerable as literary efforts, show the same spiritual
+quality. Indian poetry, even when nominally secular, is perhaps too much
+under religious influence to suit our taste and the long didactic and
+philosophic harangues which interrupt the action of the Mahabharata seem
+to us inartistic, yet to those who take the pains to familiarize
+themselves with what at first is strange, the Mahabharata is, I think, a
+greater poem than the _Iliad_. It should not be regarded as an epic
+distended and interrupted by interpolated sermons but as the scripture
+of the warrior caste, which sees in the soldier's life a form of
+religion.
+
+I have touched in several places on the defects of Hinduism. They are
+due partly to its sanction of customs which have no necessary connection
+with it and partly to its extravagance, which in the service of the gods
+sees no barriers of morality or humanity. But suttee, human sacrifices
+and orgies strike the imagination and assume an importance which they
+have not and never had for Hinduism as a whole. If Hinduism were really
+bad, so many great thoughts, so many good lives could not have grown up
+in its atmosphere. More than any other religion it is a quest of truth
+and not a creed, which must necessarily become antiquated: it admits the
+possibility of new scriptures, new incarnations, new institutions. It
+has no quarrel with knowledge or speculation: perhaps it excludes
+materialists, because they have no common ground with religion, but it
+tolerates even the Sānkhya philosophy which has nothing to say about God
+or worship. It is truly dynamic and in the past whenever it has seemed
+in danger of withering it has never failed to bud with new life and put
+forth new flowers.
+
+More than other religions, Hinduism appeals to the soul's immediate
+knowledge and experience of God. It has sacred books innumerable but
+they agree in little but this, that the soul can come into contact and
+intimacy with its God, whatever name be given him and even if he be
+superpersonal. The possibility and truth of this experience is hardly
+questioned in India and the task of religion is to bring it about, not
+to promote the welfare of tribes and states but to effect the
+enlightenment and salvation of souls.
+
+The love of the Hindus for every form of argument and philosophizing is
+well known but it is happily counterbalanced by another tendency.
+Instinct and religion both bring them into close sympathy with nature.
+India is in the main an agricultural country[86] and nearly
+three-quarters of the population are villagers whose life is bound up
+with the welfare of plants and animals and lies at the mercy of rivers
+that overflow or skies that withhold the rain. To such people
+nature-myths and sacred animals appeal with a force that Europeans
+rarely understand. The parrots that perch on the pinnacles of the temple
+and the oxen that rest in the shade of its courts are not intruders but
+humble brothers of mankind, who may also be the messengers of the gods.
+
+
+24. _Buddhism in Practice_
+
+As I said above, it is easier to estimate the effects of Buddhism than
+of Hinduism, for its history is the chronicle of a great missionary
+enterprise and there are abundant materials for studying the results of
+its diffusion.
+
+Even its adversaries must admit that it has many excellent qualities. It
+preaches morality and charity and was the first religion to proclaim to
+the world--not to a caste or country--that these are the foundation of
+that Law which if kept brings happiness. It civilized many nations, for
+instance the Tibetans and Mongols. It has practised toleration and true
+unworldliness, if not without any exception[87], at least far more
+generally than any other great religion. It has directly encouraged art
+and literature and, so far as I know, has never opposed the progress of
+knowledge. But two charges may be brought against it which deserve
+consideration. First that its pessimistic doctrines and monastic
+institutions are, if judged by ordinary standards, bad for the welfare
+of a nation: second that more than any other religion it is liable to
+become corrupt.
+
+In all Buddhist lands, though good laymen are promised the blessings of
+religion, the monastic and contemplative life is held up as the ideal.
+In Christendom, this ideal is rejected by Protestants and for the Roman
+and Oriental Churches it is only one among others. Hence every one's
+judgment of Buddhism must in a large measure depend on what he thinks of
+this ideal. Monks are not of this world and therefore the world hateth
+them. If they keep to themselves, they are called lazy and useless. If
+they take part in secular matters, they meet with even severer
+criticism. Yet can any one doubt that what is most needed in the present
+age is more people who have leisure and ability to think?
+
+Whatever evil is said of Buddhist monks is also said of Mt Athos and
+similar Christian establishments. I am far from saying that this
+depreciation of the cloistered life is just in either case but any
+impartial critic of monastic institutions must admit that their virtues
+avoid publicity and their faults attract attention. In all countries a
+large percentage of monks are indolent: it is the temptation which
+besets all but the elect. Yet the Buddhist ideal of the man who has
+renounced the world leaves no place for slackness, nor I think does the
+Christian. Buddhist monks are men of higher aspirations than others:
+they try to make themselves supermen by cultivating not the forceful and
+domineering part of their nature but the gentle, charitable and
+intelligent part. The laity treat them with the greatest respect
+provided that they set an example of a life better than most men can
+live. A monastic system of this kind is found in Burma. I do not mean
+that it is not found in other Buddhist lands, but I cite an instance
+which I have seen myself and which has impressed most observers
+favourably.
+
+The Burmese monks are not far from the ideal of Gotama, yet perhaps by
+adhering somewhat strictly to the letter of his law they have lost
+something of the freedom which he contemplated. In his time there were
+no books: the mind found exercise and knowledge in conversation. A
+monastery was not a permanent residence, except during the rainy season,
+but merely a halting-place for the brethren who were habitually
+wanderers, continually hearing and seeing something new. Hermits and
+solitary dwellers in the forests were not unknown but assuredly the
+majority of the brethren had no intention of secluding themselves from
+the intellectual life of the age. What would Gotama have done had he
+lived some hundreds or thousands of years later? I see no reason to
+doubt that he would have encouraged the study of literature and science.
+He would probably have praised all art which expresses noble and
+spiritual ideas, while misdoubting representations of sensuous beauty.
+
+The second criticism--that Buddhists are prone to corrupt their faith--is
+just, for their courteous acquiescence in other creeds enfeebles and
+denaturalizes their own. In Annam, Korea and some parts of China though
+there are temples and priests more or less deserving the name of
+Buddhist, there is no idea that Buddhism is a distinct religion or mode
+of life. Such statements as that the real religion of the Burmese is not
+Buddhism but animism are, I think, incorrect, but even the Burmese are
+dangerously tolerant.
+
+This weakness is not due to any positive defect, since Buddhism provides
+for those who lead the higher life a strenuous curriculum and for the
+laity a system of morality based on rational grounds and differing
+little from the standard accepted in both Europe and China, except that
+it emphasizes the duties of mankind to animals. The weakness comes from
+the absence of any command against superstitious rites and beliefs. When
+the cardinal principles of Buddhism are held strongly these accessories
+do not matter, but the time comes when the creeper which was once an
+ornament grows into the walls of the shrine and splits the masonry. The
+faults of western religions are mainly faults of self-assertion--such as
+the Inquisition and opposition to science. The faults of Indian
+religions are mainly tolerance of what does not belong to them and
+sometimes of what is not only foreign to them but bad in itself.
+
+Buddhism has been both praised and blamed as a religion which
+acknowledges neither God nor the soul[88] and its acceptance in its
+later phases of the supernatural has been regarded as proving the human
+mind's natural need of theism. But it is rather an illustration of that
+craving for personal though superhuman help which makes Roman Catholics
+supplement theism with the worship of saints.
+
+On the whole it is correct to say that Buddhism (except perhaps in very
+exceptional sects) has always taken and still takes a point of view
+which has little in common with European theism. The world is not
+thought of as the handiwork of a divine personality nor the moral law as
+his will. The fact that religion can exist without these ideas is of
+capital importance[89]. But any statements implying that Buddhism
+divorces morality from the doctrine of immortality may be misunderstood
+for it teaches that just as an old man may suffer for the follies of his
+youth, so faults committed in one life may be punished in another.
+Rewards and punishments in another world were part of the creed of Asoka
+and tradition represents the missionaries who converted Ceylon as using
+this simple argument[90]. It would not however be true to say that
+Buddhism makes the value of morality contingent on another world. The
+life of an Arhat which includes the strictest morality is commended on
+its own account as the best and happiest existence.
+
+European assertions about Buddhism often imply that it sets up as an
+ideal and goal either annihilation or some condition of dreamy bliss.
+Modern Buddhists who mostly neglect Nirvana as something beyond their
+powers, just as the ordinary Christian does not say that he hopes to
+become a saint, lose much of the Master's teaching but do it less
+injustice than such misrepresentations. The Buddha did not describe
+Nirvana as something to be won after death, but as a state of happiness
+attainable in this life by strenuous endeavour--a state of perfect peace
+but compatible with energy, as his own example showed.
+
+
+25. _Interest of Indian Thought for Europe_
+
+We are now in a better position to answer the question asked at the
+beginning of this introduction, Is Indian thought of value or at least
+of interest for Europe?
+
+Let me confess that I cannot share the confidence in the superiority of
+Europeans and their ways which is prevalent in the west. Whatever view
+we take of the rights and wrongs of the recent war, it is clearly absurd
+for Europe as a whole to pose in the presence of such doings as a
+qualified instructor in humanity and civilization. Many of those who are
+proudest of our fancied superiority escape when the chance offers from
+western civilization and seek distraction in exploration, and many who
+have spent their lives among what they consider inferior races are
+uneasy when they retire and settle at home. In fact European
+civilization is not satisfying and Asia can still offer something more
+attractive to many who are far from Asiatic in spirit. Yet though most
+who have paid even a passing visit to the East feel its charm, the
+history, art and literature of Asia are still treated with ignorant
+indifference in cultured circles--an ignorance and indifference which are
+extraordinary in Englishmen who have so close a connection with India
+and devote a disproportionate part of their education to ancient Greece
+and Rome. I have heard a professor of history in an English university
+say that he thought the history of India began with the advent of the
+British and that he did not know that China had any history at all. And
+Matthew Arnold in speaking of Indian thought[91] hardly escaped meriting
+his own favourite epithets of condemnation, Philistine and _saugrenu_.
+
+Europeans sometimes mention it as an amazing and almost ridiculous
+circumstance that an educated Chinese can belong to three religions,
+Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. But I find this attitude of mind
+eminently sensible. Confucianism is an admirable religion for State
+ceremonies and College chapels. By attending its occasional rites one
+shows a decent respect for Heaven and Providence and commits oneself to
+nothing. And though a rigid Confucianist may have the contempt of a
+scholar and statesman for popular ideas, yet the most devout Buddhist
+and Taoist can conform to Confucianism without scruple, whereas many who
+have attended an English coronation service must have wondered at the
+language which they seemed to approve of by their presence. And in China
+if you wish to water the aridity of Confucianism, you can find in
+Buddhism or Taoism whatever you want in the way of emotion or philosophy
+and you will not be accused of changing your religion because you take
+this refreshment. This temper is not good for creating new and profound
+religious thought, but it is good for sampling and appreciating the
+"varieties of religious experience" which offer their results as guides
+for this and other lives.
+
+For religion is systematized religious experience and this experience
+depends on temperament. There can therefore be no one religion in the
+European sense and it is one of the Hindus' many merits that they
+recognize this. Some people ask of religion forgiveness for their sins,
+others communion with the divine: most want health and wealth, many
+crave for an explanation of life and death. Indian religion accommodates
+itself to these various needs. Nothing is more surprising than the
+variety of its phases except the underlying unity.
+
+This power of varying in sympathetic response to the needs of many minds
+and growing in harmony with the outlook of successive ages, is a
+contrast to the pretended _quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab
+omnibus_[92] of Western Churches, for in view of their differences and
+mutual hostility it can only be called a pretence. Indians recognize
+that only the greatest and simplest religious questions can be asked now
+in the same words that came to the lips more than two thousand years ago
+and even if the questions are the same, the answers of the thoughtful
+are still as widely divergent as the pronouncements of the Buddha and
+the Brahmans. But nearly all the propositions contained in a European
+creed involve matters of history or science which are obviously affected
+by research and discovery as much as are astronomy or medicine, and not
+only are the propositions out of date but they mostly refer to problems
+which have lost their interest. But Indian religion eschews creeds and
+will not die with the spread of knowledge. It will merely change and
+enter a new phase of life in which much that is now believed and
+practised will be regarded as the gods and rites of the Veda are
+regarded now.
+
+I do not think that there is much profit in comparing religions, which
+generally means exalting one at the expense of the others, but rather
+that it is interesting and useful to learn what others, especially those
+least like ourselves, think of these matters. And in religious questions
+Asia has a distinct right to be heard.
+
+For if Europeans have any superiority over Asiatics, it lies in
+practical science, finance and administration, not in thought or art. If
+one were collecting views about philosophy and religion in Europe, one
+would not begin by consulting financiers and engineers, and the
+policeman who stands in the middle of the street and directs the traffic
+to this side and that is not intellectually superior to those who obey
+him as if he were something superhuman. Europeans in Asia are like such
+a policeman: their gifts are authority and power to organize: in other
+respects their superiority is imaginary.
+
+I do not think that Christianity will ever make much progress in Asia,
+for what is commonly known by that name is not the teaching of Christ
+but a rearrangement of it made in Europe and like most European
+institutions practical rather than thoughtful. And as for the teaching
+of Christ himself, the Indian finds it excellent but not ample or
+satisfying. There is little in it which cannot be found in some of the
+many scriptures of Hinduism and it is silent on many points about which
+they speak, if not with convincing authority, at least with suggestive
+profundity. Neither do I think that Europe is likely to adopt Buddhist
+or Brahmanic methods of thought on any large scale. Theosophical and
+Buddhist societies have my sympathy but it is sympathy with lonely
+workers in an unpopular cause and I am not sure that they always
+understand what they try to teach. There is truth at the bottom of the
+dogma that all Buddhas must be born and teach in India: Asiatic doctrine
+may commend itself to European minds but it fits awkwardly into European
+life.
+
+But this is no reason for refusing to accord to Indian religion at least
+the same attention that we give to Plato and Aristotle. Every idea which
+is held strongly by any large body of men is worthy of respectful
+examination, although I do not think that because an opinion is
+widespread it is therefore true. Thus the idea that in the remote past
+there was some kind of paradise or golden age and that the span of human
+life was once much longer than now is found among most nations. Yet
+research and analogy suggest that it is without foundation. The fact
+that about half the population of the world has come under the influence
+of Hindu ideas gives Indian thought historical importance rather than
+authority. The claim of India to the attention of the world is that she,
+more than any other nation since history began, has devoted herself to
+contemplating the ultimate mysteries of existence and, in my eyes, the
+fact that Indian thought diverges widely from our own popular thought is
+a positive merit. In intellectual and philosophical pursuits we want new
+ideas and Indian ideas are not familiar or hackneyed in the west, though
+I think that more European philosophers and mystics have arrived at
+similar conclusions than is generally supposed.
+
+Indian religions have more spirituality and a greater sense of the
+Infinite than our western creeds and more liberality. They are not
+merely tolerant but often hold that the different classes of mankind
+have their own rules of life and suitable beliefs and that he who
+follows such partial truths does no wrong to the greater and
+all-inclusive truths on which his circumstances do not permit him to fix
+his attention. And though some Indian religions may sanction bad
+customs, sacrifice of animals and immoral rites, yet on the whole they
+give the duty of kindness to animals a prominence unknown in Europe and
+are more penetrated with the idea that civilization means a gentle and
+enlightened temper--an idea sadly forgotten in these days of war. Their
+speculative interest can hardly be denied. For instance, the idea of a
+religion without a personal God may seem distasteful or absurd but the
+student of human thought must take account of it and future generations
+may not find it a useless notion. It is certain that in Asia we find
+Buddhist Churches which preach morality and employ ritual and yet are
+not theistic, and also various systems of pantheism which, though they
+may use the word God, obviously use it in a sense which has nothing in
+common with Christian and Mohammedan ideas.
+
+India's greatest contribution to religion is not intellectual, as the
+mass of commentaries and arguments produced by Hindus might lead us to
+imagine, but the persistent and almost unchallenged belief in the
+reality and bliss of certain spiritual states which involve intuition.
+All Indians agree that they are real, even to the extent of offering an
+alternative superior to any ordinary life of pleasure and success, but
+their value for us is lessened by the variety of interpretations which
+they receive and which make it hard to give a more detailed definition
+than that above. For some they are the intuition of a particular god,
+for others of divinity in general. For Buddhists they mean a new life of
+knowledge, freedom and bliss without reference to a deity. But apart
+from such high matters I believe that the mental training preliminary to
+these states--what is called meditation and concentration--is well worth
+the attention of Europeans. I am not recommending trances or catalepsy:
+in these as in other matters the Hindus are probably prone to exaggerate
+and the Buddha himself in his early quest for truth discarded trances as
+an unsatisfactory method. But the reader can convince himself by
+experiment that the elementary discipline which consists in suppressing
+"discursive thought" and concentrating the mind on a particular
+object--say a red flower--so that for some time nothing else is present to
+the mind and the image of the flower is seen and realized in all its
+details, is most efficacious for producing mental calm and alertness. By
+such simple exercises the mind learns how to rest and refresh itself.
+Its quickness of apprehension and its retentive power are considerably
+increased, for words and facts imprinted on it when by the suppression
+of its ordinary activities it has thus been made a _tabula rasa_ remain
+fixed and clear.
+
+Such great expressions of emotional theism as the Rāmāyana of Tulsi Das
+are likely to find sympathetic readers in Europe, but the most original
+feature of Indian thought is that, as already mentioned, it produces
+systems which can hardly be refused the name of religion and yet are
+hardly theistic. The Buddha preached a creed without reference to a
+supreme deity and the great Emperor Asoka, the friend of man and beast,
+popularized this creed throughout India. Even at the present day the
+prosperous and intelligent community of Jains follow a similar doctrine
+and the Advaita philosophy diverges widely from European theism. It is
+true that Buddhism invented gods for itself and became more and more
+like Hinduism and that the later Vedantist and Sivaite schools have a
+strong bent to monotheism. Yet all Indian theism seems to me to have a
+pantheistic tinge[93] and India is certainly the classic land of
+Pantheism. The difficulties of Pantheism are practical: it does not lend
+itself easily to popular cries and causes and it finds it hard to
+distinguish and condemn evil[94]. But it appeals to the scientific
+temper and is not repulsive to many religious and emotional natures.
+Indeed it may be said that in monotheistic creeds the most thoughtful
+and devout minds often tend towards Pantheism, as witness the Sufis
+among Moslims, the Kabbalists among the Jews and many eminent mystics in
+the Christian Church. In India, the only country where the speculative
+interest is stronger than the practical, it is a common form of belief
+and it is of great importance for the history and criticism of religion
+to see how an idea which in Europe is hardly more than philosophic
+theory works on a large scale.
+
+Later Buddhism--the so-called Mahayana--may be justly treated as one of
+the many varieties of Indian religion, not more differentiated from
+others than is for instance the creed of the Sikhs. The speculative side
+of early Buddhism (which was however mainly a practical movement) may be
+better described as an Indian critique of current Indian views. The
+psychology of the Pitakas has certainly enough life to provoke
+discussion still, for it receives both appreciative treatment and
+uncompromising condemnation at the hands of European scholars. To set it
+aside as not worth the labour spent on elucidating it, seems to me an
+error of judgment. As a criticism of the doctrine developed in the
+Upanishads, it is acute and interesting, even if we hold the Upanishads
+to be in the right, and no serious attempt to analyze the human mind can
+be without value, for though the facts are before every human being such
+attempts are rare. It is singular that so many religions should
+prescribe and prophecy for the soul without being able to describe its
+nature. Hesitation and diffidence in defining the Deity seem proper and
+natural but it is truly surprising that people are not agreed as to the
+essential facts about their own consciousness, their selves, souls,
+minds and spirits: whether these are the same or different: whether they
+are entities or aggregations. The Buddha's answers to these questions
+cannot be dismissed as ancient or outlandish, for they are practically
+the conclusions arrived at by a distinguished modern psychologist,
+William James, who says in his _Psychology_[95], "The states of
+consciousness are all that psychology requires to do her work with.
+Metaphysics or theology may prove the soul to exist, but for psychology
+the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of unity is superfluous"
+and again "In this book the provisional solution which we have reached
+must be the final one: The thoughts themselves are the thinkers."
+
+Equally in sympathy with Buddhist ideas is the philosophy of M. Bergson,
+which holds that movement, change, becoming is everything and that there
+is nothing else: no things that move and change and become[96]. Huxley
+too, speaking of idealism, said "what Berkeley does not seem to have so
+clearly perceived is that the non-existence of a substance of mind is
+equally arguable.... It is a remarkable indication of the subtlety of
+Indian speculation that Gautama should have seen deeper than the
+greatest of modern idealists[97]."
+
+Even Mr Bradley says "the soul is a particular group of psychical events
+in so far as those events are taken merely as happening in time[98]."
+There is a smack of the Pitakas about this, although Mr Bradley's
+philosophy as a whole shows little sympathy for Buddhism but a wondrous
+resemblance both in thought and language to the Vedānta. This is the
+more remarkable because there is no trace in his works of Sanskrit
+learning or even of Indian influence at second hand. A peculiarly
+original and independent mind seems to have worked its way to many of
+the doctrines of the Advaita, without entirely adopting its general
+conclusions, for I doubt if Sankara would have said "the positive
+relation of every appearance as an adjective to reality and the presence
+of reality among its appearances in different degrees and with different
+values--this double truth we have found to be the centre of philosophy."
+But still this is the gist of many Vedantic utterances both early[99]
+and late. Gaudapāda states that the world of appearance is due to
+_svabhāva_ or the essential nature of Brahman and I imagine that the
+thought here is the same as when Mr Bradley says that the Absolute is
+positively present in all appearances.
+
+Among many coincidences both in thought and expression, I note the
+following. Mr Bradley[100] says "The Perfect ... means the identity of
+idea and existence, accompanied by pleasure" which is almost the verbal
+equivalent of _saccidānanda_. "The universe is one reality which appears
+in finite centres." "How there can be such a thing as appearance we do
+not understand." In the same way Vedantists and Mahayanists can offer no
+explanation of Maya or whatever is the power which makes the universe of
+phenomena. Again he holds that neither our bodies nor our souls (as we
+commonly understand the word) are truly real[101] and he denies the
+reality of progress "For nothing perfect, nothing genuinely real can
+move." And his discussion of the difficulty of reconciling the ideas of
+God and the Absolute and specially the phrase "short of the Absolute,
+God cannot rest and having reached that goal he is lost and religion
+with him" is an epitome of the oscillations of philosophic Hinduism
+which feels the difficulty far more keenly than European religion,
+because ideas analogous to the Absolute are a more vital part of
+religion (as distinguished from metaphysics) in India than in
+Europe[102].
+
+Nor can Indian ideas as to Maya and the unreality of matter be dismissed
+as curious dreams of mystical brains, for the most recent phases of
+Physics--a science which changes its fundamental ideas as often as
+philosophy--tend to regard matter as electrical charges in motion. This
+theory is a phrase rather than an explanation, but it has a real
+affinity to Indian phrases which say that Brahman or Sakti (which are
+forces) produce the illusion of the world.
+
+I am not venturing here on any general comparison of European and Indian
+thought. My object is merely to point out that the latter contains many
+ideas to which British philosophers find themselves led and from which,
+when they have discovered them in their own way, they do not shrink. It
+can hardly then be without interest to see how these ideas have been
+elaborated, often more boldly and thoroughly, in Asia.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+
+
+
+EARLY INDIAN RELIGION
+
+A GENERAL VIEW
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+
+In this book I shall briefly sketch the condition of religion in India
+prior to the rise of Buddhism and in so doing shall be naturally led to
+indicate several of the fundamental ideas of Hinduism. For few old ideas
+have entirely perished: new deities, new sects and new rites have arisen
+but the main theories of the older Upanishads still command respect and
+modern reformers try to justify their teaching from the ancient texts.
+
+But I do not propose to discuss in detail the religion of the Vedic
+hymns for, so far as it can be distinguished from later phases, it looks
+backward rather than forward. It is important to students of comparative
+mythology, of the origins of religion, of the Aryan race. But it
+represents rather what the Aryans brought into India than what was
+invented in India, and it is this latter which assumes a prominent place
+in the intellectual history of the world as Hinduism and Buddhism. The
+ancient nature gods of the wind and the dawn have little place in the
+mental horizon of either the Buddha or Bhagavad-gītā and even when the
+old names remain, the beings who bear them generally have new
+attributes. Still, Vedic texts are used in modern worship and in many
+respects there is a real continuity of thought.
+
+In the first chapter I enquire whether there is any element common to
+the religions of India and to the countries of Eastern Asia and find
+that the worship of nature spirits and the veneration of ancestors
+prevail throughout the whole of this vast region and have not been
+suppressed by Buddhism or Brahmanism. Then coming to the purely Indian
+sphere, I have thought it might not be amiss to give an epitome of such
+parts of Indian history as are of importance for religion. Next I
+endeavour to explain how the social institutions of India and the unique
+position acquired by the Brahman aristocracy have determined the
+character of Hindu religion--protean and yet unmistakeably Indian in all
+its phases--and I also investigate the influence of the belief in
+rebirth, which from the time of the Upanishads onwards dominates Indian
+thought. In the fourth and fifth chapters I trace the survival of some
+ancient ideas and show how many attributes of the Vedic gods can be
+found in modern deities who are at first sight widely different and how
+theories of salvation by sacrifice or asceticism or knowledge have been
+similarly persistent. In the sixth chapter I attempt to give a picture
+of religious life, both Brahmanic and non-Brahmanic, as it existed in
+India about the time when the Buddha was born. Of the non-Brahmanic
+sects which then flourished most have disappeared, but one, namely the
+Jains, has survived and left a considerable record in literature and
+art. I have therefore devoted a chapter to it here.
+
+My object in this book is to discuss the characteristics of Indian
+religion which are not only fundamental but ancient. Hence this is not
+the place to dwell on Bhakti or relatively modern theistic sects,
+however great their importance in later Hinduism may be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+RELIGIONS OP INDIA AND EASTERN ASIA
+
+
+The countries with which this work deals are roughly speaking India with
+Ceylon; Indo-China with parts of the Malay Archipelago; Japan and China
+with the neighbouring regions such as Tibet and Mongolia. All of them
+have been more or less influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism and in hardly
+any of them is Mohammedanism the predominant creed[103], though it may
+have numerous adherents. The rest of Asia is mainly Mohammedan or
+Christian and though a few Buddhists may be found even in Europe (as the
+Kalmuks) still neither Hinduism nor Buddhism has met with general
+acceptance west of India.
+
+In one sense, the common element in the religion of all these countries
+is the presence of Indian ideas, due in most cases to Buddhism which is
+the export form of Hinduism, although Brahmanic Hinduism reached Camboja
+and the Archipelago. But this is not the element on which I wish now to
+insist. I would rather enquire whether apart from the diffusion of ideas
+which has taken place in historical times, there is any common
+substratum in the religious temperament of this area, any fund of
+primitive, or at least prehistoric ideas, shared by its inhabitants.
+Such common ideas will be deep-seated and not obvious, for it needs but
+little first-hand acquaintance with Asia to learn that all
+generalizations about the spirit of the East require careful testing and
+that such words as Asiatic or oriental do not connote one type of mind.
+For instance in China and Japan the control of the state over religion
+is exceptionally strong: in India it is exceptionally weak. The
+religious temperaments of these nations differ from one another as much
+as the Mohammedan and European temperaments and the fact that many races
+have adopted Buddhism and refashioned it to their liking does not
+indicate that their mental texture is identical. The cause of this
+superficial uniformity is rather that Buddhism in its prime had no
+serious rivals in either activity or profundity, but presented itself to
+the inhabitants of Eastern Asia as pre-eminently the religion of
+civilized men, and was often backed by the support of princes. Yet one
+cannot help thinking that its success in Eastern Asia and its failure in
+the West are not due merely to politics and geography but must
+correspond with some racial idiosyncrasies. Though it is hard to see
+what mental features are common to the dreamy Hindus and the practical
+Chinese, it may be true that throughout Eastern Asia for one reason or
+another such as political despotism, want of military spirit, or on the
+other hand a tendency to regard the family, the clan or the state as the
+unit, the sense of individuality is weaker than in Western Asia or
+Europe, so that pantheism and quietism with their doctrines of the
+vanity of the world and the bliss of absorption arouse less opposition
+from robust lovers of life. This is the most that can be stated and it
+does not explain why there are many Buddhists in Japan but none in
+Persia.
+
+But apart from Buddhism and all creeds which have received a name,
+certain ideas are universal in this vast region. One of them is the
+belief in nature spirits, beings who dwell in rocks, trees, streams and
+other natural objects and possess in their own sphere considerable
+powers of doing good or ill. The Nagas, Yakshas and Bhutas of India, the
+Nats of Burma, the Peys of Siam, the Kami of Japan and the Shen of China
+are a few items in a list which might be indefinitely extended. In many
+countries this ghostly population is as numerous as the birds of the
+forest: they haunt every retired spot and perch unseen under the eaves
+of every house. Theology has not usually troubled itself to define their
+status and it may even be uncertain whether respect is shown to the
+spirits inhabiting streams and mountain peaks or to the peaks and
+streams themselves[104].
+
+They may be kindly (though generally requiring punctilious attention),
+or mischievous, or determined enemies of mankind. But infinite as are
+their variations, the ordinary Asiatic no more doubts their existence
+than he doubts the existence of animals. The position which they enjoy,
+like their character, is various, for in Asia deities like men have
+careers which depend on luck. Many of them remain mere elves or goblins,
+some become considerable local deities. But often they occupy a position
+intermediate between real gods and fairies. Thus in southern India,
+Burma and Ceylon may be seen humble shrines, which are not exactly
+temples but the abodes of beings whom prudent people respect. They have
+little concern with the destinies of the soul or the observance of the
+moral law but much to do with the vagaries of rivers and weather and
+with the prosperity of the village. Though these spirits may attain a
+high position within a certain district (as for instance Maha Saman, the
+deity of Adam's Peak in Ceylon) they are not of the same stuff as the
+great gods of Asia. These latter are syntheses of many ideas, and
+centuries of human thought have laboured on their gigantic figures. It
+is true that the mental attitude which deifies the village stream is
+fundamentally the same as that which worships the sun, but in the latter
+case the magnitude of the phenomenon deified sets it even for the most
+rustic mind in another plane. Also the nature gods of the Veda are not
+quite the same as the nature spirits which the Indian peasants worship
+to-day and worshipped, as the Pitakas tell us, in the time of the
+Buddha. For the Vedic deities are such forces as fire and light, wind
+and water. This is nature worship but the worship of nature generalized,
+not of some bold rock or mysterious rustling tree. It may be that a
+migratory life, such as the ancient Aryans at one time led, inclined
+their minds to these wider views, since neither the family nor the tribe
+had an abiding interest in any one place. Thus the ancestors of the
+Turks in the days before Islam worshipped the spirits of the sky, earth
+and water, whereas the more civilized but sedentary Chinese had genii
+for every hamlet, pool and hillock.
+
+It is difficult to say whether monotheism is a development of this
+nature worship or has another origin. In Japanese religion the
+monotheistic tendency is markedly absent. The sun-goddess is the
+principal deity but remains simply _prima inter pares_. But in the
+ancient religion of China, T'ien or Heaven, also called Shang-ti, the
+supreme ruler, though somewhat shadowy and impersonal, does become an
+omnipotent Providence without even approximate rivals. Other superhuman
+beings are in comparison with him merely angels. Unfortunately the early
+history of Chinese religion is obscure and the documents scanty. In
+India however the evolution of pantheism or theism (though usually with
+a pantheistic tinge) out of the worship of nature forces seems clear.
+These gods or forces are seen to melt into one another and to be aspects
+of one another, until the mind naturally passes on to the idea that they
+are all manifestations of one force finding expression in human
+consciousness as well as in physical phenomena. The animist and
+pantheist represent different stages but not different methods of
+thought. For the former, every natural object which impresses him is
+alive; the latter concurs in this view, only he thinks the universe is
+instinct with one and the same life displaying itself in infinite
+variety.
+
+One difficulty incidental to the treatment of Asiatic religions in
+European languages is the necessity, or at any rate the ineradicable
+habit, of using well-known words like God and soul as the equivalents of
+Asiatic terms which have not precisely the same content and which often
+imply a different point of view. For practical life it is wise and
+charitable to minimize religious differences and emphasize points of
+agreement. But this willingness to believe that others think as we do
+becomes a veritable vice if we are attempting an impartial exposition of
+their ideas. If the English word God means the deity of ordinary
+Christianity, who is much the same as Allah or Jehovah--that is to say
+the creator of the world and enforcer of the moral law--then it would be
+better never to use this word in writing of the religions of India and
+Eastern Asia, for the concept is almost entirely foreign to them. The
+nature spirits of which we have been speaking are clearly not God: when
+an Indian peasant brings offerings to the tomb of a deceased brigand or
+the Emperor of China promotes some departed worthy to be a deity of a
+certain class, we call the ceremony deification, but there is not the
+smallest intention of identifying the person deified with the Supreme
+Being, and odd as it may seem, the worship of such "gods" is compatible
+with monotheism or atheism. In China, Shang-ti is less definite than
+God[105] and it does not appear that he is thought of as the creator of
+the world and of human souls. Even the greater Hindu deities are not
+really God, for those who follow the higher life can neglect and almost
+despise them, without, however, denying their existence. On the other
+hand Brahman, the pantheos of India, though equal to the Christian God
+in majesty, is really a different conception, for he is not a creator in
+the ordinary sense: he is impersonal and though not evil, yet he
+transcends both good and evil. He might seem merely a force more suited
+to be the subject matter of science than of religion, were not
+meditation on him the occupation, and union with him the goal, of many
+devout lives. And even when Indian deities are most personal, as in the
+Vishnuite sects, it will be generally found that their relations to the
+world and the soul are not those of the Christian God. It is because the
+conception of superhuman existence is so different in Europe and Asia
+that Asiatic religions often seem contradictory or corrupt: Buddhism and
+Jainism, which we describe as atheistic, and the colourless respectable
+religion of educated Chinese, become in their outward manifestations
+unblushingly polytheistic.
+
+Similar difficulties and ambiguities attend the use of the word soul,
+for Buddhism, which is supposed to hold that there is no soul, preaches
+retribution in future existences for acts done in this, and seeks to
+terrify the evil doer with the pains of hell; whereas the philosophy of
+the Brahmans, which inculcates a belief in the soul, seems to teach in
+some of its phases that the disembodied and immortal soul has no
+consciousness in the ordinary human sense. Here language is dealing with
+the same problems as those which we describe by such phrases as the
+soul, immortality and continuous existence, but it is striving to
+express ideas for which we have little sympathy and no adequate
+terminology. They will be considered later.
+
+But one attitude towards that which survives death is almost universal
+in Eastern Asia and also easily intelligible. It finds expression in the
+ceremonies known as ancestor worship. This practice has attracted
+special attention in China, where it is the commonest and most
+conspicuous form of religious observance, but it is equally prevalent
+among the Hindus, though less prominent because it is only one among the
+many rites which engage the attention of that most devout nation. It is
+one of the main constituents in the religions of Indo-China and Japan,
+though the best authorities think that it was not the predominant
+element in the oldest form of Shinto. It is less prominent among the
+Tibeto-Burmese tribes but not absent, for in Tibet there are both good
+and evil ghosts who demand recognition by appropriate rites. It is
+sometimes hard to distinguish it from the worship of natural forces. For
+instance in China and southern India most villages have a local deity
+who is often nameless. The origin of such deities may be found either in
+a departed worthy or in some striking phenomenon or in the association
+of the two.
+
+The cult of ghosts may be due to either fear or affection, and both
+motives are found in Eastern Asia. But though abundant examples of the
+propitiation of angry spirits can be cited, respect and consideration
+for the dead are the feelings which usually inspire these ceremonies at
+the present day and form the chief basis of family religion. There is no
+need to explain this sentiment. It is much stronger in Asia than in
+Europe but some of its manifestations may be paralleled by masses and
+prayers for the dead, others by the care bestowed on graves and by
+notices _in memoriam_. As a rule both in China and India only the last
+three generations are honoured in these ceremonies. The reason is
+obvious: the more ancient ancestors have ceased to be living memories.
+But it might be hard to find a theoretical justification for neglecting
+them and it is remarkable that in all parts of Asia the cult of the dead
+fits very awkwardly into the official creeds. It is not really
+consistent with any doctrine of metempsychosis or with Buddhist teaching
+as to the impermanence of the Ego. In China may be found the further
+inconsistency that the spirit of a departed relative may receive the
+tribute of offerings and salutations called ancestor worship, while at
+the same time Buddhist services are being performed for his deliverance
+from hell. But of the wide distribution, antiquity and strength of the
+cult there can be no doubt. It is anterior not only to Brahmanism but to
+the doctrines of transmigration and karma, and the main occupation of
+Buddhist priests in China and Japan is the performance of ceremonies
+supposed to benefit the dead. Even within Buddhism these practices
+cannot be dismissed as a late or foreign corruption. In the
+Khuddaka-pātha which, if not belonging to the most ancient part of the
+Buddhist canon, is at least pre-Christian and purely Indian, the dead
+are represented as waiting for offerings and as blessing those who give
+them. It is also curious that a recent work called _Raymond_ by Sir O.
+Lodge (1916) gives a view of the state after death which is
+substantially that of the Chinese. For its teaching is that the dead
+retain their personality, concern themselves with the things of this
+world, know what is going to happen here and can to some extent render
+assistance to the living[106]. Also (and this point is specially
+remarkable) burning and mutilation of the body seem to inconvenience the
+dead.
+
+Early Chinese works prescribe that during the performance of ancestral
+rites, the ghosts are to be represented by people known as the
+personators of the dead who receive the offerings and are supposed to be
+temporarily possessed by spirits and to be their mouthpieces. Possession
+by ghosts or other spirits is, in popular esteem, of frequent occurrence
+in India, China, Japan and Indo-China. It is one of the many factors
+which have contributed to the ideas of incarnation and deification, that
+is, that gods can become men and men gods. In Europe the spheres of the
+human and divine are strictly separated: to pass from one to the other
+is exceptional: a single incarnation is regarded as an epoch-making
+event of universal importance. But in Asia the frontiers are not thus
+rigidly delimitated, nor are God and man thus opposed. The ordinary dead
+become powers in the spirit world and can bless or injure here: the
+great dead become deities: in another order of ideas, the dead
+immediately become reincarnate and reappear on earth: the gods take the
+shape of men, sometimes for the space of a human life, sometimes for a
+shorter apparition. Many teachers in India have been revered as partial
+incarnations of Vishnu and most of the higher clergy in Tibet claim to
+be Buddhas or Bodhisattvas manifest in the flesh. There is no proof that
+the doctrine of metempsychosis existed in Eastern Asia independently of
+Indian influence but the ready acceptance accorded to it was largely due
+to the prevalent feeling that the worlds of men and spirits are divided
+by no great gulf. It is quite natural to step into the spirit world and
+back again into this.
+
+It will not have escaped the reader's attention that many of the
+features which I have noticed as common to the religions of Eastern
+Asia--such as the worship of nature spirits and ancestors--are not
+peculiar to those countries but are almost, if not quite, universal in
+certain stages of religious development. They can, for instance, be
+traced in Europe. But whereas they exist here as survivals discernible
+only to the eye of research and even at the beginning of the Christian
+era had ceased to be the obvious characteristics of European paganism,
+in Asia they are still obvious. Age and logic have not impaired their
+vigour, and official theology, far from persecuting them, has
+accommodated its shape to theirs. This brings us to another point where
+the linguistic difficulty again makes itself felt, namely, that the word
+religion has not quite the same meaning in Eastern Asia as in Mohammedan
+and Christian lands. I know of no definition which would cover
+Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and the superstitions of African
+savages, for the four have little community of subject matter or aim. If
+any definition can be found it must I think be based on some superficial
+characteristic such as ceremonial. Nor is there any objection to
+refusing the title of religion to Buddhism and Confucianism, except that
+an inconvenient lacuna would remain in our vocabulary, for they are not
+adequately described as philosophies. A crucial instance of the
+difference in the ideas prevalent in Europe and Eastern Asia is the fact
+that in China many people belong to two or three religions and it would
+seem that when Buddhism existed in India the common practice was
+similar. Paganism and spiritual religion can co-exist in the same mind
+provided their spheres are kept distinct. But Christianity and Islam
+both retain the idea of a jealous God who demands not only exclusive
+devotion but also exclusive belief: to believe in other Gods is not only
+erroneous; it is disobedience and disloyalty. But such ideas have little
+currency in Eastern Asia, especially among Buddhists. The Buddha is not
+a creator or a king but rather a physician. He demands no allegiance and
+for those who disobey him the only punishment is continuance of the
+disease. And though Indian deities may claim personal and exclusive
+devotion, yet in defining and limiting belief their priests are less
+exacting than Papal or Moslim doctors. Despite sectarian formulas, the
+Hindu cherishes broader ideas such as that all deities are forms and
+passing shapes of one essence; that all have their proper places and
+that gods, creeds and ceremonies are necessary helps in the lower stages
+of the religious life but immaterial to the adept.
+
+It does not follow from this that Hindus are lukewarm or insincere in
+their convictions. On the contrary, faith is more intense and more
+widely spread among them than in Europe. Nor can it be said that their
+religion is something detachable from ordinary life: the burden of daily
+observances prescribed and duly borne seems to us intolerable. But
+Buddhism and many forms of Hinduism present themselves as methods of
+salvation with a simplicity and singleness of aim which may be
+paralleled in the Gospels but only rarely in the national churches of
+Europe. The pious Buddhist is one who moulds his life and thoughts
+according to a certain law: he is not much concerned with worshipping
+the gods of the state or city, but has nothing against such worship: his
+aims and procedure have nothing to do with spirits who give wealth and
+children or avert misfortune. But since such matters are of great
+interest to mankind, he is naturally brought into contact with them and
+he has no more objection to a religious service for procuring rain than
+to a scientific experiment for the same purpose. Similarly Confucians
+follow a system of ethics which is sufficient for a gentleman and
+accords a decorous recognition to a Supreme Being and ancestral spirits.
+Much concession to superstition would be reprehensible according to this
+code but if a Confucian honours some deity either for his private
+objects or because it is part of his duties as a magistrate, he is not
+offending Confucius. He is simply engaging in an act which has nothing
+to do with Confucianism. The same distinction often applies in Indian
+religion but is less clear there, because both the higher doctrine as
+well as ordinary ceremonial and mythology are described under one name
+as Hinduism. But if a native of southern India occasionally sacrifices a
+buffalo to placate some village spirit, it does not follow that all his
+religious notions are of this barbarous type.
+
+Asiatic ideas as to the relations between religions are illustrated by
+an anecdote related to me in Assam. Christianity has made many converts
+among the Khasis, a non-Hindu tribe of that region, and a successful
+revival meeting extending over a week was once held in a district of
+professing Christians. When the week was over and the missionaries gone,
+the Khasis performed a ceremony in honour of their tribal deities. Their
+pastors regarded this as a woeful lapse from grace but no disbelief in
+Christianity or change of faith was implied. The Khasis had embraced
+Christianity in the same spirit that animated the ancient disciples of
+the Buddha: it was the higher law which spoke of a new life and of the
+world to come. But it was not understood that it offered to take over
+the business of the local deities, to look after crops and pigs and
+children, to keep smallpox, tigers and serpents in order. Nobody doubted
+the existence of spirits who regulate these matters, while admitting
+that ethics and the road to heaven were not in their department, and
+therefore it was thought wise to supplement the Christian ceremonies by
+others held in their honour and thus let them see that they were not
+forgotten and run no risk of incurring their enmity.
+
+My object in this chapter is to point out at the very beginning that in
+Asia the existence of a duly labelled religion, such as Buddhism or
+Confucianism, does not imply the suppression of older nameless beliefs,
+especially about nature spirits and ghosts. In China and many other
+countries we must not be surprised to find Buddhists honouring spirits
+who have nothing to do with Buddhism. In India we must not suppose that
+the doctrines of Rāmānuja or any other great teacher are responsible for
+the crudities of village worship, nor yet rashly assume that the
+villager is ignorant of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HISTORICAL
+
+
+It may be useful to insert here a brief sketch of Indian history, but
+its aim is merely to outline the surroundings in which Hindu religion
+and philosophy grew up. It, therefore, passes lightly over much which is
+important from other points of view and is intended for reference rather
+than for continuous reading.
+
+An indifference to history, including biography, politics and geography,
+is the great defect of Indian literature. Not only are there few
+historical treatises[107] but even historical allusions are rare and
+this curious vagueness is not peculiar to any age or district. It is as
+noticeable among the Dravidians of the south as among the speakers of
+Aryan languages in the north. It prevails from Vedic times until the
+Mohammedan conquest, which produced chronicles though it did not induce
+Brahmans to write them in Sanskrit. The lacuna is being slowly filled up
+by the labours of European scholars who have collected numerous data
+from an examination of inscriptions, monuments and coins, from the
+critical study of Hindu literature, and from research in foreign,
+especially Chinese, accounts of ancient India.
+
+At first sight the history of India seems merely a record of invasions,
+the annals of a land that was always receptive and fated to be
+conquered. The coast is poor in ports and the nearest foreign shore
+distant. The land frontiers offer more temptation to invaders than to
+emigrants. The Vedic Aryans, Persians, Greeks and hordes innumerable
+from Central Asia poured in century after century through the passes of
+the north-western mountains and after the arrival of Vasco da Gama other
+hordes came from Europe by sea. But the armies and fleets of India can
+tell no similar story of foreign victories. This picture however
+neglects the fact that large parts of Indo-China and the Malay
+Archipelago (including Camboja, Champa, Java and even Borneo) received
+not only civilization but colonists and rulers from India. In the north
+too Nepal, Kashmir, Khotan and many other districts might at one time or
+another be legitimately described as conquered or tributary countries.
+It may indeed be justly objected that Indian literature knows nothing of
+Camboja and other lands where Indian buildings have been discovered[108]
+and that the people of India were unconscious of having conquered them.
+But Indian literature is equally unconscious of the conquests made by
+Alexander, Kanishka and many others. Poets and philosophers were little
+interested in the expeditions of princes, whether native or foreign. But
+if by India is meant the country bounded by the sea and northern
+mountains it undoubtedly sent armies and colonists to regions far beyond
+these limits, both in the south-east and the north, and if the expansion
+of a country is to be measured not merely by territorial acquisition but
+by the diffusion of its institutions, religion, art and literature, then
+"the conquests of the Dhamma," to use Asoka's phrase, include China,
+Japan, Tibet and Mongolia.
+
+The fact that the Hindus paid no attention to these conquests and this
+spread of their civilization argues a curious lack of interest in
+national questions and an inability to see or utilize political
+opportunities which must be the result of temperament rather than of
+distracting invasions. For the long interval between the defeat of the
+Huns in 526 A.D. and the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni about 1000 A.D. which
+was almost entirely free from foreign inroads, seems precisely the
+period when the want of political ideas and constructive capacity was
+most marked. Nor were the incursions always destructive and sterile. The
+invaders, though they had generally more valour than culture of their
+own, often brought with them foreign art and ideas, Hellenic, Persian or
+Mohammedan. Naturally the northern districts felt their violence most as
+well as the new influences which they brought, whereas the south became
+the focus of Hindu politics and culture which radiated thence northwards
+again. Yet, on the whole, seeing how vast is the area occupied by the
+Hindus, how great the differences not only of race but of language, it
+is remarkable how large a measure of uniformity exists among them (of
+course I exclude Mohammedans) in things religious and intellectual.
+Hinduism ranges from the lowest superstition to the highest philosophy
+but the stages are not distributed geographically. Pilgrims go from
+Badrinath to Ramesvaram: the Vaishnavism of Trichinopoly, Muttra and
+Bengal does not differ in essentials, the worship of the linga can be
+seen almost anywhere. And though India has often been receptive, this
+receptivity has been deliberate and discriminating. Great as was the
+advance of Islam, the resistance offered to it was even more remarkable
+and at the present day it cannot be said that in the things which most
+interest them Indian minds are specially hospitable to British ideas.
+
+The relative absence of political unity seems due to want of interest in
+politics. It is often said that the history of India in pre-Mohammedan
+times is an unintelligible or, at least, unreadable, record of the
+complicated quarrels and varying frontiers of small states. Yet this is
+as true of the history of the Italian as of the Indian peninsula. The
+real reason why Indian history seems tedious and intricate is that large
+interests are involved only in the greatest struggles, such as the
+efforts to repulse the Huns or Mohammedans.
+
+The ordinary wars, though conducted on no small scale, did not involve
+such causes or principles as the strife of Roundheads with Cavaliers.
+With rare exceptions, states and empires were regarded as the property
+of their monarchs. Religion claimed to advise kings, like other wealthy
+persons, as to their duties and opportunities, and ministers became the
+practical rulers of kingdoms just as a steward may get the management of
+an estate into his hands. But it rarely occurred to Hindus that other
+persons in the estate had any right to a share in the government, or
+that a Raja could be dispossessed by anybody but another Raja. Of that,
+indeed, there was no lack. Not only had every sovereign to defend
+himself against the enemies in his own house but external politics
+seemed based on the maxim that it is the duty of a powerful ruler to
+increase his territory by direct and unprovoked attacks on his
+neighbours. There is hardly a king of eminence who did not expand his
+power in this way, and the usual history of a royal house is successful
+aggression followed by collapse when weaker hands were unable to hold
+the inherited handful. Even moderately long intervals of peace are rare.
+Yet all the while we seem to be dealing not with the expansion or
+decadence of a nation, but with great nobles who add to their estates or
+go bankrupt.
+
+These features of Indian politics are illustrated by the Arthasāstra, a
+manual of state-craft attributed to Cānakya, the minister of Candragupta
+and sometimes called the Indian Macchiavelli. Its authenticity has been
+disputed but it is now generally accepted by scholars as an ancient work
+composed if not in the fourth century, at least some time before the
+Christian era. It does not, like Manu and other Brahmanic law-books,
+give regulations for an ideal kingdom but frankly describes the practice
+of kings. The form of state contemplated is a small kingdom surrounded
+by others like it and war is assumed to be their almost normal relation,
+but due to the taste or policy of kings, not to national aspirations or
+economic causes. Towards the Brahmans a king has certain moral
+obligations, towards his subjects and fellow monarchs none. It is
+assumed that his object is to obtain money from his subjects, conquer
+his neighbours, and protect himself by espionage and severe punishments
+against the attacks to which he is continually exposed, especially at
+the hands of his sons. But the author does not allow his prince a life
+of pleasure: he is to work hard and the first things he has to attend to
+are religious matters.
+
+The difficulty of writing historical epitomes which are either accurate
+or readable is well known and to outline the events which have occurred
+in the vast area called India during the last 2500 years is a specially
+arduous task, for it is almost impossible to frame a narrative which
+follows the fortunes of the best known Hindu kingdoms and also does
+justice to the influence of southern India and Islam. It may be useful
+to tabulate the principal periods, but the table is not continuous and
+even when there is no gap in chronology, it often happens that only one
+political area is illuminated amid the general darkness and that this
+area is not the same for many centuries.
+
+1. From about 500 to 200 B.C. Magadha (the modern Bihar) was the
+principal state and the dominions of its great king Asoka were almost
+the same as British India to-day.
+
+2. In the immediately succeeding period many invaders entered from the
+north-west. Some were Greeks and some Iranians but the most important
+were the Kushans who ruled over an Empire embracing both north-western
+India and regions beyond it in Afghanistan and Central Asia. This Empire
+came to an end in the third century A.D. but the causes of its collapse
+are obscure.
+
+3. The native Hindu dynasty of the Guptas began to rule in 320 A.D. Its
+dominions included nearly all northern India but it was destroyed by the
+invasions of the Huns in the fifth and sixth centuries.
+
+4. The Hindu Emperor Harsha (606-647 A.D.) practically reconstituted the
+Gupta Empire but his dominions split up after his death. At the same
+time another Empire which extended from Gujarat to Madras was founded by
+Pulakesin, a prince from the south, a region which though by no means
+uncivilized had hitherto played a small part in the general history of
+India.
+
+5. From 650 to 1000 A.D. India was divided among numerous independent
+kingdoms. There was no central power but Bengal and the Deccan were more
+prominent than previously.
+
+6. After 1000 A.D. the conquests of Mohammedan invaders became important
+and the Hindu states of northern and central India collapsed or grew
+weak. But the Hindus held out in Rajputana, Orissa, and above all in
+Vijayanagar.
+
+7. In 1526 came the invasion of the Mughals, who founded an Empire which
+at its zenith (1556-1707) included all India except the extreme south.
+In its decadence the Marathas and Sikhs became powerful and Europeans
+began to intervene.
+
+It is generally agreed that at a period which, though not fixed, was
+anterior to 1000 B.C.[109] a body of invaders known as Aryans and nearly
+akin to the ancient Iranians entered India through the north-western
+mountains. They found there other tribes not deficient in civilization
+but unable to offer any effective resistance. These tribes who retired
+southwards are commonly known as Dravidians[110] and possibly represent
+an earlier invasion of central-Asiatic tribes allied to the remote
+ancestors of the Turks and Mongols[111]. At the time when the earlier
+hymns of the Rig Veda were composed, the Aryans apparently lived in the
+Panjab and did not know the sea, the Vindhya mountains or the Narbudda
+river. They included several tribes, among whom five are specially
+mentioned, and we hear that a great battle was fought on the Ravi, in
+which a confederation of ten kings who wished to force a passage to the
+east was repulsed by Sudas, chief of the Tritsus. Still the
+south-eastern movement, across the modern United Provinces to the
+borders of Bengal, continued and, so far as our records go, it was in
+this direction rather than due south or south-west, that the Aryans
+chiefly advanced[112]. When the Brāhmanas and earlier Upanishads were
+composed (c. 800-600 B.C.) the principal political units were the
+kingdoms of the Pancālas and Kurus in the region of Delhi. The city of
+Ayodhyā (Oudh) is also credited with a very ancient but legendary
+history.
+
+The real history of India begins with the life of the Buddha who lived
+in the sixth century B.C.[113] At that time the small states of northern
+India, which were apparently oligarchies or monarchies restricted by the
+powers of a tribal council, were in process of being absorbed by larger
+states which were absolute monarchies and this remained the normal form
+of government in both Hindu and Moslim times. Thus Kosala (or Oudh)
+absorbed the kingdom of Benares but was itself conquered by Magadha or
+Bihar, the chief city of which was Pataliputra or Patna, destined to
+become the capital of India. We also know that at this period and for
+about two centuries later the Persian Empire had two satrapies within
+the limits of modern India, one called "India," including the country
+east of the Indus and possibly part of the Panjab, and the other called
+Gāndhāra (Peshawar) containing Takshasilā[114], a celebrated university.
+The situation of this seat of learning is important, for it was
+frequented by students from other districts and they must have felt
+there in early times Persian and afterwards Hellenistic influence. There
+are clear signs of Persian influence in India in the reign of Asoka. Of
+Magadha there is little to be said for the next century and a half, but
+it appears to have remained the chief state of northern India.
+
+In 327 B.C. Alexander the Great after over-throwing the Persian Empire
+invaded India, where he remained only nineteen months. He probably
+intended to annex Sind and the Panjab permanently to his Empire but he
+died in 323 and in the next year Candragupta, an exiled scion of the
+royal house of Magadha, put an end to Macedonian authority in India and
+then seized the throne of his ancestors. He founded the Maurya dynasty
+under which Magadha expanded into an Empire comprising all India except
+the extreme south. Seleucus Nicator, who had inherited the Asiatic
+possessions of Alexander and wished to assert his authority, came into
+collision with Candragupta but was completely worsted and about 303 B.C.
+concluded a treaty by which he ceded the districts of Kabul, Herat and
+Kandahar. Shortly afterwards he sent as his ambassador to the court of
+Pataliputra a Greek named Megasthenes who resided there for a
+considerable time and wrote an account of the country still extant in a
+fragmentary form. The grandson of Candragupta was Asoka, the first ruler
+of all India (c. 273-231 B.C.). His Empire extended from Afghanistan
+almost to Madras and was governed with benevolent but somewhat
+grandmotherly despotism. He was an ardent Buddhist and it is mainly
+owing to his efforts, which are described in more detail below, that
+Buddhism became during some centuries the dominant faith in India.
+Asoka's Empire broke up soon after his death in circumstances which are
+not clear, for we now enter upon one of those chaotic periods which
+recur from time to time in Indian history and we have little certain
+information until the fourth century A.D. Andhra, a region including
+large parts of the districts now called the Northern Circars, Hyderabad
+and Central Provinces, was the first to revolt from the Mauryas and a
+dynasty of Andhra kings[115], who claimed to belong to the Sātavāhana
+family, ruled until 236 A.D. over varying but often extensive
+territories. What remained of the Maurya throne was usurped in 184 B.C.
+by the Sungas who in their turn were overthrown by the Kanvas. These
+latter could not withstand the Andhras and collapsed before them about
+27 B.C.
+
+Alexander's invasion produced little direct effect, and no allusion to
+it has been found in Indian literature. But indirectly it had a great
+influence on the political, artistic and religious development of the
+Hindus by preparing the way for a series of later invasions from the
+north which brought with them a mixed culture containing Hellenic,
+Persian and other elements. During some centuries India, as a political
+region, was not delimitated on the north-western side as it is at
+present and numerous principalities rose and fell which included Indian
+territory as well as parts of Afghanistan.
+
+These states were of at least three classes, Hellenistic, Persian or
+Parthian, and Scythian, if that word can be properly used to include the
+Sakas and Kushans.
+
+Bactria was a Persian satrapy before Alexander's invasion but when he
+passed through it on his way to India he founded twelve cities and
+settled a considerable number of his soldiers in them. It formed part of
+the Empire of Seleucus but declared itself independent in 250 B.C. about
+the same time that the Parthians revolted and founded the Empire of the
+Arsacidae. The Bactrian kings bore Greek names and in 209 Antiochus III
+made peace with one of them called Euthydemus, in common cause against
+the nomads who threatened Western Asia. Demetrius, the son of this
+Euthydemus, appears to have conquered Kabul, the Panjab and Sind (c. 190
+B.C.) but his reign was troubled by the rebellion of a certain
+Eukratides and it is probable that many small and contending
+frontier-states, of which we have a confused record, were ruled by the
+relatives of one or other of these two princes. The most important of
+them was Menander, apparently king of the Kabul valley. About 155 he
+made an incursion to the east, occupied Muttra and threatened
+Pataliputra itself but was repulsed. He is celebrated in Buddhist
+literature as the hero of the Questions of Milinda but his coins, though
+showing some Buddhist emblems, indicate that he was also a worshipper of
+Pallas. Shortly after this Hellenic influence in Bactria was overwhelmed
+by the invasion of the Yüeh-chih, though the Greek principalities in the
+Panjab may have lasted considerably longer.
+
+In the reign of Mithridates (c. 171-138 B.C.) the Parthian Empire was
+limitrophe with India and possibly his authority extended beyond the
+Indus. A little later the Parthian dependencies included two satrapies,
+Aracosia and the western Panjab with capitals at Kandahar and Taxila
+respectively. In the latter ruled kings or viceroys one of whom called
+Gondophores (c. 20 A.D.) is celebrated on account of his legendary
+connection with the Apostle Thomas.
+
+More important for the history of India were the conquests of the Sakas
+and Yüeh-chih, nomad tribes of Central Asia similar to the modern
+Turkomans[116]. The former are first heard of in the basin of the river
+Ili, and being dislodged by the advance of the Yüeh-chih moved
+southwards reaching northwestern India about 150 B.C. Here they founded
+many small principalities, the rulers of which appear to have admitted
+the suzerainty of the Parthians for some time and to have borne the
+title of satraps. It is clear that western India was parcelled out among
+foreign princes called Sakas, Yavanas, or Pallavas whose frontiers and
+mutual relations were constantly changing. The most important of these
+principalities was known as the Great Satrapy which included Surashtra
+(Kathiawar) with adjacent parts of the mainland and lasted until about
+395 A.D.
+
+The Yüeh-chih started westwards from the frontiers of China about 100
+B.C. and, driving the Sakas before them, settled in Bactria. Here
+Kadphises, the chief of one of their tribes, called the Kushans,
+succeeded in imposing his authority on the others who coalesced into one
+nation henceforth known by the tribal name. The chronology of the Kushan
+Empire is one of the vexed questions of Indian history and the dates
+given below are stated positively only because there is no space for
+adequate discussion and are given with some scepticism, that is desire
+for more knowledge founded on facts. Kadphises I (c. 15-45 A.D.) after
+consolidating his Empire led his armies southwards, conquering Kabul and
+perhaps Kashmir. His successor Kadphises II (c. 45-78 A.D.) annexed the
+whole of north-western India, including northern Sind, the Panjab and
+perhaps Benares. There was a considerable trade between India and the
+Roman Empire at this period and an embassy was sent to Trajan,
+apparently by Kanishka (c. 78-123), the successor of Kadphises. This
+monarch played a part in the later history of Buddhism comparable with
+that of Asoka in earlier ages[117]. He waged war with the Parthians and
+Chinese, and his Empire which had its capital at Peshawar included
+Afghanistan, Bactria, Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan[118] and Kashmir. These
+dominions, which perhaps extended as far as Gaya in the east, were
+retained by his successors Huvishka (123-?140 A.D.) and Vasudeva
+(?140-178 A.D.), but after this period the Andhra and Kushan dynasties
+both collapsed as Indian powers, although Kushan kings continued to rule
+in Kabul. The reasons of their fall are unknown but may be connected
+with the rise of the Sassanids in Persia. For more than a century the
+political history of India is a blank and little can be said except that
+the kingdom of Surashtra continued to exist under a Saka dynasty.
+
+Light returns with the rise of the Gupta dynasty, which roughly marks
+the beginning of modern Hinduism and of a reaction against Buddhism.
+Though nothing is known of the fortunes of Pataliputra, the ancient
+imperial city of the Mauryas, during the first three centuries of our
+era, it continued to exist. In 320 a local Raja known as Candragupta I
+increased his dominions and celebrated his coronation by the institution
+of the Gupta era. His son Samudra Gupta continued his conquests and in
+the course of an extraordinary campaign, concluded about 340 A.D.,
+appears to have received the submission of almost the whole peninsula.
+He made no attempt to retain all this territory but his effective
+authority was exercised in a wide district extending from the Hugli to
+the rivers Jumna and Chambal in the west and from the Himalayas to the
+Narbudda. His son Candragupta II or Vikramāditya added to these
+possessions Malwa, Gujarat and Kathiawar and for more than half a
+century the Guptas ruled undisturbed over nearly all northern India
+except Rajputana and Sind. Their capital was at first Pataliputra, but
+afterwards Kausambi and Ayodhya became royal residences.
+
+The fall of the Guptas was brought about by another invasion of
+barbarians known as Hūnas, Ephthalites[119] or White Huns and apparently
+a branch of the Huns who invaded Europe. This branch remained behind in
+Asia and occupied northern Persia. They invaded India first in 455, and
+were repulsed, but returned about 490 in greater force and overthrew the
+Guptas. Their kings Toramāna and Mihiragula were masters of northern
+India till 540 and had their local capital at Sialkot in the Panjab,
+though their headquarters were rather in Bamyin and Balkh. The cruelties
+of Mihiragula provoked a coalition of Hindu princes. The Huns were
+driven to the north and about 565 A.D. their destruction was completed
+by the allied forces of the Persians and Turks. Though they founded no
+permanent states their invasion was important, for many of them together
+with kindred tribes such as the Gurjaras (Gujars) remained behind when
+their political power broke up and, like the Sakas and Kushans before
+them, contributed to form the population of north-western India,
+especially the Rajput clans.
+
+The defeat of the Huns was followed by another period of obscurity, but
+at the beginning of the seventh century Harsha (606-647 A.D.), a prince
+of Thanesar, founded after thirty-five years of warfare a state which
+though it did not outlast his own life emulated for a time the
+dimensions and prosperity of the Gupta Empire. We gather from the
+account of the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan Chuang, who visited his court at
+Kanauj, that the kings of Bengal, Assam and Ujjain were his vassals but
+that the Panjab, Sind and Kashmir were independent. Kalinga, to the
+south of Bengal, was depopulated but Harsha was not able to subdue
+Pulakesin II, the Cālukya king of the Deccan.
+
+Let us now turn for a moment to the history of the south. It is even
+more obscure both in events and chronology than that of the north, but
+we must not think of the Dravidian countries as uninhabited or
+barbarous. Even the classical writers of Europe had some knowledge of
+them. King Pandion (Pāndya) sent a mission to Augustus in 20 B.C.[120]
+Pliny[121] speaks of Modura (Madura) and Ptolemy also mentions this town
+with about forty others. It is said[122] that there was a temple
+dedicated to Augustus at Muziris, identified with Cranganore. From an
+early period the extreme south of the peninsula was divided into three
+states known as the Pāndya, Cera and Cola kingdoms[123]. The first
+corresponded to the districts of Madura and Tinnevelly. Cera or Kerala
+lay on the west coast in the modern Travancore. The Cola country
+included Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madras, with the greater part of Mysore.
+From the sixth to the eighth century A.D. a fourth power was important,
+namely the Pallavas, who apparently came from the north of the Madras
+Presidency. They had their capital at Conjeevaram and were generally at
+war with the three kingdoms. Their king, Narasimha-Varman (625-645 A.D.)
+ruled over part of the Deccan and most of the Cola country but after
+about 750 they declined, whereas the Colas grew stronger and Rajaraja
+(985-1018) whose dominions included the Madras Presidency and Mysore
+made them the paramount power in southern India, which position they
+retained until the thirteenth century.
+
+As already mentioned, the Deccan was ruled by the Andhras from 220 B.C.
+to 236 A.D., but for the next three centuries nothing is known of its
+history until the rise of the Cālukya dynasty at Vatapi (Badami) in
+Bijapur. Pulakesin II of this dynasty (608-642), a contemporary of
+Harsha, was for some time successful in creating a rival Empire which
+extended from Gujarat to Madras, and his power was so considerable that
+he exchanged embassies with Khusru II, King of Persia, as is depicted in
+the frescoes of Ajanta. But in 642 he was defeated and slain by the
+Pallavas.
+
+With the death of Pulakesin and Harsha begins what has been called the
+Rajput period, extending from about 650 to 1000 A.D. and characterized
+by the existence of numerous kingdoms ruled by dynasties nominally
+Hindu, but often descended from northern invaders or non-Hindu
+aboriginal tribes. Among them may be mentioned the following:
+
+1. Kanauj or Pancāla. This kingdom passed through troublous times after
+the death of Harsha but from about 840 to 910 A.D. under Bhoja (or
+Mihira) and his son, it became the principal power in northern India,
+extending from Bihar to Sind. In the twelfth century it again became
+important under the Gaharwar dynasty.
+
+2. Kanauj was often at war with the Palas of Bengal, a line of Buddhist
+kings which began about 730 A.D. Dharmapala (c. 800 A.D.) was
+sufficiently powerful to depose the king of Kanauj. Subsequently the
+eastern portion of the Pala kingdom separated itself under a rival
+dynasty known as the Senas.
+
+3. The districts to the south of the Jumna known as Jejākabhukti
+(Bundelkhand) and Cedi (nearly equivalent to our Central Provinces) were
+governed by two dynasties known as Candels and Kalacuris. The former are
+thought to have been originally Gonds. They were great builders and
+constructed among other monuments the temples of Khajarao. Kīrtivarman
+Chandel (1049-1100) greatly extended their territories. He was a patron
+of learning and the allegorical drama Prabodhacandrodaya was produced at
+his court.
+
+4. The Paramara (Pawar) dynasty of Malwa were likewise celebrated as
+patrons of literature and kings Munja (974-995) and Bhoja (1018-1060)
+were authors as well as successful warriors.
+
+5. Though the Cālukyas of Vatapi were temporarily crushed by the
+Pallavas their power was re-established in 655 and continued for a
+century. The Eastern Cālukyas, another branch of the same family,
+established themselves in Vengi between the Kistna and Godaveri. Here
+they ruled from 609 to 1070 first as viceroys of the Western Cālukyas
+and then as an independent power till they were absorbed by the Colas.
+Yet another branch settled in Gujarat.
+
+6. The Cālukyas of Vatapi were overthrown by the Rāshtrakūtas who were
+masters of the Deccan from about 750 to 972, and reigned first at Nasik
+and then at Manyakheta (Malkhed). Krishna I of this dynasty excavated
+the Kailasa temple at Ellora (c. 760) but many of his successors were
+Jains. During the ninth century the Rāshtrakūtas seem to have ruled over
+most of western India from Malwa to the Tungabhadra.
+
+7. The Rāshtrakūtas collapsed before a revival of the Cālukya dynasty
+which reappears from 993 to 1190 as the Cālukyas of Kalyani (in the
+Nizam's dominions). The end of this dynasty was partly due to the
+usurpation of a Jain named Bijjala in whose reign the sect of the
+Lingāyats arose.
+
+We must now turn to an event of great historical importance although its
+details are not relevant to the subject of this book, namely the
+Mohammedan conquest. Three periods in it may be recognized. First, the
+conquest of Sind in 712 A.D. by the Arabs, who held it till the eleventh
+century but without disturbing or influencing India beyond their
+immediate neighbourhood. Secondly, the period of invasions and dynasties
+which are commonly called Turki (c. 1000-1526 A.D.). The progress of
+Islam in Central Asia coincided with the advance to the west and south
+of vigorous tribes known as Turks or Mongols, and by giving them a
+religious and legal discipline admirably suited to their stage of
+civilization, it greatly increased their political efficiency. The
+Moslim invaders of India started from principalities founded by these
+tribes near the north-western frontier with a military population of
+mixed blood and a veneer of Perso-Arabic civilization, and apart from
+the greater invasions, there were incursions and settlements of Turkis,
+Afghans and Mongols. The whole period was troublous and distracted. The
+third period was more significant and relatively stable. Baber, a
+Turkish prince of Fergana, captured Delhi in 1526 and founded the power
+of the Mughals, which during the seventeenth century deserved the name
+of the Indian Empire.
+
+The first serious Moslim incursions were those of Mahmud of Ghazni, who
+between 997 and 1030 made many raids in which he sacked Kanauj, Muttra,
+Somnath and many other places but without acquiring them as permanent
+possessions. Only the Panjab became a Moslim province. In 1150 the
+rulers of Ghor, a vassal principality near Herat, revolted against
+Ghazni and occupied its territory, whence the chieftain commonly called
+Muhammad of Ghor descended on India and subdued Hindustan as well as the
+Panjab (1175-1206). One of his slaves named Kutb-ud-Din Ibak became his
+general and viceroy and, when Muhammad died, founded at Delhi the
+dynasty known as Slave Sultans. They were succeeded by the Khilji
+Sultans (1290-1318) the most celebrated of whom was the capable but
+ferocious Ala-ud-Din and these again by the Tughlak dynasty. Muhammad
+Adil, the second of this line, attempted to move the capital from Delhi
+to Daulatabad in the Deccan. In 1398 northern India was convulsed by the
+invasion of Timur who only remained a few months but sacked Delhi with
+terrible carnage. Many years of confusion followed, and a dynasty known
+as the Saiyids ruled in greatly diminished territories. But in 1451
+arose the Lodi or Afghan dynasty which held the Panjab, Hindustan and
+Bundelkhand until the advent of the Mughals. These five royal houses do
+not represent successive invasions from the west. Their founders, though
+of diverse origin, were all leaders engaged in the troubled politics of
+northern India, and they all reigned at Delhi, round which a tradition
+of Empire thus grew up. But the succession was disputed in almost every
+case; out of thirty-four kings twelve came to a violent end and not one
+deserved to be called Emperor of India. They were confronted by a double
+array of rivals, firstly Hindu states which were at no period all
+reduced to subjection, and, secondly, independent Mohammedan states, for
+the governors in the more distant provinces threw off their allegiance
+and proclaimed themselves sovereigns. Thus Bengal from the time of its
+first conquest by Muhammad Bakhtyar had only a nominal connection with
+Delhi and declared itself independent in 1338. When Timur upset the
+Tughlak dynasty, the states of Jaunpur, Gujarat, Malwa and Khandesh
+became separate kingdoms and remained so until the time of Akbar. In the
+south one of Muhammad Adil's generals founded the Bahmani dynasty which
+for about a century (1374-1482) ruled the Deccan from sea to sea. It
+then split up into five sultanates with capitals at Bidar, Bijapur,
+Golkonda, Ahmadnagar and Elichpur.
+
+In the twelfth century, the Hindu states were not quite the same as
+those noticed for the previous period. Kanauj and Gujarat were the most
+important. The Palas and Senas ruled in Bengal, the Tomaras at Delhi,
+the Chohans in Ajmer and subsequently in Delhi too. The Mohammedans
+conquered all these states at the end of the twelfth century. Their
+advance was naturally less rapid towards the south. In the Deccan the
+old Hindu dynasties had been replaced by the Hoysalas (c. 1117-1310
+A.D.) and the Yadavas (1180-1309 A.D.) with capitals at Halebid and
+Daulatabad respectively. Both were destroyed by Malik Kafur, the slave
+general of Sultan Ala-ud-Din, but the spirit of the Deccan was not
+broken and within a few years the brothers Bukka and Harihara founded
+the state of Vijayanagar, "the never-to-be-forgotten Empire" as a native
+scholar has aptly termed it, which for more than two centuries was the
+centre of Hindu political power. The imposing ruins of its capital may
+still be seen at Hampi on the Tungabhadra and its possessions comprised
+everything to the south of this, and, at times, also territory to the
+north, for throughout its existence it was engaged in warfare with the
+Bahmani dynasty or the five sultanates. Among its rulers the most
+notable was Krishnadeva (1509-1529) but the arrogance and weakness of
+his successors provoked the five Moslim Sultans to form a coalition.
+They collected an immense army, defeated the troops of Vijayanagar at
+the battle of Talikota and sacked the city (1565).
+
+In two other districts the Hindus were able to retain political
+independence until the time of Akbar, namely Orissa and Rajputana. In
+the former the best known name is Anantavarman Colaganga (1076-1147) who
+built the temple of Jagannath at Puri, established the Eastern Ganga
+dynasty and ruled from the Godaveri to the Ganges. The Mohammedans never
+occupied Rajputana, and though they captured the principal fortresses,
+they did not retain them. The State of Mewar can even boast that it
+never made any but a nominal and honourable submission to the Sultans of
+Delhi. Akbar incorporated the Rajputs in his Empire and by his
+considerate treatment secured their support.
+
+The history of the Mughals may be divided into three periods. In the
+first Baber acquired (1526 A.D.) the dominions of the Lodi dynasty as
+well as Jaunpur, but his death was followed by a troubled interval and
+it was not till the second period (1556-1707) comprising the reigns of
+Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jehan and Aurungzeb that the Empire was securely
+established. Akbar made himself master of practically all India north of
+the Godaveri and his liberal policy did much to conciliate his Hindu
+subjects. He abolished the poll tax levied from non-Moslims and the tax
+on pilgrimages. The reform of revenue administration was entrusted to an
+orthodox Hindu, Todar Mall. Among the Emperor's personal friends were
+Brahmans and Rajputs, and the principal Hindu states (except Mewar) sent
+daughters to his harem. In religion he was eclectic and loved to hear
+theological argument. Towards the end of his life he adopted many Hindu
+usages and founded a new religion which held as one of its principal
+tenets that Akbar was God's Viceregent. His successors, Jehangir and
+Shah Jehan, were also tolerant of Hinduism, but Aurungzeb was a
+fanatical Moslim and though he extended his rule over all India except
+the extreme south, he alienated the affection of his Hindu subjects by
+reimposing the poll tax and destroying many temples. The Rajputs, Sikhs
+and Marathas all rebelled and after his death the Empire entered into
+the third period in which it rapidly disintegrated. Hindu states, like
+the Maratha confederacy and Rajputana, asserted themselves. Mohammedan
+governors declared their independence in Oudh, Bengal, the Nizam's
+dominions and elsewhere: Persians and Afghans raided the Panjab: French
+and English contended for the possession of southern India.
+
+It would be outside the purpose of this book even to outline the
+establishment of British authority, but I may mention that direct
+European influence began to be felt in the sixteenth century, for Vasco
+da Gama arrived in Calicut in 1498 and Goa was a Portuguese possession
+from 1510 onwards. Nor can we linger over the fortunes of the Marathas
+who took the place of Vijayanagar as the Hindu opposition to
+Mohammedanism. They are, however, important for us in so far as they
+show that even in matters political the long Moslim domination had not
+broken the spirit of the Hindus. About 1660 a chieftain named Sivaji,
+who was not merely a successful soldier but something of a fanatic with
+a belief in his divine mission, founded a kingdom in the western Ghats
+and, like the Sikh leaders, almost created a nation, for it does not
+appear that before his time the word Maratha (Mahārāshtra) had any
+special ethnic significance. After half a century the power of his
+successors passed into the hands of their Brahman ministers, known as
+Peshwas, who became the heads of a confederacy of Maratha chiefs,
+including the Rajas of Gwalior, Berar and Orissa, Indore and Baroda.
+About 1760 the Marathas were practically masters of India and though the
+Mughal Emperor nominally ruled at Delhi, he was under their tutelage.
+They had a chance of reviving the glories of Asoka and the Guptas, but,
+even apart from the intervention of Europeans, they were distracted by
+jealousy and quarrels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN RELIGION
+
+1
+
+
+In the first chapter we enquired whether there are any religious ideas
+common to Eastern Asia as a whole and found that they amount to little
+more than a background of nature worship and ancestor worship almost
+universally present behind the official creeds. Also the conception of a
+religious system and its relation to beliefs which do not fall within it
+are not quite the same in these countries as in Europe, so that the
+inhabitants sometimes follow more than one religion.
+
+Let us now examine the characteristics common to Indian creeds. They are
+numerous and striking. A prolonged study of the multitudinous sects in
+which Indian religion manifests itself makes the enquirer feel the truth
+of its own thesis that plurality is an illusion and only the one
+substratum real. Still there are divergent lines of thought, the most
+important of which are Hinduism and Buddhism. Though decadent Buddhism
+differed little from the sects which surrounded it, early Buddhism did
+offer a decided contrast to the Brahmanic schools in its theories as to
+human nature as well as in ignoring tradition and sacerdotalism. We may
+argue that Buddhism is merely Vaishnavism or Saivism in travelling
+dress, but its rejection of Brahmanic authority is of capital
+importance. It is one of the reasons for its success outside India and
+its disappearance in India meant that it could not maintain this
+attitude. Yet many features of Buddhism are due to the fact that
+Hinduism, and not Islam or Christianity, was the national expression of
+religion in India and also many features of Hinduism may be explained by
+the existence of this once vigorous antagonist.
+
+Hinduism[124] has striking peculiarities which distinguish it from
+Christianity, Islam and even from Buddhism. It recognizes no one master
+and all unifying principles known to other creeds seem here to be
+absent. Yet its unity and vitality are clear and depend chiefly on its
+association with the Brahman caste. We cannot here consider the complex
+details of the modern caste system but this seems the place to examine
+the position of the Brahmans, for, from the dawn of Sanskrit literature
+until now, they have claimed to be the guides of India in all matters
+intellectual and religious and this persistent claim, though often
+disputed, has had a great measure of success.
+
+The institution of caste is social rather than religious and has grown
+gradually: we know for instance that in the time of the Buddha it had
+not attained to anything like its present complexity and rigidity. Its
+origin is explicable if we imagine that the Indo-Aryans were an invading
+people with an unusual interest in religion. The Kshatriyas and Vaisyas
+mark the distinction between the warriors or nobles and the plebs which
+is found in other Aryan communities, and the natives whom the Aryans
+conquered formed a separate class, recognized as inferior to all the
+conquerors. This might have happened in any country. The special feature
+of India is the numerical, social and intellectual strength of the
+priestly caste. It is true that in reading Sanskrit literature we must
+remember that most of it is the work of Brahmans and discount their
+proclivity to glorify the priesthood, but still it is clear that in
+India the sacerdotal families acquired a position without parallel
+elsewhere and influenced its whole social and political history. In most
+countries powerful priesthoods are closely connected with the Government
+under which they flourish and support the secular authority. As a result
+of this alliance, kings and the upper classes generally profess and
+protect orthodoxy, and revolutionary movements in religion generally
+come from below. But in ancient India though the priests were glad
+enough to side with the kings, the nobles during many centuries were not
+ready to give up thinking for themselves. The Hindu's capacity for
+veneration and the small inclination of the Brahmans to exercise direct
+government prevented revolts against sacerdotal tyranny from assuming
+the proportions we should expect, but whereas in many countries history
+records the attempts of priests to become kings, the position is here
+reversed. The national proclivity towards all that is religious,
+metaphysical, intellectual and speculative made all agree in regarding
+the man of knowledge who has the secret of intercourse with the other
+world as the highest type. The priests tended to become a hereditary
+guild possessed of a secret professional knowledge. The warrior caste
+disputed this monopoly and sought with less learning but not inferior
+vigour to obtain the same powers. They had some success during a
+considerable period, for Buddhism, Jainism and other sects all had their
+origin in the military aristocracy and had it remained purely Hindu, it
+would perhaps have continued the contest. But it was partly destroyed by
+Turanian invaders and partly amalgamated with them, so that in 500 A.D.
+whereas the Brahmans were in race and temperament very much what they
+were in 500 B.C. the Kshatriyas were different. It is interesting to see
+how this continuity of race brought triumph to the Brahmans in the
+theological sphere. At one time the Buddhists and even the Jains seemed
+to be competitors for the first place, but there are now hardly any
+Indian Buddhists in India[125] and less than a million and a half of
+Jains, whereas Hinduism has more than 217 million adherents. The power
+of persistence and resistance displayed by the priestly caste is largely
+due to the fact that they were householders not collected in temples or
+monasteries but distributed over the country in villages, intensely
+occupied with the things of the mind and soul, but living a simple
+family life. The long succession of invasions which swept over northern
+India destroyed temples, broke up monasteries and annihilated dynasties,
+but their destructive force had less effect on these communities of
+theologians whose influence depended not on institutions or organization
+but on their hereditary aptitudes. Though the modern Brahmans are not
+pure in race, still the continuity of blood and tradition is greater
+among them than in the royal families of India. Many of these belong to
+districts which were formerly without the pale of Hinduism: many more
+are the descendants of the northern hordes who century after century
+invaded India: few can bring forward any good evidence of Kshatriya
+descent. Hence in India kings have never attained a national and
+representative position like the Emperors of China and Japan or even the
+Sultans of Turkey. They were never considered as the high priests of the
+land or a quasi-divine epitome of the national qualities: the people
+tended to regard them as powerful and almost superhuman beings, but
+somewhat divorced from the moral standard and ideals of their subjects.
+In early times there was indeed the idea of a universal Emperor, the
+Cakravartin, analogous to the Messiah but, by a characteristic turn of
+thought, he was thought of less as a deliverer than as a type of
+superman, recurring at intervals. But monarchs who even approximated to
+this type were rare, and some of the greatest of them were in early ages
+Buddhists and in later Mohammedans, so that they had not the support of
+the priesthood and as time went on it became less and less possible to
+imagine all India rendering sympathetic homage to one sovereign.
+
+In the midst of a perturbed flux of dynasties, usually short lived,
+often alien, only occasionally commanding the affection and respect of
+the population, the Brahmans have maintained for at least two
+millenniums and a half their predominant position as an intellectual
+aristocracy. They are an aristocracy, for they boldly profess to be by
+birth better than other men. Although it is probable that many clans
+have entered the privileged order without genealogical warrant, yet in
+all cases birth is claimed[126]. And though the Brahmans have
+aristocratic faults, such as unreasonable pride of birth, still
+throughout their long history they have produced in every age men of
+intelligence, learning and true piety, in numbers sufficient to make
+their claims to superiority seem reasonable. In all ages they have been
+sensual, ambitious and avaricious, but in all ages penetrated by the
+conviction that desire is a plague and gratification unsatisfying. It is
+the intelligent sensualist and politician who are bound to learn that
+passion and office are vanity.
+
+A Brahman is not necessarily a priest. Although they have continually
+and on the whole successfully claimed a monopoly of sacred science, yet
+at the present day many follow secular callings and probably this was so
+in early periods. And though many rites can be performed by Brahmans
+only, yet by a distinction which it is difficult for Europeans to grasp,
+the priests of temples are not necessarily and, in many places, not
+usually Brahmans. The reason perhaps is that the easy and superstitious
+worship offered in temples is considered trivial and almost degrading in
+comparison with the elaborate ceremonial and subtle speculation which
+ought to occupy a Brahman's life.
+
+In Europe we are accustomed to associate the ideas of sacerdotalism,
+hierarchy and dogma, mainly because they are united in the greatest
+religious organization familiar to us, the Roman Catholic Church. But
+the combination is not necessary. Hinduism is intensely sacerdotal but
+neither hierarchical nor dogmatic: Mohammedanism is dogmatic but neither
+sacerdotal nor hierarchical: Buddhism is dogmatic and also somewhat
+hierarchical, since it has to deal with bodies of men collected in
+monasteries where discipline is necessary, but except in its most
+corrupt forms it is not sacerdotal. The absence of the hierarchical idea
+in Hinduism is striking. Not only is there no Pope, but there is hardly
+any office comparable with a Bishopric[127]. The relationships
+recognized in the priesthood are those springing from birth and the
+equally sacred ties uniting teacher and pupil. Hence there is little to
+remind us of the organization of Christian Churches. We have simply
+teachers expounding their sacred books to their scholars, with such
+combination of tradition and originality as their idiosyncrasies may
+suggest, somewhat after the theory of congregational churches. But that
+resemblance is almost destroyed by the fact that both teachers and
+pupils belong to clans, connected by descent and accepted by the people
+as a superior order of mankind. Even in the most modern sects the
+descendants of the founder often receive special reverence.
+
+Though the Brahmans have no ecclesiastical discipline, they do not
+tolerate the interference of kings. Buddhist sovereigns have summoned
+councils, but not so Hindu monarchs. They have built temples, paid
+priests to perform sacrifices and often been jealous of them but for the
+last two thousand years they have not attempted to control them within
+their own sphere or to create a State Church. And the Brahmans on their
+side have kept within their own province. It is true that they have
+succeeded in imposing--or in identifying themselves with--a most exacting
+code of social, legal and religious prescriptions, but they have rarely
+aimed at temporal power or attempted to be more than viziers. They have
+of course supported pious kings and received support--especially
+donations--from them, and they have enjoyed political influence as
+domestic chaplains to royal families, but they have not consented to any
+such relations between religion and the state as exist (or existed) in
+England, Russia, Mohammedan countries or China. At the ancient
+coronation ceremony the priest who presented the new ruler to his
+subjects said, "This is your King, O people: The King of us Brahmans is
+Soma[128]."
+
+
+2
+
+These facts go far to explain some peculiar features of Hinduism.
+Compared with Islam or Christianity its doctrines are extraordinarily
+fluid, multiform and even inconsistent: its practice, though rarely lax,
+is also very various in different castes and districts. The strangeness
+of the phenomenon is diminished if one considers that the uniformity and
+rigidity of western creeds are due to their political more than to their
+religious character. Like the wind, the spirit bloweth where it listeth:
+it is governed by no laws but those which its own reverence imposes: it
+lives in changing speculation. But in Europe it has been in double
+bondage to the logic of Greece and the law of Rome. India deals in
+images and metaphor: Greece in dialectic. The original thought of
+Christianity had something of this Indian quality, though more sober and
+less fantastic, with more limitation and less imagination. On this
+substratum the Greeks reared their edifices of dialectic and when the
+quarrels of theologians began to disturb politics, the state treated the
+whole question from a legal point of view. It was assumed that there
+must be a right doctrine which the state should protect or even enforce,
+and a wrong doctrine which it should discourage or even forbid. Hence
+councils, creeds and persecutions. The whole position is logical and
+legal. The truth has been defined: those who do not accept it harm not
+only themselves but others: therefore they should be restrained and
+punished.
+
+But in religious matters Hindus have not proceeded in this way as a
+rule. They have adopted the attitude not of a judge who decides, but of
+the humane observer who sees that neither side is completely right or
+completely wrong and avoids expressing his opinion in a legal form.
+Hindu teachers have never hesitated to proclaim their views as the whole
+and perfect truth. In that indeed they do not yield to Christian
+theologians but their pronouncements are professorial rather than
+judicial and so diverse and yet all so influential that the state,
+though bound to protect sound doctrine, dare not champion one more than
+the other. Religious persecution is rare. It is not absent but the
+student has to search for instances, whereas in Christian Europe they
+are among the most conspicuous facts of history.
+
+Restless, subtle and argumentative as Hindu thought is, it is less prone
+than European theology to the vice of distorting transcendental ideas by
+too stringent definition. It adumbrates the indescribable by metaphors
+and figures. It is not afraid of inconsistencies which may illustrate
+different aspects of the infinite, but it rarely tries to cramp the
+divine within the limits of a logical phrase. Attempts to explain how
+the divine and human nature were combined in Christ convulsed the
+Byzantine Empire and have fettered succeeding generations with their
+stiff formulae. It would be rash to say that the ocean of Hindu
+theological literature contains no speculations about the incarnations
+of Vishnu similar to the views of the Nestorians, Monophysites and
+Catholics, but if such exist they have never attracted much interest or
+been embodied in well-known phrases[129]. The process by which a god can
+be born as a man, while continuing to exist as a god, is not described
+in quasi-legal language. Similarly the Soma offered in sacrifices is a
+god as well as a drink. But though the ritual of this sacrifice has
+produced an infinity of discussion and exegesis, no doctrine like
+transubstantiation or consubstantiation has assumed any prominence.
+
+The Hindu has an extraordinary power of combining dogma and free
+thought, uniformity and variety. For instance it is held that the Vedas
+are a self-existent, eternal revelation made manifest to ancient sages
+and that their correct recitation ensures superhuman results. Yet each
+Veda exists in several recensions handed down by oral tradition in
+separate schools, and though the exact text and pronunciation are
+matters of the utmost importance, diversities of opinion respecting them
+are tolerated and honoured. Further, though the early scriptures were
+preserved with scrupulous care the canon was never closed. It is
+impossible to say how many Upanishads there are, nor does a Hindu think
+the less of an Upanishad because it is not found in a certain list. And
+in mediaeval and modern times these ancient sacred books have been
+replaced for all except Brahmans by more recent Sanskrit works, or by a
+vernacular literature which, though having no particular imprimatur,
+claims the same authority as the Vedas[130].
+
+The only essential tenets of Hinduism are recognition of the Brahman
+caste and divine authority of the Vedas. Those who publicly deny these
+doctrines as the Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs have done, put themselves
+outside the pale, but the recognition required to ensure orthodoxy or at
+least to avoid excommunication must not be compared with that implied by
+such phrases as recognizing the authority of the Bible, or the supremacy
+of the Pope. The utmost latitude of interpretation is allowed and the
+supposed followers of the Veda comprise sects whose beliefs seem to have
+no relation to one another or to the Veda, philosophic atheists and
+demonolaters whose religious ideas hardly rise above those of African
+savages.
+
+One explanation may be, that every nation insists on liberty at the
+expense of logic in the matters which interest it most. We do this in
+politics. It might be difficult to make an untravelled oriental
+understand how parliamentary institutions can continue for a day, how
+socialists and republicans can take part in the government of a
+monarchical country, and why the majority do not muzzle the opposition.
+Yet Englishmen prefer to let this curious illogical muddle continue
+rather than tolerate some symmetrical and authoritative system which
+would check free speech and individuality. It is the same in Indian
+religion. In all ages the Hindu has been passionately devoted to
+speculation. He will bear heavy burdens in the way of priestly exaction,
+social restrictions, and elaborate ceremonies, but he will not allow
+secular or even ecclesiastical authority to cramp and school his
+religious fancy, nor will he be deterred from sampling an attractive
+form of speculation merely because it is pronounced unorthodox by the
+priesthood, and the priesthood, being themselves Hindus, are discreet in
+the use of anathemas. They insist not so much on particular doctrines
+and rites as on the principle that whatever the doctrine, whatever the
+rite, they must be the teachers and officiants. In critical and
+revolutionary times the Brahmans have often assured their pre-eminence
+by the judicious recognition of heresies. In all ages there has been a
+conservative clique which restricted religion to ceremonial observances.
+Again and again some intellectual or emotional outburst has swept away
+such narrow limits and proclaimed doctrines which seemed subversive of
+the orthodoxy of the day. But they have simply become the orthodoxy of
+the morrow, under the protection of the same Brahman caste. The
+assailants are turned into champions, and in time the bold reformers
+stiffen into antiquated saints.
+
+Hinduism has not been made but has grown. It is a jungle not a building.
+It is a living example of a great national paganism such as might have
+existed in Europe if Christianity had not become the state religion of
+the Roman Empire, if there had remained an incongruous jumble of old
+local superstitions, Greek philosophy and oriental cults such as the
+worship of Mithra or Serapis. Yet the parallel is not exact, for in Rome
+many of the discordant religious elements remained exotic, whereas in
+India they all, whatever their origin, became Indian and smack of the
+soil. There was wanting in European paganism the bond of union supplied
+by the Brahmans who by sometimes originating, sometimes tolerating and
+adapting, have managed to set their seal upon all Indian beliefs.
+
+
+3
+
+Thus the dominance of the Brahmans and their readiness to countenance
+every cult and doctrine which can attract worshippers explains the
+diversity of Indian religion, but are there no general characteristics
+which mark all its multiple forms? There are, and they apply to Buddhism
+as well as Hinduism, but in attempting to formulate them it is well to
+say that Indian religion is as wilful and unexpected in its variations
+as human nature itself and that all generalizations about it are subject
+to exceptions. If we say that it preaches asceticism and the subjection
+of the flesh, we may be confronted with the Vallabhācāryas who inculcate
+self-indulgence; if we say that it teaches reincarnation and successive
+lives, we may be told that the Lingāyats[131] do not hold that doctrine.
+And though we might logically maintain that these sects are unorthodox,
+yet it does not appear that Hindus excommunicate them. Still, it is just
+to say that the doctrines mentioned are characteristic of Hinduism and
+are repudiated only by eccentric sects.
+
+Perhaps the idea which has had the widest and most penetrating influence
+on Indian thought is that conception of the Universe which is known as
+Samsāra, the world of change and transmigration. The idea of rebirth and
+the wandering of souls from one body to another exists in a fragmentary
+form among savage tribes in many countries, but in India it makes its
+appearance as a product of ripening metaphysics rather than as a
+survival. It plays no part in the Vedic hymns: it first acquires
+importance in the older Upanishads but more as a mystery to be
+communicated to the elect than as a popular belief and to some extent as
+the special doctrine of the military class rather than of the Brahmans.
+At the time of the Buddha, however, it had passed beyond this stage and
+was as integral a part of popular theology as is the immortality of the
+soul in Europe.
+
+Such expressions as the transmigration of souls or metempsychosis
+imperfectly represent Indian ideas. They are incorrect as descriptions
+of Buddhist dogmas, which start by denying the existence of a soul, and
+they are not entirely suitable to those Vedantic schools which regard
+transmigration as part of the illusory phenomenal world. The thought
+underlying the doctrine is rather that as a child grows into youth and
+age, so the soul passes from life to life in continuity if not in
+identity. Whatever the origin of the idea may have been, its root in
+post-Vedic times is a sense of the transitoriness but continuity of
+everything. Nothing is eternal or even permanent: not even the gods, for
+they must die, not even death, for it must turn into new life.
+
+This view of life is ingrained in Indian nature. It is not merely a
+scientific or philosophical speculation, but it summarizes the outlook
+of ordinary humanity. In Europe the average religious man thanks or at
+least remembers his Creator. But in India the Creator has less place in
+popular thought. There is a disinclination to make him responsible for
+the sufferings of the world, and speculation, though continually
+occupied with the origins of things, rarely adopts the idea familiar to
+Christians and Mohammedans alike, that something was produced out of
+nothing by the divine fiat. Hindu cosmogonies are various and discordant
+in details, but usually start with the evolution or emanation of living
+beings from the Divinity and often a reproductive act forms part of the
+process, such as the hatching of an egg or the division of a Divinity
+into male and female halves. In many accounts the Deity brings into
+being personages who continue the work of world-making and such entities
+as mind, time and desire are produced before the material world. But
+everything in these creation stories is figurative. The faithful are not
+perplexed by the discrepancies in the inspired narratives, and one can
+hardly imagine an Indian sect agitated by the question whether God made
+the world in six literal days.
+
+All religious doctrines, especially theories about the soul, are matters
+of temperament. A race with more power of will and more delight in life
+might have held that the soul is the one agent that can stand firm and
+unshaken midst the flux of circumstance. The intelligent but passive
+Hindu sees clearly that whatever illusions the soul may have, it really
+passes on like everything else and continueth not in one stay. He is
+disposed to think of it not as created with the birth of the body, but
+as a drop drawn from some ocean to which it is destined to return. As a
+rule he considers it to be immortal but he does not emphasize or value
+personality in our sense. In previous births he has already been a great
+many persons and he will be a great many more. Whatever may be the
+thread between these existences it is not individuality. And what he
+craves is not eternal personal activity, but unbroken rest in which
+personality, even if supposed to continue, can have little meaning.
+
+The character of the successive appearances or tenements of the soul is
+determined by the law of Karma, which even more than metempsychosis is
+the basis of Indian ideas about the universe. Karma is best known as a
+term of the Buddhists, who are largely responsible both for the
+definition and wide diffusion of the doctrine. But the idea is Brahmanic
+as well as Buddhist and occurs in well-known passages of the Upanishads,
+where it is laid down that as a man acts so shall he be in the next
+life[132]. The word (which means simply _deed_) is the accepted
+abbreviation for the doctrine that all deeds bring upon the doer an
+accurately proportionate consequence either in this existence, or, more
+often, in a future birth. At the end of a man's life his character or
+personality is practically the sum of his acts, and when extraneous
+circumstances such as worldly position disappear, the soul is left with
+nothing but these acts and the character they have formed as, in Indian
+language, the fruit of life and it is these acts and this character
+which determine its next tenement. That tenement is simply the home
+which it is able to occupy in virtue of the configuration and qualities
+which it has induced in itself. It cannot complain.
+
+One aspect of the theory of Samsāra which is important for the whole
+history of Indian thought is its tendency towards pessimism. This
+tendency is specially definite and dogmatic in Buddhism, but it is a
+marked characteristic of the Indian temperament and appears in almost
+every form of devotion and speculation. What salvation or the desire to
+be saved is to the ordinary Protestant, Mukti or Moksha, deliverance, is
+to the ordinary Hindu. In Buddhism this desire is given a dogmatic basis
+for it is declared that all existence in all possible worlds necessarily
+involves dukkha or suffering[133] and this view seems to have met with
+popular as well as philosophic assent. But the desire for release and
+deliverance is based less on a contemplation of the woes of life than on
+a profound sense of its impermanence and instability[134]. Life is not
+the preface to eternity, as religious Europeans think: the Hindu justly
+rejects the notion that the conduct of the soul during a few score years
+can fix its everlasting destiny. Every action is important for it helps
+to determine the character of the next life, but this next life, even if
+it should be passed in some temporary heaven, will not be essentially
+different from the present. Before and behind there stretches a vista of
+lives, past, present and to come, impermanent and unsatisfying, so that
+future existences are spoken of not as immortality but as repeated
+death.
+
+
+4
+
+This sense of weary reiteration is increased by two other doctrines,
+which are prevalent in Hinduism, though not universal or uncontested.
+The first of them identifies the human soul with the supreme and only
+Being. The doctrine of Samsāra holds that different forms of existence
+may be phases of the same soul and thus prepares the way for the
+doctrine that all forms of existence are the same and all souls parts
+of, or even identical with the Ātman or Self, the divine soul which not
+only pervades the world but _is_ the world. Connected with this doctrine
+is another, namely, that the whole world of phenomena is Māyā or
+illusion. Nothing really exists except the supreme Ātman: all perception
+of plurality and difference is illusion and error: the reality is unity,
+identity and rest. The development of these ideas leads to some of the
+principal systems of philosophy and will claim our attention later. At
+present I merely give their outlines as indicative of Hindu thought and
+temperament. The Indian thinks of this world as a circular and unending
+journey, an ocean without shore, a shadow play without even a plot. He
+feels more strongly than the European that change is in itself an evil
+and he finds small satisfaction in action for its own sake. All his
+higher aspirations bid him extricate himself from this labyrinth of
+repeated births, this phantasmagoria of fleeting, unsubstantial visions
+and he has generally the conviction that this can be done by knowledge,
+for since the whole Samsāra is illusion, it collapses and ceases so soon
+as the soul knows its own real nature and its independence of phenomena.
+This conviction that the soul in itself is capable of happiness and in
+order to enjoy needs only the courage to know itself and be itself goes
+far to correct the apathy which is the great danger of Indian thought.
+It is also just to point out that from the Upanishads down to the
+writings of Rabindranath Tagore in the present day Indian literature
+from time to time enunciates the idea that the whole universe is the
+manifestation of some exuberant force giving expression to itself in
+joyous movement. Thus the Taittirīya Upanishad (III. 6) says: "Bliss is
+Brahman, for from bliss all these beings are born, by bliss when born
+they live, into bliss they enter at their death."
+
+It is remarkable that Indian thought, restless and speculative as it is,
+hardly ever concerns itself with the design, object or end of the world.
+The notion of [Greek: Telos] plays little part in its cosmogony or
+ethics[135]. The Universe is often regarded as a sport, a passing whim
+of the divine Being, almost a mistake. Those legends which describe it
+as the outcome of a creative act, generally represent the creator as
+moved by some impulse to multiply himself rather than as executing some
+deliberate if mysterious plan. Legends about the end of the world and
+the establishment of a better order are rare. Hindu chronology revels in
+periods, whose enormous length though expressed in figures leaves no
+real impression on the mind, days and nights of Brahma, Kalpas,
+Manvantaras and Yugas, in which gods and worlds are absorbed into the
+supreme essence and born again. But there is no finality about these
+catastrophes: the destruction of the whole universe is as certain as the
+death of a mouse and to the philosopher not more important[136].
+Everything is periodic: Buddhas, Jinas and incarnations of all sorts are
+all members of a series. They all deserve great respect and are of great
+importance in their own day, but they are none of them final, still less
+are they able to create a new heaven and earth or to rise above the
+perpetual flux of Samsāra. The Buddhists look forward to the advent of
+Maitreya, the future Buddha, and the Hindus to the reappearance of
+Vishnu as Kalkī, who, sword in hand and mounted on a white horse, will
+purge India of barbarians, but these future apparitions excite only a
+feeble interest in the popular conscience and cannot be compared in
+intensity with such ideas as the Jewish Messiah.
+
+It may seem that Indian religion is dreamy, hopeless, and unpractical,
+but another point of view will show that all Indian systems are
+intensely practical and hopeful. They promise happiness and point out
+the way. A mode of life is always prescribed, not merely by works on law
+and ceremony but by theological and metaphysical treatises. These are
+not analogous to the writings of Kant or Schopenhauer and to study them
+as if they were, is like trying to learn riding or cricket by reading
+handbooks. The aphorisms of the Sānkhya and Vednāta are meant to be read
+under the direction of a teacher who will see that the pupil's mind is
+duly prepared not only by explanation but by abstinence and other
+physical training. Hindu religions are unpractical only in so far that
+they decline to subordinate themselves to human life. It is assumed that
+the religious man who is striving towards a goal beyond this world is
+ready to sacrifice the world without regret and in India the assumption
+is justified surprisingly often.
+
+As mentioned already the word god has more than one meaning. In India we
+have at least two different classes of divinities, distinguished in the
+native languages. First there is Brahman the one self-existent,
+omnipresent, superpersonal spirit from whom all things emanate and to
+whom all things return. The elaboration of this conception is the most
+original feature of Indian theology, which tends to regard Brahman as
+not merely immanent in all things, but as being all things, so that the
+soul liberated from illusion can see that it is one with him and that
+nothing else exists. Very different is the meaning of Deva: this
+signifies a god (which is not the same as God, though our language
+insufficiently distinguishes the two) roughly comparable with the gods
+of classical mythology[137]. How little sense of divinity it carries
+with it is seen by the fact that it became the common form of address to
+kings and simply equivalent to Your Majesty. In later times, though Siva
+is styled Mahādeva, it was felt that the great sectarian gods, who are
+for their respective worshippers the personal manifestations in which
+Brahman makes himself intelligible, required some name distinguishing
+them from the hosts of minor deities. They are commonly spoken of by
+some title signifying the Lord: thus Siva is Īsvara, Vishnu and his
+incarnations are more often styled Bhagavad.
+
+From the Vedic hymns onwards the gods of India have been polymorphic
+figures not restricted by the limitations of human personality. If a Jew
+or a Moslim hears new views about God, he is disposed to condemn them as
+wrong. The Hindu's inclination is to appropriate them and ascribe to his
+own deity the novel attributes, whether they are consistent with the
+existing figure or not. All Indian gods are really everything. As the
+thought of the worshipper wanders among them they turn into one another.
+Even so sturdy a personality as Indra is declared to be the same as Agni
+and as Varuna, and probably every deity in the Vedic pantheon is at some
+time identified with another deity. But though in one way the gods seem
+vague and impersonal, in another the distinction between gods and men is
+slight. The Brāhmanas tell us that the gods were originally mortal and
+obtained immortality by offering sacrifices: the man who sacrifices like
+them makes for himself an immortal body in the abode of the gods and
+practically becomes a Deva and the bliss of great sages is declared
+equal to the bliss of the gods[138]. The human and divine worlds are not
+really distinct, and as in China and Japan, distinguished men are
+deified. The deification of Buddha takes place before our eyes as we
+follow the course of history: the origin of Krishna's godhead is more
+obscure but it is probable that he was a deified local hero. After the
+period of the Brāhmanas the theory that deities manifest themselves to
+the world in avatāras or descents, that is in our idiom incarnations,
+becomes part of popular theology.
+
+There are other general characteristics of Indian religion which will be
+best made clear by more detailed treatment in succeeding chapters. Such
+are, firstly, a special theory of sacrifice or ritual which, though
+totally rejected by Buddhism, has survived to modern times. Secondly, a
+belief in the efficacy of self-mortification as a means of obtaining
+super-human powers or final salvation. Thirdly, an even more deeply
+rooted conviction that salvation can be obtained by knowledge. Fourthly,
+there is the doctrine that faith or devotion to a particular deity is
+the best way to salvation, but this teaching, though it seems natural to
+our minds, does not make its appearance in India until relatively late.
+It is not so peculiarly Indian as the other ideas mentioned, but even at
+the outset it is well to insist on its prevalence during the last two
+thousand years because a very false impression may be produced by
+ignoring it.
+
+There also runs through Indian religion a persistent though
+inconspicuous current of non-theistic thought. It does not deny the
+existence of spirits but it treats them as being, like men, subject to
+natural laws, though able, like men, to influence events. The ultimate
+truth for it is not pantheism but fixed natural laws of which no
+explanation is offered. The religion of the Jains and the Sānkhya
+philosophy belong to this current. So did the teaching of several
+ancient sects, such as the Ājīvģkas, and strictly speaking Buddhism
+itself. For the Buddha is not an Avatāra or a messenger but a superman
+whose exceptional intelligence sees that the Wheel of Causation and the
+Four Truths are part of the very nature of things. It is strange too
+that asceticism, sacrifices and modern tantric rites which seem to us
+concerned with the relations between man and God are in India penetrated
+by a non-theistic theory, namely that there are certain laws which can
+be studied and applied, much like electricity, and that then spirits can
+be coerced to grant what the ascetic or sacrificer desires. At the same
+time such views are more often implied than formulated. The Dharma is
+spoken of as the teaching of the Buddha rather than as Cosmic Order like
+the Tao of the Chinese and though tantric theory assumes the existence
+of certain forces which can be used scientifically, the general
+impression produced by tantric works is that they expound an intricate
+mythology and ritual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VEDIC DEITIES AND SACRIFICES
+
+1
+
+
+Our knowledge of early Indian religion is derived almost entirely from
+literature. After the rise of Buddhism this is supplemented to some
+extent by buildings, statues and inscriptions, but unlike Egypt and
+Babylonia, pre-Buddhist India has yielded no temples, images or other
+religious antiquities, nor is it probable that such will be discovered.
+Certainly the material for study is not scanty. The theological
+literature of India is enormous: the difficulty is to grasp it and
+select what is important. The enquirer is confronted with a series of
+encyclopędic works of great bulk and considerable antiquity, treating of
+every aspect of religion which interested the Brahmans. But he
+continually feels the want of independent testimony to check their
+statements. They set forth the views of their authors but whether those
+views met with general acceptance outside the Brahmanic caste and
+influenced Indian life as a whole or whether classes, such as the
+military caste, or regions, such as western India and Dravidian India,
+had different views, it is often hard to say. Even more serious is the
+difficulty of chronology which affects secular as well as religious
+literature. The feats of Hindus in the matter of computing time show in
+the most extravagant form the peculiarities of their mental temperament,
+for while in their cosmogonies ęons whose length the mind can hardly
+grasp are tabulated with the names of their superhuman rulers there are
+few[139] dates in the pre-Mohammedan history which can be determined
+from purely Indian sources. The fragments of obscure Greek writers and
+the notes of a travelling Chinaman furnish more trustworthy data about
+important epochs in the history of the Hindus than the whole of their
+gigantic literature, in which there has been found no mention of
+Alexander's invasion and only scattered allusions to the conquests of
+the Sakas, Kushans and Hūnas. We can hardly imagine doubt as to the
+century in which Shakespeare or Virgil lived, yet when I first studied
+Sanskrit the greatest of Indian dramatists, Kalidasa, was supposed to
+have lived about 50 B.C. His date is not yet fixed with unanimity but it
+is now generally placed in the fifth or sixth century A.D.
+
+This chronological chaos naturally affects the value of literature as a
+record of the development of thought. We are in danger of moving in a
+vicious circle: of assigning ideas to an epoch because they occur in a
+certain book, while at the same time we fix the date of the book in
+virtue of the ideas which it contains. Still we may feel some security
+as to the sequence, if not the exact dates, of the great divisions in
+Indian religious literature such as the period of the Vedic hymns, the
+period of the Brāhmanas, the rise of Buddhism, the composition of the
+two great epics, and the Puranas. If we follow the opinion of most
+authorities and accept the picture of Indian life and thought contained
+in the Pali Tripitaka as in the main historical, it seems to follow that
+both the ritual system of the Brāhmanas and the philosophic speculations
+of the Upanishads were in existence by 500 B.C.[140] and sufficiently
+developed to impress the public mind with a sense of their futility.
+Some interval of mental growth seems to separate the Upanishads from the
+Brāhmanas and a more decided interval separates the Brāhmanas from the
+earlier hymns of the Rig Veda, if not from the compilation of the whole
+collection[141]. We may hence say that the older Upanishads and
+Brahmanas must have been composed between 800 and 500 B.C. and the hymns
+of the Rig Veda hardly later than 1000 B.C. Many authorities think the
+earlier hymns must date from 2000 rather than 1000 B.C. but the
+resemblance of the Rig Veda to the Zoroastrian Gathas (which are
+generally regarded as considerably later than 1000 B.C.) is plain, and
+it will be strange if the two collections prove to be separated by an
+interval of many centuries. But the stage of social and religious
+culture indicated in the Vedic hymns may have begun long before they
+were composed, and rites and deities common to Indians and Iranians
+existed before the reforms of Zoroaster[142].
+
+It may seem that everything is uncertain in this literature without
+dates or authors and that the growth of religion in India cannot be
+scientifically studied. The difficulties are indeed considerable but
+they are materially reduced by the veneration in which the ancient
+scriptures were held, and by the retentiveness of memory and devotion to
+grammar, if not to history, which have characterized the Brahmans for at
+least twenty-five centuries. The authenticity of certain Vedic texts is
+guaranteed not only by the quotations found in later works, but by
+treatises on phonetics, grammar and versification as well as by indices
+which give the number of words in every book, chapter and verse. We may
+be sure that we possess not perhaps the exact words of the Vedic poets,
+but what were believed about 600 B.C. to be their exact words, and there
+is no reason to doubt that this is a substantially correct version of
+the hymns as recited several centuries earlier[143].
+
+In drawing any deductions from the hymns of the Rig Veda it must be
+remembered that it is the manual of the Hotri priests[144]. This does
+not affect the age or character of the single pieces: they may have been
+composed at very different dates and they are not arranged in the order
+in which the priest recites them. But the liturgical character of the
+compilation does somewhat qualify its title to give a complete picture
+of religion. One could not throw doubt on a ceremony of the Church,
+still less on a popular custom, because it was not mentioned in the
+missal, and we cannot assume that ideas or usages not mentioned in the
+Rig Veda did not exist at the time when it was composed.
+
+We have no other Sanskrit writings contemporary with the older parts of
+the Rig Veda, but the roots of epic poetry stretch far back and ballads
+may be as old as hymns, though they neither sought nor obtained the
+official sanction of the priesthood. Side by side with Vedic tradition,
+unrecorded Epic tradition built up the figures of Siva, Rāma and Krishna
+which astonish us by their sudden appearance in later literature only
+because their earlier phases have not been preserved.
+
+The Vedic hymns were probably collected and arranged between 1000 and
+500 B.C. At that period rites and ceremonies multiplied and absorbed
+man's mind to a degree unparalleled in the history of the world and
+literature occupied itself with the description or discussion of this
+dreary ceremonial. Buddhism was a protest against the necessity of
+sacrifices and, though Buddhism decayed in India, the sacrificial system
+never recovered from the attack and assumed comparatively modest
+proportions. But in an earlier period, after the composition of the
+Vedic hymns and before the predominance of speculation, skill in
+ceremonial was regarded as the highest and indeed only science and the
+ancient prayers and poems of the race were arranged in three collections
+to suit the ritual. These were the Rig Veda, containing metrical
+prayers: the Yajur Veda (in an old and new recension known as the Black
+and the White) containing formulę mainly in prose to be muttered during
+the course of the sacrifice: and the Sāma Veda, a book of chants,
+consisting almost entirely of verses taken from the Rig Veda and
+arranged for singing. The Rig Veda is clearly older than the others: its
+elements are anterior to the Brahmanic liturgy and are arranged in less
+complete subservience to it than in the Yajur and Sāma Vedas.
+
+The restriction of the words Veda and Vedic to the collection of hymns,
+though convenient, is not in accordance with Indian usage, which applies
+the name to a much larger body of religious literature. What we call the
+Rig Veda is strictly speaking the mantras of the Rig Veda or the
+Rig-Veda-Samhitā: besides this, there are the Brāhmanas or ceremonial
+treatises, the Āranyakas and Upanishads containing philosophy and
+speculation, the Sūtras or aphoristic rules, all comprised in the Veda
+or Sruti (hearing), that is the revelation heard directly by saints as
+opposed to Smriti (remembering) or tradition starting from human
+teachers. Modern Hindus when not influenced by the language of European
+scholars apply the word Veda especially to the Upanishads.
+
+For some time only three[145] Vedas were accepted. But the Epics and the
+Puranas know of the fourfold Veda and place the Atharva Veda on a level
+with the other three. It was the manual of two ancient priestly
+families, the Atharvans and Angirasas, whose speciality was charms and
+prophylactics rather than the performance of the regular sacrifices. The
+hymns and magic songs which it contains were probably collected
+subsequently to the composition of the Brāhmanas, but the separate poems
+are older and, so far as can be judged from their language, are
+intermediate between the Rig Veda and the Brāhmanas. But the substance
+of many of the spells must be older still, since the incantations
+prescribed show a remarkable similarity to old German, Russian and
+Lettish charms. The Atharva also contains speculative poems and, if it
+has not the freshness of the Rig Veda, is most valuable for the history
+of Indian thought and civilization.
+
+I will not here enquire what was the original home of the Aryans or
+whether the resemblances shown by Aryan languages justify us in
+believing that the ancestors of the Hindus, Greeks, Kelts, Slavs, etc.,
+belonged to a single race and physical type. The grounds for such a
+belief seem to me doubtful. But a comparison of language, religion and
+customs makes it probable that the ancestors of the Iranians and Hindus
+dwelt together in some region lying to the north of India and then, in
+descending southwards, parted company and wandered, one band westwards
+to Persia and the other to the Panjab and south-east[146]. These latter
+produced the poets of the Rig Veda. Their home is indicated by their
+acquaintance with the Himalayas, the Kabul river, the Indus and rivers
+of the Panjab, and the Jamna. The Ganges, though known, apparently lay
+beyond their sphere, but the geography of the Atharva extends as far as
+Benares and implies a practical knowledge of the sea, which is spoken of
+somewhat vaguely in the Rig Veda. It is probable that the oldest hymns
+were composed among the rivers of the Panjab, but the majority somewhat
+further to the east, in the district of Kurukshetra or Thanesar. At some
+period subsequent to the Aryan immigration there was a great struggle
+between two branches of the same stock, related in a legendary form as
+the contest between the Kauravas and Pāndavas. Some have thought that we
+have here an indication of a second invasion composed of Aryans who
+remained in the mountainous districts north of the Hindu Kush when the
+first detachment moved south and who developed there somewhat different
+customs. It is also possible that the Atharva Veda may represent the
+religious ideas of these second invaders. In several passages the
+Mahābhārata speaks of the Atharva as the highest Veda and represents the
+Pāndavas as practising polyandry, a custom which still prevails among
+many Himalayan tribes.
+
+The Rig Veda depicts a life not far advanced in material arts but,
+considering the date, humane and civilized. There were no towns but
+merely villages and fortified enclosures to be used as refuges in case
+of necessity. The general tone of the hymns is kindly and healthy; many
+of them indeed have more robust piety than interest. There are few
+indications of barbarous customs. The general impression is of a free
+and joyous life in which the principal actors are chiefs and priests,
+though neither have become tyrannical.
+
+The composition of this anthology probably extended over several
+centuries and comprised a period of lively mental growth. It is
+therefore natural that it should represent stages of religious
+development which are not contemporaneous. But though thought is active
+and exuberant in these poems they are not altogether an intellectual
+outburst excited by the successful advance into India. The calm of
+settlement as well as the fire of conquest have left their mark on them
+and during the period of composition religion grew more boldly
+speculative but also more sedentary, formal and meticulous. The earliest
+hymns bear traces of quasi-nomadic life, but the writers are no longer
+nomads. They follow agriculture as well as pasturage, but they are still
+contending with the aborigines: still expanding and moving on. They
+mention no states or capitals: they revere rivers and mountains but have
+no shrines to serve as religious centres, as repositories and factories
+of tradition. Legends and precepts have of course come down from earlier
+generations, but are not very definite or cogent: the stories of ancient
+sages and warriors are vague and wanting in individual colour.
+
+
+2
+
+The absence of sculpture and painting explains much in the character of
+the Vedic deities. The hymn-writers were devout and imaginative, not
+content to revere some undescribed being in the sky, but full of
+mythology, metaphor and poetry and continually singling out new powers
+for worship. Among many races the conceptions thus evolved acquire
+solidity and permanence by the aid of art. An image stereotypes a deity,
+worshippers from other districts can see it and it remains from
+generation to generation as a conservative and unifying force. Even a
+stone may have something of the same effect, for it connects the deity
+with the events, rites and ideas of a locality. But the earliest stratum
+of Vedic religion is worship of the powers of nature--such as the Sun,
+the Sky, the Dawn, the Fire--which are personified but not localized or
+depicted. Their attributes do not depend at all on art, not much on
+local or tribal custom but chiefly on imagination and poetry, and as
+this poetry was not united in one collection until a later period, a
+bard was under no obligation to conform to the standards of his fellows
+and probably many bards sang without knowing of one another's existence.
+
+Such a figure as Agni or Fire--if one can call him a figure--illustrates
+the fluid and intangible character of Vedic divinities. He is one of the
+greatest in the Pantheon, and in some ways his godhead is strongly
+marked. He blesses, protects, preserves, and inspires: he is a divine
+priest and messenger between gods and men: he "knows all generations."
+Yet we cannot give any definite account of him such as could be drawn up
+for a Greek deity. He is not a god of fire, like Vulcan, but the Fire
+itself regarded as divine. The descriptions of his appearance are not
+really anthropomorphic but metaphorical imagery depicting shining,
+streaming flames. The hymns tell us that he has a tawny beard and hair:
+a flaming head or three heads: three tongues or seven: four eyes or a
+thousand. One poem says that he faces in all directions: another that he
+is footless and headless. He is called the son of Heaven and Earth, of
+Tvashtri and the Waters, of the Dawn, of Indra-Vishnu. One singer says
+that the gods generated him to be a light for the Aryans, another that
+he is the father of the gods. This multiple origin becomes more definite
+in the theory of Agni's three births: he is born on earth from the
+friction of fire sticks, in the clouds as lightning, and in the highest
+heavens as the Sun or celestial light. In virtue of this triple birth he
+assumes a triune character: his heads, tongues, bodies and dwellings are
+three, and this threefold nature has perhaps something to do with the
+triads of deities which become frequent later and finally develop into
+the Trimūrti or Brahmā, Vishnu, and Siva. But there is nothing fixed or
+dogmatic in this idea of Agni's three births. In other texts he is said
+to have two, one in Heaven and one on Earth, and yet another turn of
+fancy ascribes to him births innumerable because he is kindled on many
+hearths. Some of the epithets applied to him become quasi-independent.
+For instance, Agni Vaisvānara--All men's fire--and Agni Tanunapat, which
+seems to mean son of himself, or fire spontaneously generated, are in a
+later period treated almost as separate deities. Mātarisvan is sometimes
+a name of Agni and sometimes a separate deity who brings Agni to
+mankind.
+
+In the same way the Rig Veda has not one but many solar deities. Mitra,
+Sūrya, Savitri, and perhaps Pusan, Bhaga, Vivasvat and Vishnu, are all
+loose personifications of certain functions or epithets of the sun.
+Deities are often thought of in classes. Thus we have the Maruts, Rudras
+and Vasus. We hear of Prajāpati in the singular, but also of the
+Prajāpatis or creative forces.
+
+Not only does Agni tend to be regarded as more than one: he is
+identified with other gods. We are told he is Varuna and Mitra, Savitri
+and Indra. "Thou art Varuna when born," says one hymn, "thou becomest
+Mitra when kindled. In thee, O son of strength, are all the gods[147]."
+Such identifications are common in the Vedas. Philosophically, they are
+an early manifestation of the mental bias which leads to pantheism,
+metempsychosis, and the feeling that all things and persons are
+transitory and partial aspects of the one reality. But evidently the
+mutability of the Vedic gods is also due to their nature: they are
+bundles of epithets and functions without much personal or local centre.
+And these epithets and functions are to a large extent, the same. All
+the gods are bright and swift and helpful: all love sacrifices and
+bestow wealth, sons and cows. A figure like Agni enables us to
+understand the many-sided, inconsistent presentment of Siva and Vishnu
+in later times. A richer mythology surrounds them but in the fluidity of
+their outline, their mutability and their readiness to absorb or become
+all other deities they follow the old lines. Even a deity like Ganesa
+who seems at first sight modern and definite illustrates these ancient
+characteristics. He has one or five heads and from four to sixteen arms:
+there are half a dozen strange stories of his birth and wonderful
+allegories describing his adventures. Yet he is also identified with all
+the Gods and declared to be the creator, preserver and destroyer of the
+Universe, nay the Supreme Spirit itself[148].
+
+In Soma, the sacred plant whose juice was offered in the most solemn
+sacrifices, we again find the combination of natural phenomena and
+divinity with hardly any personification. Soma is not a sacred tree
+inhabited by some spirit of the woods but the Lord of immortality who
+can place his worshippers in the land of eternal life and light. Some of
+the finest and most spiritual of the Vedic hymns are addressed to him
+and yet it is hard to say whether they are addressed to a person or a
+beverage. The personification is not much more than when French writers
+call absinthe "La fée aux yeux verts." Later, Soma was identified with
+the moon, perhaps because the juice was bright and shining. On the other
+hand Soma worship is connected with a very ancient but persistent form
+of animism, for the Vedic poets celebrate as immortal the stones under
+which the plant is pressed and beg them to bestow wealth and children.
+Just so at the present day agricultural and other implements receive the
+salutations and prayers of those who use them. They are not gods in any
+ordinary sense but they are potent forces.
+
+But some Vedic deities are drawn more distinctly, particularly Indra,
+who having more character has also lasted longer than most of his
+fellows, partly because he was taken over by Buddhism and enrolled in
+the retinue of the Buddha. He appears to have been originally a god of
+thunder, a phenomenon which lends itself to anthropomorphic treatment.
+As an atmospheric deity, he conquers various powers of evil,
+particularly Vritra, the demon of drought. The Vedas know of evil
+spirits against whom the gods wage successful war but they have no
+single personification of evil in general, like our devil, and few
+malevolent deities. Of these latter Rudra, the prototype of Siva, is the
+most important but he is not wholly malevolent for he is the god of
+healing and can take away sickness as well as cause it. Indian thought
+is not inclined to dualism, which is perhaps the outcome of a practical
+mind desiring a certain course and seeing everywhere the difficulties
+which the Evil One puts in the way of it, but rather to that pantheism
+which tends to subsume both good and evil under a higher unity.
+
+Indra was the tutelary deity of the invading Aryans. His principles
+would delight a European settler in Africa. He protects the Aryan colour
+and subjects the black skin: he gave land to the Aryans and made the
+Dāsyus (aborigines) subject to them: he dispersed fifty thousand of the
+black race and rent their citadels[149]. Some of the events with which
+he is connected, such as the battles of King Sudas, may have a
+historical basis. He is represented as a gigantic being of enormous size
+and vigour and of gross passions. He feasts on the flesh of bulls and
+buffaloes roasted by hundreds, his potations are counted in terms of
+lakes, and not only nerve him for the fray but also intoxicate him[150].
+Under the name of Sakka, Indra figures largely in the Buddhist sūtras,
+and seems to have been the chief popular deity in the Buddha's lifetime.
+He was adopted into the new creed as a sort of archangel and heavenly
+defender of the faith. In the epics he is still a mighty deity and the
+lord of paradise. Happiness in his heaven is the reward of the pious
+warrior after death. The Mahābhārata and the Puranas, influenced perhaps
+by Buddhism, speak of a series of Indras, each lasting for a cycle, but
+superseded when a new heaven and earth appear. In modern Hinduism his
+name is familiar though he does not receive much worship. Yet in spite
+of his long pre-eminence there is no disposition to regard him as the
+supreme and only god. Though the Rig Veda calls him the creator and
+destroyer of all things[151], he is not God in our sense any more than
+other deities are. He is the personification of strength and success,
+but he is not sufficiently spiritual or mystical to hold and satisfy the
+enquiring mind.
+
+
+3
+
+One of the most interesting and impressive of Vedic deities is Varuna,
+often invoked with a more shadowy double called Mitra. No myths or
+exploits are related of him but he is the omnipotent and omniscient
+upholder of moral and physical law. He established earth and sky: he set
+the sun in heaven and ordained the movements of the moon and stars: the
+wind is his breath and by his law the heavens and earth are kept apart.
+He perceives all that exists in heaven and earth or beyond, nor could a
+man escape him though he fled beyond the sky. The winkings of men's eyes
+are all numbered by him[152]: he knows all that man does or thinks. Sin
+is the infringement of his ordinances and he binds sinners in fetters.
+Hence they pray to him for release from sin and he is gracious to the
+penitent. Whereas the other deities are mainly asked to bestow material
+boons, the hymns addressed to Varuna contain petitions for forgiveness.
+He dwells in heaven in a golden mansion. His throne is great and lofty
+with a thousand columns and his abode has a thousand doors. From it he
+looks down on the doings of men and the all-seeing sun comes to his
+courts to report.
+
+There is much in these descriptions which is unlike the attributes
+ascribed to any other member of the Vedic pantheon and recalls Ahura
+Mazda of the Avesta or Semitic deities. No proof of foreign influence is
+forthcoming, but the opinion of some scholars that the figure of Varuna
+somehow reflects Semitic ideas is plausible. It has been suggested that
+he was originally a lunar deity, which explains his association with
+Mitra (the Persian Mithra) who was a sun god, and that the group of
+deities called Ādityas and including Mitra and Varuna were the sun, moon
+and the five planets known to the ancients. This resembles the
+Babylonian worship of the heavenly bodies and, though there is no record
+whatever of how such ideas reached the Aryans, it is not difficult to
+imagine that they may have come from Babylonia either to India[153] or
+to the country where Indians and Iranians dwelt together. There is a
+Semitic flavour too in the Indian legend of the Churning of the
+Ocean[154]. The Gods and Asuras effect this by using a huge serpent as a
+rope to whirl round a mountain and from the turmoil there arise various
+marvellous personages and substances including the moon. This resembles
+in tone if not in detail the Babylonian creation myths, telling of a
+primęval abyss of waters and a great serpent which is slain by the Gods
+who use its body as the material for making the heavens and the
+earth[155].
+
+Yet Varuna is not the centre of a monotheistic religion any more than
+Indra, and in later times he becomes a water god of no marked
+importance. The Aryans and Semites, while both dissatisfied with
+polytheism and seeking the one among the many, moved along different
+paths and did not reach exactly the same goal. Semitic deities were
+representations of the forces of nature in human form but their
+character was stereotyped by images, at any rate in Assyria and
+Babylonia, and by the ritual of particular places with which they were
+identified. Semitic polytheism is mainly due to the number of tribes and
+localities possessing separate deities, not to the number of deities
+worshipped by each place and tribe. As villages and small towns were
+subordinate to great towns, so the deities of minor localities were
+subordinate to those of the greater. Hence the Semitic god was often
+thought of as a king who might be surrounded by a court and then became
+the head of a pantheon of inferior deities, but also might be thought of
+as tolerating no rivals. This latter conception when combined with moral
+earnestness gives us Jehovah, who resembles Varuna, except that Varuna
+is neither jealous nor national. Indian polytheism also originated in
+the personification of various phenomena, the sun, thunder, fire,
+rivers, and so forth, but these deities unlike the Semitic gods had
+little to do with special tribes or localities and the philosophic
+Indian easily traced a connection between them. It is not difficult to
+see that sun, fire and lightning have something in common. The gods are
+frequently thought of as joined in couples, triads or larger companies
+and early worship probably showed the beginnings of a feature which is
+prominent in the later ritual, namely, that a sacrifice is not an
+isolated oblation offered to one particular god but a series of
+oblations presented to a series of deities. There was thus little
+disposition to exalt one god and annihilate the others, but every
+disposition to identify the gods with one another and all of them with
+something else. Just as rivers, mountains and plains are dimly seen to
+be parts of a whole which later ages call nature, so are the gods seen
+to be parts of some divine whole which is greater than any of them. Even
+in the Rig Veda we find such sentiments as "The priests speak of the One
+Being in many ways: they call it Agni, Yama, Mātarisvan[156]." Hence it
+is not surprising that when in the later Vedic period a tendency towards
+monotheism (but monotheism of a pantheistic type) appears, the supreme
+position is given to none of the old deities but to a new figure,
+Prajāpati. This word, meaning Lord of living creatures, occurs in the
+Rig Veda as an epithet of the sun and is also occasionally used as the
+name of the Being by whom all gods and worlds were generated and by
+whose power they continue to exist. In the Brāhmanas and later ritual
+literature he is definitely recognized as the supreme deity, the
+Creator, the first sacrificer and the sacrifice itself. It is perhaps
+owing to his close connection with ceremonial that enquiring and
+speculative minds felt Prajāpati not to be a final or satisfactory
+explanation of the universe. He is identified with Brahmā, the active
+personal creator, and this later name gradually ousts the other but he
+does not, any more than Indra or Varuna, become the Ātman or supreme
+universal Being of the Upanishads.
+
+The principal Vedic deities are male and the few goddesses that are
+mentioned such as Ushas. the Dawn, seem to owe their sex to purely
+dramatic reasons. Greece and Rome as well as India felt it appropriate
+to represent the daybreak as a radiant nymph. But though in later times
+such goddesses as Durgā assumed in some sects a paramount position, and
+though the Veda is familiar with the idea of the world being born, there
+are few traces in it of a goddess corresponding to the Great Mother,
+Cybele or Astarte.
+
+In an earlier period of Vedic studies many deities were identified with
+figures in the classical or Teutonic mythology chiefly on philological
+grounds but most of these identifications have now been abandoned. But a
+few names and figures seem to be found among both the Asiatic and
+European Aryans and to point to a common stock of ideas. Dyaus, the Sky
+God, is admittedly the same as Zeus and Jupiter. The Asvins agree in
+character, though not in name, with the Dioscuri and other parallels are
+quoted from Lettish mythology. Bhaga, the bountiful giver, a somewhat
+obscure deity, is the same word as the Slavonic Bog, used in the general
+sense of God, and we find _deva_ in Sanskrit, _deus_ in Latin, and
+_devas_ in Lithuanian. Ushas, the Dawn, is phonetically related to
+[Greek: 'Źhōs] and Aurora who, however, are only half deities. Indra, if
+he cannot be scientifically identified with Thor, is a similar personage
+who must have grown out of the same stock of ideas. By a curious
+transference the Prophet Elias has in south-eastern Europe inherited the
+attributes of the thunder god and is even now in the imagination of the
+peasantry a jovial and riotous being who, like Indra, drives a noisy
+chariot across the sky.
+
+The connection with ancient Persian mythology is closer. The Avestan
+religion was a reformation due to the genius of Zoroaster and therefore
+comparable with Buddhism rather than Hinduism, but the less systematic
+polytheism which preceded it contained much which reminds us of the
+Vedic hymns. It can hardly be doubted that the ancestors of the Indians
+and Iranians once practised almost identical forms of religion and had
+even a common ritual. The chief features of the fire cult and of the
+Soma or Haoma sacrifice appear in both. The sacrifice is called Yajńa in
+the Veda, Yasna in the Avesta: the Hotri priest is Zaotar, Atharvan is
+Athravan, Mitra is Mithra. Vāyu and Āpah (the divine waters) meet us in
+the Avesta in almost the same forms and Indra's epithet of Vritrahan
+(the slayer of Vritra) appears as Verethragna. Ahura Mazda seems to be a
+development of the deity who appears as Varuna in India though he has
+not the same name, and the main difference between Indian and Iranian
+religion lies in this, that the latter was systematized by a theistic
+reformer who exalted one deity above the others, whereas in India, where
+there was more religious vitality, polytheistic and pantheistic fancies
+flourished uncurbed and the greatest reformer, the Buddha, was not a
+theist.
+
+One peculiarity of Indians in all ages is that they put more into
+religion than other races. It received most of the energy and talent
+which, elsewhere, went into art, politics and philosophy. Hence it
+became both intense and manifold, for deities and creeds were wanted for
+every stage of intelligence and variety of taste, and also very
+tolerant, for sects in India, though multitudinous, are not so sharply
+divided or mutually hostile as in Europe. Connected with the general
+interest which religion inspired is its strongly marked speculative
+character. The Rig Veda asks whether in the beginning there was being or
+not being, and the later Vedas and Brāhmanas are filled with discussions
+as to the meaning of ceremonies, which show that the most dreary
+formalism could not extinguish the innate propensity to seek for a
+reason. In the Upanishads we have the same spirit dealing with more
+promising material. And throughout the long history of Hinduism religion
+and philosophy are seldom separated: we rarely find detached
+metaphysicians: philosophers found new sects or support old ones:
+religion absorbs philosophy and translates it into theology or myths.
+
+
+4
+
+To the age of the Vedas succeeds that of the Brāhmanas or sacrificial
+treatises. The two periods are distinct and have each a well-marked
+tone, but they pass into one another, for the Yajur and Sāma Vedas
+pre-suppose the ritual of the Brāhmanas. These treatises introduce us to
+one feature of Indian religion mentioned above, namely the extraordinary
+elaboration of its ritual. To read them one would suppose that the one
+occupation of all India was the offering of sacrifices. The accounts are
+no doubt exaggerated and must often be treated as specimens of
+sacerdotal imagination, like the Biblical descriptions of the rites
+performed in the Tabernacle during the wanderings of the Israelites. But
+making all allowance for priestly enthusiasm, it still remains true that
+the intellect of India, so far as it is preserved in literature, was
+occupied during two centuries or so with the sacrificial art and that
+philosophy had difficulty in disentangling itself from ceremonies. One
+has only to compare Greek and Sanskrit literature to see how vast are
+the proportions assumed by ritual in India. Our information about the
+political institutions, the wars and chronology of ancient Greece is
+full, but of the details of Greek worship we hear little and probably
+there was not much to tell. But in India, where there are no histories
+and no dates, we know every prayer and gesture of the officiants
+throughout complicated sacrifices and possess a whole library describing
+their correct performance.
+
+In most respects these sacrifices which absorbed so much intellect and
+energy belong to ancient history. They must not be confounded with the
+ceremonies performed in modern temples, which have a different origin
+and character. A great blow was struck at the sacrificial system by
+Buddhism. Not only did it withdraw the support of many kings and nobles
+(and the greater ceremonies being very costly depended largely on the
+patronage of the wealthy), but it popularized the idea that animal
+sacrifices are shocking and that attempts to win salvation by offerings
+are crude and unphilosophic. But though, after Buddhism had leavened
+India for a few centuries, we no longer find the religious world given
+over to sacrificing as it had been about 600 B.C., these rites did not
+die out. Even now they are occasionally performed in South India and the
+Deccan. There are still many Brahmans in these regions who, if they have
+not the means or learning to perform the greater Vedic ceremonies, at
+any rate sympathize with the mental attitude which they imply, and this
+attitude has many curious features.
+
+The rite of sacrifice, which in the simple form of an offering supposed
+to be agreeable to the deity is the principal ceremony in the early
+stages of most religions, persists in their later stages but gives rise
+to clouds of theory and mystical interpretations. Thus in Christianity,
+the Jewish sacrifices are regarded as prototypes of the death of Christ
+and that death itself as a sacrifice to the Almighty, an offering of
+himself to himself, which in some way acts as an expiation for the sins
+of the world. And by a further development the sacrifice of the mass,
+that is, the offering of portions of bread and wine which are held to be
+miraculously transformed into the body and blood of Christ by the
+manipulations of a qualified priest, is believed to repeat every day the
+tragedy of Calvary. The prevalence of this view in Europe should make us
+chary of stigmatizing Hindu ideas about sacrifice as mental aberrations.
+They represent the fancies of acute intellects dealing with ancient
+ceremonies which they cannot abandon but which they transform into
+something more congenial to their own transitional mode of thought.
+
+Though the Brāhmanas and Upanishads mix up ritual with physical and
+metaphysical theories in the most extraordinary fashion, their main
+motive deserves sympathy and respect. Their weakness lies in their
+inability to detach themselves (as the Buddha succeeded in doing) from a
+ritual which though elaborate was neither edifying nor artistic: they
+seem unable to see the great problems of existence except through the
+mists of altar smoke. Their merit is their evident conviction that this
+formalism is inadequate. Their wish is not to distort and cramp nature
+by bringing it within the limits of the ritual, but to enlarge and
+expand the ritual until it becomes cosmic. If they regard the whole
+universe as one long act of prayer and sacrifice, the idea is grandiose
+rather than pedantic, though the details may not always be to our
+taste[157]. And the Upanishads pass from ritual and theology to real
+speculation in a way unknown to Christian thought. To imagine a
+parallel, we must picture Spinoza beginning with an exposition of the
+Trinity and transubstantiation and proceeding to develop his own system
+without becoming unorthodox.
+
+The conception of the sacrifice set forth in the Brāhmanas is that it is
+a scientific method of acquiring immortality as well as temporal
+blessings. Though originally a mere offering in the _do ut des_
+principle, it has assumed a higher and more mysterious position[158]. We
+are told that the gods obtained immortality and heaven by sacrifice,
+that they created the universe by sacrifice, that Prajāpati, the
+creator, _is_ the sacrifice. Although some writers are disposed to
+distinguish magic sharply from religion, the two are not separated in
+the Vedas. Sacrifice is not merely a means of pleasing the gods: it is a
+system of authorized magic or sacred science controlling all worlds, if
+properly understood. It is a mysterious cosmic force like electricity
+which can be utilized by a properly trained priest but is dangerous in
+unskilful hands, for the rites, if wrongly performed, bring disaster or
+even death on bunglers. Though the Vedic sacrifices fell more and more
+out of general use, this notion of the power of rites and formulae did
+not fade with them but has deeply infected modern Hinduism and even
+Buddhism, in both of which the lore of spells and gestures assumes
+monstrous proportions. The Vedic and modern tantric rituals are
+different but they are based on the same supposition that the universe
+(including the gods which are part of it) is regulated by some
+permeating principle, and that this principle can be apprehended by
+sacred science and controlled by the use of proper methods[159]. So far
+as these systems express the idea that the human mind can grasp the
+universe by knowledge, they offer an example of the bold sweep of the
+Hindu intellect, but the methods prescribed are often fatuous.
+
+The belief in the potency of words and formulae, though amplified and
+embellished by the Hindus, is not an Indian invention but a common
+aspect of early thought which was less emphasized in other countries. It
+is found in Persia and among the tribes of Central and Northern Asia and
+of Northern Europe, and attained a high development in Finland where
+_runot_ or magical songs are credited with very practical efficacy. Thus
+the Kalevala relates how Wäinämöinen was building a boat by means of
+songs when the process came to a sudden stop because he had forgotten
+three words. This is exactly the sort of thing that might happen in the
+legends of a Vedic sacrifice if the priest had forgotten the texts he
+ought to recite.
+
+The external features of Vedic rites are remarkable and unlike what we
+know of those performed by other nations of antiquity. The sacrifice is
+not as a rule a gift presented to a single god to win his favour.
+Oblations are made to most members of the pantheon in the course of a
+prolonged ceremony, but the time, manner and recipients of these
+oblations are fixed rather by the mysteries of sacrificial science, than
+by the sacrificer's need to propitiate a particular deity. Also the
+sacrifice is not offered in a temple and it would appear that in
+pre-Buddhist times there were no religious edifices. It is not even
+associated with sacred spots, such as groves or fountains haunted by a
+deity. The scene of operations requires long and careful preparation,
+but it is merely an enclosure with certain sheds, fireplaces and mounds.
+It has no architectural pretensions and is not a centre round which
+shrines can grow for it requires reconsecration for each ceremony, and
+in many cases must not be used twice. There is little that is national,
+tribal or communal about these rites. Some of them, such as the
+Asvamedha or horse sacrifice and the Rājasaya, or consecration of a
+king, may be attended by games and sports, but that is because they are
+connected with secular events. In their essence sacrifices are not
+popular festivals or holidays but private services, performed for the
+benefit of the sacrificer, that is, the person who pays the fees of the
+priests. Usually they have a definite object and, though ceremonies for
+the attainment of material blessings are not wanting, this object is
+most frequently supramundane, such as the fabrication of a body in the
+heavenly world. It is in keeping with these characteristics that there
+should be no pomp or spectacular effect: the rites resemble some
+complicated culinary operation or scientific experiment, and the
+sacrificial enclosure has the appearance of a laboratory rather than a
+place of worship.
+
+Vedic ritual includes the sacrifice of animals, and there are
+indications of the former prevalence of human sacrifice. At the time
+when the Brāhmanas were composed the human victims were released alive,
+but afterwards the practice of real sacrifice was revived, probably
+owing to the continual incorporation into the Hindu community of
+semi-barbarous tribes and their savage deities. Human victims were
+offered to Mahādevī the spouse of Siva until the last century, and would
+doubtless be offered now, were legal restrictions removed. But though
+the sporadic survival of an old custom in its most primitive and
+barbarous form is characteristic of Hinduism, the whole tendency of
+thought and practice since the rise of Buddhism has been adverse to
+religious bloodshed, even of animals. The doctrine of substitution and
+atonement, of offering the victim on behalf of the sacrificer, though
+not absent, plays a smaller part than in the religions of Western Asia.
+
+Evidently it was not congenial: the Hindu has always been inclined to
+think that the individual earns his future in another world by his own
+thoughts and acts. Even the value of the victim is less important than
+the correct performance of the ceremony. The teaching of the Brāhmanas
+is not so much that a good heart is better than lavish alms as that the
+ritually correct sacrifice of a cake is better than a hecatomb not
+offered according to rule.
+
+The offerings required by the Vedic ritual are very varied. The simplest
+are cakes and libations of melted butter poured on the fire from two
+wooden spoons held one over the other while Vedic verses are recited.
+Besides these there was the animal sacrifice, and still more important
+the Soma[160] sacrifice. This ceremony is very ancient and goes back to
+the time when the Hindus and Iranians were not divided. In India the
+sacrifice lasted at least five days and, even in its simpler forms, was
+far more complicated than any ceremony known to the Greeks, Romans or
+Jews. Only professional priests could perform it and as a rule a priest
+did not attempt to master more than one branch and to be for instance
+either a reciter (Hotri) or singer (Udgātri). But the five-day
+sacrifices are little more than the rudiments of the sacrificial art and
+lead on to the Ahīnas or sacrifices comprising from two to twelve days
+of Soma pressing which last not more than a month. The Ahinas again can
+be combined into sacrificial sessions lasting a year or more[161], and
+it would seem that rites of this length were really performed, though
+when we read of such sessions extending over a hundred years, we may
+hope that they are creations of a fancy like that of the hymn-writer who
+celebrated the state
+
+Where congregations ne'er break up And Sabbaths never end.
+
+The ritual literature of India is enormous and much of it has been
+edited and translated by European scholars with a care that merited a
+better object. It is a mine of information respecting curious beliefs
+and practices of considerable historical interest, but it does not
+represent the main current of religious ideas in post-Buddhist times.
+The Brahmans indeed never ceased to give the sacrificial system their
+theoretical and, when possible, their practical approval, for it
+embodies a principle most dear to them, namely, that the other castes
+can obtain success and heaven only under the guidance of Brahmans and by
+rites which only Brahmans can perform. But for this very reason it
+incurred the hostility not only of philosophers and morally earnest men,
+but of the military caste and it never really recovered from the blow
+dealt it by Buddhism, the religion of that caste. But with every
+Brahmanic revival it came to the front and the performance of the
+Asvamedha or horse sacrifice[162] was long the culminating glory of an
+orthodox king.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ASCETICISM AND KNOWLEDGE
+
+1
+
+
+As sacrifice and ceremonial are the material accompaniments of prayer,
+so are asceticism and discipline those of thought. This is less
+conspicuous in other countries, but in India it is habitually assumed
+that the study of what we call metaphysics or theology needs some kind
+of physical discipline and it will be well to elucidate this point
+before describing the beginnings of speculation.
+
+Tapas, that is asceticism or self-mortification, holds in the religious
+thought and practice of India as large a place as sacrifice. We hear of
+it as early, for it is mentioned in the Rig Veda[163], and it lasts
+longer, for it is a part of contemporary Hinduism just as much as prayer
+or worship. It appears even in creeds which disavow it theoretically,
+_e.g._ in Buddhism, and evidently has its root in a deep-seated and
+persistent instinct.
+
+Tapas is often translated penance but the idea of mortification as an
+expiation for sins committed, though not unknown in India, is certainly
+not that which underlies the austerities of most ascetics. The word
+means literally heat, hence pain or toil, and some think that its origin
+should be sought in practices which produced fever, or tended to
+concentrate heat in the body. One object of Tapas is to obtain abnormal
+powers by the suppression of desires or the endurance of voluntary
+tortures. There is an element of truth in this aspiration. Temperance,
+chastity and mental concentration are great aids for increasing the
+force of thought and will. The Hindu believes that intensity and
+perseverance in this road of abstinence and rapture will yield
+correspondingly increased results. The many singular phenomena connected
+with Indian asceticism have been imperfectly investigated but a
+psychological examination would probably find that subjective results
+(such as visions and the feeling of flying through the air) are really
+produced by the discipline recommended and there may be elements of much
+greater value in the various systems of meditation. But this is only the
+beginning of Tapas. To the idea that the soul when freed from earthly
+desires is best able to comprehend the divine is superadded another
+idea, namely that self-mortification is a process of productive labour
+akin to intellectual toil. Just as the whole world is supposed to be
+permeated by a mysterious principle which can be known and subdued by
+the science of the sacrificing priests, so the ascetic is able to
+control gods and nature by the force of his austerities. The creative
+deities are said to have produced the world by Tapas, just as they are
+said to have produced it by sacrifice and Hindu mythology abounds in
+stories of ascetics who became so mighty that the very gods were
+alarmed. For instance Rāvana, the Demon ruler of Lanka who carried off
+Sītā, had acquired his power by austerities which enabled him to extort
+a boon from Brahmā. Thus there need be nothing moral in the object of
+asceticism or in the use of the power obtained. The epics and dramas
+frequently portray ascetics as choleric and unamiable characters and
+modern Yogis maintain the tradition.
+
+Though asceticism resembles the sacrifice in being a means by which man
+can obtain his wishes whether religious or profane, it differs in being
+comparatively easy. Irksome as it may be, it demands merely strength of
+will and not a scientific training in ritual and Vedic texts. Hence in
+this sphere the supremacy of the Brahman could be challenged by other
+castes and an instructive legend relates how Rāma slew a Sūdra whom he
+surprised in the act of performing austerities. The lowest castes can by
+this process acquire a position which makes them equal to the
+highest[164].
+
+Of the non-Brahmanic sects, the Jains set the highest value on Tapas,
+but chiefly as a purification of the soul and a means of obtaining an
+unearthly state of pure knowledge[165]. In theory the Buddha rejected
+it; he taught a middle way, rejecting alike self-indulgence and
+self-mortification. But even Pali Buddhism admits such practices as the
+Dhūtāngas and the more extravagant sects, for instance in Tibet, allow
+monks to entomb themselves in dark cells. According to our standards
+even the ordinary religious life of both Hindus and Buddhists is
+severely ascetic. It is assumed as a _sine qua non_ that strict chastity
+must be observed, nourishment be taken only to support life and not for
+pleasure, that all gratification coming from the senses must be avoided
+and the mind kept under rigid discipline. This discipline receives
+systematic treatment in the Yoga school of philosophy but it is really
+common to all varieties of Hinduism and Buddhism; all agree that the
+body must be subdued by physical training before the mind can apprehend
+the higher truths. The only question is how far asceticism is directly
+instrumental in giving higher knowledge. If some texts speak slightingly
+of it, we must remember that the life of a hermit dwelling in the woods
+without possessions or desires might not be regarded by a Hindu as
+_tapas_ though we should certainly regard it as asceticism. It is also
+agreed that supernatural powers can be acquired by special forms of
+asceticism. These powers are sometimes treated as mere magic and
+spiritually worthless but their reality is not questioned.
+
+
+2
+
+We have now said something of two aspects of Indian religion--ritual and
+asceticism--and must pass on to the third, namely, knowledge or
+philosophy. Its importance was recognized by the severest ritualists.
+They admitted it as a supplement and crown to the life of ceremonial
+observances and in the public estimation it came to be reputed an
+alternative or superior road to salvation. Respect and desire for
+knowledge are even more intimately a part of Hindu mentality than a
+proclivity to asceticism or ritual. The sacrifice itself must be
+understood as well as offered. He who _knows_ the meaning of this or
+that observance obtains his desires[166].
+
+Nor did the Brahmans resent criticism and discussion. India has always
+loved theological argument: it is the national passion. The early
+Upanishads relate without disapproval how kings such as Ajātasatru of
+Kāsi, Pravāhana Jaivali and Asvapati Kaikeya imparted to learned
+Brahmans philosophical and theological knowledge previously unknown to
+them[167] and even women like Gārgī and Maitreyī took part in
+theological discussions. Obviously knowledge in the sense of
+philosophical speculation commended itself to religiously disposed
+persons in the non-sacerdotal castes for the same reason as asceticism.
+Whatever difficulties it might offer, it was more accessible than the
+learning which could be acquired only under a Brahman teacher, although
+the Brahmans in the interests of the sacerdotal caste maintained that
+philosophy like ritual was a secret to be imparted, not a result to be
+won by independent thought.
+
+Again and again the Upanishads insist that the more profound doctrines
+must not be communicated to any but a son or an accredited pupil and
+also that no one can think them out for himself[168], yet the older ones
+admit in such stories as those mentioned that the impulse towards
+speculation came in early periods, as it did in the time of the Buddha,
+largely from outside the priestly clans and was adopted rather than
+initiated by them. But in justice to the Brahmans we must admit that
+they have rarely--or at any rate much less frequently than other
+sacerdotal corporations--shown hostility to new ideas and then chiefly
+when such ideas (like those of Buddhism) implied that the rites by which
+they gained their living were worthless. Otherwise they showed great
+pliancy and receptivity, for they combined Vedic rites and mythology
+with such systems as the Sānkhya and Advaita philosophies, both of which
+really render superfluous everything which is usually called religion
+since, though their language is decorous, they teach that he who _knows_
+the truth about the universe is thereby saved.
+
+The best opinion of India has always felt that the way of knowledge or
+Jńāna was the true way. The favourite thesis of the Brahmans was that a
+man should devote his youth to study, his maturity to the duties and
+ceremonies of a householder, and his age to more sublime speculations.
+But at all periods the idea that it was possible to know God and the
+universe was allied to the idea that all ceremonies as well as all
+worldly effort and indeed all active morality are superfluous[169]. All
+alike are unessential and trivial, and merit the attention only of those
+who know nothing higher. Human feelings and interests qualified and
+contradicted this negative and unearthly view of religion, but still
+popular sentiment as well as philosophic thought during the whole period
+of which we know something of them in India tended to regard the highest
+life as consisting in rapt contemplation or insight accompanied by the
+suppression of desire and by disengagement from mundane ties and
+interests. But knowledge in Indian theology implies more intensity than
+we attach to the word and even some admixture of volition. The knowledge
+of Brahman is not an understanding of pantheistic doctrines such as may
+be obtained by reading _The Sacred Books of the East_ in an easy chair
+but a realization (in all senses) of personal identity with the
+universal spirit, in the light of which all material attachments and
+fetters fall away.
+
+The earlier philosophical speculations of the Brahmans are chiefly found
+in the treatises called Upanishads. The teaching contained in these
+works is habitually presented as something secret[170] or esoteric and
+does not, like Buddhism or Jainism, profess to be a gospel for all. Also
+the teaching is not systematized and has never been unified by a
+personality like the Buddha. It grew up in the various _parishads_, or
+communities of learned Brahmans, and perhaps flourished most in north
+western India[171]. There is of course a common substratum of ideas but
+they appear in different versions: we have the teaching of Yājńavalkya,
+of Uddālaka Āruni and other masters and each teaching has some
+individuality. They are merely reported as words of the wise without an
+attempt to harmonize them. There are many apparent inconsistencies due
+to the use of divergent metaphors to indicate different aspects of the
+indescribable, and some real inconsistencies due to the existence of
+different schools. Hence, attempts whether Indian or European to give a
+harmonious summary of this ancient doctrine are likely to be erroneous.
+
+There are a great number of Upanishads, composed at various dates and
+not all equally revered. They represent different orders of ideas and
+some of the later are distinctly sectarian. Collections of 45, 52 and 60
+are mentioned, and the Muktikā Upanishad gives a list of 108. This is
+the number currently accepted in India at the present day. But
+Schrader[172] describes many Upanishads existing in MS. in addition to
+this list and points out that though they may be modern there is no
+ground for calling them spurious. According to Indian ideas there is no
+_a priori_ objection to the appearance now or in the future of new
+Upanishads[173]. All revelation is eternal and self-existent but it can
+manifest itself at its own good time.
+
+Many of the more modern Upanishads appear to be the compositions of
+single authors and may be called tracts or poems in the ordinary
+European sense. But the older ones, unless they are very short, are
+clearly not the attempts of an individual to express his creed but
+collections of such philosophical sayings and narratives as a particular
+school thought fit to include in its version of the scriptures. There
+was so to speak a body of philosophic folk-lore portions of which each
+school selected and elaborated as it thought best. Thus an apologue
+proving that the breath is the essential vital constituent of a human
+being is found in five ancient Upanishads[174]. The Chāndogya and
+Brihad-Āranyaka both contain an almost identical narrative of how the
+priest Āruni was puzzled and instructed by a king and a similar story is
+found at the beginning of the Kausīhtaki[175]. The two Upanishads last
+mentioned also contain two dialogues in which king Ajātasatru explains
+the fate of the soul after death and which differ in little except that
+one is rather fuller than the other[176]. So too several well-known
+stanzas and also quotations from the Veda used with special applications
+are found in more than one Upanishad[177].
+
+The older Upanishads[178] are connected with the other parts of the
+Vedic canon and sometimes form an appendix to a Brāhmana so that the
+topics discussed change gradually from ritual to philosophy[179]. It
+would be excessive to say that this arrangement gives the genesis of
+speculation in ancient India, for some hymns of the Rig Veda are purely
+philosophic, but it illustrates a lengthy phase of Brahmanic thought in
+which speculation could not disengage itself from ritual and was also
+hampered by physical ideas. The Upanishads often receive such epithets
+as transcendental and idealistic but in many passages--perhaps in the
+majority--they labour with imperfect success to separate the spiritual
+and material. The self or spirit is sometimes identified in man with the
+breath, in nature with air, ether or space. At other times it is
+described as dwelling in the heart and about the size of the thumb but
+capable of becoming smaller, travelling through the veins and showing
+itself in the pupil: capable also of becoming infinitely large and one
+with the world soul. But when thought finds its wings and soars above
+these material fancies, the teaching of the Upanishads shares with
+Buddhism the glory of being the finest product of the Indian intellect.
+
+In India the religious life has always been regarded as a journey and a
+search after truth. Even the most orthodox and priestly programme admits
+this. There comes a time when observances are felt to be vain and the
+soul demands knowledge of the essence of things. And though later
+dogmatism asserts that this knowledge is given by revelation, yet a note
+of genuine enquiry and speculation is struck in the Vedas and is never
+entirely silenced throughout the long procession of Indian writers. In
+well-known words the Vedas ask[180] "Who is the God to whom we shall
+offer our sacrifice? ... Who is he who is the Creator and sustainer of
+the Universe ... whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death?"
+or, in even more daring phrases[181], "The Gods were subsequent to the
+creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it sprang? He who in
+the highest heaven is the overseer of this universe, he knows or even he
+does not know." These profound enquiries, which have probably no
+parallel in the contemporary literature of other nations, are as time
+goes on supplemented though perhaps not enlarged by many others, nor
+does confidence fail that there is an answer--the Truth, which when known
+is the goal of life. A European is inclined to ask what use can be made
+of the truth, but for the Hindus divine knowledge is an end and a state,
+not a means. It is not thought of as something which may be used to
+improve the world or for any other purpose whatever. For use and purpose
+imply that the thing utilized is subservient and inferior to an end,
+whereas divine knowledge is the culmination and meaning of the universe,
+or, from another point of view, the annihilation of both the external
+world and individuality. Hence the Hindu does not expect of his saints
+philanthropy or activity of any sort.
+
+As already indicated, the characteristic (though not the only) answer of
+India to these questionings is that nothing really exists except God or,
+better, except Brahman. The soul is identical with Brahman. The external
+world which we perceive is not real in the same sense: it is in some way
+or other an evolution of Brahman or even mere illusion. This doctrine is
+not universal: it is for instance severely criticized and rejected by
+the older forms of Buddhism but its hold on the Indian temperament is
+seen by its reappearance in later Buddhism where by an astounding
+transformation the Buddha is identified with the universal spirit.
+Though the form in which I have quoted the doctrine above is an epitome
+of the Vedānta, it is hardly correct historically to give it as an
+epitome of the older Upanishads. Their teaching is less complete and
+uncompromising, more veiled, tentative and allusive, and sometimes
+cumbered by material notions. But it is obviously the precursor of the
+Vedānta and the devout Vedāntist can justify his system from it.
+
+
+3
+
+Instead of attempting to summarize the Upanishads it may be well to
+quote one or two celebrated passages. One is from the
+Brihad-Āranyaka[182] and relates how Yājńavalkya, when about to retire
+to the forest as an ascetic, wished to divide his property between his
+two wives, Kātyāyanī "who possessed only such knowledge as women
+possess" and Maitreyī "who was conversant with Brahman." The latter
+asked her husband whether she would be immortal if she owned the whole
+world. "No," he replied, "like the life of the rich would be thy life
+but there is no hope of immortality." Maitreyī said that she had no need
+of what would not make her immortal. Yājńavalkya proceeded to explain to
+her his doctrine of the Ātman, the self or essence, the spirit present
+in man as well as in the universe. "Not for the husband's sake is the
+husband dear but for the sake of the Ātman. Not for the wife's sake is
+the wife dear but for the sake of the Ātman. Not for their own sake are
+sons, wealth, Brahmans, warriors, worlds, gods, Vedas and all things
+dear, but for the sake of the Ātman. The Ātman is to be seen, to be
+heard, to be perceived, to be marked: by him who has seen and known the
+Ātman all the universe is known.... He who looks for Brahmans, warriors,
+worlds, gods or Vedas anywhere but in the Ātman, loses them all...."
+
+"As all waters have their meeting place in the sea, all touch in the
+skin, all tastes in the tongue, all odours in the nose, all colours in
+the eye, all sounds in the ear, all percepts in the mind, all knowledge
+in the heart, all actions in the hands....As a lump of salt has no
+inside nor outside and is nothing but taste, so has this Ātman neither
+inside nor outside and is nothing but knowledge. Having risen from out
+these elements it (the human soul) vanishes with them. When it has
+departed (after death) there is no more consciousness." Here Maitreyī
+professes herself bewildered but Yājńavalkya continues "I say nothing
+bewildering. Verily, beloved, that Ātman is imperishable and
+indestructible. When there is as it were duality, then one sees the
+other, one tastes the other, one salutes the other, one hears the other,
+one touches the other, one knows the other. But when the Ātman only is
+all this, how should we see, taste, hear, touch or know another? How can
+we know him by whose power we know all this? That Ātman is to be
+described by no, no (neti, neti). He is incomprehensible for he cannot
+be comprehended, indestructible for he cannot be destroyed, unattached
+for he does not attach himself: he knows no bonds, no suffering, no
+decay. How, O beloved, can one know the knower?" And having so spoken,
+Yājńavalkya went away into the forest. In another verse of the same work
+it is declared that "This great unborn Ātman (or Self) undecaying,
+undying, immortal, fearless, is indeed Brahman."
+
+It is interesting that this doctrine, evidently regarded as the
+quintessence of Yājńavalkya's knowledge, should be imparted to a woman.
+It is not easy to translate. Ātman, of course, means self and is so
+rendered by Max Müller in this passage, but it seems to me that this
+rendering jars on the English ear for it inevitably suggests the
+individual self and selfishness, whereas Ātman means the universal
+spirit which is Self, because it is the highest (or only) Reality and
+Being, not definable in terms of anything else. Nothing, says
+Yājńavalkya, has any value, meaning, or indeed reality except in
+relation to this Self[183]. The whole world including the Vedas and
+religion is an emanation from him. The passage at which Maitreyī
+expresses her bewilderment is obscure, but the reply is more definite.
+The Self is indestructible but still it is incorrect to speak of the
+soul having knowledge and perception after death, for knowledge and
+perception imply duality, a subject and an object. But when the human
+soul and the universal Ātman are one, there is no duality and no human
+expression can be correctly used about the Ātman. Whatever you say of
+it, the answer must be _neti, neti_, it is not like that[184]; that is
+to say, the ordinary language used about the individual soul is not
+applicable to the Ātman or to the human soul when regarded as identical
+with it.
+
+This identity is stated more precisely in another passage[185] where
+first occurs the celebrated formula Tat tvam asi, That art Thou, or Thou
+art It[186], _i.e._ the human soul is the Ātman and hence there is no
+real distinction between souls. Like Yājńiavalkya's teaching, the
+statement of this doctrine takes the form of an intimate conversation,
+this time between a Brahman, Uddālaka Āruni, and his son Svetaketu who
+is twenty-four years of age and having just finished his studentship is
+very well satisfied with himself. His father remarks on his conceit and
+says "Have you ever asked your teachers for that instruction by which
+the unheard becomes heard, the unperceived perceived and the unknown
+known?" Svetaketu enquires what this instruction is and his father
+replies, "As by one lump of clay all that is made of clay is known, and
+the change[187] is a mere matter of words, nothing but a name, the truth
+being that all is clay, and as by one piece of copper or by one pair of
+nail-scissors all that is made of copper or iron can be known, so is
+that instruction." That is to say, it would seem, the reality is One:
+all diversity and multiplicity is secondary and superficial, merely a
+matter of words. "In the beginning," continues the father, "there was
+only that which is, one without a second. Others say in the beginning
+there was that only which is not (non-existence), one without a second,
+and from that which is not, that which is was born. But how could that
+which is be born of that which is not[188]? No, only that which is was
+in the beginning, one only without a second. It thought, may I be many:
+may I have offspring. It sent forth fire." Here follows a cosmogony and
+an explanation of the constitution of animate beings, and then the
+father continues--"All creatures have their root in the Real, dwell in
+the Real and rest in the Real. That subtle being by which this universe
+subsists, it is the Real, it is the Ātman, and thou, Svetaketu, art It."
+Many illustrations of the relations of the Ātman and the universe
+follow. For instance, if the life (sap) leaves a tree, it withers and
+dies. So "this body withers and dies when the life has left it: the life
+dies not." In the fruit of the Banyan (fig-tree) are minute seeds
+innumerable. But the imperceptible subtle essence in each seed is the
+whole Banyan. Each example adduced concludes with the same formula, Thou
+art that subtle essence, and as in the Brihad-Āranyaka salt is used as a
+metaphor. "'Place this salt in water and then come to me in the
+morning.' The son did so and in the morning the father said 'Bring me
+the salt.' The son looked for it but found it not, for of course it was
+melted. The father said, 'Taste from the surface of the water. How is
+it?' The son replied, 'It is salt.' 'Taste from the middle. How is it?'
+'It is salt.' 'Taste from the bottom, how is it?' 'It is salt.' ... The
+father said, 'Here also in this body you do not perceive the Real, but
+there it is. That subtle being by which this universe subsists, it is
+the Real, it is the Ātman and thou, Svetaketu, art It.'"
+
+The writers of these passages have not quite reached Sankara's point of
+view, that the Ātman is all and the whole universe mere illusion or
+Māyā. Their thought still tends to regard the universe as something
+drawn forth from the Ātman and then pervaded by it. But still the main
+features of the later Advaita, or philosophy of no duality, are there.
+All the universe has grown forth from the Ātman: there is no real
+difference in things, just as all gold is gold whatever it is made into.
+The soul is identical with this Ātman and after death may be one with it
+in a union excluding all duality even of perceiver and perceived.
+
+A similar union occurs in sleep. This idea is important for it is
+closely connected with another belief which has had far-reaching
+consequences on thought and practice in India, the belief namely that
+the soul can attain without death and as the result of mental discipline
+to union[189] with Brahman. This idea is common in Hinduism and though
+Buddhism rejects the notion of union with the supreme spirit yet it
+attaches importance to meditation and makes Samādhi or rapture the crown
+of the perfect life. In this, as in other matters, the teaching of the
+Upanishads is manifold and unsystematic compared with later doctrines.
+The older passages ascribe to the soul three states corresponding to the
+bodily conditions of waking, dream-sleep, and deep dreamless sleep, and
+the Brihad-Āranyaka affirms of the last (IV. 3. 32): "This is the Brahma
+world. This is his highest world, this is his highest bliss. All other
+creatures live on a small portion of that bliss." But even in some
+Upanishads of the second stratum (Māndukya, Maitrāyana) we find added a
+fourth state, Caturtha or more commonly Turīya, in which the bliss
+attainable in deep sleep is accompanied by consciousness[190]. This
+theory and various practices founded on it develop rapidly.
+
+
+4
+
+The explanation of dreamless sleep as supreme bliss and Yājńavalkya's
+statement that the soul after death cannot be said to know or feel, may
+suggest that union with Brahman is another name for annihilation. But
+that is not the doctrine of the Upanishads though a European perhaps
+might say that the consciousness contemplated is so different from
+ordinary human consciousness that it should not bear the same name. In
+another passage[191] Yājńavalkya himself explains "when he does not
+know, yet he is knowing though he does not know. For knowing is
+inseparable from the knower, because it cannot perish. But there is no
+second, nothing else different from him that he could know." A common
+formula for Brahman in the later philosophy is Saccidānanda, Being,
+Thought and Joy[192]. This is a just summary of the earlier teaching. We
+have already seen how the Ātman is recognized as the only Reality. Its
+intellectual character is equally clearly affirmed. Thus the
+Brihad-Āranyaka (III. 7. 23) says: "There is no seer beside him, no
+hearer beside him, no perceiver beside him, no knower beside him. This
+is thy Self, the ruler within, the immortal. Everything distinct from
+him is subject to pain." This idea that pain and fear exist only as far
+as a man makes a distinction between his own self and the real Self is
+eloquently developed in the division of the Taittirīya Upanishad called
+the Chapter of Bliss. "He who knows Brahman" it declares, "which exists,
+which is conscious, which is without end, as hidden in the depth of the
+heart, and in farthest space, he enjoys all blessings, in communion with
+the omniscient Brahman.... He who knows the bliss (ānandam) of that
+Brahman from which all speech and mind turn away unable to reach it, he
+never fears[193]."
+
+Bliss is obtainable by union with Brahman, and the road to such union is
+knowledge of Brahman. That knowledge is often represented as acquired by
+tapas or asceticism, but this, though repeatedly enjoined as necessary,
+seems to be regarded (in the nobler expositions at least) as an
+indispensable schooling rather than as efficacious by its own virtue.
+Sometimes the topic is treated in an almost Buddhist spirit of
+reasonableness and depreciation of self-mortification for its own sake.
+Thus Yājńavalkya says to Gārgī[194]: "Whoever without knowing the
+imperishable one offers oblations in this world, sacrifices, and
+practises asceticism even for a thousand years, his work will perish."
+And in a remarkable scene described in the Chāndogya Upanishad, the
+three sacred fires decide to instruct a student who is exhausted by
+austerities, and tell him that Brahman is life, bliss and space[195].
+
+Analogous to the conception of Brahman as bliss, is the description of
+him as light or "light of lights." A beautiful passage[196] says: "To
+the wise who perceive him (Brahman) within their own self, belongs
+eternal peace, not to others. They feel that highest, unspeakable bliss
+saying, this is that. How then can I understand it? Has it its own light
+or does it reflect light? No sun shines there, nor moon nor stars, nor
+these lightnings, much less this fire. When he shines everything shines
+after him: by his light all the world is lighted."
+
+In most of the texts which we have examined the words Brahman and Ātman
+are so impersonal that they cannot be replaced by God. In other passages
+the conception of the deity is more personal. The universe is often said
+to have been emitted or breathed forth by Brahman. By emphasizing the
+origin and result of this process separately, we reach the idea of the
+Maker and Master of the Universe, commonly expressed by the word Īsvara,
+Lord. But even when using this expression, Hindu thought tends in its
+subtler moments to regard both the creator and the creature as
+illusions. In the same sense as the world exists there also exists its
+creator who is an aspect of Brahman, but the deeper truth is that
+neither is real: there is but One who neither makes nor is made[197]. In
+a land of such multiform theology it would be hazardous to say that
+Monotheism has always arisen out of Pantheism, but in the speculative
+schools where the Upanishads were composed, this was often its genesis.
+The older idea is that a subtle essence pervades all nature and the
+deities who rule nature: this is spiritualized into the doctrine of
+Brahman attributed to Yājńavalkya and it is only by a secondary process
+that this Brahman is personified and sometimes identified with a
+particular god such as Siva. The doctrine of the personal Īsvara is
+elaborated in the Svetāsvatara Upanishad of uncertain date[198]. It
+celebrates him in hymns of almost Mohammedan monotheism. "Let us know
+that great Lord of Lords, the highest God of Gods, the Master of
+Masters, the highest above, as God, as Lord of the world, who is to be
+glorified[199]." But this monotheistic fervour does not last long
+without relapsing into the familiar pantheistic strain. "Thou art
+woman," says the same Upanishad[200], "and Thou art man: Thou art youth
+and maiden: Thou as an old man totterest along on thy staff: Thou art
+born with thy face turned everywhere. Thou art the dark-blue bee: Thou
+the green parrot with the red eyes. Thou art the thunder cloud, the
+seasons and the seas. Thou art without beginning because Thou art
+infinite, Thou, from whom all worlds are born."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRE-BUDDHIST INDIA
+
+
+In reading the Brāhmanas and older Upanishads we often wish we knew more
+of the writers and their lives. Rarely can so many representative men
+have bequeathed so much literature and yet left so dim a sketch of their
+times. Thought was their real life: of that they have given a full
+record, imperfect only in chronology, for though their speculations are
+often set forth in a narrative form, we hear surprisingly little about
+contemporary events.
+
+The territory familiar to these works is the western part of the modern
+United Provinces with the neighbouring districts of the Panjab, the
+lands of the Kurus, Pancālas, and Matsyas, all in the region of Agra and
+Delhi, and further east Kāsi (Benares) with Videha or Tirhut. Gāndhāra
+was known[201] but Magadha and Bengal are not mentioned. Even in the
+Buddha's lifetime they were still imperfectly brahmanized.
+
+What we know of the period 800 to 600 B.C. is mostly due to the
+Brahmans, and many Indianists have accepted their view, that they were
+then socially the highest class and the repository of religion and
+culture. But it is clear from Buddhist writings (which, however, are
+somewhat later) that this pre-eminence was not unchallenged[202], and
+many admissions in the Brāhmanas and Upanishads indicate that some
+centuries before the Buddha the Kshatriyas held socially the first rank
+and shared intellectual honours with the Brahmans. Janaka, king of
+Videha[203], and Yājńavalkya, the Brahman, meet on terms of mutual
+respect and other Kshatriyas, such as Ajātasatru of Kāsi and Pravāhana
+Jaivali are represented as instructing Brahmans, and the latter in doing
+so says "this knowledge did not go to any Brahman before but belonged to
+the Kshatriyas alone[204]." But as a profession theology, both practical
+and speculative, was left to the Brahmans.
+
+The proper relation between the nobles and Brahmans finds expression in
+the office of Purohita[205] or domestic chaplain, which is as old as the
+Vedas and has lasted to the present day. In early times he was not
+merely a spiritual guide but also a councillor expected to advise the
+king as to his enterprises and secure their success by appropriate
+rites. By king we should understand a tribal chief, entrusted with
+considerable powers in the not infrequent times of war, but in peace
+obliged to consult the clan, or at least the aristocratic part of it, on
+all matters of importance. A Purohita might attain a very high position,
+like Devabhaga, priest of both the Kurus and Srinjayas[206]. The
+Brahmans did not attempt to become kings, but the sacred books insist
+that though a Brahman can do without a king, yet a king cannot do
+without a Brahman. The two castes are compared to the deities Mitra and
+Varuna, typifying intelligence and will. When they are united deeds can
+be done[207]. But "the Gods do not eat the food of a king who is without
+a Purohita." Other castes can offer sacrifices only by the mediation of
+Brahmans, and it does not appear that kings disputed this, though they
+claimed the right to think for themselves and may have denied the
+utility of sacrifice[208]. Apart from kings the duties and claims of the
+Brahman extend to the people at large. He has four virtues, "birth,
+deportment, fame and the perfecting of the people," and in return the
+people owe him respect, liberality, security against oppression and
+against capital punishment.
+
+Towns in this period must have been few and those few essentially forts,
+not collections of palaces and temples. We hear of Kāsi (Benares) but
+the name may signify a district. People are said to go to the Kurus or
+Pancālas, not to Mithilā or any other city. It was in village life--which
+is still the life of the greater part of India--that Brahmanism grew up.
+Probably then as now Brahman families occupied separate villages, or at
+least quarters, and were allowed to hold the land rent free as a reward
+for rendering religious services to the king. They followed various
+professions but the life which was most respected, and also most
+lucrative, was that devoted to the study and practice of sacred science,
+that is the learning and recitation of sacred texts, performance of
+ceremonies, and theological discussion. The later law books divide a
+Brahman's life into four stages or āsramas in which he was successively
+a student, a householder, a hermit and an ascetic[209]. The third and
+fourth stages are not very clearly distinguished. A hermit is supposed
+to renounce family life and live in the forest, but still to perform
+sacrifices, whereas the Sannyāsi or perfect ascetic, in many ways the
+ideal of India, subsists on alms, freed alike from duties and passions
+and absorbed in meditation. In the older Upanishads three stages are
+indicated as part of contemporary practice[210]. For a period of from
+nine to thirty-six years, a Brahman dwelt with a teacher. While his
+state of pupilage lasted he lived on alms and was bound by the severest
+vows of obedience and chastity. The instruction given consisted in
+imparting sacred texts which could be acquired only by hearing them
+recited, for writing, though it may have been known in India as early as
+the seventh century B.C., was not used for literature. The Satapatha
+Brāhmana recommends the study not only of the four Vedas but of the
+precepts (perhaps grammar, etymology, etc.), the sciences (perhaps
+philosophy), dialogues (no doubt such as those found in the Upanishads),
+traditions and ancient legends, stanzas and tales of heroes[211],
+showing that, besides the scriptures, more popular compositions which
+doubtless contained the germs of the later Epics and Puranas were held
+in esteem.
+
+On terminating his apprenticeship the young Brahman became a householder
+and married, moderate polygamy being usual. To some extent he followed
+the occupations of an ordinary man of business and father of a family,
+but the most important point in establishing a home of his own was the
+kindling of his own sacred fire[212], and the householder's life was
+regarded as a series of rites, such as the daily offering of milk, the
+new and full moon ceremonies, seasonal sacrifices every four months and
+the Soma sacrifice once a year, besides oblations to ancestors and other
+domestic observances. The third stage of life should begin when a
+householder sees that his hair is turning grey and a grandson has been
+born. He should then abandon his home and live in the forest. The
+tradition that it is justifiable and even commendable for men and women
+to abandon their families and take to the religious life has at all
+times been strong in India and public opinion has never considered that
+the deserted party had a grievance. No doubt comfortable householders
+were in no hurry to take to the woods and many must always have shirked
+the duty. But on the other hand, the very pious, of whom India has
+always produced a superabundance, were not willing to bear the cares of
+domestic life and renounced the world before the prescribed time. On the
+whole Brahmanic (as opposed to Buddhist) literature is occupied in
+insisting not so much that the devout should abandon the world as that
+they must perform the ritual observances prescribed for householders
+before doing so.
+
+The Brahman's existence as drawn in the law-books is a description of
+what the writers thought ought to be done rather than of the general
+practice. Still it cannot be dismissed as imaginary, for the
+Nambutiri[213] Brahmans of Travancore have not yet abandoned a mode of
+life which is in essentials that prescribed by Manu and probably that
+led by Brahmans in the seventh century B.C. or earlier[214].
+
+They are for the most part landowners dwelling in large houses built to
+accommodate a patriarchal family and erected in spacious compounds. In
+youth they spend about eight years in learning the Veda, and in mature
+life religious ceremonies, including such observances as bathing and the
+preparation of meals, occupy about six hours of the day. As a
+profession, the performance of religious rites for others is most
+esteemed. In food, drink and pleasures, the Nambutiris are almost
+ascetics: their rectitude, punctiliousness and dignity still command
+exaggerated respect. But they seem unproductive and petrified, even in
+such matters as literature and scholarship, and their inability to adapt
+themselves to changing conditions threatens them with impoverishment and
+deterioration.
+
+Yet the ideal Brahmanic life, which by no means excludes intellectual
+activity, is laid out in severe and noble lines and though on its good
+side somewhat beyond the reach of human endeavour and on its bad side
+overloaded with pedantry and superstition, it combines in a rare degree
+self-abnegation and independence. It differs from the ideal set up by
+Buddhism and by many forms of Hinduism which preach the renunciation of
+family ties, for it clearly lays down that it is a man's duty to
+continue his family and help his fellow men just as much as to engage in
+religious exercises. Thus, the Satapatha Brāhmana[215] teaches that man
+is born owing four debts, one to the gods, one to the Rishis or the
+sages to whom the Vedic hymns were revealed, one to his ancestors and
+one to men. To discharge these obligations he must offer sacrifices,
+study the Veda, beget a son and practise hospitality.
+
+The tranquil isolation of village life in ancient India has left its
+mark on literature. Though the names of teachers are handed down and
+their opinions cited with pious care, yet for many centuries after the
+Vedic age we find no books attributed to human authors. There was an
+indifference to literary fame among these early philosophers and a
+curious selflessness. Doctors disputed as elsewhere, yet they were at no
+pains to couple their names with theories or sects. Like the Jewish
+Rabbis they were content to go down to posterity as the authors of a few
+sayings, and these are mostly contributions to a common stock with no
+pretension to be systems of philosophy. The Upanishads leave an
+impression of a society which, if reposeful, was also mentally alert and
+tolerant to an unusual degree. Much was absent that occupied the
+intelligence of other countries. Painting, sculpture and architecture
+can have attained but modest proportions and the purview of religion
+included neither temples nor images. India was untroubled by foreign
+invasions and all classes seem to have been content to let the
+Kshatriyas look after such internal politics as there were. Trade too
+was on a small scale. Doubtless the Indian was then, as now, a good man
+of business and the western coast may have been affected by its
+relations with the Persian Gulf, but Brahmanic civilization was a thing
+of the Midland and drew no inspiration from abroad. The best minds were
+occupied with the leisurely elaboration and discussion of speculative
+ideas and self-effacement was both practised and preached.
+
+But movement and circulation prevented this calm rustic world from
+becoming stagnant. Though roads were few and dangerous, a habit of
+travel was conspicuous among the religious and intellectual classes. The
+Indian is by nature a pilgrim rather than a stationary monk, and we
+often hear of Brahmans travelling in quest of knowledge alone or in
+companies, and stopping in rest houses[216]. In the Satapatha
+Brāhmana[217], Uddālaka Āruni is represented as driving about and
+offering a piece of gold as a prize to those who could defeat him in
+argument. Great sacrifices were often made the occasion of these
+discussions. We must not think of them as mere religious ceremonies, as
+a sort of high mass extending over several days. The fact that they
+lasted so long and involved operations like building sheds and altars
+made them unlike our church services and gave opportunities for debate
+and criticism of what was done. Such competition and publicity were good
+for the wits. The man who cut the best figure in argument was in
+greatest demand as a sacrificer and obtained the highest fees. But these
+stories of prizes and fees emphasize a feature which has characterized
+the Brahmans from Vedic times to the present day, namely, their
+shameless love of money. The severest critic cannot deny them a
+disinterested taste for intellectual, religious and spiritual things,
+but their own books often use language which shows them as professional
+men merely anxious to make a fortune by the altar. "The sacrifice is
+twofold," says the Satapatha Brāhmana, "oblations to the gods and gifts
+to the priests. With oblations men gratify the gods and with gifts the
+human gods. These two kinds of gods when gratified convey the worshipper
+to the heavenly world[218]." Without a fee the sacrifice is as dead as
+the victim. It is the fee which makes it living and successful[219].
+
+Tradition has preserved the names of many of these acute, argumentative,
+fee-loving priests, but of few can we form any clear picture. The most
+distinguished is Yājńavalkya who, though seen through a mist of myths
+and trivial stories about the minutiae of ritual, appears as a
+personality with certain traits that are probably historical. Many
+remarks attributed to him are abrupt and scornful and the legend
+indicates dimly that he was once thought a dangerous innovator. But, as
+has happened so often since, this early heretic became the corner stone
+of later orthodoxy. He belonged to the school of the Yajur Veda and was
+apparently the main author of the new or White recension in which the
+prayers and directions are more or less separate, whereas in the old or
+Black recension they are mixed together. According to the legend he
+vomited forth the texts which he had learnt, calling his fellow pupils
+"miserable and inefficient Brahmans," and then received a new revelation
+from the Sun[220]. The quarrel was probably violent for the Satapatha
+Brāhmana mentions that he was cursed by priests of the other party. Nor
+does this work, while recognizing him as the principal teacher, endorse
+all his sayings. Thus it forbids the eating of beef but adds the curious
+remark "Nevertheless Yājńavalkya said, I for one eat it, provided it is
+tender[221]." Remarkable, too, is his answer to the question what would
+happen if all the ordinary materials for sacrifices were absent, "Then
+indeed nothing would be offered here, but there would be offered the
+truth in faith[222]." It is probable that the Black Yajur Veda
+represents the more western schools and that the native land of the
+White recension and of Yājńavalkya lay further east, perhaps in Videha.
+But his chief interest for us is not the reforms in text and ritual
+which he may have made, but his philosophic doctrines of which I have
+already spoken. Our principal authority for them is the Brihad-Āranyaka
+Upanishad of which he is the protagonist, much as Socrates is of the
+Platonic dialogues. Unfortunately the striking picture which it gives of
+Yājńavalkya cannot be accepted as historical. He is a prominent figure
+in the Satapatha Brāhmana which is older than the Upanishad and
+represents an earlier stage of speculation. The sketch of his doctrines
+which it contains is clearly a preliminary study elaborated and
+amplified in the Upanishad. But if a personage is introduced in early
+works as expounding a rudimentary form of certain doctrines and in later
+works is credited with a matured philosophy, there can be little doubt
+that he has become a great name whose authority is invoked by later
+thought, much as Solomon was made the author of the Proverbs and
+Ecclesiastes and the Song which bears his name.
+
+Yājńavalkya appears in the Brihad-Āranyaka as the respected friend but
+apparently not the chaplain of King Janaka. This monarch celebrated a
+great sacrifice and offered a thousand cows with a present of money to
+him who should prove himself wisest. Yājńavalkya rather arrogantly bade
+his pupil drive off the beasts. But his claim was challenged: seven
+Brahmans and one woman, Gārgī Vācaknavī, disputed with him at length but
+had to admit his superiority. A point of special interest is raised by
+the question what happens after death. Yājńavalkya said to his
+questioner, "'Take my hand, my friend. We two alone shall know of this.
+Let this question of ours not be discussed in public.' Then these two
+went out and argued, and what they said was Karma and what they praised
+was Karma[223]." The doctrine that a man's deeds cause his future
+existence and determine its character was apparently not popular among
+the priesthood who claimed that by their rites they could manufacture
+heavenly bodies for their clients.
+
+
+2
+
+This imperfect and sketchy picture of religious life in India so far as
+it can be gathered from the older Brahmanic books has reference mainly
+to the kingdoms of the Kuru-Pancālas and Videha in 800-600 B.C. Another
+picture, somewhat fuller, is found in the ancient literature of the
+Buddhists and Jains, which depicts the kingdoms of Magadha (Bihar) and
+Kosala (Oudh) in the time of the Buddha and Mahāvīra, the founder of
+Jainism, that is, about 500 B.C. or rather earlier. It is probable that
+the picture is substantially true for this period or even for a period
+considerably earlier, for Mahāvīra was supposed to have revived with
+modifications the doctrines of Parsvanātha and some of the Buddhas
+mentioned as preceding Gotama were probably historical personages. But
+the Brahmanic and Buddhist accounts do not give two successive phases of
+thought in the same people, for the locality is not quite the same. Both
+pictures include the territory of Kāsi and Videha, but the Brahmanic
+landscape lies mainly to the west and the Buddhist mainly to the east of
+this region. In the Buddhist sphere it is clear that in the youth of
+Gotama Brahmanic doctrines and ritual were well known but not
+predominant. It is hardly demonstrable from literature, but still
+probable, that the ideas and usages which found expression in Jainism
+and Buddhism existed in the western districts, though less powerful
+there than in the east[224].
+
+A striking feature of the world in which Jainism and Buddhism arose was
+the prevalence of confraternities or religious orders. They were the
+recognized form of expression not only for piety but for the germs of
+theology, metaphysics and science. The ordinary man of the world kept on
+good terms with such gods as came his way, but those who craved for some
+higher interest often separated themselves from the body of citizens and
+followed some special rule of life. In one sense the Brahmans were the
+greatest of such communities, but they were a hereditary corporation and
+though they were not averse to new ideas, their special stock in trade
+was an acquaintance with traditional formulę and rites. They were also,
+in the main, sedentary and householders. Somewhat opposed to them were
+other companies, described collectively as Paribbājakas or Samanas[225].
+These, though offering many differences among themselves, were clearly
+distinguished from the Brahmans, and it is probable that they usually
+belonged to the warrior caste. But they did not maintain that religious
+knowledge was the exclusive privilege of any caste: they were not
+householders but wanderers and celibates. Often they were ascetics and
+addicted to extreme forms of self-mortification. They did not study the
+Vedas or perform sacrifices, and their speculations were often
+revolutionary, and as a rule not theistic. It is not easy to find any
+English word which describes these people or the Buddhist Bhikkhus. Monk
+is perhaps the best, though inadequate. Pilgrim and friar give the idea
+of wandering, but otherwise suggest wrong associations. But in calling
+them monks, we must remember that though celibates, and to some extent
+recluses (for they mixed with the world only in a limited degree), they
+were not confined in cloisters. The more stationary lived in woods,
+either in huts or the open air, but many spent the greater part of the
+year in wandering.
+
+The practice of adopting a wandering religious life was frequent among
+the upper classes, and must have been a characteristic feature of
+society. No blame attached to the man who abruptly left his family,
+though well-to-do people are represented as dissuading their children
+from the step. The interest in philosophical and theological questions
+was perhaps even greater than among the Brahmans, and they were
+recognized not as parerga to a life of business or amusement, but as
+occupations in themselves. Material civilization had not kept pace with
+the growth of thought and speculation. Thus restless and inquisitive
+minds found little to satisfy them in villages or small towns, and the
+wanderer, instead of being a useless rolling stone, was likely not only
+to have a more interesting life but to meet with sympathy and respect.
+Ideas and discussion were plentiful but there were no books and hardly
+any centres of learning. Yet there was even more movement than among the
+travelling priests of the Kurus and Pancālas, a coming and going, a
+trafficking in ideas. Knowledge was to be picked up in the market-places
+and highways. Up and down the main roads circulated crowds of highly
+intelligent men. They lived upon alms, that is to say, they were fed by
+the citizens who favoured their opinions or by those good souls who gave
+indiscriminately to all holy men--and in the larger places rest houses
+were erected for their comfort. It was natural that the more commanding
+and original spirits should collect others round them and form bands,
+for though there was public discussion, writing was not used for
+religious purposes and he who would study any doctrine had to become the
+pupil of a master. The doctrine too involved a discipline, or mode of
+life best led in common. Hence these bands easily grew into communities
+which we may call orders or sects, if we recognize that their
+constitution was more fluid and less formal than is implied by those
+words. It is not easy to say how much organization such communities
+possessed before the time of the Buddha. His Sangha was the most
+successful of them all and doubtless surpassed the others in this as in
+other respects. Yet it was modelled on existing institutions and the
+Vinaya Pitaka[226] itself represents him as prescribing the observance
+of times and seasons, not so much because he thought it necessary as
+because the laity suggested that he would do well to follow the practice
+of the Titthiya schools. By this phrase we are to understand the
+adherents of Makkhali Gosāla, Sāńjaya Belatthiputta and others. We know
+less about these sects than we could wish, but two lists of schools or
+theories are preserved, one in the Brahmajāla Sutta[227] where the
+Buddha himself criticises 62 erroneous views and another in Jain
+literature[228], which enumerates no fewer than 363.
+
+Both catalogues are somewhat artificial, and it is clear that many views
+are mentioned not because they represent the tenets of real schools but
+from a desire to condemn all possible errors. But the list of topics
+discussed is interesting. From the Brahmajāla Sutta we learn that the
+problems which agitated ancient Magadha were such as the following:--is
+the world eternal or not: is it infinite or finite: is there a cause for
+the origin of things or is it without cause: does the soul exist after
+death: if so, is its existence conscious or unconscious: is it eternal
+or does it cease to exist, not necessarily at the end of its present
+life but after a certain number of lives: can it enjoy perfect bliss
+here or elsewhere? Theories on these and other points are commonly
+called vāda or talk, and those who hold them vādins. Thus there is the
+Kāla-vāda[229] which makes Time the origin and principle of the
+universe, and the Svabhāva-vada which teaches that things come into
+being of their own accord. This seems crude when stated with archaic
+frankness but becomes plausible if paraphrased in modern language as
+"discontinuous variation and the spontaneous origin of definite
+species." There were also the Niyati-vādins, or fatalists, who believed
+that all that happens is the result of Niyati or fixed order, and the
+Yadricchā-vādins who, on the contrary, ascribed everything to chance and
+apparently denied causation, because the same result follows from
+different antecedents. It is noticeable that none of these views imply
+theism or pantheism but the Buddha directed so persistent a polemic
+against the doctrine of the Ātman that it must have been known in
+Magadha. The fundamental principles of the Sānkhya were also known,
+though perhaps not by that name. It is probably correct to say not that
+the Buddha borrowed from the Sānkhya but that both he and the Sānkhya
+accepted and elaborated in different ways certain current views.
+
+The Pali Suttas[230] mention six agnostic or materialist teachers and
+give a brief but perhaps not very just compendium of their doctrines.
+One of them was the founder of the Jains who, as a sect that has lasted
+to the present day with a considerable record in art and literature,
+merit a separate chapter. Of the remaining five, one, Sāńjaya of the
+Belattha clan, was an agnostic, similar to the people described
+elsewhere[231] as eel-wrigglers, who in answer to such questions as, is
+there a result of good and bad actions, decline to say either _(a)_
+there is, _(b)_ there is not, _(c)_ there both is and is not, _(d)_
+there neither is nor is not. This form of argument has been adopted by
+Buddhism for some important questions but Sāńjaya and his disciples
+appear to have applied it indiscriminately and to have concluded that
+positive assertion is impossible.
+
+The other four were in many respects what we should call fatalists and
+materialists[232], or in the language of their time Akriya-vādins,
+denying, that is, free will, responsibility and the merit or demerit of
+good or bad actions. They nevertheless believed in metempsychosis and
+practised asceticism. Apparently they held that beings are born again
+and again according to a natural law, but not according to their deeds:
+and that though asceticism cannot accelerate the soul's journey, yet at
+a certain stage it is a fore-ordained and indispensable preliminary to
+emancipation. The doctrines attributed to all four are crude and
+startling. Perhaps they are exaggerated by the Buddhist narrator, but
+they also reflect the irreverent exuberance of young thought. Pūrana
+Kassapa denies that there is any merit in virtue or harm in murder.
+Another ascetic called Ajita of the garment of hair teaches that nothing
+exists but the four elements, and that "fools and wise alike are
+annihilated on the dissolution of the body and after death they are
+not." Then why, one asks, was he an ascetic? Similarly Pakudha Kaccāyana
+states that "when a sharp sword cleaves a head in twain" the soul and
+pain play a part similar to that played by the component elements of the
+sword and head. The most important of these teachers was Makkhali
+Gosāla. His doctrine comprises a denial of causation and free will and
+an assertion that fools and wise alike will make an end of pain after
+wandering through eighty-four hundred thousand births. The followers of
+this teacher were called ĀjĪvikas: they were a distinct body in the time
+of Asoka, and the name[233] occurs as late as the thirteenth century in
+South Indian inscriptions. Several accounts[234] of the founder are
+extant, but all were compiled by bitter opponents, for he was hated by
+Jains and Buddhists alike. His doctrine was closely allied to Jainism,
+especially the Digambara sect, but was probably more extravagant and
+anti-social. He appears to have objected to confraternities[235], to
+have enjoined a solitary life, absolute nudity and extreme forms of
+self-mortification, such as eating filth. The Jains accused his
+followers of immorality and perhaps they were ancient prototypes of the
+lower class of religious mendicants who have brought discredit on
+Hinduism.
+
+3
+
+None of the phases of religious life described above can be called
+popular. The religion of the Brahmans was the thought and science of a
+class. The various un-Brahmanic confraternities usually required their
+members to be wandering ascetics. They had little to say to village
+householders who must have constituted the great majority of the
+population. Also there are signs that priests and nobles, however much
+they quarrelled, combined to keep the lower castes in subjection[236].
+Yet we can hardly doubt that then as now all classes were profoundly
+religious, and that just as to-day village deities unknown to the Vedas,
+or even to the Puranas, receive the worship of millions, so then there
+were gods and rites that did not lack popular attention though unnoticed
+in the scriptures of Brahmans and Buddhists.
+
+We know little of this popular religion by direct description before or
+even during the Buddhist period, but we have fragmentary indications of
+its character. Firstly several incongruous observances have obtruded
+themselves into the Brahmanic ritual. Thus in the course of the
+Mahāvrata ceremony[237] the Hotri priest sits in a swing and maidens,
+carrying pitchers of water on their heads and singing, dance round an
+altar while drums are beaten. Parallels to this may be found to-day. The
+image of Krishna, or even a priest who represents Krishna, is swung to
+and fro in many temples, the use of drums in worship is distressingly
+common, and during the Pongol festivities in southern India young people
+dance round or leap over a fire. Other remarkable features in the
+Mahāvrata are the shooting of arrows into a target of skin, the use of
+obscene language (such as is still used at the Holi festival) and even
+obscene acts[238]. We must not assume that popular religion in ancient
+India was specially indecent, but it probably included ceremonies
+analogous to the Lupercalia and Thesmophoria, in which licence in words
+and deeds was supposed to promote fertility and prosperity.
+
+We are also justified in supposing that offerings to ancestors and many
+ceremonies mentioned in the Grihya-sūtras or handbooks of domestic
+ritual were performed by far larger classes of the population than the
+greater sacrifices, but we have no safe criteria for distinguishing
+between priestly injunctions and the real practice of ancient times.
+
+Secondly, in the spells and charms of the Atharva[239], which received
+the Brahmanic imprimatur later than the other three Vedas, we find an
+outlook differing from that of the other Vedas and resembling the
+popular religion of China. Mankind are persecuted by a host of evil
+spirits and protect themselves by charms addressed directly to their
+tormentors or by invoking the aid of beneficent powers. All nature is
+animated by good and evil spirits, to be dealt with like other natural
+advantages or difficulties, but not thought of as moral or spiritual
+guides. It is true that the Atharva often rises above this phase, for it
+consists not of simple folk-lore, but of folk-lore modified
+under-sacerdotal influence. The protecting powers invoked are often the
+gods of the Rig Veda[240], but prayers and incantations are also
+addressed directly to diseases[241] and demons[242] or, on the other
+hand, to healing plants and amulets[243]. We can hardly be wrong in
+supposing that in such invocations the Atharva reflects the popular
+practice of its time, but it prefers the invocation of counteracting
+forces, whether Vedic deities or magical plants, to the propitiation of
+malignant spirits, such as the worship of the goddesses presiding over
+smallpox and cholera which is still prevalent in India. In this there is
+probably a contrast between the ideas of the Aryan and non-Aryan races.
+The latter propitiate the demon or disease; the Aryans invoke a
+beneficent and healing power. But though on the whole the Atharva is
+inclined to banish the black spectres of popular demonology with the
+help of luminous Aryan gods, still we find invoked in it and in its
+subsidiary literature a multitude of spirits, good and bad, known by
+little except their names which, however, often suffice to indicate
+their functions. Such are Āsāpati (Lord of the region), Kshetrapati
+(Lord of the field), both invoked in ceremonies for destroying locusts
+and other noxious insects, Sakambhara and Apvā, deities of diarrhoea,
+and Arāti, the goddess of avarice and grudge. In one hymn[244] the poet
+invokes, together with many Vedic deities, all manner of nature spirits,
+demons, animals, healing plants, seasons and ghosts. A similar
+collection of queer and vague personalities is found in the popular
+pantheon of China to-day[245].
+
+Thirdly, various deities who are evidently considered to be well known,
+play some part in the Pali Pitakas. Those most frequently mentioned are
+Mahābrahmā or Brahmā Sahampati, and Sakka or Indra, but not quite the
+same as the Vedic Indra and less in need of libations of Soma. In two
+curious suttas[246] deputations of deities, clearly intended to include
+all the important gods worshipped at the time, are represented as
+visiting the Buddha. In both lists a prominent position is given to the
+Four Great Kings, or Ruling Spirits of the Four Quarters, accompanied by
+retinues called Gandhabbas, Kumbhandas, Nāgas, and Yakkhas respectively,
+and similar to the Nats of Burma. The Gandhabbas (or Gandharvas) are
+heavenly musicians and mostly benevolent, but are mentioned in the
+Brāhmanas as taking possession of women who then deliver oracles. The
+Nāgas are serpents, sometimes represented as cobras with one or more
+heads and sometimes as half human: sometimes they live in palaces under
+the water or in the depths of the earth and sometimes they are the
+tutelary deities of trees. Serpent worship has undoubtedly been
+prevalent in India in all ages: indications of it are found in the
+earliest Buddhist sculptures and it still survives[247]. The Yakkhas (or
+Yakshas) though hardly demons (as their name is often rendered) are
+mostly ill disposed to the human race, sometimes man-eaters and often of
+unedifying conduct. The Mahāsamaya-sutta also mentions mountain spirits
+from the Himalaya, Satagiri, and Mount Vepulla. Of the Devas or chiefs
+of the Yakkhas in this catalogue only a few are known to Brahmanic
+works, such as Soma, Varuna, Venhu (Vishnu), the Yamas, Pajāpati, Inda
+(Indra), Sanan-kumāra. All these deities are enumerated together with
+little regard to the positions they occupy in the sacerdotal pantheon.
+The enquirer finds a similar difficulty when he tries in the twentieth
+century to identify rural deities, or even the tutelaries of many great
+temples, with any personages recognized by the canonical literature.
+
+In several discourses attributed to the Buddha[248] is incorporated a
+tract called the Sīla-vagga, giving a list of practices of which he
+disapproved, such as divination and the use of spells and drugs. Among
+special observances censured, the following are of interest. (_a_) Burnt
+offerings, and offerings of blood drawn from the right knee. (_b_) The
+worship of the Sun, of Siri, the goddess of Luck, and of the Great One,
+meaning perhaps the Earth. (_c_) Oracles obtained from a mirror, or from
+a girl possessed by a spirit or from a god.
+
+We also find allusions in Buddhist and Jain works as well as in the
+inscriptions of Asoka to popular festivals or fairs called Samajjas[249]
+which were held on the tops of hills and seem to have included music,
+recitations, dancing and perhaps dramatic performances. These meetings
+were probably like the modern _mela_, half religion and half
+entertainment, and it was in such surroundings that the legends and
+mythology which the great Epics show in full bloom first grew and
+budded.
+
+Thus we have evidence of the existence in pre-Buddhist India of rites
+and beliefs--the latter chiefly of the kind called animistic--disowned for
+the most part by the Buddhists and only tolerated by the Brahmans. No
+elaborate explanation of this popular religion or of its relation to
+more intellectual and sacerdotal cults is necessary, for the same thing
+exists at the present day and the best commentary on the Sīla-vagga is
+Crooke's _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_.
+
+In themselves such popular superstitions may seem despicable and
+repulsive (as the Buddha found them), but when they are numerous and
+vigorous, as in India, they have a real importance for they provide a
+matrix and nursery in which the beginnings of great religions may be
+reared. Sāktism and the worship of Rāma and Krishna, together with many
+less conspicuous cults, all entered Brahmanism in this way. Whenever a
+popular cult grew important or whenever Brahmanic influence spread to a
+new district possessing such a cult, the popular cult was recognized and
+brahmanized. This policy can be abundantly illustrated for the last four
+or five centuries (for instance in Assam), and it was in operation two
+and a half millenniums ago or earlier. It explains the low and magical
+character of the residue of popular religion, every ceremony and deity
+of importance being put under Brahmanic patronage, and it also explains
+the sudden appearance of new deities. We can safely assert that in the
+time of the Buddha, and _a fortiori_ in the time of the older
+Upanishads[250] and Brāhmanas, Krishna and Rāma were not prominent as
+deities in Hindustan, but it may well be that they had a considerable
+position as heroes whose exploits were recited at popular festivals and
+that Krishna was growing into a god in other regions which have left no
+literature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE JAINS[251]
+
+1
+
+
+Before leaving pre-Buddhist India, it may be well to say something of
+the Jains. Many of their doctrines, especially their disregard not only
+of priests but of gods, which seems to us so strange in any system which
+can be called a religion, are closely analogous to Buddhism and from one
+point of view Jainism is part of the Buddhist movement. But more
+accurately it may be called an early specialized form of the general
+movement which culminated in Buddhism. Its founder, Mahāvīra, was an
+earlier contemporary of the Buddha and not a pupil or imitator[252].
+Even had its independent appearance been later, we might still say that
+it represents an earlier stage of thought. Its kinship to the theories
+mentioned in the last chapter is clear. It does not indeed deny
+responsibility and free will, but its advocacy of extreme asceticism and
+death by starvation has a touch of the same extravagance and its list of
+elements in which physical substances and ideas are mixed together is
+curiously crude.
+
+Jainism is atheistic, and this atheism is as a rule neither apologetic
+nor polemical but is accepted as a natural religious attitude. By
+atheism, of course, a denial of the existence of Devas is not meant; the
+Jains surpass, if possible, the exuberant fancy of the Brahmans and
+Buddhists in designing imaginary worlds and peopling them with angelic
+or diabolical inhabitants, but, as in Buddhism, these beings are like
+mankind subject to transmigration and decay and are not the masters,
+still less the creators, of the universe. There were two principal world
+theories in ancient India. One, which was systematized as the Vedānta,
+teaches in its extreme form that the soul and the universal spirit are
+identical and the external world an illusion. The other, systematized as
+the Sānkhya, is dualistic and teaches that primordial matter and
+separate individual souls are both of them uncreated and indestructible.
+Both lines of thought look for salvation in the liberation of the soul
+to be attained by the suppression of the passions and the acquisition of
+true knowledge.
+
+Jainism belongs to the second of these classes. It teaches that the
+world is eternal, self-existent and composed of six constituent
+substances: souls, dharma, adharma, space, time, and particles of
+matter[253]. Dharma and adharma are defined by modern Jains as subtle
+substances analogous to space which make it possible for things to move
+or rest, but Jacobi is probably right in supposing that in primitive
+speculation the words had their natural meaning and denoted subtle
+fluids which cause merit and demerit. In any case the enumeration places
+in singular juxtaposition substances and activities, the material and
+the immaterial. The process of salvation and liberation is not
+distinguished from physical processes and we see how other sects may
+have drawn the conclusion, which apparently the Jains did not draw, that
+human action is necessitated and that there is no such thing as free
+will. For Jainism individual souls are free, separate existences, whose
+essence is pure intelligence. But they have a tendency towards action
+and passion and are misled by false beliefs. For this reason, in the
+existence which we know they are chained to bodies and are found not
+only in Devas and in human beings but in animals, plants and inanimate
+matter. The habitation of the soul depends on the merit or demerit which
+it acquires and merit and demerit have respectively greater or less
+influence during immensely long periods called Utsarpinī and Avasarpinī,
+ascending and descending, in which human stature and the duration of
+life increase or decrease by a regular law. Merit secures birth among
+the gods or good men. Sin sends the soul to baser births, even in
+inanimate substances. On this downward path, the intelligence is
+gradually dimmed till at last motion and consciousness are lost, which
+is not however regarded as equivalent to annihilation.
+
+Another dogmatic exposition of the Jain creed is based on seven
+principles, called soul, non-soul, influx, imprisonment, exclusion,
+dissipation, release[254]. Karma, which in the ordinary language of
+Indian philosophy means deeds and their effect on the soul, is here
+regarded as a peculiarly subtle form of matter[255] which enters the
+soul and by this influx (or āsrava, a term well-known in Buddhism)
+defiles and weighs it down. As food is transformed into flesh, so the
+Karma forms a subtle body which invests the soul and prevents it from
+being wholly isolated from matter at death. The upward path and
+liberation of the soul are effected by stopping the entrance of Karma,
+that is by not performing actions which give occasion to the influx, and
+by expelling it. The most effective means to this end is
+self-mortification, which not only prevents the entrance of new Karma
+but annihilates what has accumulated.
+
+Like most Indian sects, Jainism considers the world of transmigration as
+a bondage or journey which the wise long to terminate. But joyless as is
+its immediate outlook, its ultimate ideas are not pessimistic. Even in
+the body the soul can attain a beatific state of perfect knowledge[256]
+and above the highest heaven (where the greatest gods live in bliss for
+immense periods though ultimately subject to transmigration) is the
+paradise of blessed souls, freed from transmigration. They have no
+visible form but consist of life throughout, and enjoy happiness beyond
+compare. With a materialism characteristic of Jain theology, the
+treatise from which this account is taken[257] adds that the dimensions
+of a perfected soul are two-thirds of the height possessed in its last
+existence.
+
+How is this paradise to be reached? By right faith, right knowledge and
+right conduct, called the three jewels, a phrase familiar to Buddhism.
+The right faith is complete confidence in Mahāvīra and his teaching.
+Right knowledge is correct theology as outlined above. Knowledge is of
+five degrees of which the highest is called Kevalam or omniscience. This
+sounds ambitious, but the special method of reasoning favoured by the
+Jains is the modest Syādvāda[258] or doctrine of may-be, which holds
+that you can (1) affirm the existence of a thing from one point of view,
+(2) deny it from another, and (3) affirm both existence and
+non-existence with reference to it at different times. If (4) you should
+think of affirming existence and non-existence at the same time and from
+the same point of view, you must say that the thing cannot be spoken of.
+The essence of the doctrine, so far as one can disentangle it from
+scholastic terminology, seems just, for it amounts to this, that as to
+matters of experience it is impossible to formulate the whole and
+complete truth, and as to matters which transcend experience language is
+inadequate: also that Being is associated with production, continuation
+and destruction. This doctrine is called _anekānta-vāda_, meaning that
+Being is not one and absolute as the Upanishads assert: matter is
+permanent, but changes its shape, and its other accidents. Thus in many
+points the Jains adopt the common sense and _primā facie_ point of view.
+But the doctrines of metempsychosis and Karma are also admitted as
+obvious propositions, and though the fortunes and struggles of the
+embodied soul are described in materialistic terms, happiness is never
+placed in material well-being but in liberation from the material
+universe.
+
+We cannot be sure that the existing Jain scriptures present these
+doctrines in their original form, but the full acceptance of
+metempsychosis, the animistic belief that plants, particles of earth and
+water have souls and the materialistic phraseology (from which the
+widely different speculations of the Upanishads are by no means free)
+agree with what we know of Indian thought about 550 B.C. Jainism like
+Buddhism ignores the efficacy of ceremonies and the powers of priests,
+but it bears even fewer signs than Buddhism of being in its origin a
+protestant or hostile movement. The intellectual atmosphere seems other
+than that of the Upanishads, but it is very nearly that of the Sānkhya
+philosophy, which also recognizes an infinity of individual souls
+radically distinct from matter and capable of attaining bliss only by
+isolation from matter. Of the origin of that important school we know
+nothing, but it differs from Jainism chiefly in the greater elaboration
+of its psychological and evolutionary theories and in the elimination of
+some materialistic ideas. Possibly the same region and climate of
+opinion gave birth to two doctrines, one simple and practical, inasmuch
+as it found its principal expression in a religious order, the other
+more intellectual and scholastic and, at least in the form in which we
+read it, later[259].
+
+Right conduct is based on the five vows taken by every Jain ascetic, (1)
+not to kill, (2) not to speak untruth, (3) to take nothing that is not
+given, (4) to observe chastity, (5) to renounce all pleasure in external
+objects. These vows receive an extensive and strict interpretation by
+means of five explanatory clauses applicable to each and to be construed
+with reference to deed, word, and thought, to acting, commanding and
+consenting. Thus the vow not to kill forbids not only the destruction of
+the smallest insect but also all speech or thought which could bring
+about a quarrel, and the doing, causing or permitting of any action
+which could even inadvertently injure living beings, such as
+carelessness in walking. Naturally such rules can be kept only by an
+ascetic, and in addition to them asceticism is expressly enjoined. It is
+either internal or external. The former takes such forms as repentance,
+humility, meditation and the suppression of all desires: the latter
+comprises various forms of self-denial, culminating in death by
+starvation. This form of religious suicide is prescribed for those who
+have undergone twelve years' penance and are ripe for Nirvana[260] but
+it is wrong if adopted as a means of shortening austerities. Numerous
+inscriptions record such deaths and the head-teachers of the Digambaras
+are said still to leave the world in this way.
+
+Important but not peculiar to Jainism is the doctrine of the periodical
+appearance of great teachers who from time to time restore the true
+faith[261]. The same idea meets us in the fourteen Manus, the
+incarnations of Vishnu, and the series of Buddhas who preceded Gotama.
+The Jain saints are sometimes designated as Buddha, Kevalin, Siddha,
+Tathāgata and Arhat (all Buddhist titles) but their special appellation
+is Jina or conqueror which is, however, also used by Buddhists[262]. It
+was clearly a common notion in India that great teachers appear at
+regular intervals and that one might reasonably be expected in the sixth
+century B.C. The Jains gave preference or prominence to the titles Jina
+or Tīrthankara: the Buddhists to Buddha or Tathāgata.
+
+
+2
+
+According to the Jain scriptures all Jinas are born in the warrior
+caste, never among Brahmans. The first called Rishabha, who was born an
+almost inexpressibly[263] long time ago and lived 8,400,000 years, was
+the son of a king of Ayodhyā. But as ages elapsed, the lives of his
+successors and the intervals which separated them became shorter.
+Parsva, the twenty-third Jina, must have some historical basis[264]. We
+are told that he lived 250 years before Mahāvīra, that his followers
+still existed in the time of the latter: that he permitted the use of
+clothes and taught that four and not five vows were necessary[265]. Both
+Jain and Buddhist scriptures support the idea that Mahāvīra was a
+reviver and reformer rather than an originator. The former do not
+emphasize the novelty of his revelation and the latter treat Jainism as
+a well-known form of error without indicating that it was either new or
+attributable to one individual.
+
+Mahāvīra, or the great hero, is the common designation of the
+twenty-fourth Jina but his personal name was Vardhamāna. He was a
+contemporary of the Buddha but somewhat older and belonged to a
+Kshatriya clan, variously called Jńāta, Ńāta, or Ńāya. His parents lived
+in a suburb of Vaisālī and were followers of Parsva. When he was in his
+thirty-first year they decided to die by voluntary starvation and after
+their death he renounced the world and started to wander naked in
+western Bengal, enduring some persecution as well as self-inflicted
+penances. After thirteen years of this life, he believed that he had
+attained enlightenment and appeared as the Jina, the head of a religious
+order called Nirganthas (or Niganthas). This word, which means
+unfettered or free from bonds, is the name by which the Jains are
+generally known in Buddhist literature and it occurs in their own
+scriptures, though it gradually fell out of use. Possibly it was the
+designation of an order claiming to have been founded by Parsva and
+accepted by Mahāvīra.
+
+The meagre accounts of his life relate that he continued to travel for
+nearly thirty years and had eleven principal disciples. He apparently
+influenced much the same region as the Buddha and came in contact with
+the same personalities, such as kings Bimbisāra and Ajātasattu. He had
+relations with Makkhali Gosāla and his disciples disputed with the
+Buddhists[266] but it does not appear that he himself ever met Gotama.
+He died at the age of seventy-two at Pāvā near Rājagaha. Only one of his
+principal disciples, Sudharman, survived him and a schism broke out
+immediately after his death. There had already been one in the fifteenth
+year of his teaching brought about by his son-in-law.
+
+
+3
+
+We have no information about the differences on which these schisms
+turned, but Jainism is still split into two sects which, though
+following in most respects identical doctrines and customs, refuse to
+intermarry or eat together. Their sacred literature is not the same and
+the evidence of inscriptions indicates that they were distinct at the
+beginning of the Christian era and perhaps much earlier.
+
+The Digambara sect, or those who are clothed in air, maintain that
+absolute nudity is a necessary condition of saintship: the other
+division or Svetāmbaras, those who are dressed in white, admit that
+Mahāvīra went about naked, but hold that the use of clothes does not
+impede the highest sanctity, and also that such sanctity can be attained
+by women, which the Digambaras deny. Nudity as a part of asceticism was
+practised by several sects in the time of Mahāvīra[267] but it was also
+reprobated by others (including all Buddhists) who felt it to be
+barbarous and unedifying. It is therefore probable that both Digambaras
+and Svetāmbaras existed in the infancy of Jainism, and the latter may
+represent the older sect reformed or exaggerated by Mahāvīra. Thus we
+are told[268] that "the law taught by Vardhamāna forbids clothes but
+that of the great sage Parsva allows an under and an upper garment." But
+it was not until considerably later that the schism was completed by the
+constitution of two different canons[269]. At the present day most
+Digambaras wear the ordinary costume of their district and only the
+higher ascetics attempt to observe the rule of nudity. When they go
+about they wrap themselves in a large cloth, but lay it aside when
+eating. The Digambaras are divided into four principal sects and the
+Svetāmbaras into no less than eighty-four, which are said to date from
+the tenth century A.D.
+
+Apart from these divisions, all Jain communities are differentiated into
+laymen and members of the order or Yatis, literally strivers. It is
+recognized that laymen cannot observe the five vows. Killing, lying, and
+stealing are forbidden to them only in their obvious and gross forms:
+chastity is replaced by conjugal fidelity and self-denial by the
+prohibition of covetousness. They can also acquire merit by observing
+seven other miscellaneous vows (whence we hear of the twelvefold law)
+comprising rules as to residence, trade, etc. Agriculture is forbidden
+since it involves tearing up the ground and the death of insects.
+
+Mahāvīra was succeeded by a long line of teachers sometimes called
+Patriarchs and it would seem that their names have been correctly
+preserved though the accounts of their doings are meagre. Various
+notices in Buddhist literature confirm the idea that the Jains were
+active in the districts corresponding to Oudh, Tirhut and Bihar in the
+period following Mahāvīra's death, and we hear of them in Ceylon before
+our era. Further historical evidence is afforded by inscriptions[270].
+The earliest in which the Jains are mentioned are the edicts of Asoka.
+He directed the officials called "superintendents of religion" to
+concern themselves with the Niganthas[271]: and when [272] he describes
+how he has provided medicine, useful plants and wells for both men and
+animals, we are reminded of the hospitals for animals which are still
+maintained by the Jains. According to Jain tradition (which however has
+not yet been verified by other evidence) Samprati, the grandson of
+Asoka, was a devout patron of the faith. More certain is the patronage
+accorded to it by King Khāravela of Orissa about 157 B.C. which is
+attested by inscriptions. Many dedicatory inscriptions prove that the
+Jains were a flourishing community at Muttra in the reigns of Kanishka,
+Huvishka and Vasudeva and one inscription from the same locality seems
+as old as 150 B.C. We learn from these records that the sect comprised a
+great number of schools and subdivisions. We need not suppose that the
+different teachers were necessarily hostile to one another but their
+existence testifies to an activity and freedom of interpretation which
+have left traces in the multitude of modern subsects.
+
+Jainism also spread in the south of India and before our era it had a
+strong hold in Tamil lands, but our knowledge of its early progress is
+defective. According to Jain tradition there was a severe famine in
+northern India about 200 years after Mahāvīra's death and the patriarch
+Bhadrabāhu led a band of the faithful to the south[273]. In the seventh
+century A.D. we know from various records of the reign of Harsha and
+from the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan Chuang that it was nourishing in Vaisālī
+and Bengal and also as far south as Conjeevaram. It also made
+considerable progress in the southern Maratha country under the Cālukya
+dynasty of Vatapi, in the modern district of Bijapur (500-750) and under
+the Rāshtrakūta sovereigns of the Deccan. Amoghavarsha of this line
+(815-877) patronized the Digambaras and in his old age abdicated and
+became an ascetic. The names of notable Digambara leaders like Jinasena
+and Gunabhadra dating from this period are preserved and Jainism must in
+some districts have become the dominant religion. Bijjala who usurped
+the Cālukya throne (1156-1167) was a Jain and the Hoysala kings of
+Mysore, though themselves Vaishnavas, protected the religion.
+Inscriptions[274] appear to attest the presence of Jainism at Girnar in
+the first century A.D. and subsequently Gujarat became a model Jain
+state after the conversion of King Kumarapala about 1160.
+
+Such success naturally incurred the enmity of the Brahmans and there is
+more evidence of systematic persecution directed against the Jains than
+against the Buddhists. The Cola kings who ruled in the south-east of the
+Madras Presidency were jealous worshippers of Siva and the Jains
+suffered severely at their hands in the eleventh century and also under
+the Pāndya kings of the extreme south. King Sundara of the latter
+dynasty is said to have impaled 8000 of them and pictures on the walls
+of the great temple at Madura represent their tortures. A little later
+(1174) Ajayadeva, a Saiva king of Gujarat, is said to have raged against
+them with equal fury. The rise of the Lingāyats in the Deccan must also
+have had an unfavourable effect on their numbers. But in the fourteenth
+century greater tolerance prevailed, perhaps in consequence of the
+common danger from Islam. Inscriptions found at Sravana Belgola and
+other places[275] narrate an interesting event which occurred in 1368.
+The Jains appealed to the king of Vijayanagar for protection from
+persecution and he effected a public reconciliation between them and the
+Vaishnavas, holding the hands of both leaders in his own and declaring
+that equal protection would be given to both sects. Another inscription
+records an amicable agreement regulating the worship of a lingam in a
+Jain temple at Halebid. Many others, chiefly recording grants of land,
+testify to the prosperity of Jainism in the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar
+and in the region of Mt Abu in the sixteenth and seventeenth
+centuries[276]. The great Emperor Akbar himself came under the influence
+of Jainism and received instruction from three Jain teachers from 1578
+to 1597.
+
+Persecution and still more the steady pressure and absorptive power of
+Hinduism have reduced the proportions of the sect, and the last census
+estimated it at one million and a third. It is probable, however, that
+many Jains returned themselves as Hindus, and that their numbers are
+really greater. More than two-fifths of them are found in Bombay,
+Rajputana, and Central India. Elsewhere they are generally distributed
+but only in small numbers. They observe caste, at least in some
+districts, and generally belong to the Baniyas. They include many
+wealthy merchants who expend large sums on the construction and
+maintenance of temples, houses for wandering ascetics and homes for
+cattle. Their respect and care for animal life are remarkable. Wherever
+Jains gain influence beasts are not slaughtered or sacrificed, and when
+old or injured are often kept in hospitals or asylums, as, for instance,
+at Ahmadabad[277]. Their ascetics take stringent precautions to avoid
+killing the smallest creature: they strain their drinking water, sweep
+the ground before them with a broom as they walk and wear a veil over
+their mouths. Even in the shops of the laity lamps are carefully
+screened to prevent insects from burning themselves.
+
+The principal divisions are the Digambara and Svetāmbara as above
+described and an offshoot of the latter called Dhundia[278] who refuse
+to use images in worship and are remarkable even among Jains for their
+aversion to taking life. In Central India the Digambaras are about half
+the total number; in Baroda and Bombay the Svetāmbaras are stronger. In
+Central India the Jains are said to be sharply distinguished from Hindus
+but in other parts they intermarry with Vaishnavas and while respecting
+their own ascetics as religious teachers, employ the services of
+Brahmans in their ceremonies.
+
+
+4
+
+The Jains have a copious and in part ancient literature. The oldest
+works are found in the canon (or Siddhānta) of the Svetāmbaras, which is
+not accepted by the Digambaras. In this canon the highest rank is given
+to eleven works[279] called Angas or limbs of the law but it also
+comprises many other esteemed treatises such as the Kalpasūtra ascribed
+to Bhadrabāhu. Fourteen older books called Puvvas (Sk. Pūrvas) and now
+lost are said to have together formed a twelfth anga. The language of
+the canon is a variety of Prakrit[280], fairly ancient though more
+modern than Pali, and remarkable for its habit of omitting or softening
+consonants coming between two vowels, _e.g._ sūyam for sūtram, loo for
+loko[281]. We cannot, however, conclude that it is the language in which
+the books were composed, for it is probable that the early Jains,
+rejecting Brahmanical notions of a revealed text, handed down their
+religious teaching in the vernacular and allowed its grammar and
+phonetics to follow the changes brought about by time. According to a
+tradition which probably contains elements of truth the first collection
+of sacred works was made about 200 years after Mahāvīra's death by a
+council which sat at Pataliputra. Just about the same time came the
+famine already mentioned and many Jains migrated to the south. When they
+returned they found that their co-religionists had abandoned the
+obligation of nakedness and they consequently refused to recognize their
+sacred books. The Svetāmbara canon was subsequently revised and written
+down by a council held at Valabhi in Gujarat in the middle of the fifth
+century A.D. This is the edition which is still extant. The canon of the
+Digambaras, which is less well known, is said to be chiefly in Sanskrit
+and according to tradition was codified by Pushpadanta in the second
+century A.D. but appears to be really posterior to the Svetāmbara
+scriptures[282]. It is divided into four sections called Vedas and
+treating respectively of history, cosmology, philosophy and rules of
+life[283].
+
+Though the books of the Jain canon contain ancient matter, yet they
+seem, as compositions, considerably later than the older parts of the
+Buddhist Tripitaka. They do not claim to record recent events and
+teaching but are attempts at synthesis which assume that Jainism is well
+known and respected. In style they offer some resemblance to the
+Pitakas: there is the same inordinate love of repetition and in the more
+emotional passages great similarity of tone and metaphor[284].
+
+Besides the two canons, the Jains have a considerable literature
+consisting both of commentaries and secular works. The most eminent of
+their authors is Hemacandra, born in 1088, who though a monk was an
+ornament of the court and rendered an important service to his sect by
+converting Kumārapāla, King of Gujarat. He composed numerous and
+valuable works on grammar, lexicography, poetics and ecclesiastical
+biography. Such subjects were congenial to the later Jain writers and
+they not only cultivated both Sanskrit and Prakrit but also had a
+vivifying effect on the vernaculars of southern India. Kanarese, Tamil,
+and Telugu in their literary form owe much to the labours of Jain monks,
+and the Jain works composed in these languages, such as the
+Jīvakacintāmani in Tamil, if not of world-wide importance, at least
+greatly influenced Dravidian civilization.
+
+Though the Jains thus occupy an honourable, and even distinguished place
+in the history of letters it must be confessed that it is hard to praise
+their older religious books. This literature is of considerable
+scientific interest for it contains many data about ancient India as yet
+unsifted but it is tedious in style and rarely elevated in sentiment. It
+has an arid extravagance, which merely piles one above the other
+interminable lists of names and computations of immensity in time and
+space. Even more than in the Buddhist suttas there is a tendency to
+repetition which offends our sense of proportion and though the main
+idea, to free the soul from the trammels of passion and matter, is not
+inferior to any of the religious themes of India, the treatment is not
+adequate to the subject and the counsels of perfection are smothered
+under a mass of minute precepts about the most unsavoury details of life
+and culminate in the recommendation of death by voluntary starvation.
+
+
+5
+
+But observation of Jainism as it exists to-day produces a quite
+different impression. The Jains are well-to-do, industrious and
+practical: their schools and religious establishments are well ordered:
+their temples have a beauty, cleanliness, and cheerfulness unusual in
+India and due to the large use made of white marble and brilliant
+colours. The tenderness for animal life may degenerate into superstition
+(though surely it is a fault on the right side) and some observances of
+the ascetics (such as pulling out the hair instead of shaving the head)
+are severe, but as a community the Jains lead sane and serious lives,
+hardly practising and certainly not parading the extravagances of
+self-torture which they theoretically commend. Mahāvīra is said to have
+taught that place, time and occasion should be taken into consideration
+and his successors adapted their precepts to the age in which they
+lived. Such monks as I have met[285] maintained that extreme forms of
+_tapas_ were good for the nerves of ancient saints but not for the
+weaker natures of to-day. But in avoiding rigorous severity, they have
+not fallen into sloth or luxury.
+
+The beauty of Jainism finds its best expression in architecture. This
+reached its zenith both in style and quantity during the eleventh and
+twelfth centuries which accords with what we know of the growth of the
+sect. After this period the Mohammedan invasions were unfavourable to
+all forms of Hindu architecture. But the taste for building remained and
+somewhat later pious Jains again began to construct large edifices which
+are generally less degenerate than modern Hindu temples, though they
+often show traces of Mohammedan influence. Hathi Singh's temple at
+Ahmadabad completed in 1848 is a fine example of this modern style.
+
+There is a considerable difference between Jain and Buddhist
+architecture both in intention and effect. Jain monks did not live
+together in large communities and there was no worship of relics. Hence
+the vihāra and the stūpa--the two principal types of Buddhist
+buildings--are both absent. Yet there is some resemblance between Jain
+temples (for instance those at Palitāna) and the larger Burmese
+sanctuaries, such as the Shwe Dagon Pagoda. It is partly due to the same
+conviction, namely that the most meritorious work which a layman can
+perform is to multiply shrines and images. In both localities the
+general plan is similar. On the top of a hill or mound is a central
+building round which are grouped a multitude of other shrines. The
+repetition of chapels and images is very remarkable: in Burma they all
+represent Gotama, in Jain temples the figures of Tīrthankaras are
+nominally different personalities but so alike in presentment that the
+laity rarely know them apart. In both styles of art white and jewelled
+images are common as well as groups of four sitting figures set back to
+back and facing the four quarters[286]: in both we meet with veritable
+cities of temples, on the hill tops of Gujarat and in the plain of Pagan
+on the banks of the Irawaddy. As some features of Burmese art are
+undoubtedly borrowed from India[287], the above characteristics may be
+due to imitation of Jain methods. It might be argued that the
+architectural style of late Indian Buddhism survives among the Jains but
+there is no proof that the multiplication of temples and images was a
+feature of this style. But in some points it is clear that the Jains
+have followed the artistic conventions of the Buddhists. Thus
+Pārsvanātha is sheltered by a cobra's hood, like Gotama, and though the
+Bo-tree plays no part in the legend of the Tīrthankaras, they are
+represented as sitting under such trees and a living tree is venerated
+at Palitāna.
+
+As single edifices illustrating the beauty of Jain art both in grace of
+design and patient elaboration of workmanship may be mentioned the
+Towers of Fame and Victory at Chitore, and the temples of Mt Abu. Some
+differences of style are visible in north and south India. In the former
+the essential features are a shrine with a portico attached and
+surmounted by a conical tower, the whole placed in a quadrangular court
+round which are a series of cells or chapels containing images seated on
+thrones. These are the Tīrthankaras, almost exactly alike and of white
+marble, though some of the later saints are represented as black. The
+Svetāmbaras represent their Tīrthankaras as clothed but in the temples
+of the Digambaras the images are naked.
+
+In the south are found religious monuments of two kinds known as Bastis
+and Bettus. The Bastis consist of pillared vestibules leading to a
+shrine over which rises a dome constructed in three or four stages. The
+Bettus are not temples in the ordinary sense but courtyards surrounding
+gigantic images of a saint named Gommatesvara who is said to have been
+the son of the first Tīrthankara[288]. The largest of these colossi is
+at Sravana Belgola. It is seventy feet in height and carved out of a
+mass of granite standing on the top of a hill and represents a sage so
+sunk in meditation that anthills and creepers have grown round his feet
+without breaking his trance. An inscription states that it was erected
+about 983 A.D. by the minister of a king of the Ganga dynasty[289].
+
+But even more remarkable than these gigantic statues are the collections
+of temples found on several eminences, such as Girnar and
+Satrunjaya[290], mountain masses which rise abruptly to a height of
+three or four thousand feet out of level plains. On the summit of
+Satrunjaya are innumerable shrines, arranged in marble courts or along
+well-paved streets. In each enclosure is a central temple surrounded by
+others at the sides, and all are dominated by one which in the
+proportions of its spire and courtyard surpasses the rest. Only a few
+Yatis are allowed to pass the night in the sacred precincts and it is a
+strange experience to enter the gates at dawn and wander through the
+interminable succession of white marble courts tenanted only by flocks
+of sacred pigeons. On every side sculptured chapels gorgeous in gold and
+colour stand silent and open: within are saints sitting grave and
+passionless behind the lights that burn on their altars. The multitude
+of calm stone faces, the strange silence and emptiness, unaccompanied by
+any sign of neglect or decay, the bewildering repetition of shrines and
+deities in this aerial castle, suggest nothing built with human purpose
+but some petrified spirit world.
+
+Soon after dawn a string of devotees daily ascends the hill. Most are
+laymen, but there is a considerable sprinkling of ascetics, especially
+nuns. After joining the order both sexes wear yellowish white robes and
+carry long sticks. They spend much of their time in visiting holy places
+and usually do not stop at one rest house for more than two months. The
+worship performed in the temples consists of simple offerings of
+flowers, incense and lights made with little ceremony. Pilgrims go their
+rounds in small bands and kneeling together before the images sing the
+praises of the Jinas.
+
+
+6
+
+It is remarkable that Jainism is still a living sect, whereas the
+Buddhists have disappeared from India. Its strength and persistence are
+centred in its power of enlisting the interest of the laity and of
+forming them into a corporation. In theory the position of the Jain and
+Buddhist layman is the same. Both revere and support a religious order
+for which they have not a vocation, and are bound by minor vows less
+stringent than those of the monks. But among the Buddhists the members
+of the order came to be regarded more and more as the true church[291]
+and the laity tended to become (what they actually have become in China
+and Japan) pious persons who revere that order as something extraneous
+to themselves and very often only as one among several religious
+organizations. Hence when in India monasteries decayed or were
+destroyed, little active Buddhism was left outside them. But the
+wandering ascetics of the Jains never concentrated the strength of the
+religion in themselves to the same extent; the severity of their rule
+limited their numbers: the laity were wealthy and practically formed a
+caste; persecution acted as a tonic. As a result we have a sect
+analogous in some ways to the Jews, Parsis, and Quakers[292], among all
+of whom we find the same features, namely a wealthy laity, little or no
+sacerdotalism and endurance of persecution.
+
+Another question of some interest is how far Jainism should be regarded
+as separate from Buddhism. Historically the position seems clear. Both
+are offshoots of a movement which was active in India in the sixth
+century B.C. in certain districts and especially among the aristocracy.
+Of these offshoots--the survivors among many which hardly outlived their
+birth--Jainism was a trifle the earlier, but Buddhism was superior and
+more satisfying to the intellect and moral sense alike. Out of the
+theory and practice of religious life current in their time Gotama
+fashioned a beautiful vase, Mahāvīra a homely but still durable pot. The
+resemblances between the two systems are not merely obvious but
+fundamental. Both had their origin outside the priestly class and owed
+much of their success to the protection of princes. Both preach a road
+to salvation open to man's unaided strength and needing neither
+sacrifice nor revealed lore. Both are universal, for though Buddhism set
+about its world mission with more knowledge and grasp of the task, the
+Jain sūtras are addressed "to Aryans and non-Aryans" and it is said that
+in modern times Mohammedans have been received into the Jain Church.
+Neither is theistic. Both believe in some form of reincarnation, in
+karma and in the periodical appearance of beings possessed of superhuman
+knowledge and called indifferently Jinas or Buddhas. The historian may
+therefore be disposed to regard the two religions as not differing much
+more than the varieties of Protestant Dissenters to be found in Great
+Britain. But the theologian will perceive real differences. One of the
+most important doctrines of Buddhism---perhaps in the Buddha's own
+esteem the central doctrine--is the non-existence of the soul as a
+permanent entity: in Jainism on the contrary not only the human body but
+the whole world including inanimate matter is inhabited by individual
+souls who can also exist apart from matter in individual blessedness.
+The Jain theory of fivefold knowledge is unknown to the Buddhists, as is
+their theory of the Skandhas to the Jains. Secondly as to practice
+Jainism teaches (with some concessions in modern times) that salvation
+is obtainable by self-mortification but this is the method which the
+Buddha condemned after prolonged trial. It is clear that in his own
+opinion and that of his contemporaries the rule and ideal of life which
+he prescribed differed widely from those of the Jains, Ājīvikas and
+other wandering ascetics.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III
+
+PALI BUDDHISM
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III
+
+
+In the previous book I have treated chiefly the general characteristics
+of Indian religion. They persist in its later phases but great changes
+and additions are made. In the present book I propose to speak about the
+life and teaching of the Buddha which even hostile critics must admit to
+be a turning point in the history of Indian thought and institutions,
+and about the earliest forms of Buddhism. For twelve centuries or more
+after the death of this great genius Indian religion flows in two
+parallel streams, Buddhist and Brahmanic, which subsequently unite,
+Buddhism colouring the whole river but ceasing within India itself to
+have any important manifestations distinct from Brahmanism.
+
+In a general survey it is hardly possible to follow the order of strict
+chronology until comparatively modern times. We cannot, for instance,
+give a sketch of Indian thought in the first century B.C., simply
+because our data do not permit us to assign certain sects and books to
+that period rather than to the hundred years which preceded or followed
+it. But we can follow with moderate accuracy the two streams of thought
+in their respective courses. I have wondered if I should not take
+Hinduism first. Its development from ancient Brahmanism is continuous
+and Buddhism is merely an episode in it, though a lengthy one. But many
+as are the lacunę in the history of Buddhism, it offers more data and
+documents than the history of Hinduism. We know more about the views of
+Asoka for instance than about those of Candragupta Maurya. I shall
+therefore deal first with Buddhism and then with Hinduism, while
+regretting that a parallel and synoptic treatment is impracticable.
+
+The eight chapters of this book deal mainly with Pali Buddhism[293]--a
+convenient and non-controversial term--and not with the Mahayana, though
+they note the tendencies which found expression in it. In the first
+chapter I treat of the Buddha's life: in the second I venture to compare
+him with other great religious teachers: in the third I consider his
+doctrine as expounded in the Pali Tripitaka and in the fourth the order
+of mendicants which he founded. The nature and value of the Pali Canon
+form the subject of the fifth chapter and the sixth is occupied with the
+great Emperor Asoka whose name is the clearest landmark in the early
+history of Buddhism, and indeed of India.
+
+The seventh and eighth chapters discuss topics which belong to Hinduism
+as well as to Buddhism, namely, meditation and mythology. The latter is
+anterior to Buddhism and it is only in a special sense that it can be
+called an addition or accretion. Indian thought makes clearings in the
+jungle of mythology, which become obliterated or diminished as the
+jungle grows over them again. Buddhism was the most thorough of such
+clearings, yet it was invaded more rapidly and completely than any
+other. The Vedānta and Sānkhya are really, if less obviously, similar
+clearings. They raise no objection to popular divinities but such
+divinities do not come within the scope of religious philosophy as they
+understand it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+LIFE OF THE BUDDHA
+
+1
+
+
+We have hitherto been occupied with obscure and shadowy personalities.
+The authors of the Upanishads are nameless and even MahāvĪra is unknown
+outside India. But we now come to the career of one who must be ranked
+among the greatest leaders of thought that the world has seen, the
+Indian prince generally known as Gotama or the Buddha. His historical
+character has been called in question, but at the present day probably
+few, if any, competent judges doubt that he was a real person whose date
+can be fixed and whose life can be sketched at least in outline.
+
+We have seen that apart from the personality of Gotama, ancient India
+was familiar with the idea of a Buddha and had even classified the
+attributes he should possess. Two styles of biography are therefore
+possible: an account of what Gotama actually was and did and an account
+of what a Buddha is expected to be and do. This second style prevails in
+later Buddhist works: they contain descriptions of the deeds and
+teaching of a Buddha, adapted to such facts in Gotama's life as seemed
+suitable for such treatment or could not be ignored. Rhys Davids has
+well compared them to _Paradise Regained_, but the supernatural element
+is, after the Indian fashion, more ornate.
+
+The reader will perhaps ask what are the documents describing Gotama's
+sayings and doings and what warrant we have for trusting them. I will
+treat of this question in more detail in a later chapter and here will
+merely say that the Pali works called Vinaya or monastic rules and
+Suttas[294] or sermons recount the circumstances in which each rule was
+laid down and each sermon preached. Some narrative passages, such as the
+Sutta which relates the close of the Buddha's life and the portion of
+the Vinaya which tells how he obtained enlightenment and made his first
+converts, are of considerable length. Though these narratives are
+compilations which accepted new matter during several centuries, I see
+no reason to doubt that the oldest stratum contains the recollections of
+those who had seen and heard the master.
+
+In basing the following account on the Pali Canon, I do not mean to
+discredit Sanskrit texts merely because they are written in that
+language or to deny that many Pali texts contain miraculous and
+unhistorical narratives[295]. But the principal Sanskrit Sūtras such as
+the Lotus and the Diamond Cutter are purely doctrinal and those texts
+which profess to contain historical matter, such as the Vinayas
+translated from Sanskrit into Chinese, are as yet hardly accessible to
+European scholars. So far as they are known, they add incidents to the
+career of the Buddha without altering its main lines, and when the
+accounts of such incidents are not in themselves improbable they merit
+consideration. On the whole these Sanskrit texts are later and more
+embellished than their Pali counterparts, but it is necessary not to
+forget the existence of this vast store-house of traditions, which may
+contain many surprises[296].
+
+Though the Pali texts do not give the story of the Buddha's life in a
+connected form, they do give us details about many important events in
+it and they offer a picture of the world in which he moved. The idea of
+biography was unknown to the older Indian literature. The Brāhmanas and
+Upanishads tell us of the beliefs and practices of their sages, the
+doctrines they taught and the sacrifices they offered, but they rarely
+give even an outline of their lives. And whenever the Hindus write about
+a man of religion or a philosopher, their weak historical sense and
+their strong feeling for the importance of the teaching lead them to
+neglect the figure of the teacher and present a portrait which seems to
+us dim and impersonal. Indian saints are distinguished by what they
+said, not by what they did and it is a strong testimony to Gotama's
+individuality and force of character, that in spite of the centuries
+which separate us from him and the misty unreal atmosphere which in
+later times hangs round his name, his personality is more distinct and
+lifelike than that of many later teachers.
+
+Most of the stories of his youth and childhood have a mythical air and
+make their first appearance in works composed long after his death, but
+there is no reason to distrust the traditional accounts of his lineage.
+He was the son of Suddhodana of the Kshatriya clan known as Sākya or
+Sākiya[297]. In later literature his father is usually described as a
+king but this statement needs qualification. The Sākyas were a small
+aristocratic republic. At the time of the Buddha's birth they recognized
+the suzerainty of the neighbouring kingdom of Kosala or Oudh and they
+were subsequently annexed by it, but, so long as they were independent,
+all that we know of their government leads us to suppose that they were
+not a monarchy like Kosala and Magadha. The political and administrative
+business of the clan was transacted by an assembly which met in a
+council hall[298] at Kapilavatthu. Its president was styled Rājā but we
+do not know how he was selected nor for how long he held office. The
+Buddha's father is sometimes spoken of as Rājā, sometimes as if he were
+a simple citizen. Some scholars think the position was temporary and
+elective[299]. But in any case it seems clear that he was not a Mahārājā
+like Ajātasattu and other monarchs of the period. He was a prominent
+member of a wealthy and aristocratic family rather than a despot. In
+some passages[300] Brahmans are represented as discussing the Buddha's
+claims to respect. It is said that he is of a noble and wealthy family
+but not that he is the son of a king or heir to the throne, though the
+statement, if true, would be so obvious and appropriate that its
+omission is sufficient to disprove it. The point is of psychological
+importance, for the later literature in its desire to emphasize the
+sacrifice made by the Buddha exaggerates the splendour and luxury by
+which he was surrounded in youth and produces the impression that his
+temperament was something like that reflected in the book of
+Ecclesiastes, the weary calm, bred of satiety and disenchantment, of one
+who has possessed everything and found everything to be but vanity. But
+this is not the dominant note of the Buddha's discourses as we have
+them. He condemns the pleasures and ambitions of the world as
+unsatisfying, but he stands before us as one who has resisted and
+vanquished temptation rather than as a disillusioned pleasure-seeker.
+The tone of these sermons accords perfectly with the supposition,
+supported by whatever historical data we possess, that he belonged to a
+fighting aristocracy, active in war and debate, wealthy according to the
+standard of the times and yielding imperfect obedience to the authority
+of kings and priests. The Pitakas allude several times to the pride of
+the Sākyas, and in spite of the gentleness and courtesy of the Buddha
+this family trait is often apparent in his attitude, in the independence
+of his views, his calm disregard of Brahmanic pretensions and the
+authority that marks his utterances.
+
+The territory of the Sākyas lay about the frontier which now divides
+Nepal from the United Provinces, between the upper Rapti and the Gandak
+rivers, a hundred miles or so to the north of Benares. The capital was
+called Kapilavatthu[301], and the mention of several other towns in the
+oldest texts indicates that the country was populous. Its wealth was
+derived chiefly from rice-fields and cattle. The uncultivated parts were
+covered with forest and often infested by robbers. The spot where the
+Buddha was born was known as the Lumbini Park and the site, or at least
+what was supposed to be the site in Asoka's time, is marked by a pillar
+erected by that monarch at a place now called Rummindei[302]. His mother
+was named Māyā and was also of the Sākya clan. Tradition states that she
+died seven days after his birth and that he was brought up by her
+sister, Mahāprajāpatī, who was also a wife of Suddhodana. The names of
+other relatives are preserved, but otherwise the older documents tell us
+nothing of his childhood and the copious legends of the later church
+seem to be poetical embellishments. The Sutta-Nipāta contains the story
+of an aged seer named Asita who came to see the child and, much like
+Simeon, prophesied his future greatness but wept that he himself must
+die before hearing the new gospel.
+
+The personal name of the Buddha was Siddhārtha in Sanskrit or Siddhattha
+in Pali, meaning he who has achieved his object, but it is rarely used.
+Persons who are introduced in the Pitakas as addressing him directly
+either employ a title or call him Gotama (Sanskrit Gautama). This was
+the name of his _gotra_ or gens and roughly corresponds to a surname,
+being less comprehensive than the clan name Sākya. The name Gotama is
+applied in the Pitakas to other Sākyas such as the Buddha's father and
+his cousin Ānanda. It is said to be still in use in India and has been
+borne by many distinguished Hindus. But since it seemed somewhat
+irreverent to speak of the Buddha merely by his surname, it became the
+custom to describe him by titles. The most celebrated of these is the
+word Buddha[303] itself, the awakened or wise one. But in Pali works he
+is described just as frequently by the name of Bhagavā or the Lord. The
+titles of Sākya-Muni and Sākya-Simha have also passed into common use
+and the former is his usual designation in the Sanskrit sūtras. The word
+Tathāgata, of somewhat obscure signification[304], is frequently found
+as an equivalent of Buddha and is put into the mouth of Gotama himself
+as a substitute for the first personal pronoun.
+
+We can only guess what was the religious and moral atmosphere in which
+the child grew up. There were certainly Brahmans in the Sākya territory:
+everyone had heard of their Vedic lore, their ceremonies and their
+claims to superiority. But it is probable that their influence was less
+complete here than further west[305] and that even before this time they
+encountered a good deal of scepticism and independent religious
+sentiment. This may have been in part military impatience of priestly
+pedantry, but if the Sākyas were not submissive sheep, their waywardness
+was not due to want of interest in religion. A frequent phrase in the
+Buddha's discourses speaks of the "highest goal of the holy life for the
+sake of which clansmen leave their homes and go forth into
+homelessness." The religious mendicant seemed the proper incarnation of
+this ideal to which Kshatriyas as well as Brahmans aspired, and we are
+justified in supposing that the future Buddha's thoughts would naturally
+turn towards the wandering life. The legend represents him as carefully
+secluded from all disquieting sights and as learning the existence of
+old age, sickness and death only by chance encounters which left a
+profound impression. The older texts do not emphasize this view of his
+mental development, though they do not preclude it. It is stated
+incidentally that his parents regretted his abandonment of worldly life
+and it is natural to suppose that they may have tried to turn his mind
+to secular interests and pleasures[306]. His son, Rāhula, is mentioned
+several times in the Pitakas but his wife only once and then not by name
+but as "the princess who was the mother of Rāhula[307]." His separation
+from her becomes in the later legend the theme of an affecting tale but
+the scanty allusions to his family found in the Pitakas are devoid of
+sentimental touches. A remarkable passage is preserved in the Anguttara
+Nikāya[308] describing his feelings as a young man and may be the origin
+of the story[309] about the four visions of old age, sickness, death and
+of peace in the religious life. After describing the wealth and comfort
+in which he lived[310], he says that he reflected how people feel
+repulsion and disgust at the sight of old age, sickness and death. But
+is this right? "I also" he thought "am subject to decay and am not free
+from the power of old age, sickness and death. Is it right that I should
+feel horror, repulsion and disgust when I see another in such plight?
+And when I reflected thus, my disciples, all the joy of life which there
+is in life died within me."
+
+No connected account of his renunciation of the world has been found in
+the Pitakas but[311] people are represented as saying that in spite of
+his parents' grief he "went out from the household life into the
+homeless state" while still a young man. Accepted tradition, confirmed
+by the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, says that he retired from worldly life
+when he was twenty-nine years old. The event is also commemorated in a
+poem of the Sutta-Nipāta[312] which reads like a very ancient ballad.
+
+It relates how Bimbisāra, King of Magadha, looking out from his palace,
+saw an unknown ascetic, and feeling he was no ordinary person went
+himself to visit him. It would appear from this that Gotama on leaving
+his family went down to the plains and visited Rājagaha, the capital of
+Magadha, now Rajgīr to the south of Patna. The teachers of the Ganges
+valley had probably a greater reputation for learning and sanctity than
+the rough wits of the Sākya land and this may have attracted Gotama. At
+any rate he applied himself diligently to acquire what knowledge could
+be learned from contemporary teachers of religion. We have an account
+put into his own mouth[313] of his experiences as the pupil of Alāra
+Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta but it gives few details of his studies. It
+would appear however that they both had a fixed system (dhamma) to
+impart and that their students lived in religious discipline (vinaya) as
+members of an Order. They were therefore doing exactly what the Buddha
+himself did later on a larger scale and with more conspicuous success.
+The instruction, we gather, was oral. Gotama assimilated it thoroughly
+and rapidly but was dissatisfied because he found that it did not
+conduce to perfect knowledge and salvation[314]. He evidently accepted
+his teachers' general ideas about belief and conduct--a dhamma, a vinaya,
+and the practice of meditation--but rejected the content of their
+teaching as inadequate. So he went away.
+
+The European mystic knows the dangers of Quietism[315]. When Molinos and
+other quietists praise the Interior Silence in which the soul neither
+speaks nor desires nor thinks, they suggest that the suspension of all
+mental activity is good in itself. But more robust seekers hold that
+this "orison of quiet" is merely a state of preparation, not the end of
+the quest, and valuable merely because the soul recuperates therein and
+is ready for further action. Some doctrine akin to that of the quietists
+seems to underlie the mysterious old phrases in which the Buddha's two
+teachers tried to explain their trances, and he left them for much the
+same reasons as led the Church to condemn Quietism. He did not say that
+the trances are bad; indeed he represented them as productive of
+happiness[316] in a sense which Europeans can hardly follow. But he
+clearly refused to admit that they were the proper end of the religious
+life. He felt there was something better and he set out to find it.
+
+The interval between his abandonment of the world and his enlightenment
+is traditionally estimated at seven years and this accords with our
+other data. But we are not told how long he remained with his two
+teachers nor where they lived. He says however that after leaving them
+he wandered up and down the land of Magadha, so that their residence was
+probably in or near that district[317]. He settled at a place called
+Uruvelā. "There" he says "I thought to myself, truly this is a pleasant
+spot and a beautiful forest. Clear flows the river and pleasant are the
+bathing places: all around are meadows and villages." Here he determined
+to devote himself to the severest forms of asceticism. The place is in
+the neighbourhood of Bodh-Gaya, near the river now called Phalgu or
+Lilańja but formerly Nerańjara. The fertile fields and gardens, the
+flights of steps and temples are modern additions but the trees and the
+river still give the sense of repose and inspiration which Gotama felt,
+an influence alike calming to the senses and stimulating to the mind.
+Buddhism, though in theory setting no value on the pleasures of the eye,
+is not in practice disdainful of beauty, as witness the many allusions
+to the Buddha's personal appearance, the persistent love of art, and the
+equally persistent love of nature which is found in such early poems as
+the Theragāthā and still inspires those who select the sites of
+monasteries throughout the Buddhist world from Burma to Japan. The
+example of the Buddha, if we may believe the story, shows that he felt
+the importance of scenery and climate in the struggle before him and his
+followers still hold that a holy life is led most easily in beautiful
+and peaceful landscapes.
+
+
+2
+
+Hitherto we have found allusions to the events of the Buddha's life
+rather than consecutive statements and narratives but for the next
+period, comprising his struggle for enlightenment, its attainment and
+the commencement of his career as a teacher, we have several accounts,
+both discourses put into his own mouth and narratives in the third
+person like the beginning of the Mahāvagga. It evidently was felt that
+this was the most interesting and critical period of his life and for
+it, as for the period immediately preceding his death, the Pitakas
+provide the elements of a biography. The accounts vary as to the amount
+of detail and supernatural events which they contain, but though the
+simplest is perhaps the oldest, it does not follow that events
+consistent with it but only found in other versions are untrue. One
+cannot argue that anyone recounting his spiritual experiences is bound
+to give a biographically complete picture. He may recount only what is
+relevant to the purpose of his discourse.
+
+Gotama's ascetic life at Uruvelā is known as the wrestling or struggle
+for truth. The story, as he tells it in the Pitakas, gives no dates, but
+is impressive in its intensity and insistent iteration[318]. Fire, he
+thought to himself, cannot be produced from damp wood by friction, but
+it can from dry wood. Even so must the body be purged of its humours to
+make it a fit receptacle for illumination and knowledge. So he began a
+series of terrible fasts and sat "with set teeth and tongue pressed
+against the palate" until in this spiritual wrestling the sweat poured
+down from his arm pits. Then he applied himself to meditation
+accompanied by complete cessation of breathing, and, as he persevered
+and went from stage to stage of this painful exercise, he heard the
+blood rushing in his head and felt as if his skull was being split, as
+if his belly were being cut open with a butcher's knife, and finally as
+if he were thrown into a pit of burning coals. Elsewhere[319] he gives
+further details of the horrible penances which he inflicted on himself.
+He gradually reduced his food to a grain of rice each day. He lived on
+seeds and grass, and for one period literally on dung. He wore haircloth
+or other irritating clothes: he plucked out his hair and beard: he stood
+continuously: he lay upon thorns. He let the dust and dirt accumulate
+till his body looked like an old tree. He frequented a cemetery--that is
+a place where corpses were thrown to decay or be eaten by birds and
+beasts--and lay among the rotting bodies.
+
+But no enlightenment, no glimpse into the riddle of the world came of
+all this, so, although he was nearly at death's door, he determined to
+abstain from food altogether. But spirits appeared and dissuaded him,
+saying that if he attempted thus to kill himself they would nourish him
+by infusing a celestial elixir through his skin and he reflected that he
+might as well take a little food[320]. So he took a palmful or two of
+bean soup. He was worn almost to a shadow, he says. "When I touched my
+belly, I felt my backbone through it and when I touched my back, I felt
+my belly--so near had my back and my belly come together through this
+fasting. And when I rubbed my limbs to refresh them the hair fell
+off[321]." Then he reflected that he had reached the limit of
+self-mortification and yet attained no enlightenment. There must be
+another way to knowledge. And he remembered how once in his youth he had
+sat in the shade of a rose apple tree and entered into the stage of
+contemplation known as the first rapture. That, he now thought, must be
+the way to enlightenment: why be afraid of such bliss? But to attain it,
+he must have more strength and to get strength he must eat. So he ate
+some rice porridge. There were five monks living near him, hoping that
+when he found the Truth he would tell it to them. But when they saw that
+he had begun to take food, their faith failed and they went away.
+
+The Buddha then relates how, having taken food, he began to meditate and
+passed through four stages of contemplation, culminating in pure
+self-possession and equanimity, free alike from all feeling of pain or
+ease. Such meditation was nothing miraculous but supposed to be within
+the power of any trained ascetic. Then there arose before him a vision
+of his previous births, the hundreds of thousands of existences with all
+their details of name, family and caste through which he had passed.
+This was succeeded by a second and wider vision in which he saw the
+whole universe as a system of karma and reincarnation, composed of
+beings noble or mean, happy or unhappy, continually "passing away
+according to their deeds," leaving one form of existence and taking
+shape in another. Finally, he understood the nature of error[322] and of
+suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path that leads to the
+cessation of suffering. "In me thus set free the knowledge of freedom
+arose and I knew 'Rebirth has been destroyed, the higher life has been
+led; what had to be done has been done, I have no more to do with this
+world[323].' This third knowledge came to me in the last watch of the
+night: ignorance was destroyed, knowledge had arisen, darkness was
+destroyed, light had arisen, as I sat there earnest, strenuous,
+resolute[324]."
+
+On attaining enlightenment he at first despaired of preaching the truth
+to others. He reflected that his doctrine was abstruse and that mankind
+are given over to their desires. How can such men understand the chain
+of cause and effect or teaching about Nirvana and the annihilation of
+desire? So he determined to remain quiet and not to preach. Then the
+deity Brahmā Sahampati appeared before him and besought him to preach
+the Truth, pleading that some men could understand. The Buddha surveyed
+the world with his mind's eye and saw the different natures of mankind.
+"As in a pool of lotuses, blue, red or white, some lotuses born in the
+water, grown up in the water, do not rise above the water but thrive
+hidden under the water and other lotuses, blue, red or white, born in
+the water, grown up in the water, reach to the surface: and other
+lotuses, blue, red or white, born in the water, grown up in the water,
+stand up out of the water and the water does not touch them." Thus did
+he perceive the world to be and he said to Brahmā "The doors of
+immortality are open. Let them that have ears to hear, show faith."
+
+Then he began to wonder to whom he should first preach his doctrine, and
+he thought of his former teachers. But a spirit warned him that they had
+recently died. Then he thought of the five monks who had tended him
+during his austerities but left him when he ceased to fast. By his
+superhuman power of vision he perceived that they were living at Benares
+in the deer park, Isipatana. So, after remaining awhile at Uruvelā he
+started to find them and on the way met a naked ascetic, in answer to
+whose enquiries he proclaimed himself as the Buddha; "I am the Holy One
+in this world, I am the highest teacher, I alone am the perfect supreme
+Buddha, I have gained calm and nirvana, I go to Benares to set moving
+the wheels of righteousness[325]. I will beat the drum of immortality in
+the darkness of this world." But the ascetic replied. "It may be so,
+friend," shook his head, took another road and went away, with the
+honour of being the first sceptic.
+
+When the Buddha reached the deer park[326], a wood where ascetics were
+allowed to dwell and animals might not be killed, the five monks saw him
+coming and determined not to salute him since he had given up his
+exertions, and turned to a luxurious life. But as he drew near they were
+overawed and in spite of their resolution advanced to meet him, and
+brought water to wash his feet. While showing him this honour they
+called him Friend Gotama but he replied that it was not proper to
+address the Tathāgata[327] thus. He had become a Buddha and was ready to
+teach them the Truth but the monks demurred saying that if he had been
+unable to win enlightenment while practising austerities, he was not
+likely to have found it now that he was living a life of ease. But he
+overcame their doubts and proceeded to instruct them, apparently during
+some days, for we are told that they went out to beg alms.
+
+Can this account be regarded as in any sense historical, as being not
+perhaps the Buddha's own words but the reminiscences of some one who had
+heard him describe the crisis of his life? Like so much of the Pitakas
+the narrative has an air of patchwork. Many striking passages, such as
+the descriptions of the raptures through which he passed, occur in other
+connections but the formulę are ancient and their use here may be as
+early and legitimate as elsewhere. In its main outlines the account is
+simple, unpretentious and human. Gotama seeks to obtain enlightenment by
+self-mortification: finds that this is the wrong way: tries a more
+natural method and succeeds: debates whether he shall become a teacher
+and at first hesitates. These are not features which the average Indian
+hagiographer, anxious to prove his hero omnipotent and omniscient, would
+invent or emphasize. Towards the end of the narrative the language is
+more majestic and the compiler introduces several stanzas, but though it
+is hardly likely that Gotama would have used these stanzas in telling
+his own story, they may be ancient and in substance authentic. The
+supernatural intervention recorded is not really great. It amounts to
+this, that in mental crises the Buddha received warnings somewhat
+similar to those delivered by the dęmon of Socrates[328]. The appearance
+of Brahmā Sahampati is related with more detail and largely in verse,
+which suggests that the compiler may have inserted some legend which he
+found ready to hand, but on the whole I am inclined to believe that in
+this narrative we have a tradition not separated from the Buddha by many
+generations and going back to those who had themselves heard him
+describe his wrestling to obtain the Truth and his victory.
+
+Other versions of the enlightenment give other incidents which are not
+rendered less credible by their omission from the narrative quoted, for
+it is clearly an epitome put together for a special didactic purpose.
+But still the story as related at the beginning of the Mahāvagga of the
+Vinaya has a stronger smack of mythology than the passages quoted from
+the Sutta-Pitaka. In these last the Bodhi-tree[329] is mentioned only
+incidentally, which is natural, for it is a detail which would impress
+later piety rather than the Buddha himself. But there is no reason to be
+sceptical as to the part it has played in Buddhist history. Even if we
+had not been told that he sat under a tree, we might surmise that he did
+so, for to sit under a tree or in a cave was the only alternative for a
+homeless ascetic. The Mahāvagga states that after attaining Buddhahood
+he sat crosslegged at the foot of the tree for seven days
+uninterruptedly, enjoying the bliss of emancipation, and while there
+thought out the chain of causation which is only alluded to in the
+suttas quoted above. He also sat under three other trees, seven days
+under each. Heavy rain came on but Mucalinda, the king of the serpents,
+"came out of his abode and seven times encircled the body of the Lord
+with his windings and spread his great hood over the Lord's head." Here
+we are in the domain of mythology: this is not a vignette from the old
+religious life on the banks of the Nerańjara but a work of sacred art:
+the Holy Supreme Buddha sitting immovable and imperturbable in the midst
+of a storm sheltered by the folds of some pious monster that the
+artist's fancy has created.
+
+The narrative quoted from the Majjhima-Nikāya does not mention that the
+Buddha during his struggle for enlightenment was assailed or tempted by
+Māra, the personification of evil and of transitory pleasures but also
+of death. But that such an encounter--in some respects analogous to the
+temptation of Christ by the Devil--formed part of the old tradition is
+indicated by several passages in the Pitakas[330] and not merely by the
+later literature where it assumes a prominent and picturesque form. This
+struggle is psychologically probable enough but the origin of the story,
+which is exhaustively discussed in Windisch's _Buddha und Māra_, seems
+to lie not so much in any account which the Buddha may have given of his
+mental struggles as in amplifications of old legends and in
+dramatizations of metaphors which he may have used about conquering
+death.
+
+The Bodhi-tree is still shown at Bodh-Gaya. It stands on a low terrace
+behind the temple, the whole lying in a hollow, below the level of the
+surrounding modern buildings, and still attracts many pilgrims from all
+Buddhist lands though perhaps not so many as the tree at Anuradhapura in
+Ceylon, which is said to be sprung from one of its branches transplanted
+thither. Whatever title it may have to the reverence of the faithful
+rests on lineage rather than identity, for the growth which we see at
+Bodh-Gaya now cannot claim to be the branches under which the Buddha sat
+or even the trunk which Asoka tended. At best it is a modern stem sprung
+from the seeds of the old tree, and this descent is rendered disputable
+by legends of its destruction and miraculous restoration. Even during
+the time that Sir A. Cunningham knew the locality from 1862 to 1880 it
+would seem that the old trunk decayed and was replaced by scions grown
+from seed.
+
+The texts quoted above leave the Buddha occupied in teaching the five
+monks in the Deer Park and the Mahāvagga gives us the text of the
+sermon[331] with which he opened his instruction. It is entitled Turning
+the Wheel of Righteousness, and is also known as The Sermon at Benares.
+It is a very early statement of the main doctrines of primitive Buddhism
+and I see no reason to doubt that it contains the ideas and phrases of
+the Buddha. The gist of the sermon is extremely simple. He first says
+that those who wish to lead a religious life should avoid the two
+extremes of self-indulgence and self-torture and follow a middle way.
+Then he enunciates what he calls the four truths[332] about evil or
+suffering and the way to make an end of it. He opens very practically,
+and it may be noticed that abstruse as are many of his discourses they
+generally go straight to the heart of some contemporary interest. Here
+he says that self-indulgence is low and self-mortification crazy: that
+both are profitless and neither is the religious life. That consists in
+walking in the middle path, or noble eightfold path defined in a
+celebrated formula as right views, right aspirations, right speech,
+right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right
+rapture. He then enunciates the four truths. The first declares that all
+clinging to existence involves suffering. I shall have occasion to
+examine later the pessimism which is often said to characterize Buddhism
+and Indian thought generally. Here let it suffice to say that the first
+truth must be taken in conjunction with the others. The teaching of the
+Buddha is a teaching not so much of pessimism as of emancipation: but
+emancipation implies the existence of evil from which men must be freed:
+a happy world would not need it. Buddhism recognizes the evil of the
+world but it is not on that account a religion of despair: the essence
+of it is that it provides a remedy and an escape.
+
+The second and third truths must be taken together and in connection
+with the formula known as the chain of causation (paticcasamuppāda).
+Everything has a cause and produces an effect. If this is, that is: if
+this is not, then that is not. This simple principle of uniform
+causation is applied to the whole universe, gods and men, heaven, earth
+and hell. Indian thought has always loved wide applications of
+fundamental principles and here a law of the universe is propounded in a
+form both simple and abstract. Everything exists in virtue of a cause
+and does not exist if that cause is absent. Suffering has a cause and if
+that cause can be detected and eliminated, suffering itself will be
+eliminated. This cause of evil is Tanhā, the thirst or craving for
+existence, pleasure and success. And the cure is to remove it. It may
+seem to the European that this is a proposal to cure the evils of life
+by removing life itself but when in the fourth truth we come to the
+course to be followed by the seeker after salvation--the eightfold
+path--we find it neither extravagant nor morbid. We may imagine that an
+Indian of that time asking different schools of thinkers for the way to
+salvation would have been told by Brahmans (if indeed they had been
+willing to impart knowledge to any but an accredited pupil) that he who
+performs a certain ceremony goes to the abode of the gods: other
+teachers would have insisted on a course of fasting and self-torture:
+others again like Sāńjaya and Makkhali would have given argumentative
+and unpractical answers. The Buddha's answer is simple and practical:
+seven-eighths of it would be accepted in every civilized country as a
+description of the good life. It is not merely external, for it insists
+on right thought and right aspiration: the motive and temper are as
+important as the act. It does not neglect will-power and activity, for
+right action, right livelihood and right effort are necessary--a point to
+be remembered when Buddhism is called a dreamy unpractical religion. But
+no doubt the last stage of the path, right rapture or right meditation,
+is meant to be its crown and fulfilment. It takes the place of prayer
+and communion with the deity and the Buddha promises the beatific vision
+in this life to those who persevere. The negative features of the Path
+are also important. It contains no mention of ceremonial, austerities,
+gods, many or one, nor of the Buddha himself. He is the discoverer and
+teacher of the truth; beyond that his personality plays no part.
+
+But we are here treating of his life rather than of his doctrine and
+must now return to the events which are said to have followed the first
+sermon.
+
+The first converts had, even before embracing the Buddha's teaching,
+been followers of a religious life but the next batch of recruits came
+from the wealthy mercantile families of Benares. The first was a youth
+named Yasa who joined the order, while his father, mother and former
+wife became lay believers. Then came first four and subsequently fifty
+friends of Yasa and joined the order. "At that time" says the
+Mahāvagga. "there were sixty-one Arhats[333] in the world," so that at
+first arhatship seems to have followed immediately on ordination. Arhat,
+it may be mentioned, is the commonest word in early Buddhist literature
+(more common than any phrase about nirvana) for describing sanctity and
+spiritual perfection. The arhat is one who has broken the fetters of the
+senses and passions, for whom there will be no new birth or death, and
+who lives in this world like the Buddha, detached but happy and
+beneficent.
+
+The Buddha then addressed his followers and said--"Monks, I am delivered
+from all fetters, human and divine, and so are you. Go now and wander
+for the gain of many, for the welfare of many, out of compassion for the
+world, for the good, for the gain and for the welfare of gods and men.
+Let not two of you go the same way. Preach the doctrine which is
+glorious in the beginning, glorious in the middle and glorious in the
+end, in the spirit and in the letter; proclaim a consummate, perfect and
+pure life of holiness." The monks then went forth and returned bringing
+candidates to be formally ordained by the Buddha. But seeing that these
+journeys caused fatigue and trouble, he authorized the ordained monks to
+confer ordination without reference to himself. He then returned to
+Uruvelā, where he had dwelt before attaining Buddhahood, and converted a
+thousand Jatilas, that is to say Brahmans living the life of hermits,
+which involved the abandonment of household life but not of sacrifices.
+The admission of these hermits to the order is probably historical and
+explains the presence among the Buddha's disciples of a tendency towards
+self-mortification of which he himself did not wholly approve. The
+Mahāvagga[334] contains a series of short legends about these
+occurrences, one of them in two versions. The narratives are miraculous
+but have an ancient tone and probably represent the type of popular
+story current about the Buddha shortly after or even during his life.
+One of them is a not uncommon subject in Buddhist art. It relates how
+the chamber in which a Brahman called Kassapa kept his sacred fire was
+haunted by a fire-breathing magical serpent. The Buddha however spent
+the night in this chamber and after a contest in which both emitted
+flames succeeded in conquering the beast. After converting the Jatilas
+he preached to them the celebrated Fire Sermon, said to have been
+delivered on the eminence now called Brahma Yoen[335] near Gaya and
+possibly inspired by the spectacle of grass fires which at some seasons
+may be seen creeping over every hill-side in an Indian night,
+"Everything, Monks, is burning and how is it burning? The eye is
+burning: what the eye sees is burning: thoughts based on the eye are
+burning: the contact of the eye (with visible things) is burning and the
+sensation produced by that contact, whether pleasant, painful or
+indifferent is also burning. With what fire is it burning? It is burning
+with the fire of lust, the fire of anger, with the fire of ignorance; it
+is burning with the sorrows of birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation,
+suffering, dejection and despair."
+
+The Buddha now went on with his converts to Rājagaha. He stopped in a
+bamboo grove outside the town and here the king, Bimbisāra, waited on
+him and with every sign of respect asked him to take food in his palace.
+It was on this occasion that we first hear of him accepting an
+invitation to dinner[336], which he did frequently during the rest of
+his career. After the repast the king presented a pleasure garden just
+outside the town "to the fraternity of monks with the Buddha at their
+head." At that time another celebrated teacher named Sāńjaya was
+stopping at Rājagaha with a train of two hundred and fifty disciples.
+Two of them, Sāriputta and Moggallāna, joined the Buddha's order and
+took with them the whole body of their companions.
+
+The Mahāvagga proceeds to relate that many of the young nobility joined
+the order and that the people began to murmur saying "The Monk Gotama
+causes fathers to beget no sons and families to become extinct." And
+again "The Great Monk has come to Giribbaja of the Magadha people,
+leading with him all the followers of Sāńjaya. Whom will he lead off
+next?" When this was told to the Buddha he replied that the excitement
+would only last seven days and bade his followers answer with the
+following verse "It is by the true doctrine that the great heroes, the
+Buddhas, lead men. Who will murmur at the wise who lead men by the power
+of truth?" It is possible, as Oldenburg suggests, that we have here two
+popular couplets which were really bandied between the friends and
+enemies of the Buddha.
+
+
+3
+
+It now becomes difficult to give dates but the Mahāvagga[337] relates
+that the Buddha stopped some time at Rājagaha and then revisited his
+native town, Kapilavatthu. That he should have done so is natural enough
+but there is little trace of sentiment in the narrative of the Vinaya.
+Its object is to state the occasion on which the Buddha laid down the
+rules of the order. Irrelevant incidents are ignored and those which are
+noticed are regarded simply as the circumstances which led to the
+formulation of certain regulations. "The Lord dwelt in the Sakka country
+near Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Grove. And in the forenoon having put on
+his robes and taken his alms bowl he went to the home of the Sakka
+Suddhodana[338] and sat down on a seat prepared for him. Then the
+princess who was the mother of Rāhula[339] said to him 'This is your
+father, Rāhula, go and ask him for your inheritance.' Then young Rāhula
+went to the place where the Lord was, and standing before him said 'Your
+shadow, Monk, is a place of bliss.' Then the Lord rose from his seat and
+went away but Rāhula followed him saying 'Give me my inheritance, Monk.'
+Then the Lord said to Sāriputta (who had already become his chief
+disciple) 'Well, Sāriputta, confer the preliminary ordination on young
+Rāhula.' Sāriputta asked how he should do so and the Buddha explained
+the forms.
+
+"Then the Sakka Suddhodana went to the place where the Lord was and
+after respectfully saluting him asked for a boon. 'Lord, when the
+Blessed One gave up the world, it was great pain to me and so it was
+when Nanda[340] did the same. Great too was my pain when Rāhula did it.
+The love for a son, Lord, cuts into the skin, the flesh, the bones, and
+reaches the marrow. Let not the preliminary ordination be conferred on a
+son without his parents' permission.' The Buddha assented. Three or four
+years later Suddhodana died."
+
+From Kapilavatthu the Buddha is said to have gone to Sāvatthī, the
+capital of Kosala where Pasenadi was king, but now we lose the
+chronological thread and do not find it again until the last years of
+his life. Few of the numerous incidents recorded in the Pitakas can be
+dated. The narrators resemble those Indian artists who when carving a
+story in relief place all the principal figures in one panel without
+attempting to mark the sequence of the incidents which are represented
+simultaneously. For the connection of events with the Buddha's teaching
+the compilers of the Pitakas had an eye; for their connection with his
+life none at all. And though this attitude is disquieting to the
+historic sense it is not unjustifiable. The object and the achievement
+of the Buddha was to preach a certain doctrine and to found an order.
+All the rest--years and countries, pains and pleasures--was of no
+importance. And it would appear that we have not lost much: we should
+have a greater sense of security if we had an orderly account of his
+wanderings and his relations with the kings of his time, but after he
+had once entered on his ministry the events which broke the peaceful
+tenour of his long life were few and we probably know most of them
+though we cannot date them. For about forty-five years he moved about
+Kosala, Magadha and Anga visiting the two capitals Sāvatthī and Rājagaha
+and going as far west as the country of the Kurus. He took little part
+in politics or worldly life, though a hazy but not improbable story[341]
+represents him as pacifying the Sākyas and Koliyas, who were on the
+point of fighting about the water of the Rohini which irrigated the
+lands of both clans. He uniformly enjoyed the respect and attention of
+kings and the wealthy classes. Doubtless he was not popular with the
+Brahmans or with those good people who disliked seeing fine young men
+made into monks. But it does not appear that his teaching provoked any
+serious tumults or that he was troubled by anything but schism within
+the order. We have, if not a history, at least a picture of a life which
+though peaceful was active and benevolent but aloof, majestic and
+authoritative.
+
+We are told[342] that at first his disciples wandered about at all
+seasons but it was not long before he bade them observe the already
+established routine for itinerant monks of travelling on foot during the
+greater part of the year but of resting for three months during the
+rainy season known as Vassa and beginning some time in June. When moving
+about he appears to have walked from five to ten miles a day, regulating
+his movements so as to reach inhabited places in time to collect food
+for the midday meal. The afternoon he devoted to meditation and in the
+evening gave instruction. He usually halted in woods or gardens on the
+outskirts of villages and cities, and often on the bank of a river or
+tank, for shade and water would be the first requisites for a wandering
+monk. On these journeys he was accompanied by a considerable following
+of disciples: five hundred or twelve hundred and fifty are often
+mentioned and though the numbers may be exaggerated there is no reason
+to doubt that the band was large. The suttas generally commence with a
+picture of the surroundings in which the discourse recorded was
+delivered. The Buddha is walking along the high road from Rājagaha to
+Nālanda with a great company of disciples. Or he is journeying through
+Kosala and halting in a mango-grove on the banks of the Aciravatī river.
+Or he is stopping in a wood outside a Brahman village and the people go
+out to him. The principal Brahmans, taking their siesta on the upper
+terraces of their houses, see the crowd and ask their doorkeepers what
+it means. On hearing the cause they debate whether they or the Buddha
+should pay the first call and ultimately visit him. Or he is halting on
+the shore of the Gaggarā Lake at Campā in Western Bengal, sitting under
+the fragrant white flowers of a campaka tree. Or he visits the hills
+overlooking Rājagaha haunted by peacocks and by wandering monks. Often
+he stops in buildings described as halls, which were sometimes merely
+rest houses for travellers. But it became more and more the custom for
+the devout to erect such buildings for his special use and even in his
+lifetime they assumed the proportions of monasteries[343]. The people of
+Vesālī built one in a wood to the north of their city known as the
+Gabled Hall. It was a storied house having on the ground floor a large
+room surrounded by pillars and above it the private apartments of the
+Buddha. Such private rooms (especially those which he occupied at
+Sāvatthī), were called Gandhakūtī or the perfumed chamber. At
+Kapilavatthu[344] the Sākyas erected a new building known as Santhagāra.
+The Buddha was asked to inaugurate it and did so by a discourse lasting
+late into the night which he delivered sitting with his back against a
+pillar. At last he said his back was tired and lay down, leaving Ānanda
+to continue the edification of the congregation who were apparently less
+exhausted than the preacher.
+
+But perhaps the residence most frequently mentioned is that in the
+garden called Jetavana at Sāvatthī. Anāthapindika, a rich merchant of
+that town, was converted by the Buddha when staying at Rājagaha and
+invited him to spend the next rainy season at Sāvatthī[345]. On
+returning to his native town to look for a suitable place, he decided
+that the garden of the Prince Jeta best satisfied his requirements. He
+obtained it only after much negotiation for a sum sufficient to cover
+the whole ground with coins. When all except a small space close to the
+gateway had been thus covered Jeta asked to be allowed to share in the
+gift and on receiving permission erected on the vacant spot a gateway
+with a room over it. "And Anāthapindika the householder built dwelling
+rooms and retiring rooms and storerooms and halls with fireplaces, and
+outside storehouses and closets and cloisters and halls attached to the
+bath rooms and ponds and roofed open sheds[346]."
+
+Buddhaghosa has given an account[347] of the way in which the Buddha was
+wont to spend his days when stopping in some such resting-place, and his
+description is confirmed by the numerous details given in the Pitakas.
+He rose before dawn and would often retire and meditate until it was
+time to set out on the round for alms but not unfrequently he is
+represented as thinking that it was too early to start and that he might
+first visit some monk of the neighbourhood. Then he went round the town
+or village with his disciples, carrying his almsbowl and accepting
+everything put into it. Sometimes he talked to his disciples while
+walking[348]. Frequently, instead of begging for alms, he accepted an
+invitation to dine with some pious person who asked the whole band of
+disciples and made strenuous culinary efforts. Such invitations were
+given at the conclusion of a visit paid to the Buddha on the previous
+day and were accepted by him with silence which signified consent. On
+the morning of the next day the host announced in person or through a
+messenger that the meal was ready and the Buddha taking his mantle and
+bowl went to the house. The host waited on the guests with his own
+hands, putting the food which he had prepared into their bowls. After
+the repast the Buddha delivered a discourse or catechized the company.
+He did the same with his own disciples when he collected food himself
+and returned home to eat it. He took but one meal a day[349], between
+eleven and twelve, and did not refuse meat when given to him, provided
+that he did not know the animals had been slaughtered expressly for his
+food. When he had given instruction after the meal he usually retired to
+his chamber or to a quiet spot under trees for repose and meditation. On
+one occasion[350] he took his son Rāhula with him into a wood at this
+hour to impart some of the deepest truths to him, but as a rule he gave
+no further instruction until the late afternoon.
+
+The Pitakas represent all believers as treating the Buddha with the
+greatest respect but the salutations and titles which they employ hardly
+exceed those ordinarily used in speaking to eminent persons[351]. Kings
+were at this time addressed as Deva, whereas the Buddha's usual title is
+Bhagavā or Bhante, Lord. A religious solemnity and deliberation prevails
+in the interviews which he grants but no extravagance of adoration is
+recorded. Visitors salute him by bowing with joined hands, sit
+respectfully on one side while he instructs them and in departing are
+careful to leave him on their right hand. He accepts such gifts as food,
+clothes, gardens and houses but rejects all ceremonial honours. Thus
+Prince Bodhi[352] when receiving him carpeted his mansion with white
+cloths but the Buddha would not walk on them and remained standing at
+the entrance till they were taken up.
+
+The introduction to the Ariyapariyesana-Sutta gives a fairly complete
+picture of a day in his life at Sāvatthī. It relates how in the morning
+he took his bowl and mantle and went to the town to collect food. While
+he was away, some monks told his personal attendant Ānanda that they
+wished to hear a discourse from him, as it was long since they had had
+the privilege. Ānanda suggested that they had better go to the hermitage
+of the Brahman Rammaka near the town. The Buddha returned, ate his meal
+and then said "Come, Ānanda, let us go to the terrace of Migāra's
+mother[353] and stay there till evening." They went there and spent the
+day in meditation. Towards evening the Buddha rose and said "Let us go
+to the old bath to refresh our limbs." After they had bathed, Ānanda
+suggested that they should go to Rammaka's hermitage: the Buddha
+assented by his silence and they went together. Within the hermitage
+were many monks engaged in instructive conversation, so the Buddha
+waited at the door till there was a pause in the talk. Then he coughed
+and knocked. The monks opened the door, and offered him a seat. After a
+short conversation, he recounted to them how he had striven for and
+obtained Buddhahood.
+
+These congregations were often prolonged late into the night. We hear
+for instance how he sat on the terrace belonging to Migāra's mother[354]
+in the midst of an assembly of monks waiting for his words, still and
+silent in the light of the full moon; how a monk would rise, adjusting
+his robe so as to leave one shoulder bare, bow with his hands joined and
+raised to his forehead and ask permission to put a question and the Lord
+would reply, Be seated, monk, ask what you will. But sometimes in these
+nightly congregations the silence was unbroken. When King Ajātasattu
+went to visit him[355] in the mango grove of Jīvaka he was seized with
+sudden fear at the unearthly stillness of the place and suspected an
+ambush. "Fear not, O King," said Jīvaka, "I am playing you no tricks. Go
+straight on. There in the pavilion hall the lamps are burning ... and
+there is the Blessed One sitting against the middle pillar, facing the
+east with the brethren round him." And when the king beheld the assembly
+seated in perfect silence, calm as a clear lake, he exclaimed "Would
+that my son might have such calm as this assembly now has."
+
+The major part of the Buddha's activity was concerned with the
+instruction of his disciples and the organization of the Sangha or
+order. Though he was ready to hear and teach all, the portrait presented
+to us is not that of a popular preacher who collects and frequents
+crowds but rather that of a master, occupied with the instruction of his
+pupils, a large band indeed but well prepared and able to appreciate and
+learn by heart teaching which, though freely offered to the whole world,
+was somewhat hard to untrained ears. In one passage[356] an enquirer
+asks him why he shows more zeal in teaching some than others. The answer
+is, if a landowner had three fields, one excellent, one middling and one
+of poor soil, would he not first sow the good field, then the middling
+field, and last of all the bad field, thinking to himself; it will just
+produce fodder for the cattle? So the Buddha preaches first to his own
+monks, then to lay-believers, and then, like the landowner who sows the
+bad field last, to Brahmans, ascetics and wandering monks of other
+sects, thinking if they only understand one word, it will do them good
+for a long while. It was to such congregations of disciples or to
+enquirers belonging to other religious orders that he addressed his most
+important discourses, iterating in grave numbered periods the truths
+concerning the reality of sorrow and the equal reality of salvation, as
+he sat under a clump of bamboos or in the shade of a banyan, in sight
+perhaps of a tank where the lotuses red, white and blue, submerged or
+rising from the water, typified the various classes of mankind.
+
+He did not start by laying down any constitution for his order. Its
+rules were formed entirely by case law. Each incident and difficulty was
+referred to him as it arose and his decision was accepted as the law on
+that point. During his last illness he showed a noble anxiety not to
+hamper his followers by the prestige of his name but to leave behind him
+a body of free men, able to be a light and a help to themselves. But a
+curious passage[357] represents an old monk as saying immediately after
+his death "Weep not, brethren; we are well rid of the Great Monk. We
+used to be annoyed by being told, 'This beseems you and this does not
+beseem you. But now we shall be able to do what we like and not have to
+do what we don't like.'" Clearly the laxer disciples felt the Master's
+hand to be somewhat heavy and we might have guessed as much. For though
+Gotama had a breadth of view rare in that or in any age, though he
+refused to multiply observances or to dogmatize, every sutta indicates
+that he was a man of exceptional authority and decision; what he has
+laid down he has laid down; there is no compulsion or punishment, no vow
+of obedience or _sacrificium intellectus_; but it is equally clear that
+there is no place in the order for those who in great or small think
+differently from the master.
+
+In shepherding his flock he had the assistance of his senior disciples.
+Of these the most important were Sāriputta and Moggallāna, both of them
+Brahmans who left their original teacher Sāńjaya to join him at the
+outset of his ministry. Sāriputta[358] enjoyed his confidence so fully
+that he acted as his representative and gave authoritative expositions
+of doctrine. The Buddha even compared him to the eldest son of an
+Emperor who assists his father in the government. But both he and
+Moggallāna died before their master and thus did not labour
+independently. Another important disciple Upāli survived him and
+probably contributed materially to the codification of the Vinaya.
+Anuruddha and Ānanda, both of them Sākyas, are also frequently
+mentioned, especially the latter who became his personal attendant[359]
+and figures in the account of his illness and death as the beloved
+disciple to whom his last instructions were committed. These two
+together with four other young Sākya nobles and Upāli joined the order
+twenty-five years before Gotama's death and perhaps formed an inner
+circle of trusted relatives, though we have no reason to think there was
+any friction between them and Brahmans like Sāriputta. Upāli is said to
+have been barber of the Sākyas. It is not easy to say what his social
+status may have been, but it probably did not preclude intimacy.
+
+The Buddha was frequently occupied with maintaining peace and order
+among his disciples. Though the profession of a monk excluded worldly
+advancement, it was held in great esteem and was hence adopted by
+ambitious and quarrelsome men who had no true vocation. The troubles
+which arose in the Sangha are often ascribed in the Vinaya to the
+Chabbaggiyas, six brethren who became celebrated in tradition as spirits
+of mischief and who are evidently made the peg on which these old
+monkish anecdotes are hung. As a rule the intervention of the Buddha was
+sufficient to restore peace, but one passage[360] indicates resistance
+to his authority. The brethren quarrelled so often that the people said
+it was a public scandal. The Buddha endeavoured to calm the disputants,
+but one of them replied, "Lord, let the Blessed One quietly enjoy the
+bliss which he has obtained in this life. The responsibility for these
+quarrels will rest with us alone." This seems a clear hint that the
+Blessed One had better mind his own business. Renewed injunctions and
+parables met with no better result. "And the Blessed One thought" says
+the narrative "'truly these fools are infatuated,' and he rose from his
+seat and went away."
+
+Other troubles are mentioned but by far the most serious was the schism
+of Devadatta, represented as occurring in the old age of Gotama when he
+was about seventy-two. The story as told in the Cullavagga[361] is
+embellished with supernatural incidents and seems not to observe the
+natural sequence of events but perhaps three features are historical:
+namely that Devadatta wished to supersede the Buddha as head of the
+order, that he was the friend of Ajātasattu, Crown Prince and afterwards
+King of Magadha[362], and that he advocated a stricter rule of life than
+the Buddha chose to enforce. This combination of piety and ambition is
+perhaps not unnatural. He was a cousin of the Buddha and entered the
+order at the same time as Ānanda and other young Sākya nobles. Sprung
+from that quarrelsome breed he possessed in a distorted form some of
+Gotama's own ability. He is represented as publicly urging the Master to
+retire and dwell at ease but met with an absolute refusal. Sāriputta was
+directed to "proclaim" him in Rājagaha, the proclamation being to the
+effect that his nature had changed and that all his words and deeds were
+disowned by the order. Then Devadatta incited the Crown Prince to murder
+his father, Bimbisāra. The plot was prevented by the ministers but the
+king told Ajātasattu that if he wanted the kingdom he could have it and
+abdicated. But his unnatural son put him to death all the same[363] by
+starving him slowly in confinement. With the assistance of Ajātasattu,
+Devadatta then tried to compass the death of the Buddha. First he hired
+assassins, but they were converted as soon as they approached the sacred
+presence. Then he rolled down a rock from the Vulture's peak with the
+intention of crushing the Buddha, but the mountain itself interfered to
+stop the sacrilege and only a splinter scratched the Lord's foot. Then
+he arranged for a mad elephant to be let loose in the road at the time
+of collecting alms, but the Buddha calmed the furious beast. It is
+perhaps by some error of arrangement that after committing such
+unpardonable crimes Devadatta is represented as still a member of the
+order and endeavouring to provoke a schism by asking for stricter rules.
+The attempt failed and according to later legends he died on the spot,
+but the Vinaya merely says that hot blood gushed from his mouth.
+
+That there are historical elements in this story is shown by the
+narrative of Fa Hsien, the Chinese pilgrim who travelled in India about
+400 A.D. He tells us that the followers of Devadatta still existed in
+Kosala and revered the three previous Buddhas but refused to recognize
+Gotama. This is interesting, for it seems to show that it was possible
+to accept Gotama's doctrine, or the greater part of it, as something
+independent of his personality and an inheritance from earlier teachers.
+
+The Udāna and Jātaka relate another plot without specifying the year.
+Some heretics induced a nun called Sundarī to pretend she was the
+Buddha's concubine and hired assassins to murder her. They then accused
+the Bhikkhus of killing her to conceal their master's sin, but the real
+assassins got drunk with the money they had received and revealed the
+conspiracy in their cups.
+
+But these are isolated cases. As a whole the Buddha's long career was
+marked by a peace and friendliness which are surprising if we consider
+what innovations his teaching contained. Though in contending that
+priestly ceremonies were useless he refrained from neither direct
+condemnation nor satire, yet he is not represented as actively
+attacking[364] them and we may doubt if he forbade his lay disciples to
+take part in rites and sacrifices as a modern missionary might do. We
+find him sitting by the sacred fire of a Brahman[365] and discoursing,
+but not denouncing the worship carried on in the place. When he
+converted Siha[366], the general of the Licchavis, who had been a Jain,
+he bade him continue to give food and gifts as before to the Jain monks
+who frequented his house--an instance of toleration in a proselytizing
+teacher which is perhaps without parallel. Similarly in the
+Sīgālovāda-sutta it is laid down that a good man ministers to monks and
+to Brahmans. If it is true that Ajātasattu countenanced Devadatta's
+attempts to murder him, he ignored such disagreeable details with a
+sublime indifference, for he continued to frequent Rājagaha, received
+the king, and preached to him one of his finest sermons without alluding
+to the past. He stands before us in the suttas as a man of amazing power
+of will, inaccessible to fear, promises and, one may add, to argument
+but yet in comparison with other religious leaders singularly gentle in
+taking the offensive against error. Often he simply ignored it as
+irrelevant: "Never mind" he said on his deathbed to his last convert
+"Never mind, whether other teachers are right or wrong. Listen to me, I
+will teach you the truth." And when he is controversial his method is
+often to retain old words in honourable use with new meanings. The
+Brahmans are not denounced like the Pharisees in the New Testament but
+the real Brahman is a man of uprightness and wisdom: the real sacrifice
+is to abstain from sin and follow the Truth.
+
+Women played a considerable part in the entourage of Gotama. They were
+not secluded in India at that time and he admitted that they were
+capable of attaining saintship. The work of ministering to the order, of
+supplying it with food and raiment, naturally fell largely to pious
+matrons, and their attentive forethought delighted to provide for the
+monks those comforts which might be accepted but not asked for.
+Prominent among such donors was Visākhā, who married the son of a
+wealthy merchant at Sāvatthī and converted her husband's family from
+Jainism to the true doctrine. The Vinaya recounts how after entertaining
+the Buddha and his disciples she asked eight boons which proved to be
+the privileges of supplying various classes of monks with food, clothing
+and medicine and of providing the nuns with bathing dresses, for, said
+she, it shocked her sense of propriety to see them bathing naked. But
+the anecdotes respecting the Buddha and women, whether his wife or
+others, are not touched with sentiment, not even so much as is found in
+the conversation between Yājńavalkya and Maitreyī in the Upanishad. To
+women as a class he gave their due and perhaps in his own opinion more
+than their due, but if he felt any interest in them as individuals, the
+sacred texts have obliterated the record. In the last year of his life
+he dined with the courtezan Ambapālī and the incident has attracted
+attention on account of its supposed analogy to the narrative about
+Christ and "the woman which was a sinner." But the resemblance is small.
+There is no sign that the Buddha, then eighty years of age, felt any
+personal interest in Ambapālī. Whatever her morals may have been, she
+was a benefactress of the order and he simply gave her the same
+opportunity as others of receiving instruction. When the Licchavi
+princes tried to induce him to dine with them instead of with her, he
+refused to break his promise. The invitations of princes had no
+attraction for him, and he was a prince himself. A fragment of
+conversation introduced irrelevantly into his deathbed discourses[367]
+is significant--"How, Lord, are we to conduct ourselves with regard to
+womankind? Don't see them, Ānanda. But if we see them, what are we to
+do? Abstain from speech. But if they should speak to us what are we to
+do? Keep wide awake."
+
+This spirit is even more evident in the account of the admission of Nuns
+to the order. When the Buddha was visiting his native town his aunt and
+foster mother, Mahāprajāpatī, thrice begged him to grant this privilege
+to women but was thrice refused and went away in tears. Then she
+followed him to Vesālī and stood in the entrance of the Kūtagāra Hall
+"with swollen feet and covered with dust, and sorrowful." Ānanda, who
+had a tender heart, interviewed her and, going in to the Buddha,
+submitted her request but received a triple refusal. But he was not to
+be denied and urged that the Buddha admitted women to be capable of
+attaining saintship and that it was unjust to refuse the blessings of
+religion to one who had suckled him. At last Gotama yielded--perhaps the
+only instance in which he is represented as convinced by argument--but he
+added "If, Ānanda, women had not received permission to enter the Order,
+the pure religion would have lasted long, the good law would have stood
+fast a thousand years. But since they had received that permission, it
+will now stand fast for only five hundred years[368]."
+
+He maintained and approved the same hard detached attitude in other
+domestic relations. His son Rāhula received special instruction but is
+not represented as enjoying his confidence like Ānanda. A remarkable
+narrative relates how, when the monk Sangāmaji was sitting beneath a
+tree absorbed in meditation, his former wife (whom he had left on
+abandoning the world) laid his child before him and said "Here, monk, is
+your little son, nourish me and nourish him." But Sangāmaji took no
+notice and the woman went away. The Buddha who observed what happened
+said "He feels no pleasure when she comes, no sorrow when she goes: him
+I call a true Brahman released from passion[369]." This narrative is
+repulsive to European sentiment, particularly as the chronicler cannot
+spare the easy charity of a miracle to provide for the wife and child,
+but in taking it as an index of the character of Gotama, we must bear in
+mind such sayings of Christ as "If any man come to me and hate not his
+father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea
+and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple[370]."
+
+
+4
+
+Political changes, in which however he took no part, occurred in the
+last years of the Buddha's life. In Magadha Ajātasattu had come to the
+throne. If, as the Vinaya represents, he at first supported the schism
+of Devadatta, he subsequently became a patron of the Buddha. He was an
+ambitious prince and fortified Pātaligāma (afterwards Pātaliputra)
+against the Vajjian confederation, which he destroyed a few years after
+the Buddha's death. This confederation was an alliance of small
+oligarchies like the Licchavis and Videhans. It would appear that this
+form of constitution was on the wane in northern India and that the
+monarchical states were annexing the decaying commonwealths. In Kosala,
+Vidūdabha conquered Kapilavatthu a year or two before the Buddha's
+death, and is said to have perpetrated a great massacre of the Sākya
+clan[371]. Possibly in consequence of these events the Buddha avoided
+Kosala and the former Sākya territory. At any rate the record of his
+last days opens at Rājagaha, the capital of Magadha.
+
+This record is contained in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, the longest of
+the suttas and evidently a compilation. The style is provokingly uneven.
+It often promises to give a simple and natural narrative but such
+passages are interrupted by more recent and less relevant matter. No
+general estimate of its historical value can be given but each incident
+must be apprized separately. Nearly all the events and discourses
+recorded in it are found elsewhere in the canon in the same words[372]
+and it contains explanatory matter of a suspiciously apologetic nature.
+Also the supernatural element is freely introduced. But together with
+all this it contains plain pathetic pictures of an old man's fatigue and
+sufferings which would not have been inserted by a later hand, had they
+not been found ready in tradition. And though events and sermonettes are
+strung together in a way which is not artistic, there is nothing
+improbable in the idea that the Buddha when he felt his end approaching
+should have admonished his disciples about all that he thought most
+important.
+
+The story opens at Rājagaha about six months before the Buddha's death.
+The King sends his minister to ask whether he will be successful in
+attacking the Vajjians. The Buddha replies that as long as they act in
+concord, behave honourably, and respect the Faith, so long may they be
+expected not to decline but prosper. The compiler may perhaps have felt
+this narrative to be an appropriate parallel to the Buddha's advice to
+his disciples to live in peace and order. He summoned and addressed the
+brethren living in Rājagaha and visited various spots in the
+neighbourhood. In these last utterances one phrase occurs with special
+frequency, "Great is the fruit, great the advantage of meditation
+accompanied by upright conduct: great is the advantage of intelligence
+accompanied by meditation. The mind which has such intelligence is freed
+from intoxications, from the desires of the senses, from love of life,
+from delusion and from ignorance."
+
+He then set forth accompanied by Ānanda and several disciples. Judging
+from the route adopted his intention was to go ultimately to Sāvatthī.
+This was one of the towns where he resided from time to time, but we
+cannot tell what may have been his special motives for visiting it on
+the present occasion, for if the King of Kosala had recently massacred
+the Sākyas his presence there would have been strange. The road was not
+direct but ran up northwards and then followed the base of the
+mountains, thus enabling travellers to cross rivers near their sources
+where they were still easy to ford. The stopping-places from Rājagaha
+onwards were Nālanda, Pātaliputra, Vesālī, Bhandagāma, Pāvā, Kusinārā,
+Kapilavatthu, Setavya, Sāvatthī. On his last journey the Buddha is
+represented as following this route but he died at the seventh
+stopping-place, Kusinārā. When at Pātaligāma, he prophesied that it
+would become a great emporium[373]. He was honourably entertained by the
+officers of the King who decided that the gate and ferry by which he
+left should be called Gotama's gate and Gotama's ferry. The gate
+received the name, but when he came to the Ganges he vanished
+miraculously and appeared standing on the further bank. He then went on
+to Vesālī, passing with indifference and immunity from the dominions of
+the King of Magadha into those of his enemies, and halted in the grove
+of the courtezan Ambapālī[374]. She came to salute him and he accepted
+her invitation to dine with her on the morrow, in spite of the protests
+of the Licchavi princes.
+
+The rainy season was now commencing and the Buddha remained near Vesālī
+in the village of Beluva, where he fell seriously ill. One day after his
+recovery he was sitting in the shade with Ānanda, who said that during
+the illness his comfort had been the thought that the Buddha would not
+pass away without leaving final instructions to the Order. The reply was
+a remarkable address which is surely, at least, in parts the Buddha's
+own words.
+
+"What does the order expect of me, Ānanda? I have preached the truth
+without any distinction of esoteric or exoteric, for in respect of the
+truth, there is no clenched hand in the teaching of the Tathāgata. If
+there is anyone who thinks 'it is I who will lead the brotherhood' or
+'the order is dependent on me,' it is he who should give instructions.
+But the Tathāgata does not think that he should lead the order or that
+the order is dependent on him. Why then should he leave instructions? I
+am an old man now, and full of years, my pilgrimage is finished, I have
+reached my sum of days, I am turning eighty years; and just as a
+worn-out cart can only be made to move along with much additional care,
+so can the body of the Tathagāta be kept going only with much additional
+care. It is only when the Tathagāta, ceasing to attend to any outward
+thing becomes plunged in meditation, it is only then that the body of
+the Tathagāta is at ease. Therefore, Ānanda, be a lamp and a refuge to
+yourselves. Seek no other refuge. Let the Truth be your lamp and refuge;
+seek no refuge elsewhere.
+
+"And they, Ānanda, who now or when I am dead shall be a lamp and a
+refuge to themselves, seeking no other refuge but taking the Truth as
+their lamp and refuge, these shall be my foremost disciples--these who
+are anxious to learn."
+
+This discourse is succeeded by a less convincing episode, in which the
+Buddha tells Ānanda that he can prolong his life to the end of a
+world-period if he desires it. But though the hint was thrice repeated,
+the heedless disciple did not ask the Master to remain in the world.
+When he had gone, Māra, the Evil one, appeared and urged on the Buddha
+that it was time for him to pass away. He replied that he would die in
+three months but not before he had completely established the true
+religion. Thus he deliberately rejected his allotted span of life and an
+earthquake occurred. He explained the cause of it to Ānanda, who saw his
+mistake too late. "Enough, Ānanda, the time for making such a request is
+past[375]."
+
+The narrative becomes more human when it relates how one afternoon he
+looked at the town and said, "This will be the last time that the
+Tathāgata will behold Vesālī. Come, Ānanda, let us go to Bhandagāma."
+After three halts he arrived at Pāvā and stopped in the mango grove of
+Cunda, a smith, who invited him to dinner and served sweet rice, cakes,
+and a dish which has been variously interpreted as dried boar's flesh or
+a kind of truffle. The Buddha asked to be served with this dish and bade
+him give the sweet rice and cakes to the brethren. After eating some of
+it he ordered the rest to be buried, saying that no one in heaven or
+earth except a Buddha could digest it, a strange remark to chronicle
+since it was this meal which killed him[376]. But before he died he sent
+word to Cunda that he had no need to feel remorse and that the two most
+meritorious offerings in the world are the first meal given to a Buddha
+after he has obtained enlightenment and the last one given him before
+his death. On leaving Cunda's house he was attacked by dysentery and
+violent pains but bore them patiently and started for Kusinārā with his
+disciples. In going thither he crossed the river Kakutthā[377], and some
+verses inserted into the text, which sound like a very old ballad,
+relate how he bathed in it and then, weary and worn out, lay down on his
+cloak. A curious incident occurs here. A young Mallian, named Pukkuisa,
+after some conversation with the Buddha, presents him with a robe of
+cloth of gold, but when it is put on it seems to lose its splendour, so
+exceedingly clear and bright is his skin. Gotama explains that there are
+two occasions when the skin of a Buddha glows like this--the night of his
+enlightenment and the night before his death. The transfiguration of
+Christ suggests itself as a parallel and is also associated with an
+allusion to his coming death. Most people have seen a face so light up
+under the influence of emotion that this popular metaphor seemed to
+express physical truth and it is perhaps not excessive to suppose that
+in men of exceptional gifts this illumination may have been so bright as
+to leave traces in tradition.
+
+Then they went on[378] to a grove at Kusinārā, and he lay down on a
+couch spread between two Sāla trees. These trees were in full bloom,
+though it was not the season for their flowering; heavenly strains and
+odours filled the air and spirits unseen crowded round the bed. But
+Ānanda, we are told, went into the Vihāra, which was apparently also in
+the grove, and stood leaning against the lintel weeping at the thought
+that he was to lose so kind a master. The Buddha sent for him and said,
+"Do not weep. Have I not told you before that it is the very nature of
+things most near and dear to us that we must part from them, leave them,
+sever ourselves from them? All that is born, brought into being and put
+together carries within itself the necessity of dissolution. How then is
+it possible that such a being should not be dissolved? No such condition
+is possible. For a long time, Ānanda, you have been very near me by
+words of love, kind and good, that never varies and is beyond all
+measure. You have done well, Ānanda. Be earnest in effort and you too
+shall soon be free from the great evils--from sensuality, from
+individuality, from delusion and from ignorance."
+
+The Indians have a strong feeling that persons of distinction should die
+in a suitable place[379], and now comes a passage in which Ānanda begs
+the Buddha not to die "in this little wattle and daub town in the midst
+of the jungle" but rather in some great city. The Buddha told him that
+Kusinārā had once been the capital of King Mahāsudassana and a scene of
+great splendour in former ages. This narrative is repeated in an
+amplified form in the Sutta and Jātaka[380] called Mahāsudassana, in
+which the Buddha is said to have been that king in a previous birth.
+
+Kusinārā was at that time one of the capitals of the Mallas, who were an
+aristocratic republic like the Sākyas and Vajjians. At the Buddha's
+command Ānanda went to the Council hall and summoned the people. "Give
+no occasion to reproach yourself hereafter saying, The Tathāgata died in
+our own village and we neglected to visit him in his last hours." So the
+Mallas came and Ānanda presented them by families to the dying Buddha as
+he lay between the flowering trees, saying "Lord, a Malla of such and
+such a name with his children, his wives, his retinue and his friends
+humbly bows down at the feet of the Blessed One."
+
+A monk called Subhadda, who was not a believer, also came and Ānanda
+tried to turn him away but the Buddha overhearing said "Do not keep out
+Subhadda. Whatever he may ask of me he will ask from a desire for
+knowledge and not to annoy me and he will quickly understand my
+replies." He was the last disciple whom the Buddha converted, and he
+straightway became an Arhat.
+
+Now comes the last watch of the night. "It may be, Ānanda," said the
+Buddha, "that some of you may think, the word of the Master is ended. We
+have no more a teacher. But you should not think thus. The truths and
+the rules which I have declared and laid down for you all, let them be
+the teacher for you after I am gone.
+
+"When I am gone address not one another as hitherto, saying 'Friend.' An
+elder brother may address a younger brother by his name or family-name
+or as friend, but a younger brother should say to an elder, Sir, or
+Lord.
+
+"When I am gone let the order, if it should so wish, abolish all the
+lesser and minor precepts."
+
+Thus in his last address the dying Buddha disclaims, as he had
+disclaimed before in talking to Ānanda, all idea of dictating to the
+order: his memory is not to become a paralyzing tradition. What he had
+to teach, he has taught freely, holding back nothing in "a clenched
+fist." The truths are indeed essential and immutable. But they must
+become a living part of the believer, until he is no longer a follower
+but a light unto himself. The rest does not matter: the order can change
+all the minor rules if expedient. But in everyday life discipline and
+forms must be observed: hitherto all have been equal compared with the
+teacher, but now the young must show more respect for the older. And in
+the same spirit of solicitude for the order he continues:
+
+"When I am gone, the highest penalty should be imposed on Channa." "What
+is that, Lord?" "Let him say what he likes, but the brethren should not
+speak to him or exhort him or admonish him[381]."
+
+The end approaches. "It may be, that there is some doubt or misgiving in
+the mind of some as to the Buddha, or the truth, or the path, or the
+way. Enquire freely. Do not have to reproach yourselves afterwards with
+the thought, 'Our teacher was face to face with us and we could not
+bring ourselves to enquire when we were face to face with him.'" All
+were silent. A second and third time he put the same question and there
+was silence still. "It may be, that you put no questions out of awe for
+the teacher. Let one friend communicate to another." There was still
+silence, till Ānanda said "How wonderful, Lord, and how marvellous. In
+this whole assembly there is no one who has any doubt or misgiving as to
+the Buddha, the truth, the path and the way." "Out of the fulness of
+faith hast thou spoken Ānanda, but the Tathāgata knows for certain that
+it is so. Even the most backward of all these five hundred brethren has
+become converted and is no longer liable to be born in a state of
+suffering and is assured of final salvation."
+
+"Behold, I exhort you saying, The elements of being are transitory[382].
+Strive earnestly. These were the last words of the Tathāgata." Then he
+passed through a series of trances (no less than twenty stages are
+enumerated) and expired.
+
+An earthquake and thunder, as one might have predicted, occurred at the
+moment of his death but comparatively little stress is laid on these
+prodigies. Anuruddha seems to have taken the lead among the brethren and
+bade Ānanda announce the death to the Mallas. They heard it with cries
+of grief: "Too soon has the Blessed One passed away. Too soon has the
+light gone out of the world."
+
+No less than six days were passed in preparation for the obsequies[383].
+On the seventh they decided to carry the body to the south of the city
+and there burn it. But when they endeavoured to lift it, they found it
+immoveable. Anuruddha explained that spirits who were watching the
+ceremony wished it to be carried not outside the city but through it.
+When this was done the corpse moved easily and the heaven rained
+flowers. The meaning of this legend is that the Mallas considered a
+corpse would have defiled the city and therefore proposed to carry it
+outside. By letting it pass through the city they showed that it was not
+the ordinary relics of impure humanity.
+
+Again, when they tried to light the funeral pile it would not catch
+fire. Anuruddha explained that this delay also was due to the
+intervention of spirits who wished that Mahākassapa, the same whom the
+Buddha had converted at Uruvelā and then on his way to pay his last
+respects, should arrive before the cremation. When he came attended by
+five hundred monks the pile caught fire of itself and the body was
+consumed completely, leaving only the bones. Streams of rain
+extinguished the flames and the Mallas took the bones to their council
+hall. There they set round them a hedge of spears and a fence of bows
+and honoured them with dance and song and offerings of garlands and
+perfumes.
+
+Whatever may be thought of this story, the veneration of the Buddha's
+relics, which is attested by the Piprava vase, is a proof that we have
+to do with a man rather than a legend. The relics may all be false, but
+the fact that they were venerated some 250 years after his death shows
+that the people of India thought of him not as an ancient semi-divine
+figure like Rama or Krishna but as something human and concrete.
+
+Seven persons or communities sent requests for a portion of the relics,
+saying that they would erect a stupa over them and hold a feast. They
+were King Ajātasattu of Magadha, the Licchavis of Vesālī, the Sākyas of
+Kapilavatthu, the Bulis of Allakappa, the Kotiyas of Rāmagāma, the
+Mallas of Pāvā[384] and the Brahman of Vethadīpa. All except the last
+were Kshatriyas and based their claim on the ground that they like the
+Buddha belonged to the warrior caste. The Mallas at first refused, but a
+Brahman called Dona bade them not quarrel over the remains of him who
+taught forbearance. So he divided the relics into eight parts, one for
+Kusinārā and one for each of the other seven claimants. At this juncture
+the Moriyas of Pipphalivana sent in a claim for a share but had to be
+content with the embers of the pyre since all the bones had been
+distributed. Then eight stupas were built for the relics in the towns
+mentioned and one over the embers and one by Dona the Brahman over the
+iron vessel in which the body had been burnt.
+
+
+5
+
+Thus ended the career of a man who was undoubtedly one of the greatest
+intellectual and moral forces that the world has yet seen, but it is
+hard to arrive at any certain opinion as to the details of his character
+and abilities, for in the later accounts he is deified and in the
+Pitakas though veneration has not gone so far as this, he is
+ecclesiasticized and the human side is neglected. The narrative moves
+like some stately ceremonial in which emotion and incident would be out
+of place until it reaches the strange deathbed, spread between the
+flowering trees, and Ānanda introduces with the formality of a court
+chamberlain the Malla householders who have come to pay their last
+respects and bow down at the feet of the dying teacher. The scenes
+described are like stained glass windows; the Lord preaching in the
+centre, sinners repenting and saints listening, all in harmonious
+colours and studied postures. But the central figure remains somewhat
+aloof; when once he had begun his ministry he laboured uninterruptedly
+and with continual success, but the foundation of the kingdom of
+Righteousness seems less like the triumphant issue of a struggle than
+the passage through the world of some compassionate angel. This is in
+great part due to the fact that the Pitakas are works of edification.
+True, they set before us the teacher as well as his teaching but they
+speak of his doings and historical surroundings only in order to provide
+a proper frame for the law which he preached. A less devout and more
+observant historian would have arranged the picture differently and even
+in the narratives that have come down to us there are touches of human
+interest which seem authentic.
+
+When the Buddha was dying Ānanda wept because he was about to lose so
+kind a master and the Buddha's own language to him is even more
+affectionate. He cared not only for the organization of the order but
+for its individual members. He is frequently represented as feeling that
+some disciple needed a particular form of instruction and giving it. Nor
+did he fail to provide for the comfort of the sick and weary. For
+instance a ballad[385] relates how Panthaka driven from his home took
+refuge at the door of the monastery garden. "Then came the Lord and
+stroked my head and taking me by the arm led me into the garden of the
+monastery and out of kindness he gave me a towel for my feet." A
+striking anecdote[386] relates how he once found a monk who suffered
+from a disagreeable disease lying on the ground in a filthy state. So
+with Ānanda's assistance he washed him and lifting him up with his own
+hands laid him on his bed. Then he summoned the brethren and told them
+that if a sick brother had no special attendant the whole order should
+wait on him. "You, monks, have no mothers or fathers to care for you. If
+you do not wait one on the other, who is there who will wait on you?
+Whosoever would wait on me, he should wait on the sick." This last
+recalls Christ's words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of
+these brethren, ye have done it unto me." And, if his approval of monks
+being deaf to the claims of family affection seems unfeeling, it should
+also be mentioned that in the book called _Songs of the Nuns_[387] women
+relate how they were crazy at the loss of their children but found
+complete comfort and peace in his teaching. Sometimes we are told that
+when persons whom he wished to convert proved refractory he "suffused
+them with the feeling of his love" until they yielded to his
+influence[388]. We can hardly doubt that this somewhat cumbrous phrase
+preserves a tradition of his personal charm and power.
+
+The beauty of his appearance and the pleasant quality of his voice are
+often mentioned but in somewhat conventional terms which inspire no
+confidence that they are based on personal reminiscence, nor have the
+most ancient images which we possess any claim to represent his
+features, for the earliest of them are based on Greek models and it was
+not the custom to represent him by a figure until some centuries after
+his death. I can imagine that the truest idea of his person is to be
+obtained not from the abundant effigies which show him as a somewhat
+sanctimonious ascetic, but from statues of him as a young man, such as
+that found at Sarnath, which may possibly preserve not indeed the
+physiognomy of Gotama but the general physique of a young Nepalese
+prince, with powerful limbs and features and a determined mouth. For
+there is truth at the bottom of the saying that Gotama was born to be
+either a Buddha or a universal monarch: he would have made a good
+general, if he had not become a monk.
+
+We are perhaps on firmer ground when we find speakers in the
+Pitakas[389] commenting on his calm and bright expression and his
+unruffled courtesy in discussion. Of his eloquence it is hard to judge.
+The Suttas may preserve his teaching and some of his words but they are
+probably rearrangements made for recitation. Still it is impossible to
+prove that he did not himself adopt this style, particularly when age
+and iteration had made the use of certain formulę familiar to him. But
+though these repetitions and subdivisions of arrangement are often
+wearisome, there are not wanting traces of another manner, which suggest
+a terse and racy preacher going straight to the point and driving home
+his meaning with homely instances.
+
+Humour often peeps through the Buddha's preaching. It pervades the
+Jātaka stories, and more than once he is said to have smiled when
+remembering some previous birth. Some suttas, such as the tales of the
+Great King of Glory, and of King Mahā Vijita's sacrifice[390], are
+simply Jātakas in another form--interesting stories full of edification
+for those who can understand but not to be taken as a narrative of
+facts. At other times he simply states the ultimate facts of a case and
+leaves them in their droll incongruity. Thus when King Ajātasattu was
+moved and illuminated by his teaching, he observed to his disciples that
+His Majesty had all the makings of a saint in him, if only he had not
+killed that excellent man his own father. Somewhat similar is his
+judgment[391] on two naked ascetics, who imitated in all things the ways
+of a dog and a cow respectively, in the hope of thus obtaining
+salvation. When pressed to say what their next birth would be, he opined
+that if their penance was successful they would be reborn as dogs and
+cows, if unsuccessful, in hell. Irony and modesty are combined in his
+rejection of extravagant praise. "Such faith have I, Lord[392]" said
+Sāriputta, "that methinks there never has been nor will be nor is now
+any other greater or wiser than the Blessed One." "Of course, Sāriputta"
+is the reply, "you have known all the Buddhas of the past." "No, Lord."
+"Well then, you know those of the future." "No, Lord." "Then at least
+you know me and have penetrated my mind thoroughly." "Not even that,
+Lord." "Then why, Sāriputta, are your words so grand and bold."
+
+There is much that is human in these passages yet we should be making a
+fancy portrait did we allow ourselves to emphasize them too much and
+neglect the general tone of the Pitakas. These scriptures are the
+product of a school; but that school grew up under the Buddha's personal
+influence and more than that is rooted in the very influences and
+tendencies which produced the Buddha himself. The passionless,
+intellectual aloofness; the elemental simplicity with which the facts of
+life are stated and explained without any concession to sentiment, the
+rigour of the prescription for salvation, that all sensual desire and
+attachment must be cut off, are too marked and consistent for us to
+suppose them due merely to monkish inability to understand the more
+human side of his character. The Buddha began his career as an Indian
+Muni, one supposed to be free from all emotions and intent only on
+seeking deliverance from every tie connecting him with the world. This
+was expected of him and had he done no more it would have secured him
+universal respect. The fact that he did a great deal more, that he
+devoted his life to active preaching, that he offered to all happiness
+and escape from sorrow, that he personally aided with advice and
+encouragement all who came to him, caused both his contemporaries and
+future generations to regard him as a saviour. His character and the
+substance of his teaching were admirably suited to the needs of the
+religious world of India in his day. Judged by the needs of other
+temperaments, which are entitled to neither more nor less consideration,
+they seem too severe, too philosophic and the later varieties of
+Buddhism have endeavoured to make them congenial to less strenuous
+natures.
+
+Before leaving the personality of the Buddha, we must say a word about
+the more legendary portions of his biography, for though of little
+importance for history they have furnished the chief subjects of
+Buddhist art and influenced the minds of his followers as much as or
+more than the authentic incidents of his career[393]. The later legend
+has not distorted the old narrative. It is possible that all its
+incidents may be founded on stories known to the compilers of the
+Pitakas, though this is not at present demonstrable, but they are
+embellished by an unstinted use of the supernatural and of the hyperbole
+usual in Indian poetry. The youthful Buddha moves through showers of
+flowers and an atmosphere crowded with attendant deities. He cannot even
+go to school without an escort of ten thousand children and a hundred
+thousand maidens and astonishes the good man who proposes to teach him
+the alphabet by suggesting sixty-four systems of writing.
+
+The principal scenes in this legend are as follows. The Bodhisattva,
+that is the Buddha to-be, resides in the Tusita Heaven and selects his
+birth-place and parentage. He then enters the womb of his mother Māyā in
+the shape of a white elephant, which event she sees in a dream. Brahmans
+are summoned and interpret the vision to mean that her son will be a
+Universal Monarch or a Buddha. When near her confinement Māyā goes to
+visit her parents but on the way brings forth her son in the Lumbini
+grove. As she stands upright holding the bough of a tree, he issues from
+her side without pain to her and is received by deities, but on touching
+the ground, takes seven steps and says, "I am the foremost in the
+world." On the same day are born several persons who play a part in his
+life--his wife, his horse, Ānanda, Bimbisāra and others. Asita does
+homage to him, as does also his father, and it is predicted that he will
+become a Buddha and renounce the world. His father in his desire to
+prevent this secludes him in the enjoyment of all luxury. At the
+ploughing festival he falls into a trance under a tree and the shadow
+stands still to protect him and does not change. Again his father does
+him homage. He is of herculean strength and surpasses all as an archer.
+He marries his cousin Yasodharā, when sixteen years old. Then come the
+four visions, which are among the scenes most frequently depicted in
+modern sacred art. As he is driving in the palace grounds the gods show
+him an old man, a sick man, a corpse and a monk of happy countenance.
+His charioteer explains what they are and he determines to abandon the
+world. It was at this time that his son was born and on hearing the news
+he said that a new fetter now bound him to worldly life but still
+decided to execute his resolve. That night he could take no pleasure in
+the music of the singing women who were wont to play to him and they
+fell asleep. As he looked at their sleeping forms he felt disgust and
+ordered Channa, his charioteer, to saddle Kanthaka, a gigantic white
+horse, eighteen cubits long from head to tail. Meanwhile he went to his
+wife's room and took a last but silent look as she lay sleeping with her
+child.
+
+Then he started on horseback attended by Channa and a host of heavenly
+beings who opened the city gates. Here he was assailed by Māra the
+Tempter who offered him universal empire but in vain. After jumping the
+river Anomā on his steed, he cut off his long hair with his sword and
+flinging it up into the air wished it might stay there if he was really
+to become a Buddha. It remained suspended; admiring gods placed it in a
+heavenly shrine and presented Gotama with the robes of a monk.
+
+Not much is added to the account of his wanderings and austerities as
+given in the Pitakas, but the attainment of Buddhahood naturally
+stimulates the devout imagination. At daybreak Gotama sits at the foot
+of a tree, lighting up the landscape with the golden rays which issue
+from his person. Sujārā a noble maiden and her servant Pūrnā offer him
+rice and milk in a golden vessel and he takes no more food for seven
+weeks. He throws the vessel into the river, wishing that if he is to
+become a Buddha it may ascend the stream against the current. It does so
+and then sinks to the abode of the Nāgas. Towards evening he walks to
+the Bodhi-tree and meets a grass-cutter who offers him grass to make a
+seat. This he accepts and taking his seat vows that rather than rise
+before attaining Buddhahood, he will let his blood dry up and his body
+decay. Then comes the great assault of the Tempter. Māra attacks him in
+vain both with an army of terrible demons and with bands of seductive
+nymphs. During the conflict Māra asked him who is witness to his ever
+having performed good deeds or bestowed alms? He called on the earth to
+bear witness. Earthquakes and thunders responded to the appeal and the
+goddess of the Earth herself rose and bore testimony. The rout of Māra
+is supposed to have taken place in the late evening. The full moon[394]
+came out and in the three watches of the night he attained
+enlightenment.
+
+The Pali and early Sanskrit texts place the most striking legendary
+scenes in the first part of the Buddha's life just as scribes give
+freest rein to their artistic imagination in tracing the first letter
+and word of a chapter. In the later version, the whole text is coloured
+and gilded with a splendour that exceeds the hues of ordinary life but
+no incidents of capital importance are added after the
+Enlightenment[395]. Historical names still occur and the Buddha is still
+a wandering teacher with a band of disciples, but his miracles
+continually convulse the universe: he preaches to mankind from the sky
+and retires for three months to the Tusita Heaven in order to instruct
+his mother, who had died before she could hear the truth from her son's
+lips, and often the whole scene passes into a vision where the ordinary
+limits of space, time and number cease to have any meaning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE BUDDHA COMPARED WITH OTHER RELIGIOUS TEACHERS
+
+
+The personality of the Buddha invites comparison with the founders of
+the other world-religions, Christ and Mohammed. We are tempted to ask
+too if there is any resemblance between him and Confucius, a
+contemporary Asiatic whose influence has been equally lasting, but here
+there is little common ground. For Confucius's interest was mainly in
+social and ethical problems, not in religion. He laid stress on those
+ties of kinship and society, respecting which the Indian monk (like
+Christ) sometimes spoke harshly, although there is a strong likeness
+between the moral code of the Buddhist layman and Confucianism: he was
+full of humility and respect for antiquity, whereas Gotama had a good
+share of that self-confidence which is necessary for all who propound to
+the world a new religion.[396]
+
+But with Mohammed comparison, or rather contrast, is easier. Both were
+seekers after truth: both found what they believed to be the truth only
+when of mature years, Gotama when about thirty-six, Mohammed when forty
+or more: both lived to be elderly men and possessed great authority. But
+there the analogy ends. Perhaps no single human being has had so great
+an effect on the world as Mohammed. His achievements are personal and,
+had he never lived, it is not clear that the circumstances of the age
+would have caused some one else to play approximately the same part. He
+more than Cęsar or Alexander was individually the author of a movement
+which transformed part of three continents. No one else has been able to
+fuse the two noble instincts of religion and empire in so perfect a
+manner, perfect because the two do not conflict or jar, as do the
+teachings of Christ and the pretensions of his Church to temporal power.
+But it is precisely this fusion of religion and politics which
+disqualifies Islam as a universal religion and prevents it from
+satisfying the intellectual and spiritual wants of that part of humanity
+which is most intellectual and most spiritual. Law and religion are
+inextricably mixed in it and a Moslim, more than the most superstitious
+of Buddhists or Christians, is bound by a vast number of ties and
+observances which have nothing to do with religion. It is in avoiding
+these trammels that the superior religious instinct of Gotama shows
+itself. He was aided in this by the temper of his times. Though he was
+of the warrior caste and naturally brought into association with
+princes, he was not on that account tempted to play a part in politics,
+for to the Hindus, then as now, renunciation of the world was
+indispensable for serious religion and there is no instance of a teacher
+obtaining a hearing among them without such renunciation as a
+preliminary. According to Indian popular ideas a genius might become
+either an Emperor or a Buddha but not like Mohammed a mixture of the
+two. But the danger which beset Gotama, and which he consistently and
+consciously avoided, though Mohammed could not, was to give
+authoritative decisions on unessential points as to both doctrine and
+practice. There was clearly a party which wished to make the rule of his
+order more severe and, had he consented, the religious world of his day
+would have approved. But by so doing he would have made Buddhism an
+Indian sect like Jainism, incapable of flourishing in lands with other
+institutions. If Buddhism has had little influence outside Asia, that is
+because there are differences of temperament in the world, not because
+it sanctions anachronisms or prescribes observances of a purely local
+and temporary value. In all his teaching Gotama insists on what is
+essential only and will not lend his name and authority to what is
+merely accessory. He will not for instance direct or even recommend his
+disciples to be hermits. "Whoever wishes may dwell in a wood and whoever
+wishes may dwell near a village." And in his last days he bade them be a
+light unto themselves and gave them authority to change all the lesser
+precepts. It is true that the order decided to make no use of this
+permission, but the spirit which dictated it has shaped the destinies of
+the faith.
+
+Akin to this contrast is another--that between the tolerance of Gotama
+and the persecuting spirit of Islam. Mohammed and his followers never
+got rid of the idea that any other form of religion is an insult to the
+Almighty: that infidels should if possible be converted by compulsion,
+or, if that were impossible, allowed to exist only on sufferance and in
+an inferior position. Such ideas were unknown to Gotama. He laboured not
+for his own or his Creator's glory but simply and solely to benefit
+mankind. Conversion by force had no meaning for him, for what he desired
+was not a profession of allegiance but a change of disposition and amid
+many transformations his Church has not lost this temper.
+
+When we come to compare Gotama and Christ we are struck by many
+resemblances of thought but also by great differences of circumstances
+and career. Both were truly spiritual teachers who rose above forms and
+codes: both accepted the current ideals of their time and strove to
+become the one a Buddha, the other Messiah. But at the age when Christ
+was executed Gotama was still in quest of truth and still on the wrong
+track. He lived nearly fifty years longer and had ample opportunity of
+putting his ideas into practice. So far as our meagre traditions allow
+us to trace the development of the two, the differences are even more
+fundamental. Peaceful as was the latter part of Gotama's life, the
+beginning was a period of struggle and disillusion. He broke away from
+worldly life to study philosophy: he broke away from philosophy to wear
+out his body with the severest mortification; that again he found to be
+vanity and only then did he attain to enlightenment. And though he
+offers salvation to all without distinction, he repeatedly says that it
+is difficult: with hard wrestling has he won the truth and it is hard
+for ordinary men to understand.
+
+Troubled as was the life of Christ, it contains no struggle of this
+sort. As a youth he grew up in a poor family where the disenchantment of
+satiety was unknown: his genius first found expression in sermons
+delivered in the synagogue--the ordinary routine of Jewish ritual: his
+appearance as a public teacher and his ultimate conviction that he was
+the Messiah were a natural enlargement of his sphere, not a change of
+method: the temptation, though it offers analogies to Gotama's mental
+struggle and particularly to the legends about Māra, was not an internal
+revolution in which old beliefs were seen to be false and new knowledge
+arose from their ashes. So far as we know, his inner life was continuous
+and undisturbed, and its final expression is emotional rather than
+intellectual. He gives no explanations and leaves no feeling that they
+are necessary. He is free in his use of metaphor and chary of
+definition. The teaching of the Buddha on the other hand is essentially
+intellectual. The nature and tastes of his audience were a sufficient
+justification for his style, but it indicates a temper far removed from
+the unquestioning and childlike faith of Christ. We can hardly conceive
+him using such a phrase as Our Father, but we may be sure that if he had
+done so he would have explained why and how and to what extent such
+words can be properly used of the Deity.
+
+The most sceptical critics of the miracles recorded in the Gospels can
+hardly doubt that Christ possessed some special power of calming and
+healing nervous maladies and perhaps others. Sick people naturally
+turned to him: they were brought to him when he arrived in a town.
+Though the Buddha was occasionally kind to the sick, no such picture is
+drawn of the company about him and persons afflicted with certain
+diseases could not enter the order. When the merchant Anāthapindika is
+seriously ill, he sends a messenger with instructions to inform the
+Buddha and Sāriputta of his illness and to add in speaking to Sāriputta
+that he begs him to visit him out of compassion[397]. He does not
+presume to address the same request to the Buddha. Christ teaches that
+the world is evil or, perhaps we should say, spoiled, but wishes to
+remove the evil and found the Kingdom of Heaven: the Buddha teaches that
+birth, sickness and death are necessary conditions of existence and that
+disease, which like everything else has its origin in Karma, can be
+destroyed only when the cause is destroyed[398]. Nor do we find ascribed
+to him that love of children and tenderness towards the weak and erring
+which are beautiful features in the portrait of Christ[399]. He had no
+prejudices: he turned robust villains like Angulimāla, the brigand, into
+saints and dined with prostitutes but one cannot associate him with
+simple friendly intercourse. When he accepted invitations he did not so
+much join in the life of the family which he visited as convert the
+entertainment offered to him into an edifying religious service. Yet in
+propaganda and controversy he was gracious and humane beyond the measure
+of all other teachers. He did not call the priests of his time a
+generation of vipers, though he laughed at their ceremonies and their
+pretensions to superior birth.
+
+Though the Buddha passed through intellectual crises such as the
+biographies of Christ do not hint at, yet in other matters it is he
+rather than Christ who offers a picture and example of peace. Christ
+enjoyed with a little band of friends an intimacy which the Hindu gave
+to none, but from the very commencement of his mission he is at enmity
+with what he calls the world. The world is evil and a great event is
+coming of double import, for it will bring disaster on the wicked as
+well as happiness for the good. "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is
+at hand." He is angry with the world because it will not hear him. He
+declares that it hates him and the gospel according to St John even
+makes him say, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
+given me[400]." The little towns of Galilee are worse in his eyes than
+the wicked cities of antiquity because they are not impressed by his
+miracles and Jerusalem which has slighted all the prophets and finally
+himself is to receive signal punishment. The shadow of impending death
+fell over the last period of his ministry and he felt that he was to be
+offered as a sacrifice. The Jews even seem to have thought at one time
+that he was unreasonably alarmed[401].
+
+But the Buddha was not angry with the world. He thought of it as
+unsatisfactory and transitory rather than wicked, as ignorant rather
+than rebellious. He troubled little about people who would not listen.
+The calm and confidence which so many narratives attribute to him rarely
+failed to meet with the respect which they anticipated. In his life
+there is no idea of sacrifice, no element of the tragic, no nervous
+irritability. When Devadatta meditated his assassination, he is
+represented as telling his disciples that they need not be uneasy
+because it was physically impossible to kill a Buddha. The saying is
+perhaps not historical but it illustrates Indian sentiment. In his
+previous existences, when preparing for Buddhahood, he had frequently
+given his life for others, not because it was any particular good to
+them but in order to perfect his character for his own great career and
+bring about the selflessness which is essential to a Buddha. When once
+he had attained enlightenment any idea of sacrifice, such as the
+shepherd laying down his life for the sheep, had no meaning. It would be
+simply the destruction of the more valuable for the less valuable. Even
+the modern developments of Buddhism which represent the Buddha Amida as
+a saviour do not contain the idea that he gives up his life for his
+followers.
+
+Gotama instituted a religious order and lived long enough to see it grow
+out of infancy, but its organization was gradual and for a year or two
+it was simply a band of disciples not more bound by rules than the
+seventy whom Christ sent forth to preach. Would Christ, had he lived
+longer, have created something analogous to the Buddhist _sangha_, a
+community not conflicting with national and social institutions but
+independent of them? The question is vain and to Europeans Christ's
+sketch of the Christian life will appear more satisfactory than the
+finished portrait of the Bhikkhu. But though his maxims are the perfect
+expression of courtesy and good feeling with an occasional spice of
+paradox, such as the command to love one's enemies, yet the experience
+of nearly twenty centuries has shown that this morality is not for the
+citizens of the world. The churches which give themselves his name
+preach with rare exceptions that soldiering, financing and the business
+of government--things about which he cared as little as do the birds and
+the lilies of the field--are the proper concern of Christian men and one
+wonders whether he would not, had his life been prolonged, have seen
+that many of his precepts, such as turning the other cheek and not
+resisting evil, are incompatible with ordinary institutions and have
+followed the example of the great Indian by founding a society in which
+they could be kept. The monastic orders of the Roman and Eastern
+Churches show that such a need was felt.
+
+There are many resemblances between the Gospels and the teaching of the
+Buddha but the bases of the two doctrines are different and, if the
+results are sometimes similar, this shows that the same destination can
+be reached by more than one road. It is perhaps the privilege of genius
+to see the goal by intuition: the road and the vehicle are subsidiary
+and may be varied to suit the minds of different nations. Christ, being
+a Jew, took for his basis a refined form of the old Jewish theism. He
+purged Jehovah of his jealousy and prejudices and made him a spirit of
+pure benevolence who behaves to men as a loving father and bids them
+behave to one another as loving brethren. Such ideas lie outside the
+sphere of Gotama's thought and he would probably have asked why on this
+hypothesis there is any evil in the world. That is a question which the
+Gospels are chary of discussing but they seem to indicate that the
+disobedience and sinfulness of mankind are the root of evil. A godly
+world would be a happy world. But the Buddha would have said that though
+the world would be very much happier if all its inhabitants were moral
+and religious, yet the evils inherent in individual existence would
+still remain; it would still be impermanent and unsatisfactory.
+
+Yet the Buddha and Christ are alike in points which are of considerable
+human interest, though they are not those emphasized by the Churches.
+Neither appears to have had much taste for theology or metaphysics.
+Christ ignored them: the Buddha said categorically that such
+speculations are vain. Indeed it is probably a general law in religions
+that the theological phase does not begin until the second generation,
+when the successors of the founder try to interpret and harmonize his
+words. He himself sees clearly and says plainly what mankind ought to
+do. Neither the Buddha, nor Christ, nor Mohammed cared for much beyond
+this, and such of their sayings as have reference to the whence, the
+whither and the why of the universe are obscure precisely because these
+questions do not fall within the field of religious genius and receive
+no illumination from its light. Argumentative as the Buddhist suttas
+are, their aim is strictly practical, even when their language appears
+scholastic, and the burden of all their ratiocination is the same and
+very simple. Men are unhappy because of their foolish desires: to become
+happy they must make themselves a new heart and will and, perhaps the
+Buddha would have added, new eyes.
+
+Neither the Buddha nor Christ thought it worth while to write anything
+and both of them ignored ceremonial and sacerdotal codes in a way which
+must have astounded their contemporaries. The law-books and sacrifices
+to which Brahmans and Pharisees devoted time and study are simply left
+on one side. The former are replaced by injunctions to cultivate a good
+habit of mind, such as is exemplified in the Eightfold Path and the
+Beatitudes, the latter by some observances of extreme simplicity, such
+as the Pātimokkha and the Lord's Prayer. In both cases subsequent
+generations felt that the provision made by the Founders was inadequate
+and the Buddhist and Christian Churches have multiplied ceremonies
+which, though not altogether unedifying, would certainly have astonished
+Gotama and Christ.
+
+For Christ the greatest commandments were that a man should love God and
+his neighbours. This summary is not in the manner of Gotama and though
+love (mettā) has an important place in his teaching, it is rather an
+inseparable adjunct of a holy life than the force which creates and
+animates it. In other words the Buddha teaches that a saint must love
+his fellow men rather than that he who loves his fellow men is a saint.
+But the passages extolling _mettā_ are numerous and striking, and
+European writers have, I think, shown too great a disposition to
+maintain that _mettā_ is something less than Christian love and little
+more than benevolent equanimity. The love of the New Testament is not
+eros but agape, a new word first used by Jewish and Christian writers
+and nearly the exact equivalent of _mettā_. For both words love is
+rather too strong a rendering and charity too weak. Nor is it just to
+say that the Buddha as compared with Christ preaches inaction. The
+Christian nations of Europe are more inclined to action than the
+Buddhist nations of Asia, yet the Beatitudes do not indicate that the
+strenuous life is the road to happiness. Those declared blessed are the
+poor, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the pure and the persecuted.
+Such men have just the virtues of the patient Bhikkhu and like Christ
+the Buddha praised the merciful and the peacemakers. And similarly
+Christ's phrase about rendering unto Cęsar the things that are Caesar's
+seems to dissociate his true followers (like the Bhikkhus) from
+political life. Money and taxes are the affair of those who put their
+heads on coins; God and the things which concern him have quite another
+sphere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE TEACHING OF THE BUDDHA
+
+1
+
+
+When the Buddha preached his first sermon[402] to the five monks at
+Benares the topics he selected were the following. First comes an
+introduction about avoiding extremes of either self-indulgence or
+self-mortification. This was specially appropriate to his hearers who
+were ascetics and disposed to over-rate the value of austerities. Next
+he defines the middle way or eightfold path. Then he enunciates the four
+truths of the nature of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the
+method of bringing about that cessation. This method is no other than
+the eightfold path. Then his hearers understood that whatever has a
+beginning must have an end. This knowledge is described as the pure and
+spotless Eye of Truth. The Buddha then formally admitted them as the
+first members of the Sangha. He then explained to them that there is no
+such thing as self. We are not told that they received any further
+instruction before they were sent forth to be teachers and missionaries:
+they were, it would seem, sufficiently equipped. When the Buddha
+instructs his sixth convert, Yasa, the introduction is slightly
+different, doubtless because he was a layman. It treats of "almsgiving,
+of moral duties, of heaven, of the evil, vanity and sinfulness of
+desires, of the blessings which come from abandoning desires." Then when
+his catechumen's mind was prepared, he preached to him "the chief
+doctrine of the Buddhas, namely suffering, its cause, its cessation and
+the Path." And when Yasa understood this he obtained the Eye of Truth.
+
+It is clear, therefore, that the Buddha regarded practice as the
+foundation of his system. He wished to create a temper and a habit of
+life. Mere acquiescence in dogma, such as a Christian creed, is not
+sufficient as a basis of religion and test of membership. It is only in
+the second stage that he enunciates the four great theorems of his
+system (of which one, the Path, is a matter of practice rather than
+doctrine) and only later still that he expounds conceptions which are
+logically fundamental, such as his view of personality. "Just as the
+great ocean has only one taste, the taste of salt, so has this doctrine
+and discipline only one taste, the taste of emancipation[403]." This
+practical aim has affected the form given to much of the Buddha's
+teaching, for instance the theory of the Skandhas and the chain of
+causation. When examined at leisure by a student of to-day, the dogmas
+seem formulated with imperfect logic and the results trite and obvious.
+But such doctrines as that evil must have a cause which can be
+discovered and removed by natural methods: that a bad unhappy mind can
+be turned into a good, happy mind by suppressing evil thoughts and
+cultivating good thoughts, are not commonplaces even now, if they
+receive a practical application, and in 500 B.C. they were not
+commonplaces in any sense.
+
+And yet no one can read Buddhist books or associate with Buddhist monks
+without feeling that the intellectual element is preponderant, not the
+emotional. The ultimate cause of suffering is ignorance. The Buddha has
+won the truth by understanding the universe. Conversion is usually
+described by some such phrase as acquiring the Eye of Truth, rather than
+by words expressing belief or devotion. The major part of the ideal
+life, set forth in a recurring passage of the Dīgha Nikāya, consists in
+the creation of intellectual states, and though the Buddha disavowed all
+speculative philosophy his discourses are full, if not of metaphysics,
+at least of psychology. And this knowledge is essential. It is not
+sufficient to affirm one's belief in it; it must be assimilated and
+taken into the life of every true Buddhist. All cannot do this: most of
+the unconverted are blinded by lust and passion, but some are
+incapacitated by want of mental power. They must practise virtue and in
+a happier birth their minds will be enlarged.
+
+The reader who has perused the previous chapters will have some idea of
+the tone and subject matter of the Buddha's preaching. We will now
+examine his doctrine as a system and will begin with the theory of
+existence, premising that it disclaims all idea of doing more than
+analyze our experience. With speculations or assertions as to the
+origin, significance and purpose of the Universe, the Buddha has nothing
+to do. Such questions do not affect his scheme of salvation. What
+views--if any--he may have held or implied about them we shall gather as
+we go on. But it is dangerous to formulate what he did not formulate
+himself, and not always easy to understand what he did formulate. For
+his words, though often plain and striking, are, like the utterances of
+other great teachers, apt to provoke discordant explanations. They meet
+our thoughts half way, but no interpretation exhausts their meaning.
+When we read into them the ideas of modern philosophy and combine them
+into a system logical and plausible after the standard of this age, we
+often feel that the result is an anachronism: but if we treat them as
+ancient simple discourses by one who wished to make men live an austere
+and moral life, we still find that there are uncomfortably profound
+sayings which will not harmonize with this theory.
+
+The Buddha's aversion to speculation did not prevent him from insisting
+on the importance of a correct knowledge of our mental constitution, the
+chain of causation and other abstruse matters; nor does it really take
+the form of neglecting metaphysics: rather of defining them in a manner
+so authoritative as to imply a reserve of unimparted knowledge. Again
+and again questions about the fundamental mysteries of existence are put
+to him and he will not give an answer. It would not conduce to
+knowledge, peace, or freedom from passion, we are told, and, therefore,
+the Lord has not declared it. _Therefore_: not, it would seem, because
+he did not know, but because the discussion was not profitable. And the
+modern investigator, who is not so submissive as the Buddha's disciples,
+asks why not? Can it be that the teacher knew of things transcendental
+not to be formulated in words? Once[404] he compared the truths he had
+taught his disciples to a bunch of leaves which he held in his hand and
+the other truths which he knew but had not taught to the leaves of the
+whole forest in which they were walking. And the story of the blind men
+and the elephant[405] seems to hint that Buddhas, those rare beings who
+are not blind, can see the constitution of the universe. May we then in
+chance phrases get a glimpse of ideas which he would not develop? It may
+be so, but the quest is temerarious. "What I have revealed[406] hold as
+revealed, and what I have not revealed, hold as not revealed." The
+gracious but authoritative figure of the Master gives no further reply
+when we endeavour to restate his teaching in some completer form which
+admits of comparison with the ancient and modern philosophies of Europe.
+
+The best introduction to his theory of existence is perhaps the
+instruction given to the five monks after his first sermon. The
+body[407] is not the self, he says, for if it were, it would not be
+subject to disease and we should be able to say, let my body be or not
+be such and such. As the denial of the existence of the self or ego
+(Attā in Pali, Ātman in Sanskrit) is one of the fundamental and original
+tenets of Gotama, we must remember that this self whose existence is
+denied is something not subject to decay, and possessing perfect free
+will with power to exercise it. The Brahmanic Ātman is such a self but
+it is found nowhere in the world of our experience[408]. For the body or
+form is not the self, neither is sensation or feeling (_vedanā_) for
+they are not free and eternal. Neither is perception (_sańńā_)[409] the
+self. Neither, the Buddha goes on to say, are the _Sankhāras_ the self,
+and for the same reason.
+
+Here we find ourselves sailing on the high seas of dogmatic terminology
+and must investigate the meaning of this important and untranslateable
+word. It is equivalent to the Sanskrit _samskāra_, which is akin to the
+word Sanskrit itself, and means compounding, making anything artificial
+and elaborate. It may be literally translated as synthesis or
+confection, and is often used in the general sense of phenomena since
+all phenomena are compound[410]. Occasionally[411] we hear of three
+Sankhāras, body or deed, word and thought. But in later literature the
+Sankhāras become a category with fifty-two divisions and these are
+mostly mental or at least subjective states. The list opens with contact
+(phasso) and then follow sensation, perception, thought, reflection,
+memory and a series of dispositions or states such as attention, effort,
+joy, torpor, stupidity, fear, doubt, lightness of body or mind, pity,
+envy, worry, pride. As European thought does not class all these items
+under one heading or, in other words, has no idea equivalent to
+Sankhāra, it is not surprising that no adequate rendering has been
+found, especially as Buddhism regards everything as mere becoming, not
+fixed existence, and hence does not distinguish sharply between a
+process and a result--between the act of preparing and a preparation.
+Conformations, confections, syntheses, co-efficients, tendencies,
+potentialities have all been used as equivalents but I propose to use
+the Pali word as a rule. In some passages the word phenomena is an
+adequate literary equivalent, if it is remembered that phenomena are not
+thought of apart from a perceiving subject: in others some word like
+predispositions or tendencies is a more luminous rendering, because the
+Sankhāras are the potentialities for good and evil action existing in
+the mind as a result of Karma[412].
+
+The Buddha has now enumerated four categories which are not the self.
+The fifth and last is Vińńāna, frequently rendered by consciousness. But
+this word is unsuitable in so far as it suggests in English some unified
+and continuous mental state. Vińńāna sometimes corresponds to thought
+and sometimes is hardly distinguished from perception, for it means
+awareness[413] of what is pleasant or painful, sweet or sour and so on.
+But the Pitakas continually insist[414] that it is not a unity and that
+its varieties come into being only when they receive proper nourishment
+or, as we should say, an adequate stimulus. Thus visual consciousness
+depends on the sight and on visible objects, auditory consciousness on
+the hearing and on sounds. Vińńāna is divided into eighty-nine classes
+according as it is good, bad or indifferent, but none of these classes,
+nor all of them together, can be called the self.
+
+These five groups--body, feeling, perception, the sankhāras, thought--are
+generally known as the Skandhas[415] signifying in Sanskrit collections
+or aggregates. The classification adopted is not completely logical, for
+feeling and perception are both included in the Sankhāras and also
+counted separately. But the object of the Buddha was not so much to
+analyze the physical and mental constitution of a human being as to show
+that this constitution contains no element which can be justly called
+self or soul. For this reason all possible states of mind are
+catalogued, sometimes under more than one head. They are none of them
+the self and no self, ego, or soul in the sense defined above is
+discernible, only aggregates of states and properties which come
+together and fall apart again. When we investigate ourselves we find
+nothing but psychical states: we do not find a psyche. The mind is even
+less permanent than the body[416], for the body may last a hundred years
+or so "but that which is called mind, thought or consciousness, day and
+night keeps perishing as one thing and springing up as another." So in
+the Samyutta-Nikāya, Mara the Tempter asks the nun Vajirā by whom this
+being, that is the human body, is made. Her answer is "Here is a mere
+heap of _sankhāras_: there is no 'being.' As when various parts are
+united, the word 'chariot[417]' is used (to describe the whole), so when
+the _skandhas_ are present, the word 'being' is commonly used. But it is
+suffering only that comes into existence and passes away." And
+Buddhaghosa[418]says:
+
+ "Misery only doth exist, none miserable;
+  No doer is there, naught but the deed is found;
+  Nirvana is, but not the man that seeks it;
+  The path exists but not the traveller on it."
+
+
+Thus the Buddha and his disciples rejected such ideas as soul, being and
+personality. But their language does not always conform to this ideal of
+negative precision, for the vocabulary of Pali (and still more of
+English) is inadequate for the task of discussing what form conduct and
+belief should take unless such words are used. Also the Attā (Ātman),
+which the Buddha denies, means more than is implied by our words self
+and personality. The word commonly used to signify an individual is
+puggalo. Thus in one sutta[419] the Buddha preaches of the burden, the
+bearer of the burden, taking it up and laying it down. The burden is the
+five skandhas and the bearer is the individual or puggalo. This, if
+pressed, implies that there is a personality apart from the skandhas
+which has to bear them. But probably it should not be pressed and we
+should regard the utterance as merely a popular sermon using language
+which is, strictly speaking, metaphorical.
+
+
+2
+
+The doctrine of Anattā--the doctrine that there is no such thing as a
+soul or self--is justly emphasized as a most important part of the
+Buddha's teaching and Buddhist ethics might be summarized as the
+selfless life. Yet there is a danger that Europeans may exaggerate and
+misunderstand the doctrine by taking it as equivalent to a denial of the
+soul's immortality or of free will or to an affirmation that mind is a
+function of the body. The universality of the proposition really
+diminishes its apparent violence and nihilism. To say that some beings
+have a soul and others have not is a formidable proposition, but to say
+that absolutely no existing person or thing contains anything which can
+be called a self or soul is less revolutionary than it sounds. It
+clearly does not deny that men exist for decades and mountains for
+millenniums: neither does it deny that before birth or after death there
+may be other existences similar to human life. It merely states that in
+all the world, organic and inorganic, there is nothing which is simple,
+self-existent, self-determined, and permanent: everything is compound,
+relative and transitory. The obvious fact that infancy, youth and age
+form a series is not denied: the series may be called a personality and
+death need not end it. The error to be avoided is the doctrine of the
+Brahmans that through this series there runs a changeless self, which
+assumes new phases like one who puts on new garments.
+
+The co-ordination and apparent unity observable in our mental
+constitution is due to _mano_ which is commonly translated mind but is
+really for Buddhism, as for the Upanishads, a _sensus communis_. Whereas
+the five senses have different spheres or fields which are independent
+and do not overlap, _mano_ has a share in all these spheres. It receives
+and cognizes all sense impressions.
+
+The philosophy of early Buddhism deals with psychology rather than with
+metaphysics. It holds it profitable to analyze and discuss man's mental
+constitution, because such knowledge leads to the destruction of false
+ideals and the pursuit of peace and insight. Enquiry into the origin and
+nature of the external world is not equally profitable: in fact it is a
+vain intellectual pastime. Still in treating of such matters as
+sensation, perception and consciousness, it is impossible to ignore the
+question of external objects or to avoid propounding, at least by
+implication, some theory about them. In this connection we often come
+upon the important word Dhamma (Sanskrit, Dharma). It means a law, and
+more especially the law of the Buddha, or, in a wider sense, justice,
+righteousness or religion[420]. But outside the moral and religious
+sphere it is commonly used in the plural as equivalent to phenomena,
+considered as involving states of consciousness. The Dhamma-sangani[421]
+divides phenomena into those which exist for the subject and those which
+exist for other individuals and ignores the possibility of things
+existing apart from a knowing subject. This hints at idealism and other
+statements seem more precise. Thus the Samyutta-Nikāya declares:
+"Verily, within this mortal body, some six feet high, but conscious and
+endowed with mind, is the world, and its origin, and its passing
+away[422]." And similarly[423] the problem is posed, "Where do the four
+elements pass away and leave no trace behind." Neither gods nor men can
+answer it, and when it is referred to the Buddha, his decision is that
+the question is wrongly put and therefore admits of no solution.
+"Instead of asking where the four elements pass away without trace, you
+should have asked:
+
+  Where do earth, water, fire and wind,
+  And long and short and fine and coarse,
+  Pure and impure no footing find?
+  Where is it that both name and form[424]
+  Die out and leave no trace behind?"
+
+
+To that the answer is: In the mind of the Saint.
+
+Yet it is certain that such passages should not be interpreted as
+equivalent to the later Yogācāra doctrine that only thought really
+exists or to any form of the doctrine that the world is Māyā or
+illusion. The Pitakas leave no doubt on this point, for they elaborate
+with clearness and consistency the theory that sensation and
+consciousness depend on contact, that is contact between sense organs
+and sense objects. "Man is conceived as a compound of instruments,
+receptive and reacting[425]" and the Samyutta-Nikāya puts into the
+Buddha's mouth the following dogmatic statement[426]. "Consciousness
+arises because of duality. What is that duality? Visual[427]
+consciousness arises because of sight and because of visible objects.
+Sight is transitory and mutable: it is its very nature to change.
+Visible objects are the same. So this duality is both in movement and
+transitory."
+
+The question of the reality of the external world did not present itself
+to the early Buddhists. Had it been posed we may surmise that the Buddha
+would have replied, as in similar cases, that the question was not
+properly put. He would not, we may imagine, have admitted that the human
+mind has the creative power which idealism postulates, for such power
+seems to imply the existence of something like a self or ātman. But
+still though the Pitakas emphasize the empirical duality of sense-organs
+and sense-objects, they also supply a basis for the doctrines of
+Nāgārjuna and Asanga, which like much late Buddhist metaphysics insist
+on using logic in regions where the master would not use it. When it is
+said that the genesis of the world and its passing away are within this
+mortal frame, the meaning probably is that the world as we experience it
+with its pains and pleasures depends on the senses and that with the
+modification or cessation of the senses it is changed or comes to an
+end. In other words (for this doctrine like most of the Buddha's
+doctrines is at bottom ethical rather than metaphysical) the saint can
+make or unmake his own world and triumph over pain. But the theory of
+sensation may be treated not ethically but metaphysically. Sensation
+implies a duality and on the one side the Buddha's teaching argues that
+there is no permanent sentient self but merely different kinds of
+consciousness arising in response to different stimuli. It is admitted
+too that visible objects are changing and transitory like sight itself
+and thus there is no reason to regard the external world, which is one
+half of the duality, as more permanent, self-existent and continuous
+than the other half. When we apply to it the destructive analysis which
+the Buddha applied only to mental states, we easily arrive at the
+nihilism or idealism of the later Buddhists. Of this I will treat later.
+For the present we have only to note that early Buddhism holds that
+sensation depends on contact, that is on a duality. It does not
+investigate the external part of this duality and it is clear that such
+investigation leads to the very speculations which the Buddha declared
+to be unprofitable, such as arguments about the eternity and infinity of
+the universe.
+
+The doctrine of Anattā is counterbalanced by the doctrine of causation.
+Without this latter the Buddha might seem to teach that life is a chaos
+of shadows. But on the contrary he teaches the universality of law, in
+this life and in all lives. For Hindus of most schools of thought,
+metempsychosis means the doctrine that the immortal soul passes from one
+bodily tenement to another, and is reborn again and again: karma is the
+law which determines the occurrence and the character of these births.
+In Buddhism, though the Pitakas speak continually of rebirth,
+metempsychosis is an incorrect expression since there is no soul to
+transmigrate and there is strictly speaking nothing but karma. This
+word, signifying literally action or act, is the name of the force which
+finds expression in the fact that every event is the result of causes
+and also is itself a cause which produces effects; further in the fact
+(for Indians regard it as one) that when a life, whether of a god, man
+or lower creature, comes to an end, the sum of its actions (which is in
+many connections equivalent to personal character) takes effect as a
+whole and determines the character of another aggregation of skandhas--in
+popular language, another being--representing the net result of the life
+which has come to an end. Karma is also used in the more concrete sense
+of the merit or demerit acquired by various acts. Thus we hear of karma
+which manifests itself in this life, and of karma which only manifests
+itself in another. No explanation whatever is given of the origin of
+karma, of its reason, method or aims and it would not be consistent with
+the principles of the Buddha to give such an explanation. Indeed, though
+it is justifiable to speak of karma as a force which calls into being
+the world as we know it, such a phrase goes beyond the habitual language
+of early Buddhism which merely states that everything has a cause and
+that every one's nature and circumstances are the result of previous
+actions in this or other existences. Karma is not so much invoked as a
+metaphysical explanation of the universe as accorded the consideration
+which it merits as an ultimate moral fact.
+
+It has often been pointed out that the Buddha did not originate or even
+first popularize the ideas of reincarnation and karma: they are Indian,
+not specifically Buddhist. In fact, of all Indian systems of thought,
+Buddhism is the one which has the greatest difficulty in expressing
+these ideas in intelligible and consistent language, because it denies
+the existence of the ego. Some writers have gone so far as to suggest
+that the whole doctrine formed no part of the Buddha's original teaching
+and was an accretion, or at most a concession of the master to the
+beliefs of his time. But I cannot think this view is correct. The idea
+is woven into the texture of the Buddha's discourses. When in words
+which have as strong a claim as any in the Pitakas to be regarded as old
+and genuine he describes the stages by which he acquired enlightenment
+and promises the same experiences to those who observe his
+discipline[428], he says that he first followed the thread of his own
+previous existences through past ęons, plumbing the unfathomed depths of
+time: next, the whole of existence was spread out before him, like a
+view-seen from above, and he saw beings passing away from one body and
+taking shape in another, according to their deeds. Only when he
+understood both the perpetual transformation of the universe and also
+the line and sequence in which that transformation occurs, only then did
+he see the four truths as they really are.
+
+It is unfortunate for us that the doctrine of reincarnation met with
+almost universal assent in India[429]. If some one were to found a new
+Christian sect, he would probably not be asked to prove the immortality
+of the soul: it is assumed as part of the common religious belief.
+Similarly, no one asked the Buddha to prove the doctrine of rebirth. If
+we permit our fancy to picture an interview between him and someone
+holding the ordinary ideas of an educated European about the soul, we
+may imagine that he would have some difficulty in understanding what is
+the alternative to rebirth. His interlocutor might reply that there are
+two types of theory among Europeans. Some think that the soul comes into
+existence with the body at birth but continues to exist everlasting and
+immortal after the death of the body. Others, commonly called
+materialists, while agreeing that the soul comes into existence with the
+birth of the body, hold that it ceases to exist with the death of the
+body. To the first theory the Buddha would probably have replied that
+there is one law without exception, namely that whatever has a beginning
+has also an end. The whole universe offers no analogy or parallel to the
+soul which has a beginning but no end, and not the smallest logical need
+is shown for believing a doctrine so contrary to the nature of things.
+And as for materialism he would probably say that it is a statement of
+the processes of the world as perceived but no explanation of the mental
+or even of the physical world. The materialists forget that objects as
+known cannot be isolated from the knowing subject. Sensation implies
+contact and duality but it is no real explanation to say that mental
+phenomena are caused by physical phenomena. The Buddha reckoned among
+vain speculations not only such problems as the eternity and infinity of
+the world but also the question, Is the principle of life (Jīva)
+identical with the body or not identical. That question, he said, is not
+properly put, which is tantamount to condemning as inadequate all
+theories which derive life and thought from purely material
+antecedents[430]. Other ideas of modern Europe, such as that the body is
+an instrument on which the soul works, or the expression of the soul,
+seem to imply, or at least to be compatible with, the pre-existence of
+the soul.
+
+It is probable too that the Buddha would have said, and a modern
+Buddhist would certainly say, that the fact of rebirth can easily be
+proved by testimony and experience, because those who will make the
+effort can recall their previous births. For his hearers the difficulty
+must have been not to explain why they believed in rebirth but to
+harmonize the belief with the rest of the master's system, for what is
+reborn and how? We detect a tendency to say that it is Vińńāna, or
+consciousness, and the expression patisandhivińńānam or
+rebirth-consciousness occurs[431]. The question is treated in an
+important dialogue in the Majjhima-Nikāya[432], where a monk called Sāti
+maintains that, according to the Buddha's teaching, consciousness
+transmigrates unchanged. The Buddha summoned Sāti and rebuked his error
+in language of unusual severity, for it was evidently capital and fatal
+if persisted in. The Buddha does not state what transmigrates, as the
+European reader would wish him to do, and would no doubt have replied to
+that question that it is improperly framed and does not admit of an
+answer.
+
+His argument is directed not so much against the idea that consciousness
+in one existence can have some connection with consciousness in the
+next, as against the idea that this consciousness is a unity and
+permanent. He maintains that it is a complex process due to many causes,
+each producing its own effect. Yet the Pitakas seem to admit that the
+processes which constitute consciousness in one life, can also produce
+their effect in another life, for the character of future lives may be
+determined by the wishes which we form in this life. Existence is really
+a succession of states of consciousness following one another
+irrespective of bodies. If _ABC_ and _abc_ are two successive lives,
+_ABC_ is not more of a reality or unity than _BCa_. No personality
+passes over at death from _ABC_ to _abc_ but then _ABC_ is itself not a
+unity: it is merely a continuous process of change[433].
+
+The discourse seems to say that tanhā, the thirst for life, is the
+connecting link between different births, but it does not use this
+expression. In one part of his address the Buddha exhorts his disciples
+not to enquire what they were or what they will be or what is the nature
+of their present existence, but rather to master and think out for
+themselves the universal law of causation, that every state has a cause
+for coming into being and a cause for passing away. No doubt his main
+object is as usual practical, to incite to self-control rather than to
+speculation. But may he not also have been under the influence of the
+idea that time is merely a form of human thought? For the ordinary mind
+which cannot conceive of events except as following one another in time,
+the succession of births is as true as everything else. The higher kinds
+of knowledge, such as are repeatedly indicated in the Buddha's
+discourse, though they are not described because language is incapable
+of describing them, may not be bound in this way by the idea of time and
+may see that the essential truth is not so much a series of births in
+which something persists and passes from existence to existence, as the
+timeless fact that life depends upon tanhā, the desire for life. Death,
+that is the breaking up of such constituents of human life as the body,
+states of consciousness, etc., does not affect tanhā. If tanhā has not
+been deliberately suppressed, it collects skandhas again. The result is
+called a new individual. But the essential truth is the persistence of
+the tanhā until it is destroyed.
+
+Still there is no doubt that the earliest Buddhist texts and the
+discourse ascribed to the Buddha himself speak, when using ordinary
+untechnical language, of rebirth and of a man dying and being born[434]
+in such and such a state. Only we must not suppose that the man's self
+is continued or transferred in this operation. There is no entity that
+can be called soul and strictly speaking no entity that can be called
+body, only a variable aggregation of skandhas, constantly changing. At
+death this collocation disperses but a new one reassembles under the
+influence of tanhā, the desire of life, and by the law of karma which
+prescribes that every act must have its result. The illustration that
+comes most naturally is that of water. Waves pass across the surface of
+the sea and successive waves are not the same, nor is what we call the
+same wave really the same at two different points in its progress, and
+yet one wave causes another wave and transmits its form and movement. So
+are beings travelling through the world (samsāra) not the same at any
+two points in a single life and still less the same in two consecutive
+lives: yet it is the impetus and form of the previous lives, the desire
+that urges them and the form that it takes, which determine the
+character of the succeeding lives.
+
+But Buddhist writers more commonly illustrate rebirth by fire than by
+water and this simile is used with others in the Questions of Milinda.
+We cannot assume that this book reflects the views of the Buddha or his
+immediate followers, but it is the work of an Indian in touch with good
+tradition who lived a few centuries later and expressed his opinions
+with lucidity. It denies the existence of transmigration and of the soul
+and then proceeds to illustrate by metaphors and analogies how two
+successive lives can be the same and yet not the same. For instance,
+suppose a man carelessly allows his lamp to set his thatch on fire with
+the result that a whole village is burnt down. He is held responsible
+for the loss but when brought before the judge argues that the flame of
+his lamp was not the same as the flame that burnt down the village. Will
+such a plea be allowed? Certainly not. Or to take another metaphor.
+Suppose a man were to choose a young girl in marriage and after making a
+contract with her parents were to go away, waiting for her to grow up.
+Meanwhile another man comes and marries her. If the two men appeal to
+the King and the later suitor says to the earlier, The little child whom
+you chose and paid for is one and the full grown girl whom I paid for
+and married is another, no one would listen to his argument, for clearly
+the young woman has grown out of the girl and in ordinary language they
+are the same person. Or again suppose that one man left a jar of milk
+with another and the milk turned to curds. Would it be reasonable for
+the first man to accuse the second of theft because the milk has
+disappeared?
+
+The caterpillar and butterfly might supply another illustration. It is
+unfortunate that the higher intelligences offer no example of such
+metamorphosis in which consciousness is apparently interrupted between
+the two stages. Would an intelligent caterpillar take an interest in his
+future welfare as a butterfly and stigmatize as vices indulgences
+pleasant to his caterpillar senses and harmful only to the coming
+butterfly, between whom and the caterpillar there is perhaps no
+continuity of consciousness? We can imagine how strongly butterflies
+would insist that the foundation of morality is that caterpillars should
+realize that the butterflies' interests and their own are the same.
+
+
+3
+
+When the Buddha contemplated the samsāra, the world of change and
+transmigration in which there is nothing permanent, nothing satisfying,
+nothing that can be called a self, he formulated his chief conclusions,
+theoretical and practical, in four propositions known as the four
+noble[435] truths, concerning suffering, the cause of suffering, the
+extinction of suffering, and the path to the extinction of
+suffering[436]. These truths are always represented as the essential and
+indispensable part of Buddhism. Without them, says the Buddha more than
+once, there can be no emancipation, and agreeably to this we find them
+represented as having formed part of the teaching of previous
+Buddhas[437] and consequently as being rediscovered rather than invented
+by Gotama. He even compares himself to one who has found in the jungle
+the site of an ancient city and caused it to be restored. It would
+therefore not be surprising if they were found in pre-Buddhist writings,
+and it has been pointed out that they are practically identical with the
+four divisions of the Hindu science of medicine: roga, disease;
+rogahetu, the cause of disease; arogya, absence of disease; bhaisajya,
+medicine. A similar parallel between the language of medicine and moral
+science can be found in the Yoga philosophy, and if the fourfold
+division of medicine can be shown to be anterior to Buddhism[438], it
+may well have suggested the mould in which the four truths were cast.
+The comparison of life and passion to disease is frequent in Buddhist
+writings and the Buddha is sometimes hailed as the King of Physicians.
+It is a just compendium of his doctrine--so far as an illustration can be
+a compendium--to say that human life is like a diseased body which
+requires to be cured by a proper regimen. But the Buddha's claim to
+originality is not thereby affected, for it rests upon just this, that
+he was able to regard life and religion in this spirit and to put aside
+the systems of ritual, speculation and self-mortification which were
+being preached all round him.
+
+The first truth is that existence involves suffering. It receives
+emotional expression in a discourse in the Samyutta-Nikāya[439]. "The
+world of transmigration, my disciples, has its beginning in eternity. No
+origin can be perceived, from which beings start, and hampered by
+ignorance, fettered by craving, stray and wander. Which think you are
+more--the tears which you have shed as you strayed and wandered on this
+long journey, grieving and weeping because you were bound to what you
+hated and separated from what you loved--which are more, these tears, or
+the waters in the four oceans? A mother's death, a son's death, a
+daughter's death, loss of kinsmen, loss of property, sickness, all these
+have you endured through long ages--and while you felt these losses and
+strayed and wandered on this long journey, grieving and weeping because
+you were bound to what you hated and separated from what you loved, the
+tears that you shed are more than the water in the four oceans."
+
+It is remarkable that such statements aroused no contradiction. The
+Buddha was not an isolated and discontented philosopher, like
+Schopenhauer in his hotel, but the leader of an exceptionally successful
+religious movement in touch and sympathy with popular ideas. On many
+points his assertions called forth discussion and contradiction but when
+he said that all existence involves suffering no one disputed the
+dictum: no one talked of the pleasures of life or used those arguments
+which come so copiously to the healthy-minded modern essayist when he
+devotes a page or two to disproving pessimism[440]. On this point the
+views and temperament of the Buddha were clearly those of educated
+India. The existence of this conviction and temperament in a large body
+of intellectual men is as important as the belief in the value of life
+and the love of activity for its own sake which is common among
+Europeans. Both tempers must be taken into account by every theory which
+is not merely personal but endeavours to ascertain what the human race
+think and feel about existence.
+
+The sombre and meditative cast of Indian thought is not due to physical
+degeneration or a depressing climate. Many authors speak as if the
+Hindus lived in a damp relaxing heat in which physical and moral stamina
+alike decay. I myself think that as to climate India is preferable to
+Europe, and without arguing about what must be largely a question of
+personal taste, one may point to the long record of physical and
+intellectual labour performed even by Europeans in India. Neither can it
+be maintained that in practice Buddhism destroys the joy and vigour of
+life. The Burmese are among the most cheerful people in the world and
+the Japanese among the most vigorous, and the latter are at least as
+much Buddhists as Europeans are Christians. It might be plausibly
+maintained that Europeans' love of activity is mainly due to the
+intolerable climate and uncomfortable institutions of their continent,
+which involve a continual struggle with the weather and continual
+discussion forbidding any calm and comprehensive view of things. The
+Indian being less troubled by these evils is able to judge what is the
+value of life in itself, as an experience for the individual, not as
+part of a universal struggle, which is the common view of seriously
+minded Europeans, though as to this struggle they have but hazy ideas of
+the antagonists, the cause and the result.
+
+The Buddhist doctrine does not mean that life is something trifling and
+unimportant, to be lived anyhow. On the contrary, birth as a human being
+is an opportunity of inestimable value. He who is so born has at least a
+chance of hearing the truth and acquiring merit. "Hard is it to be born
+as a man, hard to come to hear the true law" and when the chance comes,
+the good fortune of the being who has attained to human form and the
+critical issues which depend on his using it rightly are dwelt on with
+an earnestness not surpassed in Christian homiletics. He who acts ill as
+a man may fall back into the dreary cycles of inferior births, among
+beasts and blind aimless beings who cannot understand the truth, even if
+they hear it. From this point of view human life is happiness, only like
+every form of existence it is not satisfying or permanent.
+
+Dukkha is commonly rendered in English by pain or suffering, but an
+adequate literary equivalent which can be used consistently in
+translating is not forthcoming. The opposite state, sukha, is fairly
+rendered by well-being, satisfaction and happiness. Dukkha is the
+contrary of this: uneasiness, discomfort, difficulty. Pain or suffering
+are too strong as renderings, but no better are to hand. When the Buddha
+enlarges on the evils of the world it will be found that the point most
+emphasized as vitiating life is its transitoriness.
+
+"Is that which is impermanent sorrow or joy?" he asks of his disciples.
+"Sorrow, Lord," is the answer, and this oft-repeated proposition is
+always accepted as self-evident. The evils most frequently mentioned are
+the great incurable weaknesses of humanity, old age, sickness and death,
+and also the weariness of being tied to what we hate, the sadness of
+parting from what we love. Another obvious evil is that we cannot get
+what we want or achieve our ambitions. Thus the temper which prompts the
+Buddha's utterances is not that of Ecclesiastes--the melancholy of
+satiety which, having enjoyed all, finds that all is vanity--but rather
+the regretful verdict of one who while sympathizing with the nobler
+passions--love, ambition, the quest of knowledge--is forced to pronounce
+them unsatisfactory. The human mind craves after something which is
+permanent, something of which it can say This is mine. It longs to be
+something or to produce something which is not transitory and which has
+an absolute value in and for itself. But neither in this world nor in
+any other world are such states and actions possible. Only in Nirvana do
+we find a state which rises above the transitory because it rises above
+desire. Not merely human life but all possible existences in all
+imaginable heavens must be unsatisfactory, for such existences are
+merely human life under favourable conditions. Some great evils, such as
+sickness, may be absent but life in heaven must come to an end: it is
+not eternal, it is not even permanent, it does not, any more than this
+life, contain anything that god or man can call his own. And it may be
+observed that when Christian writers attempt to describe the joys of a
+heaven which is eternally satisfying, they have mostly to fall back on
+negative phrases such as "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard."
+
+The European view of life differs from the Asiatic chiefly in
+attributing a value to actions in themselves, and in not being disturbed
+by the fact that their results are impermanent. It is, in fact, the
+theoretical side of the will to live, which can find expression in a
+treatise on metaphysics as well as in an act of procreation. An
+Englishman according to his capacity and mental culture is satisfied
+with some such rule of existence as having a good time, or playing the
+game, or doing his duty, or working for some cause. The majority of
+intelligent men are prepared to devote their lives to the service of the
+British Empire: the fact that it must pass away as certainly as the
+Empire of Babylon and that they are labouring for what is impermanent
+does not disturb them and is hardly ever present to their minds. Those
+Europeans who share with Asiatics some feeling of dissatisfaction with
+the impermanent try to escape it by an unselfish morality and by holding
+that life, which is unsatisfactory if regarded as a pursuit of
+happiness, acquires a new and real value if lived for others. And from
+this point of view the European moralist is apt to criticize the
+Buddhist truths of suffering and the release from suffering as selfish.
+But Buddhism is as full as or fuller than Christianity of love,
+self-sacrifice and thought for others. It says that it is a fine thing
+to be a man and have the power of helping others: that the best life is
+that which is entirely unselfish and a continual sacrifice. But looking
+at existence as a whole, and accepting the theory that the happiest and
+best life is a life of self-sacrifice, it declines to consider as
+satisfactory the world in which this principle holds good. Many of the
+best Europeans would probably say that their ideal is not continual
+personal enjoyment but activity which makes the world better. But this
+ideal implies a background of evil just as much as does the Buddha's
+teaching. If evil vanished, the ideal would vanish too.
+
+There is one important negative aspect of the truth of suffering and
+indeed of all the four truths. A view of human life which is common in
+Christian and Mohammedan countries represents man as put in the world by
+God, and human life as a service to be rendered to God. Whether it is
+pleasant, worth living or not are hardly questions for God's servants.
+There is no trace of such a view in the Buddha's teaching. It is
+throughout assumed that man in judging human life by human standards is
+not presumptuous or blind to higher issues. Life involves unhappiness:
+that is a fact, a cardinal truth. That this unhappiness may be ordered
+for disciplinary or other mysterious motives by what is vaguely called
+One above, that it would disappear or be explained if we could
+contemplate our world as forming part of a larger universe, that "there
+is some far off divine event," some unexpected solution in the fifth act
+of this complicated tragedy, which could justify the creator of this
+_dukkhakkhandha_, this mass of unhappiness--for all such ideas the
+doctrine of the Blessed One has nothing but silence, the courteous and
+charitable silence which will not speak contemptuously. The world of
+transmigration has neither beginning nor end nor meaning: to those who
+wish to escape from it the Buddha can show the way: of obligation to
+stop in it there can be no question[441].
+
+Buddhism is often described as pessimistic, but is the epithet just?
+What does it mean? The dictionary defines pessimism as the doctrine
+which teaches that the world is as bad as it can be and that everything
+naturally tends towards evil. That is emphatically not Buddhist
+teaching. The higher forms of religion have their basis and origin in
+the existence of evil, but their justification and value depend on their
+power to remove it. A religion, therefore, can never be pessimistic,
+just as a doctor who should simply pronounce diseases to be incurable
+would never be successful as a practitioner. The Buddha states with the
+utmost frankness that religion is dependent on the existence of evil.
+"If three things did not exist, the Buddha would not appear in the world
+and his law and doctrine would not shine. What are the three? Birth, old
+age and death." This is true. If there were people leading perfectly
+happy, untroubled lives, it is not likely that any thought of religion
+would enter their minds, and their irreligious attitude would be
+reasonable, for the most that any deity is asked to give is perfect
+happiness, and that these imaginary folk are supposed to have already.
+But according to Buddhism no form of existence can be perfectly happy or
+permanent. Gods and angels may be happier than men but they are not free
+from the tyranny of desire and ultimately they must fall from their high
+estate and pass away.
+
+
+4
+
+The second Truth declares the origin of suffering. "It is," says the
+Buddha, "the thirst which causes rebirth, which is accompanied by
+pleasure and lust and takes delight now here, now there; namely, the
+thirst for pleasure, the thirst for another life, the thirst for
+success." This Thirst (Tanhā) is the craving for life in the widest
+sense: the craving for pleasure which propagates life, the craving for
+existence in the dying man which brings about another birth, the craving
+for wealth, for power, for pre-eminence within the limits of the present
+life. What is the nature of this craving and of its action? Before
+attempting to answer we must consider what is known as the chain of
+causation[442], one of the oldest, most celebrated, and most obscure
+formulę of Buddhism. It is stated that the Buddha knew it before
+attaining enlightenment[443], but it is second in importance only to the
+four truths, and in the opening sections of the Mahāvagga, he is
+represented as meditating on it under the Bo-tree, both in its positive
+and negative form. It runs as follows: "From ignorance come the
+sankhāras, from the sankhāras comes consciousness, from consciousness
+come name-and-form, from name-and-form come the six provinces (of the
+senses), from the six provinces comes contact, from contact comes
+sensation, from sensation comes craving, from craving comes clinging,
+from clinging comes existence, from existence comes birth, from birth
+come old age and death, pain and lamentation, suffering, sorrow, and
+despair. This is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. But by the
+destruction of ignorance, effected by the complete absence of lust, the
+sankhāras are destroyed, by the destruction of the sankhāras,
+consciousness is destroyed" and so on through the whole chain backwards.
+
+The chain is also known as the twelve Nidānas or causes. It is clearly
+in its positive and negative forms an amplification of the second and
+third truths respectively, or perhaps they are a luminous compendium of
+it.
+
+Besides the full form quoted above there are shorter versions. Sometimes
+there are only nine links[444] or there are five links combined in an
+endless chain[445]. So we must not attach too much importance to the
+number or order of links. The chain is not a genealogy but a statement
+respecting the interdependence of certain stages and aspects of human
+nature. And though the importance of cause (hetu) is often emphasized,
+the causal relation is understood in a wider sense than is usual in our
+idiom. If there were no birth, there would be no death, but though birth
+and death are interdependent we should hardly say that birth is the
+cause of death.
+
+In whatever way we take the Chain of Causation, it seems to bring a
+being into existence twice, and this is the view of Buddhaghosa who says
+that the first two links (ignorance and the sankhāras) belong to past
+time and explain the present existence: the next eight (consciousness to
+existence) analyse the present existence: and the last two (birth and
+old age) belong to future time, representing the results in another
+existence of desire felt in this existence. And that is perhaps what the
+constructor of the formula meant. It is clearest if taken backwards.
+Suppose, the Buddha once said to Ānanda[446], there were no birth, would
+there then be any old age or death? Clearly not. That is the meaning of
+saying that old age and death depend on birth: if birth were
+annihilated, they too would be annihilated. Similarly birth depends on
+Bhava which means becoming and does not imply anything self-existent and
+stationary: all the world is a continual process of coming into
+existence and passing away. It is on the universality of this process
+that birth (jāti) depends. But on what does the endless becoming itself
+depend? We seem here on the threshold of the deepest problems but the
+answer, though of wide consequences, brings us back to the strictly
+human and didactic sphere. Existence depends on Upādāna. This word means
+literally grasping or clinging to and should be so translated here but
+it also means fuel and its use is coloured by this meaning, since
+Buddhist metaphor is fond of describing life as a flame. Existence
+cannot continue without the clinging to life, just as fire cannot
+continue without fuel[447].
+
+The clinging in its turn depends on Tanhā, the thirst or craving for
+existence. The distinction between tanhā and upādāna is not always
+observed, and it is often said tanhā is the cause of karma or of sorrow.
+But, strictly speaking, upādāna is the grasping at life or pleasure:
+tanhā is the incessant, unsatisfied craving which causes it. It is
+compared to the birana, a weed which infests rice fields and sends its
+roots deep into the ground. So long as the smallest piece of root is
+left the weed springs up again and propagates itself with surprising
+rapidity, though the cultivator thought he had exterminated it. This
+metaphor is also used to illustrate how tanhā leads to a new birth.
+Death is like cutting down the plant: the root remains and sends up
+another growth.
+
+We now seem to have reached an ultimate principle and basis, namely, the
+craving for life which transcends the limits of one existence and finds
+expression in birth after birth. Many passages in the Pitakas justify
+the idea that the force which constructs the universe of our experience
+is an impersonal appetite, analogous to the Will of Schopenhauer. The
+shorter formula quoted above in which it is said that the sankhāras come
+from tanhā also admits of such an interpretation. But the longer chain
+does not, or at least it considers tanhā not as a cosmic force but
+simply as a state of the human mind. Suffering can be traced back to the
+fact that men have desire. To what is desire due? To sensation. With
+this reply we leave the great mysteries at which the previous links
+seemed to hint and begin one of those enquiries into the origin and
+meaning of human sensation which are dear to early Buddhism. Just as
+there could be no birth if there were no existence, so there could be no
+desire if there were no sensation. What then is the cause of sensation?
+Contact (phasso). This word plays a considerable part in Buddhist
+psychology and is described as producing not only sensation but
+perception and volition (cetanā)[448]. Contact in its turn depends on
+the senses (that is the five senses as we know them, and mind as a
+sixth) and these depend on name-and-form. This expression, which occurs
+in the Upanishads as well as in Buddhist writings, denotes mental and
+corporeal life. In explaining it the commentators say that form means
+the four elements and shape derived from them and that name means the
+three skandhas of sensation, perception and the sankhāras. This use of
+the word nāma probably goes back to ancient superstitions which regarded
+a man's name as containing his true being but in Buddhist terminology it
+is merely a technical expression for mental states collectively.
+Buddhaghosa observes that name-and-form are like the playing of a lute
+which does not come from any store of sound and when it ceases does not
+go to form a store of sound elsewhere.
+
+On what do name-and-form depend? On consciousness. This point is so
+important that in teaching Ānanda the Buddha adds further explanations.
+"Suppose," he says, "consciousness were not to descend into the womb,
+would name-and-form consolidate in the womb? No, Lord. Therefore,
+Ānanda, consciousness is the cause, the occasion, the origin of
+name-and-form." But consciousness according to the Buddha's
+teaching[449] is not a unity, a thinking soul, but mental activity
+produced by various appropriate causes. Hence it cannot be regarded as
+independent of name-and-form and as their generator. So the Buddha goes
+on to say that though name-and-form depend on consciousness it is
+equally true that consciousness depends on name-and-form. The two
+together make human life: everything that is born, and dies or is reborn
+in another existence[450], is name-and-form plus consciousness.
+
+What we have learnt hitherto is that suffering depends on desire and
+desire on the senses. For didactic purposes this is much, but as
+philosophy the result is small: we have merely discovered that the world
+depends on name-and-form plus consciousness, that is on human beings.
+The first two links of the chain (the last in our examination) do not
+leave the previous point of view--the history of individual life and not
+an account of the world process--but they have at least that interest
+which attaches to the mysterious.
+
+"Consciousness depends on the sankhāras." Here the sankhāras seem to
+mean the predispositions anterior to consciousness which accompany birth
+and hence are equivalent to one meaning of Karma, that is the good and
+bad qualities and tendencies which appear when rebirth takes place.
+Perhaps the best commentary on the statement that consciousness depends
+on the sankhāras is furnished by a Sutta called Rebirth according to the
+sankhāras[451]. The Buddha there says that if a monk possessed of the
+necessary good qualities cherishes a wish to be born after death as a
+noble, or in one of the many heavens, "then those predispositions
+(sankhāra) and mental conditions (vihāro) if repeated[452] conduce to
+rebirth" in the place he desires. Similarly when Citta is dying, the
+spirits of the wood come round his death-bed and bid him wish to be an
+Emperor in his next life. Thus a personality with certain
+predispositions and aptitudes may be due to the thought and wishes of a
+previous personality[453], and these predispositions, asserts the last
+article of the formula, depend upon ignorance. We might be tempted to
+identify this ignorance with some cosmic creative force such as the
+Unconscious of Hartmann or the Māyā of Sankara. But though the idea that
+the world of phenomena is a delusion bred of ignorance is common in
+India, it does not enter into the formula which we are considering. Two
+explanations of the first link are given in the Pitakas, which are
+practically the same. One[454] states categorically that the ignorance
+which produces the sankhāras is not to know the four Truths.
+Elsewhere[455] the Buddha himself when asked what ignorance means
+replies that it is not to know that everything must have an origin and a
+cessation. The formula means that it is ignorance of the true nature of
+the world and the true interests of mankind that brings about the
+suffering which we see and feel. We were born into the world because of
+our ignorance in our last birth and of the desire for re-existence which
+was in us when we died.
+
+Of the supreme importance attached to this doctrine of causation there
+can be no doubt. Perhaps the best instance is the story of Sāriputta's
+conversion. In the early days of the Buddha's mission he asked for a
+brief summary of the new teaching and in reply the essential points were
+formulated in the well-known verses which declare that all things have a
+cause and an end[456]. Such utterances sound like a scientific dictum
+about the uniformity of nature or cosmic law. But though the Pitakas
+imply some such idea, they seem to shrink from stating it clearly. They
+do not emphasize the orderly course of nature or exhort men to live in
+harmony with it. We are given to understand that the intelligence of
+those supermen who are called Buddhas sees that the four Truths are a
+consequence of the nature of the universe but subsequent instruction
+bids us attend to the truths themselves and not to their connection with
+the universal scheme. One reason for this is that Indians were little
+inclined to think of impersonal laws and forces[457]. The law of karma
+and the periodic rhythm of growth and decay which the universe obeys are
+ideas common to Hinduism and Buddhism and not incompatible with the
+mythology and ritual to which the Buddha objected. And though the
+Pitakas insist on the universality of causation, they have no notion of
+the uniformity of nature in our sense[458]. The Buddhist doctrine of
+causation states that we cannot obtain emancipation and happiness unless
+we understand and remove the cause of our distress, but it does not
+discuss cosmic forces like karma and Māyā. Such discussion the Buddha
+considered unprofitable[459] and perhaps he may have felt that
+insistence on cosmic law came dangerously near to fatalism[460].
+
+Though the number of the links may be varied the Buddha attached
+importance to the method of concatenation and the impersonal formulation
+of the whole and in one passage[461] he objects to the questions, what
+are old age and death and who is it that has old age and death. Though
+the chain of causation treats of a human life, it never speaks of a
+person being born or growing old and Buddhaghosa[462] observes that the
+Wheel of existence is without known beginning, without a personal cause
+or passive recipient and empty with a twelvefold emptiness. It has no
+external cause such as Brahma or any deity "and is also wanting in any
+ego passively recipient of happiness and misery."
+
+The twelve Nidānas have passed into Buddhist art as the Wheel of Life.
+An ancient example of this has been discovered in the frescoes of Ajanta
+and modern diagrams, which represent the explanations current in
+medięval India, are still to be found in Tibet and Japan[463]. In the
+nave of the wheel are three female figures signifying passion, hatred
+and folly and in the spaces between the spokes are scenes depicting the
+phases of human life: round the felly runs a series of pictures
+representing the twelve links of the chain. The first two links are
+represented by a blind man or blind camel and by a potter making pots.
+The third, or consciousness, is an ape. Some have thought that this
+figure represents the evolution of mind, which begins to show itself in
+animals and is perfected in man. It may however refer to a simile found
+in the Pitakas[464] where the restless, changeable mind is compared to a
+monkey jumping about in a tree.
+
+
+5
+
+We have now examined three of the four Truths, for the Chain of
+Causation in its positive form gives us the origin of suffering and in
+its negative form the facts as to the extinction of suffering: it
+teaches that as its links are broken suffering disappears. The fourth
+truth, or the way which leads to the extinction of suffering, gives
+practical directions to this effect. The way is the Noble Eightfold Path
+consisting of: right views, right aspirations, right speech, right
+conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right
+rapture. This formula is comparable not with the Decalogue, to which
+correspond the precepts for monks and laymen, but rather with the
+Beatitudes. It contains no commands or prohibitions but in the simplest
+language indicates the spirit that leads to emancipation. It breathes an
+air of noble freedom. It says nothing about laws and rites: it simply
+states that the way to be happy is to have a good heart and mind, taking
+shape in good deeds and at last finding expression and fulfilment in the
+rapture of ecstasy. We may think the numerical subdivisions of the Path
+pedantic and find fault with its want of definition, for it does not
+define the word right (sammā) which it uses so often, but in thus
+ignoring ceremonialism and legalism and making simple goodness in spirit
+and deed the basis of religion. Gotama rises above all his
+contemporaries and above all subsequent teachers except Christ. In
+detaching the perfect life from all connection with a deity or outside
+forces and in teaching man that the worst and best that can happen to
+him lie within his own power, he holds a unique position.
+
+Indian thought has little sympathy with the question whether morality is
+utilitarian or intuitionist, whether we do good to benefit ourselves or
+whether certain acts and states are intrinsically good. The Buddha is a
+physician who prescribes a cure for a disease--the disease of
+suffering--and that cure is not a quack medicine which pretends to heal
+rapidly but a regime and treatment. If we ask whether the reason for
+following the regime is that it is good for us or that it is
+scientifically correct; or why we want to be well or whether health is
+really good: both the Buddha and the physician would reply that such
+questions are tiresome and irrelevant. With an appearance of profundity,
+they ask nothing worth answering. The eightfold path is the way and the
+only way of salvation. Its form depends on the fact that the knowledge
+of the Buddha, which embraces the whole universe, sees that it is a
+consequence of the nature of things. In that sense it may be described
+as an eternal law, but this is not the way in which the Pitakas usually
+speak of it and it is not represented as a divine revelation dictated by
+other than human motives. "Come, disciples," the Buddha was wont to say,
+"lead a holy life for the complete extinction of suffering." Holiness is
+simply the way out of misery into happiness. To ask why we should take
+that way, would seem to an Indian an unnecessary question, as it might
+seem to a Christian if he were asked why he wants to save his soul, but
+if the question is pressed, the answer must be at every point, for the
+Christian as much as for the Buddhist, to gain happiness[465].
+Incidentally the happiness of others is fully cared for, since both
+religions make unselfishness the basis of morality and hold that the
+conscious and selfish pursuit of happiness is not the way to gain it,
+but if we choose to apply European methods of analysis to the Buddha's
+preaching, it is utilitarian. But the fact that he and his first
+disciples did not think such analysis and discussion necessary goes far
+to show that the temper created in his Order was not religiously
+utilitarian. It never occurred to them to look at things that way.
+
+The eightfold path is the road to happiness but it is the way, not the
+destination, and the action of the Buddha and his disciples is something
+beyond it. They had obtained the goal, for they were all Arhats, and
+they might, if they had been inspired by that selfishness which some
+European authors find prominent in Buddhism, have entered into their
+rest. Yet the Buddha bade them go among men and preach "for the gain and
+welfare of many" and they continued their benevolent activity although
+it could add nothing to the reward which they had already won.
+
+The Buddha often commented on the eightfold path, and we may follow one
+of the expositions attributed to him[466]. What, he asks, is meant by
+right views (_Sammāditthi_)? Simply a knowledge of the four truths, and
+of such doctrines about personality and karma as are implied in them.
+But the negative aspects of this _Sammāditthi_ are more striking than
+the positive. It does not imply any philosophical or metaphysical
+system: the Buddha has shaken off all philosophical theories[467].
+Secondly, it does not imply that any knowledge or belief is of efficacy
+in itself, as the lore of the Brahmans is supposed to be or those
+Christian creeds which save by faith. The Buddha has not a position such
+as the Church attributes to Christ, or later Buddhism to Amida. All that
+is required under the head of right belief is a knowledge of the general
+principles and programme of Buddhism.
+
+The Buddha continues, What is right resolve? It is the resolve to
+renounce pleasures, to bear no malice and do no harm. What is right
+speech? To abstain from lying and slandering, harsh words and foolish
+chatter. What is right conduct? To abstain from taking life, from
+stealing, from immorality. What is right livelihood? To abandon wrong
+occupations and get one's living by a right occupation. This is
+elsewhere defined as one that does not bring hurt or danger to any
+living thing, and five bad occupations are enumerated, namely, those of
+a caravan-trader, slave-dealer, butcher, publican and poison seller.
+European critics of Buddhism have often found fault with its ethics as
+being a morality of renunciation, and in the explanation epitomized
+above each section of the path is interpreted in this way. But this
+negative form is not a peculiarity of Buddhism. Only two of the
+commandments in our Decalogue are positive precepts; the rest are
+prohibitions. The same is true of most early codes. The negative form is
+at once easier and more practical for it requires a mental effort to
+formulate any ideal of human life; it is comparatively easy to note the
+bad things people do, and say, don't. The pruning of the feelings, the
+cutting off of every tendril which can cling to the pleasures of sense,
+is an essential part of that mental cultivation in which the higher
+Buddhism consists. But the Pitakas say clearly that what is to be
+eliminated is only bad mental states. Desire for pleasure and striving
+after wealth are bad, but it does not follow that desire and striving
+are bad in themselves. Desire for what is good (Dhammachando as opposed
+to Kāmachando) is itself good, and the effort to obtain nirvana is often
+described as a struggle or wrestling[468]. Similarly though absolute
+indifference to pains and pleasures is the ideal for a Bhikkhu, this by
+no means implies, as is often assumed, a general insensibility and
+indifference, the harmless oyster-like life of one who hurts nobody and
+remains in his own shell. European criticisms on the selfishness and
+pessimism of Buddhism forget the cheerfulness and buoyancy which are the
+chief marks of its holy men. The Buddhist saint is essentially one who
+has freed himself. His first impulse is to rejoice in his freedom and
+share it with others, not to abuse the fetters he has cut away. Active
+benevolence and love[469] are enjoined as a duty and praised in language
+of no little beauty and earnestness. In the Itivuttaka[470] the
+following is put into the mouth of Buddha. "All good works whatever[471]
+are not worth one sixteenth part of love which sets free the heart. Love
+which sets free the heart comprises them: it shines, gives light and
+radiance. Just as the light of all the stars is not worth one sixteenth
+of the light of the moon: as in the last month of the rains in the
+season of autumn, when the sky is clear and cloudless the sun mounts up
+on high and overcomes darkness in the firmament: as in the last hour of
+the night when the dawn is breaking, the morning star shines and gives
+light and radiance: even so does love which sets free the soul and
+comprises all good works, shine and give light and radiance." So, too,
+the Sutta-Nipāta bids a man love not only his neighbour but all the
+world. "As a mother at the risk of her life watches over her own child,
+her only child, so let every one cultivate a boundless love towards all
+beings[472]." Nor are such precepts left vague and universal. If some of
+his acts and words seem wanting in family affection, the Buddha enjoined
+filial piety as emphatically as Moses or Confucius. There are two
+beings, he says, namely Father and Mother, who can never be adequately
+repaid[473]. If a man were to carry his parents about on his shoulders
+for a hundred years or could give them all the kingdoms and treasures of
+the earth, he still would not discharge his debt of gratitude[474]. But
+whereas Confucius said that the good son does not deviate from the way
+of his father, the Buddha, who was by no means conservative in religious
+matters, said that the only way in which a son could repay his parents
+was by teaching them the True Law.
+
+The Buddha defines the sixth section of the path more fully than those
+which precede. Right effort, he says, is when a monk makes an effort,
+and strives to prevent evil states of mind from arising: to suppress
+them if they have arisen: to produce good states of mind, and develop
+and perfect them. Hitherto we have been considering morality,
+indispensable but elementary. This section is the beginning of the
+specially Buddhist discipline of mental cultivation. The process is apt
+to seem too self-conscious: we wonder if a freer growth would not yield
+better fruits. But in a comparison with the similar programmes of other
+religions Buddhism has little to fear. Its methods are not morbid or
+introspective: it does not fetter the intellect with the bonds of
+authority. The disciple has simply to discriminate between good and bad
+thoughts, to develop the one and suppress the other. It is noticeable
+that under this heading of right effort, or right wrestling as it is
+sometimes called, both desire and striving for good ends are
+consecrated. Sloth and torpor are as harmful to spiritual progress as
+evil desires and as often reprimanded. Also the aim is not merely
+negative: it is partly creative. The disciple is not to suppress will
+and feeling, but he is to make all the good in him grow; he should
+foster, increase and perfect it.
+
+What is right-mindfulness[475], the seventh section of the path? It is
+"When a monk lives as regards the body, observant of the body,
+strenuous, conscious, mindful and has rid himself of covetousness and
+melancholy": and similarly as regards the sensations, the mind and
+phenomena. The importance of this mindfulness is often insisted on. It
+amounts to complete self-mastery by means of self-knowledge which allows
+nothing to be done heedlessly and mechanically and controls not merely
+recognized acts of volition but also those sense-impressions in which we
+are apt to regard the mind as merely receptive. "Self is the lord of
+self: who else should be the lord? With self well subdued, a man finds a
+lord such as few can find[476]."
+
+Although the Buddha denies that there is any soul or self (attā) apart
+from the skandhas, yet here his ethical system seems to assume that a
+ruling principle which may be called self does exist. Nor is the
+discrepancy fully explained by saying that the non-existence of self or
+soul is the correct dogma and that expressions like self being the lord
+of self are concessions to the exigencies of exposition. The evolution
+of the self-controlled saint out of the confused mental states of the
+ordinary man is a psychological difficulty. As we shall see, when the
+eightfold path has been followed to the end new powers arise in the
+mind, new lights stream into it. Yet if there is no self or soul, where
+do they arise, into what do they stream?
+
+The doctrine of Gotama as expressed in his earliest utterance on the
+subject to the five monks at Benares is that neither the body, nor any
+mental faculty to which a name can be given, is what was called in
+Brahmanic theology ātman, that is to say an entity which is absolutely
+free, imperishable, changeless and not subject to pain. This of course
+does not exclude the possibility that there may be something which does
+not come under any of the above categories and which may be such an
+entity as described. Indeed Brahmanic works which teach the existence of
+the ātman often use language curiously like that of Buddhism. Thus the
+Bhagavad-gītā[477] says that actions are performed by the Gunas and only
+he who is deluded by egoism thinks "I am the doer." And the Vishnu
+Purana objects to the use of personal pronouns. "When one soul is
+dispersed in all bodies, it is idle to ask who are you, who am I[478]?"
+The accounts of the Buddhist higher life would be easier to understand
+if we could suppose that there is such a self: that the pilgrim who is
+walking in the paths gradually emancipates, develops and builds it up:
+that it becomes partly free in nirvana before death and wholly free
+after death. Schrader[479] has pointed out texts in the Pitakas which
+seem to imply that there is something which is absolute and therefore
+not touched by the doctrine of anattā. In a remarkable passage[480] the
+Buddha says: Therefore my disciples get rid of what is not yours. To get
+rid of it will mean your health and happiness for a long time. Form,
+sensation, perception, etc., are not yours; get rid of them. If a man
+were to take away, or burn, or use for his needs, all the grass, and
+boughs, and branches and leaves in this Jeta wood, would it ever occur
+to you to say, the man is taking _us_ away, burning _us_, or using _us_
+for his needs? Certainly not, Lord. And why not? Because, Lord, it is
+not our self or anything belonging to our self. Just in the same way,
+replies the Buddha, get rid of the skandhas. The natural sense of this
+seems to be that the skandhas have no more to do with the real being of
+man than have the trees of the forest where he happens to be[481]. This
+suggests that there is in man something real and permanent, to be
+contrasted with the transitory skandhas and when the Buddha asks whether
+anything which is perishable and changeable can be called the self, he
+seems to imply that there is somewhere such a self. But this point
+cannot be pressed, for it is perfectly logical to define first of all
+what you mean by a ghost and then to prove that such a thing does not
+exist. If we take the passages at present collected as a whole, and
+admit that they are somewhat inconsistent or imperfectly understood, the
+net result is hardly that the name of self can be given to some part of
+human nature which remains when the skandhas are set on one side.
+
+But though the Buddha denied that there is in man anything permanent
+which can be called the self, this does not imply a denial that human
+nature can by mental training be changed into something different,
+something infinitely superior to the nature of the ordinary man, perhaps
+something other than the skandhas[482]. One of his principal objections
+to the doctrine of the permanent self was that, if it were true,
+emancipation and sanctity would be impossible[483], because human nature
+could not be changed. In India the doctrine of the ātman was really
+dangerous, because it led a religious man to suppose that to ensure
+happiness and emancipation it is only necessary to isolate the ātman by
+self-mortification and by suppressing discursive thought as well as
+passion. But this, the Buddha teaches, is a capital error. That which
+can make an end of suffering is not something lurking ready-made in
+human nature but something that must be built up: man must be reborn,
+not flayed and stripped of everything except some core of unchanging
+soul. As to the nature of this new being the Pitakas are reticent, but
+not absolutely silent, as we shall see below. Our loose use of language
+might possibly lead us to call the new being a soul, but it is decidedly
+not an ātman, for it is something which has been brought into being by
+deliberate effort. The collective name for these higher states of mind
+is _pańńā_[484], wisdom or knowledge. This word is the Pali equivalent
+of the Sanskrit _prajńā_ and is interesting as connecting early and
+later Buddhism, for _prajńā_ in the sense of transcendental or absolute
+knowledge plays a great part in Mahayanism and is even personified.
+
+The Pitakas imply that Buddhas and Arhats can understand things which
+the ordinary human mind cannot grasp and human words cannot utter. Later
+Indian Buddhists had no scruples in formulating what the master left
+unformulated. They did not venture to use the words ātman or attā, but
+they said that the saint can rise above all difference and plurality,
+transcend the distinction between subject and object and that nirvana is
+the absolute (Bhūtatathatā). The Buddha would doubtless have objected to
+this terminology as he objected to all attempts to express the ineffable
+but perhaps the thought which struggles for expression in such language
+is not far removed from his own thought.
+
+One of the common Buddhist similes for human life is fire and it is the
+best simile for illuminating all Buddhist psychology. To insist on
+finding a soul is like describing flames as substances. Fire is often
+spoken of as an element but it is really a process which cannot be
+isolated or interrupted. A flame is not the same as its fuel and it can
+be distinguished from other flames. But though you can individualize it
+and propagate it indefinitely, you cannot isolate it from its fuel and
+keep it by itself. Even so in the human being there is not any soul
+which can be isolated and go on living eternally but the analogy of the
+flame still holds good. Unseizable though a flame may be, and
+undefinable as substance, it is not unreasonable to trim a fire and make
+a flame rise above its fuel, free from smoke, clear and pure. If it were
+a conscious flame, such might be its own ideal.
+
+The eighth and last section of the path is sammā-samādhi, right
+concentration or rapture. Mental concentration is essential to samādhi,
+which is the opposite of those wandering desires often blamed as seeking
+for pleasure here and there. But samādhi is more than mere concentration
+or even meditation and may be rendered by rapture or ecstasy, though
+like so many technical Buddhist terms it does not correspond exactly to
+any European word. It takes in Buddhism the place occupied in other
+religions by prayer--prayer, that is, in the sense of ecstatic communion
+with the divine being. The sermon[485] which the Buddha preached to King
+Ajātasattu on the fruits of the life of a recluse gives an eloquent
+account of the joys of samādhi. He describes how a monk[486] seats
+himself in the shade of a tree or in some mountain glen and then
+"keeping his body erect and his intelligence alert and intent" purifies
+his mind from all lust, ill-temper, sloth, fretfulness and perplexity.
+When these are gone, he is like a man freed from jail or debt, gladness
+rises in his heart and he passes successively through four stages of
+meditation[487]. Then his whole mind and even his body is permeated with
+a feeling of purity and peace. He concentrates his thoughts and is able
+to apply them to such great matters as he may select. He may revel in
+the enjoyment of supernatural powers, for we cannot deny that the oldest
+documents which we possess credit the sage with miraculous gifts, though
+they attach little importance to them, or he may follow the train of
+thought which led the Buddha himself to enlightenment. He thinks of his
+previous births and remembers them as clearly as a man who has been a
+long walk remembers at the end of the day the villages through which he
+has passed. He thinks of the birth and deaths of other beings and sees
+them as plainly as a man on the top of a house sees the people moving in
+the streets below. He realizes the full significance of the four truths
+and he understands the origin and cessation of the three great evils,
+love of pleasure, love of existence and ignorance. And when he thus sees
+and knows, his heart is set free. "And in him thus set free there arises
+the knowledge of his freedom and he knows that rebirth has been
+destroyed, the higher life has been led, what had to be done has been
+done. He has no more to do with this life. Just as if in a mountain
+fastness there were a pool of water, clear, translucent and serene and a
+man standing on the bank and with eyes to see should perceive the
+mussels and the shells, the gravel and pebbles and the shoals of fish as
+they move about or lie within it."
+
+Similar accounts occur in many other passages with variations in the
+number of stages described. We must not therefore insist on the details
+as essential. But in all cases the process is marked by mental activity.
+The meditations of Indian recluses are often described as
+self-hypnotism, and I shall say something on this point elsewhere, but
+it is clear that in giving the above account the Buddha did not
+contemplate any mental condition in which the mind ceases to be active
+or master of itself. When, at the beginning, the monk sits down to
+meditate it is "with intelligence alert and intent": in the last stage
+he has the sense of freedom, of duty done, and of knowledge immediate
+and unbounded, which sees the whole world spread below like a clear pool
+in which every fish and pebble is visible.
+
+
+6
+
+With this stage he attains Nirvāna[488], the best known word and the
+most difficult to explain in all the vocabulary of Buddhism.
+
+It is perhaps used more by western students than by oriental believers
+and it belongs to the same department of religious language as the word
+saint. For most Christians there is something presumptuous in trying to
+be a saint or in defining the precise form of bliss enjoyed by saints in
+heaven and it is the same with nirvana. Yet no one denies that sanctity
+and nirvana are religious ideals. In a passage already quoted[489],
+Gotama described how in attaining Buddhahood he sought and arrived at
+the incomparable security of nirvana in which there is no birth, age,
+sickness, death, pain or defilement. This, confirmed by many other
+statements, shows that nirvana is a state attainable in this existence
+and compatible with a life of intellectual and physical exertion such as
+he himself led. The original meaning is the state of peace and happiness
+in which the fires of lust, hatred and stupidity are extinguished and
+the participle _nibbuto_ apparently derived from the same root had
+passed into popular language in the sense of happy[490]. Two forms of
+nirvana are distinguished. The first is upādi-sesa-nibbānam[491] or
+nirvana in which the skandhas remain, although passion is destroyed.
+This state is also called arhatship, the condition of an arhat, meaning
+originally a worthy or venerable man, and the person enjoying it is
+alive. The idea that the emancipated saint who has attained the goal
+still lingers in the world, though no longer of the world, and teaches
+others, is common to all Indian religions. With the death of an arhat
+comes the state known as an-upādi-sesa-nibbānam in which no skandhas
+remain. It is also called Parinibbānam and this word and the participle
+parinibbuto are frequently used with special reference to the death of
+the Buddha[492]. The difference between the two forms of nirvana is
+important though the second is only the continuation of the first.
+Nirvana in this life admits of approximate definition: it is the goal of
+the religious life, though only the elect can even enter the struggle.
+Nirvana after death is not a goal in the same sense. The correct
+doctrine is rather that death is indifferent to one who has obtained
+nirvana and the difficulty of defining his nature after death does not
+mean that he has been striving for something inexplicable and illusory.
+
+Arhatship is the aim and sum of the Buddha's teaching: it is associated
+in many passages with love for others, with wisdom, and happiness and is
+a condition of perfection attainable in this life. The passages in the
+Pitakas which seem to be the oldest and the most historical suggest that
+the success of the Buddha was due to the fact that he substituted for
+the chilly ideal of the Indian Munis something more inspiring and more
+visibly fruitful, something akin to what Christ called the Kingdom of
+Heaven. Thus we are told in the Vinaya that Bhaddiya was found sitting
+at the foot of a tree and exclaiming ecstatically, O happiness,
+happiness. When asked the reason of these ejaculations, he replied that
+formerly when he was a raja he was anxious and full of fear but that
+now, even when alone in the forest, he had become tranquil and calm,
+"with mind as peaceful as an antelope's."
+
+Nirvana is frequently described by such adjectives as deathless, endless
+and changeless. These epithets seem to apply to the quality, not to the
+duration of the arhat's existence (for they refer to the time before the
+death of the body) and to signify that in the state which he has
+attained death and change have no power over him. He may suffer in body
+but he does not suffer in mind, for he does not identify himself with
+the body or its feelings[493].
+
+Numerous passages could be quoted from the poetical books of the Pali
+Canon to the effect that nirvana is happiness and the same is stated in
+the more dogmatic and logical portions. Thus we hear of the bliss of
+emancipation and of the happiness which is based on the religious
+life[494] and the words "Nirvana is the greatest happiness" are put into
+Gotama's own mouth[495]. The middle way preached by him is declared to
+be free from all distress, and those who walk in it make an end of pain
+even in this life[496]. In one passage[497] Gotama is found meditating
+in a wood one winter night and is asked if he feels well and happy. The
+night is cold, his seat is hard, his clothes are light and the wind
+bitter. He replies emphatically that he is happy. Those who live in
+comfortable houses suffer from the evils of lust, hatred and stupidity
+but he has made an end of those evils and therefore is happy. Thus
+nirvana is freedom and joy: it is not extinction in the sense we give
+the word but light to them that sit in darkness, release to those in
+prison and torture. But though it is legitimately described in terms
+which imply positive happiness it transcends all human standards of good
+and evil, pleasure and pain. In describing the progress to it we
+all--whether Indians or Europeans--necessarily use such words as better,
+higher, happier, but in truth it is not to be expressed in terms of such
+values. In an interesting sutta[498] a Jain argues that happiness is the
+goal of life. But the Buddha states categorically first that perfect
+happiness is only attainable by abandoning the conscious pursuit of
+happiness and secondly that even absolute happiness when attained is not
+the highest goal: there is a better state beyond, and that state is
+certainly not annihilation or extinction of feeling, for it is described
+in terms of freedom and knowledge.
+
+The Dhamma-sangani speaks of Nirvana as the Uncompounded Element[499]
+and as a state not productive of good or evil. Numerous assertions[500]
+are made about it incidentally but, though we hear that it is perfected
+and supramundane, most of the epithets are negative and amount to little
+more than that it transcends, or is absolutely detached from, all human
+experience. Uncompounded (asankhato) may refer to the passing away of
+all sankhāras but what may be the meaning of dhātu or element in this
+context, I do not presume to conjecture. But whatever else the word may
+mean, it clearly does not signify annihilation. Both here and in the
+Questions of Milinda an impression is produced in the mind of the
+reader, and perhaps was not absent in the mind of the writer, that
+nirvana is a sphere or plane of existence resembling though excelling
+space or ether. It is true that the language when carefully examined
+proves to be cautious and to exclude material interpretations but
+clearly the expositor when trying to make plain the inexplicable leaned
+to that side of error rather than towards annihilation[501].
+
+Somewhat similar is the language attributed to the Buddha in the
+Udāna[502]. "There is a state (āyatanam) where there is neither earth
+nor water, fire nor air, nor infinity either of space or of
+consciousness, nor nothingness, nor the absence of perception or
+non-perception[503], neither this world nor another, neither sun nor
+moon. That I call neither coming, going, nor standing, neither death nor
+birth. It is without stability, without movement, without basis: it is
+the end of sorrow, unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, uncompounded[504]."
+The statements about nirvana in the Questions of Milinda are definite
+and interesting. In this work[505], Nāgasena tells King Milinda that
+there are two things which are not the result of a cause, to wit space
+and Nirvana. Nirvana is unproduceable (which does not mean unattainable)
+without origin, not made of anything and uncompounded. He who orders his
+life aright passes beyond the transitory, and gains the Real, the
+highest fruit. And when he has gained that, he has realized
+Nirvana[506].
+
+The parts of the Pitakas which seem oldest leave the impression that
+those who heard and understood the Buddha's teaching at once attained
+this blissful state, just as the Church regards the disciples of Christ
+as saints. But already in the Pitakas[507] we find the idea that the
+struggle to obtain nirvana extends over several births and that there
+are four routes leading to sanctification. These routes are described by
+the names of those who use them and are commonly defined in terms of
+release from the ten fetters binding man to the world[508]. The first is
+the Sotāpanno, he who has entered into the stream and is on his way to
+salvation. He has broken the first three fetters called belief in the
+existence of self, doubt, and trust in ceremonies or good works. He will
+be born again on earth or in some heaven but not more than seven times
+before he attains nirvana. He who enters on the next stage is called
+Sakadāgāmin or coming once, because he will be born once more in this
+world[509] and in that birth attain nirvana. He has broken the fetters
+mentioned and also reduced to a minimum the next two, lust and hate. The
+Anāgāmin, or he who does not return, has freed himself entirely from
+these five fetters and will not be reborn on earth or any sensuous
+heaven but in a Brahmā world once only. The fourth route is that of the
+Arhat who has completed his release by breaking the bonds called love of
+life, pride, self-righteousness and ignorance and has made an end of all
+evil and impurity. He attains nirvana here and is no more subject to
+rebirth. This simple and direct route is the one contemplated in the
+older discourses but later doctrine and popular feeling came to regard
+it as more and more unusual, just as saints grow fewer as the centuries
+advance further from the Apostolic age. In the dearth of visible Arhats
+it was consoling to think that nirvana could be won in other worlds.
+
+The nirvana hitherto considered is that attained by a being living in
+this or some other world. But all states of existence whatever come to
+an end. When one who has not attained nirvana dies, he is born again.
+But what happens when an Arhat or a Buddha dies? This question did not
+fail to arouse interest during the Buddha's lifetime yet in the Pitakas
+the discussion, though it could not be stifled, is relegated to the
+background and brought forward only to be put aside as unpractical. The
+greatest teachers of religion--Christ as well as Buddha--have shown little
+disposition to speak of what follows on death. For them the centre of
+gravity is on this side of the grave not on the other: the all important
+thing is to live a religious life, at the end of which death is met
+fearlessly as an incident of little moment. The Kingdom of Heaven, of
+which Christ speaks, begins on earth though it may end elsewhere. In the
+Gospels we hear something of the second coming of Christ and the
+Judgment: hardly anything of the place and character of the soul's
+eternal life. We only gather that a child of God who has done his best
+need have no apprehension in this or another world. Though expressed in
+very different phraseology, something like that is the gist of what the
+Buddha teaches about the dying Saint. But this reticent attitude did not
+satisfy ancient India any more than it satisfies modern Europe and we
+have the record of how he was questioned and what he said in reply.
+Within certain limits that reply is quite definite. The question, does
+the Tathāgata, that is the Buddha or perfected saint, exist after death,
+which is the phraseology usually employed by the Pitakas in formulating
+the problem, belongs to the class of questions called not declared or
+undetermined[510], because they do not admit of either an affirmative or
+a negative answer. Other problems belonging to this class are: Is the
+world eternal or not: Is the world infinite or not: Is the soul[511] the
+same as the body or different from it? It is categorically asserted that
+none of these questions admit of a reply: thus it is not right to say
+that _(a)_ the saint exists after death, _(b)_ or that he does not
+exist, _(c)_ or that he both does and does not exist, _(d)_ or that he
+neither exists nor does not exist. The Buddha's teaching about these
+problems is stated with great clearness in a Sutta named after
+Mālunkyaputta[512], an enquirer who visits him and after enumerating
+them says frankly that he is dissatisfied because the Buddha will not
+answer them. "If the Lord answers them, I will lead a religious life
+under him, but if he does not answer them, I will give up religion and
+return to the world. But if the Lord does not know, then the
+straightforward thing is to say, I do not know." This is plain speaking,
+almost discourtesy. The Buddha's reply is equally plain, but unyielding.
+"Have I said to you, come and be my disciple and I will teach you
+whether the world is eternal or not, infinite or not: whether the soul
+is identical with the body, or separate, whether the saint exists after
+death or not?" "No, Lord." "Now suppose a man were wounded by a poisoned
+arrow and his friends called in a physician to dress his wound. What if
+the man were to say, I shall not have my wound treated until I know what
+was the caste, the family, the dwelling-place, the complexion and
+stature of the man who wounded me; nor shall I let the arrow be drawn
+out until I know what is the exact shape of the arrow and bow, and what
+were the animals and plants which supplied the feathers, leather, shaft
+and string. The man would never learn all that, because he would die
+first." "Therefore" is the conclusion, "hold what I have determined as
+determined and what I have not determined, as not determined."
+
+This sutta may be taken in connection with passages asserting that the
+Buddha knows more than he tells his disciples. The result seems to be
+that there are certain questions which the human mind and human language
+had better leave alone because we are incapable of taking or expressing
+a view sufficiently large to be correct, but that the Buddha has a more
+than human knowledge which he does not impart because it is not
+profitable and overstrains the faculties, just as it is no part of a
+cure that the patient should make an exhaustive study of his disease.
+
+With reference to the special question of the existence of the saint
+after death, the story of Yamaka[513] is important. He maintained that a
+monk in whom evil is destroyed (khīnāsavo) is annihilated when he dies,
+and does not exist. This was considered a grave heresy and refuted by
+Sāriputta who argues that even in this life the nature of a saint passes
+understanding because he is neither all the skandhas taken together nor
+yet one or more of them.
+
+Yet it would seem that according to the psychology of the Pitakas an
+ordinary human being is an aggregate of the skandhas and nothing more.
+When such a being dies and in popular language is born again, the
+skandhas reconstitute themselves but it is expressly stated that when
+the saint dies this does not happen. The Chain of Causation says that
+consciousness and the sankhāras are interdependent. If there is no
+rebirth, it is because (as it would seem) there are in the dying saint
+no sankhāras. His nature cannot be formulated in the same terms as the
+nature of an ordinary man. It may be noted that karma is not equivalent
+to the effect produced on the world by a man's words and deeds, for if
+that were so, no one would have died leaving more karma behind him than
+the Buddha himself, yet according to Hindu doctrine, whether Buddhist or
+Brahmanic, no karma attaches to the deeds of a saint. His acts may
+affect others but there is nothing in them which tends to create a new
+existence.
+
+In another dialogue[514] the Buddha replies to a wandering monk called
+Vaccha who questioned him about the undetermined problems and in answer
+to every solution suggested says that he does not hold that view. Vaccha
+asks what objection he has to these theories that he has not adopted any
+of them?
+
+"Vaccha, the theory that the saint exists (or does not exist and so on)
+after death is a jungle, a desert, a puppet show, a writhing, an
+entanglement and brings with it sorrow, anger, wrangling and agony. It
+does not conduce to distaste for the world, to the absence of passion,
+to the cessation of evil, to peace, to knowledge, to perfect
+enlightenment, to nirvana. Perceiving this objection, I have not adopted
+any of these theories." "Then has Gotama any theory of his own?"
+"Vaccha, the Tathāgata has nothing to do with theories, but this is what
+he knows: the nature of form, how form arises, how form perishes: the
+nature of perception, how it arises and how it perishes (and so on with
+the other skandhas). Therefore I say that the Tathāgata is emancipated
+because he has completely and entirely abandoned all imaginations,
+agitations and false notions about the Ego and anything pertaining to
+the Ego." But, asks Vaccha, when one who has attained this emancipation
+of mind dies where is he reborn? "Vaccha, the word 'reborn' does not fit
+the case." "Then, Gotama, he is not reborn." "To say he is not reborn
+does not fit the case, nor is it any better to say he is both reborn and
+not reborn or that he is neither reborn nor not reborn." "Really,
+Gotama, I am completely bewildered and my faith in you is gone."
+
+"Never mind your bewilderment. This doctrine is profound and difficult.
+Suppose there was a fire in front of you. You would see it burning and
+know that its burning depended on fuel. And if it went out (nibbāyeyya)
+you would know that it had gone out. But if some one were to ask you, to
+which quarter has it gone, East, West, North or South, what would you
+say?"
+
+"The expression does not fit the case, Gotama. For the fire depended on
+fuel and when the fuel is gone it is said to be extinguished, being
+without nourishment."
+
+"In just the same way, all form by which one could predicate the
+existence of the saint is abandoned and uprooted like a fan palm[515],
+so that it will never grow up in future. The saint who is released from
+what is styled form is deep, immeasurable, hard to fathom, like the
+great ocean. It does not fit the case to say either that he is reborn,
+not reborn, both reborn and not reborn, or neither reborn nor not
+reborn." Exactly the same statement is then repeated four times the
+words sensation, perception, sankhāras and consciousness being
+substituted successively for the word form. Vaccha, we are told, was
+satisfied.
+
+To appreciate properly the Buddha's simile we must concentrate our
+attention on the fire. When we apply this metaphor to annihilation, we
+usually think of the fuel or receptacle and our mind dwells sadly on the
+heap of ashes or the extinguished lamp. But what has become of the fire?
+It is hardly correct to say that it has been destroyed. If a particular
+fire may be said to be annihilated in the sense that it is impossible to
+reconstitute it by repeating the same process of burning, the reason is
+not so much that we cannot get the same flames as that we cannot burn
+the same fuel twice. But so long as there is continuous combustion in
+the same fireplace or pile of fuel, we speak of the same fire although
+neither the flame nor the fuel remains the same. When combustion ceases,
+the fire goes out in popular language. To what quarter does it go? That
+question clearly does not "fit the case." But neither does it fit the
+case to say that the fire is annihilated[516].
+
+Nirvana is the cessation of a process not the annihilation of an
+existence. If I take a walk, nothing is annihilated when the walk comes
+to an end: a particular form of action has ceased. Strictly speaking the
+case of a fire is the same: when it goes out a process ceases. For the
+ordinary man nirvana is annihilation in the sense that it is the absence
+of all the activities which he considers desirable. But for the arhat
+(who is the only person able to judge) nirvana after death, as compared
+with nirvana in life, may be quiescence and suspension of activity, only
+that such phrases seem to imply that activity is the right and normal
+condition, quiescence being negative and unnatural, whereas for an arhat
+these values are reversed.
+
+We may use too the parallel metaphor of water. A wave cannot become an
+immortal personality. It may have an indefinitely long existence as it
+moves across the ocean, although both its shape and substance are
+constantly changing, and when it breaks against an obstacle the
+resultant motion may form new waves. And if a wave ceases to struggle
+for individual existence and differentiation from the surrounding sea,
+it cannot be said to exist any more as a wave. Yet neither the water
+which was its substance nor the motion which impelled it have been
+annihilated. It is not even quite correct to say that it has been merged
+in the sea. A drop of water added to a larger liquid mass is merged. The
+wave simply ceases to be active and differentiated.
+
+In the Samyutta-Nikāya[517] the Buddha's statement that the saint after
+death is deep and immeasurable like the ocean is expanded by significant
+illustration of the mathematician's inability to number the sand or
+express the sea in terms of liquid measure. It is in fact implied that
+if we cannot say _he is_, this is only because that word cannot properly
+be applied to the infinite, innumerable and immeasurable.
+
+The point which is clearest in the Buddha's treatment of this question
+is that whatever his disciples may have thought, he did not himself
+consider it of importance for true religion. Speculation on such points
+may be interesting to the intellect but is not edifying. It is a jungle
+where the traveller wanders without advancing, and a puppet-show, a vain
+worldly amusement which wears a false appearance of religion because it
+is diverting itself with quasi-religious problems. What is the state of
+the saint after death, is not as people vainly suppose a question
+parallel to, am I going to heaven or hell, what shall I do to be saved?
+To those questions the Buddha gives but one answer in terms of human
+language and human thought, namely, attain to nirvana and arhatship on
+this side of death, if possible in your present existence; if not now,
+then in the future good existences which you can fashion for yourself.
+What lies beyond is impracticable as a goal, unprofitable as a subject
+of speculation. We shall probably not be transgressing the limits of
+Gotama's thought if we add that those who are not arhats are bound to
+approach the question with misconception and it is a necessary part of
+an Arhat's training to get rid of the idea "I am[518]." The state of a
+Saint after death cannot be legitimately described in language which
+suggests that it is a fuller and deeper mode of life[519]. Yet it is
+clear that nearly all who dispute about it wish to make out that it is a
+state they could somehow regard with active satisfaction. In technical
+language they are infected with arūparāgo, or desire for life in a
+formless world, and this is the seventh of the ten fetters, all of which
+must be broken before arhatship is attained. I imagine that those modern
+sects, such as the Zen in Japan, which hold that the deepest mysteries
+of the faith cannot be communicated in words but somehow grow clear in
+meditation are not far from the master's teaching, though to the best of
+my belief no passage has been produced from the Pitakas stating that an
+arahat has special knowledge about the avyākatāni or undetermined
+questions.
+
+Almost all who treat of nirvana after death try to make the Buddha say,
+is or is not. That is what he refused to do. We still want a plain
+answer to a plain question and insist that he really means either that
+the saint is annihilated or enters on an infinite existence. But the
+true analogues to this question are the other insoluble questions, for
+instance, is the world infinite or finite in space? This is in form a
+simple physical problem, yet it is impossible for the mind to conceive
+either an infinite world or a world stopping abruptly with not even
+space beyond. A common answer to this antinomy is that the mind is
+attempting to deal with a subject with which it is incompetent to deal,
+that the question is wrongly formulated and that every answer to it thus
+formulated must be wrong. The way of truth lies in first finding the
+true question. The real difficulty of the Buddha's teaching, though it
+does not stimulate curiosity so much as the question of life after
+death, is the nature and being of the saint in this life before death,
+raised in the argument with Yamaka[520].
+
+Another reason for not pressing the Buddha's language in either
+direction is that, if he had wished to preach in the subtlest form
+either infinite life or annihilation, he would have found minds
+accustomed to the ideas and a vocabulary ready for his use. If he had
+wished to indicate any form of absorption into a universal soul, or the
+acquisition by the individual self of the knowledge that it is identical
+with the universal self, he could easily have done so. But he studiously
+avoided saying anything of the kind. He teaches that all existence
+involves suffering and he preaches escape from it. After that escape the
+words being and not being no longer apply, and the reason why some
+people adopt the false idea of annihilation is because they have
+commenced by adopting the false alternative of either annihilation or an
+eternal prolongation of this life. A man makes[521] himself miserable
+because he thinks he has lost something or that there is something which
+he cannot get. But if he does not think he has lost something or is
+deprived of something he might have, then he does not feel miserable.
+Similarly, a man holds the erroneous opinion, "This world is the self,
+or soul and I shall become it after death and be eternal, and
+unchanging." Then he hears the preaching of a Buddha and he thinks "I
+shall be annihilated, I shall not exist any more," and he feels
+miserable. But if a man does not hold this doctrine that the soul is
+identical with the universe and will exist eternally--which is just
+complete full-blown folly[522]--and then hears the preaching of a Buddha
+it does not occur to him to think that he will be annihilated and he is
+not miserable. Here the Buddha emphasizes the fact that his teaching is
+not a variety of the Brahmanic doctrine about the Ātman. Shortly
+afterwards in the same sutta he even more emphatically says that he does
+not teach annihilation. He teaches that the saint is already in this
+life inconceivable (_ananuvejjo_): "And when I teach and explain this
+some accuse me falsely and without the smallest ground[523] saying
+'Gotama is an unbeliever; he preaches the annihilation, the destruction,
+the dying out of real being.' When they talk like this they accuse me of
+being what I am not, of saying what I do not say."
+
+Though the Buddha seems to condemn by anticipation the form of the
+Vedanta known as the Advaita, this philosophy illustrates the difficulty
+of making any statement about the saint after his death. For it teaches
+that the saint knows that there is but one reality, namely Brahman, and
+that all individual existences are illusion: he is aware that he is
+Brahman and that he is not differentiated from the world around him. And
+when he dies, what happens? Metaphors about drops and rivers are not
+really to the point. It would be more correct to say that nothing at all
+has happened. His physical life, an illusion which did not exist for
+himself, has ceased to exist for others.
+
+Perhaps he will be nearest to the Buddha's train of thought who attempts
+to consider, by reflection rather than by discussion in words, what is
+meant by annihilation. By thinking of the mystery of existence and
+realizing how difficult it is to explain how and why anything exists, we
+are apt to slip into thinking that it would be quite natural and
+intelligible if nothing existed or if existing things became nothing.
+Yet as a matter of fact our minds have no experience of this nothing of
+which we talk and it is inconceivable. When we try to think of
+nothingness we really think of space from which we try to remove all
+content, yet could we create an absolute vacuum within a vessel, the
+interior of the vessel would not be annihilated. The man who has
+attained nirvana cannot be adequately defined or grasped even in this
+life: what binds him to being is cut[524] but it is inappropriate and
+inadequate to say that he has become nothing[525].
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MONKS AND LAYMEN
+
+1
+
+
+The great practical achievement of the Buddha was to found a religious
+order which has lasted to the present day. It is known as the Sangha and
+its members are called Bhikkhus[526]. It is chiefly to this institution
+that the permanence of his religion is due.
+
+Corporations or confraternities formed for the purpose of leading a
+particular form of life are among the most widespread manifestations, if
+not of primitive worship, at any rate of that stage in which it passes
+into something which can be called personal religion and at least three
+causes contribute to their formation. First, early institutions were
+narrower and more personal than those of to-day. In politics as well as
+religion such relatively broad designations as Englishman or Frenchman,
+Buddhist or Christian, imply a slowly widening horizon gained by
+centuries of cooperation and thought. In the time of the Buddha such
+national and religious names did not exist. People belonged to a clan or
+served some local prince. Similarly in religious matters they followed
+some teacher or worshipped some god, and in either case if they were in
+earnest they tended to become members of a society. Societies such as
+the Pythagorean and Orphic brotherhoods were also common in Greece from
+the sixth century B.C. onwards but the result was small, for the genius
+of the Greeks turned towards politics and philosophy. But in India,
+where politics had strangely little attraction for the cultured classes,
+energy and intelligence found an outlet in the religious life and
+created a multitude of religious societies. Even to-day Hinduism has no
+one creed or code and those who take a serious interest in religion are
+not merely Hindus but follow some sect which, without damning what it
+does not adopt, selects its own dogmas and observances. This is not
+sectarianism in the sense of schism. It is merely the desire to have for
+oneself some personal, intimate religious life. Even in so
+uncompromising and levelling a creed as Islam the devout often follow
+special _tariqs_, that is, roads or methods of the devotional life, and
+these _tariqs_, though differing more than the various orders of the
+Roman Catholic Church, are not regarded as sects distinct from ordinary
+orthodoxy. When Christ died, Christianity was not much more than such a
+_tariq_. It was an incipient religious order which had not yet broken
+with Judaism.
+
+This idea of the private, even secret religious body is closely allied
+to another, namely, that family life and worldly business are
+incompatible with the quest for higher things. In early ages only
+priests and consecrated persons are expected to fast and practise
+chastity but when once the impression prevails that such observances not
+only achieve particular ends but produce wiser, happier, or more
+powerful lives, then they are likely to be followed by considerable
+numbers of the more intelligent, emotional and credulous sections of the
+population. The early Christian Church was influenced by the idea that
+the world is given over to Satan and that he who would save himself must
+disown it. The gentler Hindus were actuated by two motives. First, more
+than other races, they felt the worry and futility of worldly life.
+Secondly, they had a deep-rooted belief that miraculous powers could be
+acquired by self-mortification and the sensations experienced by those
+who practised fasting and trances confirmed this belief.
+
+The third cause for the foundation and increase of religious orders is a
+perception of the influence which they can exercise. The disciples of a
+master or the priests of a god, if numerous and organized, clearly
+possess a power analogous to that of an army. To use such institutions
+for the service and protection of the true faith is an obvious expedient
+of the zealot: ecclesiastical statecraft and ambition soon make their
+appearance in most orders founded for the assistance of the Church
+militant. But of this spirit Buddhism has little to show; except in
+Tibet and Japan it is almost absent. The ideal of the Buddha lay within
+his order and was to be realized in the life of the members. They had no
+need to strive after any extraneous goal.
+
+The Sangha, as this order was called, arose naturally out of the social
+conditions of India in the time of Gotama. It was considered proper that
+an earnest-minded man should renounce the world and become a wanderer.
+In doing this and in collecting round him a band of disciples who had a
+common mode of life Gotama created nothing new. He merely did with
+conspicuous success what every contemporary teacher was doing. The
+confraternity which he founded differed from others chiefly in being
+broader and more human, less prone to extravagances and better
+organized. As we read the accounts in the Pitakas, its growth seems so
+simple and spontaneous that no explanation is necessary. Disciples
+gather round the master and as their numbers increase he makes a few
+salutary regulations. It is almost with surprise that we find the result
+to be an organization which became one of the great forces of the world.
+
+The Buddha said that he taught a middle path equally distant from luxury
+and from self-mortification, but Europeans are apt to be struck by his
+condemnation of pleasure and to be repelled by a system which suppresses
+so many harmless activities. But contemporary opinion in India
+criticized his discipline as easy-going and lax. We frequently hear in
+the Vinaya that the people murmured and said his disciples behaved like
+those who still enjoy the good things of the world. Some, we are told,
+tried to enter the order merely to secure a comfortable existence[527].
+It is clear that he went to the extreme limits which public opinion
+allowed in dispensing with the rigours considered necessary to the
+religious life, and we shall best understand his spirit if we fix our
+attention not so much on the regime, to our way of thinking austere,
+which he prescribed--the single meal a day and so on--as on his insistence
+that what is necessary is emancipation of heart and mind and the
+cultivation of love and knowledge, all else being a matter of
+indifference. Thus he says to the ascetic Kassapa[528] that though a man
+perform all manner of penances, yet if he has not attained the bliss
+which comes of good conduct, a good heart and good mind, he is far from
+being a true monk. But when he has the heart of love that knows no anger
+nor ill-will, when he has destroyed lust and become emancipated even
+before death, then he deserves the name of monk. It is a common thing to
+say, he goes on, that it is hard to lead the life of a monk. But
+asceticism is comparatively easy; what is really hard is the conversion
+and emancipation of the heart.
+
+In India, where the proclivity to asceticism and self-torture is
+endemic, it was only natural that penance should in very truth seem
+easier and more satisfactory than this spiritual discipline. It won more
+respect and doubtless seemed more tangible and definite, more like what
+the world expected from a holy man. Accordingly we find that efforts
+were made by Devadatta and others to induce the Buddha to increase the
+severity of his discipline. But he refused[529]. The more ascetic form
+of life, which he declined to make obligatory, is described in the rules
+known as Dhutāngas, of which twelve or thirteen are enumerated. They are
+partly a stricter form of the ordinary rules about food and dress and
+partly refer to the life of a hermit who lives in the woods or in a
+cemetery.
+
+In the Pitakas[530] Kassapa's disciples are described as _dhutavādā_ and
+the advantages arising from the observance of the Dhutāngas are
+enumerated in the Questions of Milinda. It is probable that the Buddha
+himself had little sympathy with them. He was at any rate anxious that
+they should not degenerate into excesses. Thus he forbade[531] his
+disciples to spend the season of the rains in a hollow tree, or in a
+place where dead bodies are kept, or to use an alms bowl made out of a
+skull. Now Kassapa had been a Brahman ascetic and it is probable that in
+tolerating the Dhutāngas the Buddha merely intended to allow him and his
+followers to continue the practices to which they were accustomed. They
+were an influential body and he doubtless desired their adhesion, for he
+was sensitive to public opinion[532] and anxious to conform to it when
+conformity involved no sacrifice of principle. We hear repeatedly that
+the laity complained of some practice of his Bhikkhus and that when the
+complaint was brought to his ears he ordered the objectionable practice
+to cease. Once the king of Magadha asked the congregation to postpone
+the period of retreat during the rains until the next full moon day.
+They referred the matter to the Buddha: "I prescribe that you obey
+kings," was his reply.
+
+One obvious distinction between the Buddha's disciples and other
+confraternities was that they were completely clad, whereas the
+Ājīvikas, Jains and others went about naked. The motive for this rule
+was no doubt decency and a similar thought made Gotama insist on the use
+of a begging bowl, whereas some sectaries collected scraps of food in
+their hands. Such extravagances led to abuses resembling the degradation
+of some modern fakirs. Even the Jain scriptures admit that pious
+householders were disgusted by the ascetics who asked for a lodging in
+their houses--naked, unwashed men, foul to smell and loathsome to
+behold[533]. This was the sort of life which the Buddha called anariyam,
+ignoble or barbaric. With such degradation of humanity he would have
+nothing to do. He forbade nakedness, as well as garments of hair and
+other uncomfortable costumes. The raiment which he prescribed consisted
+of three pieces of cloth of the colour called kāsāva. This was probably
+dull orange, selected as being unornamental. It would appear that in
+medięval India the colour in use was reddish: at present a rather bright
+and not unpleasing yellow is worn in Burma, Ceylon, Siam and Camboja.
+Originally the robes were made of rags collected and sewed together but
+it soon became the practice for pious laymen to supply the Order with
+raiment.
+
+
+2
+
+In the Mahā and Culla-vaggas of the Vinaya Pitaka we possess a large
+collection of regulations purporting to be issued by the Buddha for the
+guidance of the Order on such subjects as ceremonial, discipline,
+clothes, food, furniture and medicine. The arrangement is roughly
+chronological. Gotama starts as a new teacher, without either followers
+or a code. As disciples multiply the need for regulations and uniformity
+of life is felt. Each incident and difficulty that arises is reported to
+him and he defines the correct practice. One may suspect that many
+usages represented as originating in the injunctions of the master
+really grew up gradually. But the documents are ancient; they date from
+the generations immediately following the Buddha's death, and their
+account of his activity as an organizer is probably correct in
+substance. One of the first reasons which rendered regulations necessary
+was the popularity of the order and the respect which it enjoyed. King
+Bimbisāra of Magadha is represented as proclaiming that "It is not
+permitted to do anything to those who join the order of the
+Sakyaputtiya[534]." Hence robbers[535], debtors, slaves, soldiers
+anxious to escape service and others who wished for protection against
+the law or merely to lead an idle life, desired to avail themselves of
+these immunities. This resulted in the gradual elaboration of a code of
+discipline which did much to secure that only those actuated by proper
+motives could enter the order and only those who conducted themselves
+properly could stay within it.
+
+We find traces of a distinction between those Bhikkhus who were hermits
+and lived solitary lives in the woods and those who moved about in
+bands, frequenting rest houses. In the time of the Buddha the wandering
+life was a reality but later most monks became residents in monasteries.
+Already in the Vinaya we seem to breathe the atmosphere of large
+conventual establishments where busy superintendents see to the lodging
+and discipline of crowds of monks, and to the distribution of the gifts
+made by pious laymen. But the Buddha himself knew the value of forests
+and plant life for calming and quickening the mind. "Here are trees," he
+would say to his disciples at the end of a lecture, "go and think it
+out[536]."
+
+In the poetical books of the Tripitaka, especially the collections known
+as the Songs of the Monks and Nuns, this feeling is still stronger: we
+are among anchorites who pass their time in solitary meditation in the
+depths of forests or on mountain tops and have a sense of freedom and a
+joy in the life of wild things not found in cloisters. These old monkish
+poems are somewhat wearisome as continuous reading, but their monotonous
+enthusiasm about the conquest of desire is leavened by a sincere and
+observant love of nature. They sing of the scenes in which meditation is
+pleasant, the flowery banks of streams that flow through reeds and
+grasses of many colours as well as the mysterious midnight forest when
+the dew falls and wild beasts howl; they note the plumage of the blue
+peacock, the flight of the yellow crane and the gliding movements of the
+water snake. It does not appear that these amiable hermits arrogated any
+superiority to themselves or that there was any opposition between them
+and the rest of the brethren. They preferred a form of the religious
+life which the Buddha would not make compulsory, but it is older than
+Buddhism and not yet dead in India. The Sangha exercised no hierarchical
+authority over them and they accepted such simple symbols of union as
+the observance of Uposatha days.
+
+The character of the Sangha has not materially changed since its
+constitution took definite shape towards the end of the master's life.
+It was and is simply a body of people who believe that the higher life
+cannot be lived in any existing form of society and therefore combine to
+form a confraternity where they are relieved of care for food and
+raiment, where they can really take no thought for the morrow and turn
+the cheek to the smiter. They were not a corporation of priests and they
+had no political aims. Any free man, unless his parents or the state had
+a claim on him and unless he suffered from certain diseases, was
+admitted; he took no vows of obedience and was at any time at liberty to
+return to the world.
+
+Though the Sangha as founded by the Buddha did not claim, still less
+exact, anything from the laity, yet it was their duty, their most
+obvious and easy method of acquiring merit, to honour and support monks,
+to provide them with food, clothes and lodging and with everything which
+they might lawfully possess. Strictly speaking a monk does not beg for
+food nor thank for what he receives. He gives the layman a chance of
+doing a good deed and the donor, not the recipient, should be thankful.
+
+At first the Buddha admitted converts to the order himself, but he
+subsequently prescribed two simple ceremonies for admission to the
+novitiate and to full privileges respectively. They are often described
+as ordinations but are rather applications from postulants which are
+granted by a Chapter consisting of at least ten members. The first,
+called pabbajjā or going forth--that is leaving the world--is effected
+when the would-be novice, duly shorn and robed in yellow, recites the
+three refuges and the ten precepts[537]. Full membership is obtained by
+the further ceremony called upasampadā. The postulant, who must be at
+least twenty years old, is examined in order to ascertain that he is
+_sui juris_ and has no disqualifying disease or other impediment. Then
+he is introduced to the Chapter by "a learned and competent monk" who
+asks those who are in favour of his admission to signify the same by
+their silence and those who are not, to speak. If this formula is
+repeated three times without calling forth objection, the upasampadā is
+complete. The newly admitted Bhikkhu must have an Upajjhāya or preceptor
+on whom he waits as a servant, seeing to his clothes, bath, bed, etc. In
+return the preceptor gives him spiritual instruction, supervises his
+conduct and tends him when sick.
+
+The Chapter which had power to accept new monks and regulate discipline
+consisted of the monks inhabiting a parish or district, whose extent was
+fixed by the Sangha itself. Its reality as a corporate body was secured
+by stringent regulations that under no excuse must the Bhikkhus resident
+in a parish omit to assemble on Uposatha days[538]. The Vinaya[539]
+represents the initiative for these simple observances as coming not
+from the Buddha but from King Bimbisāra, who pointed out that the
+adherents of other schools met on fixed days and that it would be well
+if his disciples did the same. He assented and ordered that when they
+met they should recite a formula called Pātimokkha which is still in
+use. It is a confessional service, in which a list of offences is read
+out and the brethren are asked three times after each item "Are you pure
+in this matter?" Silence indicates a good conscience. Only if a monk has
+anything to confess does he speak. It is then in the power of the
+assembly to prescribe some form of expiation. The offender may be
+rebuked, suspended or even expelled. But he must admit his guilt.
+Otherwise disciplinary measures are forbidden.
+
+What has been said above[540] about the daily life of the Buddha applies
+equally to the life of his disciples. Like him they rose early,
+journeyed or went to beg their only meal until about half-past eleven
+and spent the heat of the day in retirement and meditation. In the
+evening followed discussion and instruction. It was forbidden to accept
+gold and silver but the order might possess parks and monasteries and
+receive offerings of food and clothes. The personal possessions allowed
+to a monk were only the three robes, a girdle, an alms bowl, a razor, a
+needle and a water strainer[541]. Everything else which might be given
+to an individual had to be handed over to the confraternity and held in
+common and the Vinaya shows clearly how a band of wandering monks
+following their teacher from place to place speedily grew into an
+influential corporation possessing parks and monasteries near the
+principal cities. The life in these establishments attained a high level
+of comfort according to the standard of the times and the number of
+restrictive precepts suggests a tendency towards luxury. This was
+natural, for the laity were taught that their duty was to give and the
+Order had to decide how much it could properly receive from those pious
+souls who were only too happy to acquire merit. In the larger Vihāras,
+for instance at Sāvatthī, there were halls for exercise (that is walking
+up and down), halls with fires in them, warm baths and store rooms.
+
+The year of the Bhikkhus was divided into two parts. During nine months
+they might wander about, live in the woods or reside in a monastery.
+During the remaining three months, known as Vassa[542] or rainy season,
+residence in a monastery was obligatory. This custom, as mentioned,
+existed in India before the Buddha's time and the Pitakas represent him
+as adopting it, chiefly out of deference to public opinion. He did not
+prescribe any special observances for the period of Vassa, but this was
+the time when people had most leisure, since it was hard to move about,
+and also when the monks were brought into continual contact with the
+inhabitants of a special locality. So it naturally became regarded as
+the appropriate season for giving instruction to the laity. The end of
+the rainy season was marked by a ceremony called Pavāranā, at which the
+monks asked one another to pardon any offences that might have been
+committed, and immediately after it came the Kathina ceremony or
+distribution of robes. Kathina signifies the store of raw cotton cloth
+presented by the laity and held as common property until distributed to
+individuals.
+
+It would be tedious to give even an abstract of the regulations
+contained in the Vinaya. They are almost exclusively concerned with
+matters of daily life, dwellings, furniture, medicine and so forth, and
+if we compare them with the statutes of other religious orders, we are
+struck by the fact that the Buddha makes no provision for work,
+obedience or worship. In the western branches of the Christian
+Church--and to some extent, though less markedly, in the eastern--the
+theory prevails that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to
+do" and manual labour is a recognized part of the monastic life. But in
+India conditions and ideals were different. The resident monk grew out
+of the wandering teacher or disputant, who was not likely to practise
+any trade; it was a maxim that religious persons lived on alms, and
+occupations which we consider harmless, such as agriculture, were held
+to be unsuitable because such acts as ploughing may destroy animal life.
+Probably the Buddha would not have admitted the value of manual labour
+as a distraction and defence against evil thoughts. No one was more
+earnestly bent on the conquest of such thoughts, but he wished to
+extirpate them, not merely to crowd them out. Energy and activity are
+insisted on again and again, and there is no attempt to discourage
+mental activity. Reading formed no part of the culture of the time, but
+a life of travel and new impressions, continual discussion and the war
+of wits, must have given the Bhikkhus a more stimulating training than
+was to be had in the contemporary Brahmanic schools.
+
+The Buddha's regulations contain no vow of obedience or recognition of
+rank other than simple seniority or the relation of teacher to pupil. As
+time went on various hierarchical expedients were invented in different
+countries, since the management of large bodies of men necessitates
+authority in some form, but except in Lamaism this authority has rarely
+taken the form familiar to us in the Roman and Oriental Churches, where
+the Bishops and higher clergy assume the right to direct both the belief
+and conduct of others. In the Sangha, no monk could give orders to
+another: he who disobeyed the precepts of the order ceased to be a
+member of it either _ipso facto_, or if he refused to comply with the
+expiation prescribed. Also there was no compulsion, no suppression of
+discussion, no delegated power to explain or supplement the truth. Hence
+differences of opinion in the Buddhist Church have largely taken the
+shape of schools of thought rather than of separate and polemical sects.
+Dissension indeed has not been absent but of persecution, such as stains
+the annals of the Christian Church, there is hardly any record. The fact
+that the Sangha, though nearly five hundred years older than any
+Christian institution, is still vigorous shows that this noble freedom
+is not unsuccessful as a practical policy.
+
+The absence of anything that can be called worship or cultus in Gotama's
+regulations is remarkable. He not merely sets aside the older religious
+rites, such as prayer and sacrifice; he does not prescribe anything
+whatever which is in ordinary language a religious act. For the
+Pātimokkha, Pavāranā, etc., are not religious ceremonies, but chapters
+of the order held with an ethical object, and the procedure (the
+proposal of a resolution and the request for an expression of opinion)
+is that adopted in modern public meetings, except that assent is
+signified by silence. It is true that the ceremonial of a religion is
+not likely to develop during the life of the founder, for pious
+recollection and recitation of his utterances in the form of scripture
+are as yet impossible. Still, if the Buddha had had any belief whatever
+in the edifying effect of ritual, he would not have failed to institute
+some ceremony, appealing if not to supernatural beings at least to human
+emotions. Even the few observances which he did prescribe seem to be the
+result of suggestion from others and the only inference to be drawn is
+that he regarded every form of religious observance as entirely
+superfluous.
+
+At first the Sangha consisted exclusively of men. It was not until about
+five years after its establishment that the entreaties of the Buddha's
+fostermother, who had become a widow, and of Ānanda prevailed on him to
+throw it open to women as well[543] but it would seem that the
+permission was wrung from him against his judgment. His reluctance was
+not due to a low estimate of female ability, for he recognized and made
+use of the influence of women in social and domestic life and he
+admitted that they were as capable as men of attaining the highest
+stages of spiritual and intellectual progress. This is also attested by
+the Pitakas, for some of the most important and subtle arguments and
+expositions are put into the mouths of nuns[544]. Indeed the objections
+raised by the Buddha, though emphatic, are as arguments singularly vague
+and the eight rules for nuns which he laid down and compared to an
+embankment built to prevent a flood seem dictated not by the danger of
+immorality but by the fear that women might aspire to the management of
+the order and to be the equals or superiors of monks.
+
+So far as we can tell, his fears were not realized. The female branch of
+the order showed little vigour after its first institution but it does
+not appear that it was a cause of weakness or corruption. Women were
+influential in the infancy of Buddhism, but we hear little of the nuns
+when this first ardour was over. We may surmise that it was partly due
+to personal devotion to Gotama and also that there was a growing
+tendency to curtail the independence allowed to women by earlier Aryan
+usage. The daughters of Asoka play some part in the narratives of the
+conversion of Ceylon and Nepal but after the early days of the Church
+female names are not prominent: subsequently the succession became
+interrupted and, as nuns can receive ordination only from other nuns and
+not from monks, it could not be restored. The so-called nuns of the
+present day are merely religious women corresponding to the sisters of
+Protestant Churches, but are not ordained members of an order. But the
+right of women to enjoy the same spiritual privileges as men is not
+denied in theory and in practice Buddhism has done nothing to support or
+commend the system of the harem or zenana. In some Buddhist countries
+such as Burma and Siam women enjoy almost the same independence as in
+Europe. In China and Japan their status is not so high, but one period
+when Buddhism was powerful in Japan (800-1100 A.D.) was marked by the
+number of female writers and among the Manchus and Tibetans women enjoy
+considerable freedom and authority.
+
+Those who follow the law of the Buddha but are not members of the Sangha
+are called Upāsakas[545], that is worshippers or adherents. The word may
+be conveniently rendered by laymen although the distinction between
+clergy and laity, as understood in most parts of Europe, does not quite
+correspond to the distinction between Bhikkhus and Upāsakas. European
+clergy are often thought of as interpreters of the Deity, and whenever
+they have had the power they have usually claimed the right to supervise
+and control the moral or even the political administration of their
+country. Something similar may be found in Lamaism, but it forms no part
+of Gotama's original institution nor of the Buddhist Church as seen
+to-day in Burma, Siam and Ceylon. The members of the Sangha are not
+priests or mediators. They have joined a confraternity in order to lead
+a higher life for which ordinary society has no place. They will teach
+others, not as those whose duty it is to make the laity conform to their
+standard but as those who desire to make known the truth. And easy as is
+the transition from this attitude to the other, it must be admitted that
+Buddhism has rarely laid itself open to the charge of interfering in
+politics or of seeking temporal authority. Rather may it be accused of a
+tendency to indolence. In some cases elementary education is in the
+hands of the monks and their monasteries serve the purpose of village
+schools. Elsewhere they are harmless recluses whom the unsympathetic
+critic may pity as useless but can hardly condemn as ambitious or
+interfering. This is not however altogether true of Tibet and the Far
+East.
+
+It is sometimes said that the only real Buddhists are the members of the
+Sangha and there is some truth in this, particularly in China, where one
+cannot count as a Buddhist every one who occasionally attends a Buddhist
+service. But on the other hand Gotama accorded to the laity a definite
+and honourable position and in the Pitakas they notify their conversion
+by a special formula. They cannot indeed lead the perfect life but they
+can ensure birth in happy states and a good layman may even attain
+nirvana on his death-bed. But though the pious householder "takes his
+refuge in the law and in the order of monks" from whom he learns the
+law, yet these monks make no attempt to supervise or even to judge his
+life. The only punishment which the Order inflicts, to turn down the
+bowl and refuse to accept alms from guilty hands, is reserved for those
+who have tried to injure it and is not inflicted on notorious evil
+livers. It is the business of a monk to spread true knowledge and good
+feeling around him without enquiring into the thoughts and deeds of
+those who do not spontaneously seek his counsel. Indeed it may be said
+that in Burma it is the laity who supervise the monks rather than _vice
+versa_. Those Bhikkhus who fall short of the accepted standard,
+especially in chastity, are compelled by popular opinion to leave the
+monastery or village where they have misbehaved. This reminds us of the
+criticisms of laymen reported in the Vinaya and the deference which the
+Buddha paid to them.
+
+The ethical character of Buddhism and its superiority to other Indian
+systems are shown in the precepts which it lays down for laymen.
+Ceremony and doctrine have hardly any place in this code, but it enjoins
+good conduct and morality: moderation in pleasures and consideration for
+others. Only five commandments are essential for a good life but they
+are perhaps more comprehensive and harder to keep than the Decalogue,
+for they prescribe abstinence from the five sins of taking life,
+drinking intoxicants, lying, stealing and unchastity. It is meritorious
+to observe in addition three other precepts, namely, to use no garlands
+or perfumes: to sleep on a mat spread on the ground and not to eat after
+midday. Pious laymen keep all these eight precepts, at least on Uposatha
+days, and often make a vow to observe them for some special period. The
+nearer a layman can approximate to the life of a monk the better for his
+spiritual health, but still the aims and ideals, and consequently the
+methods, of the lay and religious life are different. The Bhikkhu is not
+of this world, he has cut himself loose from its ties, pleasures and
+passions; he strives not for heaven but for arhatship. But the layman,
+though he may profitably think of nirvana and final happiness, may also
+rightly aspire to be born in some temporary heaven. The law merely bids
+him be a kind, temperate, prudent man of the world. It is only when he
+speaks to the monks that the Buddha really speaks to his own and gives
+his own thoughts: only for them are the high selfless aspirations, the
+austere counsels of perfection and the promises of bliss and something
+beyond bliss. But the lay morality is excellent in its own sphere--the
+good respectable life--and its teaching is most earnest and natural in
+those departments where the hard unsentimental precepts of the higher
+code jar on western minds. Whereas the monk severs all family ties and
+is fettered by no domestic affection, this is the field which the layman
+can cultivate with most profit. It was against his judgment that the
+Buddha admitted women to his order and in bidding his monks beware of
+them he said many hard things. But for women in the household life the
+Pitakas show an appreciation and respect which is illustrated by the
+position held by women in Buddhist countries from the devout and capable
+matron Visākhā down to the women of Burma in the present day. The Buddha
+even praised the ancients because they married for love and did not buy
+their wives[546].
+
+The right life of a layman is described in several suttas[547] and in
+all of them, though almsgiving, religious conversation and hearing the
+law are commended, the main emphasis is on such social virtues as
+pleasant speech, kindness, temperance, consideration for others and
+affection. The most complete of these discourses, the
+Sigālovāda-sutta[548], relates how the Buddha when starting one morning
+to beg alms in Rājagaha saw the householder Sigāla bowing down with
+clasped hands and saluting the four quarters, the nadir and the zenith.
+The object of the ceremony was to avert any evil which might come from
+these six points. The Buddha told him that this was not the right way to
+protect oneself: a man should regard his parents as the east, his
+teachers as the south, his wife and children as the west, his friends as
+the north, his servants as the nadir and monks and Brahmans as the
+zenith. By fulfilling his duty to these six classes a man protects
+himself from all evil which may come from the six points. Then he
+expounded in order the mutual duties of (1) parents and children, (2)
+pupils and teachers, (3) husband and wife, (4) friends, (5) master and
+servant, (6) laity and clergy. The precepts which follow show how much
+common sense and good feeling Gotama could bring to bear on the affairs
+of every-day life when he gave them his attention and the whole
+classification of reciprocal obligations recalls the five relationships
+of Chinese morality, three of which are identical with Gotama's
+divisions, namely parents and children, husband and wife, and friends.
+But national characteristics make themselves obvious in the differences.
+Gotama says nothing about politics or loyalty; the Chinese list, which
+opens with the mutual duties of sovereigns and subjects, is silent
+respecting the church and clergy.
+
+The Sangha is an Indian institution and invites comparison with that
+remarkable feature of Indian social life, the Brahman caste. At first
+sight the two seem mutually opposed, for the one is a hereditary though
+intellectual aristocracy, claiming the possession of incommunicable
+knowledge and power, the other a corporation open to all who choose to
+renounce the world and lead a good life. And this antithesis contains
+historical truth: the Sangha, like the similar orders of the Jains and
+other Kshatriya sects, was in its origin a protest against the
+exclusiveness and ritualism of the Brahmans. Yet compared with anything
+to be found in other countries the two bodies have something in common.
+For instance it is a meritorious act to feed either Brahmans or
+Bhikkhus. Europeans are inclined to call both of them priests, but this
+is inaccurate for a Bhikkhu rarely deserves the title [549] and nowadays
+Brahmans are not necessarily priests nor priests Brahmans. But in India
+there is an old and widespread idea that he who devotes himself to a
+religious and intellectual life (and the two spheres, though they do not
+coincide, overlap more than in Europe) should be not only respected but
+supported by the rest of the world. He is not a professional man in the
+sense that lawyers, doctors and clergymen are, but rather an aristocrat.
+Though from the earliest times the nobles of India have had a full share
+of pride and self-confidence, the average Hindu has always believed in
+another kind of upper class, entered in some sects by birth, in others
+by merit, but in general a well-defined body, the conduct of whose
+members does not fail to command respect. The _do ut des_ principle is
+certainly not wanting, but the holy man is honoured not so much because
+he will make an immediate return by imparting some instruction or
+performing some ceremony but because to honour him is a good act which,
+like other good acts, will sooner or later find its reward. The Buddha
+is not represented as blaming the respect paid to Brahmans but as saying
+that Brahmans must deserve it. Birth and plaited hair do not make a true
+Brahman any more than a shaven head makes a Bhikkhu, but he who has
+renounced the world, who is pure in thought, word and deed, who follows
+the eight-fold path, and perfects himself in knowledge, he is the true
+Brahman[550]. Men of such aspirations are commoner in India than
+elsewhere and more than elsewhere they form a class, which is defined by
+each sect for itself. But in all sects it is an essential part of piety
+to offer respect and gifts to this religious aristocracy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ASOKA
+
+1
+
+
+The first period in the history of Buddhism extends from the death of
+the founder to the death of Asoka, that is to about 232 B.C. It had then
+not only become a great Indian religion but had begun to send forth
+missionaries to foreign countries. But this growth had not yet brought
+about the internal changes which are inevitable when a creed expands far
+beyond the boundaries within which it was a natural expression of local
+thought. An intellectual movement and growth is visible within the
+limits of the Pali Canon and is confirmed by what we hear of the
+existence of sects or schools, but it does not appear that in the time
+of Asoka the workings of speculation had led to any point of view
+materially different from that of Gotama.
+
+Our knowledge of general Indian history before the reign of Asoka is
+scanty and the data which can be regarded as facts for Buddhist
+ecclesiastical history are scantier still. We hear of two (or including
+the Mahāsangīti three) meetings sometimes called Councils; scriptures,
+obviously containing various strata, were compiled, and eighteen sects
+or schools had time to arise and some of them to decay. Much doubt has
+been cast upon the councils[551] but to my mind this suspicion is
+unmerited, provided that too ecclesiastical a meaning is not given to
+the word. We must not suppose that the meetings held at Rājagaha and
+Vesālī were similar to the Council of Nicaea or that they produced the
+works edited by the Pali Text Society. Such terms as canon, dogma and
+council, though indispensable, are misleading at this period. We want
+less formal equivalents for the same ideas. A number of men who were
+strangers to those conceptions of a hierarchy and a Bible[552] which are
+so familiar to us met together to fix and record the opinions and
+injunctions of the Master or to remove misapprehensions and abuses. It
+would be better if we could avoid using even the word Buddhist at this
+period, for it implies a difference sharper than the divisions existing
+between the followers of Gotama and others. They were in the position of
+the followers of Christ before they received at Antioch the name of
+Christians and the meeting at Rājagaha was analogous to the conferences
+recorded in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
+
+The record of this meeting and of the subsequent meeting at Vesālī is
+contained in Chapters XI. and XII. of the Cullavagga, which must
+therefore be later than the second meeting and perhaps considerably
+later. Other accounts are found in the Dīpavamsa, Mahā-Bodhi-Vamsa and
+Buddhaghosa's commentaries. The version given in the Cullavagga is
+abrupt and does not entirely agree with other narratives of what
+followed on the death of the Buddha[553]. It seems to be a combination
+of two documents, for it opens as a narrative by Kassapa, but it soon
+turns into a narrative about him. But the clumsiness in compilation and
+the errors of detail are hardly sufficient to discredit an event which
+is probable in itself and left an impression on tradition. The Buddha
+combined great personal authority with equally great liberality. While
+he was alive he decided all questions of dogma and discipline himself,
+but he left to the Order authority to abolish all the minor precepts. It
+seems inevitable that some sort of meeting should have been held to
+consider the position created by this wide permission. Brief and
+confused as the story in the Cullavagga is, there is nothing improbable
+in its outline--namely that a resolution was taken at Kusinārā where he
+died to hold a synod during the next rains at Rājagaha, a more central
+place where alms and lodgings were plentiful, and there come to an
+agreement as to what should be accepted as the true doctrine and
+discipline. Accordingly five hundred monks met near this town and
+enquired into the authenticity of the various rules and suttas. They
+then went on to ask what the Buddha had meant by the lesser and minor
+precepts which might be abolished. Ānanda (who came in for a good deal
+of blame in the course of the proceedings) confessed that he had
+forgotten to ask the Master for an explanation and divergent opinions
+were expressed as to the extent of the discretion allowed. Kassapa
+finally proposed that the Sangha should adopt without alteration or
+addition the rules made by the Buddha. This was approved and the Dhamma
+and Vinaya as chanted by the assembled Bhikkhus were accepted. The
+Abhidhamma is not mentioned. The name usually given to these councils is
+Sangīti, which means singing or chanting together. An elder is said to
+have recited the text sentence by sentence and each phrase was intoned
+after him by the assembly as a sign of acceptance. Upāli was the
+principal authority for the Vinaya and Ānanda for the Dhamma but the
+limits of the authority claimed by the meeting are illustrated by an
+anecdote[554] which relates that after the chanting of the law had been
+completed Pūrana and his disciples arrived from the Southern Hills. The
+elders asked him to accept the version rehearsed by them. He replied,
+"The Dhamma and Vinaya have been well sung by the Theras, nevertheless
+as they have been received and heard by me from the mouth of the Lord,
+so will I hold them." In other words the council has put together a very
+good account of the Buddha's teaching but has no claim to impose it on
+those who have personal reminiscences of their own.
+
+This want of a central authority, though less complete than in
+Brahmanism, marks the early life of the Buddhist community. We read in
+later works[555] of a succession of Elders who are sometimes called
+Patriarchs[556] but it would be erroneous to think of them as possessing
+episcopal authority. They were at most the chief teachers of the order.
+From the death of the Buddha to Asoka only five names are mentioned. But
+five names can fill the interval only if their bearers were unusually
+long-lived. It is therefore probable that the list merely contains the
+names of prominent Theras who exercised little authority in virtue of
+any office, though their personal qualities assured them respect. Upāli,
+who comes first, is called chief of the Vinaya but, so far as there was
+one head of the order, it seems to have been Kassapa. He is the Brahman
+ascetic of Uruvelā whose conversion is recorded in the first book of the
+Mahāvagga and is said to have exchanged robes with the Buddha[557]. He
+observed the Dhutāngas and we may conjecture that his influence tended
+to promote asceticism. Dasaka and Sonaka are also designated as chiefs
+of the Vinaya and there was perhaps a distinction between those who
+studied (to use modern phrases) ecclesiastical law and dogmatic
+theology.
+
+The accounts[558] of the second Council are as abrupt as those of the
+first and do not connect it with previous events. The circumstances said
+to have led to its meeting are, however, probable. According to the
+Cullavagga, a hundred years after the death of the Buddha certain
+Bhikkhus of Vajjian lineage resident at Vesālī upheld ten theses
+involving relaxations of the older discipline. The most important of
+these was that monks were permitted to receive gold and silver, but all
+of them, trivial as they may seem, had a dangerous bearing for they
+encouraged not only luxury but the formation of independent schools. For
+instance they allowed pupils to cite the practice of their preceptors as
+a justification for their conduct and authorized monks resident in one
+parish to hold Uposatha in separate companies and not as one united
+body. The story of the condemnation of these new doctrines contains
+miraculous incidents but seems to have a historical basis. It relates
+how a monk called Yasa, when a guest of the monks of Vesālī, quarrelled
+with them because they accepted money from the laity and, departing
+thence, sought for support among the Theras or elders of the south and
+west. The result was a conference at Vesālī in which the principal
+figures are Revata and Sabbakāmi, a pupil of Ānanda, expressly said to
+have been ordained one hundred and twenty years earlier[559]. The ten
+theses were referred to a committee, which rejected them all, and this
+rejection was confirmed by the whole Sangha, who proceeded to rehearse
+the Vinaya. We are not however told that they revised the Sutta or
+Abhidhamma.
+
+Here ends the account of the Cullavagga but the Dīpavamsa adds that the
+wicked Vajjian monks, to whom it ascribes wrong doctrines as well as
+errors in discipline, collected a strong faction and held a schismatic
+council called the Mahāsangīti. This meeting recited or compiled a new
+version of the Dhamma and Vinaya[560]. It is not easy to establish any
+facts about the origin and tenets of this Mahāsangītika or Mahāsanghika
+sect, though it seems to have been important. The Chinese pilgrims Fa
+Hsien and Hsüan Chuang, writing on the basis of information obtained in
+the fifth and seventh centuries of our era, represent it as arising in
+connection with the first council, which was either that of Rājagaha or
+some earlier meeting supposed to have been held during the Buddha's
+lifetime, and Hsüan Chuang[561] intimates that it was formed of laymen
+as well as monks and that it accepted additional matter including
+dhāranīs or spells rejected by the monkish council. Its name (admitted
+by its opponents) seems to imply that it represented at one time the
+opinions of the majority or at least a great number of the faithful. But
+it was not the sect which flourished in Ceylon and the writer of the
+Dīpavamsa is prejudiced against it. It may be a result of this animus
+that he connects it with the discreditable Vajjian schism and the
+Chinese tradition may be more correct. On the other hand the adherents
+of the school would naturally be disposed to assign it an early origin.
+Fa Hsien says[562] that the Vinaya of the Mahāsanghikas was considered
+"the most complete with the fullest explanations." A translation of this
+text is contained in the Chinese Tripitaka[563].
+
+Early Indian Buddhism is said to have been divided into eighteen sects
+or schools, which have long ceased to exist and must not be confounded
+with any existing denominations. Fa Hsien observes that they agree in
+essentials and differ only in details and this seems to have been true
+not only when he wrote (about 420 A.D.) but throughout their history. In
+different epochs and countries Buddhism presents a series of surprising
+metamorphoses, but the divergences between the sects existing in India
+at any given time are less profound in character and less violent in
+expression than the divisions of Christianity. Similarly the so-called
+sects[564] in modern China, Burma and Siam are better described as
+schools, in some ways analogous to such parties as the High and Low
+Church in England. On the other hand some of the eighteen schools
+exceeded the variations permitted in Christianity and Islam by having
+different collections of the scriptures. But at the time of which we are
+treating these collections had not been reduced to writing: they were of
+considerable extent compared with the Bible or Koran and they admitted
+later explanatory matter. The record of the Buddha's words did not
+profess to be a miraculous revelation but merely a recollection of what
+had been said. It is therefore natural that each school should maintain
+that the memory of its own scholars had transmitted the most accurate
+and complete account and that tradition should represent the successive
+councils as chiefly occupied in reciting and sifting these accounts.
+
+It is generally agreed that the eighteen[565] schools were in existence
+during or shortly before the reign of Asoka, and that six others[566]
+arose about the same period, but subsequently to them. The best
+materials for a study of their opinions are afforded by the text and
+commentary[567] of the Kathā-vatthu, a treatise attributed to Tissa
+Moggaliputta, who is said to have been President of the Third Council
+held under Asoka. It is an examination and refutation of heretical views
+rather than a description of the bodies that held them but we can judge
+from it what was the religious atmosphere at the time and the commentary
+gives some information about various sects. Many centuries later I-ching
+tells us that during his visit to India (671-695 A.D.) the principal
+schools were four in number, with eighteen subdivisions. These four[568]
+are the Mahāsanghika, the Sthavira (equivalent to the old Theravāda),
+the Mūlasarvāstivāda and the Sammitiya, and from the time of Asoka
+onwards they throw the remaining divisions into the shade[569]. He adds
+that it is not determined which of the four should be grouped with the
+Māhāyana and which with the Hīnayāna, that distinction being probably
+later in origin. The differences between the eighteen schools in
+I-ching's time were not vital but concerned the composition of the canon
+and details of discipline. It was a creditable thing to be versed in the
+scriptures of them all[570]. It is curious that though the Kathāvatthu
+pays more attention to the opinions of the six new sects than to those
+held by most of the eighteen, yet this latter number continued to be
+quoted nearly a thousand years later, whereas the additional six seem
+forgotten. It may be that they were more unorthodox than the others and
+hence required fuller criticism. Five of their names are geographical
+designations, but we hear no more of them after the age of Asoka.
+
+The religious horizon of the heretics confuted in the Kāthavatthu does
+not differ materially from that of the Pitakas. There are many questions
+about arhatship, its nature, the method of obtaining it and the
+possibility of losing it. Also we find registered divergent views
+respecting the nature of knowledge and sensation. Of these the most
+important is the doctrine attributed to the Sammitiyas, that a soul
+exists in the highest and truest sense. They are also credited with
+holding that an arhat can fall from arhatship, that a god can enter the
+paths or the Order, and that even an unconverted man can get rid of all
+lust and ill-will[571]. This collection of beliefs is possibly
+explicable as a result of the view that the condition of the soul, which
+is continuous from birth to birth, is stronger for good or evil than its
+surroundings. The germs of the Mahāyāna may be detected in the opinions
+of some sects on the nature of the Buddha and the career of a
+Bodhisattva. Thus the Andhakas thought that the Buddha was superhuman in
+the ordinary affairs of life and the Vetulyakas[572] held that he was
+not really born in the world of men but sent a phantom to represent him,
+remaining himself in the Tusita heaven. The doctrines attributed to the
+Uttarāpathakas and Andhakas respectively that an unconverted man, if
+good, is capable of entering on the career of a Bodhisattva and that a
+Bodhisattva can in the course of his career fall into error and be
+reborn in state of woe, show an interest in the development of a
+Bodhisattva and a desire to bring it nearer to human life which are
+foreign to the Pitakas. An inclination to think of other states of
+existence in a manner half mythological half metaphysical is indicated
+by other heresies, such as that there is an intermediate realm where
+beings await rebirth, that the dead benefit by gifts given in the
+world[573], that there are animals in heaven, that the Four Truths, the
+Chain of Causation, and the Eightfold Path, are self-existent
+(asankhata).
+
+The point of view of the Kathā-vatthu, and indeed of the whole Pali
+Tripitaka, is that of the Vibhajjavādins, which seems to mean those who
+proceed by analysis and do not make vague generalizations. This was the
+school to which Tissa Moggaliputta belonged and was identical with the
+Theravāda (teaching of the elders) or a section of it. The prominence of
+this sect in the history of Buddhism has caused its own view, namely
+that it represents primitive Buddhism, to be widely accepted. And this
+view deserves respect for it rests on a solid historical basis, namely
+that about two and a half centuries after the Buddha's death and in the
+country where he preached, the Vibhajjavādins claimed to get back to his
+real teaching by an examination of the existing traditions[574]. This is
+a very early starting-point. But the Sarvāstivādins[575] were also an
+early school which attained to widespread influence and had a similar
+desire to preserve the simple and comparatively human presentment of the
+Buddha's teaching as opposed to later embellishments. Only three
+questions in the Kathā-vatthu are directed against them but this
+probably means not that they were unimportant but that they did not
+differ much from the Vibhajjavādins. The special views attributed to
+them are that everything really exists, that an arhat can fall from
+arhatship, and that continuity of thought constitutes Samādhi or
+meditation. These theses may perhaps be interpreted as indicative of an
+aversion to metaphysics and the supernatural. A saint has not undergone
+any supernatural transformation but has merely reached a level from
+which he can fall: meditation is simply fixity of attention, not a
+mystic trance. In virtue of the first doctrine European writers often
+speak of the Sarvāstivādins as realists but their peculiar view
+concerned not so much the question of objective reality as the
+difference between being and becoming. They said that the world _is_
+whereas other schools maintained that it was a continual process of
+becoming[576]. It is not necessary at present to follow further the
+history of this important school. It had a long career and flourished in
+Kashmir and Central Asia.
+
+Confused as are the notices of these ancient sects, we see with some
+clearness that in opposition to the Theravāda there was another body
+alluded to in terms which, though hostile, still imply an admission of
+size and learning, such as Mahāsanghika or Mahāsangītika, the people of
+the great assembly, and Ācāryavāda or the doctrine of the Teachers. It
+appears to have originated in connection with some council and to embody
+a popular protest against the severity of the doctrine there laid down.
+This is natural, for it is pretty obvious that many found the
+argumentative psychology of the Theravādins arid and wearisome. The
+Dīpavamsa accuses the Mahāsanghikas of garbling the canon but the
+Chinese pilgrims testify that in later times their books were regarded
+as specially complete. One well-known work, the Mahāvastu, perhaps
+composed in the first century B.C., describes itself as belonging to the
+Lokuttara branch of the Mahāsanghikas. The Mahāsanghikas probably
+represent the elements which developed into the Mahāyāna. It is not
+possible to formulate their views precisely but, whereas the Theravāda
+was essentially teaching for the Bhikkhu, they represented those
+concessions to popular taste from which Buddhism has never been quite
+dissociated even in its earliest period.
+
+
+2
+
+For some two centuries after Gotama's death we have little information
+as to the geographical extension of his doctrine, but some of the
+Sanskrit versions of the Vinaya[577] represent him as visiting Muttra,
+North-west India and Kashmir. So far as is known, the story of this
+journey is not supported by more ancient documents or other arguments:
+it contains a prediction about Kanishka, and may have been composed in
+or after his reign when the flourishing condition of Buddhism in
+Gāndhāra made it seem appropriate to gild the past. But the narratives
+about Muttra and Kashmir contain several predictions relating to the
+progress of the faith 100 years after the Buddha's death and these can
+hardly be explained except as references to a tradition that those
+regions were converted at the epoch mentioned. There is no doubt of the
+connection between Kashmir and the Sarvāstivādins nor anything
+improbable in the supposition that the first missionary activity was in
+the direction of Muttra and Kashmir.
+
+But the great landmark in the earlier history of Buddhism is the reign
+of Asoka. He came to the throne about 270 B.C. and inherited the vast
+dominions of his father and grandfather. Almost all that we know of the
+political events of his reign is that his coronation did not take place
+until four years later, which may indicate a disputed succession, and
+that he rounded off his possessions by the conquest of Kalinga, that is
+the country between the Mahanadi and the Godavari, about 261 B.C. This
+was the end of his military career. Nothing could be gained by further
+conquests, for his empire already exceeded the limits set to effective
+government by the imperfect communications of the epoch, seeing that it
+extended from Afghanistan to the mouths of the Ganges and southwards
+almost to Madras. No evidence substantiates the later stories which
+represent him as a monster of wickedness before his conversion, but
+according to the Dīpavamsa he at first favoured heretics.
+
+The general effect of Asoka's rule on the history of Buddhism and indeed
+of Asia is clear, but there is still some difference of opinion as to
+the date of his conversion. The most important document for the
+chronology of his reign is the inscription known as the first Minor Rock
+Edict[578]. It is now generally admitted that it does not state the time
+which has elapsed since the death of the Buddha, as was once supposed,
+and that the King relates in it how for more than two and a half years
+after his conversion to Buddhism he was a lay-believer and did not exert
+himself strenuously, but subsequently joined the Sangha[579] and began
+to devote his energies to religion rather more than a year before the
+publication of the edict. This proclamation has been regarded by some as
+the first, by others as the last of his edicts. On the latter
+supposition we must imagine that he published a long series of ethical
+but not definitely Buddhist ordinances and that late in life he became
+first a lay-believer and then a monk, probably abdicating at the same
+time. But the King is exceedingly candid as to his changes of life and
+mind: he tells us how the horrors of the war with Kalinga affected him,
+how he was an easygoing layman and then a zealous monk. Had there been a
+stage between the war and his acceptance of Buddhism as a layman, a
+period of many years in which he devoted himself to the moral progress
+of his people without being himself a Buddhist, he would surely have
+explained it. Moreover in the Bhābrū edict, which is distinctly
+ecclesiastical and deals with the Buddhist scriptures, he employs his
+favourite word Dhamma in the strict Buddhist sense, without indicating
+that he is giving it an unusual or new meaning. I therefore think it
+probable that he became a lay Buddhist soon after the conquest of
+Kalinga, that is in the ninth or tenth year after his accession, and a
+member of the Sangha two and a half years later. On this hypothesis all
+his edicts are the utterances of a Buddhist.
+
+It may be objected that no one could be a monk and at the same time
+govern a great empire: it is more natural and more in accordance with
+Indian usage that towards the end of his life an aged king should
+abdicate and renounce the world. But Wu Ti, the Buddhist Emperor of
+China, retired to a monastery twice in the course of his long reign and
+the cloistered Emperors of Japan in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
+continued to direct the policy of their country, although they abdicated
+in name and set a child on the throne as titular ruler. The Buddhist
+Church was not likely to criticize Asoka's method of keeping his
+monastic vows and indeed it may be said that his activity was not so
+much that of a pious emperor as of an archbishop possessed of
+exceptional temporal power. He definitely renounced conquest and
+military ambitions and appears to have paid no attention to ordinary
+civil administration which he perhaps entrusted to Commissioners; he
+devoted himself to philanthropic and moral projects "for the welfare of
+man and beast," such as lecturing his subjects on their duties towards
+all living creatures, governing the Church, building hospitals and
+stūpas, supervising charities and despatching missions. In all his
+varied activity there is nothing unsuitable to an ecclesiastical
+statesman: in fact he is distinguished from most popes and prelates by
+his real indifference to secular aspirations and by the unusual
+facilities which he enjoyed for immediately putting his ideals into
+practice.
+
+Asoka has won immortality by the Edicts which he caused to be engraved
+on stone[580]. They have survived to the present day and are the most
+important monuments which we possess for the early history of India and
+of Buddhism. They have a character of their own. A French writer has
+said "On ne bavarde pas sur la pierre," and for most inscriptions the
+saying holds good, but Asoka wrote on the rocks of India as if he were
+dictating to a stenographer. He was no stylist and he was somewhat vain
+although, considering his imperial position and the excellence of his
+motives, this obvious side of his character is excusable. His
+inscriptions give us a unique series of sermons on stones and a record,
+if not of what the people of India thought, at least of what an
+exceptionally devout and powerful Hindu thought they ought to think.
+
+Between thirty and forty of these inscriptions have been discovered,
+scattered over nearly the whole of India, and composed in vernacular
+dialects allied to Pali[581]. Many of them are dated by the year of the
+King's reign and all announce themselves as the enactments of Piyadassi,
+the name Asoka being rarely used[582]. They comprise, besides some
+fourteen single edicts[583], two series, namely:
+
+(1) Fourteen Rock Edicts, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth
+years of Asoka's reign[584] and found inscribed in seven places but the
+recensions differ and some do not include all fourteen edicts.
+
+(2) Seven Pillar Edicts dating from the 27th and 28th years, and found
+in six recensions.
+
+The fourteen Rock Edicts are mostly sermons. Their style often recalls
+the Pitakas verbally, particularly in the application of secular words
+to religious matters. Thus we hear that righteousness is the best of
+lucky ceremonies and that whereas former kings went on tours of pleasure
+and hunting, Asoka prefers tours of piety and has set out on the road
+leading to true knowledge. In this series he does not mention the Buddha
+and in the twelfth edict he declares that he reverences all sects. But
+what he wished to preach and enforce was the _Dhamma_. It is difficult
+to find an English equivalent for this word[585] but there is no doubt
+of the meaning. It is the law, in the sense of the righteous life which
+a Buddhist layman ought to live, and perhaps religion is the simplest
+translation, provided that word is understood to include conduct and its
+consequences in another world but not theism. Asoka burns with zeal to
+propagate this Dhamma and his language recalls[586] the utterances of
+the Dhammapada. He formulates the law under four heads[587]: "Parents
+must be obeyed: respect for living creatures must be enforced: truth
+must be spoken ... the teacher must be reverenced by the pupil and
+proper courtesy must be shown to relations." In many ways the Sacred
+Edict of the Chinese Emperor K'ang Hsi resembles these proclamations for
+it consists of imperial maxims on public morality addressed by a
+Confucian Emperor to a population partly Buddhist and Taoist, just as
+Asoka addressed Brahmans, Jains and other sects as well as Buddhists.
+But when we find in the thirteenth Rock Edict the incidental statement
+that the King thinks nothing of much importance except what concerns the
+next world, we feel the great difference between Indian and Chinese
+ideas whether ancient or modern.
+
+The Rock Edicts also deal with the sanctity of animal life. Asoka's
+strong dislike of killing or hurting animals cannot be ascribed to
+policy, for it must have brought him into collision with the Brahmans
+who offered animals in sacrifice, but was the offspring of a naturally
+gentle and civilized mind. We may conjecture that the humanity of
+Buddhism was a feature which attracted him to it. In Rock Edict I. he
+forbids animal sacrifices and informs us that whereas formerly many
+thousand animals were killed daily for the royal kitchens now only three
+are killed, namely two peacocks and a deer, and the deer not always. But
+in future even these three creatures will not be slaughtered. In Rock
+Edict II. he describes how he has cared for the comfort of man and
+beast. Wells have been dug; trees, roots and healing herbs have been
+planted and remedies--possibly hospitals--have been provided, all for
+animals as well as for men, and this not only in his own dominions but
+in neighbouring realms. In the fourteenth year of his reign he appointed
+officers called Dhamma-mahāmātā, Ministers or Censors of the Dhamma.
+Their duty was to promote the observance of the Dhamma and they also
+acted as Charity Commissioners and superintendents of the households of
+the King's relatives. We hear that "they attend to charitable
+institutions, ascetics, householders and all the sects: I have also
+arranged that they shall attend to the affairs of the Buddhist clergy,
+as well as the Brahmans, the Jains, the Ājīvikas and in fact all the
+various sects." Further he tells us that the local authorities[588] are
+to hold quinquennial assemblies at which the Dhamma is to be proclaimed
+and that religious processions with elephants, cars, and illuminations
+have been arranged to please and instruct the people. Similar
+processions can still be seen at the Perahera festival in Kandy.
+
+The last Rock Edict is of special interest for the light which it sheds
+both on history and on the King's character. He expresses remorse for
+the bloodshed which accompanied the conquest of Kalinga and declares
+that he will henceforth devote his attention to conquest by the Dhamma,
+which he has effected "both in his own dominions and in all the
+neighbouring realms as far as six hundred leagues (?), even to where the
+Greek King named Antiochus dwells and beyond that Antiochus to where
+dwell the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas and Alexander[589],
+and in the south the kings of the Colas and Pandyas[590] and of Ceylon
+and likewise here in the King's dominions, among the Yonas[591] and
+Kāmbojas[592] in Nābhaka of the Nābhitis[593] among the Bhojas and
+Pitinikas, among the Āndhras and Pulindas[594]. Asoka thus appears to
+state that he has sent missionaries to (1) the outlying parts of India,
+on the borders of his own dominions, (2) to Ceylon, (3) to the
+Hellenistic Kingdoms of Asia, Africa and Europe.
+
+This last statement is of the greatest importance, but no record has
+hitherto been found of the arrival of these missionaries in the west.
+The language of the Edict about them is not precise and in fact their
+despatch is only an inference from it. Of the success of the Indian
+missions there is no doubt. Buddhism was introduced into southern India,
+where it flourished to some extent though it had to maintain a double
+struggle against Jains as well as Brahmans. The statement of the Dīpa
+and Mahā-vamsas that missionaries were also sent to Pegu (Suvannabhūmi)
+is not supported by the inscriptions, though not in itself improbable,
+but the missions to the north and to Ceylon were remarkably successful.
+
+The Sinhalese Chronicles[595] give the names of the principal
+missionaries despatched and their statements have received confirmation
+in the discoveries made at Sanchi and Sonari where urns have been found
+inscribed with the names of Majjhima, Kassapa, and Gotiputta the
+successor of Dundhubhissara, who are called teachers of the Himalaya
+region. The statement in the Mahā and Dīpa-vamsas is that Majjhima was
+sent to preach in the Himalaya accompanied by four assistants Kassapa,
+Mālikādeva, Dundhābhinossa and Sahassadeva.
+
+About the twenty-first year of his reign Asoka made a religious tour and
+under the guidance of his preceptor Upagupta, visited the Lumbini Park
+(now Rummindei) in the Terāi, where the Buddha was born, and other spots
+connected with his life and preaching. A pillar has been discovered at
+Rummindei bearing an inscription which records the visit and the
+privileges granted to the village where "the Lord was born." At Niglīva
+a few miles off he erected another inscribed pillar stating that he had
+done reverence to the stūpa of the earlier Buddha Konāgamana and for the
+second time repaired it.
+
+During this tour he visited Nepal and Lalitpur, the capital, founding
+there five stūpas. His daughter Cārumatī is said to have accompanied him
+and to have remained in Nepal when he returned. She built a convent
+which still bears her name and lived there as a nun. It does not appear
+that Asoka visited Kashmir, but he caused a new capital (Srīnagar) to be
+built there, and introduced Buddhism.
+
+In the 27th and 28th year of his reign he composed another series of
+Edicts and this time had them carved in pillars not on rocks. They are
+even more didactic than the Rock Edicts and contain an increasing number
+of references to the next world, as well as stricter regulations
+forbidding cruelty to animals, but the King remains tolerant and
+says[596] that the chief thing is that each man should live up to his
+own creed. It is probable that at this time he had partially abdicated
+or at least abandoned some of the work of administration, for in Edict
+IV. he states that he has appointed Commissioners with discretion to
+award honours and penalties and that he feels secure like a man who has
+handed over his child to a skilful nurse.
+
+In the two series of Rock and Pillar Edicts there is little dogmatic
+Buddhism. It is true that the King's anxiety as to the hereafter of his
+subjects and his solicitude for animals indicate thoughts busy with
+religious ideas, but still his Dhamma is generally defined in terms
+which do not go beyond morality, kindness and sympathy. But in the
+Bhābrū (less correctly Bhābrā) Edict he recommends for study a series of
+scriptural passage which can be identified more or less certainly with
+portions of the Pali Pitakas. In the Sarnath Edict he speaks not only as
+a Buddhist but as head of the Church. He orders that monks or nuns who
+endeavour to create a schism shall put on lay costume and live outside
+their former monastery or convent. He thus assumes the right to expel
+schismatics from the Sangha. He goes on to say that a similar edict
+(i.e. an edict against schism) is to be inscribed for the benefit of the
+laity who are to come and see it on Uposatha days. "And on the Uposatha
+days in all months every officer is to come for the Uposatha service to
+be inspired with confidence in this Edict and to learn it." Thus the
+King's officers are to be Buddhists at least to the extent of attending
+the Uposatha ceremony, and the edict about schismatics is to be brought
+to the notice of the laity, which doubtless means that the laity are not
+to give alms to them.
+
+It is probable that many more inscriptions remain to be discovered but
+none of those known allude to the convening of a Council and our
+information as to this meeting comes from the two Sinhalese Chronicles
+and the works of Buddhaghosa. It is said to have been held two hundred
+and thirty-six years after the death of the Buddha[597] and to have been
+necessitated by the fact that the favour shown to the Sangha induced
+heretics to become members of it without abandoning their errors. This
+occasioned disturbances and the King was advised to summon a sage called
+Tissa Moggaliputta (or Upagupta) then living in retirement and to place
+the affairs of the church in his hands. He did so. Tissa then composed
+the Kathā-vatthu and presided over a council composed of one thousand
+arhats which established the true doctrine and fixed the present Pali
+Canon.
+
+Even so severe a critic of Sinhalese tradition as Vincent Smith admits
+that the evidence for the council is too strong to be set aside, but it
+must be confessed that it would be reassuring to find some allusion to
+it in Asoka's inscriptions. He did not however always say what we should
+expect. In reviewing his efforts in the cause of religion he mentions
+neither a council nor foreign missions, although we know from other
+inscriptions that such missions were despatched. The sessions of the
+council may be equally true and are in no way improbable, for in later
+times kings of Burma, Ceylon and Siam held conventions to revise the
+text of the Tripitaka. It appeared natural that a pious King should see
+that the sacred law was observed, and begin by ascertaining what that
+law was.
+
+According to tradition Asoka died after reigning thirty-eight or forty
+years but we have no authentic account of his death and the stories of
+his last days seem to be pure legends. The most celebrated are the
+pathetic tale of Kunāla which closely resembles a Jātaka[598], and the
+account of how Asoka vowed to present a hundred million gold pieces to
+the Sangha and not being able to raise the whole sum made a gift of his
+dominions instead.
+
+
+3
+
+Asoka had a decisive effect on the history of Buddhism, especially in
+making it a world religion. This was not the accidental result of his
+action in establishing it in north-west India and Ceylon, for he was
+clearly dominated by the thought that the Dhamma must spread over the
+whole world and, so far as we know, he was the first to have that
+thought in a practical form. But we could estimate his work better if we
+knew more about the religious condition of the country when he came to
+the throne. As it is, the periods immediately before and after him are
+plunged in obscurity and to illuminate his reign we have little
+information except his own edicts which, though copious, do not aim at
+giving a description of his subjects. Megasthenes who resided at
+Pataliputra about 300 B.C. does not appear to have been aware of the
+existence of Buddhism as a separate religion, but perhaps a foreign
+minister in China at the present day might not notice that the Chinese
+have more than one religion. On the other hand in Asoka's time Buddhism,
+by whatever name it was called, was well known and there was evidently
+no necessity for the King to explain what he meant by Dhamma and Sangha.
+The Buddha had belonged to a noble family and was esteemed by the
+aristocracy of Magadha; the code of morality which he prescribed for the
+laity was excellent and sensible. It is therefore not surprising if the
+Kshatriyas and others recognized it as their ideal nor if Asoka found it
+a sound basis of legislation. This legislation may be called Buddhist in
+the sense that in his edicts the King enjoins and to some extent
+enforces _sīlam_ or morality, which is the indispensable beginning for
+all spiritual progress, and that his enactments about animals go beyond
+what is usual in secular law. But he expressly refrains from requiring
+adherence to any particular sect. On the other hand there is no lack of
+definite patronage of Buddhism. He institutes edifying processions, he
+goes on pilgrimages to sacred sites, he addresses the Sangha as to the
+most important parts of the scriptures, and we may infer that he did his
+best to spread the knowledge of those scriptures. Though he says nothing
+about it in the Edicts which have been discovered, he erected numerous
+religious buildings including the Sanchi tope and the original temple at
+Bodh-Gaya. Their effect in turning men's attention to Buddhism must have
+been greatly enhanced by the fact that so far as we know no other sect
+had stone temples at this time. To such influences, we must add the
+human element. The example and well-known wishes of a great king,
+supported by a numerous and learned clergy, could not fail to attract
+crowds to the faith, and the faith itself--for let us not forget Gotama
+while we give credit to his follower--was satisfying. Thus Asoka probably
+found Buddhism in the form of a numerous order of monks, respected
+locally and exercising a considerable power over the minds and conduct
+of laymen. He left it a great church spread from the north to the south
+of India and even beyond, with an army of officials to assist its
+progress, with sacred buildings and monasteries, sermons and ceremonies.
+How long his special institutions lasted we do not know, but no one
+acquainted with India can help feeling that his system of inspection was
+liable to grave abuse. Black-mailing and misuse of authority are ancient
+faults of the Indian police and we may surmise that the generations
+which followed him were not long in getting rid of his censors and
+inspectors.
+
+Christian critics of Buddhism are apt to say that it has a paralyzing
+effect on the nations who adopt it, but Asoka's edicts teem with words
+like energy and strenuousness. "It is most necessary to make an effort
+in this world," so he recounts the efforts which he has himself made and
+wants everybody else to make an effort. "Work I must for the public
+benefit--and the root of the matter is in exertion and despatch of
+business than which nothing is more efficacious for the general
+welfare." These sound like the words of a British utilitarian rather
+than of a dreamy oriental emperor. He is far from pessimistic: indeed,
+he almost ignores the Truth of Suffering. In describing the conquest of
+Kalinga he speaks almost in the Buddha's words of the sorrow of death
+and separation, but instead of saying that such things are inevitable he
+wishes his subjects to be told that he regrets what has happened and
+desires to give them security, peace and joy.
+
+Asoka has been compared with Constantine but it has been justly observed
+that the comparison is superficial, for Constantine (more like Kanishka
+than Asoka) merely recognized and regulated a religion which had already
+won its way in his empire. He has also been compared with St Paul and in
+so far as both men transformed a provincial sect into a religion for all
+mankind the parallel is just, but it ends there. St Paul was a
+constructive theologian. For good or evil he greatly developed and
+complicated the teaching of Christ, but the Edicts of Asoka if compared
+with the Pitakas seem to curtail and simplify their doctrines. No
+inscription has yet been found mentioning the four truths, the chain of
+causation and other familiar formulę. Doubtless Asoka duly studied these
+questions, but it was not theology nor metaphysics which drew him
+towards religion. In the gallery of pious Emperors--a collection of
+dubious moral and intellectual value--he stands isolated as perhaps the
+one man whose only passion was for a sane, kindly and humane life,
+neither too curious of great mysteries nor preoccupied with his own soul
+but simply the friend of man and beast.
+
+For the history of doctrine the inscription at Rummindei is particularly
+important. It merely states that the King did honour or reverence to the
+birthplace of the Buddha, who receives no titles except Sakyamuni and
+Bhagavan here or elsewhere in the inscriptions. It is a simple record of
+respect paid to a great human teacher who is not in any way deified nor
+does Asoka's language show any trace of the doctrines afterwards known
+under the name of Mahayana. He does not mention nirvana or even
+transmigration, though doubtless what he says about paradise and rewards
+hereafter should be read in the light of Indian doctrines about karma
+and samsāra.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CANON
+
+1
+
+
+There are extant in several languages large collections of Buddhist
+scriptures described by some European writers as the Canon. The name is
+convenient and not incorrect, but the various canons are not altogether
+similar and the standard for the inclusion or exclusion of particular
+works is not always clear. We know something of four or five canons.
+
+(1) The Pali Canon, accepted by the Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma and Siam,
+and rendered accessible to European students by the Pali Text Society.
+It professes to contain the works recognized as canonical by the Council
+of Asoka and it is reasonably homogeneous, that is to say, although some
+ingenuity may be needed to harmonize the different strata of which it
+consists, it does not include works composed by several schools.
+
+(2) The Sanskrit Canon or Canons.
+
+_(a)_ Nepalese scriptures. These do not correspond with any Pali texts
+and all belong to the Mahayana. There appears to be no standard for
+fixing the canonical character of Mahayanist works. Like the Upanishads
+they are held to be revealed from time to time.
+
+_(b)_ Buddhist texts discovered in Central Asia. Hitherto these have
+been merely fragments, but the number of manuscripts found and not yet
+published permits the hope that longer texts may be forthcoming. Those
+already made known are partly Mahayanist and partly similar to the Pali
+Canon though not a literal translation of it. It is not clear to what
+extent the Buddhists of Central Asia regarded the Hina and Mahayanist
+scriptures as separate and distinct. Probably each school selected for
+itself a small collection of texts as authoritative[599].
+
+_(3)_ The Chinese Canon. This is a gigantic collection of Buddhist works
+made and revised by order of various Emperors. The imperial imprimatur
+is the only standard of canonicity. The contents include translations of
+works belonging to all schools made from the first to the thirteenth
+century A.D. The originals were apparently all in Sanskrit and were
+probably the texts of which fragments have been found in Central Asia.
+This canon also includes some original Chinese works.
+
+(4) There is a somewhat similar collection of translations into Tibetan.
+But whereas the Chinese Canon contains translations dated from 67 A.D.
+onwards, the Tibetan translations were made mainly in the ninth and
+eleventh centuries and represent the literature esteemed by the medięval
+Buddhism of Bengal. Part at least of this Tibetan Canon has been
+translated into Mongol.
+
+Renderings of various books into Uigur, Sogdian, Kuchanese, "Nordarisch"
+and other languages of Central Asia have been discovered by recent
+explorers. It is probable that they are all derived from the Sanskrit
+Canon and do not represent any independent tradition. The scriptures
+used in Japan and Korea are simply special editions of the Chinese
+Canon, not translations.
+
+In the following pages I propose to consider the Pali Canon, postponing
+until later an account of the others. It will be necessary, however, to
+touch on the relations of Pali and Sanskrit texts.
+
+The scriptures published by the Pali Text Society represent the canon of
+the ancient sect called Vibhajjavādins and the particular recension of
+it used at the monastery in Anuradhapura called Mahāvihāra. It is
+therefore not incorrect to apply to this recension such epithets as
+southern or Sinhalese, provided we remember that in its origin it was
+neither one nor the other, for the major part of it was certainly
+composed in India[600]. It was probably introduced into Ceylon in the
+third century B.C. and it is also accepted in Burma, Siam and
+Camboja[601]. Thus in a considerable area it is the sole and undisputed
+version of the scriptures.
+
+The canon is often known by the name of Tripitaka[602] or Three Baskets.
+When an excavation was made in ancient India it was the custom to pass
+up the earth in baskets along a line of workmen[603] and the
+metaphorical use of the word seems to be taken from this practice and to
+signify transmission by tradition.
+
+The three Pitakas are known as Vinaya, Sutta, and Abhidhamma. Vinaya
+means discipline and the works included in this division treat chiefly
+of the rules to be observed by the members of the Sangha. The basis of
+these rules is the Pātimokkha, the ancient confessional formula
+enumerating the offences which a monk can commit. It was read
+periodically to a congregation of the order and those guilty of any sin
+had to confess it. The text of the Pātimokkha is in the Vinaya combined
+with a very ancient commentary called the Sutta-vibhanga. The Vinaya
+also contains two treatises known collectively as the Khandakas but more
+frequently cited by their separate names as Mahāvagga and Cullavagga.
+The first deals with such topics as the rules for admission to the
+order, and observance of fast days, and in treating of each rule it
+describes the occasion on which the Buddha made it and to some extent
+follows the order of chronology. For some parts of the master's life it
+is almost a biography. The Cullavagga is similar in construction but
+less connected in style[604]. The Vinaya contains several important and
+curious narratives and is a mine of information about the social
+conditions of ancient India, but much of it has the same literary value
+as the book of Leviticus. Of greater general interest is the Sutta
+Pitaka, in which the sermons and discourses of the Buddha are collected.
+Sutta is equivalent to the Sanskrit word Sūtra, literally a thread,
+which signifies among the Brahmans a brief rule or aphorism but in Pali
+a relatively short poem or narrative dealing with a single object. This
+Sutta Pitaka is divided into five collections called Nikāyas. The first
+four are mainly in prose and contain discourses attributed to Gotama or
+his disciples. The fifth is mostly in verse and more miscellaneous.
+
+The four collections of discourses bear the names of Dīgha, Majjhima,
+Samyutta and Anguttara. The first, meaning long, consists of thirty-four
+narratives. They are not all sermons and are of varying character,
+antiquity and interest, the reason why they are grouped together being
+simply their length[605]. In some of them we may fancy that we catch an
+echo of Gotama's own words, but in others the legendary character is
+very marked. Thus the Mahāsamaya and Atānātiya suttas are epitomes of
+popular mythology tacked on to the history of the Buddha. But for all
+that they are interesting and ancient.
+
+Many of the suttas, especially the first thirteen, are rearrangements of
+old materials put together by a considerable literary artist who lived
+many generations after the Buddha. The account of the Buddha's last days
+is an example of such a compilation which attains the proportions of a
+Gospel and shows some dramatic power though it is marred by the
+juxtaposition of passages composed in very different styles.
+
+The Majjhima-Nikāya is a collection of 152 discourses of moderate
+(majjhima) length. Taken as a whole it is perhaps the most profound and
+impassioned of all the Nikāyas and also the oldest. The sermons which it
+contains, if not verbatim reports of Gotama's eloquence, have caught the
+spirit of one who urged with insistent earnestness the importance of
+certain difficult truths and the tremendous issues dependent on right
+conduct and right knowledge. The remaining collections, the Samyutta and
+Anguttara, classify the Buddha's utterances under various headings and
+presuppose older documents which they sometimes quote[606]. The Samyutta
+consists of a great number of suttas, mostly short, combined in groups
+treating of a single subject which may be either a person or a topic.
+The Anguttara, which is a still longer collection, is arranged in
+numerical groups, a method of classification dear to the Hindus who
+delight in such computations as the four meditations, the eightfold
+path, the ten fetters. It takes such religious topics as can be counted
+in this way and arranges them under the numbers from one to eleven. Thus
+under three, it treats of thought, word and deed and the applications of
+this division to morality; of the three messengers of the gods, old-age,
+sickness and death; of the three great evils, lust, ill-will and
+stupidity and so on.
+
+The fifth or Khuddaka-Nikāya is perhaps the portion of the Pali
+scriptures which has found most favour with Europeans, for the treatises
+composing it are short and some of them of remarkable beauty. They are
+in great part composed of verses, sometimes disconnected couplets,
+sometimes short poems. The stanzas are only imperfectly intelligible
+without an explanation of the occasion to which they refer. This is
+generally forthcoming, but is sometimes a part of the accepted text and
+sometimes regarded as merely a commentary. To this division of the
+Pitaka belong the Dhammapada, a justly celebrated anthology of
+devotional verses, and the Sutta-Nipāta, a very ancient collection of
+suttas chiefly in metre. Other important works included in it are the
+Thera and Therī-gāthā or poems written by monks and nuns respectively,
+and the Jātaka or stories about the Buddha's previous births[607]. Some
+of the rather miscellaneous contents of this Nikāya are late and do not
+belong to the same epoch of thought as the discourses attributed to
+Gotama. Such are the Buddha-vamsa, or lives of Gotama and his
+twenty-four predecessors, the Cariyā-Pitaka, a selection of Jātaka
+stories about Gotama's previous births and the Vimāna and Peta-vatthus,
+accounts of celestial mansions and of the distressful existence led by
+those who are condemned to be ghosts[608].
+
+Though some works comprised in this Nikāya (e.g. the Suttanipāta) are
+very ancient, the collection, as it stands, is late and probably known
+only to the southern Church. The contents of it are not quite the same
+in Ceylon, Burma and Siam, and only a small portion of them has been
+identified in the Chinese Tripitaka. Nevertheless the word
+_pańcanekāyika_, one who knows the five Nikāyas, is found in the
+inscriptions of Sanchi and five Nikāyas are mentioned in the last books
+of the Cullavagga. Thus a fifth Nikāya of some kind must have been known
+fairly early.
+
+The third Pitaka is known by the name of Abhidhamma. Dhamma is the usual
+designation for the doctrine of the Buddha and Buddhaghosa[609] explains
+the prefix abhi as signifying excess and distinction, so that this
+Pitaka is considered pre-eminent because it surpasses the others. This
+pre-eminence consists solely in method and scope, not in novelty of
+matter or charm of diction. The point of view of the Abhidhamma is
+certainly later than that of the Sutta Pitaka and in some ways marks an
+advance, for instead of professing to report the discourses of Gotama it
+takes the various topics on which he touched, especially psychological
+ethics, and treats them in a connected and systematic manner. The style
+shows some resemblance to Sanskrit sūtras for it is so technical both in
+vocabulary and arrangement that it can hardly be understood without a
+commentary[610]. According to tradition the Buddha recited the
+Abhidhamma when he went to heaven to preach to the gods, and this seems
+a polite way of hinting that it was more than any human congregation
+could tolerate or understand. Still throughout the long history of
+Buddhism it has always been respected as the most profound portion of
+the scriptures and has not failed to find students. This Pitaka includes
+the Kathā-vatthu, attributed to Tissa Moggaliputta who is said to have
+composed it about 250 B.C. in Asoka's reign[611].
+
+There is another division of the Buddhist scriptures into nine _angas_
+or members, namely: 1. Suttas. 2. Geyya: mixed prose and verse. 3.
+Gāthā: verse. 4. Udāna: ecstatic utterances. 5. Veyyākarana:
+explanation. 6. Itivuttaka: sayings beginning with the phrase "Thus said
+the Buddha." 7. Jātaka: stories of former births. 8. Abbhutadhamma:
+stories of wonders. 9. Vedalla: a word of doubtful meaning, but perhaps
+questions and answers. This enumeration is not to be understood as a
+statement of the sections into which the whole body of scripture was
+divided but as a description of the various styles of composition
+recognized as being religious, just as the Old Testament might be said
+to contain historical books, prophecies, canticles and so on.
+Compositions in these various styles must have been current before the
+work of collection began, as is proved by the fact that all the _angas_
+are enumerated in the Majjhima-Nikāya[612].
+
+
+2
+
+This Tripitaka is written in Pali[613] which is regarded by Buddhist
+tradition as the language spoken by the Master. In the time of Asoka the
+dialect of Magadha must have been understood over the greater part of
+India, like Hindustani in modern times, but in some details of grammar
+and phonetics Pali differs from Māgadhī Prakrit and seems to have been
+influenced by Sanskrit and by western dialects. Being a literary rather
+than a popular language it was probably a mixed form of speech and it
+has been conjectured that it was elaborated in Avanti or in Gāndhāra
+where was the great Buddhist University of Takshasīlā. Subsequently it
+died out as a literary language in India[614] but in Ceylon, Burma, Siam
+and Camboja it became the vehicle of a considerable religious and
+scholastic literature. The language of Asoka's inscriptions in the third
+century B.C. is a parallel dialect, but only half stereotyped. The
+language of the Mahāvastu and some Mahayanist texts, often called the
+language of the Gāthās, seems to be another vernacular brought more or
+less into conformity with Sanskrit. It is probable that in preaching the
+Buddha used not Pali in the strict sense but the spoken dialect of
+Magadha[615], and that this dialect did not differ from Pali more than
+Scotch or Yorkshire from standard English, and if for other reasons we
+are satisfied that some of the suttas have preserved the phrases which
+he employed, we may consider that apart from possible deviations in
+pronunciation or inflexion they are his _ipsissima verba_. Even as we
+have it, the text of the canon contains some anomalous forms which are
+generally considered to be Magadhisms[616].
+
+The Cullavagga relates how two monks who were Brahmans represented to
+the Buddha that "monks of different lineage ... corrupt the word of the
+Buddha by repeating it in their own dialect. Let us put the word of the
+Buddhas into _chandas_[617]." No doubt Sanskrit verse is meant,
+_chandas_ being a name applied to the language of the Vedic verses.
+Gotama refused: "You are not to put the word of the Buddhas into
+_chandas_. Whoever does so shall be guilty of an offence. I allow you to
+learn the word of the Buddhas each in his own dialect." Subsequent
+generations forgot this prohibition, but it probably has a historical
+basis and it indicates the Buddha's desire to make his teaching popular.
+It is not likely that he contemplated the composition of a body of
+scriptures. He would have been afraid that it might resemble the hymns
+of the Brahmans which he valued so little and he wished all men to hear
+his teaching in the language they understood best. But when after his
+death his disciples collected his sayings it was natural that they
+should make at least one version of them in the dialect most widely
+spoken and that this version should be gradually elaborated in what was
+considered the best literary form of that dialect[618]. It is probable
+that the text underwent several linguistic revisions before it reached
+its present state.
+
+Pali is a sonorous and harmonious language which avoids combinations of
+consonants and several difficult sounds found in Sanskrit. Its
+excellence lies chiefly in its vocabulary and its weakness in its
+syntax. Its inflexions are heavy and monotonous and the sentences lack
+concentration and variety. Compound words do not assume such monstrous
+proportions as in later Sanskrit, but there is the same tendency to make
+the process of composition do duty for syntax. These faults have been
+intensified by the fact that the language has been used chiefly for
+theological discussion. The vocabulary on the other hand is copious and
+for special purposes admirable. The translator has to struggle
+continually with the difficulty of finding equivalents for words which,
+though apparently synonymous, really involve nice distinctions and much
+misunderstanding has arisen from the impossibility of adequately
+rendering philosophical terms, which, though their European equivalents
+sound vague, have themselves a precise significance. On the other hand
+some words (e.g. _dhamma_ and _attho_) show an inconveniently wide range
+of meaning. But the force of the language is best seen in its power of
+gathering up in a single word, generally a short compound, an idea which
+though possessing a real unity requires in European languages a whole
+phrase for its expression. Thus the Buddha bids his disciples be
+_attadīpā atta-saranā, anańńa-saranā: dhammadīpā dhammasaranā_[619]. "Be
+ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge unto yourselves. Betake
+yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Hold
+fast to the truth as a refuge." This is Rhys Davids' translation and
+excellent both as English and as giving the meaning. But the five Pali
+words compel attention and inscribe themselves on the memory in virtue
+of a monumental simplicity which the five English sentences do not
+possess.
+
+But the feature in the Pali scriptures which is most prominent and most
+tiresome to the unsympathetic reader is the repetition of words,
+sentences and whole paragraphs. This is partly the result of grammar or
+at least of style. The simplicity of Pali syntax and the small use made
+of dependent sentences, lead to the regular alignment of similar phrases
+side by side like boards in a floor. When anything is predicated of
+several subjects, for instance the five Skandhas, it is rare to find a
+single sentence containing a combined statement. As a rule what has to
+be said is predicated first of the first Skandha and then repeated
+_totidem verbis_ of the others. But there is another cause for this
+tedious peculiarity, namely that for a long period the Pitakas were
+handed down by oral tradition only. They were first reduced to writing
+in Ceylon about 20 B.C. in the reign of Vattagāmani, more than a century
+and a half after their first importation in an oral form. This
+circumstance need not throw doubt on the authenticity of the text, for
+the whole ancient literature of India, prose as well as verse, was
+handed down by word of mouth and even in the present day most of it
+could be recovered if all manuscripts and books were lost. The Buddhists
+did not, like the Brahmans, make minute regulations for preserving and
+memorizing their sacred texts, and in the early ages of the faith were
+impressed with the idea that their teaching was not a charm to be learnt
+by heart but something to be understood and practised. They nevertheless
+endeavoured, and probably with success, to learn by heart the words of
+the Buddha, converting them into the dialect most widely understood. It
+was then a common thing (and the phenomenon may still be seen in India)
+for a man of learning to commit to memory a whole Veda together with
+subsidiary treatises on ritual, metre, grammar and genealogy. For such
+memories it was not difficult to retain the principal points in a series
+of sermons. The Buddha had preached day by day for about forty-five
+years. Though he sometimes spoke with reference to special events he no
+doubt had a set of discourses which he regularly repeated. There was the
+less objection to such repetition because he was continually moving
+about and addressing new audiences. There were trained Brahman students
+among his disciples, and at his death many persons, probably hundreds,
+must have had by heart summaries of his principal sermons.
+
+But a sermon is less easy to remember than a poem or matter arranged by
+some method of _memoria technica_. An obvious aid to recollection is to
+divide the discourse into numbered heads and attach to each certain
+striking phrases. If the phrases can be made to recur, so much the
+better, for there is a guarantee of correctness when an expected formula
+appears at appropriate points.
+
+It may be too that the wearisome and mechanical iteration of the Pali
+Canon is partly due to the desire of the Sinhalese to lose nothing of
+the sacred word imparted to them by missionaries from a foreign country,
+for repetition to this extent is not characteristic of Indian
+compositions. It is less noticeable in Sanskrit Buddhist sūtras than in
+the Pali but is very marked in Jain literature. A moderate use of it is
+a feature of the Upanishads. In these we find recurring formulę and also
+successive phrases constructed on one plan and varying only in a few
+words[620].
+
+But still I suspect that repetition characterized not only the reports
+of the discourses but the discourses themselves. No doubt the versions
+which we have are the result of compressing a free discourse into
+numbered paragraphs and repetitions: the living word of the Buddha was
+surely more vivacious and plastic than these stiff tabulations. But the
+peculiarities of scholars can often be traced to the master and the
+Buddha had much the same need of mnemonics as his hearers. For he had
+excogitated complicated doctrines and he imparted them without the aid
+of notes and though his natural wit enabled him to adapt his words to
+the capacity of his hearers and to meet argument, still his wish was to
+formulate a consistent statement of his thoughts. In the earliest
+discourse ascribed to him, the sermon at Benares, we see these habits of
+numbering and repetition already fully developed. The next discourse, on
+the absence of a soul, consists in enumerating the five words, form,
+sensation, perception, sankhāras, and consciousness three times, and
+applying to each of them consecutively three statements or arguments,
+the whole concluding with a phrase which is used as a finale in many
+other places. Artificial as this arrangement sounds when analyzed, it is
+a natural procedure for one who wished to impress on his hearers a
+series of philosophic propositions without the aid of writing, and I can
+imagine that these rhythmical formulę uttered in that grave and pleasant
+voice which the Buddha is said to have possessed, seemed to the
+leisurely yet eager groups who sat round him under some wayside banyan
+or in the monastery park, to be not tedious iteration but a gradual
+revelation of truth growing clearer with each repetition.
+
+We gather from the Pitakas that writing was well known in the Buddha's
+time[621]. But though it was used for inscriptions, accounts and even
+letters, it was not used for books, partly because the Brahmans were
+prejudiced against it, and partly because no suitable material for
+inditing long compositions had been discovered. There were religious
+objections to parchment and leaves were not employed till later. The
+minute account of monastic life given in the Vinaya makes it certain
+that the monks did not use writing for religious purposes. Equally
+conclusive, though also negative, is the fact that in the accounts of
+the assemblies at Rājagaha and Vesālī[622] when there is a dispute as to
+the correct ruling on a point, there is no appeal to writing but merely
+to the memory of the oldest and most authoritative monks. In the Vinaya
+we hear of people who know special books: of monks who are preachers of
+the Dhamma and others who know the Sutta: of laymen who have learnt a
+particular suttanta and are afraid it will fall into oblivion unless
+others learn it from them. Apprehensions are expressed that suttas will
+be lost if monks neglect to learn them by heart[623]. From inscriptions
+of the third century B.C.[624] are quoted words like Petakī, a reciter
+of the Pitakas or perhaps of one Pitaka: Suttāntika and Suttāntakinī, a
+man or woman who recites the suttantas: Pancanekāyika, one who recites
+the five Nikāyas. All this shows that from the early days of Buddhism
+onwards a succession of persons made it their business to learn and
+recite the doctrine and disciplinary rules and, considering the
+retentiveness of trained memories, we have no reason to doubt that the
+doctrine and rules have been preserved without much loss[625].
+
+Not, however, without additions. The disadvantage of oral tradition is
+not that it forgets but that it proceeds snowball fashion, adding with
+every generation new edifying matter. The text of the Vedic hymns was
+preserved with such jealous care that every verse and syllable was
+counted. But in works of lesser sanctity interpolations and additions
+were made according to the reciters' taste. We cannot assign to the
+Mahābhārata one date or author, and the title of Upanishad is no
+guarantee for the age or authenticity of the treatises that bear it.
+Already in the Anguttara-Nikāya[626], we hear of tables of contents and
+the expression is important, for though we cannot give any more precise
+explanation of it, it shows that care was taken to check the contents of
+the works accepted as scripture. But still there is little doubt that
+during the two or three centuries following the Buddha's death, there
+went on a process not only of collection and recension but also of
+composition.
+
+An account of the formation of the canon is given in the last two
+chapters of the Cullavagga[627]. After the death of the Buddha his
+disciples met to decide what should be regarded as the correct doctrine
+and discipline. The only way to do that was to agree what had been the
+utterances of the master and this, in a country where the oral
+transmission of teaching was so well understood, amounted to laying the
+foundations of a canon. Kassapa cross-examined experts as to the
+Buddha's precepts. For the rules of discipline Upāli was the chief
+authority and we read how he was asked where such and such a rule--for
+instance, the commandment against stealing--was promulgated.
+
+"At Rājagaha, sir."
+
+"Concerning whom was it spoken?"
+
+"Dhaniya, the potter's son."
+
+"In regard to what matter?"
+
+"The taking of that which had not been given."
+
+For collecting the suttas they relied on the testimony of Ānanda and
+asked him where the Brahmajāla[628] was spoken. He replied "between
+Rājagaha and Nālanda at the royal rest-house at Ambalatthika."
+"Concerning whom was it spoken?" "Suppiya, the wandering ascetic and
+Brahmadatta the young Brahman."
+
+Then follows a similar account of the Sāmańńaphala sutta and we are told
+that Ānanda was "questioned through the five Nikāyas." That is no doubt
+an exaggeration as applied to the time immediately after the Buddha's
+death, but it is evidence that five Nikāyas were in existence when this
+chapter was written[629].
+
+
+3
+
+Lines of growth are clearly discernible in the Vinaya and Sutta Pitakas.
+As already mentioned, the Khuddaka-Nikāya is, as a collection, later
+than the others although separate books of it, such as the Sutta-nipāta
+(especially the fourth and fifth books), are among the earliest
+documents which we possess. But other books such as the Peta-[630] and
+Vimāna-vatthu show a distinct difference in tone and are probably
+separated from the Buddha by several centuries. Of the other four
+Nikāyas the Samyutta and Anguttara are the more modern and the Anguttara
+mentions Munda, King of Magadha who began to reign about forty years
+after the Buddha's death. But even in the two older collections, the
+Dīgha and the Majjhima, we have not reached the lowest stratum. The
+first thirteen suttantas of the Dīgha all contain a very ancient
+tractate on morality, and the Sāmańńaphala and following sections of the
+Dīgha and also some suttas of the Majjhima contain either in whole or in
+part a treatise on progress in the holy life. These treatises were
+probably current as separate portions for recitation before the suttas
+in which they are now set were composed.
+
+Similarly, the Vinaya clearly presupposes an old code in the form of a
+list of offences called the Pātimokkha. The Mahāvagga contains a portion
+of an ancient word-for-word explanation of this code[631] and most of
+the Sutta-vibhanga is an amplification and exposition of it. The
+Pātimokkha was already in existence when these books were composed, for
+we hear[632] that if in a company of Bhikkhus no one knows the
+Pātimokkha, one of the younger brethren should be sent to some better
+instructed monastery to learn it. And further we hear[633] that a
+learned Bhikkhu was expected to know not merely the precepts of the
+Pātimokkha but also the occasion when each was formulated. The place,
+the circumstances and the people concerned had been in each case handed
+down. There is here all the material for a narrative. The reciter of a
+sutta simply adopts the style of a village story-teller. "Thus have I
+heard. Once upon a time the Lord was dwelling at Rājagaha," or wherever
+it was, and such and such people came to see him. And then, after a more
+or less dramatic introduction, comes the Lord's discourse and at the end
+an epilogue saying how the hearers were edified and, if previously
+unconverted, took refuge in the true doctrine.
+
+The Cullavagga states that the Vinaya (but not the other Pitakas) was
+recited and verified at the Council of Vesālī. As I have mentioned
+elsewhere, Sinhalese and Chinese accounts speak of another Council, the
+Mahāsangha or Mahāsangīti. Though its date is uncertain, there is a
+consensus of tradition to the effect that it recognized a canon of its
+own, different from our Pali Canon and containing a larger amount of
+popular matter.
+
+Sinhalese tradition states that the canon as we now have it was fixed at
+the third Council held at Pataliputra in the reign of Asoka (about
+272-232 B.C.). The most precise statements about this Council are those
+of Buddhaghosa who says that an assembly of monks who knew the three
+Pitakas by heart recited the Vinaya and the Dhamma.
+
+But the most important and interesting evidence as to the existence of
+Buddhist scriptures in the third century B.C. is afforded by the Bhābrū
+(or Bhābrā) edict of Asoka. He recommends the clergy to study seven
+passages, of which nearly all can be identified in our present edition
+of the Pitakas[634]. This edict does not prove that Asoka had before him
+in the form which we know the Dīgha and other works cited. But the most
+cautious logic must admit that there was a collection of the Buddha's
+sayings to which he could appeal and that if most of his references to
+this collection can be identified in our Pitakas, then the major part of
+these Pitakas is probably identical in substance (not necessarily
+verbally) with the collection of sayings known to Asoka.
+
+Neither Asoka nor the author of the Kathā-vatthu cites books by name.
+The latter for instance quotes the well-known lines "anupubbena medhavi"
+not as coming from the Dhammapada but as "spoken by the Lord." But the
+author of the Questions of Milinda, who knew the canonical books by the
+names they bear now, also often adopts a similar method of citation.
+Although this author's probable date is not earlier than our era his
+evidence is important. He mentions all five Nikāyas by name, the titles
+of many suttas and also the Vibhanga, Dhātu-kathā, Puggala-Pańńatti,
+Kathā-vatthu, Yamaka and Patthāna.
+
+Everything indicates and nothing discredits the conclusion that this
+canon of the Vibhajjavādins was substantially fixed in the time of
+Asoka, so far as the Vinaya and Sutta Pitakas are concerned. Some works
+of minor importance may have had an uncertain position and subsequent
+revisions may have been made but the principal scriptures were already
+recognized and contained passages which occur in our versions. On the
+other hand this recension of the scriptures was not the only one in
+existence. If the patronage of Asoka gave it a special prestige in his
+lifetime, it may have lost it in India after his death and for many
+centuries the Buddhist Canon, like the list of the Upanishads, must have
+been susceptible of alteration. The Sarvāstivādins compiled an
+Abhidhamma Pitaka of their own, apparently in the time of Kanishka, and
+the Dharmagupta school also seems to have had its own version of this
+Pitaka[635]. The date of the Pali Abhidhamma is very doubtful and I do
+not reject the hypothesis that it was composed in Ceylon, for the
+Sinhalese seem to have a special taste for such literature. But there is
+no proof of this Sinhalese origin.
+
+According to Sinhalese tradition all three Pitakas were introduced into
+Ceylon by Mahinda in the reign of Asoka, but only as oral tradition and
+not in a written form. They received this latter about 20 B.C., as the
+result of a dispute between two monasteries[636]. The controversy is
+obscure but it appears that the ancient foundation called Mahāvihāra
+accepted as canonical the fifth book of the Vinaya called Parivāra,
+whereas it was rejected by the new monastery called Abhayagiri. The
+Sinhalese chronicle (Mahāvamsa XXXIII. 100-104) says somewhat abruptly
+"The wise monks had hitherto handed down the text of the three Pitakas
+(Pitakattayapālim) as well as the commentary by word of mouth. But
+seeing that mankind was becoming lost, they assembled together and wrote
+them in books in order that the faith might long endure." This brief
+account seems to mean that a council was held not by the whole clergy of
+Ceylon but by the monks of the Mahāvihāra at which they committed to
+writing their own version of the canon including the Parivāra. This book
+forms an appendix to the Vinaya Pitaka and in some verses printed at the
+conclusion is said to be the work of one Dīpa. It is generally accepted
+as a relatively late production, composed in Ceylon. If such a work was
+included in the canon of the Mahāvihāra, we must admit the possibility
+that other portions of it may be Sinhalese and not Indian.
+
+But still the _onus probandi_ lies with those who maintain the Sinhalese
+origin of any part of the Pali Canon and two strong arguments support
+the Indian origin of the major part. First, many suttas not only show an
+intimate knowledge of ancient Indian customs but discuss topics such as
+caste, sacrifice, ancient heresies, and the value of the Veda which
+would be of no interest to Sinhalese. Secondly, there is no Sinhalese
+local colour and no Sinhalese legends have been introduced. Contrast
+with this the Dīpa-and Mahā-vamsa both of which open with accounts of
+mythical visits paid by the Buddha to Ceylon[637].
+
+In Ceylon versions of the scriptures other than that of the Mahāvihāra
+were current until the twelfth century when uniformity was enforced by
+Parākrama Bāhu. Some of these, for instance the Pitaka of the
+Vetulyakas, were decidedly heretical according to the standard of local
+orthodoxy but others probably presented variations of reading and
+arrangement rather than of doctrine. Anesaki[638] has compared with the
+received Pali text a portion of the Samyuktāgama translated by
+Gunabhadra into Chinese. He thinks that the original was the text used
+by the Abhayagiri monastery and brought to China by Fa Hsien.
+
+The Sinhalese ecclesiastical history, Nikāya-Sangrahawa, relates[639]
+that 235 years after the Buddha's death nine heretical fraternities were
+formed who proceeded to compose scriptures of their own such as the
+Varnapitaka and Angulimāla-Pitaka. Though this treatise is late (_c_.
+1400 A.D.) its statements merit attention as showing that even in
+orthodox Ceylon tradition regarded the authorized Pitaka as one of
+several versions. But many of the works mentioned sound like late
+tantric texts rather than compositions of the early heretics to whom
+they are attributed.
+
+Ecclesiastical opinion in Ceylon after centuries of discussion ended by
+accepting the edition of the Mahāvihāra as the best, and we have no
+grounds for rejecting or suspecting this opinion. According to tradition
+Buddhaghosa was well versed in Sanskrit but deliberately preferred the
+southern canon. The Mahayanist doctor Asanga cites texts found in the
+Pali version, but not in the Sanskrit[640]. The monks of the Mahāvihāra
+were probably too indulgent in admitting late scholastic treatises, such
+as the Parivāra. On the other hand they often showed a critical instinct
+in rejecting legendary matter. Thus the Sanskrit Vinayas contain many
+more miraculous narratives than the Pali Vinaya.
+
+
+4
+
+European critics have rarely occasion to discuss the credibility of
+Sanskrit literature, for most of it is so poetic or so speculative that
+no such question arises. But the Pitakas raise this question as directly
+as the Gospels, for they give the portrait of a man and the story of a
+life, in which an overgrowth of the miraculous has not hidden or
+destroyed the human substratum. How far can we accept them as a true
+picture of what Gotama was and taught?
+
+Their credibility must be judged by the standard of Indian oral
+tradition. Its greatest fault comes from that deficiency in historic
+sense which we have repeatedly noticed. Hindu chroniclers ignore
+important events and what they record drifts by in a haze in which
+proportion, connection, and dates are lost. They frequently raise a
+structure of fiction on a slight basis of fact or on no basis at all.
+But the fiction is generally so obvious that the danger of historians in
+the past has been not to be misled by it but to ignore the elements of
+truth which it may contain. For the Hindus have a good verbal memory;
+their genealogies, lists of kings and places generally prove to be
+correct and they have a passion for catalogues of names. Also they take
+a real interest in describing doctrine. If the Buddha has been
+misrepresented, it is not for want of acumen or power of transmitting
+abstruse ideas. The danger rather is that he who takes an interest in
+theology is prone to interpret a master's teaching in the light of his
+own pet views.
+
+The Pitakas illustrate the strong and weak points of Hindu tradition.
+The feebleness of the historical sense may be seen in the account of
+Devadatta's doings in the Cullavagga[641] where the compiler seems
+unable to give a clear account of what he must have regarded as
+momentous incidents. Yet the same treatise is copious and lucid in
+dealing with monastic rules, and the sayings recorded have an air of
+authenticity. In the suttas the strong side of Hindu memory is brought
+into play. Of consecutive history there is no question. We have only an
+introduction giving the names of some characters and localities followed
+by a discourse. We know from the Vinaya that the monks were expected to
+exercise themselves in remembering these things, and they are precisely
+the things that they would get rightly by heart. I see no reason to
+doubt that such discourses as the sermon preached at Benares[642] and
+the recurring passages in the first book of the Dīgha-Nikāya are a Pali
+version of what was accepted as the words of the Buddha soon after his
+death. And the change of dialect is not of great importance. Asoka's
+Bhābrū Edict contains the saying: _Thus the good law shall long endure_,
+which is believed to be a quotation and certainly corresponds pretty
+closely with a passage in the Anguttara-Nikāya[643]. The King's version
+is _Saddhamma cilathitike hasati_: the Pali is _Saddhammo cīratthitiko
+hoti_. Somewhat similar may have been the differences between the
+Buddha's speech and the text which we possess. The importance of the
+change in language is diminished and the facility of transmission is
+increased by the fact that in Pali, Sanskrit and kindred Indian
+languages ideas are concentrated in single words rather than spread over
+sentences. Thus the principal words of the sermon at Benares give its
+purport with perfect clearness, if they are taken as a mere list without
+grammatical connection. Similarly I should imagine that the recurring
+paragraphs about progress in the holy life found in the early Suttas of
+the Dīgha-Nikāya are an echo of the Buddha's own words, for they bear an
+impress not only of antiquity but of eloquence and elevation. This does
+not mean that we have any sermon in the exact form in which Gotama
+uttered it. Such documents as the Sāmańńaphala-sutta and Ambattha-sutta
+probably give a good idea of his method and style in consecutive
+discourse and argument. But it would not be safe to regard them as more
+than the work of compilers who were acquainted with the surroundings in
+which he lived, the phrases he used, and the names and business of those
+who conversed with him. With these they made a picture of a day in his
+life, culminating in a sermon[644].
+
+Like the historical value of the Pitakas, their literary value can be
+justly estimated only if we remember that they are not books in our
+sense but treatises handed down by memory and that their form is
+determined primarily by the convenience of the memory. We must not
+compare them with Plato and find them wanting, for often, especially in
+the Abhidhamma, there is no intention of producing a work of art, but
+merely of subdividing a subject and supplying explanations. Frequently
+the exposition is thrown into the form of a catechism with questions and
+answers arranged so as to correspond to numbered categories. Thus a
+topic may be divided into twenty heads and six propositions may be
+applied to each with positive or negative results. The strong point of
+these Abhidhamma works---and of Buddhist philosophy generally--lies in
+careful division and acute analysis but the power of definition is weak.
+Rarely is a definition more than a collection of synonyms and very often
+the word to be defined is repeated in the definition. Thus in the
+Dhamma-sangani the questions, what are good or bad states of mind?
+receive answers cast in the form: when a good or bad thought has arisen
+with certain accompaniments enumerated at length, then these are the
+states that are good or bad. No definition of good is given.
+
+This mnemonic literature attains its highest excellence in poetry. The
+art of composing short poems in which a thought, emotion or spiritual
+experience is expressed with a few simple but pregnant words in the
+compass of a single couplet or short hymn, was carried by the early
+Buddhists to a perfection which has never been excelled. The
+Dhammapada[645] is the best known specimen of this literature. Being an
+anthology it is naturally more suited for quotation or recitation in
+sections than for continuous reading. But its twenty-five chapters are
+consecrated each to some special topic which receives fairly consecutive
+treatment, though each chapter is a mosaic of short poems consisting of
+one or more verses supposed to have been uttered by the Buddha or by
+arhats on various occasions. The whole work combines literary beauty,
+depth of thought and human feeling in a rare degree. Not only is it
+irradiated with the calm light of peace, faith and happiness but it
+glows with sympathy, with the desire to do good and help those who are
+struggling in the mire of passion and delusion. For this reason it has
+found more favour with European readers than the detached and
+philosophic texts which simply preach self-conquest and aloofness.
+Inferior in beauty but probably older is the Sutta-nipāta, a collection
+of short discourses or conversations with the Buddha mostly in verse.
+The rugged and popular language of these stanzas which reject
+speculation as much as luxury, takes us back to the life of the
+wanderers who followed the Buddha on his tours and we may imagine that
+poems like the Dhaniya sutta would be recited when they met together in
+a rest-house or grove set apart for their use on the outskirts of a
+village.
+
+The Buddhist suttas, are interesting as being a special result of
+Gotama's activity; they are not analogous to the Brahmanic works called
+sūtras, and they have no close parallel in later Indian literature.
+There is little personal background in the Upanishads, none at all in
+the Sānkhya and Vedānta sūtras. But the Sutta Pitaka is an attempt to
+delineate a personality as well as to record a doctrine. Though the idea
+of writing biography has not yet been clearly conceived, yet almost
+every discourse brings before us the figure of the Lord: though the
+doctrine can be detached from the preacher, yet one feels that the
+hearers of the Pitaka hungered not merely for a knowledge of the four
+truths but for the very words of the great voice: did he really say
+this, and if so when, where and why? Most suttas begin by answering
+these questions. They describe a scene and report a discourse and in so
+doing they create a type of literature with an interest and
+individuality of its own. It is no exaggeration to say that the Buddha
+is the most living figure in Hindu literature. He stands before us more
+distinctly not only than Yājńavalkya and Sankara, but than modern
+teachers like Nanak and Rāmānuja and the reason of this distinctness can
+I think be nothing but the personal impression which he made on his age.
+The later Buddhists compose nothing in the style of the Nikāyas: they
+write about Gotama in new and fanciful ways, but no Acts of the Apostles
+succeed the Gospels.
+
+Though the Buddhist suttas are _sui generis_ and mark a new epoch in
+Indian literature, yet in style they are a natural development of the
+Upanishads. The Upanishads are less dogmatic and show much less interest
+in the personality of their sages, but they contain dialogues closely
+analogous to suttas. Thus about half of the Brihad-Āranyaka is a
+philosophic treatise unconnected with any particular name, but in this
+are set five dialogues in which Yājńavalkya appears and two others in
+which Ajātasatru and Pravāhana Jaivali are the protagonists.
+
+Though many suttas are little more than an exposition of some doctrine
+arranged in mnemonic form, others show eloquence and dramatic skill.
+Thus the Sāmańńaphala-sutta opens with a vivid description of the visit
+paid one night by Ajātasattu to the Buddha[646]. We see the royal
+procession of elephants and share the alarm of the suspicious king at
+the unearthly stillness of the monastery park, until he saw the Buddha
+sitting in a lighted pavilion surrounded by an assembly of twelve
+hundred and fifty brethren, calm and silent as a clear lake. The king's
+long account of his fruitless quest for truth would be tiresome if it
+were not of such great historic interest and the same may be said of the
+Buddha's enumeration of superstitious and reprehensible practices, but
+from this point onwards his discourse is a magnificent crescendo of
+thought and language, never halting and illustrated by metaphors of
+great effect and beauty. Equally forcible and surely resting on some
+tradition of the Buddha's own words is the solemn fervour which often
+marks the suttas of the Majjhima such as the descriptions of his
+struggle for truth, the admonitions to Rāhula and the reproof
+administered to Sāti.
+
+
+5
+
+As mentioned above, our Pali Canon is the recension of the
+Vibhajjavādins. We know from the records of the Chinese pilgrims that
+other schools also had recensions of their own, and several of these
+recensions--such as those of the Sarvāstivādins, Mahāsanghikas,
+Mahisāsakas, Dhammaguttikas, and Sammitīyas--are still partly extant in
+Chinese and Tibetan translations. These appear to have been made from
+the Sanskrit and fragments of what was probably the original have been
+preserved in Central Asia. A recension of the text in Sanskrit probably
+implies less than what we understand by a translation. It may mean that
+texts handed down in some Indian dialect which was neither Sanskrit nor
+Pali were rewritten with Sanskrit orthography and inflexions while
+preserving much of the original vocabulary. The Buddha allowed all men
+to learn his teaching in their own language, and different schools are
+said to have written the scriptures in different dialects, e.g. the
+Mahāsanghikas in a kind of Prakrit not further specified and the
+Mahāsammatīyas in Apabhramsa. When Sanskrit became the recognized
+vehicle for literary composition there would naturally be in India
+(though not in Ceylon) a tendency to rewrite books composed in other
+dialects[647]. The idea that when any important matter is committed to
+writing it should be expressed in a literary dialect not too
+intelligible to the vulgar is prevalent from Morocco to China. The
+language of Bengal illustrates what may have happened to the Buddhist
+scriptures. It is said that at the beginning of the nineteenth century
+ninety per cent, of the vocabulary of Bengali was Sanskrit, and the
+grammatical construction sanskritized as well. Though the literary
+language now-a-days is less artificial, it still differs widely from the
+vernacular. Similarly the spoken word of the Buddha was forced into
+conformity with one literary standard or another and ecclesiastical Pali
+became as artificial as Sanskrit. The same incidents may be found worked
+up in both languages. Thus the Sanskrit version of the story of Pūrnā in
+the Divyāva-dāna repeats what is found in Pali in the
+Samyutta-Nikāya[648] and reappears in Sanskrit in the Vinaya of the
+Mūlasarvāstivādin school.
+
+The Chinese Tripitaka has been catalogued and we possess some
+information respecting the books which it contains, though none of them
+have been edited in Europe. Thus we know something[649] of the
+Sarvāstivādin recension of the Abhidhamma. Like the Pali version it
+consists of seven books of which one, the Jńāna-prasthāna by
+Kātyāyanīputra, is regarded as the principal, the rest being
+supplementary. All the books are attributed to human authors, and though
+some of these bear the names of the Buddha's immediate disciples,
+tradition connects Kātyāyanīputra with Kanishka's council. This is not a
+very certain date, but still the inference is that about the time of the
+Christian era the contents of the Abhidhamma-Pitaka were not rigidly
+defined and a new recension was possible.
+
+The Sanskrit manuscripts discovered in Central Asia include Sūtras from
+the Samyukta and Ekottara Āgamas (equivalent to the Samyutta and
+Anguttara Nikāyas), a considerable part of the Dharmapada, fragments of
+the Sutta-Nipāta and the Prātimoksha of the Sarvāstivādin school. These
+correspond fairly well with the Pali text but represent another
+recension and a somewhat different arrangement. We have therefore here
+fragments of a Sanskrit version which must have been imported to Central
+Asia from northern India and covers, so far as the fragments permit us
+to judge, the same ground as the Vinaya and Suttas of the Pali Canon.
+Far from displaying the diffuse and inflated style which characterizes
+the Mahāyāna texts it is sometimes shorter and simpler than our Pali
+version[650].
+
+When was this version composed and what is its relation to the Pali? A
+definite reply would be premature, for other Sanskrit texts may be
+discovered in Central Asia, but two circumstances connect this early
+Buddhist literature in Sanskrit with the epoch of Kanishka. Firstly the
+Sanskrit Abhidharma of the Sarvāstivādins seems to date from his council
+and secondly a Buddhist drama by Asvaghosha[651] of about the same time
+represents the Buddha as speaking in Sanskrit whereas the inferior
+characters speak Prakrit. But these facts do not prove that Sanskrit was
+not the language of the canon at an earlier date[652] and it is not safe
+to conclude that because Asoka did not employ it for writing edicts it
+was not the sacred language of any section of Indian Buddhists. On the
+other hand some of the Sanskrit texts contain indications that they are
+a translation from Pali or some vernacular[653]. In others are found
+historical allusions which suggest that they must have received
+additions after our era[654].
+
+I have already raised the question of the relative value attaching to
+Pali and Sanskrit texts as authorities for early history. Two instances
+will perhaps illustrate this better than a general discussion. As
+already mentioned, the Vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādins makes the Buddha
+visit north-western India and Kashmir, whereas the Pali texts do not
+represent him as travelling further west than the country of the Kurus.
+The Sanskrit account is not known to be confirmed by more ancient
+evidence, but there is nothing impossible in it, particularly as there
+are periods in the Buddha's long life filled by no incidents. The
+narrative however contains a prediction about Kanishka and therefore
+cannot be earlier than his reign. Now there is no reason why the Pali
+texts should be silent about this journey, if the Buddha really made it,
+but one can easily imagine reasons for inventing it in the period of the
+Kushan kings. North-western India was then full of monasteries and
+sacred sites and the same spirit which makes uncritical Buddhists in
+Ceylon and Siam assert to-day that the master visited their country
+impelled the monks of Peshawar and Kashmir to imagine a not improbable
+extension of his wanderings[655].
+
+On the other hand this same Vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādins probably
+gives us a fragment of history when it tells us that the Buddha had
+three wives, perhaps too when it relates how Rāhula's paternity was
+called in question and how Devadatta wanted to marry Yasodharā after the
+Buddha had abandoned worldly life[656]. The Pali Vinaya and also some
+Sanskrit Vinayas[657] mention only one wife or none at all. They do not
+attempt to describe Gotama's domestic life and if they make no allusion
+to it except to mention the mother of Rāhula, this is not equivalent to
+an assertion that he had no other wife. But when one Vinaya composed in
+the north of India essays to give a biography of the Buddha and states
+that he had three wives, there is no reason for doubting that the
+compiler was in touch with good local tradition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+MEDITATION
+
+
+Indian religions lay stress on meditation. It is not merely commended as
+a useful exercise but by common consent it takes rank with sacrifice and
+prayer, or above them, as one of the great activities of the religious
+life, or even as its only true activity. It has the full approval of
+philosophy as well as of theology. In early Buddhism it takes the place
+of prayer and worship and though in later times ceremonies multiply, it
+still remains the main occupation of a monk. The Jains differ from the
+Buddhists chiefly in emphasizing the importance of self-mortification,
+which is put on a par with meditation. In Hinduism, as might be expected
+in a fluctuating compound of superstition and philosophy, the schools
+differ as to the relative efficacy of meditation and ceremonial, but
+there is a strong tendency to give meditation the higher place. In all
+ages a common characteristic appears in the most divergent Indian
+creeds--the belief that by a course of mental and physical training the
+soul can attain to a state of bliss which is the prelude to the final
+deliverance attained after death.
+
+
+1
+
+We may begin by examining Brahmanic ideas as to meditation. Many of them
+are connected with the word Yoga, which has become familiar to Europe.
+It has two meanings. It is applied first to a definite form of Indian
+philosophy which is a theistic modification of the Sānkhya and secondly
+to much older practices sanctioned by that philosophy but anterior to
+it.
+
+The idea which inspires these theories and practices is that the
+immaterial soul can by various exercises free itself from the fetters of
+matter. The soul is distinguished from the mind which, though composed
+of the subtlest matter, is still material. This presupposes the duality
+of matter and spirit taught by Jainism and the Sānkhya philosophy, but
+it does not necessarily presuppose the special doctrines of either nor
+do Vedāntists object to the practice of the Yoga. The systematic
+prosecution of mental concentration and the idea that supernatural
+powers can be acquired thereby are very old--certainly older than
+Buddhism. Such methods had at first only a slight philosophic substratum
+and were independent of Sānkhya doctrines, though these, being a
+speculative elaboration of the same fundamental principles, naturally
+commended themselves to those who practised Yoga. The two teachers of
+the Buddha, Ālāra and Uddaka, were Yogis, and held that beatitude or
+emancipation consisted in the attainment of certain trances. Gotama,
+while regarding their doctrine as insufficient, did not reject their
+practices.
+
+Our present Yoga Sūtras are certainly much later than this date. They
+are ascribed to one Patańjali identified by Hindu tradition with the
+author of the Mahābhāshya who lived about 150 B.C. Jacobi[658] however
+is of opinion that they are the work of an entirely different person who
+lived after the rise of the philosophy ascribed to Asanga sometimes
+called Yogācāra. Jacobi's arguments seem to me suggestive rather than
+conclusive but, if they are confirmed, they lead to an interesting
+deduction. There is some reason for thinking that Sankara's doctrine of
+illusion was derived from the Buddhist Sūnyavāda. If Patańjali's sūtras
+are posterior to Asanga, it also seems probable that the codification of
+the Yoga by the Brahmans was connected with the rise of the Yogācāra
+among the Buddhists[659].
+
+The Sūtras describe themselves as an exposition of Yoga, which has here
+the meaning not of union with God, but rather of effort. The opening
+aphorisms state that "Yoga is the suppression of the activities of the
+mind, for then the spectator abides in his own form: at other times
+there is identity of form with the activities." This dark language means
+that the soul in its true nature is merely the spectator of the mind's
+activity, consciousness being due, as in the Sānkhya, to the union of
+the soul with the mind[660] which is its organ. When the mind is active,
+the soul appears to experience various emotions, and it is only when the
+mind ceases to feel emotions and becomes calm in meditation, that the
+soul abides in its own true form. The object of the Yoga, as of the
+Sānkhya, is Kaivalya or isolation, in which the soul ceases to be united
+with the mind and is dissociated from all qualities (gunas) so that the
+shadow of the thinking principle no longer falls upon it. This isolation
+is produced by performing certain exercises, physical as well as mental,
+and, as a prelude to final and complete emancipation, superhuman powers
+are acquired. These two ideas, the efficacy of physical discipline and
+the acquisition of superhuman powers, have powerfully affected all
+schools of religious thought in India, including Buddhism. They are not
+peculiar to the Yoga, but still it is in the Yoga Sūtras that they find
+their most authoritative and methodical exposition.
+
+The practice of Yoga has its roots in the fact that fasting and other
+physical mortifications induce a mental state in which the subject
+thinks that he has supernatural experiences[661]. Among many savage
+tribes, especially in America, such fasts are practised by those who
+desire communication with spirits. In the Yoga philosophy these ideas
+appear in a refined form and offer many parallels to European mysticism.
+The ultimate object is to dissociate the soul from its material
+envelopes but in the means prescribed we can trace two orders of ideas.
+One is to mortify the body and suppress not only appetite and passion
+but also discursive thought: the other is to keep the body in perfect
+health and ease, so that the intelligence and ultimately the soul may be
+untroubled by physical influences. These two ideas are less incongruous
+than they seem. Many examples show that extreme forms of asceticism are
+not unhealthy but rather conducive to long life and the Yoga in
+endeavouring to secure physical well-being does not aim at pleasure but
+at such a purification of the physical part of man that it shall be the
+obedient and unnoticed servant of the other parts. The branch of the
+system which deals with method and discipline is called Kriyā-yoga and
+in later works we also find the expression Hatha-yoga, which is
+specially used to designate mechanical means (such as postures,
+purification, etc.) prescribed for the attainment of various mental
+states. In contrast to it is Rāja-yoga, which signifies ecstasy and the
+method of obtaining it by mental processes. The immediate object of the
+Kriyā-yoga is to destroy the five evils[662], namely ignorance, egoism,
+desire, aversion and love of life: it consists of asceticism,
+recitations and resignation to God, explained as meaning that the
+devotee fasts, repeats mantras and surrenders to God the fruit of all
+his works and, feeling no more concern for them, is at peace. Though the
+Yoga Sūtras are theistic, theism is accessory rather than essential to
+their teaching. They are not a theological treatise but the manual of an
+ancient discipline which recognizes devotional feelings as one means to
+its end. The method would remain almost intact if the part relating to
+the deity were omitted, as in the Sānkhya. God is not for the Yoga
+Sūtras, as he is for many Indian and European mystics, the one reality,
+the whence and whither of the soul and world.
+
+Eight branches of practice[663] are enumerated, namely:--
+
+1. Yama or restraint, that is abstinence from killing, lying, stealing,
+incontinence, and from receiving gifts. It is almost equivalent to the
+five great precepts of Buddhism.
+
+2. Niyama or observance, defined as purification, contentment,
+mortification, recitation and devotion to the Lord.
+
+Purification is treated at great length in the later treatises on
+Hatha-yoga under the name of Shat-karma or sixfold work. It comprises
+not only ordinary ablutions but cleansing of the internal organs by such
+methods as taking in water by the nostrils and discharging it by the
+mouth. The object of these practices which, though they assume queer
+forms, rest on sound therapeutic principles, is to remove adventitious
+matter from the system and to reduce the gross elements of the
+body[664].
+
+3. Āsanam or posture is defined as a continuous and pleasant attitude.
+It is difficult to see how the latter adjective applies to many of the
+postures recommended, for considerable training is necessary to make
+them even tolerable. But the object clearly is to prescribe an attitude
+which can be maintained continuously without creating the distracting
+feeling of physical discomfort and in this matter European and oriental
+limbs feel differently. All the postures contemplated are different ways
+of sitting cross-legged. Later works revel in enumerations of them and
+also recognize others called Mudrā. This word is specially applied to a
+gesture of the hand but is sometimes used in a less restricted sense.
+Thus there is a celebrated Mudra called Khecharī, in which the tongue is
+reversed and pressed into the throat while the sight is directed to a
+point between the eyebrows. This is said to induce the cataleptic trance
+in which Yogis can be buried alive.
+
+4. Prānayama or regulation of the breath. When the Yogi has learnt to
+assume a permanent posture, he accustoms himself to regulate the acts of
+inspiration and expiration so as to prolong the period of quiescence
+between the two. He will thus remove the veils which cover the light
+within him. This practice probably depends on the idea which constantly
+crops up in the Upanishads that the breath is the life and the soul.
+Consequently he who can control and hold his breath keeps his soul at
+home, and is better able to concentrate his mind. Apart from such ideas,
+the fixing of the attention on the rhythmical succession of inspirations
+and expirations conduces to that peaceful and detached frame of mind on
+which most Indian sects set great store. The practice was greatly
+esteemed by the Brahmans, and is also enjoined among the Taoists in
+China and among Buddhists in all countries, but I have found no mention
+of its use among European mystics.
+
+5. Pratyāhāra, the retraction or withdrawing of the senses. They are
+naturally directed outwards towards their objects. The Yogi endeavours
+to bring them into quiescence by diverting them from those objects and
+directing them inwards. From this, say the Sūtras, comes complete
+subjugation of the senses[665].
+
+6-8. The five kinds of discipline hitherto mentioned constitute the
+physical preparation for meditation comprising in succession _(a)_ a
+morality of renunciation, _(b)_ mortification and purification, _(c)_
+suitable postures, _(d)_ regulation of the breathing, _(e)_ diversion of
+the senses from their external objects. Now comes the intellectual part
+of the process, consisting of three stages called Dhāranā, Dhyāna and
+Samādhi. Dhāranā means fixing the mind on a particular object, either a
+part of the body such as the crown of the head or something external
+such as the sky. Dhyāna[666] is the continuous intellectual state
+arising out of this concentration. It is defined as an even current of
+thought undisturbed by other thoughts. Samādhi is a further stage of
+Dhyāna in which the mind becomes so identified with the thing thought of
+that consciousness of its separate existence ceases. The thinking power
+is merged in the single thought and ultimately a state of trance is
+induced. Several stages are distinguished in this Samādhi. It is divided
+into conscious and unconscious[667] and of the conscious kind there are
+four grades[668], analogous, though not entirely corresponding to the
+four Jhānas of Buddhism. When the feeling of joy passes away and is lost
+in a higher sense of equanimity, there comes the state known by the
+remarkable name of Dharma-megha[669] in which the isolation of the soul
+and its absolute distinctness from matter (which includes what we call
+mind) is realized, and Karma is no more. After the state of Dharma-megha
+comes that of unconscious Samādhi, in which the Yogi falls into a trance
+and attains emancipation which is made permanent by death.
+
+The methods of the Kriyā-yoga can be employed for the attainment not
+only of salvation but of miraculous powers[670]. This subject is
+discussed in the third book of the Yoga Sūtras where it is said that
+such powers are obstructions in the contemplative and spiritual life,
+though they may lead to success in waking or worldly life. This is the
+same point of view as we meet in Buddhism, viz. that though the
+miraculous powers resulting from meditation are real, they are not
+essential to salvation and may become dangerous hindrances[671].
+
+They are attained according to the Yoga Sūtras by the exercise of
+samyama which is the name given conjointly to the three states of
+dhāranā, dhyāna and samādhi when they are applied simultaneously or in
+immediate succession to one object of thought[672]. The reader will
+remember that this state of contemplation is to be preceded by
+pratyāhāra, or direction of the senses inwards, in which ordinary
+external stimuli are not felt. It is analogous to the hypnotic state in
+which suggestions made by the hypnotizer have for the subject the
+character of reality although he is not conscious of his surroundings,
+and auto-suggestions--that is the expectations with which the Yogi begins
+his meditation--apparently have the same effect. The trained Yogi is able
+to exercise samyama with regard to any idea--that is to say his mind
+becomes identified with that idea to the exclusion of all others.
+Sometimes this samyama implies simply a thorough comprehension of the
+object of meditation. Thus by making samyama on the samskāras or
+predispositions existing in the mind, a knowledge of one's previous
+births is obtained; by making samyama on sound, the language of animals
+is understood. But in other cases a result is considered to be obtained
+because the Yogi in his trance thinks it is obtained. Thus if samyama is
+made on the throat, hunger and thirst are subdued; if on the strength of
+an elephant, that strength is obtained: if on the sun, the knowledge of
+all worlds is acquired. Other miraculous attainments are such that they
+should be visible to others, but are probably explicable as subjective
+fancies. Such are the powers of becoming heavy or light, infinitely
+large or infinitely small and of emitting flames. This last phenomenon
+is perhaps akin to the luminous visions, called photisms by
+psychologists, which not infrequently accompany conversion and other
+religious experiences and take the form of flashes or rays proceeding
+from material objects[673]. The Yogi can even become many persons
+instead of one by calling into existence other bodies by an effort of
+his will and animating them all by his own mind[674].
+
+Europeans are unfavourably impressed by the fact that the Yoga devotes
+much time to the cultivation of hypnotic states of doubtful value both
+for morality and sanity. But the meditation which it teaches is also
+akin to aesthetic contemplation, when the mind forgets itself and is
+conscious only of the beauty of what is contemplated. Schopenhauer[675]
+has well expressed the Indian idea in European language. "When some
+sudden cause or inward disposition lifts us out of the endless stream of
+willing, the attention is no longer directed to the motives of willing
+but comprehends things free from their relation to the will and thus
+observes them without subjectivity purely objectively, gives itself
+entirely up to them so far as they are ideas, but not in so far as they
+are motives. Then all at once the peace which we were always seeking,
+but which always fled from us on the former path of the desires, comes
+to us of its own accord and it is well with us." And though the Yoga
+Sūtras represent superhuman faculties as depending chiefly on the
+hypnotic condition of samyama, they also say that they are obtainable--at
+any rate such of them as consist in superhuman knowledge--by pratibhā or
+illumination. By this term is meant a state of enlightenment which
+suddenly floods the mind prepared by the Yoga discipline. It precedes
+emancipation as the morning star precedes the dawn. When this light has
+once come, the Yogi possesses all knowledge without the process of
+samyama. It may be compared to the Dibba-cakkhu or divine eye and the
+knowledge of the truths which according to the Pitakas[676] precede
+arhatship. Similar instances of sudden intellectual enlightenment are
+recorded in the experiences of mystics in other countries. We may
+compare the haplosis or ekstasis of Plotinus and the visions of St
+Theresa or St Ignatius in which such mysteries as the Trinity became
+clear, as well as the raptures in which various Christian mystics[677]
+experienced the feeling of levitation and thought that they were being
+literally carried off their feet.
+
+The practices and theories which are systematized in the Yoga Sūtras are
+known to the Upanishads, particularly those of the Atharva Veda. But
+even the earlier Upanishads allude to the special physical and mental
+discipline necessary to produce concentration of mind. The Maitrāyana
+Upanishad says that the sixfold Yoga consists of restraint of the
+breath, restraint of the senses, meditation, fixed attention,
+investigation, absorption. The Svetāsvatara Upanishad speaks of the
+proper places and postures for meditation, and the Chāndogya[678] of
+concentrating all the senses on the self, a process which is much the
+same as the pratyāhāra of the Yoga.
+
+A later and mysterious but most important method of Yoga is known to the
+Tantras[679] as Shatcakrabheda or piercing of the six cakras. These are
+dynamic or nervous centres distributed through the human body from the
+base of the spinal cord to the eyebrows. In the lowest of them resides
+the Devī Kundalinī, a force identical with Sakti, who is the motive
+power of the universe. In ordinary conditions this Kundalinī is pictured
+as lying asleep and coiled like a serpent. But appropriate exercises
+cause her to awake and ascend until she reaches the highest cakra when
+she unites with Siva and ineffable bliss and emancipation are attained.
+The process, which is said to be painful and even dangerous to health,
+is admittedly unintelligible without oral instruction from a Guru and,
+as I have not had this advantage, I will say no more on the topic except
+this, that strange and fanciful as the descriptions of Shatcakrabheda
+may seem, they can hardly be pure inventions but must have a real
+counterpart in nervous phenomena which apparently have not been studied
+by European physiologists or psychologists[680].
+
+
+2
+
+When we turn to the treatment of meditation and ecstasy in the earlier
+Buddhist writings we are struck by its general resemblance to the
+programme laid down in the Yoga Sūtras, and by many coincidences of
+detail. The exercises, rules of conduct, and the powers to be
+incidentally obtained are all similar. The final goal of both systems
+also seems similar to the outsider, although a Buddhist and a Yogi might
+have much to say about the differences, for the Yoga wishes to isolate a
+soul which is complete and happy in its own nature if it can be
+disentangled from its trammels, whereas Buddhism teaches that there is
+no such soul awaiting release and that religious discipline should
+create and foster good mental states. Just as the atmosphere of the
+Pitakas is not that of the Brāhmanas or Sūtras, so are their ideas about
+Jhāna and Samādhi somewhat different. Though hypnotic and even
+cataleptic phases are not wanting, the journey of the religious life, as
+described in the Pitakas, is a progress of increasing peace, but also of
+increasing intellectual power and activity. Gotama did not hold Jhāna or
+regulated meditation to be essential to nirvana or arhatship, for that
+state was attainable by laymen and apparently through sudden
+illumination. But such cases were the exception. His own mental
+evolution which culminated in enlightenment comprised the four
+Jhānas[681]. Also in the eightfold path which is essential to arhatship
+and nirvana the last and highest stage is sammāsamādhi, right rapture or
+ecstasy.
+
+Jhāna is difficult for laymen, but it was the rule of the order to
+devote at least the afternoon to it. We might compare this with the
+solitary prayer of Christians, and there is real similarity in the
+process and the result. It brought peace and strength to the mind and we
+hear of the bright clear faces and the radiantly happy expression of
+those who returned to their duties after such contemplation. But
+Christian prayer involves the idea of self-surrender and throwing open
+the doors and windows of the soul to an influence which streams into it.
+Buddhist meditation is rather the upsoaring of the mind which rises from
+ecstasy to ecstasy until it attains not some sphere where it can live
+_in_ bliss but a state which is in itself satisfying and all-comprising.
+
+All mental states to which such names as ecstasy, trance, and vision can
+be applied involve a dangerous element which, if not actually
+pathological, can easily become so. But the account of meditation put in
+the Buddha's own mouth does not suggest either morbid dejection or
+hysterical excitement[682] and it is stated expressly that the exercise
+should be begun after the midday meal so that any visions which may come
+cannot be laid to the charge of an empty stomach. Jhāna is not the same
+as Samādhi or concentration, though the Jhānas may be an instance of
+Samādhi. This latter is capable of marvellous extension and development,
+but essentially it is a mental quality like Sammāsati or right
+mindfulness, whereas Jhāna is a mental exercise or progressive rapture
+passing through defined stages.
+
+Any system which analyzes and tabulates stages of contemplation and
+ecstasy may be suspected of being late and of having lost something of
+the glow and impetus which its cold formulę try to explain. But the
+impulse to catalogue is old in Buddhism[683] and one important
+distinction in the various mental states lumped together under the name
+of meditation deserves attention, namely that according to the oldest
+documents some of them are indispensable preliminaries to nirvana and
+some are not. Buddhaghosa reviewing the whole matter in scholastic
+fashion in his Way of Purity divides the higher life into three
+sections, firstly conduct or morality as necessary foundation, secondly
+_adhicitta_, higher consciousness or concentration which leads to
+_samatho_ or peace and thirdly _adhipańńā_ or the higher wisdom which
+leads to _vipassanā_ or insight. Of these _adhipańńā_ and _vipassanā_
+are superior inasmuch as nirvana cannot be obtained without them but the
+methods of _adhicitta_, though admirable and followed by the Buddha
+himself, are not equally indispensable: they lead to peace and happiness
+but not necessarily to nirvana. It is probably unwise (at any rate for
+Europeans) to make too precise statements, for we do not really know the
+nature of the psychical states discussed. _Adhipańńā_ assuredly includes
+the eightfold path ending with _samādhi_ which is defined by the Buddha
+himself in this connection in terms of the four _Jhānas_[684]. On the
+other hand the doctrine that nirvana is attainable merely by practising
+the _Jhānas_ is expressly reprobated as a heresy[685]. The teaching of
+the Pitakas seems to be that nirvana is attainable by living the higher
+life in which meditation and insight both have a place. In normal saints
+both sides are developed: raptures and trances are their delight and
+luxury. But in some cases nirvana may be attained by insight only: in
+others meditation may lead to ecstasy and more than human powers of mind
+but yet stop short of nirvana. The distinction is not without importance
+for it means that knowledge and insight are indispensable for nirvana:
+it cannot be obtained by hypnotic trances or magical powers.
+
+The Buddha is represented as saying that in his boyhood when sitting
+under a tree he once fell into a state of contemplation which he calls
+the first Jhāna. It is akin to a sensation which comes to Europeans most
+frequently in childhood, but sometimes persists in mature life, when the
+mind, usually under the influence of pleasant summer scenery, seems to
+identify itself with nature, and on returning to its normal state asks
+with surprise, can it be that what seems a small distant personality is
+really I? The usual form of Jhāna comprises four stages[686]. The first
+is a state of joy and ease born of detachment, which means physical calm
+as well as the absence of worldly desires and irrelevant thoughts. It is
+distinguished from the subsequent stages by the existence of reasoning
+and investigation, and while it lasts the mind is compared to water
+agitated by waves. In the second Jhāna reasoning and investigation
+cease: the water becomes still and the mind set free rises slowly above
+the thoughts which had encumbered it and grows calm and sure, dwelling
+on high[687]. In this Jhāna the sense of joy and ease remains, but in
+the third stage joy disappears, though ease remains. This ease (sukham)
+is the opposite of dukkham, the discomfort which characterizes all
+ordinary states of existence. It is in part a physical feeling, for the
+text says that he who meditates has this sense of ease in his body. But
+this feeling passes away in the fourth Jhāna, in which there is only a
+sense of equanimity. This word, though perhaps the best rendering which
+can be found for the Pali upekkhā, is inadequate for it suggests merely
+the absence of inclination, whereas upekkhā represents a state of mind
+which, though rising above hedonistic views, is yet positive and not
+merely the negation of interest and desire.
+
+In the passage quoted the Buddha speaks as if only an effort of will
+were needed to enter into the first Jhāna, but tradition, supported by
+the Pitakas[688], sanctions the use of expedients to facilitate the
+process. Some are topics on which attention should be concentrated,
+others are external objects known as Kasina. This word (equivalent to
+the Sanskrit kritsna) means entire or total, and hence something which
+engrosses the attention. Thus in the procedure known as the earth
+Kasina[689] the Bhikkhu who wishes to enter into the Jhāna makes a small
+circle of reddish clay, and then gazes at it fixedly. After a time he
+can see it as plainly when his eyes are closed as when they are
+open[690]. This is followed by entry into Jhāna and he should not
+continue looking at the circle. There are ten kinds of Kasina differing
+from that described merely in substituting for the earthen circle some
+other object, such as water, light, gold or silver. The whole procedure
+is clearly a means of inducing a hypnotic trance[691].
+
+The practice of tranquillizing the mind by regulating the breathing is
+recommended repeatedly in Suttas which seem ancient and authentic; for
+instance, in the instruction given by the Buddha to his son Rāhula[692].
+On the other hand, his account of his fruitless self-mortification shows
+that the exercise even in its extreme forms is not sufficient to secure
+enlightenment. It appears to be a method of collecting and concentrating
+the mind, not necessarily hypnotic. All Indian precepts and directions
+for mental training attach far more importance to concentration of
+thought and the power of applying the mind at will to one subject
+exclusively than is usual in Europe.
+
+Buddhaghosa at the beginning of his discussion of _adhicitta_ enumerates
+forty subjects of meditation namely, "the ten Kasinas, ten impurities,
+ten reflections, four sublime states (Brahmā-vihāra), the four formless
+states, one perception and one analysis[693]." The Kasinas have been
+already described. The ten impurities are a similar means of inducing
+meditation. The monk fixes his attention on a corpse in some horrible
+stage of decay and thus concentrates his mind on the impermanence of all
+things. The ten recollections are a less gloomy exercise but similar in
+principle, as the attention is fixed on some religious subject such as
+the Buddha, his law, his order, etc.
+
+The Brahmā-vihāras[694] are states of emotional meditation which lead to
+rebirth in the heavens of Brahmā. They are attained by letting love or
+some other good emotion dominate the mind, and by "pervading the whole
+world" with it. This language about pervading the world with kindly
+emotion is common in Buddhist books though alien to European idiom. The
+mind must harbour no uncharitable thought and then its benevolence
+becomes a psychic force which spreads in all directions, just as the
+sound of a trumpet can be heard in all four quarters.
+
+These Brahmā-vihāras are sometimes represented as coming after the four
+Jhānas[695], sometimes as replacing them[696]. But the object of the two
+exercises is not the same, for the Brahmā-vihāras aim at rebirth in a
+better world. They are based on the theory common to Buddhism and
+Hinduism that the predominant thoughts of a man's life, and especially
+his thoughts when near death, determine the character of his next
+existence.
+
+The trances known as the four formless states are analogous to the
+Brahmā-vihāras, their object being to ensure rebirth not in the heaven
+of Brahmā but in one of the heavens known as Formless Worlds where the
+inhabitants have no material form[697]. They are sometimes combined with
+other states into a series of eight, known as the eight
+deliverances[698]. The more advanced of these stages seem to be hypnotic
+and even cataleptic. In the first formless state the monk who is
+meditating rises above all idea of form and multiplicity and reaches the
+sphere in which the infinity of space is the only idea present to his
+mind. He then passes to the sphere where the infinity of thought only is
+present and thence to the sphere in which he thinks "nothing at all
+exists[699]," though it would seem that the consciousness of his own
+mental processes is undiminished. The teaching of Alāra Kālāma, the
+Buddha's first teacher, made the attainment of this state its goal. It
+is succeeded by the state in which neither any idea nor the absence of
+any idea is specially present to the mind[700]. This was the goal of
+Uddaka Rāmaputta, his second teacher, and is illustrated by the simile
+of a bowl which has been smeared with oil inside. That is to say,
+consciousness is reduced to a minimum. Beyond these four stages is yet
+another[701], in which a complete cessation of perception and feeling is
+attained[702]. This state differs from death only in the fact that heat
+and physical life are not extinct and while it lasts there is no
+consciousness. It is stated that it could continue during seven days but
+not longer. Such hypnotic trances have always inspired respect in India
+but the Buddha rejected as unsatisfying the teaching of his masters
+which made them the final goal.
+
+But let us return to his account of Jhāna and its results. The first of
+these is a correct knowledge of the body and of the connection of
+consciousness with the body. Next comes the power to call up out of the
+body a mental image which is apparently the earliest form of what has
+become known in later times as the astral body. In the account of the
+conversion of Angulimāla the brigand[703] it is related that the Buddha
+caused to appear an image of himself which Angulimāla could not overtake
+although he ran with all his might and the Buddha was walking quietly.
+
+The five states or faculties which follow in the enumeration are often
+called (though not in the earliest texts) abhińńā, or transcendental
+knowledge. They are _iddhi_, or the wondrous gift: the heavenly ear
+which hears heavenly music[704]: the knowledge of others' thoughts: the
+power of remembering one's own previous births: the divine eye, which
+sees the previous births of others[705]. It would appear that the order
+of these states is not important and that they do not depend on one
+another. Iddhi, like the power of evoking a mental image, seems to be
+connected with hypnotic phenomena. It means literally power, but is used
+in the special sense of magical or supernatural gifts such as ability to
+walk on water, fly in the air, or pass through a wall[706]. Some of
+these sensations are familiar in dreams and are probably easily
+attainable as subjective results in trances. I am inclined to attribute
+accounts implying their objective reality to the practice of hypnotism
+and to suppose that a disciple in a hypnotic state would on the
+assurance of his teacher believe that he saw the teacher himself, or
+some person pointed out by the teacher, actually performing such feats.
+Of iddhi we are told that a monk can practise it, just as a potter can
+make anything he likes out of prepared clay, which is a way of saying
+that he who has his mind perfectly controlled can treat himself to any
+mental pleasure he chooses. Although the Buddha and others are
+represented as performing such feats as floating in the air whenever it
+suits them, yet the instruction given as to how the powers may be
+acquired starts by bidding the neophyte pass through the four stages of
+Jhāna or meditation in which ordinary external perception ceases. Then
+he will be able to have the experiences described. And it is probable
+that the description gives a correct account of the sensations which
+arise in the course of a trance, particularly if the trance has been
+entered upon with the object of experiencing them. In other words they
+are hypnotic states and often the result of suggestion, since he who
+meditates knows what the result of his meditation should be. Sometimes,
+as mentioned, Jhāna is induced by methods familiar to mesmerists, such
+as gazing at a circle or some bright object but such expedients are not
+essential and with this European authorities agree. Thus Bernheim states
+that even when a subject is hypnotized for the first time, no gestures
+or passes are necessary, provided he is calm. It suffices to bid him
+look at the operator and go to sleep. He adds that those who are most
+susceptible to the hypnotic influence are not nervous and hysterical
+subjects but docile and receptive natures who can concentrate their
+attention[707]. Now it is hardly possible to imagine better hypnotic
+subjects than the pupils of an Indian religious teacher. They are taught
+to regard him with deep respect and complete confidence: they are
+continually in a state of expectant receptivity, assimilating not only
+the texts and doctrines which he imparts, but his way of life: their
+training leads them to believe in the reality of mental and physical
+powers exceeding those of ordinary mankind and indeed to think that if
+they do not have such experiences it is through some fault of their own.
+The teachers, though ignorant of hypnotism as such, would not hesitate
+to use any procedure which seemed to favour progress in meditation and
+the acquisition of supernatural powers. Now a large number of Indian
+marvels fall under two heads. In the first case Buddha, Krishna, or any
+personage raised above the ordinary human level points out to his
+disciples that wonders are occurring or will occur: he causes people to
+appear or disappear: he appears himself in an amazing form which he
+explains. In the other case the possessor of marvellous powers has
+experience which he subsequently relates: he goes up to heaven or flies
+to the uttermost parts of the earth and returns. Both of these cases are
+covered by the phenomena of hypnotism. I do not mean to say that any
+given Indian legend can be explained by analyzing it as if it were a
+report of a hypnotic operation, but merely that the general character of
+these legends is largely due to the prevalence of hypnotic experiences
+among their composers and hearers[708]. Two obscure branches of
+hypnotism are probably of great importance in the religious history of
+the human race, namely self-hypnotization without external suggestion
+and the hypnotization of crowds. India affords plentiful materials for
+the study of both.
+
+There is no reason to doubt that the Buddha believed in the existence of
+these powers and countenanced the practices supposed to lead to them.
+Thus Moggallāna, second only to Sāriputta among his disciples, was
+called the master of iddhi[709], and it is mentioned as a creditable and
+enjoyable accomplishment[710]. But it is made equally plain that such
+magical or hypnotic practices are not essential to the attainment of the
+Buddha's ideal. When lists of attainments are given, iddhi does not
+receive the first place and it may be possessed by bad men: Devadatta
+for instance was proficient in it. It is even denounced in the story of
+Pindola Bhāradvāja[711] and in the Kevaddha sutta[712]. In this curious
+dialogue the Buddha is asked to authorize the performance of miracles as
+an advertisement of the true faith. He refuses categorically, saying
+there are three sorts of wonders namely iddhi, that is flying through
+the air, etc. the wonder of manifestation which is thought-reading: and
+the wonder of education. Of the first two he says "I see danger in their
+practice and therefore I loathe, abhor and am ashamed of them." Then by
+one of those characteristic turns of language by which he uses old words
+in new senses he adds that the true miracle is the education of the
+heart.
+
+Neither are the other transcendental powers necessary for emancipation.
+Sāriputta had not the heavenly eye, yet he was the chief disciple and an
+eminent arhat. This heavenly eye (dib-ba-cakkhu) is not the same as the
+eye of truth (dhamma-cakkhu). It means perfect knowledge of the
+operation of Karma and hence a panoramic view of the universe, whereas
+the eye of truth is a technical phrase for the opening of the eyes, the
+mental revolution which accompanies conversion. But though
+transcendental knowledge is not indispensable for attaining nirvana, it
+is an attribute of the Buddha and in most of its forms amounts to an
+exceptional insight into human nature and the laws of the universe,
+which, though after the Indian manner exaggerated and pedantically
+defined, does not differ essentially from what we call genius.
+
+The power of recollecting one's previous births, often mentioned in the
+Pitakas, has been described in detail by Buddhist writers and
+Buddhaghosa[713] distinguishes between the powers possessed by various
+persons. The lowest form of recollection merely passes from one mental
+state to a previous mental state and so on backwards through successive
+lives, not however understanding each life as a whole. But even ordinary
+disciples can not only recollect previous mental states but can also
+travel backwards along the sequence of births and deaths and bring up
+before their minds the succession of existences. A Buddha's intelligence
+dispenses with the necessity of moving backwards from birth to birth but
+can select any point of time and see at once the whole series of births
+extending from it in both directions, backwards and forwards.
+Buddhaghosa then goes on to prescribe the method to be followed by a
+monk who tries for the first time to recollect previous births. After
+taking his midday meal he should choose a quiet place and sitting down
+pass through the four Jhānas in succession. On rising from the fourth
+trance he should consider the event which last took place, namely his
+sitting down; and then in retrograde order all that he did the day and
+night before and so backwards month after month and year after year. A
+clever monk (so says Buddhaghosa) is able at the first trial to pass
+beyond the moment of his conception in the present existence and to take
+as the object of his thought his individuality at the moment of his last
+death. But since the individuality of the previous existence ceased and
+another one came into being, therefore that point of time is like thick
+darkness. Buddhaghosa goes on to explain, if I apprehend his meaning
+rightly, that the proper recollection of previous births involves the
+element of form and the mind sharpened by the practice of the four
+trances does not merely reproduce feelings and impressions but knows the
+name and events of the previous existence, whereas ordinary persons are
+apt to reproduce feelings and impressions without having any clear idea
+of the past existence as a whole. This, I believe, corresponds with the
+experience of modern Buddhists. It is beyond doubt that those who
+attempt to carry their memory back in the way described are convinced
+that they remember existences before the present life. As a rule it
+takes from a fortnight to a month to obtain such a remembrance clearly,
+and every day the aspirant to a knowledge of previous births must carry
+his memory further and further back, dwelling less and less on the
+details of recent events. When he reaches the time of his birth, he
+feels as if there were a curtain of black darkness before him, but if
+the attention is concentrated, this curtain is rent and the end of the
+previous life is recovered behind it. The process is painful for it
+involves the recollection of death and the even greater pains of birth
+and many have not courage to go beyond this point. It is not uncommon in
+Ceylon, Burma, Siam and probably in all parts of the Far East, to find
+people who are persuaded they can remember previous births in this way,
+but I have never met anyone who professed to recall more than two or
+three. There is no room in these modest modern visions for the long
+vistas of previous lives seen by the earlier Buddhists.
+
+Meditation also plays a considerable part in the Buddhism of the Far
+East under the name of Ch'an or Zen of which we shall have something to
+say when we treat of China and Japan.
+
+As already indicated the methods and results of meditation as practised
+by Brahmanic Hindus and by Buddhists show considerable resemblance to
+the experiences of Christian mystics. The coincidences do not concern
+mere matters of detail, although theology has done its best to make the
+content and explanation of the experiences as divergent as possible. But
+the essential similarity of form remains and there is clearly no
+question of borrowing or direct influence. It is certain that what is
+sometimes called the Mystic Way is not only true as a succession of
+psychic states but is, for those who can walk in it, the road to a
+happiness which in reality and power to satisfy exceeds all pleasures of
+the senses and intellect, so that when once known it makes all other
+joys and pains seem negligible. Yet despite the intense reality of this
+happy state, despite the illumination which floods the soul and the wide
+visions of a universal plan, there is no agreement as to the cause of
+the experience nor, strange to say, as to its meaning as opposed to its
+form. For many both in the east and west the one essential and
+indubitable fact throughout the experience is God, yet Buddhists are
+equally decided in holding that the experience has nothing to do with
+any deity. This is not a mere question of interpretation. It means that
+views as to theism and pantheism are indifferent for the attainment of
+this happy state.
+
+The mystics of India are sometimes contrasted with their fellows in
+Europe as being more passive and more self-centred: they are supposed to
+desire self-annihilation and to have no thought for others. But I doubt
+if the contrast is just. If Indian mysticism sometimes appears at a
+disadvantage, I think it is because it is popular and in danger of being
+stereotyped and sometimes vulgarized. Nowadays in Europe we have
+students of mysticism rather than mystics, and the mystics of the
+Christian Church were independent and distinguished spirits who, instead
+of following the signposts of the beaten track, found out a path for
+themselves. But in India mysticism was and is as common as prayer and as
+popular as science. It was taught in manuals and parodied by charlatans.
+When mysticism is the staple crop of a religion and not a rare wild
+flower, the percentage of imperfect specimens is bound to be high. The
+Buddha, Sankara and a host of less well-known teachers were as strenuous
+and influential as Francis of Assisi or Ignatius Loyola. Neither in
+Europe nor in Asia has mysticism contributed much directly to political
+and social reform. That is not its sphere, but within the religious
+sphere, in preaching, teaching and organization, the mystic is intensely
+practical and the number of successes (as of failures) is greater in
+Asia than in Europe. Even in theory Indian mysticism does not repudiate
+energy. No one enjoyed more than the Buddha himself what Ruysbroeck
+calls "the mysterious peace dwelling in activity," for before he began
+his mission he had attained nirvana and such of his disciples as were
+arhats were in the same case. Later Buddhism recognizes a special form
+of nirvana called apratishthita: those who attain it see that there is
+no real difference between mundane existence and nirvana and therefore
+devote themselves to a life of beneficent activity.
+
+The period of transition and trial known to European mystics as the Dark
+Night of the Soul, is not mentioned in Indian manuals as an episode of
+the spiritual life, for such an interruption would hardly harmonize with
+their curriculum of regular progress towards enlightenment. But mystic
+poetry testifies that in Asia as in Europe this feeling of desertion and
+loneliness is a frequent experience in the struggles and adventures of
+the soul. It is apparently not necessary, just as the incidental joys
+and triumphs of the soul--strains of heavenly music, aerial flights, and
+visions of the universal scheme--are also not essential. The essential
+features of the mystic way, as well as its usual incidents, are common
+to Asia and Europe, and in both continents are expressed in two forms.
+One view contrasts the surface life and a deeper life: when the
+intellect ceases to plague and puzzle, something else arises from the
+depth and makes its unity with some greater Force to be felt as a
+reality. This idea finds ample expression in the many Brahmanic systems
+which regarded the centre and core of the human being as an _ātman_ or
+_purusha_, happy when in the undisturbed peace of its own nature but
+distracted by the senses and intellect. The other view of mystic
+experiences regards them as a remaking of character, the evolution of a
+new personality and in fact a new birth. This of course need not be a
+denial of the other view: the emergence of the latent self may effect a
+transformation of the whole being. But Buddhism, at any rate early
+Buddhism, formulates its theory in a polemical form. There is no
+ready-made latent self, awaiting manifestation when its fetters and
+veils are removed: man's inner life is capable of superhuman extension
+but the extension is the result of enlargement and training, not of
+self-revelation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+MYTHOLOGY IN HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
+
+1
+
+
+The later phases of Buddhism, described as Mahāyāna, show this feature
+among many others, that the supernatural and mythological side of
+religion becomes prominent. Gods or angels play an increasingly
+important part, the Buddha himself becomes a being superior to all gods,
+and Buddhas, gods and saints perform at every turn feats for which
+miracle seems too modest a name. The object of the present chapter is to
+trace the early stages of these beliefs, for they are found in the Pali
+Canon, although it is not until later that they overgrow and hide the
+temple in whose walls they are rooted.
+
+It may be fairly said that Buddhism is not a miraculous religion in the
+sense that none of its essential doctrines depend on miracles. It would
+seem that such a religion as Mormonism must collapse if it were admitted
+that the Book of Mormon is not a revelation delivered to Joseph Smith.
+But the content of the Buddha's teaching is not miraculous and, though
+he is alleged to have possessed insight exceeding ordinary human
+knowledge, yet this is not exactly a miracle and it is a question
+whether an unusual intelligence disciplined by meditation might not
+attain to such knowledge. Still, though the essence of the doctrine may
+be detachable from miracles and even be scientific, one cannot read very
+far in the Vinaya or the Sutta Pitaka without coming upon unearthly
+beings or supernatural occurrences.
+
+The credibility of miracles is to my mind simply a question of evidence.
+Any extraordinary event, such as a person doing a thing totally foreign
+to his character, is improbable _a priori_. But the law does not allow
+that the best of men is incapable of committing the worst of crimes, if
+the evidence proves he did. Nor can the most extraordinary violation of
+nature's laws be pronounced impossible if supported by sufficient
+evidence, only the evidence must be strong in proportion to the
+strangeness of the circumstances. But I cannot see that the uniformity
+of nature is any objection to the occurrence of miracles, for as a rule
+a miracle is regarded not as an event without a cause, but as due to a
+new cause, namely the intervention of a superhuman person. Many of the
+best known miracles are such that one may imagine this person to effect
+them by understanding and controlling some unknown natural force, just
+as we control electricity. Only evidence is required to show that he can
+do so. But on the other hand the weakness of every religion which
+depends on miracles is that their truth is contested and not
+unreasonably. If they are true, why are they not certain? Of all the
+phenomena described as miracles, ghosts, fortune telling, magic,
+clairvoyance, prophesying, and so on, none command unchallenged
+acceptance. In every age miracles, portents and apparitions have been
+recorded, yet none of them with a certainty that carries universal
+conviction and in many ages contemporary scepticism was possible. Even
+in Vedic times there were people who did not believe in the existence of
+Indra[714].
+
+It is clear that some miracles require more evidence than others and
+many old stories are so fantastic that they may justly be put aside
+because those who reported them did not see, as we can, what
+difficulties they involve and hence felt no need for caution in belief.
+Among ancient Indians or Hebrews tales of seven headed snakes or of
+stopping the sun did not arouse the critical spirit, for the phenomena
+did not seem much more extraordinary than centipedes or eclipses. Only
+those who understand that such stories upset all we know of anatomy and
+astronomy can realize their improbability and the weight of evidence
+necessary to make them credible. The most important distinction in
+miracles (I use the word as a popular description of extraordinary
+events which is readily understood though hard to define) is whether
+they are in any way subjective, that is to say that they depend in the
+last resort on an impression produced in certain, but not all, human
+minds or whether they are objective, that is to say that all witnesses
+would have seen them like any other event. A man rising into the air
+would be an objective miracle if it were admitted that this levitation
+was as real as the flight of a bird, and very strong evidence would be
+necessary to make us believe that such a movement had really been
+executed. But the case is different if we are dealing with the
+conviction of an enthusiast that he rose aloft or even with the
+conviction of his disciples, that they, being in an ecstasy, saw him do
+so. There is no reason to doubt the subjective reality of
+well-authenticated visions and as motives and stimuli to action they may
+have real objective importance. Miracles of healing are not dissimilar.
+A man's mind can affect his body, either directly through his conviction
+that certain physical changes are about to take place or indirectly as
+conveying the influence of some powerful external mind which may be
+either calming or stimulating. That some persons have a special power of
+healing nervous or mental diseases can hardly be doubted and I am not
+disposed to reject any well-authenticated miraculous cure, believing
+that sudden mental relief or acute joy can so affect the whole frame
+that in the improved physical conditions thus caused even diseases not
+usually considered as nervous may pass away. But though there is no
+reason to discredit miracles of healing, it is clear that they are not
+only exaggerated but also distorted by reporters who do not understand
+their nature. Those who chronicle the cures supposed to be effected at
+Lourdes at the present day keep within the bounds of what is explicable,
+but a Hindu who had seen a cripple recover some power of movement might
+be equally ready to believe that when a man's leg had been cut off the
+stump could grow into a complete limb.
+
+The miraculous events recorded in the Pitakas differ from those of later
+works, whether Mahayanist literature or the Hindu Puranas and Epics,
+chiefly in their moderation. They may be classified under several heads.
+Many of them are mere embroidery or embellishment due to poetical
+exuberance, esteemed appropriate in those generous climates though
+repugnant to our chilly tastes. In every country poetry is allowed to
+overstep the prosaic borders of fact without criticism. When an English
+poet says that--
+
+  The red rose cries She is near, she is near:
+  And the white rose weeps She is late:
+  The larkspur listens, I hear, I hear:
+  And the lily whispers, I wait--
+
+no one thinks of criticizing the lines as absurd because flowers cannot
+talk or of trying to prove that they can. Poetry can take liberties with
+facts provided it follows the lines of metaphors which the reader finds
+natural. The same latitude cannot be allowed in unfamiliar directions.
+Thus though a shower of flowers from heaven is not more extraordinary
+than talking flowers and is quite natural in Indian poetry, it would
+probably disconcert the English reader[715]. An Indian poet would not
+represent flowers as talking, but would give the same idea by saying
+that the spirits inhabiting trees and plants recited stanzas. Similarly
+when a painter draws a picture of an angel with wings rising from the
+shoulder blades, even the very scientific do not think it needful to
+point out that no such anatomical arrangement is known or probable, nor
+do the very pious maintain that such creatures exist. The whole question
+is allowed to rest happily in some realm of acquiescence untroubled by
+discussions. And it is in this spirit that Indian books relate how when
+the Buddha went abroad showers of flowers fell from the sky and the air
+resounded with heavenly music, or diversify their theological
+discussions with interludes of demons, nymphs and magic serpents. And
+although this riot of the imagination offends our ideas of good sense
+and proportion, the Buddhists do not often lose the distinction between
+what Matthew Arnold called Literature and Dogma. The Buddha's visits to
+various heavens are not presented as articles of faith: they are simply
+a pleasant setting for his discourses.
+
+Some miracles of course have a more serious character and can be less
+easily separated from the essentials of the faith. Thus the Pitakas
+represent the Buddha as able to see all that happens in the world and to
+transport himself anywhere at will. But even in such cases we may
+remember that when we say of a well-informed and active person that he
+is omniscient and ubiquitous, we are not misunderstood. The hyperbole of
+Indian legends finds its compensation in the small importance attached
+to them. No miraculous circumstance recorded of the Buddha has anything
+like the significance attributed by Christians to the virgin birth or
+the resurrection of Christ. His superhuman powers are in keeping with
+the picture drawn of his character. They are mostly the result of an
+attempt to describe a mind and will of more than human strength, but the
+superman thus idealized rarely works miracles of healing. He saves
+mankind by teaching the way of salvation, not by alleviating a few
+chance cases of physical distress. In later works he is represented as
+performing plentiful and extraordinary miracles, but these are just the
+instances in which we can most clearly trace the addition of
+embellishments.
+
+
+2
+
+The elaboration of marvellous episodes is regarded in India as a
+legitimate form of literary art, no more blameable than dramatization,
+and in sacred writings it flourishes unchecked. In Hinduism, as in
+Buddhism, there is not wanting a feeling that the soul is weary of the
+crowd of deities who demand sacrifices and promise happiness, and on the
+serener heights of philosophy gods have little place. Still most forms
+of Hinduism cannot like Buddhism be detached from the gods, and no
+extravagance is too improbable to be included in the legends about them.
+The extravagance is the more startling because their exploits form part
+of quasi-historical narratives. Rāma and Krishna seem to be idealized
+and deified portraits of ancient heroes, who came to be regarded as
+incarnations of the Almighty. This is understood by Indians to mean not
+that the Almighty submitted consistently to human limitations, but that
+he, though incarnate, exercised whenever it pleased him and often most
+capriciously his full divine force. With this idea before them and no
+historical scruples to restrain them, Indian writers tell how Krishna
+held up a mountain on his finger, Indian readers accept the statement,
+and crowds of pilgrims visit the scene of the exploit.
+
+The later Buddhist writings are perhaps not less extravagant than the
+Puranas, but the Pitakas are relatively sober, though not quite
+consistent in their account of the Buddha's attitude to the miraculous.
+Thus he encourages Sāgata[716] to give a display of miracles, such as
+walking in the air, in order to prepare the mind of a congregation to
+whom he is going to preach, but in other narratives[717] which seem
+ancient and authentic, he expresses his disapproval of such performances
+(just as Christ refused to give signs), and says that they do not
+"conduce to the conversion of the unconverted or to the increase of the
+converted." Those who know India will easily call up a picture of how
+the Bhikkhus strove to impress the crowd by exhibitions not unlike a
+modern juggler's tricks and how the master stopped them. His motives are
+clear: these performances had nothing to do with the essence of his
+teaching. If it be true that he ever countenanced them, he soon saw his
+error. He did not want people to say that he was a conjurer who knew the
+Gāndhāra charm or any other trick. And though we have no warrant for
+doubting that he believed in the reality of the powers known as iddhi,
+it is equally certain that he did not consider them essential or even
+important for religion.
+
+Somewhat similar is the attitude of early Buddhism to the spirit
+world--the hosts of deities and demons who people this and other spheres.
+Their existence is assumed, but the truths of religion are not dependent
+on them, and attempts to use their influence by sacrifices and oracles
+are deprecated as vulgar practices similar to juggling. Later Buddhism
+became infected with mythology and the critical change occurs when
+deities, instead of being merely protectors of the church, take an
+active part in the work of salvation. When the Hindu gods developed into
+personalities who could appeal to religious and philosophic minds as
+cosmic forces, as revealers of the truth and guides to bliss, the
+example was too attractive to be neglected and a pantheon of
+Bodhisattvas arose. But it is clear that when the Buddha preached in
+Kosala and Magadha, the local deities had not attained any such
+position. The systems of philosophy then in vogue were mostly not
+theistic, and, strange as the words may sound, religion had little to do
+with the gods. If this be thought to rest on a mistranslation, it is
+certainly true that the _dhamma_ had very little to do with _devas_. The
+example of Rome under the Empire or of modern China makes the position
+clearer. In neither would a serious enquirer turn to the ancient
+national gods for spiritual help.
+
+Often as the Devas figure in early Buddhist stories, the significance of
+their appearance nearly always lies in their relations with the Buddha
+or his disciples. Of mere mythology, such as the dealings of Brahmā and
+Indra with other gods, there is little. In fact the gods, though freely
+invoked as accessories, are not taken seriously[718], and there are some
+extremely curious passages in which Gotama seems to laugh at them, much
+as the sceptics of the eighteenth century laughed at Jehovah. Thus in
+the Kevaddha sutta[719] he relates how a monk who was puzzled by a
+metaphysical problem applied to various gods and finally accosted Brahmā
+himself in the presence of all his retinue. After hearing the question,
+which was Where do the elements cease and leave no trace behind? Brahmā
+replies, "I am the Great Brahmā, the Supreme, the Mighty, the
+All-seeing, the Ruler, the Lord of all, the Controller, the Creator, the
+Chief of all, appointing to each his place, the Ancient of days, the
+Father of all that are and are to be." "But," said the monk, "I did not
+ask you, friend, whether you were indeed all you now say, but I ask you
+where the four elements cease and leave no trace." Then the Great Brahmā
+took him by the arm and led him aside and said, "These gods think I know
+and understand everything. Therefore I gave no answer in their presence.
+But I do not know the answer to your question and you had better go and
+ask the Buddha." Even more curiously ironical is the account given of
+the origin of Brahmā[720]. There comes a time when this world system
+passes away and then certain beings are reborn in the World of Radiance
+and remain there a long time. Sooner or later, the world system begins
+to evolve again and the palace of Brahmā appears, but it is empty. Then
+some being whose time is up falls from the World of Radiance and comes
+to life in the palace and remains there alone. At last he wishes for
+company, and it so happens that other beings whose time is up fall from
+the World of Radiance and join him. And the first being thinks that he
+is Great Brahmā, the Creator, because when he felt lonely and wished for
+companions other beings appeared. And the other beings accept this view.
+And at last one of Brahmā's retinue falls from that state and is born in
+the human world and, if he can remember his previous birth, he reflects
+that he is transitory but that Brahmā still remains and from this he
+draws the erroneous conclusion that Brahmā is eternal.
+
+He who dared to represent Brahmā (for which name we might substitute
+Allah or Jehovah) as a pompous deluded individual worried by the
+difficulty of keeping up his position had more than the usual share of
+scepticism and irony. The compilers of such discourses regarded the gods
+as mere embellishments, as gargoyles and quaint figures in the cathedral
+porch, not as saints above the altar. The mythology and cosmology
+associated with early Buddhism are really extraneous. The Buddha's
+teaching is simply the four truths and some kindred ethical and
+psychological matter. It grew up in an atmosphere of animism which
+peopled the trees and streams and mountains with spirits. It accepted
+and played with the idea, just as it might have accepted and played with
+the idea of radio-activity. But such notions do not affect the essence
+of the Dharma and it might be preached in severe isolation. Yet in Asia
+it hardly ever has been so isolated. It is true that Indian mythology
+has not always accompanied the spread of Buddhism. There is much of it
+in Tibet and Mongolia but less in China and Japan and still less in
+Burma. But probably in every part of Asia the Buddhist missionaries
+found existing a worship of nature spirits and accepted it, sometimes
+even augmenting and modifying it. In every age the elect may have risen
+superior to all ideas of gods and heavens and hells, but for any just
+historical perspective, for any sympathetic understanding of the faith
+as it exists as a living force to-day, it is essential to remember this
+background and frame of fantastic but graceful mythology.
+
+Many later Mahayanist books are full of dhāranīs or spells. Dhāranīs are
+not essentially different from mantras, especially tantric mantras
+containing magical syllables, but whereas mantras are more or less
+connected with worship, dhāranīs are rather for personal use, spells to
+ward off evil and bring good luck. The Chinese pilgrim Hsüan Chuang[721]
+states that the sect of the Mahāsanghikas, which in his opinion arose in
+connection with the first council, compiled a Pitaka of dhāranīs. The
+tradition cannot be dismissed as incredible for even the Dīgha-Nikāya
+relates how a host of spirits visited the Buddha in order to impart a
+formula which would keep his disciples safe from harm. Buddhist and
+Brahmanic mythology represent two methods of working up popular legends.
+The Mahābhārata and Puranas introduce us to a moderately harmonious if
+miscellaneous society of supernatural personages decently affiliated to
+one another and to Brahmanic teaching. The same personages reappear in
+Buddhism but are analogous to Christian angels or to fairies rather than
+to minor deities. They are not so much the heroes of legends, as
+protectors: they are interesting not for their past exploits but for
+their readiness to help believers or to testify to the true doctrine.
+Still there was a great body of Buddhist and Jain legend in ancient
+India which handled the same stories as Brahmanic legend--e.g. the tale
+of Krishna--but in a slightly different manner. The characteristic form
+of Buddhist legend is the Jātaka, or birth story. Folk-lore and sagas,
+ancient jokes and tragedies, the whole stock in trade of rhapsodists and
+minstrels are made an edifying and interesting branch of scripture by
+simply identifying the principal characters with the Buddha, his friends
+and his enemies in their previous births[722]. But in Hinayanist
+Buddhism legend and mythology are ornamental, and edifying, nothing
+more. Spirits may set a good example or send good luck: they have
+nothing to do with emancipation or nirvana. The same distinction of
+spheres is not wholly lost in Hinduism, for though the great philosophic
+works treat of God under various names they mostly ignore minor deities,
+and though the language of the Bhagavad-gītā is exuberant and
+mythological, yet only Krishna is God: all other spirits are part of
+him.
+
+The deities most frequently mentioned in Buddhist works are Indra,
+generally under the name of Sakka (Sakra) and Brahmā. The former is no
+longer the demon-slaying soma-drinking deity of the Vedas, but the
+heavenly counterpart of a pious Buddhist king. He frequently appears in
+the Jātaka stories as the protector of true religion and virtue, and
+when a good man is in trouble, his throne grows hot and attracts his
+attention. His transformation is analogous to the process by which
+heathen deities, especially in the Eastern Church, have been accepted as
+Christian saints[723]. Brahmā rules in a much higher heaven than Sakka.
+His appearances on earth are rarer and more weighty, and sometimes he
+seems to be a personification of whatever intelligence and desire for
+good there is in the world[724]. But in no case do the Pitakas concede
+to him the position of supreme ruler of the Universe. In one singular
+narrative the Buddha tells his disciples how he once ascertained that
+Brahmā Baka was under the delusion that his heaven was eternal and cured
+him of it[725].
+
+
+3
+
+All Indian religions have a passion for describing in bold imaginative
+outline the history and geography of the universe. Their ideas are
+juster than those of Europeans and Semites in so far as they imply a
+sense of the distribution of life throughout immensities of time and
+space. The Hindu perceived more clearly than the Jew and Greek that his
+own age and country were merely parts of a much longer series and of a
+far larger structure or growth. He wished to keep this whole continually
+before the mind, but in attempting to describe it he fell into that
+besetting intellectual sin of India, the systematizing of the imaginary.
+Ages, continents and worlds are described in detailed statements which
+bear no relation to facts. Thus, Brahmanic cosmogony usually deals with
+a period of time called Kalpa. This is a day in the life of Brahmā, who
+lives one hundred years of such days, and it marks the duration of a
+world which comes into being at its commencement and is annihilated at
+its end. It consists of 4320 times a million years and is divided into
+fourteen smaller periods called manvantaras each presided over by a
+superhuman being called Manu[726]. A manvantara contains about
+seventy-one mahāyugas and each mahāyuga is what men call the four ages
+of the world[727]. Geography and astronomy show similar precision. The
+Earth is the lowest of seven spheres or worlds, and beneath it are a
+series of hells[728]. The three upper spheres last for a hundred Kalpas
+but are still material, though less gross than those below. The whole
+system of worlds is encompassed above and below by the shell of the egg
+of Brahmā. Round this again are envelopes of water, fire, air, ether,
+mind and finally the infinite Pradhāna or cause of all existing things.
+The earth consists of seven land-masses, divided and surrounded by seven
+seas. In the centre of the central land-mass rises Mount Meru, nearly a
+million miles high and bearing on its peaks the cities of Brahmā and
+other gods.
+
+The cosmography of the Buddhists is even more luxuriant, for it regards
+the universe as consisting of innumerable spheres (cakkavālas), each of
+which might seem to a narrower imagination a universe in itself, since
+it has its own earth, heavenly bodies, paradises and hells. A sphere is
+divided into three regions, the lowest of which is the region of desire.
+This consists of eleven divisions which, beginning from the lowest, are
+the hells, and the worlds of animals, Pretas (hungry ghosts), Asuras
+(Titans)[729] and men. This last, which we inhabit, consists of a vast
+circular plain largely covered with water. In the centre of it is Mount
+Meru, and it is surrounded by a wall. Above it rise six devalokas, or
+heavens of the inferior gods. Above the realms of desire there follow
+sixteen worlds in which there is form but no desire. All are states of
+bliss one higher than the other and all are attained by the exercise of
+meditation. Above these again come four formless worlds, in which there
+is neither desire nor form. They correspond to the four stages of Arūpa
+trances and in them the gross and evil elements of existence are reduced
+to a minimum, but still they are not permanent and cannot be regarded as
+final salvation. We naturally think of this series of worlds as so many
+storeys rising one above the other and they are so depicted[730] but it
+will be observed that the animal kingdom is placed between the hells and
+humanity, obviously not as having its local habitation there but as
+better off than the one, though inferior to the other, and perhaps if we
+pointed this out to the Hindu artist he would smile and say that his
+many storeyed picture must not be taken so literally: all states of
+being are merely states of mind, hellish, brutish, human and divine.
+
+Grotesque as Hindu notions of the world may seem, they include two great
+ideas of modern science. The universe is infinite or at least
+immeasurable[731]. The vision of the astronomer who sees a solar system
+in every star of the milky way is not wider than the thought that
+devised these Cakkavālas or spheres, each with a vista of heavens and a
+procession of Buddhas, to look after its salvation. Yet compared with
+the sum of being a sphere is an atom. Space is filled by aggregates of
+them, considered by some as groups of three, by others as clusters of a
+thousand. And secondly these world systems, with the living beings and
+plants in them, are regarded as growing and developing by natural
+processes, and, equally in virtue of natural processes, as decaying and
+disintegrating when the time comes. In the Aggańńa-Sutta[732] we have a
+curious account of the evolution of man which, though not the same as
+Darwin's, shows the same idea of development or perhaps degeneration and
+differentiation. Human beings were originally immaterial, aerial and
+self-luminous, but as the world gradually assumed its present form they
+took to eating first of all a fragrant kind of earth and then plants
+with the result that their bodies became gross and differences of sex
+and colour were produced.
+
+No sect of Hinduism personifies the powers of evil in one figure
+corresponding to Satan, or the Ahriman of Persia. In proportion as a
+nation thinks pantheistically it is disinclined to regard the world as
+being mainly a contest between good and evil. It is true there are
+innumerable demons and innumerable good spirits who withstand them. But
+just as there is no finality in the exploits of Rāma and Krishna, so
+Rāvana and other monsters do not attain to the dignity of the Devil. In
+a sense the destructive forces are evil, but when they destroy the world
+at the end of a Kalpa the result is not the triumph of evil. It is
+simply winter after autumn, leading to spring and another summer.
+
+Buddhism having a stronger ethical bias than Hinduism was more conscious
+of the existence of a Tempter, or a power that makes men sin. This power
+is personified, but somewhat indistinctly, as Māra, originally and
+etymologically a god of death. He is commonly called Māra the Evil
+One[733], which corresponds to the Mrityuh pāpmā of the Vedas, but as a
+personality he seems to have developed entirely within the Buddhist
+circle and to be unknown to general Indian mythology. In the thought of
+the Pitakas the connection between death and desire is clear. The great
+evils and great characteristics of the world are that everything in it
+decays and dies and that existence depends on desire. Therefore the
+ruler of the world may be represented as the god of desire and death.
+Buddha and his saints struggle with evil and overcome it by overcoming
+desire and this triumphant struggle is regarded as a duel with Māra, who
+is driven off and defeated[734].
+
+Even in his most mythological aspects, Māra is not a deity of Hell. He
+presides over desire and temptation, not over judgment and punishment.
+This is the function of Yama, the god of the dead, and one of the
+Brahmanic deities who have migrated to the Far East. He has been adopted
+by Buddhism, though no explanation is given of his status. But he is
+introduced as a vague but effective figure--and yet hardly more than a
+metaphor--whenever it is desired to personify the inflexible powers that
+summon the living to the other world and there make them undergo, with
+awful accuracy, the retribution due for their deeds. In a remarkable
+passage[735] called Death's Messengers, it is related that when a sinner
+dies he is led before King Yama who asks him if he never saw the three
+messengers of the gods sent as warnings to mortals, namely an old man, a
+sick man and a corpse. The sinner under judgment admits that he saw but
+did not reflect and Yama sentences him to punishment, until suffering
+commensurate to his sins has been inflicted.
+
+Buddhism tells of many hells, of which Avīci is the most terrible. They
+are of course all temporary and therefore purgatories rather than places
+of eternal punishment, and the beings who inhabit them have the power of
+struggling upwards and acquiring merit[736], but the task is difficult
+and one may be born repeatedly in hell. The phraseology of Buddhism
+calls existences in heavens and hells new births. To us it seems more
+natural to say that certain people are born again as men and that others
+go to heaven or hell. But the three destinies are really parallel[737].
+
+The desire to accommodate influential ideas, though they might be
+incompatible with the strict teaching of the Buddha, is well seen in the
+position accorded to spirits of the dead. The Buddha was untiring in his
+denunciation of every idea which implied that some kind of soul or
+double escapes from the body at death and continues to exist. But the
+belief in the existence of departed ancestors and the presentation of
+offerings to them have always formed a part of Hindu domestic religion.
+To gratify this persistent belief, Buddhism recognized the world of
+Petas, that is ghosts or spirits. Many varieties of these are described
+in later literature. Some are as thin as withered leaves and suffer from
+continual hunger, for their mouths are so small that they can take no
+solid food. According to strict theology, the Petas are a category of
+beings just above animals and certain forms of bad conduct entail birth
+among them. But in popular estimation, they are merely the spirits of
+the dead who can receive nourishment and other benefits from the living.
+The veneration of the dead and the offering of sacrifices to or for
+them, which form a conspicuous feature in Far Eastern Buddhism, are
+often regarded as a perversion of the older faith, and so, indeed, they
+are. Yet in the Khuddaka-pātha[738], which if not a very early work is
+still part of the Sutta Pitaka, are found some curious and pathetic
+verses describing how the spirits of the departed wait by walls and
+crossways and at the doors, hoping to receive offerings of food. When
+they receive it their hearts are gladdened and they wish their relatives
+prosperity. As many streams fill the ocean, so does what is given here
+help the dead. Above all, gifts given to monks will redound to the good
+of the dead for a long time. This last point is totally opposed to the
+spirit of Gotama's doctrine, but it contains the germ of the elaborate
+system of funeral masses which has assumed vast proportions in the Far
+East.
+
+
+4
+
+What then is the position of the Buddha himself in this universe of many
+worlds and multitudinous deities? European writers sometimes fail to
+understand how the popular thought of India combines the human and
+superhuman: they divorce the two aspects and unduly emphasize one or the
+other. If they are impressed by the historical character of Gotama, they
+conclude that all legends with a supernatural tinge must be late and
+adventitious. If, on the other hand, they feel that the extent and
+importance of the legendary element entitles it to consideration, they
+minimize the historical kernel. But in India, reality and fancy, prosaic
+fact and extravagant imagination are found not as successive stages in
+the development of religious ideas, but simultaneously and side by side.
+Keshub Chunder Sen was a Babu of liberal views who probably looked as
+prosaic a product of the nineteenth century as any radical politician.
+Yet his followers were said to regard him as a God, and whether this is
+a correct statement or not, it is certain that he was credited with
+superhuman power and received a homage which seemed even to Indians
+excessive[739]. It is in the light of such incidents and such
+temperaments that we should read the story of the Buddha. Could we be
+transported to India in the days of his preaching, we should probably
+see a figure very like the portrait given in the more sober parts of the
+Pitakas, a teacher of great intelligence and personal charm, yet
+distinctly human. But had we talked about him in the villages which lay
+along his route, or even in the circle of his disciples, I think we
+should have heard tales of how Devas visited him and how he was wont to
+vanish and betake himself to some heaven. The Hindu attributes such
+feats to a religious leader, as naturally as Europeans would ascribe to
+him a magnetic personality and a flashing eye.
+
+The Pitakas emphasize the omniscience and sinlessness of the Buddha but
+contain no trace of the idea that he is God in the Christian or
+Mahommedan sense. They are consistently non-theistic and it is only
+later that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas become transformed into beings about
+whom theistic language can be used. But in those parts of the Pitakas
+which may be reasonably supposed to contain the ideas of the first
+century after the Buddha's death, he is constantly represented as
+instructing Devas and receiving their homage[740]. In the Khuddaka-pātha
+the spirits are invited to come and do him reverence. He is described as
+the Chief of the World with all its gods[741], and is made to deny that
+he is a man. If a Buddha cannot be called a Deva rather than a man, it
+is only because he is higher than both. It is this train of thought
+which leads later Buddhists[742] to call him Devātideva, or the Deva who
+is above all other Devas, and thus make him ultimately a being
+comparable with Siva or Vishnu.
+
+The idea that great teachers of mankind appear in a regular series and
+at stated intervals is certainly older than Gotama, but it is hard to
+say how far it was systematized before his time. The greatness of the
+position which he won and the importance of the institutions which he
+founded naturally caused his disciples to formulate the vague traditions
+about his predecessors. They were called indifferently Buddha, Jina,
+Arhat, etc., and it was only after the constitution of the Buddhist
+church that these titles received fixed meanings.
+
+Closely connected with the idea of the Buddha or Jina is that of the
+Mahāpurusha or great man. It was supposed that there are born from time
+to time supermen distinguished by physical marks who become either
+universal monarchs (cakra-vartin) or teachers of the truth. Such a
+prediction is said to have been made respecting the infant Gotama and
+all previous Buddhas. The marks are duly catalogued, as thirty-two
+greater and eighty[743] smaller signs. Many of them are very curious.
+The hair is glossy black: the tongue is so long that it can lick the
+ears: the arms reach to the knees in an ordinary upright position: the
+skin has a golden tinge: there is a protuberance on the skull and a
+smaller one, like a ball, between the eyebrows. The long arms may be
+compared with the Persian title rendered in Latin by Longimanus[744] and
+it is conceivable that the protuberances on the head may have been
+personal peculiarities of Gotama. For though the thirty-two marks are
+mentioned in the Pitakas as well-known signs establishing his claims to
+eminence, no description of them has been found in any pre-Buddhist
+work[745], and they may have been modified to suit his personal
+appearance. At any rate it is clear that the early generations of
+Buddhists considered that the Master conformed to the type of the
+Mahāpurusha and attached importance to the fact[746]. The Pitakas
+repeatedly allude to the knowledge of these marks as forming a part of
+Brahmanic training and in the account of the previous Buddha Vipassī
+they are duly enumerated. These ideas about a Great Man and his
+characteristics were probably current among the people at the time of
+the Buddha's birth. They do not harmonize completely with later
+definitions of a Buddha's nature, but they show how Gotama's
+contemporaries may have regarded his career.
+
+In the older books of the Pitakas six Buddhas are mentioned as preceding
+Gotama[747], namely Vipassī, Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakusandha, Konāgamana and
+Kassapa. The last three at least may have some historical character. The
+Chinese pilgrim Fa Hsien, who visited India from 405 to 411 A.D., saw
+their reputed birthplaces and says that there still existed followers of
+Devadatta (apparently in Kosala) who recognized these three Buddhas but
+not Gotama. Asoka erected a monument in honour of Konāgamana in Nepal
+with a dedicatory inscription which has been preserved. In the
+Majjhima-Nikāya[748] we find a story about Kakusandha and his disciples
+and Gotama once gave[749] an extended account of Vipassī, whose teaching
+and career are represented as almost identical with his own. Different
+explanations have been given of this common element. There is clearly a
+wish to emphasize the continuity of the Dhamma and the similarity of its
+exponents in all ages. But are we to believe that the stories, true or
+romantic, originally told of Gotama were transferred to his mythical
+forerunners or that before his birth there was a Buddha legend to which
+the account of his career was accommodated? Probably both processes went
+on simultaneously. The notices of the Jain saints show that there must
+have been such legends and traditions independent of Gotama. To them we
+may refer things like the miracles attending birth. But the general
+outline of the Buddha's career, the departure from home, struggle for
+enlightenment and hesitation before preaching, seem to be a reminiscence
+of Gotama's actual life rather than an earlier legend.
+
+There is an interesting discourse describing the wonders that attend the
+birth of a Buddha[750], such as that he passes from the Tusita heaven to
+his mother's womb; that she must die seven days after his birth: that
+she stands when he is born: and so on. We may imagine that the death of
+the mother is due to the historical fact that Gotama's mother did so
+die, while the other circumstances are embellishments of the old Buddha
+and Mahāpurusha legend. But the construction of this sutta is curious.
+The monks in the Jetavana are talking of the wondrous powers possessed
+by Buddhas. Gotama enters and asks what is the subject of their
+discourse. They tell him and he bids Ānanda describe more fully the
+wondrous attributes of a Buddha. Ānanda gives a long list of marvels and
+at the end Gotama observes, "Take note of this too as one of the
+wondrous attributes of a Buddha, that he has his feelings, perceptions
+and thoughts under complete control[751]."
+
+No passage has yet been adduced from the suttas mentioning more than
+seven Buddhas but later books, such as the Buddha-vamsa and the
+introduction to the Jātaka, describe twenty-five[752]. There are
+twenty-four Jain Tīrthankaras and according to some accounts twenty-four
+incarnations of Vishnu. Probably all these lists are based on some
+calculation as to the proper allowance of saints for an aeon. The
+biographies of these Buddhas are brief and monotonous. For each sage
+they record the number of his followers, the name of his city, parents,
+and chief disciples, the tree under which he attained enlightenment, his
+height and his age, both in extravagant figures. They also record how
+each met Gotama in one of his previous births and prophesied his future
+glory. The object of these biographies is less to give information about
+previous Buddhas than to trace the career of Gotama as a Bodhisattva.
+This career began in the time of Dīpankara, the first of the twenty-five
+Buddhas, incalculable ages ago, when Gotama was a hermit called Sumedha.
+Seeing that the road over which Dīpankara had to pass was dirty, he
+threw himself down in the mire in order that the Buddha might tread on
+him and not soil his feet. At the same time he made a resolution to
+become a Buddha and received from Dīpankara the assurance that ages
+afterwards his wish would be fulfilled. This incident, called pranidhāna
+or the vow to become a Buddha, is frequently represented in the frescoes
+found in Central Asia.
+
+The history of this career is given in the introduction to the Jātaka
+and in the late Pali work called the Cariyā-pitaka, but the suttas make
+little reference to the topic. They refer incidentally to Gotama's
+previous births[753] but their interest clearly centres in his last
+existence. They not infrequently use the word Bodhisattva to describe
+the youthful Gotama or some other Buddha before the attainment of
+Buddhahood, but in later literature it commonly designates a being now
+existing who will be a Buddha in the future. In the older phase of
+Buddhism attention is concentrated on a human figure which fills the
+stage, but before the canon closes we are conscious of a change which
+paves the way for the Mahāyāna. Our sympathetic respect is invited not
+only for Gotama the Buddha, but for the struggling Bodhisattva who,
+battling towards the goal with incredible endurance and self-sacrifice
+through lives innumerable, at last became Gotama.
+
+It is only natural that the line of Buddhas should extend after as well
+as before Gotama. In the Pitakas there are allusions to such a posterior
+series, as when for instance we hear[754] that all Buddhas past and to
+come have had and will have attendants like Ānanda, but Metteya the
+Buddha of the future has not yet become an important figure. He is just
+mentioned in the Dīgha Nikāya and Buddha-Vamsa and the Milinda Pańha
+quotes an utterance of Gotama to the effect that "He will be the leader
+of thousands as I am of hundreds," but the quotation has not been
+identified.
+
+The Buddhas enumerated are supreme Buddhas (Sammā-sam-buddha) but there
+is another order called Pacceka (Sanskrit Pratyeka) or private Buddhas.
+Both classes attain by their own exertions to a knowledge of the four
+truths but the Pacceka Buddhas are not, like the supreme Buddhas,
+teachers of mankind and omniscient[755]. Their knowledge is confined to
+what is necessary for their own salvation and perfection. They are
+mentioned in the Nikāyas as worthy of all respect[756] but are not
+prominent in either the earlier or later works, which is only natural,
+seeing that by their very definition they are self-centred and of little
+importance for mankind. The idea of the private Buddha however is
+interesting, inasmuch as it implies that even when the four truths are
+not preached they still exist and can be discovered by anyone who makes
+the necessary mental and moral effort. It is also noticeable that the
+superiority of a supreme Buddha lies in his power to teach and help
+others. A passionless and self-centred sage falls short of the ideal.
+
+
+
+
+[Footnote 1: The frontier seems to be about Long. 65° E.]
+
+[Footnote 2: See Coedes's views about Srīvijaya in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1918, 6.
+The inscriptions of Rajendracola I (1012-1042 A.D.) show that Hindus in
+India were not wholly ignorant of Indian conquests abroad.]
+
+[Footnote 3: But the Japanese syllabaries were probably formed under
+Indian influence.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Probably the Christian doctrine of the atonement or
+salvation by the death of a deity is an exception. I do not know of any
+Indian sect which holds a similar view. The obscure verse Rig Veda x.
+13. 4 seems to hint at the self-sacrifice of a deity but the hymn about
+the sacrifice of Purusha (x. 90) has nothing to do with redemption or
+atonement.]
+
+[Footnote 5: It is possible (though not, I think, certain) that the
+Buddha called his principal doctrines _ariya_ in the sense of Aryan not
+of noble. But even the Blessed One may not have been infallible in
+ethnography. When we call a thing British we do not mean to refer it to
+the ancient Britons more than to the Saxons or Normans. And was the
+Buddha an Aryan? See V. Smith, _Oxford History of India_, p. 47 for
+doubts.]
+
+[Footnote 6: This is not altogether true of the modern temple ritual.]
+
+[Footnote 7: It is very unfortunate that English usage should make this
+word appear the same as Brahman, the name of a caste, and there is much
+to be said for using the old-fashioned word Brahmin to denote the caste,
+for it is clear, though not correct. In Sanskrit there are several
+similar words which are liable to be confused in English. In the
+nominative case they are:
+
+  (1) Brāhmanah, a man of the highest caste.
+
+  (2) Brāhmanam, an ancient liturgical treatise.
+
+  (3) Brahma, the Godhead, stem Brahman, neuter.
+
+  (4) Brahmā, a masculine nominative also formed from the stem Brahman and
+used as the name of a personal deity.
+
+For (3) the stem Brahman is commonly used, as being distinct from
+Brahmā, though liable to be confounded with the name of the caste.]
+
+[Footnote 8: For some years most scholars accepted the opinion that the
+Buddha died in 487 B.C. but the most recent researches into the history
+of the Saisunāga dynasty suggest that the date should be put back to 554
+B.C. See Vincent Smith, _Oxford History of India_, p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 9: This is sometimes rendered simply by desire but _desire_ in
+English is a vague word and may include feelings which do not come
+within the Pali _tanhā_. The Buddha did not reprobate good desires. See
+Mrs Rhys David's _Buddhism_, p. 222 and _E.R.E._ s.v. Desire.]
+
+[Footnote 10: It is practically correct to say that Buddhism was the
+first universal and missionary religion, but Mahāvira, the founder of
+the Jains and probably somewhat slightly his senior, is credited with
+the same wide view.]
+
+[Footnote 11: It may be conveniently and correctly called Pali Buddhism.
+This is better than Southern Buddhism or Hīnayāna, for the Buddhism of
+Java which lies even farther to the south is not the same and there were
+formerly Hīnayānists in Central Asia and China.]
+
+[Footnote 12: See Finot, _J.A._ 1912, n. 121-136.]
+
+[Footnote 13: There is no Indian record of Bodhidharma's doctrine and
+its origin is obscure, but it seems to have been a compound of Buddhism
+and Vedantism.]
+
+[Footnote 14: This is proved by coins and also by the Besnagar
+inscription.]
+
+[Footnote 15: I do not think that this view is disproved by the fact
+that Patańjali and the scholiasts on Pānini allude to images for they
+also allude to Greeks. For the contrary view see Sten Konow in _I.A._
+1909, p. 145. The facts are (_a_) The ancient Brahmanic ritual used no
+images. (_b_) They were used by Buddhism and popular Hinduism about the
+fourth century B.C. (_c_) Alexander conquered Bactria in 329 B.C. But
+allowance must be made for the usages of popular and especially of
+Dravidian worship of which at this period we know nothing.]
+
+[Footnote 16: Few now advocate an earlier date such as 58 B.C.]
+
+[Footnote 17: His authorship of _The Awakening of Faith_ must be
+regarded as doubtful.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Much of the Ramayana and Mahabharata must have been
+composed during this period, both poems (especially the latter)
+consisting of several strata.]
+
+[Footnote 19: _E.g._ the Vyūhas of the Pāncarātras, the five Jinas of
+the Mahayanists and the five Sadāsiva tattvas. See Gopinātha Rao,
+_Elements of Indian Iconography_, vol. III p. 363.]
+
+[Footnote 20: I draw a distinction between Sāktism and Tantrism. The
+essence of Sāktism is the worship of a goddess with certain rites.
+Tantrism means rather the use of spells, gestures, diagrams and various
+magical or sacramental rites, which accompanies Sāktism but may exist
+without it.]
+
+[Footnote 21: According to _Census of India_, 1911, _Assam_, p. 47,
+about 80,000 animists were converted to Hinduism in Goalpara between
+1901 and 1911 by a Brahman called Sib Narayan Swami.]
+
+[Footnote 22: It is said that in Burma Hindu settlers become absorbed in
+the surrounding Buddhists. _Census of India_, 1911, I. p. 120.]
+
+[Footnote 23: The life and writings of Vasubandhu illustrate the
+transition from the Hina-to the Mahayana. In the earlier part of his
+life he wrote the Abhidharmakosa which is still used by Mahayanists in
+Japan as a text-book, though it does not go beyond Hinayanism. Later he
+became a Mahayanist and wrote Mahayanist works.]
+
+[Footnote 24: As already mentioned, I think Sāktism is the more
+appropriate word but Tantrism is in common use by the best authorities.]
+
+[Footnote 25: In India proper there are hardly any Buddhists now. The
+Kumbhipathias, an anti-Brahmanic sect in Orissa, are said to be based on
+Buddhist doctrines and a Buddhist mission in Mysore, called the Sakya
+Buddhist Society, has met with some success. See _Census of India_,
+1911, i. pp. 122 and 126.]
+
+[Footnote 26: See the quotation in Schomerus, _Der Saiva Siddhānta_, p.
+20 where a Saiva Hindu says that he would rather see India embrace
+Christianity than the doctrine of Sankara.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Some think that the sect called Nimįvats was earlier.]
+
+[Footnote 28: The determination of his precise date offers some
+difficulties. See for further discussion Book v.]
+
+[Footnote 29: The Kadianis and Chet Ramis in the N.W. Provinces are
+mentioned but even here the fusion seems to be chiefly between Islam and
+Christianity. See also the article Rādhā Soārai in _E.R.E._]
+
+[Footnote 30: According to the Census of 1911.]
+
+[Footnote 31: There are curious survivals of paganism in out of the way
+forms of Christianity. Thus animal sacrifices are not extinct among
+Armenians and Nestorians. See _E.R.E._ article "Prayer for the Dead" at
+the end.]
+
+[Footnote 32: The Buddhism of Siam and Burma is similar but in Siam it
+is a medięval importation and the early religious history of Burma is
+still obscure.]
+
+[Footnote 33: Although stability is characteristic of the Hinayana its
+later literature shows a certain movement of thought phases of which are
+marked by the Questions of Milinda, Buddhaghosa's works and the
+Abhidhammattha Sangaha.]
+
+[Footnote 34: _E.g._ the way a monastic robe should be worn and the
+Sīmā.]
+
+[Footnote 35: I believe this to be the orthodox explanation but it is
+open to many objections.
+
+(1) It is a mere phrase. If to create means to produce something out of
+nothing, then we have never seen such an act and to ascribe a sudden
+appearance to such an act is really no explanation. Perhaps an act of
+imagination or a dream may justly be called a creation, but the relation
+between a soul and its Creator is not usually regarded as similar to the
+relation between a mind and its fancies.
+
+(2) The responsibility of God for the evil of the world seems to be
+greatly increased, if he is directly responsible for every birth of a
+child in unhappy conditions.
+
+(3) Animals are not supposed to have souls. Therefore the production of
+an animal's mind is not explained by this theory and it seems to be
+assumed that such a complex mind ag a dog's can be explained as a
+function of matter, whereas there is something in a child which cannot
+be so explained.
+
+(4) If a new immortal soul is created every time a birth takes place,
+the universe must be receiving incalculably large additions. For some
+philosophies such an idea is impossible. (See Bradley, _Appearance and
+Reality_, p. 502. "The universe is incapable of increase. And to suppose
+a constant supply of new souls, none of which ever perished, would
+clearly land us in the end in an insuperable difficulty.") But even if
+we do not admit that it is impossible, it at least destroys all analogy
+between the material and spiritual worlds. If all the bodies that ever
+lived continued to exist separately after death, the congestion would be
+unthinkable. Is a corresponding congestion in the spiritual world really
+thinkable?]
+
+[Footnote 36: This seems to be the view of the Chāndogya Up. VI. 12. As
+the whole world is a manifestation ol Brahman, so is the great banyan
+tree a manifestation of the subtle essence which is also present in its
+minute seeds.]
+
+[Footnote 37: The Brihad Ar. Up. knows of samsāra and karma but as
+matters of deep philosophy and not for the vulgar: but in the Buddhist
+Pitakas they are assumed as universally accepted. The doctrine must
+therefore have been popularized after the composition of the Upanishad.
+But some allowance must be made for the fact that the Upanishads and the
+earliest versions of the Buddhist Suttas were produced in different
+parts of India.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Yet many instances are quoted from Celtic and Teutonic
+folklore to the effect that birds and butterflies are human souls, and
+Caesar's remarks about the Druids may not be wholly wrong.]
+
+[Footnote 39: Several other Europeans of eminence have let their minds
+play with the ideas of metempsychosis, pre-existence and karma, as for
+instance Giordano Bruno, Swedenborg, Goethe, Lessing, Lavater, Herder,
+Schopenhauer, Ibsen, von Helmont, Lichtenberg and in England such
+different spirits as Hume and Wordsworth. It would appear that towards
+the end of the eighteenth century these ideas were popular in some
+literary circles on the continent. See Bertholet, _The Transmigration of
+Souls_, pp. 111 ff. Recently Professor McTaggart has argued in favour of
+the doctrine with great lucidity and persuasiveness. Huxley too did not
+think it absurd. See his _Romanes Lecture, Evolution and Ethics,
+Collected Essays_, vol. IX. p. 61. As Deussen observes, Kant's argument
+which bases immortality on the realization of the moral law, attainable
+only by an infinite process of approximation, points to transmigration
+rather than immortality in the usual sense.]
+
+[Footnote 40: The chemical elements are hardly an exception. Apparently
+they have no beginning and no end but there is reason to suspect that
+they have both.]
+
+[Footnote 41: I know well-authenticated cases of Burmese and Indians
+thinking that the soul of a dead child had passed into an animal.]
+
+[Footnote 42: Or again, when I wake up in the morning I am conscious of
+my identity because innumerable circumstances remind me of the previous
+day. But if I wake up suddenly in the night with a toothache which
+leaves room for no thought or feeling except the feeling of pain, is the
+fact that I experience the pain in any way lessened if for the moment I
+do not know who or where I am?]
+
+[Footnote 43: I believe that a French savant, Colonel Rochas, has
+investigated in a scientific spirit cases in which hypnotized subjects
+profess to remember their former births and found that these
+recollections are as clear and coherent as any revelations about another
+world which have been made by Mrs Piper or other mediums. But I have not
+been able to obtain any of Col. Rochas's writings.]
+
+[Footnote 44: I use the word _soul_ merely for simplicity, but Buddhists
+and others might demur to this phraseology.]
+
+[Footnote 45: But for a contrary view see _Reincarnation, the Hope of
+the World_ by Irving S. Cooper. Even the Brihad Aran. Upan. (IV. 4. 3.
+4) speaks of new births as new and more beautiful shapes which the soul
+fashions for itself as a goldsmith works a piece of gold.]
+
+[Footnote 46: The increase of the human population of this planet does
+not seem to me a serious argument against the doctrine of rebirth for
+animals, and the denizens of other worlds may be supplying an increasing
+number of souls competent to live as human beings.]
+
+[Footnote 47: Perhaps Russians in this as in many other matters think
+somewhat differently from other Europeans.]
+
+[Footnote 48: _Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 427. The chapter
+contains many striking instances of these experiences, collected mostly
+in the west.]
+
+[Footnote 49: Compare _St Teresa's Orison of Union_, W. James, _l.c._ p.
+408.]
+
+[Footnote 50: Indian devotees understand how either Siva or Krishna is
+all in all, and thus too St Teresa understood the mystery of the
+Trinity. See W. James, _l.c._ p. 411.]
+
+[Footnote 51: Turīya or caturtha.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Indians were well aware even in early times that such a
+state might be regarded as equivalent to annihilation. Br. Ar. Up. II.
+4. 13; Chānd. Up. VIII. ii. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 53: The idea is not wholly strange to European philosophy. See
+the passage from the _Phaedo_ quoted by Sir Alfred Lyall. "Thought is
+best when the mind is gathered into herself and none of these things
+trouble her--neither sounds nor sights nor pain nor any pleasure--when she
+has as little as possible to do with the body and has no bodily sense or
+feeling, but is aspiring after being."]
+
+[Footnote 54: Mr Bradley _(Appearance and Reality_, p. 498) says "Spirit
+is a unity of the manifold in which the externality of the manifold has
+utterly ceased." This seems to me one of the cases in which Mr Bradley's
+thought shows an interesting affinity to Indian thought.]
+
+[Footnote 55: But also sometimes _purusha_.]
+
+[Footnote 56: Even when low class yogis display the tortures which they
+inflict on their bodies, their object I think is not to show what
+penances they undergo but simply that pleasure and pain are alike to
+them.]
+
+[Footnote 57: The sense of human dignity was strongest among the early
+Buddhists. They (or some sects of them) held that an arhat is superior
+to a god (or as we should say to an angel) and that a god cannot enter
+the path of salvation and become an arhat.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Cf. Bosanquet, _Gifford Lectures_, 1912, p. 78. "History
+is a hybrid form of experience incapable of any considerable degree of
+being or trueness. The doubtful story of successive events cannot
+amalgamate with the complete interpretation of the social mind, of art,
+or of religion. The great things which are necessary in themselves,
+become within the narrative contingent or ascribed by most doubtful
+assumptions of insight to this actor or that on the historical stage.
+The study of Christianity is the study of a great world experience: the
+assignment to individuals of a share in its development is a problem for
+scholars whose conclusions, though of considerable human interest, can
+never be of supreme importance."]
+
+[Footnote 59: The Chinese critic Hsieh Ho who lived in the sixth century
+of our era said: "In Art the terms ancient and modern have no place."
+This is exactly the Indian view of religion.]
+
+[Footnote 60: _The Varieties of Religious Experience_, pp. 525-527 and
+_A Pluralistic Universe_, p. 310.]
+
+[Footnote 61: And in Russia there are sects which prescribe castration
+and suicide.]
+
+[Footnote 62: This, of course, does not apply to Buddhism in China,
+Japan and Tibet.]
+
+[Footnote 63: This is not true of the more modern Upanishads which are
+often short treatises specially written to extol a particular deity or
+doctrine.]
+
+[Footnote 64: Mahāparinibbāna sutta. See the table of parallel passages
+prefixed to Rhys Davids's translation, _Dialogues of the Buddha_, II.
+72.]
+
+[Footnote 65: Much the same is true of the various editions of the
+Vinaya and the Mahāvastu. These texts were produced by a process first
+of collection and then of amplification.]
+
+[Footnote 66: The latter part of Mahābhārata XII.]
+
+[Footnote 67: Though European religions emphasize man's duty to God,
+they do not exclude the pursuit of happiness: e.g. Westminster Shorter
+Catechism (1647). Question 1, "What is the chief end of man? _A._ Man's
+chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever."]
+
+[Footnote 68: Mrs Rhys Davids has brought out the importance of the will
+for Buddhist ethics in several works. See _J.R.A.S._ 1898, p. 47 and
+_Buddhism_, pp. 221 ff. See also Maj. Nik. 19 for a good example of
+Buddhist views as to the necessity and method of cultivating the will.]
+
+[Footnote 69: Kaush. Up. III. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 70: The words are kāmacāra and akāmacāra. Chand. Up. 8. 1-6.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Mahāvag. I. 6. _E.g._ Ajātasattu (Dig. Nik. 2, _ad fin._)
+would have obtained the eye of truth, had he not been a parricide. The
+consequent distortion of mind made higher states impossible.]
+
+[Footnote 72: But all general statements about Hinduism are liable to
+exceptions. The evil spirit Duhsaha described in the Mārkandeya Purāna
+(chaps. L and LI) comes very near the Devil.]
+
+[Footnote 73: I can understand that the immediate reality is a duality
+or plurality and that the one spirit may appear in many shapes.]
+
+[Footnote 74: _E.g._ Chand. Up. V. 1. 2. Bri. Ar. Up. I. 3. In the
+Pāńcarātra we do hear of a jńānabhramsa or a fall from knowledge
+analogous to the fall of man in Christian theology. Souls have naturally
+unlimited knowledge but this from some reason becomes limited and
+obscured, so that religion is necessary to show the soul the right way.
+Here the ground idea seems to be not that any devil has spoilt the world
+but that ignorance is necessary for the world process, for otherwise
+mankind would be one with God and there would be no world. See Schrader,
+_Introd. to the Pāncarātra_, pp. 78 and 83.]
+
+[Footnote 75: The Satapatha Brāhmana has a curious legend (XI. 1. 6. 8
+ff.) in which the Creator admits that he made evil spirits by mistake
+and smites them. In the Kārikā of Gaudapāda, 2. 19 it is actually said:
+Mayaishā tasya devasya yayā sammohitah svayam.]
+
+[Footnote 76: He does not say this expressly and it requires careful
+statement in India where it is held strongly that God being perfect
+cannot add to his bliss or perfection by creating anything. Compare
+Dante, _Paradiso_, xxix. 13-18:
+
+  Non per aver a sč di bene acquisto,
+  ch' esser non puņ, ma perchč suo splendore
+  potesse risplendendo dir: subsisto.
+  In sua eternitą di tempo fuore,
+  fuor d' ogni altro comprender, come i piacque,
+  s'aperse in nuovi amor l' eterno amore.]
+
+[Footnote 77: The history of Japan and Tibet offers some exceptions.]
+
+[Footnote 78: There are some exceptions, _e.g._ ancient Camboja, the
+Sikhs and the Marathas.]
+
+[Footnote 79: But there are other kinds of worship, such as the old
+Vedic sacrifices which are still occasionally performed, and the burnt
+offerings (homa) still made in some temples. There are also tantric
+ceremonies and in Assam the public worship of the Vishnuites has
+probably been influenced by the ritual of Lamas in neighbouring Buddhist
+countries.]
+
+[Footnote 80: This position is of great importance as tending to produce
+a similar arrangement of religious paraphernalia. The similarity
+disappears when Buddhist ceremonies are performed round Stūpas out of
+doors.]
+
+[Footnote 81: As explained elsewhere, I draw a distinction between
+Tantrism and Sāktism.]
+
+[Footnote 82: It does not seem to me to have given much inspiration to
+Rossetti in his _Aatarte Syriaca_.]
+
+[Footnote 83: But in justice to the Tantras it should be mentioned that
+the Mahā-nirvāna Tantra, x. 79, prohibits the burning of widows.]
+
+[Footnote 84: See _Asiatic Review_, July, 1916, p. 33.]
+
+[Footnote 85: _E.g._ Vijayanagar, the Marathas and the states of
+Rajputana.]
+
+[Footnote 86: According to the census of 1911 no less than 72 per cent.
+of the population live by agriculture.]
+
+[Footnote 87: The chief exceptions are: (_a_) the Tibetan church has
+acquired and holds power by political methods. It is an exact parallel
+to the Papacy, but it has never burnt people. (_b_) In medięval Japan
+the great monasteries became fortified castles with lands and troops of
+their own. They fought one another and were a menace to the state. Later
+the Tokugawa sovereigns had the assistance of the Buddhist clergy in
+driving out Christianity but I do not think that their action can be
+compared either in extent or cruelty with the Inquisition. (_c_) In
+China Buddhism was in many reigns associated with a dissolute court and
+palace intrigues. This led to many scandals and great waste of money.]
+
+[Footnote 88: See for instance Huxley's striking definition of Buddhism
+in his _Romanes Lecture_, 1893. "A system which knows no God in the
+western sense; which denies a soul to man: which counts the belief in
+immortality a blunder and the hope of it a sin: which refuses any
+efficacy to prayer and sacrifice: which bids men look to nothing but
+their own efforts for salvation: which in its original purity knew
+nothing of vows of obedience and never sought the aid of the secular
+arm: yet spread over a considerable moiety of the old world with
+marvellous rapidity and is still with whatever base admixture of foreign
+superstitions the dominant creed of a large fraction of mankind." But
+some of this is too strongly phrased. Early Buddhism counted the desire
+for heaven as a hindrance to the highest spiritual life, but if a man
+had not attained to that plane and was bound to be reborn somewhere, it
+did not question that his natural desire to be reborn in heaven was
+right and proper.]
+
+[Footnote 89: It may of course be denied that Buddhism is a religion. In
+this connection some remarks of Mr Bradley are interesting. "The
+doctrine that there cannot be a religion without a personal God is to my
+mind entirely false" (_Essays on Truth and Reality_, p. 432). "I cannot
+accept a personal God as the ultimate truth" (ib. 449). "There are few
+greater responsibilities which a man can take on himself than to have
+proclaimed or even hinted that without immortality all religion is a
+cheat, all morality a self-deception" (_Appearance and Reality_, p.
+510).]
+
+[Footnote 90: Mahāvamsa, xii. 29, xiv. 58 and 64. Dīpavamsa, xn. 84 and
+85, xiii. 7 and 8.]
+
+[Footnote 91: _Essays in Criticism_, Second Series, Amiel.]
+
+[Footnote 92: This definition of orthodoxy is due to St Vincent of
+Lerins. _Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est._]
+
+[Footnote 93: I know that this statement may encounter objections, but I
+believe that few Indians would be surprised at the proposition that God
+is all things. Some might deny it, but as a familiar error.]
+
+[Footnote 94: But orthodox Christianity really falls into the same
+difficulty. For if God planned the redemption of the world and we are
+saved by the death of Christ, then the Chief Priests, Judas, Pilate and
+the soldiers who crucified Christ are at least the instruments of
+salvation.]
+
+[Footnote 95: Wm James, _Psychology_, pp. 203 and 216.]
+
+[Footnote 96: I quote this epitome from Wildon Carr's Henri Bergson,
+_The Philosophy of Change_, because the phraseology is thoroughly
+Buddhist and appears to have the approval of M. Bergson himself.]
+
+[Footnote 97: _Romanes Lecture_, 1893.]
+
+[Footnote 98: _Appearance_, p. 298.]
+
+[Footnote 99: Thus the Svetāsvatara Up. says that the whole world is
+filled with the parts or limbs of God and metaphors like sparks from a
+fire or threads from a spider seem an attempt to express the same idea.
+Br. Ar. Up. 2. 1. 20; Mund. Up. 2. 1. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 100: _Appearance_, p. 244; _Essays on Truth_, p. 409;
+_Appearance_, p. 413. Though the above quotations are all from Mr
+Bradley I might have added others from Mr Bosanquet's _Gifford Lectures_
+and from Mr McTaggart.]
+
+[Footnote 101: "The plurality of souls in the Absolute is therefore
+appearance and their existence not genuine ... souls like their bodies,
+are as such nothing more than appearance--Neither (body and soul) is real
+in the end: each is merely phenomenal." _Appearance_, pp. 305-307.]
+
+[Footnote 102: Since I wrote this I have read Mr Wells' book _God the
+Invisible King_. Mr Wells knows that he is indebted to oriental thought
+and thinks that European religion in the future may be so too, but I do
+not know if he realizes how nearly his God coincides with the Mahayanist
+conception of a Bodhisattva such as Avalokita or Mańjusri. These great
+beings have, as Bodhisattvas, a beginning: they are not the creators of
+the world but masters and conquerors of it and helpers of mankind: they
+have courage and eternal youth and Mańjusri "bears a sword, that clean
+discriminating weapon." Like most Asiatics, Mr Wells cannot allow his
+God to be crucified and he draws a distinction between God and the
+Veiled Being, very like that made by Indians between Īsvara and
+Brahman.]
+
+[Footnote 103: The Malay countries are the only exception.]
+
+[Footnote 104: Thus Motoori (quoted in Aston's _Shinto_, p. 9) says
+"Birds, beasts, plants and trees, seas and mountains and all other
+things whatsoever which deserve to be dreaded and revered for the
+extraordinary and pre-eminent powers which they possess are called
+_Kami_."]
+
+[Footnote 105: This impersonality is perhaps a later characteristic. The
+original form of the Chinese character for T'ien Heaven represented a
+man. The old Finnish and Samoyede names for God--Ukko and Num--perhaps
+belong to this stage of thought.]
+
+[Footnote 106: See the account of the Faunus message in this book.]
+
+[Footnote 107: The chief exception in Sanskrit is the Rājataranginī, a
+chronicle of Kashmir composed in 1148 A.D. There are also a few
+panegyrics of contemporary monarchs, such as the Harshacarita of Bāna,
+and some of the Puranas (especially the Matsya and Vāyu) contain
+historical material. See Vincent Smith, _Early History of India_, chap.
+I, sect. II, and _Pargiter Dynasties of the Kali Age_. The Greek and
+Roman accounts of Ancient India have been collected by McCrindle in six
+volumes 1877-1901.]
+
+[Footnote 108: The inscriptions of the Chola Kings however (c. 1000
+A.D.) seem to boast of conquests to the East of India. See Coedčs "Le
+royaume de Ērīvijaya" in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1918]
+
+[Footnote 109: Very different opinions have been held as to whether this
+date should be approximately 1500 B.C. or 3000 B.C. The strong
+resemblance of the hymns of the Rig Veda to those of the Avesta is in
+favour of the less ancient date, but the date of the Gathas can hardly
+be regarded as certain.]
+
+[Footnote 110: Linguistically there seems to be two distinct divisions,
+the Dravidians and the Munda (Kolarian).]
+
+[Footnote 111: The affinity between the Dravidian and Ural-Altaic groups
+of languages has often been suggested but has met with scepticism. Any
+adequate treatment of this question demands a comparison of the earliest
+forms known in both groups and as to this I have no pretension to speak.
+But circumstances have led me to acquire at different times some
+practical acquaintance with Turkish and Finnish as well as a slight
+literary knowledge of Tamil and having these data I cannot help being
+struck by the general similarity shown in the structure both of words
+and of sentences (particularly the use of gerunds and the constructions
+which replace relative sentences) and by some resemblances in
+vocabulary. On the other hand the pronouns and consequently the
+conjugation of verbs show remarkable differences. But the curious Brahui
+language, which is classed as Dravidian, has negative forms in which
+_pa_ is inserted into the verb, as in Yakut Turkish, e.g. Yakut
+_bis-pa-ppin_, I do not cut; Brahui _khan-pa-ra_, I do not see. The
+plural of nouns in Brahui uses the suffixes _k_ and _t_ which are found
+in the Finnish group and in Hungarian.]
+
+[Footnote 112: See the legend in the Sat. Brāh. I. 4. 1. 14 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 113: This much seems sure but whereas European scholars were
+till recently agreed that he died about 487 B.C. it is now suggested
+that 543 may be nearer the true date. See Vincent Smith in _Oxford
+History of India_, 1920, p. 48.]
+
+[Footnote 114: Pali Takkasila. Greek Taxila. It was near the modern
+Rawal Pindi and is frequently mentioned in the Jātakas as an ancient and
+well-known place.]
+
+[Footnote 115: Most of them are known by the title of Sātakarni.]
+
+[Footnote 116: But perhaps not in language. Recent research makes it
+probable that the Kushans or Yüeh-chih used an Iranian idiom.]
+
+[Footnote 117: Fleet and Franke consider that Kanishka preceded the two
+Kadphises and began to reign about 58 B.C.]
+
+[Footnote 118: He appears to have been defeated in these regions by the
+Chinese general Pan-Chao about 90 A.D. but to have been more successful
+about fifteen years later.]
+
+[Footnote 119: Or Hephthalites. The original name seems to have been
+something like Haptal.]
+
+[Footnote 120: Strabo XV. 4. 73.]
+
+[Footnote 121: _Hist. Nat_. VI. 23. (26).]
+
+[Footnote 122: For authorities see Vincent Smith, _Early History of
+India_, 1908, p. 401.]
+
+[Footnote 123: The inscriptions of Asoka mention four kingdoms, Pāndya,
+Keralaputra, Cola and Satiyaputra.]
+
+[Footnote 124: Hinduism is often used as a name for the mediaeval and
+modern religion of India, and Brahmanism for the older pre-Buddhist
+religion. But one word is needed as a general designation for Indian
+religion and Hinduism seems the better of the two for this purpose.]
+
+[Footnote 125: Excluding Burma the last Census gives over 300,000. These
+are partly inhabitants of frontier districts, which are Indian only in
+the political sense, and partly foreigners residing in India.]
+
+[Footnote 126: Only tradition preserves the memory of an older and freer
+system, when warriors like Visvāmitra were able by their religious
+austerities to become Brahmans. See Muir's _Sanskrit texts_, vol. I. pp.
+296-479 on the early contests between Warriors and Brahmans. We hear of
+Kings like Janaka of Videha and Ajātasatru of Kāsi who were admitted to
+be more learned than Brahmans but also of Kings like Vena and Nahusha
+who withstood the priesthood "and perished through want of
+submissiveness." The legend of Parasurāma, an incarnation of Vishnu as a
+Brahman who destroyed the Kshatriya race, must surely have some
+historical foundation, though no other evidence is forthcoming of the
+events which it relates.]
+
+[Footnote 127: In southern India and in Assam the superiors of
+monasteries sometimes exercise a quasi-episcopal authority.]
+
+[Footnote 128: Sat. Brāhm. v. 3. 3. 12 and v. 4. 2. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 129: The Mārkandeya Purāna discusses the question how Krishna
+could become a man.]
+
+[Footnote 130: See for instance _The Holy Lives of the Azhvars_ by
+Alkondavilli Govindācārya. Mysore, 1902, pp. 215-216. "The Dravida Vedas
+have thus as high a sanction and authority as the Girvana (i.e.
+Sanskrit) Vedas."]
+
+[Footnote 131: I am inclined to believe that the Lingāyat doctrine
+really is that Lingāyats dying in the true faith do not transmigrate any
+more.]
+
+[Footnote 132: E.g. Brih.-Ār. III. 2. 13 and IV. 4. 2-6.]
+
+[Footnote 133: This is the accepted translation of _dukkha_ but perhaps
+it is too strong, and _uneasiness_, though inconvenient for literary
+reasons, gives the meaning better.]
+
+[Footnote 134: The old Scandinavian literature with its gods who must
+die is equally full of this sense of impermanence, but the Viking
+temperament bade a man fight and face his fate.]
+
+[Footnote 135: But see Rabindrannath Tagore: Sadhana, especially the
+Chapter on Realization.]
+
+[Footnote 136: Cf. Shelley's lines in Hellas:--
+
+ "Worlds on worlds are rolling ever
+  From creation to decay,
+  Like the bubbles on a river
+  Sparkling, bursting, borne away."]
+
+[Footnote 137: Nevertheless _deva_ is sometimes used in the Upanishads
+as a designation of the supreme spirit.]
+
+[Footnote 138: E.g. Brih.-Ār. Up. IV. 3. 33 and the parallel passages in
+the Taittirīya and other Upanishads.]
+
+[Footnote 139: The principal one is the date of Asoka, deducible from an
+inscription in which he names contemporary Seleucid monarchs.]
+
+[Footnote 140: _E.g._ a learned Brahman is often described in the Sutta
+Pitaka as "a repeater (of the sacred words) knowing the mystic verses by
+heart, one who had mastered the three Vedas, with the indices, the
+ritual, the phonology, the exegesis and the legends as a fifth."]
+
+[Footnote 141: There had been time for misunderstandings to arise. Thus
+the S^{.}atapatha Brāhmana sees in the well-known verse "who is the God
+to whom we shall offer our sacrifices" an address to a deity named Ka
+(Sanskrit for _who_) and it would seem that an old word, _uloka_, has
+been separated in several passages into two words, _u_ (a meaningless
+particle) and _loka_.]
+
+[Footnote 142: Recent scholars are disposed to fix the appearance of
+Zoroaster between the middle of the seventh century and the earlier half
+of the sixth century B.C. But this date offers many difficulties. It
+makes it hard to explain the resemblances between the Gathas and the Rig
+Veda and how is it that respectable classical authorities of the fourth
+century B.C. quoted by Pliny attribute a high antiquity to Zoroaster?]
+
+[Footnote 143: This applies chiefly to the three Samhitās or collections
+of hymns and prayers. On the other hand there was no feeling against the
+composition of new Upanishads or the interpolation and amplification of
+the Epics.]
+
+[Footnote 144: The Hotri recites prayers while other priests perform the
+act of sacrifice. But there are several poems in the Rig Veda for which
+even Indian ingenuity has not been able to find a liturgical use.]
+
+[Footnote 145: Thus the Pali Pitakas speak of the Tevijjā or threefold
+knowledge of the Brahmans.]
+
+[Footnote 146: Or it may be that the ancestors of the Persians were also
+in the Panjab and retired westwards.]
+
+[Footnote 147: R.V. v. 3. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 148: See the Ganesātharvasīrsha Upan. and Gopinatha Rao.
+_Hindu Iconography_, vol. I. pp. 35-67.]
+
+[Footnote 149: See R.V. III. 34. 9. i. 130. 8; iv. 26. 2. vi. 18. 3; iv.
+16. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 150: In one singular hymn (R.V. x. 119) Indra describes his
+sensations after drinking freely, and in the Satapatha Brahmana (V. 5.
+4. 9 and XII. 7. 1. 11) he seems to be represented as suffering from his
+excesses and having to be cured by a special ceremony.]
+
+[Footnote 151: In some passages of the Upanishads he is identified with
+the ātman _(e.g._ Kaushitaki Up. III. 8), but then all persons, whether
+divine or human, are really the ātman if they only knew it.]
+
+[Footnote 152: A.V. IV. 16. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 153: The Indian alphabets are admittedly Semitic in origin.]
+
+[Footnote 154: See Mahābhār. I. xvii-xviii and other accounts in the
+Rāmāyana and Purānas.]
+
+[Footnote 155: It has also been conjectured that Sk. Asura=Ashur, the
+God of Assyria, and that Sumeru or Sineru (Meru)=Sumer or Shinar, see
+_J.R.A.S._ 1916, pp. 364-5.]
+
+[Footnote 156: Rig V. I. 164. 46.]
+
+[Footnote 157: For instance chap. III. of the Chāndogya Upanishad, which
+compares the solar system to a beehive in which the bees are Vedic
+hymns, is little less than stupendous, though singular and hard for
+European thought to follow.]
+
+[Footnote 158: I presume that the strong opinion expressed in Caland and
+Henri's _Agnishloma_ p. 484 that the sacrifice is merely a _do ut des_
+operation refers only to the earliest Vedic period and not to the time
+of the Brāhmanas.]
+
+[Footnote 159: Thus both the Vedas and the Tantras devote considerable
+space to rites which have for object the formation of a new body for the
+sacrificer. Compare for instance the Aitareya Brāhmana (I. 18-21: II.
+35-38: III. 2 and VI. 27-31) with Avalon's account of Nyāsa, in his
+introduction to the Mahānirvāna Tantra pages cvii-cxi.]
+
+[Footnote 160: There is considerable doubt as to what was the plant
+originally known as Soma. That described in the Vedas and Brāhmanas is
+said to grow on the mountains and to have a yellow juice of a strong
+smell, fiery taste and intoxicating properties. The plants used as Haom
+(Hum) by the modern Parsis of Yezd and Kerman are said to be members of
+the family Asclepiadaceae (perhaps of the genus Sarcostemma) with fleshy
+stalks and milky juice, and the Soma tested by Dr Haug at Poona was
+probably made from another species of the same or an allied genus. He
+found it extremely nasty, though it had some intoxicating effect. (See
+his _Aitareya Brdh-mana_ n. p. 489.)]
+
+[Footnote 161: An ordinary sacrifice was offered for a private person
+who had to be initiated and the priests were merely officiants acting on
+his behalf. In a Sattra the priests were regarded as the sacrificers and
+were initiated. It had some analogy to Buddhist and Christian monastic
+foundations for reading sūtras and saying masses.]
+
+[Footnote 162: The political importance of the Asvamedha lay in the fact
+that the victim had to be let loose to roam freely for a year, so that
+only a king whose territories were sufficiently extensive to allow of
+its being followed and guarded during its wanderings could hope to
+sacrifice it at the end.]
+
+[Footnote 163: R.V. x. 136 and x. 190.]
+
+[Footnote 164: Even the Upanishads (_e.g._ Chānd. III. 17, Mahānār. 64)
+admit that a good life which includes _tapas_ is the equivalent of
+sacrifice. But this of course is teaching for the elect only. The
+Brih.-Āran. Up. (V. ii) contains the remarkable doctrine that sickness
+and pain, if regarded by the sufferer as _tapas_, bring the same
+reward.]
+
+[Footnote 165: So too in the Taittirīya Upanishad _tapas_ is described
+as the means of attaining the knowledge of Brahman (III. 1-5).]
+
+[Footnote 166: Any ritual without knowledge may be worse than useless.
+See Chānd. Up. I. 10. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 167: See the various narratives in the Chāndogya, Br.-Āran.
+and Kaushītaki Upanishads. The seventh chapter of the Chāndogya relating
+how Nārada, the learned sage, was instructed by Sanatkumāra or Skanda,
+the god of war, seems to hint that the active military class may know
+the great truths of religion better than deeply read priests who may be
+hampered and blinded by their learning. For Skanda and Nārada in this
+connection see Bhagavad-gitā x. 24, 26.]
+
+[Footnote 168: For the necessity of a teacher see Kāth. Up. II. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 169: See especially the bold passage at the end of Taitt.
+Upan. II. "He who knows the bliss of Brahman ... fears nothing. He does
+not torment himself by asking what good have I left undone, what evil
+have I done?"]
+
+[Footnote 170: The word Upanishad probably means sitting down at the
+feet of a teacher to receive secret instruction: hence a secret
+conversation or doctrine.]
+
+[Footnote 171: Some allusions in the older Upanishads point to this
+district rather than the Ganges Valley as the centre of Brahmanic
+philosophy. Thus the Brihad-Āranyaka speaks familiarly of Gāndhāra.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Cat. Adyar Library. The Rig and Sāma Vedas have two
+Upanishads each, the Yajur Veda seven. All the others are described as
+belonging to the Atharva Veda. They have no real connection with it, but
+it was possible to add to the literature of the Atharva whereas it was
+hardly possible to make similar additions to the older Vedas.]
+
+[Footnote 173: Debendranath Tagore composed a work which he called the
+Brāhmī Upanishad in 1848. See Autobiography, p. 170. The sectarian
+Upanishads are of doubtful date, but many were written between 400 and
+1200 A.D. and were due to the desire of new sects to connect their
+worship with the Veda. Several are Saktist (e.g. Kaula, Tripurā, Devī)
+and many others show Saktist influence. They usually advocate the
+worship of a special deity such as Ganesa, Sūrya, Rāma, Nri Simha.]
+
+[Footnote 174: Br.-Āran. VI. 1, Ait. Āran. II. 4, Kaush. III. 3, Prasna,
+II. 3, Chānd. V. 1. The apologue is curiously like in form to the
+classical fable of the belly and members.]
+
+[Footnote 175: Br.-Āran. VI. 2, Chānd. V. 3]
+
+[Footnote 176: Br.-Āran. II. 1, Kaush. IV. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 177: The composite structure of these works is illustrated
+very clearly by the Brihad-Āranyaka. It consists of three sections each
+concluding with a list of teachers, namely (_a_) adhyāyas 1 and 2, (_b_)
+adh. 3 and 4, (_c_) adh. 5 and 6. The lists are not quite the same,
+which indicates some slight difference between the sub-schools which
+composed the three parts, and a lengthy passage occurs twice in an
+almost identical form. The Upanishad is clearly composed of two separate
+collections with the addition of a third which still bears the title of
+_Khila_ or supplement. The whole work exists in two recensions.]
+
+[Footnote 178: The Eleven translated in the _Sacred Books of the East_,
+vols. I and XV, include the oldest and most important.]
+
+[Footnote 179: Thus the Aitareya Brāhmana is followed by the Aitareya
+Āranyaka and that by the Aitareya-Āranyaka-Upanishad.]
+
+[Footnote 180: R.V. X. 121. The verses are also found in the Atharva
+Veda, the Vājasaneyi, Taittirīya, Maitrāyani, and Kāthaka Samhitās and
+elsewhere.]
+
+[Footnote 181: R.V. X. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 182: IV. 5. 5 and repeated almost verbally II. 4. 5 with some
+omissions. My quotation is somewhat abbreviated and repetitions are
+omitted.]
+
+[Footnote 183: The sentiment is perhaps the same as that underlying the
+words attributed to Florence Nightingale: "I must strive to see only God
+in my friends and God in my cats."]
+
+[Footnote 184: It will be observed that he had said previously that the
+Ātman must be seen, heard, perceived and known. This is an inconsistent
+use of language.]
+
+[Footnote 185: Chāndogya Upanishad VI.]
+
+[Footnote 186: In the language of the Upanishads the Ātman is often
+called simply Tat or it.]
+
+[Footnote 187: _I.e._ the difference between clay and pots, etc. made of
+clay.]
+
+[Footnote 188: Yet the contrary proposition is maintained in this same
+Upanishad (III. 19. 1), in the Taittirīya Upanishad (II. 8) and
+elsewhere. The reason of these divergent statements is of course the
+difficulty of distinguishing pure Being without attributes from not
+Being.]
+
+[Footnote 189: The word union is a convenient but not wholly accurate
+term which covers several theories. The Upanishads sometimes speak of
+the union of the soul with Brahman or its absorption in Brahman (_e.g._
+Maitr. Up. VI. 22, _Sāyujyatvam_ and _asabde nidhanam eti_) but the soul
+is more frequently stated to be Brahman or a part of Brahman and its
+task is not to effect any act of union but simply to _know_ its own
+nature. This knowledge is in itself emancipation. The well-known simile
+which compares the soul to a river flowing into the sea is found in the
+Upanishads (Chānd. VI. 10. 1, Mund. III. 2, Prasna, VI. 5) but Sankara
+(on Brahma S. I. iv. 21-22) evidently feels uneasy about it. From his
+point of view the soul is not so much a river as a bay which _is_ the
+sea, if the landscape can be seen properly.]
+
+[Footnote 190: The Māndukya Up. calls the fourth state
+_ekātmapratyayasāra_, founded solely on the certainty of its own self
+and Gaudapāda says that in it there awakes the eternal which neither
+dreams nor sleeps. (Kār. I. 15. See also III. 34 and 36.)]
+
+[Footnote 191: Br.-Āranyaka, IV. 3. 33.]
+
+[Footnote 192: Cf. Bradley, _Appearance and Reality_, p. 244. "The
+perfect ... means the identity of idea and existence, attended also by
+pleasure."]
+
+[Footnote 193: Tait. Up. II. 1-9. See too ib. III. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 194: Br.-Āran. III. 8. 10. See too VI. 2.15, speaking of those
+who in the forest worship the truth with faith.]
+
+[Footnote 195: Chāndog. Up. IV. 10. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 196: It occurs Katha. Up. II. v. 13, 15, also in the
+Svetāsvatara and Mundaka Upanishads and there are similar words in the
+Bhagavad-gītā. "This is that" means that the individual soul is the same
+as Brahman.]
+
+[Footnote 197: The Nrisimhottaratapanīya Up. I. says that Īsvara is
+swallowed up in the Turīya.]
+
+[Footnote 198: But still ancient and perhaps anterior to the Christian
+era.]
+
+[Footnote 199: Svet. Up. VI. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 200: Svet. Up. IV. 3. Max Müller's translation. The commentary
+attributed to Sankara explains nīlah patangah as bhramarah but Deussen
+seems to think it means a bird.]
+
+[Footnote 201: Chānd. Up. vi. 14. 1. Sat. Brāh. viii. 1. 4. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 202: The Brahmans are even called low-born as compared with
+Kshatriyas and in the Ambattha Sutta (Dig. Nik. iii.) the Buddha
+demonstrates to a Brahman who boasts of his caste that the usages of
+Hindu society prove that "the Kshatriyas are higher and the Brahmans
+lower," seeing that the child of a mixed union between the castes is
+accepted by the Brahmans as one of themselves but not by the Kshatriyas,
+because he is not of pure descent.]
+
+[Footnote 203: He had learnt the Veda and Upanishads. Brih.-Ār. iv. 2.
+1.]
+
+[Footnote 204: Chānd. Up. v. 3. 7, Kaush. Up. iv., Brih.-Ār. Up. ii. 1.
+The Kshatriyas seem to have regarded the doctrine of the two paths which
+can be taken by the soul after death (_devayāna_ and _pitriyāna_, the
+latter involving return to earth and transmigration) as their special
+property.]
+
+[Footnote 205: Literally set in front, pręfectus.]
+
+[Footnote 206: Sat. Brāh. ii. 4. 4. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 207: Sat. Brāh. iv. 1. 4. 1-6.]
+
+[Footnote 208: The legends of Vena, Parasurāma and others indicate the
+prevalence of considerable hostility between Brahmans and Kshatriyas at
+some period.]
+
+[Footnote 209: Brahmacārin, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, Sannyāsin.]
+
+[Footnote 210: Thus in the Brih.-Āran. Yajńavalkya retires to the
+forest. But even the theory of three stages was at this time only in the
+making, for the last section of the Chāndogya Up. expressly authorizes a
+religious man to spend all his life as a householder after completing
+his studentship and the account given of the stages in Chānd. ii. 21 is
+not very clear.]
+
+[Footnote 211: Sat. Brāh. xi. 5. 6. 8. Cf. the lists in the Chāndogya
+Upanishad vii. secs. 1, 2 and 7.]
+
+[Footnote 212: In southern India at the present day it is the custom for
+Brahmans to live as Agnihotris and maintain the sacred fire for a few
+days after their marriage.]
+
+[Footnote 213: See Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, vol.
+v. s.v.]
+
+[Footnote 214: The Emperor Jehangir writing about 1616 implies that the
+Asramas, which he describes, were observed by the Brahmans of that time.
+See his _Memoirs_, edited by Beveridge, pp. 357-359.]
+
+[Footnote 215: Sat. Brāh. I. 7. 2. 1. Cf. Tait. Brāh. VI. 3. 10. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 216: Such as those built by Jānasruti Pautrāyana. See Chānd.
+Up. IV. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 217: Sat. Brāh. XI. 4. 1. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 218: Sat. Brāh. ii. 2. 2. 6 and iv. 3. 4. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 219: Sat. Brāh. iv. 3. 4. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 220: Vishnu Pur. iii. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 221: Sat. Brāh. iii. 8. 2. 24. Yājńavalkya is the principal
+authority cited in books i-v and x-xiv of this Brāhmana, but not in
+books vi-ix, which perhaps represent an earlier treatise incorporated in
+the text.]
+
+[Footnote 222: Or "in confidence." Sat. Brāh. xi. 3. 1. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 223: Brih.-Ār. iii. 2. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 224: In the Pali Pitaka the Buddha is represented as preaching
+in the land of the Kurus.]
+
+[Footnote 225: These are the Pali forms. The Sanskrit equivalents are
+Parivrājaka and Sramana.]
+
+[Footnote 226: See for instance Mahāv. II. 1 and III. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 227: Dig. Nik. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 228: See O. Schrader, _Stand der indischen Philosophie zur
+Zeit Mahāvīras und Buddhas_, 1902.
+
+See also Ang. Nik. vol. III. p. 276 and Rhys Davids' _Dialogues of the
+Buddha_, I. pp. 220 ff. But these passages give one an impression of the
+multitude of ascetic confraternities rather than a clear idea of their
+different views.]
+
+[Footnote 229: It finds expression in two hymns of the Atharva Veda,
+XIX. 53 and 54. Cf. too Gaudap. Kār. 8. Kālāt prasūtim bhutānām manyante
+kālacintakāh.]
+
+[Footnote 230: Dīgha Nikāya II. The opinions of the six teachers are
+quoted as being answers to a question put to them by King Ajātasattu,
+namely, What is gained by renouncing the world? Judged as such, they are
+irrelevant but they probably represent current statements as to the
+doctrine of each sect. The six teachers are also mentioned in several
+other passages of the Dīgha and Maj. Nikāyas and also in the
+Sutta-Nipāta. It is clear that at a very early period the list of their
+names had become the usual formula for summarizing the teaching
+prevalent in the time of Gotama which was neither Brahmanic nor
+Buddhist.]
+
+[Footnote 231: Dig. Nik. I. 23-28.]
+
+[Footnote 232: A rather defiant materialism preaching, "Let us eat and
+drink for to-morrow we die," crops up in India in various ages though
+never very prominent.]
+
+[Footnote 233: But possibly the ascetics described by it were only
+Digambara Jains.]
+
+[Footnote 234: See especially the article Ājīvikas by Hoernle, in
+Hastings' _Dictionary of Religion_. Also Hoernle, _Uvāsagadasao_,
+appendix, pp. 1-29. Rockhill, _Life of the Buddha_, pp. 249 ff.
+Schrader, _Stand der indischen Philosophie zur Zeit Mahāvķras und
+Buddhas_, p. 32. Sūtrakritānga II. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 235: Makkhali lived some time with Mahāvira, but they
+quarrelled. But his followers, though they may not have been a united
+body so much as other sects, had definite characteristics.]
+
+[Footnote 236: _E.g._ Sat. Brāh. v. 4. 4. 13. "He thus encloses the
+Vaisya and Sūdra on both sides by the priesthood and nobility and makes
+them submissive."]
+
+[Footnote 237: See Sānkhāyana Āranyaka. Trans. Keith, pp. viii-xi, 78
+85. Also Aitareya Āran. book v.]
+
+[Footnote 238: Cf. the ritual for the Horse sacrifice. ['Sat]. Brāh,
+xiii. 2. 8, and Hillebrandt, _Vedische Opfer_., p. 152.]
+
+[Footnote 239: Supplemented by the Kausika Sūtra, which, whatever its
+age may be, has preserved a record of very ancient usages.]
+
+[Footnote 240: _E.g._ I. 10. This hymn, like many others, seems to
+combine several moral and intellectual stages, the level at which the
+combination was possible not being very high. On the one hand Varuna is
+the Lord of Law and of Truth who punishes moral offences with dropsy. On
+the other, the sorcerer "releases" the patient from Varuna by charms,
+without imposing any moral penance, and offers the god a thousand other
+men, provided that this particular victim is released.]
+
+[Footnote 241: _E.g._ VII. 116, VI. 105, VI. 83.]
+
+[Footnote 242: _E.g._ V. 7, XI. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 243: _E.g._ V. 4, XIX. 39, IV. 37, II. 8, XIX. 34, VIII. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 244: A. V XI. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 245: See, for instance, Du Bose, _The Dragon, Image and
+Demon_, 1887, pp. 320-344.]
+
+[Footnote 246: Atānātiya and Mahāsamaya. Dig. Nik. XX. and XXXII.]
+
+[Footnote 247: See Crooke's _Popular Religion of Northern India_, vol.
+II. chap. ii.]
+
+[Footnote 248: In the Brahma-Jala and subsequent suttas of the Dīgha
+Nikāya.]
+
+[Footnote 249: See Rhys Davids' _Dialogues of the Buddha_, vol. I. p. 7,
+note 4, and authorities there quoted.]
+
+[Footnote 250: Krishna is perhaps mentioned in the Chānd. Up. III. 17.
+6, but in any case not as a deity.]
+
+[Footnote 251: See, besides the translations mentioned below, Bühler,
+_Ueber die indische Secte der Jainas_ 1887; Hoernle, _Metaphysics and
+Ethics of the Jainas_ 1908; and Guérinot, _Essai de Bibliographie Jaina_
+and _Répertoire d'Épigraphie Jaina_; Jagmanderlal Jaini, _Outlines of
+Jainism_; Jacobi's article Jainism in _E.R.E._. Much information may
+also be found in Mrs Stevenson's _Heart of Jainism_. Winternitz,
+_Geschichte d. Indischen Literatur_, vol. II. part II. (1920) treats of
+Jain literature but I have not been able to see it.]
+
+[Footnote 252: In _J.R.A.S._ 1917, pp. 122-130 s.v. Venkatesvara argues
+that Vardhamāna died about 437 B.C. and that the Niganthas of the
+Pitakas were followers of Parsva. His arguments deserve consideration
+but he seems not to lay sufficient emphasis on the facts that _(a)_
+according to the Buddhist scriptures the Buddha and Gosāla were
+contemporaries, while according to the Jain scriptures Gosāla and
+Vardhamāna were contemporaries, _(b)_ in the Buddhist scriptures
+Nātaputta is the representative of the Niganthas, while according to the
+Jain scriptures Vardhamāna was of the Ńata clan.]
+
+[Footnote 253: The atoms are either simple or compound and from their
+combinations are produced the four elements, earth, wind, fire and
+water, and the whole material universe. For a clear statement of the
+modern Jain doctrine about _dharma_ and _adharma_, see Jagmanderlal
+Jaini, l.c. pp. 22 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 254: Jīva, ajīva, āsrava, bandha, samvara, nirjarā, moksha.
+The principles are sometimes made nine by the addition of _punya_,
+merit, and _pāpa_, sin.]
+
+[Footnote 255: Paudgalikam karma. It would seem that all these ideas
+about Karma should be taken in a literal and material sense. Karma,
+which is a specially subtle form of matter able to enter, stain and
+weigh down the soul, is of eight kinds (1 and 2) jńāna- and
+darsana-varanīya impede knowledge and faith, which the soul naturally
+possesses; (3) mohanīya causes delusion; (4) vedanīya brings pleasure
+and pain; (5) ayushka fixes the length of life; (6) nāma furnishes
+individual characteristics, and (7) gotra generic; (8) antarāya hinders
+the development of good qualities.]
+
+[Footnote 256: Kevalam also called Jńāna, moksha, nirvāna. The nirvāna
+of the Jains is clearly not incompatible with the continuance of
+intelligence and knowledge.]
+
+[Footnote 257: Uttarādhyāyana XXXVI. 64-68 in _S.B.E._ XLV. pp.
+212-213.]
+
+[Footnote 258: _S.B.E._ XLV. p. xxvii. Bhandarkar Report for 1883-4, pp.
+95 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 259: Somewhat similar seems to be the relation of Jainism to
+the Vaiseshika philosophy. It accepted an early form of the atomic
+theory and this theory was subsequently elaborated in the philosophy
+whose founder Kanāda was according to the Jains a pupil of a Jain
+ascetic.]
+
+[Footnote 260: _E.g._ see Acarānga S. I. 7. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 261: They seem to have authority to formulate it in a form
+suitable to the needs of the age. Thus we are told that Parsva enjoined
+four vows but Mahāvīra five.]
+
+[Footnote 262: When Gotama after attaining Buddhahood was on his way to
+Benares he met Upaka, a naked ascetic, to whom he declared that he was
+the Supreme Buddha. Then, said Upaka, you profess to be the Jina, and
+Gotama replied that he did, "Tasmā 'ham Upakā jinoti." (Mahāvag. I. 6.
+10.)]
+
+[Footnote 263: The exact period is 100 billion sāgaras of years. A
+sāgara is 100,000,000,000 palyas. A palya is the period in which a well
+a mile deep filled with fine hairs can be emptied if one hair is
+withdrawn every hundred years.]
+
+[Footnote 264: See M. Bloomfield, _Life and Stories of Pārēvanātha_
+(1919).]
+
+[Footnote 265: See the discussions between followers of Parsva and
+Mahāvīra given in Uttarādhyāyana XXIV. and Sūtrakritānga II. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 266: There are many references to the Niganthas in the
+Buddhist scriptures and the Buddha, while by no means accepting their
+views, treats them with tolerance. Thus he bade Siha, General of the
+Licchavis, who became his disciple after being an adherent of Nātaputta
+to continue to give alms as before to Nigantha ascetics (Mahāvag. VI.
+32).]
+
+[Footnote 267: Especially among the Ājīvikas. Their leader Gosāla had a
+personal quarrel with Mahāvīra but his teaching was almost identical
+except that he was a fatalist.]
+
+[Footnote 268: Uttarādhyāyana. XXIII. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 269: According to Svetāmbara tradition there was a great
+schism 609 years after Mahāvīra's death. The canon was not fixed until
+904 (? 454 A.D.) of the same era. The Digambara traditions are different
+but appear to be later.]
+
+[Footnote 270: See especially Guérinot, _Répertoire d'Éipigraphie
+Jaina_]
+
+[Footnote 271: So Bühler, Pillar Edict no. VIII. Senart Inscrip. de
+Piyadasi II. 97 translates somewhat differently, but the reference to
+the Jains is not disputed.]
+
+[Footnote 272: Rock Edict VI.]
+
+[Footnote 273: Rice _(Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions_, 1909, p.
+310) thinks that certain inscriptions at Sravana Belgola in Mysore
+establish that this tradition is true and also that the expedition was
+accompanied by King Candragupta who had abdicated and become a Jain
+ascetic. But this interpretation has been much criticised. It is
+probably true that a migration occurred and increased the differences
+which ultimately led to the division into Svetāmbaras and Digambaras.]
+
+[Footnote 274: Guérinot, _Épig. Jaina_, no. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 275: Rice, _Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions_, 1909, pp.
+113-114, 207-208.]
+
+[Footnote 276: Similar tolerance is attested by inscriptions (_e.g._
+Guérinot, nos. 522 and 5776) recording donations to both Jain and Saiva
+temples.]
+
+[Footnote 277: They also make a regular practice of collecting and
+rearing young animals which the owners throw away or wish to kill.]
+
+[Footnote 278: Or Sthānakavāsi. See for them _Census of India_, 1911, 1.
+p. 127 and _Baroda_, p. 93. The sect waa founded about A.D. 1653.]
+
+[Footnote 279: Their names are as follows in Jain Prakrit, the Sanskrit
+equivalent being given in bracketa:
+
+  1. *Āyārāngasuttam (Ācārānga).
+  2. *Sūyagadangam (Sūtrakritāngam).
+  3. Thānangam (Sthā.).
+  4. Samavāyangam.
+  5. Viyāhapańńatti (Vyākhyāprajnāpti). This work is commonly known
+     as the Bhagavatī.
+  6. Ńāyādhammakahāo (Jńātadharmakathā).
+  7. *Uvāsagadasao (Upāsakadasāh).
+  8. *Antagadadasao (Antakritad.).
+  9. *Anuttarovavāidasāo (Anuttaraupapātikad.).
+  10. Panhāvāgaranāim (Prasnavyakaranāni).
+  11. Vivāgasuyam (Vipākasrutam).
+
+The books marked with an asterisk have been translated by Jacobi
+(_S.B.E._ vols. XXII. and XIV.), Hoernle and Barnett. See too Weber,
+_Indischie Studien_, Bd. XVI. pp. 211-479 and Bd. XVIII. pp. 1-90.]
+
+[Footnote 280: It is called Ārsha or Ardha-Māgadhi and is the literary
+form of the vernacular of Berar in the early centuries of the Christian
+era. See H. Jacobi, Ausgewählte Erzählungen in _Maharashtri_, and
+introduction to edition of _Ayarānga-sutta_.]
+
+[Footnote 281: The titles given in note 2 illustrate aome of its
+peculiarities.]
+
+[Footnote 282: When I visited Sravana Belgola in 1910, the head of the
+Jains there, who professed to be a Digambara, though dressed in purple
+raiment, informed me that their sacred works were partly in Sanskrit and
+partly in Prakrit. He showed me a book called Trilokasāra.]
+
+[Footnote 283: But see Jagmanderlal Jaini, l.c. appendix V.]
+
+[Footnote 284: Compare for instance Uttarādyayana X., XXIII. and XXV.
+with the Sutta-Nipāta and Dhammapada.]
+
+[Footnote 285: I have only visited establishments in towns. Possibly
+Yatis who follow a severer rule may be found in the country, especially
+among Digambaras.]
+
+[Footnote 286: In Gujarat they are called Cho-mukhji and it is said that
+when a Tīrthankara preached in the midst of his audience each side saw
+him facing them. In Burma the four figures are generally said to be the
+last four Buddhas.]
+
+[Footnote 287: This seems clear from the presence in Burma of the
+curvilinear sikra and even of copies of Indian temples, _e.g._ of
+Bodh-Gaya at Pagan. Burmese pilgrims to Gaya might easily have visited
+Mt Parasnath on their way.]
+
+[Footnote 288: I have this information from the Jain Guru at Sravana
+Belgola. He said that Gomatesvara (who seems unknown to the Svetāmbaras)
+waa a Kevalin but not a Tīrthankara.]
+
+[Footnote 289: Two others, rather smaller, are known, one at Karkāl
+(dated 1431) and one at Yannur. These images are honoured at occasional
+festivals (one was held at Sravana Belgola in 1910) attended by a
+considerable concourse of Jains. The type of the statues is not
+Buddhist. They are nude and represent sages meditating in a standing
+position whereas Buddhists prescribe a sitting posture for meditation.]
+
+[Footnote 290: The mountain of Satrunjaya rises above Palitāna, the
+capital of a native state in Gujarat. Other collections of temples are
+found on the hill of Parasnath in Bengal, at Sonāgir near Datiā, and
+Muktagiri near Gāwīlgarh. There are also a good many on the hills above
+Rajgīr.]
+
+[Footnote 291: The strength of Buddhism in Burma and Siam is no doubt
+largely due to the fact that custom obliges every one to spend part of
+his life--if only a few days--as a member of the order.]
+
+[Footnote 292: One might perhaps add to this list the Skoptsy of Russia
+and the Armenian colonies in many European and Asiatic towns.]
+
+[Footnote 293: Throughout this book I have not hesitated to make use of
+the many excellent translations of Pali works which have been published.
+Students of Indian religion need hardly be reminded how much our
+knowledge of Pali writings and of early Buddhism owes to the labours of
+Professor and Mrs Rhys Davids.]
+
+[Footnote 294: Sanskrit Sūtra, Pali Sutta. But the use of the words is
+not quite the same in Buddhist and Brahmanic literature. A Buddhist
+sutta or sūtra is a discourse, whether in Pali or in Sanskrit; a
+Brahmanic sūtra is an aphorism. But the 227 divisions of the Pātimokkha
+are called Suttas, so that the word may have been originally used in
+Pali to denote short statements of a single point. The longer Suttas are
+often called Suttanta.]
+
+[Footnote 295: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 123 about the marvels attending the
+birth of a Buddha.]
+
+[Footnote 296: See some further remarks on this subject at the end of
+chap. XIII. (on the Canon).]
+
+[Footnote 297: Also Sakya or Sakka. The Sanskrit form is Sākya.]
+
+[Footnote 298: See among other passages the Ambattha Sutta of the Dīgha
+Nikāya in which Ambattha relates how he saw the Sākyas, old and young,
+sitting on grand seats in this hall.]
+
+[Footnote 299: But in Cullavagga VII. 1 Bhaddiya, a cousin of the Buddha
+who is described as being the Rājā at that time, says when thinking of
+renouncing the world "Wait whilst I hand over the kingdom to my sons and
+my brothers," which seems to imply that the kingdom was a family
+possession. Rajja perhaps means Consulship in the Roman sense rather
+than kingdom.]
+
+[Footnote 300: E.g. the Sonadanda and Kūtadanta Suttas of the Dīgha
+Nikāya.]
+
+[Footnote 301: Sanskrit Kapilavastu: red place or red earth.]
+
+[Footnote 302: Tradition is unanimous that he died in his eightieth year
+and hitherto it has been generally supposed that this was about 487
+B.C., so that he would have been born a little before 560. But Vincent
+Smith now thinks that he died about 543 B.C. See _J.R.A.S._ 1918, p.
+547. He was certainly contemporary with kings Bimbisāra and Ajātasattu,
+dying in the reign of the latter. His date therefore depends on the
+chronology of the Saisunāga and Nanda dynasties, for which new data are
+now available.]
+
+[Footnote 303: It was some time before the word came to mean definitely
+the Buddha. In Udāna 1.5, which is not a very early work, a number of
+disciples including Devadatta are described as being all _Buddhā_.]
+
+[Footnote 304: The Chinese translators render this word by Ju-lai (he
+who has come thus). As they were in touch with the best Indian
+tradition, this translation seems to prove that Tathāgata is equivalent
+to Tathā-āgata not to Tātha-gata and the meaning must be, he who has
+come in the proper manner; a holy man who conforms to a type and is one
+in a series of Buddhas or Jinas.]
+
+[Footnote 305: See the article on the neighbouring country of Magadha in
+Macdonell and Keith's _Vedic Index_.]
+
+[Footnote 306: Cf. the Ratthapāla-sutta.]
+
+[Footnote 307: Mahāv. I. 54. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 308: Devadūtavagga. Ang. Nik. III. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 309: But the story is found in the Mahāpadāna-sutta. See also
+Winternitz, _J.R.A.S._ 1911, p. 1146.]
+
+[Footnote 310: He mentions that he had three palaces or houses, for the
+hot, cold and rainy seasons respectively, but this is not necessarily
+regal for the same words are used of Yasa, the son of a Treasurer
+(Mahāv. 1. 7. 1) and Anuruddha, a Sākyan noble (Cullav. VII. 1. 1).]
+
+[Footnote 311: In the Sonadanda-sutta and elsewhere.]
+
+[Footnote 312: The Pabbajjā-sutta.]
+
+[Footnote 313: Maj. Nik. Ariyapariyesana-sutta. It is found in
+substantially the same form in the Mahāsaccaka-sutta and the
+Bodhirājakumāra-sutta.]
+
+[Footnote 314: The teaching of Alāra Kālāma led to rebirth in the sphere
+called akińcań-ńāyatanam or the sphere in which nothing at all is
+specially present to the mind and that of Uddaka Rāmaputta to rebirth in
+the sphere where neither any idea nor the absence of any idea is
+specially present to the mind. These expressions occur elsewhere (_e.g._
+in the Mahāparinibbāna-sutta) as names of stages in meditation or of
+incorporeal worlds (arūpabrahmāloka) where those states prevail. Some
+mysterious utterances of Uddaka are preserved in Sam. Nik. XXXV. 103.]
+
+[Footnote 315: Underhill, _Introd. to Mysticism_, p. 387.]
+
+[Footnote 316: Sam. Nik. XXXVI. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 317: The Lalita Vistara says Alāra lived at Vesālī and Uddaka
+in Magadha.]
+
+[Footnote 318: The following account is based on Maj. Nik. suttas 85 and
+26. Compare the beginning of the Mahāvagga of the Vinaya.]
+
+[Footnote 319: Maj. Nik. 12. See too Dig. Nik. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 320: If this discourse is regarded as giving in substance
+Gotama's own version of his experiences, it need not be supposed to mean
+much more than that his good angel (in European language) bade him not
+take his own life. But the argument represented as appealing to him was
+that if spirits sustained him with supernatural nourishment, entire
+abstinence from food would be a useless pretence.]
+
+[Footnote 321: The remarkable figures known as "fasting Buddhas" in
+Lahore Museum and elsewhere represent Gotama in this condition and show
+very plainly the falling in of the belly.]
+
+[Footnote 322: Āsava. The word appears to mean literally an intoxicating
+essence. See _e.g._ Vinaya, vol. IV. p. 110 (Rhys Davids and Oldenburg's
+ed.). Cf. the use of the word in Sanskrit.]
+
+[Footnote 323: Nāparam itthattāyāti. Itthattam is a substantive formed
+from ittham thus. It was at this time too that he thought out the chain
+of causation.]
+
+[Footnote 324: Tradition states that it was on this occasion that he
+uttered the well-known stanzas now found in the Dhammapada 154-5 (cf.
+Theragāthā 183) in which he exults in having, after long search in
+repeated births, found the maker of the house. "Now, O maker of the
+house thou art seen: no more shalt thou make a house." The lines which
+follow are hard to translate. The ridge-pole of the house has been
+destroyed (visankhitam more literally de-com-posed) and so the mind
+passes beyond the sankhāras (visankhāragatam). The play of words in
+visankhitam and visankhāra can hardly be rendered in English.]
+
+[Footnote 325: As Rhys Davids observes, this expression means "to found
+the Kingdom of Righteousness" but the metaphor is to make the wheels of
+the chariot of righteousness move unopposed over all the Earth.]
+
+[Footnote 326: At the modern Sarnath.]
+
+[Footnote 327: It is from this point that he begins to use this title in
+speaking of himself.]
+
+[Footnote 328: Similar heavenly messages were often received by
+Christian mystics and were probably true as subjective experiences. Thus
+Suso was visited one Whitsunday by a heavenly messenger who bade him
+cease his mortifications.]
+
+[Footnote 329: It is the Pipal tree or Ficus religiosa, as is mentioned
+in the Dīgha Nikāya, XIV. 30, not the Banyan. Its leaves have long
+points and tremble continually. Popular fancy says this is in memory of
+the tremendous struggle which they witnessed.]
+
+[Footnote 330: Such are the Padhāna-sutta of the Sutta-Nipāta which has
+an air of antiquity and the tales in the Mahāvagga of the
+Samyutta-Nikāya. The Mahāvagga of the Vinaya (I. 11 and 13) mentions
+such an encounter but places it considerably later after the conversion
+of the five monks and of Yasa.]
+
+[Footnote 331: The text is also found in the Samyutta-Nikāya.]
+
+[Footnote 332: Concisely stated as suffering, the cause of suffering,
+the suppression of suffering and the method of effecting that
+suppression.]
+
+[Footnote 333: Writers on Buddhism use this word in various forms,
+arhat, arahat and arahant. Perhaps it is best to use the Sanskrit form
+arhat just as karma and nirvana are commonly used instead of the Pali
+equivalents.]
+
+[Footnote 334: I.15-20.]
+
+[Footnote 335: Brahmayoni. I make this suggestion about grass fires
+because I have myself watched them from this point.]
+
+[Footnote 336: This meal, the only solid one in the day, was taken a
+little before midday.]
+
+[Footnote 337: I. 53-54.]
+
+[Footnote 338: His father.]
+
+[Footnote 339: _I.e._ the Buddha's former wife.]
+
+[Footnote 340: Half brother of the Buddha and Suddhodana'a son by
+Mahāprajāpatī.]
+
+[Footnote 341: Jātaka, 356.]
+
+[Footnote 342: Mahāvag. III. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 343: Thus we hear how Dasama of Atthakam (Maj. Nik. 52) built
+one for fifteen hundred monks, and Ghotamukha another in Pataliputta,
+which bore his name.]
+
+[Footnote 344: Maj. Nik. 53.]
+
+[Footnote 345: Cullavag. VI. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 346: Probably sheds consisting of a roof set on posts, but
+without walls.]
+
+[Footnote 347: Translated by Rhys Davids, _American Lectures_, pp. 108
+ff.]
+
+[Footnote 348: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 349: But in Maj. Nik. II. 5 he says he is not bound by rules
+as to eating.]
+
+[Footnote 350: Maj. Nik. 147.]
+
+[Footnote 351: In an exceedingly curious passage (Dig. Nik. IV.) the
+Brahman Sonadanda, while accepting the Buddha's teaching, asks to be
+excused from showing the Buddha such extreme marks of respect as rising
+from his seat or dismounting from his chariot, on the ground that his
+reputation would suffer. He proposes and apparently is allowed to
+substitute less demonstrative salutations.]
+
+[Footnote 352: Cullavagga V. 21 and Maj. Nik. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 353: Visākhā, a lady of noted piety. It was probably a raised
+garden planted with trees.]
+
+[Footnote 354: Maj. Nik. 110.]
+
+[Footnote 355: Dig. Nik. No. 2. Compare Jātaka 150, which shows how much
+variation was permitted in the words ascribed to the Buddha.]
+
+[Footnote 356: Sam. Nik. XLII. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 357: Mahāparinib-sutta, 6. 20. The monk Subhadda, in whose
+mouth these words are put, was apparently not the person of the same
+name who was the last convert made by the Buddha when dying.]
+
+[Footnote 358: His personal name was Upatissa.]
+
+[Footnote 359: This position was also held, previously no doubt, by
+Sagata.]
+
+[Footnote 360: Mahavāg. X. 2. Compare the singular anecdote in VI. 22
+where the Buddha quite unjustifiably suspects a Doctor of making an
+indelicate joke. The story seems to admit that the Buddha might be wrong
+and also that he was sometimes treated with want of respect.]
+
+[Footnote 361: VII. 2 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 362: The introductions to Jātakas 26 and 150 say that
+Ajātasattu built a great monastery for him at Gayāsīsa.]
+
+[Footnote 363: The Buddha says so himself (Dig. Nik. II.) but does not
+mention the method.]
+
+[Footnote 364: The Dhamma-sangani defines courtesy as being of two
+kinds: hospitality and considerateness in matters of doctrine.]
+
+[Footnote 365: Maj. Nik. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 366: Mahav. vi. 31. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 367: Cullavag. x. 1. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 368: Mahāparinib. V. 23. Perhaps the Buddha was supposed to be
+giving Ānanda last warnings about his besetting weakness.]
+
+[Footnote 369: Udāna 1. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 370: Compare too the language of Angela of Foligno (1248-1309)
+"By God's will there died my mother who was a great hindrance unto me in
+following the way of God: my husband died likewise and all my children.
+And because I had commenced to follow the aforesaid way and had prayed
+God that he would rid me of them, I had great consolation of their
+deaths, although I did also feel some grief." Beatae Angelae de Fulginio
+Visionum et Instructionum Liber. Cap. ix.]
+
+[Footnote 371: No account of this event has yet been found in the
+earliest texts but it is no doubt historical. The versions found in the
+Jātaka and Commentaries trace it back to a quarrel about a marriage, but
+the story is not very clear or consistent and the real motive was
+probably that indicated above.]
+
+[Footnote 372: See Rhys Davids, _Dialogues_, II. p. 70 and Przyluski's
+articles (in _J.A_. 1918 ff.) Le Parinirvana et les funérailles du
+Bouddha where the Pali texts are compared with the Mūlasarvāstivādin
+Vinaya and with other accounts.]
+
+[Footnote 373: This was probably written after Pātaliputra had become a
+great city but we do not know when its rise commenced.]
+
+[Footnote 374: She was a noted character in Vesālī. In Mahāvag. viii. 1,
+people are represented as saying that it was through her the place was
+so flourishing and that it would be a good thing if there were some one
+like her in Rājagaha.]
+
+[Footnote 375: The whole passage is interesting as displaying even in
+the Pali Canon the germs of the idea that the Buddha is an eternal
+spirit only partially manifested in the limits of human life. In the
+Mahāparinib.-sutta Gotama is only voluntarily subject to natural death.]
+
+[Footnote 376: The phrase occurs again in the Sutta-Nipāta. Its meaning
+is not clear to me.]
+
+[Footnote 377: The text seems to represent him as crossing first a
+streamlet and then the river.]
+
+[Footnote 378: It is not said how much time elapsed between the meal at
+Cunda's and the arrival at Kusinārā but since it was his last meal, he
+probably arrived the same afternoon.]
+
+[Footnote 379: Cf. Lyall's poem, on a Rajput Chief of the Old School,
+who when nearing his end has to leave his pleasure garden in order that
+he may die in the ancestral castle.]
+
+[Footnote 380: Dig. Nik. 17 and Jātaka 95.]
+
+[Footnote 381: It is said that this discipline was efficacious and that
+Channa became an Arhat.]
+
+[Footnote 382: It is difficult to find a translation of these words
+which is both accurate and natural in the mouth of a dying man. The Pali
+text _vayadhammā sankhārā_ (transitory-by-nature are the Sankhāras) is
+brief and simple but any correct and adequate rendering sounds
+metaphysical and is dramatically inappropriate. Perhaps the rendering
+"All compound things must decompose" expresses the Buddha's meaning
+best. But the verbal antithesis between compound and decomposing is not
+in the original and though sankhāra is etymologically the equivalent of
+confection or synthesis it hardly means what we call a compound thing as
+opposed to a simple thing.]
+
+[Footnote 383: The Buddha before his death had explained that the corpse
+of a Buddha should be treated like the corpse of a universal monarch. It
+should be wrapped in layers of new cloth and laid in an iron vessel of
+oil. Then it should be burnt and a Dagoba should be erected at four
+cross roads.]
+
+[Footnote 384: The Mallas had two capitals, Kusinārā and Pāvā,
+corresponding to two subdivisions of the tribe.]
+
+[Footnote 385: Theragāthā 557 ff. Water to refresh tired and dusty feet
+is commonly offered to anyone who comes from a distance.]
+
+[Footnote 386: Mahāvag. VIII. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 387: _E.g._ Therīgāthā 133 ff. It should also be remembered
+that orientals, particularly Chinese and Japanese, find Christ's
+behaviour to his mother as related in the gospels very strange.]
+
+[Footnote 388: _E.g._ Roja, the Malta, in Mahāvag. VI. 36 and the
+account of the interview with the Five Monks in the Nidānakathā (Rhys
+Davids, _Budd. Birth Stories_, p. 112).]
+
+[Footnote 389: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 390: Dig. Nik. XVII. and V.]
+
+[Footnote 391: Maj. Nik. 57.]
+
+[Footnote 392: Mahāparib. Sutta, I. 61.]
+
+[Footnote 393: The earliest sources for these legends are the Mahāvastu,
+the Sanskrit Vinayas (preserved in Chinese translations), the Lalita
+Vistara, the Introduction to the Jātaka and the Buddha-carita. For
+Burmese, Sinhalese, Tibetan and Chinese lives of the Buddha, see the
+works of Bigandet, Hardy, Rockhill and Schiefner, Wieger and Beal. See
+also Foucher, _Liste indienne des actes du Buddha_ and Hackin, _Scčnes
+de la Vie du Buddha d'aprčs des peintures tibétaines_.]
+
+[Footnote 394: It was the full moon of the month Vaisākha.]
+
+[Footnote 395: The best known of the later biographies of the Buddha,
+such as the Lalita Vistara and the Buddha-carita of Asvaghosha stop
+short after the Enlightenment.]
+
+[Footnote 396: There are some curious coincidences of detail between the
+Buddha and Confucius. Both disliked talking about prodigies (Analects.
+V11. 20) Confucius concealed nothing from his disciples (ib. 23), just
+as the Buddha had no "closed fist," but he would not discuss the
+condition of the dead (Anal. xi. 11), just as the Buddha held it
+unprofitable to discuss the fate of the saint after death. Neither had
+any great opinion of the spirits worshipped in their respective
+countries.]
+
+[Footnote 397: Maj. Nik. 143.]
+
+[Footnote 398: The miraculous cure of Suppiyā (Mahāvag. VI. 23) is no
+exception. She was ill not because of the effects of Karma but because,
+according to the legend, she had cut off a piece of her flesh to cure a
+sick monk who required meat broth. The Buddha healed her.]
+
+[Footnote 399: The most human and kindly portrait of the Buddha is that
+furnished by the Commentary on the Thera- and Therī-gāthā. See
+Thera-gāthā xxx, xxxi and Mrs Rhys Davids' trans. of _Therī-gāthā_, pp.
+71, 79.]
+
+[Footnote 400: John xvii. 9. But he prayed for his executioners.]
+
+[Footnote 401: John vii. 19-20.]
+
+[Footnote 402: See chap. VIII. of this book.]
+
+[Footnote 403: Cullavag, IX, I. IV.]
+
+[Footnote 404: Sam. Nik. LVI. 31.]
+
+[Footnote 405: Udāna VI. 4. The story is that a king bade a number of
+blind men examine an elephant and describe its shape. Some touched the
+legs, some the tusks, some the tail and so on and gave descriptions
+accordingly, but none had any idea of the general shape.]
+
+[Footnote 406: Or "determined."]
+
+[Footnote 407: Or form: _rūpa_.]
+
+[Footnote 408: The word Jiva, sometimes translated _soul_, is not
+equivalent to _ātman_. It seems to be a general expression for all the
+immaterial side of a human being. It is laid down (Dig. Nik. VI. and
+VII.) that it is fruitless to speculate whether the Jiva is distinct
+from the body or not.]
+
+[Footnote 409: Sańńā like many technical Buddhist terms is difficult to
+render adequately, because it does not cover the same ground as any one
+English word. Its essential meaning is recognition by a mark. When we
+perceive a blue thing we recognize it as blue and as like other blue
+things that we have marked. See Mrs Rhys Davids, Dhamma-Sangani, p. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 410: The Samyutta-Nikāya XXII. 79. 8 states that the Sankhāras
+are so-called because they compose what is compound (sankhatam).]
+
+[Footnote 411: Maj. Nik. 44.]
+
+[Footnote 412: In this sense Sankhāra has also some affinity to the
+Sanskrit use of Samskāra to mean a sacramental rite. It is the essential
+nature of such a rite to produce a special effect. So too the Sankhāras
+present in one existence inevitably produce their effect in the next
+existence. For Sankhāra see also the long note by S.Z. Aung at the end
+of the _Compendium of Philosophy_ (P.T.S. 1910).]
+
+[Footnote 413: The use of this word for Vińńāna is, I believe, due to
+Mrs Rhys Davids.]
+
+[Footnote 414: See especially Maj. Nik. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 415: Pali, Khanda. But it has become the custom to use the
+Sanskrit term. Cf. Karma, nirvāna.]
+
+[Footnote 416: See Sam. Nik. XII. 62. For parallels to this view in
+modern times see William James, _Text Book of Psychology_, especially
+pp. 203, 215, 216.]
+
+[Footnote 417: Cf. Milinda Panha II. 1. 1 and also the dialogue between
+the king of Sauvīra and the Brahman in Vishnu Pur. II. XIII.]
+
+[Footnote 418: Vis. Mag. chap. XVI. quoted by Warren, _Buddhism in
+Translations_, p. 146. Also it is admitted that vińńāna cannot be
+disentangled and sharply distinguished from feeling and sensation. See
+passages quoted in Mrs Rhys Davids, _Buddhist Psychology,_ pp. 52-54.]
+
+[Footnote 419: Sam. Nik. XXII. 22. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 420: With reference to a teacher dhamma is the doctrine which
+he preaches. With reference to a disciple, it may often be equivalent to
+duty. Cf. the Sanskrit expressions: sva-dharma, one's own duty;
+para-dharma, the duty of another person or caste.]
+
+[Footnote 421: Dhamma-s. 1044-5.]
+
+[Footnote 422: II. 3. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 423: Dig. Nik. XI. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 424: Name and form is the Buddhist equivalent for subject and
+object or mind and body.]
+
+[Footnote 425: Mrs Rhys Davids, _Buddhist Psychology_, p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 426: Sam. Nik. xxxv. 93.]
+
+[Footnote 427: The same formula is repeated for the other senses.]
+
+[Footnote 428: See Maj. Nik. 36 for his own experiences and Dig. Nik. 2.
+93-96.]
+
+[Footnote 429: In Dig. Nik. xxiii. Pāyāsi maintains the thesis, regarded
+as most unusual (sec. 5), that there is no world but this and no such
+things as rebirth and karma. He is confuted not by the Buddha but by
+Kassapa. His arguments are that dead friends whom he has asked to bring
+him news of the next world have not done so and that experiments
+performed on criminals do not support the idea that a soul leaves the
+body at death. Kassapa's reply is chiefly based on analogies of doubtful
+value but also on the affirmation that those who have cultivated their
+spiritual faculties have intuitive knowledge of rebirth and other
+worlds. But Pāyāsi did not draw any distinction between rebirth and
+immortality as understood in Europe. He was a simple materialist.]
+
+[Footnote 430: The more mythological parts of the Pitakas make it plain
+that the early Buddhists were not materialists in the modern sense. It
+is also said that there are formless worlds in which there is thought,
+but no form or matter.]
+
+[Footnote 431: See too the story of Godhika's death. Sam. Nik. I. iv. 3
+and Buddhaghosa on Dhammap. 57.]
+
+[Footnote 432: No. 38 called the Mahātanhāsankhaya-suttam.]
+
+[Footnote 433: See too Dig. Nik. n. 63, "If Vińńāna did not descend into
+the womb, would body and mind be constituted there?" and Sam. Nik. xii.
+12. 3, "Vińńāna food is the condition for bringing about rebirth in the
+future."]
+
+[Footnote 434: Uppajjati is the usual word.]
+
+[Footnote 435: Ariyasaccāni. Rhys Davids translates the phrase as Aryan
+truths and the word Ariya in old Pali appears not to have lost its
+national or tribal sense, _e.g._ Dig. Nik. n. 87 Ariyam āyatanam the
+Aryan sphere (of influence). But was a religious teacher preaching a
+doctrine of salvation open to all men likely to describe its most
+fundamental and universal truths by an adjective implying pride of
+race?]
+
+[Footnote 436: In Maj. Nik. 44 the word dukkha is replaced by sakkāya,
+individuality, which is apparently regarded as equivalent in meaning. So
+for instance the Noble Eightfold path is described as
+sakkāya-nirodha-gāminī patipadā.]
+
+[Footnote 437: Theragāthā 487-493, and Puggala Pań. iv. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 438: But it has not been proved so far as I know.]
+
+[Footnote 439: Sam. Nik. XV. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 440: Buddhist works sometimes insist on the impurity of human
+physical life in a way which seems morbid and disagreeable. But this
+view is not exclusively Buddhist or Asiatic. It is found in Marcus
+Aurelius and perhaps finds its strongest expression in the De Contemptu
+Mundi of Pope Innocent III (in Pat. Lat. ccxvii. cols. 701-746).]
+
+[Footnote 441: As a general rule suicide is strictly forbidden (see the
+third Pārājika and Milinda, iv. 13 and 14) for in most cases it is not a
+passionless renunciation of the world but rather a passionate and
+irritable protest against difficulties which simply lays up bad karma in
+the next life. Yet cases such as that of Godhika (see Buddhaghosa on the
+Dhammapada, 57) seem to imply that it is unobjectionable if performed
+not out of irritation but by one who having already obtained mental
+release is troubled by disease.]
+
+[Footnote 442: Pali Paticca-samuppāda. Sanskrit Pratītya-samutpāda.]
+
+[Footnote 443: Sam. Nik. xii. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 444: Dig. Nik. XV.]
+
+[Footnote 445: "Contact comes from consciousness: sensation from
+contact: craving from sensation: the sankhāras from craving:
+consciousness from the sankhāras: contact from consciousness" and so on
+_ad infinitum_. See Mil. Pan. 51.]
+
+[Footnote 446: Dig. Nik. XV.]
+
+[Footnote 447: Sam. Nik. XII. 53. Cf. too the previous sutta 51. In the
+Abhidhamma Pitaka and later scholastic works we find as a development of
+the law of causation the theory of relations (paccaya) or system of
+correlation (patthāna-nayo). According to this theory phenomena are not
+thought of merely in the simple relation of cause and effect. One
+phenomenon can be the assistant agency (upakāraka) of another phenomenon
+in 24 modes. See Mrs Rhys Davids' article Relations in _E.R.E._]
+
+[Footnote 448: Mrs Rhys Davids, Dhamma-sangani, pref. p. lii. "The
+sensory process is analysed in each case into (_a_) an apparatus capable
+of reaching to an impact not itself: (_b_) an impinging form (rūpam):
+(_c_) contact between (_a_) and (_b_): (_d_) resultant modification of
+the mental continuum, viz. first, contact of a specific sort, then
+hedonistic result or intellectual result or presumably both."]
+
+[Footnote 449: See _e.g._ Maj. Nik. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 450: This does not mean that the same name-and-form plus
+consciousness which dies in one existence reappears in another.]
+
+[Footnote 451: Maj. Nik. 120 Sankhāruppatti sutta.]
+
+[Footnote 452: He should make it a continual mental exercise to think of
+the rebirth which he desires.]
+
+[Footnote 453: So too in the Sānkhya philosophy the samskāras are said
+to pass from one human existence to another. They may also remain
+dormant for several existences and then become active.]
+
+[Footnote 454: Maj. Nik. 9 Sammāditthi sutta.]
+
+[Footnote 455: Sam. Nik. xxii. 126.]
+
+[Footnote 456: Mahāvag. i. 23. 4 and 5:]
+
+Ye dhammā hetuppabhavā tesam hetum Tathāgato Āha tesańca yo nirodho
+evamvādi Mahāsamano ti.
+
+The passage is remarkable because it insists that this is the principal
+and essential doctrine of Gotama. Compare too the definition of the
+Dhamma put in the Buddha's own mouth in Majjhima, 79: Dhammam te
+desessāmi: imasmim sati, idam hoti: imass' uppādā idam upajjhati, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 457: The Sānkhya might be described as teaching a law of
+evolution, but that is not the way it is described in its own manuals.]
+
+[Footnote 458: Take among hundreds of instances the account of the
+Buddha's funeral.]
+
+[Footnote 459: The Anguttara Nikāya, book iv. chap. 77, forbids
+speculation on four subjects as likely to bring madness and trouble. Two
+of the four are kamma-vipāko and loka-cintā. An attempt to make the
+chain of causation into a cosmic law would involve just this sort of
+speculation.]
+
+[Footnote 460: The Pitakas insist that causation applies to mental as
+well as physical phenomena.]
+
+[Footnote 461: Sam. Nik. xii. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 462: Vis. Mag. xvii. Warren, p. 175.]
+
+[Footnote 463: See Waddell, _J.R.A.S._ 1894, pp. 367-384: Rhys Davids,
+_Amer. Lectures,_ pp. 155-160.]
+
+[Footnote 464: Sam. Nik. XII. 61. See too Theragāthā, verses 125 and
+1111, and for other illustrative quotations Mrs Rhys Davids, _Buddhist
+Psychology_, pp. 34, 35.]
+
+[Footnote 465: But see Maj. Nik. 79, for the idea that there is
+something beyond happiness.]
+
+[Footnote 466: Dig. Nik. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 467: Sutta-Nipāta, 787.]
+
+[Footnote 468: Padhānam. But in later Buddhism we also find the idea
+that nirvana is something which comes only when we do not struggle for
+it.]
+
+[Footnote 469: Mettā, corresponding exactly to the Greek [Greek: agapei]
+of the New Testament.]
+
+[Footnote 470: III. 7. The translation is abbreviated.]
+
+[Footnote 471: More literally, "All the occasions which can be used for
+doing good works."]
+
+[Footnote 472: Sutta-Nipāta, 1-8, _S.B.E._ vol. X. p. 25 and see also
+Ang. Nik. IV. 190 which says that love leads to rebirth in the higher
+heavens and Sam. Nik. XX. 4 to the effect that a little love is better
+than great gifts. Also _Questions of Milinda_, 4. 4. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 473: Ang. Nik. 1. 2. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 474: Cf. too Mahāvag. VIII. 22 where a monk is not blamed for
+giving the property of the order to his parents.]
+
+[Footnote 475: Sati is the Sanskrit Smriti.]
+
+[Footnote 476: Dhammap. 160.]
+
+[Footnote 477: Bhag-gītā, 3. 27.]
+
+[Footnote 478: Vishnu Pur. II. 13. The ancient Egyptians also, though
+for quite different reasons, did not accept our ideas of personality.
+For them man was not an individual unity but a compound consisting of
+the body and of several immaterial parts called for want of a better
+word souls, the _ka_, the _ba_, the _sekhem_, etc., which after death
+continue to exist independently.]
+
+[Footnote 479: _Ueber den Stand der indischen Philosophie zur Zeit
+Mahāvīras und Buddhas_, 1902. And On the problem of Nirvana in _Journal
+of Pali Text Society_, 1905. See too Sam. Nik. XXII. 15-17.]
+
+[Footnote 480: Maj. Nik. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 481: Compare also the sermon on the burden and the bearer and
+Sam Nik. XXII. 15-17. It is admitted that Nirvana is not dukkha and not
+aniccam and it seems to be implied it is not anattam.]
+
+[Footnote 482: See the argument with Yamaka in Sam. Nik. XXII. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 483: See Sam. Nik. III., XXII. 97.]
+
+[Footnote 484: Also pańńākkhandha or vijjā.]
+
+[Footnote 485: Dig. Nik. II.]
+
+[Footnote 486: These exercises are hardly possible for the laity.]
+
+[Footnote 487: See chap. XIV. for details.]
+
+[Footnote 488: Sanskrit Nirvāna: Pali Nibbāna.]
+
+[Footnote 489: Maj. Nik. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 490: _E.g_. the words addressed to Buddha, nibbutā nūna sā
+narī yassāyam īdiso pati. Happy is the woman who has such a husband. In
+the Anguttara Nikāya, III. 55 the Brahman Jānussoni asks Buddha what is
+meant by Sanditthikam nibbānam, that is nirvāna which is visible or
+belongs to this world. The reply is that it is effected by the
+destruction of lust, hatred and stupidity and it is described as
+_akālikam, ehipassikam opanayikam, paccattam veditabbam
+vińńūhi_--difficult words which occur elsewhere as epithets of Dhamma
+and apparently mean immediate, inviting (it says "come and see"),
+leading to salvation, to be known by all who can understand. For some
+views as to the derivation of nibbana, nibbuto, etc. see _J.P.T.S._
+1919, pp. 53 ff. But the word nirvāna occurs frequently in the
+Mahābhārata and was probably borrowed by the Buddhists from the
+Brahmans.]
+
+[Footnote 491: Or sa-upādi.]
+
+[Footnote 492: But parinirvāna is not always rigidly distinguished from
+nirvāna, _e.g._ Sutta Nipāta, 358. And in Cullavag. VI. 4. 4 the Buddha
+describes himself as Brāhmano parinibbuto. Parinibbuto is even used of a
+horse in Maj. Nik. 65 _ad fin_.]
+
+[Footnote 493: Sam. Nik. XXII. 1. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 494: Vimuttisukham and brahmacariyogadham sukham.]
+
+[Footnote 495: Maj. Nik. 139, cf. also Ang. Nik. II. 7 where various
+kinds of sukham or happiness are enumerated, and we hear of
+nekkhammasukham nirupadhis, upekkhās, arūparamanam sukham, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 496: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 9 Ditthe dhamme dukkhass' antakaro
+hoti.]
+
+[Footnote 497: Ang. Nik. V. xxxii.]
+
+[Footnote 498: Maj. Nik. 79.]
+
+[Footnote 499: Asankhatadhātu, cf. the expression asankhāraparinibbāyī.
+Pugg. Pan. l. 44.]
+
+[Footnote 500: Tabulated in Mrs Rhys Davids' translation, pp. 367-9.]
+
+[Footnote 501: Such a phrase as _Nibbānassa sacchikiriyāya_ "for the
+attainment or realization of Nirvana" would be hardly possible if
+Nirvana were annihilation.]
+
+[Footnote 502: Udāna VII. near beginning.]
+
+[Footnote 503: These are the formless stages of meditation. In Nirvana
+there is neither any ordinary form of existence nor even the forms of
+existence with which we become acquainted in trances.]
+
+[Footnote 504: This negative form of expression is very congenial to
+Hindus. Thus many centuries later Kabir sung "With God is no rainy
+season, no ocean, no sunshine, no shade: no creation and no destruction:
+no life nor death: no sorrow nor joy is felt .... There is no water,
+wind, nor fire. The True Guru is there contained."]
+
+[Footnote 505: IV. 7. 13 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 506: See also Book VII. of the Milinda containing a long list
+of similes illustrating the qualities necessary for the attainment of
+arhatship. Thirty qualities of arhatship are mentioned in Book VI. of
+the same work. See also Mahāparinib. Sut. III. 65-60 and Rhys Davids'
+note.]
+
+[Footnote 507: _E.g._ Dig. Nik. xvi. ii. 7, Cullavag. ix. 1. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 508: _E.g._ Pugg. Pan. 1. 39. The ten fetters are (1)
+sakkāyaditthi, belief in the existence of the self, (2) vicikicchā,
+doubt, (3) silabbataparamāso, trust in ceremonies of good works, (4)
+kāmarāgo, lust, (5) patigho, anger, (6) rūparāgo, desire for rebirth in
+worlds of form, (7) arūparāgo, desire for rebirth in formless worlds,
+(8) mano, pride, (9) uddhaccam, self-righteousness, (10) avijjā,
+ignorance.]
+
+[Footnote 509: There is some diversity of doctrine about the
+Sakadāgāmin. Some hold that he has two births, because he _comes back_
+to the world of men after having been born once meanwhile in a heaven,
+others that he has only one birth either on earth or in a devaloka.]
+
+[Footnote 510: Avyākatani. The Buddha, being omniscient, _sabańńu_, must
+have known the answer but did not declare it, perhaps because language
+was incapable of expressing it]
+
+[Footnote 511: Jiva not attā. ]
+
+[Footnote 512: Maj. Nik. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 513: Sam. Nik. xvii. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 514: Maj. Nik. 72.]
+
+[Footnote 515: Which is said not to grow up again.]
+
+[Footnote 516: It may be that the Buddha had in his mind the idea that a
+flame which goes out returns to the primitive invisible state of fire.
+This view is advocated by Schrader (_Jour. Pali Text Soc_. 1905, p.
+167). The passages which he cites seem to me to show that there was
+supposed to be such an invisible store from which fire is born but to be
+less conclusive as proving that fire which goes out is supposed to
+return to that store, though the quotation from the Maitreyi Up. points
+in this direction. For the metaphor of the flame see also Sutta-Nipāta,
+verses 1074-6.]
+
+[Footnote 517: XLIV. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 518: Maj. Nik. 9, ad init. Asmīti ditthim ānānusayam
+samūhanitvā.]
+
+[Footnote 519: See especially Sutta-Nipāta, 1076 Atthan gatassa na
+pamānam atthi, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 520: Sam. Nik. XXII. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 521: Maj. Nik. 22, Alagaddūpama-suttam.]
+
+[Footnote 522: Later in the same Sutta: Kevalo paripūro bāladhammo.]
+
+[Footnote 523: Four emphatic synonyms in the original.]
+
+[Footnote 524: Dig. Nik. I. 73 uccinna-bhava-nettiko.]
+
+[Footnote 525: I recommend the reader to consider carefully the passage
+at the end of Book IV. of Schopenhauer's _Die Welt als Wille und
+Vorstellung_ (Haldane and Kemp's translation, vol. I. pp. 529-530).
+Though he evidently misunderstood what he calls "the Nirvana of the
+Buddhists" yet his own thought throws much light on it.]
+
+[Footnote 526: Sk. _Bhikshu_, beggar or mendicant, because they live on
+alms. _Bhikshācaryam_ occurs in Brihad-Ār. Up. III. 5. I.]
+
+[Footnote 527: Mahāvag. I. 49, cf. ib. I. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 528: Dig. Nik. VIII.]
+
+[Footnote 529: Cullavag. I. 1. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 530: Sam. Nik. XIV. 15. 12, Ang. Nik. I. xiv.]
+
+[Footnote 531: Mahāvag. III. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 532: Or the opinion of single persons, e.g. Visākhā in
+Mahāvag. III. 13.]
+
+[Footnote 533: Acārāngasut, II. 2. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 534: Mahāv. I. 42.]
+
+[Footnote 535: But converted robbers were occasionally admitted, e.g.
+Angulimāla.]
+
+[Footnote 536: Sam. Nik. IV. XXXV., Maj. Nik. 8 ad fin. On the value
+attached by mystics in all countries to trees and flowers, see
+Underhill, _Mysticism_, p. 231.]
+
+[Footnote 537: They are abstinence from (1) destroying life, (2)
+stealing, (3) impurity, (4) lying, (5) intoxicants, (6) eating at
+forbidden times, (7) dancing, music and theatres, (8) garlands,
+perfumes, ornaments, (9) high or large beds, (10) accepting gold or
+silver.]
+
+[Footnote 538: These are practically equivalent to Sundays, being the
+new moon, full moon and the eighth days from the new and full moon. In
+Tibet however the 14th, 15th, 29th and 30th of each month are observed.]
+
+[Footnote 539: Mahāvag. II. 1-2.]
+
+[Footnote 540: Chap. VIII. Sec. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 541: Required not so much to purify water as to prevent the
+accidental destruction of insects.]
+
+[Footnote 542: It might begin either the day after the full moon of
+Asālha (June-July) or a month later. In either case the period was three
+months. Mahāvag. III. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 543: Cullavag. X. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 544: See the papers by Mrs Bode in _J.R.A.S._ 1893, pp. 517-66
+and 763-98, and Mrs Rhys Davids in _Ninth Congress of Orientalists_,
+vol. I. p. 344.]
+
+[Footnote 545: Feminine Upāsikā.]
+
+[Footnote 546: Sutta-Nipāta, 289.]
+
+[Footnote 547: _E.g._ Mahāmangala and Dhammika-Sutta in Sut. Nip. II. 4
+and 14.]
+
+[Footnote 548: Dig. Nik. 31.]
+
+[Footnote 549: It may seem superfluous to insist on this, yet Warren in
+his _Buddhism in Translations_ uniformly renders Bhikkhu by priest.]
+
+[Footnote 550: The same idea occurs in the Upanishads, _e.g._ Brih.-Ār.
+Up. IV. 4. 23, "he becomes a true Brahman."]
+
+[Footnote 551: Especially in R.O. Franke's article in the _J.P.T.S._
+1908. To demonstrate the "literary dependence" of chapters XI., XII. of
+the Cullavagga does not seem to me equivalent to demonstrating that the
+narratives contained in those chapters are "air-bubbles."]
+
+[Footnote 552: The mantras of the Brahmans were hardly a sacred book
+analogous to the Bible or Koran and, besides, the early Buddhists would
+not have wished to imitate them.]
+
+[Footnote 553: _E.g._ Dig. Nik. XVI.]
+
+[Footnote 554: Cullav. XI. i. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 555: Especially in Chinese works.]
+
+[Footnote 556: Upāli, Dasaka, Sonaka, Siggava (with whom the name of
+Candravajji is sometimes coupled) and Tissa Moggaliputta. This is the
+list given in the Dīpavamsa.]
+
+[Footnote 557: Sam. Nik. XVI. 11. The whole section is called Kassapa
+Samyutta.]
+
+[Footnote 558: They are to be found chiefly in Cullavagga, XII.,
+Dīpavamsa, IV. and V. and Mahāvamsa, IV.]
+
+[Footnote 559: The Dīpavamsa adds that all the principal monks present
+had seen the Buddha. They must therefore all have been considerably over
+a hundred years old so that the chronology is open to grave doubt. It
+would be easier if we could suppose the meeting was held a hundred years
+after the enlightenment.]
+
+[Footnote 560: They are said to have rejected the Parivāra, the
+Patisambhidā, the Niddesa and parts of the Jātaka. These are all later
+parts of the Canon and if the word rejection were taken literally it
+would imply that the Mahāsangīti was late too. But perhaps all that is
+meant is that the books were not found in their Canon. Chinese sources
+(_e.g._ Fa Hsien, tr. Legge, p. 99) state that they had an Abhidhamma of
+their own.]
+
+[Footnote 561: _Buddhist Records of the Western World_, vol. II. pp.
+164-5; Watters, _Yüan Chwang_, pp. 159-161.]
+
+[Footnote 562: Cap. XXXVI. Legge, p. 98.]
+
+[Footnote 563: See I-tsing's _Records of the Buddhist Religion_, trans.
+by Takakusu, p. XX. and Nanjio's _Catalogue of the Buddhist Tripitaka_,
+nos. 1199, 1105 and 1159.]
+
+[Footnote 564: An exception ought perhaps to be made for the Japanese
+sects.]
+
+[Footnote 565: The names are not quite the same in the various lists and
+it seems useless to discuss them in detail. See Dīpavamsa, V. 39-48,
+Mahāvamsa, V. ad in., Rhys Davids, _J.R.A.S._ 1891, p. 411, Rockhill,
+_Life of the Buddha_, chap, VI., Geiger, _Trans. of Mahāvamsa_, App. B.]
+
+[Footnote 566: The Hemavatikas, Rājagirikas, Siddhattas, Pubbaselikas,
+Aparaselikas and Apararājagirikas.]
+
+[Footnote 567: Published in the _J.P.T.S._ 1889. Trans, by S.Z. Aung and
+Mrs Rhys Davids, 1915. The text mentions doctrines only. The names of
+the sects supposed to hold them are supplied by the commentary.]
+
+[Footnote 568: They must not be confused with the four philosophic
+schools Vaibhāshika, Sautrāntika, Yogācāra and Mādhyamika. These came
+into existence later.]
+
+[Footnote 569: But the Vetulyakas were important in Ceylon.]
+
+[Footnote 570: See Paramārtha's _Life of Vasabandhu_, Toung Pao, 1904,
+p. 290.]
+
+[Footnote 571: See Rhys Davids in _J.R.A.S._ 1892, pp. 8-9. The name is
+variously spelt. The P.T.S. print Sammitiya, but the Sanskrit text of
+the Madhyamakavritti (in _Bibl. Buddh._) has Sāmmitīya. Sanskrit
+dictionaries give Sammatīya. The Abhidharma section of the Chinese
+Tripitaka (Nanjio, 1272) contains a sāstra belonging to this school.
+Nanjio, 1139 is apparently their Vinaya.]
+
+[Footnote 572: Kern (_Versl. en Med. der K. Akad. van Wetenschappen
+Letterk._ 4. R.D. VIII. 1907, pp. 312-319, cf. _J.R.A.S._ 1907, p. 432)
+suggested on the authority of Kashgarian MSS. that the expression
+Vailpulya sūtra is a misreading for Vaitulya sūtra, a sūtra of the
+Vetulyakas. Ānanda was sometimes identified with the phantom who
+represented the Buddha.]
+
+[Footnote 573: It is remarkable that this view, though condemned by the
+Kathā-vatthu, is countenanced by the Khuddaka-pātha.]
+
+[Footnote 574: The Kathā-vatthu constantly cites the Nikāyas.]
+
+[Footnote 575: Pali Sabbatthivādins.]
+
+[Footnote 576: Cf. the doctrine of the Sānkhya. For more about the
+Sarvāstivādins see below, Book IV. chap. XXII.]
+
+[Footnote 577: See especially Le Nord-Ouest de L'Inde dans le Vinaya des
+Mūlasarvāstivādins by Przyluski in _J.A._ 1914, II. pp. 492 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 578: See articles by Fleet in _J.R.A.S._ of 1903, 1904,
+1908-1911 and 1914: Hultzsch in _J.R.A.S._ 1910-11: Thomas in _J.A._
+1910: S. Lévi, _J.A._ 1911.]
+
+[Footnote 579: Asoka's statement is confirmed (if it needs confirmation)
+by the Chinese pilgrim I-ching who saw in India statues of him in
+monastic costume.]
+
+[Footnote 580: For a bibliography of the literature about these
+inscriptions see Vincent Smith, _Early History of India_, 3rd ed. 1914,
+pp. 172-4.]
+
+[Footnote 581: The dialect is not strictly speaking the same in all the
+inscriptions.]
+
+[Footnote 582: Piyadassi, Sanskrit Priyadarsin. The Dīpavamsa, VI. 1 and
+14, calls Asoka Piyadassi and Piyadassana. The name Asoka has hitherto
+only been found in one edict discovered at Hyderabad, _J.R.A.S._ 1916,
+p. 573.]
+
+[Footnote 583: The principal single edicts are (1) that known as Minor
+Rock Edict I. found in four recensions, (2) The Bhābrū (or Bhābrā) Edict
+of great importance for the Buddhist scriptures, (3) Two Kalinga Edicts,
+(4) Edicts about schism, found at Sarnath and elsewhere, (4)
+Commemorative inscriptions in the Terāi, (5) Dedications of caves.]
+
+[Footnote 584: Asoka came to the throne about 270 B.C. (268 or 272
+according to various authorities) but was not crowned until four years
+later. Events are generally dated by the year after his coronation
+(abhisheka), not after his accession.]
+
+[Footnote 585: I must confess that Law of Piety (Vincent Smith) does not
+seem to me very idiomatic.]
+
+[Footnote 586: See Senart, _Inscrip. de Piyadassi_, II. pp. 314 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 587: The Second Minor Rock Edict.]
+
+[Footnote 588: Rājūka and pradesika.]
+
+[Footnote 589: I.e. Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, Cyrene and Epirus.]
+
+[Footnote 590: Kingdoms in the south of India.]
+
+[Footnote 591: The inhabitants of the extreme north-west of India, not
+necessarily Greeks by race.]
+
+[Footnote 592: Possibly Tibet.]
+
+[Footnote 593: Or Nābhapamtis. In any case unknown.]
+
+[Footnote 594: All these appear to have been tribes of Central India.]
+
+[Footnote 595: Dīpav. VIII.; Mahāv. XII.]
+
+[Footnote 596: Pillar Edict VI.]
+
+[Footnote 597: Perhaps meant to be equivalent to 251 B.C. Vincent Smith
+rejects this date and thinks that the Council met in the last ten years
+of Asoka's reign. But the Sinhalese account is reasonable. Asoka was
+very pious but very tolerant. Ten years of this regime may well have led
+to the abuse complained of.]
+
+[Footnote 598: Jātaka, no. 472.]
+
+[Footnote 599: See for instance the _Life of Hsüan Chuang_; Beal, p. 39;
+Julien, p. 50.]
+
+[Footnote 600: I consider it possible, though by no means proved, that
+the Abhidhamma was put together in Ceylon.]
+
+[Footnote 601: For the Burmese Canon see chap. XXVI. Even if the Burmese
+had Pali scriptures which did not come from Ceylon, they sought to
+harmonize them with the texts known there.]
+
+[Footnote 602: Pali Tipitaka.]
+
+[Footnote 603: So in Maj. Nik. xxi. a man who proposes to excavate comes
+Kuddalapitakam ādāya, "With spade and basket."]
+
+[Footnote 604: The list of the Vinaya books is:
+
+  Pārājikam } together constituting the Sutta-vibhanga.
+  Pacittiyam}
+
+  Mahāvagga } together constituting the Khandakas.
+  Cullavagga}
+
+  Parivāra-pātha: a supplement and index. This book was rejected by some
+  schools.
+
+Something is known of the Vinaya of the Sarvāstivādins existing in a
+Chinese translation and in fragments of the Sanskrit original found in
+Central Asia. It also consists of the Pātimokkha embedded in a
+commentary called Vibhāga and of two treatises describing the foundation
+of the order and its statutes. They are called Kshudrakavastu and
+Vinayavastu. In these works the narrative and anecdotal element is
+larger than in the Pali Vinaya. See also my remarks on the Mahāvastu
+under the Mahayanist Canon. For some details about the Dharmagupta
+Vinaya, see _J.A._ 1916, ii. p. 20: for a longish extract from the
+Mülasarv. Vinaya, _J.A._ 1914, ii. pp. 493-522.]
+
+[Footnote 605: I find it hard to accept Francke's view that the Dīgha
+should be regarded as the Book of the Tathāgata, deliberately composed
+to expound the doctrine of Buddhahood. Many of the suttas do not deal
+with the Tathāgata.]
+
+[Footnote 606: The Samyutta quotes by name a passage from the Dīgha as
+"spoken by the Lord": compare Sam. Nik. XXII. 4 with Dig. Nik. 21. Both
+the Anguttara and Samyutta quote the last two cantos of the
+Sutta-Nipāta.]
+
+[Footnote 607: It appears that the canonical book of the Jātaka consists
+only of verses and does not include explanatory prose matter. Something
+similar to these collections of verses which are not fully intelligible
+without a commentary explaining the occasions on which they were uttered
+may be seen in Chāndogya Up. VI. The father's answers are given but the
+son's questions which render them intelligible are not found in the text
+but are supplied in the commentary.]
+
+[Footnote 608: The following ia a table of the Sutta Pitaka:
+
+  I. Dīgha-Nikāya      }
+  II. Majjhima-Nikāya  } Collections of discourses mostly attributed
+  III. Samyutta-Nikāya } to the Buddha.
+  IV. Anguttara-Nikāya }
+
+  V. Khuddaka-Nikāya: a collection of comparatively short treatises,
+  mostly in poetry, namely:
+     1. Dhammapada.
+     2. Udāna       } Utterances of the Buddha with explanations
+     3. Itivuttakam } af the attendant circumstances.
+     4. Khuddaka-pātha: a short anthology.
+     5. Sutta-nipāta: a collection of suttas mostly in verse.
+    *6. Thera-gāthā: poems by monks.
+    *7. Therī-gāthā: poems by nuns.
+     8. Niddesa: an old commentary on the latter half of the Sutta-nipāta,
+        ascribed to Sāriputta.
+    *9. The Jātaka verses.
+    10. Patisambhidā.
+   *11. Apadāna.
+   *12. Buddha-vamsa.
+   *13. Vimāna-vatthu.
+   *14. Peta-vatthu.
+   *15. Cariyā-pitaka.
+
+The works marked * are not found in the Siamese edition of the Tripitaka
+but the Burmese editions include four other texts, the Milinda-pańha,
+Petakopadesa, Suttassanigaha, and Nettipakarana.
+
+The Khuddaka-Nikāya seems to have been wanting in the Pitaka of the
+Sarvāstivādins or whatever sect supplied the originals from which the
+Chinese Canon was translated, for this Canon classes the Dhammapada as a
+miscellaneous work outside the Sutta Pitaka. Fragments of the
+Sutta-nipāta have been found in Turkestan but it is not clear to what
+Pitaka it was considered to belong. For mentions of the Khuddaka-Nikāya
+in Chinese see _J.A._ 1916, pp. 32-3.]
+
+[Footnote 609: See _J.R.A.S._ 1891, p. 560. See too _Journal P.T.S._
+1919, p. 44. Lexicographical notes.]
+
+[Footnote 610: Mrs Rhys Davids' _Translations of the Dhamma-sangani_
+give a good idea of these books.]
+
+[Footnote 611: The works comprised in this Pitaka are:
+
+  1. Dhamma-sangani.
+  2. Vibhanga.
+  3. Kathā-vatthu.
+  4. Puggala-pańńatti.
+  5. Dhātu-kathā.
+  6. Yamaka.
+  7. Patthāna.
+
+The Abhidhamma of the Sarvāstivādins was entirely different. It seems
+probable that the Abhidhamma books of all schools consisted almost
+entirely of explanatory matter and added very little to the doctrine
+laid down in the suttas. It would appear that the only new topic
+introduced in the Pali Abhidhamma is the theory of relations (paccaya).]
+
+[Footnote 612: Maj. Nik. XXII. and Angut. Nik. IV. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 613: Pali means primarily a line or row and then a text as
+distinguished from the commentary. Thus Pālimattam means the text
+without the commentary and Palibhāsā is the language of the text or what
+we call Pali. See _Pali and Sanskrit_, R.O. Franke, 1902. Windisch,
+"Ueber den sprachlichen Character des Pali," in _Actes du XIV'me Congrčs
+des Orientalistes_, 1905. Grierson, "Home of Pali" in _Bhandarkar
+Commemorative Essays_, 1917.]
+
+[Footnote 614: It is not easy to say how late or to what extent Pali was
+used in India. The Milinda-Pańha (or at least books II. and III.) was
+probably composed in North Western India about the time of our era.
+Dharmapāla wrote his commentaries (c. 500 A.D.) in the extreme south,
+probably at Conjeevaram. Pali inscriptions of the second or third
+century A.D. have been discovered at Sarnath but contain mistakes which
+show that the engraver did not understand the language (_Epig. Ind_.
+1908, p. 391). Bendall found Pali MSS. in Nepal, _J.R.A.S._ 1899, p.
+422.]
+
+[Footnote 615: Magadha of course was not his birth-place and the dialect
+of Kosala must have been his native language. But it is not hinted that
+he had any difficulty in making himself understood in Magadha and
+elsewhere.]
+
+[Footnote 616: E.g. nominatives singular in _e_. For the possible
+existence of scriptures anterior to the Pali version and in another
+dialect, see S. Lévi, _J.A._ 1912, II. p. 495.]
+
+[Footnote 617: Cullavag. V. 33, chandaso āropema.]
+
+[Footnote 618: Although Pali became a sacred language in the South, yet
+in China, Tibet and Central Asia the scriptures were translated into the
+idioms of the various countries which accepted Buddhism.]
+
+[Footnote 619: Mahāparinibbāna-sutta, II. 26. Another expressive
+compound is Dhūmakā-likam (Cullav. XI. 1. 9) literally smoke-timed. The
+disciples were afraid that the discipline of the Buddha might last only
+as long as the smoke of his funeral pyre.]
+
+[Footnote 620: Winternitz has acutely remarked that the Pali Pitaka
+resembles the Upanishads in style. See also Keith, _Ait. Ar_. p. 55. For
+repetitions in the Upanishads, see Chānd. v. 3. 4 ff., v. 12 ff. and
+much in VII. and VIII., Brihad. Ār. III. ix. 9 ff., VI. iii. 2, etc.
+This Upanishad relates the incident of Yājńavalkya and Maītreyī twice.
+So far as style goes, I see no reason why the earliest parts of the
+Vinaya and Sutta Pitaka should not have been composed immediately after
+the Buddha's death.]
+
+[Footnote 621: E.g. Mahāv. 1. 49, Dig. Nik. I. 14, Sut. Vib. Bhikkhunī,
+LXIX., Sut. Vib. Pārāj. III. 4. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 622: Cullav. IV. 15. 4.]
+
+[Footnote 623: Ang. Nik. IV. 100. 5, ib. v. lxxiv. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 624: See Bühler in _Epigraphia Indica_, vol. II. p. 93.]
+
+[Footnote 625: Even at the time of Fa Hsien's visit to India (c. 400
+A.D.) the Vinaya of the Sarvāstivādin school was preserved orally and
+not written. See Legge's trans, p. 99.]
+
+[Footnote 626: Ang. Nik. IV. 160. 5, Bhikkhū bahussutā ... mātikādhārā
+monks who carry in memory the indices.]
+
+[Footnote 627: Cullavag. XI., XII. ]
+
+[Footnote 628: Dig. Nik. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 629: It is remarkable that this account contemplates five
+Nikāyas (of which the fifth is believed to be late) but only two
+Pitakas, the Abhidhamma not being mentioned.]
+
+[Footnote 630: It refers to a king Pingalaka, said to have reigned two
+hundred years after the Buddha's time.]
+
+[Footnote 631: Mahāv XI. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 632: Mahāv. II. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 633: Cullav. IX. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 634: The passages are:
+
+  1. The Vinaya-Samukasa. Perhaps the sermon at Benares with
+     introductory matter found at the beginning of the Mahāvagga.
+     See Edmunds, in _J.R.A.S._ 1913, p. 385.
+  2. The Alia-Vāsāni (Pali Ariya-Vāsāni) = the Samgīti-sutta of the
+     Dīgha Nikāya.
+  3. The Anāgata-bhayāni = Anguttara-Nikāya, V. 77-80, or part of it.
+  4. The Munigātha=Sutta-Nipāta, 206-220.
+  5. The Moneyasute=Moneyya-sutta in the Itivuttakam, 67: see
+     also Ang. Nik. III. 120.
+  6. The Upatisapasine. The question of Upatissa: not identified.
+  7. The Lāghulovāde musāvādam adhigicya. The addresses to Rāhula
+     beginning with subject of lying=Maj. Nik. 61.]
+
+[Footnote 635: See _J.A._ 1916, II. pp. 20,38.]
+
+[Footnote 636: For the date see the chapter on Ceylon.]
+
+[Footnote 637: S. Lévi gives reasons for thinking that the prohibitions
+against singing sacred texts (ayataka gītassara, Cullavag. V. 3) go back
+to the period when the Vedic accent was a living reality. See _J.A._
+1915, I. pp. 401 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 638: _Muséon_, 1905, p. 23. Anesaki thinks the text used by
+Gunabhadra was in Pali but the Abhayagiri, which had Mahayanist
+proclivities, may have used Sanskrit texts.]
+
+[Footnote 639: Nikāya-Sangrahawa, Fernando, _Govt. Record Office_,
+Colombo, 1918.]
+
+[Footnote 640: See Mahāyāna-sūtrālatikāra, xvi. 22 and 75, with Lévi's
+notes.]
+
+[Footnote 641: Cullav. VII. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 642: In the first book of the Mahāvagga. ]
+
+[Footnote 643: Ang. Nik. V. 201 and VI. 40.]
+
+[Footnote 644: It may be objected that some Suttas are put into the
+mouths of the Buddha's disciples and that their words are very like
+those of the Master. But as a rule they spoke on behalf of him and the
+object was to make their language as much like his as possible.]
+
+[Footnote 645: The Pali anthology known by this name was only one of
+several called Dhammapada or Udāna which are preserved in the Chinese
+and Tibetan Canons.]
+
+[Footnote 646: The work might also be analyzed as consisting of three
+old documents (the tract on morality, an account of ancient heresies,
+and a discourse on spiritual progress) put together with a little
+connecting matter, and provided with a prologue and epilogue.]
+
+[Footnote 647: But in Ceylon there was a decided tendency to rewrite
+Sinhalese treatises in Pali.]
+
+[Footnote 648: Cf. Divyāv. ed. Cowell, p. 37 and Sam. Nik. _P.T.S._
+edition, vol. IV. p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 649: See Takakusu on the Abhidharma literature of the
+Sarvāstivādins in the _Journ. of the Pali Text Society_, 1905, pp.
+67-147.]
+
+[Footnote 650: But not always. See S. Lévi, _J.A._ 1910, p. 436.]
+
+[Footnote 651: See Lüders, _Bruchstücke Buddhistischer Dramen_, 1911 and
+ib. _Das Sāri putra-prakarana_, 1911.]
+
+[Footnote 652: Inscriptions from Swat written in an alphabet supposed to
+date from 50 B.C. to 50 A.D. contain Sanskrit verses from the Dharmapada
+and Mahāparinirvānasūtra. See _Epig. Indica_, vol. IV. p. 133.]
+
+[Footnote 653: E.g. The Sanskrit version of the Sutta-Nipāta. See
+_J.R.A.S._ 1916, pp. 719-732.]
+
+[Footnote 654: See the remarks on the Samyuktāgama in _J.A._ 1916, II.
+p. 272.]
+
+[Footnote 655: In the same spirit, the Chinese version of the Ekottara
+(sec. 42) makes the dying Buddha order his bed to be made with the head
+to the north, because northern India will be the home of the Law. See
+_J.A._ Nov., Dec. 1918, p. 435.]
+
+[Footnote 656: See for the whole question, Péri, Les Femmes de Ēākya
+Muni, _B.E.F.E.O._ 1918, No. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 657: Those of the Dharmaguptas, Mahāsānghikas and
+Mahīsāsakas.]
+
+[Footnote 658: See _J.A.O.S._ Dec. 1910, p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 659: Jacobi considers the Yoga Sūtras later than 450 A.D. but
+if we adopt Péri's view that Vasubandhu, Asanga's brother, lived from
+about 280-360, the fact that they imply a knowledge of the Vijnānavāda
+need not make them much later than 300 A.D. It is noticeable that both
+Asanga and the Yoga Sūtras employ the word _dharma-megha_.]
+
+[Footnote 660: Called Citta in the Yoga philosophy.]
+
+[Footnote 661: See Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, vol. II. pp. 410 ff.
+Savages often supplement fasting by the use of drugs and the Yoga Sūtras
+(IV. 1) mention that supernatural powers can be obtained by the use of
+herbs.]
+
+[Footnote 662: Klesa: Kilesa in Pali.]
+
+[Footnote 663: The practices systematized in the Yoga Sūtras are
+mentioned even in the older Upanishads such as the Maitrāyana,
+Svetāsvatara and Chāndogya.]
+
+[Footnote 664: An extreme development of the idea that physical
+processes can produce spiritual results is found in Rasesvara Darsana or
+the Mercurial System described in the Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha chap. IX.
+_Marco Polo_ (Yule's Edition, vol. II. pp. 365, 369) had also heard of
+it.]
+
+[Footnote 665: It seems to me analogous to the _introversion_ of
+European mystics. See Underhill, _Mysticism_, chaps, VI. and VII.]
+
+[Footnote 666: Jhāna in Pali.]
+
+[Footnote 667: Samprajńāta and Asamprajńāta, called also sa- and
+nirbija, with and without seed.]
+
+[Footnote 668: Savitarka and Savicāra, in which there is investigation
+concerned with gross and subtle objects respectively: Sānanda, in which
+there is a feeling of joy: Sasmitā, in which there is only
+self-consciousness. The corresponding stages in Buddhism are described
+as phases of Jhāna not of Samādhi.]
+
+[Footnote 669: It is not easy to translate. _Megha_ is cloud and
+_dharma_ may be rendered by righteousness but has many other meanings.
+For the metaphor of the cloud compare the title of the English mystical
+treatise _The Cloud of Unknowing_.]
+
+[Footnote 670: Siddhi, vibhūti, aisvarya. A belief in these powers is
+found even in the Rig Veda where it is said (X. 136) that munis can fly
+through the air and associate with gods.]
+
+[Footnote 671: So too European mystics "are all but unanimous in their
+refusal to attribute importance to any kind of visionary experience"
+(Underhill, _Mysticism_, p. 335). St John of the Cross, Madame Guyon and
+Walter Hilton are cited as severe critics of such experience.]
+
+[Footnote 672: Cf. Underbill's remarks about contemplation (_Mysticism_,
+p. 394). "Its results feed every aspect of the personality: minister to
+its instinct for the Good, the Beautiful and the True. Psychologically
+it is an induced state in which the field of consciousness is greatly
+contracted: the whole of the self, its conative power, being sharply
+focussed, concentrated upon one thing. We pour ourselvea out or, as it
+sometimes seems to us, _in_ towards this overpowering interest: seem to
+ourselves to reach it and be merged with it. Whatever the thing may be,
+in this act we _know_ it, as we cannot know it by any ordinary devices
+of thought."]
+
+[Footnote 673: See instances quoted in W. James, _Varieties of Religious
+Experience_, pp. 251-3.]
+
+[Footnote 674: This curious idea is also countenanced, though not much
+emphasized, by the Brahma Sūtras, IV. 4. 15. The object of producing
+such bodies is to work off Karma. The Yogi acquires no new Karma but he
+may have to get rid of accumulated Karma inherited from previous births,
+which must bear fruit. By "making himself many" he can work it off in
+one lifetime.]
+
+[Footnote 675: _World as Will and Idea_, Book III. p. 254 (Haldane and
+Kemp's translation).]
+
+[Footnote 676: E.g. Dig. Nik. II. 95, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 677: St Theresa, St Catharine of Siena and Rudman Merawin. Cf.
+1 John ii. 20, 27. "Ye know all things."]
+
+[Footnote 678: Chāndog. Up. VIII. 15.]
+
+[Footnote 679: As also to the Samhitās of the Vaishnavas and the Āgamic
+literature of the Saivas. The six cakras are: (1) Mūladhāra at the base
+of the spinal cord, (2) Svādhishthāna below the navel, (3) Manipūra near
+the navel, (4) Anāhata in the heart, (5) Visuddha at the lower end of
+the throat, (6) Ājńā between the eyebrows. See Avalon, _Tantric Texts_,
+II. Shatcakranirūpana. Ib. _Tantra of Great Liberation_, pp. lvii ff.,
+cxxxii ff. Ib. _Principles of Tantra_, pp. cvii ff. Gopinatha Ras,
+_Indian Iconography_, pp. 328 ff. See also "Manual of a Mystic" (_Pali
+Text Soc._) for something apparently similar, though not very
+intelligible, in Hinayanist Buddhism.]
+
+[Footnote 680: For the later Yoga see further Book V. I have recently
+received A. Avalon, _The Serpent Power_, from which it appears that the
+danger of the process lies in the fact that as Kundalinī ascends, the
+lower parts of the body which she leaves become cold. The preliminary
+note on Yoga in Grieraon and Barnett's Lallā-Vākyāni (_Asiat. Soc.'s
+Monographs_, vol. XVII. 1920) contains much valuable information, but
+both works arrived too late for me to make use of them.]
+
+[Footnote 681: Maj. Nik. 36 and 85, but not in 26.]
+
+[Footnote 682: Dig. Nik. 2. For the methods of Buddhist meditation, the
+reader may consult the "Manual of a Mystic," edited (1896) and
+translated (1916) by the _Pali Text Society_. But he will not find it
+easy reading.]
+
+[Footnote 683: See Ang. Nik. 1. 20 for a long list of the various kinds
+of meditation. A conspectus of the system of meditation is given in
+Seidenstücker, _Pali-Buddhismus_, pp. 344-356.]
+
+[Footnote 684: Dig. Nik. XXII. _ad. in._]
+
+[Footnote 685: Dig. Nik. I. 21-26.]
+
+[Footnote 686: See, for instance, Dig. Nik. II. 75. Sometimes five
+Jhānas are enumerated. This means that reasoning and investigation are
+eliminated successively and not simultaneously, so that an additional
+stage is created.]
+
+[Footnote 687: See _Dhamma-Sangani_; Mrs Rhys Davids' translation, pp.
+45-6 and notes. Also _Journal of Pali Text Society_, 1885, p. 32, for
+meaning of the difficult word Ekodibhāva.]
+
+[Footnote 688: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 77; Ang. Nik. 1. XX. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 689: Hardy, _Eastern Monachism_, pp. 252 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 690: But also without shape, colour or outward appearance, so
+this statement must not be taken too literally.]
+
+[Footnote 691: Such procedure has not received much countenance in
+Christian mysticism but the contemplation of a burnished pewter dish and
+of running water induced ecstasy in Jacob Boehme and Ignatius Loyola
+respectively. See Underhill, _Mysticism_, p. 69.]
+
+[Footnote 692: Maj. Nik. 62 end.]
+
+[Footnote 693: The analysis means to analyze all things as consisting
+alike of the four elements. The one perception is the perception that
+all nourishment is impure.]
+
+[Footnote 694: See Dig. Nik. 13 and Rhys Davids' introduction to it. In
+spite of their name, they seem to be purely Buddhist and have not been
+found in Brahmanic literature. The four states are characterized
+respectively by love, sympathy with sorrow, sympathy with joy, and
+equanimity.]
+
+[Footnote 695: Dig. Nik. XIII. 76.]
+
+[Footnote 696: Dig. Nik. XVII. 2-4.]
+
+[Footnote 697: Christian mystics also, such as St Angela and St Theresa,
+had "formless visions." See Underhill, _Myst._ pp. 338 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 698: Attha vimokkhā. See Mahāparinib. sut. in Rhys Davids'
+_Dialogues of the Buddha,_ II. 119.]
+
+[Footnote 699: Akińcańńāyatanam.]
+
+[Footnote 700: Nevasańńānāsańńāyatanam.]
+
+[Footnote 701: Sańńavedāyita nirodhasamāpatti. The Buddha when dying
+(Dig. XVI. V. 8, 9) passes through this state, but does not go from it
+to Parinibbāna. This perhaps means that it was regarded as a
+purification of the mind, but not on the direct road to the final goal.]
+
+[Footnote 702: See Maj. Nik. 43. But the point of the discussion seems
+to be not so much special commendation of this form of trance as an
+explanation of its origin, namely that it, like other mental states, is
+bound to ensue when certain preliminary conditions both moral and
+intellectual have been realized. See also Sam. Nik. XXXVI. ii. 5. See
+for examples of this cataleptic form of Samādhi Max Müller's _Life of
+Ramakrishna_, pp. 49,59, etc. Christian mystics (_e.g._ St Catharine of
+Siena and St Theresa) were also subject to deathlike trances lasting for
+hours and St Theresa is said once to have been in this condition for
+some days.]
+
+[Footnote 703: Maj. Nik. 86.]
+
+[Footnote 704: This is known to European mystics, particularly Suso. St
+Francis of Assisi, St Catharine of Siena and Richard Rolle are also
+cited. See Underhill. _Mysticism_, p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 705: Christian visions of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise are
+another instance of the divine eye, which thinks it can see the whole
+scheme of things.]
+
+[Footnote 706: Tales about such powers, are still very common in the
+East, for instance the Chinese story (in the _Liao Chai_) of the man who
+learnt from a Taoist how to walk through a wall but failed ignominiously
+when he tried to give an exhibition to his family. Educated Chinese seem
+to think there is something in the story and say that he failed because
+his motives were bad.]
+
+[Footnote 707: Bernheim, _La Suggestion_, chap. I. Quand j'ai éloigné de
+son esprit la préoccupation que fait naītre l'idée de magnétisme ... je
+lui dis "Regardez-moi bien et ne songez qu'ą dormir. Vous allez sentir
+une lourdeur dans les paupičres, une fatigue dans vos yeux: ils
+clignotent, ils vont se mouiller; la vue devient confuse: ils se
+ferment." Quelques sujets ferment les yeux et dorment immédiatement....
+_C'est le sommeil par la suggestion, c'est l'image du sommeil_ que je
+suggčre, que j'insinue dans le cerveau. Les passes, la fixation des yeux
+ou des doigts de l'opérateur, propres seulement ą concentrer
+l'attention, ne sont pas absolument necéssaires.]
+
+[Footnote 708: Thus in the drama Ratnāvalī a magician makes the
+characters see an imaginary conflagration of the palace and also a
+vision of heaven. His performance seems to be accepted as merely a
+remarkable piece of conjuring.]
+
+[Footnote 709: Ang. Nik. xvi. 1. In spite of his magic power he could
+not prevent himself being murdered. The Milinda-Pańha explains this as
+the result of Karma, which is stronger than magic and everything else.]
+
+[Footnote 710: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 77. ]
+
+[Footnote 711: Cullavag. v. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 712: Dig. Nik. xi.]
+
+[Footnote 713: Visuddhi Magga, xii. in Warren, _Buddhism in
+Translation_, pp. 315 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 714: R.V. II. 12. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 715: Yet Tennyson can say "And at their feet the crocus brake
+like fire," but in a mythological poem.]
+
+[Footnote 716: Mahāv. V. i.]
+
+[Footnote 717: E.g. Dig. Nik. XI. and Cullavag. V. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 718: Even in the Upanishads the gods are not given a very high
+position. They are powerless against Brahman (e.g. Kena Up. 14-28) and
+are not naturally in possession of true knowledge, though they may
+acquire it (e.g. Chānd. Up. VIII. 7).]
+
+[Footnote 719: Dig. Nik. XI.]
+
+[Footnote 720: Dig. Nik. I. chap. 2, 1-6. The radiant gods are the
+Abhassara, cf. Dhammap 200.]
+
+[Footnote 721: Watters, II. p. 160.]
+
+[Footnote 722: The legends of both Rāma and Krishna occur in the _Book
+of Jātakas_ in a somewhat altered form, nos. 641 and 454.]
+
+[Footnote 723: Thus Helios the Sun passes into St Elias.]
+
+[Footnote 724: He is often called Brahmā Sahampati, a title of doubtful
+meaning and not found in Brahmanic writings. The Pitakas often speak of
+Brahmās and worlds of Brahmā in the plural, as if there were a whole
+class of Brahmās. See especially the Suttas collected in book I, chap.
+vi. of the Samyutta-Nikāya where we even hear of Pacceka Brahmās,
+apparently corresponding in some way to Pacceka Buddhas.]
+
+[Footnote 725: Maj. Nik. 49. The meaning of the title Baka is not clear
+and may be ironical. Another ironical name is manopadosikā (debauched in
+mind) invented as the title of a class of gods in Dig. Nik. I. and XX.
+The idea that sages can instruct the gods is anterior to Buddhism, See
+e.g. Brihad-Ār. Up. II. 5. 17, and ib. IV. 3. 33, and the parallel
+passage in the Tait. Chānd. Kaush. Upanishads and Sat. Brāhmana for the
+idea that a Srotriya is equal to the highest deities.]
+
+[Footnote 726: Six Manvantaras of the present Kalpa have elapsed and we
+are in the seventh.]
+
+[Footnote 727: We are in the Kali or worst age of the present mahāyuga.
+The Kali lasts 432,000 years and began 3102 B.C.
+
+In their number and in many other points of cosmography the various
+accounts differ greatly. The account given above is taken from the
+Vishnu Purāna, book II. but the details in it are not entirely
+consistent.]
+
+[Footnote 728: The detailed formulation of this cosmography was
+naturally gradual but its chief features are known to the Nikāyas. Dig.
+Nik. XIV. 17 and 30 seem to imply the theory of spheres. For Heavens,
+see Maj. Nik. 49, Dig. Nik. XI. 68-79 and for Hells Sut. Nip. III. 10,
+Maj. Nik. 129. See too De la Vallée Poussin's article, _Cosmology
+Buddhist_, in _E.R.E._]
+
+[Footnote 729: See for the Asuras Sam. Nik. I. xi. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 730: See a Tibetan representation in Waddell's _Buddhism of
+Tibet_, p. 79.]
+
+[Footnote 731: The question of whether the universe is infinite in space
+or not is according to the Pitakas one of those problems which cannot be
+answered.]
+
+[Footnote 732: Dig. Nik. XXVII.]
+
+[Footnote 733: Māro pāpimā. See especially Windisch, _Māra and Buddha_,
+1895, and Sam. Nik. I. iv.]
+
+[Footnote 734: We sometimes hear of Māras in the plural. Like Brahmā he
+is sometimes a personality, sometimes the type of a class of gods. We
+also hear that he has obtained his present exalted though not virtuous
+post by his liberality in former births. Thus, like Sakka and other
+Buddhist Devas, Māra is really an office held by successive occupants.
+He is said to be worshipped by some Tibetan sects. It is possible that
+the legends about Māra and his daughters and about Krishna and the Gopīs
+may have a common origin for Māra is called Kanha (the Prakrit
+equivalent of Krishna) in Sutta-Nipāta, 439.]
+
+[Footnote 735: Ang. Nik. III. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 736: This seems to be the correct doctrine, though it is hard
+to understand how the popular idea of continual torture is compatible
+with the performance of good deeds. The Kathā-vatthu, XIII. 2, states
+that a man in purgatory can do good. See too Ang. Nik. 1. 19.]
+
+[Footnote 737: But even the language of the Pitakas is not always quite
+correct on this point, for it represents evil-doers as falling down
+straight into hell.]
+
+[Footnote 738: Khud. Path. 7. In this poem, the word Peta (Sk. Preta)
+seems to be used as equivalent to departed spirits, not necessarily
+implying that they are undergoing punishment. In the _Questions of
+Milinda_ (IV. 8. 29) the practice of making offerings on behalf of the
+dead is countenanced, and it is explained exactly what classes of dead
+profit by them. On the other hand the Kathā-vatthu states that the dead
+do not benefit by gifts given in this world, but two sects, the
+Rājagirika and Siddhattika, are said by the commentary to hold the
+contrary view.]
+
+[Footnote 739: See Max Müller's _Ramakrishna_, p. 40, for another
+instance.]
+
+[Footnote 740: In a passage of the Mahāparinib. Sut. (III. 22) which is
+probably not very early the Buddha says that when he mixes with gods or
+men he takes the shape of his auditors, so that they do not know him.]
+
+[Footnote 741: Sam. Nik. II. 3. 10. Sadevakassa lokassa aggo.]
+
+[Footnote 742: E.g. in the Lotus Sutra.]
+
+[Footnote 743: One hundred and eight marks on the sole of each foot are
+also enumerated in later writings.]
+
+[Footnote 744: Artaxerxes Longimanus. Cf. the Russian princely name
+Dolgorouki. The Chinese also attribute forty-nine physical signs of
+perfection to Confucius, including long arms. See Doré, _Recherches sur
+les Superstitions en Chine_, vol. XIII. pp. 2-6.]
+
+[Footnote 745: Though Brahmans are represented as experts in these
+marks, it seems likely that the idea of the Mahāpurusha was popular
+chiefly among the Kshatriyas, for in one form, at any rate, it teaches
+that a child of the warrior caste born with certain marks will become
+either a universal monarch or a great teacher of the truth. This notion
+must have been most distasteful to the priestly caste.]
+
+[Footnote 746: See Dig. Nik. 3. The Lakkhana Suttanta (Dig. Nik. 30)
+contains a discussion of the marks.]
+
+[Footnote 747: See Dik. Nig. 14, Mahāpadānasutta: Therag. 490; Sam. Nik.
+XII. 4-10.]
+
+[Footnote 748: Maj. Nik. 50, Māratajjaniyasuttam.]
+
+[Footnote 749: Dig. Nik. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 750: Maj. Nik. 123. See also Dig. Nik. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 751: More literally that he knows exactly how his feelings,
+etc., arise, continue and pass away and is not swayed by wandering
+thoughts and desires.]
+
+[Footnote 752: Three extra Buddhas are sometimes mentioned but are
+usually ignored because they did not, like the others, come into contact
+with Gotama in his previous births.]
+
+[Footnote 753: E.g. Ang. Nik. III. 15 and the Mahā-Sudassana Sutta (Dig.
+Nik. X.) in which the Buddha says he has been buried at Kusināra no less
+than six times.]
+
+[Footnote 754: Dig. Nik. XVI. v. 15.]
+
+[Footnote 755: The two kinds of Buddhas are defined in the
+Puggala-Pannatti, IX. 1. For details about Pratyeka-Buddhas see De La
+Vallée Poussin's article in _E.R.E._]
+
+[Footnote 756: Thus in Dig. Nik. XVI. 5. 12 they are declared worthy of
+a Dāgaba or funeral monument and Sam. Nik. III. 2. 10 declares the
+efficacy of alms given to them.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3)
+by Charles Eliot
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