■iV I -■ ■ / 1. wmw. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/buddhistindiaOOdavirich > « • • • • • » • V • r • » • « » •• •• • • - • . ♦ • o H o H wi M (^ O l-H s u CO H <: O H H wi 1— « Q Q < ai O X H O O stories of the Nations A Series of Historical Studies intended to present in graphic narratives the stories of the different nations that have attained prominence in history. In the story form the current of each national life is distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their philosophical relations to each other as well as to universal history. 12°, Illustrated, cloth, each . • $1.50 Half Leather, each . . . • $1.75 Nos. 62 and following Nos. . net $1.35 Each .... (By mail) $1.50 Half leather, gilt top, each . net ^1.60 (By mail) $1.75 FOR FULL LIST SEE END OP THIS VOLUME BUDDHIST IMDIA THE STORY OF THE NATIONS Buddhist India BY T. W. RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., Ph.D. II PROFESSOR OF PALI AND BUDDHIST LITERATURE AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON AUTHOR OF " BUDDHISM : ITS HISTORY AND LITERATURE," ETC. * ». •. * *\i NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN 1903 Copyright, 1Q03 By G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London By T. FISHER UNWIN Published, June, 1903 :^\. 'Z\it *Rnfcfterbocfeer firess, "ftcw l^orft PREFACE IN the following work a first attempt has been made to describe ancient India, during the pe- riod of Buddhist ascendancy, from the point of view, not so much of the brahmin, as of the rajput. The two points of view naturally differ very much. Priest and noble in India have always worked very well together so long as the question at issue did not touch their own rival claims as against one an- other. When it did — and it did so especially during the period referred to — the harmony, as will be evi- dent from the following pages, was not so great. Even to make this attempt at all may be regarded by some as a kind of Use majesty The brahmin view, in possession of the field when Europeans entered India, has been regarded so long with rev- erence among us that it seems almost an imperti- nence now, to put forward the other. ** Why not leave well alone ? Why resuscitate from the well- deserved oblivion in which, for so many centuries, they have happily lain, the pestilent views of these tiresome people? The puzzles of Indian history have been solved by respectable men in Manu and the Great Bharata, which have the advantage of be- iii 346476 IV PREFACE ing equally true for five centuries before Christ and five centuries after. Shade of Kumdrila! what are we coming to when the writings of these fellows — renegade brahmins among them too — are actually taken seriously, and mentioned without a sneer? If by chance they say anything well, that is only because it was better said, before they said it, by the orthodox brahmins, who form, and have always formed, the key-stone of the arch of social life in India. They are the only proper authorities. Why trouble about these miserable heretics?" Well, I would plead, in extenuation, that I am not the first guilty one. People who found coins and inscriptions have not been deterred from con- sidering them seriously because they fitted very badly with the brahmin theories of caste and his- tory. The matter has gone too far, those theories have been already too much shaken, for any one to hesitate before using every available evidence. The evidence here collected, a good deal of it for the first time, is necessarily imperfect ; but it seems of- ten to be so suggestive, to throw so much light on points hitherto dark, or even unsuspected, that the trouble of collecting it is, so far at least, fairly justi- fied. Any words, however, are, I am afraid, of little avail against such sentiments. Wherever they exist the inevitable tendency is to dispute the evidence, and to turn a deaf ear to the conclusions. And there is, perhaps, after all, but one course open, and that is to declare war, always with the deepest re- spect for those who hold them, against such views. The views are wrong. They are not compatible PREFACE V with historical methods, and the next generation will see them, and the writings that are, uncon- sciously, perhaps, animated by them, forgotten. Another point of a similar kind, which ought not in this connection to be left unnoticed, is the pre- valent pessimistic idea with regard to historical re- search in India. There are not only wanting in India such books giving consecutive accounts of the history as we are accustomed to in Europe, but even the names and dates of the principal kings, and battles, and authors, have not been preserved in the literature — that is, of course, in the brahmin litera- ture which is all that has hitherto been available to the student. That is unfortunately true, and some of the special causes which gave rise to this state of things are pointed out below. But the other side of the question should not be ignored. If we com- pare the materials available for the history, say, of England in the eighth or ninth century A.D. with the materials available for the history of India at the same period the difference is not so very marked. The more proper comparison, moreover, would be made with Europe ; for India is a continent of many diverse nations. And in the earlier periods, though we have inherited a connected history of one corner in the south-east of the continent, the records handed down for the rest of Europe are perhaps as slight and as imperfect as those handed down in India. What is of more importance, in Europe, for the earlier periods, all the inherited materials have been made available for the historical student by properly edited and annotated editions, and also by VI PREFACE dictionaries, monographs, and helps of all sorts. In India much of the inherited material is still buried in MS., and even so much as is accessible in printed texts has been by no means thoroughly exploited. Scarcely anything, also, has yet been done for the excavation of the ancient historical sites. We might do well to recollect, when we read these complaints of the absence of materials, that the remedy lies, to a very large extent, in our own hands. We might so easily have more. We do not even utilise the ma- terials we have.* To speak out quite plainly, it is not so much the historical data that are lacking, as the men. There are plenty of men able and willing to do the work. But it is accepted tradition in England that all higher education may safely be left to muddle along as it best can, without system, under the not always very wise restrictions of private beneficence. One consequence is that the funds have to be administered in accord with the wishes of benefactors in mediaeval times. The old studies, theology, classics, and mathe- matics, have a superabundance of endowment. The new studies have to struggle on under great poverty and difficulty. There is no chair of Assyriology, for instance, in England. And whereas in Paris and Ber- lin, in St. Petersburg and Vienna, there are great seminaries of Oriental learning, we see in London the amazing absurdity of unpaid professors obliged to devote to the earning otherwise, of their living, ^ See on this question the very apposite remarks of Professor Geiger in his monograph Dipavamsa und Mahdvamsa' (Erlangen, 1901). PREFACE vii the time they ought to give to teaching or research. And throughout England the state of things is nearly as bad. In all England, for instance, there are two chairs of Sanskrit. In Germany the Gov- ernments provide more than twenty — just as if Ger- many's interests in India were more than ten times as great as ours. Meanwhile our Government is supine and placid, confident that, somehow or other, we shall muddle through ; and that this is no busi- ness of theirs. This work has been long delayed, and has suffered much from the necessity laid upon me of trying to write it in scraps of time rescued, with difficulty, from the calls of a busy life. I can only hope that other scholars, more able and less hampered than myself, will be able to give to the problems of en- trancing interest I have ventured to raise a consider- ation more worthy of them, in every way, than I have been able to give. T. W. Rhys-Davids. October, 1902. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE KINGS . II. THE CLANS AND NATIONS III. THE VILLAGE IV. SOCIAL GRADES . V. IN THE TOWN VI. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS VII. WRITING — THE BEGINNINGS VIII. WRITING — ITS DEVELOPMENT IX. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. I. GENERAL VIEW . X. LITERATURE. II. THE PALI BOOKS XI. THE JATAKA BOOK XII. RELIGION ANIMISM . XIII. RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSITION XIV. CHANDRAGUPTA ix PAGE I 17 42 52 63 87 121 140 161 189 210 238 259 X CHAPTER XV. ASOKA XVI. KANISHKA APPENDIX INDEX CONTENTS PAGE . 321 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE THE GREAT BUDDHIST TOPE AT SANCHI BEFORE RESTORATION . . . Frontispiece KING PASENADl IN HIS CHARIOT. ABOVE IS THE WHEEL OF THE LAW ..... 9 From the Bharahat Tope, PI. xiii. AJAKASATTU STARTING OUT TO VISIT THE BUDDHA I4 KINGS AND QUEENS WATCHING A PROCESSION AS IT LEAVES A FORT 64 From the Sanchi Tope. FACADE OF MANSION 65 From the Bharahat Tope, PI. xxxi, SUDHAMMO, THE MOTE-HALL OF THE GODS . . 67 From the Bharahat Tope. PI. xvi, ANCIENT OPEN-AIR BATH AT ANURADHAPURA (no. i) . . . . . . . .69 ancient open-air bath at anuradhapura (no. 2) 71 old indian scrollwork 72 a ziggarat 73 From Ragozin's ^^ Story of Chaldea,'' THE THOUSAND PILLARS. RUINS OF THE FOUNDA- TION OF THE SEVEN-STORIED GREAT BRAZEN PALACE AT ANURADHAPURA . . * . '75 From Cave's '''Ruined Cities of Ceylon.^' xi Xll ILL USTRA TIONS PAGE THE SPLIT ROCK. GAMBLING SCENE FROM THE BHARAHAT TOPE ...... 77 SCROLLWORK ORNAMENT AS USED OUTSIDE HOUSES AND ON TOPES IN BUDDHIST INDIA . . 79 From the Bharahat Tope. PL xliii. GROUND PLAN AND RESTORATION OF THE BHARA- HAT STUPA ....... 81 From Cunningham^ s ""Siilpa of Bharhuty PL Hi. RESTORATION (bY W. SIMPSOn) OF THE AHIN POSH TOPE %2) From the Proceedings of the R, I. B. A. A STUPA AS CARVED ON THE BAS-RELIEFS . . 84 From Cunningham" s ''Stiipa of Bharhut.'" PL xxxi. THE JETAVANA DAGABA 85 SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT JEWELRY FOUND IN THE SAKIYA TOPE . 89 From y. R. A. S., i8g8. OLD INDIAN GIRDLE OF JEWELS . . . . 9I From the figure of Sirimd Devatd on the Bharahat Tope. PL li. OLD INDIAN NECKLACES ..... 92 OLD INDIAN LOCKET. OLD INDIAN EARRING. OLD INDIAN LOCKET 93 Size of originaL MEDALLION ON THE BHARAHAT TOPE ... 95 PL xxiv. Fig. J. ANCIENT INDIAN HEAD-DRESS .... 97 From a medallion on the Bharahat Tope. PL xxiv. Fig. 2. ANATHA PINDIKA's GIFT OF THE JETAVANA PARK . 99 From the Bharahat Tope. PL Ixvii. ANCIENT INDIAN COINS I06 ERAN COINS . . . . . . . -IIS ILLUSTRATIONS xiii PAGE LEAF OF MS. FROM THE GOSINGA VIHARA OF AN OLD BUDDHIST ANTHOLOGY .... 122 DR. HOEY's brick TABLET, WITH BUDDHIST SUTTA INSCRIBED ON IT . . . . . . I23 THE COPPER PLATE FROM TAKKA-SILA . . 125 '''' Epigraphia Indica^^' vol. iv. THE MAUNG-GON GOLD PLATE .... I26 From '^Epigraphia Indica,'' vol. v.^p, loi, LEAF FROM THE BOWER MS. BIRCH BARK CUT TO IMITATE PALM LEAVES, WITH HOLES FOR STRINGS TO TIE THEM UP WITH . . . 127 THE INSCRIBED VASE FROM THE SAKIYA TOPE . 1 29 THE PEPPE VASES . . . . . • T3I Found by Mr, Pepp^ in the Sdkiya Tope. RUINS OF THE SAKIYA TOPE, PUT UP BY HIS RELA- TIVES OVER THEIR PORTION OF THE ASHES FROM THE FUNERAL PYRE OF THE BUDDHA . I33 FRAGMENT OF THE THIRTEENTH ROCK EDICT OF ASOKA, DISCOVERED BY PROFESSOR RHYS-DAVIDS AT GIRNAR 135 THE BANYAN DEER JATAKA STORY . . . I93 Three episodes on one bas-relief, SIRIMA DEVATA . 2l6 From the Bharahat Tope. PI. xxiii. MODERN IMAGE OF SRI AS CONSORT VISHNU . 2l8 From Burgess's ''''Cave Temples of India ^'^ p. ^24, HINDOO GODDESS OF LUCK . . . . .221 VESSAVANA KUVERA, KING OF THE YAKSHAS, AND REGENT OF THE NORTH .... 222 From the Bharahat Tope. PI. xxii. XIV ILL US TRA TIONS PAGE CHAKAVAKA, KINCx OF THE NAGAS . . . 222 From Cunningham's ''Stiipa of Bharhuty PL xxi. Pig' 3- NAGA MERMAIDS IN WATER ..... 223 From Burgess and GriinwedeVs ''Buddhist Art in India, ''^ SEATED NAGA; BACK VIEW .... 225 From a fresco in Cave 11 at Ajanta, ELEPHANTS BEFORE THE WISDOM TREE . . 228 From Cunningham's ''Stupa of Bharhuty PI, xxx. THE WISDOM TREE OF KASSAPA, THE BUDDHA . 229 From Cunningham's '^Stupa of Bharhut." PI, xxx, THE BUDDHA PREACHING TO NAGAS DWELLING IN A SACRED TREE ...... 233 From a Buddhist carving at Takt-i-bahi, y. R, A. 6"., i8gg. DETAILS OF THE SCULPTURES ON THE GATES OF SANCHI TOPE 279 DETAILS ON THE SCULPTURES ON THE GATES OF SANCHI TOPE ...... 281 REAR VIEW OF THE NORTHERN GATE OF SANCHI TOPE 283 JAIN TEMPLE AT KHUJARAO .... 285 THE GREAT BUDDHIST TOPE AT SANCHI BEFORE RESTORATION 287 SANCHI TOPE. A GENERAL VIEW FROM THE SOUTH. 289 EASTERN GATE OF SANCHI TOPE . . . . 291 REAR VIEW OF THE EASTERN GATE OF SANCHI TOPE . . 293 ILL USTRA riONS XV PAGE DETAILS FROM EASTERN GATE OF SANCHI TOPE . 30I DETAILS FROM EASTERN GATE OF SANCHI TOPE . 303 MAP OF THE KINGDOM OF ASOKA AS DESCRIBED IN THE INSCRIPTIONS AND IN THE ENGRAVED EDICTS . . o . . . • . 320 BUDDHIST INDIA CHAPTER I THE KINGS WHEN Buddhism arose there was no para- mount sovereign in India. The kingly power was not, of course, unknown. There had been kings in the valley of the Ganges for centuries, long before Buddhism, and the time was fast ap- proaching when the whole of India would be under the sway of monarchical governments. In those parts of India which came very early under the influence of Buddhism, we find, besides a still sur- viving number of small aristocratic republics, four kingdoms of considerable extent and power. Be- sides, there were a dozen or more of smaller king- doms, like the German dutchies or the seven pro- vinces into which England was divided in the time of the Heptarchy. No one of these was of much politi- cal importance. And the tendency towards the gradual absorption of these domains, and also of the republics, into the neighbouring kingdoms, was 2 BUDDHIST INDIA already in full force. The evidence at present available is not sufficient to give us an exact idea either of the extent of country, or of the number of the population, under the one or the other form of government ; nor has any attempt been so far made to trace the history of political institutions in India before the rise of Buddhism. We can do no more, then, than state the fact — most interesting from the comparative point of view — that the earliest Buddhist records reveal the survival, side by side with more or less powerful monarchies, of republics with either complete or modified independence. It is significant that this important factor in the social condition of India in the sixth and seventh centuries B. C. has remained hitherto unnoticed by scholars either in Europe or in India. They have relied for their information about the Indian peo- ples too exclusively on the brahmin ' books. And these, partly because of the natural antipathy felt by the priests towards the free republics, partly because of the later date of most of the extant priestly literature, and especially of the law books, ignore the real facts. They convey the impression that the only recognised, and in fact universally prevalent, form of government was that of kings under the guidance and tutelage of priests. But the Buddhist records, amply confirmed in these respects by the somewhat later Jain ones, leave no doubt upon the point. ' This word, always pronounced, and till lately always spelt, in England, with an i, is spelt in both Sanskrit and Pali, brdhmana. It seems to me a pity to attempt to introduce a spelling, brahfnan^ which is neither English nor Indian. THE KINGS 3 As regards the monarchies, the four referred to above as then of importance are as follows : 1. The kingdom of Magadha^ with its capital at Rajagaha (afterwards at Pataliputta), reigned over at first by King Bimbisara and afterwards by his son Ajatasattu. 2. To the north-west there was the kingdom of Kosala — the Northern Kosala — with its capital at Savatthi, ruled over at first by King Pasenadi and afterwards by his son Vidudabha. 3. Southwards from Kosala was the kingdom of the Varnsas or Vatsas, with their capital at Kos- ambi on the Jumna, reigned over by King Udena, the son of Parantapa. 4. And still farther south lay the kingdom of Avanti, with its capital Ujjeni, reigned over by King Pajjota. The royal families of these kingdoms were united by matrimonial alliances ; and were also, not seldom in consequence of those very alliances, from time to time at war. Thus Pasenadi's sister, the Kosala Devi, was the wife of Bimbisara, King of Magadha. When Ajatasattu, Bimbisara's son by another wife (the Videha lady from Mithila), put his father Bim- bisara to death, the Kosala Devi died of grief. Pas- enadi then confiscated that township of Kasi, the revenues of which had been granted to the Kosala Devi as pin money. Angered at this, Ajatasattu declared war against his aged uncle. ^ At first vic- tory inclined to Ajatasattu. But in the fourth cam- paign he was taken prisoner, and not released until ' Properly " brother of his stepmother." 4 BUDDHIST INDIA he had relinquished his claim. Thereupon Pasenadi not only gave him his daughter Vajira in marriage, but actually conferred upon her, as a wedding gift, the very village in Kasi in dispute. Three years after- wards Pasenadi's son Vidudabha revolted against his father, who was then at Ulumba in the Sakiya country. The latter fled to Rajagaha to ask Ajata- sattu for aid ; but was taken ill and died outside the city gates.' We shall hear farther on how both Vidudabha, and his brother-in-law Ajatasattu, were subsequently in conflict with the adjoining repub- lican confederacies, the former with the Sakiyans, the latter with the Vajjians of Vesali. The royal families of Kosambi and Avanti were also united by marriage. The commentary on verses 21-23 of the Dhammapada gives a long and roman- tic story of the way in which Vasula-datta, the daughter of King Pajjota of Avanti, became the wife, or rather one of the three wives, of King Udena of Kosambi. The legend runs that Pajjota (whose fierce and unscrupulous character is there painted in terms confirmed by one of our oldest authorities^) inquired once of his courtiers whether there was any king whose glory was greater than his own. And when he was straightway told that Udena of Kosambi surpassed him, he at once de- termined to attack him. Being then advised that an open campaign would be certainly disastrous, but that an ambush — the more easy as Udena would go anywhere to capture a fine elephant — might * S, I. 83 ; Jat. 2. 403, 4. 343 ; Avad. Sat. 51. ^ Mahd Vagga of the Vinaya, viii. i. 23, and following. THE KINGS 5 succeed, he had an elephant made of wood and deftly painted, concealed in it sixty warriors, set it up in a defile near the boundary, and had Udena in- formed by spies that a glorious elephant, the like of which had never been seen, was to be found in the frontier forest. Udena took the bait, plunged into the defile in pursuit of the prize, became separated from his retinue, and was taken prisoner. Now Udena knew a charm of wonderful power over the hearts of elephants. Pajjota offered him his life and freedom if he would tell it. "Very well," was the reply, " I will teach it you if you pay me the salutation due to a teacher.'* " Pay salutation to you — never ! *' "Then neither do I tell you my charm.'' " In that case I must order you to execution.** " Do as you like ! Of my body you are lord. But not of my mind." Then Pajjota bethought him that after all no one else knew the charm, and he asked Udena if he would teach it to someone else who would salute him. And being answered yes, he told his daugh- ter that there was a dwarf who knew a charm ; that she was to learn it of that dwarf ; and then tell it to him, the King. And to Udena he said that a hunchback woman would salute him from behind a curtain, and that he had to teach her the charm, standing the while himself outside the curtain. So cunning was the King to bar their friendship. But when the prisoner day after day rehearsed the charm, and his unseen pupil was slow to catch it up and to repeat it, Udena at last one day called out impa- 6 BUDDHIST INDIA tiently, ** Say it so, you hunchback ! How thick lipped you must be, and heavy jawed ! ** Then she, angered, rejoined : " What do you mean, you wretched dwarf, to call such as I am hunchback ? '* And he pulled the corner of the curtain to see, and asked her who she was, and the trick was dis- covered, and he went inside, and there was no more talk that day of learning charms, or of repeating lessons. And they laid a counter-plot. And she told her father that a condition precedent to the right learn- ing of the charm was the possession of a certain potent herb picked under a certain conjunction of the stars, and they must have the right of exit, and the use of his famous elephant. And her wish was granted. Then one day, when her father was away on a pleasure jaunt, Udena put her on the elephant, and taking also money, and gold-dust in bags of leather, set forth. But men told Pajjota the King ; and he, angry and suspecting, sent a force in rapid pursuit. Then Udena emptied the bag of coins. And the pursuers waiting to gather them up, the fugitives forged ahead. When the pursuers again gained on them, Udena let loose a bagful of gold-dust. Again the pursuers delayed. And as they once more gained on the fugitives, lo ! the frontier fortress, and Udena's own troops coming out to meet their lord ! Then the pursuers drew back ; and Udena and Vasula-datta entered, in safety and in triumph, into the city ; and with due pomp and ceremony she was anointed as his Queen. THE KINGS 7 So far the legend ; and it has a famiHar sound as if echoes of two of our classical tales had been con- fused in India. No one would take it for sober history. It is probably only a famous and popular story retold of well-known characters. And when a learned scholar summarises it thus: ** Udena eloped with her on an elephant, leaving behind him a bag full of gold in order to prevent a prosecution " * — we see how easily a very slight change in expression may, in retelling, have altered the very gist of the tale. But it is sufficient evidence that, when the tradition arose. King Pajjota of Avanti and King Udena of Kosambi were believed to have been con- temporary rulers of adjoining kingdoms, and to have been connected by marriage and engaged in war. We hear a good deal else about this Udena, King of the Vacchas or Varnsas of Kosambi. Formerly, in a fit of drunken rage, at a picnic, because his women folk left him, when he was sleeping, to listen to a re- ligious discourse by Pindola (a highly respected and famous member of the Buddhist Order), he had had Pindola tortured by having a nest of brown ants tied to him.'^ Long afterwards the King professed him- self an adherent of the Buddha's in consequence of a conversation he had with this same man Pindola, on the subject of self-restraint.® At another picnic the women's pavilion was burnt, with his Queen, Sama- vatT, and many of her attendants.* His father's name was Parantapa ; and he had a son named Bodhi, ^ J. P. T. S., 1888. sub voce, »S. 4. no. ^ Jat. 4- 375. ^ Ud. 7. 10 = Divy, 533. 8 BUDDHIST INDIA after whom one of the Suttantasis named * and con- cerning whom other details are given.'' But Udena survived the Buddha,^ and we are not informed whether Bodhi did, or did not, succeed him on the throne. Pasenadi, the King of Kosala, is described as a very different character. The whole of the Third Sarnyutta, consisting of twenty-five anecdotes, each with a moral bias, is devoted to him. And there are about an equal number of references to him in other parts of the Hterature. Educated at the celebrated seat of learning, Takkasila, in the extreme north- west, he was placed, on his return, by his father, Maha Kosala, upon the throne.* As a sovereign he showed himself zealous in his administrative duties, and addicted to the companionship of the good.^ And he extended his favour, in full accord with the well-known Indian toleration, to the religious of all schools of thought alike/ This liberality of thought and conduct was only strengthened when, early in the new movement, he proclaimed himself an adhe- rent, in a special sense, of the Buddha's.' This was in consequence of a talk he had had with the Buddha himself. The King had asked him how he, being so young, as compared with other already well-known teachers, could claim an insight beyond theirs. The reply simply was that no ** religieux " should be de- spised because of his youth. Who would show dis- respect to a prince, or to a venomous serpent, or to 1 M. No. 85. 2 Vin. 2. 127, 4. 198, 199 ; Jat. 3. 157. 3 P. V. A. 141. 4 Dhp. A. 211. ^ S. I. 83. 6 D. 87 ; Ud. 2. 6 ; S. I. 75. '^ S. i. 70. Fig. I — KING PASENADI IN HIS CHARIOT. ABOVE IS THE WHEEL OF THE LAW. [From the Bharahat Tope. PL xiii.] 9 lO BUDDHIST INDIA a fire, merely because it was young? It was the na- ture of the doctrine, not the personal pecularities of the teacher, that was the test. Sumana, the King's aunt, sister of his father, Maha Kosala, was present at this conversation, and made up her mind to enter the Order, but delayed doing so in order to nurse an aged relative. The delay was long. But on the death of the old lady, Sumana, then old herself, did enter the Order, and became an Arahat, and is one of the Buddhist ladies whose poems are preserved in the Therl Gatha. The aged relative was Pasenadi's grandmother; so that we have four generations of this family brought before us.* A comparison between Digha i. 87 and Divyava- dana 620 — where the same action is attributed in the older book to King Pasenadi and in the younger to King Agnidatta — makes it highly probable that Pasenadi (used as a designation for several kings) IS in reahty an official epithet, and that the King's real personal name was Agnidatta. Among the subjects chosen for the bas-reliefs on the Bharahat tope, in the third century B.C., is one representing Pasenadi issuing forth on his chariot, drawn by four horses with their tails and manes elaborately plaited, and attended by three servants. Above him is figured the Wheel of the Law, the symbol of the new teaching of which the King of Kosala was so devoted a supporter. It is stated that is was from the desire to associate himself by marriage with the Buddha's family that ^ Thag. A. 22 ; comp. S. i. 97 ; Vin. 2. 169 ; Jat. 4. 146. THE KINGS II Pasenadi asked for one of the daughters of the Sakiya chiefs as his wife. The Sakiyas discussed the proposition in their Mote Hall, and held it beneath the dignity of their clan. But they sent him a girl named Vasabha Khattiya, the daughter, by a slave girl, of one of their leading chiefs. By her Pasenadi had the son, Vidadabha, mentioned above. And it was in consequence of the anger kindled in Vidu- dabha's heart at the discovery of the fraud that, hav- ing determined to wreak his vengeance on the Sakiyas, he, on coming to the throne, invaded their country, took their city, and put to death a great number of the members of the clan, without distinction of age or sex. The details of the story have not been found as yet in our oldest records.* But the main circumstance of the war against the clan is very early alluded to, and is no doubt a historical fact. It is said to have preceded only by a year or two the death of the Buddha himself. The beginning of this story, on the other hand, seems very forced. Would a family of patricians in one of the Greek republics have considered a mar- riage of one of their daughters to a neighbouring tyrant beneath their dignity ? And in the present case the tyrant in question was the acknowledged suzerain of the clan.* The Sakiyas may have con- sidered the royal family of Kosala of inferior birth to themselves. There is mention, in several pass- ages, of the pride of the Sakiyas.'' But, even so, ' But see Dhp. A. 216, foil. ; Jat. 4. 145, foil. 2 Pabbajja Sutta, verse 18 (S. N. 122). * For instance, D. i. 90, gi ; Vin. 2. 183 ; J. i. 889, 4. 145. 12 BUDDHIST INDIA we cannot see, in the present state of our know- ledge, why they should object. We know that the daughter of one of the chiefs of a neighbouring clan, equally free and equally proud, the Liccha- vis of Vesali, was married to Bimbisara, king of Magadha.' It is, furthermore, almost certain that the royal family at Savatthi was simply one of the patrician families who had managed to secure hereditary consulship in the Kosala clan. For the chiefs among the Kosalas, apart from the royal family, and even the ordinary clansmen (the kiila- puttd), are designated by the very term {rdjdno, kings), which is applied to the chiefs and clansmen of those tribes which had still remained aristocratic republics.'* And it is precisely in a very natural tend- ency to exaggerate the importance of the families of their respective founders that the later records, both of the Jains and of the Buddhists, differ from the earlier ones. It is scarcely probable, therefore, that the actual originating cause of Vidudabha^s invasion of the Sakiya territory was exactly as set out above. He may have used the arrogance of the Sakiyas, per- haps, as a pretext. But the real reasons which in- duced Vidudabha to attack and conquer his relatives, the Sakiyas, were, most likely, the same sort of po- litical motives which later on induced his cousin, Ajatasattu of Magadha, to attack and conquer his relatives, the Licchavis of Vesali. We hear already of Ajatasattu's intention to at- tack them in the opening sections of the Book of ^ See the genealogical table in Jacobi's Jama Sutras, i, xv. ^ Sum. 239. THE KINGS 13 the Great Decease^ and the Buddha is represented ^ as making the not very difficult forecast that event- ually, when the Licchavis had been weakened by luxury, he would be able to carry out this inten- tion. But it was not till more than three years afterwards that, having succeeded, by the treachery of the brahmin Vassakara, in sowing dissension among the leading families of Vesali, he swooped down upon the place with an overwhelming force, and completely destroyed it. We are also told that Ajatasattu fortified his capital, Rajagaha, in expectation of an attack about to be made by King Pajjota of Ujjeni." It would be most interesting to know whether the attack was ever made, and what measure of success it had. We know that afterwards, in the fourth century B.C., Ujjeni had become subject to Magadha, and that Asoka, when a young man, was appointed governor of Ujjeni. But we know nothing else of the inter- mediate stages which led to this result. About nine or ten years before the Buddha's death, Devadatta, his first cousin, who had long pre- viously joined the Order, created a schism in the community. We hear of Ajatasattu, then the Crown* Prince, as the principal supporter of this Devadatta, the quondam disciple and bitter foe of the Buddha, who is the Judas Iscariot of the Buddhist story.* ' Translated in my Buddhist Suttas. The name there is Vajjians. But that the Licchavis were a sub-clan of the Vajjians is clear from A. 4. 16. 2 S. 2. 268. '" M. 3. 7. ^ S. 2. 242; Vinaya Texts, 3. 238-265 ; Sum. 138, etc. 14 BUDDHIST INDIA About the same time Bimbisara, the King, handed over the reins of government to the Prince. But it Fig. 2. — AJATASATTU STARTING OUT TO VISIT THE BUDDHA. was not long before Devadatta incited him, in order to make quite sure, to slay the King. And Ajata- sattu carried out this idea in the eighth year before THE KINGS 15 the Buddha's death, by starving his father slowly to death. Once, subsequently, when remorse had fastened upon him, we hear of his going, with a great retinue, to the Buddha and inquiring of him what were the fruits, visible in this present life, of becoming a mem- ber of a religious order/ An illustration of the King saluting the Buddha on this occasion is the subject of one of the bas-reliefs on the Bharhut Tope.'^ As usu^l the Buddha himself is not delineated. Only his footprints are shown. At the close of the discourse the King is stated to have openly taken the Buddha as his guide in future, and to have given expression to the remorse he felt at the murder of his father. But it is also distinctly stated that he was not converted. There is no evi- dence that he really, after the moment when his heart was touched, continued to follow the Buddha's teaching. He never, so far as we know, waited again either upon the Buddha, or upon any member of the Order, to discuss ethical matters. And we hear of no material support given by him to the Order during the Buddha's lifetime. We are told, however, that, after the Buddha's death, he asked (on the ground that he, like the Buddha, was a Kshatriya) for a portion of the relics ; that he obtained them ; and built a stupa or burial- mound over them.^ And though the oldest au- ^ The famous Suttanta, in which this conversation is set out, — the Samanna Phala, — is translated in full in my Dialogues of the Buddha. ^ Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut, PI. xvi., Fig. 3. ^ Book of the Great Decease, chap. vi. 1 6 BUDDHIST INDIA thority says nothing about it, younger works state that on the convocation of the First Council at Rajagaha, shortly after the decease, it was the King who provided and prepared the hall at the entrance to the Sattapanni cave, where the rehearsal of the doctrine took place.^ He may well have thus showed favour to the Buddhists without at all belonging to their party. He would only, in so doing, be following the usual habit so character- istic of Indian monarchs, of patronage towards all schools. Mention is made occasionally and incidentally of other kings — such as Avanti-putta, King of the Surasenas ;* and the Eleyya of A. 2. i88, who, to- gether with his courtiers, was a follower and supporter of Uddaka, the son and pupil of Rama, and the teacher of Gotama. But the above four are the only ones of whom we have accounts in any detail. ' See, for instance, M. B. V. 89. 2M. 2. 83. CHAPTER II THE CLANS AND NATIONS IT is much the same with the clans. We have a good deal of information, which is, however, at the best only fragmentary, about three or four of them. Of the rest we have little more than the bare names. More details are given, very naturally, of the Saki3^a clan than of the others. The general posi- tion of their country is intimated by the distances given from other places.* It must have been just on the border of Nepalese and English territory, as is now finally settled by the recent discoveries of the tope or burial-mound put up by the Sakiyas over the portion they retained of the relics from the Buddha's funeral pyre, and of Asoka's inscrip- tion, in situ, recording his visit to the Lumbini garden in which the Buddha was born.* Which of the numerous ruins in the immediate vicinity ^ 60 yojanas = 450 miles, from Rajagaha ; 50 yojanas = 375 miles, from Vesali ; 6 or 7 yojanas = 50 or 60 miles, from Savatthi ; and so on. Compare the passages quoted in Rh. D., Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon^ p. i6. «y. R, A. S, 1897, 618, and 1898, 58S. a 17 1 8 BUDDHIST INDIA of these discoveries are those of Kapilavastu, the chief town of the clan, and which are the remains of the other townships belonging to them, will be one of the questions to be solved by future ex- ploration/ Names of such townships mentioned in the most ancient texts are Catuma, Samagama, Khomadussa, SilavatT, Metalupa, Ulumpa, Sakkara, and Devadaha. It was at the last-mentioned place that the mother of the Buddha was born. And the name of her father is expressly given as Afijana the Sakiyan.^ When, therefore, we find in much later records the statements that she was of Koliyan family; and that Prince Devadaha, after whom the town was so named, was a Koliyan chief, the explanation may well be that the Koliyans were a sort of subordinate subdivision of the Sakiya clan. The existence of so considerable a number of market towns implies, in an agricultural community, a rather extensive territory. Buddhaghosa has pre- served for us an old tradition that the Buddha had eighty thousand families of relatives on the father's side and the same on the mother's side.^ Allow- ing six or seven to a family, including the depend- ents, this would make a total of about a million persons in the Sakiya territory. And though the figure is purely traditional, and at best a round • The old Kapilavastu was probably at Tilaura Kot. But Mr. Peppe's important discoveries at the Sakiya Tope may be on the site of a new Kapilavastu, built after the old city was destroyed by Vidudabha (see above, p. ii). ^Apadana, quoted in Therig. Cy. p. 152. ^ See Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 147, note. THE CLANS AND NATIONS I9 number (and not uninfluenced by the mystic value attached to it), it is, perhaps, not so very far from what we might expect. The administrative and judicial business of the clan was carried out in public assembly, at which young and old were alike present, in their common Mote Hall {santhdgdrd) at Kapilavastu. It was at such a parlia- ment, or palaver, that King Pasenadi's proposition (above, p. ii) was discussed. When Ambattha goes to Kapilavastu on business, he goes to the Mote Hall where the Sakiyas were then in session.^ And it is to the Mote Hall of the Mallas that Ananda goes to announce the death of the Buddha, they being then in session there to consider that very matter.' A single chief — how, and for what period chosen, we do not know — was elected as office-holder, presid- ing over the sessions, and, if no sessions were sitting, over the State. He bore the title of rdja^ which must have meant something like the Roman consul, or the Greek archon. We hear nowhere of such a triumvirate as bore corresponding office among the Licchavis, nor of such acts of kingly sovereignty as are ascribed to the real kings mentioned above. But we hear at one time ^ that Bhaddiya, a young cousin of the Buddha^s, was the raja ; and in another pass- age, Suddhodana, the Buddha's father (who is else- where spoken of as a simple citizen, Suddhodana the Sakiyan), is called the raja. A new Mote Hall, built at Kapilavastu, was ^ Ambattha Suttanta, translated in my Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 113. 2M. P. S. 6. 23. 3vin. 2. 181. 20 BUDDHIST INDIA finished whilst the Buddha was staying at the Nigrodhaiama (the pleasaunce under the Banyan Grove) in the Great Wood (the Mahavana) near by. There was a residence there, provided by the com- munity, for recluses of all schools. Gotama was asked to inaugurate the new hall, and he did so by a series of ethical discourses, lasting through the night, delivered by himself, Ananda, and Moggallana. They are preserved for us in full at M. i. 353, foil., and S. 4. 182, foil. Besides this Mote Hall at the principal town we hear of others at some of the other towns above referred to. And no doubt all the more important places had such a hall, or pavilion, covered with a roof, but with no walls, in which to conduct their business. And the local affairs of each village were carried on in open assembly of the householders, held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive a feature of each village in the long and level alluvial plain. It was no doubt in this plain, stretching about fifty miles from east to west, and thirty or forty miles to the southward from the foot of Himalaya Hills, that the majority of the clan were resident. The clan subsisted on the produce of their rice- fields and their cattle. The villages were grouped round the rice-fields, and the cattle wandered through the outlying forest, over which the peasantry, all Sakiyas by birth, had rights of common. There were artisans, probably not Sakiyas, in each village ; and men of certain special trades of a higher standing; the carpenters, smiths, and potters for instance, had villages of their own. So also had the brahmins, THE CLANS AND NATIONS 21 whose services were in request at every domestic event. Khomadussa, for instance, was a brahmin settlement. There were a few shops in the bazaars, but we do not hear of any merchants and bankers such as are mentioned as dwelling at the great capi- tals of the adjoining kingdoms. The villages were separated one from another by forest jungle, the remains of the Great Wood (the Maha Vana), por- tions of which are so frequently mentioned as still surviving throughout the clanships, and which must originally (not so very long, probably, before the time under discussion) have stretched over practically the whole level country between the foot of the mountains and the Great River, the Ganges. After the destruction of the clans by the neighbouring monarchies this jungle again spread over the country. From the fourth century onwards, down to our own days, the forest covered over the remains of the ancient civilisation. This jungle was infested from time to time by robbers, sometimes runaway slaves/ But we hear of no crime, and there was not probably very much, in the villages themselves — each of them a tiny self- governed republic. The Koliyan central authorities were served by a special body of peons, or police, distinguished, as by a kind of uniform, from which they took their name, by a special headdress. These particular men had a bad reputation for extortion and violence." The Mallas had similar officials,' and it is not improbable that each of the clans had a some- what similar set of subordinate servants. * Vin. 4. 81. 2 g ^ 241, 3 D. 2. 159, 161. 22 BUDDHIST INDIA A late tradition tells us how the criminal law was administered in the adjoining powerful confederate clan of the Vajjians, by a succession of regularly appointed officers, — ** Justices, lawyers, rehearsers of the law-maxims, the council of representatives of the eight clans, the general, the vice-consul, and the consul himself." Each of these could acquit the ac- cused. But if they considered him guilty, each had to refer the case to the next in order above them, the consul finally awarding the penalty according to the Book of Precedents. We hear of no such inter- mediate officials in the smaller clans ; and even among the Vajjians (who, by the by, are all called " rajas '* in this passage), it is not likely that so com- plicated a procedure was actually followed.' But a book of legal precedents is referred to elsewhere,'' and tables of the law also.^ It is therefore not im- probable that written notes on the subject were ac- tually in use. The names of other clans, besides the Sakiyas, are: 2. The Bhaggas of Surnsumara Hill. 3. The Bulis of Allakappa. 4. Kalamas of Kesaputta. 5. The Koliyas of Rama-gama. 6. The Mallas of Kusinara. 7. The Mallas of Pava. 8. The Moriyas of Pipphalivana. g. The Videhas of Mithila. ) _, ^^ ... -ru T • u • c\T -\'\ = The Vajjians. 10. Ihe Licchavis of Vesali. ) ^' ^ James Alwis, Introduction to Pali Grammar^ p. 99 ; and Geo. Tumour, J.B,A.S. vii. 991. 2Jat. 3. 292. 3jat. 5. 125. THE CLANS AND NATIONS 23 There are several other names of tribes of which it is not yet known whether they were clans or under monarchical government. We have only one in- stance of any tribe, once under a monarchy, revert- ing to the independent state. And whenever the supreme power in a clan became hereditary, the result seems always to have been an absolute mon- archy, without legal limitations of any kind. The political divisions of India at or shortly be- fore the time when Buddhism arose are well exemplified by the stock list of the Sixteen Great Countries, the Sixteen Powers, which is found in several places in the books/ It is interesting to no- tice that the names are names, not of countries, but of peoples, as we might say Italians or Turks. This shows that the main idea in the minds of those who drew up, or used, this old list was still tribal and not geographical. The list is as follows : I. Anga 9- Kuru 2. Magadha 10. Paficala 3- KasI II. Maccha 4. Kosala 12. Surasena 5. VajJT 13. Assaka 6. Malla 14. AvantT 7. Cetl 15. Gandhara 8. Vamsa 16. Kamboja I. The Angas dwelt in the country to the east of Magadha, having their capital at Champa, near the ^ E. g., Anguttara, i. 213; 4. 252, 256, 260; Vinaya Texts, 2. 146. 24 BUDDHIST INDIA modern Bhagalpur. Its boundaries are unknown. In the Buddha's time it was subject to Magadha, and we never hear of its having regained independ- ence. But in former times * it was independent, and there are traditions of wars between these neighbouring countries. The Anga raja in the Buddha's time was simply a wealthy nobleman, and we only know of him as the grantor of a pension to a particular brahmin.' 2. The Magadhas, as is well known, occupied the district now called Behar. It was probably then bounded to the north by the Ganges, to the east by the river Champa, on the south by the Vindhya Mountains, and on the west by the river Sona. In the Buddha's time (that is, inclusive of Anga) it is said to have had eighty thousand villages ^ and to have been three hundred leagues (about twenty- three hundred miles) in circumference.* 3. The Kasis are of course the people settled in the district round Benares. In the time of the Buddha this famous old kingdom of the Bharatas had fallen to so low a political level that the revenues of the township had become a bone of con- tension between Kosala and Magadha, and the kingdom itself was incorporated into Kosala. Its mention in this list is historically important, as we must conclude that the memory of it as an independ- ent state was still fresh in men's minds. This is confirmed by the very frequent mention of it as such in the Jatakas, where it is said to have been over two * J. V. 316, vi. 271. * Vin. i. 179. •^ M. 2. 163. -* Sum. 148. THE CLANS AND NATIONS 2$ thousand miles in circuit.* But it never regained in- dependence ; and its boundaries are unknown. 4. The Kosalas were the ruHng clan in the kingdom whose capital was Savatthi, in what is now Nepal, sev- enty miles north-west of the modern Gorakhpur. It included Benares and Saketa ; and probably had the Ganges for its southern boundary, the Gandhak for its eastern boundary, and the mountains for its northern boundary. The Sakiyas already acknow- ledged, in the seventhcentury B.C., the suzerainty of Kosala. It was the rapid rise of this kingdom of Kosala, and the inevitable struggle in the immediate future between it and Magadha, which was the leading point in the politics of the Buddha's time. These hardy mountaineers had swept into their net all the tribes between the mountains and the Ganges. Their progress was arrested on the east by the free clans. And the struggle between Kosala and Magadha for the paramount power in all India was, in fact, probably decided when the powerful con- federation of the Licchavis became arrayed on the side of Magadha. Several successful invasions of KasI by the Kosalans under their kings, Vanka, Dabbasena, and Kamsa, are referred to a date before the Buddha's time. And the final conquest would seem to be ascribed to Kamsa, as the epithet *' Con- queror of Benares*' is a standing addition to his name."* ;sr 5. The Vajjians included eight confederate clans, »Jat. 4. 442, 5. 41. * Vin. I. 342 ; Jat. i. 262, 2. 403, 3. 13, 168, 211, 5. II2. 26 BUDDHIST INDIA of whom the Licchavis and the Videhans were the most important. It is very interesting to notice that while tradition makes Videha a kingdom in earlier times, it describes it in the Buddha's time as a republic. Its size, as a separate kingdom, is said to have been three hundred leagues (about twenty-three hundred miles) in circumference.* Its capital, Mithila, was about thirty-five miles north-west from Vesali, the capital of the Licchavis. There it was that the great King Janaka ruled a little while before the rise of Buddhism.^ And it is probable that the modern town of Janak-pur preserves in its name a mem.ory of this famous rajput scholar and philosopher of olden time. 6. The Mallas of Kusinara and Pava were also independent clans, whose territory, if we may trust the Chinese pilgrims, was on the mountain slopes to the east of the Sakiya land, and to the north of the Vajjian confederation. But some would place it south of the Sakiyas and east of the Vajjians. 7. The Cetis were probably the same tribe as that called Cedi in older documents, and had two distinct settlements. One, probably the older, was in the mountains, in what is now called Nepal.^ The other, probably a later colony, was near Kosambi to the east * and has been even confused with the land of the Vamsa, from which this list makes them distinct. ° »jat. 3. 365, 4. 316. ^Satap. Brah. xi. 6. 2, I, etc.; Jat. 6. 30-68, etc. 3Jat. 5. 514, 518. *Vin. I. 108; Jat. I. 360; Divy. 184-191. 5 Baden-Powell. in the J.R.A, S., 1898, p. 321, THE CLANS AND NA TIONS 2/ 8. Vamsa is the country of the Vacchas, of which Kosambi, properly only the name of the capital, is the more familiar name. It lay immediately to the north of Avanti, and along the banks of the Jumna. 9. The Kurus occupied the country of which In- draprastha, close to the modern Delhi, was the capital ; and had the Panchalas to the east, and the Matsyas to the south. Tradition gives the kingdom a circumference of two thousand miles.' They had very little political importance in the Buddha's time. It was at Kammassa-dhamma in the Kuru country that several of the most important Suttantas — the Maha Satipatthana, for instance, and the Maha Nidana— were delivered. And Ratthapala was a Kuru noble.'* 10. The two Paficalas occupied the country to the east of the Kurus, between the mountains and the Ganges. Their capitals were Kampilla and Kanoj. 11. The Macchas, or Matsyas, were to the south of the Kurus and west of the Jumna, which sepa- rated them from the Southern Paficalas. 12. The Surasenas, whose capital was Madhura, were immediately south-west of the Macchas, and west of the Jumna. 13. The Assakas had, in the Buddha's time, a settlement on the banks of the Godhavari.^ Their capital was Potana, or Potali.* The country is men- tioned with Avanti in the same way as Anga is with Magadha,* and its position on this list, between Surasena and Avanti, makes it probable that, when »Jat. 5. 57, 484. 2M. 2. 55. 3s^Ng77^ ^Jat. 3- 3 ; I>- 2. 235. » Jat. 5. 319. 28 BUDDHIST INDIA the list was drawn up, its position was immediately north-west of Avanti. In that case the settlement on the Godhavari was a later colony ; and this is confirmed by the fact that there is no mention of Potana (or Potali) there. The name of the tribe is also ambiguous. Sanskrit authors speak both of Asmaka and of Asvaka. Each of these would be Assaka, both in the local vernacular and in Pali. And either there were two distinct tribes so called, or the Sanskrit form Asvaka is a wrong reading, or a blunder in the Sanskritisation of Assaka. 14. Avanti, the capital of which was Ujjeni, was ruled over by King Canda Pajjota (Pajjota the Fierce) referred to above. The country, much of which is rich land, had been colonised or conquered by Aryan tribes who came down the Indian valley, and turned west from the Gulf of Kach. It was called Avanti at least as late as the second century A.D.,* but from the seventh or eighth century on- wards it was called Malava. 15. Gandhara, modern Kandahar, was the district of Eastern Afghanistan, and it probably included the north-west of the Panjab. Its capital was Tak- kasila. The King of Gandhara in the Buddha's time, Pukkusati, is said to have sent an embassy and a letter to King Bimbisara of Magadha.' 16. Kamboja was the adjoining country in the extreme north-west, with Dvaraka as its capital. From the political point of view this list is curious. Some names we should expect to find — Sivi, for in- ^ See Rudradaman's Inscription at Junagadh. ^ Alwis, Introduction, etc., p. 78. THE CLANS AND NATIONS 2g stance, and Madda and Sovira, and Udyana and Virata — are not there. The Mallas and the Cetis occupy a position much more important than they actually held in the early years of Buddhism. Vesali, soon to become a '* Magadha town," * is still inde- pendent. And Anga and KasI, then incorporated in neighbouring kingdoms, are apparently looked upon as of equal rank with the others. It is evident that this was an old list, corresponding to a state of things existent some time before, and handed on by tradition in the Buddhist schools. But this only adds to its interest and importance. Geographically also the list is very suggestive. , No place south of Avanti (about 23° N.) occurs in it ; and it is only at one place that the list goes even so far to the south as that. Not only is the whole of South India and Ceylon ignored in it, but there is also no mention of Orissa, of Bengal east of the Ganges, or even of the Dekkan. The horizon of those who drew up the list is strictly bounded on the north by the Himalayas, and on the south (ex- cept at this one point) by the Vindhya range, on the west by the mountains beyond the Indus, and on the east by the Ganges as it turns to the south. The books in which the list has been preserved have preserved also abundant evidence of a further stage of pohtical movement. And in geographical knowledge they look at things from an advanced point of view. They know a very little farther south at the one point where the old list goes farthest in that direction. ^ Sutta Nipata, 1013. 30 BUDDHIST INDIA The expression Dakkhinapatha which occurs in an isolated passage in one of our oldest documents* cannot indeed possibly mean the whole country comprised in our modern phrase the Dekkan. But it is used, in the very passage in question, as de- scriptive of a remote settlement or colony on the banks of the upper Godhavari.'' The expression does not occur in any one of the Four Nikayas. When it appears again, in a later stage,* it seems still to refer only, in a vague way, to the same limited district, on the banks of the Godhavari. And it is coupled with Avanti, the Avanti of the ancient list. The expression, in its form, is curious. It means ^'the Southern Road," a strange name to apply to any fixed locality. Already in a Vedic hymn * though it is one of the latest, we hear of a banished man going along the ** path of the South." No doubt at different times different points on that path had been reached. In the Buddha's time the most southerly town is given (at S. N. loii) as Patitthana, the place afterwards called Paithana, and Baithana by the Greeks (73° 2^E. by 21° 42' N.). And the extreme southerly point reached at all is the hermitage on the Godhavari, about 20° N.* ^ Sutta Nipata, 976. ^ The spelling of the word A lakassa^ the name of this remote set- tlement, is doubtful. See verse 997. Spence Hardy's Manual, p. 334, confirms the various reading Mulakassa. 3 Vin. I. 195, 196 ; 2. 298. '*Rig Veda, x. 61. 8. ^ There was an older and more famous Patitthana, also a ferry, more generally known as Payaga, on the site of the Allahabad of to- day. Perhaps this more southern one was named after it. THE CLANS AND NATIONS 3 1 One place still farther south may possibly be re- ferred to incidentally as known in the Buddha's time. A teacher of olden time named Tagara- sikhin, is several times mentioned/ Sikhin is otherwise known as a name, and the distinctive epithet Tagara may possibly be local, and mean ^' of Tagara," the modern Ter, 76° 12' E. by 18°, 19' N.'* But the point is very doubtful, the place is not mentioned elsewhere, and I think another ex- planation of the name is more likely. Besides this extension in the Dekkan, the Nikayas speak also of sea voyages out of sight of land ^ and they mention the Kalinga forest,* and the settlement on the coast there, with its capital Dantapura.^ The Vinaya has a probable reference to Bharu- kaccha,^ and the Udana one to Supparaka/ These points, taken together (and no doubt others can be traced), show a marked advance in geographical knowledge. But it is suggestive to notice that the advance is limited, and that there is still no refer- ence whatever either to South India or to Ceylon, which play so great a part in the story of the Ramayana.^ These geographical considerations are of very considerable importance for the history of later ^ M. 3. 69 ; S. I. 92 ; Ud. 5. 3 ; Jat. 3. 299. ^ See Mr. Fleet's article in the J. R. A. 5., 1901, p. 542 ; and compare Burgess, Cave Temples of India, p. 248, ^D. I. 222 ; A. 3. 368 ; compare Jat. 3. 267. *M. i. 378. ^D. 19. 36. s vin. 3. 38. •» Ud. I. 10. ® We must accept Professor Jacobi's happy suggestion as to the mythological basis of the latter part of the Ramayana. Valmlki, in transplanting the ancient myth of the atmospheric battles from the 32 BUDDHIST INDIA Vedic and early Sanskrit literature. They go far to confirm Professor Bhandarkar's recent views as to the wholesale recasting of brahmin literature in the Gupta period. If Apastamba, for instance, as Hofrath Dr. Biihler thought, and Hiranya-Kesin, wrote in the south, below the Godhavarl, then they must be later than the books whose evidence we have been considering. The consideration of this question has been hindered by a generally accepted hypothesis which does not fit the facts. It is supposed that the course of Aryan migration lay along the valleys of the Ganges and the Jumna. It cannot have been so simple. We must postulate at least two other lines of equal importance — one down the Indus, round the Gulf of Cutch, and so up to Avanti ; and another along the foot of the mountains from Kashmir, by way of Kosala, to the Sakiya country, and so on through Tirhut to Magadha and Anga. There is a great deal more evidence available, both in literature and in the conclusions to be drawn from language, as to tribal migration in India than has yet been collected or analysed. Mr. Grierson, for instance, has only just recently pointed out the important fact that, even now, the dialects of Rajasthan have a close resemblance to the dialects spoken along the Himalayas not only in Nepal but as far west, at least, as Chamba. This would tend heavens to the earth, in turning the deities of the ancient poetry into human heroes, in raising up to the level of those heroes the local deities of agriculture, naturally chose as the district where he localises so revolutionary a story a land, Lanka, with all the charm of mys- tery. Mystery involves knowledge, but not too much knowledge. THE CLANS AND NATIONS 33 to show that their ancestors must have been Hving close together when they began their wanderings to the east and the south respectively. Both started from the Northern Panjab, and probably neither migration followed the Ganges route.' These children of hillmen tended to cleave to the hills; and, like mountaineers all the world over, were generally distinguished by a sturdy independ- ence, both in politics and religion. Widely sep- arated, they were always sympathetic ; and any forward movement, such as Buddhism, readily found supporters among them. Another point on which this geographical evidence throws light is the date of the colonisation of Ceylon. That cannot have taken place in any considerable degree before the period in which the Nikayas were composed. We know it had become a well-estab- Hshed fact at the time of Asoka. It must have happened, therefore, between these two dates ; and no doubt nearer to the earlier of the two. The Cey- lon chronicles, therefore, in dating the first colony in the very year of the Buddha's death (a wrong syn- chronism which is the cause of much confusion in their early chronology) must be in error. It would be of great assistance on several ques- tions if we could form some conclusion as to the number of inhabitants in Northern India in the sev- enth century, B.C. ; though any such conclusion would necessarily be of the vaguest description. To judge from the small numbers of the great cities, and from the wide extent of forest and wilderness, ^ y. R.A. S., 1901, p. S08. 34 BUDDHIST INDIA mentioned in the books, it cannot have been very large. Perhaps the whole territory may have con- tained fifteen to twenty millions. In the fourth century, B.C., the confederation formed to oppose Alexander was able to muster an army of four hundred thousand. And in the third century, B.C., Megasthenes describes the army of Magadha as then consisting, in peace time, of two hundred thou- sand foot, three hundred elephants, and ten thousand chariots. The following is a list of the principal cities exist- ing in India in the seventh century B.C. Ayojjhd (from which the Anglo-Indian word Oudh is derived) was a town in Kosala on the river Sarayu. The city owes all its fame to the fact that the author of the Ramayana makes it the capital at the date of the events in his story. It is not even mentioned in the Mahabharata ; and was quite unimportant in the Buddha's time. There is another Ayojjha in the extreme west ; and a third is said (wrongly, I think) to have been situate on the Ganges.* ^Yft-f^^^^ "^ Bdrdnasi (Benares) on the north bank of the Ganges, at the junction between it and the river Barana. The city proper included the land between the Barana and a stream called the Asi, as its name suggests. Its extent, including the suburbs, is often stated to have been, at the time when it was the capital of an independent kingdom (that is, some ^ See Jat. 4. 82 : Samyutta 3. 140, 4, 179 (but the reading must be corrected). THE CLANS AND NATIONS 35 time before the rise of Buddhism) twelve leagues, or about eighty-five miles. Seeing that Megasthenes gives the circuit of the walls of Pataliputta, where he himself lived, as 220 stadia (or about twenty-five miles), this tradition as to the size of the city, or rather county, Benares at the height of its pros- perity seems by no means devoid of credit. Its Town Hall was then no longer used as a parliament chamber for the transaction of public business. Pub- lic discussions on- religious and philosophical ques- tions were carried on in it.* Chainij^ on the river of the same name, was the ancient capital of Anga. Its site has been identi- fied by Cunningham with the modern villages of similar names twenty-four miles east of Bhagalpur ; and is stated to have been sixty leagues from Mit- hila^ It was celebrated for its beautiful lake, named after Queen Gaggara, who had had it excavated. On its banks was a grove of Champaka trees, well known for the fragrant odour of their beautiful white flowers. And there, in the Buddha's time, wander- ing teachers were wont to lodge.' The Indian colon- ists in Cochin China named one of the most important of their settlements after this famous old town.* And the Champa in Anga was again, in its turn, so named after the still older Champa in Kashmir. Kampilla, the capital of the Northern Paflcalas. It was on the northern bank of the Ganges, about long. 79° W., but its exact site has not yet been decided with certainty. ^ Jat. 4. 74. ^ Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 144. ^ Jat. 6. 32. * I-Tsing's Travels, p. 58. 36 BUDDHIST INDIA Kosambiy the capital of the Vatsas or Vamsas. It was on the Jumna, and thirty leagues, say 230 miles, by river from Benares.^ It was the most im- portant entrepot for both goods and passengers coming to Kosala and Magadha from the south and west/ In the Sutta Nipata (1010-1013) the whole route is given from a place south of Ujjen, through Kosambi to Kusinara, with the stopping-places on the way. The route from Kosambi to Rajagaha was down the river.* In the Buddha*s time there were already four distinct establishments of his Order in the suburbs of Kosambi — the Badarika, Kukkuta, and Ghosita Parks, and the Mango Grove of Pavariya.* The Buddha was often there, at one or other of these residences ; and many of his discourses there have been handed down in the books. Madliurdy on the Jumna, the capital of the Sura- senas. It is tempting to identify it with the site of the modern Mathura, in spite of the difference in spelling. Very ancient remains have been found there. The king of Madhura in the Buddha's time bore the title of Avanti-putto,* and was therefore re- lated to the royal family at Ujjeni. Madhura was visited by the Buddha,'' and was the residence of Maha Kaccana,^ one of his most influential disciples, to whom tradition attributes the first grammatical treatment of the Pali language, and after whom the oldest Pali grammar is accordingly named. As Mad- ^ Jat. 4. 28 ; 6. 236. * Vin. 4. 16 ; Sum. 319. 2 Com. on Ariguttara, i. 25. ^ M. 2. 83. 2 Vinaya Texts, 2. 189 ; 3. 67, 224, 233. ' A. 2. 57. 4 Vinaya Texts, 3. 382. ^ M. 2. 83. THE CLANS AND NA TIONS 37 hura IS mentioned in the Milinda (331) as one of the most famous places in India, whereas in the Buddha's time it is barely mentioned, the time of its greatest growth must have been between these dates. It was sufficiently famous for the other Madhura, in Tinnevelly, first mentioned in the Mahavansa,^ to be named after it. A third Madhura, in the extreme north, is mentioned at Jat. 4. 79, and Peta Vatthu Vannana, iii. Mitkildy the capital of Videha, and the capital therefore of the kings Janaka and Makhadeva, was in the district now called Tirhut. Its size is fre- quently given as seven leagues, about fifty miles, in circumference.'* ^axW'^R^j^^S^J^^^ the capital of Magadha, the modern Rajgir. There were two distinct towns ; the older one, a hill fortress, more properly Giribbaja, was very ancient, and is said to have been laid out by Maha Govinda the architect.^ The later town, at the foot of the hills, was built by Bimbisara, the contem- porary of the Buddha, and is Rajagaha proper. It was at the height of its prosperity during, and imme- diately after, the Buddha's time. But it was aban- doned by Sisunaga, who transferred the capital to Vesali ; his son Kalasoka transferring it to Patali- putta, near the site of the modern Patna.* The fortifications of both Giribbaja and Rajagaha are still extant, 4|- and 3 miles respectively in circumfer- ence ; the most southerly point of the walls of * Tumour's edition, p. 51. ^ Jat. 3. 365 ; 4. 315 ; 6. 246, etc. ^ Vimana Vatthu Commentary, p. 82. But compare Digha, xix. 36. * Bigandet, 2. 115. 38 BUDDHIST INDIA Giribbaja, the ** Mountain Stronghold," being one mile north of the most northerly point of the walls of the new town of Rajagaha, the " King's House.*' The stone walls of Giribbaja are the oldest extant stone buildings in India. Rorukay or in later times Roruva, the capital of Sovira, from which the modern name Surat is de- rived, was an important centre of the coasting trade.* Caravans arrived there from all parts of India, even from Magadha." As Ophir is spelt by Josephus and in the Septuagint Sophir, and the names of the ivory, apes, and peacocks imported thence into Palestine are Indian names, it is not improbable that Roruka was the seaport to which the authors of the Hebrew chronicles supposed that Solomon's vessels had traded. For though the more precise name of the port was Roruka, we know from such expressions as that used in the Milinda, p. 29, that the Indians talked about sailing to Sovira. The exact site has not yet been rediscovered, but it was almost cer- tainly on the Gulf of Kach, somewhere near the modern Kharragoa. When its prosperity declined, its place was taken by Bharukaccha, the modern Bharoch, or by Supparaka, both on the opposite, the southern, side of the Kathiawad peninsula. Sdgala, There were three cities of this name. But the two in the far East ' were doubtless named (even if the readings in the MSS. are correct, and I doubt them in both cases) after the famous Sagala ^ Digha, xix. 36 ; Jat. 3. 470. ^ Vimana, V. A. 370 ; Divy. 544. ^ Jat. 5. 337, and Com. on Then Gatha, p. 127. THE CLANS AND NATIONS 39 in the extreme north-west, which offered so brave a resistance to Alexander, and where King Milanda afterwards reigned. It lay about 32*^ N. by 74° E., and was the capital of the Maddas. Cunningham thought he had found the ruins of it ; but no exca- vations have been carried out, and the exact site is still therefore uncertain. Sdketa, the site of which has been indentified with the ruins, as yet unexplored, at Sujan Kot, on the Sai River, in the Unao district of the modern province of Audh.* In ancient times it was an important city in Kosala, and sometimes the capital.' In the Buddha's time the capital was Savatthi. Saketa is often supposed to be the same as Ayojjha (Oudh),^ but both cities are mentioned as existing in the Buddha's time. They were possibly adjoining, like London and Westminster. But it is Saketa, and not Ayojjha, that is called one of the six great cities of India.* The Afijana Wood near by Saketa is the place at which many of the Buddhist Suttas are said to have been spoken. The distance from Saketa northwards to Savatthi was six leagues, about forty- five miles,^ and could be covered in one day with seven relays of horses.* But there was a broad river on the way, only to be crossed by ferry ; and there are constant references to the dangers of the journey on foot. ' Fuhrer, Monumental Antiquities of N. W. Provinces and Oudh^ p. 275. '^ Mahavastu, i. 348; Jat. 3. 270. ^ E, g. Cunningham's Ancient Geography ^ p. 405. * Rh. D., Buddhist Suttas^ p. 99. * Vinaya Texts, 2. 147. ^Majjhima, i. 149. 40 BUDDHIST INDIA Sdvatt hi, or Sravasti, was the capital of Northern Kosala, ftie residence of King Pasenadi, and one of the six great cities in India during the Hfetime of the Buddha. Archaeologists differ as to its position ; and the decision of this vexed point is one of the first importance for the early history of India, as there must be many inscriptions there. It was six leagues north of Saketa/ forty-five leagues north-west of Rajagaha,' more than one hundred north-east of Supparaka,' thirty leagues from Sankassa/ and on the bank of the Achiravatl.^ ^Ujjcniy the capital of Avanti, the Greek Ozene, about T]^ E. and 23° N. There Kaccana, one of the leading disciples of the Buddha, and also Asoka's son Mahinda, the famous apostle to Ceylon, were born. In later times there was a famous mon- astery there called the Southern Mount ; and in earlier times the capital had been Mahissati.* Ved- isa, where the famous Bhilsa Topes were lately found, and Erakaccha, another well-known site, were in the vicinity. Vedisa was fifty leagues from Pataliputta.' iA\5^i» 4 1 Collected in the J. R. A. S., 1901, p. 868. 2 Jat. II. 5. 290. 3 Jat. 4. 84. * Jat. 4. 169. SOCIAL GRADES 5/ 4. A noble takes service, for a salary, as an archer/ 5. A brahmin takes to trade to make money to give away/ 6. Two other brahmins live by trade without any such excuse/ 7. A brahmin takes the posbof an assistant to an archer, who had himself been previously a weaver/ 8. 9. Brahmins live as hunters and trappers/ 10. A brahmin is a wheelwright/ Brahmins are also frequently mentioned as en- gaged in agriculture, and as hiring themselves out as cowherds and even goatherds. These are all in- stances from the Jatakas. And a fortiori — un- less it be maintained that Buddhism brought about a great change in this respect — the state of things must have been even more lax at the time when Buddhism arose. The customs of connubium were by no means co- extensive with the four Colours. They depended among the Aryans on a quite different idea, that of the group of agnates (the Gotta ) ; and among the other people either on the tribe, or on the village. No instance is known of the two parties to a mar- riage belonging by birth to the same village. On the other hand, there were numerous instances of irregular unions. And in some cases the offspring of such unions took rank even as nobles (Ksha- triyas) or as brahmins."' » Jat. 2. 87. 2 jat. 4. 15. 8 jat. 5. 22 ; 471. * Jat. 5. 127. 5 Jat. 2. 200 ; 6. 170. ^ Jat. 4. 207. ' Jat. 4. 38, 146, 305 ; 6. 348, 421. 58 BUDDHIST INDIA As to customs of eating or not eating together, the books contain only a few hints. We have clear instances of a brahmin eating with a Kshatriya,' an- other of a brahmin eating the food of a Chandala, and repenting of doing so.'* The whole episode of the marriage of the Sakiya maiden to Pasenadi, King of Kosala, turns on the belief that a Kshatriya will not eat, even with his own daughter, if she be slave- born. And we hear of sending people to Coventry (as we should say) for breach of such customs. Thus at J. 4. 388, brahmins are deprived, by their brother brahmins, of their status as brahmins, for drinking water mixed with the rice water a Chandala had used. And in an older document, one of the Dialogues, we are told how this was done. Three brahmins ** for some offence or other, outlaw a brahmin, shaving him and cutting him dead by pouring ashes over him, thus banishing him from the land and from the township." ^ And the passage goes on to state that if Kshatriyas had done this to a Kshatriya the brahmins would still admit him to connubiurn, and allow him to eat with them at their sacred feasts. It then adds that " whosoever are in bondage to the notions of birth or of lineage, or to the pride of social position or connection by mar- riage, they are far from the best wisdom and right- eousness." We see, therefore, that the whole passage is tinged with Buddhist views. But it is none the less good evidence that at the time when it was written such customs, and such pride of birth, * Jat. 2. 319, 320. The verses recur 3- 8t» 355- So also 6. 33. *Jat. 2. 82. ^Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 120. SOCIAL GRADES 59 were recognised as a factor in the social life of the people. Again at Jat. 5. 280, we have, as the central in- cident of a popular story, the detail, given quite as a matter of course, that a brahmin takes, as his only wife, the discarded consort of a Kshatriya. The people laugh at him, it is true, but not because he is acting in any way unworthy of his social stand- ing, only because he is old and ugly. There are also numerous instances, even in the priestly manuals of custom, of unions between men and women of all degrees of social importance. These are not only between men of rank and girls of a lower social grade, but also between men of a lower, and women of a higher, position ; and we ought not to be in the least surprised to find such cases mentioned in the books. Even without them we should know, from the existing facts, what must have happened. It is generally admitted that there are now no pure Aryans left in India. Had the actual custom been as strict as the brahmin theory this would not be so. Just as in England we find Iberians, Kelts, Angles, Saxons, Danes, and Nor- mans now fused, in spite of theoretical restrictions on intermarriage, into one nation, so in Northern India the ancient distinctions, Aryan, Kolarian, and Dravidian, cannot, at the time of the rise of Buddh- ism, any longer be recognised. Long before the priestly theory of caste had been brought into any sort of working order, a fusion, sufficient at least to obliterate completely the old landmarks, was an ac- complished fact ; and the modern divisions, though 6o BUDDHIST INDIA race has also its share in them, use different names, and are based on different ideas. We may remark incidentally that there can have been no such physical repulsion as obtains between the advanced and savage races of to-day — a repul- sion arising partly from great difference in customs and in intellectual culture, but still more largely dependent on difference of colour.* On the other hand, though the fact of frequent intermarriage is undoubted ; though the great chasm between the proudest Kshatriya on the one hand and the lowest Chandala on the other was bridged over by a num- ber of almost imperceptible stages, and the bound- aries between these stages were constantly being overstepped, still there were also real obstacles to unequal unions. Though the lines of demarcation were not yet drawn hard and fast, we still have to suppose, not a state of society where there were no lines of demarcation at all, but a constant struggle between attracting and repelling forces. It will sound most amazing to those familiar with brahmin pretensions (either in modern times in In- dia, or in priestly books such as Manu and the epics) to hear brahmins spoken of as *^ low-born.'* Yet that precisely is an epithet applied to them in comparison with the kings and nobles.'' And it ought to open our eyes as to their relative import- ance in these early times. The fact is that the claim of the priests to social ^ See the discussion in Bryce's Romanes Lecture^ 1902, on the *' Relations of Advanced and Backward Races of Mankind." ^ Hlna-jacco, See, for instance, Jat. 5. 257. The locus is Benares. SOCIAL GRADES 6 1 superiority had nowhere in North India been then, as yet, accepted by the people. Even such books of the priests themselves as are pre-Buddhistic im- ply this earlier, and not the later, state of things with which we are so much familiar. They claim for the north-western, as distinct from the east- erly, provinces a most strict adherence to ancient custom. The ideal land is, to them, that of the Kurus and Panchalas, not that of the Kasis and Kosalas. But nowhere do they put forward in their earlier books those arrogant claims, as against the Kshatriyas, which are a distinctive feature of the later literature. The kings are their patrons to whom they look up, from whom they hope to re- ceive approval and rewards. And it was not till the time we are now discussing that they put forward claims, which we find still vigorously disputed by all Kshatriyas — and by no means only by those of no- ble birth (a small minority of the whole) who hap- pen also to be Buddhists. We find, for instance, that the Jain books take it throughout as a matter of course, that the priests, as regards social standing, are below the nobles. This was the natural relation between the two, as we find throughout the world. Certain priests, in India as elsewhere, had very high social rank — Pok- kharasadi and Sonadanda for instance. They were somewhat like the great abbots and bishops in our Middle Ages. But as a class, and as a whole, the priests looked up to the nobles, and were considered to be socially beneath them. Restrictions as to marriage and as to eating 62 BUDDHIST INDIA together, such as then existed in North India, existed also everywhere throughout the world, among peo- ples of a similar stage of culture. They are, it is true, tlie key to the origin of the later Indian caste system. But that system involves much more than these restrictions. And it is no more accurate to speak of caste at the Buddha's time in India, than it would be to speak of it as an established institu- tion, at the same time, in Italy or Greece. There is no word even for caste. The words often wrongly rendered by that modern expression (itself derived from a Portuguese word) have something to do with Pthe question, but do not mean caste. The Colours {Vannd) were not castes. No one of them had any of the distinctive marks of a caste, as the term is now used, and as it always has been used since it was first introduced by Europeans, and there was neither connubiuin nor coinmensality between the members of each. Jdti is *' birth " ; and pride of birth may have had to do with the subsequent build- ing up of caste prejudices ; but it exists in Europe to- day, and is an idea very different from that of caste. Kula is ** family " or ** clan " according to the context. And though the mediaeval caste system had much to do with families and clans, it is only misleading to confuse terms which are so essentially different, or to read back a mediaeval idea into these ancient docu- ments. The caste system, in any proper or exact use of the term, did not exist till long afterwards.* * For the discussion of this question see also Senart, Les Castes dans rinde; Fick, Sociale Gliederung im nordostlichen Indien zu Buddha^ s Zeit; and Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 95-107. #^^^ ^m^ ^. CHAPTER V IN THE TOWN WE have, unfortunately, no detail ed description of the outward appearance of an ancient city. We are told of lofty walls, and strong ram- parts with buttresses and watch-towers and great gates ; the whole surrounded by a moat or even a double moat, one of water and one of mud. In a bas-relief on the Sanchi tope, dating from the second or perhaps the third century B.C., we have a repre- sentation of such city walls, and it is very probable that in earlier times the fortifications were often similar in kind. But we are nowhere told of the length of the fortifications or of the extent of the space they enclosed. It would seem that we have to think, not so much of a large walled city, as of a fort surrounded by a number of suburbs. For there is frequent mention of the king, or a high ofificial, going out of the city when he wants to take an afternoon's pleasure jaunt. And from the equally frequent men- tion of the windows of the great houses opening directly on to the streets or squares, it would appear that it was not the custom to have them surrounded 63 64 BUDDHIST INDIA by any private grounds. There were, however, no doubt, enclosed spaces behind the fronts of the houses, which latter abutted on the streets. ^ I ' } ) A >^f' R''li 'n'fiiiv,. ^ mmiiniiH / p f^ Bteaai Fig. 3. — KING AND QUEENS WATCHING A PROCESSION AS IT LEAVES A FORT. [From the Sanchi Tope.] We have several descriptions of the building of a house, showing the materials used, and we have bas- 15 O S »< t— 1 tfi a r. P^ < s • b a o o H w 4J Q rt < ^ (X4 ^ 1 pq 1 u 4 4-1 • 6 1— 1 o Ph fa vO 66 BUDDHIST INDIA reliefs showing the general design of the frontage. The elaborate description of the underground palace, a sort of Welbeck Abbey of ancient days, constructed by Mahosadha in his famous tunnel, is full of points of interest in this connection.' And the detailed ac- count of the residences of members of the Order given in Vinaya Texts (3. 96, 104-115, 160-180) goes farther into minute details of the construction and ornamentation of the various portions of a human habitation. Then we have descriptions and bas- reliefs of the palace of the gods. And as gods are made in imitation of men, these are fair evidence also of the buildings in use by men at the time when the books were written, or the sculptures made. We have no space to enter fully into detail here. But the annexed illustration shows the ideas of a sculptor on the Bharahat tope as to the facade of a mansion, and the next show^s his notion of what the meeting- hall of the gods, part of Vejayanta, the palace in heaven, was like.' It is not easy to determine from these illustrations whether the pillars and railings depicted are intended to represent woodwork, or stone carved in imitation of wood. I am inclined to think the latter is meant. If so, that would show that in the third century B.C. (the date of the bas-reliefs), stone was already much used. We have an extant example of stone walls surrounding a hill fortress before the sixth century B.C. (at Giribbaja, see above, p. 37). But in the ' Jat. 6. 430 ; translated in Yatawara's Umniagga ydtaka. ^ These gods must have been made by the clansmen in the free re- publics, or they would not have had a mote-hall. Fig. 5. — suDHAMMO; the mote-hall of the gods. [From the Bharahat Tope. PI. xvi.] 67 68 BUDDHIST INDIA books referring to this earlier period, there is no mention of stone except for pillars or staircases. A palace of stone is only once mentionedj_and .j that is in fairy land.* We must suppose that in earlier times the superstructure at least, of all dwellings was either of woodwork or brickwork. In either case it was often covered, both internally and externally, with fine chunam plaster-work, and brilliantly painted, in fresco, with figures or patterns. Elaborate directions are given in the Vinaya'' for the construction of this smooth plaster basis on which the frescoes were painted. And the names of four of the commoner patterns have been pre- served.^ They are Wreath-work, Creeper-work, Five-ribbon-work, and Dragon's-tooth-work. When figures predominated the result is often called a picture-gallery {cittdgdrd). And though we cannot suppose that the art had reached the perfection afterwards attained in the Ajanta frescoes, the de- scriptions show that it had already advanced to a stage far removed from the early beginnings of pic- torial ornamentation. The entrance to the great houses was through a large gateway. To the right and left of the en- trance passage were the treasury and grain stores. The gateway led into an inner courtyard round which were chambers on the ground-floor. And above these chambers was a flat roof called the up- ari-pdsdda-tala, the upper flat surface of the house, where the owner sat, usually under a pavilion, which * Jat. 6. 269. '^ Translated in Vinaya Texts, 3. 170-172. 3 Yin. 2. 67 ; 4. 47. o < Pi < X Q i< Pi < <: w H » c4 Pi O h I— I u 6 I— I 70 BUDDHIST INDIA answered the purpose at once of a drawing-room, an office, and a dining-hall. In the king's palace there was accommodation also for all the business of the State, and for the numer- ous retinue and the extensive harem. We hear of no offices, in which the business of the nation could be carried on, outside the palace. And the supple- mentary buildings included three institutions which are strange to us, and of considerable historical in- terest. We are told several times of a building of seven stories in height — a satta-bhiimaka'pdsdda,^ No one of these has survived in India. But there is one of later date still standing at Pulasti-pura in Ceylon; and the thousand stone pillars on which another was erected in the second century B.C. at Anuradhapura form one of the most interesting monuments of the. same island.'' It seems almost impossible to avoid the conclusion that these curious buildings were not entirely without connection with the seven-storied Ziggarats which were so striking a feature among the buildings of Chaldaea. We know in other ways of connections between the civilisation of the Ganges Valley and that of Mesopotamia; and it would seem that in this case also the Indians were borrowers of an idea. But in India the use to which such seven- storied palaces was put was entirely private, and had nothing to do with any w^orship of the stars. We hear in several places that a public gambling > Jat. I. 227, 346 ; 4. 37S ; 5. 52, 426 ; 6. 577, etc. * This illustration (see Fig. 9) from Mr. Cave's Ruined Cities of Ceylon (Plate XIII.). This beautiful volume ought to be in the hands of every Indian archaeologist. d < Pi < p Pi < < W H M C/3 H w H Pl4 o , J?; < o D l-H < ;5 p 8 tD !<: O o 1:3 ■^ ti3 >* * W H vn CXi 86 BUDDHIST INDIA has yet attempted to make a restoration of one of these of the most ancient date. But Mr. \V. Simp- son has given us one of later date, and this is here appended for the sake of comparison. The appearance of such a dagaba in the landscape is also well shown in the annexed plate, from Mr. Cave's Ruined Cities of Ceylon^ of the Jetavana Dagaba. (Fig. i6.) This dagaba itself dates from the third century A.D., but the large irrigation *' tank " shown in the foreground is probably the oldest dated one in India, as it was constructed before the time of Asoka. CHAPTER VI ECONOMIC CONDITIONS THERE has been as yet no attempt to reconstruct a picture of the economic conditions at any period in the early history of India. Professor Zim- mer, Dr. Pick, and Professor Hopkins have dealt incidentally with some of the points on the basis respectively of the Vedas, the Jatakas, and the Epics. But generally speaking the books on India have been so exclusively concerned with questions of religion and philosphy, of literature and language, that we seem apt to forget that the very necessities of life, here as elsewhere, must have led the people to occupy their time very much, not to say mostly, with other matters than those, with the earning of their daily bread, with the accumulation and distri- bution of wealth. The following remarks will be chiefly based on Mrs. Rhys-Davids's articles on this important subject in the Economic Journal^ for 1901, and in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ^ for 1901. And numbers given in this chapter as refer- ences, without letters referring to other sources, refer to the pages of the latter article. 87 88 BUDDHIST INDIA When the King of Magadha, the famous (and infamous) Ajatasattu, made his only call upon the Buddha, he is said ' to have put a puzzle to the teacher to test him — a puzzle characteristic of the King's state of mind. It is this : " What in the world is the good of your renunciation, of joining an Order like yours ? Other people (and here he gives a list), by following ordinary crafts, get something out of them. They can make themselves comfortable in this world, and keep their families in comfort. Can you. Sir, declare to me any such imme- diate fruit, visible in this world, of the life of a recluse ? " The list referred to is suggestive. In the view of the King the best examples of such crafts were the following : 1. Elephant-riders. 17. Bath-attendants. 2. Cavalry. 18. Confectioners. 3. Charioteers. 19. Garland-makers. 4. Archers. 20. Washermen. 5-13. Nine different 21. Weavers. grades of army folk. 22. Basket-makers. 14. Slaves. 23. Potters. 15. Cooks. 24. Clerks. 16. Barbers. 25. Accountants. These are just the sort of people employed about a camp or a palace. King-like, the King considers chiefly those who minister to a king, and are depend- ent upon him. In the answer he is most politely reminded of the peasant, of the tax-payer, on whom both he and his depended. And it is evident enough * D. I. 51. M»HW»«»»BHmi!'i«i!M •""«!* '«>m»imiiMi~s>m Wfi^' '"? ' •■ -'Hi ' WW ,'■■ f^ n/1 ?^ ^:t^ 0^ ^^. £ -^>-> ^•^ u ^- '^-, ) A. ^ U ^: i\ e5o 16 i«; ^■v S 1! 19 / I ■:^ Fig. 17. — SPECIMENS of ancient jewelry found in the sakiya TOPE. [Fromy.R.A.S., i8q8.] 89 go BUDDHIST INDIA from other passages that the King's h'st is far from exhaustive. There is mention, in other documents of the same age, of guilds of work-people ; and the number of these guilds is often given afterwards as eighteen. Four of these are mentioned by name.* But a list of the whole eighteen has unfortunately not yet been found. It would probably have in- cluded the following: 1. The workers in wood. They were not only carpenters and cabinet-makers, but also wheel- wrights ; and the builders of houses, and of ships, and of vehicles of all sorts (863). 2. The workers in metal. They made any iron implements — weapons of all kinds, ploughshares, axes, hoes, saws, and knives. But they also did finer work — made needles, for instance, of great lightness and sharpness, or gold and (less often) silver work of great delicacy and beauty (864). 3. The workers in stone. They made flights of steps, leading up into a house or down into a reservoir; faced the reservoir; laid foundations for the wood- work of which the upper part of the houses was built; carved pillars and bas-reliefs; and even did finer work such as making a crystal bowl, or a stone coffer (864). Beautiful examples of these two last were found in the Sakiya Tope. 4. The weavers. They not only made the cloths which the people wrapped round themselves as dress, but manufactured fine muslin for export, and worked costly and dainty fabrics of silk cloth and fur into rugs, blankets, coverlets, and carpets.'^ 1 At Jat. 6. 427. 2 D. I. 7. ■**^'*;i*x^?ef S^ " Fig. 1 8. — old Indian girdle of jewels. [From the figure of Sirima Devata on the Bharahat Tope. PI. li.] 91 92 BUDDHIST INDIA 5. Leather workers, who made the numerous sorts of foot-covering and sandals worn by the people mostly in cold weather ; and also the embroidered 4-t- •-*- h /'-^ Fig. 19. — OLD INDIAN NECKLACES. and costly articles of the same kind mentioned in the books (865). 6. Potters, who made all sorts of dishes and bowls for domestic use ; and often hawked their goods about for sale. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 93 7. Ivory workers, who made a number of small articles in ivory for ordinary use, and also costly carvings and ornaments such as those for which India is still famous (864). 8. Dyers, who coloured the clothes made by the weavers (864). 9. Jewellers, some of whose handiwork has survived, and is also so often represented in bas- OLD INDIAN LOCKET. Fig. 20. old indian earring. old indian locket. [Size of original.] reliefs that we know fairly well the shape and size of the ornaments they made. 10. The fisher folk. They fished only in the rivers. There is no mention of sea-fishing known to me. 11. The butchers, whose shops and slaughter- houses are several times mentioned (873). 12. Hunters and trappers, mentioned in various passages as bringing the animal and vegetable pro- ducts of the woods, and also venison and game, for sale on carts into the city (873). It is doubtful whether they were formed into guilds. But their in- dustry was certainly a very important one. The 94 BUDDHIST INDIA large stretches of forest, open to all, separating most of the settlements ; the absence of any custom of breeding cattle for the meat-market ; the large de- mand for ivory, fur, sinews, creepers, and all the other produce of the woods ; and the congeniality of the occupation, all tended to encourage the hun- ters. And there is no reason to suppose that the very ancient instinct of the chase was confined to the so-called savages. The kings and nobles also, whether Aryan by blood or not, seem to have taken pleasure in it, quite apart from the economic ques- tion of food supply. But men of good birth followed it as a trade ; and when brahmins did so (868) they are represented as doing so for profit. 13. The cooks and confectioners, a numerous class, probably formed a guild. But there is no passage saying that they did. 14. The barbers and shampooers had their guilds. They dealt in perfumes, and were especially skilled in arranging the elaborate turbans worn by the wealthier classes. (Figs. 21, 22.) 15. The garland-makers and flower-sellers (866). 16. Sailors, occupied for the most part in the traffic up and down the great rivers, but also going to sea. In some of our earliest documents * we hear of sea voyages out of sight of land ; and in the later documents, such as the Jatakas, the mention of 3uch voyages is frequent (872). So the earlier documents speak of voyages lasting six months made in ships {ndvd, perhaps ** boats ") which could be drawn up on ^ Dlgha, I. 222 (translated in Dialogues of the Buddha, i. 283) ; Anguttara, 3. 368. Fig. 21. — MEDALLION ON THE BHARAHUT TOPE. PI. xxiv. Fig. 3. 95 96 BUDDHIST INDIA shore in the winter/ And later texts, of about the third century B.C., speak of voyages down the Ganges from Benares to the mouth of the river and thence across the Indian Ocean to the opposite coast of Burma; and even from Bharukaccha (the modern Baroch) round Cape Comorin to the same destination (871). It is clear, therefore, that during the whole of this period the occupation of sailor was neither unfrequent nor unimportant. 17. The rush-workers and basket-makers (868). 18. Painters (865). They were mostly house- painters. The woodwork of the houses was often covered with fine chunam plaster and decorated with painting. But they also painted frescoes.'^ These passages tell us of pleasure-houses, adorned with painted figures and patterns, belonging to the kings of Magadha and Kosala ; and such frescoes were no doubt similar in character to, but of course in an earlier style than, the well-known ancient frescoes of the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. on the Ajanta Caves, and of the fifth century on the Slgiri Rock in Ceylon. It is doubtful with regard to two or three in this list whether they were organised in guilds {seniyo, pugd). But it is certain that these were among the most important branches of handicraft apart from agriculture ; and most of them had, no doubt, their guilds not unlike the mediaeval guilds in Europe. It is through their guilds that the king summons the people on important occasions (865). The Aldermen * Samyutta, 3. p. 155, 5. 51 ; Anguttara, 4. 127. 2 Vin. ii. 151 ; iv. 47, 61, 298 ; Sum. 42, 84. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 97 or Presidents {Jettkaka or pamukkd) of such guilds are sometimes described as quite important persons, wealthy, favourites at the court. The guilds are said to have had powers of arbitration between the mem- FlG. 22. — ANCIENT INDIAN HEAD-DRESS. [From a medallion on the Bharahat Tope. PI. xxiv. Fig. 2.] bers of the guild and their wives. And disputes between one guild and another were in the jurisdic- tion of the mahd-setthi, the Lord High Treasurer, who acted as a sort of chief Alderman over the Aldermen of the guilds (865). 7 98 BUDDHIST INDIA Besides the peasantry and the handicraftsmen there were merchants who conveyed their goods either up and down the great rivers, or along the coasts in boats; or right across country in carts travelling in caravans. These caravans, long lines of small two-wheeled carts, each drawn by two bul- locks, were a distinctive feature of the times/ There were no made roads and no bridges. The carts struggled along, slowly, through the forests, along the tracks from village to village kept open by the peasants. The pace never exceeded two miles an hour. Smaller streams were crossed by gullies lead- ing down to fords, the larger ones by cart ferries. There were taxes and octroi duties at each different country entered (875) ; and a heavy item in the cost was the hire of volunteer police who let themselves out in bands to protect caravans against robbers on the way (866). The cost of such carriage must have been great ; so great that only the more costly goods could bear it. The enormous traffic of to-day in the carriage of passengers, food-stuffs, and fuel was non-existent. Silks, muslins, the finer sorts of cloth and cutlery and armour, brocades, embroideries and rugs, per- fumes and drugs, ivory and ivory work, jewelry and ^ The accompanying plate (Fig. 23) shows, in four scenes on the same bas-relief, Anatha Pindika's famous gift of the Jetavana Park to the Order. To the left is the park, the ground of which is being covered with Kahdpaiias. In front is the bullock cart which has brought them. In the centre the donor holds in his hand the water of donation, the pouring out of which is to complete the legality of the gift. To the right are the huts to be afterwards put up in the park for the use of the Wanderers. Fig. 23. — ANATHA pindika's gift of the jetavana park. [From the Bharahat Tope. PI. Ixvii.] 99 lOO BUDDHIST INDIA gold (seldom silver), — these were the main articles in which the merchant dealt. The older system of traffic by barter had entirely passed away never to return. The later system of a currency of standard and token coins issued and regulated by government authority had not yet arisen. Transactions were carried on, values estim- ated, and bargains struck in terms of the kahapana, a square copper coin weighing about 146 grains, and guaranteed as to weight and fineness by punch- marks made by private individuals.* Whether these punch-marks are the tokens of merchants, or of guilds, or simply of the bullion dealer, is not certain (874). (Fig. 24.) No silver coins were used (877). There were half and quarter kahapanas, and probably no other sort. The references to gold coins are late and doubtful ; and no such coins have been found. Some thin gold films with punch marks on them were found in the Sakiya Tope, but these are too flimsy to have been used in circulation as coins (878). It is interesting to notice that Alexander, when in India, struck a half kahapana copper piece, square (in imitation of the Indian money), and not round like the Greek coins of the time. It IS only in later times that we hear (as for in- stance in Manu, 8. 401) of any market price being fixed by government regulation. In the sixth cent- ury B.C. there is only an official called the Valuer, whose duty it was to settle the prices of goods ' See Figs, i, 3, and 8 in the plate annexed to this chapter for ex- amples of these oldest Kahapanas, ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ' lOV ordered for the palace — which is a very different thing (875). And there are many instances, inci- dentally given, of the prices of commodities fixed, at different times and places, by the haggling of the market (875). These are all collected together in the article referred to (at pp. 882, foil.); and the gen- eral result seems to be that though the kahapana would be worth, at the present value of copper, only five sixths of a penny, its purchasing power then was about equivalent to the purchasing power of a shilling now. Besides the coins, there was a very considerable use of instruments of credit. The great merchants in the few large towns gave letters of credit on one another. And there is constant reference to pro- missory notes (879). The rates of interest are un- fortunately never stated. But interest itself is mentioned very early ; and the law books give the rate of interest current at a somewhat later date for loans on personal security as about eighteen per cent, per annum (881). There were no banking facilities. Money was hoarded either in the house, or buried in jars in the ground, or deposited with a friend, a written record of the transaction being kept (881). The details of prices above referred to enable us to draw some conclusion as to the spending power of the poor, of the man of the middle classes, and of the wealthy merchants and nobles respectively. Of want, as known in our great cities, there is no evi- dence. It is put down as the direst misfortune known that a free man had to work for hire. And I02 BUDDHIST INDIA there was plenty of land to be had for the trouble of clearing it, not far from the settled districts. On the other hand, the number of those who could be considered wealthy from the standards of those times (and of course still more so from our own) was very limited. We hear of about a score of monarchs, whose wealth consisted mainly of the land tax, supplemented by other dues and perquis- ites ; of a considerable number of wealthy nobles, and some priests, to whom grants had been made of the tithe arising out of certain parishes or coun- ties* or who had inherited similar rights from their forefathers; of about a dozen millionaire merchants in Takkasila, Savatthi, Benares, Rajagaha, Vesali, Kosambi, and the seaports (882), and of a consid- erable number of lesser merchants and middlemen, all in the few towns. But these were the exceptions. There were no landlords. And the great mass of the people were well-to-do peasantry, or handicrafts- men, mostly with land of their own, both classes ruled over by local headmen of their own selection. Before closing this summary of the most important economic conditions in Northern India in the sixth century B.C. it may be well to bring together the few notices we have in the books about the trade routes. There is nothing about them in the pre- Buddhistic literature. In the oldest Pali books we have accounts of the journeys of the wandering teach- ers ; and as, especially for longer journeys, they will generally have followed already established routes, this is incidental evidence of such as were then in ^ D. I. 88 ; M. 2. 163, 3. 133 ; S. 82. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IO3 use by traders. Later on, we have accounts of routes actually followed by merchants, either on boats, or with their caravans of bullock carts. We can thus draw up provisionally the following list: 1. North to South-west, Savatthi to Patitthana (Paithan) and back. The principal stopping places are given * (beginning from the south) as Mahissati, Ujjeni, Gonaddha, Vedisa, Kosambi, and Saketa. 2. North to South-east, Savatthi to Rajagaha. It is curious that the route between these two an- cient cities is never, so far as I know, direct, but always along the foot of the mountains to a point north of Vesali, and only then turning south to the Ganges. By taking this circuitous road the rivers were crossed at places close to the hills where the fords were more easy to pass. But political consid- erations may also have had their weight in the origi- nal choice of this route, still followed when they were no longer of much weight.^ The stopping places were (beginning at Savatthi), Setavya, Kapi- lavastu, Kusinara, Pava, Hatthi-gama, Bhandagama, Vesali, Pataliputta, and Nalanda. The road prob- ably went on to Gaya, and there met another route from the coast, possibly at Tamralipti, to Benares.^ 3. East to West, The main route was along the great rivers, along which boats plied for hire. We even hear of express boats. Upwards the rivers were used along the Ganges as far west as Sahajati,^ and along the Jumna as far west as Kosambi.' Downwards, in later times at least, the boats went * In S. N. 1011-1013. 3 Vinaya Texts, I. 81. * Ibid. 3. 401. *Sutta Nipata loc. cit., and Digha, 2. ^ Ibid. 3. 382. I04 BUDDHIST INDIA right down to the mouths of the Ganges, and thence either across or along the coast to Burma/ In the early books we hear only of the traffic downward as far as Magadha, that is, to take the farthest point, Champa. Upwards it went thence to Kosambi, where it met the traffic from the south (Route i), and was continued by cart to the south-west and north-west. Besides the above we are told of traders going from Videha to Gandhara," from Magadha to Sovira,' from Bharukaccha round the coast to Burma,* from Benares down the river to its mouth and thence on to Burma,^ from Champa to the same destination/ In crossing the desert west of Rajputana the caravans are said ^ to travel only in the night, and to be guided by a " land-pilot," who, just as one does on the ocean, kept the right route by observing the stars. The whole description of this journey is too vividly accurate to life to be an invention. So we may accept it as evidence not only that there was a trade route over the desert, but also that pilots, guiding ships or caravans by the stars only, were well known. In the solitary instance of a trading journey to Babylon (Baveru) we are told that it was by sea, but the port of departure is not mentioned/ There is one story, the world-wide story of the Sirens, who ^ That is at Thaton, then called Suvanna-bhumi, the Gold Coast. See Dr. Mabel Bode in the Sdsana Vamsa, p. 12. 2jat. 3. 365. 4jat. 3. 188. ^ Ibid. 6. 32-35. ^V. V. A. 370. ^ Ibid. 4. 15-17. '^ Ibid. i. 108. ^ Ibid. 3. 126. Has the foreign country called Seruma (Jat. 3. 189) any connection with Sumer or the land of Akkad? ECONOMIC CONDITIONS lOS are located in Tambapanni-dipa, a sort of fairy land, which is probably meant for Ceylon.* Lanka does not occur. Traffic with China is first mentioned in the Milinda (pp. 127, 327, 359), which is some cent- uries later. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VI THE MOST ANCIENT COINS OF INDIA EXPLANATION OF FIGS. 24 AND 25. This explanation, being too long to be inserted here, has been transferred to pp. 321, 322. * Jat. 2. 127. Fig. 24 — ANCIENT INDIAN COINS. [See Appendix, pp. 321, 322.] 106 CHAPTER VII WRITING — THE BEGINNINGS LITERATURE of all kinds laboured under a curious disability. There were, for a long time, no writing materials — that is, none that could be used for the production and reproduction of books. And the Indians not only did not feel the want of them, but even continued, for centuries after materials had become available, to prefer, so far as books are concerned, to do without them. The state of things thus disclosed, being unique in the history of the world, deserves a detailed exposition. The oldest reference to writing is in a tract called the Silas, embodied in each of the thirteen Dialogues which form the first chapter of the first division of the Suttantas, or conversational dis- courses of the Buddha. This tract must therefore have been already in existence as a separate work before those Dialogues were put together by the early disciples within the first century after the Buddha's death. The tract on the Silas may be dated, therefore, approximately about 450 B.C. The 107 I08 BUDDHIST INDIA tract contains lists of things a member of the Buddhist Order would not do. And among these is a list of games, one of which is called Akkharikd (Lettering), explained as ** Guessing at letters traced in the air, or on a playfellow's back.'* As the context ^ gives a number of children's games, this was almost certainly regarded as such. And for children to have such a game, and to call it by the name ** Lettering," shows that the knowledge of an alphabet was fairly prevalent at the time in question. The collection of canon law laid down for mem- bers of the Order under the generic name of Vinaya (Discipline) is in its present shape somewhat, per- haps two or three generations, younger. In it there are several suggestive references. For instance, writing {Jekhd) is praised at Vin. iv. 7, as a distinguished sort of art ; and whereas the sisters of the Order are, as a rule, to abstain from worldly arts, there are exceptions; and one of these is learning to write.^ A criminal *' who had been written up in the king's porch " (as we should say **who was wanted by the police") was not to be received into the Order.^ In a discussion as to what career a lad should adopt, his parents say that if he adopt the profession of a ** writer " he will dwell at ease and in comfort ; but then, on the other hand, his fingers will ache." Were a member of the Order to write to a man setting out the ^ The whole tract is translated in my Dialogues of the Buddha^ vol. i. pp. 3-26. The passage in question is on p. 11. 2 Vin. iv. 305. ^ Ibid, i. 75. ^ Ibid, i. 77; iv. 128. WRITING — THE BEGINNINGS 109 advantage of suicide, then, for each letter in the writing, he commits an offence.' It is evident, therefore, that writing was in vogue at the time these passages were composed : that it was made use of for the pubHcation of official notices, and for the communication by way of letter between private individuals: that the ability to write was a possible and honourable source of live- lihood : that the knowledge of writing was not con- fined to any particular class, but was acquired by ordinary folk, and by women : and that it was sufficiently prevalent to have been made the basis of a game for children. A long period, probably centuries, must have elapsed between the date when writing first became known to the few, and the date when such a stage could have been reached. But it is a long step from the use of writing for such notifications, public or private, to the use of it for the purpose of writing down any books, much less an extensive literature. And the very same texts we have just quoted show, and show in a manner equally indisputable, that, for such pur- poses, writing, however well known, had not yet come into use. For if books had been known and used in India at the period in question, then the manuscripts themselves, and the whole industry connected with * Vin. iii. 76. The expression used for writing is here lekham chindati^ "scratches a writing." From this ^xi^X^x {Indisc he Pa- leographies p. 88) concludes that the material implied is wood. But the reference is to scratching with a style on a leaf. no BUDDHIST INDIA them, must have played an important part in the daily life of the members of the Buddhist Order. Now the extant rules of the Order place clearly enough before our eyes the whole of the " personal property " of the community, or of its individuals. Every movable thing, down to the smallest and least important domestic utensil, is referred to, and its use pointed out. And articles in ordinary use among laymen, but not allowed to members of the Order, are mentioned also, in order to be dis- allowed. But nowhere do we find the least trace of any reference to books or manuscripts. This is really decisive. It is one of those rare cases where negative evidence, the absence of the mention of something where the mention of it would be reasonably expected, is good evidence. But this is not all. Positive evidence comes in at the precise point where it is wanted. There is pretty constant reference to the texts as existing, but existing only in the memory of those who had learnt them by heart. Here we have the ex- planation of how the difficulty was met. Thus at Anguttara, 3. 107, the dangers that may eventually fall upon the faith are being discussed. One is that the members of the Order will listen and give heed when poetical, pretty, ornate Sut- tantas are being repeated, and think them worthy of the trouble of being learnt by heart ; but will neglect the deeper, more subtle, more philosophical treatises. So at Anguttara, 2. 147, among four causes of the decay of religion one is that WRITING— THE BEGINNINGS III " those Bhikshus who have learnt much (literally, heard much), to whom the tradition has been handed on, who carry (in their memory) the doctrine, and the discipline, and the indices thereto (that is, the tables of contents drawn up to assist the memory) they (those Bhikshus) may not be careful to make others repeat some Suttanta; and so, when they shall themselves have passed away, that Suttanta will become cut off at the root, without a place of refuge." Again at Anguttara, 5. 136, we have the " nutri- ment " of a list of mental states, the conditions precedent without which they cannot be and grow. One of these states is learning, scholarship. One would expect to find that study, the reading of books, would be its "' nutriment.'* Not at all. It is said to be '' repeating over to oneself.** A chance expression of this sort has particular value. For it implies that the basis of learning was what a man carried in his head, in his memory ; and that constant repetition was required to prevent his losing it. It is a sort of expression that would have been impossible if books had been in general use. In the canon law also we find two suggestive rules. In the Vinaya Texts, i. 267, the rule is that the Patimokkha, consisting of the 227 Rules of the Order, is to be recited monthly in each ** residence " or monastic settlement. And if, among the brethren there, none should know the rules by heart, then they are (not to send for a copy, but) to send one of their younger members to some neighbouring fra- ternity, there to learn the Patimokkha, either with or 112 . BUDDHIST INDIA without the explanations of the several rules, by heart. Shortly afterwards we have a rule forbidding the brethren to travel in the rainy season. But among the exceptions* we find the case put that a layman knows how to recite some celebrated Suttanta. " If he send a messenger to the brethren, saying : * Might their reverences come and learn this Suttanta, other- wise this Suttanta will fall into oblivion ? * '* — then they may go, so important is the emergency, even during the rains. It is evident from such passages — and many others might be quoted to a like effect — that the idea of recording, by writing, even a Suttanta, the average length of which is only about twenty pages of the size of this work, did not occur to the men who composed or used the canonical texts. They could not even have thought of the possibility of using writing as a means of guarding against such painful accidents. Yet, as we have seen, the Indian peoples had been acquainted with letters, and with writing, for a long time, probably for centuries be- fore ; and had made very general use of writing for short communications. It seems extraordinary that they should have abstained from its use on occasions which were, to them, so important. Now the reason why they did so abstain is twofold. In the first place writing was introduced into India at a late period in the intellectual development of its people — so late that, before they knew of it, they had already brought to perfection, to a perfection ^ Vinaya Texts ^ i. 305. WRITING — THE BEGINNINGS II3 unparalleled in the history of the world, another method, and in some respects a very excellent method, of handing down literary productions. They would not lightly give up, for a new-fangled expedi- ent, this tried and ancient one. In the second place, even had they desired to do so, they could not. For they did not become ac- quainted, at the same time when they came to know of writing, with the necessary materials for writing lengthy records. We have only just been able to see clearly this very curious state of things. But we now have three different lines of evidence all converging to a certain date as that of the introduction of writing into India : and it is the knowledge of that date which has led to the true explanation. The first line is that. of the oldest references to writing in Indian literature as set out above. The second line is the discovery, due originally to Professor Weber, and lately greatly extended and confirmed by Hofrath Dr. Biihler,' that a certain pro- portion of the oldest Indian letters are practically identical with letters on certain Assyrian weights, and on the so-called Mesa inscription of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. About one-third of the twenty-two letters of the so-called Northern Semitic alphabet of that period are identical with the oldest forms of the corresponding Indian letters. Another third are somewhat similar. And the remaining third can, with great difficulty, be more or less — gene- ^ In Part III. of his Indian Studies (2d ed., 1898), and in his Indische Pdleographie^ 1896. 8 114 ^ UDDHIS T INDIA rally less — harmonised. Other scholars have made similar, but not such satisfactory, comparisons be- tween the Indian letters and those of the Southern forms of the Semitic alphabet. And the conclusion hitherto drawn has been either, with Weber and Biihler, that the Indian alphabet is derived from the Northern Semites; or, with Dr. Deecke, Isaac Tay- lor, and others, that it is derived from that of the Southern Semites, in South Arabia. Now direct intercourse, at the requisite date, was possible, but not probable, along the coast, between India and South Arabia, where the resemblance is least. No one contends that the Indians had any direct communication with the men who, on the borders of Palestine, inscribed the Mesa stone, where the resemblance is greater. I venture to think, therefore, that the only hypothesis harmonising these discoveries is that the Indian letters were de- rived, neither from the alphabet of the Northern, nor from that of the Southern Semites, but from that source from which these, in their turn, had been derived — from the pre-Semitic form of writing used in the Euphrates Valley. As to the date, the derivation must have taken place at a time when the resemblance between the forms of the letters is greatest. It must have been, therefore, in the seventh century B.C. or earlier; for a comparison of later Babylonian or Semitic forms shows no sufficient agreement. And it is to be sup- posed that the origin #of the Indian alphabet is previous to the time when the parent script was written from right to left. For the Indian, like our WRITING— THE BEGINNINGS 115 own, runs from left to right. Only the legend on one coin (described in Cunningham's Coins of Ancient Indid)^ and a few short inscriptions in Ceylon, not yet published,'' run from right to left. Certain groups of letters also, in the inscriptions of the third century B.C., are intended to be read, as Fig. 25. — ERAN COINS. [See pp. 321, 322.] we should say, backwards.'* The direction of the writing was open to fluctuation when these (by no means the most ancient) records were made. The third line of evidence is that best brought to- gether by Mr. Kennedy in his article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1898. It tends to show : 1. That continued and extensive trading took place in the seventh century B.C. between Babylon and ports on the west coast of India. 2. That it is highly improbable that there was any such trade much before that time. 3. That it is not at all likely that the Indian ^ The coin No. i is reproduced here by the kindness of Mr. Head and Mr. Rapson, from the coin itself, now in the British Museum ; No. 2 is in Mr. White King's collection. '^ See Mr. Wickramasinha's letter in the J. R. A. S. 1895. ^ See Mr. Wickramasinha's article in the y. R. A. S. 1901. Il6 . BUDDHIST INDIA merchants who went to Babylon went also farther inland, from Babylon to the west ; or that they continued their voyages as far as Yemen ; or that they reached Babylon overland, by way of the passes, across Afghanistan. There is still much to be done in the working out of the details of each of these three lines of evid- ence. No one of them is yet conclusive by itself. But the consensus of all three lends confirmation to each. And it may now be accepted as a working hypothesis that : 1. Sea-going merchants, availing themselves of the monsoons, were in the habit, at the beginning of the seventh (and perhaps at the end of the eighth) century B.C., of trading from ports on the south-west coast of India (Sovira at first, afterwards Supparaka and Bharukaccha) to Babylon, then a great mer- cantile emporium. 2. These merchants were mostly Dravidians, not Aryans. Such Indian names of the goods imported as were adopted in the west (Solomon's ivory, apes, and peacocks, for instance, and the word ** rice*') were adaptations, not of Sanskrit or Pali, but of Tamil words. 3. These merchants there became acquainted with an alphabetic writing derived from that first invented and used by the white pre-Semitic race now called Akkadians. 4. That alphabet had previously been carried, by wandering Semitic tribes, from Babylon to the west, both north-west and south-west. Some of the particular letters learnt by the Indian merchants WRITING— THE BEGINNINGS 1 1 7 are closely allied to letters found on inscriptions recorded by those Semitic tribes, and also on Baby- lonian weights, both of a date somewhat earlier than the time when the Indians made their trading journeys. 5. After the merchants brought this script to India it gradually became enlarged and adapted to suit the special requirements of the Indian learned and colloquial dialects. Nearly a thousand years afterwards the thus adapted alphabet became known as the Brahm i LipT, the Sublime Writing. What name it bore in the mterval — for instance, in Asoka's time — is not known. From it all the alphabets now used in India, Burma, Siam, and Ceylon have been gradually evolved. 6. When this script was first brought to India in the eighth or seventh century B.C., the Indians had already possessed an extensive Vedic literature handed down in the priestly schools by memory, and by memory alone. The alphabet soon became known to the priests. But they continued as before to hand down their books by the old method only. It is probable, however, that they began to make use of written notes to aid the memory on which they still, in the main, depended. 7. The material on which the signs had been traced in Babylon was clay. They were traced in India with an iron style, on leaves, or on pieces of bark, chiefly birch bark. No ink was used ; and these mere scratchings on such fragile substances were not only difficult to make out, but the leaves or bark were apt easily to be broken up or destroyed. Il8 BUDDHIST INDIA 8. It was not till long afterwards that a method of preparing large pieces of bark or the leaves of the Corypha talipot palm so as to prevent their break- ing was discovered. It was not till long afterwards that an ink was discovered, which could be rubbed over such a leaf with letters scratched upon it, and would then remain in the scratches, thus making the writing easily legible. Till these discoveries had been made there were really no materials practically available for use as books. And it was probably chiefly because of the fact that the need of such ma- terials was not felt that the discoveries were not much sooner made. 9. To say indeed that the need was not felt is, as regards the Vedic schools, not nearly strong enough. The priests were, as a body, exceedingly keen to keep the knowledge of the mantras (the charms or verses), on which the magic of the sacrifice depended, in their own hands. There are some pretty rules about this in the later priestly law-books — rules that received, it should be noted, the cordial ap- proval of Shankara.* " The ears of a Sudra who listens, intentionally, when the Veda is being recited are to be filled with molten lead. His tongue is to be cut out if he re- cite it. His body is to be split in twain if he pre- serve it in his memory." '^ The priestly view was that God himself had bestowed the exclusive right of teaching upon the hereditary priests ^ ; who claimed to be, each of them, great divinities,* even to the gods.* * On the Vedanta Sutras, r. 3. 38. * Gautama, xii. 4-6. 3 Manu, 1. 88, "^ Ibid. ix. 317, 319. ^ Ibid, xi. 85. WRITING^ THE BEGINNINGS 1 19 We cannot, therefore, be far wrong if we suppose they were not merely indifferent to the use of writ- ing as a means of handing on the books so lucrative to themselves, but were even strongly opposed to a method so dangerous to their exclusive privileges. And we ought not to be surprised to find that the oldest manuscripts on bark or palm leaf known in India are Buddhist ; that the earliest written records on stone and metal are Buddhist ; that it is the Buddhists who first made use of writing to record their canonical books ; and that the earliest mention of writing at all in the voluminous priestly literature is in the Vasishtha Dharma Sutra' — one of the late^?^ law books, and long posterior to the numerous references quoted above from the Buddhist canon. It is, of course, not impossible, a priori, that the priests in India had developed an alphabet of their own out of picture writing; and that it was on to such an alphabet that the borrowed letters were grafted. General Cunningham went even farther. He thought the alphabet was altogether developed, independently, on Indian soil. But we have at pre- sent, not only no evidence to that effect, but much the other way. All the present available evidence tends to show that the Indian alphabet is not Aryan at all; that it was introduced into India by Dravidian merchants ; and that it was not, in spite of their invaluable services in other respects to In- dian literature, to the priests, whose self-interests were opposed to such discoveries, but to traders, and to less prejudiced literary circles, that India ' xvi. 10. 14. I20 BUDDHIST INDIA owes the invention of those improvements in the mechanical aids to writing that enabled the long previously existent knowledge of letters to be applied at last to the production and preservation of books. CHAPTER VIII WRITING— ITS DEVELOPMENT IT may be asked why the Indian merchants who brought the knowledge of the alphabet from Babylon to Western India did not also bring the method, then carried in Babylon to so great a de- gree of success, of writing — and of writing not only mercantile memoranda but also books — on clay tablets, on bricks. The problem is not without difficulty. But it does not arise only in India. Elsewhere also the traders or tribes who learnt the alphabet in the Euphrates Valley never adopted the habit of writ- ing on bricks. Bricks and tablets and seals, all of them of clay, have been found, indeed, in widely separated parts of India, with letters, and even sent- ences, inscribed upon them. But the letters on the bricks, though most interesting as palaeographic evid- ence, are merely mason's marks ; the inscribed clay tablets contain only short sentences of scripture ; and the legends on the seals are only of the usual kind. The fact remains, therefore, that clay was not in any general use among the people as a 121 122 BUDDHIST INDIA material for writing books upon, or even short com- munications. As a specimen of writing on clay the annexed figure of a tablet discovered by Dr. Hoey, r Fig. 26. — LEAF OF xMS. FROM THE GOSINGA VIHAKA OF AN OLD BUDDHIST ANTHOLOGY. by whose kindness I am allowed to reproduce it, is interesting. It contains a Buddhist tract.' Of course copper and gold plates were early and often o Q PQ I— t Pi U m I— I < H H t3 C/3 H (/} « Q Q D w W H W < U t-H PQ .■^ ^A k O pi o C5 124 BUDDHIST INDIA used, of which the Takshila copper plates and one of the Maung-gon gold plates are here shown. On the other hand we have abundant evidence, both literary and archaeological, of the use for such purposes of birch bark and palm leaves. The oldest specimen of a book in such writing hitherto discov- ered is the MS. found in the ruins of the Gosinga Vihara, thirteen miles from Khotan. This MS. is written with ink on birch bark in letters of the Kha- rostrl alphabet, an alphabet introduced overland into the extreme north-west of India about 500 B.C., and used locally in Gandhara (side by side with the other alphabet to which reference has been made above, and to which all existing Indian alphabets can be traced back).* This MS., portions of which have just found their way both to Paris and St. Peters- burg, must have been written in Gandhara shortly before or after the Christian era. And it contains an anthology of Buddhist religious verses taken from the canonical books, but given in a local dialect, younger than the Pali of the texts.* The next MS. in point of age is much younger. It is the one discovered by Captain Bower in Mingai, near Kuchar, containing medical receipts and form- ulas for snake-charming, and written in characters of the fourth or perhaps the fifth century A.D., with ' The name of this alphabet has always been spelt Kharosthl. But Professor Sylvain Levi in his just published article in the Bul- letin de r/cole fran^ais d' extreme-orient for 1902 has clearly shown that the right spelling is as above, and that the Kharostra is simply the name of a country, to wit, Kashgar. 2 See Senart in the Journal A siatique for 1898 ; and compare Rh. D.'s note in the J.R.A.S, for 1899. 126 BUDDHIST INDIA o > .Vi 45 e H < Pu Q a o o 25 o o I o z w ink, on birch bark cut to imitate palm leaves. These leaves are also pierced with holes, through which a string can be passed to keep the leaves together — a plan always adopted for palm leaves, but very unsuitable for birch bark, which is so brittle that the string is apt to tearand break the leaves, as it had done in this case. The language used in this MS. is suf- ficiently near to classi- cal Sanskrit for it to be called Sanskrit. But the five different short treatises of which this MS. consists contain, in varying degree, a good many colloquialisms.* Other MSS. of great * See now, on this MS., Dr. Hoernle's magnificent edition of the texts, with lithographed reproductions, transh'terations, and translations. Professor Buhler's preliminary remarks on it are in the fifth volume of the Vienna Oriental yournal. W > < < H . O Ph « H ffi O U H I— t W O K O o a; < K-1 o en c 128 BUDDHIST INDIA age have been recently discovered in Turkestan ; but these are the oldest ones so far deciphered and edited. The others are still awaiting decipherment, and are in the hands of Dr. Hoernle for that purpose. Now as the Bower MS. is in Sanskrit (though not good Sanskrit), and the Gosinga MS. is in a dialect allied to, but younger than Pali, the natural conclusion would seem to be that, as Sanskrit is older than Pali, the texts contained in the Bower MS. must be older. That the MS. itself, the par- ticular copy that has survived, is some centuries later, does not matter. Pali is to Sanskrit about as Italian is to Latin. Whatever the age of the MSS. in which the copies of them may be written, the text of a work by Vergil must be older than the text of a work by Dante. The conclusion seems, therefore, obvious that a work in Sanskrit, whatever the age of the MS. in which it is wTitten, must be older than a work in Pali, and, a fortiori, older than a work in a dialect that is, philologically speaking, younger than Pali. Oddly enough the exact contrary is the case. Not only is the Gosinga MS. older than the Bower MS., but the verses contained in it are also older than the texts contained in the Bower MS., and that precisely because they are written in a dialect closely allied to Pali, And we should know this for certain even if we had only printed copies of these two works, that is, even if we had not the palaeographic evidence of the age of the handwriting to guide us. For, in the period we are considering, the more closely a book or an inscription approximates to o < I— I W H O (4 b > Q PQ ui u K CO 6 I30 . BUDDHIST INDIA pure Sanskrit, unalloyed by colloquialisms, by Pali phrases and grammatical forms, the later it is — not- withstanding the fact that Sanskrit is, etymologi- cally speaking, older than Pali. The explanation of this apparent anomaly is really perfectly plain and simple. It is clear enough from a comparison of the literature, but it is more easily shown, perhaps, by a comparison of the inscriptions. Take the inscription, for instance, on the vase dis- covered by Mr. Pepp6 in the Sakiya Tope — which is in my opinion the oldest inscription yet discovered in India — and what do we find ? ' 1. As to the language. It is entirely in the living language, in the vernacular. 2. As to the orthography. The consonants are roughly and rudely written. 3. The only vowels expressed, by signs hung on to the consonants, are i and u and (in one doubtful case) either e or o, 4. No consonants are written double, in spite of the fact that double consonants, pronounced double (as in Italian of to-day), were a marked feature of the vernacular. 5. No groups of consonants (such as the ndr in our word hundred or the // and st in our word plastic^ are written as groups. Thus the word for *'of the Sakiyas" is written s ki y n'^y which is the nearest orthography the writer could get, or troubled ^ See the yournal of the Royal Asiatic Society^ 1898 and 1899. The annexed illustrations are from photographs by Mr. Peppe to whose skill and enterprise we owe this most interesting and import- ant addition to our knowledge. WRITING—ITS DEVELOPMENT 131 himself to get, for the word as spoken in the living local dialect. This may have been either Sdkiydnam or Sakkiydnam (pronounced Sak-kiyanang). It will be noticed that the orthography, there- fore, is very imperfect. It is, strictly speaking, not so much an alphabet as a syllabary. The light Fig. 32. — THE PEPP^ VASES. Found by Mr. Pepp6 in the Sakiya Tope. vowel a^ pronounced as in our word vocals is sup- posed inherent in every consonant on to which no other vowel is hung. No attempt is yet made to distinguish between long and short vowels. No diphthongs are written. There is no expedient as yet to show that a consonant is to be pronounced as a final, that. is, without the inherent a; and this, together with the absence of groups, is what renders it impossible to express the double consonants so frequent in the actual language. 132 BUDDHIST INDIA The next stage we have (that is, at present ; no doubt as soon as archaeological explorations are carried on systematically in India intermediate stages will be available) are the Asoka inscriptions. Of these thirty-four have so far been found, and M. Sen art, in his Inscriptions de Piyadasi, has subjected all those discovered before 1886 to an exhaustive and detailed analysis. With these ought to be compared the greater number of the inscriptions on the Bharhut Tope, some of which are a little older, some a little younger, and only one or two a good deal younger than Asoka. Two tendencies are very marked in these inscrip- tions of the third century B.C. In the first place the orthographical expedients are very much improved. All the long vowels are now marked as such. Once we have a diphthong. Numerous groups of con- sonants are written as such. The letters as a whole are engraved much more neatly and regularly. The alphabet tends, therefore, to be much more accurate, more phonetic, fuller, more complete. On the other hand, the scribes or engravers, or both, have fallen into the habit of giving expression in their orthography to what they conceived to be the more learned and more proper forms of words, and of grammatical inflexions, rather than to the forms actually in use in the real, living language. The alphabet tends, therefore, to be much less ac- curate, to give a less faithful picture of the living speech. This last tendency is exactly analogous to what happened when our own spelling was being set- 134 BUDDHIST INDIA tied. Englishmen probably pronounced would and could much as they do now. But some one knew there had been an / in the earlier form of would (as in the German wollte). And so he spelt it with an /, which no longer existed in the real, living speech. Somebody else (who thought he would be quite learned, and proper, and on the safe side), spelt could also with an /, though the / existed, in this case, neither in the older form of the word nor in the living speech. And now we are saddled with the / in both words whether we like it or not. It was this latter tendency which won the day in India. Very gradually the efforts to represent the real facts of the language gave way to another effort altogether, the effort to give expression to the learned phraseology. The past history of the words came to be considered more than their actual sound. Both the language in the inscriptions, and the methods of spelling adopted in them, became more and more artificial. The double process went on through the centuries, until at last, at the very time when the alphabet had been so continually improved that it had become the most perfect instrument of phonetic expression the world has yet seen, the other process had also reached its climax, the living speech had completely disappeared from the monu- ments, and all the inscriptions are recorded in a dead language, in the so-called classical Sanskrit. The oldest inscription in pure Sanskrit so far dis- covered, that of Rudradaman at Girnar in the Kathiawad, is dated (no doubt in the Saka Era) in the year 72. It belongs, therefore, to the middle of WRITING— ITS DEVELOPMENT 135 the second century after Christ. It had taken four centuries from Asoka's time to reach this stage. And though the end was not yet, and inscriptions in Fig. 34. — FRAGMENT OF THE I3TH ROCK EDICT OF ASOKA, DIS- COVERED BY PROFESSOR RHYS-DAVIDS AT GIRNAR. the vernacular, pedantically contorted, are still met with, from the fifth century onwards the dead language reigns supreme. The case of the coins is, if possible, even more in- 136 BUDDHIST INDIA structive. The oldest coin which bears an inscription in Sanskrit is a unique coin of Satyadaman, be- longing to the western Kshatrapa dynasty, whose approximate date is 200 A.D.* Of the seven words contained in the inscription on this coin all have Sanskrit terminations, and only one offends against the rules of sa?id/ii as observed in Sanskrit. All coins previous to this one bear legends either in Pali or in the vernacular. So, also, oddly enough, do all subsequent coins for a period of about two centuries. The experiment was evidently found to have been a failure, and was not repeated. Spor- adically we find single words in Sanskrit occurring in legends, otherwise in the vernacular. These are evidence of the desire of the mint authorities, or of the mint ofificials, to appear learned. But the people did not fancy the innovation of Sanskrit legends, and the authorities apparently did not care to go on issuing coins not popular with the people. So in our own country up to as late as the end of the nineteenth century any important monumental record in honour of a wealthy or successful personage was almost always written in Latin. Coins still, for the most part, have their legends in Latin. And throughout Europe, up to a date not so very re- mote, works on a great variety of subjects were written, and education was often carried on, in that language.'* We have never reached the point, reached in the fifth century A.D. in India, that the ■* Rapson in the y. R. A. S. 1899, p. 379. ^ Even in 1855, the first Pali text edited in Europe was edited with Latin introduction, Latin notes, and a Latin translation. WRITING — ITS DEVELOPMENT lyj dead language was exclusively used. But we were not so very far from it. And the conditions as to this matter in the two continents — for India is more of a continent than a country — were more similar than is often supposed. The dead language in each case was the language used in the sacrifice. The greater credit attaching to it was largely of a re- hgious nature. But it was also a sort of lingua franca widely understood through many countries in which many various languages were respectively the langusLge of the people. There was a time in each case when the clergy were in great part the main custodians of the learning of the day, so that the language of the church was the most convenient language in which to appeal to a larger circle of educated people than could be reached through any one vernacular. And in each case those who first used the vernacular were the men who wished to appeal to the people, who were advocating what they deemed to be reforms. There are, of course, differences also in these two cases. The most important of these is that, in India, the use of the vernacular came first in order of time. And one result of this was the curious dialect half-way between the vernacular and the dead language, which may be called equally well either mixed Sanskrit or mixed vernacular, ac- cording as it approximates more or less to the one or to the other. Another result was that, the ver- nacular being taken so early, the grammatical term- inations still survived in it in a shape more or less akin to those in use in the dead language. When 138 BUDDHIST INDIA Dr. Johnson overlaid his English with a mass of Latin words, the process stopped at a kind of hybrid vernacular. When the Indian writers before and after the Christian Era did the same sort of thing, and began to adopt also the Sanskrit grammatical terminations, the end was inevitable. When they made use of a mixture of some real forms and words drawn from the vernacular, some such words slightly altered to make them look more learned, and some forms wholly artificial with no existence at all in living speech, the only possible consequence was that the first sort were called vulgar, the second blunders, and only the third declared to be right. The hybrid they thus made use of became in- creasingly too like Sanskrit to be able to contend against it ; and from the end of the fourth century the latter alone was used. Then, linguistically speaking, death reigned supreme. The living lan- guage was completely overshadowed by the artificial substitute. The changeling had taken the place of the rightful heir. The parasite had overgrown and smothered the living tree from which it drew its sustenance, from which it had derived its birth. The loss, from the point of view of intellectual advancement, must have been very great. Who can doubt that Europe was fortunate in escaping (and it was a very narrow escape) a similar bondage? Classical Sanskrit, in consequence very largely of the rich fortune it had inherited from the vernacular as previously cultivated, — for Pali is not much farther removed from the vernacular than, say, Hume's Essay from the spoken English of the day, J WRITING— ITS DEVELOPMENT 1 39 — is rich in varied expressions. But, with its long compounds and its poverty in syntax, it is cumbrous and unwieldy as compared even with the Latin of the Middle Ages, and much more so if compared with any living tongue. It must be a disadvantage to write in any language in which one does not habitually speak and think. And the disadvantage is not lessened when the existing works in that language are charged with an unprogressive (not to say reactionary) spirit in religion, philosophy, and social views of life. It is therefore clear why Pali books written in India, or books in a dialect allied to Pali, or in a mixture of such a dialect and forms taken from pure Sanskrit, are each of them older than the books written in classical Sanskrit ; and why a coin, a book, or an inscription, in so far as its language ap- proximates to the regular Sanskrit, is later, and not earlier. The vernacular was used first. Then, gradually, what were considered more learned forms (taken from the dead language used in the priestly schools) were, in a greater and greater degree, made use of, till, finally, the regular Sanskrit became used exclusively. CHAPTER IX LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE L GENERAL VIEW IN early times there must have been several systems of literature preserved independently among the followers of different schools. No one of these schools preserved (that is, learnt by heart) the literature of the others. But each knew of the others, talked over the opinions maintained in them, considered in their own Suttas what was preserved in the Suttas of their opponents. We have a fair number of well-established instances of men who had received a long training in one school passing over to another. These men at least had thus acquired a familiarity, more or less complete, with two literatures. In the forests adjoining the settlements, the dis- ciples of the various schools, living a hermit life, occupied themselves, according to the various tend- encies of the schools to which they belonged, either in meditation or in sacrificial rites, or in practices of self-torture, or in repeating over to themselves, 140 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE I4I and in teaching to their pupils, the Suttas contain- ing the tenets of their school. Much time was spent in gathering fruits and roots for their susten- ance, or in going into the village for alms. And there was difference of opinion, and of practice, as to the comparative importance attached to the learn- ing of texts. But the hermitages where the learn- ing, or the repeating, of texts was unknown were the exceptions. Then, besides the Hermits, there was another body of men, greatly respected throughout the country, quite peculiar to India, and not known even there rouch before the rise of Buddhism, called the Wanderers {Paribbdjakd), They were teachers, or sophists, who spent eight or nine months of every year wandering about precisely with the object of engaging in conversational discussions on matters of ethics and philosophy, nature lore and mysticism. Like the sophists among the Greeks, they differed very much in intelligence, in earnestness, and in honesty. Some are described as ** Eel-wrigglers,'* " Hair-splitters,'* and not without reason if we may fairly judge from the specimens of their lucubrations preserved by their opponents.^ But there must have been many of a very different character, or the high reputation they enjoyed, as a body, would scarcely have been maintained. We hear of halls put up for their accommodation, for the discussion by them of their systems of belief. Such was ** The Hall " in Queen Mallika's park at Savatthi,^ and the *' Gabled Pavilion " put up by the Licchavi clan in * Dialogues of the Buddha, i. 37, 38. ^ Ibid.^ p. 244. 142 BUDDHIST INDIA the Great Wood adjoining their capital of Vesah*, and often mentioned in the books as the resort of the Wanderers. Or a special space was set apart for them in the groves adjoining the settlement, — such were the sweet-smelling Champaka Grove on the borders of the lake dug out by Queen Gaggara at Champa'; the Mora-nivapa, the place where the peacocks were fed, at Rajagaha,' and others. The Wanderers are often represented as meeting one another at such places, or at the rest-houses {chowltries) which it was a prevalent custom for vil- lagers to put up on the roadside for the common use of travellers. And they were in the habit, on their journeys, of calling on other Wanderers, or on the learned brahmins, or on the Hermits, resident in the neighbourhood of the places where they stopped. So Digha-nakha calls on the Buddha,' the Buddha visits Sakuludayi,* Vekhanassa calls on the Buddha,* Keniya does the same,* and Potali-putta calls on Samiddhi.' The residents also, both to testify respect and to listen to their talk, used to call on the Wanderers when the latter stayed in or near a village — evidence both of the popularity of the Wanderers, and of the frequent interchange of opinion. The Wanderers, some of whom were women, were not ascetics, except so far as they were celibates. The practices of self-mortification are always re- ferred to as carried out by the Hermits in the woods. The Buddha, before he attained Nirvana under the ^ Dialogues of the Buddha, 144. ^ M. 2. i. 29. ® S. N. p. 99. 2 M. 2. I. 3 M. I. 497. * Mi 2. 40. ' M. 3. 207. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE I43 Tree of Wisdom, had been such a self-torturer {tdpasa) in the woods on the banks of the Nerafl- jara. Thenceforward he became a Wanderer. It was easy to pass from one career to the other. But they were quite distinct, were spoken of by different names, and in the priestly law-books we find quite different regulations laid down for the Hermits on the one hand, and the Wanderers on the other.* We have the names of a considerable number of the individuals in both of these classes. And not only the personal names. In those cases when a number of individuals acknowledged the leader- ship of one teacher, or adhered to the same set of opinions (whether attributed to one teacher or not), they had also corporate names. Thus the members of that Order which we call the Buddhist Order were called Sdkyaputtlya Samatias, Each order was called a Sangha. The members of the Sangha which we call the Jain Order were called the Niganthas, "The Unfettered.'* There was an Order the mem- bers of which were called the Ajlvakd, the ** Men of the Livelihood." Both of these orders were older than the Buddhist. The Jains have remained as an organised community all through the history of India from before the rise of Buddhism down to to-day. The AjTvakas still existed as an organised community down to the time of Asoka's grandson Dasaratha, who gave them, as we learn from the in- scriptions on the caves, certain cave-hermitages. They have long ago died out. And with the dis- * The references are collected in Dialogues of the Buddha, i. pp. 208-212, 221. 144 BUDDHIST INDIA appearance of the Order, the Suttas containing their ideas have vanished also. For during a long period they existed only in the memories of the members of the Order; and even after writing was applied to the preservation of such literary works, it was only the members of the Order or lay adherents of the school who would copy them. There are many references * in Jain and Buddhist books to this Or- der, and to the opinions they professed. And it will be possible, when these have been fully com- pared and summarised, to arrive at a more or less complete and accurate view of their tenets. The names of other orders, of which we know little more than the names, have been preserved in the Anguttara.^ And the existence of at least two or three others can be inferred from incidental refer- ences. There is still in existence a Vaikhanasa Sutra, of about the third century A.D., which pur- ports to contain the rules of an Order founded by one Vikhanas. It has just been mentioned that a certain Vekhanassa, a Wanderer, called on the Bud- dha. It is not improbable that he belonged to that Order. In a note on Panini, iv. 3. no, there are mentioned two brahmin orders, the Karmandinas and the Parasarinas. Now in the Majjhima (3. 298) the opinions of a certain Parasariya, a brahmin teacher, are discussed by the Buddha. It is very probable that he was either the founder or an ad- herent of the second of these schools. In any case the Order still existed at the time when the note ^ Collected in Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. pp. 71, 221. * Ibid. p. 220. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE I45 to Panini was made; and it is probably referred to in an inscription mentioned by Cunningham.' Of the other schools or corporate bodies of Wan- derers, or of Hermits, only the names are known. But as even the names throw light on the movement they may here be mentioned.'' They are : 1. Munda-sdvakd. — "The disciples of the Shave- ling." 2. Jatilakd. — " Those who wear their hair in braids." To do so was the rule for those of the Hermits who were brahmins, and perhaps other her- mits also did so. In that case they cannot have formed one corporate body. 3. Magandikd, — This name is probably derived from the name of the founder of a corporate body. But all their records have perished, and we know nothing of them otherwise. 4. Tedandikd. — ** The bearers of the triple staff." This is probably the name given, in the Buddhist community, to those of the Wanderers (not Her- mits) who were brahmins. They were not allowed, by their rules, to wear their hair in braids, but must either have their heads shaved entirely, or so shaved as to leave a forelock only. 5. Aviruddhakd, — ''The friends." We know as yet nothing otherwise about them. 6. Gotamakd, — " The followers of Gotama." These are almost certainly the followers of Devadatta, the Buddha's cousin, who founded an Order in opposi- tion to the Buddhist Order, on the ground that the ^ Archaological Reports, xx. 105. * For references see Dialogues of the Buddha ^ pp. 220-222. ZO 146 BUDDHIST INDIA latter was too easy-going in its regulations as to food, and did not favour asceticism. 7. DevadJiainmikd, — ** Those who follow the re- ligion of the gods" or perhaps " of the god/* On neither interpretation do we know the exact mean- ing of the term. We find in this curious list several names, used technically as the designation of particular orders, or bodies of religieux^ but in meaning applicable quite as much to most of the others. They all claimed to be pure as regards means of livelihood (like the Ajivakas) ; to be unfettered (like the Niganthas) ; to be friends (like the Aviruddhakas); they were all, except the Jatilakas, Wanderers, they were all mendicants (Bhikshus). The names can only gradually have come to have the special mean- ing of the member of one division or order, only. We find a similar state of things in the names of Christian sects in England to-day. And a consider- able time must have elapsed before the names could thus have become specialised. All this is very suggestive from more than one point of view. And as some of these points are of the first importance for a right understanding of the questions of language and literature, I may be al- lowed to enlarge a little on one or two of them. It is clear, in the first place, that there was no obstacle, arising from diversity of language, to intercourse — and that not merely as regards ordinary conversa- tion about the ordinary necessities of daily life, but as regards philosophical and religious discussions of a subtle and earnest kind. The common language LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 1 47 thus widely understood — used from the land of the Kurus in the west to Magadha in the east, north- wards at Savatthi and Kusinara in the Nepal hills, and southwards in one direction as far as Ujjen — could not have been Sanskrit. Classical Sanskrit was not yet in existence ; and the language used in the Brahmanas was neither sufficiently known out- side the widely scattered schools of the brahmins, nor of a nature to lend itself easily to such discus- sions. The very last thing one would say of it would be to call it a conversational idiom. Neither is it probable that each one could have spoken in the dialect of the peasantry of his own place of origin. It would have been impossible to use such a dialect for the discussion of such subjects as are described as the matter of these dialogues. The only reasonable and probable explanation is that the Wanderers talked in a language common among the cultured laity (officials, nobles, mer- chants, and others), which bore to the local dialects much the same relation as the English of London, in Shakespeare's time, bore to the various dialects spoken in Somersetshire, Yorkshire, and Essex. The growth of such a language had only just then become possible. It was greatly promoted by (if not, indeed, the immediate result of) the growth of the great kingdom of Kosala. This included, just before the rise of Buddhism, all, and more than all, of the present United Provinces. And it gave occasion and security for peaceful intercourse, both of a commercial and of an official kind, from one end to the other of its extensive territory. It was 148 BUDDHIST INDIA precisely these political conditions which favoured also the rapid growth of the institution or custom of the Wanderers, of whom we have no evidence prior to the establishment of the Kosalan power, and who doubtless contributed much to the cultivation of the more intellectual side of the common language which was enabled to grow up under the protective shield of the Kosalan peace. The question has been much complicated and obscured by the impressions derived from the San- skrit dramas which early in the history of our ac- quaintance with Indian literature became known to Europeans. In them the men of any social stand- ing speak Sanskrit, except occasionally when ad- dressing women. And even the women, especially those of higher rank, are supposed to understand, and occasionally, mostly when verses are put into their mouths, to speak it. Otherwise in the dramas the characters talk, not the vernacular, but the literary Prakrits/ It is probable, even at the time when the dramas were written, that as a matter of fact every one, in ordinary daily life, spoke neither Sanskrit nor Prakrit, but simply the vernaculars. It is only the authors, when addressing a cultured public at a date when Sanskrit had become the paramount literary language, who thought it proper, in their dramas, to divide up the speeches between Sanskrit and the equally unreal literary Prakrits. But how- ever that may be, even if Sanskrit were then used ^ See the instances collected by Pischel, Grammatik der Prakrit- sprachen, pp. 31, 32. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE I49 by ordinary people in their daily intercourse, — which seems to me quite incredible, — that is still of no value at all as evidence of the condition of things twelve centuries before, in a much more simple and natural state of society. Another point is that though brahmins take part in the religious and philosophical conversations of those early times, and in the accounts of them are always referred to with respect, and treated with the same courtesy that they always themselves (with one or two instructive exceptions) extended also to others, yet they hold no predominant po- sition. The majority of the Wanderers, and the most influential individuals among them, are not brahmins. And the general impression conveyed by the texts is that the Wanderers and other non- priestly teachers were quite as much, if not more esteemed than the brahmins by the whole people — kings, nobles, officials, merchants, artisans, and peasantry. ** But that is only a matter of course," will be the obvious objection. ** The books you quote, if not the work of bitter opponents, were at least com- posed under rajput influence, and are prejudiced against the brahmins. The law-books and the epics represent the brahmins as the centre round which everything in India turns ; and that not only be- cause of the sacredness of their persons, but because of their marked intellectual superiority to the rest of the people. Or take the European books on Indian literature and religion. They treat these subjects as practically identical with literature and I50 BUDDHIST INDIA religion as shotvn in braJimin books. Surely, then, the brahmins must have been predominant in the intellectual life of the period you are considering." ** These are not two independent testimonies," one would reply. ** The European writers would be perfectly willing to consider other texts, if they only had them. They have been perfectly right in using the material before them. And in editing texts they naturally chose first those nearest at hand. But^ even so, with practically only priestly books to judge by, the}'' are by no means unani- mous in accepting the views of those texts as to the exclusive supremacy of the brahmins in early times." Consider, for instance, the opinion of Profes- sor Bhandarkar — himself, be it noted, a high-caste brahmin, and not only the most distinguished of native scholars, but so versed in the methods of historical criticism that his opinion is entitled to special weight. In a strikingly suggestive and im- portant paper ^ he calls attention to the evidence of the inscriptions. In the second century after Christ they begin to record grants of land to brahmins. In the third there are also a few in- stances. From the fourth century onwards there are quite numerous inscriptions showing a marked rise in brahmin influence. The Gupta kings are then stated to have carried out the most com- plicated and expensive sacrifices, such as the Horse- sacrifice. Each of two inscriptions records the ' yournal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1901. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 151 erection of a sacrificial post, another an endow- ment for lighting lamps in a temple to the sun. There are grants of villages for the performance of sacrificial rites ; and numerous grants of land to brahmins, and to the temples in their charge. But for the four centuries before that (that is to say, from 300 B.C. to 100 A.D.) no brahmin, no brahmin temple, no brahmin god, no sacrifice or ritualistic act of any kind is ever, even once, re- ferred to. There is a very large number of gifts recorded as given by kings, princes, and chiefs, by merchants, goldsmiths, artisans, and ordinary householders ; but not one of them is given in support of anything — of any opinion or divinity or practice — with which the brahmins had anything to do. And whereas the later inscriptions, favour- ing the brahmins and their special sacrifices, are in Sanskrit, these earlier ones, in which they are not mentioned, are in a sort of Pali — not in the local vernacular of the place whei'e the inscriptions are found, but in a dialect similar, in many essential respects, to the dialect for common intercourse, based on the vernacular, which, I suggest, the Wanderers must have used, in their discussions, at the time when Buddhism arose. This marked distinction in the inscriptions of the two periods — both as to the object of the gifts they record, and as to the language in which they are written — leads Professor Bhandarkar to the follow- ing conclusion : C( r The period that we have been speaking pf [that is, 152 BUDDHIST INDIA from the beginning of the second century B.C. to the end of the fourth century after] has left no trace of a building or sculpture devoted to the use of the Brahmin religion. Of course Brahminism existed ; and it was probably, during the period, being developed into the form which it assumed in later times. But the religion certainly does not occupy a prominent position, and Buddhism was followed by the large mass of the people from princes down to the humble workman.*' And he goes on to say that the language of the earlier inscriptions ** indicates a greater deference for the peo- ple who used it, than for Brahmanic learning.*' If this opinion be accepted as accurate for that period (200 B.C.-400 A.D.) — and it certainly seems incontrovertible — then, a fortiori^ it must be ac- cepted in yet larger measure for the period four centuries earlier. As Professor Hopkins says* : '* Brahminism has always been an island in a sea. Even in the Brahmanic age there is evidence to show that It was the isolated belief of a comparatively small group of minds. It did not even control all the Aryan population.'* With regard to the inscriptions, M. Senart has shown conclusively, by an exhaustive study of the whole subject, that they at no time, either in spelling or in vocabulary, present us with a faithful picture of any vernacular. The degree in which they become more and more nearly allied to Sanskrit is a curious and interesting barometer by which we can gauge the approach of the impending revolution in politics, religion, and literature. And the gradual change in ' Religions of India (1896), p. 548. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 1 53 their form, though that form never gives us the real vernacular, is an invaluable assistance in establishing the linguistic history of India. To treat that ques- tion at all fully, even in an elementary manner, would demand at least a volume. But the main features may be summarised as follows. We have, in the following order (as to time) : 1. The dialects spoken by the Aryan invaders of India, and by the Dravidian and Kolarian inhabitants they found there. 2. Ancient High Indian, the Vedic. 3. The dialects spoken by the Aryans, now often united by marriage and by political union with the Dravidians, in their settlements either along the spurs of the Himalaya range from Kashmir to Nepal, or down the Indus Valley and then across to Avanti, or along the valleys of the Jumna and the Ganges. 4. Second High Indian, Brahmanic, the literary language of the Brahmanas and Upanishads. 5. The vernaculars from Gandhara to Magadha at the time of the rise of Buddhism, not so divergent probably as not to be more or less mutually intel- ligible. 6. A conversational dialect, based probably on the local dialect of Savatthi, the capital of Kosala, and in general use among Kosala officials, among mer- chants, and among the more cultured classes, not only throughout the Kosala dominions, but east and west from Delhi to Patna, and north and south from Savatthi to Avanti. 7. Middle High Indian, Pali, the literary language 154 BUDDHIST INDIA based on No. 6, probably in the form in which it was spoken in Avanti. 8. The Asoka dialect, founded on No. 6, especially as spoken at Patna, but much influenced by the aim at approximation to Nos. 7 and 11. 9. The Ardha-Magadhi, the dialect of the Jain Angas. 10. The Lena* dialect of the cave inscriptions from the second century B.C. onwards, based on No. 8, but approximating more and more to the next, No. II, until it merges altogether into it. 11. Standard High Indian, Sanskrit — elaborated, as to form and vocabulary, out of No. 4 ; but greatly enriched by words first taken from Nos. 5 to 7, and then brought back, as to form, into harmony with No. 4. For long the literary language only of the priestly schools, it was first used in inscriptions and coins from the second century A.D. onwards ; and from the fourth and fifth centuries onwards became the literary lijigua franca for all India. 12. The vernaculars of the India of the fifth cent- ury A.D. and onwards. 13. Prakrit, the literary form of these vernaculars, and especially of Maharashtri. These are derived, not from No. 11 (Sanskrit), but from No. 12, the later forms of the sister dialects to No. 6. The technical terms Sanskrit and Prakrit are used strictly, in India, as shown in Nos. 11 and 13. San- skrit is never used for No. 2 or No. 4. Prakrit is never used for No. 7 or No. 8. Sanskrit was, and is, * This is the name suggested by Professor Pischel, Grammatik der Prakritsprachen^ 1901, p. 5. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 155 written in India in various alphabets, a scribe in the north using that form of the Brahml alphabet cur- rent in the district in which he wrote, and a scribe in the south using the corresponding form of the Dra- vidian alphabet. The particular one of these many alphabets usually selected for use in Europe is an alphabet from Western India of the ninth century A.D. ; and it is, therefore, often called the Sanskrit alphabet. As appears from the foregoing list, the centre of linguistic predominance has naturally shifted, in India, with political power. At first it was in the Panjab ; then in Kosala ; then in Magadha ; and finally, when Sanskrit had become the lingua franca, it was in Western India that the most important ver- nacular was found. It is only in Ceylon that we have documents sufficient to follow the continuous development of a vernacular that has been able to hold its own against the depressing influence of the dead language used in the schools. And the relation there between the vernacular, the lan- guage of the inscriptions (based on the vernacular, but subject to the constant and increasing influence of a desire to show knowledge of the ** higher ** languages), the language used in poetry, Elu (the Prakrit of Ceylon), and Pali, which was there a dead language, used in the schools, is most in- structively parallel, throughout, to the history of language in India. Throughout the long history of Aryan speech Dravidian dialects were also spoken ; and in the north, I venture to think, to a much larger ex- 156 BUDDHIST INDIA tent and much later in time than is usually sup- posed. Our No. 2, Vedic, is largely subject to Dravidian influence, both in phonetics and in vo- cabulary. The Aryan vernaculars throughout, and all the literary forms of speech, — Pali, Sanskrit, and Prakrit, — are charged with it in a degree no less than that in which the descent and the blood-rela- tionships of the many peoples of India are charged with non-Aryan elements — and that is saying a great deal. The fact that south of the Godavari we find the reverse state of things — Dravidian dialects charged with Aryan elements — shows that the Aryan settle- ments there were late, and not very important in regard to numbers. And it took a long time, in spite of a fair sprinkling of brahmin colonists, for the brahmin influence, now so supreme, to reach its supremacy in those parts. The mass of the more wealthy classes, and the more cultured people, in the south, were Buddhists and Jain before they were Hindu in faith. As late as the fifth and sixth centuries we have Pali books written in Kaflcipura and Tafijur; and as Buddhism declined Jainism be- came predominant. It was only after the rise of brahmin influence in Northern India in the fourth and fifth centuries, and after it had become well established there, that it became the chief factor also in the south. But when once it had reached that stage, it developed so strongly as to react with great results on the north, where the final victory was actually won during the period from Kumarila to Sankara (700 to 830 A.D.), both of them born in the LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 1 57 south, and one of them, apparently, of half Dra- vidlan blood. The victory was won. But how far was it a vic- tory ? The brahmins had become the sole arbiters in law and social institutions. Their theory of castes had been admitted, and to their own castes was accorded an unquestioned supremacy. Their claim to the exclusive right to teach was practically acknowledged. Of those rajputs who had disputed their authority, the Buddhists and Jains were both reduced to feeble minorities, and the rest had be- come mostly subservient. All philosophy, except their own pantheistic theosophy, had been driven out of the field. But Vedic rights and Vedic di- vinities, the Vedic language and Vedic theology, had also gone under in the struggle. The gods of the people received now the homage of the people. Bloody sacrifices were still occasionally offered, but to new divinities ; and brahmins no longer presided over the ritual. Their literature had had to be re- cast to suit the new worship, to gain the favour and support of those who did not reverence and worship the Vedic gods. And all sense of history had been lost in the necessity of garbling the story of the past so as to make it tally with their own pretensions. It was when they had ceased to depend on their rights as priests of those sacrifices not much used by the people (who preferred the less costly cult of their local gods), when they had become the champions, the literary defenders, the poets, of the popular gods, that they succeeded in their aim. They had probably gained what most of them 158 BUDDHIST INDIA wanted most. And in deserting the faith of their forefathers to adopt other views it is by no means certain that they were not first really converted, that they gave up anything they themselves still wanted to keep. The most able of them had ceased philosophically to care for any such divinities as the Vedic ones, and it was a matter of indifference to them what gods the people followed. A small and decreasing minority continued to keep alive the flickering lamp of Vedic learning ; and to them the Indian peoples will one day look back with especial gratitude and esteem. This rapid sketch of the general history of lan- guage and literature in India is enough to show that there also, precisely as in Europe, a dominant factor in the story is the contest between the temporal and spiritual powers. Guelph and Ghibelin, priest and noble, rajput and brahmin, these are the contending forces. From India we had had hitherto only that version of the long war, of its causes and of its con- sequences, which has been preserved by the priestly faction. They make out that they were throughout the leading party. Perhaps so. But it is well to consider also the other side ; and not to forget the gravity of the error we should commit if we should happen, in reliance on the priestly books, to ante- date, by about a thousand years, the victory of the priests ; to suppose, in other words, that the con- dition of things was the same at the beginning of the struggle as it was at the end. It is difficult to avoid being misunderstood. So I would repeat that the priests were always there. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE I 59 were always militant, were always a power. Many of them were learned. A few of them, seldqm the learned ones, were wealthy. All of them, even those neither learned nor wealthy, had a distinct prestige. There was never wanting among them a minority dis- tinguished, and rightly distinguished, for earnestness or for intellectual power, or for both. This minority contributed largely to the influence of forward move- ments both in philosophy and in ethics. Certain members of it were famous as leaders, not only in the brahmin schools, but also among the Wanderers. Even among the Jains and Buddhists a minority of the most influential men were brahmins. But it is a question of degree. Their own later books per- sistently exaggerate, misstate, above all (that most successful method of suggestio falsi) omit the other side. They have thus given a completely dis- torted view of Indian society, and of the place, in it, of the priests. They were not the only learned, or the only intellectual men, any more than they were the only wealthy ones. The religion and the customs recorded in their books were not, at any period, the sole religion, or the only customs, of the many peoples of India. The intellectual movement before the rise of Buddhism was in large measure a lay movement, not a priestly one. During the sub- sequent centuries, down to the Christian era, and beyond it, the priests were left high and dry by the vigorous current of the national aims and hopes. Even later than that how different is the colouring of the picture drawn by the Chinese pilgrims from that of the priestly artists. And we shall continue i6o BUDDHIST INDIA to have but a blurred and confused idea of Indian history unless, and until, the priestly views are checked and supplemented throughout by a just and proportionate use of the other views now open to research. CHAPTER X LITERATURE II. THE PALI BOOKS IN the last chapter we have seen that in the sixth century B.C. there was in India a very considerable amount of literature of a special sort. Hampered as it was by the absence of written books, by the necessity of learning by heart, and of constantly repeating, the treatises in which it was contained, the extent of the literature is evidence of a consider- able degree both of intelligence and of earnestness in effort among the people of India in those days. A great deal of it, perhaps the larger portion of it, has absolutely perished. But a considerable part of the results of the literary activity of each of three different schools has survived. It is by a compari- son of three sets of documents, each of them looking at things from a different point of view, that we have to reconstruct the history of the time. Of these three the surviving books — if books they may be called which had never yet been written — composed and used by those of the brahmins who i6i 1 62 BUDDHIST INDIA earned their livelihood by the sacrifices, have been now, for the most part, edited and translated ; and a large part of the historical results to be won from them have been summarised and explained. But much remains to be done. The documents of the other two schools may be expected to throw fresh light on passages in the brahmin books now mis- understood. The unhappy system of taking these ancient records in the sense attributed to them by modern commentators with much local knowledge but no historical criticism, with great learning but also with considerable party bias, was very naturally adopted at first by European scholars who had ev- erything to learn. The most practical, indeed the only then possible, course was to avail oneself of the assistance of those commentaries, or of the living pandits whose knowledge was entirely based upon them. In the interpretation of the Vedic hymns this method, followed in Wilson's translation, has now been finally abandoned. But it still survives in many places in the interpretation of the documents nearest to the date of the rise of Buddhism. And we still find, for instance, in the most popular versions of the Upanishads, opinions that are really the outcome of centuries of philosophic or theosophic discussions, transplanted from the pages of Sankara in the ninth century A.D. into these ancient texts of the eighth or seventh century B.C. • This method of interpretation takes effect in two ways. A passage in the vague and naive style of those old thinkers (or, rather, poets) is made more exact and precise, is given what is, no doubt, a LITERATURE 1 63 clearer meaning, by putting into it the later ideas. And in the translation of single words, especially those of philosophic or ethical import, a connotation, which they had really acquired many centuries after- wards, is held applicable at the earlier date. In both these cases a better commentary could be drawn from the general views, and from the exact meaning of philosophic terms, preserved in documents much nearer in time to the Upanishads, though opposed to them on many essential points. As Professor Jacobi says * : ** The records of the Buddhists and Jainas about the philosophic ideas current at the time of the Buddha and the Mahavlra, meagre though they be [he is speaking of the incidental references to the ideas they did not accept], are of the greatest im- portance to the historian of that epoch.** Of these records the Pali ones (thanks, in great part, to the continuous efforts, during the past twenty years, of the Pali Text Society), are very nearly all now available. We can say not only what they do, but (which is often of even more import- ance) what they do not, contain. The Jain records are unfortunately as yet known only in fragments. It is the greatest desideratum for the history of this period that they should be made accessible in full. The philosophical and religious speculations con- tained in them may not have the originality, or intrinsic value, either of the Vedanta or of Bud- dhism. But they are none the less historically im- portant because they give evidence of a stage less ' Jaina Sutras, 2. xxvii. 164 BUDDHIST INDIA cultured, more animistic, that is to say, earlier. And incidentally they will undoubtedly be found, as the portions accessible already show, to contain a large number of important references to the ancient geo- graphy, the political divisions, the social and eco- nomic conditions of India at a period hitherto very imperfectly understood. It is difficult to appreciate the objections made to the authenticity and authority of these documents. The arguments advanced in 1884 t>y Professor Ja- cobi* seem quite incontrovertible, and indeed they have not been seriously disputed. The books pur- port to be substantially the ones put together in the fourth century B.C. when Bhadrabahu was head of the community. The Jains themselves, of all divis- ions or schools, acknowledge that there had been older books (the Purvas, the Former Ones), now lost. Had they been inventing the story this is not the way in which they would have put it. They would have claimed that the existing books were the origi- nal literature of their Order. The linguistic and epigraphic evidence so far available confirms in many respects both the general reliability of the traditions current among the Jains, and the accuracy of this particular detail. Of course the name given in this tradition to the older books cannot have been the original name. They were only ** former " as com- pared with the eleven Angas that are still preserved. And the existing books, if of the fourth century, can only be used with critical care as evidence of insti- tutions, or events, of the sixth century B.C. Still, ^ jfaina Sutras, i. xxxvii.-xlv. LITERATURE 1 65 even so, we have here important materials for Indian history, at present only very imperfectly utilised. It is really much the same with the existing records of the other school, of the men we now call Bud- dhists. They have as yet been only very imperfectly utilised, though they are better and more completely known than the last. This is partly, no doubt, be- cause we call them Buddhists, and imagine them, therefore, to belong to a separate class, quite distinct from other Indians of that epoch. The Buddhists were, as a matter of fact, characteristically and dis- tinctively Indian. They probably, at least during the fourth and third centuries B.C., formed the ma- jority of the people. And the movement of thought out of which all these schools arose, so far from being a negligible quantity, as the priestly books suggest, was one of the most dominant factors the historian of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries B.C. has to consider. As to the age of the Buddhist canonical books, the best evidence is the contents of the books them- selves — the sort of words they use, the style in which they are composed, the ideas they express. Objec- tion, it is true, has recently been raised against the use of such internal evidence. And the objection is valid if it be urged, not against the general principle of the use of such evidence, but against the wrong use of it. We find, for instance, that Phallus-worship is often mentioned, quite as a matter of course, in the Mahabharata, as if it had always been common everywhere throughout Northern India. In the 1 66 BUDDHIST INDIA Nikayas, though they mention all sorts of what the Buddhists regarded as foolish or superstitious forms of worship, this particular kind, Siva-worship under the form of the Linga, is not even once referred to. The Mahabharata mentions the Atharva Veda, and takes it as a matter of course, as if it were an idea generally current, that it was a Veda, the fourth Veda. The Nikayas constantly mention the three others, but never the Atharva. Both cases are in- teresting. But before drawing the conclusion that, therefore, the Nikayas, as we have them, are older than the existing text of the Mahabharata, we should want a very much larger number of such cases, all tending the same way, and also the certainty that there were no cases of an opposite tendency that could not otherwise be explained. On the other hand, suppose a MS. were discovered containing, in the same handwriting, copies of Bacon's Essays and of Hume's Essay, with nothing to show when, or by whom, they were written ; and that we knew nothing at all otherwise about the matter. Still we should know, with absolute certainty, which was relatively the older of the two ; and should be able to determine, within a quite short period, the actual date of each of the two works. The evidence would be irresistible because it would consist of a very large number of minute points of language, of style, and, above all, of ideas expressed, all tending in the same direction. This is the sort of internal evidence that we have before us in the Pali books. Any one who habitually reads Pali would know at once that the Nikayas are LITERATURE l6j older than the Dhamma Sangani ; that both are older than the Katha Vatthu ; that all three are older than the Milinda. And the Pali scholars most compet- ent to judge are quite unanimous on the point, and on the general position of the Pali literature in the history of literature in India. But this sort of evidence can appeal, of course, only to those familiar with the language and with the ideas. To those who are not, the following points may be suggestive : On the monurnents of the third century B.C. we find the names of donors — donors of different parts of the building — inscribed on those parts (pillars, rails, and bas-reliefs). When the names are common ones, certain epithets are added, to distinguish the donors from other persons bearing the same name. Such epithets are either local (as we might say, John of Winchester) or they specify an occupation (as we might say, John the carpenter, or John the clerk) or are otherwise distinctive. Among these epithets have been found the following: 1. Dhamma-kathika, — "Preacher of the System" (the Dhamma) — the '* System " being a technical term in the Buddhist schools to signify the philo- sophical and ethical doctrine as distinguished from the Vinaya, the Rules of the Order. 2. Petakin. — "One who had (that is, knew by heart) the Pitaka.** The Pitaka is the traditional statements of Buddhist doctrine as contained in the Sutta Pitaka. The word means basket, and as a technical term applied to a part of their literature: it is used exclusively by the Buddhists. 1 68 BUDDHIST INDIA 3. Suttantika, — *' A man who knows a Suttanta by heart.'* 4. Siittatitakinl. — "A woman who knows a Sut- tanta by heart." Suttanta is, again, a technical term used exclusively of certain portions of the Buddhist canonical books, more especially of the Dialogues. It means literally the ** end of the Suttas." In its technical sense it is the aim, object, outcome of them ; and is applied to the Dialogues as giving, in a more complete and elaborate form, the general result of those shorter Suttas on which they are based. The brahmins have an analogous term, Vedanta, applied, in post-Buddhistic writings, at first in the Svetasvatara and Mundaka Upanishads and often afterwards, to the Upanishads, as being the highest outcome of the Vedas. Previously to this the word is only found in its literal sense, " the end of the Veda," and the secondary sense is, therefore, prob- ably adapted from the corresponding (and earlier) Buddhist term. 5. Panca-nekdyika, — '* One who knows the Five Nikayas by heart." The five Nikayas, or ** Collec- tions," as a technical term used of literary works, is applied to the canonical Buddhist texts, and to them only. Of the five, the first two contain the Suttan- tas, the next two are made up of Suttas arranged in two different ways, and the fifth is a supplementary collection, mostly of later works/ As the word Nikaya also means a school, or sect, it is somewhat ambiguous, and was gradually replaced by the word Agama, continually used in the later Sanskrit litera- ^ See American Lectures^ pp. 60-62. LI TERA TURE 1 69 ture. The same remark holds good of the technical term Suttanta. That also was gradually replaced by the shorter and easier phrase Sutta. The expressions here explained are used on Bud- dhist monuments and refer to Buddhist books. They are conclusive proof that some time before the date of the inscriptions (that is, roughly speaking, before the time of Asoka), there was a Buddhist literature in North India, where the inscriptions are found. And further, that that literature then had divisions known by the technical names of Pitaka, Nikaya, and Suttanta, and that the number of Nikayas then in existence was five. But this is not all. Asoka, in his Bhabra Edict, addressed to the Buddhist Order (the Sangha), re- commends to the Brethren and Sisters of the Order, and to the lay disciples of either sex, frequently to hear (that is to learn by heart), and to meditate upon, certain selected passages. And of these he, most fortunately, gives the names. They are as follows : Ariya-vasdni (now found in the Digha Nikaya, in the portion called the Sangiti Suttanta). Andgata-bhaydni (now found in the Anguttara Ni- kaya, vol. iii. pp. 105-108). Muni Gdthd (now found in the Sutta Nipata, verses 206-220). Moneyya Sutta (now found in the Iti-vuttaka, p. 6"], and also in the Anguttara Nikaya, vol. i. p. 272). Upatissa Pasina, — " The question put by Upa- tissa " (more commonly known as Sariputta). There 1 70 B UDDHIS T INDIA are so many such questions in the books that opinions differ as to which of them is the one most probably referred to. There is a word at the commencement of this Hst which may either be an adjective appHed to the whole list, or the name of another passage. How- ever this may be, this Edict of Asoka's gives the actual titles of some of the shorter passages included, in his time, in those books, the larger divisions of which are mentioned in the inscriptions just referred to. Now the existing literature, divided into the same larger divisions, contains also the shorter passages. To suppose that it was composed in Ceylon is to suppose that, by an Extraordinary series of chances, the Ceylon writers happened to hit upon just the identical technical terms, two of them then almost fallen out of use, that had been used in these old inscriptions (of which they knew nothing) for the names they gave to the larger divisions of the litera- ture they made. And we must further suppose that, by another extraordinary series of chances, they happened to include in those divisions a number of shorter passages, each of them corresponding exactly to those mentioned by name, long before their time, in Asoka's Edict, of which also they knew nothing. To adopt such a theory as the most probable ex- planation of the facts would be nothing less than absurd. How is it, then, will be the immediate question, that this theory in almost, if not in all, the current books on Buddhism or on Indian history is taken LITERATURE I7I for granted ; that the Pali canonical literature is always called '* the Southern Recension" or "the Singhalese Canon " ? The expression is ambiguous, and apt to be mis- leading. But though it is doubtless sometimes used in such a way as to suggest that these books were composed in Ceylon, this is not its real meaning, and it is never so used by careful writers. It simply means that of the few works known to the European scholars who first studied Buddhism, the MSS. of some came from Ceylon ; and that such works were therefore called southern, to distinguish them from the others, known from MSS. which had come from Nepal, and therefore called northern. It is very possible that Burnouf, to whom the popularity of this mode of speech is mainly due, leaned at first to the opinion that the canonical works had been actually written in Ceylon. He always spoke of them in his first work as *' the Pali books of Ceylon," not as ** the Pali books of India." But that phrase is also ambiguous. Very conscious how meagre, and for the most part how late, were the works he used, he was much too careful a scholar to express, at first, any clear opinion at all. At the end of his long labours, however, he certainly was quite clearly of the contrary opinion. For at the very close of his magnificent work, at p. 862 of the ** Lotus," he suggests that the Pali works " may have been popular among inferior castes, and the great mass of the people, in Magadha and Audh^ while the Buddhist Sanskrit works were in use among the brahmins." He at that time regarded them all, 172 BUDDHIST INDIA herefore, as North Indian works. And considering that he knew nothing of the inscriptions, and had only the internal evidence to guide him, this sugges- tion, though not exactly right, reflects the greatest credit on his literary judgment. Had he started with this view, we should probably have been saved the use of the ambiguous phrases, so suggestive of these works being written in Ceylon, which have had so great an influence in retarding the acceptance of the view that that great pioneer in Buddhist studies came at last, himself, to hold. Not only ought such phrases to be dropt out of any works, on these subjects, claiming to be schol- arly ; but even the phrases ** northern " and " south- ern ** should be avoided. This seems a pity, for they look so convenient. But the convenience is delusive if they convey a wrong impression. And I venture to assert that most people draw the con- clusion that we have two distinct Buddhisms to deal with, one made in Nepal, the other made in Ceylon. Every one now agrees that this is all wrong. What we have is not two, but very many different sorts of Buddhism ; for almost every book gives us a different doctrine. The more authoritative and ancient books, whether written in Pali or in Buddhist Sanskrit, are none of them either northern or southern. They all, with- out any exception, — if we disregard the absurdly unimportant detail of the place from which our modern copies of them are derived, — claim to belong, and do actually belong, to the Middle Country, as the Indians call it, that is, to the Ganges Valley. LITERATURE 1 73 Each differs from the next (in point of date) by small gradations in doctrine. There are such differ- ences even within the Nikayas themselves. Many Sanskrit books, though they differ, by containing certain details of later opinion, from the oldest Pali ones, still, on the whole, have to be classed with the Pali rather than with the other Sanskrit works. The Sanskrit Maha Vastu, for instance (** The Sublime Story") is much nearer to the Pali Cariya Pitaka("The Tradition as to Conduct *') than it is to such Sanskrit books as the ** Lotus of the Good Law.** All three alike had their origin in the Middle Country — where exactly, in that country, we cannot, with respect to any one of the three, determine. The only two ancient works we can specify as distinctly northern in origin, the Milinda and the Gosinga Anthology, are neither of them written in Sanskrit, and are identical in doctrine with what is called southern Buddhism. Is it not rather absurd to have to ticket as southern just the very two books we know to be the most northern in origin ? There is not now, and never has been, any unity either of opinion or of language in what is called northern, or in what is called southern Buddhism. There is a distinct disadvantage in continually sug- gesting a unity which has no existence in fact. In a word, the current division of Buddhist literature into northern and southern is entirely unscientific, and misleading. It contains a suggestio falsi in at least two important respects. It cuts across the only division that has a scientific basis, the division, not according to the locality whence we get our 174 BUDDHIST INDIA modern copies, but according to time, according to date of origin. Why then continue the use of an ambiguous phraseology which may be (and which we know, from experience, will be) misunderstood? The only way to avoid endless confusion is to drop the use of it altogether. And I take this opportu- nity of acknowledging my error in having used it so long myself. In my Buddhism, from the fifteenth edition onwards the mistake has been corrected. So slight is the change that no one is likely to have noticed it. The word " northern ** has been re- placed by ** Tibetan,'* ** Japanese," ** Mahayanist," etc., according to the context. There has been no loss in clearness, or in conciseness, and much gain in precision. We must take our Pali canonical books then to be North Indian, not Singhalese in origin ; and the question as to whether they have suffered from their sometime sojourn under the palm groves of the mountain vihdras in the south must be decided by a critical study of them in their present condition. Toward such a study there are some points that can already be made. The books make no mention of Asoka. Had they undergone any serious re-editing after the reign of the great Buddhist Emperor (of whom the Buddhist writers, whether rightly or wrongly, were so proud), is it probable that he would have been so completely ignored 1 The books never mention any person, or any place, in Ceylon ; or even in South India. They tell us a goodly number of anecdotes, usually as intro- LITERATURE 1/5 ductions to, or in illustration of, some ethical point. It would have been so easy to bring in a passing reference to some Ceylon worthy — in the same way as the brahmin Buddhaghosa does so often, in his Attha SalinI, which was revised in Ceylon.^ If the Pitaka books had been -tampered with, would not opportunity have been taken to yield to this very natural impulse ? We know a great deal now of developed or cor- rupted doctrine current in Ceylon, of new technical terms invented, of new meanings put into the older phrases. Not one single instance has yet been found of any such later idea, any such later form of lan- guage, any such later technical term, in any one of the canonical books. The philosophic ideas of the ancient Buddhism, and the psychological ideas on which they were based, were often curtly, naively, confusedly ex- pressed. In Ceylon they had been much worked up, polished, elucidated, systematised. From several works now accessible we know fairly well the tone and manner of these later — and, as they must have seemed to Ceylon scholars, clearer, fuller — state- ments of the old ideas. In no single instance yet discovered has this later tone and manner found its way into the canonical books. It would seem, then, that any change that may have been made in these North Indian books after they had been brought into Ceylon must have been insignificant. It w^ould be a great advantage if we should be able to find even one or two instances of ' See Mrs. Rhys Davids's Buddhist Psychology^ p. xxi. 176 BUDDHIST INDIA such changes. We should then be able to say what sort and degree of alteration the Ceylon scholars felt justified in making. But it is clear that they regarded the canon as closed. While the books were in North India, on the other hand, and the canon was not considered closed, there is evidence of a very different tone. One whole book, the Katha Vatthu, was added as late as the time of Asoka ; and perhaps the Parivara, a mere string of examination questions, is not much older. One story in the Peta Vatthu * is about a king Pingalaka, said in the commentary to have reigned over Surat two hundred years after the Buddha's time ; and another' refers to an event fifty-six years after the Buddha's death. The latter is certainly in its right place in this odd collection of legends. The former may (as the commentator thinks) have been added at Asoka^s Council. Even if it were, that would be proof that they then thought no harm of adding to the legendary matter in their texts. And the whole of this little book of verses, together with the Vimana Vatthu (really only the other half of one and the same work), is certainly very late in tone as compared with the Nikayas. The same must be said of two other short collec- tions of ballads. One is the Buddha Vamsa, con- taining a separate poem on each of twenty-five Buddhas, supposed to have followed one another in succession. The other is the Cariya Pitaka, contain- ing thirty-four short Jataka stories turned into verse. Both of these must also be late. F'or in the Nikayas ^ IV. 3. . * V. 2. LITERATURE Ijy only seven Buddhas are known ; and Jatakas, in the technical sense, are not yet thought of. This par- ticular set of Jatakas is also arranged on the basis of the PdrdmitdSj a doctrine that plays no part in the older books. The Ten Perfections {Pdrdinita) are qualities a Buddha is supposed to be obliged to have acquired in the countless series of his previous rebirths as a Bodhisatva. But this is a later notion, not found in the Nikayas. It gradually grew up as the Bodhisatva idea began to appeal more to the Indian mind. And it is interesting to find already, in these latest of the canonical books, the germs of what after- wards developed into the later Mahayana doctrine, to which the decnne^bf Buddhism, in the opinion of Professor Bhandarkar, was eventually so greatly due.* This question of the history of the Jataka stories will be considered in greater detail in our next chap- ter. What has been here said (and other similar evidence will, no doubt, be hereafter discovered) is amply sufficient to show that some parts of the Canon are later than others; and that the books as we have them contain internal evidence from which conclu- sions may fairly be drawn as to their comparative age. Such conclusions, of course, are not always so plain as is the case in the four instances — the Peta and Vimana Vatthus, the Buddha Vamsa, and the Cariya Pitaka — just considered. For example, let us take the case of the Sutta Nipata. This also is a short collection of poems. It con- tains fifty-four lyrics, each of them very short, ar- * y, R, A. S , Bombay Branch, 1900, p. 395. 178 BUDDHIST INDIA ranged in four Cantos; and then sixteen others, as a fifth Canto, strung together by a framework of story. The last Canto (called the Parayana) had evidently once existed as a separate poem. It is so treated by the commentator, who calls it a Suttanta; and it is in fact about as long as one of those Sut- tantas in the Dlgha Nikaya which consist of verses strung together by a framework of story in prose. It is six times quoted or referred to by name, as a separate poem, in the Nikayas.* The preceding Canto, the fourth, is called ** The Eights," most of the lyrics in it containing eight stanzas apiece. This Canto is also referred to by name as a separate work, in other parts of the Canon.^ And it must in very earlier times have been already closely associated in thought with the fifth Canto, for the two together are the subject of a curious old com- mentary, the only work of the kind included in the Nikayas. That this commentary, the Niddesa, takes no notice of the other three Cantos would seem to show that, when it was composed, the whole of the five Cantos had not yet been brought together into a single book. Of the thirty-eight poems in the earlier three Cantos no less than six are found also in other parts of the Canon.' They had existed as separate hymns, popular in the community, before they were incor- ^ Samyutta, 2. 49; Anguttara, i. 144 ; 2. 45 ; 3. 399 ; 4. 63. ^ Samyutta, 3. 12 ; Vinaya, i. T96 ; Udana, 5. 6. ^ Poem No. 4=8. i. 172 ; No. 8 = Kh. P. No. 9 ; No. i3r=Kh. P. No. 5 ; No. I5=jat. 3. 196; No. i6=rKh. P. No. 6; No. 33 = M. No. 92. LITERATURE I/Q porated into the several collections in which they are now found. When w^e find also that numerous iso- lated verses in these thirty-eight poems occur else- where in very ancient documents, the most probable explanation is that these were current as proverbs or as favourite sayings (either in the community, or perhaps among the people at large) before they were independently incorporated in the different poems in which they are now found. We find, then, that single verses, single poems, and single Cantos, had all been in existence before the work assumed its present shape. This is very sug- gestive as to the manner of growth not only of this book, but of all the Indian literature of this period. It grew up in the schools; and was the result rather of communistic than of individual effort. No one dreamed of claiming the authorship of a volume. In the whole of the Buddhist canonical works one only, and that the very latest, has a personal name attached to it, the name of a leading member of the Order said to have lived in the time of Asoka. During the previous three centuries authorship is attributed not to treatises, or even poems, but only to verses ; and to verses in two only out of the many collections of verses that have been preserved. Out of twenty- nine books in the Canon no less than twenty-six have no author at all, apart from the community. This is decisive as to popular feeling on the point. And even in the priestly schools the then prevalent custom was not greatly different. Their works also were not produced by individuals, but grew up in the various schools of the priestly community. And •^' l8o BUDDHIST INDIA no priestly work ascribed to an individual author can be dated much before the time of Asoka. And yet another point, which will turn out, unless I am much mistaken, to be of striking importance for the history of Indian literature, arises in connec- tion with the Sutta Nipata. The fifth Canto re- garded as a single poem, and about one-third of all the other poems in the collection, are of the nature of ballads. They describe some short incident, the speeches being always in verse, but the story itself usually in prose (though in a few instances this also is in verse). They resemble in this respect a very large number of Suttas found in other portions of the Canon. And even a few of the Suttantas — such as the *' Riddles of Sakka,*' for instance (cer- tainly one of our oldest documents, for it is quoted by name in the Sarnyutta ') — are characteristic specimens of this kind of composition. It is, in fact, next to the prose Sutta, the most popular style for literary effort during this period. This manner of expressing one's ideas is now quite unknown. But it has been known throughout the world as the forerunner of the epic. Professor Windisch has subjected those of these ballads that are based on the temptation legends to an exhaust- ive study in his masterly monograph, Mara und Buddha, He says, apropos of the two ballads on this subject in the Sutta Nipata : " These two Suttas might have been regarded as a frag- ment of an epic had we otherwise found any traces of an ancient Buddha Epic. But that is not to be thought ^ Sarnyutta, iii. 13. LITERATURE l8l of. Far rather are these Suttas to be looked upon as the early beginnings out of which, in certain circumstances, a Buddha Epic could eventually arise. " We can mark with special ease how an Epic arises, and of what process an Epic, as a particular form of literature, is the consummation. Some years ago I drew attention to the historical points we have here to take into consideration in a lecture to the Congress of philo- logians at Gera on the Irish legends and the question of Ossian.' There I laid the chief stress on the old-Irish legends, but compared also the legends in ancient India. The latter subject was independently dealt with by Oldenberg in his well-known articles on the Akhyana hymns where the subject referred to (the relations of the Epic to previous literary forms) is dealt with in detail and thoroughly explained.^ Professor Geldner then con- sidered the same subject, partly from new points of view, inasmuch as he followed them out also in the case of the Avesta, in his article in the *Vedische Studien.' ' Now we find also in the Buddhist litera- ture, as Oldenberg was the first to point out, this epic narrative in mixed prose and verse. . . . The persons who act, the place where they act, and the action itself form the constituent elements of the nar- rative. But the latter only springs into life when the persons acting are also represented as speaking. Now the speeches are frequently what it is least possible to keep historically accurate, where, therefore, the fancy of the narrator and the art of the poet come most into play. Conversation (^speech and rejoinder^ is the first part of the narrative to be put into verse^ and that especially at the crucial points of the story. Here the beginnings of * Revue Celtique, 5. 70. « Z. D. M. G., vols. 37 and 39. 3 i^ 284, foil. 1 82 BUDDHIST INDIA epic and drama lie close together. That the more an- cient epics in all countries contain many speeches and counter speeches can be seen too from the Iliad. It is only in the later epic form that this dramatic ele- ment is kept in the background. So in the old-Greek drama also we have an epic element in the speeches of the messengers. But a poem becomes completely epical only when to the speeches in verse is added also the frame- work of the story in metrical form. And the last stage is that the speeches grow shorter, or fall out, and only events are given in verse." * Both the general accuracy and the great import- ance of this far-reaching generalisation will be ad- mitted by all. Now we have in the Nikayas all sorts of the earliest forms of the evolution referred to. We find (in the Thera-and Therl-Gatha, for instance) only the speeches in verse in the canonical books, and the framework of prose, without which they are often unintelligible, handed on, by tradition, in the Commentary. We find (as in the Suttantas in the second volume of the Dlgha, or in the Udana) speeches in verse, and framework in prose, both pre- served in the canonical book. And we find ballads (such as the two Suttas discussed by Professor Windisch) in which speeches and framework are both preserved in verse. But it is not till long after- wards, in the time of Kanishka, that we have a fully developed Buddha Epic. Are we then to suppose that the Indians had a mental constitution different from that of the other Aryan tribes (after all, their relatives in a certain * Windisch, Mara und Buddha^ pp. 222, foil. LITERATURE 183 degree) throughout the world ? Or are we to suppose that the Buddhist community formed a sec- tion so completely cut off from the rest of the peo- ple that they were uninfluenced by the existence, in their immediate surroundings, of the great Indian Epics. The Ramayana, as Professor Jacobi has shown, was composed in Kosala, on the basis of bal- lads popularly recited by rhapsodists throughout that district. But the very centre of the literary activity of the Buddhists was precisely Kosala. After the Ramayana had become known there as a perfect epic, with the distinctive marks of the epic style, would such of the people in Kosala as had embraced the new doctrine have continued to use only the ancient method of composition ? This would be quite without parallel. But we have to choose between this supposition (not a probable one) and the alternative proposition — that is to say, that whatever the date to be assigned to this ballad liter- ature, in mixed prose and verse, preserved in the Nikayas, the date of the Maha-bharata and of the Ramayana, as Epics, must be later. We may be pretty sure that if the Epics had existed at the period when this Buddhist literature was composed, they would have been referred to in it. But they are not. On the other hand, the ballads in prose and verse, such as those sung by the rhapsodists (the stage out of which the epics were evolved), are referred to under their technical name of akkhdnas (Sanskrit dkhydnas) in one of the oldest documents.^ Mention is there made of various ^Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 8. 1 84 BUDDHIST INDIA sorts of public spectacles, and one of these is the reciting of such Akhyanas. And when the com- mentator in the early part of the fifth century A.D. explains this as the reciting of the Bharata, the Ramayana, and so on, that is, as exegesis, perfectly right. This was the sort of thing referred to. But his remark is evidence of the existence of the perfect Epics, only at his own time, not at the time of the old text he is explaining. This may seem, I am afraid, to have been a digression. But it is really very much to the pur- pose, when discussing Indian literature in this period, to bring out the importance of the wide prevalence of the versifying faculty, and to discuss the stage to which it had reached, the style of composition in which it was mostly used. We hear of four kinds of poets : — the poet of imagination (who makes original verses) : the poet of tradition (the repeater of current verses) ; the poet of real life (or perhaps of worldly as distinct from religious topics) ; and the improvis- ators^ We have several instances in the books of such impromptu verses. Though they were prob- ably not quite so impromptu as they are described to be, we need not doubt the fact that the art was then a recognised form of ability. And when a man is charged with being ** drunk with poesy " ' {kdvey- yamatto) the rapt and far-away look of the poet in the moment of inspiration cannot have been alto- gether unfamiliar. It is interesting to notice that, just as we have evidence at this period of the first steps having been ^ Anguttara, 2. 230; compare Sum. 95. ^ Samyutta, i. no. LITERATURE 1 85 taken towards a future Epic, so we have evidence of the first steps towards a future drama — the pro- duction before a tribal concourse on fixed feast days of shows with scenery, music, and dancing. There is ample evidence in the Buddhist and Jain records, and in Asoka inscriptions, of the existence of these samajjaSy as they were called, as a regular institution.* That they are not mentioned in the priestly books need inspire no doubt upon the point. This is only another instance of the priestly habit of persistently ignoring what they did not like. We see from the Sigalovada Suttanta ^ that recitations, or the telling of stories, in mixed prose and verse {akkkdna), also took place at these meetings. But this seems, from the evidence at present attainable, to have been distinct ; and the interpretation of the word I have rendered ** scenery ** is open to doubt. We cannot talk, therefore, as yet, of drama. When we see, however, that these meetings took place at sacred places, on the hilltops, and that high officials were in- vited and had special seats provided for them, we find ourselves in presence, not of private undertakings, but of such religious and communal ceremonies as those to which the beginnings of drama have else- where also been traced back. It is true that the kind of religion which we have here to consider is not the religion of the brahmins. The general pro- hibition which forbade a brahmin to see or hear * See the passages quoted in Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 9. 10, and Jacobi's Jaina Sutras, 2. 303. ^ In Grimblot's Sept Suttas Palis^ p. 300, where the reading must be corrected accordingly. l86 BUDDHIST INDIA dancing or music * must have included such perform- ances. But it was at that time none the less on that account, a very vital and popular part of the national faith.' I have dealt in this chapter, not with the contents, which I have described elsewhere,' but only with the outward form and style of the literature. It shows a curious contrast between the value of the ideas to be expressed and the childlike incapacity to express them well. We have here, as to style, only the untrained adolescence of the Indian mind. But what vigour it has ! The absence of writing materials seems naturally to have affected less the short poems than the style of the prose, and there is much rough and rugged beauty both in the ballads and in the lyrics. Now the style, and much of the thought, is not Buddhist but Indian ; and is in some respects the only evidence we possess of the literary ability, at that time, of the Indian peoples. If only we had still some of the ballads out of which the Epics were subsequently formed, they would, I am convinced, show equal limitations, but also equal power. In after times we have evidence of more successful study of the arts and methods of rhetoric and poetry. But never do we find the same virility, the same curious compound of humour and irony and love of * See, for instance, the Paraskara Grhya Sutra, 2. 7. 3. "^ The oldest dramas mentioned by name (second century B.C.) are mystery plays based on episodes in the life of Krishna. From this time onward there is more frequent mention of actors. But the earliest dramas are all lost. The oldest extant ones are of the sixth or seventh century a.d. ' American Lectures, chapter ii. LITERA TURE 187 nature on the one hand, with a deadly earnestness, and really on the whole a surprisingly able grasp of the deepest problems of life, on the other. As we shall see presently in the case of the philosophy, so also is it true of the literature that it is in this period that India came nearest to having a Golden Age. And the learned, ornate poetry of later times is to the literature of this period what the systemisations and learned commentaries of Buddhaghosa and Sankara are to the daring speculations and vivid life of the early Upanishads and of the Four Nikayas. 1 88 BUDDHIST INDIA APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF BUDDHIST LITERATURE FROM THE Buddha's time to the time of asoka 1. The simple statements of Buddhist doctrine now found, in identical words, in paragraphs or verses recurring in all the books. 2. Episodes found, in identical words, in two or more of the existing books. 3. The Silas, the Parayana, the Octades, the Pati- niokkha. 4. The Digha, Majjhima, Anguttara, and Samyutta Nikayas. 5. The Sutta Nipata, the Thera- and Therl-Gathas, the Udanas, and the Khuddaka Patha. 6. The Sutta Vibhanga and the Khandakas. 7. The Jatakas and the Dhammapadas. 8. The Niddesa, the Itivuttakas, and the Patisam- bhida. 9. The Peta- and Vimana-Vatthus, the Apadanas, the Cariya Pitaka, and the Buddha Vamsa. 10. The Abhidhamma books ; the last of which is the Katha Vatthu, and the earliest probably the Puggala Paiinatti. The above table represents the probable order in which the extant Buddhist documents of this period were composed. They were not yet written, and a great deal has no doubt been lost. CHAPTER XI THE JATAKA BOOK* THE Jataka book, which we have now had before us for some years, in full, in the admirable edition of the Pali text by Professor Fausboll, is now also approaching its completion in the English translation published at Cambridge under the super- vision of Professor Cowell. It is so full of informa- tion on the daily habits and customs and beliefs of the people of India, and on every variety of the numerous questions that arise as to their economic and social conditions, that it is of the utmost im- portance to be able to determine the period to which the evidence found in this book is applicable. The problem is somewhat complicated. But if only the right distinctions be drawn, the solution of it seems to me substantially sure, and really perfectly simple. That we should have to draw distinctions between different parts of the same book is nothing sur- ^ The following is an enlarged restatement of views first put for- ward in the introduction (written in August, 1878) to my Buddhist Birth Stories 189 190 BUDDHIST INDIA prising. As Professor Deussen has said of the early Upanishads, and as Professor Winternitz has said of the Maha-Bharata, so also may be said of the Nikayas and of the Vinaya (and even of some portions of the Abhidhamma), that ** we must judge each separate piece by itself.'* And this is really only the very natural and necessary result of what has been pointed out above/ that the books grew up gradually, that they were not books in our modern sense, and that they had no single authors. The distinctions we have to draw will best be shown by an example. The following is an abstract of a typical Jataka. THE BANYAN-DEER BIRTH STORY.' * ^^ Follow rather the Banyan Deer'* This the Mas- ter told when at Jetavana about the mother of Kumara Kassapa,' and so on. Then follows the story of this lady, how, after being wrongly found guilty of immoral conduct, she had been declared innocent through the intervention of the Buddha. Then it is said that the brethren talking this matter over at eventide, the Buddha came there, and learning the subject of their dis- course said : *' Not now only has the Tathagata proved a support and protection to these two [the lady and her son]; formerly also he was the same.** Then, on request, he revealed that matter, concealed by change of birth. " Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reign- ' Above, p. 179. * No. 12. THE JATAKA BOOK 19I ing in Benares, the Bodhisatta was reborn as a deer, a king of the deer, by name the Banyan Deer," and so on. This is the Jataka proper. It tells how there were two herd of deer shut in in the king's park. The king or his cook went daily to hunt for deer for venison. For each one killed many were wounded or harassed by the chase. So the golden coloured Banyan Deer, king of one of the herds, went to the king of the other herd, the Branch Deer, and per- suaded him to a compact that lots should be cast, and that, every day, the one deer on whom the lot fell should go voluntarily to the cook's place of exe- cution, and lay his head upon the block. And this was done. And so by the daily death of one the rest were saved from torture and distress. Now one day the lot fell upon a pregnant doe in Branch Deer's herd. She applied to the king of that herd to order that the lot, " which was not meant to fall on two at once," should pass her by. But he harshly bade her begone to the block. Then she went to King Banyan Deer and told her piteous tale. He said he would see to it, and he went him- self and laid his head on the block. Now the king had decreed immunity to the two kings of the respective herds. When the cook saw King Banyan Deer lying there with his head on the block, he went hastily and told the king (the king of the men). The latter mounted his chariot, and with a great retinue went to the spot, and said : ** My friend, the king of the deer, did I not grant your life? Why are you here?" Then the king of 192 BUDDHIST INDIA the deer told him all. And the man-king was greatly touched, and said : *' Rise up ! I grant you your lives, both to you and to her ! ** Then the rejoinder came : ** But though two be thus safe, what shall the rest of the herds do, O king of men ?** So they also obtained security. And when the Banyan Deer had similarly procured protection for all the various sorts of living things, the king of the deer exhorted the king of men to justice and mercy, preaching the truth to him *' with the grace of a Buddha.'* And the doe gave birth to a son, beautiful as buds of flowers, and he went playing with the Branch Deers herd. Then his mother exhorted him in a verse : ** Follow rather the Banyan, dear; Cultivate not the Branch! Death, with the Banyan, were better far, Than, with the Branch, long life." ^ And the Banyan Deer made a compact with the men that wherever leaves were tied round a field the deer should not trespass, and he made all the deer keep to the bargain. From that time, they say, the sign of the tying of leaves was seen in the fields.' This is the end of the Jataka proper, the ** Story of the Past.*' Then the Teacher identified the characters in the story as being himself and his contemporaries in a * I have tried to imitate the form of riddle in which the verse ap- pears in Pali. 2 Very probably the origin of the fable is to be found in a popular explanation of this curious old custom. THE JATAKA BOOK 193 former birth. " He who was then the Branch is now Devadatta, his herd the members of the Order who Fig. 35. — THE BANYAN DEER JATAKA STORY. [Three episodes on one bas-relief.] followed Devadatta in his schism, the doe is now Kumara Kassapa*s mother, the deer she gave birth to is now her son Kumara Kassapa, the king of the 194 BUDDHIST INDIA men is now Ananda, but Banyan, the king of the deer, was I myself." The bas-relief here reproduced from the Bharhut* Tope illustrates, on one picture, several scenes from this Jataka. In this story we have first the outer framework, constituted by the introductory episode and the concluding identification. Encased in this we have the Jataka proper, the *' Story of the past,*' as it is called in Pali. And in this again we have what is, in the existing canonical Jataka book, the kernel of the whole, the verse. Each oftJiese has a separate history. The oldest form in which we find any Jataka is, as might be naturally expected, the simple fable or parable itself, without the outer framework at all, and without the verse. Thus in one of the Nikayas" we have an exhortation to maintain a constant presence of mind, for that is ** the proper sphere'* of a religieux. Should he do otherwise, should he allow worldly things to agitate his mind, then will he fall — as the field quail, when he left his custom- ary and ancestral haunts, fell into the power of the hawk. And the fable is told as an introduction to the exhortation. It has, as yet, no framework. And it contains no verse.' It has not yet, therefore, be- come a Jataka. ^ Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut^ PI. xxv., Fig. i. " Samyutta, vol. 5, p. 146, of the M. Feer's edition for the Pali Text Society. ^ M. Feer, indeed, prints two lines as if they were verse. But this is a mistake. The lines so printed are not verse. THE JA TAKA BOOK 195 But one of the Jatakas is precisely this very fable, in identical words for the most part. It is decked out with a framework of introductory story and con- cluding identification, just as in the example just given. And two verses are added, one in the fable itself, and one in the framework. And there can be no question as to which is the older document; for the Jataka quotes as its source, and by name and chapter, the very passage in the Sarnyutta in which the fable originally occurs.' This is not an isolated case. Of the Jatakas in the present collection I have discovered also the follow- ing in older portions of the canonical books, and no doubt others can still be traced. 2. Jataka No. i. Apannaka is based on DTgha 2. 342 3. 9. Makha-deva t ( " Majjhima 2. 75 4. ' 10. Sukha-vihari t( ** Vinaya 2. 183 5. * 37. Tittira tt '' Vinaya 2. 161 6. ' 91. Litta t( '' Digha 2. 348 7. * 95. Maha-sudassana ti '' Digha" 2. 169 8. ' 203. Khandha-vatta t ( ** Vinaya 3. 1095 9. ' 253. Mani-kantha it *' Vinaya 3. 145 0. ' 405- Baka-brahma (( ( Majjhima ( Sarnyutta I. 328 1. 142 The heroes of two of these stories, Makha Deva and Maha-sudassana, are already in these older docu- ments identified at the end of the stories with the Buddha in a previous birth. In the Maha-sudassana, in the Litta, and in the second of the two older ver- sions of the Baka story, the verses are given. In all the rest both identification and verses are still, as yet, wanting. ^Jataka, vol. ii. p. 58. 196 BUDDHIST INDIA The reverse case is about as frequent ; that is to say, stories are told in the older documents, and the hero is expressly identified with the Buddha in a pre- vious birth, and nevertheless these stories are not included in our Jataka collection.' Such stories even before the Jataka book grew up were called Jatakas. There is a very ancient division found al- ready in the Nikayas, of Buddhist literature into nine classes." One of these is " Jatakam," that is to say, Jatakas. And this must refer to such episodes in previously existing books. It cannot refer to the Jataka book now included in the Canon, for that was not yet in existence. And it is important to notice that in no one of these instances of the earliest compositions that were called Jatakas is the Buddha identified in his previous birth with an animal. He is identified only with famous sages and teachers of olden time. This was the first idea to be attached to the word Jataka. What we find in the canonical book is a later development of it. Such are the oldest forms, in the Buddhist litera- ture, of the Jatakas. And we learn from them two facts, both of importance. In the first place these oldest for^ns have^ for the most part, no framework and no verse. They are fables, parables, legends, entirely (with two exceptions) in prose. Secondly, our existing Jataka book is only a partial ^So for instance Ghatikara (M. 2. 53); Maha-govinda (D. 2. 220); Pacetana's wheelwright (A. i. in); and Maha-vijaya's priest (D. I. 143). The story of Maha Govinda occurs, as a Jataka, in the Cariya Pitaka. '^ Majjhima, &. 133 ; Anguttara, 2. 7, 103, 108,— P. P., 43- 178 i Vinaya, 38. The phrase Navangam Buddha-vacanam is later. THE JATAKA BOOK 1 97 record. It does not contain all the Jatakas that were current, in the earliest period of their literature, among the Buddhist community. So much is certain. But I venture to go farther and to suggest that the character of these ten earlier Jatakas, in their pre-Jataka shape, enables us to trace their history back beyond the Buddhist litera- ture altogether. None of them are specially Bud- dhist. They are modified, perhaps, more or less to suit Buddhist ethics. But even the Maha-sudassana, which is the most so, is in the main simply an ancient Indian legend of sun worship. And the rest are pre- Buddhistic Indian folklore. There is nothing pecul- iarly B.uddhist about them. Even the ethics they inculcate are Indian. What is Buddhist about them, in this their oldest shape, is only the selection made. There was, of course, much other folklore, bound up with superstition. This is left out. And the ethic is, of course, of a very simple kind. It is milk for babes. This comes out clearly in the legend of the Great King of Glory — the Maha-sudassana. In its later Jataka form * it lays stress on the impermanence' of all earthly things, on the old lesson of the vanity of the world. In its older form, as a Suttanta,!! lays stress also on the Ecstasies (the y/idnas), which are perhaps pre-Buddhistic, and on the Sublime Con- ditions (the Braluna-Vihdras)^ which are certainly distinctively Buddhistic (though a similar idea occurs in the later Yoga Sutra, i. 33). These are much deeper, and more difficult, matters. * It is translated both from the older and the later form in my Buddhist Suttas^ pp. 238, foil. 198 BUDDHIST INDIA So much for the earliest forms in which we find the Jatakas. The next evidence in point of date is that of the bas-rehefs on the Bharhut and Sanchi Stupas — those invaluable records of ancient Indian archaeology of which so much use has been made in this volume. Among the carvings on the railings round these stupas are a number of scenes, each bear- ing as a title in characters of the third century B.C., the name of a Jataka; and also other scenes, without a title, but similar in character. Twenty- seven of the scenes have been recognised as illus- trating passages in the existing Jataka Book.* Twenty-three are still unidentified, and some of these latter are meant, no doubt, to illustrate Jataka stories current in the community, but not included in the canonical collection. Now let the reader compare the bas-relief above (p. 193) with the Jataka story given above (pp. 190, foil). In the background three deer are being shot at, two are running away, one is looking back in fear, one has fallen. In the foreground, to the left, a deer lies with its head on the block. In the centre fore- ground, the king of the deer, distinguished by his antlers, crouches beside the block, and close by him is a man, presumably the cook. In the centre the king of the deer exhorts the king of the men. It may be noticed in passing that this strange de- vice of putting several scenes of the same story on one plate is not confined to Indian art. The Greeks did the same, and it was common in Europe at the time of the revival of the arts after the dark ages. * See the list at the end of this chapter. THE JATAKA BOOK I99 But while the Indian artist has not hesitated to suggest in his plate so many points in the story, he omits all reference to the verse, or even to that episode in which the verse occurs. The bas-relief, however, resembles the verse in one important re- spect. It would be absolutely unintelligible to any- one not familar with the story as told in prose. It is the same with all these bas-reliefs. None of them, except as explained below, illustrate the verse, or the framework of the story. None are intelligible without a knowledge of the prose. The exception referred to is the figure on the Bharhut Stupa (Plate xxvi.), unfortunately broken, but bearing in clear letters the inscription, *' Yam bamauo avayesi Jataka^ These are the opening words of the verse in this story which, in the printed edition, is called the Andhabhuta Jataka.* This is exactly as if the deer story above were called the ** Follow rather the Banyan " Jataka. The fact is, as I pointed out already in 1880, that very great un- certainty prevails as to the titles of these stories, the same story being very often called in the existing collection by different names. Even one of these very old bas-reliefs itself has actually inscribed over it two distinct names in full. The carving illustrates a fable about a cat and a cock ; and it is labelled, in Pali, both '' Cat Jataka " and '' Cock Jataka." "" As I then said : " The reason for this is very plain. When a fable about a lion and a jackal was told (as in No. 157) to show * FausboU, vol. i. p. 289. ' Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut ^ PI. xlvii. 200 BUDDHIST INDIA the advantage of a good character, and it was necessary to choose a short title for it, it was called the ^ Lion Jataka ' or the * Jackal Jataka ' or even the * Good Character Jataka.* And when a fable was told about a tortoise, to show the evil results which follow on talka- tiveness (as in No. 215), the fable might as well be called the * Chatterbox Jataka' as the * Tortoise Jataka' ; and it is referred to accordingly under both those names. It must always have been difficult, if not impossible, to fix upon a short title which should at once characterise the lesson to be taught, and the personages through whose acts it was taught. And different names would thus arise, and become interchangeable." * We should not be surprised, therefore, to find in this one instance the catchwords of the verse used also as a title. And it is a most fortunate thing that in this solitary instance the words of the verse are extant in an inscription of the third century B.C. The next evidence we have to consider is that of the Jataka Book itself. The canonical work, con- taining the verses only (and therefore quite unin- telligible without a commentary), is very rare even in MSS., and has not yet been edited. It would be very interesting to see what it has to say about the titles, and whether it gives any various readings in the verses. What we have, in the well-known edition by Pro- fessor FausboU, is the commentary. We do not know its date. But as we know of no commentaries of this sort written before the fifth century A.D. — they were all handed down till then by word of * Buddhist Birth Stories^ p. Ixi. THE J A TAKA BOOK 20I mouth — it is probable that this one also is of about the same date. The author gives a slight account of himself in the opening verses, but without men- tioning his name. He names three scholars who in- stigated him to undertake the work, and says it is based on the tradition as then handed on in the Great Monastery at Anuradhapura in Ceylon. Twice in the seven long volumes he alludes to Ceylon scholars of the second century A.D.^ And though he only does so in notes, we may fairly conclude from all this that he probably wrote in Ceylon. Professor Childers thought he was identical with the Buddhaghosa famous as the author of other great commentaries. But for reasons given elsewhere, this is, I think, impossible.' How far, then, did our unknown author vary from the tradition handed down to him ? How far had that tradition, with respect at least to the historical inferences suggested by it, preserved the tone and character of that much more ancient date to which the verses themselves can be assigned ? It is a dif- ficult question, and can only be finally solved when, by a careful and detailed study of the whole of these volumes, we shall have been able to discover every case of probable age, and to weigh the general result to be derived from them all. Dr. Liiders, in two admirable articles on the Isisinga Legend, has shown how, in two or three instances, the prose * I have discussed these two difficult and interesting notes in an article entitled, " The Last to go Forth," y, R. A. S., 1902. ^ Buddhist Birth Stories^ pp. Ixiii., foil. Also the note in Dia- logues of the Buddha^ i. 17. 202 BUDDHIST INDIA version in the commentary gives us a version of the story, later, in some respects, than that implied by the verses.* This is not exactly the point we are considering, but it is closely allied to it. Dr. Fick has subjected all the references contained in the Jataka Book to the social conditions in North-east- ern India to a detailed and careful analysis. He has come to the conclusion that, as regards the verses and the prose part of the stories themselves, as distinct from the framework, they have been scarcely altered from the state they were in when they were handed down from mouth to mouth among the early Buddhists, and that they can be referred undoubtedly, in all that relates to those social con- ditions, to the time of the Buddha himself.* Hof- rath Biihler, perhaps the very highest authority we had in Indian history, and a scholar whom no one will accuse of partiality to Buddhism, says : ** The chief point for consideration is if, in effecting the loan, the Buddhist monks altered much; and espe- cially if the descriptions of life which the Jatakas contain have been made to agree with that of the times when Buddhism had become a power in India. The answer can only be that there are remarkably few traces of Buddhism in those stories, and that they do not describe the condition of India in the third or fourth century B.C., but an older one.'' * In the Proceedings of the Royal Academy at Gottingen, 1897 and 1901. ^ Dr. Richard Fick, Sociale Gliederung im nordostlichen Indian zu Buddha's zeit, pp. vi,, vii. THE JATAKA BOOK 203 And he gives his reasons : " The descriptions of the political, religious, and social conditions of the people clearly refer to the ancient time before the rise of the great Eastern dynasties of the Nandas and the Mauryas, when Pataliputra had become the capital of India. The Jatakas mention neither the one nor the other, and they know nothing of great empires which comprised the whole or large parts of India. The number of the kingdoms, whose rulers play a part in the Stories, is very considerable. The majority of the names, as Madra, the two Pancalas, Kosala, Videha, Kasi, and Vidarbha, agree with those mentioned in the Vedic literature ; while a few others, like Kalinga and Assaka, occur, in brahminical litera- ture, first in the Epics and in Panini's Sutras. The characteristic names of the Andhras, the Pandyas, and the Keralas are not mentioned. "Though a political centre was wanting, frequent statements regarding the instruction of the young brah- mins and nobles show that there was an intellectual centre, and that it lay in Takkasila, the capital of distant Gandhara. . . . And it is very credible that Gan- dhara, the native country of Panini, was a stronghold of brahminical learning certainly in the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., and perhaps even earlier. The statements regarding the religious condition of India point to an equally early period. Just as the Three Vedas are the basis of the higher instruction, so the prevalent religion is that of the path of works with its ceremonies and sacrifices, among which several, like the Vajapeya and the Rajasuya, are specially and re- peatedly mentioned. Side by side with these appear popular festivals, celebrated, when the Nakshatra had 204 BUDDHIST INDIA been proclaimed, with general merrymakings and copi- ous libations of surd^ as well as the worship of demons and trees, all of which go back to the earliest times. Nor are the hermits in the woods and the wandering ascetics unknown. . . . The state of civilisation described in the Jatakas is in various respects primitive, and particularly noteworthy is the prevalence of wood architecture, which, on the evidence of the earliest sculptures, had almost disappeared in the third century B.C. The Jatakas even describe the palaces of kings as usually constructed of wood. Many other details might be added, but the facts given are sufficient for our purpose." * Professor Fausboll himself, the editor of the Ja- taka book, expresses, in the preface to the last volume, a very similar opinion. The consensus of opinion among these distinguished scholars — the only ones who have written on this particular point — is sufficient, at least, to shift the burden of proof. Instead of neglecting altogether, for the history of India, what the Jataka says, we may make historical inferences from statements made in the stories them- selves (not in the framework) as presumptive evidence for the period in which, by a fortunate chance, the stories were preserved for us by their inclusion in the Basket of Buddhist tradition. That tradition is found to have preserved, fairly enough, in political and social matters, the earlier view. The verses, of course, are the most trustworthy, as being, in lan- guage, some centuries older. But the prose, which must have accompanied them throughout, and is ^ Georg Biihler, Indian Studies, No. 5 (Vienna, 1895). THE J A TAKA BOOK 205 taken for granted in the illustrations on the ancient bas-reliefs, ought also, in such questions, to have due weight attached to it. We may already note some points in the com- parative age of the Jatakas, as compared one with another, especially at two stages in the formation of the tradition. The whole of the longer stories, some of them as long as a modern novelette, con- tained in vol. vi. of the edition, are later, both in language and in their view of social conditions in India, than those in the earlier volumes. Yet several of those latest in the collection are shown by the bas-reliefs to have been already in existence in the third century B.C. And this holds good, not only of the verses, but also of the prose, for the bas-reliefs refer to the prose portions of the tales.^ So also, at an earlier stage, it is possible to con- clude that some of the tales, when they were first adopted into the Buddhist tradition (that is, cer- tainly, not later than the beginning of the third century, B.C.), were already old. We have seen above that, out of those tales of which we can trace the pre-Jataka book form, a large proportion, 60 to 70 per cent., had no verses. Now, in the present collection, there are a considerable number of tales which, as tales, have no verses. The verses (necessarily added to make the stories into Jatakas) are found only in the framework.^ And there are ' See in the Appendix, under Vidhura, Sama, Ummagga, and Vessantara Jatakas. 'See now M. Senart's article on these Abhisambuddha-Gatha, in the Journal Asiatique for 1902. 2o6 BUDDHIST INDIA other tales, where the verses do not occur in the story itself, but are put, like a chorus, into the mouth of a fairy (a devata) who has really nothing else to do with the story. It follows, I think, that these stories existed, without the verses, before they were adopted into the Buddhist scheme of Jatakas by having verses added to them ; and that they are, therefore, probably, not only pre-Buddhistic, but very old. On the other hand, as we have seen in the last chapter, the very custom, on which the Jataka sys- tem is based, of handing down tales or legends in prose, with only the conversation in verse, is itself pre-Buddhistic. And the Jataka Book is only an- other example, on a very extensive scale, of that pre-Epic form of literature of which there are so many other, shorter, specimens preserved for us in the earlier canonical texts. To sum up : 1. The canonical Book of the Jatakas contains only the verses. It was composed in North India, in the so-called ' Middle Country,* before the time of Asoka. It is still unpublished. 2. It is absolutely certain that, with these verses, there must have been handed down, from the first, an oral commentary giving the stories in prose ; for the verses without the stories are unintelligible. 3. Bas-reliefs of the third century B.C. have been found illustrating a number of these prose stories. One of these bas-reliefs gives also half of a verse. 4. There are Jataka stories in those canonical books that are older than the Jataka Book. 5. These oldest extant Jatakas are similes, parables, THE J A TAKA BOOK 20*J or legends. They usually give us neither framework nor verses. In them the Buddha, in his previous birth, is never identified with an animal, or even with an ordinary man. He is identified only with some famous sage of bygone times. 6. Our present edition is not an edition of the text, but of the commentary. It was written prob- ably in the fifth century A.D. in Ceylon by an author whose name is not known. 7. This commentary, which contains all the verses, contains also the prose stories in which they occur. To each such story it further gives a framework of introductory episode (stating when and where and on what occasion the story is supposed to have been spoken by the Buddha) ; and of final identification (of the characters in each story with the Buddha and his contemporaries in a previous birth). 8. This commentary is a translation into Pali of the commentary as handed down in Ceylon. That earlier commentary, now lost, was in the Singhalese language throughout, except as regards the verses, which were in Pali. 9. The Pali commentary, as we now have it, has in the stories preserved, for the most part, the tra- dition handed down from the third century B.C. But in one or two instances variations have already been discovered. 10. As regards the allusions to political and social conditions, they refer, for the most part, to the state of things that existed in North India in and before the Buddha's time. 1 1. When the original Jataka was being gradually 208 BUDDHIST INDIA formed most of the stories were taken bodily over from the existing folklore of North India. 12. Some progress has already been made in de- termining the relative age, at that time, of the stories. Those in the sixth and last volumes are both the longest and latest. Some of these were already selected for illustration on the bas-reliefs of the third century B.C. 13. All the Jatakas have verses attached to them. In a few instances these verses are in the framework, not in the stories themselves. Such stories, without the verses, have probably preserved the original form of the Indian folklore. 14. In a few instances, the verses, though in the stories, are in them only as a sort of chorus, and do not form part of the narrative. In these instances, also, a similar conclusion may be drawn, 15. The whole collection forms the most reliable, the most complete, and the most ancient collection of folklore now extant in any literature in the world. I THE J A TAKA BOOK APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI 209 JATAKAS ILLUSTRATED BY BAS-RELIEFS ON THE BHARAHAT STUPA Name of JStaka in Pali Vidhura Pandita Jataka Nigrodha Miga '* Kakkata Plate In Cunningham's StuJ>a 0/ Bharhut 1. XVIII. 2. XXV. 3. " 4. '* Fig. Title inscribed on the bas-relief Vitura Punakiya Jataka Miga Jataka Naga Jataka No. of Jataka in Fausboll XXVI. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9- 10. XXVII. II. 12. 13. 14. " 15. 16. XXXIII. 17. XLl. XLIII. XLIV. XLV. 18. 19. 20. 2[. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. XLVI. XLVII. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 1.3 2.8 2 5 7 2 8 3 5 Yavamajhakiya Jataka Mugapakaya Jataka Latuva Jataka Chadantiya Jataka Isisingiya Jataka Yam bamano avayesi Jataka Hansa Jataka Kinara Jataka Isimigo Jataka Janako raja Sivali devi Uda Jataka Secha Jataka Sujato gahuto Jataka Bidala Jataka Kukuta Jataka Maghadeviya Jataka Bhisa Haraniya Jataka 545 12 267 546 Episode in Maha Ummagga 538 Miigapakkha 357 Latukika 514 Chaddanta 523 Alambusa 62 Andha-bhuta 206 Kurunga-Miga 349 Sandhi-bheda 32 Nacca 485 Canda Kinnara 181 Asadisa 46 1 Dasaratha 407 Maha Kapi 324 Camma-Sataka 372 Miga-Potaka 539 Maha-Janaka 46 & 268 Arama-Dusaka 42 Kapota 400 Dabbha-Puppha 174 Dubhiya-Makkata 352 Sujata 383 9 488 547 Kukkuta Makha Deva Bhisa Vessantara XLVIII. '• 1 1 it L. The above table is taken, with a few alterations, from Professor Serge d'Oldenburg's table published in the J^ournal of the American Oriental Society^ vol. xviii. 1897. It is later and better than the one in my Buddhist Birth Stories, p. cii. As the number of Jatakas in the printed collection is 547 it will be seen that rather more than five per cent, of them are represented in this list as having been illustrated in the third century B.C. As to the spelling of the name of the stupa the more correct form is Bharahat. 14 « CHAPTER XII RELIGION— ANIMISM IT IS the accepted belief that it is in the literature of the brahmins that we find the evidence as to the religious beliefs of the peoples of India in the sixth and seventh centuries B.C. This seems to me more than doubtful. The priests have preserved for us, not so much the opinions the people actually held, as the opinions the priests wished them to hold. When we consider the enormous labour of keeping up and handing down the priestly books — and this had to be done, as we have seen,* entirely through learning the books by heart — we are filled with admiration for the zealous and devoted stu- dents who have thus preserved for us a literature so valuable for the history of human thought. The learned brahmin, and not only in this respect, is a figure of whom India is justly proud. And w^hen we consider how vague and inaccurate are the ac- counts preserved in the writings of the Christian fathers of any views except those they themselves considered to be orthodox, we see how unreasonable * Above, p. no, Chapter VII. 2IO RELIGION — A NIMISM 2 1 1 it would be to expect that the brahmins, whose difficulties were so much greater, should have b able to do more. What they have done they have done accurately and well. But the record they have saved for us is a partial record. What had happened with respect to religious belief is on a par with what had happened with respect to language. From Takka-sila all the way down to Champa no one spoke Sanskrit. The living lan- guage, everywhere, was a sort of Pali. Many of the old Vedic words were retained in more easily pro- nounceable forms. Many new words had been formed, on analogy, from the existing stock of roots. Many other new words had been adopted from non- Aryan forms of speech. Many Aryan words, which do not happen to occur in the Vedic texts, had nevertheless survived in popular use. And mean- while, in the schools of the priests, and there only, a knowledge of the Vedic language (which we often call Sanskrit) was kept up. But even this Sanskrit of the schools had progressed, as some would say, or had degenerated, as others would say, from the Vedic standard. And the Sanskrit in actual use in the schools was as far removed from the Vedic dialect as it is from the so-called classical Sanskrit of the post-Buddhistic poems and plays. So with the religion. Outside the schools of the priests the curious and interesting beliefs recorded in the Rig Veda had practically little effect. The Vedic thaumaturgy and theosophy had indeed never been a popular faith, that is, as we know it. Both its theological hypotheses and its practical magic (in 212 BUDDHIST IND/A the ritual) show already a stage very much advanced beyond the simpler faith which they, in fact, presup- pose. The gods more usually found in the older systems — the dread Mother Earth, the dryads and the dragons, the dog-star, even the moon and the sun — have been cast into the shade by the new ideas (the new gods) of the fire, the exciting drink, and the thunderstorm. And the charm of the mystery and the magic of the ritual of the sacrifice had to con- tend, so far as the laity were concerned, with the distaste induced by its complications and its ex- pense. I am aware that these views as to Vedism are at variance with opinions very widely, not to say com- monly, held. Professor Max Miiller insisted to the last on the primitive nature of the beliefs recorded in the Rig Veda. Those beliefs seem to us, and in- deed are, so bizarre and absurd, that it is hard to accept the proposition that they give expression to an advanced stage of thought. And one is so accus- tomed to consider the priesthood as the great obsta- cle, in India, in the way of reform, that it is difficult to believe that the brahmins could ever, as a class, have championed the newer views. But a comparison with the general course of the evolution of religious beliefs elsewhere shows that the beliefs recorded in the Rig Veda are not primi- tive. A consideration of the nature of those beliefs, so far as they are not found elsewhere, shows that they must have been, in the view of the men who formulated them, a kind of advance on, or reform of, the previous ideas. And at least three lines of RELIGION— A NIMISM 2 1 3 evidence all tend to show that — certainly all the time we are here considering, and almost certainly at the time when the Rig Veda was finally closed — there were many other beliefs, commonly held among the Aryans in India, but not represented in that Veda.* The first of these three lines is the history of the Atharva Veda. This invaluable old collection of charms to be used in sorcery had been actually put together long before Buddhism arose. But it was only just before that time that it had come to be acknowledged by the sacrificial priests as a Veda — inferior to their own three older ones, but still a Veda. This explains why it is that the Atharva is never mentioned as a Veda in the Buddhist canonical books.'' They are constantly mentioning the three Vedasand the ancient lore connected with the three. They are constantly poking fun at the hocus-pocus of witchcraft and sorcery, and denying any efficiency either to it, or to the magic of the sacrifice. But in the view of the circles in which these books arose the Atharva collection had not yet become a Veda. Yet it is quite certain that the beliefs and prac- tices to which the Atharva Veda is devoted are as old, if not older, than those to which the three other Vedas refer ; and that they were commonly held and followed by the Aryans in India. The things re- corded in the Rig may seem to us as absurd as ^ On religious ideas popular among the people, but only incident- ally referred to in the Veda, and not admitted into it as part of the priestly system of belief, see Kirste in the Vienna Oriental Journal^ 1902, pp. 63, foil. ^ See Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 109. 214 BUDDHIST INDIA those in the Atharva. But we cannot avoid the conclusion that the priests who made the older col- lection were consciously exercising a choice, that they purposely omitted to include certain phases of current belief because those phases did not appeal to them, did not suit their purposes, or did not seem to them worthy of their deities. And when we re- member that what they shut out, or nearly shut out, was the lowest kind of savage superstition and sorcery, it is not easy to deny them any credit in doing so. The second is the general view of religious beliefs, as held by the people, given to us in the Epics, and especially in the Maha Bharata. It is, in many re- spects, altogether different from the general view as given in the Vedic literature. We do not know as yet exactly which of the conceptions in the Maha Bharata can be taken as evidence of the seventh cent- ury B.C. The poem has certainly undergone one, if not two or even three, alterations at the hand of later priestly editors. But though the changes made in the poems are due to the priests, they were so made because the priests found that ideas not cur- rent in their schools had so much weight with the people that they (the priests) could no longer afford to neglect them. They must have recast the poem with two main objects in view — in the first place to insist on the supremacy of the brahmins, which had been so much endangered by the great popularity of the anti-priestly views of the Buddhists and oth- ers ; and in the second place to show that the brah- mins were in sympathy with, and had formally RELIGION-^ANIMISM 2 1 5 adopted, certain popular cults and beliefs highly esteemed by the people. In any case, there, in the poem, these cults and beliefs, absent from the Vedic literature, are found in full life and power. And though this line of evidence, if it stood alone, would be too weak to bear much weight, the most likely explanation seems to be that here also we have evi- dence, to some extent at least, of beliefs not in- cluded in the Vedic literature, and yet current among, and powerfully affecting, both the Aryan and the semi-Aryan peoples of India.* The third line is based on the references to the religious beliefs, not of the Buddhists themselves, but of the people, recorded in the Buddhist Canon. As these have never yet been collected or analysed, and as they are in many ways both interesting and suggestive, it may be useful to point out shortly here the more important of them. The standard passages on this question are three, the one in prose, the other two in verse, and all found in our oldest documents. The first is m the Silas,^ and begins thus: *' Whereas some recluses and brahmins, while living on food provided by the faithful, are tricksters, droners out of holy words for pay, diviners, exorcists, ever hungering to add gain to gain, Gotama the recluse holds aloof from such deception and patter." There then follows a long enumeration, most ' Compare Professor Hopkins, J. A. 0. S. 1899, pp. 315, 365 ; and Religions of India, chap. xiv. '-^Translated by Rh. D. Dialogues of the Buddha, i. 15. 2l6 BUDDHIST INDIA Fig. 36. — SIRIMA DEVATA. [From the Bharahat Tope. PI. xxiii.] valuable to the his- torian, of all kinds of animistic hocus-pocus — evidently forming part of the beliefs of the people in the val- ley of the Ganges in the sixth century B. C, for how otherwise could such **low arts " have been the source of gain to the brahmins and others who prac- tised them ? We are told of palmistry, divination of all sorts, auguries drawn from the celestial phenom- ena, prognostications by interpretation of dreams, auguriesdrawn from marks on cloth gnawed by mice, sac- rifices to Agni, — it is characteristic to find these in such company, — oblations of various sorts to gods, deter- mining lucky sites, re- peating charms, laying ghosts, snake charm- ing, using similar arts RELIGION — A NIMISM 2 1 / on other beasts and birds, astrology, the power of prophecy, incantations, oracles, consulting gods through a girl possessed or by means of mirrors, worshipping the Great One, invoking Sir! (the god- dess of Luck), vowing vows to gods, muttering charms to cause ^virility or impotence, consecrating sites, and more of the same kind. It is a queer list ; and very suggestive both of the wide range of animistic superstitions, and of the proportionate importance, then and to the people at large, of those particular ones included in the Veda. It may be noticed in passing that we have repre- sentations, of a very early date, of this Sirl, the goddess of Luck, of plenty and success, who is not mentioned in the Veda. One of these is marked in plain letters Sirima Devata; and like Diana of the Ephesians, she bears on her breast the signs of her productivity. The other shows the goddess seated, with two elephants pouring water over her. It is the oldest instance of the most common representa- sentation of this popular goddess ; and figures of her, exactly in this form, can be bought to-day in the bazaars of Northern India. (Figs. 36, 48, 37.) I am allowed, by the kindness of Mrs. Craven, to add a reproduction of a photograph of an image of this popular deity which was recently found in the south of India. It is probably of about the eleventh centur}^, and is decisive evidence that the worship of this non-Vedic goddess prevailed also in the interval between the date of the oldest sculptures and our own time. (Fig. 38.) That Sin was already a popular deity in the 2l8 BUDDHIST INDIA Buddha's time explains the fact that the priests had been compelled to acknowledge her and to invent Fig. 37. — MODERN IMAGE OF SRI AS CONSORT VISHNU. [From Burgess's Cave Temples of India^ p. 524.] a special legend to excuse their doing so * ; and that they incidentally mention her, once again, in ^ 'Satapatha Brahmana, xi. 4, 3. RELIGION— ANIMISM 2I9 mystic conjunction with the dread deities of the Moon, and the Sun, and Mother Earth.' Even these other three, though noticed in the Veda, are put far into the background compared with Indra, Agni, Soma, and Varuna ; but it is highly probable that they really occupied a very much larger share in the minds of the people of India than these sparse notices in the Veda would tend to show. In mod- ern mythology Sir! or Sri is regarded as a consort of Vishnu. The other two passages, in verse, form whole Sut- tantas — the Maha Samaya Suttanta, No. 20, in the Digha, now edited for the Pali Text Society, and translated in my Dialogues of the Buddha^ vol. ii. ; and the Atanatiya Suttanta, No. 32, in the same col- lection. In the first of these two poems some un- known early Buddhist poet describes how all the gods of the people come to pay reverence, at Kapi- lavastu, to the new teacher, and to his order of mendicant recluses. In the second of them another unknown poet describes how certain of the gods come to ask him to adopt a form of words which will turn the hearts of other deities unfriendly to the new doctrine, and make them leave it and its followers in peace. And the form of words gives the names of all the gods whom it is considered de- sirable thus to propitiate. These two poems form a suggestive parallel to the method followed by the brahmins of adopting, one by one, the popular faiths. It shows how similar are the motives that influence religious * Taittiriya Up, i. 4. 220 BUDDHIST INDIA leaders, however diametrically opposed their views may be. And in both cases the effort had a similar result. The object was to reconcile the people to different ideas. The actual consequence was that the ideas of the people, thus admitted, as it were, by the back door, filled the whole mansion, and the ideas it was hoped they would accept were turned out into the desert, there ultimately to pass abso- lutely away. Nearer home, too, we may call to mind similar events. Our two poets are naturally anxious to include in their lists all the various beliefs which had most weight with those whom they would fain persuade. The poet of the Maha Samaya (the Great Con- course) enumerates first the spirits of the Earth and of the great Mountains. Then the Four Great Kings, the guardians of the four quarters, East and South and West and North. One of these four, Vessavana Kuvera, is the god who in the second poem is the spokesman for all the rest. (Fig. 39.) Then come the Gandharvas, heavenly musicians, supposed to preside over child-bearing and birth, and to be helpful to mortals in many ways. Then come the Nagas, the Siren-serpents, whose worship has been so important a factor in the folklore, superstition, and poetry of India from the earliest times down to-day. Cobras in their ordinary shape, they lived, like mermen and mer- maids, beneath the waters,* in great luxury and wealth, more especially of gems, and sometimes, as we shall see, the name is used of the Dryads, * See, for instance, Samyutta, vol. v. pp. 47, 63. k Fig. 38. — HINDOO goddess of luck. 221 Fig. 39. — VESSAVANA KUVERA, KING OF THE YAKSHAS, AND REGENT OF THE NORTH. [From the Bharahat Tope. PI. xxii.] Fig. 40. — CHAKAVAKA KING OF THE NAGAS. [From Cunningham's Stu^a of Bharhut PI. xxi. Fig. 3.] 222 RELIGION — A NIMISM 223 the tree-spirits, equally wealthy and powerful. They could at will, and often did, adopt the human form ; and though terrible if angered, were kindly and mild by nature. Not mentioned either in Fig. 41. — NAGA MERMAIDS IN WATER. [From Burgess and Griinwedel's Buddhist Art in India.'] the Veda or in the pre-Buddhistic Upanishads, the myth seems to be a strange jumble of beliefs, not altogether pleasant, about a strangely gifted race of actual men ; combined with notions derived 224 BUDDHIST INDIA from previously existing theories of tree-worship, and serpent-worship, and river-worship. But the his- ' tory of the idea has still to be written. These Nagas are represented on the ancient bas-reliefs as men or women either with cobra's hoods rising from behind their heads or with serpentine forms from the waist downwards. Then come the Garulas, or Garudas, the Indian counterpart of the harpy and grififin, half man, half bird, hereditary enemies of the Nagas, on whom they feed. They were also, perhaps, originally a tribe of actual men, with an eagle or a hawk as their token on their banner. Then come a goodly crowd of Titans, and sixty kinds of gods, of whom only about half a dozen are Vedic, the other names offering only puzzles which await the solution of future enquirers. First we have the gods of kindly nature and good character; then the souls or spirits supposed to animate and to reside in the moon and the sun (the moon is always mentioned first), in the wind, the cloud, the summer heat; then the gods of light; then a curious list of gods, personifications of vari- ous mental qualities ; then the spirits in the thunder and the rain ; and, lastly, the great gods who dwell in the highest heavens (that is, are the outcome of the highest speculation), like Brahma himself, and Paramatta, and Sanani Kumara. The list seems inclusive enough. But why does it make no mention of tree-gods? For if we take as our guide, and we could scarcely do better, Mrs. Philpot's excellent monograph on The Sacred Tree, Fig. 42. — SEATED NAGA ; BACK VIEW. [From a frescoe in Cave II at Ajanta.] 225 226 BUDDHIST INDIA in which the most important facts as to tree- worship throughout the world are collected and classified, we find that a number of fancies about trees, varying from the most naive results of the savage soul-theories up to philosophic speculations of an advanced kind, have been widely current among all forms of faith, and have been traced also in India. Now, so far as I can call to mind, none of these fancies (with one interesting exception, on which see below) is referred to in the principal early books setting out theBuddhist doctrine — the Four Nikayas, for instance, and the Sutta Nipata. But in older and later documents several of these beliefs can be found. The conclusion is obvious. Those beliefs as to tree-worship mentioned in pre-Buddhistic lit- erature formed part, at the time of the rise of Buddhism, of the religion of the people. They were rejected by the early Buddhists. But they continued to form part of the religion of those of the people who were uninfluenced by the new teach- ing. And one or two of them found their way back into one or other of the later schools of Buddhism. Already in the Vedas themselves we have a num- ber of passages in which trees are invoked as deities.* This is decisive of the attitude of mind of the Aryans in early times in India. For it was, of course, not the trees as such, but the souls or spirits supposed to dwell within them, to haunt them, that were looked upon as gods. That this notion sur- ^ See Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 154. KELIGION—A NIMISM 22J vived down to the rise of Buddhism is shown in the Upanishads. If the soul leaves the tree, the tree withers, but the soul does not die/ These souls may have dwelt, and may dwell again, in human bodies.^ And long after the rise of Buddhism ideas associated with this belief are often referred to. Offerings are made to these tree-spirits,' even human sacrifices are offered,* they were consulted as oracles, and expected to give sons and wealth,^ they injure those who injure the trees in which they dwell,^ and they are pleased when garlands are hung upon the branches, lamps are lighted round it, and Bali offer- ings are made (that is food is thrown), at the foot of the tree/ The brahmin priests, too, are enjoined in their books of sacred law and custom to throw such Bali offerings to the tree-spirits/ All the above is tree-worship — or more correctly dryad-worship — pure and simple. When we find the world-soul spoken of as a tree that has its roots in heaven,' that is poetry, a simile based perhaps on the mystery of growth, but still only a simile. The idea of the Kalpa-rukkha, the Wishing Tree, which will give one all one wants, has not as yet been traced back earlier than some centuries after the date we are considering.^" But Fergusson*s explanation of the old monuments ^ Chand. Up. vi. ii ; see Jat. 4. 154. '^ Kathaka Up. v. 7. ' J. R. A. S. 1901, p. 886. •* Jat. 5. 472, 474, 488. ^ Jat. Nos. 98, 109, 307, 493. ^ Jat. 4. 210, 353. ' Jat. 3. 23 ; 4. 153. ® Manu, iii. 88, etc. ^ Kathaka Up. vi. i; Svet. Up., iii. 9. '^ The earliest reference to this idea I have been able to find is the Ayaranga, p. 127 (see Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, i. 197). 228 BUDDHIST INDIA as being devoted to tree-worship requires altogether restating. With all his genius he was attempting the impossible when he tried to interpret the work Fig. 43. — ELEPHANTS BEFORE THE WISDOM TREE. [From Cunningham's Stupa 0/ Bharhut. PI. xxx.] of Indian artists without a knowledge of Indian literature. His mistake was really very natural. At first sight such bas-reliefs as those here figured (Figures 43 and 44) seem most certainly to show RELIGION— A NIMISM 229 men and animals worshipping a tree, that is the spirit residing in a tree. But on looking farther we Fig. 44. — THE WISDOM TREE OF KASSAPA, THE BUDDHA. [From Cunningham's Stupa of Bharhut. PI. xxx.] see that the tree has over it an inscription stating that it is *' the Bodhi Tree, the tree of wisdom, of Kassapa the Exalted One." Every Buddha is sup- 230 BUDDHIST INDIA posed to have attained enlightenment under a tree. The tree differs in the accounts of each of them. Our Buddha's " Wisdom Tree/* for instance, is of the kind called the Assattha or Pippal tree. Now while in all the oldest accounts of Gotama's attainment of Buddha-hood there is no mention of the tree under which he was sitting at the time/ yet already in a Suttanta' it is incidentally mentioned that this event took place under a Pippal tree; and this is often referred to in later books. In these old sculp- tures the Buddha himself is never represented di- rectly, but always under a symbol. What we have here then is reverence paid to the tree, not for its own sake, and not to any soul or spirit supposed to be in it, but to the tree either as the symbol of the Master, or because (as in the particular case repre- sented in the figures) it was under a tree of that kind that his followers believed that a venerated Teacher of old had become a Buddha. In either case it is a straining of terms, a misrepresentation or at best a misunderstanding, to talk of tree-worship. The Pip- pal was a sacred tree at the date of these sculptures, — sacred, that is, to the memory of the beloved Master, who had passed away ; and it had acquired the epithet of " Tree of Wisdom.'' But the wisdom was the wisdom of the Master not of the tree or of the tree- god, and could not be obtained by eating of its fruit. These ideas are of course post- Buddhistic. They could have arisen in a perfectly natural way simply because the tradition was that Gotama had, at that crisis in his life, sat under a Pippal tree. And it is ^ M. I. 22, 117, 249. ^ D. 2. 52. MEL/GION — A NIMISM 23 1 very possible that the tradition may, so soon after- wards, have been perfectly right. We know as an actual fact that thinking was much more frequent, in that beautiful climate, in the open air, than between four walls. The appreciation of the beauties of na- ture, so conspicuous in many of the early Buddhist poems, is an Indian, not a Buddhist trait. And it was to a prevalent Indian, not only a Buddhist, sentiment that the Buddha is represented to have appealed, when at the end of some earnest dialogue on a weighty point of ethics or philosophy, he is said to have been wont to close with the appeal : " Here are trees ; think this matter out ! " It is therefore by no means impossible that it was under a Pippal tree the Buddha clenched the essential points in his new doctrine of life. And, if so, is it not quite con- ceivable that his disciples should have recollected so simple and natural a fact connected with what they regarded, not only as the turning-point in his career, as his Nirvana, but as the turning-point in the his- tory of the world ? Another hypothesis is possible — that the disciples, in all good faith, associated their Master with this particular tree because it already, before his time, had been especially sacred above all other trees. The tradition may then have been the result of this feeling. The tree was certainly held in high esteem even as early as the Vedic poems. Vessels for the mystic Soma cult were made of its wood ; and so were the caskets containing the medicinal herbs used in the mystic craft of the physician of the day. The upper portion in the fire-drill — and the production 232 BUDDHIST INDIA of fire was held to be a mystery — was of the wood of the Pippal tree. And in one passage the tree in heaven under which the souls of the blessed recline is likened to a Pippal.* Whether this would be sufficient reason for the rise of the tradition may be doubtful. But such associations would certainly add to its hold on popular imagination, if it had once otherwise arisen. It is, however, never to the Pippal tree to which the folklore quoted above attributed divine power. It happens always to be some other tree. And we know too little to be able to be quite sure that this is merely a matter of chance. The tree-deities were called Nagas, and were able at will, like the Nagas, to assume the human form; and in one story'* the spirit of a banyan tree who reduced the merchants to ashes is called a Naga-raja, the soldiers he sends forth from his tree are Nagas, and the tree itself is '*the dwelling-place of the Naga." This may explain why it is that the tree-gods are not specially and separately mentioned in the Maha Samaya list of deities who are there said by the poet to have come to pay reverence to the Buddha. In any case we must add tree-wor- ship, the worship of powerful spirits supposed to dwell in trees, to the list of those beliefs, scarcely noticed in the Vedas, that were an important part of the religion of the peoples of Northern India at the time of the rise of Buddhism. In neither of these two lists is Indra, the great god * See, on all these points, the passages quoted by Zimmer, Alt- indisches Leben^ p. 58. "^ Jataka No. 493. 234 BUDDHIST INDIA of the Veda, even mentioned. His place, as bearer of the thunderbolt, is taken by Sakka, who is in many, if not in most, respects a quite different con- ception. We should never forget in what degree all these gods are real. They had no real objective ex- istence. But they were real enough as ideas in men's minds. At any given moment the gods of a nation seem eternal, unchangeable. As a matter of fact they are constantly slightly changing. No two men, thinking of the same god, even on the same day, and amid the same surroundings, have quite the same mental image; nor is the proportionate importance of that god as compared with their respective con- ceptions of other gods (that is, as compared with their other ideas) quite the same. Just as a man's visible frame, though no change may at any moment be perceptible, is never really the same for two con- secutive moments, and the result of constant minute variations becomes clear after a lapse of time, so the idea summed up by the name of a god becomes changed by the gradual accretion of minute varia- tions; and this change, after a lapse of time (it may be generations, it may be centuries), becomes so clear that a new name arises, and gradually, very gradu- ally, ousts the older one. Then the older god is dead. As the Buddhist poets put it, '* the flowers of the garlands he wore are withered, his robes of ^ majesty have waxed old and faded, he falls from his high estate, and is re-born into a new life.'* He lives again, as we might say, in the very outcome of his former life, in the new god who, under the new name, reigns in men's hearts. RELIGION— ANIMISM 235 So Jupiter ousted Chronos, and Indra himself had almost ousted Trita, even in the Veda; and Indra and others had almost ousted Varuna. So in the period we are considering had Sakka, in his turn, al- most ousted Indra. Though the epic poets after- wards did their best to re-establish Indra on the throne, they had but poor success ; for his name and his fame had dwindled away. And we catch sight of him, in these records, just as he is fading dimly away on the horizon, and changing his shape into that of the successor to his dignity and power.* It is the same, but in each case in different de- grees, with other Vedic gods. It were tedious here to go at length into each case. Isana, the vigorous and youthful form of the dread Siva of the future, is already on a level with Soma and Varuna. And Pajapati and Brahma^ will soon come to be consid- ered as co-partners with Sakka in the lordship over all the gods.' The worship of Agni is scoffed at as on a par with the hocus-pocus of witchcraft and divination,* and it is soon to be laughed to scorn in the amusing tales of the folklore of the people.* Vayu, the wind-god, never very important, is just mentioned in our list, but nowhere else in texts of that age, and will soon also be the laughing-stock of the story-teller.' Varuna is still a power, ranked with the highest,' but he will soon be reduced to a tree-god,^ a Naga king," a lord of the oracle girls,"* * Jat., 4. 8. fijataka No. 17. ^D. I. 244; wS. I. 219. 'S. I. 219; Jat. 5. 28, 6. 201. ^ ]sicohi, yaina Sutras, 1. 198. ^ Jat. 4. 8. * D. I. 67. » Jat. 6. 164, 257-329. ^Jatakas Nos. 35 and 162. 'oxi^g Varunis, Jat. 6. 586. 236 BUDDHIST INDIA who, possessed by the god, will, as Pythias, prophesy smooth things. And Vishnu, though mentioned in our poem under the name of Venhu, has scarcely as yet appeared above the horizon. Pajjunna is still the rain-god in the Suttantas ; he is mentioned in both poems ; and has retained this character even in the folklore.* I know of no other Vedic gods mentioned in this literature. Dyaus, Mitra, and Savitri, POshan, the Adityas, the Asvins and the Maruts, Aditi and Diti and UrvasT, and many more, are all departed. They survive only within the enclosures of the Vedic schools. The people know them no longer. Now there is no doubt a long interval of time between the close of the Rig Veda collection of hymns and the rise of Buddhism. The Vedic an- thology, small as it is, may not give, even for its own time, a complete statement of Indian belief. Some of the differences between Vedic mythology and popular religion at the time of the rise of Buddhism may therefore be due to the influence of an un- recorded past. But this can only explain a part, and probably a small part, of the difference. The old gods, that is the old ideas, when they have survived, have been so much changed ; so many of them have not survived at all; so many new ones have sprung into vigorous life and wide-reaching influence, that one conclusion is inevitable. The common view that the Indians were very different from other folk in similar stages of development, that to that differ- ence was due the stolid, not to say stupid, conserva- 1 J. I. 332, 4. 253 ; C. P. 3. 10. 7. RELIGION— ANIMISM 237 tism of their religious conceptions, that they were more given to superstition, less intellectual, than for instance the Greeks and Romans, must be given up. Derived partly from a too exclusive study of the priestly books, partly from reading back into the past a mistaken view of modern conditions, it can- not stand against the new evidence derived from the Jain and Buddhist literatures written, or rather com- posed, in independence of the priests. The real facts lead to the opposite view. They show a con- stant progress from Vedic times onwards. Some reasons for this will be suggested in the next chapter. But whatever the facts, and whatever the reasons for them, we are not likely to cease from hearing that parrot cry of self-complacent ignorance, *' The im- movable East " — the implied sop to vanity is too sweet to be neglected. CHAPTER XIII RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSITION THESE details of the lower phases of religion in India in the sixth century B.C. have great and essential similarity with the beliefs held, not only at the same time in the other centres of civilisation, — in China, Persia, and Egypt, in Italy and Greece, — but also among the savages of then and now. But there is a further and more striking resemblance. Sir Henry Maine has said : *' Nothing is more re- markable than the extreme fewness of progressive societies — the difference between them and the sta- tionary races is one of the greatest secrets enquiry has yet to penetrate.'*^ Whatever the secret, above and beyond the influ- ence of economic conditions, may have been, we know that civilisation, of a kind at least, extended back in time, on the four great river basins of the Nile and the Euphrates, the Ganges and the Yellow River, not merely through centuries, but through thousands of years, if reckoned from to-day. Yet in '^Ancient Law^ p. 22. 238 RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSITION 239 each of tho^ places — though there was a real and progressive civilisation, and ideas and customs were no doubt constantly changing and growing — there was a certain dead level, if not a complete ab- sence of what we should call philosophic thought. The animistic hypotheses, the soul-theories, of their savage ancestors seemed sufficient, even to the pro- gressive races, to explain all that they saw or felt. Meq varied, but never dreamed of rejecting, the soul-theories. They did not even build up on the basis of them any large and general views, either of ethics, or of philosophy, or of religion. Then sud- denly, and almost simultaneously, and almost cer- tainly independently, there is evidence, about the sixth century B.C., in each of these widely separated centres of civilisation, of a leap forward in specula- tive thought, of a new birth in ethics, of a religion of conscience threatening to take the place of the old religion of custom and magic. In each of these countries similar causes, the same laws regulating the evolution of ideas, had taken just about the same number of centuries to evolve, out of similar conditions, a similar result. Is there a more stupen- dous marvel in the whole history of mankind? Does any more suggestive problem await the solu- tion of the historian of human thought ? The solution will not be possible till we have a more accurate knowledge of the circumstances which led up, in each country, to the awakening. And in India one important factor in the preceding circum- stances seems to me to have been, hitherto, too much neglected. The intense interest, from the 240 BUDDHIST INDIA world-history point of view, of the sixth century B.C. — the best dividing line, if there ever was any, be- tween ancient history and modern, between the old order and the new — would be sufficient excuse, if one were needed, for a somewhat detailed con- sideration of this particular point. In India, as elsewhere, the whole of the popular animistic notions mentioned in the last chapter, and no doubt others also, survived in full force. But no one man believed in them all, or even knew of them all. In that part of the priestly literature which has come down to us a certain selected portion of these beliefs is taken, as it were, under priestly patronage, has received the stamp of re- spectability, has been given such social rank as the priests could confer. They seldom, perhaps never, stepped outside the charmed circle of anim.istic magic. But what they chose was probably, on the whole, of a better kind than what they left to itself. Even so the contents of the priestly books on ritual, though a rich mine of materials for a history of magic and superstition, are unspeakably banal, M. Sylvain L^vi, the author of the most authoritative work on this subject, says in the introduction to his summary of the Brahmana theory of sacrifice : " It is difficult to imagine anything more brutal and more material than the theology of the Brah- manas. Notions which usage afterwards gradually refined, and clothed with a garb of morality, take us aback by their savage realism." Or again : RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSH ION 24 1 ** Morality finds no place in this system. Sacrifice, which regulates the relation of man to the divinities, is a mechanical act, operating by its own spontane- ous energy (par son energie intime) ; and that, hidden in the bosom of nature, is only brought out by the magic art of the priest. >> 1 To these writers, the sacrifice, if only rigidly carried out in each one of its details, is the source of all profit and advantage. The gods (who are quite unmoral, not immoral, though they are represented in these texts as having been guilty of falsehood, chi- canery, and incest) are utterly unable to counteract the effect of such a sacrifice. Indeed they owe their own supremacy, their own position in heaven, to sac- rifices they themselves had thus carried out to older gods. And it is by the same means that they con- tinue to defeat the Asuras, that is the Titans, the rival gods, who would otherwise storm the gates of heaven. There were no temples, and probably no images. The altars were put up anew for each sacrifice in a field or garden belonging to the sacrificer. The benefit to accrue from the sacrifice went to him, ^ and to him alone. He therefore had to pay for the performance ; for the animals to be slaughtered, for the numerous work people employed, and for the fees for the priests. " As to the fees, the rules are precise, and the pro- pounders of them are unblushing. The priest performs the sacrifice for the fee alone, and it must consist ^ Doctrine du sacrifice chez les Brdhinanas^ p. g (Paris, 1898). 16 242 BUDDHIST INDIA of valuable garments, kine, horses, or gold ; — when each is to be given is carefully stated. Gold is coveted most, for * this is immortality, the seed of Agni,' and therefore peculiarly agreeable to the pious priest." * It would be unnecessary to go into the intermin- able detail of such sacrifices. They are expounded very fully and carefully in Professor Hillebrandt's standard works on the subject.^ The expense must have been very great, even for the less complicated ; and it is probable that this had something to do with the fact that a way was discovered to obtain the desired result without sacrifice. The nearer we get to the time of Buddhism the greater is the importance we find attached to this second method, that of IaJ>as, — self-mortification, or more exactly, self-torture. The word occurs, in this its technical sense, in the latest hymns included in the Rig Veda. It isliterally ** burning, glow " ; and had then already acquired the secondary sense of retirement into solitude in the forest, and the prac- tise there of austerity, bodily self-mortification, — not at all with the idea of atonement or penance, but under the impression that self-torture of this kind would bring about magical results. Just as the sacrificer was supposed, by a sort of charm that I his priests worked for him in the sacrifice, to compel the gods, and to attain ends he desired, so there was supposed to be a sort of charm in tapas by which a man could, through and by himself, attain ^ Hopkins, Religions of India, 192. '^ Altindische neu-und volhnondsopfer^ Jena, 1879, and Ritual- liter atur, Vedische Opfer und Zauber^ Strasburg, 1897. RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSITION 243 to mystic and marvellous results. The distinction seems to have been that it was rather worldly suc- cess, cattle, children, and heaven, that were attained > by sacrifice ; and mystic, extraordinary, superhuman ] faculties that were attained by Tapas, Then, by a natural anthropomorphism, the gods too, in later works, were supposed — just as they had been supposed to offer sacrifice — to practise tapas, austerity. And it was not a mere distinction with- out a difference, it was a real advance in thought, when this sort of physical self-mastery, of the con- quest of will over discomfort and pain, came to be placed above sacrifice. It had been by sacrifice that the gods had made the world. Now it came to be said, in different cosmological legends, that one god or another 'had brought forth the world by tapas^ And a Brahmana text declares : ** Heaven is established on the air, the air on the earth, the earth on the waters, the waters on truth, the truth on the mystic lore (of the sacrifice), and that on Tap as!' " It will be noticed that tapas is here put in the most important place, higher than sacrifice, which is, in its turn, higher than truth — a most suggestive order, as we shall see later on. We have no details in the books of this period of the particular prac- tices in which the austerity, the self-mortification, consisted. It was no doubt of various kinds, and would tend, in course of time, to be elaborated. But we have a full statement of the stage it had ^ Satapatha-brahmana vi.i.1.13, and often afterwards. ^ Aitareya Br. xi. 6. 4. ^:- 244 BUDDHIST INDIA reached in the Buddha's time, as set forth by a naked ascetic in a Dialogue he had with Gotama.^ This professor of self-torture enumerates twenty-two methods of self-mortification in respect of food, and thirteen in respect of clothing, and among these the ascetic may make his choice. And he keeps his body under in other ways: " He is a * plucker-out-of-hair-and-beard ' (destroying by a painful process the possibility of pride in mere beauty of appearance) — or he is a * stander-up ' (reject- ing the use of a seat) — or he is a * croucher-down-on- the-heels ' (moving about painfully by jumps) — or he is a * bed-of-thorns-man * (putting thorns or iron spikes under the skin on which he sleeps) — or he sleeps on a plank, or on the bare ground, or always on the same side — or he is * clad-in-dust ' (smearing his naked body with oil and standing where dust clouds blow, he lets dust and dirt adhere to his body)." Later on, in the epic for instance, the list grows longer, the penances harder, the self-torture more revolting. But from this time onwards, down to quite modern times, this tapas, self-mortification, is a permanent idea and practice in the religious life of India. As is well known it is not confined to India. Tennyson, in the monologue of St. Simeon Stylites, has given us a powerful analysis of the sort of feelings that lay at the root of this superstition in the West. But the theological views that give the tone to the Christian saint's self-revelation are very ^ Rh. D. Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. pp. 226-232. RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSITION 245 different from those we find in India. The Indian way of looking at the whole conception is much more akin to the way Diogenes thought when he lived, like a dog, in his tub-kennel. The Greek word cynic is indeed exactly analogous to the Indian expression kukkura-vatikoy ^^ one who behaves like a dog," as applied (quite courteously) to the sophist, the naked ascetic, Seniya.* There is no question here of penance for sin, or of an appeal to the mercy of an offended deity. It is the boast of superiority advanced by the man able, through strength of will, to keep his body under, and not only to despise comfort, but to welcome pain. By this it is not, of course, intended to imply that the Christian did not advance a similar claim. He did. But it was, in his case, overshadowed by other con- siderations which are absent in India. Both in the East and the West the claim was often accepted. We hear a good deal in India of the reverence paid to the man who (to quote the words of a Buddhist poet), ** Bescorched, befrozen, lone in fearsome woods. Naked, without a fire, afire within. Struggled in awful silence toward the goal ! " ' Simeon, by the mere strength of popular acclaim, became a saint, even almost before he died. Diogenes, and his parallel in India, Mahavira, founded important schools which have left their mark on his- tory. And ought we, after all, to be surprised that those who despise earthly comfort, and subject them- * M. I. 387. * M. I. 79 = Jat. I. 390. 246 BUDDHIST INDIA selves to voluntary torture, should be looked upon, with a kind of fearsome awe, as more holy, as better, than other men ? There was some justice in the view. And until experience had shown the other side of the question — the attendant disadvantages, and the inadequate results of strength of will when applied to physical ends — it was inevitable that the self-mastery quite evident in such practices should appeal strongly to the minds of the people. We find the other side put forward in India from two directions, one mainly philosophic, the other mainly ethical. The manner in which both these movements came about was perfectly natural, though it was much influenced by the custom already re- ferred to as peculiar, at that period of the world's history, to India.* Students are often represented as begging, just as students did in Europe in the Middle Ages.^ And we hear of sophists, just as we do in the history of Greek thought. But the pecu- liarity was that, before the rise of Buddhism, it was a prevalent habit for wandering teachers also — and not only students — to beg. Such wandering teachers, who were not necessarily ascetics except in so far as they were celibates, are always repre- sented as being held in high esteem by the people. In the monarchies the royal family, in the clans the community, put up (as we have seen above) public halls where such Wanderers {Paribbajaka) could lodge, and where conversational discussions, open to everyone, were held on philosophic and reHgious ' See above, Chapter VIII. ^Sat. Br. xi, 3. 3. 5; and often later in the law-books. RELIGION— THE BRAHMIN POSITION 247 questions/ The career of such a wandering teacher seems to have been open to anyone, and even to women. And the most perfect freedom, both of thought and of expression, was permitted to them — a freedom probably unequalled in the history of the world. This curious state of things would only have been possible among people of a very fair degree both of average general intelligence and of gentle manners. And just as the Strolling Students in pre-Reforma- tion times throughout Western Europe were both a sign of the coming change, and also helped largely to bring it about, so the conditions which made it possible for the Wanderers in Northern India to live as they did, in pursuit of what they thought to be truth, were the precursors of that movement of thought we now call Buddhism, which the Wan- derers also so largely helped to bring about. The early history of the Wanderers has yet to be written. We hear of a similar custom as already followed in one isolated case by a sacrificing priest. Uddalaka Arurii, of the Gotama family, of whom so many other legends have been preserved, is said to have wandered about the country offering a gold coin, as a lure for the timid, to anyone who, in a disputation on spiritual matters, could prove him wrong.'* When defeated he becomes the pupil of his conqueror. We may point out, in passing, that these " spiritual matters ** are very characteristic of the Brahmanas. * Rh. D. Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 244; and above, p. 141. ^Sat. Br. xi. 4. i. 248 BUDDHIST INDIA When he is being defeated the problems put are such as this: Why are creatures born without teeth, then teeth grow, and when the creatures become old then the teeth decay? The answer of his opponent, the orthodox priest, is: The preliminary offerings of a sacrifice have no formulas of invitation, therefore creatures are born without teeth (!). The chief sac- rifice has, therefore teeth grow (!). The closing acts in the sacrifice have no such formulas, therefore in old age teeth decay (!). Other explanations, equally lucid and convincing, are given for the growth and decay of the procreative power, etc. Such are the deep mysteries Uddalaka S.runi is scoffed at (in the priestly manual which has pre- served this interesting old story) for not knowing. This is a foreshadowing of the well-known Bud- dhist story of the woman sophist who wandered from village to village offering to meet all the world in argument, and when beaten in a disputation, be- came the pupil of her Buddhist conqueror. In the centuries between the date of these two legends the whole system had grown up. But unfortunately there is so little about it in the priestly books that it is not easy to trace its progress. The priests, very naturally, did not like the gradu- ally growing esteem in which a body of men (and women) were held who despised the sacrifice, the source of the priests' income and reputation. But they were quite helpless in the matter. The sacri- fices the priests were ready to offer had entirely lost any significance they may have once possessed as national or tribal ceremonies. They were now merely RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSITION 249 magic rites performed for the benefit of one indi- vidual and at his expense. In the priestly books it is taken for granted that every one entitled to do so is desirous to have the sacrifices performed for him. In actual life there were probably many who gibed at the cost ; and preferred, if they wanted magic, magic of other and cheaper kinds. In any case there was no central organisation of the priesthood ; there were no permanent temples to their gods, and such sacred shrines as the people could frequent were the sacred trees or other objects of veneration belonging to the worship of the local gods, and quite apart from the cultus or the influence of the priests. And the latter were divided against themselves. They vied with one another for sacrificial fees. The demand for their services was insufficient to main- tain them all. Brahmins followed therefore all sorts of other occupations ; and those of them not contin- ually busied about the sacrifice were often inclined to views of life, and of religion, different from the views of those who were. We find brahmins rank- ing tapas, self-torture, above sacrifice. We find brah- mins among those who reckoned insight above either, and who, whether as laymen or as Wander- ers, joined the ranks of the other side. Unable therefore, whether they wanted or not, to stay the progress of newer ideas, the priests strove to turn the incoming tide into channels favorable to their Order. They formulated — though this was some time after the rise of Buddhism — the famous theory of the As' ramus, or Efforts, according to which no 250 BUDDHIST INDIA one could become either a Hermit or a Wanderer without having first passed many years as a student in the brahmin schools, and lived after that the life of a married householder as regulated in the brah- min law-books. It was a bold bid for supremacy. If successful it might have put a stop to the whole movement. But it remained a dead letter — prob- ably always, certainly during the period we are here considering. It is quite true that the priestly man- uals, especially those later than the Christian era, take it as a matter of course that the rule was ob- served. But they do not give us the actual facts of life in India. They give, and are only meant to give, what the priests thought the facts ought to be. And there is ample evidence even in the priestly literature itself of a gradual growth in the theory, of differing views about it, and of its loose hold on the people. I have elsewhere col- lected the evidence, which though most interesting, historically, and quite conclusive, is too long to set out here.* In the second place, the priests, already before the rise of Buddhism, had (as appendices to their sacred books on the sacrifice) short treatises setting out, as the highest truth, those forms of speculation which they held most compatible with their own mysteries. Their procedure, in this respect, was exactly parallel to their treatment of gods not in- cluded in their own pantheon, but too powerful and popular to be left alone. It is quite evident, from the outcome of the whole movement, that there ^ Dialogues of the Buddha^ i, pp. 212-219. RELIGION— THE BRAHMIN POSITION 25 I miist have been other ideas current besides those that the priests thus adapted and handed down in their text-books. And we have valuable evidence, in the lay literature of a later date, as to what these other ideas were, so that in this respect also, as in other matters, the priestly books have preserved an invaluable, but still only a partial, record. The ideas they selected are, as would naturally be expected, those based on the same animistic notions as underlay their own views of the sacrifice. A soul in these texts — the pre-Buddhistic Upanishads — is supposed to exist inside each human body, and to be the sole and sufficient explanation of life and motion. In the living body, in its ordinary state, the soul dwells in a cavity in the heart.* It is described as being in size like a grain of barley or rice.^ It is only in later speculation that it grows to be of the size of the thumb, and to be called therefore *' the dwarf." ^ In shape it is like a man.* Its appearance was evidently found difficult to por- tray, even in simile ; but it is said in different pas- sages to be like smoke-coloured wool, like cochineal, like flame, like a white lotus, like a flash of lightning, like a light without smoke. Beliefs vary as to what it is made of. One passage says it consists of con- sciousness, mind, breath ; eye and ears; earth, water, fire, and ether; heat and no heat; desire and no ^ Brhad. iv. 3. 7, v. 6 ; Chand. viii. 3. 3 ; Tait. i. 6. i. Compare Katha, ii. 20 ; iii. i ; iv. 6 ; vi. 17. ■^ Brhad. v. 6 ; Chand. iii. 14. 3 (this idea is even Vedic). ^ Katha, iv. 12, 13, vi. 17 ; Svet. iii. 13, v. 8. '* Tait, ii. ; Brhad. i. 41 ; Sat. Br. xiv. 4. 2. i. 252 BUDDHIST INDIA desire; anger and no anger; law and no law — in a word, of all things.' We see from this that the soul was supposed to be material — the four elements of matter are there — but selected mental qualities are also in it. In another curious and deeply mystical old text the elements of matter come first, and we are told of five souls, each inside the other, each the same yet different from the one outside it, each of them in shape as a man, and made respectively of food, breath, mind, consciousness, and joy. Certain forms of disease were supposed to be due to the fact that the soul had escaped out of the body ; and charms are recorded for bringing it back.^ In dream sleep also the ^'soul" is away from the body. *' Therefore they say : Let no one wake a man brusquely ; for that is a matter difficult to be cured for him if the soul find not its way back to him." ^ During the dream the soul, after leaving the body, wanders at its will, builds up a world according to its fancy, creates for itself chariots and houses, lakes and rivers, manifold shapes, a gorgeous playground wherein it acts and enjoys and suffers, ** either re- joicing with women, or laughing with its friends, or beholding horrible sights." Till at last, tired out, — just as a falcon after roaming hither and thither in the sky, tired, flaps its wings and is wafted to its nest, — so the soul returns from that playground of his to the body, when in deep, fast sleep it wants no ^ Brhad. iv. 4. 5. See also iii. 7. 14-22. 2 Atharva Veda, v. 29. 5 ; vi. 53. 2 ; vii. 67. Compare Ait. Ar. iii. 2. 4. 7. 3 Brhad. iv. 3. 14. RELIGION— THE BRAHMIN POSITION 253 more, and dreams no more.* It is a charming and beautiful picture. Such dreams are premonitions of good luck or the reverse, which gave rise, in India then, as throughout the world in similar stages of culture, to many foolish fancies. When the soul has come back to the body, which remains recumbent in dreamless sleep, the soul per- vades the whole of it, down to the tips of the hair and nails, by means of seventy-two thousand arteries called Hita (the Good). And oddly enough it is precisely then that the soul is supposed to obtain light.'' We are not told how the soul gets out of, and back into, the body. This is not surprising, for the opin- ions expressed as to how the soul got into its first body — whether at conception or at quickening or at birth — are contradictory. All views on this point were no doubt neither more nor less hazy then in India than they are now in the West. There are passages which suppose the soul to have existed, before birth, in some other body " ; and other pas- sages which suppose it to have been inserted, at the origin of things, into its first body downwards, through the suture at the top of the skull, into the heart.* But there is a passage which affirms that the soul was inserted upwards, through the intes- tines and the belly, into the head. And we find a ' Brhad. iv. 3 ; Chand. viii. 12. 3. ^ Brhad. ii. i. 19, iv. 3. 20; Chand. viii. 6. 3 ; Kaus. iv. 19. ^ Brhad. iii. 2. 13 ; iv. 4. 6. Compare vi. 4, and Ait. Ar. ii. 3. 2, ^ Tait. i. 6. I ; Ait. iii. 12. 254 BUDDHIST INDIA curious speculation, of which there are three variants, on the transfer of the soul by generation, through the seed. One of these is the theory that certain human souls, on going to the moon, become food to the gods there, and are thus united to the gods as a con- sequence of their good deeds. When the efficacy of their good deeds is exhausted, they pass from the gods to the ether, from the ether into the air, from the air into the rain, from the rain on to the earth, from the earth into plants which become food to males, and from the males they pass into females.* At the death of an ordinary man the top part of the heart becomes lighted up, and the soul, guided by that light, departs from the heart into the eye, and through the eye to some other body, exalted or not, according to the deeds the man has done in that body the soul is now leaving. But the soul of the man whose cravings have ceased goes, through the suture of the skull (at the top of the head), to Brahman." In each case there are many stopping, places on the way,^ but the theories differ both about these and about other details. I have discussed these points elsewhere."* And a careful search would no doubt reveal passages even in other parts of the priestly Hterature acknowledging views which do ^ Brhad. vi. 2. i6 ; vi. 3. 13. Comp. Kaus. i. 2 ; Ait. ii. 1-4 ; Ait. Ar. iii. 2. 2. 4. ^ Brhad. iv. 4 ; Kaus. iii. 3 ; Chand. vii. 6. 6 ; Tait. i. 6. i. ^ Brhad. vi. 2 ; Chand. iv. 15 and v. 9. ^ Dialogues of the Buddha^ I. 188, 242 ; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1899, pp. 79, foil. RELIGION — THE BRAHMIN POSITION 255 not happen to be referred to in the older Upan- ishads, but which bear the stamp of great antiquity — such passages as Maha-bharata, xii. 11.704, where we are told that if, as the dying man draws up his knees, the soul goes out of him by way of the knees, then it goes to the Sadhyas. But there is an almost entire unanimity of opinion in these Upanishads that the soul will not obtain release from rebirth either by the performance of sacrifice in this birth or by the practice of penance. It must be by a sort of theosophic or animistic insight, by the perception, the absolute knowledge and certainty, that one*s own soul is identical with the Great Soul, the only permanent reality, the ulti- mate basis and cause of all phenomena. The ideas had therefore just made, at the time when our history begins, a complete circle. The hypothesis of a soul — a material, but very subtle sort of homunculus within the body — had been started to explain the life and motion, sleep and death, of human beings. By analogy, logically enough, it had been extended, ever more and more widely, to explain similar phenomena in the outside world. There must be a soul in the sun. How else could one explain its majestic march across the heavens, evidently purposeful, its rising and its set- ting, its beauty and light and glow? If its action was somewhat mysterious, who was to limit or de- fine the motives of the soul of so glorious a creature ? There was no argument about it. It was taken for granted ; and any one who doubted was simply im- pious. These souls in nature — gods they called 256 BUDDHIST INDIA . them — had, of course, no existence outside the brains of the men who made them. They were logical corollaries of the human soul. And the ex- ternal souls, the gods, were therefore identical in origin and nature with the souls supposed to live in- side human bodies. But the very men who made these external souls, the gods, looked upon them as objective realities, quite different from their own souls. They — the gods — were always changing — that is to say, men*s ideas about them were always changing, moving, being modified. The long history of Indian mythology is the history of such changes, by no means always dependent on theological reas- ons.* And with each change the objective reality of the external souls, the gods, their difference from the souls of men, seemed more clear and certain than ever. Then came the reaction. The gods began, not in popular belief, but among thinkers, to be more and more regarded as identical one with the other until at last, just before Buddhism, the hypothesis was started of a one primeval soul, the world-soul, the Highest soul, the Paramatman, from whom all the other gods and souls had proceeded. There was a deep truth in this daring speculation. But the souls inside men were held in it to be identical with god, the only original and true reality ; whereas, histori- cally speaking, soul was the original idea, and the gods (and god) had grown out of it. We have abundant evidence that this grand gen- eralisation was neither due to the priests who ^ '^^Q. American Lectures^ pp 12-14. RELIGION— THE BRAHMIM POSITION 257 adopted it, nor had its origin in the priestly schools. Precisely as regards the highest point of the general- isation, the very keystone of the arch, the priestly literature has preserved the names of the rajput lay- men who thought it out and taught it to the priests. And among the priests who had the greatest share in adopting it, in procuring admission for it into their sacred books, is mentioned the very Uddalaka Aruni, the Gotama, whose defeat in argument on " spiritual matters '* has been recorded above. When this point had been reached, speculation on the basis of the soul theory could go no further. The only modification possible was in the ideas as to the nature and qualities of the souls, internal and external, and as to the relations between them. And to this point speculation reached, but later, and less clearly, in China also, and in Greece. But it was in India, and in India only, that the further step was taken, by Gotama the rajput and his dis- ciples, to abandon the soul theory altogether ; and to build up a new philosophy (whether right or wrong is not here the question) on other considera- tions in which soul or souls played no part at all. That this thoroughgoing and far-reaching step was taken by laymen should not surprise us. To suppose that the Indians were more superstitious at that time than other folk, more under the thumb of their priests, is to misunderstand the evidence. On the contrary there was a well-marked lay feeling, a real sense of humour, a strong fund of common-sense, a wide-spread feeling, in all such matters, of courtesy and liberality. How otherwise can we explain the 17 258 BUDDHIST INDIA fact, already pointed out, of the most complete and unquestioned freedom, both of thought and expres- sion, which the world had yet witnessed ? We shall probably be ignoring an important factor in the history of the time if we omit to notice that this state of things was due, in great part, to the very easy and simple economic conditions of those days. CHAPTER XIV CHANDRAGUPTA WE have sketched in the opening chapters the poUtical divisions of India at the time of the rise of Buddhism. We know, whether from native or foreign sources, very little of what hap- pened during the century and a half that followed after the Buddha's death. When the curtain rises again it shows considerable changes in the picture. But the new picture is in harmony with the old ; the principal figures and most of the minor ones are the same ; and the changes in their position can be fairly understood in the light of their previous relations. In the middle of the seventh century B.C., the paramount power was the great kingdom of Kosala, then at the height of its prosperity, under Pasenadi*s father, the Great Kosalan (Mahakosala), whose do- minions extended from the mountains to the Ganges, and from the Kosala and Ramaganga rivers on the west to the Gandak on the east. West and south of it a number of small kingdoms maintained their inde- pendence. Eastward Kosala had already extended its suzerainty over the Sakiyas ; but was stopped in 259 260 BUDDHIST INDIA its further advance by the powerful confederation of the Licchavis. South of these, again, a death-struggle was going on between the two smaller kingdoms of Magadha and Champa. This was decided in the time of the Buddha's boyhood by the final victory of Magadha. And the rising of this new star in the extreme south-east was the most interesting factor in the older picture. The new picture, as shown to us in the Ceylon Chronicles and in the Greek accounts of India, espe- cially in those fragments that have survived of the Indika of Megasthenes (300 B.C.), shows us Magadha triumphant. The free clans and the great kingdom of Kosala have been absorbed by it. One by one the kingdoms to the south and west of what had been Kosala have acknowledged its supremacy. In distant Punjab and Ujjen viceroys from Magadha administer the government. And for the first time in the history of India there is one authority from Afghanistan across the continent eastward to Ben- gal, and from the Himalayas down to the central Provinces. We shall probably never know — unless the ancient sites in India shall one day, like those in Assyria and Egypt, be excavated and explored — how these great changes came actually to be brought about. But the two sets of authorities just referred to (which are quite independent one of another, and yet confirm one another in the most important mat- ters) are conclusive evidence that the changes had actually taken place. Taken separately, each of these authorities is CHANDRAG UP TA 26 1 open to serious objections. The Chronicles have all the advantages, but also all the disadvantages, that belong to chronicles written by monks, whether in the East or the West. And the Greek accounts are in various ways rendered less useful than they might otherwise have been. The work of Megasthenes has been lost. The fragments that survive in quotations by later authors have been collected by Schwanbeck, and translated in Mr. McCrindle's excellent work, Ancient India, Where what is evidently intended to be a quotation from the same paragraph of Megasthenes is found in more than one of the later Greek authors, the various presentations of it do not, in several cases, agree. This makes it certain that these quotations do not always give the exact words of Megasthenes, and throws considerable doubt on the correctness of those quotations which, being found in one author only, cannot be so tested. A number of these quota- tions contain statements that are glaringly absurd — accounts of gold-digging ants, men with ears large enough to sleep in, men without any mouths, with- out noses, with only one eye, with spider legs, or with fingers turning backwards. Strabo calls these stories mendacious. But they are evidence, rather, of the small amount of critical judgment possessed by Megasthenes; and also, be it said, by the other Greek writers who chose precisely these foolish puerilities as the portions of Megasthenes they thought it important to repeat. There remain a few pages which, when the mistakes have been cor- rected, afford a residuum of sober information, all of 262 BUDDHIST INDIA it interesting, and some of it not found elsewhere. Perhaps the most important is the all-too-short de- scription of Pataliputta, the capital of Magadha, at which Megasthenes resided. "The greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra, in the dominions of the Prasians, where the streams of the Erannoboas [this a Greek corruption of Hirannavati] and the Ganges unite. . . . Megas- thenes informs us that this city stretched in the inhabited quarters to an extreme length on each side of 80 stadia [nearly 10 miles], and that its breadth was fifteen stadia [nearly 2 miles], and that a ditch encompassed it all round, 600 feet in breadth and 30 cubits in depth, and that the wall was crowned with 570 towers and four-and- sixty gates. The same writer tells us this remarkable fact about India, that all the Indians are free, and that not one of them is a slave." * These particulars about the size and the fortifica- tions of Pataliputta in ^OO B.C. are new ; and are, no doubt, also true. The number of towers allows one to every seventy-five yards, so that archers, in the towers, could cover the space intervening between any two. The number of gates would allow one to each 660 yards, which is quite a probable and con- venient distance. The extent of the fortifications is indeed prodigious. Ten miles, along the river, is just the distance from the Tower of London to Hammer- smith Bridge ; or, if taken in a straight line, is the distance from Greenwich to Richmond ; and from the river at the Chelsea Embankment to the Marble Arch is just two miles, south to north. All of * Arrian, Ind.^ ch. x. CHANDRAGUPTA 263 London from the Tower to the Houses of Parliament, and from the river to the Hampstead Hills, would occupy about the same space. But, as we have seen, the native records confirm the impression that then, as now, Indian towns tended to cover a vast extent. And we may probably accept the estimate made by Megasthenes of the size of the city wherein he dwelt. The statement about slavery is odd. The distinct and unanimous testimony of all the Indian evidence is decisive that the status of slavery was then an actual factor of Indian life, though not a very im- portant one. When the Greek writer states, so emphatically, the contrary, one can only say that he is mistaken in the main fact, and that his evidence only shows how very little the sort of slavery then existing in India would strike a foreigner accustomed to the sort of slavery then existing in Greece. Then Megasthenes says that the population of India was divided into seven classes as follows : 1. Philosophers. 2. Husbandmen. 3. Herdsmen. 4. Artisans. 5. Soldiers. 6. Spies. 7. Councillors. ** No one is allowed to marry out of his own class, or to exercise any calling or art except his own.* A ' Strabo, xv. 49. has in place of this last clause, " or to exchange one profession for another, or to follow more than one business. An exception is made in favour of the philosopher, who for his virtue is allowed this privilege." 264 BUDDHIST INDIA soldier, for instance, cannot become a husbandman, or an artisan a philosopher/* * Here again Megasthenes is inaccurate. There were customs of endogamy and exogamy, and of a man following his father's trade ; but not those that he specifies. He has got his classes all wrong. There were many others he does not mention ; and those he does did not form real groups, either accord- ing to the marriage customs of India, or according to the habits of the people as to occupation. The true account of the matter has been given above at page 55. It is precisely in the details of such a subject that a foreigner, especially if he could not speak the language, is likely to have gone astray. With the official life, on the other hand, he would probably be better acquainted. And this is what Megasthenes says on that point : " Of the great officers of state some have charge of the market, others of the city, others of the soldiers. Some superintend the rivers [canals ?], — measuring the land as is done in Egypt, — and inspect the sluices by which water is let out from the main canals into their branches, so that every one may have an equal supply of it. " The same persons have charge also of the huntsmen [surely only the royal huntsmen], and are entrusted with the power of rewarding or punishing them according to their deserts. "They collect the taxes, and superintend the occupa- tions connected with land [that is, no doubt, look after the royal dues arising out of them], as those of woodcut- ters, carpenters, blacksmiths, and miners. They con- * Diodorus Siculus, iii. 63. CHANDRAGUPTA 265 Struct roads, and at every ten stadia set up a pillar to show the byroads and distances/ ** Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of five each. The members of the first look after everything related to the industrial arts. " Those of the second look after the entertainment of foreigners. To these they assign lodgings ; and they keep watch over their modes of life by means of those persons whom they give to them as servants. They escort them on the way when they leave the country; or, in the event of their dying, they forward their pro- perty to their relatives. They take care of them when they are sick, and, if they die, bury them. " The third body consists of those who inquire when and how births and deaths occur, with a view not only of levying a tax, but also in order that births and deaths among high and low may not escape the cognisance of Government. " The fourth class superintends trade and commerce. Its members have charge of weights and measures, and see that the products, in their season, are sold by public notice.^ No one is allowed to deal in more than one kind of commodity unless he pays a double tax. " The fifth class supervises manufactured articles, which they sell by public notice. What is new is sold separately from what is old; there is a fine for mixing the two together. " The sixth and last class consists of those who col- ' Ten stadia is 2022|- yards. This is, within a few yards, the sixth part of 2i yojana^ the common Indian measure of length at that time. ^ This is very obscure. The words seem to imply either that sale was usually not by private barter, but by auction, or that sales took place through advertisement. Neither of these statements would be correct. See Chapter VI. on economic conditions. 266 BUDDHIST INDIA lect the tenths of the prices of the articles sold. Fraud in the payment of this tax is punished with death." There follows in the quotations a superficial ac- count of the organisation of the army which is scarcely worth quoting. But the figures given are interesting: "The king [of the Palibothri] has in his pay a standing army of 60,000 foot soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, and 8000 elephants ; whence may be formed some conjecture as to the vastness of his resources." Pliny, in what is evidently an echo of the same paragraph, gives the numbers as 600,000, 30,000, and 9000. But the first of these is clearly a mis- take, and very probably only a copyist's error.* The same writer has preserved a tradition as to the num- bers of the armies of other Indian kings at the same period. It is, no doubt, derived from Megasthenes, and the numbers as follows : Kalinga, 60,000 foot, 10,000 horse, 700 elephants. Talukta, 50,000 " 4,000 " 700 Andhra, 100,000 " 2,000 " 1,000 It will be noticed that with a curious equality in infantry, the forces of Magadha show a great super- iority in cavalry, and in elephants-of-war. This is probably correct, as the unanimous testimony of the Indian records ascribes the pre-eminence in the training of horses to the districts in the extreme north and west, which then belonged to Magadha, and the pre-eminence in the training of elephants lo the east, which is precisely Magadha. This use ' Pliny, Hist, Nat. vi. 21. 9-23. See the statement below. CHA NDRA G UP TA 26/ of elephants in war, I may observe in passing, may have been an important factor in the gradual rise of Magadha to the supreme power. It would, of course, be a very serious error to regard Chandragupta as the founder of this suprem- acy of Magadha. When Alexander invaded the north-west of India he was informed that the then emperor at Magadha (who must have been Dhana Nanda, the predecessor of Chandragupta) had an army of 200,000 foot, 20,000 cavalry, 2COO war-chari- ots, and 4000 elephants-of-war.* It had certainly then already absorbed Kosala, and probably also other kingdoms to the south and west of Kosala. Chandragupta added the Panjab and the provinces along the Indus down to its mouth. It was from the Panjab that he, favoured by the disorder result- ing from Alexander's invasion, recruited the nucleus of the force with which he besieged and conquered Dhana Nanda. Whether the southern Indus pro- vinces were then also under his sway we do not know, but Pliny, doubtless referring to his time, says that the Magadha empire extended right up to the river.' He may have subdued them afterwards, at the same time as he conquered the peninsula of Gujarat, where, as we learn from Rudra-daman's inscription, a viceroy of his was in possession. The ancient kingdom of Avanti, with its capital Ujjeni, had probably, before his time, been already incorporated into the Empire. Chandragupta thus found himself strong enough * Diod. xvii. 93 ; Curtius, ix. 2 ; Plutarch, Alex, 62, "^ Hist. Nat. vi. 22. 5. 268 BUDDHIST INDIA to withstand even the Greeks. At the end of the fourth century B.C. Seleukos Nikator, then at the height of his power, attempted to rival Alexander by invading India. But he met with a very different foe. Alexander found a succession of small king- doms and republics, whose mutual jealousies more than counterbalanced the striking bravery of their forces, and enabled him to attack and defeat them one by one. Seleukos found the consolidated and organised empire of Magadha, against which all his efforts were in vain. After an unsuccessful campaign he was glad to escape by ceding all his provinces west of the Indus, including Gedrosia and Arachosia (about equal to the Afghanistan of to-day), and by giving his daughter in marriage to the victorious Emperor of India in exchange for five hundred elephants-of-war. It was then that Megasthenes was sent as ambassa- dor to Pataliputta. And with the princess and her suite, and the ambassador and his, not to speak of the Greek artists and artisans employed at the court, there must have been quite a considerable Greek community, about 300 B.C., at the distant city on the southern bank of the Ganges, whose foundations, as a mere fort, were being laid by the brahmin minister of the then king of Magadha, when the great Ind- ian Teacher was starting on his last journey a few months before his death. But the Greek commun- ity cared little for these things ; and, so far as we know, Megasthenes, in his account of India, has not a word about the Buddha or his system. The deep impression made by Chandragupta's CHANDRAGUPTA 269 marvellous career, in which he worked his way up from the position of a robber chief on the frontier to the mightiest throne then existing in the world, is reflected in the legendary nature of all the accounts that have reached us — Greek, 'Buddhist, and Hindu. He has suffered the fate of other great conquerors and rulers ; and like Alexander and Charlemagne, has become the hero of popular romance. The reader will recollect how such popular romance has woven a story about our King Alfred the Great, when a defeated refugee, and a peasant woman and her cakes. Just such an anecdote has been told of Chandragupta in the commentary on the Great Chronicle of Ceylon : '*In one of these villages a woman [by whose hearth Chandragupta had taken refuge] baked a chupatty * and gave it to her child. He, leaving the edges, ate only the centre, and, throwing the edges away, asked for another cake. Then she said, * This boy's conduct is like Chandagutta's attack on the kingdom.' The boy said, * Why, Mother, what am I doing, and what has Chandagutta done ? * * Thou, my dear,' said she, * throwing away the outside of the cake, eatest the middle only. So Chandagutta, in his ambition to be a monarch, without beginning from the frontiers, and tak- ing the towns in order as he passed, has invaded the heart of the country . . . and his army is surrounded and destroyed. That was his folly.' " ^ And Chandragupta overheard, and learnt the * Literally *' a frying-pan-cake," {kapalla piiva). See Jat. I. 345-7. ' Mahavamsa Tika, p. 123 (Colombo edition, 1895). 270 BUDDHIST INDIA lesson, and prospered. So also the future sovereign is made to owe his success, throughout the long series of adventures, defeats, and victories, of in- trigues, murders, and treasons, which led him to the throne, to the constant advice and aid of a brahmin, nicknamed Chanakya, as deformed in body as he was depraved at heart (or, perhaps, we should rather say that he was, like the gods, not so much immoral as unmoral). Justin (xv. 4), on Greek authority, tells two graceful stories of the effect upon animals of the marvellous nature of the king. Once, when, as a fugitive from his foes, he lay down overtaken, not by them, but by sleep, a mighty lion came and ministered to him by licking his exhausted frame. And again, when he had collected a band of follow- ers, and went forth once more to the attack, a wild elephant came out of the jungle, and bent low to receive Chandragupta on his back. It is curious that in the extant priestly literature Chandragupta is completely ignored for about ten centuries. In spite of his friendship with the brah- min Chanakya, he belonged to, and indeed had the insolence to found, the hated Moriya dynasty, to which, later on, Buddhism owed so much. But the memory of him, or at least of the popular romance attached to him, must have been kept very much alive among the peoples of India. For in the eighth century of our era, a layman, the author of a famous Sanskrit drama, the Mudra-rakshasa, takes that ro- mance as his plot. He gives a number of details out of which Lassen already, half a century ago, tried, with the help of other traditions, to unravel the CHANDRAGUP TA 271 nucleus of historic fact.^ He succeeded very well in doing so, but perhaps the most suggestive fact we may learn from the play is, that in spite of the brah- mins, the memory of Chandragupta had survived, in the people*s hearts, all through that long interval of priestly silence — another proof, if any were needed, that it is not very wise to trust altogether exclusively to brahmin evidence. * Indische Altherthutnskunde^ 2nd Ed., pp. 205-222. CHAPTER XV ASOKA CHANDRAGUPTA, aided very largely by the previous organisation of the great empire of Magadha, was able, once he had gained the mastery, not only to remain in possession for the long period of twenty-four years (about B.C. 322-298), but to hand on the empire, with enlarged territory, to his son, Bindusara. Of him we know almost nothing. The Ceylon Chronicles merely say that he reigned for twenty-eight years, and the Greeks, who call him Amitrochates (that is, Amitra-ghata, foe-destroyer, no doubt an official title), only tell us that Deima- chos was sent to him as ambassador by Antiokhos, and Dionysios by Ptolemy Philadelphos. A few sent- ences from the pen of the former are still extant. When he died, about 270 B.C., he was succeeded by his son, Asoka, then the Magadha viceroy at Ujjeni, of whom the Ceylon Chronicles and other Buddhist writings, and his own inscriptions, tell us so much. The Greeks do not mention him, and the brahmin records completely ignore him until the time when, ten or twelve centuries afterwards, all 272 ASOKA 273 danger of his influence had passed definitely away. They then go so far as to include his name among others in a list of kings. When this was done the authors of it had no access to the Buddhist writings, and could not read the inscriptions. It follows that the tradition had been carried down, all the time, in the brahmin schools, though not one word about it had been allowed to transpire. At the beginning of the researches by European scholars the Cevlon Chronicles were of most service. As I have said elsewhere : ** When in the thirties that most gifted and original of Indian archaeologists, James Prinsep, — clarum et venera- bile noinen^ — was wearing himself out in his enthusiastic efforts to decipher the coins and inscriptions of India, whilst the very alphabets and dialects were as yet uncer- tain, he received constant help from George Turnour of the Ceylon Civil Service. For in Ceylon there was a history, indeed several books of history; whereas in Cal- cutta the native records were devoid of any reliable data to help in the identification of the new names Prinsep thought he could make out. It is not too much to say that without the help of the Ceylon books the striking identification of the KingPiyadassi of the inscriptions with the King Asoka of history would never have been made. Once made, it rendered subsequent steps comparatively easy; and it gave to Prinsep and his coadjutors just that encouragement, and that element of certainty, which were needed to keep their enthusiasm alive." * So Prinsep read the inscriptions. Building on the foundation that he laid, we can read them * American Lectures^ p. 46. x8 2/4 BUDDHIST INDIA better now. But we are not likely to forget the genial scholar whose noble life was sacrificed in the seemingly impossible task of laying those foundations. Now that we have the contempor- ary records in all their simplicity, and redolent of the time, the picturesque accounts, written six centuries or more afterwards, by well-meaning members of the Buddhist Order, who were think- ing the while, not of historical criticism, but of religious edification, seem of poor account. It may be human to kick down the ladder by which one has just climbed up. But we need not do so, in this case, with too great violence. We may want it again. And it jars upon the reader to hear the Chronicles called the mendacious fictions of unscrupulous monks. Such expressions are in- accurate ; and they show a grave want of appre- ciation of the points worth considering. Just as in the case of Megasthenes, or of the early Eng- lish chroniclers, so also in the case of the Ceylon chroniclers it would be unreasonable to expect that sort of historical training which is of quite recent growth even in Europe. The Ceylon Chron- icles would not suffer in comparison with the best of the Chronicles, even though so consider- ably later in date, written in England or in France. The opinion of scholars as to the attitude to be adopted towards such works is quite unanimous. The hypothesis of deliberate lying, of conscious forgery, is generally discredited. What we find in such chronicles is not, indeed, sober history, as we should now understand the term, but neither ASOKA 275 is it pure fiction. It is good evidence of opinion as held at the time when it was written. And from the fact that such an opinion was then held we can argue back, according to the circumstances of each case, to what was probably the opinion held at some earlier date. No hard words are needed : and we may be unfeignedly grateful to these old students and writers for having preserved as much as we can gather from their imperfect records.* It may be asked, perhaps, why we do not try to save the intellectual effort necessary to balance probabilities in later accounts that cannot be en- tirely trusted, by confining ourselves exclusively to the contemporary documents, the inscriptions? The answer is that such a method would be absurd ; it would not even save trouble. The inscriptions are scanty. The text of all of them together would barely occupy a score of these pages. They give only a limited view of the set of circumstances they deal with. Royal proclamations, and official statements, are not usually regarded as telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To put it mildly, there is an economy of candour in these documents, intensely interesting though they are. And they are enigmatic. It is not pos- sible to understand them without the light thrown upon them by the later accounts. It would only add to their difficulty to reject, for instance, the identification of the Piyadassi of the inscriptions ' See now on these Chronicles Professor Geiger's important re- searches in his Dlpavawsa und Mahdvamsa. Erlangen, 1902. 276 BUDDHIST INDIA with the Asoka of the literature, or the fact of his relationship to Chandragupta, or of his capital having been at Pataliputta, or any other of the numerous side-lights to be drawn from the Chroni- cles. As M. Senart says : " I believe that the Chronicles have, in certain details, under the name of Asoka, preserved of our Piyadasi recollections sufficiently exact, not only to allow a substantial agreement {une concordance sensi- ble) to appear, but even to contribute usefully to the intelligence of obscure passages in our monuments."* Besides numerous passages scattered through other books (which have not yet been collected) we have four connected narratives dealing with Asoka. These are : (1). The Asoka Avadana, in Buddhist Sanskrit, preserved in Nepal. (2). The Dlpavarnsa, in Pali, preserved in Burma. (3). Buddaghosa's account in his commentary on the Vinaya. (4). The Mahavarnsa, in Pali, preserved in Ceylon. Of these the first was composed in the Ganges valley. The author and date are unknown ; but it is probably as late as the third century of our era. It forms one of a collection of legends called the Divyavadana. The exact force of this title is some- what ambiguous. Avadana means a story, but as it is used exclusively of the life-story of a person dis- tinguished in the religion, the collection corresponds to the VitcB Sanctorum of the Christian Church. We * Inscription de Piyadasi^ 2. 231. ASOJCA 277 know so little, as yet, of the literature in Buddhist Sanskrit that we cannot form any clear idea of the method by which the tradition it has preserved was handed down. It is otherwise with the other three. We know that there were two great monasteries at Anuradha- pura in Ceylon, the Great Minster and the North Minster. There the canonical books were handed down, in Pali ; and commentaries upon them, in Sinhalese, interspersed with mnemonic verses in Pali. In the third century of our era some one col- lected such of these Pali verses as referred to the history of Ceylon, piecing them together by other verses to make a consecutive narrative. He called his poem, thus constructed, the Dipa-vamsa^ the Island Chronicle, The old verses w^ere atrocious Pali, and the new ones added are not much better. Then, as the old ones were taken, not from one commentary only, but from several, we get the same episode repeated in different verses. Added to this the work was supplanted in Ceylon by the much better-written book called the Mahd-vamsa^ or Great Chronicle ; and was completely lost there. The present text, which is corrupt, has been restored, in the excellent edition by Professor Oldenberg, from MSS., all of which are derived from a single copy that had been preserved in Burma. Shortly after the Island Chronicle was composed, the celebrated Buddhaghosa, a brahmin from Behar, came over to Ceylon, and rewrote in Pali the old Sinhalese commentaries. His work supplanted the latter, which are now lost, and is the only evidence 278 BUDDHIST INDIA we have of the nature of the ancient tradition. He quotes, from the old Sinhalese commentary, a num- ber of the mnemonic verses also contained in the Island Chronicle, and gives us, in Pali, the substance of the Sinhalese prose with which they had originally been accompanied. A generation afterwards Mahanama wrote his great work, the Mahd-vainsa. He was no historian, and had, besides the material used by his two pre- decessors, only popular legends to work on. But he was a literary artist, and his book is really an epic poem of remarkable merit, with the national idol, Dushta Gamini, the conqueror of the invading hosts of the Tamils, as its hero. What he says of other kings, and of Asoka amongst them, is only by way of introduction, or of epilogue, to the main story. I have compared historically the various versions of one episode in these and other narratives (that of Asoka and the Buddha relics),* and have shown how interesting are the results to be derived from that method. To retell such an episode in one's own words may be a successful literary effort, but it would be of no historical value. It would give us merely a new version, and a version that had not been believed anywhere, at any time, in India. By the historical method, a few facts of importance may yet be gathered from amidst the poetical rever- ies of these later authors. So, for instance, the tradition — Indian of course in origin, but preserved in Nepal — states that Asoka's mother was the daughter of a brahmin living in ^ y, R. A. s., 1901, pp. 397-410. Fig. 46.— details of the sculptures on the gates of sanchi tope. 279 28o BUDDHIST INDIA Champa. This may well be so. We hear nothing of his youth or early training. The Ceylon books all say that at the time of his father's death he was holding the position of viceroy at Ujjeni, and that he had there married a local lady residing at Vedisa, afterwards the site of the celebrated building now known as the Sanchi Tope. They had two children, a son, Mahinda, and a daughter, Sanghamitta. But as this was really a mesalliance, the lady being only of a merchant's family, she was left behind when Asoka left Ujjeni to go to Pataliputta and there se- cure the succession. All the accounts agree that this was no easy task. His elder brother, the viceroy of Takka-sila in the Panjab, opposed him, and it was only after a severe struggle, and not without bloodshed, including the death of his brother, that Asoka made his way to the throne. The details of the struggle differ in the different stories, and there is a passing expression in one of the Edicts (all the more valuable because it is incidental) of brothers of the King being still alive well on in his reign.* On the whole, I am inclined to believe that the tradition of a disputed succession is founded on fact. The Chronicles say that Asoka was not formally anointed king till between the fourth and the fifth year after Bindusara*s death, and the language of the Edicts, which are dated? whenever they are dated, from the formal anointing, and not from the succession, would harmonise with this. Of the events of the first few years after Asoka's 1 Rock Edict, No. 5. Fig. 47. — DETAILS OF THE SCULPTURES ON THE GATES OF SANCHI TOPE. 281 282 BUDDHIST INDIA reign we have no information. In the ninth year a war broke out between Magadha and Kalinga, per- haps the then most powerful kingdom in India still independent of the empire ruled over by Asoka. Of the rights and wrongs of the dispute we cannot judge. Our sole information comes from one side only, and is an incidental reference in the thirteenth Edict, published by Asoka five years afterwards. In that document the King states that it was the remorse and pity aroused in his mind by the horrors of the conquest — the killing, death by disease, and forcible carrying away of individuals, to which non- combatants and even peaceable brahmins and re- cluses were exposed — that resulted in his conversion. He does not say to what. That, apparently, was supposed to be quite clear to any one. It was suffi- cient to say that he had come to the opinion that the only true conquest was conquest by the religion (by the Dhamma). We are told, by the King himself, of three stages in his conversion. The Rupnath Edict is of about the same date as the last, but perhaps a little earlier, say the thirteenth year after his being form- ally anointed, or, as we should say, crowned — that is, in the seventeenth year after he became dejiire the king. There he says that for two and a half years he had been a lay disciple (an updsakd)^ but had not developed much zeal ; but one year before (before the date of the Edict) he had entered the Order, and begun to show greater zeal. Then in the eighth Rock Edict he declares that in the thirteenth year after his coronation he had set out for the Sambodhi Fig. 48. — REAR VIEW OF THE NORTHERN GATE OF SANCHI TOPE. 283 284 BUDDHIST INDIA — that IS to say, he had set out, along the Aryan Eightfold Path, towards the attainment (if not in his present life then in some future birth as a man) of the state of mind called Arahatship.* So in the ninth year of his reign an Upasaka, in the eleventh year a Bhikshu, in the thirteenth, still reaching up- ward, he enters the Path. This is his own account of the matter, and he gives no one else any credit for his progress. It is not by any suggestion or instruction, received either from layman or recluse, that he has adopted this course. It is his own doing throughout. The Chron- iclers profess to know the name of the bhikshu who was instrumental in his conversion. I am not pre- pared to say, though their evidence is so much later, that there may not be some truth in their view. It is quite true that it is sound Buddhist doctrine that each man is ** to be a lamp unto himself, to hold fast as a refuge to the truth [the Dhamma], to look not for refuge to any one besides himself."'* But it is so very likely that one factor at least in the King's change of heart may have been the exhortation or conversation of one or other of the Arahats, that we may suppose both accounts to have been right. It is strange for a king, whether in India or in Europe, to devote himself strenuously to the higher life at all. It is doubly strange that, in doing so, he should select a system of belief where salvation, independent * See, on this meaning of the word sambodhi, fny Dialogues of the Buddha^ i. 190-192. ^ Book of the Great Decease^ iii. 33, translated in my Buddhist Suttas^ p. 38. Fig. 49. — JAIN TEMPLE AT KHUJARAO. 285 286 BUDDHIST INDIA of any belief in a soul, lay in self-conquest. No ordinary man would have so behaved ; and the result must have been due mainly to his own character, his firmness of purpose, his strong individuality. But he was quite incapable of inventing the system. We know it had existed long before. And it is not probable that those who had already trained them- selves in it were wholly without influence upon him. Henceforward he devoted his great energy, and the 'powerful resources of his wide empire to the realisation of his new ideals. To that end all his edicts were published, all the changes, he made in the administration of his empire were directed, and enormous sums were lavished in the erection of costly buildings in aid of the new faith. It is char- acteristic that he says not a word of these last. To his mind it was apparently the teaching that was so much the most important thing that it swallowed up every other consideration. But the unanimous testi- mony of all the later traditions, confirmed as it is by the actual remains discovered, leaves no doubt upon the point. It is true that no building erected by Asoka re- mains intact above ground, but an inscription of his has been found at Sanchi, and it is the unanimous opinion of scholars that he built the first temple at Bodh Gaya. Sanchi, the old name of which is Chetiya Giri (the Hill with the Shrine upon it), must have been a famous place before Asoka went to Ujjeni. There are no less than eleven topes on the plateau at the top of the hill. Some of them were opened in 1822 and the rest in 185 1. At the second excav- o H < ai O H yj W Ptj (i3 oi O PQ u H pu o H H CO t— I a Q Q PQ H ; o as o a u z '/ Mitra, a god, 236 Moggallana, 288 Moon, as a god, 219 Mora-nivapa, 142 Mortgage, not allowed, 46 Mote Halls, in the old republics, 19; in heaven, 66 Mother Earth, 47, 219, 220 Mountains, Spirit of the, 220 N Nagas, siren-serpents, 220-224, 233. 235 Nalanda, in Magadha, 103 Nikayas, the five, 168; differ in doctrine, 173; age of, 176; im- portance of, 187; tree-worship in, 226 Nirvana, under the tree, 231 Northern and Southern Budd- hism, discussion of the phrase, 171-173 O Occupation, facility of change of, 56, 57 Octroi duties, 98 Oldenberg, Professor, 181 yOphir, perhaps - SovTra, 38 v/Order, the Buddhist, 304, 316 Orissa, 29 Ossian, 181 i INDEX 329 Painting, 96 Paithana, see Patitthana Pajapati, the god, 235 Pajjota, king of Avant, 3 foil. \/ Pali, its relation to Sanskrit, 120-153 ; the Pali literature, 161 foil. Text Society, 163 Panca-nekayika, 168 Panchalas, ancient tribes, 27, 203 Pandyas, 298, 311 yPanini, 144, 203 Pafijab, 260, 267 Paramatta, the god, 224, 256 Paramitas, the ten, a late doc- trine, 177 Parantapa, king at Kosambi, 7 Parasariya, a brahmin teacher, 144 Parayana, sixteen lyrics, 178 Pasenadi, king of Kosala, 3, 8- II, 19 Pataliputta, capital of Magadha, 203; its size and fortifications, 262 Patimokkha, rules of the order, learnt by heart, 11 1 Patitthana, 30, 103, 311 Pava, a capital of the Mallas, 26 Payaga, 30 Peasantry, social position of, 51 Peppe, Mr., his discovery of the Sakiya Tope, 84, 130, 131 Petakin, one who knows a Pit- aka, 167 Peta Vallhu, the book, age of, 176 Phallus- worship, 165 Philpot, Mrs., 224 Pindola, a recluse, 7 Pingalaka, a king, 176 Pippal tree, 230, 234 Pischel, Professor, 148, 154 Piyadassi, name of Asoka, 273- 276 Police, 21, 98, 108 Population in ancient India, 18, 33 Potters, 54, 55, 92 Prakrit, meaning of the term, and date of, 154 Prices of commodities, 101 Prinsep, his first readings of the Asoka inscriptions, 273 Progressive societies, 238, 239 Pukkusati, king of Gandhara, 28 R Rainy season, 112 Raja, meaning of the word on old documents, 19 Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, ^^\ 37 Rajasthan, dialects of, 32 Rajasuya sacrifices, 203 Rama-gama, 290 Rama-ganga river, 259 Ramayana, geography of, 31, 34; place of origin of, 183 Rapson, Mr., 136 Republics, in ancient India, i, 2; organisation of, 17 foil.: their Mote Halls, 18 ; consuls in the, 19; list of names of, 22 Rhys-Davids, Mrs., on economic conditions, 87; on the Attha SalinT, 175; on the meaning of Dhamma, 292 Riddles of Sakka, an old Sut- tanta, 180 ig Veda, 30, 46, 213, 223, 226, 232, 236, 242 Roruka, later Roruva, capital of Sovira, 38 Rudradaman's inscription, 28, 134, 267 A /Sacrifice, brahmin theory of, 240-242; lay view, of 248, 249; Asoka's view of, 296 Sagala, capital of the Maddas, 38 Sailors, 94 Sakas. 312 foil. Saketa, town in Kosala, 39, 103 330 INDEX y ^^' Sakiyas, the clan, 17 foil.; Vidu- dabha's campaign against, 1 1 ; pride of, 11; the Sakiya tope, 17, 90, 100, 130, 133; subject to Kosala, 259 Sakka, the god, the riddles he asked, 180; takes the place of Indra, 234 Samajja, 185 Samaratl, queen of the Vacchas, 7 Sambodhi, 282 Sanam Kumara, the god, 224 Sanchi Tope, ig8, 288 Sanitary arrangements, 78 Sankara, 156, 187 ^ Sanskrit, Indian use of the term, 154; its relation to Pali, 128- 139; date of the use of, in India, 134-136, 315, 316; com- pared to Latin, 136, 137; was it a spoken language? 148, 149, 154; its alphabets, 155; of the schools, 211 Sariputta, 169, 288 Satrajjs, 312-314 Savatthi, in Nepal, capital of Kosala, 25, 40, 103, 290 Scrollwork, along buildings, 77 Seleukos Nikator, 268 Self-torture, see Tapas Semitic alphabets, 114 Senart, on caste, 62 ; on the Gosinga anthology, 124 ; on the Asoka inscriptions, 132 ; on the post-Asoka inscriptions, 152; on the Jataka verses, 205; on the Ceylon chronicles, 276 Seniya, an ascetic, 245 Setavya, in Kosala, 103 Seven-storied buildings, 70 Sigalovada Suttanta, 185 Silas, a tract, 107, 215 Singhalese, the so-called canon of the, 171 ; commentaries, 201, 207 SirT, the goddess of luck, 217 Sisunaga, king of Magadha, ^ makes Vesali the capital, 37 Sirva, the god, 166 Sivi, the country, 28 Slaves in ancient India, origin, position, and numbers of, 55, 263 Smith, Mr. Vincent, 315 Social grades in ancient India, 52-62 VSoma, the intoxicating drink, as god, 219, 231, 235 Sona, the river, 24 Sophists, 246, 248 Soul-theories, souls in trees, 227 ; size and shape of the soul, 251 ; absent in disease and sleep, 252 South India, not mentioned in the Buddhist canon, 29-32, 174 Sovira, the country, 29, 38, 104 ; the port, 116 Spelling, in Indian inscriptions, compared with English, 132- 135 Spiritual matters, 247, 257 Stars, beliefs about, 6 Stonework, 66, 90 Strabo, 260 foil. Stylites, St. Simeon, 244 Suddhodana,the Buddha's father, . 19 Sudras, their position among the Colours, 54 ; fate of learned, 118 Suicide, 109 Sumana, princess in Kosala, 10 Sun-god, 197, 219, 255 Supparaka, the seaport, 31, 38, 116 Sura, intoxicating drink, 204 Surasenas, ancient tribe, 27 Sutta, as name of book or chap- ter, 168, 169 Sutta Nipata, growth of, 177- 180 ; tree-worship in, 226 Suttantas, treatises so-called, 8 ; learning them by heart, no; cut off at the root, in ; for- gotten, 112 ; afterwards called Suttas, 169 Suttantika, one who knows a Suttanta, 168 INDEX 331 Tagara, the towr^ 31 Tagara-sikhin, 31 Takka-sila (Takshila), seat of learning in N. W. India, 8, 28, 203 ; copper plates from, 124; capital of the Kushanas, 314 Tamil words in use in the West, 116 Tamralipti, seaport, 103 Tanks, for bathing, 74, 75 ; for irrigation, 86 Tapas, self-torture, growth of doctrine of, 242 foil. Teaching, etiquette of, 5 ; brah- min views about, 249 Temples, none, in ancient times, 241 Tilaura Kot, site of Kapilavastu, 18 Tirhut, 32, 41 Tissa, son of Moggali, 299 Titans, 224, 241 .Toleration, 296 Topes, see Dagabas Trade routes, 102-104 Trades, 89 foil. Tree-worship, 224-233 v/Tribal migration in India, 32 Tribes, the sixteen chief, in pre- Buddhistic times, 23 foil. Trita, the god, 235 Truth lower than sacrifice, 243 Turbans, 94, 97 Turkestan, MSS. discovered in, 128 U Uddalaka Aruni, his defeat in ar- gument, 247 ; his influence on pantheistic thought, 257 Udena, king of Kosambi, 3 foil., / 7 y Udyana, the country, 29 United Provinces, 42 Ujjeni, capital of Avanti, 3, 40, 103 ; Magadha viceroys at, 260, 272 j^panishads, 162, 187, 223, 226, 250, 255 Upasaka, 282, 294 Urvasi, 236. Vacchas, see Vamsas Vaikhanasa Sutra, 144 vA^aisyas, their social rank, 54 Vajapeya sacrifices, 203 Vajira,' daughter of Pasenadi, married to Ajatasattu, 4 Vajjians, their powerful confed- eration, 25, 26, 40 Valmiki, 31 Vamsas, or Vatsas, 3, 27 i/(^aruna, the god, 219, 235 Vasula-datta, legend of, 4 foil. Vayu, wind-god, 235 Vedanta, 163, 168 /Vedic language, 153 ; divinities, 155, 158; hymns, interpreta- tion of, 162 Vedisa, in Avanti, 103, 288 Vegetable diet, result of, 42 Vekhanassa, follower of Vikha- nas, 142, 144 Vesali, 29, 40 Vessas, 54» 55 Vessavana, the god, see Kuvera Videha, as kingdom and repub- lic, 26, 37 Vidudabha, king of Kosala, 4, 1 1, 12 Vikhanas, a teacher, 144 Village, customs, 45 foil.; head men, 49 Vimana Vatthu, 176 Vindhya Hills, 29 /Vishnu, 219, 236 W Wanderers, the, their discussion halls, 141 ; names of corpo- rate bodies among, 143-146 ; freedom of thought among, 247, 258 ; their Dhamma, 294 Z2>2 INDEX Weavers, 54, 57, 90 Weber, Professor, 113, 114 Wickramasinha, Mr., 115 Windisch, Professor, 180 Winternitz, Professor, 190 Wisdom-tree, 23c Woodwork, 66, 90, 264 Writers, astrade, 108 Writing, history of, 107-127 vYoga Sutras, 197 Yueh-ti, 313 foil. Zimmer, Professor, 87, 232 WORKS BY T. W. RHYS DAVIDS, LLD., Ph.D., F.B.A. I. American Lectures on the History of Religions. First Series. Buddhism. (8vo, pp. xiv + 230 ; New York and Lon- don— G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896.) $1.50. " Now, in spite of ourselves, we cannot choose but hear what we ought to have known for at least half a century, the true story of Buddhism as it is." — Saturday Review. "A luminous and fascinating introduction to a profoundly inter- esting subject. Apart, however, from its leading purpose, the book is an eloquent plea for the use of the historic method in the study of religions." — The Nation. " If all books about Buddhism, or about other religions, were as thoughtful and sober as this one, the scoffer would have less occupa- tion." — Iribune (New York). IL Dialogues of the Buddha. Vol, I. (Svo, pp. xxiv-l-330; London — Oxford University Press, 1899.) ** Prof. Rhys Davids has produced a book which no future histor- ian of Indian thought can pass over." — Athenceum, *' Very timely, therefore, is the appearance in English form of such ancient and authoritative texts of Buddhism as are these Dialogues of the Digha Nikaya. and withal from so masterly a hand as that of Prof. Rhys Davids." — Prof. Lanman in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, '* These dialogues — some of which are dramatic enough to recall the controversies of St. Patrick with the old pagan Oisin — will open a new world to the Western reader." — Speaker, *' No better translator could have been selected than the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, who is admittedly the best Pali scholar in England. ... It will be seen that we have here not only the earliest traditional record of the viva voce teaching of the Buddha, but also a vivid commentary on the manners and customs of his time. Mr. Rhys Davids's introductions to the several Suttas and his footnotes leave little to be desired." — Saturday Review, " The notes throughout are a mine of information ; and the whole work is well worthy of the reputation of the learned translator." — Asiatic Quarterly Review. IIL Buddhism: being a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gotama the Buddha. With a Map. (Small 8vo ; London — Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1878.) Fifteenth Thousand. 2s. 6d. •' We do not know of any other work from which so fair and com- plete an account can be obtained of that wonderful religion which has so much in common with Christianity, and has numbered more adherents than any other religion in the world." — Academy. "Altogether higher stands the little work of Mr. Rhys Davids, . . . written in an agreeable style, and with great knowledge of the facts, . . . which we should wish to see in the hands of all students of religious history, and hope to see translated into our own language." — Theologisch Tijdschrift. " Difficult to speak in too high terms of this admirable little book." — Theological Review, •' Undoubtedly the best introduction to the history of Buddhism at present existing."— 6tj/f7« Observer. IV. Buddhist Birth Stories, or Jataka Tales; the Oldest Collection of Folk-lore Extant. (8vo ; London — Triibner. Vol. I. 1880.) iSj. "Among the various contributions to the comparative study of folk-lore, Mr. Rhys Davids's translation of the Jatakas must take a foremost place." — Saturday Review. ** These tales are probably the nearest representatives of the origi- nal Aryan stories from which sprang the folk-lore of Europe as well as of India, and from which the Semitic nations also borrowed much. The Introduction contains a most interesting disquisition on the mi- grations of those fables, tracing their reappearance in the various groups of folk-lore legends known as ' /Esop's Fables,' ' The Ilito- padesa,* ' The Kalilag and Damnag Series,' and even ' The Arabian Nights.' Among other old friends we meet with a version of the Judgment of vSolomon, which proves after all to be an Aryan, and not a Semitic tale." — Times, " No more competent exponent of Buddhism could be found than Mr. Rhys Davids. These Birth Stories, of which he has now given us the first instalment, will be of the greatest interest and importance to students." — St. yames's Gazette. " The translation could not have fallen into better hands. And what is no small merit, when we consider the involved style of Buddh- ist writings, it is easy to read, though at the same time it is faithful throughout." — Revue de V Histoire des Religions. "The English version, while strictly literal, is thoroughly idio- matic. It is not too much to say that no Pali scholar could have been found more competent for the work than he to whom it has been entrusted. He has thoroughly entered into the spirit of his original, and his renderings, even of the most difficult passages, are always most accurate and felicitous. In a valuable and interesting introduction, the translator traces the course of transmigration of the Buddhist stories and fables from East to West — by many and various courses, Hindu, Persian, Arabic, Syriac, Greek — through the Kalilag and Damnag literature down to the so-called fables of ^sop." — Contemporary Review. V. The Hibbert Lectures, 1881 ; being Lectures on the Origin and Growth of 'Religion as illustrated by some points in the History of Indian Buddhism. (8vo ; London — Williams & Norgate , 1 8 8 1 . ) Second Edition . *' Cannot be too highly praised for learned research and lucidity of expression." — Spectator. "It is a subject with which Mr. Rhys Davids is singularly well qualified to deal : from his probably unequalled knowledge of the Pali literature, which is the fountain-head of Buddhism ; the wide intellectual cultivation whereby he is able to bring out of his treas- ures things new and old for comparison, for illustration, for embel- lishment ; his firm grasp of scientific principles ; and the breadth of his sympathies, at once keen and discriminating. And the manner in which he has executed his task is such as to satisfy the high expec- tations raised by these qualifications. In conclusion, let us add — what, indeed, will have been evident from our extracts — that he is a master of clear, vigorous, and graceful English." — St. James's Gazette. '* No one has expounded the doctrines of Buddhism as we know them here, in such a trustworthy and scholarly manner." — Ceylon Times. "Singularly bright and graceful, incisive in criticism, easy and flexible, familiar yet dignified in style, full of suggestive matter sug- gestively presented, and everywhere lighted up with a fine moral en- thusiasm for the higher ideals and nobler personalities of the faith described. When Mr. Rhys Davids is most the critical scholar, he never forgets that he is handling a religion ; when he is most earnest as the interpreter of a religion, he never ceases to be critical and scholarly." — Principal Fairbairn in the Academy. " For what I have said about Indian Philosophy I am particularly indebted to the luminous exposition of primitive Buddhism and its relations to earliest Hindu thought, which is given by Professor Rhys Davids in his remarkable * Hibbert Lectures' for 1881, and 'Buddhism,* 1890. The only apology I can offer for the freedom with which I have borrowed from him in these notes is my desire to leave no doubt as to my indebtedness." — Professor Huxley in the " Romanes Lecture," 1893. " Mr. Rhys Davids has sought to throw light on religion generally. The exposition clearly indicates the fountains of emotion and thought whence the system issued ; and the process of after crystallization is also put before the reader in clear and impressive outlines. The author's reflections on the story take the form of suggestions for com- parative study. ... So Buddhism may help the understanding of Christian origins as the Vedas illustrate classical mythology. The inculcation of such methods and principles give the book its greatest value, and it will be esteemed as a discipline even more than as a source of information." — Mind. Heroes of the Nations. A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work of a number of representative historical char- acters about whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National ideals. With the life of each typical character will be presented a picture of the National conditions surrounding him during his career. The narratives are the work of writers who are recognized authorities on their several subjects, and, while thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque and dramatic ''stories" of the Men and of the events connected with them. To the Life of each " Hero" will be given one duo- decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, provided with maps and adequately illustrated ac- cording to the special requirements of the several subjects. 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By Henry Alexander White. THE CID CAMPEADOR. By H. Butler Clarke. SALADIN. By Stanley Lane Poole. BISMARCK. By J. W. Head lam. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. By Benjamin I. Wheeler. CHARLEMAGNE. By H. W. C. Davis. OLIVER CROMWELL. By Charles Firth. RICHELIEU. By James B. Per- kins. DANIEL O'CONNELL. By Rob- ert Dunlop. SAINT LOUIS (Louis IX. of France). By Frederick Perry. LORD CHATHAM. By Walford Davis Green. OWEN GLYNDWR. By Arthur G. Bradley. $1.35 net. HENRY V. By Charles L. Kings- ford. $r.3S net. EDWARD I. By Edward Jenks. $1.35 net. AUGUSTUS C^SAR. By J. B. Firth. $1.35. ^i- Other volumes in preparation are: MOLTKE. By Spencer Wilkinson. JUDAS MACCABEUS. By Israel Abrahams. SOBIESKI. By F. A. Pollard. ALFRED THE TRUTHTELLER. By Frederick Perry. FREDERICK II. By A. L. Smith. MARLBOROUGH. By C. W. C. Oman. RICHARDTHELION-HEARTED By T. A. Archer. WILLIAM THE SILENT. By Ruth Putnam. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers, New York London The Story of the Nations. In the story form the current of each National life is distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and note- worthy periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal history. It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with which the history of all lands begins, will not be overlooked, though these will be carefully distinguished from the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. The subjects of the different volumes have been planned to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in the great Story of the Nations; but it is, of course, not always practicable to issue the several volumes in their chronological order. Nos. 1-6 1 , each Half leather Nos. 62 and following Nos., each (by mail, i net I Half leather (by mail, $1.75) net i For list of volumes see next page. I 50 75 50 35 60 THE STORY OF THE NATIONS. GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. ROME. Arthur Oilman. THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hos- mer. CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. HUNGARY. Prof. A. VdmWry. CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church. THE SARACENS. Arthur Gil- man. THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. THE NORMANS. Sarah Ome Jewett. PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PER- SIA. Z. A. Ragozin. MEDIEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gus- tave Masson. HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. MEXICO. Susan Hale. PHCENICIA. George Rawlinson. THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern. EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church. THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Poole. RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill. THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. Morrison. SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. A. Hug. PORTUGAL. H. Morse-Stephens. THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C. W. C. Oman. SICILY. E. A. Freeman. THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella Duffy. POLAND. W. R. Morfill. PARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson. JAPAN. David Murray. THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF SPAIN. H. E. Watts. AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregar- then. SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M Theal. VENICE. Alethea Wiel. THE CRUSADES. T. S. Archer and C. L. Kingsford. VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin. BOHEMIA. C. E. Maurice. CANADA. J. G. Bourinot. THE BALKAN STATES. William Miller. BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. R. W. Frazer. MODERN FRANCE. Andrd Le Bon. THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Alfred T. Story. Two vols. THE FRANKS. Lewis Sergeant. THE WEST INDIES. Amos K. Fiske. THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, Justin McCarthy, M.P. Two vols. AUSTRIA. Sidney Whitman. CHINA. Robt. K. Douglass. MODERN SPAIN. Major Martin A. S. Hume. MODERN ITALY. Pietro Orsi. THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. Helen A. Smith. Two vols. WALES AND CORNWALL. Owen M. Edwards. Net $1.35- MEDIEVAL ROME. Wm. Miller. THE PAPAL MONARCHY. Wm. Barry. MEDIEVAL INDIA. Stanley Lane-Poole. BUDDHIST INDIA. T. W. Rhys- Davids. ,!•> 55 i 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This bcx)k is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only: Tel. No. 642-3405 Renewals may be made 4 days priod to date due. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. itC'D LD JAN 14 (/ AM 1 B rjAjr"r« LD21A-60wi-8,'7O (N8837sl0)476 — A-32 General Library University of California Berkeley ' ^ c.OOkJsJ '4' Da, THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY