' ;, :-.:: . :; . , ],-. /: ; : r ; . 11 BUDDHISM , W. RHYS DAVIDS mon*Cbrfstfan IRelfafous U D D H I S M A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF GAUTAMA, THE BUDDHA, BY T. W. RHYS DAVIDS, PH.D., LL.D., OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW ', AUTHOR OF " BUDDHIST BIRTH STORIES," " BUDDHIST SUTTAS," ETC. ; PROFESSOR OF PALI AND BUDDHIST LITERATIRK IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON; SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. tihous.miX A NEW AND REVISED EDITION. WITH MAP. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL LITERATURE COMMITTEE. LONDON : SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, w.c. ; 43, QI-KEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. NEW YOKK : E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 1894. PREFACE TO THE FIFTEENTH THOUSAND. WHEN this little manual of Buddhism was first written in 1877, the number of European books on the subject was indeed not small, but the number of accessible authorities or texts by the Buddhists them- selves was very small indeed. It was therefore a very venturesome undertaking to attempt to give an account of a system on which its European interpreters differed irreconcilably, at a time when they could not be brought to bar before the original authorities. There were two points especially, which to have mis- understood would have meant to have failed in the attempt the actual facts of the life of the Buddha him- self, and the real meaning of his ideal of life, of what in other words was always called, in the European books, Nirvana. Seventeen years have now elapsed. Nearly half the original authorities have since appeared in texts or translations, or both, and ample opportunity has been afforded to scholars to point out any errors that had been committed. The result is very encour- aging. The conclusions arrived at in 1877 have been throughout confirmed by the more recent publications of ancient texts, and have even been adopted and cir- culated by authors who have not deemed it necessary IV PREFACE. to refer to the manual in which these conclusions were for the first time stated. Had the manual been written now it would doubt- less have assumed a different form. The European authorities would have been altogether ignored, and the original texts only have been used as the authorities referred to. In the present edition the notes have been altered so as to give the older authorities, where they have since become accessible, instead of the later ones originally referred to ; but in several places it has been thought better to retain the references to the later books, as they enable the reader to see the course of development of Buddhist belief (more es- pecially as regards the ever-growing legendary additions to the life of Buddha). The principal cases where the references to the later authorities have been thus retained will be found on pp. 13, 51, 56, 81, 82. The only other change of importance which I have ventured to. adopt is with regard to the division of Buddhist literature (universally accepted when I first wrote) into so-called "Northern" and "Southern" Buddhism. This nomenclature is misleading. The oldest books, whether Pali or Sanskrit, were neither North rn nor Southern, but were alike composed in the valley of the Ganges. The use of the terms in ques- tion had its origin in the fact that our MSS. of those books had come respectively from Ceylon and Nepal ; and the term " Northern Buddhism' was extended to the very different systems prevailing in Tibet, China, and Japan, notwithstanding the fact there is no such unity as "Northern Buddhism." The use of the PREFACE. V terms " Northern " and " Southern " leads to mis- conceptions so serious that I trust it will disappear from all works on Buddhism written by scholars. In the present edition these loose and misleading ex- pressions, though rendered so popular by the influence of Burnouf, have therefore been throughout replaced by more accurate and more useful descriptions. The progress of time has rendered necessary a few verbal changes, and the alteration of some of the figures in the statistical tables given on pp. 4 6. And owing to the important work of the Pali Text Society, the lists on pp. 18 21 have required reconstruction. With these exceptions the little volume remains as it was. No one is more sensible than its author of its many imperfections. But no one is more surprised than himself to fiffrj that a work written originally under so many difficulties requires now so few alter- ations. He ventures to indulge the hope that it may have contributed somewhat to the interest which is now increasingly taken in one of the most instructive chapters in the history of human thought. The Dialogues of Gautama ought indeed to rank, in all our schools of learning, with the Dialogues of Plato ; and the study of the evolution of ideas in the valley of the Ganges may be justly expected to throw a welcome light on some of the most important problems in the history of our race. T. W. RHYS DAVIDS. TABLE OF CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Statistics of Buddhism, 3 ; of other religions, 6 ; extent of the subject and limits of this work, 8 ; sources of information, 9; authorities relating to the life of Gautama, II ; estimate of their value, 15. APPENDIX : List of the Pitakas, 18 ; size of the Pitakas, 19. CHAPTER II. THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA (PART I.). The Aryans in the sixth century B.C., 22; the Sakyas, 25; Gautama's birth, 26 ; his names, 27 ; his marriage, 28 ; the four visions, 29; birth of his son Rahula, 30; he abandons his home, 31 ; studies under the Brahmans, 33 ; his self- mortification, 34; he gives up penance, and his disciples desert him, 35 ; the temptation, 36 ; the victory, the attain- ment of Buddha-hood, 39 ; the after-doubt, 41 ; his meeting with Upaka, 42 ; reception by his former disciples, 43 ; the foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness, 45 ; the first sermon, 47 ; the first converts, 49. APPENDIX : Gautama's wife and relations, 50. CHAPTER III. THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA (PART II.). The first lay disciples, 53 ; sending out the sixty, 55 ; the season of was, 57 ; conversion of Kasyapa, 58, sermon on fire, 59 ; return to Rajagriha, 61 ; Bimbisara's gift of Velu- vana, 62 ; the Savaka Sannipata, 63 ; discontent of the people, 63 ; return home, 64 ; interview with his father, 65 ; inter- view with his wife, 66; Rahula admitted to the Order, 67; other accessions to the Order, 68 ; the gift of Jetavana, 69 ; chronicle of the ministry, 70 ; Dewadatta, 75 ; Gautama's last days, 77 ; Buddhism and Brahmanism, 83. CHAPTER IV. THE ESSENTIAL DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM The Pitakas, our oldest authority, 86 ; ultimate facts, 87 ; the Skandhas, 90 ; Buddhism denies the existence of the soul, 93; transmigration, 99 ; Karma, loi ; the Four Truths, 106; the Four Paths, 108 ; the Ten Fetters, 109 ; Nirvana, 1 10. APPENDIX: Passages in which Nirvana is mentioned, 120. Viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER V. BUDDHIST MORALITY. The Fruit of the Noble Path, 124; Buddhist Beatitudes, 125 ; the true treasure, 127; Scripture verses, 128; parable of the mustard-seed, 133 ; parable of the sower, 134 ; other para- bles, 135 ; summary of lay duty from the Dhammika Sutta, 137; the Ten Sins, 142; the Sigalovada Sutta, 143; con- cluding remarks, 148. CHAPTER VI. THE ORDER OF MENDICANTS. Cause of the foundation of the Order, and its re? ults, 1 50 ; Scripture verses, 153; form of admission to the Order, 158; rules of the Order as to food, 163 ; residence, 164 ; clothing, 165 ; poverty, 166 ; obedience, 168 ; daily life of the mendi- cants, 169; summary, 170; jhana, 174. CHAPTER VII. THE LEGEND OF THE BUDDHA. The Buddhas, 179; miraculous birth of Gautama, 182; pro- phecies regarding the child, 183; the holy child, 184; the Chakravartl parallel, 188 ; wonders at Gautama's death, 189; the legend as sun-myth, 190 ; local legends, 194 ; the Buddha as Catholic saint, 196 ; the Buddha as the Man in the MOOR, 197. CHAPTER VIII. TIBETAN BUDDHISM. Theory of the Buddhas, 199 ; Manjusri, 201 ; Avalokitesvara, 203; Vajrapanl, 203; the Dhyani-Buddhas, 204; Adi-Bud- dha, 206 ; the Tantra system, 208 ; praying wheels and flags, 210. CHAPTER IX. SPREAD OF BUDDHISM. Date of Gautama's death, 212; the First Council, 213; the Second Council, 215; Chandragupta, 220; Asoka, 222; the Third Council, 224 ; Asoka's missionaries, 226 ; Mahinda, 228; Sanghamitta, 230; the Bo tree, 231 ; the Pitakas re- duced to writing, 233 ; Buddhaghosha, 235 ; Java and Suma- tra, 236; Kanishka, 237; Kanishka's Council, 238; Chi- nese Buddhism, 240 ; the Korea and Japan, 241 ; Chinese pilgrims, 242 ; Buddhism expelled from India, 245 j the Lamaism of Tibet, 246. TRANSLITERATION OF PALI WORDS, THE earliest form of the Pali language for which an alphabet was made, was written in the square letters of which the earliest forms preserved to us are found in Asoka's inscriptions. But Pali writers learnt very early to distinguish between the language and its alphabet, and the square letters fell out of use, the lan- guage being written in the alphabets in use in the different countries Ceylon, Burma, and Siam where the language was still studied. European writers on Pali have in like manner followed the excellent practice of printing Pali texts in European characters ; disregarding, of course, the peculiarities of the pre- sent unscientific, and unpractical English system. 1 In this work Pali words are accordingly printed in English letters, subject to the following remarks on pronunciation : VOWELS. A, when the accent falls upon it, represents the sound of short a in the French or German : when the accent docs not fall upon it, the sound of the u in our word kut. A represents the former sound doubled our a in father. I represents our i in hit ; I, the same sound doubled. U represents our oo in foot ; u, the same sound doubled. E and O are always long when they close a syllable, always short when they do not. Hence the long mark is needless, and is not used. Short e is pronounced as our e in met ; long e, as our a in mate ; short o, as our o in lot ; long o, as our oa in boat. Ai and au, as in our words ' eye ' and ' how. 1 CONSONANTS. The h is always fully audible ; for instance kh, as in ' seek him ' ; th, as in ' at home.' rh is our ng. It is a pity there is not a more distinct sign for this sound, which contains neither an m nor an , nor a^-. c is our ch (tsh). 5 is the Spanish n, our ny. 1 See the strongly-expressed opinion of Mr. Fausboll at the end of the preface to his edition of the Jatakas an opinion* with which I heartily concur. Also Weber, 'Ind. Stud.,' iii. 185. 2 TRANSLITERATION OF PALI WORDS. I represents the first part of the compound sound represented bye. The th, d, dh, n and s follow it ; i. e. , they are all pronounced by placing the tongue against the point where the palate passes into the gum, a quarter of an inch or more behind the teeth. t, th, d, dh, n, and 1 are pure dentals ; that is, they are pronounced by placing the tongue at the root of the teeth, or against the teeth, so that t and d are very slightly aspirate. We do not in English make this distinction between t and t, but our t is much more often t than t, and care is therefore necessary in pronouncing all the dentals. v (or rather the corresponding native character) is always pro- nounced w by native scholars. Formerly it may have been v or either v or w, except after a consonant, when it was cer- tainly w, as in dve (pronounced dwe). The other consonants call for no remark ; but it should be noticed that double consonants are pronounced double, one of the chief beauties of Pali, as of Italian. Patta is pat-ta not pata. If the double consonant already represents a compound sound, only the former of the two can be doubled, saSna = san-nya ; kukucca, pronounced, koo-koot-tsher. There is great difficulty in choosing between the use of the Sanskrit and the Pali forms of proper names' and technical terms. I have much doubt, for instance, whether I have done right to use the Sanskrit form Gautama 1 instead of the Pali Gotama. When either of the forms would be particularly un- couth, or difficult for Englishman to pronounce, I have chosen the other : writing, therefore, Moggallana, not Maudgalyayana ; and Karma, not Kamma ; which Englishmen would inevitably pronounce Kama. I have kept the Pali forms of a few words distinctively Pali, and have used forms neither Sanskrit nor Pali for one or two words (Nirvana and Pitaka for instance) which may be considered to have become English. 1 Pronounce the first syllable as in ' how,' the second and third exactly as in 'handsomer.' The accent falls on the first syllable. BUDDHISM, CHAPTER L INTRODUCTION. SEVERAL writers have commerced their remarks on Buddhism by reminding their readers of the enor- mous number of its adherents ; and it is, indeed, a most striking fact, that the living Buddhists far out- number the followers of the Roman Church, the Greek Church, and all other Christian Churches put together. From such summary statements, however, great misconceptions may possibly arise, quite apart from the fact that numbers are no test of truth, but rather the contrary. Before comparing the numbers of Christians and Buddhists, it is necessary to decide, not only what Christianity is, and what is Buddhism ; but also, as regards the Buddhists, whether a firm belief in one religion should or should not, as far as statistics are concerned, be nullified by an equally firm belief in another. The numbers are only interesting in so far as they afford a very rough test of the in- fluence which Buddhism has had in the development of the human race ; and for this purpose they err both by excess and by defect. In the following tables no allowance has been made for India, which has been and is profoundly influenced by the results of the rise ana fall within it of the Buddhist church. And too 4 INTRODUCTION. much allowance has been made for China, where three religions hold to one another an anomalous relation quite unexampled in history ; for almost every China- man would probably profess himself a believer in the philosophy of Konfucius, while he would also worship at both Buddhist and Tao temples. It would, how- ever, be as impossible to express numerically the in- fluence of Buddhism in India, as it would be to subtract from the Chinese numbers so as to show how much of the average Chinaman was Buddhist, and how much Taossean or Konfucian. Perhaps the deficiency is balanced by the excess ; in any case, we must leave the numbers as they are. The following are the tables referred to, giving the nearest approxi- mation possible to the actual number of living Bud- dhists as compared with the number of the adherents of other religions : Southern Buddhists. In Ceylon 1 2,000,000 ,, Burma 2 6,888,076 ,, Other parts of India 2 243,677 ,, Siam 3 10,000,000 ,, Anam 3 12,000,000 Total about 31,000,000 1 According to the Ceylon census, 1891. The total number of inhabitants was 3,008,546. The rest are Hindus and Muhammadans. 2 From the Indian census of 1891. Out of Burma the majority are in Bengal, where there are about 185,000. In this edition people entered as Jains in the census have been omitted from my table. Their number in 1891 was 909,715. 3 According to native military returns, which give only the number of males. The totals are therefore conjectural. STATISTICS. Northern Buddhists. Dutch possessions and Bali ' 50,000 British possessions 2 500,000 Russian possessions 3 600,000 Lieu Khen Islands 4 1,000,000 Korea 4 8,000,000 Bhutan and Sikhim 5 1, 000,000 Kashmir 6 200,000 Tibet 4 6,000,000 Mongolia 4 2,000,000 Mantchuria 4 3,000,000 Japan 7 40,453,461 Nepal 8 500,000 China proper 9 (18 prov.) 414,686,994 Total about 479,000,000 1 The Javanese are now Muhammadans. The Buddhists in the island are from China or Siam. For Bali, see Dr. Friedrich's paper in the Journal of the R. A. Soc., 1876, viii. p. 196. * Chiefly in Spiti, Assam, Further India, and Hong Kong. There are rather more than 200,000 Kirghis and Kalmuk Tartars on the lower banks of the Volga in Europe, and an increasing number of Burials and others in South Siberia, where Buddhism is still extending (Schlagintweit, ' Buddhism in Tibet,' p. 12; Keith-Johnston, 'Physical Atlas,' pi. 34). 4 Keith-Johnston, ' Physical Atlas,' ed. 1856, estimates these states tributary to China to contain 35,000,000 inhabitants. So far as I can gather, this seems to be too much. The total of the above estimate is 20,000,000. * The 'AllgemeineZeitung,' Jan. 1862, apud Schlagintweit ioc. tit., gives one and a half million. 6 The inhabitants of Kashmir proper are almost entirely Muhammadans. The Buddhists are nearly confined to Li-dak. 7 From a census, year not stated, quoted in Whitaker's Almanac, 1894. 8 The total population is about two and a half millions, of whom the majority are now Hindus. 9 Schopenhauer says (' Parerga et Paralipomena,' p. 128), BUDDHISM. The following table will show at a glance the rela- tive numbers of the different religions, and the per- centage each bears to the whole : Parsees * 150,000 1,894,723 7,000,000 \ >e ( ce 75,000,000 ah 152,000,000 100,000,000 200,000,000 155,000,000 500,000,000 103,000,000 ng about per it. of the total. :>ut 6 per cent. 12 8 13 12* 40 8 Sikhs' Jews 3 Greek Catholics* Roman Catholics* Other Christians * Hindus 5 Muhammadans * Btuldhists Not included in the above 4 Total about 1,300,000,000 that according to the 'Moniteur de la Flotte,' May, 1857, the allied armies found, on taking Nanking in 1842, returns which gave the population at 396,000,000, and that the ' Post Zeitung ' of 1858 contains a report from the Russian mission in Peking giving the numbers, on authority of state papers, at 414,687,000. The numbers above are those of the Chinese census of 1842, and their large total has caused some doubts. They give, however, a smaller number to the square mile than the English census gives to Bengal ; while all accounts agree in representing the population as in many parts extremely dense, and the Chinese are quite capable of taking a census. I should fancy there has been very little increase, taking the eighteen provinces together, during the quarter of a century since 1842. 1 Dosabhoi Framjee, 'The Parsees,' 1858, pp. 52, 56, and the Indian census. 1 Indian census. It would be incorrect to include them under Hindus. See my article on Trump's Adi Granth. Acad., 1878. 3 The Rev. Hugh Miller 'On the Numbers of the Jews in all Ages ' (Trans, of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. iv. part 2, 1876, pp. 325-331), where full details may be seen. 4 Comp. Berghaus, Atlas : Haeckel, Creation, ii. 333. * By the Indian census of 1892 there were 189, 195,061 Hindus STATISTICS. 7 Looked at solely as statistics of actual religious belief, the foregoing calculations may be utterly mis- leading, unless used with great care ; they are vitiated by the attempt to class each man's religion under one word. In point of fact, each item lies open to an objection similar to that made above against the Chinese figures : many of the Ceylonese so-calied Bud- dhists, for instance, take their oaths in court as Chris- tians, and most of them believe also in devil-worship, and in the power of the stais. Their whole belief is not Buddhist ; many of their ideas are altogether out- side of Buddhism ; their minds do not run only on Buddhist lines. On the other hand, such statistics are full cf value if they enable us to realize in any degree the enormous numbers of those who are born and live and die without even once experiencing those thoughts which make up so much of oui life, and afford us so much of guidance and support. Not one of the five hundred millions who offer flowers now and then on Buddhist shrines, who are more or less moulded by Buddhist teaching, is only or alto- gether a Buddhist. But these tables cannot fail to show how great is the claim on our attention of that system whose influence over living men they roughly express. It is not incorrect to say ' that system.' It may be true that Buddhism having been adopted by very savage and very civilized peoples the wild hordes on the cold table-lands of Nepal, Tartary, and Tibet; the cultured Chinese and Japanese in their varying in British India. There must he about 11,000,000 more in the native states, Nepal, Further India, Bali, Ceylon, Mauritius, the West Indies, and elsewhere. 8 BUDDHISM. climes ; and the quiet Sinhalese and Siamese, undei the palm groves of the South it has been so modi- fied by the national characteristics of its converts, that it has developed under these different conditions into strangely inconsistent, and even antagonistic beliefs. But, nevertheless, each of these beliefs breathes more or less of the spirit of the system out of which they all alike have grown, and can only be rightly understood by those who have first realized what that system really was. To trace all the developments of Buddhism, from its rise in India in the fifth century B.C., through its various fortunes there, and its progress in the countries to which it spread, down to the present time, would be to write the history of nearly half the human race during the greater part of that period within which anything worthy of the name of history is possible at all. To prepare even the materials for such a history, the labours of many scholars will be required for many years to come ; and without a clear knowledge of the earliest phase of the religion, those labours would run great danger of being wrongly directed, and would certainly be constantly spent in the dark. The following pages will, therefore, be chiefly devoted to a consideration of Buddhism as it appears in its earliest records ; with a rapid summary of the principal lines along which in after-times the most vital changes, and the most essential develop- ments took place. It may, perhaps, be doubted whether our know- ledge is sufficiently advanced to be stated in that clear and precise way which a popular treatise requires. Happily or unhappily, however, there is li OF THIS INQUIRY. y aheady a by no means small quantity of popular literature on the subject; and it will be seen that enough at least, is known, to correct several of the most popular conceptions, both about Buddhism, and about the person of Gautama. Of early Buddhism, indeed, it is already possible to form an idea, which in its main features is certainly accurate ; and as regards Gautama himself, though we know very little, we know, perhaps, nearly as much regarding the prin- cipal crises in his life as we are ever likely to ascertain. Future investigations will give us fuller details regard- ing early Buddhism, and both greater exactness and greater certainty regarding the life of its founder, and they will above all enable us to follow clearly the development of Buddhism, which runs so remarkably parallel with that of Christianity. As to the two former subjects our information is at present derived from the same ultimate sources the three Pitakas or Collections, as the canonical books of the Indian Buddhists are called; the Commen- taries on the Pitakas ; and the sacred books of the other Buddhists, which have hitherto received no inclusive name. It will be seen hereafter that Gautama Buddha left behind him no written works, indeed, it is very doubtful whether at the time when "he lived the art of writing was known in the southern valley of the Ganges ; but the Buddhists believe that he composed works which his immediate disciples learned by heart in his lifetime, and which were handed down by memory in their original state until they were committed to writing. This is not impossible : it is known that the Vedas were handed down in this manner for many hundreds of years, and none would B 10 BUDDHISM. nou dispute the enormous powers of memory to which Indian priests and monks attained, when written books were not invented, or only used as helps to memory : when they could calmly devote their lives to learning and repeating one or more of those scriptures which they held to be sacred ; and round which all their other meagre knowledge centred. 1 But it is quite clear from internal evidence alone, that this cannot have been the case with any of the books of the Chinese Buddhists as yet known to us, or with those parts of the Pitakas which relate to the life of Gautama. Tiie orthodox Buddhist belief therefore falls to the ground, and we are left to our own researches to ascertain the time when their sacred books were composed. This has as yet been very imperfectly done, but it may be stated generally that some of the Sanskrit books are known to have been translated into Chinese shortly after the commencement of our era, and that there is every reason to believe that the Pitakas now extant in Ceylon are substantially iden- tical with the books of the Orthodox Canon, as settled at the Council of Patna about the year 250 B.C. 2 As no works would have been received into the canon which were not then believed to be very old, the Pitakas may be approximately placed in the fourth cen- tury B.C., and parts of them possibly reach back very nearly, if not quite, to the time of Gautama himself. 1 Even though they are well acquainted with writing, the monks in Ceylon do not use books in their religious services, but repeat, for instance, the whole of the Patimokkha on Uposatha (see p. 140) days by heart. - On this council, see below, p. 224. A list of these scrip- tures is given at the end of this chapter. AUTHORITIES. II But of this canon, only a very small part has been published ; and we have as yet to rely a good deal on later works. Those, both Pali, and Sanskrit, treating of Buddhist ethics and philosophy, will be considered further on ; those relating to the life of Gautama are more especially the following : I. The ' Lalita Vistara,' the standard Sanskrit work of the Indian Buddhists on this subject, which, however, only carries the life down to the time when Gautama came openly for- ward as a Teacher. It is partly in prose, and partly in verse, the poetical passages being older than the others. M. Foucaux has published a translation into French of a translation of this work into Tibetan. He holds the Tibetan version to have ex- isted in the 6th century A.D. How much older the present form of the Sanskrit work may be is quite uncertain. 1 The Sanskrit text and part of an English translation by Rajendra Lai Mitra has been published at Calcutta, and Professor Lefmann, of Heidelberg, is now publishing a translation into German. The ' Lalita vistara ' is full of extravagant poetical fictions in honour of Gautama, some of which are not without litera-ry value ; and it is just as much a poem on the birth and temptation of Gautama, based on earlier lives of the Teacher, as Milton's ' Paradise Regained ' is a poem on the birth and temptation of Christ, based on the accounts found in the Gospels. Such historical value as it possesses is derived there- fore from the comparison which it enables us to draw between the later Sanskrit and the earlier Pali traditions, and from the light which it throws on the development of the religious beliefs which sprang up regarding the person of ' the Buddha.' It is much to be regretted that the earlier Northern accounts are not at present accessible. II. The Tibetan accounts, which have been analyzed by two scholars ; by Alexander Csoma in his ' Notices on the Life of 1 M. Foucaux's work was published in 1847, under the title 'rGyaTcher Rol Pa,' (the r is silent). Foucaux, without any evidence whatever, assigns the Sanskrit original to Kanishka's Council (see below p. 239). For other opinions see Senart 496, and Feer, * Journal Asiatique,' 1866, p. 275. 1 2 AUTHORITIES Shakya extracted from the Tibetan authorities,' 1839, J and, at greater length, by Anton Schiefner, in his abridged translation 2 of awork written in Tibetan in 1734 A.D., by a Buddhist monk named Ratna-dharma-raja: Both these accounts are based chiefly on the ' Lalita Vistara,' the conclusion only of the latter being drawn from the Sanskrit work mentioned below (No. III.) [See now Rockhill's 'Life of the Buddha,' 1884, which is much the fullest and most reliable summary of the Tibetan traditions.] III. An abbreviated translation into English of a translation into Chinese of a Sanskrit work called ' Mahabhinishkramana Sutra' (the Book of the Great Renunciation, referring to Gautama's having renounced his home in order to become an ascetic). The date of the Sanskrit work is unknown ; the trans- lation into Chinese was made in the sixth century A.D. ; the English version by the Rev. Samuel Beal was published in 1875, under the title 'Romantic Legend of Sakya Buddha.' 3 IV. A translation into English of a translation into Burmese of a Pali work called by Bigandet ' Mallalinkara Wouttoo.' Neither date nor author is known of the Pali work. The Burmese translation was made in 1773 A.D. Two editions of the English version by Bishop Bigandet have appeared at Rangoon in 1858 and 1866, under the title 'The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Budha of the Burmese.' This life agrees not only throughout in its main features, but even word for word in many passages with the Jataka commentary, to be mentioned below, written in Ceylon 1 In vol. xx. of the 'Asiatic Researches,' pp. 285-296, to which notes are added. * Read 3ist May, 1848, before the Academy at St. Petersburg, and published in the ' Memoires presentes par divers Savants a 1' Academic Imperiale de St. Peterbourg,' vol. vi. livraison 3, 1851, pp. 231-332, 410. Also published separately, under the title ' Eine Tibctische Lebensbeschreibung Cakyamuni's. St. Petersburg. 1849, 8vo.' 3 It is based on Chinese amplified versions of Sanskrit texts, giving a very legendary account of Gautama's life down to the time when, in his thirty-sixth year, he revisited his father's homo after openly coming forward as a Teacher. FOR THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. 13 in the fifth century. It follows that its original author usually adhered very closely to the orthodox books and traditions of early Indian Buddhism ; which were introduced into Burma from Ceylon in the fifth century. V. The account published in 1 860 by the Rev. Spence Hardy in his ' Manual of Buddhism,' based on various Ceylonese books, most of which date after the twelfth century of our era. As might be expected, this account is more ample and less reliable than the last. VI. The original Pali text of the 'Commentary on the Jatakas,' written in Ceylon probably about the middle of the fifth century of our era. The first part of this commentary, translated into English in my ' Buddhist Birth Stories,' contain; a life of Gautama down to the time when he revisited his home after his appearance as a public teacher ; and down to that time it is the best authority we have. It contains word for word almost the whole of the life of Gautama given by Tumour, in his ' Pali Buddhistical Annals,' 1 from the 'Madurattha-vilasinI,' a commentary on the ' Buddhavansa,' which is the account of the Buddhas contained in the second I'itaka. The light it throws on the other accounts is often exceedingly interesting and in- structive, especially as showing the gradual growth of the super- natural parts of the biography. The following instance is a fair sample of the value of the different authorities. When his relations complain of the future Buddha that he is remiss in martial and manly exercises, the Jataka says, that on a day fixed by him he showed his proficiency in the twelve arts, and his superiority over other archers. Bigandet's account is equally simple, but the number of ' arts and sciences ' is eighteen. The later Sinhalese books make him do wonders with a bow which 1,000 men could not bend, and 1 'Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Soc.,' vol. vii. pp. 797, et sci]. The Jataka omits only a few very unimportant words in eleven places ; it gives slightly different versions of six short passages, and a-lds other paragraphs throughout. The solitary discrepancy is in the account of the 'competition* referred to below, p. 29. (Jataka, 58, 19-30, compared with Tumour, J. 15. A. S. vii. 803, 4.) 14 AUTHORITIES the twang of whose string was heard for 7,000 miles, and they say, " The prince also proved that he knew perfectly the eighteen arts, though he had never had a teacher, and he was equally well acquainted with many other sciences." Lastly, the Chinese Buddhists place the whole occurrence at a different time. Beal has eight pages full of the miracles ascribed to Gautama on that occasion, and the account in the ' Lalita Vistara,' in M. Foucaux's translation, is more lengthy and more miraculous still. VII. The account in Pali of the death of Gautama from the second Pitaka. Is is called the ' Mahaparinibbana Sutta.' A complete edition of it has been published in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society' (vols. vii. and viii., N. S.) by Prof. Childers, and a complete English translation in the volume en- titled ' Buddhist Suttas' by the present writer. 1 This, the oldest and most reliable of all our authorities, can- not be dated later than the end of the fourth century B.C., nor earlier than the time when Patna had become an important town, and relic-worship had become general in the Buddhist church. It exaggerates the events which are said to have hap- pened after the death took place, and most of the long sermons it ascribes to Gautama just before he died are probably com- positions of the author, including much that was said at other times, rather than what Gautama then actually said : but in its main facts the recital bears the impress of truth. VIII. The above is the only elaborate work contained in the Pali Pitakas themselves, which is devoted to an account of any portion of Gautama's life. There are, however, numerous inci- dental references on which the above later accounts (Nos. i.-vi.) are more or less based. Of these incidental references those relating to the period before the day on which Gautama attained nirvana 2 under the Bo Tree have now been collected together in Prof. Oldenberg's able and valuable work on 1 In the 'Sacred Books of the East,' Oxford, 1881, vol. xi. * It is a common blunder to suppose that Gautnma attained nirvana when he died. The texts distinctly state that he did so after the mental struggle described below, pp. 36-41. FOR THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. 15 ' Buddha, sein Lcben, seine Lehre, und seine Gemeinde.' The opening chapters of the Maha Vagga 1 give a connected recital of the events following Gautama's attainment of Nirvana, down to the inauguration of his afterwards celebrated order at Rajayaha, as described below, p. 63. Another Pali account of the First Sermon has also been translated by the present writer in his 'Buddhist Suttas,' pp. 140-155. The publications of the Pali Text Society will doubtless bring to light other ancient passages relating to subsequent periods in Gautama's life. The first three of these accounts depend ultimately on the Sanskrit works of the later Buddhists, the last five on the Pali text of the original canon. These are much the more reliable and complete ; the former being inflated to a greater length by absurd and miraculous legends, shorter forms of which occur in the earlier books. The basis of fact underlying all the various accounts is sometimes clearly enough, and sometimes not at all, and more often doubtfully, recognizable. 2 As there has been very little com- munication between the two bodies since the third century B.C., great reliance may reasonably be placed on those statements in which they agree ; not indeed as to the actual facts of Gautama's life, but as to the belief of the early Buddhists con- cerning it. The following account is based on that belief, as far as it can be at present ascertained by 1 Now translated by Rh. D. and H. O. in their ' Vinaya Texts,' Oxford, 1882, vol. i. pp. 73-151. * M. Senart, in his interesting work 'La Legende du Buddha,' attempts to trace the origin of many of the latter legends of both churches, as also of the stories about Vishnu and Krishna, with which he compares them in the old worship of the powers of nature, and especially of the sun. 1 6 AUTHORITIES. a critical comparison of the different authorities. In endeavouring by such comparison to arrive at in approximation to the truth, it has not seemed necessary to me to reject entirely the evidence of any witness who believes in the miraculous. It is true that these early writers were not capable of making due distinction between that which they thought ought to have happened and that which actually occurred ; it is true, even, that what they thought highly edifying is often miraculous, and not seldom absurd or childish. But it is no less ab- surd to lose all patience with them on that account ; and to imagine that the life of Gautama is all a fiction, and that the Buddhist philosophy, or the still powerful Order of Buddhist mendicant friars, could have arisen from the misunderstood development of some solar myth. There was certainly an historical basis for the Buddhist legend ; and if it be asked whether it is at all possible to separate the true from the false, I would reply, that the difficulty, though great, is apt to be exaggerated. The retailers of these legends are not cunning forgers, but simple-minded men, with whose modes of thought we can put our- selves more or less en rapport ; we are getting to know what kind of things to expect from their hero- worship, and religious reverence, and delight in the physically marvellous ; and we are not without infor- mation as to what was, and what was not, historically possible in the fifth century B.C. in the eastern valley nt the Ganges. Scholars will never become unani- RULES OF CRITICISM. 17 mously agreed on all points ; but they will agree in rejecting many things, and after allowing for all reason- able doubts they will agree that there still remain small portions of the narrative whose existence can only be explained on the hypothesis that they relate to actual events. I would maintain, therefore, that some parts of the story few indeed, but very important, and sufficient to throw great light on the origin of Buddhism may already be regarded as historical ; other parts may be as certainly rejected ; and many episodes remain, which may be altogether or partly fictitious. The legends group themselves round a number of very distinct occurrences ; and, properly speaking, each such episode should be judged separately, though of course by the same general rules of criticism. A complete work on the life of Gautama would thus compare the different versions of each episode so as to arrive at its earliest form : it would then discuss that account in order to ascertain whether all, or if not, how much of it, could be explained by religious hero-worship, mere poetical imagery, misapprehension, the desire to edify, applications to Gautama of pre- viously existing stories, or sun myths, and so on. It would be in this, the most difficult part of the inquiry, that there would always be much difference of opinion; but some substantial progress could certainly be made. The size and aim of this little work quite preclude any such thorough examination. I shall therefore pass over almost in silence the later forms of the legend, and such portions of the earlier accounts as are in my opinion certainly due to one or other of the causes just referred to. 1 8 LIST OF THE PITA K AS. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I. LIST OK THE THREE PITAKAS, THE SACRED BUCKS OF THE SOUTHERN BUDDHISTS. 1 Vinaya Pit oka (Discipline, for the Order). The Pali text has been edited by Prof. Oldenberg: It con- tains I. The Sutta-vibhangya ; that is, the Patimokkha with commentary and notes. II. The Khandhakas. III. The Parivara-patha. 1T. The Patimokkha and the Khandakas are translated into English by Rh. D. and H. O. in their ' Vinaya Texts.' For the contents see Rh. D.'s 'Hibbert Lectures, 1881,' pp. 38-44, and below, p. 162. Sutta Pitaka (Discourses, for the Laity). 1. Dlgha-nikaya. The collection of 34 long treatises ; one of which is the Maha-Parinibbana Sutta (see p. 14), now being edited, with its commentary, by Prof. Rhys Davids' and J. Eskin Carpenter for the Pali Text Society. Vol. I. of each has already appeared. 2. Majjhima-nikaya. The collection of 152 treatises of mode- rate size. Vol. I. edited by Dr. Trenckner. 3. Samyutta-nikaya. Connected Sutras. Vols. I. V. edited. 4. Anguttara-nikaya. Miscellaneous, the largest book in the three Pitakas. Vols. I. and II. edited by Dr. Morris. Khuddaka-nikaya. The collection of short treatises. This is added by one school to the next Pitaka. It contains I. Khuddaka-patha.. 'Short passages,' published by Mr. Childers, with English translation, in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1869.' 1 This list of the Pitakas may be compared with that given on pp. xxxii xxxviii in the Introduction to my ' Questions of King of Milinda." An estimate of the number of pages in each work, and of the number of pages already edited, is there added. LIST OF THE PITAKAS. 19 2. Dhamma-pada. 'Scripture verses,' published by Mr. Fausboll in Copenhagen, 1855, with Latin translation. Translated into German by Professor Weber, ' Zeit- schrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Geselischaft,' vol. xiv. 1860; reprinted in ' Indische Streifen,' vol. i. Translated into English by Professor Max Miiller, as vol. xi. of the ' Sacred Books of the East,' 1881. A few verses are re-translated below. See the Index under Dhainma-pada. 3. Udana. ' Songs of exultation.' Eighty-two short lyrics, supposed to have been uttered by Gautama under strong emotion, at important crises in his life. [This book, as also Nos. 4 9 in this list, has now been edited for the Pali Text Society.] 4. Iti-vuttaka. One hundred and ten extracts beginning, " Thus it was spoken by the Blessed One." 5. Sutta-nipata. A collection of 70 didactic poems, all of which have been translated by Prof. Fausboll in his 'Sutta Nipata,' 1881. 6. Vimana-vatthu. On the celestial mansions. 7. Petavatthu. On disembodied spirits. 8. Thera-gatha. Poems by monks. ) Edited for the Pali 9. Theri-gatha. Poems by nuns. ] Text Soc. 10. Jataka. Five hundred and fifty old stories, fairy tales, and fables, the most important collection of ancient folk-lore extant. The Pali text and commentary is now being edited by Mr. Fausboll, of Copenhagen, with an English translation by the present writer called ' Buddhist Birth Stories.' 11. Niddesa. A commentary ascribed to Sariputra, on the latter half of Sutta Nipata (No. 5). 12. Patisambhida. On the powers of intuitive insight possessed by Buddhist Arahats. 13. Apadana. Stories about Buddhist Arahats. 14. Buddha-vahsa. Short lives of the 24 preceding Bud- dhas and of Gautama, the historical Buddha. Dr. Morris has edited this work for the Pali Text Society. 15. Cariya-pitaka. Short poetical versions of some of the 20 BUDDHISM. Jataka stories, illustrating Gautama's virtue in formei births. Edited for the Pali Text Society. i Abhidhamma}- 1. Dhamma-sangani. On qualities of mind. This work has been edited for the Pali Text Society. 2. Vibhanga. Eighteen treatises of various contents. 3. Katha-vatthu. On controverted points. A summary of this book has been published by Prof. Rhys Davids in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1893. 4- Puggala-pannatti. Explanations of common personal qualities. The shortest book of this Pitaka, consisting of about IO,OOO words. 5. Dhatu-katha. On correlations of character. Edited for the Pali Text Society. 6. Yamaka. 'The Pairs,' that is, on apparent contradictions or contrasts. 7. Patthana. 'The Book of Origins.' On the causes of existence. Great misconceptions have prevailed with regard to the sup- posed enormous extent of the scriptures contained in the above list. Thus Spence Hardy says, 2 "in size the Pitakas surpass all Western compositions," and Sir Coomara Swamy 3 talks of "the vast mass of original writings, irrespective of the com- mentaries, in which the doctrines of Buddhism are embodied." This is much exaggerated, and as it tends to discourage research, I have made such calculations as will, I hope, settle the point. By counting the words in ten pages of our Bible I find that it, exclusive of the Apocrypha, contains between 900,000 and 950,000 words. The number of words in the first 221 verses of the Dhamma-pada, which are a fair sample of the whole, is 3,001 ; the 431 verses of that book ought therefore to contain rather less than 6,000 words. Now, the Dhamma-pada, accord- 1 See Rh. D.'s 'Hibbert Lectures, 1881,' p. 49. 2 'Eastern Monachism,' p. 190. 8 ' Sutta Nipata,' p. 10. NOTE ON THE PITAKAS. 21 ing to Tumour's list, 1 is written on fifteen leaves, and the whole three Pitakas, exclusive of Nos. 10 and n of the Khuddaka Xikllya, whose extent is uncertain, are written on 4,382 leaves of about the same size. This would give 1,752,800 words for the whole text. To ascertain the relative number of words required to express the same ideas in English and Pali, I have also counted the words in Professor Childers's edition of the Khuddaka Patha, and in his translation. They are respectively 1,242 and 2,344. The Buddhist scriptures therefore, including all the repetitions, 2 and all those books which consist of extracts from the others, contain rather less than twice as many words as are found in our Bible ; and a translation of them into English would be about four times as long. Such a literature is by no means unmanageable ; but though the untiring genius and self- sacrificing zeal of the late Professor Childers, whose premature death has inflicted so irreparable a loss on Pali scholarship, gave a new start to Pali philology, no one in England seems to follow in his steps. Considering the importance of the inquiry, and the ease with which a student in this department can add to the sum of existing knowledge, I venture to express a hope that some of that passionate patience with which older and well-worn studies are pursued may soon be diverted to this most promising field. 1 Mahavansa, p. Ixxv. 2 These are so numerous, that without them the Buddhist Bible is probably even shorter than ours. Thus the whole of the Dhamma-pada and the Sutta-nipata are believed to be taken from other books ; and even in the Nikayas whole para- graphs and chapters are repeated under different heads (the Subba Sutta, for instance, contains almost the whole of the Samanfia-phala Sutta, and a great part of the Brahmajala Sutta). (Compare Rh. D.'s 'Buddhist Suttas,' pp. xxxiv -xxxvi.) THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. CHAPTER II THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA, DOWN TO THE TIME OF HIS APPEARANCE AS A TEACHER. AT the end of the sixth century B.C. those Aryan tribes, sprung from the same stem as our own ances- tors, who have preserved for us in their Vedic songs so precious a relic of ancient thought and life, had pushed on beyond the five rivers of the Panjab, and were settled all along the plains far down into the valley of the Ganges. Their progress had been very gradual, and though they had doubtless displaced many of the Dravidian tribes who previously half- occupied the land, they had also absorbed many of the foreigners into their own social organization as slaves or servants. They had meanwhile given up their nomadic habits ; they dwelt in villages, here and there large enough to be called towns ; and their chief wealth was in land and agricultural produce, as well as in cattle. They were still divided into clans ; but the old democratic spirit which made each house- holder king and priest in his own family, had long ago yielded to the inroads of class feeling. Their settled life had given rise to customs which had hardened into unwritten laws ; and with them, as elsewhere, these early institutions, though most useful, even necessary to society, were often productive of THE ARYAN CLANS. 23 great personal hardship, and always a restraint on individual freedom. The pride of race had put an impassable barrier between the Aryans and the conquered aborigines ; the pride of birth had built up another between the chiefs or nobles and the mass of the Aryan people. The superstitious fears of all yielded to the priest- hood an unquestioned and profitable supremacy; while the exigences of occupation, and the ties of family had further separated each class into smaller communities, until the whole nation had become gradually bound by an iron system of caste. The old childlike joy in life, so manifest in the Vedas, had died away. The worship of nature had de- veloped or degenerated into the worship of new and less pure divinities. And the Vedic songs themselves, whose freedom was little compatible with the spirit of the age, had faded into an obscurity which did not 'lessen their value to the priests. The country was politically split up into little principalities, each governed by some petty despot, whose interests were not often the same as those of the community. The inspiriting wars against the enemies of the Aryan people, the infidel deniers of the Aryan gods, had given place to a succession of internecine feuds be- tween the chiefs of neighbouring clans. And in litera- ture, an age of poets had long since made way for an age of commentators and grammarians, who thought that the old poems must have been the work of gods. The simple feeling of awe and wonder at the glorious battles of the storm, and the recurring victories of the sun, had given way before a debasing 24 THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. ritualism; before the growing belief in the efficacy of carefully conducted rites and ceremonies, and charms, and incantations; before the growing fear of the actual power of the stars over the lives and destinies of men ; before the growing dependence on dreams, and omens, and divinations. A belief in the existence of a soul was probably universal. And the curious doctrine of transmigration satisfied the unfortunate that their present woes were the result of their own actions in some former birth, and would be avoided in future ones by present liberality to the priests. Every man's position and occupation were decided for him by his birth. There was plenty for all of the few necessaries of life ; and the struggles and hopes and grinding poverty of a crowded country with the social arrangements of other times, were quite un- known. The village lands were usually held in common by an irrevocable tenure, and the thoughtless peasantry led, on the whole, quiet and not unhappy lives under the influence of a social despotism irre- sistible but not unkindly. The priests were mostly well-meaning, well-con- ducted, ignorant, superstitious, and inflated with a sincere belief in their own divinity; and they in- culcated a sense of duty, which tempered the des- potism of the petty rajas, while it bound all the community in an equal slavery to the ' twice-born ' Brahmans. A few of them also were really learned, a still smaller number earnestly thoughtful, and there was no little philosophical or sophistical discussion in the schools where the younger priests were trained. The religious use of the Vedas, and the right to sacrifice, were strictly confined to the Brahmans ; but THE SAKYAS. 25 they were not the exclusive possessors of such secular knowledge as could then be acquired, and they divided the odour of sanctity with ascetics from other castes. Here and there travelling logicians were willing to maintain theses against all the world ; anchorites had their schemes of universal knowledge and salvation ; ascetics with unwavering faith practised self-torture and self-repression, in the hope of becoming more powerful than the gods ; and solitary hermits sought for some satisfactory solution of the mysteries of life. The ranks of the officiating priesthood were for ever firmly closed against intruders ; but a man of lower caste, a Kshatriya or a Vaisya, whose mind re- volted against the orthodox creed, or whose heart was stirred by mingled zeal and ambition, might find through these irregular openings an entrance to the career of religious teacher and reformer. Under some such conditions as these, thus rudely sketched in outline, an Aryan tribe, named the Sakyas, were seated, about 500 years before the birth of Christ, at a place called Kapila-vastu, on the banks of the river Rohini, the modern Kohana, about 100 miles north-east of the city of Benares. That insignificant stream rose thirty or forty miles to the north of their settlement, in the spurs of the mighty Himalayas, whose giant peaks loomed up in the distance against the clear blue of the Indian sky. The Sakyas had penetrated further to the east than most of their fellow-Aryans, but beyond them in that direction was the powerful con- federation of the Lichchavis, and the rising kingdom i)f Magadha. To their north were rude hill tril> Mongolian extraction; \vhile behind them to the c 26 THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. west lay those lands which the Brahmans held most sacred. Their nearest neighbours to be feared in that direction were the subjects of the king of Sra- vasti, 1 the rival of the king of Magadha. It was this rivalry of their neighbours more than their own strength which secured for the Sakyas a precarious independence ; but their own hand was strong enough to protect them against the incursions of roving bands from the hills, and to sustain them in their quarrels with neighbouring clans of the same standing as themselves. They lived from the produce of their cattle and their rice-fields ; their supplies of water being drawn from the Kohana, on the other side of which stream lived the Koliyans, a kindred tribe. With them the Sakyas sometimes quarrelled for the possession of the precious liquid, but just then the two clans were at peace, and two daughters of the raja or chief of the Koliyans were the wives of Sud- dhodana, the raja of the Sakyas. The story tells us that both were childless ; a misfortune great enough in other times and in other countries, but especially then among the Aryans, who thought that the state of a man's existence after death depended upon ceremonies to be performed by his heir. The rejoicing, therefore, was great when in about the forty-fifth year of her age the elder sister, 2 promised her husband a son. In accordance with custom, she started in due time with the intention of being confined at her parents' house, but it was on the way under the shade of some lofty satin- trees in a pleasant grove called Lumbini, that hei ' See below, p. 69. * On the names, see Appendix to Chapter II., p. 51. NAMES OF GAU1AMA. 37 son, the future Buddha, was unexpectedly born. The mother and child were carried back to Suddho- dana's house, and there, seven days afterwards, the mother died ; but the boy found a careful nurse in his mother's sister, his father's other wife. As with other men who afterwards became famous, many marvellous stories have been told about the miraculous birth and precocious wisdom and power of Gautama; and these are not without value, as showing the spirit of the times in which they arose and grew. It is probable that his having been an only child, born, as it were, out of due time, the subsequent death of his mother, and other details of the story may be due to this instinctive feeling that his birth must have been different from that of ordi- nary men. Even the name Siddhartha, said to have been given him as a child, may have been a subsequent invention, for it means ' he who has accomplished his aim.' But parents of Suddhodana's rank have never shown much aversion for grand names, and other Siddharthas are mentioned l who were not at all peculiarly successful in accomplishing their desires. However this may be, his family name was certainly (lautama, and as this was the name by which he was usually known in after-life, we shall use it throughout this book. 2 Any other names given to the founder of 1 Perhaps only in post-Buddhistic writings. The name occurs in various Buddhist works, and in Jaiiia books; but also in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. 2 Pronunciation, n. I, p. 2. It is a curious fact that Gautama is still the family name of the Rajput chiefs of Nagara, the vil- iiieh has been identified with K.ipil.iv.isiu (Cunningham's 'Am. Go'g.,' i. 417). Gautama is often called simply 'the 28 THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. Buddhism are not names at all, but titles. To the pious Buddhist it seems irreverent to speak of Gau- tama by his mere ordinary and human name, and he makes use, therefore, of one of those numerous epithets which are used only of the Buddha, the Enlightened One. Such are Sakya-sinha, ' the lion of the tribe of Sakya;' Sakya-muni, 'the Sakya sage; 5 Sugata, ' the happy one ; ' Sattha, ' the teacher ; ' Jina, ' the conqueror ;' Bhagava, ' the blessed one ; ' Loka-natha, ' the Lord of the world ; ' Sarvajna, ' the omniscient one ; ' Dharma-raja, ' the king of righteousness,' and many others. These expressions, like the Swan of Avon, may have had very real significance in moments of poetic fire. But their constant use among the Bud- dhists tended, not to bring into clearer vision, but to veil the personality of Gautama, and their constant use as names by modern writers arises simply from mistake. There seems to be no reason to doubt that Gau- tama was very early married to his cousin the daughter of the raja of Koli (see p. 50) ; but the next episode in the biographies is probably due to the influences just referred to. According to most of the southern accounts, his relations soon after complained in a body to the raja Suddhodana that his son, devoted to home pleasures, neglected those manly exercises necessary for one who might hereafter have to lead his kinsmen in case of war. Gautama, being told of this, is said to have appointed a day by beat of drum to prove his skill against all comers, and by surpassing even the cleverest bowmen, and showing his mastery in ' the twelve arts,' to have won back the good opinion of Rujput' in the earlier portions of the Northern biographies (Klaproth's note in ' Foe Koue Ki.' p. 203). FOUR VISIONS. 29 the complaining clansmen. 1 The Sanskrit accounts and the Madhurattha-vilasim make this competition take place before his marriage, and for the hand of his wife ; ami there are other discrepancies. No re- liance can therefore be placed on the actual occur- rence of this episode, the rise of the story being easily explicable, as suggested above, by the universal desire to relate wonderful things of the boyhood of men afterwards famous. It is instructive to notice that we find most discrepancies in the accounts of those parts of the story which are most improbable, a consideration which confirms, I think, the authority of those other parts, in themselves not improbable, in which all the accounts agree. This is the solitary record of his youth. We hear nothing more until in his 2Qth year, Gautama sud- denly abandoned his home to devote himself entirely to the study of religion and philosophy. All our authorities agree in the reason they assign for this momentous step. A deity appeared to him in four visions, under the forms of a man broken down by age, of a sick man, of a decaying corpse, and lastly, of a dignified hermit the visions appearing only to Gautama and his attendant Channa, who was each time specially inspired to explain to his deeply moved master the meaning of the sight. The different ver- sions of this story contain various discrepancies in minor details; and the mere sight of an old or diseased stranger, or even of a dead body, would be insufficient of itself to work so powerful an effect on the mind of one who was not already keenly 1 On the later versions of the story see above, p. 13. 30 THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. sensible to the mysteries of sorrow and of death. But we find in this ancient tradition an expression inadequate it may be, and even childish of what in the main we must ourselves believe to be the true explanation of the cause which induced Gautama to abandon his family and his home. He was probably not the first he was certainly not the last who, in the midst of prosperity and comfort, has felt a yearn- ing and a want which nothing could satisfy, and which have robbed of their charm all earthly gains and hopes. This vague dissatisfaction deepens with every fresh proof of the apparent vanity of life, and does not lose but gains in power when, as is reported in the case of Gautama, it arises more from sympathy with the sorrows of others than from any personal sorrow of one's own. At last, the details of daily life become insupportable; and the calm life of the hermit troubled with none of these things seems a haven of peace, where a life of self-denial and earnest meditation may lead to some solution of the strange enigmas of life. Such feelings must have become more and more ascendant in Gautama's mind, when about ten years after his marriage, his wife bore him their only child, a son named Rahula ; and the idea that this new tie might become too strong for him to break, seems to have been the immediate cause of his flight. According to the oldest authorities of the Southern Buddhists, the birth of his son was announced to him in a garden on the river-side, whither he had gone after seeing the fourth vision, that of the hermit. The event was not then expected, but he only said quietly, ' This is a new and strong tie I shall have to break/ and returned home thoughtful and sad. But THI-: GREAT RENUNCIATION. 3 1 the villagers were delighted at the birth of the child, their raja's only grandson. Gautama's return became an ovation, and he entered Kapilavastu amidst a crowd of rejoicing clansmen. Among the sounds of triumph which greeted his ear, one especially is said to have attracted his attention A young girl, his cousin, sang a stanza, " Happy the father, happy the mother, happy the wife of such a son and husband." 1 In the word 'happy' lay a double meaning; it meant also ' freed,' delivered from the chains of sin and of transmigration, saved. 2 Grateful to one who at such a time reminded him of his highest thoughts, he took off his necklace of pearls, and sent it to her, saying, ' Let this be her fee as a teacher.' She began to build castles in the air thinking ' Young Siddhartha is fall- ing in love with me, and has sent me a present,' but he took no further notice of her, and passed on. That night at midnight he sent his charioteer Channa for his horse, and whilst he was gone he went to the threshold of his wife's chamber, and there by the light of the flickering lamp, he watched her sleeping, surrounded by flowers, with one hand on the head of their child. He had wished for the last time to take the babe in his arms before he left, but he now saw that he coirfd not do so without awaking the mother. As this might frus- trate all his intentions, the fear of waking Yasodhara at last prevailed ; he reluctantly tore himself away, and, accompanied only by Channa, left his father's home, his wealth and power, his young wife and only 1 For authorities, see Rh. D.'s ' Hibbert Lectures, 1881,' pp. 149, 150. J Nibbuta, said to be used in Pali as the participle of the verb from which the word Xihl ana is derived. 2 THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. child, behind him ; and rode away into the night to become a penniless and despised student, and a home- less wanderer. This is the circumstance which has given its name to the Sanskrit original of the Chinese work, of which Mr. Beal has given us the translation mentioned above the ' Mahabhinishkramana Sutra/ or ' Sutra of the Great Renunciation.' How much of this graceful story is historically true it is as yet impossible to say ; but it certainly belongs to the very earliest form of Buddhist belief. We next find another endeavour to relate, under the form of a real material vision, what is supposed to have passed in Gautama's mind. Mara, the spirit of Evil, appears in the sky, and urges Gautama to stop, promising him in seven days a universal kingdom over the four great continents, if he will but give up his en- terprise. When his words fail to have the desired effect, the tempter consoles himself with the hope that he will still overcome his enemy, saying, ' Sooner or later some hurtful or malicious or angry thought must arise in his mind ; in that moment I shall be his master.' ' And from that hour,' adds the Jataka chronicler, ' he followed him, on the watch for any failing, cleaving to him like a shadow, which follows the object from which it falls.' 1 Gautama rode a long distance that night, not stopping till he reached the bank of the river Anoma, beyond the Koliyan territory. There, laking off his ornaments, he gave them and the horse in charge to his charioteer, to take them back to Ka- pilavastu. Channa asked, indeed, to be allowed to stay with his master, that becoming an ascetic, he might continue to serve him ; but Gautama would not 1 Rh. D.'s ' Buddhist 13irth Stories,' p. 84. YEARS OF STUDY AND PENANCE. 33 hear of it, saying, ' How will my father and my rela- tions know what has become of me unless you go back and tell them?' Gautama then cut off his long hair, and exchanging clothes with a poor passer-by, sent home the dejected and sorrowing Channa, while he himself hurried on towards Rajagriha, to begin his new life as a homeless mendicant ascetic. Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha, was the seat of Bimbisara, one of the then most powerful princes in the eastern valley of the Ganges ; and was situated in a pleasant valley, closely surrounded by five hills, the most northerly offshoot of the Vindhya mountains. 1 In the caves on these hill-sides, free from the dangers of more disturbed districts, and near enough to the town whence they procured their simple supplies, yet at the same time surrounded by the solitude of nature, several hermits had found it convenient to settle. Gautama attached himself, first, to one of these Brah- man teachers, named Alara, and, being dissatisfied with his system, afterwards to another named Udraka, learning under them all that Hindu philosophy had then to teach about this world or the next. It may be noticed, in passing, that the question of the relations between Buddhism and the different systems of Hindu philosophy is as difficult as it is interesting. Six such systems are accounted orthodox among the Hindus ; but the history of their rise and development has yet to be written. Only the fully- 1 For a detailed description of the ruins at Rajagriha (modern Rajgir), see General Cunningham's 'Ancient Geography of India, Buddhist Period,' pp. 462-468. The ruins of the walls of the new citadel, built by Bimbisara are still traceable. 34 THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. developed systems are now extant in their different sutras or aphorisms : but though it is doubtful whether any of these were pre-Buddhistic or not, it is certain that, long before Gautama's time, the Brahmans had paid great attention to the deepest questions of ontology and ethics, and were divided into different schools, in one or other of which most of Gautama's metaphysical tenets had previously been taught. Such originality as can be claimed for him arises more from the importance which he attached to moral training above ritual, or metaphysics, or penance; and to the systematized form in which he presented ideas derived from those of various previous thinkers. Like all other leaders of thought, he was the creature of his time, and it must not be supposed that his phi- losophy was entirely of his own creation. One of the Chinese authorities gives long accounts of the discus- sions he held with Bhagava, Alara, and Udraka, 1 which- are interesting as being probably founded on ancient tradition. Professor Monier Williams in his ' Indian Wisdom ' has given an excellent popular sketch of the six systems just referred to, 2 and the most important authorities on the subjectwill be found mentioned there. One of the most frequently inculcated tenets of the Brahmans was a belief in the efficacy of penance as a means of gaining superhuman power and insight ; and when Gautama, after studying the systems of Alara and Udraka, was still unsatisfied, he resolved to go apart, and see what progress he could himself make Beal, ' Romantic Legend,' pp. 152-177. Lectures, iii.-vi., pp. 48-126. HE IS DESERTED. 35 by this much-vaunted method. He withdrew ac- cordingly into the jungles of Uruvela, near the present temple of Buddha Gaya, 1 and there for six years, at- tended by five faithful disciples, he gave himself up to the severest penance, until he was wasted away to a shadow by fasting and self-mortification. Such powerful self-control has always excited the wonder and admiration of weaker men, and we need not be surprised that his fame is said to have spread round about ' like the sound of a great bell hung in the canopy of the skies.' 2 If by these means he could have won that certitude, that peace of mind for which he longed, the gain might have been worth the cost. But the more he thought, the more he examined him- self and denied himself, the more he felt himself a prey to a mental torture worse than any bodily suffer- ing ; a fear lest all his efforts should have been wasted, and that he should die, having gone wrong, and, after all his weary efforts, only failed. 3 At last one day, when walking slowly up and down, lost in thought, he suddenly staggered and fell to the ground. Some of the disciples thought he was actually dead ; but he recovered, and, despairing of further profit from such penance, began again to take regular food, and gave up his self-mortification. Then, when he was most in need of sympathy, when his wavering faith might have been strengthened by the tender trust and re- 1 Deal's 'Travels of Fa Hian,' p. 120. 1 Bigandet, p. 49 (first edition) ; compare Jataka, 67, 27. 1 Gautama's doubts and disquietudes at this juncture are Kjain represented as temptations of the visible Tempter, the Arch-enemy Mara. Alabaster 'Wheel of the Law,' p. 140. 36 THE LtFE OF dAUl'AMA. spect of faithful followers, his disciples forsook him, and went away to Benares. To them it was an axiom that mental conquest lay through bodily suppression. In giving up his penance he had to give up also their esteem ; and in his sore distress they left him to bear, alone, the bitterness of failure. There now ensued a second struggle in Gautama's mind, described in both the Pali and the Sanskrit accounts with all the wealth of poetic imagery of which the Indian mind is master. The crisis culmi- nated on a day each event of which is surrounded in the Buddhist lives of their revered Teacher with the wildest legends, in which the very thoughts passing through the mind of Gautama appear in gorgeous descriptions as angels of darkness or of light. Un- able to express the struggles of his soul in any other way, they represent him as sitting sublime, calm, and serene during violent attacks made upon him by a visible Tempter and his wicked angels, armed by all kinds of weapons; the greatness of the temptation being shadowed forth by the horrors of the convulsion of the powers of Nature. ' When the conflict began between the Saviour of the world and the Prince of Evil a thousand appalling meteors fell ; clouds and dark- ness prevailed. Even this earth, with the oceans and mountains it contains, though it is unconscious, quaked like a conscious being like a fond bride when forcibly torn from her bridegroom like the festoons of a vine shaking under the blasts of a whirl- wind. The ocean rose under the vibration of this earthquake ; rivers flowed back towards their sources ; peaks of lofty mountains, where countless trees had grown for ages, rolled crumbling to the earth ; a fierce THE TEMPTATION. 37 storm howled all around ; the roar of the concussion became terrific ; the very sun enveloped itself in awful darkness, and a host of headless spirits filled the air.' It may be questioned how far the later Buddhists have been able to realise the spiritual truth hidden under these material images ; most of them have doubtless believed in a real material combat, and a 1 Madhurattha Vilasinlapud Tumour, J. 15. A. S., vii. 812,813; with which may be compared several passages of Milton's 'Paradise Regained,' though the Christian poet, as might be expected, uses much simpler images : .... And either tropic now 'Can thunder, and both ends of heaven ; the clouds From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, water with fire In ruin reconciled : nor slept the winds Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad From the four hinges of the world, and fell On the vex'd wilderness; whose tallest pines Tho' rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks, Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then, O patient Son of God, yet stood'st alone Unshaken ! Nor yet staid the terror there ; Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round Fnviron'd thee ; some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek'd, Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace ! Par. Reg., bk. iv. A curious point of resemblance between Milton and the ISuddllUt pi >ets is, that the former makes ' Paradise' to have been 'regained' not on Calvary, but in the \Yikleniess; just as the Buddhists regard Gautama's mental struggle under the Bo-tree AS the must impoitanl event in his career, and the act by which he regained freedom for mankind. Hence the Buddhists look upon the Bo-tree -is most Christians have looked upon the Cross. 38 THE LIFE OF GAUTAMA. real material earthquake. But it is not in India alone that the attempt to compress ideas about the imma- terial into words drawn from tangible things has failed, and has produced expressions which have hardened into false and inconsistent creeds. To us, now, these legends may appear childish or absurd, but they are not without a beauty of their own ; and they have still a depth of meaning to those who strive to read between the lines of these, the first half-inarticu< late efforts the Indian mind had made to describe the feelings of a strong man torn by contending passions. Comparing the different accounts of the events of that decisive day in the light of the past and future history of Gautama, the meaning sought to be conveyed by the exuberant imagery of the Buddhist writers seems, in its principal features, unmistakable. Disenchanted and dissatisfied, Gautama had given up all that most men value, to seek peace in secluded study and self-denial. Failing to attain this object while learning the wisdom of others, and living the simple life of a student, he had devoted himself to that intense meditation and penance which all philosophers then said would raise men above the gods. Still unsatisfied, longing always for a certainty that seemed ever just beyond his grasp, he had added vigil to vigil, and penance to penance, until, when to the wondering view of others, he had be- come more than a saint,- his indomitable resolution and faith had together suddenly and completely broken down. Then, when sympathy would have been most welcome, he found his friends falling a way, and his disciples leaving him. Soon after, if not on the very day when his followers had gone, he THE VICTORY. '39 wandered out towards the banks of the Nairanjara, receiving his morning meal from the hands of Sujata, the daughter of a neighbouring villager, and sat him- self down to eat it under the shade of a large tree (a Jjcus religiosa\ to be known from that time as the sacred Bo-tree, or tree of wisdom. 1 There he re- mained through the long hours of that day, debating with himself what next to do.. The philosophy he had trusted in seemed to be doubtful ; the penance he had practised so long had brought no certainty, no peace ; and all his old temptations came back upon him with renewed force. For years he had looked at all earthly good as vanity, worthless and transi- tory. Nay, more, he had thought that it contained within itself the seeds of evil, and must inevitably, sooner or later, bring forth its bitter fruit. But now to his wavering faith the sweet delights of home and love, the charms of wealth and power, began to show themselves in a different light, and to glow again with attractive colours. They were within his reach, he knew he would be welcomed back, and yet, would there even then be satisfaction ? Were all his labours to be ' This tree came to occupy much the same position among Bud- dhists as the cross among Christians. Worship was actually paid to it, and an offshoot from it is still growing on the spot where the Buddhist pilgrims found it, and where they believed the original tree had grown in the ancient temple at Bodh Gaya, near Kajgir, built about 500 A.I)., by the celebrated Amara Sinha. A branch of it planted at Anuradliapura in .Ceylon, in the middle of the third century B.C., is still growing there the oldest historical tree in the u long and so resolutely carried out had been tried in the fire and found wanting ; from that day he not only claimed no merit on account of them, but took every opportunity of declaring that from such penances no advantage at all could be derived, a renunciation greater, probably, to one in his position, than that which the Buddhists call the ' Great Renunciation.' Gautama had now arrived at those conclusions re- garding the nature of man, and of the world around him, at that psychological and moral system to which he in the main adhered during his long career. But, as before the apparent simplicity and power of this new system the efficacy of sacrifice and penance seemed to him to fade away into nothingness, so did Gautama feel more and more intensely the immen shy of the distance which separated him from the beliefs of those about him. That feeling of utter loneliness which is often the lot of the leaders of men, especially in moments of high exaltation nod insight broke upon him with such force that it THE AFTER-DOUBT. 41 seemed to him impossible to go to his fellow-country- men with a doctrine to them necessarily so strange, so even incomprehensible. How could men subject to the same temptations as those whose power he had just so keenly experienced, but without that earnestness and insight which he felt himself to possess, how could such men grasp the reality of truths so funda- mental and so far-reaching in fact, but so simple and so powerless in appearance, as those of his system of salvation salvation merely by self-control and love, without any of the rites, any of the ceremonies, any of the charms, any of the priestly powers, any of the gods, in which men love to trust ? That such a thought should, under the circum- stances, have occurred to him, is so very natural, that we need not be surprised at the account of his hesi- tation as given in the books. And the reason which they assign as the motive for his final determination is worthy of notice : it is said to have been love and pity fur humanity, the thought of mankind, otherwise, as it seemed to him, utterly doomed and lost, which made Gautama resolve, at what- ever hazard, to proclaim his doctrine to the world. To the pious liuddhist it is a constant source of joy and gratitude that ' the Buddha,' not then only, but in many former births, when emancipation from all the i arcs and troubles of life was already within his reach, should again and again, in mere love for man, have condescended to enter the world, and live amidst the sorrows inseparable from finite existence. To those who look upon Gautama in a less mystic light, as a man of mixed motives and desires, it will sug- gest itself that other considerations of a less lofty 42 THE LIFE OF GAU1AMA. kind must have tended, half-unconsciously perhaps, in the same direction. For silence would be taken as a confession of failure ; and, even apart from what had happened, there is always a sweetness in declar- ing the unknown, or being the bearer of good news. It is at least certain that Gautama, like Muhammad, had an intense belief in himself; a confidence that must have been peculiarly strong in that moment of clearness when he had seemed at last to stand face to face with the deep realities or rather unrealities of life ; and his sense of isolation yielded soon before his consciousness of power, and his prophetic zeal. At first, it is said, he intended to address himself to his old teachers, Alara and Udraka, but finding that they were dead, he walked straight to Benares, where his former disciples were then living. On the way he meets with an acquaintance named Upaka, an 1 from him receives his first rebuff. The account of the conversation is only preserved to us in one of the less authentic biographies, 1 but is so striking that it is deserving of notice. The Brahman surprised at Gautama's expression and carriage, asks him, ' Whence comes it that thy form is so perfect, thy countenance so lovely, thy appearance so peace- ful ? What system of religion is it that imparts to thee such joy and such peace ? ' To this question Gautama replies, in verse, that he has overcome all worldly inllucnces and ignorance, and error, and passionate craving. Then the Brahman asks whither he is going ; and on hearing he was going to Benares, asks him for in BeaPs ' komanuc Legend/ from the Chinese, p. 2.4.5. HE IS DESPISED BY UPAKA. 43 what purpose ; to this the ' World-honoured ' replies :n the following verses : ' I now desire to turn the wheel of the excellent Law. For this purpose I am going to that city of Benares To give Light to those enshrouded in darkness, And to open the gate of Immortality to men.' To further questioning he then informs Upaka that having completely conquered all evil passion, and for ever got rid of the remnants of personal being, he desires by the light of his religious system to dispense light to all, even as a lamp enlightens all in the house. On this the Brahman, unable apparently to brook any longer such high-flown pretensions, says curtly, ' Venerable Gautama, your way lies yonder,' and turns away himself in the opposite direction. Fortunately, we have now this episode in its Pali form, in the Vinaya Pitaka, and the older account, 1 as might be expected, puts the matter in a different light. As I have pointed out in my ' Buddhist Suttas ' (pp. 140, 141), the expression turning the wheel of the excellent Law means, I think, ' To found a king- dom of righteousness ' ; and the expression ' to open the gate of Immortality to men,' being quite unbud- dhistic, has probably arisen from a misunderstanding of the word amata, ambrosia, or nectar. This is a name applied to Nirvana, as being the heavenly drink of the wise (who are above the gods) ; it never means immortality, and could not grammatically have that sense. So that the striking parallel between the Chinese verses and 2 Tim. i. 10, falls to the ground. 2 1 Translated in Rh. D. and H. O.'s ' Vinaya Text*,' i. 89. Compare on turning the wheel belnw, p. 45, on 'Amata,'p. in. 44 THE LIFE. OK GAUTAMA. Nothing daunted, the new prophet goes on tc Benares, and in the cool of the evening enters the Deer park, about three miles north of the city, where his five former disciples were then living. 1 They, seeing him coming, resolve not to recognize as a master one who has broken his vows, and to address him simply by his name ; but, on the other hand, as he was of high caste descent, to offer him a mat to sit down upon. They respect him still, but a strong sense of duty prevents their receiving igain as an authoritative teacher one whom they are forced to regard as fallen from orthodoxy. One of them only, the aged Kondanya, held aloof from this design ; but Gautama noticed the change of manner in the others, and told them they were wrong to call him ' Venerable Gautama,' that they were still in the way of death where they must reap sorrow and disappointment, whereas he had found the way of salvation, which had so long remained hidden ; and having become a Buddha, could show them also how to escape from the evils of life. They object, naturally enough, from a Hindu ascetic point of view, that he had failed before when he kept his body under, and how can his mind 1 This place, now called Dhamek, was held by the Buddhists only less sacred than that where the holy Bo-tree grew. Asoka, in the third century B.C., built a memorial tower there, which was seen by the Chinese pilgrims, and the remains of which, and of numerous later buildings, still exist. A great deal has been written on the discoveries at Dhamek, the fullest descrip- tion, with plans, facsimiles of the inscriptions, &c., being by General Cunningham, 'Archaeological Reports,' 1862, vol. i. pp. 103-130. See also chapter xviii. of the Rev. M. A. Shcrring's 'Sacred City of the Hindus,' pp. 250 ct se'Middle Path ' ; that is to say, in being free, on tji^one hand, from " devotion to the enervat- ing pleasures of sense which are degrading, vulgar, sensual, vain, and profitless"; and on the other, from any trust in the efficacy of the mortifications practised by Hindu ascetics, " which are painful, vain, and use- less." 1 This Middle Path was summed up in eight principles or parts (angas}~ found in all schools of Buddhism : 1. Right Belief. 5. Right means of Livelihood. 2. Right Aims. 6. Right Endeavour. 3. Right. Speech. 7. Right Mindfulness. 4. Right Actions. 8. Right Meditation. The necessity of adhering to this ' path,' this middle course of a virtuous life, resulted from four ' The claim to be in the Middle Path, inferring or suggesting that all others are at one of two extremes, is a very common one ; and among religious teachers naturally assumes the form of the belief that one's own sect alone is defending the centre of Truth against Superstition on the one side, and Worldliness or Infidelity on the other. The figure was a favourite one also with Gautama, and he uses it again (teste the Sanyutta Nikaya, as quoted by Gogerly,J. C. A. S., 1867, 125), when describing his view of Karma. * A less literal, and, I think, better version of these anas will l-c found in my ' Buddhist Suttas,' p. 144. 48 THE LIKE OF GAUTAMA. fundamental truths, called ' the four Noble Truths, 1 as the path is called ' the Noble Eightfold Path.' The four truths are, Suffering, the Cause of suffering, the Cessation of suffering, the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering. 1. Suffering or sorrow. Birth is sorrowful ; growth, decay, illness, death, all are sorrowful ; separation from objects we love, hating what cannot be avoided, and craving for what cannot be obtained, are sorrow- ful. Briefly, such states of mind as co-exist with the consciousness of individuality, with the sense of sepa- rate existence, are states of suffering and sorrow. 2. The cause of suffering. The action of the out- side-world on the senses excites a craving thirst for something to satisfy them, or a delight in the objects presenting themselves, either of which is accompanied by a lust of life. These are the causes of sorrow. 3. The cessation of sorrow'. The complete conquest over and destruction of this eager thirst, this lust of life, is that by which sorrow ceases. 4. The path leading to the cessation of sorrow is the Noble Eightfold Path briefly summed up in the above description of a virtuous life. 1 Lastly, the Buddha declared that he had arrived at these convictions, not by study of the Vedas, nor from the teachings of others, but by the light of reason and intuition alone. It will be difficult for the reader to realise all the 1 On theTruths, compare 'LalitaVistara,' Foucaux, p. 392, with the Pali text, translated in my ' Buddhist Suttas,' pp. 148-150. A'l other accounts are derived from these. See also below, p. 106. THE FIRST CONVERTS. 49 meaning that is carefully condensed into these short phrases ; and, on the other hand, to avoid putting a Christian interpretation on these Buddhist expressions; but they will be further considered later on, and to at- tempt to deal with them now would interrupt too much the course of the narrative. Such classified statements of moral truth seem to us forced and artificial. But it must be remembered that they were addressed to Brahmans skilled in the dialectics of the time, accustomed to put all their knowledge into short aphorisms to assist their memory, and quite free from that impatience which is so marked a characteristic of our modern modes of thought. To them time was no object, and they would sit under the trees listening with grave politeness, whilst their former teacher, earnest and dignified, laid down the principles of his system; and then, doubtless at some length, and not without repetitions, explained and com- mentated upon them. It may even be open to ques- tion whether the completeness of the form and the manner of its presentation would not weigh more with them than the truth of the principles which were thus presented. When we also remember the relation which these men had long borne to him, and that they already held very strongly beliefs nearly allied to those parts of his doctrine that are most repugnant to us the pessimist view of life, and the doctrine of transmigration it is not difficult to believe that his persuasions were successful, and that, after a time of hesitation, his old disciples were the first to acknow- ledge Gautama in his new character. It was the aged Kondanya, ready for his release from life, who first 5<5 I5UDDHISM. openly gave in his adhesion ; but the others also, after many talks with the Buddha, sometimes sepa- rately, sometimes together, soon accepted in its en tirety his plan of salvation. 1 1 Hardy, 'Manual,' 187 ; and Tumour, J. B. A. S., vii. 815, only mention here the conversion of Kondanya, which all the accounts put first. Foucaux, p. 396, and Bigandet, 1st edit., p. 97, convert the other four on the same day ; the Jataka, p. 82, on the four subsequent days ; and Beal ' Catena,' 134, during the succeeding three months. Beal ' Rom. Leg.,' 255, is doubtful, but allows some interval. Comp. also p. 186 below. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II. GAUTAMA'S WIFE AND RELATIONS. GAUTAMA is said to have been related to his wile and to several of his principal disciples in the manner appearing in the following table. It is taken chiefly from the ' Mahavansa,' p. 9, where, after tracing the descent of Jayasena from the mythical first king among men, the authot gives the list [on p. 52] of the immediate ancestors of Gautama and Yasodhara. ' The early authorities agree in stating that Gautama had only one wife ; they give her different names, but mean the same person. She is called Yasodhara by Bigandet (24, 34, 124); and the same by Spence Hardy, who adds that she was the daughter of Suprabuddha (Manual of Buddhism, 146, 152, 206) ; but she is usually called simply Rahula-mata, the mother of Raluila, in the Pali authorities (Jataka, 54, 6; 58, 18 ; 90, 24; 'Vinaya Texts,' vol. i. p. 208). The name of Buddhakacana given by Tumour (loc. cit., 816) is a mere mistake for Subhadra- kancana, and is there stated to be the same as Yasodhara. ' On the general question of the value of these genealogies, compare Senart, 357, 369, 511; Koppen, ' Religion des Buddha,' I, 76; Lassen, ' Ind. Alterth.,' vol. ii. app. ii. APPENDIX. 5 1 The Chinese life gives three wives, Yasodhara. (the mother of Rahula), GotamI, and Manohara. 1 The Chinese editor signi- ficantly adds concerning the last, ' Some Doctors of the Law say that the attendants on Manohara only knew her name, but never saw her presence,' and this evidently mythical person is never mentioned elsewhere. GotamI is the name used only in one story (Beal, p. 96), which does not occur in any other authority, and the epithet would be applicable of course to every member of the Gautama clan, as Prajapati, for instance, is also called GotamI. GotamI is made the daughter of Danc'a- panl, whilst Yasodhara, the only wife who appears throughout the book, is made the daughter of Mahanama. The Lalita Vistara speaks only of one wife Gopa, the daughter of Dandapam, and relates of her the stories which are related elsewhere of Yasodhara; but Foucaux in a note to p. 152, says that Gautama had three other wives, Yasodhara, Mrigaja or Gopa, and Utpalavarna. Of the last, he gives one detail which identifies her with Yasodhara, namely, that she and Prajapati were the first Buddhist nuns. Finally, Alexander Csoma, the great authority on Tibetan Buddhism, mentions three wives, and names them Gopa, Yaso- dhara, and Utpala Varna, 2 but states elsewhere 3 that the first two are the same ; and in another place that the name of the third is Mrigaja. 4 All this seems to be explicable on a very natural hypothesis. The oldest accounts agree in giving to Gautama only one wife, whom they call ' the mother of Rahula. ' As the legends grew she was surrounded with every virtue and grace, and was spoken of as the Lotus-coloured, the Attractive, the Illustrious, and so on. Still later, thes&epithets were supposed to refer to different individuals; but the curious confusions in the later accounts in which they are used as names, show that they can be traced back to the one wife of the older story. 1 Deal's 'Romantic Legend,' p. 101, where the word is spelt Manodara, but explained 'who seizes the mine!,' for which the Sanskrit can only be as given above. f Asiatic 'Researches,' xx. p. 308, n. 21. ' 'Tibetan Grammar,' p. 162, note. 1 ' As. Res.' xx. 290. , : n P ~i a, a in V ^" -1. TEACHING IN THE DLfiK-PARK.. CHAPTER III. LIFE OF GAUTAMA FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY TILL HIS DEATH. GAUTAMA now remained for some time in the Migadaya wood, 1 teaching his new doctrines, quietly it is true and only to those who came to him, but in a manner which shows us at once how great was the gulf which divided him from the professional teachers of the time. 2 His was no mere scho- lastic system, involved like those of the Brahmans in a mysterious obscurity ; and even in that half- incomprehensible form offered to the considera- tion of only a few selected adepts. He joined to his gifts as a thinker a prophetic ardour and mis- sionary zeal, which prompted him to popularize 1 Gen. Cunningham, 'Arch. Reports,' I. p. 107, says, ' The Mrigadawa' or "Dew Park," is represented by a fine wood, which still covers an area of about half a mile, and extends from the great tower of Dhamek on the north, to the Chaukundi mound on the south.' * It may be interesting to notice how many of the modern . of metaphysical thought have similarly been private, non-professorial men ; the names, among others, of Spino/a, Descartes, Berkeley. Hobbes, Locke, Comte, Mill, and Spencer will at once suggest themselves. It is true that among the pro- fessional men in Germany and Scotland there are many great nanio. but Leibnit/, Hume, Schopenhauer, and Hartmann are sinking exceptions. 5/t LIFE OF GAUTAMA. his doctrine, and to preach to all without exception, men and women, high and low, ignorant and learned alike. 1 Thus all of his first disciples were laymen, and two of the very first were women. The first con- vert was a rich young man named Yasa, who joined the small company of personal followers ; the next were Yasa's father, mother, and wife, who, however, remained lay disciples. It was not till some time afterwards that Gautama established an order of female mendicants, the evils inseparable from which he estimated as very great ; and though he held the life of a mendicant to be necessary to rapid progress towards deliverance from that ' thirst ' which was the cause of all evil, yet he highly honoured the believing householder. A lay disciple, though not yet able or willing to cast off the ties of home or of business, might yet ' enter the paths/ 2 and, by a life of recti- tude and kindness, ensure for himself in a future existence more favourable conditions for his growth in goodness. There is no magic in any outward act ; every one's salvation consists of and depends entirely on a modification and growth in his own inner nature, to be brought about by his own self-control and dili- gence, and thus the earnest layman will advance further in ' the paths ' than the mendicant who is wanting in self-control and energy. The subject will be further discussed below when we come to 1 See on this point the admirable remarks of Bishop Bigandet, note 63, p. 117, which have suggested some of the above. Some of the details of Yasa's conversion (Mahavagga, i. 7, 2 ; trans- lated in 'Vinaya Texts.' vol. i. p. 103) were afterwards trans- ferred to the story of Gautama's own conversion. 2 See below, pp. 108, 148, and Dhammapada, 142. SENDING OUT THE SIXTY. 55 treat more fully of the 'paths': it is sufficient to state here that Gautama's whole teaching resolved itself into a system of intellectual and moral self- culture, and that the fruitless cares and empty hopes of ordinary life were considered incompati- ble with the highest degree of this self-culture, while they would become distasteful to those who had reached in it even a lower stage. Five months after the crisis under the Bo-tree, and three months after Gautama's arrival at the Migadaya wood, he called together all his disciples, who are represented to have numbered already sixty persons, and sent them in different directions to preach and teach, Yasa only remaining at Benares, near his parents. 1 The Burmese account puts on this occasion the following curious speech into Gautama's mouth : ' Beloved Rahans, I am free from the five great passions which, like an immense net, encompass men and nats* ; you too, owing to the instruc- tions you have received from me, enjoy the same glorious privilege. There is now incumbent on us a great duty, that of labouring effectually on behalf of men and jiats, and procuring to them the invaluable blessing of the deliverance. To the end of securing more effectually the success of such an undertaking, let us part with each other and proceed in various and opposite directions, so that not two of us should follow up the same way. Go ye now, and preach the most excellent Law, expounding every point thereof, 1 Jatak.i, 82; Hauly. ' Maii;i;il,' iSS ; !'.i^;mdet, 122. 'Rom. Log . * i.f. Gods (devas). 56 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. and unfolding it with care and attention in all its bearings and particulars. Explain the beginning, the middle, and the end of the law, to all men without exception : let everything respecting it be made publicly known and brought to the broad daylight. Show, now, to men and nats the way leading to the practice of pure and meritorious works. You will meet, doubtless, with a great number of mortals not as yet hopelessly given up to their passions, and who will avail themselves of your preaching for re-con- quering their hitherto forfeited liberty, and freeing themselves from the thraldom of passions. For my part, I will direct my course to the village of Sena, situate in the vicinity of the solitude of Uruwela.' I have retained the quaint phraseology of Bishop Bigandet's translation, which will well represent the quaintness of the original. 1 Rahans are mendicants, the five passions I presume to be those arising from the five senses; nats are deities; the most excellent Law is, doubtless, the Dharma, the Buddhist religion. Of course, these cannot have been the actual words spoken by Gautama. He cannot have thought his followers already perfect, and, whatever his opinions about supernatural beings (an interesting question we cannot here discuss), it is at least certain that they were inconsistent with the expressions put into his mouth. To the Burmese author they would seem quite natural, but whence did he derive the idea of the duty of proclaiming to all men alike the whole of ' the most excellent law,' living as he did in a country where the missionary spirit had long died out? Not, 1 The Pali lias since Leon published. Mahavng^a, T. n. PREACHING AT ' WAS ' TlME, 57 certainly, from Hinduism ; nor is any other source conceivable except a genuine survival of the spirit of early Buddhism. Throughout his career, Gautama was in the habit of travelling about during most of the line part of the year, teaching and preaching to the people ; but during the four rainy months, from June to October, he remained in one place, devoting himself more particularly to the instruction of his declared fol- lowers. This custom has survived down to the present day in Southern countries ; but in a form which is a curious instance of the way in which the letter of such religious ordinances can be observed, and turned to real use, long after the reason of their original institution has ceased to operate. The wandering mendicants have become settled celibate parochial clergy; but every year, during those months which were the rainy season in Magadha in the time of Gautama, they leave their permanent homes ; and, living in temporary huts, put up by the peasantry of some district who specially invite them, hold a series of public services, in which they read and explain the Pali Pitakas to all of any age or sex or caste who choose to listen. This period, called was (from the Sanskrit varsha, rain), is in Ceylon the finest part of the year; and as there are no regular religious services at any other time, the peasantry celebrate the reading of bana (or the Word) at was time as their great religious festival. They put up under the palm-trees a platform, roofed, but quite open at the sides, and ornamented with bright cloths and flowers ; and round it they sit in the moonlight on the ground, and listen through the night with great satisfaction, if not with 58 LIKE OK GAUTAMA. great intelligence, to the sacred words repeated by relays of shaven monks. The greatest favourite at these readings of bana is the 'Jataka' book, which contains so many of the old fables and stories common to the Aryan peoples, sanctified now, and preserved by the leading hero in each, whether man, or fairy, or animal, being looked upon as an incarnation of the Buddha in one of his previous births. To these wonderful stories the simple peasantry, dressed in their best and brightest, listen all the night long with unaffected delight ; chatting pleasantly now and again with their neighbours ; and indulging all the while in the mild narcotic of the betal leaf, their stores of which (and of its never failing adjuncts, chunam, that is, white lime, and the areka nut), afford a constant occasion for acts of polite good fellowship. The first spirit of Buddhism may have passed away as com- pletely as the old reason for was; neither hearers nor preachers may have that deep sense of evil in the world and in themselves, nor that high resolve to battle with and overcome it, which animated some of the early Buddhists ; and they all think themselves to be earning ' merit ' by their easy service. But there is at least at these festivals a genuine feeling of human kindness, in harmony alike with the teachings of Gautama, and with the gentle beauty of those moonlight scenes. 1 The importance afterwards attached to the acces- sion of Gautama's next convert is shown by the number of miraculous events which are said to have preceded it. Of these, the only possible historical 1 Bigandet, p. 127 ; Hardy ' Manual,' 101 ; ' Eastern Mona- chisin,' 232-237. SERMON ON FIRE. 59 basis is that in the solitudes of Uruwela there were then three brothers named Kasyapa, fire worshippers and hermit philosophers, whose high reputation as teachers had attracted a considerable number of scholars ; and that after Gautama had remained some time among them, the elder brother adopted his system, and at once took a principal place in the small body of believers. His brothers and their scholars followed his example, and the first set dis- course preached by Gautama to his new disciples is preserved in the Pitakas under the title Aditta-pariyaya Sutta (Sermon on the Lessons to be drawn frorr Burning). This Sutta affords an excellent example of the method so often adopted by Gautama of inculcat- ing his new doctrines by putting a new meaning into the religious ceremonies of the time, or into the common occurrences of life. The new disciples, who had been worshippers of Agni, the sacred fire, were seated with Gautama on the Elephant Rock, near Gaya, with the beautiful valley of Rajagriha stretched out before them, when a fire broke out in the jungle on the opposite hill. 1 Taking the fire as his text, the Teacher declared that so long as men remained in ignorance they were, as it were, consumed by a fire by the excitement produced within them by the action of external things. These things acted upon them through the five senses and the heart (which Gautama regarded as a sixth organ of sense). The eye, for instance, perceives objects : from this 1 For the site of the Elephant Rock, see Gandhahasti, at the foot of Map, PL iii., Cunningham's' 'Archaeological Reports,' vol. i. On the sentiment comp. below, p. 155. 60 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. perception arises an inward sensation, producing pleasure or pain. Sensations produce this misery and joy, because they supply fuel as it were to the inward fires, concupiscence, anger, and ignorance, and the anxieties of birth, decay, and death. The same was declared to be the case with the sensations produced by each of the other senses. But those who follow the Buddha's scheme of inward self- control, the four stages of the Path whose gate is purity and whose goal is love, have become wise ; the sensations from without no longer give fuel to the inward fire, since the fires of concupiscence, &c., have ceased to burn l ; true disciples are thus free from that craving thirst which is the origin of evil ; the wisdom they have acquired will lead them on, sooner or later, to perfection ; they are delivered from the miseries which would result from another birth ; and even in this birth they no longer need the guidance of such laws as those of caste and ceremonies and sacri- fice, for they have already reached far beyond them ! One may well pause and wonder at finding such a sermon preached so early in the history of the world, more than 400 years before the rise of Chris- tianity, and among a people who have long been thought peculiarly idolatrous and sensual ; a sermon remarkable enough for what it says, but still more remarkable for what it leaves unsaid. Its meaning is perhaps scarcely clear without a knowledge of the 1 In a passage from Jina Alankara, given by Burnouf (Lotus, 332), the Buddha is described as ' that great man who, unaided, works out salvation for all the world ; and extinguishes by the rainfall of the nectar of his teaching, the fires of lust, and anger, and error ; of birth, old age, disease, and death ; of pain, lamentation, grief, disappointment, and despair.' WELCOME AT RAJAGRIHA. 6l ' paths,' and of the ' senses,' but to explain them here would detain us too long, and the general spirit which it breathes is sufficiently unmistakable. From Gaya, Gautama and his new disciples walked on towards Rajagriha, then the capital of Bimbisara, the most powerful chieftain in the eastern valley of the Ganges, whose kingdom of Magadha extended about too miles south from the river Ganges, and 100 miles east from the river Sona. Both Gautama and Kasyapa were well known in the town, and when the raja came out to welcome the teachers, the crowd was uncertain which was the master and which the disciple. Gautama therefore asked Kasyapa why he had given up sacrificing to Agni. The latter saw the motive of the question, and replied that, while some took pleasure in sights and sounds and taste and sensual love, and others in sacrifice, he had perceived that all these alike were worthless, and had tfiven up sacrifices whether great or small. Nirvana was a state of peace unattainable by men under the guidance of sense and passion ; a rest destructive of transmigration, birth, decay, and death : a happy state to be reached by inward growth alone. 1 Gautama is then said to have told the people a Jataka story about Kasyapa's virtue in a former birth ; and seeing how impressed they were, to have gone on to explain to them the four Noble Truths. At the end of this sermon the raja professed himself an adherent of the new system ; and the next day all the people in the place, excited by the conversion of Kasyapa and 1 For the story of the conversion of Kasyapa, see ' Vinaya Texts,' pp. 118-140; Jataka, p. 82; Rh. D., ' Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 115, and 'Hibbert Lectures, 1881,' p. 159 ; Bigandet, 130-144. 62 LIFE OK GAUTAMA. Bimbisara, crowded to the Yashtivana grove, where Gautama had rested, to see him and hear what new thing he had to say ; and when Gautama went towards midday to the city to the raja's house to receive his daily meal, he was surrounded by an enthusiastic multitude. The raja received him with great respect, and, saying that Yashtivana was too far off, assigned to him as a residence a bamboo grove (veluvami) close by, which became celebrated as the place where Gautama spent many rainy seasons, and de- livered many of his most complete discourses. 1 There he stayed for two months, and during that time two ascetics, named Sariputra and Moggallana, afterwards conspicuous leaders in the new crusade, joined the Sangha or Society, as the little company of Buddhist mendicants was called. The high position which Gautama soon after assigned these new dis- ciples created some ill-feeling among the older mem- bers of the Sangha, which Gautama, however, allayed by calling together his followers and addressing them at some length on the means requisite for Buddhist salvation, which he summed up in the celebrated verse. ' To cease from all wrong-doing, To get virtue, To cleanse one's own heart, This is the religion of the Buddhas.' At the same time he laid down the first rules for the ' Curiously enough while Yashtivana has been identified by General Cunningham ('Ancient Geography of India,' p. 461, and map xii. ), the site of Veluvana has not yet been discovered : it must have occupied about the position where the ancient basements, marked K. K. K. and G. in Cunningham's map of kajagriha (PL xiv. Reports, vol. i.), were found by him. See above, p. 33. THE FICKLE MULTITUDE. 63 guidance of the society, the simple code being called ' Patimokkha,' that is ' the Disburdenment,' a word afterwards applied to a book containing a sum- mary of the more complex system of laws, as it had been elaborated at the time of Gautama's death. This meeting of mendicants at which the Society was first, so to speak, incorporated, is known as the ' Savaka- sannipata,' or assembly of the disciples. 1 The enthusiasm of the people seems to have cooled down as rapidly as it arose, for we hear of no other conversions besides those of Sariputra and Moggal lana, and their pupils ; and the members of the society began even to complain to Gautama that, when they went out to beg their daily food, they were received with abuse and ridicule ; on the ground that the new teaching would deprive households of their support, and depopulate and ruin the country. This they did not know how to answer, which is not surprising, for the charge was unfortunately true. The Brahmans, indeed, held celibacy in high honour, but only in youth and old age ; and the tapasas or ascetics, so far from seeking imitators, added such penance to their celibacy as they hoped, rightly enough, would be un- attainable by ordinary men ; whereas the Buddhists painted in glowing colours the contrast between the miseries of life in the world, and the sweet calm of life in the Order, and wanted every one for his own sake to share at once in their salvation. Gautama's 1 Jataka, p. 85 ; Hardy, M. B., 198 ; Tumour, J. B. A. S., vii. 816. Hardy says that the verse above quoted (v. 183 of the Dhammapada), 'constitutes the discourse,' called Pati- mokkha. Compare my ' Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon,' p. 5, and below p 162. 64 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. answer, perhaps the best possible, does not dispute the charge, but simply reasserts that what the people called ruin he called good. He advised his followers to say that the Buddha was only trying to spread righteousness, as former Buddhas had done ; that he used no weapons except persuasion ; those whom he gained, he gained only by means of the truth, which he proclaimed for the benefit of all. While the new teacher was laying the foundations of his order, and experiencing first the devotion and then the attacks of the multitude, his relations at Kapilavastu had not remained ignorant of the change in his life ; and Suddhodana had sent to him asking him to visit his native city, that his now aged father might see him once more before he died. Gautama, accordingly started for Kapilavastu, and on his arrival there stopped, according to his cus- tom, in a grove outside the town. There his father, uncles, and others came to see him ; but the latter at least were by no means pleased with their mendicant clansman ; and though it was the custom on such occasions to offer to provide ascetics with their daily food, they all left without having done so. The next day, therefore, Gautama set out, accompanied by his disciples, carrying his bowl to beg for a meal. As he came near the gate of the little town, he hesitated whether he should not go straight to the raja's resi- dence, but at last he determined to adhere to a rule of the Order, according to which a Buddhist mendi- cant should beg regularly from house to house. It soon reached the raja's ears that his son was walking through the streets begging. Startled at such news, he rose up, and holding his outer robe together with VISIT TO HIS FATHER. 65 his hand went out quickly, and hastening to the place where Gautama was, he said, ' Why, master, do you put us to shamo ? Why do you go begging for your food ? Do you think it is not possible to provide food for so many mendicants ? ' ' Oh, Maharaja/ was the reply, ' this is the custom of all our race.' ' But we are descended from an illustrious race of warriors, and not one of them has ever begged his bread.' ' You and your family,' answered Gautama, ' may claim descent from kings ; my descent is from the pro- phets (Buddhas) of old, and they, begging their food, have always lived on alms. But, my father, when a man has found a hidden treasure, it is his duty first to present his father with the most precious of the jewels ;' and he accordingly addressed his father on the cardinal tenet of his doctrine, his words being reported in the form of two verses given in the Dham- ma-pada: 1 ' Rise up ! and loiter not ! Practise a normal life and right ! Who follows virtue rests in bliss, Both in this world. and in the next. Follow after the normal life ! Follow not after wrong ! Who follows virtue rests in bliss, Both in this world and in the next.' Suddhodana made no reply to this, but simply taking his son's bowl, led him to his house, where the members of the family and the servants of the house- 1 Verses 168, 169 ; and comp. p. 148, below. 66 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. hold came to do him honour, but Yasodhara did not come. ' If I am of any value in his eyes, he will him- self come,' she had said ; ' I can welcome him better here.' Gautama noticed her absence, and attended by two of his disciples, went to the place where she was; first warning his followers not to prevent her, should she try to embrace him, although no member of his Order might touch or be touched by a woman. When she saw him enter, a recluse in yellow robes with shaven head and shaven face, though she knew it would be so, she could not contain herself, and falling on the ground she held him by the feet, and burst into tears. Then remembering the impassable gulf between them, she rose and stood on one side. The raja thought it necessary to apologize for her, telling Gautama how entirely she had continued to love him, refusing comforts which he denied himself, taking but one meal a day, and sleeping, not on a bed, but on a mat spread on the ground. The different accounts often tell us the thoughts of the Buddha on any par- ticular occasion; here they are silent, stating only that he then told a Jataka story, showing how great had been her virtue in a former birth. She became an earnest hearer of the new doctrines ; and when, some- time afterwards, much against his will, Gautama was induced to establish an order of female mendicants, his widowed wife Yasodhara became one of the first of the Buddhist nuns. 1 1 For Gautama's journey to Kapilavastu, and interviews with his father and his wife, compare Jataka, 87-90, with the com- mentary on Dhammapada, w. 168, 169 ; Bigandet, 156-168 ; Spence Hardy, 'Manual,' 198-204; and Bcal, pp. 360-364. THE SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE. 67 About a week afterwards, Yasodhara dressed Rahula, her child and Gautama's, in his best, and told him to go to his father to ask for his inheritance. 'I know of no father, but the raja,' said the boy, mean- ing Suddhodana ; ' Who is my father ? ' Yasodhara holding him up to the window, pointed out to him the Buddha, and saying, ' That monk, whose appearance is so glorious, is your father, and he has great wealth, which we have not seen since the day when he left us ; go to him and ask for your rights ; say, "I am your son, and shall be the head of the clan, and shall want my in- heritance. Give it to me."' 1 Rahula went up to Gautama and said,without fear, and with much affection, 'Father, how happy I urn to benear you.' Gautamasaid nothing, but presently having finished his meal, rose up to go to the Nigrodha grove, where he was staying. Rahula followed him, asking for his inheritance. The Buddha was still silent, but as he did not stop his son's asking, so neither did his disciples interfere. When they reached the Nigrodha grove, Gautama thought, ' This wealth that he is seeking from his father perishes in the using, and brings vexation with it : I will give him the sevenfold nobler wealth I acquired under the Bo-tree, and make him the heir of a spiritual inheritance.' 3 Then turning to Sariputra, he told him to admit Rahula into the Order, which was accordingly done. 1 If this legend be founded on fact, it would seem to show that Yasodhara was of a grasping disposition, inconsistent with the lofty love for her prophet-husband, with which she is credited in the preceding episode ; but the Jataka there also suggests that she acted from pride, rather than from love. Rh. D., 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 129. 68 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. f When Suddhodana heard of this he was exceeding sorrowful ; for Nanda, Gautama's half-brother, had already become a mendicant, so that his two sons were lost to him as far as all earthly hopes were concerned, and now his grandson was taken from him. He there- fore went to the Buddha and asked him to establish a rule that no one should in future be admitted to the Order without the consent of his parents. Gau- tama granted this request, and after some more inter- views with his father returned towards Rajagriha. On his way he stayed for some time at Anupiya, on the banks of the Anoma, in a mango grove, near the spot where he had sent Channa back on the eventful night of the 'Great Renunciation'; and whilst he was there the society received several important accessions, chiefly from his own clan, or from that of his relatives, the Koliyans. Among these Ananda, Dewadatta, Upali, and Anuruddha deserve especial mention. The first became the most intimate friend of his cousin, Gautama, as will especially appear in the account of the teacher's death. The second, also his cousin, became afterwards his rival and opponent, and is accordingly represented as a most wicked and de- praved man. 1 The third, Upali, was a barber by caste and occupation, whose deep religious feeling and great intellectual powers made him afterwards one of 1 The Chinese account even says that Gautama refused to admit him to the Order, on the ground that his mind was not in a proper condition ; telling him first to go home and bestow all his wealth in charity, so as to make himself fit to become a mendicant. Beal, p. 378 ; but the commentary on the Dhamma- pada, p. 139, confirms Hardy, p. 231, andBigandet, pp. 174, 175 SRAVASTI. 69 the most important leaders in the Order a striking proof of the reality of the effect produced by Gautama's disregard of the supposed importance of caste. The last, Anuruddha, became the greatest master of Buddhist metaphysics. After spending his second was at Rajagriha with his new disciples, ' Gautama visited Sravasti, on the river Rapti, a town about as- far N.W. of Benares as Rajagriha is E. of that place. Sravasti has been identified without a doubt by General Cuningham with the ruins of Sahet-Mahet, in Oudh; 1 it was in Gautama's time one of the most important cities in the valley of the Ganges, and the capital of Prase- najit, King of Kosala. Gautama visited this place in acceptance of an invitation given him by a mer chant, Anathapinclika, who had heard his preaching in Rajagriha, and who presented to the society a wood called Jetavana. There Gautama afterwards often resided, and many of the discourses and Jataka stories are said to have been first spoken there. The accounts of Buddha's life in the Jataka com- mentary and that of the Chinese work translated by Mr. Beal come here to a close. From this time to a few days before his death we have only a few pas- sages in the Pali commentary on the Dhamma-pada, and certain tales recorded by Bigandet and Spcnce Hardy, which are probably derived from the above or other commentaries on the different utterances of the Buddha therein related. Those of these stories ' Ancient Geography of India, 407 et seq. 70 LIFE OF GATJTAMA. which can be arranged chronologically refer only to the next seventeen years of Gautama's ministry ; the first w as having been spent in Benares, the two fol- lowing at Rajagriha. In the i\th year Gautama admits the rope-dancer, Uggasena, 1 to the Order, and then, crossing the Ganges into Wesali, lives for a time in the Mahavana grove. Whilst there he hears of a quarrel between the Sakyas and the Koliyans about the water in the boun- dary river Kohana, and, flying to Kapilavastu through the air, he reconciles the two clans, and then returns to Mahavana, and prepares to spend the rainy season there. 5/7* year. In the middle of was, however, he hears of the illness of Suddhodana, and again returns to Kapilavastu, and is present at the death of his father, then ninety-seven years old, at sunrise of Saturday, the full-moon day of the month of August in the year of the Eetzana era, 107. 2 After comforting his rela- tives, and carrying out the cremation of the body with due ceremony, Gautama returns to the Kutagara Wihara at Mahavana. He is there followed by his father's widow, PrajapatI, Yasodhara, and other Sakya and Kolyan ladies, who earnestly ask to be allowed to take the vows. He is very unwilling to admit them to the Order, but at last yields to the earnest advocacy of Ananda, and lays down certain rules for female mendicants. He then retires to the hill Makula, at Kosambi, near Allahabad. 1 Dhamma-pada, v. 348 is said to have been addressed o: this occasion to Uggasena. 2 Bigandt, p. 197. CHRONICLE OF THK MINISTRY. 7 I 6/// year. After spending the rainy season at Ma- kula, Gautama returns to Rajagriha, and whilst there admits Kshema, the wife of Raja Bimbisara, to the Order. One of his disciples gaining a patra, or alms- bowl, by the display of miraculous powers, the Buddha had the patra broken to pieces, and forbids any miracles ; but, on Bimbisara telling him that his opponents think this arises from fear, he himself works some mighty miracles at Sravasti, at a place and time appointed ; and then goes to heaven to teach the law to his mother, who had died seven days after his birth. 1 1th year. He descends from heaven at Sankissa, and walks to Sravasti, to the Jetavana Wihara. While' there the opponent teachers induce a woman named Chincha to accuse him of a breach of chastity, but her deceit is exposed. 2 S//i year. The rainy season was spent at the rock Sansumara, near Kapilavastu. Conversion of the father and mother of Nakula, and of the father and mother of Moggali. Gautama returns to Kosambi, near Allahabad. qfh year. Moggali stirs up enmity against Gau- tama, and Ananda urges him to go elsewhere, but he refuses. A dissension then breaks out in the Order, and Gautama in vain exhorts the two parties to pa- tience, union, and charity, and then sorrowfully leaves 1 The Buddha is never said to have descended into hell, but there is a later legend among the northern Buddhists of Avalo- kiteswara (see p. 205) having done so. Compare Prof. Cowell in the "Journal of Philology," vol. vi. p. 222 et seq. * Fausboll's Dhamma-pada, pp. 338-340. 72 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. his disciples and goes, alone, to the forest of Pa- rileyyaka. io/7; year. There, in a hut built by the villagers, he spends his loth rainy season. The refractory men- dicants seek him out to ask pardon, are well received, and forgiven ; Gautama addressing to them a kind of half-apology (with a sting in it) ' outsiders who knew not the littleness of all things might indeed quarrel, but they should have been wiser. He who has found prudent, sober, and wise companions, may walk happy, if he be considerate ; but rather than be with the unwise let him walk alone, without sin, and with few wishes, like the lonely elephant.' 1 With the re- pentant disciples he returns to Sravasti, and thence goes on to Magadha. 1 \th year. In a village near Rajagriha, he converts the Brahman Bharadwaja by the parable of the sower. 2 After spending the rainy season there, he returns to Kosala to a town called Satiabia. i zth year. Thence he goes to the neighbouring town of Weranja, where he spends the i2th rainy season. 3 After it is over, he undertakes the longest journey he had yet made, penetrating as far as Mantala (to the south ?), returning via Benares, and Vesali, to Sravasti in Kosala, preaching in all the places he visited. On his return he preached the Maha Rahula Sutta to his son Rahula, then eighteen years old. 1 Comp. Bigandet, 224, with the commentary on Dhamma- pada, w. 328-330, and especially p. 105. 1 The parable is given below, p. i ; \. * I'ausboll's Dhamma-pada, p. 275. CHRONICLE OF THE MINISTRY. 73 \$th year. Gautama then went to Chaliya, where he spent the i3th rainy season, and then returned to Sravasti. i ^th year. In this year Gautama ordained at the Jetavana Wihara in Sravasti his son Rahula, de- livering on this occasion the Rahula Sutta, of which a summary in verse has been translated by Sir Kumara Swami in his Sutta Nipata. He then travelled to Kapilavastu. 15/7* year. The i5th season was spent at the Nigrodha grove near that town. Gautama addressed to his cousin Mahanama, who had succeeded Bha- draka, the successor of Suddhodana, in the headship of the Sakya clan, a discourse summarized by Bigandet (p. 230). Suprabuddha, the raja of Koli, who was angry with Gautama for deserting his daughter, Yasodhara, curses him publicly, and is shortly afterwards swallowed up by the earth. The Buddha then returned to the Jetavana Wihara, where he delivered a discourse on the superiority of righteousness (Dharma) to almsgiving in answer to four questions propounded by a Deva. 1 1 6th year. Gautama next goes to Alawl, where he converts a mythical monster who ate the children of the district ; a story which in its present shape seems to include a sun myth. 17 1 7i year. During the iyth rainy season which he spent at Rajagriha, Gautama preaches a sermon on 1 It is instructive to notice that these very questions (I'.ig. 232) are in the Sutta Nipata, p. 47 (comp. Hardy M. B. 265) put into the mouth of Alawaka, whom Bigandet only mentions; in the following year. 74 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. the occaion of the death of Sirimati, a courtezan ; and in the fine weather, returns through Sravasti to Alawi, preaching in all the places he passed through. At Alawi he refuses to preach to a hungry man until he has been well fed. iSfh year. The rainy season is again spent at Chaliya, near Sravasti, where the i3th had been spent ; and while there, the teacher comforts a weaver who had accidentally killed his daughter. Gautama then returned to Rajagriha. igt/i year. After spending the rainy season in the Weluvana Wihara, Gautama travelled through Ma- gadha preaching in all the villages. On one occasion, finding a deer caught in a snare, he releases it, and sitting down under a tree near by, becomes absorbed in meditation. The angry hunter tries to shoot him, but is restrained by a miracle, and the Buddha recovering from his trance, preaches to him and his family, who become lay disciples. Gautama then goes on to Sravasti. ZQthycar. There he spends the rainy season, and having been twice treated contemptuously by the mendicant who had carried his alms-bowl, he appoints Ananda to be his constant companion. Then he goes to a forest near Chaliya, and succeeds in over- coming by kindness a famous robber, named Anguli- mala, whom he persuades to become a mendicant. As neither the Sinhalese nor the Burmese authors from whom Spence Hardy and Bigandet translate give any account of the sources from which they draw their information, it is not possible to say whether these details depend upon the authority of the three CHRONICLE OF THE MINISTRY. 75 Pitakas themselves, or only upon the commentary. The chronological order in which the stories are arranged is .due to a later hand, and it is not unlikely that in the course of compilation discrepancies have been smoothed over, and lacunae filled up. As the stories are full of legendary matter, of which we have not as yet the earliest forms before us, I have not given them at length ; but the general picture they give of Gautama's mode of life is probably not inac- curate, and many of them may well have had some real foundation in fact. Had there been any desire to make the chronology complete, the remaining years of the life might easily have been filled up by other events which are now related without a time being fixed for them, especially as some of these are of great importance. Among them are the stories of certain women who devoted their lives and their sub- stance to the new movement, notably one Wisakha of Sravasti, who presented the society with a grove to the east of the town, and built there a Wihara called the Pubbarama, or Eastern Garden. 1 Another event of the greatest importance in the history of the Order was the schism created by Gautama's cousin Dewadatta ; who, having been offended with certain slights put upon him by the people of Kosambi, during one of the Buddha's visits to that place, had returned to Rajagriha, where he settled in a home built for him by the raja Bimbi- sara's son, Ajatasatru. Some years afterwards, Gau- tama came to Rajagriha to spend the rainy season in 1 Big. 247 ; Hardy's Manual, 220. et seq. j6 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. the Veluvana Wihara, and Dewadatta still professing himself a Buddhist, asked permission to found a new Order under his own leadership, the rules of which should be much more stringent than those adopted by Gautama. The refusal of this is said to have determined him to break with Buddhism altogether, and to found a new religion of his own. When, soon after (in the 3yth year of Buddha's mission), 1 Ajatasatru put to death his father, Bimbisara, this act is said to have been instigated by Dewadatta, who hoped to profit by the change. Three times attempts were then made on the life of Gautama, and these failing, Dewadatta went with due solemnity to Velu- vana, and formally called upon Gautama to insist on the stricter rules which he advocated. These were, that the mendicants should live in the open air, and not close to towns ; should dress in cast-off rags ; should always beg their food from door to door (that is never accept invitations, or food sent to the Wiharas) ; and should eat no meat. Gautama answered that his pre- cepts could be kept in any place, that he had no ob- jection to such members of the Order as wished to do so keeping stricter rules, but that they were not necessary, and could not be kept at all by the young or delicate. As to food, the members of the Order might eat whatever was customary in the countries where they were, so long as they ate without indulgence of the appetite. It was pos- 1 Mahavansa, p. 10 ; Bigandet, p. 249. Hardy, M.B., 193, says, 'he rendered assistance to Buddha during thirty-six years,' which comes to the same thing. DEWADATTA. 77 sible to become pure at the foot of a tree, or in a house ; in cast-off clothes, or in clothes given by laymen ; whilst abstaining from flesh, or whilst using it. To establish one uniform law would be a hind- rance in the way of those who were seeking Nirvana ; and it was to show men the way to Nirvana which was his sole aim. Dewadatta upon this returned to his own Wihara, and founded a new and stricter Order, which gradually grew in numbers, and was openly supported by Ajatasatru. Dewadatta, how- ever, did not live long, and Ajatasatru soon after became, in name at least, a supporter of the Buddha ; though in the year before Gautama's death he not only took Sravasti, the head-quarters, as it were, of Buddhism, but totally destroyed Kapilavastu. 1 While the accounts of Gautama's life since his first visit to Kapilavastu are only available at present in imperfect and fragmentary notices found in Hardy and Bigandet, confirmed by a few passages in the commentary on the Dhamma-pada, we have in the Pitakas themselves the Maha-parinibbana Sutta, a portion of which gives a detailed description of the events of the last three months before his death. 2 1 Compare the Commentary on Dhamma-pada, vv. 90, 162, 163, with Hardy, 315-329, Bigandet, 248-253, Burnouf, Lotus, 448, Beat's Fa Hian, 87. The relation in which Dewadatta stood to Gautama seems to have resembled, in some essential points, the relation in which the Judaizing Christians stood to St. Paul. * Translated under the title, ' Book of the Great Decease,' in my ' Buddhist Suttas,' Oxford, 1881 78 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. Gautama spent the 44th rainy season after his Buddhahood in the Jetawana Wihara at Sravasti, and then returned to the Vulture's Peak, a cave on the side of the loftiest of the five hills, overhanging the beautiful valley of Rajagriha. 1 Ajatasatru was then planning an attack on the confederation of the Wajjian clans, who occupied the plains on the northern shore of the Ganges, opposite to Magadha. Gautama declared that as long as they were united in their adherence to their ancient customs they would be able to retain their independence; and he took occasion to inculcate very earnestly on the men- dicants, whom he assembled for that purpose, the absolute necessity of union, in obedience to the precepts and customs of the Order. It is, perhaps, needless to add that agreement on such a basis was found impossible. The history of Buddhism is the history of the struggles of so-called heretics against the continual additions made to the Rules and Beliefs of the Order by the majority who called themselves orthodox; and new sects of reformers are at this moment rising both in Siam and Ceylon. The teacher then crossed the Ganges at a spot where, on the site of the modern city of Patna, Ajatasatru was then building a fort to keep the Wajjians in check, the beginning of a town which soon began to rival Rajagriha, and afterwards became the capital of the enlarged kingdom of Magadha. Bigandet, 253. The site of the cave is given by Cun- ningham ; ' Archaeological Reports,' map xiv. Compare pp. 20, 21 ; and . Julien's Hwen Thsang III. 20; Besl's Fa Hian, p. 114. THE LAST DAYS. 79 He went on to Ambapali, where he became the guest of the leading courtesan of the place, to the great offence of the Wajjian nobles. 1 Thence he pro- ceeded to Belu-gamaka, where he spent the 45th rainy season, during which he was attacked by a severe and painful illness, and openly declared that he could not live long. After the season of was was over he went slowly through the villages of Wesali, everywhere collecting the members of the Order, and exhorting them to adhere to his doctrine. ' O Mendicants ! thoroughly learn, and practise, and perfect, and spread abroad the Law, thought out and revealed by me, in order that this religion of mine (literally, this purity) may last long, and be per- petuated for the good and happiness of the great multitudes, out of pity for the world, to the advantage and prosperity of gods and men. 3 .... Now, alas, O mendicants, in a little while the Tathagata (he who is like others) will pass away. In three months from now the Tathagata will die. My age is accomplished, my life is done ; leaving you, I depart, having relied on myself alone. Be earnest, O mendi- cants, thoughtful, and pure ! Steadfast in resolve, keep watch over your own hearts ! Whosoever shall adhere unweariedly to this Law and Discipline, 3 he shall cross the ocean of life, and make an end of sorrow ! ' 1 ' Book of the Great Decease,' loc. fit., ii. 16-21. * Then followed an enumeration of the divisions of the Law. See below, p. 171. 1 Dharma and Vinaya : perhaps older recensions of the pre- sent Pitakas are here referred to ; but I think the words only signify generally the doctrines taught by the Buddha. Parinib- bana Sutta, loc. tit., p. 227; and below, pp. 18, 45, 82. 8o LIFE OF GAUTAMA. On reaching Pava he is entertained by a goldsmith of that place named Chunda (a man therefore of one of the lower castes), who prepares for him a meal of rice and young pork and it may be noticed in pass- ing how improbable it is that the story of the Bud- dha's death having been due to such a cause should be a mere invention. In the afternoon he started for Kusi-nagara, a town about 120 milesN.N.E. of Benares, and about 80 miles due East of Kapila-vastu. About half-way between the two places flows the river Ku- kushta ; before reaching it, however, he was obliged to rest, and being thirsty he asks Ananda to bring him some water from the river. Thus refreshed he is able to bathe in the river, and resting many hours reaches in the evening a grove outside Kusinagara, where he rests for the last time. At the river, feeling that he was dying, and afraid that Chunda should reproach himself or be re- proached by others, he says to Ananda, ' After I am gone tell Chunda that he will in a future birth receive very great reward ; for, having eaten of the food he gave me, I am about to pass away. Say it was from my own mouth that you heard this. There are two gifts that will be blest above all others, that of Sujata before I attained Buddhahood under the Bo-Tree, and this gift of Chunda's before I finally pass away.' While in the grove of trees he talked long and earnestly with Ananda about his burial and about certain rules (mostly relating to intercourse with female disciples), to be observed by the Order after his death. At the close of this conversation Ananda broke THE LAST DAYS. 8 1 down, and went aside to weep ' I am not yet perfect, and my teacher is passing away : he who is so kind.' But Gautama missed him, and sending for him com- forted him with the hope of Nirvana, repeating what he nad so often said about the impermanence of all things. ' O ! Ananda ; do not let yourself be troubled, do not weep. Have I not told you that we must part from all we hold most dear and plea- sant? No being soever born, or put together, can overcome the dissolution inherent in it; no such condition can exist. For a long time, Ananda, you have been very near to me by kindness in act, and word, and thoughtfulness. You have always done well : persevere, and you too shall be quite free from this thirst of life, this chain of ignorance ' ; and, turn- ing to the rest of the disciples he spoke to them at some length on the insight and kindness of Ananda. 1 As the night wore on, Subhadra, a Brahman philo- sopher of Kusinagara, came to ask some questions of the Buddha, but Ananda, fearing that this might lead to a longer discussion than the sick teacher could bear, would not admit him. Gautama heard the sound of their talking, and asking what it was, told them to let Subhadra come. The latter began by asking whether all the six great teachers 2 knew things as they said they did, or whether some knew 1 ' Book of the Great Decease,' loc. tit., v. 32-40. 2 By these are meant the six Brahman teachers, a sketch of whose systems is given in the Samafma-phala Sutta, Burnouf, Lotus, 449-498 ; with which compare Hardy, Manual, 290-292. The Burmese corruptions of the Indian names are often curious, 82 LIFE OF GAUTAMA. them, or none. ' This is not the time for such dis- cussions,' was the answer ; ' listen and I will preach to you my law ' ; and Gautama went on to declare that salvation could not be found in any system which ignored the virtuous life, the eight stages of the Path of Holiness, which begins with purity and ends in love. By this discourse Subhadra is said to have been converted. Soon after the dying teacher says to Ananda, ' You may perhaps begin to think, " the word is ended now, our Teacher is gone " : but you must not think so. After I am dead let the Law and the Rules of the Order, which I have taught, be a Teacher to you. 3 1 He then gave instructions as to the mode in which the elder and younger members of the Order should address one another ; and laid a penalty on one Channa, who spoke indiscriminately whatever oc- curred to him. Then addressing all the disciples, he called upon anyone who had any doubt or misgiving as to any matter of the law, or regarding the paths, or virtuous conduct, to ask him and he would resolve the doubt : ' lest they should afterwards regret not having asked when they had opportunity.' When Ananda expressed his astonishment that none came forward in response to this appeal, Gautama said but the most remarkable instance is that of these six names which are given by Bigandet, at p. 150, as Mekkali, Gow, Sala, Thindzi, Jani, and Ganti. The first name is in Pali Makkhali Gosala, the last is Nigantha, son of Natha ; so that the syllables Thindzi Ja are all that is left in Burmese of the other four names ! 1 Dharma and Vinaya, 'Book of the Great Decease,' loc. at., vi. i. Compare the note above, p. 79. THE LAST DAYS. 83 that the very least of all those present who had once been converted (who had entered ' the paths ') could not entirely fall, but was certain eventually to arrive at complete enlightenment. 1 After another pause he said, ' Mendicants ! I now impress it upon you, decay is inherent in all com- ponent things; work out your salvation with dili- gence ! ' These were the last words the Teacher spoke : shortly afterwards he became unconscious, and in that state passed away. In concluding this sketch of the early Buddhist accounts of the life of Gautama, I shall make no attempt to sum up his personal character ; a such opinions as we may fairly allow ourselves to have on that subject will be more safely derived from the record of his teachings, than from the record of his life. But the foregoing account will be sufficient, I hope, to remove at least one misconception the prevalent notion that Gautama was an enemy to Hinduism, and that his chief claim on the gratitude of his countrymen lies in his having destroyed a system of iniquity and oppression and fraud. This is not the case. Gautama was born, and brought up, and lived, and died a Hindu. Asoka, the most dis- tinguished of the lay followers of Gautama, is now most often thought of as the philanthropic and righteous Buddhist Emperor. But he loved to 1 'Book of the Great Decease,' loc. cit., vi. 6-ro. 2 See the remarks of the Rev. M. A. Sherring, ' Sacred City of the Hindus,' pp. 12, 13; St. Hilaire, ' Le Bouddha,' p. v; Polo, Yule's e