Indestructibility of the Diamond 25 



That our Chinese text above speaks of a ram's horn may be due to 

 the fact that this modification was caused by the error of a scribe or 

 by some misunderstanding of the Western tradition regarding ram's 

 blood. More probably the people of Fu-nan (Cambodja), or even of 

 India, are responsible for the alteration, which in this form was then 

 picked up by the Chinese. The adequateness of the latter interpreta- 

 tion follows from an interesting passage in the book Hiian chung ki of 

 the fifth century, quoted by Li Shi-chen, which concludes a notice of 

 the diamond with the statement that in the countries of the West the 

 nature of Buddha is metaphorically likened to the diamond, and ram's 

 horn to the "impurity of passion" (fan nao flf f£). This compound is a 

 technical Buddhist term, being a translation of Sanskrit kleqa-kashaya, 

 the third of a series of five kashaya, five impurities or spheres of corrup- 

 tion. 1 Taken individually, these two emblematic figures of speech are 

 unobjectionable; but what would it mean, that a ram's horn, symbolic 

 of the impurity of passion, can break the Buddha, who has the nature 

 of the diamond? This, from a Buddhistic angle, is unintelligible; the 

 opposite would be true. The foundation of this symbolism, plainly, 

 cannot be of Buddhistic origin; but the impetus was apparently received 

 from a Christian source, and was re-interpreted in India. The matter 



they place over it a ram's horn and go away. In this case the ram's horn doubtless 

 figures also as an instrument of extraordinary strength : it overpowers the body and 

 soul of the deceased, keeping his spirit down and preventing it from a return to 

 the former home, where it might do harm to the survivors. Therefore the mourners 

 rejoice in accomplishing their purpose. Ram's heads were extensively employed in 

 Greek art (H. Winnefeld, Altgriech. Bronzebecken aus Leontini, Progr. Winckel- 

 mannsfest, No. 59, 1899). Ball's opinion that ram's blood is the outcome of Indian 

 sacrifices held on the opening of a mine, discussed above on p. 15, is untenable, 

 as there is no Indian tradition connecting the diamond with ram's blood. The 

 baselessness of this theory is further demonstrated by the fact that the Chinese have 

 altered the classical "ram's blood" into a "ram's horn;" and the Chinese account 

 hailed from Fu-nan (Cambodja), a country with a strong impact of Indian civiliza- 

 tion. The transformation, therefore, seems to have been effected in an Indian 

 region. For this reason it is impossible to seek the origin of this idea in India, where 

 apparently it was not understood and was changed into a "horn," which appears to 

 have been regarded there as stronger than blood. As to the classical idea of heat 

 suggested by ram's blood, it is noteworthy, however, that in late Indian art, Agni, 

 the God of Fire, is represented as riding on a gray goat, flames of fire streaming round 

 about him, his crown also being surrounded by fire (B. Ziegenbalg, Genealogy of 

 the South-Indian Gods, p. 191, Madras, 1869). Thus the conception of the ram or 

 goat as an animal of fire is brought out, — a fire of such vehemence as to subdue 

 the hardest body of nature. 



1 See Eitel, Handbook of Chinese Buddhism, p. 67; Chavannes, Cinq cents 

 contes et apologues, Vol. I, p. 17; and O. Franke, Chin. Tempelinschrift, p. 51. 

 F. de Mely (Lapidaires chinois, p. 124) incorrectly understands that "in India the 

 nature of Buddha is compared with the diamond ; and his sadness, with the horn of 

 the antelope ling." 



