1892.] H. M. Vidyabhusliaij— The Buddhist Bhava Chakra. 101 



The individual being is possessed of the six organs of sense. The 

 operation of these six organs of sense is called Sparsa. The state 

 of pleasure, pain, or indifference, produced by Sparsa, is called 

 Vedana. Vedana, or Sensation, working in reference to objects ex- 

 ternal or internal produces desire. Desire again in reference to its 

 objects generates a kind of activity or Upadana, a word which conveys 

 the same idea as the well known Buddhist term " Karma." This ac- 

 tivity causes Bhava, i. e., a new existence based on a new set of aggre- 

 gates. This again by Upadana, now acting as a concurrent cause, is 

 moved to existence in species, i. e., Jati. The condition of existence 

 in the species, be it in a god of long life or in a short lived insect, is old 

 age, misery, and death. 



In this process it is evident that a cause, or a system of causes, 

 operating on each other, or on the aggregates, produces effects which 

 are changeful according to the nature of Karma in the individual being. 

 In Buddhism though it is generally held that everything is transient 

 and illusory, the identity or oneness of an entity in all its embodi- 

 ments is maintained. This is clearly illustrated by the writers of the 

 Jatakas of Buddha and other saintly Buddhists. For at the end of 

 each Jataka its hero is made to declare that in such and such birth he 

 was a god, a tiger, or a worm, and so on. 



The idea of Ekotibhava the continued oneness of an entity in all its 

 embodiments thus pervading the doctrine of Buddhism forces us to 

 think that Dharma, or phenomena, alone are transient and non-per- 

 manent, and not the principal entity. The successions of phenomena 

 and the conditions of existence are changeful, the entity or Sattva that 

 enjoys or suffers remaining all the while the same. 



The Buddhists think that it is possible to liberate the Sattva, the 

 individual self, from the influence of Avidya, and thereby from the 

 working of the cycle of causality believed to be the prime mover of 

 the Bhava Chakra. 



The following papers were read : — 



1 . Bdma-tanlcis, — By Man Mohan Chakravarti, M. A., B. L. 



2. A vocabulary of the Korwa language collected, — By W. Crooke, 

 B. A., C. S. 



3. On the Topography of Old Fort William, Calcutta. — By C. R. 

 Wilson, M. A Philological Secretary. 



The papers will be published in the Journal, Part I. 



