242 Mr. E. H. Hodgson's Sketch of Buddhism. 



Buddha. All these Furdnas we received from SAkya Sinha, and esteem them 

 our primitive scriptures, because before the time of Sakva our religion was iiot 

 reduced to writing, but retained in memory; the disadvantages of which latter 

 method being evident to Sakya, he secured our institutes by writing tlieni. 

 Besides these Purdnas, we received Tantras and Dhdranis from Sakya 

 Sinha. Tantra is the name of those books in which Mantras and 

 Yantras are written, explanatory of both of which we have very many 

 works. Three of them are famous : first, Mdi/d Jdl, of 16,000 slocas ; 

 second, Rdli ChaJcra, of G,000; third, Sambhu Udaija, of 1,000. The 

 Dhdranis were extracted from the Tantras, and are similar in nature to the 

 Guhya, or mysterious rites, of the Siva-Mdrgis. A Dhdrani is never 

 less than eight slocas, or more than five hundred ; in the beginning and 

 middle of which are written the " Vija Mantra" and at the end, the 

 " Tliul Stotra" or the Mahdtmi/a, i. e. what desire may be accomplished or 

 what business achieved by the perusal of that Dhdrani ; such, for example, 

 as obtaining children — advantage over an enemy — rain — or merely the 

 approbation of Buddha. There are probably a thousand Dhdranis. 



Question XIV. 

 What is the cause of good and evil ? 



Answer. 

 When Padma-PAni, having become Tri-gun-A'tmala, that is, having 

 assumed the form of Satya-gun, Raja-gun, and Tama-gun, created 

 Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahes'a ; then from Satyagun, arose spontaneously 

 (Swabhdva/ca), puny a or virtue, and from Tamagun, pdpa or evil, and from 

 Raja-gun, the mean of the two, which is neither all good nor all evil : for 

 these three gunas are of such a quality that good acts, mixed acts, and 

 bad acts, necessarily flow from them. Each of these Icarmas or classes of 

 actions is divided into ten species, so that pdjm is of ten kinds ; first 

 (see note 27) murder; second, robbery; third, adultery, which are called 

 Icdyaha or bodily, i.e. derived from Kdy i ; fourth, lying ; fifth, secret slander ; 

 sixth, reviling; seventh, reporting such words between two persons as 

 excite them to quarrels, and these four jidpas are called Vdchalca, i. e. 

 derived from speech ; eighth, coveting another's goods ; ninth, malice, 

 and tenth, disbelief of the scriptures and immorality ; and these three are 

 called mdnasi, i. e. derived from manas (the mind). The ten actions opposite 



