Notes to Mr. B. H. Hodgson's Sketch of Buddhism, 249 



of Banddha philosophy (apparently the oldest school) seems to have considered matter 

 as the sole entity, to have ascribed to it all the attributes of deity, and to have assigned to 

 it two modalities; one termed nirvritti, and the other /jraCT-J«j (See Note 12.) To 

 speak more precisely, the above is rather the doctrine of the Pn'ijnika Swabhavikas 

 than of the simple Swabhdvilias : for the former unitize the active and intelligent powers 

 of nature, the latter do not unitize them; and prefer to all other symbols of those 

 dispersed powers of nature the letters of the alphabet generally, and without much 

 regard to the pre-eminence of a, u, and m. Indeed, it is probable that the mystic 

 syllable Aum is altogether a comparatively recent importation into Buddhism. The 

 Lotos is a very favourite type of creative power with all the Bauddhas; and accordingly 

 representations of it occur in a thousand places, and in as many forms in the Baicddha 

 sculptures and architecture ; for which, see the drawings which accompany this sketch, 

 passim. 



(11) The sicca quoted is from a modern little manual of Piyu. I have not seen any 

 adequate original authority ; but the Aishwarika Buddhists, who maintained an eternal, 

 infinite, intellectual A'di-Buddha, in all probability made the human soul an emanation 

 from him; and considered Mo/isha a remanation to him. 



(12) The Swabfi'ivikas, the name assumed by one of the four schools of Bauddha 

 philosoph}-, and apparently the oldest, are divided into two sects ; one called Sicabha- 

 viltas simply, the other Prajnika Swabhavikas. The former maintain that an eternal revo- 

 lution of entity and non-entity is the system of nature, or of matter, which afone exists. 

 The Pn'ijniltas deify matter as the sole substance, and give it two modes, the abstract 

 and the concrete : in the former, they unitize the active and intelligent powers held to 

 be inherent in matter, and make this unit deity. Such is the abstract or proper mode, 

 which is unity, immutability, rest, bliss. The second is the contingent or concrete mode, 

 or that of actual, visible, nature. To this mode belong action, multiplicity, change, 

 pain. It begins by the enei'gies of matter passing from their proper and eternal state of 

 rest into their contingent and transitorj' state of action; and ends when those energies 

 resume their proper modality. The proper mode is called nirvritti ; the contingent mode 

 prarritti. The powers of matter cannot be described in their proper state of abstraction 

 and unity. In the latter state, all the order and beauty of nature are images of their 

 quality : they are also symbolized by the Ymi, and personified as a female divinity 

 called A'di Prajna' and A'di Dharma'. Man's summum bonum is to pass from the 

 transmigrations incident to the state of pravritti into the eternal rest or bliss of nirvritti. 

 The Triadic doctrine of all the schools is referable solely to pravritti. In the state of 

 nirvritti, with some of the Aishwarikas, Buddha represents intellectual essence and the 

 then sole entity ; with others of the Aishwarikas Dharma', or material essence exists biunely 

 with Buddha in nirvritti, the two being in that state one. With the Prajnikas Prajna', 

 in the state of nirvritti, is the summum et solum niimen, Diva Natura — the sum of all the 

 intellectual and physical forces of matter, considered as the sole entity, and held to exist 

 in the state of nirvritti abstracted from palpable material substance, eternally, unchange- 

 ably, and essentially one. When this essential principle of matter passes into the state 



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