133 



BUDDHA BUDDHISM 



BUDDHA, BUDDHISM. 



434 



rapidly multiplied his adherents, the sectateurs of the reformer, and 

 which at the same time rendered Buddhism an object of bitter enmity 

 to the Brahmans, whose religious system, founded principally on the 

 existence and perpetuity of a sacerdotal race, it ruined. Buddhism, 

 however, did not always abolish caste where it prevailed ; it was 

 accepted, but Buddhism thus brought together by the common band 

 of charity those who had been until then separated by insurmountable 

 barriers. It is thus that these divisions subsist even yet in Ceylon, of 

 which the population was among the earliest to embrace Buddhism. 

 But if this reh'gion does not abolish caste, it does not consecrate it 

 like the Brahmans; it is not imposed in any way by their institu- 

 tions ; and hence, in those countries where castes were unknown, as 

 Tibet, Siam, Binna, &c., they have not been introduced with these 

 doctrines, which show themselves, consequently, in a form in some 

 degree democratic. 



Buddhism distinguishes itself from Brahmanism not only by a 

 character that we may term democratic, but still more by the extreme 

 simplicity of its religious doctrine, and by the almost complete absence 

 of dogmas. All its teaching is essentially moral, and this morality 

 rests upon an imitation of Buddha ; that is to say, upon the religious 

 life represented as the ideal for a man in this world. Imitate Buddha, 

 conform yourself as much as possible to this type of perfection, 

 such is the supreme precept of the religion ; for the rest, this religious 

 and ascetic life is not exclusively reserved for the men. Buddhism has 

 convents for females, in which similar rules are imposed and observed. 

 It has, however, one point of resemblance with Brahmanism the 

 syllabic designation of the chief deity Om, or Awm is a word of 

 reverence with both sects. 



It is by the practice of these virtues, and by faith in Buddha, that 

 man arrives at Nirvana ; that is to say, to deliverance to supreme 

 happiness. But what is this supreme happiness ? According to some 

 it is the absorption of the individual life into the Deity ; according to 

 others it is annihilation ; and lastly, according to the Tibetans, it is the 

 death of the body, the deliverance from physical sufferings, or rather 

 the enfranchisement from the law of transmigration. Although these 

 explanations vary, it is easy to recognise in them that the idea of 

 the Nirvana is that of repose, the highest notion of happiness in 

 India. The aim of Buddhism is, then, to conduct man to happiness 

 by the exercise of virtue. 



One of the means is confession. Confession leads to casuistry ; that 

 is to say, the classification of different species of faults, and this science 

 occupies a large place in the teaching of the religion. 



The dogmas are simple, at least in ancient Buddhism. It is sufficient 

 to believe that Buddha was a man of a supreme degree of intelligence 

 and of virtue, who is proposed to every one as a model and rule of life. 



Latterly, Buddhism lost much of its moral tendency, and mytholo- 

 gical conceptions, borrowed from Brahmanism, were mixed up with 

 it. The books named Tantrat show us in the highest degree the con- 

 fusion of these two rival faiths. We see the worship of Sakya, the 

 Dhyani Buddhas, or four stages of contemplation, and of Adibuddha, 

 mixed up with the worship of Siva and the female divinities of the 

 Sivaites. It is, in effect, from the theory of the supreme Buddha with 

 the superhuman Buddhas and Bodhisattwas, that the primitive mono- 

 theism of Buddhism has ended by approaching to a veritable polytheism. 

 Although Buddha may be the name by which Sakya is designated, it 

 does not essentially belong to that personage. The word Buddha does 

 not properly mean a man, it is rather a title by which some of the 

 privileged ascetics are called. The Buddhists name those Boddhi- 

 sattwas who, by the practice of all the virtues and the exercise of medi- 

 tation, are ripe for the supreme state of Buddha perfectly accomplished. 

 He who wishes to attain to this state cannot do it of his own will ; he 

 must, during several stages of transmigration, have merited the favour 

 of one or more of the ancient and gigantic Buddhas, in whose reality 

 most Buddhists believe ; and it is only when in possession of their 

 favour, in one of those heavenly places above the earth, that he awaits, 

 under the title of Boddhi-vattu, the moment of his coming into the 

 world. Descended upon earth, he is not yet Buddhas ; it is not till he 

 has undergone all the proofs, accomplished the most exalted duties, 

 penetrated the most sublime truths by sciences, that he becomes 

 Buddhas. Then he has the power of delivering men from the con- 

 ditions of transmigration, by teaching them charity, and showing them 

 that those who practise the duties of morality in this life, and strive to 

 attain scientific knowledge, may one day attain the supreme state of 

 Buddha. At length, having taught the law, he enters into the 

 Nirvana. Sakya is but one of these mysterious Buddhas. 



The Buddhistic doctrine comprehends a very abstruse metaphysical 

 system, in which re-appear, under essentially Indian forms, speculations 

 on the absolute, on the first cause of the universe, and on the essence 

 of things. All these problems are treated of in the Abhidarma (one of 

 the Buddhistic books) just as they are in modern European books, with 

 identical solutions occasionally, but differing according to the nature of 

 the mind producing them. 



The earliest allusion to the sect of Buddha in any western writer has 

 been supposed to occur in Herodotus (iii. c. 100 ; Korai, ' Prodr. Hell. 

 Bib!.,' p. 271), who says of certain Indians, that they kill no animals, 

 and live on the vegetable products spontaneously produced by the soil. 

 Nicolaus Damascenus may, however, possibly allude to the very words 

 '.: !! rodotus, in a detached passage where he speaks of an abstemious 



ARTS A1TO SCI. CIV. VOL. IT. 



sect called Aritoni ('Aplrovoi), which name seems to be the Sanskrit 

 Arhat, or Arhata, a very common designation of the Jaina sect, who 

 are even more distinguished than the Buddhas by their extreme ten- 

 derness for animal life. Strabo (xv. c. 1, p. 712, ed. Casaub.), on the 

 authority of Megasthenes, states that there are two classes of philoso- 

 phers among the Hindus the Brachmanes and Garmanes ; and from 

 the account which he gives of the latter, who are by Clemens of 

 Alexandria (' Strom.,' i. p. 305) more correctly called Sarmanes, it is 

 clear that by them the Buddhists are to be understood. The name 

 Sarmanes appears to be the Sanskrit word Sramana, "a religious 

 mendicant, an ascetic." A Buddha beggar is thus designated by a 

 Brahman in the ' Mrichhakati," a Sanskrit drama, supposed by Mr. 

 Wilson to have been written either one century before or two centuries 

 after our era (act viii. p. 212, ed. Calcutt.). We recognise the same 

 word under a slightly modified shape iu the first component part of 

 the name of the Indian philosopher Zarmanos Chanes (Zofnavos Xanjr, 

 written in some manuscripts Zap/iavoxriyas, Z6.pin.am? Xriyas, Za.pijui.vo- 

 Xavris ; and in Dion Cass., liv. c. 9, Zdpfaapos, Sap^apoj, or Za^a/wos), who 

 came to Europe with an embassy from King Porus to Augustus, and 

 voluntarily burnt himself at Athens. (Strabo, xv. e. i. pp. 719, 720.) 



Two very remarkable passages on the various sects prevailing in 

 India occur in Clemens of Alexandria. In the first passage (' Strom.,' 

 lib. i. p. 359, ed. Potter) he says that there are two classes of philoso- 

 phers in India, the Sarmanse and the Brachmanse. " Among the 

 Sarmanes, those called Hylobii (ii\6fiwi, Mountagu thinks, should be 

 read instead of oAArfjSioi) do not dwell in towns or houses ; they are 

 clad with the bark of trees, eat acorns, and drink water with their 

 hands ; they know not marriage, nor procreation of children." He 

 then proceeds to say that " there are likewise among the Indians per- 

 sons obeying the precepts of Boutta (Bourro), whom they venerate like 

 a god, on account of his extreme sanctity." Here the followers of 

 Boutta (Buddha) are clearly distinguished from both the BrachmauEe 

 and Sarmause. In the second passage (p. 539, ed. Potter), Clemens 

 speaks of a sect whom he calls Semnoi (another corruption of the 

 Sanskrit name Sramana ?), " they go naked all their lives ; they make 

 it a point always to speak the truth ; and they inquire into the future. 

 They worship a certain pyramid, beneath which they believe the bones 

 of some god to be deposited. Neither the GymnosophisUe nor the 

 Semnoi have any intercourse with women, for they deem this contrary 

 to nature and to law, and for that reason they adhere to chastity. 

 There are also females of this class (Se/ura!) who live in perpetual 

 virginity." The pyramids here spoken of are evidently the dagobas of 

 the modern Buddhists. 



The statements respecting the religion of India and China given by 

 the two Arabian travellers who visited these countries in the 9th 

 century (Renaudot, ' Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine," &c., 

 Paris, 1718, 8vo) are too vague to enable us in every instance to distin- 

 guish whether the " pagans," of whom they speak, were Buddhas or 

 not. In the report of the first traveller (1. c. p. 3) we meet with an 

 allusion to the impression of a foot on Adam's Peak in the Island of 

 Ceylon, a spot known to Ebn Batuta (Lee's translation, p. 189) as a 

 place of pilgrimage, which it has continued to be till the present day 

 with the Ceylonese Buddhists. The second traveller, in speaking of 

 the natives of India, calls their priests Brahmans (1. c. p. 107), and in 

 the account which he gives of their ascetics, and of their religious 

 institutions generally, nothing occurs that would, in our opinion, admit 

 of an application to the Buddhas. These statements, though not very 

 explicit, are yet interesting, as they seem to attest the expulsion of the 

 Buddhists from India some time previous to the 9th century, and the 

 existence of the sect in Ceylon. 



In the Ante- Islamic portion of the Arabic chronicle of Abulfeda, 

 published by Fleischer (Abulfeda, ' Hist. Anteislamica,' &e., ed. H. O. 

 Fleischer, Leipzig, 1831, 4to), there is a curious chapter on the various 

 tribes of India (p. 170, &c.) given on the authority of Shehrestani, 

 a writer who flourished in the first half of the 12th century. Most 

 of the Indian tribes, or rather sects, there noticed, are easily re- 

 cognised, even under the somewhat adulterated names given to 

 them by the Arab, as various branches of Brahmanic Hindus ; and 

 the only sect, the name of which bears any similarity to that of the 

 Buddhists, the Behuditao (al Bahudiyyah, in the Arabic text), are 

 described in a manner which removes every possibility of their being 

 taken for followers of Sakyasinha. 



We have already alluded to the indirect testimony which Ebn Batuta 

 gives of the existence of Buddhism in Ceylon, in describing the pil- 

 grimage to the impression of Buddha's foot on Adam's Peak. In his 

 account of Hindustan, he describes the burning of widows and other 

 practices reprobated by the Buddhists, the prevalence of which is suffi- 

 cient to convince us that Brahmanism was at that time the established 

 reh'gion of the country. 



Marco Polo, who visited Tangent during the second half of the 13th 

 century, describes the religious institutions of Kampion, the principal 

 city of that province, hi a manner to convince us that Buddhism was 

 then the prevailing creed there, though the name is not mentioned. 

 " The idolaters of Kampion," says he, " have many religious houses or 

 monasteries and abbeys, built after the manner of the country, and in 

 these a multitude of idols, some of which are of wood, some of clay, 

 and some of stone, and covered with gilding. These images are held in 

 extreme veneration. . . . Those persons amongst the idolaters who are 



