BUDDHISM, AND " THE LIGHT OP ASIA." 157 



There is nothing in what are evidently the earliest accounts 

 to distinguish Buddha from other ascetics, of whom there 

 were many, beyond the character of the new doctrine that 

 he taught. The account of his royal birth, which we meet 

 with, as we descend the stream of Buddhist literature, may 

 or may not be true. 1 think there is no hint of it in the 

 ]\lahavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka, where his early ascetic 

 history is recorded. Indeed in the Mahavagga of the Sutta 

 Nipata he is in one place represented as saying, " No Brah- 

 mana am I, nor a king's son, nor any Vessa ; having 

 thoroughly observed the class of common people, I Avander 

 about the world reflectiiigly, possessing nothing." {Sutta 

 Nipata^ v, 454.) This is in reply to a Brahman, who had 

 asked him, "Of what family art thou?" It is, of course, 

 possible that he might merely wish to ignore a royal descent 

 before a proud and haughty high-caste man, and now only 

 rank himself as a man among men. In either case he bears 

 witness of, and bases his worthiness upon, the fact of his 

 being " Calm, without anger, free from pain, free from desire, 

 one with a good understanding ;" and says further, *'Do not 

 ask about descent, but ask about conduct: from wood, it is 

 true, fire is born : likewise a firm Muni {i.e., a sage or reli- 

 gious saint), although belonging to a low family, may 

 become noble, when restrained from sinning by humility." 

 Here, as it seems to me, he lays down the first principles 

 that had influenced his own mind. He further describes 

 himself as being "subdued by truth;" "endowed with 

 temperance;" -'leaving sensual pleasures;" "whose pas- 

 sions are gone ; " " one who is just with the just, and far 

 from the unjust" — sentiments which occur over and over 

 again in the Buddhist accounts of his conversations. {Sutta 

 Nipata, 462-468.) 



What Buddha himself really was, and Avhat we are to 

 understand as his own original method of teaching, can oiAy 

 be gathered from the earliest accounts. Perhaps our best first 

 authority is the Mahavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka; not that 

 it is altogether free in its present form from legendaiy 

 matter, but because it, no doubt, contains some of the 

 earliest traditions extant as to his original doctrines. Bud- 

 dha's starting point seems to have been from the conviction 

 of "ignorance:" the world was ignorant, the Brahmaus 

 were ignorant, he himself had been ignorant, of the rig-ht 

 way. This is a natural starting point for every new teacher. 

 But his own ignorance, he is reported to have said, had 



