384 European Speculations on Buddhism. [Aug. 



of the Brahmans. Avatars are an essential and consistent part of Brah- 

 manism — an unessential and inconsistent part of Buddhism : and there is 

 always this material difference between theavatdroi the formerandof the 

 latter, that whereas in the one it is an incarnation of the supreme and in- 

 finite spirit, for recognised purposes of creation or rule ; in the other, it 

 is an incarnation of a mere human spirit — (however approximated by its 

 own efforts to the infinite) and for what purpose it is impossible to say, 

 consistently with the principles of the creed. I exclude here all consideration 

 of the dhydni, or celestial Buddhas, because Remusat's reference is ex- 

 pressly to the seven mdnushi or human ones. 



The word tathdgata is reduced to its elements, and explained in three 

 ways — 1st, thus gone, which means gone in such a manner that he (the 

 tathdgata) will never appear again ; births having been closed by the 

 attainment of perfection. 2nd, thus got or obtained, which is to say, 

 (cessation of births) obtained, degree by degree, in the manner describ- 

 ed in theBauddha scriptures, and by observance of the precepts therein 

 laid down. 3rd, thus gone, that is, gone as it (birth) came — the pyr- 

 rhonic interpretation of those who hold that doubt is the end, as well as 

 beginning, of wisdom ; and that that which causes birth, causes likewise 

 the ultimate cessation of them, whether that ' final close' be conscious 

 immortality or virtual nothingness. Thus the epithet tathdgata, so far 

 from meaning ' come' (avenu), and implying incarnation, as Remusat 

 supposed, signifies the direct contrary, or 'gone for ever,' and expressly 

 announces the impossibility of incarnation ; and this according to all 

 the schools, sceptical, theistic, and atheistic. 



I shall not, I suppose, be again asked for the incarnations of the 

 tathdgatas*. Nor, I fancy, will any philosophical peruser of the above 

 etymology of this important word have much hesitation in refusing, on 

 this ground alone, any portion of his serious attention to the ' infinite' 

 of Buddhist avatars, such as they really are. To my mind they belong 

 to the very same category of mythological shadows with the infinity of 

 distinct Buddhas, which latter, when I first disclosed it as a fact in re- 

 lation to the belief of these sectaries, led me to warn my readers " to 

 keep a steady eye upon the authoritative assertion of the old scriptures, 

 that Sakya is the 7th and last of the Buddhasf." 



The purpose of my two essays on Buddhism was to seize and render 

 intelligible the leading and least absurd of the opinions and practices of 

 these religionists, in order to facilitate to my countrymen the study of 



* To the question, what is the tathdgata, the most holy of Buddhist scriptures 

 returneth for answer, ' It does not come again, it does not come again.' 

 t Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi. p. 445. 



