1836.] Authorities on Buddhism. 81 



5. The actions of a man's former births constitute his destiny*. 

 (Puny a par o da.) 



6. He who has received from nature such wisdom as to read his 

 own heart, and those of all others, even he cannot erase the characters 

 which Vidhdtrif has written on his forehead. (Avadan Kalpalatd .) 



7. As the faithful servant walks behind his master when he walks, 

 and stands behind him when he stands, so every animate being is 

 bound in the chains of Karma. - (Ditto.) 



8. Karma accompanies every one, every where, every instant, 

 through the forest, and across the ocean, and over the highest moun- 

 tains, into the heaven of Indra, and into Pdtdla (hell) ; and no power 

 can stay it. (Ditto.) 



9. Kanal, son of king Asoka', because in one birth he plucked 

 out the golden eyes from a ChaityaX, had his own eyes plucked out in 

 the next ; and because he in that birth bestowed a pair of golden eyes 

 on a Chaitya, received himself in the succeeding birth eyes of unequal- 

 led splendour. (Avadan Kalpalata.) 



10. Sa'kya Sinha's son, named Ra'hula Bhadra, remained six 

 years in the womb of his mother Yasodra. The pain and anxiety of mother 

 and son were caused by the Karmas of their former births. (Ditto.) 



11. Although I had required (Srikya speaks of himself) a perfect 

 body, still, even in this body, defect again appeared ; because I had yet 

 to expiate a small residue of the sins of former births. (Lallita Vistara.) 



The Ydtnika System. 

 1 . Iswara (A'di Buddha) produced Yatna from Prajna§ ; and the 

 cause of Pravritti and Nirvritti is Yatna ; and all the difficulties that 



* Daivyd, identified with A 1 diBuddhahy thetheistic,andwithFate, by the atheis- 

 tic doctors. The precise equivalent of the maxim itself is our ' conduct is fate.' 



■f Bramha, but here understood to be Karma. 



J Chaitya is the name of the tomb temples or relic-consecrated churches of 

 the Buddhists. The essential part of tbe structure is the lower hemisphere : 

 above this a square basement or Toran always supports the acutely conical or 

 pyramidal superstructure, and on all four sides of that basement two eyes are 

 placed. Wherever the lower hemisphere is found, is indisputable evidence 

 of Buddhism, e. g. ' the topes' of Manikalaya and of Peshawar. In nic; es at 

 the base of the hemisphere are frequently enshrined four of the five D/iyuni 

 Buddhas, one opposite to each cardinal point. Akshobhya occupies the eastern 

 nich ; Ratna sambh&va, the southern; Amitabha, the western, aud Amogha&iddha, 

 the northern. Vairochana, the first Dhyani Buddha, is supposed to oocu] ■ the 

 centre, invisibly. Sometimes, however, he appears visibly, being \ t ced at the 

 right-hand of Akshobhya. 



§ This, as I conceive, is an attempt to remedy that cardinal defect of the 

 older Sw&bhdvika school, viz. the denial of personality, and conscious power 

 and wisdom in the first cause. To the same effect is the Karmika assertion, 



