1845.] du Buddhism Indien, par E. Burnovf. 799 



Some Brahmans are employed by the Kings as Purohitas, or family 

 priests, others as panegyrists to praise the Kings, for which they received 

 presents. 



The Ksatrya caste also existed at the time of Sakya, from which caste 

 the Kings emanated. 



140. The superiority of the two higher classes is generally acknow- 

 ledged. They appear to have favoured the mission of Buddha ; but not 

 so all the Kings of central India ; the King of Rajagriha persecuted him 

 for a long time. 



The Kings of the Ksatrya caste were in possession of an unlimited 

 power, and it appears that no other obstacle was opposed to their will but 

 the privileges of the castes. The ministers of some encouraged despotism 

 by the most violent advices. The King of Kousala wanted money. His 

 two ministers told him, — It is the same with a country as with grain of 

 sesamum which does not give oil, unless pressed. 



The King of Kousala gave on mere suspicion of enmity towards him, 

 the order to cut off his brother's hands and feet. The existence and 

 perpetuity of the castes depends, according to the Sutras, on a double 

 condition, the one for each to marry a wife of his own caste, the other to 

 maintain his hereditary profession. 



Sakya's doctrine, which according to the Sutras is more moral than 

 metaphysical, at least in its principle, was founded upon an opinion, which 

 was considered as a fact, and on a hope, presented as a certitude. It is 

 the opinion, that the visible world is in a perpetual change, that death 

 succeeds life, and life death, that man, like every thing surrounding him, 

 is passing through an eternal circle of transmigration, that he succes- 

 sively passes through all the forms of life, and that his place in the scale 

 of living creatures depends on the merits of his acts in this world. The 

 hope held out by Sakya, is the possibility to escape the law of trans- 

 migration, by entering into the state of Nirwana, that is annihilation. 

 The definitive sign of annihilation is death ; but a preliminary sign was 

 given in this life to the man destined for this supreme deliverance ; 

 this was the possession of an unlimited science, which gave him a clear 

 insight into the world ; that is, gave him the knowledge of the moral 

 and physical laws, or to say all in one word, it was the practice of the six 

 transcendent perfections, viz. of alms, of morals, of science, of energy, 

 of patience, and of charity. The authority, on which Sakyamuni based his 

 mission, was entirely personal, and consisted of two elements, the one 



