802 Review of L' hist aire [No. 167. 



ance, which it certainly had not at the time of Sakya. Motives more 

 human have probably influenced the minds, and favoured the propagation 

 of a creed, the first steps of which looked like only one of the sects, 

 which have been at all times so numerous in India. These motives are 

 individual and general. 



While Buddhism attracted the ignorant Brahmans, it collected at 

 the same time the poor and the unfortunate men of all conditions. 

 A great and sudden misfortune was often a decisive motive to abandon 

 the world and to become a Buddhist ascetic, so were also the despotism 

 of the kings, and the fear inspired by their violence, and lastly, the 

 greatness of rewards which Sakya promised to them, who embraced his 

 doctrine. 



The second class of the Nepal works, which bears the general title of 

 Vinaya, or discipline, is represented by the Avadanas or legends. What 

 has been before observed of the Sutras, also applies to the Avadanas. 

 There are some among them which speak of Sakya alone and his first 

 disciples, and these are the most ancient ; there are others, which, 

 while relating events that happened to Buddha, mention the names 

 of persons, who lived a long time after him, as for instance, Asdka; 

 there are, lastly, some written in verse, which must be considered as 

 modern amplifications of more or less ancient works. 



Another analogy between the Sutras and Avadanas is, that the dis- 

 cipline in the Avadanas is equally as far from a strictly dogmatical expla- 

 nation as the ethics and metaphysics in the Sutras. The Sutras, says 

 Mr. Burnouf, treat ethics and metaphysics not systematically, because 

 they ascend to a remoter epoch, when those two elements of every 

 religion had not yet obtained their full maturity, or to say it more 

 precisely, they reproduce the various and easy style of Sakya, who did 

 not expound, but simply preach. This is also the case with the Ava- 

 danas. The discipline has here no formal regularity, because they be- 

 long to the same period as the Sutras, and Sakya did not require the 

 measured steps of a didactic exposition to establish a point in discipline. 



To become a disciple of Buddha, it was sufficient to believe in him, 

 and to declare to him the firm resolution to become his follower. The 

 neophyte was then to shave his hair, to use as garb a kind of tunica and 

 a cloak, made of yellow rags, and to place himself under the instruction 

 of an older believer. 



