CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



93 



ON BUDHISM, No. 2. 

 By the Rev. D. J. Gogerly. 



(Read on the 1st November, 1845. J 



In the former paper, I mentioned, that as Goutama had 

 left his doctrines to be collected from discourses delivered on 

 different occasions, so his laws for the regulation of his priest- 

 hood were not promulgated at once, in a finished code, but 

 were delivered from time to time, as circumstances occurred, 

 and were subsequently modified, to meet cases not previously 

 provided for. His decisions respecting moral delinquencies 

 are recorded in the first and second books on Discipline, 

 being classified according to the nature of the punishments 

 awarded to the offences, commencing with the four crimes 

 visited with permanent exclusion from the priesthood. 



Although I have retained the word Priest, in consequence 

 of it being generally used by Europeans, it does not convey 

 the proper sense of the original tB.^§ bikhu, or to use the 

 Singhalese form, derived from the Sanscrit, t8«£^ bikshu, 

 which signifies a mendicant. The Bikshus form a monastic 

 order, being bound by vows of celibacy and poverty, and 

 they understand the latter in the sense in which it is under- 

 stood by Christian monks, as prohibiting the individual 

 possession of property, although any monastery, or the order 

 generally, may have large possessions. The whole order 

 collectively, or a chapter of the order, is named a t3^§§3 

 Sangho, and for cases of discipline must not consist of less 

 than five members. Goutama also instituted an order of 

 nuns, subject to the same general laws as those instituted for 

 the monks, The monastery or nunnery in which they reside 



