21. To all of them thus hither come, those gods, 22. And He-Who-Sees by insight knew all this "All they, those victors in the fight, for whom born sons of Brahmâ, like the Sons of the Potent One in our verse. (For the five see the references in Wilson's Vishnu Purâna,' I, 38; for the seven those in Garbe's Sâmkhya-philosophie,' p. 35). Buddhaghosa has a similar tale (quoted J.R.A.S., 1894, p. 344). A later and debased Jain version of the legend tells us at length of the love adventures and wives of the chaste knight, with a few words at the end on his conversion to the saintly life (Jacobi, Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Maharashtrî,' pp. 20-28, translated by de Blonay in 'Rev. de l'H. des Rel.,' 1895, pp. 29-41). Kanho, for Mâra. Cf. Kâlî, the Black Woman. 2 Mâra is called Mahâ-seno, his army being of course senâ. The Pâli, making no distinction between syena (hawk) and sena, it is not impossible that a pun is here intended. We have followed the traditional interpretation in ascribing these last four lines to Mâra. They may quite as well, or better, be a statement by the author himself. INTRODUCTION TO THE SAKKA-PAÑHA SUTTÄNTA. THIS is the last of the series of mythological dialogues, and in some respects the most interesting of them all. Here we reach the culmination, in the last paragraph, in the conversion of Sakka. Though the various episodes leading up to this culmination are not all equal in literary skill to the charming story and striking verses of Five-crest, they have each of them historical value; and they lead quite naturally up to the conversion at the end. It seems odd to talk of the conversion of a god. But what do we understand by the term god? He-it is often more correct to say she, or it is an idea in men's minds. To the worshipper he seems immense, mysterious, unchanging, a unity. And he is, in a sense, a unity—a temporary unity of a complex of conceptions, each of them complex. To use the technical god is khanika, and samkhâra. In the same sense we can speak of a chemical compound as a unity; but to understand that unity we must know of what it is compounded. Now what are the ideas of which the unity we know under the name of Sakka is made up? Let us take them in the order of personal character, outward conditions, and titles. Buddhist terms as Personal. Sakka has not become free from the three deadly evilslust, illwill, and stupidity (A. I, 144; S. I, 219). He is not free from anxiety (S. I, 219). He is still subject to death and rebirth (A. I, 144). As examples of this it is mentioned that Sunetta had thirtyfive times been reborn as Sakka (A. IV, 105), a statement transferred to the Buddha (A. IV, 89)1. He comes down from heaven to confirm Uttara's teaching 1 We have had another instance (above, p. 73) of a detail in Sunetta's biography being taken over into the biography of the Buddha. that one should bear in mind and compare one's own and others' failings and attainments (A. IV, 162). One of the shortest of the Samyuttas is devoted to Sakka. It has twenty-five short Suttas. In the first and second, Sakka praises energy (viriya). In the third he denounces timidity. In the fourth he shows forbearance to his enemy1. In the fifth he advocates the conquest of anger by kindness; in the sixth kindness to animals; in the seventh he denounces trickery even towards enemies; and in the ninth he preaches courtesy and honour to the wise (to Rishis). In eleven it is said he acquired his position as Sakka by having observed in a former birth seven lifelong habits-support of his parents, reverence to clan elders, gentleness of speech, dislike of calumny, generosity, truth, and freedom from anger. Twelve and thirteen repeat this and explain his titles. In fourteen Sakka explains how new gods who outshine the old ones do so because they have observed the Buddha's teaching. In fifteen he says that the most beautiful spot is where Arahants dwell. In sixteen he praises gifts to the Order. In seventeen he praises the Buddha, but is told he has selected the wrong attributes for praise. In eighteen to twenty he says that, whereas brahmins and nobles worship him, he himself worships good men, and Arahants. Nos. 21, 22, 24 and 25 are against anger, and 23 is against deceit. In one passage Sakka is represented as coming down from heaven to make an inquiry about Nirvana (S. I, 201), and in another as listening, in heaven, to Moggallâna's exposition of the simplest duties of a good layman (S. IV, 269–280). He, Sakka, is present at the death of the Buddha and utters, in verse, a simple lament very different from the thoughtful verses ascribed to Brahmâ (above, p. 175). He proclaims a eulogy on the Buddha, in which he emphasizes eight points of comparatively simple character (above, p. 260). These Nikâya passages are sufficient to show that Sakka was considered by the early Buddhists to be a god of high character indeed, kindly and just; but not perfect, and not very intelligent. He has reached as far as a good layman might have reached, to the point where his conversion was immanent. Outward conditions. Sakka dwells in the Tâvatimsa heaven, that is, in the heaven of the thirty-three great gods of the Vedic pantheon. 1 his Sutta is repeated at Samyutta IV, 201. 2 he very words of the Sakka-pañha are here used. This is not by any means the highest plane of being, nor is it quite the lowest. It is an essential part of the early Buddhist cosmogony (and not held by any other school in India) that there were twenty-six planes of celestial beings:-1. The Four Great Kings, guardians of the four quarters of the world. 2. The Thirty-Three. 3. The Yâma gods. 4. The Tusita gods. 5. The Nimmana-rati gods. 6. The Paranimittavasavatti gods. Above these are the twenty worlds of Brahmâ. For practical ethical purposes the stress is laid on two planes only-the six just mentioned, which have a collective name (Kâmâvacara-devaloka), and the world of Brahmâ 2. It is only the lower of these two that is meant when heaven (sagga) is referred to. Sakka dwells therefore in the lowest heaven but one of the lower plane. There he dwells in the palace Victoria (Vejayanta, S. I, 235, 6). It was built by Sakka, is described at Majjhima I, 253, and is illustrated on the Bharahat Tope 3. Dwelling in that palace he is king over all the Thirty-Three. When the gods fight the Titans (Asuras) it is under his banner, and under his orders, that they fight. But he is no absolute monarch. He is imagined in the likeness of a chieftain of a Kosala clan. The gods meet and deliberate in their Hall of Good Counsel; and Sakka, on ordinary peaceful occasions, consults with them rather than issues to them his commands. Yet in ten matters he surpasses them all-in length of life, in beauty, in happiness, in renown, and in lordship, and in the degree of his five sensations, sight, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch (A. IV, 242). Titles. Sakka. In its Sanskrit form, S'akra, it occurs nearly fifty times in the Vedas as an adjective qualifying gods (usually Indra). It is explained as meaning 'able, capable. It is not found as a name in pre-Buddhistic literature. Kosiya used, not in speaking of, but in speaking to Sakka, just as the family (gotta) name, not the personal name, is used 1 These are often mentioned in sequence. See, for instance, above, Vol. I, pp. 280, 281. 2 The later Mahâ-bhârata borrowed this idea, though, as Hopkins points out ('Religions of India,' 358), it is a view quite foreign to the teaching current elsewhere in the epic.' 3 Cunningham, 'Stupa of Bharhut,' p. 137. For another derivation, a pretty piece of word-play, se: Samyutta, I, 230. by polite persons in addressing a man1. It means 'belonging to the Kusika family,' and occurs D. II, 270; M. I, 252. It is used once in the Rig Veda of Indra, in what exact sense is not known. Have we a survival here from the time when Indra was only the god of a Kuśika clan? Vâsava, as chief of the Vasu gods2 (D. II, 260, 274; S. I, 223-30; SN. 384). Purindada, 'the generous giver in former births' (S. I, 230; P. V. II, 9, 12, 13; Jât. V, 395), no doubt with ironical allusion to the epithet of Indra, Purandara, 'destroyer of cities.' Sujampati, the husband of Sujâ (S. I, 225, 234-6; SN. 1024). Maghavâ, because, as a man, he had once been a brahmin of that name (S. I, 230; cp. Jât. IV, 403=V, 137). This had been also, for another reason, an epithet of Indra and other gods. Thousand-eyed (Sahassa-cakkhu, sahassakkha, S. I, 230, sahassa-netta, S. I, 226; SN. 346). This also had been used of Indra. Yakkha. Scarcely perhaps an epithet: but it is interesting to notice that even so high a god as Sakka was considered to be a Yaksha (M. I, 252; see S. I, 206). Inda (=Indra). This is used occasionally of the Vedic god (e.g. D. I, 244; ii. 274; SN. 310), but is applied also to Sakka himself (D. I, 221, 261, 274; SN. 316, 679, 1024). The god Indaka, of S. I, 206 and PV. II, 9, is quite another person. Conclusions. Now what are the conclusions which can fairly be drawn from the above facts? In the first place it is evident that Sakka and Indra are quite different conceptions. Of course Indra is also a complex conception, and not by any means only the savage ideal of a warrior, big and blustering and given to drink. But we shall not be far wrong if we say that no single item of the personal character of Sakka is identical. with any point in the character of the Vedic Indra, and not one single item of the character of Indra has been reproduced in the descriptions of Sakka. Some of the epithets are the same, and are certainly borrowed, though they are explained differently in harmony with the new conception. Some of the details of the outward conditions may be, and probably are, the outgrowth of corresponding details as told of the older 1 This point has been discussed above, Vol. I, pp. 193-6. |