should be planted, or a mound of masonry be raised, or a pond be dug, or a standard be erected." This seems to indicate a retention of an old custom after the practice of consigning the body to a holy river had superseded that of consigning it to earth. The Lalita Vistara, in its denunciations of the Brahmins, asserts that some of their ascetics wore the skulls and bones of the dead," and that they "paid homage to burial-grounds and houses (quære stûpas?) and pillars, to trees and tanks." And Buddha himself, in his memorable penance, must have been very near a graveyard, if not in one. Ashamed of his nakedness in the presence of the young girls, he digs up the shroud of a servant of Sujâta. The shroud was the early costume of the Buddhist priest. It is difficult to conceive the author of the Lalita Vistara attacking an imaginary extravagance of his opponents; and if this tomb-worship had long passed out of Brahminism at the date of Buddha, it is difficult to understand how it was ever revived. It is evident, also, that Burnouf has misunderstood Colebrooke, who says nothing about collecting the bones and ashes in a pot, "lorsque la cérémonie des funerailles avait lieu trop loin d'un fleuve aux eaux saintes pour qu'on y pût jeter les os et les cendres." He says that the bones are always collected in an earthen pot and buried in a "deep hole," over which a mound of masonry is formed, or a tank or a flag is erected.2 By and by this pot is dug up, and, with the remaining ashes, consigned to the river. But when we consider the Brahmin ritual of the dead, it becomes still more evident that Burnouf was hasty in his conclusion that relic-worship was an originality of Buddhism. Colebrooke gives, from the Yajur Veda, the Vedic ritual of the dead, and this plainly shows that the modern Chinese ancestor-worship is a servile copy of the old Aryan worship of the Pitris. Rice and barley and 2 Essays, vol. i. p. 172. 1 Introduction p. 314. 1 3 Essays, vol. i. p. 149, note. с a liquor compounded of water and tola (Sesamum indicum) or holy basil are constantly sacrificed to the manes. This, it is expressly stated in the hymns used, is at once to feed and propitiate them. "Ancestors, rejoice, and take your respective shares." 1 "By the intercession of those souls who are mine by affinity, who are animated shades, who have reached a common abode, who have accordant minds, may prosperity be mine in this world for a hundred years!" 2 Lamps are lit during these numerous rites, flowers and perfumes form also a conspicuous part of the ceremonies. A golden image of the deceased is given to the officiating priest.3 Clothing is transmitted to the departed in the shape of a thread placed on each funeral cake. "Fathers, this apparel is offered unto you!" Funeral rites all of this character are enjoined at least ninety-six times in the year. It is evident, I think, that these forms were, in the first instance, designed to honour the buried corpse of the departed spirit, and that they were modified to suit the practice of consigning the calcined remains to a holy river. Sometimes a temple is built in lieu of a c'hattra, and an idol of some divinity figures in lieu of the effigies of the dead man. A bed, slaves, money, possessions, are still expedited to the departed, as in China, but this is to be done by giving these things to the Brahmin, not by burning paper representations of these objects.5 An interesting essay in Professor Whitney's "Oriental and Linguistic Studies" quite shows that burial was the practice of the Aryans when some of the early hymns of the Rig-Veda were composed. “In earth's broad, unoppressive space Be thou, O dead, deposited!" 6 4 P. 186. 1 D. 184. 2 P. 184. 3 P. 178. 5 P. 177, note. 6 Whitney, Oriental and Linguistic Studies, 1st series, p. 55. This and similar passages are cited, especially a fine hymn to the dead (R.-V. x. 18)— "Let not the tree press hard on thee!" This explains the veneration for the tree. It was the home of the dead and the home of the living saint. The stambha, too, was a gravestone in these early days. "Forth from about thee thus I build away the ground; "These rice-grains which I strew for thee This last passage in Professor Whitney's translation of the Vedic hymn (R.-V. x. 18) quite shows that the offerings to Buddhas were borrowed from the old Vedic idea of feeding the dead ancestors. I may mention that when the Chinese pilgrim Hwui Seng visited the Brahminic kingdom of Khoten (510 A.D.), it was the custom to bury the king and erect a temple over his body. The rest of the dead were burnt and "towers" erected over their ashes.3 4 In the Mahâbhârata a tomb is called Chaitya. In the Râmâyana the same word is applied to a temple.5 In the Mâhâbharata the same word is also applied to the sacred tree of a village. As chaitya and ch'hetri were thus both used for a tumulus by the Vedic Aryans, it seems plain that they were in reality the same words. Burnouf connects the ch'hetri of Colebrooke with the word umbrella (chhattra, kshetra, Pâli chhata). This makes complete the philological connection between sepulchral tree, tumulus, tower, Buddha's top-knot, &c., and the cosmic umbrella already often alluded to. CHAPTER IV. BUDDHIST DEMONOLOGY. I WILL here cite an incident witnessed by Father Borri, and narrated by him in his "Account of Cochin-China.” 1 A Buddhist of rank, the governor of Pulu Cambi, died. This official had been very friendly to the Jesuit fathers, and the missionary Borri attended at all the funeral ceremonies of the dead man. One day several necromancers" gathered round the corpse, and prayed that some of the governor's kindred who were also gathered around might receive a message about the deceased. After a while, an elderly lady, a sister of the governor, became possessed, and skipped and raved, although she was quite decrepit, until the fury seized her. The stick that she threw from her "hung in the air all the while that the devil was in her body," says the Father. A huge palace, far more splendid than that inhabited by the governor during life, was erected for him. In the middle of this was a "stately temple with a fine altar." Here the corpse was by and by placed, surrounded by wooden horses, wooden elephants, huge wooden galleys running on wheels, and other emblems of his wealth and state. Then all was burned amid much pomp, and the calcined remains were buried. I think this account lets in considerable light upon a new phase, a development of the early savage idea. The spirit was no longer believed to reside in his corpse, 1 Account of Cochin-China, p. 807. but there was evidently a belief that a certain animal magnetism or some occult force made it more easy for the disembodied spirit to return and communicate with living mortals when they were in the actual presence of his corpse. This explains much in the rites of both the Brahmins and Buddhists, the tomb-worship, relic-worship, image-worship. Father Borri believed that the spirit that possessed the old lady was the devil. But it is quite evident that the ancient races believed that it was the spirit of the departed that worked all the marvels. Indeed, it is not quite certain that the first stage of the savage idea, the belief that the dead man was still residing in his own house, was not due to necromancy likewise. A saint dies and is buried in a tumulus or under a tree, and under this tree, or a tree near the dead man's tumulus, by and by sits another holy man, who periodically gets obsessed by the dead saint, and in that state exhibits the various marvels of clairvoyance, fortune-telling, &c. It is plain that such phenomena would have a powerful effect on the savage mind. It is plain, too, that there would be a certain plausibility in the idea that if the spirit of the departed saint were in the body of the living saint, food eaten by the living saint would nourish the dead saint. On no other theory can we account for the rise of these food-offerings amongst the Brahmins, and their development into a belief that houses, wealth, slaves, &c., offered to Brahmins were in reality enjoyed by the dead man. The cupidity of ecclesiastics may be urged to account for this, but that cupidity is accustomed to fatten on received superstitions, and not to invent them. Father Borri was told that the spirits only took the spiritual portion of the repast, and left the material portion. The same idea might apply to the house, bed, elephants, slaves, &c. With the Buddhists, as Mr. Upham tells us,1 everything in the seen world has its counterpart in the unseen world, and every man has his Aggra. The 1 History of Buddhism, p. 21. |