CHAPTER VII.

THE LEGENDARY BUDDHA.

IN the view of Eugène Burnouf, Foucaux, Râjendra Lâl Mitra, Max Müller, &c., the oldest Life of Buddha is the Sanskrit "Lalita Vistara." On the other hand, certain Pâli scholars, headed by Mr. Rhys Davids, contend that the Cingalese Life is "the best authority" we have.1 Two versions of this, almost word for word identical, exist,2 one in the "Madurattha-vilâsinî," a commentary on the “Buddhavansa," given by Mr. Turnour in his "Pâli Buddhistical Annals; the second is promised by Mr. Rhys Davids in a forthcoming translation of the commentary on the Jâtakas. Preference is claimed for this Cingalese biography on the ground that it is briefer and more free from marvel than the other biographies, points that denote an earlier scripture. The Pâli books of Ceylon are asserted to be "substantially identical with the books of the Southern canon as settled at the council of Patna about 250 B.C." 5

I cannot agree with Mr. Rhys Davids that the Cingalese version is the best authority for the life of Sâkya Muni.

1. The author of the "Madurattha-vilâsinî” states distinctly that his work is only a condensation of another narrative, the “Mahâpadâna Suttan,” a work not found in Buddhaghosa's list of the Cingalese holy books. This

1 Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 13.

2 Ibid. 8 J. B. A. Soc., vols. vi. vii. 4 Since published. 5 Buddhism, p. 10.

disposes of any claims advanced on the score of greater brevity, &c.1

2. The books of the Southern Canon, thirty-one in number, were settled not at the third but at the first convocation,2 that is, a few months after the death of Buddha. This was a large literature for a few "houseless ones," wandering in jungles and wildernesses one or two hundred years before the use of letters in India.

3. Pâli was most probably the language of Buddha; but a work written before B.C. 412, and translated into Cingalese B.C. 306, the date of Mahinda, and then retranslated into the holy language more than eight hundred years after it was supposed to have been written (A.D. 410), does not gain in value as an authority by the double translation, but rather loses.

4. On the Asoka columns we have a list of seven holy books; and the titles of these differ in toto from those of the thirty-one books said to have been brought to Ceylon by Mahinda, Asoka's son.

Indeed the whole story of Buddhaghosa and the Cingalese sacred books is suspicious. Buddhaghosa, who converted Burmah,-Buddhaghosa, the "voice (ghosa) of Buddha," the most eminent Buddhist missionary, comes to Ceylon, and what we chiefly learn of him is that he examines the sacred books and pronounces every word of them authentic, and with his own hand translates them back again into the holy Pâli. He then writes a history which in a most prominent manner describes the first convocation of Buddhist monks, and in this convocation the sole subject discussed is the list of these Cingalese books, the exact list brought by Mahinda, and their authenticity. But we know positively from Asoka's columns that the sacred books of Mahinda's day were totally different, and so the main object of this elaborate. story becomes sufficiently obvious. The innovating party were well aware of this fact, so the name of Buddhaghosa 1 Turnour, J. A. S. B., vol. vii. p. 804. 2 Ibid., vol. vi. pp. 501-528.

is drawn in to give some show of sanction to the newer literature.

But the main question really is not which biography is the oldest, but which has been allowed by its many editors to retain the oldest Buddhism, that of the emblems, topes, ritual, and Asoka inscriptions. To this I answer, the Tibetan version translated by M. Foucaux. Professor Beal claims a high antiquity for the Chinese Life by Wung Puh, namely, that it was one of the earliest books brought to China. It also contains very early Buddhism. I will now give a digest of the Tibetan biography, referring to the other versions from time to time.

The narrative opens with long sermons preached by Buddha as a Bodhisatwa to Brahma, Indra, and all the heavenly host in the heaven Tusita. These, of course, are modern excrescences. Search is made for a family into which the great prophet is to be born, and also for a suitable mother. At Kapila-vastu is a King Suddhôdana, of pure race, married to Queen Mâya, a lady as good and as beautiful "as a heavenly spirit." Her hair was glossy as the body of a black bee. Her voice was as musical as the bird Kokila. To the touch she was as soft as the cloth Kacha-lindi. It has been debated whether she was a virgin at the date of Buddha's birth. As she is without doubt Virgo of the sky, I think the question must be answered in the affirmative. "She was so pure that it was impossible for god, man, or Âsura to view her with carnal desire." 2

The queen receives a presentiment that something unusual is about to occur. The king releases many prisoners, and gives bountiful presents around; and banners, scents, flowers, and parasols are provided in profusion in the upper rooms of the palace, whither the queen betakes herself. She lies on a couch jealously guarded by innumerable

women.

Under what form does a Buddha descend to earth for the last time?

This question was put in heaven and answered by a spirit, Ugratea, once an ancient Rishi.

"In the ancient holy books, the Brâhmaņas and Mantras, and in the Rig-Veda it is explained how a Bodhisatwa about to become a Buddha is to come down to his mother's womb. What is that form? He must select the body of the most beautiful of elephants, armed with six defences, and covered with a spangled netting of gold; of head proud and red, open jawed, and majestic in appearance." This is the answer of a holy man well versed in ancient Indian scriptures, and I think it is important. I have shown that the solar God-man is known in the Rig-Veda as Mârttânḍa1 (the egg), and the symbol of Mârttânḍa is the elephant. Ganêśa is the Mârttânda of modern Brahmanism. In the Chinese and Burmese versions Mâya dreams that Buddha comes down in the form of an elephant. In Ceylon the elephant is quite suppressed, although on Asoka's columns an elephant and the Swastica are the only Buddhist symbols used. In the early topes, also, Buddha, descending, is everywhere represented as an elephant. Mr. Rhys Davids accords the preference to the Cingalese version on the ground that it contains fewer marvels, but a marvel may be suppressed for doctrinal purposes. I think also that the respect paid to the RigVeda in the Tibetan version in more than one passage is an argument in favour of its antiquity. In Wung Puh, Buddha also descends as an actual elephant.3

So in spring, when appears the constellation Visakha (April-May), the Bodhisatwa, under the appearance of a young white elephant of six defences, with a head the colour of cochineal, with tusks shining like gold, perfect in his organs and limbs, entered the right side of his mother, and she, by means of a dream, was conscious of the fact.

The next morning the queen repaired to the Asoka

2 Satapatha Brahmana, iii. 1, 33.

1 Rig-Veda, x. 72, 9.

3 Catena, p. 131.

wood, and summoned the king and told him what had happened. She felt a mysterious joy in her breast, and begged him to summon the most learned of Brahmins, well versed in dreams and astrology and also in the Rig-Veda. The Brahmins arrived, and were told of the elephant that the queen had seen in a vision entering her right side.

"This dream bodes no misfortune," they answered. "On the contrary, great joy will be yours, O queen! You will bring forth a son gifted with the thirty-two signs-a Chakravartin." This idea of this sun-king (lit. "wheel-king") is borrowed from the earlier Brahmanism, and plays an important part in the legendary life. I will consider it at greater length by and by. "If," pursued the astrologers, "your son shall abandon earthly desires, and quit his kingdom and palace to become a religious teacher out of love for the world, he will become the Buddha, and give joy and immortality to all flesh."

I now come to an important passage carefully excluded from the later versions of the legendary life.

The night on which the Bodhisatwa entered his mother's womb, on that same night a huge white lotus, springing from the waters and parting the earth for sixty-eight millions of yoganas (a yogana is seven miles), rose up into the middle of the world of Brahma. This lotus only the guide of men (Bodhisatwa) and Brahma are able to perceive. All that there is of life and creative essence in the three thousand great thousand worlds is assembled in the dewdrops of this mighty lotus. This essence, collected in a cup of lapis-lazuli by the great Brahma, was given to the Bodhisatwa to drink.

Here we have Brahma, the supreme, Mâya, the mother, and the Golden Germ of the Rig-Veda. And this Vedism is in favour of the antiquity of the passage.

During the time that Buddha was in his mother's womb her body was transparent, so that she could see him plainly. He sat in a sort of framework or vehicle of immense