throughout in following the rule which, I think, ought to be followed. Most of the technical terms employed by Buddhist writers come from Sanskrit; and in the eyes of the philologist the various forms which they have assumed in Pâli, in Burmese, in Tibetan, in Chinese, in Mongolian, are only so many corruptions of the same original form. Everything, therefore, would seem to be in favour of retaining the Sanskrit forms throughout, and of writing, for instance, Nirvâna instead of the Pâli Nibbâna, the Burmese Niban or Nepbhân, the Siamese Niruphan, the Chinese Nipan. The only hope, in fact, that writers on Buddhism will ever arrive at a uniform and generally intelligible phraseology seems to lie in their agreeing to use throughout the Sanskrit terms in their original form, instead of the various local disguises and disfigurements which they present in Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, Tibet, China, and Mongolia. But against this view another consideration is sure to be urged, viz. that many Buddhist words have assumed such a strongly marked local or national character in the different countries and in the different languages in which the religion of Buddha has found a new home, that to translate them back into Sanskrit would seem as affected, nay prove in certain cases as misleading, as if, in speaking of priests and kings, we were to speak of presbyters and cynings. Between the two alternatives of using the original Sanskrit forms or adopting their various local varieties, it is sometimes difficult to choose, and the rule by which I have been mainly guided has been to use the Sanskrit forms as much as possible; in fact, everywhere except where it seemed affected to do so. I have therefore written Buddhaghosha instead

of the Pâli Buddhaghosa, because the name of that famous theologian, "the Voice of Buddha," seemed to lose its significance if turned into Buddhaghosa. But I am well aware what may be said on the other side. The name of Buddhaghosha, "Voice of Buddha," was given him after he had been converted from Brahmanism to Buddhism, and it was given to him by people to whom the Pâli word ghosa conveyed the same meaning as ghosha does to us. On the other hand, I have retained the Pâli Dhammapada instead of Dharmapada, simply because, as the title of a Pâli book, it has become so familiar that to speak of it as Dharmapada seemed like speaking of another work. We are accustomed to speak of Samanas instead of Sramanas, for even in the days of Alexander's conquest, the Sanskrit word Sramana had assumed the prakritized or vulgar form which we find in Pâli, and which alone could have been rendered by the later Greek writers (first by Alexander Polyhistor, 80–60, B.C.) by oapavaîou.' As a Buddhist term, the Pâli form Samana has so entirely supplanted that of Sramana that, even in the Dhammapada (v. 388) we find an etymology of Samana as derived from 'sam,' to be quiet, and not from 'sram,' to toil. But though one might bring oneself to speak of Samanas, who would like to introduce Bâhmana instead of Brâhmana? And yet this word, too, had so entirely been replaced by bâhmana, that in the Dhammapada, it is derived from a root

1 See Lassen, 'Indische Alterthumskunde,' vol. ii. p. 700, note. That Lassen is right in taking the Zapuava, mentioned by Megasthenes, for Brahmanic, not for Buddhist ascetics, might be proved also by their dress. Dresses made of the bark of trees are not Buddhistic. On page lxxix, note, read Alexander Polyhistor instead of Bardesanes.

'vah,' to remove, to separate, to cleanse. My own conviction is that it would be best if writers on Buddhist literature and religion were to adopt Sanskrit throughout as the lingua franca. For an accurate understanding of the original meaning of most of the technical terms of Buddhism a knowledge of their Sanskrit form is indispensable; and nothing is lost, while much would be gained, if, even in the treating of Southern Buddhism, we were to speak of the town of Srâvasti instead of Savatthi in Pâli, Sevet in Singhalese; of Tripitaka, 'the three baskets,' instead of Pitakattaya in Pâli, Tunpitaka in Singhalese; of Arthakathâ, 'commentary,' instead of Atthakathâ in Pâli, Atuwâva in Singhalese; and therefore also of Dharmapada, 'the path of virtue,' instead of Dhammapada.

MAX MÜLLER.

DÜSTERNBROOK, near KIEL, in the summer of 1869.

1 See Dhammapada,' v. 388; Bastian, 'Völker des östlichen Asien,' vol. iii. p. 412: "Ein buddhistischer Mönch erklärte mir, dass die Brahmanen ihren Namen führten, als Leute, die ihre Sünden abgespült hätten." See also 'Lalita-vistara,' p. 551, line 1; p. 553, line 7.

CHAPTER I.

THE TWIN-VERSES.

1.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of him who draws the carriage.

(1.) 'Dharma,' though clear in its meaning, is difficult to translate. It has different meanings in different systems of philosophy, and its peculiar application in the phraseology of Buddhism has been fully elucidated by Burnouf, 'Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhisme,' p. 41 seq. He writes: "Je traduis ordinairement ce terme par condition, d'autres fois par lois, mais aucune de ces traductions n'est parfaitement complète; il faut entendre par 'dharma' ce qui fait qu'une chose est ce qu'elle est, ce qui constitue sa nature propre, comme l'a bien montré Lassen, à l'occasion de la célèbre formule, Ye dharmâ hetuprabhavâ.' Etymologically the Latin for-ma expresses the same general idea which was expressed by 'dhar-ma.' See also Burnouf, 'Lotus de la bonne Loi,' p. 524. Fausböll translates: "Naturæ a mente principium ducunt," which shows that he understood 'dharma' in the Buddhist sense. Gogerly and D'Alwis translate: Mind precedes action, which, if not wrong, is at all events wrongly expressed; while Professor Weber's rendering, "Die Pflichten aus dem Herz folgern," is quite inadmissible.

6