would also have its origin there. It is well known that legends have often been made up of two or three independent tales, tacked one on to the other to make the legend more interesting and more attractive.

Through the kindness of Mr. R. Chalmers I have been able to see a proof sheet of his translation of the Jātakas (vol. i.), which is published by the Pitt Press under the editorship of Prof. Cowell, of Cambridge. In one of these Jātakas I found, indeed, the original for the history of Placidus' conversion. In comparing the two one must take into account the rifacimento to which those Indian tales have been subjected in order to suit them entirely to their new purposes. Only the framework, the leading incidents and the miraculous elements, are retained, the rest is fitted up with rhetorics and arguments borrowed from a different

source.

The Jātaka to which I refer is the Nigrodha-miga-Jātaka, of which the following is an abstract 1: "Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born a deer. At his birth he was golden of hue; his eyes were like round jewels; the sheen of his horns was of silver; his mouth was like a bunch of scarlet cloth; his four hoofs were as though lacquered; his tail was like the yak's; and he was as big as a young foal. Attended by five hundred deer he dwelt in the forest under the name of King Banyan Deer. And hard by him dwelt another deer also with an attendant herd of five hundred deer, who was named Branch Deer, and was as golden of hue as the Bodhisatta.

"In those days the king of Benares was passionately fond of hunting, and always had meat at every meal. Every day he mustered the whole of his subjects and went hunting. Thought his people, 'Suppose we were to sow food and supply water for the deer in his own pleasaunce; and, having driven in a number of deer, to bar them in and deliver them over to the king.' So they did. Henceforth the king betook himself to the pleasaunce, and in looking once

1 It is also translated in full in Prof. Rhys Davids's Buddhist Birth Stories," No. 12, p. 205 ff.

over the herd, saw among them two golden deer, to whom he granted immunity. Sometimes he would go of his own accord and shoot a deer to bring home; sometimes his cook would go and shoot one. At first sight of the bow the deer would dash off trembling for their lives; but after receiving two or three wounds, they grew weary and faint, and were slain. The herd of deer told this to the Bodhisatta, who sent for Branch, and said, 'Friend, the deer are being destroyed in great numbers; and, though they cannot escape death, at least let them not be needlessly wounded. Let the deer on whom the lot falls go to the block by turns, one day one from my herd, and next day one from yours.' The other agreed. Now one day the lot fell on a pregnant doe of the herd of Branch, and she went to Branch and said, 'Lord, I am with young; order me to be passed over this turn.' 'No, I cannot make your turn another's,' said he. Finding no favour with him, the doe went to the Bodhisatta, and told him her story. And he answered, 'Very well; you go away, and I will see that the turn passes over you.' And therewithal he went himself to the place of execution, and lay down with his head on the block. Cried the cook on seeing him, 'Why! here is the king of the deer, who was granted immunity! What does this mean?' And off he ran to tell the king, who, on hearing it, mounted his chariot and came with a large following.

"My friend, the king of the deer, how comes it that you are lying here ? '

"Sire, there came to me a doe big with young, who prayed me to let her turn fall on another; and, as I could not pass the doom of one to another, I, laying down my life for her, and taking her doom on myself, have laid me down here.'

"My lord, the golden king of the deer, said the king, never yet saw I, even among men, one so abounding in charity, love, and pity as you. Therefore am I pleased with you. Arise! I spare the lives of both you and her.' "The Bodhisatta interceded then with the king for the

J.R.A.S. 1894.

23

lives of all creatures, and obtained from him the promise that they would henceforth be spared. After thus interceding, the Great Being arose, established the king in the Five commandments, saying, 'Walk in righteousness, great king. Walk in righteousness and justice towards parents, children, townsmen, and country-folk, so that when this earthly body is dissolved, you may enter the bliss of heaven. Thus, with the grace and charm that marks a Buddha, did he teach the Truth to the king.""

(2)

So far the Jātaka, as much as it concerns us here. The principal points are absolutely identical with those of the story of Placidus. (1) The king, a mighty hunter. Of a merciful disposition, but has not yet obtained access to the way of truth. (3) The marvellous deer, characterized by specially brilliant horns. (4) Exposes itself to the danger of being killed in order to speak to the king. (5) The Bodhisatta impersonated by that deer, and (6) The successful conversion of the king by the deer.

The specific Buddhist argument, viz. the self-sacrifice, looses its force in the change from Buddhism to Christianity, and is therefore omitted in the story of Placidus.

The date of the Jātaka is not a matter of conjecture. As the central incident is to be found represented among the sculptured medallions of the Stupa of Bharhut (No. 1 in Plate xxv. and No. 2 in Plate xliii. of Cunningham's publication), it must therefore belong to the second or third century B.C., and is thus close upon a thousand years older than the oldest written record of the story of Placidus. The "Divine Deer" alone would suffice to prove the Buddhist origin of the latter, as Buddha, in several previous births, had been "King of the Deer." I know not of any other example of Christ appearing under the form of a deer or any other animal. It is a thoroughly Buddhist conception, which sees in the animal one of the forms of existence and impersonations of Buddha, and has been taken over bodily from the Jātaka to be incorporated into the Life of Placidus, the other half of which is also of the same Buddhist origin.

ART. XIV.-The Madhura Sutta concerning Caste. By ROBERT CHALMERS.

THE Sutta of which the Pāli text and commentary, together with a translation, are here given, is No. 84 of the Majjhima Nikaya. In addition to the interest which attends every addition to our knowledge of the great canonical books of primitive Buddhism, this Sutta may claim a twofold interest of its own, derived (i.) from the form in which the dialogue is cast, and (ii.) from its subject.

As regards the form, whilst the Madhura Sutta is unlike the generality of Suttas in presenting as the chief interlocutor not the Buddha himself but one of his disciples, yet it is not without parallels in this respect. For example, in Sutta No. 44 of the Majjhima Nikaya,' the learned Sister Dhammadinna expounds the Truth to her whilom husband; whilst in Suttas Nos. 15 and 43 Moggallana and Sariputta respectively play the chief part, and there are not even the final words of approval with which in No. 44 the Buddha endorses what Dhammadinna has taught. There is, however, one essential point in which the Madhura Sutta is marked off from even such Suttas as the three mentioned. For, whereas in all those three, even in Nos. 15 and 43, we are carefully, if irrelevantly, informed of the precise spot at which the Buddha was dwelling at the time of the dialogue-in the Madhura Sutta it is expressly stated that the Buddha was no longer living but dead. The only parallel which occurs to me is found in the (unedited) Ghoṭamukha Sutta (No. 94 of the Majjhima Nikaya), where the circumstances leading up to the statement are precisely similar to those of the Madhura Sutta. The important

1 Analysed in Miss Foley's article in this year's J.R.A.S.

fact which these two Suttas formally prove is that, like Christianity in the hands of St. Paul, Buddhism, after the death of its founder, continued to develope in the hands of his disciples.

In the Madhura Sutta Kaccana discusses, as the Buddha had discussed in other Suttas, the great Indian institution of caste-or 'colour' according to the literal translation of the term used for caste alike in Pali and in Sanskrit. It is not within the province of this paper to investigate the evolution of the caste-system from the primary distinction of colour between the white Aryan invaders and the 'black men' whom they first encountered in India. By the time that Buddhism arose, some five centuries before the Christian era, caste was an accomplished fact; within the Aryan pale, society was more or less rigidly divided into the four 'classic' castes. Thus in the Kanṇakathala Sutta1 (No. 90 of the Majjhima Nikaya) the Buddha is represented as saying

"There are these four castes-kshatriyas, brahmins, vaiṣyas, and ṣūdras. Of these four castes, two -the kshatriyas and the brahmins-are given precedence, to wit, in salutation, homage, obeisance, and due ministry."

It is important at this point to note that the Pāli Piṭakas, in specifying the four castes as above, invariably give precedence to the kshatriyas the rajanyas of the Vedic hymns. As it may be taken for certain that, when this 'kingly class' first arose, it was supreme in Indian society, the Pitakas preserve the ancient tradition in their championship of the established precedence of the kshatriyas against the presumptuous usurpation of the brahmins, and mark the transitional epoch when the brahmin's claim to pre-eminence,

1 As the Sutta has not yet been edited, I give an extract from the Pāli text"Cattaro 'me, mahārāja, vaņṇā-khattiyā brāhmaṇā vessa suddā. Imesam kho, mahārāja, catunnam vanṇānam dve vanņā aggam akkhayanti,-khattiyă ca brāhmaṇā ca—yadidaṁ abhivādana-paccupaṭṭhān-añjalikamma-sāmīcikamman ti."

"Näham, bhante, Bhagavantaṁ ditthadhammikam pucchami; samparāyikāham, bhante, Bhagavantam pucchāmi.”