Significance of the legend respecting the

CHAPTER III. frequently repeated the fundamental principle of his religion that all existences are transitory. At early dawn his soul sunk into the eternal rest of Nirvána. The death of Sakya Muni from eating too much cause of death. roast pork has a deep significance. It is generally accepted as a literal fact; for although it seems to detract from the piety of the saint, the story is admitted by the Buddhists themselves. It certainly appears strange that Sákya Muni should have eaten flesh meat in direct opposition to his great commandment,-"Thou shalt not kill." But still this point is capable of explanation. All Kshatriyas are flesh eaters by instinct; and in the present day the Buddhists urge that the commandment is not a Brahmanical caste law against eating flesh meat, but a Buddhist law against putting any animal to death.15 Accordingly, whilst the pious Buddhist will not kill, he will readily eat the flesh of an animal that has been slaughtered by another, or killed by an accident, or died a natural death. The disease also of which Sákya Muni died is strangely suggestive. At different periods of his life he was subject to internal complaints, and frequent mention is made of a doctor, named Jevaka, who cured his previous attacks, probably by administering opium. It is therefore not impossible that Sákya Muni derived his conception of Nirvána from the pleasurable repose produced by opium. In the present day, however, opium is treated as an intoxicating drug, and as such is forbidden to all Buddhists.

The events which followed the death of Sákya

45 It will be seen hereafter that both the story and the explanation are the probable invention of some flesh-loving monk, and were apparently interpolated for the sake of obtaining the highest authority for the indulgence.

count of the funeral cere

tribution of

Muni are apparently related with some exaggeration. CHAPTER III. The neighbouring princes are said to have hastened Mythical acto the spot to mourn their loss, and assist at the monies and disobsequies of the great teacher. The body lay in relics. state for seven days, and was then burnt with all the pomp and magnificence which attended the cremation of a Sákya Raja. After the ceremony was over, the relics were carefully collected, but different princes are said to have asserted rival claims to possession. An appeal to the sword was on the eve of being made, when a Bráhman, named Drona, settled the dispute by dividing the relics into eight shares, which were finally deposited in appropriate stupas in eight different cities.46

ter of the le

The life of Gótama Buddha thus passes away Unreal characinto the world of legend. Indeed the entire narra- gend. tive is surrounded in the original by a halo of unreal glory and mythical exaggeration, which are evidently the product of a later age of Buddhist monasticism. These supernatural data have been in a great measure excluded from the foregoing biography. Indeed for the most part they are un

46 Without absolutely denying the credibility of all the details mentioned in the text, it is evident that some of them are open to question, especially the dispute about the relics, and their ultimate disposal. It is added in the legend of the life of Gótama, that about twenty years after his death, the famous Brahman Kasyapa felt some alarm as regards the safety of the relics. He accordingly collected them from the several princes, and deposited them in a Vihára of brass, which he placed in a deep vault eighty cubits under-ground. At the same time he wrote out a prophecy, that after the lapse of two centuries, the vault would be opened by a king named Asóka; and he placed this prophecy in the Vihára together with the relics. The relics and the prophecy were in due course discovered by King Asóka after the lapse of two hundred years. (Bigandet, page 34 et seq.) A suspicion is thus excited that the prophecy, and perchance the relics also, are part of a pious fraud concocted in the lifetime of Asóka, or perhaps even later. Both Drona who distributed the relics, and Kasyapa who collected them and stowed them away, were Bráhman sages, whose existence is mythical. They are often mentioned in both the Mabá Bhárata and Ramayana.

CHAPTER III. meaning fables, throwing no light whatever upon the real life of the apostle, and introduced solely for the purpose of amusing the imagination of wonderloving orientals. It will, however, be necessary to indicate their general character, in order that nothing may be wanting in the formation of a correct judgment of Buddhism and its founder.

Supernatural incidents.

According to these myths Sákya Muni was but one of a series of Buddhas, who have appeared in this present universe, but are yet separated from each other by vast intervals of time. Again, this universe is but one of a series of universes, each having its own system of Buddhas; the whole covering a period which defies all calculation, and may be best described as infinity. Then, again, Sákya Muni, in his individual capacity, passed through a great number of transmigrations prior to his becoming incarnate as the son of Mayá. He worked himself up through every class of the vegetable and animal kingdom, and through every grade of humanity, performing every virtue in each existence in the grand aspiration of finally becoming a Buddha. His transmigrations are reckoned at five hundred and fifty in number; and mythical narratives of each transmigration are to be found in Buddhist literature. They are supposed to prove his surpassing benevolence. At a very early period he is presumed to have reached such a pitch of piety that he might have escaped from the miseries of existence, and entered the eternal quiescence of Nirvána; but this termination of existence would have frustrated all his aspirations. His mighty aim, was to deliver, not merely himself, but the whole mass of suffering humanity, from the vortex of endless transmigrations.

With

this object he continued to endure all the pain of CHAPTER III. successive lives in order that he might attain to such

a perfection of humanity as to become a Buddha, and teach and save an ignorant and miserable world. The life of Sákya Muni is thus the mere biography of his highest and last transmigration; although his spiritual existence is connected with all worlds and all time.

deities and

Another class of myths represent Sákya Muni as Introduction of a divine being rather than as a mortal teacher. He miracles. was not a deity, and he claimed no relation to deity. Indeed in his teaching he ignored deity; yet in the myths he is elevated above deity. The gods are said to have exulted in his approaching advent, in the hope of obtaining deliverance through his teaching. His mother Mayá is invested with a halo of sacred legend. She is the embodiment of all that is good and beautiful. She is said to have been espoused to the Raja of Kapila, but otherwise she appears in all the purity of a virgin bride. She became incarnate in a dream with a small white elephant. The gods guarded her and her infant from his conception to his birth. Thirty-two miraculous portents occurred on each occasion, of which the most significant were that an earthquake shook the universe, a bright light illuminated all the worlds, the blind saw, the deaf heard, the dumb spake, the lame walked, the crooked stood upright, and prisoners were released from their bonds." Mayá gave

"The remaining portents are puerile monkish inventions. The fires of hell were quenched, the cravings of ghosts were satisfied, all alarms ceased, all diseases were healed, all enmities were forgotten, bulls and buffaloes bellowed with joy, horses and elephants joined in the chorus, lions roared, musical instruments played of their own accord, gold and silver ornaments emitted pleasing sounds, lamps lighted themselves, winds were perfumed, fountains of water suddenly appeared,

CHAPTER III. birth to the infant without pain, and died seven days afterwards, and was born again as a daughter of the gods. Meantime an ancient sage, as well as many Bráhmans, testified that the child would become a Buddha. Most of these miracles are renewed when Sákya Muni finally entered on his Buddhahood. Subsequently Buddha himself is said to have performed miracles, but they are foreign altogether to his character and teaching. He is represented at times as sitting midway in the air, or as flying through it with the velocity of a sunbeam, or as appearing surrounded with a halo of glory. But these are such palpable fabrications of later miraclemongers, that they are unworthy of consideration in dealing with ancient Buddhism.48

Allegorical character of the

legend.

It may perhaps be questioned whether the legend of the early life of Gótama Buddha is not to be regarded as an allegory rather than as a real biography. The main incident is common to all civilized humanity. A young voluptuary is surrounded from his earliest years with every sensual gratification, but is at last brought face to face with the three woes which are inseparable from all animal being,-old age, disease, and death. Henceforth he regards all around him through a gloomy medium. The pleasures of life are stripped of all their charms; and the glorious illusions of youth,

every tree was covered with flowers, rocks were covered with water-lilies, dry wood blossomed, garlands fell from heaven, and other like miracles took place which become tedious by repetition.

48 Some writers have remarked upon the coincidence between some of the incidents in the life of Gótama, and those which are recorded in gospel history. (See Bp Bigandet's Life of Gótama, and Dr Eitel's Lectures on Buddhism.) The author has no intention of entering upon a field of profitless speculation. The supernatural details in the life of Gótama appear to him to be the monastic inventions of a comparatively modern age, certainly not earlier than the fourth century of the Christian era.