It was easy, therefore, by a partial translation of the Chinese version, to observe the resemblance, if any, between the two works in question.

I found that whilst the general outline of the Chinese version was perfectly in accord with the Southern work, that in detail and in spirit the two were in no way allied.

The general outline is this: Buddha, on a certain occasion, proceeded to Kusinagara, and entering a grove of Sala trees, there reposed. He received a gift of food from Chunda, an artizan of the neighbouring town. After partaking of the food, he was seized with illness. He discoursed through the night with his disciples, and disputed with certain heretical teachers. At early dawn he turned on his right side, with his head to the North, and died. The Sala trees bent down to form a canopy over his head. The account then proceeds to relate the circumstance of his cremation, and the subsequent disputes between the Mallas and others for his ashes.

In these main features the Northern Sûtra is in agreement with the Southern; but when considered in detail, the divergence between the two is great. The whole of the First, and some portion of the Second, Book of the Chinese edition is occupied by the narrative of Chunda's offering; the details are most minute and wearisome, consisting of sections of a regularly recurring order.

In the subsequent Books the narrative is occupied with laboured proofs that Nirvâna is not the cessation of Being, but the perfection of it, and that the four characteristics of Nirvâna are these, Personality, Purity, Happiness, and Eternity. One chief peculiarity of this Book is the particular stress it lays on the fact that it was the first made of all the Vâipulya class of Buddhist works, and for that reason it sometimes gives expression to doubts whether or no it would be acknowledged as belonging to the Canon. The history of Buddha's controversies with the heretical Doctors, Kasyapa, Basita, and others, is of an interesting nature, the point of the argument in every case being to prove that Nirvâna is the one true and universal condition of Being, in opposition to all pre-existing theories respecting a future life in Heaven, or that unintelligible state of existence supposed to be enjoyed in the Arupa worlds.

From the consideration of this Sûtra it seems likely that the plan adopted in the later (Northern) school of Buddhism, in the composi

tion of their works (the Mahâyâna and Vâipulya Sûtras), was to take the shorter and more ancient Scriptures as a germ, and, by the interpolation of dialogues and discussions, and at the same time by tedious expansion of trivial events occurring in the course of the narrative, to produce a work under the same name of a totally different character. This method of development, I think, may be observed in nearly all the works of which we possess both Northern and Southern versions.

2. The above remarks apply with equal force to the Fan-wangking, another Sûtra in the Chinese Section of the Library. This is a Northern version of the Brahmajâla Sûtra, a work well known through the pages of the Ceylon Friend, in which Mr. Gogerly published a brief translation of it. The Chinese version was made by Kumârajîva about 420 A.D., but it has none of the characteristics of the Pali work bearing the same name. As an instance of the dissimilarity, the Chinese version speaks of the origin of the name "Brahmajâla" as connected with the curtain (net, jála) that surrounds the domain of Brahma or Indra,' and compares the gems that adorn that net to the countless worlds of space, over all which Vairojana is supreme. Whereas the title is explained in the South as "a net in which Buddha caught the Brahmans."

The Chinese translation is only a portion of the entire work, and recounts the Rules which bind the Bodhisatwa in the same way as the Pratimoksha deals with the Rules of the Bhikshus. All this is so foreign to the drift and object of the Southern Sûtra, that it is plain there is but little connexion between the two, except in the name, which was borrowed probably to give popularity and authority to the expanded work.

3. I discovered that the Library possesses a Chinese copy of the Abhinishkramana Sûtra, under the name of Fo-pen-hing-tsi-king. No translation of this work into any European language exists, as far as I know. I thought it therefore desirable to translate the Chinese work in its complete form. This I have done, and I hope soon to see it published. The chief interest attaching to this book is, the number

The expression, Aindrajâla, is a well-known one to signify "jugglery." If the net of Indra be the "Curtain of Stars" which seems to inclose the Atmosphere (Indra), we do not wonder that the idea of jugglery should be associated with it.

of episodes (Avadânas) and Jâtakas contained in it. Some of these will be found to explain the Temple Sculptures at Sanchi and Amravati and Boro Bodor. I am inclined also to think that many of the newly-discovered sculptures found by the Archæological Surveyor of India at Bharhut will be explained to some extent in this work. It seems probable that the book under review is only the expansion of the Fo-pen-hing-king, the earliest known translation of the life of Buddha. (This work was produced in China about 75 A.D.) My reason for this opinion is (1) the similarity of name; the addition of the symbol 'tsi' to Fo-pen-hing would indicate that the new work was founded upon the more ancient one. (2) I find from the Buddhist Encylopædia Fa-yuen-chu-lin, that passages quoted from the Fopen-hing really occur in the Fo-pen-hing-tsi-king. If my opinion is correct, it will tend to a settlement of the question of the date of the legends and stories which are mixed up in such a remarkable manner in the history of the founder of Buddhism.

4. Perhaps the most interesting result of the examination of these books is derived from a work entitled King-Tsang-yo-shwo. In this book there are fifty Sûtras, translated at different dates and by various scholars, all of them from Sanscrit or Pali. The dates extend from A.D. 70 to A.D. 600. Among these Sûtras is one called the Chen-tseu-king; this I found to be a translation of the Sâma Jâtaka, which is in fact a part of the story of Dasaratha and Râma. This Jataka has been briefly translated from the Sinhalese by Spence Hardy (Eastern Monachism, p. 275), and I have identified it with the Sanchi Sculpture found in plate xxxvi. fig. i. Tree and Serpent Worship. The Chinese version of this Jâtaka is full and complete. A singular circumstance connected with the title of this Sûtra or Jâtaka is this-In the history of Fa-hian's Travels, p. 157, it is stated that, when in Ceylon, he witnessed on one occasion a Religious Festival, during which pictures of Buddha's previous births were exhibited and hung up on each side of the road. Among others he speaks of the "birth as a flash of light" (the Chinese word is 'chen'). Rémusat and his annotators having adopted this rendering in their version of Fa-hian, I was led to do the same in my own translation, although I had grave doubts at the time, and tried to explain the character of this birth by the history of the Fracolin given by Julien (ii. 336). I now find that the Jâtaka

alluded to by Fa-hian is the Sâma Jâtaka, of which the book under review gives an account. It is interesting to know that this Jâtaka was as familiar to the Buddhists in Ceylon at the time of Fa-hian's visit (circ. A.D. 410), as it was undoubtedly to the builders and sculptors at Sanchi, some centuries (perhaps) before.

Another of the Sûtras found in the work under consideration is called Fo-shwo-yen-un-tsang-u-king, which indeed is a translation of the Sangha Rakshita Avadâna, known to us through the version given by Burnouf (Introd. to Ind. Bud. p. 313, ss.).

The Chinese translation agrees in the main with this version. It opens with an account of the Nâga, which assumed a human form and became a Bhikshu; having gone to sleep, accidentally, his true nature was discovered after having been instructed in the law, he was dismissed to his Dragon Palace by Buddha; here he was visited by Sangha Rakshita, and further instructed in the Sacred Books. The narrative then proceeds with the adventures of Sangha Rakshita after having been dismissed from the Dragon Palace. (The details are nearly the same as those given by Burnouf.)

A third Sûtra in this work deserving notice is the Ta-shing-sse-faking, which is the same as the Arya Chatushka Nirahára Náma Mahayana Sútra, a translation of which has been made by M. Léon Feer (Etudes Buddhiques, p. 131). On comparing the Chinese with this version, I find the two agree in the main. There are one or two passages, however, much more distinctly given in the Chinese translation. For example: at the opening of the Sûtra, as translated by M. Léon Feer, there is an obscure passage, which he renders “n'ayant tous pour vêtement qu'un grand amulette” (Mâha-varma-sannaddha); in the Chinese the passage runs thus-' Kai-pi-kin-ku-ta-sze-shai-kwan,' that is, "all of them completely armed with the helmet of their strong religious vows," a passage which, although somewhat obscure, is yet common enough in Buddhist books, denoting the power of the vow made by the Bodhisatwas not to give up their condition till they had accomplished the salvation of men (and others).

Another passage, p. 134 (op. cit.), is thus given by M. Feer— “Le fils d'un dieu reprit Manjugri en faveur de Brahma qui a les cheveux noués au sommet de la tête et qui reside parmi les fils des dieux, etc.," but in the Chinese version the rendering is, "The Deva once more replied, Well said! Ayushmat, the Bodhisatwa ought to be untiring

in the works of his religious duties, as in old time was the Brahmaraja Sikhin and his associates, etc." The conduct of Sikhin is frequently alluded to in Buddhist books; he is generally indeed spoken of as one of the old Buddhas, but his exact religious conduct is the theme for constant laudation in the Abhinishkramana Sûtra. There are several discrepancies between the Chinese text and the translation from the Thibetan, which I cannot enter into at any length; the following will serve as examples :-iv. 1. "Meditation." Chinese: "Faith." iv. 2. (6 Sagesse." Chinese : "Reliance on a virtuous friend." v. "Production de pensée a laquelle il serait dangereux pour les Bodhisatwas de se confier." Chinese: "The Bodhisatwas ought to strive after a heart not capable of the four defilements." vi. 3. "La pensée qui consiste à ne pas espérer en la maturité parfaite." Chinese: "A heart that does not anxiously look for the reward of good actions." ix. 2. "Production d'un pensée pour que ceux qui transgressent, etc." Chinese: "Having been wronged by any one, not to remember the wrong done." ix. 3. "En quelques contrées vastes et étendus, etc." Chinese: "Not to remit any effort although dwelling in the midst of plenty (5 desires)." x. 1. "Quand on est dans une maison." Chinese: "When leading a secular life." x. 4. "Amoindrir les qualités de l'agitation, etc." Chinese: "To practise the Dhûta rules." xi. 4. "Quand on a lié sa pensée à la promulgation de la loi, etc." Chinese: "Out of a glad heart ever to speak well of the conduct of a Master of the Law (Spiritual Master)." xvii. 2. "Le trésor caché de l'énergie." Chinese: "The treasure of dialectics; or, of logical discussion." xvii. 4. "Le trésor caché de la bénédiction complète en richesses inépuisables." Chinese: "The treasure of worshipping or paying reverence to the highest riches, i.e. the Three Gems, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha." [I may observe here, throughout the translation from the Thibetan the expression "bénédiction complète" (vi. 4, xvi. 4, xvii. 4, xxxiii. 2) corresponds to Hwui-hiang in the Chinese, which is a phrase employed to denote an act of external worship, or sometimes mental adoration.]

The Chinese version throws some light on the difficult passage xxii. 4," Ne plus espérer en la transmigration à cause du désespoir de réussir dans la réalisation parfaite de toutes les qualités." Chinese: "Not to resent as a personal injury (with a view to retaliate) because a friend has not been invited with others to partake of charity or hospitality."