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SELECTED ESSAYS

LANGUAGE, MYTHOLOGY, AND RELIGION

VOL. 11.

SELECTED ESSAYS

L A N GUAGE , MYTH OLOGY

AND

RELIGION

F. MAX MULL E R, K.M.

Foreign ”ember Qf the M Insulate

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II.

W l'fl'l A PHOTOLITHOGRAPH OF A SANSKRIT TEXT

DISCOVERED IN JAPAN

LONDON

L O NG M AN S, G R E E N, A N D 0 0.

1881

4 11 righ t: reserved

CONTENTS

TH E SE COND VO LUM E.

PAGE

XI. OPENING Anmmss, delivered by the President of theAryan Section at the International Congress of

Orientalists, held in London , September 14-21,1874

Note A . Influence of the study of the Science of

Language on public opinion in India

Note B. Influence of the study of the Veda in

Europe on Religious Reform in India

XII. s mmsm Lnorm on Missions, delivered inthe nave of Westminster Abbey, December 3,1873

Note A . Passages illustrating the missionary cha

ts etar of BuddhismNoteB. Schism in the Brahma-SamajNote C. Keshub ChunderSen, on Christ and Chris

Review, July

XIV. LECTURE onm Vnns s orthe SacredBooks of the

Brahmans (March 1865)

Note. Religious statistics of Buddhism (1880)

vi CONTENTS .

XVI. Bunnm srPn snm s (Times, 1857)

XVII. Tm:MEANING or v ANA (1857)

XVIII. Bunmn sr Nq sn, Lecture delivered at the

Congress ofGerman Philologists, Kiel, September

ON SANSKRIT Tnxrs msoovnmm IN JAPAN (1880)

Poror. VUH (1862)

Sm n cMonom er: (Times, 1860)

FALSE ANALOGIES Contemporary Review, 1870)

ON a ou (Presidential Address at theMidlandInstitute,Birmingham, 1879)

INDEX

PLATE.

Sanskrit text of Sukhavativyflha, discovered in

SELECTED ESSAYS

LANGUAGE, MYTHOLOGYANDRELIGION.

XI.

OPEN IN G ADDBE SS

Delivered by the President of theAryan Section at the Intern ational

Congress of Orientalists, held in London, Sep tember 14-21, 1874.

No one likes to be asked what business he has to

exist, and yet, whatever we do, whether singly or inconcert with others , the first question which the

world never fails to address to us is Die owr hie

Why are you here‘

9 or to put it into French, What isyour m ison d’étre We have had to submit to thisexamination even before we existed, and many a

time have I been asked the question , both by friendand foe,What is the good of an International Congress of OrientalistsI shall endeavour, as shortly as possible, to answer

that question, and show that our Congress is not am ere fortuitous congeries of barren atoms or molecules, but that we are at least Leibnizian monads,each with his own self, and force, and will, and eachdetermined, within the limits of some pre-establishedharmony, to help in working out some common purpose, and to achieve some real and lasting good.

VOL . II. B

2 ADDRESS AT THE INTERNATIONAL

It is generally thought that the chief object of as cientific Congress is social, and I am not one of

those who are incapable of appreciating the delightsand benefits of social intercourse with hard-workingand honest-thinking men . Much as I detest whatis commonly called society, I willingly give up glaciers and waterfalls, cathedrals and picture-galleries,for one half hour of real society, of free, frank ,fresh, and friendly intercourse, face to face, andmindto mind, with a great, and noble, and loving soul,s uch as was Bunsen ; with a man intrepid in his

thoughts, his words, and his deeds, such as was

John Stuart Mill ; or with a scholar who,whether

h e had been quarrying heavy blocks, or chisellingthe most brittle filigree work, poured out all his

treasures before you with the pride and pleasureof a child, such as was Eugene Burnouf. A Con

gress, therefore, and particularly an InternationalCongress, would certainly seem to answer somew orthy purpose, were it only by bringing togetherfellow-workers of all countries and ages, by changingwhat were to us merely great names into pleasantcompanions, and by satisfying that very right andrational curiosity which we all fee], after havingread a really good book, of seeing what the man

looks like who could achieve such triumphs .

All this is perfectly true ; yet, however pleasantto ourselves this social intercourse may appear, inthe eyes of the world at large it will hardly beconsidered a sufficient excuse for our existence . In

order, therefore, to satisfy that outer world that weare really doing something, we point of course tothe papers which are read at our public meetings,

CONGRESS or ORIENTALISTS. 3

and to th e discussions which they elicit. Much as

I value that feature also in a scientific congress ,Iconfess I doubt, and I know that many share thatdoubt, whether the same result might not be ob

tained with much less trouble. A paper that con

tains something really new and valuable, the result,itmay be, of years of toil and thought, requires tobe read with care in a quiet corner of our own

study,before the expression of our as sent or dissent

can be of any weight or value. There is too muchhollow praise, and occasionally too much wranglingand ill-natured abuse at our scientific tournaments ,and the world at large, which is never without a

tinge of malice and a vein of quiet humour,has

frequently expressed its concern at the waste of oil

and vinegar which is occasioned by the frequentmeetings of our British and Foreign As sociation s .

What then is the real use of a Congress, such as

thatwhich has brought us together this week fromall parts of the world ‘

9 What is the real excuse forour existenceP Why are we here, and not in our

workshopsPIt seem s to me that the real and permanen t use

of these scientific gatherings is twofold(1) They enable u s to take stock, to compare

notes, to see where we are, and to find out where weought to be going.

(2) They give u s an opportunity,from time to

time, to tell the world where we are, what we have

been doing for the world, and what, in return , weexpect the world to do for u s .

The danger of all scientific work at present,not

only among Oriental scholars, but, as far as Ican see,

3 2


everywhere,is the tendency to extreme Specialisation .

Our age shows in that respect a decided reactionagain st the spirit of a former age, which those withgrey heads among u s can still remember—an age

represented in Germany by such names asHumboldt,

Bitter, BOckh , Johannes Miiller, Bopp, Bun sen , and

others ; men who look to u s like giants, carrying a

weight of knowledge far too heavy for the shouldersof such mortals as now be ; ay, men who were

giants, but whose chief strength con sisted in this,

that they were never entirely absorbed or bewilderedby special researches, but kept their eye steadily onthe highest objects of all human kn owledge ; whocould trace the vast outlines of the kosmos of natureor the kosmos of the mind with an unwavering hand,and to whose maps and gu ide books we mu st still

turn whenever we are in danger of losing our way'

in the mazes of minute research . At the presentmoment such works as Humboldt’s Kosmos, ’ or

BOpp’s Comparative Grammar

,

’ or Bun sen ’s Chris

tianity and Mankind,’ would be impossible. No one

would dare to write them ,for fear of not knowing

the exact depth at which the Protogenes H aeckelii

has lately been discovered or the lengthening of a

vowel in the Samhitap fitha of the Rig-Veda. It is

quite right that this should be so, at least, for a time ;but all rivers, all brooks, all rills

, are meant to flowinto the ocean ,

and all special knowledge, to keepit from stagnation , must have an outlet into thegeneral knowledge of the world. Knowledge for itsown sake

,as it is sometM es called, is the most

dangerous idol that a student can worship. Wedespise the miser who amasses money for the sake '

CONGRESS or ORIENTALISTS . 5

o f money, but still more conmmptible is the intellectual miser who hoards up knowledge instead of

s pending it,though, with regard to most of our

knowledge, we may be well assured and satisfiedt hat, as we brought nothing into the world, so wemay carry nothing out.

Again st this danger of mistaking the means forthe end, ofmaking bricks without making mortar, ofworking for ourselves in stead of workin g for others,meetings such as our own , bringing together so largea n umber ofthefirst Oriental scholars ofEurope

,seem

to me amost excellent safeguard. They draw us out

of our shell, away from our common routine, awayfrom that small orbit of thought in which each of u smoves day after day, and make u s realise more fullyth at there are other stars moving all around us in

our little un iverse, that we all belong to one celestialsystem , or to one terrestrial commonwealth, and that,if we want to. see real progress in that work withwhich we are more especially entrusted, the re-con

qu est of the Eastern world,we mu st work with one

an other, for one another, like members of one body,lik e soldiers of one army, guided by common princ iples, striving after common purposes, and sustainedby common sympathies . Oriental literature is of

su ch enormou s dimensions that our small army ofscholars can occupy certain promin ent position s only ;but those points, like the stations of a trigonometricalsurvey, ought to be carefully chosen ,

so that weshould be able to work in harmony together. Ihopethat in that respect our Congress may prove of

special benefit. We shall hear, each of us , fromoth ers , what they wish us to do. Why don ’

t you


finish this Why don ’t you publish thatP are

questions which we have already heardasked bymanyof our friends. We shall be able to avoid whathappens so often , that two men collect materials forexactly the same work, and we may possibly hear ofsome combined efi'ort to carry out great works, whichcan only be carried out ciribus unitis

, and of whichI may at least mention one, a translation of the

Sacred Books ofMankind.

’Important progress has

already been made for setting on foot this greatundertaking, an undertaking which I think the

world has a right to demand from Oriental scholars,but which can only be carried out by joint action .

This Congress has helped us to lay the foundationstone, and I trust that at our next Congress we shallbe able to produce some tangible results.

I now come to the second point. A Congressen ables us to tell the world what We have beendoing. This, it seems to me, is particularly needi

‘

ul

th regard to Oriental studies which, with the exception ofHebrew, still stand outside the pale of ourschools and universities, and are cultivated by thevery smallest number of students. And yet I makebold to say that during the last hundred, and stillmore during the last fifty years

,Oriental studies

have contributed more than any other branch of

scientific research to change, to purify, to clear, andintensify the intellectual atmosphere of Europe, andto widen our horizon in all that pertains to the

Science of Man ,in history, philology, theology, and

philosophy. We have not only conquered and an

nexed new worlds to the ancient empire of learning,but we have leavened the old world with ideas that


a re already fermenting even in the daily bread of

ou r schools and universities. Most of those herep resent know that I am not exaggerating ; but as

th e world is sceptical while listening to orations pdemo, I shall attempt to make good my assertions.

At first, the study of Oriental literature was a

matter of curiosity only, and it is so still to a greatex tent, particularly in England. SirWilliam Jones,w h ose name is the only one among Oriental scholarsth at has ever obtained a real popularity in England,represents most worthily that phase of Orientalstudies . Read only the two volumes of his Life, andth ey will certainly leave on your mind the distinctimpression that Sir William Jones was not only a

m an of exten sive learning and refined taste, but un

doubtedly a very great man—One in a million . He

was a good classical scholar of the old school, a wellread historian , a thoughtful lawyer, a clear-headedpolitician , and a true gentleman ,

in the old sense ofthe word. He moved in the best—I mean the mostcultivated—society, the great writers and thinkers ofthe day listened to him with respect, and, say whatyou like, we still live by h is grace, we still draw on

that stock of general interest which he excited inthe English mind for Eastern subjects .

Yet the interest which SirWilliam Jones took inOriental literature was purely aesthetic. He chosewhat was beautiful in Persian and translated it, as

h e would translate an ode of Horace. He was

charmed with Kfilidfis a’s play of Sakuntala —and

who is not and he left us h is classical reproductionof one of the finest of Eastern gems. Being a judgein India, he thought it h is duty to acquaint himself


with the native law-books in their original language,and he gave us his mas terly translation of the

Laws of Manu .

’Sir William Jones was fully

aware of the startling similarity between San skrit,Latin , and Greek. More than a hundred years ago,in a letter written to Prince Adam Czartoryski,in the year 1770, he says : Many learned investigators of antiquity are fully persuaded that a veryold and almost primmal language was in u se amongthe northern nation s

,from which not only the Celtic

dialect, but even Greek and Latin are derived ; infact, we find era 'm

'

p and p efrnp in Persian ,nor is

Ovrycimp so far removed from dockter, or even «3qand nomen from Persian nam

,as tomake it ridiculous

to suppose that they sprang from the same root. Wemust confess,’ he adds, that these researches arevery obscure and un certain

, and, you will allow, notso agreeable as an ode of Hafez, or an elegy of

Amr’alkeis .

’In a letter, dated 1 787, he says ‘You

will be surprised at the resemblan ce between Sanskritand both Greek and Latin .

’

Colebrooke also, the great successor ofSirWilliamJones, was fully aware of the relation ship betweenSanskrit, Greek, Latin , German ,

and even Slavonic.I possess some curious MS . notes of his, of the year1801 or 1802, containing long lists of words, expressive of the most essential ideas of primitive life, andwhich he proved to be identical in Sanskrit, Greek,Latin, German ,

and Slavonic. l

These lists of common Aryan words were published in the

Academy, October 10, 1874, and are reprinted at the end of an article

On the Life of Colebrooke (Chip s from a German Workshop ,

vol. iv .


Yet n either Colebrooke nor Sir William Jonesp erceived the full import ofthese facts . SirWilliamJ ones died young ; Colebrooke

’s energies, marvellou s

a s they were, were partly absorbed by ofiicial work,so that it was left to German and French scholars tobring to light the full wealth of the mine whichth ose great English scholars had been the first toopen . We know now that in language, and in all

th at is implied by language, India and Europe are

one, but to prove this, against the incredulity of all

the greatest scholars of the day, was no easy matter.It could be done efi'ectually in one way only, viz. bygiving to Oriental studies a strictly scientific cha

racter, by requiring from Oriental students not onlythe devotion of an amateur, but the same thoroughn es s , minuteness, and critical accuracy which werelong con sidered the exclu sive property of Greek andLatin scholars . I could not think of giving here ahistory of the work done during the last fifty years .It has been admirably described in Benfey

’s History

»Of th e Scien ce of Language .’ 1 Even if I attempted

to give merely the names of those who have beenmost distinguished by really original discoveries-th e names ofBopp

,Pott,Grimm,

Burnouf, Rawlinson ,

Miklosich , Benfey, Kuhn , Zeuss, Whitley Stokes—Iam afraid my list would be considered very in

complete.But let us look at what has been achieved by

these men, and many others who followed th eirbann ers ! The East, formerly a land of dreams

, of

fables, and fairies, has become to us a land of unmis

GesohiohtederSp raehwissensohaft and M m tahschen Philologie

in M achland, von Theodor Benfey. Miinchen, 1869.


takeable reality ; the curtain between theWest andthe East has been lifted, and our old forgotten homestands before u s again in bright colours and definiteoutlines . Two worlds, separated for thousands of

years, have been reunited as by a magic spell, andwe feel rich in a past that may well be the pride ofour noble Aryan family. We say no longer vaguelyand poetically Ea: Oriente Lust , but we know thatall the most vital elements of our knowledge and

civilisation our languages, our alphabets , our

figures, our weights and measures, our art, our re

ligion , our traditions, our very nursery stories,come

to us from the East ; and we must confess that butfor the rays of Eastern light, whether Aryan orSemitic or Hamitic, that called forth the hiddengerms of the dark and drearyWest, Europe, now thevery light of the world

,might have remained for

ever a barren and forgotten promontory of th e primeval Asiatic continent . We live, indeed, in a new

world ; the barrier between theWest and the East,that seemed insurmountable

,has vanished. The

East is ours, we are its heirs, and claim by right ourshare in its inheritance.We know what it was for the Northern nations,

the old barbarians of Europe, to be brought intospiritual contact with Rome and Greece, and to learnthat beyond the small, poor world in which they hadmoved, there was an older, richer, brighter world, .

the ancient world ofRome and Athens, with its artsand laws, its poetry and philosophy, all of whichthey might call; their own and make their own byclaiming the heritage of the past. We know how , .

from that time, the Classical and Teutonic spirits

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join


e xplicable, it does not call for an explanation . But

as soon as the same fact is repeated, the work of

comparison begin s, and the first step is made in thatwonderful process which we call generalisation , and

which is at the root of all intellectual knowledgeandof all intellectual language. This primitive process of comparison is repeated again and again , and

when we now give the title of Comp arative to the

highest kindof knowledge in every branch of science,we have only replaced the old word intelligent (i.einterligent) or inter-twining, by a new and moreexpressive term, comp arative. I shall say nothingabout the complete revolution of the study of Ian

guages bymean s of the comparative method, for here1 can appeal to su ch names as Mommsen and Curtius,to show that the best among classical scholars are

th emselves themost ready to acknowledge the importance of the results obtained by the intertwining of

Eastern andWestern philology.But take mythology. As long as we had only

the mythology of the classical nations to deal with,we looked upon it simply as strange, anomalous, andirrational. Wh en , however, the same strange stories,the same hallucinations, turned up in the mostancient mythology of India, when not only the cha

racter and achievements, but the very names of someof the gods and heroes were found to be the same,then every thoughtful observer saw that there mustbe a system in that ancient madness, that theremust be some order in that strange mob of gods andh eroes, and that it mu st be the task of comparativemythology to find out what reas on there is in all

that mass of unreas on .

CONGRESS or ORIENTALISTS. 13‘

The same comparative method has been appliedto the study of religion also. All religions are

Oriental, and, with the exception of the Christian

,

th eir sacred books are all written in Oriental languages. The materials, therefore, for a. comparativestudy of the religious sysmms of the world had

all to be supplied by Oriental scholars . But far

m ore important than those materials is the spirit inw hich they have been treated. The sacred books ofth e principal religions of mankind had to be placedside by side with perfect impartiality

,in order to

discern the points which they share in common as

w ell as those that are peculiar to each. The resultsalready obtained by this simple juxtaposition are full

of important lesson s, and the fact that the truth s onwhich all religion s agree far exceed those on whichthey differ, has hardly, as yet, been sufficiently appreciated. I feel convinced, however, that the time willcome when those who at present profess to be mostdisquieted by our studies will be the most grateful forour support—for having shown by evidence whichcan not be controverted, that all religions spring fromthe same sacred soil, the human heart ; that all arequ ickened by the same divine spirit, the still small

v oice ; and that, though the outward forms of religion may change, may wither and decay, yet, as longas man is what he is and what he has been ,

he willpostulate again and again the Infinite as the verycondition of the Finite, he will yearn for somethingwhich the world cannot give, he will feel his weaknessand dependence, and in that weakness and dependence dis cover the deepest sources of his hope, and.

trust, and strength.


A patient study of the sacred scriptures of thew orld is what is wanted at present more than any

thing else in order to clear our own ideas of theorigin , the nature; the purposes of religion . Therecan be no science of one religion , but there can be a.science of many.

»We have learnt already one lesson ,

that behind the helpless expressions which languagehas devised, whether in the East or in theWest, foruttering the unutterable, be it Dyau sh p ita orA hu rama zda, be it Jehovah or Allah, be it theAll or the Nothing, be it the First Cause or OurFather in heaven , there is the same intention , thesame striving, the same stammering, the same faith.

Other lessons will follow, till in the end we shall beable to restore that ancient bond which unites, notonly the East with theWest, but all the members ofthehuman family, andmay learn to understandwhata Persian poet meant when he wrote many centuriesago (I quote from Mr. Conway’s Sacred Anthology),Diversity of worship has divided the human raceinto seventy-two nations . From among all theirdogmas I have selected one—the Love of God.

’

Nor is this comparative Spirit restricted to thetreatment of language, mythology, and religion .

While hith erto we knew the origin and spreading of

most of the ancient arts and sciences in one channelonly, andhad to be satisfiedwith tracing their sourcestoGreece andRome,and thencedown themain streamof European civilisation ,

we have now for many ofthem one or two parallel histories in India and in

China. The history of geometry, for instance—thefirst formation of geometrical conceptions or/techn i

cal terms was hitherto known to u s from Greece

OONGRESS or OBIENTALISTS. 15

o nly now we can compare the gradual elaborationo f geometrical principles both in Greece and India,a nd thus arrive at some idea of what is natural orin evitable, and what is accidental or purely personalin each. It was known , for instance, that in Greecet h e calculation of solid figures began with the building of altars, and you will hear tod ay from Dr.

Thibaut, that in India also the first impulse to geom etric science was given ,

not by the measuring of

fields, as the name implies, but by the minute Obsorv ances in building altars.

Similar coincidences and divergences have beenbrought to light by a comparative study of the history of as tronomy, of music, of grammar, but, mostof all, by a comparative study of philosophic thought.There are, indeed, few problems in philosophy whichh ave not occupied the Indian mind, and nothing can

exceed the interest of watching the Hindu and the

G reek, working on the same problems,each in his

own way, yet both in the end arriving at much thesame results. Such are the coincidences between thetwo that but lately an eminent German professor ‘

p ublish ed a treatise to Show that the Greeks hadborrowed their philosophy from India, while otherslean to the Opinion that in philosophy theHindu s areth e pupils of the Greeks. This is the same feelingwhich impelled Dugald Stewart, when he saw the

s triking Similarity between Greek and Sanskrit, tomaintain -that San skrit mu st have been put togetherafter th e model of Greek and Latin by those archforgers and liars, the Brahmans , and that the whole

Ari stotelec’ Metap hysik, eine Tochter de'r Stinkhya

-Lehre do:

Kap ila ,von Dr. C. B. Sch liiter. 1874.


of Sanskrit literature was an imposition . The com

parative method has put an end to such violenttheories. It teaches u s that what is possible in one

country is possible also in another ; it shows us that,as there are antecedents for Plato and Aristotle inGreece, there are antecedents for the Vedanta and

Sankhya philosophies in India, and that each had itsown independent growth. It is true, that when we

first meet in Indian philosophy with our Old friends,~the four or five elements, the atoms, ourmetaphysics,our logic, our syllogism, we are startled ; but we soondiscover that, given the human mind and humanlanguage, and the world by which we are surrounded, .

the difi'

erent systems Of philosophy of Thales and

Hegel, ofVyasa and Kapila, are inevitable solution s.They all come and go, they are maintain ed and t e

futed, till at last all philosophy ends where it oughtto begin , with an inquiry into the necessary condition s and the inevitable forms of knowledge, represented by a criticism of Pure Reason, and, what ismore important still, by a criticism of Language .Much has been done of late forIndian philosophy,

particularly by Ballantyn e and Hall, by Cowell andGough, by the editors Of the Bibliotheca Indica,’

and the Pandit.’ Yet it is much to be desired that .

some young scholars, well versed in the history of

European philosophy, should devote themselves moreardently to this promising branch of Indian literature. No doubt, they would find it a great help ifthey were able to Spend some years in India

, in order '

to learn from the last and fast-disappearing repre

sentatives of some of the old schools of Indian

philosophy what they alone can teach. What can be

CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS. 17

done by such a combination of Eastern andWesternkn owledge has lately been shown by the excellentwork done byDr. Kielhorn , the Professor of Sanskri tat the Deccan College in Punah. But there is now

so much of published materials, and Sanskrit MSS .

also are SO eas ily Obtained from India, that muchmight be done in England,or in France,or inGermany—mu ch that would be of interest not only to Orien talscholars, but to all philosophers whose powers of independent appreciation are not entirely blunted bytheir study ofPlato andAristotle, of Berkeley, Hume,and Kant.

I have SO far dwelt chiefly on the powerful influence which the East, and more particularly India,h as exercised on the intellectual life and work of

theWest. But the progress Of Oriental scholarshipin Europe, and the discovery of that spiritual relation ship which binds India and England together,have lik ewise producedpractical efi'ects ofthe greatestmoment in the East. The H indu s in their first intercourse with English scholars, placed before themthe treasures of their native literature with all th en atu ral pride of a nation that considered itself theoldest, the wisest, themost enlightened nation in thew orld. For a h e, but for a Short time only, theclaims of their literature to a fabulous antiquity wereadmitted, and, dazzled by the unexpected discoveryof a new classical literature, people raved about thebeauty of Sanskrit poetry in truly Oriental strains .Then followed a sudden reaction

, and the nativesth emselves, on becoming more and more acquaintedwith European history and literature, began to feelthe childishn ess of their claims, and to be almostVOL. 11. 0

1 8 ADDRESS AT THE INTERNATIONAL

ashamed of their own classics. This was a nationalmisfortune. A people that can feel no pride in thep ast, in its history and literature, loses the main stayof its national character. Wh en Germany was inthe very depth of its political degradation ,

it turnedto its ancient literature, and drew hope for th e

future from th e study of the past. Something of

the same kind is now passing in India. A new

taste, not without some political in gredients, hasSprung up for the ancient literature of the country ;a more intelligent appreciation of their real meritshas taken the place of the extravagant admirationfor the masterworks Of their old poets ; there is a

revival in the study Of San skrit, a surprising activityin the republication of Sanskrit texts, and there aretraces among the H indus Of a growing feeling, notvery different from that which Tacitus describedwhen he said of the German s : Wh o would go toGermany, a country without natural beauty, witha wretched climate, miserable to cultivate or to lookat—i mless it be hisfatherla'ndEven the discovery that San skrit, English, Greek,

and Latin are cognate languages has . not beenw ithout its influence on the scholars and thinkers

,

o n the leaders Of public opinion ,in India . They

more than others had felt for a time most keenlythe intellectual superiority Of theWest, and theyrose again in their own estimation by learning that,physically or, what is better still, intellectually, theyhad been andmight be again the peers of Greeks andRoman s and Saxons . These silent influences oftenescape the eye of the politician and the historian ,



most excellent service in the publication s of the

A siatic Society at Calcutta, and he discusses thetheories of European Orientalists with all the easeandgrace of an English reviewer. The Rajah ofBesmah , Giriprasfida

-sinha,has just finishedhis magnifi

cent edition ofthe White Yajur-veda.

’The Sanskrit

books published at Calcutta by Taranatha and othersform a complete library, and Taranatha’s new Dic

tionary of the Sanskrit Language will prove mostuseful and valuable. The editions of San skrit textspublished at Bombay by Professor Bhfindarkar, byShankar Pandurang Pandit, and others, need not

fear comparison with the best work of Europeanscholars . There is a school Of native students atBenares whose publication s, under the auspices of

Mr. Griflith , have made their journal, the Pandit

,

’

indispen sable to every Sanskrit scholar. Rajaramasfistri

’

s and Balasastri’s edition of th e Mahabhfis hya

’

h as received the highest praise from Europeanstudents . In the Antiquary,’ a paper very ablycondu cted by Mr. Burgess, we meet with contribu

tions from several learned natives, among them fromh is H ighness the Prince of Travancore

, from RamDass Sen, the Zemindar of Berhampore, from Kashinath Trimbak Telang, from Sashagirisfis tri, and

others , which are read with the greatest interestand advantage by European scholars . The collectedessays of Ram Dass Sen well deserve a translationinto English, and Rajan ikanta

’s Life of the poet

Jajadeva,’ ju st published, bears witness to the same

revival of literary tastes and patriotic feelings.Besides this purely literary movement, th ere is a

religious movement going on in India, the Brahmo

CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS. 21

s amaj, which, both in its origin and its later developm ent, is mainly the result of European influences .

It began with an attempt to bring the moderncorrupt forms of worship back to the purity and

simplicity of the Vedas ; and by ascribing to the

Veda the authority of a Divine Revelation , it wash oped to secure that infallible authority withoutwhich no religion was supposed to be possible. Howwas that movement stopped, and turned into a new

ch annel ? Simply by the publication of the Veda,an d by the works of European scholars, such as

Steven son, Mill, Rosen , Wilson , and others, whoSh owed to the natives what the Veda really was, andm ade th em see the folly of their way.

1 Thus thereligion , the literature, the whole character of thepeople of India are becoming more and more IndoEuropean . They work for u s

,as we work for them.

Many a letter have I received from native scholarsin which they express their admiration for the wonderful achievements of European ingenuity, for railw ays , and telegraphs, and all the rest : and yet what,according to their own confession , has startled themand delighted them most

, is the interest we havetaken in their literature, and the new life which weh ave imparted to their ancient history. I knowth ese matters seem small, when we are near to them,

w hen we are in the very m idst of them . Like thetangled threads hanging on a loom

,they look worth

less, purposeless. But history weaves her woof out

o f all of them , and after a time, when we see the fulland finished design , we perceive that no colour,h owever quiet, could have been dropped, no shade,

See note B, p . 42.


however slight, could have been missed,without

Spoiling the whole.And now ,

after having given this account of our

stewardship, let me say in conclus ion a few words Onthe claims which Oriental studies have on publicsympathy and support.

Let me begin with the Universities—I mean of

course the English Universities—and more particularly that University which has been to me for manyyears an Alma Mater

, Oxford. While we have there,or are foundingthere, professorships for every branchof Theology, Jurisprudence, and Physical Science,we have hardly any provision for the study of Oriental languages. We have a Chair of Hebrew, ren

dered illustrious by the greatest living theologian of

England, and we have a Chair of Sanskrit, whichhas left its mark in the history of Sanskrit literature but for the modern languages ofIndia, whetherAryan or Dravidian ,

for the language and literatureof Persia, both ancient andmodem ,

for the languageand antiquities of Egypt and Babylon ,

for Chinese,‘

for Turkish, nay even for Arabic, there is nothingdeserving the name of a Chair. When , in a Reporton University Reform, I ventured to point out thesegaps , and to remark that in the smallest of GermanUniversities most of these subjects were representedby professors, I was asked whether I was in earnestin maintaining that Oxford, the first University inwhat has rightly been called the greatest OrientalEmpire, ought really to support the study of Orientallanguages .

1 A Chair of Chinese has since been founded, and is now worthily

occupied by Professor Legge.

CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS . 23

The second claim we prefer is on the MissionaryS ocieties. I have lately incurred very severe oh

loquy formy supposed hostility to missionary enterp rise . All I can say is, I wish that there were tenmissionaries for every one we have now . I have al

w ays counted missionaries among my best friends ;I have again and again acknowledged how muchOriental studies and linguistic studies in generalowe to them , and I am proud to say that, even now,

while missionaries at home have abused me in un

meas ured terms, missionaries abroad—devoted, hardworking missionaries—have thanked me for what Isaid of them and their work in my lay

-sermon inWestm inster Abbey last December.Now, it seems to me that, first of all, our Univer

sities, and I think again chiefly of Oxford, might domuch more for missions than they do at present.If we had a suflicient staff of professors for Easternlanguages , we could prepare young missionaries fortheir work, and should be able to send out from time

to time such men as Patteson, the Bishop of Melanesia, who was every inch an Oxford man . And in

th ese missionaries we might have, not only apostlesof religion and civilisation , but at the same time

th e most valuable pioneers of scientific research. I

kn ow there are some authorities at home who declareth at su ch a combination is impossible

, or at leastundesirable ; that a man cannot serve two masters

,

and that a missionary must do his own work and

nothing else. Nothing, I believe, can be more mistaken . First of all

, some of our most efficient missionaries have been those who have don e also themost excellentwork as scholars, andwhenever I have


conversed on this subject with missionaries who haveseen active service

,they all agree that they cannot

be converting all day long, and that nothing is morerefreshing and invigorating to them than some literary or scientific work. Now ,

what I should like tosee is th is I should like to see ten or twenty of ournon-resident fellowships

,which at present are doing

more harm than good, assigned to missionary work,to be given to young men who have taken their degree, and who

,whether laymen or clergymen ,

are

willing to work as assistant missionaries on distants tation s, with the distinct understanding that theyshould devote some of their time to scientific work,whether the study of languages, or flowers, or stars,and that they should send home every year someaccoun t Of their labours . These men would be likes cientific consuls, to whom students at home mightapply for information and help . They would haveOpportunities of distinguishing themselves by reallyuseful work, far more than in London , and after tenyears they might either return to Europe with a

well-established reputation , or if they find that theyhave a real call formissionary work

, devote all theirlife to it. Though to my own mind there is no noblerwork than that done bymissionaries, yet Ibelieve th atsome such connection with the Universities and menof science would raise their position

,would call out,

more general interest, and secure to the missionarycause the good-will of those whose will is apt to become law .

Thirdly, Ithink that Oriental studies have a claimon the colonies and the colonial Governments . The

English colonies are scattered all over the globe, and


m any of them in localities where an immense dealof u seful scientific work might be done, and wouldb e done with the slightest encouragement from the

local authorities, and something like a systematicsup ervision on the part oftheColonial Oflice at home.'

Some years ago I ventured to address the ColonialSecretary of State on this subject, and a letter wass ent out in consequence to all the English colonies,inviting information on the languages, monuments,customs and traditions of the native races. Somemost valuable reports have been sent home duringthe las t five or Six years

,but when it was suggested

that these reports Should be published in a perma

n ent form, the expense that would have been requiredfor printing every year a volume ofColonial Reports,and which would not have amounted to more thana few hundred pounds for all the colonies of the

British Empire,part of it to be recovered by the sale

Of the book, was considered too large.Now, we should bear in mind that at the present

moment some of the tribes living in or near theEnglish colonies in Au stralia, Polynesia, Africa, andAmerica are actually dying out, their languages aredisappearing, their customs, tradition s, and religions,will soon be completely swept away. To the studentOf language thedialect of a savage tribe is as valuableas Sanskrit or Hebrew

,nay, for the solution of cer

tain problems, more so ; every one of these languagesis the growth of thousands and thousands of years,the workmanship of millions and millions of humanbeings . If they were now

'preserved, they mighthereafter fill the most critical gaps in the history ofthe human race. AtRome at the time of the Scipios,


hundreds of people might have written down a grammar and dictionary of the Etruscan language, of

Oscan , or Umbrian ; but there were men then, as

there are now,who shrugged their shoulders and

s aid, What can be the u se of preserving these barbarous, uncouth idioms —What would we not givenow for some such records ‘9And this is not all. The study of savage tribes

has assumed a new interest of late, when the questionof the exact relation ofman to the rest of the animal

kingdom has again roused the passion s not only ofscientific inquirers

, but also of the public at large .Now, what is wanted for the solution Of this questionare more facts and fewer theories, and these factscan only be gained by a patient study of the lowestraces of mankind. When religion was held to bethe Specific character of man, it was asserted bymany travellers that they had seen races without anyreligious ideas ; when language was seen to be thereal frontier line between man and beast, it wasmaintained that there were human beings withoutlanguage. Now,

all we want to know are facts, letthe conclusions be whatever they may. It is by nomean s easy to decidewhether savage tribes have a.

religion or not ; at all events it requires the same discernment, and the same honesty of purpose as to findout whether

,men of the highest intellect among us

have a religion or not. I call the Introduction to

Spencer’s First Principles deeply religious, but I canwell understand that a missionaryreporting on a

tribe of Spencerian savages might declare that theyhad no idea whatsoever of religion . Looking at a.

report sent home lately by the indefatigable Governor



I tried to induce the Government ofCeylon to send a

competent man to settle the question . I did not re

ceive all Iwanted, and therefore postponed the publication of what was sent me. But I may say so

much,that more than half of the words used by the

Veddahs are, like Singhalese itself, mere corruption sof San skrit ; their very name is the Sanskri t wordfor hunter

,veddha, or as Mr. Childers supposes ,

v yadh a. There is a remn ant of words in their language of which I can make nothing as yet. But so

much is certain : either theVeddahs startedwith thecommon inheritance of Aryan words and ideas ; or,at all events, they lived for a long time in contactwithAryan people, and adopted from them such wordsas were wanting in their language. If they now

stand low in the scale of humanity, they once stoodhigher, nay they may possibly prove, in language,if not in blood, the distant cousins of Plato, and

Newton,and Goethe.

It is most e ssential to keep la carriere ouverte for

facts, even more than for theories, andfor the supplyOf such facts the Colonial Government might rendermost u seful service.It is but right to state that whenever I have ap

plied to the Governors Of any of the Colonies I haveinvariably met with the greatest kindness and readi

ness to help. Some of them take the warmestinterest in these researches. Sir George Grey

’s ser

vices to the science of language have hardly beensufficiently appreciated as yet, and the LinguisticLibrary which he founded at the Cape, places himof right by the Side of Sir Thomas Bodley. Sir

Hercules Robinson , Mr. Musgrave in South Australia, Sir Henry Barkley at the Cape, and several


oth ers, are quite aware of the importance of linguistican d ethn ological researches . What is wanted is

en couragement from home, and some systematicgu idance . Dr. Bleek, the excellent librarian of Sir

G eorge Grey’ s Library at the Cape, who has devoted

th e whole of his life to the study of savage dialectsand whose Comparative Grammar of the SouthA frican languages will hold its place by the Side

of Bopp’s, Diez’S, and Caldwell’s Comparative Gramm ars, is most anxious that there Should be a perman ent linguistic and ethnological station establishedat the Cape ; in fact, that there should be a linguistattached to every zoological station . At the Capeth ere are not only the Zulu dialects to be studied,b u t two most important languages, that of the Hot

tentots and that of the Bushmen . Dr. Bleek has

lately been enabled to write down several volumes oftraditional literature from the mouths of some Bushm an prisoners, but he says, ‘my powers andmy life aredrawing to an end, and unless Ihave some youngmento assistme, and carry on my work, much of what Ih ave done will be lost.’ There is no time to be lost

,

and Itru st, therefore, that my appeal will not be considered importunate by the presentColonialMinister. ‘Last of all, we turn to India, the very cradle of

Oriental scholarship, and here, in stead of being importunate and urging new claims for assistance

, I

think I am expressing the feelings of all Orientalscholars in publicly acknowledging the readiness withwhich the Indian Government, whether at home orin India, whether during the days of the Old East

Dr. Bleek has sincedied and though therehas been much

delay, there is reason to hOpe that a competent successorwill soon be

‘


India Company,or now under the auspices of the

Secretary of State, has always assisted every enterprise tending to throw light on the literature

,the

religion , the laws and customs, the arts and manu

factures of that ancient Oriental Empire.Only last n ight I received the first volume of a.

work which will mark a new era in the history ofO riental typography. Three valuable MSS. of the

Mahabhashya have been photolithographed at the

expense of the Indian Government, and under thesupervision ofone whom many of us will miss hereto-day, the late Professor Goldstiicker. It is a mag

nificent publication , and as there are only fifty Oopiesprinted, it will soon become more valuable than a

There are two surveys carried on at the presentmoment in India, a. literary, and an archaeologicalsurvey. Many years ago, when Lord Elgin went toIndia as Governor-General, I suggested to him the

necessity of taking measures in order to rescue fromdestruction whatever could still be rescued of the

ancient literature of the country. Lord Elgin diedbefore any active measures could be taken

,but the

p lan found a more powerful advocate in Mr. WhitleyStokes, who urged the Government to appoint someSanskrit scholars to visit all places containing colleetions of Sanskrit MSS.

, and to publish lists of theirtitles, SO that we might know, at all events, howmuch of a literature that had been preserved forthousands of years was still in existence at the

present moment. This work was confided to Dr.

Biihler, Dr. Kielhorn , Mr.Burnell, RajendralalMitra,

and others . Several of their catalogues have been


p u blished, and there is but one feeling among all

S an skrit scholars as to the value of their work. But

th ey also feel that the time h as come for doing more.Th e mere titles of the MSS. whet our appetite, butd o not satisfy it. There are, of course, hundreds ofbooks where the title, the name of the author, thelocus et annns are allwe care to know. But of booksw h ich are scarce, and hitherto not known out of

In dia, we want to know more . We want some information Of the subject and its treatment

, and, if

p ossible, of the date Of the author, andof thewritersqu oted by him . We want extracts, intelligentlych osen : in fact, we want something like the excellentcatalogue which Dr. Aufrech t has made for theBodleian Library. In Mr. Burnell, Dr. Biihler

,Dr.

K ielhorn , the Government possesses scholars whocould do that work admirably ; what they want ism ore leisure, more funds, more assistance.

Contemporaneously with the Literary Survey,

th ere is the Archaeological Survey, carried on by thatgallant and indefatigable scholar, General Cunningh am . H is published reports Show the systematicprogress of his work, and his occasional communica

tion s in the Journal of the Asiatic Society ofBengaltell us of his newest discoveries . The very lastn umber of that journal brought us the news of thediscovery Of the wonderful ruins Of the Buddhisttemple ofBharahut, lwhich,with their representationsof scenes from the early Buddhist literature, withtheir inscription s and arch itectural style, may enableu s to find a terminu s aque for the literary and religions history of India . Nor Should we forget the

Academy, August 1 , 1874.


services which Mr. Fergusson has rendered to thehistory of Indian architecture, both by awakeningan interest in the subject, and by the magnificent.publication of the drawin gs of the sculptures of

Sanchi and Amravati, carried on under the authorityof the Secretary of State for India. Let us hOpe

that these new discoveries may supply him withmaterials foranother volume,worthyofits companion .

It was supposed for a time that there was a thirdsurvey carried on in India, ethnological and lin

guistic, and the volume publishedby Colonel Dalton ,Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal,

’ with portraitsfrom photographs, was a most excellent beginning.

But the other Indian Governments have not hithertofollowed the example oftheBengal Government, andnothing has of late come to my knowledge in thisimportant lin e of research. Would not Dr. Hunter,who has done so much for a scientific study of the

non-Aryan languages and races of India, take up thisimportant branch of research, and give us, not onlyphotographs and graphic description, but also, whatis most wanted, scholare grammars of the principalraces of India 2 Lists of words, if carefully chosen,like those in Colonel Dalton ’s work and in SirGeorgeCampbell’s Specimen s, ’ are, no doubt, most valuablefor preliminary researches, but without grammarsnone of the great qu estions which are still pendingin Indian Ethnology will ever be satisfactorily anddefinitely settled. NO real advance has been madein the classification ofIndian dialects since the timewhen I endeavoured, some twenty years ago, to sum

up what was then known on that subject, in my

letter to Bunsen On theTuranian Languages .

’ Wh at


I then for the first time ventured to maintain againstth e highest authorities in Indian linguistic ethnology,v iz . that the dialects of the Mundas or the Kolescon stituted a third and totally independent class oflan guages in India, related neither to the Aryan nor

to the Dravidian families, has Since been fully con

fi rmed by later researches, and is now, I believe,generally accepted. The fact, also, on which I thenstrongly insisted, that theUraon Koles, andRajmahalK oles, might be Koles in blood, but certainly not in

language—their language being, like that of the

Gonds, Dravidian— is now no longer disputed. But

beyond this, all is still as hypothetical as it was

tw enty years ago, Simply because we can get no

grammars of the Munda dialects. Why do not the

German missionaries at Ranchi, who have done suchexcellent work among the Koles, publish a grammatical analysis ofthat interesting cluster ofdialects?Only a week ago, one of them, Mr. Jellinghaus, gaveme a grammatical sketch of the Mundari language,and even this, short as it is, was quite suflicient tosh ow that the supposed relationship between the

Munda dialects and the Khasia language, of whichw e have a grammar, is untenable . The similaritiespointed out by Mason between the Munda dialectsand the Talaing of Pegu are certainly startling, butequally startling are the divergences and here againno real result will be obtained without a comparisonof the grammatical structure of the two languages.The other classes of Indian languages, the Taio, theGangetic, subdivided in to Tran s-Himalayan and Sub

H imalayan , the Lohitic, and Tamulic, are still re

tained, th ough some of their names have beenVOL . II. D


changed. Without wishing to defend the names

which Ihad chosen forthese classes, Imust say that Ilook upon the constant in troduction of new technical

terms as an unmix ed evil. Every classificatory termis imperfect. Aryan , Semitic, Hamitic, Turan ian, allare imperfect, but, if they are but rightly defined,they can do no harm, whereas a. new term,

howeversuperior at first sight, always makes confusion worseconfounded. The chemists do not hesitate to call

sugar an acid rather t han part with an old-establishedt6rm ; why Should not we in the science of language

follow their good example PDr. Leitner

’s labours in Dardistan should here

be mentioned. They date from the year 1866. Con

sidering the shortness Of th e time allotted to him forexploring that country, he has been most successfulin collecting his linguistic materials . We owe hima vocabulary of two Shinadialects (theGhilghitiandAstori), and of the Arnyia, the Khayuna, and the

Kalasha-Mander. These vocabularies are so arrangedas to give us a fair idea of the systems of conjugationand declension . Other vocabularies, arranged ac

cording to subjects , allow us an in sight into the intellectual life of the Shinas, andwe also receive mostinteresting information on the customs, legends,superstitions, and religion of the Dardus Some ofthe important results obtained by the same enterprising scholar in his excavation s on theTakht-i-bahaihills will be laid before the Archwological Sectionof this Congress. It is impossible to look at the

Buddhist sculptures which he has brought homewithout perceiving that there is in th em a foreignelement. They are Buddhist scu lptures, but theydiffer both in treatment and expression from what



the Old East India Company and of the presen tSecretary of State for India in Coun cil, for havingenabled me to publish that work the last sheet of

which I am able to present to this Meeting tod ay ,

the Rig-Veda,with the Commentary ofSayanakarya .

’

It is the oldest book of the Aryan world, but it isalso one of the largest, and its publication wouldhave been simply impossible without the enlightened;liberality of the Indian Government. For twentyfive years I find that, taking the large and small!editions Of the Rig

-Veda together, I have printed.every year what would make a volume of about six

hundred pages octavo. Such a publication wouldhave m ined any bookseller, for it must he confessedthat there is little that is attractive in the Veda,nothing that could excite general in terest. From an »

aesthetic point of view,no one would care for the

hymn s of the Rig-Veda, and I can well understandhow

,in the beginning of our century, even so dis

criminating a scholar as Colebrooke could exp resshis Opinion that, The Vedas are too voluminou s fora complete translation , and what they contain wouldhardly reward the labour of the reader, much less .

that of the translator. The ancient dialect in whichthey are composed, and specially that of the threefirst Vedas, is extremely difiicult and obscure ; and

though curiou s, as the parent of a more polished and

refined language, its difficulties mu st long continueto prevent such an examination of the whole Vedasas would be requisite for extracting all that is re

markable and important in those voluminous works.But they well deserve to be Occasionally consultedby the Oriental scholar.’ Nothing Shows the change


from the purely aesthetic to the purely scientificinterest in the language and literature of India moreclearly than the fact that for the last twenty-fiveyears the work of nearly all Sanskrit scholars hasbeen con centrated on the Veda. When some thirtyyears ago I received my first lesson s in Sanskritfrom Professor Brockhaus, whom I am happy and

proud to see to-day among u s,there were but few

students who ventured to dive into the depths ofVedic literature. To-dayamong the San skrit scholarswhom Germany has Sent to u S—Professors Stenzler,Spiegel, Weber, Haug, Pertsch , Windisch—there isnot one who has not won his laurels on the field of

Vedic scholarship. In France also a new school ofSanskrit students has sprung up who have donemost excellent work for the interpretation of the

Veda, andwho bid fair to rival the glorious school ofFrench Orientalists at the beginning of this century, both by their persevering industry and by that‘sweetness and light which seems to be thebirthrightof their nation . But

,I say again ,

there is little thatis beautiful, in our sense of the word, to be found inthe hymns of the Rig-Veda, and what little there ishas been so Often dwelt on that quite an erroneou simpression as to the real nature of Vedic poetry hasbeen produced in the mind of the public. My Oldfriend, the Dean of St. Paul

’s,for instance, in some

thoughtful lectures which he delivered this year onthe ‘Sacred Poetry of Early Religion s,

’has instituted

a comparison between the Psalms and the hymns oftheVeda, and he arrives at the conclusion that thePsalms are superior to the Vedic hymns . NO doubtthey are, from the point of view which he has chosen ,


but the chief value of these hymn s lies in the .fact ~

that they are so different from the Psalms, or, if youlike, that they are SO inferior to the Psalms. Theyare Aryan, the Psalms, Semitic ; they belong to a

primitive and rude state of society, the Psalm s, at

least most of them , are contemporaneous with or

even later than the heydays of the Jewishmonarchy.This strange misconception of the true character of

theVedic hymns seemed to me to become so generalthat when some years ago I had to publish the firstvolume of my tran slation , I intentionally selected a

class of hymns which should in no way encouragesuch erron eous opinions . It was interesting to watchthe disappointment. What ! it was said, are thesestrange, savage, grotesque invocations of the Stormgods, the in spired strain s of the ancient sages of

India ? IS this the wisdom of the East P IS this .

the primeval revelation P Even scholars of high re

putation joined in the outcry, and my fi'iends hintedto me that they would not have wasted their life onsuch a book.

Now,suppose a geologist had brought to light the

bones Of a fossil animal,dating from a period an te

rior to any in which traces Of animal life had beendiscovered before, would any young lady venture tosay by way of criticism , Yes, these bones are verycurious, but they are not pretty P Or suppose a new

Egyptian statue had been discovered, belonging to a

dynasty hitherto unrepresented by any statues , wouldeven a schoolboy dare to say, Yes, it is very nice,but theVenu s ofMilo is n icer P Or suppose an old

MS . is brought to Europe, do we find fault with it .

because it is not n eatly printedP If a chemist dis

CONGRESS or onmNTAmsTs . 39

covers a new element, is he pitied becau se it is not

gold If a botanist writes on germs, has he todefend himself because he does notwrite on flowersWhy, it is simply because the Veda is so differentfrom what it was expected to be, because it is not

like the Psalms, not like Pindar, not like the Bhaga.

vadgita; it is becau se it stands alone by itself, andreveals to us the earliest germs of religious thought,such as they really were ; it is becau se it places before u s a language more primitive than any we knewbefore it is becau se its poetry is what you may callsavage, uncouth, rude, horrible—it is for that veryreason that itwas worth while to dig and dig till the

old bu ried city was recovered, showing us what man

was , what we were, before we had reached the levelof David, the level of Homer, the level of Zoroaster,showing u s the very cradle of our thoughts, our

words, and our deeds . I am not disappointed withthe Veda, and I shall conclude my address with thelast verses of the last hymn

, which you have now inyour hands—verses which thousands of years agomay have been addressed to a similar meeting of

Aryan fellow-men , and which are not inappropriateto our own

Sam gakkhadhvam sam vadadhvam sam vah manamsi

ganatam,

Devfih bhagam yathapi‘

irve l samgdnfinfifh upfisate.

Samanak mantrah samitih samani'

samfinam manah

sahé.kittam esham,

Samanam mantram abhi mantraye vah samanéna vah

havishfi.guhomi.

Samani’

vah akfitih samanfifhridayani vah,

I read ya th ap firv e as one word.

ADDRESS AT THE INTERNATIONAL, ETC.

Samanam astu vah manah yathavah sfisaha asati.

Come together ! Speak together ! Let yourminds be concordant—the gods by being concordantreceive their share, one after the other. Their wordis the same, their coun sel is the same, their mind isthe same, their thoughts are at one ; I address toyou the same word, I worship you with the samesacrifice. Let your endeavour be the same ! Let

your hearts be the same ! Let your mind be thesame

,that it may gowell with you .

’

N O TE S .

NOTE A .

IN the Indian Mirror,’

published at Calcutta, September

2 0, 1874, a native writer gave u tterance almost at the

s ame time to the same feelings

When thedominion passed from theMogul tothehands

o f Englishmen , the latter regarded the natives as little

better than niggers , having a civilisation perhaps a shade

better than that of the barbarians . The gulfwas wide

between the conquerors and the conquered. Therewas

no affection to lessen the distance between the two races .

The discovery of Sanskrit entirely revolutionised thecourse of thought and speculations . It served as the open

sesame to many hidden treasures . It was then that the

position of India in the scale of civilisation was distinctlya pprehended. It was then that our relations with the

advanced nations ofthe worldwere fully realis ed. Wewere

niggers at one timc. We now become brethren . The

adv ent of the English found u s a nation low sunk in the

m ire of superstitions , ignorance, and political servitude.

Th e advent of scholars like SirWilliam Jones found us

fully established in a rank above that of every nation , as

that from which modern civilisation could be distinctlytraced. Itwould be interesting to contemplatewhat would

have been our position if the science of philology had not

been discovered. It was only when the labour of

s cholars brought to light the treasures of our antiquity thatthey perceived how near we were to their races in almost

42 NOTES .

all things that they held dear in their life. It was then

that our claims on their affection and regard were firs t

established. As Hindus we ought never to forget th e

labour of scholars . We owe them our life as a nation,ou r

freedom as a recognised society, and our position in th e

scale of races . It is the fashion with many to decry th e

labours of those men as dry , unprofitable, and dreamy. W e

should know that it is to the study of the roots and inflec

tions of the Sanskrit language that we owe our national

salvation . Within a v ery few years after the discoveryof Sanskrit, a revolution took place in the history of com

parative science. Never w ere so many discoveries madeat once, and from the Speculations of learned scholars lik e

the dawnings of many truths are even now visible tothe world. Comparative mythology and comparativ e

religion are new terms altogether in the world. W e

say again that India has no reason to forget the services of“

scholars .

NOTE B.

THE following letter addressed by me to the Academy

Oct. 17, 1874, p . 433, gives the reasons for this statement

I was aware of the mission of the four young Brah

mans sent to Benares in 1845, to copy out and study th e

four Vedas respectively. I had read of it las t in the

Historical Sketch of the Brahmo Samaj ,” which Mis s

Collet had the kindness to send me. But what I said in

my address before the Oriental Congress referred to earlier

times . That mission in 1845 was, in fact, the last result

of much previous discu ssion , which gradually weakened

and destroyed in the mind of Ram Mohun Roy and his

followers their traditional faith in the Divine origin of

the Vedas . At first Ram Mohun Roy met the arguments

of his English friends by simply saying, If you claim a.


44 NOTES.

but a genuine native piece of music. I listenedquietly,but when it was over, I told him that it seemed strange to

me how one who could appreciate Italian and German

m usic could find any pleas ure in what sounded to me likemorenoise, withoutmelody, rhythm , orharmony. h,

”he

s aid, that is exactly like you Europeans ! When I firsth eard your Italian and German music I disliked it : it was

no music to me at all. But I persevered, I became accu s.tomed to it

,I found out what was good in it, and now I

am able to cujoy.

it. But you despise whatever is strange

to you , whether 1n mu sic, or philosophy, or religion ; you

will not listen and learn, and we shall understandyou much

sooner than you will understand us .

In our conversation s on the Vedas he never, as far as

I recollect, defended the divine origin of his own sacred

writings in the abstract, but he displayed great casuistic

c leverness in manitaining that every argument that had

everbeen adduced in support ofa supernatural origin of the

Bible could be used with equal force in favour of a divineauthorship of the Veda. His own ideas of the Veda werec hiefly derived from the Upanishads, and he frequently as

s ured me that there was much more of Vedic literature inIndia than we imagined. This Dvarka Nath Tagorewas

the father ofDebendra Nath Tagore, the true founder of

the Brahmo Samaj , who in 1845, sent the four young

Brahmans to Benares to copy out and study the fourVedas .

Though Dvarka Nath Tagore was so far orthodox that he

maintained a number of Brahmans , yet it was he also who

continued the grant for the support of the Church founded

a t Calcutta by Ram Mohun Roy. One letter written byDvarka Nath Tagore from Paris to Calcutta in 1845 would

supply the missing link between what was pas sing at

that time in a room of an hotel on the Place Vendomeand the resolution taken at Calcutta to find out, once for

all, what the Vedas really are.

In India itself the idea of a criticaland historical study

NOTES . 45

of the Veda originated certainly with English scholars .

D r. Mill once showed me the first attempt at printing the

sacred Gayatri in Calcu tta ; and, if I am not mistaken,he

added that unfortunately the gentleman who had printed

it died soon after, thu s confirming the prophecies of the

Brahmans that such a sacrilege wou ld not remain nu

av enged by the gods . Dr. Mill, Stephenson , Wilson , and

others w ere the first to Show to the educated natives in

India that the Upanishads belonged to a later age than the

hymns of the Rig-Veda, and likewise the first to exhibit to

R am Mohun Royandhis friends the real character of these

ancient hymns . On a mind like Ram Mohun Roy’

s the

efiect was probably much more immediate than on his

followers , so that it took several years before they decidedsending theircommissioners to Benares to report on the

Veda and its real chara cter. Yet that mission was , I

believe, the result of a slow process of attrition produced

by the contact between native and European minds, and

as such Iwished to present it in my address at the Oriental

Congress .

’

XII.

W ESTMIN STER LECTURE .

ON MISSIONS.‘

Delivered in the Nave of Westmi/mter Abbey, on the flaming ofDecember 3, 1873.

THE number of religion s which have attained stabilityand permanence in the history of theworld is verysmall. If we leave out of con sideration those vagu ea nd varying forms of faith and worship which we

NOTICE.

Westminster Abbey. Day of Intercession forMissions , Wed

nesday, December3, 1873. Lecture in theNave, at eight o’clock, p .m.

H ymn 25 (312. Haber)From Greenland

’s icy mountains , Can wewhose souls are lighted

From India’s coral strands , With wisdom from on high ,

Where Airio’s sunny fountains Can we tomen benigh tedRoll down their golden sands The lamp of life deny

From many an ancient river, Salvation , 0 Salvation !From many a palmy plain, The joyful sound proclaim,

They call us todeliver Till earth’s remotest nation

Their land from error’

a chain .

What though the spicy breezesBlow soft o

’erCeylon

’s isle

Though every prospect pleases, Till, like a sea ofglory,And only man is vile l It spreads from pole to pole

In vain with lavish kindness Till o’erour ransom’

d nature,The gifts ofGod are strewn ; The Lamb for sinners slain,

The heathen in his blindness Redeemer, King, Creator,Bows down to wood and stone.

There will be a Lecture delivered in the Nave on Missions

ProfessorMax Miiller, M.A.

LECTURE ON MISSIONS. . 47

find among uncivilised and]un settled races, amongraces ignorant of reading and writing, who haveneither a literature, nor laws, nor even hymns and

prayers handed down by oral teaching from father toson

, from mother to daughter, we see that the numberof the real historical religions of mankind amountsto nomore than eight. The Semitic races have produced three—the Jewish, the Christian, theMohammedan ; the Aryan, or Indo-European races, an equalnumber—the Brahman , the Buddhist, and the Parsi.Add to these the two religious systems ofChina, thatof Confucius and Lao-tse, and you have before youwhat may be called the eight dis tinct languages orutterances of the faith of mankind from the beginningof the world to the present day ; you have beforeyou in broad outlines the religious map of the wholeworld.

All these religions, however, have a h istory, a

history more deeply interesting than the history of

language, or literature, or art, or politics . Religionsare not unchangeable on the contrary, they are

always growing and changing ; and if they cease togrow and cease to change, they cease to live. Someof these religions stand by themselves, totally independent of all the rest ; others are closely united, orhave influenced each other during various stages oftheir growth and decay. They must therefore bePS. 100 (New Version) Old Hundredth (p .

With one consent let all the earth 0 enter then His templegate,

Gliiii20d their cheerful voices

mi

li

t

ia; ”a

b

sen

t?to H is ems

1

c

l

ievoutly press ;omage pay with awful t your 873 ymns 9003;

And sing beforehim songs of praide. And still His Name with p bless .

Convinced that He is God alone, For H e’

s the Lord supremely good,FromWhom both we and all proceed H is mercy is forever sure ;WewhomHe choose; forH is own , H is truth, wh ich fill timesm MThe flock that He vouch safes to feed. To endless ages shall endure. Arum }

48 LECTURE ON MISSIONS .

studied together, if we wish to understand their realcharacter, their growth, their decay, and their resuscitations. Thu s, Mohammedanism would be unin

telligible without Christianity ; Christianity withoutJudaism ; and there are Similar bonds that holdtogether the great religions of India and Persia—thefaith of the Brahman , the Buddhist, and the Parsi.After a careful study of the origin and growth of

these religion s, and after a critical examination of

the sacred books on which all of them profess to befounded, it has become possible to subject them all

to a scientific classification , in the same manner as

languages, apparently unconnected and mutually unintelligible, have been scientifically arranged and

classified ; and by a comparison of such points as all

or some of them share in common, as well as by a

determination of others which are peculiar to each,a

new science has been called into life, a Science whichconcerns us all, and in which all who truly care forreligion must sooner or later take their part—theScience of Religion .

Among the variou s classifications 1 which havebeen applied to the religions of the world, there isone that interests u s more immediately to-night—Imean thedivision intoNon-MissionaryandMissionaryreligions . This is by nomeans, as might be supposed,a classification based on an unimportant or merelyaccidental characteristic ; on the contrary, it restson what is the very heart-blood in every system of

human faith. Among the Six religions of the Aryan

Different systems of classification applied to the religions of the

world are discussed in my Introduction to the Science of R eligion,

pp . 122-143.

LEOTURE ON MISSIONS . 49

an d Semitic world, there are three that are opposedto all missionary enterprise—Judaism, Brahmanism,

and Zoroastrianism ; and three that have a missionarych aracter from their very beginning—Buddhism,

Mohammedanism, and Christianity.

The Jews, particularly in ancient times, neverthought of spreading their religion. Their religionwas to them a treasure, a privilege, a blessing, something to distinguish them , as the chosen people ofGod, from all the rest of the world. A Jew mu st beof the seed of Abraham : and when in later times,ow ing chiefly to political circumstances, th e Jewshad to admit stran gers to some of the privileges ofth eir theocracy, they looked upon them,

not as soulsth at had been gained, saved, born again into a new

brotherhood, but as strangers (ma), as Proselytes(wpomiltv-roa) -which mean s men who have come tothem as aliens, not to be trusted, as their saying was,un til th e twenty-fourth generation .

‘

A very similar feeling prevented the Brahmansfrom ever attempting to proselytise those who didnot by birth belong to the spiritual aristocracy oftheir country. Their wish was rather to keep thelight to themselves, to repel intruders and they wentso far as to pun ish those who happened to be nearenough to hear even the sound of their prayers, or towitness their sacrifices.2

Proselyte na fidas usque ad vigesimamquartam generationem .

’

Jalkut Ruth , f. 163, d ; Danz, in Menschen, No v. Test. ea: Talm.

iflmtr. p . 651 .

2 India , Progress and Condition, Blue Book presented to Parlia

ment, 1873, p . 99 : It is asserted (but the assertion must be taken

with reserve) that it is a mistake to suppose that theHindu religion

is not proselytising. Any number of outsiders, so long as they do

VOL. 11 . E

50 LEOTURE ON MISSIONS.

The Parsi, too, does not wish for converts to hisreligion ; he is proud of his faith, as of his blood ;and though he believes in the final victory of truthand light, though he says to every man ,

Be brightas the sun, pure as the moon,’ he himself does verylittle to drive away Spiritual darkness from the faceof the earth, by letting the light that is within himshine before the world.

But now let us look at the other cluster of religions— at Buddhism , Mohammedanism, and Christianity. However they may differ from each otherin some of their most essential doctrines, this theyshare in common—they all have faith in themselves,they all have life and vigour, they want to convince,they mean to conquer. From the very earliest dawnof their existence these three religions were miss ionary : their very founders, or their first apostles

,

recognised the new duty of Spreading the truth, ofrefuting error, of bringing the whole world to ac

knowledge the paramount, ifnot thedivine, authorityof their doctrines. This is what gives to them all a

common expression , and lifts them high above thelevel of the other religions of the world.

Let us begin with Buddhism . We know, indeed,

v ery little of its origin and earliest growth, for theearliest beginnings of all religions withdraw thems elves by necessity from the eye of the historian .

But we have something like contemporary evidenceof the Great Council, held at Pataliputra, 242 B.C.,

in which the sacred canon of the Buddhist scriptures

not interfere with established castes, can form a new caste, and call

themselves Hindus , and the Brahmans are always ready to receive

a ll who submit to and pay them.

’Can this be called proselytising ?


52 LECTURE ON MISSIONS.

and terrify me, they would not be able to create inme fear and terror.’ An d when he had brought th epeople to listen , he dismissed them with the Simp le

prayer, Do not hereafter give way to anger, as before : do not destroy the creps, for all men love happiness . Show mercy to all livingbeings, and let men

dwell in peace .’

No doubt, the accounts of the successes achievedby those early missionaries are exaggerated, and

their fights with snakes and dragon s and evil spiritsremind us sometimes of the legendary accounts ofthe achievements of such men as St. Patrick in Ireland

,or St. Boniface in Germany. But the fact

that missionaries were sent out to convert the worldseems beyond the reach of reasonable doubt ; 1 and

this fact represents to u s at that time a new thought—new ,

not only in th e history of India, but in th e

history of the whole world. The recognition of a

duty to preach the truth to every man,woman

, and

child, was an idea opposed to thedeepest instin cts ofBrahmanism ; and when

,at the end of the chapter on

the first mis sion s, we read the simple words of theold chron icler, Who would demur, if the salvationof the world is at stake ? ’ we feel at once that wemove in a new world, we see the dawn of a new day,

the opening of vaster horizon s—we feel, for the firsttime in the history of the world, the beating of the

great heart of humanity.

2

The Koran breathes a difi‘

erent spirit ; it does1 In some of the places mentioned by the Chronicle as among the

earliest stations of Buddhist missions , relics have been discovered

containing the names of the very missionaries mentioned by the

Chronicle. See Koeppen , Die R eligion des Buddha , p . 188.1 Note A, p . 76.

LECTURE ON MISSIONS. 53

not invite, it rather compels the world to come in .

Yet there are passages, particularly in the earlierportions , which Show that Mohammed, too, hadrealised the idea of humanity, and of a religion of

humanity ; nay, that at first he wished to unite hisown religion with that of the Jews and Christians

,

comprehending all under the common name ofIslfim.

Isldm meant originally humility or devotion ; and all

who humbled themselves before God, and were filledwith real reverence

,were calledMoslim. TheIslam

says Mohammed, ‘is the true worship of God. Whenmen dispute with you, say, I am a Moslim.

”Ask

those who have sacred books , and ask the heathen“Are you a Moslim If they are, they are on theright path ; but if they turn away, then you have noother task but to deliver the message, to preach tothem th e Islam.

’ 1

A s to our own religion, its very soul is missionary,progressive, world-embracing ; it would cease to existif it ceas ed to be missionary—if it disregarded theparting words of its Founder : Go ye therefore andteach all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father, and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost ;teaching them to observe all things I have com

manded ; and, lo, I am with you alway,even unto

the end of the world.

’

It is this missionary character, peculiar to thesethree religions, Buddhism,

Mohammedanism, and

1 Is ldm is the verbal noun , and Mos lim the participle of the

same root which also yields Sa lam, peace, and sa lim and sa lym,

whole, honest. Is lam means, therefore, to satisfy orpacify by for

bearance ; it also means simply subjection.

’Sprenger, Mohwmmad,

i. p. 69 ; iii. 486.


Christianity, which binds them together, and lifts

them to a higher sphere. Their differences, no doubt,are great ; on some points they are opposed to eachother like day and night. But they could not be

what they are, they could not have achieved whatthey have achieved, unless the spirit of truth and

the Spirit of love had been alive in th e hearts of theirfounders, their first messengers, and missionThe spirit of truth is the life-Spring of all religion ,

and where it exists it must manifest itself, it mu stplead, it must persuade, it must convince and con

vert. Missionary work, however, in the usual senseof the word, is only one manifestation of that spirit ;for the same spirit which fills the heart of the missionary with daring abroad gives courage also to thepreacher at home, bearing witness to th e truth thatis within h im . The religions which can boast of

missionaries who left th e old home of their childhood, and parted with parents and friends—never tomeet again in this life—who went into the wilderness, willing to Spend a life of toil among strangers,ready, if need be, to lay down their life as witnessesto the truth, as martyrs for the glory of God—thesame religions are rich also in those honest and in

trepid inquirers who, at the bidding of the samespirit of truth, were ready to leave behind them the

cherished creed of their childhood, to separate fromthe friends they loved best, to stand alone amongmen that shrug their shoulders, and ask, What istruth 9 and to bear in silence a martyrdom moregalling often than death itself. There are men who

say that, if they held the whole truth in their hand,they would not Open one finger. Su ch men know


little of the working of the spirit of truth, of the

true missionary spirit. AS long as there are dou bt

and darkness and anxiety in the soul of an inquirer,

reticence may be his natural attitude. But whenonce doubt has yielded to certainty, darkness to light,anxiety to joy, the rays of truth will burst forth ;and to close our hand or to shut our lips wouldbe as impossible as for the petals of a flower toshut themselves against the summons of the sun of

Spring.

What is there in this short life that should sealour lips ‘11 Wh at should we wait for, if we are not

to speak here and new 11 There is mis sionary workat home as much as abroad ; there are thousandswaiting to listen , if one man willbut Speak the truth,and nothing but the truth ; there are thousandsstarving, because they cannot find that food whichis convenient for them .

And even if the spirit of truth might be chaineddown by fear or prudence, the Spirit of love wouldnever yield. Once recognise the common brotherhood of mankind, not as a name or a theory, but asa real bond, as a bond more binding, more lastingthan the bonds of family, caste, and race, and the

questions, Why should I open my hand ‘

11 why should

Iopen my heart 9 why should I speak tomy brotherwill never be asked again . Is it not far better tospeak than to walk through life silent, unknown , unknowing 1) H as any one of us ever spoken to a friendandopened to him his inmost soul, and been answeredwith harshness or repelled with scorn 9 H as any one

of us, be he priest or layman , ever listened to the

honest questionings of a truth-loving soul without


feeling his own soul filled with love aye, withoutfeeling humbled by the very honesty of a brother’sconfessionIf we would but confess, friend to friend, if we

would be but honest, man to man, we should not

want confessors or confessionals.If ourdoubts anddifliculties are self-made, if they

can be removed by wiser and better men , why not

give to our brother the opportunity of helping us 11

But if our difliculties are not self-made, if they arenot due either to ignoran ce or presumption , is it noteven then better for us to know that we are all carrying the same burden , the common burden of humanity, if haply we may find that for the heavy-ladenthere is but one who can give them rest

There may be times when silence is gold and

speech silver : but there are times also when silenceis death , and speech is life—the very life of Pentecost.How can man be afraid ofman How can we be

afraid of those whom we love ‘z1Are the young afraid of the old 11 But nothing

delights the older man more than to see that he istrusted by the young, and that they believe he willtell them the truth.

Are the old afraid of the young But nothingsustains the young more than to know that they donot stand alone in their troubles, and that in manytrials of the soul the father is as helpless as the

Are women afraid of men ? But men are not

w iser in th e things appertaining to God than women ,

and real love of God is theirs farmore than ours.

LECTURE ON MISSIONS . 57

Are men afraid of women 9 But though womenm ay hide their troubles more carefully, their hearta ches as mu ch as ours, when they whisper to thems elves, Lord, I behave, help thou my unbelief.

Are the laity afraid of the clergy 9 But where isthe clergyman who would not respect honest doubtm ore than unquestioning faith 9

Are the clergy afraid of the laity 9 But surelyw e know,

in this place at least, that the clear voiceof honesty and humility draws more hearts than theharsh accents of dogmatic assurance or ecclesiastice xclusiveness.

There lives more faith in honest doubt,

Believe me, than in half the creeds.’

A missionary must know no fear ; his heart musto verflow with love—love of man , love of truth, loveo f God ; and in this, the highest and truest sense ofthe word, every Christian is, or ought to be, a mis

And now , let us look agam at the religions inwhich the missionary spirit has been at work, andcompare them with those in which any attempt tocon vince others by argument, to save souls, to bearwitness to the truth, is treated with pity or scorn .

Theformer are: alive,the latter are dying or dead.

The religion of Zoroaster—the religion of Cyrus,o f Darius and Xerxes—which, but for the battleso f Marathon and Salamis , might have become thereligion of the civilised world, is now professed byonly souls1—that is , by about a ten-thous andth part of the inhabitants of the world. During

1 Th e last Indian census gives


the last two centuries their number has steadily decreased from four to one hundred thousand, and

another century willprobably exhaustwhat is still leftof the worshippers of theWise Spirit, Ahuramazda.

The Jews are about thirty times the number oftheParsis, and they therefore represent amore appreciable portion of mankind. Though it is not likelythat they will ever increase in number

, yet such istheir physical vigour and their intellectual tenacity,such also their pride of race and their faith inJehovah, that we can hardly imagine that theirpatriarchal religion and their ancient customs willsoon vanish from the face of the earth.

But though the religion Of the Parsis and Jewsmight justly seem to have paid the penalty of theiranti-missionary spirit

,how, it will be said, can the

same be maintainedwith regard to the religion of the

Brahmans 9 That religion is still professed by at

least of human souls , and, to judge

from the last census, even that enormous numberfalls much short of the real truth. Andyet I do not

Shrink from saying that their religion is dying or

dead. And why 9 Because it cannot standthe lightof day. The worship of S iva, Vishnu, and the otherpopular deities, is of the same, nay in many cases ofa more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo, and Minerva ; it belongs to a

stratum of thought which is long buried ben eathour feet : it may live on, like the lion and the tiger,but the mere air of free thought and civilised life willextinguish it. A religion may linger on for a longtime, it may be accepted by the large masses of thepeople, because it is there

, and there is nothing


'60 LECTURE ON MISSIONS.

which the decisive battle for the dominion of the

world will have to be fought, are the three mission

u nity. Though religious statistics are perhaps themost un certain of all, yet it is well to have a general conception of the forces of our enemies ; and

it is well to know that, though the number ofChristian s is double the number of Mohammedan s,th e Buddhist religion still occupies the first place inthe religious census ofmankind.

1

Buddh ism rules supreme in Central, Northern,Eastern, and Southern Asia, and it gradually absorbswhatever there is left of aboriginal heathenism in

that vast and populous area.

Mohammedanism claims as its own Arabia, Persia,great parts of India, Asia Minor, Turkey, and Egypt ;and its greatest conqu ests by missionary efforts aremade among the heathen popu lation of Africa.

Christianity reigns in Europe andAmerica, and itis conquering thenative races ofPolynesia andMela,nesia, while its missionary outposts are scattered all

over the world.

Between these three powers, then, the religiousbattle of the future, the Holy War of mankind, willhave to be fought, and is being fought at the presentmoment, though apparently with little effect. To

con vert a Mohammedan is difficult to convert a

Buddhist, more difficult still ; to convert a Christian ,let u s hope, well nigh impossible .What then , it may be asked, is the use of mis

sionaries 9 Why shouldwe spendmillions on foreignmissions, when there are children in our cities who

1 See Religions Statistics of Buddhism, infra, p . 223.

LECTURE ON MISSIONS. 61‘

are allowed to grow up in ignorance 9 Why shouldwe deprive ourselves of some of the noblest, boldest,most ardent and devoted spirits and send them into

the wilderness, while so many labourers are wan tedin the vineyard at home 9It is right to ask these questions ; and we ought

not to blame those political economists who tell usthat every convert costs us 200l.

,and that at the

present rate of progress it would take more thanyears to evangelise the world. There is

nothing at all startling in these figures. Every childborn in Europe is as mu ch a heathen as the child of a

Melan esian cannibal ; and it costs us more than 200l.to turn a child into a Christian man . The other calculation is totally erroneous foran intellectualharvestmust not be calculated by adding simply grain to

grain , but by counting each grain as a living seed,that will bring forth fruit a hundred and a thousand

Ifwe want to know what work there is for themissionary to do, what results we may expect from it,we mu st distinguish between two kinds ofwork the

one is p arental, the other controversial. Among nu

civilised races the work of themissionary is the workof a parent. Whether his pupils are young in yearsor old, he has to treat them with a parent’s love, toteach them with a parent’s authority ; he has to winthem

,not to argue with them . I know this kind of

missionary work is often despised ; it is called merereligious kidnapping ; and it is said that missionarysuccess obtained by such mean s proves nothing forthe truth of Christianity ; that the child handedover to a Mohammedan would grow up a Moham


medan ,as much as a child taken by a Christian

m issionary becomes a Christian . All this is true ;missionary success obtained by such means provesnothing for the truth of our Creeds : but it proveswhat is far more important—it proves Christianlove. Read only the Life of Patteson ,’ the BishopOfMelanesia ; follow him in his vessel, sailing fromisland to island, begging for children , carrying themoff as a mother her new-born child, nu rsing them ,

washing and combing them,clothing them ,

feedingthem

,teaching them in his Episcopal Palace, in

wh ich he himself is everything, nurse, and housemaid, and cook, schoolmaster, physician , and bishop—read there, how that man who tore himself awayfrom his aged father

,from his friends, from his

favourite studies and pursuits, had the most lovingof hearts for these children

,how indignantly he

repelled for them the name of savages, how hetru sted them, respected them, honoured them

, and

when they were formed and stablished, took themback to their island homes, there to be a leaven forfuture ages. Yes, read the life, the work, the deathof that man—a death in very truth, a ran som for the

sins of others—and then say whether you would liketo suppress a profession that can call forth such selfdenial, such heroism ,

such sanctity, such love. It hasbeen my privilege to have known some of the finestand noblest spirits which England has producedduring this century, but there is none to whosememory I look up with greater reverence, none bywhose friendship I feel more deeply humbled thanby ;that of that true saint

, that true martyr, thattruly parental missionary.


The work of the parental missionary is clear, andits su ccess undeniable, not only in Polynesia and

Melanesia, but in many parts of India—think onlyof the bright light of

'I‘innevelly

—in Africa, inChina, in America, in Syria, in Turkey

, aye, in the

very heart of London .

The case is different with the controversial missionary, who has to attack the faith of men broughtUp in other religions, in religiou s which containmuch truth, though mixed up with much error.Here the difliculties are immense, the results verydiscouraging. Nor n eed we wonder at this . Weknow, each of u s, but too well, how little argumentavails in theological discussion ; how often it produces the very Opposite result of what we expected ;confirming rather than shaking Opinions no lesserroneou s

,no less indefen sible, than many articles of

theMohammedan or Buddhist faith .

And even when argument proves su ccessful, whenit forces a verdict from an unwilling judge, how Oftenhas the result been disappointing ; because in tearingup the rotten stem on which the tree rested, thetenderest fibres of the tree itself have been injured,its roots unsettled, its life destroyed.

We have little ground to expect that these con

troversial weapons will carry the day in the strugglebetween the three great religions of the world.

But there is a third kind of missionary activity,

which has produ ced the most important results, andthrough which alone

,I believe, the final victory will

be gained. Whenever two religion s are broughtinto contact, when members of each live together inpeace, abstaining from all direct attempts at conver


sion , whether by force or by argument, though con

scious all the time of the fact that they and theirreligion are on their trial, that they are beingwatched, that they are responsible for all they say

and do—the effect has always been the greatestblessing to both. It calls out all the best elementsin each, and at the same time keeps under all thatis felt to be of doubtful valu e, of uncertain truth.Whenever this has happened in the history of the

world, it has generally led either to the reform of

both systems, or to the foundation of a new religion .

When after the conquest of India the violentmeasures for the conversion of the Hindu s to Mohammedanism had ceased, and Mohammedans and

Brahmans lived together in the enjoyment of perfectequality, the result was a purified Mohammedanism,

and a purified Brahmanism .

1 The worshippers ofVishnu , Siva, and other deities, became ashamed of

these mythological gods, and were led to admit thatthere was, either over and above these individualdeities

,or in stead of them, a higher divine power

(the Para-Brahma) the true source of all being, theOnly and almighty ruler of the world. That religiou smovement assumed its most important developmentat the beginn ing of the twelfth century, when Ramanuga founded the reformed sect of the worshippersof Vishnu ; and again , in the fourteenth century

,

when his fifth successor, Raman anda, imparted a

still more liberal character to that powerful sect.Not only did he abolish many of the restrictions ofcaste, many of the minute ceremonial Observances in

1 Las sen , Indische A lterthnmshunde, vol. iv . p . 606 ; Wilson ,

Asiatic Researches, xvi. p . 21 .


eating, drinking, and bathing, but he replaced theclas sical Sanskrit—which was unintelligible to thelarge masses of the people—by the living vernacu

lars , in which he preached a purer worship of God.

The most remarkable man of that time was a

w eaver, the pupil ofRamananda, known by the nameof Kabir. 1 He, indeed, deserved the name which them embers of the reformed sect claimmforthemselves

,

A vadhuta, which mean s one who has shaken ofl'

the

du st of superstition . He broke entirely with thepopular mythology and the customs of the ceremonial law , and addressed himself alike to Hinduand Mohammedan . According to him, there is butone God, the creator of the world, without beginning and end, of inconceivable purity, and irresistiblestrength. The pure man is the image of God, and

after death attain s community with God. The com

mandments of Kabir are few : Not to injure anything that has life, for life is of God ; to speak thetruth ; to keep aloof from the world ; to obey theteach er. H is poetry is most beautiful, hardly sur

pas sed in any other language.Still more important in the history of India was

th e reform ofNanak (1469 the founder of theSikh religion . He, too, worked entirely in the spiritof Kabir. Both laboured to persuade the Hindu s andMohammedans that the truly essential parts of theircreeds were the same

,that they ought to discard

th e varieties of practical detail, and the corruption sof their teachers, for the worship of the One OnlySupreme, whether he was termed Allah or Vishnu .

1 Lived under Sikander ShAh Lodi, 1488-1512 ; see Trumpp ,

VOL. II.


The efi‘

ect of these religious reforms has beenhighly beneficial ; it has cut into the very roots ofidolatry, and has spread throughout India an intelligent and spiritual worship, which may at any timedevelop into a higher national creed.

The same effectwhichMohammedanism produ cedon Hinduism is now being produced, in amuch higherdegree, on the religiou s mind of India by the merepresence ofChristianity. That silent influence beganto tell many years ago, even at a time when no mis

sionaries were allowed within the territory of the OldEast India Company. Its first representative wasRam Mohun Roy, born just one hundred years ago,in 1772, who died at Bristol in 1833, the founder of

so highly religious as he was could not but feelhumiliated at the spectacle which the popular religionOf his country presented to his English friends . Hedrew their attention to the fact that there was a

purer religion to be found in the old sacred writingsOfhis people, theVedas . He went so far as to claimfor the Vedas a divine origin , and to attempt thefoundation of a reformed faith on their authority.In this attempt he failed.

NO doubt theVedas and other works ofthe ancientpoets and prophets of India contain treasures oftruthwhich ought never to be forgotten ,

least of all by thesons of India. The late good Bishop Cotton , in his

address to the students of a missionary institution at

Calcutta, advised them to u se a certain hymn of the

Rig-Veda in their daily prayers .l Nowhere do we

See Bran/mic Qtwstimu of the Day, 1869, p . 16.



As soon as the true character of the Vedas, 1 whichbut few people in India can understand, becam eknown ,

partly through the efforts of native, partly of’

European scholars, the Indian reformers relinquishedthe claim of divine inspiration in favour of theirVedas

, andwere satisfied with a selection of pas sagesfrom the works of the an cient sages of India, to ex

press and embody the creed which the members of

the Brahma Samaj hold in common .

2

The work which these religious reformers havebeen doing in India is excellent, and those only whoknow what it is, in religiou s matters, to break withthe past, to forsake the established custom ofa nation

,

to Oppose the ru sh of public opinion , to brave adversecriticism

,to submit to social persecution

, can formany idea of what those men have suffered in bearingwitness to the truth that was within them .

They could not reckon on any sympathy on thepart Of Christian missionaries ; nor did their workattract much attention in Europe till very lately

,

when a schism broke out in the Brahma-Samajbetween the Old con servative party and a new party

,

led by Keshub Chunder Sen . The former, though

willing to surrender all that was clearly idolatrous inthe ancient religion and customs of India, wish ed toretain all that might safely be retained : it did not

wish to see the religion of India denationalised. The

other party, inspired and led by Keshub ChunderSen , went further in their zeal for religious purity.

All that smacked of the Old leaven was to be sur

The Adi Brahma-M ag, it: View: and D ino Calcutta,

1 870, p . 10.

2 A Brief H istory of the Calcutta Brahmm-Samdj , 1868, p . 15.

LEO'runE ON MISSIONS. 69

rendered not only caste, but even that sacred cord—the religiou s riband which makes and marks theBrahman , which is to remind him at every momentof h is life, and whatever work he may be engaged in ,

of his God, of his ancestors,and of his children

even that was to be abandoned ; and instead of

founding their creed exclus ively on the utterances ofthe ancient sages of their own country, all that wasbest in the sacred books of the whole world was

to be selected and formed into a new sacred Code.1The schism between these two parties is deeply to

be deplored ; but it is nevertheless a sign of life. It

augurs success rather than failure for the future. It

is the same schism which St. Paul had to heal in theChurch of Corinth

, and he healed it with thewords,so often misunderstood, ‘ Knowledge pufi

'

eth up , but

charity edifieth .

’

In the eyes of our missionaries this religious reform in India has not found much favour : nor needw e wonder at this. Their object is to tran splant, ifpossible, Christianity in its full integrity from Eng

land to India, as we might wish to transplant a fullgrown tree. They do not deny th e moral worth, then oble aspirations, the self-sacrificing zeal of thesenative reformers ; but they fear that all this will butin crease their dangerous influence, and retard the

p rogress ofChristianity, by drawing some of the bestminds Of India, that might have been gained over toour religion , into a different current. They feeltowards Keshub Chunder Sen 2

as Athanasius mighth ave felt towards Ulfilas, the Arian Bishop Of the

See Note B, p . 78.

3 See Note C, p . 82.


Goths and yet what would have become OfChristian ity in Europe but for those Gothic races, but forthose Arian heretics

,who were con sidered more dan

gerou s than down right pagans‘

P

Ifwe think of the future of India, and of the in

fluence which that coun try has always exercised onthe East, the movement of religious reform whichis now going on appears to my mind the most momentons in this momentous century. If our mis

sionaries feel con strained to repudiate it as theirown work, history will be more just to them thanthey themselves .

‘ And if not as the work of Christian missionaries, it will be recognised hereafter asthe work of those missionary Christian s who havelived in India as examples of a true Christian life,who have approached the natives in a truly missionary spirit, in the Spirit Of truth and in the spirit oflove ; whose bright presence has thawed the ice,

and brought out beneath it the old soil, ready toblossom into new life. These Indian puritans are not

again st us ; for all the highest purposes of life theyare with u s, and we, I tru st

,with them . What;

would the early Christian s have said to men , outsidethe pale of Christian ity, who spoke of Christ and h is

The Indian Mirror (Sept . 10, 1869) constantly treats of mis

sionary efforts of various kinds in a spirit wh ich is not only friendly,

but even desirous of reciprocal sympathy ; and hopeful that what

ever differences may ex ist between them (the missionaries) and theBrahmos, the two parties will heartily combine as brethren to exter

minate idolatry, and promote true morality in India .

Many of our own ministers and leading men , says the Indian

M irror, are recruited from missionary schools , which ,by affording

religious education , prove more favourable to the growth and spread:

of Brahmoism than Government schools with Comte and Secularism.

(Indian Theism, by S . D. Collet, 1870, p .


doctrine as some of these Indian reformers 9 Wouldthey have said to them

,Unless you speak our lan

guage and think our thoughts, unless you acceptour Creed and Sign our Articles, we can have nothingin comm on with you .

’

0 th at Christian s,and particularly missionaries

,

would lay to heart thewords of a missionary Bishop ! 1I have for years thought,

’ writes Bishop Patteson ,that we seek in ourMission s a great deal too muchto make English Christian s. Evidently theheath en man is not treated fairly, if we encumberour message with unn ecessary requirements . The

ancient Church had its selection of fundamentals .”

Anyone can see what mistakes we have madein India. Few men think themselves into thestate Of the Eastern mind. We seek to denationalise these races as far as Ican see ; whereas weought surely to change as little as possible—onlywhat is clearly incompatible with the simplest formOfChristian teaching and practice. I do not meanthat we are to compromise truth but do we notOverlay it a good deal with human traditionsIf we had many such missionaries as Bishop

Patteson and Bishop Cotton , if Christianity were notOnly preached, but lived in that spirit, it would thenprove itself what it is—the religion of humanity atlarge, large enough itself to take in all shades anddiversities ofcharacter and race.And more than that—if this true missionary

spirit, this spirit of truth and love, of forbearance, oftrust, of toleration , of humility, were onceto kindle

Life ofJohn Coleridge Patteson, by C. M. Yonge, n . p . 167.


the hearts of all those chivalrous ambassadors of

Christ, the message Of the Gospel which they haveto deliver would then become as great a blessing tothe giver as to the receiver. Even now,

missionarywork unites, both at home and abroad, those who arewidely separated by the barriers of theological sects .l

It might do so far more still. When we stand

before a common enemy, we soon forget our own small

feuds. But why Often , I fear, from motives ofprudence only and selfishn ess. Can we not, then ,if we stand in spu

'It before a common friend—can

we not, before the face of God, forget our small

The large body of European and American missionaries settled

in India bring their various moral influences to bear upon the

country with the greater force, because they act together with a'

compactness which is but little understood. Though belongingto various denominations of Christians , yet from the nature of their

work, their isolated position , and their long experience, they have

been led to think rather of the numerous questions on which theyagree than of those on which they differ, and they co-operate

heartily together. Localities are divided among them by friendlyarrangements, and, with a few exceptions , it is a fixed rule amongthem that they will not

'

interfere with each other’s converts and

each other’s spheres of duty . School -books, translation s Of the

Scriptures and religious works , prepared by various missions, are

used in common ; and help and improvements secured by one mis

sion are freely placed at the command of all. The large bodyof missionaries resident in each of the presidency towns form

missionary conferences, hold periodic meetings, and act together

on public matters . They have frequently addressed the Indian

Government on important social questions involving the welfare of

the native community, and have suggested valuable improvements

in exis ting laws . During the pas t twenty years, on five occas ions,

general conferences have been held for mutual consultation rs

specting their missionary work ; and in January last, at the latest

of these gatherings , at Allahabad, 121 missionaries met together

belonging to twenty different societies, and including several men

of long experience who have been twenty years in India .

’—India ,

Progress and Condition, 1873, p . 124.


feuds , for very shame If missionaries admit to

their fold converts who can hardly understand theequ ivocal abstraction s of our creeds and formulas

,

is it necessary to exclude those who understand themb ut too well to submit the wings of their free Spiritto such galling chains

‘

9 When we try to think of

t he majesty of God, what are all those formulas butthe stammerings of children , which only a lovingfather can in terpret and understand ! The funda

m entals of our religion are not in these poor Creeds ;true Christianity lives, not in our belief

,but in our

love—ia om love of God, and in our love of man,

founded on our love of God.

That is the whole Law and the Prophets ; that isthe religion to be preached to the whole world ; thatis the Gospel which will conquer all other religions—even Buddhism and Mohammedan ism—which willwin the hearts of all men .

There can never be too much love,though there

may be too much faith—particularly when it leadsto the requirement Of exactly the same measure offaith in others . Let those who wish for the truesuccess of missionary work learn to throw in of the

abundance of their faith ; let them learn to demand

les s from others than from themselves. That is thebest offering, the most valuable contribution whichth ey can make to-day to the missionary cause.

Let missionaries preach the Gospel again as it

w as preached when it began the conquest of the

Roman Empire and the Gothic nations ; when it

h ad to struggle with powers and principalities , withtime-honoured religion s and triumphant philosophies,w ith pride of civilisation and savagery of life—and


yet came out victorious. At that time conversion:was not aquestion to be settled by the acceptan ceor rejection of certain formulas or articles ; a Simpleprayer was often enough : God be merciful to me a

sinn er.’

There is one kind of faith that revels in words,there is another that can hardly find utterance : theformer is like riches that come to u s by inheritan ce,the latter is like the daily bread which each of us

has to win in the sweat of his brow. We cannotexpect the former from new converts ; we ought notto expect it or to exact it, for fear that it might leadto hypocrisy or superstition . The mere believing of

miracles, the mere repeating of formulas requires no

effort in converts brought up to believe in the

Purinas of the Brahman s or the Buddhist Gatakas.They find it much easier to accept a legend than to

love God, to repeat a creed than to forgive theirenemies. In this respect they are exactly like ourselves . Let missionaries remember that theChristianfaith at home is no longer what it was, and that itis impossible to have one creed to preach abroad,another to preach at home. Much that was formerlyconsidered as essential is now neglected ; much thatwas formerly neglected is now con sidered as essen-stial. I think of the laity more than of the clergybut what would the clergy be without the laity9There are many of our best men ,

men of the greatestpower and influence in literature, science, art, politics,ay, even in the Church itself, who are no longerChristian in the Old sense of the word. Some ima

gine they have ceased to be Christians altogether,because they feel that they cannot believe as much


N O T E S .

NOTE A .

Mahfidayassapi ginassa kaddhanam,

Vihdya pattam amatam sukham pi te

Karimsu lokassa hitam tahim tahim,

Bhaveyya ko lokahite pamadavfi.

first line is elliptical.

(Imitating) the resignation ofthe all-merciful Conqueror,They also, resigning the deathless bliss within theirreach ,

Worked the welfare of mankind in various lands .

What man is there whowould be remiss in doing good tomankind

Hardy, in his Manual ofBuddh ism {

(p . relates

how fifty-four princes and a thousand fire-worshippers be

came the disciples ofBuddha. Whilst Buddha remained

at Isipatana, Yasa, the son of Sujata, whohad been broughtup in all delicacy, one night went secretly to him, was re

ceived with affection, became a priest, and entered the first

path . The father on discovering that he hadfled, was disconsolate ; but Buddha delivered to him a discourse, bywhich he became a rahat . The fifty

-four companions of

Yasa went to the monastery to induce him to return and

play with them as u sual ; but when they saw him , theyw ere so struck with his manner and appearance, that theyalso resolved on becoming priests . When they went to

NOTES. 77

Buddha,they were admitted, by the power of irdh i re

ceived the p irik ara requisites of the priesthood, and

became rahats . Buddha had now Sixty disciples who wererabats, and he commanded them to go by diflerent ways,and proclaim to all that a supreme Buddha had appeared

in the world.

’

Mr. Childers has kindly sent me the following extract

from Fausbiill’

s Dhammapada (p . where the samestory is told

Yasakulaputtassa upanissayasampattim disvfi. tam

rattibhfige nibbiggitva gehaon pabaya nikkhantam ehi

Yasiti pakkositvfi, tasmiii iieva rattibhage sotfipattiphalam

punadivase arahattam papesi. Apare pi tassa sahayake

katupannfls agane ehibhikkhupabbaggfiya pabbigetvfi. arahat

tampapesi. Evaon loke ekasatthiyfi. arahantesuf’

gfitesu vut

thavasso pavaretva‘karatha bhikkhave kirikan ti saith.

im bhikkh ii disasu pesetva. Seeing that the youngnobleman Yasa was ripe for conversion ,

in the night, whenwearywith the vanities of the worldhe had left his home and

embraced the ascetic life, he called him , saying, Follow

me,Yasa,”and that very night he caused him to Obtain the

fruition of thefirst path , and on the following day arhatship .

Andfifty-four other persons, who were friends of Yasa

’

s,

he ordained with the formu la, Follow me, priest,

”and

caused them to attain arhatship . Thus when there were

sixty one arhats In the world, having passed the period of

seclusion during the rain s and resumed active duties , hesent forth the sixty priests in all directions , saying, GO

forth, priests , on your rounds (or travels)

”

Another passage, too, Showing Buddha’

s desire to see

his doctrine preached in the whole world, was pointed out

to me by Mr. Childers from the ‘Mahdparinibbfina Sutta, ’which has since been publishedby this indefatigable scholar

in the Journal Of the RoyalAsiatic Society,’vol. vii. p 77

Three months beforehis death , when Gautama’s health

and strength is fast failing, he is tempted by MAI-a, who

78 NOTES .

comes to him and urges him to bring his life andmission a t

once to a close by attaining N irv an a (dying) . Buddha

all points, and able to maintain the Truth with power

case, whereupon Buddha uses these striking words —Na

tivahafm pipims parinibbayissami yava me imam brahma

kariyam na iddhan k’

eva bhavissati phi

tan ka Vitt

harikam bahujannam puthubhflta/m, yavad eva manusseh i

suppakasitan ti.“0 wicked one, Iwill not die until this

my holy religion thrives and prospers , until it is widely

spread,known tomany peoples , and grown great, until it Is

completely published among men .

’

Mira again asserts

that this 18 already the case, andBuddha replies, Strive nomore, wicked one, the death ofthe Tathagata is at hand a t

the end of three months from this time, the Tathfigata will

attain Nirvfina.

”

NOTE B.

THE SCRISM IN THE BRARMA-SAMAJ.ll

TEE present position of the two parties in the Brahma

Samfij is well described by Rajnarain Bose (the Adi

Brahmo Samaj ,’

Calcutta, 1873, p . The particular

Opinions above referred to can be divided into two compre

hensive classes—conservative and progressive. The con

servative Brahmos are those who are unwilling to pu sh

religious and social reformation to any great extreme. They

are of opinion that reformation Should be gradual, the law

of gradual progress being universally prevalent in nature .

Brahma-Samaj, i.e. the Firs t Church of Brahma, while the progres

sive party underKeshub Chunder Sen was distinguishedby the name

of the Brahma-Samaj of India. The vowels u and 0 are often the

same in Bengali, and are sometimes used fora.

NOTES. 79

They also say that the prmciple of Brahmic harmony re

quires a harmonious discharge of all our duties , and that,

a s it is a du ty to take a part in reformation , so there are

oth er duties toperform—namely, those towards parents and

society— and that we should harmonise all these duties as

much as we can . However un satisfactory such arguments

may appear to a progressive Brahmo, they are such as could

n ot be slighted at first sight. They are certainly such as

to make the con servative Brahmo think Sincerely that he is

ju stified in not pushing religious and social reformation to

any great extreme. The progressive Brahm0 cannot, there

fore, call him a hypocrite. A union of both the conserva

tiv e and the progressive elements in the Brahmo Church is

n ecessary for its stability. The conservative element will

prevent the progressive from spoiling the cause ofreforma

tion by taking premature and abortive measures for ad

v an cing that cause ; the progressive element will preventthe conservative from proving a stolid Obstruction to it.

Th e conservative element will serve as a link between the

progressive element and the orthodox community, and

p revent the progressive Brahmo from being completelye stranged from that community, as the native Christiansare ; while the progressive element will prevent the con

s ervative from remaining inert and being absorbed by the

o rthodox community. The common interests of Brahma

Dharma should lead both clas ses to respect and be on

amicable terms with each other. It is true the progressiveo f the present half century will prove the conservativeof the next ; but there could never come a time when the

tw o classes wouldcease to exist in the bosom of theChurch .

S he should, like a wise mother, make them live in peace

w ith each other, and work harmoniously together for her

benefit.

As idolatry is intimately interwoven with our social

fabric, conservative Brahmos, though discarding it in other

resmcts, find it very diflicult to do IO on the occasion of

80 NOTES.

such very important domestic ceremonies as marriage,s h radh (ancestral sacrifices) , and u p an aya n a (spiritualapprenticing) ; but they should consider that Brahmoism

is not so imperative on any other point as on the renun

ciation of idolatry. It can allow conservatism in other

respects , but not on the point of idolatry. It can con

sider a man a Brahmo, if he be conservative in other

respects than idolatry ; but it can never consider an

idolater to be a Brahmo. The conservative Brahmo can

do one thing—that is, observe the old ritual, leaving out

only the idolatrous portion of it, if he do not choose to

follow the positive Brahma ritual laid down in the

An ushthana Paddhati.’

Liberty should be given by the

progressive Brahmo to the con servativeBrahmo in judgingof the idolatrous character of the portions of the Old ritual

rejected by him . If a progressive Brahmo requires a con

servative one to reject those portions which the former

considers to be idolatrous , but the latter does not, he denies

liberty of conscience to a fellow Brahmo.

TheAdi Brahmo Samaj is the national Hindu TheisticChurch , whose prin ciples of Church reformation we hav e

been describing above. Its demeanour towards the Old

religion of the country is friendly, but corrective and

reformative.

'It is this circumstance which pre eminentlydistinguishes it from the Brahmo-Samfij of India, whoseattitude to that religion is antagonistic and Offensive. The

mission of the Adi Samaj is to fulfil the Old religion , and

not to destroy it. The attitude of theAdi Samaj to the oldreligion is friendly, but it is not at the same time Opposed

to progress . It is amistake to call it a conservative Church .

It is rather a conservative-progressive Church , or, morecorrectly, simply a Church orreligious body, leavingmattersof social reformation to the judgments of individual membars orbodies of such members . It contains both prognes

sive and conservative members . As the ultra-progressiveBrahmos, whowanted to eliminate the conservative element

NOTES. 8]

from it, were obliged to secede from it, so if a high conser

vative party arise in its bosom which would attempt to do

violence to the progressive element and convert the Churchinto a partly conservative one

,that party also would be

obliged to secede from it . Only men who can be tolerant

ofeach other’

s opinions, and can respect each other’

s earnest

convictions , progressive and conservative, can remain its

members .

’

The strong national feeling of the Indian reformers finds

expression in the following passage from Brahmic Questions

,

’

p . 9

A Samaj is accessible to all. The minds of the ma

jority of our countrymen are not deeply saturated withChristian sentiments. What would they think of a Brahmo

ministerw howouldquote on theVedi (altar) sayings fromthe Bible Would they not from that time conceivean intolerable hatred towards Brahmoism and everythingBrahmo Ifquoting a sentence from the Bible or Koran

Offend ou r countrymen , we shall not do so. Truth is as

catholic when taken from the Sistras as from the Koran

or the Bible. True liberality consists, not inquoting textsfrom the religious Scriptures ofother nations, but in bringing up , as we advance, the rearwho are grovelling in ignorance and superstition . We certainly do not act against

the dictates of conscience, if wequote texts from the Hindu

Bistras only, and not from all the religious Scriptures Of

all the countries on the face of the globe. Moreover, there

is not a single saying in the Scriptures of other nations

which has not its counterpart in the Sastras .’

And again in The Adi Brahma-Samaj, its Views and

Prin ciples,’

p . 1

The members of the Adi Samaj , aiming to diffuse thetruths Of Theism among their own nation , the Hindus,have naturally adopted a H indu mode of propagation, justas an Arab Theist would adopt an Arabian mode of propa

g ation, and a Chinese Theist a Chinese one. Such dif

VOL. II. G

82 NOTES .

ferences in the aspect ofTheism in different countriesmus t

naturally arise from the us ual course of things, but theyare adventitious, not essential, national, not sectarian . Al .

though Brahmoism is a universal religion, it is impossibleto communicate a universal form to it. It must wear a

particular form in a particular country. A SO-called uni

versal form wouldmake it appear grotesque and ridiculou s

to the nation or religious denomination among whom it is

intended to be propagated, and would not command their

veneration . In conformity with such views, theAdi Samaj'

has adopted a H indu form to propagate Theism amongHindus . It has therefore retained many innocent H indu

u sages and customs , and has adopted a form of divine ser

vice containing passages ex tracted from the Hindu Sastras

only, a book of Theistic texts containing selections from

those sacred books only, and a ritual containing as much

of the ancient form as could be kept consistently with th edictates of conscience.

’

NOTE C.

EXTRACTS FROM KESHUR CHUNDER SEN’

S LECTURE ON

CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY, 1870.

WHY have I cherished respect and reverence for ChristWhy is it that, though I do not take the name

of Christian ,I still persevere in od

'

ering my heartythanksgivings to Jesus Christ ? There must be somethingin the life and death of Christ—there must be somethingin his great gospel which tends to bring comfort and light

(1 strength to a heart heavy-laden with iniquity and

wickedness . Istudied Christ ethically, nay spiritually—and I studied the Bible also in the same Spirit, and I

must acknowledge candidly and sincerely that I owe a

great deal to Christ and to the gospel ofChrist.


84 NOTES .

rations and activities . That is true baptism . SO with

regard to the doctrine of the Sacrament. There are manywho eat the bread and drink the wine at the Sacramental

table, and go through the ceremony in the most pious and

fervent spirit ; but, after all, what does the real Sacramen tmean . If men simply adopt it as a tribute Of respect an d

honour to Christ, Shall he be satisfied Shall they themselves be satisfied ? Can we look upon them as Christian s

Simply because they have gone through this rite regularlyfor twenty or fifty years of their lives I think not .

Christ demands of u s absolute sanctification and purifi

cation of the heart. In this matter, also, I see Christ on

one side, and Christian sects on the other.

What is that bread which Christ asked his disciples toeat what that wine which he asked them to taste Anyman who has Simple intelligence in him would at once

come to the conclusion that all this was metaphorical, an d

highly and eminently spiritual. Now, are you prepared to

accept Christ simply as an outward Christ, an Ou tward

teacher, an external atonement and propitiation , orwill you

prove true to Christ by accepting his solemn injunctions intheir Spiritual importance and weight He distin ctly says ,every follower ofhis must eat his flesh and drink his blood .

If we eat, bread is converted into strength and health, and

becomes the means of prolonging our life ; so, spiritually ,

if we take truth into our heart,if we put Chris t into th e

soul, we assimilate the Spirit of Christ to our spiritual

being, and then we find Christ incorporated into our exist

ence and converted into spiritual strength , and health , and

joy, and blessedness . Christ wants something that will

amount to self-sacrifice, a casting away of the Old man and

a new growth in the heart . I thus draw a line of demar

cation between the visible and outward Christ and th e

invisible and inward Christ, between bodily Christ and

spiritual Christ, between the Christ of images and p ictures

and the Christ that grows in the heart, between deadChrist,

norms . 85

and living Christ, between Christ that lived and that was

and Christ that does live and that is .

To be a Christian,then , is to be Christ-like. Chris

tianity means becominglikeChrist, not acceptance ofChrist

as a proposition or as an outward representation , but

spiritual conformity with the life and character of Christ .

And what is Christ P By Christ I understand one who

said, Thy will be done ; and when I talk of Christ, I

talk of that spirit of loyalty to God, that spirit of absolute

determinedness and preparedness to say at all timm and in

all circumstances , Thy will be done, not mine.

”

This prayer about forgiving an enemy, and loving an

enemy, this transcendental doctrine of love ofman , is reallysweet to me

, and when I think of that blessed Man of God

crucified on the cross , and u ttering those blessed words,

Fath er,forgive them ,

they know not what they do oh !

Ifeel that Imu st love that being, I feel that th ere is something w ithin me which is touched by these sweet and

heav enly u tterances , I feel that I must love Christ, letChristian s say w hat they like against me ; that Christ I

must lov e,for he preached love for an enemy.

Wh en every individual man becomes Christian in spirit

—repudiate the name,if you like

—when every individualman becomes as prayerful as Christ was , as loving and for

giving towards enemies as Christ was , as self-sacrificing as

Christ was , then these little units , these little individualities,

will coalesce and combine together by the natural affinityof th eir hearts ; and these new creatures , reformed, regene

rated,in the child-like and Christ-like spirit of devotion

and faith , will feel drawn towards each other, and theyshall constitute a real Christian Church , a real Christian

nation . Allow me, friends , to say, England is not yet a.

Christian nation .

’

86 NOTES.

Ex'rmcrs FROM A Camcmsu ISSUED BY A nEuBEn or THE

ADI Bru n o-Su d s.

Q. Who is the deity of the Brahmos

A . The One True God, one only withouta second, whom

all H indu Sastras proclaim .

Q. What is the divine worship of the Brahmos ?

A . Loving God, and doing the works He loveth .

Q. What is the temple of the BrahmosA . The pure heart.Q. What are the ceremonial Observances of the Brah

mos

A . Good works .

Q. What is the sacrifice of the Brahmos

A . Renunciation of selfishness .

Q. What are the austerities of the Brahmos ?A . Not committing sin . The Mahabharata says, H e

who does not commit sin in mind, Speech , action, or under

standing, performs austerities ; not he who drieth up his

body .

Q. Wh at is the place of pilgrimage of the BrahmosA . The company of the good.

Q. What is the Veda of the Brahm08

A. Divine knowledge. It is superior to allVedas . The

Veda itself says The inferiorknowledge is theBigVeda,the YajurVeda, the Sama Veda, the Atharva Veda, etc.

the superior knowledge is that which treats ofGod.

Q. What is the most sacred formula of the Brahmos

A . Be good anddo good.

Q. Who is the true BraM an P

A . He who knows Brahma. The Brihadfiranyaka-Upa

nishad says : He who departs from this world know ingGod, is a Brahman . (See Brahmic Questions of the Day,

’

X I I I .

ON THE

V ITALITY OF BRAHMAN ISM .

THE delivery of a lecture on Missions in WestminsterAbbey by a layman , andthat layman aGerman, causedgreat excitement at the time. While some persons ofgreat experience and authority in Church and Stateexpressed their full approval of the bold step whichthe Dean ofWestminster had taken, and while someofthemost devotedmissionaries conveyed to me theirh earty thanks for what I had said in my lecture,others could not find terms sufi ciently violem to

vent their displeasure against the Dean, and to proclaim their horror at the heretical Opinions embodiedin my address. Iwas publicly threatened with legalp roceedings, and an eminent lawyer informed me inthe Times of the exact length of imprisonment Ishould have to undergo.

I did not reply. I had lived long enough inEngland toknow that nogood cause can ever be servedby a breach of the law, and neither the Dean nor I

myself would have acted as we did, unless it hadbeen as certained beforehand by the highest legalauthorities that, with the sanction of theDean, therewas nothing illegal in a layman delivering such a

lecture within the precincts of his Abbey. As to the

opinions which I expressed on that occasion, I had

88 ON THE vrram'rr

expressed them before in my published Lectures onthe Science of Religion .

’ Whether they are orthodoxOr heretical, others are more competent to determinethan I am . I simply hold them to be true

,and at

my th e of life, mere contradictions, abuse, or eventhreats are not likely to keep me from expressingOpinions which, whether rightly or wrongly, seem to

me founded in truth .

But while I refrained from replying to mereoutbursts of anger, I gladly avail myself of the

Opportunity Offered by an article published in the

Fortnightly Review (July 1874) by Mr. Lyall, a.

highly distinguished Indian civilian , in order to ex

plain more fully some of the views expressed inmy lecture which seemed liable to misapprehen sion .

Unfortunately the writer of the article On MissionaryReligions had not thewhole ofmy lecture beforehim when writing his criticisms, but had to form hisOpinion ofit from a condensed report which appearedin the Times ofDecember 5, 1873. The limits of a.lecture are in themselves very narrow, and when so

large a subject as that of which I had to treat inWestminster Abbey had to be condensedwithin sixtyminutes

,not only those who wish to misunderstand,

but those also who try to judge fairly, may discover inwhat has been said, or what has not been said, a verydifi

‘

erentmeaning from that which the lecturerwishedto convey. And if a closely packed lecture is com

pressed oncemore in to one column ofthe Times,’ it ishardlypossible to avoidwhat has happened in this case .Mr. Lyall has blamedme fornot quotingfacts or statements which, as he will have seen by this time, I had.

quoted in my lecture. I am remindedby him, forin

or BBAHMANISM. 89

stance, ofthe remarksmade by SirGeorge Campbell inhisReport upon theGovernmentofBengal in 1871—72,when he wrote

,It is a great mistake to suppose that

theHin du religion is not proselytising ; the systemOf castes gives room for the introduction of any num

ber Of ou tsiders ; so Iong as people do not interferewith existing castes, they may form a new caste andcall them selves Hindus and theBrahmans are alwaysready to receive all who will submit to them and paythem. Th e process of manufacturing Rajputs fromambitiou s aborigines goes on before our eyes.

’ This,’Mr. Lyall observes , is one recently recorded observation out ofmany that might be quoted.

’

It is th is very passage which I had quoted in mythird note, only that in quoting it from the Reporton the Progress and Condition of India,

’ laid beforeParliam ent in 1873, I had added the caution of

the rep orter, that this assertion must be taken withreserve .

’

W ith such small exceptions, however, I havereally n othing to complain of in the line of argumentadopted by Mr. Lyall. I believe that, after havingread my paper, he would have modified some portionsofwhat he has written, but I feel equally certain thatit is well that what he has written should have beenwritten , and should be carefully pondered both bythose who have the interests of the natives and bythose who have the interests ofChrietiau missions atheart. The few remarks which I take the liberty ofmaking are made by way of explanation only ; on all

truly essential points I believe there is not muchdifi

'

erence of Opinion between Mr. Lyall and myself.As my lecture in Westminster Abbey was de

'

90 ON THE vrramrr

livered shortly after the publication of my Introduetion to the Science of Religion,

’I ventured to

take certain points which I had fully treated therea s generally known . One of them is the exact valueto be ascribed to canonical books in a scientific treatment of religion . WhenMr. Lyall Observes in “m ine,that inferences as to the nature and tendency of

various existing religions which are drawn from studyand exegetic comparison of their scriptures must bequalified by actual Observation of these religion s andtheir popular form and working effects, he expressesan opinion which I hold as strongly as he holds ithimself. After enumerating the books which are

recognisedas sacred or authoritative by large religiou scommunities in India—books of such bulk and su chdifliculty that it seems almost impossible for any

s ingle scholar to master them in their entirety—Iadded, And even then our eyes would not havereached many of the sacred recesses in which theHindu mind has taken refuge, either to meditateon the great problems of life, or to free itself fromthe temptations and fetters of worldly existence byp enances and mortifications of the most exquisitecruelty. India has always been teeming with religions sects, and its religious life has been broken up

into countless local centres which itrequired all the

ingenuity and perseverance of a priestly caste to holdtogether with a semblance of dogmatic uniformity)We must take care, however, in all scientific

studies, not to render a task impossible by attaching to it conditions which, humanly speaking, can

not be fulfilled. It is desirable, no doubt, to studys ome of the local varieties of faith and worship in


92 ON THE vrram'rr

Petersburg, then to Athens, then to Oxford, thento Berlin , that he might hear the sermons ofRoman

Catholics, Greeks, and Protestan ts, or read theirso-called religious papers, in order to form out of

these scattered impression s an idea of the real natureof the working efi

‘

ects of Christianity ‘

9 Or shouldwe not rather tell him to take the Bible, and the

hymn s of Christian Churches, and from them to

form his ideal of true Christianity ? A religion ismuch more likely to become a mysteriou s thingwhen it is sought for in the heart of each individualbeliever, where alone, no doubt, it truly lives, or in theendless shibboleths of parties, or in the often contradictory tenets ofsects, than when it is studied in thosesacred books which are recognised as authoritativeby all believers, howevermuch they may vary in theirinterpretations of certain passages, and still morein the practical application of the doctrines con

tained in their sacred codes to the ordering of theirdaily life. Let thedialects of languages or religionsbe studied by all means, let even the peculiaritiesin the utteran ces of each town , village, or family, becarefully noted ; but let it be recognised at the sametime that, for practical purposes, the immense varietyof individual expression has to be merged in one

general type, and that this alone supplies the chanceof a truly scientific treatment.So much in justification of the principle which I.

have followed throughout in my treatment of the so

called Book-religions, holding that they must bejudged, first of all, out of their own mouths out

of their sacred writings. Although each individualbeliever is responsible for his religion , no religion

or BRAHMANISM. 93

c an be made responsible for each individual believer.E v en ifwe adopt the theory of development in reli

gion ,and grant to every thinking man his right of

p rivate interpretation , there remains, and there musta lways remain , to the historian of religion , an appealto the statutes of the original code with which eachreligion stands and falls , and by which alone it canj u stly be judged.

It may be, asMr. Lyall says, an inveteratemodernh abit to as sume all great historic names to represents omething definite, symmetrical, and organised. It

m ay be that Asiatic institutions, as he as serts, are

in capable of being circumscribed by rules and formald efinitions. But Mr. Lyall, if he directed his attent ion to European institutions, would meet withm u ch the same difficulties there. Christianity, inthe largest sense of the word, is as difi cult to defineas Brahmanism the English constitution is as un

s ymmetrical as the system of caste. Yet, if wemeant o speak and argue about them, we must attempt todefine them , andwith regardto any religion , whetherA siatic or European, no definition, it seems to me,c an be fairer than that which we gain from its

canonical books.I now come to a more important point. I had

divided the six great religions of the world intoMissionary and non-Missionary, including Judaism,

Brahmanism, and Zoroastrianism, under the latter ;Buddhism , Christianity, andMohammedanism,

underth e former category. If I had followed the good Old

rule of always giving a definition of technical termsthe objections raised by Mr. Lyall and others wouldp robably never have been urged. I thought, how

94 ON THE vrram'rr

ever,that from the whole tenor of my lecture it

would have been clear that by missionary religion sImeant those in which the spreading of the truth and

the conversion of unbelievers are raised to the rank

of a sacred duty by the founder or his immediate

successors . In explaining the meaning of the wordproselyte, or wpoa'

rjh v'ror, I had shown that literally itmeans those who come to u s, not those to whom we

go, so that even a religion so exclusive as Judaismmight admit proselytes, might possibly, ifwe insistedonly on the etymological meaning of the word, becalled proselytising, without having any right to thename of a missionary religion . But I imagined thatI had said enough to make such a misunderstandingimpossible. We may say that the English nobilitygrows, but we should never say that it proselytis es,and it would be a mere playing with words if, because Brahmanism admi ts new comers, we were toclaim for it the title of a proselytising religion . The

Brahmanic Scriptures have not a word ofwelcome forconverts —quite the contrary ; and as long as thoseScriptures are recognised as the highest authority bythe Hindus themselves, we have no right to ascribeto Brahmanism what is in direct contradiction withtheir teaching. The burning of widows was not enjoined in the Vedas, and hence, in order to gain a.

sanction for it, a passage in the Veda was falsified. No such necessity was ever felt with regard to

gaining converts for the Brahmanic faith. An d this

shows that, though admission to certain Brahmanicprivileges may be easier at present than it was in

the days ofVisvamitra, conversion by persuasion hasnever become an integral portion of the Brahmaniclaw .


96 ON THE VITALITY

p rise at the unorthodox theories advanced by soh igh an authority as Dr. Adler. I am informed,however, that the discussion thus originated will notremain without practical results, and that somethinglike a Jewish Missionary Society is actually formingin London , to prove that, if missionary zeal is a testof life, the Jewish religion will not shrink from sucha test. We have done something,

’the Rev. Charles

Voysey remarks, to stir them up ; but let us not

forget that our reminder was answered, not by a

repulse or expression ofsurprise, but byan assurancethat many earnest Jews had already been thinkingof this very work, and planning among themselveshow they could revive some kind of missionaryenterprise. Before long, I feel sure, they will givepractical evidence that the missionary spirit is stillalive and striving in their religion .

’And again :

The Jews will soon show whether their religionis alive or dead, will soon meet the rival religionsof the world on more than equal terms

, and willonce more take the lead in these days of enlightenedbelief, and in search after conceptions worthy of a

God, ju st as of old Judaism stood on a lofty height,far above all the religions ofmankind.

’

Wh at has happened in London seems to havehappened in Bombay also . The Zoroas trians, too,did not like to be told that their religion was dying,and that their gradual decay was due to the absen ceof the missionary spirit among them. We read inthe Oriental ’ ofApril, 1874, There is a discussion as

to whether it is contrary to the creed of Zoroas ter toseek converts to the faith. While conceding thatZoroaster was him self opposed to proselytising hea

or Bnm uamsu . 97

th ens, most of theParsis hold that the great decreasein the number of his followers renders it absolutelynecessary to augment the sect.

’

Lastly,Mr. Lyall stands up for Brahmanism, and

m aintains that in India Brahmanism has spread out

du ring the last hundred years, while Islam and

Ch ristianity have contracted. More person s inIn dia,

’ he says,become every year Brahmanists,

th an all the converts to all the other religionsIn dia put together.

’The number of converts,’ he

m aintain s, added to Brahmanism in the last few

generations, especially in this country, must be imm ense ; and if the word p roselyte may be u sed in

the sense of one that has come, not necessarily being

one that has been invited or p ersuaded to come, thenB rahmanism may lay claim to be by far the mostsu ccessful proselytising religion of modern times inIndia .

’

The words which I have ventured to put in

italics, will show at once how little difference of

op inion there is between Mr. Lyall and myself, as

long as we u se the same words in the same sen se.If proselytising could be used in the etymologicalsen se here assigned to it by Mr. Lyall, then ,

no

doubt, Brahmanism would be a proselytising or missionary religion . But this is mere playing withw ords . In English, proselytising is never used inthat sen se. If I meant by missionary religionsn othing more than religions which are capable Of

in crease by admitting those that wish to be admitted,religions which say to the world at large, Knockand it shall be opened unto you ,

’but no more

,then,

no doubt, Brahmanism, or at least some phases of it,VOL . II. B

9 8 ON run VITALITY

m ight be called by that name. But what, accordingto my explanation, constitutes a missionary religionis something totally different. It is the spirit of

t ruth in the hearts of believers which cannot rest,

u nless it manifests itself in thought, word, and deed,which is not satisfied till it has carried its messageto every human soul, till what it believes to be thetruth is accepted as the truth by all members of the

That spirit imparts to certain religions a characterof their own, a character which, if Iam not mistaken ,

constitutes the vital principle of ouron religion ,

and of the other two which, in that respect, standnearest to Christianity —Buddhism and Mohamme

danism . This is not a mere outward difference,

depending on the willingness of others to join or notto join ; it is an inward difference which stampedChristianity as a missionary religion when as yet it

c ounted no more than twelve apostles, and whichlays on everyone that calls himself a Christian theduty of avowing his convictions, whatever they maybe

,and gaining others to embrace the truth. In

that sense every true Christian is a missionary. Mr.Lyall is evidently aware of all this, if we may judgeby the expressions which he uses when speaking of

the increase of Brahmanism . He speaks of the clansand races which inhabit the hill-tracts, the outlyinguplands, and the uncleared jungle districts of India,as melting into H induism . He represents the ethnicalfron tier, described by Mr. Hun ter in the Annals of

Rural Bengal,’as an ever-breaking shore of primitive

beliefs, which tumble constantly into the ocean of

B rahmanism . And even when he dwells on the fact


100 on THE VITALI'I‘Y

dead. The word was too strong ; at all events, it .

was liable to be misunderstood. What I meant tosay was that the popular worship ofSiva and Vishnubelongs to the same intellectual stratum as the worship of Jupiter and Apollo, that it is an anachronismin the nineteenth century, and that, forourpurposes,for prognosticating the issues of the religious struggles of the future, it may simply be set aside. For

settling any of the questions that may be said to bepending between Christianity, Mohammedanism, and

Buddhism,Brahmanism is dead. For converting any

number ofChristian s, Mohammedan s, and Buddhistsback to idol-worship, Brahmanism is dead. It mayabsorb Sonthals, and Gonds, and Bhils , and otherhalf-savage races, with their rough-hewn jungledeities, it may even raise them to a higher stage ofcivilisation , and imbue them with the first principlesof a truer faith and a purer worship, but for carryingany of the strong positions of Buddhism,

Mohammedanism , and Christianity, Brahmanism is powerless and dead. In India itself, where it clings to thesoil with a thousand roots, it was beaten by Buddhism, and, if it afterwards recovered its position , thatw as due to physical force, not to persuasion and con

version . The struggle between Mohammedanism and

Brahmanism in India was on both sides a politicalrather than a religiou s struggle : still, when a changeof religion arose from conviction , we see Brahmanismyielding to the purer light of Islam, not Islam to

Brahmanism.

I did not undervalue the actual power of Brahmanism

,particularly its power of resistance ; nor

did I prophesy its Speedy extinction . I said, on the

or BRAHMANIBM. 101

contrary, that a religion may linger on for a longtime, and be accepted by the large masses of thepeople because it is there, and there is nothingb etter. It is true, ’ I added, there are millions ofchildren , women , and men in India who fall downbefore the stone image of Vishnu , with h is four arms,riding on a creature, half-bird, half-man , or sleepingon the serpent ; who worship Siva, a monster withthree eyes, riding naked on a bull, with a-necklace ofskulls for his ornament. There are human beingswho still believe in a god of war, Kartikeya, withsix faces, riding on a peacock, and holding bow and

arrow in his hands ; and who invoke a God of

success, Ganesa, with four hands and an elephant’shead, sitting on a rat. Nay, it is true that, in thebroad daylight of the nineteenth century, the figureof the goddess Kali is carried through the streets of.her own city, Calcutta, her wild dishevelled hairreaching to her feet, with a necklace of human heads,h er tongue protruded from her mouth, her girdlestained with blood. All this is true ; but ask anyHindu who can read and write and think, whetherthese are the gods he believes in , and he will smileat your credulity. How long this living death of

national religion in India may last, no one can tellforour purposes, however, for gaining an idea of the

issue of the great religious struggle of the future,that religion is dead and gone.

’

I ask Mr. Lyall, is this true or is it not He sayshimself, that Brahmanism may possibly melt awayof a heap andbreak up, Iwould not absolutely deny.’

Would Mr. Lyall say the same of Buddhism, Mohammedanism,

or Christianity ? He points himself to


the description which Gibbon gives of the ancientRoman religion in the second century oftheChristianera, and shows how closely applicable it is to thepresent state of Brahmanism in India. The tolerant .

superstition of the people, not confined by the claimsof any speculative system ; the devout polytheist,whom fear, gratitude, and curiosity, a dream, or an

omen,a singular disorder, or a distant journey, per

petually disposed to multiply the articles of his beliefand to enlarge the list of his protectors ; the in

genuou s youth alike in structed in every school toreject and deepise the religion of the multitude ;the philOSOphic class who “ look with indulgence onthe errors of the vulgar, diligently practice the ceremonies of their fathers, and devoutly frequent thetemples of their gods the magistrates who knovrand value the advantages of religion as it is con

nectedwith civil government —all these scenes andfeelings are represented in India at this moment

,

though by no means in all parts ofIndia.

’ If,then,

in the second century a student of religiou s pathology had expressed his conviction that in spite of thenumber of its professors, in spite of its antiquity, inspite of its indigenous character, in spite of its .

political, civil, and social influences, in spite of its

temples and priests, in spite of its schools and philosophers

,the ancient religion of Jupiter had lost its

vitality, was sick unto death, nay, for all real purposes was dead, would h e have been farwrong It

may be replied, no doubt, that similar corruptions .

have crept into other religions also :that gaudy dollsare carried about in Christian cathedrals ; that peopleare invited to see tears rolling down from the eyes of.

”


104 or run vrmm'rr

Debendra Nath Tagore, and Keshub Chunder Sen ,we ought to recognise a transition from Brahmanismto a purer faith ; when I pointed out that, thoughChristian missionaries might not wish to recogniseBrahmoism as their work, it was the work of thosemissionary Christians who have lived in India, as

examples of a true Christian life, who have ap

proached the natives in a truly missionary spirit, inthe spirit of truth and in the spirit of love, Mr. Lyallreplies that Brahmoism,

as propagated by KeshubChunder Sen , seems to be Unitarianism of a European type, and, so far as one can understand itsargument, appears to have no logical stability or

locus stwndi between revelation and pure rationalismthat it propounds either too much or too little to itshearers.’ A faith, ’ he continues, which containsmere fervent sentiments, and high conceptions ofmorality, does not partake of the complexion ornature of those religions which have encompassedthe heart of great nations

,nor is it generally sup

posed in India that Brahmoism is perceptibly on thein crease.’

Mu tatis mu tandis,this is very much what an

orthodox Rabbi might have said of Christianity. Let

us wait. I am not given to prophesy, but though Iam no longer young, I still hold to a belief that a

cause upheld with such honesty of purpose, purity,and unselfishness as Brahmoism has been, must and

will meet with ultimate success. Does Mr. Lyallthink that Unitarian Christianity is no Christianity ?Does he find logical stability in TrinitarianismDoes he consider pure rationalism incompatible withrevelation Does he know of any teacher who might

or Bnu nu m su . 105

'not be accu sed of saying either too little or toomuch ? In A .D. 800 the Double Procession was as

much a burning question as the Homoousia in 324m e, therefore, both Channing and Dr. Diillinger to

be anath ematised now Brahmoism may not belike the religions of old, but must the religion s ofthefuture be like the religions of the past P However,I do not wish to draw Mr. Lyall into a theologicala rgument . His estimate of the real value and

vitality of Brahmoism may be right—mine may bewrong. His presence in India, and his personalintercourse with the Brahmos, may have given him

Opportun ities of judging which I have not. Only letu s not forget that for watching the movements of a

great struggle, and for judging of its successfulissue, a certain distance from the field of battle hasits advantages also, and that judges in India havenot alw ays proved the best judges of India.

On e point, however, Iam quite willing to concede.IfBrahmoism and similar movemen ts may be con

ridered as reforms and resuscitations of Brahmanism,

then I withdraw my expression that Brahmanism is

dead. Only let us remember that we are thu s u singtwo very different senses—that we

a re again playing with words . In the one sen se itis stark idolatry : in the other, the loftiest Spiritualworship. The former asserts the existence of manypersonal gods : the latter shrinks even from the at

tribute of personality as too human a conception of

the Highest Spirit. The former makes the priesta kind of god on earth, the latter proclaims thepriesthood of all men ; the former is guided bys criptures which man calls sacred, the latter knows


of no sacred oracles but the still small voice in the ~

heart of every man . The two are like two oppositepoles. What is negative on one side is positive onthe other ; what is regarded by the one as the mostsacred truth is anathematised by the other as deadlyerror.Mr. Lyall tell us of Ghasi Das, an inspired pro

phet,who eojourned in the wilderness forsix months , .

and then issued forth preaching to the poor and

ignorant the creed of the True Name (Satnam). H e

gathered about half a million people together beforehe died in 1850. He borrowed h is doctrines from thewell-known Hindu sect of the Satnamis, and thoughhe denounced Brahmanic abuses, he instituted casterules of his own , and his successor was murdered,not for heresy

, but because he aped Brahmanic insignia and privileges . Mr. Lyall thinks that thiscommunity, if left alone, will relapse into a modifiedBrahmanism . This may be so, but it can hardly besaid

, that a reform the followers of which are mur

dered for aping Brahmanic ms ign la and privilegea

represents Brahmanism,which Mr. Lyall defines as

the broad denomination of what is recognised byall H indus as the supreme theological faculty and

the comprehensive scheme of auth oritative traditionto which all minor beliefs are referred for sanction .

’

Wh en I Spoke of Brahmanism as dead, I meant .

the popular orthodox Brahmanism, which is openlypatronised by the Brahman s, though scornedby themin secret. I did not, and could not,mean the worshipofBrahma as the Supreme Spirit, which has existedin India from the time of the Upanishads to the

pre sent day, and has lately assumed the name of


1 08 ON THE vrmmrr or a m sn .

ture was to discourage missionary efforts, he musthave found out his mistake when he came to read itas I delivered it in Westminster Abbey. I know of

no nobler life than that of a true missionary. I

tried to defend the labours of thepaternalmissionaryagain st disparaging criticisms. I tried to accountfor the small success of controversial missions, byshowing how little is gained by mere argument andcasuistry at home. And I pointed to the indirectmissionary influence exercised by every man wholeads a Christian life in India or elsewhere

, as the

most encouraging sign of the final triumph of a

pure and living Christianity. It is very possible, as

Mr. Lyall says somewhat sarcastically, that missionaries will even yet hardly agree that the essentialsof their religion are not in the creeds, but in love ;because they are sent forth to propound scripturesw hich say clearly that what we believe or disbelieveis literally a b'wm ingquestion .

’But those who, with

Mr. Lyall, consider love of man founded on love ofG od nothing but fiat morality,’ must have forgotten that a Higher One than they declared thaton these two hang all the law and the commandm ents. By placing abstruse tenets, the handiworkofPopes and Councils, in the place of Christ’s teaching, and by making a belief in these positive articlesa bm'm

'

ng question , weak mortals have driven weakm ortals to ask, Are we Christians still9 Let

them for once by observation and experience trythe oldest and simplest and most positive article ofChristianity, real love of man founded on real loveof God, and I believe they will soon ask themselves,When shall we be Chri stians at lastP

XIV .

LECTURE

ON THE VEDAS OR THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE

BRAHMANS,‘

D elivered at the Philosophical Institution, Leeds, March, 1865.

I HAVE brought with me one volume of my edition ,

of the Veda, and I should not wonder if it were thefirst copy of the work which has ever reached thisbu sy town of Leeds . Nay, Iconfess I have some misgivings that Imay have undertaken a hopeless task,and I begin to doubt whether I shall succeed in explaining to you the interest which I feel for thisan cien t collection of sacredhymn s—an interest whichh as never failed me while devoting to the publicationof this voluminous work the best twenty years of mylife. Many times have I been asked, But what is theVeda ‘

9 Why should it be published ‘

P What are

we likely to learn from a book composed nearly fourthou sand years ago, and intended from the beginningforan un cultivatedrace ofmere heathens and savages,—a book which the natives of India have never published themselves, although, to the present day, theyprofess to regard it as the highest authority for their

1 Some of the points touched upon in this Lecture have been

As the second edition of this work has been out of print for several

years, I have here quoted a few passages from it in full.

l

110 LECTURE on THE vnnas .

religion, morals, and philosophy Are we, the

people of England or of Europe, in the nineteenthcentury, likely to gain any new light on religiou s,moral, or philosophical question s from the old songs

“of the Brahmans And is it so very certain that thewhole book is not a modern forgery, without anysubstantial claims to that high antiquity which isascribed to it by the Hindus, so that all the labourbestowed upon it would not only be labour lost, butthrow discredit on our powers of discrimination , andmake us a laughing-stock among the shrewd nativesof India PThese and similar questions I have had to an swer

many times when asked by others, and some of themwhen asked by myself, before embarking on so

hazardous an undertaking as the publication of the

Rig-Veda and its ancient commentary. And I be

lieve I am not mistaken in supposing that many ofthose who to-night have honoured me with theirpresence may have entertained similar doubts and

misgivings when invited to listen to a Lecture On

the Vedas or the Sacred Books of the Brahman s .

’

I shall endeavour, therefore, as far as this is possible within the limits of one Lecture, to answer some

ofthese questions,and to remove some ofthese doubts ,by explaining to you , first, what the Veda really is ,d, secondly, what importance it possesses, not only

to the people ofIndia, but to ourselves in Europeand here again , not only to the student of Orientallanguages, but to every student of history

,religion ,

or philosophy ; to every man who has once felt thecharm of tracing that mighty stream of human

thought on which we ourselves are floating onward,


112 LECTURE on THE vnnas .

that carries us back to a more primitive, or, if you »like, more childlike state in thehistory ofman 1 thanthe Veda. As the language of theVeda, the Sanskrit,is the most ancient type of the English of the present day (Sanskrit and English are but varieties of"

one and the same language), so its thoughts and feelings contain in reality the first roots and germs ofthat intellectual growth which by an unbroken chainconnects our own generation with the ancestors ofthe Aryan race—with those very people who at the

rising and setting of the sun listened with tremblinghearts to the songs of the Veda that told th em of

bright powers above, and of a life to come after thesun of their own lives had set in the clouds of the

evening . These men were the true ancestors of our

race ; and the Veda is the oldest book we have inwhich to study the first beginnings of our

’

language :

and ofall that is embodied in language. We are bynature Aryan , Indo-European , not Semitic our spi

ritual kith and kin are to be found in India, Persia,Greece

,Italy

,Germany ; not in Mesopotamia, Egypt,

or Palestine. This is a fact that ought to be clearlyperceived and con stantly kept in view

, in order to .

understand the importance which the Veda still hasfor u s

,after the lapse of more than three thousand

years andafter ever somany changes in ourlanguage,thought, and religion .

Whatever the intrinsic value of the Veda, if it

In the sciences of law and society, old means not old in chro

to the beginning of human progress considered as a development ,and that is most modern which is farthest removed from that

beginning.

’- J. F. McLennan , PrimitiveMar; iage, p . 8.

LECTURE ON THE VEDAS. 113

simply contained the names of kings, the descriptionofbattles, the dates of famines, it would still be, byits age alone, the most venerable of books . Do we

everfindmu ch beyond such matters in Egyptian hieroglyphics , or in cuneiform inscriptions P In fact,what does the ancient history of the world beforeCyrus, before 500 B.0 ., consist of but meagrelists of Egyptian , Babylonian ,

Assyrian dynastiesWh at do the tablets of Kam ak, the palaces of

Nineveh,and the cylinders of Babylon tell us about

th e thoughts of men 3) All is dead and barren , no

where a sigh, nowhere a jest, nowhere a glimpse ofhumanity.

1 Th ere has been but one oasis in thatvast desert of ancient Asiatic history, the history ofth e Jews. Another such oasis is theVeda. Here, too,we come to a stratum of ancient thought, of ancientfeelings, hOpes, joys and fears—of ancient religionThere is perhaps too little of kings and battles in theVeda, and scarcely anything of the chronologicalframework of history. But poets surely are betterthan kings, hymn s and prayers aremore worth listening to than the agonies of butchered armies

, and

gu esses at truth more valuable than unmeaning titlesof Egyptian orBabylonian despots . Itwillbe difficultto settle whether theVeda is ‘the oldest of books,’ andwhether some of the portion s of the Old Testamentmay not be tracedback to the same or even an earlierdate than the oldest hymns of the Veda. But, in

th e Aryan world, theVeda is certam the oldestbook,

and its preservation amounts almost to a miracle.

After the progress made of late years in the decipherment of

Egyp tian and Babylonian inscriptions this statement requires somemodification .

VOL . 11 .

1 14 LECTURE ON THE VEDAS.

It is nearly twenty years ago since my attention

w as first drawn to the Veda, while attending, in th e

years 1846 and 1847, the lectures of Eugene Burnou fat the College de France. I was then looking ou t,

like most youn g men at that time of life, for some

greatwork, andwithout weighing long the difficultieswhich had hitherto prevented the publication of th e

Veda, I determined to devote all my time to a collec

tion of the materials necessary for such an undertak

ing. I had read the principal works of the laterS anskrit literature, but had found little there thatseemed to be more than curious . But to publishthe Veda, a work that had never before been pub

lished in India or in Europe , that occupied in the

history of Sanskrit literature the same positionw hich the Old Testament occupies in the history ofthe Jews , the New Testament in the history of

modern Europe, theKoran in th e history ofMohammedanism ; a work which fills a gap in the historyof the human mind, and promises to bring us nearerthan any other work to the first beginnings of Aryanlanguage and Aryan thought—this seemed to mean undertaking not altogether unworthy a man

’s life .What added to the charm of it was that it had onceb efore been undertaken by Frederick Rosen , a youngG erman scholar

,who died in England before he had

finished the first book, and that after his death no

one seemed willing to carry on his work. WhatI had to do, first of all

,was to copy not only the

t ext, but th e commentary of the Rig-Veda, a workwhich when finished will fill six of these largev olumes . The author or rather the compiler of thiscommentary, Sayana Akarya, lived about 1400 after


116 m en u on THE VEDAS .

Company decided to defray the expenses of a workwhich

,as they stated in their lette r, ‘ is in a peculiar

manner deserving of the patronage of the East IndiaCompany, connected as it is with the early religion ,history, and language of the great body of theirIndian subjects .

’ It thus became n ecessary for meto take up my abode in England, which has sin cebecome my second home. The first volume was published in 1849, the second in 1853, the third in 1856,the fourth in 1862. Thematerials for the remainingvolumes are ready, so that, ifI can but make leisure

,

there is little doubt that before long the whole workwill be complete .lNow

,first, as to the name. Veda means origi

nally knowing or knowledge, and this name is given :

by the Brahmans, not to one work, but to the wholebody of their most ancient sacred literature. Veda .

is the same word which appears in the Greek olSa ,I know

,and in the English wise

,wisdom

,to wit? “

The name ofVeda is commonly given to four collection s of hymns

,which are respectively known by the

names ofR ig-Veda, Yagu r-Veda, Selm a-Veda, and

“

A th arv a-Veda, each of these collection s having certain prose works, Brahm an a s, Aranyaka s and

l The fifth appeared

Sanskrit Greek

véda olda

véttha oldfla

véda one

vidva

vidéthuh foray

vidfituk 101-ow

vidma lower

Vida

viduk

m 1872 ; the sixth and las t in 1874.

Gothic Anglo-Saxon German

veit Wat ich weiss

vaist wast du weisst

y ait wat erweiss

vitu

vituts

LECTURE on THE vnnns. 117

S utra s attached to them . For our own purposes,however namely, for tracing the earliest growth ofreligiou s ideas in India—the only important, the onlyreal Veda, is the R ig-Veda.

Theotherso-calledVedas -which deserve thenameofVeda no more than theTalmud deserves the nameof Bible—contain chiefly extracts from theRig-Veda,together with sacrificial formulas , charms, and incantations , many of them,

no doubt, extremely curious,but never likely to interest anyone except the Sanskrit scholar by profession .

The Samhitas, or collections of hymns, of the

Yagur-Veda and Sama-Veda may be described as

prayer-books, arranged according to the order of

certain sacrifices, and intended to be used by certainclasses of priests.Four classes of priests were required in India at

themost solemn sacrifices1 . The ofliciating priests, manual labourers, and

acolytes ; who have chiefly to prepare thesacrificial ground, to dress the altar, slaythe victims, and pour out the libations.

2 . The choristers, who chant the sacred hymn s.3 . The reciters or readers, who repeat certain

4 . The overseers or bishops,whowatch and superintend the proceedings of the other priests,and ought to be familiarwith all theVedas.

The formulas and verses to be muttered by thefirst class are contained in theYagur-Veda-Samhita.

The hymns to be sung by the second class are inthe Sama-Veda-Samhita.

The Atharva-Veda is said to be intended for the

118 LECTURE ON THE VEDAS.

Brahman or overseer, who is to watch the proceedings of the sacrifice, and to remedy any mistake thatmay occur.1Fortunately, the hymn s to be recited by the third

elass were not arranged in a sacrificial prayer-book,but were preserved in an old collection of hymns,containing all that had been saved of ancient, sacred,and popular poetry, more like the Psalms than likea ritual a collection made for its own sake

,and not

for the sake of any sacrificial performances.I shall, therefore, confine my remarks to the Rig

Veda,which in the eyes of the historical student is

the Veda p ar excellence. Rig-Veda means the Veda

of hymn s of praise, forR ich—which before the initialsoft letter ofVeda is changed toR ig— is derived froma root which in San skrit means to celebrate .

In the Rig-Veda we must distinguish again be

tween the original collection ofthehymns or Mantras ,called the Samhita or the collection ,

being entirelymetrical and poetical, and a number ofworks

,called

Brahman a s and Sutras,written in prose, andgiving

information on the proper use of the hymns at sacrifices, on their sacred meaning, on their supposedauthors, and similar topics. These works

, too, go

by the name of Rig Veda : but, though very curiousin themselves, they are evidently of a much laterperiod, and of little help to us in tracing the beginn ings of religious life in India. For that purposewe mu st depend entirely on the hymn s, such as we

find them in the Samhita or the collection of the

Rig-Veda .

Now,this collection consists of ten books

, and


120 LECTURE on THE VEDAS.

ninth century of the Christian era1

yet the Septua

gin t tran slation by itselfwould be sufficient to provethat the Old Testament, such on the whole as we

now read it, existed in MS. previous at least to thethird century before our era. By a similar train of

argument, the works to which I referred before, inwhich we find every hymn , every verse, every wordand syllable of theVeda accurately counted by nativescholars about five or six hundred years beforeChrist, guarante e the existence of the Veda, such on

the whole as we now read it, as far back at least asfive or six hundred years before Christ. Now, inthe works of that period, the Veda is already con

sidered, not only as an ancient, but as a sacred book ;and, more than this, its language had ceased to begenerally intelligible. The language of India had

changed since the Veda was composed, and learnedcommentaries were necessary in order to explainto the people then living the true purport, nay,

the pG er pronunciation , of their sacred hymn s.But more than this. In certain exegetical composition s, which are generally comprised under thename of Sfitra s, and which are contemporary with,or even an terior to, the treatises on the theologicalstatistics just mentioned, not only are the ancienthymns represented as invested with sacred authority,but that other class of writings, the Brahman a s

,

standing half-way between thehymn s and the Sfitra s ,have likewise been raised to the dignity of a revealed

Dr. Ginsburg (Times, March 2, 1877) assigns the earliest knownMS. of the whole O.T. (University Library, Cambridge) to the

middle of the ninth century, and a fragment in the Library of St.

Petersburg to the beginning of the ninth century.


literature. These Brahmanas , you will remember,are prose treatises, written in illustration of the an

acient sacrifices and of the hymns employed at them.

S u ch treatises would only spring up when some kindo f explanation began to be wanted both for the ceremonial and for the hymn s to be recited at certains acrifices, and we find, in consequence, that in manycases the authors of the Brahmanas had already lostth e power of understanding th e text of the ancienth ymn s in its natural and grammatical meaning, and

that they suggested the most absurd explanations ofthe various sacrificial acts, most of which we may

p ose.Thus it becomes evident that the period during

which the hymn s were composed must have beenseparated by some centuries, at least, from the periodthat gave birth to the Brahmanas, in order to allowtime for the hymns growing unintelligible and be

Secondly, the period during which the Brahmanas were composed mu st be separated by somecenturies from the authors of the Sfitras, in order toa llow timc for further changes in the language, and

m ore particularly for the growth of a new theology,which ascribed to the Brahmmzas the same excep

tional and revealed character which the Brahmam s themselves ascribed to the hymn s. So that wewant previously to 600 B .C., when every syllable ofthe Veda was counted, at least two strata of intellectual and literary growth, of two or three centurieseach ; and are thus brought to 1100 or 1200 as

the earliest time when we may suppose the collec

122 LECTURE on THE VEDAS .

tion of the Vedic hymn s to have been finished. Thiscollection of hymn s again contains, by its own

showing, ancient and modern hymns,the hymn s of

the sons, together with the hymns of their fathersand earlier ancestors ; so that we cannot well as signa date more recent than 1200 to 1500 before our erafor the original composition of those simple hymns

which up to the present day are regarded by theBrahmans with the same feelings with which a

Mohammedan regards the Koran, a Jew the Old

Testament, a Christian his Gospel.That the Veda is not quite a modern forgery

can be proved, however, by more tangible eviden ce.Hiouen-thsang, a Buddhist pilgrim,

who travelledfrom China to India in the years 629-645, and who,in his diary translated from Chinese into French byM. Stanislas Julien , gives the names of the fourVedas, mentions some grammatical forms peculiar tothe Vedic Sanskrit

,and states that at his time young

Brahmans Spent all their time, from the seventh tothe thirtieth year of their age, in learning thesesacred texts. At the time when Hiouen-thsang wastravelling in India, Buddhism was clearly on the

decline. But Buddhism was originally a reactionagain st Brahmanism, and chiefly against the exclusiveprivileges which the Brahmans claimed, and whichfrom the beginning were represented by them as

based on their revealed writings, the Vedas , and

hence beyond the reach of human attacks. Buddhism ,

whatever the date of its founder, became the statereligion of India under Asoka, the Constantine ofIndia, in the middle of the third century This

Asoka was the third king of a new dynasty founded


124 LECTURE ON THE vsnas .

'

had their Special prayer-books, nay, these prayerbooks mus t have undergone certain changes, becausethe Brahmanas presuppose difi'ercnt texts, calledsakhas, of each of these prayer-books, which are

called theYagur-Veda-Sanhita, the Sama—Veda Sanhita, and theAth arva-Veda Sanhita. The work ofcolleeting the prayers for the different classes of priests,and of adding new hymns and formulas for purelysacrificial purposes, belonged probably to the tenthcentury and three generations more would, atleas t, be required to account for the variou s readingsadopted in the prayer-books by different sects, andinvested with a kind of sacred authority, long beforethe composition of even the earliest among the Brahmanas. If

,therefore, the years from about 1000 to

800 are assigned to this collecting age, the timebefore 1000 mu st be set apart for the free andnatural growth ofwhat was then national and religions , but not yet sacred and sacrificial poetry. Howfar back this period extends it is impossible to tell ;it is enough if the hymns of the Rig-Veda can betraced to a period anterior to 1000Mu ch in the chronological arrangement of the

three periods ofVedic literature that are supposed tohave followed the period of the original growth of

the hymns must of necesssity be hypothetical, andhas been put forward rather to invite than to silen cecriticism . In order to discover truth, we must betruthful ourselves, andmu st welcome those who pointout our errors as heartily as those who approve andc onfirm our discoveries. What seems, however, toSpeak strongly in favour of the historical characterof the three periods of Vedic literature is the uni

LECTURE ON THE vs nas . 125»

formity of style which marks theproductions of each.

In modern literature we find, at one and the sametime

,different styles of prose and poetry cultivated

by one and the same author. A Goethe writes tragedy,comedy, satire, lyrical poetry, and scientific prosebut we find nothing like this in primitive literature.The individual is theremuch less prominent, and thepoet’s character disappears in the general characterof the layer of literature to which he belongs . It is

the discovery of such large layers of literature following each other in regular succession which inspiresthe cri tical historian with confidence in the trulyhistorical character of the su ccessive literary productions of ancient India. As in Greece there is anepic age of literature, where we should look in vainfor prose or dramatic poetry ; as in that country wenever meet with real elegiac poetry before the end

of the eighth century, nor with iambics before thesam e date ; as even in more modern times rhymedheroic poetry appears in England with the Normanconqu est, and in Germany the Minnesanger rise andset with the Swabian dynasty—so, only in a muchmore decided mann er, we see in the ancient and

spontaneou s literature of India, an age of poets followed by an age of collectors and imitators, that ageto be succeeded by an age oftheological prose writers,and this last by an age of writers of scientificmanuals . New wants produced new supplies, and

nothing sprang up or was allowed to live, in prose orpoetry, except what was really wanted. If theworksofpoets, collectors, imitators , theologians,andteacherswere allmixed up together—ifthe Brahmanas quotedthe Sfitras, and the hymn s alluded to the Brahmanas

126 LEc'rUEE on THE VEDAS .

—an historical restoration of the Vedic literature ofIndia would be almost an impossibility. We shouldsu spect artificial influences , and look with small confidence on the historical character of such a literaryagglomerate. But he who would question the anti

quity of the Veda mus t explain how the layers of

literature were formed that are superimposed overthe original stratum of the poetry of the Rishis he

who would suspect a literary forgery must show how,

when , and forwhat purpose the 1000 hymns of theRig

-Veda could have been forged, and have becomethe basis of the religious, moral, political, and literarylife of the ancient inhabitants of India.

The idea of revelation , and Imean more partienlarly book-revelation , is not a modern idea, nor is it

an idea peculiar to Christianity. Though we lookfor it in vain in the literature of Greece and Rome,w e find the literature of India saturated with thisidea from beginning to end. In no country, I believe,h as the theory of revelation been so minutely elaborated as ih India . The nam e for revelation in Sanskrit is Sru ti, which means hearing ; and this titledistinguishes the Vedic hymn s and, at a later time

,

the Brahmanas also, from all other works, which,

h owever sacred and authoritative to the Hindu mind,

are admitted to have been composed by humanauthors. The Laws ofManu , for instance, accordingto the Brahmanic theology, are not revelation ; theyare not S ru t i, but only Smriti, which means recollection or tradition . If these laws or any otherwork of authority can be proved on any point to beat variance with a single passage of the Veda, theirauthority is at once overruled. According to the



have mercy, give me my daily bread ! Sharpen mymind, like the edge of iron . Whatever I now mayutter, longing for thee, do thou accept it ; make mepossessedof God ! Another utters for the first timethe famou s hymn , the Gayatri, which now for morethan three thousand years has been the daily prayerof every Brahman, and is still repeated every morning by millions of piou s worshippers Let us meditate on the adorable light of the divineCreator : mayh e rouse our minds ." This consciousness of high erinfluences, or of divine h elp in those who uttered forthe first time the simple words of prayer, praise, andthanksgiving, is very different however, from the

artificial theories of verbal inspiration which we findin the later theological writings ; it is, indeed, butanother expression of that deep-felt dependence onthe Deity, of that surrender and denial of all thatseems to be self, which was felt more or less byevery nation, but by none, I believe, more strongly,more constantly, than by the Indian . It is H e

that has made it —viz. the prayer in which thesoul of the poet h as thrown off her burden—is buta variation of, It is He that has made us,’ which isthe key-note of all religion , whether ancient or

modern , whether natural or revealed.

Imust say no more to-night ofwhat the Veda is ,for I am very anxious to explain to you, as far it is

possible, what I consider to be the real importanceof the Veda to the student of history, to the studentof religion, to the student ofmankind.

Tat Savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah

prakodayat.’—Colebrooke, Miscelkmcm Essays, i. 30. Many pas

sages bearing on this subject have been collected by Dr. Muir in the

third volume of his Sanwkrit Tes ts, p . 114 reg.

LECTURE on THE vnnas. 129

In th e study of mankind there can hardly be a

subject more deeply interesting than the study of

th e difl'

erent forms of religion ; and much as I

value the Science of Language for the aid which itlends us in unravelling some of themost complicatedtis sues of the human intellect, I confess that to mymind there is no study more absorbing than that ofth e Religions of the W orld—the study, if Imay so

call it, of the various languages in which man hassp oken to his Maker, and of that language in whichh is Maker at sundry times and in divers mannerssp ake to man .

To my mind the great epochs in the world’shistory are marked, not by the foundation or thedestruction of empires, by the migrations of races,or by French revolutions . All this is outwardh istory, made up of events that seem gigantic andoverpowering to those only who cannot see beyondand beneath . The real history ofman is the historyof religion : the wonderful ways by which the different families of the human race advanced towardsa truer knowledge and a deeper love to God. This

is the foundation that underlies all profane historyit is the light, the soul, and life of history, and with .

out it, all history would indeed be profane .On this subject there are some excellent works in

English, such as Mr. Maurice’s Lectures on the

Religions of theWorld,’ or Mr. Hardwick’s Christ

and other Masters ; in German I need only mention Hegel

’s Philosophy of Religion,’out of many

other learned treatises on the different systems ofreligion in the East and theWest. But in all theseworks religions are treated very much as languagesVOL. 11. x

130 LECTURE on THE vsm s .

w ere treated during the last century. They are

rudely classed, either according to the differen tlocalities in which they prevailed, just as in Adelung’ sMithridates you find the languages of the world

classified as European,African , American , Asiatic ,

&c. ; or according to their age, as formerly languagesused to be divided into ancient and modern ; or

a ccording to their respective dignity, as languagesu sed to be treated as sacred or profane, as classicalor illiterate . Now, you know that the Science of

Language has sanctioned a totally different systemof classification and that the Comparative Philologist ignores altogether the division of languagesaccording to their real locality, or according to theirage, or according to their classical or illiterate cha

racter. Languages are now classified genealogically,

according to their real relationship and the mostimportant languages of Asia, Europe, and Africathat is to say, of that part of theworld on which whatw e call the history ofman has been acted—have beengrouped together into three great division s, theA ryan or Indo-Eu rop ean Family, the Sem iticFamily, and a non-descript so-calledTu ran ian Class.A ccording to that division you are aware that Englishtogether with all the Teu ton ic languages of the

Continent, Celtic, Slavon ic, Gre ek, Lat in , withits modern offshoots, such as French and Italian ,

P er sian , and San s krit, are so many varieties ofone common type of speech : that Sanskrit, theancient language of the Veda, is no more distinctfrom the Greek of Homer, or from the Gothic ofUlfilas, or from the Anglo-Saxon of Alfred, thanFrench is from Italian . All these languages together


182 LECTURE on THE vsnas.

Slavonic races, are nevertheless of great importanceeven at the present day. For although there areno longer any worshippers of Zeus, or Jupiter, ofWodan , Rens , l or Perkunas ,2 the two religions ofAryan origin which still survive, Brahmanism and

Buddhism , claim together a decided majority amongthe inhabitants of the globe. Out of the wholep opulation of the world,

312 per cent. are Buddhists,134 per cent. are Brahmanists

,

446

which together give u s 44 per cent. forwhat may

be called living Aryan religions. Of the remaining56 per cent. are Mohammedans, per centnon-descript Heathens, 30 7 per cent. Christians, and03 per cent. Jews.Now

,as a scientific study of the Aryan languages

became possible only after the discovery of San skrit,a scientific study of the Aryan religion dates reallyfrom the discovery of the Veda. The study of Sanskrit brought to light the original documents of threereligions, the S ac red Books of th e Brahman s,

th e SacredBook s of theMagian s, th e followers ofZoroaster, and th e Sa cr ed Book s of th e Bu d

dh is t a. Fifty years ago, these three collection s of

Mommsen ,Imorip tiones H eh-aticas , 40. Becker, Die in

schriftlichen Uberreste der Keltischen Sprache,’in Beitriz

’

ge zm'

vergloickenden Sprachforschmg, vol. 1ii. p . 341. Lucan , Pica/re.

i. 445, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus .

’

2 Cf. G . Biihler, fiber Parjanya,’ in Benfey’s Orient W

Occident, vol. i. p . 214. In the Old Irish , ary, a drop , has been

pointed out as derived from the same root as p argan ya.


sacred writings were all but unknown , their veryex istence was doubted, and there was not a singles cholar who could have correctly translated a line ofth eVeda,a lin e oftheAvesta, or a line oftheBuddhistTripitaka. At present large portions of these, thecanonical writings of the most ancient and mostimportant religions of the Aryan race, are publisheda nd deciphered, and we begin to see a natural progress, and almost a logical necessity , in the growthof these three systems of worship. The oldest, mostprimitive, most simple form of Aryan faith finds itsexpression in the Veda. The Zend Avesta representsin its language, as well as in its thoughts, a branching of from that more primitive stem ; a more orless cons cious Opposition to theworship of the gods ofnature, as adored in the Veda, and a striving after amore spiritual, supreme, moral deity, such as Zoroa ster proclaimed under the name ofAhura mazda, orOrmuzd. Buddhism,

lastly,marks a decided schism,

a decided antagonism again st the established religionof the Brahmans, a.denial of the true divinity of theVedic gods, and a proclamation of new philosophicaland social doctrines.Without the Veda, therefore, neither the reforms

of Zoroaster nor the new teaching of Buddha wouldhave been intelligible we should not know whatwasbehind them, or what forces impelled Zoroaster andBuddha to the founding of new religions—how muchthey received, how much they destroyed, how muchthey created. Take but one word in the religiousphraseology of these three systems. In the Veda thegods are called D eva. This word in Sanskrit meansb right—brightness or light being one of the most


general attributes shared by the various manifestations of the Deity, invoked in the Veda, as Sun , or

Sky, or Fire, or Dawn, or Storm . We can see, in

fact, how in the minds ofthe poets oftheVeda, deva,from

o

meaning bright, came gradually tomean divine .In the Zend-Avesta the same word daeva mean sevil spirit. Many of the Vedic gods, with In dra at

their head, have been degraded to the position of

daév as,in order to make room for Ahura-mazda,

the Wise Spirit, as the supreme deity of the Zoro

astrian s . In h is confession of faith the follower ofZoroaster declares : I cease to be a worshipper ofthedaév a s .

’In Buddhism , again , we find these an cient

Devas, Indra and the rest, as merely legendary beings,often carried about at shows, as servants of Buddha,as goblins or fabulous heroes ; but no longer eitherworshipped or even feared by those with whom the

name of Deva had lost every trace of its originalmeaning. Thus this one word Deva marks the

mutual relations of these three religions . But morethan this . The same word deva is the Latin deu s

,

thu s pointing to that common source of language

and religion ,far beyond the heights of the Vedic

Olympus, from which the Romans, as well as the

H indu s, draw the names of their deities, and the ele

ments of their language as well as of their religion .

The Veda, by its language and its thoughts, supplies that distant background in the history ofall thereligion s of the Aryan race, whichwas missed, indeed,by every careful observer

,but which formerly could

be supplied by guess-work only. How the Persians .

came to worship Ormu zd, how the_

Buddhists came toprotest against temples and sacrifices, how Zeus and


136 LECTURE on THE vs nas .

have by many been rated far too high. Large numbers of theVedic hymns are childish in the extremetediou s, low, commonplace. The gods are con stantlyinvoked to protect their worshippers, to grant themfood, large flocks, large families, and a long life ; forall which benefits they are to be rewarded by thepraises and sacrifices offered day after day, or at certain season s of the year. But hidden in this rubbishthere are precious stones. Only in order to appre

ciate them ju stly, we must try to divest ourselvesentirely of the common notions about polytheism and

idolatry, so repugnant not only to our feelings, butto our understanding. No doubt, if we must employtechnical terms, the religion of the Veda is polytheism,

not monotheism . Deities are invoked bydifferent names, some clear and intelligible, su ch asA gn 1, fire ; Sfirya, the sun ; Usha s, dawn ;M aru t s,

the storms ; Prithivi, the earth ; Ap , the waters ;N adi, the rivers : others, mere proper names, suchas Va ru n a, Mitra, In dra or Adit i, which disclose but dimly their original application to the greataspects of nature

,the sky, the sun , the day. But

whenever one of these individual gods is invoked,they are not conceived as limited by the powers ofothers, as superior or inferior in rank. Each god isto the mind of the supplicant as good as all gods.He is felt, at the time, as a real divinity -as supremeand absolute—without a suspicion of those limitations which, to our mind, a plurality of gods mustentail on every single god. All the rest disappearfor a moment from the vision of the poet, and heonly who is to fulfil their desires stands in full lightbefore the eyes of the worshippers. In one hymn ,

LECTURE on THE VEDAS. 137

a scribed toManu, the poet says Amongyou , O gods,t here is none that is small, none that is young ; youare all great indeed.

’And this is , indeed, the key

n ote of the an cient Aryan worship . Yet it would beeasy to find in the numerous hymns of the Vedapassages in w hich almost every important deity isrepresented as supreme and absolute . Thus in one

hymn , Agn i (fire) is called the ruler of the

u niverse,’ the lord of men ,’the wise king, the

f ather, the brother, the son , the friend of man

nay, all the powers and names of the other gods aredistinctly ascribed to Agni. But though Agni isth u s highly exalted, nothing is said to disparage thed ivine character of the other gods. In an other hymn

another god, In dra, is said to be greater than all

The gods,’it is said, do not reach thee, Indra, nor

men ; thou overcomest all creatures in strength.

’

A nother god, Som a, is called the king of the world,the king of heaven and earth, the conqueror of all.

And what more could human language achieve, intrying to express the idea of a divine and supremepower, than what another poet says of another god,‘

Varu n a : Thou art lord of all, of heaven and earththou art the king of all, of those who are gods, ando f th ose who are men 2

This surely is not what is commonly understoodby polytheism. Yet it would be equally wrong tocall it mmwtheism. If we must have a name forit, I should call it Kathenothcism

,or simply H ano

Mariam a belief in single gods. The consciousn ess that all the deities are but different names of oneand the same godhead breaks forth, indeed, here andthere in the Veda. But it is far from being general.

138 LECTURE on THE vsm s.

One poet, for instan ce, says (Rv . I. 164, Theycall him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni ; then he is thebeautifully-winged heavenly Garutmat : that whichis One the wise call it in divers manners : they call itAgni, Yama, Matarisvan .

’And again , Rv . X. 1 14,

5 : Wise poets make the beautifully-winged, thoughhe is one, manifold by words .’

I shall read you a few Vedic verses in which thereligiou s sentiment predominates, and in which weperceive a yearning after truth, and after the trueGod, untrammeled as yet by any names or any traditions (Rv . X.

1. In the beginning there arose H iranyagarbha(the golden child). H e was the one born lord of all

that is. He stablished the earth and this skyWho is the God towhom we shall offer our sacrifice ‘

r‘

2. He who gives breath, He who gives strengthwhose command all the bright gods revere whoseshadow is immortality

,whose shadow is death

Wh o is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice3. He who through his power became the sole

king of the breathing and slumbering world —H e

who governs all, man and beast —Who is the God

to whom we shall offer our sacrifice P4 . He through whose greatness these snowy

mountains are, and the sea, they say, with thedistantriver (the Rasa)—He of whom these regions are thetwo arms —Who is the God to whom we shall offerour sacrifice

5. He through whom the sky is bright an d the

earth firm—H e through whom the heaven was


140 LECTURE on THE vsm s.

Hu m To INDRA (Rv . I.

1 . Keep silence well 2 ! we offer praises to th e

great Indra in the house of the sacrificer. Does h e

I subjoin for some of the hymns here translated, the translation

of the late ProfessorWilson , in order to show what kind ofdifferenc e

there is between the traditional rendering of the Vedic hymns , a s

adopted by him, and their interpretation according to the rules o f

modern scholarship1 . We ever ofier fitting praise to the mighty Indra, in th e

dwelling of the worshipper, by which he (the deity) has quicklyacquired riches, as (a thief) hastily carries (03 the property) of th esleeping. Praise ill expressed is not valued among the munificent .

2. Thou, Indra, art the giver of horses, of'

cattle, of barley, th e

master and protectorof wealth , the foremost in liberality, (thebeing )of many days ; thou disappointest not desires (addressed to thee)thou art a friend to our friends : such an Indra we praise.

3. Wise and resplendent Indra, the achiever of great deeds, th e

riches that are spread around are known to be thine : having col

lected them, victor (over thy enemies), bring them to us : disappoin t

not the expectation of the worshipperwho trusts in thee.

4. Propitiated by these offerings, by these libations ,dispelpovertywith cattle and horses may we, subduing ouradversary, andrelieved

from enemies by Indra, (pleased) by our libations, enjoy together

5. Indra, may we become possessed of riches, and of food ; and

p rosper through thy divine favour, the source of prowess, of cattle,

6. Those who were thy allies, (the Maruts,) brought thee joy

protector of the pious, those libations and oblations (that were

ofiered thee on slaying Vritra) yielded thee delight, when thou ,

unimpeded by foes , didst destroy the ten thousand obstacles Opposed

to him who praised thee and offered thee libations .

7. Humiliator (of adversaries) , thou goest from battle to battle,

trating associate (the thunderbolt) , thou, Indra, didst slay afar off

the deceivernamed Namuki.

spear, in the cause of Atithigva unaided, thou didst demolish the

Favets linguis .

LECTURE on THE VEDAS . 141

find treasure for those who are like sleepers 2 Meanp raise is not valued among the munificent.

2. Thou art the giver of horses, Indra, thou art

the giver of cows, the giver of corn, the strong lordof wealth : the old guide of man

, disappointing no

desires, a friend to friends -to him we address thissong.

3. O powerful Indra, achiever of many works,

m ost brilliant god—all this wealth around here isknown to be thine alone : take from it

,conqueror

,

b ring it hither. Do not stint the desire of the

worshipper who longs for thee4 . On these days thou art gracious, and on these

n ights ‘, keeping off the enemy from our cows andfrom our stud. Tearing 9 the fiend night after nightwith the help of Indra, let us rejoice in food, freedfrom haten .

5. Let us rejoice, Indra, in treasure and food, inw ealth of manifold delight and splendour. Let us

rejoice in the blessing of the gods, which gives us thestrength of offspring, gives u s cows first and horses .

6. These draughts inspired thee, 0 lord of the

9. Thou , renowned Indra, overthrewest by thy not-to-be-overtaken

chariot-wh eel, the twenty kings of men , who had come against

Sustavas , unaided, and their sixty thousand and ninety and nine

10. Thou, Indra, hast preserved Sustavas by thy succour, Turva

yana by thy assistance : thou hast made Kutsa, Atithigva and Ayu

subject to the mighty, though youthful Sustavas .

l l . Protected by the gods, we remain , Indra, at the close of the

sacrifice, thy most fortunate friends : we praise thee, as enjoyingthrough thee excellent offspring, and a long and prosperous life.

Cf. Rv . I. 112, 25, dyubhir aktfibhilt,’by day and by night

also Rv . III. 31, 16. M . M ., Todtenbestattung, p . v .

ProfessorBenfey reads du ray an tah , but all MSS. that I know ,

without exception , read darayan t ah .


b rave ! these were vigour, these libations, in battles ,when for the sake of the poet, the sacrificer, thous truckest down irresistibly ten thousands of enemies .

7 From battle to battle thou advancest bravely,from town to town thou destroyest allthis withmight ,when thou , Indra, with Nami as thy friend, struckestdown from afar the deceiver Namuki.

brightest spear ofAtithigva . Without a helper thoudidst demolish the hundred cities ofVangrida, whichwere besieged by Rigisvan .

9. Thou hast felled down with the heavy chariotw heel these twenty kings of men , who had attackedthe f1iendlese Susravas 3, and gloriously the sixty thous and and ninety-nine forts .

10. Thou , Indra, hast succoured Susravas with thysuccours, Tfirvayfima with thy protections. Thou hastmade Kutsa, Atithigva, and Ayu subject to thism ighty youthful king.

11 . Wewho in future, protected by the gods, wishto be thy most blessed friends, we shall praise thee,blessed by thee with offspring, and enjoying henceforth a longer life .

The next hymn is one ofmany addressed to Agnias the god of fire, not only the fire as a powerfulelement, but likewise the fire of the hearth and the

altar, the guardian of the house, the minister of thes acrifice, the messenger between gods and men :

p . 890

1 See Spiegel, zErdn, p . 269, on Khai Khosru a: Sustavas ; Grass

mann, in Kuhn’s Zaitachflfi , xvi. p .


144 LECTURE on THE vnm s .

measure, like a blast of fire, through whose wisdom isit, through whose design 2 To whom do you go, to

.

whom,ye shakers (of the earth)2

2. May your weapon s be firm to attack, strongalso to withstand ! May yours be the more glorious .

strength, not that of the deceitful mortal !3. When you overthrow what is firm, 0 ye men ,

and whirl about what is heavy, ye pass through thetrees of the earth, through the clefts of the rocks .

4. No real foe of yours is known in heaven , norin earth, ye devourers of enemies May strength beyours

, together with your race, 0 Rudras, to defyeven now .

by whose worship , by whose praise (are you attracted) ? To what

(place of sacrifice) , to whom, indeed, do you repair ll2 . Strong be your weapons fordriving away (your) foes , firm in

resisting them : yours be the strength that merits praise, not (thestrength ) of a treacherous mortal.

3. Directing Maruts , when you demolish what is stable, when

you scatterwhat is ponderous , then you make your way through

the forest (trees) of the earth and the defiles of themountains .

4. Destroyers of foes , no adversary of yours is known above the

heavens,nor(is any) upon earth may your collective strength he

quickly exerted,sons of Rudra, to humble (your enemies) .

5 . They make the mountains tremble, they drive apart th e forest

trees . Go, divine Maruts , whither you will, with all your progeny,

like those intoxicated.

6. You have harnessed the spotted deer to your chariot ; the red

deer yoked between them, (aids to) drag the car the firmament

listens foryour coming, and men are alarmed.

7 . Rudras , we have recourse to your assistance for the sake of

our progeny come quickly to the timid Kanva, as you formerlycame, for our protection .

8 . Should any adversary, instigated by you , or byman , assail us ,withhold from him food and strength and your assistance.

9. Praketasas , who are to be unreservedly worshipped,uphold

(the sacrificer) Kanva : come to us, Maruts , with undivided protec

tive assistances , as the lightnings (bring) the rain .

10. Bounteous givers , you enjoy unimpaired vigour : shakers (ofthe earth ) , you possess undimin ished strength : Maruts

,let loose

your anger, like an arrow ,upon the wrathful enemy of the Bishis .

LECTURE ON THE VEDAS.

5 . They make the rocks to tremble, they tearasunder the kings of the forest. Come on

,Maruts,

like madmen , ye gods, with your whole tribe.6. You have harnessed the spotted deer to your

chariots , a reddeer draws as leader. Even the earthlistened at your approach, and men were frightened.

7. O Rudras, we quickly desire your help for our

race. Come now to us with help, as of yore, thu s forthe sake of the frightened Kanva.

8 . Whatever fiend, roused by you or roused bymortals, attacks us, tear him (from u s) by your power,by your strength, by your aid.

9 . For you, worshipful andwise, have wholly protected Kanva . Come to us , Maruts, with your wholehelp, as quickly as lightnings come after the rain .

10. Bounteous givers, ye possess whole strength,whole power, ye shakers (of the earth). Send, 0Maruts, against the proud enemy of the poets an

enemy, like an arrow.

The following is a simple prayer addressed to the

H YMN To USHAS (Rv . VII.

1. She shines upon us , like a youngwife, rou singevery living being to go to his work. Wh en the firehad to be kindled by men , she made the light bystriking down darkness.

2. She rose up , spreading far and wide, and

moving everywhere. She grew in brightness, wearingher brillian t garment. The mother of the cows (themornings), the leader of the days, she shone goldcoloured, lovely to behold.

VOL . 11 . L

146 LECTURE ON THE VEDAS .

3. She, the fortunate, who brings the eye of the

gods, who leads the white and lovely steed (of thesun), the Dawn was seen revealed by her rays, withbrilliant treasures, following every one.

4 . Thou who art a blessing where thou art near,

drive far away the unfriendly ; make the pasturewide, give us safety ! Scatter the enemy

,bring

riches ! Raise up wealth to the worshipper, thoumighty Dawn .

5. Shine for us with thy best rays, thou brightDawn, thou who lengthenest our life, thou the loveof all, who givest us food, who givest us wealth incows, horses, and chariots.

6. Thou daughter of the sky, thou high-bornDawn ,

whom the Vasishthas magnify with songs,give u s riches high and wide all ye gods prowct usalways with your blessings .

I must confine myself to shorter extracts in orderto be able to show to you that all the principal elements of real religion are present in the Veda. I

remind you again that theVeda contain s a great dealof what is childish and foolish, though very little ofwhat is bad and objectionable. Some of its poetsascribe to the gods sentiments andpassions unworthyof the deity, such as anger, revenge, delight in material sacrifices ; they likewise represent human natureou a low level of selfishness and worldliness. Manyhymns are utterly unmeaning and insipid, and we

mus t search patiently before we meet, here and there,with sentiments that come from the depth of the

soul,and with prayers in which we could join our

selves . Yet there are such passages, and they are



life, the blood, the soul of the world2 Who went toask this from any that knew it 2

’

(Rv. I. 164,

Or again, Rv. X . 81, 4 : What was the forest,

what was the tree (57m) out of which they shapedheaven and earth 2 Wise men , ask this indeed inyour mind, on what he stood when he held th e

worlds 2I now come to a more important subject. We

find in the Veda , what few would have expected to

find there, the two ideas, so contradictory to the

human understanding, and yet so easily reconciledin every human heart : God has established the eternal laws of right and wrong, he punishes sin and

rewards virtue, and yet the same God is willing toforgive ; just, yetmerciful ; a judge, and yet a father.

Consider, for instance, the following lines, Rv . I. 41 ,

4 : H is path is easy and without thorns, who doeswhat is right.

’

An d again , Rv. I. 41 , 9 Let man fear Him who

holds the four (dice), before he throws them downGodwho holds the destinies ofmen in his hand)

let no man delight in evil words !And then consider the following hymns

, and

imagine thefeelings which alone could have promptedthem

HYMN To VARUNA (Rv . VII.

1 . Let menot yet, O Varuna, enter into the houseof earth ; have mercy, almighty, havemercy

2. If Imove along trembling, like a cloud drivenby th e wind ; have mercy, almighty, have mercy !

3. Through want of strength, thou strong and

H istory of Ancient Sanskri t Litam tw e, p . 20, note.

LECTURE on THE VEDAS. 149

b right god, have Igone astray ; have mercy, almighty,h ave mercy !

4 . Thirst came upon the worshipper, though hestood in the midst of the waters ; have mercy,almighty , have mercy

5 . W henever we men , 0 Varuna, commit an

offence before the heavenly host, whenever we breakth e law through thoughtlessness ; punish us not, 0

god, for that ofl'

ence.

And again , Rv . VII. 86 :

1 . Wise and mighty are the works of him whostemmed asunder the wide firmaments (heaven and

earth). He lifted on high the bright and gloriou sheaven ; he stretched out apart the starry sky andth e earth.

2. Do I say this tomy own self 2 How can I get

near unto Varuna 2 Will he acceptmy offeringwithou t displeasure 2 When shall I, with a quiet mind,see him propitiated2

3. I ask, 0 Varuna, wishing to know this my sin .

I go to ask thewise . The sages all tellme the same

v am na. it is who is angry with thee.4 . Was it an old sin , OVaruna, that thou wishest

to destroy thy fri end, who always praises thee 2 Tellme, thou unconquerable Lord

,and I will quickly

turn to thee with praise, freed from sin .

5 . Absolve u s from the sins of our fathers, andfrom those which we committedwith our own bodies .

R eleaseVasish tha, 0 king, like a thiefwho has feastedon stolen oxen ; release him like a calf from the rope.

6. It was not our own doing, 0 Varuna, it was a

s lip , an intoxicating draught, passion , dice, thought1 See Introduction to the Science of Religion, p . 233.


lessness. The old is there to mislead the youngeven sleep is not free from mischief.

7. Letme, freed from sin, do service to the angry

god, like a slave to his lord.

l The lord god enlightened the foolish ; he, the wisest, leads his worshipper

8 . O lord Varuna, may this song go well to thyheart ! May we prosper in acquiring and keeping l

Protect us, 0 gods, always with you r blessings

The consciou sness of sin is a prominent featurein the religion of the Veda so is likewise the beliefthat the gods are able to take away from man theheavy burden of his sin s. An d when we read suchpassages as Varuna is merciful even to him who hascommitted sin (Rv. VII. 87, we should surely notallow the strange name of Varuna to jar on our ears,but should remember that it is but one of the manynames which men invented in their helplessness toexpress their ideas of the Deity, however partial andimperfect.

The next hymn ,which is taken from theAtharva

Veda (IV. will show how near the language ofthe an cient poets of India may approach to the language of the Bible 2

1 . The great lord of these worlds sees as if he

were near. If a man thinks he is walking by stealth,the gods know it all.

2. If a man stands or walks or hides, if he goes:1 Benfey, Nachoichtcn, 1874, p . 370.

2 Th is hymn was first pointed out by Professor Both in a dis

sortation on the Atharva-Veda (Tiibingen , and it has since

been translated and annotated by Dr. Muir, in h is article on the

Vedic Theogony a/nd Cosmogony, p . 31 .



A similar sentiment—namely, that men only believe in the gods when they see their signs and

wonders in the sky— is expressed by another poet(Rv . VIII. 21

,14)

Thou, Indra, never findest a rich man to be thy

friend ; wine-swillers despise thee. But when thouthunderest, when thou gatherest" (the clouds), thenthou art called like a father.’

And with this belief in god, there is also coupledthat doubt

,that true disbelief, if we may so call

it, which is meant to give to faith its real strength.

We find passages even in these early hymns wherethe poet asks himself whether there is really su cha god as Indra —a question immediately succeededby an an swer

,as if given to the poet by Indra him

self. Thus we read Rv . VIII. 100, 3

Ifyou wish for strength, ofl'

er to Indra a hymn

of praise : a true hymn,if Indra truly exist ; for

some one says, Indra does not exist ! Who has

seen him 2 Whom shall we praise 2Then Indra an swers through the poetH ere I am

, 0 worshipper, behold me here ! inmight I surpass all things .

’

Similar visions occur elsewhere, where the poet,after inviting a god to a sacrifice, or imploring h ispardon for h is ofl

'

ences, suddenly exclaims that hehas seen the god, and that he feels that his prayer isgranted. For instan ce

other times they would enter on no account. There,in silent terror,

they prostrate themselves w ith their faces to the ground, waiting

until the spirit, having expended his fury, shall retire to Uta (hell)without having discovered their hiding place.

—Tmmactions ofEthnobgioal Society, vol. iii. p . 229. Oldfield, The Aborigines of

LECTURE ON THE VEDAS . 153

HYMN To VARUNA (Rv . I.

1. However we break thy laws from day to day,m en as we are, 0 god, Varuna,

2. Do not deliver us unto death, nor to the blowof the furious ; nor to the wrath of the spiteful

3. To propitiate thee, O Varuna, we unbend thym ind with songs, as the charioteer (unties) a wearys teed.

4. Away from me they flee dispiri ted, intemonlyon gaining wealth ; as birds to their nests .

5. Wh en shall we bring hither the man ,who is

victory to the warriors ; when shallwe bringVaruna,the wide-seeing, to be propitiated2[6. They (Mitra and Varuna) take this in com

mon ; gracious, they never fail the faithful given ]7. He who knows the place of the birds that fly

through the sky,who on thewaters knows theships ,8 . He, the upholder of order, who knows the

twelve months with the offspring of each, and knowsthe month that is engendered afterwards ;

9. He who knows the track of the wind, of thewide, the bright, the mighty ; and knows those whoreside on high ;

10. He, the upholder of order,Varuna, sits down

among h is people ; he, the wise, sits there to govern .

11 . From thence perceiving all wondrous things,he sees what has been and what will be done.

12. May he, the wise Aditya, make our pathsstraight all our days ; may he prolong our lives !

13. Varuna, wearing golden mail, has put on his

shining cloak ; the spies sat down around him.

14. The god whom the scofi‘

ers do not provoke,


nor the tormentors of men, nor the plotters of mischief ;

15. He, who gives to men glory, and not halfglory, who g1ves it even to our own selves

16. Yearningforhim, the far-seeing, my thoughtsmove onwards, as kine move to their pastures.

17. Let us speak together again, because myhoney has been brought : that thou mayst eat whatthou likest, like a friend.

l

18 . Did I see the god who is to be seen by all,did I see the chariot above the earth2Hemu st haveacceptedmy prayers.

19. O hear this my calling, Varuna, be graciou snow ; longing for help, I have called upon thee.

20. Thou, O wise god, art lord of all, of heavenand earth : listen on thy way.

2 1. That Imay live, take fromme the upper rope,loose the middle, and remove the lowest

In conclusion,let me tell you that there is in

the Vedic hymns no trace of metemp sychosis or thattransmigration of souls from human to an imal bodieswhich is generally supposed to be a distinguishingfeature of Indian religion . Instead of this, we findwhat is really the sinequd non of all real religion ,a belief in immortality, and in personal immortality.2

See Bollensen, in Orient and Occident, n . p . 147 . One might

read h otra-iv a,‘ because honey has been brought by me, as by

a priest, sweet to taste.

’

3 Acts xxii. 30 ; xxiii. 6. Lessing (vol. xi. p . 63, ed. Lachmann)says Without faith in a future life,a future reward and punishment,no religion could exist and he adds : We must either deny the

Gentiles all religion, oradmit that they, too, had that faith .

’SchOpen

hauer, Pct/m l. i. p . 137, says : The real religion of the Jews , as it is

represented and taught in Genesis and in all the historical books to



Even the idea, so frequent in the later literature ofthe Brahmans

,that immortality is secured by a son ,

seems implied, unless our translation deceives u s ,

in one passage of the Veda, VII. 56, 24

Asme (iti) virik marutah sushmi'astuGanfinam yah asurah vi dharta,

Apéh yena su-kshitaye tarema,

Adha svam 6kah abhi vah syama.

’

O Maruts, may there be to u s a strong son , whois a living ruler of men : through whom we may

cross the waters on our way to the happy abode ;then may we come to your own house

One poet prays that he may see again his fa therand mother after death (Rv . I. 24

,1) and the fathers

(Pit/ris) are invoked almost like gods, oblations areoffered to them , and they are believed to enjoy, incompany with the gods, a life of never-ending felicity(Rv . X . 15

,

We find this prayer addressed to Soma (Rv. IX .

113 7)Where there is eternal light, in the world where

the sun is placed,in that immortal imperishable

world place me, O SomaWhere king Vaivasvata reigns , where the secret

place of heaven is, where these mighty waters arethere make me immortal I

Where life is free, in the third heaven of heavens ,where the worlds are radiant, there make me immortal !Where wishes and desires are, where the bowl

of the bright Soma is, where there is food and re

j oicing, there make me immortal

LECTURE on THE VEDAS . 157

Where there is happiness and delight, where joyand pleasure reside, where the desires of our desireare attained, there make me immortal !Whether the old Rishis believed likewise in a

p lace of punishment for the wicked is more doubtful,though vague allusion s to it occur in the Rig-Veda,and more distinct descriptions are found in the

Atharva-Veda. In one verse it is said that the deadis rewarded forhis good deeds, that he leaves or castsoff all evil, and glorified takes his new body (Rv . X .

14,

Thedogs ofYama, the king of the‘

departed,present some terrible aspects, and Yama is asked toprotect the departed from them (Rv . X. 14,

Again , a p it (ka r ta) is mentioned into which thelawless are said to be hurled down (Rv . IX . 73,

and into which Indra casts those who offer no sacrifices (R v . I. 121, One poet prays that the Adityas may preserve h im from the destroyingwolf, andfrom falling into the pit (Rv . II. 29

, In one

pas sage we read that those who break the com

mandments of Varuna and who speak lies are bornfor that deep place (Rv . IV. 5,

Professor Roth , after quoting several passages from the Vedain which a belief in immortality is expressed, remarks with great

truth : We here find, not without astonishment, beautiful conceptions on immortality expressed in unadom ed language w ith child

like conviction . If it were necessary, we might here find the most

powerful weapons against the view which has lately been revived,

and proclaimed as new, that Persia was the only birthplace of the

idea of immortality, and that even the nations of Europe had de

rived it from that quarter. As if the religious spirit of every gifted

race was not able to arrive at it by its own strength .

’—(Jmorna lofthe German Oriental Society, vol. iv . p . See Dr. Muir

’s article

on Yama, in the Jo urna l of tits Roya l Asiatic Society, p . 10.

2 M. M ‘Die Todtenbestattung bei den Brahmanen,

’Zeitsohrift

def Deutschen Morgenlandisclzm Gesellsohqft, vol. ix . p . xii.

Dr. Muir, article on Yama, p . 18 .


Surely the discovery of a religion lik e this, as

u nexp ected as thediscovery of the jaw-bone of Abbeville

,deserves to arrest our thoughts for a moment ,

even in the haste and hurry of this busy life. No

doubt, for the daily wants of life the old division of

religions into true and false is quite sufficient ; as forpractical purposes we distinguish only between our

own mother tongue on the one side and all otherforeign languages on the other. But from a higherpoint of view it would not be right to ignore the new

evidence that has come to light ; and as the study ofgeology has given us a truer insight into the stratifi

cation of the earth, it is but natural to expect thata thoughtful study of the original works of three ofthe most important religions of the world, Brahmanism,

Magism, and Buddhism,will modify our

v iews as to the growth or history of religion , and as

to the hidden layers of religious thought beneath thes oil on which we stand. Su ch inquiries should beundertaken without prejudice and without fear : theevidence is placed before us ; our du ty is to sift it

critically, to weigh it honestly, and to wait for theresults.

Three of these results, towhich, Ibelieve, a com

parative study of religions is sure to lead, I mays tate before I conclude this Lecture

1 We shall learn that religions in their mostancient form, or in the minds of their authors, aregenerally free from many of the blemishes that attachto them in later times.

2. We shall learn that there is hardly one religionwhich does not contain some truth, some importanttruth ; truth suflicient to enable those who seek the


XV .

BUDDHISM .

‘

IF the words of St. Paul, Prove all things, holdfast that which is good,

’may be supposed to refer

to spiritual things, and, more especially, to religiousdoctrines, it must be confessed that few only, whethertheologians or laymen , have ever taken to heart theapostle’s command. How many candidates for holyorders are there who could give a straightforwardanswer if asked to enumerate the principal religionsof the world, or to state the names of their founders,and the titles of the works which are still consideredby millions of human beings as the sacred authori

ties for their religious belief? To study such booksas the Koran of the Mohammedans, the Zend-Avestaof the Parsis, the Kings of the Confucians, the Taote-King of the Taoists, the Vedas of the Brahman s,the Tripitaka of the Buddhists, the Sfitras of the

Jain s, or the Granth of the Sikhs, would be con

sidered by many mere waste of time. Yet St. Paul’scommand is very clear and simple ; and to maintain

that it referred to the heresies of his own time only,or to the philosophical systems of the Greeks and

Le Bouddlw. et sa R ehgion . Par J. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire,Membre de l

’

Institut. Paris, 1860.

BUDDHISM. 161

Romans , would be to narrow the horizon of the

apostle’s mind, and to destroy the general appli

cability of his teaching to all M es and to all countries. Many will ask what possible good could bederived from the works of men who mu st have beeneither deceived or deceivers ; nor wou ld it be difiicultto quote passages from every one of the sacred booksof the world showing their utter absurdity andworthlessn ess. But this was not th e spirit in which theapostle of the Gentiles addressed himself to the

Epicu reans and Stoics, nor is this the feeling withwhich a thoughtful Christian and a sin cere believerin a divine government of the world is likely to risefrom a perusal of any of the books which he knowsto be or to have been the only source of spirituallight and comfort to thousands and thousands amongthe dwellers on earth.

Many are the advantages to be derived from a

careful study of other religions, but the greatest of

all is that it teaches us to appreciate more trulywhat we possess in our own . When do we feel theblessings of our own country more warmly and moretruly than when we return from abroad3) It is the

same with regard to religion . Let us see what othernation s have had and still have in the place of religion let us examine the prayers, the worship, thetheology even of the most highly civilised racesthe Greeks, the Roman s, the Hindu s, the Persiansand we shall then understand more thoroughly whatblessings are vouchsafed to us in being allowed tobreathe from the first breath of life the pure air of

a land of Christian light and knowledge. We aretoo apt to take the greatest blessings as matters ofM L . 11 .

BUDDHISM.

c ourse, and even religion forms no exception . We

have done so little to gain our religion , we haves uffered so little in the cause of truth, that, howeverhighly we prize our own Christianity, we never prizeit highly enough until we have compared it with th ereligion s of the rest of the world.

This, however, is not the only advantage ; andwethink that M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire has formedtoo low an estimate of the benefits to be derived froma thoughtful study of the religions of mankind whenh e writes of Buddhism : Le seul, mais immen seserviceque le Bouddhisme puisse nous rendre, c’estp ar son triste contraste de nous faire apprécierm ieux encore la valeur inestimable de nos croyances,e n nous montrant tout ce qu ’

il en cofite al’humanité

qui ne les partage point.’This is not all. If a

k nowledge of other countries and a study of th e

manners and customs of foreign nations teach u s

to appreciate what we have at home, they likewiseform the best cure of that national conceit and wan to f sympathy with which we are too apt to look ona ll that is strange and foreign . The feeling whichled the Hellenic races to divide the whole world intoG reeks and Barbarians is so deeply engrained inh uman nature that not even Christianity has beena ble altogether to remove it. Thus when we castour first glance into the labyrinth of the religion sof the world all seems to u s darkness, self-deceit,and vanity. It sounds like a degradation of th e

v ery name of religion to apply it to the wild ravingsof Hindu Yogin s or the blank blas phemies of

Chin ese Buddhists . But as we slowly and patientlyw end our way through the dreary prisons, our own


BUDDHISM.

faith is to be judged, we must grant a similar privilege to Mohammedans and Buddhists, and to all whopossess a written and, as they believe, revealedauthority for the articles of their faith .

But though no one is likely to deny the necessityof studying each religion in its most ancient formand from its original documents before we ventureto pronounce our verdict, the difliculties of thistask are such that in them more than in anythingelse mu st be sought the cause why so few of our

best thinkers and writers have devoted themselvesto a critical and historical study of the religionsof th e world. All important religions have sprungUp in the East. Their sacred books are writtenin Eastern tongues, and some of them are of suchancient date that those even who profess to believe in them admit that they are unable to

understand them without the help of translationsand commentaries. Until very lately the sacredbooks of three of the most important religions, thoseof the Brahmans, the Buddhists, and the Parsis,were totally unknown in Europe. It was one of the

most important results of the study of Sanskrit, orthe ancient language of India, that through it the key,not only to the sacred books of the Brahmans, theVedas, but likewise to those of the Buddhists and

Zoroas trians,was recovered. And nothing shows morestrikingly the rapid progress of Sanskrit scholarshipthan that even Sir William Jones , whose name hasstill, with many, a more familiar sound than the

names of Colebrooke, Burnouf, and Lassen , shouldhave known nothing of the Vedas ; that he should

BUDDHISM . 165

n ever have read a hne of the canonical books of theBuddhists, and that he actually expressed his belieft h at Buddha was the same as the Teutonic deityW odan or Odin , andSakya, another name ofBuddha,th e same as Sh ishac, king of Egypt. The same distinguished scholar never perceived the intimate relationship between the language of the Zend-Avestaa nd Sanskrit, and he declared the whole of the Zoroastrian writings to be modern forgeries.

Even at present we are not yet in possession of a

complete edition ,much less of any trustworthy trans

lation , of all theVedas we only possess the originalsof a few books of the Buddhist canon ; and thoughth e text of the Zend-Avesta has been edited in its

entirety, its interpretation is beset with greater dificulties than that of the Vedas or the Tripitaka. A

study of the ancient religions ofChina, those ofConfucius and Laotse, presupposes an acquaintance withChinese, a language which it takes a life to learnthoroughly ; and even the religion of Mohammed,though more accessible than any other Eastern religion, cannot be fully examined except by a master ofArabic. It is less surprising, therefore, than it

might at first appear, that a comprehensive and

scholarlike treatment of the religion s of the worlds hould still be a desideratum . Scholars who havegain ed a knowledge of the language, and therebyfree access to original documents, find so much worka t hand which none but themselves can do, that theygrudge the time for collecting and arranging, for thebenefit of the public at large, the results which theyhave obtained. Nor need we wonder that critical

166 BUDDHISM.

historians Should rather abstain from the study ofthe religions of antiquity than trust to free tran slation s and second-hand authorities.Under these circumstan ces we feel all the more

grateful ifwe meet with a writer like M. BarthelemySaint-Hilaire, who has acquired a knowledge of

Eastern languages sufiicient to enable him to con sultoriginal texts and to control the researches of otherscholars, and who at the same time commands thatwide view of the history of human thought whichenables him to assign to each system its proper place,to perceive its most salient features, and to distin

guish between what is really important and what is .

not, in the lengthy lucubrations of ancient poets andprophets . M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire is one of themost accomplished scholars of France ; and his re

putation as the translator of Aristotle has made us

almost forget that theProfessor ofGreek philosophyat the College de France 1 is the same as the activewriter in the Globe of 1827, and the National ’ of1830 ; the same who Signed the protest again st theJuly ordonnances,’ and who in 1848 was ChiefSecretary of the Provisional Government. If such a

man takes the trouble to acquire a knowledge ofSanskrit, and to attend in the same College wherehe was professor the lectures of his colleague, thelate Eugene Burnouf, his publications on Hinduphilosophy and religion will naturally attract a largeamount of public interest. The Sanskrit scholar byprofession works and publishes chiefly for the benefit

M. Barthelemy St .-H ilaire resigned the Chair of Greek Litera

ture at the College de France after the coup d’

état of 1851, decliningto take the oath of allegiance to the Imperial Government.


168 BUDDHISM.

from such materials so accurate, and at the sametime so lucid and readable a book on Buddhism as

that which we owe to M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire.

The greater part of it appeared originally in the

Journal des Savants,’ the th e-honoured organ of

the French Academy, which counts on its staff thenames of Cousin , Flourens, Villemain, Biot, Mignet,Littré, &c., and admits as contributors sixteen onlyof the most illustrious members of that illustriousbody, la cre

‘

mc dc la. crémc.

Though much had been said and written aboutBuddhism—enough to frighten priests by seeingthemselves anticipated '

In auricular confession , beads ,and tonsure by the Lamas ofTibet, 1 and to disconcertphilosophers by finding themselves outbid in positivism and nihilism by th e inmates of Chinese monasteries—the real beginningof an historicaland criticalstudy of the doctrines of Buddha dates from the year1824. In that year Mr. Hodgson ann ounced the

fact that the original documents of the Buddhistcanon had been preserved in Sanskrit in the mo

nasteries of Nepal . Before that time our informa

The late Abbé Huc pointed out the similarities between the

Buddhist and Roman Catholic ceremonials with such naiveté that,

to his surprise, he found his delightful Travels in Tibet placed on

the Indoor. On ne peut s’empécher d

’étre frappé,

’he writes, de

leur rapport avec le Catholicisme. La crosse, la mitre, la dalmar

tique, la chapeou le pluvial,que les grands Lamas portent en voyage,

ou lorsqu ’ils fontquelque cérémonie hors du temple ; l’omoe adeux

choeurs, 1a psalmodie, les exorcismes, l’encensoir soutenu par cinq

chaines, et pouvant s’ouvriret se fermeravolonté ; les benedictions

données par les Lamas en étendant la main droite sur la téte den

fideles ; le chapelet, le célibat ecclésiastique, les retraites spirituelles,ls culte des saints, les jeunes, les prooemions, les litanies, l’eaubénite ; voilaautant derapportsque les Bouddh istes ont avec nous .

’

He migh t have added tonsure, relics , and confession.

BUDDHISM. 169

tion on Buddh ism had been derived at randomfrom China, Japan, Burmah , Tibet, Mongolia, and

Tatary ; and though it was known that the Buddhist literature in all these countries professed itselfto be derived, directly or indirectly, from India, and

that the technical terms ofthat religion, not exceptingt he very name of Buddha, had their etymology inSanskrit only, no hope was entertained that theoriginals of these various translations could ever berecovered. Mr. Hodgson, who settled in Nepal in1821, as political resident oftheEast-India Company,a nd whose eyes were always open

,not only to the

natural history of that little-explored country, butlikewise to its antiquities

,its languages, and tra

ditions, was not long before he discovered that hisfriends the priests of Nepal possessed a completeliterature of their own . That literature was not

written in the spoken dialects of the country, but inS anskrit. Mr. Hodgson procured a catalogue of all

the works , still in existence, which formed the Buddhist canon . He afterwards succeeded in acquiringcopies of many of these works, and he was able in1824 to send about Six ty volumes to the AsiaticS ociety of Bengal. AS no member of that societys eemed inclined to devote himself to the study of

these MSS.,Mr. Hodgson sent two complete col

lections of the same MSS. to the Asiatic Society ofLondon and the Société Asiatique of Paris . Beforealluding to the brilliant results which the last-namedcollection produced in the hands of Eugene Burnoufwe must mention the labours ofother students, which

preceded the publication of Burnouf’s researches .

Mr. Hodgson himself gave to the world a number

170 BUDDHISM.

ofvaluable essays written on the spot, and afterwardscollected under the title of Illustrations oftheLiterature andReligion oftheBuddhists

’

(Serampore, 1841)He established the important fact, in accordance withthe traditions of the priests ofNepal, that some oftheSan skrit documents which he recovered had existedin the monasteries of Nepal ever Since the secondcentury of our era.

The Buddhists of Nepal assert that the originalbody of the scriptures amoun ted to volumes.The same tradition exists in the south, but was meantoriginally for topics or paragraphs, not books ..

They are called Dhammakkandha in Pali, of which.are ascribed to Buddha himself, and

to the Bhikshus . What corresponds among the

Northern to the Tripitaka of the Southern Budsdhists are the nine Dharmas, though it is difficult tounderstand why those nin e works should have beenselected from the bulk of the Buddhist literature ofNepal

, and why divine worship Should have beenoffered to them .

2

Mr. Hodgson showed that the whole of that collection had, five or six hundred years later, whenBuddhism became definitely established in Tibet

,

been tran slated into the language of that country,

AS the art of printing had been introduced fromChina into Tibet, there was less difficulty in procuring complete copies of the Tibetan translationof the Buddhist canon . The real difficulty was to

find a person acquainted with the language. By afortunate concurrence of circumstances

,however, it.

Essays on the Languages, Literatw e, and Religion ofNep aland’

Tibet, by B. H . Hodgson (London,

3 Hodgson , Lissa/gs, pp . 13, 49 and infra, p . 183.


1 72 BUDDHISM.

form the whole collection may not be older than thebeginning of the last century.

‘ It consists of seven

1 . Dulva : that is , Vinaya or discipline.

2. Sher chin : that is , Pragflaparamita.

3. Phal chen : that is, association ofBuddhas (P) .4 . Kontsegs : that is , RatnakfIta.

5. Dode : that is , Sfitras.

6. Nyangde : that is , Nirvana .

7. Jud : that is, Tantras .

’

The Tanjur, corresponding to the Atthakathds

or commentaries of the Southern Buddhists, consistsof miscellaneous works serving to illu strate the doctrines of Buddha. It con sists of two divisions

1 . Gyud, works in 88 volumes .

2. Do,Sutras, in 137 volumes , containing treatises on

theology, philosophy, logic, grammar, rhetoric, poetry,

prosody, medicine, ethics, 850 . Even translations of

such works as the Meghadflta andAmara Kosha w ere

admitted into this collection .

Editions of the Kanjur were printed at Peking,Lhassa, and other places . The edition ofthe K

‘

anjurp ublished at Peking, by command of the EmperorKhian-Lung, sold for 6301. A copy of the Kanjurw as bartered for 7000 oxen by the Buriates, and thes ame tribe paid silver roubles for a completecopy of the Kanjur and Tanjur together 3 The

Tanjur is said to have been published for the firsttime in 1728 to 1746. Both theKanjur and Tanjur

1 Schlagintweit, Buddhism?“ in Tibet, p . 79.

2d pen, Religion des Buddha , ii. p . 280.

Ibid. ii. p . 282. Schlagintweit, p . 81, mentions 20001. as

the sum paid by Buriates and Kalmuks for a copy of the Kanjur andTanjur.

BUDDHISM. 173

have been translated into Chinese, Mongolian , and

Mandshurian .

Such a jungle of religious literature—the mostexcellent hiding-place, we should think, for Lamasand Dalai-Lamas—was too much even for a man who

could travel on foot from Hungary to Tibet. The

Hungarian enthusiast, however, though he did not

tran slate the whole, gave a most valuable analysis ofthis immense bible, in the twentieth volume of the

Asiatic Researches,’ sufficient to establish the factthat the principal portion of it was a translation fromthe same Sanskrit originals which hadbeen discoveredin Nepal by Mr. Hodgson . Csoma de KCrCS died in1842, soon after he had given to the world the firstfruits of his labours —a victim to his heroic devotionto the study of ancient languages and religions .

It was another fortunate coincidence that, con

temporaneously with the discoveries of Hodgson and

Csoma de Héros, another scholar, Schmidt of St.

Petersburg, had so far advanced in the study of theMongolian language as to be able to trans lateportions of the Mongolian version of the Buddhist

canon , and thus forward the elucidation of some of

the problems connected with the religion of BuddhaIt never rain s but it pours . Whereas for years:

nay, for centuries, not a Single original documentof the Buddhist religion had been accessible to thescholars of Europe, we witness in the small spaceof ten years, the recovery of four complete Buddhistliteratures. In addition to the discoveries ofHodg

son in Nepal, of Csoma de Kiiriis in Tibet, and of

Schmidt in Mongolia, the Honourable George Turnour suddenly presented to the world the Buddhist

1 74 BUDDHISM .

literature of Ceylon , composed in the sacred lan

guage of that island, the ancient Pali. The existenceof that literature had been known before. Since1826 Sir Alexander Johnston had been engaged incollecting authentic copies of the Mahavansa, the

Ragavali, and the Ragaratnakari. These Copiesw ere translated at his suggestion from Pali intomodern Singhalese and thence into English. The

p ublication was entru sted to Mr. Edward Upham ,

and the work appeared in 1833, under the title of

Sacred and Historical Works of Ceylon ,’ dedicatedto W illiam IV. Unfortunately, whether throughfraud or through misunderstanding, the priests whowere to have procured an authentic copy of the

Pali originals and translated them into the vernacular language, appear to have formed a compilationof their own from various sources . The official translators by whom this mutilated Singhalese abridgmentwas to have been rendered into English, took still

greater liberties ; and the Sacred and HistoricalBooks of Ceylon had hardly been published beforeBurnouf, then a mere beginner in the study of

Pali, was able to prove the utter uselessness of thattran slation . Mr. Tum our, however, soon made upfor this disappointment. He set to work in a mores cholarhke Spirit, and, after acquiring himself someknowledge of the Pali language, he published severalimportant essay s on the Buddhist canon , as preserved

Ceylon . These were followed by an editionand translation of the Mahavansa, or the history ofCeylon , written by Mahanama in the fifth centuryafter Christ, and giving an account of the island fromthe earliest times to the beginning of the fourth cen


176 BUDDHISM .

A very important collection ofBuddhist MSS . has

lately been brought from Ceylon to Europe by M.

Grimblot, and is now deposited in the ImperialLibrary at Paris. This collection, to judge from a

report published in 1866 in the Journal des Savantsby M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, consists of no lessthan eighty-seven works ; and, as some of them are

represented by more than one Cp , the total number ofMSS. amounts to one hundred and twenty-one.

They fill altogether palm leaves, and are written partly in Singhalese, partly in Burmese characters. Next to Ceylon , Burmah and Siam would seemto be the two countries most likely to yield largecollection s of PaliMSS .

, and the MSS. which now

exist in Ceylon may, to a considerable extent, betracedback to these two countries. At the beginningof the Sixteenth century, the Tamil conquerors of

Ceylon are reported to have burnt every Buddhistbook they coulddiscover, in the hope of thus destroying the vitality of that detested religion . Buddhism

,

however, though persecuted—or, more probably, because persecuted—remained the national religion of

the island, and in the eighteenth century it hadrecovered its former ascendency. Missions were thensent to Siam toprocure authentic copies of the sacreddocuments ; priests properly ordained were importedfrom Burmah ; and several libraries, which containboth the canonical and the profane literature of

Buddh ism, were founded at Dadala, Ambagapitya ,

and other places.The sacred canon of the Southern Buddhists is

called the Tripitaka, i.s . the three baskets. The

first basket contains all that has reference to mor

BUDDHISM. 177

ality, more particularly the duties of the priesthood,or Vin a ya ; the second contains the Su tta s orSfItra s, i.e. the discourses of Buddh a ; the thirdincludes all works treating of Abh idh amma orA bh idh arm a, dogmatic philosophy or metaphysics .

The second and third baskets were originally com

prehended under the general name of Dharm a,or

law ; and before the title of T r ip itaka was introduced the u sual names for the doctrine of Buddhawere Dhamm a, Dh amm a vin aya, or Sutta and

Vinaya .

l The first and second p itakas contain eachfive separate works ; the third contains seven .

I. Vin ayap itaka

l . Paragika, sins involving expulsion , 2

2. Pakitt iya, sins involving penance,VIbhanga

3. M ah av agga, the large chapter, 3

Kfi lav agga, the small chapter,Khandhaka.

5. Pariv arapatha, the appendix or résmné.

II. Su tta-p itakal . Digh a-n ikaya, collection of long Suttas2. M a 9gb im a-n ikaya, collection ofmiddle Suttas3. S amyu tta-n ikaya, collection ofjoined SuttasA figu ttara-n ikaya, miscellaneous Suttas (9550 or

5 . K h u ddak a-n ikaya, collection of short Suttas, con

sisting of

(1) Kh u ddak a-patha, the small text,“

1 Mahaparinibbana-sutta, ed. by Childers, 1876,

pp . 348, l. 21 , 25 ; p . 229, l. 7. Feer, Jowm . Asiat., 1870, p . 359.

The Mahaparinibbana-sutta, ed. by Childers, 1875 ;translated by Rhys Davids, S.B .E . Sep t Suttas Palis, parGrimblot,Paris, 1876.

Published by Childers, 1869.

VOL. II. N

178 BUDDHISM.

(2) Dh amm ap ada, Law-verses,l

(3) Udana, praise(4) It iv u ttak a, stories,

(5) S u ttan ip fita, 70 Suttas,a

(6) V im fin a v at th u , stories of celestial palaces ,

(7) Petav a tth u , stories of departed Spirits ,

(8) T h eragatha, stanzas of priests,(9) T h erigfit ha, stanzas ofnuns ,

(10) Gfitak a, former births (550 tales),3

(11) N iddes a, explanations by SRriputta of thirtythree slokas of the last two vaggas of the

Suttanipata—viz . Kamasutta (iv . 1) andKhag.

gavisfima-sutta (i.

(12) Pa tis amb h idfi. m egga, the road of intuitivein sight,

(13) A p adan a, legends ,4

(14) B u ddh a v am s a,4story of the twenty-four pre

ceding Buddhas and of Gotama,

(15) K ariyap itak a,4 Buddha

’s meritorious actions .

5

The first fourNikayas are sometimesquoted togetheras the FourNikhyas , the five as the Five Nikdyas . They

represent the Dhamma as settled at the first and second

Councils , described in theKullavagga (Oldenberg, i. p. xi.

III. Abh idh amm ap itak a

1 . Dh amm a s angan i (or s angah a), enumeration of

conditions of life,6

2 . V ib h anga, disquisition s,3 . K a thav a tth u p ak aran a, book of subjects for dis

cu ssion (1000 suttas),1 Published by Fausbiill ; translated by M. M. in3 Thirty translated by Coomara Svamy ; the whole by Fausbiill.

Published by Fausbiill, translated by Rhys Davids :

Buddhaghosha leaves it uncertain whether these were recited

at the first Council.5 Partly translated by Gogerly, Ceylon, 1852.

Gogerly, Ceylon, 1848, p . 7.


180 BUDDHISM.

yet to be settled. But even as a collector of earliertradition s and as a writer of the fifth century afterChrist, his authority would be considerable with re

gard to the solution of some of the most importantproblems of Indian history and chronology. Somescholars who have written on the history of Buddhism have clearly shown too strong an inclination totreat the statements con tained in the commen tariesofBuddhaghosha as purely historical, forgetting thegreat interval of th e by which he is separated fromthe events which he relates. No doubt if it couldbe proved that Buddhaghosha

’s works were literal

translations of the so-calledAtthakathas or commentaries brought by Mahinda to Ceylon , and translatedby him into Singhalese, this would considerablyenhance their historical value . But the whole aocoun t of these tran slation s rests on tradition

,

‘and

The precautions tak en to secure a literal translation of the

Atthakatha by Buddhaghosha remind us somewhat of the legend

connected with the work of the Seventy translators. Thereupon

Buddhaghosha, paying reverential respect to the pria thood, thus

petitioned : I am desi rous of translating the Atthakatha ; give me

access to all your books . The priesthood, for the purpose of testinghis qualifications, gave only two gathas, saying : Hence prove thyqualification having satisfied ourselves on this point, we will then

let thee have all our books. From thence (taking these gathAs for

his text) , and consulting the Pitakattaya, together with the Attha

katha, and condensing them into an abridged form, he composed

the commentary called the Visuddhimagga . Thereupon ,having

assembled the priesthood, who had acquired a thorough knowledge

of the doctrines of Buddha, at the B0 tree, he commenced to read

out (the work he had composed) . The devatas, in order that they

might make his (Buddaghosha’s) gifts of wisdom celebrated among

men , rendered the book invisible. He, however, for a second and

third time recomposed it. When he was in the act of producing hisbook forthe third time, forthe},purposejofpmpounding it, thedevetasrestored the other two copies also. The assembled priests then read

BUDDHISM. 181

if we consider the extraordinary precautions taken ,according to tradition , by the LXX translators of theOld Testament, and then observe the discrepanciesbetw een the chronology of the Septuagint and that ofthe Hebrew text, we Shall be better able to approciate therisk of trusting to Oriental translations, evento those that pretend to be literal. The idea of a

faithful literal translation seems altogether foreignto Oriental minds . Granted that Mahinda translatedthe original Pali commentaries into Singhalese, therewas nothing to restrain him from in serting anythingthat he thought likely to be u seful to his new con

v erts. Granted that Buddhaghosha translated thesetran slations back into Pali, why Should he not haveincorporated any facts that were then believed and

had been handed down by tradition from generationto generation P Was he not at liberty—nay, wouldhe not have felt it his duty, to explain apparentdifiiculties, to remove contradiction s, and to correctpalpable mistakes ‘P In our time,when even the contemporaneous evidence of Herodotu s, Thucydides,Livy, or Jom andes is Sifted by the most uncompromising scepticism, we must not expect a moremerciful treatment for the annals of Buddh ism. Scholarsengaged in special researches are too willing to

acquiesce in evidence, particularly if that eviden cehas been discovered by their own efforts and comesbefore them with all the charms of novelty. But, in

the broaddaylight of historical criticism,the prestige

neither in signification , nor in a single misplacement by'

transpo

s ition, nay even in the t h era controversies, and in the text (of the

Pitakattaya) , was there in the measure of a verse, or in the letter

of a word,the slightest variation.

182 BUDDHISM.

of such a witness as Buddh aghosha soon dvvindlesaway, and h is statements as to kings and coun cils,eight hundred years before his time, are in truthworth no more than the stories told of Arthur byGeoffrey ofMonmouth, or the accounts we read inLivy of the early history of Rome.One of themost importantworks ofM. Grimblot

’s

collection , and one that we t e will soon be published, is a history of Buddhism in Ceylon ,

called theDipavamsa.

l The only work of the same characterwhich has hitherto been known is the Mahava'msa,

published by George Turnout . But this is professedlybased on the Dipavamsa, and is probably of a laterdate. Mahanama, the compilerof the Mahava/msa,

lived about 500 A .D. H is work was continued bylater chroniclers to the middle of the eighteenthcentury. Though Mahanama wrote towards the end

of the fifth century after Christ, h is own share of thechronicle is supposed tohave ended with the historyofthe year 302 A .D. The commentary on his chroniclebreaks off likewise at that period. The exact date oftheDipavamsa is not yet known ; but as it also breaksoff with the death ofMahasena in 302 A .D.

,we cannot

ascribe to it, for the present, any higher authoritythan could be commanded by a writer of the fourthcentury after Christ.2W e now return to Mr. Hodgson . H is collection s

of San skrit MSS. had been sent, as we saw , to the

A siatic Society of Calcutta from 1824 to 1839, to

l The Dipavamsa has since been published by Dr. Oldenberg,with a translation (London , Williams and Norgate,

2 Th e fact that both chronicles were founded on the traditions of

the great Ceylonese monasteries , as shown by Dr. Oldenberg, gives

greater historical value to these works than was formerly supposed.


184 BUDDHISM.

Vyakarana, (4) Gathd, (5) Udan a, (6) Nidana, (7)Avadfina, (8) Itiv'rittaka, or Ityukta, (9) Gataka, (10)Vaipulya, (11) Adbhutadharma, (l2) Upadesa.

This division accordin g to subjects is all the

more important because it corresponds in the main

to the nine Angas of the canon adopted by theSouthern Buddhists, viz

1 . Sutta, comprehending the twoVibhangas, Niddesa,Khandhaka, Parivara, Mangala, Ratan a, Nalaka,

Tuvataka (these four from Suttanipfita) , and all that

is called Sutta.

instance, in the Samyuttaka the whole of the Sagi

thaka vagga.

3 . Veyyfikarana, i.s . the whole Abhidhamma, except the

gfitha-suttas , and all that is not comprehended under

the other eight divisions .

4 . Gatha,i.e. Dhammapada, Theragathfi, Therigfithfi,

all that is not called s u t ta in the Sutta-nipata, and

also Single gfithas . A gat hamay contain goya s ,

5. Udana, i.e. 82 suttas, containing hymns ofjoy, etc .

6. Itivuttaka, i.s . 110 suttas , beginning with an appeal

toBuddha’

s words, saying : vuttam h’

etamBhagavata.

7. Gataka, 550 stories of the former births ofBuddha .

8 . Adbhutadh amma, miraculous stories .

9 Vedalla, suttas , such as Kfilavedalla, Mahavedalla,

Sammfiditthi, Sakkapamha, Samkhfira-bhfiganiya,

Mahapuiiiiatfi, and others , bringing knowledge,happiness, etc .

1

But though Mr. Hodgson sent these and man ymore books which he had discovered in Nepal toEurope, his treasures remain ed dormant at Calcutta

Qf. Spence Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p . 166 seq. ; 8 . Beal,

Wong Puh, p . 45 ; Hodgson , Essays, p . 14. Academy, Aug. 28 1880.

BUDDHISM. 185

and in London . At Paris,however, these Buddhist

MSS . fell into thehands ofBurnouf. Unappalled bytheir size and tediousness, he set to work, and was

not long before he discovered their extreme importance. After seven years of careful study, Burnoufpublished, in 1844, his Introduction al’Histoire duBuddhisme.

’It is this work which laid the founda

tion for a systematic study of the religion ofBuddha.

Though acknowledging the great value of the re

s earches made in the Buddhist literatures of Tibet,

Mongolia, China, and Ceylon , Burnouf showed thatBuddhism , being ofIndian origin, ought to be studiedfi rst of all in the original San Si t documents

,pre

served in Nepal. Though he modestly called hisw ork an Introduction to the History of Buddhism,

there are few points of importance on which h is

indu stry has not brought together the most valuableevidence, and his genius shed a novel and brilliantlight. The death of Burnouf in 1851 put an end to

a work which, if finished according to the plansketched out by the author in the preface

,would have

been the most perfect monument of Oriental scholarship . A volume published after his death

, in 1852,

contain s a tran slation of one of the canonical booksof Nepal, with notes and appendices , the latter fullof th e most valuable information on some of the moreintricate question s of Buddhism . Though much remained to be done

,and though a very small breach

only had been made in the vas t pile of SanskritMSS .

presented by Mr. Hodgson to the Asiatic Societies ofParis and London , no one has been bold enough tocontinu e what Burnouf left unfinished. The onlyimportant additions to our knowledge of Buddhism

186 BUDDHISM.

since h is death are an edition of the Lafit istara,

or the Life of Buddha, prepared by a native, thelearned Babu Rajendralal Mitra ; an edition of the

Pfili original of the Dhammapada, by Dr. Fausbtill,a Dane ; and last, not least, the excellent translationby M . Stanislas Julien

,of the life and travels of

H iouen-Th sang. This Chinese pilgrim had visitedIndia from 629 to 645 A .D. for the purpose of learning San skrit, and tran slating from Sanskrit intoChinese some important works on the religion and

philosophy of the Buddhists ; and his account of thegeography, the social, religious, and political stateof India at the beginning of the seventh century isinvaluable for studying the practicalworking of thatreligion at a time when its influence began to decline,and when it was soon to be supplanted by modernBrahmanism and Mohammedan ism .

It was no easy task for M. Barthelemy SaintHilaire to make himself acquainted with all theseworks. The study of Buddhism would almost seemto be beyond the power of any Single individual, if itrequired a practical acquaintance with all the lan

guages in which the doctrines of Buddha have beenwritten down . Burnouf was probably the only man

who, in addition to h is knowledge of Sanskrit, didnot shrink from acquiring a practical kn owledge ofTibetan , Pali, Singhalese, and Burmese, in order toprepare himself for such a task. The same scholarhad shown , however, that though it was impossible

In the Annual Report of the Philological Society for 1875 Mr.

Rhys Davids has given a full account of the work accomplished to

that date in the publication of Pali texts , and of dictionaries or


188 Bunnmsn .

are highly spoken of, and attempts are made toexplain the world and man without either a God

or a Providen ce, exactly as Buddha did. A futurelife is refus ed to the yearnings of mankind, and theimmortality of the soul is replaced by the immortality of works. God is dethroned, and in His

place they substitute man,the only being, we are

told, in which the Infinite becomes con scious of

itself. These theories are recommended to us sometimes in the name of scien ce

,or of history, or philo

sophy, or even of metaphysics and though they areneither new nor very original, yet they can do muchinjury to feeble hearts. This is not the place toexamine these theories, and their authors are bothtoo learned

,and too sincere to deserve to be con

demned summarily and without discussion . But

it is well that they should know by the example,too little known , of Buddhism , what becomes of

man if he depends on himself alone,and if h is

meditations, misled by a pride of which he is hardlyconsciou s, bring h im to the precipice where Buddhawas lost. I am well aware of all the differences, andI am not going to insult our contemporary philosophers by confounding them indiscriminately withBuddha, although addressing to both the same reproof. I acknowledge willingly all their additionalmerits, which are con siderable. But systems of philosophy mu st always be judged by the conclu sions towhich they lead

,whatever road they may follow in

reaching them ; and their conclusions, though ob

tained bydifferent means, are not therefore less objectionable. Buddha arrived at his conclu sion syears ago. H e proclaimed and practised them with

BUDDHISM. 189

an energy which is not likely to be surpassed, even ifit be equalled. He displayed a childlike intrepiditywhich no one can exceed, nor can it be supposed thatany system in our days could again acquire so powerful an ascendency over the souls of men . It wouldbe useful, however, if the authors of these modernsystems would just cast a glance at the theoriesand destinies of Buddhism . It is not philosophyin the sen se in which we understand this greatname, n or is it religion in the sen se of ancient paganism , ofChristianity, or ofMohammedanism ; but

it contain s elements of all worked up into a perfectlyindepen dent doctrine which acknowledges nothingin the universe but man , and obstinately refu sesto recognise anything else, though confounding manwith nature in the midst of which he lives. Hen ceall th ose aberration s of Buddhism which ought to bea warning to others. Unfortunately, if people rarelyprofit by their own faults, they profit yet more rarelyby the faults of others .

’

(Introduction , p. vii.)But though M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire does not

write history merely for the sake of those maskedbatteries which Fren ch writers have used with somu ch skill at all times, but more particularly duringthe late years of Imperial sway, it is clear, from the

remarks just quoted, that our author is not satisfiedwith simply chronicling the dry facts of Buddhism ,

or turning into French the tedious discourses of its

founder. His work is an animated sketch, givingtoo little rath er than too much. It is just the bookwhich was wanted to dispel the erroneous notion sabout Buddhism which are still current among edu

cated men, and to excite an interest which may lead

190 BUDDHISM.

those who are naturally frightened by the appallingproportions of Buddhist literature, and the uncouthsounds of Buddhist terminology, to a study of the

quartos of Burnouf, Tum our, and others. To thosewho may wish for more detailed information on

Buddhism than could be given by M. BarthelemySaint-Hilaire consistently with the plan of his work

,

we can strongly recommend the work of a Germanwriter, Die Religion des Buddha,’ von Kfippen

(Berlin , 185 It is founded on the same materialsas the French work, but being written by a scholarand for scholars, it enters on amore minute examination of all that has been said or written on Buddhaand Buddhism. In a second volume the same learnedand indu strious student has lately published a historyof Buddhism in Tibet.M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire’s work is divided into

three portions. The first contains an account of theorigin of Buddhism, a life of Buddha, and an exami

nation of Buddhist ethics and metaphysics. In the

second he describes the state of Buddhism in India

in the seventh century of our era, from thematerialssupplied by the travels of H iouen-Theang. The

third gives a description of Buddhism as actuallyexisting in Ceylon ,

and as lately described by an

eyew itness, the Rev. Spence Hardy. We shallconfin e ourselves chiefly to the first part, whichtreats of the life and teaching of Buddha.

M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, following the example of Burnouf, Las sen ,

and Wilson , accepts thedate of the Ceylonese era 543 as the date of

Buddha’s death. Th ough we cannot enter hereinto long chronological discussions, we mus t remark,


192 BUDDHISM.

Specimens that we have seen , we should think it

would be highly desirable to have an accurate tran slation of the Chinese text, su ch as M. StanislasJulien alone is able to give us .

1 Few people,how

ever, except scholars, would have the patience toread this work either in its English or French translation , as may be seen from the following Specimen , containing the beginning of Babu RajendralalMitra’s version 2

Om Salutation to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas,Aryas, S tavakas, and Pratyeka-Buddhas of all fi nes ,past, present, and future, who are adored throughout

The advantage to be derived from these Chinese translations

has been pointed out by M. Stanislas Julien. The analyt ical

structure of that language imparts to Chinese translations the

character almost of a gloss ; and though we need not follow impli

citly the interpretations of the Sanskrit originals adopted by the

Chinese translators, still their antiquity would naturally impart to

them a considerable value and interest. The following specimens

were kindly communicated to me by M . Stanislas Julien

Je ne sais Si je vous ai communique autrefois les curieux

passagesqui suivent : On lit dans le Lotus francais , p . 271,1 . 14,

C’estque c’est une chose difi cile arencontrerque la naissance d

’un

bouddha, aussi difi cile a rencontrerque la flcur de l’Udnmbara,que l’introduction du col d

’

une tortue dans l’ouverture d

’

un jougformé par ls grand océan .

IIy a en chinois un bouddha est difficile arencontrer, commeles fleurs Udumbara et Palaca ; et en outre comme Si une tortue

borgne voulait rencontrer un trou dans nu bois flottant (litt. ls trond’un bois flottant) .

‘ Lotus francais , p . 39, 1. 110 : (les creatures) enchainées par la

concupiscence comme par la queue du Yak, perpétuellement

aveuglées en ce monde par les désirs, elles ne cherchent pas le

Elles les aiment comme le Yak aime saqueue. Par la coacence et l

’amour, elles s

’aveuglent elles-mémes, etc.

’

This version is far from correct, but as the text itself requirescritical treatment, I have left it unaltered, adding only a few notes ,

to prevent serious misapprehensions .

BUDDHISM. 193

the farthest limits of the ten quarters of the globe.Thus hath it been heard by me, that once on a time

Bhagavat sojourned in the garden of Anathapindada,at Getavana, in Sravasti, accompanied by a venerablebody of Bhikshukas . There likewise aecompanied h im Bodhisattvas, all linked togetherby unity of caste, 1 and perfect in the virtues of paramita; who had made their command over Bodhisattva knowledge a pastime, were illuminedwith thelight of Bodhisattva dharanis, and were masters ofthe dhfiranis themselves ; who were profound in theirmeditation s, all submissive to the lord of Bodhisattvas ,

2and possessed absolute con trol over samadhi

great in self-command,refulgent in Bodhisattva for

bearan ce, and replete with the Bodh isattva elementof perfection .

3 Now then , Bhagavat, arriving in thegreat city of Srfivasti, sojourned therein , respected,venerated, revered, and adored by the fourfold con

gregations , by kings, princes, their coun sellers, prM e

ministers, and followers ; by retinues of kshatriyas ,brahmanas, householders, and ministers by citizens , foreigners, srfim anas, brahmanas, I

'ecluses, and

ascetics and although regaled with all sorts of

edibles and sauces, the best that could'

be preparedby purveyors , and supplied with cleanly mendicantapparel, begging pots, couches, and pain-assuagingmedicaments, the benevolent lord, on whom had

been showered the prime of gifts and applau ses,remained unattached to them all, like water on a

All restricted to one birth only.

Having approached all the high knowledge (p ra t is amv id) of

Having completed all the steps of a Bodhisattva.

VOL. 11 . 0

194 BUDDHISM.

lotus leaf ; and the report of his greatness as thevenerable, the absolute Buddha, the learned and

well-behaved, the god of happy exit, the greatknower of worlds, the valiant, l the all-controllingcharioteer,2 the teacher of gods and men, thequinoonlar lord Buddha fully manifest Spread far and

wide in the world. And Bhagavat, having by h isown power acquired all knowledge regarding thisworld and the next, comprising devas, maras, brahmyas (followers of Brahma), srfimanas, and brahma

fnas,

as subjects, that is both gods and men, sojournedhere, M parting in structions in the true religion , andexpounding the principles of a brahmakarya, full

and complete in its nature, holy in its import, pu reand immaculate in its character, auspicious in its

beginning, auspicious its middle, au spicious its end.

’

The whole work is written in a similar style, andwhere fact and legend, prose and poetry, sense and

nonsense, are so mixed together, the plan adoptedby M. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, ofmaking two livesout of one, the one containing all that seems poss ible,the other what seems impossible, would naturallyrecommend itself. It is not a safe process, however,to distil history out of legend by Simply strainingthe legendary through the sieve of physical possibility. Many things are possible, and may yet bethe mere inventions of later writers

, and manythings which sound impossible have been reclaimd

as historical, after removing from them the thin film

An u t tara h, without a superior, unrivalled.

Pu ru s h adamya sara t h i= p u ris adamm a sara th i, leader

or driver of men who have to be broken in or tamed. See Chil

ders, av.


196 BUDDHISM.

him in h is childhood. H is mother died seven daysafter his birth, and the father confided the child tothe care of h is deceased wife’s sister

, who, however,had been his wife even before the mother’s death.

The child grew up a most beautiful and most accomplished boy, who soon knew more than his masterscould teach him . He refused to take part in the

games of his playmates , and never felt so happy aswhen he could sit alone, lost in meditation in thedeep Shadows of the forest. It was there that hisfather found h im when he had thought him lost,and in order to prevent the young prince frombecoming a dreamer, the king determined to marryhim at on ce. When the subject was mentionedby the aged ministers to the future heir to the

throne, he demanded seven days for reflection , and

convinced at last that not even marriage could disturb the calm of his mind, he allowed the min istersto look out for a princess. The prin cess selectedwas the beautiful GOpa, the daughter of Dandapani.Though her father objected at first to hermarryinga young prince who was represented to him as defi

cient in manliness and intellect,he gladly gave h is

con sent when he saw the royal suitor distancing all

his rivals both in feats of arms and power of mind.

Their marriage proved one of the happiest, but theprince remained, as he had been before, absorbed inmeditation on the problems of life and death. No

thing is stable on earth,’ he used to say, nothing is

real. Life is like the spark produced by the frictionof wood. It is lighted and is extinguished— we

know not whence it came or whither it goes. It is

like the sound of a lyre, and the wise man asks in

BUDDHISM. 197

vain from whence it came andwhither it goes. Theremust be some supreme intelligence where we couldfind rest. If I attained it, I could bring light toman ; if Iwere free myself, I coulddeliver theworld.

"

The Eng, who perceived the melancholy mood of

the young prin ce, tried everything to divert himfrom h is Speculation s : but all was in vain . Threeof the most ordinary events that could happen to anyman proved of the utmost importance in the careerof Buddha. We quote the description of these cccurrences from M . Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire

One day when the prince with a large retinue wasdriving through the eastern gate of the city on the

way to one of his parks,he met on the road an old

man , broken and decrepit. One could see the vein sand muscles over the whole of his body ; h is teethchattered, he was covered with wrinkles, bald, and

hardly able to utter hollow and unmelodious sounds .

H e was bent on h is stick, and all his limbs and jointstrembled. Who is that man 9 said the prince tohis coachman . He is small and weak, his fleshand his blood are dried up , his muscles stick to hisskin

,his head is white, his teeth chatter, his body is

w asted away ; leaning on his stick he is hardly ableto walk, stumbling at every step. Is there something peculiar in his family, or is this the commonlot of all created beings

Sir,” replied the coachman , that man is sink

ing under old age, his senses have become obtuse ,suffering has destroyed h is strength, and he is despised by his relations. He is without support and

useless, and people have abandoned him like a deadtree in a forest. But this is not peculiar to his

198 BUDDHISM.

family. In every creature youth is defeated by oldage. Your father, your mother, all your relation s,all your friends, will come to the same state ; this isthe appointed end of all creatures .

”

Alas ! ” replied the prin ce, are creatures so

ignorant, so weak and foolish, as to be proud of the

youth by which they are intoxicated,not seeing th e

old age which awaits them As for me, I go away.

Coachman, turn my chariot quickly. What have I,the future prey of old age

—what have I to do withpleasure 9 And the young prince returned to thecity without going to his park.

An other time the prince was driving through thesouthern gate to his pleasure garden , when he perceived on the road a man suffering from illness,parched with fever, his body wasted, covered withmud, without a friend, without a home, hardly ableto breathe, and frightened at the Sight of himselfand the approach of death . Having questioned hiscoachman , and received from him the answer whichhe expected, the young prince said, Alas ! healthis but the sport of a dream,

and the fear of sufferingmust take this frightful form . Where is the wiseman who, after having seen what he is, could any

longer think of joy and pleasure 9 The princeturned his chariot and returned to the city.

A third time he was driving to his pleasure gardenthrough the western gate, when he saw a dead bodyon the road, lying on a bier, and coveredwith a clothThe friends stood about crying, sobbing, tearing theirhair, covering their heads with dust, striking theirbreasts and uttering wild cries. The prince, again,calling his coachman to witness this painful scene,


200 BUDDHISM.

were asleep. After travelling the whole night, hegave his horse and his ornaments to his groom,

and

sent him back to Kapilavastu . A monument, ’ re

marks the author of the Lalita-Vistata (p. 2 is

still to be seen on the spot where the coachman

turned back.

’H icuen-Th sang (ii. 330) saw the

same monument at the edge of a large forest, on h isroad to Kusinagara, a city now in ruin s and situatedabout fifty miles E .S.E . from Gorakpur.

Buddha firstwent toVaisali, and became thepupilof a famous Brahman

,who had gathered round him

300 dis ciples. Having learnt all that the Brahman

could teach h im,Buddha went away disappointed.

He had not found the road to salvation . He thentried another Brahman at Ragagriha, the capital ofMagadh a or Behar, who had 700 disciples, and theretoo he looked in vain for the means of deliveran ce.He left him, followed by five of h is fellow-students,and for six years retired into solitude, near a villagenamedUruvilva

,subjectin g himselfto themost severe

penances, previou s to his appearing in the world as

a teacher. At the end of this period, however, hearrived at the conviction that asceticism ,

far fromgiving peace of mind and preparing the way to sal

vation , was a snare and a stumbling-block in thewayof truth. He gave up his exercises, and was at oncedeserted as an apostate by h is five dis ciples. Left tohimself, he now began to elaborate his own system .

He had learnt that neither the doctrines nor the

1 The geography of India at the time of Buddha, and later at

the time of Fabian and Hiouen-Thsang, has been admirably treated

by M . L. Vivien de Saint-Martin , in his Memoire Analytique sur laCarte de l

’Asie Centrale et de l

’Inde,

’ in the third volume of M.

BUDDH ISM. 201

austerities of the Brahmans were of any avail foraccomplishing the deliverance of man , and freeingh im from the fear of old age, disease, and death.

After long meditations, and ecstatic visions, he at

last imagined that he had arrived at that true knowledge which discloses the cau se, and thereby destroysthe fear, of all the changes inherent in life . It was

from the moment when he arrived at this knowledge,that he claimed the name ofBuddha, the Enlightened.

At that moment we may truly say that the fate of

millions ofmillions of human beings trembled in thebalance . Buddha hesitated for a time whether hes hould keephis knowledge tohimself remain , in fact,a Pratyeka-b uddh aF -or communicate it to the

world. Compassion for the sufferings of man prevailed, and the young prince became the founder of areligion which, after more than years

,is still

professed by a larger number of human beings thanany other religion .

1

The further history of the new teacher is verySimple. H e proceeded to Benares, which at all timeswas the principal seat of learning in India, and thefirst converts he made were the five fellow-studentswho had left him when he threw off the yoke of theBrahmanical Observances. Many others followed ;but as the Lalita-Vistara breaks off at Buddha’sarrival at Benares, we have no further con secu tiveaccount of the rapid progress of his doctrine. Fromwhat we can gather from scattered notices in the

Buddhist canon , he was invited by the king of

Magadha, Bimbisara, to h is capital, Ragagriha. Manyof his lectures are represented as having been deli1 See Note on the Rebigious Statistics cfBuddhism,

infra, p. 223.

202 BUDDHISM.

vered at the monastery ofKalantaka, with which theking or some rich merchant h ad presented him ;

others on theVulture Peak, one of the five hills thatsurrounded the ancient capital.

Three of his most famous disciples, Sfiriputra,Katyayana, and Maudgalyayana, joined him duringh is stay in Magadha, where he enjoyed for manyyears the friendship of the king. That kingwas afterwards assassinated by his son , Agatasatru , and thenwe hear of Buddha as settled for a time at Srfivasti,north of the Ganges, where Anathapindada, a richmerchant, had offered him and his disciples a magnificent building fortheir residence. Most of Buddha

’s

lectures or sermon s were delivered at Sravasti, the

capital of Kosala ; and the king of Kosala himself,

Prasénagit, became a convert to h is doctrine. After

an absence of twelve years we are told that Buddhavisited his father at Kapilavastu , on which occasionh e is said to have performed several miracles, andconverted all the Bakyas to his faith. H is own wifebecame one of his followers, and, with his aunt, offersthe first in stance offemale Buddhist devotees in India.

We have fuller particulars again of the last days ofBuddha’s life. He had attained the good age of

three score and ten , and had been on a visit toRagagriha, where the king, Agatasatru, the formerenemy ofBuddha, and the assassin of h is own father,had joined the congregation , after making a publicconfession of his crimes . On his return he was followed by a large number of disciples

, and when on

the point of crossing the Ganges, he stoodon a squarestone, and turning his eyes back towards Rfigagriha,he said, full of emotion, This is the last time that I.


204 BUDDHISM.

he whose food is pure that of his mother signifiesillusion ; his own secular appellation, Siddhartha, heby whom the end is accomplished. Buddha itselfmeans, the Enlightened, or, as Professor Wilsontranslates it less accurately, he by whom all is known .

The same distinguished scholar goes even further, andmaintaining that Kapilavas tn , the birthplace of

Buddha, has no place in the geography of theHindus,suggests that it may be rendered, the substance ofKapila : intimating, in fact, the Sankhya philosophy,the doctrine of Kapila Muni, upon which the fundamental elements ofBuddhism ,

the eternity ofmatter,the principles of things, and the final extinction , aresupposed to be planned. It Seems not impossible,’

he continues , that Sakya Muni is an unreal being,and that all that is relatedof him is as much a fiction ,as is that ofhis preceding migrations, and themiraclesthat attended h is birth, h is life, and his departure.’

This is going farbeyond Niebuhr, far even beyondStrauss . If an allegorical name had been inventedfor the father ofBuddha, one more appropriate thanClean-food might surely have been found. His

mother is not the only queen known by the name ofMaya, Mayadévi, Mayavati. Why, if these nameswere in vented, Should h is wife have been allowed tokeep the prosaic name of Gopa(cowherdess) and his

father-in-law , tha t ofDaudapani, Stick-hand 9 As

to h is own name, Siddhartha, the Tibetans maintain

that it was given him by his parent, whose wish

dawn, and Suddhodana would then have signified originally the

P ure Damn . What seems stra nge, however, is that this meaning,unknown both in Sanskrit and PAli, should have been familiar toChinese translators and theirass istants .

BUDDHISM. 205

(artha) had been fulfilled (Siddha), as we hear ofDesires and Dieu-donnés in French. One of the

ministers of Dasaratha had the same name. It is

possible also that Buddha himselfassumed it in afterlife, as was the case with many of the Roman sur

names. As to the name of Buddha, no one evermaintained that it was more than a title

,the En

lightened, changed from an appellative into a propername, just like the name of Christos, the Anointed,or Mohammed, the Expected.

‘ Kapilavastu wouldbe a most extraordinary compound to express the

substance of the San khya philosophy.

’But all

doubt on the subject is removed by thefact that bothFabian in thefifth and Hiouen-Thsang in the seventhcentu ries visited the real ruin s of that city.

Making every possible allowance for the accumu

lation of fiction2 which is sure to gather round thelife of the founder ofevery great religion , we may besatisfied that Buddhism, which changed the aspectnot only of India, but of nearly the whole of Asia,had a real founder ; that he was not a Brahman bybirth, but belonged to the second or royal cas te ; thatbeing of a meditative turn of mind, and deeply impressed with the fra ilty of all created things, he became a recluse, and sought for light and comfort inthe different systems of Brahman philosophy and

theology. Dissatisfied with the artificial systems oftheir priests and philosophers ; convinced of the u se

lessness, nay of the pernicious influence, of theirceremonial practices and bodily penances ; shocked,

See Sprenger, BaaLaban do: Mohammad, 1861, vol. i. p . 155.

3 This subject has since been fully and carefully treated by M.

Senart, in his Esra/i cur la Légende da Buddha , Paris, 1875.

2 06 BUDDHISM.

too, by their worldliness and pharisaical conceit,

which made the priesthood the exclusive property ofone caste and rendered every pious

‘

act impossiblewithout their intervention , Buddha mu st have produced at once a powerful impression on the people atlarge, when , breaking through all the establishedrules of caste, he assumed theprivileges of a Brahman,

and, throwing away the Splendour of his royal position , travelled about as a beggar, not Shrinking fromthe defiling contact of sinners and publican s. Thoughwhen we now Speak of Buddh ism we think chiefly ofits doctrin es, the reform of Buddha had originallymu ch more of a social than of a religious character.Buddha swept away the web with which the

Brahmans had encircled the whole of India . Be

ginning as the reformer oi an old, he became thefounder of a new religion . We can hardly understandhow any nation could have lived under a system likethat of the Brahmanic hierarchy, which coiled itselfround every public and private act, and would haverendered life intolerable to any who had forfeitedthe favourof their priests . That system was attackedby Buddha. Buddha might have taught whateverphilosophy he pleased, and we Should hardly haveheard his name. The people wouldnot have mindedhim , and his sysmm would only have been a drop inth e ocean of philosophical speculation by whichIndia was deluged at all times . But when a youngprince assembled round him people of all castes, ofall ranks ; when he defeated the Brahmans in publicdisputations ; when he declaredt he sacrifices by whichthey made their living not only useless but sinful ;w hen instead of severe penance or excommunications


208 BUDDHISM.

In reading the particulars of the life of the lastBuddha Gandama, it is impossible not to feel re

minded of many circumstances relating to our Sa

viour'

s life, such as it has been sketched out by theEvangelists.

’ An don p . 494 we readwhat is perhapsthe strongest testimony which a Christian bishopcould give : It will not be deemed rash to assertthat most of the moral truths prescribed by the

Gospel are to be met with in the Buddhistic Scriptures.’

Spen ce Hardy, a Wesleyan Missionary, speaking of the Dhammapada, or the Footsteps of the

Law ,

’admits that a collection might be made from

the precepts of this work, which in the purity of itseth ics could hardly be equalled from any otherheathen author.M. Laboulaye, one of the most distingu ished

members of the French Academy, remarks in the

Débats ’ of April 4, 1853 : It is difi cult to comprehend how men, not assistedby revelation, could havesoared so high, and approached so near to the truth.

’

Besides the five great commandments not to kill,not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie, not

to get drunk, every shade of vice, hypocrisy, anger,pride, suspicion , greediness, gossiping, cruelty to

animals, is guarded again st by special precepts .Am ong the virtues recommended, we find not onlyreverence of parents, care for children, submission toauthority, gratitude, moderation in time of prosperity, submission in time of trial, equanimity at alltimes, but virtues unknown in any heathen system of

morality, such as the duty of forgiving insults andnot rewarding evil with evil. All virtues, we are

BUDDHISM. 209

told, Spring from Maitri, and this Maitri can only betranslated by charity and love .1We add one more testimony from the work ofM .

Barthelemy SaintoH ilaireJe n ’

hésite pas a ajouter,’ he writes , que, saufls Christ tout seul, il n ’est point, parmiles fondateursde religion , de figure plu s pure ni plus touchantequecelle du Bouddha. Sa vie n

’a point de tache. Son

constant héroisme égale sa conviction ; et Si la théoriequ ’il préconise est fausse, les exemples personn els

qu ’il donne sont irréprochables . 11 est le modele

achevé de toutes les vertu s qu ’il préche ; son abnega

tion , sa charité, son inaltérable douceur,

ne sedémentent point un seul in stant ; il abandonne avingt-neuf ans la cour du roi son pere pour se fairereligieux et mendiant ; il prépare silencieusement sadoctrine par six ann ées de retraite et de meditation ;il la propage par la seule puis sance de la parole et dela persuasion , pendant plus d

’un demi-siecle et

quand il meurt entre les bras de ses disciples,c’est

avec la Sérénité d’un sagequ i a pratiqué le bien toutesa vie, etqui est assuré d’avoir trouvé le vrai(p .

There still remain , no doubt, some blurred and

doubtful pages in the history of the prince ofKapilavastu ; but we have only to look at the works on

ancient philosophy and religion published somethirty years ago, in order to perceive the immense

Burnouf, Lotus de la bonus Loi, p . 300. Ido not hesitate,’

says Burnout, to translate by charity the word Maitri it does not

express friendship or thefeeling of particularaflection which a man

has for one ormore of his fellow creatures , but that universal feel

ing which inspires us with good-will towards all men and constant

willingness to help them .

’

VOL. II.

210 BUDDHISM.

progress that has been made in establishing the truehistorical character of the founder of Buddh ism .

There was a time when Buddha was identified withChrist. The Manichaeans were actually forced to

abjure their belief that Buddha, Christ, and Maniw ere one and the same person .

1 But we are thinking rather of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen

turies, when elaborate books were written in orderto prove that Buddha had been in reality the Thothof the Egyptian s, that he was Mercury, or Wodan ,or Zoroaster, or Pythagoras. Even SirW. Jones, aswe saw , identifiedBuddha, firstwith Odin , and afterwards with Shishak, who either in person or by acolony from Egypt imported into India the mild

h eresy of the ancient Bauddhas .

’ Now, we know1 Neander

,H istory of the Church

, vol. i. p . 817 : Tim Zapata»

« cl Borodin nal ‘rhy Xpw'rbv nal 'rhy Mamxarbv in oral 'rhu aim-by slvat.

As I found that some false theories had been built on this formula,

I consu lted my friend, the Rev . E . Hatch , on its probable age.

I was informed by him that it was first printed by Goar, in his

Euchologium,from a Barberini MS. It was next printed by Cote

lerius, Natee ad Patr. Ap ost. ed. 1672, p . 868, from a. MS. in the

Royal Library at Paris , and afterwards by Tollius , in Insignia

Itinera/rii Italici, ed. 1696, p . 126, from a Vienna MS. (described inLambeccius , Bibliotheca Ce sar. Vindob. ed. Kollarius , lib . v . p .

Cotelerius and Tollius agree in giving the clause as :’AyaOehaq-tfm

rots rbv Zapaaiw nal Bovddv nal 'rhy Xpw'rbv nal rdv Mamxardv nal 'rbv

4}v'e'va nal 7 2m airrby elvar Ae

’

yow as . But Goat’s MS. has only

I anathematize Zarada and Budda and Scythianus , predecessors of

Manichaeus .

’Goaralso attributes it to Methodius ofConstantinople

(died circa 842) and Migne, Patrol. Gra n. vol. 0 . p . 1322, follow

ing Goar, prints it among the works of Methodius . The formula

s eems to belong to the laterMan ichaean or Paulin ian controversies

which were in full vigour in the European part of the Eastern .

Empire about the middle of the ninth century. It is therefore of

next to no value as to the early relations of either Manichmism or

Christianity to Buddhism,unless further researches should enable

us to trace it back to earlier times and to higher authorities in the

Christian Church .


212 BUDDHISM.

possession of all their claims . Such privileges asthey then enjoyed are n ever enjoyed for any lengthof time. It was impossible for anybody to move orto assert h is freedom of thought and action withoutfinding himself impeded on all Sides by the web

of the Brahmanic law nor was there anything intheir religion to satisfy the natural yearnings of thehuman heart after spiritual comfort. What was feltby Buddha had been felt more or less intensely bythou sands ; and this was the secret of his success.That success , however, was probably accelerated bypolitical events. Kandragupta had conquered the

throne of Magadha, and acquired his supremacy inIndia in defiance of the Brahmanic law . He was oflow orgin , a mere adventurer, and by his accessionto the throne an important mesh had been broken inthe intricate system of caste . Neither he nor his

successors could count on the hearty support of theBrahmans, and it is but natural that his grandson ,Asoka, should have been driven to seek support fromthe new sect foundedby Buddha. Buddha

,by giving

up his royal station ,had broken the law of caste as

mu ch as Kandragupta by u surping it. H is school,

though it had probably escaped open persecutionuntil it rose to political importance, could never havebeen on friendly terms with the Brahmans of the old

school. The p arvenu on the throne saw his naturalallies in the followers of Buddha, and the mendicants, who by their unostentatiou s behaviour hadwon golden Opinion s among the lower and middle

classes, were suddenly raised to an importance littledreamt of by their founder. Those who see in

Buddhism not a social but chiefly a religious and

BUDDHISM. 213

philosophical reform,have been deceived by the later

Buddhist literature, and particularly by the controv ersies between Buddhists and Brahmans, which inlater times led to the total expuls ion of the formerfrom India, an d to the political re-establishment ofBrahmanism . These, no doubt, turn chiefly on

philosophical problems, and are of the most abstruseand intricate character. But such was not the

teaching of Buddha. If we may judge from the

four verities,’ which Buddha in culcated from the firstday that he entered on his career as a teacher, h isphilosophy of life was very simple. He proclaimsthat there was nothing but sorrow in life ; thatsorrow is produced by our affections

,that our afl'ec

tions must be destroyed in order to destroy the rootof sorrow, and that he could teach mankind how toe radicate all the affections , all passions, all desires .

Such doctrines were intelligible ; and con sideringthat Buddha received people of all castes, who afterrenouncing the world and assum iug their yellowrobes were sure of finding a livelihood from the

charitable gifts of the people,it is not surprising

that the number of his followers should have grownso rapidly. IfBuddha really taught themetaphysicaldoctrines which are as cribed to him by subsequen twriters—and this is a point which it is impossible asyet to settle—not one in a thou sand among his followers would have been capable ofappreciating thoseSpeculations . They must have been reserved for afew of his disciples

,and they would never have

formed the nucleus for a popular religion .

Nearly all who have written on Buddhism, and

M . Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire among the rest, have

214 BUDDHISM.

endeavoured to Show that these metaphysical doctrines of Buddha were borrowed from the earliersystems ofBrahmanic philosophy, and more particularly from the Sankhya system . The reputed founderof that system is Kapila, and we saw before howProfessor W ilson actually changed the name ofKapilavastu , the birthplace of Buddha, into a mere allegory, Kapilavastu meaning, according to him , the

substance of Kapila or of the Sankhya philosophy.

This is not all. Mr. Spen ce Hardy (p . 132) quotesa legend in which it is said that Buddha was in a

former existence an ascetic,called Kapila

,that the

Sakya princes came to his hermitage, and that hepointed out to them the proper place forfounding a

new city,which citywas named after him Kapilavastu .

But we have looked in vain for any definite similarities between the system ofKapila, as known tou sin the Sankhya-Sfitras, and the Abhidharma

,or the

metaphysics of the Buddhists. Such similaritieswould be invaluable. They would probably enableu s to decide whether Buddha borrowed from Kapilaor Kapila from Buddha, and thus determine the realchronology of the philosophical literature of India,as either prior or subsequent to the Buddhist era .

But as yet all that has been written on this subjectis purely assertive. There are no doubt certainnotion s which Buddha shares in common, not onlywith Kapila

,but with every Hindu philosopher. The

idea of tran smigration , the belief in the continuingefl

'

ects of our good and bad actions, extending fromour former to our present and from our present toour future lives, the sen se that life is a dream or aburden , the admission of the uselessness of religious


216 BUDDHISM.

anterior, to Buddh a. Though the name of Buddhais not mentioned in the Sutras, his doctrines, I believe

,are clearly alluded to and controverted in

several parts of them .

It has been said that Buddha and Kapila wereboth atheists , and that Buddh a borrowed his atheismfrom Kapila. But atheism is an indefinite term , and

may mean very different things . In one sense everyIndian philosopher was an atheist, for they all perceived that the gods of the populace could not claimthe attributes that belong to a Supreme Being. But

all the important philosophical systems of the Brahmans admit

,in some form or other, the existence of

an Absolute and Supreme Being, the source of all

that exists, or seems to exist. Kapila, when accusedof atheism, is not accu sed of denying the existence ofan Absolute Being. He is accused of denying theexistence of an Iavara, which in general mean s theLord, butwhich, in the passage where it occurs, refersto the Isvara of the Yogins, or mystic philosophers.These Yogins main tained that in an ecstatic stateman possesses the power of seeing God face to face,and they wished to have this ecstatic intuition includedunder the head of sensuousperceptions. TothisKapila demurred. You have not proved the existence of your Lord, he says, and therefore I see no

reason why I should alter my definition of sen suousperception in order to accommodate your ecstaticvisions. The commentator narrates that this stronglanguage was used by Kapila in order to silence thewild talk of theMystics, and that, though he tauntedAphorisms, with illustrative extracts from the commentaries, was

printed forthe use of the Benares College, by Dr. Ballantyne.

BUDDHISM. 217

his adversaries with having failedto prove the existence of their Lord, he himself was far from denyingthe existence of a Supreme Being. Kapila, however

,went further. He endeavoured to Show that

all the attributes which the Mystics ascribed to theirLord are inappropriate . He used arguments verysimilar to those which have lately been used withsuch ability by a distinguished Bampton Lecturer.The supreme Lord of the Mystics, Kapila argued, iseither absolute and un conditioned (mu k ta), or he isbound and condition ed (baddha). If he is absolute.and unconditioned, he cannot enter into the condition of a Creator ; he would have no desires whichcould in stigate him to create. If, on the contrary,he is represented as active, and entering on the workof creation , he wou ld no longer be the absolute andchangeable Being which we are asked to believe

in . Kapila, like the preacher of our own days, wasa ccused of paving the road to atheism

, but his

philosophy was nevertheless admitted as orthodox,because, in addition to sen suou s perception and in

ductive reasoning, Kapila professed emphatically hisbelief in reveh tion -i.s . in the Veda—and allowed toit a place among the recognisedin struments ofknowledge. Buddha refu sed to allow to the Vedas anyindependent authority whatever, and this constituted the fun damental difference between the twophilOSOphers .

WhetherKapila’s philosophy was really in accorda nce with the Spirit of the Veda, is quite a differentquestion . No philosophy, at leas t nothing like a

definite system, is to be found in the sacred hymn sof the Brahmans ; and though the Vedfinta philo

218 BUDDHISM.

Sophy does less violen ce than the Sankhya towhat itquotes from the Veda, the authors of the Veda wouldhave been as much surprised at the con sequ encesdeduced from their words by the Vedantin as bythe strange meaning attributed to them by Kapila.

The Vedanta philosopher would deny the existenceof a Creator in the usual sense of the word quite asmuch as the follower of the Sfinkhya philosophy of

Kapila. He explained the universe as an emanationfrom Brahman , which is all in all, not as the creation of a God. Kapila admitted two principles

,an

absolute Spirit and Nature, and he looked upon the

universe as produced by a reflection ofNature thrownon the mirror of the absolute Spirit. Both systemsseem to regard creation , or the created world, as

an unfortunate accident. But they maintain that itseffects can be neutralised, and that emancipationfrom the bonds of earthly existence is possible bymean s of philosophy. The Vedanta philosopherimagined that he was free when he had arrived at

the knowledge that nothing exists but Brahman ;

that all phenomena aremerely the result ofignorancethat after the destruction of that ignorance, and ofitseffects, all is merged again in Brahman

, the truesource of being, thought, and happiness . Kapilataught that the spirit became free from all mundanefetters as soon as it perceived that all phenomenawere only passing reflections produced by natureupon the spirit, and as soon as it was able to shut itseyes tothose illusory vision s . Bothsystems, thereforeand the same applies to all the other philosOphicasystems of the Brahman s admitted an absolute orself-existing Being, as the cause of all that exists or


220 BUDDHISM.

h im to an examination of that extreme doctrin e aocording to which all that we perceive is void, an d all

is supposed to perish, becau se it is the nature ofthingsthat they Should perish. Kapila remarks in referenceto this view (I. that it is a mere assertion of

person s who are not enlightened’— in San skrit

a-bu ddha, a sarcastic expression in which it is diflicultnot to see an allusion to Buddha, or to those whoclaimed for him the title of the Enlightened.

l Kapilathen proceeds to give the best answer that could begiven to those who taught that complete annihilationmust be the highest aim ofman , as the only means ofa complete cessation of suffering. It is not so,’ hesays, for if people wish to be free from suffering, itis they themselves who wish to be free, just as in thislife it is they themselves who wish to enjoy happiness.There mus t be a perman ent soul in order to satisfythe yearnings of the human heart, and if you denythat soul, you have no right to speak of the highestaim ofman .

’

Whether the belief in this kind ofNirvana—i.s. ina total extinction of being, personality, and consciousness—was at any time shared by the large massesof the people, is difficult either to assert or deny.We know nothing in ancient times of the religiousconvictions of the millions. We only know what afew leading Spirits believed, or professed to believe.That certain people in modern and ancient times haveSpoken and written of total extinction as the highestaim of man cannot be denied. Job cursed the dayon which he was born ,

and Solomon praised thedead which are already dead, more than the living1 For a similarplay on the word Buddha, see MahAbhAr., xv. 567.

BUDDHISM. 221

which are yet alive.’ Yea, better is he than both

they,’ he said, which hath not yet been , who hathnot seen the evil work that is done under the sun

Voltaire said in his own flippant way, On aime lavie

,mais le néant ne laisse pas d

’avoirdu bon and

a modern German philosopher, who has found muchfavour with those who profess to despise Kan t,

Schelling, and Hegel, writes, Considered in its objective value, it is more than doubtful that life ispreferable to the Nothing. I should say even , that ifexperience and reflection could lift up their voicesthey would recommend to u s the Nothing. We are

what ought not to be, and we Shall therefore cease tobe.’ Under peculiar circumstances, in the agonies ofdespair, or under the gathering clouds of madness ,such language is intelligible but to believe

, as weare asked to believe, that one half of mankind hadyearned for total annihilation would be tantamountto a belief that there is a difference in kin d betweenman and man . Buddhist philosophers

, no doubt,held this doctrine, and it cannot be denied that itfound a place in the Buddhist canon . But even amongthe different schools of Buddhist philosophers

,very

different views are adopted as to the true meaning of

Nirvana,and with the modern Buddhists of Burmah

,

forinstance,Nigban, as they call it, is defined simply asfreedom from old age, disease, and death. We donotfindfault withM. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire forhavingso emphatically pressed the charge ofnihilism againstBuddh a himself. In one portion of the Buddhistcanon the most extreme views of nihilism are put

into his mouth. All we can say is that that canon islater than Buddha, and that in the canonicalbooks of

222 BUDDHISM.

the Northern Buddhists, such as the ‘Lotu s of theGood Law ,

’ 1 the founder of Buddh ism, after havingentered into Nirvana, is still spoken of as living,nay, as Showing himself to those who believe in him .

Buddha, who denied the existence, or at least thedivine nature, of the gods worshipped by the Brahmans, was raised himself to the rank of a deity bysome of his followers 2 (the Aisvarikas) and we neednotwonder, therefore, ifhis Nirvana toowas graduallychanged into an Elysian field.

An d finally, ifwe may argue from human nature,such as we find it at all times and in all countries, weconfess that we cannot bring ourselves to believe thatthe reformer of India, the teacher of so perfect a codeofmorality, the young prince who gave up all he hadin order to help those whom he saw afllicted in mind,body, or estate, should have cared much about speculation s which he knew would either bemisunderstood,or not understood at all, by those whom he wished to

This statement has been fiercely attacked by Mr.D’Alwis, in h is

Buddhist Ni/rvd/na , p . 50. But,”says Max Miiller, in the legends

Buddha appears to his disciples even after his death .

” We confess

we are utterly ignorant of the legend here referred to ; but we are

not a little surprised that a writer, who insists upon the Buddh ist

Canon alone as being our true guide in all matters, should refer to,

or derive aid from, legendary tales in favour of this new doctrine of

nihilism .

’ My answer is that in one of the canonical books of the

Northern Buddhists, the Saddharma-pundarika, we read When I

(Bhagavat) shall have entered into complete Nirvana, I shall send

numerous miracles and again, I shall then show my luminous

form,

’etc. See Lotus de la bonne Loi, p . 144.

2 How early this took place, we see from Clemens of Alexandria,Strom. i. p . 305, A .R . (ed. Colon . 1688) Megasthenis Indica, ed.

Schwanbeck, p . 139, do! 8} 'réiv’

lvbr‘

iw of 7 07: Bow-7 a (sive Bow a)" rotat ion: wapa

‘

ryékpao'w,

by 81’brepBoA

-bv affirm-mos 6: Gehr

u raniu m.


O T E S .

RELIGIOUS STATISTICS or BUDDHISM.

IT would, no doubt, be a great mistake to imagine that the

truth or value of any religion could be settled by majorities .

In the present state of the world the contrary is more

likely to be true. Nevertheless , attempts have not been

wanting to prove the excellency of certain religion s on the

ground of the number of their adherents . It was long the

custom to say thatChristianity countedmore believers thanany other faith . Even so late as 1870, a distinguished

scholar did not hesitate to say that the earth contained

700 millions of human beings, one half of them beingChristians . In the present state of statistical science

the one statement is as valueless as the other. The earth

now counts at least millions of inhabitants,and the

number ofChristians has never been proved to be more

than 390millions , though in no religion are there greater

opportunities for ascertaining the exact number of its ad

Religious statistics are always extremely vague, yettheir very vagueness seems to prove attractive. Whenentering upon them we should always remember the honest

confession ofMalte Brun, Si l

’on cent é

‘

tre ole ban/nofoi, il

faut avouer,que l’on n’a pas p lus de raison p our donner d

NOTES . 225

Z’

Asie 500 millions,que p our lui en dormer Even in a

coun try like England, where every man ,woman

,and child

has been numbered, we know how uncertain all denomina

tional return s have proved. What can we expect, then ,

from countries in which the exact number of the popula

tion varies , in differen t accounts , not by hundreds and

thousands , but by million s ! No doubt statistical science

has made of late immense progress, but it is sure to make

greater progress still. In 1812 China was credited with

in 1842 w ith inhabitants,while

in the last cen tury on ly were assigned to the

Celestial Empire.

1 The Jew s , not long ago estimated at

now claim between and the

same as in the days ofDav id.

’ In the estimates of 1861 the

population of India was given as by the cen sus

of 1871 at for British India alone, and wemay

trust to Dr. Hunter’

s perseverance that the censu s of 1881

will again considerably modify the figures nowquoted inall statistical hand-books .

What distinguishes modern statistics is a greater readi

ness to confess our ignorance, in stead of fixing on some

average number which , if“ence thrown out

,is repeated by

everybody. Thu s the religious cen sus given by Berghaus

in his Physical Atlas ,’has been repeated again and again .

—Imyself have oftenquotedit—though at present it is cer

tainly antiquated. H e gave the following table

1 . Buddhists . 312 per cent. 4. Brahmanists 134 per cent.

2. Christians 30 7 5. Heathen

3. Mohammedans 157 6. Jews 0 3

According to this calculation , it was assumed that the

Buddhists could claim a majority above all the other reli

gions of the world. But though this is perfectly true, it

cannot certainly be proved by Berghaus’

s figures . Berghaus

does not distinguish the Buddhists in China from the fol

lowers of Confucius and Lao-tse in that country, and

Petermann’s Mittheilungen, vol. viii. p . 8.

2 See Times, September 13, 1879.

von. II. Q

226 NOTES.

their numbers are so considerable as entirely to vitiate his

calculations . It is very difficult, no doubt, to find out in

China to what religion a man belongs, becau se the same

person may profess two or even three religion s . The

Emperor of China himself, after sacrificing according to

the ritual of Confucius , visits a Tao-tse Shrine, and after

wards bow s before an image of F0 in a Buddhist temple.

l

But, for all that, it wouldbe impossible to claim the whole

population of China for Buddhism . Dr.Gutzlafl'

Journal

ofRoyal Asiatic Society,’

xvi. p . 89) thought that the Buddhist religiou s establishments in China migh t be estimated

at two-thirds of the whole of the religiou s edifices through

out China ; while Professor Schott Buddhaismu s,’

1844)considered the Buddhists as only forming a minority in

China. However that may be,it is

'qu ite clear that,if

we dedu ct from the sum total of the inhabitan ts of

China—all of whom Berghau s puts dow n as Buddhists

those who are decidedly not Buddhists , but followers of

Confucius or Lao-tse, the balance between Buddhism and

Christianity would be considerably altered, and instead of

occupying the second place with per cen t., as again st

Buddhism with 312 per cent., Christianity would nodoubt

have a right to claim the first place, always supposing that

Berghau s’

s numbers are still to be depended on . This ,

how ever, is no longer the case, as we shall see presen tly .

As a specimen of what a religious cen sus ought to be

though its authors would be the last to claim any perfection

or finality for it—I subjoin here that of British India,

taken in 1871 , with several importan t correction s and im

provements which I have been enabled to make,thanks to

the valuable assistance ofDr. W . W . Hunter.

It should be borne in mind, however, that this cen su s

dealt w ith 191 millions of British India on ly, and neces

sarily leaves out of account the 50 million s or so in the

See Wassiliew,in Mélanges Asiatiques de St. Pétersbmrrg, vol.

II. p . 374.


228 NOTES .

feudatory states . Thus the Christian population is given

at but to these must be added about

native Christians in native territory. Dr. W . W. H unter,

the Director-General of Statistics , gives the number in two

feudatory states alone, Cochin and Travancore, at

in 1875, and he states that the Roman Catholic Missions

claim about 1 } million of souls. There is besides a large

balance of Protestant Christians in India.

The number of Buddhists , including Jain s—who ought

to have been separated- is not very large in India, and it

would dwindle away to almost nothing but for the two and

a halfmillions in British Burmah .

Thequestion then is , how are we to fix the sum total

ofBuddhists in the world ? It is easy to say, as BishopBigandet does ,

1 that nearly one-fourth of the human race

is under the sway of Buddhism . This teaches us no more

than when Sprenger tells u s that the Mohammedans form

one-tenth of the whole of humanity.

The firstquestion that has to be answered is,What is

the number of humanityAccording to the latest and most trustworthy figures ,

publishedby the Geographical InstituteofJustus Perthes ,’ 3

the sum total of human beings , now ascertained,is

Australia and Polynesia

America

Total l,439, 145,280

Out of that number one of the latest writers on Bud.

dhism—Mr. Rhys Davids—claims or more

1 Life of Gaudama , p . VII.

Mitthei lungen aus Justus t es’

Geograp hischer Ansta lt,von Dr. Petermann , Gotha, 1878 . Die Bevdlkerung der Erde,

’

von

Behm und Wagner.

norms. 229

than one-third, forBuddhism,which may be right ; while

he assign s to Christianity only which is too

low a figure. Taking the latest statements with regard to

the number of followers of each religion, we get the fol

lowing table

1. Buddhists

2. Christians

3. Mohammedans

4. Hindus (in British India)(in Native States)

5. Sikhs

6. Jews

7. Parsees (in India)(in Yezd, Kirman, etc.)

8. Nondescript

Total ,7

But when we ask how the number of for

the religion ofBuddha has been arrived at, we shall see at

once how u ncertain the ground is on which we stand.

Mr. Rhys Davids has been at great pains to compute this

number,andI shall givehis list in order to show how,

while

I differ from him on several important poin ts, we still

arrive on the whole at the same result.

SOUTHERN Bum mls 'rs

In Ceylon

British Burmah

Burmah

SiamAnnamJains

3,

The census for British India gives Buddhists and

Jains. If we deduct forBritish Burmah there remain onlynot There is, however, a considerable Buddhistic,

Jain , or Semi-Buddhistic population in the native territories and

along the frontierHimalayan States.

r of inhabitantsincluding

Mohammedans.)(lug

. Cens . 1871)Ionjectured on mi itary

returns .)(ditto)(ditto)(Ind. Cens .

426

230 NOTES.

NORTHERN BUDDH Is'rs.

Dutch Possessions (Friedrich 1876,

p . 196)British Possessions,chiefly in Spiti,Assam, FurtherIn

dia, Hong KongRussian Possessions,Kirgis , Kalmuks on 600 000 (

Schlagintweit, Buddh . in

Volga ,Buriates in Tibet,

’

p . 12)South Siberia

Lieu cheu Islands (Schlagintweit, l.c., gives

14million)‘

Korea

hSc tweit, 1Bhutan and Slkhlm

mih gumm

n)5

Kashmir (Ladak)Tibet

MongoliaMandshuria

JapanNepal

China wow (18 )provinces) . f

Toral

Southern and Nor

thern Buddhists

together

Total

Testing these figures by a reference to the latest sta

tistics published by the Geographical Institute ofGotha,’

I find that, beginning with Ceylon ,its population is now

(v . 43) given as instead of It is

safer, however, to leave the number of Buddhis ts in

Ceylon as given in the census of 1872.

Ceylon inhabitants ,

now contains

British Burmah (iv . 35)Burmah (ii. 44)Siam (iii. 106)Anna

? (iv . 49

.

)IBudd ists or ains

in India385 020

Total


232 NOTES.

Kashmir has but few Buddhist inhabitants . Ladak,

now a province of Kashmir, having inhabitants,

is mostly Buddhist.

Tibet (v . 32) has now inhabitants , mostly

Buddhists .

Mongolia (v. 32) has inhabitants .

Mandshuria (v . 32) has inhabitants .

Jap an (v. 32) has inhabitants, including,

however, the Lieu cheu islands .

Nep al (iv . 48) has inhabitan ts , the majoritybeing H indu s .

China (11. 40) has The number com

prises the three religions , and, for reasons pointed out

before,cannot possibly be assigned to Buddhism alone.

As matter for consideration the student ofBuddhism

may be reminded that the countries supposed to be tribu

tary to China—some of which have been comprehended

in the above list—are now credited w ith a number of

inhabitants , viz . (v. 32)Eastern Turkestan

Dsungaria

Mongolia

Mandshuria.

Korea

Neutral country between Mandshuria andKoreaTibet

Though the number of Buddhists in British India is

very small, some addition will probably have to be made

to it from the Independent States , which are set down

(v. 37) w ith inhabitants . Of the Himalayan

States , Nepal and Bhutan only have contributed their

quota to the Buddhist census . A few more Buddhists

would probably come from Manipur inhabitants)and from the tribes north and south ofAssam (iv .

Taking it therefore all in all,I doubt whether, even

norms. 233

after deducting the many millions which ought to be

deducted from the number ofBuddhists returned in China,

the sum total of the followers of the Buddhist religion, or

of those who belong to that religion rather than to any

other, should be placed below This would

give us about one-third of the whole human race as more

or less under the sway of the teaching of one man

Buddha SRkywmuni.

A new issue of Behm andWagner’

s Die Bevolkerungder Erde has just been published, of which the Times

(Sept. 21, 1880) gives a short abstract from an early copy.

The population of the whole earth is now given as

Europe

Asia ,000

AmericaAustralia and PolynesmPolarRegions

showing an increase since the last publication, nineteen

months ago, of

Other changes which are of interest, but could not be

inserted in the foregoing tables, are, that China with all its

dependencies now claims inhabitants ; Ceylon ,

The Indo-Chinese Peninsula is tabulated

British Burmah

Tribes East and South of Assam

Independent Burmah

AnnamFrench Cochin China

Independent Malacca

Strait Settlements

XVI.

BUDDHIST PILGRIMS .

‘

Su msm s JULIEN has commenced the publication of a work entitled, Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes .

’The first volume, published in the year

1853, contains the biography ofH iouen-thsang, who,in the middle of the seventh century A .D.

, travelledfrom China through Central Asia to India. The

second, which has just reached us , gives us the firstportion ofHiouen-th sang

’s own diary.

There are not many books of travelwhich can becompared to these volumes . H iouen-th sang passedthrough countries which few had visited before h im.

He describes parts of the worldwhich no one has explored since, andwhere even ourmodern maps containhardly more than the ingenious conjectures ofAlexander von Humboldt. H is observations are minute ;h is geographical, statistical, and historical remarksmost accurate and trustworthy. The chief object ofhis travels was to study the religion of Buddha, the

Voyages dos Pelerins Bmiddkistes. Vol. I. H istoire de la Vie

de Hiouen-thsaug, et de ses Voyages dans l’Inde, depuis l’an 629jusqu’

en 645, par Hoeili et Yen-thsong ; traduite du Chinois par

Stanislas Julien .

Vol. II. Mémoires sur les Contrées Occidentales , traduits du

Sanscrit en Chinois, en l’

an 648, par Hiouen-thsang, et du Chinois

en Francais, par Stanislas Julien . Paris , 1853-1857 B. Duprat .

London and Edinburgh Williams and Norgate.


236 Runnms'r PILoRm s .

of European civilisation ,in the north ofAsia, in Mon

golia, Tatary, China, Tibet, Nepal, Siam, Burmah ,and Ceylon , had its origin in India.

1 Doctrinessimilar to those of Buddha existed in that countrylong before h is time We can trace them likemeandering roots below the surface long before wereach the pointwhere the roots strike up intoa stem ,

and the stem branches off again into fruit-bearingbranches . What was original and new in Buddhawas his changing a philosophical system into a practical doctrine h is taking thewisdom of the few ,

and

coining as mu ch of it as he thought genuine for thebenefit ofthe many ; his breaking with the traditionalformalities of the past, and proclaiming for the firsttime, in spite of castes and creeds, the equality of therich and the poor, the foolish and the wise, thetwice-born and the outcast. Buddhism, as a re

ligion and as a political event,was a reaction against

races , the Fins , Laps , &c., is found in the name of their priests and

sorcerers, the Shamans . Sh aman, whatever has been said to the

contrary, is a corruption of S raman a, a name applied to Buddha,and to Buddhist priests in general. The ancient mythological reli

gion of the Kudic races has nothing in common w ith Buddhism.

See Castren’s Lectures on Finnish Mythology, 1853. Finland was

ceded by Sweden to Russia in 1809. See the Author’s Sw ay of

La nguages, second edition, p . 116. Shamanism found its way from

India to Siberia via“

Tibet, China, and Mongolia. Rules on the for

mation ofmagic figures, on the treatment of diseases by charms , on

the worship of evil spirits , on the acquisition of supernatural

powers , on charms , incantations , and other branches of Shaman

witchcraft, are found in the Stan-gyour, or the second part of theTibetan canon, and in some of the late Tantras of the Nepalese

collection .

The area of Buddhism includes vast territories, from Ceylon

and the Indian Arch ipelago in the south to the Baikal Lake in

Central Asia, and from the Caucasus eastward to Japan (Schlagintweit, Buddhism in. Tibet, p .

Bunnnrs'r Pinexms . 237

Brahmanism, though it retained much of that moreprimitive form of faith and worship. Buddhism, in

its historical growth, presupposes Brahmanism, and,

however hostile the mutual relation of these tworeligions may have been at different periods of Indianhistory , it can be shown, without much difficulty,that the latter was but a natural consequence of theformer.

The ancient religion of the Aryan inhabitants ofIndia had started, like the religion of the Greeks , theRomans, the Germans , Slaves, andCelts, w ith a simpleand intelligible mythological phraseology. In the

Veda—for there is but one real Veda—the names ofall the ao-called gods or Devas betray their originalphysical character and meaning without disguise.The fire was praised and invoked by the name ofAgni (ignis) the earth by the name of Prithvi (thebroad) ; the sky by the name of Dyu (Jupiter), and

afterwards of Indra ; the firmament and the watersby the name of Varuna or Obpavo

’

s . The sun was

invoked bymanynames , such as Sfirya, Savitri,Vishnuor Mitra ; and the dawn rejoiced in such titles asUshas, Urvasi, Ahana, and Sfirya. Nor was the

moon forgotten . For though it is mentioned butrarely under its u sual name of Kandra, it is alludedto under the more sacred appellation of Soma ; and

each of its four phases had received its own denomination . There is hardly any part of nature, if itcould impress the human mind in any way with theideas of a higher power, of order, eternity, or beneficence—whether the winds, or the rivers, or thetrees, or the mountains—without a name and repre

sentative in the early H indu Pantheon . No doubt

238 BUDDHIST rlnenm s .

there existed in the human mind, from the verybeginning, something, whether we call it a suspicion,an innate idea, an intuition, or a sense of the Divine.What distinguishes man from the rest of the animal

creation is chiefly that ineradicable feeling of dependence and reliance upon some higher power, a con

sciousness ofbondage from which the very name ofreligion was derived. It is H e that hath made us,and not we ourselves .

’The presence of that power

was felt everywhere, and nowhere more clearly andstrongly than in the rising and setting of the sun , in

the change ofday and night, of spring and winter, ofbirth and death. But, although the Divine presencewas felt everywhere , it was impossible in that earlyperiod of thought, and w ith a language incapableas yet of expressing anything but material objects ,to conceive the idea ofGod in its purity and fullness,or to assign to it an adequate and worthy expression .

Children cannot think the thoughts of men , and thepoets of the Veda could not speak the languageof Aristotle. It was by a slow process that thehuman mind elaborated the idea of one absoluteand supreme Godhead ; and by a still slower processthat the human language matured a word to expressthat idea. A period of growth was inevitable, andthose who, from a mere guess of their own , do

not hesitate to speak authoritatively of a primevalrevelation which imparted to the Pagan world theidea of the Godhead in all its purity, forget that,however pure and sublime and Spiritual that revelation might have been , there was no languagecapable as yet of expressing the high and immaterialconceptions of that Heaven-sent message. The real


240 BUDDHIST PILGRIMS.

first, always ready to break the yoke of names and

formulas which no longer expressed what they wereintended to express. The idea which had yearnedfor utterance was the idea of a supreme and absolutePower, and that yeam ing was not satisfied by suchnames as Kronos, Zeus , and Apollon . The very soundof such a word as God used in the plural jarred on

the ear, as if we were to Speak of two u niverses, orof a Single twin . There are many words

,as Greek

and Latin grammarians tell us , which if used in the

plural,have a different meaning from what they have

in the Singular. The Latin wales means a temple ;if u sed in the plural it means a hou se. Deus and

6 369 ought to be added to the same class of words .

The idea of supreme perfection excluded limitation,

and the idea of God excluded the possibility of

many gods . This may seem language too abstractand metaphysical for the early times of which we

are Speaking. But the ancient poets of the Vedichymn s have expressed the same thought with perfectclearness and Simplicity. In theRig

-Veda I. 164, 46,

we readThat which is one the sages Speak of in many

ways—they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan .

’

Besides the plurality of gods, which was sure tolead to their destruction , there was a taint ofmortalitywhich they could not throw off. They all derivedtheir being from the life of nature. The god whorepresented the sun was liable, in the mythologicallanguage of antiquity, to all the accidents whichthreatened the Solar luminary. Though he might risein immortal youth in the morning, he was conqueredby the Shadows of the night, and the powers ofwinter

Runnm s'r mnenms . 241

'

S eemed to overthrow his heavenly throne. There isn othing in nature free from change, and the gods ofmature fell under the thraldom of nature’s laws. The

sun must set, and the solar gods and heroes mustd ie. There must be one God, there must be one nuc hanging Deity ; this was the Silent conviction of the

human mind. There are many gods, liable to all the

vicissitudes oflife ; this was everywhere the answer ofm ythological religion .

It is curious to observe in how various ways thesetwo Opposite principles were kept for a time fromopen conflict, and how long the heathen temples res isted the enemy which was slowly and imperceptiblyu ndermining their very foundations . In Greece thism ortal element, inherent in all gods, was eliminatedto a great extent by the conception of heroes. Whatever was too human in the ancient legends told of

Z eus and Apollon was transferred to so-called halfgods or heroes, who were represented as the sons orfavourites of the gods, and who bore their fate undera Slightly altered name. The twofold character of

‘Herakles as a god and as a hero is acknowledgedeven by Herodotu s, and some of his epithets wouldhave been sufficient to indicate his solar and ori

ginally divine character. But, in order to makes ome of the legends told of the solar deity possibleor conceivable, it was necessary to represent Heraklesas a more human being, and to make him rise to theseat of the Immortals only after he had enduredtoils and sufferings incompatible with the dignityof an Olympian god. We find the same idea in

Peru , only that there it led to difi'

erent results . A

thinking—or, as he was called, a free-thinkingVOL. II. B

242 Bunnms'r rrnaam s .

In ca remarked that this perpetual travelling of

the sun was a Sign of servitude,’ and he threwdoubts upon the divine nature of such an unquietthing as that great luminary appeared to him to be.

An d this misgiving led to a tradition which, evenshould it be unfounded in history, had some truthin itself, that there was in Peru an earlier worship,that of an invisible Deity, the Creator of the world,Pachacamac. In Greece, also, there are signs of a

supreme God was wanted, and Zeus, the striplingof Creta, was raised to that rank . He became Godabove all gods—dwdw wv mam , as Pindar calls him .

Yet'

more was wanted than a mere Zeu s ; and thus asupreme Fate or Spell was imagined before whichall the gods, and even Zeus, had to bow . And eventhis Fate was not allowed to remain supreme, andthere was something in the destinies ofman whichwas called un ifi cation or beyond Fate.

’The most

awful solution , however, of the problem belongs toTeutonic mythology. Here, also, some heroes wereintrodu ced ; but their death was only the beginningof the final catast mphe. Allgods must die.

’ Suchis the last word of that religion which had grown upin the forests of Germany, and found a last refugeamong the glaciers and volcanoes of Iceland. The

death of Sigurd, the descendant of Odin, could not

avert the death of Balder, the son of Odin ; and thedeath of Balder was soon to be followed by thedeath of Odin himself, and of all the immortal gods.

l Helps , The Sp anish Conquest, vol. iii. p . 503 : ‘

Que cosa taminquieta non le parescia serDios .

’

2 On the servitude of the gods , see the Essay on ComparativeMythology, w ord Essays, 1856, p. 69.


244 BUDDHIST PILGRIMS.

kn ew the food that might properly be eaten, the air

which might properly be breathed, the dress whichmight prOperly be worn . They alone could tellwhatgod should be invoked, what sacrifice be Offered ;and the slightest mistake Of pronun ciation

,the

slightest neglect about clarified butter, or the lengthOf the ladle in which it was to be Offered, mightbring destruction upon the head Of the unassistedworshipper. NO nation was ever SO completelypriestriddcu as the Hindu s were under the sway Ofthe Brahmanic law . Yet, on the other Side

, the

same people were allowed to indulge in the mostunrestrain ed freedom Of thought, and in the schoolsof their philosophy the very names Of their godsw ere never mentioned. Their existence was neitherdenied nor asserted ; they were Of no greater importance in the System Of the world Of thought thantrees , or mountains, men or animals ; and to Offersacrifices to them with a hope Of rewards

, SO far

from being meritorious, was considered as an im

pediment in the attainment of that emancipationto which a clear perception Of philosophical truthwas to lead the patient student. There was one

system which taught that there existed but one

Being, without a second ; that everything else whichseemed to exist was but a dream and illusion , and

that this illusion m ight be removed by a true knowledge Of the one Being. There was another systemwhich admitted two principles—one a subjective andSelf-existent mind, the Other matter, endowed withqualities . Here the world, with its joys and sorrows,was explained as the result Of the subjective Self,reflecting itself in the mirror Of matter ; and final

Runnm s'r PILGRIMS . 245

emancipation was Obtained by turning away the eyesfrom the play of nature, and being absorbed in the

knowledge Of the true and absolute Self. A thirdsystem started with the admission Of atoms, and explained every efl‘ect, including the elements and themind

,animals, men, and gods, from the concurrence

Of these atoms . In fact, as M. Cousin remarkedmany years ago, the history of the philosophy Of

India is nu abrégé de l’histoire de la philosophie .’

Thegerms of all these systems are traced back to theVedas, Brahmanas, and the UpanishadS, and the

man who behaved in any Of them was considered asorthodox as the devout worshipper of the gods—theone was saved by knowledge and faith, the other byworks and faith.

Such was the state Of the Hindu mindwhen Buddhism arose ; or, rather, such was the state Of the

Hindu mind which gave rise to Buddhism . Buddhahimself went through the school Of the BraM anS.

He performed their penances, he studied their philoSophy, andhe at last claimed the name Of theBuddha,or the Enlightened, when he threw away the wholeceremonial, with its sacrifices, superstitions, penances,and castes, as worthless, and changed the complicatedSystems Of philosophy into a Short doctrine Of salvation . This doctrine Of salvation has been called pureAtheism and Nihilism , and it no doubt was liable toboth charges in its metaphysical character, and in

that form in which we chiefly know it. It was

atheistic, not because it denied the existence of suchgods as Indra and Brahma. Buddh a did not evencondescend to deny their existence. But it was

called atheistic, like the Sfinkhya philosophy, which

246 Runnnrsr PILGRIMS .

admitted but one subjective Self, and consideredcreation as an illusion Of that Self, imagining itselffor a while in the mirror Of nature. As there was noreality in creation , there could be no real Creator.All that seemed to exist was the result Of ignoran ce .TO remove that ignorance was to remove the causeOf all that seemed to exist. How a religion whichtaught the annihilation Ofall existence, Ofall thought,Of all individuality and personality, as the highestObject Of all endeavours, could have laid hold Of the

minds Of millions Of human beings, and how at the

same time, by enforcing the duties Ofmorality,justice,kindness, and self-sacrifice, it could have exercised a

decidedly beneficial influence, not Only on thenativesOf India, but on the lowest barbarians Of CentralAsia,

a riddle which no onehas as yet been able to solve.We must distinguish, it seems,between Buddhism

as a religion and Buddhism as a philosophy. The

former addressed itself tomillion s, the latter to a fewisolated thinkers. It is from these isolated thinkers,however, and from their literary compositions, that weare apt to form our notions Of what Buddhism was,

while, as a matter Of fact, not one in a thousandwould have been capable Of following these metaphysical Speculations. TO the people at large Buddhism was a moral and religious, not a philosophicalreform. Yet even its morality has a metaphysicaltinge. Th e morality which it teaches is not a

morality of expediency and rewards. Virtue is not

enjoined because it necessarily leads to happiness.NO ; virtue is to be practised, but happiness is to beshunned, and the only reward for virtue is that itsubdues the passion s, and thus prepares the hum


BUDDHIST PILGRIMS.

rather prescribed, was when they had to spend somenights in the cemeteries, there to meditate on the

vanity of all things. And what was the object of allthis asceticism Simply to guide each individualtowards that path which would finally bring him to

Nirvan a, it may be, to utter extinction or annihilation . The very definition of virtue was that it helpedman to cross over to the other shore , and that othershore was not death, but cessation of all being. Thuscharity was con sidered a virtue ; modesty, patience,courage, contemplation , and science, all were virtues,but they were practised only as a means of arrivingat deliverance. Buddha himself exhibited the perfection of all these virtues. H is charity knew no

bounds . When he saw a tigress starved, and unableto feed her cubs, he is said to have made a charitableoblation of h is body to be devoured by them . Hiouen

theang visited the place on the banks of the Induswhere this miracle was supposed to have happen ed,and he remarks that the soil is still red there fromthe blood of Buddha, and that the trees and flowershave the same colour.1 As to the modesty of

Buddha, nothing could exceed it . One day, kingPrasenagit, the protector of Buddha, called on him

to perform miracles, in order to silence h is adver

sat ies,the Brahmans . Buddha consented. He per

formed the required miracles, but he exclaimed

Great king, I do not teach the law to my pupils,telling them,

Go, ye saints, and before the eyes ofthe Brahmans and householders perform , by meansof your supernatural powers , miracles greater thanany man can perform . I tell them,

when I teachVol. i. p . 89, vol. 11 . p . 167.

BUDDHIST p ILenm s. 249~

them the law, Live, ye saints hidin g your goodworks and showing your sins. And yet, all this .

self-sacrificing charity, all this self-sacrificing humility, by which the life of Buddha was distinguishedthroughout, and which he preached to themultitudesthat came to listen to him

,h ad

,we are told, but one

object, and that object was final annihilation . It is .

impossible almost to believe it,and yet when we turn

away our eyes from the pleasing picture of that highmorality which Buddha preached for the first time to o

all classes of men , and look into the dark pages of

his code of religiou s metaphysics, we can hardly findanother explanation Fortu nately, the millions whoembraced the doctrines of Buddha, and were savedby it from the depths of barbarism , brutality, and

selfishness, were unable to fathom the meaning of

his metaphysical doctrines. With them the Nirvéfna

towhich they aspired, became only a relative deliverance from the miseries of human life ; nay, it soontook the bright colours of a paradise to be regainedby the pious worshipper of Buddha . But was thisthe meaning of Buddha himself? In his FourVerities he does not, indeed, define Nirvana, exceptby cessation of all pain ; butwhen he traces the cau seof pain , and teaches themeans of destroying, not onlypain itself, but the cause of pain , we shall see thathis Nirvana assumes a very different meaning. His

Four Verities are very simple. Thefirst asserts theexistence of pain ; the second asserts that the causeof pain lies in sin ; the third asserts that pain maycease by Nirvana ; the fourth shows the way thatleads to Nirvana. This way to Nirvana consists ineight things—right faith (orthodoxy) rightjudgment .

250 Bunnms'r PILGRIMS.

(logic), right language (veracity), right purpose(honesty), right practice (religious life) right obe

dience (lawful life), right remembrance, and rightmeditation . All these precepts might be understoodas part of a simply moral code, closing with a kind of

mystic meditation on the highest object of thought,andwith a yearning after deliverance from allworldlyties. Similar systems have prevailed in many parts oftheworld, without a denial of the existence of an ah

s olute Being, or of a something towards which theh uman mind tends, in which it is absorbed or evenann ihilated. Awful as such a mysticism may appear,yet it leaves still something that exists, it acknowledges a feeling of dependence in man . It knows ofa first cause, though it may have nothing to predicate of it except that it is 7 5 xwoiiv dxwmdv. A re

turn is possible from that desert. The first causem ay be called to life again . It may take the names

of Creator, Preserver, Ruler ; andwhen the simplicityand helplessness of the child have re-entered theheart ofman, the name of father will come back tothe lips which had uttered in vain all the names of a

philosophical despair. But from the Nirvana of the

Buddhist metaphysician there is no return. He startsfrom the idea that the highest object is to escape pain .

Life in his eyes is nothing but misery ; birth the causeof all evil, from which even death cannot deliver him,

because he believes in an eternal cycle of existence,or in transmigration . There is no deliverance fromevil, except by breaking through the prison walls, notonly of life, but of existence, and by extirpating thelast cau se of existence. What, then , is the cause ofexistence The cause of existence, says the Bud


252 BUDDms'r Prnenm s .

doors ofNirvana now open before him. After havingpassed these four stages once, Buddha went throug hthem a second time, but he died before he attainedagain to the fourth stage. We mu st soar still higher,and though wemay feel giddy and disgusted, wemu stsit out the tragedy till the curtain falls. After thefour stages of meditation ‘

are passed, the Buddha(and every being is to become a Buddha) enters intothe infinity of space then into the infinity of intelligence ; and thence he passes into the region of

“

nothing. But even here there is no rest. There isstill something left—the idea of the nothing in whichhe rejoices. That also must be destroyed, and it isdestroyed in the fourth and last region, where thereis not even the idea of a nothing left, andwhere thereis complete rest, undisturbed by nothing, or what is.

not nothing.

” There are few persons who will takethe trouble of reasoning out such hallucinationsleast of all, persons who are accustomed to the soberlanguage of Greek philosophy ; and it is the moreinteresting to hear the opinion which one of the bestAristotelian scholars of the present day, after a patient examination of the authentic documents of

“

Buddhism,has formed of its system of metaphysics .

M.Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, in arcview on Buddhism,

published in the Journal des Savants,’ saysBuddhism has no God ; it has not even the con

fused and vague notion of a Universal Spirit in which

These four stages are described in the same manner in the

canonical books of Ceylon and Nepal, and may therefore safely be

ascribed to that original form of Buddhism fromwhich the Southern

and Northern schools branched off at a later period. See Burnouf,Lomu dc la bonnc l oi, p . 800.

See Burnouf, ibid., p. 814.

s unnnrsr PILenm s. 253

t he human soul, according to the orthodox doctrine ofBrahmanism, and the Sankhya philosophy, may beabsorbed. Nor does it admit nature, in the propersense of the word, and it ignores that profounddivision between spirit and matter which forms the. system and the glory of Kapila . It confounds manw ith all that surrounds him, all the while preachingto him the laws of virtue. Buddhism,

therefore, can

n ot unite the human soul,which it does not even

mention, with a God, whom it ignores ; nor withn ature, which it does not know better. Nothingremained but to annihilate the soul ; and in order tob e quite sure that the soul may not re-appear undersome new form in this world, which has been curseda s the abode of illusion and misery, Buddhismdestroys its very elements, and never gets tired of

glorying ln this achievement. What more is wanted?If this is not the absolute nothing, what is Nirwfima P

Such religion , we should say, was made fora mad

hou se. But Buddhism was an advance, if comparedw ith Brahmanism it has stood its ground for cen

turies , and if truth could be decided by majorities,the show of hands, even at the present day, wouldbein favour ofBuddha. Themetaphysics ofBuddhism,

like the metaphysics of most religions, not excludingour own Gnosticism and Mysticism, were beyond thereach of all except a few hardened philosophers orecstatic dreamers. Human nature could not bechanged. Out of the very nothing it made a new

paradise ; and he who had left no place in the wholeuniverse for a Divine Being, was deified himself bythe multitudes who wanted a person whom they

254 BUDDHIST PILGRIMS .

could worship, a king whose help they might invoke,a friend before whom they could pour out theirmostsecret griefs. And there remained the code of a puremorality, proclah ed by Buddha. There remainedthe spirit of charity, kindness, and un iversal pitywith which he had inspired his disciples .

l Thereremained the simplicity of the ceremonial he hadtaught, the equality of all men which he haddeclared,the religious toleration which he had preached fromthe beginning. There remained much, therefore, toaccount for the rapid strides which his doctrine made

from the mountain peaks of Ceylon to the Tundrasof the Samoyedes, and we shall see in the simplestory of the life of H iouen-th sang that Buddhism ,

with all its defects, has had its heroes, its martyrs,and its saints.

Hiouen-th sang, born in China more than a thousand years after the death of Buddha, was a believerin Buddhism . He dedicated his whole life to thestudy of that religion ; travelling from his nativecountry to India, visiting every place mentioned inBuddhist history or tradition , acquiring the ancient .

language in which the canonical books of the Budhists were written , studying commentaries, discussingpoints of difficulty, and defending the orthodox faith

See the Dhammapada,’a Pali work on Buddhist ethics

lately edited by V. Fausbiill, a distinguished pupil of Professor

Westergaard, at Copenhagen . The Rev . Spence Hardy (Ea ts-mMonachism, p . 169) writes : A collection might be made from the

precepts of this work, that in the purity of its ethics could scarcely

be equalled from any other heathen author.

’ Mr. Knighton , when

speaking of the same work in his H istory of Cog/km (p . remarks

In it we have exemplified a code of morality, and a list of precepts ,which , for purenes s , excellence, and wisdom, is only second to that

of the Divine Lawgiverhimself.’


256 s unnmsr PILGRIMS.

<s erved to u s on rock inscription s in various parts ofIndia . There are sentences in these inscriptions ofA soka which might be read with advan tage by our

own missionaries, though they are now more than2000 years old. Thus it is written on the rocks ofGirnar, Dhauli, and Kapurdigiri

l

Piyadasi, the king beloved of the gods, desiresthat the ascetics of all creeds might reside in all

places. All these ascetics profess alike the commandwhich people should exercise over themselves

, and

the purity of the soul. But people have differento pinions, and different inclinations .

’

And again2

Now,intrinsic worth can grow greater in many

w ays,but the foundation thereof, in all its compass,

is discretion in speaking, so that no man may praiseh is own sect, or contemn another sect, or despise iton unsuitable occasions . On all occasions let respectbe shown . Whatever of good, indeed, a man , froma ny motive, confers on any one of a different persuasion , tends to the advantage of his own sect and to

the benefit of a different persuasion . By acting in an

opposite manner, a man injures his own sect and

offends a different sect Therefore, concord isbest

,so that all may know and willingly listen to

« each other’s religion .

’

Those who have no time to read the voluminousworks of the late E . Burnouf on Buddh ism,

his ‘Intro

1 Burgess , Archwalogioa l Sat/w ay of Western Ind/ia , 1874-75, p .

1 10, tablet vii. Cunningham, Corp us Inscrip tionwn Indica/nm , 1877,

p . 121 . Burnouf, Lotus, Appendice, p . 755.

2 Twelfth Tablet, Burgess, p . 122 ; Cuningham, p . 124.

T ranslation by Kern .

Bunnnrsr pmcams . 257

duction al’Histoire du Buddhisme,’ and his transla.tion of Le Lotus de la bonn e Loi,’ will find a veryinteresting and lucid account of th ese councils, andedicts and missions, and the history of Buddhism in

general, in a work lately published by Mrs SpeirLife in Ancient India .

’ Buddhism spread in the

south to Ceylon, in the north to Kashmir, the Himalayan countries, Tibet, and China. One Buddhistmissionary is supposed to be mentioned in the

Chinese annals as early as 217 2and about the

120 a Chinese general, after defeating the barbarons tribes north of the Desert of Gobi, broughtback as a trophy a golden statue, the statue of

Buddh a.

3 It was not, however, till the year 65 A .D.

that Buddhism was officially recognised by the Emperor Ming-ti“ as a third state-religion in China.

Ever since it has shared equal honours in theCelestialEmpire, with the doctrines of Confucius andLao-tse,and it is but lately that these three established religion s have had to fear the encroachments of a new

rival in the creed of the Chief of the Rebels.After Buddhism had been introduced into China,

the first care of its teachers was to translate thesacred works from Sanskrit, in which they wereoriginally written, into Chinese. We read of the

Emperor Ming-ti, of the dynasty of Han, sendingTsai-in and other high officials to India, in order tostudy there the doctrine of Buddha. They engagedthe services of two learned Buddhists, Matanga and

1 Also in a volume published by the Society forPromotingChris

tian Knowledge, Buddhism, by T. W. Rhys Davids , 1878.2 See Foe Kaue Ki, p . 41, and xxxviii, preface.

See ibid., p . 41.4 La lita Vista/m , ed. Foucaux , p . xvn , note.

VOL. 11 . 8

258 Bunnnrs'r PILGRIMS.

Chn-fa-lan , and some of the most important Buddhist works were translated by them into Chinese.The Life of Buddh a,’ the Lalitaf-Vistare," a San

skrit work which,on accountof its style and language,had been referred by Oriental scholars to a muchmore modern period of Indian literature, can now

safely be ascribed to an ante-Christian era, if, as we

are told by Chinese scholars, it was translated fromSanskrit into Chinese, as one of the canonical booksof Buddhism, as early as the year 76 a n.

” The

same work was translated also into Tibetan ; and an

edition of it, published in Paris by M. E . Foucaux , re

flects high credit on that distinguished scholar, andon theGovernment which supports these studies in themost liberal and enlightened spirit. The intellectualintercourse between the Indian Peninsula and the

northern continent of Asia remained uninterruptedformany centuries. Missions were sent from Chinato India, to report on the political and geographicalstate of the country, but the chief object of interestwhich attractedpublic embassies and private pilgrims

across the Himalayan mountains was the religion of

Buddha. About three hundred years after the publicrecognition of Buddhism by the Emperor Ming-ti,the great stream of Buddhist pilgrims began to flowfrom China to India. The first accoun t which wepossess of these pilgrimages refers to the travels ofFa-hian , who visited India towards the end of the

This Sanskrit text has been published in the Bibliotheca

2 This no longerholds good. SomeLifeof Buddhamay have beentranslated at that early time, but there is no proof that it was the

Lalita-Vistara, as we now possess it in Sanskrit.


260 snnnms'r PILGRIMS.

era to the time of the Mohammedan conquest. The

importance of Mohammedan writers, so far as theytreat on thehistory of India during theMiddle Ages,was soon recognised,and in a.memoir lately publishedby the most eminen t Arabic scholar of France, M.

Reinaud, new and valuable historical materials have.

been collected—materials doubly valuable in India,where no native historian has ever noted down thepassing events of the day. But

, although the existence of similar documents in Chin ese was known ,

and although men of the highest literary eminencesu ch as Humboldt, Biot, and others—had repeatedlyurgedthenecessity of havinga translation of the earlytravels of the Chinese Pilgrims, it seemed almost asif our curiosity was never to be satisfied. France hasbeen the only country where Chinese scholarship has.ever flourished, and it was a French scholar, AbelRémusat, who undertook at last the translation of oneof the Chinese Pilgrims. Rému sat died before hiswork was published, andh is tran slation of the travelsof Pahian, edited by M. Landresse, remained for along time without being followed up by any other.Nor did thework of that eminent scholar an swer allexpectations. Most of the proper names

, the namesof countries, towns, mountains, and rivers, the titlesof books, and thewhole Buddhistic phraseology, wereso disguised in their Chin ese dress that it was frequently impossible to discover their original form .

The Chinese alphabet was never intended to represent the sound of words. It was in its origina hieroglyphic system, each word having its own

graphic representative. Nor would it have beenpossible to write Chinese in any other way. Chinese

BUDDHIST PILGRIMS. 261

is a monosyllabic language. No word is allowedmore than one consonant and one vowel—the vowelsincluding diphthongs and nasal vowels. Hence thepossible number of words is

“extremely small, and then umberof significative sounds in theChineselanguageis said to be no more than 450. No language, however, could be satisfied with so small a vocabulary,and in Chin ese, as in other monosyllabic dialects,each word, as itwas pronouncedwith variou s accentsand intonations, was made to convey a large numberof meanings ; so that the total number of words, orratherof ideas, expressed in Chinese, is saidtoamountto Hence a graphic representation of the

mere sound ofwords would have been perfectly u seless

, anditwas absolutely necessary to resortto hieroglyph ical writing, enlarged by the introduction of

determinative signs. Nearly the whole immensedictionary ofChinese—at least twenty-nine thirtieths—cons ists of combined signs, one part indicating thegeneral sound, the otherdetermining its specialmeaning. With such a system of writing it was possibleto represent Chinese, but impossible to convey eitherthe sound or the meaning of any other language.Besides, some of themost common sounds—such as r,b, d, and the short a—are unknown in Chinese.How

, then ,were the translators to render Sanskrit

names in Chinese? Themostrationalplan wouldhavebeen to select as many Chin ese signs as there wereSan skrit letters, and to express one and the sameletterin Sanskrit always by one and the same sign in

Chinese ; or, if the conception of a consonant withouta vowel, and of a vowel without a consonant, was toomuch fora Chinese understanding, to express at least

262 Bunnm s'r PILGRIMS.

the same syllabic sound in San skrit by one and the

same syllabic sign in Chinese. A similar sysmm is

adopted at the present day, when the Chinese findthemselves under the necessity of writing the namesofLordPalmerston or SirJohn Bowring but

, insteadof adopting any definite sysmm of transcribing, eachtran slator seems to have chosen his own sign s forrendering the sounds of Sanskrit words, and to havechosen them at random. The result is that everySanskrit word, as tran scribed by the Chinese Buddhists, is a riddle which no ingenuity is able to solve .Who could have guessed that Fo-to,

’ or more ftcquently Fo,’ was meant forBuddha Ko-lo-keou-lo"

for Rahula, the son of Buddha Po-lo-nai for

Benares Heng-ho forGanges Niepan forNir

vana Chamen for Sramaua Feito for VedaTcha-li for K shattriya Siu-to-lo for Sfidra

Fan or Fan-lon-mo’forBrahma Sometimes, it is

true, the Chinese endeavoured to give, besides thesounds, a translation of the meaning of the Sanskritwords. But the translation ofproper names is alwaysvery precariou s, and it required an intimate knowledge of Sanskrit andBuddhist literature to recognisefrom these awkward translations the exact form of

the proper names for which they were intended. If,

in a Chinese translation of Thukydides, we read of

a person called Leader of the people,’ we mightguess his name to have been D em agogo s, or La

ego s, as well as Ages ilaos . An d when the name

of the town of Sravasti was written Che-wei, whichmean s in Chinese where one hears,’ it required no

ordinary power of combination to find that the nameofSravastiwas derived from a Sanskrit noun , 3 rava s


264 Bunnm sr u t ensil s.

and the meaning of the in scriptions of the Achesmenian dynasty deserves to be classed with the

discoveries of a Kepler, a Newton , or a Faraday. In

a similar manner, the mere tran slation of a Chinesework into French seems a very ordinary performancebut M . Stan islas Julien

,who has long been acknow

ledged as the first Chinese scholar in Europe, had to

spend twenty years of incessant labour in order toprepare himself for the task of translating the

Travels of H iouen-th sang.

’ He had to learn San

skrit, no very easy language ; he had to study the

Buddhist literature written in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan ,Mongolian and Chinese . He had to make vast indices of every proper name connected with Bud

dhism. Thus only could he shape his own tools, andaccomplish what at last he did accomplish . Mostpersons will remember the interest with which thetravels ofM . Huc and Gabet were read a few yearsago, though these two adventurous missionaries wereobliged to renounce their original intention of entering India by way of China and Tibet, and were not

allowed to proceed beyond the famous capital of

Lhassa. If, then ,it be con sidered that there was a

traveller who had made a similar journey twelvehundred years earlier ; who had succeeded in crossingthe deserts andmountain passes which separate Chinafrom India ; who had visited the principal cities of

the Indian Penin sula, at a time ofwhich we have noinformation , from native or foreign sources, as to thestate of that country ; who had learned Sanskrit, andmade a large collection of Buddhist works ; who hadcarried on public disputation s with the most eminentphilosophers and theologians of the day ; who had

BUDDHIST PILGRIMS . 265

t ran slated the most important works on Buddhismfrom Sanskrit into Chin ese, and left an account of histravels, which still existed in the libraries ofChinan ay, which had been actually printed and published— we may well imagine the impatience with whichall scholars interested in the ancient history of India,and in the subject of Buddhism,

looked forward tothe publication of so important a work. H iouen

th sang’s name had first been mentioned in Europe by

Abel Rémusat and Klaproth. They had discoveredsome fragments of his travels in a Chinese work on

foreign coun tries andforeign nations . Rémusat wroteto China to procure, if possible, a complete copy ofH iouen-th sang

’s works . He was informed by Mor

rison that they were out of print. Still, the few

specimen s which he had given at the end of his tran slation of the FoeKoue Ki had whetted the appetiteof Oriental scholars . M . Stanislas Julien succeededin procuring a copy ofH iouen-th sang in 1838 and

after nearly twenty years spent in preparing a tran slation of the Chinese traveller, his version is now

b efore us . If there are but few who know the difficulty of a work like that of M . Stanislas Jnlien , itbecomes their duty to speak out, though, after all,

perhaps the most intelligible eulogium would be that,in a branch of study where there are no monopoliesand no patents, M. Stanislas Julien is acknowledgedto be the only man in Europe who could producethe article which he has produced in the workbefore us.

We shall devote the rest of our space to a shortaccount of the life and travels of H iouen-theang.

B ienen-th sangwas born in a provincialtown ofChina,

266 BUDDHIST PILGRIMS .

at a time when the empire was in a chronic state of

revolution . H is father had left the public service,and had given most of his time to the education of

his four children . Two of them distinguished themselves at a very early age—one of them was Hiouen

th sang, the futu re traveller and theologian . The boywas sent to school at a Buddhist monastery, and,after receiving there the necessary instruction , partlyfrom his elder brother, he was himself admitted as a

monk at the early age of thirteen . During the nextseven years, the young monk travelled about withhis brother from place to place, in order to follow thelectures of some of the most distinguished professors.The horrors of war frequently broke in upon his

quiet studies, and forced him to seek refuge in the

more distant provinces of the empire . At the age of

twenty he took priest’s orders, and had then alreadybecome famous by his vast knowledge. He hadstudied the chief canonical books of the Buddhistfaith, the records of Buddha’s life and teaching, thesystem of ethics andmetaphysics and he was versedin the works of Confucius and Lao-tse. But stillhis own mind was agitated by doubts . Six years hecontinued his studies in the chief places of learningin China, and where he came to learn he was frsquently asked to teach. At last, when he saw thatnone, even the most eminent theologians, were ableto give him the information he wanted, he formed hisresolve of travelling to India. The works of earlierpilgrims, su ch as Fabian and others, were known tohim . He kn ew that in India he should find the

originals of the works which in their Chinese translation left so many th ings doubtful in his mind ; and


BUDDHIST PILGRIMS.

five watch-towers to be passed, and there was nothing"

to indicate the road through the desert, except thehoof-marks of horses, and skeletons. The travellerfollowedthis anelancholy track, and, though misledbythe mirage of the desert, he reached the first tower.Here the arrows of the watchmen would have put ane nd to his existence and his cherished expedition .

But the ofiicer in command, himself a zealou s Buddhist, allowed the courageous pilgrim to proceed, andgave him letters of recommendation to the ofiicers oft he next towers. The last tower, however, wasguarded by men inaccessible to bribes, and deaf toreasoning. In order to escape their notice, Hiouenth sang had to make a long détour. He passedthrough another desert, and lost his way. The bag

in which he carried his water burst, and then eventhe courage of Hiouen-th sang failed. He began to

retrace his steps. But suddenly he stopped. I

took an oath,’ he said, never to make a step backward till I had reached India. Wh y, then , have Icome here It is better I should die proceeding totheWest than return to the East and live.’ Fournights and five days he travelled through the desertwithout a drop ofwater. He had nothing to refreshhimself except his prayers “ and what were theyT exts from a work which taught that there was nogod, no Creator, no creation—nothing but mind,

minding itself. It is incredible in how exhau sted an

on , and even warm the dark chambers of the humanh eart. Comforted by his prayers

, Hiouen-th sang

p roceeded, and arrived after some time at a largeJake. He was in the country of the Oigour Tatars.

Bunnms'r Pineam s. 269;

They received him well, nay, too well. One of the

Tatar Khan s, himself a Buddh ist, sent for the Buddhist pilgrim, and insisted on his staying with him;

to instruct his people. Remonstrances proved of no

avail. But H iouen-th sang was not to be conquered.

I know,’ he said, ‘ that the king, in spite of his

power, has no power over my mind and my will ;and he refused all nourishment in order to put anend to his life. Gama/la t Ita l

’

M vfiepaia'

opa t. Threedays he persevered, and at last the Khan , afraid of

the con sequences, was obliged to yield to the poormonk. He made him promise to visit him on his

return to China, and then to stay three years withhim . At last, after a delay of one month, duringwhich the Khan and h is Court came daily to hear thelessons of their piou s guest, the traveller continuedhis journey with a numerous escort, and with lettersof introduction from theKhan to twenty-four Prin098whose territories the little caravan had to pass.Their way lay through what is now called Dsungaria,across the Musur-dabaghan mountains, the northernportion of the Belur-tag, theYaxartes valley, Bactria,and Kabulistan . We cannot follow them throughall the places they passed, though the accoun ts whichhe gives of their adventures are most interesting,and the description of the people most importan t.Here is a description of the Mu sur-dabaghan mountains

The t0p of themountain rises to the sky. Sincethe beginning of the world the snow has been accumulating, and is now tran sformed into vast massesof ice, which nevermelt, either in spring or summer.Hard and brilliant sheets of snow are spread out till

2 70 BUDDHIST PILGRIMS .

they are lost in the infinite, and mingle with the

clouds. If one looks at them, the eyes are dazzledby the splendour. Frozen peaks hang down overboth sides of the road, some hundred feet high, andtwenty feet or thirty feet thick. It is not withoutdifficulty and danger that the traveller can clear themor climb over them. Besides, there are squalls ofwind and tornadoes of snow which attack the pilgrims. Even with double shoes, and in thick furs,one cann ot help trembling and shivering.

’

During the seven days that H iouen-thsang was

crossing these Alpine passes he lost fourteen of his

compan ions.What is most importan t, however, in this early

portion of the Chinese traveller is the account whichhe gives of the high degree of civilisation among thetribes ofCentralAsia. We had gradually accustomedourselves to believe in an early civilisation ofEgypt,ofBabylon, ofChina, of India ; but now that we findthe hordes of Tatary possessing in the seventh century the chief arts and institutions of an advancedsociety, we shall soon have to drop the name of barbarians altogether. The theory of M. Oppert, whoascribes the original invention ofthe cuneiform lettersand a civilisation anterior to that of Babylon and

Nineveh to a Turanian or Scythian race, will losemuch of its apparent improbability ; forno new waveof civilisation had reached these countries betweenthe cuneiform period of their literature and historyand the time ofHiouen-th sang

’s visit. In the king

dom of Okini, on the western frontier of China,H iouen-theang foundan active commerce, gold, silver,and copper coinage ; monasteries, where the chief


272 Bunnmsr PILGRIMS.

promise was fulfilled, and the dragon-cave became a

famou s place of pilgrimage . Our traveller was toldthat the roads leading to the cave were ex tremelydangerous, and infested by robbers— that for threeyears none of the pilgrims had ever returned fromthe cave. But he replied, It would be difficultduring a hundred thousandKalpas tomeet one singletime with the true shadow of Buddha ; how could I,having come so near, pass on without going to

adore it? He left his companions behind, and afterasking in vain for a guide, he met at last with a boywho showed him to a farm belonging to a convent.Here he found an oldman who undertook to act as hisguide. They had hardly proceeded a few miles whenthey were attacked by five robbers. Themonk tookoff his cap and displayed his ecclesiastical robes.Master,’ said one of the robbers, where are yougoing Hiouen-thsang replied, I desire to adorethe shadow of Buddha. Master,’ said the robber,have you not heard that these roads are full of

bandits Robbers are men, Hiouen-thsang exclaimed, and at present, when I am going to adorethe shadow of Buddha, even though the roads werefull of wild beasts, I should walk on without fear.Surely, then , I ought not to fear you , as you aremen

whose heart is possessed of pity.’ The robbers weremoved by these words, and opened their hearts to thetrue faith. After this little incident, H iouen-th sangproceeded with h is guide. He passed a stream rushing down between two precipitous walls of rock. In.

the rock itself there was a door which opened. All

was dark. But Hiouen-thsang entered, advan cedtowards the east, then moved fifty steps backwards,

Bunnnrs'r PILGBIM’

B. 273

and began his devotions. He made one hundredsalutation s, but he saw nothing. He reproachedhimself bitterly with his former sins, he cried, and abandoned himself to utter despair, because the shadow of

Buddh a would not appear before him . At last, aftermany prayers and invocations, he saw on the easternwall a dim light, of the size of a sau cepan , such as

the Buddh ist monks carry in their (hands. But it

disappeared. He continued praying full of joy andpain, and again he saw a light, which vanished likelightning. Then he vowed, full of devotion and love

,

that he would never leave th e place till he had seen.

the shadow of the Venerable of the age.

’After two

hundred prayers, the cave was suddenly bathed inlight, and the shadow ofBuddha, of a brilliant whitecolour, rose majestically on the wall, as when the

clouds suddenly open and all at once display the

marvellou s image of the Mountain of Light.’A

dazzling splendour lighted up the features of the

divine countenance. Hiouen-th sang was lost in con

templation and wonder, and would not turn his eyesaway from the sublime and incomparable object.After he awoke from his trance

,he called in six men

,

and commanded them to light a fire in the cave, inorder to burn incense ; but, as the approach of the

light made the shadow of Buddha disappear, the firewas extinguished. Then five of the men saw the

shadow, but the sixth saw nothing. The old man

who had acted as guide was astoundedwhen Hiouenth sang told him thevision . Master,’ he said, with .out the sincerity of your faith, andthe energy of yourvows, you could not have seen such a miracle.’

This is the account given by Hiouen-thsang’s

von. 11.'r

2 74 BUDDHIST PILGRIMS .

biographers. But we must say, to the credit of

H iouen-th sang himself, that in the Si-yu-ki

,

’ whichcontains his own diary, the story is told in a differentway. The cave is described with almost the samewords. But afte rwards the writer continues Formerly, the shadow of Buddha was seen in the cave,bright like h is natural appearance, and with all the

marks of h is divine beauty. One might have saidit was Buddha himself. For some centuries, however,it can no longer be seen completely. Though one

does see something, it is only a feeble and doubtfulresemblance. If a man prays with sincere faith, andif he has received from above a hidden impression ,

h e sees the shadow clearly, but he cannot enjoy thesight for any length of time . ’

From Peshawer, the scene of this extraordinarymiracle, H iouen-th sang proceededto Kashmir, visitedthe chief town s of Central India, and arrived at lastin Magadha, the Holy Land of the Buddhists . Hereh e remained five years, devoting all his time to thestudy of Sanskri t and Buddhist literature, and in

specting every place hallowed by the recollections ofthe past. He then passed through Bengal, and proceeded to the south, with a view of visiting Ceylon ,

the chief seat of Buddhism . Bafiled in that wish, hecrossed the peninsula from east towest, ascended theMalabar coast, reached the Indus, and after numerous excursions to the chief places ofNorth-WesternIndia, returned to Magadha, to spend there, with hisold friends, some of the happiest years of his life .The route of his journeyings is laid down in a map

drawn with exquisite skill by M. Vivien de SaintMartin. At last H iouen-th sang was obliged to return


276 Bunnmsr PILGRIMS.

write an account of his travels,and assigned him a

monasterywhere he might employ his leisure in tran slating the works he had brough t back from India.

H is travels were soon written and publish ed, but thetranslation of the Sanskrit MSS . occupied all the re

mainingyears of h is life. It is said that the number of”

works translatedby him,with the assistance of a large

staff of monks, amounted to 740, in volumes .Frequently hemight be seen meditating on a diflicult

passage, when suddenly it seemed as if a higher spirit.

had enlightened his mind. His soul was cheered, aswhen a man walking in darkness sees all at once thesun piercing the clouds and shining in its full brightness ; and, unwilling to trust to his own understanding, he used to attribute his knowledge to a secretin spiration of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas . Whenhe found that the hour of death approached, he hadall h is property divided among the poor. He invitedh is friends to come and see h im, and to take a cheerful leave of that impure body ofH iouen-th sang. Idesire,’ he said, that whatever rewards I may h avem erited by good works may fall upon other people .May I be born again with them in the heaven of th e

blessed, be admitted to the family of Mi-le, and servethe Buddha of the future, who is full ofkindn ess andafi

’

ection . Wh en I descend again upon earth to pas sth rough other forms of existence, I desire at everynew birth to fulfil my duties towards Buddha, an darrive at the last at the highest and most perfect m .

telligence.

’ He died in the year 664—abou t th e sam e

conquests in the East, and Christianity began to sh edits pure light over th e dark forests of Germany.

Bunnmsr PILGRIMS . 277

It is impossible to do justice to the character ofso extraordinary a man as Hiouen-theang in so shorta sketch as we have been able to give . If we knowonly his own account of his life and travels— thevolume which has just been published at Paris—we

should be ignorant of the motives which guided himand of the sufl

'

erings which he underwent. Happily,two of his friends and pupils have left an account oftheir teacher, andM. Stanislas Julien has actedwiselyin beginning his collection of th e Buddhist Pilgrimswith the translation of that biography. There welearn something of the man himself and of that silententhusiasm which supported him in his arduous work.

There we see him braving the dangers of the desert,scrambling along glaciers, crossing over torrents,andquietly submitting to the brutal violence of

Indian Thugs . There we see him rejecting the

tempting invitations of Khans, Kings, and Em

perors, and qu ietly pursuing among strangers, withinthe bleak walls of the cell of a Buddhist college, thestudy of a foreign language, the key to the sacredliterature of h is faith. There we see him rising toeminence, acknowledged as an equal by his formerteachers, as a superior by the most distinguisheds cholars of India ; the champion of the orthodoxfaith, an arbiter at councils, the favourite of Indiank ings . In his own work there is hardly a wordaboutall this . We do not wish to disguise his weakn esses,s uch as they appear in the same biography. He wasa credulous man , easily imposed upon by craftyp riests, still more easily carried away by his own

superstitions ; but he deserved to have lived in bettertimes, and we almost grudge so high and noble a

278 Bunnm sr PILGRIMS .

character to a country not our own , and to a religionunworthy of such a man . Of selfishness we find no

trace in him. His whole life belonged to the faithin which he was born , and the object of his labourwas not so much to perfect himself as to benefitothers . He was an honest man . And strange, and

stiff, and absurd, and outlandish as his outward appearance may seem, there is something in the face ofthat poor Chinese monk

,with his yellow skin and his

small oblique eyes, that appeals to our sympathysomething in his life , and the work of his life, thatplaces h im by right among the heroes ofGreece, themartyrs of Rome, the knights of the crusades, theexplorers of the Arctic regions— something thatmakes us feel it a duty to inscribe his name on the

roll of the forgotten worthies of the human race .There is a higher consanguinity than that of the

blood which runs through our veins— that of the

blood which makes our hearts beat with the sameindignation and the same joy. And there is a highernationality than that of being governed by the sameimperial dynasty— that of our common allegiance tothe Father and Ruler of all mankind.

It is but right to state that we owe thepublication ,

at least of the second volum e ofM. Julien ’s work, to

the liberality of the Court ofDirectors of the EastIndia Company. We have had several opportun itiesof pointing out the creditable manner in which thatbody has patronised literary and scientific works connected with the East, and we congratulate the Chairman , Colonel Sykes, and the President of the Boardof Control, Mr. Vernon Smith , on the excellent choice


XVII .

THE MEANING OF NIRVANA .

To the EditorqfTHE TIMES.SIR,—Mr. Francis Barham, of Bath, has protested in

letter, printed in the Times ofApril 24, against myinterpretations of Nirvana. or the summ'wm bow/um

of the Buddhists . He maintains that the Nirvanain which the Buddhists believe, and which they re

present as the highest goal of their religion and

philosophy, means union and communion with God,or absorption of the individual soul by the divineessence, and not, as I tried to show in my articles onthe Buddhist Pilgrims,

’utter annihilation .

I must not take up much more ofyour space withso abstru se a subject as Buddhist metaphysics ; butat the same time I cannot allow Mr. Barham’

s protestto pass unnoticed. The authorities which he bringsforward against my account of Buddhism, and par

ticularly against my interpretation of Nirvana, seemformidable enough . There are Neander, the greatChurch historian , Creuzer, the famous scholar, and

Huc, the well-known traveller and missionary—all

interpreting, as Mr. Barham says, the Nirvana of the

Buddhists in the sense of an apotheosis ofthe humansoul, as it was taught in the Vedanta philosophy of

THE MEANING or NIRVANA . 281

the Brahman s, the Sufiism of the Persians , and theChristian mysticism of Eckhart and Tauler, and not

in the sense of absolute annihilation .

Now, with regard to Neander andCreuzer, Imustobserve that their works were written before the

canonical books of the Buddhists composed in Sanskrit had been discovered, or at least before theyhad been sent to Europe and been analysed byEuropean scholars. Besides, neither Neander nor

Creuzer was an Oriental scholar, and their knowledgeof the subject could only be second-hand. It was in

1824 that Mr. Brian Houghton Hodgson, then resident at the Court ofNepal, gave the first intimationof the existence of a large religiou s literature writtenin Sanskrit, and preserved by the Buddhists ofNepalas the canonical books of their faith. It was in 1830

and 1835 that the same eminent scholar and natu

ralist presented the first set of these b ooks to theRoyal Asiatic Society in London . In 1837 he madea similar gift to the Société Asiatique of Paris, andsome of the most important works were transmittedby him to the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was

in 1844 that the late Eugene Burnouf published,after a careful study of these documents, his classicalwork, ‘Introduction 5 l’H istoiredu BuddhismeIndien ,

’

and it is from this book that our knowledge of Buddh ism may be said todate . Severalworks have sin cebeen published, which have added considerably tothe stock of authentic information on the doctrin eof the great Indian reformer. There is Bum ouf

’s

translation of Le Lotus de la bonne Loi,’ publishedafter the death of that lamented scholar, togetherwith numerous essays, in 1852. There are two in

282 THE MEANING or NIRVANA .

terestingworks by the Rev. Spence Hardy EasternMonachism ,

’ London, 1850, and

‘A M anual of Bud

dhism,

’ London,1853 and there are the publication s

of M . Stanislas Julien, E. Foucaux , the HonourableGeorge Turnour, Professor H. H.Wilson , and othersalluded to in my article on the Buddhist Pilgrims .

It is from these works alone that we can derivecorrect and authentic information on Buddhism,

and

not from Neander’s History oftheChristian Churchor from Creuzer

’

s Symbolik.

’

If anyone will con sult these works, he will findthat the discussions on the true meaning ofNirvanaare not of modern date, and that at a very earlyperiod different philosophical schools among the

Buddhists of India,and different teachers who spread

the doctrine of Buddhism abroad, propounded everyconceivable opinion as to the orthodox explanationof this term . Even in one and the same school wefind different parties maintaining different views onthe meaning ofNirvana . There is the school of theSvabhavikas , which still exists in Nepal. The Sva

bhavikas maintain that nothing exists but nature, orrather substance

, and that this substance exists byitself (svabhavat), without a Creator or aRuler. It

exists,however

,under two forms : in the state of

Pravmitti, as active,or in the state of Nirv'rfitti, as

passive. Human beings, who, like everything else,exist svab havat, by themselves,’ are supposed to becapable of arriving at Nirvr'itti, or passiveness, whichis nearly synonymous with Nirvana. But here theSvabhavikas branch off into two sects . Some believethat Nirvmitti is repose, others that it is annihilation ; and the former add, were it even annihilation


284 THE MEANING or NIavANA.

sense in the Mahabharata, and it is explained in theAmara-Kosha as having themeaning of ‘blowing out,applied to a fire and to a sage.

’ Unless, however,we su cceed in tracing this term in works which can

be proved to be anterior to Buddh a, we may admit

that it was invented by h im in order to express thatmeaning of the summum beam which he was the

first to preach, and which some of his disciples explained in the sense of absolute annihilation .

The earliest authority towhich we can go back, ifwe want to know the original character ofBuddhism,

is the Buddhist Canon , as settled after the death of

Buddha at the first Council. It is called Tripitaka,or the Three Baskets, the first containing the Sutras,or the discourses of Buddha ; the second, theVinaya,or his code ofmorality ; the third, the Abhidharma

,

or the system of metaphysics . The first was com

piled by Ananda, the second by Upali, the third byKasyapa—all of them the pupils and fri ends of

Buddha. It may be that these collection s, as wenow possess them, were finally arranged, not at the

‘

first, but at the third Council. Yet, even then ,we

have no earlier, no more authentic, documents from

which we could form an opinion as to the originalteaching ofBuddha and theNirvana, as taught bothin the metaphysics of Kasyapa and in the Prague.paramitaof the Northern Buddhists, is annihilation,not absorption . Buddhism ,

therefore,if tested by

its own canonical books, cannot be freed from the

charge of Nihilism, whatever may have been its

Different views of the Nirvana, as conceived by the Tirthakas ,or the Brahmans , may be seen in an extract from the Lankavatara,translated by Bum ouf, p . 514.

THE MEANING or v A . 285

character in the mind of its founder, and whateverchanges it may have undergone in later times, andamong races less inured to metaphysical discussionsthan the H indus .

The ineradicable feeling of dependence on something else, which is the life-spring of all religion , wascompletely numbed in the early Buddhist metaphysicians, and it was only after several generations hadpassed away, and after Buddhism had become thecreed of millions, that this feeling returned withcreased warmth, changing, as I said in my article

,

the very Nothing into a paradise, and deifying thevery Buddha who had denied the existence of a

Deity. That this has been the case in China weknow from the interesting works of the Abbé Huc,

and from other sources, such as the Catechism of

the Shamans, or the Laws and Regulations of the

Priesthood of Buddha in China,’ tran slated by Ch . F.

Neumann , London , 1831 . In India, also, Buddhism,

as soon as it became a popular religion , had to speaka more human language than that of metaphysicalPyrrhonism. But, if it did so, it was because itwas shamed into it. This we may see from the verynicknames which the Brahmans apply to their 0p

ponants, the Bauddhas . They call them Nastikas

—those who maintain that there is nothing ; Sfinyavadins—those who maintain that there is a univeralvoid.

The only ground, therefore, on which we may

stand, ifwe wish to defend the founder of Buddhismagainst the charges ofNihilism and Atheism,

is this,that, as some of the Buddhists admit, the Basketof Metaphysics was rather the work of his pupils,

286 THE MEANING or v ANA .

not of Buddha himself. l This distinction betweenthe authentic words of Buddha and the canonicalbooks in general is mentioned more than once. Th e

priesthood of Ceylon , when the man ifest errors withwhich their canonical commentaries abound werebrought to their notice, retreated from their formerposition , and now assert that it is only the expresswords of Buddha that they receive as undoubtedtruth.

2 There is a passage in a Buddhist workwhich reminds us somewhat of the last page ofDeanMilman

’s History of Christianity,’ and where weread

The words of the priesthood are good ; those ofthe Rahats (saints) are better ; but those of the Allknowing are the best of all.’

This is an argument which Mr. Francis Barhammight have u sed with more success, and by which hemight have justified, if not the first disciples, at

least the original founder of Buddhism . Nay, thereis a saying ofBuddha’s which tends to show that allmetaphysical discussion was regarded by him as vainand useless . It is a saying mentioned in one of the

MSS. belonging to the Bodleian Library. As it has

never been published before, I may be allowed toquote it in the original : Sadasad vikaram na sahate

The ideas of being and not being do not admit of

discussion —a tenet which, if we consider that itwas enunciated before the timc of the Eleatic philoSOphers of Greece, and long before Hegel

’s Logic,See Bum ouf, Introduction, p . 41 . Abuddhoktam abhidharma

castram. Ibid. p . 454. According to the Tibetan Buddhists, how

ever, Buddha propounded the Abhidharma when he was fifty-one

years old. Asia tic R esearches, vol. xx . p . 339.

2 Ea ten Monachism, p . 171 .


288 THE MEANING or NIEvANA.

Soon after, we read : The name of Buddha isnothing but a word. The name of Bodhisattva isnothing but a word. The name of Perfect Wisdom(Pragna-paramita) is nothing but a word. The name

is indefinite, as if one says I,” for“I is something

indefinite, because it has no limits .’

Burnouf gives the gist of thewhole Pragna-paramitain the following words : The highestWisdom ,

or what is to be known ,has no more real existence

than he who has to know, or the Bodhisattva ; no

more than he who does know, or the Buddha .

’But

Burnouf remarks that nothing of this kind is to befound in the Sfitras, and that Gautama Sakya-muni

,

the son of Suddhodana, would never have becomethe founder of a popular religion if he had startedwith similar absurdities. In the Sfitras the realityof the objective world is den ied ; the reality of formis denied ; the reality of the individual, or the I

,

’

is equally denied. But the existence of a subject,of something like the Purusha, the thinking sub

stan ce of the Sankhya philosophy, is spared. Something at least exists with respect to which everythingelse may be said not to exist. The germs of the

ideas, developed in the Pragnap pfiramita, may indeedbe discovered here and there in the Sfitras also.

l

But they had not yet ripened into that poisonou splant which soon became an indispensable narcoticin the schools of the later Buddhists . Buddha himself

,however

,though, perhaps, not a Nihilist, was

certainly an Atheist. He does not deny distinctlyeither the existence of gods, or that of God ; but heignores the former, and he is ignorant of the latter.

1 Bum ouf, Introduction, p . 520.

THE MEANING or NIEvANA . 289

T herefore, if Nirvana in his mind was not yet com

plete annihilation, still less could it have been ab

s orption into a Divine essence . It was nothing buts elf-ness, in the metaphysical sense of the word—a

relapse into that being which is nothing but itself.This is the most charitable view which we can takeof the Nirvana, even as conceived by Buddha himself, and it is this view which Burnouf derived fromthe canonical books of the Northern Buddh ists .Mr. Spence Hardy, who in his works follows exclusively the authority of the Southern Buddhists , thePfili and Singhalese works of Ceylon , arrives at thesame result. We read in h is work ; The Rabat

(Arhat), who has reached Nirvana, bu t is not yet a

Pratyeka-buddha, or a Supreme Budda, says : I

await the appointed time for the cessation of existence. I have no wish to live I have no wish to die.

Desire is extinct.”

In a very interesting dialogue between Milindaand Nagasena, communicated by Mr. Spence Hardy,Nirvana is represented as something which has noantecedent cau se, no qualities, no locality. It is

something of which the utmost we may assert is,that it is .

Ndgas ena. Can a man , by his natural strength,go from the city of Sfigal to the forest ofHimala 2Milinda . Yes .n asona . But could any man

, by his natural

strength, bring the forest of Himala to this city ofSAgal 2

290 THE MEANING or NIEvANA.

Ndgasena . In like manner, though the fruitionof the paths may cause the accomplishment of

Nirvana, no cause by which Nirvana is produced can

be declared. The path that leads to Nirvana maybe pointed out, but not any cause for its production .

Why 2 because that which constitutes Nirvana is beyond all computation—a mystery, not to be u nderstood. It cannot be said that it is produced,nor that it is not produ ced ; that it is past or futureor present. Nor can it be said that it is the seeingof the eye, or the hearing of the ear, or the smellingof the nose, or the tasting of the tongue, or the feelingof the body.Milinda . Then you speak of a thing that is not

you merely say that Nirvana is Nirvana —thereforethere is no Nirvana .

Ndgasena . Great king, Nirvana is.

Another question also, whether Nirvana is something difi

'

erent from the beings that enter into it,has been asked by the Buddhists themselves

Milinda . Does the being who acquires it, attainsomething that has previously existed2—or is it h is

own produ ct, a formation peculiar to himself2Ndgasena . Nirvana does not exist previously to

its reception ; nor is it that which was brought intoexistence. Still to the being who attain s it, there is

In opposition , therefore, to the more advancedviews of the Nihilistic philosophers of the North,Nagasena maintains the existence of Nirvana, and of

the being that has entered Nirvana. He does not


XVIII .

LECTURE

BUDDHIST N IHILISM ,

Delivered I) General M eeting of the Association 0 German

at Kiel, tire 28th ofSep tember, 186

I MAY be mistaken , but my belief is that the sub

jcet which I have chosen formy discourse cann ot beregarded as alien to the general interests of thisassembly.

Buddhism, in its numerous varieties , still continues the religion of the majority of mankind, andwill therefore always occupy a very prominent placein a comparative study of the religions of the world.

And comparative theology, although the youngestbranch on the tree of human knowledge, will, for anaccurate and fruitful study of antiquity, soon becomeas indispensable as comparative philology. For howcan we truly understand and properly appreciate apeople

,its literature, art, politics, morals and phi10

sophy,its entire conception of life, without having

comprehended its religion , not only in its outeraspect, but in its innermost being, in its deepest farreaching roots 2What our great poet once said almost prOpheti

nunnmsr NIHILISM . 293

cally of languages, may also be said of religionsH a who knows only one

,knows nonc.

’As the true

knowledge of a language requires a knowledge oflanguages, a true knowledge of religion requires aknowledge of religions. And though the assertionthat all the languages of mankind are Oriental maysound too bold, true it is that all religion s, like thesun , have risen from the East.Here

,therefore, in treating religions scientifically

(those of the Aryan as well as those of the Semiticraces) the Oriental scholar lawfully enters into whatyou call the plenum of philology, if philology stillis, as our President told us yesterday, what it onceintended and wished to be, viz. the true Humanitas,which

,like an Emperor of yore

,could say of itself,

humani nihil a me alienum puto .

’

Now, it has been the peculiar fate of the religionof Buddha that among all the so-called false orheathenish religions, it almost alone has been praisedby all and everybody for its elevated, pure, and

humanising character. One hardly trusts one’s eyeson seeing Catholic and Protestant missionaries viewith each other in their praises of the Buddha ; andeven the attention of those who are indifl'erent to all

that concerns religion must be arrested for a momentwhen they learn from statistical accounts that no

religion , not even the Christian , has exercised sopowerful an influence on the diminution of crime asthe old simple doctrine of the Ascetic ofKapilavastu .

Indeed, no better authority can be brought forwardin this respect than that of a still living Bishop ofthe Roman Catholic Church. In his interestingwork on the life of Buddha

,the author, the Bishop

294 BUDDHIST NIIIILISM .

of Ramatha, the Vicar Apostolic of Ava and Pegu ,speaks with so much candour of the merits of theBuddhist religion that we are often at a loss whichmost to admire, h is courage or his learning. Thushe says in one place (page 494) There are manymoral precepts equally commanded and enforced incommon by both creeds. Itwill not be deemed rashto assert that most of the moral truths prescribedby the Gospel, are to be met with in the Buddhisticscriptures .

’In another place Bishop Bigandet says

(p . 495) In reading the particulars of the life ofthe last Budha Gaudama, it is impossible not to feelreminded of many circumstances relating to our

Saviour’s life, such as it has been sketched out bythe Evangelists.

’

Imight produce many even stronger testimoniesin honour of Buddha and Buddhism, but the abovesuflice formy purpose.

But then , on the other hand, it seems as if peoplehad only permitted themselves to be so liberal intheir praises of Buddha and Buddhism becau se theycould

,in the end, condemn a religion which, in spite

of all its merits , culminated in Atheism andNih ilism.

Thus we are told by Bishop Bigandet (p. viii.) It

may be said in favour of Buddhism that no philosophico

-religious system has ever upheld, to an equaldegree, the notion s of a saviour and deliverer, andthe necessity of his mis sion for procuring the salvation of man , in a Buddhist sense. The rile of

Buddha, from beginn ing to end, is that of a deliverer,who preaches a law design ed to secure to man the

deliverance from all the miseries he is labouringunder. But by an inexplicable and deplorable eccen


296 BUDDHIST NIHILISM.

the wicked that after death they shall meet withtheir pun ishment in the subterranean abodes and

hells, where the Asuras,Sarpas, Nagas, and other

evil spirits dwell, bein gs whose existence was morefirmly rooted in the popular belief and language

than that even the founder of a new religion couldhave dared to reason them away. But

, althoughBuddha assigned to these mediatised gods and devils,palaces, gardens, and a court

,not second to their

former ones, he yet deprived them of all their sovereign rights. Although, according to Buddh a, theworlds of the gods last for million s of years, theymust perish, at the end of every kalpa, with the

gods and with the spirits who in the circle of birthshave raised themselves to the world of the gods .Indeed, the reorganisation of the spirit-world goesfurther still. Already, before Buddha, the Brahmmhad surmounted the low standpoint of mythologicalpolytheism,

and supplanted it by the idea of the

Brahman , as the absolute divine or super-divinepower. What, then , does Buddha decree 2 To this

Brahman also he assigns a place in his un iverse.

Over and above the world of the gods with its six

paradises he heaps up sixteen Brahma-worlds, not

to be attained through virtue and piety only, butthrough inner contemplation through knowledgeand enlightenment. The dwellers in these worldsare already purely spiritualised beings, without body,without weight, without desire, far above men and

gods . Indeed, the Buddhist architect rises to a stillmore towering height, heaping upon the Brahms »

world four still higher worlds, which he calls thew orld of the formless . All these worlds are open to

nunnmsr NInILIsM. 297

man , and the beings ascend anddescend in the circleof timc, according to the works they have performed,according to the truths they have recognised. But

all these worlds the law of change obtains ; innone is there exemption from birth, age, and death .

The world of the gods will perish like that of men,

even the world of the formless will not last for ever ;but the Buddha, the Enlightened and truly Free

,

stands higher, and will not be affected or disturbedby the collapse of the Universe : Si fractus illabaturorbis

,impavidum ferient ruinaa.

’

Now, however, we meet with a vein of irony,

which one would hardly have expected in Buddha .

Gods and devils he had located ; to allmythologicaland philosophical acquisitions of the past he haddone justice as far as possible. Even fabulousbeings, such as Nagas, Gandharvas, and Garudas,had escaped the process of dissolution which was toreach them later only at the hands of comparativemythology. There is only one idea, the idea of a

personal creator, in regard to which Buddha is relentless .

It is not only denied, but even its origin , likethat of an ancient myth, is carefully explained in itsminutest details . This is done in the Brahmagala

satra. Let us bear in mind that a destruction of the

worlds occurs at the end of every kalpa, a destructionwhich not only annihilates earth and hell, but also allthe worlds of the gods, and even the three lowest ofthe Brahma-worlds. A description of the durationof a kalpa can only be given in the language of

Buddhism . Take a rock forming a cube of aboutfourteen miles, touch it once in a hundred years with

2 98 BUDDHIST NIHILISM.

a piece of fine cloth, and the rock will sooner be re

duced to dust than a kalpa will have attainedits end .

It is said that at the end of the kalpa, after all th elower stories of the universe had been destroyed and

a new world had again been slowly formed, the spiritsdwelling in the higher Brahma-worlds had remainedinviolate. Then one of these Spirits, a being without body, without weight, omnipresent and blessedwithin himself, descended, when his time had arrived,from the higher Brahma-world to the '

new-formednether Brahma-world. There he first dwelt alon e ;but, by

-and-by, the desire arose in him not to re

m ain alone any longer. At the moment of the

awakening of this desire within him, a second beingaccidentally descended from the higher into the

lower Brahma-world. Then and there the thoughtoriginated in the first being, I am the Brahma, thegreat Brahma, the Highest, the Unconquerable, theOmniscient, the Lord and King of All. I am the

”Creator of all things, the Father ofAll . This beinghas also been created by me ; for as soon as Idesirednot to remain alone, my desire brought forth thissecond being.

’The other beings as they gradually

descended from the higher words likewise behavedthat the first comer had been their Creator, for wash e not older and mightier and handsomer thanthey 2

But this is not all ; for although it would explainh ow one spirit could cons ider himself the creator ofother spirits, it would leave unexplained the circumstances ofmen on earth believing in such a creator.This is exp lained in the following manner : In the

-course of time one of these higher beings sank lower


300 BUDDHIST NIIIILISM.

phal, or even as heterodox, already existed at that

Thus we are not by any means without an autho

rity for distinguishing between Buddhism and the

teaching of Buddh a ; the question is only whethersuch a separation is still practicable for u s 2My belief is that all honest enquirers must oppose

a No to this question . Burnouf never ventured tocast a glance beyond the boundaries of the Buddhistcanon . What he finds in the canonical books , inthe so-called Three Baskets

,

’is to him the doctrine

of Buddha, similarly as we mu st accept, as the doctrin e ofChrist, what is contained in the four Gospels .

Still the question ought to be asked again and

again , whether, at least with regard to certaindoctrines or facts, it may not be possible to makea step further in advance, even with the convictionthat it cannot lead us to results ofapodictic certainty.

For if, as happens frequently, we find in the difl'

erent

parts of the can on , views, not only difi'

ering from,

but even contradictory to each other, it follows , Ithink, that one only of them can belong to Buddhapersonally, and I believe that in such a case we havethe right to choose, and the liberty to accept thatview as the original one, the one peculiar to Buddha,which least harmonises with the later system of

orthodox Buddh ism .

As regards the denial of a Creator, or Atheism in

the ordinary acceptation of the term, I do not thinkthat any one passage from the books of the can onknown to us can be quoted which contradicts it, orwhich in any way presupposes the beliefin a personalGod or a Creator. All that may be urged are the

Bunnm sr NIHILISM . 301

w ords said to have been spoken by Buddha at the

m oment when he became the Enlightened, the Buddha They are as follows Looking. for the makero f this tabernacle, I shall have to run through a

course of many births, as long as I do not find

(him) —and painful is birth again and again . But

n ow , maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen ;thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again . All

thy rafters are broken , thy ridge-pole is sundered ;the mind, approaching the Eternal (Nirvana), hasattained to the extin ction of all desires .’

Here in the maker of the tabernacle—i .e. of the

body—one might be tempted to see a creator. But

he who is acquainted with the general direction of

thought in Buddh ism, soon finds that this architect ofthe house is only a poetical exp ression , and that whatever meaning may underlie it, it evidently signifies aforce subordinated to the Buddha , the Enlightened.

Buddha had conquered Mara, the representative ofworldly temptations, the father ofallworldly desires ;and as desire is indirectly the cause of birth, thedestruction of desire and the conqu est of Mara are

nearly the same thing.

But .whilst we have no ground for exonerat

in g the Buddha personally from the accusation of

A theism, the matter stands very differently as re

gards the charge of Nihilism . Buddhist Nih ilismhas always been m uch more incomprehen sible thanmere Atheism. A kind of religion is still conceivable, when there is something firm somewhere, whena something, eternal andself-dependent, is recognis ed,if not w ithou t and above man

, at leas t within him.

Dhammapada, v. 153.

302 Bunnmsr NIIIILIsM.

But if, as Buddh ism teaches, the soul after havingpassed through all the phases of existence, throughall the worlds of the gods and of the higher Spirits,attains finally Nirvana as its highest aim and las t .

reward, i.e. becomes quite extinct, then religion isnot any more what it ought to be—a bridge fromthe finite to the infinite, but a trap-bridge hurlingman into the abyss at the very moment when he

thought he had arrived at the stronghold of the

Eternal. According to the metaphysical doctrine ofBuddhism, the soul cannot dissolve itself in a higherbeing, or be absorbed in an absolute substan ce, as

was taught by the Brahmans and other mystics ofancient andmodern timcs . For Buddh ism knew not

the Divine, the Eternal, the Absolute, and the sou l,

even as the I, or as the mere Self, the Atman, as

called by the Brahmans, was represented in the or

th odox metaphysics of Buddhism as transient, as

futile, as a mere phantom .

No person who reads with attention the metaphysical speculations on the Nirvana contained inthe Buddhist canon , can arrive at any convictiondifferent from that expressed by Burnouf, viz. That

Nirvana, the highest aim,the summum bonnm of

Buddhism,is the absolute nothing.

Burnouf adds, however, that this doctrine, In itscrude form,

appears only in the third part of the

can on, the so-calledAbhidh arma, but not in the firstand second parts , in the Sutras, the sermon s, and theVinaya, the ethics, which together bear the name ofDharma or Law . He next points out that, according to some ancient authorities, this entire part ofthe canon was designated as not pronounced by


304 Bunnmsr NIIIIIJ SM.

v . 21) calls earnestness the path of immortality, andthoughtlessness the path of death 2 Buddhaghosha,

a learned man of the fifth century, here explainsimmortality by Nirvana, and that this was alsoBuddha’s thought is clearly established by a passagefollowing immediately after (ibid. 11. Thesewise people, meditative, steady, always possessed of

strong powers, attain to Nirvana, the highest happin ess.’ Can this be annihilation 2 and would su chexpression s have been u sed by the founder of thisnew religion, if what he called immortality had, inh is own idea, been annihilation 2

I could quote many more such pas sages did I not

fear to tire you . Nirvana occurs even in the‘ purelym oral sense of quietness and absence of passion .

When a man can bear everything without utteringa sound,’ says Buddha (ibid. v . he has at

tained Nirvana.

’ Quiet long-sufl'

ering he calls thehighest Nirvana (v . he who has conqueredp as sion and hatred is said to enter into Nirvana('v.

In other passages, Nirvana is described as the

result of just knowledge. Thus we read (a. 203)Hunger or desire is the worst of diseas es, the bodythe greatest of pains ; if one knows this truly, thatis Nirvana, the highest happin ess.

’

When it is said in one passage that rest (sans )is the highest bliss (v . it is said in another thatN irvana is the highest bliss.Buddha says 225) The sages who injure

n obody, and who always control their body, theywill go to the unchangeable place (Nirvana), where,if they have gone, they will suffer no more.”

BUDDHIST NIIIILISM. 305

Nirvana is called the quiet place (W . 368,

the immortal place even simply that whichis immortal (v . and the expression occurs(a. that the wise dive into this immortal. A s,according to Buddha, everything that was made,everything thatwas put together, passes away again ,

and resolves itself into its component parts, he callsin contradistinction that which is not made, i.e.

,

the uncreated and eternal, Nirvana (ibid. u . Hesays (a. 383) When you have understood thedestruction of all that was made, you will understand that which was not made.’ Whence it appearsthat even for him a certain something exists, whichis not made, which is eternal and imperishable.

On con sidering such sayings, to which manymore might be added, one recognises in them a con

ception of Nirvana, altogether irreconcileable withthe Nih ilism of the third part of the BuddhistCanon . The question in such matters is not a moreor less, but an au t-au t. If these sayings have maintained themselves, in spite of their contradictionto orthodox metaphysics, the only explanation , inmy Opinion , is, that they were too firmly fixed in thetradition which went back to Buddha and his dis-J

ciples . What Bishop Bigandet and others representas the popular view of the Nirvana, in contradis

tinction to that of the Buddhist divines, was, ifI am not mistaken , the conception of Buddha and

h is disciples. It represented the entrance of the

soul into rest, a subduing of all wishes and desires,

indifference to joy and pain , to good and evil, an

absorption of the soul in itself, and a freedom fromth e circle of existences from birth to death, and from

VOL . II.

306 BUDDHIST NInILIsM.

death to a new birth. This is still themeaningw hicheducated people attach to it, whilst to the minds ofthe larger masses Nirvana suggests rather the ideaof a Mohammedan paradise or of blissful Elysianfields.Only in the hands of the philosophers, to whom

Buddhism owes itsmetaphysics, theNirvana, throughconstant negations, carried to an indefinite degree,through the excluding and abstracting of all that isnot Nirvana, at last became an empty Nothing, a

philoSOphicalmyth. There is no lack of such philo~sophical myths either in the East or in theWest.W hat has been fabled by philosophers of a Nothing,and of the terrors of a Nothing, is as much a mythas the myth of Eos and Tithonu s . There is nomorea Nothing than there is an Eos or a Chaos. All

these are sickly, dying, or dead words, which, likeshadows and ghosts, continue to haunt language, andsucceed in deceiving for a while even the healthiest

Even modern philosophy is not afraid to say thatthere is a Nothing. We find passages in theGermanmystics, such as Eckhart and Tauler, where the abyssof the Nothing is spoken of quite in a Buddhiststyle.

’I If Buddha had said, like St. Paul, that what

Bigandet—17mLife or Legend of Gandama , the Buddha (f the

Ben-mesa, with Annotations . TheWays to Neibban, and Notice on

the Phongyies, orBurmese Monks . Pp . xi. 538. Bastian , Die Vo’

lker

dos b’

stliclwn As ian, vol. iii. p . 353.

3 About the same time when this deeply religious Nihilism found

expression in Germany in theworks of Eckhart and Tauler, it shows

itself in Wales also. In a letterwhich I received from the author

of the l iterature of the Kym-y, Mr. Thomas Stephens sends me the

following specimen, taken from the Mycyrian Archaeology, vol. iii.

p . 34


308 Bunnm s'r mmmsn .

Buddha, who knew mankind, must have known thathe could not with such weapon8 overturn the tyrannyof the Brahmans. Either we mu st bring ourselvesto believe that Buddh a taught his disciples two diametrically Opposed doctrines on Nirvana, say an

'

exoteric and esoteric one, or we must allow that viewof Nirvana to have been the original view of the

founder ofthismarvellous religion , which correspondsbest with the simple, clear, and practical characterof Buddha.

I have now said all that can be said in vindicationof Buddha within the brief time allowed to these dis~courses. But I should be sorry if you carried awaythe impression that Buddhism contained nothing butempty, u seless speculations permit me, therefore, toread to you , in conclu sion , a short Buddhist Parable,which will show you Buddhism in a more humanform . It is borrowed from a work which will soonappear, and which contains the translation of the

Parables used by the Buddhists to obtain acceptancefor their doctrines amongst the people. I shall onlyomit some technical expression s and minor detailswhich are of no importan ce.‘

1 This parable was given at the time, September 1869, from a

Burmese text, translated by Captain H . T. Rogers, and printed in

1870, in Buddhaghosha’s Pa/m bles , translated from the Burmese by

Captain H .T. Rogers, R .E . with an Introduction containing Buddha’

s

Dhammapada, or the Path of Virtue, translated from Pali by F.

Max Miiller.’The Pali text was at that time not accessible, but it

has lately been published by Dr. J. H . Thiessen (Die Legemie vanK

'

mi Gaza/mi, Kiel, from a MS. in the Royal Library of

Copenhagen . It forms part of Buddhagosa’s commentary on the

Dhammapada, and occurs twice—once in illustration of verse 1 14,

where it is given complete, and again in illustration of verse 287.

Fausboll had omitted it in his extracts from Buddhaghosa, in his

edition of Dhammapada, Copenhagen, 1855.

BUDDHIST mmmsu . 309

m s } . G OTA M l.

A Buddhist Parable, translatedfrom Fdlc'

.

WHEN KisaGotami had been married one year shegave birth to a son , but when he had just begun towalk, he died. The young mother, who had nevers een anyone die before, sent away the men who cameto burn the dead body.

I shall ask for medicine for my boy,’ she cried,

and, taking the dead child in her arms, she wentfrom house to house, asking the people, Do you not

know any medicine for my boy i)Then the people answered : Surely, thou art

mad to go about asking for medicine for a deadchild.

’

But she said : I shall surely find some one whowill tell me what I can do formy boy.

’

Now, there was a wise man who saw her and

thought, It may be that the poor girl has had herfirst child. She does not know what death is . I

ought to comfort her.’ And he said to her : My

daughter, Imyselfknow of nomedicine ; but I knowone who knows the right medicine for thee.

’

O father,’ she said, who is he i’The Master,’ he replied. Go and ask him.

’

I shall go, father,’ she said. And she went to

theMaster, andbowed down before him, and, standing by his side, she said : Mas ter, do you indeedflsnow some medicine formy son P

Daughter, I do,’ he replied.

What should I get for him ? she said.

Get only a few mustard seeds,’ he replied.

310 mmmsu .

I shall get them ,Master, ’ she said ; but in whosehou se shall I get them i)

In any house,’ he replied

,where neither a son,

nor a daughter, nor anyone els e has yet died.

’

W ell, Master,’ she said, and bowed before him,

and took her dead child in her arms, and went to thenearest village.Standing at the door of the first house, she criedHave you, perhaps, in your house a few mustardseeds ‘9 Iwant them as medicine for my boy.

’

W e have,’ the people answered.

Then give them to me,’ she said.

And when they had brought the mustard seedsand given them to her, she asked : Friends, surelyno son , or daughter, or anyone else has yet died inthis house

They answered : Friend, what dost thou say i’

The living are few , the dead are many.

’

Then take your mustard-seeds,’ she said, and

threw them down ; they willnot do as medicine for

And walking away from the first hou se she wenton in the same manner, asking at every door. But

when she could not get the mustard seeds at anyhouse, and evening was now drawing near, she

thought : This is a heavy task ; I know now ,my

boy is dead. In every village the dead are morethan the living.

’

While she was thinking thus, her heart, whichhad been breaking for love to her child, grew strong.

She took the child to the forest, and left him there.Then she went back to the Mas ter, bowed down

before him, and stood silent by his side. And the


312 BUDDH IST mmmsn .

is,indeed, O Gotami like lamps, all living beings go

out and revive ; but those who have reachedNibbanaare seen no more.’

He then said : One moment’s life of a man whos ees Nibbana is better than a hundred years of thosewho do not see Nibbana and after showing her the.connection between this andwhat she hadjust seen , hep ronounced the following song, by way of teachingt he Law

Ifman should live one hundred years on earth,And never see the place which knows no dying,Oneday of life would better be by far,That made him see the place which knows no dying.

’

(Dhammapada, v .

At the end of the lesson , KisaGotami, where shewas sitting, obtained saintship together with all

knowledge.

Gentlemen , this is a specimen of true Buddhism ;

this is the language, intelligible to the poor and thesuffering, which has endeared Buddhism tothe heartsof millions—not the silly metaphysical phantasmagorias of worlds of gods and worlds of Brahma, orfinal dissolution of the soul in Nirvana—no, the

beautiful,the tend-er, the humanly true, which, like

pure gold, lies buried in all religions, even in the

sandy desert of the Buddhist canon .

XIX .

O N S A N S K B IT TEX T S

DISCOVERED

IN JA P A N .

Read at the Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society,February 16, 1880.

IT is probably in the recollection of some of the

:senior members of this Society how wide and deepan interest was excited in the year 1853 by the publication of Stanislas Julien ’s tran slation of the Lifeand Travels of Hiouen-th sang.

’The account given

by an eye-witness of the religious, social, political,and literary state of India at the beginning of the

s eventh century of our era was like a rocket, carryinga rope to a whole crew of struggling scholars, on thepoint of being drowned in the sea of Indian chronology ; and the rope was eagerly grasped by all,

whether their special object was the history of Indianreligion ,

or the history of Indian literature, architecture

,or politics. While many books on Indian

literature,published five-and-twenty years ago, are

now put aside and forgotten ,Julien ’

s three volumesofH iouen-th sang still maintain a fresh interest, andsupplynew subjects fordiscussion ,

as maybe seen even:in the last number of the Journal of your Society.

I had the honour and pleasure of working with

314 on sm sxarr TEXTS msoovnasn IN JAPAN .

Stanislas Julien , when he was compiling those largelists of Sanskrit and Chinese words which formedthe foundation of his tran slation of H iouen-th sang,

and enabled him in h is classical work, the Me’

thode

p our déchf

tfi'

rcr ct tra/nscmre les name Sanskmts

to solve a riddle which had puzzled Oriental scholarsfor a long timeg viz. how it happened that the ori

ginal Sanskrit names '

had been so completely disguised and rendered almost unrecognisable in the

Chinese tran slations of San skrit texts, and how theycould be restored to their original form .

I had likewise the honour and pleasure of working with your late President, Professor H. H . W ilson ,

when , after reading Julien’s works, he conceived

the idea that some of the original Sanskrit texts ofwhich the Chinese translations had been recoveredmight still be found in the monasteries of China.

H is influential position as President of your Society,

and his personal relations with Sir John Bowring,

then English Resident in China, enabled him to set

in motion a powerful machinery for attaining his

object ; and if you look back some five-and-twentyyears, you will find in your Journal a full account ofthe correspondence that passed between ProfessorWilson , Sir J. Bowring, and Dr. Edk ins

,on the

search after Sanskrit MSS . in the temples or monasteries ofChina .

On February 15, 1854, Professor Wilson writesfrom Oxford to Sir John Bowring

I send you herewith a list of the Sanskrit workscarried to China by Hwen Tsang in the middle ofthe seventh century, and in great part translated byhim , or under his supervision, into Chinese. If any


316 ON SANSKRIT TEXTS msoovs nnn IN JAPAN.

tion . OfH iouen-thsang we are told that he broughtback from India no less than 520 fasciculi, or 657s eparate works, which had . to be carried by twentytwo horses .

1 He tran slated, or had translated, 740works

,forming fasciculi.

I say nothing of earlier traces of Buddhism whichare supposed to occur in Chinese books. Whateverthey may amount to

,we look in vain in them for

evidence of any Chinese translation s of Buddhistbooks before the th e of the Emperor Ming-ti; and

what concerns u s at present is, not the existence orthe spreading of Buddhism towards the north and

east long before the beginn ing of the Christian era,

but the existence of Buddhist books, so far as it can

be proved at that time by the existen ce of Chinesetranslations the date of which can be fixedwith suf

ficient certainty.In the following remarks on the history of these

translations I have had the great advantage of beingable to u se the Annals of the SuiDynasty (589kindly translated for me by Professor Legge. In

China the history of each dynasty was writtenunder the succeeding dynasty from documents whichmay be supposed to be contemporaneou s with the

events they relate. The account given in the Sui

Chronicles of the introduction ofBuddhism andBud

dhist works into China is said to be the best generalaccounttobe found in earlyChinese literature, andthefacts here statedmaybe looked upon as farmore trustworthy than the notices hitherto relied upon , and col

lected from Chinese writers of different dates and

different localities . I have also had the assistanceStan . Julien , Pélerins Bouddhistes, vol. i. p . 296

ON SANSKRIT TEXTS mscov sns n IN JAPAN. 317

of Mr. Bunyiu Nanj 10 , who compared the names ofthe translators mentioned in the Sui Annals withthe names as given in theK ’

ai-yuen-shih-kiao-mu-lu(Catalogue of the Buddhist books compiled in the

period K’ai-yuen [A .D. 713 though there

still remain some doubtful points, we may rest as

sured that the dates assigned to the principal Chinesetran slators and their works can be depended on as

historically trustworthy.

With regard to the period anterior toMing-ti, theSui Chronicles tell us that, after an investigation of

the records, it was known that Buddhism had not

been brought toChina previously to the H an dynasty(began 206 though some say that it had longbeen spread abroad, but haddisappeared again in the

time of the Khin l (221—206 Afterwards,how

ever, when Kang-khien was sent on a mission to theregions of theWest (about 130 he is supq

posed to have become acquainted with the religionof Buddha. He was made prisoner by the Hiungnu (Huns),2 and, being kept by them for ten years

,

h e may well have acquired during his captivity somek nowledge of Buddhism, which at a very early timeh adspreadfromCabulatowards thenorth and the east .

In the time of the Emperor Ai 6—2) we read

Dr. Edkins in his Notices of Buddhism in China (which unfor

tunately are not paged) says that Indians arrived at the capital

ofChina in Shensi in 217 topmpagate their religion .

2 Dr. Edkins , l.o., states that Rang-khien, on his return from the

country of the Getm, informed the EmperorWu-ti that he had seen

articles of trafiic from Shindo. The commentatoradds that the name

is pronounced Kando and Tindo, and that it is the country of the

barbarians called Buddha (sic).Kabul or Ko-fu is , in the Eastern Han annals, called a state

of theYiieh-hi.

318 ON SANSKBI'I‘ 'rsx'rs mscovsnm) IN JAPAN .

that Khin-king caused I-tsun to teach the Buddhis tSfitras orally, but that the people gave no credenceto them . All this seems to rest on semi-historicalevidence only.

The first official recognition of Buddhism in

China dates from the reign of the Emperor Ming-ti,and the following account, though not altogetherfree from a legendary colouring, is generally acceptedas authentic by Chinese scholars The EmperorMing-ti, of the After H an dynasty (58—75dreamt that a man Of metal (or golden colour) wasflying and walking in a courtyard of the palace.

When he told his dream in the Court, Eu-i said thatthefigure was that ofBuddha. On this the Emperorsent the gentleman-usherTsai-yin andKhin-king(whomust then have been growing old) both to the countryOf the great Yu eh-kil and to India, in order to seekfor such an image.

’

An earlier account of the same event is to be

found in the Annals Of the After (or Eastern) Han

dynasty (25—120 These annals were compiledby Fan-yeh, who was afterwards condemned todeathas a rebel (445 Here we read2 (vol. 88, fol. 8 aseq.) There 18 a tradition that the Emperor Mingti (58- 75 A .D.) dreamt that there was a gian t

-hke

man of golden colour,3 whose head was refulgent.The Emperor wanted his retainers to interpret it.Th en some said, “There is a god (or spirit) in the

Generally identified with the Getw,but without sufficient

proof.3 Translated by Mr. Bunyiu Nanj io.

The golden colour or s u v arn av arn ata is one of the th irtytwomarks of a Buddha, recognised both in the Southern andNorthern

schools (BurnOuf, Lotta , p .


320 ON sANsxnrr rs xrs DISCOVERED IN JAPAN.

low-cas te man ,might well be borne by a Buddhist

priest. The name of Kfi-fa lan , however, is more

be a Chinese name,”yet ifKfi-fa-lan came from India

with Kasyapa, we should expect that he too bore a

Sanskrit name . In that case, Kii might be taken as

the last character of Tien-kfi, India, which characteris prefixed to thenames of other Indian priests livingin China. His name would be Ffi-lan , i.e. Dharma+ x,whatever lan may signify, perhaps p adm a, lotus !M. Feer‘ calls him GObharana, without, however,giving his authority for such a name. The Sutra of

the forty-two sections exists in Chinese, but neitherSanskrit nor in Pali, and many difi culties would beremoved ifwe admitted, with M. Feer

, that this so

called Sfitra of the forty-two sections was reallythe work ofKasyapa and Kfi-fa-lan , who consideredsuch an epitome ofBuddhist doctrines, based chieflyon original texts, u seful for their new converts in

It is curious that the Sui Annals speak here of noother literary work due to Kasyapa and Kfi-fa-lan ,

though they afterwards mention the Shih-ku Sfitraby Kfi-fa-lan as a work almost unintelligible. In the

Fan-i-ming-i-tsi (vol. iii. fol. 4 b) mention is made of

five Sfitras , translated by Kfi-fa-lan alone,

after

Kasyapa’s death. In the K’ai-yuen-shih-kiao-mu .1u

Fa is the Buddhist equivalent forfriar.

4 L. Feer, Sutra en 42 articles, p . xxvn . Le Dhammap ada p ar

F. Ha, M ei da Sutm en 42 art icles, parMon Feer, 1878, p . xxiv .

ON SANBREI'I‘ 'rnx'rs msoovs as n IN JAPAN . 321

catalogue of the Buddhist books, compiled in the

p eriod K’ai—yuen (713- 741 , A . vol. i. fol. 6, four

Siitras only are ascribed to Kfi-fa—lanl . The Dasabhfimi, called the Sfitra on the de

s truction of the causes of perplexity in the ten sta

tions ; 70 A .D. This is the Sh i—kfi Sfitra.

2. The Sfitra of the treasure of the sea of the

law (Dharma samudra-kosha3. The Sfitra of the original conduct of Buddha

(Fo-pen-hing-king) ; 68 A .D. (taken by Julien for a

tran slation of the Lalita-vistara)4 . The Sfitra of the original birth of Buddha

(Gataka)The compiler of the catalogue adds that these

translations have long been lost.The next patron of Buddhism was Ying, the King

of Khfi, at the tM e of the Emperor Kang, his father(76 Many Shamans, it is said, came to Chinathen from the Western regions, bringing Buddhist.Sfitras . Some of these translations, however, proved

During the reign of theEmperor Hwan (147—167)An-shi-kao (usually called An-shing), a Shaman Of

An-h si,l brought classical books toLO, an d translated

them . This is evidently the same translator ofwhomMr. Beal J 1856, pp. 327, 332) speaks as anative of Eastern Persia or Parthia, and whose nameMr. Wylie wished to identify with Arsak . As An

shi-kao is reported to have been a royal prince, whomade himself a mendicant and travelled as far as

China, Mr. Wylie supposes that he was the son ofone

1 In Beal’s Catalogue this name is spelt An

-shi-ko, An-shi-kao,a nd Ngan

-shai-ko.

VOL. 11.

322 ON SANSKRI'I‘ 'rnx'rs DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

of the Arsacidae, Kings ofPersia . Mr. Beal, on thecontrary, takes thename to be a corruption ofAsvaka

or A maliaUnder the Emperor Ling, 168- 189 A .D.

, Xi

khan (or Xi-tsin), a Shaman from the Yueh-ki (calledXi-lau-kia-kuai by Beal), Kfi-fO-soh (Ta-fo-sa), an

Indian Shaman , and others, worked together tOproduce a translation of the Nirvana-sfitra, in twosections. The K

’ai-yuen-lu ascribes twenty-three

works to Xi-khan , and two Sfitras to Kfi-fo—soh .

Towards the end of the Han dynas ty, Eu-yung,the grand guardian , was a follower Of Buddha.

In the time of the Three Kingdoms (220—264)Khang-sang-hui, a Shaman of the Western region s,came to Wfi 2 with Sfitras and tran slated them .

Sun-khiian ,the sovereign , believed in Buddhism .

Abou t the same timeKh an g-sang-khai translated thelonger text of the Sukhavativyfih a.

In Wei,3 during the periodHwang-khu (220—226)

the Chinese first observed the Buddhist precepts,shaved their heads, and became Sang—i.e. monks .Even before this, a Shaman oftheWestern regions

had come here and translated the Hsiao-pin Sfitrai.s. the Sfitra of Smaller Matters (Khuddaka -nikayaP)—but the head and tail of it were contradictory, so

that it could not be understood.

H is translations occur in Beal’

s Catabgue, pp . 31 , 35, 37, 38,

40 (bis) , 41 (bis) , 42 (bis), 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51 (ter) , 52 (bin), 54,70, 88, 95 (bis) . In the K

’ai-yuen

-ln it is stated that he translated

99 works in 1 15 fascicles.

Wfi, comprising Keh-kiang and other parts, with its capital in

what is now Sfi-kau, was the southern one of the Three Kingdoms

Sun-hhiian was its first sovereign .

The northern of the Three Kingdoms, with its capital latterlyin Lo-yang.


324 ON SANSKRI'r 'rEx'rs DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

In the time of the rebel Shih-leh , 330—333,during the Tsin dynasty, a Shaman Wei-tao-an, orTao-an

,of Khang

-shan , studied Buddhist literatureunder Buddhasimha. He produced a more correcttranslation of the Vimala—kirtti-sfitra (and Sad

dharma-pundarika) and taught it widely ; but as h ewas not an original translator, his name is not mentioned in the K

’ai-yuen-ln. On account of political

troubles, Tao-an led his disciples southward, toHsinye, and despatched them to difl

'

erent quarters—Fashan g toYang-loan , Fa-hwa to Shir—while he himself,withWei-yuan , went to Hsiang-yan g and Khang-an .

Here Eu-khien,the sovereign of the Ffis

,who about

350 had got possession of Khang-an , resisting the

authority of the Tsin , and establishing the dynastyOf the Former Khin , received him with distinction .

It was at the wish Of Tao-an that Eu-khien invitedKumfiragiva to Khang-an ; but when , after a longdelay, Kumaragiva arrived there, in the secondyear of the period Hung-shi (400 under Yaohsing, who, in 394, had succeeded Yao-khang, l thefounder Of the After Khin dynasty

,Tao-an had been

dead already twenty years. H is corrected translations , however, were approved by Kumaragiva.

This Kumaragiva marks a new period of greatactivity in the tran slation ofBuddhist texts . He issaid to have come from Ku-tsi, in Tibet, where theEmperor Yao-hsing (397—415) sent for h im . Amonghis tran slations arementioned'the Wei-ma or Vima

la-kirtti-sfitra (Beal’s Catalogue,

’ p. 1 the Sad

dharma-pundarika (Beal’s Catalogue,’ p . the

1 The Yaos subdued the File, and ruled as the dynasty of th e

ON SANBREI'I‘ TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 325

Satyasiddha-Vyakarana sastra (Beal

’s Catalogue,’ p .

80) He was a contemporary of the great traveller,Ffl-hian , who went from Khang

-an to India, tra

velled through more than thirty states, and cameback to Nanking in 414, to find the Emperor Yaohsing overturned by the Eastern Tsin dynasty. Hewas accompanied by the Indian contemplationist,Buddhabhadra.

l Buddhabhadra translated the Fayan

-king,theBuddhavatamsaka-vaipulya-sfitra(Beal’s

‘Catalogue,’ p. and he and Fa-hian together, the

MO-hO-sang-ki-liu—i.s. the Vinaya of the Mahasafi

ghika school (Beal, Catalogue,’ p.

Another Shaman who travelled to India aboutthe same time was Xi-mang, ofHsin-fan g, a districtcity ofKao-khang. In 419, in the period Yiian-h si,he went as far as Patali-putra

,where he Obtained the

Nirvana-sfitra, and the Sanghika, a book of discipline.2 After his return to Kao-khang he tran slatedthe Nirvana-Sutra in twenty sections.

Afterwards the Indian Shaman Dharmaraksha

See p . 341 . H e is sometimes called Balasan , or, according to

Edkins , Palat’

sanga, Baddala, Or Dabadara. In the Fan-i-ming-i-ts i

(vol. iii. fol. 6) the following account of Buddhabhadra is given

Buddhabhadra met Kumaragiva in China, and whenever the latter

found any doubts, the formerwas always asked for an explanation .

In the fourteenth year of I-hsi (418 A .D .) Buddhabhadra translated

theFa-yan-king in Sixty volumes .

’This Sutra is theTa-fang

-kwang

fO-fa-yan-king, Buddhavatamsaka-vaipulya-sutra (Beal

’s Catalogue,

p . This translation was brought to Japan in 736.

The Sang-hi-liu, rules of priesthood

—i .e. the Vinaya of the

Mahasafighika school.

I call him Dharmaraksha II., in order to prevent a confusion

which has been produced by identifying two Shamans who lived at

a distance of nearly 200 years—the one 250 A ,D .,

the other 420 A .D.

The first is called Eu-fa-hu , which can be rendered Dharmaraksha ;the second is called Fa-fang (law-prosperity), but, if transliterated,he is best known by the names T‘

on-mo-la-tsin , T‘an-mo-tsin, or

326 ON SANSKRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN.

brought other Copies of the foreign MSS. to theWestof the Ho. And Tsii-khii Mung-sun , the king of

North Lian g, sent messengers to Kan-khang for thecopy whichXi-mang had brought, wishing to com

pare the two.

1

Wh en Xi-mang’s copy arrived,”a translation was

made of it in thirty section s. Dharmaraksha II.

translated the Suvarna-prabhasa and the Nirvanasutra, 416-423 A .D. The K

’ai-yuen-lu ascribes nin e

teen works to Dharmalatsin in 13] fascicles .Buddhism from that time spread very rapidly

China, and the tran slations became too numerous tobe all mentioned.

The Mahayan a school was represented at that

time chiefly by the following translations

The Vimalakirtti-siitra (Beal,Catalogue,

’

p . 17)The Saddharmapundarika

-sfitra Translated by Kuma

(Beal , Catalogue,’

p . 15) ragiva.

The Satyasiddhavyfikarana-sas

tra (Beal, Catalogue,’

p . 80)

TheSuvarnaprabhas a siitra(Beal‘Catalogue,

’

p . 15)The Nirvana—sfitra (Beal, Catalogue,

’

p . 12)

Dharmalatsin . He was a native of Central India, and arrived in

China in the first year of the period Hiouen-shi of the Tsii-khii

family of the Northern Liang, 414 A .D. He was the contemporaryofXi-mang, whom Mr. Beal places about 250 A .D., in order tomakehim a contemporary of Dharmaraksha I.

Mung-sun died 432, and was succeeded by his heir, who lost

his kingdom in 439. Yao-bhang’s kingdom,

however, was destroyed

by the Eastern Tsin, at the time of his second successor, 417, not by

Translated by Dhar

malatsin, or Dhar

maraksha II.

2 It is said in the tenth year of the period Hung-shi of Yao


328 ON SANSKRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

In 458 there was a conspiracy under Buddhistinfluen ces, and more stringent laws were enforcedagain st them .

In 460 five Buddhists arrived in China fromCeylon , vid Tibet. Two of them ,

Yashaita, and

Vudanandi, brought images .1 In 502 a Hindutranslated Mahayana books, called Fixed Positions .

and Ten Positions .

2

During the dynasties of Khi (479 Liang(502 and Khin (557 many famousShaman s came to China, and tran slated books .

The Emperor Wfi of Liang (502—549) paid greathonour to Buddhism . He made a large collection of

the Buddhist canonical books , amounting tovolumes, in the Hwa-lin garden . The Shaman Paokhang compiled the catalogue in fifty four fascicles ,

In the period Yung-ping, 508—511, there was an.

Indian Shaman Bodhiruki, who translated many

books, as Kumaragiva had done . Among them were

the Earth-holding sastra (bhfimidhara sastraP) andthe Shi-ti-king

-lun the Dasabhfimika sastra, greatly

valued by the followers of the Mahayana.

3

In 516, during the period H si-phing, the ChineseShaman Wei-shang was sent to theWest to collectSfitras and Vinayas, and brought back a collectionof 1 70 books . He is not, however, mentioned as a

tran slator in the K ’ai-yuen-lu .

In 518 Sung-yun , sent by the queen of the Wei

country from Lo-yang to India, returned after threeyears,with 175 volumes . He lived to see Bodhidharma

Edkins , l.o.

Beal, Catalogue, p . 77 ; on p . 20 a translation of the Lan

kavatara is mentioned.

'ON SANSKRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 329

in his cofi n . This Bodh idharma, the twenty-eighthpatriarch, had arrived in Canton by sea in 528, in thetime of W u-ti, the first Emperor of the Liangdynasty. Some Sanskrit MSS. that had belonged tohim

,and other relics, are still preserved in Japan .

l

In the time of the Emperor Wfi, of the NorthernKan dynasty (561 a Shaman ,

Wei-yiian-sung,

accused the Buddhist priests,and the Emperor per

secuted them . But in the first year of Kao-tsu, the

founder ofthe Suidynasty, in 589, tolerationwas againproclaimed. He ordered the people to pay a certainsum ofmoney, according to the number of the mem

bers ofeach family,forthepurpose ofpreparing Sutras

(the Buddh ist canon) and images . An d the Government cau sed copies of the whole Buddhist canon tobe made

,and placed them in certain temples or

monasteries in the capital, and in several other largecities

, in such provinces as Ping-kau , Hsiang-kau ,

LO-kau, etc. And the Government caused also

another copy to be made and to be deposited in theImperial Library. The Buddhist sacred books amongthe people were found to be several hundred timesmore numerou s than those on the six Kings of

Confucius. There were distinct Buddhist bookstranslated.

In the period Tar-yeh (605—616) the Emperorordered the Shaman Xi-kwo tocompose a catalogueof the Buddhist books at the Imperial Buddhistchapel within the gate of the palace . He then made

some division s and classifications, which were as

follows

See Athena'um,August 7, 1880 ; and infra, p . 370.

3 30 ON SANSKRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN.

The Sutras which contained what Buddha hadSpoken were arranged under three division s

1 . The Mahayana .

2 The Hinayana.

3. The Mixed Sutras.Other books, that seemed to be the productions oflater men, who falsely as cribed their works to greaternames, were classed as Doubtful Books.

There were other works in which Bodhis attvas ando thers went deeply into the explanation of the meaning, and illustrated the principles of Buddha. Thesewere called Disquisitions, or Sastras. Then therewere Vinaya, or compilation s of precepts, under eachdivision, as before, Mahayana, Hinayana, Mixed.

There were also Records, or accounts of the doingsin their times of those who had been students of thes ystem. Altogether there were eleven classes underw hich the books were arranged

1. Sfitra. Mahayana 617 in chapters .

487 852

Mixed 380 716

Mixed and doubtful 172 336

52 91

80 472

27 46

3. Sastra. Mahayana 35 141

Hinayana 41 567

Mixed 51 437


332 ON SANsxRIr TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

The disappointment at the failure of ProfessorW ilson ’s and Sir J. Bowring

’s united efi'orts was feltall the more keenly becau se neither Sanskrit nor

Chinese scholars could surrender the conviction that,until a very Short time ago, Indian MSS. had ex

isted in China. They had been seen by Europeans ,such as Dr. Gutzlafi

'

,the hard-working missionary in

China, who in a paper, written Shortly before hisdeath, and addressed to Colonel Sykes (‘Journal

1856, p. stated that he himself had SeenPali MSS. preserved by Buddhist priests in China.

Wh ether these MSS. were in Pa1i or Sanskrit wouldmatter little, supposing even that Dr. Gutzlafi

' couldnot distinguish between the two. He Speaks withgreat contempt of the whole Buddhist literature .There was not a single priest, he says, capable of explaining the meaning of the Pali texts, though somewere interlined with Chinese. A few works,’ h ewrites, are found in a character originally u sed forwriting the PAH ; and may be considered as faithfultranscripts of the earliest writings of Buddhism .

They are looked upon as very sacred, full of mysteries

, and deep significations ; and therefore as th emost precious relics of the founder of their creed.

With the letters of this alphabet the priests performincantations to expel demons, rescue souls fromhell

,bring down rain on the earth, remove calamities ,

etc. They turn and twist them in every shape, andmaintain that the very demon s tremble at the recitation of them.

’

Anoth er clear proof of the existence of SanskritMSS. in China is found in the account of a Trip to

(ff. Beal, Catalogue, p . 66.

ON SANsxRIr TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 333

N ing-po and T

’heen by Dr. Edkins. After heh ad arrived at Fang-kwang, he ascended the Hwaling hill, and at the top of the hill he describes asmall temple with a priest residing in it. Scatteredover the hill,

’ he adds,

there are various littletemples where priests reside, but the one at the top

is the most celebrated, as being the place whereChe-k’hae spent a portion of his time, worshippinga Sanskrit manu script of a Buddhist classic.’ On

his return he arrived at the pagoda erected to thememory ofChe-k’hae, the founder of the Theen-t

’haesystem ofBuddhism, in the Chin dynasty (about 580

And a little further on , situated in a deepdell on the left, was themonastery OfKaon-ming-sze.This is particularly celebrated for its possession of a

S anskrit MS., written on the palm leaf, once readand explained by Che-k’hae, but now unintelligibleto any of the followers of Buddhism in these parts.The priests seemed to pay uncommon reverence tothis MS .

, which is the only one of the kind to befound in the East of China, and thu s of great imp ortance in a literary point ofView. It is more than1300years Old, but is in a state ofperfect preservation ,in consequence of the palm leaves

,which are written

on both sides, having been carefully let into Slips Ofwood, which are fitted on the same central pin , andthe whole, amounting to fifty leaves, enclosed in a

rosewood box.This may account for the unwillingness of the

p riests to part with their oldMSS., whether Sanskrit

or Pali, but it proves at the same time that they stillexist, and naturally keeps up the hOpe that some dayor other we may still get a sight of them.

334 ON SANsxRI'r TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

Materia ls on which Sanskrit MSS . were written .

Of course, it might be said that ifMSS. did not

last very long in India, neither would they do so inChina. Bu t even then , we might expect at leastthat as in India the old MSS . were copied wheneverthey Showed Signs of decay, SO they would have beenin China. Besides, the climate of China is not so

destructive as the heat and moisture of the climateofIndia. In India, MSS. seldom last over a thousand years. Long before that time paper made of

vegetable substances decays, palm leaves and birchbark become brittle, and white ants often destroywhat might have escaped the ravages of the climate.It was the duty, therefore, of Indian Rajahs to keepa staff of librarians, who had to copy the old MSS .

whenever they began to seem unsafe, a fact whichaccounts both for the modern date of most of our

Sanskri t MSS . and for the large number of Copies ofthe same text Oft mmet with in the same library.

The MSS. carried off to China were in all likelihood not written on paper, or whatever we like tocall thematerialwhichNearchus describes as cottonwell beaten together," but on the bark of the birchtree or on palm leaves. The bark of trees is mentionedas a writingmaterialUsedin India byCurtius ;2and in Buddhist Sutras, such as the Karandavyfiha

(p. we actually read of bh firga, birch, mas i, ink,and karama (ka lam), as the common requ isites forwriting. MSS. written on that material have longbeen known in Europe, chiefly as curiosities (I hadto write many years ago about one of them,

preservedThe modern paper in Nepal is said to date from 500 years ago

(Hodgson , Essays) .M.M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p . 516.



century, palm leaves seem to have been the chiefmaterial for writing. He mentions a forest of palmtrees (Borascnsflabelhformis) near Konkanapura (theWestern coast of the Dekhan) which was muchprized on account of its supplying material for writing (vol. i. p . 202, and VOl. iii. p . At a latertime, too, in 965, we read ofBuddhist priests retuming to China with Sanskrit Copies of Buddhist bookswritten on palm leaves (pe ito).2 If we could believeH iouen-theang, the palm leaf would have been usedeven so earlyas the first Buddhist Council} forhe saysthat Kasyapa then wrote the Pitakas on palm leaves(tala), and spread them over thewhole ofIndia. In thePali Gatakas , p an n a is used in the sens e of letter,but originally parn a mean t a wing, then a leaf of atree, then a leaf for writing. Pa tta, also, which isu sed in the sense of a sheet, was originally pattra,a wing, a leaf of a tree. Su v annap a tta, a goldenleaf to write on , still shows that the original writingmaterial had been the leaves of trees, most likely ofamulets, are written on pieces of Bhflrga with ashtau gandhAh, a

mixture of eight Odoriferous substances—cg . camphor, sandal, tur

meric—which vary according to the deity to which the writing is

dedicated. The custom prevails in Bengal as well as in Gujarat.Birch-bark MSS. occurin Orissa. The Petersburg Dictionary refers

toa passage in theKat‘haks .the redaction of the Yajurveda formerly

current in M I, where the word Bhfirga occurs, though it is not

clear if it is mentioned there too as material forwriting on . The

Kaamirian Pandits assert, and apparently with good reason, that in

Kacmir all books were written on bhurgapattras from the earliest

times until aftertheconquest of theValley by Akbar, about 200—250years ago. Akbar introduced the manufacture of paper, and thus

created an industry forwhich Kasmiris now famous in India .

’

Dr. Burnell, Ind/lan Antique/m, 1880, p . 234, shows that Kon

kanapura is Konkanah lli in the Mysore territory .

2 Beal’s Trarelc ofBuddhist Pibn

'

xmc, Introd. p . xlvi.

Pelee-incBambi/rid es, vol. i. p . 158.

ON SANSKRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 337

palm-trees.‘ Potth aka, i.e. p u stak a, book, likewise occurs in the Pali Gatakas .

’

Such MSS written on palm leaves, if preservedcarefully and almost worshipped, as they seem to

have been in Chin a, might well have survived to thepresent day, and they would certainly prove of im

mense value to the students of Buddhism,if they

could still be recovered, whether in the original oreven in later copies.

It is true, no doubt, that, like all other religions ,Buddhism too had its periods of trial and persecutionin China. We know that during such periods —as ,for instance, in 845, under the Emperor Wu-tsungmonasteries were destroyed, images broken , and

books burnt. But these persecutions seem never tohave lasted long, and when they were over, monasteries, temples and pagodas soon Sprang up again ,

images were restored, and books collected in greaterabundance than ever. Dr. Edkin s tells us that ‘ in

an account of the KO-t’sing monastery in the His

tory of T’ian-t

’ai Shan it is said that a single work

was saved from a fire there several centuries ago,

which was written on the Pei-to (Pe-ta) or palmleaf of India.

’ He also states that great pagodaswere built on purpose as safe repositories of SanskritMSS., one being erected by the Emperor for the

p reservation of the newly arrived San skrit books atthe request Of H iouen-th sang, lest they should beinjured for want of care. It was 180 feet high, hadfive stories with grains of She-Ii (relics) in the

Fausbtill, Dasaratka-jataka, p . 25.

See also Albiruni, as quoted by Reinaud, Mémoire m l’Indc,

p . 305.

VOL. 11 .

338 ON SANSKRI'I' TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

centre of each, and contained monuments inscribedwith the prefaces written by the Emperor or Prin ceRoyal to H iouen-thsang

’S translations.

Searchfor Sanskrit MSS . in Jap an .

Being myself convinced of the existence of old

Indian MSS. in China, I lost no Opportunity, duringthe last five-amd-twenty years, of asking any friendsof min e who went to China to look out for thesetreasures, but—with no result !Some years ago, however, Dr. Edkins, who had

taken an active part in the search instituted byProfessor Wilson and Sir J. Bowring, showed mea book which he had brought from Japan , and

which contain ed a Chinese vocabulary with Sanskritequivalents and a transliteration in Japanese. The

Sanskrit is written , in that peculiar alphabet whichwefind in the old MSS . of Nepal, and which inChina has been further modified, so as to give it analmost Chinese appearance .

That MS. revived my hopes. If such a book waspublished in Japan, I concluded that there mu st havebeen a time when such a book was useful there—thatis to say, when the Buddhists in Japan studiedSanskrit. Dr. Edkins kindly left the book with me,and though the Sanskrit portion was full of blunders,yet it enabled me to become accustomed to that peculiar alphabet in which the Sanskrit words are

While I was looking forwardtomore information

from Japan, good luck would have it that a youngBuddhist priest, Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio, came tome fromJapan , in order to learn Sanskrit and Pali, and thus


340 ON SANsxRI'r TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

Of course, it is a copy only, not an original MS .

but Copies presuppose originals at some time or other,and, such as it is, it is a first im tah ent, which tellsus that we ought not to despair, for where one of

the long-sought-forliterary treasures that were takenfrom India to Chin a, and afterwards from China toJapan

,has been discovered, others are sure to come

We do not possess yet very authentic informationon the ancient history of Japan , and on the introduction of Buddhism into that island. M. Léon deRosny

land the Marquis D’

H ervey de Saint-Denys 2have given us some information on the subject, andI hope that Mr. Bunyiu NanJIo will soon give us atrustworthy account of the ancient history of h is

country, drawn from native authorities. Wh at istold u s about the conversion of Japan to Buddhismhas a somewhat legendary aspect, and I Shall onlyselect a few of the more important facts, as theyhave been communicated tome bymy Sanskrit pupil.Buddhism first reached Japan , not directly fromChina, but from Corea, which had been converted toBuddhism in the fourth century A .D. In the year200 A .D.

,Corea had been conquered by the Japanese

Empress Zingu , and the in tercourse thus establishedbetween the two countries led to the importation of

Buddhist doctrines from Corea to J apan . In the

year 552 A .D. one of the Corean kings sent a bronzestatue of Buddha and many sacred books to the

Court of Japan , and, after various vicissitudes,

Le Bouddhisme dans l’extréme Orient,

’Remte Scientifique,

Decembre, 1879.

Journa l Asiatique, 1871, p . 386 seq.


Buddh ism became the established religion of the

island about 600 A .D. Japanese students were sent’

to China to study Buddhism, and they brought backth them large numbers of Buddhist books, chiefly

translations from Sanskrit. In the year 640 A.D.

we hear of a tran slation of the Sukhavativyfiha

mahfiyanaf sfitra being read in Japan . This is thetitle of the Sanskrit text now sent tome from Japan .

The translation had been made by KO-SO-gai (inChinese

, Khang-sang-khai), a native of Tibet, thoughliving in India, 252 A.D., and we are told that therehad been eleven other translations of the same text. 1

Among the teachers of these Japanese studentswe find our old friend Hiouen th sang, whom the

Japanese call Genzio. In the year 653 a Japanesepriest, Dosho by name, studied under GenziO,adopted the Views of the sect founded by him—theHOSSO sect—and brought back with him to Japan a

compilation of commentaries on the thirty verses ofVasubandhu , written byDharmapala, and translatedby GenziO. Two other priests, Chitsfi and Chitatsu

,

likewise became his pupils, and introduced the

famou s Abhidharma-kosha-sastra into Japan , whichhad been composed by Vasubandhu , and translatedby GenziO. They seem to have favoured the Hinayan a, or the view s of the SmallVehicle (Ku shashiu ).

In the year 736 we hear of a translation of the

i’Buddhavatamsaka-vaipulya-sfitra, by Buddhabhadra

and others 2 (317—419 being received in Japan ,

Five of these trans lations were introduced into Japan ;the others seem to have been lost in China. The translations are

s poken of as the five in existence and the sevenmissing.

’

2 See p . 325.


likewise of a translation of the Saddharmapundarika

by Kumaragv'

iva.

l

And, what is more important still, in the ninthcentury we are told that Kukai (died 835) the founderof the Shingon sect in Japan , was not only a good

‘

Chinese, but a good Sanskrit scholar also. Nay, oneof his disciples, Sh innyo, in order to perfect his:knowledge ofBuddhist literature,undertooka journey,not only to China, but to India

,but died before he

reached that country.

These short notices, which I owe chiefly to Mr.Bunyiu Nanjio, make it quite clear that we haveevery right to expect San skrit MSS .

,or, at all events,

Sanskrit tex ts, in Japan , and the specimen which Ihave received encourages me to hOpe that some ofthese San skrit texts may be older than any whichexist at present in any part of India .

The Sukha vat’

i—vyriha .

The text which was sent to me bears the title ofSukhavati-

,Vyf1h a

-mahayana-Sl'itra.2

This is a title well known to all students of

Buddhist literature . Burnouf, in his Introduction5. l

’H istoire du Buddhisme (pp. 99 gave a

Short accoun t of this Sutra, which enables u s to see

that the scene of the dialogu e was laidatRfigagriha,and that the two Speakers were Bhagavat andAnanda.

We saw before, in the historical account of Buddhism in Japan , that no less than twelve Chinesetranslations of a work bearing the same title were

See p . 319 .

2 Th e MSS . vary between Sukhavati and Sukhavati.

See also Lotus dc la bo nne Loi, p . 267.



m entioned. TheChinese tell us at least offive translations which are still in existence .‘

Those of the Han and Wu dynasties (25—280we are told, were too diffuse, and those of the

later periods , the T‘ang and Sung dynasties, too

literal. The best is said to be that by.KO-SO-gai, a

priest of Tibetan descent, which was made duringthe early Weidynasty, about 252 A .D. This may bethe same which was read in Japan in 640 A .D.

The same Sutra exists also in a Tibetan translation ,

for there can be little doubt that the Sfitraquoted by Csoma KOrOsi (‘AS . ReS .

’vol. xx. p. 408 )

under the name ofAmitabha-vyfiha is the same work.

It occupies, as M. Léon Feer informs me, fifty-fourleaves, places the scene of thedialogue at RAgagv-iha,on the mountain Gridhrap kfita, and introduces Bhagavat and An anda as the principal speakers .

There are Sanskrit MSS . of the Sukhavati-vyiiha

in your own Library, in Paris, at Cambridge, and at

Oxford.

The following is a list of the MSS. of the Sukhavati-vyfiha, hitherto known

1 . MS. of the Royal Asiatic Society,London

(Hodgson Collection), No. 20. Sukhavativyfiha

mahayfin asfitra, S’

-five leaves . Dated Samvat 934A .D. 1814. It begins :Namo dasadiganantfip aryan

talokadhatupratishtitebhyah, etc. Evam maya sru

tam ekasmim samaye Bhagavan Regagrihe viharati

sma. It ends : Sukhavativyfiha-mahayanasfitram

samaptam. Samvat 934, karttikasudi 4, sampfirnamabhfit. Srisuvarnapanarimahanagare Maitr

'

ipfirima

1 Journa l of the 1856, p . 319.


havihare Srivakvagradasa vagrakaryasya Gayanan

dasya ka sarvarthasiddbeh. (Nepalese alphabet.)2. MS. of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

(Collection Bum ouf), No. 85 ; Sixty-four leaves: It

begins, after a preamble of five lines, Evam mayasrutammekasmi samaya Bhagavan Ragagm

'

heViharati

sma Gridhrakute parvvate mahata Bhikshusanghena

sarddh am . DvatrimsrataBhikshusahasraih . It ends :Bhagavato mitabhasya gunaparikirttanam Bodhisattvamavaivartyabhfimipravesah . Amitabhavyuhapa

rivarttah. Sukhavativyiihah sampurnah . Iti Sri

Amitabhasya Sukhavativyuha nama mahayanasfitraon

samapta/m,.l(Devanagar

’

i alphabet.)3. MS. of the Société Asiatique at Paris (Collec

tion Hodgson ), No. 17 eighty-two leaves . (Nepalesealphabet )“

4 . MS . of the University Library at Cambridge,No. 1368 ; thirty-five leaves. It begins with some lin esof prose and verse in praise ofAmitabha and Sukhavati

,and then proceeds Evam mayasrutam ekasmim

samaye Bhagavan Ragagrihe nagare Viharati sma,

Gridhrakfitaparvate mah ataBhikshusanghena sarddh a, etc. It ends iti srimad amitabhasya tathaga

tasya Sukhavat’

ivyflha-mahayanasfitrann samaptam.

(Nepalese alphabet, modern .)5. MS. given by Mr. Hodgson to the Bodleian

Library, Oxford (Hodgson It begins with : Omnamo ratnatrayaya. Om namah sarvabuddhabodhi

sattvebhyah, etc. Then Evam mayasrutam, etc. It

I owe this information to the kindness of M. Leon Feer at

See Journa l Asiatique, 3rd series, vol. iii. p . 316 vol. iv . p .

296-8 .


346 ON SANSKRIT 'rEx'rS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN .

Sanskrit text, at Sravasti, and the principal Speakers:are Bhagavat and Sariputra.

There is also a Tibetan translation of the shorttext, describedby Csoma KOrOsiK

‘AS . Res .’ vol. xx. p.

Here, though the name of the scene is not

mentioned, the speakers are Bhagavat and SariputraThe whole work occupies seven leaves only, and thenames of the sixteen principal disciples agree withthe Japanese text. The translators were Pragnavarman

, Surendra, and theTibetan LoteavaYa-shes-Sde.

M. Feer informs me that there is at the NationalLibrary a Chinese text called O-mi-to—king, i.e.Amitabha-Sfrtra . The scene is at Sravasti ; the

Speakers are Bhagavat and Sariputra.

Another text at the National Library is calledTa-o-mi-to-king, i.e. MahaAmitabha-sutra, and herethe scene is at Rfigagriha.

There is, besides, a third work, called Kwanwou-liang

-sheu-king, by Kiang-ling-ye-She, i.e. Kala,

yacas , a foreigner of theWest, who lived in Chinaabout 424 A .D.

We have, therefore, historical evidence of the

existence of three Sutras, describing Sukhavati, or

Beal, Catalogue, p . 23. J.R . A . S . 1856, p . 319. Beal, Catalogue,

p . 77, mentions also an Amitabha-Sutra-upadesa-sastra, by Van

bandhu ,translated by Bodhiruki (Won-liang

-Sheu-king-yeou-po

-ti

She) . There is an Amitabha sutra, translated by Chi-hien of theWu

period—i.e. 222- 280 A .D.

—mentioned in Mr. Beal’

s Catalogue d the

Buddhist Tn’

y itaka , p . 6. The next Sutra, which he calls the Sfitra

ofmeasureless years , is no doubt the Amitayus-Sfitra, AmitAyus being

another name forAmitabha (Fu-shwo-wou-liang-sheu-king, p .

See also Catalogue, pp . 99, 102. Dr. Edkins also, in his}Notices ofB uddhism in China , speaks of a translation of the Sfitra of bound

less age,’by Fa

-t’ian-pun , a native of Magadha ,

who was assisted in

his translation by a native of China familiarw ith Sanskrit, about1000 A .D.

ON SANsxRI'r TEXT S DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 3347

the Paradise of Amitabha. We know two of themin San skrit, Chinese, and Tibetan—one long, theother Short. The third is known as yet in Chineseonly.Of the two Sanskrit texts, the one from Nepal,

the other from Japan ,the latter seems certainly the

earlier. But even the fuller text must have existedat a very early time

,because it was translated by

R i-lau-kia-khai, under the Eastern H an dynasty(25—220 A .D.)—i .e. at all events before 220 A.D.

The Shorter text is first authenticated throughthe tran slation of Kumaragiva, about 400 A.D. ; but

if the Views generally entertained as to the relativeposition of the longer and shorter Sutras be correct,we may safely claim for our Short Sfitra a date withinthe second century of our era.

What Japan has sent us is, therefore, a San skrittext, ofwhich we h ad no trace before, which mus thave left India at least before 400 A .D., but probablybefore 200 A .D.

,and which gives u s the original of

that description of Amitabha’s Paradise, which formerly we knew in a Chinese translation only, whichwas neither complete nor correct.

The book sent to me was first published in Japanin 1773, by ZiOmiO, a Buddhist priest . The San skri tt t is intelligible, but full of inaccuracies, Showingclearly that the editor did not understand San skrit,but Simply copied what he saw before him . The

same words occurring in the same line are writtendifferently, and the Japanese transliteration Simplyrepeats the blunders of the San skrit transcript.

There are two other edition s of the same text, .

published in 1794 A .D. by another Japanese priest,


n amed Hogo. These are in the possession of Mr .Bunyiu Nanjro, and offered some help in correctingthe text. One of them contains the text and threeChinese translation s

, one being merely a literal rendering, while the other two have more of a literarycharacter and are ascribed to Kumaragiva (400and H iouen-th sang (648Lastly, there is another book by the same Hogo,

in four volumes, in which an attempt is made to givea grammatical analysis of the text. This, however,as Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio informs me, is very imperfect.

I have to-day brought with me the JapaneseSan skrit text

,critically restored, and a literal trans

lation into English, towhich Ihave added a few notes .

TRANSLATION .

Adoration to the Omniscient.

This is what I have heard. At one time theBlessed (Bhagavat, i.e. Buddha) dwelt at Sravasti,‘ inthe Geta-grove, in the garden of Anathapindaka,

together with 2 a large company of Bhikshu s (mendicant friars), Viz. with thirteen hundred Bhikshus, allof them acquainted with the five kinds of knowledge,3

Stavas ti, capital of the Northern Rosales , residence of KingPrasenagit. It was in ruins when visited by Fa-hian (init. V.

Sena ) ; not far from the modern Fizabad . Cf. Bum ouf, Intro

duction, p . 22 .

2 Sardha, with , the Pali saddh im. Did not the frequentmentionof and a half (i.e. and a half (i.e. persons

accompanying Buddha arise from a misunderstanding of sardha,

meaning originally with a half

Abhigfianabhignataih . The Japanese text reads abhigfiata

bhagr'

iataih—i.e. abhigr‘

ifitfibhignataih . If this were known to be the

correct reading, we should translate it by known by known people,’

notus a vie-is hem- i .e. well-known, famous . Abhignata in the sense



ruddha.

l He dwelt together with these and many

other great disciples, and together with many nobleminded Bodhisattvas, such as Mangusri, the prince,the BodhisattvaAgita, the Bodhisattva Gandhahastin ,

the Bodhisattva Nityodyukta, the Bodhisattva Anikshiptadhura. He dwelt together with them and

many other noble-minded Bodhisattvas, and withSakra, the Indra or King2 of the Devas, and withBrahman Sahampati. With these and many otherhundred thousands ofNayutas 3 of sons of the gods,B hagavat dwelt at Sravasti.

Names of Disciples in Sanskrit, Pili, Ch inese, Tibetan, and

Japanese MSS. Beal, 1866, p . 140

JAPANESE MS. SANSKRIT. Canvass .

(Burnout, Lotus , (Beal, Catena,pp . 1 and p .

1 SAriputra Bariputra Bariputra Shatibi-bu

2 Magamaudgal Maudgalyayana Maudgalyayana Mougal-gyi-bu 11o

Y yaua

3 Mahakaayapa Kuyapa Keryapa Hodsrungs-ch

’hen-po

4 Mahflkapphina Kapphina Kapphina (7) Katyshi-bu

5 Mahfikdtyayana KAtyayana Ka yayana Kapina6 Mahakaush thila Kaush thila Mahakotthila Gsus-poch

’

heBevata Revata

8 Suddhipanthaka (Mahdpantha(Sudi, MS.) ka

Sunanda

Mahdnanda11 Rehula Rehula

‘12 GaVAmpati Gavampati

radvdga)18 Bharadvfiga BharadvAga Bharadvaga Bharadhwaja Bharadvm

Kamditya H ch’

har-byed

(tthm )15 Vakkala Vakkali16 Aniruddha Aniruddha Anuruddha

(tthera)

3 Indra, the old Vedic god, has come to mean simply lord, andin the Kanda Paritta (Journa l Asiatique, 1871 , p . 220) we actuallyfind Asurinda, the Indra or Lord of the Asuras .

The numbers in Buddhist Literature, if they once exceed aKoti-or Koti—i.e. ten millions—become very vague, nor is their; valuealways the same. Ayuta, i.e. a hundred Kotis ; Niyuta, i.e. a hundred Ayutas ; andNayuta, i.e. l with 22 zeros, are often confounded


Then Bhagavat addressed thehonoured Sariputraa nd said : O Sariputra, after you have passed fromh ere over a hundred thou sand Kotis of Buddha.countries there Is In the Western part a Buddha

~coun try,a world called Sukhavat’

i (thehappy country).And there a Tathagata, called Amitayus, an Arhat,fully enlightened, dwells now , and remains

, and

s upports himself, and teaches the Law .

1

Now what do you think, Sariputra, for whatreason is that world [called Sukhavati (the happy) i)In that world Sukhavati, O Sariputra, there is neitherbodily normental pain for living beings . The sourcesof happiness are innumerable there. For that reasonis that world called Sukhavati (the happy).

And again , 0 Sariputra, that world Sukhavati isa dorned with seven terraces, with seven rows of

p alm-trees, and with strings of bells.” It is enclosednordoes it matter much so far as any definite idea is concerned

which such numerals convey to ourmind.

Tishthati dhriyate yapayati dharmas ha desayati. This is

e vidently an idiomatic phrase, for it occurs again and again in the

Nepalese text of the Sukhavativyfiha (MS. 26b, 1. 1 . 2 ; 55a , 1. 2,

It seems to mean, he stands there, holds himself, supports

himself, and teaches the law . Bum ouf translates the same phrase

by, ils se trouvent, Vivent, existent (Lotus , p . On yapeti in

Pali, see Fausbiill, Dasaratha-jdtaka, pp . 26, 28 ; and yapana in

3 Kir'

rkinigala . The texts read kafikanagalais ha and kankanigalais

ha, and again later kankanigalunam (also 16) and kankanigaIADam.

Mr. Beal translates from Chinese seven rows of exquisite curtains , ’and again gemmons curtains .

’First of all, it seems clear that we

-must read gala, net, web ,instead of gala. Secondly, kar

‘

rkana ,

bracelet, gives no sense, forwhat could be the meaning of nets or

:strings of bracelets ? I preferto read kinkinigala, nets orstrings or

rows of bells . Such row s of bells served for ornamenting a garden ,

a nd it may be said of them that , if moved by the wind,they give

forth certain sounds . In the commentary on Dhammapada 30, p .

191, wemeet with krnkinikagala, from which likewise the music

352 ON SANSXRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN.

on every side, 1 beautiful, brilliant with the fourgems, Viz. gold, silver, beryl, and crystal.” With

proceeds ; see Childers, sxv. gala. In the MSS. of the Nepalese

Sukhavativyuha p . 39a , 1. 4, I likewise find svarnaratna

kinkinigalani, which settles the matter, and shows how little confi

dence we can place in the Japanese texts .

1 Anuparikshipta,mclosed ; see parikkhepo in Childers’Dict.

2 The four and seven precious things in Pali are (according to ~

Childers)1 suvannam, gold.

2 . ragatam, Silver.

3. mutta, pearls .

4. mani, gems (as sapphire, ruby) .5. veluriyam, cat

’s eye.

6. vagirarm,diamond.

7 . pavalam, coral.

Here Childers translates cat’s eye ; but av. veluriyam,

he says, ar

precious stone, perhaps lapis lazuli.

In Sanskrit (Burnouf, Lotus, p . 320)1 . suvarna,

2 . rfipya,

3. vaidfirya, lapis lazuli.

4. sphatika, crystal.

5 . lohitamukti, red pearls .

6. asmagarbha, diamond.

7. musaragalva, coral.

Julien (Pélerins Buddhistes, VOl. 11. p . 482) gives the following

2. vaidfirya,

5 . padmaraga,

Vaidfirya (orVaidfirya)’

1s mentioned in the Tathagatagunagna

nahintyaviahayfivataranirdesa (Wassilief, p . 161) as a precious stone

which , if placed on green cloth , looks green , if placed on red cloth ,

red. The fact that vaidfirya is often compared with the colourof

the eyes of a cat would seem to point to the cat’s eye (seeBorooah

’s

Engl. Sanskrit Dictionary, vol. ii. preface, p . ix ), certainly not to

lapis lazuli. Cat’s eye is a kind of chalcedony. I see

,however,

that vaidfirya has been recognised as the original of the Greek

Mv os, a very ingenious conjecture, eitherofWeber

’s orof Pott

’s ,

considering that lingual d has a sound akin to r, and ry may be



golden sand, and of vast extent. And in these lotuslakes there are all around on the four sides four stairs,beautiful and brilliant with the four gems, viz. gold,silver, beryl, crystal. And on every Side of theselotus lakes gem trees are growing, beautiful and

brilliant with the seven gems, Viz. gold, silver, beryl,crystal, red pearls, diamonds, and corals as the

seventh . And in those lotus lakes lotus flowers are

growing, blue, blue-coloured, of blue splendour, blueto behold ; yellow, yellow-coloured, of yellow splendour, yellow to behold ; red

,red-coloured, of red

Splendour, red to behold ; white, white-coloured, of

white splendour, white to behold ; beautiful, beautifully

-coloured, of beautiful splendour, beautiful tobehold, and in circumference as large as the wheelof a chariot.

And again , 0 Sariputra, in that Buddha-countrythere are heavenly mu sical instruments always playedon and the earth is lovely andof golden colour. And

in that Buddha-country a flower-rain of heavenlyMfin darava blossoms pours down three times everyday, and three times every night. And the beingswho are born there worship before their morningmeal1 a hundred thousand Kotis of Buddhas bygoing to other worlds ; and having showered a

side of kakapeya, and I think it most likely that it means rising to

a level with the tirthas , the fords or bathing-places . Mr. Rhys

Davids informs me that the commentary explains the two words

by samatittikati samaharita, kakapeyyati yatthatatthaki tire thitena

Purobhaktena. The text is difficult to read, but it can hardlybe doubtful that purobhaktena corresponds to Peli purebhattauc

(i.s . before the morning meal), opposed to pakhhabhattam, after the

noonday meal (i.e. in the afternoon) . See Childers, s. v. Pflrva

bhaktikawould be the first repast, as Prof. Cowell informs me.

ON SANSXRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 355

h undred thousand of Kotis of flowers upon each Tathfigata, they return to their own world in time forthe afternoon rest.1 With such arrays of excellences peculiar to a Buddha-country is that Buddha,country adorned.

And again, 0 Sariputra, there are in that Buddhacountry swans, curlews,2 and peacocks. Three timesevery night, and three times every day, they come

together and perform a concert, each uttering his

own note. An d from them thus uttering proceeds a.sound proclaiming the five virtues, the five powers,and the seven steps leading towards the highestknowledge.s When the men there hear that sound,

Divavihdraya, for the noonday rest, the siesta. See Childers ,

av . Vihara.

Krauhhfih. Snipe, Curlew. Is it meant for Kuravika, or

Karavika, a fine-voicedbird (according toKern ,the Sk . karayika) , or

forKalavifrka, Pali Kalavika ? See Childers, av. Opapatiko ; Burnout,Lotus , p . 566. I see, however, the same birds mentioned together

elsewhere, as hamsakraunhamayuramkasflikakokila, etc. On mayura

see Mahav . Introd. p . xxxix . RV. I. 191, 14.

their meaning is notquite clear. Spence Hardy, in his Manua l,

p . 498, enumerates the five indrayas , Viz. 1) sardhfiwa, purity (probably sraddha, faith ), 2 ) wiraya, persevering exertion (virya), 3) satiorsmirti, theascertainment of truth (smriti), 4) samadhi, tranquillity,5) pmn a, wisdom (pragrm).

The five balayas (bala), he adds , are the same as the five

The seven bowdyfinga (bodhyanga)) are according to him : 1)sihi or smirti, the ascertainment of the truth by mental application ,

2) dharmmawicha, the investigation of causes , 3) wiraya, perseveringexertion 4) priti, joy, 5) passadhi, or prasrabdhi, tranquillity, 6)samadhi, tranquillity in a higherdegree, including freedom from all

that disturbs eitherbody ormind, 7) upeksha, equanimity.

It will be seen from this that some of these qualities or excel.

lences occur both as indriyas and bodhyangas , while holes are

throughout identical with indriyas.

A A 2

356 ON sm sxnrr TEXTS nIsOOVEEEn IN JAPAN .

remembrance of Buddha, remembrance of the Law,

remembran ce of the Assembly, rises in their mind.

Now, do you think, 0 Sfiriputra, that these are

beings who have entered into the nature of animals

(birds, This is not to be thought of. The

very name of hells is unknown in that Buddhacountry, and lik ewise that of (descent into) animal

natures and of the realm ofYama (the four apayas)NO, these tribes Of birds have been made on purposeby the TathagataAmitayus, and they utter the sound’

of the‘

Law . With su ch arrays of excellences, etc.

And again , 0 Sfiriputra, when those rows of

palm-trees and strings ofbells in that Buddha-countryare moved by the wind, a sweet and enrapturingsound proceeds from them. Yes, 0 Sfiriputra, aa

from a heavenly musical instrument consisting of a

hundred thousand Kotis of sounds, when played byAryas, a sweet and enrapturing sound proceeds, a

sweet and enrapturing sound proceeds from thoserows Of palm-trees and strings of bells moved by

Bum ouf, however, in his Lotuc, gives a list of five balas (fromthe Vocabulan

’

xro Pentaglotte) wh ich correspond with the five indriyasof Spence Hardy : viz. sraddha-bala, power offaith , virya

-bala, power

ofvigour, smriti-bala, powerofmemory, samadhi-bala,powerof medi

tation , pragua-bala , power of knowledge. They precede the seven

bodhyangas both in the Lotus, the Vocabula/i/re Pmtagb tto. and the

Lalita-Vistata.

To these seven bodh yafigas Burnouf has assigned a special

treatise (Appendice xii, p . They occur both in Sanskrit and

Pali.

Niraya, the hells, also called Naraka . Yamaloka, the realm of

Yama, the judge of the dead, is explained as the fourApayas—is .

Naraka,hell, Tiryagyoni, birth as animals , Pretaloka, realm of the

dead, Asuraloka, realm of evil spirits . The three terms which are

here used together occur likewise in a passage translated by Bur

nout, Introduction, p. 544.



excellent men . Beings are not born in that Buddha»country of the Tathagata Amitayus as a reward and

result of good works performed in this present life .lNO, whatever son or daughter of a family shall hearthe name of the blessed Amitayus, the Tathagata,and having heard it, shall keep it in mind, and withthoughts undisturbed shall keep it in mind for one,two, three, four, five, six or seven nights, that son ordaughter of a family, when he or she comes to die,then that Amitayus, theTathagata, surrounded by anassembly ofdisciples and followed by a host ofBodhisattvas, will stand before them at their hour ofdeath,and they will depart this life with tranquil minds .

After their death they will be born in the worldSukhavati, in the Buddha-country of the sameAmitayu s, the Tathfigata. Therefore, then , 0 Bariputra, having perceived this cau se and effect,2 I withreverence say thus, Every son and every daughter of

Avaramatraka. This is the Pali oramattako, belongingmerely

to the present life,’and the intention of the writer seems to be to

inculcate the doctrine of the Mahayana , that salvation can be Ob

tained by mere repetitions of the name of Amitabha , in direct

Opposition to the original doctrine of Buddha, that as a man soweth,so he reapeth . Buddha would have taught that the kuaalamula,the root or the stock Of good works performed in this world

(avaramatraka) , will bear fruit in the next, while here vain repeti

tions seems all that is enjoyed. The Chinese translators take a

different view of this passage, and I am not myself quite certain that

I have understood it rightly. But from the end of this section,

where we read kulaputrena va kuladuhitrava tatra buddhakshetre

kittapranidhanam kartavyam,it seems clear that the locative

(buddhakshetre) forms the Object of the pranidhana, the fervent

prayer or longing. The Satpurushas already in the Buddhakshetra

would be the innumerablemen (manushyas) andBoddhisattvas men

Arthavaca, lit. the power Of the thing ; 4 . Dhammapada, p. 388,v . 289.

ON SANSKRIT w a s un aw a re IN JAPAN . 359

a family ought tomake with their whole mind ferventprayer for that Buddha-country.

And now, 0 Sfiriputra, as I here at present glorifythat world, thus in the East, 0 Bariputra, other blessed Buddhas, led by the Tathagata Ak shobhya, theTathagata Merudhvaga, the Tathagata Mahama n

the.

Tathfigata Meruprabhfis a, and the TathagataMafigudh vaga, equal in number to the sand of the

river Gangfi, comprehend their own Buddha-countriesin their speech, and then reveal them .

l Accept thisrepetition of the Law, called the Favour of all Buddhas,’ whichmagnifies their inconceivable excellences .

Thus also in the South, do other blessedBuddhas,led by the Tathagata Kandrasdryapradipa, theTathagate. Yasahprabha, the Tathagata Mahfirkiskandha,

the Tathfigata Merupradipa, the Tathfigata An an

tavirya, equal in number to the sand of the riverGanga, comprehend their own Buddha-countries intheir speech, and then reveal them . Accept, etc.

Thus also in theWest do other blessed Buddhas,led by the Tathagata Amitayus, the Tathagata Amitaskandha,theTathagataAmitadhvaga, theTathagataMahaprabha, the Tathagata Maharatnaketu , the Ta

thfigata Suddharasmiprabha, equal in number to thesand Of the river Grange, comprehend, etc.

Thus also in the North do other blessedBuddh as,I am not quite certain as to the meaning ofthis passage, but if

we enter into the bold metaphor Of the text, viz . that the Buddhas

cover the Buddha-countries with the organ of their tongue and then.

nurol it, what is intended can hardly be anything but that they first

try to find words for the excellences of those countries , and then te

veal or proclaim them . Burnout, however (Lotus, p . takes the

expression in ,a literal sense, though he is shocked by its grotesque

ness . On these Buddhas and their countries, see Burnout, Lotus, p.

1 18.


led by the TathagataMaharkiskandha, theTathagataVaisvanaranirghosha, the Tathagata Dundubhisvaranirghosha , the Tathagata Du shpradharsha, theTathagata Adityasambhava, the Tathagata Galeniprabha(Gvalanaprabha the Tathagata Prabhakara, equalin number to the sand, etc.

Thus also in the Nadir do other blessedBuddhas,led by theTathagata Simha, the Tathagata Yasas, theTathagata Yasahprabhava, the Tathagata Dharma,the Tathagata Dharmadhara, the Tathfigata Dharmadhvaga, equal in number to the sand, etc.

Thus also in the Zenith do other blessed Buddh as,led by the Tathftgata Brahmaghosha, the TathagataNakshatrarAga, the Tathagata Indraketudh vagaraga,the Tathagata Gandhottama, the Tathagata Gan

dhaprabhasa, the Tathagata Maharkiskandha, the

Tathagata Ratnakusumasampu shpitagfitra, the Tathagata Sfilendrarfiga, the Tathagata Ratnotpalasri,

the Tathagata Sarvadarsa, the Tathagata Sumerukalpa, equal in number to the sand, etc.

1

Now what do you think, 0 Sfiriputra, for whatreason is that repetition Ofthe Law called the Favourof all Buddhas 9 Every son or daughter Of a familywho shall hear the name of that repetition Ofthe Law

and retain in their memory the names Ofthose blessedBuddhas, will all be favoured by the Buddhas, andwill never return again , being once in possession of

the transcendent true knowledge . Therefore, then,0 Sfiriputra, believe,2 accept, and long for me and

those blessed Buddhas !1 It should be remarked that the Tathagatas here assigned to the

ten quarters differ entirely from those assigned to them in the

Lalita-vistara, book xx . Not even Amitabha is mentioned there.

3 Pla tiyatha. The texts give again and again pattiyatha, evi


362 ON sm sxnrr TEXTS nIscOVEEED IN JAPAN .

true knowledge in this world Saba, I taught theLawwhich all the world is reluctant to accept, duringthis corruption ofmankind, of belief, of pas sion , of

life, and of this present Kalpa.

Thus Spoke Bhagavat joyful in h is mind. And

the honourable Sfiriputra, and the Bhikshus and

Bodhisattvas, and the whole world with the gods,men , evil spirits and gen ii, applauded the speech of

This is the Mabayanasfitracalled Sukhavativyfiha.

The Sukhavativyfiha, even in its shortest text, is called a

Mahayana-sutra, nor is th ere any reason why a Mahayana-sfitta

should not be short . The meaning Of Mahayana-sfitra is simply a

Sfitra belonging to the Mahfiya‘

n a school, the school of the Great

Boat. It was Burnouf who, in his Introduction to the H istory ofBuddhism, tried very hard to establish a distinction between the

Vaipulya or developed Siltras , and what he calls the simple Sfitras

Now , the Vaipulya Sfitras may all belong to the Mahayana school,but that would not prove that all the Sutras of the Mahayana school

are Vaipulya ordeveloped Sfitras . The name of simple Sfitra, in op

position to they aipulya ordeveloped sum s , is not recognised by the

Buddhists themselves ; it is really an inventionofBum ouf’

s . NO doubt

there is a great difference between a Vaipulya Sutra, such as the

Lotus of the Good Law , translated by Burnouf, and the Sfitras which

Burnout translated from the DivyavadADa . But what Burnout con

currence of Bodhisattvas , as followers of the Buddha Sakyamuni,

wouldjno longer seem to be tenable} unless we classed our short

Sukhavati-vyuha as a Vaipulya ordeveloped Sutta. Forth is there

is no authority . Our Sfitra is called a Mahayana Sfitra, never a

Vaipulya Sfitra, and yet among the followers Of Buddha ,the B0

dhisattvas constitute a very considerable portion . But more than

that, Amitabha , the Buddha of Sukhavati, another personage whom

Burnouf looks upon as peculiar to the Vaipulya Sfitras , who is , in fact.

IA pran ce des Bodhisattva :on leur absencemm done 10 fonds meme den

lin es onon la m arque, at 11 a t bisn ev identquc oe seal point traoe une lignedoIntroduction, 112.

ON sANs I'r TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 363

This Sutra sounds to us, no doubt, very difl‘

erent

from the original teaching of Buddha. And so it is.Nevertheless it is the most popular and most widelyread Sutra in Japan ,

and the whole religion of the

great mass of the people may be said to be foundedOn it. Repeat the name of Amitabha as often as

you can , repeat it particularly in the hour of death,and you will go straight to Sukhavati and be happyfor ever ; this is what Japanese Buddhists are askedto believe : this is what they are told was the teachingOf Buddha. There is one passage in ourSutra whichseems even to be pointedly directed against theoriginal teaching of Buddha. Buddha taught thatas a man soweth so shall he reap, and that by a stockOf good works accumu lated on earth the way is

Opened to higher knowledge and higher bliss. Our

Sl’itt a says N0 ; not by good works done on earth,but by a.mere repetition Of the name ofAmitabha isan entrance gained into the land of bliss. This isno better than what later Brahmanism teaches, viz.

Repeat the name of Bari or Of Krishna, and youwill be saved.

’It is no better than what even some

Christian teachers are reported to teach. It may be

that in a lower stage Of civilisation even such teachone Of the Dhyfini-buddhas , though not called by that name in our

Sutta, forms the chief object of its teaching, and is represented

as coeval with Buddha SAkyamunifi The larger text of the

Sukhavativy'flha would certainly, according to Bum ouf

’s definition

,

seem to fall into the category of the Vaipulya Suttas . But it is not

so called in the MSS. which I have seen, and Burnouf himself gives

an analysis of that Sfitra (Introduction, p . 99) as a specimen of a

Mahayana, but not of a Vaipulya Sfitra.

L’ides d’un on de plusieurs Buddhas surhumains, cells doBodhisattva ordea

paraux, sont dos conceptions aussl étrangéres aoss livres (les sums simples)quecellod

’unAdibuddha ou d

’un Dieu.

'—Burnout, Introduction, 120.

364 ON SANSKRIT rer'rs DISCOVERED IN JAPAN.

ing has produced some kind of good.

l But Japan issurely ripe for better things. What the worship of

Amitabha may lead towe can learn from a descriptiongiven by Dr. Edkins in his Trip to Ning-po and

T’heen-t’hae. The next thing,

’ he writes, shownto us was the prison ,

in which about a dozen priestshad allowed themselves to be shut up for a numberofmonths or years, duringwhich they were to occupythemselves in repeating the name OfAmida Buddha,”day and night, without intermission . During the

day the whole number were to be thus engaged ;and during the night they took it by turns, and

divided themselves into watches, so as to ensure thekeeping up of the work till morning. We askedwhen they were to be let out. To which it was replied, that they might be liberated at their own

request, but not before th ey had spent severalmonthsin seclusion . We inquired what could be the u se of

such an endless repetition of the name ofBuddha.

To which it was answered, that the constan t repetition of the sacred name had a tendency to purifythe heart, to deaden the affections towards thepresent world, and to prepare them for the state ofNirvana. It was further asked whether Buddha waslikely to be pleased with such an endless repetitionOf his name. To which it was answered, that in theWestern world it was con sidered a mark ofrespect torepeat the name of anyone whom we delighted to

1 See H . Yule, Marco Polo, 2nd ed. vol. i. pp . 441-443.

In China, as Dr. Edkins states , the doctrine of Amitsbha is re

presented by the ao-called Lotus school (Lian-tsung) orPure Land

(Tsing-tu) . The founderof this school in China was Hwei-yuan of

the Tsin dynasty (fourth century) . The second patriarch (tsu) of

this school was Kwang-ming (seventh century).


366 ON sANsxnI'r TEXTS nIscovEEEn IN JAPAN .

I hope that Mr. Bunyiu Nanj lo and Mr. Kasawara, if they diligently continue their study Of

Sanskrit and Pali, will be able to do a really greatand good work, after their return to Japan . And if

more young Buddhist priests are coming over, Ishall always, so far as my other occupations allow it,be glad to teach them,

and to help them in theirunselfish work. There is a great future in store, Ibelieve

,for those Eastern Islands, which have been

called prophetically the England of the East,’ andto purify and reform their religion—that is, tobring itback to its original form—is a work thatmust bedonebefore anything else can be attempted.

In return, I hOpe that they and their friends inJapan , and in Corea and China too, will do all theycan to discover, if possible, some more of the ancientSanskrit texts, and send them over to u s . A beginning, at all events, has been made, and if the members Of this Society who have friends in Chins.or inJapan will help, if H .E. the Japanese MinistenMori Arinori, who has honoured us by his presenceto-day, will lend us his powerful assistancc, I havelittle doubt that the dream which passed before them ind of your late President may still become a

reality, and that some Of the MSS. which, beginning

with the beginning of our era, were carried fromIndia to China, Corea, and Japan , may return to us,

whether in the original or in copies, like theone sent

W ith the help of such MSS. we shall be able all

the better to show to those devoted students whofrom the extreme East have come to the extremeWest in order to learn to read their sacred writings

ON SANs I'r 'rEx'rs DISCOVERED IN JAPAN . 367

in the original Sanskrit or Pali, what difi‘

erence thereis between the simple teaching Of Buddha and the

later developments and corruptions Of Buddhism.

Buddha himself, I feel convinced, never knew eventhe names OfAmitabha, Avalokitesvara, or Sukhavati.Then , how can a nation call itself Buddhist whosereligion consists chiefly in a belief in a divine

Amitabha and his son Avalokitesvara , and in a hopeof eternal life in the paradise Of SukhavatiP

POSTSCRIPT Oxford, March 10, 1880.

The hope which I expressed in my paper on

Sanskrit Texts discovered in Japan ,’ viz. that oth erSanskrit texts might still come to light in Japan or

China, has been fulfilled sooner than I expected.

Mr. A . Wylie wrote to me on March 3 that he hadbrought a number Of Sanskrit-Chinese books fromJapan, and he afterwards kindly sent them to me

to examine . They were of the same appearance andcharacter as the dictionary which Dr. Edkins hadlent me, and the Sukhavati-vyfiha which I had re

ceived from Japan . But with the exception of a

collection of invocations, called the Vagra-siitra, andthe Short Pragfta-hfldaya-sutra, they contained no

continuou s texts. The books were intended to teachthe Sanskrit alphabet, and every possible and

possible combination Of the Devanagari letters, andthat was all. Still, so large a number of bookswritten to teach the Sanskrit alphabet augurs wellfor the existence Of Sanskrit texts. There was amongMr. Wylie’s books a second Chinese-Sanskrit-Japanese . vocabulary, of which Mr. Kasawara has

given me the following account : This vocabulary


is called A Thousand San skrit andChineseWords,and it is said to have been arranged by I-tsing, wholeft China for India in 671 about twenty-sevenyears after Hiouen-th sang’S return to China, and

who is best known as the author Of a book calledNanh ae-ki-kwei-kou ’en , on the manners and cus

toms of the Indian Buddhists at that time .This vocabulary was brought from China to

Japan by Zikaku, a Japanese priest, who went toChina in 888 and returned in 847. It is stated at

the end of the book, that in the year 884 a Japanesepriest of the name Of Rioyiu Copied that vocabularyfrom a text belonging to another priest, Yii

‘

ikai.

Th e edition brought from Japan by Mr. Wylie waspublished there in the year 1727 by a priest calledJakumio.

The following curiou s passage occurs in the

preface Of Jakumio’s edition : This vocabularyis generally called one thousand Sanskrit and

Chinese words .” It is stated in Annen ’s work, that

this was first brought (from China) by Zikaku . I

have corrected several mistakes in this vocabulary,comparing many copies ; yet the present edition isnot free from blunders ; I hOpe the readers willcorrect them,

if they have better Copies.In the temple H6riuji, in Yamato , there are

treasured Prag'

n'

apfiramitahfldayasiitram, and Son

shio-dharani, written On two palm leaves, handeddown from Central India ; and, at the end Of these,fourteen letters of the Sid are written . In the

present edition of the vocabulary the alphabet is inimitation Of that of the palm leaves, except suchforms of letters as cannot be distinguished from thoseprevalent among the scriveners at the present day.



clear evidence that in the year 1727 palm leavescontaining the text of Sanskrit Sutras were still preserved in the temple of H6riuji. If that temple iss till in existence, might not some Buddhist priest ofKioto, the western capital of Japan , be induced togo there to see whether the palm leaves are still

there, and, if they are, to make a Copy and send itto Oxford 9Sooner than expected this wish of mine has been

fulfilled. On April 28 Mr. Shigefuyu Kurihara , ofKioto, a friend of one of my Sanskrit pup ils, Mr.Banyin Nan] 10, who for some years had himselftaken an interest in Sanskrit, went to the temple ormonastery of Heriuji to inquire whether any old

Sanskrit MSS. were still preserved there. He w astold that the priests of the monastery had recentlysurrendered their valuables to the Imperial Government, and that the ancient palm leaves had beenpresented to the emperor.

In a chronicle kept at the monastery of Heriuj iit is stated that these palm leaves and other valuables were brought by Ono Imoko, a retainer of theMikado (the Empress Suiko), from China (du ringthe Sui dynasty, 589-618) to Japan, in the thirtyseventh year of the age of Prince Umayado

A .D. 609. The other valuable articles were1 . N.i6, i.e., a cymbal used in Buddhist temples2 . M idzu-gam e, a water vessel ;3 . Shaku-j io, a staff, the top of which is armed

withmetal rings, as carriedby Buddhist priests ;4 . K e sa (Ka shaya), a scarf, worn by Buddhistpriests across the shoulder, which belonged tothe famous Bodhidharma


5. Haki, a bowl, given by the same Bodhi

dharma.

These things and the Sanskrit MSS. are said tohave belonged to some Chinese priests, named k i

sz’

(Yeshi) andNien-shan (Nenzen), and to fourotherssuccessively, who lived in a monastery on the mountain called Nan-yo (Naugak), in the province of

Hang (K6) in China. These palm-leaf MSS. may,

therefore, be supposed to date from at least thesixth century A .D., and be, in fact, the oldest SanskritMSS . now in existence)

May we not hOpe that His Excellency MoriArinori, who expressed so warm an interest in thismatter when he was presen t at the meeting of the

Royal Asiatic Society, will now lend us his powerfulaid, and request the Minister of the Department ofthe Imperial Household to allow these MSS. to be

carefully Copied or photographed

XX .

POPOL VUE .

A BOOK called Popol Vah,

"and pretending to be

the original text of the sacredwritings of the Indian sofCentral America, will be received by most peoplewith a sceptical smile. The Aztec children who

were shown all over Europe as descendants of a

race to whom , before the Spanish conquest, divinehonours were paid by the natives ofMexico, andwhoturned out to be unfortunate creatures that had beentampered with by heartless Speculators

,are still

fresh in the memory ofmost people ; and the Livredes Sauvages,

’ 2 lately published by the Abbé Domenech, under the au spices of Count Walewsky, has

somewhat lowered the dignity of American studiesin general. Still, those who laugh at the Manu

scrit Pictographique Américain discovered by theFrench Abbé in the library of the French Arsenal,and edited by h im with so much care as a preciou srelic of the old Red-Skins of North America

,ought

not to forget that there would be nothing at all sur

1 Pop oi Vuh le Livre Sacré et les Mythes de l’Antiquité Ameri

caine, avec les Livres Héroiques et Historiques des Quiches . Par

l’Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. Paris : Durand, 1861 .

2 Manuscrit Pictograp hique Améoi cai n, précédé d’une Notice

sur l’

Idéographie des Peaux-Rouges . Par l’Abbé Em Domenech .

Ouvrage publié sous les ausp ices de M. le Ministre d’

Etat et de la

Maison de l’

Empereur. Paris, 1860.


374 POPOL VUR .

inscription s, should have taken the pages preservedin the library of the Arsenal at Paris as genuinespecimen s of American pictography . There is a

certain similarity between these scrawls and the

figures scratched on rocks, tombstones, and trees bythewandering tribes ofNorth America ; and thoughwe should be very sorry to endorse the Opinion of

the enthusiastic Abbé, or to start any conjecture of

our own as to the real authorship of the Livre desSauvages,

’ we cannot but think that M. Petzholdt

would have written less confidently, and certainlyless scornfully

,if he had been more familiar than he

seems to be with the little that is known of the

picture-writing of the Indian tribes .

As a preliminary, therefore, to the question of

the authenticity of the PopolYuh ,’ a few words onthe pictorial literature of the Red Indians of NorthAmerica will not be considered out of place. The

Popol Vuh is not, indeed, a Livre des Sauvages,’

but a literary composition in the true sense of theword. It contains the mythology and history of the

civilised races ofCentral America, and comes beforeu s with credentials that will bear the test of criticalinquiry. But we shall be better able to appreciatethe higher ach ievements of the South, after we h aveexamined, however cursorily, the rude beginnings inliterature among the savage races of the North.

Colden, in his History of the Five Nations,’ informs us that when , in 1696, theCount de Frontenacmarched a well-appointed army into the Iroquoiscountry

,with artillery and all other mean s of regular

military ofi'ence, he found, on the banks of the Gnom e

daga, now called Oswego River, a tree, on the trunk:

POPOL vun . 375

ofwhich the Indians had depicted the French army,and deposited two bundles of cut rushes at its foot,consisting of pieces ; an act of symbolical defiance on their part, which was intended to warn theirGallic invaders that they would have to encounterthis number ofwarriors .

This warlike message is a specimen of Indian

picture-writing. It belongs to the lowest stage ofgraph ic representation ,

and hardly differs from the

primitive way in which the Persian ambassadorscommun icated with the Greeks , on the Roman s withthe Carthaginians . Instead of

'

the lance and the

staff of peace between which the Carthaginians wereasked to choose

, the Red Indian s would have sent anarrow and a pipe, and the message would have beenequally understood. This , though not yet p eind

fre la

p arole, is nevertheless a first attempt at p arler aux

ycuaz. It is a first beginning which may lead to

something more perfect in the end. We find similarattempts at pictorial commun ication among othersavage tribes, and they seem to answer every purpose . In Freycinet and Arago

’s Voyage to the

Eastern Ocean ’we are told ofa native of theCarolina

Islands , a Tamor of Sathoual, who wished to availhimself of the presence of a ship to send to a traderat Botta, M. Martinez, some sh ells which he hadpromised to collect in exchange for a few axes andsome other articles . H e expressed his wishes to thecaptain

,who gave him a piece of paper to make the

drawing, and satisfactorily executed the commission .

The figure of a man at the top denoted the ship’s

captain ,who by his outstretched hands represented

his office as a messenger between the parties . The

376 POPOL vun .

rays or ornaments on his head denote rank or

authority. The vine beneath h im is a type of friendship. In the left column are depicted the numberand kinds of shells sent in the right column the

things wished for in exchange— namely, seven fishhooks, three large and four small, two axes, and twopieces of iron .

The inscriptions which are found on the Indian

graveboards mark a step in advance. Every warriorhas h is crest, w hich is called his totem

, and is

painted o n his "tombstone. A celebrated war-chief,

the Adjetatig ofW abojeeg, died on Lake Superior,about H e was of the clan ‘of the Addik , orAmerican ereindeer. The fact is symbolised by th efigure of

‘

the deer. The reversed position denotesdeath . H is own personal name, which was WhiteFisher, is not noticed. But there are seven transverse strokes on the left, and these have a meaning—namely

,that he had led seven war parties . Then

there are three perpendicular lines below h is crest,and these again are readily understood by everyIndian . They represent the wounds received in

battle. The figure of a moose’s head is said to relate

to a desperate conflict w ith an enragedanimal of thiskind'

; and the symbols of the arrow and the pipeare drawn to indicate the chief’s influence in warand peace .

There is another graveboard of the ruling chiefof Sandy Lake on the Upper Mississippi. Here thereversed bird denotes h is family name or clan , the

Crane. Four transverse lines above it denote thath e had killed four of h is enemies in battle. An

analogous custom is mentioned by Aristotle Poli


378 POPOL vun .

writer. There is one w ar-song con sisting of fourpictures

1 . The sun rising.

2. A figure pointing with one hand to the earthand the other extended to the sky.

3. The moon with two human legs .

4. A figure personifying the Eastern woman—i.s .

the evening star.These four symbols are said to convey to the

Indian the following meaning

I am rising to seek the war path

The earth and the sky are before me

I walk by day and by night ;

And the evening star is my gu ide.

The following is a specimen of a love-song1 . Figure representing a god (monedo) endowed

with magic power.2. Figure beating the drum and singing ; lines

from h is mouth.

3. Figure surrounded by a secret lodge.4 . Two bodies joined with one continuous arm .

5 . A woman on an island.

6 A woman asleep ; lines from h is ear towards

7. A red heart in a circle.

This poem is intended to express these sentiments

1 It is my form and person thatmake me great2. H ear the voice of my song, it is my voice.

3. I shield myselfwith secret coverings.

POPOL vun . 379

4. All your thoughts are known to me, blu sh !5. I could draw you hence were you ever so far6. Though you were on the other hemisphere7. I Speak to your naked heart.

All we can say is that if the Indians can readthis writing they are greater adepts in the mysteriesof love than the judges of the old Cam'

s d’ammir.

But it is much more likely that th ese war-songs andlove-songs are known to the people beforehand

, and

that their writings are only meant to revive whatexists already in the memory of the reader. It is a

kind of mnemonic writing, which has sometimesbeen used by missionaries for similar purposes , andwith considerable success . Thu s, in a translation of

the Bible in the Massachusetts language by Eliot,the verses from 25 to 32 in the thirtieth chapter ofProverbs

,

‘are expressed by ‘

an ant, a coney, a

locust, a spider, a river (symbol of motion ), a lion , a

greyhound, a he-goat and a king, a man foolishly lifting himself to take hold of the heaven s .’ No doubtsuch symbols would help the reader to remember the

Proverb s xxx .

‘The ants are a people not strong, yet

they prepare theirmeat in the summer

The oonies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in

the rocks

The locusts have noking, yet go they forth all of them by bands ;

The sp ider taketh hold with.her hands, and is in king’

s palaces.

There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in

going ;

A lion, which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away

for any ;‘A greylmmd an lie-goat also ; and a king, against whom there

is no rising up .

If thou has t done foolishly in lifting np thyself} or if thou hast

thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth .

’

380 POPOL vun .

proper order of the verses, but they would be perfectly u seless without a commentary or without a

previous knowledge of the text.We are told that the famou s Te stera, brother of

the chamberlain of Francois I.,who came to America

eight orn ine years after the taking of Mexico,find

ing it impossible to learn the language of the natives,taught them the Bible ’history and the princip aldoctrines of the Christian religion by means of

pictu res,and that these diagrams produced a greater

effect on the minds of the people, who were accu stomed to this style of representation , than all othermeans employed by the missionaries . But hereagain , unless these pictures were explained by interpreters , they could by them selves convey no meaningto the gazing crowds of the natives . The fullestinformation on this subject is to be found in a workby T. Baptiste, H ieroglyphes de la conversion ,par des estampes et des figures on apprend aux

natu rels a, desirer ls ciel. ’

There is no evidence to show that the Indians ofthe North ever advanced beyond the rude attemptswhich we have thus described, and of which numerous specimens may be found in the voluminouswork of Schoolcraft, published by authority of Con

gress, Historical and Statistical Information re

Specting the History, Condition, and Prospects of

the Indian Tribes of theUnited States,’ Philadelphia,1851—1855. There is, in fact, no trace of anythinglike literature among the wandering tribes of theNorth, and until a real Livre des Sauvages turns

up to fill this gap , thejr must continue to be classedamong the illiterate races .

l

Manuscrit Pictograp hique, pp . 26, 29.


382 POPOL vua .

learnt by heart. There were colleges and schoolsfor that purpose, where these and other things weretaught to the young by the aged, in whose memorythey seemed to be engraved. The young men who

were brought up to be orators themselves had to

learn the ancient compositions word by word ; and

when the Spaniards came and taught them to readand write the Spanish language, the Indians soonbegan to write for themselves, a fact attested bymany eye-witnesses.

Las Casas, the devoted friend of the Indians,

writes as followsIt ought to beknown that in all the republics of

this country, in the kingdoms of New Spain and

elsewhere, there was amongst other professions, thatof the chroniclers and historians. They possessed a

knowledge of the earliest times, and of all thingsconcerning religion , the gods ,and their worship. Theyknew the founders of cities, and the early history oftheir kings and kingdoms . They knew the modes ofelection and the rights of succession ; they could tellthe number and characters of their ancient kings ,their works, and memorable achievements whethergood or bad, and whether they had governed well orill. They knew the men renowned for virtue and

h eroism in former days, what wars they had waged,and how they had distinguished themselves ; whohad been the earliest settlers, what had been theirancient customs, their triumphs and defeats. Theyknew, in fact, whatever belonged to history ; and

were able to give an account of all the events of thepast. These chroniclers had likewise to calculatethe days, months, and years ; and though they had

Poron vun . 383

no writing like our own, they had their symbols andcharacters through which they understood everything ; they had their great books, which were composed with such ingenuity and art that our alphabetwas really of no great assistance to them . Our

priests have seen those books, and I myself haveseen them likewise, though many were burnt at theinstigation of the monks, who were afraid that theymight impede the work of conversion . Sometimeswhen the Indians who had been converted had forgotten certain words, or particular points of the

Christian doctrine, they began—as they were unableto read our books—to write very ingeniously withtheir own symbols and characters, drawing the figureswhich corresponded either to the ideas or to thesounds of our words. I have myself seen a largeportion of the Christian doctrine written in figuresand images, which they read as we read the charactersof a letter ; and this is a very extraordinary proof oftheir genius . There never was a lack of thosechroniclers. It was a profession which passed fromfather to son , highly respected in the whole republic.Each historianinstructed two or three of his relatives.He made them practise constantly, and they h adrecourse to him whenever a doubt arose on a pointof history. But not these young historian s onlywent to consult h im ; kings , princes, and priests cameto ask his advice . Whenever there was a doubt asto ceremonies , precepts of religion, religious festivalsor anything ofimportance in thehistory of the ancientkingdoms

,everyone went to the chroniclers to ask for

information .

’

In Spite of the religious zeal of Dominican and

384 rop on vun.

Franciscan friars, a few of these hieroglyphic MSS .

escaped the flames,and may now be seen in some

of our public libraries, as curious relics of a nearlyextinct and forgotten literature. The first collectionof these MSS. and other American antiquities wasdue to thezealof the Milanese antiquarian , Boturini,who h ad been sent by the Pope in 1 736 to regulatesome ecclesiastical matters, and who devoted theeight years of his stay in the NewWorld to rescuingwhatever could be rescued from the scattered ruin sof ancient America. Before, however, he could bringthese treasures safe to Europe, he was despoiled of

h is valuables by the Spanish Viceroy ; and when at

last h e made his escape with the remnants of his

collection ,he was taken prisoner by an English

cruiser, and lost everything. The collection , whichremained at Mexico, became the subject of severallawsuits, and after passing through the hands of

Veytia and Gama, who both added to it considerably,it was sold at last by public auction. Humboldt,who was at that time passing through Mexico,acquired some of the MSS .

, which he gave to theRoyal Museum at Berlin . Others found their wayinto private hands , and after many vicissitudes theyhave mostly been secured by the public libraries orprivate collectors ofEurope. Themost valuable partof that unfortunate shipwreck is now in the handsof M . Aubin, who was sent to Mexico in 1830 bythe French Government, and who devoted nearlytwenty years to the same work which Boturini hadcommenceda hundredyears before. He either boughtthe dispersedfragments of the collections of Boturini,Gama, and Pichardo, or procured accurate copies ;


386 POPOL vun .

of natives, with such modifications as three centuriesare certain to produ ce. They give us whatever wasknown of history, mythology, and religion amongthe people whom the Spaniards found in Centraland South America in the possession of most of the

advantages ofa long-established civilisation . Thoughwe mu st not expect to find in them what we are

accustomed to call history, they are nevertheless ofgreat historical interest, as supplying the vague outlines of a distant past, filled with migrations, wars,dynasties, and revolutions, such as were cherished inthe memory of the Greeks at the time of Solon , and

believed in by the Romans at the time ofCato. Theyteach us that the New World which was opened toEurope a few centuries ago was in its own eyes anold world, not so difl

‘

erent in character and feelingsfrom ourselves as we are apt to imagine when we

speak of the Red-skins of America, or when we readthe accoun ts of the Spanish conquerors, who deniedthat the natives of America possessed human souls

,

in order to establish their own right of treating themlike wild beasts .

The PopolVuh ,’ or the sacred book of the peopleof Guatemala, ofwhich the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg has just published the original text, togetherwith a literal French Translation , holds a very prominent rank among the works composed by nativesin their own native dialects, and written down bythem with the letters of the Roman alphabet. Thereare but two works that can be compared to it in

their importance to the student of American anti

quities andAmerican languages—namely, the

‘CodexChimalpOpoca in Nahuatl, the ancient written lan

POPOL vun . 387

guage ofMexico, and the Codex Cakchiquel in the

dialect of Guatemala. These, together with theworkpublished by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg underthe title of PopolVuh ,’ must form the starting-pointof all critical inquiries into the antiquities of the

American people.The first point which has to be determined with

regard to books of this kind is wheth er they are genuine or not ; whether they are what they pretend tobe—compositions about three centuries old, foundedon the oral traditions and th epictographic documentsof the ancient inhabitants of America, and writtenin the dialects which were spoken at the time of

Columbus,Cortez

,and Pizarro. What the Abbé

Brasseur de Bourbourg has to say on this pointamounts to this —The manu script was first discovered by Father FranciscoXimenes towards the endof the seventeenth century. He was curé of SantoTomas Chichicastenango, situatedabout three leaguessouthofSanta-CruzdelQuicheand twenty-twoleaguesnorth-east of Guatemala. He was well acquaintedwith the languages of the natives of Guatemala

, and

has left a dictionary of their three principal dialects,his Tesoro de las Lenguas Quiche, Cakchiquel yTzutohil.

’This work, which has never been printed,

fills two volumes, the second of which contains thecopy of the MS . discovered by Ximenes. Ximeneslikewise wrote a history of the province of the

preachers of San-Vincente de Chiapas y Guatemala,in four volumes . Of this he left two copies . But

three volumes only were still in existence when the

Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg visited Guatemala, andthey are said to contain valuable information on the

c c 2

888 POPOL VUE .

history and traditions of the country. The firstvolume contains the Spanish translation of the man

uscript which occupies us at present. The AbbéBrasseur de Bourbourg copied that translation in

1855. About the same th e a German traveller, Dr.

Scherzer, happened to be at Guatemala, and had

copies made of the works of XM enes. These werepublished at Vienn a, in The French Abbé,however

, was not satisfied with amere reprint of thetext and its Spanish translation by Ximenes, a tran slation which he characterises as untrustworthy andfrequently unintelligible. During his travels in America he acquired a practical knowledge of several ofthe native dialects, particularly of the Quiche, whichis still spoken in various dialects by about six hundredthousand people. As a priest he was in daily intercourse with these people ; and it was while residingamong them and able to consult them like livingdictionaries, that, with the help of the MSS. of

Kimmies, he undertook his own translation of the

ancient chronicles of the Quichés . From the timeof the discovery of Ximenes, therefore, to the timeof the publication of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, all seems clear and satisfactory. But there isstill a century to be accoun ted for, from the end of

the sixteenth century, when the original is supposedto have been written , to the end of the seventeenth,when it was first discovered by Ximenes at Chichicastenango. These years are not yet bridged over.We may appeal, however, to the authority oftheMS.

itself, which carries the royal dynasties down to the

Mr. A . Helps was the first to point out the importance of this

work, in his excellent H ictory of the Spanish Conquest in America.


390 POPOL vun.

lated it by Livre sacré instead of Livre national,’or Libro del comun ,

’as proposed byXimenes. Such

small inaccuracies are sure toprodu ce great confusion]Nothing but a desire to have a fine-sounding titlecould have led the editor to commit this mistake

,

for he himself confesses that the work published byhim has no right to th e title Popol Vuh ,

’and that

POpol Vuh does not mean Livre sacré.’ Nor isthere any more reason to suppose, with the learnedAbbé, that the first two books of the QuicheMS .

contain an almost literal transcript of the PopolVuh ,

’ or that the Popol Vuh was the original ofthe Teo-Amoxtli,

’ or the sacred book of the Toltecs .

Allwe know is, that the author wrote h is anonymou swork because the Popol Vuh —the national book,or the national tradition—was dying out, and thathe comprehended in the first two sections the ancienttraditions common to the whole race, while he devoted the last two to the historical annals of the

Quiches, the ruling nation at the time of the Conquest in what is now the republic of Guatemala. If

we look at theMS. in this light, there is nothing at

all suspicious in its character and its contents. The

author wished to save from destruction the storieswhich he had heard as a child of h is gods and hisancestors. Though the general outline ofthese storiesmay have been preserved partly in the schools, partlyin the pictographic MSS.

,the Spanish Conquest had

thrown everything into confusion , and the writer hadprobably to depend chiefly on his own recollections.To extract consecutive history from these recollec

tions is simply impossible. All is vague, contradictory, miraculous, absurd. Consecutive history is

POPOL vun . 391

altogether a modern idea, of which few only of thean cient nations had any conception . Ifwe had theexact words of the Popol Vuh , ’ we should probablyfind no more history there than we find in theQuicheMS. as it now stands. Now and then , it is true, oneimagines one sees certain periods and landmarks,but in the next page all is chaos again . It may bediflicult to confess that with all the traditions of theearly migration s ofCecrops and Danaus into Greece,w ith the Homeric poems of the Trojan war, and thegenealogies of the ancient dynasties of Greece, weknow nothing ofGreek history before the Olympiads,and very little even then . Yet the true historiandoes not allow himself to indulge in any illusions onthis subject, and he shuts his eyes even to the mostplausible reconstructions.

The same applies with a force increased a hun

dredfold to the ancient history of the aboriginalraces of America, and the sooner this is acknowledged, the better forthe credit ofAmerican scholars .

Even the traditions of the migrations of the Chichimecs

, Colhuas, and Nahuas, which form the stapleof all M erican antiquarians, are no better than theGreek tradition s about Pelasgians, E olians, and

Ionians ; and it would be a mere waste of th e to

construct out of such elements a systematic history,only to be destroyed again sooner or later by someNiebuhr, Grote, or Lewis.

But ifwe do not find history in the stories of theancient races of Guatemala, we do find materials forstudying their character, for analysing their religionand mythology, for comparing their principles of

morality, their views of virtue, beauty, and heroism,

392 poror. van .

with those of other races of mankind. This is thecharm, the real and lasting charm, of such worksas that presented to us for the first time in a trustworthy translation by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. Unfortunately, there is one circumstancewhich may destroy even this charm. It is justpossible that the writers of this and otherAmericanMSS . may have felt more or less consciously theinfluence of European and Christian ideas, and if so,we have no sufi cient guarantee that the stories theytell represent to us the American mind in its pristineand genuine form . There are some coincidences between the Old Testament and the QuicheMS. whichare certainly startling. Yet even if a Christian influence has to be admitted, much remains in theseAmerican traditions which is so difi‘

erent from any

thing else in the nationalliteratures ofothercountries,that we may safely treat it as the genuine growthof the intellectual soil of America. We shall give,in conclusion , some extracts to bear out our remarksbut we ought not to part with Abbé Brasseur de

for the excellent work he has done, and withoutadding a hope that he may be able to realise hisplan of publishing a Collection of documents writtenin the indigenous languages, to assist the student ofthe history and philology of ancient America, ’ a

collection of which the work now published is to

Extracts from the Pop ol Vuk.

’

The QuicheMS. begins with an account of the

creation . If we read it in the literal translation


394 POPOL vun .

all was immovable, all peaceful, and the vast spaceof the heavens was empty. There was no man, no

animal, no shore, no trees ; heaven alone existed.

The face of the earth was not to be seen ; there wasonly the still expanse of the sea and the heavenabove. Divine Beings were on the waters like a

growing light. Their voice was heard as they meditated and con sulted, and when the dawn rose

,man

appeared. Then the waters were commanded to re

tire, the earth was established that she might bear

fruit and that the light of daymight shine on heavenand earth.

For,’ they said, we shall receive neither glorynor honour from all we have created until there isa human being—a being endowed with reason .

“ Earth,

”they said, and in a moment the earth was

formed. Like a vapour it rose into being, mountains appeared from the waters like lobsters

,and the

great mountains were made. Thus was the creationof the earth, when it was fashioned by those who arethe Heart of heaven , the Heart of the earth for

thu s were they calledwho first gave fertility to them ,

heaven and earth being still inert and suspended inthe midst of the waters .

’

Then follows the creation of the brute world, andthe disappointment of th e gods when they commandthe animals to tell their names and to honour thosewho h ad created them . Then the gods said to theanimals :

You will be changed, becau se you cannot speak.We have changed your speech. You shall have yourfood and your dens in the woods and crags ; for ourglory is not perfect, andyou do not invoke us. There

POPOL vun . 395

w ill be beings still that can salute us ; we shall makethem capable of obeying. Do your task ; as to yourflesh, it will be broken by the tooth.

’

Then follows the creation ofman . His flesh wasmade of earth (tarrc glaisa). But man was withoutcohesion or power, inert and aqueous ; he could not

turn his head, his sightwas dim, and though he hadthe gift of speech, he had no intellect. He was soonconsumed again in the water.

And the gods consulted a second time how to

create beings that should adore them, and after somemagic ceremonies, men were made ofwood, and theymultiplied. But they had no heart, no intellect, norecollection of their Creator ; they did not lift up

their heads to their Maker, and they withered away

and were swallowed up by the waters.Then follows a third creation ,

man being made ofa tree called tzité

,woman of the marrow of a reed

called sibac. They, too, did neither think nor speakbefore him who had made them , and they were likewise swept away by the waters and destroyed. The

whole nature—animals, trees, and stones—turnedagainst men to revenge thewrongs they had sufi

'

ered

at their hands, and the only remnant of that earlyrace is to be found in small monkeys which still livein the forests.

Then follows a story of a very difl'erent character,and which completely interrupts the progress of

events . It has nothing to do with the creation,though it ends with two of its heroes being changedinto sun and moon . It is a story very much like thefables of the Brahmans or the German Math/when .

Some of the principal actors in it are clearly divine

396 POPOL vun .

beings who have been brought down to the level ofhuman nature, and who perform feats and tricks sostrange and incredible that in reading them weimagine ourselves in themidst of theArabian Nights .In the struggles of the two favourite heroes againstthe cruel princes of Xibalba, there may be reminiscences of historical events , but itwould be perfectlyhopeless to attempt to extricate these from the mass

of fable by which they are surrounded. The chiefinterest of the American tale consists in the pointsof similarity which it exhibits with the tales of theOldWorld. We shall mention two only—the re

peated resuscitation of the chief heroes, who, evenwhen burnt and ground to powder and scattered on

the water, are born again as fish and changed intomen and the introduction of animals endowed withreason and speech. As in the German and othertales, certain peculiarities in the appearance and

natural habits of animals are frequently accountedfor by events that happened ‘once upon a time ’ —forinstance, the stumpy tail of the bear, by his misfortune when he went out fishing on the ice—sowe findin the American tales , that it was when the two

principal heroes (Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanqué) hadcaught the rat andwere going to strangle it over thefire, that lam t commence d p orter unequeue sans p ail.Thus, because a certain serpent swallowed a frogwhowas sent as a messenger, therefore aujaw d

’lvwi encore

les serpents anglautissent les crap auds.

The story, which well deserves the attention of

those who are interested in the origin and spreadingof popular tales, is carriedon to the end of the second


398 POPOL vun .

remarks : It may seem surprising that neither theancient Greeks nor the ancient Indians attempted topropose or to solve the question as to the origin and

the multiplicity of human speech. HolyW rit stroveto solve at leas t one of these riddles, that of the mul

tiplicity of languages, bymeans of the tower ofBabel.I know only one other poor Esthonian legend whichmight be placed by the side of this Biblical solution .

The old god, th ey say, when men found theirfirst seats too narrow, resolved to spread them overthe whole earth, and to give to each nation its ownlanguage. For this purpose he placed a caldron of

water on the fire, and commanded the difl'

erent racesto approach it in order, and to select for themselvesthe sounds which were uttered by the singing of the

water in its confinement and torture .”

Grimm might have added another legend whichis current among the Thlinkithian s, and was clearlyframed in order to account for the existence of different languages. The Thlinkithians are one of the

four principal races inhabiting Russian America.

They are called Kalju sh , Koljush , or Kolosh by theRussians, and inhabit the coast from about 60° to45°

N .L., reaching, therefore, across the Russian frontieras far as the Columbia River, and they likewise holdmany of the neighbouring islands. Weniaminow

estimates their number,both in the Russian and

English colonies, at to They are evidently a decreasing race, and their legends, whichseem tobe numerous and full of original ideas, wouldwell deserve the careful attention ofAmerican ethno

logists. W rangel suspected a relationship betweenthem and the Aztecs ofMexico . These Thlinkithians

POPOL vun . 399

believe in a general flood or deluge, and that mensaved themselves in a large floating building. Whenthe waters fell, the building was wrecked on a rock,and by its own weight burst into two pieces. Hence,they say, arose the difference of languages. The

Thlinkithian s with their language remain ed on one

side ; on the other side were all the other races ofthe earth.

1

Neither the Esthonian nor the Thlinkithian

legend, however, ofl'

ers any striking points of coincidence with the Mosaic accounts . The analogies,therefore, as well as the discrepancies, between the

nin th chapter ofGenesis and the chapter here translated from the QuicheMS . require special attention

All had but one language, and they did not in

voke as yet either wood or stones they only remembered the word of the Creator, the Heart of heavenand earth.

And th ey spoke while meditating on what washidden by the spring of day ; and full of the sacredword, full of love, obedience, and fear, they madetheir prayers

,and lifting their eyes up to heaven ,

they asked for sons and daughtersHail O Creator and Fashioner, thou who seest

and hearest u s ! do not forsake us, 0 God, who art

in heaven and earth, Heart of the sky, Heart of theearth ! Give u s ofi‘

spring and descendants as long as

the sun and dawn shall advance. Let there be seedand light. Let u s always walk on open paths

, on

roads where there is no ambush. Let us always bequiet and in peace with those who are ours. May

Holmberg, E‘tlmagrcwhisahe Skim n iibcr d/ie Vb

‘

lker dc: Rm

:iaalwn Amarika . Helsingfors , 1855.

‘ 400 POPOL vun .

our lives run on happily. Give us a life secure fromreproach. Let there be seed for harvest, and let

there be light.They then proceeded to the town ofTulan, where

they received their gods.And when all the tribes were there gathered

together, their speech was changed, and they did notunderstand each other after they arrived at Tulan .

It was there that they separated, and some went tothe East, others came here . Even the language ofthe four ancestors ofthe human race became different.Alas

,

”they said, we have left ourlanguage. How

has this happened9 We are ruined How could wehave been led into error 9 We had but one languagewhen we came to Tulan ; our form of worship wasbut one. What we have done is not good,

” repliedall the tribes in the woods, and under the lianas.’

The rest of the work, which con sists altogetherof four books, is taken up with an account of the

migration s of the tribes from the East, and theirvarious settlements. The four ancestors of the races eem to have had a long life, and when at last theycame todie, they disappeared in amysteriousmanner

,

a nd left to their sons what is called the HiddenMajesty, which was never to be opened by humanhands. What this Hidden Majesty was we do not

know.

There are many subjects of in terest in the chapters which follow, only we must not look there forhistory, though the author evidently accepts as trulyh istorical what he tells us about the successive generations of kings. But when he brings us down at

last, after sundry migrations, wars, and rebellions,


XX I.

SEM ITIC MONOTHEISM .

‘

A WORK such as M. Renan ’s Histoire Générale etSysteme Comparé des Langues Sémitiques can onlybe reviewed chapter by chapter. It contains a sur

vey, not only, as its title would lead us to suppose, ofthe Semitic languages, but of the Semitic languagesand nations ; and considering that the whole historyof the civilised world has hitherto been acted bytwo races only, the Semitic and the Aryan , withoccasional interruption s produced by the inroads ofthe Turanian races,M. Renan ’s work comprehends inreality half of the history of the ancient world. Wehave received as yet the first volume only of thisimportant work, and before the author had time tofinish the second, he was called upon to publish a

second edition of the first, which appeared in 1858,

with important additions and alterationsIn writing the history of the Semitic race it is

necessary to lay down certain general characteristicscommon to all the members of that race, beforewe can speak of nations so widely separated from

H istoire Generals at Systems C’amp aa

-é denLenguas Semitiqm .

Par Ernest Renan, Membre de l’Institut. Seconde edition . Paris,

1858 .

Semitigm , et en p aa'tiauliarm lewr Tendanae an Manathéiame. Par

Ernest Renan . Paris , 1859.

SEMITIC Monornmsu . {403

each other as the Jews, the Babylonians, Phoenicians,Carthaginians , and Arabs, as one race or family.T he most important bondwhich binds these scatteredtribes together into one ideal whole is to be foundin their language. There can be as little doubtthat the dialects of all the Semitic nations are derived from one common type as there is about thederivation of French, Spanish, and Italian fromLatin, or of Latin , Greek, German , Celtic, Slavonic,and Sanskrit from the primitive idiom of the an

cestors of theAryan race. The evidence of languagewould by itself be quite sufficient to establish the

:fact that the Semitic nation s descended from com

mon ancestors, and constitute, what, in the scienceof language, may be called a distinct race. But M.

Renan was not satisfiedwith this single criterion oftherelationship of the Semitic tribes, and he has endeavoured to draw, partly from his own observations,p artly from the suggestion s of other scholars, sucha s Ewald and Las sen , a more complete portrait of

the Semitic man . This was no easy task. It was

like drawing the portrait of awhole family, omittinga ll that is peculiar to each individualmember, and yetpreserving the features which constitute the generalfamily likeness. The result has been what mightbe expected. Critics most familiar with one or the

other branch of the Semitic family, have each and

all protested that they can see no likeness in the portrait. It seems to some to contain features whichit ought not to contain ; whereas others miss the veryexpression which appears to them most striking.

l

Cf. Francis Galton, Composite Portraits,

’Journal of the An

t hrop ological Institute, 1879, p . 132 .

n u 2

404 SEMITIC nonornmsu .

The following is a short abstract of what MRenan considers the salient points in the Semiticcharacter

Their character,

’ he says, ‘ is religious ratherthan political

, and the mainspring of their religionis the conception of the unity of God. Theirreligiousphraseology is simple, and free from mythologicalelements . Their religious feelings are strong, exelusive, intolerant, and sustained by a fervour whichfinds its peculiar expression in prophetic vision s.Compared to the Aryan nations, they are founddeficient in scientific and philosophical originality.Their poetry is chiefly subjective or lyrical, and we

look in vain among their poets for excellence in epic

and dramatic compositions . Painting and the plasticarts have never arrived at a higher than the decorative stage. Their political life has remained patriarchal and despotic, and their inability to organiseon a large scale has deprived them of the mean s of

military success . Perhaps the most general featureof their character is a negative one—their inabilityto perceive the general and the abstract, whether inthought, language, religion , poetry, or politics ; and,

on the other hand, a strong attraction towards theindividual and personal, which makes them monotheistic in religion , lyrical in poetry, monarchicalin politics, abrupt in style, and u seless for speculation .

’

One cannot look at this bold and rapid outlin e ofthe Semitic character without perceiving how manypoints it contains which are open to doubt and discu ssion . We shall confine our remarks to one point,which , in our mind, and

, as far we can see, in


406 ssm rrc MONO'I‘HEISM.

to their historian , imbued from the beginning withthe instinctive faith in one God

1 Thenomadbranch, con sistingofArabs,Hebrews ,and the neighbouring tribes of Palestine, commonlycalled the descendants ofTerah and

2. The political branch, including the nations of

Phoenicia, of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Yemen .

Can it be said that all these nations, comprisingthe worshippers of Elohim ,

Jehovah, Moloch, Nisroch

,Rimmon

,Nebo

,Dagon ,

A shtaroth, Baal orBel’,Baal-peor, Baal-zebub, Chemosh, Milcom,

Adram

melech, Annamelech , Nibhaz and Tartak, Ashima,

Nergal, Succoth-benoth , the Sun , Moon ,planets, and'

all the host of heaven , were endowed with a monoth eistic in stinct M. Renan admits thatmonoth eismhas always had its principal bulwark in the nomadic

branch, but he maintain s that it has by no mean sbeen so unknown among the members of the politicalbranch as is commonly supposed. But where are

the criteria by which,in the same manner as their

dialects, the religions of the Semitic races could bedistinguished from the religion s of the Aryan and

Turanian races ‘

P We can recognise any Semiticdialect by the triliteral character of its roots. Is it

possible to discover similar radical elements in all

the forms of faith, primary or secondary, primitive orderivative, of the Semitic tribes M . Renan thinksthat it is . He imagines that he hears the key-noteof a pure monotheism through all the wild shoutingsof the priests of Baal and other Semitic idols

,and he

denies the presence of that key-note in any of the

religious systems of the Aryan nation s , whetherGreeks or Romans , Germans or Celts, Hindus or

SEMITIC uonornmsx . 407

Persian s. Such an assertion could not but rousecon siderable Opposition , and so strong seems to havebeen the remonstrances addressed to M. Renan byseveral of his colleagues in the French Institutethat, without awaiting the publication of the secondvolume of h is great work, he has thought it right topublish part of it as a separate pamphlet. In his

Nouvelles Considerations sur ls Caractere Généraldes Peuples Sémitiques, et en particulier sur leurTendance au Monothéisme,’ he endeavours to silencethe objections raised against the leading idea of his

history of the Semitic race. It is an essay whichexhibits, not only the comprehen sive knowledge of

the scholar, but the warmth and alacrity of the

advocate. With M. Renan the monotheistic cha

racter of the descendants of Shem is not only a

scientific tenet, but a moral conviction . He wishesthat his whole work should stand or fall with thisthesis, and it becomes, therefore, all the more theduty of the critic to inquire whether the argumentswhich he brings forward in support of his favourite

It is but fair to M. Renan that, in examining hisstatements, we should pay particular attention to

any slight modifications which he may himself haveadopted in his last memoir. In his history he asserts with great confidence, and somewhat broadly,that ls monothéisme resume et explique tous lescaracteres de la race Sémitique.’ In his later pamphlet he is more cautious. As an experiencedpleader,he is ready to make many con cessions in order togain all the more readily our assent to his generalproposition . He points out himselfwith great can

408 smu 'rro nono'rnnrsn .

dour the weaker points of his argument, though, ofcourse, only in order to return with unabated courageto his first position—that of all the races of mankindthe Semitic race alone was endowedwith the instinctofmonotheism . As it is impossible to deny the factthat the Semitic nations, in spite of this supposedmonotheistic instinct, were frequently addicted to

the most degraded forms of a polytheistic idolatry,and that even the Jews, the most monotheistic ofall,frequently provoked the anger of the Lord by burning incense to othei gods, M. Renan remarks thatwhen he speaks of a nation in general he only speaksof the intellectual aristocracy of that nation . Heappeals in self-defence to the manner in whichhistorians lay down the character ofmodern nation s .The French, ’ he says, are repeatedly called nne

nation sp irituelle,”

and yet no one would wish toassert either that every Frenchman is sp iri tual, orthat no one could be sp iritual who is not a Frenchman .

’ Now,here we may grant to M. Renan that if

we speak of esp rit’ we naturally think of the intel

lectual minority only, and not of the whole bulk of anation ; but if we Speak of religion , the case is different. If we say that the French believe in one

God only, or that they are Christians, we speak not

only of the intellectual aristocracy of France but of

every man, woman , and child born and bred in

France. Even if we say that the French are RomanCatholics , we do so only because we know that thereis a decided majority in France in favour of that

unreformed system ofChristianity. But if, becaus esome of the most distinguished writers of Francehave paraded their contempt for all religious dogmas ,


410 SEMITIC nonornmsm.

or ignores altogether. Besides, there is somethingin the very conclusions to which he is driven byh is too partial evidence which jars on our ears, and

betrays awant ofharmony in the premisses on whichhe builds. Taking h is stand on the fact that theJewish race was the first of all the nation s of the

world to arrive at the kn owledge .of one God, M .

Renan proceeds to argue that, if their monotheismhad been the result of a persevering mental effort

if it had been a discovery like the philosophicalor scientific discoveries of the Greeks, it would benecessary to admit that the Jews surpassed all othernations of the world in intellect and vigour of speculation . This, he admits, is contrary to fact

Apart la supériorité de son culte, le peuple juifn’en a aucune autre ; c’est un des peuples les moin s

dou és pour la science et la philosophie parmi lespeuples de l’antiquité il n

’a une grande position ni

politique u i militaire. Ses in stitution s sont pureement con servatrices ; les prophetesqui représententexcellemment son génie, sont des hommes essentiellement réactionnaires, se reportant tonjours vers un

idéal antérieur. Comment expliquer, au sein d’unesociété aussi étroite et au ssi peu développée

,une

revolution d’idées qu ’

Athenes et Alexandrie n’ont

pas réussi aaccomplir ‘

P

M . Renan then defines the monotheism of the

Jews,and of the Semitic nations in general, as the

result of a low rather than of a high state of intellectual cultivation : IIs

’

en faut,’ he w rites (p.

que ls monothéisme soit le produit d’une racequi ades idées exaltées en fait de religion ; c

’est en réalite

le fruit d’une racequ i a pen de besoins religiem

snmrrc monornmsm. 411

C’est comme minimwm de religion , en fait de dogmes .

et en fait de pratiques extérieures,que lemonothéismeest surtout accommodé aux besoins des population snomades.’

But even this minimum of religious reflection ,

which is required, according to M . Renan,for the

perception of the un ity of God, he grudges to the

Semitic nation s, and he is driven in the end (p. 73)to explain the Semitic Monotheism as the result of areligious instinct, analogou s to the in stinct whichled each race to the formation of its own language.

H ere we miss the clearness and precision whichdistinguish most ofM . Renan ’

s works. It is alwaysdangerous to tran sfer expression s from one branch ofknowledge to another. The word ‘ in stinct has its

legitimate application in natural history,where it is

u sed of the uncon sciou s acts of unconscious beings .

W e say that birds build their nests by instinct, thatfishes swim by in stinct, that cats catch mice by instinct ; and

,though no natural philosopher has yet

explained what instinct is, yet we accept the term as

a conventional expression for an unknown powerworking in the animal world.

Ifwe tran sfer this word to the unconscious actsof con scious beings, we mu st.necessarily alter its defin ition . We may Speak of an in stinctive motion of

the arm, but we only mean a motion which has become so habitual as to require no longer any specialeffort of the will.

If, however, we transfer the word to the consciousthoughts of consciou s beings , we strain the wordbeyond its natural capacities, and use it in order to,

avoid other terms which would commit u s to the

4 12 ssmrio uonornmsn .

admission either of innate ideas or inspired truths .

W e use a word in order to avoid a definition . It

may sound more scientific to speak of a monotheisticinstinct rather than of the inborn image or the revealed truth of the One living God but is instinctless mysterious than revelation Can there he an

instinctwithout an instigation or an instigator P Andwhose hand was it that in stigated the Semitic mindto the worship of one God

‘

9 Could the same handhave instigated the Aryan mind to the worship of

many gods Could the monotheistic instinct of theSemitic race, if an in stinct, have been so frequentlyobscured, or the polytheistic instinct of the Aryanrace, if an instinct, so completely annihilated, as toallow the Jews to worship on all the high placesround Jerusalem, and the Greeks and Romans to become believers in Christ ? Fishes never fly, and catsnever catch frogs . These are the difficulties intowhich we are led ; and they arise simply and solelyfrom our u singwords for their sound rather than fortheir meaning. We begin by playing with words,but in the end the words will play with us .

There are, in fact, various kinds of monotheism,

and it becomes our duty to examine more carefullywhat they mean and how they arise. There is one

kind of monotheism,though it would more properly.

be called theism ,or henotheism

,which forms the

birthright ofevery human being. What distinguishesman from all other creatures, and not only raises himabove the animal world, but removes h im altogetherfrom the confines of a merely natural existence, is thefeeling of son ship inherent in and inseparable fromh uman nature. That feeling may find expression in


4 14 ~ snmric nono'rxmsu .

g iven eyes to see and ears to hear, and into whosenostrils He had breathed the breath of life, even theSpirit of God.

This primitive intuition of God, however, was initself neither monotheistic nor polytheistic, thoughit might become either, according to the expressionwhich it took in the languages of man . It w as this

primitive intuition which supplied either the subjector the predicate in all the religions of theworld, andwithout it no religion , whether true or false, whetherrevealed or natural, cou ld have had even its firstbeginning. It is too often forgotten by those whobelieve that a polytheistic worship was the mostn atural unfolding of religious life, that polytheismmust everywhere have been preceded by a more orless conscious theism . In no language does thepluralexist before the singular. No human mind couldhave conceived the idea of gods without having prev iously conceived the idea of a god. It would be,however, quite as great a mistake to imagine, becau sethe idea of a god must exist previously to that ofgods, that therefore a belief in One God precededeverywhere the belief in many gods . A belief inGod as exclusively One, involves a distinct negationof more than one God, and that negation is possibleonly after the conception ,

whether real or imaginary,ofmany gods .

The primitive intuition of the Godhead is neithermonotheistic nor polytheistic, and it finds its mostnatu ral expression in the simplest and yet the mostimportant article of faith—that God is God. This

must have been the faith of the ancestors ofmankindpreviou sly to any division of race or confusion of

tongues. It might seem,indeed

,as if in such a faith

SEMITIC monors s isu . 415

t he oneness of God, though not expressly as serted,was implied

,and that it existed

,though latent,

in the first revelation of God. History, however,proves that the question of oneness was yet undecided in that primitive faith, and that the intuitionof God was not yet secured against the illusions of

a double vision . There are, in reality, two kindsof oneness which, when we enter into metaphysical discussions, must be carefully distinguished, andwhich for practical purposes are well kept separateby the definite and indefinite articles. There is onekind of oneness which does not exclude the idea of

plurality ; there is another which does. When wesay that Cromwell was a Protector of England, wedo not assert that he was the only protector. But if

we say that he was the Protector of England, it isunderstood that he was the only man who enjoyedthat title . If, therefore, an expression had beengiven to that primitive intuition of the Deity whichis the mainspring of all later religion , it would havebeen There is a God

,

’but not yet There is but

One God.

” The latter form of faith, the belief inOne God, is properly calledmonotheism, whereas theterm of henotheism would best express the faith ina single god.

We must bear in mind that we are here Speakingof a period in the history ofmankindwhen, togetherwith the awakening of ideas , the first attempts onlywere being made at expressing the simplest conceptions by means of a language most simple, mosts ensuous, and most unwieldy. There was as yet no

word sufficiently reduced by the wear and tear of

thought to serve as an adequate expression for the

416 ssmrro monoramsm.

abstract idea of an immaterial and supernaturalBeing. There were words forwalking and shouting,for cutting and burning, for dog and cow

,for hou se

and wall, for sun and moon,for day and night .

Every object was called by some quality which hadstruck the eye as most peculiar and characteristic .But whatquality should be predicated of that Beingofwhich man knew as yet nothing but its existence 3Language possessed as yet no auxiliary verbs . The

very idea of being withou t the attributes of qualityor action h ad never entered into the human mind.

How then was that Being to be called which h adrevealed its existence, and continued to make itselffelt by everything that most powerfully impressedthe awakening mind, but which as yet was knownonly like a subterraneou s spring by the waterswhich it poured forth with inexhaustible strength 9When storm and lightning drove a father withhis helpless family to seek refuge in the forests

,

and the fall of mighty trees crushed at his side

those who were most dear to h im ,there were, no

doubt, feelings of terror and awe, of helplessnessand dependence, in the human heart which burstforth in a shriek for pity or help from the onlyBeing that could command the storm . But therewas no name by which He could be called. Theremight be names for the storm-wind and the thunderbolt, but these were not the names applicableto Him that rideth upon the heaven of heaven s

,

which were of old. Again , when after a wild and

tearful night the sun dawned in the morning,smiling on man—when after a dreary and deathlike winter, spring came again with its sunshine


418 smurro nouornmsx .

tive, and were changed into more names or propernames. What we mean can best be illustrated bythe fact that the dictionaries of Semitic languagesare mostly arranged according to their roots . Wh enwewish to find the meaning of a word in Hebrew orArabic, we first try to discover its root, whethertriliteral or biliteral, and then look in the dictionaryfor that root and its derivatives. In the Aryanlanguages, on the contrary, such an arrangementwould be extremely inconvenient. In many wordsit is impossible to detect the radical element. In

others,after the root is discovered, we find that it has

not given birth to any other derivatives which wouldthrow their converging rays of light on its radicalmeaning. In other cases, again , such seems to havebeen the boldness ofthe original name-giver that wecan hardly enter into the idiosyn crasy which assignedsuch a name to such an object.This peculiarity of the Semitic and Aryan lan

guages must have had the greatest influence on theformation of their religious phraseology. The Semiticman would callon God in adjectives only, or in wordswhich always conveyed a predicative meaning. Everyone of his words was more or less predicative, andhewas therefore restricted in his choice to such wordsas expressed some one or other of the abstractqualities of the Deity. The Aryan man was lessfettered in his choice. Let us take an instance .Being startled by the sound of thunder, he would at

first express his impression by the single phrase, Itthwnders Bpavrg

’

i. Here the idea of God is understood rather than expressed, very much in the samemanner as the Semitic proper names Z abd (present),

snmrro nouommsx . 419

A bd (servant), A u s (present), are habitually usedfor Abd-allah, Z abd-allah, A u s-allah, -the

s ervant of God, the gift of God. It would be morein accordance with the feelings and thoughts of

those who first used these so-called impersonal verbsto translate them by Be thwmlers , H e rains, H e

snows. Afterwards, instead of the simple impersonal verb He thunders, another expression na

turally suggested itself. The thunder came fromthe sky, the sky was frequently called D y au s (theb right one), in Greek Z363 ; and though it was not

the bright sky which thundered but the dark,

yet Dyan s had already ceased to be can expressive predicate, it had become a traditional name

,

and hence there was nothing to prevent an Aryanman from saying Dyan s, or the sky ,

thwnders,

in Greek Z etaBpovrcji. Let u s here mark the almostirresistible influence of language on the mind. The

word Dyau s, which at first meant bright, had

lost its radical meaning, and now meant simplysky. It then entered in to a new stage The ideawhich had first been expressed by the pronoun orthe termination of the third person

, H e thwnders ,

was taken up into the word Dyau s, or sky. H e

thunders, and Dyau s thwnders, became synony

mous expressions,and by the mere habit of speech

H e became Dyau s, and Dyau s became H e. Henceforth Dyau s remained as an appellative of thatunseen though ever present Power, which had re

vealed its existence to man from the beginning, butwhich remained without a name long after everybeast of the field and every fowl of the air had beenn amed by Adam .

420 SEMITIC Monornmsu .

Now,what happened in this ins tance with the

name of Dyau s, happened again and again withother names. When men felt the presence of Godin the great and strong wind, in the earthquake, orthe fire, they said at first, H e storms, H e shakes

,H e

burns . But they likewise said, the storm (M ara t)blows, the fire (A gn i) burns, the subterraneous fire(Vu lcanus) upheaves the earth. And after a th e

the result was the same as before, and the wordsmeaning originally wind or fire were u sed, undercertain restriction s

,as names of the unknown God.

As long as all these names were remembered as merenames or attributes of one and the same DivinePower, there was as yet no polytheism, though, nodoubt, every new name threatened to obscure moreand more the primitive intuition of God. At first,the names of God, like fetishes or statues, werehonest attempts at expressing or representing an

idea which could never find an adequate expressionor representation . But as soon as they were drawnaway from their original intention , the eidolon

,or

likeness, became an idol ; the namen, or name,

lapsed into a numen,or demon . If the Greeks had

remembered that Zeus was but a name or symbol ofthe Deity, there would have been no more harm in

calling God by that name th an by any other. If

they had remembered that Kronos, and Uranos, andApollon were all but so many attempts at namingthe various sides, or manifestations, or aspects, orpersons of the Deity, they might have used thesenames in the hours of their various needs, just as

the Jews called on Jehovah Elohim,or on Jehovah


422 smu'rw nonornsrsn .

The rain,’ he says (p.

‘ is represented, in all

the primitive mythologies of the Aryan race, as thefruit of the embraces of Heaven and Earth.

’The

bright sky,’ says JE schylus, in a passage which one

might suppose was taken from the Vedas , ‘ loves topenetrate the earth ; the earth on her part aspiresto the heavenly marriage. Rain falling from the

loving sky h pregnates the earth, and she producesfor mortals pastures of the flocks and the gifts ofCeres. ’ In the Book of Job, l on the contrary, it isGod who tears Open the waterskins of Heaven(xxxviii. who Opens the courses for the floods(ibid. who engen ders the drops ofdew (ibid. 28)

‘He draws towards Him themists from thewaters,

Which pour down as rain , and form their vapours .Afterwards the clouds spread them out,

They fall as drops on the crowds of men .

’

xxxvi. 27,

He charges the n ight with damp vapours,He drives before Him the thunder-bearing cloud.

It is driven to one side or the other by H is command,

To execute all that He ordainsOn the face of the universe,Whether it be to punish H is creaturesOr to make thereof a proof of His mercy.

’

(Jobxxxvii. 11

Or, again, Proverbs xxx. 4

Who hath gathered the wind in H is fists 9 WhoWe give the extracts according to M. Renan

’s translation ofthe

Book of Job (Paris , 1859, Michel Levy).

SEMITIC nonornmsn . 423

hath bound the waters in a garment 9 Who hathestablished all the ends of the earth 9 What is H isname, and what is H is Son ’s name, if thou cansttell

It has been shown by ample evidence from the

Rig-Veda how many myths were suggested to the

A ryan world by various names of the dawn , the dayspring of life. The language of the ancient Aryan sof India had thrown out many names for thatheavenly apparition ,

and every name,as it ceased to

be understood, became, like a decaying seed, thegerm of an abundant growth of myth and legend.

Why should not the same have happened to the

Semitic names for the dawn 9 Simply and solely because the Semitic words had no tendency to phoneticcorruption ; simply and solely because they continuedto be felt as appellatives, and would inevitably havedefeated every attempt at mythological phraseologysuch as we find in India and Greece. When the

dawn is mentioned in the book of Job (ix . 7) it isGod who commandeth the sun and it riseth not, and

sealeth up the stars.’It is H is power which causeth

the day-spring to know its place, that it might take

hold of the ends of the earth, that the wickedmightbe shaken out of it (Job xxxviii. 12, 13 ; Renan ,Livre de Job,’ pref. Shaha r

, the dawn ,never

becomes an independent agent ; she is never spokenof as Eos rising from the bed of her husband Tiathonos (the setting sun), solely and simply becausethe word retained its power as an appellative, andthus could not enter into any mythological metaemorphosis.

424 ssmrrc nonornmsn .

Even in Greece there are certain words which haveremained so pellucid as to prove unfit for mytho

logical refraction. Selene in Greek is so clearly th emoon that her name would pierce through the darkestclouds of myth and fable. Call her H ecate

, and

she will bear any disguise, however fanciful. It is

the same with the Latin Luna . She is too clearlythe moon to be mistaken for anything else, but callher a ina

,and she will readily enter into various

mythologicalphas es . If, then ,the names of sun and

moon, of thunder and lightning, of light and day, of

night and dawn could not yield to the Semitic racesfit appellatives for the Deity, where were they to befound? If the names ofHeaven or Earth jarred on

their ears as names unfit fortheCreator, where couldthey find more appropriate terms 9 Th ey would not

have objected to real names such as Jupiter Op ti

nms Maz imus,or Zeta cutaw ay p éoyw ros, if such

words could have been framed in their dialects, andthe names of Jupiter and Zeus could have been so

ground down as to become synonymous with the

general term for God.

’Not even the Jews could

have given a more exalted definition of the Deitythan that of Op timus Mm enus

—the Best and the

Greate st ; and their very name of God, Jehovah, isgenerally supposed to mean no more than what thePeleiades ofDodona said of Zeus, Z eta r’yr, Zeta larly ,Z si

‘

wic on-av (11 11.5d 8 Z ei} , He was, He is,He willbe,Oh great Zeus ! Not being able to form such substantives as Dyaus, or Varuna, or Indra, the descendants of Shem fixed on the predicates which inthe Aryan prayers follow the name of the Deity, andcalled H im the Best and the Greatest, the Lord and.


426 smu rro monorasrsu .

creature. But in none of these words can we see

any decided proof that those who framed them had

arrived at the clear perception of One God, and.

were thus secured against the danger of polytheism .

Like Dyau s, like Indra, like Brahman, Baal and Eland Moloch were names of God, but not yet of the

One God.

And we have only to follow the history of theseSemitic names in order to see that, in spite of theirsuperlative meaning, they proved no stronger bulwarks against polytheism than the Latin Op timus

Mawimns . The very names which we saw explainedbefore as meaning the Highest, the Lord, the

Master,are represented in the Phoenician mythology

as standing to each other in the relation of Fatherand Son . (Renan , p . There is hardly one singleSemitic tribe which did not at times forget the

original meaning of the names by which they calledon God. If the Jews had remembered the meaningof E1

,the Omnipotent, they could not have wor

shipped Baal, the Lord, as different from El. But

as the Aryan tribes bartered the names of their gods ,and were glad to add the worship of Zeu s to that ofUranos

, the worship of Apollon to that of Zeu s, theworship ofHermes to that of Apollon ,

the Semiticnation s likewise were ready to try the gods of theirneighbours. If there had been in the Semitic race atrulymonotheistic instinct,thehistoryof those nationswould become perfectly unintelligible. Nothing ismore difficult to overcome than an instinct : natnrwm

exp ellasfurcd, taxman usqu e recurret. But the historyeven of the Jewish race is made up of an almost un-ein terrupted series of relapses from monotheism into

sm n'rrc nonoramsn . 427

polytheism and of repentant returns from polytheismto monotheism.

Let us admit, on the contrary, that God had inthe beginning revealed Himself in the same mannerto the ancestors of the whole human race. Let us

then observe the naturaldivergence of the languagesof man

,and consider the peculiar difi culties that

had to be overcome in framing names for God, andthe peculiar manner in which they were overcomein the Semitic and Aryan languages, and everythingthat follows will be intelligible. If we consider theabundance of synonyms into which all an cientlanguages burst out at their first starting—if weremember that there were hundreds of names forthe earth and the Sky, the sun and the moon , weshall not be surprised at meeting with more thanone name for God both among the Semitic and theAryan nation s. If we consider how easily the radical or significative elements of words were absorbedand obscured in the Aryan, and how they stood out

in bold relief in the Semitic languages, we shallappreciate the difiiculty which the Shemites experienced in framing any name that should not seemto take too one-sided a view of the Deity by predicating but one quality, whether strength, dominion ,

or majesty ; and we Shall equally perceive the snarewhich their very language laid fortheAryan nations,by

’

supplying them with a number of words which,though they seemed harmless as meaning nothingexcept what by tradition or definition they weremade to mean , yet were full of mischief owing tothe recollections which, at any time

, they mightrevive. Dyau s in itself was as good a name as any

428 ssmric nonornmsn .

for God, and in some respects more appropriate thanits derivative deva, the Latin dens, which the

Romance nations still u se without meaning any

harm . But Dyau s had meant sky for too long a

time to become entirely divested of all the old mythsor sayings which were true of Dyan s, the sky, butcould only be retained as fables, if transferred to

Dyau s, God. Dyau s, the Bright, might be calledthe husband of the earth ; but when the same mythwas repeated of Zeus, the god, then Zeus becamethe husband of Demeter, Demeter became a god

dess, a daughter sprang from their union , and all

the sluices of mythological madness were Opened.

There were a few men , no doubt, at all th es, whosaw through this mythological phraseology, whocalled on God, though they called him Zeus, orDyaus, or Jupiter. Xenophanes, one of the earliestGreek heretics, boldly maintained that there w asbut one God, and that he was not like unto men ,

e ither in body or in mind.

" A poet in the Veda.asserts distinctly

,They call hh Indra, Mitra,

Varuna, Agni ; then he is the well-winged heav enly Garutmat ; that which is One the wise call itmany ways—they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan .

”

But, on the whole, the charm of mythology pre

vailed among the Aryan nations, and a return to theprimitive intuition of God, and a total negation of all

gods, were rendered more difi cult to theAryan thanto the Semitic man . The Semitic man had hardlyever to resist the allurements of mythology. The

Xenophanes , about contemporary with Cyrus , asquoted byClemens Alex , Strom. v . p . 601 —eIs Oebs (v re 06070 : ItalMGM'

s-ow :

061 1 86m Owrro’

iaw (incite: 0683 vdmla.

H istory of Ancient Samkrit Literature, by M. M., p . 567.


4 80 sm n'rro nonornmsn .

choice between various gods, would have been un

meaning if addressed to a nation which had onceconceived the unity of the Godhead. Even images

of the gods were not unknown to the family of Abraham,

for, though we know nothing of the exact formof the teraphim, which Rachel carried away fromher father, certain it is that Laban calls them his gods(Genesis xxxi. 19, But what is muchmore significant than these traces ofpolytheism and idolatryis thehesitating tone in which some of the early patriarch sspeak of their God. When Jacob flees before Esauinto Padan-Aram and awakes from his vision at

Bethel, h e does not profess his faith in the One God,but he bargains, and says, If God will be with me,and will keep me in this way that I go, andwill giveme bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that Icome again to my father

’s house in peace, then shallthe Lord be my God : and this stone, which I haveset for a pillar, shall be God’s house : and of all thatthou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth untothee (Genesis xxviii. 20 Language of this

kind evinces not only a temporary want of faith inGod, but it shows that the conception of God

had not yet acquired that complete universalitywhich alone deserves to be called monotheism, orbelief in the One God. To him who has seen God

face to face there is no longer any escape or doubt asto who is to be his god; God is his god, whateverbefall. But this Jacob did not learn until he hadstruggled and wrestled with God, and committedhimself to H is care at the very time when no one

else could have saved him . In that struggle Jacobasked for the true name of God, and he learnt from

snnrrm nonornmsn . 431

God that H is name was secret (Genesis xxxn .

After that, his God was no longer one ofmany gods .

H is faith was not like the faith of Jethro (Exodusxxvii. the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of

Moses,who when he heard of all that God had

done for Moses acknowledged that God (Jehovah)was greater than all gods (Elohim). This is not

yet faith in the One God. It is a faith hardly abovethe faith of the people who were halting betweenJehovah and Baal, and who only when

.

they saw

what the Lord did for Elij ah, fell on their faces andsaid, The Lord He is the God.

’

And yet this limited faith in Jehovah as the God

of the Jews, as a God more powerful than the godsof the heathen , as a God above all gods , betrays itselfagain and again in the history of the Jews. The ideaofmany gods is there, andwherever that idea exists,wherever theplural ofgod is used in earnest, there ispolytheism . It is not so much the names of Zeus,Hermes, &c.

, which constitute the polytheism of the

Greeks ; it is the plural 050i, gods, which contain sthe fatal spell. We do not know what M. Renanm ean s when he says that Jehovah with the Jewsn’est pas le plus grand entre plusieurs dieux ; c’est

lo Dieu unique.’ It was so with Abraham ; it was soafter Jacob had been changed into Israel ; it was sowith Moses, Elijah, and Jeremiah. But what is themeaning of the very first commandment, Thou shalthave no other gods before me Could this com

mand have been addressed to a nation to whom the

plural of God was a nonentity It might beanswered that the plural of God was to the Jews asrevolting as it is to u s, that it was revolting to their

432 snmrlo nonornmsn .

faith, if not to their reason . But how was it thattheir language tolerated the plural of a word whichexcludes plurality as much as the word for the centreof a sphere No man who h ad clearly perceived theunity ofGod, could say with the Psalmist (lxxxvi.Among the gods there is none like unto Thee

,0 ,

Lord, neither are there anyworks like unto Thyworks.

’

Though the same poet says, Thou art God alone,’

he could not have compared God with other gods, ifhis idea ofGod had really reached that all-embracingcharacter which it hadwith Abraham,

Moses , Elijah,and Jeremiah. Nor wou ld God have been praised as

the great king above all gods by a poet in whoseeyes the gods of the heathen had been recognised as

what they were—mighty shadows,thrown by the

mighty works of God, and intercepting for a time thepure light of the Godhead.

We thus arrive at a different conviction from thatwhich M. Renan has made the basis of thehistory ofthe Semitic race . W e can see nothing that wouldju stify the admission of a monotheistic in stinct

,

granted to the Semitic, and withh eld from theAryanrace. They both share in the primitive intuition of

God, they are both exposed to dangers in framingnames for God, and they both fall into polytheism.

What is peculiar to the Aryan race is their mythological phraseology, superadded to their polytheism ;

what is peculiar to the Semitic race is their belief ina national god—in a god chosen by his people as hispeople had been chosen by him .

No doubt, M. Renan might say that we ignoredhis problem , and that we have not removed the difliculties which drove h im to the admission of a mono


4 34 sm n'rrc nonornmsn .

from him,who left the

.

land of his fathers to live astranger in the land whither God had called him,

who always listened to the voice of God, whether itconveyed to h im the promise of a son in his old age,

or the command to sacrifice that son , his only son

Isaac, h is venerable figure will assume still moremajestic proportion s when we see in him the lifespring of that faith which was to unite all the nationsof the earth, and the author of that blessing whichw as to come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.

An d if we are asked how this one Abraham possessed not only the primitive intuition of God as He

had revealed Himself to all mankind, but passedthrough the denial of all other gods to the knowledge of the one God, we are content to answer thatit was by a special Divine Revelation . W e do not

indulge in theological phraseology, butwe mean everyw ord to its fullest extent. The Father of Truthchooses H is own prophets, and He speaks to them in

a voice stronger than the voice of thunder. It is the

s ame inner voice through which God speaks to all of

u s . That voice maydwindle away, andbecome hardlyaudible ; it may lose its Divine accent, and sink intothe language of worldly prudence ; but it may also,from time to time, assume its real nature with thechosen of God, and sound into their ears as a voicefrom Heaven . A divine in stinct may sound morescientific, and less theological ; but in truth it wouldn either be an appropriate name for what is a gift orgrace accorded to but few,

nor would it be a morescientific, i.e. a more intelligible, word than specialrevelation .

’

The important point, however, is not whether the

snmrxo nonornmsn . 435

faith of Abraham should be called a divine instinctor a revelation ; what we wish here to insist on is thatthat instinct, or that revelation , was special, grantedto one man , and handed down from h im to Jews,Ch ristians, and Mohammedans, to all who believe intheGod ofAbrah am. Nor was it granted to Abraham entirely as a free gift. Abraham was tried and

t empted before he was tru sted by God. He had tobreak with the faith of his fathers ; he had to denythe gods who were worshipped by his friends and

neighbours . Like all the friends of God, he had tohear himself called an infidel and atheist, and in our

own days he would have been looked upon as a mad

man for atwmpting to slay his son . It was throughspecial faith that Abraham receivedhis special revelation , not through instinct, not through abstractmeditation , not through ecstatic visions . We wantto know more of that man than we do ; but, evenw ith the little we know of him,

he stands before us

as a figure second only to one in the whole history ofthe world. W e see his zeal for God, but we never seehim contentious. Though Melchizedek worshippedGod under a different name

,invoking H im as Eliun ,

the Most High, Abraham at once acknowledgedin Melchizedek a worshipper and priest of the tr ueGod, or Elohim, and paid h im tithes . In the veryname of Elohim we seem to trace the conciliatoryspirit of Abmham. Elohim is a plural, though it isfollowed by the verb in the singular. It is generallysaid that the genius of the Semitic languages countenances the use of plurals for abstract conception s,and that when Jehovah is called Elohim,

the

plural should be translated by the Deity.

’ We

r r 2

436 SEMITIC nonorxmsn .

do not deny the fact, but we wish for an explanation , and an explanation is suggested bythe various phases through which, as we saw

,the

conception of God passed in the ancient h is

tory of the Semitic mind. Eloah was at finst the

name for God, and as it is found in all the dialectsof the Semitic family except the Phoenician (Renan ,

p. it may probably be considered as the mostancient name of the Deity, sanctioned at a time whenthe original Semitic Speech had not yet branched off

into nationaldialects. When this name was first usedin the plural, it could only have signified, like everyplural, many Eloahs, and such a plural could onlyhave been formedafter the various names of God hadbecome the names of independent deities—i .e. duringa polytheistic stage. The transition from this intothe monotheistic stage could be efi

'

ected in two ways—either by denying altogether the existence of theElohim, and changing them into devils

, as the Zoroastrians did with the Devas of their Brahmanic

ancestors ; or by taking a higher view, and lookingupon the Elohim as so many names, invented withthe honest purpose of expressing the various aspectsof the Deity, though in th e diverted from theiroriginal purpose . This is the view taken by St. Paulof ne religion of theGreeks when he came to declareunto them Him whom they ignorantly worshipped,’

and the same view was taken by Abraham . Whatever the names of the Elohim worshipped by thenumerous clans of his race, Abraham saw that all theElohim were meant for God, and thus Elohim, com

prehending by one name everything that ever hadbeen or could be calleddivine, became the name with


438 SEMITIC nonornnrsn .

so every proper name which M . Renan quotes, Whe

ther of Jews, or Edomites, Ishmaelites, Ammonites ,Moabites, and Themanites, whether from the Bible

,

or from Arab historians,from Greek authors

,Greek

inscriptions, the Egyptian papyri, theHimyaritic andSinaitic in scriptions and ancient coins, are allopen totwo interpretations .

‘The servant ofBaal ’maymeanthe servant of the Lord, but it may also mean th e

servant of Baal, as one of many lords, or even th e

servant oftheBaalim or theLords . The same appliesto all other names . The gift of El may mean the

gift of the only strong God ; but it may likewisemean the gift of the El,

’

as one of many gods , oreven the gift of the El

’s,

’in the sen se of the strong

gods . Nor do we see why M . Renan should takesuch pains to prove that the name of Cro tal orOrotu lat, mentioned by Herodotos (III . may be

interpreted as the name of a supreme deity ; and

that Alilat, mentioned by the same traveller, shouldbe taken

,not as the name of a goddess, but as a

feminine noun expressive of the abstract sen se of thedeity. H erodotos says distinctly that Crotal was a

deity like Bacchus and A lila t, as he tran slates h ername by Oépam

’

n, must have appeared to him as a.

goddess, and not as the Supreme Deity. One verseof the Koran is sufficient to show that the Semiticinhabitants of Arabia worshipped not only gods , but

goddesses also. What think ye of Allat, al U z za ,

andMa n ah, that other third goddess‘

P

If our view of thedevelopment of the idea ofGod

be correct, we can perfectly understand how, in spiteof this polytheistic phraseology, the primitive intuition of God shouldmake itself felt from time to time,

snmrlc noxornmsn . 439

long before Mohammed restored the beliefofAbrahamin one God. The old Arabic prayer mentioned byAbulfarag may be perfectly genuine : I dedicatemyself to thy service, 0 God Thou hast no companion ,

exceptthy companion , ofwhom thou art absolutemaster, and of whatever is his .

’

The verse pointedout to M . Renan by M. Caussin de Perceval from theMoallaka ofZoheyr, was certainly anterior toMohammed : Try not to hide your secret feelings from the

sight ofAllah ; Allah knows all that is hidden .

’But

thesequotation s serve no more to establish the nui

versality of the monotheistic in stinct in the Semiticrace than similar quotation s from the Veda wouldprove the existence of a conscious monotheism amongthe ancestors of the Aryan race . There toowe read,Agniknows what is secret amongmortals (Rig-VedaVIII. 39, 6) and again , He, the upholder of order,Varuna, sits down among his people ; he, the wise,sits there to govern . From thence perceiving all

wondrous things, he sees what has been and whatwill be done.’ But in these very hymns

,better than

anywhere els e, we learn that the idea of supremacyand omnipotence ascribed to one god did by nomean sexclude the admission of other gods, or names of God.

All the other gods disappear from the vision of the

poet while he addresses h is own God, and he onlywho is to fulfil his desires stands in full light beforethe eyes of the worshipper as the supreme and onlyGod.

The Science of Religion is only just beginning,and we must take care how we impede its progressby preconceived notions or too hasty generalisation s .

History ofAncie nt Sanskrit Ditem tm'e, by M. M., p . 536.

440 ss nrrrc nonornmsn .

During the last fifty years the authentic documentsof themost important religions of theworldhave beenrecovered in a most unexpected and almost miraculous manner. We have now before us the canonicalbooks of Buddhism the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster isno longer a sealed book ; and the hymns of the RigVeda have revealed a state of religion anterior to th efirst beginnings of that mythology which in Homerand Hesiod stands before u s as a mouldering ruin .

The soil of Mesopotamia has given back the veryimages once worshipped by the most powerful of

th e Semitic tribes, and the cuneiform inscriptions ofBabylon and Nineveh have disclosed the very prayersaddressed to Baal or Nisroch. W ith the discovery ofthese documents a new era begins in the study of

religion . We begin to see more clearly every daywhat St. Paul meant in his sermon at Athen s . But

as the excavator at Babylon or Nineveh, before heventures to reconstruct the palaces of these ancientkingdoms, sinks his shafts into the ground slowly andcircumspectly lest he should injure the walls of theancient palaces which he is disinterring ; as hewatchesevery corner stone lest he mistake their dark pas sagesand galleries and as he removes with awe and trembling the dust and clay from the brittle monumentslest he destroy their outlines, and obliterate theirinscriptions , so it behoves the student of the historyof religion to set to work carefully, lest he shouldmiss the track, and lose himself in an in extricablemaze. The relics which he handles are more precions than the ruins of Babylon ; the problems h ehas to solve are more important than the question sof ancient chronology ; and the substructions which


XXII .

ON FALSE ANAL OG IES

COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY .

VERY different from the real similarities that canbediscovered in nearly all the religions of the world,and which, owing to their deeply human character,in no way necessitate the admission that one religionborrowed from the other, are those minute coinci

deuces between the Jewish and the Pagan religion swhich have so often been discussed by learned theologians, and which were intended by them as proofpositive, either that the Pagans borrowed theirreligiou s ideas direct from the Old Testament, orthat some fragments of a primevalrevelation , grantedto the ancestors of the whole race of mankind

,had

been preserved in the temples of Greece and Italy.

Bochart, in his Geographia Sacra,’ con sidered

the identity ofNoah and Saturn so firmly establishedas hardly to admit of thepossibility of a doubt. The

three sons of Saturn—Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto-he represented as having been originally the threesons ofNoah : Jupiter being H am ; Neptune, Japhet ;and Shem,

Pluto . Even in the third generationthe two families were proved to have been one, for

on FALSE w anoems . 448

Phut, the son of H am,or of Jupiter Hammon , could

be no other than Apollo Pythius ; Canaan no otherthan Mercury ; and Nimrod no other than Bacchu s,whose original name was supposed to have beenBar-chu s, the son of Cush. G. J. Vossius, in his

learned work, De Origine et Progressu Idolatriae

identified Saturn with Adam, Janus withNoah, Pluto with Ham, Neptune with Japhet, Minerva with Naamah, Vulcan with Tubal Cain , Typhon with Og. Huet, the friend ofBochart, and thecolleague of Bossuet, went still further ; and in his

classical work, the Demonstratio Evangelica,’ he

attempted to prove that the whole theology of theheathen nations was borrowed from Moses, whom he

identified not only with ancient law-givers, likeZoroaster and Orpheus, but with gods and demigods,such as Apollo, Vulcan , Faunu s, and Priapu s .

All this happened not more than two hundredyears ago ; and even a hundred years ago, nay,

even after the discovery of Sanskrit and the rise ofComparative Philology, the troublesome ghost of

Huet was by no means laid at once. On the con

trary, as soon as the ancient language and religionof India became known in Europe, they were receivedby many people in the same Spirit. Sanskrit, likeall other languages, was to be derived from H ebrew,

the ancient religion of the Brahmans from the Old

Testament.

There was at that tM e an enthusiasm amongOriental scholars, particularly at Calcutta, and an

interest for Oriental antiquities in the public at large,of which we in these days of apathy for Easternliterature can hardly form an adequate idea. Every

444 on m uss ANALOGIES

body wished to be first in the field, and to bring tolight some of the treasures which were supposed tobe hidden in the sacred literature of the Brahman s .

S irWilliam Jones, the founder of theAsiatic Societyat Calcutta, published in the first volume of the

A siatic Researches his famous essay On the Godsof Greece, Italy, and India ; and he took particularcare to state that his essay, though published onlyin 1788, had been written in 1784 . In that essayh e endeavoured to show that there existed

.an inti

mate connection ,not only between the mythology of

India and that of Greece and Italy, but likewisebetween the legendary stories of the Brahman s andthe accounts of certain historical events as recordedin the Old Testament. No doubt, the temptationwas great. No one could look down for a momentinto the rich mine of religious and mythological lorethat was suddenly Opened before the eyes of scholarsand theologian s, without being struck by a host of

s imilarities, not only in the languages, but also inthe ancient tradition s of the Hindus, the Greeks,and the Romans ; and if at that time the Greeksand Romans were still supposed to have borrowedtheir language andth eir religion fromJewish quarters,the same conclusion could hardly be avoided withregard to the language and the religion of the Brahmans of India.

The first impulse to look in the ancient religionof India for reminiscences of revealed truth seems tohave come from missionaries rather than from scholars . It arose from a motive, in itselfmost excellent,of finding some common groundforthose who wishedto convert and those who were to be converted. Only,


446 on FALSE ANALOGIES

Sir William Jones l tells us that one or twomissionaries in India had been absurd enough , intheir zeal for the conversion of the Gentiles, to u rgethat the Hindus were even now almost Christian s,because their Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa were no

other than the Christian Trinity ; a sentence inwhich, he adds, we can only doubt whether folly,ignorance, or impiety predominates .

SirWilliam Jones himself was not likely to fallinto that error. He speaks again st it most em

phatically. Either,

’ he says, the first eleven chapters of Genesis—all due allowance being made for a

figurative Eastern style—are true, or the wholefabric of our national religion is false ; a conclusionwhich none of us

,I tru st, would wish to be drawn .

But it is not the truth of our national religion as

such that I have at heart ; it is truth itself ; and if

any cool, unbiassed reasoner will clearly convince me

that Moses drew his narrative through Egyptianconduits from the primeval fountain s of Indian literature, I shall esteem him as a friend for havingweeded my mind from a capital error, and promiseto stand amongst the foremost in assisting to circu

late the truth which he has ascertained.

’

But though he speaks so strongly against theuncritical proceedings of those who would deriveanything that is found in the Old Testament fromIndian sources, SirWilliam Jones himselfwas reallygu ilty of the same want of critical caution in hisown attempts to identify the gods and heroes ofGreece and Rome with the gods and heroes ofIndia.

A siatic Resewrches, i. p . 272 ; Life of Sir"

W. Jones, vol. 11 . p .

240 809.

IN conrm rrvs rnnonoor. 447

H e begins h is essay, 1 On the Gods of Greece, Italy,and India

’ with the following remarksWe ca nn ot justly conclude, by arguments pre

ceding the proof of facts, that one idolatrous peoplemu st have borrowed their deities, rites, and tenetsfrom another

,since gods of all shapes and dimen

s ion s may be framed by the boundless powers ofimagination ,

or by the frauds and follies of men , incountries never conn ected ; but when

!

features of

resemblan ce, too strong to have been accidental, areobservable in different systems of polytheism,

without fancy or prejudice to colour them and improvethe likeness , we can scarce help believing that someconnection has immemorially subsisted between the

several nations who have adopted them . It is mydesign in this essay to point out such a resemblancebetween the popular worship of the old Greeks andItalian s and that of the Hindus ; nor can there beany room to doubt of a great similarity betweentheir strange religions and that of Egypt, China,Persia, Phrygia, Phoenice, and Syria ; to which, perhaps, we may safely add some of the southern kingdoms, and even islands of America ; while theGothic system which prevailed in the northern re

gions of Europe was not merely similar to those ofGreece and Italy, but almost the same in anotherdress, with an embroidery of images apparentlyAsiatic . From all this, if it be satisfactorilyproved, we may infer a general union or affinitybetween the most distinguished inhabitants of theprimitive world at the time when they deviated, as

Asiatic Researches, i. p . 221 .

448 on FALSE w amems

they did too early deviate, from the rational adoration of the only true God.

’

Here, then , in an essay written nearly a hundredyears ago by SirW. Jones, one of themost celebratedOriental scholars in England, it might seem as if weshould find the first outlines of that science which islooked upon as but of to-day or yesterday—the outlines of Comparative Mythology. But in such an

expectation we are disappointed. What we find ismerely a superficial comparison of the mythology ofIndia and that of other nations, both Aryan and

Semitic, without any scientific value, because carriedout without any of those critical tests which alonekeep Comparative Mythology from running riot.This is not intended as casting a Slur on Sir W.

Jones. At his time the principles which have now

been established by the students of the science of

language were not yet known , and as with words, sowith the names of deities, Similarity of sound, themost treacherous of all Sirens, was the only guide insuch researches.

It is not pleasant to have to find fault with a

man possessed of such genius, taste, and learning as

Sir W. Jones, but no one who is acquainted withthe history of these researches will be surprised at

my words. It is the fate of all pioneers, not only tobe left behind in the assault which they had planned,but to find that many of their approaches were madein a false direction , and had to be abandoned. But

as the authority of their names continues to swaythe public at large, and is apt to mislead even pain staking students and to entail upon them repeateddisappointments, it is necessary that those who know


450 ON FALSE ANALOGIES

the Vedas (P), was the same as Hekate. In conclusion

,Sir W. Jones remarks

,I strongly incline to

believe that Egyptian priests have actually comefrom the Nile to the Gangfi. and Yamuna, and thatthey visited the Barmans of India, as the sages OfGreece visited them, rather to acquire than to impart knowledge.

’

The interest that had been excited by Sir W illiam Jones’s researches did not subside

,though he

himself did not return to the subject, but devotedhis great powers to more u seful labours. Scholars,both in India and in Europe, wanted to know moreof the ancient religion of India. If Jupiter

, Apollo,and Janu s had once been found in the ancient pantheon of the Brahmans ; if the account of Noah and

the deluge could be traced back to the story Of

Mann Satyavrata, who escaped from the flood, more

discoveries might be expected in this newly-openedmine, and people rushed to it with all the eagernessof gold-diggers . The idea that everything in Indiawas of extreme antiquity had at that time taken a

firm hold on the minds of all students of Sanskrit ;and, as there was no one to check their enthusiasm,

everything that came to light in San skrit literaturewas readily accepted as more ancient than Homer

,

or even than the Old Testament.

It was under these influences that LieutenantWilford, a contemporary of Sir W illiam Jones at

Calcutta, took up the thread which Sir WilliamJones had dropped, and determined at all hazards tosolve the question which at that time had excited a

world wide interest. Convinced that the Brahmanspossessed in their ancient literature the originals,

IN COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. 451

not only Of Greek and Roman mythology, but likewise of the Old Testament history, he tried everypossible means

'

to overcome their reserve and reticence. He related to them, as well as he could, theprincipal stories of classical mythology, and the

leading events in the history Of the Old Testamenthe assured them that they would find the samethings in their ancient books, if they would but lookfor them ; he held out the hopes of ample rewardsfor any extracts from their sacred literature containing the histories of Adam and Eve, of Deukalionand Prometheus ; and at last he succeeded. The

coyness Of the Pandits yielded ; the incessant demand created a supply ; and for several years essayafter essay appeared in the A siatic Researches

,

’ withextracts from San skrit MSS .

, containing not onlythe names of Deukalion , Prometheus, and otherheroes and deities of Greece, but likewise the namesof Adam and Eve, Of Abraham and Sarah, and all

Great was the surprise, still greater the joy, notonly in Calcutta, but in London , at Paris, and all

the universities of Germany. The Sanskrit MSS .

from which Lieutenant Wilford quoted, and on

which his theories were based, had been submittedto

'

Sir W. Jones and other scholars ; and thoughmany persons were surprised and for a time evenincredulou s, yet the fact could not be denied thatall was found in these Sanskritt MSS. as Stated byLieutenantWilford. SirW . Jones

, then Presidentof the As iatic Society, printed the following declaration at the end of the third volume of the AsiaticResearches

e o 2


Sin ce I am persuaded that the learned essay onEgypt and the Nile has afforded you equal delightwith that which I have myself received from it

, I

cannot refrain from endeavouring to increase yoursatisfaction by confessing openly that I have at

length abandoned the greatest part of the natural

distrust and incredulity which had taken possessionof my mind before I had examined the sources fromwhich our excellent associate, Lieutenant Wilford,has drawn so great a variety of new and interestingOpinions. Having lately read again and again , bothalone and with a Pandit, the numerou s originalpassages in the Puranas, and other Sanskrit books ,which thewriter Of the dissertation adduces in support Of his assertions, I am happy in bearing testimony to his perfect good faith and general accuracy,both in his extracts and in the translation of them .

’

Sir W. Jones then proceeds himself to give a

translation of some of these passages. The following translation ,

’ he writes , of an extract from the

Padma-purana is minutely exact1 . To Saty av arm an , the sovereign of the

whole earth, were born three sons ; the eldest Sh erma ; then Charma and thirdly, Jyap eti.

2 . They were all men Of good morals, excellentin virtue and virtuous deeds, skilled in the use of

weapons to strike with, or to be thrown , brave men ,

eager for victory in battle .3. But S atyav arm an

, being continually delighted with devout meditation , and seeing his son sfit for dominion , laid upon them the burden of

government,4. Wh ilst he remained honouring and satisfy



for one moment to confess publicly that he hadbeen imposed upon ; but in the meantime the mischief had been done, his essays had been read all

over Europe, they retained their place in the volumesof the Asiatic Researches

,

’and to the present day

some of his statements and theories continue to bequoted authoritatively by writers on ancient religion .

Such accidents, and, one might almost say, such

misfortunes, will happen , and it would be extremelyunfair were we to use unnecessarily harsh languagewith regard to those to whom they have happened.

It is perfectly true that at present, after the progress that has been made in an accurate and criticalstudy of Sanskrit, it would be unpardonable if anySanskrit scholar accepted such passages as thosetranslated by SirW. Jones as genuine. Yet it is byno means certain that a further study of Sanskritwillnot lead to similar disenchantments, and deprivemany a book in Sanskrit literature which now is

considered as very ancient of its claims to any highantiquity. Certain portions of the Veda even , which,as far as our knowledge goes at present, we are perfectly justified in referring to the tenth or twelfthcenturybefore ourera, may some day or other dwindledown from their high estate, and those who havebelieved in their extreme antiquity will then be heldup to blame or ridicule, like SirW . Jones or ColonelW ilford. This cannot be avoided, for science isprogressive, and does not acknowledge, even in the

most distinguished scholars, any claims to infal

libility . One lesson only may we learn from the

disappointment that befell ColonelWilford, and thatis to be on our guard against anything which in


ordinary language would be called too good to bet rue.’

Comparative Philology has taught us again and

again that when we find a word exactly the same inG reek and Sanskrit, we may be certain that it cannot be the same word ; and the same applies to“

Comparative Mythology . The same god or the sameh ero cannot have exactly the same name in Sanskritand Greek, for the simple reason that Sanskrit and

Greek have deviated from each other, have bothfollowed their own way, have both suffered their ownphonetic corruption s ; and hence, if they do possessthe same word, they can only possess it either inits Greek or its Sanskrit disguise. And if thatcaution applies to Sanskrit and Greek, members Ofthe same family of language, how much morestrongly must it apply to Sanskrit and Hebrew If

the first man were called in Sanskrit Adima, and inHebrew Adam

, and if the two were really the sameword, then Hebrew and San skrit could not be members of two different families of speech, or we shouldbe driven to admit that Adam was borrowed by theJews from the Hindus, for it is in Sanskrit only thatfidima mean s the first, whereas in Hebrew it has no

such meaning.

The same remark applies to a curious coincidencepoin ted out many years ago by Mr. Ellis in his‘ Polynesian Researches (London , 1829, vol. 11 . p.

W e there readA very generally received Tahitian tradition is

that the first human pair were made by Taaroa, thep rincipal deity formerly acknowledged by the nation .

On more than one occasion I have listened to the

456 ON m uss ANALOGIES

details of the people respecting h is work of creation .

They say that, after Taaroa had formed the world,

he created man out of araea, red earth, which was

also the food ofman until bread first was made. In

connection with this some relate that Taaroa one

day called for the man by name . When he came,

he cau sed h im to fall asleep, and, while he slept, hetook out one of his im

'

,or bones

,and with it made

a woman, whom he gave to the man as his wife, and

they became the progenitors of mankind. This, ’

Mr. Ellis continues, always appeared to me a mererecital of the Mosaic account of creation , which theyhad heard from some European , and I never placedany relian ce on it, although they have repeatedlytold me it was a tradition among them before anyforeigners arrived. Some have also stated that thewoman ’

s name was Imi, which would be by thempronounced as if written Eve. Ivi is an aboriginalword, and not only signifies a bone, but also a

widow, and a victim slain in war. Notwithstanding

the assertion of the natives,I am disposed to thin k

that Ivi, or Eve, is the only aboriginal part of the

story, as far as it respects the mother of the humanrace. Should more careful and minute inquiry con

firm the truth of this declaration , and prove thattheir account was in existence among them prior totheir intercourse with Europeans, it will be the mostremarkable and valuable oral tradition of the originof the human race yet known .

’

In this case, I believethe probability is that thestory of the creation of the first woman from the

bone of a man existed among the Tahitians bemSee Introduction to the Science of Religion, p . 48.


4 58 ON FALSE ANALOGIES

There is certainly a much greater similarity between the Buddhism of the Topes and the Scandinavian mythology than between it and theBuddh ismof the books but still the gulf between the two isimmense ; and if any traces of the doctrines of thegentle ascetic (Buddha) ever existed in the bosom of

Odin or h is followers, while dwelling near the rootsof the Caucasus, all that can be said is , that theysuffered fearful shipwreck among the rocks of thesavage superstitions of the North, and sank, neveragain to appear on th e surface of Scandinavian

O

mythology. If the two religions come anywhere mcontact, it is at their base, for underlying both thereexisted a strange substratum of Tree and SerpentWorship ; on this the two structures seem to havebeen raised, though they afterwards diverged in toforms so strangely dissimilar (p.

much mischief is done by Opinions of this kind when they once find

their way into the general public, and are supported by names

wh ich carry weight, may be seen by the following extracts from the

Pioneer (July 30, a native paper published in India . Here

we read that the views of Holmboe, Rajendralal Mitra , and Fergus

son, as to a posa’

ble connection between Buddha and Wodan, be

tween Buddhism and Wodenism, have been adopted and preach ed

by an English bt p , in order to convince his hearers , who were

chiefly Buddhists, that the religion of the gentle ascetic came origin

nally , if not from the North-Eas t of Scotland, at all events from the

Saxons . Gotama Buddha,

’he maintained,

‘ was a Saxon ,

’

comingfrom a Saxon family which had penetrated into India.

’And again

The most comincing proof to us Anglo-Indians lies in the fact that

the Puranas named Varada and Matsy distinctly assert that the

Wh ite Island in the West—meaning England—was known in India

as Sacana, having been conquered at a very early period by th e

Sacas or Saks .

’

After this the bishop takes courage, and says : Let,me call your attention to the Pfili wordN ib b an , called in Sanskrit

N irv an a . In the Anglo-Saxon you have the identical word—Nab

ban , meaning not to have,”or to be without a thing.

”

m OOH PAHATIVE THEOLOGY. 459

Or again (p. 32)

W e shall probably not err far if we regard thesetraces of serpent worship as indicating the presencein the North-East of Scotland of the head of thatcolumn of migration , or of propagandism, whichunder the myth of Wodenism ,

we endeavoured ina previou s chapter to trace from the Caucasu s toScandinavia .

’

The arbors under which two of the couples ares eated are curious instances of that sort of summerhou se which may be found adorn ing tea-gardens inthe neighbourhood of London to the present day.

It is scenes like these that make us hesitate beforeasserting that there could not possibly be any con

nection between Buddhism andWodenism (p .

One of the most tempting nominal similaritiesconnected with this subject is suggested by the nameof Maya. The mother of Buddh a was called Maya.

The mother ofMercury was also Maia, the daughterof Atlas. The Roman s always calledWodin

,Mer

cury, and 614368 Mercurm and Wodensday alike designated the fourth day of the week. These andother similarities have been frequently pointed out

and insisted upon , and they are too numerous andtoo distinct not to have some foundation in reality(p. 186, note).

Smwments like these cannot be allowed to pasunnoticed or uncontradicted, particularly if supportedby the authority of a great name ; and after havingspoken so freely‘

of the unscientific character of the

mythological comparisons instituted by scholars likeSirW illiam Jones and Lieutenant Wilford, who canno longer defend themselves, it would be mere


cowardice to shrink from performing the same nu

pleasan t duty in the case of a living writer, who has .

Shown that he knows how to wield the weapons bothof defence and attack.

It is perfectly true that the mother of Buddhawas called Maya, but it is equally true that the San ~

skrit Mayacannot be the ‘ Greek Maia. It is quitetrue also that the fourth day of the week is calleddies Mcrcurii in Latin , and Wednesday in English ;nay, that in Sanskrit the same day is called Bu dh adin a or B u dh a-vara. But the origin of all thesenames falls within perfectly historical times

,and can

throw no light whatever on the early growth of

mythology and religionFirst of all, we have to distinguish between

B udha andBu ddh a. The twonames , though so likeeach other, and therefore constantly mistaken one for

the other, have nothing in common but their root.B u ddha with two d’e, is the participle of bu dh, andmean s awakened, enlightened.

‘ It is th ename givento those who have reached thehighest stage ofhuman

wisdom,and it is known most generally as the title

of Gotama, Sakya-mun i, the founder of Buddhism,

whose traditional era dates from 548 Bu dh a, onthe contrary, with one d, means simply knowing, andit became in later times, when the Hindus receivedfrom the Greeks a knowledge of the planets, thename of the planet Mercury.

It is well known that the names of the sevendays of the week are derived from the names of the

See Buddhaghosha’

s Per/rubles, translated by Captain Rogers ,with an Introduction containing Buddha

’s Dhammapada, trans lated

from Pali, by M . M . , 1870, p . 110, note.



find the seventh day, the Sabbath, even under its newPagan name, as dies Satan /iorKronxihe, mentioned byRoman and Greek writers, before the names of theother days of the week made their appearan ce.Tibullus speaks of the day of Saturn, dies Batum iJuliu s Frontinus (under Nerva, 96—98) says thatVespasian attacked the Jews on the day of Saturn

,

dies Sate/mi ; and Justin Martyr (died 165) statesthat Christ was cru cified the day before the day of

Kronos, and appeared to his disciples the day after

the day of Kronos . He does not u se the names of

position in regard to the very limited extent of Sabbath observance

in ancient times ; and Mr. Taylor brings very strong historical proof

to maintain the assertion (p . 24) that throughout allhistory wedis

cover no trace oi a Sabbath among the nations of antiquity .

”

It seems to me that if we read the whole of Josephus’work

,

On the Antiquity of the Jews, we cannot fail to perceive that what

Josephus wished to show towards the end of the secondbook was that

other nations had Oopied or were trying to copy the Jewish customs .

He says :'Ttp

’

th eir! 're bcnvéxenaay of minor nal 'ro'

is fiM ocs draa'w

dyOPérOts , del nalM ow Gin-(iv {fikov épwewodmam. He then says that

the early Greek philosophers , though apparently original in their

theoretic speculations , followed the Jewish laws with regard to

practical and moral precepts . Then follows this sentence : Oi “inbu d nal « AfiOeow i581) rok bs fi l ms 7 67mm ! 3x m poii

'n'

is imere’

pas ( bere

Befus , ab 8’

(an y at rims 'EM ‘lwwv obbnrw obg 068? d Bapos, obbé 83»

¥v0a p31‘rb 'riis éBOondOos, by dp'yoiiyev 7511623, {Gas 06 bmwecpolmxe,

nal ai mare'

iaz'

nal Aiw u dvaxabaets xal n ohAd « by ( is Bpé'

m'

w fur?»

ob vevomap e'vwv wapwrevfipnrat. Mme

'

iotcu bi wupéiw at nal

'riw rpbr

dM fio s thaw 6n6vocav, fu n k . Standing where it stands, the sen

tence about the éBGonds can only mean that ‘there is no town of

Greeks nor Of barbarians , nor one single people, where the custom of

the seventh day, on which we rest, has not Spread, and where

fastings, and lighting of lamps , and much of what is forbidden to us

with regard to food are not observed. They try toimitate ourmutual

concord also, &c.

’H ebdomas , which originally meant the week , is

h ere clearly used in the sense of the seventh day, and though Josephusmay exaggerate, what he says is certain ly that there was no town ,

Greek or not Greek, where the custom ofobserving the seventh dayhad not spread.

’


Friday and Sunday. Sunday, as dies Solis, is mentioned by Justin Martyr Apolog.

’i. and by

Tertullian (died the u sual name of that dayamongst Christian s being the Lord

’s-day, Kvptami,

dominica or dominicns . Clemens ofAlexandria (died220) seems to have been the first who used the namesof Wedn esday and Friday,

'Epp oi) [cal

'

Aqbpodi'ms

inflowIt is generally stated, on the authority ofCassius

Dio, that the system of counting by weeks and weekdays was first introduced in Egypt, and that at histime, early in the third century, the Roman s had

adopted it, though but recently. Be this as it may,

it would seem that, if Tibullus could use the nameof ethics Saturni for Saturday, the whole system of

week-days must have been settled and known at

Rome in his time. Cassius Dio tells u s that thenames were assigned to each day 8a}. w oo

-apter, byfours ; or by giving the first hour of the week toSaturn ,

than giving one hour to each planet in suc

cession,till the twenty-fifth hour became again the

first of the next day. Both systems lead to the sameresult, as will be seen from the following table

French Sanskrit.

1 Saturn 1

2 Jupiter 6 Ravi-Vera

Soma-vara

Bhauma-varaBudha-Vara

Brihaspati-vara

Sukra-Vara


Anglo-Saxon. English

laugardagr sattes dag

(washing day)2 Jupiter 6 sunnudagr sunnan dag Sunday3 Mars 4 monan dag4 Sun 2 tysdagr tives dag Tues day5 Venus 7 odhinsdagr VOdenes diig Wednesday6 Mercury 5 thOrsdagr thunores dag Thursday7 Moon 3 friadagr frige dag

Old-H igh Middle-H ighGerman . German.

1 Saturn 1 sambaztag samztac Samstag(sunnfin aband) (sunnen ahent) (Sonnabend)sunnfin dag sunnen tac Sonntagmanin tac man tac Montagziuwes tac zies tac Diens tag

(cies dac) (eritic)5 Venus 7 wuotanes tac (7) mittwoch Mittwoch

(mittawecha)6 Mercury 5 donat es tac Donnerstag7 Moon 3 fria dag Freitag

After the names Of the week-days had once beens ettled, we have no difficulty in tracing their migration towards the East and towards the West. Th e

Hindus had their own peculiar system of reckoningdays and months, but they adopted at a later timethe foreign system ofcounting by weeks ofseven days ,andassigningapresidingplanetary deity toeach of theseven days, according to the system described above.

As theIndian name oftheplanetMercury was Budha,the dies Mercnrm was naturally called Bu dha -varabut never B u ddh a -var a ; and the fact that themother of Mercury was calledMaia

,and the mother

ofBuddha Maya, could, therefore, have hadno bearingwhatever on the name assigned to the Indian W ed

nesday.

‘ The very Buddh ists,in Ceylon , distinguish

between buddha, the enlightened, and budha, wise,and call W edn esday the day of Budha, not of

Grimm, Deutsehe Mythologie, p . 1 18, note.



the thunderbolt, his natural representative in German would be Donar,l the An glo Saxon Thunar, theOld Norse Thor ; and hence the dies Jovis would becalled the day of Thor, or Thursday. If the fact thatJupiter was the king of the godshadbeen mentioned,his proper representative in German would, no doubt,have been Wuotan or Odin .

2 As it was, Wuotan or

Odin was chosen as the nearest approach to Mercmy ,

the character which they share in common, and

which led to their identification, being most likelytheir love of travelling through the air

,

3also their

granting wealth and fulfilling the wishes of theirworshippers, in which capacity Wuotan is knownby the name of Wm ch or Wish . We can th us

understand how it happened that father and son

changed places, for while Mercurius is the son of

Jup iter, Wuotan is the father ofDonar. Mars, the

god of war, was identified with the German Tin or

Zia, a name which, though originally the same as Zeusin Greek or Dyau s in Sanskrit, took a peculiarlynational character among the Germans, and becametheir god of war.

5

There remained thus only the alias Satarni, the

day of Saturn, and whether this was called so inimitation of the Latin name, or after an old Germandeity of a. similar name and character, is a pointwhich for the present we must leave unsettled.

Grimm, Decetwhe Mythologie , p . 151.2 Ibid. p . 120.

Ibid . pp . 137-148.

0 Ibid. p . 126. Oski in Icelandic, the god Wish, one of the

names of the highest god.

5 Tacit. Hist . iv . 64 : Communibus Dns et pm cipuo Door-um


What, however, is not un settled is this, that ifthe German s, in interpreting these names ofRomandeities as well as they could, called thedies Merc'wrii

,

the same day which the Hindus had called the dayof Bu dh a (with one cl),their day ofWuotan , this wasnot becau se the doctrines of the gentle ascetic existed in the bosom of Odin or his followers, whiledwelling near the roots of the Caucasus, ’ but forvery different and much more tangible reason s.

But, apart from all this, by what possible processcould Buddh a and Odin have ever been brought together in the flesh In the history of ancientreligions , Odin belongs to the same stratum ofmytho

logical thought as Dya u s in India, Zeus in Greece,Jup iter in Italy. H ewas worshipped as the supremedeity during a period long anterior to the age of the

Veda and of Homer. H is travels in Greece, and

even in Tyrkland,land h is half-historical character

as a mere hero and a leader of his people, are theresult of the latest Euhemerism . Buddha

, on the

contrary, is not a mythological, but a personal and

historical character, and to think of a meeting of

Buddha and Odin , or even Of their respective descendants, at the roots ofMount Caucasu s, would belike imagining an interview between Cyrus and Odin

,

between Mohammed and Aphrodite .A comparative study of ancient religion s and

myth ologies, as will be seen from these instances,

is not a subject to be taken up lightly. It requiresnot only an accurate acquaintance with the minutestdetails of comparative philology, but a knowledge ofthe history of religions which can hardly be gained

Grimm, Zr . p. 148 .

H H 2


without a study of original documents. As long,however, as researches of this kind are carried on

for their own sake, and from a mere desire of discovering truth, without any ulterior objects, theydeserve no blame, though, for a time, they may leadto erroneous results . Butwhen coincidences betweendifferent religions and mythologies are searched out

simply in support of preconceived theories, whetherby the friends or enemies of religion , the sense oftruth, the very life of all science, is sacrificed, and

serious mischief will follow without fail. Here wehave a right, not only to protest, but toblame. Thereis On this account a great difference between the

books we have hitherto examined, and a work latelypublished in Paris by M . Jacolliot

,under the sensa

tional title of La Bible dan s l’Inde, Vie de JeseusChristna.

’ If this book had been written with th epure enthusiasm of Lieutenant Wilford, it mighthave been passed by as a mere anachronism . But

when one sees how its au thor shuts his eyes again stall evidence that would tell against him, and bringstogether, without any critical scruples, whateverseems to support his theory that Christianity is a

mere Copy of the ancient religion of India, meresilence would not be a sufficient answer. Besides,the book has lately been translated into English, andwill be read, no doubt, by many people who cann ottest the evidence on which it professes to be founded.

W e learn that M. Jacolliot was some years ago

appointed President of the Court of Justice at Chandern agore, and that he devoted the leisure left himfrom the duties of his position to studying Sanskritand the holy books of the Hindus . He is said to



bounds of paradise too narrow a habitation,let them

inquire ofme by sacrifice and Iwill make known my

And thus saying, the Lord disappeared.

Then Adam and Eve dwelt together for a timc

in perfect happiness ; but ere long a vague disquietudebegan to creep upon them . The Spirit of Evil,jealous of their felicity and of the work of Brahma ,

inspired them with disturbing thoughts Let u s

wander through the Island,” said Adam to his com

panion , and see if we may not find some part evenmore beautiful than this.”

And Eve followed her husband wanderingfor days and for months but as they advancedthe woman was seized with strange and inexplicableterrors “Adam,

” said she,“ let us go no farther : it

seem s to me that we are disobeying the Lord ; hav ewe not already quitted the place which he assignedus for a dwelling and forbade u s to leave 9

Fear not,” replied Adam ; this is not that

fearful wilderness of which he Spake to u s .

”

And they wandered on .

Arriving at last at th e extremity of the Island,they beheld a smooth and narrow arm of the sea, and

beyond it a vast and apparently boundless country ,conn ected with their Island only by a narrow and

rocky pathway arising from the bosom of th e

waters .

The two wanderers stood amazed : the countrybefore them was covered with stately trees, birds of

a thousand colours flitting amidst their foliage.Behold, what beautiful things cried

andwhat goodfru it such trees must produce ;

IN COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. 4 4 1

let us go and taste them, and if that country is

better than this , we will dwell there.Eve

,trembling, besought Adam to do nothing

that might irritate the Lord against them . Are

we not well here Have we not pure water and

deliciou s fruits Wherefore seek other things 3)True,” replied Adam , but we will retu rn ;

what harm can it be to visit this unknown countrythat presents itself to our View 9 And as heapproached the rocks, Eve, trembling, followed.

Placing h is wife upon his shoulders, he proceeded to cross the space that separated him fromthe object of his desires, but no sooner did he touchthe shore than trees, flowers, fruits, birds, all thatthey had perceived from the Opposite side, in an in

stant vanished amidst terrific clamour ; the

rocks by which they had crossed sunk beneath thew aters, a few sharp peaks alone remaining above thesurface, to indicate theplace of the bridge which had.been destroyed by Divine displeasure.

The vegetation which they had seen from the

opposite shore was but a delusive mirage raised bythe Spirit of Evil to tempt them to disobedience .

Adam fell, weeping, upon the naked sands,but Eve throwing herself into his arms

,besought

h im not to despair ; let u s rather pray to theAuthor of all things to pardon u s .

”

And as she spake there came a voice from the

clouds, saying,Woman thou hast only sinn ed from love to

thy husband, whom I commanded thee to love, andthou hast hoped in me.

I therefore pardon thee—and Ipardon him also


for thy sake but ye may no more return to

paradise, which I had created for your happinessthrough your disobedience to my commands th e

Spirit of Evil has obtained possession . of the Earth .

Your children reduced to labour and to suffer

by your fault will become corrupt and forget me.

But Iwill send Vishnu,who will be born Of a

woman,

and who will bring to all the hOpe of a

reward in another life, and the means by prayer of

softening their sufferings.”

The tran slator from whom Ihave quoted exclaimsat the end, as well he mightWhat grandeur and what simplicity is this

H indu legend and at the same time how simplylogical ! Behold here the veritable Eve—thetrue woman .

’

But much more extraordinary things are quotedby M. Jacolliot, from the Vedas and the oomm en

On p. 63 we read that Manu , Minos, and Manes,

had the same name as Moses ; on p. 73, the Brahmans who invaded India are represented as the

successors Of a great reformer called Christna. The

name of Zoroaster is derived from the Sanskrit Stiryastara (p. meaning he who spreads theworship of the Sun .

’After it has been laid down

(p. 116) that Hebrew was derived from Sanskrit, weare assured that there is little difficulty in derivingJehovah from Zeus .l Zeu s, Jezeus, Jesus, and Isisare all declared to be the same name, and later on(p. 130) we learn that at present the Brahmans who

P. 125. Pour quiconque s’est occupé d

’études philologiques.

J6hova dérivé de Zeus est facile aadmettre.

’


4 74 ON FALSE ANALOGIES

now than a hundred years ago. Many Of the wordswhich M. Jacolliot quotes as Sanskrit are not San

skrit at all ; others never have the meaning whichhe assigns to them ; and as to the passages from th e

Vedas (including our old friend the Bhagaveda-gita)they are not from the Veda, they are not from any

O ld Sanskrit writer—they simply belong to the secondh alf of the nineteenth century. What happened toLieutenant Wilford has happened again to M. Ja.colliot. He tells us the secret himself

One day,’he says (p. when we were read

ing the tran slation of Mann, by SirW. Jones, a note

led us to consult the Indian commentator, KullfikaBhatta, when we found an allusion to the sacrifice of

a son by his father prevented by God himself afterhe had commanded it. W e then had only one idée

fink -namely, to find again in the dark mass of thereligious books of the H indu, the original accountof that event. We should never have succeeded butfor the complaisance of a Brahman with whomwe were reading San skrit, and who, yielding to our

request, brought us from the library of his pagoda.the works of the theologian Ramatsariar, whichhave yielded us such precious assistance in thisvolume.’

As to the story of the son offered as a sacrificeby his father, and released at the command of th e

gods, M. Jacolliot might have found the originalaccount Of it from the Veda, both text and transla

tion ,in my H istory of Ancient Sanskrit Literature .

’

He would soon have seen that the story of Sunahsepabeing sold by his father in order to be sacrificed in th ep lace of an Indian prin ce, has very little in common

IN COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY. 4 45

w ith the intended sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham .

M . Jacolliot has , no doubt, found out by this h e

that he has been imposedupon ; and ifso, he ought tofollow the example of ColonelWilford, and publiclys tate what has happened. Even then , I doubt not

that his statements will continue to be quoted for a

long time, and that Adim a and H ev a, thus broughtto life again ,

‘will make their appearance in many abook and many a lecture-room .

Lest it be supposed that such accidents happento Sanskrit scholars only, or that this fever is bredonly in the jungles of Indian mythology, I shallmention at least one other case which will Showthat this disease is Of a more general character, andthat wan t of caution will produce it in every climfi e.

Before thediscovery of San skrit, China had stoodfor a long time in the place which was afterwardsoccupied by India. Wh en the ancient literature andcivilisation of China became first known to the

scholars of Europe, the Celestial Empire had its

admirers and prophets as full of enthusiasm as Sir

W. Jones and Lieutenant Wilfo'

rd, and there wasnothing, whether Greek philosophy or Christian morality, that was not supposed to have had its firstorigin among the sages of China. The proceedingsof the Jesuit missionaries in China were most extraordinary . They had themselves admitted the

antiquity of the writings of Confuciu s and Lao-tse,both of whom lived in the sixth century But

in their zeal to show that the sacred books of theChinese contained numerous passages borrowed from

Stanislas Julien, Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertn. Paris,.1842, p . iv .


the Bible, nay, even some of the dogmas of the laterChurch, they hardly perceived that, taking into aocount the respective dates of these books, they werereally proving that a kind of anticipated Christi-uanity had been accorded to the ancient sages of theCelestial Empire. The most learned advocate of

this school was Father Prémare. Another supporterof the same View, Montucci,

lspeaking of Lao-tse’s

Tao-te-king, saysWe find in it so many sayings clearly referring

to the triune God, that no one who has read this .

book can doubt that the mystery of the most holyTrinity was revealed to the Chinese more than fivecentu ries before the advent of Christ. Everybody,therefore

,who knows the strong feeling of the

Chinese for their own teachers, will admit thatnothing more efficient could be found in order to fixthe dogmas of the Christian religion in the mind

of the Chin ese than the demon stration that thesedogmas agree with their own books . The study,therefore, and the translation Of this singular book(the Tao-te-king)

'

would prove most useful to themissionaries, in order to bring to a happy issue thedesired gathering in of the Apostolic harvest.’

What followed is SO extraordinary that, thoughit has often been related, it deserves to be relatedagain , more particularly as the whole problem whichwas supposed to have been solved on ce for all by M .

Stanislas Julien ,has of late been opened again by

Dr. von Strau ss , in the ‘Journal of the German Oriental Society,’ 1869.

There is a passage at the beginning of th e

Montuoci, De studiis sinicz'

s. Berolini, 1808.


ON FALSE ANALOGIES, ETC.

0

1842 a complete translation of this difi cult bookand here all traces of the name of Jehovah havedisappeared.

The three syllables,’ he writes, which Abel

Rémusat considered as purely phonetic and foreignto the Chinese language, have a very clear and in

telligible meaning, and have been fully explained byChinese commentators. The first syllable, I, meanswithout colour ; the second, H i, without sound or

voice ; the third, W ei, without body. The propertranslation therefore is

You look (for the Tao, the law) and you see it.not : it is colourless.

You listen and you hear it not : it is voiceless.You wish to touch it and you reach it not : it is

without body.

’

Until, therefore, some other traces can be discovered in Chinese literature, proving an intercoursebetween China and Judaaa in the sixth centurywe can hardly be called upon to believe that theJews Should have communicated this one name,which they hardly trusted themselves to pronoun ceat home, to a Chinese philosopher ; and we mu sttreat the apparent similarity between I-Hi-Wei and

Jehovah as an accident, which ought to serve as a.

useful warning, though it need in no way discouragea careful and honest study of Comparative Theology .

XXIII .

ON FREEDOM .

Presidential Address Delivered be are the BirminghamInstitute, Octo er 20, 1879.

NOT more than twenty years have passed since JohnStuart Mill sent forth his plea for Liberty.

‘

If there is one among the leaders of thoughtEngland who, by the elevation of h is character andthe calm composure of h is mind, deserved the so Often

Mill tells us that his Essay On Liberty was planned andwritten

down in 1854. It was in mounting the steps of the Capitol in

January, 1855, that the thought first arose of converting it into a

volume, and it was not published till 1859. The author, who in his

Autobiography speak s with exquisite modesty of all his literary performances, allows himself one single exception when speaking of his

Essay On Liberty. None ofmy writings ,’ he says , have been either

so carefully composed or so sedulously corrected as this .

’Its final

revision was to have been the work of the winter of 1858 to 1859,which he and his wife had arranged to pass in the South of Europe,a hope which was frustrated by his wife

’s death . The Liberty} he

writes,‘ is likely to survive longer than anything else that I have

written (with the possible exception of the Logic), because the conjunction Of hermind with minehas rendered it a kind of philosophic

textbook of a single truth , which the changes progressively taking

place in modern society tend to bring out into strongerrelief: the

importance, toman and society, of a large variety of character, and

of giving full freedom to human nature to expand itself in innumerable and conflicting dmctions.

’

480 ON FREEDOM.

m isplaced title of Seren e Highness, it was, I think,J ohn Stuart Mill.

But in h is Essay On Liberty,’ Mill for once bec omes passionate. In presenting his Bill OfRights,in slapping forward as the champion of individualliberty, he seems to be possessed by a new spirit. HeSpeaks like a martyr, or the defender of martyrs.The individual human soul, with its unfathomableendowments, and its capacity of grow ing to something undreamt of in our philosophy

,becomes in his

eyes a sacred thing, and every encroachment on its

world-wide domain is treated as sacrilege . Society,the arch-enemy of the rights of individuality, is re

presented like an evil spirit, whom it behoves everytrue man to resist with might and main

, and whosedemands, as they cannot be altogether ignored, mustbe reduced at all hazards to the lowest level.

I doubt whether any of the principles for whichMill pleaded so warmly and strenuously in his EssayOn Liberty would at the present day be challenged

or resisted, even by themost illiberal of philosophers,or the most conservative Of politicians. Mill’s demands sound very humble to our ears . They amountto no more than this, that the individual is not

accountable to society for h is actions so far as theyconcern the interests of no person but himself, andthat he may be subjected to social or legal punishments for such actions only as are prejudicial to theinterests of others .’

Is there any one here present who doubts thejustice of that principle, or who wouldwish to reducethe freedom of the individual to a smaller measureWhatever social tyranny may have existed twenty


482 ON FREEDOM.

the present generation , as compared with all formergenerations, the English nation

, as compared withall other nations, enjoys, there can be no doubt, agood measure, pressed down , and shaken together,and sometimes running over.

It may be said that some dogmas still remain in

politics, in religion , and in morality but those whodefend them claim no longer any infallibility, and

those who attack them, however small theirminority,need fear no Violence, nay, may reckon on an impartial and even sympathetic hearing, as soon as peoplediscover in their pleadings the true ring of honest

love of truth .

It has seemed strange therefore to many readers ofMill, particularly on theContinent, that this plea forliberty, this demand for freedom for every individualto be what he is , and to develop all the germs of hisnature, should have come from what is known as the

freest of all countries, England. We might wellunderstand such a cry of indignation if it had reachedu s fromRussia ; but why should English philOSOphers,of all others, have to protest against the tyranny ofsociety ? It is true, nevertheless, that in countriesgoverned despotically, the individual, unless he isObnoxious to the Government, enjoys far greaterfreedom,

or rather licence, than in a coun try likeEngland, which governs itself. Russian society, forin stance, is extremely indulgent. It tolerates in itsrulers and statesmen a haughty defiance of the

s implest rules of social propriety, and it seemsamused rather than astonished or indignant at the

v agaries, the frenzies, and outrages, of those who in

ON FREEDOM. 483

b rilliant drawing-rooms or lecture-rooms preach thedoctrin es ofwhat is calledNih ilism or Individualism,

‘

—Viz.,

‘that societymu st be regenerated by a strugglefor existence and the survival of the strongest, processes which Nature has sanctioned, and which haveproved successful among wild animals .

’1f .there is

danger in these doctrines theGovernment is expectedto see to it. It may place watchmen at the doors ofe very house and at the corner of every street, but itmust not count on the better classes coming forwardto enrol themselves as Special constables, or even on

the co-operation of public opin ion which in Englandw ould annihilate that kind of Nih ilism with one

glance of scorn an d pity.

In a self-governed country like England, theresistance which society, if it likes , can oppose tothe individual in the assertion of his rights, is farmore compact and powerful than in Russia, or evenin Germany. Even where it does not employ thearm of the law ,

society knows how to use thatquieter, but more cru shing pressure, that calm,

Gorgon-like look which only the bravest and Stoutesthearts know how to resist.

It is again st that indirect repression which a

well-organ ised society exercises, both through its

male and female represen tatives, that Mill’s demandfor liberty seems directed. H e does not stand up for

unlimited individualism ; on the contrary, he wouldhave been themost strenuous defender of that balanceof power between the weak and the strong on which

Herzen defined Nihilism as the most perfect freedom from all

settled concepts, from all inherited restraints and impediments

which hamper the progress of the Occidental intellect with the

historical drag tied to its foot

484 ON EEEEDOM.

all social life depends . But he resents those smallerpenalties which society will always inflict on thosewho disturb its dignified peace and comfortz— avoidan ce, exclusion , a cold look, a stinging remark. Had

Mill any right to complain of these social penaltiesW ould it not rather amount to an interference withindividual liberty to deprive any individual or anynumber of individuals of those weapon s of selfdefence Those who themselves think and speakfreely, have hardly a right to complain ,

if othersclaim the same privilege . Mill himself called theConservative party the stupid party p a/r excellence,

and he took great pain s to explain that it was so,

not by accident, but by necessity. Need he wonderif those whom he whipped and scourged used theirown whips and scourges against so merciless a

critic ‘

9

Freethinkers—and I u se that name as a title ofhonour for all who, like Mill, claim for every individual the fullest freedom in thought, word, or deed,compatible with the freedom of others— are apt to

make one mistake . Con scious of their own honestintentions, they cannot bear to be misjudged or

slighted. They expect society to submit to theiroften very painful operation s as a patient submitsto the knife of the surgeon . This is not in human

nature. The enemy of abuses is always abused byh is enemies. Society w ill never yield one in ch without resistan ce, and few reformers live long enoughto receive the thanks of those whom they have t e

formed. Mill’s un solicited election to Parliamentw as a triumph not often shared by social reformers ;it was as exceptional as Bright

’s admission to a seat in.


486 ON FREEDOM.

tinental Universities ! Strong as these prejudicesabout Oxford and Cambridge have long been , theyhave become still more intense since ProfessorHelmholtz, in an inaugural address which he delivered at his installation as Rector of the Universityof Berlin ,

lent to them the authority of his greatname. The tutors ,’ he says, 1 in the EnglishUniversities cannot deviate by a hair’s-breadth fromthe dogmatic system of the English Church, withoutexposing themselves to the cen sure of their Archbishops and losing their pupils .

’In German Uni

versities, on the contrary, we are told that the

extreme conclusion s of materialistic metaphysics,

the boldest speculation s within the sphere of Darwin ’

s theory of evolution , may be propounded without let or hindrance, quite as much as the high estapotheosis of Papal infallibility.

Here the facts on which Professor Helmholtzrelies are entirely wrong, and the writings of some

of our most eminent tutors supply a more thansufficient refutation of his statements. Archbishopshave no official position whatsoever in English Universities, and their censure of an Oxford tutor wouldbe resented as impertinent by the whole University.

Nor does the University, as such, exercise any verystrict control over the tutors, even when they lecturenot to their own College only. Each Master of Artsat Oxford claims now the right to lecture (veniadocendfi), and I doubt whether they would submit to

Ueber dze Akademische Freiheit der Deutschm Universitiitan,Rede beim Antritt des Rectorats an der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitiit in Berlin, am October 15, 1877, gehalten von Dr. H .

H elmholtz .

ON FREEDOM. 487

those restrictions which, in Germany, the Facultyimposes on every Privat-docent. Privat-docents in

German Universities have been rejected by the

Faculty for incompeten ce, and silenced for insubordination . I know of no such cases at Oxford duringmy residence of more than thirty years, nor can I

think it likely that they should ever occur.As to the extreme conclusions of materialistic

metaphysics, there are Oxford tutors who havegrappled with the systems of such giants as Hobbes,Locke, or Hume, and who are not likely to be

frightened byBiichner and Vogt.I know comparisons are odious, and I should be

the last man to draw comparisons between Englishand German Universities unfavourable to the latter.But with regard to freedom of thought, of Speech,and action , Professor Helmholtz, if he would spendbut a few weeks at Oxford, would find that we enjoyit in fuller measure here than the Professors andPrivat docents in any Continental University. The

publications of some of our professors and tutorsought at least to have convinced him that if thereis less of brave words and turbulent talk in theirwritings, they display throughout a determinationto speak the truth, which may be matched, but couldnot easily be excelled, by the leaders of thought inFrance, Germany, or Italy.

The real difference between English and Continental Universities is that the former govern themselves, the latter are governed. Self governmententails responsibilities , sometimes restraints and reticences. Imay here be allowed to quote the wordsof another eminent Professor of the University of

488 ON FREEDOM.

Berlin , Du Bois Reymond, who, in addressing hiscolleagues, ventured to tell them ,

‘ We have still tolearn from the English how the greatest independence of the individual is compatible with willingsubmission to salutary

, though irksome, statutes .

’

That is particularly true when the statutes are selfimposed. In Germany

, as Professor Helmholtz tellsus himself, the last decision in almost all the moreimportant affairs of the Un iversities rests with theGovernment, and he does not deny that in times ofpolitical and ecclesiastical tension

,amost ill advised

u se has been made of that power. There are, be

sides , the less importan t matters, such as raising of

salaries, leave of absence, scientific mis sions, eventitles and decorations

,all of which enable a clever

Minister of In struction to assert his personal influence among the less independent members of the

University. In Oxford theUniversity dOes not knowthe Ministry, nor the Ministry the University. The

acts of the Government, be it Liberal orConservative,are freely discussed, and often powerfully resisted bythe academic constituencies

,and the personal dislike

of a Min ister or Ministerial Councillor could as little

injure a professor or tutor as his favour could add

one penny to his salary.

But these are minor matters. What gives theirown peculiar character to the English Universitiesis a sense of power and responsibility : power, becausethey are the most respected among the numerou s

Ueber e'i/ne Akademia dew Deutschen Sp rache, p . 34. Another

keen observer of English life, Dr. K . H illebrand, in an article in the

October number of the Nin eteenth Centmy , remarks Nowhere is

there greater individual liberty than in England, and nowhere do

people renoun ce it more readily of their own accord.

’


490 ON FREEDOM .

men of geniu s who have conquered the love and

admiration of a whole nation are greater than thosewho have gained the favour of the most brilliantCourts ; and we know how some of the fairest reputation s have been wrecked on the patronage which theyhad to accept at the hands of powerful Min isters orambitious Sovereigns.

But to return to Mill and h is plea for Liberty.Though I can hardly believe that, were he still amongu s, he would claim a larger measure of freedom for

the individual than is now accorded to every one of

us in the society in which we move, yet the chiefcause on which he founded his plea for Liberty, thechief evil which he thought could be remedied only ifsociety would allow more elbow-room to individualgenius, exists in the same degree as in his time—aye,

even in a higher degree. The principle of individuality has suffered more at presen t than perhaps atany former period of history. The world is becomingmore and more gregarious, and what the French callour nature mou tonmlére, our tendency to leap wherethe sheep in front of us has leapt, becomes more andmore prevalent in politics, in religion , in art, and

even in science. M. de Tocqueville expressed hissurprise how much more Frenchmen of the presentday resemble one another than did those of the lastgeneration . The same remark, adds John StuartMill, might be made of England in a greater degree.The modern regime of public opinion ,

’ he writes, ‘ isin an unorganised form what theChinese educationaland political systems are in an organised ; and unlessindividuality shall be able successfully to assert itselfagainst this yoke, Europe, notwithstanding its noble

ON FREEDOM. 491

antecedents and its professed Christianity, will tendto become another China.

’

I fully agree with Mill in recognising the dangersof uniformity, but I doubt whether what he calls theregime of public Opinion .is alone

,or even chiefly,

an swerable for it. NO doubt there are some peoplein whose eyes uniformity seems an advantage ratherthan a disadvantage . If all were equally strong,equally educated, equally honest, equally rich, equallytall, or equally small

,society would seem to them

to have reached the highest ideal. The same peopleadmire an Old French garden , with its clipped yewtrees

,forming artificial walls and towers and pyra

mids , far more than the giant yews which, like largeserpents, clasp the soil with their coiling roots, andovershadow with their dark green bran ches the whitechalk cliffs oftheThames. But those French gardens,unless they are constantly clipped andprevented fromgrowing, soon fall in to decay. As in nature, so insociety, un iformity means but too ofEn stagnation ,while variety is the surest sign of health and vigour.The deepest secret of nature is its love of continuednovelty. Its tendency, if unrestrained, is towardsconstantly creating new varieties, which, ifthey fulfiltheir purpose, become fixed for a time, or, it may be,for ever ; while others, after they have fulfilled theirpurpose, vanish to make room for new and strongertypes .

The same is the secret ofhuman society . It con

sists and lives in individuals, each meant to be different from all the others , and to contribute his ownpeculiar share to the common wealth. As no tree islike any other tree, and no leaf on the same tree like

492 ON FREEDOM.

any other leaf, no human being is, or is meant to be,exactly like any other human being. It is in thisendless , and to u s inconceivable, variety of humansouls that the deepest purpose of human life is to berealised ; an d the more society fulfils that purpose,the more it allows free scope for the development ofevery individual germ ,

the richer will be the harvestin no distant future. Such is the mystery of in

dividuality that I do not wonder if even thosephilosopherswho, likeMill, confine the useof thewordsacred within the very smallest compass , see in eachindividual soul something sacred, something to be revered, even where we cannot understandit, somethingto be protected against all vulgar violence.Where I differ from Mill and his school is on the

question as to the quarter from whence the epidemicof uniformity springs which threatens the free development of modern society. Mill points to the

society in which we move ; to those who are in frontof u s, to our contemporaries. I feel convinced thatour real enemies are atourback, and that the heaviestchains which are fastened on us are those made, notby the present

,but by past generations—by our an

cestors, not by our contemporaries.It is on this point, on the trammels of individual

freedom with which we may almost be said to be borninto the world, and on the means by which we mayshake off these old chain s, or at all events learn tocarry them more lightly and gracefully, that I wishto speak to you this evening.

You need not be afraid that I am going to enterupon the much discussed subject ofheredity, whetherin its physiological or psychological aspects . It is a


4 94 ON FREEDOM.

ideas ; for there is hardly a single point of similaritybetween the process by which a son may share theblack eyes, the stammering, or the musical talentof his father, and that by which, after his father’sdeath, the law secures to the son the possession of

the pounds, shillings, and pence which h is fatherheld in the Funds.

But whatever the true meaning of heredity maybe, certain it is that every individual comes in to theworld heavy-laden . Nowhere has the consciousnessof the burden which rests on each generation as it

enters on its journey through life found strongerexpression than among the Buddhists . What otherpeople call by various names, fate or providence,’

tradition or inheritance,’ circums tan ces or environment,’ they call Kwrman , deed—what has been done,whether by ourselves or by others, the accumulawdwork of all who have come before us, the conse

quences of which we have to bear, both for good and

been con ceived as personal, as the work which weourselves have done in our former existences. But,

as personally we are not cons ciou s of having donesuch work in former ages, that kind ofKarman

,too,

might be said to be impersonal. To the questionh ow Karman began , what was the nucleus of thataccumulation which forms the condition of presentexistence, Buddhism has no answer to give, anymore than any other system of religion or philosophy. The Buddhists say it began with avidyd,and avid/yd means ignoran ce.‘ They are much moredeeply interested in the question how Karman may

1

ON FREEDOM. 495

b e annihilated, how each man may free himself fromthe influen ce of Km an, and Nirvana, the highestobject of all their dreams, is often defined by Buddhist philosophers as freedom from Karma/n.

What the Buddhists call by the general name ofKarma/n, comprehends all influences which the pastexercises on the present, whether physical or mental.’I

It is not my object to examine or even to name allthese influences, though I confess nothing is moreinteresting than tolook upon the surface ofourmodernlife as we look on a geological map , and to see themost an cient formations cropping out everywhereunder our feet. Diflicult as it is to colour a geological map of England, it would be still more difficultto find a sufficient variety of colours to mark thedifferent ingredients of the in tellectual condition of

her people.That all of us

, whether we speak English orGerman

,or French or Russian , are really speaking

an an cient Oriental tongue, incredible as it wouldhave sounded a hundred years ago, is now recognisedby everybody. Though the various dialects now

spoken in Europe have been separated man y thousands of years from the Sanskrit, the ancient classicallanguage of India, yet so close is thebond that holdstheWest and East together, that in many cases anintelligent Englishman might still guess the mean

SpencerHardy, Manual of Buddhism, p . 39.

3 As one generation dies andgives way to another, the heir ofthe

consequences of all its virtues and all its vices , the exact result of

pre-existent causes , so each individual , in the long chain of life, in

herits all, of good orevil,wh ich all its predecessors havedone orbeen,and takes up the struggle towards enlightenment precisely where

they left it.’—Bhys Davids , Buddhism, p . 104.

496 ON FREEDOM.

ing of a Sanskrit word. How little difference is therebetween Sanskrit sfin u and English son

,between

Sanskrit du h it ar and English daughter, betweenSanskrit v id, to know, and English to wit, betweenSan skrit v ak sh , to grow, and English to was !

Think how we value a Saxon urn, or a Roman coin ,or a Celtic weapon ! how we dig for them,

cleanthem ,

label them and carefully deposit them in our

museums ! Yet what is their antiquity comparedwith the antiquity of such words as can or dau ghter,father and motherP There are no monuments olderthan those collected in the handy volumes which wecall Dictionaries, and those who know how to interpret those English antiquities—as you may see theminterpreted, for instan ce, in Grimm ’s Dictionary ofthe German ,

in Littré’s Dictionary of the French, orin Professor Skeats’ Etymological Dictionary of theEnglish Language will learn more of the realgrowth of the human mind than by studying manyvolumes on logic and psychology.

And as by our lan guage we belong to the Aryanstratum, we belong through our letters to the Hamitic. We still write English in hieroglyphics ; andin spite of all the vicissitudes through which theancient hieroglyphics have passed in their journeyfrom Egypt to Phcsnicia, from t nicia to Greece,from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England,when we write a capital F y , when we draw th e

top lin e and the smaller line through the middle ofthe letter, we really draw the two horns of th e

cerastes, the horned serpent, which the an cien tEgyptians used for representing the sound of f. They


498 on FREEDOM.

lion , 3L ,which in the later hieroglyphic inscription s

represents the sound Of L.

If thus in our language we are Aryan, in ou r

letters Egyptian, we have only to look at ourwatchesto see that we are Babylonian . Why is our hou rdivided into sixty minutes, our minute into sixtyseconds ‘xl Would not a division of the hour into ten

,

or fifty, or a hundred minutes have been morenatural ? We have sixty divisions on the dials of

our watches simply becau se the Greek astronomerHipparchus, who lived in the second centuryaccepted the Babylonian system of reckoning time ,that syswm being sexagesimal. The Babylonian sknew the decimal system , but for practical purposesthey counted by sossi and sari

, the 808308 representin g60, the sa me 60 x 60, or From Hipparch u sthat system found its way into theworks ofPtolemy,about 150 A .D., and thence it was carried down th estream of civilisation , finding its last resting-placeon the dial-plates of our clocks.And why are there twenty shillings to our sov e

reign Again the real reason lies in Babylon . Th e

Greeks learnt from the Babylonians the art ofdividinggold and silver for the purpose of trade. It has beenproved that the current gold piece ofWestern Asiawas exactly the sixtieth part of a Babylonian mnci, ormina . It was nearly equal to our sovereign . Th e

difi cult problem of the relative value of gold and

silver in a bi-metallic currency had been solved to a

certain extent in the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom,

the proportion between gold and silver being fixed at 1to The silver shekel currrent in Babylon washeavier than thegold shekel in the proportion of 13;

ON FREEDOM. 499

to 10, and had therefore the value of one-tenth of agold shekel ; and the half silver shekel, called by theGreeks a drachma

,was worth one-twentieth of a

gold shekel. Thedrachma, orh alf silver shekel, maytherefore be looked upon as the most ancient type ofourown silver shilling in its relation of one-twentiethof our gold sovereign .

l

I shall mention only one more of the most essential tools of our men tal life—namely, our figures ,which we callArabic

,becau se we received them from

the Arabs, but which theArabs called Indian ,because

they received them from the Indians—in order toshow you how this nineteenth century of ours isunder the sway of centuries long past and forgotten ;how we are what we are, not by ourselves, but bythose who came before us

,and how the intellectual

ground on which we stand is made up of the detritusof thoughts which were first thought, not on theseisles nor in Europe, but on the shores of the Oxu s,the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Indus .

Now you may well ask Quorsum hcec omnia 2

What has all this to do with freedom and w ith thefree development of individuality ? Because a man

is born the heir of all the ages, can it be said that heis not free to grow and to expand, and to develop all

the faculties of his mind ll Are those who came before him, and who left h im this goodly inheritance,to be called his enemies Is that chain of traditionwhich connects him ‘with the past really a gallingfetter, an d not rather the leading-strings withoutwhich he would never learn to walk straight 9

Let us look at the matter more closely. N0 one

See Brandis , BaaMunzrveaen.

x x 2

500 ON FREEDOM.

would venture to say that every individual shouldbegin life as a young savage, and be left to form hisown language, and invent h is own letters, numerals,and coins . On the contrary, if we comprehend all

this and a great dealmore, such as religion ,morality,

and secular knowledge, under the general name ofeducation, even the most advanced defenders of individualism would hold that no child should entersociety without submitting, or rather without beingsubmitted, to education . Most of us would even gofurther, and make it criminal for parents or even forcommunities toallow ch ildren to grow up uneducated.

The excuse of worthless parents that they are at

liberty to do with their children as they like, h as at

last been blown to the winds , and among the p rincipal advocates of comp ulsory education , and of the

necessity of curtailing the freedom of savage parentsof savage children , have been Mill and his friends,th e apostles of liberty and individualism.

l Iremember the time when pseudo-Liberals were not ash amedto say that, whatever other nations, such as the

Germans , might do, England would never subm it tocompulsory education ; but that faint-hearted and

mischievous cry h as at last been silenced. A new

era may be said to date in the history of every nationfrom the day on which compulsory education ’ be

comes part of its statute-book ; and I may congratu

late the most Liberal town in England on havingproved itself the most inexorable tyran t in carryingit into effect.

1 Is it not almost a self-evident axiom, that the State should

require and compel the education ,up to a certain standard, of every

human being who is born its citizen ! Yet who is there that is not

afraid to recognise and assert this truth ? —oh Liberty, p . 188.


502 ON FREEDOM.

called out in a child while collecting flowers,or

stones , or butterflies ‘

9 Cannot h is judgment bestrengthened either in gymnastic exercises, or inmeasuring the area of a field or the height of a

tower Might not all this be done without a viewto examinations or payment by results , simply forthe sake of filling the little dullminds w ith one sunbeam of joy, such sunbeams being more likely hereafter to call hidden preciou s germs into life than th edeadening weight of such lessons as, for instance,that th ough is though , thr-ough is through, en-ough

is enough. A child who believes that will hereafterbelieve anything. Those who wish to see NaturalScience introduced into elementary s chools frightenschoolmasters by the veryr name of Natural Science .But surely every schoolmas ter wh o is worth his saltshould be able to teach children a love of Nature

, a

wondering at Nature, a curios ity to pry into th esecrets ofNature, an acquisitiveness for some of th etreasures ofNature, and all this acquired in the freshair of the field and the forest, where, better than in

frouzy lecture-rooms , the edge of the sen ses can be

sh arpened, the chest widened, and that freedom of

thought fostered which made England what it w aseven before the days ofcompulsory edu cation .

But in addressing you here to-night it was myintention to speak of higher rather than of elementary education .

All education— as it now exists in most countriesof Europe—may be divided into three stages—ele

men tary, scholastic, and academical ; or call itp rimary,secondary, and tertiary.

Elementary education has at last been made com

on FREEDOM. 503

pulsory in most civilised countries. Unfortunately,however

,it seems impossible to include under com

pulsory education anything beyond the very elementsof knowledge—at least for the present ; though Iknow from experience that, with propermanagement,a well-conducted elementary school can afford to provide instruction in extra subjects—such as naturalscience

,modern languages, and political economy

and yet, with the present system of Governmentgrants, be self-supporting.

l

The next stage above the elementary is scholastic

education , as it is supplied in grammar schools,whether public or private. According as the pupilsare intended either to go on to a university, or toenter at once on leaving school on the practicalworkof life

,these schools are divided into two classes. In

the one class, which in Germany are called Realschu len, less Latin is taught, and no Greek, but moreof mathematics , modern languages, and physicalscience ; in the other, called Gymnasia on the Continent, classics form the chief staple of in struction .

It is during this stage that education , whetherat private or public schools, exercises its strongestlevelling influence. Little attention can be paid at

large schools to individual tastes or talents. In

Germany—even more, perhaps, than in England

—it is the chief object of a good and conscientiousmaster to have his class as uniform as possible at theend of the year ; and he receives farmore credit fromthe official examiner if his whole class marches welland keeps pace together, than ifhe can parade a few

Times, January 25, 1879.

504 on FREEDOM.

brilliant and forward boys, followed by a number of

straggling laggards .

And as to the character of the teaching at school,how can it be otherwise than authoritative or dogmatic 9 The Socratic method is very good if we can

find the 'viri Socratici and leisure for discu s sion .

But at school, which now may seem to be called

almost in mockery exal t, or leisure, the true methodis , after all, that patronised by the great educatorsof the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . Boy sat school mu st turn their mind into a row of pigeonholes , filling as many as they can with useful notes

,

and never forgetting how many are empty. Thereis an immense amount of positive knowledge to be

acquired between the ages of ten and eighteenrules of grammar, strings of vocables, dates , nam esof towns, rivers, and mountains, mathematical formulas, etc. All depends here on the receptive an d

retentive powers of the mind. The memory h as tobe strengthened, withou t being overtaxed, till it actsalmost mechanically. Learning by heart, I believ e,cannot be too assiduously practised during the yearsspent at school. There may have been too much of itwhen , as the Rev. H . C. Adams informs u s in h is

Wykehamica (p. boys used to say by heartand lines, when one repeated thewhole

of Virgil, nay, when another was able to say th e

whole of the English Bible by rote Put him on

where you would, he would go fluently on , as long as

anyone would listen .

’

No intellectual investment, I feel certain ,bears

such ample and such regular interest as gems ofEnglish, Latin, or Greek literature deposited in the


ON FREEDOM.

meaning of certain words ; he might also feel doubtful sometime whether certain forms came from 717m,

I send, or elm, I go, or slut, I am , particularly ifpreceded by prepositions . In these matters the bestscholars are least inclined to be pharisaical ; and

whenever I meet in the controversies of classicalscholars the favourite phrase, Every schoolboy knows,or ought to know, this,’ I generally say to myself,N0 , he ought not.

’Anyhow

,those who wish to see

the study of Greek and Latin retained in our publicschools ought to feel convinced that it will certainlynot be retained much longer, if it can be said withany truth that young men who leave school at

eighteen are in many cas es unable to read or to enjoya classical text, unless they have seen it before.

Classical teaching, and all purely scholasticteaching, ought to be finished at school. When a

young man goes to a University, unless he means tomake scholarship his profession , he ought to be freeto enter upon a new career. If he has not learnt bythat time somuch of Greek and Latin as is absolutelynecessary in after-life for a lawyer, or a student ofphysical science, or even a clergyman

,either he or

h is school is to blame . I do not mean to say that it

would not be most desirable for everyone during hisUniversity career to attend some lectures on classicalliterature, on an cient history, philosophy, or art.

What is to be deprecated is, that the Universityshould have to do the work which belongs properlyto the school.

The best colleges at Oxford and Cambridge haveshown by their matriculation examinations what thestandard of classical knowledge Ought to be at

ON FREEDOM. 507

eighteen or nineteen . That standard can be reachedby boys while still at school, as has been proved bothby the so-called local examinations

, and by the examinations of schools held under the Delegates appointed by the Universities . If, therefore, the University would reassert her old right, and make thefirst examination ,

called at Oxford Responsions , a

general matriculation examination for admission tothe University, not only would the public schools bestimulated to greater efforts , but the teaching of the

University might assume, from the very beginning,that academic character which ought to distinguishit from mere schoolboy work.

Academic teaching ought to be not merely a con

tinuation,but in one sense a correction of scholastic

teaching. Wh ile at school instruction must bechiefly dogmatic, at theUniversity is it tobe Socraticfor I find no better name for that method which isto set a man free from the burden of purely traditional knowledge ; to make him feel that the wordswh ich he uses are Often empty

,that the concepts he

employs are, for the most part, mere bundles pickedup at random ; that even where he knows facts , hedoes not know the evidence for them and where heexpresses opinions , they are mostly mere dogmas,adopted by him without examination.

But for the Universities, I should indeed fearthat Mill’s prophecies might come true, and that theintellect ofEurope might drift into drearymonotony.

The Universities always have been ,and, unles s they

are diverted from their original purpose, always willbe, the guardians of the freedom of thought, theprotectors Of individual spontaneity ; and it was

508 ON FREEDOM.

owing, I believe, to Mill’s want of acquaintance with

true academic teaching that he took so despondinga view of the generation grow ing up under his eyes.When we leave school

, our heads are naturallybrimful of dogma—that is, ofknowledge and Opin ionsat second hand. Such dead knowledge is extremelydangerous , unless it IS sooner or later revived by thespirit of free inquiry. It does not matter whetheiour scholastic dogma s be true or false. The dangeris the same. And why ? Because to place eithertruth or error above the reach of argument is certainto weaken truth and to strengthen error. Secondly,becau se to hold as true on the au thority of othersanything which concern s u s deeply, and which we

could prove ourselves,produ ces feebleness , if not

dishonesty. And, thirdly, because to feel unwillingor unable to meet objection s by argument is generallythe first step towards violence and persecution .

I do not think of religious dogmas only. Theyare generally the first to rouse inquiry, even duringour schoolboy days, and they are by no means themost diflicult to deal with. Dogma often rageswhere we least expect it . Among scientific men the

theory of evolution is at present becoming, or hasbecome

,a dogma. Wh at is the result ? No objec

tion s are listened to, no difficulties recognised, and a

man like Virchow,himself the strongest supporter of

evolution , who has the moral courage to say that thedescent of man from any ape whatsoever is, as yet,before the tribunal of scientific zoology, not proven ,’

is howled down in Germany in a manner worthy ofEphesian s and Galatians . But at present I am

thinking not so much of any special dogmas, but


510 ON FREEDOM.

Many of the difficulties—most of them of our own

making—with regard to the origin , the handingdown , the later corruptions and misinterpretationsof sacred texts, would find their natural solution, ifit was shown how exactly the same difficulties aroseand had to be dealt with by theologians of othercreeds. If some—aye, ifmany—Of the doctrines ofChristianity were met with in other religions also

,

surely that would not affect their value, or diminishtheir truth ; while nothing, I feel certain , wouldmore effectually secure to the pure and simple teaching ofChrist its true place in the historical development of the human mind than to place it side by sidewith the other religions of the world. In the seriesof translation s of the ‘ Sacred Books of the East,’ ofwhich the first three volumes have just appeared,‘ Iwished myself to include a new translation of the

Old and New Testaments ; and when that series isfinished it will, I believe, he admitted that nowherewould these two books have had a grander setting,or have shone with a brighter light, than surroundedby theVeda, the Zendavesta, theBuddhist Tripitaka,and the Qur’an .

But as I said before, I was not thinking of re

ligious dogmas only, or even chiefly, when Imain

tained that the character of academic teachingmust be Socratic, not dogmatic. The evil Of dogmatic teaching lies much deeper, and spreads muchfurther.

Think only of language, thework of other people,not ofourselves, which we pick up at random in our

Sacred Books of the East, edited by M. M., vols . i. to ix . ;Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879 and 1880.

on FREEDOM. 511

race through life. Does not every word we use re

quire careful examination and revision ‘

9 It is not

enough to say that language assists our thoughtsor colours them

,or possibly obscures them. No

,

language and thought are indivisible. It was not

from poverty of expression that the Greeks calledreason and language by the same word; It

was because they knew that, though we may distinguish between thought and speech, as we distinguish between force andfun ction , it is as impossible totear the one by violence away from the other as it isto separate the concave side of a lens from its convexside. This is something to learn and to understand,for, if properly understood, it will supply the key tomost ofourintellectualpuzzles, and serve as the safestthread through the whole labyrinth of philosophy.

It is evident,’ as Hobbes remarks , l that truthand falsity have no place but amongst such livingcreatures as use speech. For though some bru tecreatures, looking upon the image of a man in a

'

glass, may be affected with it, as if it were the manhimself

,and for this reason fear it or fawn upon it in

vain yet they do notapprehend it as true or false,

but only as like ; and m this they are not deceived.

Wherefore,as men owe all their true ratiocination

to the right understanding of speech, so also theyowe their errors to the misunderstanding ofthe same ;and as all the ornaments of philosophy proceed onlyfrom man ,

so from man also is derived the ugly ahsurdity of false Opinion . For speech has somethingin it like to a spider’s web (as it was said of old of

Solon ’s law s), for by contexture ofwords tender andComp utation orLogic, t. iii., viii., p 36.

512 ON FREEDOM.

delicate wits are ensnared or stopped, but strongwits break easily through them .

’

Let me illustrate my meaning by at least one

instance .Among the words which have proved Spider’s

webs , en snaring even the greatest intellects of theworld from Aristotle down to Leibniz, the termsgenus , sp ecies, and individualoccupy a very prominentplace. The Opposition of Aristotle to Plato, of theNominalists to the Realists , of Leibniz to Locke, cfHerbart to H egel, turns on the true meaning of thesewords . At school, of course, allwe can do is to teachthe receivedmeaning ofgenus and species and ifa boycan trace these terms back to Aristotle s f

yévos and

52809 , and show in what sense that philosopher usedthem ,

every examiner would be satisfied.

But the time comes when we have to act as our

own examiners, and when wehave togive an accountto ourselves of such words as genus and sp ecies .

Some p eople write, indeed, as if they had seen a

sp ecies and a genus walking about in broad daylight ;but a little consideration w ill show us that thesewords express subjective concepts, and that, if thewhole world were silent, there would never havebeen a thought of a genus or a sp ecies. There are

languages in which we look in vain forcorrespondingwords ; and if we had been born in the atmosphere of

such a language, these terms and thoughts would not

exist for us . They came to us , directly or indirectly,from Aristotle. ButAristotle did not invent them

, he

onlydefined them in his own way, so that, forin stance,according to h im, all living beings would constitute a.genus , men a sp ecies, and Socrates an individua l.


514 on FREEDOM.

logical as independent of a morphological clas sification) no harm could accrue. A family, for ins tan ce,might be called a «

yévos, the gene or clan was a «75-7 0 9,

the nation (gnatio) was a «fiver, th e whole h um an

kith and kin was a rye'

vos ; in fact, all that w as de

scended from common ancestors was a true ryév os .

There is no obscurity of thought in this .

On the other side, taking 5280 9 or species in its

original sen se, one man might be said to be likeanother in his 5280 5 orappearance. An ape, too, mightquite truly be said to have the same 3280: or sp eciesor appearance as aman

,without any prejudice as to

their common origin . People might also speak of

different 2287; or form s or classes of things, su ch as

different kinds of metals,or tools, or armour, w ith

out committing themselves in the least to any opin ionas to their common descent.Often it would happen that things belongin g to

the same viz/0 9, such as the White man and the

negro, differed in their 5280 9 or appearance ; oftenalso that things belonging to the same 32809 , such as

eatables, differed in their ryévos , as , for instan ce,

meat and vegetables .

All this is clear and simple . The confusion beganwhen these two terms

,instead of being cO-ordin ate,

were subordinated to each other by the philosoph ersof Greece, so that what from one point of view was

called a genus , might from another be called a species,

and vice vered. Human beings , for instance, werenow called a sp ecies , all living beings a genus , whichmay be true in logic, bu t is utterly false in what isOlder than logic— viz., language, thought, or fact.A ccording to language, according to reas on , and

ON FREEDOM. 515

according to nature, all human beings constitute a

«yévos , or generation ,

so long as they are supposed tohave common ancestors but with regard to all livingbeings we can on ly say that they form an s

Z

Sos—thatis, agree in certain appearances, until it has beenproved that even Mr. Darwin was too modest inadmitting at least four or five different ancestors forthe whole animal world.

1

In tracing the history of these two words, wives

and 5280 9, you may see passing before your eyesalmost the whole panorama of philosophy, fromPlato’s ‘ ideas down to Hegel

’s Idee. Thequestionof genera, their origin and subdivision ,

occupiedchiefly the attention of natural philosophers, who,after long controversies about the origin and classification of genera and sp ecies, seem at last, thanks tothe clear sight of Darwin, to have arrived at the

old truth which was prefigured in language—namely,that Nature knows nothing but genera , or generation s, to be traced back to a limited n umber of

ancestors, and that the so-called sp ecies are onlygenera , whose genealogical descent is as get more orless obscure.

But thequestion as to the na ture of the 8280 9

became a vital question in every system of philoSophy. Granting, for instance, that women in everyclime and country formed one species, it was soonasked what constitu ted a species If all womenshared a common form

,what was that form Where

was it So long as it was supposed that all womendescended from Eve, the difficulty might be slurred

Lectures on Mr. Darwin’

s Philosophy of Language,’Fraser

’

s

Maya/sine, June 1873, p . 26.

516 on FREEDOM.

over by the name of heredity. But the more thought.ful would ask even then how it was that, while allindividual women came and went and vanished, theform in which they were cast remained the same ?Here you see how philosophicalmythology springs

up . The veryquestion wh at £280 : or species or formwas

,and where these things were kept, changed

those words from predicates into s ubjects . 13309

was conceived as someth ing independent and sub

stantial, something within or above the individualsparticipating in it

,something unchangeable and

eternal. Soon there arose as many or forms ortypes as there were general concepts. They wereconsidered the only true realities of which the phenomenal world is only as a shadow that soon passethaway. Here we have, in fact, the origin of Plato

’s

ideas, and of the various systems of idealism whichfollowed his lead, while the opposite opinion that

ideas have no independent existence, and that theone is nowhere fou nd except in the many («re31: vrapirc‘

z m u d), was s trenuously defended by Aristotleand his followers .‘

The same red thread runs through the whole

philosophy of the Middle Ages . Men were cited

before councils and condemned as heretics becausethey declared that animal, man, or woman were merenames, and that they could not bring themselves tobelieve in an ideal animal, an ideal man, an idealwoman as the invisible, supernatural, ormetaphysicaltypes of the ordinary animal, the individualman, thesingle woman . Those philosophers

,called Nomi

nalis ts,in opposition to the Realists, declared that

Prantl, Gesckichte derLogik, vol. i. p . 121 .


518 on FREEDOM.

Plato and Aristotle are, no doubt, great names ;every schoolboy is awed by them, even though hemay have read very little of their writings . This

,

too,is a kind of dogmatism that requ ires correction .

Now , at his University, a young studentmight chanceto hear the following ,

by no mean s respectful,re

marks about Aristotle,which I copy from one of the

greatest English scholars andphilosophers Thereis nothing so absurd that the old philosophers, as

Cicero saith,who was one of them, have not some Of

them maintained ; and I believe that scarce anything can be more absurdly said in natural philosophy than that which now is called Aristotle’sMetaphysics ; or more repugnant to governmentthan much of that he hath said in his Politics nor

more ignorantly than a great part of his Ethics .

’I

am far from approving this judgment, but I thinkthat the shock which a young scholar receives on

seeing h is idols so mercilessly broken is salutary. It

throws him back on his own resources ; it makeshim honest to him self. If he thinks the criticismthus passed on Aristotle unfair

,he will begin to

read his works with new eyes . He will not onlyconstrue his words , but try to reconstruct in his ownmind the thoughts so carefully elaborated by thatancient philosopher. He will judge of their truthwithout being swayed by the authority of a greatname, and probably in the end value what is valuablein Aristotle, or Plato, or any other great philosopherfar more highly and honestly than if he had neverseen them trodden under foot.

Do not suppose that I look upon the Universitiesa s purely iconoclastic, as chiefly intended to teach u s

on FREEDOM. 519

how to break the idols of the schools. Far from itBut I do look upon them as meant to supply a fresheratmosphere than we breathed at school, and to shakeour mind to its very roots , as a storm shakes theyoung oaks, not to throw them down , but to makethem grasp all the more firmly the hard soil of factand truth ! S tand up right on thyfeet

’ ought to bewritten over the gate of every college, if the epide

mic of uniformity and sequacity which Mill saw ap

proaching from China, and which since his time hasmade such rapid progress Westward, is ever to bestayed.

Academic freedom is notwithout its dangers butthere are dangers which it is safer to face than to

avoid. In Germany—so far as my own experiencegoes—students are often left too much to themselves, and it is only the cleverest among them, orthose who are personally recommended, who receivefrom the professors that individual guidance and

encouragement which should and could be easilyextended to all.

There is too much time spent in the GermanUniversities in mere lecturing, and often in simplyretailing to a class what each student might read inbooks in a far more perfect form. Lectures are

u seful if they teach us how to teach ourselves ; ifthey stimulate ; if they excite sympathy and curiosity ; if they give advice that springs from personalexperience ; if they warn again st wrong roads ; if, infact, they have less the character of a show-windowthan of a workshop . Half an hour’s conversationwith a tutor or a professor Often does more than a

whole course of lectures in giving the right direction

520 ON FREEDOM .

and the right spirit to a young man’s studies . Here

I may quote the words of Professor Helmholtz, in fullagreement with him . When I recall the memoryof my own University life,’ he writes , and the im

pression which a man like Johannes Miiller, theprofessor of physiology, made on us, Imu st set the

highest value on the personal intercou rse withteachers from whom one learns how thought worksin independent heads. Whoever has come in con

tact but once with one or several first-class m en willfind h is in tellectual standard changed for life . ’

In English Universities, on the contrary, there istoo little of academic freedom . There is not onlyguidance, but far too much of constant personalcontrol. It is often thought that English undergraduates could not be trusted with that amount ofacademic freedom which is granted to Germanstudents, and that most of them, if left to choosetheir own work, their own time, their Own books,and their own teachers , would simply do nothing.

This seems to me unfair and untrue. Most horses,if you take them to the water, will drink ; and thebest way to make them drink is to leave them alone.I have lived long enough in English and in GermanUniversities to know that the intellectual fibre is asstrong and sound in the English as in the Germanyouth. But if you supply a man , who wishes to learnswimming, with bladders—nay, if you insist on his

using them—he will use them,but he will probably

never learn to swim . Take them away, on the con

trary, and depend on it, after a few aimless strokesand a few painful gulps, he will use his arms and hislegs, and he will swim . If young men do not learn


522 ON FREEDOM.

should Often be spent between cramming and examinations.

And here I have at last mentioned the word,which to many friends of academic freedom, to manywho dread the baneful in crease of uniformity, mayseem the cause of all mischief, the most powerfulengine for intellectual levelling—Exam ination .

There is a strong feeling springing up everywhereagainst the tyranny of examination s , against the

cramping and withering influence which they are

supposed to exercise on the youth of England. I

cannot join in that outcry. Iwell remember thatthe first letters which I ventured to address to theT imes

,in very imperfect English, were in favour of

examinations . They were signed La Carriers ouverte,and were written before the days of the Civil ServiceCommission ! I well remember, too, that the firsttime I ventured to speak, or rather to stammer, inpublic, was in favour of examinations. That was in1857, at Exeter, when the first experiment was made,

under the auspices of Sir T . Acland,in the direction

of what has since developed into the Oxford and

Cambridge Local Examinations . I have been an

examiner myselfformany years, I have watched thegrowth of that system in Englan d from year to year,and, in spite of all that has been said and written of

late against it, I confess I do not see how it wouldbe possible to abolish it, and return to th e old systemof appointment by patronage.

But though I have not lost my faith in examinations, I cannot conceal the fact that I am frightenedby the manner in which they are conducted, and bythe results which they produce. As you are interested

ON FREEDOM. 528

yourselves at this Midland Institute in the successfulworking of examinations , you will perhaps allow mein conclusion to add a few remarks on the safeguardsnecessary for the eflicient working of examinations .

All examinations are a means to ascertain howpupils have been taught ; they ought never to beallowed to become the end for which pupils are

taught. Teaching with a view to them lowers theteacher in the eyes of h is pupils ; learning with a

view to them is apt to produce shallowness and dishonesty.

Whatever attractions learning possesses in itself,and whatever efforts were formerly made by boys atschool from a sense of duty, all this is lost if theyonce imagine that the highest object of all learningis to gain marks in a competition .

In order to maintain the proper relation betweenteacher and pupil, all pupils should be made to lookto their teachers as their natural examiners and

fairest judges, and therefore in every examinationthe report of the teacher ought to carry the greatestweight. This is the principle followed abroad in examining candidates at public schools ; and even intheir examination on leaving school, which givesthem the right to enter the University, they knowthat their success depends far more on the workwhich they have done during the years at school

,

than on the work done on the few days of theirexamination . There are outside examiners appointedby Government to check the work done at schoolsand during the examinations ; but the cases in whichthey have to modify or reverse the award of the

master are extremely rare, and they are felt to reflect

524 on FREEDOM.

seriou sly on the competency or impartiality of theschool authorities .

TO leave examinations entirely to strangers reduces them to the level Of lotteries, and fosters acleverness in teachers and taught Often akin to dishonesty. An examiner may find out what a candidate knows nct

,he can hardly ever find out all he

knows ; and even if he succeeds in finding out how

much a candidate knows,he can seldom findouthow he

knows it. On these points the Opinion ofthemasterswho have watched their pupils for years is indispensable for the sake of the examiner, for the sake of

the pupils, and for the sake of their teachers.I know I shall be told that it would be impossible

to trust the masters, and to be guided by theiropinion , because they are interested parties. Now,first of all, there are far more honest men in the

world than dishonest, and it does not answer tolegislate as if all schoolmasters were rogues . It is

enough that they should know that their reportswould be scrutinised, to keep even the most. reprobate ofteachers from hearing false witness in favourof their pupils.Secondly, I believe that unnecessary temptation

is now being placed before all parties concerned inexaminations . The proper reward for a good exami»

nation should be honour, not pounds, shillings , andpence. The mischief done by pecuniary rewardsoffered in the shape of scholarships and exhibition sat school and University, begins to be recognis edvery widely. To train a boy of twelve for a raceagainst all England is generally to overstrain h isfaculties, and often to impair his usefulness in later


526 ON FREEDOM.

from schools by threatening to take away th e youngracers that are likely to win the Derby.

1

If we turn from the schools to the Universitieswe find here, too, the same complaints again st overexamination . Now it seems tome that every University, in order to maintain its position ,

has a perfectright to demand two examinations, but nomore one

foradmission , the other fora degree. Various attemptshave been made in Germany, in Ru ssia, in France,and in England to change and improve the old aca

demic tradition, but in the end the original, and, asit would seem , the natural system

,has generally

proved its wisdom and reasserted its right.If a University surrenders the right of examining

those who wish to be admitted, the tutors will oftenhave to do the work of schoolmasters, and the pro

fessors can never know how high or how low theyshould aim in their public lectures ; and the resultwill be a. lowering ofthe standard at the Universities,and consequently at the public schools. Some Universities, on the contrary, like over-anxious mothers,have multiplied examinations so as to make quitesure, at the end of each term or each year, that thepupils confided to them have done at leas t somework.

'

This kind of forced labour may do some goodto the incorrigibly idle, but it does the greatest harmto all the rest. If there is an examination at the

end of each year, there can be no freedom left forany independent work. Both teachers and taught

will be guided by the same pole-star—examinations ;no deviation from the beaten track will be consideredsafe, and all the pleasure derived from work done for

1 L. Noire, Pddagogisckes Slimenbiwh, p . 157 Todtes Wissen.

'

on FREEDOM. 527

its own sake, andallthe justpride andjoy,which thoseonly know who have ever ventured out by themselveson the Open sea of knowledge, must be lost.We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by

the brilliant show of examination papers .

It is certainly marvellou s what an amount of

knowledge candidates will produce before their examiners ; but those who have been both examinedand examiners know best how fleeting that knowledge often is , and how different from that otherknowledge which has been acquired slowly and

quietly,for its own sake, for our own sake, without

a thought as to whether it would ever pay at examinations or not. A candidate, after giving most gliblythe dates and the titles of the principal works of

Cobbett, Gibbon ,Burke, Adam Smith, and David

Hume, was asked'

whether he had ever seen any of

their writings, and he h ad to answer,No. Another

who was asked which of the works of Pheidias hehad seen , replied that he had only read the first twobooks. That is the kind of dishonest knowledgewhich is fostered by too frequent examinations .

There are two kinds of knowledge, the one thatenters into our very blood

,the other which we carry

about in our pockets . Those who read for examination s have generally their pockets cram full ; thosewho work on quietly and have their whole heart intheir work are Often discouraged at the small amountof their knowledge, at the little life-blood they havemade. But what they have learnt has really becometheir own , has invigorated their whole frame, and inthe end they have often proved the strongest and

happiest men in the battle of life.

528 ON FREEDOM.

Omniscience is at present the bane of a ll our

knowledge. From the day he leaves school and

enters the University a man ought to make up h is

mind that in many things he must either rem ain

altogether ignorant, or be satisfied with know ledgeat second-hand. Thus only can he clear th e decksfor action . And the sooner he finds out what hisown work is to be, the more useful and delightfulwill be h is life at the University and later. Th ere

are few men who have a passion for all knowledgethere is hardly one who has not a hobby of his ow n .

Those so-called hobbies ought to be utilised, and not,

as they are now, discouraged, ifwe wish our Universities to produce more men like Faraday, Carlyle,Grote, or Darwin . I do not say that in an exam in ation for a University degree a minimum of wh at isnow called general culture should not he insisted on ;

but in addition to that, far more freedom ough t tobe given to the examiner to let each candidate produce his own individual work. This is done to a far

greater extent in Continental than in English Un i

versities, and the examinations are therefore mostlyconfided to the members of the Senatus Academicus

,

con sisting of the most experienced teachers, and themost eminent representatives ofthe different branchesof knowledge in the University. Their object is not

to find out how many marks each candidate may

gain by answering a larger or smaller number of

questions, and then to place them in order beforethe world like so many organ pipes . They want tofind out whether a man , by the work he has doneduring his three or four University years, has ao

quired that vigour of thought, that maturity ofjudg


580 ON FREEDOM.

tained—Mill’s principal fears have nevertheles s not

been belied, and the blight of uniformity wh ich hesaw approaching with its attendant evils of feebleness, indifl

'

erence, and sequacity, has been spreadingmore widely than ever.

It has even been maintained that the very freedom which every individual now enjoys h as been

detrirnental to the growth of individuality ; th a t youmust have an Inquisition if you want to seem artyrs,that you must have despotism and tyranny to call

forth heroes . The very measures which the friendsof individual development advocated sowarmly

, com

pulsory education and competitive examination s , arepointed out as having chiefly contributed to pro

duce that large array of pass-men , that dead levelof uninteresting excellence, which is the beam ide

’

al

of a Chinese Mandarin , while it frightened and dis

heartened such men as Humboldt, Tocqueville, and

John Stuart Mill him self.There may be some truth in all this, but it is cer

tainly not the whole truth. Education, as it has to

be carried on , whether in elementary or in pu blicschools, is no doubt a heavy weight which mightwell press down the most independent spirit ; it is,in fact, neither more nor less than placing, in a sys

tematised form ,on the shoulders of every gen eration

the ever-increasing mass of knowledge, experien ce,custom

, and tradition that has been accumulated byformer generations . W e n eed not wonder, therefore,if in some schools all spring, all vigour, all joyousness ofwork is crushed out under that loadof names

and dates, of anomalous verbs and syn tactic rules,

ofmathematical formu las and geometrical theories

ON FREEDOM. 531

which boys are expected to bring up for competitiveexaminations.But a remedy has been provided, and we are

ourselves to blame if we do not avail ourselves of it

to the fullest extent. Europe erected its Universities, and called them the homes of the LiberalArts , and determined that between the mentalslavery of the school and the physical slavery of bu sylife every man should have at least three years of

freedom . What Socrates and his great pupil Platohad done for the youth of Greece,1 these new aca

demies were to do for the youth of Italy, France,England, Spain , and Germany ; and, though withvarying success, they have done it. The mediaevaland modern Universities have been from century tocentury the homes of free thought. Here the mosteminent men have spent their lives

,not in retailing

traditional knowledge, as at school, but in extendingthe frontiers of science in all directions . Here, inclose intercourse with their teachers, or under theirimmediate guidance, generation after generation of

boys, fresh from school, have grown up into menduring the three years of their academic life. Here,for the first time, each man has been encouraged todare to be himself, to follow his own tastes, to depend on h is own judgment, to try the wings of h ism ind, and, 10 , like young eagles thrown ou t of theirn est, they could fly. H ere the Old knowledge accumulated at school was tested, and new knowledgeacquired straight from the fountain-head. Herekn owledge ceased to be a mere burden, and became

1 Zeller, Ueber den wiesenschafllichen Unterricht bei den Grie

olwn, 1878, p . 9.

M M 2

532 ON FREEDOM.

a power invigorating the whole mind, like snowwhich during winter h es cold and heavy on th e

meadows, but when it is touched by the sun Of sp ringmelts away, and fertilises the ground for a richharvest.

That was the original purpose of the Universities ;and the more they continue to fulfil that purpose, themore will they secure to us that real freedom fromtradition , from custom,

from mere Opinion and

superstition, which can be gained by independentstudy only ; the more will they foster that human

development in its richest diversity which Mill, likeHumboldt, considered as the highest Object of all

society.Such academic teaching need not be confin ed to

the Old Universities. There is many a great Uni

versity that sprang from smaller beginnings thanyour Midland Institute. Nor is itnecessary, in orderto secure the real benefits of academic teaching, tohave allthe paraphernalia of aUniversity, its collegesand fellowships, its caps and gowns . What is reallywanted is the presence of men who, having donegood work in their life, are willing to teach othershow to work for themselves, how to think for thems elves, how to judge for themselves. That is th e

true academic stage in every man’s life

,when he

learns to work, not to please others, be they schoolmasters or examiners, but to please himself, whenheworks from sheer love ofwork, and for the highestof all purposes, the quest of truth. Those onlywho have passed through that stage know the realblessings ofwork. To the world at large they mayseem mere drudges—but the world does not

"know


IN D E X.

The numerals i. and 11. refer to the volumes, the figures to the pages.

A , pronunciation of,i. 295.

Abd, servant, ii. 419.

Abd-allah, servant of God, 11. 4 19.

Abdallah ibn A lmokafi'

a, author of

Kalilah and Dimnah , i.514 , 550,

Abderrbaman, 1. 5 19.

Abeillard, i. 56.

Abhidharma, by-law, 11. 1 77, 1 78,2 1 4, 284, 286 30 2 meta

physics of the Buddh mts, 2 14,284 compiled byKh yapa, 2 84 ;

propounded by Buddha, when

he was fifty-one years Old, 286 n.

in China, ii. 327.

in Japan ,ii. 341

Abhigi'

ias , the five, 11. 348 n .

Ablative as a general locat. case, i.

235.

in as, as infinitive, 1. 161 .

in d,i. 20 1 .

in toh, as infinitive, i. 167.Ablatives in (1, W113]! meaning Of loca

tive,i. 2 28.

origin of d in , i. 230 .

in e, ei, i, e, i. 232 .

identical with datives, i. 233.

in 0d, i. 246.

as accusatives, i. 248.

Abraham, Abram, i. 5, 6, 2 1 ; 11. I55,

409» 436. 439fu th of, 11 . 433. 434.

friend ofGod, ii. 433.

Absolute, ii. 249, 263.

forms of the, ii. 249.

.A-buddha, not enlightened 11. 2 20 .

Abulfarag, Old Arabic prayer mentioned by, ii. 439.

Accusative in am, as 1nfinitive, i. 1 61 .

in tum, as infinitive, i. 167.

with the infinitive, i. 147.

Achaemenian dynasty, 1i. 262 .

inscriptions, ii. 262 .

Acheron , i. 375 n.

Achilles , i. 4 1 4, 41 5, 580 .

Acosta. H istor1a natural y moral 11.

38 1 .

Ad, 8 1n Latin, i. 239.

Adam , ii. 41 3, 4 19and Adima,

’

Abekcpés, dbdupfi, 1. 323Adelung

’

s Mithridates , 11 1 30 .

Adi Brahmo Somaj, ii. 80 ,86.

Adima and Hova, xi. 469—472 .

Aditi,the sun called face Of, i. 391 .

Aditya, 1i. 1 53, 1 57.the sun , i. 44 1 .

clas s of gods , li. 57.Adjetatig ofWabojeeg, 11. 376.

Adonis (Lord), Deity in Phemc1a, 11.

425Adrammelech , 11. 406.

Ad—venire.= l’aven1r, i. 146.

Adverb,the infinitive as an, i. 140 .

inf/5mm,

Adverbs m d as a latives,i. 242 .

previous to Aryan separat1on , i.1 04.

E,forms, i. 234.

Aides, temple, and house, 11. 238.’

Aéiuoc,1. 330 .

E milius Paulus, i. 245.

536 INDEX .

E olic,Equor, 1.E s

, mris,E sopus alter, 1. 525.

Atithlios, king of Elis, i. 384.

A'

étius,i. 41 8.

Afi xing languages, i. 50 .

African dialect, Betshuana, i. 389.

After (eastern) Han dynasty, 11. 318 .

main dynasty, ii. 324.

Aga, she-goat, i . 344.

Agamemnon, i. 580 .

Agatasatru murderer of his father,the king ofMagadha, ii

Agathon ,i. 31 3.

Ager, i. 345.

Agesilaos, Leader of the people, 11 .

262 .

57 n .

Agglutinative languages,Agneh , for agre, i. 336.

Agni fire. 1 40 8 44 1 1 442 442 445 ;fi-1 36

420 , 428.

hymn to, 11. 142 .

horses of, 1. 443.

god of fire,Agra, field, ager, 1. 345.

Agricola, not agrum-cola, i. 10 2 .

’

A‘

ypds, i 345A han, day, i. 396.

Ahana, name for dawn, i. 397, 60 7fi. 237.

same as Daphne, i. 510 .

Aheneus (shes),A lli: serpent, i

l343, 479

Ahmi (Zend), Iam , i. 31 7.

Ahrens, De DialectoDorica, i. 477 n .

Ahriman, the evil power. i. 479.

Azhi dahaka, Offspring of, i. 479.

A btau (Gothic), i. 354.

Ahura mazda, 1i. 1 33, 134the supreme Delty Of Zoroaster,ii. 134 .

A5, emperor, 11. 31 7.

A 1da, the son of Ida, i. 40 8.

A ighe (Irish) ,Am-lif

,i. 354.

A lus,i. 354 .

A1rg1od, 1. 348.

A 1rya, 1. 2 14.

Ais, i. 348.

Aisvarikas, followers of Buddha, 11.

2 2 2 .

A15, i. 344 .

A 11 , the root, i. 1 35.Akrisios , i. 476.

A kriti, species , 11 . 51 3.

Akr-s , i. 345.

Ahshan, or alt-eu , i. 1 33.Akshi, eye, i. 1 33

- 1 36.

Akudunnia, i. 498 n .

Alam,with infimtive, i. 1 58.

'AAeupa , i. 4 8 11 .

Alexander 1: 0 Great, i. 338 n . ; ii.

conquest and invasion of India, 11.

235.

Alexander’

s conquest, brings Greekstories to India, i. 5 1 1 .

Alexandria, Clemens Of, i. 2 1 , 2 2 ; 11.

2 2 2 n.

ad Caucasum,Buddhist pries ts

sent to, ii. 51 .

’

M efilcaxos, nameofApolloandZeus,1. 3 4 .

Alfonso %he Wise, i. 525A lfred, Anglo

-Saxon of, 11. 1 30 .

A li. the son ofAlshah Faresi, i. 516.

Alilat, translated by Herodotos byObpam

’q, ii. 438.

Alkimenes, i. 482 .

Alkinoos , palace Of, i. 308.

Allah. ii. 433. 439.

Allahabad, i. 42 2 , 433.

Allat, ii. 438

Alpha privat1vum, i. 1 89.

Alphabet, Pitman’

s , i. 267, 268, 295.

Altaic languages, i. 205.

Al Uzza, ii. 438.

Ama-ad. i. 346.

Amelaberg, niece ofTheodoric,L418.

Ambagapitya, ii. 1 76.

America , Central, 11. 374, 38 1 , 386

North , ii. 373, 374.

Russian, i1. 398.

South,ii. 38 1 , 386.

ancient inhabitants, natives, abo

riginal races of, ii. 386, 337.

3 1 .

PogulVuh (history ofthe civilisedraces in C. ii. 372 , 40 1 .


538 INDEX .

Arabia, Premohammedan ideas of the

Nomads Of the Arabian penin

sula, 1. 6.

Arabic, lectureship of, i. 1 19.

not aided by Henry VIII, i. 1 19 .

supported by Archbishop Laud,1. 1 1

MSS.zouected by Laud, i. 1 19.

translation of fables , i. 516, 556,

557Old A . prayer,

’

Apdxwz. i 347A rad, aradyr, i. 345.

A radar, i. 345.

Arago, Freycinet andArago’8 Voyage

to the Eastern Ocean , 1i. 375.

An thea, 1 347Arare, i. 2 13, 345.

Aratrum, i. 345.

Arbhu , i. 435.

Arbuda, i. 491 .Ardhr

,1. 345.

Arg, i1. 132 n.

Argentum, i. 348.

Argonauts, i. 473.

Argos, i. 4 19.

worship OfH ere in, i. 4 20 .

"

Ap‘

yvpos , 1. 348.

Arhat (rahat), ii, 289, 349, 349 n .

Ariana, i. 2 14.

Aristotle, i. 30 3, 376, 51 2 , 51 3, 516,0 5 1 8, 579, 587 ii. 1 1 , 238:his knowledge Of language, i. 29.

Metaphysics Of, i. 382 n .

St -Hilaire, translator of,Anan , i. 345.

Arkla’ s, i. 345.

'Apxros, i. 345.

Armenia from Arya, i. 2 14.

Arnyia dialects, 1i.

AP WPO’ i. 345

:Apovv, i.. 345.

Artha, 1i. 205A i-ti (Lith . 1. 2 1 3, 345.

Arum ,i. 443 n.

Arusha (the young sun , the child ofDyaus), i. 441 , 447.

Arushl (cow) , i. 441 , 447.

Arvas (N. arvz'

in) , Fem. arashi, i.

440 .

Arvat (N. arva) , Fem. arvati, i. 44 0 ,

44 1 446 447 11.Arvum,

Arya, Arya, 1i. 1 92 .

opposed to Sudra, i. 209.

title Of the three upper castes , i.

209.

spread of name westward, i. 2 1 3,2 15.

Arya-avarta, i. 206.

Aryan , the term. 1. 204 .

ancestors of the, race, i. 349.

—and non-Aryan myth s, liken

between, i. 614, 615.

and Semitic languages, common

origin Of, i. 63.

civihsation, i. 329.

conquerors of India, i. 484.

dialects,i. 31 8, 32 1 , 32 2 ,

4 1 7, 418.inflections ], i. 44 .

family, i. 34, 35, 205, 320 , 32 2,

459 ii 496

language, seven periods of, i. 86.

first period, i. 87.second period, i. 92 .

third period, i. 92 .

fourth period, i. 97.

fifth period, i. 100 .

sixth period, i. 104 .

seventh period, i. 1 04.

no word for law 1n, 1. 197.life, 1. 332 , 355.

mythology, 1 389.400 .nations, Benfey

’

s protest agamst

theirEastern origin , i. 1 88.

numerals , i. 352, 353.

origin ofword, i. 205.

religions, three historical, 11. 47.

separation (dispersion) of the,tribes , i. 460 , 492 .

sufi xes, i. 1 4 2 .

the Veda, the theogony of the,races, i. 381 .

three strata only, i. 1 05.

worth . i 357. 44°words found in Zend and not in

Sanskrit, i.‘

2 25.

INDEX.

Aryans , Southern division of, i. 188.

Aryas, i. 206.

A s , to be, i. 318.

A sml, i. 344.

Asaukumaryam,i. 485.

Ascoli, i. 60 2 n .

on gutturals, i. 70 .

Aslnma, ii. 406.

Ashtaroth, ii. 406.

Asi, sword, i. 348.

4 10 1 for-a1m ,i. 80 .

Asia, Central, ii. 20 2 n ., 232 .

barbarians OfC.A ., 11. 246.

civilisation among the tribes of

C. A., ii. 270 .

intellectual intercourse between

the Indian peninsula and the

northern continent Of, ii. 258 .

languages of, ii. 1 31 .

Asiatic Society OfBengal, 11. 1 ( 9Calcutta, i. 1 2 1 ii. 1 8 2 .

London , 1i. 169,Paris,

'

1i. 169, 183, 344.

A s1la-s,Asllu, 1.

.344.

A sinus,Asite

’

s prophecy about Buddha, i

537Asmi, 1. 31 7, 366.

Asoka, 1i.

253—the Constantine Of Ind1a, i. 1 7 ;fi. 1 2 2 , 299.

the Buddh1st Constantine, 11 . 2 1 1 .

EdictsofA . preserved on the rocks

of.

Dhauli, Girnar and Kapurdi

Kiri: ii

.

256

Aspa, 1. 3A sru, 1. 3Assyrian,

dynasties, ii. 1 1 3Astagirimountain ,

A sterodia, name of Selene,’

Aorepda s, 1. 371 .

Asti, i. 61 7.

with infinitive, 1. 1 58.

A storidialects of Shina, 11 . 34.

”Ar m, i. 341 .

As tyages (corruption OfAzbidahfika)1 476 479. 480

Asu, breath, i. 366.

39

Asu (a m) , i. 344.

Asuras , ii. 296.

Asurya, i. 488 .

Asva (In os ), i. 344.

Am, the mare, name for Dawn , 1.

439Asvaghosha

’

s Buddhakarita, 11. 191 n .

Asvais,-equis , i. 50 .

Asvaka orAssaka, ii. 32 2 .

Asvalfiyana, i1. 1 23Asvebhis ,= equobus i 50 .

Asvins, the two, i. 398.

Asyn , 1° 344°

Aszua, fem., i. 344.

Ate, i. 376.

Athair (Irish), i. 320 .

Atharva-veda, ii. 1 1 7, 1 24, 150 n

1 57.

the A th . intended for the Brahman, Or overseer Of the sacrifice,ii. 1 1 8 .

Hymn taken from the Ath 11.

150 .

Atheism, Buddhism ends in,11. 294,

Athene, i. 400 n . , 580 .

’

A0f11'11. i 491

Athenodoros , 1. 375 11.Athens, i1. 1 1 1 , 2 71 .

Atithigva, ii. 1 42 .

Atli, i. 4 17, 4 1 8 .

A tman (self), ii. 30 2 .

Atropos, i. 463.

Atthakathfis, commentaries broughtby Mahinda to Ceylon, ii. 1 72,180 .

Attic future, i. 60 n.

Attila, i. 41 8, 4 19.

Aubin, collect10n Of M erican antiquities , ii. 384.

Augfi, 0 . H . G .,i. 134.

Airy-19, i. 1 33.

Augment, 1n Greek andSanskrit, i. 82 .

Aabaan , i. 344.

A62 1, i. 447 11.Afipcov, i. 447 n.

Aum avfibha, i. 486.

Aurora (Ushfisfi) , i. 348, 438, 447 n .

A urum, i. 348 , 447 n.

Aurusha, i. 443 11.

Ana (present), 1i. 419.

Irnxax;

Aus-ails,n . 419.

Australia, i. 329 ; 11. 151 .Austrasian, the Nibelunge derived by

some from the A . history, i.41 8 .

Aimixdova , i. 374.Auxihary verbs , i. 316, 31 7, 365.

Avadhuta, sect of the, ii. 65.

Avalokitesvara, ii. 367.Avenir, the future, ad-venire, i. 146.

Avi. i 34+Avidya (ignorance) , 11. 251 , 494.

Avi-str, i. 344.

Avranches , Bishop of, on Barlaam

and Josaphat, i. 545.Avunculus, i. 331 .

Avus, i. 332 .

Axe, i. 348 .

Ayas , i. 348.

Ayase, to go, i. 145.

A yn, ii. 142 .

Ahnuui-433Ayuta, 11. 350

Azdehak, i. 480 .

Azbi dahfika, i. 479. 480 .

Astyages corruption of, i. 479.

Aztec, ii. 372, 392 .

BAAL (Bel), Lord, 11. 406, 425,

servants of, ii. 438 .

Baal-peor, ii. 406.

Baal-zebub , 11. 406.

Babel, Tower of, ii. 398.

Babylon, i. 6 ; ii. 1 1 3, 131 , 270 , 440 .

cuneiform inscriptions of, ii. 440 .

Babylonia, ii. 1 1 3.

Bacchus. ii. 438 .

Bacon, Observations on the disposi

tion of men for phi os« phy and

science, i. 63.

Bactria, ii. 269, 271 , 275.

Buddhist priests sent to, u. 51 .

Bactrian fire-wmship, ii. 2 71 .Baddha (conditioned), 1 2 17.

1

Balas, the five, ii. 355 11.

Balasan, ii. 325.

Balbutire, i. 484 .

Balder, Baldr, i. 4 14, 415 11 . 242 .

Baldo, his translation of Kalila andDimnah , i. 525.

Balkh, 11. 271 .

Ballantyne, Dr.,11. 2 16 n.

Bantu family Of language, i. 34.

Barahut, Buddhist remains at, 11. 31 .

Barbara, i. 484, 485.

Barbarata, i. 485.

Barbarians , i. 2 1 , 30 3, 346 11. 1 62.

BépBapos , i. 484 , 485.

BapBapépwvm, d es,i. 485.

Barbarossa, Emperor, i. 480 .

Barbarottha (Sandal-wood), i. 484 .

Barbarous, i. 275.

Barbati filius, inscription of, i. 240 .

Barham, lh-sueis, ii. 280 , 286.

Barlaam and Joasaph, 1. 533.

Barlaam and Josaphat, i. 543.

changed into Christian sa1nts,i.

543Laboulaye, Liebrecht, Beal, on, i.

Leo Allatius on, i. 544.

Billius andBellarmmus on , i. 544.

Bishop ofAvranches on, i. 545.

Barzuyeh or Bar-261, author of Peb

levi translation of fables, i. 515,

5531 550

8 116 111611, vocat1ve, 1. 2 23.

8 0 6 11161561, 1571109, i. 380 .

Basilius , i. 1 2 .

Basilius and Gmgon us Nazianzenus,quoted by author of Barlaam

and Josaphat, i. 534 .

Basic, derivative adjectives in , i. 61 11.

86003, i. 350 n .

Bauddha, (Buddha), 11. 2 1 1 , 285.

Bayard, i. 56.

Josephat, i. 54 2 .

Beal’

s translation OfFahian’

s travels,ii. 31 5, 32 1 .

catalogue Of Buddhist Tripitaka.ii. 365.

Bear, i. 343.

Beasts, d1fl'

e1'ent names of the wild.

‘1 3431 344Becker, d1e inschriftlichen Ueberres te

derKeltischen Sprache, ii. 1 32 n.

Beel-samin (Lord OfHeaven), ii. 425.Behar orMagadha, ii. 200 .

Beieinander, Das , in the development of language, i. 142 .


542 INDEX .

Boreas ,’

1. 299, 300 ,

Bos, boves, 1. 326, 344 .

Boturini, collectorofAmericanMSS.

and antiquities, ii. 384.

Bov , vocative, i. 2 23.

Bouddha et sa Religion (Par Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire), ii. 160 n .

Bovxoxéw,

Bovs, 366 , 344.

Baum-caper, 1. 32 8.

Bouvet, 1..

9.

Brahma, i . 1 1 245, 262 ,298 ; secBrahman , on .

as the Supreme Spirit,Brahma-Samaj , ii. 2 1 , 66, 67, 78.

schism in,ii. 68, 78 .

of India, ii. 78 11 .

Brahmakarya, ii. 194.

Brahman, n force, prayer ; n . m .

god, 11. 2 18, 2 19, 255, 425, 426.

the, and the rice, i. 504.

Brahman, priest, overseer, i. 5, 1 1 ,

l42 I7, 1 82 252 334 , 335’

336, 354, 457 ; ii. 1 16, 1 2 2,

1 28 , 1 32 , 1 34, 164, 200 ,20 1 ,

206, 2 0 7, 2 1 1 , 2 13, 2 1 7, 2 1 8 ,

2 2 2 , 243, 244, 348, 283, 284 n . ,

285.

Sacred Hymns of the, i. 1 11.

2 1 7.

the, m the Indian Drama, i. 42 2 .

Brahman stories and Old Testament

events , ii. 444 .

Brahmana, for Brahman , priest, 11.

194.

theological tracts, i. 408 , 4 10 ,

435 ; in. 1 20 , 1 2 1 , 1 23, 1 24 ,

Brahmanic ancestors of the Zoroas

tr.ans, ii. 436.

Brahmamsm,i. 8 , 13 11.

re-estabhshment of, 11 . 2 1 3.

its vitah ty, ii. 87, 100 .

Brahmans , their sacred cord, 11. 69.

do not proselytise, ii. 49, 99 11 .

sent to Benares to copyVedas , 11.

44ancient, original principles of the,11. 445.

Brahmo-Dharmg the, 11. 79.

Brfihmyas, followers of Brahma, 11.

194 .

Brasseur de Bourbourg, editor of the

Popol Vuh ,’

ii. 372 n ., 386-90 ,

393°

Brat’

, bratar, brathair, i. 320 , 323.

Breath , i. 594 .

Breathe, to, i. 61 7.Brech , i. 343.

Bribu, admitted into the Brahmanic

community, i. 436.

leader of the Rathakaras , 11 . 99.

Bn'

haddevata, i. 337Brt

'

haddivfi, i. 40 7.

Brfhat-katha, i. 42 1 .

Brockhaus , Professor, 11. 37.

Bpow d(he thunders), ii. 4 18, 419Brossard, i. 56.

Brother,i. 320 .

Brother-in-law , i. 330 , 356.

Brunehault, Brunhilt, Brynhild, i

4 15—19.

Brunnhofer, i. 1 72 .

Bruth-faths (bridegroom) , i. 338 .

Ervat, Zend, brow, i 2 27.

Bstan-hgyur (Tanjur) , ii. 1 71 .

Biicheler, i. 245.

Bud Periodeutes , his translation of

fables, i. 548, 551 .

Buddha, i. 1 7, 19 ; 1i. 348, 367.

an Atheist, ii. 295.

appears after death , 11. 2 2 2 n .

country, ii. 355-358 .

ten commandments of,11. 247.

death of, ii. 191 , 203.

devoured by t1gers , 11. 248 .

disciples of, ii. 76, 350 n .

discourses or 8 lit of, 11. 1 77,

31 8 .

doctrines of, 11. 168, 257, 367.

dust of, ii. 2 75.

his driver, i. 54 1 .his four drives, i. 537 ; 11 . 197.

his interview with Mara, ii. 77.

iden

gity with Josaphat, i. 540,

54life of (see Lalita Vistara) , i. 537 ;ii. 191 n ., 195, 258 .

earliest Chinese translation of, 11.

191 n .

on the old Gods, 11. 295.

INDEX.

Buddha, Pratyeka (Supreme) , 11. 192 ,289.

repetition of the name of, 11. 364.

shadow of, ii. 273, 274.

simple teaching of, ii. 367.statues of, ii. 275, 319.

Sutras (discourses) of, u . 1 77.the enlightened, ii. 195, 20 1 , 205,2 20 , 245.

andWodan, 11 .

Budha and Buddha, 11. 460 , 464.

vars , dies Mercurii,Buddhabhadra, 1i. 325, 341 .

Buddhaghosha, ii. 1 80 , 180 n ., 304.

Buddhas, Favourof all, ii. 359, 360 .

Buddhasimha, ii. 323, 324.

Buddhavatamsaka vmpulya-sfitra, 11 .

3351 3271.34 1

Buddhayasas , 11 . 32 7.

Buddhism in Ceylon , China, Kash

mir, Tibet, ii. 257, 316, 31 7,

32 2 ,area of, ii. 236 n .

and Scandinavian mythology, ii

458.

andWodanism , 11. 459.

Ceylon , chief seat of, ii. 2 74.

countries professing it, 11. (10 .

canonical books of, ii. 440 .

in Russia and Sweden, ii. 233.

its history, ii. 50 .

of the Shamans , i. 1 7.

persecuted in China, 11. 32 7-8,

337in Corea,in Japan. It 339. 34° 365religious statistics of, ii. 2 24.

State religion ofChina, 1i. 2 57.

Buddhist books in Chinese, ii. 316,

32 1 326 329canonical books of the, 11. 1 1 1 ,

canon , i.

183, 191 , 284.

Tibetan translation of the B. Ca

non , ii. 1 70 .

literature of India, 11. 316, 31 7,

32°

council (first and mud), i. 1 7 ;ii' 2551 248 336

543

Buddhist ethics and metaphysics, 11.

254 n .

fables, i. 50 2 .

carried by Mongolians to Russia,

i. 51 1 .

female devotees, 11. 20 2 .

legends and theories of the

(H ardy), ii. 1 75 n.

literature, ii. 169, 1 73, 1 83, 190 ,

2 1 3, 262, 275.

in China eleven classes of, 11. 330

333

Magadha, holy country of the, 11.

2 74.

MSS. in Paris, 11. 1 76.

MSS. worshipped in China, 11.

MSS. in Japan , 11. 339, 340 , 342 .

metaphysics (Abhidharma), 1i. 2 14,284 n.

Missionaries , 11. 1 75, 258 .

Missionaries , sent to Cashmere,

etc., ii. 51 .

Monastery, 11. 266, 333, 337.

Monks in Chma, 1i. 32 2 .

Northern, 11. 2 2 2,231 , 289.

number of the, ii. 2 28, 2 29.

enormous numbers used by the,ii. 350 11.

originalof the Paiikatantra, i. 558 .

philosophical schools among the,in India, ii. 282 .

pilgrims, ii. 1 2 2 , 234—279 .

priests, names adopted by, 11.

320 n .

reform,its moral code, 11. 20 7,

209.

similarities between the Roman

Catholic and the B. ceremonial,ii. 168.

Southern , 11 . 289.

canon of Southern B., 11. 1 84.

Sutras,ii. 1 77, 318, 319, 319 n .

Buddhists in China from Ceylon, 11.

328.

manners and customs of Indian ,

in Japan, 11. 338.

in China, ii. 260 .

divided into ten sects, 11. 339.

Bufi'

on, his view of plants , i. 198 .

544 INDEX.

Bugge, his derivation of pmna, i.193 n .

Biihler, Dr., 11. 30, 132 11.

Building ofaltars, 11 . 1 5.

Bundobel, forBidpay, i. 525.

Bunsen , i. 1 , 2 ii . 2 , 4, 1 1 5.

his views on German professors,i. 1 7his 011319113 1119 andMunkind, 11. 4.

Burgess , Mr., ii. 20 .

Burgundy (kings of), i. 41 7, 4 18.

Burmah , ii. 169, 1 75, 1 76, 236.

Buddhists of, ii. 2 2 1 .

Burmese, ii. 1 86.

MSSgwritten in B. characters, 11.

19Burnell, Dr.

,11. 30 .

Burmng of widows, i. 332-337 ; 11.

94Burnouf, Eugene, 11. 2 , 43, 1 14, 167,

169, 1 74, 263, 289, 295.

his views on Sutras, 1i. 362 n.

the Lankavatara translated by, 11 .

2 84 11.

Introduction 2. l’histoire da Bud

dhisme, ii. 1 85, 28 1 .

Lotus de la bonne loi, 11 . 252 n .,

Bushby, H . T., on widow-burning, i.

337 n .

Bushmen, their traditional literature,11. 29.

their language, 11. 29.

C for G in stone ofLuceria, i. 246.

Cabbar, i. 344.

Cabul, Buddhist priests sent to, 11. 5 1Cacus, i. 491 .

Cadaver, i. 1 32 .

Cakchiquel Codex , 11 . 387.Calcutta , ii. 1 71 , 1 84.

A siatic society at, 11. 182 .

city ofKali, 11 . 59.

its goddess, ii. 10 1 .

Caldwell, Dr., i. 39 n .

on Infinitive, i. 1 73.

Calf, i. 344.

Call, to, not from calare, i. 71 .

Callaway, Remarks on the Zulu language, i. 91 11.

CambridgeUniversityLibrary, 11 . 344.Campbell, SirGeorge, on the H indu

religion, ii. 89.

Canarese translation of the Panha

tantra, i. 503.

Caper, i. 344.

Cap-ao, i. 60 n .

Caput=H aubida , i. 135.Cars, not from cura, i. 71 .

Carlyle, Thomas, on Mythology, i.

435Carolina Islands, native of the, 11.

375Carta, pap er, 1. 320 .

Carthaginians, i. 6.

Case-terminations, tracedback, i. 100 .

Cashmere, Buddhist priests sent to,

11 . 51 .Caskets, story of the, in Merchant

ofVenice, i. 536 n.

Castr'

gare, i. 193.

Castren, i. 7.

on Finnish Mythology, 11. 2 36n .

Catalogue of Buddhist books in

China, A .D. 606, ii. 329.

Catalogues of MSS. still existing inIndia, ii. 30 .

Catechisu‘i of theAdi Brahma-Samaj,

ii. 8

of the Shamans, 11. 247 n., 2 85.

Cattle, i. 344.

Ca usa, cause, i. 368.

Cehbacy and Fellowships, i. 1 1 6.

Celtic languages, i. 1 10 .

most closely united with Latin

(Newman , Schleicher) , i. 1 91 .

mythology, i. 5.

religion of the C. race, 11 . 131 ,237.

Cendrillon and Sodewa-Bai, i. 565.Centum, i. 354.

Cerastes, ii. 496.

Ceres, ii. 42 2 , 449.

Como, to distinguish, i. 1 94.

Ceylon, Buddhism in, ii. 257.Buddhist priests sent to, ii. 5 1history ofBuddhism in , ii. 1 8 2 .

Buddhist literature of, 11 . 1 74.1 85.

chief seat of Buddhism, 11 . 274 .


5 16 INDEX.

Classical reproduction of Sakuntala,by SirW. Jones, ii. 7.

Classification of languages , i. 34.applied to religions, ii. 48.

Clemens of Alexandria, Stromata, i.

582 n . ; ii. 2 2 2 11 .

Clement V and his proposals for

founding Lectureships, 18 .

Clemm, Die neusten Forschungenaufdem Gebiet derGriechischen

Composita, i. 1 0 2 .

Clothes, name of, i. 347.Uluere, to hear,Cluo (M ics, sravas), ii. 263.

Cuish , Zend, to snow, i. 2 2 7.Codardo, coward, i. 56.

Codex Cakchiquel, Chimalpopoca, 11.

Coeurdoux, le Pere, i. 1 2 2 .

Golden, ii. 374.

Colebrooke, H . T . ,11. 167.

Duties of a faithful Widow, i.

334 n .

Colhuas , migrations of the, 11 . 391 .

Colonies and colonial governments,Oriental studies have a claim on,

ii. 24.

Colour, difference in, i. 488.

Columna Rostrata, i. 2 40 .

Combination traced to juxta-position ,

i 79Combinatory stage, i. 84.

Commandments ofKabir,Common origin of the Aryan and

Semitic languages, i. 63.

Comparative mythology, i. 299-451

11 448. 455. 467. 580and classical philology, i. 2 29.

mythology, Prof. Blackie on,i.

618-62 2 .

SirG . W . Cox on , i. 61 8-622 .

Philology, chair of, i. 1 2 1 .

Isolating period, i. 1 26.

Syncretistic period, i. 1 24.

Comparative spirit, the truly scientificspirit, ii. 1 2 .

Comparative Theology, first attemptat i. 5350

Comparetti, i. 477 n.

on the Book ofSindbad, i. 531 .

Competition-wallah. i. 56.

Compulsory education, 11. 50 1 , 50 2 .

Comtian epochs, i. 3.

Conde Lucanor, by Don JuanManuel, i. 530 .

Confucius, i. 7, 9 ; ii. 165, 266 .

doctrines of, ii. 2 73.

Confusion of tongues , Hebrew and

American tradition of, ii. 397.

399Esthonian legend of, 11. 398 , 399.

Congress of Orientalists, the Inter

national, ii. 1 .

Consilium (considium) i. 325.

Consobrinus , i. 332 .

Controversial m1sswnary, 11. 63.

missions , small success of, ii. 1 08.

Convention, language made by , i. 38.

Conway’

s Sacred A nthology, ii. 14.

Copto-African languages, 1. 20 3.

Corea, Buddhism in , 11 . 340 ,Corpus Juris ofGagannatha, i. 334.Corssen, his studies in Latin, i. 1 25.

Cortes, ii. 385, 387.Cosmas , an Italian monk, i. 532 .

Cosquin, on Barlaam and Josaphat.1. 544 n .

Cottier, his translation of fables intoFrench from Tuscan , i. 523 11.

Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta, 11. 66, 71 .

C'ouard, i. 56.

Council, Early councils of Christianity, i. 19.

Buddhist, 11. 255, 284.

Cousin, ii. 245.

Cow , i. 344.

Coward. i. 56Cox , G . W Manual ofMythology, i.

465, 481 .

on Comparative Mythology, i

61 8 -62 2 .Crane, clan , ii. 376.

Creation, Quiche account of, 11.3933

TagiZian tradition of, 11. 455.Credo, ii. 151 .Creed of the B

‘

rahma-Samaj, 11. 68.Creuzer

,i. 452 ; ii. 280

—282 .

Symbotik of, ii. 282 .

Criard, a crier, i. 56.

Cribrum, i. 194.

Crimen, i. 194.

INDEX. 47

Grudna, crudelis, i. 2 26.

Crusaders, Persian andArabic storiesbrought back by the, i. 5 1 1 .

Crusades,interchange of eastern and

western ideas during the, i. 531 .

Crusta, i. 2 26.

Csoma de Koros, 11. 1 71 , 1 73, 343,

346.

taman, Zend, = arépa , i. 2 28.

u , 1 . 344Cugino, i. 332 .

Cuneiform,ii. 1 13, 263, 270 , 385,

44°

inscriptions (ofBabylon andNineveh), ii. 262 , 385, 440 .

Oppert’s theory on the invention

of letters , ii. 2 70 .

translation of inscriptions, 11.

262 .

Cupid, i. 448.

and Sanskrit Dipuc, i. 1 29.

Curtius , Professor G ., i. 86, 399 n

447 n ., 477his Greek studies, i. 1 25.

on Lautverschiebung, i. 68 11 .

on the Chronology of the Indo

Germanic Languages , i. 79, 86.

Cyrus , i. 476-80 ; ii. 1 13.religion of

,ii. 57.

Czartoryski, Prince, letter to,11. 8.

D, final of the ablative, i. 238.

of the ablative, i. 20 1 , 230 .

time of Plautus , i. 241 .

expressing whence or whereby,i. 242 .

in ancient Latin MSS., i. 244.

and l interchangeable, i. 479 11 .when drop ed, i. 231 .

-da, Zend, = o£c6v -be, 1. 2 27.Dabshelim

, K1ng, i. 516.

Dadala, ii. 1 76.

Daeges edge, 1. 428 n .

Agni/1. 1 330 . 356. 497 11

Aaep, vocative, 1. 2 2 2 .

Daeva, ii. 1 34.

Daga, dagian, 1. 397.Dagon, ii. 406.

Dah (to burn ) , i. 396.

Dahyu, i. 498.

Daigi , dough , i. 1 32 .

Baimb , i. 341 .

Autos , i. 499.

Daisy, mythe of, i. 428 n .

Daiti, Zend, 861m , dds , 1. 2 27.AM . i 396. 497 11.Dala , meaning of, i. 38 n .

Bengali, same as Dravidian tala ordata , i. 39 n .

Dalton,Colonel,Ethnology ofBengal,11. 32 .

Dama, i. 34 1 .

Def-mane, to give, i. 142 .

Dami, Z end, creation, 067m, i. 2 2 7.Damnare, i. 7 1 .

Dandapani, father of Buddha’

s wife,ii. 196, 204

Daniel, i. 480 .

Dankwart, i. 4 18.

A262,i. 499.

Daph

6

1

2e and Apollo, i. 398, 399, 607,8.

name of the dawn ,i. 467, 468.

same as Ahana, i 516.

Adm . 1 399,

11

Aa¢1n7¢6pos, 1. 394.

Daqyu, 1. 498 .

Dardistan, Dr. La tner

’

s labours m ,

11 . 34.

Dardus, the, their customs, ii . 34.

Darius, i. 339, 498 .

religion of, 11. 57.

the Median ,i. 480 .

Das, to perish, i. 499.

Dasa, ten, i. 354.

Dasa, people, enemy, i. 339, 1 77 n .

,

Dasabhfimi Sutra, 11. 32 1 .

Dasabhfimika sastra, 11 328.

Dasahanta, 1. 1 77 n . , 497, 499.

Dasa-pati, i. 339, 499.

Dasapati, gaspati, dampati, 1. 2 2 2 .

Dasa-patni, 1. 395, 499.

Daaes, i. 206.

Dasya, i. 477 n.

DAsya-nart, 1. 395.

D1 31“. i. 339. 482.

= dasa, people, 1 . 339Dasyuhan , dasyuhanta, i. 497.Dasyuhatyaya, i. 41 1 .

Ddtd'

116201112211, i. 2 24.

N N 2

548 INDEX.

Dative in e, as infinitive, i. 161 .

in as infinitive, i. 161 .

in twig/a, as infimtwe, i. 167.in dyn, as infinitive, i. 161 .

in dyai, as infinitive, i. 163.

in age, as infinitive, 1. 163.

in taye, as infinitive,in as , as infinitive, 1. 162 .

in tyaz’

, as infinitive, i. 164.

in diam'

and dhyai, as infinitive, i.

1 67.in use, Latin ere, as infinitive, i.

1 64.

in mane, Greek“em u, as infinitive,It [ 65.

in vane, as infinitive, i. 166.

in ame, as infinitive, i. 166.

in tame and tavai, i. 167.

Daughter, i. 320 , 324. 325 ; 11. 496.

Daughter-in law,

i. 330 .

Daur,i.

Dautia, n .

Da. vane, to give, i. 142 .

David Sahidof Ispahan, his Livre des

Lumieres, 1. 524.

Dawe,day,

’

1. 397.

Dawn, i. 396 41 1 ,

4 1 3. 41 4. 435. 436 438 439,

4431 447, 462 ; i’ 237the, and Red Riding Hood, i.

564mythes of, i. 386.

names of,ii. 237 (Ushas, Urvasi,

A hana, Surya) , i. 406, 438, 439(asva) .

Day. 1 396, 44711

De and di, i. 2 5 0

A s, in ofx6vde,

Dea, i. 332 .

Dead and dying religions, 11 . 57.and live words (sse-tsé and singtsé) in Chinese, i. 42 11 .

Dean of St. Paul’

s Lectures, 11. 37.

Dear, Ir. , i. 320 .

Debendranath Tagore, 11. 67, 1 04.

had the Vedas copied, ii. 40 .

Decem, i. 354.

Dechak, Dehak (ten evils) , i. 480 .

Dedicare (delicare) , i. 497 n .

Delia , body, 1. 1 31

Dehi, wall, i. 1 30 .

Deianeira, i. 395.De’ich, i. 1 30 .

Deiga, i. 498 n.

Deig-cm . to knead, i. 1 30.

A emés, i. 447 n .

Deism, ii. 437.

Deity, names of the Semitic, 11. 4 25.

A bra , 1. 354.

Del governo dei regni, i. 5 2 1 .

Deliades , i. 48 2 .

Afiluos, i. 378.

AfiAos, i. 447 11 .Delphos , i. 375.

Demagogos, 11. 262 .

Demeter, i. 62 2 n. ; 11. 4 28.

Afiwrrep, vocative, i. 2 2 2 .

Demokritos, i. 29.

Demon, ii. 420 .

Demonstrative roots, i. 90 .

Denotsum (Kangur), ii. 1 71 .

Aeaxpévms, 1. 498.

Der ez Zaiferan, Jacobite Cloister of,i-sss

Derivative roots , second period of

Aryan language, i. 92 .

Aédarawa, Beard-ms, i. 339, 499 .

Aéawora , vocative, i. 2 2 2 .

Deszimt, i. 354 .

Determinatives , i. 91 .

Deukalion , i. 31 0 .

Deus , Greek 9 663, i. 1 85 ; 11. 1 34.240 , 428 .

Deutsch, E., i. 568.

Deutsche Monatsschrift, 11 . 1 42 n .

Deva, bright, divine, god, i. 40 2 ; 11.

Devadatta orTheudas,i. 376 , 542 .

Devanagari MSS., ii. 345.

letters,ii. 367.

Bevar, devara, i. 330 . 498 41.Devas, ii. 350 .

Devil, i. 1 28.

Dew , i. 392 , 393, 4 1 1 .Deweris, i. 330 .

Dewyni, i. 354 .

Dhammakkhanda, 11. 170 .

Dhammapadam (aPaliwork on Buddhist ethics), ii. 186, 20 8 , 254 n.

Dharani, ii. 197.

Dharma, ii. 1 7 7.


550 INDEX.

Dughdhar, i. 320 .

Duh (to milk), root of duhitar, i.

3340

Duhitfi'

, duhitéram, i. 78. 2 2 2.Duhitar, i. 320 , 324, 328 .

limlian column, the, 1. 240 .

inscription, i. 240 .

Dukte, ii. 496.

Dum, i. 320 .

Aimq, i. 385 11.A da: (two), i. 354.

A nia: (to dive into), i. 385.

Duo, i. 354.

l ’uodecim, i. 354.

Ammo) flkiov, i. 385.Dvfidasa, i. 354.

Dvar, dvaras, i. 341 .

Dvarka Nath Tagore, 11. 43, 44.

his visit to Eugene Burnouf,

3.nimble to read his own sacred

Books, ii. 43.

Dvau , i. 354.

Dwi-desz1mti, i. 354.

Dwi-lika, i. 354.

Dyaus, 26153, Jupiter, Zio, Tyr, i. 1 85.

(deus, the bright) , i. 378. 398 ,447, 447 n ., 492 , 616 ; 11. 4 19,

420 , 424, 426, 428.

Arusha, child of, i. 445, 447.

Dyav-an , i. 469.

Dyotana, i. 397.

Dyu (Jupiter, sky, day) , 11. 2 37.

Dyu (go be brilliant), i. 396, 447 n .,

Dyu-

‘

gag, going to the sky, i. 10 2 .

Dyn-ksha, dwelling in the sky, i. 1 0 2 .

E and as, ablatives in, i. 232 .

’

Ed= vasavi or vasavya, i. 2 24.

Edge, A .S., i. 1 34.

’

Edaw=vasfinam, i. 2 24.

Ear, to, i. 3 5.

Earth, i. 4 4 14, 446.

no. of inhabitants, 11. 2 24, 2 28,

2

.rizi13

yes, daughters of, i. 463.

Earth-holding sastra, ii. 328.

East, all important religions sprungup in the, ii. 164, 292 .

East India Company, i. I ; 11. 1 15,167. 169, 278 .

Directors of the, 11 . 36.

Veda published under t h e patron

age of the, ii. 1 16 .

Eastern Church. feast days of SS.

Barlaam and Josap ha t , i. 543.

Eastern Han dynasty, ii. 34 7.

Tsin, the, ii. 326 n ., 3 2 7 .

Eating, representation of, ii . 377.

Eberhard, thegreat Duke ofW urte

burg, orders the German transis

tion offables, i. 52 2 .

Eburhart, boar-minded, i. 54 .

Bob, i. 344.

,

Echidqa»i. 479, 495. 497Excs, 1. 344.

Echo, i. 468.'Exa , i. 366.

Eckhardt andTauler, Christian mysticism of, ii. 28 1 , 30 6.

Edda, i. 382 , 415, 4 16, 4 1 8 .

Edkin

g’

Trip to Ning-po, 11 . 333,

3Buddhist monasteries , 11 . 337.MS. from Japan, ii. 338 . 345.

on Chinese dialects , i . 68 , 7 2 .

Education, purely dogmatic at first,ii. 50 1 .

elementary, u . 50 2 .

scholastic, ii. 503, 506.

academic, ii. 50 7.

Educational etatist1es in E ngland, i.

’

Hepmpoi‘

n s, i. 461 .

'

n a wr, i. 344.

Eqin-hart, fierce-minded, i. 54 .

’

Eyé , i. 64.

m y , infinitive, i. 143.

Egypt,8

i. 6 ; ii. 1 1 3, 165, 2 1 0 , 21 1.

3 1 .

early Civilisation of, 11 . 2 70 .

Egyptian priests on the Ganges, ii.

450

Ri, ablatives in, i. 232 .

l-Jichhofl‘

, i. 351 n .

Eid, oldest form of ablative, i. 232.Eidolon, ii. 420 .

mos, ii. 513, 516.

E1866 , eibvi‘

a,i. 443.

Ei'xom, i. 354.

11mm . 551

Eikzdver, sivdrepes. i. 330 .

Ei'

mn p, vocative, i. 2 2 2 .

ETpor, i. 485.

Ekadasa. i. 354.

Ekas, i. 354 .

Ekottardgama-sutra, 11 . 327.

El (strong), ii. 425, 4 26, 438.

Elgin, Lord, i1. 30 .

Eliot, Translator of the Bible intothe Massachusets language, ii.

379;Ehun (h1ghest) , 11. 425, 435.

Elkosh , nearMossul, i. 551 .

'EAAepa , 7 6, i. 482 .

Eloah , ii. 436.

Elohim, ii. 406, 420 , 431 , 435-437.

Elysian field, ii. 2 2 2 , 306.Em, i. 31 7.Empedocles , i. 580 .

”Em acs, i. 1 39.

Empirical knowledge of grammar, i.13

EmptylordinChinese (hiu 42 .

-eva¢, infinitive, i. 142 .

’

Evdaios, i. 350 .

'Ev&os, i. 447 n.

"

Erbium, i. 385.

Endymion , i. 385-390 .

mythe of Selene and, i. 385.

’

Evaiiw, i. 385.Engil-hart, angel-minded, i. 54.

English language, i. 256, 257.

number of words in, i. 32 .

universities , ii. 2 2 .

spelling, i. 259, 26o.

still changmg, i. 260 .

a national misfortune, i. 262 .

elementary education, i. 262 .

dialects, i. 32 .

’Ew éa, i. 354.

Ensis , i. 348 .

Eod for eodem, i. 245.

Bob , i. 34”Bop-ya , pé w= Zend varez, i. 228 .

Borosh, i. 443.

Eos (Ushas, i. 380 , 382 , 389

3943306. 41 2. 447 n»467.606 ;

11 ° 3 o 43 1 : 433’

Héa~, i. 492 .

Epic age of literature, 11. 1 25Epicharmos , i. 579.

Epimetheus , i. 375.

Epo-s, i. 344.

Equus, i. 344.

Er, Irish , i. 2 15, 348."

Epapai , ipdu , 11.

Eran , ii 11.

Eranian,Epards, 3pa1 flvds, i. 447 n.

'Epetirw, i. 461 .

Erestheus, i. 2 1 2 .

Erezataéna, Zend argentinas, i. 2 26.Erida,

:Epwmiew, i. 447 n., 461 .

’

Epwn is,’

Eptw s, i. 447 492 .

Erinnys, Erinys, i. 375 462 , 463Erinyes, daughters of the Earth

, i.

463, 622 .

of Skotos,"

Epcov, i. 85.

Eris , 1. 3 9.

"

Epts (strife),Bros. 1 313. 375. 3831 437

-4391 443.

447 n , 449son ofAphrodite, i. 446.

oldest of the Greek gods, i. 447 n.is the dawning sun, 1. 438

child of Zeus, i. 445.

"

Epos, i. 447 n .

Esmi, 1. 31 7.

Esquimaux legend of the sun , i. 609,610 .

Est, esti, i. 617.E0061. 1 347Es thonian legend, confuswn of

tongues. ii 398 399Esus,Ete (statum) , i. 366.

Ethnological Society,Transactions of

the, 1i. 1 52 n .

Survey of India,Etruscan grammar, ii. 26.

Etymological consciousness, i. 276.

spelhng, i. 280 , 28 1 .

often misleading, i. 277.

Eudemos, i. 375 n.

Eummus , Swineherd, i. 310 .

Eumenides, O.M1‘

iller’s Essay on the,

i. 375 11.

Europe, name of, i. 349, 406 n.

552 INDEX.

European languages, Great. i. 256.

Eurydike, i. 406, 435, 436, 570 .

Eurymede, i. 406

Eurynome, i. 375 40 6.

Euryphaessa, 1 .

E1’

1ptis , 1.Eurystheus ,’

Eiis=—vasus , i. 2 24 .

Eva (Sanskn t) , 1. 2 2 7.Eve

, or Ive, 1i. 456.

Evenos,Ewald

,i. 70 .

Ewe. 1 344»

Examinations, evils of, 11. 52 2—52 7.

Exemplario contra los engafios, i.

523 n .

Ex-im-i-us, to be taken out, 1. 61 .

Ex Oriente Lux, i1. 1 0 .

Extinction,Nirvana means , 11. 303.

Ex villa, i. 234.

F, capital, 11. 496, 497.

F, instead ofph , 1. 275.

Fables, m1gration of, 1 50 0 .

Aesop’

s , i. 50 1 .

animal, i. 50 2 .

Arabw translation, i. 5 16—5 19.

Buddhist, i. 50 2 .

common Aryan , i. 50 7.

German translat1on, 1 . 52 2 .

Greek translation , 1. 5 10 .

Hebrew translation, i. 5 2 2 .

Latin translation , 1. 52 1 .

Italian, by Firenzuola and Doni,i. 523.

La Fontaine's, i. 50 0, 50 1 .

ofPhaedrus and H orace, i. 50 1 .

in Sanskrit, i. 50 1 , 50 2 .

Syriac translation of, found byProfessor Benfey, i. 548.

the Hitopadesa, i. 50 3.

the Pafikatantra, i. 50 2 .

Fae-ac, i. 162 .

Facso, i. 60 11.

Fad, i. 342 .

Fa-fang (Dharmalatsin). 11. 325 n .

Fafnir, the serpent, i. 4 1 5, 479.

Fahian, ii. 2oo n. 205, 258 , 266, 3 15,

3351 345Fa-h s1, 1i. 32 7.Fa-hwa, 1i. 324.

Fa1hu ,i. 344.

Fa-laulau , Dharma x, 11. 320 .

Familiai, familiais,Families of langu 1ges ,

Fan , Fan-lon-mo (Brahma) , 11 . 26 2 .

Fan-yeh , ii. 31 8 .

Farah , i. 344 .

Ffi-shang, ii. 324.

Fassradh,i. 347.

‘

asti Juhani,1. 245.

Fate, ii. 24 2 .

Father, i. 320 , 340 .

Father-ia-law ,1. 330 .

Faths , i. 338 .

Fausbbll, ii. 167, 1 86,

25 1 11.

Faut, il me, i. 368.

Fa-yang-king, i1. 325.

Fei-to (Veda) , ii. 262 .

Feld, i. 345.

Fellowships , how to restore them to

their original purpose, i. 1 1 3.

made into a career for life, i. 1 16.

prize, i. 1 1 5.

and celibacy, i. 1 16.

Fellows of Colleges, work for, i.1 1 2 .

Feminine bases in d, i. 1 54.

Feoh , A . S ., i. 325.

Feram,instead of ferem, i. 59.

Ferem, in the sense of a future,1. 5

Fergussogn, Mr., 11 . 32 .

Fen dun, 1.

Ferre, fer-se,Fides , trust , i. 1 48

Fido, I trust, i. 1 48 .

Fidus , trusty, i. 148.Fidvor,Field, i. 345.

Fifth period of the Aryan language,

Figures, ii. 499Our figures borrowed from the

Arabs, 1i. 499.

discovered, according to the Arabs,by the Indians, ii. 499.

Fihu,i. 344 .

Pi-hwa, i1. 323.

F111a (suckling) , 1. 324.Filosofo, i. 2 75.

Final 8 in Latin, i. 234, 235.


554 INDEX.

Gautama Sakya-muni (Buddha), sonofS uddhodana, ii. 288 .

clan of the Gautamas, ii. 195.

story of, i. 537 ii. 195 et seq.Gavash, to inqu1re, i. 32 7.

Gavesbana, research , i. 327.Gavishti, battle, i. 327.

Gayatri, the, i1. 1 28 .

Ge, Old Norse, cold, snow, i. 2 26.

Gems, the four, ii. 352 .

the seven in Pen, 11. 352 n .

in Sanskrit, ii. 352 11.

Gener, 1 . 330 , 331 .

Genera, 11 . 5 1 5.

General express1ons , in languages not

hlghly developed, i. 90 .

Genesis , ii. 399.

I‘evmérrarov (pfipa) , i. 1 39.

Gen1t1ve m as , as 1nfin1t1ve, i. 1 61 .

toh, as infin1tive, i. 167.

and locative identical in the

dual in Sk.,i. 235.

Genitor, genitrix , i. 32 2 .

I‘évos, ii. 513, 516.

Gens , ii. 5 14 .

Genus and Spec1es , 11 . 51 2-516.

Genz1o (Hicaca-thsang), i1. 24 1 .

Geometric Science, first impulsegiven

to, ii. 15.

Gerard, a miser, i. 55, 56.

Geras,i. 369.

I‘épas, garanh , i. 2 27.

Gerhard, Paul, sacred songs of, 11.

1 1 1

Prof. (Greek Mythology) , i. 454 .

German most closely united vn th

Celtic (Ebel, Lottner), i. 19 1 .

professor’

s life, Niebuhr and Bun

sen’

s views of, i. 1 79.

translation of fables, i. 52 2 .

Ger-men , growing, i. 66.

Gerundive participle in Sanskrit, i. 60 .

Geryones 1 495.

Gesetz , mean1ng of,1. 196.

Gete ,i1. 31 7, 31 8 n .

Getavana, ii. 193.

Gever, i. 330 .

Gharma, i. 4 16.

Ghasi Das, the prophet, 11 1 06.

Ghilghit1 dialect of Shina, ii. 34.

Ghrishv1, 1. 344.

Ghritakis, ghritasnas, i. 439.

Ghrita-p ratika, i. 2 1 8 .

Gibbon , on the Roman religion of

the second Century, ii.

1.

Giguere, locative from gigno, i. 1 44 .

Gill, Rev . W . introduced writingamong his converts, i. 257.

Gilvus,flavus, yellow, 1. 66.

Gird, i. 341 n .

Giriprasfida-sinha, Rajah of Besmah ,

ii. 20 .

Girna, mill-stone, pl. girn63, hand

mill, i. 346.

Girnar, Edicts ofAsoka on the rocks

of,ii. 256.

Gishe, geshe, infinitive, i. 162 .

Givdse, in order to live, i. 1 44 .

Gjii, Norw ., nix autumni receus , i.

2 27.

Glacies, gelacies , i. 2 26

Gloaming, i. 472 , 47Glos, i. 330 .

Gnai'ood, i. 1 54, 237.

Goa-s, the Vedic, 1. 1 55.

Gnaspati, n .

Gnatio, ii

I‘miipwv , i. 1 4 1 .

Gnosticism, 11 . 253.

Go, pl. gavas , ox, cow , i. 326, 344 .

Goa, Buddhist priests sent to, u.

51 .

Goat. i. 344 .

Gobharana, 11. 320 .

Gobi, ii. 2 57.God, Adam , son of, 11. 4 1 3.

German word, its derivation , i.

458.

Hostanes and Plato about th e ex

istence of one invisible. i. 2 2 .

Names of, ii. 41 7—42 1 , 4 2 4

-4 2 3,

430-433

God-had, 1. 54.

Godhead, i. 39.

Gogerly, D1 . ii . 175.

Go-go-yuga, i. 326.

Gold colour, mark of a Buddha, 11.

318 11.

Goldstiicker, Professor, 11 . 30 .

Gonds , language of the, ii. 33.

Goose, i. 344.

Gopa (cowherd) , i. 326.

INDEX.

Gopa (cowherdess) , wife of Buddha,n . 196, 2o4.

Gopala, ii. 449.

Gopayati, 1. 326.

Gorgon ,

‘

1. 300 , 450, 491 .

Gorod, i. 341 .

Goshtha (cow-pen , stable) , i. 328.

Goshtld (assembly), i. 328 .

Goshu-yodh , i. 327.

Gospod, gospodin , gospodar, i. 340 .

Gospodarz, i. 340 .

Gotama Sanghadeva, n . 327.Gothart, God-minded, i. 54.

Goth 1c system,ii. 447.

Gotra (originally hurdle) , i. 326,

327.

Gotra, herd ofkine, i. 326.Go-vala, cowherd, i. 56.

Govedar (cowherd) , i. 326.

Govyado (herd) , i. 326, 344.

Gow , i. 344 .

Gows (cow), i. 326. 344.

Goyuga, i. 326.

Grammar, dolichocephalic, i. 187.empirical knowledge of, i. 137.rational knowledge of, i.

Grammatica Celtica ofZeuss, 1. 1 25Granth , ii. 160 .

Granum, i. 345.

Greaves , Professor ofArabic, i. 1 20 .

Greece, gods andheroes ofG. identical

with those of India, ii. 466.

heroes of, i. 378.

H 1story of (Grote), i. 30 1 .

mythological Language of, i. 435.

worship of nature in , i. 457.

Greek philosophy, i. 587, 588.

form of the Pot an b u t, i. 520 ,

559°

gods , i. 38 2 n ., 459 ; (Eros, oldest of the Gr. g. i. 3 13, 447 11.heretics , 1i. 428.

months, names of, 1. 385.

most closely united With Sanskrit

(Grassman , Sonne, Kern) , i.

19 1 .

of Homer,orMacedonian workmen in India,

Oxford chair of, i. 1 19.

religion , i. 587.

555

4 16, 4 17,

Greek stories carried to India byA lexander

’

s conquests, 1. 51 1 .

studies ofCurtius in, i. 1 2 5.

the Augment in, i. 8 2.Green (Sk. hari), i 66Greenaway, Rev . C ii. 27.

Grey, Sir George, ii. 28 .

Grifi th , Mr., i. 1 1 ; i1. 20 .

Grimblot, ii. 1 76, 1 79.

Grimhild, i. 4 16.

Grimm, i. 351 n ., 367, 373, 458 ; 11.

Burning of the Dead, i. 335 n.

Essay on the origin of Language ,

IL 397.

his Teutonic studies , i. 1 25on the words God and good, i.

458

on German (Teutonic)Mythology,373°

Grimm’

s Law, i. 67 n ., 396.

Grinlshémi, i. 163.Gris , gris, i. 344 .

G rod, i. 341 .

Grote (H1story of Greece), i. 30 1 ,31 1 , 371 1 373 1 374

Guatemala, ii. 38 1 , 386-389, 390 ,

3 1 .

Pogo] Yuh , sacred book of the

people of, 11. 386.

Gudrun, i. 4 16-41 8.

Gulth , i. 348.

Gums , i. 2 1 2 .

Fum e, vocative, i. 2 2 2 .

Gundaharius , Gund1carius , i. 41 7.

I‘w r

'

y, i. 340 .

Gunnar (mythe of) ,

Gunther, 1. 41 7, 420 .

Gvalé, cowherd, i. 56.

Gw1sk, i. 347.

H , capital, 11 497.Habere, i. 365.Hdd, A. S. state, i. 53.

H ades, i. 375 n.

H afr, i. 344.

Hagene, 1. 4 15 .

"

Amos , holy, i. 61 .

Haims, i. 341 .

556 INDEX.

llam la, 1. 327 11.Hall, Dr. F1tzEdward, 11 2 1 5.

”

AM,i. 350 .

Hamitic stratum,11. 496.

Hamsa, i. 34 1.Han, dynasty of, 11. 257, 3 1 7, 32 2 ,

3431 345°

Han, to kill hanta, 1. 483.

Har-at, i. 348 .

H ard, hardy, i. 54 .

Hardwick’

s Christ and otherMasters ,

11. 1 29.

Hardy, Spence, 11. 175. 1 90 , 20 8,2 14, 254 28 2 , 289Manual of Buddhism,

11. 1 75,282 .

Hari, i. 488 .

Hari, green , i. 66.

H arit, fulvus, red, i. 66.

Harit, Han tas (Seven Sisters), i.

492

Harley, Lord, address to, 1. 399.

H art, strong, i. 54 .

Harun al Raschid, i. 519.

H aubida , caput, i. 1 35.

Havet, M his translation of the

Reds Lecture, i. 2 7 11 .

H ead, different ways of spelling, i.

260 11.

Head in Godhead, i. 39.

H eaven, heart of, ii. 393, 394, 399.

Hebe, i. 395.

and 3117 6, i. 2 19.

H ebrew, i. 30 7 ; ii. 1 1 9, 1 31 , 18 1 .

lectureship proposed, i. 1 18 .

Oxford chair of, i. 1 19.

Pardés,i. 130 .

form of the Kalilag and Dimnag,i. 559

Hecate, H ekate, i. 380 11. 424, 450 .

'Hbaov and fibiaw , i. 2 2 1 .

Hegel, i. 449 ; ii. 1 29, 286, 30 7.

Hegel’

s Ph11030phy of Religion , 11 .

1 29.

Hegehan laws of thought, i. 3.

Heifer, i. 344.

E19, i. 354 .

'

Ena'rév , i. 354.

"

Etta-m s,

'

Exa‘rfiBv s, i. 380 .

H ektor, i. 580 .

'

Exvpés, élcvpé, i. 330 .

Helena,Helios, i. 467, 604, 60 5,

606.

cattle of (days) , i. 474.

HMos‘

,i. 380 .

H ell, ii. 157.

unknown in the Buddha country,i 355.

Hellas i 449. 457Hellen. 1. 374. 375Hemera,” ’

Evbexa,Heng

-ho (Ganges) , 11 262 .

Henotheism,11. 1 37, 41 2 , 4 1 5.

H enry VIII, and the Oxford chairs

ofGreek and Hebrew,i. 1 1 8.

did nothing forArab1c, 1. 1 19.

E cord, A . S., i. 327 n .

"

,Ews i. 438.

Eirrd,1. 354

Hera,Here, (worship in Argos) , i.

4 20 , 489, 580 .

H erakleitos (Heraklitus) , i. 2 1 , 2 9,

Herakles, 1. 394. 3951 419: .420 , 4551

4569 495 3 IL 241 °

twofold character of as a god

and a hero, ii. 24 1 .

death of, i. 394, 41 5.

myth of, i. 4 19, 420 .

names of, i. 394.

a real Vrltrahan, i. 497.

"

Hpae s, vocative, i. 2 2 2 .

Herbahst, symbolic emblemo for an,

ii 377Heredity, 1i. 492

-494.

Hermanfried, 1. 4 18 .

Hermann , Gottfn ed, i. 140 , 1 84.

Hermanricus,Easnvebw,

i

H ermes, i . 314, 11. 4 2 6,

431 °

Trismegistus,Ennis. Epneias. i. 347n

"

B

E/mercy , i. 344.

H erse (dew) , 393 and n.

Hesiod, theogony of, i. 496.

Hesperides (Evening Star),Earla, i. 147n ., 393 11.


558 INDEX.

H uc, Abbe, 11. 168 n ., 264, 280 ,

285.

H uet, friend ofLa Fontaine, 1 . 5 13.H uet

’

s Demonstratio Evangelica, ii.

H ugihart. wise-minded, i. 54.

H uiz,

H uman beings without language, 11

26.

H umboldt (Alex . and W ilh . 11.

H und, 1. 344 .

H ung-shi period, 11. 324, 326 n .

H uns , ii. 31 7.

ofAttila, i. 418 .

H unt, Professor ofArabic, i. 1 20 .

H unter (Annals of Rural Bengal),1. 1 1 .

H urdle, i. 327 n.

H us,i. 344 .

H usain ben Ali, his Anvdri Suhaili,1. 524.

H usson, on ancient mythology in

popular tales, i. 564-567.

H vaitei, hveit, hvit, i. 346

H wan, the emperor, 11. 32 1 .

H wang-Khu period, 11. 32 2 .

Hwa-yen Sfitra, ii. 327.

H wei-ynan , 11 .

Hwen Tsang, 1i. 314.

"

.Ta Zeus , i . 378 .

Typa xékevda , 1. 349.

Tics, i. 328 n .

H yde, ProfessorofArabic, i. 1 20 .

H ymn (Mantra) , ii. 1 19, 1 2 1 , 1 2 2 ,

1 28, 1 35, 1 38 et seq.to Agni, 11. 1 43.

from the Atharvaveda, 11 . 1 50 .

to Indra, ii. 1 40 .

to the Maruts (Rudras), 11. 143.to Ushas , ii. 145.

to Varuna,Hyperion , 1. 605, 606.

H yperionis, 1. 60 5, 606.

“Twépmpor, 1i. 242 .

i. 347.

H ypnos, i. 369, 371 .

T1115, i. 330 11 .

Ts i 344I, Lat1n locative 111, i. 230.

Jacob, ii. 430 .

Jacolliot, La Bible dan s l’

Inde.

468 et seq.Jains, ii. 160 , 2 28 .

Jakumio, ii. 368 .

Iambics, ii. 1 25.

Janus, ii. 449.

and Ganesa, i. 1 29 ; 11 .Japan, ii. 168.

Buddhism in, 11. 339, 3 40 .

corrupted, ii. 365.

Chinese translations in , 11 . 3 2 5 n.

vocabulary found by E dkin

11. 338.

future of, ii. 366.

Sanskrit MSS . in, 11. 3 29, 342,

366. 36 7stud1ed in , 11. 34 1 , 34 2 .

Shinto religion in, ii. 339 .

Sukhavatlvyuhasutra, the favourite

Sutra in, ii. 363.

Japanese sent to China to study,ii. 341 .

Japhetic family of languages , i. 2 0 4.Jatrew, i. 330 .

Javai, i. 346.

Iberians , graves among the, 11 . 377.

Ice, names for, i. 2 26.

Iceland, ii. 242 .

lei, Zend, ice, i. 2 26Id, oldest form of ablative, i. 2 32 .

Id and a in Latin, i 239.

locative in, i. 246.

1118 , (Aida, Futuravas son 0

447Idaeos, 1. 419.

’

Ibai‘

os,i. 394.

Idas , i. 374 .

Idealistic philosophy, i. 578 .

4 8179 , derivatives in 4 11m and 4 8111 , i.

460 .

Idolatry and the Brahmos, 11 . 79 .

Jehovah, ii. 306, 477, 478 .

Jeremiah, ii. 409, 431-433 .

Jesuit, i. 9.

Jesus and Isis, 11. 472 .

Jethro, faith of, ii. 431 .

Jewish and Pagan religions, coinci

deuces between, ii. 44 2 .

Jews, numberof sacred books of the,ii. 1 1 1 .

religion of the, i. 6.

INDEX.

Jews, do not proselytise, 11. 49.

the most proselytising of people,11 . 5.

Ignis-Agni, fire, 11. 237.

I-hsi period, ii. 327.

Jin, ii. 433.

Ilavrita, 1. 2 1 1 .

Im,i. 31 7.

Immortality, 11. 154 et seq., 157n .

beliefin, among the ancient H in

dus (in personal immortality,immortality of the soul), ii. 1 54,et seq.

secured by a son, 11. 1 56.

Impedimenta, impelimenta, i. 498 n.

In villa, i. 234.

Inca, i. 420 n .

Incapsulating languages, i. 50 .

ln-cre-p-are, i. 195.

India, Animals , names of domestic,the same in England and in ,

1 343Buddlnsts in, 11. 2 28.

civilisation , early, of, 11 . 270 .

Language of, ii. 1 20 , 1 30 , 423.

religiou s census of, ii. 2 2 7.

Indian religion, i. 1 0 .

Government, their readiness to

help students, ii. 29.

languages, classes of, 11 . 33.

MSS . in China, ii. 332 .

Mirror, the, ii. 41 .

Museum in London , 11. 35.

Indians in China, ii. 31 7 n.

Indians of America, ii. 374, 379,

383.

love song, 11. 378.

inscriptlons, i1. 376.

picture wr1ting, 11. 375.

Red Indians, 1i. 373, 375.tribes (Schoolcraft on) , ii. 380 .

war song, ii. 378.

sacred writings of the, 11. 372 .

Indies ofMegasthenes, ii. 2 2 2 11 .

Individual, i1 . 51 2 .

or statutable religions, i. 586.

Indo-Celtic, i. 204 .

Indo-Chinese family, i. 34.

Indo-Classic, i. 204.

Indo-European languages , i. 204.

Indo-Germa-iic family, i. 204.

559

Indra. i 379. 397. 398. 479. 488.

490 , 492 11. 1 27, 1 34, 1 36, 137.1 51 1 1 53 1 3371 2451 4341 4 360

428 449horses of, i. 443.

H ymn to, ii. 140 seqq.Name of of Indian growth

(JupiterPluvius),Ribhu epithet of, i. 435.

orKing, ii. 350 .

Indriyas, the five,°

1i. 355 n.

Indu ,Indus , 2 74.

Induviae, 1. 4 8 n .

1 11-cd 1°

-a , i 1 .

Infinitive, the, 1. 1 38.

as an adverb, i. 1 40 .

in Greek, i. 145.

as substantive, 1. 1 46

in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin , i.

157.

Dative in c, i. 161 .

Dative in a1°

, i. 18 1

Dative in ans , 1. 166.

Dative in tave and tavai, i. 167.Dative in dya , i. 161 .

Dative°

111 s-c, i. 162 .

Dative°

111

Dative°

111 aye, i. 163.

Dative 111 tags, i. 164.Dative

°

111 tyai,Dative

°

m use,

Dative°

m mane, i. 165.

Dative in vane, i. 166.

Accusative in am, i. 161 .

Genitive in as, i. 161 .Ablative in as , i. 161 .

Locative in i. 161 .

Locative in sam'

, i. 166.

in English, i. 1 70 .

in Anglo-Saxon , i. 1 70 .

in B engali, i. 1 72 .

in Dravidian Languages, i. 1 73.

Infinitives, i. 140 .

Infixing or incapsulating languages,i. 50 .

Infiection, theresults of combination,

i. 79.

Inflectioual languages , i. 44.stage, i. 84.

Ingnas, subordinatedemons, 11. 151 n.

560 INDEX.

Innoca from tmxocua,’

1. 100 .

l anes:fi-cm innoca,

Inscriptiones Helvetica1 (Mommsen) ,ii. 132 n .

Inscriptions, Achcmenian, 11. 264.

Greek, ii. 438 .

HieroglyphicMexican, 11. 138, 385H imyaritic, 1i. 438 .

Sinaitic,°

1i. 438.

Stone ofLuceria, 1. 2 46.

Instinct, divine, 1i. 434 .

religious, ii. 41 1 .

Instrumentals in tv1 , as infinitive,i.

Insula,°

1. 350 .

Intelligent,inter-ligeut,inter-twining,

ii. 1 2.

InternationalCongressofOrientalists,11. 1 .

Joannes Damascenus, °

1. 532 , 546.

Joasaph or Josaphat or Bodh1sattva,i. 546.

Job, book of, 11. 2 20 , 42 2 , 423.

Joel, translator offables from Arabicinto H ebrew, i. 52 2 .

Joguth Chundra Gangooly, i. 14 n .

Johannes of Capua, author of Latin

translation of fables , i. 52 2 .

Johnson’

s dictionary, influence on

spelling, i. 260 .

Johnston , SirAlexander, 11. 1 74.

Iokaste , i. 477.Iole, i. 395.

flaill , derivations in new and 4 8179, i.

460 .

Jones, SirWilliam, 11 . 164, 167, 2 10 ,

448 451. 452

on the gods ofGreece, Italy, and

India ii 4471 449his translations from Sanskrit,ii. 7.

on the resemblance between San

skrit, Greek, and Latin, ii. 8.

Jormunrek i. 41

89

Jornandes, i. 4 1’

Iés, poison, i. 395.

Josaphat, his early life the same as

Buddha’s , i. 540 .

Josephus on the Sabbath , 11.

Joshua, strange gods mentioned by,ii. 429.

K, various pronunciations of, i. 295.whence derived,

°

1i. 497.

Ira, Sansk. , i. 2 10 .

Iran , i. 2 1 4.

1rdrat, i. 2 10 .

Irenfi'ied, i. 418.

Irish (Old) , i. 320 , 344 ; 11. 1 32 n . ;

(St. Patrick converted the) , i.475

Iron, i. 348.

Iroquois country, 11. 374.Isaac, ii. 434.

Isfandiyar, i. 4 15.Isis, ii. 472

Islfim, the, 11. 53.

Isolating languages, i. 44.

spirit in the science of language,

i. 1 26.

Ist, i. 61 7.”16 7 41141, i. 393 n.

Iatud, Latin, i. 152 .

Isvara (Lord) of the Yogins, 11. 2 16.

It, eight ways of spelling, i. 260 11 .

Itahan translation of the Stephanites

and Ichnelates , i. 520 .

”17 111102, i. 344.

Itineraries of the fifiy-six (Chinese)

monks , ii. 259.

I-tsing, ii. 368 .

Itsun, ii. 31 8.

Julian, Stanislas, i. 74 n. 11. 1 2 2 ,

186, 192 n ., 232 , 239, 263, 265,2771 313

Jupiter (dyn, sky), i. 6 16 ; 11. 1 32 ,1 35. 139. 4 28. 449Optimus Mammas , 11. 424.

Pluvius, i. 492 .

sub Jove frigido, i. 378 .

Dyaus, Zio, and Tyr, i.

1 85.

Justin Martyr, i. 20 .

Juxtaposition produces combination,

i. 7Juxtapogitional stage, i. 84.

Juxtapositional, combinatory, and iafiectional strata in the for: ation

of the Aryan language, i. 10 7.Ivi, bone, ii. 456, 457.Ixtlilxochitl, his history, 11. 385.


562 INDEX.

Kerberos, identification of, with theSanskrit sarvara, i. 494

Keresdspa,°

1. 479.

Kereth , Carthage, i. 11.

Kerbura and Sabala, 1. 493 n .

Kert, i. 341 n .

Keshub Chunder Sen, 11. 68 , 104.

his Lecture on Christ, ii. 8 2 .

Keturi,Khai Khosru, 11. 142 n .

KhalifAlmausur, i. 5 1 4.

his court, i. 532 .

Khang-an, ii. 324.

Khan-sang-hui, ii. 32 2 .

Khan-sang-kai, ii. 32 2 .

Khardis, i. 327 n .

Khasgar, ii. 2 75.

Kbas1a language and the Munda dia

lects , ii. 33.

Khayuna dialects, 1i. 3411

°

11! dynasty, 1i. 328 .

lxlnu , 1i. 31 7, 324, 328 .

KI:’

in-king,°

1i. 31 8 .

Klung-yuan tower, 11 . 3 19.

Khi-nie, travels of, i1. 259.

Khor, khvar,°

1. 479.

Khosru Nushirvan ,i. 550

his physician , i. 51 5.

Khoten, ii. 275.

Kbruma, Zend,=Sk. kruta, crudus ,i. 2 26.

Kl1ruta

6Zend, adj. of zim ,

w inter, i.

2 2

Khuddaka-nikfiya Sutra, 11. 32 2 .

Kim-Ying, king of, ii. 32 1 .

K1elhorn, Dr., ii. 1 7, 30 .

Xi-fa-ling, ii. 32 7.

Ifi-khan, orXi-tsin , 11. 32 2 .

Ki kung-ming, 1i. 32 2 .

Ki kwo,°

1i. 329.

Ki-mang, 11. 325, 326 11.

King, i1. 160 .

the six Kings of the Confucians,ii. 329.

K lug-fa-hwa , 11. 323.

King, kingship , i. 340 .

Kingdom, i. 39.

Klngsborough, Lord, 11. 38 1 .

Kioto, ii. 369, 370 .

K1sagotami, parable of, 11. 309 31 2 .

K itrfia,°

1. 439.

Klaproth. ii. 265.

KAa §w =xpd§w (elu) , i. 195.

KAéos = hruom,

Kaéos (sravas, cluo), ii. 262 .

KMrrd, i. 408 n .

lx lotho, i. 463.

Knighton, H istory of Ceylon , 11.

254 11.

Knowledge for its own sake, danger

of, ii. 4.

Koles. the,°

1i. 33language of, Dravidian ,

Koljush (Kaljush , Kolosh), ii. 398 .

Ko-lo keou-lo (11211111111 11. 262 .

Kolosh (Kaljush, Koljush), ii. 398 .

Ram”, iKophene,

’

ii. 327.Koran, 1 6, 7 ; ii. 1 14,

438 .

spirit of the, 11. 52 .

Korea, Csoma de, 11. 1 71—1 73.

Kosala, ii. 20 2 .

Ks-so-gai, ii. 341 , 343.

t i, ii. 350 u .

-xparqs= hard, i. 54.

Kratu ,intellectual strength , i. 54.

Kratylos, Plato’

s , i. 29.

Krauiikah , ii. 355 n .

Kravya-ad (spars i. 346.

Kp6§w= xM §w (clu l) , i. 195.

e oxpd'

yoc, i. 346.

Kriemhilt, i. 41 5—418.

Kpi‘

pa crimen , Graeco-Italic,

cording to Mommsen , i. 194 .

Krishna. ii 449. 473Kronike, dies , ii. 462 .

Kronos, 1. 31 1 , 375 n . 11. 240 , 462 .

Kpéros, Kpoviwv, Kpov(8179, 1. 60 ,

461 .

Kpiios, spends, s pire-min es,

Kshatriya, 1i. 195, 262.

Buddha by birth a, 11. 195.

exp6

ressed in Chinese by'

l‘

chzi li, ii.

2 2 .

Kshayathlya, i 340 .

Ed, from Tien-ku, ii. 320 n .

Kuce, i. 344.

Kudic races, 11. 235 n .

Kfi-ffi-hu , ii. 323.

Eu-fa-lan (Chu-falan) , ii. 258 , 319,

320 .

INDEX .

Eu-fa-lan , translation of five sum s.

ii. 340 .

Kuofo-soh (Ta-fo-sa) ,Kuhn , i. 40 8 n . , 41 0 445

—450 .

Kukai,ii. 342 .

Kvpaiovs,”

ovoe n pd, i. 5 13 n .

Kumfiragiva. ii. 324, 325,

328 348

Kflmdrd-ya-te, he behaves like a

girl, i. 57.Know , 1. 344.

Kuravika, 1i. 355 n .

Kimzos dt d wwv . li. 242 .

Kama (ground) i. 346Kn shi-hsing (Chu ~ lmh Jan) ,

323.

Kusinfigara, 11. 200 , 203.

Kalavagga, the, 11. 1 78 .

Kutsa , 1i. l 4z.

E u-yung, i1. 32 2 .

Kwang-ming, 1i. 364 n .

Kwéty-s , i. 346.

Kyrene, myth of, i. 373.

L , whence derived, 11 . 497, 498.

Aaa s. i. 3 10 .

Laban’s gods,

Laboulaye, ii. 20 8 .

on Barlaam and Josaphat, i. 542 .

Lacedogna, n .

Lachesis , i. 463.

Adxvos,Lacruma, i. 498 n .

Ladyship, i. 39.

La Fontaine’s fables , 1. 50 0 .

published 1668, 1. 50 1 .

2nd and 3rd editions , 1678, 1 694,i. 50 1 .

fable ofPerretteborrowedfromthe

and David Sahid of Ispahan’s

translation of Pilpay’

s fables , i.

524.

Lag“, law, 1. 193.

Law s, i. 476, 477Lakonic forms , i. 438.

Lalita-Vistata (Life of Buddha) , i.

537 ; ii. 1 86, 19 1 , 1 5, 200 , 20 1 ,258 n., 32 1 , 323. 3

Lama ofTibet, ii. 168 .

{fl}

Lana, i. 347.Lan tower, li. 319.

Landresse, M 11 260 .

Landsmann, i. 2 1 2 .

Language, former divisions of, 11.

130 .

a barrier, i. 255.

families of, 1i. 13o.

German,

great European languages . 1. 256

monosyllabic, 1i. 1 3 1 .

literary,’

1. 2 57, 258 .

science of, i. 1 2 , 14.

historical character of, destroyed

by phonetic spelling, 1. 274,2 75.

good ear for, i. 291 .

phonetics the foundation of the

science of, i. 292 .

stratification of, i. 27.origin of, i. 31 .

universal, i. 31 .

English , words in, i. 32.classification of, i. 34.

made by convention , i. 38.

three conditions of, 1. 42 .

RR for Ist stage, 1. 44.

R + p for zud stage, 1

rp for 3rd stage, i. 44.

not highly developed, rich in

words, poor in general expres

sions , i. 90 .

Science 01, is it a natural or his

torical science, i. 199.

human beings withou t, 11. 26.

Veddahs said to have none,

of the Koles and Gonds, ii. 33.

Languages, families of, i. 34.

isolat1ng, combinatory, and inflec

tional, i. 44.

sutfixing, prefixing, afi xing, and

infixing, i. 50 .

Laniger, i. 485, 490 .

Lankavatara, translated by Burnouf,ii . 284 n .

Aaés, 1. 498.

Laotse, i. 7, 19 ; ii. 165, 257, 267.doctrines of, 1i. 2 5 7 476.

works of, ii. 267.MM . i 477 0Lapp legendofDay andNight, i. 61 2 .

2

564 INDEX.

Laps, 11. 236 11.

La Rivey, his translations of fables,i. 523 11.

Las Casas, ii. 382 .

Lassen , ii. 263.

Lat1n alphabet, i. 259.

ablative in d, i. 230 .

locative in i, i. 230 .

Corssen’s studies 111, i. 1 25.

text of the M1lkmaid, i. 529 11.

Church, feast-day of SS . Barlaam

and Josaphat, i. 543.

a language made up of Italic,Greek, and Pelasgic, i. 18 1 .

derived from Greek, i. 1 8 1 .

most closely united with Greek

(Mommsen, Curtius), i. 191 .Latmian, i. 384, 386, 389.

Latmos, i. 386.

Latona, i. 386.

Land, Archbishop, his support of

Arabic, i. 1 19.

his collection of Arabic MSS 1

1 1

Lautia,9i. 498 n.

Lautverschiebung, i. 67 n ., 68.

Law, repetition of, i1 . 359, 360 .

no settled word for, 111 the Aryan

languages ,Laws ofMann , 1i.

Le, words ending in , i. 2 79.

Leccardo, a gourmand, i. 56.Lecomte, i. 9.

Lecture on Christ by Keshub Chun

der Sen,1i. 82 .

Lectureships forHebrew, Arabic, and

Chaldaic proposed in 131 1 , i.

1 18.

Legends and theories of the Bud

dhists (Sp. Hardy) , 1i. 1 75 n .

Leibniz , his views on language,shows that Greek and Lat1u are

not derived from Hebrew, i.1 82 .

Leiclw, body,Leik, body,Leitner

’

a,Dr., his labours in Dardis

tan , ii. 34.

Ackom évcu ,

Lengthening of the vowelm the sub

junctive, i. 82 .

Leo Allatius and the story of Bar

laam and Josaphat, i. 52 1 .

544Leo the Isaurian , i. 533.

LeontOphontes , i. 498 .

Leophontes (Aeoxpévrqs), i. 477 11

Leps1us, 1. 109.

Leto, i. 386.

Anf oi‘

, vocative, i. 2 23.Leukippides, i. 398.

Leumwnd , i. 195.

Levir, 498 n .

Lex and law , i. 196.

Lhassa, ii. 264.

Lian-tsung, 1i. 364 n .

Liang dynasty, ii

Liang, the northern , 1i. 326.Liberty, 1i. 484.

—.J SS . Mill on , 11 . 482 , 483, 529.

Libya, Kyrene in, i. 373.

I/ich, lichgate,Lichadian islands, Lichas , 1. 395 .

I/iebhart, mignon , i. 55 n .

Liebrecht, Dr. Felix,’

1. 530 n .

on Barlaam and Josaphat , i. 542 .

Life 111 Ancient India, Mrs. Sp1er, i1.

257Ligare, to bind, i. 196.

Llb , i. 497 n .

Ling, emperor, 11. 32 2 .

Iringuardo, a talker, 1 56

Linguist wsurvey of India, 11 . 32 .

Lion’s skin, the, Plato

’

s Kratylos , i.

51 2 11.

Lip, to anoint, i. 497 11.Aurapés, i. 2 1 8.

Aid /cos, i. 477 n ., 498 n.

Litae, i. 375.

Literary survey of India, the, 11. 30 .

L1thuanian, i. 31 7, 344, 354 .

Livre des Lumieres , by David Sahid

of lspahan , i. 524.

-des Sauvages, i1. 372 , 373, 374,

380 .

L0 , the city of, 11. 319, 32 1 , 323.

Local adverbs, as termmatlon s of

cases, i. 62 .

Locative in i, as infinitive, i. 161 .

in sani, as infinitive, i. 166.

Locat1ves 111 a, i. 2 32 .


566 INDEX.

Mann , laws of, 11 . 8 , 1 26.

hymns of, ii. 1 37.

Manuel, Don Juan, his Conde Ln

canor, i. 530 .

Manum injectio, 1. 246.

Manuscrit Pictograph 1que Américain(by A bbe Domenech), ii. 372 ,

373Mar, mard, mardh , marg, mark,marp ,

smar, i. 91 .

Mara, 11. 194, 30 1 .

his interv1ew with Buddha. 11 . 77.March , Dr. , on Infinitive, i. 1 70 .

Mardin ,l1brary of, 1 . 553.

Mare,i. 350 .

Marei, i. 350 .

Marnas (our Lord), 11. 4 25.

Marpessa, i. 374 .

M arriage, i1 . 1 1 2 11 .

Mars (Marut) , 11 . 135, 1 39.

Martyrologmm Romanum, the, i.

524 n .

Maru (desert) , i. 351Maruts (storms), 1i. -1 45

4 20 , 42 1 .

Masi, from ma-tvi, i. 94Massachusetts language, translatmn

of the Bible in the, 11. 379.

M212:mataram, 1. 2 2 2 .

Matanga, 31 9 .

Matar, mater, matha1r, mati, i. 320

32 2 .

Matarlsvan , 11. 1 38, 240 .

Match , 1. 368 .

Maudgalyayana, disciple of Buddha,ii. 20 2 .

Maurice’

s Lectures on the Religion

of theWorld, ii. 1 29.

Maya, ii. 459.

Maya, Mayadévi, Mayavati, 11. 195,204.

Mayah , delight, i. 167.

Me, te, se, i. 249.

Meco,i. 86.

Med, ted, sed, i. 248.

Mederi, Zend, madh , i. 2 27.

Media,Median , 1 . 479, 480

dynasty,—k1ng, i 479Med1cae (Mellow), n.

writing,

Meditation , four stages of, 11. 25 2 .

Mediterranean languages , 1 . 20 3.

Meditor, i. 498 n .

Megasthenes , Indica of, 11. 2 2 2 n .

Mel, mellis , i. 484 .

Me'AaOpov, 1. 2 27.

Mékde'ra :—mr1'lata,

Meleager, 1. 414, 48 1

Mekerdw, i. 477n ., 498 n.

Melin,

Memnon, 1. 390 .

Me'

p ova and 11671111410 4 1. 149 .

Meva i, infinit1ve, 1 . 1 4 1 .

Mene (the moori) , 1. 378.

Menelaos, i. 30 8 .

Menoetios, i. 495.

Merchant of Venice, story of the

caskets, i. 536 11 .

Mercury, ii. 2 1 0 .

Mere, i. 351 .

Illeritod, 1. 237.Metals known to the ancient Aryans,

1. 348 .

Metaphysics, 11. 284.

ofAristotle, i. 38 2 11.

Abhidharma, Buddh1st system (orBasket) of, i1. 284.

Metempsychosis, ii. 1 54, 1 87.

not 111 the Veda, i1. 1 54 .

M'r'

rnyp, 1 . 320 , 380 .

Metrodorus, i. 580 .

Mexican , ii. 38 1 .

hieroglyphics , published by Lord

Kingsborough , 11. 38 1 .

nature of the ancient

ii. 385.

Mexico, i. 7 11. 372 , 380 , 38 1 , 384.

Mi, si, ti, 1. 8 1 .

Micco,Might and main, i. 368 .

Migration ofFables, 1 . 500 .

M 1klosich , his Slavonic studies, i.

1 25.

Milcom,11. 406, 425.

Mile, family of, ii. 276.

Miletos, i. 374.

Milinda, Dialogue between

Nagasena, ii. 289.

Milkma1d, the fable of the, first ap

pearance in English , i. 527.

INDEX.

M ilkmaid, instead of the Brahman,

1. 52

Mill, Job

sii Stuart, 11. 2 .

on Liberty, ii. 479, 480 , 482 ,

499:Dr., 11. 2 1-45.

Mill, mill-stone, i. 346.Mille, i. 354.

Milman , Dean, 11. 286.

Minerva, ii. 1 39.

Mlngti, Emperor, 11. 257, 258, 315,

316, 319.

his dream , 11. 3 1 8.

Minnesiinger, 11. 1 25.

Minute differences, many words for.in languages not highly de

veloped, i. 90 .

Minyans, the, i. 373.Missionaries

,Buddhist, 11. 1 75.

Wesleyan, in Ceylon, ii. 1 75, 208 .

Missionary and Nonomissionary te

ligions, ii. 48.

Missionary religions, 11. 48, 94.

religion, what constitutes a, n. 97.

societies, claim on, for Oriental

studies, ii. 23.

Missions, lecture on, 11. 46.

should be more helped by the

universities , ii. 23.

1110 061,Goth:mizdo, i. 2 2 7.

M itra, i. 371 , 40 7 ; ii. 130- 1 38, 153.

Mixed sun-as, ii. 330 .

Vinaya. ii. 330 .

Mizdha, Zend, 7110063, i. 2 27.M lekkha, ii. 95.

Mlyn, i. 346.

Mnaseas, i. 375 n.

Mnemosyne, i. 4 13.

Moallaka of Zobeyr, 11. 439.

d oqpe, vocative, i. 2 2 2 .

Modus infinitus, i. 140 .

Mohammed, i. 6 ; ii. 163, 165, 433,

4391

the Expected, 11. 205.

successors of, ii. 163.

Mohammedan conquest of India, 11.

260 .

Paradise, 11 . 291 , 306.

Mohammedanism, countries profess

ing, ii. 60 .

Mo-ho-sang-ki-lm, the, 11. 325.

567

Moksha, deliverance of the soul fromall pain and illusion, ii. 283,

30 3.

Mola, i. 346.

Mollis , i. 484.

Moloch , ii. 406, 4 25, 426.

Mommsen , ii. 1 32 n.

Momos, i. 369.

Monachism, Spence Hardy on East

ern, ii. 1 75.

Money, Babylonian division of, 11.

498.Mongol words from Chinese, i. 73.

Mongolia, ii. 169, 234.

Buddhist literature of, 11. 1 85.

View of Nirvana in, ii. 29 1 .

Mongolian, ii. 1 73 (language, versmnof the Buddhist canon) , ii. 1 75,

and Chinese, i. 73.conquerors carry Buddhist fables

to Russia, i. 51 1 .translation ofKama andDimnah,i. 51 1 n .

Monosyllabic (Chinese) language, 11.1 31 , 261 .

form ofroots , i. 90 .

Monotheism, ii. 1 37, 439.

Semitic, ii. 433.

Monotheistic stage, 11 . 436.

Momtra, i. 37.Monstrosities in language, i. 238 .

Moa villosum, i. 491 .

Moon, mythes and names of the,i. 378 , 389 ; ii. 237.worshippers of the, ii. 406.

Hottentot legend of, i. 61 0 , 6 1 1 .More, i. 351 .

Morgenstunde hat Gold im Munde,i. 509.

Moros, i. 369.

Morris , Dr., 011 Infinitive, i. 1 70 .

Moses, i. 6, 19 ; ii. 4m 4 2 1 . 432 ,

472 ~

belief in immortality, 11. 155.

God of, ii. 433.

Moslim, ii. 53.

Mother, i. 320 , 340 .

Mother-in-law, i. 330 .

Mouse (mush , p99,mus , mus, mysz),i. 344.

568 INDEX.

Movers , i. 6.

Mri, to die, i. 351 .

Mridu, i. 484.

Mucha, i. 344.

Muir, Dr. J Original Sanskrit Texts ,

published by, ii. 1 28 n . , 1 50 n .,

Muir, i. 351 .

Mukta (unconditioned), 11. 2 1 7.Muli, i. 346.

Muller, Max, Essay on Comparative

Mythology, ii. 242 n.

Survey ofLanguages , 11. 2 36 n .

Todtenbestattung bei den Brah

manen , i. 337 n . ; ii. 141 11.

Mu ller, Otfried, on theEumenides , i.

375 n .

andComparative Philology, i. 1 84.

Munda dialects and the Khas1an

language, ii. 33.

and the Talaing ofPegu , 11. 33.

Mundas orKoles , dialects of, 11. 33.

Mung-sun , ii. 326.

Mus , mus, i. 344.

M usca, i. 344.

Mush , mush1ka (mus) , i. 344.

M usur-dabaghan mountains , ii. 269.

v a , i. 344.

M6711) , i. 346.

Mas, i. 344.

M y sore, Buddhist priests sent to, 11.

51 .

Mysticism, Christian , of Eckhardt

and Tauler, ii. 281 .

Mystics , ii. 2 16, 2 1 7.Myth, see Apollo, Daphne, Endy

mion , Herkules, Kephalns , Se

lene, etc

Mythological (Mythopoeic) , i. 308.

Mythology, i. 1 85.

of Central America, 11 . 374 .

Aryan , i. 389.

Comparative, i. 373 n . 448, 455

467.

F1nnish , 11. 234 11 .

German (Teutonic) , i. 373.

H 1udu , i. 381 .

Philosophy of (Schelling) , i. 454,57

of thge Purdnas , i. 38 1 .

of the Veda, i. 38 1 .

M ythology exists now, i. 590 .

inevitable, i. 590 .

interest of, i. 578 .

not religion , i. 586.

Greek , i. 586.

is history turned into fable, i. 589.

meaning of, i. 59 1 .

primitive, not necessarily reli

gious , i. 596.

Mythopoeic (or Mythological) A ge,i. 308 , 320 .

M5009, 1. 375.

NABH , i. 347.

Nabha, nabh1, i. 347.Naca, nacho, i. 351 .

Nacheinander, i. 142 .

Nachor, gods of, 11. 429 .

N 11911 , Zend, corpse, ve’xvs , i. 2 2 7.Nadh , i. 347.

Nadi (river), 11. 1 36.

Na vius, language of, i. 239.

Nagarat, Sk.,i. 231 .

Nagare, Sk., i. 231 .

Nagas , ii. 296.

Nagasena, Dialogue between Milindaand, ii. 289.

Nah (nabh, nadh), 11. 347.

Nahan, i. 347.

Nahuas , m1grations of the, 11 . 39 1 .

Nahuatl,ancient written language of

Mexico, ii. 386.

Nak, night , i. 57.

Names,real cognomina, i. 565.

Nami,ii. 1 42 .

Namuhi, i. 499 ; 11. 142 .

Nanak , founder of the Sikh religion,ii. 65.

wisdom of, 11. 10 3.

reforms of, ii. 65.

Nanandar, i. 330 .

Nandas, Dynasty of the, 11. 1 23.

Nanking, ii. 327.Nanyo, mountain in China, 11. 371 .Napfit, i. 331 .

spam napat= the sun , i. 385.

Naples , inflections ], i. 47.Naples , Neapolis , i. 85.

Napo, Zend, A. S. nefa, i. 2 27.Naptl, i. 331 .


570 INDEX.

Nominalism, i1. 51 7.

Nom1nalists, ii. 5 16.

Ndpos from i. 197.

Non-missionary rel1gions , 11. 48 .

Nornes, the three, i. 462 .

North Turanian Class , 1. 72 , 20 3.

Northern Buddhists , 11. 2 2 2 .

Not and Nothing, ii. 337.

Nothing, ii. 2 2 1 , 285, 306.

Nouns i. 1 38.

Nous , i. 580 .

Novem, 1. 354.

Now, from nak, i. 57.Nrikakshfis , i. 444 .

Ndlrm i. 443.

Numa, i. 197.Numen , ii. 420 .

Numerals , i. 354 .

Nvds, i. 330 .

Nut1, authorof Del governode regni,i. 52 1 .

N 15

£=nox, i. 57.Nyx, i. 369, 371 , 382 .

a

O , difl'

erent ways of representing the

sound, i. 265.

Obligatio, binding. i. 196.

Octo, i. 354.

Oc-ulus , 1. 1 34.Oculus, i. 1 36.

Cd and o in Latin, i. 239.

ablative in, i. 246

Odin , ii. 165, 2 1 0 , 242 , 466, 467.Sigurd, descendant of, 1. 41 5.

Odoacer, i. 4 18.

Odor, i. 498 n .

’

Oduaaeii

s, i. 477 n ., 498 n.

(Edipus, i. 470 , 476-78 .

0 78009 and 6117 10 , i. 2 19Oi, i. 344.

of locative becoming e, ci, i, i.

233.

0 7811 , i. 367.and foyer, i. 149.

O'

igour Tatars, ii. 268.

0 2x01 , i. 339.

i. 354 .

0 709, one, 1. 2 27.O i

's, i. 344 .

O izys , i. 369.

Okeanos , i. 369.

( lkini, Kingdom of, 11. 2 70 .

’

O zc'rtb, i. 354 .

O ld ablatives , termination of, i. 154 .

Old Testament stories and Brahmin

ical legends, ii. 444 .

and New , borrowed from the

Brahmans and Buddhists , ii.

445Oldfield, Mr., 11. 152 n .

Olfacit, i. 498 n .

Olympian gods, i. 371 11. 1 35,241 .

mythology, 1. 310 .

0 11110 0 6112, i. 477 n., 497 n .

Om, ii. 192 .

"

Op p a , i. 1 33.

O neiroi, 371 .

Ono Imoko, ii. 370 .

'Ovopp and nomen, in Persian riam,

ii. 8.

Onondaga (Oswego River) , 1i . 374.

’

On-mr-a , i. 134.

Oppert, Jul theory of the invention

of the cuneiform letters, ii.

2 70 .

Oppidum, i. 345.

Optimus, optumus, optomos, i. 293.

Maximus (Jupiter), ii. 424-426.

Oradlo, oralo, i. 345.

Orati, i. 345.

Orcus, i. 357.Oreithyia, i. 299.

Orient und Occident, Benfey’s, 11.

1 32 11.

Oriental chairs in English Univer

sities , ii. 2 2 .

studies, their claims on support,ii. 2 2 seq.

Origin of language, i. 31 .

ofChinese, Chalmers’

, i. 72 .

Origine des Romans, Traité de l’

,

Huet,i. 51 3.

Ormazd, Ormuzd, 11. 1 33. 1 34.

Orotal, Orotulat, ii. 438

Orpheus, 1. 406, 435, 4 16, 470 .

Orphic hymns, n.

INDEX.

‘

OpOpios , i. 496.’

Op9poBdas , cock, i. 496.

’

OpOpc‘

yéi) (swallow) , 1. 496.

’

OpOpoqn'bv , dp0po<p6vr17s, 1. 497.

Orthros (5p0pos) , i. 495, 497.

a s, error, derivative suffix, 1 . 440 .

O svan grammar, ii. 26.

0 51lu , i. 344 .

’

a 'e, i. 1 36.

for ame, i. 1 34.

Oswego River (Onondaga) , 11. 374O dpaviq, ii. 438 .

O i’

Ipam'

aw , i. 385.

°0 157111 1162, Ouranos , i. 370 , 371 11. 237.

Ovis , ovjza, i. 344 .

Ox, i. 344.

Oxford chair ofGreek, i. 1 19.

Hebrew , i. 1 19.

Arabic,i. 1 1 9.

Anglo-Saxon , 1. 1 20 .

Sanskrit, i. 1 20 .

Latin , i. 1 20 .

Comparative Philology, i. 1 20 .

what it might do forM 1sswns , 11

23.

O zi-s, 1. 344.

P, in psalm , i. 279.

P8 (to protect) , root from which is

derived fa 1her, 1. 322.

Pachacamac, 11. 242 .

Pads , i. 345.

Pads-cases , 1. 10 2 .

Padan Aram,11. 430 .

Padma, lotu ~

, 11. 320 .

Pagas , i. 488.D aw evérwp, i. 2 94.

Pagodas bu ilt for Sanskrit MSS. , 11.

Pairidaéza in Zend, i. 130 .

Paithya, Zend, sua-pte, i. 2 27.

Pala, i. 32 2 .

Pa-laka, i. 32 2.

Pali, ii. 1 74- 1 80 , 1 86, 2 54 n ., 264.

Buddhist canon in 8 12 9 of, 11.

1 79 11.

works ofCeylon , ii . 2 89.

MSS . in China, ii. 332 .

precious things in , 11. 352 n .

sacred language ofCeylon, ii. 1 74.

, lL 2 75.

571

Pali stories, i. 556.

Palm-leaves , Sanskrit MSS on, 11.

MSS. on , in the Temple of Hori

uji, ii. 368-370 .

Paltr, n.

Pamir (plateau of)Pan, 1

Pandit, the,Pangenetor, i. 4 19.

Panini, i. 1 28 .

Panka, i. 354.

Pankatantra, the, or Pentateuch , or

Pentamerone, 1. 50 2 . 503, 558.

Perrette borrowed from, 1. 50 4.

southern text of, i. 503.

Panna, parna, ii. 336.

Pantha, i. 350 .

Pantschatantra, the, i. 549.

Pao-khang, ii. 328.

Paotr (boy), paotrez (girl), 11 .

Paper, papier, i. 320 .

Papua,Par (root) , 1 . 32 2 .

Parable of the man pursued by the

unicorn , i. 536 .

Para-Brahma, the, ii. 64.

Paradise and Sanskrit paradesa, i.

I219. 563.I'

Iapa/cv vOfipm-a ,

Paraschematicgrowth ofearlythemes,i. 98.

Parasu, 1. 348 .

Parce , the German (the three

Nornes) , i. 366, 462 .

Teutonic, 1. 366.

Parties in H ebrew , i. 130 .

napép cbams, i. 139.

Parens, i. 322 .

Parental and controversial work of

missionaries , ii. 61 .

Paribhvefrom paribhus , 1. 2 23Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MSS.

in. fi

ofTroy, i. 476. 478.

University of, i. 1 18 .

Parker, Abp ., his collection ofAnglo

Saxon MSS ., i. 1 20 .

Parler am:yews, ii. 375.

Parlerai, je, i. 39.

572 INDEX.

Parnaya, 11. 142 .

Parshdni, infinitive

l, to cross , i. 143.

Parsis do not prosel tise, ii. 50 .

in Bombay, ii. 967

their wish to increase their sect,ii. 96.

Paraza-s , 1. 344 .

Past (Vurdh , 1 d i. 366,

462 .

Pasu,

Patch-putra, visited by Xi-mang, 11.

335°—council of, i. 2 2 2 ; 11 51 .

Patar, pater, narfip, i. 320 , 32 2 ,380 .

Ila-nip and pr’

rmp in Persian , 11. 8 .

Hari'

yp, rarépa =pita', pitarain ,

Paternal missionary, the, 1i. 1 0 8 .

Path , path i, pathas, 350 .

Pati (husband) , patni, i. 338 339.

3 67 01, i. 342 .

Patram, from pa, 1. 2 17.Patta, pattra, ii. 336.

Patteson , Bishop , ii. 62 .

on missmns , 11. 71 .

as an Oxford man, 11. 23.

Pattin , i.

Paurusheyatva, human element in re

velation , 1i. 1 27.

Pavaiia (wind) ,Pa-yu,Pecu , pecus , pecku , 344.

Pecudium , peculiar, peculium, pe

cunia, i. 32 5Hédov (pedum) , 1. 345.

Pegasos, i. 488

Pehlevi or Huzvaresh , translation of

fables , i. 515, 555, 556.

Peindre la parole, ii. 378.

Peiren, i. 482 .

Heidi», foedus, i. 148.

Peleiades of Dodona, ii . 4 24.

vocative, i. 2 23.

Penki, i. 354.

R iv-re, i. 354 .

Peretu , Z end, bridge, portus , i. 2 27.Perj

‘idus , faithless, i. 148.

Period, dialectical, i. 308-31 1

mythological (mythopoeic) , 1. 30 8.

national, i. 31 1 .

Period, Rhematic , i. 30 7.

of Adverbs , in the Aryan lan

guage, i. 10 4 .

of the formation of cases, in the

Aryan language , i. 1 04.

Hev ds, i. 393 n .

Perkunas , ii. 1 32 .

Pcr-m'

c-i-es, i. 61 .

Perrette and the Pot an Lait. i

500 .

story of, in Italian by G iulioNllfi.

i. 567.in Latin, by Petrus Possinus, fro

m

Greek, i. 568 .

in Latin ; by Joh annes of Capos

from Hebrew, i. 569 .

in German , in Buch der alien

Weisheit, tran slated from the

Directorium, i. 570 .

in Spanish from A rabic

57rin Latin verse by Balbo from

Arabic, i. 572 .

in Latin verse by Regnerius,1

573in Latin sermons, i. 574.

in Spanish , El Conde Lucanom

575in French , by Bonaventure 1”

Periers , i. 575.

l

Persephone, i. 3756

n .

erseus , i. 470 , 47 8 .

Persian and Arab gZories broughtback by the Crusaders, i.

form of the Kalilag and Dimmg.

1 559°

Peru (religion of), i. 7 11. 240. 24"

38 1 .

Perum, i. 345.

Peshawer (Pou-lou-cha-pou vlo). P11

rushapura, ii. 2 71 , 2 74.

Passam dare, i. 10 1 .

Petora, i. 354.

Petzholdt, (das Buch derWilden):ii. 372 n ., 373.

Phaedros of Plato, i. 299, 300.

Phaedrus’

fables, i. 50 1 .

Qaew d, i. 40 8 11.

Phainis , epigram on, i. 309.

tbapérpa , a quiver, i. 98 .

Pharsaha of Lucan , 11. 1 32 n.


574 INDEX .

Pons (see pod), i. 319, 34 2 , 350 .

Ponti , 1. 350 .

Pontus, i. 350 .

Popul Vuh (book of the people) , 11.

Porc,1 6pxos, porcas, 1. 344.

Portus = Z end peretu,Poseidon, 1100 518617 , i. 461 .

1160 1 18011, vocative, i. 2 2 2 .

mid is, potens, potis (2 67 1s), 2 62-ma ,

i. 338.

Positive philosophy, i. 579.

Possinus, author of Latin tran s lat ion

of Stephamtes and lchnelates,i. 52 1 .

Potthaka, pustaka, 11. 337.

Pott’

s article on Max Miiller, i.

45Pou-lou-cha-pou

-lo (Purushapura,Peshawer). ii. 2 71 .

Power of combination , i. 85.

Praesidium, praesilium, praesul, i.

498 n .

Pragiia-hridaya-sutra, 11. 367.

Pragiifi-paramita (perfect Wisdom) ,

ii. 284, 287, 288 , 323.

Pragudvarman, ii. 346.

Prakrit, i. 428.

influence on Sanskrit MSS ., ii .

361 n .

Prasénagit, king of Kosala. 11. 20 2 ,

248 .

Pratiyata, pratiyatha, 11 . 360 n .

Pratyeka Buddha, ii. 192, 289.

Pravritti, ii. 382 .

Prayers , Lite , called daughters of

Zeus, i. 376.

Predicativeroots, i. 90 .

Prefix1ng languages, i. 50 .

Preller (Greek Mythology) , i. 454.

Premure, i. 9.

Present, m u st, and reduplicated per

feet , as forming a skeleton con

jugation, i. 97.(Verdhandi, rd 6m ) , i.

Priests , ii. 1 1 7.

four classes ofP. in India, u . i 1 7.

Primary verbal period of the Aryan

language, 1. 93.

Primeval revelation, 11. 238, 445

Princes, disciples of Buddha, 11. 76.

Principles of Comparative Philology,Sayce

’

s,i. 90 .

Printing, its influence on sp elling, i.

259, 260 .

Prish , prisbat, prishita, i. 392 , 392

393Prisai, 1. 392 n .

Prithivi (prithvi), the Earth , broad,i 337 ; u 1 36 237

Privatus, i. 357.

Prize fellowships,Hpoxds, n .

Prokris, 1.

Prometheus, i. 492 ; 11. 243 .

Pronoun I, plural of,Pronunciation changes ,

varie

sin different peop le , i. 284

28

varies at difl'

erent times in the

same person , i. 286.

various P. of the same word, i.

Proselyte, meaning of, 11. 94 .

Proselytes among the J 11 . 49Proselytising, etymological sense of,

ii. 97.

Prosic, 1. 344.

Protogeneia, 1. 390 .

Proverbs , translation of,ii . 3 79.

“P651 7M , L 392 1 393Prush, prushva, pru shva (drop), 1.

392 1 392 393°

Psalms and Vedic hymns contrasted,ii. 37.

v fi, 1. 594.

Psyche, 1 . 597.P0, i. 469.

Public Opinion , 11 . 490 , 491 .

Pullus , 1 . 344 .

Pulu , i. 483.

Pupil, symbolic emblem of, i. 319.

Purfima, Mythology of the , i. 38 1 .

Purebhattam, ii. 354 n .

Purgare, for purigare, i. 193 .

Puri,Puru, 1. 483.

Pururavas , i. 384, 405, 40 7-412.

42 1-428 433 43 .

Film s and pntu s , i . 193.

Purusha, ii 288.

INDEX .

Purusbapura (Pou-lou-cha-pou-lo) ,Peshawar 11. 271 .

Purushottama, i. 424.

Purva, i. 483.

l’utra, i. 328 n .

Pyrrha, w ppé , i. 31 0 , 374.

Pythagoras, 1. 583, 588 11. 2 10 .

Pythia, 1. 375.

QANHAR , i. 320 .

Q uatuor, i, 354.

Que, Latin , 1. 135.

Queen ,quind, i. 340 .

Quiche, ii. 372 n . , 387, 388-392 .

account of creation, 11. 393—395.

396: 597

guinque, 1. 354.u intilian on final d in Latin , i. 238 .

Q uirn,qvairnus, i. 346.

Rp, or pr or prp, third stage of lan

p + R , second stage of language, i.

44

p R p, second stage of language,1. 44 .

R + p, second stage of language, i.

44R . R , first stage of language, i. 44.

Rebelais,his Gargantua. i . 526.

Rabenschlacht, i. 4 1 8.

R aces, Without any religious ideas ,ii. 26.

Haets , Zend, rectus , i. 2 28 .

Ray , i. 340 .

Ragagriha, ii . 200 , 20 1 , 20 2 , 342 ,

Rfigamtnfikari, 11. 1 74 .

n ata, i. 348 .

Ragatam, i. 2 26.

Ragavali, ii. 1 74.

Rdga-yw te, he behaves like a king,

1. 57.

Rabat, ii. 286, 289.

Rahula (Ko-lo-keou-lo) , son of Bud

dha, ii. 262 .

Raimond de Beziers , his transl. of

Kalila and Dimnah into Latin

verse, i. 525.

Rajanikfinta's Life of Jajadeva, 11.

20 2 .

Rajendralal Mittra, Babu , editor of

the Lalita-Vistara, ii. 19, 30 , 186.

Rajmahal Koles, ii . 33.

Rajnarain Bose on the Brahma

Samaj , ii. 78.

Rak, i. 347.

Ram (exalted), ii . 425.

Ram Dass Sen , ii. 2 0 .

Ram Mohun Roy and the Brahma

Samaj , ii. 42 , 66, 1 0 3.

unable to read h is own sacred

books , ii. 43.

Ramananda, 14th century, the re

former, 11. 65.

sect of, ii. 10 3.

RAmAnuga, 1 2th century , the te

former, ii. 64.

sect of, ii. 10 3.

Ranchi, Missmiiaries at, 11. 33.

RangpurDialect, ii. 99 11.

Rap , 1. 40 8 11 .

Zend,= repere, i 2 28 .

'

Pciirrw, i. 1 47.

Rastell’

s translation of the Dialoga s

creaturarum, 1. 5 27.

Rat , Quiche, tale of the, 11. 396.

Ratha, i. 345.

Rathakaras , the, 11. 99.

Rational knowledge of Grammar, i.

1 38.

Raumer, studies of, i . 70 .

Rava (ru) , 1. 40 7.RAvana, i. 4 16.

Ravenna, battle of, i. 4 1 8 .

Ravi, i. 408 .

i. 2 26

Rawlinson , Sir H 1. 1 09Rawlinson , founder of the Oxford

Chair ofAnglo-Saxon , 1. 1 20 .

Reading and writing, time taken in

learning, i. 263.

Realism, ii. 51 7.

Realists, ii. 516.

Records ofBuddhist students, 11. 330 .

Rectus, Zend, racta , i. 2 28 .

Red (Sk . harit, fulvus) , i. 66, 40 8 .

Red Indians, Red Skins, of North

America, ii. 373—375. 38 1 , 386.

576 INDEX.

Red Riding H ood, i. 564Redivia, reduo, reluvium , 11.

REgI-fugiam, not regis

-fugium, 1. 1 0 2 .

Begin, cunning, i. 54 .

Regin hart, fox , i. 54.

Reich , reiks, 1. 340 .

Reinaa 't, fox , Low German , 1. 55.

Reinaud, ii. 260 .

Reindeei° Clan, ii. 376.

Religion , Aryan, i. 7, 586.

coincidences between Jewish and

Christian, i. 587.Greek, i. 587.

All important sprung up in the

East, ii. 164 , 292 .

classification of, ii. 1 31 , 1 32 .

ofMexico, Peru, 1. 7.

Science of, i. 5, 1 2 , 14 .

Religigi

és, national or traditional, i.

5individual or statutable, 1. 586.

historical, Semitic, and A ryan, 11.

47as shown in their Scriptures, 11.

Missionary, 11. 94.

inferences as to, drawn from their

Scriptures qualified by actual

observation , ii. 90 .

all Oriental, ii. 13.

Religious dogmas, 11. 50 8 510 .

ideas , races W ithout, 11 26

Remus, i. 478 .

Remusat, Abel, ii . 260 . 265, 3 15,

477, (first Chinese scholarof his

time).Renan, Ernest, 11. 337—34 1 . 40 2-4 1 1 ,

4 2 1 , 31 , 432 ,on Kali ag and Damnag, i. 548.

Repere,=Zend rap , i. 2 28.

Reports sent to the ColonialOffice on

native races, ii. 25.

Resemblancebetween S anskrit,Greek

and Latin, SirW . Jones on the,ii. 8.

Resurrection, belief in . 11 . 1 55.

Revelation, idea of, ii. 1 26, 2 1 7, 434,

135°

al 5primev ii.

Rex,i 340 .

44

Rhea, i. 461 .Rhematic Period, i. 30 7.R hyme, 1i. 1 25.

Ri, i. 340.

Ribhu, i. 435,Ribhus, the Vedic gods,Rich, Rig, ii. 1 18Richard, i. 55.

Ridu-pa, i. 484 .

Right, Goth . raxht, i. 2 28 .

Rigisvan, ii. 142 .

Rig-veda, i. 1 , 3, 390 ; 11 1 09, 1 10 ,

1 13, 1 1 7,quoted 111 support ofwidow burn

ing. i 334-6

only real Veda. n. 1 1 7.

Veda of (I 19, 10 28) hymns, praise,11. 1 1 9, 439

contains to verses,1 53.826 words, syl

lables, ii. 1 19.

age of the, ii. 1 20-1 2 2 .

Sun m the, 1. 438-441 .

the C

gmmentary of sayanal.

‘

arya.

ii. 3Rik-(1rd, a rich fellow , i. 55.

Riksha,’

1.

Rimmon , i1 . 406, 425R iogh , i. 340

Rishi, ii. l z6, 144 n ., 1 57.

Ritschl,8

works on Lat1u , 1. 230 ,244.

34Rivermyths, i. 374.

Road, names for, i. 342 .

Robinson , SirH ercules , 11. 2 8 .

Rohita, i. 441 , 442 .

Rojas , Don Juan de, 11. 389.

Romad, Roma, 1 . 233Romai, Rome ,

Roma, Romm,

Roman religion in the second Cen

tury, Gibbon on the, ii. 10 2 .

Romance dialects , i. 316-320 .

nations, ii. 428 .

Romasa, i. 405.

Romulus , i. 476, 478.

Root Period, of the undivided Aryan

language, i. 87.

Root via, to settle down , i. 80 .

Boots , i. 60 2 .

Ala, i. 134.


078 INDEX .

Sansl

égt, Gerundive participle in, i.

theaugment in , i. 82 .

fables in,i. 50 1 , 555.

and Zend, close umon of, i. 1 88,190 .

most closely united with Zend(Burnouf), i. 191 .

Dictionary by TM natha, 11 . 20 .

scholars, old school of, ii. 20 .

discovery of, i. 1 2 1 .

Santa Cruz del Quiche, 11. 387,

40 1 .

Santo-Tomas Chichicastenango, 11.

387.San Vicente de Chiapas y Guate

mala, ii. 387.Sapta,

1. 354.

Sara, 1. 350 .

Sarama, Sflrameya, i. 347 n. , 494,

4961 567~Saranyfl, the dawn , 1. 46 1 , 492 ,

62 2 .

Sarfi'

, i. 343.

Sariputra, 1i. 20 2 , 346, 351 .

Sarkara, i. 563.

Sarpa, i. 343 ; 11. 296.

Sarvara, sarvarl (mght), sarvarika, i.

493.Sarvfistivada-vmaya, 11 . 327.

Serve, i. 483.

Sassetti, Filippo, i. 1 2 2 .

Sastras, ii. 330 .

Satam, i. 354.

Sathoual, ii. 375.

Satnamis , sect of the, 11 . 1 06.

identical, 11. 442 .

Saturnus, 11 . 449.

Satyasicédha-vyakaram castra, 11. 325,

32

Saunaka, 11. 1 23.

Sfivara (savara), i. 494.

Savitar (Savitri), i. 445, 446 11.

237.Saw , Sage, and Sage, i. 196.

Saxon , (Old) , i. 345.

SSyana-Akarya. ii. 14, 15.

Sayana’s Commentary, ii. 36.

Sayce, Principles of ComparativePhilology,

Scandinavian Edda,Schelling, i. 454.

Scherer’

s History of the German

Language, i. 68 n .

Scherzer, Dr., his copies ofXimenes’

works, ii. 388.

Schism in the BrahmasSamaj, 11. 67,78.

Schlegel, his knowledge of San skrit,1 . 1 23.

Schleicher, his Slavonic studies , i.

1 25.

Schliiter, Dr. C. B., 11 . 15 n.

Schmidt, J . J., 11. 173.

Schoolcraft, ii. 380 .

Schuld, schuldig, i. 366, 367.

Science of Language, a natural or

historical science, i. 199.

Benfey’

s history of the, 1i. 9.

ofMan, 1i. 6.

of Religion, 1. 5, 1 2 , 14, 19.

Scipionic inscriptions, i. 245.

Scythian names, Aryan characterm,

i. 2 1 5Sea, 351 .

Second period of Aryan language,derivative roots, 1. 92 .

Secretaryof State for India 111 Conn

a'

l, ii. 36.

Sedere, i. n .

Selene (mythe of, and

4672 468 111

424, 606.

Seleucus Nicator, 11. 1 23, 2 1 1 .

Self-government, ii. 489.

Self, subjective, absolute, 11 . 244.

245.

Selva, i. 330 .

Semitic character, 11. 404.

family, i. 34, 203 ; ii. 40 5, 406.

15 0 303 839 Ii 1 31 , 40 3 , 4 '71

427, 4352 441monotheism , ii. 407,

426, 433 9 433names , ii. 426.

religions, true historical, 11. 47.

Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibns,i. 240 .

Sendebar, orBidpay, i. 52 2 .

INDEX.

Sensualistic philosophy, i. 578.

Septem. 1 354Septuagint (chronology of the), 11.

1 20 , 180 n., 18 1 .

Septyni. 1 354»

Sergius, a Christian, atKhalifAlmansur

’

9 court, i. 532 .

Seresh , i. 443 n.

Serpens, serpent, i. 343 ;Serpent, i. 566.

320

stages of the undivided Aryanlanguage, 1. 86.

Seventh period of the Aryan lan

M 9 1 i ‘04Sem to i. 347Sex,

Shades of the departed, i. 598.

Shahar (dawn), iiShall, should, skal, skald, skuld,

skulda, 3011, i. 366, 367.Shamans, i. 1 7 ; ii. 1 1 1 , 236 n., 247,

285 n" 319, 33 1 1 33 3 1 3331 33423251 397

Shaflwfast, shamefaced, i. 55.

ShankurPandurang Pandit, ii. 20 .

Shash , i. 1 54.

Sheep,Shem, ii. 40 7, 424.

Shemite, ii. 427.Shet, ii. 425.

Shih, from Shih-kya, Sakya, ii.

320 n .

Shih-lcu Sutta, ii. 320 , 32 1 .

Shih-leh , the rebel, ii. 324.

Shinadialects, ii. 34.

Shindo, Kando, Tindo, 7 n.

Shingon. sect in Japan, ii. 342 .

Shinnyo, visits India, ii. 342 .

Shin-shin, sect ofBuddhists. 11. 339.

Shinto religion in Japan, ii. 339Ship , in ladyship , i. 39.

Shishac, same as.

Sakya, 11. 165, 2 10.Shi-ti-king

-lun, ii. 328.

Shito, i. 346.

Shradli, ancestral sacrifices , ii. 80 .

Shu, ii. 324.

Siam, ii. 131 , 1 76, 236.

translation of the Tripitaka in, ii1 79 n.

5 9

Sibac, ii . 395.

Sibun , i. 354.

Siddha, ii. 205.

Siddhartha, name of Buddha in his

childhood, ii. 195, 204.

Sieghert, i. 41 8.

Sifrit. i. 414, 4 15, 41 8.

Sigurd. i. 414, 4 16-41 8, 479 ; ii .

242.

Sikh religion, 11. 65.

Simple roots, first period of Aryan

language, i. 92 .

Sin, consciousness , forgiveness of, 11.

1 50 .

Sinaitic inscriptions.Singhalese, ii. 1 74,

corruption ofSanskrit, ii. 28 .

translation of the Mahavansa, ii.

1 75 n .

Singular and plural, words with dif

ferent meanings in, ii. 238.

Sister, svasar.qanbar. soror, avistar,sestra, siur,Weird-sisters, i. 320 ,

462 .

Sister-in-law,

'

1. 330 .

Sita , i. 416.

2 27 03,SwimSiur, ii. 320

Siu-to-lo (Sudra), 11. 262 .

Siv , siuv-u, siwu, i. 347.

S iva (Rud1-a), 31 2 , 38 1 .

worship of. ii. 10 1 .

Sixth period of the Aryan language,i. 104.

Si-yu-ki, ii. 274.

Skotos, the Erinyes daughters of, i.

375 n 463Skuld (Future) , 1. 366, 462 .

Slavonic, studied by Miklosich and

Schleicher, i. 1 25.

is most closely united with German (Grimm, Schleicher), i.

1 1 .

Smriti?tradition,Snocha,Snu , i. 60 2 .

Snfir, snusha, i.

.

330 .

Sobakka, i. 344Socer, soorus , i. 330

Société de Linguistique,P 2

580 INDEX .

Society, influence of, ii . 483, 484,

49I 493 °

Socin,Dr. Albert, i. 552 .

Sokrates. i. ii . 531 .

and Aeso’

s fables,861, i. 385, 3.

Solar (race), (heroes ) , (deity ) ,(myth). 1. 384.m 4 14.

Solium,

'

1. 498 n.

Soma (6

Homa), (praye8

r to) ,15 1 23 1 44 1 488 4 o

Son , i. 329 ;7ii. 496.

9

Son-in law , i. 330

Sono (I am), sum (sunt) , sunt, soy,son, suis (I am) , sum, i. 316,

31 7Soror, i. 320 .

2 10 7 671, voca tive, i. 2 2 2 .

Sounds, difficulty of exactly repre

senting in spelling, i. 287.

South-Turanian class , i. 72 .

Southern division of the Aryans, i.

1 88 .

Sow, 80, 69, sus, eu, svinia, suig, i.

344Spa, and/ta , i. 344 .

Spanish translation of Calila and

Dimm h i 5251 556 559

Species and genus , ii . 5 1 2-516.

Speir, Mrs ., 11. 2 57.

Spelling in English, i. 252 , 253, 259,260 .

freedom in,i. 259

corrupt and efl'

ete, i. 261 .

reform ofold, i. 254, 258.

slow changes in , i. 258

influenced by printing, i. 259.

a national misfortune, i. 262 .

failures in, 1. 264.

actual mischief of present, i.

264.

Jones’ system of, i. 270 .

committee in Germany, i. 2 70 .

historical, often misleading, i.

2 77.altered to make a word etymolo

gical, i. 277, 278 .

historicaland etymological, i. 279,280 ,

281 .

S pencer’

s First Principles ,Spencerian Savages , ii. 26.

Spider (umanabha, dpdm , aranea) ,i. 347

Spiegel, ii. 142 n.

Spiritus lenis , i. 393 n.

Spiro, i. 594.

Sraddha, 11. 1 51 .

Sramana, ii. 194, 2 36 n., 262 (Clinmen) .

192 .

Sravas (xk tos, cluo), ii . 262 .

Sravastl, ii. 1 93, (capital ofKosala) , ii.

Srfiv-ayamas, we make hear, i. 195.

8 111 ii 449Sromata, from root am , i. 195.

Srotriya (Sranti) , Sri, ii. 449 .

Sruti, Revelation , ii. 1 26.

Ste. Barlaam and Josaphat, i. 543,544 n .

their feast-days in the Eas tern

and Latin Churches, i. 543.

St. Augustine, i. 4, 2 2 .

Cyprian , i. 2 2 .

Hilaire, Barthelemy (Le Bouddhaet sa Religion ) , ii. 162 , 1 66, 167,1 86, 187. 189

-19 1 , 194, 2 03,

Martin , M . L . Vivien de, 11. 2oon2 74.

John ofDamascus, i. 532 .

Josaphat is Buddha, i. 545.

Thomas, Christians of, i. 551 .

Varlaam, 1. 544 n .

Stahl, i. 594 n .

Stairo, staiti, ora pa (sterilis) ,Stan-gyour, 11 .

Stare, i. 366.

Steer, sthfira, staora, rafipos, taurus.stiur, taura-s, tour, tor, i. 344.

Stephanitesandlchnelates , i . 5 20 ,556.

Itahan translation of, i. 52 1 .

Latin translation of, i . 52 1 .

Stevenson,S tlid, to reveal by gestures, i. 1 59.

S tokes , Whitley, ii. 30 .

Swim s-Zend ctamau, i. 2 28.

Storm gods, invocations of the, 11. 38.

Storms (Maruts) , ii. 1 36, 1 43.

Strangford, Lord, i. 1 09.

Strassburg, Lecture at, 1. 1 76.


582 INDEX.

Synonymes, synonomy, i. 376, 377.

Syriac translation of the fables , dis

covered by Bentsy, i. 51 8 n .,

5481 555‘

text, and German translation byBickell, i. 555, 556.

Syrinx, i. 468.

Szeszi, i. 354.

Szimtas, 1. 354.

Szu, i. 344.

T , final in il aime-t, i. 236.

T, changed into Latin d, 1. 1 53.

Tanroe, chief deity of Tahiti , 11. 4551

4561

Tacitus , ii . 1 8.

Tad, tod, atid, imperatives in, i. 246.

Tad , final dental of, i. 1 52 .

Tad-iya, i. 1 53.

Tad-van, i. 1 53.

Tagore, Debendranéth , ii . 67, 104 .

Tagr, i. 498 n .

Tahitian tradition of creation ,11. 455.

Taibun , taibun taihund, 1. 354 .

Tak , i. 32 2 .

Takht-i-bahai hills , the, 11. 34 .

Takshan , i. 341 .

Tala or Dala, a host, i. 39 n .

Talaing of Pegu , and the Munda dia

lects, ii. 33.

TaAdw, rafiva i = talio, Graeco-Italic,according ,

to Mommsen , i. 192 .

Talio, Grmco-Italic, i. 192 .

Tamil (conquerors ofCeylon), ii. 1 76Tamulian people, i. 484 .

translation of the Pafikatantra, i.

503.

Tan from tans i. 237.Tanjur (Bstan 1 hgyur, Tan

-gyur), ii .

1 71 .

its divisions, ii. 1 72 .

Tantra, ii. 236 n.

Tao-an , ii. 324.

Taoist, ii. 160 .

Tao-te-King, ii. 160 , 476, 477.Tar, tra, tram, tras , trak, trap , i. 91 .

derivative sufi x, i. 32 2 .

Tara and repo, i. 1 89.

T8ranatha’

s Sanskrit Dictionary, ii .

20 .

p acoa,mpa

'

wcew , i. 350 .

Tasmania, Aborigines of, i. 60 1 .

Tat, Sanskrit, i. 1 52 .

Tatar-Khan, ii. 269.

Tathagata, ii. 78.

Tathagatas, ii. 357-361 .

of the ten quarters , i i . 360 n .

Tauler, ii. 28 1 , 306.

Taurus, raiipos, i. 344, sec steer.

Ta-yeh period, ii. 329.

Tcha-li (Kshattriya) , 11. 262 .

Tecum, ii. 389.

Telugu translation of the Pafika

tantra, i. 503.

Tener

zkauxiliary verb in Sp anish , i.

3f erm ion, i. 60 n .

Teo Amoxtli, sacred book of the

Toltecs , ii. 390 .

Tepepul, ii. 389.

Terah , descendants of, ii. 406 , 430 .

Teraphim , ii. 430 .

Terminations of the future, i. 60 .

of cases , were local adverbs , 1. 62.

of the medium, i. 95.

Tesoro de las Lenguas Quiche. Cakchiqual y Tzutohil, ii. 387.

Testéra, ii. 380 .

Th an/ca and 'ré‘rxap ev,

Te’

rrapes, i. 354.

Tetzcuco, royal family of, ii . 385.

Teutonic languages , Jacob Grimm’

s

study of, i. 1 25.

gods, ii. 131 .

mythology, i. 5 ii . 242 .

Thai-khang period, ii. 323.

Thai-shi period, ii. 323Tliai-wu , ii. 327.

6611110 0 11 ,Thales, i. 588.

Thanatos,Thang, dynasty of, ii . 323, 343.

edpaaaa , i. 350 .

Thaa, from tva-tvi, i. 94.

Theta , Gothic, 1. 152 .

The“?Tales of T. and Argos

59 6611

21. 459.

Theism, Henotheism, ii . 41 2 .

Themanites, ii. 438.

INDEX.

0 61419, law, i. 2 27.

Th eodoric the Great, i. 41 8, 4 19.

T heodorus, i1. 437.

Theodotus, ii. 437.T heogony, i. 371 , 38 1 , 388, 496.

of Hesiod, i. 371 .

the Veda is the T. of the Aryan

races, i. 38 1 .

T heology, comparative, first attemptat, i. 535.

0 663 (9600, etymology of, i. 459 ; 11.

same as Deus, i. 185, 2 15.

from 060) (Plato and Schleicher),i. 2 1 8.

from dhava i. 2 1 8.

from dhi (Biihler) , i. 2 1 8.

from 045: (Herodotus andGoebel) ,i. 2 1 8.

from divya (Ascoli) , i. 2 1 8.

from 053 (Curtius), i. 2 19.

Thessaly, genitives in dialect of, i.

2 35.

G eo-for, i. e. ”mam as, i. 2 19.

Thetis , i. 385.

Theudas and Devadatta, i. 54 ‘

Theuth , i. 375.

Thibaut, Dr. , 11. 1 5.

Third period of the .u yan language,1. 92 .

Thlinkith1ans, 11. 398, 399.

Thoth , ii. n o.

Thought and language inseparable,i. 591 , 592 .

not the same thing, 1. 593.

Thrafanh , i. 2 27.

Three Baskets, the, i. 5, 7 ; 11. 133,160 , 1 76, 284, 300 .

Three kingdoms , tune of the, 11 . 32 2 .

Threis, i. 354.

Ctr/(imp, i. 320 , 380 .

in Persian dockter, 11. 8 .

Gwarfpa u duhitfi'

, duhltaram, i.2 2 2 .

l-duhitfi, i. 2 1 7.Thugs, ii. 2 77.9

6

110 , i. 341 .

= dv8r, i. 2 1 7.

Thuringia, i. 4 18.

Thursday, ii. 466.Thusund1, i. 354.

583

Tibet, Buddhism in, 11. 257.Lama of, ii. 168.

languages of, ii. 131 .

Buddhist literature of, 11. 1 70 .

Tibetan translation of the Buddhist

Canon, ii. 1 71 , 191 , 258.

translation oftheSukhavativyfiha,ii. 346.

and Chinese, 1. 72 .

tones in , i. 73.

T1en-ku, India, i1. 319, 320 .

Timrjan,Tlrthaka, ii. 284 n.

Tirtha, t1rthak84ka, 11 .

TcOévac, 1. 143, 459.

Tithonos (the setting sun), i. 389,

390 , ii. 306, 423.

Tiu, i . 61

To-comc6, Low German adjective, i.

14Taiwan Jakr, dc, a to-come year, i.

146.

Toltec, Teo-Amoxtli, sacred book of

the, ii. 390 .

Tones in T1betan , i. 73.

Tongue, various ways of spelling, i

260 n .

various positions of the, i. 294,295.

Totem,

6crest ofan Indian warrior, 11.

37Trahere (traire) , i. 324.

Traité de l’

Origine dcs Romans,Huet, i. 51 3.

Traivamika, i. 489.

Transmigration and metempsychosis,ii. 1 54, 1 87.

Trayas, i. 354.

Trench , Archbishop , on phonetic

writing, i. 283, 285, 287, 2 96—thrfifa«nh , i. 2 27.Tres ,

‘rpecs, i. 354.

Tri, tru, trup, trib, i. 91 .

p éraw i 497.Trinity, the, ii. 477.Tripitaka (the Three Baskets), i. 5,

7 ; 11. 133, 160 , 1 76, 284,00 .

T1110 paras, i. 497.Trojan horse, the story of, i. 51 2 .

war, i. 390 .

584 INDEX.

Troy, i. 476.

Truhana, Dona, in the Conde Luca

nor, i. 530 .

Truthfulness, Niebuhr on, i. 20 2 .

Trys,i. 354.

Tsai-m,11. 257, 319.

T31‘

(Bohemlan), for daughter, i. 77.

Tsin dynasty, ii. 323, 324, 325, 326n .,

327, 364 n .

Tsing-tu, Pure Land, 11. 364 n.

Tsii-khu family, ii. 326.

Tu , tave, tavai, toh , tum, i. 166.

Tuisasta, i. 354.

Tukstantis , i. 354.

Tum,infimtive

,lts meaning, i. 1 58.

Tun (town), zaun , i. 327.

Turanian languages, i. 30 7 ; 11. 131 .

combinatory, i. 44.

religion,ii. 1 31 .

Turkic, Turlgsh , ii. 131 .

Turkistan, ii. 275.

Tu mour, ii. 1 73- 1 75, 1 82 .

TfirvayAna, ii. 242 .

Tfisimtons, i. 354 .

Tvai, tvaitigjus , tva-lif, i. 354 .

Twins, 720 , of the Veda, i. 474 n .

Tylor, theology of the Iud1ens of

Nicaragua, i. 595.

Typhaon. i 495. 496

Typhon , i. 300 .

Tyr, Dyaus, 2 515

s, Jupiter, Z io, i.185.

Tzité tree, 11 . 395.

Tzutohil language, 11. 387.

U and 0 mixed, i. 246.

Udasvit-vdn , i. 1 53.

Uh, i. 135.

071, Sanskrit root, i. 136.

Ukhshan , ukshan , i. 344.

Ulphilas, ii. 1 30 .

and Athanasius , 11 69Ulysses, Ulyxes, i. 498 n.

Umbrian Grammar, 11. 26.

Unc, O . H . G ., i. 343.

Uniformity, ii 490 , 491 , 519, 530 .

Unity ofGod, 11. 404, 432 .

Universal language, 1. 31 .

Universe,gmanatmn from Brahman ,

ii. 2 1

Universities , English , 11. 485-483,

or1ental chairs in , 11. 2 2 .

German, ii. 486—488, 5 1 9, 52 1 ,

528.

their intention , 11. 519, 530 , 53 1 .

Unknown God in Greece, li. 24 2 .

Unus, undecim, i 354 .

Upali, compiler of the Vinaya of the

Tripitaka, ii. 284.

Up anayana, spir1tual apprenticing,h . 80 .

Upanishad, 11 . 245.

Upanishads, the, ii. 106.

Upham, Ed., ii. 1 74Ura, ura-bhra (laniger) , urfimathi

(wolf) urana (ram) , uranl

(sheep), urfina (protector) ; weuma, i. 485

—48 7, 491 .

Ural-A ltaic fam1ly, 1. 34.Uranos (Varuna) , i. 3 1 1 , 32 1 , 370 ,

371 ; ii. 42 1 , 426.

Uraon Koles , ii. 33.

0m. (wool) , umanabha, urns-nahbi,fim a-vfibhi (spider) , fimfiyu

(goat, spider) , i. 347, 485—487.Uro, i. 347 n.

Ursus, i. 343.

Uru uraki, i. 405.

Uruv1lva, i1. 200 .

Urva, urvi, urv1ya, i. 377, 40 5.

Urvasl, i. 405-4 1 2, 42 1

—4 29 , 433

435 ; ii 437Ush , ushna, usra, i. 447 n.

Usha, i. 446.

Ushapati, i. 446.

Ushas (dawn), 11. 1 36, 1 45, 237 ;Ushasa (Aurora) , 1. 406, 40 7,

492 ; ii 42 1 .

Uta (hell), .1. 1 5: n.

VAETI, Zend, willow , i. 2 28.

Vagra-sfitra, ii. 367.

Va1pulya Sfitras, 11 . 362 n .

Vaisall, ii. 200 , 203.

Vanya (householder) , caste of

339same as arya, 1. 2 10 .

Va1vasvata, ii.

Vaksh , ii. 496.


586 INDEX.

Vidvfin , vidushl, i. 443. Vulla, i. 486.

Vidyut-vdn , i. 153. Vurdh , i. 366, 462 .

Vieh , i. 325.

Vienne, Council of, 131 1 , i. 1 18.Viso, 1. 347.Viginti, i . 354Vigfifina

-Bhdtshu, 11 .

Villosus, villus"

, 1.

Vimala-klrtti, li. 323, 324 , 326.

Vinaya (first basket of the Tripitaka),compiled by Upali, i1. 1 77, 284,

335, 337,Vindh , i . 333 n.

Vimati,Virgili, Valeri,Via, vaisya, i. 339.

root, to settle down , i. 80 .

Visa-s, oTxo-s, vicu-s, 1. 80 .

Vishnu, i. 1 1 , 4 24 ; ii. 237.worship of, 1i. 10 1 .

Vispaiti, vispati, vispatnl, i. 339.

Visuddhimagga, ii. 180 n.

Visvfimitra, ii. 94.

Vitality ofBrahmanism, 11. 87.Vitaprishtha, i. 439.

V1tis ,-=Zend vaet1, i. 2 28.

Vitulus,Vocabulary, Chinese, Sanskrit, Japa

nese, ii. 367.Vocative of Zeus has the circumflex,

i. 1 86.

ofDyaus and Zak , i. 2 20 .

Vossius, DeOngine et Progressu Idolatriae, ii. 443.

Vowels 111 English , i. 288 .

philological conception of, i. 292 .

disappearing,written alike, but histon cally dis

tinct, i. 293.

why long or short, i. 1 48.

Voysey, Rev. C., 1i. 95.

Vn’

ka, 1. 343.

Vn‘

kta , i. 2 50 .

Vrish , i. 393.

Vrishan , i. 406 n.

Vrit, i. 366.

Vritra, 1 . 400 , 49 1 , 492 , 495, 496,

499 ; 11. 1 40 n .

Vudanandi, 11. 328.

Vulcanus , i1 4 20 .

‘

Vnlf, i. 343 .

WABOJEEG Adjetatig of, war

chief,ii. 376,

Wales , Nlh llism 111, 11 . 306.

Wallis, Professor ofArabic, i. 1 20 .

War-ru-gu-ra (evil spirit), 11 . 1 5 1 11.

Wet, A. S . ii. 1 16 11.Water, eight good qualities of

,11.

353Wax, 1i. 496.

Weave, to, i. 347.Wednesday,Weeks and week-days, system of, 11.

461 4631 465°

Wei, kingdom of, ii. 32 2 .

Wei-ma, ii. 323Wei-Northern dynasty, 343.

Weird sisters, i. 462 .

Wei-shang,Weiss, ich, I know,

’

1. 149.

Wei-tao-an, 1i. 324.

Wei-yuan , li. 324 .

Welcker, i. 455-459.

’

Werden, i. 366.

Wesleyan miss1onary, 11 . 1 75, 208 .

WestminsterLecture, ii. 46.

Wheat. i. 346.

Whence and where cases, i. 234.

White horse monastery in China, 11.319.

White YagurVeda, 11. 20 .

Wich,i. 339.

Widow burning, on, (Wilson , Grimm,

Roth , Bushby), i. 332-337

94the Rig-Veda does not enforcethe burning of, i. 335.

Wienas, wieno-lika, i. 354 .

Wiesz-patis (lord), wiesz-patene

(M Y). 1 339Wilford’s researches in Sanskrit, ii.

451 1 453deceived by the Pandits ,

Wilhelm, De infinitivo, 71 .

Wilka-s,i. 343.

Bishop, his philosophicallanguage, 1. 30 .

Wilson, H . H. i. 4 2 1 n . 1 16,1 40 n., l43n ., 204, 2 1 4.

INDEX.

Wind, Pan , pavana, i. 468.

Wir wisscn, we know,1. 149.

W 1t, to , i1. 496.

W 1z , i. 346.

Wodan , 11. 132, 165, 2 10 .

not Buddha. i. 563.

day of, ii 465.

Wodenism and Buddhism,11. 459.

Wolf, i. 343 (the destroying)1 57.

Wordsworth , i. 361 , 41 2 .

Worlds of Buddha, ii. 296.

Writing, merely accidental,i. 36.

Wu, city of, ii . 32 2 .

W0 , emperor, 11. 328, 329.

dynasty, ii° 343'

Wuotan , i. 391 11. 466, 467.

Wutsung’

s persecution oi Buddhism,

1i. 3 7.

Wyhe, bgoks brought from Japan, 11.367. 368

XBALANQUE,11 . 396.

Xenophanes, i. 58 2 , 585, 588 11.

428.

Xenophon, i. 1 31 .

Xerxes, religion of, 11. 57.

Xibalba, ii. 396.

Ximenes, Father Francisco, 11. 387,

388, 396 (Tesoro de las LenguasQuiche, Cakchiquel y Tzutohil),ii. 387.

YAGUR-VEDA, 11. 1 16, 1 1 7 (tobe muttered), i. 408 .

Yagurveda-sanhita, ii. 1 16, 1 24.

Yams (Yima). i 404, 494 ; ii. 147,240 , 428.

Yang-ken, ii. 324.

Yao-hsing, ii. 324, 325.Yao-lchang, i1. 324, 326 n.

Yfionh , Zend, girdle, i 2 28.

Yaos, the, ii. 324 n .

Yere, Zend, Goth . jer, i. 2 2 7.Yarkand, ii. 275.

Yaaa, son of Sujata, 11. 76.

Yasha1ta, ii. 328.

Yateras, i. 330 .

Yava, i. 346.

587

Yaxartes , 11. 269.

Year, Z end, yfire, i. 2 27.

Yeh,1. 344 .

Yéh , city of, 11 . 323.

Yellow (gilvus , flavus) . i. 66.

Yemen , 11. 406.

Yen-thsong, 1i. 234 n .

Ying, patron of Buddhism, 11 . 32 1 .

Yogzn , i1. 162 , 2 16.

Yom,1. 336 n., 337.

Youdasf, Youasaf, and Bodhisattva,

Yu , yudh , yug, yaut. i. 91 .

Yuan-hai period, ii. 325.

Yudh , to fight, i. 89.

Yueh-ki, ii. 318.

Yiien-khang, 1i. 323.

Yung-ping period, 11. 328.Yupanqui, i. 4 20 n.

ZABD (present), 11. 41 8.

Z abd-allah , ii. 4 19 .

Zardan, friend of Barlaam , i. 541 .Z asi-s,Zaun (tun, town), i. 327.Ze

'

a ,

Zeitwort, i. 139Zfiv , to live, i. 460 .

Zfiv (zen), Zfis, (see Zeta) , i. 459.

Z ena, i. 340 .

Zend, i. 31 7, 31 8, 320 , 344, 354,

479and Sanskrit, close union of, i.

1 88.

Aryan words in , not in Sanskrit,i. 2 25.

Pain daeza, i. 1 30 .

Z end-Avesta , i. 5, 7, 339, 499 11.

Zenodotus,Z erno, zernov , i. 346.

Zero 289.

Zeus (Zeus), 313. 314 , 376,

378 386 394 , 406 11 ,

319.

447rl . 456 -58°i1. 132 , 1 34, 243, 4 18

42 1 431 472Zeus Kron lon , 1. 605.

Zevs = Dyaus , 1. 2 15 .

2 113, Jupiter, Dyaus, Zio,Tyr, i. 1 85.

588 INDEX.

Zets, vocative of, has the circumflex ,

i. 1 86.

Zeuss , his Grammatica Celtics , i.

1 25.

Z ikaku,Japanese priest,

Z ingu, Empress of Japan, ii. 340 .

Z io, Dyaus , Zeus, Jupiter, Tyr, i.1 85.

Z idnico, ii. 347.Z lato, zoloto, i. 348.Zohak, i. 479.

Z obeyr, Moallaka of,Zdrw vm, Zend, yacub, i. 2 28 .

Zoroaster (see Zarathustra and Z er

dasht, Z urthosht) , 11. 1 33, 134,2 10 , 440 , 472 .

relig1on of, 11. 57.

Zoroastrians , ancestors of the, i.

354'

their sacred writings , i. 251 65.

theirwish to augment their sect,ii. 96.

Z ukunft , he future, i. 146.

Zulu , i. 1 4.

language, words in, i.91 n. ;

ii. 29.

Zyfio, Zend, frost, i. 2 27.


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