CHAPTER I.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF SAKYAMUNI, THE FOUNDER OF BUDDHISM.

ORIGIN. THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN HIS LIFE. HIS ATTAINMENT OF THE PERFECTION OF A BUDDHA. PERIOD OF HIS EXISLENce.

ALTHOUGH the numerous legends respecting the life and works of Sakyamuni, the reputed founder of the Buddhist faith, contain much that is fabulous, yet most of the incidents mentioned therein, when deprived of the marvellous garb with which early historians invariably used to embellish their tales, seem to be based on matters of fact. At present scientific researches have put Sākyamuni's real existence beyond a doubt;' but the period in which he lived will ever remain somewhat vaguely defined.

See for details the biographies published by Csoma de Körös, "Notices of the life of Shakya," in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. XX., pp. 285-318; Hardy, "Manual of Buddhism," pp. 138-359; Schiefner, "Eine tibetanische Lebensbeschreibung Sakyamuni's," in the "Mémoires des Savants étrangers,” Vol. VI., pp. 231-332. For Tibetan and Singhalese traditions about the Sākya race, see Foe koue ki, English translation, Calcutta, 1848, p. 203.

Sakyamuni was born at Kapilavastu in Gorakhpúr. The legends tell us that his us that his father, the king Suddhodana (in Tibetan Zastang), requested one hundred and eight learned Brahmans to inform him of his son's destiny; the Brahmans, the legends say, after a careful examination of the prince's body, expressed their conviction that, "if he remained a layman during his lifetime, he would become a powerful monarch of vast territories; but in the event of his turning recluse, he would enter the state of a supreme Buddha or wise man: and in solemn assembly they declared that this prince would hereafter prove a blessing to the world, and that he himself would also enjoy great prosperity." It was in consequence of this answer, that the prince received the name of Siddhartha, "the establisher."1

Siddhartha proved to be endowed with extraordinary faculties, and the legends even go so far as to assert that, when he was about to be taught his letters, he could already distinguish them, and his eminent qualities were manifest, not only in his mental, but also in bodily perfection. It is added as particularly characteristic that already in his youth he was inclined to retirement and

1 In the sacred legends he is generally characterised by other names. Those of Sakyamuni-in Tibetan Shakya Thub-pa, "Sakya, the mighty"Gautama, or Sramana Gautama, "the ascetic of the Gautamas,” refer alike to his family and career. The names of Bhagavat, "the fortunate," Sugata, "the welcome," Buddha, "the wise," designate his supreme perfection. A name which is very frequently given to the Buddhas in sacred books is Tathāgata, in Tibetan Dezhin, or Dezhin shegpa, "he who has gone in the manner of his predecessors." See Abel Rémusat, "Note sur quelques épithètes descriptives de Bouddha." Journ. des Savans, 1817, p. 702. Burnouf "Introduction," p. 70 et seq. Barthélemy St. Hilaire, "Le Bouddha et sa Religion", p. 75.

LIFE OF SĀKYAMUNI.

5

solitude: he abandoned his gay, playful comrades and buried himself in the dark recesses of dense forests, where he gave himself up to profound meditation. Suddhodana, the father, however, wished his son to become rather a powerful monarch, than a lonely ascetic. When, therefore, after a renewed consultation with the Brahmans, he learned that Siddhartha would certainly leave his magnificent palace and become an ascetic, in the event of his seeing four things, viz. decrepitude, sickness, a dead body, and a recluse, he placed guards on all sides of the palace, in order that these dreaded objects might not come near his beloved son. Moreover, in order to weaken his love of solitude and meditation, he married him to Gopa (in Tibetan Sa Tsoma), the daughter of Dandapani, of the race of the Sakyas, and gave orders that he should be provided with every kind of pleasure. But all these precautions proved futile. Siddhartha, though living in the midst of festivities and in the enjoyment of all wordly pleasures, never ceased to reflect upon the pains which arise from birth, sickness, decay, and death; upon their causes, and upon the remedies to be used against them. He found that existence is the real cause of these pains, that desire produces existence, and that the extinction of desire causes cessation of existence. then determined as he had already done a hundred times before to lead human beings to salvation by teaching them the practice of virtues and by detaching them from the service of the world. Although he had hitherto often hesitated, his resolution to renounce the world and to become an ascetic was finally put into

He

execution, when he happened, on his walk to a garden in the vicinity of the palace, to meet at four different periods an old man, a leper, a dead body, and a man in a religious garb. He had attained the age of twentynine years, when he left his palace, his wife, and the infant son to whom she is said to have given birth at the very moment of her husband's meeting with the recluse. 1

1

Siddhartha began his ascetic life by assiduously studying the doctrines of the Brahmans and by becoming the disciple of the most learned of them. Being, however, dissatisfied with their theories and practices, which, he declared, did not offer the true means of salvation, he left them altogether, and gave himself up during the next six years to earnest meditation and the exercise of great austerities; the latter, however, he soon renounced, perceiving from his own experience, that the mortifications practised by the Brahmans were not of a nature to lead to the attainment of perfection. The six years past, he proceeded to the holy spot Bōdhimanda, where the Bodhisattvas become Buddhas; and it was here, that, having seated himself upon a couch of grass of the kusa species, he arrived at supreme perfection, which became manifest by his remembering the exact circumstances of all human beings that had ever existed; by his obtain

It is more probable, says Wassiljew, in his "Buddhismus," p. 12, that Sakyamuni was led to view existence as the cause of pain and sorrow in consequence of a war in which the Sakya tribe was defeated, and which obliged him to wander about, rather than by his seeing the four dreaded objects mentioned; for there is a legend which says that the Sakya race was almost entirely exterminated during the life of the Buddha.