Sramana are two epithets of Sakyamuni, as explained before.

The ancient religious works apply to Sakyamuni's followers the title of Sravakas "hearers," a name also having reference to their spiritual perfection. The Buddhists of this period seem to have called themselves Sramanas, "those who restrain their thoughts, the purely acting," in allusion to their moral virtues as well as their general conduct.'

confession, for which see Chapter XI.-In the translation of this sentence I have followed Hodgson; see his "Illustrations," p. 158. Other translations of various readings have been published by Prinsep, Csoma, Mill, and recently compared by Colonel Sykes. See his "Miniature Chaityas and inscriptions of the Buddhist religious dogma," in R. As. Soc., Vol. XVI., p. 37. The Sanskrit text written with Tibetan characters, and the Tibetan version is given in Plate I.

Wassiljew, "Der Buddhismus,” p. 69.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HINAYANA SYSTEM.

CONTROVERSIES ABOUT SAKYAMUNI'S LAWS.-THE HINAYANA DOCTRINES. The twelve Nidānas; character of the precepts; incitation to abstract meditation; gradations of perfection.

AT the time of Sakyamuni's death the inhabitants of India were not yet so advanced in civilisation as to have a literature, and the claims of the Buddhist to scriptural documents of his law written down during his life (as the Nepalese believe), or immediately after his death (which is the opinion of the Chinese), are decidedly groundless. New researches have made it very probable that the alphabets in which the earliest historical records we know, the inscriptions of king Asoka (about 250 B.C.), are written, were imitated from the Phoenician alphabet, communicated to the Indians by merchants of that nation as early perhaps as the fifth century B.C., at which period already Greek letters became known in the ancient districts of Gandhara and Sindhu, the countries at the foot of the

Himalaya drained by the Indus.' We are now able to assert that the words and doctrines attributed to Sākyamuni were transmitted orally down to the first century before the Christian era. The scriptural record was undertaken by the southern and the northern Buddhists independently of each other. In Ceylon the priests wrote them down during the reign of king Vartagamani, 88-76 B.C.; their northern brethern brought them into a written form at an assembly of the priests, or synod, arranged by the Turuschka king Kanishka, 10-40 A.D. The Singhalese chose the vernacular language, from which the books were translated into the sacred Pali dialect at the beginning of the fifth century A.D.; the northern branch used the Sanskrit. Up to this periods, the religion had been preserved orally, and although, according to Buddhist history, Sakyamuni's words were brought into a welldefined and precise form already in the year of his death, yet it is very doubtful whether the natural changes to which oral tradition is subject allowed his original law to remain unaltered. Moreover, we have a positive proof that arbitrary alterations and additions have been purposely made, especially with reference to the historical details given in the earlier compilations.

2

1 A. Weber, Zschr. d. d. Morgenl. Ges., Vol. X., p. 396. Westergaard, "Ueber den ältesten Zeitraum der Indischen Geschichte," pp. 35. seq. 80. Wassiljew, "Der Buddhismus," p. 30, is, however, of opinion that Buddhist missionaries had become acquainted with Greek letters in the third century B.C. in Bactria, and induced Asoka to model after them the alphabets used in his inscriptions.

* Turnour, "Mahāvanso,” p. 207. Lassen, "Indische Alt.,” Vol. II., pp. 435, 490. Westergaard, 1. c., p. 41.

Such changes soon became numerous and assumed an importance not properly belonging to them, owing to the claim set forth by each new sect, that its peculiar dogmas had been revealed by Sakyamuni. The orthodoxy of each new and dogmatic school is maintained on the supposition, that the word of the Buddha is to be taken in a double sense, as he had often been compelled, in consideration of the mental capabilities of his hearers to give explanations about certain subjects quite at variance with his real opinion, and the new sects do not base their existence upon the rejection of previous works as spurious, but claim to have discovered the true meaning.1

During the first century after Sakyamuni's death there was no controversy about his laws, but after this period a numerous fraternity of monks (12,000 it is said) asserted the validity of ten indulgences. Their doctrine was rejected by the assembled priests at the synod of Vaisāli, a place north of Pátna (Pataliputra), on the eastern bank of the Gándak river, and as they would not submit to the judgment, the first schism took place. At this new

1 Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 219; Wassiljew, "Der Buddhismus," pp. 7, 329.

2 See Turnour, Pāli Buddhistical Annals. Journ. As. Soc. Beng. Vol. VI., p. 729. It was at this synod that the following dogma was propounded: "That can only pass as the true doctrine of the Buddha which is not in contradiction to sound reason". The formation of various schools was the immediate consequence of the acceptance of such a doctrine, and these schools, in their frequent attacks on each other, essayed to prove the correctness of their dogmas in solemn disputation before a great assembly of priests and laymen. In the earlier stage of Buddhism, only the leaders of the antagonistic schools were allowed to engage in disputation, and the vanquished controversialist was compelled either to put an end to his existence, to become the slave of his more successful opponent, to adopt the other's creed, or, if in possession of wealth,

stage of Buddhism, in which the fundamental dogmas of Sakyamuni began to be interpreted from various points of view, the ancient sects are called the Hinayana system.1 The name means "little vehicle," and has originated with the later Buddhists. The epithet "little" was given because the adherents of this system restrict themselves to morality and to external observance only, without making use of such an abstruse, refined, and highly mystical theology, as did, at a later period, the Mahāyāna schools, or those of the "great vehicle." Yana, vehicle, is a mystical expression, indicating, that man may escape the troubles attendant upon birth and death by practising the virtues inculcated by the Buddhas, and finally attain salvation.

The following details may be quoted as particularly characteristic of the Hinayana system."

I. It distinguishes itself from the Sravakas in the mode of explaining the principle of Buddhism: that the world must be abandoned because it entails upon man existence, pain and death. The source of existence is no longer demonstrated from the four truths only, but

to relinquish the same in favour of the victor. But in later periods entire monasteries took part in such disputations, and the establishments of the defeated party were destroyed-a circumstance which propably explains in many instances the radical disappearance of monasteries in India. Wassiljew, "Der Buddhismus," p. 72. Further particulars about the ancient schools may be found in the work of Vasumitra, a translation of which is added as an appendix to Wassiljew's work, pp. 244-84.-About the geographical position of Pataliputra and Vaisali, see Foe koue ki, English translation, p. 259, where an interesting note is added to the French original; compare also Burnouf, "Introduction," p. 86.

1 See Foe koue ki, p. 9. Köppen, "Die Religion des Buddha." Vol. I., p. 417.

2 Concerning its dogmas see Wassiljew, pp. 97-128, 149.