Art. VIII.—The Early Faith of Aṣoka

E. Thomas

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00167747

Art. VIII.—The Early Faith of Aṣoka

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

E. Thomas

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In most of the modern discussions on the ancient religions of India, the point at issue has been confined to the relative claims to priority of Buddhism and Brahmanism, a limitation which has led to a comparative ignoring of the existence of the.exceptionally archaic creed of the Jainas.

This third competitor for the honours of precedence has lately been restored to a very prominent position, in its archæological status, by the discovery of numerous specimens of the sculptures and inscriptions of its votaries on the sacred site of Mathurá, the Μόδουρα τν Θεν of the Greeks, that admit of no controversy, either as to the normal date or the typical import of the exhumed remains.

Type: Original Communication
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , July 1877 , pp. 155 - 234

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00167747 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1877

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References

^{page 155 note 1} Ptolemy, Μέθορα, Arrian (quoting Megasthenes), Indica viii. Methora, Pliny, , vi. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 155 note 2} Buchanan, P., Mysore, iii. 81Google Scholar, “Uttara Madura, on the Jumna.”

^{page 155 note 3} The modern version of the name of the city on the Jumna is Mathurá. Babu Bajendralála has pointed out that the old Sanskrit form was Madhurá (J.A.S. Bengal, 1874, p. 259), but both transcriptions seem to have missed the true derivative meaning of Maṭha (hodie ), “a monastery, a convent or college, a temple,” etc., from the root “to dwell,” as a hermit might abide in his cave. The southern revenue terms have preserved many of the subordinate forms, in the shape of taxes for “Maṭhs.” Rajputána and the N.W. Provinces exhibit extant examples in abundance of the still conventional term, while the distant Himálayas retain the word in Joshi-Math, Bhairava-Math, etc. The Vishnu Puráṇa pretends to derive the name from Madhu, a local demon (i. 164), while the later votaries of Kṛishna associate it with the Gopi's “churn” math.—Growse, , Mathurá, Settlement Report, 1874, vol. i. p. 50.Google Scholar

^{page 156 note 1} “The period of the predominance of the Jainas (a predominance in intellect and learning—rarely a predominance in political power) was the Augustan age of Tamil literature, the period when the Madura College, a celebrated literary association, appears to have flourished, and when the Kural, the Chintámaṇi, and the classical vocabularies and grammars were written.”—Caldwell, , p. 86.Google Scholar See also p. 122. “The Jaina cycle. I might perhaps have called this instead the cycle of the Madura Sangam or College.”—p. 128. DrCaldwell, , Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, London, 1875.Google Scholar

^{page 156 note 2} History of Indian and Eastern Architecture; Murray, , London, 1876, Map, p. 47.Google Scholar

^{page 156 note 3} The late Mr. G. W. Traill has preserved an illustration of the innate tendency of the aboriginal mind to revert to primitive forms of worship, which almost reminds us of the party-coloured Pigeons of Norfolk Island, which, when left to their own devices, reverted to the normal type of Blue Rock. He observes: “The sanctity of the Himalaya in Hindu mythology by no means necessarily implies the pre-existence of the Hindu religion in this, province (Kumaon), as the enormous height and grandeur of that range, visible from the plains, would have been sufficient to recommend it as a scene for the penances of gods and heroes.…. The great bulk of the population are now Hindus in prejudices and customs, rather than in religion. Every remarkable mountain, peak, cave, forest, fountain and rock has its presiding demon or spirit, to which frequent sacrifices are offered, and religious ceremonies continually performed by the surrounding inhabitants at small temples erected on the spot. These temples are extremely numerous throughout the country, and new ones are daily being erected; while the temples dedicated to Hindu deities, in the interior, are, with few exceptions, deserted and decayed.”—G. W. Traill, As. Res., xvi. p. 161. See also J.R.A.S. Vol. VIII. p. 397; Vol. XIII. “Khond Gods,” pp. 233–6; “Aboriginal Gods,” p. 285.Google ScholarHunter, 's Rural Bengal, pp. 130, 182, etc.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 1} “The ritual of the Jainas is as simple as their moral code. The Yatí, or devotee, dispenses with acts of worship at his pleasure, and the lay votary is only bound to visit daily a temple where some of the images of the Tirthankaras are erected, walk round it three times, and make an obeisance to the images, with an offering of some trifle, usually fruit or flowers, and pronounce some such Mantra or prayer as the following: ‘Namo Arihantánam, Namo Siddhánam,’ .. ‘Salutation to the Arhats,’ etc. A morning prayer is. also repeated: .. ‘I beg forgiveness, O Lord, for your slave, whatever evil thoughts the night may have produced—I bow with my head.’ .. The reader in a Jaina temple is a Yati, or religious character; but the ministrant priest, the attendant on the images, the receiver of offerings, and conductor of all usual ceremonies, is a Brahmán.”— Wilson, 's Essays, vol i. p. 319.Google Scholar “I may remark, parenthetically, with a view to what is still to be established—that the Khandagiri Inscription opens with the self-same invocation, ‘Namo arahantánam, namo sava Sidhánam,’ ‘Salutation to the arhantas, glory to all the saints’ (or those, who have attained final emancipation!).”—Prinsep, , J.A.S.B. vol. vi. p. 1080.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 2} “Buddhism (to hazard a character in a few words) is monastic asceticism in morals, philosophical scepticism in religion; and whilst ecclesiastical history all over the world affords abundant instances of such a state of things resulting from gross abuse of the religious sanction, that ample chronicle gives us no one instance of it as an original system of belief. Here is a legitimate inference from sound premises; but that Buddhism was, in very truth, a reform or heresy, and not an original system, can be proved by the most abundant direct testimony of friends and enemies.”—Hodgson, B. H., J.R.A.S. (1835), Vol. II. p. 290.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 3} Delamaine, Major J., Trans. R.A.S. Vol. I. pp. 413–438.Google Scholar

^{page 158 note 1} Professor Wilson, writing in 1832 on the “Religious Sects of the Hindus,” objected to this inference of Colebrooke's, on the ground of the supposed contrast of the castes of the two families. It is, however, a question, now that we know more of the gradual developments of caste in India, whether the divisions and subdivisions, relied upon by Prof. Wilson, had assumed anything like so definite a form, as his argument would imply, at so early a period as the date of the birth of Sákya Muni. Professor Wilson's observations are as follows:— “When Mahávíra's fame began to be widely diffused, it attracted the notice of the Brahmans of Magadha, and several of their most eminent teachers undertook to refute his doctrines. Instead of effecting their purpose, however, they became converts, and constituted his Gaṇadharas, heads of schools, the disciples of Mahávíra and teachers of his doctrines, both orally and scripturally. It is of some interest to notice them in detail, as the epithets given to them are liable to be misunderstood, and to lead to erroneous notions respecting their character and history. This is particularly the case with the first Indrabhúti, or Gautama, who has been considered as the same with the Gautama of the Bauddhas, the son of Máyádeví, and author of the Indian metaphysics. That any connexion exists between the Jain and the Bráhmaṇa Sage is, at least, very doubtful; but the Gautama of the Bauddhas, the son of Ṣuddhodana and Máyá, was a Kshattriya, a prince of the royal or warrior caste. All the Jain traditions make their Gautama a Brahman originally of the gotra, or tribe of Gotama Ṛishi, a division of the Brahmans well known and still existing in the South of India. These two persons therefore cannot be identified, whether they be historical or fictitious personages.”—II. Wilson, H.'s Essays, vol. i. p. 298Google Scholar; Asiatic Res. vol. xvii.

^{page 159 note 1} Hardy, Spence, Manual of Buddhism, pp. 88, 94, 311.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 2} Hodgson, B., Asiatic Researches, vol. xri. p. 444Google Scholar, “Sarvárthasiddha observes, he has given so many [120] names exempli gratia, but his instructors were really no less in number than 80 crores.” In other places Mr. Hodgson expresses his doubts “as to the historical existence of Ṣákya's six predecessors.”—Works, p. 135, and J.R.A.S. Vol. II. p. 289. See also de Körös, Csoma, J.A.S.B. vol. vii. p. 143.Google Scholar “Immense is the number of such Buddhas that have appeared in former ages in several parts of the universe.”

^{page 159 note 3} Cap. i. p. 1.

^{page 159 note 4} Maháwanso, Turnour, 's Introduction, Ceylon, 1837, p. xxxii.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 5} The “Bo-trees of the twenty-four Buddhos” are given in the following order (Maháwanso, p. xxxii):

As this list is quoted merely to contrast the numbers 24 against 7, it would be futile to follow out the botanical names of the various Bo-trees; but it may be remarked en passant, that No. 3 is a tree of the wet forests of Assam, Concan, Malabar, and Ceylon, while No. 11 is a palm-like plant which is entirely maritime, and abounds in the Sundarbands, wherein we have no record of Buddhist “sittings.”

^{page 159 note 6} Vol. i. p. 263.

^{page 160 note 1} Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 116. Among the sculptures lately discovered at Barahát, are to he found “representations of five separate Bodhi-trees of as many different Buddhas, which are distinctly labelled as follows:—

(1). Bhagavato Vipasino Bodhi, that is, the Tree of Vipasyin or Vipaswi, the first of the seven Buddhas.

2) Bhagavato Kakusadhasa Bodhi.

3) Bhagavato Konagamana Bodhi.

(4) Bhagavato Kasapasa Bodhi.

(5) Bhagavato Sakamunino Bodhi.

These last are the four well-known Buddhists named Krakuchhanda, Konágamani, Kàsyapa, and Sákyamuni.” It is scarcely necessary for me to add, that I by no means concur in the early date attributed by General Cunningham to these sculptures.

^{page 160 note 2} Rev. Beal, S., Travels of Fah-Hian, p. 82.Google ScholarFoe koue ki, cap. xx. Remusat's Note 35. Laidlay, , pp. 168, 179.Google Scholar Spence Hardy, alluding to these sectaries, says, “they are called in general Tírthakars.”—Manual of Buddhism, p. 290.

^{page 160 note 3} “Grand roi, le jeune Sarvárthasiddha a au milieu de la chevelure un Çrivatsa, un Svastika, un Nandyávarta et un Vardhamána. Grand roi, ce sont là les quatre-vingts marques secondaires du jeune Sarvárthasiddha.” … Foucaux, p. 110. “Pendant qu'elle le préparait ces signes précurseurs apparurent: Au milieu de ce lait, un Çrivatsa, un Svastika, un Nandyávarta, un lotus, un Vardhamána (Diagramme particulier dont la forme n'est pas indiquée), et d'autres signes de bénédiction se montrérent.”—Cap. viii. p. 258 (see also pp. 305, 390).

^{page 160 note 4} Colebrooke, 's Essays, vol. ii. p. 188.Google Scholar Asiatic Researches, vol. ix. p. 304. J.R.A.S. Vol. I. n.s. pp. 475–481. J.A.S. Bengal, vol. vii. p. 143. Burnouf, , Lotus, pp. 624–645.Google Scholar Col. Low, Transactions R.A.S. Vol. III.

^{page 161 note 1} In modern times, Mr. Hodgson tells us, he was able to discriminate statues, which passed with the vulgar for any god their priests chose to name, by the crucial test of their “minute accompaniments” and “frontal appendages.”—J.R.A.S. Vol. XVIII. p. 395. See, also, the Chinese-Buddhist inscription from Keu-Yung Kwan, with its mudrás, and Mr. Wylie's remarks upon dháranis.—J.R.A.S. Vol. V. n.s. p. 22.

^{page 161 note 2} Colebrooke, 's Essays, vol. ii. p. 187Google Scholar; As. Res. vol. ix. p. 305. MrBurgess, , Indian Antiquary, 1873, vol. i. p. 134.Google Scholar

^{page 162 note 1} Dr. Stevenson has tabulated some further details of the Jaina symbolic devices in “Trisala's Dreams”:

Lucky figures, ¹Srivatsa, ²Satvika, ³ Throne, ⁴ Flower-pot, ⁵ couple of Fishes, ⁶ Mirror, ⁷ Nandiyávarta, ⁸ Vardhamána.—Kalpa Sutra, page i.

Dr. Stevenson has an instructive note upon Jaina emblems, which I append to his Table:—“In the prefixed scheme of the emblems of the different Tirthankaras, it may strike the reader that there is no vestige of anything like this Buddhist Chaitya in any of them. This arises from one remarkable feature of dissimilarity between the Jains and Buddhists. The Dagoba, or Buddhist Chaitya, was a place originally appropriated to the preservation of relics, a practice as abhorrent to the feelings of the Jainas as it is to those of the Brahmans. The word Chaitya, when used by the Jainas, means any image or temple dedicated to the memory of a Tírthankara.”—Kalpa Sutra, p. xxvi.

From quasi-Buddhist sources we derive independent Symbols of the Four Divisions of the Vaibháshika School.

^{page 163 note 1} Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 84.

^{page 163 note 2} Examples of Jaina-Buddhist Foot-prints mav be seen in Vol. III. n.s. of our Journal, p. 159.

^{page 164 note 1} A pertinent inquiry is made by E. Friederich in the last Number of our Journal (Vol. IX. n.s. p. 65): “Were the Buddhists of Java Jainas?”

^{page 164 note 2} Col. W. Franklin, in his account of the Temple of Párswanátha at Samet-Ṣikhar, describes the statues as having the “head fashioned like a turban, with seven expanded heads of serpents, Coluber Naga, or hooded snake, the invariable symbol of Párswanátha.” The summit of the hill, emphatically termed by the Jainas Samet Ṣikhar, comprises a table-land flanked by “twenty small Jaina temples. In them are to be found the Vasu-Pádikas or ‘sacred feet,’ similar to what are to be seen in the Jaina Temple at Chámpánagar. On the south side of the mountain is a very large and handsome flat-roofed temple, containing several figures of this deity, which exhibit the never-failing attributes of Párswanátha and the Jaina religion, viz. the crowned serpent and cross-legged figures of Jineṣwara or Jina, the ruler and guardian of mankind.”—Asiatic Researches, vol. ix. pp. 528, 530. “In their temples, the Swetámbaras have images of all these persons (the twenty-four Jinas), which they worship; but their devotions are more usually addressed to what are called representations of their feet.”—DrHamilton, B., Mysore, p. 538.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 3} General Cunningham has published a fac-simile of the Gaya Vishṇu-pad, which, however, he designates in the Plate, “Buddha-pad,” executed in a.d. 1308: in this, although many symbols of Indian origin and local currency are displayed, we miss the leading Swastika, and the other mystic diagrams more immediately associated with the Jaina and secondary Buddhist systems.—Arch. Rep., 1871, vol. i. p. 9, pi. vii.

^{page 164 note 4} The extant MS. text of the Kalpa Sútra contains a record that “900 years after Mahávíra, and in the 80th year of the currency of the tenth hundred, this Book was written and publicly read in the currency of the 93rd year.” Hence, taking Mahávíra's period at 503 b.c., its date is fixed at “454 a.d. and its publication at 466 a.d.”—Stevenson's Kalpa Sutra, p. 95. Colebrooke, 's Essays, vol. ii. p. 193.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 1} “After writing the above I found my conclusion anticipated by Mr. Colebrooke, and I am happy that it now goes abroad with the suffrage of so learned an Orientalist—Trans. R.A.S. Vol. I. p. 522.”

^{page 165 note 2} J.R.A.S. Vol. V. pp. 189, 264; Vol. VI. p. 239; Vol. VIII. p. 330. See also J.A.S. Bengal, articles on cognate subjects, vol. iii. (1834), p. 495; vol. vi. p. 498.

^{page 165 note 3} J.R.A.S. (1839), Vol. V. p. 193 et seq, Among other questions adverted to, Dr. Stevenson remarks:—“Veṭṭal is generally, in the Dekhan, said to be an Avatár of Ṣiva, and wonderful exploits performed by him are related in a book called the Veṭṭal Pachísi; but which composition has not had the good fortune to gain the voice of the Brahmans and be placed among the Máhátmyas. On the contrary, they look upon it merely as a parcel of fables, and dispute the claims of Veṭṭal to any divine honours whatever.”—Dr. Stevenson, J.R.A.S. Vol. V. p. 192.

^{page 166 note 1} DrWilson, John, J.R.A.S. Vol. V. p. 197.Google Scholar “The temple of Vetál at Aráwalí, near Sáwant Wádí.”

^{page 166 note 2} J.R.A.S. Vol. VII. p. 5.

^{page 166 note 3} The legend of the creation of Jagganátha, accepted by his votaries, points to an equally simple origin, which, in this instance, took the form of a drift log of Nim-wood. This ḍára or “branch” having been pronounced on examination to be adorned with the emblems of the Sanka, Gadá, Padma and Chakra, was afterwards, by divine intervention, split “into the four-fold image of Chatur Múrti. A little colouring was necessary to complete them, and they then became recognized as Ṣri Krishna or Jagannáth, distinguished by its black hue, Báldeo, a form of Ṣiva, of a white colour, Subhadrá, the sister, .. of the colour of saffron.”

In this case the Brahmans seem to have surpassed themselves in their theatrical adaptations, for they are said to have adopted a practice of dressing-up the figure of Ṣrí Jíú, in a costume appropriate to the occasion, to represent the principal deities of the ruling creeds. “Thus at the Rám Navamí, the great image assumes the dress and character of Ráma; at the Janam Ashtamí, that of Krishna; at the Kálí Pújá, that of Kálí,” with two other alternative green-room transformations, which we need not reproduce.—Stirling, 's Orissa, Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 318.Google Scholar

^{page 167 note 1} No less acute is Dr. Stevenson's analysis, in another volume of our Journal (Vol. VIII. p. 330), of the position traditionally held by Ṣiva in India—his absence “from the original Brahmanical theogony,” his imperfect assimilation with the later forms of their ritual—and the conclusion “that the worship of Ṣiva is nothing more than a superstition of the aboriginal Indians, modified by the Brahmans, and adopted into their system,” for their own ends. An opinion which has been fully confirmed by later investigations.

^{page 167 note 2} Journal R.A.S. Vol. VII. p. 7, and Vol. VIII. p. 331. See also Col. Sykes, Vol. VI. p. 420, note 3.

^{page 167 note 3} Journ. A.S., p. 423.

^{page 167 note 4} “The triple emblem, represented in fig. 22, pl. xxxii., is one of the most valuable of the Sánchi sculptures, as it shows in the clearest and most unequivocal manner the absolute identity of the holy Brahmanical Jaggannáth with the ancient Buddhist triad.”—Topes, Bhilsa (London, 1854), p. 358.Google Scholar Fac-similes of these figures may be seen at p. 450, Journ. R.A.S., Vol. VI. o.s. See also Laidlay, 's translation of Fo-kwe-ki, pp. 21–26, 261.Google Scholar

^{page 167 note 5} The symbol forms a distinct object of worship at Amravati.—Fergusson's “Tree and Serpent Worship,” pi. lxx, etc.

^{page 168 note 1} Burnouf, in noticing the 65 names of the figures traced on the supposed Dharma pradipiká or imprint of the foot of Buddha in Ceylon, remarks under the sixth or Vardhamánakya head: “C'est là encore une sorte de diagramme mystique également familier aux Bráhmanes et au Buddhistes; son nom signifie “le prospère.”

“Quant à la figure suivante, on trouvera peut-étre qu'elle doit être le Vardhamána; je remarquerai seulement sur la seconde, , qu'elle est ancienne, et on la remarque fréquemment au revers des médailles de Kadphises et de quelques autres médailles indo-scythiques au type du roi cavalier et vainqueur (A.A. pl. x. 5, 9a), et sur le troisième, qu'elle paraît n'être qu'une variante de la seconde.”—Lotus, p. 627. “Waḍḍhamánaṅ kumárikaṅ.” Mahávanso, I. c. xi. p. 70. Col. Sykes, J.R.A.S. VI. o.s. p. 456, No. 34, etc.

^{page 168 note 2} The Kuhaon pillar is manifestly Jaina, though there is this to be said, that it is more fully wrought than the ordinary round monoliths, some of which Aṣoka may have found ready to his hand. It bears the inscription of Skanda Gupta (219 a.d.), but this need no more detract from its true age than the modern inscription of Vísala deva of a.d. 1164 would disturb the prior record of Aṣoka on the Dehli (Khizrábád) láṭ. “The bell (of the capital) itself is reeded, after the fashion of the Aṣoka pillars. Above this the capital is square, with a small niche on each side holding a naked standing figure, surmounted by a low circular band, in which is fixed the metal spike already described, as supporting a statue of a lion, or some other animal rampant…… On the western face of the square base there is a niche holding a naked standing figure, with very long arms reaching to his knees. Behind, there is a large snake folded in horizontal coils, one above the other, and with its seven heads forming a canopy over the idol.”—General Cunningham, Arch. Rep. i. p. 93.

^{page 168 note 3} Fragment der Bhagavatí. Ein beitrag zur kenntniss der heiligen litteratur und sprache der Jaina. Weber, Von A., Berlin, 1867, p. 315.Google Scholar The author, a Jaina writer named Malayagiri, flourished in the thirteenth century a.d.

^{page 169 note 1} This has not, however, always been conceded. Prof. Wilson, in his remarks upon “Two Tracts from Nipál,” says Dr. Buchanan “has only specified two names, Gautama and Ṣákya, of which the first does not occur in the Nipál list, whilst, in another place, he observes that Ṣákya is considered by the Burmese Buddhists as an impostor… The omission of the name of Gautama proves that he is not acknowledged as a distinct Buddha by the Nipálese, and he can be identified with no other in the list than Ṣákya Sinha.”—Essays, vol. ii. p. 9. At p. 10 Prof. “Wilson contests Buchanan's assertion, and adds that in the Pali version of the Amara Kosha Gautama and Ṣákya Sinha and Adityabandhu are given as synonyms of the son of Ṣuddhodana.”

^{page 169 note 2} Fravardin Yasht (circa “350–450 b.c.”), quoted by DrHaug, , Essay on the Sacred Language of the Parsees, Bombay, 1862, p. 188.Google Scholar

^{page 169 note 3} Quarterly Review, 1866Google Scholar, and his “Central Asia,” Murray, 1875, p. 246.Google Scholar

^{page 169 note 4} Mémoires, vol. i. p. 30. “Nava sañgháráma.” See also Voyages, p. 65.

^{page 170 note 1} London, Trübner, 1869.

^{page 171 note 1} One of Hiouen Thsang's contributions to the place and position of the Jainas in reference to the Buddhists proper, upon whom he has been supposed exclusively to rely, is exhibited in his faith in a native magician of the former creed, the truth of whose predictions he frankly acknowledges in the following terms:—“Avant l'arrivée du messager du roi Kúmára, il y eat un hérétique nu (Ni-kien-Nirgrantha), nommé Fa-che-lo (Vadjra), qui entra tout à coup dans sa chambre. Le Maître de la loi, qui avait entendu dire, depuis longtemps, que les Ni-kien excellaient à tirer l'horoscope, le pria aussitôt de s'asseoir et l'interrogea ainsi, afin d'éclaircir ses doutes: ‘Moi Hiouen-Thsang, religieux du royaume de Tchi-na, je suis venu dans ce pays, il y a bien des années, pour me livrer à l'étude et à de pieuses recherches. Maintenant, je désire m'en retourner dans ma patrie; j'ignore si j'y parviendrai ou non.’” He then goes on to relate: “Le Ni-kien prit un morceau de craie, traça des lignes sur la terre, tira les sorts et lui répondit en ces termes.”—Hiouen-Thsang, , vol. i. (Voyages), p. 228.Google Scholar See also vol. i. p. 224; and (Memoires) vol. i. (ii.), pp. 42, 93, 354; vol. ii. (iii.), p. 406.

^{page 171 note 2} In the same sense, another distinguished writer on Buddhism remarks: “There is no life of Gotama Buddha, by any native author, yet discovered, that is free from the extravagant pretensions with which his history has been so largely invested; from which we may infer that the records now in existence were all prepared long after his appearance in the world.”—Hardy, Spence, J.R.A.S. Vol. XX. p. 135.Google Scholar

^{page 172 note 1} “The practical part of the Jain religion consists in the performance of five duties and the avoidance of five sins.

“The duties are—1. Mercy to all animated beings; 2. Almsgiving; 3. Venerating the sages while living, and worshipping their images when deceased; 4. Confession of faults; 5. Religious fasting.

“The sins are—1. Killing; 2. Lying; 3. Stealing; 4. Adultery; 5. Worldly-mindedness.”—Kalpa Sútra, p. xxii.

The Jainas “believe that not to kill any sentient being is the greatest virtue.”—The Chintámaṇi, ed. Rev. Bower, H., Madras, 1868, p. xxiGoogle Scholar.

The leading contrast between the simple duties of the Jainas and the later developments introduced by the various schools of Buddhists may be traced in the following extracts:

“1. From the meanest insect up to man, thou shalt kill no animal whatever; 2. Thou shalt not steal; 3. Thou shalt not violate the wife or concubine of another.”—Gützlaff, , “China Opened,” London, 1838, p. 216Google Scholar.

“There are three sins of the body: 1. The taking of life, Murder (1);2. The taking that which is not given, Theft (2); 3. The holding of carnal intercourse with the female that belongs to another, Adultery (3).”—Hardy, Spence, Manual of Buddhism, p. 461Google Scholar.

“The ten obligations” commence with “1. Not to kill; 2. Not to steal; 3. Not to marry; 4. Not to lie, etc.”—The Rev. S. Beal, Fah-hian, p. 69. Mr. Beal goes on to expound the four principles involved in the existence of Buddhism, which are defined as these:—“1. That man may become superior to the Gods; 2. That Nirvána is the Supreme good; 3. That religion consists in a right preparation of heart (suppression of evil desire, practice of self-denial, active benevolence); 4. That men of all castes, and women, may enjoy the benefits of a religious life.”—p. i.

^{page 172 note 2} “To this leading feature in their religion (the prohibition of the shedding of blood) they owe their political debasement: for Komarpal, the last King of Anhulwara, of the Jain faith, would not march his armies in the rains, from the unavoidable sacrifice of animal life that must have ensued. The strict Jain does not even maintain a lamp during that season, lest it should attract moths to their destruction.”—i. p. 519. The oil-mill and the potter's wheel are stopped for four months in the year, when insects most abound.”—i. p. 521. At p. 620 Col. Tod enlarges upon the mines of knowledge (of the Jaina) books by the thousand, etc.

^{page 174 note 1} “The Asuras are described as enjoying the ascendancy over the Devatas, when Vrihaspati, taking advantage of their leader Sukra's being enamoured of a nymph of heaven, sent by Indra to interrupt his penance, comes among the former as Sukra, and misleads them into irreligion by preaching heretical doctrines; the doctrines and practices he teaches are Jain, and in a preceding passage it is said that the sons of Raji embraced the Jina Dharmma.”—Padma Purána, Wilson, , J.R.A.S. Vol. V. p. 282.Google Scholar See also pp. 287, 310–11.

^{page 174 note 2} Professor Wilson, arguing upon the supposed priority of the Buddhists, attempted to account for the frequent allusions to the Jainas in the Brahmanical writings by concluding that “since the Bauddhas disappeared from India, and the Jainas only have been known, it will be found that the Hindu writers, whenever they speak of Bauddhas, show, by the phraseology and practices ascribed to them, that they really mean Jainas. The older writers do not make the same mistake, and the usages and expressions they give to Bauddha personages are not Jaina, but Bauddha.”—Essays, vol. i. p. 329.

It is to be added, however, that Prof. Wilson, when he put this opinion on record in 1832, had to rely upon the limited knowledge of the day, which presupposed that the Jainas had nothing definite to show prior to the ninth century (p. 333). He was not then aware of the very early indications of their unobtrusive power in Southern India in Saka 411 (a.d. 489), if not earlier, as proved by Sir W. Elliot's Inscriptions (J.R.A.S. 1837, Vol. IV. pp. 8, 9, 10, 17, 19): and still less could he have foreseen the new revelations from Mathurá, which, of course, would have materially modified his conclusions.

^{page 175 note 1} This is Prof. Wilson's own rendering of the text. As we have seen, his leading tendencies were altogether against the notion of the antiquity or ante-Buddhistical development of the Jaina creed (Essays, vol. iii. p. 227); and yet he was forced on many occasions, like the present, to admit that the terms were Buddhist, but the tenor was Jaina. In a note on the Pancha Tantra (p. 20, vol. ii.) he remarks, “From subsequent passages, however, it appears that the usual confusion of Bauddha and Jaina occurs in the Pancha Tantra; and that the latter alone is intended, whichever be named.” And with regard to the quotation given above he goes an to say: “The chief peculiarity, however, of this story is its correct delineation of Jain customs; a thing very unusual in Bráhmanical books. The address of the barber, and the benediction of the Superior of the Vihára, are conformable to Jain usages. The whole is indeed a faithful picture.… The accuracy of the description is an argument for some antiquity; as the more, modern any work is, the more incorrect the description of the Jainas and Banddhas, and the confounding of one with the other.”—1840, vol. ii. p. 76.

^{page 175 note 2} Book No. 20. Countermark 774, Mackenzie MSS., J.A.S. Bengal, vol. vii. p. 411.

“Section 8. Chronological tables of Hindu râjas (termed Jaina kings of the Draviḍa country in the table of contents of book No. 20).

“In the 4th age a mixture of names, one or two of them being Jaina; Chandra Gupta is termed a Jaina. Chola râjas. Himasila a Jaina king.”

The reporter, the Rev. William Taylor, adds the remark, “These lists, though imperfect, may have some use for occasional reference.”

“The extinction of the Brahman and Kshatriya classes was predicted by Bhadra-Bahu Muni, in his interpretation of the 14 dreams of Chandra Gupta, whom they, the Sráwak Yatís, make out in the Buddha-vilása, a Digambar work, to have been the monarch of Ujjayani.”—Trans. R.A.S. Vol. I. p. 413.

“And Chandra Gupta, the king of Pátaliputra, on the night of the full moon in the month of Kártika, had 16 dreams.….”—MrRice, Lewis, Indian Antiquary, 1874, p. 155Google Scholar.

Mr. Rice adds the “Chronology of the Rájávali Kathe,” as given by Deva Chandrá, to the following effect: “After the death of Víra Varddhamána Gautama and other Kevalis, 62 years. Then Nandi Mitra and other Ṣruta Kevalis, 100 years. Then Viṣákha and other Daṣa purvis, 183. Then Nakshatra and other Ekadaṣángadhara, 233. Then was born Vikramáditya in Ujjayini;.… and he established his own era from the year of Rúdirodgári, the 605th year after the death of Varddhamána.”

“Intepretation of the 16.dreams of Chandra Gupta.

“1. All knowledge will be darkened.

“2. The Jaina religion will decline, and your successors to the throne take dikshe.

“3. The heavenly beings will not henceforth visit the Bharata Kshetra.

“4. The Jainas will be split into sects.

“5. The clouds will not give seasonable rain, and the crops will be poor.

“6. True knowledge being lost, a few sparks will glimmer with a feeble light.

“7. Áryakhaṇḍa will be destitute of Jaina doctrine.

“8. The evil will prevail and goodness be hidden.….

“16. Twelve years of dearth and famine will come upon this land.'

^{page 177 note 1} “5 Pradyota kings, 138 years.”

^{page 177 note 2} “10 Ṣaiṣunága kings, 362 years.”

^{page 177 note 3} “He will be the annihilator of the Kshatrya race; for, after him, the kings of the earth will be Ṣúdras.”

^{page 177 note 4} Hindu Theatre, p. 145. “Vishṇu Gupta,” son of Chaṇaka (hence Cháṇakya). He is described in the Vṛihat-Kathá as a “Bráhman of mean appearance, digging in a meadow.”—H. T. p. 140Google Scholar, and Wilson, 's Works, vol. iii. p. 177Google Scholar; see also vol. iii. p. 354, and the Mahawanso, , p. 21Google Scholar, with the full list of references, pp. lxxvi, et seq.

^{page 178 note 1} In the South and Central India the term caste seems still to represent class. “The Hindus, as in all parts of India, are divided into four great castes; but it will be preferable to speak of the inhabitants of this country as nations and classes; for it is in this manner they divide themselves and keep alive those attachments and prejudices which distinguish them from each other.—Malcolm, 's “Central India,” vol. ii. p. 114.Google Scholar

^{page 178 note 2} “While Padmapara was reigning in the city of Kotikapura… His Queen being Padmaṣrí, and his purohita Soma Somarsi, a Bráhman.”—Kathe, Rajavali, Ind. Antiquary, 1874, p. 154.Google Scholar

^{page 178 note 3} Govinda Ráya makes a grant of land to a “Jaina Brahman.”—Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. VIII. p. 2; see also Colonel Sykes, J.R.A.S., Vol. VI. pp. 301, 305, and Buchanan, F., Mysore, vol. iii. p. 77Google Scholar.

It has elsewhere been remarked by other commentators:—“We see from the history of the Buddhist patriarchs, that the distinction of castes in no way interfered with the selection of the chiefs of religion. Sákya Muni was a Kshatrya; Maha Kasyapa, his successor, was a Bráhman; Shang na ho sieou, the third patriarch, was a Vaisya; and his successor, Yeou pho Khieouto, was a Sudra.”—Remusat, note, cap xx. Foe koi ki, Laidlay, 's Translation, p. 178Google Scholar.

“Saugata books treating on the subject of caste never call in question the antique fact of a fourfold division of the Hindu people, but only give a more liberal interpretation to it than the current Bráhmanical one of their day.”—Hodgson, B. H., J.R.A.S. Vol. II. p. 289Google Scholar.

And to conclude these references, I may point to the fact that Sákya Muni, in one instance, is represented as having promised a “young Bráhman that he shall become a perfect Buddha.”—de Körös, Ksoma, Asiatic Researches, vol. xx. p. 453.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 1} Muir, , J.R.A.S., n.s. Vol. I. p. 356Google Scholar; Sanskrit Texts, vol. i. pp. 7, 15, etc.; vol. v. p. 371. Colebrooke, , As. Res. vol. vii. p. 251Google Scholar; Essays, vol. i. pp. 161, 309. Müller, Max, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 570.Google Scholar “Wilson, , Rig Veda, vol. i. p. xliv.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 2} “Over the five men, or classes of men” (pancha kshitinám).—Rig Veda, Wilson, 's translation, vol. i. pp. 20, 230, 314Google Scholar; ii. p. xv., “The five classes of beings,” p. 170; iii. p. xxii., “The five races of men” (pánchajanyásu kṛishṛishu) 87Google Scholar; “The five classes of men,” pp. 468, 506Google Scholar, etc. “The commentator explains this term to denote the four castes, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Súdra, and the barbarian or Nisháda; but Ṣayaṇa, of course, expresses the received opinions of his own age.”—Wilson, , Rig Veda, vol. i. p. xliiiGoogle Scholar; also vol. ii. p. xv. See also Muir, , vol. i. p. 176Google Scholar, et seq.

Pliny's detail of the castes or elasses of India differs slightly from that of Megasthenes', and, like the Vedie tradition, estimates the number of divisions at five, excluding the lowest servile class. “The people of the more civilized nations of India are divided into several classes. One of these classes tills the earth, another attends to military affairs, others, again, are occupied in mercantile pursuits, while the wisest and most wealthy among them have the management of the affairs of State, act as judges, and give counsel to the King. The fifth class entirely devoting themselves to the pursuit of wisdom, which, in these countries, is almost held in the same veneration as religion.”… “In addition to these, there is a class in a half-savage state, and doomed to endless labour; by means of their exertions, all the classes previously mentioned are supported.”—Pliny, , vi. 22. 19Google Scholar, Bohn, 's edition, 1855.Google Scholar

^{page 179 note 3} “The sage Atri, who was venerated by the five classes of men, … and baffling, showerers (of benefits.), the devices of the malignant Dasyus.”—Wilson, , vol. i. p. 314 (R.V. i. viii.).Google Scholar

^{page 180 note 1} “He gave horses, he gave the Sun, and Indra gave also the many-nourishing cow: he gave golden treasure, and having destroyed the Dasyus, he protected the Aryan tribe.”—Wilson, , R.V. vol. iii. p. 56.Google ScholarA'ryam varṇam “the Aryan colour.”—Muir, , vol. v. p. 114Google Scholar; and ii. 282, 360, 374. “Indra … divided the fields with his white-complexioned friends.”—Wilson, , R.V. vol. i. p. 259.Google Scholar

^{page 180 note 2} (Indra) “tore off the black skin.” Vol. ii. p. 35Google Scholar (ii. i. 8). (Indra) “scattered the black-sprung servile” (hosts). Vol. ii. p. 258Google Scholar (ii. vi. 6). (Dasyus) “who are babblers defective in speech.” Vol. iv. p. 42.Google Scholar“may we conquer in battle the ill-speaking man.” Vol. iv. p. 60.Google Scholar

^{page 180 note 3} “viii.381. No greater crime is known on earth than slaying a Brahman; and the King, therefore, must not even form in his mind an idea of killing a priest.”

“ix. 317. A Bráhman, whether learned or ignorant, is a powerful divinity.”

“ix. Thus, although Bráhmans employ themselves in all sorts of mean occupation, they must invariably be honoured; for they are something transcendently divine.”—Haughton, G. C., “The Institutes of Manu” (1825).Google Scholar

^{page 181 note 1} Report on Saháranpur, Elliot's Glossary, vol., i. p. 296.

^{page 181 note 2} Ibid., p. 283. Census Report for 1865.

^{page 181 note 3} “Vrishabhanátha was incarnate in this world … at the city of Ayodhyá. … He also arranged the various duties of mankind, and allotted to men the means of subsistence, viz. Así, ‘the sword;’ Masí, ‘letters’ (lit. ink); Krishi, ‘agriculture;’ Vánijya, ‘commerce;’ Paṣupála, ‘attendance on cattle.’ … Thus Vrishabhanátha established the religion of the Jains, in its four classes or castes, of Bráhmans, Kshatris, Vaisyas, and Sudras.”-C. Mackenzie, , Asiatic Researches, vol. ix. p. 259.Google Scholar

^{page 181 note 4} “The father (of Aṣoka) being of the Brahmanical faith, maintained (bestowing daily alms) 60,000 Brahmans. He himself in like manner bestowed them for 3 years.”—Mahawanso, p. 23.

^{page 182 note 1} My Pathán Kings of Dehli, p. 292. General Cunningham, Arch. Rep. vol. i. pp. 155, 161. Elliot's Historians, vol. iii. p. 352.

^{page 183 note 1} —Dr. Blochmann's revised text, p. During the reign of Jaloka Buddhism is stated to have heen prevalent. Under Raja Sachínara the Brahmans again asserted their supremacy p. 580.

^{page 183 note 2} Kings of Kashmír after 35 Princes “whose names are forgotten.”

Calcutta Text, p. Gladwin, , vol. ii. p. 171.Google Scholar Prinsep's Essays, Useful Tables, p. 243.

^{page 184 note 1} Professor Wilson's paraphrase runs: “The last of these princes being childless, the crown of Kashmír reverted to the family of its former rulers, and devolved on Aṣoka, who was descended from the paternal great uncle of Khagendra. This prince, it is said in the A′ín i-Akbari, abolished the Brahmanical rites, and substituted those of Jina: from the original (text of the Raja Tarangini), however, it appears that he by no means attempted the former of these heinous acts, and that, on the contrary, he was a pious worshipper of Ṣiva, an ancient temple of whom in the character of Vijayeṣa he repaired. With respect to the second charge, there is better foundation for it, although it appears that this prince did not introduce, but invented or originated the Jina Sásana.”— As. Res. vol. xv. p. 19.

The text and purport of the original are subjoined; the latter runs: “Then the prince Aṣoka, the lover of truth, obtained the earth; who sinning in subdued affections produced the Jina Sásana. Jaloka, the son and successor of Aṣoka, was a prince of great prowess; he overcame the assertors of the Bauddha heresies, and quickly expelled the Mlechhas from the country.…

“The conquest of Kanauj by this prince is connected with an event not improbable in itself, and which possibly marks the introduction of the Brahmanical creed, in its more perfect form, into this kingdom, and Jaloka is said to have adopted thence the distinction of castes, and the practices which were at that time established in the neighbouring kingdoms. … He forbore in the latter part of his reign from molesting the followers of the Bauddha schism, and even bestowed on them some endowments.”—As. Bes. vol. xv. p. 21.

Troyer's translation of 102 runs:

“Ce monarque (Aṣoka) ayant éteint en lui tout penchant vicieux, embrassa la religion de Djina, et étendit sa domination par des enclos d'élévations sacrées de terre dans le pays de Çuchkala, où est située la montagne de Vitastá.

103. La Vitastá passait dans la ville au milieu des bois sacrés et des Viháras; c'était là où s'élevait, báti par lui, un sanctuaire de Buddha, d'une hauteur dont l'œil ne pouvait atteindre les limites.”—vol. ii. p. 12.

A notice which may have some bearing upon these events is to be found in the Dulva. It purports to declare: “100 years after the disappearance of Sakya, his religion is carried into Kashmír. 110 years after the same event, in the reign of Aṣoka, King of Pátaliputra, a new compilation of the laws … was prepared at Alláhábád.”—J.A.S. Bengal, vol. i. p. 6.

^{page 186 note 1} The pretence of the universality of the Sanskrit language in India at this period has often been contested in respect to the method of reconstruction of these ancient monuments. Mr. Tumour was the first to protest against James Prinsep's submission to the Sanskritic tendencies of his Pandits. Mr. B. Hodgson, in like manner, consistently upheld the local claims and prior currency of the various forms of the vernaculars, and, most unquestionably, Professor Wilson's own perception and faculty of interpreting this class of inter-provincial records was damaged and obscured by his obstinate demands for good dictionary Sanskrit.

^{page 186 note 2} “In one place only—I mean the signature of the Girnár inscription—the following words have reference to Buddha. Of this signature there remains,

… va sveto hasti savalokasukháharo náma.

What has to he supplied at the beginning I leave to the ingenuity of others to determine, but what is left means ‘the white elephant’ whose name is ‘Bringer of happiness to the whole world.’ That by this term Ṣákya is implied, there can be no doubt (he entered his mother's womb as a white elephant,—Vistara, Lalita, p. 63).Google Scholar … Even if the signature is not to be attributed to the scribe, the custom evidently even then prevalent, and still in use at the present day, of naming at the end of the inscription the divinity worshipped by the writer or scribe, can offer no serious difficulty.”—I. A. p. 258. [If Sakya Muni was the seed of the white elephant, how came he to be so disrespectful to his deceased relatives as to speak of his dead friend “the white elephant” Devadatta killed, as “cet être qui a un grand corps, en se décomposant, remplirait toute la ville d'une mauvaise odeur” ?]

^{page 188 note 1} “In the first place, then, with respect to the supposed main purport of the inscription, proselytism to the Buddhist religion, it may not unreasonably be doubted if they were made public with any such design, and whether they have any connexion with Buddhism at all.”—J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. p. 236. “There is nothing in the injunctions promulgated or sentiments expressed in the inscriptions, in the sense in which I have suggested their interpretation, that is decidedly and exclusively characteristic of Buddhism. The main object of the first appears, it is true, to be a prohibition of destroying animal life, but it is a mistake to ascribe the doctrine to the Buddhists alone.” p. 238. “From these considerations, I have been compelled to withhold my unqualified assent to the confident opinions that have been entertained respecting the object and origin of the inscriptions. Without denying the possibility of their being intended to disseminate Buddhism, … there are difficulties in the way, … which, to say the least, render any such an attribution extremely uncertain.” p. 250.

^{page 188 note 2} The four Dharmas, in their simplicity, are defined by the Northern Jainas as “merits,” as consequent upon the five Mahávratas or “great duties.”—Wilson, 's Essays, vol. i. p. 317.Google Scholar This idea progressed, in aftertimes, into a classification of the separate duties of each rank in life, or the “prescribed course of duty.” Thus “giving alms,” etc., is the dharma of the householder, “administering justice” of a king, “piety” of a Brahman, “courage” of a Kshatriya.—M. Williams, sub voce. “Later Jaina interpretations of the term Dharma in Southern India extend to ‘virtue, duty, justice, righteousness, rectitude, religion.’ It is said to be the quality of the individual self which arises from action, and leads to happiness and final beatitude. It also means Law, and has for its object Dharma, things to be done, and Adharma, things ‘to be avoided.’ This Dharma is said by the Jainas to be eternal. Dharma, as well as Veda, if they are true Virtue and Law, are attributes or perfections of the Divine Being, and as such are eternal.”—Chintamani, Rev. H. Bower, p. xl. See also Müller, Max's “Sanskrit Literature,” p. 101Google Scholar: “In our Sútra Dharma means Law,” etc. The intuitive feeling that “laborare est orare” seems to have prevailed largely in the land, and would undoubtedly have been fostered and encouraged under the gradual development of caste. The great Akbar appears to have participated in the impressions of his Hindu subjects; for we find him, in the words of his modern biographer, described as one “who looks upon the performance of his duties as an act of divine worship.”—Dr. Blochmann's translation of the A′in-i-Akbarí, p. iii.Google Scholar

^{page 190 note 1} Arrian xii.; Strabo xv. 48; Diod. Sic. ii. 3. There are several points in the Greek accounts of Indian creeds which have hitherto been misunderstood, and which have tended to complicate and involve the true state of things existing in the land at the periods referred to. Among the rest is the grand question, in the present inquiry, of Jaina versus Buddhist, of which the following is an illustration:—Fah Hian, chap. xxx. “The honourable of the age (Buddha) has established a law that no one should destroy his own life.”

Mr. Laidlay adds, as a commentary upon this passage:—“The law here alluded to is mentioned in the Dulva (p. 162 to 239); where, in consequence of several instances of suicide among the monks, … Sákya prohibits discourses upon that subject. So that the practice of self-immolation ascribed by the Greek historians to the Buddhists was, like that of going naked, a departure from orthodox principles.”—p. 278.

The Rev. S. Beal, in his revised translation of Fah Hian, in confirming this conclusion of Mr. Laidlay, emphatically declares, “I doubt very much” whether there is any reference to Buddhists in the Greek accounts.“—pp. xlii, 119. See also J.R.A.S. Vol. XIX. p. 420, and Vol. VIII. n.s. p. 100.

”A long series of the rock inscriptions at Ṣravaṇa Beḷgoḷa, in the same old characters, consist of what may be termed epitaphs to Jaina saints and ascetics, both male and female, or memorials of their emancipation from the body. … It is painful to imagine the pangs of slow starvation, by which these pitiable beings gave themselves up to death and put an end to their own existence, that by virtue of such extreme penance they might acquire merit for the life to come. … The irony is complete when we remember that avoidance of the destruction of life in whatever form is a fundamental doctrine of the sect.“… The inscriptions before us are in the oldest dialect of the Kanarese. The expression muḍippidar, with which most of them terminate, is one which seems peculiar to the Jainas.”—MrRice, Lewis, Indian Antiquary, 1873, p. 322.Google Scholar

The passages regarding suicidal philosophers will be found in Megasthenes (Strabo, xv. i. 64, 73)Google Scholar; Curtius, Q. viii. ix. sec. 33Google Scholar; Pliny, , vi. c. 22Google Scholar, sec. 19; Arrian xi.

The naked saints figure in Megasthenes (Strabo, xv. 60)Google Scholar, Cleitarchus (Strabo, xv. 70)Google Scholar, Curtius, Q., viii. ix. 33.Google Scholar

^{page 191 note 1} Mr. Burgess's Report for 1874-5 reached me on the 15th February, 1877, a few days only before the Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society at which this paper was read. These paper-impressions are now deposited in the Library of the India Office.

^{page 192 note 1} Prinsep, 's Essays (Murray, 1858), pp. ii. 43, 144, 151Google Scholar, etc. Burnouf, , Yasna, p. cxlvGoogle Scholar. Bopp, 's Grammar (Eastwick), i. 14.Google ScholarLassen, , “Essai sur le Pali,” p. 15.Google Scholar J.R.A.S., o.s. X. 63; XII. 236; XIII. 108; XV. 19; n.s. I. 467; V.423. J.A.S. Beng., 1863, p. 158; 1867, p. 33. Journ. Bom. Branch R.A.S., 1858, p. 41. Ancient Indian Weights (Numismata Orientalia, Part i. Trübner, 1874), pp. 3, 6, 21, 48. Numismatic Chronicle, 1863, p. 226. Caldwell, , Dravidian Grammar (edit. 1875), pp. 13, 45, 64, 69, 82, 92, etc.Google ScholarMuir, , Sanskrit Texts, ii. xxivGoogle Scholar, and 34n, 440n, 468, 488, etc. Weber, , “Greek and Indian Letters,” Ind. Ant. 1873, p. 143.Google Scholar “On the Dravidian Element in Sanskrit Dictionaries,” by the RevKittel, F., Mercara, Indian Antiquary, 1872, p. 235.Google ScholarMuller, F., “Academy,” 1872, p. 319.Google Scholar

^{page 193 note 1} This type was originally cut under James Prinsep's own supervision. I am indebted to the Asiatic Society of Bengal for the font now employed, which is in the possession of Messrs. Austin. Some slight modifications of the original will be noticed, especially in regard to the attachment of the vowels; but otherwise the type reproduces the normal letters in close facsimile. The most marked departure from the old model is to be seen in the vowel o, which in the original scheme was formed out of the a and e, thus ; whereas, in the type, for simplicity of junction, the e and the a have been ranged on one level, in this form . It will be seen that the Sanskrit ṣ has not yet put in an appearance, the local s having to do duty for its coming associate. A full table of the alphabet itself will be found in Vol. V. n.s. of our Journal, p. 422.

^{page 193 note 2} I quote as my leading authority Professor Wilson's revised translation of the combined texts embodied in the Journ. R.A.S. Vol. XII. p. 164, et seq., as his materials were necessarily more ample and exact than Prinsep's original transcripts, which were unaided by the highly important counterpart and most efficient corrective in Semitic letters from Kapurdigiri, the decipherment of which was only achieved by Mr. Norris in 1845.

^{page 195 note 1} Dr. Kern's elaborate criticism of Burnouf's revision of Prof. Wilson's translation of this passage (Bonne Loi, Lotus de la, p. 731)Google Scholar scarcely alters the material sense quoted above. His version runs:

“In past times, during many centuries, attacking animal life and inflicting suffering on the creatures, want of respect for Bráhmans and monks.”

Dr. Kern, in the course of his remarks upon his new rendering, observes, “Apart from the style, there is so little exclusively Buddhistic in this document, that we might equally well conclude from it that the King, satiated with war, had become the president of a peace society and an association for the protection of the lower animals, as that he had embraced the doctrine of Ṣákya Muni.”— I. A., p. 262.

^{page 195 note 2} The Cuttack version of the Edicts differs from the associate texts, saying, “who shall be intermingled with all the hundred grades of unbelievers for the establishment among them of the faith, for the increase of religion … in Kambocha and Gandhára, in Surástrika and Pitenika, … and even to the furthest (limits) of the barbarian (countries). Who shall mix with the Brahmans and Bhikshus, with the poor and with the rich.”—p. 190; Prinsep, J.A.S. Bengal.

^{page 196 note 1} Lassen renders this, “my whole endeavour is to he blameless towards all creatures, to make them happy here below and enable them hereafter to obtain Svarga.”—Indian Antiquary, p. 270.

^{page 197 note 1} Dr. Kern's conclusion of Tablet 9 runs as follows, “By doing all this, a man can merit heaven; therefore let him who wishes to gain heaven for himself fulfil, above all things, these his duties.”—I. A., p. 271.

^{page 197 note 2} Dr. Kern's rendering says “honour all sects and orders of monks.”

^{page 197 note 3} “so that no man may praise his own sect or contemn another sect.”

^{page 197 note 4} “For this end, sheriffs over legal proceedings, magistrates entrusted with the superintendence of the women, hospice-masters(?) and other bodies have been appointed.”—I. A., p. 268.

^{page 197 note 5} Gen. Cunningham, Arch. Report, vol. i. p. 247, and vol. v. p. 20. See also my “Dynasty of the Guptas in India,” p. 34. I append the tentative transliteration of the several versions of this tablet, which I had prepared for the latter work.

My learned friends are unwilling as yet to compromise themselves by a translation of the still imperfect text.

^{page 198 note 1} The 14th Edict at Girnár is more curious, in respect to the preparation of the Edicts, than instructive in the religious sense. Dr. Kern's revision produces, “King Devánámpriya Priyadarṣin has caused this righteousness edict to he written, here concisely, there in a moderate compass, and in a third place again at full length, so that it is not found altogether everywhere worked out; (?) for the kingdom is great, and what I have caused to be written much. Repetitions occur also, in a certain measure, on account of the sweetness of certain points, in order that the people should in that way (the more willingly) receive it. If sometimes the one or other is written incompletely or not in order, it is because care has not been taken to make a good transcript (chháyá) or by the fault of the copyist (i.e. the stone-cutter).”—I. A., p. 275.

^{page 198 note 2} J. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. vi. 1837, p. 566. The text on the Dehli láṭ has been taken as the standard; these edicts are repeated verbatim on the three other láṭs of Allahábád, Betiah and Radhia.

^{page 199 note 1} Burnouf renders this opening, “La 26^ième année depuis mon sacre j'ai fait écrire cet édit de la loi. Le bonheur dans ce monde et dans l'autre est difficile à obtenir sans un amour extrême pour la loi, sans une extrême attention, sans une extrême obéissance,” etc.—Lotus, , p. 655.Google Scholar

^{page 199 note 2} Dr. Kern's translation departs from this meaning in a striking manner, and substitutes: “I have appointed sheriffs over many hundred thousands of souls in the land, I have granted them free power of instituting legal prosecution and inflicting punishment.”

^{page 200 note 1} It is curious to trace the extent to which these Jaina ideas developed themselves in after-times, and to learn from official sources how the simple tenets of mercy, in the abstract, progressed into the demands and rights of sanctuary claimed by and conceded to the sect.

“Maharana Srí Ráj Sing, commanding. To the Nobles, Ministers, Patels, etc., of Mewar. From remote times, the temples and dwellings of the Jainas have been authorized; let none therefore within their boundaries carry animals to slaughter. This is their ancient privilege.

”2. Whatever life, whether man or animal, passes their abode for the purpose of being killed, is saved (amra).

“3. Traitors to the state, robbers, felons escaped confinement, who may fly for sanctuary (sirna) to the dwellings (upasrá) of the Yatis, shall not be seized by the servants of the court … By command, Sáh Dyal, Minister. Samvat 1749 (a.d. 1693).”—Tod. vol. i. p. 553.

^{page 200 note 2} Singular to say, with all this excellent mercy to animals, there is a reference to injuring (torturing?), and later even to “mutilation” of the human offender!—J.A.S.B. vol. vi. p. 588. See also Foe-koue-ki, cap. xvi.

^{page 201 note 1} Firmán of Akbar. “Be it known to the Muttasuddies of Malwa, that the whole of our desires consists in the performance of good actions, and our virtuous intentions are constantly directed to one object, that of delighting and gaining the hearts of our subjects.

“We, on hearing mention made of persons of any religious faith whatever, who pass their lives in sanctity, etc., … shut our eyes on the external forms of their worship, and considering only the intention of their hearts, we feel a powerful inclination to admit them to our association, from a wish to do what may be acceptable to the Deity.”

The prayer of the petitioners was: “That the Padishah should issue orders that during the twelve days of the month of Bhadra called Putchoossur (which are held by the Jainas to be particularly holy), no cattle should be slaughtered in the cities where their tribe reside.”—Ordered accordingly, 7th Jumád-us-Sáni, 992 Hij. Era.—Malcolm, Central India.

^{page 202 note 1} Prof. Wilson, while criticizing and correcting much of Prinsep's work upon these documents, remarked, “If the translation (of the text of the eastern compartment) is correct, and in substance it seems to be so, there are two sets of opposing doctrines in the inscriptions, and of course both cannot be Buddhist. Mr. Prinsep comes to the conclusion that the Buddhist account of the date of Aṣoka's conversion, the fourth year of his reign, is erroneous, and that he could not have changed his creed until after his twelfth year. Then it follows that most, if not all the Rock inscriptions are not Buddhist, for the only dates specified are the tenth and twelfth years. Those on the Láṭs appear to be all of the twenty-seventh year. If, however, those of the earlier dates are not Buddhist, neither are those of the later, for there is no essential difference in their purport. They all enforce the preference of moral to ceremonial observances” (J.R.A.S. vol. xii. p. 250).

^{page 203 note 1} “The Aswastama is situated on a rocky eminence forming one of a cluster of hills, three in number, on the south bank of the Dyah river near to the village of Dhauli. The hills alluded to rise abruptly from the plains, … and have a singular appearance, no other hills being nearer than eight or ten miles.”—Kittoe, Major, J.A.S.B, vol. vii. p. 435.Google Scholar

^{page 203 note 2} Burnouf revised this translation, with his usual critical acumen, in 1852. The following quotation gives his varied version:—“Aussi est-ce là ce qui doit être proclamé par le gardien du stûpa qui ne regardera rien autre chose, (ou bien, aussi cet édit a dû. être exprimé au moyen du Prákrita et non dans un autre idiome). Et ainsi veut ici le commandement du roi Chéri des Devas. J'eu confié l'exécution au grand ministre. …

“Et cet édit doit être entendu au Nakhata Tisa (Nakchatra Tichya) et à la fin du mois Tisa (4 letters) au Nakhata, même par un seule personne il doit être entendu. Et c'est ainsi que ce stûpa doit être honoré jusqu'à la fin des temps, pour le bien de l'assemblée.”—Burnouf, B. L. 673.

See also my article in the J.R.A.S. Vol. I. n.s. p. 466; and the Sútra, Kalpa, pp. 16, 17.Google Scholar

^{page 204 note 1} As a possible commentary upon this, the avowedly Buddhist Lalita- Vistara says: “The rehearsal of religious discourse satiateth not the godly.”—Preface, p. 24, Sanskrit Version, Rajendralála.

^{page 204 note 2} At Bairath, three marches N.E. of Jaipúr.

^{page 204 note 3} “But in turning over the leaves of a Jaina work (the Parikramanavidhi), which, according to Dr. Stevenson, means the Bules of Confession to a Guru, I found the word Bhante … repeated fourteen times, and in every instance with the pronoun aham—aham bhante—preceding apparently some promise or admission;’I declare, I promise, or acknowledge.’ The book is written in the Mágadhi of the Jainas, mixed with provincial Hindi, and is full of technicalities, which it would require a learned Yati to expound.”—J.R.A.S., Vol. XVI. p. 361.

^{page 206 note 1} J.A.S. Bengal, vol. vi. p. 577.

^{page 206 note 2} In Stevenson's translation of the Kalpa Sútra Rishabha datta is thus addressed by Devanandi, the mother of Mahávíra, (pp. 26, 30)Google Scholar, and he, in return, salutes her as “O beloved of the gods” (pp. 27, 29Google Scholar, etc.). At p. 54 King Siddhártha, in explaining Trisalá's dream, commences, “O beloved of the gods.” At pp. 56, 61Google Scholar, speaking to the royal messengers, he addresses them as “O beloved of the gods,” and at p. 64 the “interpreters of dreams” are received with the same complimentary greeting.

^{page 207 note 1} Mahavanso, , vol. i. p. 75.Google Scholar

^{page 207 note 2} J.A.S. Bengal, vol. vi. p. 1056. See also Wilson, J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. p. 244.

^{page 207 note 3} The objection to the term Devánampiya of course does not extend to the inevitable Devaputra of the Lalita-vistara—the “heaven-born” need not have been compromised by his later apostacy.—See Rajendra Lála's (Sanskrit text), Preface, pp. 14, 15, 21, etc.

^{page 207 note 4} Maháwanso, , pp. 4, 68, 62Google Scholar, etc. Indian Antiquary, 1872, p. 139. Rhys Davids, Inscription of Gamini Tissa, son of Devánampiya Tissa, at Dambula, Ceylon.

^{page 208 note 1} This is Prof. Weber's date; Prof. Goldstücker assigned Patanjali to 140–120 b.c.; and Prof. Bhandarkar fixes the date of his chapter iii. at 144–142 b.c.—Ind. Ant. 1872, p. 302.

^{page 208 note 2} Goldstücker, 's Páṇini, p. 228.Google Scholar Prof. Goldstücker goes on to add: “Whether or not this interesting bit of history was given by Patanjali ironically, to show that even affixes are the obedient servants of kings, and must vanish before the idols which they sell, because they do not take the money at the same time that the bargain is made—as poor people do—I know not. … I believe, too, if we are to give a natural interpretation to his (Patanjali's) words, … that he lived after the last king of this (Maurya) dynasty.”—p. 229.

Prof. Weber's critical commentary upon Goldstücker's rendering of this passage, amid other argumentative questions as to the period of Páṇini himself, proceeds:

“Patanjali, in commenting on rule v. 3, 99, of Páṇini, … in the case of a life sustenance-serving (object, which is an image, the affix ka is not used), except when the object is valuable.…. In the case of a saleable, e.g. Ṣiva, Skanda, Viṣákha, the rule does not apply.” …

“The gold-coveting Maurya had caused images of the gods to be prepared. To these the rule does not apply, but only to such as serve for immediate worship (i.e. with which their possessors go about from house to house) [in order to exhibit them for immediate worship, and thereby to earn money].”—Indian Antiquary, 1873, p. 61.

^{page 208 note 3} Prof. Weber's opinion on the bearing of this passage is to the following effect: “In the passage about the Mauryas I must leave it to others to decide if Patañjali's words do really imply it as his opinion that Pâṇini himself, in referring to images that were saleable, had in his eye such as those that had come down from the Mauryas. I never said more than this. And Bhâṇḍârkar goes too far when he says: ‘ProfWeber, infersGoogle Scholar that Pâṇini in making his rule had in his eye,’ etc. My words are: ‘According to the view of Patañjali;’ ‘Patañjali is undoubtedly of opinion;’ ‘Be this as it may, the notice is in itself an exceedingly curions one.’ Now with regard to this very curious and odd statement itself, I venture to throw it out as a mere suggestion, whether it may not perhaps refer to a first attempt at gold coinage made by the Mauryas (in imitation of the Greek coins). It is true no Maurya coin has been discovered as yet, so far as I know, but this may be mere chance: the real difficulty is how to bring Patañjali's words into harmony with such an interpretation, the more so as in his time no doubt gold coins were already rather common”—Indian Antiquary, 07, 1873, pp. 208, 209.Google Scholar

^{page 209 note 1} “As these twenty-four Tírthankaras are incarnations of wisdom, and are divine personages who appeared in the world and attained the enjoyment of heavenly bliss, the Jainas consider them to be Swámis, equal to the divine-natured Arugan. … And accordingly they build temples in honour of these Tírthankaras, and make images like them, of stone, wood, gold, and precious gems, and considering these idols as the god Arugan himself, they perform daily and special pujas, and observe fasts and celebrate festivals in their honour.”— p. xix. Notice on Jainism, by Aiyar, Sástram, from “The Chintámaṇi,”Google Scholar edited by the Rev. Bower, H., Madras, 1868.Google Scholar

^{page 209 note 2} Pushpamitra is the king who offered 100 dínárs for the head of every Ṣramana, and hence obtained the title of Munihata, “Muni-killer.”—Burnouf, , vol. i. p. 431.Google Scholar

^{page 209 note 3} I must add that in other portions of the “Mahábháshya” reference is made to “the Brahmanical deities of the Epic period, Ṣiva, Vishṇu, etc.; to Vásudeva or Kṛishṇa as a god or demi-god, and to his having slain Kansa and bound Bali.” Mr. Muir, from whose analysis of Prof. Weber's Indische Studien (1873) I take this information, adds: “The genuineness of the whole of Patanjali's work itself, as we now have it, is not, Prof. Weber considers, beyond the reach of doubt, as some grounds exist for supposing that the work, after having been mutilated or corrupted, was subsequently reconstructed, and at the same time perhaps received various additions from the pen of the compiler.” See also Academy, 8th 08, 1874, p. 156.Google Scholar

^{page 210 note 1} Mahá-sená, “a great army,” an epithet of Kárttikeya or Skanda; of Ṣiva. So also Senápati, “army chief,” name of Kárttikeya; of Ṣiva, etc.—M. Williams, in vocibus.

^{page 211 note 1} Prinsep, 's Essays, vol. ii.p. 213.Google Scholar Ariana Antiqua, p. 354. J.R.A.S. Vol. XX. p. 239. Solinus tells us: Quidam libri Caphusam. In alii: Caphisam. Plinius Capissam vocat. cap. liv. p. 827.

^{page 211 note 2} Rudra and Pushan are said to wear tbeir hair wound or braided spirally upwards into the form of a shell called “Kapardin.”—Muir, , vol. v. p. 462.Google Scholar

^{page 211 note 3} Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. IX. p. 8 et seq.

^{page 212 note 1} The identity of Bazdeo as one of the three brothers, and as the person alluded to in the Mathurá inscriptions under the title of Vásudeva, in conjunction with Kanishka and Huvishka, seems to be now placed beyond doubt; but the new coins teach us to discriminate Bazdeo as the third king, in opposition to my suggestion (Vol. IX. p. 11, suprà) that Vásudeva might have been “the titular designation of Kanishka.”

^{page 212 note 2} Prinsep, 's Essays, pl. xxii. 4, 5, 6–11, 13.Google Scholar J.R.A.S. o.s. Vol. XII. Pl. IV. the same figures. Ariana Antiqua, pl. xiv. figs. 12, 13, 16, 17.

^{page 214 note 1} General Cunningham was under the impression that this object was a Buddhist praying-wheel. I prefer to look upon it as an iron-bound mace, a counterpart of the modern club, so effective in strong hands, known by the name of lohá-band láthi. The gurz of Feridún was an historical weapon. The use of which was affected by the great Mahmúd of Ghazni and his successors after him. The Kadphises Scythians also were demonstrative about maces, but theirs took the form of a bulky wooden club. See also Tabari, (O.T.F.), vol. ii. p. 228.Google Scholar

^{page 215 note 1} See Prinsep, , Essays, vol. ii. p. 115Google Scholar; Ariana Antiqua, pl. xvii. 5, etc.; Herodotus, , vii. c. lxxvi.Google Scholar

^{page 217 note 1} 1. No. 19. pl. xxxiv. J.A.S. Bengal, vol. iii. A silver denarius of Mark Antony, struck while he was a member of the celebrated triumvirate; M. ANTONIUS, iii. VIE. R.P.C.—Vaillant, ii. p. 9. Riccio, , pl. ivGoogle Scholar. 25. J. des Sav. 1836, p. 72 (A.U.C. 711).

2. No. 20. Julius Cæsar. Julia family, Riccio, xxiii. 31. R. Rochette. A.U.C. 694–704, “si connu et si commun.”

3. No. 21. Cordia family. Ric. xiv. 1. R.R. A.U.C. 705. “Un denier d'Auguste, avec les têtes accouplées de Caïus et de Lucius Cæsars.”

4. No. 22. Minucia family. Riccio, , xxxiii. 7.Google Scholar U. THERM. M.F. about A.U.C. 680.

5. No. 23. Accoleia family. LARISCOLVS, i. 1. A.U.C. 710–720.

6. No. 24. Julia family. Ric. xxii. 4.

7. No. 25. Furia family. R. xxi. 8. R.R. A.U.C. 686. The latest authorities, therefore, limit the date of the most recent of these coins to b.c. 34. Prinsep, 's Essays, vol. i. p. 149.Google Scholar

^{page 218 note 1} Four “gold coins found in the gold cylinder.” Pl.xxxiv. vol. iii.Google Scholar J.A.S. Bengal.

1 and 2. Kanerki bust and peaked cap. Rev. Ṣiva, four-armed and ΟΚΡΟ.

3. Kanerki standing figure. Rev. Ṣiva, four-armed and ΟΚΡΟ.

4. Kanerki standing figure. Rev. Standing figure. ΑΘΡΟ.

^{page 218 note 2} ProfDowson, , J.R.A.S. Vol. XX. o.s. p. 250.Google Scholar

^{page 219 note 1} Yajnavalkya's date is uncertain. Some commentators place him before Vikramáditya, others so late as the second century a.d. See my Ancient Indian Weights, p. 20. Prof. Wilson remarks that the name of ṇáṇaka occurs in the play of the Mrichchhakati (act i. scene 1), and the commentary explains the ṇáṇaka as Ṣiváṅka-taṅka, or “coin with the mark of Ṣiva.”

^{page 219 note 2} General Cunningham, J.A.S. Bengal, 1845, p. 435, pl. ii. fig. 3.

^{page 219 note 3} The four copper coins found above the stone cover of the tumulus, pl. xxxiv. vol. iii. J.A.S. Bengal, are identified with—

1. Kadphises, the King, standing. Rev. Ṣiva and Nandi, with Bactrian-Páli legends similar to A.A. Plate x. figs. 15, etc.

2. Coin of Kanerki, with Rev. ΟΑΔΟ.

3 and 4. Coin of Kanerki, with Rev. Ṣiva four-armed, ΟΚΡΟ.

^{page 221 note 1} Plutarch in Crassus xxxi.—Λέγονται δ᾽ οἱ πάντες δισμύριοι μν ποθανεν, μύριοι δ λναι ζντες. Repeated in Appian Parth., p. 66.

^{page 221 note 2} Pliny, , N. H. vi. xvi. 18.Google Scholar—“Sequitur regio Margiane, apricitalis inclytie, sola in eo tracto vitifera, undique inclusa montibus amœnis … et ipsa contra Parthiæ fractura sita: in qua Alexander Alexandriam condiderat. Qua diruta a barbaris, Antiochus Seleuci Alius, eodem loco restituit Syriam; nam interfluente Margo, qui corrivatur in Zotale, is maluerat illam Antiochiam appellari. TJrbis amplitudo circumitur circuitu stadiis lxx; in hanc Orodes Romanos Crassiana clade captos deduxit.”

The references in Vell. Paterculus ii. 82, and Floras iv. 10, only go to show how mercifully the captives were treated, inasmuch as they were freely allowed to serve in the Parthian ranks. Justin, xlii. cap. v. affirms that the prisoners of both the armies of Crassus and Antony were collected and restored, with the standards, in b.c. 20, but this statement probably refers only to those who were within easy call; and the thirty-three years' residence in the distant valleys of the Indian Caucasus may well have reconciled the then surviving remnant of Crassus's force to their foreign home and new domestic ties. See also Suetonius, in Augusto, c. xxi., in Tiberio, e. ix.

^{page 221 note 3} Ἀντιόχεια καλουμένη Ἔνυδρος, or Antiochia irrigua, was distant 537 schœni, by the Parthian royal road, from Ctesiphon, or Madain, on the Tigris: in continuation of the same highway, it was 30 schœni N.N.E. of Ἀλεξάνδρεια ν Ἀρείοις or Alexandria Ariana, the modern “Herát,” from whence the route proceeded by Farrah and the Lake of Zaranj to Síkohah, the Σακασταν Σακν Σκυθν or Sacastana Sacarum Scytharum, and hence to Bust and Ἀλεξανδρόπολις, μητρόπολις Ἀραχωσίας, or the modern Kandahár.—C. Müller, Geographi Græci Minores (Paris, pp. xci. 252, and Map No. x.).

Merv-ul-rúd was selected as the seat of government of Khorasán on the Arab conquest, in preference to the more northern Merv or Merv Sháhjahán—both which names are to be found on the initial Arabico-Pahlavi coins of Selim bin Zíád and Abdullah Hazim, in 63 a.h. (J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. p. 293, and XIII. p. 404). The early Arabian geographers, who officially mapped-out every strategic and commercial highway, tell us that important routes conducted the merchant or traveller from Merv-ul-rúd eastwards, by Tálikán, Farayáb and Maimana, to Balkh, whence roads branched-off to the southward, to Bamián, and by other lines to Andarábah, Parwán, and Kábul.

While Herát once reached, by the direct main line to the south, offered endless facilities for the dispersion of the new settlers in the six or seven roads which focussed in the centre formed by that ancient city. (See Sprenger's Post- und Reiserouten des Orients, maps 4, 5; Khanikof, M. N., “Asie centrale,” Paris, 1861Google Scholar, map; Ferrier, 's Caravan Journeys, London, 1857, map.)Google Scholar

^{page 222 note 1} Milesne Crassi oonjuge barbara, etc.—Horace, , Od. iii. 5. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 222 note 2} A very suggestive indication has been preserved, in later authors, about the white-blood claimed by the ruling races of Badakhshán, Darwáz, Kuláb, Shighnán, Wakhán, Chitrál, Gilgit, Swát, and Bálti.—Burnes, J.A.S.B. vol. ii. p. 305; J.R.A.S. Vol. VI. p. 99; Marco Polo, cap. xxix. Yule's edit. i. p. 152. See also, for Kanishka's power in these parts, Thsang, Hiouen, Mémoires, i.pp. 42, 104, 172, 199.Google Scholar

^{page 223 note 1} Colebrooke, , Essays, vol. ii. p. 340.Google Scholar Wilford, Asiatic Researches, vol. x. pp. 55, 101, etc. Reinaud, Mem. sur l'Inde, pp. 332, etc. Whitney, , Lunar Zodiac, 1874, p. 371Google Scholar- Kern, , Preface to “Brihat Sanhitá,” p. 40, etc.Google Scholar

^{page 223 note 2} J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. o.s. p. 272, and Vol. III. N.S. p. 266. Prinsep, 's Essays, vol. ii. p. 171.Google Scholar

^{page 223 note 3} Sanskrit Literature, p. 245.

^{page 223 note 4} xxxiii. 13.

^{page 223 note 5} International Numis. Orient., Mr. Head, p. 30.

^{page 223 note 6} Journ. Boy. As. Soc. Vol. XX. p. 122.

^{page 223 note 7} Gen. Cunningham, J.A.S.B., 1845, p.435. Coin of Araeikro (No. 23, Pl. II.).

^{page 223 note 8} Coin in British Museum.

^{page 224 note 1} Numismatic Chronicle, N.S. vol. xii. 1872, p. 113. My “Sassanians in Persia” (Trübner, 1873), p. 43.Google Scholar

^{page 224 note 2} The faith or dominant creed of the three brothers, Kanerki, Ooerki, and Vasudeva (Hushka, Jushha, Kanishka), or that of their subjects, may be tested by the devices of the Peshawar hoard of their coins.

This table is confined to the list of 93 specimens, selected from the total Pesháwar find of 524 coins, as numismatic examples for deposit in the British Museum. The 60 coins brought home by Sir Bartle Frere from the same trouvaille, for the Indian Government, do not add any varieties to these lists.

^{page 226 note 1} Muir, , Sanskrit Texts, vol. v. pp. 58, 72, 76, 120Google Scholar, etc.; Haug, , Sacred Writings of the Parsees, pp. 226, 230.Google Scholar

^{page 227 note 1} “Agni is the god of fire, the Ignis of the Latins, the Ogni of the Slavonians. He is one of the most prominent deities of the Rig-Veda. ‥ Agni is not, like the Greek Hephaitos, or the Latin Vulcan, the artificer of the gods.”—Muir, , vol. v. p. 199.Google Scholar

^{page 227 note 2} Journ. A.S. Bengal, 1840, p. 455; Ind. Alt. (new edition), vol. ii. p. 839; Wilson, , Ariana Antiqua, p. 366.Google Scholar

^{page 227 note 3} Ar. An. pl. xii. fig. 3; Journ. A.S. Bengal, 1836, pl. xxxvi. 1; Prinsep's Essays, pl. xxii. fig. 1; Journ. R.A.S. Vol. XII. o.s. Pl. VI. Fig. 1. I must add that the best specimens of the coins extant give the orthography of ΟΡΛΑΓΝΟ, which, however, has hitherto been universally accepted as ΟΡΔΑΓΝΟ;—a rectification which the parallel frequency of the prefix to other names largely encourages.

^{page 227 note 4} Haug, , p. 194Google Scholar; see also pp. 193–232.

^{page 227 note 5} Lassen, , J.A.S.B., 1840, p. 454Google Scholar; Wilson, , Ariana Antiqua, p. 369Google Scholar; Muir, S. Texts, vol. v. p. 143Google Scholar, “Váyu does not occupy a very prominent place in the RigVeda.”

^{page 228 note 1} Hang, , p. 180Google Scholar; Khurshíd and Mab. Yashts.

“The first yasht is devoted to the sun, which is called in Zend hvare kkshaêta = ‘sun the King,’ the second to the moon called mâonh = .”

“Je célèbre, j'invoque Ahura et Mithra, élevés, immortels, purs; et les astres, créations saintes et célestes; et l'astre Taschter (Tistrya), lumineux, resplendissant; et la lune, qui garde le germe du taureau; et le soleil, souverain, coursier rapide, œil d'hura Mazda; Mithra, chef des provinces.”—Burnouf, , Yasna, , p. 375.Google Scholar

^{page 228 note 2} Creutzer, , p. xxivGoogle Scholar, fig. 330, etc.; Maury, , Hist, des Religions, Paris, 1859, vol. iii. p. 127Google Scholar, “Sin ou Lune des Assyriens ‥ avait une caractère hermaphrodite. Cette première explication nous donne deux divinités, placées, pour le dire en passant, dans l'ordre hiérarchique, Ahura et Mithra. Mais la séparation même de ces deux mots, ahuraêibya et mithraêibya, pourrait faire soupçonner qu'il est question en cet endroit de deux Mithras, et que ahura doit être regardé comme un titre: ‘j'invoque, je célèbre les deux seigneurs Mithras.’ Ces deux Mithras seraient sans doute Mithra mâle et Mithra femelle, dont le culte était, selon les Grecs, anciennement célèbre dans la Perse.”—Burnouf, , Yaçna, p. 351Google Scholar; Zend-Avesta, , vol. i. p. 87.Google Scholar

^{page 228 note 3} Muir, , Sanskrit Texts, vol. v. p. 155Google Scholar, “The two sun gods celebrated in the hymns of the Rig Veda,” “Súrya and Savitṛi.”

^{page 228 note 4} “Thou, Súrya, outstrippest all in speed.”—Wilson, Rig-Veda, vol. i. p. 131.Google Scholar

^{page 228 note 5} As in note 1, Mr. Muir also considers that some passages in the Rig-Veda symbolize the Sun under the form of a horse.—Texts, vol. v. p. 158. Prof. Göldstucker has further traced the derivation of the name of the Aswins from “aswa, meaning literally the pervader, then the quick; then the horse, which becomes the symbol of the sun.”—J.R.A.S. Vol. II. N.S. p. 14; Mrs. Manning, Ancient India, vol. i. p. 9. I am fully aware that a coin is extant bearing the letters ΛΡΟΟΑСΠΟ (Αρθοασπο ?), but the use of the aspa “horse” in this case is not necessarily conclusive against the interpretation of the independent transcript above suggested.

^{page 229 note 1} See J.R.A.S. Vol. XIII. o.s. p. 415, etc. We have now new and clear examples of the true Atúrpam. See also Haug, p. 250. “Soshyantos and Aṇgiras = Atharvans.”

^{page 229 note 2} J.R.A.S. Vol. XV. p. 159.

^{page 229 note 3} Haug, , pp. 178, 179.Google Scholar

^{page 229 note 4} J.A.S. Bengal, vol. iii. 449; v. 266. Masson, “Travels in Balúchistán.” London, 1844, vol. iv. p. 391. Ariana Antiqua, p. 362.

^{page 229 note 5} Strabo xi. viii. 4: “They (the Persians) erected there a temple to Anaïtis, and the gods Omanus (Ὠμανο κα Ἀναδάτου) and Anandatus, Persian deities who have a common altar.” xv. iii. 15: “The same customs are observed in the temples of Anaïtis and of Omanus. Belonging to these temples are shrines, and a wooden statue of Omanus is carried in procession. These we have seen ourselves.”

^{page 230 note 1} Burnouf, , Yasna, , pp. 323, 377, 473.Google Scholar

^{page 230 note 2} J.R.A.S. Vol. IV. n.s. p. 518. ϒΡΚΩΔΟϒ, ΟΡΔΗΘΡΟϒ, ΜΑΚΑΡΟϒ. See also Num. Chron. n.s. vol. xiii. p. 229.

^{page 230 note 3} See coin No. 7, J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. o.s. Plate IV., and J.A.S. Bengal, vol. iv. fig. 7, pl. xxxviii., and Prinsep's Essays, vol. ii. pl. xxii. fig. 7, wherein ΟΚΡΟ Ṣiva appears upon the reverse in company with Nana.

^{page 231 note 1} The coin most relied on to prove the intention of the terms “ΟΜ ΒΟΔ or perhaps ΟΔΙ ΒΟΔ; either Aum Buddha or Adi Buddha,” published by General Cunningham in 1845 (J.A.S. Bengal, p. 435, plate 2, fig. 3), presents a central figure on the reverse exactly like the outline of the ΑΡΑΕΙΧΡΟ of the present plate. His Nos. 6 and 7, as I have remarked, though clear in the definition of the figures of Buddha, are of coarse fabric, of far later date than the associate ΟΑΔΟ of the same plate, and finally, the letters of the legends are so badly formed and so straggling as to be utterly untrustworthy in establishing any definite reading. The other limited examples of this class of coins will be found in Ariana Antiqua, pl. xiii. figs. 1, 2, 3. Here, again, the figures are incontestable, but Prof. Wilson did not pretend to interpret the broken legends. Prinsep figured a coin of this description in fig. 11, pl. xxv. J.A.S. Bengal, vol. iii.; Prinsep, 's Essays, pl. vii.Google Scholar This coin was noticed, but left uninterpreted by Lassen in his paper in the J.A.S. Bengal, 1840, p. 456.

^{page 231 note 2} Amid the cities which were supposed to have claims to the honour of becoming the birthplace of Sákya Muni, Mathurá is rejected because its kings had hereditary ideas inconsistent with the new faith, i.e. adhered to the old, Jainism? “D'autres dirent: La ville de Mathoura, riche, éntendue, florissante, et animée par une population nombreuse, toute remplie d'hommes; ce palais du roi Soubáhou. ‥ D'autres dirent: Elle ne convient pas non plus; pourquoi? Parce que ce roi est né dans une famille où les vues fausses sont héréditaires, et qu'il règne sur des hommes pareils aux barbares.”—Laiita Vistara, Foucaux, , p. 25.Google Scholar

^{page 232 note 1} General Cunningham was fully aware of the value of these discoveries, in their bearing upon the associate creeds of Jainism and Buddhism. That he should have ventured so far independently in the direction of the leading argument of this paper is highly encouraging. His remarks are to the following effect:

“This is perhaps one of the most startling and important revelations that has been made by recent researches in India. It is true that, according to Jaina books, their faith had continuously flourished, under a succession of teachers, from the death of Mahávíra in b.c. 527 down to the present time. Hitherto, however, there was no tangible evidence to vouch for the truth of this statement. But the Kankáli mound at Mathurá has now given us the most complete and satisfactory testimony that the Jaina religion, even before the beginning of the Christian era, must have been in a condition almost as rich and flourishing as that of Buddha.

“The Kankáli mound is a very extensive one, and the number of statues of all sizes, from the colossal downwards, which it has yielded, has scarcely been surpassed by the prolific returns of Buddhist sculpture from the Jail mound. But, as not more than one-third of the Kankáli mound has yet been thoroughly searched, it may be confidently expected that its complete exploration will amply repay all the cost and trouble of the experiment.”—General Cunningham, Arch. Rep. vol. iii. p. 46.

^{page 232 note 2} Albírúní (a.d. 1030) has furnished us with a description of the forms of many of the Indian idols, derived from the text of Varáha-Mihira (sixth cent, a.d.). He defines the contrast between the statues of Buddha and those of the Arhats or Jaina saints in the following terms: “Si tu fais la statue de Djina, c'est-à-dire Bouddha, tâche de lui donner une figure agréable et des membres bien faits. Il doit avoir les paumes de la main et le dessous des pieds en forme de nénufar. Tu le représenteras assis, ayant des cheveux gris, et respirant un air de bonté, comme s'il était le père des créatures. S'il s'agit de donner à Bouddha la figure d'un arhanta, il faut en faire un jeune homme nu, beau de figure, et d'une physionomie agréable. It aura les deux mains appuyées sur les genoux,” etc.—Reinaud, Memoires sur l'Inde, p. 121. Dr. Kern's translation, direct from the original Sanskrit text, gives: “The god of the Jainas is figured naked, young, handsome, with a calm countenance, and arms reaching down to the knees; his breast is marked with the Çrivatsa figure.”—J.R.A S. Vol. VI. n.s. p. 328. See also Wilson, , J.A.S. Bengal, vol. i. p. 4Google Scholar; Burnouf, , vol. i. p. 312.Google Scholar I omitted to notice in my previous references to nude statues (pp. 166,170, 171, etc.), the remarkable expressions made use of by Calanus to Onesicritus; after “bidding him to strip himself naked, if he desired to hear any of his doctrine,” he adds, “you should not hear me on any other condition though you came from Jupiter himself.” Plutarch in Alexander. The exaction of these conditions seems to point to the tenets of Jainism.

While on the subject of discriminating points, I add to the information, outlined at p. 161, a curious account of the modern Jaina reverence for the Footprints of their saints: “Shading the temple (of Vásinghji—one of the five snake brethren, at Thán) is a large Ráyaṇa tree—the close foliage of small dark green oval leaves, which makes the shade so grateful, apparently having had to do with its being consecrated as a sacred tree in Western India, where it is specially dedicated by the Jainas to their first Tírthankara—Rishabhanátha—the patron saint of Ṣatruñ-jaya—no shrine to him being complete without a Ráyaṇa tree overshadowing his charana or footprints.”—MrBurgess, , Arch. Rep. 1875, p. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 233 note 1} Xenophanes, colophonii Carminum Reliquiæ, by Karsten, Simon (Brussels, 1830), p. vi.Google Scholar His interpretation of one of the leading passages of the Greek text runs:—“v. At mortales opinantur natos esse Deos, mortalique habitu et forma et figura præditos.” And vi. continues: “Si vero manus haberent boves vel leones, aut pingere manibus et fabricari eadem quæ homines possent, ipsi quoque Deorum formas pingerent figurasque formarent tales, quali ipsorum quisque præditus sit, equi equis, boves autem bobus similes.”—p. 41. Pliny, , xxxiv. p. 9Google Scholar, under iconicœ, adds the Greek practice is, not to cover any part of the “body” of their statues. Müller, Max, Sanskrit Literature, vol. ii. p. 388.Google Scholar

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Art. VIII.—The Early Faith of Aṣoka

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