English
In process of time, after 706,787 generations of princes from Sammata, a prince Sudhudama was born, who became ' It must be borne in mind that the title of " Buddha" is applied to Sakya only after his enlightenment, jor complete inspiration. It corre- sponds with the Greek 6 intpuniaixivos. Compare the " Life of Joasaph," in the Paradise of Metaphrastes, where Joasaph, the counterpart of Sakya, is repeatedly called by this title. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 127 the father of " Sakya Buddha.^^ When stripped of its legendary character, this story seems to imply that a refugee family of Sakyas settled at a place called Kapila/ or accord- ing to Singhalese version, Kimbul (vat), in the neighbour- hood of the present Gorackpur, and maintained themselves there as a separate people. But who were these Sakyas ? Several indirect considerations would lead to the supposition that they were a branch of the great Scythian race (Sakas), who about the time of Buddha's birth were pushing them- selves into the southern portions of Asia and Europe. The Scythian invasion of Western Asia was about 625 B.C., and Sakya's birth, according to the generally received date, was 623 B.C. The Scythians, on this occasion, over-ran Assyria, and reached as far at Ascalon,- and for eighteen years they seem to have been supreme throughout this territory. It is possible, therefore, that one branch of these invaders may have penetrated at a somewhat earlier date across the mountains into North India, and there settled. And if so they might have called their district " the Royal city" (Kambul, or Kambalik, the city of the Khan), which in time became turned into Kapila, or the Singhalese Kimbul, That these Sakyas were famous archers^ will be evident from the legendary account of Sakya Sinha, hereafter given. We are told, moreover, by Herodotus, that one of their chief pecuHarities was their regard for the tombs of their deceased kings. "We Sc3^thians have neither towns nor cultivated lands," said their king to Darius, "if, however, you must come to blows with us, speedily look you now, there are our fathers' tombs, seek them out and attempt to meddle with them, then ye shall see whether or no we will fight with you."^ Compare ^ Although Kapila is generally explained as equivalent to the ' ' yellow soil," the Chinese Tika interprets it as " the city of excellent merit or virtue." 2 Herod, i, 103, 106. * The Scythians were so called according to Lenormant (vol. ii. p. 127), from the Gothic word " skiatha," an archer. ^ Herod, iv, 127. A manual of Ancient Hist, of the East, ii, 13S. 128 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST with this the particular directions left by Sakya as to his funeral obsequies, and the subsequent erection of mounds and topes over his relics. He was to be buried " accordinj^ to the old system of the wheel Kings." Now if we compare the actual records of his cremation and subsequent burial, with what we read respecting the burial of the Scythian kings in Herodotus (iv. 71, 72), there will be found a con- siderable resemblance in the broad outline. Burnouf has already shown^ that no such system of burial is recognised in the Brahman ritual, or is indiorenous in India. From this he argues that it was an improbable request for Buddha to make. But if, as we suppose, this custom of burial was derived from foreign sources, and the request was merely the expression of a wish well understood by those familiar with the old custom of the Sakas, the probability of the truth of the narrative is much greater. But it may be asked, who were the Wheel Kings, or Chakravarttins, to whom Sakha alluded in his dying command ? The ideal meaning of the word is, '^ a monarch who rules all within the chakra of rocks supposed to surround the world,^^ or in other words, ''a Universal Monarch." This idea of universal power corresponds to the proud Title so frequently met with in connection with the later Scythian kings who invaded and conquered Bactria and the neighbouring- provinces ; for example, the coins of the second Kadphises, on which we find this Arian legend, " Coin of the great King, King or KingSj Ruler of the whole world, the mighty Lord Kapisa."- They pretended to have no rivals in the world, and claimed the title. Universal Rulers. Hence, as the symbol of this authority, the tombs of these kings, after their cremation and certain recognised ceremonies, were surrounded by a circular range of rocks or stones, to signify as much, that they were Kings of the Earth. If this be admitted, wo shall at once see the force of Sakya's request that he should be buried according to the rules of the Chakra varttins, that is, 1 Inti'oduct. to Indian Puid. p]). ;152, ss. -' Journal of the K.A.S., vol. xx, part 2. j). 2o9. SCEIPTURES PROM THE CHINESE. 129 that his remains after undergoing certain prescribed cere- monies, should be burned, and his tomb erected in the method known among the Sakas, or Sakyas, viz., by raising over his ashes a vast mound of earth, and surrounding it by the usual emblem of authority, the circle of stones. How fully this rule was attended to in the erection of topes or stiipas, is too well known to need illustration. These topes, were at first only mounds of earth, included within a circular wooden rail, or a ring of steles, as we find in Ceylon. But when the munificence of Asoka was brought to bear on the subject, these old and barbarous mounds were destroyed, and Topes faced with stone, in many cases magnificently wrought and ornamented, came into date. But in these the original idea was never lost sight of — they are all designed to indi- cate the authority of a universal monarch ; not a monarch only of the world, but according to the expanded creed of Buddhism at the time of Asoka, lord of " the Three Worlds" also, the World of Men, signified by the square plinth on which the stupa or dagoba rests, surrounded by the circular rail ; the World of Devas, signified by the dome, or vault of heaven ; and the World of Space, signified by the kchetra above kchetra, that rises from the Tee, ending in the symbol of the boundless empyrsean, the three-forked flame, or trisul. This was the expanded form of the Scythic tomb, but the idea is the same, the idea of universal power ; in the case of the barbarian kings, power over the nations of the earth, in the case of Buddha, power over the minds and destinies of creatures throughout the boundless field of creation . It is not improbable, therefore, that the Sakya race^ in India was one foreign to the soil, and that the extraordinary person who founded the religion that has exercised such a marked influence in the religious history of the world, be- ' It is curious that the origin of the Manichsean Doctrine should be traced back to one " Scythianus" (Saka), whose disciple, Terebinthus, took the name of Buddha. I believe the legend of Sakya was perverted into this history of Scythianus. K 130 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST longed to tlie same race as the conquerors of Assyria and Darius^ and subsequently of the whole Eastern World, under Timur and Ghengiz Khan. The principal incidents of Sakya's life are found embodied in the following work of Wong Puh. It is probably a copy of the first records^ brought from India, respecting the founder of this religion. It claims a semi-canonical authority as belonging to the traditional or smriti class of works. It is composed in the usual style of the earlier schools, viz., by way of brief aphorisms, containing the germ of some important truth or incident, illustrated by copious notes of a much later date. [Wong Puh himself lived under the third emperor of the Tang dynasty, 640-684 a.d., his com- mentators evidently belonged to a much later date, probably the fifteenth century.] THE LEGEND OP SAKYA PROM THE CHINESE. I am about to declare the traditional records'- of Sakya Tathagata. With respect to the essentially^ pure and uni- versally diffused body, that is incapable either of beginning or end. But by the constraining power of his great love, he was led to assume a human form, and to be born in the world. For a time he had rested in the Tusita Heaven, and was known there as Prabhapala Bodhisatwa. Thence lie ' From which the other expanded works (vaipulya) were made, as, e.g. the Lalita Vistara. ^ The commentator explains this as equivalent to the Sanscrit " Smriti.