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58 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY takes the sun six months to change from its northern to its southern path, the moon undergoes its entire cycle of change in one month. With regard to the stars, we are told that they are innumerable, there being 80,000 of especial note. They are made of a very pure material, and are inhabited by devas belonging to the realm of the Four Great Kings. In ancient days the stars were arranged into a number of different constellations, a certain number being assigned to each country, whereby it and its inhabitants might be protected. Consequently, each quarter has its own protecting stars ; in the east six asterisms, and in the other three quarters seven each. There are, in addition, nine planets, counting the sun and moon as two. Apart from these last two, there are l : — 1. Angaraka = Mars. 2. Budha = Mercury. 3. Brhaspati = Venus. 4. Sukra = Venus. 5. Sanaiscara = Saturn. 6 and 7 Rahu and Ketu, the two great Asuras, some times called the ascending and descending mode respectively. As regards the size of these stars, we find widely differing accounts. According to the Lokaprajnapti, the largest are 18 krosas, the smallest 3 krosas, the average size being 10 or 12 krosas. The Signs of the Zodiac. Along with other astronomical ideas, the Buddhists adopted the usual enumeration of the twelve signs of the solar, and the twenty-seven or twenty-eight signs of the lunar zodiac. Strangely enough the latter was much better known. I have found no mention of the solar zodiac in any old Hinayana 1 M.Vy. 225. Cf. M.B. 24. COSMIC GEOGEAPHY 59 work.1 In the Sannipata Sutra (a late Mahayana work) the twelve signs of the solar zodiac are : — 1. A red ram = Aries. 2. A white bull = Taurus. 3. A man and a woman = Virgo. 4. A red crab = Cancer. 5. A red lion = Leo. 6. A black virgin = Gemini. 7. A pair of scales = Libra. 8. A black elk = Scorpio. 9. A centaur = Sagittarius. 10. A sea monster = Capricorn. 11. A white man = Aquarius. 12. Two fish = Pisces. The fact that there must have been some historical connexion between the eastern and western zodiacs is obvious. The twenty-eight members of the lunar zodiac are also found among the early Hindus, Arabians, and Chinese. Their Sanskrit names are as follows 2 : — 1. Krttika. 15. Anuradha. 2. Rohim. 16. Jyestha. 3. Mrgasiras. 17. Mulam. 4. Ardra. 18. Purvasadha. 5. Punarvasu. 19. Uttarasadha. 6. Pusya. 20. Sravana. 7. Aslesa. 21. Abhijit. 8. Magha. 22. gatabhisaj. 9. Purvaphalguni. 23. Dhanistha. 10. Uttaraphalguni. 24. Purvabhadrapada. 11. Hasta. 25. Uttarabhadrapada. 12. Citra. 26. Revatl. 13. Svati. 27. AsvinL 14. Visakha. 28. Bharam. 1 But M.B. 23 gives it for Ceylon. 1 M.Vy. 225, cf. M.B. 24, on the influence of these signs F.T. 32-17a. 60 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY 3. THE DIVISIONS OF THE THREE DHATUS The Relation between the Dhdtus and the Earth. Having thus briefly disposed of the receptacle or material world, we are now free to examine the spacial relation that exists between the earth and the various divisions of the three dhatus. This may be expressed in the following way x : — The Arupa Dhdtu The four arupa heavens have no spacial abode, and, consequently, have no place in cosmic geography. The Rupa Dhdtu The sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen heavens of the Rupa Dhatu are all arranged in tiers of three or more, high above the earth. The Kama Dhdtu 1. The six Kama heavens. — Four are above the earth, and below the Rupa heavens. One is on the summit of Mount Meru. One is half-way down its sides. 2. Mankind inhabit the four continents. 3. The Pretas are sometimes just under the earth, some times on its surface. 4. The Animals are sometimes in the air or on the earth, but mostly in the water. 5. The Hells are for the most part in the bowels of the earth, directly under Jambudvipa. The prominent part which each of these divisions and sub divisions of the three dhatus has played in Buddhist speculation renders necessary a somewhat more detailed explanation of each. Kama Dhdtu. The Hells.2 Buddhism postulates an infinite number of hells, with various degrees of torture according to the amount of evil 1 A.K. 8-la. 2 A.K. 11-56 ; N.A. 31-5a; D.A. 976 ff. = Y.B. 4-14a. THE DIVISIONS OF THE THREE DHATUS 61 wrought by the person concerned. In addition to certain hells outside the limits of this Cakravala, these Narakas, or places of suffering, may be grouped under four heads, viz. : — 1. The 84,000 smaller Lokantarika, or frontier hells, situated upon the face of the earth, such as (a) on the mountains, (6) on the water, (c) in the desert. 2. The dark hells, eight in number, placed on the outskirts of the Cakravala ; also called the vivifying hells, because any being dying in the first of these hells, is reborn in the second, and so on. 3. The cold hells, eight in number, situated either on the outskirts of the earth, or underneath the southern continent. 4. The hot hells,1 also eight in number. All accounts agree in placing them under Jambudvipa. We find but casual mention of the first two types of hell, so that we may pass them over in silence. The cold hells, also, are of less importance, but are sufficiently frequently enumerated to make their names important. They are 2 : — 1. Arbuda, where the cold is so great that the flesh breaks out in sores. 2. Nirarbuda, where the whole body swells and blisters from the cold. 3. Atata, where the culprit's lips are so frozen that he can utter but this one sound. 4. Hahava, where only this sound can be uttered. 5. Huhuva, where no articulate sound is possible, but the cold wind in the throat imitates this sound. 6. Utpcda, where the cold sores resemble the buds of the blue lotus (utpala). 7. Padma, where the cold sores become red and inflamed like the red lotus (padma). 8. Mahdpadma or Pundanka, where the sores resemble great lotuses (mahapadma) or white lotuses (pundarika). 1 These are the only ones commonly known in the South. Cf. M.B. 27. 2 M.Vy. 326. 62 MANUAL OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY According to most accounts, including the Abhidharma Kosa, these hells are underneath the southern continent, near the hot hells, and ranged shaft-like one underneath another, but in such a way that the middle or fourth hell is widest, and the top and bottom hell the narrowest. Other accounts claim that these cold hells are on the outer circum ference of the world, between the two Cakravalas. The hot hells are as follows : — 1. Samjwa, where the victims tear one another's flesh by means of metal claws, and are then destroyed by fire, but are revived by a cool wind in order to undergo further torture. The reward of evil action as regards the body, tongue, and mind. 2. Kalasutra, the hell of black ropes, so called because the victims are loaded with fiery chains. The reward of evil actions against one's parents, a monk, or the Buddha, etc. 3. Samghdta, or the hell of collected misery, the reward of accumulated sins, especially arising from the three fold bonds : ignorance, lust, and anger. 4. Raurava, or the hell of lamentations, from the shrieks uttered by the victims thrust into fiery iron cauldrons. The reward of murderers and poisoners. 5. Mahdraurava, the hell of great lamentations, where similar but more intense forms of suffering to the preceding are undergone. The reward of heretics and malefactors. 6. Tdpana, the hell of burning heat, where the victims are burnt in iron ovens. The reward of those who have burnt living beings. 7. Pratdpana, the hell of extreme heat, where the victims are thrust in a lake of fire, and pierced with iron spikes when they attempt to escape. The reward of habitual malefactors and apostates. 8. Avid, or the non-intermittent hell, so called because there is no intermission in the suffering, and because THE DIVISIONS OF THE THREE DHATUS 63 the suffering is unmixed with any form of pleasure. The reward of the most serious offences. With regard to the location of these Narakas, the com mentaries say that immediately below the earth's surface there is an earthy loam of 500 yojanas depth, then another layer of white clay likewise 500 yojanas deep. Below this is Samjiva, and the six following hells, one under another, occupying in all the space between 1,000 and 19,000 yojanas below the surface of the southern continent.