English
I have generally inclined to the Sanskrit form, in the principal words, as being at once the most simple and the best known. The name of the founder of Budhism has been spelled by European authors in the following modes, and probably in many others that have not come under my notice : Fo, Fod, Foe, Fohe, Fohi, Fho, Fuh, Futh, Pot, Pott, Poot, Poota, Pootah, Poth, Poti, Pout, Phuta, Wud, Bod, Bot, Bud, But, Buth, Budh, Buddh, Bood, Boodh, Boudh, Bhood, Baoth, Bauth, Budo, Buto, Budu, Booda, Bodd8^ Budda, Butta, Budha, Buddha, Budhu, Buddhu, Budho, Biiddho, Buddow, Budhow, Bud- hoo, Budsdo, Buhda, Boudha, Boudhu, Boudhoo, Bouddha, Bouddhu, Boutta, and Bouddho. The form Buddha is ety- mologically the most correct.* The name G6tama is a patro- nymic ; in Chinese, it is Kiu tan ; in Tibetan, Geoutam ; and in Manchou and Mogul, Goodam. The origin of the word S&kya has been already explained, page 137. There breaking down of the old routine of the Egyptian kings, and the display of a new policy towards foreigners by Fsammetichus ; the reformation of Zoroaster ; the snbjagation of the Asiatic Greeks by Lydia and Persia : the combined action of the large mass of Greeks under Sparta; the first diffusion and potent influence of distinct religious brotherhoods, mystic rites, and expiatory ceremonies ; the agency of the Orphic sect ; the founding of the most distant colony of the Greeks in the western regions, MsAsalia ; the breaking up of the power of Sybaris, and the march of the Oscan population from Middle Italy towards the south ; the burning of the Delphian temple $ the accession of reisistratus ; the first application of writing to the poems of the Greeks, and the rise of their first prose writer, Pherekydes, of Syros ; and the beginning of the exquisite statuary and architecture of the Greeks. * Much erroneous speculation has originated in confounding Budha, the son of Soma, and regent of the planet Mercury, ** he who knows/* the intelUgent, with Buddha, any deified mortal, or "he by whom truth is known."— Wilson's Vishnu Pur&na. 368 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. are several legends to account for the giving of the name Sidhdrtta to the infant prince ; but they are at variance with each other. The epithet 0-mi-to, used by the Chinese, is probably a corruption of amirta, a word which signifies deathless, and is used to designate nirwana. The word Sa- moua Godanii in use among the Siamese, is the same as Sra- mana 66tama. There can be little doubt that the founder of the religious system known as Budhism was a prince, and that he was bom in the region called Magadha ; but the illustrious genealogy that he has received is less to be relied upon, and it is evi- dent that the dominions of his father were circumscribed. Setting aside the miraculous events that are said to have been, attendant upon his infancy and youth, and the enonnous ex- aggerations that are manifest in almost every sentence, there runs through the narrative a semblance of reality ; and the reasons why he renounced the world, the austerities he prac- tised in the wilderness, and his warfare with the powers of evil, have a parallel in the history of almost every ascetic saint whose life has been recorded. In some accounts, each onset of Wasawartti Mdra is said to have been repelled by one particular pAramitd virtue, the whole of the ten being taken in order. I have not met with any eastern work that is exclusively confined to the biography of 'G6tama, or that professes to present it in its completeness. The incidents of his early life are repeated again and again, in nearly the same order, and with little variety of expression ; but after he has assumed the high office of the Budha, the consecutiveness of the narrative ceases ; and in the arrangement of the preced- ing legends, I have had to exercise my own judgment as to the order in which they ought to appear. It is only occa- sionally that an allusion is given, serving as a guide to the chronology of the event. The following extract from the Sadharmmaratnakdr^ is the only statement of the kind with which I am acquainted in any native author. " In the first year of his Budhaship, G6tama was at Isipatana, near Be- VII. LEGENDS OF G6TAMA BUDHA. 369 nares ; the second, third, and fourth, at W^uwana, near Ea- jagaha; the fifth, in the Kiit&g&ra hall, near Wis&l&; the sixth, in the garden Kosambiya, near Kosamb® ; the seventh, in the garden Pundarika, in the d^wa-16ka of Sekra ; the eighth, at the rock Sungsum&ra (said by Turnour to be sy- nonymous with Kapilawastu) ; the ninth, in the garden Gh6- sika, near Kosambse ; the tenth, in a cave at the foot of a sal tree, in the forest of Parali ; the eleventh, in a garden belonging to the bi*ahman village of Nalaka ; the twelfth, in the hall Naldru, near the brahman village of W^ranja; the thirteenth, at the rock Cheliya, on the invitation of the d^wa who inhabited it; the fourteenth, at the J^tawana wih&ra, near Sewet; the fifteenth, in a cave of jewels connected with the garden Nigr6dha, near Kapilawastu ; the sixteenth, in the city of Alow ; the seventeenth, eigh- teenth, and nineteenth, at the W^luwana wihara; the six following years in the mansion called Mig&ram&tu, pre- sented to him by Wisikhd ; after which he had no fixed re- sidence, but went about from place to place, preaching the bana, and spreading his religion." This account appears to be taken from Budhagosha's Commentary on the Budha- wansa. It is elsewhere stated that he sojourned at Sewet for the space of nine years., and at Saketu sixteen. In the twenty-ninth year of his age, Gotama became a re- cluse ; six years elapsed between this period and his attain- ment of the Budhaship ; and he continued in the exercise of its privileges forty-five years. His first visit to Ceylon is represented as having taken place in the ninth month after he became Budha. Tliis legend does not appear in the re- gular order of the nantitive, in any of the native works I have read. From its position, it has the appearance of being an after-thought ; and I was long under the impression that it was a modem invention, and probably of only local recep- tion. But in this I was mistaken ; as it was known nearly a thousand years ago to the people of Tibet. " The second treatise or sutra," says Csoma KorOsi, " in the fifth volume of the Mdo (from leaves 81 to 298) is entitled in Sanskrit 2 B 370 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. A'rya Langkdvatara maha yana sutra. A venerable sutra of high principles (or speculation) on the visiting of Lankd. This was delivered at the request of the lord of Lanka, by Shakya, when he was in the city of Lanka, on the top of the Malayar* mountain, on the sea shore, together with many priests and bodhisatwas. It was in a miraculous manner that Shdkya visited Lanka. It is evident from the text that both the visitors and the pretended master of Lanka are fancied beings ; but there is in the Langkavatara sutra a copious ac- count of the Budhistic metaphysical doctrine, with some dis- cussion on each. From leaves 298 to 456 there is again an explanation of the Langkdvat&ra sutra, containing (as it is stated) the essence of the doctrine of all the Tath&gatas. The Langkivatdra sutra was translated by order of the Ti- betan king Eal-pa-chan, in the ninth centuiy. No Indian pandit is mentioned. It is stated only that it was translated by Lotsava Gelong, who added also the commentary (which must be the last part of the above-mentioned sutra) of a Chinese professor or teacher, called Wen-hi." It is stated by Hodgson that the Langkavatdra is regarded by the Nepaulese as the fourth dharmma. ''The fourth (dharmma) is the Lankavatar, of 300 slokas, in which it is written how Ha- vana, lord of Lank&, having gone to the Malayagiri moun- tain, and there heard the history of the Budhas from Sakya Sinha, obtained BoddhynAna." A considerable number of the legends I have translated are known to the Tibetans, as we learn from Csoma Korosi ;t to the Nepaulese, as we learn from Brian Hodgson ; ( or to the Chinese, as we learn from Remusat, Elaproth, and Lan- dresse.§ The sacred books of Burma^ Siam, and Ceylon, are * Malaya ia said by Professor Wilson to be the southern portion of the Western Ghauts. t Asiatic Beaearches, toI. xx. — Journal Bengal As. Soc. passim. X Illustrations of the Literature and Beligion of the Buddhists, by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., B.c.s. Scrampore, 1841. § Fo£ Kou8 Ei, ou Relation des Royaumes Bouddhiques : Yoyaffe dans Is Tartaric, dans 1' Afghanis!