English
In fulfilment of the above prediction (VyAkarava), he wrote hymns in praise of the Buddha’s virtues to the greatest extent of his literary powers. : zs He composed first a hymn consisting of four hundred slokas, and afterwards another of one hundred and fifty *®. He treats generally of the Six Paramitas, and expounds all the excellent qualities of the Buddha, the World-honoured One. These charming compositions are equal in beauty to the heavenly flowers, and the high principles which they contain rival in dignity the lofty peaks of a mountain. Consequently in India all who compose hymns imitate his style, considering him the father of literature. Even men like the Bodhisattvas Asahga and Vasubandhu admired him greatly. Throughout India every one who becomes a monk is taught Matrz- - 4eta’s two hymns as soon as he can recite the five and ten precepts (Sila), This course is adopted by both the Mahayana and Hinaydna schools. - There are six reasons for this. Firstly, these hymns enable us to know the Buddha’s great and profound virtues. Secondly, they show us how to compose verses. Thirdly, they ensure purity of language‘. ‘Fourthly, * I-tsing notes ‘ Matr7=mother, Ke/a—lad or child’ ? Lit. ‘his name had been foretold’ ® See above, p. 156, note 3 * Lit. ‘they cause the organ of speech or tongue to become purg,’ 158 A RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. XXXIL. the chest is expanded in singing them. Fifthly, by reciting them nervous- ness in an assembly is overcome. Sixthly, by their use life is prolonged, free from disease. After one is able to recite them, orfe proceeds to learn ‘other Satras. But these beautiful literary productions have not as yet been brought to China'. There are many who have written com- mentaries on them, nor are the imitations? of them few. Bodhisattva Gina himself composed such an imitation. He added one verse betore each of the one hundred and fifty verses, so that they became altogether three hundred verses, called the ‘Mixed’ hymns (probably Samyukta- prasamsa). A celebrated priest of the Deer Park, Sakyadeva® by name, again added one verse to each of Gina’s, and consequently they amounted to four hundred and fifty verses (slokas), called the ‘Doubly Mixed’ hymns. All those who compose religious poems take these for their patterns. Bodhisattva -Nagarguna wrote an epistle in verse which is called the Suhvillekha 4, meaning ‘Letter to an intimate friend ;’ it was dedicated * J-tsing sent home a translation of the 1g verses, together with our Record, as he says towards the end of this chapter. * This imitation may be ‘ Samasy4-verse,’ as M. Fujishima supposed; the text has x; which is the ‘imitation of a rhyme’ in China. * It may be Sakradeva, as M. Fujishima restored, but more likely Sakyadeva, as transcribed by I-tsing, who is very strict in Sanskrit words generally. It is not likely that he would use the same characters for both Sakya and Sakra, as the old translators did. See ‘ India, what can it teach us?’ note on ‘ Renaissance,’ p. 303. Ka4syapa also gives Sakyadeva in his Commentary. * This is a famous little poem of Nagdrguna. We have a Tibetan translation, as well as three Chinese translations. The date of the Tibetan seems to be uncertain, while the dates of the Chinese are quite certain; the first translation in a.p. 431 by Gusavarman (Nanjio’s Catal., No. 1464), the second in a.p. 434 by Sanghavarman (No. 1440), and the third in a.p. 673 by I-tsing himself, when he first arrived at TAmralipti, in India (No. 1441; here Napjio gives the date a. p. 700-712, for the date of I-tsing’s journey was not yet ascertained in his time). An English translation of the Tibetan, with some discussions, was published in the Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1886, pp. 1-31, by Dr. Wenzel, who has also brought out a German translation. Another English version, with the Chinese text, by Mr. 8, Beal (1892, Luzac & Co.). The Tibetan contains 123 verses, THE CEREMONY OF CHANTING. 159 to his old Danapati, named Gi-in-ta-ka (Getaka)!, a king in a great country in Southern India, who was styled So-to-pho-han-na (Sadva- hana’, or Satavahdna). The beauty of the writing is striking, and his and the Chinese 153; the number in Tibetan may probably represent that of the Sanskrit slokas. * The addressee of Nag4rguna’s epistle, king So-to-pho-han-na, whose private name was Gi-in-ta-ka, is not as yet identified with certainty. Information about him may be summed up as follows :— (t) Chinese source. Hiuen Thsang speaks of him as a king of Southern Kosala, and gives a legend concerning Nagarguna and the king. The king’s name is, according to him, Sadvaha; the corresponding Chinese words being ‘In-ching,’ which mean’ the ‘leader of the good’ (Julien, Mémoires, liv. x, p. 95).+ I-tsing, in his translation of the Suhr?llekha, says: ‘This is a poem written by Nagarguna as a letter to his intimate friend, the king of Shéng-shih (#€ + fed). Shéng-shih means ‘riding on the scholars’ or ‘borne by the scholars ;’ this may be Sadvahana, used here as the name of his country. Cf. I-tsing’s translation of GimAta-vahana, i, e. Shéng-yun, or ‘ borne by the cloud’ (fe 2). _ See below. It is true there is another reading for Shéng-shih, namely Shéng-tu (Fe ib), and Beal supposed it to be Sindhu, but his supposition is untenable when we see that I-tsing used a different transliteration for Sindhu (above, p. 9). Moreover, Shéng is never used for transliteration so far as I know; Julien, too, does not seem to have met with an instance of this character being used in transcribing a Sanskrit word, for he does not give the phonetic value of it in his ‘method,’ But as we do not find a king called ‘Sadvahana’ in India, we have at present to leave it unconfirmed, ° (2) Tibetan source. According to Tarandtha (see Geschichte des Buddhismus, itbersetzt von Schiefner, pp. 2, 71, 303, and 304), the king’s name-was Udayana (or Utrayana), and he was also called Antivahana, which Schiefner doubtfully identifies with the Greek name Antiochos, but there is another reading for this, i.e, Santivahana. Further, Udayana was (lc, p. 303) called Getaka when, as a boy, he was met by Négarguna. See Prof. Max Miller’s letter, Journal of Pali Text Society, 1883, p. 75. + . With the help of the above information we can restore So-to-pho-han-na to Sadvahana, and Gi-in-ta-ka to Getaka. For some more discussions, see Max Miller's letter above referred to, Dr. Wenzel’s Subrillekha (Journal of Pali Text Society, 1886), Nanjio’s note (his Catal., No. 1464), and Mr. Beal’s Suhrr'lekha 160 * 4 RECORD OF BUDDHIST PRACTICES. XXXII. exhortationssas-to the right way are earnest. His kindness excels that ’ of kinship, and the purport of the epistle is indeed manifold. We should, -he writes, respect and believe the Three Honourable Ones? (i.e. Triratna, _ (1892, Luzac & Co.). I may add here that Beal tried to restore Gi-in-ta-ka to Sindhuka and to make him a Pablava king, but unfortunately I-tsing again uses a different transliteration for Sindhuka (see his Ekasatakarman, Nanjio’s Catal., No. 11313 J., book vii, p. 65). As the restoration of the-name is still uncertain, it is fair to point out here that So-to-pho-han-na (Japanese, Sha-ta-ba-kan-na) is nearer to Sdtavahana than to Sadvahana. Further, a conjecture may be formed that it was originally Satavahana and corrupted into something like Sadavahana or Sadvahana, just as Sdtakarai is in P4li Sadak4zi, and the Chinese, not knowing the original, gave a fanciful etymology to the name and interpreted it as the ‘leader of the good. ’ How did the Tibetan come to mention Santivahana or Antivahana? We know from Wilson’s Works (vol. iii, p. 181, as quoted by Prof. Max Miller) that Satavahana is a synonym of Sélivahana, the enemy of Vikramaditya, The Saka era which begins in a.p, 78 is also called the Salivahana era; see Max Miiller, ‘India, &c., 1883, p- 300. Salivahana may have been read S4ntivahana, the 1 being misread as nt, and afterwards the SA also being read A, the name may have become Antivahana, It is very curious to find so many names for one and the same person. We must wait for some corroboration from an Indian source. Cf. Ind. Ant., 1873, 106. 1 Chinese, = #a, i.e. the ‘Three ,Honourable Ones.’ I-tsing uses this term as identical with the ‘Three Precious Ones,’ i.e. Triratna. In his Record it occurs seven times, and, except in two cases, it is doubtful what he means. Here, in our case, the term must mean the Triratna and nothing else, for he is giving a general summary of the Suhrsllekha, and we see that in the beginning of the book in question, the Three Jewels, i.e. the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, are mentioned; and further, in chap. xxxv, p. 188, the context shows us that the term means Triratna. M. Fujishima took it as meaning Amitabha, Avalokitesvara, and Mahasthama (Journal Asiatique, Nov. 1888, p. 417), as quoted by Prof. Cowell (S.B.E., vol. xlix, p. ix). But whether these three holy beings had formed a triad and occupied the foremost place at the time of NAgarguna or Asvaghosha is doubtful. AmitébNa and Avalokitesvara appear in the Suhrillekha, but not Mahdsth4ma. Fé-hien, in his Record, once uses the term, ‘Three Honourable Eee an TSE et Sa eR Se ee SE GT SE eee, BONO TC EM ME 7 Were y STEREO THE CEREMONY OF CHANTING. - y6r Tibetan Suhvdllekha, verse 4), and support our fathers and mothers * (verse 9). We should keep the precepts (Sila, verse 11), and avoid com- mitting sinful deeds (verses 10-12). - We should not associate with men until we know their character. We ~ must regard wealth and beauty as the foulest of things! (verses 25, &c.). We should regulate well ‘our home affairs, and always remember that the world is impermanent.