Indian Antiquary Vol 08

SR No.: 032500
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 351

NOVEMBER, 1879.]
THE SIX TIRTAKA.
311
finds in sepulchral tumuli, &c. existing elsewhere in S. India; the pots themselves were found (with only one or two exceptions) crammed full of earth of a kind which prevented any theory as to this having been the result of infiltration by water; and finally the peculiar holes or en- trances to the cells corresponded to similar entrances to undoubted dolmens elsewhere. The cells, though they each contained what I have taken to be a bed, a bench, a stool and a fireplace cut out of the solid rock, bore no appearance of ever having been inhabited. No doubt the constructors meant to provide for
their deceased relatives dwellings as comfortable as they had been accustomed to in life, and whether such dwellings were tents or not is a matter for conjecture having regard to the form of the cells. I am inclined on the whole to regard the remains as the death-house of a family who burned their dead.
The cells after being opened up were roofed in with thatch, and other measures taken to protect them from the weather, and the articles found were forwarded to the Central Museum at Madras.
July 18, 1879.
THE SIX TİRTAKA. Five centuries before Christ, in the age of God; therefore they differed in this respect Buddha,' various persons in Asia founded reli- from the Brahmans who attributed everything gious associations proclaiming different doc- to the creative hand of Brahmâ or Isvara. One trines for the salvation of man. Some were important point of agreement, however, between Digambar&s: and the morality of the times these sectarians and the Vedic Brahmans was, suffered them to go about naked. Others were that none dared to violate the institution of Svetâmbaras, or those who put on "white castes which all Brahmans regarded as sacred. garments." Some were fire-worshippers, and Yet amongst them there were six arch-heretics,' others adorers of the Sun. Some belonged to who regarded not the distinctions which divided the Sanyasi, and others to the Pancha- men into Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and t à pa' sects.
Sudras; and for the simplest of all reasons, that Some worshipped Pada rânga; some Ji- they were themselves of mean extraction. vaka; and others Nigantha. The Jainas They preached to the people. They set forth who followed the Lôka yata, or the system their doctrines. They at first resorted to the of atheistical philosophy taught by Chårvaka, most legitimate means of conversion, viz. argualso appear to have flourished at this time. In ment and discussion. But these often were of addition to these Gautama himself enumerates themselves insuficient and availed little. Somesixty-two sects of religious philosophers. thing else was required; and that was super
“The broachers of new theories and the natural powers in those who passed for religious introducers of new rites did not revile the teachers. Well-versed however in deceit, they established religion, and the adherents of the found no difficulty in invention, and in exhiold Vedic system of elemental worship looked biting supernatural powers. In proof of inspiron the new notions as speculations they could ation to which they laid claims, they declared not comprehend, and the new austerities as the doctrines unintelligible to the vulgar, and above exercise of a self-denial they could not reach, the comprehension of the common orders of rather than as the introduction of heresy and society. As possessing the power of iddhi they, schism." But few of these sects believed in a like the teacher of Rasselas, often ascended an first Cause; and none acknowledged a supreme eminence to fly in the air. But unlike the Conf. Groto's Greece, vol. III. p. 114.
• Stevenson, Kalpa sdtra, p. xvii.; Burnouf, Lotus, A sect who practised certain austerities surrounded
p. 356. by four fires whilst the sun was shining, which they regarded
1 "There are reckoned six principal heresiarchs, whose as a fifth fire.
depraved bearta, perverse view, and mistaken judgment, See Buddhist annals in J. A. 8. Ben. (Sept. 1937) vol.
disaffected to the true doctrine, brought forth error. The
commencement of all these heresies is referred to Kis-pi-lo VI. pp. 713, Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 310; vol. VI. p. 150; vol. VII. pp. 28, 34n, 38.
(the yellow,' in Sanskrit Kapila); bat they are divided
into branches, and their propagation gave rise to six prin. • Aswalayana Suttan in the Majjima Nikdya.
cipal ones."-M. Remusat in Fo. Koue Ki, Laidlay's Ambatta Suttan.
translation, pp. 143, 144.