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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1878.
ASITA AND BUDDHA, OR THE INDIAN SIMEON.
In the Lalita Vistara- legendary history in prose and verse of the life of Buddha, the great Indian saint, and founder of the religion which bears his name--it is related that a Rishi, or inspired sage, named Asita, who dwelt on the skirts of the Himalaya mountains, became informed, by the occurrence of a variety of portents, of the birth of the future lawgiver, as the son of king Suddhôdana, in the city of Kapilavastu, in Northern India, and went to pay his homage to the infant. I have tried to reproduce the legend in the following verses. The similarity of some of the incidents to portions of the narrative in the second chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, verses 25ff., will strike the reader.
I may mention that the Buddhist books speak also of earlier Buddhas, that the word means the enlightened,' or the intelligent, and that Buddha also bore the appellations of Gautama, and of Så kyasiñba, and Sakyamuni-i.e. the lion, and the devotee, of the tribe of the sakyas, to which he belonged.
That I have not at all exaggerated the expres. 'sions in the text which speak of Buddha as a deliverer or redeemer, or assimilated his character more than was justifiable to the Christian conception of a saviour, will be clear to any one who can examine the original for himself. Kumarila Bhatta, a renowned Brahmanical opponent of the Buddhists, while charging Buddha with presumption and transgression of the rules of his caste in agsuming the functions of a religious teacher (with which, as belonging to the Kshatriya, and not to the Bråhmanical class, he had no right to interfere), ascribes to him these words--"Let all the evils (or sins) flowing from the corruption of the Kali age" (the fourth, or most degenerate, age of the world) "fall upon me; but let the world be redeemed !" If we might judge from this passage, it would seem that the character of a vicarious redeemer was claimed by, or at least ascribed to, Buddha. I was informed by the late Mr. R. C. Childers, however, that in his opinion the idea of Buddha's having suffered vicariously for the sing of men is foreign to Baddhism, and indeed opposed to the whole spirit and tendency of the system.
Another esteemed correspondent is unable to think that the sentiment ascribed to Buddha by Kumarila is foreign to his system, as it is thoroughly in accordance with the idea of the six paramitas. He does not understand it as implying any theological notion of vicarious atonement, but rather the enthusiastic utterance of highly-strung moral sympathy and charity, and would compare it with St. Paul's words in Romans ix. 3, and explain each in just the same way as, he thinks, Chrysostom does. He further refers to the existence of numerous
Buddhist stories in the Kathdsarit-sagara, among which is one from lvi. 153, viz. the story of the disobedient son with a red-hot iron wheel on his disobedient son with a red hot iron head, and he says—"Påpino 'nye 'pi muchyantâm prithvyam tat-pâtakair api! & papa-kshayam etad me chakram bhramyatu murdhani," "Let other sinners on earth be freed from their sins; and until the removal of (their) sin let this wheel turn round upon my head." In either case it is only a wish, and it is not pretended that it really had, or ever could have, any effect on other men. It only expresses a perfection of charity. The same idea (borrowed, as the writer supposes, from Buddha) comes in in the Bhagavata Purdna, ix. ch. 21. On Himalaya's lonely steep
There lived of old a holy sage,
Of shrivelled form, and bent with age, Inured to meditation deep. He-when great Buddha had been born,
The glory of the Sakya race,
Endowed with every holy grace, To save the suffering world forlornBeheld strange portents, signs which taught
The wise that that auspicious time
Had witnessed some event sublime, With universal blessing fraught. The sky with joyful gods was thronged :
He heard their voice with glad acclaim
Resounding loudly Buddha's name, While echoes clear the shouts prolonged. The cause exploring, far and wide
The sage's vision ranged; with awe
Within a cradle laid he saw Far off the babe, the Sakyas' pride. With longing seized this child to view
At hand, and clasp, and homage pay,
Athwart the sky he took his way By magic art, and swan-like flew And came to King Suddhôdan's gates,
And entrance craved—"Go, royal page,
And tell thy lord an ancient sage To see the King permission waits." The page obeyed, and joined his hands Before the prince, and said-"A sage,
Of shrivelled form, and bowed with age, Before the gate, my sovereign, stands, "And humbly asks to see the King."
To whom Suddhôdan cried—“We greet All such with joy; with honour meet The holy man before us bring." The saint beside the monarch stood,
And spake his blessing-"Thine be health, With length of life, and might, and wealth; And ever seek thy people's good."
