________________
180
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1879.
alone could tell what god should be invoked, what 1. do not disparage the authority of the Vedas, they do sacrifice be offered ; and the slightest mistake not dissuade the celebration of the acts of formal of pronunciation, the slightest neglect about devotion..... Again, the writings of the orthodox clarified butter, or the length of the ladle in philosophers meddle not with existing institutions ; which it was to be offered, might bring destruc- and least of all do they urge or insinuate any contion upon the head of the unassisted worshipper. sideration to detract from the veneration, or tresNo nation was ever so completely priestridden as pass upon the privileges, of the Brahmans." Now, the Hindus under the sway of the Brahmanio from its very earliest institution by Gautama himlaw."
self, Buddhism, in entirely ignoring the Vedas, caste, Now to speak of Buddhism as "the product" sacrifices, priests, rites, ceremonies, and gods, must of such a system as this is absurd. Brahmanism have been most obnoxious to the Brahmans, and gave rise indeed to Buddhism, as Romanism did | have been more and more dreaded by them as the to Protestantism; but it arose as a reaction from number of its adherents increased; and this, and "a degrading thraldom and from priestly tyranny." this alone, brought about its final overthrow in
And what was the attitude of "the greatest, India. wisest, and best of the Hindus" towards the creed Mr. Rhys Davids depicts very clearly the abhorof his ancestors P The scholar already quotedrence felt by Gautama of a belief in anything like tells us that" he throw away the whole ceremonial soul. Indeed the very first sin to be got rid of by with its sacrifices, superstitions, penances, and & Sotâpanna was that denominated "sakk&yacastes, as worthless !"
diţthi," or "the delusion of self"-and the docAnd what is Mr. Rhys Davids' own acconnt of trine of the transmigration of soul was changed Gautama's system! He describes it as a system of by him to that of the transmigration of karma "salvation merely by self-control and love, without (i. e. of the aggregate of a man's merit and any of the rites, any of the ceremonies, any of the demerit). In view of this fact, it is curious that charms, any of the priestly powers, any of the gode the author of the Vedantasdra should have brought in which men love to trust" (p. 41),-28 "& religion two Buddhists forward for censure for believing which ignores the existence of God, and denies 'intelligence' (buddhi) and nihility' (súnya) to be the existence of the soul" (p. 150); and tells us soul. In his short description of their tenets, that "it struck of the manacles of casto" (p. 151). Colebrooke too says-"the Bauddhas do not recogWill anybody who knows India venture to deny nize a fifth element, dkdka, nor any substance so that this was a complete revolution ? And to designated; nor soul (jiva or dtman) distinct from assert that the prime mover in it "lived and died intelligence (chitta)." Now chitta is said to be a Hindu" is as contrary to fact and common sense identical with the fifth skandha; and it is "reas it would be to allege that Luther lived and peatedly and distinctly laid down in the Pitakas died a Romanist.
that none of these skandhas or divisions of the Mr. Rhys Davids remarks (on page 151) that qualities of sentient beings is soul" (p. 93); 80 "beliefs very inconsistent with the practical creed that not only did the Buddhists not recognize of the masses met with little opposition if they were a soul distinct from intelligence, but they equally taught only in schools of philosophy," and adds denied that there was one identical with intellithat it was Gautama's "society rather than his genoe. In discourse addressed to a person doctrine-the Sangha rather than the Dharma.... named Sona, Buddha spoke on this point as which excited the hostility of the Brahmans," and follows:-"If there be any organized form, sensa80 led to its ultimate expulsion from the country. tion, perception, thought or consciousness, past, Bat we demur to this. Remarking on the Hindu future or present, internal or external, great or schools of philosophy, Professor Wilson wrote: small, remote or proximate, of it all it should "These, although some of them offer irreconcilable be clearly and distinctly known, This is not mine, contradiction to essential doctrines of their re- I am not it, it is not to me & soul." ligious belief, are recognized by the Brahmans as But here we must stop. To those whose lot is orthodox ... There are other schools, as those cast in India--a country which has been and is of the Chårvåkas, Buddhists, and Jaing, which profoundly influenced by the results of the rise although in some respects not more at variance and fall within it of the Buddhist Church"-we with received opinion than the preceding, are commend this work, which, in spite of some stigmatised with the reproach of infidelity and blemishes, is really valuable, and is probably the atheism. The cause of this difference is sufficiently best manual now available for the general reader. obvious .... The orthodox schools of philosophy
G. A. J. Chips from a German Workshop, vol. I. p. 246.
Works, II. 86. • Ibid. p. 247.
• Hardy'. Legends and Theorier of the Buddhists, p. 340.
