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NOVEMBER, 1903.)
NOTES ON THE INDO-SCYTHIANS.
425
But the word l'eou does not here have a simple phonetic function; it combines with the following word cheou," to receive;" the two terms form a common phrase, with the sense of ore recipere, "to receive orally;" and this phrase has its counterpart in the equally common phrase k'cou-cheor, signifying ore tradere, " to communicate orally" (see, for example, Dict. Couvreur, 8. v. cheou). For examples of k'evu-cheou, " to receive orally,"compare, for instance, Seu-na Ts'isi, ch. XIV. 10: “ seventy disciples received orally his indications ; " and Fo-tson-t'ong-ki, ch. XLII. 98° : " He received orally the knowledge of Sanskrit."
As to the characters i-ts'un, if we give up the idea of finding a transcription in them, we are able to give them * positive meaning. The word i is a demonstrative pronoun; t'oun means " to preserve;" the first phrase would then be translated thus: "King-lou received an envoy from the king of the Great Yne-tehi, he preserved, having received them orally, Buddhist texte." "Ve must in any case give up the idea of finding in the second phrase a prediction regarding the throne. We can trauslate word by word: dicitur) iterum institu(isse) qui, ille homo est,“ When one speaks of the second founder, it is this man." This indication jnstifies the insertion of the episode in the account of the Buddha in the Compendium of the Wei, The Buddha is the first founder of the religion; King-lou, who introduced it into China, is the second. • Apother interpretation is also possible. If we join the word joue to the preceding phrase, we must translate : "recepit libros buddhicos dicentes): iterum instituit) qui, ille vir est." The reference in this case could not be to King-lou ; it must be to the personage named a little further back. The account, in fact, after having treated shortly of the Buddha and his country, adds: icou ieju chenn jenn ming Cha-liu, 'etiam est sanctus vir nomine Cha-liu." The name implies a Sanskrit form such as Sa-ryu. If we bear in mind that here we are not dealing with a scholarly transcription, the name at once suggeste Sâripntra, Pāli Sariputto, Präkrit Särivutto, whence for example, in Singhalese, Seriyutt (Spence Hardy always gives the name under this form). The important place given to this disciple, the title of dharmasēnā pati, "marshal of religion," bestowed upon him, allow us to suppose that he has been designated as - the second founder of the law." This interpretation would have the advantage of accounting for the brief inserted phrase : icon icon, etc., and of establishing, by its means even, a logical connexion between the short account of the Buddha, and the episode of King-lon. Examined in this light, the account is even thrown into unexpected relief, and confirms the chronological conclusions here drawn from it. If the Buddhist works communicated to King-lou in 2 B. C. thus glorified Säriputra above other disciples, even so far as to place him at the side of the Buddha, we have ground to believe that these works emanated from the school of the Abbidharma, which claimed to be from him. Kern (Buddhismus, II. 352) Obaer ves that "Säriputra had a vast reputation as the ideal type of the Abhidharmists." The council of Kanishka seems to have marked the triumph of this school; Vasamitra, the president of the council, was one of the most celebrated Abhid harmists, and the five hundred arhats, who assembled there, were always designated as the authors of tbe great treatise on the Abhidharma : Abhidharma-mahāvibhasha-sastra. The exalted eology of Säriputra, recorded in the works communicated to Kinglou, and thence brought into Chinese history, world be the immediate result of the council assembled by Kanishka.
A passage from the Teog-iang-tsa-tchou (Chap. II. p. 380), inserted in the Pai-hai (Bibl. nat., nouv. fonds 6189, Vol. 9) communicated by Chavannes, suggests, however, another interpretation. The work mentions the journey of Lao-tzeu into India, where he became the Buddba. “There are books of the discipline (kiai, vinaya) in nine myriads of sections; there are there "precisely the sūtras of second institution of the Great Yue-tchi which the Han (Chinese) have " received." The legend, so wide-spread, and recalled in this passage, which makes Lao-tzeu
