satisfied that the Greeks borrowed much of their philosophy from the East. The most perfect system of the Ionics, as developed by Anaxagoras,* is the same as the Sánkhya school of India; and the famous doctrines of Pythagoras are intensely Buddhistical. The transmigration of souls is Egyptian as well as Indian: but the prohibition against eating animal food is altogether Buddhist. Women were admitted as members both by Sákya and by Pythagoras; and there were grades in the brotherhood of Pythagoreans, as in the Sangha, or Community of Buddhists. These coincidences between the two systems seem too strong to be accidental.

5. Pythagoras is said to have visited India; and there are some curious verbal coincidences which really seem to countenance the story. Pythagoras married Theano (Sanskrit, Dhyána, "devout contemplation"); and by her had a daughter whom he named Damo (Sanskrit, Dharmma, " virtue, or practical morality"), and who became a most learned Pythagorean. He was the first who assumed the title of pilosopos (Sanskrit, Buddha Mitra), the lover of wisdom, or Budha. His own name is perhaps only a compound of Tulas, or Buddha, and αγορεύω,

Anaxagoras held that Novs, Mind or Intellect, was not the creator of all things, but only the artist who gave form to preexistent matter. According to him, matter consisted of various particles, which were put in motion by the action of Mind; the homogeneous particles were blended together into an infinite variety of forms, and the heterogeneous were separated.

D

to expound or announce; and the names of two of his followers, Damon and Pythias (or Dharmma and Buddha), have become celebrated for their disinterested friendship. All these coincidences can scarcely be accidental; and though we may not be able to trace the actual progress of Buddhism from India to Greece, yet the evidence in favour of its transmission is much too strong to be doubted.

6. The system of faith taught by Sákya Muni has been tersely and truly characterized by Mr. Hodgson as "monastic asceticism in morals, and philosophical scepticism in religion." This is especially the case with the two more ancient philosophical systems, the Swábhávika and Aiswárika, which he has made known to us from the Sanskrit books of Nepál. The former, Mr. Hodgson thinks, was that of primitive Buddhism; but as the Swábhávika was essentially a doctrine of materialism, it must have been closely allied to the Niriswara Sankhya school of Kápila. In this system* Pradhan, or Mahá-Pradhán, or "supreme nature," was held to be the Mula-Prakriti, or "plastic origin" of all things, from which Budhi, or "intelligence," was produced. Now this is the very system which SÁKYA had rejected, after six years' study at Rajagriha. The supremacy of Naturet taught by the Swábhávikas is also utterly at variance with the

Colebrooke, Trans. Roy. As. Soc.

↑ Hodgson, pp. 33, 77. The Swábhávikas were simple materialists.

solemn address made by SÁKYA to his disciples from his death-bed under the Sál tree at Kusinagara.* "Bhikshus!" said the dying teacher, "if any points seem doubtful or incomprehensible to you regarding Buddho, Dhammo, Sangho, &c., inquire now." In this address, which was three times repeated, Buddha, or supreme intelligence," is placed before Dharma, or "material nature," as the first person of the Triad. The system of faith taught by SÁKYA must, therefore, have been that of the Theistical Triad of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is placed beyond all doubt by the edict of Priyadersi, published after the meeting of the 3rd Buddhistical Synod in B. C. 247, at which the orthodox doctrines of Sákya were upheld. In this edict, the names of the orthodox Buddhist Triad are distinctly mentioned as Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The existence of the Buddhist Triad at that particular period, is further proved by the occurrence of such names as Budha-Pálita, Dharma Rakshita, and Sangha-Mitra, among the colonnade inscriptions of No. 2 Tope at Sánchi.

7. When Sákya Muni began his religious career, he first tried the system of the Sámádhikas, who placed the attainment of everlasting bliss in the continued practice of Samádhi, or of deep and

* Turnour, in Prinsep's Journal, vol. vii. p. 1007.

+ Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, are the Sanskrit names; the others are Páli.

See Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. ix. p. 619, where the three names of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, are improperly translated "Buddhist faith."

devout abstraction.* Dissatisfied with this belief, he next tried that of the Prádhánikas, or worshippers of "universal nature" as the sole First Cause of all things. This atheistical doctrine he also abandoned; and, in its stead, either invented or adopted the theistical Triad of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, in which Triad Buddha, or supreme intelligence," "In the transcendental

is the Creator of all things. and philosophical sense, BUDDHA means MIND; DHARMMA, Matter; and SANGHA, the concretion of the two former in the sensible or phenomenal world. In a practical or religious sense, BUDDHA means the mortal author of this religion (Sákya); DHARMMA, his law; and SANGHA, the congregation of the faithful." +

8. But though the early Buddhists admitted the existence of a Supreme Being, they denied his providence, in the full belief that without his aid, and solely by their own efforts of Tapast and Dhyán, or Abstinence and Abstraction, they could win for themselves the "everlasting bliss" (Moksha) of absorption into the Divine Spirit.§

So complete was the power of abstraction held to be, that the author of the Mahawanso (p. 262) gravely relates the following story" This Raja (Dhátusena), at the time he was improving the Kálawápi tank, observed a certain priest absorbed in the Samádhi meditation; and, not being able to rouse him from that abstraction, had him buried under the embankment (of the tank) by heaping earth over him." + Hodgson, p. 39.

Hodgson, page 35. The Tapas of the Buddhists was not penance, or self-inflicted bodily pain, like that of the Bráhmans, but a perfect rejection of all outward things (pravrittika). Hodgson, p. 37.

9. One belief common to Buddhism is the doctrine of Nirvritti and Pravritti, or Rest and Action.* The latter state is that of MAN, and the former that of the celestial, self-existent BEING, whether Buddha or Dharma. According to the Aiswárikas, the Supreme Being Adi Buddha, or Iswara, though formless as a cypher or mathematical point, and separate from all things (in Nirvritti), is infinite in form, pervading all, and one with all (in Pravritti).† His proper and lasting state is that of Nirvritti, but for the sake of creation, he spontaneously roused himself into activity (Pravritti), and by means of his five spiritual faculties (Panchajnyána), and by five exertions of mental reflection (Panchadhyána), he created the Pancha-Dhyani-Buddha, or "five celestial Buddhas," together with the "five elements," the "five senses," and the five "objects of sense," in the following order:

+ Hodgson, pp. 81, 40, 110. These terms were also applied to human beings, according as they passed secular or monastic lives. Thus Sákya, while Prince Siddharta, was exercising PravrittiMárga; but when he adopted the religious garb, and the devotional abstraction of the ascetics, he was then in a state of Nirvritti-Márga. ↑ Hodgson, pp. 40, 83, 111.