this wonderful man succeeded in establishing his own peculiar doctrines over the fairest districts of the Ganges; from the Delta to the neighbourhood of Agra and Cawnpore. This success was perhaps as much due to the early corrupt state of Bráhmanism, as to the greater purity and more practical wisdom of his own system. But, rapid as was the progress of Buddhism, the gentle but steady swell of its current shrinks into nothing before the sweeping flood of Mahomedanism, which, in a few years, had spread over one half of the civilized world, from the sands of the Nile to the swampy fens of the Oxus.

33. The two most successful religious impostures which the world has yet seen, are Buddhism and Mahomedanism. Each creed owed its origin to the enthusiasm of a single individual, and each was rapidly propagated by numbers of zealous followers. But here the parallel ends; for the Korán of Mahomed was addressed wholly to the "passions" of mankind, by the promised gratification of human desires both in this world and in the next; while the Dharma of Sákya Muni was addressed wholly to the "intellect," and sought to wean mankind from the pleasures and vanities of this life by pointing to the transitoriness of all human enjoyment. Mahomed achieved his success by the offer of material or bodily pleasures in the next life, while Sákya succeeded by the promise of eternal deliverance of the soul from the fetters of mortality. The former propagated his religion by the merciless edge of the sword; the latter

*

by the persuasive voice of the missionary. The sanguinary career of the Islamite was lighted by the lurid flames of burning cities; the peaceful progress of the Buddhist was illuminated by the cheerful faces of the sick in monastic hospitals, and by the happy smiles of travellers reposing in Dharmsálas by the road-side. The one was the personification of bodily activity and material enjoyment; the other was the genius of corporeal abstinence, and intellectual contemplation.†

* Mahawanso, p. 249. Upatisso, son of Buddha Dás, builds hospitals for cripples, for pregnant women, and for the blind and diseased. Dhatusena (p. 256) builds hospitals for cripples and sick. Buddha Dás himself (p. 245) ordained a physician for every ten villages on the high road, and built asylums for the crippled, deformed, and destitute.

+ There is a curious coincidence also in the manner of death of the two teachers. According to the Buddhists, Máro, the Angel of Death, waited upon Sákya to learn when it would be his pleasure to die. The Musulmáns assert the same of Muhammad. Azraïl, the Angel of Death, entered the chamber of the sick man to announce that "he was enjoined not to interfere with the soul of God's prophet, without an entire acquiescence on his part."See Price's Muhammadan History, vol. i. p. 16.

CHAPTER IV.

FIRST SYNOD.

1. The whole Bauddha community, or all who had taken the vows of asceticism, were known by the general name of Sangha, or the "congregation." The same term, with the addition of the local name, was used to distinguish any one of the numerous Buddhist fraternities; as Magadhe-Sangham, the fraternity of Magadha; Santi Sangham, the fraternity of Santi, or Sánchi.* It was also employed to denote the general assembliest of monks, which were held at stated periods; as well as the Grand Assemblies, which took place only on particular occasions. Three of these extraordinary assemblies, called respectively the First, Second, and Third Synods, were held at different periods, for the

See the Bhabra inscription, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, for the first; the other is used in the Sánchi pillar inscription, published in this volume.

+ Μεγαλην συνοδον is the expression of Megasthenes for the annual assembly held at Palibothra.

↑ Prathamé, Dwitaye, and Tritaye Sangham, or Sangiti.

suppression of heresy, and the solemn affirmation of orthodoxy.

2. The first of these assemblies was convoked after the death of Sákya, in the middle of the year 543 B. C., by the great Kásyapa, on hearing the insidious address of the aged Subhadra.* "Revered ones!" said the dotard, "mourn no more! We are happily released from the control of the great Srámana (Buddha): we shall no more be worried with this is allowable,' and 'that is not allowable ;' we can now do what we wish, and can leave undone what we do not desire." Kásyapa reflected that the present was the most fitting time to summon a general assembly for the solemn rehearsal of Dharma and Vinaya, according to the injunction of Sákya. "Ananda," said the dying sage, "let the Dharma and Vinaya, which I have preached and explained to thee, stand in the place of a teacher after my death." Reflecting on this, and on the first of the imperishable precepts, "to hold frequent religious meetings," Kasyapa addressed the assembled Bhikshus. "Beloved! let us hold a rehearsal both of the Dharma and of the Vinaya." "Lord," replied they, "do thou select the Stháviras and Bhikshus." Kásyapa therefore selected five hundred holy mendicant monks who had mastered the Tripitaka, or Three Repositories. By them it was decided that the First Synod should be held at Rajagriha during the rainy Turnour, in Prinsep's Journal, vii. 512. +Turnour, in Prinsep's Journal, vii. 513.

season, when the regular pilgrimages of the Buddhist monks were suspended.

3. At the full moon of the month of Asarh (1st July, 543 B. C.), the five hundred monks having assembled at Rajagriha, spent the whole of that month in the repairs of their Vihars, lest the heretics should taunt them,* saying, "the disciples of GOTAMA kept up their Vihars while their teacher was alive, but they have forsaken them since his death." With the assistance of Ajátasatra, Raja of Magadha, the Vihars were renewed; and a splendid hall was built for the assembly of the First Synod, at the mouth of the Sattapanni Cave, on the side of the Webhára Mountain. Five hundred carpets were spread around for the monks; one throne was prepared for the abbot on the south side, facing the north, † and another throne was erected in the middle, facing the east, "fit for the holy Buddha himself." Placing an ivory fan on this throne, the Raja sent a message to the assembly, saying, "Lords, my task is performed."

4. On the fifth of the increasing moon (first week of August), the monks, having made their meal, and having laid aside their refection dishes and extra

Turnour, in Prinsep's Journal, vii. 516.

+ Sthavirásan, the ásan or "seat" of the Sthavira. In the Mahawanso, p. 12, the position of this throne is exactly reversed. The pulpit, or Dharmásan, “throne of Dharma," was placed in the middle of the Assembly.-See Turnour, in Prinsep's Journal,

vii. 517.