lightly-clad man; and with this signification it was applied to the light-armed soldier of Greece. These same devotees are, most probably, the Tvμvoσopioraι of other Greek writers; for the Buddhists were positively prohibited from appearing naked.*

13. All members of the Bauddha community, who led an ascetic life, were called Srámana, or Srámanera. They who begged their food from motives of humility were dignified with the title of Bhikshu and Bhikshuni, or male and female mendicants. The Srámanas are, beyond all doubt, the Tapuávai (or Garmanes) of Megasthenes, and the Пpauva (or Pramna) of Kleitarchos;† while the Bhikshus are they who went about "begging both in villages and in towns."+

14. Megasthenes divides the Garmanes or Srámanas into three classes, of which the most honourable were called Hylobii, Yλoßior. These are clearly the Bodhisatwas or Arhatas, the superior grade of monks, who, having repressed all human passions,

* See Fo-kwe-ki, chap. viii. n. 8; and chap. xvii. n. 21. See also Csoma's Analysis of the Dulva, Trans. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xx. p. 70, where Sagama presents cotton cloths to the monks and nuns, because she had heard that they bathed naked.

+ Strabo, xv. The Buddhist belief of the Γαρμάναι, 'Yλoßio, and Iarpikot, of Megasthenes, is proved by his mention of the fact that women were allowed to join some of them. Συμφιλοσοφεῖν δ ̓ ἐνίοις καὶ γυναῖκας.

↑ Strabo, xv. Επαιτούντας καὶ κατὰ κώμας καὶ πόλεις.

were named Alobhiya* or "without desires." They lived in the woods upon leaves and wild fruits. Several scenes of ascetic life in the woods are represented in the Sánchi bas-reliefs. On the lowermost architrave of the northern gateway (inside), there is a very lively scene of monks and nuns, who are occupied in various acts. Elephants and lions appear amongst the trees, and the king on horseback is approaching to pay them a visit.

15. The second class of Megasthenes are the Iarρiko, Iatriki, which is a pure Greek word, signifying physicians. But I have little doubt that this word is a corrupted transcript of Pratyeka, the name of the middle class of Buddhists. The Páli name is Pachhé, which seems fully as far removed from the original as the Greek term. The third class, or Sráwaka, are represented by the mendicants before described.

16. According to Kleitarchos,† there were four classes of Pramna: the Opavol, or Mountaineers; the Γυμνηται, or Nahed; the Πολιτικοι, οι Tornsmen ; and the Пporxwpio, or Rural. All these are pure Greek names: but it is not unlikely that Oreinos is only a transcript of the Páli Arant (Sanskrit Ar

Sanskrit, Hu, from a, without, and lobh, desire. Compare the old latin lubedo, and the name of Queen Lab, of the Arabian nights.

+ Strabo, lib. xv.

On the stone box, extracted from No. 2 Tope at Sánchi, this title is twice written I, Aran; but in the inscriptions generally

hanta), which was a title of the Bodhisatwas, or first class of monks. As the Arhans, however, dwelt chiefly in caves cut out of the living rock, the name of "hill-men" is, perhaps, a marked one. Gumnetes, or "light-clad," was, as I have already shown, only another name for the Arhan, or hermit, who, during his fits of musing, wore nothing but the kilt, reaching from his waist to his knees. The name given to the next class, Politikos, seems only a copy, and a very near one, of the Sanskrit title Pratyeka, or "single understanding." But the Greek term may, perhaps, be descriptive of the duty of the Pratyeka; who, while he sought deliverance for himself, was not to be heedless of that of others.* As this duty would lead him to mingle with the people, and chiefly with those of the towns, the appellation of "townsman” seems intended to distinguish the Pratyeka from the "hill-monk" or Arhan of the rock-cut caves. The name of the last class of Kleitarchos has, I think, been slightly changed; and I would prefer reading Пporexwpiovc, the "listeners," instead of Пpooxwρlovs, the "rural;" as the former is the literal Προσχωριους,

it is written either Araha or Arahata. The Sanskrit word is अर्हन्त, Arhanta. In Turnour's Annals (Prinsep's Journal, vi. 513), the Sthúviras who held the First Synod are called Arahantá. It is possible that the Greek name of Operos may be derived from the Sanskrit Aranyaka, a desert place, because the Bhikshus were directed to dwell in such a place. See Fo-kwe-ki, chap. viii. note 5, where the Chinese term A-lan-yo is used for Aranyaka.

*See Fo-kwe-ki, c. ii. n. 4.

F

translation of the Sanskrit Sráwaka, a 'hearer," which was the designation of the lowest class of Buddhist monks. These identifications of the different classes of Pramne with those of the Srámanas are of the highest importance to the history of the Buddhist religion. For Kleitarchos was one of the companions of Alexander; and his distinct mention of these four classes of the Bauddha community proves that the religion of Sakya Muni had already been established in the Panjab at the period of Alexander's invasion. The worship of the Bodhi tree is also mentioned by Curtius, who says: "Deos putant, quidquid colere cœperunt; arbores maxime, quas violare capital est." -"They hold as gods whatever they have been accustomed to worship; but principally trees, which it is death to injure."

17. The old Buddhists neatly distinguished the different grades of monks by the types of sheep, deer, and oxen. The SHEEP, when in flight, never looks back, and, like the Sráwaka, cares only for self-preservation. The DEER turns to look back on the following herd, and, like the Pratyeka, is mindful of others while he seeketh his own deliverance. The Ox, which beareth whatever burden is put upon him, is typical of the Bodhisatwa, who, regardless of himself, careth only for the salvation of others. But the last type is less happy than that of the sheep and deer; for the Bodhisatwa, who is supposed to have

Curtius, viii. 9.

+ Fo-kwe-ki, c. ii. n. 4.

earned his own deliverance,* could not possibly have any anxiety for himself,-whereas the most patient of laden oxen must yearn for his own freedom.

18. The Bodhisatwa is the highest grade of mortal being; for on his attaining Buddhahood he can no more be regenerated. He has then become absorbed into the Divine Spirit, and has altogether lost his individuality or separate existence. The Christian believes in the distinct immortality of each sentient being; and that each soul will for ever retain its personality in the world to come. But the Buddhist, while he admits the immortality of the soul, yet believes that its individuality will have an end; and that, after it has been linked to a mortal body for an unknown but finite number of existences, it will at last be absorbed into the Divine Essence from which it sprang; like as waters wafted from the ocean in clouds, return to it again in streams; or as the particles of sand, borne away from the mountains to the bottom of the sea, are again imbedded together and consolidated into rock.

19. There has been some misapprehension regarding the Buddhas and Bodhisatwas; the regeneration of the Grand Lama being considered as an exceptional case of a Buddha returning amongst mankind.† But

• Therefore in Tibet called '', Byang-chhub or Changchhub, "the perfect."

+ Mr. Hodgson, pp. 137, 138, truly calls the "divine Lamas" of Tibet, Arhantas; but he believes "that a very gross superstition has wrested the just notion of the character to its own use," and so created the "immortal mortals, or present palpable divinities of Tibet."