refers to Sákya's abandonment of his body to a hungry lion. This Tope, therefore, dates earlier than the period of Fa Hian's Indian pilgrimage

in A.D. 400.

19. The Funereal Topes were of course the most numerous, as they were built of all sizes, and of all kinds of material, according to the rank of the deceased and the means of his fraternity. At Bhojpur, the Topes occupy four distinct stages or platforms of the hill. The largest Topes, six in number, occupy the uppermost stage, and were, I believe, dedicated to Buddha; that is, either to the celestial Buddha, Adináth, or to the relics of the mortal Buddha, Sákya. This view is borne out by the facts that the largest Tope contained no deposit; and that the second and third sized Topes yielded crystal boxes, one of which, shaped like a Tope, contained only a minute portion of human bone smaller than a pea!

20. The second-rate Topes, sixteen in number, stand on the second stage. According to my view, these Topes contain the ashes of those who had reached the rank of Bodhisatwa. We discovered relics in five of these Topes, but there were no inscriptions of any historical value.

21. The third stage of the hill is occupied by seven small Topes, all of which I suppose to have been built over the remains of the third grade of Pratyeka Buddhas. Of the eight Topes which stand on the lowest stage of the hill, one is much larger than any of those on the third stage. These Topes

were, I believe, built over the ashes of the lowest grade of the Bauddha community, the Sráwaka Buddhas.

22. The few remarks which I have suggested above, will be sufficient to show the valuable light which the Topes are likely to afford in illustration of the religion of Buddha. But, before proceeding to the examination of the Topes and their contents, I propose to give a slight historical sketch of the progress of that combined system of practical morality and philosophical speculation which, under the name of Buddhism, was the dominant faith of India for nearly fifteen centuries.

CHAPTER II.

LIFE OF SÁKYA.

1. In the earliest times of which we have any authentic record, the Arian race,* both in Persia and India, was attached to the worship of the Sun. In Persia, the fiery element was looked upon as the earthly type of Mithra, or the heavenly orb; and the sacred flame was kept continually burning by the Magian priesthood. But the worship of the elements was not unknown to the Persians; for Herodotus expressly states that "they sacrificed to the Sun and Moon, to the Earth, to Fire and Water, and to the Winds."+ In India, the worship of the

I use the term Arian in its widest acceptation to signify the race of Aryya, whose emigrations are recorded in the Zendavesta. Starting from Ericene- Veejo, the Aryas gradually spread to the south-east, over Aryya-vartta or Aryya-desa, the northern plains of INDIA; and to the south-west, over IRAN, or PERSIA. The Medes are called Apeto by Herodotus.

+ Herodotus, i. 131, θύουσι δὲ ἡλίῳ τε καὶ σελήνῃ καὶ γῇ καὶ πυρὶ καὶ ὕδατι καὶ ἀνέμοισι. So also Diogenes Laertius, quoted by Barker,-" They teach the nature and origin of the Gods, whom they think Fire, Earth, and Water."--Barker's Lempriere, in v. Magi. Strabo and others say the same.

material elements was intimately blended with that of the Sun; and VARUNA and INDRA (with his attendant MÁRUTS), or Water and Air, shared with AGNI, or Fire, in the daily reverence of the people. The religious rites consisted of sacrifices, and of the recitation or chanting of the ancient hymns of praise and thanksgiving, which are still preserved in the Vedas. The officiating priests were most probably Bráhmans; for, although there is no positive authority for such a belief, yet we know that, at the rise of the Buddhist religion, in the 6th century before our era, they formed an hereditary priesthood, and were the recognised teachers of the Vedas.*

2. At this particular period of Indian history, the minds of men were perplexed with conflicting systems of religious belief, and with various philosophical speculations on the origin of the world, and on the mystical union of mind and matter, or of soul and body. The most popular system was that of the Bráhmans and their followers, who believed in the immortality of the soul after transmigration; while their opponents, the Swastikas, affirmed that its existence was finite, and was limited to its connection with the body.

3. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was one of the earliest religious beliefs of the ancient world. In Egypt its acceptance was universal; and

*Turnour, in Journal of Asiatic Society, Bengal, vii. pp. 805,

809.

in India* it was denied only by the atheistical Swástikas; for the Bráhmans, notwithstanding the differences of their metaphysical schools, agreed in believing that mankind were destined, by means of successive regenerations, to a prolonged existence in this world. By the attainment of true knowledge, through abstract meditation, and more especially by the endurance of painful mortifications of the flesh, it was held possible to alleviate the misery of each successive existence by regeneration in a higher and a happier sphere of life. But it was not enough that the general tenor of a man's life was virtuous, for even a single sin was sufficient to draw down the punishment of a lower state of existence in the next birth. The sole aim, the one motive impulse of man, in each successive existence, was to win for himself a still happier state of life at each birth, and a still higher stage of perfection at each death. It was, therefore, only with the greatest difficulty that the most virtuous could wring from the reluctant gods his final exemption from the trammels of this "mortal coil" by the emancipation of soul from body, and by the re-absorption of the liberated spirit into the divine essence or Godhead, which was its original source.

4. The Swastikas received their name from their

* The migration of souls was the fundamental belief of all classes, both Buddhist and Brahmanical. The principal difference between the two creeds lay in the means for attaining final exemption from migration.

C