peculiar symbol the Swastika, or mystic cross, which was typical of their belief in Swasti. This term is a compound of Su, "well," and asti, "it is;" meaning "it is well," or, as Wilson expresses it, "so be it;" and implying complete resignation under all circumstances. But it was the stupefying submission of the Fatalist, not the meek resignation of the Christian, which bows to the chastening of the Almighty, and acknowledges that "whatever is, is right," because it is the will of God. According to the Chinese* the Swastikas were Rationalists, who held that contentment and peace of mind were the only objects worthy of attainment in this life. Whatever advanced those ends was to be sought; whatever hindered them was to be shunned. All impulses and desires were to be subdued; all hopes and fears were to be suppressed;

"All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,"

were accounted violators of the peace; and all the common cares of life were considered as so many different forms and degrees of pain. In the anxious quest for quietude, even the memory of the past was to be forgotten; and, what was a more rational

*

They are the Tao-sse of the Chinese; and the founder of their doctrine is said to have flourished between 604 and 523 B.C. The Swasti of Sanskrit is the Suti of Pali; and the mystic cross, or Swastika, is only a monogrammatic symbol formed by the combination of the two syllables, suti suti.

=

object, although perhaps not a more attainable one, there was to be no vain solicitude for the future.

or

5. The fatalist doctrine of eternal annihilation, and consequent escape from future punishment, will always be popular amongst people of weak minds and strong passions; and as these have ever been the prevailing characteristics of mankind in the East, the Atheistical principles of the Swastikas were received by the bulk of the people with very great favour. They assumed the name of Tirthakaras,* pure-doers;" but by the Buddhists of Tibet they are said to have been indecent in their dress, and grossly Atheistical in their principles. Their Tibetan name Mustegs, or "Finitimists," is significant of their doctrine of finite existence; but they are more generally known as the PoN, or PON-PO. This sect, which prevailed throughout Tibet until the seventh century, is now confined to the furthest parts of the most eastern province of Tibet. The name of PoN is evidently only the Sanskrit q, punya, pure," a synonyme of Tirthakara.

66

6. Between the Swastikas, who promised nothing after this life, and the Bráhmans, who offered an almost endless series of mortal existences, people of strong minds and deep thoughts must have been sadly perplexed. Few men of vigorous intellect could have believed that their never-sleeping souls

* See Fo-kwe-ki, 22, 23, and Csoma's Tibetan Grammar, pp. 181, 192. The old name of Tirthakara, preserved amongst the Mogals as TER.

, is still

were subject to decay and dissolution; and yet how few of them, by the most zealous asceticism, could reasonably expect the final attainment of incorporation with the Divinity. For the mass of mankind there could have been no hope whatever; for few would attempt the attainment of that which was so difficult as to be almost impossible.

7. During the prevalence of such beliefs, the success of any more rational system was certain; and the triumphant career of Sákya Muni, and the rapid propagation of his religion, may be attributed as much to the defects of former systems as to the practical character of his own precepts, which inculcated morality, charity, abstinence, and the more speedy attainment of Buddhahood, with the abolition of caste, and of the hereditary priesthood.

8. SÁKYA SINHA, or SÁKYA MUNI, the great mortal teacher of the Buddhist religion, was the son of Máyá, by Suddhodana, Raja of Kapila, a petty principality near the present Gorakhpur. He was born in the year 623 B. C., and was, by his father's side, a descendant of Ikshwáku, of the Suryavansa, or solar race.* His original name was Suddhatto, or Siddhartha. He was reared in the palace of his father in all the accomplishments of a young prince of that period; and at sixteen years of age he was married to the Princess Yasodará, or Subhaddakachháná. From that time until his twenty-ninth year, he was

• Turnour's Mahawanso, p. 9. See also Turnour's Extracts from the Atthakattha, published in Prinsep's Journal, vol. vii. p. 927.

wholly wrapped up in the pursuit of human pleasures, when a succession of incidents awakened in him a train of deep thought, which gradually led to a complete change in his own life, and which eventually affected the religious belief of one-half of the human race.*

9. Mounted in his chariot, drawn by four white steeds, the prince was proceeding as usual to his pleasure-garden, when he was startled by the sudden appearance of an old, decrepid, toothless, gray-haired man, tottering feebly along with a staff. The sight roused him to reflection, and he returned to his palace full of the sad belief that man, in whatever state he may be born, is still "subject to decay."

10. Four months later, on a second excursion towards the pleasure-garden, he met a poor wretch, squalid with disease; and he returned to his palace sadder than before, with the reflection that man is subject to disease as well as to decay.

11. Four months later on a third occasion, he met a corpse; and he returned to his palace still sadder than the last time, with the reflection that man, however high his station, is subject to decay, disease, and death.

12. Four months later, he noticed a healthy, wellclad person, wearing the peculiar robe of those de

* In the time of Trajan, when the Roman Empire had attained its greatest extent, Buddhism was the prevailing belief of China and India, which must then have contained more than one-half of the population of the globe.

dicated to religion. This caused another reflection on the propriety of that mode of life which could produce both cheerfulness of mind and healthiness of body; and the prince determined at once to join the religionists. These four incidents are called the "four predictive signs," which are shown at intervals to the persons destined to become Buddhas.*

13. The whole story of Sákya's early life, when stripped of the superhuman incidents fondly added by his followers, seems both natural and true for nothing can be more probable than the religious retirement of a young prince, who for twelve years had abandoned himself to every variety of pleasure until he was cloyed with enjoyment, and the cup of desire was brimful to satiety. Even the miraculous incidents narrated by devout Buddhists, are not more wonderful than those which are recorded and believed of the Virgin Mary, and scores of Roman Catholic saints, as well as of the Arabian Mohammed.

14. Sákya Sinha was twenty-nine years of age when he left his wife Yasodará and her infant son Ráhula, and quitted his native city of Kapila to assume the garb of the ascetics. When near his journey's end, on the bank of the Anoma river, he cut off his long

*Turnour's Extracts from the Atthakattha, in Prinsep's Journal, vol. vii. p. 805. These four predictive signs are generally

believed to have been witnessed at intervals of four months. The Dighabhánaka fraternity, however, assert that Sákya witnessed all the four predictive signs on the same day.