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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 Swástikas, 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 Swastikas; 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 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.

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peculiar symbol the Swástika, 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.

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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,* or 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.

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,, is still preserved amongst the Mogals as TER.

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.

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