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11. The dress of the Ascetics was the same both for males and females. It consisted of three garments, all of which were yellow; 1st, The Sangháti, or kilt, fastened round the waist and reaching to the knees; 2nd, The Uttara-Sangháti, a mantle, or cape, which was worn over the left shoulder, and under the right, so as to leave the right shoulder bare; 3rd, The Antara-vásaka, an under vest or shirt for sleeping in.* The first and second garments are represented in many of the Sánchi bas-reliefs. They are

to the Stupa of A-nan (Ananda), because he had besought Buddha that he would grant to women the liberty of embracing ascetic life. The observances required from the nuns may be found in note 23, chap. xvi. of the Fo-kwe-ki. The female ascetic even of 100 years of age was bound to respect a monk even in the first year of his ordination.

• Fo-kwe-ki, chap. xiii. note 14. Csoma, Res. As. Soc. Bengal, p. 70, Analysis of the Dulva, states that these three pieces of clothing were of a dark red colour; but yellow is the colour everywhere mentioned in the Páli annals. These two colours are still the outward distinctions of the Buddhists of Tibet; and therefore it is probable that the Buddhist dress may have been dark red in Sákya's time, and yellow during the reigns of Asoka and Milindu. According to the Chinese (Fo-kwe-ki, xiii. 10), the Sangháti consisted of seven pieces; the Uttara - Sangháti, of seven pieces; and the Vâsaka of five pieces: but the number of pieces is stated differently in another place (Fo-kwe-ki, c. viii. p. 5) as nine, seven, and five. The dress also is said to have been of divers colours; while in the Buddhist annals it is invariably mentioned as yellow. Ladies of wealth in Ladák have their petticoats formed of numerous perpendicular strips of cloth, of different colours, but generally red, blue, and yellow. See Plate XI. of this volume for these dresses.

all barred perpendicularly to represent their formation of separate pieces sewn together. In after times, the number of pieces denoted the particular school or sect to which the wearer belonged. The mantle or cape was scarcely deep enough to hide the right breasts of the nuns—at least it is so represented in the bas-reliefs; but as the same custom of baring the right arm and shoulder still prevails amongst the females of Middle Kanawar, on the Sutlej, without any exposure of the breasts, I presume that their representation by the sculptor at Sánchi was only the result of his own clumsiness, as he could not otherwise show the difference of

sex.

12. When engaged in common occupation, such as fetching water, felling wood, and carrying loads,* the monks are always represented without their mantles or capes. At religious meetings, as we have seen at the First Synod, and as they are represented throughout the Sánchi bas-reliefs, they wore all their robes. But during their contemplative abstraction in the woods, the devotees are represented naked to the waist, their upper garments being hung up inside their leaf-roofed houses. These devotees are, no doubt, the Γυμνηται of Kleitarchos ; for Γυμνης Οι Tvμvnns does not mean a naked man, but only a

All these acts are represented in the Sánchi bas-reliefs. The first is found on the left pillar of the eastern gateway, second compartment, inner face. The others are shown in the third compartment of the same pillar.

lightly-clad man; and with this signification it was applied to the light-armed soldier of Greece. These same devotees are, most probably, the Tuμvoσopioraι 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 Tapuával (or Garmanes) of Megasthenes, and the Пpaμvai (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, "Yoßio, 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 Iarpıko, 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 OpEvo, or Mountaineers; the Γυμνηται, or Naked; the Πολιτικοι, οι Townsmen ; and the Пporxwpioi, 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,, 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

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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 Пporexwpiovs, the "listeners," instead of Προσεχωρίους, Пlpooxwpiovs, the "rural;" as the former is the literal

it is written either Araha or Arahata. The Sanskrit word is , Arhanta. In Turnour's Annals (Prinsep's Journal, vi. 513), the Stháviras who held the First Synod are called Arahantá. It is possible that the Greek name of Opεivos 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.

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