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 Pramna 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."

the explanation which I received in Ladák, which is the same as that obtained by Fra Orazio* in Lhasa, is simple and convincing. The Grand Lama is only a regenerated Bodhisatwa, who refrains from accepting Buddhahood, that he may continue to be born again and again for the benefit of mankind. For a Buddha cannot possibly be regenerated; and hence the famous epithets of TATHAGATA, "thus gone," and SUGATA, "well gone," completely gone, or gone for ever.

20. The monk who aspired to the rank of Bhikshu, or Mendicant, was obliged to beg his daily food; which, when obtained, was to be divided into three portions-one for the hungry, the second for the birds and beasts, and the third for himself; and even this portion he was not allowed to eat after noon.† He was forbidden to ask for gold and silver; he was to prefer old and tattered raiment; and to eschew ornaments of all kinds. He was to dwell in the wilderness (áranyaka), or amongst the tombs (smásánika), where the daily sight of birds of prey, and of funeral pyres, would show him the instability of all earthly things, and the utter nothingness of the human body,

Nouv. Jour. Asiat. t. xiv. p. 408. "Il Lama sempre sarà coll' istessa anima del medesimo Ciang-c'iub, oppure in altri corpi." Remusat was not aware of this fact when he stated "Les Lamas du Tibet se considèrent eux mêmes comme autant de divinités (Bouddhas) incarnées pour le salut des hommes." Journal des Savantes, Mai, 1831, p. 263.

+ See the twelve observances, in the Fo-kwe-ki, c. viii. n. 5.

which endures but for a little time, and then passeth away into the five elements of which it is composed.

21. The equipments or indispensable necessaries of a Bhikshu, or Mendicant, consisted of (1) an "alms-dish" (pátra), or vessel for collecting the food which he begged; (2) an ewer, or "water-vessel" (uda pátra); (3) a stick or staff (pinda); (4) a razor; (5) a sewing needle; and (6) a waistband. The almsdish was of common material, such as earthenware or iron. According to the Chinese it was a shallow vessel,* narrow at top and broader at bottom; but the vessel which was shown to me in Ladák as the exact copy of Shakya-Thubba's alms-dish was just the reverse, being broad at top and narrow at bottom; of a parabolic form, and of red earthenware coloured black. The shape was exactly the same as that of the large steatite vases from the Sonári and Andher Topes.† The colour was most probably black, because Fa Hiant states that the kingdom of KIE-CHHA (that is Kha chan-pa, "Snow-land," or Ladák §) possessed a stone bowl of the same colour as the alms-dish of Buddha. The thin earthenware bowls which have been found in the Topes of Bhojpur and Andher, are also black; those of the latter being of a glossy metallic lustre. The shapes of these vessels would, of

* See Fo-kwe-ki, c. xii. n. 8.

+ See Plate XXIV. Fig. 3—and Plate XXIX. Fig. 8, of this volume.

I See Fo-kwe-ki, chap. v.

§ Ladák is still called Kha-chan-pa, or "Snow-land."

course, vary; but I have little doubt that the Bhojpur dishes, Nos. 4, 5, Pl. XXVII.,* and the Andher dish, No. 7, Pl. XXVIII., are the actual alms-dishes, or pátras, of the monks whose relics were deposited there. And I am the more inclined to this belief because the bowls which were inside these dishes seem to answer exactly as water vessels or ewers. A monk with his staff is represented on the leaden coin (Fig. 11, Pl. XXXII.) which was found in the Ganges at Patna, the ancient Pátaliputra or Palibothra.

See also Plate XXVI. for the black earthenware vessels, extracted from No. 4 Tope, D., Bhojpur.