BIBLIOTHECA INDICA; A COLLECTION OF ORIENTAL WORKS PUBLISHED BY THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. Oxp Serres, Nos. 51, 73, 143, 144, 145, and 237." THE (LALITA VISTARA, oR MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY LIFE OF S’AKYA SINHA. EDITED BY RAJENDRALA'LA MITRA, LL. D. Honorary Menbet of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the Physical Class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vienna; Corresponding Member of ‘the German and of the American Oriental Societies, and of the Royal Academy of Science, Hungary ; Fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, $e, Fe. CALCUTTA: PRINFED WSC. B. LEWIS, BAPTIST MISSTQN PRESS. 1877.INTRODUCTION. How, finally to preclude the miseries ‘incident to “murtdane existence is the problem which has engross- ed the attention of nearly all the philosophical writers of India. ‘‘ The complete cessation of pain should be the ultimate object of man’* said Kapila, and the ghief motive of Gautama is “ the attainment of beati- tude throygh the annihilation of pain.”+ Patanjali, Kanada and Vyasa have likewise been impelled to their tenots by a similiar desire, and the sayings of Nanak and Guru Govind and Chaitanya afford incontest- able proofs of their intolerance of mundane suffering which led them to yearn for a peaceful hereafter at the sacrifice of the présent. It was an intense feeling of a like nature that led a prince, two thousand four hundred years ago, to forego the pleasures of an oriental paldce, and to betake to the privations and sufferings of the life of an anchorite. In the language of his biographers, the sights sugcessively, during his pleasure excursions, of an old man, a sick man, a Roh liye Sutra’, Aphorism Let. "N@ya Sdtra, Aph. 2nd.2 corpse and a recluse, the emblems of age, disease death,” and \religiorf—of the bane and the antidote— awakened in his mind a sensé of the sad realities of this life, and led him thenceforth to apply himself as- siduously to the study of different systems of philoso- phy, and to the performance of themost rigorous aus- terities. Fasting by day exposed to the burning rays of the midday sun, and. cleeting by night under the canopy of heaven in the heavy rains of autumn, or the piercing cold of winter, he lived but for the attainment of an unknown quantity, the summum bonum pf exis- tence. His penance and his studies did not, howéver, afford him the consolation he sought; and he was at last induced to renounce his tutors and their learning, and to proclaim himself a reformer. The tenets he promulgated attained a world-wide celebrity, and his followers now include nearly one-fifth of.the human race, ' But great as was the success of this renowned teacher, the history of his life is involved in mysteries which the light of modern research has yet scarcely dispelled. India never had her Xenophon or Thucy- dides, and her herocs and reformers, like her other great nien, have to look for immortality in the ballads of her bards, or the legends of romanéers,. S‘akya Sifiha, the reformer to whom I have above alluded, for atime had not even that advantage. He was known only through. the misrepresentations of his enemies, the Brahmans. The orientalist, however, has now no longer to complain of paucity ox: in‘rimation regarding i ‘im. The discoveries of Hod, son, in Ne-8 pal, 6f Upham and Turnour in Ceylon, of C’Sema de Korési in Tibet, and of Klaporth, Remusat,’ Beal‘and others in China, hdve placed at his disposal a large mass of legends in Sanskrit, P4éli, Tibetan and Chi, nese, which record with more than Bosyellian zeal and assiduity, though not with like fidelity, even’ the most trivial circumstanc¢s connected with the life and the preachings of the wht reformer. But it is an arduous task to attempt to put skin and living flesh upon the dry bones of old legends; still more so to resuscitate an authentic identity, or prove the verity of a picture founded upon such materials. Written at different times by different persons, under very dis- similar circumstances, in various climes, those legends cannot be expected to be very homogeneous in their character, or concurrent in their testimony: They abound ig, contradictions, fictions and fables which altogéther vitiate their worth as historical records. But in a country where a few coins and inscriptions are the only representatives of her history for many hundreds of years, ballads and legends acquire an im- portance which in more favoured climes is seldom ac- corded to them. “Besides, inasmuch as they are most- ly based upon a substratum of truth, and the Pili, the Tibetan’and the Chinese writings are avowed translations from the Sanskrit, they have certain points of correspondence and unity which cannd} fail to be of interest to the scientific antiquarian. The task is no doubt difficult to deduce the truth from themassiof fictions in which it is buried in, thege mritingg BY the zeal of unscrupuloy’s and bigoted4 votarius; but inasmuch as these are almost the only, materials’ from whith a knowled, dge of genuine Bud- dhism can be obtained, they have a peculiar claim to consideration from the Indian historian. Buddhigt writings, whether Indian or foreign, are ‘divided into three classes, technically called the Tri- pithaka or ‘the three repositiries.” The first of these comprises the sayings of Buddha himself (Stra), and as such, constitutes the corner-stone of Buddhism. Upon it were founded the Buddhist systems of: philo- sophy (Abhidharma) and ethics (Vinaya). Tha works‘ included under these three heads are, however, of very unequal merit, and held in very different estimation by their followers. Nor has the principle of the triple division been very strictly adhered to, for there are now many works of such a miscellaneous character that they may be included under all the threedivisions. It is evidently on this account that the Nepalese and the Tibetan Buddhists have adopted other and more comprehensive classifications. The religious literature of the Tibetans is com- prised in the great collection called the Kahgyur, and that is divided, for facility of reference, into seven classes, each of which includes a variety of works of unequal merit and extent. ‘Th, first class is called Dulva or discipline; the 2nd, Sherch’hin or metaphysics ; 8rd, Phalch’hin or rules of the religi- ous community; 4th, Dhomseks, miscellaneous doc- trines; 5th, Do-de, aphorisms or sayings of Buddha; 6th, Nyangdag, or final deliverance ; ant TAhy Gyut, or mystical doctrine. Under the triple ‘ivitpon, the5 figst constitutes the Vinaya, the next three the Abhi- dharma, and the rest Siitras. The Nepalese divide their books into twelvd classes, and each class has a number of orders and varieties. They have, nevertheless, sejgcted some of their most important works which they hold, without any: refer- ence to their character, y the scriptures of their, faith. These are pre-efinently their Holy Writ. They include under this head the following works: viz., 1st, the Ashtasahasrik4 ; 2nd, the Ganda Vyuha; ard, the Das‘abhumis‘vra; 4th, Samadhiraja ; 5th, the “Lankavatara ; 6th, the Saddharma-pundarka ; 7th, Tathagata Guhyaka; 8th, the Lalita Vistara; and 9th the Suvarna Prabhasa. According to Mr. Hodgson, ‘‘ Divine worship is constantly offercd to these. nine qvorks * * * by the Buddhists of Nepal. The aggre- gation of the nine is now subservient to ritual fancies ; but it‘was originally dictated by a just respect for the pre-eminent authority and importance of these works, which embrace, in the first, an abstract of the philo- sophy of Buddhism, in the seventh a treatise on the esoteric doctrines, and in the seven remaining ones, a full illustration of every point of the ordinary doctrine and discipline, taught in the easy and effective way of example and’ anecdote, interspersed with occasional instances of' dogmatic instruction.”* I have not had an opportunity of examining all these nine werks; my remarks must necessarily be confined to those I have seen, and they include the Ist, 2nd, 4%, 6th, 7th, and. Sth. -, * LluspratiPfis of the Literature and Religion of ‘the Baddhisés, p 19.6 .The first treatise, Ashtasahasrika, if avowédly qn abridgment of a much larger work called Prajié Pdra- wité, or‘ ‘transcendental knowledge.” It is a prose work in five bulky volumes, but it is said to comprise matter cnough to equal, agcording to the Indian mode of, -reckoning, a hundred and twenty-five thousand, stanzas of 32 syllables ae Looking to the bulk of the work this estimate is By no means exaggerated ; but some say that the numerals refer to the number of separate topics discussed in the work, and not to its extent. The samo doubt exists as to the object of the numerals which make the names of, other redactions of ‘this work, which are all in prose. The specific namo of this great work is Rakshy& Bhagavati, and each volume is called a Rakshya. ‘The subject of this work”, says Hodgson, “is of a highly specuy lative character, belonging rather to phiiesophy than religion. The cast of thought is sceptical in tho extreme, endless doubts are started, and few solu- tions of them attempted. S’akya appears surrounded by his disciples, by whom the arguments on each topic are chiefly maintained, S’akya acting generally as mo- derator, but somctimes as sole speaker. The topics discussed are the great first principles of Buddhism ; the tenets of the four schools of Bauddha Philosophy are mentioned, but those of the Svabhavika alone, largely discussed. The object of tho whole work secms rather to be proof of the practice, that doubt is the end as well as beginning of wisdom, than the establishment, of any particular dogmay-ef philosophy or religion: aud from the evidence of thiggreat, work7 it would appear, that the old Buddha philosephers were rather sceptics than atheists."* As a repository of metaphysical and ontological discussions the work. was a valuable one, but it was too large and two rani- bling to be of much use, and even as eagly gs the second century before the Christian era an attempt was made to condense itfand a redaction of ‘a hun-, dred thousand” was produced (‘S'atasdhasrika Prajid Péramité). ‘It retained, however, all the defects of tho original, and could not therefore supersede it. A Second yedaction of ‘“ twenty-five thousand”, (Pancha- ‘wise Séhasrikd) followed ; but it too failed. A third attempt resulted in the Das’asahasrikd, or ‘ten thou- sand ;” but thet likewise proved insufficient. The fourth redaction is the Ashtasdhasrikd, or “ cight whousand.” In Mr. Beal’s Catalogue of the Chinese Tripfthaka the first and the fourth recensions have been named; as also an exegesis on the original text by Nargarjuna Bodhisattva, which was translated into Chinese by Kumiarajiva in circa, A. D. 400. As the handiest of the five redactions, the last is the most approved, and held in the highest appreciation. Its proper name, like that of its predecessors, is Prajnd Paramité ; but it is best known by the specifi¢ name of Ashtaséhasrikd. It is divided into 32 chapters: The salutation at its beginning is somewhat peculiar. Instead of the usual formula of salutation to the three Ratnas, or to Buddha, or to Bodhisattvas, adoration is paid to the work itself, to the renowned Prajid Péramits;, and the same is then repeated i in a set of * Hlyétra¥ions of the Literature, &o. of the Bhadhists, p “39,8 verses which describes the work ‘(as the source .of kriowledge of Tathagata.” The name being in the .feminine gender, the work is addressed throughout as a female. The scene is laid in a garden near the Vulture Peak (Gidhrakéta) at Réjagriha. When Bhagavan S’akya was once sojourning there in the .company of a large numbeh of disciples and follow- ers, Sariputra opened a discourse by asking Subhuti information on various philosophical topics, relating to the fundamental principles of Buddhism, and the re- plies and discussions which followed form the subject of the work. The topics refer tq forms and their archetypes ; to the means of attaining truc knowledge; to the lives of the 24 Bodhisattvas ; to various forms of meditation ; to ¢uéhatd or sameness, that is the relation of material objects to their archetypes ; to Mayé-purue sha or typical human beings; to explanations of vari- ous Buddhist maxims; to the means of overcoming the miseries of mundane existence ; to universal know- ledge, and the mode of attaining it; and to a varicty of other recondite questions of speculative theology and metaphysics. The Gandavyuha is a narrative work in which the disciples and followers of S’akya, in his presence, dis- ‘course on practical Buddhism. In the first chapter Man- jusri explains to Sudhana-kumara the cardinal princi- ples,of Buddhism. In the second and the third Sudha- na and Meghas‘ti discourse on the same topic, and ‘on the descent of Bodhisattvas. The fourth is devoted to an exposition, by Supritishthita, a Bicikaha, of tlie manner in which Buddhist faith should be’ ‘Sought. In9 tho fifth, the career of Buddha is expatiated upon by one Meghadravida in reply to Sudhana. «In ‘tho sixth, a S’reshthi or banker comes forward to ‘solve the doubts and difficulties of Sudhana relating to certain points of faith. In the next, Saradhaya expatiates on the glory of Buddha. A female mendicant of the name of A’va next explains how a Bodhisattva should study the Bodhi religion. Another mendicant of the samo sox then explains the proper course of life for Bodhi- sattvas. In the ninth, a Rishi of the name of Bhishmot- ‘tara-nitghosha, in reply to Sudhana, explains the duties of Bodhisattvas., The discussion of the subject is con- tinued in several of the succeeding sections, the interlocutors being successively a Brahmana named Jayoshmayatana, a maiden of the name of Maitray4ni, daughter of Maitrayana, one of the principal follow- ers of S'alyya ; Sudarsana a Bhikshu, Prabhata a nun, Vidusa a houscholder, and others. In Scetion 18, Sudhana expounds the subject to Nala, a king, whoso kingdom is described at some length, and who is apparently the same with the hero of the Naishadha, and king of Berar, whose story finds so prominent a place in an episode of the Mahabharata. In tho next he gocs to the towu of Suprabha, and converts to his faith its’ king, Mahaprabha. Tle next gocs to the house of Chhala, a nun, from whose head issues a halo of brilliant light ; and then goes in quest of an ititserant hermit (Varivrdjuka) Survagimina by name, with a lhe discourses on the maxim, maydnut- turdyai-:.» “ Nothing by me of tho future” &e. otrom Sccticuy' arto 30 the topic of discussitn between Su-10 dhana: and different hermits is, ‘ How should the, Bodhisattva knowledge be taught by a Bodhisattva.” (Kathat bodhisatlvena bodhisallvacharyan slikshayilavyam.) The subject of the 31st is an interview of Sudhana with a goddess named Vara, who shows him many jewels -of rure-value. In the next Vasantf, a goddess, replies to ‘his query ‘ Show me the way to omniscience, by which the Bodhisattvas attain their tenfold powers onearth.” Other recondite questions of this charac- ter follow through twenty successive sections, in which Sudhana either instructs, or is instructed, by some- monk, or nun, or god, or goddess in the mysteries of the Buddhist religion. The work is of considerable antiquity, and is, I believe, the same with the Ghana- aytha, Which was translated into Chinese under the name of Va-shing-mi-yen-king by Amoghavajra of the, Tang dynasty in 907—960 of the Christian gra. I have not seen any MS. of the 8rd work, Da- subhunis'vara. According to Wodgson it contains ‘an account of the ten Bhunis, or heavens, or stages of perfectibility,” the names of the ten being thus given in Dr. Cowell and Professor Kegcling’s Catalogue ; (1) Pramudita, (2) Vimala, (8) Prabhakari, (4) Ar- chismati, (5) Sudurjaya, (6) Abhimukhi, (7) Duraf- gama, (8) Achala, (9) Sadhumati, (10) Dharmamedyé, In Mr. Beal’s Report on the Chinese Tripfthaka, this work.occurs under the name of Shi-chu-king, which was translated from the Sanskrit by Kumarajiva and another. The, fourth, is Sanddhirdja, a worls: of tho class called Vyakaraya or narrative, in which vavious forms11 “of méditations are described at length, ang details “are given of the actions by which she perfection of Bud- dhist wisdom is acquired. The work extends to forty chapters. As the subjects are of a peculiarly’recondite character which cannot be briefly analy; sed in a manner to be thoroughly intelligible, I refrain from: attempting to deseribe ‘the work at length. It was’ apparently not translated into Chinese, for I do not sec its name mentioned in Mr. Beal’s report. The Lankdvalira is aw moderate-sized work of 198 fuJia, comprising, according to the’Indian mode of talculation, about 3000 slokas. It is written partly in prose Sanskrit, partly in Gatha verse. It treats of a iiraculous visit paid by Sakya to the king of Lanka (Ceylon), and of his preachings in that island. It is divided into ten chapters (parivartas). Three different grduslitions of it exist in the Chinese, one under the name Vu-shing-jih-ling-kia-king, another under Laukia-o-po- ta lo-pao-king, and the thifd under Jih-ling- heia-kiag,—the Vast by Bodhivuchi of the Wei Dynasty. (Cirea. 221—2253.) The Saddharme-pundasika or “the lotus of good Jaw,” has already been translated into French by Bur- nouf, and ealls for no remark. It was translated into Chinese by Che-yen, of the Sung dynasty, (960—1278) under the name of Fu-hwa-san-mui-king, Aw epitome of it appears among the books of the western Tsin cata- legue, and a commentary of it in select explanations under the name of Mu-hya-in-kia, (Beal, pp. 14 & 104). The seventh is numed Vathdgata Guhyaka, otherwise “a collection sof Scerets.”” called -Giiya-sumagha ov12 Like the fist, it is written partly in Gatha verse, and partly in Sanskrit prose, and is divided into eightcen chapters. : It belongs to the class Tantra, and treats of various esoteric rites and mantras, dwelling largely on the peculiar marks that are characteristic of the body of Tathagata, and on various forms of meditation. As a Tantric composition of the esoteric kind, it has all the characteristics of the worst specimens of S S‘akta works of that type. The oa object, in cither case, is devotion of the hig absolute and un- conditional—at the sacrifice of all worldly attachments, wishes and aspirations; but in working it out theoties are indulged in and practices cnjoined which are at ouce the most revolting and horrible that human dopravity could think of, aud compared, to which the worst specimens of Holiwell Street literature of the last century would appear absolutely pure. .A shroud of mystery alone serves to prevent their truce charactors being scon, but divested of it works of the description would deserve to be burnt by the common hangman. Looking at them philosophically the great wonder is that even a system of rcligioneso pure aid so lofty in its aspirations as Buddhism could be made to ally itself with such pestilent dogmas and practices. ‘The chap- ters of the work are, as is usually the case with the Tantras, called Putalus, and the similitude is carried out in every respect. The first chapter opens with details about various kinds of Samadhi or meditation appropriate for the higher order of the Buddhist clergy. The second gives dircctions as:to the mode in which Buddha is to be reflected upon. “The third18 and tho fourth describe various kinds of “diagrams and mystical figures necessary to be drawn, when engaged in the worship of Buddha, In the fifth are detailed the characteristics and qualifications necessary for a neophyte to undertake certain forms gf secret worship, and among the practices enjoincd which promote the attainment ‘of perfection, debauchery of the most bestial character, not even excepting mothers, sisters and daughters, is reckoned as most essential.* These are followed by an account of Now, dusing the height of meditation in the case of perfect deyotces, ghe crown of the head bursts open, and rays of light issue therefrom. Certain prayers to be addressed by Bodhisattvas to Bhagavan are also given. - The sixth is devoted to secret mantras, like the Vija mantras of the Tuntras, to meditation of mystic diagrams, and to training necessary for such medita- tion. The most appropriate food fur devotees while engaged in this worship is said to be the flesh of elephauts, horses and dogs,t to the exclusion of rice. The means of attaining perfection, described in the next chapter, are not to be austerity, privations and painful rigorous observances, but the enjoyment of all the pleasures of the world,} and the way in which some’ * waevfatqutg arate aaa: | 5 fate fant wgererarrrrag i fol. 15. + efaaid wanis wraraid warn | RL aia fawgaau fol. 20, t gmt rama: aaarat a frgfa | . : waM MeHg Baden fafa uw fol- 21,14 of tke pleasures are described are simply revolt- inet The ‘eighth opens with a hymn, by Ratnaketu, in praise of Bhagavan, and then gives the ritual of the worship aforesaid. The ninth is devoted to the ritual of the worship of Vajradhara, the diagrams, the forms of meditation, and the secret’ mantras required for tho same. The tenth is a dialogue between Tathagata and Vajradhara, in course of which the latter explains the details of adoration with a secret mantra called Muahé-siddhi-pradayaka-mantra, or that which grants the highest transcendental powers. In the next, Tathagata explains the mystery of the sacred syllables om, ah, hum, and the uses thereof. This is followed, in the next chapter, by instructions as to the rituals to be observed in performing particular kinds of meditations and the._ rewards derivable therefrom. All castes ang classes are declared to be fit for the performance of such inedita- tions, provided they follow the rules. The subject is continued in the next in which jaya or silent recita- tions of mantras of various kinds are enjoined. These recitations may be accomplished by the body (hiya- Japa), by speech (vdgjdpu), by the mind (chillujipa), by the passions (rdyajapa), and by othor means. The fifteenth section is particularly disgusting in its details, as it describes the adoration of Buddha through damscls of twelve years of age, daughters of Chandalas, dancing women, and other low castes, and by observances of rituals of the most revolting kind., Daily intercourse with daughters of the Chaydala caste * wit fav faery aefaw frareaa i fol. 22.15 in out of the way places is deemed an eagential of the highest importance,* and particilar stress iv laid on their personal charms.t A variety of mantras gre given for the purpose of these adorations, and also incanta- tions and charms for curing diseases, fos» causing shallucination or death, , for acquiring superhuman powers, and for other purpo&es. ‘The mantras are of the usual typo, formed of the mystic syllables, om, hum, hah, ah, &c. One of these includes twenty-three such syllables. The sixteenth is exclusively ritualistic, giving direc- tions for various ‘kinds of secret worship, and the most appropriate diagrams, mantras, homas, and offerings of various kinds required for them. The oblations to lc offered on the homa fire include, among other ‘things, ordure, flesh, oil, &c.t The ceremonials de- scribed ar& throughout in the highest degree mystical. The next two sections are quite*as mystical and revolting as the last, but they are not so entirely ritualistic. They are made up of a great number of dialogues between Bhagavan, Vajradhara, Vajrapani, and other Bodhisattvas, in which the esoteric doctrines of the faith are discussed at length, and various duties, discipline, forms, observances, rituals and practices are inculeated. -All the ritualistic forms of dhydna, dhd- rand, mudrd, nydsa, sddhana, &c., of reflection, medita- tion, gesticulation, regulation of breath, and other a erenrfeat HOt VSTSY HVAT: | * Saeaq area faal Peary faites: 0 fol. 73. : ateawmt fawrerdt aatearg treat’ fol. ‘73. “ty fagaatetericstt staat 1 fol. 78.16 manifestations of mummery which characterize the TAntrie cult of the Hindus are all faithfully repro- ‘duced, and interspersed with hymns, prayers, halle- -lujahs, &c. Some of these are in themselves of per- fectly uaexceptionable character. Others, absurd, unmeaning, or stupid as they are, are not in themselves such as to be particularly objectionable. But they are sometimes disfigured by injunctions which are highly repulsive. Not satisfied with the order given in the last chapter to make offerings of excrementitious matter on the homa fire, the author goes to the length of recommending such substance as human food,* denouncing all repug- nance to such articles as sinful,t and enjoining that no food or drink should be taken by a worshipper, which has not been mixed with ordure, or urine, or flesh-meat of some kind.t Such’ injunctions would, doubtless, be best treated as the ravings of madmen. Sccing, however, that the work in which they occur is reckoned to be the sacred scrip- ture of millions of intelligent human beings, and their counterparts exist in almost tho same words in Tan- tras which are held equally sacred by men who are by no means wanting in intellectual faculties of a high order, we can only deplore the weakness of human understanding which yields to such delusion in the * sauaged te yeqrarefasae | faa wet weafie ad Eqge u fol, 85. + faaprgarcarai mat Ha area en Faratae au frawsra i fol. 91. f stare a at afefegeiq aati: famuaivtiaia fafura ufcmeata ui fol. 92.17 name of religion, and the villainy of the priesthood which so successfully inculcates them. The cighth is the Lulita Vistara, It is a work of the narrative kind, and, like the preceding seven, has the epithets Mahkdvaipulya and Mahdydna Sutra attached to it. In extent it holds rank betweon ‘the Ashtas4hasriké and the Saddharma on the one side and the Tathagata Guhyaka ond Lankdvatara on the other. According to the Indian system of computation its extent is about six thousand verses of 32 syllables to the verse, divided into 27 chapters of uncqual length. "Thé chapters invariably bogin in prose, but, like most of the other Mahavaipulya Satras, have some poetry at the end, and sometimes also in the middle, which gene- rally contains an abstract of the circumstances detailed dn the prose portion, and scem to have been introduced for their gorroboration. The Igya-teh’er-rol-pa of the Tibetans, though avowcdly a close translation of this work and marked by all its peculiaritics, has little of the corroborative poctry, and yet it is evident that when the translation was prepared in the sixth or the seventh century of the Christian era, the poetry was in existence ; as we find the substance of it is given in Tibetan verse in such places where the Sanskrit has no counterpart in prose. The substance of thé Burmese legend of Godama of which an English translation has been some time since published* by the Right Rev. Bishop Bigandet, is likewise taken from the Sanskrit original; but the Burmese author "s It fire’ appeared in the form of an article in the Journal gof the Indian, Axchipelago, aud was subsequently collected ih an ‘octavo volume,18 dovs riot follow his text with the scrupulousness which characterises the Tibetan version, and it has beside none of the poetry. Tho Burmese have a shorter work on thelife of their Godama. It is named the Malalangara Wattoo, and is likewise founded upon the Sariskrit; but it partakes not of the elaboration of. the original. ' In the Chinese, there are several recensions of the Lalita Vistara. One of them is named Fung- kwang-ta-chwang-yan-king. It was translated by the Shaman (Sramana) Devakara of the Tang dynasty, (Cirea 620—904). Itis divided into four books, twelve chapters (Avouen), and twenty-seven sections (Vagyas or Phin), of which the last division obtains in the Sanskrit and the Tibetan versions. From a compari- son of M. Foucaux’s French version of the Tibetan text with the Chinese it appears that section for section the twa agree very closely, ‘and from a com- parison of the contents of the chapters,” Mr. Beal adds, “this agreement is still more evident.” I am not in a position to say if the Chinese version contains any counterpart of the Gath4 portion of the Sanskrit text; probably it does not, for the value of the Gatha, as will be shown lower down, depends upon its being the qpsissima verba of certain anciont records which the Sanskrit author quotes in support of the authenticity of his prose text, but which in a trans- lated form would amount to mere repetition, of no use as corroborative proofs. It is obviously this consider- ation that has likewise led to the omission of the G4tha from the Burmese and the Tibetan‘ versions,19 Another Chinese version of the Lalita Vistara: is called Pou-yaou-king. It comprises thirty secfions in eight chapters and two volumes. It was ‘ translated, from the Sanskrit by the Indian priest Dbarmaraksha, during the Western Tsin period (265—313 A. D.).”* ,Its contents have been given in M. Senart’s Legende du Bouddha, and judging from them the work would seem to be a loose version of the Sanskrit Text. The following extract from the Introduction to Mr, Beal’s “‘ Romantic Legend of Sakya Buddha,” supplies information regarding other Chinese versions of the ‘Lalita Vistara. “A very valuable date, later than which we cannot place the origin of the story, may be derived from the colophon at the end of the last chapter of the book. It is there stated that the ‘ Abhinishkramana Sitra’ is called wy the school of the Dharmaguptas Fo-pen- hing-king ; by the Sarvastivadas it is eglled Ta-chwang- yen (great magnificence, ¢. e., ‘ Lalita Vistara’); by the Mahasanghikas it is called Za-sse, z. e., Mahavastu. “We know from the ‘Chinese Encyclopaedia,’ Kaz- yuen-shi-kiau-mu-lu, that the Fo-pen-hing was translated into Chinese from Sanskrit, by a pricst calied Chu-fa- lan, so early as the eleventh year of the reign of Wing-ping (iMing-ti), of the Han dynasty, ¢. e. 69 or 70 a.p. Wemay, therefore, safely suppose that the - original work was in circulation in India for sume time previous to this date. “Tt must be borne in mind, however, that several translations of’ the ‘ Legend of Buddha’ are quoted * Beal’s Tripithaka, p. 19,20 under the name b-pen-hing. The first, which we have already alluded to, the original of which was lost so early as the beginning of the Tang dynasty, was in five chapterm/(fiouen). There is allusion to another translation (Kai-yuen-shi-kiau-mu-lu, yol. i. chap. i, fol. £8), bearing the same name but in one chapter, now lost. Again, it is oe (vol. ii, chap. xiii, fol. 42, and vol. iii, chap. xx, fol. 42 op. cit.) that a work called ‘ Fo- sho-hing-tsan-king- fu in five chapters, composed ori- ginally by Asvagosha, and translated into Chinese by Dharmalatsin, an Indian priest of the Northern Liang dynasty (502-555 a. v.), is also called by many writers Fo-pen-hing. Again (vol. ii, chap. xiii, fol. 31, op. cit), it is said that a work called Lv-pen-hing-king, in seven chapters, was translated by a ie of Liang-Chau (called Ratnamegha, chap. xx, fol. 42, op. cit.), of the Sung dynasty (420-477 .a. D.). The writer then adds that this last-named translation is sometimes called J- pen-hing-tsan-king.”’* According to the classification of the Kéhgyur the Lalita Vistara comes under the fifth head of Mido-sde, or aphorisms (Sanskrit, Stitrduta) of which it forms the second-volume. The Nepalese likewise call it a Satranta, but by the rules of their arrangement it falls under the head of Vyakarana of the class called Géthé. What this Gatha is, I shall notice in the sequel. Like the rost of the Siatra works of the Buddhists, the Lalita Vistara docs not record the name of ‘its author. It opens, according to the established canon of Stra writings, with the phrase “ thus hath’ it been # Beal's Romantic Legend of Sékya Buddha, pp. V--VI"21 heard by me,” and continues “that on a certain: occa- sion when S’akya was dwelling in the grove of Jaiavana in Oudh his disciples requested him to relate ‘to them. the history of his life, and in making this request they said, ‘There exists, O Lord, an amplified trgatise on religion, the noblest of Stitras, called the Lalita Vis- tara. It expounds the source of Bodhisattva blessings ;. discloses the light of Tushita; and dilates on the con- sultation, advent, career, birth-place, and the greatness of the birth-place of Buddha; it narrates the special éxcelleneies of his boyhood, of his proficiency i in all worldly occupatiens,—in writing and arithmetic, both plain and symbolical—in mechanical arts,—in the practice of the sword, bow and arrow, and in all sorts of gymnastics; it unfolds his conjugal enjoyments; re- eites the method of acquiring the final and immutable reward, of* all Bodhisattva discipline; displays the eareer of Tathagata triumphing over ,the legions of Mara, and his might and majesty in all their eighteen declensions; points out the heresies of the Buddha religion ; and in short, constitutes the whole of what was imparted by former vencrable.and absolute Tatha- gata Buddhas. Thou O Lord, relate the.same unto us.”” This, in fact, is a bricf summary of the contents of the work under notice, and includes the headings of almost all its different chapters. In conformity with his plan of giving his work the character of an autobiography, the author has very appropriately concluded it with the appearance of Sakya asa teacher of mankind. In this respegt the Buddhist author has a great superiority dyer his Bréh-22 mhan antagonists, who sin against all consistency in their >ttempts to make one author speak for another. _ A notable instance of this may be found in the first line of the Manava Dharma S‘stra in which Manu is made to commence his work with the words ‘‘Manu sat reclined &o.”* The language of the work is remarkable. It has been already observed that the work is written partly in prose and partly in poetry, and the two parts are written in language very dissimilar to each other. The words used in the two portions are obviously pure Sanskrit; but tkere are a great number of technical terms whose true import is unknown, and they offer great difficulty to the modern Indian or European reader unacquainted with the philosophical terminology of the Buddhist. in understanding the text. The prose portion is in ordinary Sanskrit, and conformable gencrally to the canons of Panini and his disciples. Instances of transgression do occasionally appear, bit they are apparently the result of accident, or inattention, or slovenliness, and nat by any means an inherent pecu- liarity. Such orrors of grammar are not infrequent in the Purdnas, though by no means to the same extent. : The style is verbose and tedious in the extremo, and in this the work fully bears out its title of “ highly * No doubt the commentators explain the inconsistency by pre- suming the actual composition to be that of a ‘lisciple recording the words of his teacher, but as the work is not so acknowledged, the inconsistency remains. oe23 developed” or Mahavaipulya Stitra. Epithets by scores are attached toa single noun, and ‘its yerb is sometimes not to be met with before the end of the 2nd or the 8rd page. In the second chapter of the work, there is an instance in which the verb, occurs geventy-one lincs away from its nominative. In the larger Prajud Pdramité, instances of this dislo- cation are much more frequent. This is, however, not peculiar to the Buddhist writings; the Brahmanic romances of the middle ages, particularly those of Dandi and Vériabhatta, abound as gnuch* in instan- cos Sf this description, as do the Vaipulya Satras of the Buddhists. In the Vaishnavite works of the 15th and 16th centurics, they occur with almost as great a profusion. This peculiarity, however, is confined to the prose. Tlw-poetry of the Lalita Vistara is entirely different. Instead of laboured verbosity, it i¢ noted for a lively eliptical terscness which at once indicates that it is not the composition of the same™party who wrote the prose. Its different phraseology, its un- polished simplicity, its unconfined boldness of con- ception, its natural freshness and vigour, all tend to support the same opinion. Although written in a variety of metres from the facile octosyllabic anush- tup to the most complicated Sardulavikridita, which includes 19 syllables to the foot, it is nowhere wanting in the simplicity of style, or the easy« natural flow of its language.* Nepalese chroni- * These remarks on the Gath4 are taken principally from antarticle by the oditor’ in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Val. XXIII, Pp- G04, et seq.24 clers. call this species of poetry by the generic name of Gatha, (ballad), probably from its having been princi- pally used by the scalds and bards of medieval India. For néarly a similar reason, the Balenese style the language of their poets the Kédwi or ‘ poctical,’ and the language of the Vedas is called Chhandas (metrical), whence by a well-known euphonic law, we have the Zend of the old Persians. M. Burnouf, the first Eu- ropean scholar who noticed these poetical effusions, describes their language “to be a barbarous Sanskrit in which the fagms of ages, of Sanskrit, Pali, | and Prdkyit, appear to be confounded.” It differs from the Sanskrit more in its neglect of the grammatical rules of the latter than from any in- herent peculiarity of its own. The niceties of the Sanskrit forms of declension and conjugation find - but a very indifferent attention from the ath4 ver- sifier ;*he uses or rejects the usual case-affixes accor- ding to the exigencics, of his metre with as much veneratioff for the rules of Panini as the West Indian Negro has for those of Lindley Murray; indeed, the best illustration that can be given of the relation which exists between the Sanskrit, the Gatha and the Pali, would be extracts from the literature of the ‘Nogrocs. » The ,following paragraph from a Negro version of the New Testament by some Moravian Mis- sionaries bears exactly the same relation to the Eng- dish of the Zimes newspaper, as the Pali does to the Sanskrit of the Puranas, and the affinity of its trans- lation to the same standard, may be very’ appro- Priately likened to that of the Gatha to the-Brahmanic language of the gods.25 “Drie deh na bakka, dem holi wan bruiloft na Cana na Galilee, en mamma va Jesus béen ce dapeh. .2. Ma dem ben kali Jesus nanga him disciple toe ‘va kom. na da bruiloft. 8. En tah wieni kaba, mamma va Jesus takki na him, dem no habi wieni morro. 4. Jesus takki na him nu mamma noe worko me hubi nanga joe. Tem va mi noben kom jette.” Translation.—“ Three days after back, them hold one marriage in Cana of Galileo, and mamma of Jesus been there. 2. But them been call Jesus with him disciples to come to that marriage. 8.. And when winé end, mamma of Jesus talk to him: Them no have wine more. 4. Jesus talk to. him me mamma how work me have with you, time of me no come yet.” » The Gatha exists only in a versified form, and is to be met, with-in that class of Buddhist writings called the Mahévaipulya or the “ highly developed” Sutras. It’ oceurs generally at the end, and not unoften in the middle, but never at the. commencement, of a chapter, and contains a poetical abstract of the subject described in the prose portion of the works. Its pecu- liarities are those of a language in a state of transition ; it professes to be Sanskrit, and yet does not faithfully conform to itg rules. In it we find the old ferms of the Sanskrit grammar gradually losing their expressive power, and prepositions and periphrastic expressions supplying their places, and time-hallowed verbs and’ conjugations juxtaposed to vulgar slangs and uncouth provincialisms.’ * At one place, orthography is ‘sagrific. ed for th sake of prosody, anda word of a single26 short syllable i is inflated into one of three syllables, while ‘at others the‘latter yields to the former, and a molossus supplies the place of a pyrrhic or a tribrach. A spirit of economy pervades the whole, and syllables and words are retrenched and modified with an un- sparing hand. According to M. Burnouf, instances of these peculiarities occur in most of the works of the highly devcloped class, and I have noticed them in several works, but as those works have not yet been printed I shall confine my remarks to what have been met with in the Lalita Vistara.. These appear gener: ally to be referable to, (A) exigencies of metre,” (3) provincialisms, and (C) errors of syntax and prosody, either accidental or current in the age when the poetry of the Gath4 was composed. A. Of the changes which may be attributed to a exigencies of metre, (a) prolongation, () .contraction, ( and elision of vowels, (3) elisions of consonants, (c) and the segregation of compound consonants and long vowels into their simple elements, appear to be the most frequent. I shall quote a few instances. (a) Of the prolongation of vowels the following may be taken a¥@cxamples. They are not so fre- quently met with as contractions. ma for 4a @fora: . a foraa feraraet for faaqet warat for grata: warvare for Sava Rreaa for wears wtra for garw i (8.) Of contractions of vowels, instances occur al- most in every s‘loka. They are generally effected by the use of shbrt for long vowels, and the: substitution of iand u tor,é, ai, o and au. For example :. i27 arfa‘for a1 faa for ferat utfa for wear afa for arfa yaae for Faq: waa for wat ara for arat naz for Waet awe for wat wa for sat yatai for qartat afwa ufcaa for dfaat .a- aw for aut nse of the @ privative in ajanedi for md janaya, “do not cause.” The use of abbreviated, or otherwise irregular, forms, such as /abhi for lapsyase, or labdhah, gachchi for agachhat, chali for chalité, munchi for amunchat, avachi for avochat, nives‘ayi for nives’itah, chhdédayt for ehhédayati, prichari for prayacharah and parichérini, varichari for vardcharanaing tyaji for, tyaktdé, tyaktvé, and tyaktavdn, smari tor smritameand smaranam, varshi for varshitvd, vraji for avrajat, spars'é for sprashtum, utthi for uttishtha and utthdya, is extremely common, and, as will be seen from the equivalents following each word, these forms are very variously interpreted by the commentator, and sup- posed to stand for verbs in the present, past, and future tense, and in the imperative mood, and for participles active and passive, as well as for nouns. ‘The penultimate syllable of verbs is very often lengthened, as in the Vedic Jet form, as in mochayiiti, dharshayéti, sahdti, labhdti, dris'dsi, vrajdsi, for mochayéti, vte., for which the commenta- tor generally eubstitutes the present tense, but sometimes the past, and sometimes the future. ‘This form is even found with the augment in adyis‘dsi, rendered by the commentator pas‘yati or adrdékshit. ©. In the collocation of words and phrases the Ga- tha strictly follows the rules of Sanskrit Syntax, but in the formation of compound terms it admits of many licenses highly offeusive to the canonsOf Panim and36 his commentators. They seem, however, to be the consequence of haste, inattention, and colloqualism, and are not referable to any dialectic peculiarity. The same may be said of the errors of Prosody which, notwithstanding the anxiety of the Gatha versifiers to _avoid, false metre even at the expense of etymology, prevail to a great extent in their compositions. In this respect the Gatha may be likened to the Kabits of the Bhats of modern India, who in their attempt to combine frecdom of clocution, harmony and grammar in their improvisations sadly offend against all three. Of the origin of the Gatha, nothing appears to be known for certain. M. Burnouf is inclined to attribute it to ignorance. Ho says :— “This fact (the difference of language of the differ- ent parts of the Vaipulya Stitras indicates in the elearest manner that there was another digest (of the . Buddhist literature prepared, besides those of tho three convocations), and it agrecs with the devclop- ment of the poctical pieces in which these impurities occur, in shewing that those pieces do not proceed from the same hand to which the simple Siatras owe their origin. There is nothing in the books charac. terised’by this difference of language, which throws the smallest light on its origin. Are’ we to look on this as the use of a popular style which may have developed itself subsequent to the preaching of Skya, and which would thus be intermediate between the regular Sanskrit and the P&li,—a dialect entirely derived from, and manifestly posterior to, the Sanskrit ? or should we rether regard it as the crude composition of37 writers fo whom the Sanskrit was no longer .famjliar, and who endeavoured te write in the learned lan- guage, which they ill understood, with the freedom which is imparted by the habitual use of a popular but. imporfectly-determined dialect ? It will be for history. to decide which of these two, solutions is correc€; to my. mind the second appears to “pe the more probable one, but direct evidence being wanting, we are reduced to the inductions furnished by the very few facts as yet known. Now, these facts are not all to be found in the Nepalese collection ; it is indispensably necessary in ofder to understand the question in all its bearings, to consult for an instant the Singalese collection and the traditions of the Buddhists of tho South. What we thence learn is, that the sacred texts are there written in Pali; that is to say, in a dialect derived immediately from the learned idiom of the Bréhmans, and which differs very little from the dialect which is found on the most ancient Buddhist monuments in India. Is it in this dialect that the poetical portions of the great Satras are composed? By no means; the style of those portions is an indescribable melange in which incorrect Sanskrit bristles with forms of which some are entirely Pali, and others popular in the most general sense of the term. There is no geographical name to bestow upon a language of this kind; but it is at the same time intelligible how such a jargon may have been produced in places where the Sanskrit was not studied systematically, and in the midst of populations ‘which had never spoken it or had known only, the dialects derived morg or les£ re-38 tnotely from the primitive source. I incline then to the belief that this part of the great Stitras must have been written out of India, or, to express myself more precisely, in countries situated on the western side of the Indus, or in Kashmir, for example ; countries _ Where the learned language of Brahmanism and Bud~- dhism would be cultivated with less success than ‘in Central India. It appears to me almost impossible that the jargon of these poems, could have been produced in an epoch when Buddhism flourished in Hindustan. There, in fact, the priests had_no other choice but between these two idioms; either the Sanskrit, 7. ¢., the language which prevails in the compositions collected in Nepal, or the Pali, that is the dialect which is found on the ancient Buddhist inscriptions of India, and which has been adopted by the Buddhists of Ceylon.”* ~ This opinion, we venture to think, is founded on a mistaken estimate of Sanskrit style. The poetry of the Gatha has much artistic elegance which at once indicates that it is not the composition of men, who were ignorant of the first principles of grammar. Its authors display a great deal of learning, and discuss the subtlest questions of logic and metaphysics with -much tact and ability, and it is difficult to conceive that men who were perfectly familiar with the most intricate forms of Sanskrit logic; who express- ed the most abstruse metaphysical ideas in precise. and often in beautiful language; who composed with ease and elegance in A’rya, Totaka and -other. difficult * Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, p. 105. °-39 measures; wore unacquainted with the rudiments of the language in which they wrote, and even ynablo to conjugate the verb to be, in all its forms: This difficulty is greatly cnhanced, when we bear in mind- that the prose portion of the Vaipulya Stitras is ‘written in perfectly pure Spnskrit, and has no-traca whatever of the provincialisms and popular forms so abundant in the poetry. If these Satras be the pro- ductions of men beyond the Indus imperfectly ac- quainted with the Sanskrit, how happens one portion of them.to be gencrally accurate in every respect, whilé the other is,so corrupt ? What could have been the object of writing the same subject twico over in the same work, once in pure prose and then in incorrect poetry ? It might be supposed—what is most likely the cuse—that xthé prose and the poetry are the produc- tions of two different ages; but the -question would then arise, how came they to be associated together ? What could have induced the authors of the prose portions to insert in their works, the incorrect pro- ductions of Trans-Indus origin? Nothing but a sense of the truthfulness and authenticity of those narratives, could have led to their adoption. But how isit likely to be supposed’ that the most authentic account of” S‘ékya, within three hundred years after his death, was to be had only in countries hundreds of miles away from the place of his birth, and the field of his preachings? The great Sidtras arc supposed to have béen compiled-‘about the time of the third convoca- tion (309 'B,.C.), when it is not at all likely thaf thé40 ‘sages of Central India would have gone to Kashmir in search of data, which could be best gathered at their own threshold. Thé more reasonable conjecture appears to be that the Gatha is the production of bards, who were con- temporaries or immediate successors of S’akya, who recounted to the devout congregations of the prophet of Magadha, the sayings and doings of their great teacher, in popular and easy flowing verses, which, in course of time, came to be regarded as the most authentic source of all information connected. with tho founder of Buddhism. The high estimation in which the ballads and improvisations of bards are held in India and particularly in the Buddhist writings, favours this supposition ; and the circumstance that the poetical portions are generally introduced in corroboration of the narrative of the prose, with the words: a&zqaa, ‘ Thercof this may be said,” affords a strong presumptive evidence. According to the Makawanso, the Buddhist scrip- tures were chaunted ciiapter after chapter as they were compiled by the Theros of the first convocation. This could scarcely have been possible had not the Suitras been in verse, and that they were in verse and in the Gath form too, we learn in another part of the same work (Chap. 37th).* i * When Buddhoghoso offered to undertake the translation of the Cingalese version of the Pitakattayan into Pali, the priesthood of the Mahévihéro at Anurédhapura, “ for the purpose of testing his quali- fications, gave him only two qa’rua’s, saying, Hence prove thy qualification ; having satisfied ourselves on this’ point,” ‘we will then jet thice have all 4he books.” Journal As. Soc. VI, p- 508,41 The léarned Professor Max Miller* and Dr, Weber have adopted this theory of the origin of the Gath dialect. They have both discussed the question at some length, and come to the same conclusion: The late Professor Lassen thoug}t otherwise.t He sup- ported M. Burnouf’s hypotpesis, and elaborated his, arguments; but as those arguments have already been met above, it is not necessary to notice them at length again. Dr. Muir delivers his opinion with some hesi- tation. He says, ‘‘ The peculiarities of the Gatha dialect are so anomalous that it is very difficult to explain them. Ip any case, it is clear that, if not a spoken language, it was at least a written language in a remote age; and it therefore exemplifies to us some portion of the process by which the Sanskrit was broken down and corrupted into the derivative dialects which sprang out of it.”§ Professor Benfoy, while adopting. the theory put forth by me, suggests a slight modification. He says, “On the other hand, Babu Rajendralala’s views on the origin of the Gathas have very much to recom- mend them: they require only a slight modification, the substitution of inspired believers,—such as most of the older Buddhists were,—sprung from the’ lower classes of the people,—in the place of professional: bards.”|| Tad the learned Professor used the word * Chips, I. pp. 297 f. + Indische Studien III, pp. 189, 140. t Indische, Alt. II, p. 9. § Sanskrit Texts, II, p. 126. \|- Gottingen Gelehrte Anzicgen, for 1861, 9. 184.42 addition, ‘instead of “ substitution,” there would have been ‘nothing to take exception to. That some of the more ardent followers of S‘akya, who succeeded to his ministry and propagated his religion after his nirvana, did record his teachings in prose or verso is -but natural to suppoxe; and that some of the Gathas are due to them cannot be positively denied ; but from all that is known of the history of the early leaders of Buddhism it is difficult to infer that those leaders belonged to the ‘ lower classes of the people,” and were so generally ignorant as not to bé able to write in tolerably correct Sanskrit. Most of them were Brahmans or Kshatriyas, and all noted for their learning, wisdom and ability. It is but natural to suppose that Buddhist writers of a subsequent age ‘should quote from the sayings and writings of those leaders, and not from those of the lower orders of the people, who, though they formed the great bulk of the congregation, rarely took any prominent part in the teachings of the Puddhist doctrine, and their authority could not be quoted with any prospect of giving authenticity to the narratives of later writers. Though caste distinctious were abolished as far as the reception of the religion was concerned, and ‘among the clergy, the writings of the Nepalese Bud- dhists leave no doubt that, as a social distinction, caste did hold its ground among them with nearly as much firmness and tenacity as among the Brahmazrists during the Hindu period; and frequent references are made to Brahman Buddhists, who were mostly ‘men’ of "consequence. In our own days instances are43 not wanting of seceders from Hinduism calling them: selves “ Brahman Christians.” It would not be reason- able therefore to attribute the literary deficiencies of the Gathas to the ignorance of the lower ‘orders. Those deficiencies, besides, aye obviously not due to ignorance, but to colloquiaffsms, archaisms afd other causes, which mark the linguistic peculiarities of the age when the Gathas were written. The colloquial character of the language of bards, or popular rhap- sodists, on the other hand, is well known both in Europe and in India. Mostly composed extempore, their ballads and romances could not attain much purity of diction; and in a great measure they de- pended on their colloquial simplicity for their success. A large audience of different classes and orders of men could not be influenced by refined diction, and high-flowmlanguage. A singlo slang, or homely word, in such a case was more effectual than.a whole volume of the purest Johnsonése. This is particularly well understood in India. Our Ghataks or rhapsodists are not ignorant men—they can write with fair accuracy in Sanskrit; but their ballads and eulogistic verses bristle with slang and colloquial and vernacular forms of speech ; and the more they do so, the more suécessful are they in winning the approbation of large audiences. ‘That the ancestors of our Ghataks and Bhats also well understood this principle and carefully followed it, there is no reason to doubt. In the writings of the Bengali Kulajfias there is ample evidence to show that such-has-"been the case for at least a thousand years, and..before that the principle gf action*must44 fave.been the same. So great is the attachment of the people to this popular form of diction that in the present day even the recitation of the Mah&bhdrata ‘and the Ramayana cannot secure a large audience until the narrative of the original is largely inter- mingled with slang and local colouring. When the original texts are read and expounded in plain prose in the morning, on ceremonial occasions called Katha- kathé, the audience is limited to a few persons— rarely more than a dozen; but when in the after- noon the same narratives are embellished hy a Ka- thaka with all the ingenuity of a professed wit and clever vernacularist, whole villages crowd round him, and drink with avidity every word that falls from his lips. The institution of Bhats is as old as Indo-Aryan civilization ; there are several refer- ences to it in the Vedas; and in all religious and quasi-religious gatherings and feasts, at marriages, shr4ddhas and solemn assemblies, it has ever been the practice for the Bhats to recite long strings of verses in praise of the host, his ancestors, his‘caste, and his country. At convocations and religious assemblies the theme of praise is necessarily the founder of the religion and the objects of worship; but everywhere ‘the language is as simple, slangy and homely as pos- sible. In the present day the vernacular language of the place is what is generally preferred ; but some Sanskrit verses are invariably added, and they ‘are very much of the character of the Buddhist Gathas. There is no reason to doubt that at the three great councils, the’ proceedings commenced and. ended with45 the recitation of eulogistic verses. The Mahawanso, as shown above, distinctly mentions the reciting of Gathds, and the qualification of the teacher was tested by making him recite some. The same must’ have- been the case in all the cgmvocations and confer- ences, and the most reasfable conclusion on the premises appears to me, therefore, to be that the bulk of the Gathds are, as aforesaid, due to rhapsodists, or professional bards, and probably only a few to reli- gious teachers. * The Hun’ble Mr. Turnour is of opinion that the religion of S‘akya was originally “preached and spread among the people” in the Pali language, and yet in his edition of the Mahawanso he has shewn that Mahindo, son of As‘oka, translated the Buddhist scriptures into Cingalese from the digest prepared at the convocation held in the 27th year of his father’s reign, and that from that recension the Pali version was got up in the middle of the fifth century (459 and 477 A. C.), admitting thereby that the language used at As‘oka’s convocation was other than Pali, for if As‘oka’s edition had been in that language a new edition from the Cingalese recension would have been quite uncalled for, if not useless. As a collateral evidence it may be noticed that the history of Sakya as recorded in the Burmese “ Malalangara Wottoo”* which is a paraphrase of the Pali Lalita Vistara, bears a closer approximation to the narrative of the Gdtha than to that of the prose of the great * For a translation of this work, vide Journal, American Oxjental Society, Vol. ITE., pp. 1 et seq.46 Satras, shewing the former to be a more authentic, at least a more generally received, version than the latter. - The language of the Gatha is believed, by M. Bur- nouf, to be intermediata between the Pali and the pure Sanskrit. Now, as\the Pali was the vernacular language of India from Cuttack to Kapurdagiri with- in three hundred ycars after the death of S‘kya, it would not be unreasonable to suppose that the Gatha, which preceded it, was the dialect of the millions at the time of Skya’s advent and for some time before it. If our conjecture in this respect be right, it would follow that the Sanskrit passed into the Gatha six hundred years before the Christian era ; that three hundred years subsequently it changed into the Pali; and that thence, in two hundred years more, preceded the Pradkrit and its sister dialects, the’Sayraseni, the Dravidi* and the Paiichali, which in their turn formed the present vernacular dialects of India. * Commenting on this word as pvblished in my paper on the “ Peculiarities of the Gatha Dialect” in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, (XXIII, p. 614). Dr. J. Muir observes ; “if by the Dra- vidi is meant the Telegu, or any of its cognate languages, it is a mistake to class it with the northern Prakrits.” (Sanskrit Texts II, p. 127.) It must be obvious from the manner in which the word has been used in the text that a Prakritic dialect is intended, and not the Telegu, nor any of its cognate dialects. That a Prakritic dialect of the kind was once recognised is abundantly evident from the writings of Indian philologists and rhetoricians. It is referred to by the author of the Sahitya Darpana by the phrase, Dravidé Drévidddishu. Rama Tarkavégis’a reckons it among the, Fibhdshés, Jumera Nandi, in his vrittion Kramadis‘vara, says that the Vibhashas difly but slightly from the Mahéraéshtri. (Kathanciidbhedd, Mahd-47 Of course these dates are mere rough estimates, designed to help enquiry, and not intended to fix the exact limits of time. Dialects take a long time in forming ; their transition from one state to another is extremely irregular, at time» making sudden starts _and then lying dormant, qufckened among some.com- munities and under particular circumstances, and retarded among others, differing even in the case of different individuals, but on the whole spreading over long periods, which, in the present condition of the history of ancient India, it is impossible to detetmine with any exactitude. From what has been stated above, it must be obvi- ous that I hold the Gdthis to be fragments of the earliest works on the life of the founder of Bud- dhism. They must have been compiled immedi- ately after. his death, if not during his lifetime on particular prominent occasions of his ministry. There is no reason to doubt that they were recited at the opening of the first convocation, when a life of the founder would be the very first thing to engage the attention of, and most agreeable to, the devout fol- rdshtryddch. s‘akébhira-dravidodrévantydvantisrdvanti-prachyd-saura- seni-vahliki dékshindlyddi bhashé bhedé nétakadaw patrabhede cha). Markandeya, in his Prébrita Sarvasva, expresses the same opinion. His words are: S'uithkardbhira-chéndala-savara-drévidaudrajéh. 1t is to be regretted that there are not many Drévidi characters repre- sented in the dramatic literature of the Hindus, but of the few who may be.suspected to be sosnowhere has a Dravidian dialect becn put in their mouths, The language they are made to speak in isa fogm of Prakrit, and udt a cognate of the Telegu tongue.48 lowers who assembled to give shape and permanence to the doctrines of their great teacher. Whether these Gadth4s were ever put together in the form of a bio- graphy or simply recited as fragments it is impossible now to. determine ; certain it is that no work purely in Gathé Verse has yet beed met with : if it ever existed, it has not escaped the wreck of time. The earliest Chinese version is said to have been in verse, but there is nothing to show that it was taken from a versified original. The Gaéthas, however, were held sacred and preserved with great care. None was deemed competent to discuss on the principlés of religion who knew them not by-heart, and there is no reason to doubt that all the life of Sakya now extant owe their origin to them. Next to the Gathas the most ancient and authentic text on the life of the last Buddha is the Lalita Vis- tara. M. Senart describes it, as far as it goes, as the «type of the most complete, the most perfect, and also the most authoritative”* of all on the subject. Un- questionably it is the source from which all the bio- graphies now extant in Ceylon, Tibet and China have been drawn. It is of the greatest importance therefore to determine its exact date, and in this respect it is to ‘be regretted that we have nothing more positive than inferences founded on insufficient data. The latest’ date to which the work can be brought is the 6th century A. D., when the Tibetan version was * “Le type le plus complet, le plus parfait, o¢ aussi Je plus autorisd de oyyrages qui se rapportent a cet partie de la légende.” Essai sur la Legénde du Buddha, p. 5. *49 prepared. Anterior to it there is the Pali version of the 5th century. Then the Chinese versions of the 4th, 8rd, and the Ist centuries, carry the history of the work back to over eighteen hundred years." The. Chinese version of the year A, D. 69-70 is particu- larly important. Though is is no longer extdnt, the ‘fact of its having been made is not open to any doubt. The question then arises, how far further back can the Lalita Vistara be carried ? M. Foucaux, in the Introduc- tion to his translation of the Tibetan version, assumes the Sanskrit text, as we now possess it, to have been edmPiled at the time of the 3rd convocation. ‘Tie says: “ Daprés ce qui précede, et puisque le Lalita vistara, dont la traduction tibétaine insérée dans le Kah-gyour est, la copic fidéle, présente tous les caractires qui distingucut les Soiitras développés, il s’ensuit qu'il faut attribuer la gédaction que nous avons entre les mains au troisitme concile qui cut lieu quatre cents ans environ aprés la mort du Bouddha, ‘cé qui assigne a ce livre la date de deux mille ans, et ccla en choi- sissant, comme je lai fait, ’époque la plus rapprochée entre celles que nous fournit la chronologie bouddhi- que.” (p. xvi.) The convocation here referred to is apparently that of Kanishka. Ifso, it was held nineteen hundred, and not two thousand, years ago. If we take it to be that of As’oka, the date would be two thousand one ‘hundred years. To fix the date of the work at two thousand years it would be necessary to assume that it was.produéed, not at, nor for, a convocation, but at a time intermediate between the two convocatibns.-50 ‘To make this clear it is necessary to enter irito some details about Buddhist dates. Now, the starting point of early Buddhist chrono- logy is the Nirvana, and the most important epochs are the four subsequent.convocations. The first is, by some, assumed to have happened 548 years before the commencement of the Christian era, while others bring it down to 477 before that era. Tho first convocation was hold immediately after the death of S’akya, and its date must be the same as that of the Nirvana. The second convocation, like the Nirvana, has two dates; ono, according to a prophecy, a hundred year#after the Nirvana, and the other, according to the Pali annals, one hundred and sixty-six years after that event. In either case the sovereign under whom it was held is said to have been KAlas’oka. The third was held in the seventeenth year of As’oka’s reign, or 246 gr 242 B.C. ; and the last in the reign of Kanishka, a little after B. C. 33. Of these the As’oka convocation is the most au- thentic. Next to the date of Chandragupta no date in ancient Indian history is so well established as that of As’oka, and in all enquiries regarding Buddhist dates, it must be accepted as the starting-point. Tho pro- bable’ time of the last convocation is also fairly well established. It is to this that the learned scholar refers in the above extract. It appears, however, too recent to be reliable. The interval between it and the time when the first Chinese vorsion ‘was published would be scarcelyesixty years, and this appears to me to be too short for a religious work to ‘attain sufficient sanctity in the land of its birth to be51 accepted as the text-book of the faith, and to-travel to China. Had the text been admitted as a revelation by the founder, the case would have, of course, been dif- ferent ; but as the composition of an uninspired Writer, it could not so readily attain that distinction, parti- cplarly when there were riany works extant . with, much higher claims to reverence and faith. If any reliance is to be reposed on Buddhist tradition, the sim- ple Satras must be accepted to be the oldest records, compiled at the first convocation immediately after the death of.the founder, and acknowledged fo comprise the Very ipsissima verba of the great teacher. Works on ethics and philosophy were, likewisc, compiled at that time, and they got wide currency. And looking at them tho last convocation cannot be accepted as the probable time of the origin of the Lalita Vistara. The third convocation or that which was held under the presidency of As‘oka, is not open to the objection above urged. It was hefd long before the time of the Chinese translation, and there was ample in- terval between the two events to give time for works compiled in India, to attain full credit as sacred scriptures, and to go out of India in that garb of sanc- tity. It was, besides, convened expressly for the pur- pose of condemning schismatic doctrines and books, and for settling which of the books then extant were so authentic as to be accepted assacred. Itis open, how- ever, to one serious objection. It is difficult to con. ceive that it was then for the first time that a biogra- phy of the.saint was thought of. At the time a great many af the Avadanas and Jdtakags were ‘well known, and believed to be authentic, - They are_52 alleged ¢o contain the sayings of Buddha, which bear the same relation to the Satras and earlier works which the Hadiths do to the Quran, and imply the existence of preceding works. All the leading facts in connexion with the life‘of the Reformer were then well known and accepted as unquestioned truths, and re- peatedly represented in bas-reliefs at Sanchi, Barahat and Buddha Gaya; and in the face of them it is ex- tremely difficult to beliove that there was no biogra- phy of the founder recorded at the time, and that nothing was done in that line until two «centuries later. It appears to me extremely inconsistent to assume that records in stone, literal and pictorial, pre- ceded writing in books by two centuries and more, or even that they were synchronous. Ilad the carly Bud- dhists been generally unlettcred people, who neglected to presorve their scriptures, the case would have been different ; but secing that the founder of the religion did not himsclf write any book, dnd that the very first thing his followers did immediately after his death was to reduce to writing the sayings of their teacher, and to classify them under different heads, it would be quite unwarrantable to suppose that a life of the saint was not thought of until several centuries afterwards. The next date would be that of the sccond convoca- tion, but it has been held by scholars who have carefully studicd the subject and are well able to speak with great weight, to be apocryphal, and it opens the very large and much vexed question of the date of the Nirvana, which it is not my wish'to discuss here. If the authenticity of the prophecy..which said53 that a convocation would be held a hundred years after the Nirvina be admitted, and Kalas’oka be acknowledged to be the same with Dharma As‘ ‘oka, or the As‘oka of the Jats, the son of Vindusdra, the Nirvana would be brought té the fifth decade of, the fourth century, or only a few years before the inva- sion of India by Alexander the Great, when, according to Greek historians, Buddhism was well established in the country. This would be quite absurd, and therefore the theory of identifying the two As‘okas thay at once be rejected as untenable. “The next hypothesis is to deny the identity of Kalas’oka, but to admit an interval of a hundred years from the death of Buddha to the father of the nine Nandas, and then, relying on a prophecy which says that As’oka would come a hundred ycars after Kala- s‘oka, to cast-up the figures of this nameless father’s reign and those of his successors to the igauguration of As'oka, and to make a total of 218 years as the interval between the Nirvana and As’uka. This too, however, is open to a grave objection. The As’oka Avadana gives cleven lincal descendants from Bimbisara, the contemporary of S’akya, to As’oka, and these, within 218 ycars, would give an average of 19 years ‘and 9 months to each, without reckoning the reign of Chan- dragupta, which is omitted in that work. The thirteen lineal descendants noticed in the Vishnu Purana would with those figures give an average of 16 years and 9 months to each reign, without making any allowance for the 100-yeats assigned by that work to the pine Nandas. ‘The ten lineal descendants of the Mahdwanso,54 in the same way, would give 21 years and 9 months to eachreign. But even the highest of these three figures would be too small for an average human generation, ‘which is 83 years, or three generations to the century. By accepting the date of Buddha’s death to have been 643 B. C., the interval between the Nirvana and As/oka would be raised to 297 years, and they would give an average of 23 to 29 ycars to each generation, or higher if the time of Bimbisara, the contemporary of Siikya, be excluded, and this result would be very near what one would @ priori have a right to expect. The prophecy of 100 years is not of any importance, and must go the way of all prophecies. In the As’oka Avadana, a prophecy of S'akya is quoted, which says that Upa Gupta, the religious preceptor of As’oka, would be born a hundred years after the Nirvana. If this really did happen and the latest ate of tho Nirvana be accepted as the truce one, the sage would have been 131 years old when he expounded the prin- ciple of Buddhism to his royal pupil. In the same way one Pindola, who was according to a Pali legend, a contemporary of Buddha, must have wonderfully preserved his activity for near 250 years, to be fit for missionary dutics in the time of As‘oka, for he is ‘said to have been deputed by that monarch to preach Buddhism all over India. I look upon the prophocy as a picce of pious fraud, designed to exalt the rank of the great teacher who succceded in converting and becoming the spiritual guide of so mighty a sovercign as As’oka, and the Pindola story, a case of: accidental identity of nemes afterwards converted into a positive55 identity’of persons. In the As‘oka Avadana the name appears as Supindola Bharadvaja. I would ; have referred both to circumstances connected with the history of K4las’oka afterwards confounded with’ Dhar-- mAs’oka, but it is futile to place any reliance upon stories which deal in spans of human life ‘over. -a, century. At the same time I must admit that to reject the genealogy altogether would be to reject evidence better than which we do not possess, and to vitiate irremediably the authenticity of those facts on which the fictitious character of Kélasoka’s convoca- tion™has been attempted to be established. If the convocation could be acccpted as a historical fact, it would appear to be the most appropriate time for the Lalita Vistara. It is acknowledged by the southern Buddhists that at that meeting the text-books of the faith were tg some extent revised and added to, and there is nothing to prohibit the supposition that a prose life of the founder of the religion was then got up. Tho “ Buddhists themselves go much higher up, and insist upon the Lalita Vistara being of the date of the first convocation. ‘Comme tous les ouvrages primitifs du bouddhisme,” says M. Foucaux, ‘le Lalita Vistara passe pour avoir été rédigé par Pun des principaux disciples du Bouddha, immédiatement aprés la mort de ce dernier, et d’aprés le récit qu’il avait fait luiméme des événements de sa vie,”* He very justly, adds: ‘Il est probable, en effet, que Tun .des’ premiers besoins des nouveaux con- * Histoire du Buddha, p. XI.56 vertis au bouddhisme fut de connaitre quelle avait été la vie du fondateur de leur religion, soit pour se prévaloir de la perfection du maitre, soit pour imiter ses vertus.” But he assigns very good reasons to show that this belief cannot be accepted as historically correct. I have myself shown above that the Gathas ‘were most probably what were produced at the first con- vocation to give an account of the life of the saint; and if the Gathas sufficed to meet the wants of the people at that convocation, it must follow that a prose compilation quoting those Gathas as vouchers must come some time after that date; and what could ve a better time than that of the convocation which was held to recast the scriptures? It is said many prose works were then elaborated, and it would be hard to believe that none was thought of in connexion with the life of the founder. On the contrary the most probable inference seems to be that it was one of the earliest that was thought of and taken in hand. De- nying his convocation, still the time of Kalasoka, a centuyy or a century and a half after the first poetical version, would be by no means an unreasonable date. Any how the work cannot be carricd more than fifty years before that time, and that may be accepted as the -terminus & quo, and the latest some fifty years or more before the convocation of As’oka in the year 246 B.C., whether it be called the second or the third. The sculptures of the time of As‘oka preclude the possibi- lity of bringing the work down to a later period, This argument places the work between 300. to 450 B. G., and gteater certainty is at present unapproach- able.57 Of thé contents of the Lalita Vistara, Caoma de Kérés has given a fair, though brief, resume, in the twentieth volume of the Asiatic Researches (pp. 285 et seq); and after the publication of M. Foucaux’s élegant translation into French of the Tibetan version, | Bishop Bigandet’s translation into English of the Pali Version, M. Beal’s rendering into English of the Chinese ver- sion, M. Senart’s comment on all the three, and Pro- fessor Lefmann’s German translation of about one- fourth of the Sanskrit text, it would be of no. use to attempt an abstract. I abstain therefore from the'task. A complete translation of the whole into English is what is now required for . comparison with the other texts, and I had this object in view when this edition of the text was undertaken. A translation of the first three chapters was published, and nearly, tlirce-fourths of the text was rendored into English in MS., but circumstances intervened which prevented me from carrying out my- intention. The publication of the last fasciculus of the text has beon hitherto delayed solely with a view to bring out the translation along with it. But so many complaints (and very justly) have been made on account of the delay, that I am obliged to issue the text apart from the translation.. I enteriain, however, a hopo that I - shall soon have an opportunity of bringing out the latter as an independent publication. For the present the published pages of the translation must remain as a specimen of the style of the text. The life of Buddha is divisible into two parts; the first referring to his birth, infancy, boy-hogd, and Yhan-58 hood.to the time of his attaining religious perfection ; and the second embracing his career as the teacher of a new’ faith, and the history of his death and funeral. ‘The Lalita Vistara comprises the first part, and, as far as it goes, it is the most complete account we have on the subject. There is no single work in the Sanskrit | language which gives the second in the same way. For it the Stitras and the Avaddnas are our only guide; but they are fragmentary, unconnected, often unreliable, and not unoften discordant. The life in Pali, compiled by Buddhaghosha, has, a great advantage in this respect, as it includes the career of the great teacher from his birth to death; but its authenticity is questionable, and it was compiled nearly a thousand years after the date of the events it describes. Nor has the time yet arrived for the completion, from tho materials now accéssiple to orien- tal scholars, of such a complete biography as would meet the requirements of historical accuracy. Much has yet to be done to bring to light the salient points in the Buddhist literatures of Nepal, Tibet, China, Ceylon, and Burmah before such a work can be successfully completed. The present is the season for collecting facts, for bringing together scattered materials,and not for work- ing on them and drawing conclusions. And I trust, therefore, that the volume I now prosent to the public in a complete form, will not be an unacceptable con- tribution to the stock of materials already collected by European scholars. It has its dofects, and no one ‘is more paipfully aware of them than I am: Two of59 them have been specially pointed out in a Prospectus lately published by Dr. Lefmann of Heidelberg. It has been said, ‘‘ Nachdem die Calcuttaer Ausgabe sich als unkritisch und unbrauchbar erwiesen, und dazu unvollstindig geblieben, dist das berechtigte Ver- langen nach einer correcten Ausgabe dieses wichtigen ‘Pextes oft genug gestellt worden.” The ‘“incomplete- ness” I am now abletoremove. Such as itis, the text will now be found complete. I regret I can do nothing to mend its ‘ uncritical” character. But in justice to myself I must add, that the edition does not pretend to any” critical exposition, and nothing should be expec- ted from it but just what it assumes to be—an eclectic text compiled from five MSS., retaining all'the errors ofthe MSS. where no single MS. gives a correct version, and never attempting to decide which is correct and which is wong, except in a few occasional foot-notes, which may be taken for what they are worth,—in short to give the substance of five MSS., and “not to sit in judgment on them. For a first edition of a liftle- known and scarce work this was deemed the safest course. The Sanskrit in which the prose portion of the work is written is not pure, and it is over- loaded with Buddhist technical terms which were perfectly unknown to oriental scholars, both in- Europe and in India, when the sheets passed through the press, and even now is but very imper- fectly understood ; the construction of the sentences is involved, and frequently dubious; and the MSS. at‘command were all more or less corrupt ; the poetigal portions are, written in a different dialept, and their60 peculiarities were, when I took them in hand, totally unknown to me, as they were to all European scholars, and the. task was to deduce intelligible meaning from unintelligible jargon, in very much the same way in which an English scholar, without knowing the history’ and the topics of the Bible, would draw intelligible meaning from the extract printed on page 25 from the Moravian version of the Bible. Buddhist literature was little known and but imperfectly under- stood three and twenty years ago when the text was printed, and the apprehension of tampering ,with the original by hasty and unauthorised emendations beset me at every step. And under the circumstances I cannot venture to cherish the idea that I have been always successful in my attempt to interpret the Gathas. A whole library of Buddhist books has since been published ; a host of able and distingyished scho- lars have devoted their time and attention to the sub- ject ; and quite a mass of now light has been brought to bear upon it. It is therefore but reasonable to suppose that those who will follow me will find the task ofediting the work greatly facilitated, and it will be asource of satisfaction to me to know that my labours have, to even asmall extent, helped to the -understanding of an old and very important work in Buddhist literature. That my notes on the Gdthds will be of some use to future enquirers, even if they serve only as beacons, I have every reason to believe. In preparing the text of this, the first edition of the Lalita Vistara, for the press, I have had'the use of the following five MSS. :61 1st. A 4to. volume of yellow arsenecised paper, written in the Bengali character, originally cgpied for the College of Fort William, but now belonging to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In the ptinted Catalogue of the Society’s Sanskrit Library, it occurs under the head of Upapurénas, and is named “ Budsha ‘Purana, by Pardsara,” (No. 508) having been mistaken for a Pauranic work of the Hindus. In the colophon of the codex the name is, however, correctly given. 2nd. Ditto ditto, belonging to the Serampur Col- lege. This and the last were copied under the supe¥intendence of the late Dr. William Carey from the same original, and are, generally, very corrupt. 8rd. A puthi of 246 folia, written in the Newari character on yellow arsenecised paper, having from 7 to 9 lines on each page. On its cover, the name of the work is givan.ds Dharmardjdvaddna. On the centre of the first page there is a vignette representing Buddha seated, on a lotus supported by two lions, and surround- ed by worshippers of various classes. The central figure has an aureole behind its body, and behind that a large tree. The sun and the moon and two snow-capped mountains are shown in the back ground. The MS. was procured for the Asiatic Society by B. H. Hodgson, Esq. According’to its epigraph it was copied at a place “ to the north of the great Vihara called Pas’ubandana, to the west of the great Vihara called Harnavarna, sa- cred to S’akya, the noblest of saints, in the city of Lali- tapuri, during the reign of Rajyaprakas’amalla Deva, in the NewAri year 871 = A. D. 1751, (the day of com,- pletion being), Wednesday, the 18th of the syane, in'the’62 ‘month of A’s'vyina, when the moon was in the’ constel- lation Hasta, and the Yoga was Vaidhriti, for the edification of one Samantabhadra, son of Dharmardja, ‘by Purnas’ri, and grandson of Dhanadeva and his wife Dhanavati. oe 4th: Ditto of 230 folia, written as above, and having 8 lines on each page. It bears no date, but is apparently about a hundred and fifty years old. Ob- tained by B. H. Hodgson, Esq. for the Library of the Asiatic Society. Very carefully copied, and apparent- ly correct, corresponding closely with the last. 5th. Ditto of 181 folia, written in the Nagari character, and having 12 lines on each page. Copied. at Kathamandu for the editor, under the superintend- ence of B. H. Hodgson, Esq. Generally correct, but apparently copied from an original different from the above. In collating these MSS. and preparing the notes on the G4thad portion of the work I had the invalu- able assistance of my late respected tutor Pandit Vis’ va- natha S/stri. A profound Sanskrit scholMr, tho- roughly versed in the Mahabhashya and other leading “etree efearnte sarc: wiser gerfaart) aia Rat SVIATSRT ATA aarti mat wiftred | waifaagt gereqret attra sarmnezaateata: 1 sagt a Fat sfrgfarannre erie efed fadr sarefufer arcet wen wa Fufea art 33 ogg ora: ear efeafaac | frercen. wwadaerfrercar stabuergatrer afwarica atomararerfirert ected ststasrerat wera abihrreee wai stearate geet ateerear erasn atstua- cramer we aiteet aeaat aisiga atara: var arene atten ‘ wmarer: eatappirer - ereficend feast syeey u,63 works of the Panini school, and familiar with the idiom of the dramatic Prakrits, which he had made a special subject of his study, he brought to the-task a qualification which few could command. Seated at: his feet, I had studied the Sanskrit language for years ; and I feel profoundly grateful to him for the advice , ‘and instruction which he always placed at my service. Most of the Sanskrit works, which I have edited, have benefited very largely by his co-operation and super- vision; and I deeply mourn the loss I have sustained by his untimely death. I have also to acknowledge wy Obligation to the distinguished scholar and orien- talist, Brian Haughton Hodgson, Esq., who was the first to throw open the field of Nepalese Buddhism to European scholarship, and to write some of the most valuable papers that have yet beon published on the subject, for procuring for me-and for the Asiatic Society of Bengal three most valuable MSS. Without those MSS. it would have becn impossible for me to carry the work through the press in a satisfactory manne:. ManixTOLian, August 30th, 1877.ERRATA. Page 5, line 12, for pundarka read pundarika.* » 7 x 19, for Nargarjuna read Nagarjuna, » 14, 4 1, for are sisnply read is simply. 1» 27, » 2G, for We read HE. » 80, ,, 22, for in read in the.afarfaere: | WUATNATANTE ART: | @ aar cafeaaarreaarauraufatearsigg- Qrfraaraiaraaraang gy asa AMAT ATT: Ul wan yaaaferwad wnaserawat faecfa wa Faatsarafrsc area wear frgara arg areata flgeed: | awar i arama e erage | aTywat arate | ATEHAT WATT | ATEWAT YO AETATAT | aTgwaT a wiRU | ATGWAT Y BRIA | WreTAT t fanaa 1 WTEWAT YT GaTSAT | WTEWaT gaia mywat S aaafaar | wTgwaT UTMfawraraas | sawat YW agTaTaA | ATE WaT Waren arqwat Wo mifegaw) waWAT @ WETitRaTTaT | AGRA UW AUTH | THAT a WeTATATAA a | arama @ ainaa | aTqwar es Ftfessie | serwar, BPRS) Wawa ye Garattasa | wewar ef xE71 Tawar @ aft | atawaT wa afeqaay argue Yo eafaat | wrewat wy Tada wTgwat a afecaes | STYWAT VTATSTTIAA | ATA ATS YT arc firas Pe ATQWAT A RHTT | WYWAT q ma tz uafirafame: | WAT V UEAA | AIwAT Y QTM | WTSWAT ara | waqHedraulahigass: ag afiwar — Sfwewaed:, atamnfanfarg: welarfere- saurtfaafaana: adarfrararfasrafaataathen: asdatframurctiafaarafawa: warfare afar: adiiirearerrgafeqe: wigrtuanafa- aagfaye, wiarfueauarfuatratats: waatfaya wafsarnfawa: adatfuamarmaate: 1 qalarh- awyfaaicaet: laqat) aaae y arfyeda aer- aaa UT YW arfuaaa aera feeaaat < atfwada aeada fagriafaar = arfreaa awada mmaafcanfaar ow atiria were wa ufadfanaa 3 atferda aera fareaa aaifuada aera Heracurefear yaya wees waqAaeiwat w shrews: 1 aa GY a: waa WraETaS Aura AT fafa faexfa Wolo wmaat aRaat atfaa: yfaay azul uftaet trait cage ctraafeaut cas- aerararat ursrare a fearaTat ufsanrguaeyaar- aquvert tresaverat sadtflasrawargeaca- ufcaraarat arity wary wa aTatl, areata Taeaetuahaaat Tacfewaaqwaaraaea-Wea: | & wees RTT, ATHTTAATS ATA TATA aS wsrafen: Ta Ta AAATATTY WAIT an Prt aez— BAT ATRIA: weaETATGgZT faqracaana: gaan Srafarre: weet qeaaTe fa: WTA TATA ATH agl waragyg: FAA: | w Tay Ss WT" aie wat Vata TAMAR TATATYC HTT aaaarquired fasra erareamarg faetfa a ‘agai fwafa wo wet wart Ha ward gears aur qingagdt dad uftat aftag qaiaeid aaa waatwefa a aa Gy ut waa waa Trai awa wa qAQIagrtayg Aa wal WaTVaTS | wAAT- TARA WT AAI TH GEIARTL aH warfyuay amaMaa waad saftey: aqaita*faacraaq ress TRAIRAAFTMAT STATA RTT ATH THABANTT 1 aT Weyl WOQIATA TIVATAIMTS ALITTATAASA- VAIS ATATSRITATATA | aay TaTAAT hare: fagiiat wareat ware faagxfa as Band LaAAgIATAT Rant Nufaearaiaaa | maT MTA aft warfaaa wraaiea 1 stargfe Wg AUTH Wat aelfad ata * Sanita dears& aferafererc: | gafata arzaasy wa aaj aft weed | a gcafgwaadast Gr arcaitcaqmarre: t weraqaenfay caeasaT: WaT: WAPAArITaTT ATH Nl WEG aHTUUa AAAS waaafeatca | “areata qananae WaT VART TEGAN ll = aausissadsane: w atfeser: guferaran: | wgdaer wcardarfag: a aTadisT aT Aa a Tha Ut WAAMNTYRTY BY Fae Werareaifam Taga: Wa TEAMS AATSTaay Tar wafyys Ea ferivafa: earigar: qaaara: | ware: wargaperat ATL FAIUaAITa aa garmeataafamTaTR eT aT ATL TET AAAS Hl ATE grat waar afa qgaarraewansaria ary wag TATE TEA at: war aeperc ia Gl We Ge awit TST aTeATaTa- MUR ATA Wylaeatfant Sagat ASAT ATA TT gay afeag uma ywnrafataarga wa 4 wasn: Werareatfaar zayar safaontentsfamtaiaaat: waqran Saat feaaranaaraare aa waarear- VT_ LTTE wT: aa facarsfraaata AE wate fears a werareatfaart SAQA wWaraeaHAz- are afte wadefwafatt ara waqaira:) qareit *

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