The History of Antiquity, Vol. 4 (of 6)

This new mode of asceticism would not have gone beyond the limits of the school, had not Buddha added a moral for the whole world to his philosophy for the initiated. As we have in the Sankhya system a kind of rationalistic reaction, after the Indian measure it is true, against the flighty theorems of the Brahmans, so in the practice of Buddha the prominent features are more simple, healthy, and sensible. The Sankhya system places liberation essentially in the release of the spirit from nature by the power of knowledge; according to Buddha's doctrine liberation must be sought not only in the path of knowledge but also in the will and temper. When the temper is rendered peaceful; when desire ceases, and the withering of the soul comes to an end, then knowledge can begin.457 In this repose of the passions, which arise from egoism, there is a very definite practical and moral feature, of great importance for development and edification. Buddha allowed that every one could not attain the highest liberation by the mode of asceticism and meditation which he taught; but he did not therefore leave the people to their fate, like those who preceded him in philosophy; he did not, like these, point to the sacrifices, customs, purifications, and penances. Even for those who were not in a position to liberate themselves wholly from the misery of the earth and the torments of regenerations, by entering into the way of illumination, were to have their pains and sorrows alleviated as far as possible. The desire to do away with the passions, and with selfishness, the lively sympathy, the earnest effort to alleviate the sorrows of men, from which Buddha's philosophy starts, are also the source of his ethics, which are to be preached to the whole nation. As contact with the world is the chief cause of desire, and therefore of the pain and distress which come upon men, the main object is to come into contact with the world as little as possible, to live as far as may be in peace and quietness. The requirement of a still and quiet life is the first principle of the ethics of Buddha. Even the layman must bring repose into his senses. He must moderate his impulses and passions, his wishes and his desires, if he cannot annihilate them. He must guard against the excitement of passions, for these are the chief cause of the pains which torment mankind. He must be chaste and continent within the limits of reason; he must drink no intoxicating liquor; at the accustomed hours he must take the necessary food (otherwise the belly causes a multitude of sins458); he must clothe himself simply. He must not attempt to amass much silver and gold, or waste the property which he has, in order to procure enjoyment. In a word, "he must turn his back on pain, ambition, and satisfaction."459 The evils which are unavoidable in spite of a simple, moderate, and passionless life, he must bear with patience, for in this way they become most tolerable. Injustice coming from others must also be received with patience; ill-treatment, even mutilation and death, must be borne quietly, without hatred towards those who inflict them: "mutilation liberates a man from members which are perishable, execution from this filthy body, which dies." Those who treat us in this manner are not to be hated, because all that comes upon a man is a punishment or reward for actions done in this or a previous life.460

Though Buddha adheres to the conception of the Brahmans, which had long been the common property of the nation, that a man's lot in this world is the consequence of actions done in an earlier existence, he could nevertheless point to further alleviations of the evils of life than those attained by moderation and patience. All men without regard to caste, birth, and nation, form in Buddha's view a great society of suffering in the earthly vale of misery; it is their duty not mutually to add other sorrows to those already imposed upon them by their existence; on the contrary, they ought mutually to alleviate the burden of unavoidable misery. As every man ought to attempt to lessen the pains of existence for himself, so it is also his duty to lessen those of his fellows. In Buddha's doctrine not our own sorrows but the sorrows of our fellow-men are a cause for distress.461 From this principle Buddha derived the commands of regard, assistance, sympathy, mercy, love, brotherly kindness towards all men. If, according to the doctrine of the Brahmans, and of Buddha also, there was no love, no grace, and no pity in heaven, they are henceforth to exist on earth. The love which Buddha preaches is essentially sympathy; it arises from another source than the love of Christianity. It is not in Buddhism the highest commandment for its own sake alone: it is not the liberating, active, creative, ethical power, which not only removes selfishness from the negative side, but also positively transforms the natural into the moral man, and exalts the family, community, and state into moral communities. In Buddhism love wishes above all things to lament with others, and by helpful communion to make life more endurable; it is simply the means to alleviate the sorrows of the world. Hence Buddha commands us to be without selfishness towards all men, to spend nothing on ourselves that is intended for another. To speak hard words to a fellow-man is a great sin; no one is to be injured by scornful speeches.462 What can be done must be done for the amelioration of a fellow-man and the promotion of his prosperity. A man must be liberal towards his relations and friends; gentle towards his servants; he must give alms without any intermission, and practise works of mercy;463 he must provide nourishment for the poor; and must take care of the sick and alleviate their sorrows. He must plant wholesome herbs, trees, and groves, especially on the roads, that the poor and the pilgrims may find nourishment and shade; he must dig wells for them, receive travellers hospitably, for that is a sacred duty, and erect inns for them.464 If the Brahmans are cautioned against the killing of animals, and the eating of flesh is restricted among them as much as possible (p. 168), Buddha is still more strict in this respect. Nothing that has life is to be put to death, neither man nor animal; pain is not to be inflicted on any living creature; a man must have sympathy with the sufferings even of animals, and tend such as are old and weak.

Consistent in his attempt to discover the alleviation of pain in the heart and mind of man, Buddha remits even the sins of commission by internal change and improvement of mind. If a man has committed a sin of thought, word, or act,465 he must repent and acknowledge it before his co-religionists, and those who have attained a higher degree of liberation. Repentance and confession diminish or blot out the sin, according to the degree of their depth and sincerity, and not painful penances and expiations, which only increase the torments of the body, the thing which we desire to diminish.466 No one is to make a parade of good works; these he should conceal, and publish his failings.467

Thus the ethics of Buddha are comprehended in the three principles of chastity, patience, and mercy, i. e. of a moderate and passionless life, of ready and willing submission to any annoyance or unavoidable evil, and finally of sympathy and active assistance for our fellow-men. An old formula tells us: "The eschewing of evil, the doing of good, the taming of our own thoughts, this is the doctrine of Buddha."468

The legends tell us of a great disputation held at Çravasti (the metropolis of the Koçalas), in which Buddha was victorious over six holy penitents of the Brahmans; the leading Brahman even took his own life in disgust and disappointment. As the legends relate, the Brahmans were afraid that Buddha's doctrine would diminish their honour and importance, that they would receive fewer gifts and presents; they were distressed that Buddha allowed even the lowest and impure castes to enter the order of penitents. According to the statement of the sutras the Brahmans caused the communities to inflict fines on such persons as listened to Buddha's words, and from the kings of certain districts they procured edicts forbidding his doctrine. Though the Brahmans may have succeeded in prejudicing one or two princes against Buddha and his doctrine, in other regions of India, not to mention his own home, he did not miss the effectual protection of the secular arm. From the very first year of the public appearance of Buddha, Bimbisara king of Magadha is said to have given him his protection and support, and to have assigned to his disciples the Bamboo-garden, near the metropolis Rajagriha, for their residence. The king of the Koçalas also, Prasenajit, supported Buddha, and his metropolis, Çravasti, became a favourite residence of Buddha in the rainy season, a centre of the new doctrine, to the north of the Ganges, as Rajagriha was on the south of the river. Lastly, the legends speak of Vatsa, the king of the Bharatas, who resided at Kauçambi, and Pradyota of Ujjayini, and Rudrayana of Roruka, a region which apparently lay to the east of Magadha, among the protectors of Buddha. Towards the princes Buddha's conduct was prudent and circumspect; he did not impart to any of their magistrates or servants the initiation of the beggar; he adopted none of them into the community of the initiated without the express sanction of the king.469

On the people his appearance and disputations with the Brahmans could hardly make any other impression than that he also was one of the philosophising penitents who wandered through the lands of the Ganges, teaching and begging, with or without disciples.470 If the Brahmans persecuted Buddha, they called out to them: What would ye have? – he is a mendicant like yourselves! Buddha is said to have suffered the most severe persecution, when past his seventieth year, from Devadatta, a near relation. Even in youth the eager rival of Siddartha in martial exercises, Devadatta is said to have been filled with cruel envy by the success of Buddha's teaching. So he determined to appear as a teacher in Buddha's place, and for this object he united himself with Ajataçatru, the son of Bimbisara of Magadha. The latter was to murder his father, the protector of Buddha; Devadatta desired to assassinate Buddha himself, and then the two, by mutual support, would hold the first place. Devadatta assembled 500 disciples; Ajataçatru, in the year 551 B.C., dethroned his father, and according to the legends of the Buddhists caused him to die of starvation in a dungeon. After the death of his protector the Enlightened was to perish also. From the top of the vulture mountain near Rajagriha, Devadatta hurls a stone on Buddha as he passes by underneath; but he merely wounded him slightly on the toes; in vain is an elephant maddened with palm wine let loose upon Buddha, the raging animal kneels down before him. To escape these persecutions Buddha leaves Magadha and turns to Çravasti. Devadatta pursues him, in order to attack him afresh there, and destroy him by the poisoned nails of his fingers; but when he approaches Buddha he sinks into hell, while king Ajataçatru is converted, and from a persecutor of Buddha becomes a zealous protector of his doctrine.471

This legend is obviously told in order to glorify the victorious sanctity of Buddha, nevertheless it contains a certain nucleus of history. At a very early time there was a division among the adherents of Buddha; the author and leader of this division was called Devadatta. Even in the seventh century A.D. there were monasteries in India which followed the doctrine and rules of Devadatta. Among the eight disciples of Buddha, according to the legends, Çariputra and Maudgalyayana, young Brahmans of the village of Nalanda near Rajagriha, took the first place. After these the sutras mention Kaçyapa a Brahman, Upali a Çudra, who had been a barber, i. e. who had carried on one of the lowest, most impure, and contemptible occupations before he followed Buddha, and two nephews of Buddha of the race of Çakya, Anuruddha and Ananda. Ananda is said to have accompanied Buddha for twenty-five years without interruption; to "have heard the most, and kept the best what he heard." After these, Nanda, a step-brother of Buddha, and Buddha's own son, Rahula, are mentioned in the first rank.

It was not the favour or dislike of princes, nor the speculative power of his doctrine, nor the devotion of his nearest scholars, which procured a reception for Buddha's doctrine. On the contrary, the success of Buddha rests precisely on the fact that his teaching is not restricted to doctrine, nor to a school. He ventured to step out of the circle of the Brahmans, and the learned in the Veda, beyond the lonely life in the forest; he was bold enough to break through the limitations imposed upon instruction by tradition and law. He did not, like the Brahmanic teacher, hold sittings with his pupils, at which they alone were present; he spoke in the open market place, and addressed his words not only to the Dvijas, but to the Çudras and Chandalas also – an unheard-of event: for this purpose he speaks the language of the people, not Sanskrit, the language of the Brahmanas and the learned; he preached in a popular style, while the doctrines of the Brahmans, set forth in the formulas of the schools, must have remained unintelligible to the people, even if repeated in their language. With the people Buddha dwelt far more on his ethics than on his metaphysics, though he did not exclude the latter, and his ethical lectures in each case developed the principle in application to the particular instance.472 In other respects his method of teaching must have been the most effective which could be applied in India, unless we are deceived by the legends. By means of the complete illumination vouchsafed to Buddha, he saw through the web of regenerations. For every man he deduced the circumstances of his present life, his good or evil fortune, from the virtues and sins of a previous existence. To a man whose eyes had been put out by the order of a king he revealed the fact that in a previous existence he had torn out the eyes of many gazelles; but as he had also done good deeds in that life he had been born again in a good family, with a handsome exterior.473 He told another that in a previous existence he had killed an anchorite, and for this he had already suffered punishment in hell for several thousand years; he would also lose his head in this life, and would suffer the same misfortune for four hundred successive existences.474

However effective Buddha's method may have been, it was the tendency of his doctrine which could not fail sooner or later to open the hearts of the people. The lower castes were subject to the ill treatment and exactions of the state, to the haughty pride of the Brahmans; they were pressed into the unalterable arrangement of the castes, and thus branded by law and custom, they were exposed to the severest oppression. The doctrine of morals was resolved into the observance of the duties of caste, into the endless series of offerings and sacrifice, purifications and expiations; thus it became degraded into an artificial and painful sanctification by works, which no one could ever satisfy. Religion was lost in a confused medley of gods and magic on the one hand, and of obscure and unintelligible speculation on the other. In opposition to these circumstances, requirements, and doctrines, Buddha declared that no one, not even the lowest and most contemptible castes, were excluded from hearing and finding the truth; that alleviation of pain and rest, salvation and liberation, could be acquired by any one. Instead of the observance of the duties of caste he required the brotherly love of all men; in opposition to distorted ethics he restores its due rights to natural feeling. The sacrifice and sanctification by works of the Brahmans is replaced by the taming of the passions, and sympathy, by the fulfilment of simple duties, painful penances by easy asceticism, by the plain morality of patience and quietism; the Veda and gods of the Brahmans by a theory at any rate more intelligible, accompanied by the doctrine that even without this theory every one of his own heart and will could enter upon the way of salvation, and by such conduct alleviate his fortune in this and the following courses of life, while the initiated could at once force their way to death without regeneration. Any man could assume the yellow robe if he vowed to live in poverty and chastity, and wander through the land as a mendicant, a mode of obtaining a livelihood which is not difficult in India.

If the doctrine of the Brahmans had banished mercy out of heaven, it had reappeared on earth in the "Enlightened," the "pointer of the way," who met the pride and haughtiness of the Brahmans with gentleness and humility; who showed sympathetic pity for the lowest and poorest, for all the weary and heavy-laden;475 who in the midst of oppressed nations taught how unavoidable evils could be borne most easily; how they could be alleviated by mutual help; who called on all to ameliorate their lot by their own power, and considered it the highest duty to obtain this amelioration for ourselves and provide it for others.

According to Buddha's view the castes must fall to the ground. There was no world-soul from which all creatures emanated, and therefore the distinctions which rested on the succession of these emanations did not exist. In the first instance, however, he attacked the castes from the point of view that the body can only have a subordinate value. "He who looks closely at the body," he said, "will find no difference between the body of the slave and the body of the prince. The best soul can dwell in the worst body." "The body must be valued or despised in respect of the spirit which is in it. The virtues do not inquire after the castes."476 But he also applied the distinction of castes to show that in fact they give a higher or lower position to men; that the arrangement brings external advantages or disadvantages. It was the conception of the more or less favourable regenerations which caused him to assume these distinctions and bring them into the series of regenerations. He allowed that there was a gradation leading from the Chandalas to the Brahmans, that birth in a higher or lower position was a consequence of the virtues or failings of earlier existences; but the distinctions were not of such a kind that they limited the spirit; that they could in any way prevent even the least and lowest from hearing the true doctrine and understanding it, and attaining salvation and liberation. Hence while the castes do indeed form distinctions among men, these distinctions are not essential, but in reality indifferent.

If the Brahmans reproached Buddha that he preached to the impure, he replied: "My law is a law of grace for all."477 He received Çudras and Chandalas, barbers and street-sweepers, slaves and remorseful criminals, among his disciples and initiated.478 Nor did he exclude women; even to them he imparted the initiation of the mendicant.479 On one occasion Ananda, the scholar of Buddha, met a Chandala maiden drawing water at a fountain, and asked to drink. She replied that she was a Chandala and might not touch him. Ananda answered: "My sister, I do not ask about your caste, nor about your family; I ask you for water if you can give it me." Buddha is then said to have received the maiden among his initiated.480

For twenty-four years, we are told, Buddha wandered from one place to another, to preach his doctrine, to strengthen his disciples in their faith, to arrange their condition, and in the rainy season to show to the initiated the way to the highest liberation, to death without regeneration. According to the legends of the Northern Buddhists, he saw towards the end of his days the overthrow of his ancestral city, and the defeat of his adherents. The Çakyas of Kapilavastu are said to have become odious to Virudhaka (Kshudraka in the Vishnu-Purana), the successor of king Prasenajit on the throne of the Koçalas. He marched against them with his army; obtained possession of the city of Kapilavastu, and caused the inhabitants to be massacred. Buddha is said to have heard the noise of the conquest, and the cry of the dying. When the king of the Koçalas had marched away with his army, Buddha, we are told, wandered in the night through the ruined corpse-strewn streets of his home. In the pleasure-garden of his father's palace, where he had played as a boy, lay maidens with hands and feet cut off, of whom some were still alive; Buddha gave them his sympathy and comforted them. The massacre of Kapilavastu, the slaughter of the Çakyas, if it took place at all, cannot have been complete, for at a later time the race is mentioned as existing and active.

In the eightieth year of his life Buddha is said to have visited Rajagriha and Nalanda in the land of Magadha; afterwards he crossed the Ganges, and announced to his disciples in Vaiçali, the metropolis of the tribe of the Vrijis (p. 338), that he should die in three months. He exhorted them to redoubled zeal, begged them, when he was no more, to collect his commands, and preach them to the world. Accompanied by his pupils Ananda and Anuruddha he then set out to the north, to the land of the Mallas, and Kuçinagara, where in former days he had laid aside the royal dress and assumed the condition of a mendicant. Falling sick on the way, he came exhausted into the neighbourhood of Kuçinagara, where Ananda prepared a bed for him in a grove. Here he said farewell, sank into meditation, and died with the words "Nothing continues," never to be born again. At Ananda's suggestion the Mallas buried the dead Enlightened with the burial of a king. After preparations lasting through seven days the corpse was placed in a golden coffin, carried in solemn procession before the eastern gate of Kuçinagara, and laid on a wooden pyre. The ashes were placed in a golden urn, and for seven days festivals were held in honour of the "compassionate Buddha, the man free from stain" (543 B.C.).481

CHAPTER III.

THE KINGDOM OF MAGADHA AND THE SETTLEMENTS

IN THE SOUTH

King Ajataçatru of Magadha, who is said to have dethroned his father Bimbisara in the the year 551 B.C. and put him to death, to have persecuted the "Enlightened," and then, from a persecutor to have changed into a zealous follower, demanded, according to the legends of the Buddhists, that the Mallas should give up to him the remains of Buddha (the ashes and the bones of his corpse) for preservation. But the Mallas refused to do this. The Çakyas also laid claim to them because Buddha sprang from their family; the warrior families of the Vrijis of Vaiçali because Buddha was a Kshatriya; and finally the Koçalas of Ramagrama demanded them. Ajataçatru intended to possess himself of them by force. Then a learned Brahman succeeded in preventing the decision by an appeal to arms; the remains were divided into eight portions, and distributed among the different claimants, of whom each erected a memorial for his portion. Ajataçatru buried his portion under a stupa, i. e. a tower with a cupola, near his metropolis Rajagriha.482

Of the further deeds of Ajataçatru we only learn that he subjugated to his dominion the Vrijis, who were governed by a council formed of the elders of their families.483 Of the immediate successors of Ajataçatru in Magadha, Udayabhadra (519-503 B.C.), Anuruddhaka (503-495 B.C.), and Nagadasaka (495-471 B.C.), nothing further is known than that each murdered his father.484 Nagadasaka, the great-grandson of Ajataçatru, is said to have been dethroned by the people, who set up in his place Çiçunaga a son of Ajataçatru, who seems to have previously ruled as a vassal king in the city of the Vrijis, the conquered Vaiçali.485 This Çiçunaga, who ruled over Magadha from the year 471 to 453 B.C., was succeeded on the throne by his son, Kalaçoka.486

From this subjugation and conquest of the territory of the Vrijis, from a statement of the legend of the Buddhists, according to which Kalaçoka inflicts punishments in Mathura on the Yamuna,487– and further from the fact that the lists of the Brahmans for the kingdoms of the Bharatas and the Koçalas, and the territories of Varanasi and Mithila, end with the third or fourth successor of the princes who reigned, according to the legend of the Buddhists, at the time of the Enlightened – we may assume that after the reign of Ajataçatru the power of the kings of Magadha increased, and continued to extend till the neighbouring states on the north and west of Magadha were gradually embodied in this kingdom. Kalaçoka provided a new metropolis; he left Rajagriha and took up his abode in a city of his own building, Pataliputra. The name means son of the trumpet-flower. It lay to the north-west of Rajagriha on the confluence of the Çona and the Ganges, on the bank of the great river, a little above the modern Patna. Megasthenes, who spent some time in this city a century and a half after it was built, tells us that Palibothra (such is the form he gives to the name) was the greatest and most famous city of India. In shape it was a long rectangle, with a circuit of about 25 miles. The longer sides were 80, the shorter sides 15, stades in length. Sixty-four gates allowed entrance through the wooden wall, pierced by windows for archers, and was surrounded by a wonderful trench, 600 feet broad, and 30 cubits deep, which was filled by the waters of the Ganges and the Çona; the wall was in addition flanked by 570 towers. The royal palace in the city was splendid, and the inhabitants very numerous.488 We have already learnt from the sutras the circuit, equipment, and wealth of the royal citadels. That Palibothra, at the time when it was the metropolis not only of the whole land of the Ganges but also of the valley of the Indus, was only protected by a wooden wall, provided, it is true, with many towers, i. e. by a palisade, is remarkable, for it is sufficiently proved that the cities and citadels of the Panjab in the fourth century B.C. were surrounded by walls of bricks or masonry.