Book reviews by TWRD for the JRAS

Memoires, Biographies & Travelogues

1894 Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892. by

William Woodville Rockhill. 1

1895 An Australian in China, being the Narrative of a Quiet Journey across China

to British Burmah. by G. E. Morrison. 3

1895 China, Present and Past. by R. S. Gundry. 6

1896 The Remains near Kasia in the Gorakhpur District. by Vincent A. Smith. 8

1897 The Ruined Cities of Ceylon. by H. W. Cave. 10

1897 Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson. by W Hunter. 11

1898 The Soul of a People. by H Fielding. 14

1898 Through Asia. by Sven Hedin. 16

China, the Chinese & Buddhism in China

1894 Notice sur Le Japon. by Henri Cordier. 18

1894 Mémoire composé à l’époque de la Grande Dynastie T’ang by I-Tsing,

translated by Edouard Chavannes. 19

1895 Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Catalogue of Chinese Books and Manuscripts.

Privately Printed. 1895. 21

1895 Les Etudes Chinoises (1891–1894). by Henri Cordier. 23

1896 Die Sprache und Schrift der Jucen. by Dr. Wilhelm Grube. 24

1896 Inscriptions de l’Orkhon dechiffrées. by Vilh. Thomsen. 26

1896 Eine Indo-Chinesische causativ-denominativ-bildung und ihr zusammenhang mit den Ton-Accenten. by Dr. August Conrady. 28

1897 Centenaire de Marco Polo. by Henri Cordier. 29

1897 Les Origines de Deux Establissements Francais dans L’Extreme-Orient-

Changhai-Ning-Po. by Henri Cordier. 30

1897 Les Inscriptions Chinoises de Bodh-Gayā. by Edouard Chavannes. 31

1897 A Record of the Buddhist Religion, as Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695). memoire by I-Tsing, translated by J. Takakusu. 32

Ancient Texts, Pāli, Sanskrit & Sinhalese

1894 The Megha Dūta. by Kālidāsa, by T. B. Pāṇabokke. 37

1895 Jinālankara. by Buddha-rakkhita. 38

1896 Dhātu-Attha-Dīpanī. by Hingulwala Jina-ratana. 39

1896 Buddhism in Translations. by Henry Clarke Warren. 40

1896 The Jātaka, together with its Commentary. by V. Fausböll. 42

1898 Le Mahavastu. by Emile Senart. 43

1898 Etymologie des Singhalesischen, by Wilhelm Geiger. 47

1898 Ceylon Tagebuchblatter und Reise errinnerungen, by Wilhelm Geiger. 47

1899 Philosophie der Upanishads. by Dr. Paul Deussen. 48

1899 Mahābharata. by Romesh C. Dutt. 51

1899 Lieder der Mönche und Nonnen Gotamo Buddho’s; by Karl Eugen

Neumann. 53

1901 Rāṣṭrapāla Paripṛcha, publié. by L. Finot. 54

1902 Student’s Pali Series by The Rev. H. H. Tilbe. 57

1902 Pali und Sanskrit. By Dr. R. Otto Franke. 58

1902 Satvotpatti Viniscaya and Nirvāna Vibhāga. by M. Dharmaratna. 61

1904 Saṃyutta Nikāya Gāthā Sannaya. by Sūriyagoḍa Sumangala Bhikkhu. 62

1905 Dīpavaṃsa und Mahāvaṃsa. by Wilhelm Geiger. 63

Books on Buddhism and Indian history

1895 Māra und Buddha. by Ernst Windisch. 67

1895 Panca-krama. by L. de la Vallée Poussin. 71

1895 Notes on Buddhist Bas-reliefs. by Serge D’Oldenbourg. 72

1896 Guru-pūjā-kaumudī. Essays in honour of Prof Weber. 76

1896 The Buddhist Praying-Wheel. by William Simpson. 78

1896 Les Castes dans l’Inde: les faits et le système. by Émile Senart. 80

1896 Die sociale Gliederung im Nordöstlichen Indien zu Buddha’s Zeit. by Dr.

Richard Fick. 80

1896 Hindu Castes and Sects. By Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya. 80

1900 Indian Chronology. by PC Mukerjee. 83

1898 Buddhismo. by Per Paolo Emilio Pavolini. 85

1898 Manual of Indian Buddhism. by H. Kern. 86

1901 Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India. by Vincent A. Smith. 88

1902 Indiens Kultur in der Blüthezeit des Buddhismus. König Asoka: von Edmund Hardy. 92

1902 Buddhist Art in India. by Albert Grünwedel, Agnes L. Gibson & James Burgess. 93

1903 Album Kern. Essays in honor of Dr. H. Kern. 96

NOTICES OF BOOKS. By T. W. RHYS DAVIDS

———————

Memoires, Biographies & Travelogues

1894 Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892. by

William Woodville Rockhill.

1895 An Australian in China, being the Narrative of a Quiet Journey across China

to British Burmah. by G. E. Morrison.

1895 China, Present and Past. by R. S. Gundry.

1896 The Remains near Kasia in the Gorakhpur District. by Vincent A. Smith.

1897 The Ruined Cities of Ceylon. by H. W. Cave.

1897 Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson. by W Hunter

1898 The Soul of a People. by H Fielding

1898 Through Asia. by Sven Hedin.

DIARY OF A JOURNEY THROUGH MONGOLIA AND TIBET IN 1891 AND 1892. By WILLIAM WOODVILLE ROCKHILL, Gold Medalist of the Royal Geographical

Society. (City Of Washington: Published By The Smithsonian Institution), 1894.

“The journey described in this volume,” we read in the “Advertisement”

prefixed to it, “was undertaken by Mr. Rockhill partly under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, and the work is issued as a special publication of the

Institution, with the general object of ‘increasing and diffusing knowledge’ in regard to the little known countries traversed by the explorer.”

An introductory notice by the author gives us a short chronological account of the travelers who have visited Tibet, and this is followed by a statement of the

circumstances which led the author to take the particular course of exploration described in his book.

The work itself is in the form of a diary, the writer giving under each day the record not only of his journey but also of his observations, reflections, hopes,

apprehensions, and projects. This form of writing will not be found to be, as Mr. Rockhill seems to have feared it might be, tedious to any serious reader. It rather

gives a freshness and reality to the narrative, and it also enables the reader to break his reading at convenient intervals.

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Mr. Rockhill starts on his travels from Peking, having obtained from the Chinese

authorities there a passport authorizing him “to visit Kansu, Ssŭ-ch’uan, Yün-nan, Hsin-chiang (the New Dominion), and the Ching-hai, or the Mongol and Tibetan

country, under the administrative control of the Hsi-ning Amban.” From Peking the traveler proceeded by the Nan-K’ou Pass, the road through which he found

“wonderfully improved” since his visit in 1888, on to Kalgan. Here he equipped himself with a supply of travelling necessaries, and then went on to Kuei-hua-

Ch’êng. From this he continued his journey to Ning-hsia-foo, on the Yellow River in Kansu, a place which produces good paper and woolen rugs of great repute

among the Chinese.

From Ning-hsia Mr. Rockhill proceeded south-west to the great city of Lan-

chow-foo, where he stayed a few days, visiting the European missionaries and perfecting his equipment. As an example of the interesting and valuable

information to be found in this book, and of the clear simple style in which the author writes, we may take the following passage from his account of his stay at

Lan-chow-foo: “Opium cultivation and opium smoking are increasing at a rapid rate. At Liang-chow, for example, they count eight lamps (yen téng) for every ten

persons; here at Lao-chow it is nearly as bad. It would be wrong to imagine that the native Kansuites are responsible for the increased consumption of opium; it is a

result of the rapid and overwhelming influx of Ssŭ-ch’uanese into the province. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that they form a fifth of the whole

population of Kansu; in the southern portions they are much more numerous than elsewhere, around Hui-hsien, and the warmer and more fertile districts especially.

They take the trade, wholesale and retail, and have energy, the one essential thing the Kansuites are lacking in. There are three or four Ch’an-t’ou (Turkestanis) here

selling raisins, rugs, etc., and also seven or eight Koreans with ginseng. These latter people visit the remotest corners of China. In 1889 there was one at Ta-

chien-lu, where he kept an inn” (p. 56).

From Lan-chow Mr. Rockhill proceeded in a north-west direction on to Hsi-ning

and Lusar, and thence by Shang, south of the Koko Nor and Tsai-dam, through Mongolian territory to Naichi Gol. From this he continued his journey south and

south-west on to Namru, near the Tengri Nor. From this last he had to turn and proceed in an easterly direction to Batang, and so on into western Ssŭ-ch’uan and

down the Yang-tsŭ to Shanghai.

In his long journey, especially in the part of it which lay in Tibetan territory, Mr.

Rockhill had often to endure great hardships, encounter many difficulties, and bear serious disappointment. His troubles are told in a plain unvarnished narrative, and

he never dwells on them too long, nor writes of them with undue asperity.

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The present treatise is a worthy supplement to the author’s “Land of the Lamas.”

It gives many items of curious and interesting information about remote and little known places in parts of the Mongolian and Tibetan dependencies of China. It

abounds also in thoughtful, sensible comments on the social and political state of affairs in these districts. One illustration must suffice. When at Draya, near the

Gamla in Tibet, the traveler was treated with great rudeness by a party of drunken rowdy Lamas. The Chinese military officer stationed in the town could easily have

dispersed the mischievous rioters and protected the traveler’s party, but he did not give the least assistance. Mr. Rockhill hereupon remarks: “It was quite in keeping

with what I have now found out to be Chinese policy in this country, for neither the Shou-pei (the Chinese military officer of the town) nor any of his subordinates to

turn up in this emergency. The Chinese in Tibet do not want to risk their popularity with the dominant class of the country (i.e. the Lamas) by befriending foreigners,

to do which they would have to assert their authority without any advantage to themselves. Whenever China sees the necessity of doing so, it can effectually

assert its supremacy in Tibet, for it is absurd to say that China is not the sovereign power there, and that Chinese officials are only there to manage their own people,

and are tolerated, as it were, in the country. History, since the time of Kang-hsi, or Ch’ien-lung at all events, and also recent events at Lh’asa and along the Indian

border, prove conclusively that this is not so; but China does not propose to hold Tibet by force of arms—the game would hardly be worth the candle; it is by

diplomacy, by its superior knowledge of foreign affairs and nations, and by conciliating the Lamas, that it preserves its undoubted sway” (p. 321).

The “Diary of a journey” is well illustrated, and it is furnished with an excellent general index and a route map of the traveler’s explorations. There are also five

appendices, the first giving a Salar vocabulary, the second a San-ch’uan T’u-jen vocabulary, the third giving a list of plants of Tibet by Mr. W. Botting Hemsley,

the fourth giving a table of altitudes, latitudes, etc., and the fifth giving the mean monthly temperature from June to October, 1892.

T. W.

AN AUSTRALIAN IN CHINA, BEING THE NARRATIVE OF A QUIET JOURNEY ACROSS

CHINA TO BRITISH BURMAH. By G. E. MORRISON, M.B., C.M.Edin., F.R.G.S.

London: Horace Cox. 1895.

This “Quiet Journey across China to British Burmah” comes at an opportune

moment, and is a welcome addition to our books about China Its author is Dr. G. E. Morrison, of Victoria, Australia. Although this seems to be the author’s first

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book of travels, yet he has evidently wandered in many lands and he is a seasoned

traveler.

The journey described in this book is one which has already been made by

several travelers, some of whom have written and published accounts of their journeys. The best of these accounts were apparently read by our author before he

set out on his travels, or at least before he wrote his book. Indeed, the present work differs from most other books of travel in China in this respect (along with others),

that the traveler had acquired some information about China and the Chinese, and the particular line of country which he was to traverse, before he started on his

journey.

Our author went by steamer from Shanghai to Hankow and on to Ichang, the

head of steam communication on the Yangtze up to the present. From Ichang to Chungking the traveler ascended the great river in a native boat, known as a

Wupan or Five Planks. This was a small uncomfortable craft in which to go up the gorges and over the rapids. Our author’s account of these is very brief, but true and

picturesque. He does not mention all the gorges, and his attention does not seem to have been directed to the noteworthy objects in two of them.

At Chungking Dr. Morrison made a halt of a few days, and during his stay he made the acquaintance of all the foreign residents, especially the missionaries.

From this, on through Western China, the journey was made by land, the traveler being dressed as a “Chinese teacher.” For the most part he trudged along on foot

with his coolies, as he was not able to afford a sedan. He did indulge in the luxury of a sedan for a short distance, and he also made part of the journey on mule- or

pony-back. The Chinese all along the route seem to have treated him fairly well, and he does not fail to give those who served him faithfully their due meed of

praise. He also sums up the characteristics of the Chinese, that is of the Canton, artisans, in a few sentences (p. 223) which are as near the facts as an Australian

could attain. His journey was uneventful, and he arrived safely at Bhamo, from which he continued his travels to Mandalay and Rangoon, and from the last by

steamer to Calcutta.

Dr. Morrison’s book is written throughout in a cheerful, humorous spirit,

pervaded by a half-repressed tendency to levity and sarcasm. What he has to say he says in clear, terse language; he tells his stories well, and there is not a really dull

page in the whole book. Moreover, for second-hand information and opinions derived from others, he is careful to cite his authorities. Our traveler seems to have

a catholic appreciation for missionaries of all sects, whose zeal and energies, however, he apparently thinks are misapplied. But his remarks on the various

mission stations, the work and the visible results, are worthy of attentive perusal. So also are all his statements about opium-smoking and poppy-cultivation as he

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saw them on his journey, and about the traffic in female children and infanticide. It

should be remembered, however, that our traveler knew only about a dozen words of Chinese, which he probably did not pronounce correctly, and that he had no

interpreter when away from the missionaries.

The book has numerous photographic illustrations, and it is furnished with an

index and a sketch-map. It is well printed, and is free to a remarkable extent from typographical and other mistakes.

A second edition of the work will in all probability be soon required, and there are a few inaccuracies in it which the author may like to have corrected. He seems

to go too far in what he states and suggests about the “Rice Christians”—that is, those Chinese who become Christians for the sake of immediate worldly

advantages to be obtained from the missionaries. The author does not seem to know that there are many thousands of native Christians, even among the

Protestant sects, who not only do not derive any pecuniary gain from their connection with the religion but even contribute to the support of the mission

stations. No doubt some of the very low-class Chinese do profess themselves Christians merely with a view to a regular supply of rice and tea, but these should

be regarded as exceptions. On this subject our traveler quotes a missionary, the Rev. C. W. Mateer, as stating, “The idea (derived from Buddhism) is universally

prevalent in China that everyone who enters any sect should live by it.” This seems to be utterly wrong and misleading, for sects in China, with the exception of

Christianity, require to be supported by their adherents. As to Buddhism, everyone knows that the Buddhist layman not only does not live by his sect but that he is

called on by his religion to support the monks and keep up the temples and the religious services.

On p. 77 and in other places the word for “Yamen-runner” would be more correctly and intelligibly given as Ch’ai-jen instead of Chairen. So also on the

same page Goushun ! goushun ! probably means “Promotion ! promotion!” (Kao-

shêng ! kao-shêng !). The author’s translation “A little more ! a little more !” is, however, the practical result at which the Yamen-runner was aiming.

At p. 209 we read of the gaols of China, “or, as the Chinese term them, ‘hells.’” This is putting matters wrongly. The Chinese do not call their prisons “hells,” but

they call the latter “earthly prisons.”

T. W.

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CHINA, PRESENT AND PAST. By R. S. GUNDRY, author of “China and her

Neighbours.” London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1895.

Mr. Gundry’s new book on China is very opportune. It brings our information

on the attitude of the Middle Kingdom towards her Western uninvited visitors down to the Japanese invasion of 1894. It is in a manner a supplement to the

author’s “China and her Neighbours,” and these two treatises are indispensable to all who would form clear and correct opinions on China in her relations with other

countries.

In the introduction to “China, Present and Past” the author tells us how the book

was made. Several of the chapters, we learn, are magazine articles amplified and brought up to date, while others are now published for the first time.

The subjects of the book are numerous, and they are grouped under the four categories—Foreign Intercourse, Progress and Resources, Religious and Social,

and the Yellow River. Under the first head the author gives an account of the early diplomatic intercourse between China and Western lands, and especially of the

missions under Lord Macartney and Lord Amherst. We have next a chapter on the right of audience, in which there is a fair account of the struggle on this point from

the making of the Tientsin Treaty to 1894, when the Foreign Ministers were received by the Emperor for the first time in his palace. The author next proceeds

to tell of the competitive system as in force for appointment to public office, and of the new departure made in establishing the T’ung-wen Kuan and other government

institutions for Western learning. In a chapter headed “Attainments,” our author gives a sort of justification or excuse for the Chinese claim that Western science is

founded on Chinese astronomy, the author basing his remarks mainly on certain Mèmoires by Remusat.

The next division of the book, which embraces a variety of topics, is entitled “Progress and Resources.” In it we have chapters on Signs of Progress, Industries

and Resources, Currency, Trade with South-west China, the Imperial Maritime Customs. Among the signs of progress are the large and increasing adoption of

steamers by the Chinese to replace, not only the sea-going junks but also the river-boats, and the gradual introduction of railways. The chapter on the trade with

South-west China gives the most recent information about the trade routes in this part of the empire. We have here some account of the reports on the West River of

Kuangtung, and of the facilities for commerce in the region through which it flows. In the chapter on the Imperial Maritime Customs Service we have a very good

summary of the history of that excellent service, of its strength, and of the work it is doing and has done.

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From some points of view the most important part of the book under notice is

that occupied with the Religious and Social topics. The author is fair and dispassionate in stating the case of the Chinese antagonism to missionaries and

Christianity. The Chinese object to foreign missionaries as teaching immoral doctrines, as disturbing the existing state of affairs generally, as building on

improper sites tall houses, or houses with tall spires calculated to offend the unseen powers. Mr. Gundry, however, is not quite correct in stating that the great French

cathedral at Canton is “a source of permanent irritation.” On the contrary, this cathedral, with its double spire, is supposed by the natives to have had a very good

effect on the district, the feng-shui of which is said to have improved since the erection of the cathedral. The author refers to some of the anti-missionary

disturbances which have broken out in late years, and especially to the riots of 1891. In connection with the latter he quotes the edict issued by the Emperor on

the subject in response to the importunate requests of the Foreign Ministers. This edict was extensively circulated among the officials and made generally public,

and it had a good effect. In the translation quoted (p. 226) there is an error of the translator which is sufficiently important to require notice. He makes the Emperor

write: “The religion of the Western countries simply admonishes people to become virtuous, and the native converts are Chinese subjects under the jurisdiction of the

local officials. The religions and peoples ought to exist peaceably side by aide.” Here the words “The religions and peoples” should be replaced by words like “Our

subjects, Christian and non-Christian,” or “The native Christians and the rest of the native community.”

The chapter on Ancestor Worship is a very interesting one, and quotes good authorities. The attitude of Protestant missionaries towards ancestor worship has

helped to make them and their religion disliked by the Chinese. These missionaries look on the services to the dead as worship, while Roman Catholic missionaries

have been disposed, at least in some cases, to regard the services as not of the nature of worship to a supernatural being. Our author is disposed to hold the latter

opinion, and he states his reasons. This is a subject upon which, not only among foreigners but also among Chinese, there is a considerable variety of opinion. Nor

can the conflicting opinions be easily reconciled, for the faith and practice of the Chinese in the matter of ancestor worship are not alike in all places and at all

periods.

In the chapter on the Goddess of Mercy we have an unfortunate mistake. The

author identifies Kuan-yin with the Tien Hou, or Queen of Heaven, so largely worshipped along the sea-coast. But the Queen of Heaven is the Ma Tsu (or Ma

Tsupu), mentioned afterwards by Mr. Gundry under the name Ma Chu. By

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foreigners Kuan-yin is commonly called the Goddess of Mercy, but the common

Chinese designation is Kuan-yin P’usa.

The last chapter in the Religious and Social division of the book is taken up with

“Judicial Torture,” including legal punishments. For anyone acquainted with the modes of procedure of Chinese officials and their underlings, it will not be easy to

see why “Judicial Torture” is ranged under “Religious and Social.” Neither to the torturer nor the sufferer are the cruel tortures and punishments pious exercises or

religious functions, and there is nothing social about them. But the whole chapter is interesting, and especially for the very recent instances which the author has

recalled to our notice.

The Yellow River, “China’s Sorrow,” has a chapter to itself, and the information

brought together in it about the vagaries of this dreadful river will prove interesting and instructive to all readers. The workings and effects of Chinese officialdom are

seen in the treatment of this river better than in any other department of State service. One of the latest of the Directors General, Wu Ta-chêng, who has been in

the North to repel the Japanese, proposed, as our author relates, to make a change by having a Board of trained experts to serve as surveyors. The answer from

Peking was that “no notice be taken of the suggestion.” Mr. Wu’s Memorial is one of several interesting official documents given by Mr. Gundry as an Appendix.

The author of “China, Present and Past” is evidently not a man to joke or jest on serious subjects, and his book is eminently and throughout serious and solemn.

Still, there is one small joke in it, and one which we must probably ascribe to the printer and not to the author. The joke will be found on p. 215, in the words “Mr.

Lecky’s history of the rise of Ritualism in Europe.”

T. W.

THE REMAINS NEAR KASIA IN THE GORAKHPUR DISTRICT. By VINCRNT A. SMITH, I.C.S. pp. 26, with three Plans. (Allahabad, 1896. Price, Rs.180.)

The author says “a study of the remains on the spot has convinced me that Kasia cannot possibly be the site of Kuśanagara or Kusinārā, and that the identification is

largely based upon misstatements of fact and fallacious reasoning.”

In support of this he first describes the remains at Kasia, as they are, giving a

plan and pointing out the inaccuracies and inconsistencies in General Cunningham’s “Reports.” He then sets out what the Chinese pilgrims said about

Kusinārā, combining the results in a plan. Neither the two accounts nor the two

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plans can be made to agree; and the conclusion is inevitable that Kasia is not the

place described as Kusinārā by the pilgrims.

The best thanks of scholars are due to the author for this detailed exposure of a

blunder that ought never to have been made.

The point which seems to have chiefly led to it was the discovery of a statue at

Kasia, supposed by Carleylle and Cunningham to represent the dying Buddha; and the fact that Yuan Thsiang refers to the existence in the seventh century A.D. of

such a statue at Kusinārā. But the statue found at Kasia does not represent the dying Buddha at all. It is a colossal seated figure, whereas the pilgrim distinctly

states that the statue he saw at Kusinārā was a recumbent statue, the figure lying with its head to the north, as if asleep. The representation of a dying man would

naturally be a recumbent, not a seated, figure; and the distinction between the two, which are well-established types, ought to have been unmistakable by anyone

claiming to be an Indian archaeologist.

It is a pity that Indian archaeologists ignore the details given in the most ancient

records concerning the places they attempt to identify. Before writing about Kusinārā, it would seem almost a matter of course that not only the descriptions of

a traveler in the seventh century A.D., but also all that can be gathered from the words—at least a thousand years older—of the Pāli Piṭakas, should be in the

writer’s mind. We there learn from Mahā Vagga, vi, 34–38, that the Buddha journeyed along the following route : Vesālī, Bhaddiya-nagara, Āpaṇa, Kusinārā,

Ātumā, Sāvatthi. The contrary route from Sāvatthi to Vesālī is given at Sutta Nipāta, p. 185. The name of the grove of Sālā-trees under which the Buddha died

is the Upavattana, “on the further side of the river Hiraṇyavati” (“Buddhist Suttas,” S.B.E., xi, p. 85); and the route by which it was reached was Vesālī, Bhaṇḍagāma,

Amba-gāma, Jambu-gāma, Bhoga-nagara, Pāvā (these two last also mentioned in the same order in the Sutta Nipāta, p. 185), and across the river Kakuṭṭhā, to

Kusinārā (“Buddhist Suttas,” pp. 64–74, 82). There is no reference in the oldest texts to its being a walled town; it is called a “ wattle and daub town, a village in

the midst of the jungle” (ibid., pp. 100, 248). Other references are Anguttara, 2. 274; Udāna, p. 37.

Mr. Vincent Smith is inclined to identify Kasia with the site of the Stūpa erected by Asoka’s ancestors, the Moliyas of Pipphalivana, over the embers that remained

after the burning of the pyre on which the Buddha’s body was consumed (see “Buddhist Suttas,’’ S.B.E., xi, pp. 134, 135). And he gives practical suggestions as

to how archaeological investigations at the place could best be carried out. It is needless to state how important and interesting might be the discoveries resulting

from the thorough exploration of such a site as Pipphalivana, and we trust that Mr. Smith’s able report will lead to something being done, more especially as the work

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would be greatly facilitated by the presence, on the spot, of so competent a scholar

as Dr. Hoey.

TW

THE RUINED CITIES OF CEYLON. By H. W. CAVE, Queen’s College, Oxford. 4to.

(London: Sampson Low & Co., 1897. Price 38s.)

In this splendid volume we have an account, by a cultured Englishman long

interested in the beautiful island, of what are not only the most important of the many ruins to be found there, but also include in their number the oldest extant

monuments of India; for Ceylon, ethnographically and historically, is part of India. The account is enriched and elucidated by forty-seven full-page photogravure

illustrations and sixteen woodcuts; and these, especially the larger plates, far surpass in artistic beauty anything hitherto attempted in that direction, and go far to

enable those, who have not themselves seen these magnificent relics of a bygone age, to realize the impressiveness of their majestic beauty. The author is strictly

accurate when he calls them “wonders with which only the remains of the ancient civilization of the Valley of the Nile can be, in any way, compared.” The views are

reproductions of photographs, it is true, but they are taken by a past master in the art, and reproduced with a skill that often gives them the impression of the best

engravings. The views of the dāgaba or tope of Milinda, of Pollonnaruwa at eventide, of the Jetawana at Anurnāhapura, and of the Nālandā Rest House, are

especially striking in the effects of light and shade.

The letterpress (of 125 pages) explanatory of the plates gives a very readable

and vivid account of the ruins, and is in accord, as to their history, with the latest results of scholarship. No attempt is made at original research, or even at the

expression of individual opinion. But in the case of the ruins of buildings, the original construction of which is, in almost every case, recorded with dates and

names in the Mahāvamsa, there is not much room left for doubt or discussion. Where the Mahāvamsa fails us, as in the case of the so-called Isurumaniya Temple,

or of the curious stones called meditation stones (see the plate in our issue for 1894, p. 564), the study of the older Sinhalese literature might possibly elucidate

doubtful points. But that literature lies still buried in MSS., and the author has chosen wisely in not delaying his work for the possible advantage of being able to

add to existing knowledge on these doubtful points.

It is, however, a pity that in the few paragraphs he devotes to a summary of

Buddhism, the author should have given a version of the famous Four Truths which differs considerably, and in important particulars, from the original text, a

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translation of which is now accessible in vol. xi of the “Sacred Books of the East.”

The real words would have taken up only a few more lines of the necessarily limited space; and their tenour would have led to some change in the few words of

comment that follow. But the work only claims to be an artistic presentation of the present state of the ruined cities, and as such it is not only a great success, but

without any doubt the most valuable and beautiful that has yet appeared.

TW

LIFE OF BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON. BY SIR WILLIAM HUNTER, K.C.S.I.

8vo, pp. 390. London: John Murray, 1896.)

The Society will welcome this charming biography of one of its most

distinguished members. The author has lavished upon it that literary skill of which he is a past master; and we have a delightful volume, which the reader when once

he has begun it will be loath to lay down till it is finished. This is due, no doubt, in great part to the wonderfully interesting tale he had to tell, the charm of the noble

and simple character he had to depict, the wide range of the intellectual problems which must necessarily be raised in any life of Hodgson. But too many biographies

are a warning how easily the story might have been spoiled in the telling. And every reader will be grateful for the lucid way in which the facts are grouped, the

easy style in which the work is written, the knowledge and care with which the various topics are so handled that accuracy is combined with grace.

The book opens with an account of Hodgson’s boyhood and family surroundings; describes Haileybury College as it was when he spent there four

short terms; takes him, still really only a boy, at 17, to India, and describes his life in the Calcutta of that day; gives a chapter to his first appointment in the then just

acquired Kumaon valleys, and to his work there as revenue settlement officer; describes his solitary life of intellectual ardor as Assistant Resident in Nepal; and

then devotes a considerable space (not one word too long) to a lucid and careful narrative of the political events with which he had to deal as Resident. This part of

the book (chiefly based on Wright) is not only particularly valuable in bringing out the force of Hodgson’s personal character, and his ability and tact as a man of

affairs, but is of engrossing interest as a stirring chapter in modern Indian history. And the final catastrophe, when Lord Ellenborough so brusquely relieved Hodgson

of his duties, and suddenly appointed another civilian to his post, is clearly led up to and explained, to the complete justification of the Resident.

Hodgson’s short journey home, and his life as a student bachelor recluse at Darjīling (1843–1853), are then taken up with the assistance of a charming letter

from Sir John Hooker, who stayed with him there. Hodgson had then given up his

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studies in Buddhism, but pursued with unabated ardor the subjects of vernacular

education in India, the study of the races of the Himalayan valleys, the physical geography of the Himalaya and Tibet, and the zoology, especially the ornithology,

of Sikhim.

This leads up to four chapters describing Hodgson’s work on Nepalese

Buddhism, on the hill races of India, as a naturalist, and as a champion of vernacular education. The quoted opinions of the experts on all these subjects are

amply sufficient to show not only that he added in each of them to human knowledge, but that in each of them he was in advance, in many respects, of his

age, and took original views which time has proved to have been right. So vigorous an intellectual grasp in conjunction with so varied a genius is quite exceptional.

Each specialist would, no doubt, with a reasonable envy, grudge the time and the attention that such a man devoted to the subjects outside the specialist’s own range.

And it is, of course, true that, had he kept to one subject, that branch of inquiry would have gained a greater impetus in a degree it is now, perhaps, impossible to

estimate. But it is, to say the least, very doubtful whether the cause of knowledge would, as a whole, have thereby gained.

It is strange that Hodgson, after his final return home in 1855, in the full enjoyment of a physical and mental vigor that few can boast, ceased to take any

active part in research. It were useless to speculate on the reasons for this where the biography throws no light. He was somewhat disappointed perhaps (though

there is no evidence of this) at the meagre results, in England and in India, of the munificent generosity with which he had placed at the disposal of scholars the

finest collection of materials for the study of Sanskrit Buddhism ever brought together either in Europe or Asia. But no one was better aware than Hodgson

himself of those peculiar circumstances which then (as now) made England so far behind the Continent in appreciation of research, and even in knowledge of the

right method of research. The governing classes in England are only just now beginning to wake up to the duty of the State in this matter, and the Government of

India was then even further in arrear. The noble words of Hodgson, full of that burning eloquence that comes of strong moral enthusiasm, on the education of the

peoples of India, show what were the views he held—

“I have spent many years in India, remote from the Residencies and large towns,

and almost entirely with the natives, whom, consequently, it was ever an object with me to conciliate for my own comfort, and whom I trust I always feel anxious

to win, in order the better to accomplish my public duties, as well as to influence the people to their own advantage and improvement. Yes! I say I have so spent

many, many years, and during them I solemnly declare that the only unequivocal, voluntary testimonies I have received of influence over either the hearts or the

12

heads of the people, have been owing entirely to some little knowledge, on my

part, of their literature! With this instrument I have warmed hearts and controlled heads which were utterly impassive to kindness, to reason, to bribery, and deeply

am I persuaded, by experience and refiection, that the use of this instrument is indispensable in paving the way for any general, effective, safe measures of

educational regeneration.”1

But these were not, and from the circumstances under which they lived, could

not be, the views of the rulers of India. Hodgson say:—

“At Calcutta the great body of influential men—influential from their stations,

their talents, and their knowledge—are, have been, and must continue to be, strangers to India.”

2

They were not likely to value very highly knowledge they themselves had not. In the subjects they set for the young civilians to study, the literature of India, the

history of the thought, of the industrial conditions, of the social institutions, of India, found no place. And they were more likely to resent, than to appreciate, the

fact that so distinguished a man as Hodgson should have insisted, in words so powerful, on the importance of subjects beyond their ken. We find, at least, that

Hodgson received none of those titular honors which were given to many of his less distinguished contemporaries.

But for that he would have cared little, and would have welcomed the present signs of a change at last. Englishmen are beginning to realize that they can no

longer with safety remain so far behind France, and Germany, and Russia in their knowledge of Oriental literature and history. When they once begin they will

rapidly overtake their rivals, for it is not the ability that has been wanting, but the will; and Englishmen in India will follow suit. Meanwhile, in Hodgson’s particular

field—in that chapter of history he first opened up, and then so lavishly provided with the materials for further work—in Indian Buddhism, interest is rapidly

growing. The Sanskrit texts, for which Hodgson did so much, are acquiring new value precisely from the rapid publication of the Pāli texts, once considered their

rivals. And this is not really at all strange. The two sets of texts, the Pāli and the Sanskrit, represent different schools and come from different countries. But they

deal with the same chapter in the history of human thought. A knowledge of both is needed for a proper solution of the problems that arise, and it is not easy—it is,

indeed, scarcely possible—rightly to appreciate either of them without the other. The very last work of importance published on Buddhism, Professor Windisch’s

masterly monograph on “Māra and Buddha,” affords proof on every page of the

1 Hodgson, “Essays on Indian Subjects,” vol. ii, p. 296.

2 Ibid., p. 329.

13

intimate connection between the two, and is throughout one long example of the

manner in which each can elucidate the other.

One may well, therefore, be impatient that whereas year after year three or four

volumes of Pāli texts are made accessible by the printing-press to scholars, the documents preserved and presented by Hodgson should be still almost entirely

unpublished. It is a mere mockery to be told (p. 281) that they form the object of pious pilgrimage of travelling scholars, who visit (once in a generation or so!) the

libraries where the generous donor hoped they would be used, and where they lie entombed. For entombed they are. It is only scholars with wealth enough to give

them leisure who can study, as Burnouf did, the MSS. themselves. What is required to make Hodgson’s gifts really useful, is to place the texts in print (and

not summaries or abstracts only, but the whole texts) on the tables of scholars. M. Senart’s splendid work on the Mahāvastu will accordingly be of more permanent

value than Burnouf’s. And only the want of money bars the way. Seventy or eighty

pounds would pay for the printing of one book. A like sum ought to be set apart for the editor. When a few volumes had appeared the sale would suffice to pay for

others. Our Society would be glad to undertake, without charge, all the business arrangements. Cannot those who revere the rare genius, the wide intellectual

sympathies, the noble unselfishness of Hodgson, resolve to bring out a series of “Hodgson Texts,” and thus to complete the work he had so splendidly begun? He

could not have done this himself. There were no scholars then to do the editing. But the times are now ripe; scholars can be found ready trained. The importance

and interest of the subject is acknowledged; and better than any statue, better than any title, would such a series of texts keep alive the memory of the man we all

reverence, and whom the readers of this biography will learn to love.

For after all it is not so much the ever alert intellectuality, not the single-minded

search after truth, not even the moral enthusiasm, as the simplicity and grace of Hodgson’s personal character, that those who knew him best valued the most. We

find here a typical example of the noble life; a life reflecting such a luster on the Service as the highest administrative ability, alone, could never hope to emulate.

Would that its tone and spirit could animate the official world! The book ought to be in the hands, and in the heart, of every young civilian.

TW

THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE. BY H. FIELDING. 8vo; pp. 363. (London: Bentleys, 1898.)

This is a noteworthy book. The author not only disclaims any scholarship, he

boasts of being indebted to no one, except Bigandet; and even to him only in the passages quoted as to the life of the Buddha. Himself an official, he points out the

14

conventionality and ignorance of officials who only learn “the outside, that

curiously varied outside which is so deceptive”; and though he had books sent to him from England, and studied them, he finds himself unable to trust them. “Their

knowledge has been taken from the records of the dead past, mine is from the actualities of the living present.” But his book is most valuable as one more proof

of the patent fact that the past is not dead at all, but very much alive every hour of every day in the life of every people, and in the life of that people he so

sympathetically describes.

“A love of books comes only to him,” says the author (p. 126), “who is shut

always from the world by ill-health, by poverty, by circumstance.” But those familiar with well-known works on Buddhism will recognize, in many passing

expressions, and in the general tone of the present volume, how much its writer bas been indebted to books he loves so little; and how much, also, his conclusions tend

to confirm and amplify the best and most important of the teachings they convey.

Of the Buddha, Mr. Fielding thinks (p. 26), “whatever he was, he was no

philosopher . . . . His was not an appeal to our reason, to our power of putting two and two together and making them five.” But it is surely precisely the role of

reason to show us that two and two do not make five; and however frequently Western philosophies have degenerated into empty logomachies, however wrong

the conclusions they may have reached, yet philosophy cannot be accurately described as a power of seeing things wrongly. And this logomachy about the

meaning of the word ‘philosophy’ is lost sight of afterwards when the author attempts—and very successfully, too—to set out the Buddhist philosophy, the

Buddhist view of life. Chapters iii and iv and all the closing chapters, xxi–xxv, are full of suggestive remarks on this subject. And they go far to explain what has

seemed to some Western minds a hopeless puzzle—the fact that a philosophy so independent of the baits that catch the vulgar should nevertheless have gained so

great an influence over so large a number of men.

The intermediate chapters give a very interesting account of the views and

practices of Burmese Buddhists on government, crime, and punishment; happiness, prayer, festivals, women, divorce, drink, manners, and kindness to animals. All this

is written with much sound judgment, and with that accurate insight which is born of sympathy. And the Buddhist position throughout, though often so strange to

Western minds that it is difficult to understand, is set forth in a simple and direct style that adds greatly to the charm of the book.

Such qualities, it is needless to add, are precisely those which distinguish good work from bad in those attempts which scholars make to explain the origin and

growth of a religious movement, or the history of a people. The dry-as-dust scholar, who is keen about petty details, but “ cannot see the wood for the trees,” is

15

simply a parallel to the official who, immersed in petty details, sees only the

outside of things. And the right moral to draw is not at all that books are useless, and scholarship contemptible; but that in all attempts to explain the previously

unknown, the successful seeker after truth must utilize the labours of his predecessors with such intellectual grasp and openness of mind as will enable him

to penetrate, beyond the evanescent phenomena, back to the real causes that underlie them.

This book, too—like all good books—would have been impossible without its forerunners. But we can, nevertheless, congratulate the author on having produced

the best account yet available to us of the real inner feelings of one of the many races subject to the English Government. He has done for Burma what Lafcardio

Hearn has so excellently done for Japan.

TW

THROUGH ASIA. By SVEN HEDIN. (London: Methuen & Co., 1898.)

This is the latest and in many respects the most important contribution to our knowledge of the heart of Asia. We have here records of journeys of exploration

made by a scientific traveler of learning and experience. In the Preface Dr. Sven Hedin gives a brief and comprehensive summary of his travels in Asia, and of the

scientific work which he performed in the course of these travels, and also of the material and formation of his book. This very modest Preface is followed by an

Introductory Chapter, in which we have an interesting resume of the recorded travels and explorations in Tibet and Central Asia. Beginning with the visit to

Tibet in the fourteenth century by Odurico di Pordenone, the sketch brings us down to Captain Bower’s travels in Tibet and China in 1891–2.

In the next chapter we have a description of the traveler’s original plan, and of the departures from it which circumstances compelled him to make. We have also

particulars about his equipment and the expenses of his travels and explorations. The first part of his travels was through Russia to the Kirghiz steppes, on to

Tashkent, and ultimately to the Pamirs. From the Russian Fort to the north-east of Fort Pamir the traveler set out on his first journey of exploration. His record of his

attempts to ascend the great mountain range Mus-tagh-ata is extremely interesting. He went on to Kashgar and thence returned to Fort Pamir, from which he

proceeded by a different route back to Kashgar. Thence he went on to Merket, from which he began his terrible journey across the great desert. The story of the

traveler’s sufferings and privations in this vast waste of sand is a thrilling one told in a plain and simple manner. After this we have his journey down the Khotandaria

and his return to Kashgar again.

16

The second volume begins with another visit to the Pamirs. Then we have the

journey from Kashgar to Khotan, and thence on to Karashahr, with an interesting discussion on the Lop-nor question. Our traveler next takes us through North Tibet,

over the Arka Tagh, to the Desert of Tsaidam. From the Mongolian Tsaidam he goes to the Tangut country, through it to the Koko-nor, thence on to Si-ning-foo,

and at last to Peking the goal.

It is impossible to give in a short notice any fair idea of the vast and varied

information about tribes and districts of Asia, little known or quite unknown, which these two volumes contain. The information, moreover, is imparted in a

pleasant, affable manner, and the reader finds himself acquiring knowledge about Taghliks and Kirghizes, and wild asses and camels, and unknown mountains and

rivers, and many other subjects, without any effort and with real enjoyment. There are numerous photographs by the author and sketches made or inspired by him;

and the work is furnished with two large maps, and has an index.

In the parts of this remarkable and valuable treatise which treat of Chinese men

and matters there are a few errors and peculiarities of transcription which may be briefly noticed for the benefit of the general reader. In vol. ii, p. 735, we read: “The

entire distance between Kashgar and Khotan has been divided by the Chinese into potai (2½ mile distances).” The author adds: “The potai are indicated by flattened

pyramids of clay, eighteen or twenty feet in height, and there are on an average ten such intervals or ‘miles’ between every two stations.” This potai, as the author’s

illustration shows, is the Chinese P’ao-t’ai, commonly translated by Fort, and the

term was probably applied in the above district to the Fire and Smoke Beacons used by the Chinese from the earliest times.

Then at p. 748 we are told that jade is called ‘Yü-tien.’ But Yü ( ) -tien is the

Chinese name for Khotan, and the name for jade is Yü ( ) simply.

On p. 783 we find the following statement:—“The same Chinese traveler whom

I have just quoted, Shi Fa-hian, also journeyed in the seventh year of the reign of the Emperor Thai Tsung of the Thang dynasty from Khotan to Lop-nor.” This is an

unfortunate slip, and Dr. Sven Hedin forgot for the moment that the pilgrim who travelled in the reign of T’ang T’ai Tsung was the celebrated Yuanchuang (Hiouen

Thsang).

The ‘Darin’ of our traveler is the Ta-jen or ‘Great Man,’ ‘His Excellency,’ of

other writers; and his jambaus (p. 932) are the Yuan-pao, the silver ingots, or

‘shoes of sycee,’ of people who live in China.

TW

17

China, the Chinese & Buddhism in China

1894 Notice sur Le Japon. by Henri Cordier.

1894 Mémoire composé à l’époque de la Grande Dynastie T’ang by I-Tsing, translated by Edouard Chavannes.

1895 Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Catalogue of Chinese Books and Manuscripts. Privately Printed. 1895.

1895 Les Etudes Chinoises (1891–1894). by Henri Cordier.

1896 Die Sprache und Schrift der Jucen. by Dr. Wilhelm Grube.

1896 Inscriptions de l’Orkhon dechiffrées. by Vilh. Thomsen

1896 Eine Indo-Chinesische causativ-denominativ-bildung und ihr zusammenhang

mit den Ton-Accenten. by Dr. August Conrady

1897 Centenaire de Marco Polo. by Henri Cordier

1897 Les Origines de Deux Establissements Francais dans L’Extreme-Orient-Changhai-Ning-Po. by Henri Cordier.

1897 Memoire of I-Tsing. by Edouard Chavannes

1897 Les Inscriptions Chinoises de Bodh-Gayā. by Edouard Chavannes.

1897 A Record of the Buddhist Religion, as Practiced in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695). memoire by I-Tsing, translated by J. Takakusu

NOTICE SUR LE JAPON. Par HENRI CORDIER. Paris: H. Lamirault et Cie, 1894.

This is a separate reprint of M. Cordier’s article” Japon’’ in the “Grande Encyclopédie,” now in course of publication. In compiling the article M. Cordier

had, as he acknowledges, the co-operation of MM. Deniker, Dubois, De Milloné, and Pauly. We have in it some of the latest and most precise information about the

new First Empire of the East. But as the compiler’s space was necessarily very limited we do not expect full details on any department.

We have first a geographical summary giving the situation, boundaries, and natural features and character or the islands which constitute Japan. Next the Fauna

and Flora are treated of, but in a very cursory manner. We have also sections dealing with the Religions, the Manners and Customs, the Government,

Agriculture, History, Language, Literature, Fine Arts, and Legislation. The accounts of the Army, Navy, and Legislation are particularly interesting at the

18

present moment, as they describe the changes which have been made in recent

years down to the rupture with China last year.

The Map and the Bibliography appended to the article will be found very useful

by all who wish to study the history and actual condition and prospects of Japan.

TW

MÉMOIRE COMPOSÉ À L’ÉPOQUE DE LA GRANDE DYNASTIE T’ANG SUR LES

RELIGIEUX ÉMINENTS QUI ALLÉRENT CHERCHER LA LOI DANS LES PAYS

D’OCCIDENT, Par I-TSING, traduit en Français. Par EDOUARD CHAVANNES.

(Paris, 1894.)

In this treatise we have first an introduction, in which M. Chavannes gives us a

short account of I-Ching’s (I-Tsing’s) life, followed by some very thoughtful observations on the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims mentioned by the author, and on the

fortunes of Buddhism in China. Then we have the translation of I-Ching’s work, which contains short narratives of fifty-six pilgrims from China, Korea, and other

regions to India, with a supplement giving particulars about four other pilgrims. To this translation M. Chavannes has added an appendix, in which he has given us a

translation of the Life of I-Ching from the “Sung-Kao-sêng-Chuan.” Then we have a few notes, called Addenda, on certain names and other matters in the translation;

and the book ends with three useful Indices of the Sanskrit, Chinese, and French terms occurring in the translation.

M. Chavannes has evidently taken great pains to make his rendering of I-Ching’s book as perfect as possible, and he has added numerous notes to assist the

reader in understanding the text. The book will repay a careful study; for although the pilgrims, whose stories are told in it, were for the most part men of little note,

yet the biographical notices of them contain much interesting information on several matters.

I-Ching’s style is generally terse and elliptical, and he is fond of half-expressed hints and quaint allusions which make him occasionally hard to translate in a

satisfactory manner. M. Chavannes has managed to surmount most of the difficulties of the text, and be has the good sense to acknowledge that he is

sometimes puzzled; in a few instances he has committed the error of unnecessarily supplementing his text, thereby altering the author’s meaning. We have an instance

of this at p. 4. The writer, referring to the few who finished, of the many who began, the long pilgrimage, explains thus, according to M. Chavannes: “La vraie

cause en fut les immensités des déserts pierreux du pays de l’Éléphant, les grands fleuves et l’éclat du soleil, qui crache son ardeur; ou las masses d’eau des vagues

19

soulevées par le poisson gigantesque.” Here I have put in italics certain words

which are not in the original, and it will be seen that the interpolation of these words alters the meaning. The author is not writing about “the country of the

Elephant” (India), but about the perils of the journey to that country. The journey could be made either by land or water, and each route had its own dangers and

difficulties. On the land route, he tells us, were elephantine (i.e. enormous) sand-

masses, and on the sea-voyage you had leviathan (ching) billows.

In some places also the translator gives to a Chinese term one of its

significations, but not the one required by the context: thus, at p. 6 the author, writing of the Chinese pilgrims to India, who had to be content with whatever poor

shelter they could obtain in that country, adds in M. Chavannes’ rendering: “Comme leur corps ne jouissait pas du calme, comment leur vertu aurait-elle pu

être haute?” This strikes one at once as incongruous and worse than feeble praise. But the context shows that tao here is not used in the sense of “leur vertu,” and that

it has the Buddhist meaning of “spiritual attainments.” I-Ching explains that as the

pilgrims had no opportunities of performing those religious exercises which lead to superior degrees in the holy life, they consequently did not reach a high state of

spiritual perfection.

At p. 9 we have the following passage: “Dans la table [the list of the pilgrims

noticed] qui précède, il y a en tout cinquante-six personnes. Lea premiers en grand nombre tombèrent comme une pluie douce. De ceux qu’il y avait quand moi, I-

Tsing, je vins en Inde, il reste en tout cinq personnes: Maître Ou-hing, maître Tao-lin, maître Hoei-luen, maître Seng-tché, et maître Tche-hong. C’eat ce qu’on verra

en les recapitulant.” This does not seem to be a correct rendering of the Chinese,

and the statements it contains are not in agreement with the contents of the book. How could M. Chavannes represent these scattered miscellaneous pilgrims as all

dying at the same time—“falling like a sweet shower”? What I-Ching states is to this effect: “In the list given most of the pilgrims before my time were unknown

nobodies ( ); Wu-hsing and the four mentioned with him who were in India at my time were conspicuous men of note ( ).”

There are also several other passages in which the translator seems to have missed the author’s meaning. But notwithstanding these faults, partly due perhaps

to a bad text, M. Chavannes’ book is a valuable addition to the literature of Buddhism. Apart from the biographical notices, I-Ching’s account of the great

establishment at Nālanda is specially interesting, and his casual observations on Buddhist teachers and scriptures are worthy of attention.

TW

20

1895 BIBLIOTHECA LINDESIANA. CATALOGUE OF CHINESE BOOKS AND

MANUSCRIPTS. Privately Printed. 1895.

In the introduction to this Catalogue, Mr. Edmond, the Librarian, tells us that the

Chinese portion of the great Library at Haigh Hall contains about 8000 native volumes. The foundation of this collection, which was made by the late Lord

Crawford, was the purchase en bloc of the Chinese library of M. P. L. van Alstein, in 1863. Many additions were afterwards made through agents in China, until the

collection assumed its present dimensions.

A catalogue of the Van Alstein Collection was made by J. Williams, the author

of a learned work on Chinese astronomy, and that formed the basis of the present Catalogue. This should be looked upon, the compiler tells us, “as a brief hand-list

or preparatory study, rather than a catalogue worthy of the importance of the collection.” As it stands, however, the Catalogue is a creditable production, and

forms a good index to the books in the Chinese portion of the library. The compiler acted wisely in taking advice from Professor Douglas and in following the Wade

system of transcription of Chinese sounds.

From this Catalogue we learn that the collection of Chinese books in the

Bibliotheca Lindesiana is one fairly representative. We find it contains a large number of works by the early Jesuit and Protestant Missionaries, good editions of

the Confucian classics, some valuable Buddhist and Taoist books, the best historical treatises, some good encyclopedias and collections of reprints, several

valuable philological treatises, and not a few of the higher works of light literature. It contains also several treatises in Manchu and Korean, and a few works on

Chinese subjects written in Western languages.

As the present Catalogue is apparently intended to be only the outline of a fuller

one to be made hereafter, it may be of service to point out some of the points in which corrections and improvements may be made.

In No. 260, page 3, it would be more correct to call Ch’ang-an not the but an

ancient capital of China. Several other cities have also been ancient capitals.

In No. 304, p. 10, and in other places it would be better to substitute Confucius

for K’ung Ch’iu.

Under No. 259, p. 13, it should be stated that the “Chu tzŭ ch’üan shu” is not a complete collection of the writings of Chu Hsi. There are several treatises by the

great philosopher and commentator not included in this collected edition of his writings.

21

Page 15, No. 195. “Traditions of Tso. By Tso Ch’iu-ming.” This is apparently

not correct. The Chinese name indicates that the treatise which bears it is a reprint of an annotated edition of the “Ch’un-ch’iu” with Tso’s commentary.

Under No. 203, p. 15, instead of “Complete works of Lo Pi” we should have “Reprint of the Ch’ien-chi of Lu Shih.”

Under No.194, on the same page, the words “Description of Ch’üeh Li” give an imperfect idea of the book bearing the title “Ch’ueh-li-chih.” This book gives an

account of Confucius’ birthplace, tomb, temple, and of the worship performed in the temple, and of the places in the neighborhood associated with the sage. In the

Number Key the character for Kuan is given by mistake for that for Ch’üeh.

Page 18, No. 321. Fa-hsien’s “Fo-kuo-chi” is not “a narrative of the travels of

Fa-hsien in Central Asia” (where he went to obtain information and documents regarding the Buddhist religion). It describes briefly the pilgrim’s journey overland

to India, his travels in that country—the one to which he went for “information and documents about the Buddhist religion”—and it relates his voyage from India to

Ceylon, and his return to China. The edition of the “Fo-kuo-chi” in Lord Crawford’s Library is the comparatively rare one edited by Hsü Hsü, of Nan-

ch’ang. In the Catalogue the name of the editor is given as “Hsü Hsü-kung,” but the word kung here probably stands for the character so read which means

“respectfully,” “reverently,” and belongs to the next character.

Page 19, No. 64, for “Amitatha” read Amitabha or Amitayus, and in the name of the translator j should be substituted for g.

No. 822, p. 19. “Fo Tsu Li Tai T’ung Tsai.’ This treatise is much more than a “History of the Buddhist saints or patriarchs.” It is rather the annals of Buddhism

first in India and afterwards in China in connection with Chinese legends and history.

Page 25, No. 445. For Hsü. in “Hsü -ting-ch’ien-lü, and in the Number Key for

the same, Ch’in should be substituted.

No. 343, p. 28. The “I ch’ieh ching yin i” explains not only the “foreign technical terms found in the Buddhist works,” but also the difficult native words

and phrases.

No 331, p. 36. The “Li Sao” was composed by Chü Yuan, not by “Feng Sao.”

No. 362, p. 38. “Liu shu ku.” This book is not “an ancient dictionary,” but a philological treatise of the thirteenth century. It gives an account of Chinese

characters under the six-fold classification of them according to their origin and use.

22

No. 335, p. 42. “Mu T’ien tzŭ Ch’uan Chu pu Chêng.” This title is explained as

meaning “Respectful terms for addressing the Emperor and superiors generally.” The book, however, is apparently the well-known account of the Emperor Mu’s

visit to Hsi-Wang-Mu.

These and other errors of interpretation and transcription can be easily rectified.

The compiler would make his Catalogue more useful by giving the number of the Chuan instead of the pên of the books, and by explaining whether a date added to a

work is that of the particular copy or of the book when produced or first published.

TW

LES ETUDES CHINOISES (1891–1894). Par HENRI CORDIER, Professeur à l’Ecole des

Langues Orientales vivantes, Paris. Leide: E. J. Brill, 1895.

This pamphlet is reprinted from the “T’oung-pao,” and the merits of its contents

entitle it to an independent existence. The author begins by giving obituary notices of the lately deceased sinologists—the Marquis D’Hervey de Saint-Denys, G. von

der Gabelentz, and Terrien de Lacouperie. The notices include carefully compiled lists of all the contributions made to sinology by these distinguished men. In the

case of M. de Lacouperie the list is a very long one, and many of the contributions recorded are merely short notes or articles contributed to magazines.

These accounts are followed by shorter obituary notices of such men as Mr. C. Rudy, M. A. A. Billequin—“un des Français qui ont fait le plus d’honneur à leur

pays dans l’Extrême Orient”—and M. Georgieveky.

M. Cordier next proceeds to give a summary of sinological bibliography for the

four years 1891 to 1894, beginning with China and Hong Kong. This summary includes the Journals of the Societies, the China Review, the works of the Jesuit

Missionaries, and the contributions of other workers chiefly in China. Under Germany we are told of the appointment of Dr. W. Grube to the chair held by the

late G. von der Gabelentz. Under Austria the death of the sinologist Dr. A. Pfizmaier is recorded, and we have a list of the contributions to sinology from Dr.

Franz Kühnert. In Belgium, we learn, Professor C. de Harlez is continuing to dash off books on Chinese subjects. M. Cordier, who gives the titles of four of the latest,

states truly that the Professor “traite avec la même facilité du Tao-kiao on de Jou-kiao, de la poésie que de la médecine on de la musique.”

Under France we have the announcement of the clever young scholar M. Chavannes to the Chair in the Collège de France, held in succession by Abel

Remusat, S. Julien, and the Marquis D’Hervey de Saint-Denys. We have also short

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notices of contributions to Chinese learning made by old acquaintances, such as M.

Fauvel, Dr. E. Martin, and others.

In Great Britain we find Dr. Legge renewing his youth, writing on Chinese

romances and poems, and bringing out a new edition of his Chinese Classics. But M. Cordier has to express his surprise at the little interest in Chinese studies which

is taken by the people of these islands.

Under Holland we have special notice of the recent contributions to Chinese

studies by Dr. G. Schlegel. Under Russia we learn what has been done with the Orkhon inscriptions. We have also a reference to Dr. Bretschneider’s Travels in

Mongolia, and to the great map of China which M. Waeber has compiled—a work of many years.

This little book of 89 pages is full of useful information, given in a careful, precise manner. Like the author’s work generally, it shows conscientious industry

and general accuracy. I should like, however, to point out that the note on p. 15—“Miryak = Shĭ-jen” or stone-men—is not correct. Miryek is the Korean

pronunciation of the two Chinese characters for Mi-lo, i.e. Maitreya.

TW

DIE SPRACHE UND SCHRIFT DER JUČEN. Von DR. WILHELM GRUBE, A.O. Professor

an der Königl. Universität zu Berlin. (Leipzic, 1896.)

Those who are interested in the study of the people and the language known by

such names as Nüchi, Nü-chen, and Jucben, will be grateful to Professor Grube for his “Die Sprache und Schrift der Jučen.”

This work begins with a short preface in which we have a few remarks about the grammar of the Juchen language. The first section of the treatise proper contains a

Juchen-Chinese Glossary. This is a classified vocabulary of a number of Juchen terms with Chinese transcriptions of their sounds, and the equivalents of the terms

in Chinese. The student should use this glossary with care and caution, as some of the Chinese transcriptions and renderings are at least doubtful. He will probably

find that he has to suppose the sounds of the Juchen terms to be given by the “fan-ts’ieh” process more frequently than Dr. Grube thinks. He will also observe that in

some instances the terms given here as the Juchen equivalents for Chinese words

and phrases are different from those given in Mr. Wylie’s Vocabulary and in other books. Many of the terms given in the present glossary as Juchen are purely

Chinese, and many others are closely related to modern Manchu words.

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The second part of the treatise gives a list of the Juchen words in the glossary

arranged according to the number of strokes in the characters; the third part gives an alphabetical index to the characters; the fourth part gives a Juchen-German

glossary of the Juchen words in the original vocabulary; and the fifth part gives a series of Chinese documents with a literal translation of each into Juchen terms,

together with transcriptions of the latter and translations from the Chinese into German.

I propose now to make a very few observations on some passages in this curious and interesting book.

At p. 6 we find the Chinese compiler of the glossary gives “Han-shi-ha-ch’eng-

yin” ( ), that is, “the period of cold food,” as the equivalent of the

Chinese Ch’ing-ming ( ) period. The latter, however, denotes the period which

immediately follows the Hanshi, which is not a chil or period properly speaking.

No. 101 on this page gives Ch’ung-yang or double yang, the ninth day of the ninth month, as in Juchen “Ch’u-wên tu-lu-wên .” Here Ch’u-wên is apparently, as Dr.

Grube states, for the Chinese Ch’ung; and tuluwên. which means “warm,” is for

yang. Dr. Grube calls the Ch’ung-yang the “Drachenfeste,” but it has nothing to do

with dragons.

On p. 17, No. 322, we have the Juchen term Pai (Poh)-i written , with the

Chinese equivalent written with the same characters, translated by Dr. Grube “Die Barbaren.” But who are the “100 Barbarians”? May not Poh-i here be for the term

now written Pao-i and denoting the “serfs” of the people? The inner division of each Manchu Banner, Mr. Mayers tells us, “is composed of the so-called pao-i (

), from the Manchu bo-i, signifying a bondservant, who are especially bound to render suit and service” (“The Chinese Government,” 2nd ed., p. 51).

At p. 18, No. 324, we find the native name corresponding to the Chinese “Nü-

chi” given as Chu-hsien ( ), that is, probably Jusin. This seems to agree with

the statement made by Chinese authorities that the original name of the people was

Su-shên ( ), and that this became corrupted to Nüchên and Nü-chi.

The series of texts and translations in Part V is not of much value from any point of view. On Dr. Grube’s translations from the Chinese there is only one

observation which need be made here. Each document ends with the words

, and these the Professor translates—“Sr. Majestät zur Kenntnissnahme unterbreitet.” Is not the meaning rather “ The memorialist had the

honour to receive the Imperial Rescript ‘Noted’”? The character is apparently a

mistake for .

TW

25

INSCRIPTIONS DE L’ORKHON DECHIFFRÉES par VILH. THOMSEN, Professeur de

Philologie comparée à l’Université de Copenhague. (Helsingfors: Imprimerie de la Société de Littérature Finnoise, 1896.)

This is the latest and in some respects the most valuable of the contributions to the literature of the Orkhon inscriptions.

In 1889 the Archæological Society of Finland published a volume of “Inscriptions de l’Jénissei., This was the first work to draw attention to the

numerous specimens of some curious but unknown writing found in South Siberia. The work was the result of the researches instituted by the Finnish Archæological

Society under the direction of Mr. Aspelin.

In the years 1890–1 new inscriptions, also in the unknown writing, were

discovered in the valley of the Orkhon in North Mongolia, near the Kocho Tsaïdam Lake and not far from the sites of the ruined cities Karakorum and Kara

Balgassun. These inscriptions were photographed for the Finnish expedition under Mr. Heikel and for the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg by

Professor Radloff.

The key to the unknown writing from Orkhon was found in a very ingenious

manner by Professor Thomsen, of Copenhagen, and in 1894 be published his short notice entitled “Déchiffrement des Inscriptions de l’Orkhon et de l’Jénissei.” In

this notice the Professor details the process by which he arrived at a clue to the nature of the strange writing, to the values of the letters, and the decipherment and

translation of the inscriptions. At the end of the pamphlet he gives his proposed transcription and transliteration of the alphabet. It was not until the present year

that the Professor was able to carry out his design of giving a full and particular account of the results of his researches in the Orkhon inscriptions, and this he has

done in the volume now before us.

This treatise in the first part gives us the alphabet of the language, ancient

Turkish, in which the inscriptions are composed, the alphabet being arranged according to vowels and consonants. The author next describes the process by

which he came to give the letters their values and to treat them as he does in his translations. At the end of this part of the treatise we have some remarks on the

probable origin of the alphabet and on its affinities. M. Thomsen dismisses the conjectures as to the alphabet’s relations advanced by others, and states his reasons

for thinking it to be allied to the Semitic Aramean alphabet.

The next part of the treatise is the introduction to the translations, and in this we

have a very interesting summary of the history of the Turks known in Chinese books as the “T’u-küe.” The notices of this people given here are derived from

Chinese originals through European translations. Then we have the transcription

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and translation of two of the Orkhon inscriptions. These are supplemented by notes

and “Additions et Rectifications,” an “Index analytique dea matières,” and an “Index turc” in two divisions. As an appendix, we have an English translation of

the least defective of the Chinese inscriptions from Orkhon by Mr. E. H. Parker.

The two old Turkish inscriptions here transcribed and translated by M. Thomsen

were found engraven on large stone monuments. Each of these monuments contains also a Chinese inscription from the T’ang Emperor Hsüan Tsung. The

Turkish and Chinese writings are not in any degree related as original and translation, and they agree only in being concerned with the same Turkish heroes.

The two Turkish inscriptions were apparently the work of Bilga Khan, though written out by a relative. This Khan was a son of the Kutluk Khan and elder

brother of the Kul Teghin. It was to the memory of this last that one of the monuments, the Monument I of M. Thomsen, was erected and the Chinese and

Turkish inscriptions on it were composed. The work was executed by Chinese artisans, and the monument was apparently set up in the year 732, the date of the

Imperial epitaph for Kul Teghin. The inscriptions on the Monument II of Professor Thomsen are in a much more mutilated and unsatisfactory state than those on the

other monument. They were composed apparently in the year 735. In that year the

Bilga Khan was assassinated (or poisoned) by a chief of the Meilu ( ) horde,

and he was succeeded by his son, who became Têng-li ( ) Khan.

The two Turkish inscriptions here translated by M. Thomsen give us many

interesting notices of the exploits of Bilga Khan and his illustrious brother Kul Teghin. They are valuable also for the references which they contain to the former

and the existing state of the Turks under Bilga’s rule. Professor Thomsen has been able to compare his renderings with those given by M. Radloff in “Die Alt-

türkischen Inachriften der Mongolei.” His criticisms of the readings and renderings of M. Radloff are not the least interesting part of this valuable treatise.

A few words must now be devoted to the Imperial Chinese epitaph on Monument I and its translations. Of these there are at least four, viz.: two in

German by Professors Wassiljew and G. von der Gabelentz, one in French by Professor Schlegel, and one in English by Mr. Parker. It must be admitted,

however, that there is still need for a new and correct translation. M. Schlegel, in his “La Stèle Funéraire du Teghin Giogh,” gives the Chinese text of the epitaph

with his proposed restorations of some of the lost characters. In the first column he gives us the reading Pi-chün-chang-chê-pên [-yin-yang-chi]-i-ye (

). The words Yin-yang-chi are the Professor’s conjecture, the

original characters being lost. He, accordingly, translates—“La souveraineté est donc en principe la descendance du (Yin et du Yang).” Mr. Parker accepts the

conjectural restoration as though it were a certainty, and translates—“These prince-

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elders are, in fact, the hereditary consequences of the [above-mentioned] two

elements.” But M. Schlegel’s conjecture seems to make the Chinese emperor write what is neither Chinese nor sense. Professor Wassiljew’s suggestion seems to point

to the correct restoration, viz. Hsia Houshi ( ). According to the Chinese, the T’u-küe were the descendants of the Hiung·nu, and the descent of the latter was

traced to the great Yü, the founder of the Hsia dynasty, and hence called Hsia Hou. “Your chiefs,” says the Emperor, “were originally the descendants of Hsia Hou.”

This name actually occurs in the second Chinese inscription given in Radloff’s “Alt-türkischen Inschriften,” the first character being now missing. One of the

names of the Emperor Yü was Wên-ming, and it is not impossible perhaps that this in Turkish pronunciation became “Bumin,” the name of the Khan whom Bilga

seems to regard as his first forefather.

The epitaph continues—Shou-tzŭ-Chung-kuo-hsiung-fei ( ); and

M. Schlegel translates these words by—“D’abord, elle [la souveraineté] s’est etendue victorieusement de l’Empire du Milieu.” Mr. Parker’s rendering of the

words is a little better—“[Now] dating back from the time when China made her robust flight.” But the two words hsiung-fei convey an allusion to a poem of the

Kuo Feng in the Shiching which begins , “the cock-pheasants (?) as

they fly.” The wife whose husband is detained far away in the wars compares him to the brave and handsome pheasant which can fly home at will. Thus the words of

the text mean—“Beginning with the frontier wars of China,” that is, in the reigns of Wu Ti and other emperors of the Han dynasty. These wars led to the

pacification of the Hiung-nu and other border tribes, and to the introduction of good government among them for a time.

Several other passages in these translations require to be revised, but further observations must be reserved for another possible opportunity.

TW

EINE INDO-CHINESISCHE CAUSATIV-DENOMINATIV-BILDUNG UND IHR

ZUSAMMENHANG MIT DEN TON-ACCENTEN. By DR. AUGUST CONRADY.

Large 8vo, pp. 227. (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1896.)

In this essay Dr. Conrady attempts a kind of comparative grammar of Tibetan,

Burmese, Siamese, and Chinese. His view is that the tones represent a suppression of prefixes, and that the beginnings of words must be regarded as in most cases the

result of a prefix no longer externally perceptible, because it has as it were been lost in combination with the word to which it was originally prefixed. Such

prefixes can be most easily traced in the verb; and Tibetan being the language in which the prefixes are most clearly marked, he takes the Tibetan as the basis of his

28

investigations, and in the first place the forms of the causative verb. He concludes

that all the Tibetan prefixes which he has thus discussed show a tendency, in consequence of the strong accent laid on the root, to lose their vowels, and to

become amalgamated with the root syllable in the form only of an additional letter, and of a modification of the tone of the root.

Having dealt in detail with this thesis up to page 103, he proceeds in the remainder of the essay to apply the results thus obtained to the elucidation of

similar forms in Assamese (pp. 104–112). Burmese (pp. 113–128), Siamese (pp. 130–148), and Chinese (pp. 149–201). In all these languages he finds evidence—

(l) of the same method of formation of causative and denominative verbs, which when transitive have a high tone, and when intransitive have not; (2) of a similar

shifting of tone owing to the influence of the added prefixes; and (3) of a similar resulting tone system.

The objection to all this that will naturally occur is that the study of the historical development of each of these languages has not yet reached the stage at

which such a question can be definitely settled. Perhaps not. But the putting forward of so clear a thesis, and that not only in a general way, but worked out in

detail, cannot fail to stimulate inquiry, and to contribute very greatly to the building up of that historical knowledge of these languages which is so much to be

desired.

TW

CENTENAIRE DE MARCO POLO. Conférence faite à la Société d’ Etudes Italiennes le

Mercredi, 18 Decembre, 1895, à la Sorbonne. Par HENRI CORDIER. (Paris, 1896.)

This “Centenaire de Marco Polo” forms vol. iii of the “Bibliothèque de voyages anciens,” in course of publication. It appears as a lecture delivered by M. Cordier

to the Society named in the title, and the lecture occupies thirty-eight pages.

We have here presented to us in a brief and precise, but pleasant manner, some

of the most important events in the life of the great Venetian traveler. As a sort of introduction, we have a short and useful summary of the state of the Mongol

Empire at the time of Marco Polo. The little book is enriched with several quaint illustrations from the “Livre des Merveilles” in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and it

has two pictures from the Temple of the 500 Lohan at Canton. To the lecture is appended a Marco Polo Bibliography, compiled in the careful, thorough manner in

which M. Cordier does such work.

29

M. Cordier refers to the image in a Buddhist temple at Canton, which is said by

some to be a representation of Marco Polo, and he is right in contradicting the statement. The temple in question, the Hua-lin-ssŭ, contains 500 images of

Buddhist arhats, not genii, and these arhats were all Indians. They are supposed to represent the members of the Buddhist Council which settled the canon, but the

names show that this is a mistake. The one which is now called Marco Polo by the designing monk who acts as guide, is No. 100, and it is to the left of the image of

Buddha. Over the image is its number, and with it the name Shan-chu. This is a translation of a Sanskrit term which cannot be determined with certainty, as the

second word is written in different ways.

Another interesting matter to which M. Cordier recalls our attention is the

connection of Marco Polo’s book with the discovery of America. It was the reading of this book which incited Columbus to go on his voyage of discovery,

which, instead of leading to Cathay, resulted in the discovery of America.

M. Cordier’s little book is well printed on good paper, and all who are interested

in Marco Polo and his great work will feel grateful for the light and guiding which it contains.

TW

LES ORIGINES DE DEUX ÉTABLISSEMENTS FRANÇAIS DANS L’EXTRÊME-ORIENT—CHANGHAI-NING-PO. PAR HENRI CORDIER. (Paris, 1896.) — 1897

In this pamphlet of thirty-nine pages of Introduction and seventy pages of Correspondence, M. Cordier has given his fellow-citizens a summary of the events

which led to the opening of the Five Treaty Ports in China by the Treaty of Nanking in 1843. This is followed by an account of the formation of the French

Concession at Shanghai, describing the troubles which the French consular authorities had at that port. The official documents bearing on these subjects are

now published for the first time. These all refer to the beginning, formation, and regulation of the French Concessions at Shanghai and Ningpo, and to the relations

of the French Consul-General with the Chinese authorities. The official correspondence here made public will be of interest to those who wish to learn

how Chinese Mandarins act towards Western officials, and what troubles the latter have in such places as Shanghai and Ningpo.

TW

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ED. CHAVANNES. LES INSCRIPTIONS CHINOISES DE BODHGAYĀ.

Extrait de la Revue de l’Histoire des Religions, Tome xxxiv, No. 1, 1896.

ED. CHAVANNES. LA PREMIERE INSCRIPTION CHINOISE DE BODH-GAYĀ.

(Reponse à M. Schlegel.) Extrait de la Revue de l’Histoire des Religions, Tome xxxvi, No. 1, 1897.

In the former of these pamphlets M. Chavannes gives us the transcriptions and translations of five Chinese inscriptions found at Bodh-Gayā on the site of the

great Buddhist temple of Mahābodhi. These inscriptions were already known to

Western scholars, but the receipt of impressions and photographs from India led M. Chavannes to make a new and thorough study of them. The first inscription is

referred by the translator to the middle of the tenth century, the three which follow are dated in 1022, and the fifth in 1033.

The first inscription is not very legible in some places, and it is imperfect. It was found under a bas-relief representing the seven Buddhas of this Kalpa surmounted

by the figure of Maitreya, the Buddha who is to come. The inscription is merely the record of a vow and prayer made by the monk Chĭ-i (Tche-i) and others. This

monk had vowed to advise 300,000 men to follow the way of the superior life; he had vowed also to distribute 300,000 canonical pamphlets on the superior life and

to recite the same himself. He adds, Ju-shang-Kung-tê-hui-hsiang-t‘ung-shêng-nei-yuan ( ), according to the text given in the second

pamphlet. M. Chavannes translates the clause: “d’un mérite tel que celui qui vient

d’être nomme, l’effet en retour sur (les autres êtres) est qu’ils naîtront ensemble dans la Cour interieure.” M. Schlegel, who reads shêng-nei-t‘o ( ), regards these

syllables as a transcription of the Sanskrit word saṃnaddha, meaning équipé. There can scarcely be any doubt, however, that M. Chavannes is right in rejecting this conjecture and in treating the characters as he has done. But, as the context

shows, the Inner Court is not Sukhavati, or the land of Amitābha Buddha. It is the

Tushita Paradise in which Maitreya resides with his saints until the time comes for him to be born on earth and become Buddha. M. Chavannes has some learned

remarks on the term hui-hsiang in the above clause. It seems to be used here in the

sense of conduce to or lead towards. The term is Mahāyānist, and implies the creed

of that system, according to which all are born with a “Buddha-nature,” and all the efforts of a pious life are a turning towards original perfection. In a Sūtra to which

M. Chavannes refers us (B. N. Cat., No. 1611), hui-hsiang is used in the sense of aim at or aspire to, and the “Great Hui-hsiang” of the title is explained by “that is,

the aiming at the happy recompense of religious merit.”

The second inscription is a long and curious one, and M. Chavannes’ translation suggests many remarks, but space is limited. The third and fourth are very short,

31

and the fifth is concerned with the erection of a pagoda in honor of Sung T‘ai

Tsung. To his translations M. Chavannes has appended some very interesting information about the Chinese pilgrims to India in the T‘ang and Sung periods, and

about the Indian monks who travelled to China in the same periods. His notes, derived from Chinese sources inaccessible to the ordinary student, will be of great

value to the future historian of Buddhism.

TW

A RECORD OF THE BUDDHIST RELIGION, as practiced in India and the Malay

Archipelago (A.D. 671–695). By I-TSING. Translated by J. TAKAKUSU, B.A., Ph.D. (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1896.)

Students of Buddhism have long wished for a translation of the great work by I-Ching (I-Tsing) on Buddhism as he found it in practice in India and the islands of

the “Southern Sea.” In the treatise before us, Dr. Takakusu has provided such a translation, and enriched it with much pertinent and useful information. He has

evidently taken great pains with his work, and devoted to it serious and continued study. The book will be hailed with gratitude by all who are interested in the

practical working of Buddhism among its professed adherents in the seventh century.

Dr. Takakusu’s work is prefaced by a letter to him from the Right Hon. Professor Max Müller. This is followed by a General Introduction from the

translator. The Introduction gives us a short account of I-Ching’s School, the Mūlasarvāstivada, and of I-Ching’s description of the Buddhist schools as they

existed at his time. It gives next a very interesting account of the life and travels of

the author, notes on some of the important geographical names in the treatise, its date, and tables of several literary men and Buddhist teachers of India mentioned

in the Record. This last is in forty chapters, of which the fortieth should be regarded as a sort of appendix. The work is furnished with a map, and there are

Additional Notes and an Index.

The title of I-Ching’s book is “Nan-hai-ch‘i-kuei-nei-fa-Chuan,” which is here

translated “A Record of the Inner Law sent home from the Southern Sea” (Introduction, p. xviii). The book is written in the terse, suggestive style so much

affected by Chinese authors. It has also difficulties of its own, resulting from a peculiar use of certain terms and phrases. He would be a rare scholar, native or

foreign, who could correctly interpret all its hard passages. Our translator has endeavored to give a faithful and intelligible version, and he has succeeded fairly

well. It was not possible, however, for the work to be perfect, and there seem to be

32

numerous passages in it in which the meaning of the author has been missed or

imperfectly rendered. The translator has also impaired the usefulness of his book by a distribution into paragraphs which seems to be often haphazard, and by the

neglect to give the actual sounds or characters for foreign words and technical terms used by his author.

I-Ching’s own Introduction begins with a passage which is an abstract of the account of the origin of man as related in a Chinese translation of a Buddhist book.

The account is there given with the view of teaching the priority and superiority of the Kshatriyas to the other castes. This fact seems to have been unknown to our

translator, and consequently he has failed to catch the meaning of the passage. The author begins by referring to the time when our system of worlds had been

renewed, when “all creatures had been made, but as yet there was no gradation of men,” that is, caste did not exist. For the words within inverted commas the

translation has, “When all things were created, there was as yet no distinction between animate and inanimate things.”

3 But jen-wu ( ) cannot be made to

mean “animate and inanimate things.” It means mankind, or it may denote “men

and [other] creatures.” The author proceeds to describe the void expanse of the world as transparent without sun and moon, the inhabitants retaining their celestial

light, as he states; the earth had a calm exemption from human vicissitudes, as there was no distinction of sexes. The words in italics are for the original yin-yang-mo-pien, which our translator renders “there was no difference between positive

and negative principles.” This also is an utterly impossible rendering. The primeval forefathers of man, some time after their descent from the Brahmaloka to this

earth, learned to subsist on an unctuous dewy substance which the surface of the earth produced naturally. This substance is called by the author ti-fei, earth’s fat, but in the translation we have “the fatness of the earth,” a very different thing.

Turning over to p. 2, we find this sentence: “Thereupon the mountains stood firm, the stars were scattered above, and the inanimate beings spread and

multiplied.” This sentence, as the Chinese text shows, ought to begin a new paragraph. It means something like this: “Thereupon men of eminence appeared

occasionally, and man spread rapidly.”4 The author has come down in his review

of man’s history to the time when great men appeared here and there and from time

to time, and when men had grown and spread so much as to have ninety-six different creeds of philosophy and religion. That Dr. Takakusu translates han-ling, intelligent creatures, that is, man, by “inanimate beings,” must be by a slip of the

pen. 3 The original is .

4 The text is . I quote from the new Japanese edition of the Chinese Buddhist Books.

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Passing over many very interesting passages which are generally rendered fairly

well, we come to chap. xiii. The title of this chapter is given by the translator as “Consecrated Grounds,” a phrase which at once arrests our attention. The Chinese

is Chie-Ching-ti-fa ( ), or “The methods of determining clean sites (or grounds).” By “clean sites” is meant grounds which the Buddhist brethren might lawfully use, and Chie is the technical term used to render the Sanskrit word for

appoint, determine, establish, Here, however, the term Ching-ti is used to translate

the Sanskrit Kalpya (in Pāli, Kappiya) bhūmi, which also means lawful site. It has

also the derived and technical sense of a monastic kitchen or storeroom. In other places I-Ching, instead of clean sites, uses the phrases clean kitchen and clean kitchen-grounds. According to the Mahāvagga of the Pāli Vinaya, the

Kappiyabhūmi was a vihāra outside the Arāma in which food could be kept and

cooked, and drugs stored for use without violating the precepts. The kitchen (or store) on the site chosen could be a vihāra, or a large or small house, or a cave.

According to I-Ching, there were five (according to the Pāli Vinaya, four) kinds of

“clean sites.” The first is called Ch‘i-hsin-tso ( ), which our translator renders “the ground consecrated by an individual’s vow of building a monastery on

the spot.” But the words mean simply “made from an expression of mind (or intention),” and the phrase is explained. At the erection of a monastery, if the

Brother superintending, as soon as the stone foundations are laid, should utter his mind thus—“This vihāra or house is to be the clean kitchen for the brethren,” that

place becomes a clean site. The second kind is that determined by the action of not

less than three Bhikshus. The third kind of “clean site “is called Ju-niu-wo, “Like

an ox lying asleep.” There is no fixed position for the doors in the buildings on

such sites, and the buildings are “like an ox lying down”; no formal ceremony is used for such sites, the place making the site lawful. The sentence in italics is in

Dr. Takakusu’s version—“Such a building, though it has never been consecrated

by a rite, is considered pure (sacred).”5 But the author’s meaning is that no rite is

required, and the site, not the building, is considered clean of itself. This phrase

“ox lying-down site” apparently represents the Pāli gonisādika which Mr. Rhys

Davids translates ox-stall. But I-Ching was evidently taught to use the word in its

literal sense of “ox lying-down.” And a site with this name is well known in China as a very lucky one, especially for a parent’s grave. It is a quiet sheltered nook

generally on the lower slope of a hill, and a well-sheltered spot is perhaps all that is meant by gonisādika and “like an ox lying down.” The fourth site is that of an

abandoned vihāra, and the fifth is one set apart by a formal act.

5 The Chinese is (read )

34

When there is a “clean ground” set apart in any of these five ways the brethren

have the twofold enjoyment of “cooking within and storing without, and storing within and cooking without.” Here the words within and without refer to the limits

of the brethren’s establishment. In the rest of this chapter the important word for boundary or limit occurs several times, and Mr. Takakusu either leaves it

untranslated or renders it wrongly by “spot” or “place.” Thus he translates wei-chie-i-chie ( ), if the boundaries as to garments have not been determined, by “without consecrating the place to protect the purity of one’s garments.” Then the phrase hu-su ( ) is rendered by “protecting the sleeping

place (against any evils),” but it means “to observe the rules as to spending a

night.” Again, the words hu-i·chi-fa-chie are translated “in the lawful spots for

protecting the purity of garments,” instead of “as to the boundaries for the observance of formal acts as to garments.” The author adds that there are trees and

other objects to mark the boundaries, and he does not say as in Mr. Takakusu’s translation “there are differences between the places under trees (or in a village),

etc.” Space is limited, and I must be content to refer to only one more matter in this very interesting book. At pages 158, 181, and 186, we have mention of a great

Buddhist poet and philosopher. Mr. Takakusu writes the name of this man Jina, and the Chinese characters are Ch‘ên-na ( ). The origin of this identification is

to be found in M. Julien’s “Mémoires,” etc., vol. ii, p. 106 and note. M. Julien

afterwards discovered that he had here made a mistake, and wished to have the note on the word expunged. But the wrong identification of the word has remained.

The P. W. took it up and gives Jina as a Buddhist philosopher; Beal, Eitel, Bunyio, Chavannes, with childlike simplicity, all accepted it, and Kern and others followed

their example.

Now the word Jina occurs both in the Records of Yuan-chuang and in his Life,

and neither there nor in any other place is it transcribed by the above characters. What was the value of the first of these characters should have been well known to

Julien from its frequent occurrence in Indian proper names. Thus, in the name of the great disciple Ajnātā-Kaundinya (in Pāli, Kondiñña) the syllable din is

commonly transcribed by this character now read Ch‘ên, but formerly

pronounced din. Thus we get Dinna as the name of the great author in question.

That this was the sound given by Yuan-chuang, is plain from the Life and the Records. In the former the name is translated by Shou ( ), which like dinna means

given. In the Records the name is translated by Tung-shou, given by the youth, that

is, inspired by Manjuśri Kumāra-bhūta. But this interpretation of the name is

fanciful and must be abandoned. Now we learn that Ch‘ên-na is short for Ch‘ên-na-ka, that is Dinnaka, the Sanskrit Diṅnāga. Then Yuan-chuang and I-Ching

represent Dinna as a great writer on the science of causes, Yin-ming, but no book

on this subject is to be found among those under Dinna’s name in the Catalogue of

35

Buddhist Books. If, however, we turn to this Catalogue (see Bunyio, Nos. 1223,

1224) we find a book entitled “Yin-ming-chêng-li-mên-lun” ascribed to an author called “Ta-yü-lung-P‘usa,” that is, Great District Dragon P‘usa. Now “District

Dragon, is in Sanskrit Diṅnāga, “Elephant of the quarters,” the Din-na-ka of the

Chinese transcription. Mr. Takakusu, not having noticed Nanyio’s correction, wrongly gives Nāgārjuna as the author of the above treatise. Now we find this

treatise ascribed to Dinna, and it is evidently the sixth of the eight books by him on

philosophy according to I-Ching’s enumeration. Thus the Dinna of our author and other Chinese writers is evidently the Dignāga of Wassiljew’s Der Buddhismus

and Schiefner’s Tāranātha and the Diṅnāga of Hindu philosophy. He was a

Brahman by birth, but was converted to Buddhism by Nāgadatta; he was a hymn-

writer, scholar, and dialectician, a disciple of Vasubandhu and an opponent of Kapila’s system, a Yogist, and a Mahāyānist in Buddhism. He was evidently a man

of great distinction and celebrity, and he is generally cited as Dinna P‘usa.

TW

36

Ancient Texts, Pāli, Sanskrit & Sinhalese

1894 The Megha Dūta. by Kālidāsa, by T. B. Pāṇabokke.

1895 Jinālankara. by Buddha-rakkhita.

1896 Dhātu-Attha-Dīpanī. by Hingulwala Jina-ratana.

1896 Buddhism in Translations. by Henry Clarke Warren

1896 The Jātaka, together with its Commentary. by V. Fausböll.

1898 Le Mahavastu. by Emile Senart

1898 Etymologie des Singhalesischen, by Wilhelm Geiger

1898 Ceylon Tagebuchblatter und Reise errinnerungen, by Wilhelm Geiger.

1899 Philosophie der Upanishads. by Dr. Paul Deussen.

1899 Mahābharata. by Romesh C. Dutt.

1899 Lieder der Mönche und Nonnen Gotamo Buddho’s; by Karl Eugen

Neumann.

1901 Rāṣṭrapāla Paripṛcha, publié. by L. Finot.

1902 Student’s Pali Series by The Rev. H. H. Tilbe.

1902 Pali und Sanskrit. By Dr. R. Otto Franke.

1902 Satvotpatti Viniscaya and Nirvāna Vibhāga. by M. Dharmaratna.

1904 Saṃyutta Nikāya Gāthā Sannaya. by Sūriyagoḍa Sumangala Bhikkhu

1905 Dīpavaṃsa und Mahāvaṃsa. by Wilhelm Geiger

THE MEGHA DŪTA BY KĀLIDĀSA WITH A SINHALESE PARAPHRASE. Edited by THE

HON. T. B. PĀṆABOKKE, M.R.A.S., C.B. (Colombo, 1894, pp. xvi. and 86.)

Mr. William Gunatilaka, of Kandy, discovered there, shortly before his death, at the Oriental Library, the unique MS. of this interesting work. It is an ancient

Sanna, or word-for-word commentary on the famous work of Kālidāsa and is of some importance, firstly by reason of the curious readings it sometimes gives in

difficult passages of the poem, and secondly by the evidence which it affords of the kind of knowledge of Sanskrit possessed by Ceylon paṇḍits. On the first point a

full selection is here given of the various readings—W standing for the reading of Wilson’s well-known Calcutta edition of the poem (1813), and P for the readings

given from the unique Ceylon MS. by the present editor. On the second point it is

37

noteworthy that the grammatical notes depend, not on Pāṇini, but on some other

grammar or grammars. The editor states, in a private note, that he hopes to treat fully of the conclusions that may be drawn from this fact after he has been able to

ascertain with greater exactitude what are actually the sources from which these rules, not found in Pāṇini, are actually quoted.

It is of especial interest to find one of the most distinguished descendants of the ancient chieftains of the beautiful island so long renowned for its scholarship both

able and willing to devote his time to so careful an edition of a difficult Sanskrit text, and of the no less difficult ancient Sinhalese commentary upon it. And we

trust that his further consideration of the historical results to be drawn from the commentary will not be too long delayed.

TW

JINĀLANKARA by BUDDHA-RAKKHITA. Edition with Introduction, Notes, and Translation by James Gray. 8vo, pp. 112. (London: Luzac, 1894.)

This little Pāli poem of 250 stanzas is a very interesting and curious production. The editor accepts, without question, the tradition (for which he gives no authority)

that ascribes to the author the astounding date of 426 B.C. But the poem, if such it can be called, is a series of puzzles and tours de force in Pāli based on the legend

of Buddha, and incorporating all the latest phases of it. It must be later, therefore,

than any of the works in which that legend is set forth in gradually growing absurdity. And the only safe course is to argue from the fact that Buddhadatta, the

cotemporary of Buddhaghosa, wrote the only existing commentary upon it, that it must be at least as old as the fourth century of our era. Even so it is interesting, as

probably the oldest specimen in Pāli of this kind of literary bad taste. Its sole importance is the light it can thus shed on the history of Indian literature; for it has

no beauty of style, nor does it contribute anything to our knowledge of Buddhism. One line reads—

Namo tassa yato mahimato yassa tamo na,

which is very forced as Pāli, but has the supposed excellent advantage of being

able to be read either backwards or forwards. So verse 105 (comp. Kirātārjunīya xv, 14) runs—

Nonānino nanūnāni nanenāni nanānino

Nunnānenāni nunā na nānanaṃ nānanena no,

which, as Pāli, is abominable, but is a very pretty trick with its n’s only and its vowels. With the help of the commentator it is possible to puzzle out some sort of a

38

meaning. Then we have a verse of four lines, each containing the same letters, but

having four quite different meanings; and rhyming verses of many sorts, and alliterative puzzles of various kinds. It is really very ingenious, and it is good to

have a correct edition of it; and the translation loosely reproduces Buddhadatta’s solutions of the various puzzles. It is a pity the editor has not compared his

author’s work with the corresponding efforts in Sanskrit, which are usually placed a century or more later.

TW

DHĀTU-ATTHA-DĪPANĪ. By HINGULWALA JINA-RATANA. (Colombo: Lak Riwi Kiraṇa Press, 1896. Price 2 Rupees.)

This volume, of nearly 200 pages 8vo, contains, firstly, a rearrangement in metrical form of the roots mentioned in Aggavansa’s Sadda-nīti, a Pāli grammar

written in Pāli in Burma in the thirteenth century (pp. 1–41). This is followed in its turn by an alphabetical list of all the roots dealt with in this metrical

rearrangement; and for each root we have in parallel columns—(1) the initial letter of the class to which it belongs according to Aggavansa’s system; (2) the number

of derivations from the root; (3 and 4) its meaning explained in Pāli and Sinhalese; and (5) the third person singular of the present tense; all in Sinhalese characters. In

a separate line below we then have—(1) the same root again; (2) its meaning in English; and (3) the third person singular of the present tense: all in English

characters.

Aggavansa’s work is itself independent of the two great classes into which Pāli

works on Pāli grammar may be divided (according as to whether they follow the school of Kaccāyana or that of Moggallāna), and is much used both in Burma and

Ceylon.

In Subhūti’s Nāma-Mālā (Colombo, 1877) we have a careful account

(unfortunately in Sinhalese, with copious quotations, however, in Pāli) of sixty-four works on Pāli grammar in Pāli, arranged according to their historical

connection. It is to be regretted that no European scholar has yet taken up this interesting question. But the present volume will be useful to those students of

Sanskrit and Pāli lexicography who have not familiarized themselves either with the Sinhalese alphabet or with the history of grammatical studies as carried on in

the Buddhist order.

TW

39

BUDDHISM IN TRANSLATIONS. By HENRY CLARKE WARREN.

Large 8vo, pp. xxv and 520. (Cambridge, Mass., 1896.)

In this volume, published by the Harvard University as vol. iii of the “Harvard

Oriental Series,” we may welcome at the same time a fresh instance of the valuable work done in this series by the Harvard University, and a work in itself of great

interest and undoubted usefulness. The volume consists of an introduction, five chapters, an appendix, and a capital index. The Introduction gives a slight account

of the Pāli books from which the translations in this volume have been made. Chapter i gives translations of twelve selected passages on the life of the Buddha,

chapter ii of twenty-five such passages on Sentient Existence, chapter iii of nineteen such passages on Karma and Rebirth, chapter iv of twenty-three such

passages on Meditation and Nirvāna, and chapter v of twenty-three such passages on the Buddhist Order. The passages selected vary a good deal in length, the

average length being about four pages; and they include extracts, not only from the Sacred Books, but also from the commentaries written upon them. The student of

Buddhism will be able to judge from the above what is the contents of this handsome volume, which is offered for the very low price of only five shillings.

In the selection of passages for such an anthology, probably no two scholars would exactly agree. Dr. Karl Neumann, who published his somewhat similar

“Buddhistiche Anthologie” some years ago, confined himself to the sacred texts themselves. But within that limit he often hit upon the same passages as have been

selected by Mr. Warren. That is evidence enough that these passages, at least, are really of fundamental importance; for the present author seems to have made both

his selections and his translations independently of previous workers in the same field, if one may judge from the fact that he never mentions the previous translator

of any passage he has himself now again translated. And in the other cases, though anyone familiar with the literature might suggest other passages of equal

importance, he would find it difficult to make what would be a better choice on the whole. It is on this matter of choice that the usefulness of the book (with one

exception, to be presently mentioned) depends. There must be many readers interested in Buddhism, who have not time to read many volumes of translations in

order to make selections for themselves, and who at the same time are not wholly satisfied with any modern interpretation. To them such a volume as the present will

especially appeal.

Scholars who would go themselves to the originals will welcome this book for

the sake of the exception above referred to. That is the inclusion among the selections of copious extracts, now for the first time rendered into English, from

the famous work of Buddhaghosa, the Visuddhi Magga or Path of Purity. Mr. Warren is known to have been engaged for some time on an edition in the English

40

character of this important text, which, though printed in Ceylon in the Sinhalese

character, is still practically inaccessible to European scholars. They will read with the greatest interest the extracts now given, and not least the very useful lists given

in the appendix. And on reading them they will look forward with increased expectation to the publication of Mr. Warren’s edition.

Besides these extracts from Buddhaghosa, there are a number of difficult and important passages on Buddhism here translated for the first time. It would be a

great improvement if, in a second edition, reference could be given, under each section translated, to former versions where such exist; also if, throughout, the use

of a few Western and distinctively Christian words could be replaced by other expressions which do not suggest erroneous connotations. ‘Priestly,’ ‘ordination,’

‘monk,’ ‘monastery,’ etc., have acquired special meanings which by no means exactly cover the Buddhist use of the words thus rendered. The monk with the

umbrella, too, cannot fail to suggest ridicule by making us think of a curate with a “garup.” And the object in question happens also, after all, to be not an umbrella,

but a sunshade. So ‘body-servant’ (pp. 97, 99) is an odd translation of the upaṭṭhāka, who acted, it is true, as a personal attendant on the Buddha, but who

was always regarded as a highly privileged person, through whom alone access to the Buddha was obtainable, who, of course, received no wages, was a full member

of the Order, and occupied no such menial position as ‘bodyservant’ would imply.

‘Fanatical conduct’ for sīlabbata (pp. 190, 205, etc.) is more than odd. No doubt

early Buddhism objects to fanatical conduct. But the expression sīlabbata refers

not to that, but to the reliance placed by the Brahman ascetics on works of supererogation as a sufficient means of salvation. That belief is condemned by

Buddhism, which put salvation in a state of mind, in Arahatahip, and not in any outward acts.

On p. 165 a translation is given from a quotation at Saṃyutta III, 134, of a passage occurring before at II, 17. The original passage is not referred to, which is

the greater pity, as it contains an important difference of reading. So at p. 222 no mention is made of the fact that the same story occurs in the first volume of the

Jātaka, p. 125, already translated by Mr. Chalmers. On p. 148 there is given, among a list of sources of sorrow, ‘fear of danger from naked ascetics.’ The Pāli is

ājīvika-bhaya, which simply means ‘anxiety as to means of livelihood.’ It is true

that ājīvaka (with an a, not an i) means a class of ascetics, but a reference to the

Sīlas, or to Majjhima I, 85, 86, shows that there is really no doubt about the meaning of ājīvika.

A point of considerable importance is the constant rendering (see pp. 98, 109, 223, 380, 420, 482) of parinibbāyati by ‘passes into Nirvāna.’ It is sufficiently

clear, from pp. 114, 163, and other passages, that the translator is quite aware of

41

the only meaning of Nirvāna—that is to say, a state of mind to be reached and

enjoyed in this life. How, then, can he also use the term Nirvāna to designate a state beyond the grave? And yet what else can the English phrase that a man, at

death, ‘passes into Nirvāna,’ mean? The Pāli for that phrase would be Nibbānaṃ adhigacchati—words that would only be used to express that a living man had

reached the state of mind called Nirvāna. It is true that the version here objected to

has been used in nearly all English books on Buddhism, being, in fact, an old Anglo-Indian blunder which arose in a time when Nirvāna was supposed to refer

exclusively to the next life. But its use now only serves to perpetuate an error which will be hard enough to eradicate, however careful scholars may be to

confine its use within the strictly accurate limits.

A list of the passages translated would add to the value of the volume and will,

we hope, be added in a future edition. And with this last suggestion we beg to recommend the book to all our readers interested in Buddhism, and to congratulate

Mr. Warren very cordially on the completion of his work.

TW

THE JĀTAKA, TOGETHER WITH ITS COMMENTARY. By V. FAUSBÖLL.

8vo, pp. 600. (London: Kegan Paul & Co., 1896.)

We heartily congratulate Professor Fausböll on the completion in this volume of

the admirable edition of the 547 Buddhist Jātaka Tales, on which he has spent so many years of useful and arduous labour. He states in the few words of preface that

he looks upon his edition as a provisional one, and no doubt all our editions of Pāli texts must be provisional. The study of the language, being so recent in origin, has

not been carried far enough to enable the editor to decide even on which is the best of the readings preserved in the MSS. he has to work on. And we may fairly hope,

as the years go by, to procure better and older MSS. But among the Pāli texts that have so far appeared—and the number of volumes now amounts to fifty—this

particular work is not only one of the very best, but from the nature of its contents is particularly valuable from the point of view of Pāli syntax and lexicography. We

are glad to see that there is to be another volume to contain an essay—a kind of prolegomena in the form of a post-scriptum by the editor—and an index of names

by his friend Dr. Dines Andersen. We have had the advantage of seeing advance

proofs of the first sheets of this index, and can announce that it will be specially full and valuable.

The actual contents of this volume are the last ten stories, including some of the most famous, such as the Ummagga, Sāma, Vidhūra, and Vessantara. Translations

42

from the Burmese of the second and third of these four have lately appeared in our

Journal, from the pen of Mr. St. John, and our readers will recollect that they have much more of the form of novelettes than of the usual fable or birth story. This is

still more the case with the remaining ones. The Pāli text of the Ummagga fills 150 of Professor Fausböll’s large pages in the Pāli, and an English translation of it

would probably occupy about 400 pages of this Journal; and the Vessantara is nearly as long.

Meanwhile the Cambridge scheme for translating the whole work is making promising progress. Two volumes have already appeared in print, and two others

are in preparation. And it will not be long before we have this invaluable collection of old-world stories, of all sorts and sizes, accessible to the European scholar, both

in Pāli and in English.

It will be scarcely necessary now to point out the great value of this work—not

only the oldest, most authentic, and most complete collection of ancient folklore in the world, but a veritable mine of information for anyone who studies the home

life, the social customs and institutions, the daily habits, and common beliefs of the peoples of India; and for Pāli students it is simply indispensable.

TW

LE MAHAVASTU, texte sanscrit, publié pour la premiere fois par ÉMILE SENART. Three volumes, 8vo. (Paris, 1882, 1890, 1897. Printed at the National Press by

Government authority for the Société Asiatique.)

It is a very great pleasure to be able to congratulate the Government of France,

the Freuch Asiatic Society, and, above all, the distinguished author himself, on the completion of this splendid work.

It is not only the editio princeps of a book of historical importance, it is the first

critical edition we have of any one of the numerous books which may be conveniently grouped together as Buddhist Sanskrit literature.

The book calls itself, at the end (3. 461), “the Sri Mahāvastu Avadāna according to the recension of the Lokottara-vādins belonging to the Ārya-mahā-sānghikas”;

and just after the beginning (at 1. 2) it adds that this school was of the Madhya Desa, or Middle Country.

This refers, of course, not to the district so called by the Brahmins, but to the district further down the valley of the Ganges to the south-east so called by

Buddhists. The book is not, therefore, a Northern text, except in the very limited sense that the six modern MSS. on which the edition is based come, all of them,

43

from Nepal. It claims to have been composed, and originally used, in a district

which may be roughly described as stretching from Lucknow eastward to the western confines of Bengal Proper—a district it would be quite inaccurate to

describe either as Northern or as Southern. It is simply the Central district, the one from which all the old Buddhist texts, whether Pāli or Sanskrit, claim alike to

come. The book itself, the dialect used in it, the opinions it puts forth, the legends its authors believed in, are Central—or East-Central, if it be desirable to

distinguish between the two districts called Central by the Brahmins and the Buddhists respectively.

And should it be asked: “Why be so clear and emphatic on a point on which all are agreed?” the answer is that the use of the terms Northern and Southern as

applied, not to the MSS., but to the books themselves, or the Buddhism they teach, is the source of most serious misunderstanding. It inevitably leads careless writers

to suppose that we have, historically, to consider two Buddhisms, and two only, one manufactured in Nepal, the other in Ceylon. Now this is admittedly wrong.

What we have to consider is Buddhism varying through slight degrees, as the centuries pass by, in almost every book. We may call it one, or we may call it

many. What is quite certain is that it is not two. And the most useful distinction to emphasize is not the ambiguous and misleading geographical one, derived from the

places where the MSS. come from; nor even, though that would be better, the linguistic one: it is the chronological one.

The work under review, for instance, the Sublime Story, as we might freely render its title, stands in much closer relationship to the Suttas, preserved in Pāli,

the modern MSS. of which come from Burma, or Siam, or Ceylon, than it does to the “Lotus of the Good Law,” written in Sanskrit, the MSS. of which come from

Nepal. Like the Pāli books, it belongs to what the later Sanskrit books call the “Lesser Vehicle,” the Hina Yāna. The views of its authors on ethics, on religion,

on philosophy, come in, of course, only incidentally. They are here writing, not on Buddhism, but on the life-history of the Buddha. But wherever those views do

appear, they differ only slightly from the corresponding views in the Pāli, whereas they differ altogether, move in a quite different circle, from the views which

dominate the Lotus, belonging as it does to the so-called Greater Vehicle—the Mahā Yāna.

The Sublime Story that it tells is not so much the actual life in this world of the founder of Buddhism, nor the history of the faith. It is the story of how the truth

was won; how the Buddha became a Buddha. Practically it amounts to a life of Gotama from the remote ages when he met Dīpankara down to the thirty-sixth year

of his life as Gotama. It contains the same episodes and the same story as we have in the Pāli in the Nidāna, the Introduction to the Commentary on the Jātaka Stories.

44

The difference is that the Jātaka commentator, knowing that the Jātaka will all

come on afterwards in the book, gives the story of Gotama’s life from the time when he met Dīpankara, many ages ago, down to a few weeks after his attainment

of Buddhahood, without introducing any Jātaka tales. The author of the Sublime Story, having no such reserve, introduces his Jātaka stories as he goes along, after

the episode which they are supposed to illustrate. As only a certain number of the 550 Jātakas are connected with those episodes in the actual life chosen for insertion

in the Sublime Story, the others are naturally omitted; and some not included in the collection of 550 are also added. It would be very interesting to have a table of the

episodes in the Mahā Vastu beginning with Dīpankara, with a column of parallel passages; and, separately, a table of the Jātakas and legends inserted, by way of

illustration, between those episodes, with a similar column for parallel passages.

The task of arranging the Buddhist books known to us in chronological order

must remain difficult, and uncertain in its results, until the whole of at least the older texts are made accessible to scholars. We shall then be able to compare the

various ideas expressed, and in many instances to say, with practical certainty, that this or that is developed out of the other. The clearest cases will be those in which

a name, or a technical term, comes into play. We shall then have a kind of chronological table of ideas according to which the books, in which they occur,

will group themselves.

Take such a case, for instance, as the mention of Sukhāvatī (Mahā Vastu, 3.

462). We may conclude for certain that the colophon in which it occurs must have been written after the time when the belief in the existence of this particular

heaven, as a blessed state to which all men should aspire, had become part of Buddhism. It is admittedly not part of the belief of the early Buddhists. We don’t

know exactly when or where or how the idea arose. But any passage in which it is put forth bears thereby a mark of its comparative date.

The Vedas, in Buddhist belief, were once three, and afterwards became four by the addition of the Atharva. Any mention of the Atharva as a Veda, or any clear

mention of four Vedas, is another mark. The Jhānas, once four, became five, by the division of the second into two. The mention of five Jhānas is another mark. The

Sankhāras, once defined vaguely and generally by a well-known standing phrase, were afterwards defined categorically by a long list of the predispositions included

in the term. The presence of this list is another mark. Professor Windisch, in his masterly monograph on Māra, has given us at least one, if not two, others; the

theories of the Pāramitās, of the Ten Bhūmis, of the Four Truths, of the Eightfold Path, of the Four Visions (that appeared to the Bodsat), and many other ideas, give

us similar marks.

45

Such marks differ, of course, in value, and have the advantage (or is it a

disadvantage?) of requiring for their critical use a somewhat serious and detailed study of Buddhistic ideas. But where they are found in any one book in sufficient

number, all pointing towards the same conclusion, that conclusion may be accepted as a working hypothesis.

Judging from some of the above and other similar marks—and there is almost nothing else, except the dialect, to judge by—the Mahā Vastu seems to be of about

the same age as the Milinda, and older than any other Sanskrit Buddhist text—there are only three or four—of which we know enough to venture on

comparisons. The only possible exception is the Lalita Vistara, which deals with the same portion of Gotama’s last life on earth as is dealt with in the Mahā Vastu,

but omits almost all reference to his previous births. It would be very interesting to have a detailed comparison of these two early Sanskrit Buddhist works on so

nearly the same subject.

One of the most curious details in the present work is the fact that it claims to

belong to the Vinaya. We have always hitherto understood Vinaya to mean “discipline, rules of the Order, Canon Law.” There is nothing of that kind here.

When the Buddhist Community had lasted long enough for the want of a life of its founder to become felt, the further question arose as to which of the three Piṭakas it

should be included in. The decision, at least among the Lokottara-vādins, was to put it, as a kind of preliminary note, to the Vinaya, the rules of the Order—on the

ground, no doubt, that it gave an explanation of how the Order came to be founded. But it is odd to find that these three bulky volumes are the introduction only to a

work, now lost, on a quite different subject. We have only had space to hint at one or two of the numerous problems of historical importance and interest raised by a

perusal of the Mahā Vastu. Fortunately, the distinguished scholar to whom we owe this admirable edition promises us a supplementary volume, in which such

questions can be discussed at greater length and at greater leisure than they could have been in the present publication. It is needless to say with what eagerness all

Indianists will look forward to such a series of essays coming from such a hand. Meanwhile this great work, with its magnificent index and its numerous careful

notes, will be the daily manual and guide of those scholars engaged in the edition of the other Buddhist Sanskrit works now being brought out by scholars in all parts

of Europe through the enlightened generosity of the St. Petersburg Academy. We put our questions to scholars now, not so much by personal intercourse, as by

consulting the works which give us their considered opinions. And it is sober truth to say of the author of a work like this, as Sonadaṇḍa, the Brahmin, said of Gotama

(saṅghī gaṇī gaṇācariyo), that “students come across the continent, through many lands, to put questions to him, the teacher of the teachers of many.”

46

ETYMOLOGIE DES SINGHALESISCHEN, von WILHELM GEIGER. Proceedings of the

Royal Academy of Bavaria. Large 8vo; pp. 100. (Münich: Franz & Co., 1898.)

CEYLON TAGEBUCHBLÄTTER UND REISE ERRINNERUNGEN, von WILHELM GEIGER.

8vo; pp. 212. (Wiesbaden: Kreidel, 1898.)

In the first of the above publications by the able and versatile Professor of Indo-

European languages at the University of Erlangen, he has made a considerable step towards a scientific treatment of the language of Ceylon. It is the first fruits of the

special journey he undertook to that beautiful island in order to gather, on the spot, materials for his forthcoming monograph on the Ceylon Language and Literature

to be published in Bühler’s “Grundriss.” And very pleasant are the anticipations it raises of the future results we may expect from that journey, of which he has also

published so interesting an account in the second volume named above.

Our members will recollect the very valuable papers contributed to this Journal

by the late Professor Childers in 1876 and 1877 on the Sanskrit origin of Sinhalese. Professor Ernst Kuhn in 1879 and Professor Eduard Müller during the years 1880–

82 carried the investigation further. But these papers are all of a fragmentary nature, and do not even attempt to deal at large with the very important historical

results which may be expected from a full study of the language and the literature of the Sinhalese. Professor Geiger has now set himself resolutely to the task of

dealing with these questions as a whole; and his present treatise on the etymology of Sinhalese gives us every hope that it will at last be adequately and thoroughly

dealt with.

It is not easy to explain the neglect with which this interesting language has been

treated. The records of the Sinhalese language, both in books and in inscriptions, go back much further than those of any other Indian Prakrit. The level of general

culture, and of literary effort, in Ceylon, has always been very high. Since the more learned among the Sinhalese began to write in their spoken language also, as well

as in Pāli, there has been a constant succession of literary productions of a high class. And though there are no books extant of an earlier date than the ninth or

tenth century, there are inscriptions going back at least to the third, if not earlier. We have, therefore, a long series of documents from which the gradual evolution

of the dialect and the history of the literature can be very fully traced out—longer, indeed, than is the case, for instance, with English.

One reason why these valuable records have not been hitherto utilized is the want

of texts. Since the English took possession of the island the patronage extended so

often by the native kings to literature and scholarship has practically ceased.

Whereas the home Government issues a magnificent series of editions of ancient

47

texts dealing with the former condition of the country, the Ceylon Government has

hitherto printed only one, the well-known chronicle called the Mahāvaṃsa, and

that is in Pāli, not in Sinhalese. And the only Sinhalese text so far printed in

Europe is my Yogāvacara Manual issued last year—and that, too, is so full of Pāli

quotations that they occupy about half the book. What is, therefore, most urgently

wanted is a series of the ancient texts properly edited by competent scholars with

suitable introduction and notes. Such a project cannot be carried out by private

enterprise. It would be impossible for any publisher to recoup the expenses

required. It would redound to the credit of any Government in Ceylon who should

do for the ancient literature of that island what the Record Office publications have

done so well for the corresponding texts in England.

TW

ALLGEMEINE GESCHICHTE DER PHILOSOPHIE. VOL. I, PART 2. PHILOSOPHIE DER

UPANISHADS. Von DR. PAUL DEUSSEN. 8vo; pp. xii and 368. (Leipzig:

Brockhaus, 1899. Price 9s.)

In this volume the Upanishads have the good fortune of being treated by an

enthusiastic admirer, whose sympathy with their philosophic position has led him to devote a careful study to the texts in their original language, and who unites to a

thorough knowledge of European philosophy a strict training in the rules of historical criticism. Had the work been written by a professor of philology instead

of by a professor of philosophy it would, no doubt, have been very different. The passages on which the principal stress is here laid might then have loomed less

largely than other passages here passed over as if of little moment. A selection in either case would be inevitable; and what we have here is a complete statement of

the Upanishad theory of God and of the soul. To the first, the theology, ten chapters are devoted; to the second, four; and there are supplementary chapters on

the views expressed in the Upanishads as to transmigration, salvation, and ethics; and a very interesting introductory discussion of the relative age of the various

texts.

Throughout the book the question of the course of the development of the

different doctrines discussed is kept constantly before the reader’s attention. And in this respect the views put forward by the author are characterized by so much

caution, and at the same time by so much insight, and supported by so many details, that they will probably be accepted, in the main, by all future writers on the

subject. The conclusions reached are a distinct contribution to our knowledge of the question; and it will be advisable, shortly, to set out the final result.

48

The oldest of the Upanishads, which are also the longest and are in prose,

consist, each of them, of a mosaic of passages different in age and origin. It is only possible, therefore, in a very general way, and subject to special reservations, to

speak of any one of them as a whole. But subject to this the Brihadāraṇyaka is the oldest (and especially Books I–IV), the Chāndogya comes next, then the Taittirīya,

Aitareya, Kaushītakī, and Kena, in the order here given. All these are pre-Buddhistic, and the oldest passages in them are some centuries older than the most

modern.

After Buddhism we have the Kāṭhaka, Īśā, Śvetāśvatara, Muṇḍaka, and Mahā-

nārāyaṇa, all in verse. And to this period probably belong some of the metrical passages, especially those of greater length, in the prose works of the last group,

which in the main are older.

Younger than this second group we have a third small group—the Praśna.

Maitrāyanīya, and Māṇḍūkya, written, in prose, but in a prose very evidently much later than that used in the Upanishads of the first group.

It is these fourteen Upanishads of which the philosophic contents is set out in the present volume. The other, still later ones, are only incidentally mentioned. And

matter not philosophical—that is, not relating either to the Brahman or to the Ātman—is very properly omitted. The very interesting discussion as to the origin

of the Sānkhya system out of the older Upanishads comes under the head of their philosophical teaching; and so also do all the questions discussed in the

supplementary chapters.

Of the many grotesque, naïve, even superstitious ideas, which find utterance in

these crabbed old texts, the present work takes little or no notice, and seeing that the work has been written from the point of view, not of folklore, not of the history

of ideas, but of the history of philosophy, it would be unfair to expect that it should.

The initial position of the author is (p. 42) that the main points in all religions are: 1, the existence of God; 2, the immortality of the soul; 3, the freedom of the

will. And that those three points can only be safeguarded by the idealistic philosophy to which the older Upanishads give so deep and so subtle an

expression. How can the former part of this proposition be reconciled with Buddhism? or is that not a religion? And if the word God is to have the meaning of

the Brahman, how can the proposition be reconciled with Confucianism, or even with the ancient faiths of Greece, or Egypt, and the Euphrates Valley. By a

universal consensus of usage all these are called ‘religions’; and it would seem rather hard to set up such a definition of religion as would exclude them all.

49

The author expresses several times the opinion that in their most essential tenets

the thinkers of the Upanishads are at one with a certain line of European thinkers, roughly indicated by the names Parmenides, Plato, Kant, Schopenhauer. This

would seem to require some modification. Schopenhauer, at all events, distinctly stated that, if he were to judge all systems by his own, the Buddhist would be the

best. Surely Schopenhauer, who was also an enthusiastic admirer of the Upanishads, would not have made such a statement without good cause. It would

seem that, in his opinion, the philosophy underlying the Upanishad theories of God and the soul can be held without holding those theories themselves. Now to most

readers the Upanishads, apart from the Brahman and Ātman theories, would be rather like the play of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet left out.

Neither of these propositions are essential to the purpose of the work, which is to expound the philosophy of the Upanishads. That is done throughout with so

much care, with so much scholarship, with such admirable insight, that the present work will be simply indispensable to every student who wishes to rightly

understand and adequately appreciate these precious legacies of ancient Indian thought. We have had nothing like it before. In a hundred details of importance the

author’s rich knowledge has enabled him to throw unexpected light on dark phrases. He brings out with great skill the really essential points. On such questions

as the origin of the Sānkhya school; on the doctrine of salvation; on the part played by the nobles (rather than the priests) in working out the most vital portions of the

Upanishad theory; on the distinction between the ascetic and the recluse; on the origin and growth of the transmigration idea; on the relation of the older

Upanishads to the younger ones, and of both to the later Vedanta—we have dissuasions of the greatest interest; and it is quite safe to say that we have new light

on each. It would be obviously impossible within the limits of this short notice to set out in detail, exactly in how far the author’s views on such points go beyond

those of his predecessors. And it would be so far undesirable, as everyone should himself read this fascinating volume, of which we hope soon to see a translation

into English.

The previous part dealt with the philosophy of the Vedas and Brāhmaṇas. The

succeeding part will deal with Buddhism. It would add greatly to the usefulness of each part if indices, at least of the Sanskrit words elucidated, had been added. We

much hope that this want may be made good in the next part.

TW

50

MAHĀBHARATA. THE EPIC OF ANCIENT INDIA, condensed into English Verse by

ROMESH C. DUTT, C.I.E. 12mo; pp. 190. (London: Dent.)

This is an attempt to give in English verse, and in a small compass, such an

epitome of the national poem of India as would be likely to convey to English readers a fair idea of the character of the poem. The author says (in the Epilogue, p.

175) of the Mahā Bharata :—

“The work went on growing for a thousand years after it was first compiled and

put together in the form of an epic; until the crystal rill of the epic itself was all but lost in an unending morass of religious and didactic episodes, legends, tales, and

traditions . . . . Nevertheless the leading incidents and characters of the old epic are still discernible uninjured by the mass of foreign substance in which they are now

imbedded—like those immortal figures, recovered from the ruins of an ancient world, which now beautify the museums of Europe.”

The author has accordingly rendered, in a free translation, not an abstract of certain passages, but the whole of such passages as seemed to him to contain the

very gist of the original epic. There is only one exception. The eighteen days' battle undoubtedly belonged to the original story. But it is too long in the Sanskrit for the

purpose of this little book. That episode has accordingly been greatly condensed. All the rest of the story is told in consecutive lines, just as they stand in the

original.

The metre selected is the metre of “Locksley Hall.” The choice is a very happy

one. The swing of the trochaic verse more fitly reproduces the sloka than any iambics can do; and the length of the metre chosen corresponds more nearly than

the ordinary English blank verse would do to the length of the original verses. An example will show the style,

Yudhishthira laments the destruction of his warriors by Bhīshma:—

As a lordly tusker tramples on a marsh of feeble reeds,

As a forest conflagration on the parchéd woodland feeds, Bhīshma rides down on my warriors in his mighty battle car.

God nor mortal chief can face him in the gory field of war. Vain our toil, and vain the valour of our kinsmen loved and lost;

Vainly fight my faithful brothers by a luckless fortune crost !

It may be a question whether it was wise to introduce the element of rhyme which divides off each couplet from others in a way not found in the original, and

must frequently have hampered the translator. It is certainly most unfortunate that where Sanskrit names are mentioned they are in some cases so placed in the verse

that the stress comes upon the wrong syllable. We hear throughout not of

51

Draupadi, but of Draupādi; not of Hastina, or Hastinapura, but of Hastīna; not of

Uttara, but of Uttāra; not of Sāvitrī, but of Savītri; not of Satyavān, but of Satyāvan; and so on with some other familiar names. It was no doubt difficult to fit

the Indian names into the English metre, and whatever one does, the English reader will probably mangle them. But the aid of the metre would have afforded a great

opportunity for teaching the English where rightly to put the stress. So slight a change would be required that we even hope that at least Draupādi. and Hastīna

will disappear from the next edition.

It is particularly interesting to notice what are the passages which the learned

translator has considered to contain the gist of the original epic. He has chosen the following verses—the Roman figures referring to the Book, and the Arabic to the

section, of the Calcutta edition.

I. 134–137, 184–189.

II. 33–36, 44, 65, 69, 76, 77. III. 292–296.

IV. 35, 36, 40–43, 44, 53, 62. V. 1–3, 94, 124–126.

VI-X. In abstract. XI. 10, 11, 16, 17, 26, 28.

XIV. 85, 88, 89.

The author hopes elsewhere to put forward his views on the historical growth of

the epic. In this little volume they would be out of place. It should be judged as a literary effort, not as historical criticism. And as literary effort it is certainly a very

great success. A generous admiration for the original, and a warm sympathy with its tone, a striking command of vigorous and flowing and idiomatic English, a fine

sense of rhythm, and a real power of poetic imagination have combined to render this selection just what it is intended to be—a most interesting and attractive way

of introducing to English readers what the author considers to be the essence of the grand old Indian poem .

The smaller edition quoted at the head of this notice is the popular one at a popular price. There is an edition édition de luxe on finer paper, with a number of

exquisite illustrations of which one only is inserted in the popular edition. We hope both the enterprising publisher and the successful author will be amply rewarded

by the sale of this timely and instructive little book.

TW

52

LIEDER DER MÖNCHE UND NONNEN GOTAMO BUDDHO’S; von KARL EUGEN

NEUMANN. 8vo; pp. 383. (Berlin: Hofmann, 1899.)

This is a translation into German verse of the two collections of poems by the

men and women respectively, members of the Buddhist Order during, or immediately after, the Buddha’s time. These two anthologies, called the Thera- and

Therī-gāthā, consist in great part of verses not found elsewhere in the canon, but also contain the verses only taken from episodes in mixed prose and verse in other

books. These latter cases—in which the verses are really only rightly intelligible by means of the light thrown upon them by the prose setting in which they are

found—make it highly probable that all the verses must originally have been handed down in a similar prose setting. The commentator, Dhammapāla of

Kāñcipura, who wrote a thousand years later, embodies in his work the tradition as to what this ancient prose setting was. But even with this assistance it is often not

easy to gather the exact force of the ecstatic outbursts of feeling which these old verses record.

The task undertaken by the translator is therefore no easy one; though, of course, a successful solution of it would afford most valuable evidence of a characteristic

phase, not only of Buddhist, but of Indian thought. The difficulty is increased by the frequent use in these lyrics of Pāli words and phrases so pregnant with meaning

and association that they cannot possibly be rendered by a single European word without thereby ignoring much of their connotation and thus really misrepresenting

the original. The translator has indeed a rare command of vigorous and varied language. His wide reading, sympathetic appreciation, and philosophic training

give him great advantages. And he could no doubt give weighty reason for the great changes he has ventured to make in his renderings of many of the most

important of the technical terms in which the early Buddhists gave expression to their view of life. But he gives no reasons, or only in the curtest way. He has made

an interesting and suggestive note on the meaning of viññāṇa in his “Anthologie.” If he has any desire to convince his fellow scholars he would do well to give us

many more such notes. And if it be considered that a volume of translations is scarcely the place for them, then it would seem desirable that he should thresh out

these important questions of detail before he devotes his valuable leisure, and his great gifts, to more translations the value of which, certainly to scholars, and also

to the general render, really depends precisely on the accuracy of these details. Dr. Neumann will scarcely complain of a point of view that really amounts to a desire

to have more of Dr. Neumann.

TW

53

RĀṢṬRAPĀLA PARIPṚCCHĀ, publié par L. FINOT. 8vo. Vol.ii: pp. xvi and 69. (St.

Petersburg : Imperial Academy, Bibliotheca Buddhica, 1901.)

It is a great pleasure to see the Buddhist Sanskrit Text Series, inaugurated and

managed by Professor Serge d’Oldenbourg, and published at the expense of the Russian Government, now beginning to become an accomplished fact. The present

work is little more than a tract, and the text would occupy, if printed after the method followed by the Pāli Text Society, about 40 to 50 pages. It is in form a

Jātaka. The first half, called the Nidāna, corresponds to the Introductory story preceding each of the Jātakas in the Piṭaka Collection edited by Fausböll. The

second half gives the Jātaka proper, the story of Puṇyaraśmi.

In the Introduction we have a discussion of the qualities of a Bodhisatwa, that is,

those that have to be acquired by a man in order to become a Buddha, and of the qualities obstructive to that end. In the course of this discussion the Buddha tells

Rāṣṭrapāla of the qualities he acquired in fifty of his previous births. As the editor points out (p. vi), there are similar enumerations in the Lalita Vistara and in the

Mahāvastu. He might have added that a similar list is also found in the Introduction (also called the Nidāna) to the canonical collection of Jātakas; and that two whole

books, one in Pāli and one in Sanskrit, the Cariyā Pitaka and the Jātaka Mālā, are based on a precisely similar enumeration.

In my Buddhist Birth Stories6 there was given, twenty years ago, a comparative

table of the Jātakas thus referred to in these two books, and it would have been

interesting to have had a comparative table here showing the relation in which this new list stands to the older ones. In the books the stories are told; in this Nidāna, as

in the Nidāna to the Jātakas, they are only referred to. And Professor d’Oldenbourg has given a valuable table identifying two thirds of them. It is particularly

interesting to find that so many of these Birth Stories, perhaps half of them, cannot be traced in the canonical collection.

7 We are frequently finding Birth Stories, both

in Pāli and in Sanskrit sources, not included in it. It was certainly, even when it was made, by no means complete. But other stories may have been subsequently

invented; and a careful discussion of the facts, on this one point, now ascertainable, would already give valuable results towards the history of the literature.

There are added to the book two indices, one of verses and one of proper names. Both of these are most useful. But there is no index of subjects, or of Buddhist

6 London, 1880. Table iv, p. xcviii.

7 No.8, the Śibi Birth, is no doubt the same as the Sivi Jātaka, No. 499 in the canonical

collection.

54

technical terms used in the text. It is most desirable that in every future volume

published in this series such indices should be provided. For many historical enquiries it is of the first importance to know when a particular idea was first

introduced, where and in what degree it was subsequently modified, and how late its existence can be certified. Certain words or phrases are not found in the earliest

books, certain other words have changed their exact meaning in the course of time, certain other words are not found after a particular epoch. Abhiññā, for instance, is,

in the Suttantas, used only in a general way in the meaning of ‘insight.’ Later on, a specific group of six kinds of insight, the Chaḷ-abhiññā, has become a common

phrase. In this text we find, not six, but five abhiññās. There is a similar history, as

yet not traced out, of the idea Pāramitā, which in this text are six in number, not ten; and so also of the enumeration of wrong doctrines, speculations (Diṭṭhi), which are here referred to as one hundred, and not sixty-two, in number. The ideas

of the five gatis, or forms of rebirth, of the eightfold Path, of the Great Person (the Mahā Purisa) are found here in a form apparently quite the same as they had in the

oldest documents. But the Four Bonds, obstacles which keep a man back from becoming a Buddha, are here mentioned (on p. 20) possibly for the first time. In

the investigation of any of these questions—and they could be multiplied almost indefinitely—it is evident that good subject indices not only save time, but are

practically indispensable.

The examples cited in the last paragraph show how closely this text adheres to

the older phraseology. There are differences no doubt, slight differences, but each of these is valuable as historical evidence. Often, too, a comparison with the older

texts throws light on later readings, an assistance of which M. Senart, to whom the

present work is dedicated, has so often availed himself in his monumental edition of the Mahāvastu. Thus, to cite only one example, M. Finot, at p. 49, bas rejected

the reading chinna-prapāta of his unique MS. in favour of a conjecture supported by the Chinese. A comparison with D. 2. 162 (that is, the Mahā Parinibbāna

Suttanta, chap. vi) would have shown that the Chinese author is probably wrong; he has misunderstood a rare and difficult phrase taken over by our author from old

tradition, and the manuscript reading is right.

One of the differences, probably the chief one, between this text and the older

ones, is the importance it attaches to Bodhisatvaship, practically ignoring the older ideal of Arahatship. Already in 1880,

8 when we had but little Mahāyāna writing

before us, I pointed out, for the first time, the importance of this distinction, and ventured to call it “the keynote of the Great Vehicle.” It was impossible then to go

into detail and show how far the two ethical ideals were different. The Pāli texts have now given us full evidence as to the details of the Bodhi-pakkhiya-dhammā, 8 Hibbert Lectures, pp. 254, 255.

55

the constituent qualities of Arahatship, and their opposites. The present work gives

us similar details as to Bodhisatvaship. It would now, therefore, be most interesting to have a careful comparison, carried out into full detail, between the two ideals;

and comparing the intermediate stage as represented in the Mahāvastu.

In language and metre the Rāṣṭrapāla Paripṛcchā approximates already to the

stage reached when Sanskrit became the literary language of India. But there are many of the earlier prakritisms still left, of which M. Finot gives instances in his

introduction. He also furnishes a list of the metres, utilizing for that purpose the names afterwards given to metres by the writers on Sanskrit prosody. The list is a

goodly one, and will be found suggestive when the history of Indian metres comes to be written.

Altogether this little volume is full of matter to help in the solution of the many historical problems—literary, religious, and social—that now lie ready to the hand

of any scholar who has leisure to devote to them. On its probable date the editor has nothing to say. But he mentions that four passages, amounting altogether to

about 70 lines, are cited from the present work in the Śīkśā Samuccaya, now being edited by Professor Bendall for the same series; and a list of those readings in the

citations which differ from the text here printed has been supplied by Professor Bendall. These citations give us a terminus ad quem for the date of the story; and a

discussion of the points of doctrine referred to in the text, and of the names of Bodhisatvas said in it to have been in attendance on the Buddha, would have gone

far to settle its approximate date as compared with that of other Buddhist texts. M. Finot mentions Chinese and Tibetan versions; but he does not say whether these

are based on our text, a retelling of the story in different words, or whether they are actually what we should now call translations. It has been pointed out in our last

volume (JRAS 1901, p. 406) how important it is that this distinction should be observed.

We hope that the learned and able editor will be able to find time, amid his important duties as Director of the Oriental School in Saigon, to diacuss some of

the questions above referred to. Meanwhile we can heartily congratulate him on the present work; and may venture to express the hope that the other volumes in

preparation may soon appear.

TW

56

Student’s Pāli Series: (1) PĀLI GRAMMAR, 1899 (3 Rupees); (2) PĀLI BUDDHISM,

1900 (12 annas); (3) PĀLI FIRST LESSONS, 1902 (3 Rupees). By THE REV. H. H. TILBE, Ph.D. (Rangoon: American Baptist Mission Press.)

These three little books ought to be very useful to anyone wishing to take up the study of Pāli by himself. The Grammar is very simple. No references are given,

and rare and difficult forms are not considered. But the paradigms are sufficiently full for all ordinary purposes. In the “First Lessons” we find six Jātaka stories

taken from Fausböll’s “Ten Jātakas,” with translation, grammatical explanation of each word (with references to the pages of the Grammar), notes on the idioms and

meanings, and short sentences in English to be turned back into Pāli. There are also notes on the metres of the verses. It is a pity that in these last notes the metres are

explained according to the medieval books on metre. The verses to be explained, being many centuries older than the systematized theory, do not, of course, follow

the rules of that theory. The elaborate plan followed in the explanation of these very simple little stories seems also unnecessary for an adult student. But the

author has had experience in teaching Pāli to Burmese boys, and is probably better able than anyone in Europe could be to judge of what is expedient in such a case.

At the end is a full index verborum to the six Jātakas selected.

In the “Pāli Buddhism” an attempt has been made to summarize, in a few pages,

the essential meaning of this system of religion as explained in the canonical books, and to give an account of its founder and of the Order of mendicants

established by him to carry the system out. There have been numerous attempts of the same or of a similar kind. Major-General Strong’s summary of the system is

the shortest, and on the whole the most happy. The author of each attempt has different ideas of what is really of essential importance in the system; and also both

of the order in which it should be arranged and of the proportional space to be allotted to each item. The present attempt seems to me to be very successful, so

much so, indeed, that it is worthwhile making a few suggestions upon it.

In the preliminary sketch it is stated (pp. 6, 7) that the system of caste had been

fully adopted in India when Buddhism arose, and that the priests easily took precedence in that system. Neither point seems to me quite accurately put. We

find, in the canonical books, the system of caste in the process of development, and it is quite clear that the supremacy of the priest is not yet acknowledged.

Again (on p. 7), it is stated that “life for the masses was then full of evils, hardships, and inequalities.” It is, at least, very doubtful whether the canonical

books bear out this opinion. I should have been inclined to take the opposite view. The economic conditions (of which a very careful summary, with full references,

appeared in our last volume) seem rather to have been very favorable to the bulk of

57

the people. No references are here given in support of the proposition on p. 7; and

it would be difficult, I think, to find any.

We read on p. 19 that the present form of the Pāli Piṭakas dates back to

Buddhaghosa, and that it is claimed he retranslated into Pāli the Sinhalese translation made by Mahinda from an original Pāli text unfortunately lost before

Buddhaghosa’s time. All this is true, of course, only of the commentaries on the text, not of the texts themselves.

The statement on p. 22, and again on p. 30, that belief in God is condemned by the condemnation of sīlabbata, is scarcely right. What is condemned is the

reliance, for salvation, on mere morality (sīla), or on works or duty (vrata).

Nothing is said, one way or the other, about belief in God. Dr. Tilbe is perhaps entitled to draw, by implication, a conclusion to the effect that belief in God is

thereby condemned. But historically speaking the Christian idea of God was unknown in India in the sixth century B.C., and it would be more scholarly to give

this condemnation as the author’s, not as Gotama’s, view. It cannot be correct to say that the Buddha condemned a view of which he had never heard.

So also on pp. 26, 32, and 33, the word ‘sin’ is used, in phrases purporting to give the view of the early Buddhists, in a sense that was unknown to them. The

word used in the original is not even pāpa; it is moha, which means folly, stupidity.

On pp. 27, 37 Taṇhā is translated ‘desire’; and the· impression is conveyed that

the early Buddhists considered that all desire ought to be suppressed. Now the cultivation of right desires is as much a part of early Buddhist belief as is the

suppression of wrong desires. The second stage in the Path is here given as ‘right aims’ (p. 30), and there is little difference between an aim and a desire. The full

discussion of this point, which appeared in this Journal for 1898, pp. 53–59, has apparently escaped the author’s notice.

We trust that, before issuing another edition, the talented author will consider these points.

TW

PĀLI UND SANSKRIT, von DR. R. OTTO FRANKE, Professor of Sanskrit at

Königsberg. 8vo; pp. vi and 176. (Strassburg: Trübner. Price 6s.)

This volume is a preparatory study for the author’s Pāli Grammar, which is to

appear shortly in the Grondriss series founded by Professor Bühler and now edited by Professor Kielhorn. As is well known, all the early inscriptions and coin-

58

legends are not written in Sanskrit, but in a dialect or dialects for which there is at

present no generally accepted name. It is inaccurate to call it Prakrit, a word which has a clearly defined meaning in Indian usage, meaning exclusively the dialects

considered in Professor Pischel’s “Grammatik der Prakrit-sprachen.” It is a very useful, indeed necessary, word in that sense; and it is a distinct loss to use it as the

designation for a very different set of philological phenomena.

The author calls this language of the early inscriptions and coins Pāli, using the

term ‘literary Pāli’ for the Pāli as it appears in the canonical books of the Buddhists and in the later literature based upon them. This also seems to me to be matter for

regret. As now generally used and understood, the word Pāli has a clear and distinct connotation, and to substitute for it the clumsy and long expression

‘literary Pāli’ is a loss. It would have been far better to have retained the word Pāli (which, after all, means a line, or rule, or canon) in the old sense of the language of

the canonical books. It is true that, if this be done, then another name must be found for the language of the inscriptions and coins; and any new name is under a

disadvantage. I have suggested elsewhere that the word “Kosali’ might be used, as the word ‘Migadhi,’ in some respects more suitable, involves the same sort of

confusion and ambiguity as ‘Prakrit’ or ‘Pāli.’

This objection to the name of the language referred to as Pāli is, however, a

minor matter. The main point is whether the facts collected are accurate, and the arguments based upon them are sound. It will be well, therefore, to state at once

what these are.

We have in Chapter i a list of the inscriptions, and of the coins, that can be dated

within a period extending from the third century B.C. to the second century A.D. This is a very careful and elaborate list, and will be found most useful. It suffers

from one objection. The author does not pretend to be either a numismatist or an epigraphist. He gives the dates as stated by the best authorities, though he points

out cases where their conclusions seem doubtful. Future investigation may show—specialists could, no doubt, even now, in some cases, point out—that some

particular date or some particular reading is wrong. But we have not elsewhere any such list as is here provided for us; and it shows, with great clearness, the range of

material on which the thesis is based. This list of many hundred inscriptions and coins occupies fifty pages, and the first two chapters.

In Chapter iii the author points out the main conclusion which is forced upon us, at first sight, by these materials. The language of India during the period in

question was not Sanskrit. Sanskritisms are found imbedded in the dialect used. These are at first very rare, then they gradually increase, until, at the end of the

period, the inscriptions, with certain exceptions, have become Sanskrit with Pālisms (as the author calla them; I should prefer Kosalisms) still surviving in

59

them. The main fact is already generally acknowledged. But the author states it

with much greater fullness and detail than has yet been done. He shows what the Sanskritisms are, and distinguishes between the results apparent at different epochs

and in different districts of India.

Chapter iv discusses, and again with full details, and with the necessary

distinctions of time and place, the reverse set of facts—the kind of Pālisms (or Kosalisms) that survived especially from the third century A.D. onwards, and when

and where they survived.

In Chapters v and vi we have the author’s conclusions from the data set out

above as to the date and locality of the gradual rise in the use of classical Sanskrit. One of these is that Sanskrit proper (as distinguished from Vedic) was mostly

cultivated in one distinct part of India, the country from the Doab to the mountains, and that its home was probably originally in Kashmir.

In the following chapters we have the author’s conclusions from the language of the inscriptions and the coins as to Pāli (that is, Kosali). The first of these is that

the dialect, whatever it be called, then used throughout India was, in fact, one dialect; and he gives, in support of this conclusion, a detailed sketch of what were

the peculiarities of this dialect, the Hindustani of the centuries before Christ.

The second is that, besides and notwithstanding the essential unity of this

dialect, there is evidence of local peculiarities, amounting to local dialectic differences. These he gives in detail, again distinguishing the facts he quotes both

according to place and according to time.

The third is that the literary Pāli used in the canonical books is nearest to the

particular local variety of the popular tongue that was current in or near Avanti. One by one the author goes through other local varieties, used in the northeast, the

northwest, in or near Mathurā, in the Dekkan, and in the Kathiawad, and shows in detail how these varieties differs from the literary Pāli.

Finally, the author gives a list of those peculiarities of the Vedic language which distinguish it from classical Sanskrit and are found also in Pāli—a list much longer

and fuller than the only one we have so far had, that is to say, the list in the preface to Childers’s Dictionary.

Now, quite apart from the validity of the author’s conclusions, quite apart even from the accuracy of the readings the author takes over from the numismatists and

epigraphists, it is a most excellent and useful piece of work that is here accomplished. To have classified and arranged according to time and place, and

according to the moot questions they elucidate in the history of language, an immense number of linguistic forms hitherto, for the most part, and precisely for

want of such a guide, necessarily jumbled together and confused, is a signal service

60

to have rendered to the history of speech in India. So much will be readily

admitted. But it would be probably safe to go further. The author raises the right sort of questions, and deals with them by the right sort of method. His conclusions

are eminently sound and reasonable. Supposing that in a dozen cases the readings adopted by the author, or by the epigraphists or numismatists, or the dates they

assign to the inscriptions or the coins, should turn out to be wrong, that would still leave ninety-eight out of each hundred details unaffected—in other words two per

cent of the evidence would have to be struck out. And the author has been careful so to state his conclusions that they would not require, in such a case, much

modification. He has placed the whole question on a new footing, and his work will be quite indispensable to any future worker in the same field. The last word, as

a matter of course, has not been said. Some of the details quoted will have to be modified; details not here quoted will be added. The conclusions as eventually

accepted will not be quite the same; but they will be influenced to a very large extent by this important monograph, which is a real addition to our knowledge, and

worthy of that excellent German training in sound methods to which we Indianists already owe so much.

TW

SATVOTPATTI VINISCAYA AND NIRVĀNA VIBHĀGA. By M. DHARMARATNA. pp. xli and 66. (Colombo, Observer Office; London, Luzac & Co., 1902.)

There are two essays, in English, with elaborate introductions, in German, by

Professor Bastian. The first is on the birth and existence of beings in general; the second is on the nature of Nirvāna.

It appears from the German introduction that Professor Bastian, during a visit to Colombo in 1898, was informed of the existence of these essays in Sinhalese, and

arranged to have them translated into English by the very competent hand of Mr. H. M. Gunesekara, the Assistant Librarian at the Museum in Colombo. The MS. of

this translation was sent, after a long delay, to Berlin; and was then (during a holiday visit to the island) taken back by Professor Bastian to Ceylon, where it was

much revised in conversation with scholars there. Finally, it was printed, with the German introductions, in the island. It is interesting to find an essay in German, on

Buddhist metaphysics, set up so accurately by Ceylon printers. And the whole story of the origin of this little book is a most curious example of that interplay of

diverse thoughts and nationalities and languages so characteristic of our times. Essays written in the Aryan dialect spoken in Ceylon, and by a Sinhalese, to

expound his view of certain abstruse problems started two thousand five hundred years ago by a rajput thinker born in Nepal; that view based on the scholastic

61

interpretations, expressed in diverse tongues, by scholars in Burma, Siam, and

Ceylon; and now put before Western scholars in English, but in English written by another Sinhalese, and elucidated (if the word be allowed of Professor Bastian’s

well-known involved and parenthetical style) by a German professor, in German.

As to the contents of the essays, both those by the author and those by Professor

Bastian, no attempt is made to expound the doctrine of the canonical books as such. The authorities referred to are for the most part of much younger date; and

the whole exposition is based on the medieval scholastics.

Neither the original author nor the editor give chapter and verse for any of their

authorities; and it is not possible to distinguish their individual opinions from those of the authorities to whom they refer. The style throughout is very confused and

difficult, and it is by no means easy to follow the arguments set forth. But in Mr. Gunesekara’s renderings of the terms of Buddhist mysticism there is much that is

suggestive; and this short pamphlet is of importance for any scholar who is engaged on the study of the later phases of Buddhist speculation.

TW

SAṂYUTTA NIKĀYA GĀTHĀ SANNAYA. BY SŪRIYAGOḌA SUMANGALA BHIKKHU.

8vo; pp. 160. (Printed at the Jinālankāra Press, Colombo, 1903.)

This is an edition, with word for word translation into Siṃhalese, of the verses

in vol. i of the Pāli Text Society’s edition of the Saṃyutta, pp. 1–142. I have collated about one-fourth of it with Léon Fear’s edition, and find it is very well

done. It often gives better readings, though the differences are not noted. About half a dozen times an alternative reading to the one adopted is given in a note, but

there is no mention of the manuscript authorities used or referred to. Nevertheless, the work will be of considerable use, as it gives the traditional readings and

meanings, as handed down in Ceylon, of these verses, often as difficult as they are interesting. A notice in Siṃhalese on the cover states that it is only the first

fasciculus of a work intended to include all the verses in that Nikāya, and that part ii is in the press. The author, who is resident at the Sri Vardhana Ārāma Vihāra at

Kolupiṭiya, Colombo, is well known as one of the most promising younger

scholars in the island, and we congratulate him on this fresh proof of his activity. The work is, of course, primarily intended for use in Ceylon, but it would be wise

to put on the cover of part ii, in English, the price, in English money, at which European scholars could purchase copies. It would also be a great improvement if

the author would, at the end of each Sutta, give us, in brackets, the volume and page of M. Feer’s edition. Thus, on p. 57, after Jarā-suttaṃ, the figures (1. 38). At

62

present it is not easy to find out where, in this new edition, any particular verse in

the old edition can be found. We trust that this important and interesting undertaking will soon be continued and finished.

TW

DĪPAVAṂSA UND MAHĀVAṂSA, UND DIE GESCHICHTLICHE ÜBERLIEFERUNG

IN CEYLON, VON WILHELM GEIGER. pp. viii and 146. (Leipzig: Böhme, 1905.)

In this monograph Professor Geiger of Erlangen gives us a further and enlarged

discussion of certain points raised in his previous paper, “Dīpavaṃsa und

Mahāvaṃsa,” and also of other points of importance in the evolution of historical

writing in Ceylon.

He discusses first the outward form of the Dīpavaṃsa, its repetitions, omissions,

and general fragmentary character; and the meaning, for the history of the chronicle, of the memorial verses it contains. No stress is laid on the fact that this

work has no author. It is the outcome of a fairly large number of previous works, no one of which had any author. And it is the last of the literary works in Ceylon

which can be placed in the period during which no books had authors. Every ancient country, at the beginning of its literary activity, has such a period. When

that period has once been passed, the custom is for the authorship of each work to be stated; though, of course, occasionally, as now in Europe, a work may be

purposely anonymous, or its authorship may be forgotten. It is important for each country to determine the close of this period of universal anonymity. It is

especially important in the literary history of India, where the period closed, I think, in the time of Asoka.

9 In Ceylon the period closed with the Dīpavaṃsa.

Before that date no book was assigned to any particular author. It was the outcome of the industry of a school. After that date books, as a rule, were written by one

man, and the fact that they were so written was openly acknowledged. The point is of considerable interest and suggestiveness.

Professor Geiger then discusses the form of the Mahāvaṃsa, which is a

complete epic poem (with an author); and compares throughout the difference between it and the Dīpavaṃsa. As to the author, the Ṭīkā tells us that his name was

Mahānāma, and that be lived at the Dīghasanda Vihāra, so called after the name of

the nobleman who built it. Mahānāma had been the name of the Buddha’s cousin,

one of his first disciples and principal followers. Like John or Peter among Christians, it had naturally become a common name among the Buddhists. We

9 “Buddhist India,” pp. 179, 180.

63

hear, about the time when the Mahāvaṃsa must have been written, of two

Mahānāmas resident at this particular Vihāra. Turnour confuses the two. Geiger

very rightly distinguishes them, pointing out that, if they were the same, the one Mahānāma must certainly have lived nearly a hundred years, and perhaps more.

The two, he thinks, were therefore different, and the author of the poem was

probably the later of the two, who must have flourished in the last quarter of the fifth century. The difficulties of Turnour’s hypothesis have often been pointed

out,10

but Professor Geiger is the first, so far as I know, to have suggested what seems (now that he has suggested it) the obvious solution. Professor Geiger’s

conclusion will now, no doubt, be accepted by everybody.

The next question is the date of the commentary, the Vaṃsatthappakāsinī (which

the author of this monograph assigns to the period 1000–1250), and the

information it gives as to the sources from which Mahānāma drew. After setting

out the admitted facts about the lost commentaries in Sinhalese handed down in

Ceylon, the author concludes that Mahānāma drew, not so much from them as

from a separate historical compilation, the lost Mahāvaṃsa in Sinhalese, which had gradually grown up in the schools there. This will also be probably adopted as

right; and it would be a great advantage if the author had also considered the relation of this lost Sinhalese commentary, the Mūla or Mahā-Aṭṭhakathā, to the

Andha-Aṭṭhakathā, the Mahā Paccari, and the Kuṛunda and Sankhepa Aṭṭhakathās.

These are not referred to. But the question will not be completely solved until we know whether Mahānāma did not also make use of one or other of such of these

works as were previous to his time.

The later historical works composed in Ceylon are then discussed. On the Mahābodhivaṃsa the author puts forward a new combination. The late Professor

Strong, who edited the work for the Pāli Text Society, was of opinion that it was of

nearly the same date as Buddhaghosa, because a very late treatise says it was written at the instigation of one Dāṭhānāga, and this man could be identified with

the Dāṭṭha who is said (in the same treatise) to have instigated Buddhaghosa to

write the Sumangala Vilāsinī. Geiger identifies him with the Dāṭhānāga of the

Mahāvaṃsa (chap. 54, line 36), who lived in the tenth century. In this latter

identification the names tally better. But the late treatise referred to, the

Gandhavaṃsa, may be mistaken. And there may have been yet other Dāṭhānāgas.

So the argument is not conclusive. There is, however, it seems to me, a very strong support to it.

10

See especially Snyder, “Der Commentar und die Textüberlieferung de

Mahāvaṃsa,” Berlin, 1891.

64

For does not Upatissa, in the Mahābodhivaṃsa, sometimes use Pāli words in

their Sanskrit sense? Does he not sometimes use Sanskrit words not found

elsewhere at all in the old Pāli literature, and possibly derived from an acquaintance with Sanskrit kāvyas? Does not the whole tone and manner of his

work betray such an acquaintance, so much so that he may be said to use a

Sanskritized Pāli? If these questions be answered in the affirmative—and I think they must be—the further question arises: when, and in what degree, the

knowledge of Sanskrit began thus to influence literary usage in Ceylon? We find few, if any, traces of it in the Mahāvaṃsa, or even in Buddhaghosa. It would

follow that the Mahābodhivaṃsa must be later, and probably at least as late as the

Dāṭhānāga whom Geiger has discovered in the later part of the Mahāvaṃsa.

Another point on which we should be very glad of Professor Geiger’s further opinion. He devotes also a most interesting and careful discussion to the extant

historical books written in Ceylon, not in Pāli, but in Sinhalese; showing their dates, the degree in which they followed the previous authorities and the degree in

which they are independent, and the sources they used. It would be interesting to know the relation between these books and the Narendracaritāwalokana-

pradīpikāwa, the 66th chapter of which was translated into English in the Journal

of the Bengal Asiatic Society for 1872. Is this title merely the title of a portion of one of the Sinhalese books here discussed by the author, or is it a separate work?

The MS. from which I made the translation would seem, if the work be independent, to be either unique or nearly so.

Throughout his monograph the author emphasizes the distinction between the ‘church tradition’ as he calls it—that is, tradition handed down in the Order—and

the ‘popular tradition’ or ‘worldly tradition,’ as handed down among the people. Some of the most important and suggestive passages in his essay are those in

which he shows how some one or other of the numerous works he discusses has added to, or varied from, the statements in some previous work by incorporating or

using such popular material. He supposes that the use of such material was certainly a distinguishing feature of the Pāli Mahāvaṃsa, and probably also of the

lost Sinhalese Mahāvaṃsa. It is one of the points in which the latter will have

differed from the lost commentary in Sinhalese (p. 72). The suggestion is distinctly good. At the same time, it may be a question whether the gap between the two

traditions was, at any time, very broad. The worthy members of the Order, not only in Ceylon but also in India, were themselves very partial indeed to these popular

tales. Tales, anecdotes, riddles, legends, et hoc genus omne, play a great part in the

Sacred Books themselves, and even in the very Suttantas, and that at the precise points where they are also most in earnest.

11 Who was it who preserved for us that

11

See, for instance, “Dialogues of the Buddha,” vol. i, pp. 160–164.

65

immense collection of folklore of all sorts, the Jātakas? The people knew the

stories, no doubt, but that we know them is a debt we owe to the members of the Order. The Jātakas are at one and the same time both ‘popular tradition’ and

‘church tradition’; and the present essay affords abundant proof that a similar state of things existed all through the literary history of Ceylon. There were some

hermits among the members of the Order, and a good many industrious scholars. But as a rule, to which the scholars at least formed no exception, the Bhikkhus

enjoyed a good joke, or a good story, as much as the laymen did. And they neither formed a separate caste, nor were they shut out of the world, nor out of the hearing

of such political traditions and popular lore as were current among the people. I do not suggest that Professor Geiger says, or thinks, they were. On the contrary, he

claims not only for Mahānāma, but for the other Bhikkhus who composed the later

works, a distinct leaning to such things. But the expressions he uses might sometimes be interpreted that way.

Perhaps what is here written may be open to a similar objection. I have naturally selected those points on which I have a little, something, perhaps, of value, to add

to what the reader will find in Professor Geiger’s book. This should not be interpreted to mean anything derogatory to its great and permanent value as the

most complete work we have on the many important subjects it treats with scholarship so thorough (often, indeed, unique) and with judgment so sober and

sound.

TW

66

Books on Buddhism and Indian history

1895 Māra und Buddha. by Ernst Windisch.

1895 Panca-krama. by L. de la Vallée Poussin.

1895 Notes on Buddhist Bas-reliefs. by Serge D’Oldenbourg.

1896 Guru-pūjā-kaumudī. Essays in honour of Prof Weber

1896 The Buddhist Praying-Wheel. by William Simpson.

1896 Les Castes dans l’Inde: les faits et le système. by Émile Senar.

1896 Die sociale Gliederung im Nordöstlichen Indien zu Buddha’s Zeit. by Dr.

Richard Fick.

1896 Hindu Castes and Sects. By Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya.

1900 Indian Chronology. by PC Mukerjee

1898 Buddhismo. by Per Paolo Emilio Pavolini

1898 Manual of Indian Buddhism. by H. Kern.

1901 Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India. by Vincent A. Smith.

1902 Indiens Kultur in der Blüthezeit des Buddhismus. König Asoka: von Edmund Hardy.

1902 Buddhist Art in India. by Albert Grünwedel, Agnes L. Gibson & James Burgess.

1903 Album Kern. Essays in honor of Dr. H. Kern.

MĀRA UND BUDDHA. VON ERNST WINDISCH. 4to, pp. 348. (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1895.)

This monograph, published as Part iv of the Proceedings of the Historical Division of the Royal Society of Science of Saxony, is devoted to a discussion,

firstly, of the legend of Māra, as handed down in the early Buddhist records (pp. 1–220 and 322–327); and, secondly, of the early accounts of Gotama’s first meeting

with King Bimbisāra at Rājagaha (pp. 220–322). All the text passages relating to both of these subjects are here collected and contrasted (where possible in parallel

columns), and translated with numerous notes, in which the readings are discussed and a number of difficult or doubtful words are elucidated. The historical

relationship to one another of these different texts, and of various paragraphs or even phrases used in them, is carefully discussed; and the question of the origin

and gradual evolution of the conception of Māra is elaborately and convincingly

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worked out. No portion of the vast field of the history of Buddhist ideas has been

hitherto treated with anything like the same completeness and thoroughness; and in applying to this particular portion the recognized canons of a strict historical

criticism, the more general problem of the right treatment of the Buddhist records as a whole is incidentally dealt with in a similar spirit—a spirit utterly opposed to

the absurd and uncritical way of muddling up all the different versions of each episode as if they were of equal value (or rather of equal worthlessness).

Naturally, in a monograph dealing with so great a mass of detail there are some points on which scholars may differ from the author. One of these is the reiterated

use, when referring to the death of the Buddha, of the phrase ‘enter in to Nirvāna.’ There is no word in the texts corresponding to any one of the four words thus

chosen to reproduce the sense of the Pāli word parinibbāyati. The Buddha, like every other Arahat, was supposed to have attained the state of mind called Nirvāna

during his life, and in his case the precise time of that event was on the day of his Enlightenment under the Bo Tree. Nibbāna-dhātuyā (as the author rightly points

out on p. 74) is, of course, a locative; but it is a locative, not in the sense of

‘entering into’ (which would require an accusative), but in the sense of a locative absolute. The meaning of the expression is really placed beyond doubt by such

phrases as ‘the wise [speaking of the Arahats] go out like this lamp’ (Ratana Sutta 14), or ‘the dying out of a flame,’ used as a metaphor of the death of the Buddha at

Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, p. 62. The expression ‘entering into Nirvāna’ is only a very old Anglo-Indian blunder, dating from the time when the first writers on

Buddhism, saturated with modern Western ideas, took for granted that Nirvāna must be some state beyond the grave. But the universal Indian usage of the time,

whether in Pāli books by Buddhist authors or in Sanskrit books by both Buddhists and Hindus, confines the connotation of the word exclusively to the state of mind

of a living Jīvanmukta or Arahat.

Another matter of detail, of equal importance, is the use of the phrase ‘Northern

and Southern’ for the Sanskrit and Pāli books. When Buddhism first became known in the West, it had been driven out of India, and the Sanskrit Buddhist

MSS. came to us from Nepal in the north, while the Pāli ones came from Ceylon in the south. It was natural, therefore, then to distinguish them as Northern and

Southern, and in that sense the distinction was quite correct. Insensibly, however, the use of the words was supposed to mean much more, namely, that the Sanskrit

books were all written in Nepal, and the Pāli Piṭakas composed in Ceylon. Such an inference is entirely unjustified. And no one would object to it more strongly than

our author. But it leads to so complete a perversion of the history of Buddhist literature that the only way to avoid endless confusion is to drop the use of these

ambiguous words altogether. So far as our present information goes, it is most

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probable that nearly all the early book—that is, the books, whether Sanskrit or Pāli,

earlier, or not much later, than the Christian era—were composed in the valley of the Ganges. But we do not know the exact place of origin of any one of them. And

no one can say for certain that the Divyāvadāna, for instance, or the Lalita Vistara, was written in a spot to the north of the place where the Padhāna Sutta, for

instance, or the Kathā Vatthu was composed. Why, then, continue the use of a phraseology which ignorant or careless readers may, and probably will, understand

in a sense different from that intended? It should be added that the author very seldom does use it, and in the majority of cases has been led, by a sound instinct, to

the use of more exact and less ambiguous terms.

The question raised in the last paragraph really lies at the root of all critical

judgment of Buddhist questions. Even the terms Pāli and Sanskrit are objectionable, though in a less degree, and though they do not contain the

suggestio falsi lurking in the terms Northern and Southern. There is no such thing as a Pāli Buddhism, much less a Sanskrit Buddhism. It is therefore a matter of the

first importance that the present author has made the great advance (conspicuous, not only in the terms he usually uses when comparing the books, but also in the

whole tone of his monograph) of specifying in each case the book itself by name. This is not only the safest way; it is the only right way. But when it has become

universal (as it certainly will some day) it will render necessary the rewriting of much that has been written by Sanskritists on Buddhism. What would become of

such a statement as this, found in the latest book of the kind?—

“The distinction between Northern and Southern doctrine is indicated by the

terms ‘Great Vehicle’ and ‘Little Vehicle’ respectively.”

To point out the blunders, both of fact and of implication, in this striking

announcement would become unnecessary if our author’s excellent plan were followed of saying rather—“Such and such a doctrine is to be found in such and

such a book,” and then proceeding to discuss the historical position of the doctrine in question.

The crux of Pattakkhandho, p. 119, has already been solved at “Vinaya Texts,”

iii, 13—and compare Milinda 5; Anguttara, iii, 73. 4; Divyāvadāna 633. Dīgha Nikāya should be read for Majjhima Nikāya at pp. 33, 39. It is strange that at p.

118 no mention is made of the parallel passage at Majjhima i, 234 (where the right readings are given), and the meaning of kaṭhala ‘potsherd’ seems clear enough

from Culla Vagga, v, 22. 1; Dīgha, 2. 98; Puggala Paññatti, 3. 14; Saṃyutta, iv, 313. Cankamā orohitvā on p. 150 is not merely ‘gave up walking,’ but ‘stepped

down from the place [cloister one might call it] where he had been walking up and

down meditating.’ Such a cankama was a constant appendage to a vihāra. So on p. 151, lines 21 and following, the meaning is surely rather that Sañjīva used easily to

69

attain the state called Sañña-vedayita-norodha, whether he might have gone into a

wood, or sat at the foot of a tree, or, etc. On p. 191 (last line), what the hearer gets to know is, inter alia, that there will be no rebirth for him into this world. The

words to be supplied in the text at Saṃyutta, 2. 195, are, of course, the same as in Vinaya, vol. i, p. 14, and often found elsewhere. On page 75 (four lines from the

bottom), for Halbgott read Mensch. On pp. 65, 81 the author, on the supposed authority of the Divyāvadāna, understands Gotamaka Cetiya to mean the Bo Tree.

But it is quite clear that this pre-Buddhistic sacred place was close to Vesali—so Jātaka, ii, 259—and cannot therefore have been the Bo Tree at Gayā, which was an

Assattha, not a Nigrodha tree. The interpretation of ācariyakaṃ at p. 71 is scarcely

consistent with Mahā Vagga, vi, 37. 1, and the Sonadaṇḍa Sutta at Dīgha, 1. 119; and on the same page the expression ‘wonder-working truth’ is, after all, supported

by the use of the opposite phrase appātihīraṃ kathaṃ ‘ineffectual talk,’ of the talk of the Brahmans in the Tevijja Sutta. On p. 80, line 12, the ti on the last line of p.

32 of the text and the bhante on the first line of p. 33 show that in the latter case it

is Ānanda who is speaking, and not the Buddha; and the logical sequence of the thought was already visible enough in the version in “Buddhist Suttas,” pp. 54, 55.

Why should the word Zufall have been chosen at p. 61 to express the similar result

of similar causes?

The general results of the author’s investigation into the history of the Māra

legend are as follows :—

(1) That the Buddha had so far overcome both death and transmigration that for

him and his disciples death led no longer to a new life and a new death.

(2) Buddha himself made use of a poetical expression, drawn from existing

beliefs and expressions in the pre-Buddhistic Brahmanical literature, in which he apostrophized Māra, the personification of death or evil, as defeated.

(3) After his death these expressions were held to be not only poetical but historical. And as they are related to have been used at various times and places

during his long career, so the earliest versions of the legend represent the attacks or temptations of the Evil One as having been continuous throughout his life.

(4) But gradually the legend gets more and more to regard the victory of the Buddha as won, once for all, under the Bo Tree. And the episode of Mara’s

daughters is then introduced.

(5) Last of all comes the long description of the Buddha’s victory then and there

over the hosts of Māra’s army.

(6) Together with this last phase we have the commencement of the train of

ideas by which the Bodhisat is brought ever more and more into prominence.

70

(7) It is in the Sutta Nipāta and the Saṃyutta Nikāya that we have the oldest

form of the legend. The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta account is later, and the account in the Sanskrit books, as a whole, later still. But these last have, in many details,

preserved reminiscences of a form of the tradition older even than the oldest of the Pāli books, and are invaluable for a right understanding of the whole question.

All these conclusions will, we believe, be sooner or later accepted. But it is not so much on that account, or on account of the large number of philological points

elucidated, as on account of the admirable critical spirit shown throughout the work, that we think this monograph will make an epoch in the study of Buddhism,

and of the history of Indian thought.

It will be a fortunate day when we get any one of the essential doctrines of

Buddhism—such, for instance, as Arahatship, or the doctrine of the Sankhāras, or the scheme of causation, the Paticca-samuppāda—treated in the same masterly

way; and we trust the author may be encouraged by the complete success of his present effort to deal hereafter with the daily increasing material for the treatment

of one of these questions.

TW

PANCA-KRAMA. By L. DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN. 8vo, pp. 56. (Engelcke, Ghent.)

This little manual of the later Tantric Buddhism is divided into five chapters, four of which are assigned in the colophons to Nāgārjuna, and the fifth to

Śākyamitra. The present editor is inclined to think that the work, as we now have it has been recast by Śākyamitra on the basis of an older work of Nāgārjuna. The

latter’s date is uncertain, but Śākyamitra was, according to Tārānatha, a contemporary of Devapāla, son and successor of Gopāla, the founder of the Pāla

dynasty of Bengal, and would have lived therefore in the ninth century A.D. Both his teacher Śākya-prabhu, and the latter’s teacher Punyakīrti, came from “the East”

(probably Bengal), and he himself, who also wrote a work entitled the “Kośalālankāra,” was born in Kośala. He belonged, therefore, neither to the North

nor to the South, but to the famous Middle Country of Buddhism, in which almost all the Buddhist works known to us were composed. The whole of the little work is

here edited from a single MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and in the roman character; and it is accompanied by the commentary also found in the same

manuscript. The edition has all the advantages (and, it may be added, the inevitable shortcomings) incidental to such an edition from a single MS. Short as it is, it

throws very valuable and welcome light on the mystic side of later Buddhist speculation, of which the germs, as the author rightly points out, can be clearly

traced already in the Pāli books. The thanks of students are due to him for taking

71

up this unexplored field in the Buddhist history of Indian thought; and they will

look forward to the further labors in the same direction of which he holds out the promise, and more especially to a detailed comparison of the five stages of this

treatise with the ancient five Jhānas on the one hand, and the Yoga system on the other.

TW

NOTES ON BUDDHIST BAS-RELIEFS. By SERGE D’OLDENBOURG. 4to, pp. 28. (St. Petersburg, 1895.)

This work forms a part of the publications of the Faculty of Oriental Languages at St. Petersburg, and the pages of the separate offprint are numbered 337–365. In

it the learned author passes in review the bas-reliefs and paintings at Bharhut, Ajanta, and Boro Budur. The text is, unfortunately, in Russian, but, with the help

of Mr. Ross, I have been able to make out the results arrived at. These are as follows :—

Bharhut.

Plate xviii. Vidhūra Palṇḍita Jātaka 542.12

xxv. 1. Ruru Jātaka 482.1 2. Kakkaṭa Jātaka 267.

3. Episode of Mahā Ummagga Jātaka. 4. Mughapakkha Jātaka.

xxvi. 5. Latukikā Jātaka 357. 6. Chaddanta Jātaka 514.

7. Alambusa Jātaka 523. 8. Aṇḍabhūta Jātaka 62.

xxvii. 9. Kurunga-miga Jātaka 206. 10. Sandhibheda Jātaka 349.

11. Nacca Jātaka 32. 12. Bhallāṭiya Jātaka 504.

13

13. Asadisa Jātaka 181. xxxiii. 4. Mahā-kapi Jātaka 407.

xli. 1, 3. Camma-sātaka Jātaka 324.

12

This is rather the Nigrodha Miga Jātaka No. 12, as is clear from the doe in the front of the scene laying her bead on the block (as pointed out already in my “Buddhist Birth Stories,” 1880, p. cii).

13 As this is called Kinnara Jātaka on the stone, the Canda Kinnara Jātaka No. 465 may also be compared,

especially as it is also illustrated at Buddha Gayā (Rāj. Mitra, pl. xxxiv, fig. 2).

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xliii. 2, 8. Miga-potaka Jātaka 372.

xliv. 2. Mahā-janaka Jātaka 539. xlv. 5. Ārāma-dūsaka Jātaka 46 and 268.

7. Kapota Jātaka 42. xlvi. 2. Dabbha-puppha Jātaka 400.

8. Dūbhiya-makkaṭa Jātaka 174. xlvii. 3. Sujāta Jātaka 352.

5. Kukuṭa Jātaka 383. xlviii. 2. Makhā-deva Jataka 9.

7. Bhisa Jātaka 488.

There are twenty-five bas-reliefs almost certainly illustrative of Jātaka stories

which still remain unidentified. Of the above twenty-six identifications, eighteen were given in the list appended to my “Buddhist Birth Stories”; the remaining eight

have been discovered by various scholars since.

Ajanta.

Some of the paintings described by Burgess, in the Ninth Report of the

Archæological Survey of Western India (Bombay, 1879), are identified as follows:—

Page 32. Cave ii. Nos. 8, 9. Mahā-haṃsa Jātaka 534. 38. ii. 27. Ruru Jātaka 482.

47. ix. 1. Siri Jātaka 499. 50. x. Chaddanta Jātaka 514.

65. xvii. 19. Mahā-haṃa Jātaka 534. 66. xvii. 22–24. Vessantara Jātaka.

67. xvii. 25. Mahā-kapi Jātaka 516. 70. xvii. 26, 27. Māti-posaka Jātaka 455.

71. xvii. 38. Sāma Jātaka. 71. xvii. 39. Mahiṣa Jātaka 278.

75. xvii. 54. Siri Jātaka 499. 81. ii. outside. Khantivāda Jātaka 313.

Boro Budur.

The following plates in the magnificent series of reproductions in line engraving

of the bas-reliefs at this ruin, published by the Dutch Government, are also identified with certain Jātakas in the Jātaka Mālā, as shown by the following

table:—

73

PLATES

4. ÇRESṬḤI

cxxxviii. 16. The Merchant takes his Food.

17. Hell. Pratyekabuddha. 18. Pratyekabuddha flies away.

cxxxix. 24. Wild Beasts bring Gifts to Indra.

6. ÇAÇA

25. The Hare prepares to throw itself into the Fire.

8. MAITRĪBALA.

cxli. 31, 32. Five Frogs (?) and the Shepherd. cxlii. 33, 34. Emperor Maitrībala and the Frogs (?).

9. VIÇVANTARA.

37. The Elephant is given over.

38. The Children of Viçvantara. 39. The Frogs (?) carry off Viçvantara.

13. UNMĀDAYANTĪ.

cxlvi. 48. Unmādayantī is offered as wife to the Emperor.

49. The Emperor’s Envoy and the Unmādayantī. 50. The Envoy gives the “reconing” [?] to the Emperor.

cxlvii. 51. Meeting of the Emperor with the Unmādayantī.

14. SUPIIRAGA.

52. The Merchants on the Sea.

15. MATSYA.

cxlviii. 56. Fish in the Lake before the Rain. 57. Fish after the Rain.

16. VARTAKĀ- POTAKA.

58. The Quail in the Nest at the time of the Fire.

17. KUMBH A.

cxlix. 59. Indra before the Emperor, with a jar.

18. BISA.

cli. 65. 66. The Hermit in the Wood.

clii. 68. Indra.

74

21. CAḌḌABODHI

cliii. 73. Man and Woman go out into the Wood. 74. The Emperor in the Wood.

75. The Hermit carries the Woman off. [Or vice-versa.]

22. ḤAMSA.

cliv. 77. Swans on the Lake. 78. They tell the Emperor about the Swans.

78. Hunter takes some Swans. clv. 81. Interview of the Swan with the Emperor. [A fragment.]

25. ÇARABHA.

clvii. 90. The Emperor rides out to Hunt.

91. The Emperor in the Gorge. 92. Çarabba carries the Emperor through.

clviii. 93. Çarabba’s Farewell.

26. RURU

clix. 95. Wild Beasts in the Wood. 96. The Drowned (men) and Ruru.

97. The Emperor in the Wood. 98. Ruru’s Sermon.

27. MAHĀ-KAPI

clx. 99, 100. Fruit is brought to the Emperor (?).

101. The Emperor prepares to look for the Fruit. 102. The Apes save themselves in Flight.

28. KṢĀNTI

clxi. 103. The Sleeping Emperor.

104. The Emperor in search of Wives.

29. BRAHMA.

clxiii. 111. Brahma reads the Sermon to the Emperor.

30. HASTI.

clxiv. 112. The Elephant and one of the Travelers. 113. The Travelers.

114. The Elephant makes ready to throw itself down. 115. The Travelers do honor to the remains of the Elephant.

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31 SUTASOMA

clxv. 116. Sutasoma and the Brahmin. 117. Saudāsa carries off Sutasoma.

118. Sutasoma listens to the maxims of the Brahmin. 119. Sutasoma reads the Sermon to Saudāsa and the Prince.

32. AYOGAHA.

clxvi. 120. Birth of the Prince.

123. Expedition of the Prince. clxviii. 127. The Prince becoming a Hermit.

33. MAHIṢA.

clxix. 129. The Ape and the Ox.

130. The Frog asks the Ox why he tolerates the Ape? 132. The Frog listens to the Ox’s Sermon.

34 ÇATAPATTRA

clxx. 134. The Lion who has a bone in his throat.

135. The Woodpecker extracts the bone from the Lion’s throat.

136. The Woodpecker converses with the Lion.

There is no need to apologize for reproducing in a form more accessible than the Russian original these very interesting results of Prof. Serge D’Oldenbourg’s work.

To make, in the absence of any guiding inscriptions, such identifications as these, requires rare gifts of attention and of memory; and the results here set forth show

the only way along which the many still unidentified bas-reliefs can be explained.

TW

GURU-PŪJĀ-KAUMUDĪ. Small 4to, pp. 128, with a Plate. (Leipzig: Harrassowitz,

1896.)

This very interesting volume contains thirty short papers on points of Indian

history or philology, written by as many friends and pupils of Professor Weber and presented to him by way of congratulation on the jubilee of his doctorate of

philosophy in the University of Breslau. It is prefaced by an eloquent and graceful letter from Hofrath Dr. Georg Bühler, in which the splendid services rendered by

our distinguished Honorary Member through so many years to the cause of Indian research in all its branches, are set forth, and expression is given to the deep

76

feelings of gratitude and reverence with which he is regarded, not only by his own

pupils, but by scholars throughout the world.

It would be of course impossible within the limits of a book-notice in this

Journal, even if one had the necessary knowledge, to pass in review each of the thirty essays dealing with points so widely scattered over the whole field of Indian

study. Every Indianist must consult the volume itself, and more particularly for the questions coming within the range of his own specialty. But the whole volume is a

remarkable sign of the times in two directions, which have certainly not been present to the minds of the writers, and are therefore all the more suggestive.

This is the first volume published by a number of distinguished Oriental scholars in which (apart from the plate illustrative of a question of palæography) there is not

a single Oriental character employed. We have, of course, seen a similar phenomenon in the Journal of the Pāli Text Society. But that is a journal devoted to

only one branch of Indian history. And though, no doubt, the complete success of the use of transliteration as applied to Pāli has opened the eyes of other scholars;

still the prejudice in favor of Oriental type has been so strong, and has so many good reasons (and, what is of more importance, such powerful sentiments) in its

favor, that no-one, even a few years ago, would have expected so striking an occurrence. Professor Weber was one of the first to rise superior to the feeling

against transliteration, and to see that the balance of advantage lay, after all, on its side. It is a (no doubt quite unconscious) tribute to his foresight, that this gift

volume of affectionate regard should be entirely transliterated.

The second matter is really, to a great extent, dependent on this other. Of the

thirty essays, no less than one third deal with points of Pāli or other Buddhist subjects. Now, of course, most Sanskritists are willing, not only to admit, but to

maintain, that in the reconstruction of the temporarily lost history of Indian thought, documents in the prakrits must be allowed their proper value side by side

with documents in Sanskrit; and the ideas of Jains or Buddhists or other heretics are not, merely by their opposition to the Brahmanical theologies, on that account

of no importance. But these studies still rank only as bye-paths; and the necessity of mastering strange and uncouth alphabets would have gone a great way to deter

scholars from turning off from the beaten track. Here, again, Professor Albrecht Weber was one of the first to welcome all available evidence, whether expressed in

Sanskrit or not, and has been always eager to press forward—et nihil tetigit quod non lustravit—into unexplored fields of inquiry. It is especially fitting, therefore,

that this Festgabe to him should consist so largely of what, to a narrower

Sanskritist, would be extraneous studies. But this second tribute to his foresight is as un-designed as the other; and it marks a real step forward, which can now never

again be lost, in the method of Indian research.

77

We take this opportunity of adding our congratulations to those of Professor

Weber’s friends and pupils, and of echoing the wish that he may be long spared to enjoy the high position he has won in the world of scholars, and to add still further

by his creative work to the dignity and the value of the studies he has done so much to promote and foster.

TW

THE BUDDHIST PRAYING-WHEEL. By WILLIAM SIMPSON, M.R.A.S. 8vo, pp. 308. (London: Macmillan, 1896. Price 10s.)

Mr. Simpson has here given us a very interesting and instructive book. Starting with the so-called praying-wheel of the Tibetans, he points out what it really is,

and, with the aid of excellent illustrations, makes the wheel, and the method in which the Lamas use it, clear. He then proceeds to show that it is not a praying-

wheel at all; that the object aimed at is not prayer, but the repetition of a charm, Om maṇi padme hung (that is, Adoration! the Jewel in the Lotus), the Shad-akshara-mantra or Six-syllabled Charm.

This charm-cylinder is a piece of very ancient symbolism. It is found on coins as early as the time of Christ. It was not only in India that water was considered the

source of the universe; and the lotus floating on the water was probably, and perhaps still is, regarded as a symbol of the universe, and the jewel in it as a

symbol of the self-creative, or, rather, self-evolving, force which the Buddhists regarded as the only source of the universe. However this may be, there is a deep

mystic meaning in the six syllables of the charm; and one can easily follow how it has come to be believed so potent.

In the ancient sculptures at Sānchi, and on the modem representations of Buddha’s footprints in Ceylon, figures of the wheel play a great part. But this was

an entirely different wheel, the symbol not of the universe, but of the royal chariot wheel of the kingdom of righteousness which the Buddha set rolling on. And there

is yet a third Buddhist wheel, the symbol of the circle of transmigration, in which the unconverted man is, according to Buddhism, held to be bound fast. It is of the

utmost importance to a right understanding of the question to keep these three, entirely different, symbols distinct.

All three—the wheel of the universe, the wheel of sovereignty, and the wheel of life—are derived from the wheel of the sun. It was Buddhism, it is true, that

applied the second idea rather to the dominion of righteousness than to the outward, material dominion of an earthly king. But even in that portion of the

wheel symbolism it worked on older materials; and only (in this instance as in so

78

many others) gave a new and higher, more ethical, connotation to an already

existing expression.

It is not only the Buddhists who adopted this symbolism from the older Indian

faith. The Jains also have done so, as their sculptures recently discovered at Mathura and elsewhere clearly show. Unfortunately, there have not been found any

Brahminical representations of this symbol of a similarly ancient date. But it is mentioned, which is more important, in books of the Brahmins which are certainly

even far older. Not only the Brāhmaṇas, but even the Vedas themselves, refer to the wheel of the sun. The wheel of the universe is referred to in the Śvetāśvatara

Upanishad. This book is later than Buddhism, but the symbol is referred to incidentally in such a way that one cannot fail to see that the idea is old established

and well known. Only the wheel of life has not, so far, been traced back to literature older than Buddhism.

These passages from the older Brahmin books show clearly that the original idea was that of a solar wheel, and this not only explains why so much importance was

attached to the turning of it the way of the sun, but helps us also to trace the symbol still further back, to the time when the Aryan race had not yet entered

India. Mr. Simpson brings together a great deal of curious information on the Pradakshiṇa (or walking round an object of veneration with the right hand towards

it), and this not only from Indian (both Brahminical and Buddhist) sources, but from customs prevalent among the Greeks, the Kelts, and other Western nations.

And not only so; he traces the same, or similar, ideas in Egypt and Japan, among the Muhammadans, and Jews, and Christians; and shows how throughout the long

history of these strange customs the ideas of the wheel and of the sun lay at the beck of the popular superstitions and beliefs.

The volume is throughout profusely illustrated, and Mr. Simpson has added a capital index and a useful bibliography. In bringing together so great a mass of

material from all parts of the world, a number of incidental problems arise on which it is difficult to speak with absolute certainty. The moderation with which

the author keeps the balance, and does not attempt to push his conclusions further than they can fairly go, is very marked. He modestly calls his work a “collection of

materials,” and a very admirable collection it is. It is certainly the best book that has yet appeared on the subject; and the summary in the last chapter ably puts the

questions which the materials so brought together from many sources will help to solve.

TW

79

LES CASTES DANS L’INDE: LES FAITS ET LE SYSTÈME. Par ÉMILE SENART, Membre

de 1’Institut. 12mo, pp. 257. (Paris: Leroux, 1896.)

DIE SOCIALE GLIEDERUNG IM NORDÖSTLICHEN INDIEN ZU BUDDHA’S ZEIT. Von DR.

RICHARD FICK. Large 8vo, pp. 241. (Kiel: Haeseler.)

HINDU CASTES AND SECTS. By JOGENDRA NATH BHATTACHARYA, President of the

College of Pandits at Nadiya. 8vo, pp. 623. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1896. Price 12 Rupees.)

The number of books on Caste in India has been very large. And this is no wonder. For the institution, or custom, is not only interesting in itself from various

stand-points—historical, ethical, political—but is quite peculiar to India. All the important books on the subject are specified in M. Senart’s admirable little

volume, and are probably well known to our readers. It would be useless, therefore, to refer to them here, and it will suffice to recall to our minds that the theories put

forward as to the origin and meaning of caste are about equal in number to the books upon it, and are irreconcilable one with the other. It is a striking proof of the

genius of our distinguished Honorary Member, that having descended into so long-fought a fray with a tiny duodecimo essay, a reprint of three articles in a review,

14

he should have been able, after first dissipating the mists of delusion, to put forward a solution of the problem which is practically final. After reading the essay

the reader will see that it is not only the best treatment of the question we have had, but is the only treatment of it that any longer merits serious attention.

It is well known that the population of India is divided into a number of sections, which we call ‘castes,’ the members of which are debarred from the right of

intermarriage (connubium) and in constantly varying degrees from the right of eating together (commensality) with the members of other sections. The disastrous

effects, from the ethical, social, and political points of view, of the consequent restrictions have been often grossly exaggerated, and the advantages of the system

ignored. But it cannot be denied that the term ‘caste’ covers a state of things which it behooves the rulers of India, at least, clearly to understand. The Government has

accordingly spent large sums, and employed for lengthy periods the services of some of their ablest civilians, in the collection of elaborate evidence on the subject;

and the costly and valuable census returns have been largely tinged with the question. Nevertheless we do not know to this day how many castes there are, or

the exact degrees of restriction by endogamy and by exogamy, and by disabilities of various kinds as to meats and drinks, to which each caste is subject. The reports

are hazy as to what caste really means and implies, the most contradictory views as

14

Revue des deux mondes.

80

to the nature of caste have governed the minds of the collectors of evidence, and of

the census officials; and consequently (while the great value and importance of the results obtained are beyond question) it is difficult, and, indeed, in many cases

impossible, to compare these results together.

It would seem that there must be between two and three thousand such caste

divisions in India. And although this is only a vague guess, owing to the inexactitude of the returns pointed out by M. Senart (p. 17), it is enough to show

that the restrictions are not confined, after all, within such very narrow limits. The Brahmin law books suppose that all these castes are descended from an original

fourfold division into Brahmins, knights, tradespeople, and workpeople. Mr. Wesfield, Mr. Ibbetson, and Mr. Risley disregard this, and set up irreconcilable

theories. One of these is that castes are derived from occupations, another is that they are derived from differences of race. M. Senart, agreeing that the Brahmin

theory cannot be admitted, is easily able to show that neither of the other theories at all cover the facts which the writers of the reports have themselves brought

together. They lie, in fact, open to the same objections as those that make it impossible to explain the origin of religion by any one cause, such as ghost-

worship, phallus-worship, or sun-worship. Some castes, no doubt, are occupation-castes, some are race-castes, some are religion-castes; but no one of these

explanations is sufficient, alone, to explain the varied results that lie before us in the returns; no one of them, standing alone, is based on a large enough historical

induction.

Now we have long known that the connubium was the cause of a determined

struggle between the patricians and the plebeians in Rome; and evidence has been yearly accumulating on the existence of restrictions as to intermarriage, and as to

the right of eating together, among other Aryan tribes—Greek, Germane, Russians, and so on. Even without the evidence of the existence, now, of such restrictions

among the modern successors of the Aryans in India, it would have been almost certain that the ancient Aryan tribes, there also, were subject to the same divisions.

The facts of caste make it certain. More than this, restrictions as to connubium and commensality are not confined to Aryan races. It is probable that the notion of such

customs was familiar enough to some, at least, of the races that preceded the Aryans in India. The basis of such customs as regards marriage is always,

wherever they exist, a threefold one—a section (parallel to our modern tables of affinity) within which a man cannot marry; a larger section within which he can;

and all the rest of the world with whom he cannot intermarry. Both the spirit, and to a large degree the actual details, of the restrictions of caste are identical with

these ancient, worldwide, and especially Aryan, customs. It is in them that we have the key to the origin of caste.

81

M. Senart shows how the growth of strong political and national feelings

constantly tended, in the West, to weaken, and at last succeeded in removing, these restrictions. He suggests that the absence of such feelings in India may be one

reason why the disabilities have not, also there, been gradually softened away. It is, indeed, very suggestive for the right understanding of Indian history, that they

should, on the contrary, have become so permanent a factor in Indian life. The problem remaining is to trace in the literature the gradual growth of the system—

the gradual formation of new sections among the people; the gradual extension of the caste-system to the families of people engaged in the same trade, belonging to

the same sect, tracing their ancestry (whether rightly or wrongly) to the same source. All these factors, and others besides, are real factors. But they are phases of

the extension and growth, not explanations of the origin, of the system. It is, of course, impossible in a short summary of this sort to state the case with all the

necessary limitations and reserves with which it is put forward in the essays themselves. Everyone interested in the subject must read M. Senart’s book. It is

only possible here to show the general lines along which the argument, so soberly and convincingly put forward, is there carried on.

Dr. Fick’s work is an admirable example of the way in which such a study of caste in the literature should be conducted. He has wisely chosen a series of texts

the date of which is (sufficiently, at least, for the purpose of his inquiry) practically ascertainable; and the Buddhist texts he works on have the further advantage that

the facts mentioned in them are not coloured by any preconceived notions, are recorded by men independent of the Brahmin influence, and are referred to quite

incidentally. He shows conclusively that there was not then (just as there is not now, and never has been) any Brahmin caste in India. There are many castes of

Brahmins who follow all sorts of occupations, which is a very different thing. In the same way there is no Khattiya caste; there is a social class of bureaucrats, a

governing class, which is also a very different thing. And there is no caste of tradespeople (Vessā); there is a social class of Seṭṭhis, and many different castes

associated with trade of various kinds. M. Senart is here in error in supposing that Gahapati is used in Buddhist literature as a name for the Vessā. ‘We hear of

Brahmin Gahapatis as well as of Seṭṭhi Gahapatis and plain Gahapatis; and the

passage he quotes in support of his proposition mentions, not the Gahapati, but the Kulaputta; and it might be suggested that his description of the Brahmin

Cātuvanṇya theory as a designation of what was really not four castes, but four

classes, should be so far modified that it should read rather “four groups of castes,”

than four “classes.”

All the passages relating to these higher ranks are worked out by Dr. Fick with

great completeness and admirable judgment. The lower grades are less fully dealt

82

with. A man is often described in the Piṭaka books with a compound ending in -

putta and preceded by the name of an occupation (kevaṭṭa-putta, assāroha-putta, and so on). This does not mean that he was the son of a fisherman, etc., but that he

was “of the sons of the fisherfolk,’’ that he belonged to the class of fishermen. There can be very little doubt that in most cases, if not in all, it is a caste also, not

merely a class, that is implied. Then there is frequent mention of Nesādas, Kirātas, Pukkusas, Candālas, and other sections, which are evidently castes. It would be an

excellent plan to collect all such references with the view of seeing what numerical, geographical, social, and other conclusions could be safely drawn. Dr.

Fick has referred to cases mentioned in the Jātaka of the customs relating to technical purity and impurity, to the connubium, and to commensality. It would be

a valuable addition to his essay to collect all similar cases from the Piṭaka books. The present essay gives us only isolated specimens; and it is only because what we

have is so important and interesting that we wish for more of a similar kind.

The third work on our list is of quite a different order. In it we have the existing

caste divisions dealt with, strictly from the Brahmin point of view, each in a short section. The list is not exhaustive, and the statements under each section are not

exhaustive. The only attempts at explanation are a series of classifications and generalizations drawn up with much ingenuity, tending to support the Brahmin

position, and having very little relation to the facts. In the sections devoted to the subdivisions consequent on the various religious movements of later times, we

have usually a sketchy life of the founder and a superficial account of the tenets of the school. We there learn that all that does not fit in with the sentiments of

orthodox Brahmins is bad, thoroughly bad, bad form. The author has no kind word to say for any person, or for any opinion, outside the charmed circle. And herein

lies the value of the book. It gives us an excellent picture of the tone and spirit that have had so much influence, through the centuries, in shaping the caste-system of

India. It is an instructive guide to the intricacies of the feelings by which the various grades and castes and divisions are nicely weighed in a balance and placed

in just their proper social position. It enables us to see the whole complex organization through Brahmin spectacles.

TW

INDIAN CHRONOLOGY. An Essay by P. C. MUKERJEE. pp. 95. (Lucknow: “Express” Office, 1899. Price, One Rupee.)

This essay by Mr. Mukerjee, who was employed by the Government on archaeological work last year, is a bold attempt to reconcile the acknowledged

difficulties of early Indian Chronology. For some time past European scholars have

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been satisfied by the working hypothesis put forward by Cunningham which fixes

the date of the Buddha’s death at 477 B.C. This was arrived at by adding 218 years, the time stated in the Ceylon Chronicles to have elapsed between the death of the

Buddha and the inauguration of Asoka, to the date of Asoka as fixed by the names of the Greek princes referred to in the Edicts. In other words, the hypothesis rejects

the tradition handed down in the Ceylon Chronicles as to the dates of Asoka and of the Buddha, but accepts that tradition as to the interval between the two. As the

hypothesis does not pretend to give any reason for its thus blowing hot and cold on the same authority, it must at least be admitted that it is not very logical.

Mr Mukerjee points out that, as the Jain and Brahmin chronologies are in practical agreement with the Ceylon books as to the date of the Buddha and the

Mahāvira, that date (circa 620–540 B.C.) ought not so easily to be set aside. And he

proposes, as a reconciliation between it and the Greek dates, to identify Asoka the Maurya (and not his grandfather) with the Greek Sandracottus. Candragupta, he

points out, is a biruda, or title only, and not a name. Grandfather and grandson may well have had the same title, as in the case of the other two Candraguptas in the

fourth century A.D. It is to this Candragupta Asoka Devanam-piya Piyadassi that the pillar edicts are to be assigned. And it is to his grandson, Sampati Devanam-

piya Piyadassi, that the rock edicts, mentioning the five Greek princes, are to be assigned. In both cases we find only Devanam-piya Piyadassi in the inscriptions,

and have hitherto taken this to mean Asoka the Mauryan throughout. All will be

made clear if we, in interpreting the title, interpret it in two ways instead of in one.

Mr. Mukerjee supports this startling reconstruction by a number of arguments,

and carries his results out with regard to other names. Thus, of the two Asokas he identifies the first with Nanda, the patron of the Vesāli Council. It would be

impossible in the course of a short notice to enter into the discussion of these

numerous subsidiary points on which his main argument is based. That would require at least a lengthy article, not to say a book as long as his own. He makes his

best points, and some of them are very good, when he is showing how unsatisfactory, and how difficult to reconcile with admitted data, is the working

hypothesis which at present holds the field. The positive part of the argument is weaker; and does not sufficiently deal with the arguments, set out for instance by

M. Senart, in favour of the unity of authorship of all the edicts. It is evident, indeed, throughout that the author has not properly read the greatest authority on

the inscriptions of Piyadassi. That authority wrote, no doubt, in French, which he does not understand. But he ought at least to have considered more carefully the

English translations which appeared in the Indian Antiquary.

It is a pity, too, that the essay does not give authorities for more of the

statements it quotes. Authorities are given; but not enough. “The Tibetans say” or

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“the Jainas say” is no use at all. We want to know the date and author of the

statement. Even “the Mahāvaṃa says” is not enough. We want chapter and verse.

What is the use of giving as the sole authority for the statement that one Kāśyapa

built a certain monastery in 443 A.D., Mrs. Sinnett’s “Five Years of Theosophy.” It would have been better to have omitted the statement, which is of little or no

importance for the author’s main position. So loose a method of writing only prejudices the reader against the logical weight of the author he is reading.

At the same time it cannot be denied that there is much that is suggestive in this essay; and it is interesting to find a native of India even attempting to tackle a

question involving frequent reference to Buddhist and Greek authorities with which Indians are not usually familiar. Some such hypothesis as the author’s will,

no doubt, be eventually accepted in place of the working hypothesis now so generally and unquestionably taken for granted. That is admittedly unsatisfactory.

Whether the hypothesis to be eventually followed will be the one here put forward is another question. But the essayist certainly deserves great credit not only for

raising the question, but for having devoted such wide reading and so much thought to its solution.

BUDDHISMO. PER PAOLO EMILIO PAVOLINI. 12mo, pp. xv and 163. (Hoepli: Milan,

1898.)

This is a new manual of Buddhism, giving 30 pages to the life of Gotama, 26

pages to Buddhism, 26 to the Order, 38 to an analysis of the Piṭakas, and 22 to an account of the books written in Europe on Buddhism. The sketch of Buddhism

consists of short accounts of Karma and of the five skandhas, of the four stages of

the Path to Nirvāṇa, and of Nirvāṇa itself, and of the so-called Chain of Causation

(the Paticca-samuppāda), and a few words on Thāna.

It is, of course, impossible in so small a compass, the size of the manual being determined by that of the numerous other works in the series, to include

everything; and Signor Pavolini has grouped the matter he has chosen for notice according to the well-known Buddhist division of the three “jewels” Buddha,

Dharma, and Sangha. This division was very naturally adopted in the first European manuals. But the time has now come when it may with advantage be

discarded, at least as regards the proportion of space to be allotted to each. Now

that we know how very little the oldest records have to say about the life of the Buddha, the space devoted to that portion of the exposition might be safely

curtailed by the omission of later legends, and the exposition of the Rules of the Order might with advantage give place to the history of Buddhism as a whole—

that is, of the development both outwardly of the church and inwardly of the

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doctrine. In this last respect the present manual sets a good example, and the author

has made another excellent innovation in giving a resume of the contents of the canonical books, as I have done in my “American Lectures.” The space devoted to

European works has scarcely been so happily utilized. The chapter has been very well done. But it has been necessary in a historical sketch of some fullness to

mention a number of works now antiquated, and a number of modern tracts of comparatively little importance to a student. The space thus occupied would

probably have been better devoted to a fuller account of Buddhism, of which the few points chosen for notice (as above pointed out) give too meagre and one-sided

a picture.

Though one might wish the proportion of space devoted to each portion of the

subject somewhat modified, it is impossible to find anything but praise for the matter that we have. It is only possible to suggest one or two points which might be

amended in a second edition. The account of the Jālandhara Council differs from

that given by Yuan Thsiang, and the author (p. 101) gives no reason for his departing in this respect from his authority. So on p. 141 he describes the

Mahāvastu as an avadāna, but the work itself claims to belong to the Vinaya, to be

in fact the Vinaya of the Lokottara-vādins: though it contains a good deal of what

would properly come under the head of avadāna, it contains a great deal more

which would not. The little volume is remarkably free from misprints, and it is

matter for congratulation that the first work of the kind in Italian should be throughout of so careful and so scholarly a kind.

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MANUAL OF INDIAN BUDDHISM. By H. KERN. 8vo, pp.137. (Strassburg: Trübner & Co. Price 7s.)

In this beautifully printed volume (the printer is Drugulin, of Leipzig), we have the Buddhist books discussed in twelve pages, and then about thirty pages each

devoted to the life of the Buddha, Buddhism, the Buddhist Order, and the outlines of the history of the Buddhist community.

Of the books we learn that the Pāli Sutta Piṭaka in substance probably existed in the third century B.C., and that the Rules of the Order are still older. The Sanskrit

books are but partially known, and their dates are quite uncertain. The expression “Northern Buddhists” for the various sects to which they belong is said (p. 3) not

to be accurate, and it is a pity that the learned author has not therefore discarded the use of it. At the end of this catalogue of books we have a page on Indian

thought and ideals at the time of the rise of Buddhism, and it is pointed out in a note that the idea of Māyā (in the sense of the “illusion” of the later thinkers) was

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current then. This is surely an error. The word has not yet been traced (in that

sense) in any work older than the Pāli Piṭakas, nor in them. Though Śankara reads the idea into the pre-Buddhistic Upanishads, it is, as a matter of fact, not to be

found there.

In the second part, the Life of the Buddha, the plan followed is to give, in the

author’s own words, an abstract of the account as found in Buddhist books of various dates and the product of various schools. Thus, for the first part we are told

that it is mainly based upon the Nidāna Kathā (which, by-the-bye, is wrongly stated to have been translated by Chalmers); and in the subsequent parts other

authorities are abstracted in the same way, and the details are completed from various sources.

Now the beliefs of the Buddhists concerning the personal history of Gotama have varied in every time and country, growing in magnificence as the interval of

time grows greater. Our author regards them all with impartiality, and brings them together in a narrative which has the merit of comprehensiveness, but also the

disadvantage of not representing any phase of Buddhism that ever existed. When the various accounts of a supposed episode in the life of the Buddha, written by

authors differing from one another by centuries in date and by thousands of miles in domicile, are welded together in a new account differing, both by omission and

by addition, from each and all of those on which it is based, we obtain a fresh version of the story that is eclectic, it is true, but that corresponds to no one stage in

the history of Buddhist belief. It is difficult to see what use can be made of this. The student does not even get the author’s own view, either as to what really

happened or as to the growth of the story. If the various accounts were given side by side, there would at least be the materials out of which a life of the Buddha, or a

history of the lives of the Buddha, might afterwards be constructed. But the narratives are not preserved in their original form. It is impossible for the reader to

know whether the words he is reading are those of the compiler, or of the Buddhist author he has principally, at the time, in his mind. No student will care to wade

through arid reproductions in this style of ancient legends, whose beauty and poetry (often their only merit) have evaporated under the effect of an

unsympathetic travesty in what is, necessarily, a cursory abstract.

In the description of Buddhism a similar method is followed. We have not the

Buddhism of any one age or country; and as it was, of course, impossible to set out the whole of Buddhism, a selection has been made from various sources. No two

authors would probably, under the circumstances, make exactly the same selection. In fact, the early Buddhists, in putting into the Buddha’s own mouth summaries of

his view of life, of his religion, have chosen in different suttas different words. We have one very interesting such summary, for instance, in the Sāmaññaphala Sutta,

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though it is confined, as the name implies, to the Buddhist view of the advantages

to be gained through life in the Order. Not only are all these ancient summaries of Buddhism ignored, but the selection here made is charged with a quite different

tone and spirit; and if there be any truth at all in the views put forward by the oldest authorities we have, the Buddha would scarcely recognize it as an exposition

of his doctrine. The disadvantage of this would be somewhat compensated for if the doctrine here set out had been held at any time, by the Buddhists of any age or

country, as their faith. We should then have a picture, if not of original Buddhism, yet of the Buddhism of some later stage; and that would be useful for purposes of

comparison. Unfortunately that is not the case. Early and late are mingled together. And we have not the advantage, which would be very great, of Professor Kern’s

own views as to the manner or degree in which the growth or change took place.

The defects of the system thus followed are sufficiently obvious. But should any

wish to see what can be made out of it by a scholar of great learning and philological acumen, he would do better to consult the present author’s larger work

entitled “Het Buddhisme,” of which the one before us is, in great part, a compilation. In the older work there is a better proportion of space in which to set

out the system, and it is accompanied (in the German translation) by a capital index. There is no index to this one.

TW

ASOKA, THE BUDDHIST EMPEROR OF INDIA. By VINCENT A. SMITH, M.R.A.S. pp. 204. (Rulers of India Series. Oxford Press, Price 3s. 6d.)

I had undertaken to write the book on Asoka for this series, but the very scanty leisure available to me was not sufficient to enable me to get that work ready in

time, and I was very glad to hear that Mr. Vincent Smith would undertake it. He has produced an admirable little book, just what was wanted, popular, and at the

same time scholarly, giving in brief the cream of the results so far obtained by the study of such evidence as we have on the history of Asoka.

The main evidence is, of course, the edicts promulgated by Asoka himself, and engraved by his orders on stone pillars and rocks throughout his extensive empire.

Te ones already discovered amount in number to thirty-four, and it is not doubted that others will yet be found. But this evidence is supplemented, and often rendered

intelligible, by other information derived from three sources—the details, derived mostly from Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador at the court of Patna, which have

been preserved in scanty and imperfect notices by later Greek writers; the statements, often correct and often legendary, of later Indian writers, including the

Ceylon chroniclers; and the incidental references, often correct and often

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legendary, made by the Chinese pilgrims in the fourth, sixth, and eighth centuries,

to the Buddhist shrines in India. Of these the Greek notices are the most reliable, being much older; and it is from Greek sources that the real date of Asoka has been

fixed within a year or two. But the traditions of India, as handed down by the Sanskrit, Pāli, and Chinese writers, though centuries later, have also preserved,

amid much legend and distortion, material of value for the critical historian.

The plan of the book is accordingly very simple. In the first chapters, occupying

about a hundred pages, the author gives an account, derived from all the sources, of the historical facts ascertainable about Asoka and his monuments. There then

follows a complete translation, occupying 45 pages, in English, of all the edicts. These have all been translated before, most of them several times; but these former

translations are scattered through numerous learned publications; and this is the first time that the whole have been published consecutively in English. Then

follows a summary, in 12 pages, of such traditions about Asoka, current in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. at Anurādhapura, as have been preserved in the

Dīpavaṃsa and the Mahāvaṃsa; and finally, in the last chapter of 21 pages, we have a similar summary of such traditions about Asoka, current from the third to

the seventh century in India, as have been preserved in the Asokāvadāna or by the Chinese pilgrims.

The first and most important part is exceedingly well done. Without entering into any lengthy or learned discussions, and simply ignoring the later traditions

except in so far as they throw light on, or are confirmed by, the earlier evidence, the author, with sound judgment, and in well-written and easy style, tells us what

the cultured reader, who has neither time nor inclination to study the edicts word for word, would wish to know. The translation of the edicts, chiefly based, of

course, on the invaluable discussions and renderings of Senart and of Bühler, is also a distinct success, both readable and accurate. For the object in view it was not

desirable to enter into discussion with the great scholars who have differed in the interpretation of isolated words; but occasionally, in cases of importance, such

divergences are referred to in the few short notes, which are brief and clear, and well chosen. It was a happy idea of the author to put a title to each edict; and the

titles chosen are such as assist the reader to appreciate more clearly the object the royal author of the edicts had in view.

One of the most distinguished of our Honorary Members is said to have advised the author of a learned work: “Be sure to leave an error or two. You really must

think of the poor reviewer! “And I suppose, as a reviewer, one ought to find some fault. It is not easy; but there are two objects of Mr. Vincent Smith’s antipathy I

should like to say a word for. He says (p. 7) that he has—

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“shunned the pedantic atrocities of international transliteration

systems, which do not shrink from presenting Krishna in the guise of Kṛṣṇa, Champi as Kampâ, and so on.”

Now this is really very funny. For the international system expressly contemplates the use in popular works of such forms as Krishna (which may fairly

be regarded as an English word); and it has expressly rejected the italic k as a representation of the sound of the English ch. One is sorry to find so sound a

scholar, who all through the book transliterates rightly enough, going over, on

grounds so mistaken, to the camp of the enemy. Correct transliteration is, on practical grounds, a considerable aid to the spread of knowledge, and it will,

sooner or later, be generally adopted. The international system has been very carefully considered by a number of scholars of some eminence, for whom the

author has, no doubt, a sincere respect; and it has been formally recognized by the Society. But it has still to contend against that sort of sentimental antipathy to

which the author gives such forcible expression. And his phrase may be used by the opponents of correct transliteration, who will not, perhaps, always think it

necessary to add that his actual practice shows him to be really on the other side.

The other case is of a similar kind. The author seems unable to mention the

Ceylon chroniclers—the unknown author of the Dīpavaṃsa, and Mabānāma the author of the Mahāvaṃsa—without a strange ferocity. Three or four times he stops

to turn and rend these unfortunate old writers. Are they really so much more mendacious than other chroniclers—the English ones, for instance? Is it quite so

certain that they deliberately invented lies? Another hypothesis is at least equally possible, namely, that they were placing on record the tradition current at the time

and place when they wrote, and that they were quite sincere in supposing themselves to be contributing useful work in doing so. Those traditions must, of

course, be used under the guidance of the accepted laws of historical criticism relating to the use of such material. But it is quite feasible to observe those laws

without forgetting the debt of gratitude we owe to the author whose work the original decipherer of Asoka’s edicts found so indispensable a help. Mahānāma

was a monk, it must be admitted. But so also were the English chroniclers, and the Chinese pilgrims. He believed in the miraculous. So did they. He has preserved

traditions, quite useful as evidence of the belief in his time, and of little or no value as evidence of events centuries before. So did they. He tells us legends which he

himself believed, and which we do not. But so did the Chinese pilgrims, of whom Mr. Vincent Smith, very rightly, speaks with courtesy and respect, simply ignoring

their miracles, and making what use is critically possible of what else they say. In these two just parallel cases the author’s treatment of the pilgrims is an excellent

model of what the treatment of the chroniclers might have been. And if I,

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personally, in the case of the famous old pilgrim, would confess, further, to a

feeling of affectionate regard towards the personality revealed in the “Life” and the “Travels,” it may be remembered that we know but little of the personality of

Mahānāma, and that we may not be so far wrong, after all, if we give him the benefit of the doubt (to which even an accused person is usually considered

entitled), and suppose that he, too, may have been a fairly estimable man.

One point is quite certain. The chronology found in the chronicles is not the

work of Mahānāma. Even if it be a mendacious fiction (and mistakes in chronology may be due to other causes than that), it existed already before the time

of the author of the Dīpavaṃsa, who was some generations older than Mahānāma. Mahānāma would at once, therefore, on this issue, be declared by an impartial

court “not guilty.” And in a greater or less degree the same argument holds good of most of the other cases in which the author sees fit to reject Mahānāma’s

testimony. It would almost seem that the author, when speaking of the chronicles as “a tissue of absurdities” or as “mendacious monkish legends,” is scarcely on a

line with the universal opinion of modern scholars about such works. He says elsewhere (J.R.A.S., 1901, p. 843) of two similar documents—

“If, then, one is pure fiction and the other is serious history, the distinction is certainly not apparent on the face of the documents.”

But, surely, the unanimous verdict of other scholars would be quite simple. Neither is either. No one dreams of taking such late legends, preserved centuries

after the event by well-meaning but biased monks, learned only in the learning of their time—whether English, Chinese, or Sinhalese—as sober history. No one

expects to find such chroniclers versed in historical criticism; or even averse to recording what we now think absurd. On the other hand, the hypothesis of

deliberate lying, of conscious forgery, is now in such cases generally discredited; and it is not supposed that such legends are, on the part of the chroniclers, pure

fiction. It is difficult, therefore, to understand why any hard words should be necessary at all in this particular case, and we are quite unable to see any essential

difference between the Ceylon Bhikshus and the Chinese pilgrims.

But the reader will see that the expressions objected to are merely obiter dicta.

They have nothing to do with the main line of the argument. Their effect is only therefore to jar upon the reader, not to impair the value of this very able sketch of

Asoka, certainly the greatest native sovereign in India, and one of the most interesting and impressive personalities among the sovereigns of the world.

TW

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INDIENS KULTUR IN DER BLÜTHEZEIT DES BUDDHISMUS. KÖNIG ASOKA: von

EDMUND HARDY. (Muiuz: Kirchheim, 1902.)

This beautifully illustrated and extraordinarily cheap volume—it costs only four

shillings—is one of a series on “The World’s History in Character-pictures.” The publisher of the series has been fortunate to obtain the services of so able a writer

and so careful a scholar as Professor Hardy for this particular volume. It is true that the popular nature of the whole series has precluded the author from the discussion

of those doubtful points in the biography of the great Buddhist sovereign which would have given the best scope for his special knowledge. But the hand of the

scholar is traceable throughout.

We have first an account of Alexander’s invasion of India. It is incidentally

noticed that copper coins struck then and there by Alexander, in just the square form of the Indian currency of the time, are still extant. A figure of one of these

coins now in the Old Museum in Berlin is given in illustration The author is of opinion that it was the invasion of Alexander that gave rise in India to the idea of a

Cakravartī, of a sovereign of the world. In my little manual (p. 220) I have said, speaking of Caudragupta, not of Alexander: “Is it surprising that this unity of

power in one man made a deep impression upon them? Is it surprising that, like the Romans worshipping Augustus or like Greeks adding the glow of the sun-myth to

the glory of Alexander, the Indians should have formed an ideal of their Cakravartī, and transferred to this new ideal many of the dimly sacred and half

understood traits of the Vedic heroes? Is it surprising that the Buddhists should have recognized in their hero the Cakravartī of righteousness, and that the story of

the Buddha should have become tinged with the colouring of these Cakravartī myths?”

This does not say in so many words that the idea was not older than Candragupta. But that was probably in my mind; and I take the present opportunity

of saying that, for the reasons given in this book, it was almost certainly Alexander, and not Candragupta, whose power and career first gave strength to this

old conception of the king of the golden age, so powerful ever afterwards in the minds of the peoples of India.

There then follows an account of Asoka’s life as crown prince: and incidentally we have the very interesting question discussed whether the two bas-reliefs on the

eastern Toraṇa at Sānchi do not represent the state processions at the time of the taking of the Bo Tree from Budh Gayā to Ceylon. Dr. Grünwedel was the first to

suggest this. Dr. Burgess (pp. 70–72 of the English edition) has adopted his view. Professor Hardy (pp. 10, 11) evidently thinks it is probably right, and makes the

further suggestion that the two figures above the peacock (mayūra, mora) may be

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meant for Asoka and his wife. It is well known that Asoka’s clan-name, Maurya, is

derived from the peacock. The question is a difficult one to discuss without plates; and Professor Hardy’s are much larger, clearer, and better than any we have yet

had.

The description of Asoka’a activity after he ascended the throne is based on the

inscriptions, but illustrations of a most suggestive kind are throughout adduced both from the literature and from the monuments. And attention is directed (p. 24)

to the point, sometimes overlooked, that royal edicts are not always entirely to be trusted, even when their meaning is not open to doubt. We are glad to see that the

author understands the sambodhi exactly in the sense in which it is taken in the “Dialogues of the Buddha,” 1. 190–192. And the observations at pp. 29–31 are

both new and true. It has been sometimes supposed that it was Asoka who gave importance to Buddhism. On the contrary, says Professor Hardy, Asoka, always

intent on practical political results, probably chose Buddhism, not so much on account of its peculiar doctrines, as because it was already the creed of the

majority, and therefore politically more important than other creeds. This is an exact analogy (he might have added) to the relation of Constantine to Christianity.

The book is full of suggestive points of this kind, and we trust that the author will find opportunity to publish more in full his views on several subjects,

especially, for instance, on the chronology of the edicts and on the interpretation of the Bhabra Edict, on both of which he differs from M. Senart.

TW

BUDDHIST ART IN INDIA. Translated from the “Handbuch” of ALBERT GRÜNWEDEL by AGNES L. GIBSON. Revised and enlarged by JAS. BURGESS. (London:

Quaritch, 1901.)

The original handbook on which this work is based was noticed at some length

in this Journal when it appeared in 1893, and the hope was expressed that, as it was the best book on the subject, it would be translated into English. The best possible

fulfilment of this wish lies before us in the present handsome volume, brought out under the supervision of the veteran archæologist to whom students of the history

of Indian art are already so much indebted.

The letterpress in the English work is about twice as long as that in the original

German, and the number of illustrations is 154 as against 73. This is partly due to additions made in the second edition of the German, and partly to additions made

by the English editor. It would not be possible, without a detailed examination of all three editions, to apportion the various parts of the present volume to their

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respective authors, and no one will think such an examination worthwhile. Dr.

Burgess, with his usual modesty, has only affixed his initials here and there to a note. But his work has not been at all confined to the notes so distinguished, and he

has added many of the illustrations. What we have, then, is all that is contained in the German edition, elucidated and added to by the most competent authority in

England. The result is a volume quite indispensable to anyone, whether in Europe or in India, who is occupying himself with the real meaning and history of Indian

art; and it would scarcely be possible to estimate too highly the debt they owe to both author and editor.

As a general account of the work has already been given, it will suffice here to make a few suggestions for the new edition, which will certainly be wanted, and

will, we hope, be wanted soon. As will be observed, most of these suggestions have little or nothing to do with art, and are therefore matters which probably have

not been considered.

Throughout the book the word Nirvana is wrongly used. The Buddha attained to

Nirvana when seated under the Tree of Wisdom. For forty-five years afterwards he wandered, very much alive, over the plains of Hindustan. This is the use of the

word, without any exception, in India. For the Jain usage see, for instance, Jacobi, “Jaiua Sūtras,” i, p. 201. I am aware that, in popular English usage, Nirvana is

supposed to be the name of a sort of heaven into which the Buddha is believed to have entered after death. But this idea, though in harmony with most European

notions as to salvation, is antagonistic to Indian views. Nirvana meant, at the date in question, precisely what jivan-mukti meant, centuries afterwards, to the

followers of Śaṅkara.

At pp. 74, 208 it is said that Sanskrit was chosen at Jālandhara for the language

of the sacred texts. This is a mistake. It was chosen as the language in which were written three specified commentaries (one on each of the three Pitakas of the

sacred texts). These commentaries themselves are not sacred texts. A similar mistake is made on p. 13, where the Avidūre Nidāna is called a canonical text. It is

only one of the commentaries on a canonical text.

On p. 10 it is said that the system of caste was fully established in the time of the

Buddha. That used to be the opinion of scholars, but I think I have conclusively shown (“Dialogues of the Buddha,” 1. 97–102) that this cannot possibly have been

the case.

On p. 11 there is a curious contradiction. It is there said at the top of the page

that religion in the fifth century B.C. was “entirely in the hands of the brahmins.” Just below it is said, on the contrary, that the forms of worship of the common

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people “were quite left to themselves.” The latter view is, no doubt, the correct

one.

On p. 15, line 7, we are told that the Buddha “journeyed about in Behar.” For “in

Behar” read “in Hindustan.” Just below there is the expression “the Master gone into Nirvana,” on which see above. (So also p. 68, “disappeared into Nirvana.”)

And again, in the fifth line from the bottom the word them is puzzlingly ambiguous.

In the division of the monuments on p. 20 the third class is called Chaitya. The meaning adopted, following Fergusson and Cunningham, is that of a temple

containing a stūpa or dāgaba. This is never the meaning of the word in Indian books. It always means a sacred place, usually in a grove or on a hill-top,

pertaining to the non-brahminical and non-Buddhist local cults. The word is much wanted in this sense, for which we have no other expression. The caves to which

Fergusson wrongly applied this name were chapter-houses for the Order, halls where the Patimokkha was recited and the Kammavācās, the formal corporate acts

of the Order, were carried out. A Vihāra, on the other hand, always means in the canonical books an apartment, a cell. A cave containing several such cells may

rightly therefore be called a Vihāra cave. The secondary use of the word in the sense of monastery has not yet been found earlier than the fifth century A.D.

At the end of the interesting discussion on Vajrapāṇi, the name given by the author to the figure with the thunderbolt in his hand (so often represented, on the

bas-reliefs of the Gandhāra school, in attendance on the Buddha), it is said (p. 95) that Vajrapāṇi at first meant Sakka, then got separated from him and was converted

into a distinct god, and lastly that Sakka “sinks into a yaksha.” Now in one of our

very oldest texts, the Ambaṭṭha Suttanta (translated in my “Dialogues of the Buddha,” p. 117), Vajrapāṇi is used as an adjective to describe a yaksha in

attendance on the Buddha. It would seem, therefore, that the process has been exactly the reverse. First we have the yaksha with a descriptive adjective (not yet a

name), vajrapāṇī, that is, having a thunderbolt in his hand.’ This may be as old as the fourth century B.C. Nine hundred years later we find Buddhaghosa, in his

commentary (quoted by me loc. cit.), identifying this yaksha with Indra. There is

no evidence that this identification had been already made at the time of the bas-reliefs. All one can say is that it may have been so. And in any case the yaksha

does not end, he begins the series. When we find him twice on the same bas-relief there is no necessity to suppose that we have two different conceptions. The two

figures may be meant for the same yaksha at different points in the story to be illustrated, as is so often the case elsewhere.

Throughout the book the fullest and most careful references are given to previous European writers on the art of the bas-reliefs. The references to the books

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containing the stories or legends which the bas-reliefs are intended to illustrate

might be greatly improved. It is odd that there is not a single reference (so far as I have been able to discover) in this book on Buddhist art to any one of the Buddhist

canonical texts. The reference given in the last paragraph would have been very much to the point, and have probably led to a modification of the text. At pp. 46,

62, 93, 95, 122 references are given to texts long posterior in date to the works of art in question. It would be easy to replace these by references to works of

approximately the same age.

The bas-relief reproduced in fig. 57 can scarcely refer to a Nāga asking to be

admitted to the Order. There is no such case in the books. A comparison of the canonical passage on the point (translated in “Vinaya Texts,” 1. 218) would have

shown that a Nāga wishing to join the Order could only do so by assuming human form. In the bas-relief the Nāga appears quite distinctly as a Nāga, and must

therefore merely be asking for instruction or for some favour.

At p. 158, for vartagati read vartayati; and on p. 78 Milinda is three times spelt

with a cerebral l, which is perhaps possible, but is against the authority of the MSS.

TW

ALBUM KERN. OPSTELLEN GESCHREVEN TER ERRE van DR. H. KERN heml aangeboden door vrienden en leerlingen op Zijn Zeventigsten verjaardag den 6

April, 1903. Large 4to ; pp. 420. (Leiden: Brill, 1903.)

This stately volume contains articles, varying in length from a page or two to ten

or twelve pages, from nearly a hundred scholars, friends, pupils, or co-workers of the leader of Indianist studies in Holland, Professor Kern. They have thus united to

testify their loyal reverence and lasting esteem for that great scholar, and to congratulate him on the attainment of his 70th birthday. It would be impossible,

and if possible would not be desirable, to attempt any review of the opinions expressed on the many diverse points that are here discussed. It is sufficient to

point out that we find among these writers not only a good array of men who owe to the personal teaching of the distinguished Professor the foundation of their

knowledge, but a very remarkable list of the leading representatives in Europe and America of all branches of Indianist research. It is a striking testimony to the

appreciation, among his contemporaries throughout the world, of the value of the services rendered to our studies in so many directions and on so many sides by

Professor Kern.

The international character of this testimony is a very suggestive and a very

encouraging sign of the times. The thinkers throughout the world are coming more

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and more to form a community by themselves. Unmoved by the religious, military,

and commercial rivalries which keep the nations apart, undisturbed by the differences of opinion in such matters which are known to exist among themselves,

they work steadily on in their efforts to add to knowledge. Each worker appeals to a circle far wider than his own university, or even his own country; and he receives

recognition and sympathy wherever, in the world, others are pursuing the same or similar enquiries. And this is independent even of agreement in the results arrived

at. It is rare for any one scholar to agree with all the conclusions of another scholar, whom he nevertheless loyally admires, and the value of whose work he is quite

ready to acknowledge and to defend. And the irresistible tendency of the times will lead to a continual expansion of the boundaries of this republic of thought, to a

continual increase in its power and influence in the world.

Another general remark, of a more technical nature, is suggested by this volume.

It shows us (precisely as the similar volume published in honor of Professor Weber showed us) how complete is the victory now won in Indianist studies by

transliteration. We have here ninety different papers, by as many different authors, on all manner of queations—historical, philosophical, religious, philological—

arising out of the studies of the literatures preserved in different languages of India or Further India. Words or passages, some of considerable length, are quoted from

those literatures in support of the suggestions made. In every case, whatever the language, they are given in transliteration. This consensus of practice shows that a

merely practical, but still by no means unimportant, obstacle to the progress of Oriental study is, in this branch of it, in a fair way to be removed.

We welcome this volume as a well-deserved tribute of affectionate reverence to a great scholar, the pioneer of our studies in so many fields. And we trust that he

may long be spared to aid us by his wide knowledge, his earnestness of purpose, and his rare intellectual gifts.

TW

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