[1] The few notes I have taken from Jülg's translation, I have
acknowledged by putting his name to them.
[2] The following paragraphs are chiefly gathered and translated from
Lassen's work on the Geography of Ancient India, vol. i.
[3] Heeren, Indische Literatur.
[4] Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, ii. 67, 68.
[5] Mahavansha, ii. v. 11.
[6] Now called Gaya, still an important town in the province of
Behar. Vihara, whence Behar (for B and V are allied sounds in
Sanskrit), is the Buddhist word for a college of priests, and the
substitution of Behar for Magadha, the more ancient name of the
province, points to a time when Buddhism flourished there and had
many such colleges (see Wilson in Journal of As. Soc. v. p. 124).
[7] Benares.
[8] Burnouf, Introd. à l'Hist. du Buddhisme, i. 157.
[9] In the far east of India and in Ceylon, where it is not indigenous,
we have historical evidence that it was introduced by the Buddhists;
also in Java. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, i. 257; also p. 260,
note 1, where he gives the following comparative descriptions of the
two species, though he also points out that in ancient descriptions
the characteristics of the two trees are often confused. The ficus
indica or banian (it received the name of banyan from the Indian
merchants, Banjans, by whose means it was propagated), is called in
Bengal Njagrôdha and Vata (the Dutch call it "the devil's tree"). The
ficus religiosa is called ashvattha, and pippala. They plant the
one by the side of the other with marriage ceremonies in the belief
that otherwise the banian would not complete its peculiar mode of
growth. Hence arises a most pleasing contrast between the elegant
lightness of the shining foliage of the ficus religiosa and the solemn
grandeur of the ficus indica with its picturesque trunks, its abundant
leafage, its spangling of golden fruits, its pendulous roots, enabling
it to reproduce itself after the fashion of a temple with countless
aisles. It affords cool salubrious shade, a single one forming in time
a forest to itself, and sufficing to house thousands of persons. The
leaves of both supply excellent food for elephants, and birds and
monkeys delight in its fruit, which, however, is not edible by man,
nor is its wood of much use as timber. The pippala does not grow to
nearly so great a size as the other, never attaining so many stems,
but nothing can be more graceful than its appearance when, overgrowing
from a building or another tree; its leaves tremble like those of the
aspen (Lassen, i. 255-261, and notes). Under its overarching shade
altars were erected and sacrifice offered up. To injure it wilfully
was counted a sin (an instance is mentioned in Bp. Heber's "Journey,"
i. 621). A most prodigious Boddhi-tree, or rather five such growing
together, still exists in Ceylon, which tradition says was transplanted
thither with most extraordinary pomp and ceremonies at the time of the
introduction of Buddhism into the island. They grow upon the fourth
terrace of an edifice built up of successive rows of terraces, forming
the most sacred spot in the whole island. Upon the above supposition
this Boddhi-grove would be something like 2000 years old. Several very
curious legends concerning it are given in a paper called "Remarks
on the Ancient City of Anarâjapura," by Captain Chapman, in Trans. of
R. As. of Gr. Br. i. and iii. The Brahmans honoured it as well as the
Buddhists, and made it a parable of the universe, its stem typifying
the connexion of the visible world with a divine invisible spirit,
and the up and-down growth of the branches and roots the restless
striving of all creatures after an unattainable perfection; but it was
the Buddhists for whom it became in the first instance actually sacred
by reason of the conviction said to have been received by Shâkjamuni
while observing its growth (reminding forcibly of the tradition about
Sir I. Newton and the apple), that the perpetual struggles of this
changeful life could only find ultimate satisfaction in that reunion
with the source whence they emanated, which he termed Nirvâna.
[10] Burnouf, i. 295.
[11] Burnouf, p. 194.
[12] Nirvâna means literally in Sanskrit "the breathing out,"
"extinction"--extinction of the flame of life, eternal happiness,
united with the Deity. Böhtlingk and Roth's Sanskrit Dictionary,
iv. 208. In Buddhist writings, however, it is difficult to make out
any idea of it distinct from annihilation. Consult Schmidt's Trans. of
sSanang sSetzen, pp. 307-331; Schott. Buddhaismus, p. 10 and 127;
Köppen, i. 304-309. "Existence in the eye of Buddhism is nothing but
misery.... Nothing remained to be devised as deliverance from this
evil but the destruction of existence. This is what Buddhists call
Nirwana." (Alwis' Lectures on Buddhism, p. 29.)
[13] Concerning the locality of the Malla people, see Lassen, Indische
Alterthumskunde, i. 549.
[14] This word is a favourite with Buddhist writers, and means
literally "him of the rolling wheel," primarily used to denote a
conqueror riding on his chariot. See Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde,
i. 810, n. 2.
[15] Lassen, ii. 52, n. 1, and 74, n. 6; and i. 356, n. 1.
[16] Professor Wilson seems to have been so much perplexed by these
divergencies of chronology, that in a paper by him, published in
Journ. of R. As. Soc. vol. xvi. art. 13, he endeavours to show on this
(and also on other grounds) that it is possible no such person ever
existed at all!
[17] See Burnouf, p. 348, n. 3; see also infra, n. 3 to "The False
Friend;" also note 2 to "Vikramâditja's Birth."
[18] Supra, Notice of Vikramâditja, pp. 238, 239.
[19] "Only about a hundred years elapsed between the visit of
Fa-Hian to India and that of Soung-yun, and in the interval
the absurd traditions respecting Sâkya-Muni's life and actions
would appear to have been infinitely multiplied, enlarged,
and distorted." (Lieut.-Col. Sykes' Notes on the Religious,
Moral, and Political State of Ancient India, in Journ. of
R. As. Soc. No. xii. p. 280.)
[20] Turnour, in Journ. of As. Soc. of Bengal, 722.
[21] Lassen, ii. 440.
[22] Lassen, ii. 453, 454.
[23] Burnouf, Introd. a l'Hist. du Buddh. i. 137.
[24] Burnouf, Introd. &c. i. 131 et seq.
[25] "There is no reference even in the earlier Vêda to the Trimurti:
to Donga, Kali, or Rama." (Wilson, Rig-Vêda Sanhîta.)
[26] Burnouf, i. 90, 108.
[27] Lassen, ii. 426, 454, 455 and other places.
[28] "No hostile feeling against the Brahmans finds utterance in the
Buddhist Canon." (Max Müller, Anc. Sanskr. Literature.)
[29] Lassen, iv. 644, 710.
[30] Lassen, ii. 440.
[31] Lassen, iv. 646-709.
[32] As. Rec. i. 285.
[33] Genesis iii. 15.
[34] Rig-Vêda, bk. x. ch. xi.
[35] Burnouf, Introd. i. 618.
[36] See infra, Note 8 of this "Dedication;" on the word "Bede,"
p. 346.
[37] Verità della Religione Cristiana-Cattolica sistematicamente
dimostrata, da Monsignor Francesco Nardi U. di S. Rota. Roma, 1868.
[38] Lassen, ii. 1107.
[39] Lassen, i. 488.
[40] A great number of early authorities are quoted in Butler's
"Lives," vol. xii., pp. 329-334. The subject has also been handled
by Gieseler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte; Wilson's "Sketch of
the Religious Sects of the Hindus;" Swainson's "Memoir of the Syrian
Christians;" most ably by A. Weber, and by many others.
[41] In note 2 of p. 182, vol. iv., Lassen quotes several authors on
the meaning of the word and its identity with the triratna, as Wilson
calls the Buddhist Trinity of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. See also
infra, n. 1, Tale XVII.
[42] At the same time it presents also, of course, many frightful
divergencies, and of these it may suffice to mention that the
number of wives ascribed to Crishna is not less than 16,000. Lassen,
vol. i. Appendix p. xxix.
[43] Indische Studien, i. 400-421, and ii. 168.
[44] The very earliest, however, do not go very far back; he was never
heard of at all till within 200 B.C., and seems then to have been set
up by certain Brahmans to attract popular worship, and to counteract
the at that period rapidly-spreading influence of the Buddhists. See
Lassen, i. 831--839. See also note 1, p. 335, supra.
[45] Lassen, iv. 575.
[46] Lassen, p. 576.
[47] "On trouvera plus tard que l'extension considérable qu'a prise
le culte du Krishna n'a été qu'une réaction populaire contre celui
du Buddha; réaction qui a été dirigée, ou pleinement acceptée par
les Brahmanes." Burnouf, Introd. i. p. 136, n. 1.
[48] Lassen, iv. 815-817.
[49] Lassen, iv. 576.
[50] The best account of his life and teaching is given by
S. Wassiljew, of St. Petersburg, "Der Buddhismus; aus dem Russischen
übersetzt," to which I have not had access.
[51] See supra, p. 332.
[52] See infra, Note 1, Tale XI.
[53] See supra, p. 330.
[54] Concerning Serpent-worship see infra, Note 1, Tale II.
[55] Travelling Buddhist teacher. Lassen.
[56] Burnouf, Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhisme, ii. 359.
[57] "Southward in Bede." See Note 8.
[58] Spence Hardy, "Legends and Theories of the Buddhists," p. 243,
when mentioning this circumstance, makes the strange mistake of
confounding Behar with Berar.
[59] See Note 4, "Vikramâditja's Throne discovered."
[60] See supra, p. 241.
[61] According to Abbé Huc's spelling, Tchen-kis Khan.
[62] According to Abbé Huc's spelling, Tale Lama.
[63] See the story in Note 8 to "Vikramâditja's Youth."
[64] See Note 4 to "Vikramâditja's Throne discovered."
[65] Consult C. F. Köppen, Die Lamaische Hierarchie.
[66] According to Huc's version of his history he was not born in
a Lamasery, but in the hut of a herdsman of Eastern Tibet, in the
county of Amdo, south of the Kouku-Noor.
[67] This elaborate derivation, however, has been disputed, and
it is more probable the name is derived from two words, signifying
"the Indian ox." In Tibet it has no name but "great ox."
[68] Virgil, Georg. ii. 121, "Velleraque ut foliis depectant
tenuia Seres;" and Pliny, H. N. vi. 20, 2, "Seres, lanicio silvarum
nobiles, perfusam aqua depectentes frondium canitiem." Also 24, 8;
and xi. 26, 1.
[69] See infra, note 2 to "Vikramâditja's Birth."
[70] Burnouf, i. 265.
[71] See supra, p. 351 and p. 385.
[72] See Max Müller's "Chips from a German Workshop."