Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume II Part 2

[Footnote 33: See especially de Blonay, _E'tudes pour servir a'

l'histoire de la deesse bouddhique Tara_, Paris, 1895. Tara continued to be worshipped as a Hindu G.o.ddess after Buddhism had disappeared and several works were written in her honour. See Raj. Mitra, _Search for Sk. MSS_. IV. 168, 171, X. 67.]

[Footnote 34: About the time of Hsuan Chuang's travels Sarvajnamitra wrote a hymn to Tara which has been preserved and published by de Blonay, 1894.]

[Footnote 35: Chinese Buddhists say Tara and Kuan-Yin are the same but the difference between them is this. Tara is an Indian and Lamaist G.o.ddess _a.s.sociated_ with Avalokita and in origin a.n.a.logous to the Saktis of Tantrism. Kuan-yin is a female form of Avalokita who can a.s.sume all shapes. The original Kuan-yin was a male deity: male Kuan-yins are not unknown in China and are said to be the rule in Korea. But Tara and Kuan-yin may justly be described as the same in so far as they are attempts to embody the idea of divine pity in a Madonna.]

[Footnote 36: But many scholars think that the formula Om manipadme hum, which is supposed to be addressed to Avalokita, is really an invocation to a form of Sakti called Man?ipadma. A Nepalese inscription says that "The Saktas call him Sakti" (_E.R.E._ vol. II.

p. 260 and _J.A._ IX. 192), but this may be merely a way of saying that he is identical with the great G.o.ds of all sects.]

[Footnote 37: Harlez, _Livre des esprits et des immortels_, p. 195, and Dore, _Recherches sur les superst.i.tions en Chine_, pp. 94-138.]

[Footnote 38: See Fenollosa, _Epochs of Chinese and j.a.panese Art_ I.

pp. 105 and 124; Johnston, _Buddhist China_, 275 ff. Several Chinese deities appear to be of uncertain or varying s.e.x. Thus Chun-ti is sometimes described as a deified Chinese General and sometimes identified with the Indian G.o.ddess Marici. Yu-ti, generally masculine, is sometimes feminine. See Dore, _l.c._ 212. Still more strangely the Patriarch Asvaghosha (Ma Ming) is represented by a female figure. On the other hand the monk Ta Sheng (c. 705 A.D.) is said to have been an incarnation of the female Kuan Yin. Manjusri is said to be worshipped in Nepal sometimes as a male, sometimes as a female. See Bendall and Haraprasad, _Nepalese MSS_. p. lxvii.]

[Footnote 39: de Blonay, _l.c._ pp. 48-57.]

[Footnote 40: Chinese, Man-chu-shih-li, or Wen-shu; j.a.panese, Monju; Tibetan, hJam-pahi-dbyans (p.r.o.nounced Jam-yang). Manju is good Sanskrit, but it must be confessed that the name has a Central-Asian ring.]

[Footnote 41: Translated into Chinese 270 A.D.]

[Footnote 42: Chaps. XI. and XIII.]

[Footnote 43: A special work Manjusrivikrid?ita (Nanjio, 184, 185) translated into Chinese 313 A.D. is quoted as describing Manjusri's transformations and exploits.]

[Footnote 44: Hsuan Chuang also relates how he a.s.sisted a philosopher called Ch'en-na (=Din?naga) and bade him study Mahayanist books.]

[Footnote 45: It is reproduced in Grunwedel's _Buddhist Art in India_.

Translated by Gibson, 1901, p. 200.]

[Footnote 46: Dharmacakramudra.]

[Footnote 47: For the Nepalese legends see S. Levi, _Le Nepal_, 1905-9.]

[Footnote 48: For an account of this sacred mountain see Edkins, _Religion in China_, chaps. XVII to XIX.]

[Footnote 49: See I-tsing, trans. Takakusu, 1896, p. 136. For some further remarks on the possible foreign origin of Manjusri see below, chapter on Central Asia. The verses attributed to King Harsha (Nanjio, 1071) praise the reliquaries of China but without details.]

[Footnote 50: Some of the Tantras, _e.g._ the Mahacinakramacara, though they do not connect Manjusri with China, represent some of their most surprising novelties as having been brought thence by ancient sages like Vasisht?ha.]

[Footnote 51: _J.R.A.S._ new series, XII. 522 and _J.A.S.B_. 1882, p.

41. The name Manchu perhaps contributed to this belief.]

[Footnote 52: It is described as a Svayambhu or spontaneous manifestation of the adi-Buddha.]

[Footnote 53: Sanskrit, Maitreya; Pali, Metteyya; Chinese, Mi-li; j.a.panese, Miroku; Mongol, Maidari; Tibetan, Byams-pa (p.r.o.nounced Jampa). For the history of the Maitreya idea see especially Peri, _B.E.F.E.O._ 1911, pp. 439-457.]

[Footnote 54: But a Siamese inscription of about 1361, possibly influenced by Chinese Mahayanism, speaks of the ten Bodhisattvas headed by Metteyya. See _B.E.F.E.O._ 1917, No. 2, pp. 30, 31.]

[Footnote 55: _E.g._ in the Mahaparinibbana Sutra.]

[Footnote 56: Dig. Nik. XXVI. 25 and Buddhavamsa, XXVII. 19, and even this last verse is said to be an addition.]

[Footnote 57: See _e.g._ Watters, _Yuan Chw.a.n.g_, I. 239.]

[Footnote 58: See Watters and Peri in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1911, 439. A temple of Maitreya has been found at Turfan in Central Asia with a Chinese inscription which speaks of him as an active and benevolent deity manifesting himself in many forms.]

[Footnote 59: He has not fared well in Chinese iconography which represents him as an enormously fat smiling monk. In the Liang dynasty there was a monk called Pu-tai (j.a.p. Hotei) who was regarded as an incarnation of Maitreya and became a popular subject for caricature.

It would appear that the Bodhisattva himself has become superseded by this cheerful but undignified incarnation.]

[Footnote 60: The stupa was apparently at Benares but Hsuan Chuang's narrative is not clear and other versions make Rajagr?iha or Sravasti the scene of the prediction.]

[Footnote 61: Campa. This is his bodhi tree under which he will obtain enlightenment as Sakyamuni under the _Ficus religiosa_. Each Buddha has his own special kind of bodhi tree.]

[Footnote 62: _Record of the Buddhist religion_, Trans. Takakusu, p.

213. See too Watters, _Yuan Chw.a.n.g_, II. 57, 144, 210, 215.]

[Footnote 63: Chinese P'u-hsien. See Johnston, _From Peking to Mandalay_, for an interesting account of Mt. Omei.]

[Footnote 64: Or Mahasthana. Chinese, Tai-shih-chih. He appears to be the Arhat Maudgalyayana deified. In China and j.a.pan there is a marked tendency to regard all Bodhisattvas as ancient worthies who by their vows and virtues have risen to their present high position. But these euhemeristic explanations are common in the Far East and the real origin of the Bodhisattvas may be quite different.]

[Footnote 65: _E.g._ Watters, I. p. 229, II. 215.]

[Footnote 66: Ks.h.i.tigarbha is translated into Chinese as Ti-tsang and Jizo is the j.a.panese p.r.o.nunciation of the same two characters.]

[Footnote 67: In _Ostasiat. Ztsft_. 1913-15. See too Johnston, _Buddhist China_, chap. VIII.]

[Footnote 68: The Earth G.o.ddess is known to the earliest Buddhist legends. The Buddha called her to witness when sitting under the Bo tree.]

[Footnote 69: Three Sutras, a.n.a.lysed by Visser, treat of Ks.h.i.tigarbha.

They are Nanjio, Nos. 64, 65, 67.]

[Footnote 70: A celebrated monastery in the portion of An-hui which lies to the south of the Yang-tse. See Johnston, _Buddhist China_, chaps, VIII, IX and X.]

[Footnote 71: There is some reason to think that even in Turkestan Ks.h.i.tigarbha was a G.o.d of roads.]

[Footnote 72: In Annam too Jizo is represented on horseback.]

CHAPTER XVIII

THE BUDDHAS OF MAHAYANISM

This mythology did not grow up around the Buddha without affecting the central figure. To understand the extraordinary changes of meaning both mythological and metaphysical which the word Buddha undergoes in Mahayanist theology we must keep in mind not the personality of Gotama but the idea that he is one of several successive Buddhas who for convenience may be counted as four, seven or twenty-four but who really form an infinite series extending without limit backwards into the past and forwards into the future.[73] This belief in a series of Buddhas produced a plentiful crop of imaginary personalities and also of speculations as to their connection with one another, with the phenomena of the world and with the human soul.

In the Pali Canon the Buddhas antecedent to Gotama are introduced much like ancient kings as part of the legendary history of this world. But in the Lalita-vistara (Chap. XX) and the Lotus (Chap. VII) we hear of Buddhas, usually described as Tathagatas, who apparently do not belong to this world at all, but rule various points of the compa.s.s, or regions described as Buddha-fields (Buddha-kshetra). Their names are not the same in the different accounts and we remain dazzled by an endless panorama of an infinity of universes with an infinity of shining Buddhas, illuminating infinite s.p.a.ce.