Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume II Part 12

Modern accounts of Nepal leave the impression that even corrupt Buddhism is in a bad way, yet the number of religious establishments is considerable. Celibacy is not observed by their inmates, who are called banras (bandyas). On entering the order the novice takes the ancient vows but after four days he returns to his tutor, confesses that they are too hard for him and is absolved from his obligations.

The cla.s.ses known as Bhikshus and Gubharjus officiate as priests, the latter being the higher order. The princ.i.p.al ceremony is the offering of melted b.u.t.ter. The more learned Gubharjus receive the t.i.tle of Vajracarya[294] and have the sole right of officiating at marriages and funerals.

There is little learning. The oldest scriptures in use are the so-called nine Dharmas.[295] Hodgson describes these works as much venerated and Rajendralal Mitra has a.n.a.lysed them, but Sylvain Levi heard little of them in 1898, though he mentions the recitation of the Prajna-paramita. The Svayambhu Puran?a is an account of the manifestation of the adi-Buddha written in the style of those portions of the Brahmanic Puran?as which treat of the glories of some sacred place. In its present form it can hardly be earlier than the sixteenth century A.D. The Nepala-mahatmya is a similar work which, though of Brahmanic origin, puts Buddha, Vishnu and Siva on the same footing and identifies the first with Krishna. The Vagvati-mahatmya[296] on the other hand is strictly Sivaite and ignores Buddha's claims to worship.

The Vamsavali, or Chronicle of Nepal, written in the Gurkha language (Parbatiya) is also largely occupied with an account of sacred sites and buildings and exists in two versions, one Buddhist, the other Brahmanical.

But let us return to the decadence of Buddhism in India. It is plain that persecution was not its main cause nor even very important among the accessory causes. The available records contain clearer statements about the persecution of Jainism than of Buddhism but no doubt the latter came in for some rough handling, though not enough to annihilate a vigorous sect. Great numbers of monasteries in the north were demolished by the Huns and a similar catastrophe brought about the collapse of the Church in Bihar. But this last incident cannot be called religious persecution, for Muhammad did not even know what he was destroying. Buddhism did not arouse more animosity than other Indian religions: the significant feature is that when its temples and monasteries were demolished it did not live on in the hearts of the people, as did Hinduism with all its faults.

The relation between the laity and the Church in Buddhism is curious and has had serious consequences for both good and evil. The layman "takes refuge" in the Buddha, his law and his church but does not swear exclusive allegiance: to follow supplementary observances is not treasonable, provided they are not in themselves objectionable. The Buddha prescribed no ceremonies for births, deaths and marriages and apparently expected the laity to continue in the observance of such rites as were in use. To-day in China and j.a.pan the good layman is little more than one who pays more attention to Buddhism than to other faiths. This charitable pliancy had much to do with the victories of Buddhism in the Far East, where it had to struggle against strong prejudices and could hardly have made its way if it had been intolerant of local deities. But in India we see the disadvantages of the omission to make the laity members of a special corporation and the survival of the Jains, who do form such a corporation, is a clear object lesson. Social life in India tends to combine men in castes or in communities which if not castes in the technical sense have much the same character. Such communities have great vitality so long as they maintain their peculiar usages, but when they cease to do so they soon disintegrate and are reabsorbed. Buddhism from the first never took the form of a corporation. The special community which it inst.i.tuted was the san?gha or body of monks. Otherwise, it aimed not at founding a sect but at including all the world as lay believers on easy terms. This principle worked well so long as the faith was in the ascendent but its effect was disastrous when decline began. The line dividing Buddhist laymen from ordinary Hindus became less and less marked: distinctive teaching was found only in the monasteries: these became poorly recruited and as they were gradually deserted or destroyed by Mohammedans the religion of the Buddha disappeared from his native land.

Even in the monasteries the doctrine taught bore a closer resemblance to Hinduism than to the preaching of Gotama and it is this absence of the protestant spirit, this pliant adaptability to the ideas of each age, which caused Indian Buddhism to lose its individuality and separate existence. In some localities its disappearance and absorption were preceded by a monstrous phase, known as Tantrism or Saktism, in which the worst elements of Hinduism, those which would have been most repulsive to Gotama, made an unnatural alliance with his church.

I treat of Tantrism and Saktism in another chapter. The original meaning of Tantra as applied to literary compositions is a simplified manual.[297] Thus we hear of Vishnuite Tantras and in this sense there is a real similarity between Buddhist and tantric teaching, for both set aside Brahmanic tradition as needlessly complicated and both profess to preach a simple and practical road to salvation. But in Hinduism and Buddhism alike such words as Tantra and tantric acquire a special sense and imply the worship of the divine energy in a female form called by many names such as Kali in the former, Tara in the latter. This worship which in my opinion should be called Saktism rather than Tantrism combines many elements: ancient, savage superst.i.tions as well as ingenious but fanciful speculation, but its essence is always magic. It attempts to attain by magical or sacramental formulae and acts not only prosperity and power but salvation, nirvana and union with the supreme spirit. Some of its sects practise secret immoral rites. It is sad to confess that degenerate Buddhism did not remain uncorrupted by such abuses.

It is always a difficult and speculative task to trace the early stages of new movements in Indian religion, but it is clear that by the eighth century and perhaps earlier the Buddhism of Bihar and Bengal had fallen a prey to this influence. Apparently the public ritual in the Viharas remained unchanged and the usual language about _nirvana_ and _sunyata_ was not discarded, but it was taught that those who followed a certain curriculum could obtain salvation by magical methods. To enter this curriculum it was necessary to have a qualified teacher and to receive from him initiation or baptism (abhisheka). Of the subsequent rites the most important is to evoke one of the many Buddhas or Bodhisattvas recognized by the Mahayana and identify oneself with him.[298] He who wishes to do this is often called a sadhaka or magician but his achievements, like many Indian miracles, are due to self-hypnotization. He is directed to repair to a lonely place and offer worship there with flowers and prayers. To this office succeed prolonged exercises in meditation which do not depart much from the ancient canon since they include the four Brahma-viharas. Their object is to suppress thought and leave the mind empty. Then the sadhaka fills this void with the image of some Bodhisattva, for instance Avalokita. This he does by uttering mystic syllables called bija or seed, because they are supposed to germinate and grow into the figures which he wishes to produce. In this way he imagines that he sees the emblems of the Bodhisattva spring up round him one by one and finally he himself a.s.sumes the shape of Avalokita and becomes one with him. Something similar still exists in Tibet where every Lama chooses a tutelary deity or Yi-dam whom he summons in visible form after meditation and fasting.[299] Though this procedure when set forth methodically in a mediaeval manual seems an absurd travesty of Buddhism, yet it has links with the early faith. It is admitted in the Pitakas that certain forms of meditation[300] lead to union with Brahma and it is no great change to make them lead to union with other supernatural beings. Still we are not here breathing the atmosphere of the Pitakas. The object is not to share Brahma's heaven but to become temporarily identified with a deity, and this is not a byway of religion but the high road.

But there is a further stage of degradation. I have already mentioned that various Bodhisattvas are represented as accompanied by a female deity, particularly Avalokita by Tara. The mythological and metaphysical ideas which have grown up round Siva and Durga also attached themselves to these couples. The Buddha or Bodhisattva is represented as enjoying nirvana because he is united to his spouse, and to the three bodies already enumerated is added a fourth, the body of perfect bliss.[301] Sometimes this idea merely leads to further developments of the practices described above. Thus the devotee may imagine that he enters into Tara as an embryo and is born of her as a Buddha.[302] More often the argument is that since the bliss of the Buddha consists in union with Tara, nirvana can be obtained by s.e.xual union here, and we find many of the tantric wizards represented as accompanied by female companions. The adept should avoid all action but he is beyond good and evil and the dangerous doctrine that he can do evil with impunity, which the more respectable sects repudiate, is expressly taught. The sage is not defiled by pa.s.sion but conquers pa.s.sion by pa.s.sion: he should commit every infamy: he should rob, lie and kill Buddhas.[303] These crazy precepts are probably little more than a speculative application to the moral sphere of the doctrine that all things are non-existent and hence equivalent. But though tantrists did not go about robbing and murdering so freely as their principles allowed, there is some evidence that in the period of decadence the morality of the Bhikshus had fallen into great discredit. Thus in the allegorical Vishnuite drama called Prabodhacandrodaya and written at Kalanjar near the end of the eleventh century Buddhists and Jains are represented as succ.u.mbing to the temptations of inebriety and voluptuousness.

It is necessary to mention this phase of decadence but no good purpose would be served by dwelling further on the absurd and often disgusting prescriptions of such works as the Tathagata-guhyaka. If the European reader is inclined to condemn unreservedly a religion which even in decrepitude could find place for such monstrosities, he should remember that the aberrations of Indian religion are due not to its inherent depravity, but to its universality. In Europe those who follow disreputable occupations rarely suppose that they have anything to do with the Church. In India, robbers, murderers, gamblers, prost.i.tutes, and maniacs all have their appropriate G.o.ds, and had the Marquis de Sade been a Hindu he would probably have founded a new tantric sect. But though the details of Saktism are an unprofitable study, it is of some importance to ascertain when it first invaded Buddhism and to what extent it superseded older ideas.

Some critics[304] seem to imply--for their statements are not very explicit--that Saktism formed part if not of the teaching of the Buddha, at least of the medley of beliefs held by his disciples. But I see no proof that Saktist beliefs--that is to say erotic mysticism founded on the worship of G.o.ddesses--were prevalent in Magadha or Kosala before the Christian era. Although Siri, the G.o.ddess of luck, is mentioned in the Pitakas, the popular deities whom they bring on the scene are almost exclusively masculine.[305] And though in the older Brahmanic books there are pa.s.sages which might easily become tantric, yet the transition is not made and the important truths of religion are kept distinct from unclean rites and thoughts. The Br?ihad-aran?yaka contains a chapter which hardly admits of translation but the object of the practices inculcated is simply to ensure the birth of a son. The same work (not without a.n.a.logies in the ecstatic utterances of Christian saints) boldly compares union with the atman to the bliss of one who is embraced by a beloved wife, but this is a mere ill.u.s.tration and there is no hint of the doctrine that the goal of the religious life is obtainable by _maithuna_. Still such pa.s.sages, though innocent in themselves, make it easy to see how degrading superst.i.tions found an easy entrance into the n.o.blest edifices of Indian thought and possibly some heresies condemned in the Kathavatthu[306] indicate that even at this early date the Buddhist Church was contaminated by erotic fancies. But, if so, there is no evidence that such malpractices were widespread. The appendices to the Lotus[307] show that the worship of a many-named G.o.ddess, invoked as a defender of the faith, was beginning to be a recognized feature of Buddhism. But they contain no indications of left-handed Tantrism and the best proof that it did not become prevalent until much later is afforded by the narratives of the three Chinese pilgrims who all describe the condition of religion in India and notice anything which they thought singular or reprehensible. Fa-Hsien does not mention the worship of any female deity,[308] nor does the Life of Vasubandhu, but Asanga appears to allude to Saktism in one pa.s.sage.[309] Hsuan Chuang mentions images of Tara but without hinting at tantric ritual, nor does I-Ching allude to it, nor does the evidence of art and inscriptions attest its existence. It may have been known as a form of popular superst.i.tion and even have been practised by individual Bhikshus, but the silence of I-Ching makes it improbable that it was then countenanced in the schools of Magadha. He complains[310] of those who neglect the Vinaya and "devote their whole attention to the doctrine of nothingness," but he says not a word about tantric abuses.[311]

The change probably occurred in the next half century[312] for Padma-Sambhava, the founder of Lamaism who is said to have resided in Gaya and Nalanda and to have arrived in Tibet in 747 A.D., is represented by tradition as a tantric wizard, and about the same time translations of Tantras begin to appear in Chinese. The translations of the sixth and seventh centuries, including those of I-Ching, comprise a considerable though not preponderant number of Dharan?is.

After the seventh century these became very numerous and several Tantras were also translated.[313] The inference seems to be that early in the eighth century Indian Buddhists officially recognized Tantrism.

Tantric Buddhism was due to the mixture of Mahayanist teaching with aboriginal superst.i.tions absorbed through the medium of Hinduism, though in some cases there may have been direct contact and mutual influence between Mahayanism and aboriginal beliefs. But as a rule what happened was that aboriginal deities were identified with Hindu deities and Buddhism had not sufficient independence to keep its own pantheon distinct, so that Vairocana and Tara received most of the attributes, brahmanic or barbarous, given to Siva or Kali. The worship of the G.o.ddesses, described in their Hinduized form as Durga, Kali, etc., though found in most parts of India was specially prevalent in the sub-himalayan districts both east and west. Now Padma-Sambhava was a native of Udyana or Swat and Taranatha represents the chief Tantrists[314] as coming from there or visiting it. Hsuan Chuang[315]

tells us that the inhabitants were devout Mahayanists but specially expert in magic and exorcism. He also describes no less than four sacred places in it where the Buddha in previous births gave his flesh, blood or bones for the good of others. Have we here in a Buddhist form some ancient legend of dismemberment like that told of Sati in a.s.sam? Of Kashmir he says that its religion was a mixture of Buddhism with other beliefs.[316] These are precisely the conditions most favourable to the growth of Tantrism and though the bulk of the population are now Mohammedans, witchcraft and sorcery are still rampant. Among the Hindu Kashmiris[317] the most prevalent religion has always been the worship of Siva, especially in the form representing him as half male, half female. This cult is not far from Saktism and many allusions[318] in the Rajatarangini indicate that left-hand worship was known, though the author satirizes it as a corruption. He also several times mentions[319] Matri-cakras, that is circles sacred to the Mothers or tantric G.o.ddesses. In Nepal and Tibet tantric Buddhism is fully developed but these countries have received so much from India that they exhibit not a parallel growth, but late Indian Tantrism as imported ready-made from Bengal. It is here that we come nearest to the origins of Tantrism, for though the same beliefs may have flourished in Udyana and Kashmir they did not spread much in the Panjab or Hindustan, where their progress was hindered at first by a healthy and vigorous Hinduism and subsequently by Mohammedan invasions. But from 700 to 1197 A.D. Bengal was remote alike from the main currents of Indian religion and from foreign raids: little Aryan thought or learning leavened the local superst.i.tions which were infecting and stifling decadent Buddhism. Hsuan Chuang informs us that Bhaskaravarma king of Kamarupa[320] attended the fetes celebrated by Harsha in 644 A.D. and inscriptions found at Tezpur indicate that kings with Hindu names reigned in a.s.sam about 800 A.D. This is agreeable to the supposition that an amalgamation of Sivaism and aboriginal religion may have been in formation about 700 A.D. and have influenced Buddhism.

In Bihar from the eighth century onwards the influence of Tantrism was powerful and disastrous. The best information about this epoch is still to be found in Taranatha, in spite of his defects.

He makes the interesting statement that in the reign of Gopala who was a Buddhist, although his ministers were not (730-740 A.D.), the Buddhists wished their religious buildings to be kept separate from Hindu temples but that, in spite of protests, life-sized images of Hindu deities were erected in them.[321] The ritual too was affected, for we hear several times of burnt offerings[322] and how Bodhibhadra, one of the later professors of Vikramasila, was learned in the mystic lore of both Buddhists and Brahmans. Nalanda and the other viharas continued to be seats of learning and not merely monasteries, and for some time there was a regular succession of teachers. Taranatha gives us to understand that there were many students and authors but that sorcery occupied an increasingly important position. Of most teachers we are told that they saw some deity, such as Avalokita or Tara. The deity was summoned by the rites already described[323] and the object of the performer was to obtain magical powers or siddhi. The successful sorcerer was known as siddha, and we hear of 84 mahasiddhas, still celebrated in Tibet, who extend from Rahulabhadra Nagarjuna to the thirteenth century. Many of them bear names which appear not to be Indian.

The topics treated of in the Tantras are divided into Kriya (ritual), Carya (apparently corresponding to Vinaya), Yoga, and Anuttara-yoga.

Sometimes the first three are contrasted with the fourth and sometimes the first two are described as lower, the third and fourth as higher.

But the Anuttara-yoga is always considered the highest and most mysterious.[324] Taranatha says[325] that the Tantras began to appear simultaneously with the Mahayana sutras but adds that the Anuttara-yoga tantras appeared gradually.[326] He also observes that the acarya ananda-garbha[327] did much to spread them in Magadha. It is not until a late period of the Pala dynasty that he mentions the Kalacakra which is the most extravagant form of Buddhist Tantrism.

This accords with other statements to the effect that the Kalacakra tantra was introduced in 965 A.D. from Sambhala, a mysterious country in Central Asia. This system is said to be Vishnuite rather than Sivaite. It specially patronizes the cult of the mystic Buddhas such as Kalacakra and Heruka, all of whom appear to be regarded as forms of adi-Buddha or the primordial Buddha essence. The Siddha named Pito is also described as the author of this doctrine,[328] which had less importance in India than in Tibet.

On the other hand Taranatha gives us the names of several doctors of the Vinaya who flourished under the Pala dynasty. Even as late as the reign of Ramapala (? 1080-1120) we hear that the Hinayanists were numerous. In the reign of Dharmapala (_c_. 800 A.D.) some of them broke up the great silver image of Heruka at Bodh-Gaya and burnt the books of Mantras.[329] These instances show that the older Buddhism was not entirely overwhelmed by Tantrism[330] though perhaps it was kept alive more by pilgrims than by local sentiment. Thus the Chinese inscriptions of Bodh-Gaya though they speak at length of the three bodies of Buddha show no signs of Tantrism. It would appear that the worship celebrated in the holy places of Magadha preserved a respectable side until the end. In the same way although Tantrism is strong in the literature of the Lamas, none of the many descriptions of Tibet indicate that there is anything scandalous in the externals of religion. Probably in Tibet, Nepal and mediaeval Magadha alike the existence of disgraceful tantric literature does not indicate such widespread depravity as might be supposed. But of its putrefying influence in corrupting the minds of those who ought to have preserved the pure faith there can be no doubt. More than any other form of mixed belief it obliterated essential differences, for Buddhist Tantrism and Sivaite Tantrism are merely two varieties of Tantrism.

What is happening at Bodh-Gaya at present[331] ill.u.s.trates how Buddhism disappeared from India. The abbot of a neighbouring Sivaite monastery who claims the temple and grounds does not wish, as a Mohammedan might, to destroy the building or even to efface Buddhist emblems. He wishes to supervise the whole establishment and the visits of pilgrims, as well as to place on the images of Buddha Hindu sectarian marks and other ornaments. Hindu pilgrims are still taken by their guides to venerate the Bodhi tree and, but for the presence of foreign pilgrims, no casual observer would suppose the spot to be anything but a Hindu temple of unusual construction. The same process went a step further in many shrines which had not the same celebrity and effaced all traces and memory of Buddhism.

At the present day the Buddha is recognized by the Brahmans as an incarnation of Vishnu,[332] though the recognition is often qualified by the statement that Vishnu a.s.sumed this form in order to mislead the wicked who threatened to become too powerful if they knew the true method of attaining superhuman powers. But he is rarely worshipped _in propria persona_.[333] As a rule Buddhist images and emblems are ascribed to Vishnu or Siva, according to sectarian preferences, but in spite of fusion some lingering sense of original animosity prevents Gotama from receiving even such respect as is accorded to incarnations like Parasu-rama. At Bodh-Gaya I have been told that Hindu pilgrims are taken by their guides to venerate the Bodhi-tree but not the images of Buddha.

Yet in reviewing the disappearance of Buddhism from India we must remember that it was absorbed not expelled. The result of the mixture is justly called Hinduism, yet both in usages and beliefs it has taken over much that is Buddhist and without Buddhism it would never have a.s.sumed its present shape. To Buddhist influence are due for instance the rejection by most sects of animal sacrifices: the doctrine of the sanct.i.ty of animal life: monastic inst.i.tutions and the ecclesiastical discipline found in the Dravidian regions. We may trace the same influence with more or less certainty in the philosophy of San?kara and outside the purely religious sphere in the development of Indian logic. These and similar points are dealt with in more detail in other parts of this work and I need not dwell on them here.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 264: Written before the war.]

[Footnote 265: Even at Kanauj, the scene of Harsha's pious festivities, there were 100 Buddhist monasteries but 200 Deva temples.]

[Footnote 266: Rice, _Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions_, p.

203.]

[Footnote 267: See the note by Buhler in _Journ. Pali Text Soc._ 1896, p. 108.]

[Footnote 268: Rajatarangini, III. 12.]

[Footnote 269: See for the supposed persecution of Buddhism in India, _J.P.T.S._ 1896, pp. 87-92 and 107-111 and _J.R.A.S._ 1898, pp.

208-9.]

[Footnote 270: As contained in the San?kara-dig-vijaya ascribed to Madhava and the San?kara-vijaya ascribed to anandagiri.]

[Footnote 271: Taranatha in his twenty-eighth and following chapters gives an account, unfortunately very confused, of the condition of Buddhism under the Pala dynasty. See also B.K. Sarkar, _Folklore Element in Hindu Culture_, chap. XII, in which there are many interesting statements but not sufficient references.]

[Footnote 272: See Vidyabhusana's _Mediaeval School of Indian Logic_, p. 150, for an account of this monastery which was perhaps at the modern Parthaghata. I have found no account of what happened to Nalanda in this period but it seems to have disappeared as a seat of learning.]

[Footnote 273: See Taranatha, chap. XXVIII.]

[Footnote 274: Chap. x.x.xVI. It is interesting to notice that even at this late period he speaks of Hinayanists in Bengal.]

[Footnote 275: Often called Muhammad Bakhtyar but Bakhtyar seems to have been really his father's name.]

[Footnote 276: Raverty, _Tabat-i-Nasiri_, p. 552. "It was discovered that the whole of that fortress and city was a college and in the Hindi tongue they call a college Bihar."]

[Footnote 277: Many of them have been collected by Pandit Haraprasad Sastri in _Jour. As. Soc._ Bengal, 1895, pp. 55 ff. and in his _Discovery of living Buddhism in Bengal_, Calcutta, 1897.]

[Footnote 278: Chap. XL _ad fin._ Is the Ramacandra whom he mentions the last Yadava King (about 1314)? Taranatha speaks of his son.]

[Footnote 279: Caitanya-caritamrita, chap. VII, transl. by Jadunath Sarkar, p. 85. This biography was written in 1582 by Kr?ishn?adas.

Caitanya died in 1533.]

[Footnote 280: _Census of India_, 1901: vol. VI. Bengal, pp. 427-430.]

[Footnote 281: _The Archaeological Survey of Mayurabhanj_ (no date?

1911), vol. I. pp. cv-cclxiii. The part containing an account of Buddhism in Orissa is also printed separately with the t.i.tle _Modern Buddhism_, 1911.]

[Footnote 282: For Ramai Pandit see Dinesh Chandra Sen, _Hist. Bengali Language and Lit._ pp. 30-37, and also B.K. Sarkar, _Folklore Element in Hindu Culture_, p. 192, and elsewhere. He appears to have been born at the end of the tenth century and though the Sunya Puran?a has been re-edited and interpolated parts of it are said to be in very old Bengali.]

[Footnote 283: Nagendranath Vasu quotes a couplet from the Mahabharata of the poet Saraladasa: "I pay my humble respects to the incarnation of Buddha who in the form of Buddha dwells in the Nilacala, _i.e._ Puri." The Imperial Gazetteer of India (s.v. Puri Town) states that in modern representations of Vishn?u's ten avataras, the ninth, or Buddhavatara, is sometimes represented by Jagannatha.]

[Footnote 284: I give the dates or the authority of Narandra Nath while thinking that they may be somewhat too early. The two authors named wrote the Sunya Samhita and Nirgun?a Mahatmya respectively.]

[Footnote 285: _l.c._ clxxvi ff., ccxix-ccxxiii, ccx.x.xi.]

[Footnote 286: Author of a poem called Dharmagita.]