Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/120

 101 based npon fables; yet on many points their opinions coincide with those of the Greeks, for Hke them they say that the world had a begin- ning, and is liable to destmction, and is in shape spherical, and that the Deity who made it, and who goyems it, is diffused through all its parts. They hold that various first principles operate in the universe, and that water was the prin- ciple employed in the making of the world. In addition to the four elements there is a fifth agency, from which the heaven and the stars were produced 4 The earth is placed in the centre of the universe. Concerning generation, and the nature of the soul^ and many other subjects, they express views like those main- tained by the Greeks. They wrap up their doctrines about immortality and future judg- ment, and kindred topics, in allegories, after the manner of Plato. Such are his statements regarding the Brachmanes. (60) Of the Sarmanes§he tells us that 1 AkASa, * the ether or sky.' § Schwanbeck argaes irom. the distinct separation here made between the Brachmanes and the Sarmanes, as well as from the name iSrarruma being especially applied to Baad- dha teachers, that the latter are here meant. They are called 2afMvaioi by Bardesanes (ap. Porphyr. AbsUn, IV. 17) and Alex. Polyhistor. (ap. Cyrill. contra JuUom, IV. p. 133 E, ed. Paris, 1638). Gonf. also Hieronym. ad Jovinian, II. (ed. Paris, 1706, T. II. pt. ii. p. 206). And this is just the Pali name Sammana, the equivalent of the Sanskrit £^- mana. Bohlen in De Buddhmsmi origine et cetobte dejmi- €nd^ Bostaios this view, bnt Lassen {Bhein.Mus. fur Phil. I. 171 ff.) contends that the description agrees better with the Br&hman ascetics. See Schwanbeck, p. 45fr. and Las- sen, Ind. Alt&rth. (2nd ed). II. 705, or (1st ed.) II. 700. Google