Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/401

 BUDDHISM 395 many subdivisions ; the Sautrantika (sutra and antika, near), or close observers of the original maxims. Alexander's invasion of the Punjaub gave a great impulse to the spread of Buddhism. The Nanda dynasty of Magadha in South Bahar was overthrown by the miraculous Chandragupta, or Sandrakottus, who freed the Punjaub from Macedonian rule, received Megas- thenes at his court in Pataliputra, and united all India under his sceptre. Through his origin as a Sudra, and through the Macedonian inva- sion, he broke the power of the Brahmans. His grandson Dharmasoka, the greatest king of the Maurya dynasty, extended the empire, and, being miraculously converted, became from a cruel tyrant the most pious observer and the most zealous propagator of Buddhism. Under the name of Piyadasi (love-gifted, pious) he published most humane edicts, many of which are found engraved on columns at Delhi and Allahabad, and on rocks near Peshawer, in Ouzerat, Orissa, &c., not in Sanskrit, the lan- guage of the Brahmans, but in Prakrit or popular dialects. These edicts inculcate the practice of virtues, order the construction of roads and hospitals, and even abolish capital punishment. The third great council was held at the command of Piyadasi at Pataliputra, where 1,000 Arhats tried to cure the great anarchy caused in the church by sectarians and false and licentious monks. At the conclusion of the council an earthquake is said to have approv- ed its decrees. Scarcely any book which passes for the word of Buddha is prior to this council in which the decrees of the preceding councils were modified; indeed, it may be doubted whether any such book reaches even so far back. The creed was introduced into Ceylon in the third year after the third council, where it was preserved for a century merely by oral tra- dition. In less trustworthy quarters than the Cingalese there are manifest contradictions; the Nepaulese believing that Sakyamuni wrote nine books, while the Chinese derive the canon from the first council, and the Thibetans say that the Tripitaka (three baskets) were written two centuries after the third council. In prepar- ing the canon, Sanskrit was probably used along with other vernacular tongues by the disciples. The books of Ceylon, Bunnah, and Siam are translated from the Pali, a form of writing of the Magadhi, a dialect of the Sanskrit. The code of the fourth council, held in Cashmere, is in Sanskrit. Unlike the Brahmans, who thought barbarians unworthy of their holy religion, the Sthaviras or elders of the third council had sent out apostles to preach in foreign lands, who converted the Nagas (snake worshippers) and other idolatrous tribes of Cashmere ; the Hima- vat (snow mountain), lower Cabool, Gandhara (now Candahar), Yavana (from 'luw'n, probably Bactria, Ionia, and the satrapies of Alexander), and Ujana (now Katiristan) also received apos- tles. The Deccan, and even Pegu and Bunnah were not forgotten, although the creed was car- ried thither much later from Ceylon. Bud- dhism carried the elements of Indian civilization to many a savage tribe, broke up many a cruel custom, and became a blessing to the greater portion of Asia. But in time the great Bud- dhistic body was split, by its own extension, into a southern church, whose chief seat is in Deva Lanka, the divine island, or Ceylon, where it has been least altered from its ancient condition, and whence during more than five centuries it was propagated, even to further India; and a northern church, divided into many important branches, owing to the great number of nations that profess it ; the Nepaulese branch being less divergent from the ancient faith than those of Tartary, Mongolia, Thibet, China, and Japan. In Hindostan, the primitive character of Bud- dhism was greatly impaired by its long and bloody contest, as well as its mixture, with Brahmanism, and especially with the sangui- nary tenets of Sivaism; and it finally degen- erated into a medley of incongruous creeds. About the beginning of our era a new school or sect, called Mahayana (great passage), was added to the older Hinayana (little passage) by Nagarjuna, a celebrated Sthavira ; and an- other in the 6th century of our era, called Yoga- chara (yoga, junction and magic ; char, to go), or Tantra, a sort of Sivaitic mysticism, by the Bhikshu Asanga. Even in Ceylon heretical tenets were inserted in the code of the Tripi- taka by the learned Buddha Ghoska at the commencement of the 5th Christian century. Among the Greek and Roman writers who have more or less imperfectly dwelt upon the men and affairs of India, Herodotus (books i. and iv.) names the Budini ; Megasthenes, though residing at Palibothra, does not speak of the Buddhists, although (about 300 B. C.) he gives a full account of the five rivers of Pentapotamia, and describes Indian manners; Strabo speaks of two religious systems in India (book xv. of his geography), that of Brahma and that of the Garmans (apparently the Sar- manes, a sort of saints, probably Buddhists) ; Arrian mentions a Budias as third king of India ; Clement of Alexandria speaks of a dei- fied Butta ; Victorinus and St. Jerome, of a Buddhas ; Cedrenus and Suidas, of Budas. Clement and Jerome call that personage a gymnosophist, meaning t probably the Jaina sect, which worshipp'ed naked idols, and whose chief priests were naked. The Jesuits have endeavored to prove Buddhism to be of Nes- torian origin ; but the Nestorians sought the protection of the Sassanid in Persia, and came into central Asia after their expulsion from the Byzantine empire" as late as the 5th Christian century. It is more probable that Buddhism had an influence on western creeds, as, for instance, on the Gnostics. Buddhism was introduced into China by two ways, namely : in the south by sea, 65 B. C., and in the north through Khoten, over the great wall, into Shensi, in the 5th century. From Corea, where it existed about A. D. 370, it was brought into Japan about 550, to the court of