Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/397

 362 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [December, 1875. s o k a. Afterwards, according to the accounts of the Buddhists, he gave himself up to violence, and procured for himself the surname of G h a n d a s o k a ; but at last he was converted to Buddhism, and now the legends give him the name of Dharmasoka and relate many marvels of him, — among others that he covered the whole land with monuments and temples in honour of Buddha. Then his dominions stretched from beyond Thibet on the north to the ocean on the south. But he showed still more atten- tion to the clergy when he distributed all his treasures among them, and finally mortgaged himself. The grandees relieved him, bat pro- bably they were dissatisfied with him, — perhaps they even deposed him, for the historian alludes, though obscurely, to a miserable end. After the death of A s o k a,* his grandson V i g a t Jl 4 o k a was raised to the throne : he was the son of K n n a 1 a, and the legend about the blindness which his stepmother inflicted on him is known to all the Buddhists. Almost at the same time mention is made of king V i r a s e - n a, who honoured Buddhism. (It is uncertain whether be was the successor of Vigataso- k a, or Vigatiisoka himself.) His son Namla reigned twenty-nine years. In his reign lived P a n i n i,f the first Indian grammarian T and pro- bably also the first who introduced writing into India, To N an da succeeded his son M ah a- pa d ma, who reigned at Kusumapura. The great Bhadra and Vararuchi were his contemporaries, and he protected Buddhism. Here we meet with the first mention of litera- ture in a written form. Vararuchi caused a number of copies of the Vibhdshd to be prepared, and distributed them among the preachers. But how are we to reconcile this account with what we find elsewhere, that the Vibhdshd was com- posed in Kasmir, and at a time subsequent to tins? According to an authentic account the Vibhdshd was composed either in the ti. U p a g u p ta or in that of the Arhan Y a s u s .$ It is most probable that works which preceded 1 1 1 e Vibhdshd am hereto be understood, ft U possible that K at t y a y a n a, who composed one of tho Ahhidharmas, wrote also the commentary on the Vibhdshd; whilst there still remain six other Ahhidharmas making part of tho whole t Vide ante, tcI. I. p- 21 ; vol. IV. pp. 102, 103. t Craf. ante. pp. 143. 14*. & It U assumed that tho first arpeorod immediately after number of ideas in this book. Inasmuch as history has preserved the memory of the sacri- fice of Vararuchi, we may readily conclude that writing was as yet a rare accomplishment (it has been remarked above that it was intro- duced in the time of PAnini). Although this is so, the remembrance of the Vibhdshd rests npon the appearance, a short time after, of a third collection of the doctrines of Buddha § cither in the kingdom of K a s m i r or J a 1 a n d h a I is disputed which), but in either case it was under king Kanishka, who then reigned over these countries, and who lived four hundred years after Buddha. Although, according to Chinese sources, we are forced to the conclusion that K a t y a y a n a t the composer of the first Abhidharma, was president of this assembly, and that at this time he called on A s va gosh a to write down the Vihluishd, — everything goes to assure us that K a t y a y a n a lived much earlier, and that his name is used here only to remind us that he was the first representative of the Abhi- dharmists, who were then changed to Vaibhash- ista. In the list which has comedown to us of his survivors, innumerable in Cluna, Kiltyayana is placed in the fifth or seventh generation after Buddha, whilst Asvagosha is reckoned in the ninth or eleventh. After all, the ac- count of Taranatha admits as very probable that king Kanishka convoked the priests under Par era, the author of the Sutra on the prophetic vision of king K r i k i n, who, according to Chinese and Thibetan sonrcea, is regarded as having been converted by Asva- gosha, and who, though at one time an enemy of the faith, became a Ee&kras worshipper: be was the first lyric poet, and by his hymns raised Buddhism out of the pedantic Bfiholastao system, and taught the nation to praise 15 BXtging lyric odea It* 'I may be relied on, it was at this tame that the denomination of YaibhasniatG niia rm at rat a a said to have been t! preeentalave of the Ebrmerai this time, but the first of the Sautiiiiiii.ts was the great Siha- vi r a— a p is we see, wbioj at this time only was changed into an appella- fche school which, was called after him, and from which, as we see, tho school of tho death of Dudiihn ; the MOMm] OB 1 "f tho disjiutoa nt V n i - :i I i j unci t t,ti>- third il is DW eaaary to in- ha assembly during the migft of the aecood A So k», bat that is unknown to tho northern Buddhiat*.
 * Chap. viii.