The latter returns to his old haunts, and begets wicked sons on this Sūdra woman, his second wife. He is in consequence cursed by the gods, and doomed to hell (vv. 6445, ff.).

xi. Page 343, lines 8 and 19.

The number of the periodical called "Nature," for 14th Sept., 1871, contains an article by Prof. Max Müller, on Major-General Cunningham's "Ancient Geography of India," in which R.V. v. 53, 9, and x. 75, 6, are translated, and some remarks on the Kubha, Krumu, and Gomati rivers are added.

xii. Page 439, line 14.

As this sheet is passing through the press, I find that it is stated by a writer in the "Cornhill Magazine" for November, 1871, p. 570, f., that Dr. Caldwell is wrong in asserting that the Dravidians are a Turanian people; and that in reality they "represent lineally an offshoot from the great parent stock which left the fatherland long before Sanskrit was grown into vigour, and about the same period that the Teutonic wave flowed northwards into Europe. There is scarcely a Dravidian root which does not appear in Gothic, Anglosaxon, or Icelandic." As at present informed, I am unable to say whether any detailed proof of these assertions has been, or can be, adduced.

494

METRICAL TRANSLATIONS.

I REPRINT here two metrical translations from Indian authors, which have already been published, though they are but very slightly connected with the other contents of this volume.

I. Asita and Buddha, or the Indian Simeon.

In the Lalita Vistara-a legendary history in prose and verse of the life of Buddha, the great Indian Saint, and founder of the religion which bears his name-it is related that a Rishi, or inspired sage, named Asita, who dwelt on the skirts of the Himalaya mountains, became informed, by the occurrence of a variety of portents, of the birth of the future lawgiver, as the son of King Suddhōdana, in the city of Kapilavastu, in Northern India, and went to pay his homage to the infant. I have tried to reproduce the legend in the following verses. The similarity of some of the incidents to portions of the narrative in St. Luke ii. 25, ff., will strike the reader.

I may mention that the Buddhist books speak also of earlier Buddhas, that the word means "the enlightened," or "the intelligent," and that Buddha also bore the appellations of Gautama, and of Sakyasinha, and Sakyamuni-i.e., the lion, and the devotee, of the tribe of the Sakyas, to which he belonged.

That I have not at all exaggerated the expressions in the text which speak of Buddha as a deliverer or redeemer, or assimilated his character more than was justifiable to the Christian conception of a Saviour, will be clear to any one who can examine the original for himself. In a passage quoted in the first volume of this work, p. 509, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, a renowned Brahmanical opponent of the Buddhists, while charging Buddha with presumption and transgression of the rules of his caste in assuming the functions of a religious teacher (with which, as belonging to the Kshatriya, and not to the Brahmanical, class, he had no right to interfere), ascribes to him these words"Let all the evils (or sins) flowing from the corruption of the Kali

age" (the fourth, or most degenerate, age of the world) "fall upon me; but let the world be redeemed!" If we were to judge from this passage, it might seem that the character of a vicarious redeemer was claimed by, or at least ascribed to, Buddha. I am informed by Mr. R. C. Childers, however, that in his opinion the idea of Buddha's having suffered vicariously for the sins of men is foreign to Buddhism, and indeed, opposed to the whole spirit and tendency of the system. According to him the Buddhist idea is simply this, that Buddha voluntarily underwent great sufferings and privations during a long course of probation, in order that he might attain the truth, and teach it to men, and so redeem them from worldly existence.

Another valued correspondent, Professor E. B. Cowell, is unable to think that the sentiment ascribed to Buddha by Kumārila is foreign to his system, as it is thoroughly in accordance with the idea of the six pāramitas. But he does not understand it as implying any theological notion of vicarious atonement, but rather the enthusiastic utterance of highly-strung moral sympathy and charity; and would compare it with St. Paul's words in Romans ix. 3, and explain it in just the same way as, he thinks, Chrysostom does that verse. He further refers to the existence of numerous Buddhist stories in the Kathasaritsagara, among which is one from lvi. 153, viz., the story of the disobedient son with a red-hot iron wheel on his head, who says::Papino 'nye 'pi [vi?] muchyantām pṛithvyām tat-pātakair api | ā pāpakshayam etad me chakram bhrāmyatu mūrdhani | "Let other sinners on earth be freed from their sins; and until the removal of [their] sin let this wheel turn round upon my head." In either case it is only a wish, and it is not pretended that it really had, or ever could have, any effect on other men. It only expresses a perfection of charity. The same idea (borrowed, as Mr. Cowell supposes, from Buddha) occurs in the Bhāgavata Puṛāna, ix. ch. 21. The "immortal word" (amṛitam vachaḥ, v. 11) contained in the 12th verse, and ascribed to the pious and benevolent king Rantideva,-who himself endured hunger and thirst to relieve others,-is as follows: Na kāmaye 'ham gatim iśvarāt parām ashṭarddhi-yuktām apunarbhavam vā | ārtim prapadye 'khila-dehabhājām antaḥsthito yena bhavanty aduḥkhaḥ| "I desire not from God that highest destiny which is attended with the eight perfections, nor do I ask to be exempted from future births. I seek to live within all cor

poreal beings, and endure their pains, that so they may be freed from suffering." On this the commentator annotates thus: Para-duḥkhāsahishnutaya sarvesham duḥkham svayam bhoktum āśāste |

"akhiladeha-bhājām ārtim” duḥkham tat-tad-bhoktṛi-rūpena "antaḥsthitaḥ" sann aham "prapadye" prāpnuyām ity evam̃ kāmaye |)

On Himalaya's lonely steep

There lived of old a holy sage,

Of shrivelled form, and bent with age,
Inured to meditation deep.

He-when great Buddha had been born,
The glory of the Sakya race,
Endowed with every holy grace,
To save the suffering world forlorn-

Beheld strange portents, signs which taught
The wise that that auspicious time
Had witnessed some event sublime,
With universal blessing fraught.

The sky with joyful gods was thronged:
He heard their voice with glad acclaim
Resounding loudly Buddha's name,
While echoes clear their shouts prolonged.

The cause exploring, far and wide

The sage's vision ranged; with awe
Within a cradle laid he saw
Far off the babe, the Sakyas' pride.

With longing seized this child to view
At hand, and clasp, and homage pay,
Athwart the sky he took his way
By magic art, and swan-like flew;

And came to King Suddhōdan's gates,
And entrance craved-" Go, royal page,
And tell thy lord an ancient sage
To see the King permission waits."

The page obeyed. and joined his hands

Before the prince, and said-" A sage, Of shrivelled form, and bowed with age, Before the gate, my sovereign, stands,

"And humbly asks to see the King."

To whom Suddhōdan cried-" We greet All such with joy; with honour meet The holy man before us bring."

14 Certain corporeal marks are supposed by Indian writers to indicate the future greatness of those children in whom they appear. Of these, thirty-two primary, and eighty secondary, marks are referred to in the original as being visible on Buddha's person.

15 The word here imperfectly translated, means, according to Professor H. H. Wilson's Dictionary, "reverential salutation, by circumambulating a person or object, keeping the right side towards them."

16 The term here translated "insight" is derived from the same root as the word "Buddha," and means "intelligence," or "enlightenment."

17 The term thus rendered, dharmachakra, expresses a somewhat singular figure. It denotes the "wheel of the law," or the "wheel of righteousness," or the "wheel of religion."

18 The word in the original is nirvâņa, a term of which the sense is disputed-some scholars esteeming it to mean absolute annihilation; others explaining it as the extinction of passion, the attainment of perfect dispassion. Mr. Childers informs me that he considers nirvâņa to signify active bliss on earth for a brief period, followed (upon death) by total annihilation. See a letter from him on this subject in No. 62 of "Trübner's Literary Record" for October, 1870, p. 27. 19 The tree referred to in the original is the Udumbara, the Ficus giomerata.