"After this Priyá was afflicted with leprosy, and CHAPTER III. her brothers took her to the other side of the river Rohini; and she dwelt there and took up her abode in a cave. "Meantime a Raja of Benares, named Ráma, was in like manner afflicted with leprosy; and he abandoned his throne to his son, and went into the jungle where Priyá was dwelling, and took up his abode in the hollow of a koli tree; and the leaves and bark of that tree cured him of his leprosy. One day he heard the roaring of a tiger, and the screaming of a woman; and he went to the spot, and saw that the tiger had fled, and that Priyá was half dead with terror. So he brought Priyá to his hidingplace in the Koli tree, and cured her of her leprosy; and she became his wife and bore many sons, and they were henceforth known as the Koli princes. "When the Koli princes were grown they desired to marry the daughters of the Sákya princes of Kapila; but the Sákya princes refused them. Now the custom was for the damsels of Kapila to go down to the river Rohini to bathe; and the Koli princes met them there, and led them away, and made them their wives. Then the princes of Kapila became reconciled to the princes of Koli; and sophy which was taught by Kapila. But Buddhism is the natural development of Indian culture generally. See Professor Max Müller's remarks on this subject. Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. Art. Buddhism. 8 According to the legend the Sákya princes refused to give their daughters in marriage to the Koli princes, because the latter had been born in the hollow of a tree. Here, again, a mythic interpretation has been inserted to conceal a disagreeable truth. The real reason for the refusal probably lay in the leprosy of the parents of the princes. 9 This tradition resembles the story told by Herodotus of the establishment of marriage relations between the young men of Scythia and the Amazonian damsels. Herod. iv. 110-117. CHAPTER III. from that day the family of Koli intermarried with the Sákya family of Kapila." Incestuous marriages of the This tradition is a valuable relic of antiquity. Sakya princes. The marriages of the Sákyas to their sisters cannot be accepted as an isolated fact, but was an established usage like the polyandry of the old Vedic Aryan colonists. To this day it is practised by the Kshatriya kings and princes of upper Burma. It was, however, regarded with the utmost detestation by Brahmanical law; and it may be inferred that during the later antagonisms between Brahmanism and Buddhism the reproach was not forgotten. In the present day the insinuation of such a crime has been converted into one of the foulest terms of abuse in all Bengal.1o Birth of Gótama, B.C. 623. 11 Gótama, of the family of Sákyas, is commonly supposed to have been born B.C. 623. His father Suddhodana was Raja of Kapila, and had married two sisters of the house of Koli. Mayá, the elder, gave birth to Gótama, and died seven days afterwards. Prajapatí, the younger, gave birth to a son 10 The sons of the king of Burma marry their half-sisters. The first wife of the king is generally either a sister or a half-sister. The eldest sister is compelled to lead a life of celibacy so long as her parents are alive, in order that she may be treated as queen-mother. A similar practice prevailed amongst the ancient kings of Persia, who were probably descended from a cognate stock. See Bigandet's Life of Gaudama, p. 11, note. The practice of marriages between such close relations is said to have been followed to insure purity of blood. The line of inheritance in the Malabar country is not to a son, whose paternity might be doubtful, but to the son of a sister. Strange to say, a similar incestuous union appears in the legend of Krishna. See History, vol. i., part ii., Máha Bhárata, chap. v. 11 The date of the birth of Gótama is very uncertain. The question is fully discussed in Max Müller's History of Sanskrit Literature, pages 263–273. According to the Singhalese era his death took place in the year 543 B.C., after a mortal career of eighty years. This date is accepted by Professor Lassen; but it will be shown hereafter that it may be easily shifted to an earlier or later period. named Nanda, who occupies an important place in CHAPTER III. later Buddhist history.12 12 melancholy of Gótama was of a serious turn of mind from his Religious childhood. Like most men who are destined to be- Gótama. come religious teachers, he appears to have been at once thoughtful, melancholy, and imbued with deep sympathies for suffering humanity. Indeed the pain and affliction to which all mankind are more or less subject, seems to have been one of the earliest ideas that dawned upon man. Herodotus has described a Thracian tribe, who mourned when a child was born, and rejoiced when an individual died; and this idea seems to have been early impressed upon the mind of Gótama, but further developed by the dogma of the endless transmigrations of the soul, which he learnt from the Bráhmans. Thus elements of religious thought were possibly working in his soul respecting the hard and inexorable destiny of humanity, that were calculated to fill him with religious despair. As the boy grew older he became so sad and serious that his father grew alarmed lest he should abandon his high 12 There is no difficulty in dealing with the main incidents in the life of Gótama. There is a general conformity in all the traditions that have been preserved that possess any claim to authenticity; whether in Thibet to the northward of the Himalayan mountains; or in the island of Ceylon to the south of Peninsular India; or in Burma to the east of the Bay of Bengal. There are, however, considerable differences in the quality and quantity of the supernatural details, which have been introduced by pious monks and miracle-mongers of a later date; but they have been mostly passed over in the present work as devoid of all historical value. Their general character will be found indicated at the conclusion of the present chapter. They are narrated in Bishop Bigandet's Life or Legend of Gaudama, based on Burmese authorities, Rangoon, 1866; and in Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, based on Singhalese authorities. See also the works of Burnouf and St Hilaire. It has been remarked by some writers, and by Christian missionaries amongst the number, that many details in the life of Gótama Buddha coincide with incidents in the life of Christ. This point will be noticed hereafter in dealing with the life of Gótama as a whole. CHAPTER III. position, and become a religious recluse, like the Bráhman sages who sat and dreamed away their lives under the trees. Marriage of When Gótama was sixteen years of age, Raja Suddhodana thought that marriage might divert the young man's thoughts into a new channel. Accordingly a negotiation was opened with the Raja of Koli for the hand of his daughter Yasodhará. But the Raja of Koli objected to give his daughter to such a degenerate Kshatriya. Gótama, however, soon proved that he had by no means neglected the accomplishments of his race, for he distanced every competitor in the use of weapons, and thus obtained the fair prize. The marriage was duly celebrated, and for some time Gótama was happy in the love of his beautiful bride. Meantime the kinsmen and retainers of the two royal houses of Kapila and Koli sent their daughters to the palace to amuse the young prince with their various accomplishments; and it may be inferred that at this period of his life he plunged into every kind of pleasure, until at last he was oppressed with satiety, and his old melancholy began to return.13 It is difficult to say how long Gótama pursued a 13 The sensuality indicated in the text is almost incredible. It is, however,, quite in accordance with Kshatriya usages. A custom somewhat similar has always prevailed amongst the Kshatriya sovereigns of Burma, varying of course with the character or temperament of the reigning king. Bhodau-pra, who reigned a.d. 1781-1819 over the whole Burman empire, from the Bay of Bengal to the Chinese frontier, was unbounded in his zenana indulgences. Every governor and feudatory was expected to send his fairest daughter or sister to serve in the palace as an attendant, or Royal Virgin. If any such damsel obtained the favour of the king, she was elevated to the position of an inferior queen, and provided with a separate apartment and slaves for her own use. On the one hand, she was expected to promote the interests of her family at court; on the other, she was supposed to keep the king informed of all that was going on in the family of her father or brother, 14 rors-old age, death. career of pleasure. During the latter part of it he CHAPTER III. is said to have successively beheld three different The three terobjects, which inspired him with a deep sense of the disease, and miseries of existence. These objects were an aged man, a diseased man, and a dead man. This legend need not be interpreted literally. Probably it is a parable intended to convey by three striking figures a conception of the evils which are the common lot of humanity,-old age, disease, and death. The sight of each of these objects awoke a fresh train of thought in the mind of the young prince; and when he had seen them all, he exclaimed in the anguish of his soul:-"Youth, health, and life itself are but transitory dreams; they lead to age and disease, and they terminate in death and corruption." Reflections such as these have driven some men into a melancholy madness, which has ended in suicide; but suicide to a believer in endless transmigrations is merely a change from one existence to another. At this juncture Gótama saw a religious mendicant; a man who had renounced all pleasures, all desires, and all affections; who walked along with dignified tranquillity, and looked only upon the ground. The sight of this mendicant enabled Gótama to perceive a way of escape from the world, and all its delusions and sorrows. He too would abstract his mind from all passion and desire, until he, should be finally delivered from the prison of endless transmigrations.15 14 According to the legend Gótama was married at the age of sixteen, and did not abandon his home and family until he was twenty-nine. This would give him thirteen years of domestic happiness. But, as will be seen hereafter, Gótama abandoned his family the very day his only child was born; and it may therefore be inferred that practically his married life was brought to a close after a year or two. 15 This episode, as regards the appearance of a religious mendicant, requires some explanation. It evidently applies to the ordinary mendicant monk of Bud |