Art. XIV.— Buddhist Saint Worship

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ART. XIV.—Buddhist Saint Worship. By ARTHUR LILLIE, M.R.A.S.

A STUDENT of Buddhism cannot proceed very far in his inquiry without being confronted with a tremendous contra- diction. Perhaps I may be allowed here to speak from personal experience. I read Le Bouddha et sa Religion, by M. Barthelemy St.-Hilaire, and one or two well-known works; and soon learnt that annihilation (sunyata) was the lot of the Saint when he had reached the Bodhi or Highest Wisdom, and freed himself from the cycle of new births. I then came across Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet, which contains a sort of litany called The Buddhas of Confession. In it is the following passage :— " I adore the Buddha Sa-la'i-rgyal-po. Once uttering this name shall purify from all sins of theft, robbery, and the like." This puzzled me. This being was a Buddha. In consequence he had suffered, or enjoyed, complete annihilation. Why then should the pronouncing the name Sa-la'i- rgyal-po purify from all sins of " theft, robbery, and the like ? " Then I remembered that in old religions very holy names like I.A.O., A.U.M., etc., had often got to be thought more potent than the God himself. I mention all this to show that I am not at all surprised at people clinging to the idea that the Bodhi in the earliest Buddhism meant annihilation in spite of the strong evidence that can be brought against it. I myself for some time did the same. But a further study of Buddhist litanies convinced me that my theory about holy names by no means met all the facts of the case. I will write down a few extracts from their litanies: " I worship continually The Buddhas of the ages that are past, I worship the Buddhas, the all-pitiful, I worship with bowed head."—Ancient Ritual of Ceylon.1

1 Patimokkha (Dickson), p. 5. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 10 Sep 2018 at 19:00:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00018219 BUDDHA APPEARING AT THE ALTAR DURING WORSHIP. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/coreFROM. INSEADAM AR Ay, on ATI. 10 Sep 2018 at 19:00:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00018219 PL. II.

BUDDHA APPEARING AT THE AI.TAR DURING WORSHIP.

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" All hail! Buddhas of the ten quarters."—Chinese Ritual. " I adore the Tathagata Ts'hi-pag-med, who dwells in the Buddha region Devachan (Sukhavati or Paradise)."—Tibetan Ritual.1 " I have no other refuge; Buddha is the best refuge! By the truth of these words May I conquer and win the victory ! I how my head to the ground and worship The sacred dust of his holy feet; If in aught I have sinned against Buddha, May Buddha forgive me my sin."—Ancient Ritual of Ceylon?1 '' I regard the sacred altar as a royal gem. In the midst of it appears the Shadow of S'akya Tathagata."—Chinese Ritual.3 In the presence of these quotations, my theory about the potency of a mere name breaks down; for the Buddhas of the past that are supposed to be annihilated dwell in Sukha- vati ; are able to forgive sin; are able to come down to the altar during worship. The Buddhism of the Sutras in their present form and the Buddhism of the Ritual are plainly irreconcileable. We are in the presence of two philosophies essentially antagonistic and internecine. This fact seems to have struck Eugene Burnouf, and he settled that the Saint Worship was an addition. As far as our limited space will admit, let us examine this question, beginning with the Brahminism of the date of Buddha. If we accept Lassen's chronology on the subject, the non-Vaishnava portions of the Mahabharata may be accepted as a fair guide here. It will give us a sketch of the creed that existed in India when the Buddhist movement occurred. Readers of that epic must be astonished on first perusing it to find no mention of temples. Forests with Rishis or Prophets dwelling in them, and performing the initiation of yoga under trees, are mentioned in almost every episode; but even in the long descriptions of sumptuous towns religious edifices seem conspicuous chiefly by their absence. Alongside

1 Schlagintweit, p. 129. 2 Patimokkha, p. 5. a Catena, p. 404.

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of the Rishis and their forests, there is, however, the Tirtha. What is a Tirtha ? Our lexicographers tell us that it is a sacred tank. Col. Tod, who studied natives all his life amongst natives, calls it a shrine. At any rate, the Tirtha was of dominant importance in the ancient religion, for we read thus of it:— "It is the greatest mystery of the Rishis, excellent son of Bharata. The holy pilgrimage to the Tirthas is more important than sacrifices to the gods." 1 In another verse it is stated that five nights' sojourn at the Tirtha of Jambumarya is equal to the fruit of a Horse sacrifice.2 The Horse sacrifice was the most important of Aryan rites. A hundred performances of it raised the sacrificer to the level of Indra, the Supreme. Assisted by the Mahabharata, let us try and make out what was a Tirtha. Without doubt pilgrims bathed there:— " May the pilgrim bathe, 0 son of Bharata, in all the Tirthas." 3 Illustrious Saints resided in Tirthas, the dead as well as the living.4 Kapila has his Tirtha, the Bishi Matanga,5 the Saint Bhrigu.6 " Go where the greatest Eishis Valmiki and Kasyapa, Kunda- jathara, the son of Atri, Yisvamitra and Gautama, Asita Devala, Markandeya and Galava, Bharawaja and the Solitary Vasishtha, TTddalaka, S'aunaka, and his son Vyasa, the greatest of ascetics, Durvasas, the most virtuous of anchorites, Javali of the terrible macerations; go where these, the greatest of Saints, rich in penances, are waiting for thee."7 To gods, to dead saints, to ancestors, rites were performed in Tirthas. " The shining hero (Bhishma)," it says in one passage, "feasted the ancestors, the gods. He feasted the Eishis after the manner laid down in the S'astras." 8 All these passages occur in the book of the Mahahharata where King Yudhishthira, the eldest of the four sons of Pandu, is enjoined to make a round of pilgrimages to the Tirthas.

1 Mahab. Vana Parva, v. 4059. 5 Ibid. 8079. 2 Ibid. 4083. 6 Ibid. v. 8234. 3 Ibid. 4074. ' Ibid. TV. 8262, et seq. 4 Vana Parva, 8056. 8 v. 4035.

We have shown that Tirthas were places of pilgrimage with tanks. They were also shrines of dead saints. Does this mean that they were stone circles and sepulchral mounds like the Stennis stones in Orkney, like Avesbury, like Stonehenge ? I think this question must be answered in the affirmative for the following reasons : 1. The Western Aryas, the Norsemen, Goths, etc., invari- ably used the stone circles and the sepulchral mound (haug) for worship and also for burial. 2. In many parts of India these circles and mounds are still used by sections of the Hindoos, as an interesting set of papers by Dr. Stevenson in our Journal has shown. 3. These two institutions figure very prominently in Buddhism. And when one religion breaks away from another, it may make many changes, but must be credited with having retained a large number of the institutions of its parent creed. To dispose of the dead is a pressing need. This is scarcely the point at which a religious reformer would begin. I think also that there are passages in the Mahabharata that bear me out. " When King Suhotra governed this globe according to the laws of justice, columns of sacrifice and sacred trees were planted about the surface of the earth (jalonnaient la terre, Fauche) in hundreds of thousands. They shone every season with an abundant harvest of men and grains." 1 " He offered then, 0 most virtuous son of Bharata, an hundred solemn sacrifices, bidding gods and Brahmins. There were columns of sacrifice in precious stones and Chaityas (sepulchral mounds) of gold." 2 " The Long-Haired God gave by thousands and millions columns of sacrifice and Chaityas of great splendour." 3 It seems to me that these columns of sacrifice planted about by hundreds of thousands must be standing stones. Professor Whitney publishes the translation of a Vedic hymn

1 Mahabh. Adi Parya, v. 3717. 2 Ibid. Sabha Parva, v. 69. 3 Ibid. v. 74. Downloaded fromVOL https://www.cambridge.org/core. xiv.—[NEW SEKIES.] . INSEAD, on 10 Sep 2018 at 19:00:37, 1subject6 to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00018219 222 BUDDHIST SAINT WORSHIP.

which shows that in the early days the body was buried without cremation. " Forth from about thee thus I build away the ground, As I lay down the clod may I receive no harm; This pillar may the Fathers here maintain for thee, May Yama there provide thee with a dwelling." ' The sacred tree considered in the light of a shrine and place of worship is also prominent in the Mahabharata. Indeed the word Chaitya, usually applied to a sepulchral mound, is also used to designate the tree. "A tree in fact spread with leaves and fruits, if it be solitary in a village, becomes a venerable Chaitya, without successors, honoured with the offerings of all."3 In the narrative of which I am going to quote a passage, superstitious importance is plainly attached to it; for the heroes, when they find themselves in an enemy's city, at once run and demolish the sacred tree, probably to annul the charms and hostile influences of their enemy's household gods and patron saints. " Then they (Krishna, Bhlma and Dhananjaya) rushed upon the splendid Chaitya of the inhabitants of Magadha, and smote it on the crest as they wished to smite Jarasandha. And with the blows of their great arms they felled that ancient tree, vast, firmly rooted, with airy top, respected by all, and ever honoured with incense and garlands." 3 The sacred tree was plainly an important accompaniment of the Tirthas, for it figures in the description of those that Yudhishthira was advised by the Brahmins to visit. " Where, as Brahmins tell, was born that Indian fig tree of which the cause is eternal ? " This was at Gaya.4 At Yamouna too it is announced : " There is the beautiful and the holy Tirtha, named the Descent of the Holy Fig Tree," 5 Here is another passage: " Where the heroic sons of 1 B.V. x. 18, cited from Whitney's Oriental and Linguistic Studies, 1st Series, p. 55. » Adi Parva, v. 5913. > Mbh. Sabha Parva, v. 816, 817. * Vana Parva, 8307. 5 Ibid. 8375. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 10 Sep 2018 at 19:00:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00018219 BUDDHIST SAINT WORSHIP. 223

Pandu celebrated the Four Months' Sacrifice with deep knowledge of the scriptures, at a place where grows the imperishable and great Indian Fig Tree." l When Buddhism first emerges in history, it certainly starts with standing stones, and Tirthas, and Chaityas, and holy trees. Let us see if there is any evidence of saint worship likewise. M. Burnouf thought there was not; but he wrote before the discovery of the Stupa of Bharhut. In the British Museum, as you are aware, are the marbles of the Amaravati Tope. I see strangers, with puzzled look, stop before certain tablets that represent marble worshippers crouching before a small throne or table placed before a marble tree. On the altar are often two footprints. Other inquirers have been equally puzzled. But the recent ex- humation of the remains of the Stupa of Bharhut has placed the meaning of these emblems beyond the region of contro- versy. Similar designs have been there discovered, and they are furnished with explanations incised in the Pali character. One, it is said, is the throne and tree of Kasyapa, another the throne and tree of Kanaka Muni, and so on through the list of the Seven Great Buddhas. Every great Buddha has his tree and his worship. And here I must mention a curious piece of Chinese-puzzle adjustment, which shows how closely the ritual fits the ancient temple and the temple the ritual. In vol. xvi. of the Asiatic Researches, Professor Wilson gives a ritual from Nepal, called the Praise of the Seven Buddhas.2 Each Buddha is " adored" in a separate paragraph, and it is announced that he found eman- cipation under a special tree. Comparing the list of these trees with that of the Bharhut Stupa, as given by General Cunningham,3 we findtha t five of the trees exactly correspond. The sixth, that of Viswabhu, is obliterated. Sakya Muni's tree in one list is the Asvattha and in the other the Pippala, synonyms I believe for the Ficus religiosa. This seems to give great antiquity to the litany.

1 Vana Parva, 8523. 2 P. 453. 3 P. 46. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 10 Sep 2018 at 19:00:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00018219 224 BUDDHIST SAINT WORSHIP.

" Glory to the Arhantas ! Glory to all Saints ! " says the Khandagiri rock inscription. " Furthermore the people in the night shall attend the great myrobolan and the holy fig tree," says the Delhi Pillar. " In the middle of the village or in the forest, on ocean or land, wherever the Saints collect, full of joy is that place." Thus Buddha in the Dhammapada. "I bow in adoration to those bosom-reared sons of Sugato, who overcame the dominion of death (Maro)." Buddha- ghosa's invocation to the " three treasures" at the com- mencement of his Atthakatha. Let us try and restore this saint worship. The early Chaitya was a rude sepulchral mound, placed in a jungle if one was available. Round it were erected a few monoliths; and one or two large trees were appropriated. The living saint sate under a tree on a Bodhimandi, a rude stool probably in the first instance. This became the altar of the dead saint. Incense was offered upon it, we see this from the sculptures ; food too, on one altar is what I take to be a globular rice pudding about the size of a football. Garlands were hung on the branches. Other offerings are in the hands of the worshippers, probably the scented water which from time immemorial in India was the drink of the ghosts, and which in Buddhism is still used. I now come to a piece of evidence whose importance I had not appreciated when I wrote my work Buddha and Early Buddhism. "I regard the sacred altar as a Royal Gem. In the midst of it appears the shadow of Sakya Tathagata." PI. A. is portion of a sculpture that I have roughly copied from the Amaravati tope at the British Museum. Here we have Buddha in person coming down to the altar at the moment of worship. Each Buddha in the Ceylon scriptures has two favourite disciples, and here we see them. The women who are erect are the Apsarasas or nymphs of Indra that are always by him in the Lalita Vistara. The worshippers are distinct; they are crouching and humble. On the apparition of a beatified Rishi in the Mahabharata folks fling themselves in the dust, and join the palms of the hands near the Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 10 Sep 2018 at 19:00:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00018219 BUDDHIST SAINT WORSHIP. 225

forehead. The beehive-looking object I take to be an incense burner. In PL B. we have Buddha once more under similar conditions. Here I must point out an inspiration, a very happy one, that has recently come to Mr. Franks, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, who has recently delivered a lecture. He has been studying the Amaravati marbles at the British Museum, and has come to the conclusion that the imprints of feet so numerous in the early Buddhist temples are designed to typify the presence of Buddha. I think this is very important. But at this point our conclusions diverge. Mr. Franks is of opinion that these appearances were limited to the actual earth-life of the great Tathagata. I hold that these footprints typified the presence of the beatified Buddha. And superficially, at any rate, this seems the most common-sense view. Buddha's followers were chiefly poor men, slaves, Magdalens, savages, in whom the spiritual faculty had just been awakened. And to a savage, as in the case of Man Friday, a footprint of a mortal would suggest, not that the mortal was present, but that the mortal was decidedly absent. But when the hero of Lord Lytton's The Saunters and The Haunted saw the footprints of a ghost, he was convinced that the ghost was present—unpleasantly so. I cannot really see how in the Buddhism of Sunyata, the Buddhism of Nothing- ness, the footprint theory can work. Supposing that we grant that the devotees were worshipping the footprints of Sakya during his earth-life, what about the six other mortal Buddhas who were with him simultaneously worshipped in a tope ? Each had his tree, his altar, his imprint of foot- steps. They could not all be supposed to be alive together, for the one preceded always his immediate successor by many thousand years. " I bow my head to the ground and worship The sacred dust of liis holy feet." These words are perhaps being chanted in Ceylon at the very moment I am addressing you. They cannot refer to Buddha during his earth-life. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 10 Sep 2018 at 19:00:37, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00018219 226 BUDDHIST SAINT WOKSHIP.

I might mention too that the doctrine of pure and absolute nothingness (Sunyata) is not all that a disciple of Schopen- hauer would desire. There are, as Mr. Hodgson1 tells us, a Sunyata, and a Maha-Sunyata. We are dead. You are a little Nothing. But I am a big Nothing. Also there are eighteen degrees of Sdnyata.1 You are annihilated, but I am eighteen times as much annihilated as you. It is possible that the framers of the doctrine meant something different from what the moderns suppose. In a short paper it is of course impossible to take up all the points that bear on this great question. Did space permit, I could show you from the Lalita Vistara that the Buddhas of the past, far from conceiving themselves annihilated, crowd round the Prince at every turn of the story and act as his guardian angels. I could show, too, that the annals of Cingalese Buddhism, if properly ransacked, by no means bear out the theory that is popularly evolved from them. All this would require not a paper, but a book—a book far larger than the one I have written on the subject. Saint worship is the religion of India when Buddha appears on the page of history. Saint worship is his recorded teaching. Saint worship is on the earliest monu- ments. The Buddhist temple is an apparatus of saint worship, and saint worship its only ritual. Saint worship is the key of the Buddhist emblematology ; and the Buddhist cosmology is the Brahmin cosmology adapted to saint worship. The Buddhist Pantheon is a cohort of saints. Between this saint worship and the doctrine of Sunyata there is a great gulf fixed; and one of these antagonistic elements has plainly been foisted on the other. Either a complicated and harmonious religion, with its temples and rites and symbols, has been foisted on the muddled doctrine of Sunyata, or the muddled doctrine of Sunyata has been foisted on the vast and complicated religion.

1 Essays, p. 59.