轉錄自J. F. Blacker. The ABC of Indian Art. New Delhi: Chennai, 2006.
Chapter IV
Buddhism
Though Buddhism is no longer the prominent religion of India as it was in the reign of King Asoka in the third century B.C., it prevails in Nipal, Bhutan, Ceylon, Burma and Assam, where it was spread especially during the eleventh century of our era, when it was driven out of India proper. Including the Buddhists of Tibet, China, etc., the number of adherents to the doctrines of Sakya Muni or Gautama, the “Buddha,” must reach 400,000,000. In Ceylon, Nipal and Bhutan about 9,000,000 of Buddhists are found. In further India, 20,000,000 of persons profess this faith, now sadly degenerated from its original purity, except perhaps in Ceylon and Further India. We may well go farther, and say that in different lands different forms of the worship are practised, and that idolatry is prevalent in most of them.
Originally Buddhism was a schism from Brahmanism. Gautama, the enlightened sage, denied the creation of the world, and the immortality and omnipotence of the gods; he rejected the law of the castes, and accepted no other authority than reason, no other superiority than that combined of virtue and knowledge. He preached charity, brotherly love and equality. He admitted the doctrine of transmigration, from which man cannot be deliver except by meditation, charity and knowledge, which open for him the gates of Nirvana, a place or state of blessedness, perfect and eternal, because there is no further obligation to be born again, and suffer the miseries of mortal life. He, nominally, allowed certain gods and spirits—pious men, who by reason of there virtue had reached these heights, which, however, did not free them from reincarnation as men in order attain the supreme Nirvana, when they became Buddhas. Below them were Bodhisattvas, who, in the penultimate stage, having only one more earthly life to lead, were the protectors of the world and of their religion.
Such, in short, was Buddhism in its purity. The reward depended entirely on the results secured; the merit, or karma, determined the new being in a higher or lower grade, which itself was transient until perfection attained the infinite. In order to establish the faith, he taught all man to “cease from wrong-doing, to get virtue, and to cleanse the heart.” By these means suffering, which coexisted with life and depended on desire, would be extinguished when desire was conquered, and Nirvana would be reached eventually. Right vision or belief was necessary, followed by right aims, words, actions. To a monk—and the monastic life was favoured—other right acts were necessary—mode of living as a monk, endeavour in the study of law, mindfulness in remembering it, and, finally, meditation.
In the whole of this there is no God. Hence have arisen idolatry, incantations, magic, prayer-wheels, etc., and a ritualistic worship, which has substituted the means for the end. The atheism of Buddhism has been termed its one fatal deficiency.
The Buddhist art in India itself has been incorporated with the Hindu, so that it is Ceylon and Burmah which furnish the finest examples of architecture. At Sanchi, twenty-six miles from Bhopal, however, are the remains of the shrines, or topes, which Asoka commenced building about 260 B.C. The top of each tope was designed to contain relics of the Buddhas in a metal box. This part was the tee. The relic-shrine was a dagoba. It has been suggested that the dagoba should be limited to the solid towers which cover the relics, and tope should be applied only to the tombs erected over buried priests. The Great Tope at Sanchi, in the Bhilsa Hills, indicates something of the early architecture of Buddhist India, though all the earliest stone buildings are of the same class. It is a dome over 100 feet in diameter and 42 feet high. On the top is a flat space surrounded by a stone railing, of which parts only are left. In the middle was a tee, mean to represent a relic-casket. The sloping base, 120 feet wide and 14 feet high, which supports the dome was probably ascended by a ramp, or inclined plane, to a balustrade at the top. The exterior is faced with dressed stones upon a solid centre of bricks. Near it lie the six other topes which complete the group. At Sonari, six miles away, is another group of eight topes, whilst other groups are not far off.
Other relics of Asoka are in the pillars, or lats, which he set up and inscribed with his edicts. Such are those erected in Delhi by Firuz Shah about A.D. 1356. They are of pinkish sandstone. In the same city there is a curious iron pillar, shown in the illustrations. It records its own history in an inscription in Sanskrit, and is called “The arm of fame of Rajah Dhava.” This monument of pure malleable iron rises 22 feet above ground, but is sunk more than that below the surface. Opinions differ with regard to its age, but the suggestion now generally accepted is about A.D. 319. it is said that no Hindu temple is known having an earlier date than the fifth century A.D., so we may merge the early Buddhist temples in those of the Hindus, and at the same time bear in mind that the Moslems had no compunction in using the materials of such temples for the building of their mosques.
Chapter IV
Buddhism
Though Buddhism is no longer the prominent religion of India as it was in the reign of King Asoka in the third century B.C., it prevails in Nipal, Bhutan, Ceylon, Burma and Assam, where it was spread especially during the eleventh century of our era, when it was driven out of India proper. Including the Buddhists of Tibet, China, etc., the number of adherents to the doctrines of Sakya Muni or Gautama, the “Buddha,” must reach 400,000,000. In Ceylon, Nipal and Bhutan about 9,000,000 of Buddhists are found. In further India, 20,000,000 of persons profess this faith, now sadly degenerated from its original purity, except perhaps in Ceylon and Further India. We may well go farther, and say that in different lands different forms of the worship are practised, and that idolatry is prevalent in most of them.
Originally Buddhism was a schism from Brahmanism. Gautama, the enlightened sage, denied the creation of the world, and the immortality and omnipotence of the gods; he rejected the law of the castes, and accepted no other authority than reason, no other superiority than that combined of virtue and knowledge. He preached charity, brotherly love and equality. He admitted the doctrine of transmigration, from which man cannot be deliver except by meditation, charity and knowledge, which open for him the gates of Nirvana, a place or state of blessedness, perfect and eternal, because there is no further obligation to be born again, and suffer the miseries of mortal life. He, nominally, allowed certain gods and spirits—pious men, who by reason of there virtue had reached these heights, which, however, did not free them from reincarnation as men in order attain the supreme Nirvana, when they became Buddhas. Below them were Bodhisattvas, who, in the penultimate stage, having only one more earthly life to lead, were the protectors of the world and of their religion.
Such, in short, was Buddhism in its purity. The reward depended entirely on the results secured; the merit, or karma, determined the new being in a higher or lower grade, which itself was transient until perfection attained the infinite. In order to establish the faith, he taught all man to “cease from wrong-doing, to get virtue, and to cleanse the heart.” By these means suffering, which coexisted with life and depended on desire, would be extinguished when desire was conquered, and Nirvana would be reached eventually. Right vision or belief was necessary, followed by right aims, words, actions. To a monk—and the monastic life was favoured—other right acts were necessary—mode of living as a monk, endeavour in the study of law, mindfulness in remembering it, and, finally, meditation.
In the whole of this there is no God. Hence have arisen idolatry, incantations, magic, prayer-wheels, etc., and a ritualistic worship, which has substituted the means for the end. The atheism of Buddhism has been termed its one fatal deficiency.
The Buddhist art in India itself has been incorporated with the Hindu, so that it is Ceylon and Burmah which furnish the finest examples of architecture. At Sanchi, twenty-six miles from Bhopal, however, are the remains of the shrines, or topes, which Asoka commenced building about 260 B.C. The top of each tope was designed to contain relics of the Buddhas in a metal box. This part was the tee. The relic-shrine was a dagoba. It has been suggested that the dagoba should be limited to the solid towers which cover the relics, and tope should be applied only to the tombs erected over buried priests. The Great Tope at Sanchi, in the Bhilsa Hills, indicates something of the early architecture of Buddhist India, though all the earliest stone buildings are of the same class. It is a dome over 100 feet in diameter and 42 feet high. On the top is a flat space surrounded by a stone railing, of which parts only are left. In the middle was a tee, mean to represent a relic-casket. The sloping base, 120 feet wide and 14 feet high, which supports the dome was probably ascended by a ramp, or inclined plane, to a balustrade at the top. The exterior is faced with dressed stones upon a solid centre of bricks. Near it lie the six other topes which complete the group. At Sonari, six miles away, is another group of eight topes, whilst other groups are not far off.
Other relics of Asoka are in the pillars, or lats, which he set up and inscribed with his edicts. Such are those erected in Delhi by Firuz Shah about A.D. 1356. They are of pinkish sandstone. In the same city there is a curious iron pillar, shown in the illustrations. It records its own history in an inscription in Sanskrit, and is called “The arm of fame of Rajah Dhava.” This monument of pure malleable iron rises 22 feet above ground, but is sunk more than that below the surface. Opinions differ with regard to its age, but the suggestion now generally accepted is about A.D. 319. it is said that no Hindu temple is known having an earlier date than the fifth century A.D., so we may merge the early Buddhist temples in those of the Hindus, and at the same time bear in mind that the Moslems had no compunction in using the materials of such temples for the building of their mosques.
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