THE Buddhism of the "Great Vehicle," as it was called by its disciples, and the "Vehicle that drives to the Great Nowhere," as it was called by the earlier school, was first officially recognized at a great convocation summoned by King Kaniśka about A.D. 10.1

The controversy between the "Vehicles" was illustrated by an allegory. Three vehicles, the first drawn by a sheep, the second drawn by a stag, and the third drawn by an elephant, once crossed a river. The sheep, drawing the little vehicle, looked selfishly in the direction of the "other bank." The stag looked backwards, after the manner of stags when the hunter's arrows are assailing their does. noble elephant, drawing the great vehicle, marched on sure ground. This fable was invented by the dis1 Hwen Thsang, "Mémoires," vol. i. pp. 173 et seq.

The

ciples of the Great Vehicle,1 and the moral it intended to inculcate was this. The selfish disciples of the Little Vehicle look forward to the "Other Bank," look forward to a future life. The disciples of the Great Vehicle disdained such selfishness. It

was called the "Pride of Individuality" (Âtmamada); and Hwen Thsang records how a foolish monk of the Little Vehicle was sternly rebuked in the heaven Tusita by Maitreya himself, for holding it.2 The disciples of the Little Vehicle worshipped the Buddha of the past; the disciples of the Great Vehicle worshipped "Bodhisatwa " Bodhisatwa" Maitreya, the

Coming Buddha.

The worship of a Bodhisatwa seems at first sight the worship conceived by a madman. The main design of the Lalita Vistara is to show how a Bodhisatwa is to develop into a Buddha. The Bodhisatwa is in the heaven Tusita. He is still in the Kâmaloka, or Domain of Appetite. His "Divine eye" is still closed. Far from being the Governor of the Universe, for it was thus Maitreya got to be viewed, he can do no good thing. And yet the great allegory is full of interpolated passages which call the "Buddhas of the Ten Horizons" the "Bodhisatwas of the Ten Horizons," and so on. The absurdity

1 Fa Hian, p. 10.

2 Hwen Thsang, "Mémoires," vol. i. p. 222.

reaches its culminating point when, in the Nepâlese litany, although it is entitled the "Praise of the Seven Buddhas," an address to an eighth Buddha, Maitreya, is added. And as ritual is a more conservative institution than metaphysic, some other marked inconsistencies were found necessary. The corpse-worship of the old Buddhism had to be retained, because that was the outward rite of Buddhism. But as the prophet that has not yet come to the world is not yet available as a corpse, sepulchral mounds had to be erected, that contained neither corpses nor relics. The Bodhisatwa, or future Buddha, had many stûpas erected to him. They contained no relics, but the disciples of the "Vehicle that drives to the Great Nowhere" offered flowers and food to the non-existent relics. They marched three times round the stûpa, within the mystic altar rails. This "Bodhisatwa" was sometimes called "Bodhisatwa Manjuśrî," the architect of the heavens.1 He was sometimes called "Bodhisatwa Avalokitesvara," the "God who looks down upon us." On the Ganges, Hwen Thsang was seized by pirates. These, struck by his splendid physique, prepared to sacrifice him to the goddess Durgâ. The pilgrim prayed to Maitreya, and suddenly, aloft in the sky, "in the palace of the Tuśita heaven," the dazzling

1 Klaproth, "Travels of Fa Hian," p. 113.

form of the Bodhisatwa appeared. He was seated on a throne with legions of spirits around him. A mighty tempest suddenly arose, which whirled the dust into huge spiral clouds, and sank all the pirates' boats. They repented, and released the pilgrim.1 Fa Hian, in a mighty storm at sea, also nearly lost his life. He prayed to Bodhisatwa Avalokitesvara, and the ship was saved.2

At Mathurâ, during his visit, as the pilgrim Hwen Thsang shows, this rival stûpa-worship was very marked. The disciples of the Little Vehicle paid homage to the relics of Śâriputra, Maudgalyâyana, Ânanda, and the other great Buddhist saints, who had each one a handsome stûpa in that city. But the disciples of the Great Vehicle worshipped the Bodhisatwas, says the Chinese pilgrim.3 Fa Hian bears similar testimony.4

If a vast nation of subtle thinkers were suddenly called upon to choose between the teachings of a prophet of the past, and those of a prophet yet unborn, one would think that the teachings of the former would have the preference, as they would certainly be better available to the general public. How the quaint cultus of a man who was only to attain the spiritual enlightenment some thousands of

1 Hwen Thsang, "Histoire," p. 118. 3 Hwen Thsang, "Histoire," p. 104.

2 Fa Hian, p. 359.

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Pilgrimage," p. 101.

years hence arose, it is very difficult now to say precisely. We see from the writings of Hwen Thsang, that from its political side the movement was aimed against the authority of the Âchârya of Magadha, the Rome of the Buddhists. Kaniśka, a powerful Kashmîri, had conquered vast territories that included Hindû Kush, and Kabul, Yarkand and Khokan, Kashmîr and Ladâk, the plains of the Upper Ganges as far as Agra, the Punjâb, Rajputâna, Guzerat, and Scinde. Such a large Buddhist empire would require a strengthened discipline amongst its great army of monks. Magadha was not included in this empire, and the two leading monks of Kaniśka, Pârsvika and Vasubandhu, may have wished to establish an ecclesiastical authority independent of the "High Priest of all the world," as the Âchârya of Magadha is called in the Mahâwanso.1 Perhaps the authority of the latter was ill defined; and perhaps it had also become weakened now that Magadha was no longer the head-quarters of a large empire. If a strong religious controversy were raging, it would be the manifest policy of the king's head ecclesiastics to take the side that opposed the Âchârya (“Teacher ” par excellence) of Magadha. The leader of the religious movement was a monk of the convent of Ayodhyâ-a visionary, one Asańgha, who was trans1 Mahawanso, p. 21.