History of India/Volume 1/Chapter 27

by Romesh Chunder Dutt

CHAPTER XXVII

LIFE OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA

IN the sixth century before Christ, the kingdom of Magadha was rising to power and greatness. The realm, corresponding to the modern South Bihar, extended to the south of the Ganges, and on either side of the Son River. North of the Ganges it had a powerful rival in the haughty confederation of the Lichchhavis. Rajagriha, to the south of the Ganges, was the capital of Bimbisara, King of the Magadhas; and Vaisali, to the north of the Ganges, was the capital of the Lichchhavis. To the east lay the kingdom of Anga, or East Bihar, which is mentioned in connection with Magadha, and Champa was the capital of Anga. Far to the northwest lay the ancient kingdom of the Kosalas, and its capital had been removed from Ayodhya farther northwards to the flourishing town of Sravasti, where Prasenajit reigned at the time of which we are speaking. The equally ancient country of the Kasis, lying to the south, seems to have been subject at this time to the King of Sravasti, and a viceroy of Prasenajit ruled at Benares.

A little to the east of the Kosala kingdom, two kindred clans, the Sakyas and the Koliyans, lived on the opposite banks of the small stream Rohini, and enjoyed a sort of precarious independence, more through the jealousies of the rival kings of Magadha and Kosala than by their own power. Kapilavastu was the capital of the Sakyas, who were then living in peace with the Koliyans, and Suddhodana, chief of the Sakyas, had married two daughters of the chief of the Koliyans.

Neither queen bore a child to Suddhodana for many years, and the hope of leaving an heir to the principality of the Sakyas was well-nigh abandoned. At last, however, the elder queen promised her husband an heir, and, according to ancient custom, left for her father's house, that her child might be born there. On her way, however, she gave birth to a son in the pleasant grove of Lumbini. The mother and the child were carried back to Kapilavastu, where the former died seven days after, leaving the child to be nursed by his stepmother and aunt, the younger queen.

The boy was named Siddhartha, but Gautama was his family name. He belonged to the Sakya tribe, and is therefore often called Sakyasimha, "Lion of the Sakyas;" and when he had proclaimed his new faith, he was called Buddha, or the "Awakened" or "Enlightened."

Little is known of the early life of Gautama, except that he married his cousin Subhadhra, or Yasodhara, daughter of the chief of Koli, when he was about eighteen years of age. Ten years later, however, he resolved to leave his home and his wife to study philosophy and religion. In the midst of his prosperity, position, and wealth, he felt a secret yearning after something higher, which neither wealth nor position could satisfy; and an irresistible desire to seek for a remedy for the sufferings of men arose in his heart even amid the luxuries of his palace home. It is said that the sight of a decrepit old man, of a sick man, of a decaying corpse, and of a dignified hermit led him to form his resolution to quit his home. The story, whether well-founded or not, represents in a concrete shape the thoughts that arose in his mind with regard to the woes of a worldly life, and the holy calm of a retired existence.

At this very time a son was born to him, but it is said that when the news was announced to him in a garden on the riverside, he only exclaimed, "This is a new, strong tie that I shall have to break."

That night he repaired to the threshold of his wife's chamber, and there by the light of the flickering lamp he gazed on a scene of perfect bliss. The young mother lay surrounded by flowers, with one hand on the infant's head. A yearning arose in his heart to take the babe in his arms for the last time before relinquishing all earthly bliss, but this he might not do, lest the mother awake and by her importunities and tears unnerve his heart and shake his resolution. Silently he tore himself away from the blissful sight, and in that one eventful moment, in the silent darkness of the night, he renounced for ever his wealth and

BRASS IMAGE OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA FROM CEYLON.

He is seated on the Mucalinda Serpent in an attitude of profound meditation, with eyes half-closed, and five rays of light emerging from the crown of his head.

position and power, his proud rank and his princely fame, the love of his young wife and of his sleeping babe, being determined to become a poor student and a homeless wanderer. He rode quietly out of the city, accompanied only by his faithful servant, named Channa, who asked to be allowed to stay with him and become an ascetic, but Gautama sent him back, and repaired alone to Rajagriha, which lay in a valley surrounded by five hills. Some Brahman ascetics lived in the caves of these hills, sufficiently far from the town for study and contemplation, and yet sufficiently near to obtain supplies. Gautama attached himself first to one and, then to another, and learnt from them all that Hindu philosophers had to teach.

Not content with this learning, he retired to the jungles of Uruvela, near the site of the present temple of Bodh Gaya, and for six years, attended by five disciples, he gave himself up to the severest penances and self-mortification. His fame spread far and wide, yet he did not obtain the emancipation that he sought, and, despairing of deriving any profit from penance, he abandoned it.

Deserted then by his disciples, Gautama wandered alone towards the banks of the Niranjara, received his morning meal from the hands of Sujata, the daughter of a villager, and sat himself down under the famous Bo-tree, or the tree of wisdom. Here he was tempted by Mara, the evil spirit, and many legends relate the circumstances and details of this successful struggle with temptation. Long he sat in contemplation, and the scenes of his past life came thronging into his mind, until the doubts cleared away like mists in the morning and the daylight of truth flashed before his eyes. He had made no new discovery, he had acquired no new knowledge. Self-culture and universal love—this was his discovery, this is the essence of Buddhism, and his pious nature and benevolent heart told him that a holy life and an all-embracing love were the panacea to all evils.

Gautama's old teacher Alara was dead, and he therefore went to Benares to proclaim the truth to his five former disciples. In the cool of the evening he entered the Deer Park in the holiest city of India, and there found the followers who had deserted him. To them he explained his new tenets:—

"There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which the man who has given up the world ought not to follow: the habitual practice, on the one hand, of those things whose attraction depends upon the passions, and specially of sensuality, a low and pagan way, unworthy, unprofitable, and fit only for the worldly-minded; and the habitual practice, on the other hand, of asceticism, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.

"There is a middle path, Bhikkhus, avoiding these two extremes, discovered by the Tathagata (Buddha), a path which opens the eyes and bestows understanding, which leads to peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment, to Nirvana!"

And then he explained to them the four truths concerning suffering, the cause of suffering, the destruction of suffering, and the way which leads to such destruction of suffering.

It is needless to say that the five former disciples were soon converted, and became the first members of the Order, and within five months after his arrival at Benares Gautama had sixty followers. He now called them together and sent them out in different directions to preach the truth for the salvation of mankind. "Go ye now, O Bhikkhus, and wander, for the gain of the many, for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, for the welfare of gods and men. Let not two of you go the same way. Preach, Bhikkhus, the doctrine which is glorious in the beginning, glorious in the middle, glorious in the end, in the spirit, and in the letter; proclaim a consummate, perfect, and pure life of holiness."

Gautama himself went to Uruvela, where he achieved distinguished success by converting three brothers named Kasyapa, who worshipped fire in the Vedic form, and had high reputation as hermits and philosophers. This event created a sensation, and Gautama, with his new disciples and a thousand followers, walked towards Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha. Tidings of the new prophet soon reached the king, and Seniya Bimbisara, surrounded by numbers of Brahmans and Vaisyas, went to visit Gautama, only to declare himself an adherent of Gautama and invite him to take his meal with him the next day.

The saintly wanderer accordingly went, an honoured guest, to the palace of the king, and the entire population of the capital of Magadha thronged to see the great preacher of the religion of love, who had suddenly appeared in the land. The king then assigned a bamboo grove (Veluvana) close by for the residence of Gautama and his followers, and there Gautama rested for some time, shortly afterward gaining two distinguished converts, Sariputra and Moggallana.

The fame of Gautama had now travelled to his native town, and his old father expressed a desire to see him once before he died. Gautama accordingly went to Kapilavastu, but, according to custom, remained in the grove outside the town. His father and relations came to see him there; and the next day Gautama himself went into the town, begging alms from the people who had once adored him as their beloved prince and master.

The king took his son into the palace, where all the members of the family came to greet him except his wife. The deserted Yasodhara, with a wife's grief and a wife's pride, exclaimed, "If I am of any value in his eyes, he will himself come; I can welcome him better here." Gautama understood this and went to her, attended by only two disciples; and when Yasodhara saw him enter, a recluse with shaven head and yellow robes, her heart failed her, she flung herself on the ground, held his feet, and burst into tears. Then, remembering the impassable gulf between them, she rose and stood aside. She listened to his new doctrines, and when Gautama was subsequently induced to establish an order of female mendicants, she was one of the first to become a Buddhist nun. Gautama's son, Rahula, also became a convert later. The king, his grandfather, was much aggrieved at this, because the celibate tendencies of the religion threatened the royal line with extinction, and asked Gautama to establish a rule that no one should be admitted to the Order without his parents' consent. Gautama consented to this and made a rule accordingly.

On his way back to Rajagriha, Gautama stopped for some time at Anupiya, "a town belonging to the Mallas," and while he was stopping there, he made many converts both from the Koliyan and from the Sakya tribe, some of whom deserve special mention. Anuruddha, the Sakya, went to his mother and asked to be allowed to enter the houseless state. His mother did not know how to stop him, and so told him, "If, beloved Anuruddha, Bhaddiya, the Sakya Raja, will renounce the world, thou also mayest go forth into the houseless state."

Anuruddha accordingly went to Bhaddiya, and it was decided that they would embrace the Order in seven days. "So Bhaddiya, the Sakya Raja, and Anuruddha and Ananda and Bhagu and Kimbila and Devadatta, just as they had so often previously gone out to the pleasure-ground with fourfold array, even so did they now go out with fourfold array, and Upali the barber went with them, making seven in all.

"And when they had gone some distance, they sent their retinue back and crossed over to the neighbouring district, and took off their rich garments and wrapped them in their robes and made a bundle of them, and said to Upali the barber, 'Do you now, Upali, turn back. These things will be sufficient for you to live upon.'" But Upali was of a different mind,

BUDDHIST ROCK-TEMPLE AT KARLI.

and so all the seven went to Gautama and became converts. And when Bhaddiya had retired into solitude he exclaimed over and over, "O happiness! happiness!" and on being asked the cause, he said:—

"Formerly, Lord, when I was a king, I had a guard completely provided both within and without my private apartments, both within and without the town, and within the borders of my country. Yet though, Lord, I was thus guarded and protected, I was fearful, anxious, distrustful, and alarmed. But now, Lord, even when in the forest at the foot of a tree, in solitude, I am without fear or anxiety, trustful, and not alarmed; I dwell at ease, subdued, secure, with my mind as peaceful as an antelope."

We have narrated this story because some of the converts, spoken of here, rose to distinction. Ananda became the most intimate friend of Gautama, and after his death led a band of five hundred monks in chanting the Dharma in the Council of Rajagriha. Upali, though a barber by birth, became an eminent member of the Holy Order, and was recognized as an authority in matters connected with Vinaya. Anuruddha lived to become the greatest master of Abhidamma, or metaphysics, but Devadatta, a cousin to the Buddha, subsequently became the rival and opponent of Gautama, and is even said to have advised Ajatasatru, the Prince of Magadha, to kill his own father Bimbasara, and then attempted to kill Gautama himself. Such at least is the orthodox Buddhist tradition.^[1]

After spending his second vassa, or rainy season, in Rajagriha, Gautama repaired to Sravasti, the capital of the Kosalas, where Prasenajit reigned as king. A wood called Jetavana was presented to the Buddhists, and there Gautama often preached.

The third vassa was also passed in Rajagriha, and in the fourth year from the date of his proclaiming his creed Gautama crossed the Ganges, went to Vaisali, and stopped in the Mahavana grove, but in the following year he again repaired to Kapilavastu, and was present at the death of his father, then ninety-seven years of age.

His widowed stepmother Prajapati Gautami, and his hardly less widowed wife Yasodhara, had now no ties to bind them to the world, and insisted on joining the Order established by Gautama. The sage had not yet admitted women to the Order, and was reluctant to do so, but his mother was inexorable and followed him to Vaisali, begging to be admitted.

Ananda pleaded her cause, but Gautama still replied, "Enough, Ananda! Let it not please thee that women should be allowed to do so." But Ananda persisted, and asked:—

"Are women, Lord, capable—when they have gone forth from the household life and entered the homeless state, under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Blessed One—are they capable of realizing the fruit of conversion or of the second path or of Arhatship?

There could be only one reply to this. Honour to women has ever been a part of religion in India, and salvation and heaven are not barred to them by the Hindu religion. "They are capable, Ananda," replied the sage, whereupon they were admitted to the Order as Bhikkhunis under some rules making them strictly subordinate to the Bhikkhus.

In the sixth year, after spending the rainy season at Kosambi, near Prayaga, Gautama returned to Rajagriha, and Kshema, the Queen of Bimbisara, was admitted to the Order, while in the same year he is said to have performed miracles at Sravasti, and to have gone to heaven to teach the Law to his mother, who had died seven days after his birth.

In the twelfth year of his ministry Buddha undertook the longest journey he had ever made, going to Mantala and returning by Benares, and then preaching the famous Maha Rahula Sutta to his son Rahula, then eighteen years old. Two years after, Rahula, being twenty, was formally admitted into the Order, and the Rahula Sutta was preached.

In the fifteenth year from the date of his proclaiming his creed, he again visited Kapilavastu, and addressed a discourse to his cousin Mahanama, who had followed Bhadraka, the successor of Suddhodana, as the king of the Sakyas.

In the seventeenth year he delivered a discourse on the death of Srimati, a courtesan; in the next year he comforted a weaver who had accidentally killed his daughter; in the following year he released a deer caught in a snare and converted the angry hunter who had wished to shoot him; and in the twentieth year he converted the famous robber Angulimala of the Chaliya forest.

For twenty-five years more Gautama wandered through the Ganges valley, preaching benevolence and holiness to the poor and humble, making converts among the high and the low, the rich and the poor, and proclaiming his law throughout the length and breadth of the land. He was now eighty years of age. Most of those whom he had known in his early days were dead, and the aged saint preached to sons and grandsons the same holy law which he had proclaimed to their sires and grandsires, but the faithful Ananda still accompanied him like his shadow, and ministered to his wants. The old King of Rajagriha was no more; his warlike and ambitious son Ajatasatru had ascended the throne of Magadha—it is said by murdering his father—and was now maturing schemes of conquest. It was no part of Ajatasatru's policy to offend so popular and widely respected a person as Gautama, and, outwardly at least, Ajatasatru honoured the reformer.

The powerful Vrijjian clans who occupied the plains on the northern shore of the Ganges, opposite to Magadha, first attracted Ajatasatru's attention. They were a Turanian tribe who had entered into India through the northern mountains and had established a republican form of government in the very centre of Hindu civilization, threatening the conquest of all Magadha.

Gautama was then residing in the Vulture's Peak (Gridhrakuta) , a cave on the side of the loftiest of the five hills overlooking the beautiful valley of Rajagriha. Ajatasatru, who was not without some kind of superstitious faith in prophecies, sent his prime minister Vassakara to Gautama to inquire how his expedition against the Vrijjians would end. Gautama was no respecter of kings, and replied that so long as the Vrijjians remained united in their adherence to their ancient customs they would not decline, but prosper. From the Vulture's Peak Gautama wandered to neighbouring places—to Ambalathika, to Nalanda, and to Pataligrama, the site of the future capital of Magadha, Pataliputra. At the time of Gautama it was an insignificant village, but Sunidha and Vassakara, the chief ministers of Ajatasatru, were building a fortress there to repel the Vrijjians. Such, according to some accounts, was the origin of the town which became the capital of Chandragupta and Asoka, and was the metropolis of India for nearly a thousand years, and which, under the name of Patna, is still one of the largest cities in India. Gautama is said to have visited it upon invitation of the ministers and to have prophesied the greatness of the place, saying to Ananda: "Among famous places of residence and haunts of busy men, this will become the chief, the city of Pataliputra, a centre for the interchange of all kinds of wares." Leaving Pataligrama, Buddha went to Kotigrama, and then to Nadika, where he rested in the "brick hall," which was a resting-place for travellers. There he taught Ananda the lesson that each disciple could ascertain for himself whether he had attained salvation. If he felt within himself that he had faith in the Buddha, that he had faith in the Law, that he had faith in the Order, then he was saved, and thus Buddha, the Law (Dharma), and the Congregation (Sangha) became the triad of the Buddhists.

From Nadika, Gautama went to Vaisali, the capital of the powerful confederacy of the Lichchhavis to the north of the Ganges. Ambapali, a courtesan, heard that the saint was stopping in her mango grove and came and invited him to a meal, and Gautama accepted the invitation.

From Ambapali's grove, Gautama went to Beluva. He felt his end approaching, and said to the faithful Ananda, "I am now grown old and full of years, my journey is drawing to its close, I have reached the sum of my days, I am turning eighty years of age. . . . Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Hold fast as a refuge to the truth."

At Kutagara, Gautama once more proclaimed to his followers the substance and essence of his religion, and enjoined upon them to practise it, to meditate upon it, and to spread it abroad, "in order that pure religion may last long and be perpetuated, in order that it may continue to be for the good and the happiness of great multitudes."

Having paid his last visit to Vaisali, Gautama then wandered through the villages of Bhandagrama, Hastigrama, Ambagrama, Jambugrama, and Bhoganagara, and then went to Pava. There Chunda, a goldsmith and blacksmith, invited him to a meal, and gave him sweet rice and cakes and a quantity of dried boar's flesh. Gautama never refused the poor man's offering, but the boar's flesh did not agree with him. "Now when the Blessed One had eaten the food prepared by Chunda, the worker in metal, there fell upon him a dire sickness, the disease of dysentery, and sharp pain came upon him even unto death. But the Blessed One, mindful and self-possessed, bore it without complaint."

On his way from Pava to Kusinagara, Gautama converted a low-caste man Pukkusa. At Kusinagara, eighty miles due east from Kapilavastu, Gautama felt that his death was nigh. With that loving anxiety which had characterized all his life, he tried on the eve of his death to impress on his followers that Chunda was not to blame for the food he had supplied, but that the humble smith's act, kindly meant, would redound to length of life, to good birth, and to good fortune.

It is said that just before his death the trees were in bloom out of season, and sprinkled flowers on him; that heavenly flowers and sandalwood powder descended on him, and that music and heavenly songs were wafted from the sky. But the great apostle of holy life said, "It is not thus, Ananda, that the Tathagata (Buddha) is rightly honoured, reverenced, venerated, held sacred, or revered. But the brother or the sister, the devout man or the devout woman, who continually fulfils all the greater and the lesser duties, who is correct in life, walking according to precepts—it is he who rightly honours, reverences, venerates, holds sacred, and reveres the Tathagata with the worthiest homage."

On the night of Gautama's death, Subhadra, a Brahman philosopher of Kusinagara, came to ask some questions, but Ananda, fearing that this might be wearisome to the dying sage, would not admit him. Gautama, however, had overheard their conversation, and he would not turn back a man who had come for instruction. He ordered the Brahman to be admitted, and with his dying breath explained to him the principles of his religion. Subhadra was the last disciple whom Gautama converted, and shortly after, at the last watch of the night, the great sage departed this life, with the exhortation to his brother men still on his

RUINS OF THE SAKIYA TOPE, PUT UP BY BUDDHA'S RELATIVES OVER THEIR PORTION OF THE ASHES FROM HIS FUNERAL PYRE.

lips, "Decay is inherent in all component things; work out your salvation with diligence."

The body of G-utama was cremated by the Mallas of Kusinagara, who surrounded his bones " in their council-hall with a lattice-work of spears and with a rampart of bows; and there, for seven days, they paid honour and reverence and respect and homage to them with dance and song and music, and with garlands and perfumes."

It is said that the remains of Gautama were divided into eight portions. Ajatasatru of Magadha obtained one portion, and erected a mound over it at Rajagriha. The Lichchhavis of Vaisali obtained another portion, and erected a mound at that town. Similarly the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, the Bulis of Allakappa, the Koliyas of Ramagrama, the Mallas of Pava, the Mallas of Kusinagara, and a Brahman named Vethadipaka obtained portions of the relics and erected mounds over them. The Moriyans of Pipphalivana made a mound over the embers, and the Brahman Dona made a mound over the vessel in which the body had been burned.

1. For an account of this tradition see vol. ii, pp. 30-32.