Page 2 (part 5)

Turning now to the oldest Aryan literature, the Rig-Veda, the student will find, following strictly in this the data furnished by the said Orientalists themselves, that, although the Rig-Veda contains only "about 10,580 verses, or 1,028 hymns," in spite of the Brahmanas and the mass of glosses and commentaries, it is not understood correctly to this day. Why is this so? Evidently because the Brahmanas, "the scholastic and oldest treatises on the primitive hymns," themselves require a key, which the Orientalists have failed to secure. What do the scholars say of Buddhist literature? Have they got it in its completeness? Assuredly not. Notwithstanding the 325 volumes of the Kanjur and the Tanjur of the Northern Buddhists, each volume we are told, "weighing from four to five pounds," nothing, in truth, is known of Lamaism. Yet, the sacred canon of the Southern Church is said to contain 29,368,000 letters in the Saddharma alankara,* or, exclusive of treatises and commentaries, "five or six times the amount of the matter contained in the Bible," the latter, in the words of Professor Max Muller, rejoicing only in 3,567,180 letters. Notwithstanding, then, these "325 volumes" ( in reality there are 333, Kanjur comprising 108, and Tanjur 225 volumes), "the translators, instead of supplying us with correct versions, have interwoven them with their own commentaries , for the purpose of justifying the dogmas of their several schools."** Moreover, "according to a tradition preserved by the Buddhist schools, both of the South and of the North, the sacred Buddhist Canon comprised originally 80,000 or 84,000 tracts, but most of them were lost , so that there remained but 6,000," the professor tells his audiences. "Lost" as usual for Europeans. But who can be quite sure that they are likewise lost for Buddhists and Brahmins? Considering the sacredness for the Buddhists of every line written [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Spence Hardy, " The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists, " p. 66. ** " Buddhism in Tibet, " p. 78. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxviii INTRODUCTORY. upon Buddha or his "Good Law," the loss of nearly 76,000 tracts does seem miraculous. Had it been vice versa, every one acquainted with the natural course of events would subscribe to the statement that, of these 76,000, five or six thousand treatises might have been destroyed during the persecutions in, and emigrations from, India. But as it is well ascertained that Buddhist Arhats began their religious exodus, for the purpose of propagating the new faith beyond Kashmir and the Himalayas, as early as the year 300 before our era,* and reached China in the year 61 A.D .** when Kashyapa, at the invitation of the Emperor Ming-ti, went there to acquaint the "Son of Heaven" with the tenets of Buddhism, it does seem strange to hear the Orientalists speaking of such a loss as though it were really possible. They do not seem to allow for one moment the possibility that the texts may be lost only for West and for themselves ; or, that the Asiatic people should have the unparalleled boldness to keep their most sacred records out of the reach of foreigners, thus refusing to deliver them to the profanation and misuse of races even so "vastly superior" to themselves. Owing to the expressed regrets and numerous confessions of almost every one of the Orientalists (See Max Muller's Lectures for example) the public may feel sufficiently sure ( a ) that the students of ancient religions have indeed very few data upon which to build such final conclusions as they generally do about the old religions, and ( b ) that such lack of data does not prevent them in the least from dogmatising. One would imagine that, thanks to the numerous records of the Egyptian theogony and mysteries preserved in the classics, and in a number of ancient writers, the rites and dogmas of Pharaonic Egypt ought to be well understood at least; better, at any rate, than the too abstruse philosophies and Pantheism of India, of whose religion and language Europe had hardly any idea before the beginning of the present century. Along the Nile and on the face of the whole country, there stand to this hour, exhumed yearly and daily, fresh relics which eloquently tell their own history. Still it is not so. The learned Oxford philologist himself confesses the truth by saying that "Though . . . we see still standing the Pyramids, and the ruins of temples and labyrinths, their walls [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Lassen, ("Ind. Althersumkunde" Vol. II, p. 1,072) shows a Buddhist monastery erected in the Kailas range in 137 B.C .; and General Cunningham, earlier than that. ** Reverend T. Edkins, " Chinese Buddhism. " [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxix INTRODUCTORY. covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and with the strange pictures of gods and goddesses. . . . . . . . On rolls of papyrus, which seem to defy the ravages of time, we have even fragments of what may be called the sacred books of the Egyptians; yet, though much has been deciphered in the ancient records of that mysterious race, the mainspring of the religion of Egypt and the original intention of its ceremonial worship are far from being fully disclosed to us."* Here again the mysterious hieroglyphic documents remain, but the keys by which alone they become intelligible have disappeared. Nevertheless, having found that "there is a natural connection between language and religion"; and, secondly, that there was a common Aryan religion before the separation of the Aryan race; a common Semitic religion before the separation of the Semitic race; and a common Turanian religion before the separation of the Chinese and the other tribes belonging to the Turanian class; having, in fact, only discovered "three ancient centres of religion" and "three centres of language," and though as entirely ignorant of those primitive religions and languages, as of their origin, the professor does not hesitate to declare "that a truly historical basis for a scientific treatment of those principal religions of the world has been gained!" A "scientific treatment" of a subject is no guarantee for its "historical basis"; and with such scarcity of data on hand, no philologist, even among the most eminent, is justified in giving out his own conclusions for historical facts . No doubt, the eminent Orientalist has proved thoroughly to the world's satisfaction, that according to Grimm's law of phonetic rules, Odin and Buddha are two different personages, quite distinct from each other, and he has shown it scientifically.