Majjhima Nikāya I (Further Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. I: suttas 1-76)

I do not say that the plenitude of knowledge comes straightaway ; — it comes by gradual training, by gradual attainment and by gradual progress. [480]— Take the case of a man with faith who first draws near, then attends constantly, then pays attention, then hears the Doctrine, then carries it away with him, then examines the import of the ideas he has carried away, then is in an ecstasy of delight over those ideas, then grows to ardour, is emboldened by his ardour, be¬ coming emboldened, weighs it all, and, weighing it, strives, till, void of self, he, through the medium of his bodily senses, realizes the truth sublime and by his intellect penetrates it and sees it clear. Had that faith not been there, he would not have drawn near, nor come again, nor would any of the other things have happened, nor would he have striven at all. Almsmen, ye have gone far astray ; ye have erred grievously. Ah, how very far have these foolish persons departed from this Doctrine and Rule ! There is a fourfold exposition, the import of which, when it is propounded, can speedily be mastered by the intellect of a man of intelligence. This I will pro¬ pound to you and you shall understand it from me.

Who, sir, are we ? And who are they who know the Doctrine ? Why, Almsmen, even a master who put store on things material who made them his heritage and cherished them, — even he is not met by higgling and haggling stipulations that, if they like a thing, his fol¬ lowers will do it, but will not do it if they do not like it. How can this chaffering beseem the Truth-finder who dwells wholly apart from things material ? To the follower with faith and in unison with his Master’s teachings, it is a principle that the Lord is his Master, and he his disciple ,- that the Lord knows and he does not. To the follower with faith, in unison with his Master’s teachings, those teachings impart strength and affection. To the follower with faith, in unison with his Master’s teachings, [481] it is a principle that — let only skin and sinews and bone persist and let flesh and blood dry up, there still shall be no slackening of effort till what a man’s strength and a man’s per¬ severance and a man’s energy can win for him, has been won. From the follower with faith, in unison with his Master’s teachings, one of two fruits may be looked for, — either Knowledge here and now or — if the stuff of life be not wholly spent — no return to life on earth.

Thus spoke the Lord. Glad at heart, those Alms¬ men rejoiced in what the Lord had said.

Thus have I heard. Once the Lord was staying at Vesa.ll in the Great Wood in the Gabled Hall, and at the same time the Wanderer Vaccha-gotta was resident in the Wanderers’ Pleasaunce where the White Mango stands alone. Early in the morning, duly robed and bowl in hand, the Lord came into Vesall for alms, but, reflecting that it was too early yet. (15) Gwalior and Kalanjar (10*2-1023). (15) Next year (1022-1023) Mahmud once more marched by way of Lahore against Nanda. But he had taken all that was best from the lands in the direction of his march and was not inclined to push matters to extreme. Gwalior was invested but the Rai obtained peace by a present of thirty-five elephants. Even Nanda, when besieged in Kalanjar, found the Sultan reasonable. A present of three hundred elephants, whom the Rai turned unceremoniously out of the fort for the Turks to ‘capture and ride on’, served to create a good will, which was further strengthen¬ ed by some Hindi verses written by the Rai in the Sultan’s praise. All the Scholars of Hind, Persia and Arabia present in Mahmud’s camp applauded Nanda’s composition and Mahmud sent him at order ( firman) confirming him in the possession of his fifteen forts. Nanda acknow¬ ledged the favour by a present of money and costly jewels and the Sultan turned back from the most eastern point he was ever destined to reach.

the Jaxartes, had settled in Nur of Bukhara from which they used to migrate to Darghan of Khwarazm. Their leader, Israil, son of Seljuq, the chief after whom the tribe came to be named, was a perpetual terror to the maliks of Turkestan and Trans-Oxonia. 'He was wont to enter the chase or the conflict’ like a whirlwind and a thunder-cloud and vanquished every one who ventured into a personal contest with him. Not a bird in the air and not a deer in the forest escaped his arrow. ”(25) Like others he came riding at the head of his Turkomans to offer his allegiance to Mahmud, ‘with a cap placed jauntily on one side of his head and bestriding a horse like the spur of a mountain’. The astute Sultan looked suspiciously at the ambitious young chief and asked him how many men he could bring to the army. “If you send one of these arrows into our camp,*’ Israel replied, “fifty thousand of your servants will mount on horse back.” “And if that number” continued Israel, "be not sufficient, send the second arrow to the horde of Balik (Bilkhan Koh) , and you will find fifty thousand more.” “But,” said the Ghaznavide dissembling his anxiety, "if I should stand in need of the whole force of your kindred tribes?” “Despatch my bow,” was the last reply of Israel, "and as it is circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two hundred thousand horse.

were already in his treasury. But the rich and prosperous province of Gitjrat was still untouched, and on Octobe18, 1020, he started from Ghaznin with his regular troops and thirty thousand volunteer horsemen for the temple of Somnath, situated at the distance of a bow-shot from the mouth of the Saraswati, by the side of which the earthly t>odv of Lord Krishna had breathed its last. (30) “The people of Hind,’’ says Ferishta following Ibn-i Asir, "believed Somnath"1'1 ' ' that souls after separating from their bodies came to Somnath, and the god assigned to each soul, by way of transmigration, such new body as it deserved. They thought the tide rose and fell in order to worship the idol. The Brahmans said that as the god was angry with the idols Mahmud hail broken, he did not come to their help; otherwise he could destroy anyone he wanted in the twinkling of an eye. Somnath was the king while other idols were merely his door-keepers and chamberlains. A hundred thousand people used to collect together in the (28) He escaped out of prison once hut lost his way and was recaptured. (29) Ferishta, Kantalus Sofa, Raltatus Sudur and T ahaqat-i Xaslri greatly differ in their account of the earlier events that brought the Seljuqs into prominence. Tin* matter cannot he discussed here in greater detail and 1 must content myself with giving what appears to me to lie the most rational account. Sec also art. ‘Seljuq.’ F.ncy. Frit, by Prof. Houtoma.

(31) I have corrected the figures in this paragraph from Ibu-i Asir. (32) Albcruni says they also brought a basket of flowers from Kashmir. (33) The legend to which Somnath owed its origin is thus described by Albcruni :“Thc Moon l>cing married to the daughters (lunar stations) of Prajapati (llrahman- First Cause) preferred one of them, Rohini, to all others, and Prajapti, unable to induce hi* son-in-law to do justice to all his wives, cursed him so that he became leprous. The Moon repented, but Prajapati curse was beyond recall. He however, promised to cover the Moon’s shame for half the month and advised him to raise a linga of Mahadco to wipe off the trace of his sin. “This the Moon did. The linga he raised was the idol of Somnath, for Soma means the moon and nath means the master. so that the whole word means the master of the moon. The image was destroyed by I*rince Mahmud in 416 A.H. He ordered the upper part to be broken and the remainder to l>e transported to his residence. Ghnrnin, with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the hippodrome of the town, together with the Cakravasniln, an idol of bronze, that had been brought from Thnneswar. Another part of the idol of Somnath lies before the door of the mosque of Gharnin, on which people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet. The reason why Somnath, in particular, has become so fnmons is that it was a liarbour for sea¬ faring people. The fortress which contained the idol and its treasures was not ancient but was built only a hundred years ago." The original position of the

settled to go to the Wanderers’ Pleasaunce and visit Vaccha-gotta, — as he did. From some way off the Wanderer saw the Lord coming and said : — Sir, let the Lord be pleased to draw near ; the Lord is right welcome; it is a very long time since the Lord managed to come here. Let the Lord be seated ; here is a seat set for him. The Lord having seated himself accordingly, Vaccha-gotta the Wanderer [482] took a low seat for himself to one side and thus began : — I have heard it said that the recluse Gotama1 is all¬ knowing and all-seeing, with nothing outside his ken and vision, and that he claims that, whether he is walking or standing still, whether he is asleep or awake, his ken and vision stand ready, aye ready. Pray, sir, is this witness true, not misrepresenting the Lord and not mis-stating the gist of his Doctrine f The witness, Vaccha, is not true; it imputes to me what is false and untrue. Well, sir, what account ought we to give of the Lord, so as not to misrepresent him or misinterpret the gist of his Doctrine or entail the censure of an orthodox expositor thereof ?

He would bear true witness, neither misrepresenting me nor misinterpreting the gist of my Doctrine nor entailing the censure of an orthodox expositor thereof, — who should say : — The recluse Gotama has the three¬ fold lore (te-vijja). For, Vaccha, (i) as long as I please, I can call to mind all my own past existences, from a single one onwards, in all their details and features, (ii) As long as I please, I can see — with the Eye Celestial, which is pure and far surpasses the eye of man — creatures in act to pass hence and re-appear elsewhere (etc., as in Sutta No. 4). (iii) By destroying the Cankers, I have won that Deliverance of heart and mind in which no Cankers are ; here and now have I entered on and abide in this Deliverance, which of and by myself I have discerned and realized. So it would 1 This is the claim of the Jain Nathaputta in (e.g.) the 14th Sutta. Cf. Sutta No. 76 The Somnath expedition is the one by which Mahmud is most rememRa^utna*”* throU811 bered. It was the finest achievement of his military genius. His marches into Hindustan had been through a fertile country and he was never in danger of starvation. In moving southwards Mahmud for the first and last time threw his caution aside, defied the inclemencies of nature as well as the spears of his opponents and ventured into a territory where the slightest mishap would have meant complete ruin.

be a true witness, Vaccha, to say that I have the three¬ fold lore. [488] At this point Vaccha-gotta the Wanderer put this question : Is there any layman, Gotama, who, without shedding the trammels of house and home, has, at the body’s dissolution, made an end of Ill ? Is there any layman who, without shedding the shackles of house and home, has, at the body’s disso¬ lution, got to heaven ? Not one hundred, not two or three or four or five hundred, have achieved this ; there are many more laymen than that who, without discarding the trammels of house and home, have, at the body’s dissolution, got to heaven. Has any Mendicant (ailvaka) at death ever made an end of Ill ? Has any Mendicant at death got to heaven ? Going back in memory for ninety - one aeons, I can only recall one single Mendicant who did ; — and he preached a gospel of Karma and the after-con¬ sequences of actions. On this showing, Gotama, that school’s efficacy is wholly impotent to get a man even to heaven. Yes, Vaccha ; it is so. Thus spoke the Lord. Glad at heart, the Wanderer Vaccha-gotta rejoiced in what the Lord had said.

Thus have I heard. Once when the Lord was staying at SavatthI in Jeta’s wood in the pleasaunce of Anathapindika, there came to him the Wanderer Vaccha-gotta, who, [484] after salutations, took his seat to one side and thus began : — Do you hold, Gotama, that the world is eternal, and fortunately true enough, but the offer of the Brahmans, and Mahmud’s rejection of the offer, is a fable of later days. From Somnath Mahmud advanced against Mahmud at Anhil- Param Deo, Rai of wara. Anhiltvara, who seems to have been mainly responsible for the relieving force that had pushed the Ghaznavides so hard. The Rai took refuge in the fort of Khandah, forty farsakhs from Somnath, which was surrounded by the sea. But when Mahmud forded the sea at low tide, the Rai fled away, leaving the fort and its treasures to the Sultan. On returning to Anhilwara Mahmud for the first and last time seems to have harboured the desire of establish¬ ing himself in India. He wanted to make Anhilwara his capital while assigning Ghaznin to Masml. The climate of Gujrat, 'the beauty of its inhabitants, its alluring gardens, flowing rivers and productive soil’ attracted him, and his cupidity was further excited by the treasure to be obtained from Southern India and the islands beyond the sea. But his officers would have none of it. “To leave the country of Kliorasan, ” they protested, “for which we have sacrificed the finest of gems — our own lives — and to make Gujrat our capital, is far from political wisdom.” Mahmud had to yield. He assigned the governorship of Gujrat to Dalishilim (Devasarum), an ascetic of Somnath, and started for Ghaznin. Dalishilim loyally sent the tribute due to the Sultan for some time, but his nower failed to take root and he was over-thrown by his enemies. (35)

tion will have us believe that two days before his death the great Sultan, unable to reconcile himself to the loss of a world that was slipping out of his grasp, ordered the precious stones of his treasury to be brought and that this is the only true view, all other views being false ? Well then, do you hold that the world is non-eternal, and that that is the only true view, all other views being false ? Do you hold that the world is finite, and that this is the only true view, all other views being false ? Do you hold, then, that the world is non-finite, and that that is the only true view, all other views being false ? [Similar questions and answers follow about — Life and the body are identical, Life and the body are dis¬ tinct; The truth-finder passes to another existence after death here, The truth-finder does not pass to another existence after death here, The truth-finder both does and does not pass to another existence after his death here, [485] The truth-finder neither passes nor does not pass to another existence after his death here.] To each and all of ray questions, Gotama, you have answered in the negative. What, pray, is the danger you discern in these views which makes you scout them all ?

To hold that the world is eternal — or to hold that it is not, or to agree to any other [486] of the propositions you adduce, Vaccha, — is the thicket of theorizing, the wilderness of theorizing, the tangle of theorizing, the bondage and the shackles of theorizing, attended by Ill, distress, perturbation and fever ; it conduces not to aversion, passionlessness, tranquillity, peace, illu¬ mination and Nirvana. This is the danger I discern in these views, which makes me scout them all. Is there any view which you have adopted, Gotama ? The adoption of views is a term discarded for the truth-finder, who has had actual vision of the nature, orgin and cessation of things material — of feelings — of displayed in the court-yard of his palace. He gazed at them yearningly and with weeping eyes ordered them to be locked tip again, without finding it in his heart to give any thing in charity. Next day he got into his litter and reviewed his horses, elephants and camels, and still more overcome burst into loud and helpless sobs. (36) But it would be unbecoming to pause over the last moments of a strong and powerful mind. Perhaps the slow and wasting disease had so bereft him of his strength, that at the door of death he was no longer able to hold over his face the veil with which he was wont to conceal his human frailties!

Perhaps his rationalistic mind, too critical for the common¬ place orthodoxy of the day and not profound enough for the deeper convictions of the philosopher and the mystic, trembled at the mysterious laud before him as he saw it approach¬ ing nearer hour by hour, and was unable to embark on his last campaign with that confident courage with which he had plunged into the forests of Hindustan ! It is by the manner of his life, not the mode of his death, that a man is to be judged. The invincible hero of thirty campaigns had disappeared weeks before his officers buried his emaciated body in the I'erozali Palace of Chaznin.

Mahmud was the last of the ‘Minor Kings’ and the first of the great Turco-Persian Emperors. The inspiring motive of his life and the lives of his contemporaries was not Islam but the spirit of the Persian Renaissance. The age of Mahmud of Chaznin was devoid of the higher spirit of faith ; R cm! issa Persian and theological discus¬ sions, which prosper most when religion is dead, diverted such zeals as existed towards a war of sects. When men find it difficult to believe in God, they try to prove Him ; when they cease to love their neighbour, they attempt to convince themselves that hating him is a moral duty. The conversion of the nonMuslim was given up in favour of the more entertaining game of exterminating the ‘heretic’. From east to west the Muslim world was torn by sectarian feuds and the strong arm of the persecutor was called in vain to heal the troubles of a people weltering in fanaticism but innocent of faith. From this war of hair-splitting perception — of plastic forces — and of consciousness. Therefore it is that, by destroying, stilling, suppressing, discarding and renouncing all supposings, all imagin¬ ings, and all tendencies to the pride of saying 1 or mine, the truth-finder is Delivered because no fuel is left to keep such things going.

When his heart is thus Delivered, Gotama, where is an Almsman1 reborn hereafter? Reborn does not apply to him. Then he is not reborn. Not reborn does not apply. Then he is both reborn and not reborn. Reborn and not reborn does not apply. Then he is neither reborn nor not-reborn. • Neither reborn nor not-reborn does not apply to him. To each and all of my questions, Gotama, you have replied in the negative. [487] I am at a loss and be¬ wildered ; the measure of confidence you inspired by our former talk has disappeared. You ought to be at a loss and bewildered, Vaccha. For, this Doctrine is profound, recondite, hard to com¬ prehend, rare, excellent, beyond dialectic, subtle, only to be understanded of the wise. To you it is difficult, — who hold other views and belong to another faith and objective, with a different allegiance and a different master. So I in turn will question you, for such answer as you see fit to give. What think you, Vaccha ? — If there were a fire blazing in front of you, would you know it ? If you were asked what made that fire blaze, could you give an answer ?

I should answer that what made it blaze was the fuel consisting of bracken and sticks. If the fire went out, would you know it had gone out ? 1 The interlocutor, it will be noted, assumes that, here, ta t h a - g a t a means not the Buddha but a Saint, or Arahat in general. theologians the finer minds of Persia turned with a sense of relief to the resusscitation of their national culture and the minor dynasties that had grown on the decay of the Caliphate gave them the protection and patronage they needed. Every provincial court became the centre of a revivalist movement. Ancient Persian legends were rediscovered and popularised. The Persian language, which had licen cast aside as the vernacular of the common people, assumed the dignity of a national tongue. Every one, who could, began to turn out verses in a language singularly capable of conforming to the hardest tules of metre and rhyme, and even poets of mediocre abilities could be sure of a good career. Moreover the glories of the Kiani and the Sassani Empires, alluring with the dream of a half-forgotten greatness, exercised on more im¬ aginative minds a fascination which slowly but definitely drew them away from the Path of the Prophet. The change was, of course, un¬ conscious. Like the school-men of medieval Europe, who talked as if the philosophy of Aristotle was a commentary on the ‘Ten Commandments, the contemporaries of Mahmud were aware of no difference between the lessons of the ‘Shall Nama’ and the principles of the Quran.

Faridun and Jamshed, Kai-Kaus and Kai-Khusrau, the heroic Rustam and the Macedonian Alexander won from the rising generation the homage which all true Mussulmans should have paid to the Prophet and his Companions. Now while the Prophet and his Companions stood for certain principles to be established at all costs and had resorted to war as a means for their promulgation, the legendary heroes of Persia only evoked in their devotees an ambition for greatness and ruthless imperial¬ ism without the sense of a moral mission, and instilled them with precepts of worldly wisdom, such as Polonious bequeathed to Laertes and such as Sadi’s ‘Gulistan* has taught to the children of later generations— a wisdom essentially selfish in its out-look and superbly unconscious of all higher aims.

If now you were asked in what direction the fire had gone, whether to cast, west, north or south, could you give an answer ? 1 The question does not apply. Since the fire was kept alight by bracken and sticks, and since it had con¬ sumed its supply of fuel and had received no fresh sup¬ plies, it is said to have gone out for lack of fuel to sustain it. r a ioiSt tfhe1.Same *ay- Vaccha, all things material [488J all feelings— all perception— all plastic forces— ail consciousness — everything by which the truth-finder might be denoted has passed away for him, — grubbed and stubbed, leaving only the bare cleared site where once a palm-tree towered,— a thing that once has been and now can be no more. Profound, measure¬ less unfathomable, is the truth-finder even as the mighty ocean ; reborn does not apply to him nor notreborn nor any combination of such terms ; everything by which the truth-finder might be denoted, has passed away for him, utterly and for ever. At the close of these words, the Wanderer Vacchagotta said to the Lord : — It is like a giant Sal-tree on the outskirts of a village or township which, by the course oi change, loses its leaves and foliage, sheds its bark and rotten stuff and poorer wood, so that in time, when all that is gone, it stands in the clean strength of its choice timber alone.

Wonderful, Gotama . quite wonderful! Just as a man might set upright again what had been cast down, or reveal what had been hidden away, or tell a man who had gone astray which was his way, or [489] bring a lamp into darkness so that those with eyes to see might see the things about thern^— even so, m many a figure, has Gotama made his Doctrine clear. To the reverend Gotama I come as my refuge, and to his Doctrine and to his Confra¬ ternity. I ask him to accept me as a disciple from this day forth while life lasts.

tlieir best, would fail to reach the highest genius, which in every country and every age has scorned to bow its knees to democracies and kings. For this Mahmud is in no way to blame. Mankind has yet to discover a method for dealing with its finest product. Whatever be the element of truth in the famous Firdausi legend, the tradition that represents the great poet, in whom Persian nationalism amounted to a religion, as flying from an Emperor of Airasiyab’s (Turkish) race, certainly gives us an idea of the gloom that sat oppressively on the most sensitive Persian minds. Two persons of a radically different stamp were destined to share Firdausi’s fate. The great physician and biologist, Shaikh Bu Ali Sina (Avicenna) , refused to come to the court of a king to whom the scientist’s views and his sense of personal independence would have been equal¬ ly unpalatable, and after flying from town to town before the agents of Malmiud’s wrath, at last found a safe asylum with the Buwaihid ruler of Ray. His friend, the mathematician-scholar Abu Rihan Al-Biruni, whose appreciative study of Hindu philosophy stands in such pleasant contrast with the prejudices of a stormy time, was less fortunate. Brought a prisoner from his native Klnvarazm, he was thrown into prison aud thence exiled to India on that life of wandering to which we owe the immortal ‘Tarikhul Hind’.(3S)

The poetry of Mahmud’s age reflects the spirit of the time. It is brilliant but not deep. Mystic ideas had not yet become current coin, and the gltazal, the grand vehicle of mystic emotion, had not yet been discovered. Qasidas (panegyric odes) in praise of generous patrons were the poets’ principal occupation. The genius of Firdausi brought the masnavi (romance) into vogue, while his master, Asadi, is credited with the not very commendable invention of the Munazriah or ‘strife-poem’ — a composition which leaves little room for poetic thoughts. Qilas (fragments) and rubais (quatrains) served to express the poets’ lighter moods. Yet the Ghaznavide poets, for all their short-comings, have a certain freshness which succeeding ages have lacked. There is no artificiality about them. They had tasted the joy of material prosperity and loved to praise the beauty of (jS) Some very interesting anecdotes ntiont Altiemni nnd Bn Ali Sina will be found in the ‘Chahnr Maqnla’ of Nizami -til Aruzi-tu Samarqandi (Gibb’s Memorial Series). A short biography of Bn Ali Sina is given in the TTabibus Siyar. women of flesh and blood and the alluring intoxi¬ cation of wine. The reality of their human emotions prevented them from falling into the meaningless verbosity of later ages; and if they lack the deeper meaning of their mystic successors, whose songs begin and end with a symbolic representation of the absolute, their poetry is at least in touch with life. The poet sang of what his audience knew and felt — the clash of arms on the field of strife, the joys of companionship in the warrior's camp, the in¬ numerable emotions of men and women whom an artificial culture had not yet deprived of their native intensity of feelings, and above all the glories and sorrows of their much loved Iran.

Thus have I heard. Once when the Lord was staying at Rajagaha in the Bamboo grove where the squirrels were fed, the Wanderer Vaccha-gotta came to him and after salutations took his seat to one side, saying It is a longtime since I have had a talk with the reverend Gotama. I should like him briefly to expound right and wrong to me. I could expound them either in brief or at large, Vaccha, but will confine myself here to an exposition in brief. Hearken and pay attention, and I will speak. Then to the attentive Wanderer the Lord began : — Greed is wrong ; freedom from greed is right. Hatred is wrong ; not to hate is right. Delusion is wrong ; to be free from delusion is right. — The one triad is wrong, the other right. To take life is wrong; to refrain from taking life is right. Theft is wrong ; to shun theft is right. In¬ dulgence in pleasures of sense is wrong ; to refrain from such indulgence is right. Lying is wrong ; to refrain from lies is right. Slander [490] is wrong ; to refrain from slandering is right. Reviling is wrong ; not to revile is right. Idle chatter is wrong ; to refrain therefrom is right. To covet is wrong; not to covet is right. To be malevolent is wrong ; not to be male¬ volent is right. Erroneous views are wrong; sound views are right. — The one set of ten is right, the other set is wrong.

So soon as Craving is eliminated — grubbed up by the roots, leaving only the bare cleared site where once a palm-tree towered, a thing that once has been and now can be no more — then that Almsman becomes an Arahat, in whom the Cankers are dead, who has greatly lived, whose task is done, who has shed his burthen, who has won his weal, whose bonds to had an invader so invincible appeared on Persian soil. The exploits of Alexander in the East were rivalled, and in fact surpassed. The Tartar barbarians of the north were driven pell-mell beyond the Jaxartes. The ‘minor dynasties’ of Persia were crushed to death. From Isfahan to Dundelkhand and from Samarkand to Gujrat, the Ghaznavide subdued every opponent and struck down every rival. The conquered people were no cowards. They fought bravely and were as willing to die as their Ghaznavide opponents. It was Mahmud's scientific imagination that made the difference. Against the clumsy organisation of the Rajputs and their childish trust in mere numbers he brought into the field an army that had been trained to obey the commands of a single will. The thick-headed Tartars found to their cost that mere courage and a confidence in fate, was no match for the fierce onslaught of disciplined ranks. But strategy rather than tactics was Mahmud’s strong point. From his throne at Ghaznin his “eagle-eye” surveyed everything in east and west. He knew where to strike and he always struck hard.

346 lxxiii. mahA-vacchagotta-sutta. m. i. 491- life are no more, who by utter Knowledge has won Deliverance. Apart from the reverend Gotama, — is there a single Almsman in his following who has entered on and dwells here and now in that Deliverance of heart and mind which is without Cankers because Cankers are eradicated, a Deliverance which of and by himself he has apprehended and realized ? Not a mere hundred of my followers, not two or three or four or five hundred, but many more than that have achieved this. Apart from the reverend Gotama and the Alms¬ men, — is there a single Almswoman in his following who has achieved this ? • Not a mere hundred of my women followers, not two or three or four or five hundred of them, but many more than that have achieved this. Apart from the reverend Gotama and the Almsmen and the Almswomen, — is there a single white-robed layman of his following in the higher life who, by destruction of the Five Fetters that bind people to this world, has been translated to higher realms, never to revert thence to this world ? Not a mere hundred of my laymen, not two or three or four or five hundred of them, but many more than that have [491] achieved this.

Apart from the reverend Gotama and the Almsmen and the Almswomen and the laymen of the higher life, — is there a single layman who, though not denying himself pleasures of sense, conforms and practises what he is taught, without any doubtings or search¬ ings of heart, and in absolute confidence and personal conviction livefs by his Master’s teaching ? Not a mere hundred such laymen, not two or three or four or five hundred of them, but many more than that have achieved this. Apart from the reverend Gotama and the Almsmen and the Almswomen and the laymen whether of the higher life or of the world still, can you say as much of lay-women both in the higher life and in the world ? remarkable for his ‘conversational powers,’ and unfortunately also for ‘the impetuosity of his temperameut’, which impelled him to take the wrong side on the succession question that arose towards the end of Mahmud’s reign. An extensive empire had been established over the ruins of many governments. What for? We arc not told that Mahmud’s administration was better than what had existed before, while the collection of revenue was certainly more strict. Everybody complained that the Sultan went on conquering without being able to establish peace and order in the conquered lands. The condition of the Punjab was chaotic and other provinces fared no better. Caravan routes were unsafe and the occasional efforts of the Government to provide for the safety of its merchants display its weakness rather thau its strength.

“He is a stupid fellow", a Muslim mystic is said to have remarked of him, ‘‘Unabl * to administer what he already possesses, he yet goes out to conquer new countries.” A strong sense of justice Mahmud certainly had, and many stories and anecdotes arc told about him, but he never went beyond deciding with acuteness and wisdom the few cases that came before him. No general effort was made to suppress the robberchiefs whose castles prevented all inter-communi¬ cation between the various parts of the empire. No imperial police system was organised to perform the work which smaller princes present on the spot had done before. The armed and organised populations of medieval cities and towns required but little help from the stnte to stand up against the forces of disorder, but even that little was not forthcoming. We have only to contrast the Ghaznavidc Government with the Empires of the Seljuqs and the Sultan — Emperors of Delhi — to see the element Mahmud woefully lacked. No laws, good or bad, stand to his name. No administrative measure of importance emanated from his acute mind, which failed to see anything greater or nobler than an ever-expanding field of military glory. The

The result was both gool and bad. The democratic feeling, which has persisted in the social life of the Mussalmans in spite of all opposing forces, was eliminated from politics, and political subservience, from being a postulate of necessity and prudence, was elevated to the dignity of a religious duty. “Obedience to Kings," says Abul Fazl, summing up the wisdom and the folly of six hundred years, "is a kind of divine worship." At the same time the monarchical idea and the secularisation of politics led to much that was undoubtedly beneficial. The peoples of Ajam were welded together by their loyalty to a common king in spite of their racial differences and sectarian strifes. Moreover it became possible for Muslims and non-Muslims to live together when religion was considered as a private affair of the king and the sphere of Government was restricted to the secular affairs of the subjects.

To Mahmud of Ghaznin belongs the credit of being the first Muslim Emperor, and to him more than to any one else the rise of ‘monarchy’ among the Mussalmans is due. It does not detract from his merit that he was followed by statesmen abler than himself and by dynasties more permanent than his own. The Scijuqs of Persia and the Emperor-Sultans of Delhi surpass- Not a mere hundred lay-women, not two or three or four or five hundred of them, but many more than that have achieved these results. Had the reverend Gotama alone achieved success in the Doctrine, without the Almsmen, [492] this higher life of his founding would have been incomplete by this constituent. Inasmuch, however, as not only he but the Almsmen too have succeeded, this constituent is not lacking. Had success come only to him and the Almsmen, without the Almswomen, the latter con¬ stituent would have been wanting, — as it is not. Had success come only to him and the Almsmen and the Almswomen, without laymen of the higher life — or laymen of the world still — or lay-women of the higher life — or lay-women of the world still — , in each case this higher life of his founding would have been incom¬ plete by that particular constituent. [498] Inasmuch, however, as success has come to each and all of these classes, not a single one of these constituents of com¬ pleteness is lacking.

Even as the river Ganges streams and flows to the ocean as its bourne and finds repose only in the ocean, so does Gotama’s whole congregation, laity as well as Pilgrims, stream and flow to Nirvana as its bourne, finding repose only in Nirvana. Wonderful, Gotama; quite wonderful ! Just as a man might set upright again what had been cast down, or reveal what had been hidden away, or tell a man who had gone astray which was his way, or bring a lamp into darkness so that those with eyes to see might see the things about them, even so in many a figure has the reverend Gotama made his Doctrine clear. To the reverend Gotama I come as my refuge, and to his Doctrine, and to his Confraternity. 1 ask to be admitted as a Pilgrim under him, with confirmation therein. [494] Vaccha, a former adherent of another sect who desires admission to, and confirmation in, this Doctrine and Rule, has first to reside for four months, at the end of which period discreet Almsmen admit and confirm ed him as administrators, and Chengiz and Timur in conquering might. A pioneer is bound to have his shortcomings. His Central Asiatic policy was devoid of statesmanship while his work in India was even more deplorable.

The Sultan’s great advantage over his Indian Organised anarchy of opponents was the unitary' the Rajputs. organisation of his state. The resources of Ghaznin were at the disposal of a single mind ; the strength of Hindustan was divided among a multitude of factious Rais, sub -Rais, local chiefs and village-headmen, between whom anything like sensible co-opera¬ tion was impossible. The feudal organisation of the Rajputs, with its divided allegiance, clannish spirit and love of local independence, left them helpless before an enemy to whom feudalism and clannish feeling was alike un¬ known. The Ghaznavides knew and obeyed their master; the Rajputs had no master to obey. The power of the Rai of Lahore was defied by the Rais subordinate to him, who refused to be relegated to the position of mere governors ; and 348 LXXIIL MAHA-VACCHAGOTTA-SUTTA. M. i. 49S. him as a member of the Confraternity. This is the qualification I have recognized. If this is so, sir, I will reside for the probationary four months accordingly with a view to membership of the Confraternity. In due course, the Wanderer Vaccha-gotta was ad¬ mitted and confirmed of the Lord’s following. Soon after his confirmation, indeed within a fort¬ night’s time, the reverend Vaccha-gotta came to the Lord and after salutations took his seat to one side, saying — I have attained all that is to be attained by a non-Arahat’s understanding and a non-Arahat’s know¬ ledge. I ask the Lord to expound the Doctrine to me further.

Then, Vaccha, develop further two frames of mind, calm and insight, the development of which will help you to fathom various elements of sense-consciousness. To the full of your desire to have at command the divers types of psychic power — from being one to become manifold, from being manifold to become one, to pass at will through wall or fence or hill as if it were air, to pass in and out of the solid earth as if it were water, to walk on the water’s unbroken surface as if it were the solid earth, to glide, as you sit serene, through the air, like a winged bird, to touch and to handle the sun and moon in their power and might, and to extend the sway of your body right up to the heavens of Brahma — each and all of these manifesta¬ tions of psychic power shall be yours to experience as your mind shall dictate. To the full of your desire to hear, with the Ear Celestial, [495] which is pure and far surpasses the human ear, twofold sounds — both the celestial and the human, sounds both far and near, — all this shall be yours to experience as your mind shall dictate.

To the full of your desire, that your heart should read the hearts of others, — knowing the heart where passion dwells as passionate, and the passionless heart as passionless, the unkind heart as unkind, and the kind heart as kind, the deluded heart as deluded, and instead of meeting the enemy as the loyal generals of the chief whom his position and pre¬ eminence alike seemed to mark off for a national hero, they preferred to be defeated by the Ghaznavide one by one. An internal revolution, which would place the defensive power of the country in the hands of a central power, was absolutely necessary if the newly-aisen enemy was to be resisted with success. But the hand of the reformer was numbered by the timehonoured customs of ages; and the tribal feuds of the Rajputs, their complicated system of military tenure and local rights, prevented them from mustering in full force on the field of battle. The result was defeat, disgrace, disaster. Temple after temple was plundered ; the centres of Indian civilisation were ruined ; and neither the wisdom of the Brahman, nor the heroism of the Rajput, nor the pious adoration of silent millions could prevent their idols of gold and silver from being melted into Ghaznavide coin. The Indians did not lack fighting spirit, and they had a country and a religion fully worthy of their devotion. The carnage round the Somnath temple, the courage with which the garrison of many an un¬ known fort died to the last man before the un¬ wavering Ghaznavide ranks, showed what better leadership might have achieved, — proved, if proof was needed, that even in the hour of deep¬ est gloom the Indians had not forgotten how to die. But their social and political customs paralysed them; for with us, unfortunately, custom is not an accident but the essence of faith.

The great Sultan did not fail to take advantage of this ‘organised anarchy’ once he had discovered its real nature. His first steps were tentative, but the spectacle of an army, innumerable as ants and locusts, flying away from Waihind (1008) before even the battle had become warm, convinced him that the Indian confederacy was a soul-less ghost before which he had needlessly trembled. With ceaseless care he and his father had forged a terrible machine which could be now used to good purpose. The Ghaznavide army was composed of heterogenous material, but strict discipline, years of comrade¬ ship in arms, the memory of past victories and hope of future spoliation and plunder, had welded Indians, Afghans, Turks and Persians together. Training had created confidence and confidence led to success. Above all the sub¬ ordination of everything to the penetrative intellect aTid commanding will of the Sultan gave 5 it an irresistible momentum against its factionridden opponents. Mahmud flashed like a lightning across the path of the bewildered Rais, thrust himself between them before they could unite, drove them away from one another and defeated them in detail. There was no resisting his might. 'Vini, vidi, r ici.’ A darkfear began to oppress the Indian mind. It was imagined that the Mussalmans would be always victorious, that a new race of Huns would hold the sacred soil of Aryavarta in perpetual terror¬ ism. Nothing could be farther from truth. The Ghaznavide had not come to stay.

For time out of mind the exports of India „ , , , , had been in excess of her temple*. imports and precious metals had been slowly drawn into the country. Mines were also being worked in various provinces. The natural consequence was an ever accumulating mass of gold and silver, which won for India a reputa¬ tion for fabulous riches, and by the time of Mahmud had become a serious national danger. (39) It is a significant fact that Mahmud seldom, if ever, shared the hard life of his soldiers. Such a thing would have been below the dignity of the new monarchy.’ the undeludcd heart as undeluded, the focussed heart as focussed, and the unfocussed heart as unfocussed, the great heart as great, and the little heart as little, the inferior heart as inferior, and the superior heart as superior, the stedfast heart as stedfast, and the unstedfast heart as unstedfast, the heart Delivered as De¬ livered, and the heart undelivered as undelivered — all this shall be yours to experience as your mind shall dictate. To the full of your desire to recall your divers ex¬ istences in the past — a single birth, then two . . . right up to your rebirth here, — all this shall be yours to experience as your mind shall dictate.

[496J To the full of your desire to see, with the Eye Celestial which is pure and far surpasses the human eye, creatures in act to pass hence, in act to reappear elsewhere, creatures either lowly or debonair ... in states of bliss and in heaven, — all this shall be yours to experience as your mind shall dictate. To the full of your desire — here and now, and of and by yourself — to know, realize, enter on, and abide in Deliverance of heart and mind which is without Cankers because Cankers have been eradicated, — all this shall be yours to experience as your mind shall dictate. Thereupon the venerable Vaccha-gotta, glad and grateful to the Lord for his words, arose and with salutations and deep reverence withdrew. Nor was it long before he, dwelling alone and aloof, strenuous, ardent and purged of self, won the prize in quest of which young men go forth from home to homelessness as Pilgrims, that prize of prizes which crowns the highest life ; — even this did he think out and realize of and by himself, entering on it and dwelling therein here and now ; and to him came the knowledge clear that for him rebirth was no more ; that he had lived the highest life;jhat his task was done; and that now for him there was no more of what he had been. The reverend Vaccha-gotta was numbered among the Arahats.

They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-conceited and stolid. Accord¬ ing to their belief, there is no country on earth but theirs, no other race of men but theirs, and no created beings besides them have any know¬ ledge or science whatsoever. Their haughtiness is such that, if you tell them of any science or scholars in Khorasan and Persia, they will think you both an ignoramus and a liar." People with this insularity of outlook were not likely to lend their ears to a new message. But the policy of

their way to visit the Lord. Seeing them some way off, Vaccha-gotta went up to them, [497] and, on learning their intention to visit the Lord, asked them to bow down at the Lord’s feet on his behalf and in his name to say : — The Lord has been served ; the Blessed One has been served. Accordingly those Almsmen conveyed his message faithfully to the Lord, who remarked that already his own heart had read Vacchagotta’s heart and that this Almsman had won the threefold lore and had come to great powers and might. Also, deities (he added) had brought him the same tidings. Thus spoke the Lord. Glad at heart, those Alms¬ men rejoiced in what the Lord had said. Mahmud secured the rejection of Islam without a hearing. A religion is naturally judged by the character of those who believe in it ; their faults and their virtues are supposed to be the effect of their creed. It was inevitable that the Hindus should consider Islam a deviation from truth when its followers deviated so deplorably from the path of rectitude and justice. A people is not conciliat¬ ed bv being robbed of all it holds most dear, nor will it love a faith that comes to it in the guise of plundering armies and leaves devastated fields and ruined cities as monuments of its victorious method for reforming the morals of a prosperous but erratic world.

“They came, burnt, killed, plundered, captured — and went away” was a Persian’s description of the Mongol invasion of his country ; it would not be an in¬ appropriate summary of Mahmud’s achievement in Hindustan. It was not thus that the Prophet had preached Islam in Arabia ; and no one need be surprised that the career of the conquering Ghaznavide created a burning hatred for the new faith in the Hindu mind and blocked its progress more effectually than armies and forts. “Mahmud," says the observant Alberuni, "utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed those wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate hatred of all Muslims. This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places where our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir, Benares and other places. And there the antagonism between them and all foreigners receive more and more nourishment both from political and religious and other causes.’’

’The evil that men do lives after them; the good is often buried with their bones !’ Mahmud’s work, whatever it might have been, was swept off fifteen years after his death by the Hindu Revival. ‘Those who had taken up the sword perished by the sword’. East of Lahore no trace of the Mussalmans remained; and Mahmud’s victories while they failed to shake the moral confidence of Hinduism, won an everlasting infamy for his faith. Two centuries later men, who differed from Mahmud as widely as two human beings can possibly differ, once more brought Islam into the land. But times had changed. The arrogance of the Mussalmans had disappeared with the conquest of Ajam by the Mongolian hordes. The spirit of the Persian Renaissance had blossomed and died, and the new mysticism, with its cosmopolitan tendencies and with doctrines which did not essentially differ from what the Hindu rishis had taught in ancient days, made possible that exchange of ideas between men of the two creeds which Alberuni had longed for in vain. Instead of the veterans who had crossed the frontier in search of their winter spoils there came a host of refugees from the burning villages of Central Asia longing for a sj>ot where they could lay their heads in peace and casting aside all hopes of returning to the land of their birth. The serpent had reappeared but without his poison¬ ous fangs. The intellectual history of medieval India begins with the advent of Shaikh Moinuddin of Ajmere and its political history' with the accession of Sultan Alauddin Khilji;

the two featured which distinguish it from preceding generations are the mystic propaganda started by the Chishti Saint and the administrative and economic measures inaugurated by the revolu¬ tionary Emperor. With the proper history of our country Mahmud has nothing to do. But we have inherited from him the most bitter drop in our cup. To later generation Mahmud became the Arch-fanatic he never was; and in that ‘incarnation’ he is still worshipped by such Indian Mussalmans as have cast off the teaching of Lord Krishna in their devotion to minor gods. Tslam’s worst enemies have ever been its own fanatical followers.

IV : Fall of the Ghaznavide Empire. Sultan Mahmud’s two eldest sons, Masud and Mohammad, were born on The question of [he same day and it was succession. , , . , difficult to decide the question of precedence between them. But Mohammad, a virtuous and educated prince who composed verses in Arabic, had neither the energy nor the strength necessary' for wielding a sceptre, and the eyes of all men w’ere naturally turned towards his brother, who had the phy’sique and personality’ of a Rustum. No one could lift Masud’s mace with one hand from the ground and his arrow' pierced through a plate of steel. But the Sultan, somewhat envious of the feats totally beyond his own strength, made a will in favour of Mohammad and obtained a firman con-

Thus have I heard. Once when the Lord was staying in Boar’s Cave on Vulture Peak at Rajagaha, the Wanderer Digha-nakha came to him and after salutations took his stand to one side, saying : — All2 fails to satisfy me ; that is what I say, and that is the view I hold. When you say, Aggivessana, that all fails to satisfy you, does your own view as just expressed also fail to satisfy you ? If it did satisfy me, then all else would follow suit. [498] In one class, there are very many people in the world who, admitting that all else should follow suit, yet refuse to discard their old view while adopt¬ ing another. In another class, there are very few who, admitting that all else should follow suit, discard their old view and do not tack on another. There are some recluses and brahmins, Aggivessana, who affirm and hold that all satisfies them, while others take the contrary view, and others again partly take the former and partly the latter view. Those who are satisfied with all, hold a view which is allied to passion, to bondage, to pleasure, to attach¬ ments and to all that sustains continuing existence.

Those who are dissatisfied with all, hold a view which is allied to passionfessness and freedom, aloof from pleasure and attachments, and with nothing to keep existence continuing. 1 This Sutta is referred to as Vedana-pariggaha-suttanta at p. 96 of the first volume of the Commentary on the Dhammapada (P. T. S. 1906). * Bu. explains sabbam (all, everything) as meaning rebirth and transmigration, in the mouth of Dighanakha, who, subse¬ quently perceiving that Gotama is using the word in its literal sense, tries to safeguard his original contention. firming it from the Caliph. The wazir, Hasnak, also worked for Mohammad and a brittle alliance of the nobles was formed in his favour. Masud refused to submit. ‘The Sword is a truer authority than any writing,’ he stoutly declared; and the Sultan, to whom his son’s answer was conveyed, felt it to be painfully true. The conquests in Eastern Persia during the last years of Mahmud’s reign had been mostly due to Masud, and when returning from Ray to Balkh in 1029, the Sultan had left him in charge of Khorasan and the newly conquered territories. It was, consequently, easier for Mohammad’s supporters to obtain control of the capital on his father’s death. They summoned him from

Hasnak was reserved for the disgrace of a public execution at Balkh. Masud recalled his father’s famous wazir, Khwaja Ahmad bin Hasan Maimandi, from his Indian prison and entrusted him with the office he had held for eighteen years with such dignity and power. The fate of the fallen Wazir, so graphically described by Baihaki, won the sympathy of all hearts. After weeks of hard and degrading imprisonment Hasnak was summoned to the divan where the great Khwaja behaved with extraordinary polite¬ ness. He was asked to sign a bond giving up all his property to the Sultan and the two wazirs parted with a touching forgiveness and affection. “In the time of Sultan Mahmud,’’ Hasnak apologized, “and by his orders, I ridiculed the Khwaja ; it was a fault but I had no help but to obey. The post of wazir was given to me, though it was no place for me. Still I formed no design against the Khwaja and I always favoured his people. I am weary of life but some care ought to be taken of my children and my family and the Khwaja must forgive me”. He burst into tears and the Khwaja ’s eyes were filled with tears also. “You are forgiven,” he replied, “but you must not be so dejected for happiness is still possible. I have considered and accept it of the Almighty — I will take care of your family if you are doomed”.

\\ rite to this doting old Caliph”, Mahmud had ordered his secretary, “ that for the sake of the Abbasides I have meddled with all the world. I am hunting for Carmathians, and whenever one is found who is proved to be so, he is impaled. If it was proved that Hasnak is a Carmathian, the Commander of the Faith¬ ful would soon learn what had happened to him. But I have brought him up and he stands on an equality with my sons and my brothers. If he is a Carmathian, so am I also.” The old charge was now revived. Two men Here Dlghanakha intervened to say: — The reverend Gotama is complimentary, most complimentary to the view I hold ! Lastly, the Lord went on to say, those who are partly satisfied and partly dissatisfied, hold a view which, so far as it is one of satisfaction, is allied to passion and so forth, while, so far as it is one of dissatisfaction, is allied to passionlessness and so forth. In these circumstances an intelligent person would say that, if he whole-heartedly stuck to and dis¬ seminated the satisfied view as wholly and exclusively true, he would be at issue with both the other camps, which would lead to disputes, and so to vexation and so to trouble. Consequently, he discards this view and takes up with no other. And the same happens to an intelligent person with regard to both the dissatisfied and the partly-satisfied views, so that in all three cases alike there is a discarding and a renouncing of these views by the intelligent.

[500] This body — which has visible shape, which is made up of the four primary elements, starts from parents, is sustained by victuals, is transitory and subject to attrition, abrasion, dissolution and dispersal — , this body is to be regarded as transitory, as Ill, as a disease, as a pustulence, as a pang, as anguish, as a malady, as alien, as a flux, as void, as non-self ; and he who so regards the body, loses thereby all liking and affection for a body, all subordination to a body. There are the following three classes of feelings, — pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. While a man is experiencing a pleasant feeling, he does not con¬ comitantly experience the unpleasant or the neutral, but the pleasant alone. Similarly, an unpleasant or a neutral feeling is not concomitant with either of the two other classes. All three classes alike have this in common that they are transitory, that they are products and effects, that they are perishable and evanescent, and that they can be purged of passion and stilled. When he sees this clearly, a well-informed disciple of the Noble, grows aweary of all feelings — pleasant, unpleasant and neutral— and, being aweary, purges himself of passion and by passionlessness finds Deliver¬ ance, so that, being Delivered, he comes to realize his Deliverance in the conviction that— Rebirth is no more; I have lived the highest life ; my task is done ; and now for me there is no more of what I have been. An Almsman whose heart is Delivered thus, neither concurs nor disputes with anyone; he employs the

ideas'11 p^raseo^°^ worId without accepting its At this point there came to the reverend Sariputta, who was [501] standing behind the Lord fanning him, the thought : — These then are fche several states of consciousness which the Lord has bidden us realize and discard, which the Blessed One has bidden us renounce. And even as Sariputta so reflected, his heart was Delivered from Cankers by leaving nothing to sustain them in being. In the Wanderer Dighanakha, on the other hand, there arose the pure and stainless Eye of Truth, whereby he saw that in whatsoever has a beginning, cessation is also inherent. Seeing and grasping the Doctrine, comprehending and fathoming it, Dighanakha— with doubts all gone, freed from all questionings of heart, strong now in confidence, per¬ sonally and independently assured of the Master’s gospel— said to the Lord Wonderful, Gotama; quite wonderful ! Just as a man might set upright again . . . (etc. as at end of Sutta No. 72) ... as a disciple from this day forth while life lasts.

Thus have I heard. Once the Lord was staying in the Kuru country — Kammassadhamma is the name of a township of theirs— in the fire-hut of the brahmin Bharadvaja-gotta, in which a grass mat was laid. In were dressed up as messengers from the Caliph demanding Hasnak’s death as a Camathian, and Masud, with pretended reluctance, acceded to the Caliph’s demand. But everybody knew the truth. "If Masud mounts the throne, let me be hanged," Hasnak had declared in the days of his arrogant power ; and Masud having succeeded, Hasnak had to mount 'the steed he had never ridden before’. At the foot of the scaffold Hasnak threw off A Ghaxnavide his coat and shirt. ‘His execution. body was white as silver and his face like hundreds of thousands of pictures.’ All men were crying with grief. He replied neither to the insults of his enemies nor to the questions asked, but his lips were seen moving in some silent prayer. He was made to wear a helmet and vizor lest his head, which was to be sent to the Caliph, should be battered beyond recognition by the stones the public was expected to throw. But the public, barring a few vagabonds hired by the govern¬ ment, threw no stones. A great uproar would have arisen if the royal horsemen had not prevented it. His fellow-citizens, the Naishapurians, wept bitterly when the hangman cast a rope round his neck and suffocated him.

For seven years Hasnak hung from the gibbet. His corpse dried up ; the bones of his feet dropped off, and ‘not a remnant of him was left to be taken down and buried in the usual way — no one knew where his head was or where his body.’ A last touch to the tragedy was given by Hasnak’s mother who refused to weep as women weep ; but a deep cry of anguish burst from her lips when she was told of his death. "What a fortune was my son’s!” Site exclaimed, "A king like Mahmud gave him this world, and one like Masud the next."

Masud now seemed as secure as his father had ever been. He had a commanding personality and a strpng and unbend¬ ing resolution. He was surrounded by a body of efficient and loyal officers who had served his father for years. He had no rival to fear. The Government appeared strong in the extent of its territory, its armies, its revenue and its mass of hoarded wealth. Nevertheless a careful observer would have found the forces of decay everywhere at work. It was not easy to wield Mahmud’s sceptre. Masud was unheeding and self-confidence gave way to a senseless panic in advice of his wisest counsellors. His superb self-confidence gave way to a senseless panic in the hour of danger and showed him to be totally lacking in that calmness of nerve which comes through the strength of the intellect rather than power of muscle and bone. He struck thought¬ lessly and in the wrong quarter with a total incapacity to distinguish the most dangerous of his enemies from the most contemptible of his foes. The firmness with which he wielded his axe and his spear in the field of battle shone in tragic contrast with the folly with which he directed his campaigns and destroyed the morale of his troops before the enemy could fall upon them. Equally lacking in the gifts of a statesman and a general, Masud would have done well to rely on the judgment pf a wiser man. Khwaja Hasan Maimandi restored to more than his former glory directed the govern¬ ment with efficiency so far as civil affairs were concerned but the Khwaja never meddled in military matters, and his death in 1030 left Masud free to mismanage things to his heart’s content ; and within ten years of his father’s death he had lost his army and his empire and was flying a helpless fugitive to an inhospitable land.

the morning early, duly robed and bowl in hand, the Lord went into the township for alms and was on his way back after his meal when he came to a wood into which he went to spend the noontide, seating himself under a tree for the heat of the day. [502] Now the Wanderer Magandiya, in the course of his roamings and peregrinations afoot, came to this fire-hut and, seeing the grass mat laid, asked the brahmin whom it was for, observing that it suggested the pallet of a recluse. It has been laid, Magandiya, for the recluse Gotama, the Sakyan, who has gone forth from a Sakyan home on Pilgrimage. Such is the high repute noised abroad concerning him that he is styled the Lord, Arahat allenlightened, walking by knowledge, blessed, under¬ standing all worlds, the matchless tamer of the human heart, teacher of gods and men, the Lord of Enlightenment. It is an annoyance to set eyes on the pallet of Gotama, that rigid repressionist.1 Take care what you say, Magandiya; take care what you say ; for, many are the sages among Nobles, brahmins, householders and recluses who are earnest believers in him and trained in Noble knowledge, in the Doctrine, and in what is right.

If I could see him face to face, I would tell him to his face, Bharadvaja, that he is a repressionist, — because our Scriptures say so. If you do not mind my doing so, I will tell this to the recluse Gotama. Pray do not scruple to tell him what you have been told. 1 Bhunahu (an archaic word purposely put into the mouth of this paribbSjaka.as huveyya was put into the mouth of Upaka the ajivaka at I., p. 1 71, vide supra, p.121), is here interpreted by Bu. as hata-vaddhin and mariy&da-karaka, i.e. “ re¬ pressing growth and regulation-making.’’ He explains that, whereas the Buddha prescribed watch and ward over the senses, this Wanderer believed in giving them full scope, advocating not ‘a cloistered virtue’ but complete experience (‘tout savoir’) as a stage to ultimate mastery. and courage, was appointed Commander-inchief. The Qazi and the general were indepen¬ dent of each other and in direct subordination to Ghaznin. To keep them both in check Bui Kasim bul Hakam was appointed superintendent of the news-carriers and his duty was tp report everything important to Ghaznin. This division of power was intended to keep the province in check by preventing the concentration of authority in a single hand, while by the appoint¬ ment of a commander, whose sole business was to wage war against the Thakurs ;Rais) Mahmud sought to make the plunder of Hindustan a permanent affair. The plan miscarried. Ariyaruk bore down all opposition and made himself supreme ; the Qazi in retalia¬ tion dressed himself in military clothes but was relegated to a secondary position. The soft words of the Khwaja, however, succeeded in alluring Ariyaruk to Balkh where he was arrested and thrown into prison (March 1031).

Thus he obtained the name of a man. “Kettle-drums were beaten in his quarters according to the custom of Hindu chiefs and banners with gilded tops were granted.” He had an army under his command, the tent and umbrella of a Ghaznavide general, and sat in the charmed circle of the Sultan’s confidential officers. “Wise men do not wonder at such facts,” says the reflective Baihaki, “because nobody is born great — men became such." This Tilak had excellent qualities and all the time he lived he sustained no injury on account of being the son of a barber.

In the winter of 1037 Masud decided on an expedition against Hansi. tioTnhC,o“ansi RXpCdi* The condition of the Punjab was no dpubt un¬ satisfactory but the capture of another Hindu fort could not make the government stable. Tlie Seljuqs were becoming more powerful every day and the Khwaja advised him to post¬ pone the Indian venture till he had subdued his western enemies. “If my lord should not go to Khorasan, if the Turkomans should conquer a province, or if they should conquer even a village, and do that which they are accustomed to do, namely, mutilate, slaughter and burn, ten ’holy wars’ at Hansi would not com¬ pensate.’’ But Masud was deaf to all advice. He said he had made a vow and must fulfil it. He marched by way of Kabul to the bank of the Jhelum where an illness, owing to which he gave up drinking for a time, prevented him from moving further for a fortnight. Another march of three weeks brought him to the virgin fort of Hansi. The garrison made a desperate defence and relaxed no effort, but the fort was stormed after a siege of ten days and its treasure divided among the army. Masud next marched against Sonpat, but its Rai, Dipal Hari, fled away and his city was annexed to the Punjab. Another chief, named Ram, sent treasures to the invader but apologised that he

M' '• 5°3' 0K keeping watch and ward. • 355 pa^Ve^ Ear Celestuia,'r which is Pure and far sur- CJn the "two^ thC L°rd Heard thG COnversa« :io" T ^SKg.Uf>, t0LWar^S evening from his meditations, the Lord betook him to the brahmin’s fire-hut and sat °i grauS ma,t Iaid °ut for him- To him came the brahmin, who, after salutations, took his seat to one side and was thus by the Lord addressed .-—There wf rm\ialk’ Jtaradvija, between you and the Vanderer Magandiya [508] as touching this same mat. uru " v- ^.surPr,sed and startled, the brahmin said •_ U hy that is precisely what I was about to tell you sir when you anticipated me! 7 * ,,7Tl\eir tolk ,was interrupted by the return of the Wanderer to the hut, who, after salutations, sat down to one side, to be thus addressed by the Lord : _ The eye, Magandiya — of which visible shapes are the domain and the delight and the satisfaction— has been subjugated, shielded, safe-guarded and kept under watch and ward by the Truth-finder, who preaches the Doctrine of its watch and ward. Was it with reference to the eye that you said the recluse Gotama is a rigid repressions ? *

Yes, it was ; — because our Scriptures say so. Was your remark made with reference to the ear— -which has sounds for its domain—, to smell— which has odours for its domain — , to the tongue which has tastes for its domain — , to the body which has touch for its domain — , to consciousness — which has states of mind for its domain? Was it with reference to these all of which have been subjugated by the Truth-finder, who preaches the Doctrine for their watch and ward— that you said the recluse Gotama is a rigid repressionist ? Yes, it was; — because it is on these lines that you criticize our tenets. What do you think of this, Magandiya ?— Take a man who [504] aforetime revelled in the visible shapes of which the eye takes cognizance, — shapes which are desirable, agreeable, pleasant and attractive, bound up exterminating or subduing the migratory hordes that had crossed the Oxus. They had no settled habitation and it was impossible to crush them in a battle. They dispersed and reunited with remarkable case. And yet it is easy to imagine what the unexpected raid of the Tartar shepherds, who came burning and plundering, meant to a population accustomed to law and order.

The officers who had deserted the Sultan on the battlefield were Mai ml °f Su,tan imprisoned. Prince Maudud was despatched with an army to Balkh but Masud himself was so afraid of the Seljuqs that he dared not remain at Ghazniii. He sent Majdud to Multan and ordered Prince Izad-var to hold the Afghans in check, and then with the royal liarcm and the choicest treasures of Sultan Mahmud loaded on three hundred camels, he started for Lahore. Every one advised the Sultan against the step. His desertion of the capital would throw every thing into anarchy and disorder. The journey itself was full of danger. "I have no very high opinion of the fidelity of the Hindus,” the H’fl-ir Khwaja Mohammad bin Abdus Samad with pleasures of sense, and exciting. Suppose that later on, through coming to know them for what they really are — through coming to know their origin and cessation, the satisfaction and the troubles they entail, and their final outcome — , he discards all craving for them, dispels the fever they bring, loses all appetite for them, so that he dwells with his heart at peace within him. What have you to lay to his charge?

Or take the case of a man who similarly discards sounds, odours, tastes, or touch. What have you to lay to his charge ? Now, I myself, Miigandiya, in those days when I had a home, was lapped in the pleasures of the five senses and revelled in sights, sounds, odours, tastes and touch, — which are desirable, agreeable, pleasant and attractive, bound up with pleasures of sense, and ex¬ citing. Three palaces were mine, one for the rainy season, another for the winter, and another for the summer. In the palace for the rainy reason I lived during the four months of the rains, ministered to by bands of women musicians, never coming down to the lower floors. Later on, through coming to know these pleasures for what they really are — through coming to know their origin and cessation, the satisfaction and the troubles they entail, and their final outcome — , I discarded all craving for them, dispelled the fever they bring, lost all appetite for them, so that I dwelt with my heart at peace within me. I observed others still held by pleasure in passion’s meshes, still the prey of pleasure, still afire with the fever of pleasure, still the votaries of pleasure ; I envied them not nor took delight in such things. And why ? — Because there is a delight which is aloof from pleasures of sense and from things which are wrong and is based on the attainment of bliss Celestial j [505] and it was in the enjoyment of this delight that I neither envied the lower nor took delight therein.

It is like a wealthy householder or his son, of great has inv lord in his other servants, that he should show his treasures to them in the desert ?” But misfortune had only increased Masud’s obstinacy, and he caustically accused his officers of treason. At the pass of Marigalah the H’azir’s ominous words were fulfilled. A number of Turkish and Hindu slaves plundered a |>art of the royal treasure; and seeing that their crime would not be pardoned by Masud, they besieged him in the inn where he was staying and placed his brother, the blind Mohammad, on the throne. Masud was captured and sent to the fort of Giri where he was soon after put to death. Placed on the throne after nine years of Maudnd imprisonment, the blind Mohammad contented himself with dry bread while the affairs were directed by his son, Ahmad, who was reputed to be mad. But Maudud gave short shrift to his father's murderers. He hurried from Balkh to Ghaznin and thence marched towards the Indus. Mohammad’s army, which had marched to meet him, was defeated at Nagrahar, and Mohammad and his sons were captured and slain on the spot (1041). Maudud built an inn and a village on the site of liis victory, which he named Fathabad, and returned to Ghaznin with his father’s coffin. But the battle of Nagrahar had not placed the Punjab in his hands. His brother, Majdud, whom the late Sultan had appointed governor of Multan, lost no time in consolidating his power ;

treasures and substance, who, while living a life lapped in these divers pleasures of the five senses that are so desirable, agreeable, . . . and exciting, lives aright in deed, word and thought so that at his body’s dissolution after death he passes to bliss celestial to consort with the Thirty-three ^ods, and there, surrounded by a throng of nymphs in the Grove of Gladness, is lapped in every celestial pleasure of the five senses. Sup¬ posing now that he sees a householder or his son on earth lapped in divers pleasures of sense. What do you think, Magandiya ? Would that new deity, who lives surrounded by a throng of nymphs in the Grove of Gladness, lapped in every celestial pleasure of the five senses, — would he envy that earthly householder or his son or their earthly pleasures ? Would he turn again to earthly pleasure ? No, Gotama ; he would not; — because celestial pleasures are choicer and more excellent than human pleasures. It was just the same with me who in bygone days, Magandiya, when I had a home, was lapped in the pleasures of the five senses but later on, through coming to know. . . . [506] I neither envied the

lower nor took delight therein. It is like a leper who, with his limbs all sores and rottenness, is being eaten alive by worms and tears his open wounds with his nails and scorches his frame over a pit of hot embers. Suppose now his friends and kinsfolk bring him a leech who makes him up a medicine whereby he is cured of his leprosy and is hale and well, able to get about and go where he will. If now he sees another leper in the selfsame plight, — do you think he would envy that leper either his pit of embers or his course of medicine ? No, — because medicines are wanted not in health but in illness. It was just the same with me, Magandiya, who, in those days when I had a home, was lapped in all pleasures of the five senses and revelled in desirable and agreeable sights, but later on, through coming to after a century and a half Shababuddin Ghori found the Hindu Rais as disunited as ever. The later history pf the kingdom of Ghaznin need not detain us for KSSH'y&iS: !<»«. Its petty princes were content to eke out a humble existence under the Shadow of the Seljuq Empire ; its unending palace intrigues were a source of derision to its enemies and of despair to its friends. Sultan Maudud died in December 1049 and his son, Masud n, a child of four years, was overthrown by Maudud’s brother, Abul Hasan Ali, who in his turn was defeated by Abdur Rashid, a son of Sultan Mahmud, in 1051.

a Turk, and the ambition of Tughril was equal to his valour. In his own dominions Tughril was the father of his soldiers and people ; by a firm and equal administration Persia was relieved from the evils of anarchy; and the same hands which had been embrued in blood became the guardians of justice and the public peace.” The kings of Ghaznin were allowed to eke out their years of inglorious existence but the Mussalmans and Christians of Iraq and Asia Minor felt the hand of ‘the Conquering Turk.’ Azarbaijan was annexed to the Empire ; the power of the Buwaihids, know those pleasures for what they really are ... I neither envied the lower nor took delight therein. [507] It is like a leper who, with his limbs all sores . . . able to get about and go where he will. Suppose now two strong men dragged him along by the arms towards a pit of embers, — do you suppose he would struggle and resist ? Yes, Gotama; — because the fire and contact with it would greatly torture and scorch him. Is this something new, or was it all there before? The fire and the contact and the scorching are no different now to what they were. The difference is that, in the former instance the leper, — when his limbs were all sores and rottenness, and when he was being eaten alive by worms and was tearing his open wounds with his nails and was beside himself — actually found in the pain of contact with the fire a change of sensation to what seemed bliss.

Precisely in the same way, M&gandiya, pleasures of sense always have been, always will be, and always are painful in contact, always torturing and scorching. And those who are held by pleasure in passion’s meshes, who are still the prey of pleasure, still afire with the fever of pleasure, still the votaries of pleasure and beside themselves, — all these actually find in the pain of contact with pleasures of sense a change of sensation to what to them seems bliss. It is like a leper who, with his limbs all sores and rottenness, while he is being eaten alive by worms, and while he tears his open wounds with his nails, scorches his frame over a pit of embers. The more that leper does so, the more do his open sores [508] stink with the noisome stench of putrefaction, and he finds but sorry relief and satisfaction from scratching their itching surface. It is just the same with those who, being held by pleasure in passion’s meshes, who, being still the prey of pleasure, still afire with the fever of pleasure, and still the votaries of pleasure, continue on with pleasures of sense ; — the longer they go on, the stronger grows their craving for passion, and the hotter

rages the fever of passion within them, and they find but sorry relief and satisfaction from their indulgences. Have you either seen or heard of a prince or great lord who, being lapped in pleasure, has ever lived — or is now living — or indeed will ever live — with his heart at peace within him, unless he has first discarded all craving for sensuous pleasures, has dispelled the fever they bring, and has lost all appetite for them ? Quite right, Magandiya ; — nor have I. But all recluses and brahmins who have been — or now are — or hereafter will be — triumphant over pleasures of sense, with their hearts at peace within them, — all, all, achieve their triumph through realizing how pleasure originates and how it ends, and what are its satisfac¬ tions, perils and vanity. This was the occasion of the Lord’s solemn utterance : — Chief boon is Health ; Nirvana's bliss stands first ; Of Deathless Paths the Eightfold leads to Peace. Hereupon, Mfigandiya said to the Lord : — It is wonderful, Gotama, it is marvellous how truly you say that — [509] Chief boon is Health ; Nirvana's bliss comes first.

I myself have also heard it said by the Wanderers of old, teachers themselves and the teachers of teachers, that — Chief boon is Health ; Nirvana's bliss stands first. There is complete accord here, Gotama. An this line which you have heard from the Wan¬ derers of old, Magandiya, what is Health ? and what is Nirvana? Here the Wanderer stroked his own limbs and said : — This is Health, Gotama ; this is Nirvana. For, at the present time I am in health and well-being, without any ailments at all. It is just like a man blind from birth, Magandiya, who which Mahmud had crushed in Isfahan and Ray, was finally annihilated in Baghdad and the Commander of the Faithful, relieved from the vexations to which he had been exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian dynasty, bestowed on Tughril the titles of ‘Sultanud Doulah’ and 'Yamini Amirul Moininin.’ A Seljuq general, I-tsiz, over-ran Syria and even reached the Nile, while the Byzantine Empire felt the vigour of the Turkish troops across a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauras to Erzrum. The contest was, hpwever, undecided when Tughril died at the age of seventy-two.

Malik Shah’s two sous, Barkiyaruk (10921104) and Mohammad (1104-1117), were succeeded by their brother, Sanjar (1117-1157), ‘a great, dignified and mighty monarch,’ under whom affairs again came back to ‘the highway of legality and the beaten track of equity and justice,' from which they had been unhappily deflected during the reigns of his predecessors. Irak, Khurasan and Mawarauu Nahr increased in population and prosperity ; the empire was more extensive than it had been ever before. Nevertheless Sanjar 's long reign was a period of disintegration and decay. Provincial gover¬ nors (atahaks) began to aspire for independence ; a new race of Turkomans poured across the Jaxartcs ; and by slow degrees the foundations of the Empire were sapped. Sanjar struggled valiantly against the rising deluge and won seventeen out of the nineteen great battles he is said to have fought. But he did not know how to take advantage of his successes, and his (40) The Siyasat Santa It is sometimes supposed to be a treatise on political science, bnt it is really a book on political trickery and a violent pamphlet against the ‘heretics.’ Its historical value is very great. cannot see dark and light things, or blue or yellow or red or pink things ; who cannot see level or rough ground, the stars, or the sun and moon. Suppose, on hearing a man with sight say that a goodly white robe without blemish was a fine thing to possess, this blind man were to sally forth to get one for himself, only to be fobbed off with greasy, grimy, trashy stuff which was vouched for as all right.

Suppose now he took it, put it on, and expressed his delight by saying that a goodly white robe without blemish was a fine thing to possess. Do you suppose that, if the man blind from birth had had knowledge and vision, he would have taken that greasy, grimy, trashy stuff and have been so pleased with it ? Or did he take it on trust from the man who could see ?

Only from lack of knowledge and vision, and out of trust in him who could see, would the blind man have been deluded like that. [510] Just in the same way non-conformist Wan¬ derers, being blind and without eyes, lacking know¬ ledge of Health and Vision of Nirvana, yet utter the verse — Chief boon is Health ; Nirvana's bliss stands first. It was the Arahats all-enlightened of old who uttered the verses — Chief boon is Health ; Nirvana's bliss stands first ; Of Deathless Paths the Eightfold leads to Peace. By degrees it has now filtered down to the everyday man. Though this body, Magandiya, is a disease, a pustulence, a pang, an anguish, an ailment, you say that here is Health and Nirvana. For, you have not that Noble Eye wherewith to know Health and to have vision of Nirvana. I believe the reverend Gotama can teach me how to know Health and have vision of Nirvana. It is just like a man blind from birth, Magandiya, unable to see dark and light things ... or the sun and moon, to whom his friends and kinsfolk bring a defeats were, consequently, more important than lib victories. In 1141 a member of KaraKhata-i tribes, who had migrated into Mawaraun Nahr, rebelled against the Empire. Sanjar was defeated near Samarkand and the whole of Mawaraun Nahr passed into infidel hands. Another body of emigrants, the Gliazz Turks, defeated and captured the Sultan in 1153 and carried him about as a captive in their camp for three years. When the Sultan at last escaped to his capital, the empire had ceased to exist. Khorasnn had been devastated by the Ghazz ; the atabaks had thrown off their allegiance to the central power; and the last of

Rut there is one matter in which the East is East and the West is West. There is one point on which the pair have for all time agreed to disagree. And it is in respect of the covering for the head. In the West the headgear is only an item of a man's attire, in the East it is its crest and crown. “The changeless East” has changed in many aspects, even in the matter of its dress, but it has not changed in the matter of its head-dress. A Raja or a Maharaja may cast off his jewelled court-dress to don the simple khaki tunic of a British General, but he would never cast off his turban to wear the forage-cap or the regulation helmet. An Iudian political gentleman may appear in the Council-Chamber decked out in frock-coat and striped trousers, but his head will with rare exception be crowned by his own national headgear. This contrast between the East and the West is never more sharply brought out than in the way the headgear is treated at ceremonial functions. On such occasions the Westerner reverently takes off hb hat, while the Eastern religiously keeps it on. Thb is because with the Eastern the headgear is a living thing — almost a part of him. To treat it slightingly would be tantamount to treating its owner slightingly. One may, so to say, knock sparks off a typical Oriental without much fear of rousing his temper or ruffling hb placidity. But let his headgear be jestingly knocked off or even accidentally dis¬ placed and on the instant the long slumbering embers of his wrath would flare up and one should count oneself distinctly lucky, if one emerged from tlb contretemps safely without

M. i. 511. OF KEEPING WATCH AND WARD. 361 leech who makes him up a medicine whereby he fails to give him eyes or to clarify them. Do you not suppose the leech will have taken a lot of toil and trouble over it ? Just in the same way, Magandiya, I might teach you what Health and Nirvana are, but you would not either know Health or have vision of Nirvana; — but I should have trouble and travail. [511] I believe the reverend Gotama can teach me how to know Health and have vision of Nirvana. It is just like a man blind from birth, Magandiya, unable to see anything, who hears a man with sight say that a goodly white robe without blemish . . . vouched for as all right. Suppose now that he takes it and puts it on ; and suppose further that his friends and kinsfolk bring him a leech, who makes him up a medicament for application above and beneath, and solvents, and cooling ointments, and nasal injections, so that he gives the blind man his eyes and clarifies them, — with the consequence that he quite loses his passion for that grimy, greasy, trash and regards the fellow who sold it him as no friend but as an enemy who ought to be put to death for having cheated, tricked and deluded him by saying that greasy, grimy trash was a goodly white robe without blemish.

Just in the same way, Miigandiya, if I were to teach you what Health is and what Nirvana is, and if you came to knowledge and vision of them, then, so soon as you got eyes to see with, you would quite discard your passion for what breeds the five-fold maintenance of existence, and your thought would then be : — Long have I been cheated, tricked and deluded by this heart of mine ; for, I was for ever engaged in encouraging things material, feelings, perceptions, plastic forces, and consciousness, so that this encouragement led to existence, which led to birth, which led to decay and death with sorrow and lamentation, Ill and tribulation. — [512] Thus originates all that makes up the sum of Ill. attracting a large crowd or being run in for “assault and battery.” This strange reverence for his headgear and the extraordinary caution the Oriental displays fpr its safety find a queer echo in India in the invocation the mendicants send up in the streets, — an invocation which provides that work-free class with a never-failing man tram of at once tickling the ingrained vanity of the passer-by and of preying upon his superstitious fears. To the beggar who first originated the phrase — gaddi-topi-salamat ,* — the mendicant brotherhood of Western India owe a statue of gold because of this magic phrase of his invention, thousands of his confreres all over the Presidency owe their bread and — their wealth.

It is not so much for the honorific use that it is put to as for its representative character that the headgear of an Eastern is remarkable. Each particular headgear represents some particular caste, class or creed — or more truly its division and sub-divison. But there is one exception to this fixed rule. This exception represents neither caste, nor class, nor creed, but stands, on the contrary, for the sinking of all caste prejudices, class divisions, and credal differences into the great melting-pot of Indian unity and International solidarity. And that exception is the Gandhi Cap. In this commendable effort to do away with all manner of differences and divisons among a great mass of humanity, it is immensely and immediately helped by the fact that it is made of a material that is atoncc plain and appealing and capable of being produced anywhere and of being worn by anyone and is designed after a headgear that is pre-eminently chaste in form and unquestionably the most ancient in existence. In perhaps the oldest rock-sculpture of the world, namely the Persian bas-reliefs of Bchistan, the cap which the winged figure above that of Darius wears is the original inspirer and unconscious designer of the Gandhi Cap. Thus taking after the most ancient cover¬ ing for the head known to men, its shape and form have of long sunk deep in the heart of humanity and, in the case of India, promise to outlive those of the oldest headgear at present in existence there. Add to these basic advantages ot age and design, the simplicity and inexpensiveness of the material of which it is made, and it would not be difficult to account for its wide

•Mny your throne (the source of voor power) and yonr cap (the insignia of vour honour) be kept safe for you. I>opularity among the great surging masses and numerous cultured classes of modern India. But amid all its many advantages and present popularity there is one drawback, and it is a serious drawback, in as much as it touches a vital point in human psychology. Of all the gifts of God to man, there is none so worthy of his wonder and gratitude as the gift of colour. Imagine what the world and our own existence would be if the element of colour were wiped out of them ! If, for instance, the blue were taken from the sky and the gold from the sunshine, the green from the leaves and the crimson from the blood ! How cold and ghastly would the world and we look in such a horrible contingency? If we could but envisage for an instant leprous white creatures living in a chalky white world under a snow white sky flooded with an incjandcscent white sunshine, we would soon realise what we owe to this greatest of God's gifts to the sight of man. And yet the Gandhi Cap deliberately turns its back on it and stands in fact in open opposition, — challenging, as it were, its utility and its necessity. But for a design or a project, formed in the brain of man, to challenge the utility or question the necessity of another planned in the laboratory of nature, is to sow the seed of its own undoing and hasten the day of its own extinction. That is the great danger ahead of the Gandhi Cap.

In its perfervid passion for simplicity and chasteness, it thwarts one of the elemental crav¬ ings of human nature and drives those fine virtues themselves to the borderline of affecta¬ tion and insipidity. Let, threforc, a few streaks of colour be added to the Cap to liven up its Otherwise dead white dulness and satisfy the irrepressible thirst of human kind for colour. And what streaks of colour could set it off so well as red and blue arranged after a certain well-known design and blended appropriately with a cross of its own pure white. These colours of St. George and St. Andrew with the white cross of St. Patrick liave on the whole served the native land of Gandhi Cap and its people well and faithfully for well-nigh two centuries and might justly be expected to serve them equally well and faithfully for a long time to come. A small diamond-shaped badge of those colours sewn on one Side of the Cap won’t affect its inherent integrity nor mar its evident simplicity, but help, on the contrary, to sef off I believe the reverend Gotama can teach me how I shall be blind no more when I rise from this seat.

Then, Magandiya, consort with the good. Con¬ sorting with the good, you will hear sound doctrine, and so will walk in accordance with the Doctrine, and thereby will come — of and by yourself — to know and to see that these things are diseases, pustulences and pangs ; that here they are stilled for ever ; that to still the stuff that makes them leads on for you to the stilling of continued existence, which in turn leads on to the stilling of birth and so of decay with sorrow and lamentation, Ill and tribulation. — Thus ends all that makes up the sum of Ill. Hereupon, the Wanderer Magandiya said to the Lord: — Marvellous, Gotama; quite marvellous. Just as a man might set upright again . . . (etc., as in Sutta No. 73) . . . [513] was admitted and confirmed of the Lord’s following. Nor was it long before the reverend Magandiya, dwelling alone and aloof, . . . (etc, as in Sutta No. 73) . . . was numbered among the Arahats.

Thus have I heard. Once while the Lord was staying at KosambI in the Ghosita pleasaunce, the Wanderer Sandaka was living at Pilakkha-guha with a great company of Wanderers, some five hundred in number. Rising from his meditations towards evening, the reverend Ananda proposed to the Alms¬ men to go to Deva-Ka^a Pool to visit the cavern. They agreeing, Ananda took a number of them there with him. At the time, Sandaka was sitting with his great company of Wanderers, who were making a great noise with their voices raised and loud in all manner of low and beastly talk, — about princes, bandits, great lords’ armies, terrors, battles, meats and drinks, clothes, beds, garlands, perfumes, relations, villages, those virtues and make the Cap acceptable to millions more who find it impossible to take to it in its present dull dead plainness. That little coloured diamond will besides save Gandhi Cap from degenerating, as it is fast doing, into a purely sectional rag and convert it into a truly national emblem which will for once mark the falsehood of Kipling’s short-sighted saying and prove for ever the truth of Tennyson’s largervisioned hope that “East and West , like life and death, can mix their dim lights to broaden into boundless day.”

townships, cities, countries, women, warriors, roads, wells, kinsfolk departed, and all the rest of it, with chatter about world and ocean, and [514] about being and not-being. When from some way off Sandaka saw Ananda coming, he hushed his company by saying: — Be quiet, sirs ; do not make a noise ; here comes the recluse Ananda, the disciple of the recluse Gotama. All the time disciples of Gotama have been staying at the Kosambi, Ananda has been one of them. These recluses are lovers of quiet, are trained to quiet, and commend the quiet ; if he observes quiet reigning in this gathering, he may decide to approach. So they became quiet, and Ananda came up. Said Sandaka : — I beg the reverend Ananda to join us ; he is truly welcome; it is a long time since last he managed to get here. Pray be seated ; here is a seat for your reverence. Ananda sat down accordingly, asking Sandaka, who took a low seat to one side, what had been their theme and what was the discussion which had been inter¬ rupted. Let that pass for the moment, answered Sandaka ; you can easily gather that later on. What I should like, would be if you would think of some discourse on your own teacher’s tenets.

Well then, Sandaka, listen and pay attention, and I will speak. Certainly, answered Sandaka; and Ananda began : — The Lord who knows and sees, the Arahat allenlightened, has specified four antitheses to the higher life, and four comfortless vocations, wherein a man of intelligence will assuredly not follow the higher life, or, if he does follow it there, will not advance to knowledge, the Doctrine, and what is right. What are the four antitheses, Ananda ? [515] First,1 there is the teacher who affirms and holds that there is no such thing as alms, or sacrifice, or oblations ; no such things as the fruit and harvest of 1 Cl. Saleyyaka-sutta (No. 4) for these heresies. Many, but not nearly enough, of the inspiring details of Macdonald’s upward struggle are told in this interesting book. The Man of To¬ morrow. Several generations of his family had been blacksmiths at Lossiemouth. He attended the village school, and attracted the attention of his master, the “dominie”, at whose invitation he put in an hour’s extra work under him every morning before the arrival of the other pupils. He was still a boy when he left school, and was about to become a fisherman from sheer necessity, when his old dominie interfered and secured him as a pupil teacher. Besides reading all the books in Lossiemouth, he developed a passion for science, and, says, “Iconoclast”, (the author of The Man of To-morrow), “through the numbers of Cassell’s ‘Popular Educator’ and ‘Science for All’ — which he was afterwards to describe as his university — he came into touch with the revolutionary discoveries which gave to the second half of the 19th century its determin¬ ing character, and to his mind its scientific bent.”

Apropos of his old dominie, Mr. Macdonald has written : "The simple kindness of the teacher is perhaps the most precious gift he can give his scholars.” And “one of the dominie’s generalisa¬ tions was : ‘You must master; that is education ; when you have mastered one thing you are well on the way to master all things’.” At this time Hugh Miller's “Schools and School-masters” was among the first books that Macdonald bought with his limited pocket money, and a Lossiemouth watchmaker lent him Scott, Dickens, and Samuel Smiles’ “Life of a Scottish Naturalist”. Arduous years were to pass before he could buy hooks with any freedom. He came to London like a new Dick Whittington, and after weeks of unemployment, found some work addressing envelopes. Then he became an invoice clerk at 12/6 a week ; but the Guildhall Library was near by for reading during lunch hour. Evening classes in the London Council schools were attended and correspondence lessons were taken, and, having passed his science ex¬ aminations at South Kensington, he was about to sit for a scholarship when his overstrained strength gave way. This was why, instead of becoming a scientist, he became in 1888 Private Secretary to Mr. Thomas Lough, a Gladstonian candidate and subsequently member of Parlia¬ ment. Thus Mr. Macdonald set out definitely upon the path of a political and journalistic career. But he found a rich consolation for one

frustrated ambition, for he married Margaret Ethel Gladstone, a daughter of Dr. Gladstone, (distinguished chemist) and niece of Lord Kelvin. That was in 1896. He worked for several famous newspapers, and contributed to the “National Dictionary of Biography” about this time. His first book, “What I Saw in South Africa”, was published in 1902 as the result of a personal visit to that country. Needless to say, it caused an uproar in political circles. Mr. Macdonald has indeed travelled much, and I expect there is no need to remind readers that few British politicians know so much as he about Indian problems. In his writings he has constantly shown the instinct of the born word-smith, and most of his experi¬ ences have become material for his quickly moving pen. He cannot write a book on Social¬ ism without touching beauty and raising issues much deeper than party politics, for lie has an imagination, this fine and typical Scot. If he visits Palestine and writes a tract on the problem of Zionism for the Labour Publishing Company, he cannot help letting his words glow in describ¬ ing the exotic beauties of sea and land. He may go to Constantinople to study a political situation , but beauty arrests him. He will stop suddenly opposite St. Sofia, for instance : —

“When you venture to look at its wonders of marble, precious stones and colour, you sec, like a hovering shadow through the wash and the inscriptions put on by hands doing homage to Allah and Mohammed, the benignant face and symbols of Christ put there first of all by hands doing homage to God and His son. This is indeed St. Sofia. It is a temple of the universal worship, neither church nor mosque, but some¬ thing embracing both, and more spiritual than both. In Palestine, one has to escape from church and shrine and get out upon the hills of Judea, the road to Jericho, the waysides of Samaria, to feel the presence. It dwells in St. Sofia.” It is not generally known that in past years Mr. Macdonald’s pen has strayed from economics and political history into fiction, and many of his short stories have appeared, signed "James Ramsay”. But perhaps his finest piece of literary work — one of the best examples of bio¬ graphy in English — is "Margaret Ethel Mac¬ donald”, a book that might be described as the fruit of love and sorrow, for it is his monument to the wife who was everything to him, and who died in 1911 and left him with five children and

deeds good or bad ; no such thing as this world or the next ; no such thing as parents, or beings translated to another sphere ; no such thing in this world as a recluse or brahmin who has triumphantly walked aright, so that, of and by himself, he has comprehended this world and the next and makes them known to others. A man — he avers — is composed of the four Elements. At his death the earth resumes and absorbs his earthy elements, water his watery elements, fire his fiery elements, and space his faculties. A bier and four bearers go off with the dead man, whose remains are visible as far as the charnel-ground where his bones whiten and bleach. Oblations arc words and nothing more ; alms-giving is nonsense ; — it is a sham and a lie and idle chatter to assert the contrary. At the body’s dissolution sages and fools alike are cut off and perish, without any future after death. In a hearer of intelligence, this pronouncement awakens the following reflections : — If all this teacher says is true, then, without my doing a stroke, my task is done, and I have lived the higher life without essaying it at all. The pair of us are on precisely the same level of recluse-ship, — though for my part I do not aver that at the body’s dissolution we shall both be cut off and perish, with no future after death.

It is all superero¬ gation for this reverend teacher to go naked, to shave his head, to hop about a-squat, and to pluck out his hair and beard by the roots ; while I, — living with a host of sons around me, revelling in sanaal from Kasi, decked out with garlands and scents and per¬ fumes, not refusing gold and silver — shall yet fare hereafter no whit worse than he. What do I see or know in this teacher that I should follow the higher life under him ? — And, when it is recognized that this is an antithesis to the higher life, off goes the man in disgust.

Such is the first antithesis to the higher life, as specified by the Lord. [516] Secondly, there is the teacher who affirms and holds that no evil is done by him who either acts him¬ self or causes another to act, who mutilates or causes harder political efforts in front of him than even Ins past could boast. In "Margaret Ethel Macdonald” the author’s severely scientific mind is unusually moved by emotion, and if his natural reticence and impersonality is scarcely weakened, even here, the imaginative fervour breaks out in eloquent recollections of past schemes. The countrysides of England and Scotland share his grateful memories with the noble woman who knew and loved them. Yes, Mr. Macdonald counts as a prose writer ; he will inevitably find his way into any compre¬ hensive history of English prose in the future. His style is always simple and well charged with matter; concise but clear; forceful but never ornate. His compeers, or let us say his close relatives, in style are Defoe, Addison and Cobbctt. "Iconoclast”, the author of this first book on Mr. Macdonald (if a French pamphlet written before the war be excepted) is Mrs. Mary Agnes Hamilton, the well-known novelist and historian, who stood unsuccessfully at the last general election in England as Labour candidate for Chatham. I think a fair comment on Mr. Mac¬ donald's strenuous career is afforded by Goethe’s remark :

"He who does nothing for others docs nothing tor himself.” Is Science Divine or Diabolical? This question occurs to me by reason of the appearance of several interesting books. To begin with there is the translation of reflections on religion by Sadhu Sundar Singh, published under the title Reality and Religion : Medita¬ tions on God, Man, and Nature (Macmillan 2/6) to which Canon Streeter writes an informa¬ tive introduction about this attractive religious teacher. The Sadhu, as might be expected, approaches the central problems of existence by a direct route which very largely ignores the activities of science, upon which the West has set so much store since the Middle Ages. His golden keys arc Faith and Intuition, terms capable of varying interpretation and not necessarily excluding the spade-work of science. Sundar Singh himself is by no means disposed to ignore the usefulness of an efficient mind, though his road towards it may be more difficult for some people than it is for the spiritual teacher. "The brain”, he says, "is a very subtle and sensitive instrument furnished with many fine senses which, in meditation, receive messages from the unseen world and stimulate ideas far above normal human thought. The brain docs not produce these ideas, but receives them from the spiritual, invisible world above and interprets them in terms of the conditions and circumstances familiar to men.”

No educated person today would confuse it with religion, art, or philosophy. So clearly is the autonomous character of science now realised that it is becoming quite difficult for bellicose enthusiasts in one department to work up an antagonism such as existed in Victorian England between science and religion. The scientist, not less than the ecclesiastics and the philosophers and the artists, have passed through periods of over¬ weening self-conceit, during which they believed that their own message held all that was good and true and reliable. But when we brush aside these disputes and secondary purposes which

another to mutilate, who punishes or causes another to punish, who is the author of grief or torment or terror, or causes another to terrify, who takes life, steals, is a burglar, robber, house-breaker, footpad, adulterer or liar. If with a cleaver as sharp as a razor he were to slay earth’s living creatures and pile up their corpses in a single heap and mound of flesh, no guilt proceeds and no result of guilt ensues. If he were to make his way up to the southern bank of the Ganges killing and wounding, maiming and causing to be maimed, punishing and causing to be punished, — no guilt pro¬ ceeds nor any result of guilt ensue. If he were to make his way up to the northern bank of the Ganges distributing alms and causing alms to be distributed, offering sacrifices and causing sacrifices to be offered, — no virtue proceeds and no result of virtue ensues. No merit proceeds nor does any result of virtue ensue from alms-givingor temperance or self-control ortruthfulness. In a hearer of intelligence, this pronouncement awakens the following reflections : — If all this teacher says is true, then, without my doing a stroke, my task is done, and I have lived the higher life without essay¬ ing it at all. The pair of us are on precisely the same level of recluse-ship, — though for my part I do not aver that the actions of the two of us work no evil. It is all supererogation ... off goes the man in disgust.

Such is the second antithesis to the higher life, as specified by the Lord. Thirdly, there is the teacher who affirms and holds that there is no cause or reason for either depravity or purity ; — it is without either cause or reason that some are depraved and some pure. There is no such thing as intrinsic strength or energy or human [517] might or human endeavour. All creatures, all living things, all beings, all that has life, — all are devoid of power, strength and energy ; all are under the compulsion of the individual nature to which they are linked by destiny ; and it is solely by virtue of what they are born as in the six environments that they experience their pleasure or pain. litter the roads of liutnau progress, \vc discover at least one unique and uncontrovertible characteristic of science. It gives to man power over material ; it subdues natural forces to human intelligence. In doing so it transforms the face of society. Science is responsible for nearly all the social changes in Europe since the MiddleAges, beginning with the substitution of gun¬ powder for knightly armour and ending with the introduction of machinery.

It is true that the most obvious changes wrought in the Western world by science during the Christian era have been purely physical, and it is an important fact that the unifying effect on society of a European religion was necessary to that development. Scientists often speak as if civlisation had only one parent ; but if science is the father of civilisation, religion is the mother without which the fructifying germs of know¬ ledge could never have found the shelter of a stable society in which to develop. Now the Sir William Dunn Reader in BioChemistry at Cambridge, Mr. J. B. S. Haldane, is a brilliant young scientist with the gift of inspiring vision which is the fruit of a wide educa¬ tion and a fine imagination. And yet he too is so excited by the progress of science that he clean forgets the predestinate mate without whom its virility can lead to no permanent creation. He read an inspiring paper to the Cambridge "Heretics” which is now* revised and printed under the title Daedalus, or .Science and t)ie Future (Kegan Paul, 2/6). Mr. Haldane sets out to anticipate the conquests of science during this century. Among the imminent gifts of science, he says, are un¬ limited electric power and chemically produced foodstuffs that "will substitute the flower-garden and the factory for the dunghill and the slaughter¬ house and make the city at last self-sufficient,” besides increasing our energy and efficiency.

Biological invention which "tends to begin as a perversion and end as a ritual supported by unquestioned beliefs and prejudices” (in other words, to be preserved by religion when it is proved beneficial) will give us shock after shock of the kind that Darwin gave to Victorian society. Quoting from a mythical essay "on the influence of Biology on History, during the 20th century, which will (it is hoped) be read by a rather stupid undergraduate member of this university to his supervisor during his first term 150 years hence”. Mr. Haldane tells us that the eugenic movement will have failed, both by its own limitations and the violence of the opposition to human stud¬ farming. But following up Morgan's location of Meudelian factors in the nucleus of Drosophila in 1912, by which he modified its sex-ratio and Brachhet’s experiment of 1913, by which he grew rabbit embryos in serum, biology progressed until in 1951 : “Dupont and Schwarts produced the first ectogenetic child. As early as 1901 he transferred embryo rabbits from one female to another ; in 1925 Haldane had grown embryonic rats in serum for ten days, but had failed to carry the process to its conclusion, and it was not till 1940 that Clark succeeded with the pig.”

When the news of the first incubated child was published, it caused, says Mr. Haldane’s mythical student (and we may well believe it) an “unprecedented sensation", for the birth-rate was in most civilised countries less than the deathrate. “France was the first country to adopt cctogenesis officially, and by 196S was producing 60,000 children annually by this method.” “In most countries”, Mr. Haldane continues with a touch of characteristic humour, “the opposition was far stronger, and was intensified by the Papal bull ‘nunquam prius audito’ and the similar fetwa of the Klialif, both of which appeared in i960." It appears that 150 years hence cctogenesis will be universal. Mr. Haldane has, however, grave doubts as to the balance of benefit result¬ ing from the separation of sexual love and re¬ production, but the “effects of selection will prove a great compensation in eradicating disease and degeneracy.” All his startling forecasts, Mr. Haldane declares, are no less moderate than Mr. H. G. Wells’s prophecies in “Anticipations”, and these have of course been proved by less than a quarter of a century’s progress to be well within the bounds of truth. Mr. Haldane seems to have little fear that science can be other than a mighty benefactor to mankind. And yet in conclusion he admits that the use we shall make of scientific conquests "is essentially a question for religion and aesthetic.” This is the only reference he makes to religion that is not contemptuous or inimical. But what a tremendous admission ! A less optimistic out¬ look might well discover grave dangers in the advance of science. Science itself is existing and flourishing on the moral capital of mankind and that does not seem to increase in proportion

In a hearer of intelligence, this pronouncement awakens the following reflections : — If all this teacher says is true, then, without my doing a stroke, my task is done, and I have lived the higher life without essaying it at all. The pair of us are on precisely the same level of recluse-ship, — though for my part I do not aver that both of us will become pure without cause or reason. It is all supererogation ... off goes the man in disgust. Such is the third antithesis to the higher life, as specified by the Lord. Lastly, there is the teacher who affirms and holds that, — There are seven substances which are neither made nor commanded to be made, neither created nor commanded to be created, engendering nothing, im¬ movable as mountain-peaks or massive columns ; they neither budge nor change; they neither molest one another nor can they impart to one another either pleasure or pain or both. These seven substances are earth, water, fire, air, pleasure, pain, and life. With them there is neither killer nor slayer, neither teller nor told, neither teacher nor taught. No one1 who with a keen blade chops a head in twain, thereby robs anyone of life ; all that happens is that in its descent the blade has opened up a passage between just these seven substances. Of principal forms of life there are fourteen hundred thousand, with another three score hundreds, and a further six hundred to boot ; actions (kammuno) are five hundred in number ; there are five acts and another three acts ; and there are activities and half activities ;a there are three score and two paths to tread ; three score and two aeons of time ; six environments ;8 eight Ages of Man ;4 nine and forty

1 There are traces of archaic dialect throughout this con¬ temptuous synopsis, with its sneer at kamma (in three declen¬ sions, tentatively indicated by actions, acts, and activities). s Some (says Bu.) assigned one kamma to each of the five senses. He indicates that the three acts represent the triad of deed, word, and thought, though some ranked thought as only half a K a m m o. 3 See hereon note at p. 293 supra. 4 See note 2 at Dial. I, 72. to man’s growing control over natural forces. So we have in reply to “Daedalus” another little book, Icarus, or the Tuture of Science by that fine thinker Mr. Bertrand Russell (Kcgan Paul 2/6). Mr. Russell’s book is much more startling than Mr. Haldane’s. Not less a scientist and a severer logician, Mr. Russell set out the elements of the case for the destruction and salvation of society in the near future. His ultimate conclusion is that world domination by one power can alone save civilisation. Mr. Russell’s case is that while science has increased man’s control over nature, men are “bundles of passions and instincts”, and: "an animal species in a stable environment if it does not die out acquires an equilibrium between its passions and the conditions of its life. If the conditions are suddenly altered the equilibrium is upset. Wolves in a state of nature have difficulty in getting foot! and therefore need the stimulus of a very insistent hunger. The result is that their descendents, domestic dogs overeat if they are allowed to do so... The human instincts of power and rivalry, like the dog’s wolfish appetite, will need to be artificially curbed if industrialism is to succeed.”

increased, but he reminds us that scientific possi¬ bilities may fcc controlled by people who have only average intelligence and ethical standards, and if Bishops and Prime Ministers were considered models for the next g.-ncration the ultimate effects of an idealistic movement like that of eugenics might be rather depressing. His most startling anticipation however is the scienti¬ fic possibility of controlling emotional life through the secretions of ductless glands. “It will be possible to make people choleric, or timid, strongly or weekly sexed, and so on, as may be desired.” When physiology has found out how to control emotion, a power of human regenera¬ tion or degeneration will be in the hands of science surpassing all the dreams of all the Popes and all the Emperors! But the prospect is no less alarming than it is inspiring. “Science is no substitute for virtue”, as Mr. Russell warns us. Only kind¬ ness of heart can save humanity from destruction by the scientific Frankenstein it has made. “The heart is as necessary to a good life as the head.’* The answer to our question is therefore that science is just as divine and just as diabolical as human nature. I think we may retain our faith in the divinity when the analogical progress of religion from beastliness and cruelty is consider¬ ed. Mr. II. G. Wells better than any other contemporary has pictured the alternatives of the future in “The Time Machine” I pessimistic) and “Men Like Gods” (optimistic)

Mr. H. G. Wells and Mr. Shaw- Speaking of Mr. II. G. Wells reminds me that in the period under review we have had from him a successor to “Men Like Gods” in The Dream (Jonathan Cape 7/6), a book characteristic of his two literary egos, the social prophet and the almost Dickensian lover of human beings Mr. Wells remains very popular. He is now a friendly and familiar portion of our twentieth century*. In the days of “The Time Machine” and “Anticipations” he appeared to be a romantic scientist. “Kipps” and “Tono-Bungay” showed him in the warm human light that has never since left him, not even in “God the Invisible King”, that amazing sequel to “Mr. Britling Sees it Through” and anticipation of “The Undying Fire.” Sometimes, as in “The Secret Places of the Heart”, Mr. Wells’s profuse strains of egotism were rather too human. But with “Men Like Gods" he made a magnificent gesture, hundreds of livelihoods (ijiva), and as many classes of Wanderers (paribbaja) [518] and of abodes of Nagas ; a score of hundreds of faculties (indriya), ‘thrutty’ hundreds of purgatories ; six and thirty homes of filth ; seven types of a conscious foetus,1 seven of an uncon¬ scious foetus,2 and seven propagations by striking slips;8 seven kinds of gods, of men, and of goblins; seven Great Lakes ; seven Sages ;4 seven major Pre¬ cipices, and seven hundred other Precipices ; seven major dreams and seven hundred other dreams;

eighty-four hundreds of thousands of aeons through which, birth by birth, wise and simple alike must pass in transmigration before they make an end of Ill. Herein, there is no chance, whether by virtue or observances or austerities or the higher life, of ripening unripe karma or of getting rid of ripened karma by continually interfering with it. Pleasure and pain are meted out in full measure ; there is nothing over, no more or less, when transmigration ends. Just as a ball of twine, when hurled from you, continues on its course as long as there is string to unwind, even so will wise and simple make an end of Ill only when they have dreed their weird of transmigrations.

In a hearer of intelligence, this pronouncement awakens the following reflections: — If all this teacher says is true, then, without my doing a stroke, my task is done and I have lived the higher life without essay¬ ing it at all. The pair of us are on precisely the same level of recluse-ship, — though for my part I do not aver that the pair of us have only to transmigrate in order to end Ill. 1 1 is all supererogation . . . off goes the man in disgust. Such is the fourth antithesis to the higher life, as ■specified by the Lord who knows and sees, the Arahat all-enlightened. 1 E.g. cattle (Bu.l. ’ 1 E.g. cereals (Bu.). 3 E.g. canes (Bu.). * On pavuta Dbammarama’s Colombo edition of the Com¬ mentary adds the note: — Pamuti ti paliyam pabuta ti pandita B. PavutS ti niganthi ka Ai. M.3, Waving off his nigh 60 years, and striding back to scientific imagination of his youthful days, but carrying with him the mellow humanity of Mr. Britling. His latest book, The Dream shows that the warm humanity of this mucky, stupid world will persist in entering Mr. Wells’s clean and spacious future, for The Dream is a story of human lives of today dreamed by Sarnac, a Utopian, 2,000 years hence. The first chapter immerses the reader in that splendid world where men answer to Mr. Wells’s conception of gods. The last chapter is an illuminating and Wellsian "epilogue”, in which the Utopians discuss the dream that Sarnac has told them of his previous life.

“It was a life”, Sarnac said, "and it was a dream, a dream within this life; and this life, too, is a dream. Dreams within dreams, dreams containing dreams, until we come at last, may be, to the Dreamer of all dreams, the Being who is all beings. Nothing is too wonderful for life, and nothing is too beautiful.” If this is not a case of West meeting East, then I have never come across one. I hope Mr. Wells will tell us more stories of the marvellous world of the future which has become a constant and inspiring vision to him. I have no hesitation in hoping for more books from him, although the list of his works given on a fly leaf of The Dream credits him with 18 novels, 13 fantastic and imaginative romances, four volumes of short stories, 1 2 books on social, religious and political questions, and two books about children’s games. And following the enumeration of titles : — “All these are in print and on sale, whatever a lazy bookseller may say to the contrary.” Truly an astonishing record. Mr. Wells’s life indeed has been as romantic as Mr. Ramsay Macdonald’s. His father, Joseph Wells, was a tradesman in the Kentish town of Bromley and had been a professional cricketecr who was a member of the first British cricket team to go to Australia. That was in 1861. Joseph Wells had, I believe, already retired from professional cricket when Herbert George made his momentous appearance in 1S66. It is well-known now that much of his early struggle is reflected in "Kipps”, but I have discovered an excellent testi¬ mony to the autobiographical truth of that book in an introduction which Mr. Wells wrote in 1912 to "Shop Slavery and Emancipation”, a political pamphlet by William Paine.

“When I was 15 I ran away one Sunday morning to my mother, and told her I would rather die than go on being a draper” he wrote. Referring to the author’s descriptions of actual conditions, Mr. Wells declares that he "paints the dismal miseries of the living-in shop assistant none too dismally ; to that I can bear witness. For a wretched couple of years in my boyhood I slept in one of the abominable dormitories he describes, ate the insufficient food supplied, and drudged in the shop.” He had to tramp 17 miles to his mother, and “felt then most desperately wicked, and now I know that it was the best thing I ever did in my life. All the brotherhood of man fled with me that morning out of the house of mean bondage to life and opportunity. But such a lot of us before it is too late will not ‘rather die’, and there you have the secret of all the tale of pitiful degradation that Mr. Paine recounts so bitterly...” The film version of "Kipps” is, I hope, familiar to many of my reader, for Mr. Wells himself supervised the making of it. Not the least attractive feature of the non-Utopian story in The Dream is the truthful fun and the keen satire directed against social evils of today. Mr. Wells makes them look the stupid things they are by placing them in the narration of the strong, healthy, free Utopian.