His body was burnt with great reverence by the local rajas of Malwa, and his charred bones were distributed over the whole country, and in after times gave rise to the stupas, topes, or •relic mounds which have been discovered in so many parts of India, from the valley of the Kabul river to the banks of the Kistna. For gradually the new religion grew mightily. The Sisunaga dynasty, which reigned at Magadha from n.c. 691 to B.C. 325, was followed by the Maurya dynasty, which reigned to n.e. 118. It is the most brilliant and best known of all the dynasties of ancient India. In the anarchy which followed the invasion by Alexander the Great, B.C. 330 (Herat) to 326, the last of the Sisunagas was murdered in revenge by a learned Brahman named Chanakya, through whose intrigues Chandragupta, the Sandracottim of the Greeks, was raised to the throne. His grandson, Asoka, the third king of the Maurya dynasty, established Buddhism as the state reli gion in India, B.C. 250. He was the first to raise stone architecture in India, the art of which was probably derived through the Greek invasion. He engraved his edicts on rocks and on pillars; and the Sanchi tope, and the tope of Bharhut, are probably remains of the 84,000 topes or stnpas ho is said to have erected in honour of Gautama Buddha and his most distinguished first disciples. Only eight of these mounds were shrines of actual relics of Sakya Muni himself, and these are dis tinguished by the name of d hagobas,—being derived from dhatu, a relic, and garbha, the womb,—that is, a relic-shrine.' The legends relate that on his attaining perfect knowledge while resting under the pipal tree near Gaya, he celebrated the event with the stanzas : Through various transmigrations Have I passed, (without discovering) The builder I seek of the abode (of the passions). Painful are repeated births ! 0 house builder ! I have seen (thee).
No house shalt thou again build me; Thy rafters are broken, Thy ridge-pole is shattered: My mind is freed (from outward objects), I have attained the extinction of desires.' According to tradition, a likeness of this great reformer was carved in sandal-wood from the life, and this became the model for such representations as exist. He appears in them as a smiling, smooth faced, feminine-looking person, with long hair parted like a woman's, and formed into a knot at the top of the head. In early Buddhist belief, however, statues were not erected to him. There are none belonging to the eastern caves, nor any found at Buddh Gaya, Bharhut, or Sanchi. There are none executed as early as the Christian era. His statues on the facade at Karli and in the western eaves are insertions of the 4th or 5th centuries, or later.
Before the end of his career, he saw his principles zealously and successfully promulgated by his Brahman disciples, Sariputr'a, Mangalyan a, Auanda, and Kasyapa, as well as by the Vaisya Katyayana, and the Sudra Upali. At his death in B.C. 543, his doctrines had been firmly established, and eager claims were preferred by kings and rulers for relics of their teacher. His ashes were dis tributed amongst eight cities, and the charcoal from the funeral pile was given to a ninth; but the spread of his iefluenee is more clearly shown by the mention of the numerous cities where he lived and preached. Amongst these are. Chamj and Rajagriha on the east, Sravasti and Kausambi on the west. In the short space of forty-five years, this wonderful man succeeded in establish ing his doctrines over the fairest districts of the Ganges, from the neighbourhood of Agra and Cawnpur to the Delta. This success was per haps as much due to the corrupt slate of Brah manism, as to the greater purity and more practical wisdom of his own system. His success was also partly due to the politic admission of women. To most of them the words of Buddha preached comfort in this life, and hope in the next. To the young widow, the neglected wife, and the cast-off mistress, the Buddhist teachers offered an honourable career as nuns. Instead of the daily indignities to which they were subjected by grasping relatives, treacherous husbands, and faithless lords, the most miserable of the sex could now share, although still in a humble way, with the general respect accorded to all who had taken the vows. The Bhikshuni were indebted
to Ananda's intercession with Sakya for their admission into the ranks of the Buddha community, and (Csoma's Analysis of the Dulva, Res. As. Soc. Bengal, xx. p. 90 ; also Fo-kwe-ki, chap. xvi. p. 101), in token of their gratitude, the Pi-khieu-ni, or Bhikshuui, at Mathura, paid their devotions chiefly to the stupa of Anan (Ananda), because he had besought Buddha that be would grant to the liberty of embracing ascetic life. The observances required from the nuns are given in note 23, chap. xvi. of the Fo-kwe-ki. Though thus enrolled, their position was still humble. The female ascetic, even of a hundred years of age, was bound to respect a monk even in the first year of his ordination.
Sakya has become a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, under the name of St. Josaphat.
In Burma, his statues or images appear in Buddhist temples, sometimes seated cross-legged, in the attitude of teaching, sometimes resting on his right side supporting his head on his right hand. He is represented in those of India seated on the Sinhasana, or lion's throne, at first alone, but, under the Mahayana heresy, with other beings near, often with standing figures hold ing fly-flaps; or seated on a throne, the corners of which are upheld by two lions, with his feet on a lotus blossom, and his hands in front of his breast, the little finger of his left hand held between the thumb and forefinger of the right. This is the attitude of teaching, and is known as Dharma Chakra Mudra. Buddha and the Jaina Tirthan karas are also represented squatting with their legs doubled under them, and the hands laid one on the other over the feet, with the palms turned upwards. This is the reflective or meditative attitude, Juana Mudra or Dhyana Mudra. A third attitude is called Vajrasana, also Bhumisparsa Mudra, when the left hand lies on the upturned soles of the feet, and the right, resting over the knee, points to the earth. He is also figured standing with the right band uplifted in the attitude of blessing, or with the alms-bowl of the Bhikshu or mendicant. Also resting on his right side, with his head to the north, the attitude he took at his death. • Sakya Sinha, according to Tibetan books, died near the town of Kusha in Kanarup, beneath the shade of two sal trees on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river, then called Hiranyo. The Pali books of Burma and Ceylon say B.C. 544, General Cunningham has B.C. 478, at the age of 80. In the middle of the 19th century, Professor Kern of Leyden, in a dissertation on Buddha, gives B.C. 388 as the date of his death ; and Professor Weber, in the Literisches Central Blatt of 1874, adopted the view taken by Professor Kern. Mr. Fergusson gives as under the dates of events :— He is known to the various races by various names and titles. He was called Sakya and Sakya Sinha from his clan ; Sauddho-dani, as the son of Suddhodana ; and from his mother Maya-Devi he got the name of Maya-Devi-Suta ; Gautama was from his got or ancestral descent, and hence the Burmese Gaudanaa ; Arka-Bandhu or Kinsman of the Sun, from his descent as a Kshatriya of the Solar line; Bhagawa or Bhagavat, meaning saintly; Sakya Muni, or Sakya the hermit ; he who has gone away ; Sramana, the priest ; Sramana, the great priest. He is the Buddas and the Sarmanes of the Greeks ; the Mercurius Maym filius of the Roman Horace ; Bud or Wud of the pagan Arabs ; Toth of the Egyptians ; Woden of the Scandinavians. His clan name of Sakya be came the Na-Ka of the Chinese and Japanese, and the Shakahout of Tonquin ; and the Chinese, having no b or d in their monosyllabic language, style him Fo, Fo-e, Fo-Hi, and Fo-to ; in Tibet be is Pot or Po-ti; also in Siam, Chom-dan-das, Sangs-gyas, and Sommo•no-Kodam.—Ferg. and Burg. Cave Temples of India, 24, 178.