There were in India at this time (1) two vehicles, Maha-and Hinayana, (2) four speculative schools, Vaibhashikas, etc., (3) four disciplinary schools, Mula-sarvastivadins, etc.  These three classes are obviously not mutually exclusive.  Thus I-Ching approved of (a) the Mahayana, (b) the Madhyamika and Yogacara, which he did not consider inconsistent and (c) the Mula-sarvastivada.]

[Footnote 255:  I-Ching, transl.  Takakusu, p. 186.]

[Footnote 256:  Three Asankhya Kalpas.  I-Ching, Takakusu’s transl. pp. 196-7.  He seems to regard the Mahayana as the better way.  He quotes Nagarjuna’s allusions to Avalokita and Amitayus with apparent approval; he tells us how one of his teachers worshipped Amitayus and strove to prepare himself for Sukhavati and how the Lotus was the favourite scripture of another.  He further tells us that the Madhyamika and the Yoga systems are both perfectly correct.]

[Footnote 257:  Hsuean Chuang speaks of Mahayanists belonging to the Sthavira school.]

[Footnote 258:  Quoted by Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, pp. 196 ff.]

[Footnote 259:  Chaps.  XXXVIII and XXXIX.  He seems to say that it is right for the laity to make an offering of their bodies by burning but not for Bhikshus.  The practice is recognized and commended in the Lotus, chap.  XXII, which however is a later addition to the original work.]

[Footnote 260:  I-Ching, transl.  Takakusu, pp. 153-4 somewhat abridged.  I-Ching (pp. 156-7) speaks of Matricheta as the principal hymn writer and does not identify him with Asvaghosha.]

[Footnote 261:  I believe the golden image in the Arakan Pagoda at Mandalay is still washed with a ceremonial resembling that described by I-Ching.]

[Footnote 262:  I-Ching says that monasteries commonly had a statue of Mahakala as a guardian deity.]

[Footnote 263:  By the Gupta king, Narasinha Gupta Baladitya.  Much information about Nalanda will be found in Satis Chandra Vidyabhusana’s Mediaeval School of Indian Logic, pp. 145-147.  Hsuean Chuang (Life, transl.  Beal, p. 111) says that it was built 700 years before his time, that is, in the first century B.C.  He dwells on the beauty of the buildings, ponds and flowers.]

CHAPTER XXIV

DECADENCE OF BUDDHISM IN INDIA

The theme of this chapter is sad for it is the decadence, degradation and ultimate disappearance of Buddhism in India.  The other great religions offer no precise parallel to this phenomenon but they also do not offer a parallel to the circumstances of Buddhism at the time when it flourished in its native land.  Mohammedanism has been able to maintain itself in comparative isolation:  up to the present day Moslims and Christians share the same cities rather than the same thoughts, especially when (as often) they belong to different races.  European Christianity