The History of Buddhist Thought c17.21

c17.21

Several modifications were introduced by the Buddhists into the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation. The term *preta* (*peta*) was retained, and was applied not to the transitory stage of the departed before the performance of the funeral rites, but was made one of the five possible careers of existence (*gati*) for beings that are reborn. These are (1) hell, (2) birth as an animal, (3) birth as a preta, (4) birth as a man, (5) birth as a god. The first three are specially states of punishment.³ The pretas are ghosts with small mouths and big bellies, tortured by hunger and thirst. They correspond to the homeless ghosts of brahminical belief, who wander as such because the funeral rites have not been performed. But for the Buddhists they are beings in a definite existence, into which they are born in accordance with the karma to be expiated. The *Petavatthu* (stories of petas) is a work in the *Khuddaka-nikāya*, which represents the ghosts as returning to their old homes and depending for their food on what is set out for them by their still living relatives—evidently a reminiscence or continuation of the old practice of libations to the dead.