A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

CHAP. II

OLD INDIAN CREEDS

21

Christ, when Alexander conquered, and even seven hundred Its
years afterwards, when the obscure Fahian travelled and achievements and
the former chiefly in the south-west, and the latter about Oudh and characterTirhut. It is not, however, necessary to suppose, with M. Burnouf, istics.
that Buddhism is purely and originally Indian (Introduction d
I'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, Avertissement i), notwithstanding
the probable derivation of the name from the Sanskrit ' Buddhi',
intelligence; or from the ' bo ' or ' bdee ', i. e. the ficus religiosa or
peepul tree. The Brahmanical genius gradually received a development which rendered the Hindus proper supreme throughout the
land; but their superior learning became of help to their antagonists,
and Gautama, himself a Brahman or a Kshattriya, would appear to
have taken advantage of the knowledge of the hierarchy to give a
purer and more scientific form to Buddhism, and thus to become its
great apostle in succeeding times. [The whole subject, however, is
complicated in the extreme; and it is rendered the more so by the
probability that the same Gautama is the author of the popular
' Nyaya ' system of Philosophy, and that Buddha himself is one form
of the favourite divinity Vishnu; although the orthodox explain
that circumstance by saying the Preserving Power assumed an heretical character to delude Deodas, king of Benares, who by his virtues
and authority endangered the supremacy of the Gods. (Cf. Kennedy,
Res. Hind. Mytiol., p. 248, &c.)-J. D. C.] Of the modern faiths,
Saivism perhaps most correctly represents the original Vedic worship.
(Cf. Wilson, As. Res., xvii. 171, &c., and Vishnu Puran, preface, lxiv.)
Jainism and Vaishnavism are the resultants of the two beliefs in a
Buddhist and Brahmanical dress respectively, while Saktism still
vividly illustrates the old superstition of the masses of the people,
whose ignorant minds quailed before the dread goddess of famine,
pestilence, and death. The most important monument of Buddhism
now remaining is perhaps the 'tope' or hemisphere, near Bhilsa in
Central India, which it is a disgrace to the English that they partially
destroyed a generation ago in search of imaginary chambers or vessels
containing relics, and are only now about to have delineated, and so
made available to the learned. The numerous bas-reliefs of its singular stone enclosure still vividly represent the manners as well as the
belief of the India of Asoka, and show that the Tree, the Sun, and the
Stilpa (or ' tope ')itself-apparently the type of Meru or the Central
Mount of the World-were, along with the impersonated Buddha,
the principal objects of adoration at that period, and that the country
was then partly peopled by a race of men wearing high caps and short
tunics, so different from the ordinary dress of Hindus. [It is now
usually accepted that by about 600 B. c. Brahmanism was generally
the chief religion of India, and the probable date of the birth of
Gautama (567 B.c.) makes Buddhism the younger of the two religions.
It seems hardly necessary to add that, since the author wrote the
above note, our knowledge of Buddhism in India has been enormously
increased by the careful researches of the Archaeological Department.