English
There were no heroes to inspire a poet, — ^no history to call forth a historian. The only sphere THB CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. 31 where the Indian mind found itself at liberty to act^ to create, and to worship, was the sphere of religion and * philosophy ; and nowhere have religious and metaphysical ideas struck roots so deep in the mind of a nation as in India. The Hindus were a nation of philosophers. Their struggles were the struggles of thought ; their past, the problem of creation ; their future, the problem of existence. The present alone, which is the real and living solution of the problems of the past and the future, seems never to have at- tracted their thoughts or to have called put their energies. The shape which metaphysical ideas take amongst the different classes of society, and at dif- ferent periods of civilisation, naturally varies from coarse superstition to sublime spiritualism. But, taken as a whole, history supplies no second instance where the inward life of the soul has so completely absorbed all the practical faculties of a whole people, and, in fact, almost destroyed those qualities by which a nation gains its place in history. It might therefore be justly said that India has no place in the political history of the world. While other nations, as the Egyptians, the Jews, the Baby- lonians, Assyrians, Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutonic races, have, during certain periods, culminated on the political horizon of the world, India has moved in such a small and degraded circle of political existence that it remained almost invisible to the eyes of other nations* An expedition like that of Alexander could never have been conceived by an Indian king, and the ambition of native con- querors, in those few cases where it existed, never went beyond the limits of India itself* But if India has no place in the political history of the world, it certainly has a right to claim its 32 India's flace ik histobt. place in the Intellectual history of mankind. The less the Indian nation has taken part in the political struggles of the world, and expended its energies in the exploits of war and the formation of empires, the more it has fitted itself and concentrated all its powers for the fulfilment of the important mission reserved to it in the history of the East. History seems to teach that the whole human race required a gradual education before, in the fulness of time, it could be admitted to the truths of Christianity. All the fallacies of human reason had to be exhausted, before the light of a higher truth could meet with ready acceptance. The ancient religions of the world were but the milk of nature, which was in due time to be succeeded by the bread of life. After the pri- meval physiolatry, which was common to all the mem- bers of the Aryan family, had, in the hands of a wily priesthood, been changed into an empty idolatry, the Indian alone, of all the Aryan nations, produced a new form of religion, which has well been called subjective, as opposed to the more objective worship of nature. That religion, the religion of Buddha, has spread, far beyond the limits of the Arj^an world, and, to our limited vision, it may seem to have re* tarded the advent of Christianity among a large por* tion of the human race. But in the sight of Him with whom a thousand years are but as one day, that religion, like .all the ancient religions of the world, may have but served to prepare the way of Christ, by helping, through its very errors, to strengthen and to deepen the ineradicable yearning of the human heart after the truth of God. Though the religion of Buddha be of all religions the most hostile to the old belief of the Brahmans, — the Buddhists standing to the Brahmans in about the BBAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM. SS same relation as the early Protestants to the Church of Rome, — yet the very bitterness of this opposition proves that Buddhism is peculiarly Indian. Similar ideas to those proclaimed by Buddha were current long before his time, and traces of them may be found even in other countries* But for the impressive manner in which these ideas were first proclaimed and preached throughout India, for the hold which they took on the Indian mind, for the readiness with which they were received, particularly by the lower classes, till at last they were adopted by the sovereign as the religion of state, — in a word, for the historical and universal character which this doctrine there as- sumed, the cause must be sought in the previous history of the Indian nation. There is something in the doctrines of Buddhism that is common to all systems of philosophy or religion, which break with the traditions of an effete idol-worship and a tyranni- cal hierarchy. There is some truth in Buddhism as , there is in every one of the false religions of the world. But it was only in India, where people had been prepared by centuries of thought and meditation, as well as by the very corruption of the old Brahmanical system, to embrace and nurture the religious ideas of Buddha l^&kya Muni ; it was only in India, that those new doctrines took an historical shape, and grew into a religion which, if truth depended on majorities, would be the truest of all forms of faith. Up to the present day there is no religion of the world more extensively prevalent than the religion of Buddha ' ; and though it has been banished from ^ II. Troyer, in his valaable edition of the Badjatarangini (ii. 8d9.)f gi^ea the following data as to the extent of the Buddhistic D 34> HISTOBIGAL ORIGIN OF BUDDHISM. the soil of India, and no living follower of this creed is now to be met with in that country ^, yet it has found a refuge and second home in Ceylon, Siam, Ava, Pegu, the Birman Empire, China, Tibet, Tatary, Mongolia and Siberia, and is, even in its present corruption, looked upon and practised as the only true system of faith and worship by many millions of human beings* Truly, then, the moment when this religious doctrine took its origin in India is an era in the intellectual history of the world ; and, from an historical point of view, India may be con-' sidered, at that time, as passing through the meridian of history. The most accurate observers of the progress of the Indian mind have, therefore, chosen this moment as the most favourable for fixing, his^ torically and chronologically, the position of India: Professor Wilson in his " Vishnu-Pur&na," Professor Bumouf in his " Introduction to the History of Buddhism," and Professor Lassen in his ^^ Indian Antiquities." It would be out of place to discuss at present all the arguments by which the historical origin of the Buddhistic religion has been fixed chronologically in the works here pientioned. The date of Buddha's religion : '* La population do la terre est ^v&lu^ par M. Hoseel h 921 millions; par Malte-Brun, h 642 millions; par d'autres, k 737 millions d'habitants. Le Buddliisme est profess^ dans presque tout I'empire de la Chine, qui seul, d'apr^s diff<£rents computs, contient de 184 k 800 millions d'habitants. Ajootons-y les Buddhistes de plusieurs iles de I'Est, de la Cochinchine, du Siam, du pajs des Birmans, de I'lnde, du Nepal, du Tibet, et de la majeure^ partie de la Tartarie, etc^ et Ton trouvera que je n exag^re pas trop le norabre des Buddhistes actuels." ^ See J. Bird, Historical Researches on the Origin and Prin- ciples of the B.uddba and Jaina Religion. Bombay, 1847. belahon of buddhism to bbahmanism. 35 death, in the middle of the sixth century b. c, and the beginning of the Ceylonese era, 543 b, c, will have to be considered hereafter. For the present it will be sufficient to keep in mind that the Buddhistic era divides the whole history of India into two parts, in the same manner as the Christian era divides the history of the world. It is therefore of the greatest importance, with regard to the history of Vedic literature. The rise of a new religion so hostile to the hierarchical system of the Brahmans is most likely to have produced a visible effect on their aacred and theological writings. If traces of this kind can be discovered in the ancient literature of India, an important point will be gained, and it will be possible perhaps to restore to this vast mass of Brahmanic lore a certain historical connection. After the rise of a new religious doctrine in the first centuries after Buddha, it could not be expected that the Brahmanic literature should cease at once.