Page:A History of Civilisation in Ancient India based on Sanscrit Literature Vol 1.djvu/65

Rh any specimens of Buddhist architecture of a later date.Temple-building and Hindu architecture flourished from the sixth century A.D. to long after the Mahommedan conquest.

The most valuable portions of Buddhist literature left to us are the scriptures as finally settled in the Council of Patna by Asoka, and sent by him all over India and India. * These scriptures, preserved in the Pali language beyond in Ceylon, form our best materials for the history of early Buddhism, while later forms of this literature have been found in Nepal, in Thibet, in China, in Japan, and in all Northern Buddhist countries.

We have said that Buddhism had a marked effect on Hinduism. Buddhism had questioned the sacredness of the Vedas, and modern or Puranic Hinduism, though nominally revering the Vedas, shows a complete estrangement and emancipation from those ancient works. Hindu astronomy, mathematics, laws, and philosophical speculations had sprung from the Vedas and the Vedic sacrifices, and belonged to different Vedic schools. But Hindu science and learning of the post-Buddhist age have no reliance on the Vedas and do not belong to any Vedic school. Puranic Hinduism is not a religion of Vedic sacrifices, but of the worship of images and gods unknown to the Vedas.

The Code of Manu represents Hindu thought and manners of the Buddhist Epoch. It is based on the ancient Dharmasûtras or social laws of the Philosophical Period; but while the Dharmasûtras belong to different Vedic schools, Manu's Sanhitâ knows of no Vedic schools and professes to be the law for all Aryans. On the other hand Manu adheres to the Vedic sacrifices, eschews image-worship, and does not know of the Trinity of Puranic Hinduism. Thus Manu marks the transition stage from Vedic Hinduism to Puranic Hinduism.

For reasons which will appear from the foregoing remarks, we date the fourth or Buddhist Period from 320 B.C. to 500 A.D. VOL. I.