Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/86

 people and the princes generally maintained an attitude of philosophic toleration towards the creed of Sákyamuni even so late as the XIth century A.D.Cf. 'The annual report of the Asiatic Soc. to hand:—

"The copper-plate of Madanapála which has just been referred to is interesting also from a sociological point of view. We know that all the Pála kings were followers of the Buddhist religion, and that it was during their reign that Buddhism flourished for the last time in India. Now the grant recorded in the plate was made by Madanapála to a Brahman as a dakshina or honorarium for having read the Mahábhárata to the queens of the king's harem. This is one more fact, in addition to others previously known, showing the intimate connexion that existed in the time of those Buddhist kings between Buddhism and Hinduism, a connexion that resulted in the former losing more and more its ground against the latter, and that thus prepared the way for the final destruction of Buddhism by the Muhammedan invadors." p. 26. Similar evidence is also afforded by Raj. Tar. e.g.

"Kalhana does not hesitate to refer repeatedly to'the Bodhisattvas or to Buddha himself as the comforters of all beings, the embodiments of perfect charity and nobility of feeling. They are to him beings of absolute goodness "who do not feel anger even The causes which brought about the extinction of Buddhism in India Worked from within. The purity of life, and the austerity of practices enjoined on the followers of the creed, become in the long run irksome.