Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/808

784 784 INDIA [HISTORY. about the commencement of our era, and melting into modern Hinduism about the 8th century A.D. ; second, warlike inroads of non-Brahmanical Aryans or other races from the west, commencing with the Greek invasions in the 4th century B.C., and continuing under the Grseco-Bactrian empire and its successors to probably the 3d or 5th century A.D. ; third, the influence of the non-Aryan tribes of India and of the non-Aryan low-castes incorporated from them, an influence ever at work, indeed by far the most power ful agent in dissolving Brahrnanism into Hinduism, but represented in a special in inner by the non-Aryan king doms about the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. ; fourth, the reaction against the low beliefs, priestly oppression, and bloo ly rites which resulted from this compromise between Brahmanism and aboriginal worship, a reaction which re ceived an impetus from the preaching of Sankar-Acharjya, who founded a philosophical Sivaite sect in the 8th or 9th century, and received its full development under a line of great Vishnuvite reformers from the 12th to the 16th cen turies A.D. ; fifth, Mahometan invasions and the rule of Islam, 1000 to 1765 A.D. ; sixth, the English supremacy, and the great popular upheaval which it has produced in the 18th and 19th centuries. Buddhist Period. (6th century B.C. to 8th century A.D.) Bud- The first great solvent of Brahman ism was the teaching dhisui. of Buddha. The life of this celebrated man has three sides, its personal aspects, its legendary developments, and its religious consequences upon mankind. In his own person Buddha appears as a prince and preacher of ancient India. In the legendary developments of history Buddha ranks as a divine teacher among his followers, as an incar nation of Vishnu among the Hindus, and apparently as a saint of the Christian church, with a day assigned to him in both the Greek and Roman calendars. As a religious founder he left behind him a system of beliefs which has gained more disciples than any other creed in the world, and which, after a lapse of twenty-four centuries, is now professed by 500 millions of people, or more than one- third of the human race. The life of Buddha is related at length under BUDDHISM, vol. iv. p. 42-1. In this place it is unnecessary to give more than a brief sketch of the history of Buddhism in India. On tb.3 death of Buddh.v, five hundred of his disciples met in a cave near L ajagriha, to gather together his sayings. This was. the first council. They chanted the lessons of their master in three great divisions- -the words of Buddha to his disciples, his code of discipline, and his system of doctrine. These became the three collections of Buddha s teaching, and the word for a Buddhist council means literally &quot; a singing together.&quot; A century after wards, a second council of seven hundred was held at Vaisali, to settle disputes between the more and the less strict followers of Buddhism. It condemned a system of ten &quot; indulgences &quot; which had grown up, but it led to the separation of the Buddhists into two hostile parties, who afterwards split into eighteen or more sects. Spread Daring the next two hundred years Buddhism spread of Bud- O ver northern India, perhaps receiving anew impulse from dlusm - the Greek kingdoms in the Punjab. About 244 B.C. Asoka, the king of Magadha or Behar, became a zealous convert to Buddhism. He is said to have supported 64,000 Buddhist priests ; he founded many religious houses, and his kingdom is called the Land of the Monasteries (Vihara or Belnr) to this day. He did for Buddhism what Con- stantine afterwards effected for Christianity ; he organized it on the basis of a state religion. This he accomplished by five means by a council to settle the faith, by edicts promulgating its principles, by a state department to watch over its purity, by missionaries to spread its doctrines, and by an authoritative collection of its sacred books. In 244 B.C. Asoka convened at Patna the third Buddhist council of one thousand elders. Evil men, taking on them the yellow robe of the order, had given forth their own opinions as the teaching of Buddha. Such heresies were now corrected ; and the Buddhism of southern Asia practically dates from Asoka s council. In a number of edicts, both As before and after the synod, he published throughout India e(li the grand principles of the faith. Such edicts are still found graven deep upon pillars, in caves, and on rocks, from the Yusafzai valley beyond Peshawar on the north-western frontier, through the heart of Hindustan, to Kathiawar and the Central Provinces on the south and Orissa in the east. Tradition states that Asoka set up 64,000 memorial columns or topes ; and the thirty inscriptions extant in our own day show how widely these royal sermons were spread over India. In the year of the council, the king also founded a state department to watch over the purity and to direct the spread of the faith. A minister of justice and religion (Dharma Mahamatra) directed its operations; and, one of .its first duties being to proselytize, he was specially charged with the welfare of the aborigines among whom its missionaries were sent. Asoka did not think it enough to convert the inferior races without looking after their material interests. Wells were to be dug and trees planted along the roads ; a system of medical aid was established throughout his kingdom and the conquered pro vinces, as far as Ceylon, for both man and beast. Officers were appointed to watch over domestic life and public morality, and to promote instruction among the women as well as the youth. Asoka recognized proselytism by peaceful means as a state duty. The rock inscriptions record how he sent forth missionaries &quot; to the utmost limits of the barbarian countries,&quot; to &quot;intermingle among all unbelievers for the spread of religion. They shall mix equally with B rah mans and beggars, with the dreaded and the despised, both within the kingdom &quot; and in foreign countries, teaching better things.&quot; Conversion is to be effected by persuasion, not by the sword. Buddhism was at once the most intensely missionary religion in the world and the most tolerant. This character of a proselytizing faith which wins its victories by peaceful means, so strongly impressed upon it by Asoka, has remained a prominent feature of Buddhism to the present day. Asoka, however, not only took measures to spread the religion ; he also endeavoured to secure its orthodoxy. He collected the body of doctrine into an authoritative version, in the Magadhi language or dialect of his central kingdom in Behar, a version which for two thousand years has formed the canon (pitakas) of the southern Buddhists. The fourth and last of the great councils was held under King Kauishka, according to one tradition, four hundred years after Buddha s death. The date of Kanishka is still uncertain ; but, from the evidence of coins and inscriptions, his reign has been fixed in the 1st century after Christ, or, say, 40 A.D. Kanishka, the most famous of the Saka conquerors, ruled over north-western India and the adjoin ing countries. His authority had its nucleus in Kashmir, but it extended to both sides of the Himalayas, from Yarkand and Khokan to Agra and Sind. His council of five hundred compiled three commentaries on the Buddhist faith. These commentaries supplied in part materials for the Tibetan or northern canon, drawn up at a subsequent period. The northern canon, or, as the Chinese proudly call it, the &quot; greater vehicle of the law,&quot; includes many later corruptions or developments of the Indian faith as originally embodied by Asoka (244 B.C.) in the &quot; lesser vehicle,&quot; or canon of the southern Buddhists.