Page:Footfalls of Indian History.djvu/219

THE SYNTHESIS OF HINDUISM 171 Blessed One was both of these. His character was the world's proof that God was at once Preserver of His children, and Destroyer of their Ignorance, even while He was but a name for the Supreme itself. Hence in men's dreams of Shiva we see their effort thenceforth to realise the one, while Narayana is their personification of the other of these attributes.

Just as Buddha may have been the radiant centre whence diverged the popular religions, so Benares may have been the spot where the idea of Shiva was first conceived and elaborated. Many causes may have contributed to this. The Deer Park seven miles away must have been a monastic university before the time of Buddha. Its undisputed pre-eminence is shown by the fact that He made his way to it immediately on attaining enlightenment, because it was there that his theory, or discovery, must be published to the world. From this we can see that the monk, although a little apart, must always have been an impressive figure in Benares, which was itself, at this particular period, mainly a commercial and industrial centre, associated with a great Brahmanic wealth of Vedic memory.

After the time of Buddha, while his name still reverberated throughout the length and breadth of the land, Benares would doubtless become a place of pilgrimage, rendered doubly sacred by his memory and by its Vedic altar. The growing opinion that the Deity could take no delight in