Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/438

 Mahayan- ism and Vaisnav- ism. 402 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. idea of love. Some of the scholarly Mahayanists went a step further than Nagarjuna, the great promoter of the creed and founder of the Madhya- mic School, and argued like atheists. This class earned for the Buddhists, the common name of sceptics in the country. But amongst the masses Mahayanism gave rise to the worship of a hundred deities like that of Prajna Paramita, Abaloki- tegwar and Munjacri, whose images have so many points in common with those of Vasudeva and other gods and goddesses of the Hindu Pantheon. Says Mr. Kern in his Manual of Buddhism,*— ‘“ Mahayanism lays a great stress on devotion, in this respect as in many others, harmonising with the current of feeling in India which led to the growing influence of Bhakti. It is by that feeling of fervent devotion combined with the preaching of active compassion that the creed enlisted the sympathy of numerous millions of people.” Mahayanism in its higher theology professed doctrines not unlike those promulgated by the great Sankaracharyya. It bore a distinct affinity to Hinduism in its popular forms also. According to Kern, ‘‘ Mahaya- nism is much indebted to the Bhagabata Gita and more even to Caivism.”+ The Buddhist masses had therefore developed an emotional creed which led them afterwards to accept the tenets of Vaisnavism with such cordiality. The ‘Nam San- kirtan’ or the recitation of god’s name which forms one of the most essential points in the Vaisnhava creed was also prevalent amongst these Mahayana Buddhists with whom the ‘void’ was sometimes contemplated as merely a name. Pri Ags. + P. 323,