Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/338

280 In its historical development, Buddhism became divided into two great sects, so that the forms of Buddhism prevailing in Nepal and Tibet, China and Japan, are called Northern Buddhism, while the older and purer forms prevailing in Ceylon and Burma are termed Southern Buddhism. The Northern Buddhists furnish us with scanty materials directly illustrating the religion in its earliest form in India, for they embraced Buddhism some centuries after the Christian Era, and the works which they then obtained from India do not represent the earliest form of Hindu Buddhism. The Lalita Vistara, a most important work of the Northern Buddhists, is only a gorgeous poem, composed probably in Nepal in the second or third or fourth century after Christ, although it contains passages—the Gathas—which are of much older date. In China, Buddhism was introduced from the first century after Christ, but did not become the state religion until the fourth century, and the works on Buddhism which were then carried by Chinese pilgrims from India from century to century, and translated into the Chinese language, do not illustrate the earliest phase of Buddhism in India. Buddhism spread to Japan in the sixth century, and to Tibet in the seventh century after Christ, although the latter country has drifted far from primitive Hindu Buddhism, and has adopted forms and ceremonies which were unknown to Gautama and his followers.

The date of Buddha's death was for a long time believed to be 543 B.C.; but it is now generally