Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/269

 ^ INDIAN ISLANDERS. ^25 i-ect. The last date on the buildings of Lawu brings the history of Hinduism down to within ^7 years of the triumph of Mahomedanism. This branch of the subject I shall conclude with a summary of the history of Hinduism. In its utmost latitude, Hinduism in the form of genu- ine Buddhism, flourished in Java from the middle of the thirteenth century of our time, to that of the fourteenth century, during which a considerable emi- gration from Western India must have taken place. From the middle of the fourteenth century to that of the fifteenth century, no considerable body of emi- grants arrived from India, and Buddhism lan- guished in Java. At the latter period, a few emi- grants arrived from India, of the sect of Siwa, and attempted to propagate their peculiar worship, but, with every other description of Hindus, were driven from the island by the triumph of the Mahomedan religion, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, and a very few years before Europeans reached India by the Cape of Good Hope. In the remarks now offered concerning the an- cient religion of the Javanese, I have supposed no other sects of Hindus to have existed than those of Buddha and Siwa. This conclusion may be too general, though authorized by every ^permanent and important relic of Hinduism which exists on the island. Buddhism was undoubtedly the pre- vailing religion of the ancient Javanese, but it is VOL. II. p