Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/208

 the frequent juxtaposition of the emblems of both cults in the same temple is said to be due to these images and symbols having been borrowed from Brahmanism, and being adopted "into Buddhism—just as the statue of a Capitoline Jupiter became the very orthodox effigy of St. Paul, because the Romanists chose to adopt the Pagan idol in an orthodox sense." Svlvain Levi, in a learned treatment of the subject, suggests a compromise, and endeavours to explain that the situation is almost impossible for the Westerner to comprehend, except that as the Catholic Church can enrich itself indefinitely with new saints, so "l'Inde peut s'enricher de nouveaux dieux." In this way Buddha, who long passed as a kind of Brahmanical Antichrist, was eventually absorbed into the cult of Vishnu, while Buddhism, in order to keep its hold on the people, accepted many of the more popular beliefs of the Hindu Pantheism. To the ordinary observer, the temples of Nepal display a religious tolerance, which is a striking contrast to the communities of the West, but at the same time this system of a combination of all creeds,