DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0060
38
HISTORY OF IXDTAX ATiOHITEOTUTiE.
and unsatisfactory. As will appear in tlie sequel, all that was written
in India that is worth reading was written by the Aryans; all that
was built was built by the Turanians, who wrote practically nothing.
But the known buildings extend back only to the 3rd century B.C.,
while the books are ten centuries earlier, or possibly even more than
that, while, as might be expected, it is only accidentally and in the
most contemptuous terms that the proud Aryans even allude to the
abject Dasyus or their religion. What, therefore, we practically
know of them is little more than inferences drawn from results, and
from what we now see passing in India.
Notwithstanding the admitted imperfection of materials, it seems
to be becoming every day more and more evident, that we have in
the north of India one great group of native or at least of Turanian
religions, which we know in their latest developments as the Buddhist,
Jaina, and Vaishnava religions. The first named we only know as
it was taught by Sakya Muni before his death in 543 B.C., but no one
I presume supposes that he was the first to invent that form of faith,
or that it was not based on some preceding forms. The Buddhists
themselves, according to the shortest calculation, admit of four pre-
ceding Buddhas—according to the more usual accounts, of twenty-four.
A place is assigned to each of these, where he was bom, and when he
died, the father and mother's name is recorded, and the name, too, of
the Bodhi-tree under whose shade he attained Buddhahood. The
dates assigned to each of these are childishly fabulous, but there
seems no reason for doubting that they may have been real person-
ages, and their dates extend back to a very remote antiquity.1
The Jains, in like manner, claim the existence of twenty-four
Tirthankars, including Mahavira the last. Their places of birth and
death are equally recorded, all are in northern India, and though
little else is known of them, they too may have existed. The series
ends with Mahavira, who was the contemporary—some say the preceptor
—of Sakya Muni.
The Vaishnava series is shorter, consisting of only nine Avatars,
but it, too, closes at the same time, Buddha himself being the ninth
and last. Its fifth Avatur takes us back to Kama, who, if our chrono-
logy is correct, may have lived B.C. 2000; the fourth,—Karasinha,
or man lion—points to the time the Aryans entered India, The three
first deal with creation and events anterior to man's appearance on
earth. In this respect the Vaishnava list differs from the other two.
1 A list of the twenty-four Buddhas,
with these particulars, is given in the
introduction to Tumour's ' Mahawanao,'
p. 32. Representations of six or seven
of these Bodhi-trees, with the names
attached, have been found at Bharhut,
showing at least that more than four wei e
recognised in the time of Asoka. If the
rail there were entire, it is probable repre-
sentations of the whole might be found.
HISTORY OF IXDTAX ATiOHITEOTUTiE.
and unsatisfactory. As will appear in tlie sequel, all that was written
in India that is worth reading was written by the Aryans; all that
was built was built by the Turanians, who wrote practically nothing.
But the known buildings extend back only to the 3rd century B.C.,
while the books are ten centuries earlier, or possibly even more than
that, while, as might be expected, it is only accidentally and in the
most contemptuous terms that the proud Aryans even allude to the
abject Dasyus or their religion. What, therefore, we practically
know of them is little more than inferences drawn from results, and
from what we now see passing in India.
Notwithstanding the admitted imperfection of materials, it seems
to be becoming every day more and more evident, that we have in
the north of India one great group of native or at least of Turanian
religions, which we know in their latest developments as the Buddhist,
Jaina, and Vaishnava religions. The first named we only know as
it was taught by Sakya Muni before his death in 543 B.C., but no one
I presume supposes that he was the first to invent that form of faith,
or that it was not based on some preceding forms. The Buddhists
themselves, according to the shortest calculation, admit of four pre-
ceding Buddhas—according to the more usual accounts, of twenty-four.
A place is assigned to each of these, where he was bom, and when he
died, the father and mother's name is recorded, and the name, too, of
the Bodhi-tree under whose shade he attained Buddhahood. The
dates assigned to each of these are childishly fabulous, but there
seems no reason for doubting that they may have been real person-
ages, and their dates extend back to a very remote antiquity.1
The Jains, in like manner, claim the existence of twenty-four
Tirthankars, including Mahavira the last. Their places of birth and
death are equally recorded, all are in northern India, and though
little else is known of them, they too may have existed. The series
ends with Mahavira, who was the contemporary—some say the preceptor
—of Sakya Muni.
The Vaishnava series is shorter, consisting of only nine Avatars,
but it, too, closes at the same time, Buddha himself being the ninth
and last. Its fifth Avatur takes us back to Kama, who, if our chrono-
logy is correct, may have lived B.C. 2000; the fourth,—Karasinha,
or man lion—points to the time the Aryans entered India, The three
first deal with creation and events anterior to man's appearance on
earth. In this respect the Vaishnava list differs from the other two.
1 A list of the twenty-four Buddhas,
with these particulars, is given in the
introduction to Tumour's ' Mahawanao,'
p. 32. Representations of six or seven
of these Bodhi-trees, with the names
attached, have been found at Bharhut,
showing at least that more than four wei e
recognised in the time of Asoka. If the
rail there were entire, it is probable repre-
sentations of the whole might be found.