DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0068
46
HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE.
tyranny of a dominant priesthood. The Mahomedan religion is in fact
much more like Buddhism than are any of the modern Hindu forms,
and when this non-Aryan casteless population came in contact with it,
before they had adopted the new faith, and were free to choose, after
the mysterious evaporation of their old beliefs, they naturally adopted
the religion most resembling that in which they had been brought
up. It is only in this way that it seems possible to account for the
predominance of the Moslem faith in Lower Bengal and in the Punjab,
where the followers of the Prophet outnumber the Hindus, in the
proportion of 3 to 2, or as 9,000,000 to 0,000,000.
Where Buddhism had prevailed the choice seemed to lie between
Vishnu or Mahomet. Where Saivism crept in was apparently among
those races who were Turanians, or had affinities with the Tartar races,
who immigrated from the north between the Christain Era, and the age
of the Mahomedan conquest.
To most people these may appear as rash generalisations, and at
the present stage of the inquiry would be so in reality, if no further
proof could be afforded. After reading the following pages, I trust
most of them at least will be found to rest on the firm basis of a fair
induction from the facts brought forward. It might, consequently,
have appeared more logical to defer these statements to the end of
the work, instead of placing them at the beginning. Unless, however,
they are read and mastered first, a great deal that is stated in the
following pages will be unintelligible, and the scope and pui'2>ose of
the work can be neither understood nor appreciated.
]. Xaga people worshipping the Trisul emblem of Buddha, on a fiery pillar.
(From a ba.s-relief at Amravati.)
HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE.
tyranny of a dominant priesthood. The Mahomedan religion is in fact
much more like Buddhism than are any of the modern Hindu forms,
and when this non-Aryan casteless population came in contact with it,
before they had adopted the new faith, and were free to choose, after
the mysterious evaporation of their old beliefs, they naturally adopted
the religion most resembling that in which they had been brought
up. It is only in this way that it seems possible to account for the
predominance of the Moslem faith in Lower Bengal and in the Punjab,
where the followers of the Prophet outnumber the Hindus, in the
proportion of 3 to 2, or as 9,000,000 to 0,000,000.
Where Buddhism had prevailed the choice seemed to lie between
Vishnu or Mahomet. Where Saivism crept in was apparently among
those races who were Turanians, or had affinities with the Tartar races,
who immigrated from the north between the Christain Era, and the age
of the Mahomedan conquest.
To most people these may appear as rash generalisations, and at
the present stage of the inquiry would be so in reality, if no further
proof could be afforded. After reading the following pages, I trust
most of them at least will be found to rest on the firm basis of a fair
induction from the facts brought forward. It might, consequently,
have appeared more logical to defer these statements to the end of
the work, instead of placing them at the beginning. Unless, however,
they are read and mastered first, a great deal that is stated in the
following pages will be unintelligible, and the scope and pui'2>ose of
the work can be neither understood nor appreciated.
]. Xaga people worshipping the Trisul emblem of Buddha, on a fiery pillar.
(From a ba.s-relief at Amravati.)