Brahma seems to be too abstract a deity, and the only temple to his honour in all India is said to be that of Pohkar in Ajmere, by the side of a lake of great sanctity.

By thus adroitly adopting the superstitions of the multitude, the Brahmans wove the web of Hinduism on a familiar ground-work; and thus the mass of the people might think themselves advanced, both socially and spiritually, by professing an enlightened creed; while yet able to preserve the compassion of kindly village fairies who had been dear to their fathers, and to avert the wrath of malevolent demons that their mothers had taught them to fear and to propitiate.

At the same time not only some of the metaphysics of Buddhism, but its general spirit and, indeed, some of its practical principles also, were adopted in the new religious system. Among the results of the former was the doctrine of transmigration, which plays a large part in the belief of high and low among the modern Hindus; a survival of the latter is seen in an extreme scrupulosity about some forms of life, and a widespread objection to animal food. The followers of Vishnuwhose special gospel, the Vishnu Purana, has been provisionally dated about 1045 A.D.-at first denounced the Buddha as a teacher of atheism; but they afterwards found it advisable to adopt him as one of the incarnations of their favourite deity; and it has been asserted that their rules of religious life are little more than fragments of Buddhist precept, enforced by Brahmanic sanctions and arguments. The rival sect of Siva has borrowed elements from the hopes and fears of the lower classes, largely tinctured-as above said-with local superstition; and in such a compromise they too were following a path originally indicated by the Buddhists. Portions even of the archaic worship of trees and of serpents were adopted by the Buddhists: at the present day they are tolerated, if not taught, in Hinduism as now practised; while the sects of Vishnu use forms of fetish almost certainly traceable to a very

old form of nature-worship. Besides all these concessions and compromises, Hinduism has always shown a prudent consideration for the reforming sects which have arisen out of its own body. Many of these have struck hard at the system of caste, and at polytheistic idol-worship, attempting to combine the omnipotence of the Supreme Being with the absolute equality of men. The heresy of Kabir, in the fourteenth century A.D., even showed a leaning towards the new and hostile creed of Islam; and it was imitated-if not developed-by the system of the Sikhs, which is professed by a hardy population even at the present day. Yet these heresies show themselves ready to submit when Hinduism takes their doctrines to itself, and adopts their prophets as apostles or even incarnations of its own deities. As a return for that hospitality many disciples of the reformers have shown readiness for reconciliation. The Sikhs, indeed, long held out, refusing all compromise. But history will show how much the Sikh movement was actuated by political motives. Now that the Sikhs have become foremost in accepting the government of the British, and have lost the fiery stimulus of persecution, their religious creed is also losing its aggressive character. It is probable that Sikhism will slowly, but surely, merge into a form of Hinduism; as has been the case with the creed of the Kabir Punthis, of the Satnámis, and of many other sects.

One denomination, indeed, there was which, to this day, neither yields nor disappears. The Jain or Sarawak denomination--a sect whose foundation is believed to be of an earlier date than Buddhism-has survived its more ambitious sister, and still numbers a petty, but not diminishing, fraction of the Indian people. The Jains are like the English Quakers, a small but prosperous community, of pure and simple tenets, tolerant, but tenacious.

Such as is the condition of Hinduism after centuries of Muslim persecution, it has yet to show its power of resisting

the more subtle influences of modern science. For the present we have only to remark that the laws, literature, and religious practices, which are still prevalent in Hindustan, arose in the period between the decline of Buddhism and the introduction of Islam.

For the part of northern India, east of Benares-what is now known as "The Lower Provinces," -a few more details have been provisionally determined, and Buddhism seems to have held out longer there than elsewhere. By careful collation of his own discoveries with those of the earlier epigraphists, Babu Rajendralal Mitra has arrived at the conclusion that there was a Buddhist dynasty, styled the House of Pála, whose capital was at Mangeer (Monghyr), about the middle of the ninth century A.D.; while a Brahmanic line bore rule in Bengal proper, having its capital at Bikrampur, near Dháka (Dacca).

Their surname was Sena, or Sen; and the ruins of their fortified palace are still shown with traces of a surrounding city. These latter kings were probably Kshatriyas of the lunar race, brave and intelligent men. They gradually supplanted the Buddhist line, and made their capital at Gaur, or Lakhnauti, until conquered in their turn by the advancing Muslims. The founder of the power of the Senas over Bengal and eastern Bihár, was Bállala, about 1000 A.D.; and it is believed to have been in his time that the five Brahmans came as missionaries from Kanauj, as above-mentioned.

[The books mentioned at the end of last chapter may be consulted for this. Also "The Dynasty of the Guptas," by E. Thomas, London, 1876 : "Sketch of the Dynasties of Southern India," by Robert Sewell, Madras, 1883; and the "Ancient Geography" and Archæological Reports of General Cunningham. For the islands of the Equator, see Crawford's Dictionary of the Indian Islands," London, 1856; also Colonel H. Yule's "Sketch of Java," Calcutta, 1862.]

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CHAPTER III.

THE MUSLIM CONQUEST.

Section 1: The houses of Ghaniz and of Gur.-Section 2: The Slave Dynasty.-Section 3: First Muslim aggressions in the Deccan.

SECTION I.—The domestic drama of the Hindus affords a picture of the life of the people during the centuries immediately preceding the invasion of the Muhamadans. The tenets of the Buddhists had produced a standard of character and conduct something similar to what is now existing in Burma and Siam, and, in many ways, very different from what is observable in modern India after ages of foreign domination. Brahmans were ceasing to be a sacerdotal class; although their religious ascendency was reviving with the birth of the new Hinduism, they were chiefly respected as an aristocracy of pure and ancient descent. Secular life was gay and luxurious; the world of sense, however denounced by sages, attracted the bulk of Indian mankind. But if the Hindus had not mastered the difficult lesson how to submit the cravings of the body to the aspirations of the soul, their sensuousness was not without the charm proceeding from refinement. Like their Greek contemporaries, they united the life of the family with the existence of female companions who were free but not degraded. Genial and gentle of mood, both sexes were generous and without fear. The fusion of races-always under the restrictions of the caste system-had been almost, if not quite, completed. It was thought by Megasthenes that slavery was unknown among

them; in any case the servants were faithful and of independent bearing. The married ladies went abroad unveiled, like those of Theocritus; they received visitors, mixed in general society, but had to suffer serious competition from other women with whom their husbands associated without loss of reputation. In the grove of Káma-the Indian Eros-the respectable citizen met his equally respectable "professional beauty," who even became the friend of his wife. We are shown, in short, a world sufficiently advanced in civilisation to be amiably voluptuous, yet far from general corruption. Parasites and buffoons were tolerated; and the heroine of unlawful love, for all her equivocal position, was yet sweet and womanly, redeemed by affection, and glorified by devotion and fidelity.

How long such an Arcadian scheme of manners may have endured we cannot positively say. Under a sky bright without cloud during the long summer days, gorgeous in atmospheric pomps during the green luxuriance of the monsoon, breathing fresh and balmy airs upon the blossoming flower-trees of the cooler season-when the Bauhinia trails its purple glories over the flaming branches of the Butea, and the antelope browses under the scented shade of the Mango-the Hindus led their easy lives, relaxing slowly under the increasing influences of luxury and peace. In their mud-walled cities, the palaces of their chiefs and the temples of their gods bristled with multitudinous pinnacles and statues and carved turrets; and the processions of Royal marriages glittered in the crowded bazaars.

But a terrible time of change was being prepared. Far off, beyond the glaciers of the Himalaya, the home of the negligent gods, was a swarm of hardy, hungry nomads, constantly engaged in tribal conflicts for their wild pastures, or slowly gathering for defence in crowded towns. Devastation and invasion kept the north and north-western lands in constant ferment. Twenty years after the era of the Prophet's flight the