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decline. Hindu legend assigns the commence-ment of its overthrow to a persecution broughtabout by Kumarila, the celebrated commentatoron the Purva mimansa philosophy, who is sup-posed to have flourished in the 7th century;but, as the persecution is also placed in the timeof Sankara Acharya, who probably flourished to-wards the end of the 8th century, we may assumethat Buddhism was not suddenly uprooted by anyuniversal revolution. Gradually, however, it didcease to exist; and in the 16th century theMogul emperor Akbar is said to have sought invain for a single Buddhist in his dominions.Later Sanskrit writers generally confuse theBuddhists with the Jainas. This latter sect pro-fess many of the tenets of Buddhism, but theyhave also many peculiarities of their own, andthey seem to have only risen into importance asthe older faith declined. Professor Wilson thinks(Essays on the Religion of the Hindus , i. 334)that they arose in the 6th or 7th century,®reached their highest prosperity in the 10th or11th, and declined after the 12th. They neverspread much in the north of India, and are atpresent found chiefly in Guzerat, Rajputana, andCanara.
But though Buddhism thus faded away inIndia, it was destined to spread far and wideoutside that continent. Its conquests, however,were not, like those of Islam, made by the sword,but by the moral influence of missionary preach-ing. The records of every Buddhist country tellthe same story of Buddhist disciples bringingthe doctrine to their ancestors; and the earlyenthusiasm of these Buddhist missionaries can-not be better expressed than in the followingremark by the author of the Mahawanso, whenhe tells the story of Anoka’s messengers comingto Ceylon. “ These disciples, following the ex-ample of the all-compassionating Buddha’s post-ponement of his own entry into Nirvana, laidaside the exalted state of happiness attained bythem, and for the benefit of mankind undertookthese missions to various countries. Who isthere who would demur when the salvation ofthe world is at stake ?”
Buddhism seems to have found an early homein Cashmir. Wassilief calls that country itsu second native land; ” from thence it spreadinto Cabul, Bactria, and Tibet.
In Nepal we meet with a theistic Buddhism,however contrary to the original creed as founded•/
by Sakya Muni, though even there it is an inno-vation of comparatively modern date. An Adior “ primordial ” Buddha is acknowledged, fromwhom have emanated five Dhyani or “ contem-plative” Buddhas, who in turn have producedcertain Bodhisattwas, who are the creators ofthe successive worlds. Our present creation isthe work of the Bodhisattwa Avalokiteswara orPadmapani, who is the active representative ofthe fourth Dhyani Buddha Amitabha, and towhom is addressed the well-known Tibetan for-mula “ Om mani padme hum ” (Koppen, ii. 59-61). Besides these superhuman Buddhas, thereare also certain Manushi or “human ” Buddhas,
e This, however, must be too late a date if, as seemsmost probable, the Nirgranthas, so often mentioned inHiouen Thsang, were Jainas (see A. C. Burnell, IndianAriiquai'y, i. 310).
BUDDHA, BUDDHISM
who have risen from men to that eminencethese are, as it were, the reflections in the lowerworld ( Kama-dhdtu ) of the Dhyani Buddhas,who rule in the world of Form ( rupadhatx )(Koppen, ii. 26). In Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia,and China, the Bodhisattwas Avalokiteswaiaand Manjusri have become prominent objects ofworship (Burnouf, i. 112-117); the former issaid to have vowed that he will not enter roV-vana until he has declared ‘ the law * to allbeings in every world, and his * descent into hell ’to preach there is a famous Northern legend;and the sacred books of Nepal and Tibet includean extensive body of mediaeval works calledTantras, which enjoy the highest repute at thepresent day. In these we find a strange mixture
of Buddhist notions with the obscene tenets of/
the Saiva sect of the Brahmanical religion, to-gether with puerile superstitions and magicalceremonies (ibid. 522-554).
In Tibet Buddhism has in modern times under-gone a singular development. In the 14th cen-tury a young priest named Tsong kha pa inaugu-rated a new system in the place of the old here-ditary priesthood, the Ssakia hierarchy. Fromhis time Tibet has been ruled by a “doublePapacy,” the Dalai Lama at Lhassa, and thePanchen Rin poche in Further Tibet, the latterbeing abstracted from all worldly affairs, andthe former being the chief spiritual as well assecular authority. Each is supposed to be the in-carnation of one of Tsong kha pa’s two disciples,who succeeded him at his death; and as eachoffice becomes vacant, a child is sought out tofill it, into whom the soul of the deceased is sup-posed to have migrated. Tibet is now governedby China, and the Dalai Lama acts as a regent,assisted by a native council and two Chinese com-missioners ; and thus the system has become awell-organised engine of statecraft in the handsof the Chinese officials (Koppen, ii.). Mongoliais dependent on Tibet, and the superior of theMongolian monasteries is very commonly a boyfrom Tibet, into whom the deceased superior isbelieved to have passed, just as in the case ofthe Dalai Lama. Mongolia swarms with Lama-serais, and the emperors of China encourageLamaism as a means of repressing the warlikespirit of the Tartar population.
In China Buddhism is one of the three co-ordinate religions, being recognised by the statewith those of Confucius and Laou-tsoo, thoughConfucianism is the proper state creed and thereligion of the learned class. Buddhism was in-troduced into China from India in the 1st centuryof our era, and its temples are found everywhere,and it has largely influenced the religious beliefeven of those who profess the other creeds. Thepopular Buddhism, however, has considerably de-generated from the original form as we find itin the old Sanskrit or Pali books; beside thehomage paid, as in Nepal, to Manjusri, twodeities, Amitabha, the lord of the western heaven,and Ivwan yin, the goddess of mercy (who repre-sents Avalokiteswara), have risen to equal pre-eminence with Buddha himself. Nirvana is stillrecognised as the final goal in the metaphysicalbooks of the Chinese Buddhist schoolmen; butit is far beyond the horizon of the ordinaryworshipper; his prayer and hope only extend toa new birth on earth in some more prosperous