698 ORIENTAL SCHOLARSHIP DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY. 



Bralinians are the white caste, the other castes are black/' Tliis refers 

 to their coh)r {r<(ni<i), not, as has been sni)p()sed, to their character. 



But we have as yet no real evidence of writing, not even of inscrip- 

 tions, in India before the time of Asoka, in the third century b. c. 

 Tlie Indian alphabets certainly came from a Semitic alphabet, which 

 was adapted, systematically, to the requirements of an .\.iyan language. 

 We can see it still in a state of fermentation in the local varieties that 

 have lately been pointed out by my friend. Prof. Biihler, the iiighest 

 authority on this subject. As to the religion of Buddha being influ- 

 enced by foreign thought, no true scholar now dreams of that. The 

 religion of Buddlia is the danghter of the oldBrahmanic religion, and 

 a daughter in many respects more beautiful than the mother. On the 

 contrary, it was through Buddhism that India for the first time stepped 

 forth trom its isolated position, and became an actor in the historical 

 drama of the world. A completely new idea in the history of the 

 world was started at the third Buddhist Council in the third century 

 B. c, under King Asoka, the idea of conquering other nations, not by 

 force of arms, bnt by the jiower of truth. A looiution was proposed 

 and cairied at that council to send missionaries to all neighboring 

 nations to preach the new gosi)el of Buddha. Such a resolution would 

 never have entered into the minds of the ancient Egyptians, Babylon- 

 ians, Assyrians, not even of the Brahmans. It pre-supposed quite a 

 new conception of the world. It announced for the first time a belief 

 that the different nations of the world, however separated from each 

 other by language, religion, color, and customs, formed nevertheless 

 one united family; that each of its members was responsible for the 

 rest; in fact, that humanity was not an empty word. 



It is a curious coincidence, if no more, that the name of the missionary 

 who, according to the chronicle of Ceylon, was sent to the North, to 

 the Himalayan border lands, namely Madhyama, should have been 

 found in a Stui)a near Sanchi, as well as that of his fellow-worker, 

 Kasyapa. We read in an inscription: "These are (the relics) of the 

 goodman of the family of Kasyapa, the teacherof the whole Haimavata," 

 that is, the Himalayan border land.* We seldom find such monumental 

 confirmations in Indian history. This important discovery, like so 

 many others, was due to Gen. Cunningham, in one of his earlier works. 

 {The Bkilsa Topes, pp. 119, 187, 317.) 



China, the other isolated country of antiquity, was soon touched by 

 the rising stream of Buddhism, and thus brought for the first time into 

 contact with India and the rest of the world. The first waves of 

 Buddhism seem to have reached the frontiers of China as early as the 

 third century (217 B. c), and so rapid and constant was its progress 

 that in 61 b. c. Buddhism was accepted by the Emperor Miugti as one 

 of the three state-religions of China. We soon hear of Buddhists in 

 other countries also, and if we consider that we have now arrived 



Lassen, Indische Alterthnmsknvde, vol. ii, p. 234, aud p. xxxix. 



