Religion, 



AN exhaustive account of the religions of 

 India would fill many volumes. It is one 

 of the largest subjects open to the investigation 

 of the student and the historian. The following 

 brief summary must suffice for the present work. 

 Among the religions of the South and East 

 of Asia, and the philosophies which take their 

 place, we find that the most ancient of all is 

 the demon and spirit and nature worship of the 

 ruder races ; the religion of the Jews, three 

 thousand years old, may be the next, followed 

 by the Buddhist philosophy, which seems to have 

 existed for three thousand two hundred years, 

 and to have more adherents than any other. 

 The Christian religion, first established in Western 

 Asia nineteen centuries ago, and early taught in 

 Africa, Arabia, and Central and Eastern Asia, 

 and at one time largely followed, has at present 

 in India but a comparatively small number of 

 professors. In India and South-Eastern Asia 

 three polytheistic faiths predominate, Buddhism, 



