CHAP. XI.] BRAIIMANISM TRIUMPHS OVER BUDDHISM. 525 



From the earliest period of Indian tradition, the strug- 

 gle between the religion of Buddha and that of Brahma 

 was carried on with a fanaticism and perseverance which 

 resulted in the ascendancy of the Brahmans, perhaps about 

 the commencement of the Christian era, and the eventual 

 expulsion some centuries later of the worship of their 

 rivals from Hindustan ; but at what precise time the latter 

 catastrophe was consummated has not been recorded in 

 the annals of either sect. 1 



That Buddhism thus dispersed over eastern and central 

 Asia became an active agent in the promotion of whatever 

 civilisation afterwards enlightened the races by whom 

 its doctrines were embraced, seems to rest upon evidence 

 admitting of no reasonable doubt. The introduction 

 of Buddhism into China is ascertained to have been con- 



one time conjectured to be the Woden 

 of the Scythians ; at another the 

 prophet Daniel, whom Nebuchad- 

 nezzar had created master of the 

 astrologers, or chief priest of the Magi, 

 as the title is rendered in the Septua- 

 gint Ap\ovTa Maywv. An anti- 

 quarian of "Wales, in devising a 

 pedigree for the Cymri, has imported 

 ancestors for the ancient Britons from 

 Ceylon ; and a writer in the Asiatic 

 ResearcJics, in 1807, as a preamble to 

 the proof that the binomial theorem 

 was familiar to the Hindus, has 

 traced Western civilisation to an 

 irruption of philosophers from India, 

 identified the Druids with the Brah- 

 mans, and declared Stonehenge to be 

 " one of the temples of Boodh." 

 (Asicrt. Ees., vol. ii. p. 448.) A still 

 more recent investigator, M. MAFPIED, 

 has collected, in his Essai stir F Origins 

 des Peuples Anciens, what he considers 

 to be the evidence that Buddhism 

 may be indebted for its appearance in 

 India to the captivity of the Jews by 

 Shalmanezar, B.C. 729 (or according to 

 Bosanquet, 711 B.C.) to their disper- 

 sion by Assar-Addon at a still more 

 recent period; to their captivity in 

 Babylon, B.C. 500, or 60(3 B.C. ; their 

 diffusion over Media and the East, 

 Persia, Bactria, Thibet, and China, 



and the communication of their sacred 

 book to the nations amongst whom 

 they thus became sojourners. He ven- 

 tures even to suggest a possible iden- 

 tity between the names Jehovah and 

 Buddha : " Les voyelles du mot 

 Bvuddha sont les memes que celles 

 du mot Jehovah, qu'on prononce 

 aussi Jouva ; mais d ailleurs le noni 

 de Boudda a bien pu etre tire" du mot 

 Jeoudda Juda, le dieu de Joudda 

 Boudda." Chap. ix. p. 235. To 

 account for the purer morals of Budd- 

 hism, MATJPIED has recourse to the 

 conjecture that they may have been 

 influenced by the preaching of St. 

 Thomas at Ceylon, and Bartholomew 

 on the continent of India. " Or U 

 nous semble loyique de conclure de tous 

 ces faite que le Bouddhisme, dans ses- 

 doctrines essentielles, est tforigine Juire 

 et Chretuime; consequence inattendue 

 pour la plus grande partie de nos lecteurs 

 sans dmite." MAFPIED, eh. ix. p. 257 : 

 ch. x. p. 263. 



1 The final overthrow of Buddhism 

 in Bahar and its expulsion from Hin- 

 dustan took place probably between 

 the seventh and twelfth centuries of 

 the Christian era. Colonel STKES, 

 however, extends the period to the 

 thirteenth or fourteenth (Asiatic Jour- 

 nal, vol. iv. p. 334). 



