798 Review of Uhistoire [No. 167. 



the Buddhas under whom he lived, and secured him their benediction. 

 We then observe, that in this system Sakya takes every thing from 

 himself and from the grace of a prior Buddha, whose origin is no more 

 divine than his own. The gods are beings of a power infinitely supe- 

 rior to man, but also subject to the fatal law of transmigration. 



It remains to examine, first the extent and the nature of what the 

 Buddhists have borrowed from the Brahmans. 



I quote as a single example of the results which may be expected from 

 the study of the Sutras, that I have not found in the treatises of the 

 Divya Avadana, the name of Krishna. The circumstance, that the 

 name of Krishna does not occur in any of the treatises which I read, is 

 in accordance with other signs, which show, that the religion, then 

 existing in India, was different from that recorded in the Puranas. 



The Sutras appear to me coetaneous with an epoch, when the Vedas 

 and the legends connected with them, formed the foundation of the 

 religious belief in India. I do not support my opinion alone by the 

 mentioning of the Vedas, which is made on almost every page of the 

 Sutras, but much more by the part which Indra, the hero of the Vedas, 

 plays in the Sutras, as he appears more frequently in the Sutras than 

 all the other gods together. 



The details given by the Sutras on the condition of Indian society at 

 the period of Sakya' s preaching, are still more numerous and important 

 than those relating to religion. 



p. 138. India was at that time subject to the reign of the castes, 

 which were those of the Brahmans, Ksattriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras and 

 Chandalas, not to mention some subdivisions of the inferior classes. The 

 names of the castes are quoted every moment, and their existence is so 

 well established, that it is admitted by Sakya himself and by his dis- 

 ciples, and does not become an object of special observation, unless 

 it is made an obstacle to the preaching of the Buddha. The Brahmans 

 appear most frequently, and their superiority over the other castes is 

 uncontested. They distinguish themselves by their knowledge and their 

 love of virtue. Some, arrived at the rank of Rishis, live in the midst of 

 woods or in the caverns of mountains. They submit themselves to severe 

 penances, recite the Brahminical Mantras and teach them to their dis- 

 ciples. Their sciences are the four Vedas, and the practice of sacrifice. 



