1849.] Brahmans and Buddhists, 91 



to the inference that while in that locality their religion was that of the 

 Vedas, solar and theistical, or agni-istic. 



At the time of Alexander's invasion, brahmans, according to our accep- 

 tation of the term, do not appear on the stage — at least not as religion- 

 ists — so that it is to be concluded that if they had a well denned reli- 

 gion, it was not an obtrusive one — while it seems to be yet doubtful if 

 brahman was not a name subsequently given to the whole tribe, from 

 the title of Brahmana, or pure, having been applied to the ascetics, whose 

 haunts they perhaps chiefly contributed to fill. 



The brahmans first start into public notice as intelligent, if not scien- 

 tific and ambitious laymen, making themselves necessary to kings, and 

 finally imposing on them their spiritual yoke. They had already begun 

 to penetrate beyond their original and circumscribed bounds, when Bud- 

 dha appeared, but all of India, which was in their front and flanks, must 

 then have been unbrahmanized, and they had not reached Bengal until 

 about B. C. 300 — for Mr. Colebrooke informs us that the brahmans of 

 Bengal are descended from five priests (only) who were invited (as astro- 

 logers perhaps,) from Canyacubja, by Adisura, king of Gaura. There 

 were then too some Sareswatta brahmans and a few Vaidicas in Bengal.* 



There is, I apprehend, no proof that the brahmans had temples in 

 India previous to the building of Buddhist Chaityas, and Viharos, or 

 until Buddhism was on the decline. 



There is no proof I believe that any brahmanical epigraphic or other 

 inscriptions exist of a date prior to the earliest Buddhist ones of a simi- 

 lar description. 



The sudden appearance of some of the earlier gods of the brahmans, 

 when the latter began to see in the near vista a golden ladder reaching 

 to the throne, shews that these gods had probably held a place in their 

 creed for a long while before, if we are not to impute the monstrous 

 birth to an impure, but a ready, fertile, and vivid imagination acting in 

 concert with, and impelled by the new circumstances of their position. 



There is no proof what the actual written character and language of 

 the brahmans was at the period of their arrival in India. If these 

 were Sanscrit we should be able to trace them to some more occidental 

 region. 



If both, which is probable, were rude and unpolished, it would be 

 * As. Res. Vol. V. p. 66. 



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