1849.] Brahmans and Buddhists. 99 



make, or at least to preserve, any clear account of their own advent in 

 India, they could not, while confined to the Punjab, have had much 

 either of a political or religious nature — -which their pride would have 

 allowed them to register. 



But let us turn to their debouchment on the plains of India, and we 

 shall see that when they had at last set their feet on the necks of the 

 Buddhists, what marvellous aptitude they displayed for the crafts of 

 the builder, the sculptor, and the engraver. 



And here again we may pause to enquire or conjecture, whence such 

 acquisitions were derived. We want much indeed two series of draw- 

 ings for comparison. One of the architectural and inscriptive monu- 

 ments of the Buddhists, and another of those of the Brahmans and 

 Hindus — arranged chronologically. That the Greeks of the Punjab 

 taught the former the art of sculpture is highly probable, and will ac- 

 count for the best specimens their temples afford. This will be more 

 probable, if, as I suspect, the best specimens ofBrahmanical and Hindu 

 sculpture were posterior to Greek domination in Bactria, and to Greek 

 influence in the countries around it. 



It may be allowed and we may reasonably believe, that India was 

 densely peopled when the brahmans arrived on its frontier. 



If this had not been the case, that tribe would not have entangled 

 itself in the Punjab, but would have sought out pleasanter quarters on 

 the banks of the Ganges or some part of central or southern India. That 

 they did not do so, is proof that they feared the people then possessing 

 India. It is not very probable then that the minority in this early 

 stage of their progress should be able to impose their own customs, 

 laws, and religion upon the majority. For such a consummation it 

 would be requisite first to shew, if indeed that even would be sufficient, 

 that the then occupants of India were a savage, unlettered, and unreli- 

 gionized race or races, ready to view the strangers as demigods, and to 

 bend their necks to their civil and spiritual domination — and to yield 

 up their native freedom to the unmitigated thraldom of caste. 



The brahmans found caste, I suspect, a social arrangement of long 

 endurance, and only altered it to the extent of placing themselves on 

 the highest bench. For as caste was a social system of the Persians, we 

 must suppose the Indians, if they did come from that country, to have 

 brought it with them. 



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