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BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.
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persons of various castes, comprising even Bralımans, who introduced a new system of hierarchical organisation, for that seems to have been the chief, if not the sole innovation intended by the first propagator's of Buddhism. The doctrine of transmigration was common to the Buddhists and to every division of the Brahmanical Hindus: the eternity of matter and tlie periodical dissolution and renovation of the world were also faniliar to all the schools; the Buddhists did not abolish caste, they acknowledged it fully as a social institution, but they maintained that it was merged in the religious character, and that all those who adopted a religious life were thereby emancipated from its restrictions, and were of one community: the moral precepts which they inculcated, with at least one exception—the prohibition of taking away animal life, were common to them and to the Brahmans; and the latter seem to have adopted from the Buddhists, very possibly, the merit of Ahinsú: the Buddhists recognised the existence of all the gods of the Brahmanical pantheon, with perhaps one or two exceptions which may have been of later date, such as Krishna for instance: the notion of final extinction or Nirvana, although more unqualified, was not exclusively confined to the Buddhists. In short, the philosophy of Buddhism, as is observed by Mr. Gogerly, was essentially eclectic, and the main point of disagreement was the political institution of a religious Society which should comprise all classes, all castes, women as well as inen, and should throw off the authority of
