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REAL EXISTENCE OF BUDDHA.
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evidence of this spirit, may be seen by the account we have already given of other rationalist philosophies (p. 26, etc). But while these gave a more or less nominal assent to the Vedas, Buddhism declared the good man's independence of Brahmans and Vedas, and his power of working out his own salvation. It put forward at once a higher ideal of a religious life and claimed a release from the bonds of Pharisaism.
When we come to examine into the life of the supposed founder of Buddhism, we find great uncertainty even as to the period at which he lived. Many good The founder's authorities formerly placed him in the sixth period. and seventh centuries B.C.; but the latest and apparently the most reasonable view assigns him to the fifth century B.C. and places his death about 420-400 B.C.
How far Brahmanism was directly connected with the origin of Buddhism can probably never be known; but the deity "Brahman” of the earlier religion is adopted, amplified, and subdivided in early Buddhism; and no doubt the encouragement of the hermit and ascetic lives had led to the formation of communities of hermits and ascetics who may be taken as the prototypes of Buddhist monastic orders. Probably there were several sects of new religionists, who did not stick closely to the Veda and professed to have found a more excellent way, of whom the Buddhists and Jains have alone remained.
We need not doubt that Buddhism had a founder, though less may be attributable to him than is commonly imagined. Those who have believed that the Real story of Buddha was altogether a myth repre- existence of senting a sun-hero have had to construct more Buddha. imaginary tales than those they seek to destroy. The study of the Buddhist accounts, as preserved in Ceylon, written in the Pali, or sacred language of Buddhism (an early modification from Sanskrit), shows that from a very early time (supposed to be considerably before the Christian era) their religion has been believed to have been founded by the Knowing or Enlightened One (Buddha), also designated the Exalted One (Bhagava). But it must be confessed that we have no genuine ancient biography
