Kalpasutra

Author(s): J Stevenson
Publisher: Oriental Translation Fund London

Page 20

xviii
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
est glory, occasioned the loss of those historical documents, which recorded the largesses and exploits of the sovereigns of a hostile faith. During the early ages, the religious warfare in India was carried on, as far as we can learn, chiefly by the legitimate weapons of discussion and argument, though the edicts of Asoka, no doubt, had arguments founded on the logic of the Emperor, as well as on that of the Dialectician. The open practice of sacrifice, and other Brahmanical rites, was prohibited ; but there was no reason for supposing that, while the Buddhists had the superiority, they ever so far contradicted the precepts of their religion as to shed the blood of their fellow creatures in a holy war. The same cannot be said of the Brahmans, who themselves admit that, under the direction of Kumarilla Bhatta, about the eighth century of our era, carnal weapons were employed to put down the Buddhistical and exalt the Saiva faith.
The last division of the Kalpa Sútra is a digest of monkish rules, to guide the sages during the Paryushana, or Lenten period, a section of the book which requires no remark. It may be useful, how