________________
150
BUDDHIST INDIA
religion as shotin in bralimin book's. Surely, then, the brahmins must have been predominant in the intellectual life of the period you are considering."
“ These are not two independent testimonies,” one would reply. “The European writers would be perfectly willing to consider other texts, if they only had them. They have been perfectly right in using the material before thein. And in editing texts they naturally chose first those nearest at hand. But even so, with practically only priestly books to judge by', they are by no means unaniinous in accepting the views of those texts as to the exclusive supremacy of the brahmins in early times."
Consider, for instance, the opinion of Professor Bhandarkar-himself, be it noted, a high-caste brahmin, and not only the most distinguished of native scholars, but so versed in the methods of historical criticism that his opinion is entitled to special weight. In a strikingly suggestive and important paper' he calls attention to the evidence of the inscriptions. In the second century after Christ they begin to record grants of land to brahmins. In the third there are also a few instances. From the fourth century onwards there are quite numerous inscriptions showing a marked rise in brahmin influence. The Gupta kings are then stated to have carried out the most complicated and expensive sacrifices, such as the Horsesacrifice. Each of two inscriptions records the
' Journal of the Bombar Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1901.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
