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BUDDHIST INDIA
wanted nost. And in deserting the faith of their forefathers to adopt other views it is by no means certain that they were not first really converted, that they gave up anything they theinselves still wanted to keep. The most able of them had ceased philosophically to care for any such divinities as the Vedic ones, and it was a matter of indifference to them what gods the people followed. A small and decreasing minority continued to keep alive the Aickering lamp of Vedic learning; and to them the Indian peoples will one day look back with especial gratitude and esteem.
This rapid sketch of the general history of language and literature in India is enough to show that there also, precisely as in Europe, a dominant factor in the story is the contest between the temporal and spiritual powers. Guelph and Ghibelin, priest and noble, rajput and brahmin, these are the contending forces. From India we had had hitherto only that version of the long war, of its causes and of its consequences, which has been preserved by the priestly faction. They make out that they were throughout the leading party. Perhaps so. But it is well to consider also the other side ; and not to forget the gravity of the error we should commit if we should happen, in reliance on the priestly books, to antedate, by about a thousand years, the victory of the priests; to suppose, in other words, that the con. dition of things was the same at the beginning of the struggle as it was at the end.
It is difficult to avoid being misunderstood. So I would repeat that the priests were always there,
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
