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BUDDHIST INDIA
world-history point of view, of the sixth century B.C. the best dividing line, if there ever was any, between ancient history and modern, between the old order and the new would be sufficient excuse, if one were needed, for a somewhat detailed consideration of this particular point.
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In India, as elsewhere, the whole of the popular animistic notions mentioned in the last chapter, and no doubt others also, survived in full force. But no one man believed in them all, or even knew of them all. In that part of the priestly literature which has come down to us a certain selected portion of these beliefs is taken, as it were, under priestly patronage, has received the stamp of respectability, has been given such social rank as the priests could confer. They seldom, perhaps never, stepped outside the charmed circle of animistic magic. But what they chose was probably, on the whole, of a better kind than what they left to itself. Even so the contents of the priestly books on ritual, though a rich mine of materials for a history of magic and superstition, are unspeakably banal. M. Sylvain Lévi, the author of the most authoritative work on this subject, say's in the introduction to his summary of the Brāhmaṇa theory of sacrifice :
"It is difficult to imagine anything more brutal and more material than the theology of the Brahmanas. Notions which usage afterwards gradually refined, and clothed with a garb of morality, take us aback by their savage realism."
Or again:
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
