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VI
BUDDHISM
1. We have described, very shortly though, those schools of philoscphy who take Vedas as their guide. We are now entering upon another school-one of the two which have discarded the Vedas and followed their own lines of thought. Buddhism is one of them. A philosophy is not born in a day and therefore to say that Buddha while sitting under the Bo-tree was inspired as it were with the truths which he afterwards circulated has no meaning. Truths are not reached in a moment. Sciences and arts are not discovered in a day and therefore Buddha who was a Hindu by birth and a follower of the Brahmanical faith must have been the outcome of his time.
Six centuries before Christ, India witnessed the commencement of a great revolution. The Brahmanical religion had been practised and proclaimed for centuries of years. The gods of the Rig-Veda whom the ancient had invoked and worshipped lovingly and fervently had come to be regarded as so many names and fre and 341 raised no distinct ideas and no grateful emotions. The simple libations of the ATA juice which the old #fits had offered to their gods had developed into cumbrous ceremonials, elaborate rites, unmeaning forms. The descendants of those #sfets had now stepped forth as a powerful and hereditary caste and claimed the right to perform elaborate religious rites and utter sacred prayers for the people. The people were taught to believe that they earned merit by having these rites performed and prayers uttered by hired priests,
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