BUDDHISM AND HINDUISM 163
These words may be taken as the keynote of this first period in the making of Hinduism. The
national faith will form itself henceforth like a great white SANKHA (conch-shell) coiled in broadening spirals about the Vedic pillar. The theological
Iswara believed in by the Brahmans is referred to vaguely but conveniently by themselves and others at this time as Brahma. He is the God to whom the sacrifices are made. But in the presence of
Buddha and the memory of Buddha a new and higher conception begins to prevail, and as time goes on this higher conception takes name and
form as Shiva or Mahadeva. Hinduism is thus born, not as a system, but as a process of thought,
capable of registering in its progressive development the character of each age through which it passes.
It follows, then, that the heirs of Buddha-bhakti, so to speak, in India, might be on the one hand Jainas, or on the other Saivite Hindus. These were the two churches whose children might be born as if in the shadow of Buddha. And it is in accordance with this that we find Saivism and Jainism subsequently dividing between them such places of Buddhist history as Benares and Rajgir.
