V We are not concerned here with tracing the. rise, progress or decline of Buddhism; if we have at all referred to its cxcrescences, it is only to prepare the mind of the reader for the proper understanding of the Mahaiyzinist development. ~ The India of Asoka and of the fourth and third centuries B. C. was in the main Bud- dhist, but it should not for a moment be supposed that the old faith was extinct. The triumph and ascendancy of the teachings of b':il<yamuni and his followers were due in a large measure to the fact that they drew upon, and incorporated into, their creed much that was essentially of Hindu origin. *“' As Dr. Bh:imz’:irkar observes :—
- Prof. Rhys Davids expresses the same views in several
places :--“ There is ample evidence even in the bool-s of the orthodox body of Brahman teachers to show that when Buddhism arose there was not only much discussion of the ultimate problems of life, and a keen interest in the result, but also that there wasa quite unusually open field for all sorts of speculations."—“Buddhism." American Lectures on the History of Religions (18965 p. 26. Again: “ But Buddhism is essentially an Indian system. The Buddha himself was,
