Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/78

HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. Vaishnava sects are, as might be expected, the most numerous. Indeed if it were not that so much of the present Hindu religion is an importation into the south, and was taught to the Dravidians by Brahmans from the north, it would be difficult to understand how the Vaishnava religion ever took root there, except in succession to Buddhism itself, which existed to a considerable extent, but where it, too, was an importation. If, however, it be correct to assume that Saivism had its origin to the northward of the Himalayas, among the Tartar tribes of these regions, there is no difficulty in under- standing its presence in Bengal to the extent to which it is found to prevail there. But, on the other hand, nothing can be more natural than that an aboriginal Naga people, who worshipped trees and serpents, should become Buddhists, as Buddhism was originally understood, and, being Buddhists, should slide downwards into the corruptions of the present Vaishnava form of cult, which is that most fashionable and prevalent in the north of India. One of the most startling facts brought out by the census, is that about one-third of the population of Eastern Bengal are Muhammadan 25,500,000, out of 74,750,000 while in the United Provinces the Muhammadans are scarcely more than i-6th 4,567,000 among 25,430,000; and in Madras little more than i-i5th. It thus looks more like a matter of feeling than of race ; it seems that as the inhabitants of Bengal were Buddhists, and clung to that faith long after it had dis- appeared in other parts of India, they came in contact with the Moslim religion before they had adopted the modern form of Vaishnavism, and naturally preferred a faith which acknow- ledged no caste, and freed them from the exactions and tyranny of a dominant priesthood. The Muhammadan religion is in fact much more like Buddhism than are any of the modern Hindu forms, and when this non-Aryan casteless population came in contact with it and they were free to choose, after the mysterious evaporation of their old beliefs, they adopted the religion most resembling that in which they had been brought up. It is only in this way that it seems possible to account for the predominance of the Moslim religion in Lower Bengal l and in the Panjab, where the followers of the Prophet out- number the Hindus, in the proportion of 3 to 2, or as 14,000,000 in a population of 20,300,000. 1 In Bihar and West Bengal, the Muhammadans number 4,050,000, or less than 14 per cent, of the population, whilst in Central, North, and East Bengal, they number 20,870,000 or quite 60 per cent., and in East Bengal alone, there are 66 per cent, of Moslims or 11,220,000 ; in several of the districts they form quite three-fourths of the population.