Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1894 — NO BUDDHISTS IN INDIA [ARTICLE]

NO BUDDHISTS IN INDIA

Marion Crawford Corrects a Very Common Impression. Marion Crawford is a true cosmopolite, equally at home in Benares or on Broadway, and yet his imagination seems mostly dominated by the things of the Orient. In the April nuniber of The Century he has an interesting article on “Godsof India,” treating the subject iu his own graceful, attractive way. India has served many gods, he savs, and the monuments raised in their honor are countless. It appears to be generally believed at the present day that the religion of India is Buddhism. How this common impression gained ground it is hard to say. When Sir Edwin Arnold published “The Light of Asia,” he did not think it necessary to state that Gautama the Master had no longer any following in the country which witnessed his birth and holy life; but Sir Edwin’s book produced a religious revival, or something very like it, among a certain class of semi-intelli-gent readers who are continually foragingfor some new titbit of religion with which to tickle the dull sense of their immortality into a relish for hpaven. There are no Buddhists in India. There are many in Ceylon, and there is a sect of them in Nepal, an independent territory to the north, on the border of Buddhistic Tibet. The religion vanished from India in the early centuries of the Christian eraThe neo-Brahmans set up anti-Bud-dhas, so to speak, in the figures ol Krishna, Mahadeva, and Rama—demigods and idols of the great neoBrahmanic religions, Vishnu-worship and Siva-worship; and these swepl everything else before them until the Mohammedan conquest; and at the present day, in one shape or another, these forms of belief are adhered tc by five sixths of the population, the remainder being Mussulmans. The Buddhists are gone, though not without leaving behind them a rich legacy of philosophic thought, and many monuments of their artistic genius. Circumstances Alter Cases, Texas Siftings. Man (to frienjd)- -Ycu didn’t see to treat that gentlaraan with politeness. Friend —I spoke rather roughly, I admit. “You have changed toward him. The other day I saw you cordially shaking hands with him.” “Yes; he owed mo theu, but he has paid me, consequently you see 1 am no longer under obligations tc him." Something in It. Texas Sifting*. Mr. Morris Park —What a splendid purse you have got there! Mr. Manhattan Beach—A birthday present from my wife. “But was there anything inside of it?” “Of course. The unpaid bill lot the purse." An Objection Removed. Texas Sifting*. Daughter—No, father, I cannot marry that man. He has red hair. Father* —But, my daughter, that objection does not amount to anything. Don't you notice that he is growing quite bald and in a short time he will not have a single red hair on his head?