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MUDRÂRÂKSHASA.

A, D.-according to Mr. Beal, "Buddhism in India had arrived at a stage of development that foreshadowed its approaching decline and overthrow."*. In the time of Hiouen-Tsang--that is to say, between 629-645-it was, however, still far from being decayed, though it "appears to have fallen very far below the point at which it stood in Fa-Hian's time; to have been equal in power with Brahminism only where it was supported by powerful kings, and to have been generally accepted as the one religion of the country only in Kâs'mîr and the Upper Punjab,in the Magadha and in Guzarât."|* In this condition of things, it was still quite possible, that one who was not himself a Buddhist-and Vis'âkhadatta plainly was not one-should refer to Buddhism in the complimentary terms we find in the passage under discussion. But such a reference is not likely to have been made at any time very far removed from the period of which we are now speaking.## For in the eighth and ninth centuries "Buddhism had become so corrupt, that it no longer attracted the people, and when it lost the favour of kings, it had no power to stand against the opposition of the priests."$$ From these facts alone we may, I think, safely conclude that a work which refers to Buddhism in the way ours does probably dates from a time prior to the ninth century A. D. Some support to this conclusion might be drawn from the circumstance, which is alluded to on this point by the same authority as that from which


*Introduction, p. lsi., and cf. pp. 107-147.

  • |See Rhys Davids' Manual of Buddhism, p. 245; and

Barth's Religions of India, p. 132. On the vicissitudes of the fortunes of Buddhism in India, see also inter alia Beal's Fa-Hian, p. 53; J. R. A, S. (N. S.), Vol. III., p. 105; Burgess's Arch. Surv. Report Vol. II, p. 10; Vol. IV. p. 60; VOL. V., pp. 16, 22; Burnell's South Indian Paleography, p. 114 note; Fergusson's Indian Architecture, pp. 21-25; and Barth's Indian Religions, p. 134.

    1. The argument here is not at all inconsistent with the view expressed by me at

Indian Antiquary, Vol. IX., p. 46; a view to which I still adhere, and which, I find, has been expressed by other scholars also, cf. inter alia Barth's Religions of India, p. 133; Max Muller's India: What it can teach us, pp. 280-307; Indian Antiquary, VOL VII, pp. 2 and 198; see, too, Burnell's South-Iodian Paleography, pp. 104, 111; Fergusson's Indian Archetecturc, p. 23; Journ. Bomb. Br. Roy. As.. Sec., VOL. XII., p. 315. There is, howerer, an obvious difference between mere tolerance by a king-which may have been due, to some extent, to motives of policy-or even support in common with other systems and a positive compliment by an ordinary author. And the gist of the argument in the text lies in this difference. $$ Davids' Buddhism, p. 246--passage which shows that the expressions used by Mr. Pandit at the place referred to in a previous note are too strong for the actual facts of the cace. Cf. also Cunnigbam's Arch. Surv. Report, Vol. VII., P. 198; Indian Antiquary VOL XI., p. 116; Barth's Religions of India, p. 132.

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