The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c16.5

c16.5

It is very typical of the errors of the Western historian that this movement has always been described as the beginning of the revival of Brahmanism and of the decadence of Buddhism. Brahman thinkers, as the intellectual aristocracy of India, may have been the most active leaders in propagating this mission of the fourth century; they had been equally active in spreading the message of the Buddha over Asia. The Bhagavad-Gîta did not denounce the teaching of Buddhism; it only taught that the Dharma of the Aryan people was to be readjusted to meet the changing conditions of every age. It was the ancient doctrine of Yoga restated. Besides the Yoga of Spiritual Knowledge (*jnâna-yoga*) which the Buddhists preached as a means of self-realisation, there was the Yoga of Action (*karma-yoga*). Now was the time for action, not for contemplation. The balance of the cosmos could only be maintained by perfect equilibrium of its three forces—sâttvic, râjasic, and tâmasic. The force of goodness, or truth (*sattvam*), alone could not maintain its order. The Buddha had been the inspired teacher of sattvam; the truth