The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.7

v1.c11.7

Remains of Buddhist monuments have been met with in almost every part of Orissa: Balasore, Jājapur, Asighar, Nālti, and different parts of the Puri district afford them in pretty abundance; but the most important are the caves of Udayagiri, and the carved rock of Dhauli. Both contain Pāli inscriptions in the oldest Indian, or the Lat, character, ³ and are unquestionably works of the third and fourth centuries before Christ. Taking this as the starting-point we have a period of over a thousand years to the time of Hiouen Thsang during which [**136**] Buddhism prevailed in the country. It is not to be supposed, however, that Buddhism must necessarily date its introduction into the country from the time of these inscriptions. It may fairly be inferred that the first missionaries of that faith must have made their appearance long before the promulgation of the edicts of Aśoka. It would be equally wide of the mark to imagine that it ever was universally accepted by the Uriyās, for there is nothing to show that Buddhism did succeed in any part of India, much less in Orissa, entirely to extirpate the pre-existing religion of the people. As a reformation of the current faith, it fought its way, and for a time, as the state religion, held its supremacy; but the Buddhist records themselves admit that it always lived side by side with Hinduism. In the middle of the seventh century, Hiouen Thsang found "the followers of error and of the truth living pell-mell" in the capital, and "many heretics, who frequented the temples of the Devas". ⁴ According to the Siyuki (*Lib.* X. fol. 10), amidst a hundred monasteries and ten thousand monks, "there were fifty temples of the gods" ⁵ devoted to Hinduism. This proportion must doubtless have varied considerably at different times, and under particular circumstances; but there is nothing to justify the conclusion that one of the two contending elements was ever wanting in Orissa, since the day of the first introduction of Buddhism into it.