A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c7.55

c7.55

The philosophical doctrines of Gautama might be thought to involve inevitably a religion of unhappy gloom and despairing pessimism as cheerless as the austerest form of Calvinism. But in practice they never had that effect, nor have they now in Burma, where the Buddhist population is reputed to be the happiest people upon earth. It would take too long to explain the why and the wherefore, but the fact is certain. Every scene in the relief sculptures of Bharhut or Sāñchī and in the paintings of Ajaṇṭā is full of the joy of life, and proves that the Buddhist Indians of the olden time knew the preciousness of happiness. Popular Buddhism then, as now, was not exactly the same thing as the Buddhism of the scriptures. The worship of the Yaksha sprites, the Nāga water-spirits, and their female consorts, played in ancient Indian Buddhism a part similar to that played by the worship of the Nats in Burma at this day. For the full understanding of Indian Buddhism the works of art are authorities as important and essential as the writings.