A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c7.59

c7.59

Hinduism, from one point of view the religion and from another the complex social system taught and regulated by the Brahman caste, is of immemorial antiquity. Ever in a state of incessant movement and change, like the ocean it yet remains the same, ready and able to engulf the creeds, customs, and rituals of weaker systems. Buddhism and Jainism, both heretic sects as regarded from the orthodox Brahman standpoint, struggled against their destiny for long ages and in the end succumbed. The beginning of the marked Hindu revival may be dated in the fourth century after Christ. From that time until the closing years of the twelfth century, when the fierce Muslim raiders quenched in blood the light of Buddhism in its last Magadhan stronghold, the teaching of the Brahmans steadily gained ground, so that Buddhism in its later stages became almost indistinguishable from Hinduism, more especially in its Saiva form.