Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c4.23

c4.23

Had the difference of doctrine taught in the heretical schools been confined to tenets of a merely speculative nature, they would, probably, have encountered little opposition, and excited little enmity among the Brahmanical class, of which, latitude of opinion is a very common characteristic. The founder of the Atheistical school, however, VRIHASPATI, attacks both the *Védas* and the *Brahmans*, and asserts that the whole of the Hindu system is a contrivance of the Priesthood, to secure a means of livelihood for themselves,† whilst the *Bauddhas* and *Jainas*, equally disregarding the *Védas* and the *Brahmans*, the practice and opinions of the Hindus, invented a set of gods for themselves, and deposed the ancient pantheon: these aggressions provoked resentment: the writings of these sects are alluded to with every epithet of anger and contempt, and they are all anathematised as heretical and atheistical: more active measures than anathemas, it may be presumed, were had recourse to: the followers of VRIHASPATI, having no worship at all, easily eluded the storm, but the *Bauddhas* of Hindustan were annihilated by its fury, and the *Jainas* apparently evaded it with difficulty, although they have undoubtedly survived its terrors, and may now defy its force.