rival religion of the Brahmins expelled it. Which of the
two was the older is uncertain. Still more difficult is it to determine
how far each is a separate substantive mythological growth, or merely a
modification of the rival creed.

I lay but little stress upon the internal evidence derivable from the
character of the religions themselves. Both are complicated and
artificial--both, perhaps, equally so. In contrast, however, to the more
speculative and transcendental points, suggestive of recent development,
there are others indicative of great antiquity. Nevertheless, it is as
difficult to affirm that the primitive parts of the one creed are older
than the most primitive parts of the other, as it is to affirm that the
highest transcendentalisms are more recent.

The fact of the oldest inscriptions being in the Pali dialect, is
favourable to the greater antiquity of Buddhism, but it is not
conclusive. The notion that Sanskrit itself is comparatively recent, of
course subtracts from that of Brahminism. But this is far from being
admitted. Besides which, it by no means follows, that because Brahminism
is, comparatively speaking, recent, Buddhism must be ancient.

The best clue in this labyrinth of conflicting opinions is the study of
the superstitions of the ruder tribes of the hill-ranges of India
itself, of the sub-Himalayas, and of the Indo-Chinese peninsula; the
result of which investigation will be that that creed which has most
points in common with the primitive and unmodified mythologies of the
Tamulian stock, and of those branches of the monosyllabic populations
nearest akin thereto, has also the best claim to be considered as the
older.

In my own mind, I believe that the _Bedo_ of the Rajmahali mountaineers,
is the _Batho_ of the Bodo, the _Pennu_ of the Khonds, and the
_Potteang_ of the Kukis,[54]--name for name. I believe this without
doubt or hesitation. But if I ask myself the import of this identity,
the answer is unsatisfactory. There is doubt and hesitation in
abundance. _Bedo_, _Batho_, _Petto_, and _Potteang_, _may_ represent the
germ of what afterwards became _Buddh-ism_. They may exhibit the Indian
creed in its _rudiments_. True. But they may also represent it in its
_fragments_, so that _Bedo_ and _Batho_ may be but _Buddh_, distorted in
form, and but imperfectly comprehended in import. In our own Gospel, the
name for the place of punishment, which the Greeks called _Hades_, and
the Hebrews typ