ocodile, or a serpent, which wriggles on a purple
cover."[159]

That the religions of India have degenerated is equally clear. The fact
that all the medieval and modern reforms look back for their ideals to
the earlier and purer Aryan faith, might of itself afford sufficient
proof of this, but we have also abundant evidence which is direct. In
the Rig Veda there is little polytheism, and no idolatry. There is no
doctrine of caste, no base worship of Siva with the foul enormities of
Saktism.[160] In the most ancient times there was no doctrine of
transmigration, nor any notion that human life is an evil to be overcome
by self-mortification. Woman was comparatively free from the oppressions
which she suffered in the later periods. Infanticide had not then been
sanctioned and enjoined by religious authority, and widow burning and
the religious murders of the Thugs were unknown. And yet so deeply were
these evils rooted at the beginning of the British rule in India, that
the joint influence of Christian instruction and Governmental authority
for a whole century has not been sufficient to overcome them.

Buddhism in the first two or three centuries had much to commend it.
King Ashoka left monuments of practical beneficence and philanthropy
which have survived to this day. But countless legends soon sprang up to
mar the simplicity of Gautama's ethics. Corruptions crept in.
Compromises were made with popular superstitions and with Hindu
Saktism.[161] The monastic orders sank into corruption, and by the ninth
century of our era the system had been wholly swept from India. The
Buddhism of Ceylon was planted first by the devout son and daughter of a
king, and for a time was characterized by great purity and devotion. But
now it exists only in name, and a prominent missionary of the country
declared, in the London Missionary Conference of 1888, that nine-tenths
of the Cingalese were worshippers of serpents or of spirits.[162] The
prevailing Buddhism in Thibet, from the eighth to the tenth century, was
an admixture with Saktism and superstition. Where the system has
survived in any good degree of strength, it has been due either to
government support or to an alliance with other religions. The history
of Taouism has shown a still worse deterioration. Laotze, though
impracticable as a reformer, was a profound philosopher. His teachings
set forth a lofty moral code. Superstition he abominated. His ideas of
deity were cold and ration