leads to the six schools of Hindu
philosophy. On the other hand, the gods have their history. Brahma
remains the great god, but as his character is so undefined he is
little worshipped. Indra, the old national god, yields to Vishnu, the
old sun-god of the three steps (heaven, the air, the earth), who
becomes the favourite deity. The stern and destructive S'iva is a new
figure, and seems to be partly an adaptation of a god of the savage
aborigines: his worship is the most fanatical. These three, the
Creator, the Upholder, and the Destroyer, form the Trimurti, or
divine trinity of India,--a trinity arrived at not by unfolding the
riches of the one great god, but by compounding the claims of three
gods who were rivals. The doctrine of incarnation is also found here.
Vishnu has ten avatars or incarnations in human form; he comes down
to the earth when there is a special reason for his interference. In
these avatars, especially in Krishna, the dark god, whose exploits as
a hero are told in the great epic the Mahabharata, the need is to
some extent met, of which both Buddhism and Christianity lay hold, of
a divine figure who is not too far away from man, and who can be
regarded with personal affection.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED

Most of the books mentioned at the end of last chapter deal also with
Brahmanism.

Of the Brahmanic literature given in the Sacred Books of the East,
the following may be mentioned:--

Vols. i. and xv. Upanishads.

Vols. ii. and xiv. Sacred Laws of the Aryas.

Vol. vii. The Institutes of Vishnu.

Vols. xii., xxvi., and xli. The Satapatha-Brahmana (Sacrificial
Rituals).

Vol. xxv. Manu.

Vols. xxix., and xxx. Grihya-Sutras (Domestic Ceremonies).

Vol. xxxiv. Vedic Hymns. xlvi. Hymns to Agni.

Vols. xlii.-xliv. Hymns of the Atharva-Veda.

Vols. xxxiv., xxxviii., xlviii. Vedanta Sutras.

Muir's _Sanscrit Texts_.

Weber, _Indische Skizzen_.

Haug, _Aitareya Brahmana_.

CHAPTER XX
INDIA

III. _Buddhism_

In Buddhism the great movement of Indian religion works itself out to
its ultimate conclusion and reaches a stage beyond which there can be
no advance. Here we have a religion, if such it may be called,
without a god, without prayer, without priesthood or worship; a
religion which owes its great success, not to its theology, nor to
its ritual, since it has neither, but to its moral sentiment and to
its external organisation. Originating in the centre of I