a state of suffering, but is assured of eternal
salvation.

[Footnote 5: _S. B. E._ vol. xl.]

"Then the Blessed One addressed the brethren and said, 'Behold now,
brethren, I exhort you,' saying, 'Decay is inherent in all things
that have come into being. Work out your salvation with diligence!'

"This was the last word of the Tathagata!"

His death or Nirvana forms the era of Buddhist chronology, and the
date has now been approximately fixed with some certainty; it took
place somewhere in the decade 482-472 B.C.

Is Buddhism a Revolt against Brahmanism?--Before proceeding to
discuss the religion to which this somewhat monkish narrative forms
the preface, it is necessary to say a few words on the relation which
that religion is now supposed to hold to the general history of
Indian piety. It was customary, till recently, to regard Buddha as a
great reformer, and his religion as a great revolt against that which
it found prevailing in India. He is credited with having preached
atheism as a reaction against the burdensome worship of too many
gods, with having instituted a great social movement consisting in
the abolition of caste, with having openly denied the authority of
the Vedas, till then unchallenged, and with having rebuked the pride
of Brahmanism by making his order of mendicants the representatives
of his religion. None of these assertions can now be upheld. Instead
of having been a tremendous reaction against Brahmanism it is seen
that Buddhism was the natural outgrowth of that system. The closer
knowledge of both, gained by the opening up of the sacred books of
India, tends to show that much that was formerly thought distinctive
of Buddhism was in reality inherited from Brahmanism. We saw in
dealing with the earlier form of Indian religion that a form of piety
had been struck out in it which made the ascetic independent of
sacrifice, priesthood, even of the gods, all save the one God who is
in all things. In that phase of Indian religion the authority of the
Vedas had already been impugned, an inner discipline had taken the
place of outward worship, the saint had learned to forsake the world.
This turn of religious thought produced all the phenomena of Buddhism
before the period of Gautama. The sannyasin (_vide sup._, chapter
xix.) of Brahmanism is also called bhikku, mendicant; the rules of
the older ascetics are closely similar to those of the Buddhist monk;
their very outfit, their cloak and alms-bowl,