dly ever has been so isolated. It is true that Indian mythology
has not always accompanied the spread of Buddhism. There is much of it
in Tibet and Mongolia but less in China and Japan and still less in
Burma. But probably in every part of Asia the Buddhist missionaries
found existing a worship of nature spirits and accepted it, sometimes
even augmenting and modifying it. In every age the elect may have risen
superior to all ideas of gods and heavens and hells, but for any just
historical perspective, for any sympathetic understanding of the faith
as it exists as a living force to-day, it is essential to remember this
background and frame of fantastic but graceful mythology.

Many later Mahayanist books are full of dharanis or spells. Dharanis are
not essentially different from mantras, especially tantric mantras
containing magical syllables, but whereas mantras are more or less
connected with worship, dharanis are rather for personal use, spells to
ward off evil and bring good luck. The Chinese pilgrim Hsuean Chuang[721]
states that the sect of the Mahasanghikas, which in his opinion arose in
connection with the first council, compiled a Pitaka of dharanis. The
tradition cannot be dismissed as incredible for even the Digha-Nikaya
relates how a host of spirits visited the Buddha in order to impart a
formula which would keep his disciples safe from harm. Buddhist and
Brahmanic mythology represent two methods of working up popular legends.
The Mahabharata and Puranas introduce us to a moderately harmonious if
miscellaneous society of supernatural personages decently affiliated to
one another and to Brahmanic teaching. The same personages reappear in
Buddhism but are analogous to Christian angels or to fairies rather than
to minor deities. They are not so much the heroes of legends, as
protectors: they are interesting not for their past exploits but for
their readiness to help believers or to testify to the true doctrine.
Still there was a great body of Buddhist and Jain legend in ancient
India which handled the same stories as Brahmanic legend--e.g. the tale
of Krishna--but in a slightly different manner. The characteristic form
of Buddhist legend is the Jataka, or birth story. Folk-lore and sagas,
ancient jokes and tragedies, the whole stock in trade of rhapsodists and
minstrels are made an edifying and interesting branch of scripture by
simply identifying the principal characters with the Buddha, his friends
and his enem