pic heroes, and believes the whole poem to have been more or less
affected by anti-Buddhistic feeling. If this were so one would have to
give over to Buddhism much also of the humanitarianism to be found in
the moral precepts that are so thickly strewn through the various
books. In our opinion these signs-manual of Buddhism are not
sufficiently evident to support Holtzmann's opinion for the whole
poem, and it is to be noted that the most taking evidence is drawn
from the latest parts of the work. It is just here that we think it
necessary to draw the line, for while much of late date has been added
in earlier books, yet in the books which one may call wholly late
additions appear the strongest indications of Buddhistic
influence.[52] A great deal of the Book of Peace is Puranic, the book
as a whole is a Vishnuite addition further enlarged by Civaite
interpolation. The following book is, again, an offset to the Book of
Peace, and is as distinctly Civaite in its conception as is the Book
of Peace Vishnuite.[53] It is here, in these latest additions, which
scarcely deserve to be ranked with the real epic, that are found the
most palpable touches of Buddhism. They stand to the epic proper as
stands to them the Genealogy of Vishnu, a further addition which has
almost as much claim to be called 'part of the epic' as have the books
just mentioned, only that it is more evidently the product of a later
age, and represents the Krishna-Vishnu sect in its glory after the
epic was completed. Nevertheless, even in these books much that is
suspected of being Buddhistic may be Brahmanic; and in any concrete
case a decision, one way or the other, is scarcely to be made on
objective grounds. Still more is this the case in earlier books. Thus,
for instance, Holtzmann is sure that a conversation of a slave and a
priest in the third book is Buddhistic because the man of low caste
would not venture to instruct a Brahman.[54] But it is a command
emphasized throughout the later Brahmanism that one must take refuge
in the ship that saves; and in passages not suspected of Buddhistic
tendency Bh[=i]shma takes up this point, and lays down the rule that,
no matter to which caste a man belongs, his teaching if salutary is to
be accepted. It is even said in one passage of the Book of Peace that
one ought to learn of a slave, and in another that all the four castes
ought to hear the Veda read:[55] "Let him get instruction even from a
C[=u]dra if he can