gy; lore of God, special grace,
monotheism, all to him are stolen. We regret that we must
disagree with him in these instances.]

[Footnote 66: Ekata, Dvita, Trita. A Dvita appears as early
as the Rig Veda. Ekata is an analogous formation and is old
also.]

[Footnote 67: Hrish[=i]keca is 'lord of senses,' a common
epithet of Vishnu (Krishna).]

[Footnote 68: i. 107. 1 ff. The spirits of the dead come to
him and comfort him in the shape of birds--an old trait,
compare B[=a]udh. Dh. C[=a]st. ii. 8. 14. 10; Cat. Br. vi.
1. 1. 2.]

[Footnote 69: xii. 300. 20.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PUR[=A]NAS.--EARLY SECTS, FESTIVALS, THE TRINITY.

Archaeologia, 'ancient lore,' is the meaning of Pur[=a]na
_(pur[=a]na_, 'old'). The religious period represented by the extant
writings of this class is that which immediately follows the
completion of the epic.[1] These works, although they contain no real
history, yet reflect history very plainly, and since the advent and
initial progress of Puranic Hinduism, with its various cults, is
contemporary with important political changes, it will be necessary
briefly to consider the circumstances in which arose these new creeds,
for they were destined to become in the future the controlling force
in the development of Hindu religion.

In speaking of the extension of Buddhism we showed that its growth was
influenced in no small degree by the fact that this caste-less and,
therefore, democratic religion was adopted by post-Alexandrine rulers
in the Graeco-Bactrian period. At this time the Aryans were surrounded
with foreigners and pagans. To North and South spread savage or half
Hinduized native tribes, while soldiers of Greece and Bactria encamped
in the valley of the Ganges. Barbarians had long been active in the
North, and some scholars have even claimed that Buddha's own family
was of Turanian origin. The Brahmans then as now retained their
prestige only as being repositories of ancient wisdom; and outside of
their own 'holy land' their influence was reduced to a minimum by the
social and political tendencies that accompanied the growth of
Buddhism. After the fourth century B.C. the heart of India, the
'middle district,' between the Him[=a]laya and Vindhya mountains from
Delhi to Benares,[2] was trampled upon by one Graeco-Bactrian horde
after another. The principal effect of t