The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

114

THE

MAHAYAnA SCHOOL

GreatVehicle,todistinguishthem

fromthoseofthe Hinaydna,

orLittleVehicle,

whichremainedsteadfast

totheearlytea'ching

ofBuddhist

philosophy.

Itisacommonbut

erroneousviewofthe historyof Indo-

Aryanreligion toregard this new

movement as theheraldof

whatEuropeans describe as the

triumph of Brahmanism,or

of Hinduism over Buddhism. Brahmans

were among

the

first

disciplesof the Buddha, and itwas the

Brahman

accept-

ance

of his teaching in the Deer Park at Sarnathwhich set

the seal of

victoryupon the Enlightenment under the Bodhi

tree. The

new Brahmanical teaching which sprangup later

within

Buddhismitself,and eventuallysupersededtheoriginal

doctrines

of Buddha, was as far removed from the older

orthodox Brahmanism of those who remained outside the

Buddhist pale as it was from the Buddha's own teaching.

ThephilosophyofYoga,

of

whichPatanjaliwas thechief

exponent,contained byimplicationthedoctrineofIncarnation

;

forifthesoulwithin thehuman

body

could

beandwasjoined

with the Divine through the spiritual

exercises enjoined by

Yoga,itfollowed that the DivinityItself could

also bemani-

festedtotheworld in the personof

the saints and seerswho

taught this spiritual wisdom. And

as soon as Buddhist

philosophy admitted the possibility of

a personal God, it

became inevitable that the Buddha

should bevenerated as a

manifestationof

the SupremeDeity,

though hehimselfmight

nothave

asserted

such a claim.

Similarly Krishna, the hero

of the Mahibharata,

andthe inspired

author ofthe Bhagavad

Gitawhichcontained

the philosophy

oftheVaishnavaitesect,

wasregardedas

oneofthe incarnations

ofVishnu.

The Kushan

dynasty, under

Kadphises I, established

itself in North-west

Indiacirca

45

B.C., when the ferment of

these new ideas was

beginning

to transform the primitive

teachings ofHinduism.

The

western bordersof the Kushan