It was probably during the first four or five centuries of our era, and as a result of persecution, that Buddhists, driven from the great cities, retired among the hills of the west, and there constructed those cave-temples which, for their number, vastness, and elaborate structure, continue to excite wonder of all who see them. There are reck oned to be not fewer thon 900 Buddhist excavations still extant in India, nearly all within the presidency of Bombay. How the destruction of the Buddhist faith in Hin dustan came about—whether from internal corruption, or the persecution of powerful princes, adherents of the old faith—we are utterly in the dark. But it is certain that from the time of Hiouen-Thsang's visit, its decay must have been rapid beyond pre cedent; for about the 11th or 12th c., the last traces of it disappear from the Indian peninsula.
What, then, is the nature of this faith, which has been for so long, and is still, the sole light of so many millions of human beings? In answering this question, we must confine ourselves here to a brief outline of the intellectual theory on which the system is based, and of the general character of its morality and ritual observances, as they were conceive(' oy the founder and his more immediate followers; referring for the various forms which the external observances have assumed to the several countries where it is believed and practiced. See BURMAII, CEYLON, CHINA, JAPAN, LAmmsNr.
Buddhism is based on the same views of human existence, and the same philosophy of things in general, that prevailed among the Brahmans. It accepts without questioning, and in its most exaggerated form, the doctrine of the whin lies at the root of so much that is strangtriit the eastern character. Fera'particular account of this important doctrine or notion, which seems ingrained in the constitution of eastern minds, and without a knowledge of which no phase of thought or feeling among them can be understood, the reader is referred to TRANSMIGRATION; while the peculiar cos mogony or system of the universe with which it is associated, and which is substantially the same among Hindus and Buddhists, will be described under HINDUISM. It is suffi cient here to say, that, according to Buddhist belief, when a man dies, he is immediately born again, or appears in a new shape; and that shape may, according to his merit or demerit, be any of the innumerable orders of being composing the Buddhist universe— from a clod to a divinity. If his demerit would not be sufficiently punished by a degraded earthly existence—in the form, for. instance, of a woman or a slave, of a perse cuted or a disgusting animal, of a plant, or even of a piece of inorganic matter—he will be born in some one of the 136 Buddhist hells, situated in the interior of the earth. These places of punishment have a regular gradation in the intensity of the suffering and in the length of time the sufferers live, the least term of life being 10 millions of years, the longer terms being almost beyond the powers of even Indian notation to express. A meritorious life, on the other hand, secures the next birth either in an exalted
and happy position on earth, or as a blessed spirit, or even divinity, in one of the many heavens; in which the least duration of life is about 10 billions of years. But however long the life, whether of misery or of bliss, it has an end, and at its close the individual must be horn again, and may again be either happy or miserable—either a god or, it may be, the vilest inanimate object.* The Buddha himself, before his last birth as Sakyamuin, had gone through, every conceivable form of existence on the earth, in the air, and in the water, in hell and in heaven, and had filled every condition in human life. When he attained the perfect knowledge of the Buddha, he was able to recall all these exist ences; and a great part of the Buddhist legendary literature is taken up in narrating his exploits when he lived as an elephant, as a bird, as a stag, and so forth.
The Buddhist conception of the way in which the quality of actions—which is expressed in Pali by the word karma, including both merit and demerit—determines the future condition of all sentient beings, is peculiar. They do not conceive any god or gods as being pleased or displeased by the actions, and as assigning the actors their future condition by way of punishment or of reward. The very idea of a god, as creating or in any way ruling the world, is utterly absent in the Buddhist system. God is not so much as denied; he is simply not known. Contrary to the opinion once confi dently and generally held, that a nation of atheists never existed, it is no longer to be disputed that the numerous Buddhist nations are essentially atheist; for they know no beings with greater supernatural power than any man is supposed capable of attaining to by virtue, austerity, and science; and a remarkable indication of this startling fact is to be seen in the circumstance that some at least of the Buddhist nations—the Chinese, Mongols,and Thibetans—have no word in their languages to express the notion of God. The future condition of the Buddhist, then, is not assigned him by the Ruler of the universe; the " karma" of his actions determines it by a sort of virtue inherent in the nature of things—by the blind and unconscious concatenation of cause and effect. But the laws by which consequences are regulated seem dark, and even capricious. A had action may lie dormant, as it were, for many existences; the taint, however, is there, and will some time or other break out. A Buddhist is thus never at a loss to account for any calamity that may befall himself or others.