actions during this
brief term of human life, which their less reflective forefathers had at
one time held, appeared to them to involve a moral impossibility. The
equality of all men, which Buddha preached with regard to the final
goal, the _nirvana_, or extinction of _karma_ and thereby of all future
existence and pain, and that goal to be reached, not by the performance
of penance and sacrificial worship, but by practising virtue, could not
fail to be acceptable to many people. It would be out of place here to
dwell on the rapid progress and internal development of the new
doctrine. Suffice it to say that, owing no doubt greatly to the
sympathizing patronage of ruling princes, Buddhism appears to have been
the state religion in most parts of India during the early centuries of
our era. To what extent it became the actual creed of the body of the
people it will probably be impossible ever to ascertain. One of the
chief effects it produced on the worship of the old gods was the rapid
decline of the authority of the orthodox Brahmanical dogma, and a
considerable development of sectarianism. (See HINDUISM.)

See H.H. Wilson, _Essays on the Religion of the Hindus_; J. Muir,
_Original Sanskrit Texts_; M. Muller, _History of Ancient Sanskrit
Literature_; C. Lassen, _Indische Alterthumskunde_; Elphinstone,
_History of India_, ed. by E.B. Cowell. (J. E.)

BRAHMAPUTRA, a great river of India, with a total length of 1800 m. Its
main source is in a great glacier-mass of the northernmost chain of the
Himalayas, called Kubigangri, about 82 deg. N., and receives various
tributaries including one formerly regarded as the true source from the
pass of Mariam La (15,500 ft.), which separates its basin from the
eastern affluents of the Mansarowar lakes, at least 100 m. south-east of
those of the Indus. It flows in a south-easterly direction for 170 m.,
and then adheres closely to a nearly easterly course for 500 m. more,
being at the end of that distance in 29 deg. 10' N. lat. It then bends
north-east for 150 m. before finally shaping itself southwards towards
the plains of Assam. Roughly speaking, the river may be said so far to
run parallel to the main chain of the Himalaya at a distance of 100 m.
therefrom. Its early beginnings take their rise amidst a mighty mass of
glaciers which cover the northern slopes of the watershed, separating
them from the sources of the Gogra on the south; and there is evidence
that two o