treating of
piety, philosophy, and philanthropy, contain ancient elements, but in
general are of later form. To this age belongs also the whole
collection of J[=a]takas, or 'birth-stories,' of the Buddhas that were
before Gautama, some of the tales of which are historically important,
as they have given rise to Western fables.[56] These birth-stories
represent Buddha (often as Indra) as some god or mortal, and tell what
he did in such or such a form. It is in a future form that, like
Vishnu, who is to come in the _avatar_ of Kalki, the next Buddha will
appear as Maitreya, or the 'Buddha of love.'[57] Some of the stories
are very silly; some, again, are beautiful at heart, but ugly in their
bizarre appearance. They are all, perhaps, later than our era.[58]

The history of Buddhism after the Master's death has a certain analogy
with that of Mohammedanism. That is to say it was largely a political
growth. Further than this, of course, the comparison fails. The
religion was affected by heretical kings, and by _nouveaux riches_,
for it admitted them all into its community on equal terms--no slight
privilege to the haughty nabob or proud king who, if a believer and
follower of Brahman orthodoxy, would have been obliged to bend the
head, yield the path, and fear the slightest frown of any beggar
priest that came in his way.

The M[=a]ruya monarch Acoka adopted Buddhism as a state religion in
the third century B.C., and taught it unto all his people, so that,
according to his own account, he changed the creed of the country from
Brahmanism to Buddhism.[59] He was king over all northern India, from
Kabul to the eastern ocean, from the northern limit of Brahmanic
civilization to its southern boundary. Buddhist missionaries were now
spread over India and beyond it. And here again, even in this later
age, one sees how little had the people to do with Buddha's
metaphysical system. Like the simple confession 'I take refuge in
Buddha, in the doctrine, and in the church' was the only credo
demanded, that cited above: "Buddha has explained the cause of
whatever conditions proceed from a cause, and he has declared their
cessation." In this credo, which is en-graved all over India,
everything is left in confidence to Buddha. However he explained the
reason, that creed is to be accepted without inquiry. The convert took
the patent facts of life, believing that Buddha had explained all, and
based his own belief not on understanding but o