27 41 The Coronation of Râma and Sîtâ Site of Deer-Park, excavated 1905 Miniature Votive Shrine, excavated at Sarnath, 1905, showing the sikra crowned by the amâlika ornament Model of a Nepalese Buddhist Temple The Asoka Column, marking the place where Buddha began to preach. Discovered at Sarnath, 1905 Buddha Preaching. Discovered at Sarnath, 1904 Excavations below Humayun's Tower, Sarnath, 1905 Carving on the Dhamek Stupa Shiva, as Natesa. From a bronze in the Madras Museum A Village Temple in Bengal Gâi Ghât-A Classic Group An old Sacrificial Vessel An old Benares Brocade An old Benares Lota Temple at Dasâsamedh Ghât "Lighting up the recesses of the cave-like shrines" A Sannyâsî's Water-Vessel A Shivaite Rosary "He will sit like a living Buddha, motionless" The Burning Ghát 79 80 82 83 85 88 91 95 96 97 · 101 Carved Snakes at Chauki Ghât A Suttee Stone "Another venerable hermit, seated on a leopard's skin" Shivala Chật Balcony of Man Singh's Observatory 118 · 120 The Nepalese Temple The Shrine of Ganga Groups of women ... are performing puja” "Like a painted frieze from Pompeii, or the decoration of an antique vase " 135 "Three old women, who pause to barter with a seller of pots and pans, unconsciously posing themselves in their classic drapery like the Fates, or the Weird Sisters" Palhvad Ghât A Vaishnavite Nun reading the Râmâyana In the Ahmêty Temple: a Brahmin performing his sandhya The Ahmêty Temple. A Sacrificial Spoon The Temple at Ramnagar Mask of Bhaironath 153 - 156 193 Ancient Carving, Khandawa Temple "Thin vaporous clouds of smoke rise from the funeral pyres. The slanting rays of the morning sun cast long shadows across the ghât" 195 201 203 207 215 CHAPTER I IN THE VEDIC TIMES History, in the conventional European sense, has never possessed much interest for the Hindu mind. Thoroughly permeated with the idea of the unreality of material things, the Brahmin priesthood, while taking extraordinary precautions to preserve their inheritance of spiritual culture, have never troubled themselves to mark the footprints which kings and dynasties leave upon the sands of time. It is chiefly through the exertions of European scholars, with the help of the old Buddhist records, that the main outlines of Indian history, previous to the Muhammadan invasions, have been made intelligible. The detailed history of the petty kingdoms into which northern India was divided would probably possess little interest, even if it were sifted out of the wild legends which Eastern imagination has woven into it. Benares will always possess supreme interest as the chief centre of the evolution of two of the great world-religions - Brahminism and Buddhism; but while the development of Buddhism can be, to some extent, traced and mapped out with exact dates and events, the history of Brahminism must always be regarded from a different stand-point. |