" ("Hist. of the Sans.
Lit.," p. 275.) It is then by the clear light of this new Alexandrian
Pharos shed, upon a few synchronisms casually furnished by the Greek and
Roman classical writers, that the "extraordinary" statements of the
"Adepts" have now to be cautiously examined. For Western Orientalists
the historical existence of Buddhism begins with Asoka, though, even
with the help of Greek spectacles, they are unable to see beyond
Chandragupta. Therefore, "before that time Buddhist chronology is
traditional and full of absurdities." Furthermore, nothing is said in
the Brahmanas of the Bauddhas--ergo, there were none before
"Sandracottus," nor have the Buddhists or Brahmans any right to a
history of their own, save the one evoluted by the Western mind. As
though the Muse of History had turned her back while events were gliding
by, the "historian" confesses his inability to close the immense lacunae
between the Indo-Aryan supposed immigration en masse across the Hindoo
Kush, and the reign of Asoka. Having nothing more solid, he uses
contradictory inferences and speculations.
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