Res., vol. ii. p. 448.) A still more recent investigator, M. MAUPIED, has collected, in his Essai sur l’Origine des Peoples Anciens, what he considers to be the evidence that Buddhism may be indebted for its appearance in India to the captivity of the Jews by Salmanasar, 729 B.C.; to their dispersion by Assar-Addon at a still more recent period; to their captivity in Babylon, 606 B.C.:  their diffusion over Media and the East, Persia, Bactria, Thibet, and China, and the communication of their sacred book to the nations amongst whom they thus became sojourners.  He ventures even to suggest a possible identity between the names Jehovah and Buddha:  “Les voyelles du mot Buddha sont les memes que celles du mot Jehovah, qu’on prononce aussi Jouva; mais d’ailleurs le nom de Boudda a bien pu etre tire du mot Jeoudda Juda, le dieu de Joudda Boudda.”—­Chap. ix. p. 235.  To account for the purer morals of Buddhism, MAUPIED has recourse to the conjecture that they may have been influenced by the preaching of St. Thomas at Ceylon, and Bartholomew on the continent of India. “Or il nous semble logique de conclure de teus ces faits que le Bouddhisme, dans ses doctrines essentielles, est d’origine Juire et Chretienne; consequence inattendue pour la plus de nos lecteurs sans doute.”—­MAUPIED, ch. ix. p. 257; ch. x. p. 263.]

From the earliest period of Indian tradition, the struggle between the religion of Buddha and that of Brahma was carried on with a fanaticism and perseverance which resulted in the ascendancy of the Brahmans, perhaps about the commencement of the Christian era, and the eventual expulsion some centuries later of the worship of their rivals from Hindustan; but at what precise time the latter catastrophe was consummated has not been recorded in the annals of either sect.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The final overthrow of Buddhism in Bahar and its expulsion from Hindustan took place probably between the seventh and twelfth centuries of the Christian era.  Colonel SYKES, however, extends the period to the thirteenth or fourteenth (Asiatic Journal, vol. iv. p. 334).]

That Buddhism thus dispersed over eastern and central Asia became an active agent in the promotion of whatever civilisation afterwards enlightened the races by whom its doctrines were embraced, seems to rest upon evidence which admits of no reasonable doubt.  The introduction of Buddhism into China is ascertained to have been contemporary with, the early development of the arts amongst this remarkable people, at a period coeval, if not anterior, to the era of Christianity.[1] Buddhism exerted a salutary influence over the tribes of Thibet; through them it became instrumental in humanising the Moguls; and it more or less led to the cessation of the devastating incursions by which the hordes of the East were precipitated over the Western Empire in the early ages of Christianity.

[Footnote 1:  MAX MUELLER, Hist.  Sanskrit Literature, p. 264.]