DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

9.4J WEALTH AND DECAY OF BUDDHISM 315
for some thousands of II, there are several hundreds of thousands of families settled.
They are of an unfeeling and hasty -temper, and are given to bloodshed only. They give
themselves exclusively to tending cattle, and from this derive their livelihood. They have
no masters, and, whether men or women, have neither rich nor poor; they shave their
heads and wear the kasaya robes of Bhiksus, whom they resemble outwardly, whilst
they engage themselves in ordinary affairs of lay life. They hold to their narrow views
and attack the Great Vehicle... .But though they wear the robes of religion, they live
without any moral rules, and their sons and grandsons continue to live as worldly
people, without any regard to their religious profession.” (Beal 2,273).
The later quotation is of the utmost interest because it shows
what the still pastoral and tribal descendants of Aryans continued to do
on the banks of the river which had been ‘ set free’ by Indra. Whether
the robes were a Buddhist feature or a habit adopted much earlier
which might actually have influenced the Buddha’s choice through
eastern Aryans, is not clear; probably the former. The rest shows how
Buddhism gradually developed towards Lamaism, or turned into a
theological game restricted to careerists who profited mightily. Epigraphy
confirms this by donations in the name of, or by the lay-followers of,
some distinguished monk. The statues of the period and
contemporary frescos of Ajanta, with a succession of gigantic
Bodhisattvas (wearing lofty jewelled crowns, or seated upon costly
thrones), who always tower high above the ordinary human beings,
show how far the religion had departed from the spirit, actions, and
precepts of its founder. The interminable groups of well-endowed
samgharamas enumerated by the Chinese pilgrim, and details given of
the perquisites of a resident scholar or teacher at Nalanda show what the
acquisition of wealth had done to the Buddhist Order. The
administration of vihara property (as of temple estates in later days)
tended to become the profitable monopoly of a single family.
Control, security and continuity of tenure were assured (as in Ceylon),
by the tonsure of some younger son who would duly be elected abbot of
the monastry. The problem did not arise with temples, for the priests
were vowed neither to celibacy nor to poverty and could take direct
hereditary control, though merchant houses often helped. The samgha
now depended upon the higher classes, without the minimum