PART IV.

THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM.

279. Q. As regards the number of its followers, how does Buddhism at this date compare with the other chief religions?

A. The followers of the Buddha Dharma out-Dumber those of every other religious teacher.

280. Q. What is the estimated number?

A. About five hundred millions (5,000 lakhs, or 500 crores): this is five-thirteenths, or not quite half, of the estimated population of the globe.

281. Q. Have many great battles been fought and many countries conquered, has much human blood been spilt to spread the Buddha Dharma?

A. History does not record one of those cruelties and crimes as having been committed to propagate our religion. So far as we know, it has not caused the spilling of a drop of blood. (See foot-note ante--Prof. Kolb's testimony.)

282. Q. What, then, is the secret of its wonderful spread?

A. It can be nothing else than its intrinsic excellence: its self-evident basis of truth, its sublime moral teaching, and its sufficiency for all human needs.

283. Q. How has it been propagated?

A. The Buddha, during the forty-five years of his life as a Teacher, travelled widely in India and preached the Dharma. He sent his wisest and best disciples to do the same throughout India.

234. Q. When did He send for his pioneer missionaries?

A. On the full-moon day of the month Wap (October).

285. Q. What did he tell them?

A. He called them together and said: "Go forth, Bhikkhus, go and preach the law to the world. Work for the good of others as well as for your own. . . Bear ye the glad tidings to every man. Let no two of you take the same way."

286. Q. How long before the Christian era did this happen?

A. About six centuries.

257. Q. What help did Kings give?

A. Besides the lower classes, great Kings, Rajas

and Maharajas were converted and gave their influence to spread the religion.

288. Q. What about pilgrims?

A. Learned pilgrims came in different centuries to India and carried back with them books and teachings to their native lands. So, gradually, whole nations forsook their own faiths and became Buddhists.

289. Q. To whom, more than to any other person, is the world indebted for the permanent establishment of Buddha's religion?

A. To the Emperor Ashoka, surnamed the Great, sometimes Piyadasi, sometimes Dharmashoka. He was son of Bindusara, King of Magadha, and grandson of Chandragupta, who drove the Greeks out of India.

290. Q. When did he reign?

A. In the third century B.C., about two centuries after the Buddha's time. Historians disagree as to his exact date but not very greatly.

291. Q. What made him great?

A. He was the most powerful monarch in Indian history, as warrior and as statesman; but his noblest characteristics were his love of truth and justice,