Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3

In Short

Sir Charles Eliot's Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 provides a comprehensive historical and geographical mapping of Indian religious ideas as they expanded beyond the subcontinent into South-East Asia, Central Asia, China, Tibet, and Japan. The volume examines how Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, along with Saivism and Vaishnavism, adapted to regional conditions, royal patronage, and native shamanic or magical traditions. Beginning with the early distribution of relics and southern Indian monastic centers, the narrative moves through the diplomatic, scholastic, and cultural shifts in Burma, Siam, Camboja, Champa, Java, Central Asian oasis kingdoms, the imperial courts of China, and the monastic teocracy of Tibet. Eliot traces the development of local scriptures, art, ritual practices, and institutional hierarchies. The work has endured because of its rigorous textual grounding, meticulous philological awareness, and objective analysis of how complex philosophical doctrines interact with practical statecraft, regional demonology, and popular ritual across diverse Asian civilizations.

The Story

The volume opens by establishing the early historical mechanisms through which Indian religious traditions spread outward, using historical inscriptions, monastic chronicles, and architectural remains as foundational evidence. The initial focus rests on the physical legacy of the Buddha's relics, tracing their collection under King Ajatasattu and their subsequent redistribution by Emperor Asoka across tens of thousands of monasteries. This early imperial model sets the precedent for how Indian faiths traveled. Asoka’s missions not only established Theravada traditions in Sri Lanka but also laid seeds throughout Southern India. In the Tamil country, centers like Kancipuram nurtured great commentators like Dharmapala, whose scholarly output bridged Ceylon and South-East Asia.

From Southern India, the narrative moves to the kingdoms of Burma (Mramma) and the Mon territories of Thaton and Pegu. Here, religious history is marked by alternating schools, royal reformations, and monastic controversies. King Anawrata of Pagan forcibly transferred the Talaing Theravada school to his capital, but subsequent centuries saw recurring debates regarding valid monastic lineages. King Dhammaceti (Ramadhipati) of Pegu addressed these institutional divisions by sending a diplomatic and monastic mission to Ceylon to establish an authoritative ordination boundary (sima). The resulting consecration of the Kalyanisima established a unified standard for valid ordination, demonstrating how technical canon law was used by rulers to consolidate ecclesiastical order and maintain orthodoxy against local or degraded practices.

Moving further eastward into Indo-China, the text explores Siam and the ancient Khmer empire of Camboja. In Siam, Brahmanic court rituals and Buddhist monastic life became closely intertwined. Public allegiance ceremonies, domestic rites derived from Hindu samskaras (such as the Kon Chuk or topknot shaving), and monastic services coexisted under royal patronage. In Camboja, the epigraphic record reveals centuries of Saivism and Vaishnavism acting as state religions alongside Buddhism. Kings invoked the compound deity Hari-Hara (Vishnu-Siva) or built massive monuments like Angkor Wat, originally dedicated to Vishnu under the posthumous title of Paramavishnuloka, before these spaces transitioned into Buddhist shrines. Despite producing monumental stone inscriptions showing high mastery of Sanskrit poetry, ancient Camboja left no surviving original books, leaving its religious history recorded primarily in stone and the accounts of Chinese observers like Chou Ta-kuan.

In the neighboring kingdom of Champa and the Malay Archipelago (specifically Java), a similar synthesis occurred. In Java, great monuments demonstrate the side-by-side existence of Mahayana Buddhism and Brahmanic cults. Mid-Java features the monumental Buddhist Boroboedoer alongside the Saivite complex of Prambanam and the mountain shrines of the Dieng plateau dedicated to the heroes of the Mahabharata. Over time, Javanese religion evolved into syncretic forms where Siva and Buddha were viewed as aspects of a single ultimate reality, a balance that persisted until the arrival of Islam.

The narrative then shifts north to the overland routes of Central Asia. Oasis states such as Kashgar and Kucha served as vital conduits for transmitting Indian texts to China. In Kucha, an ancient Aryan population speaking Tokharian B established a flourishing Buddhist culture with hundreds of stupas. When the Chinese general Lu-Kuang conquered Kucha in 383 A.D., he captured the renowned scholar-translator Kumarajiva, whose subsequent work in China transformed Chinese Buddhist literature.

In China itself, Buddhism engaged in a centuries-long triangular struggle with Confucianism and Taoism. Though opposed by Confucian literati who viewed it as a foreign superstition, Buddhism adapted by adopting Chinese artistic, architectural, and ritual forms—turning the stupa into the multi-storeyed pagoda and merging Avalokita into the female figure of Kuan-yin. Schools like the Pure Land (Lotus) school simplified salvation by teaching that faith in Amitabha ensured rebirth in the Western Paradise, while the Contemplative (Chan/Zen) school aligned with Taoist ideas of direct intuition. Despite severe imperial persecutions, such as under Wu Tsung, and strict regulations by later dynasties including the Ming and Manchu, Buddhism retained deep roots among both the populace and the secular clergy.

Finally, the arc culminates in Tibet and the high plateaus of Central Asia. Introduced under King Srong-tsan-gam-po in the seventh century through his Nepalese and Chinese wives, Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism) absorbed native Bon practices, resulting in a unique synthesis dominated by demonophobia, elaborate protective ritualism, Tantric imagery, and the doctrine of incarnate lamas. Monasteries like Depung, Sera, and Tashilhunpo grew into vast monastic university-cities housing thousands of monks. This ecclesiastical structure evolved into a clerical teocracy headed by the Grand Lamas, asserting spiritual authority across Tibet, Mongolia, and into Russia and China.

How It Unfolds

The Imperial Distribution of Relics The historical expansion begins with the post-cremation distribution of the Buddha's relics under King Ajatasattu, their subsequent recovery by Emperor Asoka from overgrown jungle sites, and their systematic redistribution across 84,000 newly built monasteries across India.

Southern Monastic Footholds Asokan missions introduce Buddhist thought to the Cola, Pandya, and Keralaputra territories of Southern India, establishing scholastic hubs like Kancipuram where commentators such as Dharmapala compose Pali texts that link the Indian mainland to Ceylon and Burma.

Burmese Reformations and the Consecration of the Sima After King Anawrata brings Thaton's monastic elite to Pagan, centuries of schism among competing Burmese and Sinhalese monastic lineages culminate in King Dhammaceti's decision to send a mission to Ceylon to establish a single, authoritatively consecrated sima at the Kalyanisima.

Brahmanic and Monastic Intertwining in Siam Siamese religious life develops as a functional harmony between Theravada monasticism and ancient Hindu court ceremonies, seen in public rites like the drinking of the water of allegiance (Thu Nam) and domestic rituals like the Kon Chuk topknot shaving.

The Architectural Legacy of Camboja The Khmer empire builds grand architectural monuments centered on the cult of Siva and the double deity Hari-Hara, culminating in the construction of Angkor Wat under Suryavarman II (Paramavishnuloka) and the subsequent Buddhist conversions under Jayavarman VII.

Syncretism in the Javanese Archipelago Central Java witnesses the simultaneous construction of massive Buddhist shrines like Boroboedoer and elaborate Saivite complexes like Prambanam and the Dieng plateau, establishing a lasting syncretism where Siva and the Buddha are worshipped as unified aspects of the divine.

Oasis Cities and Central Asian Transmissions Along the Silk Road, kingdoms like Kucha and Kashgar serve as intellectual bridges, maintaining thousands of stupas and producing scholar-monks like Kumarajiva, who carry Indian texts and Tokharian linguistic traditions directly into the Chinese empire.

Adaptation and Resistance in Imperial China Buddhism navigates centuries of tension with Confucianism and Taoism, adapting its doctrine into popular formats like the Pure Land school's devotion to Amitabha and transforming Indian artistic and funerary forms into distinctively Chinese expressions.

The Rise of Tibetan Monastic Teocracy Initiated by King Srong-tsan-gam-po and shaped by Tantric practices, Tibetan Lamaism constructs massive university-monasteries and an institutional hierarchy of reincarnate lamas that rules both spiritual and temporal life across Tibet and Mongolia.

The People

• Asoka: The Maurya Emperor who acts as the primary catalyst for the international spread of Buddhism. Seeking to spread the faith throughout his empire and beyond, he unearths the early relics of the Buddha and redistributes them to thousands of newly constructed monasteries, establishing the precedent for royal religious patronage.
• Ajatasattu: The King of Magadha who conquers the Licchavis and secures the original relics of the Buddha. He collects these sacred remains in his capital as spiritual talismans, preserving them through periods of Brahmanical reign until Asoka's later recovery.
• Dharmapala: The great fifth-century Buddhist scholar and commentator born in Kancipuram. Residing at the Bhadratittha monastery in Southern India, he composes fourteen commentaries in Pali, serving as a critical intellectual bridge between Ceylon, South India, and South-East Asia.
• Dhammaceti (Ramadhipati): A former monk who rises to become Prime Minister and eventually King of Pegu (1460–1491). Deeply committed to ecclesiastical purity, he authoring the Kalyani inscriptions and dispatches a mission to Ceylon to establish a standardized, validly consecrated sima to resolve monastic schisms in lower Burma.
• Kumarajiva: A brilliant Kuchean monk captured during General Lu-Kuang's conquest of Kucha in 383 A.D. Transported to China, he becomes one of the most important translators of Sanskrit scriptures into Chinese, using abstracts and clear renderings to make complex Indian philosophy accessible to Chinese intellectuals.
• Chou Ta-kuan: The Chinese traveler whose written accounts provide essential historical observations regarding the religious life, temple gilding, court rituals, and sectarian groups (such as the Pasupatas) present in ancient Camboja and Angkor.
• Srong-tsan-gam-po: The Seventh-century Tibetan monarch who unifies Central Tibet, establishes Lhasa as his capital, and introduces Buddhism to his kingdom under the influence of his Nepalese and Chinese wives. He initiates Tibetan written literature by sending Thonmi Sanbhota to adapt an Indian script for the Tibetan language.
• Hsüan Chuang: The famous seventh-century Chinese pilgrim whose extensive travel records document the condition, sectarian divisions, monastic populations, and architectural monuments of Buddhism across Central Asia, India, and Southern Asia.

In Its Own Voice

"He found inside it an inscription authorizing him to disperse the contents and proceeded to distribute them among the 84,000 monasteries which he is said to have constructed."

— On Emperor Asoka’s discovery and distribution of the early relics of the Buddha.

"Victorious are Hara and Acyuta become one for the good of the world, though as the spouses of Parvatî and Śrî they have different forms."

— Translating a seventh-century epigraphic inscription from Ang-Pou in Camboja celebrating the syncretic deity Hari-Hara.

"The helpers and saviours of mankind such as Avalokita and Târâ are often depicted in the shape of raging fiends, as hideous and revolting as a fanciful brush and distorted brain can paint them."

— Describing the intense demonic iconography and protective symbolism characteristic of Tibetan Lamaist art.

What It's Really About

Beneath its vast historical and geographic scope, the book is fundamentally an investigation into how abstract philosophical systems travel, adapt, and transform when transplanted into foreign cultural soils. Eliot examines the constant tension between textual orthodoxy and local syncretism. As Indian religious thought moved beyond the subcontinent, it rarely displaced native customs outright; instead, it absorbed regional demonologies, ancestor rites, and political structures. In China, Indian metaphysical concepts were reframed through Confucian social norms and Taoist quietism, giving rise to simplified devotional practices like the Pure Land school. In Tibet, Mahayana metaphysics merged with indigenous shamanism and demonophobia, creating an intricate protective ritualism where benevolent deities assumed terrifying forms to ward off evil spirits.

The book also demonstrates how religious institutions rely upon and interact with state power. Whether through Asoka’s distribution of pillars and relics, the Burmese and Siamese kings regulating monastic boundaries (sima) to secure political legitimacy, or the Tibetan Lamas establishing a full teocracy, the survival and institutional shape of Buddhism and Hinduism depended directly on royal patronage and ecclesiastical governance. Eliot reveals that the history of Asian religion is as much a story of administrative law, linguistic translation, and royal statecraft as it is of spiritual enlightenment.

Why Read It Today

This volume remains a monumental accomplishment of early twentieth-century comparative religion and oriental scholarship. Readers who enjoy sweeping historical narratives, comparative theology, or the intellectual history of Asia will appreciate Eliot's clear, measured prose and his ability to synthesize epigraphic, textual, and architectural evidence across dozens of regions and centuries. Rather than offering dry administrative lists, the writing provides vivid insights into how cultures communicate, translate texts, and build enduring religious monuments.

The experience of reading the book is like embarking on a guided tour through ancient Asian history, led by an editor who is both academically rigorous and refreshingly direct. Eliot writes without sensationalism or orientalist romanticism, preferring concrete historical data over vague generalities. He candidly assesses the quality of ancient inscriptions, noting when poems in stone are "artificial, frigid and devoid of vigour," while maintaining profound respect for the monumental intellectual efforts made by ancient translators and monks.

Potential readers should be prepared for the scholarly demands of the text. The work reflects its era's dense academic style, containing extensive footnoted references, complex discussions of transliterated Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan terms, and detailed comparative analyses of monastic lineages. The text does not shy away from technical discussions of canon law, such as the exact geographical boundary rules of an ecclesiastical sima, nor does it smooth over historical gaps where data remains thin. However, for those willing to engage with its depth, the book offers an irreplaceable, panoramic portrait of how Indian thought migrated across an entire continent, leaving a permanent imprint on the art, politics, and spiritual life of Asia.