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THE GREAT BUDDHIST KINGS
announce what he had found, to the happy few mature enough to grasp it-refused to make any statement about the classic questions every teacher was supposed to solve.
His attitude, however, was so impressive and the teaching so inspiring that he not only escaped contempt and obscurity, but drew an ever increasing multitude of unsought followers. These flocked to him from all classes and professions. Even in the beginning, Brahmans of the oldest families were conspicuous among the members of the Order, while in later centuries wealthy merchants (the capitalists of the post-feudal, late medieval age), as well as princes and kings, rivaled each other in supporting the Buddhist community with lavish gifts.14
After all, to know many things is not so important; the great thing is to know and practice the one thing that matters-which is that one should forsake all to which one is attached. A way is shown in Buddhism, and described with technical details, for the attainment of such release-along the Noble Eightfold Path. And moreover the assurance is given that, in due time, progress along this way will of itself bring the answers to all the questions treated by the popular rhetoricians.
In the course of the twenty-five centurics that have elapsed since the Buddha taught in the parks and villages of northeastern India, many attempts have been made to reconcile his negative attitude with the unquenchable craving for metaphysical philosophizing that characterizes the Hindu mind. The end has
14 According to one disgruntled orthodox reaction: When the gods were defeated in one of their innumerable cosmic battles with the titans, they sought the protection of Visņu, and he, in answer to their prayers, was born under the delusive form of the Buddha, by whom the titans were then deceived; being induced to abandon the religion of the Vedas, they lost all power as warriors. From that time, the faith of the Buddha has flourished, and many, unfortunately, are the heretics who have forsaken the sacred ordinances of the Vedas.-Lt. Col. Vans Kennedy, Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology, London, 1881, p. 251.
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