that a knowledge of astrology has come down to us from the Rākṣasas. Inspite of all these traditions, we are inclined to believe, that these sayings contain the accumulated wisdom of the Bengal peasantry,—they are the heritage of an agricultural race to which the unassuming rural folk of Bengal have unconsciously contributed through ages, and that no particular person or persons should be credited with their authorship.
2. Dharma-cult—a form of Buddhism.
Buddhistic works recast by the Hindus.The Moslem conquerors often built Mosques with the materials of the Hindu temples they had destroyed. The sculptural representations of gods and goddesses and other carvings on bricks indicating the ancient decorative art of the Hindus have been lately discovered from dilapidated Mosques in various places in India,—as the plaster, which concealed them from view, crumbled down from the walls in course of time.
Such has also been the case with Buddhism in India. In the Buddhist temple, the image of Buddha is often worshipped as Çiva. Buddhistic religious books have been so recast and transformed by the Hindu priests, that they now pass for religious poems of the Hindus in the eyes of the people. Yet they were unmistakably Buddhistic works at first. Such for instance are the poems of Dharma-mangal. Dharma-thākur, in praise of whose might, the poems were originally composed, represents the popular idea of Buddha and occupies the second place in the Budhistic group comprised of Buddha, Dharma and Saṁgha. The third of the group সঙ্ঘ, changed into শঙ্খ, is also alluded to, in the Çuṅya Purāṅa, by Rāmāi Pandit.