भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

The Greeks knew nothing of it. Good many historians are under the impression that because Buddhism did not regard the authority of the Vedas as the highest and because on the whole, it appeared atheistic, the followers of the Vedic religion at that time opposed it very vehemently and, as such, the Buddhist religion was exterminated from India. But this belief firmly established in the minds of the people throughout the ages till the very present day, is not wholly right; for, the belief that Lord Buddha founded any non-Vedic atheistic cult is in itself wrong. Round about the time Gautam Buddha was born, there were nearly fifty or sixty creeds in vogue, and this, the Buddhist books themselves admit as true. It was customary to hold intellectual debates of the Vedic and non-Vedic philosophies. Whoever was convinced by persuasion and discussion, adopted freely the religion he liked. Although it is true that Buddhism suffered a sort of defeat in this philosophical and intellectual warfare, that went on throughout the long period from the days of the Buddha to those of Shankaracharya, the disgust and hatred the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas and the other Hindu people felt for the Buddhist sect and the corrupt practices they followed, were mainly due not to the philosophical or intellectual, but to the national and political reasons. How all this happened will be explained, so far as the scope of this book will permit. Ashoka Enforces Buddhism 153. After courting the Buddhist cult, Ashoka became such a great zealot of his new religion towards the end of his career, that he was not satisfied with persuasive type of religious conversion so far prevalent in society. He declared penal all those Vedic religious practices, which were taboo from the point of view of the Buddhists, but which were the very foundation of Vedic religion. For want of space, we shall cite not more than two or three instances. He banned all those sacrifices throughout his empire, which admitted of violence. Sacrifice was the main stay of the Vedic religion, round which the Bharatiya civilization had flourished ever since the Vedic period. The discontent, therefore, that must have been caused amongst the eighty per cent of the population, which comprised Brahmins, Kshatriyas and other Vedic people, when those sacrifices were declared penal offences by the government, can best be imagined. Ashoka even banned hunting. The Vedic religion considered hunting one of the essential duties of a Kshatriya. Not only was it forbidden by Ashoka to kill fish and fowl for the food of millions of people, but simply for upholding the extremist principle