The truth of the matter appears to be that hitherto our knowledge of Buddhism has been derived almost exclusively from books, which took their present form only in the fourth or fifth century of our era, or from monuments erected after the corruptions of the Mahayana introduced by Nagárjuna, and those who assisted at the fourth convocation held by Kanishka in the first century of our era. We now are able to realise from the sculptures of Bharhut, of these caves, and of the Sanchi gateways, and the older western caves, what Buddhism really was between the ages of Asoka and Kanishka, and it is a widely different thing from anything written in the books we possess, or represented afterwards in sculptures or paintings. Whether we shall ever recover any traces of what Buddhism was between the death of Sakya Muni and Asoka, is more than doubtful. If found, it would probably be even more unlike the present Buddhism than that of the intermediate period. Judging from what we have hitherto found, it looks as if it would turn out to be a pure worship of trees by a Naga or serpent-reverencing race, on whose primitive faith Asoka engrafted the teachings of Sakya Muni. There were Buddhists, of course, in India before Asoka’s time, but it seems doubtful if they were sufficiently powerful to dig caves or erect monuments. None at least have yet been discovered, and till they are we must be content to stop our backward researches with such a group of monuments as these Udayagiri caves. WESTERN VIHARA CAVES. There are at least four Viharas which we know for certainty were excavated before the Christian Era. There are probably forty, but they have not yet been edited with such care as to enable us to feel confident in affixing dates to them. The four that are known are those attached to the chaityas at Bhaja and Bedsa (Woodcuts Nos. 45, 49), and the two oldest at Ajunta, Nos. 12 and 11. Those at Karli are probably coeval with the great chaitya itself, but, strange to say, they have never been drawn or investigated, so that we really know little or nothing about them. At Junir there are several, which are very old, and at Sana and Tulaja, in Gujerat, there are several of very ancient date, but they, like those at Junir, are too imperfectly known to be quoted as authenticated examples of the period.