[420] In the book of the law Vishnu is mentioned once only (12, 121), and Çiva not at all. The old sutras of the Buddhists, on the other hand, as has been stated, mentioned Çiva frequently under the name Çankara, and Vishnu under the names Hari and Janardana. Lassen has rightly perceived that the Narayana of the ancient sutras and of the law-book was not yet Vishnu, but Brahman, and Narayana was not transferred to Vishnu till later ("Alterth." 1^2, 918; 2^2, 464). The Mahavança (7, 47, ed. Turnour) mentions Vishnu as the tutelary deity of the earliest settlers in Ceylon. This settlement took place about 500 B.C., while Çiva appears as the tutelary deity of the somewhat more ancient Mathura in the south. The rise of the worship of Çiva and Vishnu according to these indications must be placed between 600 and 500 B.C. Panini is acquainted with Avataras of Vishnu (Lassen, _loc. cit._ 1^2, 921); in the accounts of the Greeks Krishna is already identified with Vishnu, and is widely worshipped both in the valley of the Ganges and in the extreme south of India, while Çiva is worshipped in the mountains. The development of this worship must therefore have taken place between 500 and 300 B.C., and no doubt chiefly in the second part of this period. CHAPTER II. BUDDHA'S LIFE AND TEACHING. So far as we can ascertain the conditions of the states on the Ganges in the sixth century B.C. the population suffered under grievous oppression. To the capricious nature of the sentences pronounced by the kings and the cruelty of their punishments were added taxes and exactions, which must have been severely felt over wide circles. The sutras tell us that a king who required money received this answer from his two first ministers: "It is with the land as with grains of sesame; it produces no oil unless it is pressed, cut, burnt, or pounded."[421] The arrangement of castes now stamped in all its completeness on the population of the Ganges; the irrevocable mission apportioned to each person at his birth; the regulations for expiation and penance, which the Brahmans had introduced; the enormous amount of daily offerings and duties; the laws of purification and food, the neglect or breach of which involved the most serious consequences, unless averted by the most painful expiations, were serious burdens in addition to the oppression exercised by the state. If the expiation of offences often unavoidable was difficult, the most carefully-regulated life, the most pious fulfilment of all offerings and penances, did not protect men from evil regenerations. For time consumed the merit of good works, and man was born again to a new life, _i.e._ to new misery. Thus not even death brought the end of sorrow; it was not enough to bring to a close a laborious life; even if after this life a man were not tormented in hell for unexpiated transgressions, he was born again to ever new sorrows and pains. One way only was known to the Brahmans by which a man might