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FROM THE PAGES OF HISTORY Buddhism II

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  FROM THE PAGES OF HISTORY Buddhism II (   Monastery in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka -    Jethavanaramaya) The concept of Prajapati (the Lord of Creatures) was elaborated and a personal Creator god named Brahma, as distinguished from the impersonal neuter Brahman, the World-soul of the Upanisads, was honoured as the Supreme Deity. His position, however, was challenged by the followers of Visnu or Siva, and he could not retain his exalted position for very long. An important deity who appears in the period of the Brahmanas is Kuvera, the God of Wealth. The religion of the common people is rarely noticed in this literature of the Brahmanas. They worshipped local spirits called Yaksas, Nagas and Tree-spirits, and practised various forms of animism about which we learn something from the literature of the Jainas and the Buddhists. The reaction against the ancient sacrificial religion gave rise to various religious sects who went under the generic term of Sramanas as opposed to the Brahma