The Popular Life of Buddha

Buddha was a religious reformer who died 470 years before the Christian era. The most formidable priestly tyranny that the world had ever seen, crumbled away before his attack, and the followers of Buddha were paramount in India for a thousand years. The institution of caste was assailed and over-turned. Polygamy was for the first time pronounced immoral, and slavery condemned. Woman, from being considered a chattel and a beast of burden, was for the first time considered man's equal, and allowed to develop her spiritual life.