|
63165 |
||
|
o z o tr O |
||
|
SITV OF 012 |
||
|
E ^1 |
||
|
z |
=^\ |
|
|
' 1 |
||
|
CO |
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/cambridgehistory01rapsuoft
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA
IN SIX VOLUMES VOLUME I
ANCIENT INDIA
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY, Manager
LONDON : FETTEB LANE, E.G. 4
NEW YORK : T HE MACMILLAN CO.
BOMBAY I
CALCUTTA \ MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
MADRAS '
TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OF
CANADA, Ltd. TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
ALL BIGHTS RESERVED
t IAS
THE
CAMBKIDGE HISTOKY OF INDIA
VOLUME I
ANCIENT INDIA
EDITED BY
E. J. RAPSON, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, AND FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE
179*^ 3S',
lo. q . S)3.
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1922
DS
at
rRlNTEO IN GREAT BfMTAW
PREFACE
THE present volume deals with the history of ancient India from the earliest times to about the middle of the first century a.d. ; and it attempts to represent the stage of progress which research has now reached in its task of recovering from the past the out- lines of a history which, only a few years ago, was commonly supposed to be irretrievably lost. Well within the memory of contributors to this volume it was the fashion to say that there was no history of India before the Muhammadan conquests in the eleventh century A.D., and the general opinion seemed to be summed up in the dictum of the cynic who roundly asserted that all sup- posed dates for earlier events were like skittles — set up simply to be bowled down again. But this gibe, not quite justifiable even when it was uttered, could not be repeated at the present day. It has lost its point : it is no longer even approximately true.
Regarded as a record of the character and achievements of great leaders of men, this history indeed is, and must always remain, sadly deficient. Of all the conquerors and administrators who appear in this volume there are two only — Alexander the Great and, in a less degree, A9oka — whose personality is at all intimately known to us ; in the case of others the bare memory of some of their deeds has been preserved ; the rest have become mere names to which research has given a time and a place. But the fragments of fact which have been rescued from the past are now sufficiently numerous and well established to enable us to construct a chrono- logical and geographical framework for the political history of many of the kingdoms and empires of ancient India ; and into this framework may be fitted the history of social institutions, which is reflected with unusual clearness in the ancient literatures.
The manner in which modern scholarship has succeeded in throwing light on the dark ages of India, and in revealing order where all seemed to be chaos, is briefly indicated in the latter section of Chapter ii which deals with the sources of history. The story of rediscovery is a long record of struggles with problems which were once thought to be insoluble, and of the ultimate triumphs of patience and ingenuity. It begins in 1793, when Sir William Jones supplied ' the sheet-anchor of Indian chronology '
J
vi Prejace
by his identification of the Sandrocottus of Alexander's historians with the Chandragupta of Sanskrit literature ; and its great epoch is ushered in by the decipherment of the long-forgotten alphabets of the ancient Indian inscriptions by James Prinsep in 1834. The first comprehensive summary of historical gains appeared in 1858, when Christian Lassen published the first volume of his Indische Alterthv/mskunde] and in recent years other summaries have been made by Dr Vincent Smith {Early History of India, Ist edn. 1904, 2nd edn. 1908, 3rd edn. 1914), by Dr L. D. Barnett {Indian Antiquities, 1913), and, on a smaller scale, by the editor of this volume {Ancient India, 1914).
The Cambridge History of India marks a new departure. The literature of the subject has become so vast, and is still gi'owing with such rapidity, that the best hope of securing a real advance in the study now lies in a division of labour among scholars who have explored at first hand the main sources of information. This volume therefore follows the plan adopted in the modern and medieval histories published by the Cambridge University Press. It is the outcome of the combination of a number of investigators with an editor whose function it has been to coordinate, so far as seemed possible or advisable, results obtained independently. That this plan is not without its disadvantages is obvious. AU coopera- tive enterprises of the kind involve necessarily some reiteration and also some discrepancy; and the questions which an editor must decide are how far repeated discussions of the same topic contribute to a fuller knowledge or are merely redundant, and how far different opinions admit of reconciliation or should be allowed to remain as representing the actual state of a study which abounds with difficulties and obscurities. In all important cases of the occurrence of such supplementary or contradictory views in this volume cross-references are given to the passages in which they are expressed.
The general scheme of the work may be explained in a few words. The first two chapters are introductory. In Chapter i Sir Halford Mackinder describes the India of the present day when railways and telegraph lines have taken the place of the ancient routes, and gives an account of those geographical features which have determined the course of history in past times. The chapter is founded on Eight Lectures on India prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office and published in 1910. A similar acknowledgment of indebtedness is due to the Govern- ment of India for the use which the editor has made of its official
Preface vii
publications, especially the Census Reports of 1901 and 1911 and the Imperial Gazetteer of India, in Chapter ii on peoples and languages, and the sources of history. In Chapter iii Dr P. Giles reviews the evidence which Comparative Philology, aided by the ancient inscriptions of Western Asia, supplies for a knowledge of the early culture of the Aryans or * Wires,' their original habitat, and the date of the migrations which eventually led some of their tribes into India. The next five chapters are devoted to accounts of political, social, and economic conditions as represented in the earliest scriptures of the Brahmans, Jains, and Buddhists — Chapters IV and V by Prof. A. B. Keith on the Vedas and Brahmanas, Chapters vi and vii by Dr J. Charpentier and Dr T. W. Rhys Davids respectively on the earliest history of the Jains and Buddhists, and Chapter viii by Mrs Rhys Davids on economic conditions in early Buddhist literature. The five chapters which follow extend this investigation to the Brahman sources for the history of the post- Vedic period — Chapters ix-xii by Prof. E. Washburn Hopkins on the Sutras, epics, and law-books, and Chapter xiii by the editor on the Puranas. Up to this point the evidence has been gleaned almost entirely from Indian sources and confined almost entirely to India. In the next four chapters India is viewed in relation to other countries — Chapter xiv by Prof. A. V. Williams Jackson on the ancient Persian dominions in India, Chapters xv and xvi by Mr E. R. Bevan on the invasion of Alexander the Great and the early Greek and Latin accounts of India, and Chapter xvii by Dr G. Macdonald on the Hellenic kingdoms of Syria, Bactria, and Parthia. In Chapters xviii-xx the first great historical empire, that of the Mauryas, is described by Dr F. W. Thomas; and in Chapters xxi-xxiii the editor deals with the powers which arose on the ruins of the Maurya empire — the Indian native states, the Greek successors of Alexander the Great, and the Scythian and Parthian invaders. In Chapter xxiv Dr L. D. Bamett sums up what is known of the early history of Southern India; and in Chapter xxv he gives an analysis of the history of Ceylon which possesses a continuity in striking contrast to the fragmentary records of the kingdoms of the sub-continent. In the final Chapter XXVI Sir John Marshall describes the ancient monuments, and traces the various phases of Indian art from its beginnings to the first century a.d.
The editor desires to thank all the contributors for the courtesy with which they have received and carried out his suggestions. He is doubly indebted to Sir John MarshaU, Dr L. D. Barnett,
viii Preface
Dr George Macdonald, Dr F. W. Thomas, and Mr E. R Bevan for much valuable advice and for their kind help in reading the proofs of chapters other than their own. He gratefully acknowledges also the assistance which he has received from Colonel Haig and from Sir Theodore Morison, the editors in charge of the Muhammadan and British sections of the Cambridge History of India (vols, iii-iv and v-vi respectively).
The preparation of vol. ii, which will deal with the period from the downfall of the ^aka and Pahlava empire in the middle of the first century a.d. to the Muhammadan conquests, is attended with unusual difficulties, caused partly by the vast extent and partly by the fragmentary character of the historical records ; but it is at least to be hoped that its appearance may not be delayed by disasters such as that which has impeded the publication of vol. i.
The printing of this volume began in 1913, and more than half the chapters were in type in 1914, when war made further progress impossible until the end of 1918. Since then the work has been completed, all the earlier chapters have been revised, and no effort has been spared to make the book representative of the state of early Indian historical studies at the end of 1920.
The system of chronology, which has been adopted for the periods of Qaka and Kushana rule, needs some explanation. The chronological difficulties connected with the Vikrama era of 58 E.G. and the ^aka era of 78 A.D. are well known ; and it is universally admitted that the names which these eras bear were given to them at a later date, and afford no clue to their origin. The view maintained in this work is that the eras in question mark the establishment of the ^aka and Kushana suzerainties. The idea of suzerainty, that is to say, supreme lordship over all the kings of a large region — 'the whole earth,' as the poets call it — is deeply rooted in Indian conceptions of government ; and the foundation of an era is recognised as one of the attributes of this exalted position. Now there is abundant evidence that the ^^-ka empire attained its height in the reign of Azes I and the Kushana empire in the reign of Kanishka. It is natural to suppose therefore that such imperial eras must have been established in these reigns, and that their starting point in both cases was the accession of the suzerain.
The story of the foundation and extension of later eras in Indian history — the Gupta era and the era of Harsha, for example — can be clearly traced. All such undoubted illustrations of the process are seen to imply the existence of certain political conditions — the
Preface ix
relations of suzerain to feudatories, in fact. It is not necessarily, or indeed usually, the founder of a dynasty who is also the founder of an era ; but it is that member of the royal house who succeeded in asserting 'universal' sway and in reducing his neighbours to the status of feudatories. The use of the era can be shown, in well-ascertained cases, to have spread from the suzerain to the feudatories. Is there any reason to suppose that extension in the contrary direction — from feudatory to suzerain — ^has ever taken place or could possibly take place ?
It has been suggested that the Vikrama era originated with the Malavas, whose name it sometimes bears in inscriptions. They were a people, apparently of no great political importance, who can be traced in the Punjab and Rajputana centuries before they settled in Malwa, the tract of Central India which now bears their name ; and they were almost certainly, like the other peoples of these regions, included in the ^^-ka empire at one period of their history. Is it conceivable that they could have initiated the Vikrama era, and that a great suzerain like Gondopharnes, who almost beyond doubt dates his Takht-i-Bahi inscription in this era, stood indebted to them for its use? The Vikrama era had undoubtedly become the traditional reckoning of the Malavas in the fifth century A.D. ; but the most obvious explanation of the fact is that they had inherited it from their former overlords.
In the same way, the later name of the era of 78 a.d. may be due to its use for centuries by the ^aka satraps of Western India ; but they can scarcely have founded this era. Their very title ' satrap ' shows that they were originally feudatories ; and they were most probably feudatories of the Kushanas. If so, they would use the era of their suzerains as a matter of course.
Thus all a priori considerations favour the views which are adopted in this work in regard to the origin of these eras ; and, as is pointed out on pages 581-2, the Taxila inscription of the year 136, which first suggested to Sir John Marshall the possibility of an ' era of Azes,' may also furnish positive evidence of their cor- rectness. It has been necessary to deal with these chronological problems somewhat at length because of their importance. If the theories here maintained are accepted, there will be an end to the worst of the perplexities which have for so long obscured the his- tory of N.W. India during the centuries immediately before and after the Christian era, and the dates in all the known inscriptions of the period will be determined, with the single exception of that which occurs in the Taxila copper-plate of Maues, and which, as is
Preface
suggested, may be in some era which the (^akas brought with them from eastern Iran into India.
The munificence of Sir Dorabji Tata has enabled the Syndics of the University Press to illustrate this volume more lavishly than would have been possible without such generous help. Mr G. F. Hill and Mr J. Allan of the British Museum have most kindly pro- vided casts of the coins figured in Plates i-viii; and Sir John Marshall has enhanced the value of his chapter on the monuments by supplying photographs, which were in many cases specially taken for the illustrations in Plates ix-xxxiv.
The index has been made by Mr E. J. Thomas of Emmanuel College and the University Library. Modern place-names are, with very few exceptions, given as they appear in the index- volume of the Imperial Gazetteer of India. For the spelling of ancient names the system adopted by Prof. Macdonell in his History of Sanskrit Literature has been followed. This system has the double advant- age of being strictly accurate and, at the same time, of offering as few difficulties as possible for readers who are not orientalists. The vowels should be pronounced as in Italian, with the exception of a which has the indefinite sound so common in English, e.g. in the word organ. The vowels e and o are always long in Sanskrit, and are therefore only marked as such in the non-Sanskritic names of Southern India, in which it is necessary to distinguish them from the corresponding short vowels.
E. J. R.
St John's College, Cambridge, 18 August 1921.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
By Sir Halford J. Mackinder, M.A., M.P., Reader in
Geography in the University of London, formerly
Student of Christ Church, Oxford
PAGE
The four sub-continents of Asia 1
Ceylon; Colombo, the strategic centre of British sea-power in the
Indian Ocean 1
The Malabar and Coromandel coasts; the Western and Eastern Ghats 2
The Carnatic ; Travancore ; Cochin 3
The Gap of Coimbatore or Palghat 3
The plateau between the Ghats ; Mysore 4
Climate of the southern extremity of India 4
Madras ; some causes of the comparative isolation of southern India . 5
Burma, the connecting link between the Far East and the Middle East 5
The geography of Burma 6
The geography of Bengal 8
Calcutta 9
Countries of the Himalayan fringe 10, 25
Valley of the Brahmaputra 11
The plain of the Ganges and Jumna 12
Central India 15
The situation of Bombay 16
The Maratha country ; Hyderabad ; the Deccan plateau .... 18
The Central Provinces ; Baroda 19
Kathiawar and Cntch 20
The Himalayan barrier 20
Bajputana; historical importance of the great Indian desert and the
Delhi gateway 20
The north-west frontier 26
The plain of the Indus 27,31
Routes leading into N.W. India 28
Kashmir 32
Gilgit ; Chitral ; the Karakoram ; the Hindu Rush 33
Lateral communication between the Khyber and Bolan routes . . 33
The Hindu Kush and the Indus as boundaries between India and Iran 34
Summary of the principal physical features of the sub-continent . . 34
xii Contents
CHAPTER II
By E. J. Rapson, M. A., Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St John's College
A. PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES
PAGE
Varieties of race, speech, and culture 37
Western and eastern invaders 38
Natural and ethnographical divisions 40
The seven chief physical types 40
The four families of speech 48
The caste-system 53
B. SOURCES OF HISTORY
Prehistoric archaeology 56
Ancient literatures 56
Foreign writers 58
Inscribed monuments and coins 60
The ancient alphabets 62
Progress of research 62
CHAPTER III
THE ARYANS
By P. Giles, Litt.D., Master of Emmanuel College, and Reader in Comparative Philology in the University of Cambridge
The Indo-European languages 65, 71
The Wiros and their original habitat 66
Their migrations 70
Evidence of the inscriptions of Boghaz-koi 72
Iranians and Indo- Aryans 73
Aryan names in the inscriptions of Mesopotamia 76
CHAPTER IV THE AGE OF THE RIGVEDA
By A. Berriedale Keith, D.C.L., D.Litt., Regius Professor
of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in the University of
Edinburgh, formerly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford
The hymns of the Rigveda 77, 108
Geography 79
Fauna; peoples 81
Social organisation 88
Origins of the caste system . 92
Political organisation 94
Warlike and peaceful avocations 98
Dress, food, and amusements 101
Religion 103
The beginnings of philosophy 107
Chronology of Vedic literature 110
ii
Contents xiii
CHAPTER V
THE PERIOD OF THE LATER SAMHITAS, THE BRAHMANAS, THE ARANYAKAS, AND THE UPANISHADS
By Professor A. Berriedale Keith
PAGE
Vedic literature after the period of the Rigveda 114
Extension of Aryan civilisation to the Middle Country .... 116
Peoples of the Middle Country . 118
The more eastern peoples 122
Changes in social conditions 125, 135
Grovernment and the administration of justice 130
Industry ; social life ; the arts and sciences 135
Religion and philosophy 141
Language 146
Criteria of date 147
CHAPTER VI
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
By Jarl Charpentier, Ph.D., University of Upsala
Jainism in its relation to Brahmanism and Buddhism .... 150
The tirthakaras or ' prophets ' ; Par^sva 153
Mahavira 155
Jains and Buddhists 160
Mahavira's rivals, G-osala and Jamali 162-3
The Jain church after the death of Mahavira 164
The great schism : ^vetambaras and Digambaras . . . . . 165
Settlements in Western India 166
Organisation of the religious and lay communities 168
Blanks in Jain ecclesiastical history 169
CHAPTER VII
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS
By T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D., Ph.D., D.Sc, formerly Professor of Pali and Buddhist Literature at University College, London, and Professor of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester
Pre-Buddhistic 171
India in the Buddha's time ; the clans 174
The kingdoms :
Kosala 178
Magadha 182
Avanti 185
The Vamsas 187
The first great gap 188
Chandagutta 190
Age of the authorities used 192
Growth of Buddhist literature from the time of Buddha down to Asoka 197
xiv Contents
CHAPTER VIII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE
By Mrs C. A. F. Rhys Davids, M.A., D.Litt., FeUow of University College, London
PAGE
Rural economy 198
Cities ; villages ; the land 200
Agriculture 203
Labour and industry 205
Social conditions 208
Trade and commerce 210
Trade centres and routes 212
Methods of exchange and prices 216
Securities and interest 218
General conclusions 219
CHAPTER IX
THE PERIOD OF THE SUTRAS, EPICS, AND LAW-BOOKS
By R Washburn Hopkins, PLD., LL.D., Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Yale University
Language of the later Brahman literature 220
Social conditions as reflected in the Brahman and Buddhist books . 221
Outlines of chronology 222
Causes of the wider political outlook 225
CHAPTER X
FAMILY LIFE AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE SUTRAS
By Professor E. Washburn Hopkins
The Sutra literature 227
Grihya Sutras 228
Oblations to spirits and gods 229
Rites to avert disaster and disease 231
Substitution of images of meal for sacrificial animals . . . ' . 232
Marriage ceremonies 233
Caste and family 234
Contents and arrangement of the Grihya Sutras 236
The life represented is rural, not urban 237
Minor superstitions 238
irya and ^udra ; Dharma Sutras 240
The beginnings of civil and criminal law ; inheritance .... 243
Duties of the king 244
Taxes ; status of women ; ordeals 247
Legal rates of interest 248
Religion and philosophy 248
Relative ages of the Sutras 249
Contents xv
CHAPTER XI
THE PRINCES AND PEOPLES OF THE EPIC POEMS
By Professor E. Washburn Hopkins
PAGE
The two chief varieties of epic poetry 251
Sources of the Mahabharata 252
Narrative and didactic interpolations 255
The characters partly historical and partly mythical .... 257
Date of the poem in its present form 258
Features common to the Mahabharata and the Eamayania . . . 259 Social conditions in the Sanskrit epics and in Buddhist works of the
same period 259
The story of the Mahabharata 262
The Mahabharata and the Eamayafjia contrasted 264
Earlier and later moral ideals in the Mahabharata 265
Knights, priests, commoners, and slaves 266
The king and his ministers 271
Religious and philosophical views of the epics 272
Peoples traditionally engaged in the great war 274
The genealogies 275
CHAPTER XII THE GROWTH OF LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS
By Professor E. Washburn Hopkins
The chief codes— Manu, Vislmu, Tajnavalkya, and Narada . . . 277-9
Growth of the distinction between religious precepts and law . . 280 Growth of the distinction between civil and criminal law, and the first
enumeration of legal titles 281
Ordeals 282
Dharna 284
Punishments 284
Development of civil law 286
Interest; wages; property 287
The king as ruler in peace and war 288
The king as judge 290
Hereditary traditional law and custom 291
Infant marriage ; the levirate ; the status of women .... 292
The law-books and the Arthaeastra 293-4
CHAPTER XIII ,
THE PUARNAS ,
By Professor E. J. Rapson
The classical definition of a Pura^a 296
Kshatriya literature 297,302
Scriptures of the later Hinduism 298
Critical study of the Puranas 299
The Puranas and Upapuranas 300
Their chronological and geographical conceptions 303
Genealogies partly legendary and partly historical 304
xvi Contents
PAOK
Common traditional elements in Vedic literature and the Pura^ias . 306
Traditional period of the great war between Knrus and Pa^^^is . . 306
The Purus 307
Thelkshvakus 308
Kings or suzerains of Magadha :
Brihadrathas 309
Pradyotas, originally kings of Avanti 310
^i9unagas 311
Nandas 313
Contemporary dynasties in Northern and Central India . . . 315 Later kings of Magadha and suzerains of N. India:
, The later Nandas, Mauryas, ^ungas, Kanvas, and Andhras . . 317
CHAPTER XIV
THE PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN NORTHERN INDIA DOWN TO THE TIME OF ALEXANDER'S INVASION
By A. V. Williams Jackson, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages in Columbia University
Prehistoric connexions between Persia and India 319
Common Indo-Iranian domains 321
Evidence of the Veda and the Avesta 322
Avestan, Old Persian, Greek, and modem designations of Persian
provinces south of the Hindu Kush 326
Early commerce between India and Babylon ...... 329
The eastern campaigns of Cyrus 329
Cambyses 333
Darius : ... 334
Xerxes 340
Decadence of the Achaemenian empire 340
The conquest of Persia by Alexander 341
Extent of Persian influence in India 341
Note to Chapter XIV
Ancient Persian Coins in India By Dr George Macdonald
The rarity of Persian gold coins in India explained by the low ratio of
gold to silver 342
The attribution of punch-marked Persian silver coins to India doubtful 343
CHAPTER XV
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
By E. R. Bevan, M. A., Hon. Fellow of New College, Oxford
The E[abul valley and the Punjab in the fourth century B.C. . . . 345 Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire; settlements in Seistan,
Kandahar, and the upper Kabul valley ; invasion of Bactria . . 347-8 The i-aja of Taksha^ila and the Paurava king (Poms) .... 349
Contents xvii
PAGE
Invasion of India from the upper Kabul valley 350^
Hill tribes beyond the N.W. frontier 352
Occupation of the lower Kabul valley 354
Siege and capture of Aornus 356
The crossing of the Indus 357
Reception at Taksha^ila . . . . . . . . . . 358
The Paurava king 359,368,383
The battle of the Hydaspes 360
Foundation of Nicaea and Bucephala 368
Flight of the second Paurava king, and occupation of his kingdom . 370
Capture of Sangala 371
Saubhuti (Sophytes) 371
The Hyphasis, the eastern limit of Alexander's conquests . . . 372
Return to the Hydaspes ; expedition to the Indus delta .... 373
Defeat of the Malavas 375
Musicanus 377
Return of Craterus through Kandahar and Seistan 379
Pattala 379
Return of Alexander through G-edrosia 380
Return of Nearchus by sea 381_
Alexander's Indian satrapies 383
Consequences of the invasion , 384
Note to Chapter XV
Ancient Greek Coins in India By Dr George Macdonald
Athenian and Macedonian types 386
Sophytes 388
Coins attributed to Alexander 388
Double darics 390
CHAPTER XVI
INDIA IN EARLY GREEK AND LATIN LITERATURE
By E. R. Bevan, M.A.
The early sources of information 391
Scylax of Caryanda; Hecataens of Miletus; Herodotus; Ctesias of
Cnidus 393
Nearchus; Onesicritus; Clitarchus 398-9
Megasthenes; Da'imachus; Patrocles 399-400
Geography and physical phenomena 400
The mineral, vegetable, and animal world 403
Ethnology and mythology 407
Social divisions according to Megasthenes 409
His description of Pataliputra 411
Manners and customs ; laws 412
Marriage ; suttee ; disposal of the dead ; slavery 414
The king; royal festivals; government ofl&cials 416
Industries 418
Brahmans; ascetics; philosophers ,,,,,... 419
C. H. I. I. 6
xviii Contents
PAGE
Deities 422
Fabulous creatures 422
Pearls ; Southern India and Ceylon 423
Later sources of information— Apollodorus of Artemita; Eratosthenes;
Alexander Polyhistor ; Strabo; Pliny; Arrian; Aelian . . . 425
Greek merchantmen 425
CHAPTER XVII
THE HELLENIC KINGDOMS OF SYRIA, BACTRIA, AND PARTHIA
By George Macdonald, C.B., LL.D., F.B.A., First Assistant
Secretary Scottish Education Department, formerly Scholar
of Balliol College, Oxford
Greek and native rulers of the Kabul valley and N.W. India after
Alexander 427
Chandragupta 429
The Indian expedition of Seleucus 430
Relations of Syria with the Maurya empire 432
Foundation of the kingdoms of Bactria and Parthia .... 434
Diodotus 436
Arsaces 438
Euthydemus 440,442
Invasion of India by Antiochus III 441
Sophagasenus 442
Demetrius 444
Eucratides 446, 454
Euthydemus II ; Demetrius II; Agathocles; Pantaleon; Antimachus 447
Heliocles and Laodice 453
Plato 456
Parthian invasion of Bactria 457
Scythian invasion of Bactria 458
Heliocles 459
Key to Plates I-IV 462
CHAPTER XVIII
CHANDRAGUPTA, THE FOUNDER OF THE MAURYA EMPIRE
By F. W. Thomas, M.A, Ph.D., Librarian of the India Office, fonnerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
Characteristics of the Maurya period and authorities for its history . 467
N. W. India before and after Alexander 468
Agrammes, Xandrames, or Dhana-Nanda 469
Nanda and Chandragupta 470
Date of the overthrow of Nanda 471
Plot of the Mudrardkshasa 471
Chandragupta and Seleucus 472
Megasthenes 472
Rule of Chandragupta and extent of his dominions 473
Contents
XIX
CHAPTER XIX
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE MAUEYA EMPIRE
By Dr F. W. Thomas
Internal conditions: page
The land 474
Towns and fortifications 475
The imperial capital 477
The people 477
Trade 478
State of society 479
Literature 482
Lang^uage 483
Religion 483
Law 485
Government and administration:
Civil administration founded on village autonomy .... 486
The army 489
Foreign policy 490
Tribal oligarchies 491
Monarchies 491
CHAPTER XX
AgOKA, THE IMPERIAL PATRON OF BUDDHISM
By Dr F. W. Thomas
Bindusara . . 495
Events and principal enactments in Anoka's reign 495
Religious and other foundations 497, 501
Buddhist Council of Pataliputra and religious missions .... 498
Duration of Anoka's reign and his family history 499
Chronology 502
Acjoka's principles and personal action 504
His admonitions 507
His ordinances and institutions 508
The personality of A^oka as revealed in his edicts 509
His successors 511
Probable division of the empire after the reign of Samprati . . . 512
CHAPTER XXI
INDIAN NATIVE STATES AFTER THE PERIOD OF THE MAURYA EMPIRE
By Professor E. J. Rapson
The peoples of India in the inscriptions of Acoka 514
Internal strife and foreign invasions the result of the downfall of im-
I)erial rule 516
Routes connecting Pataliputra with the north-western and western
frontiers 516
XX Contents
PAGE
Kingdoms on the central route 517
The ^ungas 517
Feudatories of the QungBS 523
Kosala and Magadha 527
Independent states 528
Rise of the Andhras 529
Conquest of Ujjain 531
Conquest of Vidi^a 533
The Kalingas 534
Key to Plate V 538
CHAPTER XXII
THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
By Professor E. J. Rapson
The Yavana invasions 540
Extension of Yavana power along the routes from Kabul . . , 542
Stages on the route leading to Pataliputra 543
Yavana invasion of the Midland Country 544
Baetrian and Indian coins 545
The house of Euthydemus :
Demetrius; Pantaleon and Agathocles; Antimachus. . . . 546
Apollodotus; Menander 547
The kingdom of ^akala 549
Dominions of this house after the conquests of Eucratidcs and
Heliocles 551
The families of Menander and Apollodotus 552
The (^aka conquests completed in the reign of Azes I . . . 553 The house of Eucratides :
Eucratides 554
The kingdom of Kapi^a 555
Heliocles 556
His successors at Pushkalavati 557
Antialcidas 558
Archebius his successor at Taksha^ila 559
^aka conquest of Pushkalavati and Taksha^ila in the reign of Maues 559
Successors of Eucratides in the upper Kabul valley .... 560
Hermaeus the last Yavana king 560
Pahlava conquest of the upper Kabul valley 561
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
By Professor E. J. Rapson
The ^aka invaders came from Seistan and Kandahar into the country
of the lower Indus 563
^akas in the inscriptions of Darius 564
Migration of the Yueh-ohi 565
Bactria overwhelmed and Parthia invaded by ^akas .... 566
Being checked by Parthia the ^akas invaded India .... 567
The title 'Great King of Kings' 567
Contents xxi
PA6B
Pahlava and ^aka suzerains in eastern Iran and India .... 569
The date of Maues, the conqueror of Pushkalavati and Taksha^ila . 570 Extension of his conquests by Azes I, who may be the founder of the
Vikrama era 571
Azilises ; Azes II ; Vonones 572
The family of Vonones 673
^aka satraps 574
The strategoi 677
Grondopharnes 577
Pacores 680
The transition from Pahlava to Kushana rule in Taksha9ila . . . 580
V'ima Kadphises 581
The date of Kanishka 583
Summary of numismatic evidence for the history of the Yavana, ^aka,
and Pahlava invaders of India 586
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EARLY HISTOKY OP SOUTHERN INDIA
By L. D. Barnett, M.A., LittD., Keeper of the Department of
Oriental Printed Books and MSS. in the British Museum, formerly
Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge
The Dravidian peoples 593
The Tamil kingdoms 594
The Andhras or Telugus 598
The Kalingas 601
Mahai'ashtra, etc 602
CHAPTER XXV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF CEYLON
By Dr L. D. Barnett
Sources of history 604
The Vatldas 604
Other races in Ceylon 605
Earliest colonisation 605
History from Vijaya to the advent of Buddhism 607
From Devanampiya Tissa to Kutakauna Tissa 608
CHAPTER XXVI
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
By Sir J. H. Marshall, K.C.I.E., LittD., Director General of Archaeology in India, formerly Scholar of King's College,
Cambridge
Prehistoric antiquities 612
The age of iron 615
The mounds at Lauriya Nandangarh; the walls of the old city of
Rajagriha 616
The earliest buildings 617
Monuments of the Maurya epoch 618
J.
xxii Contents
PAGE
Persian influence 621
Contrast between Indian and foreiicn workmanship also seen in the
minor arts 622
Development of art in the (^unga period 623
Bharhut 624
Besnagar 625
More advanced style in the railing at Buddh Gaya 625
Sanchi 627
Interpretation of the reliefs 629
Varieties of style 630
The pre-Kushana sculptures at Mathura 632
Decadence of art 633
Chaityas 633
Bhaja; Kondane; Pitalkhora; Ajanta; Bedsa; Nasik; Eiirli . . 635
Vihdras 637
The caves of Orissa 638
Sculptures in the caves 640
Paintings of the Early Indian school 642
Terracottas 643
Foreign influence in Indian art 644
Coins 645
Architecture 646
Minor arts 646
The Gandhara School 648
Greek and Indian ideals 648
List op Abbreviations 651
Bibliographies 653
Chronology 697
Index 705
Plates I— XXXIV at end
LIST OF MAPS
1. Physical Map of the Indian Empire before p. 1
2. Physical Map of N.W^. India and the Adjacent Countries
between pp. 26 and 27
3. The Kabul Valley and the Punjab between pp. 844 and 345
4. Baluchistan and the country of the Lower Indus between pp. 374 and 375
5. Bharatavarsha between pp. 514 and 515
6. The Indian Empire and Ceylon in pocket at end of volume
LIST OF PLATES
I.
II.
Ill, IV.
V.
VI-VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
xiii.
XIV.
XV.
XVI, XVII.
XVIIL
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIIL
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXIII. XXXIV.
Persian, Athenian, and Macedonian Coins in India.
Coins of the Seleucid Kings and their Successors.
Coins of Bactria.
Coins of Native Indian States.
Coins of the Greek, Scythian, and Parthian Invaders.
Palaeolithic and Neolithic Implements.
Prehistoric Copper Objects.
Gold leaf from Lauriya Nandangarh; Seals from Harappa; A9oka Pillar at Lauriya Nandangarh ; Facade of the Lomas Kishi Cave.
Yaksha (?) Statue from Parkham ; Capital of A^oka Column at Sarnath.
Yaksha Figures from Patna; Indigenous punch-marked Coins; Coin of Sophy tes (Saubhuti).
Terracotta Figures from Sarnath and Basarh (Vai^ali) ; Jewel- lery from Taxila ; Crystal Keliquary from Piprahwa Stupa.
Gateway and Railings of the Bharhut Stupa.
Reliefs on the Railing of the Bharhut Stupa.
Garudia PUlar at Besnagar.
Railing and Reliefs at Buddh Gaya.
The Main Stupa at Sanchi (General view from N.E.).
Stupa II at Sanchi (General view and Pillars).
Front Face of East Gateway of the Main Stupa at Sanchi.
Architraves of Gateways of the Main Stupa at Sanchi.
Jain Votive Tablet and portion of Torana Arch from Mathura.
The Chaitya Cave at Karli.
Caves at Kondane, Bhaja, Nadsur, and Nasik.
Manchapuri Cave and Ananta Gumpha.
Bani Gumpha and Alakapuri Cave.
Terracotta Plaque from Bhita ; Copper Lota from Kulu.
Coins of Bactria and North-western India.
Head of Dionysus from Taxila ; Stupa Base of Scytho-Parthian epoch at Taxila.
Bronze Statuette from Taxila; Gold Casket from Stupa at Bimaran.
Intaglio Gems from the North-west of India.
Life-size Statue of Buddha from Gandhara.
LIST OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES
PAGE
General Bibliography 653
Chapter I 654
Chapter II 655
Chapter III 658
Chapter IV 659
Chapter V 660
Chapter VI 662
Chapter VII 663
Chapter VIII 665
Chapters IX— XII 666
Chapter XIII 669
Chapter XIV 670
Note to Chapter XIV . . . . . .673
Chapters XV and XVI 674
Note to Chapter XV 676
Chapter XVII 677
Chapters XVIII and XIX . . . . .679
Chapter XX 681
Chapter XXI 683
Chapter XXII 685
Chapter XXIII 686
Chapter XXIV 688
Chapter XXV 690
Chapter XXVI 692
CORRIGENDA
p. 129, 1. 2 from foot. For Himalayas read Himalayas.
p. 184, 1. 11. For Saman'Ha- read Sdmafina-.
p. 194, 1. 3. For Moggliputta read Moggaliputta.
p. 265, note '\ 1. 3. For Krishna read Krishna.
pp. 320, 321, note *, 11. 7 and 10. For Oldenburg reoo^ Oldenberg.
p. 501, 1. 15. For Konagamana read Konagamana.
p. 581, L 11. For protrait read portrait.
p. 598, 1. 10. For Aravalar read Aruvalar.
p. 636, L 5 from foot. For Andra read Andhra.
p. 684, 1. 1. For Fourcher read Foucher.
MAP 1
PHYSICAL MAP
OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
PHYSICAL MAP
OF THE
INDIAN EMPIRE
Scale of Miles
Above 12,000 feet 8000 10 12,000 „ 4000 - 8000 „ 2000 - 4000 ., 1000 - 2000 „
Below 1000 .,
Railways Frontier
Map I
George Philip & Son.L^"
CHAPTER I
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
The great continent of Asia falls naturally into four parts or sub-continents. The east drains to the Pacific, and is mainly Buddhist. The north and west centre lie open in an arctic direc- tion, and during the past century were united under Russian rule. The south-west, or Lower Asia, is the land of passage from Asia into Africa, and from the Indian ocean to the Atlantic. It is the homeland of Islam. In the middle south is the Indian sub- continent.
The inhabitants of the United States describe their vast land as a sub-continent. As regards everything but mere area the expression is more appropriate to India. A single race and a single religion are overwhelmingly dominant in the United States, but in India a long history lives to-day in the most striking contrasts, presenting all manner of problems which it will take generations to solve.
In the past there have been great empires in India, but it is a new thing that the entire region from the Hindu Kush to Ceylon, and from Seistan to the Irrawaddy should be united in a single political system. The one clear unity which India has possessed throughout history has been geographical. In no other part of the world, unless perhaps in South America, are the physical features on a grander scale. Yet no where else are they more simply combined into a single natural region.
The object of this chapter is to give a geographical description of India, as the foundation upon which to build the historical chapters which follow. We will make an imaginary journey through the country, noting the salient features of each part, and will then consider it as a whole, in order to set the facts in perspective.
The most convenient point at which to begin is Colombo, the strategical centre of British sea-power in the Indian ocean. Four streams of traffic, India-bound, converge upon Colombo from Aden and the Mediterranean, from the Cape, from Australia, and from
C.H.I. I. 1
2 7 he Sub- Continent of India [ch.
Singapore and the Far East. From Cape Comorin, in the imme- diate neighbourhood of Colombo, the Indian coasts diverge to Bombay and Karachi on the one hand, and to Madras, Calcutta, and Rangoon on the other.
Colombo is not, however, in a technical sense Indian. It is the chief city of the luxuriant and beautiful island of Ceylon, which is about as large as Ireland. Neither to-day nor in the past has Ceylon been a mere appendage of India. The Buddhist religion of half its population, and the Dutch basis of its legal code are the embodiment of chapters in its history ; it is for good historical reasons that the Governor of Ceylon writes his despatches home to the Secretary for the Colonies and not to the Secretary for India.
The passage by steamer across the Gulf of Manaar from Colombo to Tuticorin on the mainland occupies a night. Midway on the voyage the mountains of Ceylon lie a hundred miles to the east, and Cape Comorin a hundred miles to the west. The gulf narrows northward to Palk Strait, which is almost closed by a chain of islands and shoals, so that the course of ships from Aden into the Bay of Bengal is outside Ceylon.
Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of India, lies eight degrees north of the equator, a distance nearly equivalent to the length of Great Britain. From Comorin the Malabar and Coro- mandel coasts extend for a thousand miles, the one north-westward, and the other northward and then north-eastward. The surf of the Arabian sea beats on the Malabar coast, that of the Bay of Bengal on the Coromandel coast. Both the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal open broadly southward to the Indian ocean, for the Indian peninsula narrows between them to a point.
The interior of the Indian peninsula is for the most part a low plateau, known as the Deccan, whose western edge is a steep brink overlooking the Malabar coast. From the top of this brink, called the Western Ghats, the surface of the plateau falls gently eastward to a lower brink, which bears the name of Eastern Ghats. Between the Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel coast there is a belt of lowland, the Carnatic. Thus India presents a lofty front to the ship approaching from the west, but a featureless plain along the Bay of Bengal, where the trees of the coastline appear to rise out of a water horizon when seen from a short distance seaward.
As the steamer approaches Tuticorin the land becomes visible some miles to the west as a low dark line along the horizon. Gradually the detail of the coast separates into a rich vegetation of trees and a white city, whose most prominent object is a cotton
i] Carnatic : Ntlgiris : Coimbatore 3
factory. India is a land of cotton. Its people have grown cotton, woven cotton, and worn cotton from time immemorial. The name calico is derived from Calicut, a town on the Malabar coast which was a centre of trade when Europeans first came over the ocean.
On leaving Tuticorin we travel northward over the Carnatic plain. It is a barren looking country and dry, though at certain seasons there are plentiful rains, and crops enough are produced to maintain a dense population. Far down on the western horizon are the mountains of the Malabar coast, for in this extremity of India the Western and Eastern Ghats have come together and there is no plateau between them. The mountains rise from the western sea and from the eastern plain into a ridge along the west coast, with summits about as high as the summits of Ceylon, that is to say some eight thousand feet. The westward slopes of these mountains, usually known as the Cardamon hills, belong to the little native states of Travancore and Cochin.
A group of hills, isolated on the plain, marks the position of Madura, a hundred miles from Tuticorin. Madura is one of three southern cities with superb Hindu temples. The other two are Trichinopoly and Tanjore, standing not far from one another, a second hundred miles on the road from Tuticorin to Madras.
A hundred and fifty miles west of Trichinopoly is Ootacamund, high on the Nllgiri hills. ' Ooty,' as it is familiarly called, stands some seven thousand feet above the sea in the midst of a country of rolling downs, rising at highest to nearly nine thousand feet. This lofty district forms the southern point of the Deccan plateau, where the Eastern and Western Ghats draw together.
South of the Nilgiris is one of the most important features in the geography of Southern India. The western mountains are here breached by the broad Gap of Coimbatore or Palghat, giving lowland access from the Carnatic plain to the Malabar coast. The Cardamon hills face the Nilgiris across this passage, which is about twenty miles broad from north to south, and only a thousand feet above the sea.
The significance of the Gap of Coimbatore becomes evident when we consider the distribution of population in Southern India. For two hundred miles south of Madras, as far as Trichinopoly and Tanjore, the Carnatic plain is densely peopled. There are more than 400 inhabitants to the square mile. A second district of equal density of population extends from Coimbatore through the Gap to the Malabar coast between the ancient ports of Cochin and Calicut. There are many natural harbours along the Malabar
1—2
4 The Sub- Continent of India [CH.
coast all the way from Bombay southward, but the precipitous and forested Western Ghats impede communication with the interior. Only from Calicut and Cochin is there an easy road to the Caraatic markets, and this is the more important because the Coromandel coast is beaten with a great surf and has no natural harbours.
To-day there is a railway from Madras through the Gap of Coimbatore to Cochin and Calicut, and from this railway a rack and pinion line has been constructed up into the Nilgiri heights to give access to the hill station of Ootacamund. There are magnificent landscapes at the edge of the Nilgiris where the mountains descend abruptly to the plains. On the slopes are great forests in which large game abound, such as sambar and tiger. On the heights the vegetation is naturally different from the lowland. The cultivation of the Nilgiris is chiefly of tea and cinchona.
Northward of the Nilgiris, on the plateau between the Ghats, is the large native state of Mysore. The Cauvery river rises in the Western Ghats, almost within sight of the western sea, and flows eastward across Mysore. As it descends the Eastern Ghats it makes great falls. Then it traverses the Carnatic lowland past Trichinopoly and Tanjore to the Bay of Bengal. The falls have been harnessed and made to supply power, which is carried elec- trically for nearly a hundred miles to the Kolar goldfield.
Around the sources of the Cauvery, high in the Western Ghats, is the little territory of Coorg, no larger than the county of Essex in England. The best of the Indian coffiee plantations are in Coorg, which is directly under the British Raj, although adminis- tered apart from Madras. Mysore is separated from both coasts by the British Province or Presidency of Madras, which extends through the Gap of Coimbatore.
All the southern extremity of India, except the greater heights, is warm at all times of the year, though the heat is never so great as in the hot season of northern India. There is no cool season in the south comparable with that of the north. In most parts of India there are five cool months, October, November, December, January, and February. March, April, and May are the hot season. The remaining four months constitute the rainy season, when the temperature is moderated by the presence of cloud. In the south, almost girt by the sea, some rain falls at all seasons, but along the Malabar coast the west winds of the summer bring great rains. These winds strike the Western Ghats and the Nilgiri hills, and drench them with moisture, so that they are thickly forested. At this season great waterfalls leap down the westward ravines and
i] Madras: Burma 5
feed torrents which rush in short valleys to the ocean. One of the grandest falls in the world is at Gersoppa in the north-west corner of Mysore.
The city of Madras lies low on the coast four hundred miles north of Tuticorin, but the chief military station of southern India is Bangalore on the plateau within Mysore. A hundred years ago, when Sultan Tipu of Mysore had been defeated by the British, Colonel Wellesley, afterwards the great Duke of Wellington, was appointed to command ' the troops above the Ghats.' The expres- sion is a picture of the contrast between the lowland Presidency and the upland Feudal State.
Madras city, like the other seaports of modern India, has grown from the smallest beginnings within the European period. It has now a population of more than half a million. Until within recent years, however, Madras had no harbour. Communication was maintained with ships in the open roadstead by means of surf boats. Two piers have now been built out into the sea at right angles to the shore. At their extremities they bend inward towards one another so as to include a quadrangular space. None the less there are times when the mighty waves sweep in through the open mouth, rendering the harbour unsafe, so that the shipping must stand out to sea. Almost every summer half a dozen cyclones strike the east coast of India from the Bay of Bengal. When the Madras harbour was half completed the works were overwhelmed by a storm, and the undertaking had to be recommenced. If we consider the surf of the Coromandel coast, and the barrier presented by the Western Ghats behind the Malabar coast, we have some measure of the comparative isolation of southern India.
From the far south we cross the Bay of Bengal to the far east of India. Burma is the newest province of the Indian Empire, if' we except sub- divisions of older units. In race, language, religion, and social customs it is nearer to China than it is to India. In these respects it may be considered rather the first land of the Far East than the last of India, the Middle East. Geographically, however, Burma is in relation with the Indian world across the Bay of Bengal, for it has a great navigable river which drains into the Indian ocean, and not into the Pacific as do the rivers of the neighbouring countries, Siam and Annam. Commercially it is coming every day into closer relation with the remainder of the Indian Empire, for it is a fruitful land of sparse population, which may perhaps be developed in the future by the surplus labour of the Indian plains.
6" Thi Sub- Continent of India [CH.
The approach from the sea is unimpressive, for the shore is formed by the delta of the Irrawaddy river. The easternmost of tlie channels by which that great stream enters the sea is the Rangoon river. The city of Rangoon stands some thirty miles up this channel. The golden spire of its great pagoda rises from among the trees on the first low hill at the edge of the deltaic plain.
Fifty yeare ago Rangoon was a village. To-day it has a quarter of a million people. Like the other coast towns of India and Ceylon, it owes its greatness to the Europeans who have come over the ocean. In all the earlier ages India looked inward, not outward,
Rangoon is placed where the river makes a bend eastward. The city lies along the north bank for some miles, to the point where the Pegu tributary enters. Black smoke hangs over the Pegu river, for there are many rice mills with tall chimneys along its banks. Rangoon harbour is always busy with shipping. Along its quays are great timber yards and oil mills, for the products of Burma are first and foremost rice, and then timber, especially great logs of teak, harder than oak, and then petroleum. The work of the port and mills is largely in the hands of Indians and Chinese. The Burmese are chiefly occupied with work in the fields.
The geogi-aphy of Burma is of a simple design. It consists of four parallel ranges of mountain striking southward, and three long intervening valleys. The easternmost range separates Burma and the drainage to the Indian ocean from Siam and the drainage to the Pacific ocean. This great divide is continued through the Malay peninsula almost to Singapore, only one degree north of the equator. The westernmost range divides Burma from India proper, and then follows the west coast of Burma to Cape Negrais. This range is continued over the bed of the ocean, and reappears in the long chain of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In its entirety it has a graceful waving lie upon the map, curving first to the west, then to the east, and then again to the west. The two intervening ranges separate the Salween, Sittang, and Irrawaddy valleys.
The valley of the Salween is less deeply trenched between its bounding ranges than are the other two, and therefore has a steeply descending course broken by rapids, and is of small value for navigation. At its mouth is the port of Moulmein. The valley of the Sittang, which is a relatively short river, prolongs the upper valley of the Irrawaddy, for the latter stream makes a westward
i] Mandalay : Bhamo »7
bend at Mandalay, and passes by a transverse gap through one of the parallel ridges. Beyond this gap it bends southward again, accepting the direction of its tributary, the Chindwin. The railway from Rangoon to Mandalay runs through the Sittang valley and does not follow the Irrawaddy.
The delta of the Irrawaddy bears the name of Pegu or Lower Burma. The region round Mandalay is Upper Burma. The coast- land beyond the westernmost of the mountain ranges is known as Arakan. The coastland south of the mouth of the Salween, beset with an archipelago of beautiful islands, is known as Tenasserim.
The train from Rangoon to Mandalay crosses the broad levels of the delta, passing through endless rice or ' paddy ' fields. Only the ears of the grain are lopped olF ; the straw is burnt as it stands. The Burmans are mostly yeomen, each owning his cattle and doing his own work in the fields. Beyond the delta the railway follows the Sittang river, with hill ranges low on the eastern and western horizons. At Mandalay it comes through to the Irrawaddy again.
There is a hill in the northern suburbs of Mandalay, several hundred feet high, from which you may look over the city. Even when seen from this height the houses are so buried in foliage that the place appears like a wood of green trees. It has a population of about two hundred thousand, so that it is now smaller than upstart Rangoon. Mandalay is the last of three capitals a few miles apart, which at different times in the past century were the seat of the Burmese kings. Amarapura, a few miles to the south, was the capital until 1822. Ava, a few miles to the west, was the capital from 1822 to 1837.
The navigation of the Irrawaddy extends for nine hundred miles from the sea to Bhamo, near the border of the Chinese Empire. As the steamer goes northward from Mandalay the banks are at first flat, with here and there a group of white pagodas. Great rafts of bamboo and teak logs float down the river. At Katha the flat country is left, for the river there comes from the east through grand defiles, with wooded fronts descending to the water's edge. Bhamo lies low along the river bank beyond the narrows. It is only twenty miles from the Chinese frontier. Many of its houses are raised high upon piles, because of the river floods. Until recently the Kachin hillmen often raided the caravans passing from Bhamo into China.
To realise the antiquity and the splendour of early Burmese civilisation we must descend the Irrawaddy below Mandalay to Pagan. There for some ten miles beside the river, and for three
8 The Suh- Continent of India [ch.
miles back from its bank, are the ruins of a great capital, which flourished about the time of the Norman Conquest of p]ngland. From the centre of the ruined city there are pagodas and temples in every direction.
Pagan is situated in what is known as the dry belt of Burma, the typical vegetation of which is a tall growth of cactus. In Burma the winds of summer and autumn blow from the south- west, as they do in southern India. They bring moisture from the sea, which falls in heavy rain on the west side of the mountains and over the delta. At Rangoon there is an annual rainfall of more than one hundred inches, or more than three times the rain- fall of London. At Pagan, however, lying deep in the Irrawaddy valley under the lee of the continuous Arakan range, the rainfall is small, as little as twenty inches in the year, and the climate is hot and evaporation rapid.
Elsewhere in Burma are either rich crops, or the most luxuriant forests of tall leafy trees, full of game and haunted by poisonous snakes. Wild peacocks come from the woods to feed on the rice when it is ripe, and tigers are not unknown in the villages. Only a few years ago a tiger was shot on one of the ledges of the great pagoda in Rangoon. Notwithstanding the age of its civilisation Burma is still subject to a masterful nature. Moreover civilisation is confined to the immediate valleys and delta of the Irrawaddy and Salween. On the forested hills are wild tribes, akin to the Burmese in speech and physique — the Shans in the east, the Kachins in the north, and the Chins in the west. Burma contains but twelve million people — Burmese, Chinese, Hindus, and the hill tribes.
From Burma the passage to Bengal is by steamer, for the Burmese and Indian railway systems have not yet been connected. The heart of Bengal is one of the largest deltas in the world, a gi'eat plain of moist silt brought down by the rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra from the Himalaya mountains. But hill country is included along the borders of the province.
To the north the map shows the high tableland of Tibet, edged by the Himalaya range, whose southern slopes descend steeply, but with many foothills, to the level low-lying plains of the great rivers. Eastward of Bengal there is a mountainous belt, rising to heights of more than six thousand feet and densely forested, which separates the Irrawaddy valley of Burma from the plains of India. These mountains throw out a spur westward, which rises a little near its end into the Garo hills. The deeply trenched, relatively
i] Bengal 9
narrow valley of the Brahmaputra, known as Assam, lies between the Garo hills and the Himalayas. The southward drainage from the Garo hills forms a deltaic plain, extending nearly to the port of Chittagong. This plain, traversed by the Meghna river which gathers water from the Garo and Khasi range, is continuous with the delta of Bengal proper.
To the west of Bengal is another hill spur, bearing the name of Rajmahal, which is the north-eastern point of the plateau of central and southern India. A broad lowland gateway is left between the Garo and Rajmahal hills, and through this opening the Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers turn southward and converge gradually until they join with the Meghna to form a vEist estuary. The country west of this estuary is the Bengal delta, traversed by many minor channels, which branch from the right bank of the Ganges before the confluence with the Meghna. East of the estuary is that other deltaic land whose silt is derived from the south front of the Garo hills. It is said that the highest rain- fall in the world occurs in those hills, when the monsoon sweeps northward from the Bay of Bengal, and blows against their face. The rainfall on a single day in the rainy season is sometimes as great as the whole annual rainfall of London. Little wonder that there is abundance of silt for the formation of the fertile plains below !
The approach to the coast of Bengal, as may be concluded from this geographical description, presents little of interest. At the entrance to the Hooghly river, the westernmost of the deltaic channels, are broad grey mud banks, with here and there a palm tree. From time to time, as the ship passes some more solid ground, there are villages of thatched huts, surrounded by tall green banana plantations.
Calcutta, the chief port and largest town of modern India, is placed no less than eighty miles up the Hooghly on its eastern bank. The large industrial town of Howrah stands opposite on the western bank. Not a hill is in sight round all the horizon, Only the great dome of the post office rises white in the sunshine. Calcutta is connected with the jute mills and engineering works of Howrah by a single bridge. Below this bridge is the port, always thronged with shipping.
Calcutta has grown round Fort William as a nucleus. The present Fort, with its outworks, occupies a space of nearly a thousand acres on the east bank of the Hooghly below the Howrah bridge. To the north, east, and south, forming a glacis for the
lO The Sub- Continent of India [ch.
fort, is a wide green plain, the Maidan, and beyond this is the city. The European quarter lies to the east of the Maidan. The government offices, and beyond them the great native city, lie to the north. Calcutta with more than a million inhabitants exceeds Glasgow in size, and is the second city of the British Empire.
Three hundred miles away to the north, approached from Calcutta by the East Bengal railway, is Darjeeling, the hill station of Calcutta, as Ootacamund is of Madras. The railway traverses the dead level of the plain, with its thickly set villages and tropical vegetation. There are some seven hundred and fifty thousand villages in India, and they contain about ninety per cent, of the total population. The Province of Bengal has a population equal to that of Great Britain and Ireland, but concentrated on an area less than that of Great Britain without Ireland. Yet it contains only one great city, as greatness of cities is measured in the British Islands.
Mid- way from Calcutta to Darjeeling the Ganges is crossed. The passage occupies about twenty minutes from one low-lying bank to the other. Then the journey is resumed through the rice fields, with their clumps of graceful bamboo, until at last the hills become visible across the northern horizon. The train runs into a belt of jungle at the foot of the first ascent. Passengers change to a mountan railway, which carries them up the steep front, with many a turn and twist. On the lower slopes is tall forest of teak and other great trees, hung thickly with creepers. Presently the timber becomes smaller, and tea plantations are passed with trim rows of green bushes. Far below, at the foot of the steep forest, spreads to the southern horizon the vast cultivated plain. Finally trees of the fir tribe take the place of leafy trees, and the train attains to the sharp ridge top on which is placed Darjeeling, a settlement of detached villas in compounds, hanging on the slopes.
Darjeeling is about seven thousand feet above sea-level, on an east and west ridge, with the plains to the south and the gorge of the Rangit river to the north. In the early morning, in fortunate weather, the visitor may gaze northward upon one of the most glorious scenes in the world. Over the deep valley at his feet, still dark in the shade, and over successive ridge tops beyond, rises the mighty snow range of the Himalayas, fifty miles away, with the peak of Kinchinjunga, more than five miles high, dominating the landscape. Behind Kinchinjunga, a little to the west, and visible from Tiger hill, near Darjeeling, though not from Darjeeling itself, is Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, more than
i] Darjeeling: Sikkim: Assam li
five and a half miles high. Across the vast chasm and bare granite summits in the foreground, the glittering wall of white mountains seems to hang in the sky as though belonging to another world. The broad distance, and the sudden leap to supreme height, give to the scene a mysterious and almost visionary grandeur. It is, however, only occasionally that the culminating peaks can be seen, for they are often veiled in cloud.
The people of Sikkim, the native state in the hills beyond Darjeeling, are highlanders of Mongolian stock and not Indian. They are of Buddhist religion like the Burmans, and not Hindu or Muhammadan like the inhabitants of the plains. They are smaU sturdy folk, with oblique cut eyes and a Chinese expression, and they have the easy going humourous character of the Burmans, though not the delicacy and civilisation of those inhabitants of the sunny lowland.
It is an interesting fact that these hill people should belong to the race which spreads over the vast Chinese Empire. That race here advances to the last hill brinks which overlook the Indian lowland. The political map of this part of India illustrates a parallel fact. While the plains are administered directly by British officials, the mountain slopes descending to them are ruled by native princes, whose territories form a strip along the northern boundary of India. North of Assam and Bengal we have in succession, from east to west in the belt of hill country, the lands of Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal. From Nepal are recruited the Gurkha regiments of the Indian army, the Gurkhas being a race of the same small and sturdy hill men as the people of Sikkim. In other words, they are of a Mongoloid stock, though of Hindu religion.
The Rangit river drains from the hills of Darjeeling, and from the snow mountains beyond, into a tributary of the Ganges. Several hundred such torrents burst in long succession through deep portals in the Himalayan foot hills and feed the great rivers of the plain. These torrents are perennial, for they originate in the melting of the glaciers, and the Himalayan glaciers cover a vast area, being fed by the monsoon snows. Nearly all the agricultural wealth of northern India owes its origin to the summer or oceanic monsoon, which beats against the Himalayan mountain edge. That edge, gracefully curving upon the map, extends through fifteen hundred miles. The streams which descend from it in long series gather into the rivers Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus.
The valley of the Brahmaputra forms the province of Assam. Notwithstanding its vast natural resources, Assam is a country
12 The Suh-Continent of India [CH.
which, at most periods of its history, has remained outside the Indian civilisation. Even to-day it has but a sparse population and a relatively small commercial development, for it lies on the through road no whither. High and difficult mountains close in the eastern end of its great valley.
The geography of Assam, though very simple, is on a very grand scale. The Tsan-po river rises high on the plateau of Tibet northward of Lucknow. For more than seven hundred miles it flows eastward over the plateau in rear of the Himalayan peaks. Then it turns sharply southward, and descends from a great height steeply through a deep gorge, until it emerges from the mountains at a level not a thousand feet above the sea. At this point, turning westward, it forms the Brahmaputra, 'the son of Brahma, the Creator.' The Brahmaputra flows for four hundred and fifty miles westward through the valley of Assam, deeply trenched between the snowy wall of the Himalayas on the one hand and the forested mountains of the Burmese border and the Khasi and Garo hills on the other hand. The river rolls down the valley in a vast sheet of water, depositing banks of silt at the smallest obstruction. Islands form and reform, and broad channels break away from the main river in time of flood, and there is no attempt to control them. The swamps on either hand are flooded in the rainy season, till the lower valley is one broad shining sea, from which the hills slope up on either side. The traffic on the river is maintained chiefly by exports of tea and timber, and imports of rice for the labourers on the tea estates. Some day, when great sums of money are available for capital expenditure, the Brahmaputra will be con- trolled, and Assam will become the seat of teeming production and a dense population. The Indian Empire contains three hundred and fifteen million people, but it also contains some of the chief virgin resources of the world.
Where the Brahmaputra bends southward round the foot of the Garo hills the valley of Assam opens to the plain of Bengal. Across that plain westward, where the Ganges makes a similar southward bend round the Rajmahal hills, Bengal merges with the great plain of Hindustan, which extends westward and north-west- ward along the foot of the Himalayas for some seven hundred miles to the point where the Jumna, westernmost of the Gangetic tributaries, leaves its mountain valley. Hindustan begins with a breadth of about a hundred miles between the Rajmahal hills and the northern mountains, spreads gradually to a breadth of two hundred miles from the foot hills of the Himalayas to the first rise
i] Hindustan 1 3
of the Central Indian hills, and then narrows again to a hundred miles where it merges with the Punjab plain between the Ridge of Delhi and the Himalayas. The great river Jumna-Ganges streams southward from the mountains across the head of the plain to Delhi, and then gi-adually bends south-eastward and eastward along that edge of the plain which is remote from the mountains, as though it were pinned against the foot of the Central hills by the impact of the successive great tributaries from the north. Three of these tributaries are the Upper Ganges itself, whose confluence is at Allahabad, and the Gogra and the Gandak which enter above Patna. The Jumna-Ganges receives from the south the Chambal and Son, long rivers but comparatively poor in water.
Access to the plains of Hindustan was formerly by the naviga- tion of the Ganges and its tributaries. Then the Grand Trunk Road was made from Calcutta to Delhi. More recently the East Indian Railway has been built from Bengal to the Punjab. Both the road and the railway avoid the great bend round the hills by crossing the upland to the west of Rajmahal. The road descends to the Ganges at Patna, but the railway at Benares, where it crosses by the lowest bridge over the Ganges.
Two great provinces divide the plain of Hindustan between them. In the east is Bihar, with its capital at Patna ; in the west are the United Provinces of Agra and, Oudh with their capital at Allahabad. For administrative purposes Bihar is now joined with Orissa, the deltaic plain of the MahanadI river on the coast of Bengal. A broad belt of sparsely populated hills separates Bihar from Orissa, whereas each of these fertile lowlands opens freely to Bengal, the one along the Ganges, and the other along the coast.
When we go from Bengal into Bihar, or from Bihar into the United Provinces it is as though we crossed from one to another of the great continental states of Europe. The population of Bengal is larger than that of France. The population of Bihar and Orissa is equivalent to that of Italy. The population of the United Provinces is nearly equal to that of Germany since the War.
Five considerable cities focus the great population of the United Provinces, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Agra, and Benares. Allahabad is built in the angle of confluence between the Jumna and the Ganges. A hundred miles above Allahabad, on the right or south bank of the Ganges, is the city of Cawnpore, and on the opposite or north bank extends the old kingdom of
14 The Sub- Continent of India [ch.
Oudh, with Lucknow for its capital, situated some forty miles north-east of Cawnpore. Agra, which gives its name to all that part of the United Provinces which did not formerly belong to Oudh, is situated on the right or south bank of the Jumna, a hundred and fifty miles west of Lucknow. All these distances lie over the dead level of the plain, dusty and like a desert in the dry season, but green and fertile after the rains. Scattered over the plain are innumerable villages in which dwell nineteen out of twenty of the inhabitants of the United Provinces.
Eighty miles below Allahabad, on the north bank of the Ganges is Benares, the most sacred city of the Hindus. Benares extends for four miles along the bank of the river, which here descends to the water with a steep brink. Down this brink are built flights of steps known as Ghats, at the foot of which pilgrims bathe, and dead bodies are burnt. The south bank opposite lies low and is not sacred. The word Ghat is identical with the name applied geographically to the west and east brinks of the Deccan Plateau.
Cawnpore is the chief inland manufacturing city of India, con- trasted in all its ways with Benares. But none of these cities are really great, when compared with the population of the United Provinces. Lucknow is the largest, and has only a quarter of a million inhabitants. Notwithstanding the great changes now in progress, India still presents in most parts essentially the same aspect as in long past centuries.
If there be one part of India which we may think of as the shrine of shrines in a land where religion rules all life, it is to be found in the triangle of cities — Benares and Patna on the Ganges, and Gaya some fifty miles south of Patna. Benares has been a focus of Hinduism from very early times. Patna was the capital of the chief Gangetic kingdom more than two thousand years ago when the Greek ambassador Megasthenes, first of the westerns, travelled thus far into the east. Gaya was the spot where Buddha, seeking to reform Hinduism some five hundred years before Christ, obtained ' enlightenment,' and then migrated to teach at Benares, or rather at Sarnath, now in ruins, three or four miles north of the present Benares. The peoples of all the vast Indian and Chinese world, from Karachi to Pekin and Tokyo, look to this little group of cities as the centre of holiness, whether they be followers of Brahma or of Buddha.
The language of the United Provinces and of considerable districts to east, south, and west of them, is Hindi, the tongue of
i] United Provinces : Central Indian Agency 15
modern India most directly connected with ancient Sanskrit. Hindi is now spoken by a hundred million people in all the north centre of India. It is the language not only of Bihar and the United Provinces, but also of Delhi and of a wide district in Central India drained by the Chambal and Son rivers. Other tongues of similar origin are spoken in the regions around — Bengali to the east, MarathI and Gujarat! to the south-west beyond the Ganges basin, and Punjabi to the north-west. Away to the south, beyond the limit of the Sanskrit tongues, in the Province of Madras and neighbouring areas, are languages wholly alien from Sanskrit. They differ from Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi much as the Turkish and Hungarian lan- guages differ from the group of allied Indo-European tongues spoken in Western Europe. These southern Indian tongues are known as Dravidian. The most important of them are Telegu, spoken by twenty millions, and Tamil spoken by fifteen millions. The Dravidian south, however, and the Aryan north and centre agree generally in holding some form of Hinduism or Islam.
Within the central hills there is a wide district drained north- eastward into the Jumna-Ganges chiefly by the rivers Chambal and Son. This district, much less fruitful than the plain of Hindu- stan, because less abundantly watered, and composed of rocky ground instead of alluvium, is ruled by native chiefs. The British suzerainty is exercised under the Viceroy by the Central Indian Agency. Of the chiefs of Central India the most important are Sindhia and Holkar, two Marathas ruling Hindi populations. Sindhia's capital, Gwalior, lies a little south of Agra. It is domi- nated by an isolated rock fort, flat topped and steep sided, more than three hundred feet in height. Indore, Holkar's capital, lies in the land of Malwa, on high ground about the sources of the Chambal river, a considerable distance south of Gwalior. In the neighbourhood is Mhow, one of the chief cantonments of the Indian army, placed on the high ground for climatic reasons, like Bangalore in southern India.
The long upward slope to the Chambal headstreams ends on the summit of the Vindhya range, a high brink facing southward. From east to west along the foot of the Vindhya face runs the sacred river Narbada in a deeply trenched valley. Thus the Narbada has a course at right angles to the northward floAving Chambal streams on the heights above. The Son river occupies almost the same line of valley as the Narbada, but flows north- eastward into the Ganges. On the south side of the Narbada
1 6 The Sub- Contineitt of India [ch.
valley is the Satpura range, parallel with the Vindhya brink, and beyond this is the Tapti river, shorter than the Narbada, but flow- ing westward with a course generally parallel to that of the sacred river. The Narbada and Tapti form broad alluvial flats before they enter the side of the shallow Gulf of Carabay. South of the Tapti begins the Deccan Plateau.
Thus a line of hills and valleys crosses India obliquely from Rajmahal to the Gulf of Cambay, and divides the rivers of the Indian Upland into three systems. North of the Vindhya brink, over an area as large as Germany, the drainage descends north- eastward to the Jumna-Ganges. Between the Vindhya range and the edge of the Deccan Plateau are the two exceptional rivers, Narbada and Tapti, flowing westward in deeply trenched valleys. From the Western Ghats, and from the hills which cross India south of the Tapti and Son to Rajmahal, three great rivers flow south- ward and eastward to the Bay of Bengal — the Mahanadi, Godavari, and Kistna. The area drained by these three streams of the plateau is a third of India.
The first * factory ' of the English East India Company was at Surat on the lower Tapti, but Bombay, two hundred miles farther south, long ago supplanted Surat as the chief centre of European influence in Western India. The more northern town had an easy road of access to the interior by the Tapti valley, but the silt at the river mouth made it difficult of approach from the sea. Bombay oflfered the security of an island, and has a magnificent harbour between the island and the mainland, far from the mouth of any considerable stream.
Two new facts have of recent years altered all the relations of India with the outer world, and have vitally changed the con- ditions of internal government as compared with those prevailing even as late as the Mutiny. The first of these facts was the open- ing of the Suez Canal, and the second was the construction, and as regards main lines the virtual completion, of the Indian railway system. Formerly shipping came round the Cape of Good Hope, and it was as easy to steer a course for Calcutta as for Bombay. To-day only bulky cargo is taken from Suez and Aden round the southern point of India through the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta. The fast mail boats run to Bombay, and thence the railways diverge south-eastward, north-eastward, and northward to all the frontiers of the Empire. Only the Burmese railways remain for the present a detached system. But in regard to tonnage of traffic Calcutta is still the first port of India, for the country which lies in
i] Bombay 17
rear of it — Bengal, Bihar, and the United Provinces — contains more than a hundred million people.
From Bombay inland runs the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The line branches a short distance from the coast, striking on the one hand south-eastward in the direction of Madras, and on the other hand north-eastward in the direction of Allahabad on the East Indian Railway. Each week, a few hours after the arrival of the mail steamer at Bombay, three express trains leave the Victoria Station of that city. One of them is bound south-east- ward for Madras. The second runs north-eastward to Allahabad, and then on to Howrah for Calcutta. The third also runs north- eastward, but diverges northward from the Calcutta route to Agra and Delhi. When the Government of India is at Simla the last mentioned train continues beyond Delhi to the foot of the moun- tains. The time taken to Madras is twenty-six hours, to Calcutta thirty-six hours, and to Delhi twenty-seven hours. Recently a more direct line has been made from Bombay to Calcutta which does not pass through Allahabad, but through Nagpur. It traverses a hilly country, much forested and relatively thinly peopled, in the upper basins of the Godavari and Mahanadi rivers.
The two lines of the Great India Peninsula system approach one another from Allahabad and from Madras at an angle. They are carried separately down the steep mountain edge of the Deccan Plateau by two passes, the Thalghat and the Borghat, which have put the skill of engineers to the test. The junction is in the narrow coastal plain at the foot of the mountains. Thence the rails pass by a bridge over a sea strait into Salsette Island, and by a second bridge over a second strait into Bombay Island.
The island of Bombay is about twelve miles long from north to south. At its southern end it projects into the southward Colaba Point and the south-westward Malabar Point, between which, facing the open sea, is Back Bay. The harbour, set with hilly islets, lies between Bombay and the mainland, the entry being from the south round Colaba Point. Bombay is now a very fine city, but like the other great seaports of India, it is new — as time goes in the immemorial East. Calcutta was already great when Bombay was but a small place, for a riverway extends through densely peopled plains for a thousand miles inland from Calcutta, whereas the horizon of Bombay is barred beyond the harbour by the mountain face of the Western Ghats. The real greatness of Bombay came only with the opening of the Suez Canal, and of the railway lines up the Borghat and the Thalghat.
c. H. I. I. 2
1 8 The Sub-Continent of India [CH.
The train works up the Ghats from Bombay through thick forests, and if it be the rainy season past rushing waterfalls, until it surmounts the brink top and comes out on to the plain of the Deccan table-land in the relative drought of the upper climate. The Western Deccan in rear of Bombay constitutes the Maratha country. The Marathas are the southernmost of the peoples of Indo-European speech in India. Their homeland on the plateau, round the city of Poena, now forms the main portion of the Province of Bombay. The landscape of the plateau lies widely open, studded here and there with table-topped mountains, not unlike the kopjes of South Africa. These steep-sided isolated mountain blocks have often served as strongholds in warfare.
South-eastward of Poena, but still on the plateau country, is Hyderabad, the largest native state in India. It is ruled under British suzerainty by the Nizam. The majority of the Nizam's subjects speak Telegu and are of Hindu faith, but the Nizam is a Muhammadan. Near his capital, Hyderabad, is Golconda Fort, rising above the open plateau with flat top and cliff" sides. The name of Golconda has become proverbial for immensity of wealth. Formerly it was the Indian centre of diamond cutting and polishing.
The wide Deccan Plateau is in most parts of no great fertility. Over large areas it is fitted rather for the pasture of horses and cattle than for the plough. Agriculture is best in the river valleys. But there is one large district lying on the plateau top east of Bombay, and on the hill tops north and south of the Narbada valley which is of a most singular fertility. The usually granitic and schistose rocks of the plateau have here been overlaid by great sheets of basaltic lava. Detached portions of these lava beds form the table tops of most of the kopje-like hills. The lava disintegrates into a tenacious black soil, which does not fall into dust during the dry season, but cracks into great blocks which remain moist. As the dry season advances these blocks shrink, and the cracks grow broader, so that finally it is dangerous for a horse to gallop over the plain, lest his hoof should be caught in one of these fissures.
This remarkable earth is known as the Black Cotton Soil. The cotton seeds are sown after the rains, and as the young plant grows a clod of earth forms round its roots which is separated from the next similar clod by cracks. Wheat is grown on this soil in the same manner, being sown after the rainy season and reaped in the beginning of the hot season, so that from beginning to end the crop is produced without exposure to rain, being drawn up by
i] Central Provinces : Baroda 1 9
the brilliant sunshine, and fed at the root by the moisture pre- served in the heavy soil.
Thus in the part of India which lies immediately east, north- east, and north of Bombay the lowlands and the uplands are alike fertile — the lowlands round Ahmadabad and Baroda, and in the valleys of the Narbada and Tapti rivers, because of their alluvial soil, and the uplands round Poona and Indore because they are clothed with the volcanic cotton soil.
The east coast of India, where it trends north-eastward from the mouths of the Godavari river to those of the Mahanadi, is backed by great hill and forest districts, tenanted by big game and by uncivilised tribes of men. The Eastern Ghats are here higher than elsewhere, and they approach near to the coast, so that their foot plain affords only a relatively narrow selvage of populated country. Through this coastal plain the railway is carried from Calcutta to Madras.
The reason for the primitive character of this part of the country, and of many of the districts which extend northward through the hills almost to the valley of the Son, is to be found in the conditions of soil and climate. There have been no volcanic outpourings on the gneissic and granitic rocks hereabouts, and the summer cyclones fi'om the Bay of Bengal strike most frequently upon this coast and travel inland in a north-westerly direction. Some of the Gond tribes of the forests, who may perhaps be described as the aborigines of India, still speak tongues which appear to be older than Dravidian. In the more fertile parts of the upper Mahanadi and Godavari basins are comprised the Central Provinces of the direct British Raj, whose capital is at Nagpur. The Central Provinces have an area comparable with that of Italy, though their population is but one-third the Italian popu- lation. They must not be confused with the Central Indian Agency.
We return to the west coast. The Bombay and Baroda railway runs out of Bombay northward and does not ascend the Ghats, but follows the coastal plain across the lower Tapti and Narbada rivers to Baroda, and thence on, across the alluvial flats of the Mahi and neighbouring small rivers, to Ahmadabad. The Gaikwar of Baroda governs a small but very rich and populous lowland. His people speak GujaratI, though the Gaikwar is a Maratha, like Sindhia and Holkar. His territories are so mixed with those of the Bombay Presidency that the map of the plains round Ahmada- bad and Baroda city is like that part of Scotland which is labelled Ross and Cromarty. Ahmadabad was once the most important
2—2
20 The Sub-Conti7tent of India [CH.
Muhammadan city of Western India, and contains many fine architectural monuments, surpassed only by those of the great Mughal capitals, Delhi and Agra.
Westward of the alluvial plains of Gujarat, and beyond the Gulf of Cambay, is the peninsula of Kathiawar, a low plateau, lower considerably than the Deccan, but clothed in part with similar sheets of fertile volcanic soil. Baroda has territory in Kathiawar, as has also the Presidency of Bombay, but in addition there are a multitude of petty chieftainships. North of Kathiawar is another smaller hill district, constituting the island of Cutch. The Rann of Cutch, a marshy area communicating with the sea, separates the island from the mainland. Apart from Travancore and Cochin in the far south, Kathiawar and Cutch are the only part of India where Feudal States come down to the coast. There are a few diminutive coastal settlements belonging to the French and Portu- guese governments, but these are too insignificant to break the general rule that the shores of India are directly controlled by the British Raj. The largest of the foreign European settlements is at Goa on the west coast south of Bombay. Goa has a fine harbour but the Ghats block the roads inland.
We have now completed the itinerary of the inner parts of India. What remains to be described is the north-western land of passage where India merges with Iran and Turan — Persia and Turkestan. The Himalayan barrier, and the desert plateau of Tibet in rear of it, so shield the Indian world from the north and north-east that the medieval Buddhist pilgi'ims from China to Gaya were in the habit of travelling westward by the desert routes north of Tibet as far as the river Oxus, and then southward over the Hindu Kush. Thus they came into India from the north-west, having circumvented Tibet rather than cross it. Great mountain ranges articulate with the Himalayas at their eastern end, and extend into the roots of the peninsula of Further India. Thus the direct way from China into India by the east is obstructed. To- day as we have seen the railway systems of Burma and India are still separate.
The centre of north-western India is occupied by a group of large Native States, known collectively as Rajputana. Through Rajputana, diagonally from the south-west north-eastward, there runs the range of the Aravalli hills for a distance of fully three hundred miles. The north-eastern extremity of the Aravallis is the Ridge of Delhi on the Jumna river. At their southern end, but separated from the main range by a hollow, is the isolated
i] The Great Indian Desert 2 1
Mount Abu, the highest point in Rajputana, standing up con- spicuously from the surrounding plains to a height of some five thousand feet.
East of the Aravallis, in the basin of the Chambal tributary of the Jumna-Ganges, is the more fertile part of Rajputana, with the cities of Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, and the old fortress of Chitor. Beyond the Chambal river itself, but within its basin, are Gwalior and Indore, the seats of the princes Sindhia and Holkar. But Gwalior and Indore belong to the Central Indian Agency and not to Rajputana.
West of the Aravalli hills is the great Indian desert, prolonged seaward by the salt and partly tidal marsh of the Rann of Cutch. In oases of this desert are some of the smaller Rajput capitals, notably Bikaner. Beyond the desert flows the great Indus river through a land which is dry, except for the irrigated strips beside the river banks and in the delta of Sind below Hyderabad. South of Mount Abu streams descend from the end of the Aravalli hills to the Gulf of Cambay through the fertile lowland of Ahmadabad, sunk like a land strait between the plateau of Kathiawar to the west and the ends of the Vindhya and Satpura ranges to the east. The Aravallis are the last of the Central Indian hills towards the north-west. Outside the Aravallis the Indus valley spreads in wide low-lying alluvial plains, like those of the Ganges, but dry.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance to India of the existence of the great desert of Rajputana. Tlie ocean to the south-east and south-west of the peninsula was at most times an ample protection against overseas invasion, until the Europeans rounded the Cape of Good Hope. The vast length of the Himalaya, backed by the desert plateau of Tibet, was an equal defence on the north side. Only to the north-west does India lie relatively open to the incursions of the warlike peoples of Western and Central Asia. It is precisely in that direction that the Indian desert presents a waterless void extending north-eastward from the Rann of Cutch, for some 400 miles, with a breadth of 150 miles. In rear of the desert a minor bulwark is constituted by the Aravalli range.
Only between the north-eastern extremity of the desert and the foot of the Himalayas below Simla is there an easy gateway into India. No river traverses this gateway, which is on the divide between the systems of the Indus and the Jumna-Ganges. Delhi stands on the west bank of the Jumna at the northern
22 The Sub-Contine7tt of India [ch.
extremity of the Aravallis, just where the invading forces from the north-west came through to the navigable waters.
Aided by such powerful natural conditions the Rajputs — ^the word means 'sons of princes' — were during many centuries the defenders of India against invasion by the direct road to Delhi. Unable at last to stem the tide of Musalman conquest, they have maintained themselves on the southern flank of the advance, and to-day some of their princely families claim to trace their lineage back in unbroken descent from ancestors before the Christian era. The descendants of conquerors who had won their kingdoms with the sword, they remain even now proud aristocratic clans holding a predominant position in the midst of a population far more numerous than themselves.
Narrow gauge lines branch through Rajputana in the direction of Delhi, past the foot of Mount Abu, which rises like an island of granite from amid the sandy desert. The top of Abu is a small rugged plateau, measuring fourteen miles by four, in the midst of which is the Gem Lake, a most beautiful sheet of water, set with rocky islands and overhung with great masses of rock. The house of the Resident of Rajputana is on its shore, for Mount Abu is the centre from which Rajputana is controlled, so far as is necessary, by the advice of the Viceroy. The summit of Abu also bears some famous iniins of Jain temples.
Some of the most beautiful cities of India are in Rajputana. Udaipur stands beside a lake, with its palaces and ghats reflected in the clear waters. Ajmer, now under direct British rule, is set in a hollow among low hills, and is surrounded by a wall. Here also there is a lake, and upon its banks are marble pavilions. Jaipur is a walled city, surrounded by rocky hills crowned with forts. The streets are broad, and cross one another at right angles.
The Rajputana Agency is as large as the whole British Isles, but it contains only about ten million people, since a great part of it is desert. The Central Indian Agency is about as large as England and Scotland without Wales. It has a population only a little smaller than that of Rajputana. W€ may measure the significance of the more important chiefs in these two Agencies by the fact that Sindhia rules a country little less, either in area or population, than the kingdom of Scotland.
From Rajputana we come to Delhi, which may truly be called the historical focus of all India ; for, as we have seen, it commands the gateway which leads from the Punjab plain to Hindustan, the
i] The Delhi Gateway 23
plain of the Jumna and the Ganges. Here the fate of invasions from India from the north-west has been decided. Some have either never reached this gateway or have failed to force their way through it. The conquests of Darius in the latter part of the sixth century B.C., and of Alexander the Great in the years 327-5 B.O., were not carried beyond the Punjab plain. Such direct influence as they exercised in modifying the character of Indian civilisation must therefore have been confined to this region. On the other hand, the invasions which have succeeded in passing the gateway and in effecting a permanent settlement in Hindustan have determined the history of the whole sub-continent. These belong to two groups, the Aryan and the Musalman, distinguished by religion, language, and type of civilisation, and separated from each other by an interval of probably some two thousand years.
For the chronology of the Aryan conquests, which may well have extended over many generations or even centuries, we possess no certain dates. All the knowledge which we can hope to gain of the history of this remote period must be gleaned from the study of the ancient scriptures of these Aryan invaders.
The course of JNIusalman invasion, which entailed consequences of perhaps equal importance, may be traced with greater precision. If we reckon from the Arab conquest of Sind in 712 A.D. to the establishment of the Sultanate of Delhi in 1193 A.D., we shall see that nearly five centuries elapsed before Musalman conquest spread from the confines through the Delhi gateway into the very heart of India. During this long period it was held in check by the Rajput princes ; and their ultimate failure to impede its progress was due to internal discord which has always been the bane of feudal confederations.
So Delhi, founded by the Rajputs in the neighbourhood of Indraprastha (the modern Indarpat), the capital of the Kurus in the heroic ages celebrated in India's great epic poem, the Mahabharata, passed into the hands of the invading Musalmans and with it passed the predominant power in India.
What Benares, and Patna, and Gaya were and are to the Brahman and Buddhist civilisations native to India, what Calcutta, and Madras, and Bombay, and Karachi are to the English from over the seas, that were Delhi and Agra to the Musalmans entering India from the north-west.
More than three centuries and a quarter later another Musal- man invasion, more effective than the former, came into India by way of Delhi. The Mughals or Mongols of Central Asia had
24 I'f^^ Sub- Continent of India [ch.
been converted to Islam, and in the time of our King Henry VIII they refounded the Musalman power at Delhi. For a hundred and fifty years, from the time of our Queen Elizabeth to that of our Queen Anne, a series of Mughal emperors, from Humayun to Aurangzeb, ruled in splendid state at Delhi over the greater part of India. Agra, a hundred miles lower down the Jumna, became a secondary or alternative capital, and in these two cities we have to-day the supreme examples of Muhammadan architectural art.
More than sixty-two millions of the Indian population hold the faith of Islam. They are scattered all over the land, usually in a minority, but frequently powerful, for Islam has given ruling chiefs to many districts which are predominantly Hindu. Only in two parts of India are the Musalmans in a majority, namely in the east of Bengal about Dacca, and in the Indus basin to the north-west. We may think of the Indus basin — lying beyond the desert, low beneath the uplands of Afghanistan — as being an ante-chamber to India proper. In this ante-chamber, for more than nine hundred years the Musalmans have been a majority.
When the decay of the Mughal Empire began in the time of our Queen Anne, the chief local representatives of the imperial rule, such as the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Nawabs of Bengal and Oudh, assumed an independent position. It was with these new dynasties that the East India Company came into conflict in the days of General Clive. Thus we may regard the British Empire in India as having been built up from the fragments into which the Mughal Empire broke. In one region, however, the Western Deccan, the Hindus reasserted themselves, and there was a rival bid for empire. From the neighbourhood of Poena the Marathas conquered eastward to the borders of Bengal, and northward to the walls of Delhi. It was the work of Lord Lake and General Wellesley to defeat the Marathas.
North-westward of Delhi, in the gateway between the desert and the mountains, the ground is sown over with battlefields — ancient battlefields near the Jumna, where the incoming Musalmans overthrew the Indian resistance, and modern battlefields near the Sutlej, where advancing British power inflicted defeat upon the Sikhs. It is by no accident that Simla, the residence of the British Viceroy during half the year, is placed on the Himalayan heights above this natural seat of empire and of struggle for empire.
In the Mutiny of 1857 the Sikhs of the Punjab remained loyal to the British rule, although they had been conquered in terrible battles on the Sutlej less than ten years before. So it happened
i] Delhi: Hardwar : Nepal 25
that some of the British forces in the Punjab were free to march to recapture Delhi, which had been taken by the mutineers. Thus the Indian Mutiny was overcome from two bases ; on the one hand at Lucknow and Cawnpore by an army from Calcutta and the sea ; and on the other hand at Delhi by an army advancing from the Punjab over the track beaten by many conquerors in previous ages.
The river Jumna runs past Delhi with a southward course, and is there crossed by a great bridge, over which the East Indian Railway runs from Delhi through the United Provinces and Bengal to Howrah, opposite Calcutta. West of Delhi is the last spur of the Aravalli hills, the famous Ridge of Delhi, striking north-east- ward to the very bank of the river. The city lies in the angle between the Ridge and the Jumna. To the north, in the point of the angle, is the European quarter ; in the centre is Shahjahanabad, the modern native Delhi ; southward of the modem city is Firozabad, or ancient Delhi. Between Shahjahanabad and the river is the Fort.
The plain southward of Firozabad continues to widen between the river and the hills, and is strewn over with still more ancient ruins. To the west of these, at the foot of the hills, and in part upon them, is the site chosen for the new imperial capital of British India. Finally, eleven miles south of Delhi are the buildings of the Kutb Minar, where are some of the few remains of the early Hindu period.
A hundred miles north-north-east of Delhi is Hardwar on the Ganges, at the point where the river leaves the last foothills of the Himalaya and enters the plain. Hardwar is the rival of Benares as a centre of Hindu pilgrimage for the purpose of ablu- tion in the sacred waters. At the annual fair are gathered hundreds of thousands of worshippers. The great day at Hardwar is near the end of March when the Hindu year begins. Then, according to tradition, the Ganges river first appeared from its source in the mountains. The water at Hardwar is purer than at Benares in the plain. It flows swiftly and is as clear as crystal.
From near Darjeeling until near Hardwar the foothills of the Himalaya for five hundred miles belong to the Gurkha kingdom of Nepal, whose capital is Katmandu. Notwithstanding its close con- nexion with the Indian army, Nepal is counted as an independent state, over which British suzerainty does not formally extend. From Hardwar, however, for seven hundred miles north-westward to where the Indus breaks from the mountains, the foothills
26 The Sub-Continent of India [ch.
belong to the Empire, and upon them stand, high above the plain, a series of hill stations. The first of these stations is Mussoorie, not far northward of Hardwar. Mussoorie is about a mile above sea level. Close by, but lower down, is Dehra Dun, the head- quarters of the Gurkha Rifles. Hereabouts the Tarai, an elephant- haunted jungle belt, follows the foothills, separating them from the cultivated plains. A hundred miles farther along the mountain brink is Simla, the summer capital of India, high on a spur above the divide between the Indus and the Ganges. The snow often rests on the ground in the winter at Simla.
Immediately to the north of Simla the Sutlej, tributary to the Indus, trenches a way out of the mountains, and where it issues on to the plain is the oflF-take of a great system of irrigation canals. The lowland north-westward of Delhi has a sparse rainfall, for the monsoon has lost much of its moisture thus far north-westward from the Bay of Bengal. As a result of the construction of the irrigation canals colonies have been established between the Sutlej and the Jumna, and wheat is grown on thousands of square miles that were formerly waste. India has a great population, but with modern methods of water supply, and more advanced methods of cultivation, there is still ample room for settlement within its boundaries.
Two Sikh Feudal States, Patiala and Nabha, are included within the area now irrigated from the Sutlej, but Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs, lying beyond the Sutlej, about two hundred and fifty miles from Delhi, is under the immediate British Raj. Fifty miles west of Amritsar is Lahore, the old Musalman capital of the Punjab. We conquered the Punjab from the Sikhs, but for many centuries it had been ruled by the Musalmans. In the break-up of the Mughal Empire during the eighteenth century, invaders came from Persia and from Afghanistan, who carried devastation even as far as Delhi. In their wake, with relative ease, the Sikhs, contemporaries of the Marathas of Poona, established a dominion in the helpless Punjab. They extended their rule also into the mountains of Kashmir, north of Lahore.
In all the British Empire there is but one land frontier on which warlike preparation must ever be ready. It is the north- west frontier of India. True that there is another boundary even longer, drawn across the American continent, but there fortunately only customs-houses are necessary, and an occasional police guard. The north-west frontier of India, on the other hand, lies through a region whose inhabitants have been recruited
MAP 2
PHYSICAL MAP
OF
N.W. INDIA
AND THE
ADJACENT COUNTRIES
<r^
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
PHYSICAL MAP OF N.W. INDIA
Map 1
FD THE ADJACENT COUNTRIES
George Philip & Son,l5.'^
i] The North-West Frontier 27
throughout the ages by invading warlike races. Except for the Gurkha mountaineers of Nepal, the best soldiers of the Indian army are drawn from this region, from the Rajputs, the Sikhs, the Punjabi Musalmans, the Dogra mountaineers north of the Punjab, and the Pathan mountaineers west of the Punjab. The provinces along this frontier, and the Afghan land immediately beyond it, are the one region in all India from which, under some ambitious lead, the attempt might be made to establish a fresh imperial rule by the overthrow of the British Raj. Such is the teaching of history, and such the obvious fate of the less warlike peoples of India, should the power of Britain be broken either by warfare on the spot, or by the defeat of our navy. Beyond the north-west frontier, moreover, in the remoter distance, are the continental powers of Europe.
The Indian army and the Indian strategical railways are there- fore organised with special reference to the belt of territory which extends north-east and south-west beyond the Indian desert, and is traversed from end to end by the Indus river. This frontier belt divides naturally into two parts. Inland we have the Punjab, where five rivers — the Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej — emerging from their mountain valleys, gradually close together through the plain to form the single stream of the Lower Indus ; seaward we have Sind, where the Indus divides into distributaries forming a delta.
Sind is a part of the Bombay Presidency, for it is connected with Bombay by sea from the port of Karachi. Of late a railway has been constructed from Ahmadabad, in the main territory of Bombay, across the southern end of the desert to Hyderabad, at the head of the Indus delta. The Punjab is a separate province, with its own lieutenant-governor at Lahore, and a population as large as that of Spain.
To understand the significance of the north-west frontier of India we must look far beyond the immediate boundaries of the Empire. Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan form a single plateau, not so lofty as Tibet, but still one of the great natural features of Asia. This plateau in its entirety is most conveniently known as Iran. On all sides the Iranian plateau descends abruptly to low- lands or to the sea, save in the north-west, where it rises to the greater heights of Armenia, and in the north-east, where it rises to the lofty Pamirs. Southward and south-westward of Iran lie the Arabian sea and the Persian gulf, and the long lowland which is traversed by the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Northward, to the
28 The Sub-Conti?ient of India [CH.
east of the Caspian sea, is the broad lowland of Turkestan or Turan, traversed by the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, draining into the sea of Aral. Eastward is the plain of the Indus. The defence of India from invasion depends in the first place on the main- tenance of British sea-power in the Persian gulf and the Indian ocean, and in the second place on our refusal to allow the establish- ment of alien bases of power on the Iranian plateau, especially on those parts of it which lie towards the south and east.
In the north-east corner of Iran, west of the Punjab, a great triangular bundle of mountain ridges splays out westward and southward from the north-east. These ridges and the intervening valleys constitute Afghanistan. Flowing from the Afghan valleys we have on the one hand the Kabul river, which descends eastward to the Indus, and on the other hand the greater river Helmand, which flows south-westward into the depressed basin of Seistan in the very heart of Iran. There the Helmand divides into many channels, forming as it were an inland delta, from which the waters are evaporated by the hot air, for there is no opening to the sea. The valley of the Kabul river on the one hand, and the oasis of Seistan on the other, might in the hands of an enemy become bases wherein to prepare for the invasion of India. Therefore, without annexing this intricate and difficult upland, we have declared it to be the policy of Britain to exclude from Afghanistan and from Seistan all foreign powers.
There are two lines, and only two, along which warlike in- vasions of N.W. India have been conducted in historical times. On the one hand the mountains become very narrow just north of the head of the Kabul river. There a single though lofty ridge, the Hindu Kush, is all that separates the basin of the Oxus from that of the Indus. Low ground, raised only a few hundred feet above the sea, is very near on the two sides of the Hindu Kush. There are several ways into Indisl over this great but single range and down the Kabul valley. The most famous is known as the Khyber route, from the name of the last defile through which the track descends into the Indian plain.
The other route of invasion lies five hundred miles away to the west and south-west There the Afghan mountains come suddenly to an end, and an easy way lies round their fringe for four hundred miles over the open plateau, from Herat to Kandahar. This way passes not far from Seistan. South-eastward of Kandahar it descends through a mountainous district into the lowland of the Indus. This is now called the Bolan route, from the last gorge
i] Routes leading into N.W, India 29
towards India ; but in ancient times the road went farther south over the Mula Pass. It debouches upon the plain opposite to the great Indian desert. Therefore the Khyber route has been the more frequently trodden, for it leads directly, between the desert and the mountains, upon the Delhi gateway of inner India.
Another line of communication connecting India with Persia passes through the Makran, or the barren region lying along the coast of Baluchistan, This route was much frequented by Arab traders in the Middle Ages ; and by it at an earlier epoch Alexander the Great led back one detachment of his forces with disastrous results. But apart from this return march, and the Indian expeditions of Semiramis and of Cyrus which it was designed to emulate and which may or may not be historical, this route seems not to have been followed by any of the great invasions of India in historical times.
The practical significance of all this geography becomes evident not only when we study the history of Ancient India but also when we consider the modern organisation of the Indian defensive forces. They are grouped into a northern and a southern army. The northern army is distributed from Calcutta past Allahabad and Delhi to Peshawar, the garrison city on the frontier. All the troops stationed along this line may be regarded as supporting the brigades on the Khyber front. The southern army is similarly posted with reference to Quetta on the Bolan route. It is dis- tributed through the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, A'hence Quetta can be reinforced by sea through the port of Karachi.
The conditions of the defence of India have been vitally changed by the construction of the North- Western Railway from Karachi through the Indus basin, with branches towards the Bolan and the Khyber. To-day that defence could be conducted over the sea directly from Britain through Karachi, so that the desert of Rajputana would lie between the defending armies and the main community of India within.
Karachi stands at the western limit of the Indus delta, in a position therefore comparable to that of Alexandria beside the Nile delta. The railway keeps to the west of the river for more than three hundred miles as far as Sukkur, where is the Lansdowne bridge, eight hundred and forty feet long, between Sukkur and Rohri on the east bank. This is the very heart of the rainless region of India. During twelve years there were only six showers at Rohri. A scheme is under consideration for damming the Indus near this point, in order that the irrigation canals below may be
30 The Sub- Continent of India [ch.
fed, not only in time of flood as at present, but in the season of low water as well.
From Sukkur a branch railway traverses the desert north- westward to the foot of the hills below the Bolan pass. This part of the desert occupies a re-entering angle of lowland, with the mountains of Afghanistan to the north and those of Baluchistan to the west. On the map, the Afghan ranges have the effect of being festooned from the Bolan eastward and northward. The railway ascends to Quetta either by the Mushkaf valley — the actual line of the Bolan torrent having been abandoned — or by a longer loop line, the Harnai, which runs to the Pishin valley, north of Quetta. The latter is the usual way. By the Mushkaf route the line is carried over a boulder-strewn plain about half a mile broad in the bottom of a gorge, with steeply rising heights on either side. Here and there the strip of lower ground is trenched and split by deep canyons. At first the rails follow the Mushkaf river, and the gradients are not very severe, but once Hirok, at the source of the Bolan river, is passed, a gradient of one in twenty-five begins, and two powerful engines are required to drag the train up. The steep bounding ridges now close in on either side, with cliffs rising almost perpendicularly to several hundred feet. Occasional blockhouses high up amid the crags defend the pass.
The gradients of the Harnai route are not quite so steep as those 6f the Mushkaf. Should either way be blocked or carried away by landslips or floods, the other would be available. The Harnai line passes through the Chappar rift, a precipitous gorge in a great mass of limestone. The old Bolan gorge way of the caravans was dangerous because of the sudden spates which at times filled all the bottom between the cliffs.
Quetta lies about a mile above sea-level in a small plain, sur- rounded by great mountains rising to heights of two miles and more. Irrigation works have been constructed, so that Quetta is now an oasis amid desert mountains. It has a population of some thirty thousand. The Agent General for British Baluchistan resides there. The town is very strongly fortified, for it commands the railways leading from the Khojak pass down into India. Quetta and Peshawar are the twin keys of the frontier.
From Quetta there is a railway north-westward for another hundred and twenty miles to Chaman on the Afghan frontier, where is the last British outpost. This line pierces the Khojak ridge by a tunnel and then emerges on the open upland plain of
I
i] Plain of the Indus : Peshawar 3 1
Iran. The rails are kept ready at Chaman for the continuation of the track to Kandahar, seventy miles further.
We return to Rohri on the Indus. The North- Western Railway now runs to the east of the river and soon enters the Punjab. Not very long ago all this land was a desert. To-day, as the result of a great investment of British capital, irrigation works have changed the whole aspect of the country. The plain of the Indus has become one of the chief wheat fields of the British Empire, for wheat is the principal crop in the Punjab, in parts of Sind, and — outside the basin of the Indus itself — in the districts of the United Provinces which lie about Agra. The wheat production of India on an average of years is five times as great as that of the United Kingdom, and about half as great as that of the United States. In the three years 1910-12 the export of wheat from India to the United Kingdom exceeded that from the United States to the United Kingdom.
The brown waste of the plains of the Punjab becomes, after the winter rains, a waving sea of green wheat, extending over thousands of square miles. Far beyond the area within which the rainfall alone suffices, the lower Punjab and the central strip of Sind have been converted into a second Egypt. Though the navigation of the Indus is naturally inferior to that of the Ganges, yet communication has been maintained by boat from the Punjab to the sea from Greek times downward. The Indus flotilla of steamboats has however suffered fatally from the competition of the North-Western Railway, and the wheat exported from Karachi is now almost wholly rail-borne.
At Multan, a considerable mercantile city near the Chenab, the railway forks to Lahore and Peshawar. From Lahore the triangle is completed by a line to Peshawar along the foot of the mountains, past the great military station of Rawalpindi. The lines from Lahore and Multan unite on the east bank of the Indus, fifty miles east of Peshawar, just below the point where the Kabul tributary enters. They cross the Indus by the bridge of Attock. Above Rawalpindi is the hill station of Murree. The long tongues of land between the five rivers of the Punjab are known as Doabs, a word which in Persian has the significance of Mesopotamia in Greek. Punjab signifies the land of five rivers.
Peshawar is the capital of the North-West Frontier Province created in 1901, a strip of hilly country beyond the Indus. Unlike its sister Quetta, it lies in the Indian lowland at the foot of the Khyber pass. It has about a hundred thousand inhabitants,
32 The Sub- Continent of India [CH.
chiefly Musalman. In the Bazar are to be seen representatives of many Asiatic races, for Peshawar is the market of exchange where the great road from Samarkand and Bukhara, over the Hindu Kush and through Kabul, by the Khyber meets the road from Delhi and Lahore. Here you may buy skeins of Chinese silk, brought by the same roundabout ways that were trodden by the Chinese pilgrims in the Middle Ages.
Jamrud, at the entrance to the Khyber, lies some nine miles west of Peshawar. In the Sarai at Jamrud all caravans going into India or returning to Central Asia halt for the night. The great Bactrian camels, two-humped and shaggy, present an unwonted contrast with the smaller Indian camels. The fort of Ali Masjid, nearly three thousand feet above the sea, crowns the steep ascent to the crest of the pass. At Landi Kotal begins the descent into Afghanistan. Thus the Khyber is a saddle in the heights, not the gorge of a torrent as is the Bolan. The Kabul river flows through an open valley until it nears the British frontier. Then it swerves through a precipitous chasm by a northward loop. The road is therefore carried over the intervening mountain spur.
The Khyber is protected by its own hill tribes, enlisted in the Khyber Rifles. We have brought these Pathan mountaineers into the service of law and order by enrolling them in military forces, just as the Scottish highlanders were enrolled in the British army in the eighteenth century. The Pathans are born fighter«i. They love fighting for its own sake, and many a curious tale is told of the vendettas intermittently continued when the Khyber riflemen of Peshawar return from time to time on furlough to their homes in the hills.
The Indus river rises, like the Brahmaputra, high on the plateau of Tibet to the north of Benares, and flows north-westward through the elevated valley of Leh until it reaches the 36th parallel of latitude. There it turns south-westward and cleaves its way through the Himalayas by the grandest gorge in the world. You may stand on the right bank of the Indus and look across the river to where the summit of Nanga Parbat descends by a single slope of four miles — measured vertically — to the river bank, every yard of the drop being visible.
Within the great northward angle thus made by the Indus is a second smaller valley amid the mountains, which is also drained through a gorge to the Punjab. This is the famous valley of Kashmir, whose central plain, sheltered in every direction by lofty snow-clad mountains, is a sunny paradise of fertility. Srinagar is
i] Karakoram and Hindu Kush 3 3
the capital of Kashmir, whose Maharaja rules also over Ladakh (capital Leh) formerly a province of Tibet.
The northernmost outposts of the Empire are in the valleys of Gilgit and Chitral, which diverge south-eastward and south-west- ward to the Indus and Kabul rivers. Enframing Gilgit and Chitral is a great angle of the loftiest mountain ridge, which may be likened, as it appears upon the map, to a pointed roof sheltering all India to the south. The south-eastward limb of the angle is the Karakoram range, and the south-westward is the Hindu Kush range. The north-western extremity of the Himalaya fits into the angle of the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush, from which it is separated by the valleys of Leh, Gilgit, and Chitral.
The Karakoram is backed by the heights of the Tibetan plateau, here it is true at their narrowest, but none the less almost in- accessible, except for one or two passes at heights of 18,000 feet, which are traversed in the summer time by a few Yak caravans. In the Karakoram is mount Godwin Austen, second only to Everest among the mountains of the world. There also are the largest glaciers outside the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
The Hindu Kush, notwithstahding its elevation, is in marked contrast to the Karakoram. It is a single broad ridge, backed by no plateau, and is notched by some relatively low passes. The ridge itself may be crossed in a few days or even hours at heights of twelve and thirteen thousand feet. The difficulties of access from the valley head of Kabul to the lowland of Bactria on the Oxus lie rather in the approaches to the passes than in the passes themselves. But human patience has in all ages succeeded in surmounting these difficulties ; and the Hindu Kush, although the natural boundary of India north-westward, has been no effective barrier either in a military or a commercial sense.
There is lateral communication between the Khyber and Bolan routes outside the Indian frontier and yet within the Hindu Kush. The route follows a chain of valleys between Kabul and Kandahar through Ghazni. Along it from Kandahar to Kabul the army of Alexander the Great marched to his Bactrian and Indian cam- paigns : and it again became famous in the last generation because of the march of General Roberts from Kabul to the relief of Kandahar during the Afghan war of 1882. From this Kabul- Kandahar road several passes penetrate the mountainous belt of the Indian frontier, presenting alternative exits from the two trunk routes. But amid the maze of mountains north of the Kabul-Kandahar line, there are no practicable alternatives to
c. H. 1. 1. 3
34 The Suh-Continent of Iiidia [cH.
the two ways — over the Hindu Kush and over the plateau from Seistan.
The long barrier of the Hindu Kush seems as if it were designed by nature to be the protecting boundary of India on the north- west. It is the 'scientific frontier' which in the last century British policy sought in vain to secure. At the present time it lies mostly within the 'buffer state' of Afghanistan which was created as the best alternative. But there have been periods in history when it has formed the actual, as well as the ideal, limit of the Indian empire. In the last quarter of the fourth century B.O., within a few years of the departure from India of Alexander the Great, it separated the dominions of the Maurya emperor of India, Chandragupta, from those of Seleucus Nicator, Alexander's successor in the eastern portion of his vast empire. In about the middle of the third century B.C. the Seleucid province of Bactria, which lay immediately to the north of the Hindu Kush, became an independent kingdom, from which, when the Maurya empire declined and the barrier was no longer adequately protected, a second series of Greek invasions poured into India about 200 B.O.
The river Indus also appears at first sight to form a natural boundary between India and Iran; but in this case it would be more correct historically to say that the country through which it flows has more frequently been the cause of contention between India and Iran. The very name India, ' the country of the Indus,' was first known to the West as that of a province of the Persian empire. In Herodotus, the Greek historian of the wars between the Persian empire and Greece in the early part of the fifth century B.O., it bears its original meaning. At a later date, Greek and Roman writers, as so often happens in geographical nomen- clature, transferred the name of the best known province to the whole country and set an example which has since been followed universally.
Thus we conclude a rapid survey of the historical and political geography of a vast region. The south and centre of India is structurally an island, whose steep brinks, the Western and Eastern Ghats, are continued — beyond the coastal selvage and the strip of shallow water ofi' shore — by renewed steep descents into the abysses of the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal, two miles deep. This great island has granitic foundations, although it is clothed in places with volcanic rocks. Its landward brinks are marked by mount Abu, the Aravalli hills, the ridge of Delhi, and the long low eastward curve of hills ending at Rajmahal, where the principal
i] Controlling Geographical Facts 3 5
coal seams of India rest on the granitic base. The salient angles at Delhi and Rajmahal are received, at a distance, by the great re-entering angles of the main framework of Asia, constituted by the brink of Iran beyond the Indus, the Himalayan brink of Tibet, and the mountains of the Burmese border. Between these rocky limits — salient on the Indian side and re-entering on the Asiatic side — extends a broad alluvial plain, two hundred miles in average breadth, and two thousand miles long, from the mouths of the Ganges northward to the foot of the mountains, then north- westward along that foot to the Punjab, and then south-westward to the mouths of the Indus.
The Indian heights proper are so relatively low, attaining to eight or nine thousand feet only in the far south, that the whole geography of India seems to be dominated by the Himalayas. We recover our sense of the true proportions only when we reflect that even the Himalayas are only five or six miles high, and that India is two thousand miles long. None the less the Himalayas and Tibet are in a very real sense the controlling fact of Indian geography. They pierce upward through more than half the atmosphere into highland climates, and therefore constitute for man a mighty natural boundary. They also guide and limit the winds of the lower air, and thus govern the Indian climate. India is an agricultural land, whose tillage is everywhere dependent, either directly or indirectly, upon the moisture brought from the southern ocean by the great wind swirl of the summer and autumn monsoon. That swirl strikes the Malabar coast as a south-west wind, sweeps over Bengal as a south wind, and drives up the Ganges plains as a south-east wind. The whole movement is induced by suction to where the air is rising over the hot plains of the Middle Indus. There in the summer is one of the hottest places, if not the hottest place in the world. The winds which come down to it off the Iranian plateau, thus completing the swirl stream off a dry land, and bring no moisture. In the winter a dry, bright wind, the north-east monsoon, descends from Tibet over all India. Only in the Punjab and in the far south are there con- siderable winter rains. The Punjab is in Mediterranean latitudes, where it rains in the winter.
By these physical characteristics India is made fruitful, and is at the same time more than half isolated from the rest of the world. The most primitive of its inhabitants are the Gonds and other tribes, who have been driven into the forest recesses of the hills eastward of the Deccan plateau and into other regions difficult
3—2
36 The Sub-Continent of India [ch. i
of access throughout the sub-continent. The Dravidian languages have been preserved in the southern promontory. The Aryan and later invaders from western and central Asia have come from the north-west through the passage of Delhi, and have thence dispersed south-eastward down the Ganges to Bengal, and south-westward to the fertile Gujarati and Maratha countries. Through the eastern mountains, which sever the Indian Empire from China, have pene- trated in historical times few great invasions ; and these have not been far-reaching in their political results. But if we may judge from the physical types and languages of the populations, and from their social characteristics, there has been from prehistoric times onwards a constant infiltration of Mongolian stock, not only abundantly into Burma, and along the Tsan-po valley to the foot- hills of the Himalaya, but also in lesser degree into Assam and into the eastern parts of Bengal about Dacca.
From the days of the Greek pilot Hippalus, the monsoons have carried some sea traffic to and fro over the Arabian sea from the direction of Aden. Sind was raided by Muhammadans overseas. But Sind lies outside the desert of Rajputana. The Malabar coast long had commercial intercourse with the Nearer East, and thus indirectly with Christendom. But the Western Ghats lie behind the Malabar coast. In the south of India, on that coast, are two curious relics of this traffic, two small ancient communities of Jews and of Christians. But these are exceptional. The one gateway of India which signified, until modern times, was the north-western land-gate. Most of the history which is to be narrated in these volumes bears, directly or indirectly, some relation to that great geographical fact.
CHAPTER II A. PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES
The Indian Empire is the abode of a vast collection of peoples who differ fi-om one another in physical characteristics, in language, and in culture more widely than the peoples of Europe. Among them the three primary ethnographical divisions of mankind — the Caucasian or white type, with its subdivisions of blonde and dark, the Mongolian or yellow type, and the Ethiopian or black type — are all represented : the first two by various races in the sub- continent itself, and the last by the inhabitants of the Andaman Isles. Four of the great families of human speech — the Austric, the Tibeto-Chinese, the Dravidian, and the Indo-European — are directly represented among the living languages of India, of which no fewer than two hundred and twenty are recorded in the Census Report for 1911 ; while a fifth great family, the Semitic, which has been introduced by Muhammadan conquerors in historical times, has, through the medium of Arabic and Persian, greatly modified some of the Indian vernaculars. The Austric, Tibeto-Chinese, and Indo-European families are widely spread elsewhere over the face of the earth. The Dravidian has not been traced with absolute certainty beyond the limits of the Indian Empire; but there is evidence which seems to indicate that it was introduced into India in prehistoric times.
The drama of Indian history, then, is one in which many peoples of very diverse origin have played their parts. In all ages the fertility and the riches of certain regions, above all the plain of the Gange8,have attracted invaders from the outside world ; while over- population and the desiccation of the land have given an impulse to the movements of peoples from the adjacent regions of Asia. Thus both the attracting and the expulsive forces which determine migrations have acted in the same direction. It is true indeed that the civilisations which have been developed in India have reacted, and that Indian religions, Indian literature, and Indian art have spread out of India and produced a deep and far-reaching influence on the countries of Further Asia ; but the migrations and
3 8 Peoples and Languages [ch.
the conquests which provided the human energy with wliich these civilisations were created have invariably come into India from the outside. And the peninsular character of the sub-continent has retained invaders within its borders, with the result that racial conditions have tended to become ever more and more complex. The outcome of the struggle for existence between so many peoples possessing diflPerent traditions and different ideals is to be seen in the almost infinite variety of degrees of culture which exists at the present day. Some types of civilisation have been progressive; others have remained stationary. So that we now find, at one extreme of the social scale, communities whose members are con- tributing to the advancement of the literature, science, and art of the twentieth century, and, at the other extreme, tribes still governed by their primitive constitutions, still using the implements and weapons, and still retaining the religious ideas and customs of their remote ancestors in the Stone Age.
The Himalayas form an effective barrier against direct invasions from the north : the exceedingly toilsome passes in their centre are traversed only by a few patient traders or adventurous ex- plorers. But at the western and eastern extremities, river valleys and more practicable mountain passes afibrd easier means of access. Through these gateways swarms of nomads and conquering armies, from the direction of Persia on the one hand and from the direction of China on the other, have poured into India from time immemorial.
By routes passing through Baluchistan on the west and Afghani- stan on the north-west, the country of the Indus has been repeatedly invaded by peoples belonging to the Caucasian race from Western Asia, and by peoples belonging to the Northern or Mongolo- Altaic group of the Mongolian race from Central Asia. But these immi- grations were not all of the same nature, nor did they all produce the same effect on the population of India. In the course of time their character became transformed. At the most remote period they were slow persistent movements of whole tribes, or collections of tribes, with their women and children, their flocks and herds: at a later date they were little more than organised expeditions of armed men. The former exercised a permanent influence on the racial conditions of the country which they invaded : the influence of the latter was political or social rather than racial.
This change in the nature of invasions was the gradual effect of natural causes. Over large tracts of Asia the climate has changed within the historical period. The rainfall has diminished or ceased ;
II J Western and Eastern Invaders 39
and once fruitful lands have been converted into impassable deserts. Both Iran and Turkestan, the two reservoirs from which the streams of migration flowed into the Indus valley, have been affected by this desiccation of the land. Archaeological investigations in Seistan and in Chinese Turkestan have brought to light the monu- ments of ancient civilisations which had long ago passed into oblivion. Especially valuable from the historical point of view are the accounts given by Sir Aurel Stein of his wond«"ful discoveries in Chinese Turkestan. From the chronological evidence, which he has so carefully collected from the documents and monuments dis- covered, we are enabled to ascertain the dates, at which the various ancient sites were abandoned because of the progressive desiccation during a period of about a thousand years (first century b.c. to ninth century A.D.). We may thus realise how it has come to pass that a region which once formed a means of communication not only between China and India, but also between China and Europe, has now become an almost insuperable barrier. The same causes have tended to separate India from Iran. The last irruption which penetrated to Delhi, the heart of India, through the north-western gateway was the Persian expedition of Nadir Shah in 1739.
The routes which lead from the east into the country of the Ganges seem not to have been affected to the same extent by climatic changes. The invaders from this quarter belonged to the Southern group of the Mongolian race, the home of which was probably in N.W. China. They came into India partly from Tibet down the valley of the Brahmaputra, and partly from China through Burma by the Mekong, the Salween, and the Irrawaddy. To other obstacles which impeded their progress were added the dense growth of the jungle and its wild inhabitants. Tribal migrations from these regions can scarcely be said to have ceased altogether even now. But they are held in check by the British occupation of Upper Burma. The movements to the south-west and south of the Kachins, a Tibeto-Burman tribe, from the north of Upper Burma have in recent times afforded an illustration of the nature of these migrations {Imp. Gaz. xiv, pp. 253-5).
Thus have foreign races and foreign civilisations been brought into India, the history of which is in a large measure the story of the struggle between newcomers and the earlier inhabitants. Such invasions may be compared to waves breaking on the shore. Their force becomes less the farther they proceed, and their direction is determined by the obstacles with which they come in contact. The most effective of these obstacles, even when human effort is
40 Peoples and Languages [CH.
the direct means of resistance, are the geographical barriers which nature itself has set up. We shall therefore best understand the distribution of races in the sub-continent if we remember its chief natural divisions.
The ranges of the Vindhya system with their almost impene- trable forests have in all ages formed the great dividing line between Northern and Southern India. In early Brahman litera- ture they mark t;he limits beyond which Aryan civilisation had not yet penetrated, and at the present day the two great regions which they separate continue to offer the most striking contrasts in racial character, in language, and in social institutions. But the Vindhyas can be passed without difficulty at their western and eastern extremities, where lowlands form connecting links with the plains of the Indus and the Ganges. The coastal regions are therefore transitional. They have been more directly affected by movements from the north than the central plateau of the Deccan.
In Northern India, natural boundaries are marked by the river Indus, by the Thar or Great Desert of Rajputana, and by the sub- Himalayan fringe which is connected on the east with Assam and Burma.
The seven geographical regions thus indicated form the basis for the ethnographical classification of the peoples of India which is now generally accepted. The scheme was propounded by the late Sir Herbert Risley in the Ceiistis Report for 1901. Its details are the result of careful measurements and observations extending over many years. It is conveniently summarised in the Imperial Gazetteer (new edition, vol. i, pp. 292 ff.) from which the descrip- tions in the following account are quoted. The physical types are here enumerated in an order beginning from the south, instead of from the north-west as in the original scheme :
1. The Dra vidian type in the larger section of the peninsula which lies to the south of the United Provinces and east of about longitude 76° E. 'The stature is short or below mean ; the com- plexion very dark, approaching black ; hair plentiful, with an occasional tendency to curl ; eyes dark ; head long ; nose very broad, sometimes depressed at the root, but not so as to make the face appear flat.'
This was assumed by Risley to be * the original type of the population of India, now modified to a varying extent by the admixture of Aryan, Scythian, and Mongoloid elements.' It must be remembered, however, that, when the term ' Dra vidian ' is thus used ethnogi'aphically, it is nothing more than a convenient label.
ii] Dravidians 41
It must not be assumed that the speakers of the Dravidian lan- guages are aborigines. In Southern India, as in the North, the same general distinction exists between the more primitive tribes of the hills and jungles and the civilised inhabitants of the fertile tracts ; and some ethnologists hold that the difference is racial and not merely the result of culture. Mr Thurston, for instance, says :
It is the Pre-Dravidian aborigines, and not the later and more cultured Dravidians, who must be regarded as the primitive existing race.... These Pre- Dravidians.-.are difiFerentiated from the Dravidian classes by their short stature and broad (platyrhine) noses. There is strong ground for the belief that the Pre- Dravidians are ethnically related to the Veddas of Ceylon, the Toalas of the Celebes, the Batin of Sumatra, and possibly the Australians. {The Madras Presidency, pp. 124-5.)
It would seem probable, then, that the original speakers of the Dravidian languages were invaders, and that the ethnographical Dravidians are a mixed race. In the more habitable regions the two elements have fused, while representatives of the aborigines are still to be found in the fastnesses to which they retired before the encroachments of the newcomers. If this view be correct, we must suppose that these aborigines have, in the course of long ages, lost their ancient languages and adopted those of their conquerors. The process of linguistic transformation, which may still be observed in other parts of India, would seem to have been carried out more completely in the South than elsewhere.
The theory that the Dravidian element is the most ancient which we can discover in the population of Northern India, must also be modified by what we now know of the Munda languages, the Indian representatives of the Austric family of speech, and the mixed languages in which their influence has been traced (p. 48). Here, according to the evidence now available, it would seem that the Austric element is the oldest, and that it has been overlaid in different regions by successive waves of Di-avidian and Indo- European on the one hand, and by Tibeto-Chinese on the other. Most ethnologists hold that there is no difference in physical type between the present speakers of Munda and Dravidian languages. This statement has been called in question ; but, if it be true, it shows that racial conditions have become so complicated that it is no longer possible to analyse their constituents. Language alone has preserved a record which would otherwise have been lost.
At the same time, there can be little doubt that Dravidian languages were actually flourishing in the western regions of Northern India at the period when languages of the Indo-European
42 Peoples and Languages [CH..
type were introduced by the Aryan invasions from the north-west. Dravidian characteristics have been traced alike in Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, in the Prakrits or early popular dialects, and in the modern vernacular derived from them. The linguistic strata would thus appear to be arranged in the order — Austric, Dravidian, Indo-European.
There is good ground, then, for supposing that, before the coming of the Indo- Aryans, speakers of the Dravidian languages predominated both in Northern and in Southern India; but, as we have seen, older elements are discoverable in the populations of both regions, and therefore the assumption that the Dravidians are aboriginal is no longer tenable. Is there any evidence to show whence they came into India ?
No theory of their origin can be maintained which does not account for the existence of BrahuT, the large island of Dravidian speech in the mountainous regions of distant Baluchistan which lie near the western routes into India. Is Brahui a surviving trace of the immigration of Dravidian-speaking peoples into India from the west ? Or does it mark the limits of an overflow from India into Baluchistan ? Both theories have been held ; but, as all the great movements of peoples have been into India and not out of India, and as a remote mountainous district may be expected to retain the survivals of ancient races while it is not likely to have been colonised, the former view would a 'priori seem to be by far the more probable. The reasons why it has not been universally accepted is that the racial character of the Brahuis is now mainly Iranian, and not Dravidian in the Indian sense of the term. But the argument from race is not so conclusive as may appear at first sight. The area in which the Dravidian Brahui is still spoken forms part of the region which is occupied by Turko-Iranian peoples ; and the peculiar tribal constitution of the Brahuis is one which, unlike the caste-system, does not insist on social exclusive- ness, but, on the contrary, definitely invites recruitment from outside. This is clear from the account given in the Gazetteer of the 'Baloch and Brahui type of tribe':
The second type of Turko-Iranian tribe is based primarily not upon agnatic kinship, but upon common good and ill : in other words, it is cemented together only by the obligations arising from the blood-feud. There is no eponymous ancestor, and the tribe itself does not profess to be composed of homogeneous elements.... The same principles hold good in the case of the Brahui... whose numbers have been recruited from among Afghans, Kurds, Jadgals, Baloch, and other elements. {Imp. Gaz. i, p. 310.)
ri] Indo- Aryans 43
Such circumstances must necessarily change the racial character of the tribe by a gradual process which might well in the course of ages lead to a complete transformation. There is therefore nothing in the existing racial conditions, and equally nothing in the existing physical conditions^, to prevent us from believing that the survival of a Dravidian language in Baluchistan must indicate that the Dravidians came into India through Baluchistan in prehistoric times. Whether they are ultimately to be traced to a Central Asian or to a Western Asian origin cannot at present be decided with absolute certainty ; but the latter hypothesis receives very strong support from the undoubted similarity of the Sumerian and Dravidian ethnic types ^.
2. The Indo-Aryan type in Kashmir, the Punjab from the Indus to about the longitude of Ambala (76°46' E.), and Rajputana. ' The stature is mostly tall ; complexion fair ; eyes dark ; hair on face plentiful ; head long ; nose narrow and prominent, but not specially long.'
The region now occupied by peoples of this type forms the eastern portion of the wide extent of territory inhabited by Aryan settlers in the earliest historical times — the period of the Rigveda, probably about 1200 B.c. Their oldest literature, which is in a language closely connected with ancient Persian, Greek, and Latin, supplies no certain indication that they still retained the recollec- tion of their former home ; and we may reasonably conclude, therefore, that the invasions, which brought them into India, took place at a date considerably earlier.
The Indo-Aryans came from Bactria, over the passes of the Hindu Kush into S. Afghanistan, and thence by the valleys of the Kabul river, the Kurram, and the Gumal — all of them rivers well known to the poets of the Rigveda — into the N.W. Frontier Pro- vince and the Punjab. In the age of the Rigveda they formed five peoples, each consisting of a number of tribes in which the women were of the same race as their husbands. This is proved con- clusively by their social and religious status. We may be certain, therefore, that the invasions were no mere incursions of armies, but gradual progressive movements of whole tribes, such as would have been impossible at a later date, when climatic causes had transformed the physical conditions of the country (p. 38). On
1 For the remains of ancient culture in this region, see Imf. Gaz. i, p. 302 ; xiv, p. 300.
^ Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East (4th ed.), pp. 173-4. The converse view is, however, held by the author, viz. that the Sumerians came into Western Asia ftom India.
44 Peoples and Languages [ch.
this point the evidence of literature receives the support of ethnology ; for only thus, according to Risley, can be explained the uniform distribution of the Indo- Aryan racial type throughout the region which it occupies, and the strongly marked contrasts which it presents to types prevailing in regions to the east and south. Later settlements necessarily consisted almost entirely of men. Such modifications of the racial character as would be pro- duced by inter- marriage with the women of the country would, in the course of time, cease to be recognisable. They would be as difficult to trace as the Roman factor in the population of Britain.
3. The Turko-Iranian type in the N.W. Frontier Province, Baluchistan, and those districts of the Punjab and Sind which lie west of the Indus. ' Stature above mean ; complexion fair ; eyes mostly dark, but occasionally grey ; hair on face plentiful ; head broad ; nose moderately narrow, prominent, and very long.'
The northern section of the region now inhabited by peoples of this type, that is to say, the country of the north-western tributaries of the Indus, was, in the times of the Rigveda, occupied by Indo- Aryans. The predominant racial character of the whole region is due to the invasion of Mongolo-Altaic peoples from Turkestan on the one hand, and of Persian Aryans or Iranians on the other. The Indus is the ethnographical boundary between the Turko-Iranian and Indo-Aryan types, just as in history it has often been the political boundary between Iran and India.
4. The Scytho-Dravidian type in Sind east of the Indus, Gujarat, and the western section of the peninsula as far as about longitude 76° E., that is to say, the Bombay Presidency or Western India generally. 'The type is clearly distinguished from the Turko-Iranian by a lower stature, a greater length of head, a higher nasal index, a shorter nose, and a lower orbito-nasal index.'
This type, of which the Marathas are the chief representatives, occupies a position between the broad-headed Turko-Iranians and the long-headed Dravidians. Its designation assumes that the foreign broad-headed element was introduced during the period of Scythian (Qaka) rule in Western India (c. 120-380 a.d.). But there can be little doubt that its origin must be traced to a period far more remote. The ^akas were among those military conquerors who broke into the Punjab after the downfall of the Maurya Empire ; and it can scarcely be supposed that the extension of their power to Western India materially affected the race. The fact that their Scythian names, as is shown by coins and inscrip-
ii] Aryo-Dravidians 45
tions, became Hinduised after a few generations, is conclusive proof that they were forced to adapt themselves to their social environment. We must therefore seek the disturbing racial influ- ence in some earlier tribal immigration of which no other memorial now remains. The invaders probably belonged to the broad-headed Alpine race which inhabited the plateaus of Western Asia (Anatolia, Armenia, and Iran)^; and they would seem to have conie into Western India, as the Dravidians also most probably came, through Baluchistan before desiccation had made the routes impassable for multitudes.
5. The Aryo-Dravidian or Hindustani type in the plain of the Ganges from about longitude 76° 30' E. to 87° E. ; that is to say, in the eastern fringe of the Punjab, in the United Provinces, and in Bihar. * The head-form is long, with a tendency to medium ; the complexion varies from lightish brown to black ; the nose ranges from medium to broad, being always broader than among the Indo- Aryans ; the stature is lower than in the latter group, and usually below the average ' (i.e. it ranges from 5' 3" to 5' 5").
The Aryo-Dravidian type occupies the ancient Madhyade9a, or * the Midland Country,' extending, according to Manu (11, 21) from Vina^ana, where the river SarasvatI loses itself in the Great Desert, to Allahabad, together with some five degrees of the country farther east. It is a mixed type caused apparently by the Indo-Aryan colonisation of a region previously held by a population mainly Dravidian. The Indo-Aryan type does not, as might have been expected from analogous instances, shade by imperceptible degrees into the Aryo-Dravidian type ; but a marked change from the former to the latter is observable about the longitude of Sirhind. It is evident, then, that the waves of tribal migration must have been impeded at this point, and that the Indo-Aryan influence farther east must be due rather to warlike or peaceful penetration than to the wholesale encroachment of multitudes.
To explain this abrupt transition, the theory of a second Aryan invasion, which is supposed to have come into the plain of the Ganges from the Pamirs through Gilgit and Chitral, was pro- pounded by the late Dr Hoernle and has been generally accepted in the official publications of the Government of India. This theory is made improbable by the physical difficulties of the route sug- gested, and some of the arguments adduced in its favour are demonstrably mistaken. There is no such break of continuity between the tribes of the Rigveda and the peoples of the later
1 Haddon, The Wanderings of Peoples, pp. 12, 17.
46 Peoples and Languages fcH.
literature as it presupposes*. At the same time it seemed to be supported by the existing distribution of the Indo- Aryan languages ; but, as will be seen (j). 50), an equally satisfactoiy explanation of this distribution may be suggested.
Apart from this theory, the conclusions of ethnology are entirely in accord with the historical indications of the literature. The ethnographical limit is also the dividing line between the geography of the Rigveda and the geography of the later Vedic literature. In the Rigveda Aryan communities have scarcely 'advanced beyond the country of the river Sarasvati (Sirhind), which for ever after- wards was remembered with especial veneration as Brahmavarta, 'the Holy Land.' In the Brahmanas the centre of religious activity has been transferred to the adjacent country on the south- east, i.e. the upper portion of the doab between the Jumna and the Ganges, and the Muttra District of the United Provinces. This was Brahmarshideca — * the Country of the Holy Sages.' Here it was that the hymns of the Rigveda, which were composed in the North- West — the country of the ' Seven Rivers ' as it is called {Rv. viii, 24, 27) — were collected and arranged ; and here it was that the religious and social system which we call Brahmanism assumed its final form — a form which, in its religious aspect, is a compromise between Aryan and more primitive Indian ideas, and, in its social aspect, the result of the contact of different races. After Brahman culture had thus occupied what has in all ages been the com- manding position in India, its trend was still eastwards ; and the country of the ' Seven Rivers,' though not altogether forgotten, occupies a place of less importance in the later literature.
Both of the facts above mentioned — the abrupt transition from the Indo- Aryan to the Aryo-Dravidian type, and the extension of Aryan influence from Brahmavarta to Brahmar8hide9a — are best understood if we remember the natural feature which connects the plain of the Indus with the plain of the Ganges. This is the strait of habitable land which lies between the desert and the mountains. Its historical significance has already been noticed'^. It is in this strait that the decisive battles, on which the fate of India has depended, have been fought ; and here too we may suppose that the progress of racial migrations from the north-west in prehistoric times must have been checked. Both politically and ethnographi- cally it forms a natural boundary. In the age of the Rigveda the Aryans had not yet broken through the barrier, though the Jumna is mentioned in a hymn (vii, 18, 19) in such a way as to indicate
1 See Chapters v, p. 119 and xiii, p. 302. 2 Chapter i, pp. 22 f.
ii] Mongoloids and Mongolo-Dravidians 47
that a battle had been won on its banks. It was only at some later date that the country between the Upper Jumna and Ganges and the district of Delhi were occupied. A record of this occupation has been preserved in some ancient verses quoted in the (^atapatha Brahraana (xiii, 5, 4, 11-14) which refer to the triumphs celebrated by Bharata Dauhshanti after his victories on the Jumna and the Ganges, and to the extent of his conquests. In their new home the Bharatas, who were settled in the country of the Sarasvati in the times of the Rigveda (see iii, 23, 4), were merged in the Kurus ; and their whole territory, the new together with the old, became famous in history under the name Kurukshetra — ' the Field of the Kurus.' This was the scene of the great war of the descendants of Bharata Dauhshanti, and the centre from which Indo- Aryan culture spread, first throughout Hindustan, and eventually throughout the whole sub-continent. The epoch of Indo-Aryan tribal migration was definitely closed. It was succeeded by the epoch of Indo- Aryan colonisation.
6. The Mongoloid type in Burma, Assam, and the sub-Hima- layan tract which includes Bhutan, Nepal, and the fringe of the United Provinces, the Punjab, and Kashmir. * The head is broad ; complexion dark, with a yellowish tinge ; hair on face scanty ; stature short or below average ; nose fine to broad ; face charac- teristically flat ; eyelids often oblique.'
The term Mongoloid denotes the racial type which has been produced by the invasion of peoples of the Southern Mongolian race from Tibet and China. We have already seen how these peoples have from time immemorial been coming down the river valleys into Burma and Northern India (p. 39) ; and we shall learn more about them, and about the earlier inhabitants with whom they intermingled, when we consider the evidence of language (p. 49).
7. The Mongolo-Dravidian or Bengali type in Bengal and Orissa. ' The head is broad ; complexion dark ; hair on face usually plentiful ; stature medium; nose medium, with a tendency to broad.'
This type is regarded as 'probably a blend of Dravidian and Mongoloid elements, with a strain of Indo-Aryan blood in the higher groups.' The region in which it prevails lay beyond the geographical ken of the earlier literature. It comes into view first in the later literature (the epics and Puranas) when it was occupied by a number of peoples among whom the Vangas (from whom Bengal has inherited its name) and the Kalingas of Orissa were the
48 Peoples and Languages [ch.
chief. On the north-west it is separated from the Aryo-Dravidian area by what is now also the political dividing-line between Bihar and Bengal. In regard to this limit, as marking the extent of Indo- Aryan influence at an early date, ethnology and literature are fully in agreement. In the Atharvaveda the Magadhas of the Patna and Gay a Districts, and the Angas of the Monghyr and Bhagal- pur Districts in Southern Bihar, are mentioned in a manner which indicates that they were among the most distant of known peoples (see Yedic Index, 11, p. 116) ; while a legend in the ^atapatha Brahmana (i, 4, 1, 10 flf.) preserves the memory of the spread of Brahmanism from the west into Videha, or Tirhut in Northern Bihar. The traces of Indo-Aryan descent, which have been observed in the higher social grades of Bengal and Orissa, must be due to colonisation at a later date.
On the south-west the Mongolo-Dravidians are separated from the Dravidians by the north-eastern apex of the plateau of the Deccan, where, in the Santal Parganas and the Chota Nagpur Division, hills and forests have preserved a large group of primi- tive tribes, some of whom continue to speak dialects of the oldest form of language known in India.
It is here that we find the Munda languages, which, like the Mon-Khmer languages of Assam and Burma, are surviving repre- sentatives of the Austric family of speech, the most widely diflxised on earth. It has been traced * from Easter Island oflF the coast of South America in the east to Madagascar in the west, and from New Zealand in the south to the Punjab in the north' {Census Report, 1911, I, p. 324).
The Munda languages are scattered far and wide. They are found not only in the Santal Parganas and Chota Nagpur, but also in the Mahadeo Hills of the Central Provinces, and in the northern districts of the Madras Presidency ; and they form the basis of a number of mixed languages which make a chain along the Hima- layan fringe from the Punjab to Bengal.
The Mon-Khmer languages are similarly dispersed. They sur- vive in the Khasi Hills of Assam, in certain hilly tracts of Upper Burma, in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Martaban in Lower Burma, in the Nicobar Islands, and in some parts of the Malay Peninsula.
Thus Austric languages, which still flourish in Annam and Cambodia, remain in India and Burma as islands of speech to preserve the record of a far distant period when Northern India (possibly Southern India also) and F?^rth^r India belonged to the
ii] Austria L,anguages 49
same linguistic area. And there is some evidence that they shared the same culture in neolithic times ; for the ' chisel- shaped, high-shouldered celts' are specially characteristic of these regions \ There can be little doubt that the Indian and Burmese tribes who speak Austric languages are descended from the neolithic peoples who made these celts. We may regard them as representing the earliest population concerning which we possess any definite infor- mation. Other tribes may have an equal claim to antiquity ; but they have abandoned their ancestral speech and adopted that ot their more recent and more progressive neighbours. Their title is consequently less clear.
Invasions from the east, some of them historical, have brought into the ancient domain of Austric speech languages belonging to two branches of the Tibeto-Chinese family — the Tibeto-Burman and the Siamese-Chinese. Tibeto-Burman has occupied the western half of Burma, where it is represented by Burmese, and the sub-Hima- layan fringe of India ; while Siamese-Chinese has prevailed in the Shan States of eastern Burma. The influence of each has, at different periods, extended to Assam, where at the present day both have given place to Assamese, an Aryan language closely related to Bengali.
In the same way the Austric languages have been submerged by successive floods of Dravidian and Indo-European from the west and north-west. Dravidian languages, with the exception of Brahul, are now confined to the peninsula south of the Vindhyas and to Ceylon ; but it is supposed that, at the period of the Aryan invasions, they prevailed also in the north. This inference is derived from the change which Indo-European underwent after its introduction into India, and which can only be explained as the result of some older disturbing element. The oldest form of Indo- Aryan, the language of the Rigveda, is distinguished from the oldest form of Iranian, the language of the Avesta, chiefly by the presence of a second series of dental letters, the so-called cerebrals. These play an increasingly important part in the development of Indo- Aryan in its subsequent phases. They are foreign to Indo-European languages generally, and they are characteristic of Dravidian. We may conclude, then, that the earlier forms of speech, by which Indo-European was modified in the various stages of its progress from the north-west, were predominantly Dravidian.
At the present time Dravidian languages are stable only in the countries of the south where they have developed great literatures like Tamil, Malayalam, Kanarese, and Telugu. In the northern
"^ Chapter xxvi, p. 613. C. H. I. I. 4
50 Peoples and Languages [ch.
borders of the Dravidian sphere of influence, the spoken languages which have not been stereotyped by literature are, as each succeed- ing Report of the Census of India shows, still continuing to retreat before the onward progress of Indo-Aryan. The process, as it may be observed at the present day in India as elsewhere, has been admirably described by Sir George Grierson, whose observations are most valuable as explaining generally the manner in which the language of a more progressive civilisation tends to grow at the expense of its less efficient rivals.
Wlien an Aryan tongue comes into contact with an uncivilised aboriginal one, it is invariably the latter which goes to the wall. The Aryan does not attempt to speak it, and the necessities of intercourse compel the aborigine to use a broken ' pigeon ' form of the language of a superior civilisation. As generations pass this mixed jargon more and more approximates to its model, and in process of time the old aboriginal language is forgotten and dies a natural death. At the present day, in ethnic borderlands, we see this transformation still going on, and can watch it in all stages of its progress. It is only in the south of India, where aboriginal languages are associated with a high degree of culture, that they have held their own. The reverse process, of an Aryan tongue being superseded by an aboriginal one never occurs. {Imp. Gaz. i, pp. 351-2.)
But the advancing type does not remain unaffected. Each stage in its progress must always bear traces of the compromise between the new and the old ; and, as each recently converted area tends in its turn to carry the change a step farther, the result is that the influence of the progressive language is modified in an increasing degree. Thus is produced a series of varieties, which through the development of their peculiar features become in course of time distinct species differing from the original type and from each other in accordance with their position in the series.
We are thus furnished with a satisfactory explanation of the distribution of the Indo-Aryan languages. As classified by the Linguistic Survey they radiate from a central area occupied by the Midland languages, the chief representative of which is Western Hindi. In the north of this area lay the country of the Kurus and Paiichalas where, according to the ^atapatha Brahmana (iii, 2, 3, 15) speech, i.e. Brahman speech, had its home {Vedic Index, i, p. 165). This is the centre from which the spread of Brahmanism and Brahman culture may be traced historically. From it the language of the Brahman scriptures extended with the religion and became eventually the sacred language of the whole sub-continent ; from it the influence of the Aryan type of speech was diffused in all directions, receiving a check only in the south where the Dravidian languages were firmly established.
ii] Indo- Aryan Languages 51
Immediatel)'^ outside the languages of the Midland come those of the Inner Band — Punjabi, Rajasthani and Gujarat! on the west, Pahari on the north, and Eastern Hindi on the east ; and beyond them the languages of the Outer Band — Kashmiri, Lahnda, Sindhi, and KacchI on the west, MarathI on the south-west, and Biharl, Bengali, Assamese, and Oriya on the east.
The Indo-Aryan languages have now extended very considerably to the south of Aryavarta, * the Region of the Aryans,' as defined by Manu (ii, 22), i.e. the country between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. Orthodox Brahmanism, as represented by Manu, directed that all members of the 'twice-born' social orders, Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaiyyas, should resort to this region, and enjoined that every man of these orders should be instructed in his religious and social duties by a Brahman belonging to one of the peoples of Brahmarshide9a (Kurus, Matsyas, Paiichalas, and ^^urasenas). These, as we have seen, inhabited the northern portion of the Midland linguistic area. If we follow the course of the Jumna-Ganges we shall pass from the languages of the Midland through those of the Inner and Outer Bands, and we shall pass from Brahmarshide^a through Kosala (Oudh), Videha (N. Bihar) and Vanga (Bengal), which mark suc- cessive stages in the spread of Brahmanism to the eastern limit of Aryavarta as they are reflected in the literature ^
It is not so easy to trace the relations between Brahmarshideca and the earlier Aryan settlements in the land of the Seven Rivers. It is possible that further invasions of which no record has been preserved may have disturbed both political and linguistic condi- tions in the North- West, We know nothing certain about the fate of this region until the latter half of the sixth century B.C., when Gandhara (Peshawar in the N.W. Frontier Province and Rawalpindi in the Punjab) together with the province of the Indus — * India ' properly so called — were included in the Persian empire of the Achaemenids.
The base from which this Persian power expanded into India was Bactria (Balkh), the country of the Oxus, which in the reign of Cyrus (558-530 B.C.) had become the eastern stronghold of Iran. From Bactria the armies of the Achaemenids, like those of Alexander and many subsequent conquerors, and like the invading tribes of Indo-Aryans many centuries before, passed over the Hindu Kush and through the valley of the Kabul river into the country of the Indus.
1 Vedie Index, ii, pp. 237, 298.
4—2
52 Peoples and Languages [ch.
Speakers of the two great sections of Aryan languages, Iranians and Indo- Aryans, were thus brought into contact ; and as a result of some such contact, whether at this period or at some earlier date, we find a group of mixed languages still surviving where they might be expected, in the transitional zone between the Hindu Kush and the Punjab, that is to say, in the Kabul valley, Chitral, and Gilgit. These Pi9acha languages, as they are called, were once more widely spread : the Greek forms of place-names, for instance, seem to show that they prevailed in N.W. India in the fourth century B.c. ; but at the present time they are merely an enclave in the Iranian and Indo- Aryan domains.
They possess an extraordinarily archaic character. Words are still in every- day use which are almost identical with the forms they assumed in Vedic hymns, and which now survive only in a much corrupted state in the plains of India.
In their essence these languages are neither Iranian nor Indo- Aryan, but are something between both. {Imp. Gaz. i, p. 356.)
The most natural explanation of these mixed languages is that they are ancient Aryan (Vedic) dialects which have been overlaid with Iranian as the result of later invasion. The districts in which they are spoken were certainly colonised by the early Aryan settlers, for both the Kabul river (Kubha) and its tributary the Swat (Suvastu) are mentioned in the hymns of the Rigveda.
The contrary view, expressed in the Imperial Gazetteer (i, p. 355), viz. that the Pi9acha languages are the result of an Aryan invasion of a region originally Iranian, seems to be less probable. It presupposes the existence of an early settlement of Aiyans in the Pamirs, distinct from 'the Aryans proper, who had entered the Punjab by the valley of the Kabul,' and is thus bound up with the hypothesis of a second wave of Aryan immigration.
Beyond the Pi^acha languages on the north, and beyond the Outer Indo- Aryan Band on the west, Iranian forms of speech pre- vail. The most important of these, so far as they are represented within the limitsof the Indian Empire, are the Pashto of Afghanistan, the name of which preserves the memory of the Ila/cTue? mentioned by Herodotus, and Baloch, the main language of Baluchistan.
The diversity of speech in the Indian Empire, like the diversity of race, is naturally explained as the result of invasions from Western and Further Asia. Such invasions belong to a period which was only brought to a close by the establishment of the British dominion. The power which has succeeded in welding all the subordinate ruling powers into one great system of government is essentially naval ; and since it controls the sea-ways, it has been
ii] Social Institutions 53
forced, in the interests of security, to close the land- ways. This has been the object of British policy in regard to the countries which lie on the frontiers of the Indian Empire — Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Burma. Political isolation has thus followed as a necessary consequence of political unity. But it must be remem- bered that this political isolation is a recent and an entirely novel feature in the history of India. It is the great landmark which separates the present from the past.
Man has completed the work which nature had begun ; for, as we have seen, climatic changes had for ages past been making access into India more and more diificult. The era of tribal migration had long ago come to an end, and had been succeeded by the era of conquest. All through history down to the period of British rule we see one foreign power after another breaking through the north-western gateway, and the strongest of these winning the suzerainty over India. But the result in all cases was little more than a change of rulers — the deposition of one dominant caste and the substitution of another. The lives of the common people, their social conditions and systems of local government, were barely affected by such conquests. Indian institutions have therefore a long unbroken history which makes their study especially valuable.
The chief distinguishing feature of Indian society at the present day is the caste-system, the origin and gi'owth of which may be traced from an early period. It now divides the great majority of the inhabitants of Northern and Southern India into hundreds of self-contained social groups, i.e. castes and sub-castes. A man is obliged to marry outside his family, but within the caste, and usually within the sub-caste, to which his family belongs. A family consists of persons 'reputed to be descended from a common ancestor, and between whom marriage is prohibited.' It is the exogamous social unit. A collection of such units constitutes a sub-caste or caste.
A caste may, therefore, be defined as an endogamons group or collection of such groups bearing a common name and having the same traditional occupa- tion, who are so linked together by these and other ties, such as the tradition of a common origin and the possession of the same tutelary deity, and the same social status, ceremonial observances and family priests, that they regard themselves, and are regarded by others, as forming a single homogeneous community. (Census Report, 1911, I, p. 367.)
The institution is essentially Brahmanical, and it has spread with the spread of BrahmanisuL It either does not exist, or exists
54 Peoples and Languages [ch.
only in an imperfect state of development, in countries where Buddhism has triumphed, such as Burma and Ceylon. It would indeed appear to rest ultimately on two doctrines which are dis- tinctively Brahmanical — the doctrine of the religious unity of the family, which is symbolised by the offerings made to deceased ancestors, and the doctrine of sva-lcarma, which lays on every man the obligation to do his duty in that state of life in which he has been born.
The orthodox Hindu holds that the caste-system is of divine appointment and that it has existed for all time. But the sacred books themselves, when they are studied historically, supply evi- dence both of its origin and of its growth. The poets of the Rigveda know nothing of caste in the later and stricter sense of the word ; but they recognise that there are divers orders of men — the priests (Brahma or Brahmana), the nobles (Rajanya or Ksha- triya), the tillers of the soil (Vi9 or Vaigya), and the servile classes (^udra). Between the first three and the fourth there is a great gulf fixed. The former are conquering Aryans : the latter are subject Dasyus. The difference between them is one of colour {varna) : the Aryans are collectively known as ' the light colour,' and the Dasyus as 'the dark colour.' So far, there was nothing peculiar in the social conditions of North- Western India during the early Vedic period. The broad distinction between conquerors and conquered, and the growth of social orders are indeed univei-sal and inevitable. But, while in other countries the barriers which man has thus set up for himself have been weakeiied or even entirely swept away by the tide of progress, in India they have remained firmly fixed. In India human institutions have received the sanction of a religion which has been concerned more with the preservation of social order than with the advancement of mankind.
Before the end of the period covered by the hymns of the Rigveda a belief in the divine origin of the four orders of men was fully established ; but there is nowhere in the Rigveda any indica- tion of the castes into which these orders were afterwards sub- divided ^ The word 'colour' is still used in its literal sense. There are as yet only two varnas, the light and the dark. But in the next period, the period of the Yajurveda and the Brahmanas, the term denotes *a social order' independently of any actual dis- tinction of colour, and we hear for the first time of mixed varnas, the offspring of parents belonging to different social orders.
* For various views on this subject, see Chapters iv, pp. 92-4; v, pp. 125 ff.; viti, pp. 208-10; X, pp. 234-6.
ii] The Caste System 55
It is to such mixed marriages that the law-books (cf. Manu, x, 6 ff.) attribute the origin of the castes {jati) strictly so-called. To some extent the theory is undoubtedly con-ect Descent is a chief factor, but not the only factor, involved in the formation of caste, the growth of which may still in the twentieth century be traced in the Reports of the decennial Census. Primitive tribes who become Hinduised, communities who are drawn together by the same sectarian beliefs or by the same occupation, all tend to form castes. Tribal connexion, religion, and occupation therefore combine with descent to consolidate social groups and, at the same time, to keep these social groups apart.
The caste-system is, as we have seen, a distinctive product of Brahmanism, a code which regards the family, and not the con- gregation, as the religious unit. And so strong did this social system become that it has affected all the other religions. The most probable explanation of the very remarkable disappearance of Buddhism from the greater part of the sub-continent, where it was once so widely extended, is that Buddhism has been gradually absorbed into the Brahman caste-system, which has also, though in a less degree, influenced the followers of other faiths — Jains, Muhammadans, Sikhs, and even native Christians. We must con- clude, then, that the caste-system has accompanied the spread of Brahmanism from its first stronghold in the country of the Upper Jumna and Ganges into other regions of Northern India and finally into Southern India ; and we must expect to find its complete record only in Brahman literature. Caste must naturally be less perfectly reflected in the literature of other faiths.
Neglect of these fundamental considerations has led to much discrepancy among writers on the early social history of India. Students of the Brahman books have asserted that the caste- system existed substantially in the time of the Yajurveda (say 1000-800 B.C.) : students of the Buddhist books have emphatically declared that no traces of the system in its later sense are to be detected in the age of Buddha (c. 563-483 B.C.). Both parties have forgotten that they were dealing with different regions of Northern India — the former with the country of the Kurus and Panchalas, the home of Brahmanism (the Delhi Division of the Punjab with the north-western Divisions of the Province of Agra), the latter with Kosala and Videha, the home of Buddhism (Oudh and N. Bihar). They have forgotten, too, that the records, on which they depend for their statements, are utterly distinct in character. On the one hand, the Brahman books are permeated
56 Sources of History [ch.
with social ideas which formed the very foundation of their religion : on the other hand, the Buddhist books regard any connexion between social status and religion as accidental rather than essential.
B. SOURCES OF HISTORY
The caste-system is the outcome of a long process of social diflferentiation to which the initial impulse was given by the intro- duction of a higher civilisation into regions occupied by peoples in a lower stage of culture. The Aryan settlers, as represented by the sacrificial hymns of the Rigveda, were both intellectually and materially advanced. Their language, their religion, and their social institutions were of the Indo-European type like those of the ancient Persians of the Avesta and the Greeks of the Homeric poems ; and they were skilled in the arts and in the working of metals.
The prehistoric archaeology of India has not attracted the attention which it deserves, and many interesting problems con- nected with the earlier cultures and their relation to the culture of the Rigveda remain to be solved ; but there is a general agreement as to the succession of cultural strata in Northern and Southern India. The discoveries of ancient implements seem to prove that in the North the Stone Age is separated from the Iron Age by a Copper Age ; while in the South no such transitional stage has been observed — implements of stone are followed without a break by implements of iron. Bronze, it appears, is not found anywhere in India before the Iron Age. If these facts may be held to be established, we must conclude that the chief metal of the Rigveda, ayas (Latin acs), was copper ; and the absence of a Copper Age in Southern India would seem to indicate that the earlier inhabitants generally were still in the Stone Age at the time when the Aryans brought with them the use of copper. Iron was probably not known in the age of the Rigveda ; but it undoubtedly occurs in the period immediately following when it is known to the Yajurveda and Atharvaveda as ^ydma ay as or 'black copper.' Its use was introduced by Indo- Aryan colonisation into Southern India where the Stone Age of culture still prevailed.
Described in its simplest terms, the earliest history of India is the story of the struggle between two widely diflferent types of civilisation, an unequal contest between metal and stone. All the records for many centuries belong to the higher type. They are exclusively Indo-Aryan. They have been preserved in literary
ii] The Literatures of India 57
languages developed from the predominant spoken languages under the influence of the different phases of religion which mark stages in the advance of Indo- Aryan culture from the North-West. The language of the Rigveda, the oldest form of Vedic Sanskrit, belongs to the country of the Seven Rivers. The language of the Brahmanas and of the later Vedic literature in the country of the Upper Jumna and Ganges (Brahmarshide9a) is transitional. It shades almost imperceptibly into Classical Sanskrit, which is the literary representation of the accepted form of educated speech of the time and region. As fixed by the rules of the grammarians it became the standard language of Brahman culture in every part of India ; and it is still the ordinary medium of communication between learned men, as was Latin in the Middle Ages of Europe.
In the sixth century B.C., after Indo-Aryan influence had pene- trated eastwards beyond the limits of 'the Middle Country,' there arose in Oudh (Kosala) and Bihar (Videha and Magadha) a number of religious reactions against the sacerdotalism and the social exclusiveness of Brahmanism. The two most important of these, Jainism and Buddhism, survived ; and, as they extended from the region of their origin, they everywhere gave an impulse to the for- mation of literary languages from the Prakrits or spoken dialects. The scriptures of the Jains have been preserved in various forms of Magadhi, the dialect of Bihar, ^auraseni, the dialect of Muttra, and Maharashtri, the dialect of the Maratha country. The Buddhist canon exists in two chief forms — in Pali, the literary form of an Indo-Aryan Prakrit, in Ceylon ; and in Sanskrit in Nepal. Pali Buddhism has spread to Burma and Siam. The Sanskrit version of the canon has, in various translations, prevailed in Tibet, China, Japan, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, and other countries of the Far East.
In all the large and varied literatures of the Brahmans, Jains, and Buddhists there is not to be found a single work which can be compared to the Histories in which Herodotus recounts the struggle between the Greeks and Persians, or to the Annals in which Livy traces the growth and progress of the Roman power. But this is not because the peoples of India had no history. We know from other sources that the ages were filled with stirring events ; but these events found no systematic record. Of the great foreign invasions of Darius, Alexander the Great, and Seleucus no mention is to be discovered in any Indian work. The struggles between native princes, the rise and fall of empires, have indeed not passed similarly into utter oblivion. Their memory is to some
58 Sources of History [ch.
extent preserved in epic poems, in stories of the sages and heroes of old, in genealogies and dynastic lists. Such in all countries are the beginnings of history ; and in ancient India its development was not carried beyond this rudimentary stage. The explanation of this arrested progress must be sought in a state of society which, as in medieval Europe, tended to restrict intellectual activity to the religious orders. Literatures controlled by Brahmans, or by Jain and Buddhist monks, must naturally represent systems of faith rather than nationalities. They must deal with thought rather than with action, with ideas rather than with events. And in fact, as sources for the history of religion and philosophy, and for the growth of law and social institutions, and for the develop- ment of those sciences which, like grammar, depend on the minute and careful observation of facts, they stand among the literatures of the ancient world unequalled in their fulness and their con- tinuity. But as records of political progress they are deficient. By their aid alone it would be impossible to sketch the outline of the political history of any of the nations of India before the Muhammadan conquest. Fortunately two other sources of infor- mation— foreign accounts of India and the monuments of India (especially the inscriptions and coins) — supply to some extent this deficiency of the literatures, and furnish a chronological framework for the history of certain periods.
The foreign authorities naturally belong to those periods in which India was brought most closely into contact with the civili- sations of Western Asia and China. The general fact that such intercourse by land and sea existed in very early times is undoubted, but detailed authentic records of political relations are not found before the rise of the Persian Empire in the sixth century B.C., when Greek writers and the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius enable us to trace the extension of the Persian power from Bactria, the country of the Oxus, to N.W. India. From these sources it is clear that the Persian dominions included Gandhara (the Districts of Peshawar and Rawal Pindi) and the Province of 'India' (the Western Punjab together with Sind which still retains its ancient name) ; and it is probable that these countries remained tributary to the King of Kings until the Persian Empire gave place to the Macedonian.
Then come the Greek and Roman historians of Alexander the Great, whose detailed accounts of the Indian campaign (327-325 B.c.) throw a flood of light on the political conditions of N.W. India, and carry our geographical knowledge eastwards beyond the
ii] Greek Writers 59
Jhelum (Hydaspes), the eastern limit of Gandhara, to the Beas (Hyphasis). This marks the extent of Alexander's conquests. Far from securing the dominant position of Northern India, the country of the upper Jumna and Ganges, these conquests failed even to reach the country of the SarasvatI, the centre of Indo- Aryan civilisation in the age of the Rigveda. Alexander was the conqueror of ' India ' only in the sense that for a very few years he was master of * the country of the Indus.' The confusion of this geographical term with its later meaning has been the cause of endless misconception all through the Middle Ages even down to the present day.
The documents of the Persian and Macedonian Empires are succeeded by those of the later Hellenic kingdoms of Syria, Bactria, and Parthia. All these are invaluable as supplying a very remarkable deficiency in the Indian records. They deal with a region which is barely noticed, and with events which are com- pletely ignored, in the Brahman, Jain, and Buddhist books of the period. These two sources of history are thus independent of each other. The Greek view is mainly confined to the North-West, while the contemporary Indian literatures belong almost ex- clusively to the Plain of the Ganges.
After the death of Alexander other Western writers appear who regard India from the point of view of the Maurya Empire with its capital at Pataliputra, the modern Patna. The generation which saw Alexander had not passed away before the kingdom of Magadha (S. Bihar) had brought all the peoples of Northern India under its sway, and established a great power which maintained relations with Alexander's successors in Western Asia, Egypt, and Europe. And now for the first time the two kinds of historical evidence, the Indian and the foreign, come into direct relations with each other. They refer to the same regions and to the same circumstances ; and the light of Greek history is thrown on the obscurity of Indian literature. It was the identification of the Sandrocottus of Greek writers with the Maurya Emperor Chandra- gupta that established the first fixed point in the chronology of ancient India. Our object in the first two volumes of this History will be to show how far the progress of research starting from this fixed point has succeeded hitherto in recovering the forgotten history of India from the records of the past.
Unimpeded intercourse with the countries of the West was possible only so long as Northern India remained united under the Maurya dynasty, and Western Asia under the Seleucid successors
6o Sources of History [ch.
of Alexander. The process of disintegration began in Western Asia with the defection of Bactria and Parthia about the middle of the third century, and in India probably some thirty years later when the downfall of imperial rule was followed by a period of anarchy and internal strife. These conditions made possible the series of foreign invasions from c. 200 B.c. onwards, which disturbed the North- West during many centuries and severed that region from the ancient civilisation of the Plain of the Ganges. The political isolation of India was completed by the Scythian conquest of Bactria, c. 135 B.C., and by the long struggle between Rome and Parthia which began in 53 B.C. After the Maurya Empire, inter- course tended more and more to be restricted to commerce by land and sea ; and for the West, India became more and more the land of mystery and fabulous wealth. Down to the last quarter of the eighteenth century nearly all that was known of its ancient history was derived from the early Greek and Latin writers.
Of all the factors which contributed to the severance of relations with the West, the extinction of Hellenic civilisation in Bactria was by far the most important. But while the fate of Bactria closed the western outlook, it prepared the way for communication with the Far East ; and it is to Chinese authorities that we must turn for the most trustworthy information concerning the events which determined the history of N.W. India during the follow- ing centuries. The Scythian ((^aka) invaders of Bactria were succeeded by the Yueh-chi ; and when, in the first century A.D., the predominant tribe of the Yueh-chi, the Kushanas, extended their dominion in Turkestan and Bactria to N.W. India, the Kushana empire formed a connecting link between China and India and provided the means of an intercourse which was fruit- ful in results. Buddhism was introduced into China and the other countries of the Far East ; and, as the explorations of recent years have shown, an Indian culture, Indian languages, and the Indian alphabets were established in Chinese Turkestan. The most illuminating accounts of India from the end of the fourth to the end of the seventh century are the records of Chinese Buddhists who made the long and toilsome pilgrimage to the scenes of their Master's life and labours.
The remaining source of historical information — the inscribed monuments and coins — is the most productive of all. The inscrip- tions are public or private records engraved in most cases on stone or on copper plates ; and they are found in great numbers through- out the sub-continent and in Ceylon. The earliest are the edicts
ii] Inscriptions and Coins 6i
of A9oka incised on rocks or pillars situated on the fi'ontiers and at important centres of the Maurya empire when at the height of its power in the middle of the third century b.c. Others com- memorate the deposit of Buddhist relics. Others celebrate the victories of princes, the extent of their conquests, the glories of the founder of the dynasty and of his successors on the throne. Others again place on record the endowments of temples or grants of land. In short, there is scarcely any conceivable topic of public or private interest which is not represented. The inscriptions supply most valuable evidence as to the political, social, and economic conditions of the period and the country to which they belong. They testify on the one hand to the restless activity of a military caste, and on the other to the stability of institutions, which were, as a rule, unaffected by military conquest. One con- queror follows another, but the administration of each individual state remains unchanged either under the same prince or under some other member of his family, and the charters of monasteries are renewed as a matter of course by each new overlord.
Coins also have preserved the names and titles of kings who have left no other record ; and by their aid it is sometimes possible to reconstruct the dynastic lists and to determine the chronology and the geographical extent of ruling powers. But it is only when coin-legends appear as the result of Greek influence in the North- West that this source of history becomes available. The earlier indigenous coinage was little more than a system of weights of silver or copper stamped with the marks of the monetary authorities. The first Indian king whose name occurs on a coin is Sophytes (Saubhuti), a contemporary of Alexander the Great. The legend of his coins is in Greek. After his date no inscribed coins are found for more than a hundred years. During this interval Greek rule in KW. India had ceased. It was resumed about the begin- ning of the second century by Alexander's Bactrian successors, who issued in their Indian dominions a bilingual coinage with Greek legends on the obverse and a translation of these in an Indian dialect and an Indian alphabet on the reverse.
The fashion of a bilingual coinage thus instituted was continued by the Scythian and Parthian invaders from Iran in the early part of the first century B.c. ; and these bilingual coins have supplied the clue to the interpretation of the ancient alphabets, and have enabled scholars during the last three generations to bring to light the long-hidden secrets of the inscriptions and to retrace the out- lines of forgotten history.
62 Sources of History [ch.
Both of the alphabets, now usually known as Brahmi and Kha- roshthi, are of Semitic origin ; that is to say, they are derived ultimately from the same source as the European alphabets. They were introduced into India at different periods, and probably by different routes. Brahmi is found throughout the sub-continent and in Ceylon. The home of KharoshthI is in the North-West ; and whenever it is found elsewhere it has been imported.
Brahmi has been traced back to the Phoenician type of writing represented by the inscription in which Mesha, king of Moab (c. 850, B.C.), records his successful revolt against the kingdom of Israel. It was probably brought into India through Mesopotamia, as a result of the early commerce by sea between Babylon and the ports of Western India. It is the parent of all the modern Indian alphabets.
KharoshthI is derived from the Aramaic script, which was introduced into India in the sixth century b,c., when the North- West was under Persian rule, and when Aramaic was used as a common means of communication for the purposes of government throughout the Persian empire. That originally the Aramaic language and alphabet pure and simple were thus imported into Gandhara, as Biihler conjectured in 1895 {W.Z.K.M., ix, p. 49), has been proved recently by Sir John Marshall's discovery of an Aramaic inscription at Taxila^. When the first KharoshthI in- scriptions appear in the third century B.C., the alphabet has been adapted to express the additional sounds required by an Indian language ; but, unlike Brahmi which has been more highly elabo- rated, it still bears evident traces of its Semitic origin both in its direction from right to left and in its imperfect representation of the vowels. In the third century a.d. KharoshthI appears more fully developed in Chinese Turkestan where its existence must be attributed to the Kushana empire. In this region, as in India, it was eventually superseded by Brahmi.
The decipherment of the inscriptions and coins, and the deter- mination of the eras in which many of them are dated, have introduced into the obscurity of early Indian history a degree of chronological order which could not have been conceived at the time when the study of Sanskrit began in Europe. The bare fact that India possessed ancient classical literatures like those of Greece and Rome can scarcely be said to have been known to the Western World before the last quarter of the eighteenth century. At various intervals during more than a hundred years previously a few isolated students chiefly missionaries, those pioneers of learning.
» A. Cowley, J.R.A.S., 1915, p. 346.
ii] The Study of Sanskrit 63
had indeed published accounts of Sanskrit literature and Sanskrit grammar ; but it was only when a practical need made itself felt, and the serious attention of the administrators of the East India Company's possessions was directed to the importance of studying Sanskrit, that the investigation by Europeans of the ancient lan- guages and literatures of India began in earnest. To meet the requirements of the law-courts the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, had ordered a digest to be prepared by pandits from the authoritative Sanskrit law-books ; but when the work was finished no one could be found able to translate it into English. It was therefore necessary to have it translated first into Persian, and from the Persian an English version was made and published by Halhed in 1776. The object-lesson was not lost. Sanskrit was evidently of practical utility ; and the East India Company adopted, and never afterwards neglected to pursue, the enlightened policy of promoting the study of the ancient languages and literatures in which the traditions of its subjects were enshrined. It remained for Sir William Jones, Judge of the High Court at Calcutta, to place this study on a firm basis by the establishment of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784.
The inauguration of the study of India's past history came at a fortunate moment ; for it is precisely to the last quarter of the eighteenth century that we may trace the growth of the modern scientific spirit of investigation, which may be defined as the recognition of the fact that no object and no idea stands alone by itself as an isolated phenomenon. All objects and all ideas form links in a series ; and therefore it follows that nowhere, whether in the realm of nature or in the sphere of human activity, can the present be understood without reference to the past. The first manifestation of this new spirit of enquiry, which was soon to transform all learning, was seen in the study of language. The first Western students of the ancient languages of India were statesmen and scholars who had been educated in the classical literatures of ancient Greece and Rome. They were impressed by the fact, which must indeed be apparent to everyone who opens a Sanskrit grammar, that Sanskrit, both in its vocabulary and in its inflexions, presents a striking similarity to Greek and Latin. This observation immediately raised the question : How is this simi- larity to be explained ? The true answer was suggested by Sir William Jones, whom that sagacious observer, Dr Johnson, recog- nised as * one of the most enlightened of the sons of men \' In 1786, Sir William Jones wrote ;
^ G. Birbeck Hill, Johnsonian Miscellanies, n, p. 363.
64 Sources of History [ch. ii
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure ; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either : yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs, and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been pro- duced by accident ; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all without beheving them to have sprung from some common source, which perhaps no longer exists. There is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for sup- posing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a difi"erent idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family.
These observations contain the germs of the science of Com- parative Philology. The conception of a family of languages, in which all the individual languages and dialects are related as descendants from a common ancestor, suggested the application to language of the historical and comparative method of investigation. The results have been as remarkable as they were unexpected. In the first place, the historical method has shown that living languages grow and change in accordance with certain definite laws, while the comparative study of the lines of development which may be traced historically in the different Indo-European languages has confirmed Sir William Jones's hypothesis that they are all derived ' from some common source,' which, though it no longer exists, may be restored hypothetically. In the second place, since words preserve the record both of material objects and of ideas, a study of vocabularies enables us to gain some knowledge of the state of civilisation, the social institutions, and the religious beliefs of the speakers of the dififerent languages before the period of literary records. Some indication of the light which Compara- tive Philology thus throws on the history of the Aryan invaders of India is given in the following Chapter.
CHAPTER III THE ARYANS
Throughout the greater part of Europe and of Asia as far as India there exist now, or can be shown to have existed in past time, a great number of languages, the forms and sounds of which when scientifically examined are seen to have a common origin. The languages in question are generally known to scholars under the name of the Indo-Germanic, or Indo-European languages. The name Indo-European seems to have been invented by Dr Thomas Young, the well-known physicist and Egyptologist. The first occur- rence known of the word is in an article by him in The Quarterly Review for 1813. Examination of the article, however, shows that Dr Young meant by Indo-European something quite different from its ordinarily accepted signification. For under the term he in- cluded not only the languages now known as Indo-European, but also Basque, Finnish, and Semitic languages. The name Indo- Germanic, which was used by the German philologist Klaproth as early as 1823, but the inventor of which is unknown, is an attempt to indicate the family by the furthest east and west members of the chain extending from India to the Atlantic ocean. The main languages of the family had been indicated in a famous address to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, delivered by the President Sir William Jones in 1786\ He had the insight to observe that the sacred language of India (Sanskrit), the language of Persia, the languages of Greece and Rome, the languages of the Celts, Germans, and Slavs, were all closely connected. To Sir William Jones, as Chief Justice of Bengal, law was his profession and the comparison of languages only an amusement. But this epoch-making address laid the foundations of Comparative Philology on which Bopp in his Comparative Grammar built the first superstructure. But the study of this family of languages has fi'om the beginning been beset with a subtle fallacy. There has been throughout an almost constant confusion between the languages and the persons who
^ See Chapter ii, p. 64 ^ C. H. I. I. 5
66 The Aryans [CH.
spoke them. It is hardly necessary to point out that in many parts of the world the speaker of a particular language at a given time was not by lineal descent the representative of its speakers at an earlier period. In the island of Britain many persons of Welsh blood, many persons of Irish Celtic and Scottish Celtic origin speak English. It is many centuries since it was observed that Normans and English who had settled in Ireland had learned to speak the Irish language and had become more Irish than the Irish themselves. It is well known that by descent the Bulgarians are of Asiatic origin, and of an entirely different stock from the Slavs, a branch of whose language is now their mother tongue. It is therefore clear that it is impossible, without historical evidence, to be certain that the language spoken by any particular people was the language of their ancestors at a remote period. The name Indo-Germanic therefore suffers from the ambiguity that it cha- racterises not only languages but also peoples. As has been sug- gested elsewhere, it would be well to abandon both the term Indo-European and the term Indo-Germanic and adopt some en- tirely colourless word which would indicate only the speakers of such languages. A convenient term for the speakers of the Indo- European or Indo-Germanic languages would be the Wiros, this being the word for ' men ' in the great majority of the languages in question.
The advantage of such a term is clear, since all we know regarding the physical characteristics of the first people who spoke languages of this nature is that they were a white race. We cannot tell whether these Wiros were long-headed or short-headed, tall or of little stature, brunette or fair. It has been customary to imagine them as having something of the characteristics which Tacitus describes as belonging to the German of the end of the first century A.D. But all the evidence adduced in support of this is really imaginary. What, therefore, can we say that we know of this early people ? From words preserved in their languages, par- ticularly in languages far separated, and in circumstances where there is little likelihood of borrowing from the one language to the other, we may gather something as to the animals and the plants they knew, and perhaps a very little as to their industries. The close similarity between the various languages spoken by them would lead us to infer that they must have lived for long in a severely circumscribed area, so that their peculiarities developed for many generations in common. Since the study of prehistoric man developed, many views have been held as to the geographical
Ill] The Wiros 67
position of this early community. Such a confined area must have been separated from the outer world either by great waters or by mountains. There are however, so far as we know, no rivers in the western half of the Old World which at any period have pre- sented an impassable barrier to man. In the evidence for the early history of the speakers of these Indo-European or Indo- Germanic languages there is nothing which would lead us to suppose that they lived upon an island. Indeed, it is very doubtful whether they possessed a word for the sea at all. For the word mare which in Latin means 'the sea,' has its nearest relatives in other languages amongst words which mean ' moor ' or ' swamp.' That the climate in which they lived belonged to the temperate zone is shown by the nature of the trees which a comparison of their languages leads us to believe they knew. To their habitat we may assign, with considerable certainty, the oak, the beech, the wOlow, and some coniferous trees. The birch seems to have been known to them and possibly the lime, less certainly the elm. The fruits they knew are more uncertain than the forest trees. Many species of fruit trees familiar to us have flourished in Europe since late geo- logical times ; but at all periods men have been anxious to improve the quality of their fruit, and in all probability the commoner cul- tivated forms became known in northern and north-western Europe only as introduced by the Romans in the period of their conquests beginning with the first century b.c. Cherries have grown in the West from a very early period, but the name itself supports the statement that the cultivated kind was introduced by the great LucuUus in the first half of the first century B.c. from Cerasus in Asia Minor, an area to which the Western world owes much of its fruit and flowering shrubs. The ancient kings of Persia encouraged their satraps to introduce new fruit trees and better kinds into the districts which they ruled. There still exists a late copy of an early inscription in Greek in which the King of Persia gives praise to one of his governors for his beneficent action in this respect.
These Wiros were in all probability not a nomad but a settled people. The useful animals best known to them were the ox and cow, the sheep, the horse, the dog, the pig, and probably some species of deer. The ass, the camel, and the elephant were apparently un- known to them in early times ; and the great variety of words for the goat would lead us to suppose that this animal also was of later introduction. The argument from language, however, is of neces- sity inconclusive, because all nations occasionally give animals with which they are familiar fanciful names. The Wiros seem also to
5—2
68 The Aryans [ch.
have been familiar with corn. If so, they must in all probability have lived for a considerable part of the year in one situation; for the planting of corn implies care continued over many weeks or months — care which the more primitive tribes have not been able to exercise. Of birds, we may gather from the languages that they knew the goose and the duck. The most familiar bird of prey was apparently the eagle. The wolf and bear were known, but not the lion or the tiger.
From these data is it possible to locate the primitive habitat fi'om which the speakers of these languages derived their origin ? It is not likely to be India, as some of the earlier investigators assumed, for neither flora nor fauna, as determined by their lan- guage, is characteristic of this area, though some forest trees like the birch are more magnificent on Kinchinjunga than in any part of the Western world. Still less probable is the district of the Pamirs, one of the most cheerless regions on the face of the earth. Central Asia, which has also been contended for as their home, is not probable, even if we admit that its conspicuous lack of water, and consequent sterility in many areas, is of later development. If indeed these early men knew the beech, they must have lived to the west of a line drawn from Konigsberg in Prussia to the Crimea and continued thence through Asia Minor. In the Northern plains of Europe there is no area which will satisfactorily fulfil the con- ditions. As we know it in primitive times it is a land of great forests. No country, however, which had not much variety of geographical features could have been the habitat of both the horse and the cow. The horse is a native of the open plain ; the foal is able to run by its mother from the first, and accompanies her always in her wanderings. The calf, on the other hand, is at first feeble, unable to walk or see its way distinctly, and therefore is hidden by its mother in a brake while she goes further afield to find suitable pasture. Is there any part of Europe which combines pastoral and agricultural country in close connexion, which has in combination hot low-lying plains suitable for the growth of grain, and rich upland pasture suitable for flocks and herds, and at the same time trees and birds of the character already described? There is apparently only one such area in Europe, the area which is bounded on its eastern side by the Carpathians, on its south by the Balkans, on its western side by the Austrian Alps and the Bohmer Wald, and on the north by the Erzgebirge and the moun- tains which link them up with the Carpathians. This is a fertile and well- watered land with gi'eat corn plains in the low-lying levels
Ill] Home of the Wiros 69
of Hungary, but also possessing steppe-like areas which make it one of the best horse-breeding areas in Europe, while, in the uplands which surround it and run across it, as in the case of the Bakony Wald, south-west of Buda-Pesth, and still more markedly in Bohemia, there is high ground suitable for the pasturing of sheep. The forests of the mountains which engirdle it supply ex- cellent mast for the maintenance of swine whether wild or tame. The beech which dies out further south is found here and all the other great forest trees which have been already mentioned. The country is large enough to maintain a very considerable population which however was likely in primitive times to migrate from it only under the stress of dire necessity, because it is so well bounded on all sides by lofty mountains with comparatively few passes, that exit from it even in more advanced ages has not been easy. If this area indeed were the original habitat — and, curiously enough, though it fulfils so many of the conditions, it seems not before to have been suggested — the spread of the Indo-Germanic languages becomes easily intelligible. No doubt the most inviting direction from which to issue from this land in search of new homes would be along the course of the Danube into Wallachia, from which it is not difiicult to pass south towards the Bosporus and the Dar- danelles.
A popular view locates the home of the Wiros in the southern steppes of Russia, but that area, though possessing a very fertile soil, has not on the whole the characteristics which the words common to the various Indo-Germanic languages, and at the same time unborrowed from one to another, postulate. It has also been commonly assumed that the eastern branches of the family found their way into Asia by the north of the Black Sea and either round the north of the Caspian or through the one pass which the great barrier of the Caucasus provides. Here we are met by a new difficulty. The Caspian is an inland sea which is steadily becoming more shallow and contracting in area. Even if it had been little larger than it is at present, the way into Turkestan between it and the Aral Sea leads through the gloomy desert of Ust Urt which, supposing it existed at the period when migration took place, must have been impassable to primitive men moving with their families and their flocks and herds. But there is good evidence to show that at a period not very remote the Caspian Sea extended much further to the north, and ended in an area of swamps and quick- sands, while at an earlier period which, perhaps, however, does not transcend that of the migration, it spread far to the east and
70 The Aryans [ch.
included within its area tlie Sea of Aral and possibly much of the low-lying plains beyond. Turkestan in primitive times would there- fore not have been easily accessible by this route. There is in fact no evidence that the ancestors of the Persians, Afghans, and Hindus passed through Turkestan at all. Nor is passage through the Caucasus probable : to people wandering from Europe the Caucasus was a remote and inhospitable region, so remote and so inhospitable that Aeschylus selected it as the place of torment for Prometheus and tells us that it was a pathless wilderness. There is indeed no reason to suppose that earlier men followed any other route than that which has been taken by successive waves of migratory populations in historical times. That path leads across either the Bosporus or Dardanelles, across the plateau of Asia Minor, or along its fertile slopes on the south side of the Black Sea. A European people which would reach Persia on foot must strike the upper waters of the Euphrates and Tigris. The fertile country with an alluvial soil of tremendous depth, which lies between these two rivers, was the centre of one of the earliest and one of the most powerful civilisations of ancient times. Migrants would there find their progress to the south obstructed and baulked. But by passing south of Lake Van and through the mountains which lie between it and Lake Urmia, they would find an access to the route which travellers still follow between Tabriz and Teheran. From there they would advance most likely along the southern end of the Caspian towards Mashhad, whence in all ages there has been a well-frequented route to Herat. At one time these peoples cer- tainly extended far to the east and north, to the country then known as Bactria, now Balkh, and carried their conquests into the famous region which lies between the two rivers, the Amu Daria, or Oxus, and the Syr Daria.
What evidence have we of such a migration, and, if it took place, what was its date ? In all probability the migration of peoples from the primitive habitat, which we have located in the areas which we now call Hungary, Austria, and Bohemia, did not take place at a very remote period. It is indeed probable that all the facts of this migration, so far as we know them, can be ex- plained without postulating an earlier beginning for the migrations than 2500 B.C. It must be remembered, however, that these migrations were not into unpeopled areas, that before they reached the frontiers of India, or even Mesopotamia, the Wiros must have had many hard struggles with populations already existing, who regarded their passage as they would that of some gi-eat cloud of
Ill] Migrations 71
destroying locusts which devoured their substance and left them to perish by starvation, or to survive in the misery of captives to cruel conquerors. We must suppose that success could have been achieved only by wave after wave following at no 4ong intervals : for if their successors delayed too long, the migrants of the first advancing wave were likely to be cut off or absorbed. In historical times, we know that many tribes thus passed into Asia from Europe, among them the Phrygians, the Mysians, and Bithynians. It has been plausibly argued that the Armenian stock was the first wave of the Phrygian advance, and evidence can be adduced which makes it probable that still earlier waves of conquering tribes advancing from west to east were represented by the remote ancestors of modern Persians and modern Hindus.
If, as some scholars suppose, modern Albanian is the descendant in a very corrupt condition of ancient Thracian, and not of ancient Illyrian, the interrelation of the ancient branches of the Indo- Germanic family of languages can be outlined. The family is divided by a well-marked difierence in the treatment of certain k, g, and gh sounds into two parts, one of which keeps the k, g, and gh sounds, though submitting them to a variety of changes in later times, while the other part changes k and g into some kind of sibilant sounds which are represented in the Slavonic and Iranian languages by s and z, in Sanskrit by ^ and J. The ^A sound appears as z in Zend, the Iranian dialects confusing together g and gh, while in Sanskrit it appears as h. The languages which present these changes are the easternmost members of the family : Aryan (i.e. Indian and Iranian) ; Armenian ; Slavonic ; and Albanian. The Albanian it is suggested has been driven westward through the Pindus range into its present position within historical times, the ancient Illyrians having in this area been swept away in the devastation wrought by a sequence of Roman invasions, initiated in the second century B.C. by Aemilius Paulus. The languages mentioned would thus have started from the eastern side of the original habitat, while the tribes which (with an admixture of the population already in possession) ultimately became the Greeks, moved through Macedonia and Thessaly southwards, and the Latin stock, the Celts, and the Germans westwards and northwards. It is more than likely that the ancestors of the Slavs found their way from the original home by the ' Moravian Gap.' The exact manner, or the exact date, at which these movements took place we cannot tell, but there is no reason to suppose that any of them antedate at earliest the third millennium, b.c. Nor is it likely that they took
72 The Aryans [cH.
place all at once. The same causes, though in dififerent degrees, were operative then which have produced movements of peoples in historical times, one of the most pressing probably being the growth of population in a limited area, which drove sections or whole tribes to seek sustenance for themselves, their families, and cattle in land beyond their original boundaries, without regard to whether these lands were already occupied by other peoples or not. The movements of the Gauls in historical times were probably not at all unlike those of their ancestors and kinsmen in prehistoric times.
If, as has been suggested above, the early speakers of the primitive Indo-Germanic language occupied a limited area well defended by mountains from attack, this would account for the general similarity of the languages in detail; if, forced by the natural increase of population, they left this habitat in great waves of migration, we can see how some languages of the family, as for example, the Celtic and the Italic, or the Iranian and the Indian, are more closely related to one another than they are to other members of the family ; if, further, we assume that such a habitat for the prehistoric stock could be found in the lands which we call Hungary, Austria, and Bohemia, we can explain a very large number of facts hitherto collected for the history of their earlier movements and earlier civilisation.
Of the earliest movements of the tribes speaking Indo-Germanic languages which occupied the Iranian plateau and ultimately passed into Northern India, history has as yet nothing to say. But recent discoveries in Cappadocia seem likely to give us a clue. In the German excavations at Boghaz-kbi, the ancient Pteria, have been found inscriptions, containing as it appears the names of deities which figure in the earliest Indian records, Indra, Yaruna, and the great twin brethren the Nasatyas. The inscriptions date from about 1400 B.C., and the names appear not in the form which they take in the historical records of ancient Persia, but are, so far as writing in a syllabary will admit, identical with the forms, ad- mittedly more original, which they show in the hymns of the Rigveda. It is still too early to dogmatise over the results of these discoveries, which it may be hoped are only the firstfruits of a rich harvest ; but the most feasible explanation of them seems to be that here, far to the west, we have stumbled upon the Aryans on the move towards the east. This is not to say that earlier waves may not long before 1400 B.C. have penetrated much further to the east, or even to India itself. All that can be gathered from these
\
III] Inscriptions of Boghaz-kdi 73
discoveries is that at this period the Mitani, who were apparently not of this stock themselves, had adopted the worship of certain deities of this stock — deities who at the time of the composition of the Vedic Hymns were still the most important, though to them had been added Agni, * Fire,' specially an object of priestly wor- ship in the Vedic hierarchy. We have here, however, names practically in the form in which they survive in Sanskrit, and without the changes which characterise the records of the tribes of this stock, who remained in Persia. To this as yet unbroken unity the name of Aryan is given. It is borrowed from a word which appears as Arya, or Arya in Sanskrit, Airy a in Zend, and which means ' of good family, noble.' It is the epithet applied by the composers of the Vedic hymns to distinguish their own stock from that of their enemies the earlier inhabitants of India, whom they call Dasas or Dasyus. The term, by reason of its shortness, has often been applied to all the languages of this family, in pre- ference to * Indo-European ' or * Indo-Germanic,' but is properly reserved for the south-eastern group which, when the phonetic changes characterising the language of the Avesta and of the old Persian inscriptions of the Achaemenid dynasty (520 B.C.-330 B.C.) have taken place, falls into the two branches of Iranian and Indo- Aryan. The latter term well characterises the Aryans settled in India, while Aryo-Indian conveniently designates these Aryans as distinct from the unrelated stocks — Dravidian and other — also inhabiting the Indian peninsula.
As these inscriptions of Boghaz-koi show the language still one and undivided, we obtain a limit after which the differentiation of Iranian and Indo- Aryan must have begun. These Aryan languages have some characteristics in common which distinguish them from all others : in particular they agree in confusing together the three original vowels a, e, and 0, whether long or short, into one sound which is written with the symbols for a and a. In modern India at least the short sound is pronounced with the obscure vowel found in the English 'but,' a fact which produced the English spelling of the Hindu words * pundit ' (pandita) and * suttee ' (satt), and disguised the liquor compounded of five (pancha) ingredients under the apparently English form of ' punch.' They agree also on the whole in the case system of the noun, a system to which the Slav and Armenian languages offer the closest approximation, and in the elaborate mood and voice system of the verb, to which the only parallel is to be found in the similar, though not in all respects identical, paradigms of Greek. Here the other languages, except
74 Tf^^ Aryans [ch.
the Slavonic, fall far short of the elaborate and intricate Aryan verb system, whether it be, as is most likely, that the other tribes have lost a large part of their share of the common inheritance, or whether some of the languages drifted apart, before the complete system, seen in the Aryan and Greek verbs, had developed. Other changes may with probability be attributed to the influence of the peoples whom they conquered and enslaved. A characteristic, which distinguishes the languages of this stock in both Persia and India is the tendency to confuse r and I, a tendency which is characteristic of practically all the languages of the far east. In India r is often found in words where the languages of the same stock in Europe show l\ l'\9> also, though not so frequently, found for r ; in the Old Persian of the Achaemenid inscriptions I is found only in two foreign words, and has otherwise been entirely replaced by r.
The dialects of Iran, the language of the earliest Gathas (Songs) which are attributed to Zoroaster himself, the later dialect of the other surviving parts of the sacred literature of the ancient Persians — the Avesta — and the inscriptions beginning with Darius I about 620 B.C. and best represented in his time but continuing to the last Darius in 338B.C., are all closely related to the oldest dialect discovered in India, which appears in the hymns of the Rigveda. Not only single words and phrases, but even whole stanzas may be transliterated from the dialect of India into the dialects of Iran without change of vocabulary or construction, though the appear- ance of the words is altered by the changes which time and isolation have brought about between the dialects east and west of Afghani- stan. It is curious to note that the changes are much greater in the dialects that remain in Iran than in this oldest recorded dialect of the migrants into India. The Iranians have disguised their words by changing (as Greek has also done) s followed by a vowel at the beginning of words, or between vowels in the middle of words, into h : thus the word for 7, the equivalent of the Latin scptem, the Greek kirra, is in Sanskrit saptd, but in Iranian hapta. There are many other changes both in vowels and in consonants. In particular it may be noted that one kind of original g which appears in Sanskrit as j has become in the Iranian dialect z ot 8 (Greek d'yv6<i 'holy,' Sanskrit yajnd- 'sacrifice,' Avesta yasna), and a corresponding aspirated sound gh which is in Sanskrit h has become identified with g in Iranian as z (Latin hiems, Greek x''^^i ;)^et/ia, (8yo-);^6/A09, Sanskrit hima- in ' Himalaya,' Avesta zyam-). This loss of aspiration has affected also the other aspirates hh, dh, which
\
III] lra7iia?is and htdians 75
survive in Sanskrit, while Iranian tends in certain combinations to change original consonant-stops into spirants, making the old name of the deity Mitra into Mithra, and from compounds with a second element -parna the numerous proper names which we know in Greek transliterations as Artaphernes, Tissaphernes, and the like.
It has sometimes been made an argument for deriving the origin of these tribes from India rather than the West, that the sounds and especially the consonants of the language spoken have survived in greater purity in India than in Iran or elsewhere. The argument however is not sound. Invasions of a similar sort, though at a much greater distance from their base, were made by the Spaniards in America in the sixteenth century. The civilisation of the Spaniards was no doubt higher than that of the early Indo- Germanic-speaking peoples who invaded India ; but in both Mexico and Peru, if not elsewhere, they met a native population p/jii also much more advanced in the arts than the earlier inhabitants ' • \ ' > a^ of North-Western India could have been. In all parts of America, lcv\ t> w » ^ except Chile, the Spaniards were in so small a minority compared ccf "i 'it $ to the natives that they had to be careful to preserve themselves ■/ ,aj £ O'f' in isolation, with the result that to-day, except in Chile, where greater familiarity with the natives has produced a dialect of J vt4 «^ 1 Spanish words and native sounds, the local dialects are much more \Ja ' ' ^f archaic and much more like the Spanish of the sixteenth century ^4*^ t ^iSjit * than is the language spoken now in Spain. If the isolation of the x » \
English Colonies in North America had remained as great as it was -^
in the seventeenth century, no doubt a much greater distinction would now exist between the English dialects of North America and the English of the Mother country. Yet in many parts of the eastern seaboard of the United States many words survive locally which have long been extinct except in local dialects in England, and many forms of expression survive which the modern English- man now regards as mainly biblical. That an isolation resembling that of the Spanish colonies prevailed also in early India is shown by the most characteristic feature of Indian civilisation — caste. The native word for caste, varna, means colour, and the first beginnings of the caste system were laid when the fairer people who migrated into India felt the importance of preserving their own racial characteristics by standing aloof from the dark skinned ddsas, or dasyus, whom they found already established in the peninsula.
That the sound changes which have been enumerated are not so very old has been shown by the names found at Boghaz-koi. And
76 The Aryans [CH. in
this is not the only evidence. To the same period as the Boghaz-koi inscriptions belong the famous letters from Tel-el-Amama. In these occur references to the people of Mitani in north-west Mesopotamia, whose princes bear names like Artatama, Tusratta, and Suttania, which seem unmistakably Aryan in form. For five hundred years (c. 1746-1180 B.c.) a mountain tribe — the Kassites — from the neighbourhood of Media held rule over the whole of Babylonia, and amongst these also the names of the princes and deities seem Aryan, though the people themselves, like those of Mitani were of another stock. Names like Shurias * Sun ' and Marytas seem identical with the Sanskrit Surya and Marutas (the mnd-gods), while Simalia 'queen of the snow mountains' can hardly be separated from the name of the great mountain range Himalaya and the Iranian word for snow, zima. To a much later period belongs the list of deities worshipped in different temples of Assyria, which was found in the library of Assurbanipal (about 700 B.C.), in which occurs the name Assara-Mazas, immediately preceding the seven good angels and the seven bad spirits. The combination hardly leaves it doubtful that w^e have here the chief deity of Zoroastrianism (Ahura Mazda) with the seven Amesha- spentas and the seven bad daivas of that religion. Into the many other problems that arise in this connexion it is not necessary here to enter ; but it is important to observe that even so late as this the first part of the god's name remains more like the Sanskrit Asura than the Avestan Ahura. While modern Hinduism is the lineal descendant, however much modified in the course of ages, of the ancient Aryan worship which we know first in the Rigveda, the religion of the Avesta is a reform which, like other religious reforms, has been able to get rid of the old gods only by converting them into devils, the worship of which was probably none the less diligent for their change of title.
There seems, in any case, to be specific evidence for the sup- position that by the fifteenth century b.c. tribes of Aryan stock held, or exercised influence over, a wide area extending from northern Asia Minor over north-west Babylonia to Media; and there seems to be nothing to prevent us assuming that even then, or soon after, the Aryans pushed their way still eastwards and northwards, mainly confining themselves to the territories south of the Oxus, but occasionally occupying lands between that river and the Jaxartes.
CHAPTER IV
THE AGE OF THE RIGVEDA
The earliest documents which throw light upon the history of India are the hymns of the Rigveda. In the text which has come down to us this samhitd or 'collection' consists of 1017 hymns divided into ten books of unequal size. The motive of those to whom the collection is due must apparently have been the desire to preserve the body of religious tradition current among the priests ; and, early as was the redaction, there are clear signs that already part of the material had ceased to be fully understood by those who made use of it in their worship. The artificial character of the arrangement is clearly indicated by the fact that the first and tenth books have precisely the same number of hymns, 191 each. The collection seems however to have been some time in the making. The nucleus is fonned by books ii-vii, each of which is attributed to a difierent priestly family. To this were prefixed the groups of hymns by other families which form the second part (51-191) of book i; and still later were added the first part of book I and book viii attributed to the family of Kanva. Book ix was then formed by taking out from the collections of hymns which made up the first eight books the hymns addressed to Soma Pavamana, 'the clearly flowing Soma'; and to these nine books was added a tenth, containing, besides h}Tnns of the same hieratic stamp as those of the older books, a certain nimiber of a different type, cosmogonic and philosophical poems, spells and incantations, verses intended for the rites of wedding and burial and other miscellaneous matters. The tenth book also displays, both in metrical form and linguistic details, signs of more recent origin than the bulk of the collection ; and the author of one set of hymns (x, 20-26) has emphasised his dependence on earlier tradition by prefixing to his own gi'oup the opening words of the first hymn of the first book.
78 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
There is abundant proof that, before the collections were finally united into the form in which the Rigveda has come down to us, minor additions were made ; and, as it is perfectly possible that in book X old material was incorporated as well as newer work, efforts have been made to penetrate beyond the comparatively rough distinction between the first nine and the tenth books, and to assign the hymns to five different periods, rei)resenting stages in the history of Vedic India, and marked by variations in religious belief and social custom ^ But so far these efforts can scarcely be regarded as successful. The certain criteria of age supplied by the language, the metres, or the subject-matter of the Rigveda are not sufficient to justify so elaborate a chronological arrangement of its hymns. The results produced by the most elaborate and systematic attempts to apply the methods of the higher criticism to the Rigveda have hitherto failed to meet with general acceptance.
Tlie mass of the collection is very considerable, approximating to the same amount of material as that contained in the Iliad and Odyssey, but the light thrown by the hymns on social and political conditions in India is disappointingly meagi*e. By far the greater part of the Rigveda consists of invocations of the many gods of the Vedic pantheon, and scarcely more than forty hymns are found which are not directly addressed to these deities or some object to which divine character is, for the time at least, attributed. These hymns contain much miscellaneous information regarding Vedic life and thought ; and other notices may be derived from the main body of the collection, though deductions from allusions are always difficult and open to suspicion. Some names of tribes, places, and princes, as well as of singers, are known to us through their mention in the ddnastutis or 'praises of liberality' which are appended to hymns, mainly in the first and tenth books, and in which the poet praises his patron for his generosity towards him. But the ddnastvtis are unquestionably late, and it is significant that some of the most striking occur in a small collection of eleven hymns, called the Vala- khilyas, which are included in the Samhita of the Rigveda, but which tradition recognises as forming no true part of that collection.
From these materials conclusions can be drawn only with much caution. It is easy to frame and support by plausible evidence various hypotheses, to which the only effective objection is that other hypotheses are equally legitimate, and that the facts are too
^ Especially by Arnold whose results are summed up in his Vedic Metre (Cambridge, 1905). For criticism, see J.R.A.S., 1906, pp. 484-90, 716-22; 1912, pp. 726-9.
I v] Geography 7 9
imperfect to allow of conclusions being drawn. It is, however, certain that the Rigveda offers no assistance in determining the mode in which the Vedic Indians entered India. The geographical area recognised in the Samhita is large, but it is, so far as we learn, occupied by tribes which collectively are called Aryan, and which wage war with dark-skinned enemies known as Dasas. If, as may be the case, the Aryan invaders of India entered by the western passes of the Hindu Kush and proceeded thence through the Punjab to the east, still that advance is not reflected in the Rigveda, the bulk at least of which seems to have been composed rather in the country round the SarasvatI river, south of the modern Ambala\ Only thus, it seems, can we explain the fact of the prominence in the hymns of the strife of the elements, the stress laid on the phenomena of thunder and lightning and the bursting forth of the rain from the clouds: the Punjab proper has now, and probably had also in antiquity, but little share in these tilings ; for there in the rainy season gentle showers alone fall. Nor in its vast plain do we find the mountains which form so large a part of the poetic imagining of the Vedic Indian. On the other hand, it is perhaps to the Punjab with its glorious phenomena of dawn, that we must look for the origin of the hymns to Ushas, the goddess Dawn, while the concept of the laws of Varuna, the highest moral and cosmic ideal attained by the poets, may more easily have been achieved amid the regularity of the seasonal phenomena of the country of the five rivers.
Of the names in the Rigveda those of the rivers alone permit of easy and certain identification. The Aryan occupation of Afghanistan is proved by the mention of the Kubha (Kabul), the Suvastu (Swat) with its 'fair dwellings,' the Krumu (Kurram) and Gomati (Gumal). But far more important were the settlements on the Sindhu (Indus), the river par excellence from which India has derived its name. The Indus was the natural outlet to the sea for the Aryan tribes, but in the period of the Rigveda there is no clear sign that they had yet reached the ocean. No passage even renders it probable that sea navigation was known. Fishing is all but ignored, a fact natural enough to people used to the rivers of the Punjab and East Kabulistan, which are poor in fish. The word sa/nvudra, which in later times undoubtedly means 'ocean,' occurs
' See Hopkins, J.A.O.S., vol. xix, pp. 19-28; Pischel and Geldner, Vedische Studien, vol. ii, p, 218 ; vol. in, p. 152 ; Vedic Index, vol. r, p. 468. The older view, that the hymns were composed in the Punjab itself, was adopted by Max Miiller, Weber, and Muir among others.
8o The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
not rarely ; but where the application is terrestrial, there seems no strong reason to believe that it means more than the stream of the Indus in its lower course, after it has received the waters of the Punjab and has become so broad that a boat in the middle cannot be discerned from the bank. Even nowadays the natives call the river the sea of Sind.
The five streams which give the Punjab its name and which after uniting flow into the Indus are all mentioned in the Rigveda : the Vitasta is the modern Jhelum, the Asikni the Chenab, the Parushni, later called Iravati, 'the refreshing,' the modern Ravi, the Vipac the Beas, and the (^utudri the Sutlej. But of these only the Parushni plays a considerable part in the history of the time, for it was on this river that the famous battle of the ten kings, the most important contest of Vedic times, was fought. Far more important was the Sarasvati, which we can with little hesitation identify with the modern Sarsuti or Saraswati, a river midway between the Sutlej and the Jumna \ It is possible that in the period of the Rigveda that river was of greater importance than it was in the following period when it was known to bury itself in the sands, and that its waters may have flowed to the Indus; but, however that may be, it is mentioned in one passage together with the Drishad- vati, probably the Chautang, which with it in later times formed the boundaries of the sacred land known as Brahmavarta. With these two streams is mentioned the Apaya, probably a river near Thanesar^. In this region too may be placed the lake (^aryanavant^ and the place Pastyavant, near the modern Patiala.
Further east the Aryans had reached the Jumna, which is thrice named, and the Ganges, which is once directly mentioned, once alluded to in the territorial title of a prince.
To the north we find that the Himavant or Himalaya mountains were well known to the Rigveda, and one peak, that of Mujavant, is referred to as the source of the Soma, the intoxicating drink which formed the most important ofiering in the religious practice
1 Both, St Petersburg Dicticmary, s.v., and Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 5-10, identify the Sarasvati in many passages with the Indus; Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, vol. i, pp. 99 sq.; vol. in, pp. 372-8, thinks it is in a few places the Arghandab.
2 The identification of the ancient rivers of Brahmavarta must always remain somewhat uncertain. At the present day it is difficult to trace their courses, partly because the streams are apt to disappear in the sand, and partly because they have to a great extent been absorbed in the canal-systems constructed during the periods of Muhammadan and British rule.
3 Identified however with the Wular Sea in. Kashmir by Hillebrandt* Vedische Mythologie, vol. i, pp. 126 sq.
iv] Fauna and Peoples 8 1
of the time. The name is lost in modern times, but probably the peak was one of those on the south-west of the valley of Kashmir. On the south, on the other hand, the Vindhya hills are unknown, and no mention is made of the Narbada river, so that it may fairly be inferred that the Aryan tribes had not yet begun their advance towards the south.
With the conclusions as to the home of the Aryan tribes extracted from geographical names the other available evidence well accords. The tiger, a native of the swampy jungles of Bengal, is not mentioned in the Rigveda, which gives the place of honour among wild beasts to the lion, then doubtless common in the vast deserts to the east of the lower Sutlej and the Indus and even now to be found in the wooded country to the south of Gujarat. Rice, whose natural habitat is the south-east in the regular monsoon area and which is well known in the latter Samhitas, is never mentioned in the Rigveda. The elephant, whose home is now in the lowland jungle at the foot of the Himalaya from the longitude of Cawnpore eastwards, appears in the Rigveda as the wild beast (mriga) with a hand (hastin), while in the later texts it is com- monly known as hastin only, a sign that the novelty of the animal had worn away. The mountains from which the Soma was brought appear, too, to have been nearer in this period than at a later date when the real plant seems to have been more and more difficult to obtain, and when substitutes of various kinds were permitted.
When we pass to the notices of tribes in the Rigveda, we leave comparative certainty for confusion and hypothesis. The one great historical event which reveals itself in the fragmentary allusions of the Samhita is the contest known as the battle of the ten kings. The most probable version of that conflict is that it was a contest between the Bharatas, settled in the country later known as Brahmavarta, and the tribes of the north-west. The Bharata king was Sudas, of the Tritsu family, and his domestic priest who celebrates, according to the tradition, the victory in three hymns (vii, 18 ; 33 ; 83) was Yasishtha^ This sage had super- seded in that high office his predecessor Vi9vamitra, under whose guidance the Bharatas appear to have fought successfully against enemies on the Vipa? and ^utudri; and in revenge, as it seems,
^ This is the view of Hopkins, J.A.O.S., vol. xv, pp. 259 sq. According to the older view the Bharatas were foes of the Tritsus; see Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. 1^ p. 354; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 127; Bloonafield, J.A.O.S., vol. xvi, pp. 41, 42. Ludwig, Rigveda, vol. in, p. 172, identified the Bharatas and the Tritsus ; Oldenberg, Z.D.M.G., vol. xlii, p. 207, holds that the Tritsus are the Vasishthas, the priests of the Bharatas. But see Geldner^ Vedische Studien, vol. ii, pp. 136 sq.
C.H.I. I. 6
^mmf.
82 T'/ie Age of the Rigveda [CH.
Vi^vamitra had led against the Bharatas ten allied tribes, only to meet with destruction in the waters of the Parushni. Of the ten tribes five are of little note, the Alinas, perhaps from the north- east of Kafiristan, the Pakthas, whose name recalls the Afghan Pakhthun, the Bhalanases, possibly connected with the Bolan Pass, the ^ivas from near the Indus, and the Vishanins. Better known in the Rigveda are the other five, the Anus who dwelt on Parushni and whose priests were perhaps the famous family of the Bhrigus, the Druhyus who were closely associated with them, the Turva^as and Yadus, two allied tribes, and the Purus, dwellers on either side of the Sarasvati, and therefore probably close neigh- bours of the Bharatas. These tribes are probably the five tribes which are referred to on several occasions in the Rigveda and which seem to have formed a loose alliance. Sudas's victory at the Parushni, in which the Anu and Druhyu kings fell, does not appear to have resulted in any attempt at conquest of the territory of the allied tribes. He seems at once to have been compelled to return to the east of his kingdom to meet the attacks of a king Bheda, under whom three tribes, the Ajas, (^igrus, and Yakshus, were united, and to have defeated his new assailants with great slaughter on the Jumna. It is probable enough that the attack on the eastern boundaries of the territory of the Bharatas was not unconnected with the onslaught of the five tribes and their still more northern and western allies ; but the curious names of the Ajas, 'goats,' and the (^Igrus, 'horse-radishes,' may be a sign that the tribes which bore thSm were totemistic non- Aryans.
Not less famous was the father or grandfather of Sudas, Divodasa, 'the servant of heaven,' Atithigva, 'the slayer of kine for guests \' There are records of his conflicts with the Turva^a, Yadu, and Puru tribes ; but his greatest foe was the Dasa, ^ambara, with whom he waged constant war. He had to contend also with the Panis, the Paravatas, and Brisaya. He seems to have been the patron of the priestly family of the Bharadvajas, the authors of the sixth book of the Rigveda ; and there is little doubt that his kingdom covered much the same area as that of Sudas, since he warred, on the one hand, against the tribes of the Punjab, and, on the other, against the Paravatas who are located in the period of the Brahmanas on the Jumna. The Dasas and the Panis were probably aboriginal foes, whom, like every Aryan prince, he had to fight.
Though defeated in the battle with Sudas, the Piirus were
» V. inf., pp. 101-2, and Chapter x, pp. 232-3.
iv] The Taurus 83
clearly a great and powerfiil people. Tlieir home was round the Samsvati, and there is no need to interpret that name as referring to the Indus rather than to the eastern SarasvatT. On the Indus they would have been removed somewhat Avidely from the Bha- ratas, their chief rivals, two of whose princes, Deva^ravas and Devavata, are expressly recorded in one hymn to have dwelt on the Sarasvati, Apaya, and Drishadvati. The importance of the tribe is reflected in the fact that we possess an unusually large number of the names of its members. The earliest prince recorded seems to have been Durgaha, who was succeeded by Girikshit, neither of these being more than names. The son of Girikshit, Purukutsa, was the contemporary of Sudas, and one hymn tells in obscure phrases of the distress to which his wife was reduced by some misfortune, from which she was relieved by the birth of a son, Trasadasyu. It is not unlikely that the misfortune was the death of Purukutsa in the battle of the ten kings. Tlie new ruler, as his name indicates, was a terror to the Dasyus or aborigines, and seems not to have distinguished himself in war with Aryan enemies. We hear of a descendant Trikshi, and, apparently still later in the line, of another descendant Kurugravana, son of Mitratithi and father of Upama^ravas, whose death is deplored in a hymn of the tenth book. The name is of importance and significance, for it suggests that already in the later Rigvedic period the Purus had become closely united with their former rivals, the Bharatas, both tribes being merged in the Kurus, whose name, famous in the later Samhitas and the Brahmanas as the chief bearers of the culture of the Vedic period, is not directly mentioned in the Rigveda, though it was clearly not unknown. Other princes of the Puru line were Tryaruna, and Trivrishan or Tridhatu; and later evidence enables us with fair certainty to connect with the Purus the princely name Ikshvaku, which occurs but once in a doubtful context in the Rigveda.
Connected with the Kurus were the Krivis, whose name seems to be but a variant from the same root, and who appear to have been settled near the Indus and the Chenab. Possibly we may see the allied tribes of Kurus and Krivis in the two Vaikarna tribes, twenty-one of whose clans shared the defeat of the five tribes by Sudas. If so, like the Piirus the Bharatas must have in course of time become mingled with the Kurus and have merged their identity with them.
Allied or closely connected with the Bharatas was the tribe of the Srinjayas, whom we must probably locate in the neighbourhood
6—2
84 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
of the Bharatas. One of their princes, Daivavata, won a great victory over the Turva^as with their allies, the Vrichivants, of whom we know nothing more. Other princes of the line were Sahadeva, his son Somaka, and Prastoka, and Vitahavya. They were, like the Bharatas under Divodasa, closely connected with the Bharadvaja family of j)rie8ts.
No other Aryan tribe plays a great figure in the Rigveda. The Chedis, who in later times dwelt in Bundelkhand to the north of the Vindhya, and their king Kayu are mentioned but once in a late ddnastuti : the queen of the U9inaras, later a petty tribe to the north of the Kuru country, is also once alluded to. The generosity of Rinamchaya, king of the Rugamas, an unknown people, has preserved his name from extinction. One interpretation adds to the enemies of Sudas the tribe of the Matsyas ('fishes'), who in later times occupied the lands now known as Alwar, Jaipur, and Bharatpur. A raid of the Turva9as and Yadus and a conflict on the Sarayu^ with Arna and Chitraratha testify to the activity of these clans, which otherwise are best known through their opposition to Divodasa and Sudas, and which must probably have been settled in the south of the Punjab. The family of the Kanvas seems to have been connected as priests with the Yadus. Connected with the Turvayas was the Vrichivant Varayikha, who was defeated by Abhyavartin Chayamana, who himself was perhaps a Srinjaya prince. More shadowy still are Nahus, Tugrya, and Vetasu in whom some have seen tribes : Nahus is probably rather a general term for neighbour, and the Tugryas and the Vetasus are families rather than tribes.
More important by far, it may be believed, than the intertribal warfare of the peoples who called themselves Aryan were their contests with the aborigines, the Dasas or Dasyus as they are repeatedly called. The same terms are applied indifferently to the human enemies of the Aryans and to the fiends, and no criterion exists by which references to real foes can be distin- guished in every case from allusions to demoniacal powers. The root meaning of both words is most probably merely 'foe' ; but in the Rigveda it has been specialised to refer, at least as a rule, to such human foes as were of the aboriginal race. Individual Dasas were Ilibi^a, Dhuni and Chumuri, Pipru, Varchin, and ^ambara, though the last at least has been transformed by the imagination of the singers into demoniac proportions. The only peoples named
^ The identification of this river is uncertain ; see Vedie Index, vol. 11, p. 434.
iv] The Dasas or Dasyus 85
which can plausibly be deemed to have been Dasas are the (^imyns, who are mentioned among the foes of Sudas in the battle of the ten kings, and who are elsewhere classed with Dasyus, the Kikatas with their leader Pramaganda, and perhaps the Ajas, Yakshus, and ^igrus. The main distinction between the Aryan and the Dasa was clearly that of colour, and the distinction between the Aryan varna, 'colour,' and the black colour is unquestionably one of the main sources of the Indian caste system. The overthrow of the black skin is one of the most important exploits of the Vedic Indian. Second only to the colour distinction was the hatred of men who did not recognise the Aryan gods: the Dasas are con- stantly reproached for their disbelief, their failure to sacrifice, and their impiety. Nor is there much doubt that they are the phallus worshippers who twice are referred to with disapproval in the Rigveda, for phallus worship was probably of prehistoric age in India and by the time of the Mahabharata it had won its way into the orthodox Hindu cult. We learn, disappointingly enough, little of the characteristics of the Dasas, but two epithets applied in one passage to the Dasyus are of importance. The first is mridhravdehah which has been interpreted to refer to the nature of the aborigines' speech ; but which, as it elsewhere is applied to Aryan foes like the Piirus, probably means no more than *of hostile speech.' The other epithet, andsah, is more important : it doubt- less means 'noseless,' and is a clear indication that the aborigines to which it is applied were of the Dravidian type as we know it at the present day. With this accords the fact that the Brahul speech still remains as an isolated remnant in Baluchistan of the Dravidian family of tongues \ But though the main notices of the Rigveda are those of conflict against the Dasas and the crossing of rivers to win new lands from them, it is clear that the Aryans made no attempt at wholesale extermination of the people. Many of the aborigines doubtless took refuge before the Aryan attacks in the mountains to the north or to the south of the lands occupied by the invaders, while others were enslaved. This was so normal in the case of women that, in the literature of the next period, the term DasI regularly denotes a female slave; but male slaves are often alluded to in the Rigveda, sometimes in large numbers, and wealth was already in part made up of ownership of slaves. The meta-
1 In the Imp. Gaz., vol. i, p. 382, it is suggested that the Brahuis who are there ethnographically classed as Turko-Iranian show the original type of Dravidian, and that the modern Dravidian type is physically due to influeuce by the Munda speaking peoples. The Bigvedic evidence does not favour this view. See Chapter ii, pp. 42-3.
86 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
phorical use is seen in the name of one of the greatest of Vedic kings, Divodasa, 'the servant of heaven.' In the Purushasukta, or 'Hymn of Purusha,' which belongs to the latest stratum of the Rigveda, and which in mystic terms describes the creation of the four castes from a primeval giant, occurs for the first time the term ^udra, which includes the slaves as a fourth class in the Aryan state. Probably enough this word, which has no obvious explana- tion, was originally the name of some prominent Dasa tribe conquered by the Aryans.
Of the stage of civilisation attained by the aborigines we learn little or nothing. They had, it is certain, large herds of cattle, and they could when attacked take refuge in fortifications called in the Rigveda by the name pur, which later denotes 'town,' but which may well have then meant no more than an earthwork strengthened by a pallisade or possibly occasionally by stone. Stockades of this kind are often made by primitive peoples, and are so easily constructed that we can understand the repeated references in the Rigveda to the large numbers of such fortifica- tions which were captured and destroyed by the Aryan hosts. Some Dasas, it seems, were able to establish friendly relations with the Aryans, for a singer celebrates the generosity of Balbutha, apparently a Dasa ; nor is it impossible, as we have seen, that the five tribes of the Punjab were not above accepting the cooperation of aboriginal tribes in their great attack on Sudas. We must therefore recognise that in the age of the Rigveda there was going on a steady process of amalgamation of the invaders and the aborigines, whether through the influence of intermarriage with slaves or through friendly and peaceful relations with power- ful Dasa tribes.
Like the Dasas and Dasyus in their appearance both as terres- trial and as celestial foes are the Panis. Tlie word seems beyond doubt to be connected with the root seen in the Greek pernemi, and the sense in which it was used by the poets must have been something like 'niggard.' The demons are niggards because they withhold from the Aryan the water of the clouds : the aborigines are niggards because they refuse the gods their due, perhaps also because they do not surrender their wealth to the Aryan without a struggle. The term may also be applied to any foe as an opprobrious epithet, and there is no passage in the Samhita which will not yield an adequate meaning with one or other of these uses. But it has been deemed by one high authority^ to reveal to
1 Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, yol. i, pp. 94 sq.
I v] India and Iran 8 7
us a closer connexion of India and Iran than has yet suggested itself: in the Dasas Hillebrandt sees the Dahae, in the Panis the Parnians, and he locates the struggles of Divodasa against them in Arachosia. Support for this view he finds in the record of Divo- dasa's conflicts with Brisaya and the Paravatas, with whose names he compares that of the Satrap Barsentes and the people Paruetae of Gedrosia or Aria. Similarly he suggests that the Srifijaya people, who were connected like Divodasa with the Bharadaja family, should be located in Iran, and he finds in the Sarasvati, which formed the scene of Divodasa's exploits, not the Indian stream but the Iranian Harahvaiti. Thus the sixth book of the Rigveda would carry us far west from the scenes of the third and seventh which must definitely be located in India. But the hypothesis rests on too weak a foundation to be accepted as even plausible.
Other references to connexions with Iran have been seen in two names found in the Rigveda. Abhyavartin Chayamana, whose victory over Vara(?ikha has already been recorded, bears the epithet Parthava, and the temptation to see in him a Parthian is naturally strong. But the Rigveda knows a Prithi and later texts a Prithu, an ancient and probably mythical king, and thus we have in the Vedic speech itself an explanation of Parthava which does not carry us to Iran. Still less convincing is the attempt to find in the word Par^u in three passages of the Rigveda a reference to Persians : Parcu occui*s indeed with Tirindira as a man's name, but the two are princes of the Yadus, and not a single personality, 'Tiridates the Persian \' Whatever the causes which severed Iran and India, in the earliest period, at least as recorded in the Rig- veda, the relations of the two peoples seem not to have been those of direct contact.
As little do the Rigvedic Indians appear to have been in contact Avith the Semitic peoples of Babylon. The term Bekanata which occurs along with Pani in one passage has been thought to be a reference to some Babylonian Avord: though the Indian Bikauer is much more plausible as its origin. Bribu, mentioned once as a most generous giver and apparently also as a Pani, has been connected by Weber ^ with Babylon, but without ground: more specious is the attempt to see a Babylonian origin for the word mand found in one passage only of the Rigveda where it is
^ Iranian relations are accepted by Ladwig, Rigveda, vol. ni, pp. 196 sq, ; Weber, Episches im vedischen Ritual, pp. 36 sq. See also Chapter xiv, pp. 321 sq. 2 Op. cit. pp. 28 sq. ; Indische Studien, vol. xvii, p. 198,
88 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
accompanied by the epithet 'golden.' The Greek mina, presumably borrowed from the Phoenicians, is a plausible parallel; but the passage can be explained without recourse to this theory \ A Semitic origin has been claimed for the word para^u, *axe,' but this too is far from certain. There is nothing in the Rigvedic mythology or religion which demands derivation from a non-Aryan source, though it has been urged that the small group of the Adityas, whose physical characteristics are very faint and whose abstract nature is marked, is derived from a Semitic civilisation^. In the succeeding period the Nakshatras or lunar mansions may more probably be ascribed to a Semitic source ; but in the Rigveda the Nakshatras are practically unknown, appearing as such only in, the latest portions. It is therefore impossible to assume that the great Semitic civilisations had any real contact M'ith India in the Rigvedic age.
Scanty as is our information regarding the Vedic tribes, yet we can see clearly that the social and political organisation rested upon the patriarchal family, if we may use that term to denote that relationship was counted through the father. The Aryan marriage of this period was usually monogamic, though polygamy was not unknown probably mainly among the princely class ; and in the household the husband was master, the wife mistress but dependent on and obedient to the master. The standard of female morality appears to have been fairly high, that of men as usual was less exigent. Polyandry is not shown by a single passage to have existed, and is not to be expected in a society so strongly dominated by the male as was the Vedic. Of limitations on marriage we learn practically nothing from the Rigveda, except that the wedlock of brother and sister and of father and daughter was not permitted. Child marriage, so usual in later times, was evidently unknown ; and much freedom of choice seems to have existed. Women lived under the protection of their fathers during the life of the latter, and then they fell if still unmarried under the care of their brothers. Both dowries and bride-prices are recorded : the ill-favoured son-in-law might have to purchase his bride by large gifts, while other maidens could obtain husbands only through the generosity of their brothers in dowering them. A girl without a protector ran grave risk of being reduced to
1 For the borrowing see Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 50, 51 ; Weber, Indiscke Studien, vol. xvii, p. 202. Bohtlingk, Dictionary, s.v., recognises only ' desire ' or ' wish ' as the sense.
2 So Oldenberg, Religion des Veda, p. 193; Z.D.M.G., vol. l, pp. 43 sq. ; but see Bloomfield, Religion of the Veda, pp. 133 sq.
iv] Family Relations 89
immorality to maintain herself, and even in cases where no such excuse existed we learn of cases of moral laxity. But the high value placed on marriage is shown in the long and striking hymn (x, 85) which accompanied the ceremonial, the essence of which was the mutual taking of each other in wedlock by the bride and bridegroom, and the conveyance of the bride from the house of her father to that of her husband ^ In this hymn the wedlock of Soma, here identified with the moon, and Surya, the daughter of the sun, is made the prototype and exemplar of marriage in general. Moreover, the Vedic marriage was indissoluble by human action, nor in the early period does it seem to have been con- templated that remarriage should take place in the case of a widow ^. To this there was the exception, which appears clearly in the burial ritual of the Rigveda, that the brother-in-law of the dead man should marry the widow, probably only in cases where the dead had left no son and it was therefore imperative that steps should be taken to secure him offspring ; for the Rigveda recognises to the full the keen desire of the Vedic Indian for a child to per- form his funeral rites.
The relation of child and parent was clearly as a rule one of close affection; for a father is regarded as the type of all that is good and kind. There are traces, however, that parental rights were large and vague: if the chastisement of a gambler by his father may be deemed to be legitimate exercise of parental control, this cannot be said of the cruel act of his father in blinding Rijracva at which the Rigveda hints. The father pro- bably controlled in some measure at least both son and daughter as regards marriage ; and the right of the father to adopt is clearly recognised by the Rigveda, though a hymn ascribed to the family of Vasishtha disapproves of the practice. The son after marriage must often have lived in the house and under the control of his father, of whom his wife was expected to stand in awe. But, on the other hand, as the father advanced in years it cannot have been possible for him to maintain a control which he was physi- cally incapable of exercising ; and so we find the bride enjoined to be mistress over her step-parents, doubtless in the case when her husband, grown to manhood, had taken over the management of the household from his father's failing hands.
1 For the marriage ritual, see Weber and Haas, Indische Studien, vol. v, pp. 177-412 ; Winternitz, Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell (1892).
^ See Delbriick, Die indogermanischen Verwandtschaftsnamen, pp. 563-5. Possibly remarriage was permitted in the case of a woman whose husband disappeared; see Fischel, Vedische Studien, vol. i, p. 27.
90 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
The head of the family appears also to have been the owner of the property of the family ; but on this point we are reduced in the main to conjecture. It is certain that the Rigveda recognises to the full individual ownership of movable things, cattle, horses, gold, ornaments, weapons, slaves, and so forth. It seems also certain that land was already owned by individuals or families: the term hshetray 'field,' is unmistakably employed in this sense, and in one hymn a maiden, Apala, places her father's cultivated field (urvard) on the same level with his hair as a personal pos- session. Reference is also made to the measuring of fields, and to hkilya, which appear to have been strips of land between the cultivated plots, probably used by the owners of the plots in common. The Rigveda has no conclusive evidence that the sons were supposed to have any share whatever in the land of the family, and the presumption is that it was vested in the father alone, as long as he was head of the family and exercised his full powers as head. We are left also to conjecture as to whether the various plots were held in perpetuity by the head of the family and his descendants, or whether there were periodic redistribu- tions, and as to the conditions on which, if there were several sons, they could obtain the new allotments necessary to support them- selves and their families. But there can hardly have been much difiiculty in obtaining fresh land; for it is clear that population was scanty and spread over wide areas, and wealth doubtless consisted in the main in flocks and herds.
There is no hint in the Rigveda of the size to which a family might grow and yet keep together. It is clear that there might be three generations under the same roof, and a family might thus be of considerable dimensions. But life can hardly have been long — so much stress is laid on longevity as a great boon that it must have been rare — and, even if we decline to accept the view that exposure of aged parents was normal, there must have been a tendency for the family to break up as soon as the parent died, especially if, as is probable, there was no such land hunger as to compel the sons to stay together. The sons would, however, naturally enough stay in the vicinity of one another for mutual support and assistance. The little knot of houses of the several branches of the family would together form the nucleus of the second stage in Rigvedic society, the grama, 'village,' though some have derived its name originally from the sense ' horde ^'
1 See Zimmer, AUindisches Leben, pp. 159, 160 ; Feist, Kultur, Ausbreitung, und Herkunft der Indogermanen, p. 143.
iv] Social Groups 91
as describing the armed force of the tribe which in war fought in the natural divisions of family and family. Next in order above the grama in the orthodox theory was the vi^ or 'canton/ while a group of cantons made up the jana, 'people.' This scheme can be supported by apparent analogies not only from Greece, Italy, Germany, and Russia, but also from the Iranian state with the graduated hierarchy of family or households, vis, %antu, and dahyu\ But for Vedic India the fourfold gradation cannot successfully be maintained. It is not merely that the various terms are used with distressing vagueness — so that for example the Bharatas can be called at one time a jana and at another a grama — but that the evidence for the relationship of subordina- tion between the grama and the vi^ is totally wanting. More- over the Iranian evidence tells against the theory that the vi^ is removed by the grama from the family in the narrower sense: the more legitimate interpretation is to see in the Iranian division a step further than that of the Rigveda and to set the jana as parallel to the zantu, acknowledging that in the time of the Rigveda the political organisation of the people had not extended to the creation of aggi'egates of janas, unless such an aggregate is presented to us in the twenty-one janas of the two Vaikarnas who are mentioned in one passage of the Samhita. The vi^ will thus take its place beside the Iranian vis as a clan as opposed to family in the narrower sense, and be a real parallel to the Latin getw, and the Greek genos. It is possible that the grama is originally the gens in its military aspect, but even that is not certain, for the word may originally have referred to locality. Nor can we say with any certainty for the period of the Rigveda whether the grama contained the whole of a vi^, or part of a vi^, or parts of several vi^as. But amid much that is conjectural it is clear that the vi^ was not a normal unit for purposes of government, for the term vi^ati, 'lord of a v^p,' has not in any passage the technical sense of 'lord of a canton.' On the other hand, the grama as a unit is recognised by the use of the term gramanl, 'leader of a village,' an officer who appears in the Rigveda, and who was probably itivested with both military and civil functions, though we have no details of his duties or powers.
While the sense 'clan' is comparatively rare, the word vi^ not unfrequently in the plural denotes 'subjects': so we hear of the vi^ of Trinaskanda, a king elsewhere unknown, and of the vi^as of the Tritsus, the royal family of which Sudas was a member. In
1 Zimmer, I. c. ; Geiger, Ostiranische Kultur, p. 427.
92 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
the former case the sense 'clans' is obviously inappropriate, while in the latter the rendering 'clans' which was long adopted has resulted in the confusion of the relations of the Bharatas and the Tritsus, the Tritsus being regarded as a people opposed to the Bharatas, instead of taking their place as the rulers of the Bharatas. The subjects as a whole made up the jana, a term which in Vedic use denotes either the individual man or the collective manhood of the tribe as a political unit. Above that unit no political organisation can be shown to have existed. The confederacy of the five tribes by whom Sudas was attacked was evidently more than a mere passing episode, but clearly it did not involve any system of political subordination, from which a great kingdom could emerge. There was however beyond that a feeling of kinship among all the tribes who called themselves Aryan, stimulated no doubt into distinct expression by their presence in the midst of the dark aboriginal population.
The question now presents itself as to the extent to which in the period of the Rigveda the caste system had been developed. The existence of the caste system in any form in the age of the Rigveda has been denied by high authority^, though it has been asserted of late with increasing insistence^. In one sense, indeed, its presence in the Rigveda cannot be disputed. In the Purusha- sukta the four castes of the later texts, Brahmana ('priest'), Rajanya ('prince' or more broadly 'warrior'), Vai^ya ('commoner'), and (^udra are mentioned. But this hymn is admittedly late and can prove nothing for the state of affairs prevailing when the bulk of the Rigveda was composed. On the other hand, as we have seen, the distinction between the Aryan colour (varna) and that of the aborigines is essential and forms a basis of caste. The question is thus narrowed down to the consideration of the arguments for and against the view that in the Aryans themselves caste divisions were appearing. On the one hand, it is argued that in the period of Vasishtha and Vi9vamitra, when the great poetry of the Rigveda was being produced, neither the priestly class nor the warrior class was hereditary. The warriors of the community were the agricultural and industrial classes, and the priesthood was not yet hereditary. It has been held that the Brahman priest was not necessarily the member of an hereditary class at all, that the term
1 Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. i^, pp. 239 sq. ; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 185-203 ; Weber, Indische Studien, vol. x, pp. 1 sq.
2 See Geldner, Vedische Studien, vol. ii, p. 146; Oldenberg, Z.D.M.G., vol. li, pp. 267 sq.
iv] Origins of the Caste System 93
could be applied as well to any person who was distinguished by genius or virtue, or who for some reason was deemed specially receptive of the divine inspiration. The growth of the caste system is traced on this hypothesis to the complication of life ensuing on the further jienetration of the Aryans fi'om the Punjab towards the east. The petty tribes found it necessary, in order to defeat the solid forces of the aborigines, to mass themselves into centralised kingdoms. The petty tribal princes thus lost their full royal rank, but found employment and profit instead in becoming a standing armed force, ready to resist sudden incursion or to crush the attempts at rebellion of the defeated aborigines. On the other hand, the industrial and agricultural population, relying on the protection of the warrior class, abandoned the use of arms. Together with the growth in the size of the kingdom and the increasing complexity of civilisation, the simple ritual of an earlier period, when the king hunself could sacrifice for his people, grew to an extent which rendered this impracticable, while at the same time an ever increasing importance came to be attached to the feiithful and exact performance of the rites and the preservation of the traditional formulae. The result of this process was, it is suggested, the growth of a priesthood, of a warrior class, and of a third class, the Vai9ya, sharply distinguished from one another and strictly hereditary. But the comparatively late date of this de- velopment is shown by the fact that in later times the inhabitants of the North- West, the home of the Rigveda, were regarded as semi- barbarians by those of the Middle Country, in which the Brahmanical civilisation had developed itself, on the ground that they did not foUow the strict caste system.
While there is much of truth in this view, it must be admitted that it exaggerates the freedom of the Rigveda from caste. As we have seen, the probabilities are that the main, though not the earliest, part of the Samhita had its origin not in the Punjab proper but in the sacred country of later Brahmanism, the land known in the Samhitas of the succeeding period as Brahma varta. Moreover, there is no actual proof in the Rigveda that the priesthood was not then a closed hereditary class. The term Brahmana, ' son of a Brahma,' seems, on the contrary, to show that the priesthood was normally hereditary, and there is no instance which can be quoted of any person who is said to be other than a priest appearing to exercise priestly functions. We are told that there is a case of a king exercising the functions of domestic priest and sacrificing himself for his people, but the alleged case, that of Devapi, rests
94 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
only on an assertion of a commentator on the hymn (x, 98), in which Devapi appears, that he was originally a king. Even, how- ever, if this were the case, it must be remembered that even after the complete establishment of the caste system, it was still the privilege of kings to exercise some priestly functions, such as that of the study of the nature of the absolute, a practice ascribed to them in the Upanishads. The arguments regarding the warrior class rest on a misunderstanding. Even in the latest Vedic period we have no ground to suppose that there was a special class which reserved its energies for war alone, and that the industrial population and the agriculturists allowed the fate of their tribe to be decided by con- test between warrior bands, but the Rigveda certainly knows of a ruling class, the Kshatriya, and the Vedic kingship was normally hereditary, so that we may well believe that even then there existed, though perhaps only in embryo, a class of nobles, who are aptly named in the term of the PurusJiasiikta, Raj any as, as being * men of kingly family.' There are traces, moreover, of the division of the tribe into the holy power (hrahman), the kingly power (kshatra), and the commonalty (vi0, and, while it is true that the caste system is only in process of development in the Rigveda, it seems impossible to deny that much of the groundwork upon which the later elaborate structure was based was already in existence.
So far, our sources of knowledge, if imperfect, have given us material sufficient to sketch the main outlines of Vedic society. Unhappily, when we turn to consider more closely the details of the political organisation proper, the evidence becomes painfully scanty and inadequate. The tribes of the Rigveda were certainly under kingly rule: there is no passage in the Rigveda which suggests any other form of government, while the king under the style * Raj an' is a frequent figure. This is only what might be expected in a community which was not merely patriarchal — a fact whence the king* drew his occasional style of vi^ati, * Head of the vi^^ — but also engaged in constant warfare against both Aryan and aboriginal foes. Moreover, the kingship was normally here- ditary: even in the scanty notices of the Rigveda we can trace lines of succession such as that of Vadhrya^va, Divodasa, Pijavana, and Sudas, or Durgaha, Girikshit, Purukutsa, and Trasadasyu, or Mitratithi, Kunicravana, and Upamagravas. In some cases it has been argued that election by the cantons was possible^; but this
* See Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 162 sq. ; Weber, Indische Studien, vol. xvn, p. 189 ; Bloomfield, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlii, p. 330. That sometimes election actually took place is quite probable ; but the passages quoted do not show this ; see Qeldner, Vedische Studien, vol. ii, p. 303.
iv] Political Orga7iisation 95
interpretation rests only on the improbable view that m(^h denotes not 'subjects' but 'cantons'; and the idea has no support in later literature. The activity of the sovereign on which most stress is laid is his duty of protecting his subjects ; and even the Rigveda, despite its sacerdotal character, allows us to catch some glimpses of the warlike deeds of such men as Divodasa, Sudas, and Trasadasyu. Of the king's functions in peace the Rigveda is silent, beyond showing that he was expected to maintain a large body of priests to perform the sacrifices for him and his people. From his subjects he was marked out by his glittering apparel, his palace, and his retinue, which doubtless included the princes of the royal house as well as mere retainers. To maintain his state he had the tribute paid by conquered tribes and the gifts of his people, which, once proffered freely, had doubtless become fixed payments, which the king could exact, if denied. Doubtless, too, when lands were conquered from the aborigines or from other Aryan tribes, large booty in land and slaves and cattle would be meted out to the king ; but the Rigveda contains no hint that he was considered as owner of the land of the people. Nor in that Samhita is there any trace that the king has developed from the priest: if that was the case in India the distinction lies far beyond the period of the Rigveda.
Of the entourage of the king and his servants we learn almost nothing. The sencini, ' leader of the army,' who appears in a few hymns, may have been a general appointed by the king to lead an expedition of too little importance to require his own intervention. The grdmanl probably led in war a minor portion of the host and was identical with the vrdjapati mentioned elsewhere. Far more important, in the estimation at least of the composers of the hymns, was the purohita or domestic priest, whose position represented the height of a priest's ambition. Nor, after allowing for priestly partiality and exaggeration, can we deny the importance of the Purohita amongst a people who followed the guiding in religious matters of an hereditary priesthood. The Vedic Purohita was the forerunner of the Brahman statesmen who from time to time in India have shown conspicuous ability in the management of affairs ; and there is no reason to doubt that a Vi^vamitra or a Vasishtha was a most important element of the government of the early Vedic realm. It is clear, too, from the hymns which are attributed to the families of these sages, that the Purohita accompanied the king to battle, and seconded his efforts for victory by his prayei-s and spells. In return for his faithful service the rewards of the
96 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
Purohita were doubtless large : the dmiastutis of the Rigveda tell of the generous gifts of patrons to the poets, and we may safely assume that the largest donations were those of kings to the Purohitas. It is significant of the social arrangements of the time that the gifts enumerated are all gifts of personal property ; land was evidently not then a normal form of gift, though we may conjecture that, even at this early period, the king might confer on a priest or other servant the right to receive some portion of the gifts in kind which were clearly no inconsiderable part of the royal revenues.
The power of the king cannot have been in normal circum- stances arbitrary or probably very great. There stood beside him as the mode of expression of the will of the people the assembly, wliich is denoted by the terms smniti and sahhd in the Samhita. It has been proposed by Ludwig^ to see in these two terms the designations of two different forms of assembly : the one would be the assembly of the whole people, while the other would be an analogue of the Homeric council of elders, a select body to which the great men of the tribe, the Maghavans, alone would go to take counsel with the king. Zimmer^, on the other hand, sees in the samiti the popular assembly of the tribe, in the sahhd the assembly of the village. But neither view appears to be acceptable. There is no distinction in the texts which would justify us in contrasting sahhd and samiti in either of the ways suggested : rather it seems the samiti is the assembly of the people for the business of the tribe, the sabhd particularly the place of assembly, which served besides as a centre of social gatherings. The king's presence in the samiti is clearly referred to; and there seems no reason to doubt that on great occasions the whole of the men of the tribe gathered there to deliberate, or at least to decide, on the courses laid before them by the great men of the tribe. But we are reduced to analogy with the Homeric assembly for any conception of the action of the assembly ; for, perhaps owing to the nature of the sources, nothing is known of its part in Vedic life. If indeed the king was ever elected by the cantons, the election took place in the samiti ; but the theory that the king was ever elected has, as has been already said, nothing to support it.
In accordance with the apparently undeveloped condition of political organisation, we learn little of the administration of justice. That the king exercised criminal and civil jurisdiction, assisted by assessors, is a conclusion which must rest for its
^ Rigveda, vol. iii, p. 253. ^ Altindisches Leben, pp. 172-4.
iv] Administration of yustice 97
plausibility on analogy and on the later practice in India ; for no passage in the Rigveda definitely alludes to the sovereign as acting in either capacity. It is therefore at least probable that his functions as judge were still confined within narrow limits. One word in the Rigveda shows that the system of wergeld was in full force, a man being given the epithet i^ataddya, which denotes that the price of his blood was a hundred cows. In one hymn the Pani, whose niggardliness made him the chief object of dislike to the greedy Vedic poets, is declared to be a man only in so far as he has a wergeld, here called vairadeya, ' that which is to be paid in respect of enmity.' The crime, however, of which most is re- corded in the Rigveda is that of theft, including burglary, house- breaking, and highway robbery, crimes which clearly must have been of frequent occurrence. The punishment of the thief seems to have rested with the person wronged : there are clear allusions to binding the thief in stocks, presumably with a view to induce his relatives to pay back to the aggrieved man the loss he has sustained. In one passage of the Rigveda there is a probable reference to the employment of trained men to recover stolen cattle, just as the Khojis of the Punjab down to modem times were expert at this difficult employment. Of death as a punishment for theft, as in later times and in other primitive societies, curiously enough nothing appears in the Rigveda.
There is hardly any mention of other forms of crime in the Rigveda. It appears clear that marriage of brother and sister was regarded as incest, and apparently marriage of father and daughter was placed in the same category of wrongful actions, as it certainly was in the later Samhitas, where the union of Prajapati, one aspect of the supreme god, with his daughter is at once punished by the other gods. Prostitution was certainly not unknown, but in other respects morality seems to have been fairly high: there is no sufficient ground for attributing to the peoples whose actions are reflected in the Rigveda either the exposure of the aged or the putting away of female children.
Our knowledge of civil law is as scanty as that of criminal law. As we have seen, land seems not to have been an article of commerce. Movable property could change hands by gift or by sale, the latter taking the form of barter. The Rigveda records that in the opinion of one poet not ten cows was adequate price for an image of Indra to be used doubtless as a fetish. The haggling of the market is once clearly referred to. The standard of value seems to have been the cow, and no coin appears to have been
C.H.I. I. 7
9 8 'The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
known, though the origin of currency may be seen in the frequent references to nishkas as gifts: the nishka most probably was an ornament in the shape of a necklace of gold or silver : at a later date the name was transferred to a gold coin. Property doubtless passed by inheritance and could be acquired originally by a man's own efforts in creation or discovery, while the dowry and the price of the bride played a considerable part in early Vedic economy, as is seen by the stress laid upon both in the Samhita. Of forms of contract the only one of which we know anything was the loan, rina. The Vedic Indian was an inveterate gambler, and for that among other causes he seems always to have been ready to incur debt. The rate of interest is unknown, a reference to payments of an eighth or a sixteenth may be referred either to interest or instalments of principal. At any rate, the debtor might as a result be reduced to slavery, as we learn from an interesting hymn (x, 34) where an unsuccessful dicer recites the fatal fascination for him of the dice and his consequent ruin and enslavement with its results for his family. Of civil procedure we know only so much as may be inferred from a single word, madhyama^i, which may denote one who intervenes between two parties as an arbitrator, though it has also been referred to the king as surrounded by his retainers in his camp.
In war the Vedic host was led by the king ; and doubtless at this time all the men of the tribe took part in it, encouraged by the priests, who with prayer and incantation sought to secure victory for those whom they supported The king and the nobles, the Kshatriyas, fought from chariots of simple construction, the warrior standing on the left hand of the charioteer on whose skill he so largely depended. The common people fought on foot, doubt- less with little attempt at ordered fighting, if we may judge from analogy and from the confused battles described in the later epics. The chief weapon in honour was the bow which was drawn to the ear and not as in Greece to the breast ; but lances, spears, swords, axes, and slingstones seem to have been employed. The warrior, when completely equipped, wore coat of mail and helmet, and a hand or arm guard to save his arm from the friction of the bow- string. The arrow had a reed shaft, and the tip was either of horn or of metal: poisoned arrows were sometimes used. Though horse riding was probably not unknown for other purposes, no mention is made of this use of the horse in war. Naturally enough the banks of rivers seem to have been frequently the spots chosen for the conflict, as in the case of the famous battle of the ten kings.
iv] Warlike and Peaceful Avocations 99
All the evidence points to the absence of city life among the tribes. The village probably consisted of a certain number of houses built near each other for purposes of mutual defence, perhaps surrounded by a hedge or other protection against wild beasts or enemies. The 'pur, which is often referred to and which in later days denotes a ' town,' was, as we have seen, probably no more than a mere earthwork fortification which may in some cases at least have been part of the village. In certain passages these puras are called autumnal, and by far the most probable explana- tion of this epithet is that it refers to the flooding of the plains by the rising of the rivers in the autumn, when the cultivators and herdsmen had to take refuge within the earthworks which at other times served as defences against human foes. Of the construction of the Vedic house we learn little, but the bamboo seems to have been largely used for the beams which borrowed their name from it. In the midst of each house burned the domestic fire, which served the Indian both for practical and sacrificial uses.
Like the aborigines, the Vedic Indians were primarily pastoral : the stress laid by the poets on the possession of cows is almost pathetic. The name of the sacrificial fee, dakshind, is explained as referring originally to a cow placed ' on^,the right hand ' of the singer for his reward. Tlie singers delight to compare their songs to Indra with the lowing of cows to their calves. At night and in the heat of the day the cows seem to have been kept in the fold, while for the rest of the day they were allowed to wander at wiU, being thrice milked^. Bulls and oxen on the other hand regularly served for ploughing and drawing carts, a purpose for which horses were not much used. Second to cattle came hoi-ses, which the Indian required both for bearing his chariot into the battle and for the horse-race, one of his favouri'je sports. Other domesticated animals were sheep, goats, assea, and dogs, the last being used for hunting, for guarding and tracking cattle, and for keeping watch at night. On the other hand, the cat had not been domesticated.
Agriculture was already an important part of the Vedic economy. The practice of ploughing was certainly Indo-Iranian as the same root (Jcrish) occurs in the same sense in the two tongues. But it is clear that even in the Rigveda the use of the plough was in- creasing in fi'equency. We learn of the use of bulls to draw the plough, of the sowing of seed in the furrows thus made, of the cutting of the corn with the sickle, the laying of it in bundles
^ See Geldner, Vedische Studien, vol. ii, pp. 282 sq.
7—2
lOO The Age of the Rigveda [cH.
on the threshing floor, and the threshing and final sifting by winnowing. Moreover, the use of irrigation seems to be recognised in the mention of channels into which water is led. On the other hand, the nature of the grain grown is uncertain : it is called yava, which in the later Samhitas is barley, but it is quite uncertain whether this definite sense can be assigned to the word in the Rigvedic period.
Hunting seems still to have played a considerable part in the life of the day. The hunter used both bow and arrow and snares and traps. There are clear references to the capture of lions in snares, the taking of antelopes in pits, and the hunting of the boar with dogs. Birds were captured in nets stretched out on pegs. Possibly the use of tame elephants to capture other elephants was known, but this is very uncertain, for there is no clear proof that the elephant had yet been tamed at this early date. Buffaloes seem to have been shot by arrows, and occasionally a lion might be surrounded by hunters and shot to death.
There is some evidence that already in this period specialisation in industry had begun. The worker in wood has clearly the place of honour, needed as he was to produce the chariots for war and the race, and the carts for agricultural purposes. He was car- penter, joiner, wheelwr ght in one ; and the fashioning of chariots is a frequent source of metaphor, the poet comparing his own skill to that of the wheelwright. Next in importance was the worker in metal who smelted ore in the furnace, using the wing of a bird in the place of a bellows to fan the flame. Kettles and other domestic utensils were made of metal. It is, however, still uncertain what that metal which is called ayas was. Copper, bronze, and iron alike may have been meant, and we cannot be certain that the term has tl e same sense throughout. Of other workers the tanner's art is all^^ded to not rarely ; and to women are ascribed sewing, the plaiting of mats from grass or reeds, and, much more frequently, the weaving of cloth. It is of importance to note that there is no sign that those who carried on these functions were in any way regarded as inferior members of the community, as was the case in later times. This fact is probably to be explained by the growing number of the servile population which must have steadily increased with the conquest of the tribes, though we cannot conjecture the motives which ascribed to inferiors tasks which in the Rigvedic time were apparently honourable and distinguished. Presumably even at this time the slave population must have been utilised in assisting their masters
iv] Industries and Domestic Life loi
in their various tasks, agricultural, industrial, and pastoral ; but the Rigveda unquestionably presents us with a society which is not dependent on such labour, and in which the ordinary tasks of life are carried out by the free men of the tribe \ This is one of the facts which show the comparative simplicity of the age of the Rigveda as compared with the next period of Indian history.
Fishing is not directly mentioned ; and the Vedic Indian seems to have been very little of a navigator. The use of boats, probably dug-outs, for crossing rivers, was known, but the sim- plicity of their constioiction is adequately shown by the fact that the paddle alone was used for their propulsion. There is no mention of rudder or anchor, mast or sails, a fact which inci- dentally negatives the theory that the Vedic Indians took any part in ocean shipping.
Of the domestic life of the time we have a few details. The di'ess usually worn consisted either of three or of two gamients. These were generally woven from the wool of sheep, though skins were also employed. Luxury manifested itself in the wearing of variegated garments or clothing adorned with gold. Ornaments in the shape of necklets, earrings, anklets, and bracelets were worn by both sexes and were usually made of gold. The hair was carefully combed and oiled. Women wore it plaited, while in some cases men wore it in coils : it was a characteristic of the Vasishthas to have it coiled on the right. Shaving was not unknown, but beards were nonnally worn, and on festive occasions men bore garlands.
As was natui*al with a pastoral people, milk formed a consider-? able part of the ordinary food, being taken in its natural state or mixed with grain. Ghee or clarified butter was also much used. Grain was either parched or ground into flour, and mixed with milk or butter, and made into cakes. As throughout the history of India, vegetables and fruits formed a considerable portion of the dietary. But the Vedic Indians were a nation of meat-eaters, nor need we believe that they merely ate meat on occasions of sacrifice. Rather, as in the Homeric age, the slaughter of oxen was always in some degree a sacrificial act, and one specially appropriate for the entertainment of guests, as the second name of the heroic Divodasa Atithigva, ' the slayer of oxen for guests,' and as the practice of slaying oxen at the wedding festival abundantly show. The ox, the sheep, and the goat were the
^ The view of Indian civilisation presented by Baden Powell {Indian Village Community (1896) and Village Communities in India (1899), etc.) which assumes that the Aryans were princely conquerors of agricultural aborigines and not themselves cultivators cannot be reconciled with the Kigveda.
I02 The Age of the Rigveda [CH.
normal food eaten by men and offered to their gods: hoi'se-flesh was probably eaten only at the horse-sacrifice, and not so much as ordinary food as with a view to gain the strength and swiftness of the steed. There is no inconsistency between this eating of flesh and the growing sanctity of the cow, which bears already in the Rigveda the epithet aghnyd, 'not to be killed.' If this interpretation of the temi is correct, it is merely a proof of the high value attached to that useful animal, the source of the milk which meant so much both for secular and sacred use to the Vedic Indian. The flesh eaten was either cooked in pots of metal or earthenware or roasted on spits.
In addition to milk, the Indians had at least two intoxicating drinks. The first was the Soma, which however, by the time of the Rigveda, appears almost exclusively as a sacrificial drink. It stands, however, to reason that the extraordinary preeminence which it acquired for religious purposes can hardly have been attained except through its original popular character ; and it is difficult to resist the impression that the Soma was at first a popular drink in the home whence the Vedic Indians entered India, and that in India itself they found no plant which pre- cisely coincided with that whence the Soma had first been produced, and so were compelled to resort to substitutes or to use the original plant after it had been brought fi-om a great distance and had thus lost its original flavour. The popular drink was evidently the sura, which seems to have been distilled from gi'ain. It was clearly extremely intoxicating, and the priests regarded it with disapproval : in one hymn mention is made of men made arrogant by the surd reviling the gods, while another couples it with anger and dicing as the cause of sin.
Of the amusements of the Indian first place must clearly be given to the chariot race, a natural form of sport among a horse-loving and chivalrous people. The second belongs to dicing, which fonns the occasion of a lament, already referred to {v. sup. p. 98). Unhappily, the details of the play are nowhere described, and the scattered allusions cannot be reduced to a whole without much conjecture ; but, in one form at least, the aim of the gambler was to throw a number which should be a multiple of four\ Dancing was also practised, and the dancing of maidens is several times mentioned ; it seems that men also on occasion danced in the open air, as a
^ See Liiders, Das Wilrfelspiel im alien Indien; Caland, Z.D.M.O., vol. lxii, pp. 123 sq.; Keith, J.R.A.S., 1908, pp. 823 sq.
iv] Pastimes: Religion 103
metaphor alludes to the dust of the dancing feet of men. Music too had advanced beyond the primitive stage ; and already the three types of instrument, percussion, string, and wind, were represented by the drum, used, among other purposes, to terrify the foe in battle, the lute, and the flute, the last-named instrument being said to be heard in the abode of Yama, where the holy dead dwell. The hymns themselves prove that singing was highly esteemed.
The comparative simplicity of the life of the Vedic Indian stands in striking contrast to the elaboration of the religious side of life by the priests. The Rigveda does not present us with any naive outpouring of the primitive religious consciousness, but with a state of belief which must have been the product of much priestly efibrt, and the outcome of wholesale syncretism. Nothing else can explain the comparative magnitude of the Vedic pantheon, which considerably exceeds that of the Homeric poems. In the main, the religion revealed to us is in essence simple. The objects of the devotion of the priests were the great phenomena of nature, conceived as alive, and usually represented in anthro- pomorphic shape, though not rarely theriomorphism is referred to. The chief gods include Dyaus, the sky, who is usually coupled with Prithivi, the earth, and whose anthropomorphism is faint, being in the main confined to the conception of him as father. Varuna, the sky-god par excellence, has superseded Dyaus as a ix)pular figure, and has acquired moreover a moral elevation, which places him far above the other gods. Varuna is the sub- ject of the most exalted hymns of the Rigveda ; but it seems clear that in this period his claim to divine preeminence was being successfully challenged by the much less ethical Indra, the god of the thunder-storm which causes the rain to pour, when the rainy season long hoped for comes to relieve the parched earth. Varuna bears the epithet Asura, which serves to show his parallelism with Ahura Mazda, the highest of Iranian gods ; nor can there be any reason to doubt that in the Indo-Iranian period he acquired his moral elevation and preeminence. But in India it seems that his star paled before that of Indra, whose importance gi'ew with the advance of the Aryan tribes to the regions where the rain was confined in the main to the rainy months and the terrors of the storm supplanted in the popular imagination the majestic splendour of the sky. With Varuna seems to have been bound up in the first instance the concep- tion of rita as first cosmic and then moral order, and with his lessening glory these conceptions fade from Indian thought. The
I04 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
importance of the sun is shown by the fact that no less than five higli gods seem to be solar — Surya and Savitri, who represent the quickening power of the luminary, Mitra, whose fame in Iran is but palely reflected in India, where he is conjoined with Varuna and eclipsed by Varuna's glories, Piishan, the representative of the power of the sun in its effect on the growth of herds and vegetation, and Vishnu, the personification of the swift moving sun and a god destined to become one of the two great gods of India, ^iva, his great rival in later days, appears in the name of Rudra, seemingly in essence at this time a storm-god, with a dark side to his character presaging his terrible aspect in later days. Other gods are the Acvins, apparently the morning and evening stars, who are clearly parallel to the Dioscuri, the Maruts, storm-gods and attendants on Rudra, Vayu and Vata, the wind- gods, Parjanya, the god of rain, the Waters, and the Rivers. Ushas the Dawn, deserves separate mention, since she has evoked some of the most beautiful of Vedic poetry ; but her figure seems to belong to the earliest period of Vedic hymnology, when the Indians were still in the Punjab ; and after the Rigveda she vanishes swiftly from the living gods of the pantheon.
Next to Indra in importance rank Agni, 'the fire,' and the Soma. To the priest indeed there can be little doubt that these gods were of even greater importance than Indi'a, but the latter was seemingly more of a national god, and more nearly alive in the hearts of the people. Agni has three forms, the sun in the heaven, the lightning, and the terrestrial fire ; and liis descent from his highest form is variously pictured. He seems in his growth to have vanquished older gods, like Trita and Apam Napat, * the child of the waters,' who were forms of the lightning, and Matari9van, a form of celestial fire. The Soma must have owed its original divine rank to its wonderful intoxicating power ; but priestly speculation by the end of the Rigvedic period had succeeded in identifying the Soma and the moon, a tour de force which can indeed be rendered less unnatural by recognising the potent effect of the moon in the popular imagination on vege- tation, but which is none the less remarkable in the success in which it finally imposed itself on the religious conscience. The Soma hymns are among the most mystical of the Rigveda ; and one of the legends, that of the bringing of the Soma fi-om heaven by the eagle, appears to be a reflection of the fall of rain to earth as a result of the lightning which rends the cloud just when the rain begins to fall.
iv] Deities 105
The creation of what may be called abstract deities is not far advanced in the Rigveda, such deities as (^^raddha, 'faith/ and Manyu, 'wrath,' being confined to a few hymns of the tenth book. On the other hand, the specialisation of epithets in some cases results in the production of what is practically a new figure : thus Prajapati, an epithet of such gods as Savitri and Soma, as 'lord of creatures' approaches the position of a creator. The Adityas and their mother Aditi, who may be derived from them, present scarcely any physical features and, as we have seen, have therefore by Oldenberg been assigned to a Semitic source; but this hypothesis has not yet been rendered probable in a mythology which else seems so little touched by external influence. Personifica- tions like Ratri, ' the night,' are mainly poetic rathei' than religious.
A characteristic of the Vedic theology is the tendency to group gods in pairs, especially Mitra and Varuna, a practice due in all probability to the natural union of heaven and earth as a pair. Of larger groups there are the Maruts, the Adityas, and the Vasus. The last are associated vaguely with Indra or Agni, and have practically no individual character. Finally, priestly specu- lation has created the class of the Vi?ve devas, ' the All-gods,' who first include all the gods, and, in the second place, are regarded as a special group invoked with others, like the Adityas and the Vasus.
Little part is played by minor deities in the Vedic theolog}% The predominance of the male element is marked : the goddesses are pale reflections of their husbands by whose names, with a feminine affix added, they are called: the only one who has a real character is Ushas, and more faintly Prithivl, 'the earth,' and of rivers the sacred Sarasvatl. The Ribhus are aerial elfs, the Apsarasas water nymphs, and the Gandharvas, their play- mates, are aerial sprites. The simpler and more primitive side of nature worship is seen in the invocation of the plants, of the mountains, and of the trees of the forest; but real as these beliefs may have been to the common people, they are not the true subjects of the priests' devotion. When speculation turned to deal with these matters, it found an utterance such as is seen in a striking hymn to the goddess of the forest, which exhibits much more poetical than religious feeling.
While the great gods might be conceived at times in animal form, for example Indra or Dyaus as a bull, or the sun as a swift horse, actual direct worship of animals is hardly found in the Rigveda. The drought demon which xjrevents the rain from falling is conceived as a snake whom Indra crushes, and we hear
io6 The Age of the Rigveaa [ch.
of the snake of the abyss; but, in striking contrast with later India, no direct worship of the snake attributable to its deadli- ness occurs. Of totemism, in the sense of the belief in an animal ancestor and the treatment of that animal as sacred and divine, the Rigveda shows not a trace. On the other hand, fetishism is seen in the allusion already quoted to the use of an image of Indra against one's enemies. Analogous to this is the sentiment which deifies the pressing-stones which expressed the Soma, the drum and the weapons of the warrior and the sacrificial post. The chief opponents of the gods are the Asuras, a vague group who bear a name which is the epithet of Varuna and must originally have had a good meaning, but which may have been degraded by being associated with the conception of divine cunning applied for evil ends. On a lower plane are the Rakshasas, demons conceived as in animal as well as human shape, who seek to destroy the sacrifice and the sacrificers alike, but whose precise nature cannot be definitely ascertained.
To the gods the Indian stood in an attitude of dependence, but of hope. The gods are willing to grant boons if they are worshipped; and the overwhelming mass of the evidence shows that the ordinary Vedic sacrifice was an ofiering made to win the divine favour, though thank-ofierings may well have been known \ Inextricably bound up with this conception of the divine relation is that other which regards the gods as subject to control by the worshipper if he but know the correct means, a motive clearly seen in the selection of the horse as a sacrifice whereby the swift steed, the sun, may regain strength and favour his worshippers. The higher and more mystic view of the sacrifice as a sacrament is not found except in the quite rudimentary form of the common meal of the priests on the sacrificial victim : there is no proof that in thus consuming the victim the priests deemed themselves to be consuming their god, though doubtless they regarded the meal as bringing them into special relation with the god who shared it with them and so in some measure acquired the same nature as themselves. But if the view of sacrifice was less mystic, in some aspects at least, than in the case of the Mediterranean peoples, Vedic civilisation at this stage was spared the horror of human sacrifice, which can be found in the Samhita only by implausible conjecture^.
1 See Caland and Henry, L'Agnistoma, pp. 469-90; Keith, J.R.A.S., 1907, pp. 929-49.
2 See Hillebrandt, Z.D.M.G., vol. xl, p. 708, who finds it alluded to in x, 18, 8. But see Keith, J.R.A.S., 1907, p. 946.
iv] Sacrifices: Philosophy 107
Tlie sacrifices offered included offerings of milk, grain, and ghee, as well as offerings of flesh and of the Soma, It is impossible to adapt the later sacrificial theory, as it appears in the next period, to the Rigvedic texts, and it is clear that at this time the sacrifice was less elaborate than it became; but there is abundant proof that already the Soma sacrifice in particular had been elaborated, and that the labour had been divided among several priests, the chief being the Hotri who recited the hymns and in earlier times composed them, the Adhvaryu who performed the manual actions to the accompaniment of muttered prayers and deprecations of evil, the Udgatri who sung the Saman chants, and several as- sistants, the number seven being found quite frequently in the Rigveda. Naturally these elaborate sacrifices could not be under- taken by any save the rich men of the tribe and especially the king; and we must therefore picture to ourselves the priests as maintained by the rich men, the Maghavans, 'bountiful ones,' of the Rigveda, their number and rewards rising with the social scale of their patron, until the height of the priest's ambition was attained, the position of Purohita to the king. Beside all this elaborate ritual there was of com'se the daily worship of the ordinary Aryan, which he no doubt in this period, as later, conducted himself; but the Rigveda is an aristocratic collection and contains little of popular religion beyond a few incantations in the tenth book, which can-y us into the homely region of spells against rivals and to repel diseases and noxious animals. But these are not really parts of the main body of the Samhita.
The late tenth book also gives us the beginnings of the philosophy of India. The multiplicity of gods is questioned and the unity of the universe is asserted, while attempts are made to represent the process of creation as the evolution of being from not being, first in the shape of the waters and then in the sliape of heat. Other hjTnns more simply consider the process as that of a creation by Vicvakarman, 'the all-maker,' or Hiranya- garbha, 'the golden genu,' apparently an aspect of the sun. In yet another case the sacrificial theory is applied, and in the PurushasuMa, the earliest authority for caste divisions, the world is fashioned from the sacrifice of a primeval giant whose name Purusha, ' man,' reappears in later philosophy as the technical term for spirit. These speculations are of interest, not for their intrinsic merit, but for the persistence with which the same conceptions dominate the religious and philosophical systems of India,
There is little in the Rigveda that bears on the life after
io8 The Age of the Rigveda [CH.
death. The dead were either cremated or buried, and, if cre- mated, the ashes were regularly buried. This suggests that burial was the older method which was altered under the pressure of migration and perhaps the Indian climate. The Rigveda is inno- cent of widow burning, though it clearly has the conception which gave rise to that practice, the view that life in the next world is a reflex of this life, and though in the next period we have clear references to the fact that the burning of widows was not unknown. The direct authority for the custom, which later days sought to find in the Rigveda, owes its existence to a daring forgery of quite modern date\ The exact fate of the dead is somewhat obscure: they are conceived, at one time, as dwelling in peace and converse with the gods of the world of Yama, the first of the dead and king of the dead. In other passages, the gods and the fathers are deemed to dwell in different places ; while a third conception declares that the soul departs to the watei-s or the plants. Beyond this last idea there is nothing in the Rigvedic literature to suggest that the idea of metempsychosis had presented itself to the Indian mind: the fate of the evil after death is obscure: possibly unbelievers were consigned to an underground darkness; but so scanty is the evidence that Roth held that the Vedic poet believed in their annihilation. But this vagueness is characteristic of the comparative indifference of the Rigveda to morals: the gods are indeed extolled as true, though perhaps rather as a means of securing that they shall keep faith with their votary than as an assertion of ascertained truth. Except in the case of Varuna, the omniscient, whose spies watch men and who knows the every thought of man, the characteristics of the gods are might and strength rather than moral goodness, or even wisdom.
In its metrical form the Rigveda shows traces of the distinc- tion between the recitative of the Hotri and the song of the Udgatri^ : thus besides hymns in simple metres, rhythmical series of eight syllables, three or four times repeated, or eleven or twelve syllables four times repeated, are found strophic effects made up of various combinations of series of eight and twelve syllables, these being intended for Saman singing. The verse technique has risen beyond the state of the mere counting of syllables
1 See Wilson, J.R.A.S., vol. xvi, pp. 201 sq.; Fitzedward Hall, J.R.A.S., n. s. vol. in, pp. 183-92 who traces it to Baghanandana (1500 a.d.).
* See Oldenberg, Z.D.M.G., vol. xxxvni, pp. 439 sq. ; Prolegomena, pp. 1 sq. ; Arnold, Vedic Metre, Cambridge, 1905.
iv] The Vedic Hymns 109
which it shared as regards the use of eight and eleven syllable lines with the Iranian versification ; but the process of fixing the quantity of each syllable, which appears fiilly completed in the metres of classical Sanskrit verse, is only in a rudimentary state, the last four or five syllables tending to assume in the case of the eight and twelve syllable lines an iambic, in the case of the eleven syllable lines a trochaic cadence. The poetry of the col- lection is of very uneven merit : Varuna and Ushas evoke hymns which now and then are nearly perfect in poetic conception and expression ; but much of the work is mechanical and stilted, being overladen with the technicalities of the ritual : this condemnation applies most heavily to the ninth book, which, consisting as it does of hymns addressed to the Soma in the process of its purification for use, is arid and prosaic to a degree. In style, practically all the hymns are simple enough, and their obscurity, which is considerable, is due to our ignorance of the Vedic age, which renders unintelligible references and allusions clear enough to the authors. But there is unquestionably much mysticism in the later hymns and still more of that confusion of thought and tendency to take refuge in enigmas, which is a marked feature of all Indian speculation.
The language is of the highest interest, as it reveals to us an Indo-European speech with a singular clarity of structure and wealth of inflection, even if we admit that the first discoverei-s of its importance from the point of view of comparative philology exaggerated in some degree these characteristics. Historically it rendered comparative phOology the first great impetus, and it must for all time be one of the most important subjects of study. But it is clearly, as preserved in the hymns, a good deal more than a spoken tongue. It is a hieratic language which doubtless diverged considerably in its wealth of variant forms from the speech of the ordinary man of the tribe \ Moreover it shows clear signs of influence by metrical necessities which induce here and there a disregard of the rules normally strictly observed of concord of noun and attribute. It must be remembered that it was in a peculiar position: in the first place, it was the product of an hereditary priesthood, working on a traditional basis: the very first hymn of the Samhita alludes to the songs of old and
^ Cf. Grierson in J»t_p. Gaz., vol. i, pp. 357 sq.; J.R.A.S., 1904, pp. 436 sq.; Wackemagel, Altindische Gravimatik, vol. i, pp. xviii sq. ; Petersen, J.A.O.S., vol. xxzii, pp. 414-28; Michelson, J.A.O.S., vol. xzxiii, pp. 145-9; Keith, Aitareya Aranyaka, pp. 180, 196.
no The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
new poets: in the second place, the language of all classes was being affected by the influence of contact with the aboriginal tongues. The existence of slaves, male and especially female, must have tended constantly to affect the Aryan speech, and the effect must have been very considerable, if, as seems true, the whole series of lingual letters of the Vedic speech was the result of aboriginal influence. Many of the vast number of words with no known Aryan cognates must be assigned to the same influence. Thus in the period of the Rigveda there was growing up an ever increasing divergence between the speech of the learned and that of the people. As a result the language of literature remains the language of the priesthood and the nobility: it is modified gradually, and finally, at an early date, fixed for good as regards form and construction by the action of the grammarians : on the other hand, the speech of the commoner, in consequence of the constant contact with the aborigines and the growing admixture of blood, develops into Pali and the Prakrits and finally into the modern vernaculars of India. What we do not know is how far at any given moment in the Vedic period the gulf of sepa- ration had extended. Nor do we know whether at this epoch there were distinct dialects of the Vedic speech: efforts to find traces of dialects in the Rigveda have so far ended in no secure results
It is natural, at the conclusion of this survey of the more important aspects of the Vedic civilisation, to consider what date can be assigned to the main portion of the Rigveda or to the civilisation which it records. One fact of interest has been adduced from the records of treaties between the Hittites and the Kings of Mitani of about 1400 B.C. In them occur names which a certain amount of faith may induce us to accept as denoting Indra, the two A9vins under the name Nasatya, one of their epithets — of unknown meaning — in the Rigveda, Mitra, and Varuna. It is right to add that these identifications must not be regarded as certain, though they may be correct. It has been argued by Jacobi^ that these names must be derived from a tribe practising the religion revealed to us in the Rigveda, that
1 The theory of Hoernle, Grierson, and Kisley {Imperial Gaz., vol. i, pp. 303 sq.), which sees in the Rigvedic language the speech of the Middle Country (Madhyadega) only is not supported by the Eigveda. Only the N.W. region of the Middle Country, ■which lay between the rivers SarasvatI and Drishadvati (Brahmavarta) was intimately known to the poets of the Eigveda. They show more acquaintance with the Punjab and with the Kabul Valley than with the Middle Country generally, that is to say the region lying between the Sarasvati and Prayaga, the modem Allahabad.
■^ J.E.A.S., 1909, pp. 721-6. For these names see also Chapters in and xiv.
iv] Evidences of Date 1 1 1
the presence of this tribe at this date is due to a movement on their part from India, and that we have a definite date assigned at which the culture of the Rigveda existed. Unhappily the argument cannot be regarded as conclusive. It is considered by E. Meyer ^ and by Oldenberg^ that the gods are proto-Iranian gods, aflfording a proof of what has always seemed on other grounds most probable, that the Indian and Iranian period was preceded by one in which the Indo-Iranians stiU undivided enjoyed a common civilisation. This is supported by the fact that the Avesta, which is doubtless a good deal later than the date in question, still recognises a great god to whom Varuna's epithet Asura is applied, that it knows a Verethrajan who bears the chief epithet of Indra as Vritrahan, * slayer of Vritra,' that It has a demon, Naonhaithya, who may well be a pale reflex of the Nasatyas, and that the Avestan Mithra is the Vedic Mitra. It is also possible that the gods represent a period before the sepa- ration of Indians and Iranians, though this would be less likely if it is true that the names of the Mitani princes include true Iranian names^ But, in any case, it is to be feared that we attain no result of value for Vedic chronologj^
Another and, at first sight, more promising attempt has been made to fix a date from internal evidence. It has been argued by Jacobi* on the strength of two hymns in the Rigveda that the year then began with the summer solstice, and that at that solstice the sun was in conjunction with the lunar mansion Phalguni. Now the later astronomy shows that the lunar man- sions were, in the sixth century A.D., arranged so as to begin for purposes of reckoning with that called A9vini, because at the vernal equinox at that date the sun was in conjunction with the star ^ Piscium. Given this datum, the precession of the equinoxes allows us to calculate that the beginning of the year with the summer solstice in Phalguni took place about 4000 b.C. This argument must be considered further in connexion with the dating of the next period of Indian history; but, for the dating of the Rigveda, it is certain that no help can be obtained from it It rests upon two wholly improbable assumptions, first, that the hymns really assert that the year began at the summer solstice, and, second, that the sun was then brought into any
1 Sitzungsberichte der k. preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1908, pp. 14 sq.
2 J.R.A.S., 1909, pp. 1095-1100. Cf. Keith, ibid. 1100-6. ' Sayce, ibid. p. 1107, denies this.
* Festgrtiss am Eothj, pp. 68 sq. = Indian Antiquai-y, vol. xxiii, pp. 154 sq.
112 The Age of the Rigveda [ch.
connexion at all with the Nakshatras, for which there is no evidence whatever. The Nakshatras are, as their name indi- cates and as all the evidence of the later Samhitas shows, lunar mansions pure and simple.
In the absence of any trustworthy external evidence, we are forced to rely on what is after all the best criterion, the develop- ment of the civilisation and literature of the period. Max Miiller^ on the basis of this evidence divided the Vedic period into four, that of the Sutra literature, 600-200 RC, the Brahmanas, 800- 600 B.C., the Mantra period, including the later portions of the Rigveda, 1000-800 B.C., and the Chhandas, covering the older and more primitive Vedic hymns, 1200-1000 B.C. The exact demarca- tion did not claim, save as regards the latest period, any special exactitude, and was indeed somewhat arbitrary. But the fact remains that definitely later than the Rigveda we find the other Samhitas, of which an account is given below, and the prose Brahmana texts, which contain comments on and explanations of the Samhitas, whose existence they presuppose. It is impossible to deny that this mass of work must have taken time to produce, especially when we realise that what has survived is probably a small fraction as compared with what has been lost. Now in the Brahmanas we find only the most rudimentary elements of the characteristic features of all Indian literature after Buddhism, the belief in metempsychosis, pessimism, and the search for de- liverance. The distance between the Brahmana texts with their insistence on the ritual, and their matter-of-fact and indeed sordid view of the rewards of action in this world, and the later doctrine of the uselessness of all mundane efibrt, is bridged by the Aranyakas and the Upanishads which recognise transmigration, if not pessimism, which definitely strive to examine the real meaning of being, and are no longer content mth the explana- tion of sacrifices and idle legends. It is unreasonable to deny that these texts must antedate the rise of Buddhism, which, in part at least, is a legitimate development of the doctrines of the Upanishads. Now the death of Buddha falls in all probability somewhere within the second decade of the fifth century before Christ^: the older Upanishads can therefore be dated as on the whole not later than 550 B.C. From that basis we must reckon backwards, taking such periods as seem reasonable; and, in the absence of any means of estimating these periods, we cannot
1 Cf. Rigveda Samhitd, vol, iv^, pp. vii sq.
2 Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1912, p. 240, thinks 483 B.C. is the most probable date.
iv] Development of Civilisation 113
have more than a conjectural chronology. But it is not likely that the Brahmana period began later than 800 B.C., and the oldest hymns of the Rigveda, such as those to Ushas, may have been composed as early as 1200 RC. To carry the date further back is impossible on the evidence at present available, and a lower date would be necessary if we are to accept the view that the Avesta is really a product of the sixth century B.C., as has been argued on grounds of some though not decisive weight; for the coincidence in language between the Avesta and the Rigveda is so striking as to indicate that the two languages cannot have been long separated before they arrived at their present condition.
The argument from literature and religion is supported also by the argument from civilisation. The second period, that of the Samhitas, shows the development of the primitive Vedic community into something more nearly akin to the Hinduism which, as we learn from the Greek records, existed at the time of the invasion of Alexander and the immediately succeeding years. But we are still a long way from the full development of the system as shown to us in the Artha9astra, that remarkable record of Indian polity which is described in Chapter xix. The language also of the Vedic literature is definitely anterior, though not necessarily much anterior, to the classical speech as prescribed in the epoch-making work of Panini: even the Siitras, which are undoubtedly later than the Brahmanas, show a freedom which is hardly conceivable after the period of the fiill influence of Panini^; and Panini is dated with much plausi- bility not later than 300 RC.^
1 Biihler, Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii^, p. xlv, relies on this argument to assign Apastamba's Sutras to a date not later than the third cent. B.C., and suggests that they may be 150 or 200 years earlier.
^ See Keith, Aitareya Aranyaka, pp. 21-5.
C.H.I. I.
CHAPTER V
THE PERIOD OF THE LATER SAMHITAS, THE BRAH- MANAS, THE ARANYAKAS, AND THE UPANISHADS
Definitely later than that depicted in the Rigveda is the civilisation presented by the later Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads. It is on the whole probable that the total time embraced in this period is not longer, perhaps it is even shorter, than that covered by the earlier and later strata of the Rigveda; and there are hymns in the tenth book of the Rigveda which are really contemporaneous with the later Samhitas, just as those Samhitas have here and there preserved work of a much earlier epoch. But the distinction between the main body of the Rigveda and the rest of the Vedic literature is clear and undeniable. Nor is it open to much doubt that the redaction of the Samhita of the Rigveda into Avhat, in substance as opposed to verbal form, was its present shape took place before the other Samhitas were compiled. Of these Samhitas the Samaveda, the collection of chants for the Saman singers, is so dependent on the Rigveda for its contents, that it is negligible for purposes of history. On the other hand, the Samhitas of the Yajurveda, the collection of the formulae and prayers of the Adhvaryu priest, |
to whose lot fell the actual performance of the sacrificial acts, are of the highest historical importance. They represent two main schools, the Black and the White, the name of the latter being due, according to tradition, to the fact that, whereas the texts of the Black Yajurveda contain verse or prose foiinulae and the prose explanations and comments combined into one whole, the text of the latter distinguishes between the verse and prose formulae which it collects in the Samhita, and the prose ex- planations which it includes in a Brahmana. Of the Black Yajur- veda three complete texts exist, those of the Taittiriya, the Kathaka, and the MaitrayanI schools, while considerable fragments of a Kai)islithala Samhita closely allied to the Kathaka also exist.
CH. v] Xhe earliest Prose 115
In the case of the Taittiriya there is a Brahmana which is a supplementary work, dealing with matter not taken up in the Samhita. The White school has the Vajasaneyi Samhita and the ^atapatha Brahmana, the latter being one of the most important works in the whole Vedic literature. Finally, there is the Samhita of the Atharvaveda, which is technically reckoned as appertaining to the Brahman, the priest who in the later state of the ritual superintends the whole of the sacrifice, and which is a curious , repository of most mingled matter, for the most part spells of every kind, but containing also theosophical hymns of considerable importance.
The conjunction of the prose explanation with the formulae does not prove the later composition of both the prose and the formulae, and there is no ground for attributing the two strata to the same date. On the other hand, the prose of the Yajurveda Samhitas is amongst the earliest Vedic prose. Possibly somewhat earlier may be that of the Pafichavim9a Brahmana, which is the Brahmana of the Samaveda, and which, despite the extraordinary technicality of its details, is yet not without importance for the history of the civilisation of the period. The Brahmanas of the Rigveda are probably slightly later in date, the older being unquestionably the earlier part (books i-v) of the Aitareya, and the younger the Kaushitaki or (^ankhayana\ When the Atharvaveda, which long was not recognised as fully entitled to claim rank as a Veda proper, came within the circle of the Vedas, it was considered desirable to provide it with a Brahmana, the Gopatha, but this strange work is in part a cento from other texts, including the ^atapatha Brahmana, and appears to be later than the Kau9ika and Vaitana Sutras attached to the Atharvaveda : its value then for this period is negligible.
Special portions from the Brahmanas are given the title of Aranyaka, 'forest books,' apparently because their contents were so secret that they had to be studied in the depths of the forests, away from possibility of overhearing by others than students. The extant texts which bear this name are the Aitareya, the Kaushitaki, and the Taittiriya, which are appendages to the Brahmanas bearing those names. All three are somewhat hetero- geneous in composition, the Aitareya being the most definitely theosophical, while the Taittiriya is the least. Still more important are the Upanishads, so called because they were imparted to pupils in secret session, the term denoting the sitting of the pupil before
^ See Keith, Aitareya Aranyaka, pp. 172, 173.
8—2
Ii6 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
the teacher. Each of the three Aranyakas contains an Upanishad of corresponding name. More valuable however are the two great Upanishads, the Brihadaranyaka, which is attached to the (^atapatha Brahmana, forming part of its fourteenth and last book in one re- cension and the seventeenth book in the other, and the Chhandogya Upanishad attached to the Samaveda ; these two are in all probability the oldest of the Upanishads. To the Samaveda also belongs the Jaiminlya Brahmana, one book of which, the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, is really an Aranyaka, and, like other . Aranyakas, contains in itself an Upanishad, the brief but interesting Kena Upanishad. The number of treatises styled Upanishad is very large ; but, with the possible exception of the Kathaka, which expands a legend found in the Taittiriya Brahmana dealing with the nature of the soul, none of them other than those enumerated can claim to be older than Buddhism ; and the facts which they contain cannot therefore prudently be used in sketching the life of the period under review. Similarly, the Sutras, which are text-books either giving in the form of very brief rules directions for the performance of the sacrifice in its various forms (the Qrauta Sutras dealing with the great rites at which a number of priests were employed, the Grihya Sutras with the domestic sacrifices and other duties performed by the householder), or enunciating customary law and practice (the Dharma Sutras), cannot safely be relied upon as presenting a picture of this period. They are however of much indirect value ; for they throw light upon practices which are alluded to in the Brahmanas in terms capable of more than one interpretation ; and here and there they preserve verses, far older than the works themselves, which contain historic facts of value.
We have seen that, in the period of the Rigveda, the centre of the civilisation was tending to be localised in the land between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, but that, though this was the home of the Bharatas, other tribes including the famous five tribes dwelt in the Punjab, which had in all probability been the earlier home of the Indians. In the Brahmana period, as the period under review may conveniently be called, the localisation of civilisation in the more eastern country is definitely achieved, and the centre of the life of the day is Kurukshetra, bounded by Khandava on the south, Turghna on the north, Parinah on the west In contrast with the frequent mention of the eastern lands the Punjab recedes in importance ; and its later name, Panchanada, * land of the five streams,' is not fomid until the epic period. The
v] Extension of Aryan Civilisation 117
tribes of the west receive disapproval both in the ^atapatha and the Aitareya Brahmanas. In the Aitareya Brahmana a geo- graphical passage ascribes to the Middle Country, the later Ma- dhyade9a, the Kuriis and Paiichalas with the Va9as and the U9inara8, to the south the Satvants, and to the north beyond the Himalaya the Uttara-Kurus and the Uttara-Madras. On the other hand, while the west recedes in importance the regions east of the Kuru- Panchala country come into prominence, especially Kosala, corre- sponding roughly to the modern Oudh, Videha, the modern Tirhut or N. Bihar, and Magadha, the modern S. Bihar. Still further east was the country of the Angas, the modern E. Bihar. In the south we hear of outcast tribes in the Aitareya Brahmana, probably tribes who were not fully Brahmanised: their names are given as the Andhras, who appear as a great kingdom in the centuries im- mediately before and after the Christian era, Pundras, Miitibas, Pulindas, and ^abaras, the last named being now a tribe living on the Madras frontier near Orissa and showing, in its language, traces of its Munda origin. In the south also was Naishadha.
It does not seem likely that Aryan civilisation had yet over- stepped the Vindhya, which is not mentioned by name in the Vedic texts, though the Kaushitaki Upanishad refers to the northern and southern mountains, the latter of which must be the Vindhya. At the same time geographical knowledge of the north is wider : the Atharvaveda knows not only of the Mujavants and the Gandharis, but also of the Mahavrishas, and the name of a place in the Mahavrisha country, Raikvaparna, is preserved in the Chhan- dogya Upanishad. Yaska in the Nirukta, a text of about 500 RC. explaining with illustrations certain selected Vedic words, tells us that the speech of the Kambojas differed in certain respects from the ordinary Indian speech, referring doubtless to the tribes living north-west of the Indus who bore that name. Vidarbha, the modern Berar, is mentioned, but only in the late Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, though a Bhima of Vidarbha occurs in a late passage of the Aitareya.
In addition to a wider geogi-aphical outlook, the Brahmana period is marked by the knowledge of towns and definite localities. There are fairly clear references to Asandivant, the Kuru capital, Kampila, the capital of Panchala in Madhyade9a, to Kau9ambi, and to Ka9i, the capital of the Ka9is on the river Varanavati, whence in later times Benares derives its name. So we hear in this period for the first time of the Vina9ana, the place of the disappearance of the Sarasvati in the desert, and Plaksha Prasravana
1 1 8 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
the place forty-four days' journey distant, where the river reappears and which, in the version of the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, is but a span from the centre of the universe. These are clear signs both of more developed city life and of more settled habits.
Corresponding with the change in geographical conditions is a stiU gi'eater change in the grouping of the tribes. The Bharatas, who are the heroes of the third and the seventh books of the Rigveda, no longer occupy the main position, and we find in their place, in the land which we know they once held, the Kurus, and close to the Kurus the allied Paiichalas. As we have seen already, there is little doubt that the Kurus were new comers with whom the Bharatas amalgamated, and the Kurus thus reinforced included in their numbers the Purus. The mention of the Uttara-Kurus as resident beyond the Himalaya is sufficiently accounted for if we suppose that a branch of this tribe had settled in Kashmir, just as another branch seems to have settled on the Indus and the Chenab. The Panchalas, too, seem to have been a composite tribe, as the name which is clearly derived ivQvu'pancha, ' five,' shows. According to the ^atapatha Brahmana the older name for the Paiichalas was Krivi ; and we may at least believe that the Krivis who with the Kurus appear to have constituted the two Vaikarna tribes of the Rigveda were a part of the Panchala nation^. The same Brahmana suggests, if it does not prove, that the Turva9as were another element of the people ; and the disappearance from history at this period of the Anus and Druhyus may indicate that they also were merged in the new confederation. With the Kurus and Panchalas must be ranked the Va9as and Ui^inaras, two minor tribes who occupied the Middle Country, and the Srinjayas, whose close con- nexion with the Kurus is proved beyond doubt by the fact that at one time they had a Purohita in common, showing that, for the time at least, they must have been acting under the leadership of one king.
In the texts the Kuru-Panchalas pass as the models of good form: the sacrifices are perfectly performed in their country: speech is best spoken there and, as it seems, among the northern Kurus ; and the Kaushitaki Brahmana tells of people going to the north for the sake of its pure speech. The Kuru-Panchala kings are the example for other kings : they perform the Rajasuya, the sacrifice of the royal consecration : they march forth in the dewy season for their raids and return in the hot season. Their Brahmans are famous in the literature of the Upanishads for their knowledge ;
1 See also Chapter iv, p. 83.
v] Kurus and Pahchalas 119
and the Samhitas and Brahmanas which are preserved seem, with- out exception, to have taken definite form among the Kuru- Panchalas, even when, as in the case of the ^^tapatha Brahmana, they recognise the existence of the activities of the kings and priests of Kosala-Videha. It is significant of the state of afiairs that in the Samhitas and allied texts of the Yajm-vedas where the ceremony of the Rajasiiya is described, the king is presented to the people with the declaration, * This is your king, 0 Kurus,' with variants of ' O Panchalas ' and ' 0 Kuru-Paiichalas.'
In the Sanskrit epic the Kurus and the Panchalas are conceived as being at enmity; and it is natural to enquire whether this tradition goes back to the Vedic period \ The reply, however, must be in the negative, for the evidence adduced in favour of the theory is of the weakest possible character. In the Kathaka Samhita there is an obscure ritual dispute between a certain priest, Vaka, son of Dalbha, who is believed to have been a Paiichala, and Dhritarashtra Vaicitravirya, who is assumed to have been a Kuru king. But apart from the fact that a mere dispute on a point of ritual between a Panchala priest and a Kuru king could not prove any hostility between the two peoples, there is no ground for supposing that this Dhritarashtra was any one else than the king of the Ka9is who bears the same name and who was defeated by the Bharata prince, Satrajita ^atanika, and in the very same passage of the Kathaka allusion is made to the union of the Kuru- Paiichalas. A second argument of some human interest is derived from the clever suggestion of Weber that in the revolting ceremony of the horse-sacrifice, one of the great kingly sacrifices by which the Indian king proclaimed his claim to imperial sway, the queen of the Kurus is compelled to lie beside the victim, since otherwise Subhadrika, the wife of the king of KampTla, the capital of Panchala, would take her place. If this were the case there would be convincing proof of an ancient rivalry which might weU end in the bitter conflicts of the epic ; but, unhappily, the interpretation is almost certainly incorrect. With the absence of evidence of opposition between the Kurus, assumed to have been specially Brahmanical, and the Panchalas, disappears any support for the theory 2, based on the phenomena of the later distribution of dialects in India, that the Kurus were a fresh stream of immigrants into India who came via Chitral and Gilgit and forced themselves
1 For this view see Weber, Indische Studien, vol. i, pp. 184, 205, 206; vol. ni, p. 470; Grierson, J.R.A.S., 1908, pp. 602-7, 837-44, 1143. Arguments against are given by Keith, J.R.A.S., 1908, pp. 831-6, 1188-42.
- See Chapters ii, pp. 45-6, 50, and iv, p. 110, note 1.
I20 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
as a wedge between the Aryan tribes already dwelling in the land. The theory proceeds to assume that, coming with tew or no women, they intermingled with the Dra vidian population with great com- pleteness and produced the Aryo-Dra vidian physical type. If these things were so, the fact was not at any rate known by the age which produced the Samhitas and the Brahmanas.
Though the Bharatas disappear in this period as a tribe, the fame of the Bharata kings had not been lost : in a passage in the (^atapatha Brahmana which describes the famous men who sacrificed with the horse-sacrifice, we hear of the Bharata Dauhshanti, whom the nymph (^akuntala bore at Nadapit, and who defeated the king of the Satvants and won victories on the Ganges and Jumna, showing that the Bharatas, as in the Rigveda, were performing their great deeds on the eastern as well as on the western side of the kingdom. Another king, Satrajita ^atanika, as we have seen, defeated the king of the Ka9is. We hear too of a descendant of Divodasa, Pratardana, whose name is of value as tending to show that the Tritsus were the family of the royal house of the Bharatas : according to the Kaushitaki Upanishad he met his death in battle. It is possible that with him perished the direct Tritsu line: at any rate, the first king who bears the Kuru name, Kuru9ravana, is a descendant of Trasadasyu, the greatest of the Puru kings. But of Kuru9ravana and of his father Mitratithi, and his son Upama9ravas we know practically nothing; and the first great Kuru king is one mentioned in the Atharvaveda, Parikshit, in whose reign the hymn tells us the kingdom of the Kurus flourished exceedingly. His grandson and great-grandson according to tradition were the Pratisutvana and Pratipa whose names are mentioned in the Atharvaveda. A later descendant of his was the famous Janamejaya, whose horse-sacrifice is celebrated in the ^atapatha Brahmana, and who had in his entourage the priests Indrota Daivapi ^aunaka and Tura Kavasheya. His brothers Ugrasena, Bhimasena, and Qrutasena by the same sacrifice purified themselves of the crime of Brahman-slaying. But the history of the Kurus was not apparently, at the end of the period, un- chequered : there is an obscure reference to their being saved by a mare, perhaps a reference to the prowess of their charioteers or cavalry in battle ; but the same text, the Chhandogya Upanishad, alludes to a hailstorm or perhaps a shower of locusts^ afflicting them, and a prediction is preserved in an old Sutra telling that they would be driven from Kurukshetra. It is in accord with
1 See Jacob, J.R.A.S., 1911, p. 510.
1
v] Peoples of the Period 12 1
these hints that the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad sets as a question for discussion the problem what has become of the descendants of Parikshit: the dynasty must have passed away in some great disaster. From the ^atapatha Brahmana we gather that the capital of Janamejaya was Asandivant, 'the city of the throne,' and that at Mashnara a Kuru king won a victory, and Tura Kavasheya, a priest of the Bharatas, sacrificed at KarotL
Of the Paiichalas apart from the Kurus we hear comparatively little : they had however kings like Kraivya and ^ona Satrasaha, father of Koka, who performed the horse-sacrifice and thus claimed imperial power, Durmukha, who was taught the royal consecration by Brihaduktha and conquered the whole earth, and the more real Pravahana Jaivali who appears as philosopher king in the Upanishads, and who at least must have been willing to take part in the disputes of the Brahmans at his court Panchala towns were Kampila, Kau9ambT, and Parivakra or Paricakra, the scene of Kraivya's exploits.
The Uttara-Kurus seem already in the time of the Aitareya Brahmana to have won a somewhat mythical reputation, for when Atyarati Janamtapi, who was not a king, proposed to conquer them as well as the rest of the world, he was dissuaded by his priest Vasishtha Satyahavya, and for his rashness was defeated by Amitratapana (^ushmina, the king of the ^ibis, a tribe no doubt identical with the ^ivas of the Rigveda and belonging to the north-west. The Uttara-Madras must have lived near them in Kashmir ; and the Madras of Avhom we hear in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad were, in the Buddhist epoch, settled between the Chenab and the Ravi. In the Middle Country with the Kuru-Paiichalas were the Va9as and U9inaras who seem to have been of no importance. With them in the Kaushitaki Upanishad are coupled the Matsyas, and we hear of one great Matsya king, Dhvasan Dvaitavana, who performed the horse-sacrifice and who probably ruled in or about Jaipur or Alwar, where lake Dvaitavana must be placed. On the Jumna we hear at the end of the period of the Salvas, under king Yaugandhari, probably in close touch with the Kuru-Panchala people.
The Srinjayas also stood in this period in close relationship to the Kurus, and like the Kurus the Srinjayas seem to have sufiered disaster at some period. The Vaitahavyas, the Atharvaveda relates, offended the priestly family of the Bhrigus and came to ruin : this tradition is confirmed by the notices of disasters in the Kathaka and Taittiriya Samhitas. Of their history we have one
122 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
definite glimpse : they rose against their king, Dushtaritu Paum- sayana, despite the ten generations of his royal descent, and expelled him with his Sthapati, 'minister,' Chakra Revottaras Patava ; but the latter afterwards succeeded in restoring his master to power, despite the opposition of Balhika Pratipiya, whose patronymic reminds us of the Pratipa who was a descendant of the Kuru king Parikshit, showing that the Kuru princes were probably anxious enough to use domestic strife as a means of securing a hold over a neighbouring kingdom. Perhaps in the long run the ruin of the Vaitahavyas took the shape of absorption in the Kuru realm. On the other hand, the defeats of the Satvants on the south by the Kurus were doubtless nothing more than mere raids.
Further east of the Kuru-Panchala realm lay the territories of Kosala and Videha, which were, however, not allied in any so close a manner as the Kurus and the Paiichalas. Para, son of Atnara, their greatest king who celebrated the horse-sacrifice, is however spoken of as a king of Videha as well as a king of Kosala, showing that the kingdoms were sometimes united under one sovereign. A well-known legend in the ^^tapatha Brahmana recognises that Videha received Vedic civilisation later than Kosala, for it tells how Mathava the Videgha, whose name shows the older form of the word Videha, passed from the Sarasvati, the seat of Vedic culture, to the land of Videha, crossing the Sadanira; this perennial stream, as its name denotes, formed the boundary of Kosala on the east and, with some plausibility, has been identified with the modern Gandak, which rising in Nepal joins the Ganges near Patna. Kagi and Videha are also connected in the Kaushitaki Upanishad ; and a late text preserves the record that Jala Jatukarnya was the Purohita of the Kosalas, Videhas, and Ka9is at one time, proving a temporary league. Of other kings we hear of the Kosalan Hiranyanabha, of the Videhan Nam! Sapya, and beyond all of Janaka of Videha, whose fame leads him to play the part of the father of Sita, the heroine of the Ramayana, the second of India's gi*eat epics. Janaka appears himself as a king ever anxious to seek for the wisdom of the Brahmans ; and among his contemporaries are mentioned the great Yajnavalkya, and ^vetaketu. His contemporary was Ajata9atru of Ka9l, whom one account indeed refers to as of Ka9i or Videha, and it is a natural suggestion that in this name we have a chronological fact of value. It is suggested that in this A]ata9atru we have the Ajatasattu of the Buddhist texts, who was a contemporary of the Buddha and who
v] The Eastern Peoples 123
therefore reigiied in the sixth century rg.^ But the suggestion is not a happy one. In the Buddhist text Ajatasattu never appears as king of any other place than Magadha, and the name is merely an epithet, *he who has no foe,' which could be applied to any king, though it may well be that the Ajatasattu of Magadha gladly borrowed an epithet which a king of Kaci had made famous. Other kings of Ka^I were Dhritarashtra, whose defeat by a Bharata has been mentioned above, and Bhadrasena, a descendant of Ajatacatru.
It is very noticeable that the relations of Ka9i and the Bharatas seem to have been those of war; and there is evidence of some aversion existing between the Kosala-Videhas and the Ka9is on the one hand and the Kuru-Panchalas on the other. It is clear enough that the Brahmanical tradition came to the Kosala-Videhas from the Kuru-Panchala country; but the question remains whether the Aryan tribes, who occupied Oudh and Tirhut, were a branch of the Kuru-Panchalas or men who were originally settled in the Kuru-Paiichala country or on its borders and were pushed eastwards by the pressure of the Kuru-Paiichalas. The evidence is not sufficient to pronounce any opinion on either view, and, as we have seen, still less to show that the Kurus were distinct from the Panchalas as a different branch of the Aryan invaders of India.
Much more definitely still beyond the pale were the people of Magadha, which serves with Anga in the Atharvaveda as a symbol of a distant land. The man of Magadha is dedicated, in the account of the symbolic human sacrifice given in the Yajurveda, to 'loud noise,' suggesting that the Magadha country must have been the seat of minstrelsy, an idea supported by the fact that in later literature a man of Magadha is the designation of a minstrel. If, as has been suggested, the Kikatas of the Rigveda were really located in Magadha, the dislike of the country goes back to the Rigveda itself. The cause must probably have been the imperfect Brahmanisation of the land and the predominance of aboriginal blood, which later in history rendered Magadha the headquarters of Buddhism. It is significant that the Buddhist texts show a subordination of the Brahman to the Kshatriya class which has no parallel in the orthodox literature. It is clear however that Brahmans sometimes lived there, but that their doing so was a ground for surprise.
^ See Hoernle, Osteology, p. 106. For arguments against, see Keith, Z.D.M.G., vol. Lxii, pp. 138-9.
124 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
The man of Magadha is brought into close connexion with the Vratya in a mystical hymn in the Atharvaveda which celebrates the Vratya as a type of the supreme power in the universe. A more connected account of the Vratyas is found in the Paiichavim^a Brahmana of the Samaveda and the Sutras of that Veda^. It is clear that, as their name suggests, they were persons regarded as outcasts; and ceremonies are described intended to secure them admission into the Brahmanical fold. The description of the Vratyas well suits nomad tribes : they are declared not to practise agriculture, to go about in rough wagons, to wear turbans, to carry goads and a peculiar kind of bow, while their garments are of a special kind. Their sense of justice was not that of the Brahmans, and their speech, though it seems Aryan, was apparently Prakritic in form, as is suggested by the significant remark that they called what was easy of utterance hard to speak ; for the Prakrits differ from Sanskrit essentially in their efforts to avoid harsh consonantal combinations. Where they were located is not certain, for their habits would agi*ee well enough Avith nomads in the west ; but the little information which we have seems fairly enough to lead to the conclusion that some at least of- the Vratyas were considered to be dwellers in Magadha.
There is little to be said of other tribes. The Vidarbhas are known through one of their kings who received certain knowledge from the mythical sages Parvata and Narada, and through a special kind of dog found in their country. The list of kings who per- formed the horse-sacrifice includes the Qvikna king, Rishabha Yajnatura. Mention has been made above of the Paravatas, who were found on the Jumna; and the Kekayas with their prince A9vapati, and the Balhikas were located in the far north. The temptation to transform the name of the latter into a sign of Iranian influence must be withstood, as it rests on no sure basis and we have seen Balhika as part of the name of a Kuru prince. An early Siitra refers to ^aphala, the kingdom of Ritupania. The Andhras, and other tribes mentioned by the Aitareya Brahmana as outcasts, were probably still Dra vidian in blood and speech, though Munda speaking tribes may have been mingled with them as the name ^^bara suggests. The Angas, too, may have been com- paratively little affected by the influence of the Aryan culture. It has been conjectured that in Magadha the wave of Aryan civilisation met with another wave of invasion from the east ; but,
^ Charpentier, V.O.J. , vol. xxv, pp. 355 sq., sees in the Vratyas the precursors of the Qivaites of to-day. But see Keith, J.R.A.S., 1913, pp. 155 sq.
v] . Social Changes 125
tempting as the suggestion is, it cannot be supported by anything in the Vedic literature ^
As was to be expected, society was far from unchanged in this period of active Aryan expansion. As we have seen, there is good reason to believe that in the period of the Rigveda the priesthood and the nobility were hereditary. This view receives support from the fact that similar class distinctions are to be found in other Indo-European communities, such as the patrician gentes in Rome, the Eupatridae of Athens, the nobles of early Germany, the eorls of the Anglo-Saxons, and the still closer parallel of the Iranian classes of Athravas and Rathaesthas, ' priests ' and * warriors.' It may even be that these distinctions are earlier than the severance of the Indo-Iranians, if not as old as the union of the Aryan peoples. But in this period there comes into existence a new factor, the introduction of divisions among the ordinary freemen, the Vai9ya8, and the development of a large and complicated system of caste which converts the simple distinction of Vai^ya and (^udra into an ever-increasing number of endogamous hereditary groups practising one occupation or at least restricted to a small number of occupations. This result was certainly far from being reached in the period of the Brahmanas, but the tendency of social or racial distinctions to harden into castes is already apparent. In this development there must have been two main influences : the force of occupation is later revealed clearly enough in the Pali texts, and another interesting case is supplied by the Brahmanas themselves. In the Taittirlya Brahmana the Rathakaras, ' chariot makers,' appear as a special class along with the Vai9yas ; and in this special position we can see how the chariot makers, the type of skilled workers in the Rigveda, have, through their devotion to a mechanical art, lost status as compared with the ordinary freeman. The influence of the aborigines must also have been very strong, as intermarriage proceeded. To be born of a female 9udra was a disgrace with which Kavasha and Vatsa were taunted by their priestly con- temporaries: contact with the aborigines seems to have raised questions of purity of blood very like those which at present agitate the Southern States of the United States or the white people in South Africa. In the Rigveda, restrictions on inter- marriage seem to have been of the simplest kind, confined to rules such as those prohibiting marriage of brother and sister or father' and daughter. In the Sutras the rules are still not quite rigid;
1 See Pargiter, J.R.A.S., 1908, p. 852. Oldenberg, Buddha'^, p. 10, thinks that the Anga, Magadlia, Ka^ji, Kosala, and Videha tribes were earlier Aryan immigrants.
126 Later Samhi^s^ Brahma?jas^ etc. [cH.
but they insist that there shall be no marriage with agnates or cognates, and they require that a man must either marry in his own caste, or if he marries out of his caste, it must be into a lower caste. But while some authorities so lay down this rule as to allow the Brahman to marry into the next two lower castes, the Kshatriya and the Vaigya, and the Kshatriya to marry into the Vai9ya caste, others also permit marriage with (^udras, and therefore allow a Vai9ya to marry into that caste.
As might be expected, the Brahmana period presents us with a stage intermediate between the rules of the Sutras and the laxity of the Rigveda. The rule as to marriage within the circle of the cognates and agnates seems, by the time of the ^atapatha Brahmana, to have extended only to the prohibition of marriage with relations of the third or, according to others, of the fourth degree. Similarly in the Brahmanas, while we have no reason to doubt that priest- hood and nobility were hereditary, these castes seem to have been free to intermarry with the lower castes including the ^udra, as the cases of Vatsa and Kavasha cited above indicate. The marriage of a Brahman with the daughter of a king is attested by the case of Sukanya, the daughter of ^aryata, who married the seer, Chyavana.
The question how far change of caste was possible raises difficult problems. The evidence of any change is scanty in the extreme. The most that can be said is that it does not seem to have been impossible. Thus in the Rigveda, as we have seen, Vi9vamitra is a priest, the Purohita of the king Sudas, but in the Paiichavim^a and the Aitareya Brahmanas he is treated as of royal descent, of the family of the Jalmus. The Panchavim9a Brahmana also speaks of certain persons as royal seers ; and the later tradition, preserved in the Anukramanl or ' index ' to the composers of the Rigveda, ascribes hymns to such royal seers, in some cases at least without any real foundation. Yaska, in one instance, represents a prince, Devapi, as sacrificing for his brother ^amtanu, the king ; but here we can see from the passage of the Rigveda on which his narrative is based that he has no warrant for this theory. In the Aitareya Brahmana a king, Vi9vantara, sacrifices without his priests, the Qyaparnas; but the case has no cogency, for the mention of other priests in the context suggests the natural inference that he used one or other of these groups. Some kings are mentioned in the Panchavim9a Brahmana and elsewhere as having been great sacrificers; but this may mean no more than that they were the patrons of the sacrifice, the normal part of the
v] The Four Great Classes 127
king. We come nearer to contact with fact in the concurrent stories of the Upanishads which show kings like Janaka of Videha, A9vapati king of the Kekayas in the Punjab, Ajata9atru of Ka9i, and Pravahana Jaivali of Panchala disputing with and instructing Brahmans in the lore of the brahman, the unity which is the reality of the world. Very possibly this attribution is mainly due to considerations of the advantage of conciliating the kings who were the patrons of the new philosophy ; but, in any case, there is no reason to deny that kings could and did take interest in in- tellectual movements, and we cannot from such facts infer that there was any possibility of interchange of caste : we cannot say that, if a king became a seer, as the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana asserts in one case, it really meant that he was regarded as ceasing to belong to the kingly caste, any more than we can say that, if a priest became king, as was not unknowTi later at least, he thereby suffered any loss of his priestly position. One case of interest remains, that of Satyakama Jabala who was accepted as a pupil by a distinguished priest because he showed promise, although all he could tell of his ancestry was that he was the son of a slave girl; but, evidently, his father might have been a Brahman, and the case is only of value as negativing the idea of any unnatural rigidity of institutions in the Vedic age. The history of later India shows how rigid distinctions might be in theory but how ingeniously they might in practice be evaded in the individual case. What is more significant, perhaps, is that there is no instance recorded in the Vedic texts of a Vai9ya rising to the rank of priest or a prince : the two upper hereditary classes might to some degree permit closer relations, but they seem to have regarded the commoner as definitely beneath them.
The relations of the four great classes of castes are summed up from the point of view of the Brahman in a passage of the Aitareya Brahmana^. In that passage the Kshatriya is taken as the norm, and the other castes are defined according to the relations which they bear to him.
The Brahman is *a receiver of gifts, a drinker of the Soma, a seeker of food, and liable to removal at will.' We can distinguish in this period two classes of Brahmans, the priests who, as Purohitas of the king or belonging to his entourage, took part in the vast sacrifices, some of them lasting for at least a year, which they offered for their mastei-s, and the priests of the village who lived a humble and more restricted existence, except when they might
' Vedic Index, vol. ii, p. 256.
r
128 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc. [ch.
be called on to serve at the sacrifice instituted by some rich noble or merchant. In both cases the priest was, in the long run, at the mercy of the political power of the king. To the spiritual claims of the Brahmans, so proudly asserted at the ceremony of the royal consecration, when the king is announced to the people as their king but it is added that the Soma is the king of the Brahmans, must be opposed the practical power of the king.
The Vai9ya is described as ' tributary to another, to be lived on by another, and to be oppressed at will.' From the point of view of the Kshatriya this indicates the fact that the exactions of the king from the commoners of the tribe were limited only by practical considerations of expediency: the commoner had no legal right to his landholding or to his private property if the king decided to take them from him ; and, if he was allowed to retain them, he paid for them in tribute and in the duty of supporting others. This refers, no doubt, to the king's privilege of assigning to his nobles the right to receive food from the common people, and thus of making provision for the maintenance of the nobility, who assisted him in the protection of the country, and in the administration and the conduct of justice. By this means the nobles came more and more to occupy the position of landholders under the king, while the Vai9yas approximated to the position of tenants. Moreover, the nobles may well have received from the king, as a result of successful onslaughts on the aborigines, grants of conquered lands and slaves, which they would hold in full proprietorship, subject to the political authority of the king. Among the Vai9yas, again, distinctions were gi'owing up: that originally the agriculture was carried on by Aryan tillers is certain ; but, in the period of the Brahmanas, the position was changing gradually; and, for the peasant working on his own fields, was being substituted the landowner cultivating his estate by means of slaves, or the merchant carrying on his trade by the same instru- mentality, though we cannot with any certainty say how far this process was proceeding. The industrial workers, like the chariot makers, the smiths, the tanners, the carpenters, were sinking in estimation and forming distinct castes of their own.
On the other hand, the (^iidra was approximating more and more to the position to which the humbler freeman was being reduced. In the passage referred to, he is still described as * the servant of another, to be expelled at will and to be slain at will ' ; but in the Siitras we find that, while the Vai9ya has a wergeld of 100 cows, the ^udra has a wergeld of 10 cows; and, even if we
v] The Qudras 129
assume that this is merely for the benefit of his master — which is very doubtful — still unquestionably the growing complication of the social scheme was abolishing the relation of simple slavery. Slaves proper there were, as we see in the Buddhist texts; but, where whole tribes were reduced to subjection, the tendency must have been to assign villages and their inhabitants to the king and to the nobles, sometimes, perhaps, also, though in a less degree, to the commoners who at this period must still have formed the bulk of the army. While some of the aboriginal inhabitants would thus become slaves pure and simple, the rest would rather stand in the relationsliip of serfs ; and, as we have seen, there is reason to suppose that in many cases the true Vai9yas also were approxi- mating to the position of tenants of the nobles. There is an interesting parallel in the early history of England, where the ordinary freeman gradually fell into feudal dependence on his superiors, while the slave as gradually acquired the position of a serf, and became more and more assimilated to the position to which the freeman had sunk.
This ambiguous position of the ^udra is amply recognised in the Vedic texts: on the one hand, he is emphatically regarded as being impure and not fit to take part in the sacrifice: after consecration, in some cases, the mere speaking to a 9^dra is absolutely forbidden. He was not allowed even to milk the cow for the milk needed for the offering to Agni. In the Vajasaneyi Samhita illicit connexions between Aryan and Qudra are severely reprobated; but, in other places, sin against Arya and ^iidra is referred to, prayers are uttered for the glory of Arya and Qudra, and we learn of rich Qudras. The Sutras, while they emphasise many points not attested by the Brahmana texts, such as the danger of sitting near (Qudras, their exclusion from the study of the Veda, and the prohibition of eating food touched by them, yet recognise that they may be merchants or indeed exercise any trade.
It seems probable enough that among the Qudras themselves there were rules of endogamy; for we may generally assume, in the absence of anything to the contrary in the texts, that the Vedic Indians and the aborigines alike married within the tribe. The Qudras seem often to have been subjugated by whole tribes, such as the Baindas, the Parnakas, the Paulkasas, and perhaps the Chandalas, who may originally have been members of small and degraded tribes living mainly by fisliing or hunting: such tribes have survived in the Central Provinces and near the Himalayas until the present day, and they must have been much more
C.H.I. I. • 9
130 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch,
numerous in the first millennium B.C. Thus from below as well as from above, from the practices of the conquered aborigines as well as from the class prejudices of the Aryans, may have come the impulse to the development of caste.
From the political point of view the chief characteristic of the new order was the growth in the power of the king. We must not assume that, even in this period, there were great kingdoms. It is true that the horse-sacrifice as reported in the (^atapatha Brahmana and in the royal consecration of the Aitareya Brahmana, both of which passages are late, presuppose that the kings who performed it set up claims to imperial dignity, and that they had won the proud title of 'conquerors of the whole earth,' which is applied to them. But real conquest seems not to have been meant; and, though the evidence above given proves that there was considerable amalgamation of tribes and the formation of larger kingdoms than those in the period of the Rigveda, yet it is significant that even the Kuru-Panchalas, and still less the Kosala- Videhas, never amalgamated into single kingdoms. We may, how- ever, safely hold that the king now ruled in many cases a much larger realm than the princes of the Rigveda. The hereditary character of the monarchy is clearly apparent: in one case, that of the Srinjayas, we hear expressly of a monarchy which had lasted ten generations. The term Rajaputra, 'son of a king,' is now found together with the older Rajanya, which probably covers the nobles as well as the king and his family. The importance of the kingly rank is emphasised by the elaborate rite of the royal consecration, the Rajasiiya. The king is clad in the ceremonial garments of his rank, is formally anointed by the priest, steps on a tiger skin to attain the power of the tiger, takes part in a mimic cattle raid, assumes the bow and arrow, and steps as a conqueror to each of the four quarters, an action paralleled in the coronation of the Hungarian king. A game of dice is played in which he is made the victor. A list of kings who were thus consecrated is given in the Aitareya Brahmana: in all but details it coincides with the list given in the Qatapatha Brahmana of those who performed the horse-sacrifice.
At the royal consecration the entourage of the king played an important part. The list of Ratnins, 'jewels,' given by the Taittiriya texts, consists of the Brahman, i.e. the Purohita, the Rajanya, the Mahishi, the first wife of the four allowed to the king by custom, the Vavata, 'favourite wife,' the Parivrikti, 'discarded wife,' the Suta, ' charioteer,' the Senani, ' commander of the army,'
v] Officials 131
the Gramani, 'village headman,' the Kshattri, 'chamberlain,' the Samgrahitri, ' charioteer ' or ' treasurer,' the Bhagadugha, ' collector of taxes ' or ' divider of food,' and the Akshavapa, ' superintendent of dicing' or 'thrower of dice.' The ^atapatha Brahmana has also the 'huntsman' and the 'courier,' while the Maitrayani Samhita adds the Takshan, 'carpenter,' and Rathakara, 'chariot- maker.' In an older list of eight Viras, 'heroes,' given in the Panchavim9a Brahmana are found the brother, son, Purohita, Mahishi, Siita, Gramani, Kshattri, and Samgrahitri. We are faced, in the interpretation of the names of several of these officers, with the doubt whether we are to recognise in them merely courtiers or public functionaries. The Suta is according to native tradition the ' charioteer ' ; but it seems much more probable that he was at once a herald and a minstrel, and to this conclusion the inviolability, which in one passage is attributed to him, clearly points. The Gramani has already been met with as a military official in the period of the Rigveda. Probably at this epoch a Gramani was, both for civil and military purposes, at the head of each village, owing, it may be conjectured, his position to the king, while the Gramani par excellevice presided over the city or village where the royal court was situated. It is also far from unlikely, despite the silence of the texts, that the civil functions of the Gramani were the more important; for the post is emphatically declared in several places to represent the summit of the ambition of the Vai9ya. If later analogy is to help us, we may conjecture that the Gramani formed the channel through which the royal control was exercised and the royal dues received. It may well be then that the household officers, besides their more primitive functions, carried out the important duties of receiving and disbursing the revenues which the king thus obtained; and on them must have fallen the duty of seeing that the supplies, which the Vaigyas were required to provide for the maintenance of the king's household, were duly forthcoming. The condition of these officers is indeed probably to be compared with that of the household of the early English and Norman kings.
An officer, not included in the list of the Ratnins but often mentioned in the texts of the period, was the Sthapati; and we learn that it was the Sthapati of Dushtaritu who restored him to the kingdom of the Srinjayas after he had been expelled thence by his subjects. He may have been a governor of part of the kingdom ; but the more likely interpretation of the term is ' chief judge,' an official who doubtless combined executive as well as
9—2
132 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc. [cH.
judicial functions. Later however in the Sutras we hear of a Nishada-Sthapati which may mean a 'governor of Nishadas,' apparently the ruler of some outlying aboriginal tribes, who had been reduced to subjection and placed under the royal control.
Of the actual functions of the king we hear little detail. He still led in war — the Kuru-Pafichala princes sallied forth to raid in the dewy season and returned in the hot weather as a matter of course — ^but the Senani appears as leader in charge under him. From the Sutras and from a stray reference in the (^atapatha Brahmana, he seems to have taken a very active part in the ad- ministration of the criminal law. There can be no doubt that he controlled the land of the tribe. It is not, however, necessary to ascribe to this period the conception of the royal ownership of all the land, though it appears in the Greek sources from the time of Megasthenes downwards, and is evidenced later by the law-books of the time. He had, it is true, the right to expel a Brahman or a Vai9ya at will, though we do not know expressly that he could do this in the case of a Kshatriya. But these considerations point to political superiority rather than to ownership proper; and we may assume that, when he gave grants of land to his retainers, he gi'anted not ownership but privileges such as the right to receive dues and maintenance from the cultivators. There is a clear distinction between this action and the conferring of ownei*ship; and it may be doubted if the actual gift of land was approved in this epoch: the only case of which we hear is one reported in the ^atapatha and the Aitareya Brahmanas, in which the king Vi9vakarman Bhauvana gave land to the priests who sacrificed for him, but the Earth itself rebuked his action. It is more probable that, at this time, the allotment of land was determined by the king or the noble to whom he had granted rights of superiority according to customary law, and that gifts not in accordance with this law were disapproved. It is hardly necessary to point out the close similarity between such a state of affairs and that existing at the present day in parts of West Africa, where kings have intro- duced for purposes of personal gain the practice of dealing as absolute owners with lands, which, according to the strict system of tribal law, they had no power to allocate save in accordance with the custom of the tribe. Nor is it inconsistent with this view that the king had an arbitrary power of removing a subject from his land. That power flowed from his sovereignty, and though disapproved was acquiesced in, we may presume, just as in West Africa ; while the dealing of kings with the land by way of absolute
v] yudicial Procedure .133
ownership was regarded as a complete breach of the tribal law, the actual removal from his land of any individual was recognised as a royal prerogative, even if the power were misused.
In curious contrast with the comparative wealth of information regarding the king, is the silence of our texts on the assembly of the people. The samiti or the sabJid is not rarely mentioned in these texts ; and we cannot assume that the assembly had lost its power, though it may have diminished in importance. Even this, however, we cannot absolutely assert; for we hear so often of expelled kings that we must believe that the people were far from obedient to a yoke which rested on them too heavily. But there must have been in the extension of the realm a tendency to diminish the possibility of frequent meetings of the samiti, and accordingly some diminution in its control over the state. At any rate, there are indications, if no conclusive proof, that there was growing up within the members of the sahhd a distinction between those who attended only at the great meetings and the sabhdsads, or 'assessors,' who attended regularly; and it may be that for judicial purposes the activity of the sahhd was entrusted to a smaller number, the Homeric gerontes, unless indeed we are to trace judicial functions to an origin in voluntary arbitration \
On judicial matters we learn but little more than in the pre- ceding period. Serious crimes like killing an embryo, the murder of a Brahman, and the murder of a man occur in lists of sins together w ith minor defects, such as the possession of bad nails. Other more serious crimes mentioned are stealing gold and drinking the surd, while treachery to the king is recognised as a capital offence. There are traces of a growing sense of justice in the discussions which are recorded in the case of the accidental death of a boy through the carelessness of the king and the Purohita, who were driving in a chariot. But the procedure in cases of crime is still quite uncertain : the king may have presided and the tribe or the assessors may have judged ; but for this result we can rely only on the fact that the king is said to wield the rod of justice, and that in the case of the accidental death of the boy the matter is stated to have been referred to the Ikshvakus who decided that an expiation was due. In the case of theft in the Chhandogya Upanishad we find the axe ordeal applied, apparently under the
1 Bonner {Classical Philology, vol. vi, pp. 12-36) finds in Homer no criminal law, except in the form of the punishment by the whole people of an offender whose wrong- doings involved the whole people in danger of reprisals; the function of the king or Gerontes he traces in civil cases to voluntary arbitration. It is of interest that Homer (p. 32) knows nothing of witnesses ; the Vedic texts likewise seem to ignore them.
134 Inciter Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
direction of the king; but this is the solitary case of an ordeal known in Vedic literature as a part of criminal procedure. In the Siitras we hear of the king with his own hand striking a confessed thief On the other hand, beside the public organisation of criminal justice, there was still the system of private vengeance tempered by the wergeld. The Sutras fix the wergeld of the Kshatriya at 1000 cows, of the Vaigya at 100, and of the Qiidra at 10, with a bull over and above for the king, according to the text of Baudhayana. This seems to indicate a stage when the royal power had extended sufficiently to secure that the wergeld should be accepted, and that the insult to the royal peace required the appeasement of the king and his reward for his intervention by the gift of a bull. The lower position of women is shown by one text which assigns in her case only the same wergeld as for a ^iidra. Unhappily, the texts are so vague that we cannot be certain whether the payment in the case of a ^udra was always required or whether he might be slain with impunity by his master, as the term 'to be slain at pleasure' applied to him in the Aitareya Brahmana suggests.
We have also very little information regarding civil law. The use of an ordeal in this connexion is attested only by the case of Vatsa who proved his purity of descent, which was assailed, by walking unharmed through fire. Presumably, civil cases might be decided by the king with assessors ; but this view rests only on the analogy of other peoples and on the later practice in India itself. We know for certain that a Brahman had preference in his law cases ; but whether because it was a moral duty of the witnesses to bear testimony in his favour, or for the judges to give judgment for him, cannot be decided from the passage of the Taittiriya Samhita which records the preference. As regards the substance of the law we learn the outlines of the law of succession: a father might in his lifetime divide his property among his sons, in which case he seems to have had a free hand as to their shares : if he grew old and helpless, they themselves might divide it, while in the division among the sons on his death the older son received the larger share. Women were excluded from the inheritance. Similarly, a woman had no property of her own : if her husband died, she passed to his family with the inheritance like the Attic epiUeros. Her earnings, if any, were the property of husband or father. The ^udra seems in law to have been also without capacity of owning property in his own right. As in the period of the Rigveda, there is no evidence of joint family ownership of any
I
v] Position of JVomen : Agriculture 135
property, even in the case of land, though, as we have seen, land at this epoch was not considered a suitable form of gift There is a clear reference on the other hand to the allotment of land by the Kshatriya, presumably in accordance with the customary law. There is no trace of the development of the law of contract: much work was doubtless done by slaves or by hereditary craftsmen who received customary remuneration from the villagers, not pay- ment for each piece of work.
On the whole, there seems to have been some decline in this period in the position of women : as has been seen, in one of the Siitra texts her wergeld is assimilated to that of a 9udra and her lack of proprietary power must have tended to decrease her prestige. The polygamy of the kings is now fully established; and, presumably, the practice of the sovereigns was followed by the richer of their subjects. In a number of passages in the Brahmanas it has been sought to find proof that female morality was not highly estimated; but this cannot be established; and it is a mistake to suppose that the exposure of female children was practised. On the other hand, the preference for sons becomes more and more pronounced: *a daughter is a source of misery, a son a light in the highest heaven.' Generally speaking, the increased complexity of society seems to have been accompanied by an increase of crime and moral laxity, as appears from the curious litany in the Yajurvedas where Rudra is hailed as the protector of every kind of thief and ruffian.
In agi'iculture and pastoral pursuits progi*ess was doubtless made. The plough was large and heavy : we hear of as many as twenty-four oxen being harnessed to one : it had a sharp point and a smoothed handle. In addition to irrigation, which was known in the Rigveda, the use of manure is referred to several times. In place of the indeterminate yava of the Rigveda many kinds of grain are mentioned, and yava is restricted, in all probability, to the sense 'barley.' Among those names are wheat, beans, com, sesamum from which oil was extracted, Panicum miliaceum, frv/mentoAieum, and italicum, Wrightia antidysenterica, Dolichos unifiorus, Ervum hirsutwm, Coix harhata, and various others. Rice, both domesticated and wild, was much used. The seasons of the different grains are briefly summed up in the Taittiriya Samhita : barley, sown no doubt, as at present, in winter, ripened in summer : rice, sown in the rains, ripened in autumn : beans and sesamum, planted in the time of the summer rains, ripened in the winter and the cold season. There were two seasons of harvest
136 L.ater Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [CH.
according to the same authority; and another text tells us that the winter crops were ready in March. The farmer had, as now, constant troubles to contend with: moles destroyed the seed, birds and other creatures injured the young shoots; and both drought and excessive rain were to be feared: the Atharvaveda provides us with a considerable number of spells to avoid blight and secure a good harvest. Cucumbers are alluded to, perhaps as cultivated ; but there is no certain reference to tree culture, though frequent mention is made of the great Indian trees like the A9vattha, the Ficus religiosa, and the Nyagrodha, the Ficus indica, and the different forms of the jujube are specially named. Even more striking is the great development of industrial life and the sub-division of occupations. The list of victims at the symbolical human sacrii&ce of the later texts of the Yajurveda provides us with a large variety of such occupations; and, after making all allowances, it is impossible to doubt that the lists represent a good deal of fact. We hear of hunters, of several classes of fishermen, of attendants on cattle, of fire-rangers, of ploughers, of charioteers, of several classes of attendants, of makers of jewels, basket-makers, washermen, rope-makers, dyers, chariot-makers, barbers, weavers, slaughterers, workers in gold, cooks, sellers of dried fish, makers of bows, gatherers of wood, doorkeepers, smelters, footmen, messengers, carvers and seasoners of food, potters, smiths and so forth. Pro- fessional acrobats are recorded, and players on drums and flutes. Beside the boatman appears the oarsman, and the poleman; but there is still no hint of sea-borne commerce or of more than river navigation, though we need not suppose that the sea was unknown, at least by hearsay, to the end of the period. There is a trace of police ofiicials in the Ugras who occur in one passage of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad; and a Gramyavadin or village judge appears to have held a court for petty cases in the village. Among the priests themselves, we find the sub-division of Chhandogas, the singers of Samans, while the Charakas were wandering students, a special branch of whom are said to have founded the schools of the Black Yajurveda. Moreover, in accordance with the tendency to sub-divide and formulate, the life of the priest is now more rigidly regulated: he must pass as a preliminary through the apprenticeship of being a Brahmacharin. In this stage he is taught by a master, for whom in return he does all the necessary work of the day and for whom he begs or otherwise provides food. Two important features of later village life in India appear in the forms of the astrologer and the barber. Of women's work we learn of
v] The Metals : Social Life 137
the dyer, the embroiderer, the worker in thorns, and the basket- maker. The merchant is often mentioned, and the usurer has a special name : it is of interest that the term ^reshthin several times occurs, denoting at least a wealthy merchant, and possibly already the word has its later technical sense of the head of a merchant gild.
The advance of civilisation is seen also in the more extended knowledge of the metals : as compared with the gold and the ayas, of doubtful meaning, of the Rigveda, this period knows tin, lead, and silver of which ornamented bowls are made, while ay as is diflPerentiated as red ayas, presumably copper, and dark or black ay as, which must be iron. Another sign ofthe new eraisjhe definite references to the keeping of tamedephants, the guarding of elephants being one of the occupations occurring in the Yajurveda texts. But there is no hint that the elephant was yet used for war as it was already in the time of Ctesias. The use of horses for riding had certainly become more common ; but no clear reference is made to the employment of cavalry in war, though that was usual by the time of Alexander's invasion.
Little change can be traced in the social life of the time. The use of houses of wood continued; and, as a result, we have not a single relic remaining of the architecture of the period. Nor have we any coins: it is not probable, indeed, that a regular coinage had begun, though the path to this development was already opened by the use of the Tcrishnala, the berry of the Ahrus preeatorius, as a unit of weight. We hear in the Brahmanas of the ^atamdna, a piece of gold in weight equivalent to a hundred krishnalas, and such pieces of gold were clearly more or less equivalent to currency and must have been used freely by the merchants, of whose activities we hear so little in the sacred texts. The nishka, originally a gold ornament, was also at this time a unit of value ; and the cow as a unit was probably in course of super- session. The style of clothing seems to have continued unchanged, though we hear more of the details : among other things we are told of woollen garments, robes dyed with saffron, and silk raiment. The food of the Indian remained unaltered: the eating of meat is, indeed, here and there censured, as for instance in a hymn of the Atharvaveda where meat eating is classed with the drinking of the sura as a sinful act, and meat might be avoided like other things by one who was keeping a vow. But it was still the custom to slay a great ox or goat for the entertainment of a guest, and the great sage Yajnavalkya ate meat of milch cows and oxen,
138 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
provided that the flesh was amscda, a word of doubtful import, rendered either 'firm' or 'tender' by various authorities. The doctrine of ahimsd, which forbids the doing of injury to any animal, was indeed only in embryo in this period, and was not fiilly developed until the growth of the belief in transmigration came to strengthen the philosophic tenets of the Brahmanas as to the unity of all existence. The amusements of the day were, as in the period of the Rigveda, the chariot race, dicing, of which we have several elaborate but not very clear accounts, and dancing. The term (^ailusha appears in the list of victims at the human sacrifice, and the sense ' actor ' has been seen in it Taken in con- junction with the dozen or so of hymns which show a dialogue form it has been supposed to indicate that the Rigveda knew of a ritual drama, the direct precursor of the drama of later India. But the evidence adduced is insufiicient to bear the strain of the hypothesis K In one respect there seems to have been a distinct retrogression since the age of the Rigveda. In that Samhita there is frequent mention of the physician's skill, and wonderful deeds are ascribed to the A9vin8 as healers of diseases. As early as the Yajurveda Samhitas, however, the physician appears to be held in less esteem : the A9vins were said to have made themselves inferior to the other gods by their practice of medicine, by which they made themselves too familiar with all sorts of people. The Atharvaveda contains much which gives a sad picture of the medical practice of the day: against the numerous diseases which it mentions it had nothing better to oppose than the use of herbs and water ac- companied by strange spells, based on sympathetic magic. The number of diseases recorded by difiering names is large : the most frequent was fever, no doubt the malaria which still haunts India ; and others mentioned are consumption, haemorrhoids, abscesses, scrofula, dysentery, boils, swellings, tumours on the neck, con- vulsions, ulcers, scab, rheumatism, tearing pains, headache, leprosy, jaundice, cramp, senility, and others less easy to identify. Various eye diseases were known; and the use of a sand bag to stop bleeding is recorded. The dissection of the animal victims at the sacrifices gave the opportunity to acquire knowledge of the bones of the body^, but on the whole the facts recorded, especially in the Atharvaveda and the ^atapatha Brahmana, give us no very elevated opinion of the accuracy of the Vedic physician in this regard.
^ See von Schroeder, Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda, Leipzig, 1908; Hertel, V.O.J. , vol. xvin, pp. 69 sq., 137 sq., xxni, 273 sq., xxiv, 117 Bq. ; Winternitz, V.O.J. , vol. xxni, pp. 102 sq.; Keith, J.R.A.S., 1911, pp. 979-1009.
* See Hoemle, Osteology, Oxford, 1907.
v] Astronomy 139
On the other hand, a distinct advance was unquestionably made in regard to astronomical knowledge. The Rigveda knows only, so far as we can see, the year of 360 days divided into twelve months of thirty days each, which is six days longer than the synodic lunar year, and nearly five and a quarter days too short for the solar year. To bring the year into something like order, intercalation seems to have been attempted quite early : we hear in a riddle hymn of the Rigveda (i, 164) of the intercalary month, the thirteenth. In the Samhitas the system is slightly more developed ; and possibly some efibrts were being made to arrange intercalation in a cycle of five years in such a manner that the years and the seasons would be made to coincide ; but it is fairly clear that a satisfactory method had not yet been obtained. The Samhitas, however, give us the names of the twelve months arranged very artificially in six seasons, and they introduce to us the important doctrine of the Nakshatras, or ' lunar mansions,' groups of stars selected as roughly indicating the parts of the sky in which the moon appeared in the course of a periodic month of 27-28 days. In the Rigveda the term Nakshatra seems usually to mean no more than ' star ' ; and it is only in the admittedly late marriage hymn (x, 85) that the names of two of the Nakshatras proper are found though in altered forms. The number of the Nakshatras is variously given as twenty-seven in the Taittiriya Samhita and the Kathaka lists and usually later, and as twenty-eight in the lists of the Maitrayani Samhita and the Atharvaveda. As the periodic month has between 27 and 28 days, the variation may be primitive: of the allied systems the Chinese Sieou and the Arabic Manazil have twenty- eight: the missing star Abhijit in the smaller enumeration may have fallen out for a variety of causes; and it seems easier to assume this than to regard it as a later addition. The use of the Nakshatras offered a simple and efiective means of fixing dates by the conjunction of the new or fiiU moon with a particular Na- kshatra, and in the Brahmana period a further step was taken: on some arbitrary basis which we cannot now determine, twelve of the Nakshatra names in adjectival form were chosen to represent the months. It might have been expected that the months repre- sented by these names would be lunar, but they are, as a matter of fact, the twelve months of the traditional year of 360 days. The whole series of the new names is not found until the Sutra period ; but the vitality of the new system is adequately proved by the fact that the old series of twelve given in the Samhitas correspond- ing to the six seasons is practically ignored in the later literature.
I40 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
The origin of the Nakshatras has formed the subject of most lively controversy: it is clear that the Vedic Indians knew very little about astronomy, for it is extremely doubtful whether the planets were known at all in the Brahmana period. But it is not impossible that, even at this epoch, the Nakshatras could have been discovered, for the achievement is a rude one. The question is, however, complicated by the existence of the Arabian Manazil and the Chinese Sieou. The Manazil are better chosen as lunar mansions than the Indian Nakshatras: borrowing on the part of India from Arabia cannot be proved in view of the late date of the Arabian evidence, while the superiority of the Arabian system seems to make it improbable that it should have been derived from India. The Chinese evidence is early enough to allow of borrowing ; and the dependence of India on China has been maintained by Biot and de Saussure ; but the difficulties in the way of this view are really insuperable. It remains therefore as the most plausible view that the Nakshatras are derived from Babylon, though direct proof of the existence of the Nakshatras there has yet to be discovered.
Compared with the case of the Nakshatras there is little other evidence of the contact of India with other civilisations in this period. In the ^atapatha Brahmana for the first time there appears the legend of the flood and the saving of Manu by a great fish; and it is most unlikely that we are to see here any re- miniscence of the former Aryan home and the crossing of the Hindu Kush\ It is therefore possible that the legend may be of Semitic origin; but, if so, as usual the Indians have completely appropriated the motive, so that the borrowing cannot be proved. It has been suggested^ that the knowledge of iron was derived from Babylon ; but this is merely a conjecture which has at present no support in evidence. A sea-borne commerce with Babylon cannot be proved for this epoch either by the evidence of Vedic literature or by the references in the Book of Kings to apes and peacocks by names which are believed to have had an Indian origin. The history of the alphabet has been used by Biihler^ to
^ This is held by Weber, Indische Studien, vol. i, pp. 163 sq. ; see Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. n2, p. 323.
^ See Vincent Smith, Indian Antiquat-y, vol. xxxiv, p. 229; Imperial Gazetteer, vol. II, p. 98.
8 Indische Palaeographie, pp. 17 sq. Biihler relied on references to sea trade in the Siitras (Baudhayana, i, 2, 4 ; ii, 2, 2 ; Gautama, x, 33) and in the Jatakas and believed these to be authorities for the sixth century B.C.; see Indian Studies, no. in, pp. 15 sq. But neither Sutras nor Jatakas can be relied on for information regarding so early a date.
v] Writing: Religion 141
show that it was borrowed by traders fi-om a South Semitic source via Mesopotamia about 800 B.C.; but we cannot lay any stress upon this date. It seems, indeed, most probable that writing was introduced by traders and that it was only gradually adopted into its proper foiTa for the expression of the Sanskrit language. At what date this took place is not really susceptible of proof : there is no certain reference to writing in the literature of a date earlier than the fourth century RC; and the real development of writing belongs in all likelihood to the fifth century RC. It was the end of the sixth century that saw the invasion of Darius and the annexation of the territory round the Indus; and, prior to that event, there is no strong evidence of a really active contact between India and the outer world. It is, indeed, probable enough that even before the time of Darius, Cyrus had relations with the tribes on the right bank of the Indus, and Arrian asserts that the Assakenoi and the Astakenoi were subject to the Assyrian kings ^ ; but everything points to the fact that, in the period of the Brahmanas, relations with the Gandharas and other tribes in the remote north-west were very slight. It is also significant that there is no really certain case of an inscription of any sort in India before the third century b.c. ^
The development in religion and philosophy in the period is remarkable. The ritual has grown to very large proportions ; and with the ritual the number of the priests required at a sacrifice had increased until sixteen or seventeen are enumerated as taking part in the more important offerings. The mere offerings of vegetable food and milk are comparatively unimportant; but the animal sacrifice is increasingly elaborated, and the Soma sacrifice has developed largely. In addition to the simplest form of the Soma sacrifice occupying one day, there are innumerable other forms culminating in the Sattras which might last any time from twelve days to a year or years. It is significant that, at the bottom of this priestly elaboration, is much really popular religion. Thus the Rajasuya, or royal consecration, is fundamentally a popular rite for the anointing of the king : the Vajapeya betrays a popular origin in the prominence in it of a chariot race, once probably the main element; the Gavamayana, a Sattra lasting a year, is dis- tinguished by the ritual of the Mahavrata day in which long since was recognised a primitive performance celebrating the winter
' See Dufif, Chronnloyy of India, p. 5; Arrian, Indica, i, 3 (trans. M'Crindle, p. 179).
'^ Vincent Smith, Early History of India^, p. 16.
142 Later Samhitas^ Brahmaijas^ etc, [ch.
solstice. The horse-sacrifice is at bottom the elaboration of a simple rite of sympathetic magic; but it has been so elaborated as to combine everything which could make an appeal to the warrior Indian king and induce him to distribute abundant largesse on the celebrators. But beside these and other popular festivals, which the priests have worked over, stands one of the highest interest to the priest, which seems to reflect a new conception of theology. It is the building of the altar for the sacred fire; in one sense no doubt this was an ancient and simple rite, accompanied as so often by the slaying of a man in order to secure the abiding character of the structure: the Brahmana texts avoid requiring any such actual slaughter, though they record it as a deed of the past; but they elaborate the building out of all reason and utility. The only explanation of this action must be that offered by Eggeling^, that, in the building up of the fire altar, the Brahmans sought to symbolise the constitution of the unity of the universe. As we have seen, in the Purusha hymn of the Rigveda occurs the conception of the creation of the universe from the Purusha, and in the theology of the Brahmanas the Purusha is identified with Prajapati, 'lord of creatures,' and the sacrifice is conceived as constantly recurring in order to maintain the existence of the universe. To render this possible is the end of the fire altar, the building of which is the reconstruction of the universe in the shape of Prajapati. Prajapati, again, is identified with Agni, the fire of the altar, and both Prajapati and Agni are the divine counterparts of the human sacrificer. But Prajapati is himself Time, and Time is in the long run death, so that the sacrificer himself becomes death, and by that act rises superior to death, and is for ever removed from the world of illusion and trouble to the world of everlasting bliss. In this the true nature of Prajapati and of the sacrificer is revealed as intelligence, and the ^atapatha Brahmana urges the seeker for truth to meditate upon the self, made up of intelligence and endowed with a body of spirit, a form of light and an ethereal nature.
The same doctrine appears in another form in the Upanishads which are engaged with the discussion of the underlying reality. They agree in this that all reality in the ultimate issue must be reduced to one, called variously hrahman, *the holy power,' or atman, 'the self.' Moreover, the Upanishads agree in regarding the absolute to be unknowable, and though they ascribe to it intelligence they deprive that term of meaning by emptying it of
1 See Sacred Books of the East, voL XLin, pp. xiv-xxiv.
v] The Doctrine of Transmigration 143
all thought. If the real is the absolute alone, the existence of the appearance of this world must be explained ; but naturally enough the Upanishads do not successfully attempt this task ; and it was not until the time of ^ankaracharya in the beginning of the ninth century A.D. that it was found possible to reconcile the doctrines of the different texts by the view that all existence is merely illusion. This is perhaps a logical development of the doctrine of the Upanishads ; but the Upanishads were groping after truth and did not attempt to deduce all the consequences of their guesses at the nature of reality. There was one consequence which followed so clearly from the new conception of existence that it is enunciated, though not very decidedly, in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, namely that there was no consciousness after death in the case of him who realised the true nature of the self as intelligence without thought. But this conception plays a very small part in the texts compared with the new theory of transmigration. There is no real sign of this doctrine in the Brahmanas proper, but there is a certain amount of preparation for its appearance in the gradual development of the doctrine that not even after death is the horror of death ended : a man may die repeated deaths in the next world. If this conception be transferred to the present world, then the doctrine of transmigration is produced, and in the Upanishads this doctrine is clearly and expressly enunciated. The Chhandogya and Bri- hadaranyaka agree in the main outlines of the new belief: the forest ascetic who has realised the nature of brahman after death goes by the way of the gods to be absorbed in brahman and never again to be bom: the man who has done good deeds but has not attained the saving knowledge goes to the world of the moon to reside there until the fruit of his deeds is exhausted, when he is bom again first as a plant and then as man or at once as a man : the wicked on the contrary are born as outcasts, dogs, or swine, according to the Chhandogya, as birds, beasts, and reptiles ac- cording to the Brihadaranyaka. There is a variant version on the Kaushitaki which makes all first go to the moon ; but the essential point is the acceptance as a matter of certainty of the new doctrine of transmigration. The Brihadaranyaka also has an important addition to the doctrine in the form of the gospel of harman * action,' which determines on a man's death the nature of his next birth. In the Buddhist view the idea recurs in the simple form that the self, which is recognised as persisting through trans- migration by the Brahman, is discarded as needless and the Tmrman alone is asserted to possess reality.
144 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
The origin of this doctrine may have been helped by the widely prevalent view among tribes of animists that the souls on death or even in life can pass into other forms, animal or vegetable. We have seen that in the Rigveda in one hymn the soul is regarded as going to the waters or the plants ; and we have no reason to doubt that such ideas were prevalent among the aboriginal tribes with which the Aryans mixed. But these vague ideas are totally inadequate to account for the belief in transmigration, and the theory must, it would seem, have been a discovery of the schools of seekers after the nature of truth, who arrived at it on the one side fi-om the popular beliefs of the peoples among whom they lived, and on the other from the conception of the Brahmanas that death could be repeated in the other world. The doctrine led directly to j^essimism, but the Upanishads are not themselves pessimistic; and we obtain thus a valuable evidence of their priority to the rise of Buddhism, which is saturated with the doctrine of the misery of the universe. The extraordinary success of the doctrine shows that it was in harmony with the spirit of the Indian people, and suggests what is otherwise probable, that by the end of the period of the Brahmanas the influence of the Aryan strain was waning, and that the true Indian character of the intellectual classes was definitely formed.
As we have already seen, the tradition makes kings take part in the discussions which marked the formation of the doctrine of the absolute, and even hints that the doctrine was in some way a special tenet of the ruling class ; but it is doubtfiil if we can accord full credit to this tradition, or believe that the hrahman doctrine was the reaction of the noble class against the excessive devotion of the priests to the rituaP. Policy adequately explains the part assigned to them by the Brahmans, whose aim it was to make their patrons appreciate that their researches were such as to deserve support. Parallel with the development of philosophy there was proceeding the movement which leads to the religions of modem India, the exaltation of Rudra and in a minor degree of Vishnu to the position of a great god. Prajapati is indeed the main subject of the theosophical speculation of the Brahmana texts, a purpose to which his name as * lord of creatures ' especially lent itself ; but Prajapati had no claims to be a god of the people, and the position
1 The tradition is accepted by Garbe, Beitrage zur indischen Kulturgeschichte, pp. 1 sq. ; Denssen, Philosophy of the Upanishads, pp. 17 sq. ; Ehys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 256-7. See also Chapter xi, pp. 264-5. Its validity is doubted by Bloom- field, Religion of the Veda, pp. 218 sq.; Oldenberg, Buddha^, p. 73; Keith, J.R.A.S., 1908, pp. 868-72.
v] Rudra and Vishnu 145
of Rudra as a popular deity is sufficiently shown by the litanies to him in the Samhitas of the Yajurveda, and by the whole outlook of such texts as the Aitareya, Kaushitaki, and ^atapatha Brahmanas. When Prajapati committed incest with his daughter, the Aitareya tells us that the gods were wroth, and from their most dread forms produced the god Bhutapati, 'lord of creatures,' who represents one aspect of Rudra's activities. He pierced Prajapati and thereby acquired his dominion over all cattle. In another passage the wording of a Rigvedic verse is altered to avoid the mention of Rudra's dread name : in yet another he appears at the sacrifice in black raiment and appropriates to himself the sacrificial victim. We need not suppose that in this presentation the Brahmanas were creating a new figure : rather they were adapting to their system, as far as they could, a great god of the people. But the Rudra of this period can hardly be regarded as a mere development of the Rudra of the Rigveda : it seems most probable that with the Vedic Rudra is amalgamated an aboriginal god of vegetation, closely connected with pastoral life.
Vishnu cannot be said to have won any such assured place as Rudra, who is already hailed as the ' great god ' par excellence, and already bears the name of ^iva, 'propitious,' which is to be his final appellation. But the constant identification of Vishnu and the sacrifice is, in view of the extraordinary importance attached to the sacrifice by the Brahmans, a sure sign that he counted for much in Vedic life, and that he shared with Rudra the veneration of the people, who may in different localities have been the followers of one or the other god respectively. For the rest, while we now obtain many details of the lower side of the religion in the spells of the Atharvaveda, the pantheon of the Rigveda remains unaltered save in such minor aspects as the new prominence of the Apsarasas, the mechanical opposition of the gods and the Asuras, and the rise of snake worship, which seems to have been due to the imitation of the aboriginal tribes. On the other hand, the attitude of the priests to the gods as revealed in the sacrifice has lost whatever it had of spontaneity and simple piety. It is no doubt possible to exaggerate these qualities even in the earlier hymns of the Rigveda ; but their absence in the later Samhitas is unquestionable. The theory of sacrifice is bluntly do ut des; and even in that theory r ^J^jUi the sacrificers had so little trust that the whole sacrificial apparatus is dominated by sympathetic magic. So convinced is the priest of his powers in this regard that the texts explain that he can ruin as he pleases, by errors in the sacrifice deliberately committed, the
C.H.I. J. 10
146 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc. [ch.
patron for whom he is acting, and in whose interest he is presumed to be at work. It is a sordid picture ; and, as we have seen, the higher spirits turned away from a hocus pocus, which they must have despised as heartily as any Buddhist, to the interpretation of the reality underlying phenomena. Yet it is characteristic of the Indian genius that, though it evolved views which must have rendered all the sacrificial technique logically of no avail, it made no efibrt to break with the sacrifice which was allowed to stand as a preliminary towards the attainment of that enlightenment which the priests professed to impart.
The language of the Samhitas in their verse portions is similar to that of the Rigveda, especially in the tenth book and in the later additions to the other books. The language of the prose represents the speech of the Brahman schools of the day : it difiers from that of the verse by the removal of abnormalities, and by much greater precision shown, for example, in the exact use of the tenses, the 'narrative perfect' being at first carefully eschewed, and by the disappearance, except in a narrow sphere, of the use of the unaugmented past tenses of the verb with modal meaning. There seems in one passage of the (^atapatha Brahmana to be a curious admission that other tribes had not preserved the purity of the Vedic speech : the Asuras are credited in that text with the utterance of the words he 'lavo, which may be interpreted he rayah, * Ho ! ye foes ! ,' and, if so, can be explained as Prakrit forms. Similarly, as we have already seen, the Vratyas are described as regarding the Vedic speech as difficult to pronounce, no doubt because of its conjunct consonants which the Prakrits avoid. In both cases the reference is probably to tribes of the Magadha country, and the Magadhi Prakrit is marked by both the points alluded to\ There are also signs of this corruption of the language through the contact with the aborigines in the fact that in the spells of the Atharvaveda are found several forms which can only be accounted for as Pi-akritisms. Beyond these generalities we cannot afiect to estimate how far the process of the transformation of the language in the popular speech had gone: the earliest foreign evidence, that from the Greek records, shows that many names were reported by Megasthenes and others in Prakrit form ; and, in the middle of the third century B.C., the inscriptions of A9oka are all written in Prakrit dialects varying considerably in detail from one another. It is therefore reasonable to suppose
* Grierson, Z.D.M.G., vol. lxvi, p. 66, thinks that Pai9achl, a dialect of north-west India, is meant ; but see Vedic Index, vol. 11, p. 517.
v] Criteria of Date 147
that, beside the language of the Brahman schools, there existed more popular forms of speech; but everything points to the fact that tlie deeds of princes were still sung in a language of the same form as the priestly speech. In metre a significant change can be seen : the later hymns exhibit, when written in the eight syllable metre, a distinct tendency to be composed of stanzas in which the four lines are no longer independent in structure, but the first and third and the second and fourth respectively are assimilated. Tlie latter pair is made to end Avith a definite iambic cadence, while the first and third on the contrary are made to end with an iambus followed by a trochee, thus producing an efiect of contrast and setting a gulf between the old and the new form of versification. This new form is far from being exclusively employed even in the latest versification of the period, but in the epic it is firmly established, and the variants reduced to narrow limits^.
Interesting as are the Samhitas and the Brahmanas from the point of view of the history of civilisation and religion, as literature they are hardly ever of substantial value. Much of the speculation of the Brahmanas is utterly puerile and seems to be the product of a decadent intellect. On the other hand, the real interest of the Upanishads is undeniable : these primitive philosophical fragments exhibit a genuine spirit of enquiry, and here and there do not fail to rise to real dignity and impressiveness.
For the date of the epoch of the Brahmanas we are again thrown back on those considerations of literary and social develop- ment which we have found to be the sole trustworthy criteria for the dating of the epoch of the Rigveda. The lower limit is given by the fact that Buddhism accepts from the Upanishads the doctrines of transmigration and pessimism, the latter of which had been developed as a doctrine of obvious validity from the facts of trans- migration. Other indications, such as the want of any trace of the knowledge of writing, show that we cannot legitimately carry the Upanishads of the older type later than 550 or perhaps more probably 600 RC. The fixing of the language which is posterior to the Brah- manas may be dated at latest at 300 B.C. ; and the earlier Sutras probably go back to at least 400 B.C. and very possibly earlier. These are important considerations and their cumulative eflect is harmonious and practically decisive of an early date for the
' See Oldenberg, Z.B.M.G., vol. xxxvn, pp. 67 sq. ; Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXX, pp. XXXV sq. ; G.G.N., 1909, pp. 219 sq.; Hopkins, Great Epic of India, pp. 194 sq.; Jacobi, Indische Studien, vol. xvn, pp. 442 sq.; Keith, J.R.A.S., 1906, pp. 1-10; 1912, pp. 757 sq.
10—2
148 Later Samhitas^ Brahmanas^ etc, [ch.
civilisation which has been described. On considerations of probable development, the beginning of the Brahmana period may fairly be put back to 800 B.C.
As with the Rigveda, attempts have been made to show that these dates are much too low and that astronomical data enable us to carry the Brahmanas much further back. The lists of the Nakshatras all begin with Krittikas, and we know that in the sixth century a.d. the constellation which then headed the Nak- shatras was chosen because the vernal equinox took place when the sun was in conjunction with that Nakshatra. From the pre- cession of the equinoxes, we are enabled to arrive at the conclusion that the position of Krittikas at the vernal equinox must have taken place in the third millennium B.c. This has been supported by a passage in the ^atapatha Brahmana where it is said that Krittikas did not move from the eastern quarter at that time. But we have no evidence whatever to connect the sun and the Nakshatras at this period, and the notice regarding the position of Krittikas cannot be taken seriously in a work which shows so little power of scientific observation of facts as the ^atapatha. More- over if, as it is probable, the Nakshatra system was borrowed ready made, we cannot even conjecture for what reason Krittikas was placed first. More promising is a definite notice contained in the Kaushitaki Brahmana and repeated in the Jyotisha, a late Vedic work on astronomy, if indeed it can be dignified with this title, that the winter solstice took place at the new moon in Maghas. From this datum results varying from 1391-1181 B.C. were early deduced by different investigators ; but these conclusions can claim no scientific value, as they rest on assumptions as to the exact meaning of the passage which cannot be justified. The possible margin of error in the calculations is at least five hundred years ; and we are therefore reduced to the view that this evidence only indicates that the observation which is recorded was made some centuries B.C. The same conclusion can be drawn from the fact that in quite a number of places the month Phalguna is called the beginning of the year. In the view of Jacobi, this shows that the year began with the winter solstice at full moon in PhalgunI, and thus would correspond with his view that in the Rigveda the sun at the summer solstice was in Uttara-Phalguni. But, in this case also, the result is unacceptable; for it is nowhere stated that the beginning of the year was dated from the winter solstice. The most probable explanation is that the full moon in Phalguni was deemed to be the beginning of the year, because it marked, at
v] Astronomical evidence 149
the time when it was so termed, the beginning of spring. Since the new moon in Magha was at the winter solstice, the fiill moon in PhalgunI would fall about a month and a half later in the first week of February, which is compatible with Feb. 7, the Yeris initiv/m in the Roman calendar, and which is a X)erfectly possible date for about 800 b,c., especially when it is remembered that the division of the year into three periods of four months was always a rough one, and the beginning of spring had to be placed early so as to allow of the rains, which are definitely marked out by the fall of the first rain, to fill the period from about June 7 to October 7. With this explanation the theory, that the mention of the full moon in PhalgunI as the beginning of the year records an observa- tion of the fourth millennium B.C., disappears, and still more the theory that the mention of the month Caitra as the beginning of the year carries us back to the sixth millennium. Nor can any more trust be put in the argument that the mention in the late marriage ritual of the Dhruva, a fixed star shown to the bride and bridegroom as a symbol of constancy, points to an observation made at a period when there was a real fixed pole star, i.e. in the third millennium B.C. We do not even know whether this part of the rite goes back to the period of the Brahmanas ; and, even if it did, for so little scientific a purpose there was no need of anything save a fairly bright star not too distant from the pole. Ingenious there- fore as all these arguments are, they must be dismissed as affording no real certainty of correctness. The most that can be said is that they tend to support the period 800-600 B.C. as a reasonable date for the period of the civilisation of the Brahmanas \
1 The main supporters of the astronomical arguments are Jaoobi, Z.D.M.G., vol. XLix, pp. 218 sq. ; l, pp. 69 sq. ; J.R.A.S., 1909, pp. 721-6; 1910, pp. 460-4; Tilak, Orion, Bombay, 1893; The Arctic Home in the Vedas, Bombay, 1903. On the other side, see Oldenberg, Z.D.M.G., vol. xlviii, pp. 629 sq.; xlix, pp. 470 sq. ; L, pp. 450 sq.; J.R.A.S., 1909, pp. 1095 sq.; Thibaut, Indian Antiquary, vol. xxiv, pp. 85 sq. ; Whitney, J.A.O.S., vol. xvi, pp. Ixxxii sq. ; Keith, J.R.A.S., 1909, pp. 1100 sq. ; 1910, pp. 464-6. On the origin of the Nakshatras, see de Saussure, T'oungPao, 1909, pp. 121 sq., 255 sq.; Oldenberg, G.G.N., 1909, pp. 544 sq.
CHAPTER VI
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS
The later half of the sixth century b.c. seems to have been unusually fertile in giving rise to new religious movements in India. An old text amongst the sacred lore of the Buddhists^ mentions sixty-three different philosophical schools — probably all of them non-Brahman — existing at the time of Buddha, and there are passages in Jain literature exhibiting a far larger number of such heretical doctrines. Although these statements may have been influenced by the tendency to exaggerate which is visible in most Hindu works, and although many of these sects may have been distinguished only by very subtle difierences in matters of doctrine and practice, we are still bound to belieye that there was an extraordinary impulse shown in the rise and development of new theological and philosophical ideas at that time. It is beyond our power of investigation to determine whether some of these schools may not have owed their origin to a time far more remote than that of Buddha. In the few cases where we are in some degree able to form an opinion on such points — and the history of the Jain doctrine gives us some hints in this direction — it seems most probable that this may have been the case. It is certainly diiRcult to believe that all these sects should have originated at the same time. We may therefore suggest that revolts against the Brah- man doctrines date from a much more remote age than the time ^N*^" of Gautama Buddha, the founder of one of the most important
religions of the world, and Vardhamana Mahavira, the founder or rather reformer of the Jain church. Not only these two religious < ,v«."*^ teachers but also a number of others, of whom we know little or
nothing more than the name, preached in a spirit of most con- scientious and determined contradiction against the sanctity of the Vedic lore, the sacrificial prescriptions of the ritualists, and the claims of spiritual superiority asserted by the Brahmans ; but it is a strange characteristic of these sects, so far as we know them, that
1 Cp. S.B.E., vol. X : 2, p. 93.
I
CH. vi] Brahmans and yains 151
they adopted in their ascetic practices and in their whole mode of life the rules which had been already fixed by their Brahman antagonists.
In the later law books the life of a Hindu is theoretically divided into four successive stages, viz. those of hrahmachdrin or student of the sacred lore, grihastha or householder, vdnaprastha. or anchorite, and parivrdjaka or wandering mendicant. Now there are no express statements in Vedic, or pre-Buddhist, texts, concerning the existence of this theory in older times ; but from certain passages in the principal Upanishads we may infer that at least the germs of this institution existed at a comparatively early period, as in them we find the knower of the dtman or ' Supreme Soul,' that is to say, the parivrdjaka or Brahman ascetic contrasted with students, sacrificers and anchorites ^ However, the order of the difierent stages — with, the exception of that of a hrahmachdrin, which is always the first — seems not at that time to have been a fixed one, and it may be doubted if this theory was ever on a gi'eat scale adopted in real life in India. But this question is for us of no importance, as we have here only to take notice of the fourth stage, that of the Brahman ascetic, whose life was, no doubt, the standard for the rules of discipline laid down by Mahavira for his followers.
The Artha^dstra or * Manual of Politics ' which may possibly be the real work of Chanakya or Kautilya, and therefore written about 300 B.c.^, describes in the following words the life of a parivrdjaka : ' (the duties) of an ascetic (consist in) subduing his senses, withdrawal from worldly things and from communication with people, begging for alms, living in the forests, but not in the same place, cleanliness external and internal, abstinence from injuiy to living beings, and in sincerity, purity, freedom from envy, in kindness and in patience^.' These general rules could — perhaps with one slight alteration — as well be found in any Jain work, and in fact we do find them in many passages of the Jain canon, although perhaps not exactly in the same words. But the similarity between the life of a Brahman and a Jain ascetic goes pvr*»n* much further, and often extends to the most trifling rules of discipline as has been shown by Professor Jacobi from a com- parison of the rules laid down for Jain monks and for Brahman mendicants*. Evidently there is not the slightest reason for
1 Cp. Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, vol. i, pp. 68 sq.
2 See Chapter xrx. 3 Kautilya, Arthaqdttra, p. 8. * Cp. S.B.E., vol. xxn, pp. xxii sq.
152 The History of the yains [ch.
regarding either the Jains or the Buddhists as innovators in these matters ; and the following pages will show that it was in doctrine rather than in life, in the attempt to abolish the authority of the Brahman scriptures and the rites of sacrifice rather than in any efibrt to change the social institutions and conditions of his time, , that Mahavira differed more widely from his Brahman predecessors. And when both he and his great rival, Buddha, state that a man is not merely born a Brahman, but becomes a Brahman through his meritorious actions, they seem not even here to be real innovators ; for we are immediately reminded of the legend of Satyakama Jabala and other similar instances^, that seem to prove that birth was not always regarded as the true keynote of sanctity even in orthodox circles. Jainism, as well as Buddhism, is certainly to be viewed only in close connexion with the Brahman institutions existing at the time of its rise ; and from this standpoint we may now enter upon a closer investigation of the subject of this chapter, the origin and first development of the Jain church.
For a considerable time European scholars were unable to form a clear opinion on the rise and growth of Jainism owing to the absence of original texts which were then scarcely available in Europe. Thus the older generations of Sanskrit scholars may be said to have shared principally two difierent opinions on these matters. Colebrooke, Prinsep, Stevenson, E. Thomas, and others thought Jainism to be older than Buddhism — an opinion to which we may now willingly subscribe — mainly from the reason, that a disciple of Mahavira called Indrabhuti Gautama was held to be the same person as Gautama the Buddha. On the other hand, other distinguished Orientalists such as H. H. Wilson, Lassen, and even Weber, were of the opinion that Jainism was only one of the many difierent sects into which Buddhism was divided at an earlier or later date after the death of Buddha. Such a view might easily be held on the basis of certain somewhat striking resemblances which are found in the Buddhist and Jain records of which at that time only a comparatively small number had found their way to Europe. This latter hypothesis has now been thoroughly refuted by the works of two eminent German scholars, Biihler and Jacobi, who have laid down a sure foundation for our knowledge of Jainism by a thorough investigation of its old canonical texts and a coinparison of these with the scriptures of the Buddhists and Brahmans. Starting therefore from the standard works on Jainism published by Professor Jacobi, and making use of the materials, which have
^ Cp. Vtdic Index, vol. 11, pp. 84 sq.
vi] Parqva 153
been collected and examined by other scholars, we are now able to obtain a fairly clear view of the early history of Jainism.
Mahavira is usually regarded as the real founder of the Jain religion ; and, as we have very scanty information about the only one of his alleged predecessors, who may possibly have had a real existence, we are, in our investigation, almost forced to adopt this point of view. But the Jains themselves claim for their religion a far more venerable antiquity : they tell us that before Mahavira there lived not less than 23 tlrthakaras or ' prophets,' who appearing at certain intervals preached the only true religion for the salva- tion of the world. The first of these prophets was king Rishabha, who after laying down his royal power and transferring the realm to his son Bharata, the first universal monarch (chakravartin), became a holy man and a tirthakara. As the opinions of the Jains about time and the ages of the world ^ are absurdly exag- gerated, it is almost impossible to express in numbers the time at which he is thought to have lived ; it may be enough to say that his lifetime is supposed to have lasted for several billions of years and his height to have been about two miles. From such state- ments and fi'om the flowery descriptions of the blissful state of the world in its first ages, it is evident that the Jains, as indeed, all Hindus, attributed to the first race of men a longer life, a greater strength, and more happiness than fall to the share of their ofispring in the present age. As we know, the Greeks and Romans held similar opinions. But, of course, the world grew worse and worse and the life of man shorter and shorter, so that the 23rd tirthakara^ Parqva, the immediate predecessor of Mahavira, is said to have lived only for a hundred years, and to have died only 250 years before his more celebrated successor.
This Pargva is assumed, on the authority of Professor Jacob! and others, to have been an historical personage and the real founder of Jain religion. As he is said to have died 250 years before the death of Mahavira, he may probably have lived in the eighth century Rg. Professor Jacobi seems to regard this date as not improbable, since some centuries must have elapsed between his time and the appearance of the last Jain prophet^. But, as we have not a single certain date in Indian history before the time of Buddha, it is evidently impossible to prove this. Almost as scanty is our knowledge of the life and teaching of Parqva, in spite of the
^ Upon this subject oonsalt Jacobi in Hastings' Encyclopcedia of Religion and Ethict, vol. I, p. 202.
2 Cp. S.B.E., vol. XLV, p. 122, n. 3.
154 ^'^^ History of the jfains [ch.
large body of literature which has clustered around his name. In the well-known Kalpasutra of the Jains, which is stated to have been written by the pontiff Bhadrabahu (perhaps somewhat before 300 RC), we have in the chapter called ' The life of the Jinas ' a short account of the life of Parcva ; but, as it is written in a purely formal style and bears too much resemblance to other records of the same sort, its value as an historical document is somewhat doubtful. However, it states that ParQva, like all tirthakaras, was a Kshatriya, a member of the second caste, that of the warriors or nobility according to Brahman law, and son of king A^vasena of Benares and his wife Vama. No such person as A9vasena is known from Brahman records to have existed : the only individual of that name mentioned in the epic literature was a king of the snakes indga), and he cannot in any way be connected with the father of the Jain prophet. Par9va, who is always titled purisddamya, which may mean either 'the people's favourite'^ or 'the man of high birth,' lived for thirty years in great splendour and happiness as a householder, and then, leaving all his wealth, became an ascetic. After 84 days of intense meditation he reached the perfect know- ledge of a prophet, and from that time he lived for about 70 years in the state of most exalted perfection and saintship, and reached his final liberation, nirvana, on the top of mount Sammeta surrounded by his followers.
In regard to the teaching of Parcva we are better informed : it was probably essentially the same as that of MahavTra and his followers. But we have no exact knowledge, except on two prin- cipal points, as to how far this creed was due to Parcva, or what innovations may have been introduced by his successor. We are told that Parcva enjoined on his followers four great vows, viz. not to injure life, to be truthful, not to steal, and to possess no property^, while Mahavira added a fifth requisition, viz. that of chastity. Further we know that Parcva allowed his disciples to wear an upper and an under garment. Mahavira, on his part, followed the more rigid rule which obliged the ascetic; to be completely naked. These seem to have been, in fact, the most important differences in doctrine between the founder and the reformer of Jainism; for an old canonical text^ tells us about a meeting between Gautama, the pupil of Mahavira, and Ke9in, a follower of
1 Cp. S.B.E., vol. XXII, p. 271.
^ Gp. S.B.E., vol. XLT, p. 121, and Dr Hoemle in Hastings' Encyclopadia, vol. i, p. 264.
3 Cp. S.B.E., vol. XLV, pp. 119 sq.
vi] Traditional T>ate of MahavJr a 155
Par9va, in which they tried successfully to solve those questions on which a difference of opinion existed among the religious ; and in that account the four vows and the wearing or not wearing of clothes form the main points of discussion. From this text we may venture to draw the conclusion that followers of Par9va, who did not, perhaps, fully recognise Mahavira as their spiritual head, existed during the lifetime of the latter, and that a sort of com- promise was effected between the two sections of the church. Indeed it seems to remain a somewhat unsettled question if followers of Par^va and of Mahavira are not to be found even at the present day as the (^vetambaras, or * monks in white clothes,' and the Digambaras, 'sky-clad or naked ascetics.' However, this hypothesis is denied by most authorities ; and as a matter of fact the old records place the division of the church into these two main sects at a time much later than Mahavira, as we shall see subsequently.
Nothing is known about the followers of Par9va until the time of the appearance of the last prophet of the Jains, Mahavira. As he is not only the most famous propagator of the Jain religion, but also after Buddha the best known of the non-Brahman teachers of ancient India, we shall have to dwell a little longer upon the records of his life, and in the first place we must examine such chronological data as exist for the determination of his period.
The Jains themselves have preserved chronological records concerning Mahavira and the succeeding pontiffs of the Jain church, which may have been begun at a comparatively early date. But it seems quite clear that, at the time when these lists were put into their present forai, the real date of Mahavira had already either been forgotten or was at least doubtful. The traditional date of Mahavira's death on which the Jains base their chronological calculations corresponds to the year 470 before the foundation of the Vikrama era in 58 B.C., i.e. 528 RC.^ This reckoning is based mainly on a list of kings and dynasties, who are supposed to have reigned between 528 and 58 B.C. ; but the list is absolutely valueless, as it confuses rulers of Ujjain, Magadha, and other kingdoms ; and some of these may perhaps have been contemporary, and not successive as they are represented. Moreover, if we adopt the year 528 RC, it would exclude every possibility of Mahavira having preached his doctrine at the same time as Buddha, as the Buddhist
^ Or 527 B.C. according to those authorities who regard 57 b.o. as the starting point of the Vikrama era. Dates are here given on the assumption that the Yikrama era began in 58 b.o.
156 The History of the yains [cH.
texts assert ; for there is now a general agreement among scholars that Buddha died within a few years of 480 b.c.^ ; and therefore some fifty years would have elapsed between the decease of the two prophets. But we are told that Buddha was 80 years old at his death, and that he did not begin preaching before his 36th year, that is to say, at a time when Mahavira, according to the tradi- tional date, was already dead. Finally, both Mahavira and Buddha were contemporaries with a king of Magadha, whom the Jains call Kiinika, and the Buddhists Ajata9atru; and he began his reign only eight years before Buddha's death. Therefore, if Mahavira died in 528 B.C., he could not have lived in the reign of Kiinika. So we must, no doubt, wholly reject this date and instead of it adopt another which was long ago suggested by Professor Jacobi^ on the authority of the great Jain author Hemachandra (d. 1172 A.D.), viz. 468 (467) B.C. The dynastic list of the Jains mentioned above tells us that Chandragupta, the Sandrokottos of the Greeks, began his reign 255 years before the Vikrama era, or in 313 KG., a date that cannot be far wrong^ And Hemachandra states that at this time 155 years had elapsed since the death of Mahavira, which would thus have occurred in 468 B.C. This date agrees very well with other calculations and is only contradicted by a passage in the Buddhist Digha Nikaya^ which tells us that Nigantha Nataputta — the name by which the Buddhists denote Mahavira — died before Buddha. This assertion is, however, in contradiction with other contemporaneous statements, and forms no real obstacle to the assumption of the date 468 B.C. We may therefore adopt this year as our basis for calculating the various dates in Mahavlra's life.
To give a sketch of Mahavira's life is a somewhat difficult task as the oldest existing biography, included in the chapter of the Kalpasiitra to which we have referred, is fanciful and exaggerated, bearing in these respects a certain resemblance to the tales in the Lalita-vistara and Nidana-katha concerning the early life of Buddha. If this biography is really the work of Bhadrabahu, it may be expected to contain notices of great value, even although its state-
1 In 483 B.C. according to the system of chronology adopted in this work ; or in 478 (477) B.C. as appears more probable to the present writer. For a fuU discussion of the dates of Mahavira and Buddha, on the assumption that the Vikrama era began in 57 B.C., see Charpentier, Ind. Ant., 1914, pp. 118 ff., 125 ff., 167 S.
2 Kalpasiitra, pp. 8 ff.
3 V. inf., p. 164.
* D.N., m, pp. 117, 209. Also Majjhima Nikaya, ii, pp. 273 ff. Cp. Chalmers, J.B.A.S., 1895, pp. 665 f.
vi] Mahavtra 157
ments cannot always be accepted as strictly accurate. There are, moreover, in several old canonical works passages which give information on various events in Mahavlra's life ; and the Buddhist scriptures also give us some valuable hints.
The capital of Videha, Vesali or Vai9ali\ was without doubt one of the most flourishing towns of India about 500 years before the beginning of our era. The government, which was republican, or perhaps rather oligarchical, was entrusted to the princely family of the Licchavis, who are often mentioned in Buddhist and Jain writings, and who were certainly mightier at that time than at a later date, when an author ^ remarks that they * lived by assuming the title of king {rdjan).' Just outside Vai9ali lay the suburb Kundagrama — probably surviving in the modem village of Basu- kund — and here lived a wealthy nobleman, Siddhartha, head of a certain warrior-clan called the Jiiatrikas. This Siddhartha was married to the princess Tri^ala, sister of Chetaka, the most eminent amongst the Licchavi princes, and ruler of Vai9alT. To them were bom, according to the tradition, one daughter and two sons, the younger of whom was called Vardhamana, the future Mahavira. Through the Licchavis Siddhartha became the relative of a very powerful monarch ; for king Bimbisara or ^renika of Magadha, the patron of Buddha and the mightiest ruler of Eastem India, had married CheUana, daughter of Chetaka; and she was mother of Ajata9atru or Ktinika, who murdered his father eight years before the death of Buddha, and ascended the blood-stained throne of Magadha.
This is what we leam fi'om the Kalpasutra concerning Maha- vlra's pedigree ; and there is no reason to doubt this information. But the birth of great men — and especially religious teachers — has often afterwards been made a theme for the most fanciful and supematural legends.* And so the Kalpasutra tells us that Maha- vira, when he descended from the heavenly palace of Pushpottara where he had led his previous existence, was at first conceived in the womb of Devananda, wife of the Bi-ahman Rishabhadatta. This couple, too, lived in the suburb of Kundagrama. However, it had never happened in the innumerable cycles of previous world- periods that a prophet had been bom in a Brahman family ; and consequently the god ^akra (Indra) had the embryo removed from the womb of Devananda to that of Tri9ala. We must observe,
^ The site and sarronndingB of YaiQali are indicated by Dr Vincent A. Smith, J.R.A.S., 1902, pp. 267 ff.
2 The Arthafdstra of Kautilya, p. 376.
158 The History of the yains [ch.
however, that this tale is only believed by the ^vetambaras, and constitutes one of the four main points rejected by the Digambaras, who seem here to hold the more sensible opinion.
Just like the mother of Buddha, the princess Tri9ala had auspicious dreams in the very night of conception ; and the inter- preters foretold that the child would become either a universal monarch or a prophet possessing all-comprising knowledge. So the boy, whose birth was celebrated alike by gods and men, was received by his parents with the most lofty expectations, and was educated to the highest perfection in all branches of knowledge and art In due time he was married to a lady, named Ya^oda, and had by her a daughter, who became the wife of Jamali, a future disciple of his father-in-law, and the propagator of the first schism in the Jain church. However, Mahavira's mind was not turned towards secular things ; and in his thirtieth year, after the decease of his parents, he left his home with the permission of his elder brother, Nandivardhana, and set out for the life of a homeless monk.
The first book of the Jain canon, the Acharanga-sutra, has preserved a sort of religious ballad^ giving an account of the years during which Mahavira led a life of the hardest asceticism, thus preparing himself for the attainment of the highest spiritual knowledge, that of a prophet. During the first thirteen months he never changed his robe, but let ' all sorts of living beings ' — as the text euphemistically says — crawl about on his body ; but after this time he laid aside every kind of garment and went about as a naked ascetic. By uninterrupted meditation, unbroken chastity, and the most scrupulous observation of the rules concerning eating and drinking, he fully subdued his senses; nor did he ever in the slightest degree hurt or cause offence to any living being. Roam- ing about in countries inhabited by savage tribes, rarely having a shelter in which to rest for the night, he had to endure the most painful and injurious treatment from the barbarous inhabitants. However, he never lost his patience, and never indulged in feelings of hatred or revenge against his persecutors. His wanderings seem to have covered a wide area, and on occasions he visited Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha, and other towns, where the utmost honour was shown him by pious householders.
It was during one of these visits to Nalanda, a suburb of Rajagriha famous in the sacred history of the Buddhists, that he met with Gosala Mamkhaliputta, a mendicant friar, who attached
Translated in S.B.E., vol. xxn, pp. 79 S.
vi] The Nirvana of Mahavtra 159
himself to Mahavira for some years. The consequences of this meeting were certainly disastrous for both the teacher and the disciple. For six years they lived together practising the most austere asceticism; but after that time, on account of a dispute which arose out of a mere trifle, Gosala separated himself from Mahavira, and set up a religious system of his own, soon afterwards proclaiming that he had attained to the highest stage of saintship, that of a tirthakara. This claim was put forth two years before Mahavira himself had reached his perfect enlightenment. The doctrines and views of Gosala are known to us only from notices scattered throughout the Jain and Buddhist writings, and his followers, the Ajlvika sect, have left no written documents; but from the intolerant and bitter sayings of the Jains concerning Gosala, whom they stigmatise as merely a treacherous impostor, we may well conclude that the cause of dissension between him and his foiiner teacher was deep-rooted, and that this quarrel must have been a severe blow to the rising influence of Mahavira and the establishment of the new religious community. Gosala took up his head-quarters in a potter's shop belonging to a woman named Halahala at (yJravasti, and seems to have gained considerable reputation in that town. We shall hear something about him at a later stage ; but for the present we must return to Mahavira himself
Twelve years spent in self-penance and meditation were not fruitless; for in the thirteenth year Mahavira at last reached supreme knowledge and final deliverance from the bonds of pleasure and pain. The ipsissima verba of an old text will perhaps best show us how the Jains themselves have described this the most important moment of the prophet's life: 'during the thirteenth year, in the second month of summer, in the fourth fortnight, the light (fortnight) of Vai9akha, on its tenth day, called Suvrata, while the moon was in conjunction with the asterism Uttara-Phalguni, when the shadow had turned towards the east, and the first wake was over, outside of the town Jrimbhikagrama, on the northern bank of the river ^ijupalika, in the field of the householder Samaga, in a north-eastern direction from an old temple, not far from a Sal tree, in a squatting position with joined heels exposing himself to the heat of the smi, with the knees high and the head low, in deep meditation, in the midst of abstract meditation, he reached nir- vana, the complete and fall, the unobstructed, unimpeded, infinite and supreme, best knowledge and intuition, called kevala (total). When the venerable one had become an Arhat and Jina, he was a
i6o The History of the yains [ch.
Tcevalin, omniscient and comprehending all objects, he knew all conditions of the world, of gods, men, and demons ; whence they come, where they go, whether they are born as men or animals, or become gods or hell-beings ; their food, drink, doings, desires, and the thoughts of their minds ; he saw and knew all conditions in the whole world of all living beings ^'
At this time Vardhamana, henceforth styled Mahdvira (the great hero) or Jina (the conqueror), was 42 years old ; and from this age he entered upon a new stage of life, that of a religious teacher and the head of a sect called the nirgranthaa * free from fetters,' a designation nowadays obsolete, and superseded by the the term Jainas ' followers of the Jina.' His parents had, according to a tradition which seems trustworthy, been followers of Par9va, the previous tlrthakara: as has already been pointed out, the doctrine of Mahavira was scarcely anything else than a modified or renovated form of Par9va's creed. As he was a nirgrantha monk, and a scion of the Jnatri clan, his opponents, the Buddhists, call him Niggantha Ndt{h)aputta (in Sanskrit Nirgrantho Jnd- triputrah). We owe to Professor Jacobi the suggestion, which is undoubtedly correct, that the teacher, who is thus styled in the sacred books of the Buddhists, is identical with Mahavira, and that consequently he was a contemporary of Buddha.
We possess little knowledge of the thirty years, during which Mahavira wandered about preaching his doctrine and making converts. He apparently visited all the great towns of N. and S. Bihar, principally dwelling in the kingdoms of Magadha and Anga. The Kalpasiitra tells us that he spent his rainy seasons, during which the rules for monks prohibited the wandering life, at various places, e.g. at Champa, the capital of Anga, at Mithila in the kingdom of Videha, and at ^ravasti, but chiefly at his native town Vai9ali, and at Rajagriha, the old capital of Magadha. He frequently met with Bimbisara and his son, Ajata9atru or Kunika, the kings of Magadha, and their near relations ; and according to the texts he was always treated by them and other important persons with the utmost respect, and made many converts amongst the members of the highest society. But we must observe that the Buddhists in an equal degree claim these kings as followers of their prophet; and we may conclude that uniform courtesy towards teachers of different sects was as common a characteristic of Indian kings in those days as at a later period. The Jains do not tell us
1 From the Achdrdnga-aUtra, vol. i, pp. 15, 25-26 (translated in S.B.E., Tol. xzu, pp. 201 sq.).
vr] yains and Buddhists i6i
anything about the Buddhists ; but the latter frequently mention discussions and controversies between Buddha and disciples of Mahavira. In these accounts Buddha, of course, always has the last word, and is said to have inflicted considerable loss on the Jain community through the converts which he made amongst its followers. Even king Ajata9atru, according to the Pali texts, failed to obtain a satisfactory explanation concerning matters of religion from Mahavira, and consequently turned to Buddha with a far better result; but there seems to be little doubt that the Jains have more claim to include the parricide king amongst their converts than the Buddhists. Another prominent lay-follower of Mahavira was the householder of Rajagriha, Upali, who in his enthusiasm embarked on the attempt to convince Buddha of his wrong views. We learn, however, that the great teacher easily upset his arguments, and gained in his opponent a stalwart ad- herent to his creed. Subsequently, Upali is said to have treated his former teacher with an arrogance, which so shocked Mahavira that 'hot blood gushed fi-om his mouth \'
But although the relations between the Jains and Buddhists were by no means friendly, we must probably not attach too much importance to the controversies between them or to the number of converts said to have been gained by one sect at the expense of the other. Between two contemporary religious communities working side by side in the same region and often coming into contact there must have occurred skirmishes; but the whole doctrine and mode of life adopted by the Buddhists was too widely difierent from that of the Jains to give occasion for more than somewhat temporary relations. We cannot here enter upon any full investigation of the doctrine of Mahavira. It must suffice here to point out that it represents, probably, in its fundamental tenets one of the oldest modes of thought known to us, the idea that all nature, even that which seems to be most inanimate, possesses life and the capability of reariimation ; and this doctrine the Jains have, with inflexible conservatism, kept until modern times. This has nothing in common with the philosophy of Buddha. There is, in reality, no resemblance between the two systems except in regard to such matters as are the commonplaces of all Hindu philosophy. Even for those superficial believers who looked more to the exterior appearance and mode of life than to the doctrine and faith, the two sects presented an aspect so completely different that one could not easily be confused with the other.
^ Cf. the Updli-sutta in Majjhima Nikdya, vol. i, pp, 371 ff. C.H.I. I, ' 11
1 62 The History of the Jains [CH.
Buddlm had at first sought freedom from kariman, or the bondage of 'works,' and from transmigration in exaggerated self-torture: but he soon found that this was not the way to peace ; and conse- quently he did not enforce upon his followers the practice of too hard self-penance but advised them to follow a middle way, that is to say, a simple life but one free from self-torture. Mahavira also had practised asceticism but with a different result; for he had found in its severest forms the road to deliverance, and did not hesitate to recommend nakedness, self-torture, and death by starva- tion as the surest means of reaching final annihilation ; and the Jains proud of their own austerities often stigmatise the Buddhists as given to greed and luxury. Buddha always warned his disciples against hurting or causing pain to any living being ; but Mahavira fell into exaggerations even here, and he seems in reality often to care much more for the security of animals and plants than for that of human beings. Such instances of a deep-rooted divergence in views could easily be multiplied; but what has been already pointed out is sufficient to prove that the Jains and Buddhists were in fact too far asunder to be able to inflict any very serious damage on each other. But this does not mean, however, that rivalry and hatred did not exist between them: such feelings certainly did exist, and we need not doubt that these rivals did their best to annoy each other according to their abilities and opportunities.
A far more dangerous rival of Mahavira was Gosala. Not only was his doctrine, although differing on many points, mainly taken from the tenets of Mahavira^; but his whole mode of life also, in its insistence on nakedness and on the utter deprivation of all comforts, bore a close resemblance to that of the Jains. Between two sects so nearly related the transition must have been easy; and pious people may not always have been quite sure whether they were honouring the adherents of one sect or of the other. The Jain scriptures admit that Gosala had a great many followers in (^ravasti ; and, if we may trust their hints as to his laxity in moral matters, it is possible that his doctrine may for some people have possessed other attractions than those of asceticism and holiness. Although Mahavira is said not to have had any personal meeting with Gosala until shortly before the death of the latter, it seems clear that they carried on a bitter war against each other through their followers. Finally, in the sixteenth year of his career as a prophet, Mahavira visited ^ravastl, the head-quarters of his mortal
1 Cp. Hastings' Encyclopadia, vol. i, p. 261, for farther details.
vi] Schisms in the jfain Church 163
enemy. The account given by the Jains tells us that, at this meeting, Mahavira inflicted a final blow on his adversary, and that Gosala died a week afterwards, having passed his last days in a state of drunkenness and mental imbecility, but showing some signs of repentance at the last. But the story is rather confiised, and it seems doubtful to what extent we may trust it. However, it may be regarded as beyond dispute that Mahavira was considerably relieved by the death of his opponent; and, according to the Bhagavati-siitra, he took a rather strange revenge on the dead man by describing to his disciples all the wicked deeds he would have to perform, and all the pains he would have to suff*er in future existences, thus to a certain degree anticipating Dante's treatment of his adversaries. The death of Gosala occurred shortly after Ajata9atru had gained accession to the throne of Magadha by the murder of his father.
Even within the Jain church there occurred certain schismatical difficulties at this time. In the fourteenth year of Mahavira's office as prophet, his nephew and son-in-law, Jamali, headed an opposition against him, and similarly, two years afterwards, a holy man in the community, named Tisagutta, made an attack on a certain point in Mahavira's doctrine. But both of these schisms merely concerned trifles, and seem to have caused no great trouble, as they were speedily stopped by the authority of the prophet himself. Jamali, however, persisted in his heretical opinions until his death.
Mahavira survived his hated rival Gosala for sixteen years, and probably witnessed the rapid progress of his faith during the reign of Ajata9atru, who seems to have been a supporter of the Jains, if we may infer that gratitude is the motive which leads them to make excuses for the horrible murder of his father, Bimbisara. However, we are not informed of any special events happening during the last period of his life, which may have been as monotonous as that of most religious mendicants. He died, after having reached an age of 72 years, in the house of king Hastipala's scribe in the little town of Pawa near Rajagriha, a place still visited by thousands of Jain pilgrims. This event may have occurred at the end of the rainy season in the year 468 B.C. Thus, he had survived both of his principal adversaries; for Buddha's decease most probably took place at least ten, if not fifteen, years earlier^.
1 For reasons why the Buddhist account, according to which Mahavira died before Buddha, is not accepted here, see Charpentier, Ind. Ant., 1914, p. 177.
11—2
164 The History of the yains [ch.
Out of the eleven ganadharas ' heads of the school,' or apostles, of Mahavira only one survived him, viz. Sudharman, who became the first pontiflF of the new church after his master. Absolutely nothing is known concerning the fate of the community for more than 160 years after the death of its founder beyond the very scanty conclusions which may be drawn from the legendary tales related by later Jain writers, above all by the great Hemachandra. According to these authorities, Ajata9atni was succeeded by his son Udayin, a prince, who may have reigned for a considerable time, and who was a firm upholder of the Jain religion. But the irony of fate was visible even here ; for the very favour which he had bestowed upon the Jains proved to be the cause of his ruin : a prince whose father he had dethroned plotted against his life ; and, aware of the welcome accorded to the Jains by Udayin, he entered his palace in the disguise of a Jain monk, and murdered him in the night. This happened 60 years after Mahavira's decease. The dynasty of the nine Nandas, somewhat ill-famed in other records which call its founder the son of a courtezan and a barber^, then came to the throne of Magadha. However, the Jains do not share the bad opinion of these kings which was held by the Buddhists. This fact seems to suggest that the Nanda kings were not un- favourably inclined towards the Jain religion; and this inference gains some support from another source, for the badly mutilated inscription of Kharavela, king of Kalinga and a faithful Jain, mentions, apparently, in one passage ' king Nanda ' in unmistakable connexion with 'an idol of the first Jinal' But the reign of the Nandas is one of the darkest even of the many hopelessly dark epochs in the history of ancient India.
The last of the Nandas was dethroned by Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya dynasty, with the aid of the great statesman, Chanakya, within a few years of the departure of Alexander the Great from India. The Jains put the date of Chandragupta's accession in 313 (312) B.C., that is to say, eight years later than the Buddhists. This date coincides probably with a year wliich marks an epoch in the history of the Jain church. Sudharman, the first pontifij had died twenty years after his master, leaving the mitre to Jambu, who held his high ofiice for 44 years, dying at a time nearly coincident with the accession of the Nandas. After him passed three generations of pontiffs ; and, in the time of the last Nanda, the Jain church was governed by two high-priests, Sambhii- tavijaya and Bhadrabahu, the author of the biogi-aphy of Mahavii-a » See however Chapter xni, pp. 313-4. = Cf. Ind. Ant., 1914, p. 173.
vi] Qvetambaras and Digambaras 165
quoted above. These two were the last who knew perfectly the fourteen purvas or divisions of the most ancient Jain scriptures ; and Sambhutavijaya is said to have died in the same year in which Chaiidragupta took possession of the throne. At the same time a dreadful famine lasting for twelve years devastated the region of Bengal ; and Bhadrabahu, seeing that this evil time would provoke numerous offences against the ecclesiastical rules, thought it prudent to escape. Gathering his followers together, therefore, he emigrated, and took up his abode in the country of Karnata in Southern India. The whole community, however, did not follow him. Many Jains remained in Magadha and other places under the spiritual leader- ship of Sthulabhadra, a disciple of Sambhutavijaya.
At the end of the famine the emigrants returned, but at this time Bhadi'abahu seems to have laid down his leadership of the church, and to have retired to Nepal in order to pass the remainder of his life in penance, leaving the succession to Sthulabhadra. There is no reason to believe the account given by the Digambaras, according to which he was murdered by his own disciples. But, in any case, this time seems to have been one of misfortune for the Jain church; and there can be no doubt it was then, i.e. about 300 B.C., that the great schism originated, which has ever since divided the community in two great sects, the (^vetambaras and the Digambaras. The returning monks, who had during the famine strictly observed the rules in all their severity, were discon- tented with the conduct of the brethren who had remained in Magadha, and stigmatised them as heretics of wrong faith and lax discipline. Moreover, during this time of dissolution, the old canon had fallen into oblivion; and consequently the monks who had remained in Magadha convoked a great council at Pataliputra, the modem Patna, in order to collect and revise the scriptures. However, this proved to be an undeilaking of extraordinary difficulty, since the purvas or older parts were known perfectly only to Bhadrabahu, who had at this time already settled in Nepal ; and Sthiilabhadra, who went there in person, although he learnt from his predecessor all the fourteen purvas, was forbidden to teach more than the first ten of them to others. The canon established by the Council was therefore a fragmentary one ; and in it, to some extent, new scriptures took the place of the old. In some degree it may be represented by the present canon of the (^vetambaras, since that too is preserved in a somewhat disorderly condition. The returning monks, the spiritual ancestors of the Digambaras, seem to have taken no part in the council, and to
1 66 The History of the jfains [ch.
have proclaimed that the real canon had been hopelessly lost ; and even to the present day they have continued to hold the same opinion. They regard the whole canon of the (^vetambaras, the Siddhanta as it is called, as merely a late and unauthoritative collection of works, brought together by Jinachandra in Valabhi at a far later date.
But probably the difficulties which beset the Jain church at this period were not only internal. As is well known, the Jains nowadays are settled principally in Western India, Gujarat, etc. That they have been there for a very long time is certain, since their non-canonical writings, as well as epigraphical documents, bear witness at an early date to their influence in these parts of India. As the historical records of the sect have very little to tell us of the reign of Chandragupta and his son Bindusara, and perhaps even stiU less of the great A9oka, it seems probable that they had already in the third century B.O. begun to lose their foothold in Eastern India. The manual of politics by Chanakya describes a purely Brahman society ; and it may perhaps not be too hazardous to infer jfrom this fact that the first rise of the Maurya dynasty may have marked an attempt to restore the Brahman power and so check the rising influence of the heterodox communities. If so, this policy was certainly abandoned by A9oka whose zeal for Buddhism may have been one of the main causes for the downfall of his great empire immediately after his death. It is true that A9oka in one of his edicts mentions his protection of the nirgranthas as well as of the Buddhists and other pious men ; but any attempt to prove a greater interest on his part in the welfare of the Jains must fail, unsupported as it is by the scriptures of the Jains them- selves. It is true too that Kliaravela, king of Kalinga, who, although his exact date may be doubted, certainly lived a considerable time after A9oka, displayed a great zeal for the Jain religion ; but it seems quite clear that, at the time of A9oka's death, the Jains had practically lost their connexion with Eastern India; since they apparently know nothing of his grandson Da9aratha, who succeeded him in Magadha, and, of the following princes, only the usurper Pushyamitra, a patron of Brahmanism,is mentioned by them. On the other hand, they tell us that Samprati, another grandson of A9oka who reigned probably in Ujjain, was a strong supporter of their religion, and his capital seems to have played at this time an important rOle in the history of Jainism.
As we have seen, in about 300 B.C. the division of the Jain church into the two great sects of the ^vetambaras and Digambaras
vi] Western Settlements 167
had probably already begtin. The final separation between the two communities is, no doubt, reported not to have taken place before 79 or 82 A.D, ; but the list of teachers and schools in the Kalpasutra and the numerous inscriptions from Mathura, which date mostly fi*om the time of the later Kushana kings, Le. after 78 A.D., afford sufficient proof that the ^vetambara community was not only established but had become subdivided into smaller sects at an earlier period. This is especially clear from the frequent mention of nuns in the Mathura inscriptions; for it is only the ^vetambaras who give women admission into the order. Every- thing tends to show that the Jains were probably already at this time (300 RO.) gradually losing their position in the kingdom of Magadha, and that they had begun their migration towards the Western part of India, where they settled, and where they have retained their settlements to the present day. Attention has already been called to the fact that the later Jain authors mention Ujjain as a place where their religion had already gained a strong foothold in the age of A9oka and his immediate successors. Another locality in which the Jains seem to have been firmly established, from the middle of the second century B.C. onwards, was Mathura in the old kingdom of the ^urasenas, known at an earlier date, e.g. by Megasthenes (300 rc), as the centre of Ki-ishna-worship. The numerous inscriptions, excavated in this city by General Cunningham and Dr Fiihrer, and deciphered by Professor Biihler, tell us about a wide-spread and firmly established Jain community, strongly supported by pious lay devotees, and very zealous in the consecration and worship of images and shrines dedicated to Mahavira and his predecessors. An inscription, probably dated from 157 A.D. (= 79 9aka), mentions the Vodva tope as ' built by the gods,' which, as Biihler rightly remarks, proves that it in the second century A.D. must have been of considerable age as every- thing concerning its origin had been already forgotten.
Except the long lists of teachers, often more or less apocryphal, which have been preserved by the modern subdivisions of the Jain comjnunity, there exist practically no historical records concerning the Jain church in the centuries immediately preceding our era. Only one legend, the KalaTcdchdrya-hathdnaka, ' the story of the teacher Kalaka,' tells us about some events which are supposed to have taken place in Ujjain and other parts of Western India during the first part of the first century RC, or immediately before the foundation of the Vikrama era in 58 B.C. This legend is perhaps not totally devoid of all historical interest. For it records how
1 68 The History of the yains [ch.
the Jain saint Kalaka, having been insulted by king Gardabhilla of Ujjain, who, according to various traditions, was the father of the famous Vikramaditya, went in his desire for revenge to the land of the ^akas, whose king was styled ' King of Kings ' {sdhdnusdhi). This title, in its Greek and Indian forms, was certainly borne by the ^aka kings of the Punjab, Maues and his successors, who belong to this period ; and, as it actually appears in the form shaonano shao on the coins of their successors, the Kushana monarchs, we are perhaps justified in concluding that the legend is to some extent historical in character. However this may be, the story goes on to tell us that Kalaka persuaded a number of ^aka satraps to invade Ujjain and overthrow the dynasty of Gardabhilla ; but that, some years afterwards, his son, the glorious Vikramaditya, repelled the invaders and re-established the throne of his ancestors. What the historical foundation of this legend may be, is wholly uncertain — perhaps it contains faint recollections of the Scythian dominion in Western India during the first century B.C. In any case, it seems undoubtedly to give further proof of the connexion of the Jains with Ujjain, a fact indicated also by their use of the Vikrama era, which was established in the country of Malwa, of which Ujjain was the capital.
Thus, the history of the Jains during these centuries is enveloped in almost total darkness; nor have we any further information as to the internal conditions of the community. Almost the only light thrown upon these comes from the Mathui-a inscriptions, which incidentally mention a number of various branches, schools, and families of the Jain community. From this source, too, we learn the names of teachers who under difierent titles acted as spiritual leaders of these subdivisions, and of monks and nuns who practised their austere life under their leadership. Much the same religious conditions as are shown by the inscrip- tions have been preserved in the Jain church till the present day, although the names and external forms of the sects and the monastic schools may have changed in the course of twenty centuries. Moreover, the inscriptions mention the names of a vast number of these pious lay people, both male and female, who, in all ages, by providing the monks and nuns with their scanty livelihood, have proved one of the firmest means of support for the Jain church, and whose zeal for their religion is attested by the numerous gifts of objects for worship recorded in the inscriptions. Dr Hoernle^ is no doubt right in maintaining that this good or-
1 Proceed, of the As. Soc. of Bengal, 1898, p. 53.
vi] Conservatism of the yains i6g
ganisation of the Jain lay community must have been a factor of the greatest importance to the church during the whole of its existence, and may have been one of the main reasons why the Jain religion continued to keep its position in India, whilst its far more important rival, Buddhism, was entirely swept away by the Brahman reaction. The inflexible conservatism of the small Jain community in holding fast to its original institutions and doctrine has probably been the chief cause of its survival during periods of severe affliction; for, as Professor Jacobi has pointed out long ago^, there can be little doubt, that the most important doctrines of the Jain religion have remained practically unaltered since the first great separation in the time of Bhadrabahu about 300 B.C. And, although a number of the less vital rules concerning the life and practices of monks and laymen, which we find recorded in the holy scriptures, may have fallen into oblivion or disuse, there is no reason to doubt that the religious life of the Jain community is now substantially the same as it was two thousand years ago. It must be confessed fi'om this that an absolute refusal to admit changes has been the strongest safeguard of the Jains. To what extent the well-known quotation * sint ut sunt ant non sint ' may be applicable to the Jains of our days, may be questioned ; but the singularly primitive idea that even lifeless matter is animated by a soul, and the austerest perhaps of all known codes of disciplinary rules seem scarcely congruent with modern innovations.
In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to give a brief sketch of the history of the Jain church from its foundation or reformation by Mahavira about 500 B.C. down to the beginning of our era. While we possess materials which enable us to con- struct a fairly clear biography of the prophet, and while we have at least some information concerning the events which preceded and were contemporary with the beginning of the great separation between ^vetambaras and Digambaras about 300 B.C., the follow- ing period is almost totally devoid of any historical record. And this is not the only blank in Jain ecclesiastical history. Scarcely more is known concerning the fate of the Jain church during the early centuries of our era down to the time of the great council of Valabhi, in the fifth or at the beginning of the sixth century A.D., when the canon was written down in its present form. The Jain church has never had a very great number of adherents; it has never attempted — at least not on any grand scale — to preach its doctrines through missionaries outside India. Never rising to an
^ Z.D.M.G., vol. xxxvni, pp. 17 sq.
170
The History of the yains [CH. vi
overpowering height but at the same time never sharing the fate of its rival, Buddhism, that of complete extinction in its native land, it has led a quiet existence through the centuries and has kept its place amongst the religious systems of India till the present day, thanks to its excellent organisation and to its scrupulous care for the preservation of ancient customs, institutions, and doctrine.
CHAPTER VII
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS ^
1. Pre-Buddhistic
The early history of the Buddhists should properly begin far enough back before the birth of the Buddha to throw light on the causes that were at work in producing the rise and progress of the Buddhist reformer. Unfortunately, even after all that has been written on the subject of early Buddhist chronology, we are still uncertain as to the exact date of the Buddha's birth. The date 483 b.c. which is adopted in this History must still be regarded as provisional. The causes of this uncertainty which were explained by the present writer in 1877 still remain the same :
If the date for Asoka is placed too early in the Ceylon chronicles, can we still trust the 218 years which they allege to have elapsed from the commencement of the Buddhist era dowa to the time of Asoka ? If so we have only to add that number to the correct date of Asoka, and thus fix the Buddhist era [the date of the Buddha's death] at 483 B.C. or shortly after. Of the answer to this question, there can I think, be no doubt. We can not\
This statement was followed by an analysis of the details of the lists of kings and teachers, the length of whose reigns or lives, added together, amount to this period of 218 years. The analysis shows how little the list can be relied on. The fact is that all such calculations are of very doubtful validity when they have to be made backwards for any lengthened period. Sinologists, Assyriologists, Egyptologists have not been able to agree on results sought by this method ; and, though Archbishop Usher's attempt to discover in this way, from the Hebrew records, the correct date of the creation was long accepted, it is now mere matter for derision. As is well known, even the Christian chronologists, though the interval they had to cover was very short, were wrong in their calculation of our Christian era. The Ceylon chroniclers may have been as much more wrong as the interval they had to
^ In the Buddhist chapters names and titles appear in their Pali form.
^ Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon, p. 44 of the separate edition (London, 1877).
172 The Early History of the Buddhists [CH.
account for was longer. We must admit that they tried their best, and were not so utterly at sea as the Irish church-dignitary. But we do not even know who made the calculation. We first hear of it in the fourth century A.D., and are only entitled to con- clude that at that date the belief in the 218 years was accepted by most of those Buddhists who continued in possession of the ancient traditions \
There have been endeavours, on the basis of other traditions, to arrive at a more exact date for the birth of the Buddha^. It is sufficient to state that each of these is open to still more serious objection. We must be satisfied to accept, as a working hypothesis only, and not as an ascertained fact, the general belief among modern European scholars that the period for the Buddha's activity may be approximately assigned to the sixth century B.C.
In previous chapters of this volume will be found the story, drawn from the Brahman literature, of the gradual establishment in Northern India of the Aryan supremacy. For the period just before the rise of Buddhism (say the seventh century RC.) this literature tells us very little about political movements. The Buddhist books also are devoted to ideas rather than to historical events, and pass over, as of no value to their main objects, the dates and doings and dynastic vicissitudes of the kinglets before their own time. The fact that they do so is historically important ; and we should do wrong in ignoring, in a history of India, the history of the ideas held by the Indian peoples. But the fact remains. It is only quite incidentally that we can gather, from stories, anecdotes, or legends in these books, any information that can be called political. Of that referring to the pre-Buddhist period the most important is perhaps the list of the Sixteen Great Powers, or the Sixteen Great Nations, found in several places in the early books ^. It is a mere mnemonic list and runs as follows :
|
1. |
Anga |
9. |
Kuru |
|
2. |
Magadha |
10. |
Panchala |
|
3. |
KasI |
U. |
Maccha |
|
4. |
Kosala |
12. |
Surasena |
|
5. |
Vajjl |
13. |
Assaka |
|
6. |
MaUa |
14. |
Avanti |
|
7. |
Chetl |
15. |
Gandhara |
|
8. |
Vamsa |
16. |
Kamboja |
1 For the recent literature from the point of view of those who accept the 218 years as correct see Geiger, MahdvaTjisa (English translation), pp. xxii-xxxvi.
■■* See, for instance, the various results detailed by Winternitz, Geschichte der indischen Litteratur, ii, i, 2, note 1.
3 Anguttara i, 213; iv, 252, 256, 260. Referred to in Mahdvattu n, 2, line 15. Cf . the note in Vinaya Texts, ii, 146.
VI i] Ancient States and Capitals 173
When a mnemonic phrase or verse of this kind is found in identi- cal terms in different parts of the various anthologies of which the Buddhist canon consists, the most probable explanation is that it had been current in the community before the books M^ere put together as we now have them, and that it is therefore older than those collections in which it is found ^. As this particular list is found in two of the oldest books in the canon it would follow that it is, comparatively speaking, very old. It may even be pre-Buddhist — a list handed down among the bards, and adopted from them by the early Buddhists, For it does not fitly describe the conditions which, as we know quite well, prevailed during the Buddha's life- time. Then the Kosala mountaineers had already conquered Benares (Kasi), the Aiigas were absorbed into the kingdom of Magadhas, and the Assakas probably belonged to Avanti. In our list all these three are still regarded as independent and important nations ; and that the list is more or less correct for a period before the rise of Buddhism is confirmed by an ancient rune pre- served in the Digha^, and reproduced (in a very corrupt form, it is true) in one of the oldest Sanskrit-Buddhist texts ^. It runs :
Dantapura of the Kalingas, and Potana of the Assakas, Mahissati for the Avantis, Roruka in the Sovira land, Mithila for the Videhas, and Champa among the Aiigas, And Benares for the Kasis — all these did Maha-Govinda plan.
We have here seven territories evidently, from the context, regarded as the principal ones, before the rise of Buddhism, in the centre of what was then known as Jambudipa (India). Though quite independent of the list just discussed these mnemonic verses tell a similar story. Here also appear the Assakas, Angas, and Kasis. Only the Kalingas are added ; and the name of their capital, Dantapura, 'the Tooth city,' shows incidentally that the sacred tooth, afterwards taken from Dantapura to Ceylon was believed, when this list was drawn up, to have been already an object of reverence before the time of the Buddha. This tradition of a pre-Buddhist Dantapura, frequently referred to in the Jatakas, is thus shown to be really of much greater age. And it is clear that at the time when the four Nikayas were put into their present form* it was believed that, before the Buddha's life- time,
1 Cf. Rh.D., Buddhist India, p. 188.
2 II, 235, translated in Dialogues of the Buddlm, n, 270. * Mahdvastu m, 208, 209.
^ For the Nikayas and their probable date, v. inf., pp. 195-6.
174 T^f^^ Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
the distribution of power in Northern India, had been different from what it afterwards became.
In an appendix to the Digha verse the names of the seven kings of the seven nations are given, and it is curious that they are called the seven Bharatas. Their names are Sattabhu, Brahmadatta, Vessabhu, Bharata, Renu, and two Dhataratthas ; but the record does not tell us which of the seven nations each belongs to. In an interest- ing story at Jataka in, 470^, the hero is Bharata, king of the Sovlras, reigning at Roruva. This is most probably meant for the same man as the Bharata of the Digha passage ; and we may therefore apportion him to the Soviras. The mention of Renu in a list of ancient kings of Benares given in the Dip. in, 38-40 probably refers to the Renu of our passage since the same rare name is given in both places as the name of the father of Renu. On the other hand the King Renu of Jataka iv, 144 is evidently not meant to be the same as this one. Three of the other four names also recur (not Sattabhu) ; but no inference can be drawn that the same people are meant.
There are lists of pre-Buddhist Rajas (whatever that term may signify) in the chronicles and commentaries. But they can only be evidence of beliefs held at a late date ; they have not yet been tabulated or sifted ; and it would not be safe to hazard a prophecy that, even when they shall have been, there will be found anything of much value.
2. India in the Buddha's time ; the Clans
There is no chapter or even paragraph in the early Pali books describing the political conditions of North India during the life- time of the Buddha. But there are a considerable number of incidental references, all the more valuable perhaps because they are purely incidental, that, if collected and arranged, give us a picture, no doubt imperfect, but still fairly correct as fer as it goes, of the general conditions, as they appeared to the composers of the paragraphs in which the incidental references occur. They were collected in the present writer's Buddhist India ; and to that work the reader is referred for a fuller account. Considera- tions of space render it possible to state here only the more important of the conclusions which these references compel us to draw.
1 The references are to the Pjlli text of the Jataka. In the English translation the volumes correspond, and the pages of the original are indicated in square brackets.
VI i] The Clans inn
Of these the most far-reaching, and in some respe^^ the mote- surprising, is the fact that we find not only one or tw^e justified monarchies, and several kingdoms of lesser importance->rocedure German duchies or the kingdoms in England at the time parlia- Heptarchy — but also a number of republics ; some with com'iied. some with a more or less modified independence ; and oneow) two of very considerable power. This reminds us of the political situation at about the same period in Greece. We shall find a similar analogy, due to similar causes, in other matters also. If not pressed too far the analogy will be as useful as it is certainly interesting.
The following is a list of the republics actually referred to by name in the oldest Pali records. Some mentioned by Megasthenes are added to it.
1. The Sakiyas, capital Kapilavatthu
2. The Bulis, capital Allakappa
3. The Kalamas, capital Kesaputta
4. The Bhaggas, capital on Suipsumara Hill
5. The Koliyas, capital Ramagama
6. The Mallas, capital Pava
7. The Mallas, capital Kusinara
8. The Moriyas, capital Pipphalivana
9. The Videhas, capital Mithila 10. The Licchavis, capital Vesali
11-15. Tribes, as yet unidentified, mentioned by Megasthenes
Nos. 1-10 occupied in the sixth century RC. the whole country east of Kosala between the mountains and the Ganges. Those mentioned, as is reported in other authors, by Megasthenes seem to have dwelt in his time on the sea-coast of the extreme west of India north of the gulf of Cutch^. It is naturally in relation to the Sakiyas that we have the greatest amount of detail. Their territory included the lower slopes of the Himalayas, and the glorious view of the long range of snowy peaks is visible, weather permitting, from every part of the land. We do not know its boundaries or how far it extended up into the hills or down into the plains. But the territory must have been considerable. We hear of a number of towns besides the capital — Chatuma, Sama- gama, Khomadussa, SilavatT, Medalumpa, Nagaraka, Ulumpa, Devadaha, and Sakkara. And according to an ancient tradition preserved in the Commentary on the Digha^ there were 80,000
1 M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes, p. 144, cf. p. 156. ^ See ilh.D., Dialogues of the Buddha, i, 147.
174 The 'Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
the distributir ^^® clan. This number (it is noteworthy that the
what it after'^^'^^^ 84,000 was not chosen) would, allowing for
Inanap^"^ dependents, mean a population of at least half a
the sever ^^ would be absurd to take this tradition as a correct, or
seven T^® ^^ official enumeration. We do not even know who first
Bhar^® the calculation. But it would be equally absurd deliberately
^ oo ignore it. It is at least interesting to find that even as late
as Buddhaghosa the traditional estimate of the number of the
Sakiyans was still, in spite of the temptation to magnify the extent
of the 'kingdom' which the Buddha renounced, so limited and so
reasonable as this.
The administrative business of the clan, and also the more important judicial acts, were carried out in public assembly, at which young and old were alike present \ The meetings were held in a mote-hall — a mere roof supported by pillars, without walls. It is called santhagdra, a technical tenn never used of the council chamber of kings ^.
We have no account of the manner in which the proceedings were conducted in the Sakiya mote-hall. But in the Mahd-Govinda Sut- tanta there is an account of a palaver in Sakka's heaven, evidently modelled more or less on the proceedings in a clan meeting. All are seated in a specified order. After the president has laid the proposed business before the assembly others speak upon it, and Recorders take charge of the unanimous decision arrived at^ The actions of gods are drawn in imitation of those of men. We may be sure that the composers and repeaters of this story, themselves for the most part belonging to the free clans (and, if not, to neighbouring clans familiar with tribal meetings) would make use of their knowledge of what was constantly done at the mote-hall assemblies. This is confirmed by the proceedings adopted in the rules observed at formal meetings of the Chapters of the Buddhist Order. Quite a number of cases are given in the Canon Law* ; and in no single case, apparently, is there question of deciding the point at issue by voting on a motion moved. Either the decision is regarded as unanimous ; or, if difference of opinion is manifest, then the matter is referred for arbitration to a committee of referees ^ It is even quite possible that certain of the technical terms found in the Rules of the Order {natti for 'motion,' uhhdhikd for 'reference
1 T>. I, 91. ^ See the passages quoted at J.P.T.S., 1909, 65.
3 Translated in Dialogues, vol. ii, pp. 259-264.
* Translated in Rhys Davids' and Oldenberg's Vinaya Texts. See especially vol. ui, pp. 44 ff. ^ Vinaya Texts, m, pp. 49 £E.
VI i] Local Administration 177
to arbitration,' etc.), are taken from those in use at the mote- halls of the free clans. But however that may be, we are justified by this evidence in concluding that the method of procedure generally adopted in the mote-halls was not, as in modem parlia- ments, by voting on a motion, but rather as just above explained.
A single chief (how or for what period chosen we do not know) was elected as office holder, presiding over the Senate, and, if no senate were in session, over the state. He bore the title of Raja which in this connexion does not mean king, but rather something like the Roman conmd, or the Greek archon. We hear at one time that Bhaddiya, a young cousin of the Buddha was 'raja'S at another that the Buddha's father Suddhodana (elsewhere spoken of as a simple clansman, Suddhodana the Sakiyan), held that rank^.
We hear of mote-halls at some of the other towns besides the capital, Kapilavatthu. And no doubt all the more important places had them. The local affairs of each village were carried on in open assembly of the householders held in the groves which, then as now, formed so distinctive a feature in the long and level alluvial plain.
The clan subsisted on the produce of their rice fields and their cattle. The villages were of grouped, not scattered, huts on the margin of the rice field. The cattle wandered in harvest time, under the charge of a village herdsman, through the adjoining forest (of which the village groves were a remnant), and over which the Sakiyan peasantry had common rights. Men of certain special crafts, most probably not Sakiyans by birth — carpenters, smiths, and potters for instance — ^had villages of their own ; and so also had the Brahmans whose services were often in request for all kinds of magic. The villages were separated one from another by forest jungle, the remains of the Great Wood (the Mahdvana\ portions of which are so frequently mentioned as still surviving throughout the clanships. The jungle was infested from time to time by robbers, sometimes runaway slaves. But we hear of no crime (and there was probably not very much) in the villages themselves — each of them a tiny self-governed republic.
Tradition tells that the neighbouring clan, the Koliyas, were closely related by descent with the Sakiyas^; but we are not told much about the former. Five of their townships besides the
1 Vinaya ii, 181. * Dlgha n, 52.
* Sumangala i, 258 ff. C. H. I. I. 12
178 The Early History of the Buddhists [CH.
capital are referred to by name : — Halidda-vasana^ Sajjanela^ Sapuga^ Uttara*, and Kakkara-patta^ Every Koliyan was a Vyagghapajja by surname, just as every Sakiyan was a Gotama ; and in tradition the name of their capital Ramagama, so called after the Rama who founded it, is once given as either Kola- nagara or Vyagghapajja*'. The central authorities of the clan were served by a body of peons or police, distinguished, as by a kind of uniform, by a special form of head-dress^. These men had a bad reputation for extortion and violence. In the other clans we are told only of ordinary servants. The tradition that the Koliyans and Sakiyans built a dam over the river RohinI which separated their territories, and that they afterwards quarrelled over the distribution of the store of water ^, may very well be founded on fact.
Of the form of government in the Vajjian confederacy, com- prising the Licchavis, the Videhas, and other clans, we have two traditions, Jain and Buddhist ^ They are not very clear, and do not refer to the same matters, the Jain being on military affairs, while the Buddhist refers to judicial procedure.
The Kingdoms. I. Kosala
Kosala was the most important of the kingdoms in North India during the lifetime of the Buddha. Its exact boundaries are not knoAvn. But it must have bordered on the Ganges in its sweep downwards in a south-easterly direction from the Himalayas to the plains at the modern Allahabad. Its northern frontier must have been in the hills, in what is now Nepal ; its southern boundary was the Ganges ; and its eastern boundary was the eastern limit of the Sakiya territory. For the Sakiyas, as one of our oldest documents leads us to infer, claimed to be Kosalans^". The total extent of Kosala was therefore but little less than that of France to-day. At the same time it is not probable that the administration was very much centralised. The instance of the very thorough Home Rule enjoyed, as we have seen, by the Sakiyas should make us alive to the greater probability that autonomous local bodies, with larger power than the village communities, which were of course left undisturbed, were still in existence throughout this wide territory.
1 ilf. 1,387; S.v, 115. 2 ^. 11, 62. » ^. 11, 194.
*■ S. IV, 340. ^ A.rv, 281. « Sum. i, 262.
' S. IV, 341. 8 jat. V, 412-416.
" Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, 1, xii. ^^ Sutta Nipdta, verse 422.
vii] Kosala 179
One or two of the technical terms in use to describe such powers have survived. Raja-hliogga for example is the expression for a form of tenure peculiar to India. The holder of such a tenure, the rdja-hhoggo, was empowered to exact all dues accruing to the government within the boundaries of the district or estate granted to him. But he had not to render to government any account of the dues thus received by him. They were his per- quisite. He could hold his own courts, and occupied in many ways the position of a baron, or lord of the manor. But there was a striking difference. He could draw no rent. The peasantry had to pay him the tithe of the rice grown ; and though the amount was not always strictly a tithe, and by royal decree could be varied in different localities, the grantee could not vary it. So with the import, or ferry, or octroi duties. The rate of pay- ment, and the places at which the levy could be made, were fixed by the government. We have not enough cases of this tenure to be able to interpret with certainty the meaning of all the details, and limits of space prevent a discussion of them here. But the general principle is quite clear ^ It shoAvs how easy would be the grant to local notabilities of local government to this extent, -and how narrow was the line of distinction between the collection of dues by civil servants or farmers of the taxes and their collection by a grantee in this way. This custom, thus traced back to so early a period in the history of India, seems never to have fallen into abeyance. It certainly, in the period under discussion, was of manifest advantage. But it must be admitted that it is, to English ideas, very strange — so strange that our civilians made the mis- take, in Bengal, of regarding all such persons legally empowered to collect the land-tax as landlords, and of endowing them accord- ingly with the much greater privileges and powers of the English landlord. In the Buddhist period there is no evidence of the existence, in North India, of landlords in our sense of that term.
It was the rise of this great power, Kosala, in the very centre of Northern India, which was the paramount factor in the politics of the time before the Buddhist reform. We do not know the details of this rise. But there are purely incidental references imbedded in the ethical teachings in the Buddhist books which afford us at least hints as to the final manner of it, and as to the date of it. For instance we have the story of Dighavu in the
1 D. 1, 114, 127, 130: of. n, 50 and Bivy., 620, Vin. m, 221, with the Old Com- mentary at 222, M. m, 133, Jut. vi, 344, Sum. Vil. i, 245, 246.
12—2
i8o The Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
Vinaya^ There Brahmadatta, king of Kasi, invades Kosala, when Dighiti was king at Savatthi, and conquered and annexed the whole country ; but finally restored it to Dighlti's son, with whom he had become on very friendly terms. Other traditions inform us on the other hand of several invasions of the Kasi country by the then kings of Kosala, Vanka, Dabbasena, and Kamsa^. And when that most excellent story, the Rdjovada Jataka^ — as good in humour as it is in ethics — was first put together to represent two kings in conflict, the quite natural idea was to fix upon kings of Kosala and Kasi, and the author does so accordingly.
No references have so far been found in the books as to any contests between Kosala and any other tribe or nationality. It would seem therefore that the gradual absorption into Kosala oV the clans and tribes in the northern part of Kosala as we know it in the Buddha's time took place without any such battle, campaign, or siege as was sufficiently striking to impress the popular imagin- ation; but that when Kosala came into contact with Kasi there ensued a struggle, with varying result and lasting through several reigns, which ended in the complete subjugation of the Kasi country by Kamsa, king of Kosala.
As to the approximate period of these events, we see that they were supposed to have taken place not only, before the time of Pasenadi, who was born about the same time as the Buddha and lived about as long, but also before the time of his father the Great Kosalan. We have four kings of Kosala mentioned as taking part in these wars, and cannot be sure that there were not others who had quieter reigns. It would be enough and more than enough to allow, in round numbers, a century for all these kings. And the period cannot be much longer than that. For the name Brahmadatta could not have been older than towards the close of the Brahmana literature ; and a century and a half before the birth of the Buddha would about bring us to that.
The king of Kosala in the Buddha's time was Pasenadi. He was of the same age as the Teacher*; and though never actually converted, was very favourable to the new movement, adopted its more elementary teachings, and was fond of calling upon the Buddha either to consult him or simply for conversation. A whole book of the Samyutta^ is devoted to such talks, and others are recorded elsewhere. They are mostly on religion or ethics, but
1 Vinaya Texts, ii, 293-305.
2 Jat. I, 262; n, 403; ni, 13, 168, 211 ; v, 112. » jataka n, 1. * M. II, 124. c The Kosala Sarnyutta, S. i, 68-102,
vii] Ajatasattu 1 8 1
some political and personal matters are occasionally mentioned incidentally.
For instance five 'rajas' are introduced discussing a point in psychology with Pasenadi. Whatever the title may exactly imply it is probable that we have the leaders of five clans or communities that, formerly independent, had, at that time, been absorbed into Kosala. Again we hear of a double campaign. In the first Ajatasattu, king of Magadha, attacks Pasenadi in the Kasi country and compels him to take refuge in SavatthiK In the second, Pasenadi comes down again into the plains, defeats Ajatasattu, and captures him alive. Then he restores to him the possession of his camp and anny, and lets him go fi-ee^. The commentaries inform us that he also gave him, on this occasion his daughter Vajira, to wife^ They also give the reasons for the dispute between the two kings ; but this will be better dealt with under the next heading. Another conversation arises when the king comes to tell the teacher of the death of his (the king's) grand- mother for whom he expressed his deep devotion and esteem. She had died at a great age, specified as 120 years, no doubt a round number*. At another talk Sumana, the king's sister, is present, and becomes converted. Desiring to enter the Order she refrains from doing so in order to take care of this same old lady, and attains Arahantship while still a lay- woman ^ The last and longest talk between the two friends took place at Medalumpa in the Sakiya country. The king, in much trouble with his family and ministers, expressed his admiration, and possibly also some envy, at the manner in which the teacher preserved peace in his Order. He then took his last leave with a striking declaration of his devotion^. But even as they were talking the crisis had come. The tradition records that the minister in whose charge the in- signia had been left when the king went on alone, had in his absence, proclaimed the king's son, Vidudabha, as king. Pasenadi found himself deserted by all his people. He hurried away to Rajagaha to get help from Ajatasattu, and, worn out by worry and fatigue, he died outside the gates of the city^ Ajatasattu gave him a state funeral, but naturally enough left Vidudabha un- disturbed.
The first use the latter made of his new position was to invade the Sakiya territory, and slaughter as many of the clan — men,
^ S. I, 79. 2 5<, i^ 82-85. 3 j^t. n, 404; iv, 348.
♦ S. I, 97; cf. Jat. iv, 146. « iS. i, 69; Thlg. 16.
« M. n, 118-124. 7 Jatdka iv, 152.
1 82 The Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
women, and children — as he could catch. Many however escaped ^ and it is, perhaps, to this remnant that we owe the Piprahwa Tope discovered by Mr Pepp^. Elsewhere^ it has been shown that the reasons given for this invasion were probably not the real ones. But why should the Buddhists have taken pains so elaborately to explain away the fact, unless the fact itself had been indisputable? This is the last we know of Kosala. We hear nothing more of Vidiidabha, or of his successors if he had any. When the curtain rises again Kosala has been absorbed into Magadha.
II. Magadha
This was a narrow strip of country of some considerable length from north to south, and about twelve to fifteen per cent, in area of the size of Kosala. Just as Kosala corresponded very nearly to the present province of Oudh, but was somewhat larger, so Magadha corresponded in the time of the Buddha to the modem district of Patna, but with the addition of the northern half of the modern district of Gaya. The inhabitants of this region still call it Maga, a name doubtless derived from Magadha^. The boundaries were probably the Ganges to the north, the Son to the west, a dense forest reaching to the plateau of Chota Nagpur to the south, and Anga to the east. The river Champa had been the boundary between Magadha and Anga^ ; but in the Buddha's time Anga was subject to Magadha — it is the king, not of Anga, but of Magadha, who makes a land-grant in Anga (that is a grant of the government tithe) ^, and an Anga village is one of the eighty thousand parishes over which the king of Magadha holds rule and sovereignty^. All the clansmen in each of these two countries are called by Buddhaghosa, princes^ (exactly as he elsewhere calls the Sakiyas and Licchavis). The same writer says that the two kingdoms amounted together to 'three hundred leagues^.' It is reasonable to suppose, as he was born and bred in Magadha, that he was not so very far wrong. But this is said in reference to the time of Bimbisara. Later on he estimates the area of the whole of the United Kingdom of Magadha, in the time of Ajatasattu, at five hundred leagues. We may conclude from this that, according to the tradition handed down to Buddhaghosa, the
^ DTip. A. I, 359; Malidvarnga vin, 18, and the Tikd on it.
2 Buddhist India, pp. 11, 12, 3 Grierson in E.R.E. vi, 181.
* Jdt. IV, 454— above, pp. 172-3. " Digha i, 111. « Vinaya i, 179.
■? Rdja-kumdrd, Sum. i, 279, 294. See Early Buddhism, 27.
8 Yojanas, Sum. i, 148.
vii] Magadha 183
size of the kingdom had nearly doubled in the interval. This would be about correct if the allusion were to Ajatasattu's con- quests north of the Ganges \ As Buddhaghosa however seems to use the larger figures of a date, not after, but at the beginning of those conquests, other wars of which we have no record, to the east or south, may be meant.
The king of Magadha in the Buddha's time, was Bimbisara. Of his principal queens one was the Kosala Devi, daughter of Maha-Kosala, and sister therefore of Pasenadi^ ; another was Chellana, daughter of a chieftain of the Licchavis^ ; and a tliird was Khema, daughter of the king of Madda in the Punjab*. If .^ traditions of these relationships be correct they_^r% eloquent witnesses to the high estimate held in ot^li^ xjplptries of the then political importance of Magadha. :, Miera f ."^ ;
Bimbisara had a son known as VecJehiT^tt* Ajaj«i>s«|,ttu;4in the canonical Pali texts, and as Kunika bj^the «Jains. ,>.??^ l^ter Buddhist tradition makes him a so^^Jf^i||Jl©<lCo6ala{:]p€^v)[ ; the Jaki tradition, confirmed by the standiiigrig|^ithet pf Yflfk^i-P^^itto, son of the princess of Videha, in the older, Buddhist books, makes him a son of Chellana. Buddhaghosa has preserved what is no doubt the traditional way of explaining away the evidence contained in the epithet^. But the matter cannot be further discussed here.
One of the very oldest fragments preserved in the canon is a ballad on the first meeting of Bimbisara and Gotama. In the ballad the latter is called 'the Buddha.' But the meeting took place about seven years before he became the Buddha in our modern sense ; and this unwonted use of a now familiar title would have been impossible in any later document^ Gotama has only just started on his search for truth. The king, with curious density, ofiers to make him a captain, and give him wealth. It will be noticed that the king still resides in the palace of the old capital at the Giribbaja, 'the Hill Fort.' Some years afterwards when Gotama returns as a teacher, the king was lodged in the new palace that gave its name to the new capital, Rajagaha, ' the King's House.' The ruins of both these places are still extant ; and the stone walls of the Giribbaja are probably the oldest identified remains in India, Dhammapala says that the place was originally built or planned by Maha-Govinda, the famous architect,
^ F. inf. , p. 185. 2 jf7^, xi, 403. * Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, i, xii-xv.
•* Thig. A. on 139-143, and Apaddna quoted ibid. 131.
5 Sum. I, 139. Cf. Dialogues, ii, 78.
6 Sutta Nipdta, verse 408. See Dialogues, n, 2. The ballad is translated in Bh.D., Early Buddhism, 31-34.
184 The Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
to whom it was the proper thing to ascribe the laying out of ancient cities \
On Gotama's second visit to Rajagaha Bimbisara presented him with the Bamboo Grove, where huts could be built for the accommodation of the Order ^ — just as he endowed also the opposite teaching^ We hear very little about him in the books- He is not even mentioned in three out of the four Nikayas, and the few references in the fourth are of the most meagre kind. But the Vinaya gives a short account of an attempt made by Ajatasattu to kill his father with a sword*, and in the closing words of the mnorphala there is an allusion to the actual murder which he r,«ommitted^ The commentary on that Suttanta gives '•io^ aiik^n^MJf how it happened^ The details may or may not [1)6 true ; but the main fact^that Bimbisara was put to death by \i^ -^brt'^-^viri^bftiv »«-!>vsibe' a6ctet)ted as historical. The Ceylon [?^l'^i61r.2 - : I -^/fevfeiit''' eight years before the Buddha's
Ib'ffithj'at i.h^'^i! • ^^fei*l!fcfeara, who had come to the throne when he w^^^feftfefciij- i itid' i^ftl^ifri^d fifty-two years ^.
On the death oJT MWfe^ti'tt, his wife, the Kosala Devi, is said by tradition to have died of griefs. The government revenues of an estate in Kasi had been settled upon her by Maha-Kosala as pin- money on her marriage. At her death the payment of course ceased. Ajatasattu then invaded Kasi. It seems incredible that this could have been the real motive of the war, unless the kings of that place and time were less expert in inventing pretexts for a war which they wanted than modern kings in Europe. The war itself is however mentioned in the Canon ^, and with some detail. In the first campaign Ajatasattu out-manoeuvred his aged uncle, and drove him back upon Savatthl. In the next, however, Pasenadi lured his nephew into an ambush, and he was compelled to surrender with all his force. But Pasenadi soon set him at liberty, gave him back his army, and, according to the commentary, gave him also one of his daughters in marriage.
In the opening paragraph of the Mahd-parinibbdna Suttanta^" we hear of Ajatasattu's intention to attack the Vajjian con- federacy, and, as the first step in the attack, of his building a
1 Vimana-vatthu Commentary, p. 82, and above p, 173.
2 Vinaya i, 39. » Digha i. 111, 127.
* Vinaya n, 190. i^ Digha i, 86. « Sum. i, 133-136; Peta-v. A. 105.
7 Dip. ra, 56-60 ; Mhv. 11, 29, 30. ^ jat. n, 403.
9 Samyutta i, 84-86. Cf. Dhp. A. ra, 259; Jdt. iv, 342. " Rh.D., Dialogues of the Buddha, n, 78.
VI i] Avanti 185
fortress at Pataliputta, the modern Patna, on the south bank of the Ganges, the then boundary between his territory and theirs. The minister in charge of this work was a Brahman, known to us only by his official title, 'the Rain-maker' {Vassakara). He fled suddenly to the Vajjian capital Vesall, giving out that he had barely escaped with his life from Ajatasattu. The Vajjians gave him refuge and hospitality. He then dwelt among them, carefully disseminating lies and slanders until he judged the unity of the confederation to be finally broken. Three years after his kindly reception he gave the hint to his master, who swooped down on Vesali, and destroyed it, and treated his relatives very much as Vidudabha had treated his. We can only hope this ghastly story of dishonour, treachery, and slaughter is a fairy-tale. The ques- tion can only be discussed with profit when we have the whole of the conunentary before us.
The son of Ajatasattu is mentioned in the Canon \ His name was Udayi-bhadda, and it follows from the statements of the Ceylon Chronicles that he succeeded his father on the throne^. This is confirmed in the commentaries ^ The name also occurs in medieval Jain and Hindu lists, independent no doubt, both of them, of the Buddhist books ^
HI. Avanti
The king of Avanti in the Buddha's time was Pajjota the Fierce, who reigned at the capital Ujjeni. There is a legend about him which shows that he and his neighbour king Udena of Kosambi were believed to have been contemporaries, connected by marriage, and engaged in war^ The boundary is not given, but a commentary mentions incidentally that the two capitals were in round numbers fifty yojanas^ about four hundred miles, apart. We have seen that when the Nikayas were composed Avanti was con- sidered to have been one of the important kingdoms of India before the Buddha's time^. Shortly after the Buddha's death Ajatasattu is said to have been fortifying his capital, Rajagaha, in anticipation of an attack by Pajjota of Avanti ^ The king of the Surasenas, at Madhura, in the Buddha's time, was called Avanti- putto ; and was therefore almost certainly the son of a princess of Avanti ^ The Lalita-vistara gives the personal name of the king
^ Digffta i, 50 = Dialogues, i, 68. ^ Dip. v, 97; Mhv. it, 1.
» Smp. 321; Sum. i, 153-4. * V. inf., pp. 189-90.
» Buddhist India, 4-7. * Above, p. 172. Cf. Jdt. iv, 390.
' M. Ill, 7. 8 M. n, 83.
1 86 The Rarly History of the Buddhists [ch.
of Madhura in the year of the Buddha's birth as Subahu^ and this may be the same person.
Avanti became from the first an important centre of the new doctrine we now call Buddhism (in India it was not so called till centuries later). Several of the most earnest and zealous adherents of the DhamTYia Avere either born or resided there. Abhaya Kumara is mentioned^ and Isidasi^ and Isidatta* and Dhammapala^ and Sona Kutikanna®, and especially Maha-Kaccanal The last of these is stated to have been called by the Buddha the most pre- eminent of those of his disciples able to expound at length, both as to form and meaning, that which had been said in short. The last but one, Sona, was in a similar way declared to be the most eminent of the disciples distinguished for beauty of expression ^ In what language were they supposed to have exercised these literary gifts ? It was certainly not the religious language then current in the priestly schools of Brahmanism. This archaic form of speech which has been preserved in the Brahmanas and Upanishads was called by the grammarians chhandasa, 'the language of chhandas or Vedic poetry,' to distinguish it from the laukiha or * secular ' language ; and the Buddha had expressly forbidden his 'word' to be put into chhandas. Each disciple was to speak the word in his own dialect^. It would be a mistake, however, to be misled by the ambiguities of the word dialect, and to suppose it to mean here the language as spoken by any peasantry. The higher ethics and philosophy of 'the Word' could not be discussed in any such dialect Now for two or three generations before the birth of the Buddha, the so-called Wanderers ^^ were in the habit of passing from Avanti to Savatthi, from Takkasila to Champa, discussing in the vernacular, wherever they went or stayed, precisely such questions. They had invented or adapted abstract words and philosophical or ethical terms useful for their purpose, and equally current in all the dialects ; while during the same period there had been developed in the rising kingdoms, and especially in Kosala (in the very centre of the regions covered by the Wanderers, and by far the largest and most important of them all) the higher
1 Ed. Eajendralal Mitra, p. 24. 2 ^hag. A. 39.
8 Thlg. A. 261-4. " S. iv, 288; Thag. 120.
6 Thag. 204. « Vinaya Texts, n, 32; Thag. 369; Ud. v, 6.
7 Samyutta iii, 9; iv, 117; Anguttara i, 23; v, 46; Majjhima ni, 194, 223.
8 CL Dhp. A. IV, 101.
» Vinaya n, 139. Cf. the note in Vinaya Texts, ni, 150. 10 See Buddhist India, 141-146.
vii] The Vamsas 187
terms necessary for legal and administrative purposes. Just as the Christians adopted for their propaganda, not classical Greek but the Greek of the Koine, the varying dialect understood through all the coasts and islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, which they found ready to their hands ; so the Buddha and his followers adopted this common form of vernacular speech, varying no doubt slightly from district to district, which they found ready to their hands. The particular fonn of this common speech, the then Hindustani, in which the Pali Canon was composed, was almost certainly, as the present writer ventured to suggest nearly forty years ago on historical grounds ^ and as Professor Franke contends on philological grounds^, the form that was current in Avanti^. If that be so, it could be said that Buddhism, bom in Nepal, received the garb in which we now know it in Avanti, in the far West of India. It is true that no such curt summary of a great movement can be sufficient. But this would be nearer to the facts than that other summary, so often put forward as convenient, that Buddhism arose in Magadha and that its original tongue was Magadhi^
IV. The Vamsas The King of the Vamsas in the Buddha's time is called in the Canon Udena^ His father's name was Parantapa, and his son's name Bodhi Kumara^ But Udena survived the Buddha ^, and we are not informed whether Bodhi did or did not succeed him on the throne. Tradition has preserved a long story of the adventures of Udena and his three wives. We have it in two recensions — a Pali one, the Udena-vatthu^ ; and a Sanskrit one, the Makandika- avadana^. It is quite a good story, but how far each episode may be founded on fact is another question. The capital was KosambI, the site of which has been much discussed^". It seems to have been on the south bank of the Jumna, at a point about 400 miles by road from UjjenI, and about 230 miles up stream from
1 Eh.D. in Trans. Phil. Soc. 1875. ^ r. otto Franke, Pali und Sanskrit, 1902,
3 Cf. Windisch, Algiers Cong, of Orientalists, 1906; and Bh.D., Buddhist India, 140-161.
* For this view see the references given by Wintemitz, Gesch. d. ind. Lit. ii, i, p. 10, note 3. ® Uddna vn, 10; Samyutta rv, 110-113,
8 Vinaya n, 127; iv, 198; Majjhima n, 97; Jdtaka in, 157.
' Peta-vatthu Commentary 140.
8 In Norman's Dhammapada Commentary i, 161-280.
8 Divydvaddna 515-544. (Ed. Cowell and Neil, )
w For different views see T, Watters, On Yuan Chwang, i, 366-9 and Chapter xxi, p. 524, infra.
1 88 The Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
Benares ^ One route from UjjenI to KosambI lay through Vedisa, and other places whose names are given but of which nothing else is at present known ^, There were already in the time of the Buddha &ur establishments or settlements of the Order in or near KosambI, each of them a group of huts under trees. One of them was in the drama or pleasaunce of Ghosita, two more in similar parks, and one in Pavariya's Mango Grovel The Buddha was often there, at one or other of these settlements; and discourses he held on those occasions have been handed down in the Canon. King Udena was at first indifferent or even unfriendly. On one occasion, in a fit of drunken jealousy he tortured a leading member of the Order, Pindola Bharadvaja, by having a basket full of brown ants tied to his body *. But long afterwards, in consequence of a conversation he had with this same man Pindola, he professed himself a disciple. We have no evidence that he progressed very far along the path; but his fame has lasted in a curious way in Buddhist legends. For instance there is an early list of the seven Con-natals {sahajcdd), persons born on the same day as the Buddha^ The details of the lists differ; and already in the Lalita- vistara it has grown into several tens of thousands, still arranged however in seven groups ^ Many centuries afterwards we find the name of Udena appearing in similar lists recurring in Tibetan and Chinese books ^
The First Great Gap
The passages referred to above tell us a good deal of the political condition of India during the Buddha's life, and enable us to draw certain conclusions as to previous conditions for some time before the birth of the Buddha. There are also one or two passages in the Canon which must refer to dates after the Buddha's death. Perhaps the most remarkable is the verse in the Parayana (a poem now included in the Sutta Nipata) which, referring to a time when the Buddha was alive, calls Vesali a Magadha city^ Now we know from the Mahd-parinihhdiia Suttanta that (at the time when that very composite work was put together in its present shape) Vesali and the whole Vajjian confederacy was considered to have remained independent of Magadha up to the
1 Buddhist India, p, 36. ^ Sutta Nipata, 1011.
' Vin. IV, 16; Sum. 319. ■» Jdtaka iv, 375.
6 See Eh.D., Buddhist Birth Stories, note on p. 68.
8 Lalita-vistara ed. Rajendralal Mitra, p, 109.
' Eockhill, Life, 16, 17; T. Waiters, On Yuan Chwang, i, 368.
8 Sutta Nipata, 1013.
vii] Kings of Magadha 189
end of the Buddha's life\ If therefore the reading in our text of the Parayana be correct, the expression 'Magadha city' must be taken in the sense of 'now a Magadha city,' and as alluding to the conquest of Vesall as described above, p. 185. But it is apparently the only passage in the Canon which takes cognisance of that event. Again in the Anguttara we have a sutta^ in which a king Munda, dwelling at Pataliputta, is so overwhelmed with grief at the death of his wife Bhadda that he refuses to have the cremation carried out according to custom. But after a simple talk with a thera named Narada he recovers his self-possession. We learn from the chronicles that King Munda was the grandson of Ajatasattu and began to reign about the year 40 a.b.^ It is a fair inference from this episode that Pataliputta had already at that time become the capital of Magadha. Narada is said to have lived in the Kukkutarama, no doubt consisting of a few huts or cottages scattered under the trees in the pleasaunce so called. It was a well-known resting-place for the Buddhist Wanderers, and Asoka is said to have built a monastery on the site of it*.
The long poem of old Parapariya, a laudator temporis acti, on the decay of religion since the death of the Master', adds nothing to political history. So also the edifying ghost-story recorded in the Peta-vatthu (ii, 10) can only, at most, give us the name of a sort of public- works officer at Kosambi shortly after the Buddha's death.
These few details are all that we can glean from the Thera vada Canon concerning the history of India for more than a hundred and sixty years. And the chroniclers and commentators do not add very much more. They have preserved indeed a dynastic list of the kings of Magadha with regnal years of most of the kings. The list is as follows :
Ajatasattu reigned Udayi-bhadda Anuruddha"! Mupda /
|
32 |
years |
|
16 |
» |
|
8 |
jj |
|
24 |
>j |
|
18 |
)» |
|
28 |
» |
|
22 |
5J |
|
22 |
» |
|
24 |
n |
|
4- |
f^i-iT |
|
^*^hK |
UT |
|
0. |
4(;r^?y |
|
4/H=>^ |
^iCO? |
|
yc/A |
4L7 -oy |
|
S |
^oi - 29 y |
|
/< |
^9 7- ^4- |
|
K* |
iH - > |
|
My. |
3 ^i - 34 |
Susunaga Ealasoka His 10 sons Nine Nandas Chandagutta
1 Dialogues, n, 78-80. ^ A. m, 57-63.
• Mdhdvamia rv, 2, 3 ; Divyavaddna 369.
* -Sf. V, 171; J. V, 342; M. i, 350; Divy. 368, 434; T. Watters, On Yuan Chwarig, n, 98, 99.
» Thera-gdthd, 920-948.
01
190 The Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
There are other lists extant, not so complete, and not always with the regnal years given, in Jain, Hindu, or Buddhist Sanskrit works. They have been carefully compared and discussed by W. Greiger, in a very reasonable and scholarly way^. He comes to the conclusion that, on the whole, the above list is better supported than the others. This may well be the case ; but at the same time it must be confessed that the numbers seem much too regular, with their multiples of six and eight, to be very probably in accordance with fact. And we are told nothing at all of any of the other kingdoms in India, or even of the acts of the kings thus named, or of the extent of the growing kingdom of Magadha during any of their reigns. The list gives us only the bare bones of the skeleton of the history of one district.
CHANDAGUTTA
When the curtain rises again we have before us a picture blurred and indistinct in detail, but in its main features made more or less intelligible by what has been set out above.
India, as shown in the authorities there quoted, appeared as a number of kingdoms and republics with a constant tendency towards amalgamation. This process had proceeded further in Kosala than elsewhere ; that great kingdom being by far the most important state in Northern India, and very nearly if not quite as large as modern France. It occupied the very centre of the terri- tories mentioned in those authorities; it had its capital near the borders of what is now Nepal ; and it included all the previous states or duchies between the Himalayas on the north and the Ganges on the west and south. The original nucleus of this great kingdom was the territory now the seat of the Gurkhas, and these Kosalans were almost certainly, in the main at least, of Aryan race. For the heads of houses among them (the gahapatis) are called rdjdno, the same as the clansmen (the Tcula-puttd) in the free republics. Of the surrounding kingdoms Magadha, though much smaller, was the most progressive. It had just absorbed Anga, and at the last moment we saw it attacking, and with success, the powerful Vajjian confederation. The rise of this new star in the extreme South-East was the most interesting factor in the older picture.
The new picture as shown in the Ceylon chronicles and in the classical authors (especially those based on the statements in
1 Mahdvaipsa (English translation), Intr. pp, zl-xlvi.
vii] Chandagutta 191
the Indika of Megasthenes) show us Magadha triumphant. All the kingdoms, duchies, and clans have lost their independence. Even the great Kosalan dominion has been absorbed. And for the first time in the history there is one paramount authority from Bengal to Afghanistan, and from the Himalayas down to the Vindhya range.
We shall probably never know how these great changes, and especially the fall of Kosala, were brought about. And we have no information as to the degree in which the various local authori- ties retained any shadow of power. Were the taxes fixed by the central power and collected by its own officers? Or were the local rates maintained and collected by a local authority? If the latter, were the actual sums received paid over to the central office at Pataliputta, or was a yearly tribute fixed by the paramount power? On these and similar questions we are still quite in the dark. But our two sets of authorities, which are quite independent of one another, agree in the little they do tell us.
Unfortunately each set is open to very serious objections. The Chronicles are quite good as chronicles go, and we have them not only complete but well edited and translated. But of course we cannot expect from documents written fifteen hundred years or more ago, any of that historical criticism that we are only just beginning to use in the West. They are written throughout for edification, and in the Mahavamsa sometimes also for amusement ; they are in verse, and are not infrequently nearer to poetry than history ; and though based on a continuous tradition, that tradition is now lost. On the other hand, the work of Megasthenes, written during the life-time of Chandagutta, is itself lost. What we have are fragments preserved more or less accurately, and with the best intentions, by later Latin and Greek authors. Where what is evidently intended as a quotation from the same passage in Megasthenes is found in more than one of these later authors the presentations of it do not, in several cases, agree. This throws doubt on the correctness of those quotations which, being found in one author only, cannot be so tested. A number of the quota- tions contain statements that, as they stand, are glaringly absurd — stories of gold-digging ants, men with ears large enough to sleep in, men without mouths, and so on. Strabo therefore calls Megas- thenes mendacious. But surely such stories (and other things) only show that Megasthenes was just as ignorant of the modern rules of historical evidence as the Chroniclers were, and for the same reason. Strabo's idea of criticism is no better than that of
192 The Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
those who ignore the Chroniclers on the ground that they are mendacious. As will be seen in Chapter xvi which deals more fully with the Greek and Latin writers on Ancient India, it is more probable that in these fairy-tales of his Megasthenes, like Herodotus before him, had either accepted in good faith stories which were current in the India of his day, or had merely misunderstood some Indian expression.
Age of the Authorities used It remains now to give some account of the literature from which our knowledge of early Buddhism is chiefly derived, and so form some estimate of its value as a source of history. This literature which deals mainly with ethics and religion, grew up gradually among those followers of the Buddha who dwelt in the republics and kingdoms specified above. There are now 27 books, and only three of them deal with the rules of the Order. But these 27 are mostly anthologies of earlier shorter passages. The Patimokkha for instance — one of the earliest documents — has 227 suttas, and they are of the average length of about three lines ; and the Silas, a string of moral injunctions, are, if taken separately, quite short. But neither of these tracts, each of them already a compilation, now exists as a separate book. They are found only as imbedded in longer works of later date. It took about a century for the more important works, the Vinaya and the four Nikayas^, to be nearly finished about as we have them. (See p. 195.)
The next century and a half saw the completion of the supple- mentary works — the supplements to the Vinaya and the four Nikayas; the thirteen books of the supplementary fifth Nikaya (much of it based on older material) ; and the seven Abhidhamma books, mainly a new classification of the psychological ethics of the four Nikayas.
So far the books had been divided into Dhamma and Vinaya ; that is to say, religion and the regulations of the Order. Now, after the close of the canon, a new division begins to appear, that into three Pitakas (or Baskets) of Vinaya, Sutta, and Abhidhamma. We do not yet know exactly when or why this new division arose and superseded the older one^. As late as the fifth cent. a.d. we
1 The titles of the five Nikayas are as follows: 1. Digha=the long Suttas; 2. Majjhima=the Suttas of medium length; 3. Samyutta = Suttas forming connected groups; 4. Anguttara = Suttas arranged according to a progressive enumeration (from one to eleven) of the subjects with which they deal; 5. Khuddaka= smaller works and miscellanea.
' Perhaps the oldest reference to the three Pitakas is in Eanishka's Inscr., Ep. Ind. vm, 176.
vii] Antiquity of Sources 193
find Buddhaghosha still putting the Vinaya and the Abhidhamma into the supplementary fifth Nikaya^, though he and other com- mentators also use the newer phrased
The authorities on which our account of early Buddhist history is based are therefore the four Nikayas, with occasional use of other works mainly of such as are included in the fifth or supple- mentary Nikaya. Concerning the period to which the Nikayas belong we have some evidence, partly internal and partly external. To take the latter first :
Asoka in the Bhabra Edict recommends his co-religionists the special study of seven selected passages. Two of the titles given are ambiguous. Four of the others are from the four Nikayas, and the remaining one from the Sutta Nipata now included in the fifth Nikaya. As was pointed out a quarter of a century ago^ it is a critical mistake to take these titles as the names of books extant in Asoka's time. They are the names of edifying passages selected fi-om an existing literature. It is as if an old inscription had been found asking Christians to learn and ponder over the Beatitudes, the Prodigal Son, the exhortation to the Corinthians on Charity, and so on. There are no such titles in the New Testament. Before short passages could be spoken of by name in this familiar manner a certain period of time must have elapsed ; and we should be justified in assuming that the literature in which the passages were found was therefore older than the inscription ^
Further, in certain inscriptions in the Asoka characters of a somewhat later date there are recorded names of donors to Buddhist monuments. The names being similar, distinguishing epithets are used — X. who knows Suttantas, X. who knows the Pitaka (or perhaps the Pitakas, Petdkl), X. who knows the five Nikayas. These technical terms as names for books are, with one exception, found only in that collection we now call the Pali Pitakas. The exception is the word Pitaka. That is not found in the four Nikayas in that sense ; and even in the fifth Nikaya it is only approximating to that sense and has not yet reached it. One would naturally think, if these Nikayas had been put together after these inscriptions, that they would have used the term in the sense it then had, and has ever since continued to have ; more especially as that sense — the whole collection of the books — is so very con- venient, and expresses an idea for which they have no other word.
1 Attha-sdlini, 26.
2 Ibid. 27; Sum. Vil. i. 15. So also Mil. 21, 90; Thig. A. 199; Dhp. A. ra. 385. 8 Rh.D., Questions of King Milinda, i, xxxvii ff. * See J.P.T.S., 1896.
C.H.I. I. 13
194 ^'^^ Early History of the Buddhists [ch.
Thirdly, the commentators both in India and Ceylon say that the Katha-vatthu, the latest book in the three Pitakas, as we now have them, was composed by Moggliputta Tissa at Asoka's court at Pataliputta in N. India at the time of the Council held there in the eighteenth year of Asoka's reign. At the time when they made this entry, the commentators held the Pitakas to be the word of the Buddha, and believed also that the Dhamma had been already recited at the Council held at Rajagaha after the death of the Buddha. It seems quite impossible, therefore, that they could have invented this information about Tissa. They found it in the records on which their works were based ; and felt compelled to hand it on. Being evidence, as it were, against themselves, it is especially worthy of credit. And it is in accord with all that we otherwise know. Anyone at all acquainted with the history of the gradual change in Buddhist doctrine, and able to read the Katha- vatthu, will find that it is just what we should expect for a book composed in Asoka's time. It has now been edited and translated for the Pali Text Society ; and not a single phrase or even word has been found in it referable to a later date. It quotes largely from all five ISTikayas^
The above is all the external evidence as yet discovered, and the third point, though external as regards the Nikayas, is internal as regards the Pitakas. The internal evidence for the age of the Nikayas is very small, but it is very curious.
Firstly, the four Nikayas quote one another. Thus Anguttara V, 46 quotes Samyutta i, 126 ; but in giving the name of the work quoted it does not say Samyutta, but Kumdri-panha — the title of the particular Sutta quoted. The Samyutta quotes two Suttantas in the Digha by name — the Sakka-panha and the Brahma-jdla\ It follows that, at the time when the four Nikayas were put together in their present form, Suttas and Suttantas known by their present titles were already current, and handed down by memory, in the community.
More than that there are, in each of the four Nikayas, a very large number of stock passages on ethics found in identical words in one or more of the others. These accepted forms of teaching, varying in length from half a page to a page or more, formed part of the already existing material out of which the Nikayas were composed. Some of the longer Suttantas consist almost entirely of strings of such stock passages ^
1 See the passages collected in Dialogues of the Buddha, i, pp. xi, xii.
2 S. Ill, 13 (with a difference of reading), and S. iv, 287.
3 For instance, the Samglti, D. in, 207.
VI i] The Nikayas 195
There are also entire episodes containing names of persons and places and accounts of events — episodes which recur in identical terms in two or more of the Nikayas. About two-thirds of the Mahd-parinibhdna Suttanta consists of such recurring episodes or stock passages^. This will help to show the manner in which the books were built up.
Several conversations recorded in the Nikayas relate to events which occurred two or three years after the Buddha's death ; and one passage (Anguttara iii, 57-62) is based on an event about 40 years after it.
The four Nikayas occupy sixteen volumes of Pali text. They contain a very large number of references to places. No place on the East of India south of Kalinga, and no place on the West of India, south of the Godavari, is mentioned. The Asoka Edicts, dealing in a few pages with similar matter, show a much wider knowledge of South India, and even of Ceylon. We must allow some generations for this increase of knowledge^.
At the end of each of the four Nikayas there are added portions which are later, both in language and in psychological theory, than the bulk of each Nikaya.
All the facts thus emphasised would be explained if these collections had been put together out of older material at a period about half way between the death of the Buddha and the accession of Asoka. Everything has had to be stated here with the utmost brevity. But it is important to add that this is the only working hypothesis that has been put forward. It is true that the old battle cries, such as 'Ceylon books' or 'Southern Buddhism' are still sometimes heard. But what do they mean? The obvious interpretation is that the Pali Pitakas were composed in Ceylon — that is, that when the Ceylon hhiTckhus began to write in Pall (which was about Buddhaghosa's time) they wrote the works on which Buddhaghosa had already commented. This involves so many palpable absurdities that it cannot be the meaning intended. Until those who use such terms tell us what they mean by them, we must decline to accept as a working hypothesis the vague insinua- tion of question-begging epithets. We do not demand too much. A working hypothesis need not propose to settle all questions. But it must take into consideration the evidence set out above ; and it must give a rational explanation of such facts as that this
* See the table of references, and detailed discussion, in the introduction to Dxa- logves, n, 71-77.
2 This point is discussed more fully in Buddhist India, pp. 28-34.
13—2
196 The Karly History of the Buddhists [ch.
literature does not mention Asoka, or S. India, or Ceylon; and that, though there is a clear progress in its psychology and its Buddhology, it gives no connected life of the Buddha, such as we find in Sanskrit poems and Pali commentaries.
On the last point the evidence, being very short, may be given here. There are a large number of references to the places at which the Buddha was stopping, when somie conversation or other on an ethical or philosophical question took place. These have not yet been collected and analysed. Then there are a small number of short references, in a sentence or two or a page or two, to some incident in his life. And lastly we have two episodes, of a considerable number of pages, describing the two important crises in his career, the beginning and the close of his mission. Out of approximately 6000 pages of text in the four Nikayas less than two hundred in all are devoted to the Buddha's life.
Of the long episodes the first is in the Majjhima\ and describes the events of the period fi-om the time when he had first become a Wanderer down to his attainment of Nihhoma (or Arahantship) under the Bodhi Tree^ The events are not the names and dates of kings and battles, but events in religious experience, the gradually increased grasp of ethical and philosophical concepts, the victory won over oneself. The Vinaya, very naturally, con- tinues this episode down to the time of the founding of the Order, the sending forth of the sixty and the accession of the most famous of the Arahants^ This episode covers about seven years, the Vinaya addition to it being responsible for one. The other long episode, about twice as long as the first, describes in detail the events of the last month of the Buddha's life. It is contained in the Digha, and forms a whole Suttanta, the Mahd-parinibbcma Suttanta, referred to above as a composite document.
We have no space to consider the shorter references ; but the following table specifies the more important, arranged chrono- logically :
1. Youth ; three residences. Digha 11, 21 ; Ang. i, 145.
2. The going forth. Digha i, 115; 11, 151; Ang. i, 146; Majjhima i, 163;
S. N. 405-424.
3. His teachers. Majjhima i, 163 ; Saijiyutta iv, 83 ; Digha in, 126.
4. His trial of asceticism. Majjhima i, 17-24, 114, 167, 240-248.
5. Nibbana. Majjhima i, 23, 116-118, 167, 173, 248-250 ; Vinaya i, 1-4.
» Vol. I, pp. 163-175 and 240-249. Bepeated at vol. 11, p. 93, and again p. 212. 2 The word Nibbana occurs, p. 167. 9 Vinaya i, 1-44.
vii] Growth of Literature 197
6. Explanation of the Path. Saipyutta in, 66 ; iv, 34 ; v, 421 ; Majjhima I, 135,
300 ; Vinaya i, 8-14.
7. Sending out of the Sixty. Samyutta i, 105 ; Vinaya i. 21.
8. The last month. Digha ii, 72-168.
The relative age, within the Canon, of each of these passages, has to be considered as a question distinct from that of the books into which they are now incorporated. Towards the solution of these questions some little progress has been made, and the tenta- tive conclusions so far reached are shown in the following table.
Growth of Buddhist Literature from the time of the Buddha down to Asoka.
1. The simple statements of doctrine now found in identical words recurring in two or more of the present books — the stock passages or Suttas.
2. Episodes (not of doctrine only) similarly recurring.
3. Books quoted in the present books but no longer existing separately — the Silas, the Parayana, the Octades, the Patimokkha, etc.
4. Certain poems, ballads, or prose passages found similarly recurring in the present anthologies, or otherwise showing signs of greater age.
5. The four Nikayas, the Sutta Vibhanga and the Khandakas. Approximate dates 100 A.B.
6. Sutta Nipata, Thera- and Theii-gatha, the Udanas, the Khuddaka Patha.
7. The Jatakas (verses only), and the Dhammapadas.
8. The Niddesa, the Iti-vuttakas, and the Patisambhida.
9. The Peta- and Vimana-vatthu, the Apadanas, and the Buddhavamsa.
10. The Abhidhamma books, the latest of wKich is the Katha- vatthu'and the oldest, perhaps, the Dhamma-sangani.
CHAPTER VIII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE
The following analysis is constructed from a number of incidental allusions to economic conditions in the great Pali thesaurus of the Jataka, and, to a more limited extent in the Vinaya, and also in the other books of the Sutta Pitaka, of which the Jataka is a part. Dr Fick's admirable monograph Die sociale Gliederung in Indien is similarly based. That work deals chiefly with social conditions. The present chapter, on the other hand, is mainly economic in scope, and only in a minor degree sociological. It is true that the evidence is drawn very largely from stories. But it is fairly clear that the folk in those tales have given them a parochial setting and local colour. And this is frequently borne out by the coin- cident testimony of other books not dealing with folk-lore.
The rural economy of India at the coming of Buddhism was based chiefly on a system of village communities of landowners, or what in Europe is known as peasant proprietorship. The Jataka bears very clear testimony to this. There is no such clear testimony in it to isolated large estates, or to great feudatories, or to absolute lords of the soil holding such estates. In the monarchies, the king, though autocratic and actively governing, had a right to a tithe on raw produce, collected as a yearly tax ; and only to this extent could he.be considered the ultimate owner of the soil. All abandoned, all forest land the king might dispose of ^ ; and under this right was included the reversion to the crown of all property left intestate or 'ownerless '^ a custom which may or may not be a survival of an older feudalism. The sovereign was moreover en- titled to 'milk money,' a perquisite paid by the nation when an heir was born to him^, and he could declare a general indemnity for prisoners at any festal occasion ^ Besides these privileges he
1 D. I, 87. .
* S. I, 89 {Kindred Sayings, i, 115) ; Jdt. in, 3026; cf. iv, 485; vi, 348.
s lb. IV, 323. * lb. IV, 176; v, 285; vi, 327.
CH. VI 1 1] Tithes and Taxes 199
could impose forced labour or rdjahdriya on the people, but this may have been limited to the confines of his own estates. Thus the peasant proprietors enclose a deer-reserve for their king, that they might not be summoned to leave their tillage to beat up game for him^. A much more oppressive extent of corvee is pre- dicted only of a state of civic decay ^. The tithe on produce was levied in kind, measured out either by the village syndic or head- man (gdma-hhqjaka), or by an official (a mahdmatta) at the barn doors ^, or by survey of the crops*. Some of the rice and other grain may presumably have been told off for the special granaries kept filled for urgency, in war or famine ^ but Buddhist books make no clear reference to such an institution. The amount levied seems to have varied from \ to ^^, according to the decision of the ruling power ^ or other circumstances. And the contributions raised at one or more gdmas (villages), rural or suburban, could be made over by a monarch (or by his chief queen ^) to anyone he wished to endow, e.g., to a daughter on her marriage", a minister^", a Brahman", a merchant, etc.'^ Again, the king could remit the tithe to any person" or group'*.
We have no direct evidence of such a tithe or other tax being levied on the commonwealth by any of the republics or oligarchies mentioned in the Buddhist canon, such as the Sakiyas, Koliyas, Licchavis, Mallas, etc.'^ But that they did so raise the state revenue, in the case at least of the Sakiyas, seems to be attested by Asoka's inscription on the LumbinI or Rummindei pillar^®. The tithe thus remitted on the occasion of Asoka's visit to the birthplace of the Buddha, must have been imposed by the Sakiyas at a date prior to the Mauryan hegemony. The Sakiyas and other republics are recorded as meeting for political business at their own mote-halls ''', and must inevitably have had a financial policy to discuss and carry out. That their enactments could be somewhat drastically paternal appears in the case of the Malla clansmen of Kusinara, who imposed a fine of 500 (pieces) on any- one who 'went not forth to welcome the Blessed One' when he
* At Benares, Jdt. i, 149 ; the Anjana Wood at Saketa, ib. m, 270.
8 Ih. I, 339. A certain familiarity with oppressive taxation is suggested by ih. v, 99 ff ; cf. I, 339 ; ii, 240. =« Ib. ii, 378.
* Ib. IV, 169. s ind. Ant., 1896, pp. 261 f.
^ Cf. Gautama x, 24; Manu. vii, 130; Biihler, Trans. Vienna Acad. Jan. 1897; V. A. Smith, J'.E.J.S., 1897, 618 f. ''Jdt. in, 9. ^ Ib. v, U.
» Ib. II, 237, 403. i» 76. i, 354; vi, 261.
" D. I, 87 ; Jdt. Ill, 229. ^^ Ib. vi, 344. is /j,. iv, 169.
1* Ib. I, 200. 15 See Buddhist India, 22.
18 J.R.A.S. 1898, 546 f. " D. i, 91 ; cf. Dialogues of the Buddha, i, 113, n. 2.
200 Economic Conditions [ch.
drew near, on his tour, to their town\ These Mallas were also possessed of a mote-hall {santhdgdra) for parliamentary discussions'^ — ^a class of buildings illustrated by the bas-relief of a celestial House of Lords on the Bharhut Stupal
Land might, at least in the kingdom of Magadha, be given away, and in that of Kosala, be sold. In the former case, a Brahman landowner oflfers a thousand karlsas of his estate as a gift*; in the latter, a merchant (by a little sharp practice) entangles an unwilling noble in the sale of a park". And in the law-books we read that land might be let against a certain share of the produced The holdings too in the arable land, called the khetta, of each village would be subject to redistribution and redivision among a family, as one generation succeeded another. It is not clear whether any member of a village community could give or sell any of the khetta to an outsider. It is just possible that the old tradition, expressed in the Brahmanas when a piece of land was given as a sacrificial fee — 'And the Earth said : Let no mortal give me away !"' — ^may have survived in the villages as a communal, anti-alienising feeling concerning any disintegration of the basis of their social and economic unity. We should anyway expect, from what is revealed in the early Buddhist books, to find such a senti- ment upheld, less by the infrequent rural autocrat and his little kingdom of country-seat, tenant-farmers, and serfs, than by the preponderating groups of cultivators, each forming a gcima.
When, in the Jataka legend, a king of Videha abandons the world as anchorite, he is described as renouncing both his capital, the city {nagara) of Mithila, seven yojanas (in circumference), and his realm of sixteen thousand gdmas^. It may sound incredible that a country owning such a wealth of 'villages' should contain but one town, and that so vast in extent, as to suggest inclusion not only of parks but of suburban gaimas^. There was not, how- ever, any such hard and fast line between gdma and nigama (small town) to warrant the exclusion, in this description, of some gdmas which may have amounted to nigamas. A similar vagueness holds between our 'town' and 'village.'
A gdma might apparently mean anything from a group of two or three houses^" to an indefinite number. It was the generic, inclusive term for an inhabited settlement, not possessing the
1 Vin. I, 247 (Mah. vi, 36). ^ j). n, 147.
3 Cunningham, Stwpa of Bharhut, pi. xvi. * Jdt. iv, 281.
» Vin. u, 158 f. {Gull. V. vi, 4, 9 f.).
6 Apast. 11, 11, 28 (1); i, 6, 18 (20). ^ ^atap. Br. xin, 7, 15.
8 Jdt. in, 365. " lb. vi, 330. " Childers, Pali Dictionary s.v.
V 1 1 1] Cities and Villages 201
fortifications of a nagara, or the ruler's palace of a rdjadhdm. The number of inhabitants in the gdmas of the Jataka tales varied from 30 to 1000 families. And family (hda), it must be remembered, was a more comprehensive unit than it is with us, including not only father and mother, children and grandparents, but also the wives and children of the sons. Gdma, it is true, might be used to dififerentiate a class of settlement, as in the compound gdma- nigama, 'villages and towns'; but it is also used in the wider, looser sense of group as opposed to single house. For instance, a fire, when starting in a house, may extend to the whole gdma\ When a hhikkhu leaves park, forest, or mountain to seek alms, he 'enters the gdma'^,' whether it be a neighbouring village, or the suburbs of great Savatthi^.
Of such cities there were but few in Northern India. Less than twenty are named*. Six of them only are reckoned by the Thera Ananda as sufficiently important cities (mahd-nagard) to be the scene of a Buddha's final passing away: — Savatthi, Champa, Rajagaha, Saketa, KosambI, Benares. Kusinara, where that event actually took place, he depreciates as not a 'village,' but a jungle 'townlet' {nagarakay. The greatness of Pataliputra (Patna) was yet to come. In the absence of any systematic account of this rural organisation in ancient records, it is better to refrain from laying down any homogeneous scheme. 'No doubt different vill- ages, in diflferent districts, varied one from another in the customs of land-tenure, and in the rights of individual householders as against the conimunity".' The jungles and rivers of the vast Ganges valley fostered independent development probably at least as much as the hill-barriers in the Alps have done in the case of Swiss and Italian peasant communities down to this day.
Around the gdma, which appears to have been classed as of the country (Janapada)\ of the border {paccantaY, or as suburban, lay its khetta, or pastures, and its woodland or uncleared jungle: — primeval forest like the Andhavana of Kosala, the Sitavana of Magadha, the Paclnavamsa-daya of the Sakiya Territory, retreats traditionally haunted by wild beasts and by gentler woodland sprites, and where Mara, the Lucifer of seductive evil influences, might appear in one shape or another". Different from these were
* MilindapanlM, 47.
2 Vin. passim, e.g. Cull. V. v, 12 ; 29. Cf . Thig. ver. 304 ; Camm. p. 175.
3 Jdt. I, 106 ; Psalms of the Brethren, p. 34, cf . p. 24 ; v. inf. p. 208.
* Buddhist India, 84 ff. » D. n, 146.
6 Buddh. Ind. 44 f. ^ jat. i, 318. 8 n, i, 215 ; cf . v. 46.
^ See Psalms of the Early Buddhists i, u passim; cf. n, p. 161, n. 1.
202 Economic Conditions [ch.
such suburban groves as the Bamboo Grove belonging to Magadha's king, the Anjanavana of Saketa, the Jetavana of Savatthi. Through those other uncleared woodlands and moorlands, where the folk went to gather their firewood and litter \ ran caravan routes, roads that were at times difficult because of swampy passages after rain, and here and there dangerous, less on account of aggressive beasts than because of brigands, not to mention demonic bipeds^
Adjoining or merged into these wilder tracts were supple- mentary grazing pastures * of herds of cattle* and goats", — herds belonging to king® or commoners^. Commoners customarily en- trusted their flocks to a communal neatherd, as we find in the Pennine Alps to-day {le fromageur). We find him either penning his herds at night in sheds ^, or, more often, bringing them back every evening and counting them out to the several owners, vary- ing the pasturage from day to day^ The official name, gopdlaha, and the context suggest that dairywork was not usually expected of him so much as sagacity in minding his beasts^".
The arable ground of the gdma lay without the clustered dwellings, since these were apparently enclosed by a wall or stockade with gates (gdmadvdray^. Fences ^^, snares", and field watchmen^* guarded the Tchetta or gdmakhetta from intrusive beasts and birds, while the internal boundaries of each house- holder's plot were apparently made by channels dug for co-operative irrigation^". These dividing ditches, rectangular and curvilinear, were likened, at least in the Magadha hhettas, to a patchwork robe, and prescribed by the Buddha as a pattern for the uniform of his Order : torn pieces of cast-away cloth sewn together, ' a thing which could not be coveted'^". The limits of the whole hhetta might be extended by fresh clearing of forest land'''. And whereas the majority of holdings were probably small, manageable single- handed or with sons and perhaps a hired man'*, estates of 1000 Tcarlsas (acres?) and more occur in the Jatakas, farmed by Brah- mans'". In the Suttas, again, the Brahman Kasibharadvaja is employing 500 ploughs and hired men (bhatikd)^ to guide plough and oxen^\
1 Jdt. I, 317 ; V, 103. « lb. i, 99. ^ /j. j, 338. * lb. ni, 149; iv, 826.
5 lb. m, 401. « lb. I, 240. ^ lb. i, 194, 388; cf. Rigveda, x, 19.
8 lb. I, 388; m, 149. » A, i, 205; M. Dhp. Comvi. i, 157. ^^ A. v, 350.
" Jat. I, 239; n, 76, 135; iii, 9; iv, 370 (nigama). i^ jj,. j^ 215.
13 lb. I, 143, 154. " lb. II, 110; iv, 277.
« Dhp.yer. 80=U5 = Therag. 19; Jdt. iv, 167; i, 336; v, 412.
16 Vin. Texts n, 207-9 {Mah. viii, 12). Cf. Pss. of the Brethren, p. 152.
17 Jdt. II, 357; IV, 167. i^ jj,, i, 277; m, 162; iv, 167. i» lb. iii, 293; iv, 276. 20 S.N. I, 4 ; cf. S. I, 171 ; Jdt. m, 293. "i j^. n^ 1Q5. 300.
V 1 1 1] Agriculture 203
Rice was the staple article of food^; besides which seven other kinds of grain are mentioned^ ; sugar-cane^ and fruits, vegetables and flowers were also cultivated.
Instances of coUectivist initiative reveal a relatively advanced sense of citizenship in the gdmas. The peasant proprietors had a nominal head in the hhojaka or headman, who, as their represent- ative at political headquarters and municipal head, was paid by certain dues and fines*. But all the village residents met to confer with him and each other on civic and political matters. And carrying the upshot of their counsels into effect, they built new mote-halls and rest-houses, constructed reservoirs and parks, and took turns at a voluntary Gorv6e in keeping their roads in repair ^, herein again followed by Alpine peasants of to-day. Women too considered it a civic honour to bear their own part in municipal building''. A further glimpse into the sturdy spirit in gdma-\\i& is caught in the Jataka sentiment, that for peasants to leave their tillage and work for impoverished kings was a mark of social decay ^ Relevant to this is the low social rank assigned to the hired labourer, who is apparently classed beneath the domestic slave ^.
Scarcity owing to drought or to floods is not infrequently referred to, extending even over a whole kingdom I This contra- dicts the 'affirmation' recorded by Megasthenes^**, that 'famine has never visited India,' unless his informant meant a very general and protracted famine. The times of scarcity in Buddhist records apparently refer only to brief periods over restricted areas.
Nothing in all the foregoing evidence has gone to show that, in the India of early Buddhist literature, the pursuit of agriculture was associated with either social prestige or social stigma. The stricter Brahman tradition, not only in the law-books, but also in the Sutta Nipata, the Majjhima Nikaya, and the Jatakas, expressly reserved the two callings of agriculture and tr^de for the Vaigya or middle class, and judges them unfit for Brahman or noble. Thus the Brahman Esukari of Savatthi considers village and dairy farming as not less the property and province of the Vaigya than are bow and arrow, endowed maintenance (by alms), and sickle and
1 lb. I, 340; n, 43, 135, 378; ra, 383; iv, 276.
'^ M. I, 57; also yava (barley) in Jdt. ii, 110. 3 Ih. i, 339; Vin. (Mah. vi, 35, 6).
* lb. I, 199. « Jdt. I, 199 f. 6 16, 7 j^. i, 339.
8 Cf. D. I, 51 ; A. I, 145, 206 ; Mil. 147, 331 ; trs. ii, 210, n, 6.
9 Vin. I, 211, 213 ft. ; Vin. Texts, m, 220, n. 1 ; Jdt. i, 329 ; ii, 135, 149, 367 ; Y, 193 ; VI, 487.
10 M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes, 32.
204 Economic Conditions [ch.
yoke, the property and province of noble, Brahman, and working classes respectively ^ And here and there, in the Jataka-book, Brahmans who engage in agriculture, trade, and other callings are declared to have fallen from their Brahmanhood^. On the other hand, in both Jatakas and Suttas, not only are Brahmans fre- quently found pursuing tillage, cow herding, goat keeping, trade, hunting, wood-work or carpentry, weaving, caravan guarding, archery, carriage-driving, and snake-charming^, but also no reflec- tion is passed ui)on them for so doing, nay, the Bi-ahman farmer is at times a notably pious man and a Bodhisat to boot*. Dr Fick is disposed to think that the North- western {JJ diced) Brahmans of the Kurus and Panchalas, some of whom came east and settled there, inherited a stricter standard'. Nevertheless it is not claimed for the pious ones just mentioned, living near Benares and in Magadha, that they were Udicca immigrants. Even the law-books permit Brahmans to engage in worldly callings if they are in straitened circumstances, or if they take no active share in the work^
As for the Kshatriya clansmen of the republics mentioned above, they were largely cultivators of the soil. For instance, in the Kundla Jataka, it was the workmen in the fields of the Sakiyan and Koliya 'bhqjakas, amaecas, and upardjas' who began to quarrel over the prior turn to irrigate^. In the earliest Indian literature agricultural and pastoral concepts play a great part. But even if this implied that a special dignity attached to agri- culture, it does not follow that any such tradition survived, if it survived at all, associated with any section of society. There was among Indo-Aryans little of the feudal tie between land and lord with lordship over the land-tillers, which made broad acres a basis for nobility in the West. However they accomplished their pre- historic invasion of the Ganges basin, 'land-grabbing' does not seem to have been carried out pari passu with success in general- ship. This may have been because the annexation of land to any wide extent meant clearing of jungle. Except among Dravidian and Kolarian towns along the rivers, the task of the invaders was more like that of pioneering settlers in America. And there we
1 M. n, 180. The Vdsettha-sutta (M. no. 98 ; S.N. in, 9) in spiritualising the term brahmana, reveals the same exclusive sentiment as current.
a Jat. IV, 363 f.
3 Jdt. n, 165 ; in, 293 ; iv, 167, 276 ; in, 401 ; iv, 15 ; v, 22, 471 ; n, 200 ; vi, 170; IV, 207, 457; v, 127.
* lb. m, 162. ^ Sociale Gliederung in Indien, 138 f.
« E.g. Manu x, 116. ^ Jdt. v, 412.
VII i] Arts and Crafts 205
know that land is not an appanage involving special privileges and entailing special claims, but a commodity like any other.
The slave or servant {dasa, ddsi) was an adjunct in all house- holds able to command domestic service ; but slaves do not appear to have been kept, as a rule, in great numbers ^ either in the house, or, as in the West, at mining or 'plantation' work. Their treat- ment differed of couise according to the disposition and capacity of both master and slave. Thus we find, in the Jataka, the slave, petted, permitted to learn writing and handicrafts besides his ordinary duties as valet and footman, saying to himself that, at the slightest fault he might get 'beaten, imprisoned, branded, and fed on slave's fare ' ^. But of actual ill-treatment there is scarce any mention. Two instances of beating occur, and in both the victims were maids. One lies a-bed repeatedly (to test her pious mistress's temper)^; the other fails to bring home wages*. Presumably she had been sent to fetch her master's wage, or else had been hired out. But we do not meet with runaway slaves. Slavery might be incurred through capture', commuted death sentence, debt®, voluntary self-degradation'', or judicial punishment* ; on the other hand, slaves might be manumitted", or might free themselves by payment^". They might not, while still undischarged, be admitted into the religious community (SanghaYK
The hireling, wage-earner, day-labourer was no man's chattel, yet his life was probably harder sometimes than that of the slave *l He was to a great extent employed on the larger land-holdings^*. He was paid either in board and lodging, or in money-wages". Manu prescribes regular wages both in money and kind for menials in the king's service ^^
In the arts and crafts, a considerable proficiency and special- isation of industry had been reached. A list of callings given in the Milindapaiiha, reveals three separate industries in the manu- facture of bows and arrows, apart from any ornamental work on the same'^ In the same work, the allusion to a professional winnower of grain indicates a similar division of labour to our own threshing machinists and steamplough-owners who tour in rural
1 Vin. I, 72 {Mah. i, 39) ; D. i, 60, 72, 92 f., 104 ; Dialogues of the Buddha i, 19, 101.
2 Jdt. I, 451 f . 3 M. I, 125. * Jdt. i, 402 f.
5 lb. IV, 220 ; VI, 135. 6 zb. vi, 521 ; Therig. ver. 444.
' Vin. I, 72 (3Iah. i, 39, 1) ; Sum. Vil. i, 168. 8 j^t. i, 200.
» D. I, 72 ; Pss. Sisters, p. 117 ; Pss. Brethren, p. 22 ; Jdt. v, 313.
10 lb. VI, 547. " Vin. i, 76 (Mah. i, 46 f.). ^^ jat, i, 422 ; iii, 444.
13 lb. in, 406 ; iv, 43 ; S.N., p. 12. " lb. n, 139 ; m, 326, 444 ; v, 212.
« Manu vn, 125 f. w MU. 331.
2o6 Economic Conditions [ch.
districts \ As certain grain crops were reaped twice a year^, this would afford a fairly protracted season of work every few months.
Some trade-names, on the other hand, are as comprehensive as our 'smith.' As with us, this word (Icammdra) might be applied to a worker in any metal. VaddhaJd, again, apparently covered all kinds of woodcraft including shipbuilding, cartmaking^, and archi- tecture*, thapati, tacchaJca (lit. planer), and hhamakdra or turner being occupied with special modes of woodwork ^ A settlement of vaddhakis is able to make both furniture and seagoing ships'. Once more the same worker in stone (pdsdnd-kottaka) builds houses with the ruined material of a former gdma, and also hollows a cavity in a crystal as a cage for a moused
Important handicrafts like the three above named and their branches, the workers in leather, i.e., the leather-dressers, the 'painters,' and others to the number of eighteen were organised into gilds (sent), according to Jataka records; but it is to be regretted that only four of the eighteen crafts thus organised are specifically mentioned, ' the woodworkers, the smiths, the leather- dressers, the painters and the rest, expert in various crafts'*. At the head of each gild was a president (pamukhd) or alderman (jetthaka), and these leaders might be important ministers in attendance upon and in favour with the king. Occasionally these functionaries quarrelled, as at Savatthil And it may have been such quarrelling also at Benares that led to the institution of a supreme headship over all the gilds, an office doubled with that of treasurer {hhanddgdrika) being founded at that city. It is of interest to note that this innovation in administrative organisation was made at a time when, according to the legend, the monarchy is represented as having been elective, not hereditary, and when the king who appointed, and the man who was appointed, were the sons, respectively, of a merchant and a tailor"! The nature and extent of the authority of the pamiddia over the gilds is nowhere clearly shown. Nor is it clear to what extent the duties of a hhanddgdrika, lit. ' houser of goods,' coincided with our word 'treasurer.' It was not confined to the custody of moneys, for the
1 Mil. 201 (perhaps a doubtful rendering ; yet there is a professional ploughman in Jataka, n, 165).
2 Megasthenes ; cf. M'Crindle, op. cit. 54 ; v. inf. Chapter xvi, p. 404.
' Jdt. rv, 207. We find ydnakdras, rathakaras, takatakaras also so engaged. ■» Jdt. I, 201 ; IV, 323 ; Mil. 330, 345. « M. i, 56, 396 ; m, 144 ; Dhp. ver. 80.
« Jdt. IV, 159. ' lb. I, 479. » Jdt. i, 267, 314 ; in, 281 ; iv, 411; vi, 22.
» lb. n, 12, 52 ; cf . mahdvaddhaki in Jdt. vi, 332. 10 Jdt. IV, 43.
VI 1 1] Leaders of Industry 207
Saiigha had officials so named* ; hence it is possible that it referred to a supervision of the goods made or dealt with by a gild or gilds and not only to the king's exchequer.
Nor can we with any certainty fill up the fourteen unnamed gilds. A great many arts and crafts are mentioned in the books, some of them held in less social esteem than others. Among the latter were trades connected with the slaying of animals and work on their bodies, e.g., hunters and trappers, fishermen, butchers, and tanners. Yet other such despised callings Avere those of snake- charming, acting, dancing and music, rush weaving and chariot- making, the last two because of the despised, probably aboriginal, folk whose hereditary trades they were. Other more honourable crafts were ivory- working, weaving, confectionery, jewelry and work in precious metals, bow and arrow making, pottery, garland- making and head-dressing. Besides these handicrafts, there was the world of river and sea-going folk, the trader or merchant, and, corresponding in a limited way to the first-named, the caravan- escorts and guides or 'land-pilots' {thcda-niyydmaka). But although reference is made in connexion with some of these, to a jetthaka, or Elder, no farther evidence of civic organisation is forthcoming.
Other instances of trades having jetthdkas are seamen, or at least pilots {niyydmakaY, garland makers^, caravan traders and guards*, and robbers or brigands. We read, e.g., of a little robber- grama in the hills, near Uttara-Panchala, numbering 500 families^.
The learner or apprentice (antevdsika, literally ' the boarder ') appears frequently in Buddhist books, one of which indicates the relative positions of pupil and master woodwright^ But no condi- tions of pupillage are anywhere stated.
The title of setthi (best, chief), which is so often met with and, without much justification rendered by 'treasurer,' may possibly imply headship over some class of industry or trading. It is clear that the famous setthi, Anathapindika of Savatthi, the millionaire lay-supporter of the Sangha, had «ome authority over his fellow- tradere. Five hundred setthis, e.g., attended him in his presenta- tion of the Jetavana to the Buddha^. Unless these were convened from different towns, the number in any one town was not limited to one or a few. They are usu£illy described as wealthy, and as engaged in commerce. Dr Fick is probably right in alluding to them as representing the mercantile profession at court*. The
1 Vin. n, 176 (Cull. V. vi, 21, 2). * j^t, rv, 137. » lb. m, 405.
* lb. I, 368 ; n, 295, 335. « lb. i, 296 f. ; n, 388 ; iv, 430, 433 (Comm.).
« lb. I, 251 ; V, 290 f. ; Attha-sdlini, p. 111. ^ Jdt. I, 93. « Op. cit., p. 167 f.
2o8 Economic Conditions [ch.
word certainly implied an oflfice {thana^) held during life. There might be a chief (mahd) setthi, and an anusetthi or subordinate officer 2; a commentary even refers to the insignia of a setthi-chatta (umbrella of state) ^
The remarkable localisation of industries revealed in Buddhist literature has already been noticed. This is observable especially in the case of craft- villages of woodwrights*, ironsmiths^, and potters*. These were either suburban to large cities, or rural, and constituting as such special markets for the whole countryside, as we see in the ironsmiths' gama just cited, to which people came from the gamas round about to have razors, axes, ploughshares, goads, and needles made. On the Ganges or further afield there were trapper gamas, supplying game, skins, ivory, etc.^
Within the town we meet with a further localisation of trades in certain streets, if not quarters, e.g., the street (vUhi) of the ivory workers in Benares^, the dyers' street", the weavers' 'place' (thdnay, the Vessas' (Vai^yas, merchants?) street".
Combined with this widespread coi-porate regulation of indus- trial life, there was a very general but by no means cast-iron custom for the son to follow the calling of the father. Not only individuals but families are frequently referred to in terms of their traditional calling. The smith, e.g., is Smithson; Sati the fisher- man's son is Sati the fisherman; Chunda thie smith is called Chunda Smithson, etc.^^ This, however, is not peculiar to Indian or even to Aryan societies, up to a certain stage of development. Even of our own it was said but half a century ago that the line of demarcation between different employments or grades of work had till then been 'almost equivalent to an hereditary distinction of caste '^l In modern India no doubt these lines of demarcation have intensified in the course of centuries, and have split up the industrial world into a, to us, bewildering number of sections, or, as the Portuguese called them, castes.
The Jatakas reveal here and there a vigorous etiquette observed by the Brahman ' colour ' in the matter of eating with, or of the food of, the despised Chandalas, as well as the social intolerance felt
1 Jat. 1, 122 ; cf. Vin. Texts, i, 102, note 3.
a Vin. I, 19 {Mah. i, 9) ; Jat. v, 384. ^ vimana-vatthu {Comm.), 66.
* Jat. 11, 18, 405; iv, 159, 207. 6 lb. in, 281. « lb. ra, 376, (408).
' lb. VI, 71, nesddagdma ; cf. iii, 49 ; Therig. (Comm.), 220, migaluddakagdma. 8 Jat. I, 320; ii, 197. » lb. iv, 81. i» lb. i, 356. " lb. vi, 485.
^^ M. I, 256; D. u, 127 L {'kammdraputto' and 'kammdro') ; Jdt. i, 98, 194, 312; II, 79. Cf. nesddo = luddaputto = luddo, Jdt. m, 330 f. ; v, 356-8. ^* J. S. Mill, Political Economy, xiv, 2.
VI 1 1] Social Distinctions 209
for the latter by the burgess class ^. The Jataka commentary tells the story of a slave-girl, daughter of a slave and a Khattiya, whose father pretended to eat with her only that she might be passed off before the Kosalans, seeking a nobly born consort for their king, as a thorough -bred Sakiyan^.
On the other hand, a great many passages from both Jataka and other canonical books might be quoted to show that the four 'colours' are on the whole to be taken in no stricter sense than we speak of ' lords and commons,' ' noblesse, ^glise, tiers-^tat,' * upper, middle, lower classes.' That Brahmans claimed credit if born of Brahmans on both sides for generations back^, betrays the existence of many born from a less pure ' connubium.' In the Kusa Jataka, a Brahman takes to wife the childless chief wife of a king without 'losing caste' thereby ^ Elsewhere in the Jataka-book princes, Brahmans, Setthis are shown forming friendships, sending their sons to the same teacher, and even eating together and inter- marrying, without incurring any social stigma or notoriety as innovators or militants ^ The following instances may be quoted: —
A king's son, pure bred, cedes his share of the kingdom to his sister, turns trader and travels with his caravan^. A prince, whose wife in a fit of displeasure has returned to her father, apprentices himself at that father's court, without entailing subsequent social disgrace, to the court potter, florist, and cook successively, in order to gain access to her I Another noble, fleeing from his brother, hires himself to a neighbouring monarch as an archer^. A prince resigning his kingdom, dwells with a merchant on the frontier, working with his hands ^. A commentarial tradition represents a child of the Vaccha Brahmans as the * sand-playmate ' of the little Siddhattha, afterwards the Buddha ^°. A wealthy, pious Brahman takes to trade to be better able to afford his charitable gifts ^^ Brahmans engaged personally in trading without such pretext ^^, taking service as archers ^^, as the servant of an archer who had been a weaver^*, as low-caste trappers ^^, and as low-caste carriage- makers^^.
1 Jdt. u, 83 f . ; ni, 233 ; iv, 200, 376, 888, 390-2.
2 Jat. IV, 144 ff. » D. I, 93 ; M. ii, 156; Thera-gdthd, vv. 889, 1170. * Jdt. V, 280.
6 Jat. II, 319 f.; in, 9-11, 21, 249-54, 340, 405 f., 475, 517; iv, 38; vi, 348; 421 f. ; Fick, op. cit., vi-xii ; Dialogues i, 96 ff.
« Jdt. IV, 84 ; Peta-vatthu Comm. Ill f. '' lb. v, 290-3 ; cf. i, 421 f.
8 Ih. II, 87. ^ Ih. IV, 169. " Psalms of the Brethren, 17 {Vanavaccha).
" Jdt. IV, 15 f. 12 j5. V, 22, 471. ^^ j?,. m^ 219 ; v, 127 f.
" lb. I, 356 f . 15 Ih. II, 200 ; vi, 170 ff . »« lb. iv, 207 f .
C.H.I. I. 14
V
2IO Economic Conditions [ch.
Again, among the middle classes, we find not a few instances revealing anything but caste-bound heredity and groove, to wit, parents discussing the best profession for their son: — writing, reckoning, or money-changing (rupa^, no reference being made to the father's trade ^; a (low-class) ideer- trapper becoming the prot€g4 and then the ' inseparable fiiend ' of a rich young Setthi, without a hint of social barriers^; a weaver looking on his handi- craft as a mere make-shift, and changing it ofi-hand for that of an archer^; a pious fanner and his son, with equally little ado, turning to the low trade of rush weaving* ; a young man of good family but penniless, starting on his career by selling a dead mouse for cat's meat at a * farthing,' turning his capital and his hands to every variety of job, and finally buying up a ship's cargo, with his signet-ring pledged as security, and winning both a profit of 200 per cent and the hand of the Setthi's daughter ^
This freedom of initiative and mobility in trade and labour finds further exemplification in the enteiprise of a settlement {gdma) of woodworkers'^. Failing to carry out the orders for which prepay- ment had been made, they were summoned to fulfil their contract. But they, instead of ' abiding in their lot,' as General Walker the economist said of their descendants, 'with oriental stoicism and fatalism^,' made *a mighty ship' secretly, and emigi-ated with their families, slipping down the Ganges by night, and so out to sea, till they reached a fertile island. Stories, all of these, not history ; nevertheless they serve to illustrate the degree to which labour and capital were mobile at the time, at least, when these stories were incorporated in the Buddhist canon, and before that. And they show that social divisions and economic occupations were very far from coinciding. There was plenty of pride of birth, which made intermarriage and eating together between certain ranks an act more or less disgraceful to those reckoning themselves as socially higher. And sons, especially perhaps among artisans, tended to follow the paternal industry. This was all.
The trade of the trader, dealer, or middleman (vdnija) may well have been largely hereditary^. Traditional good- will handed on here would prove specially effective in commanding confidence, and thus be a stronger incentive than the force a tergo of caste- rule. There is, however, no instance as yet produced from early Buddhist documents pointing to any corporate organisation of the
1 Vin. I, 77 (Mah. i, 49, 1) ; iv, 128 (Pdc. lxiv, 128). * j^t, m, 49 ff . 3 jj,. a, 87. 4 lb. IV, 318. 6 lb. I, 120 ff. e Jdt. iv, 159. ^ The Wages Question, p. 177. 8 Jdt. II, 287 ; III, 198. It is noteworthy that mining and miners never came on in the Jataka scenes.
VII i] Partnerships 2ii
nature of a gild or Hansa leagued The hundred or so of merchants who, in the Chullaka-Setthi Jataka^, come to buy up the cargo of a newly arrived ship, are apparently each trying to ' score off his own bat,' no less than the pushful youth who forestalled them. Nor is there any hint of syndicate or federation or other agreement existing between the 500 dealers who are fellow passengers on board the ill-fated ships in the Valahassa and Pandara Jatakas^ ; or the 700 who were lucky enough to secure Supparaka as their pilots beyond the fact that there was concerted action in chartering one and the same vessel. Among merchants travelling by land, however, the rank of satthavaha or caravan- leader seems to imply some sort of federation. This position was apparently hereditary, and to be a jetthaka or elder, in this capacity, on an expedition, apparently implied that other mer- chants (vdmja), with their carts and caravan-followers, were accompanying the satthavaha, and looking to him for directions as to halts, watering, precautions against brigands, and even as to routes, fording, etc.^ Subordination, however, was not always ensured*^, and the institution does not warrant the inference of any fuller syndicalism among traders.
Partnerships in commerce, either permanent, or on specified occasions only, are frequently mentioned : the former, in the Kutavdnija'' and Mahdvdnija^ Jatakas, the latter in the Pdydsi Suttanta^and theSerivdnija Jataka^". In the Jarudapdna Jataka^^ there is, if not explicit statement, room for assuming concerted commercial action on a more extensive scale, both in the birth- story and also in its introductory episode. The caravan in question, consisting of an indefinite number of traders (in the birth-story, under a jetthaka), accumulate and export goods at the same time, and apparently share the treasure trove, or the profits therefrom. In the episode the firm also wait upon the Buddha with gifts before and after their journey. These were traders of Savatthi, of the class who are elsewhere described as acting so unanimously under Anathapindika, himself a great travelling merchant. The Guttila Jataka^^, again, shows concerted action, in work and play, on the part of Benares traders. It is conceivable, however, that
^ The compound vaniggrdma is rendered 'merchants' guild' in Macdonell's Sanskrit Dictionary.
a Jdt. I, 122. 3 j5. 11^ 128 ; v, 75. * 16. iv, 138 fl. ; cf. also vi, 34.
5 Fick, p. 178 ; D. u, 342 f. ; cf. Jat. i, 98. « jj, i^ io8, 368 ; n, 295 ; m, 200. ' Jdt. I, 404 also ii, 181. « lb. iv, 350. 9 D. ii, 342. " Jat. i, 111.
" lb. n, 294 ff. " lb. n, 248 ; cf . i, 121 for concerted action between dealers in freights.
14—2
212 Economic Conditions [ch.
the travelling in company may have been undertaken as much for mutual convenience in the chartering of a conunon ship, or the employment of a single band of forest-guards, as for the prevention of mutual under-selling or the cornering of any wares \ Merchants are represented, at least as often, as travelling with their own caravan alone. Thus in the first Jataka" two traders, about to convey commodities to some distant city, agree which shall start first The one thinks that, if he arrive first, he will get a better, because non-competitive price ; the other, also holding that com- petition is killing work (lit. 'price-fixing is like robbing men of life'), prefers to sell at the price fixed, under circumstances favourable to the dealer, by his predecessor, and yields him a start.
The little aper^s which we obtain from the Jatakas of the range and objective of such merchants' voyages are so interesting as side-lights on early trafficking as to create regret at their scantiness. The overland caravans are sometimes represented as going 'east and west'^, and across deserts that took days, or rather nights to cross, a 'land-pilot' {thala-niyydmaka) steering during the cooler hours of darkness by the stars ^ Drought, famine, wild beasts, robbers, and demons are enumerated as the dangers severally besetting this or that desert routed Such caravans may have been bound from Benares, the chief industrial and commercial centre in early Buddhist days, across the deserts of Rajpiitana westward to the seaports of Bharukaccha, the modern Broach *, and the sea board of Sovira (the Sophir, or Ophir, of the Septuagint ?), and its capital Roruva^ or Roruka^ Westward of these ports there was traffic with Babylon, or Baveru.
At a later date, say, at the beginning of the first century A.D. the chief objective of Indian sea-going trade is given in the Milinda^ as follows : —
As a shipowner who has become wealthy by constantly levying freight in some seaport town, will be able to traverse the high seas, and go to Vanga or Takkola, or China, or Sovira, or Surat, or Alexandria, or the Koromandel coast, or Further India, or any other place where ships do congregate.
Tamil poems testify to the flourishing state of Kaviri-pattinam (Kamara in Periplus, Khabari of Ptolemy), capital of Chola, on the Kaveri river, at about the same period, as a centre of inter national trade, especially frequented by Yavana (Yona, Ionian)
1 On a local 'comer in hay' see Jdt. i, 121.
2 lb. I, 99; cf. 194, 270, 354, 368, 413; ii, 109, 335; in, 200, 403; iv, 15 f.; v, 22, 164.
» lb. I, 98 f . * lb. I, 107. 6 lb. i, 99. « lb. in, 188 ; iv, 187 ; Dip, ix, 26.
7 lb. m, 470. 8 D. 11, 235 ; Divy. 544.
9 Milindapanha 359 ; trans, n, 269 (S.B.E. xxxvi).
VI 1 1] Trade Routes 213
merchants^. According to the Jataka it was practicable to attain to any of these ports starting fi*om up the Ganges, not only from Champa (or Bhagalpur, about 350 miles from the sea) but even from Benares. Thus the defaulting woodwrights mentioned above- reach an ocean island from the latter city ; Prince Mahaja- naka sets out for Suvannabhumi from Champa^, and Mahinda travels by water from Patna to Tamalitti, and on to Ceylon*. It is true that the word samudda, sea, is occasionally applied to the Ganges^, nevertheless, if the foregoing stories be compared with the Saiikha Jataka ^ it becomes probable that the open sea is meant in both. In this the hero, while shipwrecked, washes out his mouth with the salt water of the waves during his self-imposed fast Again, in the Sllanisamsa Jataka, a sea-fairy as helmsman brings 'passengers for India' by ships 'from off the sea to Benares by river '^. Other traders are found coasting round India from Bharukaccha to Suvannabhumi^, doubtless putting in at a Ceylon port ; for Ceylon was another bourae of oversea conunerce, and one associated with perils around which Odyssean legends had grown up®. The vessels, according to Jataka tales, seem to have been constructed on a fairly large scale, for we read of 'hundreds' embarking on them, merchants or emigrants. The numbers have of course no statistical value ; but the current conceptions of shipping capacity are at least interesting.
The nature of the exports and imports is seldom specified. The gold which was exported to Persia as early at least as the time of Darius Hystaspes, finds no explicit mention in the Jatakas. Gems of various kinds are named as the quest of special sea-farers anxious to discover a fortune^". 'Silks, muslins, the finer sorts of cloth, cutlery and armour, brocades, embroideries and rugs, perfumes and drugs, ivory and ivory- work, jewelry and gold (seldom silver) : — these were the main articles in which the merchant dealt'".
As to the inland routes, the Jatakas tell of Anathapindika's caravans travelling S.E. from Savatthi to Rajagaha and back
^ Kanakasabhai, The Tamils 1800 years ago, quoted bySubba Eao {v. Bibliography), p. 81 f. On Chola see Mahdvamsa, xxi, 13.
2 Jdt. IV, 159. 3 J6. Yi, 34 f. ■• Vin. m, 338 [Samantapasadika).
« Jut. I, 227 ff. ; IV, 167 f . ; vi, 158, but cf. M. i, 493 ; S. ii, 32, where sdgara is added.
• Jdt. IV, 15-17. 7 lb. n, 112. « jj, ni, 188.
* Ih. XI, 127 ff. 'The name Lanka does not occur. Tambaparmi-dipa... probably meant for Ceylon.' Buddhist India, 105. lo Jdt. rv, 21, 139-41.
" Rh. D. Buddhist India, p. 98; Fick, op. cit., 174.
214 Economic Conditions [ch.
(about 300 miles)*, and also to the 'borders,' probably towards Gandhara^. The route in the former journey was apparently planned to secure easy fording of the rivers by following * the foot of the mountains to a point north of Vesali, and only then turning south to the Ganges '^
Another route south-west fi'om Savatthi to Patitthana^, with six chief halting places, is given in the Sutta Nipata, verses 1011-13*. From east to west, traffic, as we have seen, was largely by river, boats going up the Ganges to Sahajati®, and up the Jumna to Kosambi^ Further westward the journey would again be over- land to Sind, whence came large imports in horses and asses*, and to Sovira* and its ports. Northward lay the great trade route connecting India with Central and Western Asia, by way of Taxila in Gandhara (Pali Tahhasild), near Rawalpindi", and presumably also of Sagala in the Punjab. This great road and its southern connexions with the leading cities of the Ganges valley" must have been, even in early Buddhistic days, relatively immune from dangers. Instances abound in the Jatakas of the sons of nobles and Brahmans faring*^, unattended and unarmed*^, to Takkasila to be educated at this famous seat of Brahmanical and other learning".
There were no bridges over the rivers of India. The setu or causeway of Buddhist metaphor^^ is a raised dyke built over shoal water ^^ Only fording-places and ferries for crossing rivers are mentioned in Buddhist literature*^, and cart-ferries in Manu*^
Food-stuffs for the towns were apparently brought only to the gates, while workshop and bazaar occupied, to a large extent at least, their own special streets within*®. Thus there was a fish-
1 Jdt. I, 92, 348. 2 j6. i^ 377 f .
3 Buddh. Ind. 103. The road followed by the Buddha on his last ministering tour is from Rajagaha to Kusinara, crossing the Ganges at Patna, with halts at twelve inter- mediate towns (gdmas or nagaras), including Vesali. The remainder of this circuitous route to Savatthi lay W.N.W. D. ii, Suttanta xvi, 81 fif.
* Paithan. See map and p. 30, Buddh. Ind.
6 Cf . the list in Spence Hardy, Manxml of Buddhism, 334.
« Vin. Texts, in, 401. ' jj,. p. 382.
8 Jdt. I, 124, 178, 181 ; ii, 31, 287 ; cf. Hopkins, J.A.O.S. xiii, 257, 372 ; Fick, op. cit. 176.
9 Vimdna-vatthu {Comm.) 336.
10 J. H. Marshall, Archaeological Discoveries at Taxila (1913) ; Guide to Taxila (1918). " Of these the route to Rajagaha lay past Saketa. Vin. Texts n, 176 (Mah.
vm, 1, 8).
" Jdt. I, 259 ; n, 85, 282, 411 ; ra, 122 ; v, 457, etc., etc. " jj^ ^^ 277.
1* Biihler, Indian Studies, No. 3. Fick, op. cit., 62; Vin. Texts n, 174 f. {Mah. vni, 1, 6ff.).
» E.g. Thera-gdthd, ver. 7, 615, 762; M. i, 134; A. i, 220; n, 145; Dh. S.,% 299.
i« Vin. Texts n, 104 (Mah. vi, 28, 12 f.) = D. ii, 89. " Jdt. m, 228.
18 vin, 404 ff. {S.B.E. xxv.) " V. sup., p. 208 ; Buddh. Ind. 76.
VI 1 1] Bazaars 215
monger's village at a gate of Savatthi\ greengrocery is sold at the four gates of Uttara-Paiichala^, and venison at the cross-roads (siiighdtaka) outside Benares ^
The slaughter-houses (silnd) mentioned in the Vinaya* were presumably outside also, and near them the poor man and the king's chef bought their meat^, unless by sihghdtaka we under- stand street-corners as the places where meat was sold^. The great city of Mithila was, according to the Mahd-ummagga Jataka, composed in part of four suburbs extending beyond each of its four gates, and called not gdmas, but nigamas. These were named respectively East, South, West, and North Yavamajjhako, translated by Co well and Rouse 'market-town 'I The workshop in the street was open to view, so that the hhilikhu coming in to town or village for alms, could see ^fletcher and carriage-builder at work, no less than he could watch the peasant in the fields Arrows and carriages and other articles for sale were displayed in the dpana^^ or fixed shop, or, it might be, stored within the antardpana^'^. In these, or in the portable stock-in-trade of the hawker", retail trading constituted a means of livelihood, independently, it might be, of productive industry. The application, judgment, cleverness, and ' connexion ' of the successful shopkeeper ^^ are discussed in the Nikayas^^, and among trades five are ethically proscribed^* for lay believers : — daggers, slaves, flesh, strong drink, poisons.
Textile fabrics ^^, groceries and oiP^, gi'eengi-oceries^^, grain ^^, perfumes and flowers", articles of gold and jewelry^, are among the items sold in the bazaars of Jataka stories and Vinaya allusions, and for the sale of strong liquors there were the taverns {pdndgdra^ dpdnay\ But there is no such clear reference made either to a market-place in the town, or to seasonal market-days or fairs.
1 Psalms of the Brethren, 166 ; cf . Jdt. i, 361 : ' they went for alms to a village just outside the gates of Benares, where they had plenty to eat.'
2 Jdt. XV, 445. 3 J?;, ni, 49; cf. M. i, 58 ; iii, 91.
* Mah. VI, 10 ; Cull. V. x, 10, 4. « Jat. v, 458 ; vi, 62.
" But cf. Psalms of the Brethren, 254 : ' out of the four gates to the cross roads.'
7 Jdt. VI, 330 (trans, p. 157) ; Cunningham, Stupa of Bhdrhut, 53. On these bas-reliefs the Jataka is called Yava-majjhakiya.
8 Psalms of the Brethren, 24.
9 Jdt. n, 267; iv, 488; vi, 29; Vin. iv, 248 ; cf. Gull. V. x, 10, 4. Cf. Apana as the name of a nigama, M. i, 359, 447; S.N., Sela-Sutta (called a Brahman gdma, Pss. of the Brethren, 310).
10 Jdt. I, 55, 350; m, 406. " Ih. i. 111 f., 205; n, 424 ; ni, 21, 282 f. ^"^ Apanika pdpanika. " j. i^ 115 f. '^ A. m, 208.
1* Vin. IV, 250 f. ^« lb. iv, 248-9. " Jdt. i, 411, " 75, ^^ 267.
19 lb. I, 290 f. ; IV, 82 ; vi, 336; Vin. Texts, in, 343. «> Jdt. iv, 223.
" lb. I, 251 f . ; 268 f . ; vi, 328 ; cf . Dhp. Crnnm. in, 66.
2i6 Economic Conditions [ch.
Such an institution as the hath, or barter fair, taking place on the borders of adjacent districts, finds, curiously enough, no mention in the Jataka-book, though as the late Wm. Irvine wrote, *it is to this day universal to my personal knowledge, from Patna to Delhi, and, I believe, from Calcutta to Peshawar.' The f§tes often alluded to^ do not appear to have included any kind of market^.
The act of exchange between producer and consumer, or between either and a middleman, was both before and during the age when the Jataka-book was compiled, a 'free' bargain, a transaction unregulated, with one notable exception, by any system of statute-fixed prices. Supply was hampered by slow transport, by individualistic production, and by primitive machinery. But it was left free for the producer and dealer to prevail by competition^, and also by adulteration ^ and to bring about an equation with a demand which was largely compact of customary usage and relatively unafiected by the swifter fluctuations termed fashion.
Instances of price-haggling are not rare^, and we have already noticed the dealer's sense of the wear and tear of it^, and a case of that more developed competition which we know as 'dealing in futures"'. The outlay in this case, for a carriage, a pavilion at the Benares docks, men {purisd\ and ushers (pdtihdra), must have cut deep into his last profit of 1,000 coins, but he was 20,000 per cent, to the good as the result of it ! After this the profit of 900 and 400 per cent, reaped by other traders® falls a little flat, and such economic thrills only revive when we consider the well-known story of the fancy price obtained by Prince Jeta for his grove near SavatthI from the pious merchant Anathapindika, limited only by the number of coins (metal uncertain) required to cover the soil®.
At the same time custom may very well have settled price to a great extent. 'My wife is sometimes as meek as a 100-piece slave- girl'^" reveals a customary price. For the royal household, at least, prices were fixed without appeal by the court valuer {agghahdraka), who stood between the two fires of oflending the king if he valued the goods submitted at their full cost, or price as demanded, and of driving away tradesmen if he refused bribes and cheapened the
1 Jdt. I, 423 ; in, 446 ; Dialogues i, 7, n 4.
2 « Market ' and ' market-place ' are frequently used by translators, but rather inferentially than as literal renderings.
3 Cf . Jdt. Ill, 282 f . * Cf. lb. I, 220.
6 lb. I, lllf., 195; II, 222, 289, 424 f. « lb. i, 99.
' lb. I, 121 f .
« Ib.i, 109 ; cf . IV, 2. » Vin. n, 158 f. (Cull. V. vi, 4, 9) ; Jat. i, 92.
" Jdt. I, 299.
VI 1 1] Means of Exchange 217
wares ^ On the other hand the king might disgust him by too niggardly a bonus ^. It may also have been the duty of this official to assess the duty of one twentieth on each consignment of native merchandise imported into a city, and of one-tenth, plus a sample, on each foreign import, as stated in the law-books of Manu^, Gautama*, and Baudhayana^. Such octrois are alluded to in one Jataka, where the king remits to a subject the duty collected at the gates of his capitaP. Finally, it may have been his to assess merchants for their specific commutation of the rajakariya, namely, one article sold per month to the king at a discount {arglmpacayena^).
The ' sample' mentioned above is suggestive of a surviving pay- ment made in kind. That the ancient systems of barter and of reckoning values by cows or by rice-measures had for the most part been replaced by the use of a metal currency, carrying well understood and generally accepted exchange value, is attested by the earliest Buddhist literature. Barter emerges in certain contingencies*, as e.g. when a wanderer obtains a meal from a woodlander for a gold pin', or when among humble folk a dog is bought for a hahdpana {hdrshapana) plus a cloak ^''. Barter was also permitted in special commodities by the law-books ascribed to Gautama" and Vasishtha^'^, and was prescribed in certain cases for the Saiigha^^, to whom the use of money was forbidden". Moreover, as a standard of value, it is possible that rice was still used when the Jataka-book was compiled ^^
But for the ordinary mechanism of exchange we find, in that and all early Buddhist literature, the worth of every marketable commodity, from that of a dead mouse and a day at the festival up to all kinds of prices, fees, pensions, fines, loans, stored treasure, and income, stated in figures of a certain coin, or its fractions ^^ This is either stated, or implied to be, the kahdpana. Of the coins called purmms this literature knows nothing. Other current instruments of exchange are the ancient nikhha (nishka — a gold coin, originally a gold ornament) ^^, the suvanna, also of gold, and.
1 Jdt. I, 124 f. ; II, 31 ; Pss. of Brethren, 25, 212. 2 lb. iv, 138.
» VIII, 398-400 ; cf. Jat. iv, 132. * x, 26. 6 i. x. 18, w. 14, 15,
« Jdt. VI, 347. 7 Gaut. x, 35.
8 There seems to be nothing in the text of Jataka i, 251 (Vdruni Jdt.) to justify the translator's inference that barter was normal ; see J.R.A.S., 1901, p. 876. » Jdt. VI, 519. i» lb. II, 247. " vii, 16 f.
" 11, 37 f. 13 Yin, n, 174 (Gull. V. vi, 19).
" Vin. Ill, 237 ; 11, 294 ff. [Cull. V. xii, 1 ff.). is Jdt. 1, 124 f.
" For details of prices see Mrs Bhys Davids, J.R.A.S., 1901, pp. 882 f. " Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 259.
21 8 Economic Conditions [ch.
such bronze or copper tokens as the katnsa, the pdda, the mdsaha {md8ha\ and the hdhanikd. Cowry shells (sippikdni) are once mentioned^, but only as we should speak of doits or mites, not as anything still having currency.
That there was instability as to the relative value of standard or token coins in place and time we learn from the Vinaya : * At that time [of Bimbisara or Ajatasattu], at Rajagaha, five masakas were equal to one pada'^. Again, the nilchha was valued now at five^, now at four suvannas^
Of substitutes for money, such as instruments of credit, we read of signet rings used as deposit or security^, of wife or children pledged or sold for debt^, and of I Oil's or debt -sheets {ina- panimniy. The bankrupt who, in the Jataka tale, invites his creditors to bring their debt-sheets for settlement, only to drown himself before their eyes*, appears in a Milinda simile anticipating the crisis by making a public statement of his liabilities and assets'^. The entanglement and anxieties of debt as well as the corporate liability belonging to communistic life in a religious order rendered it necessary to debar any candidate from admission to the Sangha who was a debtor^". And the sight of a deposited security recalling the past circumstances of the pledging is instanced in the Milinda as a case of the psychical process of recollection (satiy\
No definite rates of interest on money loans appear in the early books. But the term which appears in the law-books as 'usury' (vrddhi, Pali vaddhi) is found. Meaning literally profit or increase, it may very early have acquired the more specialised import. There is a tolerant tone concerning the money-lender in a Jataka tale, where a patron, in enabling a huntsman to better himself, names money-lending (ina-ddna), together with tillage, trade, and har- vesting as four honest callings ^^. Gautama is equally tolerant^^ But the general tendency of this profession to evade any legal or customary rate of interest and become the type of profit-mongering finds condemnation in other law-books^*. Hypocritical ascetics are accused of practising it^\ No one but the money-lender seems to have lent capital wealth for interest as an investment. For in- stance, only bonds (pannd) are spoken of in the case of the generous
1 Jdt. I, 425 f. 2 Yin, m, 45. 3 Childers, Pali Dictionary, s.v. nikkho.
* Manu, vin, 137. For a more detailed discussion see J.B.A.S., 1901, p. 877 ff.
5 Jdt. I, 121. 6 lb. VI, 521 ; Therig. 444.
7 jat. I, 230 ; cf . 227, panne dropetvd. » jj. jy^ 256.
» Mil. 131 (text) ; cf. 279." '<> Vin. i, 76 {Mah. i, 46) ; cf. D. i, 71 f. " p. 80.
" Jdt. TV, 422. " X, 6 ; xi, 21.
" Vas. n, 41, 42 ; Baudh. i, 5, lO^s-S; Manu, m, 153, 180; vin, 152, 153.
" Jat. IV, 184.
VI 1 1] General Conclusions 219
Anathapindika's 'bad debts '\ Capital wealth was hoarded, either in the house — in large mansions over the entrance passage {dvdra- hotthakay — under the ground^, in brazen jars under the river bank*, or deposited with a friend ^ The nature and amount of the wealth thus hoarded was registered on gold or copper plates ^
Fragmentary as are the collected scraps of evidence on which the foregoing outlines of social economy have been constructed, more might yet be inferred did space permit. It should, however, be fairly clear from what has been said, that if, during, say, the seventh to the fourth century b.c. it had been the vogue, in India, to write treatises on economic institutions, there might have come down to us the record both of conventions and of theories as orderly and as relatively acceptable to the peoples as anything of the kind in, say, the latter middle ages was to the peoples of Western Europe. But it is a curious fact that often where the historian finds little material to hand wherewith to rebuild, he judges that there never were any buildings. Thus in a leading historical work on economics, revised and enlarged in 1890, the whole subject of the economic ideas of the 'Orient' is dismissed in a single page as being reducible to a few ethical precepts, and as extolling agriculture and decrying arts and commerce ; further, that division of labour, though politically free, stiffened into a system of hereditary caste, arresting economic progress, and that the Chinese alone, and only from the seventh century A.D., had any insight into the nature of money and its fiduciary substitutes^. But we have been looking behind the ethical precepts of the preacher, and the sectarian scruples of a class, at the life of the peoples of North India, as it survives in the records of their folk-lore, and of the discipline of the brethren in orders who lived in close touch with all classes. And we have seen agiiculture diligently and amicably carried on by practically the whole people as a toilsome but most natural and necessary pursuit. We have seen crafts and commerce flourishing, highly organised corporately and locally, under conditions of individual and corporate competition, the leading men thereof the friends and counsellors of kings. We have found 'labour' largely hereditary, yet, therewithal, a mobility and initiative anything but rigid revealed in the exercise of it. And we have discovered a thorough familiarity with money and credit ages before the 'seventh century A.D.'
1 Jdt. I, 227. 2 ji,. i^ 351 . n, 431.
3 7b. I, 225, 375 f., 424 ; n, 808 ; in, 24, 116. * Ih. i, 227, 323.
« Jb. VI, 521. 6 Ih. IV, 7, 488 ; vi, 29 ; cf . iv, 237.
'^ L. Cossa, Introdtwtion to Political Economy.
CHAPTER IX
THE PERIOD OF THE SUTRAS, EPICS, AND LAW-BOOKS
The later Brahman literature which, whatever may be the age of its representative works in their present form, undoubtedly had its roots in a period at least as early as the rise of Jainism and Buddhism, may be classified under the four headings — Sutras, Epic poems, Law-books, and Puranas. These belong to two distinct species of literary composition, the Sutras being broadly dis- tinguished from the others both in form and object
The purpose of the Sutras, so called from the word sutra which means *a thread,' is to afford a clue through the mazes of Brah- manical learning contained in the Brahmanas. In the form of a series of short sentences they codify and systematise the various branches of knowledge sacred and secular. They are intended to satisfy the needs of a system of oral instruction, so that each step in the exposition of a subject may be learnt progressively and a convenient analysis of the whole committed to memory by the student. The earliest Sutras are in the priestly language and represent a phase which is transitional between the language of the Brahmanas and Classical Sanskrit as fixed by the grammarians.
The Epics supply the model both for language and form which is followed by the LaAV-books and the Puranas. Their source is to be traced to the traditional recitations of bards who were neither priests nor scholars. Their language is thus naturally more i)opu- lar in character and less regular than Classical Sanskrit \ In many respects it does not conform to the laws laid down by the gram- marians, and is ignored by them. This became the conventional language of epic poetry, which was used also in the Law-books, the subject-matter of which was taken to a great extent from the Sutras, and in the Puranas, which, as they stand at present, belong to a period not earlier than the fourth century A.D. The metres of the Law-books and the Puranas are also substantially those of the Epic poems.
1 Wackernagel, Altind. Oram. vol. i, p. xlv.
CH. ix] Brahman and Buddhist Society 221
The period of the Sutras, Epics, and Law-books thus overlaps that of Buddhist India on the one hand, and reaches well into the period of the extant Puranas on the other. The earliest known Purana precedes the later law-books probably by centuries, as the Sutras precede the earliest works of Buddhism. Nevertheless it is not only new matter which is offered by the literature, whether legal or epic, but virtually a new phase, a fresh point of view, the life of India as it shows itself under the dominion of the Brahmans, who have been the real masters of Indian thought for more than three millenniums. It is in fact the continuation under new conditions of the history depicted above, before Jain and Buddhist had arisen.
As [we read the works of these important sects we receive the impression that the world of India was one in which the ancient priestly caste had lost its authority ; that nobles and wealthy merchants were more regarded than Brahmans. But it must be remembered that, despite the wide reach of Buddhism when in its full power, it influenced at first only that part of the country where it arose, and that the earlier writings depicting the life and teaching of Buddha represent chiefly the circumstances found in a very circumscribed area, in fact just the area where Brahmanism was weakest. The elements of social life were the same here as elsewhere, but they were not arranged in the same way. The stronghold of Brahmanism lay to the West, and there the priest had had his say and built up his power among clans boasting direct descent from Vedic heroes and more inclined to bow to the mysterious Vedic word of which the only custodian was the Brah- man priest In short, as Brahmanism exaggerates the power of the priest, so Buddhism belittles it unduly, not because it sets out to do so but because each represents fa special point of view based more or less upon geographical position. Owing, however, to a still later interpretation of caste, our modern ideas on the subject are apt to be peculiarly confused. To understand the social order into which we enter as we begin the study of the Sutras, epics, and law- books, we must renounce altogether the notion of caste in its strict modern sense, as on the other hand we must free ourselves from the thought that the whole caste-system is merely a priestly hypothesis disproved by the conditions revealed in Buddhistic writings.
In point of fact, even the Buddhist writings recognise the formal castes ; and it is simply impossible that a social structure so widely pervading as that of the so-called castes, a structure revealed not by didactic works alone but implicitly as well as
22 2 The Period of Sutras^ Epics y etc. [ch.
explicitly presented to us in every body of writings whether ortho- dox or heterodox, should have been made out of whole cloth. What we loosely call by this name to-day are later refinements ; and we do not need to turn to Buddhist works to show that in ancient times the castes were merely orders socially distinct but not very strictly separated or ramified into such sub-divisional castes as obtain at the present time.
Yet before giving the proof of this in detail, it will be well to consider briefly the chronology of the works to be reviewed in relation to the general character and history of the states in which they arose. The legal literature which begins with the Sutras and is represented in the epics does not really end at all, as works of this nature continue to be written down to modern times, chiefly by eminent jurists who comment on older works. But, after elimi- nating the modern jurists and confining ourselves to the law-books which may be called classic, we still find that the terminus falls well into the middle of the first millennium of our era ; and as the beginning of this literature in Sutra style reaches back at least as far as this before the beginning of our era, the whole period is rather more than a thousand years, about the middle of which must be set the time to which the epic poems are to be assigned as works already known and perhaps nearly completed.
The cycle thus designated as a millennium is one of very varied political fortunes ; and the social, political, and religious material of the legal and epical literature must necessarily be explained in accordance with the outward changes. What these changes were is described in detail in other chapters of this work. For our present purpose it is necessary only to recount them in outline. At the end of the sixth century B.C., early in the period to which the Sutras belong, the Persian Empire held two provinces in N.W. India — Gandhara, the present districts of Peshawar and Rawal- pindi, and the * Indian ' province, that is to say, the country of the Lower Indus : and the northern part of India generally was domi- nated by peoples of the Aryan race who had descended from the Punjab and spread eastward for centuries, but not so that the recently acquired territory was thoroughly assimilated to the cults and culture of the invaders, nor so that any one of these invaders had established an empire. Long before the end of this same period, Buddha, Mahavira, and other reformers had broken with the cult derived from the Vedic age, and the great empire of A9oka had made a new epoch in political life. This alteration, however, had been introduced, though adventitiously, through outer rather
ix] Outlines of Chronology 2 2^
than inner conditions. After the short campaign in the Punjab, made by Alexander as the conqueror of the Persian Empire, his Indian dominions were, within a few years, absorbed by the grow- ing power of Magadha (S. Bihar) then under the sway of a usurper, Chandragupta (c. 321-297 B.C.) the low-born son of Mura and the founder of the Maurya empire. This empire extended from Pata- liputra (Patna) to Herat and was maintained by an army of approximately 700,000 men, the first real empire in India. His successors, Bindusara and A^oka, enlarged the empire, annexing Kalinga on the eastern coast and ruling as far south as Madras. This dynasty continued in power till the end of the Sutra period ; and under it, during the reign of A9oka (c. 274-236 B.C.) Buddhism became the court-religion. A9oka's period is determined by the mention in his edicts of certain Hellenic princes who were his contemporaries, but after his reign there comes a period of less chronological certainty. The different versions of the Puranas are not in agreement as to the exact number of his successors; but they are unanimous in asserting that the Maurya dynasty lasted for 137 years ; that is to say, it is supposed to have come to an end c. 184 RC. For over a century after its fall the ^^nga dynasty, whose founder, Pushyamitra, had slain Brihadratha Maurya and usurped his throne, held sway, despite forcible inroads of the Yavanas (Greeks) and the Andhras; and we learn that both Pushyamitra and the Andlira king, ^atakarni, performed the famous 'horse-sacrifice,' in accordance with the ancient Vedic rite, thus challenging all opponents of their authority. The son of this Pushyamitra was Agnimitra, who conquered Vidarbha (Berar), then a province of the Andhra Empire of S. India, and the grandson, who guarded the horse, was Vasumitra. These names, as also the re-establishment of the 'horse-sacrifice,' are highly significant in that they show a renascence of the Vedic religion and a consequent decline in Buddhism. The same thing is indi- cated by the fact that Kharavela, a king of Kalinga, who boasts of having invaded the Andhra dominions as well as Northern India, was a Jain. Sumitra, the son of Agnimitra, was, according to Bana's historical romance, the Harshacharita, miserably slain by Mitradeva, who may perhaps have been a Brahman of the Kanva family which eventually gained the chief power in the state. The account given by the Puranas states that the minister Vasudeva slew the tenth and last of the ^unga kings and inaugu- rated a new dynasty, called the Kanva dynasty, which lasted for about half a century ; but, since the Kanvas are definitely styled
224 ^^^ Period of Sutras^ Epics ^ etc, [ch.
'servants of the (^ungas' and for other reasons, it seems more probable that the later Qunga kings had been reduced to sub- jection by their Brahman ministers, and that the lists of these contemporary rulers nominal and actual were wrongly regarded by some late editor of the Puranas as successive. It is further related that one of the Andhra kings ^ slew Su9arman, the last of the Kanvas, and thus brought Magadha under the sway of the sovereigns, whose names and titles, as well as their sacrificial inscriptions, show them to have been followers of the ancient Vedic religion. But here again it appears that dynastic lists have been brought together and arranged in an unreal sequence. There can be little doubt that the first of the Andhra kings was earlier in date than the first of the ^uiigas, and not 157 years later as would appear from the Puranas. It is indeed doubtful if the Andhras ever ruled in Magadha : but their sway in Central and Southern India lasted until the middle of the third century a.d.^
In the meantime, on the decline of the Maurya empire which must have set in soon after the death of the Emperor A9oka (c. 236 RC), the Punjab passed into the hands of foreign invaders — first, Greeks from the kingdom of Bactria to the north, and sub- sequently Scythians ((^akas) and Parthians (Pahlavas) from the kingdom of Parthia to the west. The kingdoms established by these new-comers in the Punjab were overwhelmed by still another wave of invasion from the north. The Kushanas, a people from the region of China who had driven the ^^-kas out of Bactria, began their Indian conquests with the overthrow of the kingdom of Kabul about the middle of the first century A.D., and extended their power until, in the reign of Kanishka (probably 78 A.D.), the patron of that branch of the Buddhist Church which is called the Mahayana, the Kushana empire was paramount in N. India^
In Western India we can to some extent trace from inscriptions and coins the varying fortunes in the conflict between the Andhras and the invaders of N. India, and the establishment in Kathiawar and Cutch of a dynasty of (^aka satraps, originally no doubt feudatories of the Kushanas, which lasted till c. 390 A.D. when it was overthrown by the Guptas.
The period of the Gupta empire which dates from 319 a.d. is a most important epoch in the history of Sanskrit literature. It is
^ The Puranas say the founder of the dynasty, Simuka, but the chronological difficulties which this statement involves seem to be unsurmountable.
2 See Chapters xiii (the Puranas) ; xviii-xx (the Maurya Empire) ; xxi (Indian Native States) ; xxiv (the earlier Andhras).
^ For these foreign invaders of India see Chapters sxii, xxm.
ix] Wider Political Outlook 225
the golden age of Classical Sanskrit ; and in it most of the Puranas and the works belonging to the later legal literature appear to have assumed their present form.
This brief conspectus of the conditions obtaining in India during the time to which we have to assign the Siitras, epics, and legal works will show that other influences than those with which we have been dealing hitherto are to be expected ; and these are indeed found, but not to such an extent as might have been antici- pated. These influences are indeed to be traced rather in the general enlargement of vision of the writers than in specific details. The simple village life with which for the most part the Sutras are concerned, the government of a circumscribed district by a local raja, are gradually exchanged for the life reflected from large towns and imperial power. Though this is more noticeable in the epics, it may be detected in the later Siitras and again in the still later law-books. During this period the power of Buddhism in- creased and then, reaching its culmination, began to wane. The world of India by the second century before Christ was already becoming indiflerent to the teaching of Buddliism and was being reabsorbed into the great pemianent cults of Vishnu and ^iva, with which in spirit Buddhism itself began to be amalgamated. The Brahman priests reasserted themselves ; animal sacrifices, forbidden by Agoka, were no longer under the royal ban; and with this open expression of the older cult the whole system of Brahmanism revived, fostered alike by the temple priests and their ritualism and by the philosophers, who regarded Buddliism as both a detestable heresy and a false interpretation of life.
But there is little apparent influence from outside, despite the wider political outlook ; and where such influence might be looked for with greatest certainty, namely in the efiect of Greek domina- tion, it is practically nil. Only the Yavanas, literaUy 'lonians,' a people or peoples of Greek descent who may be traced in Indian literature and inscriptions from the third century B.C. to the second century A.D., and who were manifestly a factor of no small im- portance in the political history of Northern and Western India — they are celebrated as great fighters in the Mahabharata and other literature — remain to show that the conquest of Alexander and the Greek invasion from Bactria had any result. Other indications point rather to Persia than to Hellas. Thus the title Satrap, which was continued in use by Alexander, still remains under ^akas and Kushanas to testify to the long Persian dominion in N.W. India, Apart from this, political and social relations do not appear to be
C.H.I. I. 15
2 26 The Period of Sutras^ Epics ^ etc, [ch. ix
affected at all either by Hellenic or by Persian influence. The native army remains of the same sort, though greatly enlarged. The social theory remains practically the same, save that a place among degraded 'outcastes' is given to Yavanas as to other barbarians. Architecture and the arts of sculpture, gem-engraving and coinage do indeed bear witness, especially in the N.W. region of India to the influence of Persia and Greece during this period, just as, at a later date, native astronomy was affected, and indeed practically superseded by the system of Alexandria. But the period with which we are dealing at present does not make it necessary to inquire into the relation between India and the outer world in respect to science. The idea that Indian epic poetry itself is due to Hellenic influence has indeed been suggested ; but as a theory this idea depends on so nebulous a parallel of plot that it has received no support.
CHAPTER X
FAMILY LIFE AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE SUTRAS
The general period of the Sutras extends from the sixth or seventh century before Christ to about the second century. It is evident that the different Vedic schools had Sutras which were revised, or replaced by ncAv Sutras, at various periods, and that some of these extended into later centuries than others. Thus it would be a mistake to limit all the Siitras of all the schools to certain centuries. The Siitras are manuals of instruction; and those which are of interest historically formed but a part of a large volume, which was intended primarily for the guidance of religious teachers and treated mainly of the sacrifice and other religious matters. Except for students of ceremonial details these sacrificial works (^rauta Siitras) are of no interest. What concerns us at present is that portion of the whole which goes by the name of Grihya and Dharma Sutras, that is, manuals of conduct in domestic and social relations. In some cases the rules given in these two divisions are identical ; and the two divisions are treated in such a way as to condense one division for the sake of not repeating directions given in the other. For our purpose they may be regarded as forming one body containing rules of life not especially connected with the performance of the greater sacrifices. They differ mainly as representing the views of different schools on minute points or as products of different parts of the country, and as earlier or later opinions. All of them claim to be based upon Vedic teaching. Thus the Grihya and Dharma Sutras of Apas- tamba form but a few chapters of a work called the Kalpa, of which twenty-four chapters teach the proper performance of sacri- fice and only two treat of the sacred law, while one abridged chapter gives the rules for the performance of domestic ceremonies. Again this special ' law-book ' is not a law-book having universal application, but is a product of a Vedic school belonging to the Andhras in the south-east of India; and, thirdly, it combats some of the opinions expressed by writers on the same subject. Some- what similar conditions prevail in the case of the other Siitras.
15—3
22 8 ^ifi ^^^ Customs in the Sutras [ch.
They are, in short, local manuals which form complete wholes only by virtue of their subject-matter, but which, to their authors, were merely sections of a greater work, the chief importance of which lay in the handing down of traditional knowledge in regard to religious practices. They may be regarded, however, as the first steps in the evolution of legal literature ; for the metrical (^astras or law-books are only the extension and completion of the rules of the Dharma Siitras, with a gradual increase in the part allotted to civil and criminal law and a relaxation of the bond connecting the Sutras with definite Vedic sects. The Dharma Siitras are more universal ; the Grihya Siitras reflect individual schools. But even the Grihyas are not (^rauta (divinely revealed), but Smarta (sacred tradition).
The content of the Grihya Siitras, as is implied by the name, is narrower than that of the Dharma Sutras. The first contain, how- ever, to all students of folk-lore a store-house of material in regard to rites and superstitions connected with home life, such as no other body of literature in the world presents. In the first place, the life of man is traced religiously fi-om boyhood to burial. Every important phase of a man's existence is accompanied with its appropriate rite ; and, incidentally, what to do and what not to do, injunctions, prohibitions, taboos, are taught as general rules of conduct. The greater events, birth, marriage, death, are described in their religious setting, each with minute detail, so that not only are the sacred texts cited which should be repeated on every occa- sion, bAt the physical acts to which the texts are ancillary are described. For example, such a text must be rei)eated while a dead man's bones are being collected. The one who collects them must pick them up with such and such fingers and place them in just such a jar. The wedding verses are indicated ; the bride must make just so many steps and pour out grain with her hands held in just such a position, etc. Some of the Vedic schools, instead of embracing all the Siitras in one work as a Kalpa Sutra, have apparently laid so much stress on these domestic rites that the manuals have become independent works, thus fore-shadowing what happened later in the case of the ^astras. The complete work, embracing all kinds of Siitras, belongs, as was to be expected, to the Yajurveda schools, since the priests of this Veda were from the beginning particularly concerned with manual exercises, in arranging the altar, etc., and the details of sacrifice; while the priests of the other Vedas had to do more with the recitation and chanting of the sacred texts. Nevertheless, the literature of the
x] The Grihya Sutras 229
Rigveda also contains both ^rauta and Grihya Sutras, as does that of the Samaveda. Finally, the Atharvaveda possesses not only a Vaitana (^rauta Sutra but a Kau9ika Siitra, which is in part a Grihya Sutra but contains also directions for carrying out the many magic ceremonies connected with the text of that unique Veda.
The preponderance of domestic ceremonies in the Grihya Siitra results in Dharma, or social, matter being introduced rather adven- titiously, as when the rules concerning the choice of wives are given, whereas Grihya, domestic, rules belong as much to the Dharma Sutras as to the Grihya Siitras themselves. The difference is that the weight in the Dharmas is laid on the wider relation of man to the state, so that those sections which deal with the family become condensed and subordinate. Specimens of southern Grihya Sutras are also not lacking. Thus as the Dharma of Apastamba reflects a South-Indian origin, so also the Grihya Sutra of Khadira belongs to Southern India; and it is an indication that Siitra literature extends far beyond the time of Buddlia that this should be the case. Such also may be surmised to be the fact (rather than that Vedic schools were domiciled in South India at a much earlier period) from the circumstance that the Siitra of Khadira is a later and more concise version of the Siitra of Gobhila. There are other examples of this endeavour to revise a Siitra on lines of economy, each later writer reducing the work of his predecessor as much as possible or convenient, conciseness being the test of Siitra excellence. Gobhila's work is detailed and lengthy ; Khadira's is virtually the same work in condensed form. Everything that could be omitted, such as explanatory digressions, smaller details of ceremonies, etc., was left out, solely to make the work easier to remember. But clearness as well as conciseness was aimed at and attained by a fresh arrangement of the older matter.
An example of the scope and method of a Grihya Sutra may be taken from the directions of Khadira regarding the little oblations to spirits and gods required from a wedded pair. After describing the wedding ceremony, Khadira passes directly to this question of offerings and oblations, describing first briefly the fire used for the purpose of receiving the oblation, thus :
The domestic {grihya) fire is that at which he has taken her hand (in marriage) or that on which he has put the last piece of wood (as a student before marriage) or a (fresh) fire twirled out (of wood), the last being pure but not tending to prosperity ; or he may get his domestic fire from a frying-pan or from the house of a man who makes many sacrifices, Qudras excepted. The service begins with an evening oblation. After (the fire) has been set in a blaze before sunset or
230 Liife and Customs in the Sutras [cH.
sunrise, the sacrifice (is performed) after sunset (and) aft^r or before sunrise. He should make an oblation of rice-food fit for sacrifice after washing it, if raw, with his hand (but) with a brass bowl if it is (not rice but) curds or milk, or with the rice-pot With the words ' Hail to Fire ' (he makes oblation) in the middle (of the fire, at eve) ; secondly in the north-eastern (part of the fire) ; in the morning, with the words, ' Hail to Sun ' (he makes the first oblation). The wiping round and other (acts) except sprinkling (of water round the fire) are here left out. Some say ' let the wife make the oblations,' for this fire is the house-fire and the wife is the house (home). When (the meal) is prepared, evening and morning, she (the wife) must say ('It is) ready,' (and he) must say aloud 'Om'^, but softly 'May it not fail ; to thee^ be reverence.' Of rice-food fit for sacrifice he should make (oblations) to Prajapati ; and to (the form of the Fire-god called) Svish^akrit (i.e. good sacrificer) make a hali (offering), depositing it outside or inside (the fire- place) in four places : (one) at the water-barrel ; (another) at the middle door ; (another) at the couch or privy ; and (finally, one) at the heap of sweepings ; sprinkle each (oflfering or the gi'ound with water) both (before and afterwards) and pour out what is left with the water toward the south. Of chaflF, water, and scum of boiled rice (let him make a 6a^^ off"ering) when a donation has been made. The gods to whom the tali off'erings belong are Earth, Wind, Prajapati, the All-gods, Water, Herbs, Trees, Space, Love or Wrath, the hosts of Rakshasas, the Fathers, and Rudra. He should make the off'ering in silence ; he should make it of any food (but) make it only once in case (a meal) is prepared at difi'erent times ; and if (prepared) at difi'erent places (then he should make the offering of) what belongs to the house-holder (himself). But of all food he should off'er (some) in the fire and give the best to a priest ; this he should do himself. He should oflFer the offerings himself from rice (-harvest) to barley (-harvest) or from barley (-harvest) to rice (-harvest) ; (yea,) he himself should offer them^.
It will have been observed that the religious ceremony of the 6ct/*-offering implies a cult midway between that of the Vedic sacrifice and the sectarian sacrifice not countenanced by the ortho- dox. Tlie hali is a bit of food cast upon the ground at the places named, the recipients being supposed to be the Vedic divinities of a lower order, ending with Rudra, and the hosts of harmful spirits who are thus propitiated. Each divinity has a hcdi in his appro- priate place and at the right time. Thus the offering by the couch is for Love ; that flung to the north is for Rudra ; that by the door is for (personified) Space ; and the offerings to the harmful spirits
^ Om is the sacred syllable, answering in cases like that above to 'very good* (Amen). The evening and morning are mentioned in this order because the evening precedes the day ; and only two meals are mentioned because the Hindus eat bat twice a day.
* In the Sutras clarity is often sacrificed to brevity. It is not clear here whether the wife or husband speaks or to whom the word 'Thee' refers. Presumably the husband addresses the words to the food itself (compare Gobbila's Orihya Sutra, 1, 3, 18). The text and translation (by Prof. Oldenberg) of Khadira are published in 8.B.E. vol. xxix.
' That is from spring till autumn the householder offers barley, and from rice-time till barley-harvest time (autumn till spring) he offers rice. The passage quoted is also translated by Prof. Oldenberg, in S.B.E. vol. xxix, p. 385.
x] Rites to avert Disaster and Disease 231
are given at night. The sprinkling of the offering means (probably) the sprinkling of the ground or place where the offering is cast. The Dharma Siitras also take up this question of offerings. The citation above by implication recognises only the wife as preparer of the meal. But a rich householder may have his meals jjrepared by a priest or other member of the ' reborn ' castes or even by a ^Gdra. Special rules are necessary in the last case. The slave- cook, being impure, must have his hair and beard and nails cut daily or at least at stated intervals, and it must be the householder who places on the fire the food prepared by (^iidras. Then in this case it is the cook who says (when the meal is prepared), 'It is ready ' and the householder who responds (as Apastamba gives the rule, with a slight variation) 'Well-prepared food bestows splen- dour ; may it never fail. '
The rites involving the goblins of disaster and disease have naturally a prominent place in the domestic ritual of the Grihya Siitras and afford us glimpses of an otherwise unknown pantheon. The wife herself, who has so little to do with texts, must go outside her house and offer food to ' the white demon with black teeth, the lord of bad women,' and if she bears a child the husband must daily, till the wife's confinement ends, offer rice and mustard in the fire near the door where the wife is confined, dispersing demons whose names are given: 'Qanda, Marka, Upavira, (^aundikeya, Ulukhala, Malimlucha, Dronasa, Chyavana,' all indicative of trouble, as are those that follow (apparently a supplementary list), ' Alikhat, Animisha, Kimvadanta, Upagruti, Haryaksha, Kumbhin, (^atru, Patrapani, Nrimani, Hantrimukha, Sarshaparuna, Chyavana, avaunt^' But if the child falls ill with epilepsy, the 'dog-disease,' the father cures him by covering him with a net and murmuring,
Kurkura, Su-Kurkiira, Kurkura (it is) who holds fast the children ; scat {check chet !), dog, let him go ; reverence to thee, Sisara, barker, bender ; true the gods have given thee a boon, and hast thou chosen my boy ? Scat, dog, let him go (as before). True, the Bitch of heaven, Sarama, is thy mother, Sisara is thy father, and Yama's black and speckled dogs thy brothers ; but scat, dog, let him go 2.
The demon attacking the boy is here called Kumara, the cult is obviously demoniac. In general, the Siitras of this class are con- cerned not with the greater sacrifices, which are discussed in the ^rauta Siitra, called the Havis and Soma sacrifices, but with the so-called great sacrifices of food cooked {paka) and offered on
^ Paraskara, Grihya Sutra, i, 16, 23 f. 2 lb. 24.
232 J^^f^ ^'^^^ Customs in the Sutras [ch.
special noon-days and at funeral feasts, four or seven in all, in- cluding offerings to serpents as well as to demons and gods^
The last of these domestic ' cooked-food ' sacrifices introduces a new feature :
On the full moon day of the month Chaitra he makes (images of) a pair of animals out of meal ; (he offers) them and jujube leaves (to the gods) ; to Indra and Agni a figure with prominent navel ; and balls to Rudra (^ankhayana, Qrihya Sutra, TV, 19).
These images of meal representing living beings are partly due to the new feeling of pity for animals and the desire not to injure life, which plays a part in Brahmanism as well as in Buddhism. It must be admitted, however, that economy had something to do with the substitution of animals of meal for real animals, but ostensibly it is a Vishnuite trait. The general rule in this regard is that attributed to Manu : * Animals may be killed (so said Maim) at the Madhuparka and Soma sacrifice and at the rites for Manes and gods.' But it is an old rite of hospitality to kill a cow for a guest ^ ; and, as a matter of form, each honoured guest is actually ofiered a cow. The host says to the guest, holding the knife ready to slay the cow, that he has the cow for him ; but the guest is then directed to say : ' Mother of Rudras, daughter of the Vasus, sister of the Adityas, navel of immortality (is she). Do not kill the guiltless cow; she is (Earth itself), Aditi, the goddess. I speak to them that understand.' He adds, * My sin has been killed and that of so-and-so ; let her go and eat grass.' But if he really wants to have her eaten, he says, ' I kill my sin and the sin of so-and-so ' (in killing her), and though in many cases the ofier of the cow is thus plainly a formal piece of etiquette, yet the offering to the guest was not complete without flesh of some sort ; and it is clear from the formulas that any of the worthiest guests might demand the cow's death, though as the ' six worthy guests ' are teacher, priest, father-in-law, king, friend, and Aryan 'reborn' man, and all of these were doubtless well grounded in that veneration for the cow which is expressed above by identifying her with Earth (as Aditi), there was probably seldom any occasion to harrow the feelings of the cow-revering host^ Paraskara mentions only the cow but (^aiikhayana {G.S., 11, 15, 1) already substitutes a goat as a possible alternative ; he also mentions the gods to which this animal is
^ From the full moon of the month ^ravana, offerings to snakes have to be made daily till it is safe to sleep on the ground again. This is called the Pratyavarohana and occurs on the full moon day called Agrahdyani, when one may ' descend again ' (from the high couch),
" Chapter iv, p. 101. ^ Paraskara, Qrihya Sutra, i, 3, 26.
x] Marriage Ceremonies 233
sacred, that is, he seeks to make the animal oflfered to the guest a sacrifice to a god. Thus he says that if the animal is ofiered to the teacher and killed it is ' sacred to the Fire-god ' ; if it is offered to a king, it is sacred to Indra, and if to a friend {mitra) it is sacred to Mitra. Similar additions may be traced in many particulars, sometimes found by comparing one text with another, sometimes clearly interpolated.
The Sutras, while they do not recognise the sects of later days, yet point to the difierent conception of deity embodied in the two great modern sects worshipping Rudra-(^iva and Vishnu. Thus, as above, Rudra and the Rakshasas are also associated in the rule : * When one repeats a text sacred to Rudra, to the Rakshasas, to the Manes, to the Asuras, or one that contains an imprecation, one shall touch water' ((^ankh., G.S., i, 10, 9). On the other hand, when the bridegroom leads the bride to take the seven steps, which form part of the wedding ceremony, he murmurs a blessing at every step: 'One for sap, two for juice, three for prosperity, four for comfort, five for cattle, six for the seasons. Friend ! be with seven steps (mine) ; be thou devoted to me.' And after each clause he says 'may Vishnu lead thee.' Similarly, the fact that Vai9ravana (Kubera) and l9ana (Rudra-Qiva) are worshipped 'for the bride- groom ' point to the phallic nature of these cognate spirits (Par., G.S., I, 8, 2; gankh., G.S., i, 11, 7).
The Grihya Sutras show that there was no one rite of universal acceptation in those ceremonies most intimately connected with domestic felicity. Indeed, the author of the A9valayana Grihya Sutra (i, 7, 1) says expressly that in the matter of weddings, 'cus- toms are diverse,' and he gives only that which is common usage. Thus he tells how the bride is to go about the fire, mount the stone, pour out grain, ga^e at the pole-star, etc., but does not mention other rites which other Grihya Sutras enjoin. Some of these, however, are of universal interest ; and a comparison of the Hindu ceremonies with those of other Aryan-speaking peoples shows that in all probability the Indian ritual has preserved elements reaching far back into prehistoric times \
^ On this point, cf. Haas and Weber, Indische Studien, vol. v ; L. von Sohroeder, Die Hochzeitsgebrduche der Esten und einiger anderer Jinnisch-ugrischer Volkerschaften in Vergleichung ndt denen der indogermanischen Volker (1888) ; M. Winternitz, Das altindische Hochzeitsrituell...mit Vergleichung der Hochzeitsgebrauche bei den ilbrigen indogermanischen Volkem (1892) ; also a paper by the last writer on the same subject in the Transactions of the National Folk-lore Society (Congress, 1891-2), and one by Th. Zachariae, ' Zum altindischen Hochzeitsrituell' {Wiener Zeitschrift filr die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. xvii, pp. Ij55 f., and 211 f.).
2 34 -^if^ ^'^^ Customs in the Sutras [ch.
Thus in the ceremony it is universal usage to walk the seven steps together and for the bridegroom to murmur, as he takes the bride's hand : * This am I, that art thou, that art thou, this am I ; Heaven am I and Earth art thou; the (feminine) Rich (Rigveda verse) art thou, the Saman am I. Be thou devoted to me,' and to make the bride mount a stone as an emblem of firmness. But special rules are that women shall come to the bride's house and eat and drink brandy and dance four times ; and that merry girls shall escort the bridegroom to the bride's house, and that he must do all the foolish (?) things they tell him to do (except when taboo is concerned). (Qankh., G.8.^ i, 12, 2.) Some measure of values may perhaps be obtained from the statement that the fee to the priest who performs the marriage-ceremony is a cow, given by the bride- groom, if the groom is of the same caste as the priest, but a village if the groom is 'royal,' Rajanya, that is a nobleman of 'kingly' order, and a horse if the groom is of the third estate (farmer, trader). Obviously the succeeding rule, which is not unique, countenances a sort of sale in that it adds : * (The bridegroom must give) to the one who has the daughter one hundred (cows) together with a chariot' The same rule is found in the Dharma Siitras (Apas- tamba, ii, 13, 12) with the explanation that the gift must be returned, as a sale is not allowed — which only points back to an earlier period when the sale of daughters was allowed.
The distinction among the orders mentioned in the gifts above is only one of innumerable passages in which, as a matter of course and without thought of any other social order, the castes are named as priest, noble or warrior, and 'people,' the last term embracing all those 'reborn,' who are not priests or warriors or slaves. The slaves, ^udras and lower orders, are recognised as part of the social structure. The name itself suggests that the (^iidras were originally a conquered people, as Karian became synonymous with slave at Athens. Yet the ^udras were not Pariahs but members of the household, who took part in some of the domestic rites.
The test of caste is not marriage alone but defilement by eating and touching what is unclean. In this regard the Sutras show only the beginning of that formal theory of defilement which results in a pure man of the upper castes being defiled by the shadow of an impure man, and in the taboo of all contact with the impure. According to Gautama {Dharrrm Sutra, xvii, 1 f.), a Brahman may eat food given by any of the ' reborn ' who are worthy members of their caste, and if in need of food to support life he may
x] Caste and Family 235
take food and other things even from a (^udra. Food forbidden is that defiled naturally by hairs or insects falling into it and that touched by a woman during her courses, by a black bird (crow), or by a foot, etc., or given by an outcast, a woman of bad character, a person accursed, an hermaphrodite, a police-officer {dandika), a carpenter, a miser, a jailer, a physician, a man who hunts without using the bow (i.e. a non-Aryan snarer of animals), a man who eats refuse or the food of a multitude, of an enemy, etc. The list con- tinues with the taboo of food offered disrespectfully and of certain animals. Apastamba {DJiarma S., i, 6, 18, 1 f ) allows the acceptance of gifts, including a house and land, even from an Ugra (low caste or mixed caste), though, like the later law-books, his code states that a priest may not eat in the house of anyone of the three orders (varnas) below him ; but he may eat the food of any other priest, and according to ' some ' he may eat the food of people of any caste except ^udras and even their food in times of distress. Forbidden by him is the food of an artisan, of people who let houses or land, a spy, an unauthorised hermit (Buddhist?), besides that of surgeon, usurer, and others. Caste is varna or jdti, 'colour' and 'kin,' the former embracing the latter, as a social order including clans or families. Even in the all-important matter of marriage, caste is not so important as family. The only test, when one seeks a wife, according to ^^ankhayana, is that of the family: 'They ask the girl in marriage, reciting the clan- names.' The text of A^valayana expressly mentions as a form of marriage that in which the bridegroom kills the relatives and rapes the weeping girl, evidently a form once countenanced as well as enumerated among possible forms ; at any rate it bars out all examination of the bride's social position. Indeed the marriage rules permit the marriage of a (^udra woman, though as the last of four wives, with a member of the highest caste (e.g. Par., G.S., i, 4, 11), whose offspring, of course, being 'mixed' or impure, is not a member of the xlryan 'reborn,' but nevertheless is recognised legally. And what shall we say of those who are not ' reborn ' although Aryans? The rule in this case is universal that, if priest, warrior, or member of the third estate fail to be ' reborn in the Veda,' i.e. if such a one is not duly initiated into his social order at the proper time, he loses his prerogatives and becomes an outcast: 'No one should initiate such men, nor teach them, nor perform sacrifice for them, nor have intercourse with them,' and further, 'A person whose ancestors through three generations have been thus outcast is excluded from the sacrament of initiation and
236 Liife and Customs in the Sutras [ch.
from being taught the Veda,' that is, they become Vratyas or entirely outcast persons with whom one may not even have inter- course unless they perform special rites ^
In general the Grihya Sutras may be said to be the later scholastic codification of rules, formulas, and rites long practised, concerned chiefly with the orderly progress of an individual ideal life, and incidentally with such ceremonies as naturally occur in such a life, that is, besides rites from babyhood to marriage, fixed moon-rites, etc., those concerned with building, holidays, burial, etc. That they are not of Vedic age in their present fonn, though in substance reverting in part to Brahmana beginnings, may be concluded from their obvious posteriority in respect of language and metre (where verses are cited) to the Brahmanas, not to speak of earlier Vedic texts, as well as from the fact that several Sutras emanate from districts scarcely known even by name to the Brahmanas. The general order of an-angement in the Grihya Sutras' is one conditioned by the subject-matter, which is to reveal the whole duty of man as a householder. Most of them begin with the marriage and continue with the birth of a child, the ceremonies at conception and at various stages before birth, at the birth itself, at the naming of the child, when he sees the sun, when he is fed, when his hair is cut, when he becomes a student, and when he returns home from his Guru (tutor) and becomes a householder. Then the child, now grown to a man, marries and the circle begins again. Finally the rite for the burial is described. A few texts take up the round of life at another point, that where the student-life begins. This is the procedure in the case of some of the Black Yajurveda texts (for example, the Manava and Kathaka Sutras), but it makes no difference where one begins; each Sutra follows out the life to the end, and the general uniformity shows that, whatever be the minor discrepancies and divergences of opinion (of which the authors are themselves well aware), the Grihya Sutras as a whole are based upon one model, and that, whether in the northern or southern districts, the lives of orthodox Aryans were governed by a remarkable conformity of ritual. It is not improbable that, as has been suggested by Professor Oldenberg, many of the rites prescribed as general rules were nothing more than formulas of secret magic owned at first by certain families and afterwards become universal property^.
* See Paraskara, Grihya Sutra, 11, 5, 40 f., and Weber, Ind. Literaturgeach. p. 78 f., Eng. trans., p. 67.
2 Compare the admirable discussion of the position of the Grihya Sutras by Prof. Oldenberg in S.B.E. vol. xxx.
x] Religious and Magical Beliefs 237
The specimen given above will suffice to show the artless style of these didactic Sutras. They have in fact no style save that attained by scrupulous brevity. In the following paragraphs we shall seek rather to illustrate certain phases of the Grihya Sutras as indicative of religious and magical beliefs and of the social environment in which they were produced, or at least for which they were intended.
We may begin with reverting to the cure of epilepsy already mentioned. In the course of childhood the boy may be attacked by the dog-demon (epilepsy). What is the father to do? The names of the canine demons have been mentioned above with a parallel passage containing more of the same sort. These are to be averted by a sort of honorific propitiation. They are lauded ; but their objectionable behaviour in this special case is deprecated. The author of our Sutra contents himself with this. But a rival author or two (Hiranyake9in, G.S.^ 11, 2, 7, 1 f. ; Apastamba, Grihya Sutra, VII, 18, 1) are not content with the method here advocated. According to them, the father must make a hole in the roof of the royal gaming-hall and pull the boy through it, lay him on his back on dice strewn about, and then, while a gong is sounded, recite the deprecatory words to the dog-demons and pour curds and salt over the boy. Several items of this recipe are of interest, the avoidance of the door, the use of salt and curds to frighten demons, the gong for the same purpose to be beaten on the south side of the hall. These may be said to be universal antidotes ; peculiar is the use of the dice, which has no parallel in the similar situations offered by the Sutra. Finally the fact that the father makes a hole in the roof of the gaming-hall shows that it is made of thatch (easily repaired) and leads to the question what sort of architecture is normally to be found implied in the Sutras. The gaming-hall is the public gambling-place which a king is directed to build for the use of his subjects, and curiously enough, with the exception of the householder's own dwelling, it is almost the only reference to edifices found in the Siitras. On the other hand, all the dicta of the Siitras show that such life as is depicted is supposed to be country life; the district and the village are the geographical entities. Cities are not ignored but are despised \ Thus there are no ceremonies for urban life. But there is a rite for ploughing, when sacrifice is made to A9ani (the thunder-bolt) and to Sita
* Apastamba, Dharma Sutra, i, 32, 21, 'let him avoid going into towns,' and Baudhayaua, Dharma Sutra, ii, 3, 6, 33, ' It is impossible for one to obtain salvation, who lives in a town, covered with dust.'
238 Liife and Customs in the Sutras [ch,
(the furrow), as well as to other bucolic deities, Arada, Anagha, etc., as to the greater bucolic gods, Parjanya and Indra and Bhaga, with similar offerings on the occasion of the ' furrow sacrifice,' the * threshing-floor sacrifice,' when one sows, reaps, or takes in the harvest, all indicating that the life portrayed is that of the village agriculturist, who must even 'offer a sacrifice at mole-heaps to Akhuraja, the king of moles ' (Gobhila, Grihya Sutra, iv, 4, 28 £ ; ibid. 30 f.). So the constant injunctions to 'go out of the village,' to sacrifice at a place where four roads meet, or on a hill, etc., imply life in villages even for householders and scholars rather than in towns (Gobhila, iii, 5, 32-35).
Besides the introduction of evil spirits and bucolic divinities into the ritual of the domestic service, we find in the Sutras for the first time the recognition of images of the gods, which must be implied by the regulations concerning the deities l9ana, MidhushI, and Jayanta ('lord,' 'bountiful one,' 'conqueror') as well as the ' lord of the field,' Kshetrapati, who are moved about and given water to drink (Ap., G.S., vii, 19, 13; ibid. 20, 1-3 and 13).
When a boy is initiated he is made to mount a stone with the adjuration to be ' firm as a stone ' which elsewhere is confined to the bride, and is then given in charge to 'Kashaka (Ka9aka), Antaka, Aghora, Disease, Yama, Makha, Va9ini, Earth and Vai9vanara, Waters, Herbs, Trees, Heaven and Earth, Welfare, Glory, the All-gods, all the Bhuts, and all the gods ' (Hiranyake9in, G.S., I, 2, 6, 5). In this list of demons and deities to whom the boy is given in charge, Va^inl as the 'ruling goddess' is notice- able. She is probably the mother-goddess who despite all Vedic influence always was the chief spiritual village-power identified with (^iva's wife in various forms. Perhaps too the recognition (in a rite to procure increase of cattle) of a god described merely as 'He who has a thousand arms and is the protector of cow- keepers ' {Gaupatya), may be a veiled allusion to Krishna- Vishnu (Gobhila, iv, 5, 18).
As the Grihya Sutras in distinction from the Dharma are concerned with domestic superstitions, these may rightly be considered their peculiar contribution to the history of India. Of political and social life they contain almost nothing except as confined within the bounds of the family. The regular routine of the normal life contains a sufficiency of such superstitions, though the underlying reason for them is due in some cases more to mechanical adjustment to a supposed harmony than to spiritual fears. This is the case for example in the regulation that the
x] Minor Superstitions 239
initiation of the Brahman, Kshatriya, and Vai9ya shall take place, respectively, in spring, summer, and autumn, in the eighth, eleventh, and twelfth years after conception, the respective seasons being supposed to represent the castes, as the years represent the metres regarded as peculiar to these castes. Deeper lies the origin of the following : — the rite to drive out of the bride the influence deadly to the husband and to convert it into an influence deadly to her possible paramour (Hir., G.S., i, 7, 24, 1 f.) ; the prayer that the 'weeping women' (demons) and Vike9i may not torment her, nor the Pi9achas of the womb, who devour flesh and bring death {ihid. 6, 19, 7); the scattering of rice and other grains on the heads of the newly wedded pair {ihid. 21, 6); and the corresponding rite according to which the husband ties barley about the wife's head, here expressly ' to have ofi^spring ' (Ap., G.S., VI, 14, 7). Naturally the conjugal relations off"er a fruitful field for this sort of thing. Thus we have a rite to make a husband subject to his wife as well as to make her co-wives subject to her {ibid. Ill, 9, 5 f ) and another very peculiar rite, the object of which is to keep the wife faithful, in which she is regarded much as is the slave around whom, when suspected of estrangement, urine is poured from a horn to keep him magically at home (Hir., G.S., i, 4, 14, 2). Another subject claiming the attention of the Sutra-maker is the efficacy of amulets. These are tied upon the priests, as a sort of final expression of good-will, in the A9vayuja rite. They are made of lac and herbs (Gobh., iii, 8, 6). Minor superstitions abound. If one yawns, one must say, 'May will and wisdom abide in me,' evidently a phase of the popular belief that the soul may escape in a yawn or sneeze (Hir., G.S., i, 5, 16, 2). Signs of ill-luck which must be averted by a sacred formula are found in the presence in the house of a dove, of bees, or an anthill, in the budding forth of a post, etc. {ii)id. i, 5, 17, 5). The trans- mission of sin is illustrated by the dictum that if one touches a sacrificial post the faults committed at the sacrifice are incurred {ibid. 16, 16) ; also by the injunction that when one's hair is cut a well-disposed person should gather it up and hide it away, as the well-disposed person (the mother, for example) thus ' hides the sin in the hair,' probably a refinement on the original notion of not losing one's soul-strength at the hands of some ill-disposed person {ibid. I, 2, 9, 18; cf Agv., i, 17, 10, etc., where the formula is 'for long life'). Whether the objection to certain trees as liable to cause eye-trouble, etc., is grounded in fact or fancy, causing the injunction to transplant them, may be questioned, but the original
240 Life and Customs in the Sutras [ch.
cause has been lost in the maze of superstition, which makes the A9vattha tree injurious on the east side of the house, the Plaksha on the south, the Nyagrodha on the west, and Udumbara on the north.
Before speaking of the Dharma Sutras in particular it will be necessary here to settle the question as to what is meant by the Aryan, so often mentioned in all the Sutras. While not lacking in moral connotation, so that as a common adjective dry a meant noble in heart as well as in race, it is only in the democracy of religious philosophy that such a person as an Aryan slave or bar- barian was conceivable. Practically Arya was synonymous with 'reborn' and indicated a person of the three upper castes in good standing, antithetic to (^^udra and other low-caste or out-caste persons. Yavanas (Greeks) are the most esteemed of foreigners, but all Yavanas are regarded as sprung from (^Judra females and Kshatriya males. Gautama says that sundry authorities hold this view\ Such rules as that given by Gautama (xii, 2) in the case of the violation of an Aryan woman by a (^^udra, when compared with Apastamba, Dh.S., 11, 26, 20, and 27, 9, prove conclusively that Arya is ' noble in race ' as distinguished from the ' black colour ' (ibid. I, 27, 11, with the preceding 'non-Aryans'). Mr Ketkar in his History of Caste in India (p. 82), is rather rash in stating that there was no racial discrepancy felt between Aryan and Dravidian. It is true that those who were out-caste were no longer called Aryans, but no Qudra was ever regarded as Aryan, any more than he could be 'reborn.' Arya indicated racial dis- tinction from the times of the Rigveda onwards.
We have seen that the Grihya Sutras practically recognise life only as lived in villages. In the Dharma Sutras, as these are later and have to do with wider relations, the town {jpwr, nagara), appears as a larger unit, though how much larger it is not easy to say ; and when we remember that pur is after all only a stronghold or fort, and nagara is anything larger than a village, we must be cautious of too ready belief in large cities. Everything indicates on the contrary that life was still chiefly that of small places and kings were only petty chieftains. There was not supposed to be any school or even studying done in town. The Dharma Sutra of Gautama, regarded as the oldest of extant Dharma Sutras, says expressly that one should not recite the holy texts at any time in a town ; and it is assumed, as in the Grihya Sutras, that such life
^ Dh. (Rostra, iv, 21 (erroneously rendered ' offspring of male ^udras and female Kshatriyas' in S.B.E. vol. ii, p. Ivi). This passage referring to Yavanas is unique in the Sutras. They are Bactrian and other Asiatic Greeks. See Chap, xxu, pp. 540-1.
x] The Dharma Sutras 241
as is described passes normally in villages. Even in the descrip- tion of the royal residence {v. inf. p. 247), the hall has a thatched roof. The king still stands up in propria persona and hits a thief with a cudgel; and, if the king fails to strike, the 'guilt falls on the king' (Gaut, DhS., xii, 43). The commentators, apparently aware of the incongruity in applying such a rule to the kings of their day, attempt to restrict its application as intended for specially evil thieves (of gold); but it is in fact a general rule even as late as Apastamba {Dh.S., i, 25, 4), who says: *A thief shall loosen his hair and appear before the king carrying a cudgel on his shoulder. With that (cudgel) he (the king) shall smite him ; if he dies his sin is expiated, but, if the king forgives him, the guilt falls on him who forgives ; or he (the thief) may throw himself into a fire or die by starvation.' Thus the later author seeks to excuse the king (but not the thief).
The Dharma Sutras add to the data of social life material evidence which shows that there were recognised customs not approved in one part of the country but doubtfully admitted as good usage because locally approved in other parts. For, in dis- cussing usage, Baudhayana (Dh.S., i, 1, 17 f.) expressly says that customs peculiar to the South are to eat in the company of an uninitiated person, in the company of one's wife, to eat stale food, and to marry the daughter of a maternal uncle or of a paternal aunt, while customs peculiar to the North are to deal in wool, to drink rum, to sell animals that have teeth in the upper and in the lower jaws, to follow the trade of arms, and to go to sea. He adds that to follow these practices except where they are con- sidered right usage is to sin, but that for each practice the local rule is authoritative, though Gautama denies this^ Baudhayana also admits the doctrine that a priest who cannot support himself by the usual occupations of a Brahman may take up arms and follow the profession of a warrior ; though here again his opinion is opposed to that of the earlier Gautama, who argues that such an occupation on account of its cruelty is not fitted for a priest. Whether the Gautama here represented as opposed be the Gautama whose Sutra has come down to us may be doubted, but the two passages show that caste-integrity was not regarded as essential, for no one could be a warrior and retain the mode of life deemed proper for a priest.
^ See Biihler, S.B.E. vol. n, p. xlix. The river Narmada (Narbada) is the boundary between North and South. 'Making voyages by sea' causes loss of caste (Baudh., Dharma Sutra, n, 1, 2, 2).
C.H.I. I. 16
242 Life and Customs in the Sutras [CH.
Tlie geography of the Sutras illustrates very forcibly the limited reach of interest at the same time that knowledge of a wider country was thoroughly disseminated. Kaliiiga on the eastern coast is even the subject of versification, * He sins in his feet who visits the Kalingas/ and one who travels to their country must perform a purificatory sacrifice ; as must they who visit the Arattas (in the Punjab) or the Pundras and Vangas (in Bengal), while the inhabitants of the country lying about Multan, Surat, the Deccan, Malwa, western Bengal, and Bihar are all declared by Baudhayana to be of mixed origin ; and (by implication) their customs are not to be followed. The * country of the Aryans ' embraces in fact only the narrow district between the Patiala district in the Punjab and Bihar, and between the northern hills (Himalayas) and those of Malwa ; some even confine the definition of Aryavarta (country of the Aryans) to the district between the Ganges and Jumna ^
Constant references to the opinions of earlier authorities, in- definitely cited as * some,' show that our extant Sutras are but a moiety of the mass lost. Naturally the later authors know by name more authorities than do the earlier. Apastamba discusses * those whose food may be eaten ' and cites a certain Kanva who declares that ' who wishes may give ' ; then a Kautsa, whose opinion is that he who is holy {punya\ may give ; then Varshyayani who says that ' anybody may- give,' because, if it is a sinner and the sin remains with him, the receiver cannot sufifer, but if it does not remain with him (the giver), then the giving acts as a purification (Ap., Dh.S., I, 19, 3 f.). Again the same author discusses theft. Any- one who takes what belongs to another is a 'thief; so teach Kautsa, Harita, and Kanva ; but Varshyayani says that there are exceptions. ' Seeds ripening in the pod and food for a draught-ox' may be taken (without theft), though * to take too much ' is a sin. Harlta's opinion is that the owner's permission must first be given (Ap., Dh.S., I, 28, 5).
These texts in any case are more or less erroneous transmitters of older law. Thus the Sutra law for manslaughter or murder enjoins that one who has killed a warrior shall give for the expia- tion of his sin a bull and a thousand cows. To whom? The commentator (a priest) says that the passage means give to the priests (Ap., Dh.S., i, 24, 1), whereas the corresponding rule in Baudhayana (i, 10, 19, 1) says that the fine shall be given to the king ;
^ Bandh. i, 1, 2, 9f. Baudhayana may be the Kanva referred to (in the next paragraph) as an authority. He was probably himself a southerner of the eastern coast. Cf. Biihler, S.B.E. vol. xiv, p. xxxvi f.
x] Inheritance 243
and in both passages the commentator explains that the ' expiation for sin ' may mean ' to remove the enmity of the murdered man's relatives,' which latter explanation is historically the earlier and probably the true explanation, as it is a parallel to the law per- mitting compensation for murder as found among other Aryan nations \
Since, in distinction from the Grihya Sutras, the Dharma Siitras have to do with society rather than with family, it is here that we find the beginning of civil and criminal law, although legal punishments are still retained in part under the head of penance, and the conditions of inheritance, which depend on the family, are partly explained under domestic duties, for these include (as we have seen) the rite of marriage, apropos of which is first defined the family {gotra, gens) into which one may marry. The rule is that a man shall not give his daughter to one belonging to the same gotra, that is, having the same family name^, or, in the case of priests, descended from the same Yedic seer, or to one related on the mother's side within six degrees. Then the rules for inheritance, assuming the meaning of the Sapinda as one within six degrees, make Sapindas the heirs after or in default of sons. The Sapindas here are males only. The widow is excluded, and the daughter (according to Apastamba) inherits only in default of sons, teacher, or pupil, these, however, being recommended to employ the inheritance for the spiritual good of the deceased. Probably the general rule anticipates not the death of the owner but a division of property among the sons during his lifetime. The king inherits in default of the others named, and some say that among the sons only the eldest inherits. These rules are sufficiently vague, but local laws are also provided for in the additional rule: *In some countries gold, (or) black cattle, (or) black produce of the earth (grain or iron ?) is the share of the eldest' (Ap., Dh.S., 11, 14, 7). Then in regard to what the wife receives, the Sutra leaves it doubtful whether the rule * the share of the wife consists of her ornaments and wealth received from her relations, according to some (authorities),' is to be interpreted in such a manner that 'according to some' refers only to the last clause or to the whole.
What is obvious is that the whole matter of inheritance was as yet not regulated by any general state law. Different countries
^ Cf. Biihler's explanation, S.B.E. vol. n, p. 78.
" Generally speaking we may say that exogamy is the rule, but epic literature records cases of maniage between near relations (cousins).
16—2
244 ^\f^ ^^</ C us 1 07ns in the Sutras [ch.
or districts of India have different laws; different authorities differ in regard to the interpretation of these laws; and, finally, different texts of Vedic authority contradict by inference the rule to be got from them. Thus because one Vedic text says * Manu divided his wealth among his sons,' it is implied that there should be no preference shown to the eldest; but, on the other hand, another Vedic text says 'they distinguish the eldest by the heritage/ which countenances the preference shown to the eldest. Now this last point, despite the desire for conciseness, demands consideration at length, so the maker of the Sutra takes it up, arguing that a mere statement of fact is not a rule. For example (he says), the dictum ' a learned priest and a he-goat are the most sensual beings' is a statement, but cannot be taken as a rule. Hence, he says, the statement * they distinguish the eldest ' is not a rule. But the question remains, why then should the other statement, *Manu divided his wealth,' be regarded as a rule? The subject of inheritance is treated first by Baudhayana under the head of impurity, where he says simply that Sapindas inherit in default of nearer relations, and Sakulyas (remoter relations) in default of Sapindas ; but afterwards he adds that the eldest son, in accordance with the quotations cited by Apastamba, may receive the best chattel, or the father may divide equally among his sons. Here also the fact that the same subject is treated in different sections shows that as yet the matter of civil law was not treated systematically but incidentally.
It is no part of the present discussion to enter into the confusing details of the laws of inheritance; only to show in what state were these laws at the time of the Sutras. The latest Siitra, however, already stands on a level with the formal law- books, and, for example in this matter of inheritance, is not content with the vague 'sons' of the earlier authors but makes a formal classification of the (later legal) 'twelve sons,' six of whom are entitled to inherit as 'heirs and kinsmen' while six (kinds) are ' kinsmen but not heirs,' among the last being the son of a (^udra wife.
Civil law is in general discussed in the Sutras under the head of royal duties ; for it is assumed that the king administers justice both civil and criminal. It is his part to pay attention to the special laws of districts, castes {jciti), and families, and make the four orders (varnas, castes in a general sense) fulfil their duties. The summary, in the following order, includes punishing those who wander from the path of duty, not injuring trees that bear
x] Royal Duties 245
fruit, guarding against falsification of weights and measures, not taking for his own use the property of his subjects (except as taxes), providing for the widows of his soldiers, exempting from taxation a learned priest, a royal servant, those without protectors, ascetics, infants, very old men, students, widows who have returned to their families, unmarried girls, wives of servants, and pradattds (doubtful, perhaps girls promised in marriage) ; but first and fore- most, the king is to protect all in his realm (Vasishtha, xix, 1-24). This quaint summary of royal duties does not even belong to the early Sutra period but derives from a text, which in some regards is practically, as it is called, a law-book (^astra). It reflects, as do the elaboration of details and additions casually made, the fact that even at this comparatively late period the king was still a small local raja, not an emperor.
Although we may agree in general with the judgment of Buhler to the effect that the Dharma (^astra of Gautama takes temporal precedence over the extant Dharma ^^astras and Dharma Sutras \ yet it is historically as important to remember that this judgment was tempered by the consideration that interpolations occur in the work of Gautama, and that in its present form the language 'agrees closer with Panini's rules than that of Apastamba and Baudhayana.' The title itself of Gautama's work is (^^astra not Sutra, and it is obvious from his chapter on kings that sundry works called Dharma ^astras were in vogue, for he says: 'The administration of justice (shall be regulated by) the Veda, the Dharma ^^^tras, the Aiigas, and the Puranas (and Upavedas)' (xi, 19), and though the word 'Upavedas' occurs in but one manuscript, and logically Dharma is included under Anga, yet it is not necessary to assume an interpolation for these words, especially as Gautama mentions Manu among teachers of the law, from 'some' of whom he cites, though not by name. The Atharva^iras, a late work, is also known to him (xix, 12). It may then be questioned whether each and every rule of Gautama can be cited as being an integral part of the 'earliest law-book.'
The royal duties as described by Gautama are few. After stating that all the ' reborn ' (men of the three upper castes) are to study, ofler sacrifice, and give alms, and that the priest in addition is to teach, perform sacrifice for others, and receive alms, or, if he does not do the work himself, to practice agriculture and
1 S.B.E. vol. u, p. liv.
246 Life and Customs in the Sutras [ch.
trade ^, Gautama says that a king's special additional duty is to protect all beings, to inflict proper punishment, to support learned priests and others unable to work, those free of taxes and temporary students, to take measures for ensuring victory, to learn how to manage a chariot and use a bow, to fight firmly, to divide the spoils of battle equitably, to take a tax of one-tenth, one-eighth, or one-sixth (of produce), to force artisans to pay one day's work monthly, to proclaim by crier lost property, and, if the owner be not found in a year, to keep it, giving one-fourth to the finder (but all treasure-trove belongs to the king), and to protect the property of infants^. In the following section the author says that the king is the master of all except the priests ; that he is to be moral and impartial, worshipped by all except Brahmans, who shall honour him {ihid. xi, If.); that he must protect the castes (orders) and different stages of life {cU^ramas), and, with the assistance of his chaplain fulfil all his religious duties, as enumerated above. Authoritative in the realm shall be all rules of castes (jciti), and families {hula), as well as district-rules not opposed to (Vedic) tradition, while for their respective orders (varga) ploughmen, traders, herdsmen, money-lenders, and artisans may make their own rules {ibid. 21).
In this r4sum4 of royal duties there is no indication or impli- cation of any power greater than that of a small king. But the later Sutra of Apastamba indicates the beginning of that system of government by proxy which obtains in the ^astra of Manu and other Smritis. Nor is Apastamba's account of royal duties other- wise without interest, since it shows just such a combination of old and new as characterises the Sutra period. To begin with, after discussing caste-duties in general, Apastamba describes the town where the king is to live :
I will now explain the duties of a king. He shall build a town {pur), and a dwelling (vegma), each with a door facing south. The dweUing (Biihler, ' palace ') is within the pur, and to the east of the dwelling shall be a hall called the ' invitation ' (guest) place. South of the pur shall be an assembly-house (sabha),
1 This and the permission to teach for money are not in accord with the usual rules of the Sutras. The practice of Brahmans becoming 'gentlemen farmers and sleeping partners in mercantile or banking firms managed by Vaipyas' is not countenanced in other Sutras (see Biihler's note to Gautama, x, 5) and probably the permission to teach for money is intended only for priests in distress.
* An exception in the case of treasure-trove is made in the case of a priest being the finder, and ' some ' say that anybody who finds it gets one sixth. In the rules for taxes, if the stock is cattle or gold the tax according to ' some' is one fiftieth and if it is merchandise one twentieth, while one sixtieth is the tax on roots, fruits, flowers, herbs, honey, meat, grass, and firewood (Gaut., x, 25 f.).
x] Taxes ^ Status of Women ^ etc, 247
having doors on the south and north sides so that it shall be in plain view within and without. There shall be fires in all these places (burning) perpetually, and offering to the Fire-(god) shall there be made regularly, just as to the sacred house-fire. He shall put up as guests in the hall of invitation learned priests... and in the assembly-house he shall establish a gaming-table, sprinkle it with water, and throw down on it dice made of Vibhitaka (nuts), sufficient in number, and let Aryans play there (if they are) pure men of honest character. Assaults at arms, dances, singing, concerts, etc., should not take place except in houses kept by the king's servants... Let the king appoint Aryans, men of pure and honest character, to guard his people in villages and to^vns, having servants of similar character ; and these men must guard a town inagara) from thieves for a league {yojana), in every direction ; villages for two miles (a kos or quarter of a league). They must pay back what is stolen within that distance and collect taxes (for the king).
A learned priest and women are not taxed, nor are children before puberty, temporary students, or ascetics, or slaves who wash feet, or blind, dumb, deaf, and diseased persons. The king goes personally into battle and is exhorted not to turn his back and not to use poisoned weapons or to attack those who supplicate for mercy or are helpless (Apastamba, ii, 5, 10, 11), such as those who have ceased to fight or declare themselves cows (by eating grass, a sign of submission) (Baudh., i, 10, 18, 11; Gaut., x, 18).
Taxes and inheritance form the chief subjects of civil law, together with the vexed question of the status of women. Women may not on their own account ofier either the Vedic (^rauta sacrifices or the Grihya sacrifices. A woman is 'not independent' (Baudh., II, 2, 3, 44; Gaut., xviii, 1), either in respect of sacrifice or of inheritance. Widows, if sonless, are expected to bear sons by the levirate marriage (Baudh., ii, 2, 4, 9). Suttee is not acknow- ledged. Women are property and come under the general rule : * A pledge, a boundary, the property of minors, an open or sealed deposit, women, the property of a king or of a learned priest are not lost by being enjoyed by others ' (Vas., xvi, 18).
In proving property, documents, witnesses, and possession are admitted as proof of title by the late Sutra of Vasishtha (xvi, 19), and if the documents conflict, the statements made by old men and by gilds and corporations are to be relied upon (Vas., xvi, 15), an interesting passage as it shows what importance was ascribed to the gilds {^reni) of the time.
In criminal law, only Apastamba recognises the application of ordeals {Dh.S., ii, 11, 3; cf. 29, 6). The ordeals, here merely referred to, consist in the application of fire, water, etc., according to the later law-books (v. inf. p. 282 ff".), but are not defined in the Siitras. Assaults, adultery, and theft are the chief subjects dis- cussed in the Sutras under this head. The fines of the later law
248 ^\f^ ^^(^ Customs in the Sutras [ch.
are generally represented here by banishment or corporal injury. Most of the regulations are dominated by caste-feeling. A ^udra who commits homicide or theft or steals land has his property confiscated and suffers capital punishment (Ap., Dh.S., 11, 27, 16); but a Brahman priest for such crimes shall be blinded (ibid. 17). A Kshatriya (warrior) who abuses a Brahmana (priest) is fined one hundred (coins); a Vai9ya (farmer) must pay half as much again for the same offence ; but if a Brahman abuses a Kshatriya he pays only fifty coins (kdrshdpanas), and only twenty -five if he abuses a Vai9ya, while if he abuses a ^udra he pays nothing (Gaut., XII, 8f.), etc. The same caste-interest works outside of criminal law.
Thus the legal rate of interest is set at (the equivalent of) fifteen per cent, per annum (five mdshas a month for twenty kdrshdpanas, Gaut, xii, 29; Baudh., i, 5, 10, 22); but according to Vasishtha (11, 48), 'two, three, four, five in the hundred is declared in the Smriti to be the monthly interest according to caste.' This means that the highest caste pays two, the next caste three, and so on (limited by the scholiast to cases of loans without security). The same author prohibits Brahmans and Kshatriyas from being usurers ; but Baudhayana says that a Vai9ya may practise usury (Vas., 11, 40 and Baudh., i, 5, 10, 21). That there was, however, a notable laxity in carrying out the supposed inflexibility of caste-rules is evident from the fact that the law- makers expressly permit the upper castes to take to the occupa- tion of the lower when in need of sustenance. Even the Brahman priest who neglects to say his prayers may at the king's pleasure be forced to perform the work of ^udras (Baudh., 11, 4, 7, 15). Thus, with certain restrictions as to what he sells, etc., a priest or warrior may support life by trade and agriculture (Vas., 11, 24 f.). But a man ' reborn ' who persists in trade cannot be regarded as a Brahman, nor can a priest who lives as an actor or as a physician (ibid. Ill, 3). In other words, as may be concluded from the very laws inveighing against them, at the time of the Sutras there were many nominal members of the priestly and royal orders who lived as farmers and traders, perhaps even as usurers (a special law prohibits this, Vas., 11, 40; c£ Mann, x, 117), not only acting the part of gentleman farmers but living as humble ploughmen (Vas., 11,33).
As touching the outer world, as one is directed to avoid going into towns, so one should avoid visiting foreign places and 'not learn a language spoken by barbarians ' (Vas., vi, 41 ; Ap., i, 32, 18).
x] Relative Ages of the Sutras 249
In religion, as was to be expected, denying the authority of the Vedas, carping at the teaching of the Vedic seers, and wavering in regard to any traditional duty is to 'destroy one's soul' (Vas., xii, 41), and there is no salvation for a man who devotes himself to epicurean ways or to captivating men or to philology {'^abda^dstra, Vas., X, 20). On the other hand the Upanishad doctrine that a priest who is learned and austere and repeats the sacred texts is not tainted with sin, though he constantly commit sinful acts, is a morally destructive teaching already legalised (Vas., xxvi, 19). The highest named god is Brahma or Prajapati, to whom, after the manner of the epic, verses of legal character are assigned. Philosophically the Sutras are dominated by the Vedanta Atman- theory, which appears to be known as a system to Apastamba, whose Sutra seems to have been a work which arose among the Andhras of the south-eastern coast, and probably is not older than the second century B.C. It recognises, alone among Sutras, a named Purana (the Bhavishya, 11, 24, 6) and its archaic effect linguistically, which in large measure determined Biihler in his conjecture that this Sutra might revert to the fifth century, may well be due to the fact that the Andhras retained linguistic peculiarities long after Panini fixed the northern usage. Apastamba knows the Atharvaveda, as does Vasishtha, who appears to have been a still later writer. It is true that Biihler arranged a chronological series of Siitras of the law in the order Gautama, Baudhayana, Vasishtha, and Apastamba ; but in doing so he mini- mised the late characteristics of Vasishtha (who alone mentions * documents ' as legal proofs) ; and in his remark {S. B. E., xiv, p. xvii) concerning the fourth Veda he appears to have over- looked the passage at vi, 4, where the four Vedas are mentioned. It is also quite probable that the passage which seems to make Baudhayana earlier than Vasishtha is interpolated, and Biihler himself admits that many other passages have been tampered with. Whatever the earlier text may have been, the present text, with its free use of (^loJca verse, its recognition of Dharma ^astras, its citations from Manu, Vishnu, etc., and its possible allusion to the Romans {Romaka, xviii, 4), seems to be the latest of the legal Sutras, though containing much older material. In general, the age to which the Siitras may be assigned cannot well be earlier than the seventh or later than the second century b.c. They represent both the views of different Vedic schools and different localities, from the Andhra country in the S.E. to the countries of the KW., where probably the school of Vasishtha is to
250 Life and Customs in the Sutras [CH. x
be sought ^ Probably the Grihyas represent the earlier Sutras; the Dharmas as a whole come later : perhaps 300 b.c. would represent the earliest.
^ For Biihler's views regarding Apastamba, as dating from the third to the fifth century b.c, see S.B.E. vol. xiv, p. xlii. The strongest proof that Apastamba was a Southerner lies in ii, 17, 17, where he says that ' Northerners ' pour water into a priest's hand at funeral feasts. That he followed Baudhayana is undoubted ; but for historical use it must also be remembered that only the first two of the four books of Baudhayana are genuine and the latter half may be much later.
CHAPTER XI THE PRINCES AND PEOPLES OF THE EPIC POEMS
The Sutra literature does not lack connexion with the epics, to which we now turn. In the Grihya Sutra of ^ankhayana, for example, occur the names of Sumantu, Jaimini, Vai9ampayana, and Paila, who are teachers of the great epic Mahabharata ; and the list of revered teachers, and no less revered species of literature, mentioned in the Siitra of A^valayana includes the Bharata and Mahabharata, while the (^ambhavya Sutra also mentions the Mahabharata (it omits Bharata, perhaps as included in the greater name). Although the words are assumed by modern scholars to be interpolated, the reason given, ' because otherwise it would make the Siitra too late^,' has never been very cogent, since the end of the Sutras and beginning of the epics probably belong to about the same time. As an indefinite allusion not to a special epic poem but to the kind of poetry are also to be noticed such early references as that of A9valayana (iii, 3, 1) to Gathas, hero-lauds, tales, and ancient legends.
Epic poetry is divided by the Hindus themselves into two genera, one called 'tales and legends' (Itihasa and Purana) and the other called 'art-poem' or simply 'poem' (Kavya, the pro- duction of a Kavi or finished poet) ; but the compilation named Mahabharata is both Itihasa-Purana, its original designation, and then Kavya, though it is not recognised as a Kavya till the introductory verses exalt it as such. In its origin it was un- doubtedly a popular story of the glorified historical character which attaches to tribal lays even to-day. The second epic, the Ramayana, has always stood as the type and origin of the refined one-author poem, and whatever may have been the date of its germ as a story, as an art-product it is later than the Mahabharata.
Thus the oldest references which may indicate epic poetry point rather to the story of the Bharatas than to the story of Rama. These references, however, in any event are not nearly
1 Weber, Ind. Lit., p. 63=Eng. trans., p, 58.
252 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
old enough to warrant the assumption of immense antiquity made by the native tradition. The language of both epics is not Vedic but a popular fonn of Sanskrit, which was developed by the bards and became the recognised language of narrative poetry ; and their metre is the final reproduction of Vedic metres in modem form. Both language and verse are not widely difierent from those of the latest Sutras. We may reasonably conclude, then, that the latest Siitras and the epics belong to the same period, and that they represent two contemporary styles of literature, the former priestly and the latter secular.
There can be no doubt that, so far as much of their subject- matter is concerned, the epics and the Puranas are the literary descendants of the stories and legends (Itihasas and Puranas) which are mentioned in literature from the time of the Atharva- veda onwards ; and the particular legend or historical tale (the two are confused) which is embedded in the Mahabharata or 'great epic of the Bharatas ' is also not wholly without scholastic aflBnities. Just as the Brahmanas held the kernel of the Grihya Siitras, so the great epic through its promulgator, as traditionally recorded, is connected with the school of the Wliite Yajurveda. Para9ara is a name especially common in this Veda, occurring often in its genealogical lists ; and the epic acknowledges the ^atapatha as the greatest of Brahmanas, while the heroes of the epic are particularly mentioned in the Brahmana, and indeed in such a way that Janamejaya, prominent in the epic, is treated as a recent personage by the authors of the latter part of the Brahmana, though the epic treats him as a descendant of the chief epic hero. The explanation of this is not such a mystery as it seemed to Weber, who was unable to reconcile the facts that the same person was the descendant of the later family and yet appeared as an immediate predecessor or contemporary of the earlier. The ex- planation is simply that at the time of the eleventh Kanda of the (^atapatha Brahmana, Janamejaya to the priestly author was an historical character, while to the epic poet he was legendary, and the poet himself was, if not a bard, a domestic chaplain probably incompetent to analyse history, but anxious to give his tale a noble frame.
Other early allusions to epic characters only show that the epic which we now possess was unknown. Vai9ampayana and Vyasa are mentioned as early as the Taittiriya Aranyaka, but not as authors or editors of the epic which is now their chief claim to recognition. The word mahabharata is used by Panini, but only
I
xi] Kurus and Pandus 253
as an adjective which might be applied to anything great con- nected with the Bharatas, a hero or town, as well as a war or a poem. But above all, the Mahabharata epic is at bottom the story of a feud between Kurus and Pandus, and the Pandus are unknown to the early literature, either Brahmanas or Sutras. The idea that the original epic was a poem commemorating a war between Paiichalas and Kurus, which was ably developed by Lassen {Ind. AlterthiimskuTide, i, pp. 692 f.), and adopted with modifications by Weber {Ind. Literaturgesch. pp. 126 and 203 = Eng. trans., pp. 114 and 186), is an ingenious attempt to account for what is assumed to have existed. As a matter of fact a Mahabharata without Pandus is like an Iliad without Achilles and Agamemnon ; we know of no such poem. The Kurus and Paiichalas are foes in the epic but only as the Pandus ally them- selves with the latter. The Kurus of the epic, however, are doubtless the Kurus celebrated in ancient times ; even the family records show that the epic reflects the glory of these old aristo- crats. Thus the names Amba and Ambika as wives of a Kuru in the (j^atapatha Brahmana are preserved in the name Amba (Ambika) as mother of the king of Kurus in the epic. The first occurrence of the name Pandu which can be dated seems to be in a vdrtika or supplementary rule to Panini iv, 1, 44, attributed to Katyayana (c. 180 B.C.). The Pandus, whatever may have been their antiquity, first come into view with the later Buddhist literature, which recognises the Panda vas as a mountain clan, and possibly in the myth mentioned by Greek writers in regard to a Hindu Heracles and his wife Pandaia, though the latter is indeed of little weight The epic Pandus are not a people but a family.
It is not till the second century b.c. that we find unmistakable allusion to what we may probably call our epic poem, in the account of the Mahabhashya, which alludes to a poetic treatment of the epic story and speaks of epic characters. The second century b.c. is also the period to which those portions belong in which the foreign invaders of the Punjab — Yavanas, (^akas, and Pahlavas — are mentioned {v. sup. p. 224). These foreigners are represented as fighting on the side of the Kurus. As for the Paiichalas being opponents of the Aryan Kurus, the (^^atapatha Brahmana represents them as allies, and in early literature they are frequently mentioned as forming one people, the Kuru-PaQchalas. A single reference in a formula may, indeed, imply disdain of the Paiichalas on the part of the Kurus ^, but it is not certain that any racial
^ Weber, hid. Lit., p. 126 = Bng. trans., p. 114. V. sup. Chapter v, p. 119.
2 54 P^i^ces and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
antagonism existed between the two. We may say with Weber ^ that * the epic commemorates a fight between Aryans in Hindustan after the time when the original inhabitants had been overthrown and Brahmanised/ only on the assumption that Kurus, Pafichalas, and Pandus were Aryans ; but this is doubtful, and the force of the remark is in any case somewhat impaired by the fact that contests between Aryans. are no indication of late date, since such contests are commemorated even in the Rigveda,
It is possible that the Pafichalas represent five Naga clans (with ala ' a water-snake ' cf. Eng. eel) connected with the Kurus or Krivis (meaning 'serpent' or 'Naga'), and that none of the families is of pure Aryan blood, for the Nagas in the epic are closely related to the Pandus ; but all such considerations at present rest on speculation rather than fact.
Whether we are to suppose that, anterior to our extant epic, there was a body of literature which had epic characteristics, must depend also largely on speculation regarding the few well-known facts in the case. These are briefly as follows. At certain ceremonies, not chiefly heroic, Gathas, 'strophes,' in honour of great men are sung with the lute as accompaniment. These verses apply to men of the past or present, that is, they are laudatory verses of a memorial character^. Further, the Grihya Sutras recognise Nara9amsis, a sort of K\ia dvZpSiv, 'hero-lauds,' as a literary genre. These may have served as nuclei for the stories of heroes preserved in epic form. In the epic itself genealogy forms an important sub-division, and such a genealogy includes the origin of gods as well as of men. Now the Brahmanas also know what they call the Devajana-vidya, 'knowledge of the gods' race ' ; and since the epic genealogy of gods is in many ways indicative of respectable antiquity, it is possible that it derives from such a vidyd or science. The stories told in the Brahmanas, like that of Hari^chandra in the Aitareya Brahmana, often have epic fulness and likeness, being composed in the later epic verse though in ruder metre. In these also we get a form of narrative told in verse which might presumably have evolved into epic form. A great deal of the inflated epic is didactic, and much of this is derived from didactic sources older than the present epic. Thus dramatic tale, genealogy, and instruction in pedagogic form have all aided in the making of the epic. Even the theology of the epic has its prototype in the Brahmanas, where Vishnu is
^ Op. cit., p. 204= Eng. trans., p. 187. '' Compare Indische Studien, vol. i, p. 187.
xi] Early Heroic Poetry 255
already the ' best ' or most fortunate god {<^rtsMha\ and ^iva is already called Mahadeva.
In the hymns of the Rigveda we find stories in verse which appear to need the complement of explanatory prose, and as the epic also has examples of this mingling of verse and prose in the telling of a story, it is possible that we may have the right to presuppose a sort of epic narrative even in the time of the Rig- veda. Yet this presumptive epic of the Rigveda is so entirely a matter of theory, and not undisputed theory, that it may be left out of consideration when discussing the historical epic, as the presumptive drama of the Rigveda may be ignored in discussing the origin of Hindu historical drama.
The element in ancient literature which seems at first most likely to have contributed to the rise of epic poetry is that already mentioned under the name of NaracamsT or 'hero-lauds,' withal not so much on account of the subject-matter as on account of the circumstances in which the lauds were sometimes sung. At the yearlong celebration preparatory to the horse-sacrifice ten days were devoted to a series of lauds of gods and heroes, whereby the nobility and great deeds of kings were sung by priest and warrior musicians in Gathas of an extemporaneous character, while the recitation of legends in verse accompanied various events of life\
Now there are certain scenes in the great epic which lend themselves especially to such an interpretation. One can well believe, for example, that the story of Amba, who was carried ofi' by Bhishma irom her home and given to Qalya (v, 173 f.), was best rendered as a thrilling lay; its intensity is almost equal to that of the gambling-scene^ (11, 60 f ). But there are many others not suited for anything save recitation, not to speak of the in- terminable didactic material loaded upon the epic by the bookful. How are we to reconcile this mass with a theory of lyric recitation or song ?
A study of the interpolations in the so-called Southern text shows that thousands of verses of narrative and didactic material have been added to the epic text, and that the redaction comprises a shameless incorporation of material drawn from the Puranas and from the Harivam9a, a sort of Purana which was added to the Maha- bharata, as well as elaborations of the original text, sometimes by
^ Cf . especially Weber's article in the Proceedings of the Berlin Academy for 1891 (Episches im vedischen Ritual) and that of Lviders in Z.D.M.G., vol. Lvm, p. 707 f.
- Cf. also the half-forgotten tale of Vidula, revivified to-day by Professor Jacob! {Ueber ein verlorenes Heldengedicht der Sindhu-Sauvlra) in the Album Kern (1903), p. 53.
256 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
the insertion of a dozen or so verses, sometimes by the addition to a chapter of half a dozen new chapters narrating feats of the heroes or insisting on the godliness of a demi-god Now there is no reason not to suppose that the same process has made the Mahabharata what it is from the beginning. It contains at present a hundred thousand verses, with some prose admixture, but internal evidence shows that this is an accumulation ; and the text itself admits that it was originally less than nine thousand verses in length. As we have seen above (p. 251) the Grihya Sutra of A9valayana mentions both a Bharata and a Mahabharata, no doubt a shorter and a longer version of the same poem. The theme of the epic as a story, the conflict between Kurus and Pandus, is at most not so long, about twenty thousand verses, as the whole Ramayana, or twenty-four thousand verses. In short, in the great epic of India we have a combination of matter, partly epical, partly pedagogic, partly narrative or historical. The genealogies and the religious-didactic parts are not necessarily later in date, but they are later additions to the original materiaL Some of the additions may be as old as the original or even older, but this does not entitle us to maintain that the epic was originally didactic, nor is this the best explanation of the heterogeneous mass which we call the epic, and which in its present form resembles such a combination as, barring dialectal difi*erences, might be effected by combining a few books of the Iliad with Hesiod, exti^acts from Euripides, Theocritus, Aristotle, and a few chapters of the New Testament. With this exception, most of the didactic material is not for the everyday man, but distinctly for the military caste. Even the philosophy is not for the philosopher, the priest, but for the king and his nobles. The predominative religion, too, is that of the kingly caste ^. Indra is their sovereign Lord : and the heaven of Indra, with his celestial nymphs, the Apsarasas, is the reward for kingly duty faithfully performed on earth. The lower castes, Vai9ya and ^udra, the agriculturist, the trader, the slave, are scarcely recognised except adventitiously, as it becomes convenient to refer to them. The epic is thoroughly aristocratic, a work completed by priests for warriors, to recount the deeds of warriors and show them the need of priests, who convert to orthodoxy the service of popular gods dear to the local aristocracy. The epic has thus become what it calls itself, the 'fifth Veda,' and may be regarded either as a didactic storehouse (it calls itself a Dharma ^'astra) or as a
* Cf. Eapsou, Ancient India, p. 72.
xi] Characters of the Mahabharata 257
magnified Itihasa-Purana, which even before the epic existed was regarded as supplementing the Vedas. Both elements are miited, religious-didactic and legendary, in such parts as treat of the demons, gods, and seers of old. How ancient may have been collections of such material prior to our extant epic is uncertain ; but the evidence for earlier collective works does not appear to be convincing. That a mass of legends existed and that this mass was used by Brahmans and Buddhists alike as they needed them may be granted, just as the mass of fables known to the ancient world was utilised by the epic writers and by those who composed the Buddhist Jatakas, though India had no Aesop.
Many of the characters of the Mahabharata appear to be real, historical figures. Others are mythical, in that they represent a personality evolved from a divine name or a local hero-god. Thus the name Arjuna is first a title of Indra, whose son the epic Arjuna is ; but his cousin Krishna is a local demi-god hero, and there is no reason to doubt the historical character of the king of Magadha who was a foe of this pair and a ^ivaite, though what is said about him in the epic may be merely the exaggeration of legend, as sung by the bards who made expeditions with the army and sang the exploits they themselves had seenK The stories of historical characters, like king Janaka, also reflect history through the mists of legend. The complete anthropomorphisation of heavenly beings, which some scholars are reluctant to admit as a possible phenomenon in the best of cases'^, is found in the Hindu epic, especially in the inserted tales of the gods ; but it does not appear at all certain that any epic hero represents a heavenly being in either of the Hindu epics. Krishna in the Mahabharata and Rama in the Ramayana are forms of the sun- god only as being identified with Vishnu as All-god ; and in the case of the Ramayana tliis is a palpably late procedure, while it is doubtful whether Krishna was ever a form of the sun. Both Rama and Krishna appear to have been tribal heroes, mythical perhaps but not products of divine mythology. But, as no attempt has ever been made to separate myth from history in India, it is impossible to say whether Krishna, the divine hero of the
* The Sutas or bards were also charioteers. They made a special sub-caste and lived at court, while the KuQilavas learned the songs of the bards and wandered among the people at large singing them. This name was resolved into Kuga and Lava who are represented as two singers, sons of Rama. They learned the poem of Valmiki and recited it among the people, as the later story goes {Ramayana, i, 4). The Magadha king Jarasandha was the ruler of the East, as the Pan4us were his rivals in the West.
2 Chadwick, The Heroic Age, p. 265.
C.H.I. I. 17
258 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
Mahabharata, ever really existed, though this is probable. Krishna served as the charioteer of Arjuna, the chief Pandu and epic hero ; and though he promised not to fight in person he did all he could to keep up and intensify the enniity between the Pandus and their related foes, the Kurus, not avoiding even tricks opposed to knightly honour. It is not likely that such shameful acts as those recorded of him by his own followers would have been invented of a god, but rather that the tricks belonged to him as a hero, and that no amount of excuse, of which there is enough ofiered, could do away with the crude facts of tradition, which represented the man-god Krishna as a clever but unscrupulous fighter. A later age exonerated him by ofifering various excuses, the higher morality of imperative need^, the tit-for-tat rule (one sin to offset another), etc., just as it offered various explanatory excuses for the polyandry of the Pandus, who, however, as a northern hill-tribe or family, probably were really polyandrous and needed no excuse^.
Although the epic age in India must necessarily be an epoch too elastic for historical purposes, since it is not at all certain that any one epic statement may not be many years later than another, yet the effect of this now trite observation is to exaggerate the relation between isolated cases and the epic mass. It is true that we have additions to the greater epic which are hundreds of years later than the mass, but it is possible from the mass to get an impression which will represent conditions on the whole, and we are tolerably sure that this whole is bounded by the space of from three to four centuries, since external evidence, inscriptions, the Greek reference to the Indian Homer^, etc., prove that the great epic in nearly its present extent existed before the fourth century A.D., and negative evidence in India makes it improbable that any epic existed earlier than the fourth century rc. Since the length of the work requires the assumption of several centuries for its completion as it now exists, the centuries immediately preceding our era seem to be those to which it is most reasonable on general grounds to assign the composition of the Mahabharata
1 Thus Krishna is made to say, * If I had not done this (unknightly deed) our side would have heen beaten,' and this is accepted as an excuse ; but an excuse was demanded.
2 Polyandry is not denounced in the Sutras ; but this is no proof that the Pandas lived before they were composed. The custom is found among the hill-tribes and also sporadically on the plains. Strictly speaking, epic polyandry is the marriage of one woman to a family of brothers.
s Chrysostom, a.d. 347-407 ; see Ind. SVud., n, pp. 161 f.
xi] The Mahahharata and the Ramayana 259
as a whole. This agi-ees best also with the external data to which reference has been made in the preceding chapter. During these centuries we find a revival of Brahmanism, a cult of Vishnuism by the masses and a return to Brahmanism in a modified form indicated by the ^ivaite faith of the kings of the north-western part of the country. Now Vishnuism is the cult that permeates the great epic, though it contains tales showing an older Brahmanism, and the (^ivaite portions are chiefly late in character. Again it is not unreasonable to assume a certain connexion between the two epics. We cannot think of them as isolated productions of the western and eastern parts of the country. That they represent in general a western and eastern cycle of epic material is true, but there are sundry considerations which make it impossible to believe that they arose independently. In the first place, while the metre of the Mahabharata represents a less polished verse than that of the Ramayana, that metre is so nearly that of the Ramayana, especially in its later portions, that the two are practically the same. Secondly, there are many tales, genealogies, fables, etc., which are identical in the two epics. Thirdly, the phraseology of the two epics is so cast in one mould that hundreds of verse-tags, phrases, similes, etc., are verbally the same. These correspond to the iterata found in Homeric verse, and indicate as do the Grecian parallels that there was a certain common epic body of phrase and fable. Fourthly, the economic conditions and social usages as represented in the two epics are sufficiently alike for us to be able to draw on both together for a picture of the times showing few discordant elements. In detail, the references in the Ramayana betray a later or more advanced stage in some particulars, such as architectural elaboration, plans of temples, etc., which may be due to a higher civilisation ; but in general the life of priest, noble, people of the lower castes, slaves, etc., is the same in both epics, and except for the use of caste-names does not differ from that exhibited by Buddhistic works of the same period. The chief difference here is that the Buddhists speak more of householder and gildman as if they were separate orders. But the Gehapati or householder is also a common expression for the ordinary man of affairs in Sanskrit works, and the gilds as shown above in discussing the Siitras (p. 247) have their importance admitted by the authors of the Sutras and epics alike. It is therefore more a question of terminology than a vital distinction when we find that the social order is reckoned as composed of priest, warrior, householder, gildman, instead of priest, warrior,
17—2
26o Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
and 'people's man,' Vai9ya, as the Brahman priests divided the * regenerate ' members of the community \
The main diflference in the presentation of social data given by the Brahman and the Buddhist is the one already referred to. The Buddhist does not accept the spiritual authority of the Brahman and belittles him as a caste-member ; but he cannot rid himself of inherited faith and phrase, and so constantly recognises him as member of a caste or order like that of the monks. On the other hand, the Buddhist state was a democracy in spirit ; the teaching of the church (to use the word) was apt to exalt the humble and lower the aristocracy. The emperor himself was humbled by himself, and his nobles became subject to the religious law of love and kindness, while any common person was magnified for piety and could obtain high office in the council chamber. This was not only theoretically true ; it affected the whole constitution of the State. The merchants and farmers and the mass of working people were endowed with a new in- fluence, which superseded for a short time the influence of priest and noble. It is sometimes said that this was no supersession ; that Buddhism arose before the four orders were recognised as state constituents, and that in the freer use of householder and merchant (such was really the Setthi or gildman) we have the expression of a freer life not yet bound in four-caste orders. It is probable that at all times the third * caste ' was an elastic term for every Aryan not priest or warrior ; but it connoted pure blood and hence excluded those 'mixed castes' which were sometimes higher, but more often lower, than the house-slave. A great mass of these people were the hill-tribes reduced to servitude or to low pursuits, such as leather-workers, fowlers, etc., all those useful but dirty and disagreeable people whom the Brahman despised and the Buddhist afiected to love and honour. But the consideration shown to the low orders and the dignity attained by the merchants under a king who had no use for war are no proof that these traits were antecedent to an acknowledgment of the aristocratic classes. In fact, in the same district in which Buddhism arose and where the Buddhist emperors reigned, some at least of the Upanishads and
1 For the nomenclature of the Buddhists, cf. Fick, Die sociale Gliederung in Twrdostlichen Indien zu Buddha's Zeit (1897), pp. 19 f. and 162 f. Cf. also Senart, Let Caites dans VInde, where the contention is upheld that castes (so-called) are really social orders. Pick's expression Zu Buddha's Zeit is used with the freedom which characterises almost all Buddhist scholars when writing of Buddhist literature. He means no more by it than early Buddhist literature, and under that head are included the Jatakas which, in their present form, are centuries later than Buddha's time.
xi] The Social System 261
Brahmanas were composed, and these pre-Buddhist works all acknowledge as a matter of course the high rank of the two upper castes and the vulgarity of the lower, who exist, especially the farmers, ' to be eaten ' by the king. The Buddhist attitude then is not an archaic attitude or one subsequently followed by the evolution of a theory of * four castes,' but is due to a revolutionary insistence on virtue and use as tests of nobility. It is clear from both epics that the attitude toward the lower castes was not dissimilar to that held by every aristocracy toward the useful but undesirable proletariat. Both epics are from the beginning court- epics, to be recited before nobles and kings and priests at the great sacrifice which designated a supreme ruler, as the earlier texts indicate ; but, as the epics themselves intimate, to be recited first at court and then popularised and recited among the people. The description of a recitation of the Mahabharata given in the work itself implies, however, that this was not such a popular recitation as occurs to-day (for the great epic of India is still recited dramatically to village throngs), but one conducted in the house of a gentleman of leisure for his private entertainment.
Before discussing the conditions found in the epics it will be necessary to mention adversely two hypotheses in regard to the time in which the great epic was composed. Both are exaggera- tions, based partly on neglect of pertinent data, of views already considered. The first of these is the theory that the Mahabharata is a product of our middle ages, that is, that it was a late output of the renascence. The discovery of inscriptions showing that the epic was essentially the same as it is now centuries before the middle ages of course disproves this ill-considered theory, but the great work in which it is elaborated will always remain a mine of useful information \ On the other hand, the theory that the Mahabharata is a work of the fifth or sixth century before Christ and the product of one author who composed it as a law-book^, is a caricature of a fruitful idea of the late Professor Blihler. As it violates every known principle of historical criticism it may be passed over without discussion. The epic was composed not by one person nor even by one generation, but by several ; it is primarily the story of an historic incident told by the glorifier of kings, the domestic priest and the bard, who are often one ^
^ Adolf Holtzmann, Das Mahabharata und seine Telle (1892-95).
^ J. Dahlmann, Das Mahabharata als Epos und Rechtsbuch (1895) ; and Genesis des Mahabharata (1899).
' That besides the professional bards the domestic priests were eulogisers of the king may be remarked from the epic tale of the king's daughter who reproaches the
262 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
The germ of the Mahabharata is the description of the over- throw of the Kurus, a Bharata clan, at the hands of the Pandus. A thinly veiled genealogy represents the Pandus as cousins of the Kurus. In reality, they were a new family or clan, who built up a kingdom and then obtained supreme power by allying them- selves with the Panchalas and attacking the Kurus, who are represented as living about sixty miles north of the Pandus' settlement, which was the present Indarpat (Indraprastha), near Dellii.
The 'cousins' called Pandus first excited the jealousy of the Kurus when the latter were obliged to come south and oflfer tokens of submission to the Pandu king, who had crowned himself as emperor and performed the horse-sacrifice establishing this title. Resorting to trickery, the Kurus invited the Pandus to make them a visit. The somewhat uncouth Pandus, who are described as good examples of nouveaux riches, flaunting in the eyes of their guests all the evidence of their wealth and making the lowly but aristocratic Kurus objects of ridicule^, despite their sudden rise to power were not yet adepts in courtly arts, and the chief art for a knightly gentleman of that day was gambling. As the Pandu king says, no gentleman (warrior) can refuse to fight or gamble when challenged. The Kurus were an old house and had the skill of the court at their command, however poor they might be in worldly goods. The Kuru prince, who had been humiliated, concocted a scheme to overthrow the Pandus by gambling. The old king, his father, was a noble at heart as well as by blood and made what protest he could against this scheme, which he knew implied cheating at dice. But he was old and blind ; and it was not the custom to pay any regard to what a man said after he grew old. When any man's hair grew grey he was expected to abdicate his power in favour of his son and retire from active life. What regard was paid to him thereafter was a matter of courtesy. He usually made over his property to his sons ?ind disappeared literally or to all intent, becoming a wood- dweller. If such was the fate of the ordinary old man, the fate
daughter of the domestic priest : ' I am the daughter of a kiqg, who is lauded ; thou art only the daughter of the laudator.' The first priests who handled the epics were of this sort, domestic priests, royal chaplains, indifferently well read in theology and philosophy but conversant with the rites of the Atharvaveda, which as a popular work of its day is associated with the earlier form of epic {Chhandogya Upanishad, m, 4).
^ The Kuru prince complains that mirrors were so set in the floor of the Pandas' palace that he was made to think them ponds, etc. Every effort was made to humiliate the Kurus.
xi] The Story of the Mahabharata 263
of kings was worse, as there was more to gain by their suppression. No regard at all was paid to the old king, who was king only in name. The Pandus were challenged to a friendly game of dice to be played in the Kurus' city. It may be remarked here that the old site of the Kurus at the famous Kuru Plain had evidently been given up, as the Kurus were pushed back to Hastinapur, where they lived at the time of the epic story. The Pandus vaingloriously assented to make this return visit and see their kinsmen in the north. On arriving they were courteously received, and after spending a night with their hosts proceeded to the gambling-hall, where in one throw after another the Kuru prince, playing by proxy and thus securing the aid of the best gambler at court, won all the wealth, family, and kingdom of the Pandu emperor, who, however, ventured to play once more for the stake of banish- ment. As the emperor had already played the lives of his brothers and wife and lost, this last throw was an effort on the part of the Kurus to get them out of the way without imprisonment or other disgrace which might have occasioned a rising of other allies of the emperor. As it was, the Pandu king gave his word that, if he lost the last throw, he would go into banishment for twelve years with all his family. After the twelve years were over, he and his brothers took refuge with the Matsya clan, and from that vantage- point collected other allies, marched to the Kurus' land, were met at Kuru Plain, defeated the Kurus, and regained the old power. It is noteworthy that in all the twelve years of banishment the bitterest note in the lamentations of the Pandus is not the loss of the kingdom but the insult to their wife. As related above, they were a polyandrous race, and the king and his four brothers were husbands of Krishna. When the king had gambled away his brothers and himself, he offered to gamble their wife and did so, though the proceeding raised the legal question^ whether one who had already made himself a slave could gamble away anything, slaves possessing nothing. The question being over-ruled, however, the wife was dragged off and insulted by the brother of the Kuru prince. Now whenever the Pandus, who are fulfilling the pledge to remain in banishment, begin to bewail and plan revenge, it is the former plight of Krishna DraupadI which evokes most anger. Not the cheating at dice, though that is not forgotten, but the insult to Krishna, who was dragged into the assembly of men and made a slave dishonoured, animates the Pandus in their despair
^ No legal authority is cited in this scene, however, though the question is argued by the old men who sit and look on during the gambling.
264 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
and causes Bhima to vow that he will drink the blood of the Kuru prince, a threat which he fulfils on the field thereafter.
There is, under another form, the violation of the rite of hospitality and virtual abduction of Krishna, the same nucleus of tragedy here which makes the simple Ramayana appear like an echo of the Iliad. In the Ramayana, the heroine is carried off by a treacherous fiend, whom Rama pursues and slays after a long interval. But the Ramayana difiers essentially from the Mahabha- rata not only in its style but in its spirit. Its most spirited scenes occur before the epic plot begins. After the introduction, in the history of Sita, Rama, and Havana, turgidity replaces tragedy, and descriptions of scenery and sentimentality take the place of genuine passion. The didactic overload is indeed lacking, and the Ramayana gains thereby ; but in this epic the note of savage lust and passion which is the charm of the Mahabharata, as it reveals genuine feeling of real men, is replaced by the childish laments and pious reflections of Rama, whose foes are demoniac spirits, while his allies and confidants are apes. It is a polished fantasia, the first example of the Kavya or * artificial ' poetry, which appeals to the Hindu taste much more than does the rough genuineness of the Great Epic. The Ramayana is in truth artificial in both senses, for one cannot possibly believe the tale ; whereas the Mahabharata makes its tale real and one believes it as one believes that the Achaeans overthrew Troy, however embellished the account may be. The fact is that the Great Epic is the one human document after the appeal of religious sincerity in the primitive hymns of the Veda.
The reason for this lies not alone in the fact that literature after the early Vedic age is chiefly liturgical and didactic, for this only shifts the explanation. Sanskrit literature is without power of literary expression from the hymns of the Rigveda to the Upanishads, and again from this time to that which produced the dramatic scenes of the epic, because it was in the hands of priests whose whole interest lay apart from real life. The same spirit which produced the best Vedic hymns, the spirit reflecting independence and freedom, appears in the royal literature, if we may so call it, which stamps the age of the Upanishads and of the great epic in its earlier parts. The Upanishads are in part the product of unpriestly, or at least anti-ritualistic, thought, and the epic also emanates from the throne and not from the altar. As the Upanishads embody the cultured philosophy of king and noble \ so the epic scenes of love and war reflect the life of court and
* For another view, see Chapter v, p. 144.
xi] Ear Her and Later Moral Ideals 265
camp. They breathe a different spirit, as they come from a different source than does the literature of the Brahman, until indeed the all-grasping hand of the priest seized even the epic tales, and, stifling all that was natural in them, converted them into sermons, to teach the theology of the priest and impart to the king the teaching best calculated to further priestly greed ^. The sociological data of the epic period show that society had advanced from a period when rude manners were justifiable and tricks were considered worthy of a warrior to one when a finer morality had begun to temper the crude royal and military spirit. This is sufficient explanation of that historical anomaly found in the Great Epic, the endeavour on the part of the priestly redactors to palliate and excuse the sins of their heroes. Arjuna shoots his rival, Karna, while the latter is helpless. But an act like this, which was doubtless considered clever at first, became repugnant to the later chivalry. Then the demi-god hero Krishna is made to be the source of the sin on the simple ground that if divine Krishna commands, it is right. Arjuna is now made to shoot reluctantly, in obedience to the divine command. But this may not be cited as a precedent against the later code, because it was a special case in which the act was inspired by God from occult motives outside the sphere of human judgment. So with many other sins committed by the heroes. They reflect an old barbarity later excused. It is not necessary to assume with Holtzmann, von Schroeder, and others that the epic tale has been ' set upon its head,' that is, that the whole poem was originally in honour of the Kurus, and was then rewritten to honour the Pandus, and that in this last process the * sins of the Pandus ' reveal the original attitude of reproach taken by the Kuru poet^. There is a difference morally between the Kurus and Pandus. The Pandus offend against the later military code. Thus the Kurus reproach the Pandus because their chief warrior interfered in a combat between two warriors and killed his friend's foe, who was being worsted in the fight. The Pandu simply laughs at the
^ Thus whole sections of the Ana^asana (the thirteenth book of the Mahabharata) are devoted to instilling the moral grandeur of those kings who give land-grants, cows, gold, and clothes to the priests. At the same time, much that is didactic is imbedded in the poem without this aim. Only the tendency is apparent to extend moral teaching to instruction calculated to subserve the ends of cupidity.
* For detailed criticism of this theory, see the present writer's monograph on the Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India {J.A.O.S., 1888). The explanation of the poem as a myth of nature, Krishna representing earth wed to the five seasons, etc., is unnecessary though ingenious. It was proposed by Ludwig in the Transactions of the Royal Bavarian Academy (vi Folge, 12 Band).
266 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [CH.
reproach. 'Why' (says he) 'of course I killed him. I saw my friend worsted, and interfered just in time to save him/ intimating, as is clearly stated afterwards, that a conflict on a field of battle is not a polite duel (' That is no way to fight '). But the Kurus are just as wicked as the Pandus, only they are diplomatic. Their sins smack of cultivated wickedness. They get an expert gambler to ruin their rival. They secretly seek to burn their enemies alive. They form a conspiracy and send out ten men under oath to attack Arjuna. Tliey slay Arjuiia's son first, in order to weaken Arjuna's heart. In a word, they are cunning and sly ; the Pandus are brutal and fierce. Two types of civilisation are embalmed in the poem.
The most striking difference between the knights of the epic and the priestly power, which in the end controlled them, is that the warrior-caste w^as the royal caste and hence represented state- power, a political body, whereas the priests were never more than a caste of individuals. They represented no church-power. There is thus a fundamental lack of priestly organisation ; there is nothing parallel to the Church of Rome in its contests with European state-power. Individual priests, without financial re- sources but dependent on the local raja for support, could do nothing save persuade the raja. But superstition aided them; and persuasion aided by superstition became a compelling power, which, however, was exerted only for two objects, the exaltation of the individual priest or of the priestly caste and the inculcation of religious and moral precepts, never for the formation of a worldly power within, but independent of, the State. There was no caste-head. When strife arose between priests, as it constantly arose apropos of a fat office to be enjoyed (the epic furnishes examples), each individual priest fought for his own hand ; he had no bishop over him ; and there was no pope to oppose a king. Thus, while the priestly law-book says that * the priest is the norm of the world,' the epic says ' the king is the norm.' The law says that a priest has the right of way even over a king; the epic narrates that a king meets a priest and calls out to him ' get out of my way,' and despite the law, as cited, smites the priest with his royal whip. Such scenes show that the king is not yet the creature of the priest, but that the epic unconsciously reflects a freer life than that depicted as ideal by the later priests, who teach that the king is a steward divinely appointed to provide for them.
Somewhat as in Buddhist literature we must therefore reverse the importance of the two 'upper castes,' and regard the epic
xi] Knights^ Priests^ and Commoners 267
state as consisting in a military power, whose head is the raja; then a priestly power, politically unorganised, but divided into schools; then the merchant-power, represented by gilds, whose powerful heads {mahdjana) are of political importance ; then the farmers, unorganised but tenacious of certain religious rights and boasting of Aryan blood. The two last classes form one body only because they are neither of them noble (royal) or priestly or un-Aryan. No other tie unites them. The merchants in general belong to the town, the farmers to the country ; the two are the historical divisions, brought about by economic conditions, of that order called 'the people,' in distinction from noble and priest. This was the Aryan state. Below the Aryan constituents were the many who were either remnants of wild tribes or slaves, descendants of conquered clans of other blood. They are all mentioned in the epic, as well as foreigners or barbarians. Although town-life is well known, yet the farmers and cattlemen were perhaps more generally typical, on account of their numerical superiority, of the order to which each belonged. So it is said : ' Work is for the slave ; agriculture for the people-caste' (Mbh., xii, 91, 4), or again ' The work of the Vai9ya is to tend cattle ' ; less commonly 'The duty of the priest is to beg for sustenance; of the warrior, to defend the people; of the people-caste, to make money; of the slave, to work (manually)' (ibid, v, 132, 30). It will be observed that the cattle-raising 'people' are ignored in favour of traders in the last citation, though 'to make money' may imply farmers and cattlemen as well as traders.
The slave possessed nothing; his tax was paid in manual labour, for he had no money or other possessions, 'there is no suum in the case of a slave ' (ibid, xii, 60, 37). The slave comes ' from the foot of God ' (as the warrior is born of God's arm) and hence is ' born to servitude.' The (^udras are especially the slaves of the merchants and farmers; for though they are told to be 'faithful to priest and warrior' they are said in particular to 'serve the people-caste ' (ibid, i, 100, 11). They are also marked as the 'blacks' in distinction from the priests who are white ^. The military character of the epic precludes much attention to the slaves,
1 It is doubtful whether the finer distinction here made {Mbh., xii, 188, 5), namely that the warrior(-caste) is red and the people-caste yellow, indicates a real racial distinction ; especially since there is no other indication that these Aryans are racially sub-divided ; whereas the distinction between white and black is an early mark of the difference parting the Aryan and un-Aryan and goes with the nasal distinction noticed in theVedas between ' good-nose ' and ' no-nose ' people. The epic poets still speak of their Aryan heroes' ' fair-noses.' See also Chapter iv, p. 85.
268 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
who as a fighting host are naturally not of importance, though they may be referred to under the designation ' the black mass,' for the great hosts led into the field comprise many of the slaves as camp followers and helpers. What is very important is that the lowest Aryan caste, the body of farmers, is on the verge of mingling with the slave-caste. No priest may become a slave, however distressed for sustenance he may become ; but a slave may become a herdsman or trader if he cannot support himself by service (this is the epic and legal rule), and in fact the farmer population was largely composed of slaves. In the ethical parts of the epic, where caste-distinctions are theoretically abolished in favour of the rule that * there is no distinction of caste' (religiously), the slave is even allowed to study and may get a reward for practising religious exercises (Mbh., XII, 328, 49; xiii, 132, 14), and a learned slave gives moral instruction ; but this does not seem to correspond to real conditions where the slave is reckoned next to the beast (ibid, xiii, 118, 24). The old spirit of the Brahman period, which declares that * priest, warrior, and people constitute the whole world ' is still practically in force.
The people are settled in small villages around a fort, which remains as a grama or ' crowd ' (village) or expands into a town, nagara. Small settlements are called ghoshas or pallls, some of them 'marches' {prdntas, *on the border'). The distinction between these and the places called Tcharvatas and pattanas is not clear, though the grama seems to be smaller than the kharvata, which in turn is smaller than the nagara. Perhaps village, town, city would represent the series. The villages were largely autonomous though under the 'overlord' of the king, who ad- ministered justice and laid taxes. In all smaller affairs of life, ' authority rests with the village,' according to law (Par., Grihya Sutra, I, 8, 13) and the epic seems to uphold even family custom as legally sufficient. Thus as one man says (v. inf. p. 291) that he demands a price for his daughter, because that is his 'family- custom,' so another defends his occupation of killing animals on the same ground. It has always been the custom of Indian rulers to leave afikirs as much as possible in the hands of the local authorities; and the headman of the village or the group of five elders were practically independent, provided the village paid its revenue as assessed by the adhipati or overlord.
The king rules not because of might alone but by virtue of his morality. " A wicked king may be deposed ; a king who injures his people instead of protecting them should be killed ' like a mad
xi] Cowboys and Herdsmen 269
dog.' Taxes there must be, because the people must be defended, and this costs; but they must be light, and vary according to need. The tax in kind is common. The merchant pays in kind and the ranchman pays in kind, but the town-people are fined in copper money for offences, though bodily punishment takes the place of fines in all cases where there is intent to deceive. Thus the shipping-duties paid by * merchants coming from afar' are probably in kind {Mhh., 11, 5, 114). Frequent allusions to merchants * using false weights ' (cf. i, 64, 21 f.) show that a careful supervision of the market-place was necessary. The merchant-gilds were of such authority that the king was not allowed to establish any laws repugnant to the rules of these trade-unions. The heads of gilds are mentioned next after the priests as objects of a king's anxious concern ^
The large part of the population employed as ranchmen in tending cattle has scarcely been alluded to as yet. They were perhaps the original 'people,' before agriculture was much practised and when merchants were few. At the time of the epic they seem to have become partly cattle-raisers and partly farmers, while the occupation of ranchman proper had fallen into the hands of barbarians who could not understand Aryan speech. Yet the one example of which the epic takes note shows that these were merely the cowboys who guarded royal cattle {Mhh., iv, 10, 1). The king is here represented as having a royal picnic on the occasion of a * cattle-branding,' when the court goes into the country and the 'ears of the cattle are marked' for the year. It is on this occasion that the Kurus lift the cattle of the Matsyas. Though accounts of such border-raiding in the old Vedic style are rare and this passage in particular can by no means claim special antiquity, yet it doubtless reflects a not uncommon state of affairs^. Very little in regard to these lowly members of the State, the cowboys and herdsmen, is to be gleaned from the epic ; but one passage states what the low labourer of the 'people- caste ' is to earn per cmnum : ' he should receive the milk of one cow for the care of six cows ; and if he tend a hundred head he
1 On the gilds, see Mbh., m, 249, 16; xii, 54, 20; Ram., vi. 111, 13; of. Hopkins, India Old and New, p. 169. Their power may be guessed from the fact that the didactic epic recommends the king to circumvent them by bribery and dissension since • the safe-guard of corporations (gilds) is union. '
* Compare the incidental cause of Arjuna's breaking his promise not to visit the king his brother while the latter was engaged with their common wife. A robber had come and driven off a priest's cow, and the good knight went into the palace to get his arms to attack the robber, doubtless an armed band.
270 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
should, at the end of the year, receive a pair. If he acts for the master as overseer of flocks or in agricultural labour, he should have one-seventh of the proceeds or increase, but, in the case of small cattle, a small part (' one-sixteenth ' ; Mhh., xii, 60, 24 f.). The six * distresses ' of a farmer do not include excessive taxation, but raiding by a foreign king is included among them\
The royal soldiery includes not only the nobles of military standing supported by the king but the poor members of the same Aryan order who with the un- Aryan ' servants ' (not slaves) formed the rank and file of the foot-soldiers. In battle they are mentioned merely as hosts of nameless archers, slingers, rock- throwers, etc., and outside of battle-scenes they are scarcely mentioned at all. It is stated that a rathin's, 'car-man's,' wage is 'one thousand,' that is, one thousand (coppers) a month, and that the king pensions the widows of fallen soldiers^. The chief moral laws for members of the military caste were hospitality, the sacredness of the refugee, the law ' not to forget ' a kindness or a hurt, and the rule already referred to, that when challenged to fight or gamble it was inglorious to refuse. The captured warrior becomes the slave of his captor for a year ; if the captor allows him to go free, the captor becomes the captured one's Guru or his 'father.' The sign of submission is to eat grass (v. sup. p. 247). When the Yavanas were conquered (in Brihannar. Pur., viii, 35) they ' ate grass and leaped into water.' The epic gives this grass-eating sign as a military rule. As com- pared with a member of the 'people-caste,' whose life is valued at a hundred head of cattle, the warrior's life is valued at a thousand (paid in case of murder). As for the prominent sins of the royal military caste, they are mentioned as hunting, drinking, gambling, and sensuality withal in a sort of versus memoralis which has come down as an apophthegm of law and epic {Mhh., xii, 59, 60, etc.). Dancing-girls and prostitutes were a part of the royal retinue, and hunting was the chief recreation of kings, deer and tigers, killed by a king with his sword, being the favourite game. Lions were hunted with dogs, as attested by Aelian and
1 The six distresses {iti) are not defined in either epic ; bat since they are mentioned (Mhh., in, 279, 35) and the Puranas define them, it is probable that they already include those classified later as too much rain, drought, grasshoppers, mice, birds, and neighbouring kings (invasion).
* The warrior may have three wives, but probably one suflSced in most instances. For the pension, compare Mhh. , ii, 5, 54, and for the wage, ib. 61, 20. The wage exactly equals the legal ' fine for manslaughter.' The epic copies the law in permitting destitute priests to become soldiers, as they may become farmers, but it is considered a disgrace for the king to allow priests to depend on such occupations for a livelihood.
xi] King and Councillors 271
mentioned in the epic {Mhh., ii, 40, 7). The Buddhist prohibition of meat-eating remains as a rule of propriety, but the tales show that eating meat was as common as drinking intoxicants and that this was the regular court practice, while the story of the crowds surrounding a meat-shop (Mbh., iii, 207, lOf.), where the com- placent owner boasts that he sells but does not himself kill, shows that vegetarianism was by no means universal.
Passing to a wider point of view we must pause to record the fact that certain allusions in the epic to fire-weapons have been adduced to prove that the Hindus used gunpowder in the great war. How baseless is this supposition has already been demon- strated by the present writer, and he can only repeat that all mention of fire-weapons in the Hindu epic refers to arms magically blazing such as arrows or wheels. No gun or cannon is mentioned and gunpowder is unknown \
The epic king is no autocrat; he is upbraided and reproved by his brothers and ministers. If born to the throne and yet defective he is not permitted to become king ('the gods do not approve of a defective king,' Mbh., v, 149, 25); but if elected he is the leader at home and in the field. He is consecrated by baptism with water poured over him from a sacred horn, and is crowned 'lord of the earth' (Mbh., xii, 40 and Bam., ii, 69). Although the didactic part of the epic emphasises the importance of councillors and ministers, without whose sanction the king should undertake no important business, yet actually each king is represented as doing what seems good to him without advice, as the various warriors of the family make raids and rape young women from foreign districts without consultation. Indeed, the priest supposed to be special adviser is scarcely mentioned in that capacity, only as an agent in spiritual matters. Resolving on war the kings and allies decide the matter as they will, in the presence of priests, indeed, but the priests are ignored (Mbh., v, 1 and I, 102). The sabhd or assembly is here simply a military body for consultation. Both priests and people are silent in the face of force. The king's city was defended by battlemented towers and seven moats. It was laid out in squares and the well-watered streets were lighted with lamps (Mbh., iii, 284, 3; xv, 5, 16, etc.). Only four squares are mentioned in the Ramayana (ii, 48, 19), but
^ See, in opposition to Oppert, J.A.O.S., 1888, p. 296 f. Since the publication of this article Oppert has had published a correspondence with Mr Oscar Guttmann {Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und Naturwissenschaften, No. 16, iv Band, No. 3, 1905), in which he upholds his contention, adopted without question by S. M. Mitra in his Anglo-Indian Studies (1913).
272 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
the Mahabharata recommends six. The king's palace included or was near to the court of justice, the official gambling-hall, the music-room, the place for contests with wild beasts and for exhibits of wrestlers. Outside of the inner city were booths for traders, etc., and the less pretentious dwellings, with pleasure parks {Mhh.^ IV, 22, etc.). Apparently four gates were the usual number, but nine are mentioned and even eleven in other literature, and the Ramayana gives eight to Lanka (vi, 93).
For the common members of the military caste to die in bed was a disgrace (vi, 17, 11 and often). The mass of the soldiers figlit for their chief and when he falls they are disorganised and run away. The knights, however, contending for glory as well as for their king, remain fighting though the mass desert them. Their motto is, ' Sweet it is to die in battle ; the path to heaven lies in fighting' (Mbh., viii, 93, 55 f.). In peace the warrior, supported by the king, lived at ease and the nobles spent the time carousing and enjoying themselves. In war the warrior lived and fought for glory as well as for his chief. In the case of Karna, who was an independent king, revenge and desire for glory are blended ; but most of the epic kings are in the war as allies of one side or the other and have no personal motive in fighting exoept to win renown. ' A hero lives as long as his fame reaches heaven' (Mbh., Iii, 313, 20); 'Glory is preferable to life' (ibid. 31). And again, 'Only he who has glory wins heaven' (says Karna, ibid, iii, 300, 31). The exhortation to fight valorously is based upon the precept that whether slaying or slain one is blessed, 'for he who is slain in battle obtains heaven, and if he slays he obtains fame ' (ibid, xi, 2, 14). Every hero boasts of his great deeds performed and to be performed, even while depre- cating boasting as a folly. The heroes boast of their families as well as of their prowess^.
The religious and philosophical views of the epics represent every shade of opinion from Vedic theism to philosophical pantheism with later forms of Sun-worship (in both epics) and sectarian cults of Durga, (^iva, and Krishna- Vishnu in the Maha-
1 For examples of these and other traits shown by the epic warriors, see the specimens collected in the writer's monograph on The Position of the Ruling Caste. Interesting parallels may be drawn between the attitude of Homeric and Indie warriors in these respects, parallels which may now be complemented by those between Greek and Teutonic ideals, as shown in Chadwick's Heroic Age (pp. 325 f.). Prof. Ghadwick compares the Anglo-Saxon dom with the Greek Kkia dvdpQv, and the same may be said of the kirti and ya^s of the Hindu, as the personal combat of king with king, which is the leading characteristic of Hindu epic fighting, may be compared with the style of fighting in Homeric and Teutonic poetry (ibid. p. 339).
I
xi] Religion and Philosophy 273
bharata, and Rama-Vishnuism superimposed upon the cult of Rama as a hero demi-god in the Ramayana The religion assumed as orthodox in both epics is that which we call Brahmanical. The Vedic gods with Brahma at their head are to be worshipped, as a matter of course. In addition comes the constantly growing tendency to exalt the chieftain demi-god from his position as clan-hero god to a higher power, till he is identified with Vishnu, the popular god of many clans. The cult of Vishnu in this form comes under the hands of philosophers, who we may be sure had nothing to do with the original epic; and as god he is then interpreted according to the philosophical systems of the Sankhya and Vedanta, wliich are united with the aid of the Yoga system. Of late years it has become usual for scholars to follow the lead of Professor Garbe, who has interpreted the chief philosophical tract of the Mahabharata, the famous Bhagavadgita, as a rewritten Sankhya document of theistic tendency manipulated to serve the ends of Vedanta schoolmen. By excluding all the verses which teach the Vedanta doctrine, Garbe is naturally enabled to show a document which is not Vedantic ; and it may be admitted that such a process makes a clearer and more attractive theological tract. But the historical efiect produced is fallacious. Exactly the same mixture of Sankhya and Vedanta permeates the teaching of the philosophical epic in many other passages ; and unless one is willing to apply the same process and excise all objectionable matter in favour of a theory of Sankhya priority in the philo- sophical disquisitions of Qanti or ' quietism,' one has no right to dissect the Bhagavadgita into its supposititious prius and ' later additions.' The epic philosopher is never a Sankhyan ; ho is a Sankhya- Yogist, and it is this connecting link of the Yoga which to his mind makes it possible to unite two radically different systems \ It must at least remain quite doubtful whether the philosophical parts of the epic, most of which have no radical connexion with the poem, were not originally composed in their present form, representing an attempt, on the part of later redactors, to weave into the epic a system of philosophy incul- cating the belief in a theistic pantheism derived from Sankhyan principles improved by the Yoga and then combined with the
' For a review of these systems as given in the epic, see the writer's Great Epic of India (1901). That the Gita was originally theistic throughout can be proved only by rejecting stanzas which are otherwise unassailable. Only four passages out of the twenty selected to prove the case in Garbe's Bhagavadgita (1905) show any sign of interpolation, and of the four only one is a really striking case of breaking the connexion.
C.H.I. 1. 18
2 74 Pi^i'^c^^ and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch.
All-soul principle later called Vedanta. Vishnu and ^iva both served the purpose of the philosophical interpretation. Both were popular gods who became the One God in turn (sectarian differences probably representing geographical distinctions), that One God who even in the Upanishads is also the All-god. For this reason many passages of the epic are on the philosophical- religious level of the Qveta^vatara Upanishad.
Two notable attempts to extract historical material from the epic have been made in the last few years. They enlarge the vision of the fighting hosts on the plain of the Kurus both geographically and historically and demand careful examination. The first is the result of a study of the forces named in the epic itself as allies. As already mentioned, the fighting of the Ramayana consists in combats between fiends and monkeys, and unless the monkeys are interpreted as southern Hindus speaking an alien tongue, and for this and other reasons regarded as little better than apes by the Aryan leaders, there is no profit in endeavouring to guess at their real significance. In the Mahabha- rata, which deals with real people, it is different. The human hosts marshalled as friend or foe by the Pandus and Kurus may be set against each other geographically. There is a certain amount of fiend-fighting, and Nagas of unknown habitat are mentioned as contestants. There are also some allies of unknown geographical provenance. But the chief factors in the great hosts can be distributed geographically. For making such a classifi- cation it will be convenient to use the Indian term Madhyade9a, the Middle Country, to denote 'the whole of the Ganges basin from the Punjab as far as the confines of Bihar,' and to arrange the various peoples who are said to have taken part in the war in relation to this region. The Pandu forces included the king of Magadha associated with the Ka^is and Kosalas, the king of Panchala, the king of the Matsyas with mountaineers, the king of Chedi — all representing peoples in Madhyade9a — with some adherents from the north and south, but especially all the Yadus of the west The Kurus, on the other hand, had as allies the king of Pragjyotisha, the Chinas, and the Kiratas in the north-east; the Kambojas, Yavanas, (^akas, Madras, Kaikeyas, Sindhus and Sauviras in the north-west ; the Bhojas in the west ; the king of Dakshinapatha in the south; the Andhras in the south-east; and the kings of Mahishmati and Avanti in Madhyade^a. Therefore, since the Yadus of Gujarat came from Mathura, the statement holds that ' the division of the contending parties may be broadly
xi] Interpretation of Historical Data 275
said to be South Madhyade9a and Panchala against the rest of India^' That this is an important conclusion must be admitted. But if it follows that the war was one between southern Madhya- de9a, united with Panchala, and the rest of India, how far may we assert that this represents earlier epic conditions before the nations of the Indian sub-continent were all brought into the frame of the epic ? Obviously it would not be safe to make too much of a list based on factors of doubtful age, but it is perhaps safe to assert that the central plan, so to speak, is historical, namely the opposition of the less civilised Pandus and the old Panchalas to the orthodox Kurus.
In the opinion of Sir George Grierson we may make a further induction and assert that the Brahmanism of the Kurus represents a later tide of immigration as compared with the anti-Brahmanism of the Panchalas as earlier Aryan immigrants into India. In a way, the anti-Brahmanical party may be said to represent the warrior-spirit as opposed to the priestly, which was defeated in the contest but revenged itself by manipulating the epic to its own glory ^. It is, however, doubtful whether the Panchalas were earlier immigrants or in early days were regarded as in any way anti-Brahmanical. The further contention, that this unorthodox warrior-spirit produced the work of the Bhagavatas and that the Bhagavadglta emanates from an un-Brahmanical source, is based upon the supposition that the Bhagavadglta and its underlying system of Saiikhya philosophy is an exponent of the free eastern anti-Brahmanical or un-Brahmanical life which produced the great heresies of that region. Buddhism and Jainism. One wishes that the veiled history of Hindu thought might be traced back so clearly, but the data at our disposal do not justify us in so summary a method of reconstructing the past. There is no cogent evidence to show that a difference of religious belief had anything to do with the war, or that any racial antagonism lies behind the division of parties, certainly not of parties opposed as primarily Panchalas and Kurus.
Whether the genealogical lists of the epic may impart ti*u8t- worthy information is a second question of importance. It has
^ F. E. Pargiter, The Nations of India at the Battle between the Pdndavas and Kauravas {J.B.A.S., 1908, p. 334), gives a complete analysis of the forces. The author admits that the ethnological value of the general statement made above is diminished by the fact that the nations on either side were not of the same stock ; also it must be remembered that kings were not always of the same stock as the people they ruled and brought to war.
2 J.R.A.S., 1908, p. 606.
18—2
276 Princes and Peoples of the Epic Poems [ch. xi
been answered affirmatively by Mr Pargiter in the second of his valuable papers on the epic^ though with due conservatism in view of the contradictions in the epic itself. The later lists found in the Puranas may be combined with epic data to make a fairly consistent chronological table, but there remains much to be taken for granted. Although the names of kings are given, the length of their reigns must be assumed on some common basis. On the probability that the average length of a Hindu reign was fifteen years and on the assumption that unimportant kings have been omitted once in so often from some of the lists, Mr Pargiter, taking the more complete list of the Solar dynasty as his guide, finds that a period of fourteen hundred years intervened between the first king, * son of Manu ' (Ikshvaku) and the great war ; that Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, lived in the fifth century before the great war of the Mahabharata ; Bharata in the eighth century, etc. The great war itself marks the beginning of the present age (Kali Yuga), 'about 1100 b.c.'^
1 Ancient Indian Genealogies and Chronology (J.R.A.S., 1910, p. 1).
^ See more particularly the work of the same author, The Purdna Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913). For the evidence of the Puranas as to the date of the war between the Eurus and the Pan^us v. inf., pp. 306-7.
i
CHAPTER XII THE GROWTH OF LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS
The law-books, Dharma ^astras, and especially trained experts in law, Dharma-pathakas, are recognised in the didactic parts of the epic ; and codes of law are assigned to various ancient worthies, among whom Manu generally, but not always, holds the chief place. The difference between the formal law-book, (^astra, and the Sutra, also concerned with Dharma, is due mainly to the gradual exclusion of irrelevant matter in the law-book. Whereas in the Sutra the term Dharma embraces all domestic duties, religious and ethical, with slight attention paid to formal law, in the completed ^astra law itself is the sole subject discussed. But this difference marks only the extremes, the primitive Dharma Siitra and the law-book of the fifth century A.D. Between the two comes a number of works bearing the title of law-book but still retaining in large measure the characteristics of the Sutra. Likewise the formal distinction between a prose Siitra and a metrical law-book is bridged by a period when legal works were partly prose and partly verse. In the end, it was found more convenient to versify the rules as the Hindus versified all knowledge, and the metre chosen for this purpose was the later ^oJca, which ousted both prose and the older trishtubh metre still used in early Sutras and ^astras. The name also is not absolutely fixed. The Siitra is sometimes called ^astra. Vishnu's law-book, for example, is both Sutra and ^astra, as well as Smriti, a general term for traditional teaching.
As the Dharma Siitras emanated from Vedic schools, so, though less surely, it may be said in general that the law-books at first represented certain schools of Brahmanical teaching. The law- books of Vishnu and of Yajiiavalkya are thus exponents of Yajurveda schools; but in the end the popular works of this class lose all connexion with any one school and become uni- versally authoritative. There are not many of the long list of later law-books which really deserve the name. As time went on, a
2yS Growth of Law and Tuega I Institutions [ch.
large number of works appeared, claiming as their authors sages of old, or divine beings, but they are all without historical value and usually are sectarian tracts inculcating special religious observances. Besides these pseudo-law-books may be mentioned the later legal works, Dharma Nibandhas, of the eleventh century and later, and the leanied commentaries, like the Mitakshara, which have become as authoritative as the text itself But these later law-books do not come into our present purview. They belong to the age of the later Puranas and subsequent literature. The great law-books which we have to examine revert to the beginning of the Puranic age or before it. Whatever is of value in the later works is taken from the older, which are still authoritative.
By far the most important of these is the law-book of Manu or the Manava Dharma (^astra, a work closely connected with the law-book of Vishnu, which has no less than 160 verses of Manu, and with the didactic chapters of the epic, which contain numerous verses found in the code. Moreover, the epic recognises Manu as a law-giver and refers to the Dharma Qastra of Manu. The relationship between the two works is made doubtful for the reason that we do not know when the later parts of the epic embodying these allusions may have been composed. An analysis of all the passages in the epic referring to Manu shows that the law-book was probably unknown to the early epic but that it was not unknown to the later epic. This indicates at least that the fabulous age ascribed to the law-book by the Hindus and by early European scholars may be disregarded in favour of a much later date. On the other hand, the present tendency is to exaggerate the lateness of the law-book and bring it down even to the third or fourth century A.D. Professor Jolly thinks that the code and the epic belong to about the same time, not later than the second or third century \ The code in any case may not have been identical with the work known to-day as Manu's law-book, for all these metrical works have suffered, as has the epic, from unnumbered additions.
Nevertheless, from the contents of the extant law-book of Manu some noteworthy data may be extracted which seem to show that the work is earlier than any other Dharma ^astra. There is not the slightest allusion to any sectarian cult ; docu- ments are not cited in the rules on evidence; widow-burning is
1 Jalias Jolly in "Recht und Sitte, pp. 16 and 30. Burnell in his translation of Mann contended for a still later date ; but this (1883) was before the relation of Mann to other law-books was understood.
xii] Manu^ Vishnu^ Yajhavalkya^ Narada 279
not recommended ; there is no recommendation of the cult of idols (service, etc.), though idols are known as objects of veneration; the position of the law-giver in regard to titles of law, evidence, ordeals, etc., is more primitive than that of any other author of a Dharma ^astra and even than that of Vishnu in the Dharma Sutra. The law-book of Vishnu belongs to the third century A.D., and that of Yajiiavalkya to the fourth century, and the advance on Manu in order, method, and detail of legal matters of these law-writers is very great. Hence, as in the case of the epic, it is probable that the date now currently assumed is too late, and that the Manava Code belongs rather to the time of our era or before it than later \
The law-book of Vishnu, which because of its Sutra form might be thought to be earlier than Manu, is so largely interpolated that in its present condition it must rank decidedly as secondary to that code. It appears to have been an expansion of a Sutra belonging to the Kathaka school of the Yajurveda enlarged in the hope of making it a general code favouring the cult of Vishnu. It mentions books under the modern name pustaka, recognises the burning of widows, knows the names of the days of the week, evidently borrowing here from Greek sources, acknowledges the Hindu Trinity, recommends the Tirthas or pilgrimages, which are decried by Manu, and in the matter of debts and legal procedure is later than that code. At the same time it contains much ancient material, especially in regard to legal penalties, the rights of kings, inheritance, etc. A large part of the work is not legal, but treats of sacrifice, impurity, sin and atonement, etc.^
The codes of Yajnavalkya and Narada are probably to be referred to the fourth and fifth centuries, respectively. The former was a learned pundit, probably of Mithila, whose work is so closely connected with that of Manu and at the same time is so clearly a condensation of this code, that it may be taken as certain that the author desired to better an original rather than make a new work. Yajnavalkya pays more attention to legal
^ The contention of Mr Ketkar in his History of Caste in India (1909) that Manu Ib at least as late as the fall of the Andhras (third century a.d.), because they are mentioned as a low caste is not cogent, because the verse may well have been one inherited from a list of degraded tribes (castes) and preserved. The Andhras are regarded as barbarians in early Brahman literature. Cf. Aitareya Brahmana, VII, 18.
* The connexion of the Manava code with the earlier Manava Sutras is not so close as that of the Vishnu code with the Kathaka Sutra, and it is even doubtful whether, as first thought probable, the Manava ^astra reverts to a sectarian Manava school.
2 8o Growth of Law a7id Legal Institutions [CH.
matters and improves on his model in his views regarding the rights of women, whom he permits to inherit equally with men. He elaborates the subjects of trade and ownership, and recognises written documents in evidence where Manu relies on ocular witnesses. He recommends the use of several new ordeals in testing truth, and shows a more conservative social feeling in objecting to the union of a Brahman priest and a slave-woman.
Of Narada, who belongs to the fifth century and seems to have been from Nepal, it may be said that he is the first to give us a legal code unliampered by the mass of religious and moral teaching with which and out of which the earlier works on Dharma arose ^, a code which in its fine sub-divisions of the titles of law, as well as in its elaborate treatment otherwise of slaves, inheritance, witnesses, ordeals, etc., is the first in which law itself is the subject-matter. Narada's evident posteriority to Manu and Yajnavalkya does not show that it was an independent work, rather that it was based on these prior works. In addition to these legal lights it is necessary to mention only Brihaspati, who, as he extols Manu as the first of law-givers, also proves himself to be a sort of commentator rather than an original writer. His work is in fact a brief for Manu, and proves that in his day (about 600 or 700 A.D.) Manu was recognised as the original and greatest law-giver. His citations from Manu also show that our text has not changed essentially since his day^.
We have already seen that the four castes are regarded as the frame of social life, and that the young student, after, spending several years with a priestly preceptor, the length of time depending partly on caste and partly on aptitude, marries and becomes a householder, with numerous religious duties to perform. Twelve years of study is regarded as the minimum, forty-eight years as enough even for the most studious priest. Megasthenes tells us that the Hindus studied for nearly this length of time, but it is clear that only priests practised such zeal. The epic warriors are supposed to have finished their education by their sixteenth year, and the fact that a few words of a hymn are admitted as substitution for this part of the education (consisting in memorising verses) shows that for practical purposes a smattering of Veda was deemed enough in the case of all except the priest. The early
1 Dharma means 'law' only as law is an expression of right, duty, etc. It is based upon revelation and custom, the first perfunctorily, the second actually. Local usage is the basis of law and may overrule laws made without regard to custom.
2 On Brihaspati, see Jolly, Tagore Lectures, and the introduction to the translation of Narada and Brihaspati in S.B.E., vol. xxxiii.
XI i] Civil and Criminal Law 281
law-books devote no little space to the early youth and conduct in later life of the orthodox Aryan. Manu, for example, gives six of his twelve books to rules of life before he comes to discuss royal life and legal matters. Noteworthy is the early date at which a man retires from practical life. As the youth marries early, in the warrior caste as early as sixteen, though Manu recognises twenty- four or thirty as the usual (priestly ?) age, it may happen that he becomes a grandfather before he is forty, by which time, to be sure, the Hindu is often grey. Now it is expressly said that when a man becomes grey and a grandfather he is to enter the third cL^ama or stage of life and become a hermit, either accompanied with his wife or not, as he chooses. Severe asceticism marks this period of life (it is described in ftill by Manu, Book vi), and probably it was reserved generally for the priestly caste; some law-givers omit it It is likely that instead of this stage many priests became mendicants. The act of renouncing the world is introduced by a sacrifice of worldly goods and other ceremonies prescribed by the Siitras and law-books. But the latter, in distinction from the former, if indeed they devote much time to such matters at all, now turn to that part of Dharma or Right which is included under the head of Royalty and Vyavahara. The latter term means law in the modern sense, business intercourse legally interpreted, legal procedure. There is no formal distinction between civil and criminal law till the term vyavahara is divided by later writers into ' cases of property ' and * cases of hurt.' The first enumeration of legal titles is found in Manu and is as follows: (1) Recovery of debts; (2) Deposits and pledges; (3) Sale without ownership; (4) Partnership; (5) Resumption of gifts; (6) Non-payment of wages ; (7) Breach of contract ; (8) Annulling of sale and purchase ; (9) Disputes between the owner and tender of cattle; (10) Disputes regarding boundaries; (11) Assault; (12) Defiimation; (13) Theft; (14) Robbery (with violence); (15) Adultery; (16) Duties of man and wife; (17) Partition (inheritance); (18) Gambling (with dice) and betting (on cock- fights, etc.). In this category, criminal law is represented by the titles eleven to fifteen and eighteen, while the first nine and the sixteenth and seventeenth titles belong to civil law. There is also no distinction between laws affecting things and persons, and, to follow the indictment of Mill in his History of India, 'Non- payment of wages stands immediately before breach of contract, as a separate title, though it ought to be included under that head.' But the eighteen titles are remarkable as the first attempt to
282 Growth of Law and Legal Institutions [ch.
separate different cases ; to demand that Manu should have given us a perfect or even a perfectly clear list is unreasonable.
The titles and the arrangement of Manu are followed by later writers, though with sub-divisions. Thus Brihaspati (li, 8), after giving the eighteen titles says that they 'are divided owing to diversity of lawsuits'; and other writers give ten chief crimes (killing a woman, mixture of caste, adultery, robbery, causing illegitimate birth, abuse, insults, assault, procuring abortion) headed by disobedience of the king's commands. It is, too, only later writers who assert that a lawsuit cannot be instituted mutually between father and son, or man and wife, or master and servant (Narada, i, 6). Although the titles begin with civil cases, there is no doubt that primitive procedure had to do with criminal cases before civil cases were known. Thus the earliest trials are for theft and perjury, and it is probable that theft was the first crime to be recognised legally. We have seen that even in the Siitras the thief is brought before the king and punished by him, and theft is the chief crime mentioned in the Vedas (more particularly theft of cattle, or robbery). There are a thousand forms of theft, according to Brihaspati, who makes theft one of the kinds of * violence,' of which there are four — homicide, theft, assault on another's wife, and injury (either abuse or assault). Thieves are of two sorts, open and concealed, 'and these are sub-divided a thousandfold, according to their skill, ability, and mode of cheating ' (Brih., XXII, 2). Those who cheat at dice or cheat a corporation are to be punished as impostors. The punishment for breaking into a house to steal is impalement ; highwaymen are hanged from a tree by the neck ; kidnappers are burned in a fire of straw ; one who steals a cow has his nose cut off ; for stealing more than ten measures of gi*ain the thief is executed ; for less he is fined eleven times what he has stolen {ibid. 9 £; Manu, viii, 320). The proof of theft is possession of the stolen property, or a track leading to the house of the suspected man ; but excessive expenditure, intercourse with sinners, and other ' signs ' may make a man suspected ; then he may have to clear himself by oath or ordeal.
Manu recognises only two ordeals. Later authors add several more and some admit the application of an ordeal to the plaintiff as well as to the defendant. The oath of a witness is virtually an ordeal, as the oath invokes divine power, which punishes the guilty. The oath is taken according to the caste of the witness. For example, a farmer swears by his cattle, etc. Or one may simply swear that a thing is so, and if his house bums up within a week it
i
xii] Ordeals 283
is a divine conviction of perjury. Later authors also prescribe that in ordeals a writing be placed on the head of the suspected man containing the accusation and a prayer, so that the divine power may understand the matter. The two earliest ordeals are those of fire and water (Manu, viii, 114 f.). As the Siitras do not notice ordeals, except for a general recognition of them as 'divine' proofs on the part of the late Apastamba, and as the later writers Yajnavalkya and Narada describe five ordeals, adding the plough- share, scales, and poison, it is reasonable to conclude that Manu stands in time, as in description, midway between the two sets of authors and is the first to describe ordeals already known and practised. This is the judgment of BUhler and of Jolly ^, but the implication that the mention of daiva in older literature makes probable the existence of all the forms of ordeal mentioned only in later literature is not safe. Fire and water were first used, then come the elaborate trials with balance, etc., till eventually there are nine formal ordeals^.
The nine ordeals are as follows, arranged in the order chosen by Brihaspati (xix, 4): the balance, fire, water, poison, sacred libation, grains of rice, hot gold-piece, ploughshare, and the ordeal by Dharma and Adharma. AVlien Professor Jolly says that no one of these can be judged later than any other on the ground that the growth from two to five and then to nine ordeals does not necessarily imply that one named later did not exist before the two named first, he exaggerates the probabilities. Is it likely, for example, that the ordeal by Dharma and Adharma is as old as that by fire and water ^?
The ordeal by ploughshare is especially for those suspected of stealing cattle; the piece of heated gold is reserved for cases involving a theft * over four hundred ' ; that by poison, for one worth a thousand, etc. All such restrictions are late emendations and additions. In the fire-test one carries a hot iron ball, and if unburned is innocent. In the water-test, one plunges under water and to prove innocence must remain under as long as it takes for
1 S.B.E., vol. XXV, p. cii; and Jolly, Recht und Sitte, p. 145.
2 Compare Stenzler, in the Z.D.M.G., vol. ix, p. 661 ; E. Sohlagintweit, Die Gottesurtheile der Inder (1866) ; and A. Kaegi, Alter und Herkunft de$ gentian. Gottesurtheils (1887).
^ The ordeal by Dharma and Adharma consists in painting pictures of Justice or Eight and Injustice or Wrong (abstract divinities) upon two leaves, one picture being white, the other black. The two images are then worshipped and invoked with sacred verses, and, after the leaves have been sprinkled with perfumes and the five products of the sacred cow, they are rolled in balls of earth and set in a jar without the accused observing them, who then extracts one and ' if he draws Dharma he is acquitted.'
284 Growth of LiUw and Legal Institutions [ch.
a dart, shot at the moment of diving, to be brought back. These two are alterations of old material, in which the accused walks through fire, as in epic tests, or is thrown into water to see if he drown. The balance is an easy ordeal and hence is used in the case of priests and women. It consists in seeing whether the accused weigh less or more the second time the test is made ; if heavier, one is guilty. Probably the weight of sin weighs one down. So in the Mahabharata, when a truth-telling man lies, his chariot begins to sink.
Another method of exacting justice, used generally in the case of debt, was called * the custom ' (Manu, viii, 49) and consisted in what is now known as dharna. The guilty man (debtor) is besieged in his own house by his opponent, who fasts on him till the guilty one yields or the accuser dies. This method of punishing'an injurer is well known in the epics, where fasting to death against a person is an approved form of retaliation. The one who has committed the offence (or owes the money) usually yields in order to prevent the ghost of the dying creditor from injuring him.
The punishment for murder, as already noticed {v. sup. p. 242), is at first a compensation paid to the relatives or the king (perhaps both) and later paid to the priests. The compensation is reckoned at a hundred cows (with a bull). This is in the case of a man ; in the case of a woman, the punishment is no more than if a slave is killed. Manu treats the compensation as a penance (paid to a priest) instead of a 'royal right,' as in the earlier Sutra period. The custom of appraising death at so much a head for which compensation is exacted existed into modern times and is mentioned by Tod in his Annals of Rajasthan\
Treason of all kinds is punishable by death, whether it consist in attacking the king or falsifying an edict or bribing the ministers of the king or helping his foes (Manu, ix, 232, etc.). Instead of other penalties, the guilty man, especially a priest, may be outcasted, that is, formally thrown out or banned from society, for in losing his caste he loses all social rights ; though in certain cases through established ceremonies he may be taken back. One who is outcast loses all right to primogeniture, inheritance, etc.^
1 See also Roth, Z.D.M.G., vol. xli, pp. 672 f. ; and other refereuces in Jolly, Recht und Situ, p. 132.
' Primogeniture is not absolutely the cause of preference among heirs. An unworthy son may be passed over even if he be the eldest, in favour of a worthier junior. On banishment in lieu of capital punishment, see Manu, vni, 380.
X 1 1] Punishments 285
Except for treason, all crimes are judged relatively, that is, there is no absolute penalty, but one conditioned by the social order of the criminal or the victim of the crime. Thus in cases of defamation, if a warrior defame a priest, he is fined one hundred panas ; if a man of the people-caste do so, one hundred and fifty ; if a slave, he shall be corporally punished ; but if a priest defame a warrior, fifty ; if he defame a man of the people, twenty-five ; if he defame a slave, twelve, and this last fine is that imposed upon equals defaming equals within the Aryan castes. But if a slave insult a 'regenerate' (Aryan), his tongue is to be cut out. Especially is this the case in relations between the sexes, for though the rule of death for adultery is general (the woman is devoured by dogs in a public place and the man is burned alive, Manu, VIII, 371 f.), yet its antique provisions are really preserved only out of respect for tradition, the real law being that the offending man shall be fined and the woman have her hair cut off and be treated with contempt (Narada, xn, 92), unless the crime be one that outrages caste-sentiment. Thus a slave who has intercourse with a guarded high-caste woman may be slain; a Vai9ya shall lose his property ; a warrior be fined a thousand and be shaved with urine (Manu, viii, 384 f.). The old general rule of the Sutras to the effect that the woman be eaten by dogs and the man killed is preserved under the form, explicit in the later works but already implied by Manu, that this be the punishment if *a wife who is proud of the greatness of her family' (that is a woman of high caste) commit adultery, while Narada restricts the ferocious penalty to the impossible case of a priest's wife deliberately going to a low-caste man and seducing him.
The general lex tcdionis is similarly confined to thieves or robbers (Manu, viii, 334), though another restriction limits it to intercourse between low and high caste (if a man of low caste injure a man of high caste the limb corresponding to the one hurt shall be cut off, ibid. 279). In one particular, however, the rule of increased fines is reversed, for in any case where a common man would be fined one penny {kdrshapana) the king is fined a thousand (Manu, viii, 336), probably on the principle (Manu, viil, 338) that he who knows more should suffer more^.
^ The slave of the rules cited above is a ^udra-slave. The law defines slaves as of seven kinds, war-captives, daily workers for food, slaves bom in the house, men bought, given, inherited, and those enslaved for punishment. Slaves of war are known iu the epic {v. sup. p. 270) and there is no reason for supposing that a captive warrior may not be a slave (the commentator confines the captive to the Qiidra caste). According to practice, the warrior-caste slave is in bondage only for a year. The ' slave by punishment ' means
2 86 Growth of L,aw and Legal Institutions [CH.
In the province of civil law the later law-books show the greatest advance over the earlier. For example, where trade is concerned, the Sutras know nothing of legal business partnership, apart from the united family and its obligation as a whole to pay debts. Manu has the idea of a partnership, but his whole dis- cussion of the title concerns only the amount of fees payable to priests who together perform a ceremony ; and he merely raises the question whether all the religious partners or the one who performs a special act shall take the traditional fee for that one part. He decides that the four chief priests out of the sixteen shall get a moiety, the next four half of that, the next set a third share, and the next a quarter (the commentators are not unanimous in appraising the amounts), and adds ' by the same principle the allotment of shares must be made among men on earth who perform work conjointly' (Manu, viii, 211). In other words, except for stating that one should be paid in accordance with the work one does, Manu has nothing to say regarding ' partnership,' the formal fourth title of the list. Yajiiavalkya on the other hand includes agriculture and trades in his rule (ii, 265). Narada, while retaining the matter concerning priestly partnership, ex- presses the axiom above in this way: 'Loss, expense, profit of each partner are equal to, more than, or less than those of other partners according as his share (invested) is equal, greater, or less. Storage, food, charges, (tolls), loss, freightage, expense of keeping, must be paid by each partner in accordance with the terms of agreement,' etc. (iii, 3 f.). Finally Brihaspati begins his title ' Partnership ' thus : * Trade or other occupations should not be carried on by prudent men jointly with incompetent or lazy persons or with such as are afilicted with illness, ill-fated, or destitute. Whatever property one partner may give, authorised by many, or whatever contract he may cause to be executed, all that is (legally) done by them all. Whatever loss has occurred through Fate or the king shall be borne by all in proportion to their shares. When artists practise their art jointly, they share according to their work. If a number of men in partnership build a house or a temple, or dig a pool, or make leather articles, the headman among the workmen gets a double share. So too among musicians: the singers share and share alike, but he who beats
a debtor unable to pay. It may be observed that prisons are for malefactors and traitors rather than for debtors. Manu speaks of prisons situated by the roadway where all who pass may see the punishments suffered by the wretches within, and the tortures of hell have the appearance of being copied from models nearer home (Manu, vni, 288).
xii] Interest^ Wages ^ Pr^operty 287
time gets a half share over.' And (still under the head of Partnership), ' when freebooters return from a hostile country bringing booty, they share in what they bring after giving a sixth to the king, their captain getting four shares, the bravest getting three, one particularly clever getting two, and the remaining associates sharing alike' (Brihaspati, xiv, 32).
Regarding the use of money, an old Sutra rule confirmed by Manu permits interest at fifteen per cent, annually, but for men (debtors) of low caste the interest may be sixty per cent. ; yet this is where there is no security. The amount differs in any event according to caste, as already explained (p. 248). No stipulation beyond five per cent, per mensem is legal. Debts unpaid shall be worked out by labour by men of low caste. These rules obtain from the Sutra age and vary scarcely at all. Megasthenes erroneously reports that the Indians do not take interest {ovre Savd^ovai ovt€ Xaacti Bavei^ea-Oac, Fr. 27). Possibly he has in mind the provision that no Brahman shall be a usurer. Wages are often paid in kind ; one fifth of the crop or of the increase in flocks goes to the man who cares for the work. The tender of cattle, in contrast to the epic rule (v. sup. p. 269 f,), gets the milk of one cow out of ten (Manu, viii, 231). If a man work without food or clothing given to him he may take a third of the produce ; other- wise a fifth (Brihaspati, xvi, 13). But Narada gives a general rule to the effect that the servant of a trader, a herdsman, and an agricultural servant shall respectively take a tenth part of the profit, whether from the sale of merchandise, the increase of flocks, or the grain-crop (Narada, vi, 3). This is also the provision of Yajnavalkya (ii, 194) ^ The agricultural servant is a (^udra slave or a member of a mixed caste ^.
The family represented in the law-books as the usual family is one where all the brothers live together as heirs of the father, who may or may not, as he or they prefer, divide his property during his life-time. The eldest son has certain rights of primo- geniture, but, as said above (p. 284, note), they may be taken from him in case he is unworthy (Manu, ix, 213). The property of a childless wife belongs to her husband, unless she is married by a rite not countenanced by the law; in that case her property
^ This is expressly the wage ordained by the king in case there has been no especial stipulation between master and man. It represents therefore the normal percentage of gain (i\j) as wage for the hired assistant of a petty merchant, herdsman, or farmer.
^ According to the commentator on Vishnu, lvii, 16, where the practice of renting land for half the crop is referred to, the herdsman is usually the son of a warrior by a slave-girl. These ' mixed castes ' really did most of the general work of a village.
2 88 Growth of Law and L,egal Institutions [ch.
reverts to her parents. Woman's property consists only in wedding-gifts, tokens of affection, and gifts from her brothers, father, and mother, as also what is given her after marriage by her husband. All this goes to her children at her death.
As the preferred family is the joint-family, so the village is possessed as a whole of its holdings in land. Thus the only full discussion in Manu regarding boundaries (the tenth title) has to do with boundaries between two villages. Yet it is clear from other passages that private ownership in land under the king was recognised. He who first cultivates wild land, owns it (Manu, ix, 44). There is also a Sutra rule : * Animals, land, and females are not lost by possession of another ' (Gaut, xii, 39), which appears to imply individual ownership in land. The land around a village on all sides for one hundred * bows ' (about 600 feet) is common ; and if crops are grown there and cattle injure the crops, no damage can be exacted (Manu, viii, 237 f.) ; but the fields appear to be private property as they are fenced va}.
The government of the country described in legal literature is not different from that of the Sutras, and in most respects agrees with the conditions represented in the epics, where government without a king is so well known as to be the object of the most severe condemnation ; and it is regarded as essential that a king of good family should be at the head of the state. Slave-bom kings are known in history but tabooed in law. The king is treated in the law-books under two heads, as general lord of the land and as judge and executioner.
As lord of the land the king is a Zeus Agamemnon, a human divinity incorporating the essence of the deities Indra, Vayu, Yama, Varuna, Agni, etc., that is of the gods who protect the world in the eight directions. In other words, his chief function as lord is to protect, and he protects as 'a great deity in human form' (Manu, VII, 8). He has, to aid him, seven or eight councillors of hereditary office (* whose ancestors have been servants of kings '), with whom he daily consults as to affairs of state and religion. His prime minister should be a learned priest ; he should appoint ofiicials over all public works, mines, manufactures, storehouses, etc. Various royal monopolies are mentioned (salt is one of them). His officers must be brave and honest, and he himself must be brave and lead his troops personally into battle, where he is to
^ This is not certain evidence that they were private possessions, but such appears to have been the case, as the rules regarding flowing water, ' seed cast in another's field,' etc. also presuppose private ownership (Manu, ix, 52 f.). To ' let land ' renders one impure (Ap., Bh. S., i, 18, 20).
xii] Provincial Government^ War 289
make it his duty to * kill kings,' for those kings go to heaven who seek to slay each other in battle and fight strenuously for that purpose (Manu, vii, 89). As overlord, the king receives a share of the booty won in battle, and it is his duty to distribute such booty as has not been taken singly among the soldiers. One military officer and a company of soldiers he should place as a guard over each village and town, to protect them. There should be a lord of one village, a lord of ten, (of twenty), of a hundred, and a lord (or lords) of a thousand. It is the duty of the lord of one village, grdmika, to report all crimes to the da^pa or lord of ten, and the lord of ten shall report likewise to the (lord of twenty, and he to the) lord of a hundred, and he to the lord of a thousand. As much land as suffices for one family shall be the income of the lord of one village and so on to the lord of a thousand, who shall enjoy the revenue of a town. All these men (it is said) are probably knaves and must be spied upon continually through the agency of a general superintendent in every town, who shall scrutinise the conduct of all the governing lords, * for the servants of kings appointed to protect generally become rascals who steal the property of others' {ibid. 123). The sum collected from his subjects by a just king (as taxes) is a fiftieth part of the increment on cattle and gold, and the eighth, sixth, or twelfth part of the crops ; while common artisans pay tax by a day's work monthly.
These provisions (of Manu) are followed by Vishnu, who how- ever omits the intermediate lords of twenty villages and recognises only the decimal system throughout \ Instead of a thousand villages, Vishnu speaks of the ' whole country,' and probably the two ex- pressions were synonymous. Vishnu also specifies eunuchs as guards of the king's harem, not mentioned by Manu in connexion with the palace. Another point which brings Vishnu into line with the Sutra authorities (Baudh., i, 10, 18, 1 ; Vas., i, 42) is found in his rule regarding taxes. He gives no such option as Manu, but specifies one-sixth as the tax on grain and seeds and one-fiftieth on cattle, gold, and clothes (all authorities exempt priests from taxation-laws).
The men of war, according to Manu, are to be selected for prominent places (in the van) from Kurukshetra, the Matsyas, Panchalas, and those born in ^urasena — all districts in the neighbourhood of Delhi, Jaipur, Kanauj, and Muttra — a provision sufficiently indicative of the geographical origin of his code. It is
^ The army divisions are also arranged decimally, in squads of ten and companies of one hundred or of other multiples of ten {Vas., xix, 17 f.).
C.H.I. I. 19
290 Growth of Law and Legal Institutions [ch .
interesting to note that both Manu and Vishnu state that when a king has conquered a foreign foe he shall make a prince of that country (not of his own) the king there, and (Vishnu adds, iii, 49) he shall not destroy the royal race of his foe unless that royal race be of ignoble birth. He is to honour the gods and the customs of the conquered country and grant exemption from taxation (for a time) (Manu, vii, 201).
In his capacity as judge the king tries cases himself or appoints a priest in his stead (Vishnu, iii, 73) ; but this latter provision is a later trait, though found in the Sutras. The earlier rule is that the king himself shall try cases daily and have built for that purpose a special hall as part of his palace in the inner city, and even, as we saw in the Sutra period {v. sup. p. 241), act as executioner. The fact that the king has also the pardoning power is implied in the provision that if the thief come before the king and the king smite him or let him go he is thereby purified^, a provision which also brings up the intricate question of the relation between legal punishment and religious penance. For many of the legal punishments for gross crimes are set down not as such but as religious expiations, and it is said that the king has to see to it that these religious obligations are fulfilled. In some cases without doubt punishment as a matter of law began as a matter of priestly religious law. The business of the king as judge was not unremunerative, as every debtor who was tried and convicted paid a tenth of the sum involved into the royal treasury (Vishnu, VI, 20). According to Manu (viii, 59), if plaintiff" or defendant is found guilty of falsification in regard to a contested sum, twice the sum itself shall be paid as a fine (to the king). The king's chaplain has an important place in the court of justice; he is chief of the councillors who as a body may include members of other Aryan castes. If a deputy act for the king, later authorities state that he should carry a seal-ring of the king as sign of authority (Brihaspati, i, 3). The right of appeal is also admitted in later law-books, which assume that a case may come up first before a family, or corporation, when if the judgment is questioned the case may be tried by assemblies (of co-inhabitants or castes) and then by judges duly appointed {ibid. 39). Yajnavalkya (11, 305) and Narada also (i, 65) say that, when a lawsuit has been wrongly decided, the trial must be repeated. According to
1 Apparently a murderer might expiate his crime by dying for the king in battle (Apastamba, i, 24, 21), and even, 'if he fights three times, when not slain, he is freed' (Vas., Dh. Q., xx, 28). This antique provision is not preserved in the later law.
XI i] Family Law 291
Yajnavalkya appeal may be taken from corporations, etc., to 'the judge appointed by the king' (11, 30). Such a judge is one appointed to act for the king in his own city or in the provinces, a provision found also in epic literature. All the law- books acknowledge the importance of the law of family (kida), gild or corporation (^reni), and assembly or greater corporation (piiga, gana\ of caste or co-inhabitants in making their own laws, which the king must not contrg^vene.
There is one aspect of legal literature which is very significant of the origin of the completed codes. The laws, namely, frequently contradict one another either by implication or directly, not only the laws in general but those of the same code and even the laws placed in juxtaposition. An example of such contradiction is what may be found in Manu's code respecting the sale of a daughter. In VIII, 204, * Manu declares ' that if one girl has been shown to a prospective bridegroom and another is given, he may marry them both for the same price. In iii, 51, the same code (presumably the same Manu) says ' Let no wise father take even a small price for his daughter. , .for small or great this would be a sale'; and finally in ix, 97, we read : * If the giver of the price die after the price for a girl has been paid, she shall be given to the (bride- groom's) brother if she is willing,' and immediately after (ix. 98), 'Even a slave should not accept a price in exchange for his daughter,' with a couple of verses following in the tone of the passage above, repudiating the 'sale of a daughter.' Yet in VIII, 366, under the head of the fifteenth title of law, it is stated that a low-caste man courting a woman of the highest caste deserves death (or corporal punishment); but one who courts an equal shall ' pay the price ' (and take her) if her father consents. It was an old provision that a fee or price (a yoke of oxen) should be paid to the father, and though this was softened down to a ' fee ' or ' tax ' (^Ika), yet the advanced code objects formally to this business transaction. At the same time the old provision is retained, because it was a part of hereditary traditional law. In the epic also, the rule against selling a daughter is recorded ; but so strong is the feeling against violating family-law that the man who purposes^ to sell his daughter, ' because it is the custom in my family,' is upheld in doing so by a saint, who even declares that the sale is justified by the ancients and by God (Mbh., i, 113, 9f.). Here the girl is bought with gold and elephants and other costly things. On the other hand, as a matter of dignity, the father of an aristocratic girl, more particularly a princess, has in efiect heavy
19—2
292 Growth of Law and Legal Institutions [ch .
expenses. Thus when king Virata weds his daughter he bestows upon his son-in-law seven thousand horses and two hinidred elephants {Mhh., iv, 72, 36). The didactic epic says that a man who sells his daughter goes to hell(xiii, 45, 18); there is a general Sutra rule against selling any human being (Gaut., vii, 14)\
In regard to infant marriages the Sutras generally admit the advisability of marrying a girl when she is still too young to wear clothes, that is, before she becomes adult, or shows signs of maturity. The later law and practice are all at variance on this point. One of the epic heroes marries at sixteen a princess still playing with her dolls but old enough to become a mother shortly afterwards. The epic rule is that a bridegroom of thirty should marry a girl of ten, a bridegroom of twenty-one a girl of seven (xiii, 44, 14). Arrian (23, 9) reports that Indian girls were married at seven. Sita is said to have married Rama at six ! The rule of Manu is that a bridegroom of thirty shall marry a girl of twelve, one of twenty-four, a girl of eight (ix, 94); he also recommends that a girl shall not marry at all unless a suitable bridegroom appear; but again he countenances infant-marriages (ix, 88 and 89).
The rule in regard to the levirate, or the assignment of widows to another man to raise up sons for the deceased husband, is another instance of the way in which the codes were assembled out of contradictory material. In Manu, ix, 64-68, there is a flat contradiction of the preceding provisions on this point. No remarriage and no assignment of widows are permitted in a passage directly following the injunction that a widow shall be so assigned, for the purpose of giving her dead husband a son to pay him the funeral feast, etc.
These laws regarding women are on the whole the most self- contradictory in the later codes. As the position of woman is more or less indicative of the state of civilisation, it is important to notice that the high regard paid to woman is confined to her function as a mother of sons. The bride must be a virgin (not a widow, Manu, ix, 65) and the remarriage of widows is generally not countenanced; but the codes do not sanction the custom of suttee till late, and the provisions for widows show that, though they probably lived miserably and without honour, they were not expected to die with their husbands. The Mahabharata and the
^ The purchase of a wife is the ' demoniac ' form of marriage formally permitted in the case of a Vaigya and slave (Manu, in, 24). These two classes ' are not particular about wives' (Baudh., Dh. S., i, 11, 20, 14).
XI i] " Marriage : Suttee 293
Ramayana both recognise the custom of suttee, but only the former (and probably not in an early part) gives a case of a royal widow burning herself Avith her husband. It is perhaps the extension of a royal custom, as in the epic, which has made the rule general, so that later law and practice recommend suttee for all. A parallel would be the Self-choice {svayamvara) or election of a husband by a princess, afterwards regarded as an election- rule in the case of other maidens. The mother is praised as equal to the father in honour, and in default of sons she may inherit (Manu, IX, 217), but if she bear only daughters or has no children she may be divorced {ibid. 81 )^ In general, a woman receives respect only as potential or actual mother of sons. Manu repeats with unction the dictum of the Sutras that a woman is never independent (ix, 2 f.), and says that she may be slain for unfaithful- ness and divorced for barrenness ; he also regards women as too 'unstable' to be called as witnesses (viii, 77). The view that women are chattel is yielding in the ^astra to a more enlightened opinion. In the epics also the rigidity of the law is not upheld by the tenor of tales showing women in a very different light from that exhibited in the didactic parts of the epic. Even at a much later age women were students, as they were wise in antiquity, and the annals of the law itself testify to the ability of the sex, for in the eighteenth century one of the great legal commentaries on the Mitakshara was written by a woman, Lakshmidevi. At what time the Purdah (' curtain ') rule came to confine women to the house is uncertain ; but probably not before foreign invasions had com- pelled the Hindu to adopt it. The epics and law-books speak of confining a woman as a punishment for ill-conduct (e.g. Manu, VIII, 365), but Manu insists that ' no man can really guard women by force' (ix, 10). To go veiled is only a court-custom alluded to in both epics.
Deficient as are the legal text-books in arrangement and self- contradictory as are their enactments, they form a priceless heritage of a past which would otherwise have been largely lost to us, for they may be accepted as reflecting real and not artificial or invented conditions of life. Very material evidence has been furnished in the last few years as regards the trustworthy character of the information given by authors of the law-books. As remarked above concerning the Sutras {v. sup. p. 221), the idea that Brahman
* The property of women forms too complicated a subject to be discussed here but it may be said in general that Manu represents an advance on the older denial of the Sutras that women, and in particular widows, could inherit. Baudhayana and Apastamba exclude widows from the husband's inheritance (e.g. Apast., n, 14).
294 Growth of Law and Legal Institutions [ch .
tradition is manufactured in order to glorify the Brahmans and that in the time of Buddha there were no castes, is rendered inadmissible by the fact that all Hindu literature acknowledges the main facts as stated in the epics and law-books. The fresh evidence on this point is supplied by the text of the Artha9a8tra called the Kautiliya, which may date from about 300 b.o. and is in accord with the Sutras and ^astras in all the chief points which these works have in common. This Artha^astra, which forms the subject of Chapter xix in this work, recognises castes and mixed castes and agrees with the ^astra of the law-givers in a multitude of instances, showing that the scheme of law arranged by the Brahmans was neither ideal nor invented but based upon actual life\ Here for example is repeated almost verbatim the rule against debts between father and son ; the kinds of marriage are the same ; the antithesis between Arya and ^udra is maintained; the rule that the wage is one-tenth the gain ' without previous agreement ' is identical with that of Yajiiavalkya cited above, etc. As the Kautiliya is a manual of rules imposed by a practical statesman, it is impossible to suppose that the conditions it depicts are imaginary, yet the same conditions are found in the Sutras, etc. If it was indisputable that this work belonged to the third or fourth century B.C., it would be of the utmost importance historically. As it is, some of the provisions of the Kautiliya agree with those of later rather than earlier law-books, and for the present it is not advisable to accept all its rules as belonging to the time assigned to the work as a whole ^.
We see in the law-books the king of a limited realm still more or less of a patriarch among his people^; a people divided into general orders representing the military, priestly, and agi'icultural or mercantile classes, still mingling freely with each other, inter- marrying, but with due regard for the respect paid to the higher orders, and utterly devoid of the 'caste' rules later adopted in respect of food and marriage. The family is usually monogamous though it may be polygamous, and there are traces of the family- marriage, in which a wife marries a group of brothers. The menial work of house-life is carried on by slaves and half-breeds, who also
1 Cf. the articles of Prof. Jacobi in Sitz. K.P.A., 1911, pp. 732, 954 f, ; 1912, pp. 832 f.; also the parallels published by Prof. Jolly in Z.D.M.G., lxyii, pp. 49 f.
2 A sketch of law and government as presented by the Kautiliya Arthaijastra is given by Dr Barnett in his Antiquities of India, pp. 98 f. (1914) ; also by Mr M. N. Law in his Studies in Ancient Hindu Polity (1914).
3 Thus the king has personally to go to market and 'settle the price of goods' every five days (Manu, vm, 402),
XI i] The Law- Books and the Arthaqastra 295
do most of the village labour and serve as petty craftsmen. More skilled workers like chariot-makers are of almost Aryan rank and are not excluded from society. The laws are harsh and cruel as regards punishment (the worker in gold who defrauds the king, for example, is, according to Manu, ix, 292, 'to be chopped to pieces with knives '), but a regard for truth and justice is the dominant trait of the law, which, if it may be personified, has at times a naive air of blandly but perplexedly seeking to steer a course between that which it thinks is right and ought to think is right, because the one has been reasoned out and the other has been handed down as part of * revelation ' or law divined
^ In his Lectures on the Ancient History of India (Calcutta, 1919), Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar argues that the legal parts of the twelfth book of the epic revert to a period earlier than Kautilya; and that the 'beginnings of Indian thought in the sphere of Arthaqastra ' are to be assigned to the seventh century b.c. The first thesis is based on the theory that verse precedes prose in legal diction, which is certainly not demon- strable. The second is only another way of saying that the subject-matter of the Dharma Siitras is probably older than their present form, and that Kautilya had numerous predecessors, which is probable. The chief discrepancy between Manu and Kautilya is that the former represents a state conceived as a smaller kingdom; the latter's purview is not only more exhaustive but wider, e.g. he discusses the ' Arabian steeds ' in the king's stud (known to both epics) and cites as authorities later writers. On the whole, as with the Jatakas, it would be well not to accept as undoubtedly of ' c. 400 B.C.' all the data of the Kautillya ArthaQastra.
CHAPTER XIII
THE PURANAS
The Puranas, or collections of 'old-world ' legends, contain the traditional genealogies of the principal ruling houses of the Middle Country. They are closely connected both in form and substance with the epics and law-books. All three varieties of literature are written in the same kind of verse and in the same kind of Sanskrit ; and they have much of their subject-matter in common. Not isolated verses merely but long passages recur word for word in them all. They are all alike inheritors of the same stock of legen- dary and traditional lore ; and, so far as the nature of their con- tents is concerned, it is not always possible to draw any hard and fast line of distinction between them. Thus from different points of view the Mahabharata may be regarded, as indeed it regards itself, as an epic, a law-book, or a Purana.
Any old-world story may in fact be called a Purana; but the term is specially applied to certain works which, in conformity with the classical definition, deal, or are supposed to deal, with the following five topics: (1) Sarga, the evolution of the universe from its material cause; (2) Pratisarga, the re-creation of the universe from the constituent elements into which it is merged at the close of each aeon {halpa) or day in the life of the Creator, Brahma ; (3) Vam^a, the genealogies of gods and rishis ; (4) Man- vantara, the groups of 'great ages' (mahayuga) included in an aeon, in each of which mankind is supposed to be produced anew from a first father, Manu; (5) Vamgdnucharita, the history of the royal families who rule over the earth during the four 'ages ' {yuga) which make up one ' great age.'
With this ideal scheme none of the existing Puranas is in com- plete agreement. All difffer from it in various degrees by defect or by excess ; but, in spite of this, they profess generally to con- form with the old definition, and are thus made to give a descrip- tion of themselves which is no longer in accordance with the facts. It is evident, then, at the outset that their original form has been modified. Only seven out of the eighteen still retain the fifth
CH. XI 1 1] Literature of the Kshatriyas 297
section, which should contain an account of kings who have reigned during the historical period. For the purposes of political history all the rest are therefore without value.
Orthodox Hinduism regards these works as of divine origin; and their framework is stereotyped in accordance with this view. The chief speaker is some ancient seer who has received the tradi- tion through Vyasa, who himself received it from the Creator. The narrative is introduced by a dialogue between the chief speaker and his audience, and is continued in the form of a series of reported dialogues between the characters of the stories told.
Most commonly, though not invariably, the narrator is Loma- harshana or his son, Ugracravas. The former is called * the Suta,' and the latter 'Sauti' or 'the Suta's son' — titles which clearly indicate that the traditional lore, out of which the Puranas have been fashioned, was of Kshatriya, not of Brahman, origin; for the Sutas, its custodians, were a mixed caste who were entrusted with various important functions in royal households. In the Brahmanas the Suta is the royal herald and minstrel, and possibly also 'master of the horse.' He is one of the king's 'jewels' (ratnin) and ranks with the commander-in-chief of the army and other high officers of state; and in his character as herald he was inviolable. In the law-books he is described as the son of a Kshatriya by the daughter of a Brahman. The Puranas say that he was born to sing the praises of princes and that he was entrusted with the care of the historical and legendary traditions ; but they state definitely that he had no concern with the Vedas (Vdyu Pur., i, 1, 26-28). In later times he appears as the king's charioteer ; but he still retains his exalted rank, and in the dramas he speaks Sanskrit — the sign of high birth or education — while the inferior characters speak some Prakrit dialect.
In the interval between the Brahmanas and the dramas the Siita had evidently been deprived of some of the most important of his ancient functions ; and this change in his fortunes reflects a change which had taken place in Indian society and in the character of the Puranas. In the heroic age, when the Siita was the chronicler of kings, the Kshatriyas, as we gather from the Upanishads and from early Jain and Buddhist literature, occupied a position of considerable intellectual independence. But this position was not maintained. In India, as in medieval Europe, the priestly power eventually asserted its supremacy, and all the old Kshatriya literature was Brahmanised. The record of the lineage of princes tended to disappear from the Puranas, and its
298
'The Pur anas [CH.
place was taken by endless legends about holy places, or hymns in praise of the divinities who were worshipped there. The Puranas had passed from the Kshatriyas to the Brahmans, from the royal bards to the priests who waited on temples and pilgrims' shrines — a class mentioned with contempt in the law-books (Manu, iii, 152). But, in spite of this transference and the radical changes which it involved, some of the old terms and some fragments of the old literature still remained to testify to a state of things which had passed away.
Thus the Puranas, like the Mahabharata, have undergone a complete transformation. Just as the Mahabharata, originally the story of a war, has been made into a Dharma ^astra, the main object of which is to inculcate duty, so too the Puranas are no longer mere collections of ancient legends. Like the * Lives of the Saints' they have been applied to purposes of edification. For them the kings of the earth have existed simply to point a moral — the vanity of human wishes :
He who has heard of the races of the Sun and Moon, of Ikslivaku, Jahnu, Mandhatri, Sagara, and Raghu, who have all perished ; of Yayati, Nahusha, and their posterity, who are no more ; of kings of great might, resistless valour, and unbounded wealth, who have been overcome by still more powerful Time, and are now only a tale : he will learn wisdom, and forbear to call either children, or wife, or house, or lands, or wealth, his own. ( Vishnu Pur., trans. Wilson, iv, p. 240.)
The chief object of the Puranas is to glorify Qiva or Vishnu, the great divinities who, in their manifold forms, share the alle- giance of India. They have become sectarian and propagandist, exalting their own particular deity at the expense of all others. In a word, they have become the scriptures of various forms of the later Hinduism, and bear to these the same relation that the Vedas and Brahmanas bore to the older Brahmanism. But while the scriptures of the ancient sacrificial religion have remained unaltered and have been protected from textual corruption by the elaborate devices of priestly schools, the Puranas have adapted themselves to the changes which have taken place in the social and religious life of the people, and their text has been perverted by generations of editors and transcribers.
They are made up of elements old and new. However late they may appear in their present form — and some of them are said to have been altered in quite recent times — there can be no question that their main source is to be traced back to a remote antiquity. The ancient lore of the bards from which, like the epics, they are derived is known to the Atharvaveda (xv, 6, 11 £)
xiii] Modern Scholarship 299
as a class of literature with the general title Itihdsa-Purana * story and legend ' ; and both in the Upanishads {Chhdndogya, vii, 1 and 7) and in early Buddhist books {Sutta Nipdta, iii, 7) this litera- ture is called the fifth Veda. It was in fact the Veda of the laity ; and as such the epics and Puranas have been universally accepted all through the classical period even down to the present day.
The attitude of modern scholarship towards these documents has varied at different times. In the early days of the study of Sanskrit in Europe they were accepted as historical. But it was soon evident that no satisfactory system of Indian chronology could be established by their aid alone; and for a long time scholars seem to have agreed to ignore their evidence unless when sup- ported from other sources. After having been unduly appraised, the Puranas were unduly neglected. In recent years a reaction has set in, and there is a growing belief that these works are worthy of more serious attention than they have hitherto received. It has been shown that the historical information which they convey is not so untrustworthy as was formerly supposed. Dr Vincent Smith, for example, was able in 1902 {Z.D.M.G., pp. 654, 658 ff.) to prove that both the dynastic list of the Andhra kings and the duration of the diflferent reigns as stated in the Matsya Purana are substantially correct.
The critical study of the Puranas, which was inaugurated by Mr Pargiter's Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913), is still in its infancy. When this important branch of literature has been examined by the methods which have been applied to the Vedas and Brahmanas, there can be little doubt that valuable historical results will be obtained. The Puranas are confessedly partly legendary and partly historical. The descriptions of superhuman beings and of other worlds than this are glorified accounts of the unknown founded on the analogy of the known. They find their counterpart in that Christian Purana, Milton's Paradise Lost. The descriptions of ancient monarchs and of their realms are essentially historical. They may be compared to the Sagas and the medieval chronicles of Europe. They are the products of an imaginative and uncritical age in which men were not careful to distinguish fact from legend. It is the task of modern criticism to disentangle the two elements. Its first object should be to remove from the existing Puranas all later additions, and then from a comparison of their oldest portions to determine the relations in which they stand to one another, and thus, as far as possible, to restore their common tradition to its original form.
300 The Puranas [ch.
As yet this necessary preliminary process has not even been begun ; and until it is completed the real value of the Puranas as historical evidence cannot be estimated. They still continue to be dated by scholars according to the latest indications which can be discovered in them, and they are too often rejected as incom- petent witnesses for the events of any earlier period. The ele- mentary fact that the date, whether of a building or of a literary production, is not determined by its latest addition is in their case generally ignored.
The eighteen Puranas are associated with an equal number of Upapuranas. Traditional lists, in which all of these Puranas and Upapuraiias are arranged in a definite order of precedence, have been preserved in the works themselves. In these the Brahma Purana stands first ; and, as this position and its alternative title *Adi' or 'the First' would alike seem to indicate, it is probably the oldest. There would appear to be nothing in its earlier portions to discountenance this claim; but it has received late additions, and on the evidence of these Wilson ascribed it to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. This afibrds a signal instance of the misconception which may be caused by failure to dis- criminate between the ages of diflferent parts of a work. All the Puranas without exception have been altered. The Vishnu Pur., which stands third in the list, has apparently suffered less than the others.
Comparatively little is known about the Upapuranas. Few of them have been published or thoroughly investigated. They appear to be, as a rule, still more narrowly sectarian than the Puranas, and to be intended to further religious interests which are more purely local . They probably have little, if any, historical worth.
The total number of couplets comprised in the eighteen Puranas as given in the lists is 400,000, the length of the different versions varying from 10,000 to about 81,000 couplets. These statements were no doubt accurate at the time when the computation was made; but great changes have since taken place. On the one hand, whole sections have been lost. The Vishnu Pur., usually regarded as the best conserved of all, has now less than 7000 couplets : in the lists it appears with 23,000. On the other hand, numerous more recent works claim to belong to one or other of the Puranas, so that it is now sometimes impossible to define the precise limits of the latter. If all the productions which profess to form portions of the Skanda Pur., for instance, were included, the total given in the lists would be greatly exceeded.
XI 1 1] Different Versions and Age 301
As to the history of these eighteen versions of a common tra- dition, it seems certain that they were moulded into their present form at various centres of religious activity. The case has been clearly stated by the late Mr A. M. T. Jackson in the Centenary Volume of the Jour, of the BoTiibay Branch of the R. A. S. (1905), p. 73:
A very striking analogy to the mutual relations of the various Puranas is to be found in the case of our own Saxon chronicle, which, as is well known, continued to be written up in various monasteries down to the reign of Stephen, though the additions made after the Roman conquest were independent of each other. Similarly the copies of the original verse Purana that were possessed by the priests of the great centres of pilgrimage were altered and added to chiefly by the insertion of local events after the fall of a central Hindu government had made communication between the different groups of Brahmans relatively difficult. In this way the Brahma Purana may represent the Orissa version of the original work, just as the Padma may give that of Pushkara, the Agiii that of Gaya, the Varaha that of Mathura, the Vamana that of Thanesar, the Kurma that of Benares, and the Matsya that of the Brahmans on the Narmada.
At what period the eighteen Puranas assumed their distinctive titles is uncertain. It was no doubt long after they had ceased to be regarded as repositories of historical information, for they are grouped in the traditional lists entirely according to their religious character. It has sometimes been supposed that one of their number is the immediate source of all the others; but it seems more probable that they belong to several groups which represent different lines of tradition. Possibly the Puranas which are narrated by the Suta may belong to one such group, and those which are narrated by Maitreya to another. One at least of the present titles may be traced back to an early period; for the Bhavishya or Bhavishyat Pur., the ninth in the list, is quoted in the Dharma Siitra of Apastamba (11, 9, 24, 6) which cannot be later than the second century B.C. and may possibly be still more ancient ^ But as a rule early references to this traditional lore describe it generally as Purana or Itihasa-Purana, a class of lite- rature which, as we have seen, undoubtedly goes back at least to the time of the Atharvaveda.
Some such antiquity is implicitly claimed by the Puranas in their prologues. Para^ara, who narrates the Vishnu Pur., is the grandson of Vasishtha, the rishi of the seventh mandala of the Rigveda; and his narration takes place in the reign of Parikshit^
1 Chapter x, pp. 249 f.
^ The name appears as Parikshit in the earlier, and as Parlkshit in the later, literature.
302 The Pur anas [cH.
who is celebrated as a king of the Kurus in the Atharvaveda. Nearly all the other Puranas are attributed to the Suta and to a period four generations later. Of the prologues to these that of the Vayu Pur. may be selected as typical. The rishis are per- forming their twelve-year sacrifice in the Naimisha forest on the bank of the sacred river Drishadvatl. To them comes the SUta, the custodian of the ancient Kshatriya traditions. At their re- quest he takes up his parable and retells the legends entrusted to his care by Vyasa. The scene is laid in the reign of the Puru king Adhisimakrishna, who is supposed to have lived before the beginning of the Kali Age, or, as we should say, before the his- torical period. But the genealogy assigned to him indicates a more definite date; for of his immediate forbears — A9vamedha- datta, Qatanika, Janamejaya, Parlkshit — all but the first, his father A9vamedhadatta, are no doubt to be identified with kings of the same names who appear in the Brahmanas.
Whatever may be the historical value of these prologues, they certainly carry us back to the same period, the period of the Atharvaveda and the Brahmanas, to which modern research has traced the existence of an Itihasa-Purana literature. To suppose that they are altogether concoctions of the Middle Ages is to place too great a strain on our credulity. They can scarcely have been reconstructed from the fragmentary evidence supplied by Vedas and Brahmanas at a period when no one could have dreamed of treating Vedas and Brahmanas as historical documents — a task reserved for the nineteenth century. We cannot escape from the only possible conclusion, that the Puranas have preserved, in how- ever perverted and distorted a form, an independent tradition, which supplements the priestly tradition of the Vedas and Brah- manas, and which goes back to the same period. This tradition, as we may gather from the prologues, was handed down from one generation of bards to another and was solemnly promulgated on the occasion of great sacrifices.
The Kshatriya literature of the heroic age of India has for the most part been lost. Such of it as has survived has owed its preservation to its association with religion. The commemoration of the lineage of kings found a place in religious ceremonial, as, for instance, in. the year-long preparation for the 'horse-sacrifice,' by the performance of which a king ratified his claim to suzerainty over his neighbours. It is no doubt to such commemorations that we owe the dynastic lists which have been preserved in the Puranas.
XI 1 1] The Manus 303
The historical character of these works is disguised by their setting. They have been made to conform with Indian ideas as to the origin and nature of the universe and its relation to a First Cause. The effect of this has been to remove the monarch, who is represented as reigning when the recital takes place, and all his predecessors from the realm of history into the realm of legend ; and it has been found necessary to preserve the illusion through- out the subsequent narrative. The Suta is invited by the sacri- ficing rishis of the Naimisha forest to describe the Kali Age which is still to come. It is evident that he can only do so prophetically. He can only reproduce the foreknowledge which has been divinely implanted in him by Vyasa. Accordingly he uses the future tense in speaking of kings who have actually reigned and of events which have actually happened. History has been made to assume the disguise of prophecy.
When this pretence is set aside, and when all legendary or imaginary elements are removed, the last two sections of the Puranas afford valuable information as to the geography and history of ancient India.
The fourth section, the manvantara, deals with the * periods of the different Manus.' These form part of a chronological system which is purely hypothetical. Time, like soul and matter, is a phase of the Supreme Spirit. As Brahma wakes or sleeps, the universe wakes or sleeps also. Each day and each night of Brahma is an ' aeon ' (kalpa) and is equivalent to a thousand ' great ages ' (mahdyuga), that is to say, 1000 x 4,320,000 mortal years. During an ' aeon ' fourteen Manus or ' fathers of mankind ' appear, each presiding over a period of seventy-one * great ages ' with a surplus. Each 'great age' is further divided into four 'ages' {yuga) of progressive deterioration like the golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages of Greek and Roman mythology. These are named, from the numbers on the dice, Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali, and are accordingly supposed to last for periods represented by the pro- portion 4:3:2:1. We need not follow this subdivision of time down to its ultimate fraction ' the twinkling of an eye ' (nimesha) or dwell on the sectarian zeal which leads some of the Puranas to assert that an ' aeon ' of Brahma is but ' the twinkling of an eye ' in the endurance of Qiva or Vishnu.
The account of the manvantara of Manu SvayambhUva, the first in the series of fourteen, includes a description of the universe as it now exists or is supposed to exist. The greater part of this description is, like the chronology, imaginary. The world, according
304 T'he Puranas [ch.
to this primitive geography, consists of seven concentric continents separated by encircling seas. These are the ' seas of treacle and seas of butter ' at which Lord Macaulay, with his utter inability to understand any form of early culture, scoffed in his celebrated minute on Indian education. The innermost of these continents, which — and here we come to actuality — is separated from the next by salt water, is Jambudvipa; and of JambudvTpa the most im- portant region is Bharatavarsha or Bharata, that is to say, the sub-continent of India :
The country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains, is Bharata ; for there dwell the descendants of Bharata...
The seven main chains of mountains in Bharata are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, ^ktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Paripatra...
On the east of Bharata dwell the Kiratas (the barbarians) ; on the west, the Yavanas : in the centre reside Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vai9yas, and ^Qdras. {Vishnu Pur., trans. Wilson, 11, pp. 127-9.)
General descriptions such as this are followed by lists, more or less detailed, of the rivers which flow from the Himalayas and the seven great ranges, and of the tribes inhabiting the various regions. As in all early geography, the district is known by the plural of the tribal name. Similar lists are found also in the Mahabharata and elsewhere. This extensive geographical litera- ture gives a remarkably full account of the whole sub-continent.
The geographical, like the dynastic, lists have evidently been brought up to date from time to time, since foreign invaders of very different dates appear in them. These seem to range from the Yavanas, 9^kas, and Pahlavas, who came into India in the second and first centuries B.C., to the Hunas, who broke up the Gupta empire at the end of the fifth century A.D.
The fifth and last section of the Puranas, the vam^dnucharita, gives an account of the kings of the earth, the descendants of Manu Vaivasvata, the 'son of the Sun.' The narrative uses all three tenses, past, present, and future; for it recounts the kings who have been, the kings who are, and the kings who are to be. The earliest of these genealogies, like the most ancient chronicles of other peoples, are legendary. They trace the descent of the rulers of this world from the Sun and Moon, and through them from the Creator — a claim inherited and still maintained by the Surajbansi and the Chandrabansi families of Rajput princes. Such pedigrees have been pieced together from fragments of religious lore or from fancied etymologies on to which old-world traditions and speculations have been engrafted. Ila, the daughter of Manu,
XI ii] Traditional Genealogies 305
from whom the Lunar family is derived, personifies, as her name denotes, the sacrificial ofiering made by Manu in the legend of the Flood ((^ata. Br., i, 8, 1, 11). Such legendary characters are everywhere the result of man's early speculations on the origin of the world. The first glimpses of authentic history only appear when tribal names are inserted in the genealogies under the dis- guise of eponymous ancestors. These, too, are the outcome of hypothesis, but of hypothesis founded on facts. All the members of a tribe are presumably descended from a common ancestor, and related tribes are descended from related ancestors. On these supposed individuals the names of the tribes are conferred; and they supply a sort of genealogical framework which continues to be filled in by tradition until the age of records. Once fashioned in this way such genealogies are accepted without question until the period when critical scholarship arises and undertakes its first duty, which is to discriminate between legend and fact in the story of past ages.
In the Puranas, which were the common scriptures of the ruling Aryan peoples of Northern and Western India, the tradi- tional genealogies of the royal houses have been collected and made to form a consistent whole. Not only are the ancient tribes of the Rigveda and the kingdoms immediately descended from them represented here, but the realms of Kosala (Ayodhya), Videha, VaigalT, and Magadha, which were not Aryanised until a later date, have also been brought into the scheme and fur- nished with a still longer and more august pedigree. They belong to the Solar family and are derived directly from Manu through Ikshvaku. A family of princes bearing this name is known from Vedic literature ; and it is quite possible that the Solar dynasties of Kosala and other kingdoms to the east of the Middle Country may have been descended from this family. If so, the Ikshvaku of the genealogical tree must be regarded as an eponymous an- cestor ; and as his superhuman origin had to be explained, a myth founded on a far-fetched etymology of his name was invented. Ikshvaku was so called because he was born from the sneeze (kshava) of Manu ( Vishnu Pur., trans. Wilson, iii, p. 259).
Fragments of historical fact may no doubt be found embedded even in the earliest lists ; but these fragments have been carried down the stream of time and deposited far away from their original home. Thus, for instance, Purukutsa and his son Trasadasyu, who in the Rigveda are Piirus living on the Sarasvati, appear in the Puranas among the Solar kings of Kosala ; Vadhryagva, Divodasa, C.H.I. I. 20
3o6 The Pur anas [ch.
Pijavana, and Sudas, who form a direct line in the succession of Bhai'ata princes ruling in the country between the Saras vati and Drishadvati, appear in this order, but with intervening reigns, among the kings of N. Pafichala^ It is probable that these ap- parently conflicting statements are not really contradictory: the chain of evidence which might bring the tradition of the Puranas into substantial agreement with the Rigveda has been broken.
But it is clear that documents of this kind can only be used with the greatest caution. To some extent at least they have unquestionably been fabricated in accordance with preconceived opinions. How these pedigrees have been elaborated, even at a comparatively late date, by court poets who sought to magnify the ancient lineage of their lord, may sometimes be seen at a glance. For example, in the genealogy of the Ikshvakus of Kosala the im- mediate predecessors of Prasenajit, the contemporary of Buddha, are (^akya, ^uddhodana, Siddhartha, and Rahula. That is to say, the eponymous hero of Buddha's clan, Buddha's father, Buddha himself, and his son have all been incorporated in the dynastic list of the kings of Kosala^.
It seems impossible to bring the Puranic genealogies into any satisfactory relation with the Vedic literature or with one another until we approach the period at which they profess to have been recited, that is to say, the reign of Parikshit in the case of the Vishnu Pur. and the reign of Adhisimakrishna in the case of most of the others. Then certain synchronisms seem to afford a more secure chronological standpoint. Parikshit is celebrated as a king of the Kurus in the last and latest book of the Atharvaveda : ac- cording to the epic, as usually interpreted, he was appointed king of Hastinapura more than thirty-six years after the great war between the Kurus and Pandus. Adhisimakrishna, the great great grandson of Parikshit is represented by the Puranas as contemporary with Divakara of Kosala and Senajit of Magadha. Between the last mentioned and his predecessor Sahadeva, who was killed in the great war, six reigns intervene. The length of each reign and the total duration of the different dynasties of Magadha are given in some versions. Unfortunately the state of the text is so corrupt and the numbers are so discrepant that this evidence is generally of no value. Leaving out of account an impossible reading which attributes a reign of one hundred years to Niramitra, the Mss. as they stand give a maximum of 289 and
1 Pargiter, J.R.A.S., 1910, p. 28.
^ See Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age, pp. 11, 67.
XI 1 1] The Great War : Purus 307
a minimum of 259 years to the six reigns which separate the great war from Senajit of Magadha ; and even the lesser of these esti- mates would seem to be excessive. We must be content with the general conclusion that the tradition of the Puranas, according to the dynastic lists of Hastinapui-a and Magadha, places the great war early in what we know as the Brahmana period, say about 1000 B.C.
That the war between the Kurus and Pandus is historical and that it took place in ancient times cannot be doubted, however much its story has been overloaded with legend, and however late may be the form in which it has been handed down. The legend of the war of the Mahabharata in India finds its exact parallel in the legend of the Trojan war in Europe. Each became the great central point to which the nations of the Middle Ages referred their history. To have shared ancestrally in the fame of Kuru- kshetra or of Troy was for nations the patent of nobility and ancient descent. The remotest peoples of Eastern and Southern India and the late invaders of the North- West alike claimed a place in the story of the Mahabharata, even as the royal houses of Western Europe tmced their origin to Trojan heroes. Until the close of the sixteenth century no historian of France or Britain doubted that the kings of these countries were descended from the Trojan Francus or Brutus, both of whom Avere in reality eponymous heroes like Yadu and his brothers in the Puranas. Milton in his History of England (1670) repeats the story of Brutus at length and in detail ; but a chance phrase — ' they who first devis'd to bring us from some noble ancestor ' — shows that historians were beginning to recognise the origin of such legends. And so far as the Maha- bharata associates most of the nations of India with the great war it has been ' devis'd ' in the same manner and for the same pur- pose. A nucleus of fact has been encrusted with the legendary accretions of ages.
After the great war detailed dynastic tables continue to be given in the case of three royal lines only — the Purus, the Iksh- vakus, and the kings of Magadha. Other kingdoms are mentioned summarily with a bare statement of the number of contemporary reigns. The Puranic history is thus, professedly though not actually (pp. 311, 318), confined in its later stages to the regions now represented by the United Provinces and S. Bihar.
In the Purus or Pauravas of the Puranas the Bharatas of the Rigveda and the Kurus of the Brahmanas have been merged. In the Rigveda both the Purus and the Bharatas live in the land of
20-2
3o8 The Pur anas [ch.
the Sarasvati (Brahmavarta or Sirhiud). But already the Aryan occupation of Kurukshetra, the adjacent country of the upper Jumna and Ganges on the south-east, was beginning : for a victory on the Jumna gained by Sudas, king of the Tritsus, over a native leader called Bheda is referred to in vii, 18, 19. In the Puranas, Sudas and his family appear in the list of the kings of N. Paiichala to the east of Kurukshetra. That is to say, the later kings of N. Panchala (p. 316) claimed descent from the Tritsus of the Rigveda, who are regarded by the Puranas as a branch of the Purus.
But the gi'eat conqueror of Kurukshetra was Bharata Dauh- shanti, whose victories on the Jumna and Ganges are commemorated in an old verse quoted by the ^atapatha Brahmana (xiii, 5, 4, 11); and the extension of Bharata's conquests to Ka9i (Benares) is attributed by another ancient verse (xiii, 5, 4, 19) to ^^tanika Satrajita. In the Puranic list of Puru kings, Bharata and his father, Dushyanta, appear long before, and ^atanika soon after, the beginning of the Kali Age. Between the periods of the two conquerors, Bharata and ^atanika, came the war of the Maha- bharata, which for the Puranas marks the division between the third and fourth ages of the world.
The later list contains the names of twenty-nine Puru kings, who lived after the war. They reigned first at Hastinapura, the ancient capital of the Kuru princes, which is usually identified with a ruined site in the Meerut District 'on the old bed of the Ganges, lat. 29^ 9' N., long. 78° 3' E.' (Pargiter, Mdrh. Pur., p. 355) ; but when this city was destroyed by an inundation of the Ganges in the reign of Nichakshus, the successor of Adhisimakrishna, they removed the seat of their rule to Kau9ambi, possibly the present Kosam in the Allahabad District. Another of their capitals was Indraprastha in the Kuru plain, the ancient city of the Pandu princes : it is the modern Indarpat, near Delhi. The Purus therefore, with their capitals in the north, east, and west, ruled over a large portion of the present province of Agra from the Meerut Division on the north to the Benares Division on the south-east. The dynasty came to an end with Kshemaka, the fourth king to reign after Udayana, the contemporary of the Buddha (p. 310)^
From the evidence both of Vedic literature and of the Puranas it appears that the Ikshvakus were originally a branch of the Purus. They were kings of Kosala, the country which lay to the east of the
1 For the historical details here summarised, see Vedic Index, i, pp. 153, 155, 165, 169; II, pp. 12, 96, 110, 186; Pargiter, J.R.A.S., 1910, pp. 26-29; Kali Age, pp. 4 ff., 65 fi.
XI 1 1] Kosala: Magadha 309
Kurus and Paiichalas and to the west of the Videhas, from whom it was separated by the river Sadanira, probably the Great Gandak. This territory was practically the modern province of Oudh. The chief cities were Ayodhya (Ajodhya on the Gogra in the Fyzabad District) with which the Saketa of Buddhist writers was probably either identical or closely associated, and ^ravasti (Set Mahet in the Gonda District). In story Ayodhya is famous as the city of Da9aratha, the father of Rama, the hero of the Ramayana. Both of these characters, who may possibly have been historical, are as- signed by the Puranas to a dim and distant period long before the beginning of the Kali Age.
Although the extension of Brahmanism from the land of the Kurus and Panchalas to Kosala was comparatively late (p. 117), the Aryan occupation of the country goes back to an earlier period. In the later Vedic literature two kings of Kosala, Hiranyanabha and Para Atnara, probably father and son, seem to be mentioned as performing the horse- sacrifice in celebration of their victories ; and, as the former of these appears in the Puranic list before the Kali Age, the conquest of Kosala was evidently attributed to the period before the great war.
In the time of the Buddha, Kosala was the predominant king- dom in Northern India, but it was already being eclipsed by the growing power of Magadha, Such incidents in its history as can be recovered from early Buddhist literature have been narrated in Chapter VII (pp. 1785*.).
The Puranic list of Ikshvaku kings in the Kali Age concludes with Sumitra, the fourth successor of Prasenajit, who was contem- porary with the Buddha. The royal houses of Piiru and Ikshvaku, the sovereigns of Agra and Oudh, thus disappear from the scene at about the same time (p. 308). Henceforth the historical interest of the Puranas centres in Magadha which had become the suzerain power in the Middle Country ^
The Magadhas, who inhabited the Patna and Gaya Districts of S. Bihar, are unknown by this name to the Rigveda ; but, together with their neighbours, the Angas, in the Districts of Monghyr and Bhagalpur, they are mentioned in the Atharvaveda as a people living on the extreme confines of Aryan civilisation. Their kings claimed to be Piirus : they traced their descent from Kuru through the great conqueror, Vasu Chaidya^, whose son, Brihadratha, was the founder of the dynasty which is known by his name.
1 Vedic Index, i, pp. 75, 190, 491 ; n, p. 506 ; Pargiter, J.R.A.S., 1910, pp. 27, 29 ; Kali Age, pp. 9, 66. * Possibly the Ka9a Chaidya of Rigveda, vni, 5, 37.
3IO The Puranas [ch.
Magadha is the most famous kingdom in ancient and medieval India. Twice in history did it establish great empires — the Maurya Empire in the fourth and third centuries b,c., and the Gupta Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. The long line of kings attri- buted to Magadha by the Puranas consists of a series of no fewer than eight dynastic lists furnished with a statement of the number of years in each reign and the duration of each dynasty. If all these dynasties could be regarded as successive, and if the length of reigns could be determined with certainty, the chronology of Magadha would be a simple matter of calculation. But this is not the case. Some of the royal families included in the series were undoubtedly contemporary, and the text of the Puranas has become so corrupt that the numbers as stated by the different mss. are rarely in agreement.
Brihadratha himself and nine of his successors are supposed to have reigned before the Kali Age. It is recorded that, when Saha- deva, the last of these, was slain in the great war, Somadhi, his heir, became king in Girivraja, 'the fortress on the hill,' at the foot of which the old capital of Magadha, Rajagriha, grew up. The site is marked by the ruined town of Rajgir in the Patna Dis- trict. In the reign of Senajit, Somadhi's sixth successor, most of the Puranas claim to have been recited. . No other event is connected with the twenty-one successors of Sahadeva.
The next two dynasties, the Pradyotas and (^i9unagas, were almost certainly contemporary. The Pradyota dynasty may be identified with the Paunika family mentioned in the Harshacharita (trans. Co well and Thomas, p. 193). According to the Puranas, the founder, Punika (Pulika), slew his master, Ripuiijaya, the last of the Brihadrathas, and anointed his own son in his stead. After five reigns, the duration of which is given by some versions as 52 years and by others as 138 years, tlie Pradyota dynasty is sup- planted by ^igunaga, who, after placing his son on the throne of Kagi (Benares), himself takes possession of Girivraja.
But this is history distorted. Some editor has evidently placed independent lists in a false sequence and supplied appropriate links of connexion. This is clear from the evidence of Buddhist literature.
The Pradyotas were kings of Avanti (W. Malwa) and their capital was Ujjain. Pradyota (Pajjota) himself, like Bimbisara and Ajatagatru (Ajatasattu), the fifth and sixth in the list of ^igunagas, and like the Puru Udayana (Udena) of Vatsa (Vamsa) and the Ikshvaku Prasenajit (Pasenadi) of Kosala, was contem-
XI 1 1] Avanti: L,ater Qiqunagas 311
porary with the Buddha \ The first of the Pradyotas, and the fifth and sixth of the 9i9unaga8, who are separated by more than 150 years at the least according to the Puranas^, were therefore ruling at the same period in different countries.
That the Pradyota of the Puranas and the Pradyota of Ujjain were one and the same person does not admit of question. The fact is implied in the statement of the Matsya Pur.^, and is clear when the Puranas are compared with other Sanskrit literature. Udayana, the king of Vatsa, is the central figure in a large cycle of Sanskrit stories of love and adventure ; and in these Pradyota, the king of Ujjain, the father of the peerless Vasavadatta, plays no small part. In some of the stories he appears also as the father of Palaka and the grandfather of Avantivardhana*. Now of the five members of the dynasty in the Puranas the first two are Pra- dyota and Palaka {v.l. Balaka), and the last is probably Avantivar- dhana ; for the various readings of the mss., as given by Mr Pargiter {Kali Age, p. 19), indicate that this may be the correct form of the name which appears in his text as Nandivardhana.
This intrusion of kings of Avanti in the records of Magadha is probably to be explained, as in the similar case of the Andhras (p. 318), as the result of a suzerainty successfully asserted by Avanti ; and this may have been the outcome of the attack on Ajata^atru which Pradyota was reported to have been contemplating shortly before the Buddha's deaths If so, the supremacy of Avanti, which may have been temporary, was not established until some years after the beginning of Ajata9atru's reign, and the Pradyotas of the Puranas were contemporary with the later Ql^unagas — Ajata9atru, Dar^aka, and Udayin.
It is only when we come to the reigns of Bimbisara and Ajata- 9atru in the ^i9unaga dynasty that we find the firm ground of history. At this period lived Mahavira and Buddha, the founders, or perhaps rather the reformers, of Jainism and Buddhism; and now the Puranas are supplemented by two other lines of tradition which are presumably independent In the Jain accounts Bim- bisara appears as (^renika and Ajata9atru as Kunika : the former began the expansion of Magadha by the conquest of the kingdom of Anga (Monghyr and Bhagalpur), and the latter is said to have come to the throne after the death of Mahavira and a few years before the death of Buddha.
» See Chapter vii, pp. 180, 183, 185, 187. ^ Xgii Age, pp. 18-21, 68-9.
* Mr Harit Krishna Deb in Udayana Vatsardja (Calcutta, 1919), p. 4.
* Lac&te, Gunddhya et la Brhatkatha, p. 154. 5 Chapter vn, p. 185.
312 The Pur anas [ch.
Unfortunately on one important point the three sources of information are not in agreement. The first eight kings in the Puranic genealogy may be arranged into two groups, the first headed by ^i9unaga and the second by Bimbisara. This arrange- ment is reversed in the Buddhist lists, while ^i9unaga's group is omitted altogether by the Jains. It is difficult to see how the three traditions, each of which has its champions among modern scholars, can be reconciled.
The Brahman and Buddhist books record the length of the reigns of Bimbisara and Ajata9atru ; but they are not in agreement with one another, and moreover the Brahman accounts are not con- sistent. In the present corrupt condition of the text the various MSS. of the Puranas attribute a reign of either 28 or 38 years to Bimbisara, and one of 25, 27, or 28 years to Ajata9atru {Kali Age, p. 21). Until the text has been restored by critical editing the authentic tradition of the Brahmans cannot be ascertained. In contrast with this discrepancy the Buddhist chronicles of Ceylon, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, oflfer a consistent and more detailed account of these reigns and of certain important events in the lifetime of Siddhartha, the (^akya prince who became the Buddha. Whether this tradition is to be accepted as correct in preference to the other may be questioned ; but it affords the best working hypothesis which has yet been discovered. The chronology as determined by Prof. Geiger in the introduction to his translation of the Mahavamsa (pp. xl-xlvi) may be tabulated as follows :
|
<^i<pinaga Kings. |
Siddhartha {the Buddi |
ha). |
|
|
Bimbisai-a's birth |
558 B.C. |
Bom |
563 B.C. |
|
„ accession . . . |
543 „ |
Leaves his father's house... |
534 „ |
|
„ death |
491 „ |
Becomes Buddha |
528 „ |
|
Ajatafatru's accession... |
491 „ |
Meets Bimbisara (for the |
|
|
second time) ^ |
528 „ |
||
|
„ death |
459 „ |
Attains mr??awa |
483 „ |
After these two reigns we come once more to a period of conflicting authorities and chronological uncertainty which lasts until, the reign of Chandragupta. The Buddhist genealogy pre- served in the Mahavamsa is certainly not above suspicion^; for each of the five kings from Ajatasattu to Nagadasaka is said to have kiUed his father and predecessor within a period of fifty-six years, and we are solemnly told that, after the last of these, Naga- dasaka, had occupied the throne for twenty-four years, the citizens awoke to the fact that 'this is a dynasty of parricides' and appointed
1 See Chapter vn, pp. 183 f. « Chapter vn, pp. 189 f.
XI 1 1] Nandas 313
the minister Susunaga ((^icunaga) in his stead The Jain tradition recognises only Udayin and the nine Nandas as reigning during this interval ; and the Puranic list {Kcdi Age, pp. 21-6, 68-9) is
as follows :
Dargaka reigned 24, 25, or 35 years Udayin „ 33 „
Nandivardhana reigned 40, or 42 years Mahanandin „ 43 „
Mahapadma „ 28, or 88 „ 1 ™ , , ,„^
His eight sons „ 12 „ } Total, 100 years.
Dar9aka appears not to be mentioned by the Buddhist writers, unless indeed he is to be identified with Nagadasaka whom they place before Udayin (Udayi-bhadda) ; but he is known to Sanskrit literature as a king of Magadha and the brother of Padmavati, the second queen of Udayana, king of Vatsa\ Udayin, or Udayi- bhadda, is known to all the three traditions. To him the Brahmans and Jains attribute the foundation of Kusumapura on the south bank of the Ganges. The new city, which was either identical with the later Pataliputra or in its immediate neighbourhood, was built near the fortress which Ajata^atru had established at the village of Patali as a protection against the Vajjian (Vriji) confederacy of Licchavis, Videhas, and other clans of N. Bihar. The foundation of Pataliputra is ascribed by the Buddhists to Kalasoka.
The ten 9i9unaga kings are expressly called Kshatriyas by the Puranas, but the last of these, Mahanandin, became, through his marriage with a (^udra woman, the founder of a Qudra dynasty which endured for two generations — Mahapadma and his eight sons. One of the latter, usually supposed to be named Dhana- nanda, was on the throne in 326 B.C., when Alexander the Great was obliged by the unwillingness of his army to abandon his scheme of attacking the Prasioi, or 'eastern nations,' then united under the suzerainty of Magadha. Within a few years of Alexander's retirement from India, this suzerainty passed from the Nandas to the Mauryas, probably c. 321 B.C.
The period of the nine Nandas is thus determined. According to the Puranas they represent no new family : they are the direct descendants of the 9i9unagas, the last and the last but one of whom, Mahanandin and Nandivardhana, bear names which indicate their connexion. There are, therefore, two groups of these kings, which seem to be distinguished in literature as the 'old' and the *new' Nandas; and, as Mr Jayaswal has suggested, 'new' and not
* Svapnavdtavadatta, Act. i (eA Trivandrum Series, pp. 4, 5).
314 The Puranas [ch.
'nine' may have been the correct designation of the later group ^ The Puranas know no break of political continuity between the 9i9unagas and the Nandas ; but they recognise that a great social and religious gulf has been fixed between the earlier and the later Nandas by the flagrant violation of caste law which placed Maha- padma,the son of a ^udra woman, on the throne ; and they mark their sense of this chasm by interpolating after the reign of Mahanandin a summary of the number of reigns in other contemporary dynasties before proceeding with their account of the rulers of Magadha.
As to the origin of the Nandas we have no certain information ; but the name is probably tribal, and it may be connected with the Nandas who lived near the river Ramganga, between the Ganges and the Kosi in the Himalayan region of the United Provinces*. The countries of the Himalayan fringe at this period were occupied by innumerable clans governed by tribal constitutions which may best be described as aristocratic oligarchies. Like the Rajputs, they were conquerors ruling in the midst of subject peoples ; and, as Dr Vincent Smith has suggested^, many of these clans may have been of Tibeto-Chinese origin. It is possible that the ^i9unagas and Nandas may have been the descendants of moun- tain chieftains who had won the kingdom of Magadha by conquest.
A Nanda king is twice mentioned in the Hathigumpha inscrip- tion of king Kharavela of Kalinga (Orissa). The inscription, which is a record of events in thirteen (or fourteen) years of the king's reign, has been badly preserved. Considerable portions have been lost, and both the reading and the interpretation of many passages are uncertain. The record in its present state can only be used as a basis for history with the utmost caution. It is clear, however, that in his fifth year Kharavela executed some public work which was associated with the memory of king Nanda ^, and that in his twelfth year he gained a victory over the king of Magadha and,
1 Jour. Bihar and Orissa Research Soc, September 1915, p. 21.
2 Pargiter, Mark. Pur., pp. 292, 383. » Oxford History of India (1919), p. 49. * The different versions of this passage in line 6 of the inscr. depend chiefly,
though not solely, on the translation of ti-vasa-sata. The following renderings have been proposed :
(1) ' He opened the three-yearly almshouse of Nandaraja ' (Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji, Trans. Inter. Or. Cong., Leiden, 1884, Part 3, p. 135. Sata = sattra or gatra, cf. Ep. Ind., X, Appendix, no. 967, p. 100, and no. 985, p. 102) ;
(2) ' He had an aqueduct, that had not been used for 103 years since king Nanda (or since the Nanda kings), conducted into the city' (Prof. Liiders, Ep. Ind., x. Appendix, no. 1345, p. 161. Sata=gata, as also in the next translation) ;
(3) ' He brings into the capital... the canal excavated by king Nanda three centuries before ' (Mr J. P. Jayaswal and Mr R. D. Banerji, Jour. Bihar and Orissa Research Soc, Dec. 1917, pp. 425 ff.).
XI 1 1] Growth of Magadha : Other Powers 315
according to Mr Jayaswal's translation^, recovered certain trophies which had been carried away by king Nanda.
These statements of the inscription, coupled with the somewhat enigmatical testimony of an ancient Sanskrit MS. quoted by Mr JayaswaP, seem to show that Kalinga had been conquered by one of the Nanda kings and lost by another. Kalinga was undoubtedly conquered by A9oka, the third of the Maurya emperors, c. 262 RC' We must infer, therefore, either that it was not included in the dominions of the first two emperors, Chandragupta and Bindusara^ or that it had revolted and was reconquered by A9oka.
Certain stages in the growth of the power of Magadha from its ancient stronghold in the fortress of Girivraja may thus be traced. The expansion began with the conquest of Anga (Monghyr and Bhagalpur in Bengal) by Bimbisara, c. 500 RC. The establish- ment of a supremacy over Ka9i (Benares), Kosala (Oudh), and Videha (N. Bihar) was probably the work of his son and successor, Ajata^atru, in the fii*st half of the fifth century. Kalinga (Orissa) was, perhaps, temporarily included in the empire as a result of its conquest by a Nanda king. It remained for Chandragupta to extend the imperial dominions by the annexation of the north- western region which for a few years had owned the sway of Alexander the Great and his satraps, and for A9oka to conquer, or reconquer, Kaliflga.
The summary of reigns, which comes in the Puranas between the description of the earlier and later Nandas, has reference to ten dynasties in Northern and Central India which were con- temporary with the kings of Magadha. It is a bare list of. names and numbers without any orderly arrangement, and, as usual, the numbers given by the different MSS. are not consistent. The summary may be rearranged geographically as follows (cf. Kali Age, pp. 23-4, 69).
( United Provinces : Agra)
1. Kurus : 36 (19, 26, 30, or 50) reigns.
2. Panchalas : 27 (25) „
3. ^urasenas: 23 „
4. Kaqis : 24 (36) „ {United Provinces : Oudh)
5. Ikshvakus : 24 „
10. Kalingas : 32 (22, 24, 26, or 40) „
1 Op. eiU, pp. 447, 464-5. ' Ibid. p. 482.
3 Chapter xx, p. 495.
|
(Central India and Gujarat) |
|
|
6. 7. 8. |
Haihayas 28 (24) reigns Aqmakas : 25 „ Vltihotras: 20 „ |
|
9. |
(N. Bihar) Mithilas : 28 (18) „ |
|
(Orissa) |
3i6
The Pur anas [ch.
1. The Kurus are no doubt the Parus of the detailed list ; but the number of reigns differs.
2. The Pafichalas, a confederation of five tribes, were neighbours of the Kurus. The capital of N. Pafichala was Ahicchatra, now a ruined site still bearing the same name near the village of Ramnagar in the Bareilly District. The capital of S. Pafichala was Kampilya, now represented by ruins at the village of Kampil in the Farrukhabad District.
3. The peoples living to the south of Kurukshetra claimed descent from YadiL Of these the ^urasenas occupied the Muttra District and possibly some of the territory still farther south. This capital was Muttra (Mathura), the birth- place of the hero Krishna.
To the west of the ^urasenas dwelt the Matsyas. The two peoples are constantly associated, and it is possible that at this time they may have been united under one king. The Matsyas occupied the state of Alwar and possibly some parts of Jaipur and Bhartpur. Their capitals were Upaplavya, the site of which is uncer- tain, and Vairata, the city of king Virata, the modem Bairat in Jaipur.
4. The little kingdom of Ka§i (Benares) was bordered by Vatsa on the west, Kosala on the north, and Magadha on the east. Some details of its relations with these countries may be recovered from early literature. According to the (^atapatha Brahmana (xiii, 5, 4, 19), its king Dhritarashtra was conquered by the Bharata prince (^atanika Satrajita (p. 308). Such incidental notices of its later history as have been preserved by Buddhist writers have been collected in Chapter vii, pp. 180 flF.
At different periods KaQi came under the sway of the three successive suzerain powers of Northern India — the Purus of Vatsa, the Ikshvakus of Kosala, and the kings of Magadha j but it seems to have enjoyed its period of independent power in the interval between the decline of Vatsa and the rise of Kosala, when king Brahmadatta, possibly about a century and a half before the Buddha's time, con- quered Kosala. The fame of Brahmadatta has been kept alive in Buddhist literature ; for in his reign the Jatakas, or stories of the Buddha in previous births, are conventionally set.
,:, The account given in the Puraijas of the accession of ^iQunaga to the throne of Magadha shows that this king was associated also with Ka§I (p. 310).
5. The number of Ikshvaku kings given in the summary is 22. This is not in accordance with the detailed list which (pp. 308 f ) contains 30.
6. 7, 8. The Haihayas, AQmakas, and Vltihotras, like the ^urasenas, belonged to the great family of the descendants of Yadu who occupied the countries of the river Chambal in the north and the river Narbada in the south ; but it is difficult to identify with precision the kingdoms indicated by these different names. Haihaya is often used almost as a synonym of Yadava to denote the whole group of peoples ; and the Vitihotras are a branch of the Haihayas. Both the Vlti- hotras and the Agmakas are closely associated in literature with the Avantis of W. Malwa, whose capital was Ujjain (Ujjayini) on the Sipra, a tributary of the Chambal (Charmaijvatl)^.
It would be strange if the rulers of a city so famous both politically and com- mercially as Ujjain should have found no place in this summary. The most plausible explanation of their apparent absence from the list is that they are here called Haihayas.
^ For these peoples, see Pargiter, Marli. Pur., pp. 344-5, 371 ; J.Ii.A.S., 1914, p. 274.
XI 1 1] Quhgas^ Kanvas^ and Andhras 317
9. The Mithilas take their name from Mithila, the capital of the Videhas, one of the numerous clans, possibly of Tibeto-Chinese origin, who inhabited Tirhut (the districts of Champaran, Muzaffarpur, and Darbhanga in N. Bihar). Videgha Mathava, to whom the Brahmanisation of this region is attributed by the ^atapatha Brahmana (». sup. p^l22) is probably its earliest recorded monarch. According to the Puranas the Aryan kings of the Videhas were a branch of the Puru family. They are derived from Mimi, the son of Ikshvaku and the remote ancestor of Siradhvaja Janaka, the father of Sita, the heraine of the Ramayaija. Like Rama himself, he is supposed to have lived before the Kali Age. It is possible that he may be the King Janaka of Videha who is celebrated in the Brahmanas and Upanishads ; and, if so, the story of the Ramaya^a has its origin in the later Brahmaria period. In the time of the Buddha, the Videhas together with the Licchavis of Vaigall (Basarh in the Hajlpur sub-division of Muzaffarpur) and other powerful clans formed a confederation and were known collectively by their tribal name as the Vrijis (Vajjis). The reduction of their power marks an epoch in the expansion of the kingdom of Magadha^
10. In the Puranas the monarchs of the five kingdoms of Aiiga (Monghyr and Bhagalpur), Vanga (Birbhum, Murshidabad, Bard wan and Nadia), Pun^ra (Chota Nagpur), Suhma (Bankura and Midnapur), and Kalinga (Orissa) are derived from eponymous heroes who are sxipposed to be brothers belonging to the family of Anu''. With the exception of Ahga, none of these kingdoms is mentioned in early literature. The earliest monument which throws light on the history of Kalinga is the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela (». sup. pp. 314 f.)
After this summary the royal genealogies are resumed, and detailed lists of the later Nandas, the Mauryas, the 9'tiwgas, the Kanvas, and the Andhras follow^. The continuous record then ceases ; but genealogies more or less fragmentary and summaries of ruling powers, both native states and foreign invaders, continue to appear until about the end of the fifth century A-D. when the Puranas cease to be historical.
The five dynasties just mentioned are, as usual, regarded as successive ; but this can only be true of the Nandas, Mauryas, and ^ungas. The (^^ungas, Kanvas, and Andhras were contemporary, although no doubt they claimed the suzerainty of N. India suc- cessively. That the first two of these were ruling at the same time may be inferred from the incidental statement that the first Andhra king destroyed the last of the Kanvas and * what was left of the ^ungas' power' {Kali Age, pp. 38, 71). But it is certain that the ^ungas were flourishing after the reign of the first Andhra king. Both powers, (^Junga and Andhra alike, arose on the ruins of the Maurya empire — the former in the Midland Country and the latter in Southern India. It was probably not until the reign of the
1 Vedic Index, i, pp. 271-3 ; ii, p. 298 ; Pargiter, J.R.A.S., 1910, pp. 19, 27, 29 ; Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 25-6, 40-1.
2 Pargiter, Mark. Pur., pp. 324-9, 334.
* For the history of these dynasties, so far as it comes within the limits of the present volume, see Chapters xviii-xxi, and xxiv.
3i8 The Puranas [ch. xiii
third Andhra king, Qatakarni, that they came into collision ; and then their political association appears to have been transient.
The Puranas, however, state or imply that ten (^uiiga kings, reigning for 112 years, were succeeded by four Kanvas, who reigned for 45 years, and that then the first of the Andhras, Simuka, having wrested the kingdom from the last of the Kanvas, Su9armau, became the founder of a dynasty of thirty kings who ruled over Magadha during a period of 460 years. This is manifestly in- correct. It is evident that by piecing together three separate lists some editor has constructed an entirely false chronology and has perverted historj^ The Andhras had probably no connexion with Magadha. Their only possible claim to a place in its records must have been founded on a conquest which transferred to them the suzerainty previously held by Magadha \
In order to understand the situation we must consider what the consequences of a triumph of this kind must have been. Under the Nandas and the Mauryas Magadha had established a suzerainty which passed by conquest to the first ^unga king, Pushyamitra, and was solemnly proclaimed by his performance of the 'horse- sacrifice' {a^vamedha)\ This suzerainty, and with it the proud title of chafcravartin, 'universal monarch,' was contested success- fully by the Andhra king who, as is known from the Nanaghat inscription of his queen, Naganika, celebrated the A9vamedha on two occasions^ ; and, as we have seen (p. 302), there is good reason for believing that the genealogies preserved in the Puranas have their origin in the proclamation of the king's lineage which accom- panied the performance of this sacrifice.
The rank of a chakravartin must, at this period, have conferred on his family an hereditary distinction which entitled all his suc- cessors to be commemorated in the records of Magadha. Imperial and royal dignities of this kind, when once established, are not readily abandoned, however shadowy and unreal they may have become. It must be remembered that the sovereigns of our own country continued to use the title and the arms of France until the beginning of the nineteenth century, nearly two centuries and a half after the loss of Calais, the last of their French possessions. Regarded as historical documents, the British coin-legends of the eighteenth century, with their purely hereditary titles, are as mis- leading as the Puranas, which, arranging all in one long series, ascribe to Magadha both its own kings and the families of the suzerains of Northern India.
» Chapter xxiv, p. 600. * Chapter xxi, p. 520.
3 Biihler, Arch. Sur. West. Ind., v, pp. 60 ff.
CHAPTER XIV
THE PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN NORTHERN INDIA DOWN TO THE TIME OF ALEXANDER'S INVASION
The connexions between Persia and India date back to the gi'ay dawn of the period of Indo-Iranian unity, when the Aryan ancestors of the Hindus and Persians still formed an undivided branch of the Indo-European stock. Though the separation of these two kindred peoples, through their migrating into the respec- tive countries they have occupied in historic times, must have taken place more than three thousand years ago, nevertheless there long remained a certain community of interest, which had a bearing upon the early history of the north of India, where Persian influence, and even dominion, was strongest. The aim of the present chapter, therefore, is to bring out the main points of contact between the two nations from the earliest times and to indicate the eflfect of the sway exercised by Persia in Northern, or rather North-western, India prior to the invasion of Alexander the Great and the fall of the Achaemenian Empire of Iran in the latter part of the fourth century b.c.
To begin the sketch with the most remote ages, it may be assumed that every student is familiar with the evidence that proves the historic relationship between the Hindus and the Per- sians through ties of common Aryan blood, close kinship in language and tradition, and through near affinities in the matter of religious beliefs, ritual observances, manners, and customs.
An illustration or two may be chosen from the domain of reli- gion alone. The Veda and the Avesta, which are the earliest literary monuments of India and Persia, contain sufficient evidence of the fact of such connexion, even though each of these works may date from times long after the period of Indo-Iranian separa- tion. A certain relationship, for example, is acknowledged to exist between the Vedic divinity Varuna and the Avestan deity Ahura Mazda, or Ormazd, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism. Equally well known are the points of kinship between the Indian Mitra and the Iranian Mithra, and, in less degree, between the victorious
320 Persian Dominions in N. India [CH.
Indra Vritrahan of the Rigveda and the all-triumphant Vere- thraghna of the Avestan Yashts. Nor need more than mention be made of the parallels between Yama and Yima or of the cognate use made by the Indians and the Persians of the sacred drink soma and haoma in their religious rites. Scores more of likenesses and similarities might be adduced to prove the long-established con- nexion between India and Iran, but they are generally familiar \
Additional evidence, however, has comparatively recently been furnished by certain cuneiform tablets which the German professor Hugo Winckler discovered, in 1907, at Boghaz-koi in North-eastern Asia Minor. These documents give, in their own special language, a record of treaties between the kings of Mitani and of the Hittites about 1400 B.C. Among the gods called to witness are deities common in part to India and Persia, whatever the relation may be. The names involved in the tablets are Mi-it-ra, U-ru-w-na, In-da-ra, and Na-sa-at-ti-ia, corresponding respectively to Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatya (the latter regularly a dual in the Veda, and representing the two A9vins) in the Indian pantheon. They answer likewise in due order to the Persian Mithra and to those elements common between the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda and the Vedic Varuna, as explained above ; but on the other hand Avestan Indra and Naonhaithya (a singular in Av., Vd. x, 9 ; xix, 43) appear as demons in the Zoroastrian scriptures. It is not the place here to enter into a discussion of the question as to whether the super- natural beings thus mentioned in the Boghaz-koi clay tablets are to be interpreted as being * proto-Iranian,' 'Vedic,' 'Aryan,' or even * Mitanian ' alone, because the matter is still open to debate by scholars. It is sufficient to draw attention to the general bearings of such a discovery upon the subject of relationship be- tween India and Persia, however direct or indirect the connexion may be^
^ A convenient summary of these now familiar facts will be found in F. Spiegel, Die arische Periode, Leipzig, 1887. Throughout the present chapter the terms • Iran ' and ' Iranians ' are to be taken broadly, so as to comprehend Persia and its people in the widest significance — whether Medes, Persians, or Bactrians — as forming a special division of the Indo-Iranian branch of the great Indo-European, or Indo-Germanic, stock. The designation ' Aryan ' should really be restricted (as is done by scholars) to the common bond represented historically by the Hindus and the Persians.
s This valuable find of the tablets by Winckler (who died April 19, 1913) was first reported in his Vorlaufige Nachrichten iiber die Ausgrabungen in Boghaz-koi im Sommer 1907, in Mittheilungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft, No. 35 (1908). The import- ance of the discovery was at once recognised by scholars and has since received wide attention j compare, for example, Eduard Meyer, Zt. filr vergleichende Sprachforachung, Neue Folge (1908), xui, 1-27 ; idem, Sitzb. d. kgl. preuss. A had. d. Wiss., 1908, pp. 14-19 ; also H. G. Jacobi, J.R.A.S., 1909, pp. 721-726 ; H. Oldenburg, ibid. pp. 1095-1100 ;
xiv] Common Indo- Iranian Domains 321
The geographical connexion between India and Persia histori- cally was a matter of fact that must have been known to both countries in antiquity through the contiguity of their territorial situation. The realms which correspond to-day to the buffer states of Afghanistan and Baluchistan formed always a point of contact and were concerned in antiquity with Persia's advances into Northern and North-western India as well as, in a far less degree, with any move of aggrandisement on the part of Hindustan in the direction of Iran^. Evidence from the Veda and the Avesta alike attests the general fact.
Vedic scholars, for example, will agree with Avestan students that the partly common Indo-Iranian domains comprised in the river-system above the Indus basin, and verging toward the north- western border adjacent to Iran, are referred to in the Rigveda in certain allusions to the district indicated by the rivers Kubha (Kabul), Krumu (Kurram), and Gomati (Gumal). They will equally unite in emphasising the fact that there are other incidental allusions in the Veda, such as those to Gandhara and Gaudhari, which may certainly be interpreted as referring to the districts of Peshawar and Rawalpindi S.E. from KabuP. A part of these districts has belonged rather to Iran than to India in historic times, but it is equally impossible to deny or to minimise the role they have played in India's development ever since the remote age when the tribal ancestors of the present Hindus occupied them on their way into their later established horned For the earliest period, we
A. B. Keith, ihid. pp. 1100-1106; A. H. Sayce, iUi. pp. 1106-1107; J. Kennedy, ibid. pp. 1107-1119; H. G. Jacobi, ihid. 1910, pp. 456-464; A, B. Keith, ibid. pp. 464-466 ; H. Oldenburg, ibid. pp. 846-850 ; see also M. Winternitz, Globus (1909), xcv, 126 ; Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, i, p. viii ; and most recently J. H. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 5-7, 45, 139, 235 ; Eduard Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 3rd ed., vol. i, pt 2, §§ 455, 585, 590.
1 Arrian, Indica, 9, 12, for example, may be cited in support of this statement ; for he avers, on Indian authority, that ' a sense of justice, they say, prevented any Indian king from attempting conquest beyond the limits of India.' The assertion certainly seems true for the earliest times.
2 For references to passages in the texts and for bibliographical allusions consult Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, i, 162 (Kubha), 199 (Krumu), 238 (Gomati), and 218-219 (Gandhara, Gandhari). In regard to the territory to be located by the Vedic river Sarasvati, the present tendency among Sanskrit specialists (most recently, for example, Macdonell and Keith, op. cit. n, 434-437) is to confine it to India itself and not to follow the suggestions that have been made, on etymological grounds, to connect the region thus watered by the Sarasvati directly with the region around the Iranian river Harahvaiti of the Avesta, or Hara(h)uvatl of the Old Persian Inscriptions, as a designation of the ancient land of Arachosia.
* The student of history, with an eye to the significance of territorial location, will at once recall the part played in after ages by Kabul as a strategic centre, and as the doorway into India from the north, in the annals of Hindustan.
C.H.I. I. 21
322 Persian Dominions in N, India [ch.
may well agree with the opinion expressed by Eduard Meyer in an encyclopaedia article on Persia : ' The dividing line between Iranian and Indian is drawn by the Hindu-Kush and the Soliman mountains of the Indus district. The valley of the Kabul {Cophen) is already occupied by Indian tribes, especially the Gandarians ; and the Satagydae (Pers. Thatagu) there resident were presumably also of Indian stock '^. These facts, because of their importance in regard to this bridge between India and Iran, will be touched upon again below (pp. 338-9).
Regarding the interpretation of certain other references in the Eigveda as containing allusions, direct or implied, to Persia in a broader sense, there is a wide divergence of opinion among San- skritists, even though the Iranian investigator may feel assured of the truth of so explaining such passages. Vedic specialists are at variance, for example, as to whether an allusion to the Parthavas in Rv. VI, 27, 8, is to be understood as a reference to the ancestors of the Parthians, and as to whether the Persians are really referred to under the designation Par9avas (e.g. Rv. x, 33, 2), especially as the diflBculty is increased by the uncertainty in determining the real significance historically of the names Prithu and Parcu from which the terms Parthavas and Par9ava8 are derived. The name Balhika (Atharvaveda, v, 22, 5, 7, 9) has been interpreted by some Indie scholars as containing an allusion to the ancient Iranian tribe of the Bactrians, especially because it is mentioned in connexion with the Mujavants, a northern people ; but other specialists oppose this view and deny an appeal to certain other Vedic words that might be cited. Nevertheless, and in spite of the diflferences among Sanskrit authorities, there is more than one Iranian investigator who feels positive that some at least of the Rigveda references in question allude to Persia or to Persian connexions in by-gone days. The assumption may reasonably be made that scholarship in the future will tend to prove the correctness of the attempts (wide of the mark though some of them may have been in the past) to show through the Veda the continuity of contact between India and Persia during the period under consideration^.
From the Iranian side, if we may judge by the sources available,
1 Encyclop. Brit., 11th ed., xxi, 203, art. 'Persia.'
2 For complete references to the Vedic passages involved in the discussion, including full bibliographical citations, see Macdonell and Keith, op. cit. i, 29 (Abhyavartin), 347-9 (Dasyu), 450 (Ninditacjva), and especially 504-5 (Parpu), 521-2 (Parthava) ; ii, 63 (1. Balhika). Macdonell and Keith join with those Sanskrit scholars who oppose the attempt to find any allusions to Iran in the Veda. The extravagant endeavours of
xiv] Evidence of Veda and Avesta 323
the evidence seems to be much stronger in favour of Persian influence upon India and modifying control over the northern part of the country than it is for a reverse influence of India upon Iran. Throughout ancient history, as indicated above (p. 321), Persia was the more aggressive power of the two. Yet it is un- certain how far the sphere of Iranian knowledge and authority in India may have extended prior to the time of the Achaemenian Empire, at which era our information takes on a more definite form. At no time, however, does the realm of Persian activity in this direction appear to have extended much beyond the limit of the Indus.
As already intimated, the Avesta is in general the oldest source showing Persia's interest in India, although the greatest uncertainty still prevails among specialists in regard to assigning any precise date or dates. The present writer shares the opinion of those scholars who believe that, however late may be some of its portions, the Avesta in the main is pre- Achaemenian in content ; in other words, even though it is possible to recognise Achaemenian, Par- thian, and, perhaps, Sassanian elements in the collection, the general tenor of the work and the material on which it is based represent a period antedating the fifth century B.C., or the era when the Persian Empire reached its height '^. For that reason (and with due emphasis on the broad latitude that is to be allowed in the matter of dates) it is appropriate to cite the Avestan
Brunnhofer, Urgeschichte der Arier, 3 vols, Leipzig, 1893, to identify every remote Yedic term that had a possible geographical content as an Iranian allusion are bizarre in the extreme, even though there are grains of truth in the author's views when he touches more conservatively on the domain bordering between India and Iran. The writer of the present chapter sympathises strongly with certain of the pleas made by the Vedic scholars Ludwig, Hillebrandt, and Weber to recognise Persian allusions in the Bigveda ; the titles of the special articles on the subject by these scholars are duly cited by Macdonell and Keith in the pages of their Vedic Index, referred to above. It seems, for example, that some Avestan student may yet make more use than has been done of the material collected by E. W. Hopkins, Prdgdthikdni, i, in J.A.O.S. 1896, xvii, 84-92.
^ For a convenient presentation of the various views regarding the date of Zoroaster and the age of the Avestan Gathas, as well as concerning the relative antiquity of other portions of the sacred canon, see J. H. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, London, 1913. Dr Moulton summarises his opinion as follows, on p. viii : * The traditional date [of Zoroaster] (660-583 b.c.) is a minimum, but there are strong reasons for placing Zarathushtra and his Qathas some generations earlier still. The Yashts may be placed in the later Achaemenian age, and the prose Avesta, in particular the ritual of the Vendidad, probably after Alexander. ' He elaborates this view further on pp. 8-22, 78, 87, 103, 198, 204, 240. It is important throughout to bear in mind the fact that the material may sometimes be very old even though the/or7« is late, and that different chapters as well as sections of the Yashts, Vendidad, and Yasna may vary considerably in age.
21—2"
324 Persian Dominions in N. India [ch.
references to India, or the region of the Indian frontier, directly after the possible allusions to Persia in the Veda already given.
The name for India in the A vesta is Hindu, which, like the Old Persian Hi(n)du, is derived from the river Indus, Sanskrit Sindhu, — the designation of the stream being transferred to the territory adjacent to it and to its tributaries. The first chapter of the Avestan Vendldad (whatever may be the age of the chapter) con- tains an allusion to a portion of Northern India in a list which it gives of sixteen lands or regions, created by Ahura Mazda and apparently regarded as under Iranian sway^ The fifteenth of these domains, according to Vd. i, 18, was Hapta Hindu, 'Seven Rivers,' a region of ' abnormal heat,' probably identical with the territory of Sapta Sindhavas, 'Seven Rivers,' in the Veda (see especially Rv. viii, 24, 27)^. The district in question, which was more comprehensive than the modern Punjab, or 'Five Rivers,' must have included the lands watered in the north and north-west of Hindustan by the river Indus and its afiluents — answering, apparently, to the Vedic Vitasta (now Jhelum), Asikni (Chenab), Parushni (later named Iravati, whence its present designation Ravi), Vipa9 (Beas), and (^Jutudri (Sutlej), the latter being the easternmost stream ^
In connexion with this Avestan passage (Vd. i, 18), moreover, in its bearing on Persian domains in Northern India, it is worth while to call attention to the Pahlavi gloss of the Middle Persian rendering of the paragraph in Sassanian times. Whatever may be the full import of this difficult gloss, the passage may be literally translated as follows : ' The Seven Hindukan ; the expression "Seven Hindukan" is due to this fact, that the over-lordship {sar-xutdt) is seven ; and therefore I do not say " Seven Rivers," for that is manifest from the Avesta [passage] " From the Eastern
1 One might be inclined (as the writer has been led, especially through a study of the Pahlavi commentary and other Sassanian sources) to regard Vd. i, though late in form, as containing older material that might antedate in substance the division which Darius made of his empire into twenty satrapies ; but Darmesteter warns against the attempts that have been made to discover much antique history in the chapter. His rather strong statement (Vendidad Translated, 2nd ed., S.B.E. iv, 1) is: ' We have here nothing more than a geographical description of Iran, seen from the religious point of view.'
2 See Bartholomae, Altiranisches Worterbuch, col. 1814 ; Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, ii, 424; Hopkins, J.A.O.S. xvi, 278; xvii, 86-88.
3 Cf. Spiegel, Die arische Periode, pp. 112-118 ; Macdonell, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 140; see also above, p. 321, n. 2 (on the question of Sarasvati=Harab< vaiti).
xiv] T*he Eastern and Western Indus 325
Indus (or, India) to the Western Indus (India)" \' In partial sup- port of the scholiast's interpretation as 'the over-lordship is seven' it has been further pointed out that a tradition as to the dominions involved may have lingered down to Firdausl's time, inasmuch as he mentions in one passage seven princes of India, namely the lords of Kabul, Sindh, Hindh, Sandal, Chandal, Kashmir, and Multan ; but too much stress need not be laid on the points
The Avestan fragment above cited from the gloss to Vd. i, 18 — ■ * from the Eastern Indus (India) to the Western Indus (India) ' — is best interpreted as alluding to the extreme ends of the Iranian world ; for Spiegel has clearly shown by sufficient references that, at least in Sassanian times and doubtless earlier, there prevailed an idea of an India in the west as well as an India in the east^ This is borne out by a passage in Yasht x, 104, in which the divine power of Mithra, the personification of the sun, light, and truth, is extolled as destroying his adversaries in every quarter. The passage (Yt. x, 104), which is metrical and therefore relatively old, runs thus : * The long arms of Mithra seize upon those who deceive Mithra ; even when in Eastern India he catches him, even when in Western [India] he smites him down ; even when he is at the mouth of the Ranha (river), [and] even when he is in the middle of the earth ^' The same statement is repeated in part in Yasiia LVii, 29, regarding the power of Sraosha, the guardian genius of mankind, as extending over the wide domain from India on the east to the extreme west : ' even when in Eastern India he catches [his adversary], even when in Western [India] he smites him down.'
There is still another Avestan allusion which may possibly be interpreted as referring in a general way to Indian connexions ; it
^ For the Pahlavi text of the passage, and especially the variant readings, see the edition by D. D. P. Sanjana, The Pahlavi Vendiddd, p. 9, Bombay, 1895 ; and the earlier edition by F. Spiegel, Avesta sammt der Huzvdresch- Ubersetzung, vol. i, pt 2, p. 7, Leipzig, 1851.
2 The passage, Firdausi, Shdhndmah, ed. Maoan, p. 1579, was pointed out by W. Geiger, Die pehleviversion des ersten Capitels des Vendidad (1887), p. 62, and likewise by Spiegel, Die arische Periode, p. 117.
8 Spiegel, op. cit. p. 118. Compare also the remarks made below, p. 340, n. 3, on Esther, i, 1.
* The Av. word niyne, here translated ' smites down,' is best so taken as a verbal form ; so also by Bartholomae, Air. Wh. coll. 492, 1814, followed by P. Wolff, Avesta Sbersetzt, pp. 79, 214. J. Darmesteter, Le Zend-Avesta, i, 366, also n. 52 (and of. n, 469) has ' il abat k la riviere du Couchant.' Others have taken niyne as a loc. sg. ; thus F. Justi, Handbuch der Zendsprache (1864j, p. 171, renders 'im westlichen Niniveh'; F. Spiegel, Die ar. Per. p. 119, 'im westlichen Nighna' (i.e. the Nile). Opposed to the explanation as a proper name is C. de Harlez, Avesta traduit (1881), p. 461, who gives ' dans les profondeurs de I'occident,' with a footnote ' dans I'enfonce ment nocturne' ; cf. also ibid. p. 377, n. 4.
326 Persian Dominions in N. hidia [CH.
is the mention, in Yt. viii, 32, of a mountain called Us-Hindava, which stands in the midst of the partly mythical sea Vouru-kasha and is the gathering place of fog and clouds. The name Us-Hindava means ' Beyond (or, Above) India,' according to one way of trans- lating; but another rendering makes it simply 'the mountain from which the rivers rise.' Owing to this uncertainty, and to a general vagueness in three passages in which the mountain is referred to as Usind and Usindam in the Pahlavi, or Middle Persian, texts of Sassanian times (Bundahishn, xii, 6 ; xiii, 5 ; Zatsparam, xxii, 3), it seems wiser for the present to postpone an attempt to decide whether the allusion is to the Hindu Kush or possibly the Himalaya, or even some other ranged
Precisely as was noted above (p. 321), in considering the Vedic material as sources for the historian's review of the distant past, there are likewise a number of Avestan names of places located south of the Hindu Kush in the territory that once at least was common in part to the Indians and the Iranians and has had, as a natural borderland, an important influence upon India's history in later ages. A portion of these domains corresponds to a con- siderable section of Afghanistan and possibly to a part of Balu- chistan, realms now under direct British influence or included politically as a part of the Indian Empire. One of the proofs of this community of interest is the fact that the territory of Arachosia (Av. HarahvaitI, O.P. Hara(h)uvatl), which corresponds to the modern province of Kandahar, was known, at least in later Parthian times, as 'White India' (IvSikt) AevKij). This we have on the authority of the geographer Isidor of Charax (first cent. A.D.), who, when mentioning Arachosia as the last in his list of Parthian pro- vinces, adds {Mans. Parth. 19), 'the Parthians call it "White India ".' As a supplement to this statement, in its historic aspect, may be quoted a pertinent observation made by the French savant
1 The interpretation as Hindu Rush is given by Geldner, Grundriss d. iran. Philol. ii, 38 ; the rendering of Bartholomae, Air. Wb. col. 409, is ' jenseits von Indien gelegen ' ; Darmesteter, Le Z.-A. ii, 423, n. 70, remarks : 'Le mot us-hindu signifie litt^ralement " d'oii se Invent les rivieres." II est douteux que ce soit une montagne r^elle: Us- hindu est le repr^sentant de la classe. ' For translations of the Pahlavi passages in which Usind, or Usindam, is mentioned, see E. W. West, S.B.E. v, 35, 42 ; xlvii, 160 (and cf. v, 67, n. 3). It may be noted incidentally that an attempt has been made to connect the meteorological phenomena described in the myth of the Tishtar Yasht (Yt. viii), in which this allusion occurs, with the breaking of the monsoon. See the articles by Mrs E. W. Maunder, The Zoroastrian Star-Champions, in The Observatory, Nov. and Dec. 1912, March 1913 ; and the similar view by Mr E. W. Maunder, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, quoted by Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, pp. 25, 26, n. 2, 436-7.
xiv] The Persian Provinces 327
James Darmesteter in touching upon the realms of Kabul and Seistan. He regards the language of Vd. i as indicating that ' Hindu civilization prevailed in those parts, which in fact in the two centuries before and after Christ were known as White India, and remained more Indian than Iranian till the Musulman conquest \'
All of the realms concerned in the next Avestan references to be cited have their historical and political bearing, important for the statesman as well as for the historian of India ; and they can be identified with the provinces under the imperial sway of Darius I of Persia, as mentioned in his cuneiform inscriptions. The dominions are equally included in the account of the ancient Persian satrapies given by Herodotus and are comprised in the geographical descrip- tions of Iran by his successors. For that reason, in the following enumeration, the Old Persian, Greek, and modern designations are recorded in every case together with the Avestan.
To confine attention first to the land that is now Afghanistan, it may be noted that the Hindu Kush range may possibly be referred to in the Avestan allusion to Us-Hindava, mentioned above (p. 326). It is likewise possible to conjecture that the ridge of Band-i-Baian, somewhat to the west, may perpetuate the old Avestan name Bayana in the list of mountain names enumerated in the Nine- teenth Yasht (Yt. XIX, 3) ; while the chain familiarly known from the classics as Paropanisus or Paropamisus appears to be included under the Avestan designation Upairisaena, lit. ' Higher than the eagle '^. To the north of these barriers lay Bactria (Av. BakhdhI, O.P. Bakhtri, Gk. Ba/cT/oot, Ba/cT/jtav?;, Mod. Balkh), a centre which was destined to play an important part in India's history ^
Herat, on the west, including the district watered by the Hari Rud, was known in the Avesta as Haroiva (O.P. Haraiva, Gk. 'Ape/a). Kabul, to the east and nearer the present Indian frontier, appears as Vaekereta (answering to the western part of O.P. Ga(n)dara,
1 Darmesteter, S.B.E. (2nd ed.), iv, 2 ; and cf. Le Z.-A. ii, 13, n. 32, where he bases his statement about the character of the civilisation on Mas'udI, Les Prairies d^or, ed. and tr. Barbier de Meynard, ii, 79-82, Paris, 1863.
^ Cf. El. Bab. Paruparesanna, substituted for O.P. Ga{n)ddra in these versions of the Bahistan Inscription, 1. 16 (6). It is quite possible to see in Av. iSkata and pouruta, Yt. x, 14 (cf. Yt. xix, 3 ; Ys. x, 11), the names of two mountain branches of the Hindu Kush and Paropanisus; so, among other scholars, Sarre and Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, Text, p. 31 ; somewhat differently Bartholomae, Air. Wb. coll. 376, 900.
* For references to the passages in which the ancient Iranian names of the pro- vinces occur, consult Bartholomae, Air. Wb., under each of the separate Avestan or Old Persian names involved.
328 Persian Dominions in N. India [ch.
Gk. Vav8apiTc<;, or El. Paruparesanna, and possibly in part to O.P. Thatagu, Gk. l^arrayvBai,^). The region corresponding to the modem province of Kandahar, as already stated, is represented by Av. Harahvaiti (O.P. Hara(h)uvatT, Gk. 'Apaxoa-io). In the territory to the south-west, the river Helmand and the lagoon districts of Seistan around the Hamun Lake (which the natives call Zirrah, i.e. A v. Zrayah, * sea ') are respectively known in the Avesta as the Haetu- mant and as Zrayah Kasaoya (cf, O.P. Zra(n)ka or Zara(n)ka, Gk. Zapdyr^oL, 'Eapdyyoi, or Apayyiavrj); while the river systems that empty into this lagoon depression from the north are mentioned in Yasht XIX, 67, by names that can be identified exactly with their modern designations in almost every case^. It is worth noting that the majority of these particular allusions are found in the Nineteenth Yasht, which is devoted to the praise of the ' Kingly Glory ' of the ancient line of the Kayanians, heroes who are known to fame also through Firdausi's epic poem, the Shahnamah, and from whom some of the families in the regions named still claim to be descended.
With regard to Avestan place names that may be localised in parts of Baluchistan there is more uncertainty. It is thought by some, for example, but denied by others, that Av. Urva (Vd. i, 10) may thus be a locality near the Indian border^ It might also be possible to suggest that the Avestan name Peshana (Yt. v, 109) may still survive in the Baluchi town Pishin, near Quetta, but it would be difficult to prove this.
The quotations above given from Avestan sources serve at least to show the interest or share which Persia had traditionally in Northern India and the adjoining realms at a period prior to Achaemenian times, provided we accept the view, already stated (p. 323), that the Avesta represents in the main a spirit and con- dition that is pre- Achaemenian, however late certain portions of the work may be^
^ The position of the Sattagydai is not quite certain ; according to Sarre and Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, Text, pp. 27, 256, they are to be located in Ghazni and Ghilzai ; but Dames, Afghanistan, in Encyclop. of Islam, i, 158, places them in the Hazara country further to the north-west. Other authorities differ ; e.g. J. Marquart, Untersuch. z. Gesch. von Eran, ii, 175.
2 See M. A. Stein, Afghanistan in Avestic Geography, in The Academy, May 16, 1885, pp. 348-349 (also in Indian Antiquary, xv, 21-23). Consult also Geiger, Grundr. d. iron. Philol. ii, 388, 392-4. On the possibility of locating the tribal name Av. Sdma, cf. Gk. QaiJ-avaioi in Afghanistan, compare Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. p. 27 ; Marquart, Unters. z. Gesch. v. Eran, \i, 144, 176.
3 For references see Bartholomae, Air. Wb. col. 404.
* Lack of space prevents including here certain supplementary allusions to India in early times as found in the Pahlavi literature of the Sassanian era and in such later sources as Firdausi's Shahnamah ; but they will appear in the Festschrift WindiFch.
xiv] Karly Relations with India 329
Prior to the seventh century B.C., and for numerous ages after- wards, there is further proof of relations between Persia and India through the facts of trade in antiquity, especially through the early commerce between India and Babylon, which, it is believed, was largely via the Persian Gulf\ Persia's share in this develop- ment, although hard to determine, must have been significant even in days before the Achaemenian Empire. Beginning with the sixth century B.C., however, we enter upon the more solid ground of recorded political history. From unquestioned sources in the classics we know that the Medo-Persian kingdom, which was para- mount in Western Asia during that century, was brought into more or less direct contact with India through the campaigns carried on in the east of Iran by Cyrus the Great at some time between 558 and 530 B.C., the limits of his reign. The difficulty, however, of determining exactly when this campaigning occurred and just how the domains between the rivers Indus and Jaxartes came under the control or sphere of influence of the Persian Empire is a problem accounted among the hardest in Iranian history^.
In the following paragraphs of discussion, which may be con- sidered as a critical digression, statements or inferences from Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon, with other evidence, have to be compared with those of Strabo and with the seemingly more con- servative views of Arrian, in interpreting the question of the possible or probable control of the Indian borderland touching upon Iran.
In the first place, Herodotus says (i, 177) that 'Cyrus in person subjugated the upper regions of Asia^, conquering every nation without passing one by' ; but this statement is so broadly compre- hensive that it is difficult to particularise regarding North-western India except through indirect corroborative evidence. In fact, most of the allusions by Herodotus to India refer to the times of Darius and Xerxes, It is certain, however, that Cyrus, by his own personally conducted campaigns in the east, brought the major part of Eastern Iran, especially the realms of Bactria, under his sway*.
^ See J. Kennedy, The Early Commerce of India with Babylon, 700-300 b.c, in J.R.A.S. 1898, pp. 241-288; and cf. V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 3rd ed., p. 28, n., Oxford, 1914 ; likewise W. H. Schoff, J.A.O.S. xxxui, 352 ; Bhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 104.
■■' See Pr&sek, Geschichte der Meder und Parser, i, 224 ; and compare How and Wells, Commentary on Herodotus, i, 177 (vol. i, 135), Oxford, 1912.
* I.e. the regions in the east, more distant from Greece and contrasted with those subdued by Cyrus in Asia Minor through his general Harpagus.
* For the Bactrian and ^aka conquests, see Herodotus, i, 153 compared with i, 177 ; and cotisult Ctesias, Persica, fragms. 33-34 (ed. Gilmore, pp. 127-129). For certain problems raised by the question of the ^akas, see F. W. Thomas, J.R.A.S, 1906, pp. 181-216, 460-464.
330 Persian Dominions in N. India [ch.
His conquests included the districts of Drangiana, Sattagydia, and Gandaritis, verging upon the Indian borderland, though we may omit for the moment the question of the extent of Cyrus's suzerainty over the Indian frontier itself.
In the same connexion may be mentioned the fact that Ctesias, especially in the tenth book of his lost Persica, if we may judge from quotations in later authors regarding the nations involved, appears to have given an account of the campaigns by Cyrus in this region ^ The stories, moreover, regarding the death of Cyrus differ considerably ^ ; but the account recorded by Ctesias (fragm. 37, ed. Gilmore), which reflects local Persian tradition, narrates that Cyrus died in consequence of a wound inflicted in battle by ' an Indian,' in an engagement when * the Indians were fighting on the side of the Derbikes and supplied them with elephants.' The Der- bikes might therefore be supposed to have been located somewhere near the Indian frontier, but the subject is still open to debated
Xenophon, in his romance of the life of Cyrus, entitled Cyro- paedia (i, 1, 4), declares that Cyrus 'brought under his rule Bactrians and Indians,' as forming a part of his wide-spread empire. In the same work (viii, 6, 20-21) he furthermore says that Cyrus, after reducing Babylon, * started on the campaign in which he is reported to have brought into subjection all the nations from Syria to the Erythraean Sea ' (i.e. the Indian Ocean) ; and for that reason he repeats that ' the Erythraean Sea bounded the empire of Cyrus on the east*.' This reference, though indefinite, certainly contains a direct allusion to control over the regions bordering on the Indian Ocean ; but it would be unwarranted to interpret it as indicating any sovereignty over the mouth of the Indus, such as could be claimed in regard to the Persian sea-route to India in the time of Darius and his successors.
In a general way, however, as possibly supporting the idea of some sort of suzerainty over Northern India by Cyrus, we may note the fact that Xenophon {Cyrop. VI, 2, l-Il) introduces an account
^ See the passages in Gilmore's edition of the Persica, pp. 133-135 ; also G. BawUnson, Five Great Monarchies, n, 371, n. 22 ; but cf. Marquart, Unters. z. Getch, V. Eran, n, 139.
^ Consult G. Bawlinson, op. cit. iv, 378-380 ; E. Katz, Cyrus des Perserkonigs Abstammung, Kriege, und Tod, Klagenfurt, 1895 ; Pra§ek, Gesch. der Meder und Perser, i, 236, n. 1.
^ The notices of classical authors regarding this widely distributed people are collected by Tomaschek, art. Derbikes, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopcidie, v, 237- 238, Stuttgart, 1905.
* In regard to the term ' Erythraean Sea ' as a designation for the Indian Ocean, see W. H. Schoff, J.A.O.S. xxxiii, 349-362.
xiv] Cyrus 331
of an embassy sent to Cyrus by an Indian king. This embassy conveyed a sum of money for which the Persian king had asked, and ultimately served him in a delicate matter of espionage before the war against Croesus and the campaigns in Asia Minor. It may be acknowledged that the value of this particular allusion is slight, and that the Cyropaedia is a source of minor importance in this particular regard ; but yet it is worth citing as showing, through Xenophon, a common acceptance of the idea that Cyrus was in a position to expect to receive direct consideration, if not vassalage, from the overlord of Northern India.
Descending to the Hellenistic age, when the Greeks began to have knowledge of India at first hand, we find that two of the principal authorities, Nearchus, who was Alexander's admiral, and Megas- thenes, the ambassador of Seleucus I at the court of Chandragupta, are at variance regarding an attempted conquest of India by Cyrus.
The account of Nearchus, as preserved by Arrian {Anah. vi, 24, 2-3), links the names of Cyrus and of Semiramis, the far-famed Assyrian Queen, and states that Alexander, when planning his march through Gedrosia (Baluchistan), was told by the inhabitants * that no one had ever before escaped with an army by this route, excepting Semiramis on her flight from India. And she, they said, escaped with only twenty of her army, and Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, in his turn with only seven. For Cyrus also came into these parts with the purpose of invading India, but was prevented through losing the greater part of his army, owing to the desolate and impracticable character of the routed'
Megasthenes, on the other hand, as quoted by Strabo {Geogr. xv, 1, 6, pp. 686-687 Cas.), declares that 'the Indians had never engaged in foreign warfare, nor had they ever been invaded and conquered by a foreign power, except by Hercules and Dionysus and lately by the Macedonians.' After mentioning several famous conquerors who did not attack India, he continues : ' Semiramis, however, died before [carrying out] her undertaking ; and the Persians, although they got mercenary troops from India, namely the Hy drakes^, did not make an expedition into that country, but merely approached it when Cyrus was marching against the Massagetae.'
We may also take Megasthenes to be the authority for the statement of Arrian {Indica, ix, 10; and cf. v, 4-7) that, according to the Indians, no one before Alexander, with the exception of
1 Strabo, Geogr. xv, 1, 5, p. 686 Cas. (and cf. xv, 2, 6, p. 722 Cas. ), likewise quotes Nearchus, but merely to the effect that Cyrus escaped with seven men.
2 I.e. the Oxydrakai or Kshudrakas in the Panjab; see Chapter xv, p. 375.
332 Persian Dominions in N. India [CH.
Dionysus and Hercules, had invaded their country, ' not even Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, although he marched against the Scythians and showed himself in other respects the most enterprising of Asiatic monarchs\'
It appears, therefore, that both Nearchus and Megasthenes deny, the former by implication and the latter expressly, that Cyrus ever reached India, although Nearchus regards him as having made an unsuccessful campaign in Baluchistan. We must not, however, overlook the fact that Strabo and Arrian, our proximate sources, consider the river Indus to be the western boundary of India proper ; and the foregoing accounts consequently leave open the possibility that Cyrus made conquests in the borderland west of the Indus itself. Indeed, Arrian elsewhere {Indica, i, 1-3) ex- pressly states that the Indians between the river Indus and the river Cophen, or Kabul, 'were in ancient times subject to the Assyrians, afterwards to the Medes, and finally submitted to the Persians and paid to Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, the tribute that he imposed on them.'
In regard to the supposed campaign of Cyrus in Baluchistan, we may note that Arrian {Anab. iii, 27, 4-5) mentions the story, recorded elsewhere in connexion with Alexander's exploits, that Cyrus had received substantial help from the Ariaspian people (a tribe dwelling in a region that corresponds to the modern Seistan) when he was waging war in these territories against the Scythians^. This folk received from him in consequence the honorific title Euergetae, 'Benefactors,' a term answering to the Persian desig- nation Orosangae mentioned by Herodotus (viii, 85) ^
One further point may be cited from a classical source. Pliny, Hist. Nat. VI, 23 (25), credits Cyrus with having destroyed a city called Capisa in Capisene, a place supposed to be represented by Kafshan (Kaoshan, Kushan) in the modern Ghorband valley district, somewhat north of Kabul, and in any case it could not have been far from the Indian frontier*.
,1 Of. also Justin, Historiae Philippicae, i, 2, 9, who says that no one invaded India except Semiramis and Alexander.
2 Arrian, Anab. iii, 27, 4-5 ; Strabo, Geogr. xv, 2, 10, p. 724 Cas. ; Diodorus Siculus, Bibl. Hist, xvii, 81, 1 ; Quintus Curtius, Hist. Alex, vii, 3, 1-3. For a special consideration of this subject, see F. W. Thomas, Sakastana, in J.R.A.S. 1906, pp. 181- 216, 460-464.
^ For the interpretation of this word as 'active in spirit,' cf. Thomas, op. cit, p. 196.
* See Thomas, J.R.A.S. 1906, pp. 191, n. 1, 460-461, and the works there cited, especially E. J. Rapson, J.R.A.S. 1905, pp. 783-784; J. Marquart, ErdnSahr, pp. 280- 281; and cf. idem, Unters. z. Gesch. v. Eran, n, 180, Leipzig, 1905. Capisa is the Kia- pi-shi of Hiuen Tsiang and the Ki-pin of other Chinese texts. The name is found in
xiv] Cyrus: Cambyses 333
To sum up, we may say that, even if there are just grounds for doubting that Cyrus actually invaded Northern India, there can be no question that he did campaign in the territories corresponding to the present Afghanistan and Baluchistan. It seems likely that Alexander's historians may have been inclined to minimise the accomplishments of Cyrus the Great, especially in the light of his apparent set-back in Gedrosia^, in order to bring into greater prominence the achievements of the famous Greek invader.
The view above stated, to the eifect that Cyrus advanced at least as far as the borders of the Indus region, will be better under- stood from the ensuing paragraphs, in which the holdings of his successors and their control of regions integral to the Indian Empire of to-day are shown. The main point of this opinion is likewise in agreement with such an authority on the subject as Eduard Meyer, who expressly says : ' Cyrus appears to have subju- gated the Indian tribes of the Paropanisus (Hindu Kush) and in the Kabul valley, especially the Gandarians ; Darius himself advanced as far as the Indus ^.'
Cambyses, whose activities were almost wholly engaged in the conquest of Egypt, could hardly have extended the Persian dominions in the direction of India, even though he may have been occupied at the beginning of his reign in maintaining suzerainty over the extensive realm inherited fi-om his father. Xenophon, or his continuator {Cyrop. viii, 8, 2), speaks of almost immediate uprisings by subject nations after the death of Cyrus, and these revolutions may have caused the postponement of the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses until the fifth year of his reign, 526-525 B.C. ; but it would be hazardous to suggest any direct connexion of India with these presumable campaigns. Herodotus makes two very broad statements ; one (iii, 88, cf. i, 177) to the effect that, wlien Darius became king, after the death of Cambyses and the assassination of the false Smerdis, 'all the peoples of Asia, with the exception of the Arabians [who were already allied as friends], were subject to him, inasmuch as they had been subdued
the first element of the compound O.P. Kapisa-kani, the name of a stronghold mentioned in the inscriptions of Darius (Bh. 3, 61). Marquart {Unters. ii, 180), with others, inclines to regard the two places as identical, although objections may be raised that Kapisa-kani was located in Arachosia (the El. version, 3, 37, 25 expressly adding 'in Arachosia '). Still much depends on determining the extent of the confines of Arachosia in the time of Darius.
1 Cf, the passages of Arrian and Strabo cited above, p. 331, and n. 1.
* Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, in, 97, with note. See also Max Kiesshng, Zur Geschichte der ersten Eegieruiigsjahre des Darius Hystaspis, in Quellen u. Forsch. z. alt. Gesch. u. Geogr. p. 28, hrsg. W. Sieglin, Heft 2, Leipzig, 1900-1901.
334 Persian Dominions in N, India [ch.
by Cyrus and afterwards by Cambyses in his turn.' Again he says (ill, 67), with reference to the death of the usurper Smerdis, that * all the peoples of Asia felt regret, except the Persians themselves.' Although it would be a forced interpretation of these passages to construe them as including India proper among the subject nations of the Persian Empire^, it seems clear, nevertheless, that Darius, when he assumed the sovereignty in 522 B.O., had, as an Achae- menian, an authentic claim to the realms immediately bordering upon India, if not to that land itself.
For the reign of Darius (522-486 B.c.) we have documentary evidence of the highest value in the inscriptions executed by that monarch's command and containing his own statements. From these inscriptions, especially when they are compared one with another, we can trace the general outline of the Persian dominion in Northern and North-western India in the time of Darius, and we can even infer that he annexed the valley of the Indus early in his reign, a conclusion which is confirmed by the testimony of various passages in Herodotus. The three records in stone which require special consideration in this connexion are the following^ :
1. The famous Bahistan Rock Inscription (1, 16-17; 2, 7-8; 3, 54-76), which is presumably to be assigned to a period between the years 520 and 518 B.O., with the exception of the fifth column, which was added later.
2. The second of the two Old Persian block tablets sunk in the wall of the Platform at Persepolis (Dar. Pers. e. 15-18). It was probably carved between 518 and 515 b.c.
3. The upper of the two inscriptions chiselled around the Tomb of Darius in the cliff at Naksh-i-Rustam (NR. a. 23-26), which must have been incised some time after 515 B.c.^
1 Equally doubtful would be the attempt to connect the name of Cambyses (0. P. Ka(m)bu]iya) with the frontier people of Kamboja, though consult the references given by A. Hoffmann-Kutschke, Die altpersischen Keilinschriften, p. 21, Stuttgart, 1909; and idem, Indogermanisches, in Recueil de Travaux igypt. et assyr. 31, 66.
* A mutilated clay tablet, Dar. Sus. e, exhibits the remains of a list of provinces, which seems, however, to have been the same as that which is found in NR. a.
3 The dates assigned to these three inscriptions by different scholars vary somewhat, especially in regard to the record on the Bahistan Eock, although they are included approximately within the limits given. In respect to dating the Bahistan edict, much depends upon the interpretation of the O.P. phrase hamahydyd(h) tharda(h) ; for if, following Weissbach, we take it to mean ' in one and the same year,' all the events chronicled must have taken place within about a year after Darius succeeded to the throne, whereas otherwise they may be regarded as extending over two or three or even more years. See F. H. Weissbach, Zur neubabylon. u. achamenid. Chronologic, in Z.D.M.G. Lxn, 640-641 ; idem, Keilinschr. d. Achameniden, pp. Ixix-lxxiii, Leipzig, 1911 ; idem, Zum bab. KcUender, in Hilprecht Anniversary Volume, pp. 285-290 (with
xiv] Darius 335
The Bahistan Inscription itself (1, 13-17) does not include India in the list of the twenty-three provinces which 'came to Darius,' as the Old Persian text says, or 'obeyed him,' as the Babylonian version expresses it\ The inference to be drawn, therefore, is that the Indus region did not form a part of the empire of Darius at the time when the great rock record was made, though it was incorporated shortly afterwards, as is shown by the two other inscriptions in question. Both of these latter (Dar. Pers. e. 17-18, and NR. a. 25) expressly mention Hi{n)du, that is, the Punjab territory, as a part of the realm. The Northern Indian domain must therefore have been annexed sometime between the promulgation of the Bahistan edict and the comple- tion of the two records just cited. The present tendency of scholarly opinion is to assign the Indus conquest to about the year 518 B.C.2
In addition to the evidence of the inscriptions, the fact that a portion of Northern India was incorporated into the Achaemenian Empire under Darius is further attested by the witness of Herodotus, who, in giving a list of the twenty satrapies or governments that Darius established, expressly states that the Indian realm was the 'twentieth division' (Hdt. iii, 94, cf. in, 89). Some inference regarding its wealth and extent may furthermore be gathered from the tribute which it paid into the Persian treasury. Herodotus is our authority on this point, when he explicitly narrates (in, 94) : 'The population of the Indians is by far the greatest of all the people that we know ; and they paid a tribute proportionately larger than all the rest — [the sum of] three hundred and sixty talents of gold dust.' This immense tribute was equivalent to over a million pounds sterling, and the levy formed about one- third of the total amount imposed upon the Asiatic provinces ^ All this implies the richness of Persia's acquisition in annexing the northern territory of Hindustan*; and it may also be brought into
Table), Leipzig, 1909 ; refer also to King and Thompson, Inscr. Behistun, pp. xli-xliii ; Prasek, Gesch. d. Med. u. Pers. ii, 37-38 ; Sarre and Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, pp. 17-33, 106-107 ; cf. also Justi, Grundr. d. iran. Philol. n, 430.
1 Cf. Weissbach, Die Keilinschriften der Achdmeniden, p. 11, n. 6a.
2 See Sarre and Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, pp. 106-107 (with references) ; Max Kiessling, Zur Geschichte...des Darius, pp. 56, 57, 60; Pra§ek, Gesch. d. Meder «. Terser, ii, 37, n. 5.
3 See V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 3rd ed., pp. 37-38, n. 1 ; and cf. also F. H. Weissbach, Zu Herodots persisch^r Steuerliste, in Philologus, 71 (N. F. 25), 479- 490 ; idem, Keilinschr. d. Achdmeniden, pp. Ixxiv-lxxv.
* V. A. Smith, op. cit. p. 38, is of the opinion of those who hold that, owing to the changes in the courses of the rivers since ancient times, ' vast tracts in Sind and the Panjab, now desolate, were then rich and prosperous.'
33^ Persian Dominions in N, India [ch.
connexion with the curious story of the gold-digging ants in this region, which Herodotus tells directly afterwards (iii, 102-105).
There is likewise another passage in Herodotus (iv, 44) which affords further proof, both of the Persian annexation or control of the valley of the Indus from its upper course to the sea, including therefore the Punjab and Sind, as well as of the possibility at that time of navigating by sea from the Indus to Persia. Sometime about 517 RC, Darius despatched a naval expedition under Scylax, a native of Caryanda in Caria, to explore the Indus. The squadron embarked at a place in the Gandhara country, somewhere near the upper course of the Indus, the name of the city being Kaspatyros (Hdt. IV, 44, cf. Ill, 102) or, more accurately, Kaspapyros (Hecataeus, Fragm. 179). The exact location of this place is still a matter of discussion, but the town may have been situated near the lower end of the Cophen (now Kabul) River before it joins the Indus K The fleet, it is recorded, succeeded in making its way to the Indian Ocean and ultimately reached Egypt, two and one-half years from the time when the voyage began. From the statement of Herodotus (iv, 44) it would appear that this achievement was accomplished prior to the Indian conquest, for he says that 'after {/xerd) they had sailed around, Darius conquered the Indians and made use of this sea ' [i.e. the Indian Ocean] ; but it seems much more likely that Darius must previously have won by force of arms a firm hold over the territory traversed from the headwaters of the Indus to the ocean, in order to have been able to carry out such an expedi- tion 2. This conclusion appears still more convincing when we consider the difiiculties which Alexander encountered in his similar
1 Sir M. A. Stein suggests Jahangira, an ancient site on the left bank of the Eabal Biver, some six miles above the point where it flows into the Indus at Attock (see Stein, Memoir on the Anc. Geogr. of Kaimir, pp. 11-13, Calcutta, 1899, reprinted from J.A.S. Bengal, vol. lxviii, pt. 1, extra No. 2, 1899). Marquart, Untersuch. z. Gesch. V. Eran, u, 178-180, 242, and n. 8, 246, n. 3, favours as the location an ancient town known in Sanskrit as Pushkalavati. Compare also Prasek, Gesch. d. Med. u. Perser, n, 38; and V. A. Smith, Early Hist. India, 3rd ed., pp. 37-38, n. 1. Sarre and Herzfeld, Iran. Felsreliefs, pp. 26, 253, seem inclined to revive the old idea of associ- ating the name with Kashmir, cf. H. H. Wilson, Ariana Antiqua, pp, 136-137, London, 1841.
' The early Greek geographer Hecataens, who flourished in the reign of Darius, seems to have possessed considerable information regarding the Indus valley, which may have come to him from Scylax himself. Cf. Fragments 174-179, in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, ed. C. Miiller, i, 12, Paris, 1841, especially Fra^jw. IVo, where Hecataeus says that a tribe called the Opiai ' dwell by the Indus Kiver, and there there is a royal fort. Thus far the Opiai extend, and beyond there is a desert as far as the Indians. ' If ' royal fort ' means a fort of the Great King, as is likely, we have evidence here for the presence of a Persian frontier garrison on the Indus.
i
i
XI v] The htdictn Realm of Darius 337
undertaking of voyaging down the Indus to the sea, two centuries later, even after having first subdued most of the tribes of the Upper Punjab before starting on the voyaged
The dominion of Persian authority under Darius, therefore, as is clear from the Greek sources in connexion with the Inscriptions, comprised the realm from the embouchment of the Indus to its uppermost tributaries on the north and west. Regarding the Indians towards the south, we have the express statement of Herodotus (iii, 101) to the efiect that 'these were never subject to King Darius.' Herodotus also evidently considers the sandy wastes in portions of the present Sind and Rajputana, to the east of the Indus, as the frontier in that direction ; for he says (iii, 98) that 'the part of the Indian territory towards the rising sun is sand,' and he adds immediately afterwards that 'the eastern part of India is a desert on account of the sand.' How far eastward the Persian dominion may have extended in the Panjab cannot be exactly determined ; but it is significant that Herodotus never refers to the Ganges valley^, and not one of our sources makes any mention of the famous Indian kingdom of Magadha, which was coming into prominence under the Buddhist rulers Bimbisara and Ajata^atru during the reign of Darius and simultaneously with the Persian conquests ^ On the whole, so far as the extent of the Persian control is concerned, no better summary need be given than the cautious expression of Vincent Smith, when he says: 'Although the exact limits of the Indian satrapy [under Darius] cannot be determined, we know that it was distinct from Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Kandahar), and Gandaria (North-western Pan- jab). It must have comprised, therefore, the course of the Indus from Kalabagh to the sea, including the whole of Sind, and perhaps included a considerable portion of the Panjab east of the Indus*.'
At this point it may not be out of place to refer briefly to the information that is afforded by the Inscriptions and by Herodotus regarding the sway exercised by Darius over the peoples of the Indian borderland. Of the twenty-three tributary provinces the names of which appear on the Bahistan Rock (Bh. 1, 14-17) and are repeated with some slight variations in the Platform and the Tomb Inscriptions (Dar. Pers. e. 10-18; NR. a. 22-30), three pro-
' See Chapter xv, pp. 374 ff. ; cf. V. A. Smith, Early Hist. India, 3rd ed., pp. 88-104.
* He says, for instance (iv, 40) that ' from India onward the country to the east is desert, and no one can tell what it is like.'
* On this point see V. A. Smith, Early Hist. India, 3rd ed., p. 37.
* Op. cit., p. 38.
C.H.I. I. 22
338 Persian Dominions ^ N. India [cH.
vinces, namely Bakhtrl (Bactria), Haraiva (Herat), and Z(a)ra(n)ka (Drangiana, or a portion of Seistan) as noted above (pp. 327-8), form a part of the present Afghanistan lying more remote from the Indian frontier. The five that are directly connected with the region of the Indus itself are, as partly indicated earlier in the chapter {ihid.), Ga(n)dara (the region of the Kabul valley as far as Peshawar)^, Thatagu (either the Ghilzai territory to the south-west of Ghazni or the Hazara country further to the west and north- west), Hara(h)uvatl (the district about Kandahar in the broadest sense), Saka, and Maka^. The term Saka may possibly allude to Sakastana (Seistan) and the dwellers around the region of the Hamun Lake^ ; but the distinction made in the Tomb Inscription of Darius (NR. a. 25-26) between the Saka Haumavarga, answer- ing to the Amyrgioi Sakai of Herodotus (vii, 64), and the Saka Tigrakhauda, 'wearing pointed caps,' an attribute corresponding to the term Orthokorybantioi of Herodotus (iii, 92), may indicate a special division of the ^^akas, or Scythians, living between the extreme northern sources of the Indus and the headwaters of the Oxus*. The district Maka is believed to be identified with Makran, once occupied by the Mykans of Herodotus (iii, 93 ; vil, 68) and now a part of Baluchistan ^
Herodotus (iii, 91-93) mentions in his list of peoples that were subject to Darius — corresponding in a general way to the satrapies of the empire — four or five more which may be identified as having occupied districts in or near the present Afghanistan, in some cases adjoining the Indian frontier. The Sattagydai and Gandarioi (cf. OP. Thatagu and Ga(n)dara), for example, have the
1 For Greek references to Gandara consult Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Real-Encyclo- pddie, VII, 696-701, Stuttgart, 1912.
2 The slight variations in the lists of the three inscriptions, as regarding these provinces, are as follows : (1) Bh. 1, 16-17, Ga(n)dara, Saka, 6atagu§, Hara(h)uvati§, Maka ; (2) Dar. Pers. e. 17-18, 0atagu§, Hara(h)uvati§, Hi(n)du§, Ga(n)dara, Saka, Maka; (3) NB. a. 24-26, Hara(h)uvatis, Batagus, Ga(n)dara, Hi(D)dug, Saka Hauma- varga, Saka Tigraxauda.
3 For such a view see F. W. Thomas, J.R.A.S. 1906, pp. 181-216, 460-464 ; but compare the observations by Sarre and Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, pp. 252-263.
* For a general discussion of the Qaka question (with bibliographical references), see Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 23-24, 30, 36-40 (with cuts), and 252-253, also maps 1 and 2 at the end of the same volume. Consult likewise Marquart, Untersttch. z. Gesch. V. Eran, ii, 86, 136, n. 5. It may also be noted that Polyaenus, Strategemata, VII, 12, refers to an expedition of Darius against the ^a^kas, apparently north of the region of Bactria, and mentions Amorges or Omarges (i.e. Haumavarga?) as one of the Qaka kings.
' So also Eduard Meyer, Persia, in Encyclop. Brit., 11th ed., xxi, 202; and Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 28-29 ; refer likewise to J. J. Modi, The Country of Mekran, its Past History, in East and West, May, 1904, pp. 1-12, Bombay.
XI v] Peoples of the Indian Frontier 339
Dadikai and the Aparytai linked with them in the same enumera- tion. Of these latter tribes, the Dadikai may be identified with the Dards of the Upper Indus valley, somewhere between the Chitral district and Kashmir ; and the Aparytai are to be con- nected with the inhabitants of the mountainous regions of the Hindu Kush, north of KabuP. The Kaspioi, who, according to Herodotus (iii, 93, cf. also vii, Ql, 86) constituted together with the Sakai the fifteenth division of the empire (and who are to be dis- tinguished from the Kaspioi of the eleventh division (iii, 92), by the Caspian Sea), must likewise have been an easterly people, and they are perhaps to be located in the wild tract of Kafiristan, to the north of the Kabul River I The Thamanaioi, whom Herodotus (hi, 93, 117) mentions as forming a part of the fourteenth division of the tributary nations, occupied a section of Afghanistan not easy to define precisely, but presumably in the western or west-central region, as noted above (p. 328, n. 2). The territory of Paktyike in the thirteenth division (Hdt. iii, 93 ; cf. iii, 102 ; iv, 44) and its people, the Paktyes (Hdt. vii, 67), are to be located within the borders of the land now called Afghanistan ; but whether the name is to be regarded as a tribal designation of the Afghans in general, and as surviving in the term Pakhtu or Pashtu applied to their language, is extremely doubtfuF.
Finally, for the sake of completeness, it may be noted that India appears as one of the limits of the Persian Empire under Darius in the apocryphal Greek version of the Book of Ezra known as I Esdms. The passage (iii, 1-2) runs as follows : ' Now King Darius made a great feast unto all his subjects, and unto all that were born in his house, and unto all the princes of Media and of Persia, and to all the satraps and captains and governors that were under him, from India unto Ethiopia, in the hundred twenty and seven provinces ^' Inasmuch, however, as the apologue of the Three Pages, in which this reference .is embodied, seems to be subsequent to the age of Alexander, we must regard the passage as merely a general tradition concerning
1 Cf, Marqoart, Untersuch. z. Gesch. v. Eran, ii, 175; Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. p. 31.
* So Marquart, op. cit. ii, 140-142 ; but consult Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. p. 253. Thomas, J.R.A.S. 1906, p. 191, n. 1, suggests reading Kdiriaoi (cf. Capisa, p. 382, above) for Kdtririoi.
3 Consult Marquart, op. cit. ii, 171-180 ; Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 26-27 ; Ed. Meyer, Persia, in Encyclop. Brit., 11th ed., xxi, 203 ; Dames, Afghanistan, in Encyclop. of Islam, i, 149-150.
* Cf. also the paraphrase in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, xi, 3, 2 (33), and the passages from Esther cited below, p. 340, n. 3.
22—2
340 Persian Dominions in N. India [ch.
the extent of tlie Achaemenian Empire without insisting upon the chronological allusion to Darius P.
For the reign of Xerxes (486-465 B.C.) the continuance of the Persian domination in Northern India is proved by the presence of an Indian contingent, consisting of both infantry and cavalry, among the troops from subject nations drawn upon by that monarch to augment the vast army of Asiatics which he marshalled to invade Greece. Herodotus (vii, 65) describes the equipment of the Indian infantry as follows : * The Indians, clad in garments made of cotton, carried bows of cane and arrows of cane, the latter tipped with iron ; and thus accoutred the Indians were marshalled under the command of Pharnazathres, son of Artabates.' It is worth remarking, perhaps, that the commander of these forces, as shown by his name, was a Persian. Regarding the Indian cavalry Herodotus (vii, 86) says that they were 'armed with the same equipment as in the case of the infantry, but they brought riding- horses and chariots, the latter being drawn by horses and wild asses ^.'
It may be observed, moreover, that a number of the tribes who inhabited the Indo-Iranian borderland in the time of Darius (see above, pp. 327-8, 338) were represented in the host of Xerxes as well; namely the Bactrians, Sakai, Ar(e)ioi, Gandarioi, Dadikai, Kaspioi, Sarangai, Paktyes, occupying the Afghan region, and the Mykoi of Baluchistan (Hdt. Vii, 64-68). On the whole, therefore, we may conclude that the eastern domain of the Persian Empire was much the same in its extent under Xerxes in 480 RO. as it had been in the reign of his great father^
The period following the defeat of the Persian arms under Xerxes by Greece marks the beginning of the decadence of the Achaemenian Empire. For this reason it is easy to understand why there was no forward movement on Persia's part in India, even though the Iranian sway in that territory endured for a century and longer. Among other proofs of this close and continued connexion may be mentioned the fact that Ctesias, who was resident physician at the Persian court about the beginning of the fourth century B.O., could hardly have written his Indica without the information he must have received regarding India from
^ See the note on this passage by S. A. Cook, in Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha oj the Old Testament, ed. Charles, i, 29, Oxford, 1913.
* As a matter of curiosity it may be noted that Herodotus (vii, 187) says that an immense number of Indian dogs followed the army of Xerxes in his Grecian invasion.
3 Later Jewish tradition has the same formulaic description for the empire of Xerxes (Ahasuerus) as for that of Darius (cf. p. 339, above) ; thus in the Book of Esther, i, 1 (cf. also VIII, 9), Xerxes is styled 'Ahasuerus which reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces.'
XI v] Extent of Persian Influence 341
envoys sent as tribute-bearers to the Great King or from Persian officials who visited India on state business, as well as from his intercourse with travellers and traders of the two countries^. If the work of Ctesias on India had been preserved in full, and not merely in the epitome by Photius and in fragmentary citations by other authors, we should be better informed to-day as to Persia's control over Indian territory during the period under consideration I
The fact, however, that this domination prevailed even to the end of the Achaemenian sway in 330 b.c. is furthermore proved by the call which Darius III, the last of the dynasty, was able to issue to Indian troops when making his final stand at Arbela to resist the Greek invasion of Persia by Alexander. According to Arrian {Anah. Ill, 8, 3-6), some of the Indian forces were grouped with their neighbours the Bactrians and with the Sogdians under the command of the satrap of Bactria, whereas those who were called * mountainous Indians ' followed the satrap of Arachosia. The Sakai appeared as independent allies under their leader Mauakes. These frontier troops were supplemented by a small force of elephants ' belonging to the Indians who lived this side of the Indus.'
Emphasis may be laid anew on the fact that the sphere of Persian influence in these early times can hardly have reached beyond the realm of the Indus and its affluents. We may assume, accordingly, that when Alexander reached the river Hyphasis, the ancient Vipa9 and modern Beas, and M'as then forced by his own generals and soldiers to start upon his retreat, he had touched the extreme eastern limits of the Persian domain, over which he had triumphed throughout^. The interesting articles by Dr D. B. Spooner in the Jmir. RA.S. for 1915 (pp. 63-89, 405-455), entitled Tfie Zoroastrian Period of Indian History, make the strongest possible plea for a far wider extension of Persian influence upon India in the early historic period. AVhile scholars are fully agreed to allow for the general and far-reaching theory of Persian influence, they have not found themselves prepared to accept many of the hypotheses put forward in Dr Spooner's two articles, as the criticisms which succeeded their publication show*.
* In this connexion compare M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Ktesias, pp. 3-4, London, 1882, noting certain details, for example, in §§ 3-7.
* The extant remains of the Indica are to be found in Ctesiae...Fragmenta, ed. C. Miiller, pp. 79-105 (in his edition of Herodotus, Paris, 1844).
3 For the situation, see Chapter xv, pp. 372-3, and refer to the map.
4 V. A. Smith, J.R.A.S. 1915, pp. 800-802 ; Keith, ibid. 1916, pp. 138-143 ; Thomas, ibid. pp. 362-366; 'Nimrod,' The Modern Review, Calcutta, 1916, pp. 372-376, 490-498, 597-600.
342 Ancient Persian Coins in India [ch.
With the downfall of the Achaemenian rule before the onslaught of the conqueror from Macedon ends the first chapter in the story of the relations between India and Persia. It belongs elsewhere to indicate those which existed under the successors of Alexander, under the Parthian and Sassanian sovereigns, and down through Muhammadan times, until, in the eighteenth century, a Persian invader like Nadir Shah could carry oflf the Peacock Throne of the Mughals and deck his crown with the Koh-i-Nur.
Ancient Persian Coins in India
Whatever were the actual, limits of Persian power in India, it is certain that within these limits the money of the Persian kings must have been current. At the same time it is not easy to support the general statement by definite facts. Properly authen- ticated records of finds are virtually unknown. Nor can over- much reliance be placed on deductions drawn from the occurrence of individual specimens in collections that have been formed in North-western India. Before the construction of the Russian railways in Central Asia the waifs and strays of commerce, like gold and silver coins from Bukhara and Khorasan, naturally drifted over the mountain-passes of Afghanistan into the Punjab as the nearest profitable market. Once they had arrived there, however, the dealers into whose hands they came were free to assign to them the provenance that seemed most likely to enhance their price, a circumstance that renders it difficult to appraise the value of the scanty evidence available. For reasons that will presently appear, the two precious metals can best be considered separately.
The standard gold coin of Ancient Persia was the daric, which bore upon the obverse a figure of the Great King hastening through his dominions, armed with bow and spear ; and upon the reverse an irregular oblong incuse. It weighed about 130 grains (8"42 grammes), and was in all probability first minted by Darius Hystaspes, the monarch who was responsible for adding the valley of the Indus to the empire. From its infancy, there- fore, the daric would have ready access to the country beyond the Hindu Kush. At the same time there was an important economic reason which would militate against its extensive circulation in these regions. Gold was abundant there, so abundant that for many centuries its value relatively to silver was extraordinarily low. There are grounds for believing that during the period of
XI v] Ancient Persian Coins i?i India 343
the Persian dominion the ratio was no higher than 1 : 8, as com- pared with the norm of 1 : 13 "3 maintained by the imperial mint. Such darics as made their way thither would thus constitute an artificially inflated currency, and would tend to be exported again on the earliest possible opportunity. There was no tempta- tion to accumulate them, when they could be exchanged elsewhere for silver at so very substantial a profit The conclusion here suggested is fully borne out by the actual phenomena. Persian gold has never been discovered in any quantity in India ; the hoards of * darics ' sometimes said to have been found in the eighteenth century can be shown to have consisted of Gupta coins. Isolated examples have, indeed, been picked up sporadically ; the daric reproduced on PI. I, 1, is fi-om the Cunningliam Collection. But it is significant that in no single instance do these bear countermarks or any other indication that could possibly be inter- preted as suggestive of a prolonged Indian sojourn.
The corresponding silver coinage consisted of sigloi or shekels, twenty of which were equivalent to a daric. They had a maximum weight of 86*45 grains (56 grammes), and had the same types as the gold (PI. I, 2, 3). Sigloi are frequently ofiered for sale by Indian dealers, and it is a reasonable inference that they are fairly often disinterred from the soil of India itself. That is precisely what might be expected from the working of economic law. The relative cheapness of gold would act like a lodestone. Silver coins from the west would flow into the country freely, and would remain in active circulation. At one time confirmation seemed to be provided by the surviving sigloi. Many of them — including, it should be added, a very large proportion that are not directly of Xw^vxa. provenance — are distinguished by the presence of peculiar countermarks which were thought to have their closest analogy on the square-shaped pieces of silver that constitute the oldest native coinage of India ^. The punch-marks on the native Indian coins (PI. I, 4, 5) appear to have been affixed partly by the local authority of the district in which the money was used, but to a much larger extent by the merchants or money-changei"s through whose hands it passed. The practice was plainly designed to obviate the necessity for repeated weighing. As this advantage would be as pronounced in the case of the sigloi as in the case of the indigenous issues, it would not have been surprising to find that they had been subjected to similar treatment. M. Babelon has,
1 BapsoD, J.R.A.S. 1895, pp. 865 ff.
344 Ancient Persia^i Coins in India [ch. xiv
however, expressed the view that the punch-marked sigloi should, as a rule, be associated with Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Cyprus. And it must be admitted that the results of the most recent investigation^ rather tend to bear out his opinion. The resemblance to the Indian punch-marks remains noteworthy, but proof of absolute identity is lacking.
1 Hill, J.H.S. 1919, pp. 125 ff.
MAP 3
THE KABUL VALLEY
AND
THE PUNJAB
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Map 3
Cambridge University Press
CHAPTER XV
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
In the fourth century B.C. there is a sudden rift in the mists which envelop the ancient history of India. The regions disclosed are the Kabul Valley, the foothills through which the Five Rivers come down into the plains of the Punjab, the plains themselves, and the lower course of the Indus. The country, as we see it, is held partly by a number of independent tribes, governed by their own headmen and owning the authority of no king. But this primitive aristocratic type of community is holding its own with difficulty against another type of government, the monarchic. In parts of the country principalities have been formed under des- potic rajas, and between the different elements a struggle with varying vicissitudes is going on. The rajas are fighting to extend their authority over the free tribes and the free tribes are fighting to repel the rajas. The rajas are also fighting amongst themselves, and mutual jealousies lead to politic alliances according to the necessities of the moment ; we divine in this little world a conflict and shifting of antagonistic groups such as we can follow on a larger scale in the history of Europe. It is into this world that the Western invader plunges in 326 b.c.
About ten miles north-west from where Rawalpindi now stands stood, in the fourth century B.C., the city of Taksha9ila (Taxila), long eminent among the cities of India as a great seat of learn- ing. In the year 327 it was the capital of a raja, whose principality lay between the Indus and its tributary the Jhelum (the ancient Vitasta, the Hydaspes of the Greeks) ^ Like Rawalpindi to-day,
^ Although the courses of the great rivers of the Punjab have greatly changed in historical times and are still changing, their names may be traced with certainty from the Age of the Sigveda down to the present day. Those which are chiefly important in the history of Alexander's Indian campaign are :
|
Ajicient Indian. |
Greek and Latin. |
Modem. |
|
Sindhu. |
'I>'56s, Indus. |
Indas. |
|
Eabha. |
Ko)<p-^v, Cophen. |
Kabul. |
|
Suvastu. |
IlodaTOi, Soastus, |
Swat. |
|
Vitasta. |
'T8d<XTrris, Hydaspes. |
Jhelum. |
|
Asiknl, later Chandrabhaga. |
' K.Kealvrjs, Acesines. |
Chenab. |
|
Parushni, later Iravatl. |
'TdpaJjTTis, Hydraotes, |
Bavi. |
|
Vipa?, later Vipa9a. |
"T0a(rts, Hyphasis. |
Beas. |
|
Cutudri. |
ZapdSpos, Zaradrus, Hesydrns. |
Sutlej. |
34^ Alexander the Great [CH.
Taksha^ila guarded the chief gate of India from the north-west : it was the first great Indian city at which merchants who had come down the Kabul Valley and crossed the Indus about Attock arrived, three days' journey beyond the river. Its ruler was the first among the kings of the Punjab to hear any tidings which might come down from the highlands of Afghanistan of events happening behind those tremendous mountain walls. For many generations now the Punjab must have had some knowledge of what went on in the dominions of the King of Kings. For the Persian Empire founded two centuries before by Cyrus had been a huger realm than had ever, so far as we know, existed in the world under the hand of one man, and the power and glory of the man who ruled it, the splendour of Ecbatana and Persepolis, must have been carried by fame over the neighbouring lands.
The rajas of Taksha9ila must therefore have long lent an ear to the rumbling of wars and rebellions which came across the western mountains. They may indeed have known next to nothing of what went on at the further extremities of the Persian Empire ; for the same realm which at its utmost extension eastward touched the Indus reached at its other end the Aegean and Black Seas; and the great monarchic Empires of the east are conglomerations too loosely organised for the troubles of one province to be neces- sarily felt in the more distant ones. The Indian princes may therefore have been ignorant of the fact that the Persian king at the other end of his realm had come into contact with a singular people settled in a quantity of little republics over the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, along the coasts of Asia Minor, and in the intermediate islands, the people whom the Persians called collectively Yavanas (lonians). We do not know whether it even produced any considerable shock on the banks of the Indus, when a century and a half before 334 B.C. the Persian king had led his armies to disaster in the land of the Yavanas, although those armies included Indian tribesmen torn by Persian officers from the frontier hills, whose bones were destined to find their last resting- place on the field of Plataea thousands of miles away. Of the long struggle which went on for generations after that between the Yavana republics, especially the one called Athens, and the western satraps of the Great King perhaps no rumour was brought down the Kabul valley to Taksha9ila.
But in 334 B.c. and the following years the struggle between Persia and the Yavanas took a turn which must have made talk even in the palaces and bazaars of the Punjab. The Indian
xv] From Kandahar to Kabul 347
princes learnt that a Yavana king had arisen in the utmost West strong enough to drive the Great King from his throne. It may be that the western provinces, Asia Minor and Egypt, were torn away in 334, 333 and 332 b.c. by the invader without yet bringing the Indian princes to realise that so huge a fact in the world as the Persian Empire was about to vanish. But there can have been no mistaking the magnitude of the catastrophe, when Darius III was flying northward for his life, when Alexander had occupied the central seats of government and set Persepolis on fire (330 B.C.). If this man from the West was going to claim the whole heritage of the Achaemenian kings, that would make him the neighbour of the princes of India. It must have been a concern to the raja of Taksha^ila and his fellow-kings to learn in what direction the victorious Yavana host would move next. And in fact the tidings came before long that it was moving nearer. When the winter of 330 fell, it was encamped in Seistan, and with the spring moved to the uplands which to-day constitute the southern part of Afghani- stan. Here the awe-struck inhabitants, Pashtus probably, ancestors of the modern Afghans, saw the European strangers set about a work which indicated a resolve to make themselves at home for all time in these lands won by their spear. They saw them begin to construct a city after the manner of the Yavanas at a point com- manding the roads ; and when the rest of the host had gone onward, there a body of Europeans remained, established behind the fresh- built walls. If we may judge by analogies, some thousands of the native people were induced by force or persuasion to settle side by side with them in the new city. It was only one of the chain of cities which marked the track of conquering Hellenism. Like many of the others, this too was given the name of the conqueror. In the speech of the Greeks it was known as Alexaudria-among- the-Arachosians. To-day we call it Kandahar.
A mountain barrier still separated the Yavana host at Kandahar in the summer of 329 from the Kabul valley, that is to say, from the river system of the Indus. And it would seem that, when the passes filled with the first winter snows, the Yavanas had not yet crossed it. But the army led by Alexander was one which defied ordinary obstacles. In winter^, under circumstances that made regular pro- visioning impossible, by extraordinary endurance"^ it pushed through the hills and descended into the Kabul valley. The princes of the Punjab might feel that the outlandish host stood indeed at the door.
1 "Tir6 nXeidSoj Uaiv, Strabo, xv, C. 725. a Diod. xvn, 82; Curt, vii, 3, 12.
348
Alexander the Great [ch.
But Alexander, having reached the Kabul valley in the winter of 329-8, did not make an immediate advance upon India. Beyond the mountain range which forms the northern side of the valley, the Hindu Kush, lay the extreme provinces of the old Persian Empire towards the north-east — Bactria (whose name still survives in the city of Balkh) and the country now called Bukhara. Not only were these [irovinces still unsubdued, but the Persian cause was upheld there by a prince of the old blood royal. Alexander must beat down that opposition, before he could think of in- vading India. He waited therefore for the rest of the winter in the Kabul valley, till the spring should unblock the passes of the Hindu Kush. And again here the inhabitants saw the Europeans make preparations for permanent settlement. At the foot of the Hindu Kush, whence three roads to Bactria radiate^, on the site probably of the still existing village of Charikar, rose another Alexandria, Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus. In support of the Yavana colony to be left in this town, other little settlements were established at points a day's journey off in what were henceforth to be Greek towns ; Cartana, noted for the rectangular precision with which its walls were traced out (modern Begram, according to Cunningham) and Cadrusi (Koratas ?) are names given us. In this case we have an express statement that 7000 of the people of the land were to be incorporated as citizens of the new towns with those of Alexander's mercenaries who cared to settle in this region 2800 miles away from their old home^ Another new city, or old city transformed with a new Greek name, Nicaea, occupied apparently some site between Alexandria and the Kabul river ^
As soon as the snow was melted enough to make the Khawak Pass practicable, the Yavana army trailed up the Panjshir valley*, leaving little bodies of Europeans behind it to hold the Kabul valley under a Persian satrap and a Macedonian episkopos. The main body of the army once more contended with the hardships of
1 Cunningham, Ancient Geography, p. 24.
'^ Diod. XVII, 83 ; Curt, vii, 3, 28, according to the mss. has ' vii millibus Beniorum Macedonum.' Hedicke in the Teubner text amends this, perhaps too boldly, as ' vii millibus subactarum nationum.'
3 The discussions of Dr Vincent Smith and of Sir Thomas Holdich as to the site of Nicaea — the former puts it at Jalalabad and the latter at Kabul — are invalidated by the fact that Nicaea, if we follow Arrian, was not on the river Kabul at all. Alexander from Nicaea advances towards the Kabul; d<piK6/iei>os is T^iKaXa.v...irpoiix^p^i- us iirl t6i> Kw^^va, IV, 22, 6. Mr M'Crindle curiously omits the words in his translation. Not Nicaea, but some place on the way to the river Kabul, was where the army was divided.
* Holdich, Gates of India, p. 88.
xv] The Raja of Takshaqila 349
a passage over the high ridges and disappeared to the northwards. During the following twelve months (May 328 to May 327) such news of it as reached India showed that the Yavana king still pre- vailed against all enemies. As far as the Syr Daria (Jaxartes) the peoples of Eastern Iran were broken before him. In the early spring of 327 he was again moving to the south.
The i-aja of Taksha9ila must have realised at this juncture that a momentous choice lay before him. It may be that the idea of a common Indian nationality, in whose cause he and his brother kings might stand together against the stranger, did not even occur to him : India was too large and too disunited for the mind to embi-ace it as a unity. But he might well tremble for his own power, if this new resistless deluge came bursting into the land. On the other hand it might perhaps be turned to his account. His policy was largely governed by his antagonism to the rival prince of the Paurava^ house (Porus), who ruled on the other side of the Hydaspes (Jhelum). The Paurava was indeed a neighbour to be dreaded. He is described to us as a man of gigantic and powerful build, a warrior-chief, such as in an unsettled world extends his power by aggressive ambition and proud courage. He had con- ceived the idea of building up for himself a great kingdom, and he was the man to realise it. He had already made an attempt to crush the free tribes to the east, pushing his advance even beyond the Hydraotes (Ravi), in alliance with the raja of the Abhisara country (corresponding roughly with the Punch and Naoshera districts in Kashmir) and with many of the free tribes whom he had drawn into vassalage swelling his army, although the resist- ance he there encountered from the Kshatriyas^ had made him temporarily give back*. His hand had perhaps also reached west- ward across the Hydaspes into the country which the raja of Takshaqila considered his own*. It might well seem to the raja of Takshagila that, threatened on the one side by the Paurava and on the other side by the European invader, his safest course lay in allying himself with the European, riding on the crest of the wave that would sweep his rival to destruction.
And yet the European host which had emerged out of the unknown West to shatter the Persian Empire may have appeared too unfamiliar and incalculable a power to make the decision easy.
' Paurava is a title denoting the chief of the Puras, a tribe known in Vedic times {v. 8up. Chapter iv, pp. 82 f.).
2 In Greek Kathaioi, see Lassen, vol. ii, p. 167. The general designation of the warrior caste seems to be applied in this case to a particnlar people.
* Arrian v, 22. * See Anspach, note 125.
350 Alexander the Great [ch.
But, if the raja hesitated, his son Ambhi (Omphis)^ had a clear opinion as to what the situation required. He pressed his father to place his principality at the Yavana king's disposal. While Alexander was still in Bukhara, Ambhi began to negotiate on his own account Envoys from Taksha9ila made their way over the ridges of the Hindu Kush. They were charged with the message that Ambhi was ready to march by Alexander's side against any Indians who might refuse to submit. Thus the European, at his first arrival at the Gates of India, found India divided against itself. It was the hand of an Indian prince, which unbarred the door to the invader.
The summer of 327 b.c. was almost come^ before the hillmen of the Hindu Kush saw the Yavana army re-appear on the ridges, cross probably by the Kushan Pass^ and stream down to the new Alexandria. The satrap who had been left here was found to have done badly, and Alexander appointed another in his place, Tyriespes, a Persian like his predecessor. The population of the city was enlarged by drawing in more of the people of the land and settling down there more war-worn European veterans. The work of making a city of Greek type had really only been begun, and a Macedonian of high rank, Nicanor*, was now appointed to see it carried through.
The army moved on from Alexandria to Nicaea, where Alex- ander sacrificed to the Greek goddess Athena. From Nicaea he sent on a herald to the raja of Taksha9ila and the native princes west of the Indus to meet him in the Kabul Valley. We know of one Indian chief, 9a9igupta (Sisikottos), already in the conqueror's train. His had been probably some little hill-state on the slopes of the Hindu Kush, whence he had gone two years since, to help the Iranians in Bactria against Alexander. When their cause was lost, he had gone over to the European. Messengers now summoned the other chieftains of the lower Kabul Valley to meet their over- lord. At Tak8ha9ila too messengers appeared with the summons. And the raja, acting on the policy which his son had espoused so decisively, rose up to obey.
Encamped in the Kabul Valley at some place not named the raja of Taksha9ila saw the host destined for the invasion of his mother-land. It numbered, at the lowest estimate, from twenty-
^ See Sylvain L^vi in Journal Asiatique, 8"" S6rie xv (1890), p. 234 f.
2 'E^-^KovTos ijSr) ToO ijpos, Arr. iv, 22, 3.
3 Strabo xv, C. 697 ; Cunningham, Ancient Geography, p. 25.
* Dr Vincent Smith {Early History of India, 3rd edition, p, 49) seems to be in error in identifying this Nicanor with the son of Parmenio.
xv] From Kabul to the Indus 351
five to thirty thousand men^ — a strangely compounded army, which can only be called European with qualification. Its strength indeed consisted in the Macedonian regiments, stout yeomen and peasants carrying the long spear of the heavy-armed foot-soldier, and troops of splendidly disciplined cavalry drawn from the aris- tocracy of the country, the ' Companions ' of the national King. European too were the thousands of soldiers from the Greek cities, serving as mercenaries, on foot or mounted, and the contingents of semi-barbarous hillmen from the Balkans, Agrianes and Thracians, serving as light troops — slingers, javelineers, and bowmen — invalu- able for mountain warfare. But mingled with the Europeans were men of many nations. Here were troops of horsemen, repre- senting the chivalry of Iran, which had followed Alexander from Bactria and beyond^, Pashtus and men of the Hindu Kush with their highland-bred horses^, Central-Asiatics who could ride and shoot at the same time* ; and among the camp-followers one could find groups representing the older civilisations of the world, Phoenicians inheriting an immemorial tradition of ship-craft and trade, bronzed Egyptians able to confront the Indians with an antiquity still longer than their own.
There was nothing to arrest this army between the point they had noAv reached and the Indus. The local chieftains had indi- cated their submission. All along the north side of the Kabul however lay the hills, whose inhabitants in their rock citadels, in the valleys of the Kunar, the Panjkora, and the Swat, were un- schooled to recognise an overlord, and as prepared to give trouble to anyone who tried to incorporate them in an imperial system as their Pathan successors of a later day. But it was not Alexander's way to leave unsubdued regions beside his road. His army there- fore broke up into two divisions. One, commanded by Hephaestion, the king's friend, and Perdiccas, the proudest of the Macedonian nobles, moved to the Indus by the most direct route. This would probably mean a route along the south bank of the Kabul, whether
^ The numbers in the ancient texts are often untrustworthy. The estimate in the text is Delbriick's, Qeschickte der Kriegskunst (1900), vol. i, p. 184. Anspach (note 20), combining Arrian, Ind. 19, 5 with Diod. xvii, 95, reckons the army in the Kabul Valley at about 85,000. Delbriick denies that so large an army with the necessary camp- followers could have got across the Hindu Kush. This is a point for practical strategists. Whether Plutarch's number {Alex. 56) is correct or not, he does not say, as Dr Vincent Smith, p. 49, inadvertently quotes him, that Alexander entered India with 120,000 foot and 15,000 horse, but that Alexander left India with that number. Reinforcements had been arriving from the West in the meantime.
2 Arr. IV, 17, 3. ^ 75, y^ n^ 3, 4 7^. ly^ 24, 1.
35^ Alexander the Great [ch.
through the actual Khyber Pass or not^ ; the other, led by the king himself, turned up into the hills. The two divisions were to rejoin each other upon the Indus; Hephaestion and Perdiccas, arriving there first, it was calculated, would have made all preparations for the passage of the great river.
The Europeans who had followed Alexander so far into Asia now entered the region in which the armies of the English operate to-day. At that season of the year^ the hill-country must have been bitterly cold, and probably to some extent under snow. It was the same hill-country whose contours and tracks and points of vantage are studied now by British commanders ; the tough high- lander of the Balkans or of Crete climbed and skirmished with bow and javelin in 327 B.C. where the Scottish highlander was to climb and skirmish with rifle and bayonet two thousand two hundred years later. And yet it is impossible to follow the track of Alexander over these hills with any precision. We hear of little mountain towns stormed, of others abandoned by their inhabitants. But their sites cannot be identified. One must however note that at this point Alexander, in an ethnograpliical sense, entered India ; for these hills, whose population at the present day is either Afghan or Kafir, seem then to have been possessed by Indian tribes. The A^vakas, as their name apparently was in their native speech, were the first Indian people to receive the brunt of the invasion ^ The fighting seems to have been of exceptional ferocity. At one place, where Alexander was wounded, the whole popula- tion was put to the sword. At another place we hear of a huge massacre, and 40,000 men taken captive. At a third place a body of Indians from the Punjab had come to help the local chieftain for hire. When the town capitulated, it was agreed that these
^ Dr Vincent Smith says that he did not go by the Khyber and cites Sir Thomas Holdich in support of the assertion. Sir Thomas in his more recent book, Gates of India (p. 94), says that he ' undoubtedly followed the main route which... is sufficiently well indicated in these days as the " Khaibar ".'
2 MerA Sv<t/jAs EXetdSwc, Aristobulus ap. Strabo xv, C, 691.
' In the Greek accounts a people called Aspasioi are found in the Choes (either the Alishang or Kunar) Valley and a people called Assakenoi in the Swat Valley. Both names are supposed to represent the same Indian name A9vaka, connected with agva • horse. ' If so, the two Greek names may be due to local varieties of pronunciation, and it may be noted that the form Aspasioi would then approximate to Iranian speech, in which aspa is the equivalent of agva. Strabo, according to the mss. (xv, C. 691, 0. 698), calls the Aspasioi Hypasioi ; this is often emended in modern texts to Hippasioi, on the supposition that the Greeks knew their hippos to be the etymological equivalent of aspa and attempted a translation. This is extremely unlike the Greek way in these matters. The confusion is made worse by another people called Astakenoi appearing in the PushkalavatI region, whose name is supposed not to be connected etymologically with that of their neighbours, the Assakenoi.
xv] Tribes beyond the N,W, Frontier 353
mercenaries should transfer their services to Alexander. They encamped on a little hill apart. There, as they talked together, it seemed to them a horrible thing that they should march with the Yavanas against their own people. They determined to slip away, when night fell, and make across the hills for home. But when night fell, they found the hill beset on all sides with the soldiers of Alexander; for some one had betrayed their design. The Macedonians suffered none of them to live till morning \
The town with which this incident is connected the Greeks call Massaga. We know only that it was situated east of the Guraeus river and apparently not far from the stream. The resistance which the easternmost branch of the hill-people, those called by the Greeks Assakenoi, offered to the invader seems to have been concentrated at this place. All these tribes, as far as the Indus, recognised as overlord a chief whom the Greeks call Assakenos. His organisation for defence included an alliance with the king of the Abhisara country beyond the Indus, who sent contingents to his support^. Assakenos had himself taken command at Massaga, and fell there, struck by a missile from one of the European siege- machines ^ His mother and daughter were left in the enemies' hands* ; but it was not among Alexander's faults to fail in chivalry to the women whom war put at his mercy ^
The loot in cattle in these regions was enormous, and we are told that a herd of the finest animals was actually given by Alex- ander into the charge of drovers who were to drive them all the way from the Hindu Kush to Macedonia. A town called by the Greeks Arigaeon, which apparently commanded the road between the Kunar and the Panjkora Valleys, was selected for recolonisa- tion — a number of war-worn Europeans and a number of the native people were to form the population, as in similar cases before.
One curious incident relieves the story of blood-shed. Some- where among these hills* — probably on the lower spurs of the
1 Arr. IV, 27; Diod. xvn, 84; Plut. Alex. 59 ; Polyaen. Strateg. iv, 3, 20.
2 Arr. IV, 27, 7. » Arr. iv, 27, 2. •* Arr. iv, 27, 4.
* A strange story is given by Justin, xn, 7, 10, that it was the wife of Assakenos who fell into Alexander's hands and that he had a son by her, who afterwards became king of the Indians (!) (cf. Curtius, vni, 10, 35). It may be that the story was concocted in later times in the interests of some petty king of this region, who wished to establish a claim to be descended from Alexander. That is a claim which is still common in the Indian frontier hills.
* Holdich in discussing the site of Nysa (Gates of India, p. 122) gives a mis- translation of Arrian. Arrian does not say that Alexander ' then entered ' that part of the country, but that somewhere in the country which Alexander had already traversed there was a place called Nysa.
c. H. 1. 1. 23
354 Alexander the Great [ch.
three-peaked Koh-i-Mor — dwelt a people who told the Yavanas, or so the invaders understood them, that they were descendants of the western people who had come into those parts with their god Dionysus ; for Dionysus, the Greeks believed, had gone conquering across Asia, at the head of his revellers, in the old heroic days. The Greeks always experienced a keen joy of recognition, when they could connect foreign things with the figures of their own legends, and they were delighted with the suggestion. The asson- ance of names lent itself immediately to confirm the theory as usefully as it does to confirm the adventurous speculations of modern archaeologists. In the legend the name Nysa was specially connected with Dionysus — it was the name of his nurse or of the place where he was born or of his holy hill — and the name of this little town in the Hindu Kush, as it was pronounced to Alexander, had a similar sound. Again the legend said that Dionysus had been born from the thigh (meros) of Zeus, and a neighbouring summit, the Greeks discovered, was called Meru. What could be clearer? And when they saw the sacred plants of the god, the vine and ivy, running wild over the mountain, as they knew them at home\ no doubt could be left. Modena travellers have come upon certain fair Kafir tribes in this region, whose religious pro- cessions with music and dancing have a Bacchanalian look, and the Nysaeans discovered by Alexander, they suggest, may have been the ancestors of these Kafirs ; their processions may have led the Greeks to connect them with Dionysus. This is possible, but in the Greek books we hear nothing of the Nysaeans going in procession. It is the Macedonian soldiers themselves, who wreathe their heads with ivy and range the hills in ecstasy, calling on the god by his sacred names, as their people had done from old time on the woody spurs of the Balkans. Hostilities, at any rate, with these interesting kinsmen could not be thought of, and the 'Nysaeans' were themselves prepared to act in character; three hundred of them on their mountain horses joined the army of the Yavana king and followed him to battle in the plains of the Punjab. Whilst Alexander was fighting in the valleys to the north of the Kabul, the other division of the Macedonian army under Hephaestion and Perdiccas, accompanied by the raja of Taksha9ila, made its way along the Kabul to the Indus. It may have been through the Khyber Pass that, one day in the cold weather season at the end of 327 or beginning of 326 B.C., the glitter of strange spears, long lines of mailed men, were seen emerging into the
^ Holdicb, Gates of India, p. 133.
xv] Occupation of the Lower Kabul Valley 355
plain about Peshawar — the advance guard of the European in- vasion of India. A few days' march farther, and they came to the Indus. Arrived there, the Europeans set about collecting material for the bridge which was to transport their fellows into the interior of the land. But their hold on the country west of the Indus was not yet secure. The region in which the division of Hephaestion and Perdiccas was now encamped formed part of the realm of a raja, named by the Greeks Astes^, whose capital was the town of Pushkalavati (Charsadda) to the north of the Kabul river. The raja at this moment declared himself an enemy of the for- eigners. He was not strong enough to hold the open field against Hephaestion and Perdiccas, and shut himself desperately in some walled town. For a month he held it against the besiegers, and then the greater strength of the Europeans beat him down, and destroyed him. The principality was given to one who had been his enemy and become a hanger-on of the raja of Taksha9ila, a certain Sangaya. He was a man upon whose loyalty the Yavanas could count.
In the hills to the north, after a few months' fighting, the tribes generally had submitted to Alexander and the strong places were in his possession. He constituted the lower Kabul Valley and the recently conquered hills a special satrapy, distinct from the satrapy of the Paropanisadae, which Tyriespes ruled from Alex- andria-under-the-Caucasus. The new satrapy, whose official name we do not know, but which can be most conveniently described as India-west-of-the-Indus, got for its governor a Nicanor, probably the same man who had been left a few months before to superintend the building of Alexandria. The king himself came down to Push- kalavati at the lower end of the Guraeus (now usually called the Swat) valley, which was not in a position, after the defeat of its raja, to ofi*er any resistance. He set a Macedonian garrison in the town under an officer named Philip.
But the effective occupation of the lower Kabul valley by the Yavanas required still more to be done. The division of Hephaes- tion had meantime fortified and garrisoned a place the Greeks call Orobatis, and Alexander, accompanied by two Indian chieftains, 'Cophaeus' and ' Assagetes'^, moved about to take possession of various small towns between Pushkalavati and the Indus. But
^ One guess is that this represents the Sanskrit proper name Hasti; a more probable one is that it is short for Ashtakaraja, king of the Ashtakas.
"^ Anspach suggests, p. 65, note 200, that Cophaeus = raja of the region about Pushkala near the Cophen, and Assagetes=the raja of the Assakenoi (successor of the raja killed in Massaga).
23—2
356 Alexander the Great [ch.
one great labour remained. The reduction of a certain mountain citadel, which crowned Alexander's work during that winter, always seemed to the Greeks the great glory of the campaign. The Greek books described the siege and storming at greater length than any other episode in this region. The story was started that Heracles had attempted to storm that very rock and failed. Unfortunately, it has so far been impossible to fit the Greek description of Aornus to any rocky height noted in the country to-day ^
Aornus, we are told, was not far from the modern Amb ; it was a great isolated mass of rock, 6670 feet high, flat on the top with precipitous sides, which on the south went down straight to the river Indus. On the summit were woods and watersprings and fields whose cultivation could keep a thousand men employed. It seems plain that an object of this kind can hardly have escaped modern geographers in search of it. The inference is that some particulars in the Greek account are due to imagination. But when once we begin to trim it so as to suit the actual topo- graphy, it depends on a more or less arbitrary selection which particulars we eliminate and which we retain. There is at any rate no reason to doubt that the final conquest of this mountain region did involve the reduction of some exceptionally strong rock-citadel, in which fugitives of the defeated tribes made a last stand. The citadel, when taken, was held for Alexander by a garrison under the Indian (^a9igupta. The capture of Aornus had to be followed by another short expedition further up into the hills, in pursuit of the flying defenders of the fortress". They were led by the brother of the Assakenian chief killed in Massaga^ and had with them a herd of fifteen war-elephants. To the Greeks the idea of getting hold of these animalsTso strange and wonderful to them, of whose value in battle they had probably formed an even exaggerated notion, made their pursuit the more eager. The hills were deserted before them, and Alexander pushed on as far as a town which the Greek books call Dyrta. It was found empty of in- habitants. Alexander learnt that the fugitive prince was dead by the evidence of his severed head, brought by some hillmen one day into camp. He had fallen a victim to some hostile tribe or to his own followers. Two bodies of light troops were detached to scour the hills yet further, and Alexander himself turned back with the
1 See the note in Vincent Smith, pp. 56, 57.
* Arr. IV, 30, 5 ; Diod. xvii, 86 ; Curt, viii, 12, 1. His name is variously given aa Aphrikes, Aphices, Erices in different texts.
XV] The Crossing of the Indus 357
rest of his division to the Indus. Some natives of the region were caught by the Macedonians on their way. They reported that the fugitives from Aornus and the people of the hills had escaped into the country of Abhisara, whose raja was watching the progress of the Yavanas with a doubtful mind. As for the elephants, they had turned them loose in the country bordering the Indus, more swampy in those days than it is now\ An elephant hunt accord- ingly followed ; Alexander had already, with his quick interest in new things and his Macedonian sporting propensities, collected about him Indians whose special business was elephant-hunting, and by their means the scattered herd was driven in, and attached to the Macedonian army^. The point at which Alexander's division struck the Indus on its descent from the hiUs was some way above the point where Hephaestion and Perdiccas had by this time con- structed the bridge. Between the two, the right bank of the river was largely overgrown with forest, which, if in one way it impeded the advance of Alexander's division, in another way helped the transport by furnishing timber for boats. Part of Alexander's force floated down the river, and when he arrived at Hephaestion's bridge the number of new boats was swelled by those brought down from up-stream. The two divisions of the Yavana host now re-united for passage into the heart of India. The place at which the bridge had been made has been fixed by the most recent opinion at Ohind, about 16 miles above Attock. The Greeks felt that they were crossing the threshold of a new world. Sacri- fices to the Greek gods, games and horse-races in their honour on the river bank at Ohind, marked their sense that they were about to begin a new enterprise of formidable magnitude. Alexander was approaching the bourne of the old Persian Empire, and it was evident that he meant to press still onward towards the sunrise. The Greek divinei*s announced that the omens were favourable. In the early dawn one day in the spring of 326 b.c.^, the host began to defile over the bridge, the mingled line of many races streaming all day into the Indian world. And the composition of the army became now more singularly mixed by the contingents of native Indian troops sent by the raja of Taksha9ila, squadrons of Indian horse and thirty elephants, endless trains moreover of oxen and sheep for sacrifice and food, and silver brought in masses from his treasuries.
The raja of Taksha^ila was now none other than Ambhi himself ;
1 Holdich, Qatet of India, p. 122. ^ Cf. Diod. xvu, 86.
3 Stiabo XV, C. 691. Cf. Vincent Smith, p. 61, note 1.
35^ Alexander the Great [ch.
for the old raja had not lived to see the Yavanas enter his city. The first act of the new raja had been to send a message of homage to Alexander ; he would not assume his ancestral kingdom except pending the Great King's pleasure. He would take his kingdom only from Alexander's hand. As Alexander moved on Taksha9ila from the bridge, Ambhi went out to meet him in state at the head of the forces of his principality. For a moment, when the Greeks saw an Indian army deployed across their path, they suspected treachery. The raja saw that there was trouble in the ranks and galloped forward with a few attendants. He assured Alexander through an interpreter that everything he had was his overlord's. Alexander on his part ratified his assumption of the princedom \
The gates of Taksha9ila were thrown open to the Europeans and the Indian crowd watched, no doubt with a crowd's curiosity, the strange figures and dresses which thronged their streets. But in one quarter the Greeks met with an indiflerence which took them aback. At Taksha9ila, so far as we know, the Greeks first noticed Indian ascetics. The report reached Alexander himself of a strange set of men who were to be seen naked somewhere near the city, 'practising endurance,' men commanding a great rever- ence among the people. It was no use his sending for them, since they would certainly refuse to come: those who wished to learn their secret must go to them. Alexander, however, on his side, felt he could not go to them consistently with his dignity ; so he chose an envoy, a Greek officer named Onesicritus, who had been a disciple of the Cynic philosopher Diogenes, a figure obviously akin to the Indian ascetics. Onesicritus, in the book he afterwards wrote, gave an account of his interesting mission, and we may still read it in Strabo's version^. He found fifteen ascetics some ten miles from the city, sitting naked and motionless in a sun so burn- ing that one could not even walk over the stones with bare feet. Onesicritus could only communicate with them through a series of three interpreters, but he made them understand that the Yavana king would like to learn their wisdom. The ascetic to whom he first addressed himself answered bluntly that no one coming in the bravery of European clothes — cavalry cloak and broad-brimmed hat and top-boots, such as the Macedonians wore — could learn their wisdom. To do that, he must strip naked and learn to sit on the hot stones beside them. Another answered more mildly that it was really very creditable for such a man as Alexander to desire to know something of the deeper wisdom, but one must remember
1 Diod. xvii, 86 ; Curt, vra, 12. ^ ^y^ q, 715,
xv] Receptio7t at Takshaqila 359
that to attempt to convey their teaching through three interpre- ters, common men incapable of understanding more than the mere words, would be like trying to make water flow clear through mud. They seem however to have made an attempt, and then they asked Onesicritus whether among the Yavanas there was any teaching of this kind, and he told them about Pythagoras and Socrates and his old master Diogenes. The ascetics seemed pleased, but expressed regret that the wise men of the Greeks had clung to such superfluities as clothes \ One of these ascetics was ultimately persuaded by the raja of Tak8ha9ila to accompany Alexander and return to clothes and a worldly life. His com- panions considered it an apostasy, and followed him with reproaches. The name of this Indian, who remained a notable figure in Alex- ander's entourage, was one which Plutarch reproduces as ' Sphines,' but the Greeks, catching among the Indian words of greeting which he exchanged with his fellow-countrymen, the word halydna, 'lucky,' came to call him Kalanos^.
At Taksha9ila x\lexander held what would be called in modern India a durbar. There were more Greek sacrifices and games. Ambhi and a crowd of smaller chiefe from the country already dominated by the Macedonian arms brought presents, and were granted extensions of territory at the expense of such of their neighbours as had not submitted to the European King of Kings. And Alexander bestowed presents also with a large hand. In the train of the European army, waggons had come over the mountains bringing from the storehouses of the old Persian kings vessels of gold and silver, Babylonian and Persian embroideries, and many of these now found a home in the palace of Taksha9ila. The Macedonian captains were inclined to grumble at the munificence with which Alexander treated his Indian vassal kings. But Alex- ander had come to feel himself, one gathers, a man raised above distinctions of race, an Emperor of the world, beneath whom all mankind was to be levelled and made one.
East of the Hydaspes (Jhelum) the Paurava king had been watching the immense peril come near. He learnt of the alliance between his old enemy of Taksha9ila and the Yavana conqueror. He learnt that other princes of the land were tendering submission to the new power — his own kinsman, for instance, another Paurava, whose territory lay still further to the east, beyond the Acesines (Chenab)^ In that moment of fear, the spirit of the great Paurava
1 Strabo xv, C. 714 f. 2 ^^r. vii, 2, 4 ; Plut. Alex. 65 ; Strabo xv, C. 714 f, 3 AiT. V, 21, 3.
360 Alexander the Great [CH.
rose unshaken in the resolve to settle his relations with the in- vader by the arbitrament of arms. It would be a mistake to regard him as one who fought in the nationalist cause. The Paurava does not seem to have been moved by any thought of Indian solidarity against the European any more than the raja of Taksha9ila. It was not India that he was going to fight for ; it was his own honour and his own kingdom. His honour would not allow him to surrender anything without a fair fight, and all his old ambitions of constructing a great kingdom at the expense of neighbouring chiefs and the free tribes would vanish into air, if he gave way to a power which had made agreement with his rivals. And yet, if the Paurava was not a champion of nationalism, India may well reckon the proud and brave prince among her national heroes. Unhappily India has long forgotten his name. We know of him only through the Greek books which call him Porus. It would have seemed a strange fate to him, had any astrologer been able to predict it — to pass quickly out of the memory of his own people, and to be a familiar name for centuries in lands of which he had no conception, away to the West !
To meet the Europeans, the Paurava could draw upon the resources of his own principality lying between the Hydaspes and the Acesines, full of populous villages \ And if his immediate neighbours to east and west were hostile, the raja of Abhisara was inclined to make common cause with him. That prince had already, as we have seen, given shelter to the fugitives from the Swat Valley, and now messengers went to and fro between him and the Paurava. He thought it politic however to play a double game, and sent his brother to the durbar at Taksha9ila to convey presents to Alexander and the announcement of his submission. And meanwhile he prepared to send forces to join the Indian army mustering on the Hydaspes.
It was probably some wind of these intrigues which accelerated Alexander's attack 2. The Paurava, for his part, had sent the Yavana conqueror an open defiance. To the envoys who sum- moned him to meet Alexander at Taksha9ila he had answered that he would meet Alexander on his own frontiers, in arms^ He soon learnt that in spite of the heats of summer which now lay on the land, in spite of the near approach of the rains, the European army had broken up from Taksha9ila and was in full march for the passage of the Hydaspes. Alexander had left a Macedonian garrison in Tak8ha9ila, and a Macedonian satrap, Philip the son of
i Strabo xv, C. 698. « Diod. xvii, 87. » Curt, vm, 13, 2.
xv] The Advance to the Hydaspes 361
Machatas, in the realm of Ambhi\ Probably somewhere near the place where is now the town of Jhelum^ the army of the Paurava gathered on the banks of the Hydaspes in the spring of 326. Its numbers are variously given ^ They were perhaps not very far, more or less, from those of Alexander's army, though all our accounts agree in one point — that Alexander had a numerical superiority in cavalry.
The first body of Yavanas to appear on the river was, one gathers, the advance guard sent on by Alexander, bringing in sections the boats which had been used on the Indus. These were fitted together again on the Hydaspes, and a little fleet could soon be descried in moorings across the river. The king with the main army was on the road. The Paurava seems to have thrown one body of troops into the country opposite under his nephew * Spitaces,' to contest Alexander's advance in some narrow place of the hills*, through which the road from Tak8ha9ila runs. It was, of course, a mere preliminary skirmish, and a manoeuvre of the Macedonian horse threw back the Indians in some confusion'. Presently the great host of the Yavanas was seen drawn up on the other side. The eyes watching from the left bank could make out the royal tent and the uniform of the body-guards and even the figure of the marvellous man himself moving to and fro among his captains. They could see too a body of 5000 Indians, their countrymen, sent by Ambhi to fight by the side of the Mace- donians. Nothing divided the Indian army from the conquerors of the world but the breadth of the Hydaspes. That however was a serious obstacle. The river at this season*^ was rising as the
^ This may have been the same Philip whom we heard of as commandant of the garrison in Pushkalavati. Anspach thinks it was not, note 200.
"^ Dr Vincent Smith in an appendix (p, 78) defends the Jhelum site against the Jalalpur site, preferred by Cunningham. A point in favour of Jhelum is that it is higher up and Alexander seems to have kept close to the hills. One does not see however that it can ever be possible to decide the question with our defective docu- ments. Most of the argument on the subject takes it for granted that the place where Alexander crossed was dbovt the camp of Porus. But our sources do not tell us whether it was above or below. Graf Yorck von Wartenburg and Delbriick prefer the hypothesis that it was below. With this point uncertain, as it must remain, it seems idle to try to be precise.
3 The numbers in the final battle, according to Arrian v, 15, 4, were 30,000 foot (' all that was any good, that is to say '), 4000 horses, 300 chariots, and 200 elephants. See Delbriick, p. 184.
* The exact route of Alexander from Taksha<jila to the Hydaspes is unknown. See Vincent Smith, p. 63, note. » Polyaen. iv, 3, 21.
* Dr Vincent Smith's disquisition on the date of the battle (p. 85 f.) suffers from one important datum having been left out — Strabo's statement, on the authority of Nearchua, that the Macedonian army was on the Acesines at the time of the summet
362
Alexander the Great [ch.
snows began to melt in the Himalayas. Along the left bank the Paurava kept a sharp watch on all possible landing-places. His elephants especially would deter the Europeans, by their terror as well as by their solid bulk, from landing. To land in the face of such opposition might well seem an impossibility, even for Yavanas. But for the Paurava it meant the necessity of unremitting vigil- ance ; it meant the continuous minute scrutiny of every movement on the opposite bank. He was now to show whether he had the general's genius for divining the purposes of the enemy from chance indications.
The diflBculty was that movement in the opposite camp seemed perpetual. Over and over again there were concentrations at this point or that, as if an immediate attack were to be made, and then, when the nerves of the defenders were strung up to the highest pitch of expectancy, nothing happened. Was the dreadful foe really brought to a standstill by an obstacle such as he had never yet encountered? Or were these abortive movements purposed feints to throw the defenders off their guard ? For the foreigners at any rate it must make things worse when rain storms came on^ — tropical deluges such as they could never have experienced before, with only such shelter as a camp allows — and the swollen river swelled yet higher. Some indications seemed to show that this state of suspense might be protracted for months, that the Yavanas had given up the thought of attempting to cross in the present state of the river, and were going to wait for the winter when it would become fordable. It was certain from the reports of spies that great stores of provisions were being brought up, as if for a long halt^. Then alarms at night began. In the intervals of the rain the noise of cavalry mustering could be heard on the further bank, the shoutings of words of command, the songs which the Yavanas sang in battle to their own gods ; and at the sound of it, on the left bank the great elephants would swing through the darkness to their stations, and the lines of Indians stand ready with sword and bow. And still nothing happened. The night alarm became almost a piece of routine.
solstice (XV, C. 692). This would support Arrian's statement that the battle was in the month of Munychion, i.e. probably about the middle of May, not in July as Dr Vincent Smith computes. (See Anspach, note 124.)
^ According to Mr Pearson (see Bibliography) the regular rains do not begin in this part till July.
^ Schubert points out that if Alexander was trying to keep the Indians in expecta- tion of an immediate attack he can hardly have tried at the same time to persuade them that he was going to remain stationary for a long time. If they got this impression from the arrival of provisions, it was not therefore due to design on his part.
XV] The Crossing of the Hydaspes 363
One daybreak, after a night of storm and violent rain, outposts came galloping in with the tidings that boats crowded with horses and armed men had been sighted rounding the end of a wooded island some twenty miles away from the Indian camp. A body of Yavanas had succeeded in reaching an undefended part of the left bank ! The first outposts who reported sighting the boats were soon followed by others who had seen the enemy getting firm foot upon the land.
From the Greek books we know more than the Paurava could know of the movements which had taken place in the European army on that terrific night. While the rain poured in torrents and the lightnings struck men down here and there in the European columns, the king with a strong division^ — Macedonian horse and foot, horsemen from Balkh and Bukhara, light-armed Balkan mountaineers and archers — moved to a point about seventeen miles from the European camp, where the fleet of river-boats was in readiness. As it drew near day, the storm abated, and in the first light the laden boats pushed off. In any circumstances, to embark upon an unknown river, swollen in flood, would have been sufficiently venturesome. A single bark carried the king and several of his great captains, men who in after days were destined themselves to rule great tracts of the earth and to plot against each other's lives — Perdiccas, the future Regent, Ptolemy, one day to be king of Egypt, Lysimachus, to be king of Thrace and carry the Macedonian arms into what is now Roumania, Seleucus, who would inherit Alexander's Asiatic empire. With so much history was one boat big, which in the early light of that gray morning swayed upon the blind eddies of an Indian river. It was one of the moments when Alexander threw himself upon luck, as repre- sented by the chance play of natural forces. The point from which the boats put out had the advantage — it was chosen for that reason — of being hidden from the watchers on the opposite bank by a wooded island in mid-stream. It was not till the boats approached land that they came in sight, and sent the outposts galloping back to the Paurava. It was instantly clear that every- thing was a question of time: could the Indians reach the place where the Europeans had landed before the Europeans were ready to receive them ? And here the luck of natural accidents came in. The Europeans soon discovered that the recent rain had cut off
^ Some 31,000 men, if Arrian's figures are accepted. Of course, if Delbnick's estimate of 30,000 for the whole of Alexander's army is right, Arrian's numbers mast be very much exaggerated.
364 Alexander the Great [ch.
the place where they were from the proper shore by a swolleu channel ; they had landed on what was now practically an island. All depended on whether the channel was fordable. If it was not, the Europeans were caught in a trap. The question remained doubtful, as at point after point attempts were made, and the water proved too deep. Then a point was found where it was just possible for a man to cross, going into the strong current above his breast, and there men and horses struggled through. Onesi- critus recorded words which, he said, burst from the king in the stress of that moment. They show a curious point of contact between the European then and the European now. For to-day India sees in the European some one living and moving and acting in its midst, whilst the public opinion which governs him, for which he really cares, is the opinion of a society thousands of miles away. At that moment, Onesicritus said, Alexander suddenly exclaimed, as the thought struck him that he was going through all this for the sake of a fame, which meant that people would talk and vrrite about him at Athens^ !
When the Paurava received tidings of the landing of the Yavanas, he could not yet tell from which direction the main attack would come. For the enemy's camp could be descried as usual just opposite — the royal tent, bodies of European soldiery, of horsemen from the Kandahar highlands and the Hindu Kush, and the Indian troops of the hostile rajas. The Paurava must not relax his guard on the adjacent landing-places, whatever force he might detach to deal with the body of Yavanas who had got across. As a matter of fact, Alexander had left a force, including two Mace- donian phalanxes, in the camp under Craterus, with orders to attempt the passage as soon as they should see the Indians thrown into confusion by his own attack, and another body of troops with Meleager at a point half way between the camp and the place of embarkation^. The division which crossed the river with Alexander numbered about 11,000 men. The Paurava remained stationary with the bulk of his army, but in order to meet with all possible speed the Europeans who had landed, he detached a force of 2000 mounted men and 120 chariots under the command of his son. The young prince found a body of Europeans already drawn up on
1 Plutarch, Alex. 60.
2 If Arrian's figures are right, the force left in camp would have numbered about 17,000 foot and 1800 horse, and the division with Meleager about 30,000 foot and 2000 horse. Delbriick considers that the number given for Alexander's division, 11,000, is correct and makes it the basis of his calculation.
XV] The Battle of the Hydaspes 365
the shore. As he came nearer, detachments of horse broke from the enemy's lines and swept towards him. But instead of the shock of the encounter, a hail of arrows descended upon the Indian cavalry ; for the men who came against them carried bows and could shoot in full career. They were not Yavanas, but the men from the steppes of Central Asia, who by custom fought in this elusive fashion. Behind them, however, Alexander was keep- ing his European squadrons in reserve, till he knew whether he had the main force of the Paurava before him or only a detach- ment. Then the Indians received the charge of the Macedonian horse, squadron after squadron, and at their head flashed the person of the terrible king. The Indian horsemen were over- powered, and could only throw their lives away in the unequal battle. Four hundred are said to have fallen; the young prince was among the slain. All the 120 chariots, running headlong into the mud, were captured \
The return of the shattered squadrons to camp told the Paurava that no river separated Alexander and himself any more, that the hour of supreme crisis was come. He determined to move practi- cally the whole of his force against the division with the king. Only a small body of troops (four or five hundred foot soldiers and thirty-five elephants) were left to hold the river-bank against the division with Craterus. The Indian army arrived in time to draw up in battle order before the Europeans engaged them.
Some of the pictorial features of the battle which followed we can gather from our Greek texts. But their account is too con- fused, in part perhaps through the mistakes of copyists, to allow us to reconstruct it as a military operation. Not knowing whether it was above or below the Indian camp that Alexander had lande(^ we do not know whether the right or the left of the Indian line rested upon the river ; and yet that would be an essential point in understanding what happened. We know at any rate that the strength of the Indians was in the two hundred elephants — an arm to which the Europeans had no parallel and which was apt to terrify the foreign horses — whilst the superiority of the Europeans was in cavalry.
^ Anspach supposes that the son of Porus was already near the spot with 60 chariots and 1000 horse when Alexander landed, and that, finding a larger body had crossed than he could cope with, he sent for help to his cousin Spitaces, who was holding a post lower down opposite Meleager; Spitaces brought up 60 more chariots and another 1000 horse.
366 Alexander the Great [CH.
A picture of the Indian line of battle is given us. The elephants were drawn up along the front like bastions in a wall. The enemy would be obliged, either to attack the unfamiliar monsters directly, or go in between them to get at the masses of Indian foot behind. The line of foot projected on each side beyond the elephants, and, beyond the foot, cavalry was stationed to guard either flank, with chariots in front of them. An image of some god, Krishna or Indra, was held aloft before the ranks \ In the midst of his army the Indian prince had his seat upon an elephant of exceptional size, his own magnificent frame encased in a hauberk of cunning workmanship, which left nothing but his right shoulder bare — visible to all and surveying all. The Indian army waited, a great stationary mass, whilst the monotonous yet exciting rhythm of the drums and the trumpeting of the elephants filled the air, to see how the more mobile European force opposed to it would develop the attack. As in the former fight that morning, it was a cloud of 1000 mounted archers from Central Asia, which first rolled out upon the Indian left and covered the cavalry there with flights of arrows. Their arrows might have been answered more efiectu- ally from the Indian ranks, were it not that the rain-rotten slush underfoot made it impossible for the Indian archers to get a firm rest for their long bows. To repel this attack the Indian cavalry on the left wing began to execute some wheeling movement, but while it was still incomplete the Macedonian horse-guards, led by Alexander himself, bore down upon them. The battle, so much we can say, was decided by the cavalry. Alexander's onset was supported by another body of European horse under the Mace- donian Coenus. What exactly the manoeuvre of Coenus was is obscure ; the phrases in our authorities are of doubtful interpreta- tion, and what is ofiered in printed texts is sometimes the con- jectural emendation of a modern editor ^ The Indian cavalry was unable to hold its own against the Macedonian horse, practised in a hundred fights over half Asia. The irretrievable defeat of the Indian cavalry threw the infantry into confusion, and the crush in the centre made the elephants a terror to their own side. When the European infantry came into action, all resistance had become hopeless, and what followed was not fighting, but butchery. Be- tween the broken squadrons of horse plunging amongst them and the rushes of the maddened elephants, the Indian army was reduced
» Curt, vra, 14, 11.
* E.g. in the Teubner text of Cartius by Hedicke 'Coenus ingenti vi in laevum oornu invehitur,' vm, 14, 17, is emended into 'a laevo oornu invehitur.'
xv] Defeat of the Paurava King 367
to a bewildered mob\ A part of the mob surged backwards in a wild attempt to regain the camp from which they had set out, and a certain number succeeded in getting through the cruel ring of the enemy's cavalry. But by now the division of Craterus had crossed the river, and these exhausted fugitives therefore only found new bodies of Macedonians, fresh and unbreathed, barring their way. They were mown down without a possibility of escape or resistance. Among the thousands who, the Greek books affirm, perished on that day — * were the two sons of Porus, Spitaces the " nomarch " of that district, all the great captains of Porus.'
The prince himself from the back of his huge elephant had seen his army turned to confusion around him. The Greek historians, to whom India must owe it, if she knows anything to-day about this her heroic son, observe that, unlike the Persian monarch in a similar case, he did not turn to flight. So long as any body of men in that seething mass preserved any appearance of order, the Paurava kept his elephant where the darts were flying. One gashed his bare right shoulder. When all hope was over, the royal elephant turned and made its way from the place of carnage. The Paurava had not gone far when a man came galloping after him. Coming within earshot, he shouted to the prince to have his elephant halted : he brought a message from the Yavana king. The Paurava recognised the hated face of the raja of Takshagila. Then he turned round in his seat, and, with what strength his wounded arm could gather, threw a javelin ^ Ambhi evaded it and galloped back to his overlord. Presently the Paurava was overtaken again by other horsemen, calling to him to stop and receive Alexander's message. Among them he saw a certain ' Meroes,' whom he believed to be still his friend. Loss of blood had brought on intolerable thirst. It came to the Paurava that he had done all that honour required, that he might yield to destiny. The elephant was halted and he alighted. The envoys of Alexander gave him to drink. Then he bade them conduct him to the king.
^ For the battle see especially Schubert, Die Porus-Sehlacht in Rhein. Mus., Neue Folge, Lvi (1901), p. 543 f. He attempts to disentangle the parts of Ptolemy and Aristobulus in Arrian's account. One critical question bearing on a reconstruction of the battle is the value to be attached to the ' Letter of Alexander ' cited by Plutarch. Schubert holds it to be a later fabrication based on Clitarehus. Delbriick (Gesch. der Kriegskunst, i, p, 189) maintains that, although not the work of Alexander himself, it was an oflacial bulletin given out in his name. G. Veith in Klio, vui (1908), pp. 131 £E., defends against Schubert the general consistency of Arrian's narrative.
* Head, Historia Numorum (2nd ed.), p. 833, suggests that the coin figured in PL I, 16, may give an Mstaal representation of this encounter (v. inf. pp. 389-90).
368 Alexander the Great [ch.
As the little party neared the Macedonian lines, the Paurava saw the conqueror of the world come galloping out to meet him. It was an instance of two strong men, from diverse ends of the earth, coming face to face. Alexander, whose romantic vein was easily touched, was all admiration, the Greek books say, for an antagonist so splendid in person, so brave and proud. There is no Indian historian to tell us what the Paurava felt, when he looked on Alexander. But we gather that from their meeting the Paurava gave this unparalleled man his full loyalty, as vassal and friend. Their conversation at this their first meeting is recorded. The Paurava was made to understand that Alexander desired him to indicate himself the treatment he would wish to receive. * Act as a king,' the Indian said. But the interpreter explained that Alexander was not satisfied ; he wanted something more precise. ' When I said " As a king " ' the Paurava replied, * everything was contained in that.'
The principality of the Paurava was now in the hands of Alexander to order as seemed good to him. The Paurava was re-instated in his former dignity. He was only required to regard himself as the member of a world-realm under Alexander. In all groupings of mankind, — in the family, the nation, the empire — the constituent units have to sacrifice something of their independence in order to share in the greatness and strength of the group. And in such a realm as Alexander now conceived, a realm including already so many races and nations, in which European and Asiatic should stand on one footing, it might well seem to a proud Indian prince that he and his people could accept their place without shame. He entered it as the peer of the Macedonian chiefs, who might claim to be the conquerors, and of the princes and nobles of Iran, who had given their allegiance to the new King of Kings. That his new position meant amity with the raja of Taksha9ila was probably the thing which the Paurava found most bitter. But that Alexander sweetened, so far as he could, by giving him a great enlargement of dominion towards the east.
Here too Alexander, pursuing his fixed policy, was determined to strengthen the bonds which knit his empire together by plant- ing cities of European men. On what had been the field of battle, they began to trace out the walls of a Nicaea, a * City of Victory,' and on the opposite bank of the river, whence Alexander had put out in the gray of that eventful morning, the site of a city was marked, to be called Bucephala, after the king's stalwart old horse Bucephalus, who had come so far to lay his bones.
xv] Political Conditions in the Punjab 369
Here again the Indians saw the Yavanas honour their gods in their own peculiar fashion — the sacrifices of thanksgiving for victory, the obsequies of the slain, the horse-racing and the run- ning, wrestling and boxing of naked men. To the Sun especially Alexander made offerings on this occasion, whose grace, he deemed, had opened for him the way to the Orient'. Then the anny turned once more to the business of war. The state of things, as we saw, which the Europeans found in the Punjab was one of extreme division, free tribes everywhere maintaining their separate inde- pendence against princes like Ambhi and the Paurava. The first effect of the Macedonian conquest, as it has been of other con- quests, was internal unification. It seemed good policy to recognise a certain number of native princes and make their authority really effective over large spheres. Even to the west of the Acesines (Chenab), the next river after the Hydaspes (Jhelum), there was a people with thirty-seven towns of over 5000 inhabitants — the Greeks give their name as Glausai or Glauganikai — which had held their independence against the Paurava. But it was a different matter, when the summons was brought by the conquerors of the Paurava, when they saw the wave of European and Central- Asian cavalry sweeping over their fields, columns of Macedonian footmen and Thracian archers marching against them. They surrendered, and the principality of the Paurava was extended over their land.
There was no power in the north-west of India, after the battle on the Hydaspes, which could meet the Europeans in the open field, as the Paurava had done. The only chance lay in the fact that the intrusive power, although a far-reaching one — a camp on the move — could not be everywhere at oncd, and, if it could not be met, it could often be defied at a distance. The rapid conquest had been anything but secure. Even before Alexander had left Taksha9ila a rebellion in the Kandahar region, which had been joined by the chief of a neighbouring part of India '^, had been suppressed, and now, whilst Alexander was encamped among the rivers of the Punjab, the hill tribes of the Swat Valley threw off' fear and renounced allegiance. We may perhaps gather from a sentence in a Greek text^ that the satrap Nicanor was killed. The Indian (^a9igupta, who held the fortress of Aornus for Alexander, sent urgent messages to the Punjab. Macedonian forces came up in time to beat down the revolt, from the neighbouring satrapy on
^ Diod. xvn, 89 ; Cm-t. ix, 1, 1.
^ Curtius VIII, 13, 4. The Indian chief's name is Samaxus in the ms. : Hedicke emends conjectorally Damaraxus. 3 Arrian v, 20j 7.
C.H.I. I. 24
370 Alexander the Great [ch.
the west under the Iranian Tyriespes, and from the realm of Ambhi under Philip \ But even if this revolt was suppressed, it was an indication of disruptive forces below the surface.
The raja of Abhisara, who had been too late to help the Paurava, thought well to renew his assurances of loyalty to Alex- ander. A body of envoys from Kashmir, headed by the raja's brother, arrived in camp with presents which included forty elephants. They would also seem to have brought back to Alexander his envoy Nicocles, whom the raja had retained by him, so long as the issue of the conflict with Porus was doubtfuP. Alexander, however, could now be satisfied with nothing short of the raja's own presence, and gave the envoys to understand that it would be as well for him to come, or Alexander might come to look for him.
When the satrap of Parthia, a Persian, had brought down a body of Thracian reinforcements from Iran, Alexander moved across the Acesines (Chenab), probably in the neighbourhood of Sialkot, having now nothing but physical difficulties to contend with^ The passage of the river brought him near the frontiers of the other Paurava. This chieftain's envoys had been for some time past carrying Alexander his homage; but his calculations had been completely upset when he saw the hated kinsman, whom he had pictured humbled before him by the power of the foreignei-s, retained at Alexander's side as an honoured friend. It made his own position a dangerous one and he fled before the approach of the Europeans \ The king pressed onwards to the next river, the Hydraotes (Ravi), leaving, of course, strong posts at various points behind him, to secure his communications. From the banks of the Hydraotes he detached a body of troops under Hephaestion to occupy the territory of the fugitive Paurava, and annex all the land between the Acesines and the Hydraotes to the realm of Porus his friend. Any free tribes within that region were to be taught to recognise their new prince's authority. Hephaestion was also to begin the walls of a city upon the Acesines — possibly*
^ Ace. to Anspach, note 200, Philip, the governor of Pushkala, 7iof= Philip the satrap.
' Auct. anon. E'pit. Alex. M. rer. gest. ii, §55 f. (Fleckeisen's Jahrhiicher fur Mass. Philol. XXVI, Supp. 1901, p. 105).
3 The river would be in flood at this time, late June, Strabo xv, C. 692 ; Anspach, p. 66.
* To the Gandaridae, says Diod. xvii, 91. The people of the Ganges region are probably meant. The statement which Strabo (xv, C. 699) gives as made by ' some people ' {rivei) that the principality of this Porus was itself called Gandaris seems to rest upon a confusion. * Aa Anspach supposes (note 215).
xv] The Capture of San gala 371
an older native town commanding the road over the river, now to be rebuilt and fortified on Hellenic principles \ Alexander himself passed on eastwards over the Hydraotes.
The European army kept near the foothills of the Himalayas, marching through the country north of Amritsar. The region was one of those held by free tribes, one which the Paurava, in the days before the coming of the Europeans, had vainly tried to subdue. The first tribe to whom the Europeans came, east of the Hydraotes, the Adhrishtas^, submitted ; but the powerful Kshatriyas, who had repelled the Paurava and the raja of Abhisara combined, were not disposed to bow to the Yavanas without a struggle^. The fortified town called by the Greeks Sangala* was chosen as the centre of resistance. The Kshatriyas who held it soon found that the invaders drew the siege tight around it in deadly fashion. But it was eventually not foreigners only whom they saw from their walls. Their old Paurava enemy arrived in the Macedonian camp with a force of elephants and five thousand Indian soldiers. He arrived in time to see the Macedonian storm the city. Seventeen thousand of the defenders, we are told, fell by the sword, whilst the captives surpassed the enormous figure of 70,000. The inhabitants of other towns of the Kshatriyas fled in a mass, although Alexander sent his clever Greek secretary, Eumenes of Cardia, to assure them of his clemency if they sub- mitted. Many succeeded in getting out of the country, but some 500 were overtaken by the Europeans and killed. Sangala was razed to the ground, and the country made over to the Paurava.
Somewhere near the Kshatriya country, it would seem, lay the principality of the raja Saubhuti, worthy to be set beside the Paurava, as he is described to us, for goodliness of person and stature and for the vigour of his administration ^ In later days
1 Arr. V, 29, 3.
2 So Tomasohek interprets their Greek name 'ASpato-raf. s.v. ' Adraistai ' in Pauly- "Wissowa.
3 In most English books, we are told that the Gathaei (Kshatriyas) were allied with the Malli and Oxydracae. (This is assumed by Dr Vincent Smith, The autonomout tribes conquered by Alexander, in the J.R.A.S. for 1903, p. 685 f.). As a matter of fact the phrase in Arrian v, 22, 2, /cai to^tois Kara to. airra 'O^vdpdKai kt\. does not mean ' The Cathaei were allied with the Oxydracae etc. ,' but (as Mr M'Crindle correctly translates) 'The Catheans enjoyed the highest reputation for courage... and the same war -like spirit characterised the Oxydracae etc' There is no evidence for a confederation.
■* The site is uncertain. Anspach conjeetares Jandiala.
' The site of the domain of Saubhuti cannot be determined more precisely from the contradictory statements of the Greek authorities, Dr Vincent Smith uses the state- ment of Strabo as to the mountain of salt (Strabo zv, C. 700) to fix the principality to
24—2
372 Alexander the Great [cH.
he struck coins with his name in Greek as Sophytes^ It was now apparently that he first saw the Yavanas as the invaders of his territory and had the prudence to make friends with them. He entertained tlie Macedonian king with splendour ; the strength and tenacity of his great hunting dogs, of which he gave an exhibition, was what impressed the Europeans more than anything else^.
Still eastwards the European host marched and came to the fifth river, the Hyphasis (modern Beas). The Sutlej remained (some 80 miles by the road from Gurdaspur to Riipar) as the only considerable river of the Indus system after that to cross; and then another river-system would be reached, that which empties itself through the Ganges into the Eastern Sea. Already the ears of Alexander were filled with accounts of the great king- dom of Magadha on the Ganges, of its populousness and splendour and power. His chief informant apparently was a raja of the neighbourhood, Bhagala, who had submitted to the invader ^ Was it an enterprise which a man in his senses could undertake, to attempt the subjugation of such a country with an army already nearly three thousand miles from its home? Some modem his- torians maintain that Alexander had too sound a sense of possibili- ties to have thought of it But the ancient historians affirm that he saw himself in anticipation arriving victorious at the utmost bound of the earth on the Eastern Sea, We may believe that his astounding success had indeed made nothing seem impossible to him, that his judgment of things was no longer completely sane : we may also believe that, although he knew some great and power- ful nations still remained to be subdued, before he could round oif his conquest of the eastern world, he did not know the full extent of the East — that Further India, for instance, and China lay alto- gether outside his knowledge*. It is not unlikely that he may seriously have thought it practicable to make himself king of the whole inhabited earth. But on the banks of the Hyphasis (Beas),
the Salt Bange between the Jhelam and the Indus. Against this identification is the difficulty that the contradictory statements in our sources all agree at any rate in placing the principality east of the Jhelum. Even in Arrian vi, 2, 2, the royal seat of Sopeithes is on the Ze/t bank of the river. The salt mines of Mandl, on the other hand, to which Droysen refers, lie, one would think, much too far to the east.
1 V. inf. p. 388 and PI. i, 17. ^ Djod. xvii, 91, 92.
3 Phegelis in the mss. of Cortius iz, 2, 2 ; Phegeus in Diod. xvn, 93. See Sylvain Ldvi, Journ. Asiat. 8™" s^r. vol. xv (1890), p. 239.
* How hazy Alexander's geographical notions were at this time is shown by the statement of Nearchus (who was in a position to know) that Alexander, on first coming to the Acesines and seeing Egyptian beans there, supposed that this was the same river which ultimately turned into the Nile. Strabo xv, C. 696.
xv] Eastern Limit of Conquests 373
somewhere near the modem Gurdaspiir, an imperious check awaited him. The army, which had followed him thus far, suddenly struck : all the personal magnetism, all the stirring and indignant appeals of the king could not induce the stout Macedonian countrymen to go a step further. For three days he shut himself in his tent, and the battle of wills remained in grim deadlock. At last the king recognised the bitter necessity of giving up his ambitions half- fulfilled. To save his face probably, he offered sacrifice again to the Greek gods, as preliminary to crossing the river and then discovered that the omens were unfavourable. After that he gave the word for the retreat. But first, in his romantic imaginative vein, he made the army build twelve gigantic altars, like towers, upon the banks of the Hyphasis, to show to future times how far into the East Alexander had come. One account says that later on the Mauryan kings used to offer sacrifice in the Yavana manner upon those altars^. All trace of them has long since disappeared.
So India, about the end of July 326 B.C. 2, saw the wave of European invasion, which had washed thus far, begin to ebb, back to the Hydraotes, back to the Acesines, where a certain number of the Greek veterans were ordered to fix themselves for good in the city which Hephaestion had been building, back to the Hydaspes. The thoughts of Alexander were now turning in another direction. If the most easterly waters of the Indus river-system were for the time being to bound his empire, he would at any rate pass along his frontier, pursue the course of the Indus to the Ocean and return by the sea-board to Babylon. He had to organise the conquered portion of India on a basis that would endure when the European army had departed. And he forecast a different Punjab from the one he had found. Instead of a multiplicity of rival princes and independent tribes, all the country from the Hydaspes to the Hyphasis was to form one kingdom under the Paurava. Another large principality was created for Ambhi west of the Hydaspes. Similarly in Kashmir, the raja of Abhisara, whose embassies and presents had at last convinced Alexander of his loyalty, was given extended authority, and his neighbouring raja of Ura9a (Hazara), called by the Greeks Arsaces, was ordered to regard him as overlord. But if the free tribes, as independent powers, were suppressed, Alexander would leave a new element in
^ Plut. Alex. 62. It is doubtful whether these altars were on the right or left bank of the river. Pliny, vi, § 62, puts them on the eastern bank, but the historians say nothing of Alexander's crossing the Hyphasis. Plutarch's phrase about the Mauryan kings, di.apalvovT€S (not SiaffdvTei) ai^ovTai is ambiguous.
^ Anspach, note 269.
374 Alexander the Great [ch.
the country, which might to some extent counterpoise the power of the kings — the new cities of European men, or Europeans and Indians mingled, plants of Hellenism in a strange soil. The rudi- mentary walls of Bucephala and Nicaea on the Hydaspes Alexander found on his return damaged by the rains, and the army had to build them stronger before it moved in the new direction down the river.
The autumn at the new cities was spent in preparing a fleet^ to transport a part of the army and the horses by water. The conduct of this was entrusted to the Cretan Nearchus. The rest of the army, now swelled by reinforcements from the West^, was to accompany them on either bank. Philip, the satrap of the province between the Hydaspes and the Hindu Kush, was ordered to follow three days' journey behind with the force under his com- mand. The scene at setting out is described to us in some detail. It was probably a day in November 326 B.C. At daybreak the king, standing in the sight of all on the prow of his vessel, poured from a golden bowl libations to the Rivers — the Hydaspes, the Acesines, and the Indus — to Heracles his ancestor, to the Egyptian god Amun, and the deities, Greek or foreign, whom he was wont to invoke. Then a trumpet sounded for the start. The fleet pre- sented a picture of impressive order, the grouping and intervals being precisely regulated. But the extraordinary mixture of nation- alities and garb must have satisfied the eye with variety and colour, while to the ear the noise of the rowing and the shouts in a hundred different tongues made a bewildering volume of sound. Amongst the crews of the boats the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and the Cypriots were prominent. Beside the Macedonian and Greek troops, the Indians ran in crowds along the banks, speeding the fleet with songs, * in their barbaric way,' says the Greek author. * No nation,' he explains, ' is fonder of singing and dancing than the Indian ^'
This novel armada glided down the Hydaspes, past jungles and villages, and in ten days from the start reached the confluence of the Hydaspes and the Acesines. Two divisions under Hephaestion and Craterus respectively marched along the two banks, and the satrap Philip, who had overtaken the fleet at its first halting, had been sent across to the Acesines to march down this river to the confluence. Some of the peoples along the banks — such as the Sibae, whose garb of shaggy skins and clubs made the Europeans
^ On the varying statements as to the numbers of ships, see Anspach, note 278. Anspach supposes that about a thousand is the most probable estimate. 2 Diod. XVII, 95, 4 ; Curt, ix, 3, 21. » Arr. vi, 3, 5.
MAP 4
BALUCHISTAN
AND
THE COUNTRY OF THE LOWER INDUS
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Map 4
|
70 |
74 |
|||
|
A»V>'<.*" \ f |
/> / ^/^ W^ |
|||
|
>"^r;;';!.r.^\, jff< j |
/ ^"^ ^r |
|||
|
/ / ^*^ |
||||
|
'^^- ' V^^/^V '''*- ^^ I>c«/8mail Khan |
w!4^^' / r |
|||
|
^ |
^r ^ ^^^JY ^ |
|||
|
I / |
(O X Y 0 "^ ^,l.> / |
|||
|
Wwr.ll""""'" -V |
/oMultan S^fy""'^^^ — — -^ |
30 |
||
|
jV |
""VT--^ |
|||
|
ly |
^^ |
|||
|
*:?^' |
^r |
^N*' |
||
|
y |
V*' |
|||
|
r |
^ |
|||
|
^J |
^ ^ |
|||
|
ft |
^ |
|||
|
f^ |
♦ |
|||
|
s |
o |
|||
|
^l '^'"■'Alor |
R 0^ |
A J P U T A N A |
||
|
/ * |
. |
|||
|
\ . > |
||||
|
) ^ |
vO'i |
|||
|
luins of f ^ |
.^'^^-. |
|||
|
linunabad / |
?^'' // |
|||
|
O Jodhpur |
||||
|
N D (1 |
y^-Oi ^,* — ^....^^ |
Lr^ |
||
|
\ 1 *• |
/^ V^^'-^^ ^ — S^ ^x? |
|||
|
V_ v^ |
/ ^-C ^-- 5<? |
|||
|
r^ Y |
/ ^4 |
|||
|
j\o Hyderabad * |
||||
|
Jv \ |
25 |
|||
|
'} — ^^ — "i |
r .#t"/;c |
|||
|
■ \L |
^/w/>^ r (^^^'^ (^ |
*V' SS ?A Udaipur |
||
|
y.^.^-rv--' |
||||
|
)^ R A N N |
OF C U T C H jf |
|||
|
/ ^^-:;/a^.,,,V^ |
:^SXU |
|||
|
^-^''M^khpat |
\^ J^ ^^5^. |
|||
|
3S C U T C H "1^ f \ f? "^ |
(. |
|||
|
70 |
74 |
|||
|
Cambridge University Press |
||||
|
1 |
xv] Defeat of the Malavas 375
take them for descendants of the companions of their own Heracles — offered submission. The resistance of others was easily suppressed. But further down stream a strong confederation of free tribes was awaiting the Europeans with a high courage. These were a tribe, called Malavas (in Greek Malloi)^, between the lower Hydraotes and the Acesines, and the Kshudrakas (in Greek Oxydrakai) higher up the Hydraotes, between that river and the Hyphasis^. The rapids at the meeting of the Hydaspes and the Acesines^ gave some trouble to the fleet, and two boats foundered. On the frontiers of the Malavas the whole European force — the fleet and the three divisions of Craterus, Hephaestion, and Philip re-assembled. The fleet was now sent on under Nearchus three days in advance with orders to wait for the land-force at the next confluence, that of the Acesines and the Hydraotes. The land-force was broken up anew into different divisions for the attack on the Malavas. With a suddenness which disconcerted their plans the Indian tribesmen found Alexander in their midst. The first of their cities to be attacked was on the edge of a tract of sandy desert, from which one morning early a force of mounted Macedonians, with the king at its head, broke upon it, having ridden all night across the waste. And here first was enacted what was repeated in city after city of the confederacy — the attack, the capture, the massacre. Many of the inhabitants of these places escaped to the jungles or across the Hydraotes : many were captured by the Macedonians in their flight and slaughtered. It was at the storming of one of these towns* that the king exposed his person in a way which nearly cost his life. We may probably infer that the morale of the European army, fighting across the interminable spaces of this strange land, had begun to decline, that such desperate expedients on the part of the great leader were necessary. Alexander, reach- ing the top of the citadel wall among the first, stood there for one moment in his shining armour, a mark for the defenders' darts, and then leapt down almost alone on the inner side. There he stood with his back to the wall, beating off the crowd of his assailants,
1 The Malavas of the Punjab and the Kshudrakas are associated in Sanskrit literature.
2 Anspach, note 316.
3 The place of the confluence in 326 b.c. has not been ascertained; see Vincent Smith, pp. 92, 93. It would seem that so far geographical researches such as those of Major G. H. Raverty (J.A.S.B. for 1892, pt. i) have a mainly negative value in showing the rashness of the older identifications rather than a positive value in establishing new ones. If either the statements in our texts had been less vague or the river beds less changeable the case would not have been so hopeless.
■* Being in the country of the Malavas, north of the confluence of the Acesines and Hydraotes, the town cannot have been Multan, which lies south of the confluence.
37^
Alexander the Great [ch.
while the Macedonian nobleman Peucestes held over him the 8acred shield which had been taken from the temple of Athena at Ilium and was believed to have been carried in the Trojan War. By the time that his army, frantic, had broken into the citadel, Alexander was lying with a severe wound in his breast The Macedonians believed that their king was killed and gave way to a fury of blood-lust, sparing neither woman nor child in the city. But Alexander recovered, and, as soon as he could be moved, was carried by boat down the Hydraotes, near which river the town stood, to the main camp at the confluence of the Hydraotes and the Acesines.
The terror of the European host had now broken the spirits of the Malavas, and their surviving headmen, as well as the headmen of the Kshudrakas, came to the camp, tendering their submission. According to the Greek historian, they urged that their crime was after all the love of freedom, but that, Alexander being apparently more than man, they were ready to obey any governor he might appoint and pay tribute. They sent a thousand of their best men as hostages. When the armament continued its progress down stream, Alexander left the Malavas and Kshudrakas attached to the satrapy of Philip ; but the thousand hostages he sent back to their homes.
Still down the unending stream the Europeans floated or marched, through the territories of other tribes whose names our books record in the form the Greek tongue gave them — Abastanes, Xathri, Ossadii — who submitted in prudence or by compulsion. At length they came to the last confluence, where the Acesines, carrying in it the waters of the other three rivers, united in those days with the Indus and a single vast stream rolled down towards the ocean. Here again the armament halted, some time in the cold season at the beginning of 325 B.c. The great shifting of the river beds in this region makes it impossible to know the site to-day. The point seemed one for planting another Hellenistic city. Alexander foresaw it in the age to come a great place of traffic, rich and splendid. This point too seemed to be a fit southern limit for the satrapy of Philip, reaching northwards as it did to the foothills of the Himalayas above Taksha9ila. A change was also made in the governorship of the province of the Hindu Kush (Paropanisadae). Tyriespes was replaced by another great Iranian lord, Alexander's father-in-law, Oxyartes, who arrived in camp about this time^.
1 The coupling of Oxyartes with Pithon as satrap of Sind is almost certainly a textual corruption. See Vincent Smith, p, 99, note 1. It is strange that Niese (i, p. 503) still accepts it without a note of suspicion.
xv] Musicanus 377
The country along the Indus below the confluence presented the Europeans with some conditions they had not met with in the parts of India hitherto traversed. The Brahmans here had a more eflfective ascendancy. The Greek observer saw men eating to- gether in great companies, and thought of the public meals of the Spartans^ In its political organisation this region was unlike the country of free tribes, through which the Europeans had been passing. Here once more they found principalities ruled by rajas, whose mutual enmity gave the foreigners an opening. Alexander first sailed down the river to the * Royal seat ' (bcmleion) of the Sogdi, and here founded another Alexandi'ia, marking out docks again for the commerce which he foresaw under Greek initiative in the new age. The site is unidentified and the name Sogdi furnishes a basis for nothing more than unverifiable guessing. Already, it would appear, Alexander designated Sind from the Indus confluence to the ocean as a satrapy of the Empire, and appointed a certain Pithon, son of Agenor, to be its governor.
The greatest prince of the country between the confluence and the delta was one whom the Greeks called Musicanus (Mousikanos) possibly a title denoting * the chief of the Miishikas^' As in the case of the Paurava and his fellow chiefs, the dread of the foreigner was apt to be less than the dread of the strong neighbour. A native chief whom our texts call Sambus or Sabus (^ambhu ?), at feud with Musicanus, hastened to make friends with the in- vaders and was nominated by Alexander satrap of some hill district lying back from the river. Musicanus seems to have contemplated resistance ; he sent no envoys to the European king. But he was not prepared for the rapidity of Alexander's move- ments, who was again upon his enemies before they were aware. Submission seemed the only way ; the Europeans were admitted to the goodly city, which was the raja's capital^ and a European garrison was put in its citadel. Subject however to the supremacy of Alexander, Musicanus was left his former state and authority, as the Paurava had been, and Ambhi and the raja of Abhisara. Another chief of the district, 'Oxycanus ' or * Porticanus,' attempted resistance, but found that the walls in which he trusted were frail defence against the battering engines of the European. The people of the land, our Greek author says, were paralysed by the belief in Alexander's super-human power.
1 Strabo xv, C. 701.
' This is extremely doubtful. The Mushikas who are mentioned in Sanskrit literature belong to Southern India. ^ Not improbably Alor.
37^ Alexander the Great [ch.
But still, as before, it proved difficult to extend friendship to one of these jealous rajas without alienating his old rivals, Musi- canus left upon his throne made it seem to Sambus that he had given himself to the foreigner for nothing. He now therefore re- nounced his allegiance. His capital Sindimana (site unidentified) opened its gates however at Alexander's approach, and the little revolt was crushed.
But the Europeans in this region had more implacable enemies than the native princes. The power behind the throne was the Brahman community, and here for the first time we come upon an opposition inspired by the conception of a national religion, the only germ to be found in ancient times of the idea of Indian nationality. It was the 'philosophers' (i.e. the Brahmans) who denounced the princes, if they submitted to the foreigner, and goaded the free tribes into revolt \ A * city of Brahmans '^ had to be stormed, whilst the operations against Sambus were going on^. Musicanus now was induced to throw oflF allegiance. But it was the day of the Yavana's power. The newly-appointed governor of Sind, Pithon, swept down upon him, and brought him a prisoner to the king. He was treated as rebels were treated by the custom of the old Persian kings, on whose seat Alexander sat. His body was hanged on a gibbet in his own land. The Europeans knew, however, who were their worst enemies, and their hand fell heavily upon the Brahmans. They were put to death wholesale; their bodies too were hung up for the kites and vultures by the roads — to the unspeakable horror, we may believe, of the people of the land.
On the lower Indus the coming of the Europeans was antici- pated with terror. At the point* where the Indus in those days divided into its two branches was situate the great city of Pattala. The author followed by Diodorus (xvii, 104) stated that it was ruled, like Sparta, by two kings and a council of elders. If that is so, it must have been one of these kings who journeyed up stream to pay homage to Alexander, presumably the same person whom one authority calls Moerisl But it was only to gain time. As soon as he came back to Pattala, he and a large part of the popula- tion abandoned the place and fled.
Before Alexander came to Pattala, the great European host which had invaded India had begun to break up. From the
1 Plutarch, Alex. 59. 2 -Qiod.. xvii, 103, 1. ^ Ajr. vi, 16, 5.
* Near Bahmanabad according to Vincent Smith ; about 30 miles S.E. of Hyderabad, according to Holdich. » Curt. IX, 8, 28.
xv] Pattala 379
country of Musicanus about a third of the infantry, portions of the other arms, and all the elephants which had been acquired in India, were put under Craterus, to march home by way of Kanda- har and Seistan. With the remainder Alexander continued his course down stream. It was about the middle of July 325^ when the Europeans reached Pattala. They found everything deserted. The fugitive population however was overtaken by Alexander's emissaries and persuaded for the most part to return. Pattala, commanding the two outlets of the Indus to the ocean, was another place for which Alexander forecast a great commercial future, and new walls were soon rising round its citadel under Hephaestion's direction. Pithon the satrap had been left higher up stream to draft the European soldiers who were to form the nucleus of the population in the new cities of his province, and to stamp out any embers of revolt which might be still smouldering. Alexander himself with the handiest ships set off to explore the western arm of the river. It was only after some more or less unfortunate attempts at navigation on their own account that the Europeans discovered some natives of the deserted country, who steered the vessels down to the ocean. It was probably at a point near the medieval DebaP that this branch of the river then reached it. There the tide was a new and alarming phenomenon to men who knew only the Mediterranean. On two little islands, one in the mouth of the river and one lying outside in the Indian Ocean, the Yavana king made offerings to the gods who had been prescribed to him by the Egyptian oracle of Amun in the African desert. Then he sailed a little way into the open sea, and shed into the Indian Ocean the blood of bulls sacrificed to the Greek god Poseidon.
Alexander returned to Pattala, to find Pithon arrived there, his task accomplished; and Hephaestion now set about the con- struction of quays and docks against the city's future greatness. The king explored the eastern branch of the river which ran out probably near the modern Lakhpat^ Everywhere his quick eye seized the points subservient to the realisation of that image which fired his imagination — the Indus a great highway of the world's traffic with a chain of flourishing semi- Greek mercantile cities. On the shores of a lake through which he passed (the
^ Ilepi Kw6s kirkTo\-{\v, Strabo xv, C. 692 ; cf. Anspach, note 414. 2 Debal itself has now disappeared : its site was near the existing shrine of Pir Patho, see Vincent Smith, p. 104, and Tomaschek, p. 9. ^ Tomaschek, Topographische Erlduterung , p. 6.
380 Alexander the Great [ch.
Rami of Cutch ?) he designed more quays and docks ; on the coast, he mapped out places for wells \ Then he again returned to Pattala and sent bodies of men down the river to begin the work.
The plan which Alexander had formed for his return to the West involved his own marching through the sands of the Makran, the southern border of the Empire, and the passage of the fleet along the coast from the mouth of the Indus to the Persian Gulf. The latter enterprise was to be directed by the Cretan Nearchus, who had been responsible for the navigation of the river.
Some time apparently in September 325^ India saw the Yavana columns move out of Pattala on the homeward road. It was some three years and a half since the briUiant figure of the warrior king had issued from the highlands of Kandahar to enter the con- fines of the Indian world: for the last year and a half he had flashed, a more than human wonder, before the eyes of the peoples of the Punjab and Sind ; now his meteoric appearance in India was coming to its end, and obscurity falls once more on Indian history. Alexander started with the land-force, except such troops as were left with the satraps in the Indian provinces, for the river Hab^ The naval armament remained at Pattala with Nearchus, till the latter part of October, when the monsoon would change. Alexander again, when he approached the Hab, found the country empty ; the tribesmen, a people of Dra vidian stock, Arava, whom the Greeks called Arabitae, had deserted their villages in terror. The Europeans crossed the river (now the frontier of India and Baluchistan) into the country of the Oritae, who still, being Dra vid- ians, belonged ethnologically to India*. Here some opposition, inefiectual enough, was made to the passage of the foreigners. One of the large villages of the Oritae, Rhambacia', was occupied and destined for another Greek Alexandria*. Its new population was compounded largely of people from the Pashtu country (Arachosians) '^.
When Alexander passed on into the country of the Gedrosians (crossing from the basin of the Purali into that of the Phur) he left a European satrap, ApoUophanes, to rule the territory of the
^ General Haig says {Ivdui Delta Country, p. 22) that the idea of wells in this region is an absurdity. The shifting of the coast-line makes it a problem, to what region exactly the statement of our ancient author applies.
^ About Sept. 1, Anspach.
' Tomaschek, Topographische Erlduterung, p. 16.
•• Tomaschek connects their name with the Tamil ur * village,' * place,' Topo- graphische Erlduterung, p. 19.
^ Sonmiani, according to Tomaschek.
' This is identifying Bhambacia with the Alexandria of Diodorus xvn, 104, 8.
' Ourtius DC, 10, 7.
xv] The Return through Gedrosia 381
Oritae, and one of his chief captains Leonnatus remained tempo- rarily with a force in the district to drive home upon the Oritae that they were now the subjects of a great Empire, and to carry out the scheme of Greek colonisation. Leonnatus had some stiff fighting — one battle in which the loss on the native side is said to have been 6000 killed, whilst on the European side the loss, though numerically insignificant, included the satrap ApoUophanes.
Alexander, having crossed into Gedrosia, kept down as near the coast as possible, in order to dig wells and establish depots for food which might serve the fleet It was a burning and arid land, rich only in aromatic shrubs, and the barrier of the Malan range seems to have forced the European army into a still more appalling region inland. They would have reached it by way of the Hingol valley, in which the Hinglaj shrine is now the last great place of Hindu pilgrimage towards the West.
In entering that waterless inferno, from which he emerged, sixty days after leaving the country of the Oritae, with decimated forces, Alexander passes out of the field of Indian history. And yet there is one scene which took place that year in Persia of interest to the Indian historian. The ascetic from Taksha9ila, whom the Greeks called Kalanos, continued to be a notable figure amongst the men of war and philosophers surrounding the king. Suddenly in Persia he announced his resolution to live no longer. Nothing that Alexander could say availed to move him. Then by the king's command a pyre was erected for the sage and he was con- ducted to it with pomp. He was borne on a litter, garlanded in the Indian way and chanting in a tongue which the Yavanas could not understand. He was chanting hymns, some Indians explained, in praise of the gods. In sight of all the army he ascended the pyre and adopted the due posture. The pyre had been covered with gold and silver vessels and precious stuffs, and these the Indian first distributed to his friends. Then, as the torch was applied, the Yavana trumpets somided all together, and the army shouted as they were wont to shout going into battle, and the Indian elephants uttered their peculiar cry. As the flames mounted and wrapped the figure of the sage, the onlookers saw it still motionless. This was the way in which Kalanos chose to take leave of the Yavanas \
Nearchus, according to Alexander's original plan, was to have taken station at the eastern mouth of the Indus and set sail at the end of October (325) when the monsoon changed. But before
1 Arr. vn, 3 ; Strabo xv C. 717.
382 Alexander the Great [ch.
Alexander left, it may have appeared that such a station would be exposed to an attack from the mass of Indian fugitives who had taken refuge in the jungles east of Sind. Alexander at any rate transferred the fleet to the western mouth, to wait for the favour- able wind. But even here, as soon as Alexander was gone, revolts broke out, making the position of the Europeans untenable, and Nearchus was obliged to start, sooner than had been intended, during the last few days of September \
The account which Nearchus left of his voyage lay before Strabo and Arrian, as well as the subsidiary, more anecdotal, account of Onescritus, who acted as pilot. Through later writers we still possess an abstract of the book of Nearchus. To fit the names in it to modern sites is, of course, an interesting geographical puzzle, which will never perhaps be made out with certainty. The place from which the fleet started, 'Wooden Town' (Xyline Polls) the changes in the coast line have made indiscoverable. The haven to which the Greeks came after some days' sail, and which they named * Alexander's Haven,' perhaps corresponded in position with Karachi. Here the Greeks waited twenty-five days for the wind to change. They built a stone wall round their camp on shore to protect it from the Arava tribesmen, and spent their enforced leisure in fishing up oysters and mussels from the sea. At the mouth of the Hab river (Arabis) they again came to a good harbour (Pliny's statement that Nearchus built a town there is probably a misunderstanding). Beyond the Hab river they coasted along the country of the Oritae, where Leonnatus either just before or soon after fought his decisive battle with the tribesmen. Nearchus does not seem to have detected the mouth of the Purali, where Hephaestion had just traced the walls of an Alexandria, but at Cocala, probably somewhere near, fresh stores had been deposited for the fleet by Alexander's order, and there was an exchange of men between Nearchus and Leonnatus. At the mouth of the river Tomerus (Hingol) the Greeks found some 600 half-naked inhabitants ' living in stuffy huts ' who made show of hostility, but were easily put to flight by the mail-clad Europeans. Here they remained five days to repair the ships, and then sailed on past the promontory of Malana (modern Ras Malan) the limit of the Oritae and of India ^.
1 Strabo xv, C. 721.
* Sir Thomas Holdich's book, Th& Oates of India, reconstructs the voyage of Nearchus on the old hypothesis that the Arabis is the Purali. The important work of Tomaschek Sir Thomas does not seem to know.
xv] The Greek Satrapies 383
Alexander had come and gone. Was the European irruption a violent episode which left India unchanged ? And, if so, was that due to an essential unchangeableness in India under impact from without? One may notice first that nothing was farther from Alexander's own thought than that his invasion of India was a mere raid. He left the Punjab and Sind solidly attached, he believed, to his world-empire. Let us glance once more at the conditions there in the year 324 B.c. The country fell into three divisions. There was first the satrapy of Philip the son of Machatas. It is impossible to make out with certainty what its confines were. Philip first appears (unless he is identical with the commandant of the garrison in Pushkalavati ^) as satrap in Taksha9ila^, and we gather that there was then combined under his authority the principality of Ambhi and what had been the satrapy of Nicanor in the lower Kabul Valley ^ as far as the passes over the Hindu Kush into Bactria^ He accompanies Alexander's expedition down the Hydaspes ( Jhelum) and is made satrap of a province extending as far south as the confluence of the Indus and Acesines^ (Chenab). We do not however know whether this new appointment was in addition to, or in lieu of, his previous satrapy. If the former, his extensive satrapy continued to embrace the principality of Ambhi, and we do not know how the double rule of Macedonian satrap and native prince was adjusted. A second division was the satrapy of Pithon the son of Agenor, covering Sind from the Indus con- fluence to the ocean and extending westward to the Hab. A third was the large principality of the Paurava prince, extending from the Hydaspes (Jhelum) to the Hyphasis (Beas). Here there was no division of authority between prince and satrap, but the Indian acted in both capacities himself*^. A fourth satrapy lay outside India, but within the river system of the Indus — that of the Paropanisidae (the Hindu Kush) with Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus for its capital. This was the satrapy held by Oxyartes, Alexander's father- in-law. There was finally a fifth district in somewhat looser con- nexion with the Empire, Abhisara in Kashmir, whose ruler, as we have seen, had been enabled by Macedonian influence to establish his authority over the smaller rajas in his neighbourhood.
The European rule was supported by an army of occupation. Its numbers are not told us, but it included Macedonians and
1 Arr. IV, 28, 6. •■' Arr. v, 8, 3.
3 Arr. IV, 28, 6.
* Arr. VI, 2, 3 ; Anspach deletes ws kitl BaKrpluv yiji, note 200. 5 Arr. VI, 15, 2. » Plut. Alex. 60.
384 Alexander the Great [ch.
Greek mercenaries. Besides these Philip had at his disposal a considerable body of Thracians. The commander of this corps was a Macedonian destined to play a conspicuous part in the near future, Eudamus the son of Crateuas, a native of the region south of the Ostrovo Lake, and brother of one of the Seven who con- stituted the king's special body-guard \
The army of occupation was, no doubt, in large part distributed through the new cities, which were intended in Alexander's design, not only to give the European root in the country, but to quicken India through Greek intelligence and enterprise to new develop- ments of commercial activity and material splendour. There these little bodies of Europeans remained, when Alexander was gone, enclosed within their fresh-built walls, subject, it would seem, to the Macedonian satraps but not to the native princes^, urged by the king's command to build docks and quays and reproduce the life of Greek cities upon the rivers of India.
We know, of course, that Alexander's dream came to nothing. The European in India faded away. But it is a mistake when we judge the dream by its actual result. For the experiment was never really tried ; it was frustrated at its inception by an event which no one could have foreseen, — Alexander's premature death, without an adequate heir, less than two years after he quitted India. The realisation of the dream all depended upon the Empire's holding together for a century or two. Had Alexander lived to a normal age, there is no reason why it should not have done so. As it was, the rapidly constructed fabric, its cement still soft, fell quickly to pieces. If a military occupation of eight years or so left no permanent trace upon the north-west of India, we can hardly infer from that the essential unreceptiveness of India for Hellenism. Had the occupation been prolonged for a series of generations, the result might have been very diflferent The idea, ineradicable from modern journalism, that * the East ' (whatever that vague term may denote) is by its nature impervious to the rationalistic culture of ancient Greece and modern Europe is not supported by the facts, either by what happened in ancient Syria, or what happened in the Muhammadan kingdoms of the Middle Ages, or by what is happening to-day in India, China, and Japan. When the rest of the East, after the passage of phalanx and legion, 'plunged in thought again,' it was thought profoundly modified by the Greek
1 Arr. VI, 15, 2 ; 28, 4 ; Curt, x, 1, 21 ; Diod. xix, 14, 1.
^ ' In colonias in India conditas Pithon Agenoris filius mittitur,' Justin xin, 4, 21, qaoted by Niese (p. 504).
xv] Consequences of the Invasion 385
schoolmaster who followed in the soldier's train. In India Hellenic rationalism^ would have come into contact with more elaborate homegrown systems of imaginative thought or intuition than the nearer East afforded. What would have happened we cannot say ; but that the contact would have left either unaffected is highly improbable.
The European invasion of India was an event of too great magnitude not to have far-reaching consequences. As other over- flowings of foreign conquests have done, it swept away internal barriers which prevented the unification of the lands concerned. The confederacies of free tribes, which had maintained their proud isolation from other political systems, were left utterly broken. Smaller principalities were swallowed up in a realm such as that given by Alexander to the Paurava. This, no doubt, made it a simpler matter for the Maurya king a few years later to take these countries into his great Indian empire.
The contact of India with the Greek world did not cease with the disruption of Alexander's empire. What can be traced of later political connexions between Indian and Hellenistic kings will be exhibited in another chapter. Any influences which can ultimately be shown to have reached India from the Greek West, whether through the medium of Seleucid or Bactrian kings or of the Roman Empire, which took up the inheritance of Hellenism in Asia, may be regarded as consequences of the work of Alexander. If they were not consequences of the work which Alexander did in India, they Avere, in any case, consequences of the work which he did when he established Hellenism in Iran, Syria, Asia Minor, and Egypt. India indeed and the Greek world only touched each other on their fringes, and there was never a chance for elements of the Hellenistic tradition to strike root in India, as a part of Hellenism struck root in the Nearer East and was still vital in the Muhammadan, largely Hellenistic, culture of the Middle Ages. There are, however, the two unquestionable cases of transmission, which will be noted in subsequent chapters — the artistic types conveyed by the school of Gandhara, and the Greek astronomy which superseded the primitive native system in the latter part of the fourth century A.D.
When Alexander died, it was plain that the imperial system in India was as yet anything but secure. It was not only a case of the people of the land proving restive ; the Europeans themselves
^ A chance light is thrown on Alexander's intentions ' Ichthyophagos vetuit piscibus vivere,' Plin. l^.B.. vi, § 95; of. Curt, viii, 8, 12.
c. H. 1. 1. 25
386 Ancient Greek Coins in India [ch.
did not form a harmonious community. Although thousands of Greeks had fought, as mercenaries or allies, side by side with the Macedonians in the conquest of Asia, and to the Asiatics, no doubt, appeared indistinguishably as Yavanas, neither kindred people loved the other. It was specially Greek veterans whom Alexander had settled in his new eastern cities \ In Bactria and Sogdiana we know that they had been settled very much against their will and tried at the first opportunity to make their way home. Their settlement in the remote colonies was sometimes a punishment for disafiection^. We may conclude that the Greeks who had been planted in the Punjab did not find their surroundings congenial Within a few months apparently of Alexander's departure, the Greek mercenaries under Philip rose in mutiny. Philip received a mortal wound. Instantly his Macedonian guards avenged his death upon the Greeks. Then orders came from Alexander that till a satrap was appointed to succeed Philip, the province should be administered by the raja of Taksha9ila and Eudamus, the commander of the Thracians. This provisional arrangement was apparently still in force, when the news reached India in the summer of 323 B.C. that the great king was dead. Suddenly in Babylon his designs for conquest and organisation had come to an end.
Athenian and Macedonian Coins in India
It is diflBcult to say how far the currency of India was immediately afiected by Alexander's conquest. In the end, of course, it must have been profoundly modified by the disappear- ance of the Persian sigloi, the issue of which did not long survive the overthrow of Darius III, as well as by the stimulus which native art undoubtedly received as a result of the Greek inva- sion. But the change did not come all at once, and the task of determining the exact course that events followed is rendered virtually impossible by the lack of trustworthy evidence. It is, indeed, often stated that India was one of the many quarters of the ancient world into which the silver tetradrachms of Athens made their way, and also that imitations of Athenian coins are found from time to time in the Punjab. If these statements could be confirmed, they would furnish at least one definite clue. A demand for local copies would only arise when the supply of originals ran short, and such a shortage could most readily be accounted for by connecting it with the paralysis that overtook
1 Arr. V, 27, 5. " Justin xii, 5, 8, and 13.
xv] Athenian and Macedonian Types 387
the Athenian mint when the city was finally crushed beneath the heel of Macedon. Indian imitations might, therefore, be assigned with reasonable confidence to the period of Macedonian supre- macy. As a matter of fact, however, enquiry has failed to bring to light any trustworthy records of the actual discovery of ' owls ' in India, while the imitations acquired by the British Museum at Rawalpindi appear to have been brought without exception from the northern side of the frontier and thus to be of Central Asian, rather than of Indian, origin. Precisely the same difficulty besets any attempt to establish an intimate connexion between India itself and those coins of a Macedonian character which are usually described as being of Indian provenance ; in all definitely ascertained cases the 'find-spot' lies beyond the Hindu Kush. Nevertheless, as fresh testimony may at any moment emerge, it seems desirable to enumerate briefly the more important of the issues concerned.
The imitations of Athenian tetradrachms fall into two distinct groups. The first of these (PI. I, 7) approximates fairly closely to the original model. One variety, however, — represented both in the Bodleian and in the British Museum (PI. I, 8) — reads, not AOE, but Air, which Head interprets as perhaps referring to the Aigloi, whom Herodotus (iii, 92) mentions as dwelling to the north of the Bactrians. The second group (PI. I, 9, 10) is characterised by a softer style, by the presence of the monogram r?|, and by the use of a bunch of grapes as a symbol. The difference between the two is emphasised by the fact that, whereas the dies from which coins belonging to the first are struck have lain at all conceivable angles relatively to one another, the types of the coins belonging to the second are adjusted (f |) with a nicety which points to the employment of a hinge or of some equally effective mechanical contrivance. Further, while the first group appears to consist solely of tetradrachms, the second includes also didrachms and drachms (PI. 1,11,12). These smaller denominations are remarkable in that they are not minted, like the tetradrachms, on the Attic standard, which has a maximum weight of 67'5 grains (4*37 grammes) to the drachm, but on a standard in which the drachm seems to have weighed at the outside no more than 58 grains (375 grammes). In this and other respects they link themselves naturally to a set of drachms and diobols which are struck from regularly adjusted dies (f|), but in which the place of the Athenian owl is taken by an eagle, looking backwards (^L I, 13). On the drachms and diobols just referred to, the bunch of grapes
25—2
388 Ancient Greek Coins in India [ch.
still figures as- a symbol. In one instance it is accompanied by a caduceus.
Some gi'ound for thinking that at least the smaller Athenian imitations were not unfamiliar in the north of India is furnished by a notable series of silver drachms of Attic weight (PL I, 17), for the actual finding of which in the Punjab General Cunningham is able to vouch. They are struck from regularly adjusted dies ( f { ), and these dies have been cut by a Greek artist who signs himself M or MN. The obverse shows the head of a warrior wearing a close-fitting helmet, wreathed with olive, while the reverse has a cock standing to right with a caduceus behind. The legend is CA<l5YTOY. Apart from the circumstance that a unique tri- hemiobol in the Berlin Museum has the head of Athena, instead of that of a warrior, the coins leave a general impression of having been designed after an Athenian prototype. This and the absence of a royal title go to indicate a date not long subsequent to Alexander's expedition, a conclusion which in its turn fits in well with the current interpretation of the inscription. Sophytes {Saubhtiti) has been by universal consent identified with the Sopeithes of Arrian (vi, 2, 2) and Strabo (xv, 699). If this view is right, his coins may be regarded as a very direct memorial of Greek influence in India.
A few coins with the name of Alexander himself have also been classed as Indian. Thus a bronze piece, not distinguishable from his ordinary issues except that it is of squarish shape, has for many years been tacitly accepted as proof that the conqueror issued money of his own in India, conforming so far to local custom as to adopt the native fashion of striking the coins on blanks cut firom oblong strips or bars. But the piece, which is now in Berlin, stands absolutely alone. Beyond the shape, there is not a particle of evidence to suggest association Avith the East. And closer scrutiny points to the shape being no more than an accidental freak, the result of awkward handling by some workman at a Western mint^. A group of silver tetradrachms deserves more serious consideration. They have on the obverse a head of Zeus, and on the reverse an eagle on a thunderbolt, accompanied by the legend AAEiANAPOY (PL 1, 14). The types are Macedonian, and the coins were long believed to be European and to represent Alexander's earliest mintage. There can, however,
1 This is the emphatic opinion of Prof. Regling, who has been good enough to examine the original carefully. His view is fully borne out by a cast which he has Mndly supplied.
xv] Double Darks 389
be little doubt that Head is right in claiming them for the East The significance of the symbol in the field, which he was the first to recognise as a satrapal tiara, is unmistakable. Again, the only specimen whose history is known, came from Rawalpindi, while a diobol of similar types is said to have been in the hands of a dealer in Tashkand in 1906. Finally, although the die-positions are irregular, there are points of contact with the second group of Athenian imitations described above. To say nothing of the eagle with reverted head, certain subsidiary symbols — an olive- spray with leaves and berry, and a vine-branch with grapes — are common to both ; and both are apparently struck on the same abnormal standard, the average weight of three of the Macedonian tetradrachms being 217*5 grains (14*09 grammes). But, if the coins in question are Eastern, it does not follow that they are Indian. On the contrary, the evidence of provenance, slight though it be, is all in favour of Central Asia. And so, too, is that of the peculiar weight standard. When this standard next emerges in that quarter of the world, it is among coins struck by Antiochus I during his viceroyalty or, in other words, after Seleucus Nicator had fonnally renounced his pretensions to the Punjab as part of his bargain with Chandragupta. The inference is that the district whose needs tetradrachms of the sort were meant to meet, lay beyond the confines of India.
None of the pieces we have been discussing bear the King's title. Both title and name (ySao-tXeo)? 'AXe^dvBpov) have, however, been read into the monogram &i., which occurs on an extraordinary silver decadrachm of Attic weight, now in the British Museum (PI. I, 16). The obverse type is a horseman, with lance at rest, charging down upon a retreating elephant, on the back of which are two men turning round to face their pursuer. On the reverse, beside the monogram, is a tall figure, wearing cuirass, cloak and cap, and having a sword by his side, standing to left holding a thunderbolt and a spear. In spite of certajin features which are not altogether satisfactory, the genuineness of the coin has been unhesitatingly accepted by Head and Gardner, and from such experienced judges it would be very rash to differ. Gardner, who was the first to publish it (N.C., 1887, p. 177), was disposed to give it to Bactria and to connect it with * some notable victory won by a Greek King of Bactria over the invading hordes of Yueh-chi in the second century rc' Head, on the other hand, comes to the conclusion, 'after a careful study of the fabric... that it belongs to Alexander's own time, and that it records the historical
390 Ancient Greek Coins in India [ch. xv
event of his invasion of the Punjab in 326 B.C.' He sees in the standing figure a representation of Alexander as Zeus, while he puts forward the interesting suggestion that the lance is being wielded, not by the horseman, but by the rearmost of the two elephant-riders, and that consequently the scene depicted is the retreat of Porus and his pursuit by Taxiles, exactly as recorded by Arrian (v, 18). The coin, he thinks, may have been struck by Taxiles himself at his capital city Taksha9ila. Unfortunately this hypothesis is not supported by the 'find-spot' of the decadrachm. It was discovered at KhuUum in Bukhara.
A similar inconclusive result awaits any endeavour to sift the assertions so frequently advanced as to the circulation, and even the striking, of double darics in India. These fine gold coins (PL I, 6) are, in the strict sense, Persian. But it is hardly likely that any of them were minted until after the defeat of the last of the Achaemenids by Alexander. It is certain that the great majority bear Greek monograms or letters, and that they were issued at Babylon, and possibly elsewhere, by the satraps of the Macedonian conqueror. That they were popular in the East is beyond question. Whether they made their way into India is another matter. The statement that they were struck there has nothing whatever to confirm it. Nearly all of the specimens in the British Museum were acquired at Rawalpindi, but the real source seems to have been the rich find or series of finds made about 1877 and 1878 in Bukhara, 'eight marches beyond the Oxus, at an old fort on the tongue of land formed by two joining rivers.' The precise locality appears to have been Kabadian, a town on the Kapinahan, in the ancient Sogdiana.
CHAPTER XVI INDIA IN EARLY GREEK AND LATIN LITERATURE
In this chapter we shift our point of view. We no longer try to transfer ourselves to ancient India and see for ourselves what is going on there : we ask instead what impression this magnitude, India, made upon another people — the Hellenes on the shores of the Mediterranean, the progenitors of our modern European rationalistic civilisation. India is for us now a remote country, 2800 miles away.
The Greek peoples at the time when the Homeric poems were composed had probably never heard of India, and knew nothing of the Aryan cousins separated from them by the great Semitic kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia. At most they knew that peoples of dark complexion dwelt, some towards the setting, and some towards the rising, sun^. The Homeric Greeks used ivory, and were no doubt aware that it was the tusk of an animal — the Phoenician traders indeed will have called it, as the Hebrews did, sTien, 'tooth' — but the ivory was more probably African ivory brought from Egypt than Indian 2.
The Greek word for tin, again, found already in Homer, kassiteros, has been adduced^ to show that tin was among the wares which travelled to the Greek world from India. For the Greek word is obviously the same as the Sanskrit word Jcastlra. Unfortunately the borrowing seems to have been the other way. The word kasttra found its way comparatively late into India from Greece ^
In the sixth century B.c, the Semitic and other kingdoms of Nearer Asia disappeared before a vast Aryan Empire, the Persian, which touched Greece at one extremity and India at the other. Tribute from Ionia and tribute from the frontier hills of India found its way into the same imperial treasure-houses at Ecbatana or Susa,
1 Odyssey i, 22 f.
^ The derivation of the Greek word for ivory, elephas, given in Liddell and Scott is etymology at its wildest. It is supposed to be the Sanskrit word ibha, meaning 'elephant,' preceded by the Arabic definite article el (!). Not much can be built upon the passage, I Kings, x, 22, where the Hebrew author states that the navy of King Solomon in the tenth century b.c. brought (according to our English version) ' ivory, apes, and peacocks.' See Cheyne in Encycl. Bibl., s.v. ' Ophir' and ' Peacocks.'
^ E.g. by Lassen, ii, 632. * Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. 'stannam.'
392 Inaia in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
Contingents from the Greek cities of Asia Minor served in the same armies with levies from the banks of the Indus. From the Persian the name Indoi, ' Indians,' now passed into Greek speech. Allusions to India begin to appear in Greek literature \
It is not a mere accident that the books produced by a people who dwelt so far away from India should to-day contribute to our knowledge of ancient India. In the Greek republics a new quality was appearing in the world — or rather the development of a certain factor in the human mind to an activity and power not seen before — the quality which we may describe as Rationalism. That is what makes the essential continuity between the ancient Mediterranean civilisation and the civilisation which has de- veloped so wonderfully in Europe during the last five centuries. A characteristic of this rationalism is a lively curiosity as to the tacts of the Universe, an interest which directs itself upon the endless variety of the world, in contrast with that movement of the spirit, exemplified in the sages of India and in the piety of medieval Europe, which seeks to flee from the Many to the One. To be interested in a fact as such, to care so much about its precise individual character, as to examine and verify and try to get its real contours, to value hypothesis only so far as it can be substantiated by reference to objective truth — ^these are the motives behind modern Western Science ; and a disinterested intellectual curiosity in the facts of the outside world has actually helped to give the West a power to modify and control that world for practical uses never before possessed by man. It was the beginning of this interest in the facts of the world, the desire to see things as they really were, which marked ancient Greek culture, as expressed in its writings and its art. The universal curiosity of Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., the eager eyes of the men of science and of action who accompanied Alexander, the industrious enquiries of Megasthenes — it is to these that we owe such information about India as the Greek and Latin books contain.
And yet in order to estimate this information truly one must i/^ bear in mind some limiting considerations. The motive of in- tellectual curiosity just described, the critical scientific temper,
1 Indian influence has been alleged in the philosophy of Pythagoras who must have been born in the early years of the sixth century, some fifty years before the Persian conquest of Babylon. The question is examined at length by Prof. A. B. Keith in the J.R.A.S. for 1909, pp. 669 f., Pythagoras and the Doctrine of Transmigration. Prof. Keith's conclusion is that there is no evidence for the Indian influence.
xvi] Scylax of Caryanda 393
has never been exhibited in complete purity. It is all a question of more or less. The Greeks had it more than any previous people ; the modern man of science has it more than the Greeks ; but not even the modern man of science has so far reduced all the other elements of human nature to their proper place, as to make his ciyiosity absolutely disinterested or his criticism impeccably scientific. In the case of the ancient Greeks, scientific curiosity was constantly being interfered with and thwarted by another interest which was strong in them — the love of literary form, the delight in logical expression. One of the reasons why Natural Science never got farther than it did among the Greeks is that a book-tradition would so soon establish itself in which the original observation became stereotyped and passed on from writer to writer with no fresh verification or addition. From the fifth century onwards a conventional classicism was always hemming in vitality and making literature opaque to real life. This is what one has to remember in approaching the Greek notices of India or their reproduction by Latin writers.
The classical notices of India represent only three groups of original documents, (1) the works produced by Greeks of Asia Minor from the latter part of the sixth century till the beginning of the fourth century RC, (2) the works based upon the expedition of Alexander in the fourth century, and (3) the works of the Greek ambassadors sent in the third century from Syria and Egypt to the court of Pataliputra. The first group — Scylax, Hecataeus, Herodotus, Ctesias — was for most purposes superseded by the two later ones, since the expedition of Alexander marked a new epoch of geographical knowledge. Yet to some extent even in later times the earlier writers were drawn upon.
The first Greek book about India was perhaps written in the latter part of the sixth century b.c. by Scylax of Caryanda, a Greek sea-captain, whom King Darius (522-486 b.c.) employed to explore the course of the Indus ^ The book seems to have lain before Aristotle two centuries later, who quotes, as coming from it, a statement that among the Indians the kings were held to be of a superior race to their subjects^. Scylax probably did not tell much of his own experiences in descending the Indus, or we should have heard of his book in connexion with the voyage of Alexander. He probably preferred to astonish his countrymen with travellers' tales — stories of people who used their enormous feet as sunshades {STciapodes), of people who wrapped themselves
1 Herodotus iv, 44. * Polit. vii, 14.
394 I^dia in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
up in their own ears {Otoliknoi or Enotokoitoi), of people with one eye, and so on, with which the Greek tradition about India thus started and which it retained to the end\ These stories, it is now recognised, correspond with statements in the old Indian books about peoples on the confines of the Indian world, and Scylax may tlierefore very well have really heard them from Indians and accepted them in simple faith.
Hecataeus of Miletus had probably already given forth his geographical work, the Periodos Ges, before 500 b.c. At the extremity of his field of vision there was some vague picture, derived from Scylax and the Persians, of the Indian world. His knowledge stopped on the frontier of the Persian Empire, the river Indus. Beyond that was just a great desert of sand. But the name of the people called Gandhari on the upper Indus had reached him, and the name of a city in that region, whence Scylax had started on his expedition down the river : Hecataeus wrote it as Kaspapyros. He mentioned the naines of other Indian peoples too of the frontier hills — Opiai, Kalatiai are the ones preserved in his fragments — and a city of India which he called Argante. The fabulous Skiapodes also appeared in Hecataeus as well as in Scylax, though Hecataeus by some confusion connected them with the African Aethiopians instead of with India ^.
We may probably infer from the long geographical passages in the plays of Aeschylus, that a lively interest in far-off peoples and strange lands was general in the Greek world of the fifth century. Where an ancient Argive king in the Suppliants has to express wonder at the foreign garb of the Egyptian maidens, the poet takes the opportunity to give evidence of his anthro- pological knowledge. The king mentions different races whose appearance might be like that, and, in the course of his speculations, says —
'Moreover I hear tell of Indians, of women that go roving on camels, mounted horse-fashion, riding on padded saddles, them that are citizens of a land neighbouring the Ethiopians ^'
1 Philostratus, Vit. Apoll. in, 47 ; Tzetzes, Chil. vn, 630 f. ^ See article by Von Kadinger in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. 'Hekataios.' ^ 'I>'5as T i,Ko6(j) vofjLadas linro^dfj.o(nv
etvaL Kan7J\oL% dorpo/SifoiJo-as, x'^^'""- vap' A.Wlo\j/LV i(TrvyeiTovov/j.4i>as.
Supplices 284-286, So the passage reads in Sidgwiok's text. This involves a certain amount of conjectural emendation, since the ms. reading is obviously in part corrupt. One must add that the emendation proposed by Professor Tucker and approved by W. Headlam, rolai for 'IvSdi (hs. 'IvSoOs), eliminates the Indians altogether.
xvi] Herodotus 395
In the Greek books which we possess this is the earliest mention of Indians by name.
A good deal of what Herodotus wrote about India (middle of the fifth century) was no doubt drawn from Hecataeus — his idea, for instance, that the river Indus flowed towards the east, and that beyond that corner of India which the Persians knew there was nothing towards the east but a waste of sand. Perhaps what Herodotus says is less remarkable than what he does not say. For of the monstrous races which Scylax and Hecataeus before him, which Ctesias and Megasthenes after him, made an essential part of the Indian world, Herodotus says not a word. Hellenic rationalism took in him the form of a saving good sense. Certain of the broad facts about India Herodotus knew correctly — the diversity of its population, for one. * There be many nations of Indians,' he says, 'diverse one from the other in tongue, some of them are roving tribes, some of them are settled, and some dwell in the swamps of the river, and live on raw fish which they catch from boats of reed {kalamosY^ Herodotus knew also that the population of India was a very vast one. * The Indians are by far the greatest multitude of all the peoples of men whom we know V he says. Of course, the Indians who came especially within the sphere of his knowledge would be the more or less barbarous tribes near the Persian frontier. What he tells us therefore of their manners and customs does not apply to civilised India. Of the peoples beyond the Persian frontier he had heard of the marsh-dwellers, who dressed in garments made of some sort of water-reed^. Other Indians dwelling to the east of these are rovers, eaters of raw flesh, and they are called 'Padaeans.' He goes on to say that members of the tribe were killed on the approach of old age and eaten by their fellow-tribesmen*.
1 HI, 98. ^ in, 94.
* These would be people living in the country flooded by the Indus, the Mianwali district of Sind, where, as Lassen points out, mats and baskets are still made from the reeds of the river.
* Lieutenant Prendergast, quoted in the Asiatic Journal, New Series, v (1831), p. 161, was assured by a Gond that in his native village cannibalism of this kind was still prac- tised. This may have been the isolated survival of a more general cannibalism among the Gonds. As Lieutenant Prendergast's statement, now more than 80 years old, is still quoted in evidence for the practice among these tribes, one presumes that later evidence is hard to find. E. T. Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal (1872), p. 220, mentions a tribe called Birhors, accused of cannibalism. Some of them had assured him that they had themselves given up the practice, but ' they admitted that their fathers were in the habit of disposing of the dead in the manner indicated, viz. by feasting on the bodies ; bat they declared they never shortened life to provide such feasts, and shrank with
39^ India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
Others of the Indians would not eat the flesh of any living thing or sow fields or live in houses. 'Whenever a man of this people falls into a sickness, he goes into the desert and lies down there : and no one pays any regard when a man is dead or fallen ill.' The Indians who dwelt near the city of Kaspapyros and the country of the Pactyes (Pashtus), that is, the hill-tribes about the Kabul valley, were, he says, the most warlike. It was from these, of course, that the Persian government drew levies. Among them was the tribe called Kallatiai, who ate the bodies of their dead relations^. He describes the dress of the Indians serving in the army of Xerxes. They wore garments made from trees (i.e. cotton) and carried bows of reed and arrows of reed with iron heads ^. Some fought on foot and some in chariots drawn by horses and wild asses ^. The account of the ants who throw up mounds of gold dust, which afterwards became a permanent element in the classic conception of India, was given in full by Herodotus*. The facts on which the account was based seem now fairly clear. Gold-dust was actually brought as tribute by the tribes of Dardistan in Kashmir and was called by the Indians pipllika, 'ant gold^' When Herodotus says that the ants were the size of dogs and fiercely attacked any one carrying ofi" the gold, it has been plausibly suggested that the account was derived from people who had been chased by the formidable dogs kept by the native miners^.
As to the peculiar products of India, it is interesting that Herodotus told the Greek world, perhaps for the first time, of the trees that bore wool, / surpassing in beauty and in quality the wool of sheep ; and the Indians wear clothing from these trees '^.'
The peacock, which was introduced into Greece during the second half of the fifth century RC, retained in his designations evidences both of his Indian origin {rao^<;) and of the route — via the Persian empire — by which he had been conveyed (M'qhuKO'i 6pvi<i) ; and it seems to be more than a coincidence that the only Buddhist mention of Babylon is in connexion with a story concerning the importation of this magnificent bird^.
horror at the idea of any bodies bat those of their own blood relations being served up to them ! ' The Cyclopaedia of India (Quaritch, 1885), which quotes the passage from Dalton, under ' Birhor,' omits to note that Dalton himself says, ' Ihaveno faith in the story.'
1 III, 38. 2 vii^ 65. 3 VII, 86. * m, 102 f.
* The gold-digging ants are mentioned in the Mahabhcirata, ii, 1860 (Calcutta ed.).
^ M'Crindle, Ancient India, p. 44, note 3. ^ in, 106.
8 See the Baveru Jdtaka (No. 339 of the Jdtaka collection) and M. Sylvain Levi's article in Annuaire de I'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (1913-4).
xvi] Ctesias of Cnidus 397
Ctesias of Cnidus, a generation later than Herodotus, had exceptional opportunities for acquiring knowledge about India, since he resided for seventeen years (from 415 to 397 B.C.) at the Persian court as physician to the king Artaxerxes Mnemon^ As a matter of fact his contribution seems to have been the most worthless of all those which went to make up the classical tradition. Ctesias apparently was a deliberate liar. Modern writers urge that some of his monstrosities — his dog-faced men^, his pygmies and so on — can be paralleled by the statements in old Indian books. This shows that Ctesias was not above saving himself the trouble of fresh invention when statements sufficiently sensational were furnished him by others. Any parallel which can be proved between Ctesias and old-Indian tradition is, of course, interesting and exhibits the Greek as to that extent a borrower rather than as creatively mendacious, and, where we cannot prove a parallel, it is always possible that the statements of Ctesias may have been suggested by travellers' tales ; but it is equally possible that he was drawing upon nothing but his imagination. One of his most monstrous animals, the creature as large as a lion, with a human face, which shoots stings out of the end of its tail, called in the Indian language, says Ctesias, martikhora — as a matter of fact the word is Persian — Ctesias affirms that he had himself seen, as one was sent as a present to the Pei-sian king ! This gives the measure of the man. No doubt, his wildest statements about the fauna and Jlora of India can, if sufficiently trimmed, be made to bear a sort of resemblance to something reaF, but it seems ingenuity wasted to attempt to establish these connexions. The influence of Ctesias upon the Greek conception of India was probably great. It confirmed for ever in the West the idea that India was a land where nothing was impossible — a land of nightmare monsters and strange poisons, of gold and gems*.
Where Ctesias described the people of India as 'very just' (Si/catorarofc), we may see the reflexion of a common Greek belief that a people of ideal goodness lived somewhere at the extremities of the earth, or in this case we may perhaps gather the impression made upon strangers by a social system so firmly governed in its
1 Diod. II, 32, 4 ; Plut. Artax. 21.
2 The gvamukhas of Sanskrit literature, e.g. Varahamihira, Brihatsamhitd.
3 For what may be done in this du-ection, see Prof. H. H. Wilson's Notes on the Indiea of Ctesias (Oxford, 1836).
* Of. Plin. N.H. VI, § 58 f.
39^ India in Greek and L,atin Literature [CH.
complex structure and the working of its parts by traditional law.
It was generally recognised in the Greek world of the fourth century that a great race called Indian, a substantial part of mankind, lived towards the sunrising^. When European science, in the person of those philosophers who accompanied Alexander, first entered upon the Indian world, it had already made one substantial discovery as to the world in which man is placed. It was generally recognised in the Greek philosophic schools that the earth was a globe. It was already a matter of interest to determine the size of the globe and to know the measure of the lands and seas which covered it. And the men with Alexander, who found themselves in the plains of India stretching to even vaster distances beyond, or who, from the mouth of the Indus saw the coast fading to the eastward out of sight, were anxious to know what dimensions and shape they ought actually to give to this India upon their maps. They had not traversed more than a comer of it, and, had they gone to its extremities, they possessed none of our means of accurate surveying. It was only by report of the people of the land, based ultimately no doubt upon the rough practical reckonings of merchants and seamen, that they could form any conception of it. This being so, the conjectures which they recorded for the instruction of the West, have interest for us to-day, only as showing how near the truth under such circumstances men could come.
Of the companions of Alexander, three men chiefly enriched the Greek conception of India by their writings. One was Nearchus, a Cretan by extraction, whose home was in Macedonia, where he had been a friend in youth of Alexander's. This was the man whom Alexander put in command of the fleet which explored the coast between the Indus and the Persian gulf, and Nearchus later on gave his own account of this expedition to the world. His book also contained a good deal of incidental in- formation about India. He appears from the fragments quoted to have been an honest reporter, who took pains to verify the stories which were told him^. Another was Onesicritus from the Greek island of Aegina, who regarded the Cynic philosopher Diogenes as his master, a man with some practical knowledge of sea-craft, since Alexander made him pilot of the royal vessel down the Indus. Onesicritus took part in the expedition of
1 Ephorus, frag. 38 {Frag. Hist. Graec. i, p. 243).
2 Susemilil, Gesch. d. griech. Lit. in der Alexandrinerzeit, i, p. 653.
xvi] Kuropean Ambassadors 399
Nearchus, and he too afterwards wrote a book about it and about India. Strabo considered him untruthful, and he has generally a bad reputation with modern scholars, though this unfavourable judgment has been seriously challenged^ The third was Aristobulus, a Greek probably from the Chalcidic peninsula, who not only accompanied Alexander through India, but was entrusted with certain commissions, perhaps not military ones^. Aristobulus wrote his book long afterwards, in extreme old age. His interest was predominantly geographical, not military ; yet his book seems to have been adversely affected by the rhetorical fashion and perhaps by the Alexander myth which had already begun to take popular shape at the time when he wrote ^ A fourth writer, a contemporary, but not a companion, of Alexander, Clitarchus of Colophon, also contributed to popular notions about India. Clitarchus wrote a history of Alexander of a highly journalistic character, drawing largely, it would seem, upon imagination. The book became the most popular of all the histories of Alexander. Although Clitarchus in his main outlines had to keep to the facts, so many eye-witnesses being still alive, the romance, as distinguished from the history, of Alexander takes its start from him. In the Indian part of his history, for instance, he introduced a delightful story of how the Macedonian army, marching through the jungles, had mistaken a troop of monkeys for a hostile army*. Statements about India, from such a source, might get very wide currency without having much basis in reality.
The books written by the companions of Alexander or derived from their accounts were supplemented in the third century by the books in which the European ambassadors sent by the Hellenistic kings to India^ told what they heard and saw. It is very odd that with such opportunities none of the ambassadors seems to have produced anything substantial except Megasthenes. Had Daimachus or Dionysius given any fresh first-hand informa- tion of interest, we could not fail to have traced some of it in later writers. The statements, quoted from Daimachus, that there was a species of yellow pigeons in India which were brought as presents to the king^, and the notice of some peculiar-shaped
^ Susemihl, op. cit. i, 536, pronounces against Onesicritus : E. Schwartz defends him. 2 Strabo xv, C, 693 ; Arr. vi, 29, 10.
' Susemihl, op. cit. p. 540: Schwartz •Aristobulus (14)' in Pauly-Wissowa , de- preciatory.
* Ael. Nat. Anim. xvn, 25. * See also Chapter xix.
* Frag. 3 (Frag. Hist. Graec. ii, p. 440).
400 India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
sideboard ^ are a poor yield. On the other hand the book written by Megasthenes was the fullest account of India which the Greek world ever had. . Only one other writer calls for mention, Patrocles, who held command in the eastern provinces of Iran under Seleucus I and Antiochns I. One does not gather that his book touched India except in so far as it dealt with the general dimensions of the countries of Asia. Patrocles, however, had access to official sources and what he did say of India seems to have been creditably near the truth ^.
The companions of Alexander did not, so far as we know, attempt to give any precise statement of the dimensions of India. Onesicritus* shot valiantly beyond the mark, declaring that it was a third of the habitable earth. Nearchus gathered that it took four months to cross the plains to the eastern ocean*. When Seleucus had established his rule over Iran, and entered into diplomatic relations with the court of Pataliputra, Greek writers ventured to give figures for India as a whole. Patrocles put down the distance from the southernmost point of India to the Himalayas as 15,000 stades (1724 miles)^ — a happy guess, for the actual distance is about 1800 miles. Megasthenes was farther out in putting the extent from north to south, where it is shortest, at 22,300 stades''. 'Where it is shortest' makes a difficulty, which the modern books seem to pass by. Megasthenes probably con- ceived the Indus, like Eratosthenes, to flow directly southwards and thus to constitute the western side of the quadrilateral India. The general direction of the coast from the mouth of the Indus to Cape Comorin was thought of, not as it really is, south-south-easterly, but as east-south-east, making it the southern side of the quadrilateral. But, if so, the course of the Indus itself measures the distance from the northern to the southern side, where it is shortest. Megasthenes must then have made an enormous miscalculation, and that in a region traversed and measured by Alexander, for the distance as the crow flies from the Himalayas to the mouth of the Indus is equivalent only to 6700 stades (770 miles). What Megasthenes made the greatest length from the northern to the southern side to be we are not told, but his contemporary Daimachus affirmed that in some places it was as much as 30,000 stades (3448 miles)''. The distance from west to east, where it is shortest — the distance, that is, from
^ Frag. 4. ^ Susemihl, op. cit. p. 657.
3 Frag. ll = Strabo xv, C. 689. * Frag. l = Strabo xv, C. 689.
5 Patrocles, Frag. l = Strabo n, C. 68. « Frag. 6 = Arr. Ind. 3, 7. ■? Daimachus, Frag. 1 = Strabo ii, C. 69.
XV i] Dimensions and Orientation of India 401 A,
Scale
1 ■■ 30,000.000
'^^^a</,
'"^/cs)
Dimensions and orientation of India according to the true map and according
to Eratosthenes
C.H.I. I.
26
402 India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
the Indus to the Bay of Bengal — Patrocles put at 15,000 stades (1724 miles) and Megasthenes at 16,000 stades (1838 miles) ^ The actual distance is about 1360 miles, but the figure of Megas- thenes was got apparently by combining the 10,000 stades measured along the Royal Road from the Indus to Pataliputra with the estimated distance from Pataliputra by way of the Ganges to the sea, 6000 stades. Eratosthenes, the great geographer, a generation later (born 276 B.C.), who is followed by Strabo, ac- cepted the 16,000 stades of Megasthenes as the extent of India from the Indus to the mouth of the Ganges. But the western side of the quadrilateral — the course of the Indus — he reduced to 13,000 stades (1493 miles). The real projection of India to the south, however, from the mouth of the Indus was unknown to him, and he made Cape Comorin project east of the mouth of the Ganges. India was represented by a quadrilateral whose southern side was 3000 stades longer than the northern and the eastern 3000 stades longer than the western^. The accompanying figure will show that the general shape of the quadrilateral is fairly true to the reality. What is wrong is (1) the orientation, and (2) the exaggerated size.
Besides inquiring as to the figure which India made upon the globe, the Greeks had curious eyes for the unfamiliar physical phenomena which here confronted them. The heavens themselves showed novel features, if one went far enough south — the sun at midday vertically overhead, the shadows in summer falling towards the south, the Great Bear hidden below the horizon ^ The com- panions of Alexander may have seen the sun overhead at the southernmost point which they reached, for the mouths of the Indus almost come under the Tropic of Cancer, and Nearchus may actually just have crossed it ; they learnt at any rate that they had only to go a little farther south to see these things. Onesicritus seems to have thought it a pity that his book should lose in sensational interest by this accidental limitation, and therefore to have boldly transferred them to the banks of the Hyphasis^ The desire to achieve literary effect interfered continually, in the case of the ancient Greeks, as has been said, with scientific precision. ,
The climate of the country, the new laws of the weather, struck >/ the Greeks. They had never known anything like the rains which
1 Megasth. Frag. 6=Arr. Ind. 3, 7.
2 Strabo xv, C. 689. ' Plin. n, § 184; Diod. n, 35. < Onesicr. Frag. 24 = Plin. tiat. Hist, n, § 183.
XV i] Mineral^ Vegetable^ and Animal World 403
broke upon them in the summer of 326 B.c. Aristobulus^ recorded that rains began when the European army reached Taksha9ila in the spring of 326 and became continuous, with the prevalence of the monsoon, all the time they were marching eastward along the foothills of the Himalayas. At the same season the following year the Europeans were voyaging down the Lower Indus. Here they had no rain. The rainfall of Sind, which is unrefreshed by either of the monsoons, is scanty and irregular. Almost rainless seasons are the rule. The cause of the summer rains Eratosthenes found partly in the moisture brought by the monsoon (and in so far he was correct), partly in the exhalations of the Indian rivers^.
When the Greeks looked round upon the features of the country itself, India seemed, before anything else, to be the land v^ of immense rivers^. If, in discussing the topography of Alexander's expedition through Sind, one has to reckon with the fact of great changes in the course of the rivers, that characteristic of these rivers did not escape Aristobulus. On one occasion, he told, a commission on which Alexander sent him took him to a region left desert by a shifting of the Indus to the east ; there he saw the \/^ remains of over a thousand towns and villages once full of men*. Megasthenes got his informants to give him a list of the navigable rivers of the peninsula, 58 in all. Of this list 35 names are preserved^, and in spite of distortions, due either to the Greek's mishearing of the native sounds or to the various transcriptions through which they have come down to us, some are still recognisable to-day.
The mineral, the vegetable, the animal world in India had all ^ their special wonders for the Europeans. As to minerals, India was the land of gems and gold.*-" In the book of Pliny's Natural History which deals with precious stones (Book xxxvii) a great . many are said to be products of India. It is often doubtful what stone is intended by Pliny's description, but one can recognise diamonds^, opals ^, and agate *^ amongst those enumerated. The ultimate source of information would here, of course, not be a literary one, but the practical knowledge of merchants. As to gold, Nearchus and Megasthenes conj&rmed the account given by Herodotus of the ants as big as foxes which dug up gold.
1 Aristob. Frag. 29=Strabo xv, C. 691, of. C. 697. ^ gtrabo xv, C. 690,
3 Strabo xv, C. 689. * Aristob. Frag. 29 = Strabo xv, 0. 693.
5 Frag. 18 = Arr. Ind. 4 ; Plin. Nat. Hist, vi, § 64 f. « §§ 55 f_
' §§ 80 f. 8 I 140.
26—2
h
J
404 India in Greek and Latin Literature [CH.
Nearchus^, honest man that he was, admitted that he had never j seen one of these ants, but he had seen their skins, which were brought to the Macedonian camp. Megasthenes in repeating the story with minor variations added the useful piece of information that the country the gold came from was the country of the Derdae ^ (in Sanskrit Darad or Ddrada ; modern Dardistan in Kashmir)^. Among the mineral wonders of the land Megasthenes seems also to have reckoned sugar-candy, which he took to be a sort of crystal ; J a strange sort which, on being ground between the teeth, proved to be 'sweeter than figs or honey '^ He wrote down too what his Indian informants told him of a river Silas among the mountains of the north in which all substances went to the bottom like stone*.
In the vegetable realm, the Greeks noticed the two annual / harvests, the winter and summer one, the sign of an astonishing fertility ^ They knew that rice and millet were sown in the summer, wheat and barley in the winter*', and Aristobulus de->/ scribed the cultivation of rice in enclosed sheets of water^. They saw trees, which the generative power of the Indian soil endowed with a strange capacity of self-propagation — the branches curving to the ground to become themselves new trunks, till a single tree became a pillared tent, under whose roof of broad leaves a troop ^ of horsemen could find shade from the noonday heat^. Among the plants two especially interested them. One was the sugar- cane, the reeds that make honey without the agency of bees®. Megasthenes seems to have attempted a scientific explanation of its sweet juice. It was due to the water which it absorbed from the soil being so warmed by the sun's heat, that the plant was virtually cooked as it grew^*'! The other plant was the cotton- plant, yielding vegetable wool. Some of it the Macedonians used
1 Nearehus, Frag. 12 = Arr. Ind. 15.
2 Megasth. Frag. 39 = Strabo xv, C. 706.
3 ' Stones are dug tip of the colour of frankincense, sweeter than figs or honey,' Megasth. Frag, 10 = Straboxv, C. 703.
* Megasth. Frag. 19=Arr. Ind. 6, 2; Strabo xv, C. 703. ^ild means 'stone' in Sanskrit.
« Megasth. Frag. 9 = Strabo xv, 0. 693.
« Strabo xv, C. 690. '' Aristob. Frag. 29 = Strabo xv, C. 692.
8 Strabo xv, C. 694; Arrian, Ind. 11; Plin. xii, §§ 22 f.
9 Nearehus, Frag. 8 = Strabo xv, C. 694. The phrase fieXicrffuv fi^ oiffCjt) might be interpreted as above. If M'Crindle's version ' although there are no bees ' is what the Greek writer meant, he made a curious mistake. Bees and honey are well known in early Indian literature. But M'Crindle's version, strictly speaking, would require oiiK oiicrGsv.
i« Megasth, Frag. 9 = Strabo xv, C. 693,
xvi] Elephants and Monkeys 405
uncarded as stuffing for saddles and suchlike \ Precious spices, of course, also and strange poisons were associated in the Greek mind with India. As to the latter, Aristobulus was told that a law obtaining among the Indians pronounced death upon any man revealing a new poison, unless he at the same time revealed a v remedy for it ; if he did both, he received a reward from the king*^.
Among the animals of India, it was the elephants, the monkeys, and the snakes which especially drew the attention of the Greeks. / The elephants, of course, showed them a type of animal unlike anything they had ever seen. Their size must have accorded with the impression of vastness made by the rivers and the trees of India. And to this was added their extraordinary form with the serpentine proboscis. Megasthenes gave an account of the way ■ in which wild elephants were captured, agreeing closely with the practice of to-day^. The longevity of the elephant was also a fact v which the Greeks discovered, though Onesicritus accepted from some informant the extravagant estimate of 300 years for an elephant's life*. 'They are so teachable, that they can learn to throw stones at a mark and to use arms, also to sew beautifully.' * If any animal has a wise spirit, it is the elephant. Some of them, when their drivers have been killed in battle, have picked them V up themselves and carried them to burial ; some have defended them as they lay ; some have saved those who fell off at their own peril. Once when an elephant killed his driver in a rage he died of remorse and despair ^' 'It is a very great thing to possess an elephant chariot. A woman who receives an elephant ^ as a present from her lover acquires great prestige,' and any >^ moral frailty she might show under such an inducement was condoned ^
The monkeys too were a species of creature which naturally fascinated the foreigners. Different kinds are described. ' Among the Prasioi (the people of Magadha),' says a late writer, copying from Megasthenes, ' there is a breed of apes human in intelligence, about the size of Hyrcanian dogs to look at, with a natural fringe above the forehead. One might take them for ascetics, if one did
1 Nearchus Frag. 8 = Strabo xv, C. 693. See Bretzl, Botanische Forsehungen d. Alexanderzuges, Leipzig, 1903.
2 Aristob. Frag. 30 = Strabo xv, C. 694.
3 Megasth. Frag. 38 = Arr. Ind. 13.
* Onesicr. Frag. 21 = Strabo xv, C. 705.
5 Megasth. Frag. 38=Arr, Ind. 14,
« Nearchas, Frag. 16= Strabo xv, C. 705; Arr. Ind. 17.
4o6 India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
not know. They are bearded like satyrs, and their tail is like v a lion's.... At the city of Latage they come in crowds to the region outside the gates and eat the boiled rice which is put out for them from the king's house — every day a banquet is placed conveniently for them — and when they have had their fill they go back to their haunts in the forest, in perfect order, and do no damage to anything in the neighbourhood ^' The same writer takes from Megasthenes an account of the apes like satyrs which inhabited the glens of the Himalayas. * When they hear the noise of huntsmen and the baying of hounds, they run up to the top of the cliffs with incred- ible swiftness and repel attack by rolling stones down upon their assailants. They are hard to catch. Only occasionally, at rare intervals, some of them are brought to the country of the Prasioi, and these are either sick ones or pregnant females^.' The forests on the upper Jhelum (Hydaspes, Vitasta), one of the companions of Alexander recorded, were full of apes, and he was told that they were caught by the huntsmen putting on trousers in view of the apes, and leaving other pairs of trousers behind, smeared on the inside with birdlime, which the imitative animals would not fail to put on in their tum^!
The snakes of India were a third arresting species in the animal j world. And here again it was the size, in the case of pythons, which impressed the Europeans. Some were so large, Megasthenes wrote, as to swallow bulls whole ^ The envoys coming from Abhisara to the Macedonian camp asserted boldly that their raja kept two serpents, 80 and 140 cubits long respectively (about 160 and 280 feet)^! On the other hand, Nearchus knew that the smaller poisonous snakes were the more dangerous, and described how life in India was burdened with the fear of finding them anywhere, ' in tents, in vessels, in walls.' Sometimes they infested a particular house to the point of making it uninhabitable. The charmers who went about the country were supposed to know how to cure snake-bites. There was really indeed very little for a doctor to do in India except to cure snake-bites, since diseases were so rare among Indians — so at least, as we shall see, the Greeks be- lieved ^ The Greeks also understood that there was some breed
1 Megasth. Frag. ll = Ael. "Nat. Anim. xvi, 10.
2 Ael. Nat. Anim. xvi, 21.
3 Strabo xv, C. 699.
* Megasth. Frag. 14 = Plin. Nat. Hist, viii, § 36. 6 Onesicr. Frag. 7 = Strabo xv, C. 698.
• Nearchus, Frag. 15 = Strabo xv, C. 706.
xvi] Ethnology and Mythology 407
of flying snakes, which dropped from the air at night a poisonous secretion, corrupting the flesh of anyone upon whom it felP.
The animals which lived in the jungles would, of course, be less in evidence for the Europeans who passed through the land, but they heard of them by native report. Nearchus never saw a live tiger, only a tiger's skin^ ; Megasthenes heard that there were tigers twice the size of lions, and he knew of one in captivity which, while held by four men, fastened the claws of his fi'ee hind- leg upon a mule and mastered it^. The Greeks heard too of the wild sheep and goats of the hills*, and of the rhinoceros, though the account given of it (taken probably from Megasthenes) can certainly not be based upon actual observation ^
Of the domestic animals the Greeks have most to say about the Indian dogs. There was that fierce breed, of which king Saubhuti had given Alexander an exhibition — the dogs which , would not relax their bite upon a lion, although their legs were sawn off"^. It was this breed, or a similar one, which the Greeks understood from the Indians to be a cross between dogs and tigers^ !
When we turn to the Greeks' account of Indian humanity, we find them noting that they were a tall people — ' tall and slender,' \^ says Arrian^, 'lightly-built to a degree far beyond any other people.' On the other hand Diodorus, following perhaps some / other source, describes them as eminently tall and massive^. v^ In the south of India complexions approximate to the Ethiopian \l and in the north to the Egyptian. But in features there is not any marked difiference, and no Indian people has woolly hair, like / the negro races, 'owing to the dampness of the Indian climate'^**. It is curious that there should have been discussion among the Greeks whether the darkness of skin was due to the action of the sun or to a property in the water of the African and Indian rivers ^^. The Indians, or some races among them, were believed by the Greeks, in striking contrast with the truth, to be singularly v^free from diseases and long-lived^^. The people of Sind, Onesicritus ^aid, sometimes reached 130 years ^^ The intellectual powers which
^ Megasth. Frags. 10 and 12 = Strabo xv, C. 703; Aelian, Hat. Anim. xvi, 41.
2 Nearchus, Frag. 12=Arr. Ind. 15.
3 Megasth. Frag. 10=Strabo xv, C. 703.
•* Megasth. Frag. 13 = Aelian, Nat. Anim. xvi, 20.
•5 Megasth. Frag. 13 = Strabo xv, C. 710; Aelian, loc. cit.
' Megasth. Frag. 10 = Strabo xv, C. 700; Ael. Nat. Anim. iv, 19.
' Plin. N. H. viii, § 148; Ael. Nat. Anim. vni, 1.
8 Znd. 17. » II, 36. i» Strabo xv, C. 690.
" Strabo xv, C. 695. 12 Nearchus, Frag. 14 = Arr. Ind. 15, 10.
13 Onesicr. Frag. 20= Strabo xv, C. 701.
4o8 India in Greek and Latin L,iterature [ch.
they displayed in the arts and crafts were attributed, like their health and longevity, to the purity of the air and the rarified quality of the water\ but their health was also attributed to the simplicity of their diet and their abstinence from wine^. \/
In what they say of the earlier history of India, the Greeks were concerned to fit in what their Indian informants told them with their own mythology and historical tradition. In their view of the past of India the two outstanding events were the invasions of the country by Dionysus and by Heracles respectively. Greek mythology told of the wine-god Dionysus as some one who had led about Asia a wandering army of revellers, garlanded with vine and ivy, to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals, and in India the religious processions in honour of Qiva, the royal progresses with drum and cymbals, especially characteristic of certain tribes^, seem to have struck them as Bacchic in character. Evidently ^iva was India's memory of the conquering god, and these usages had been learnt from him ages ago. /
Heracles the Greeks seemed to themselves to discover inv Krishna. It was an accidental variation that the Greek legend repre- sented him as having been born in Thebes and the Indians claimed him as sprung from the Indian earth. * This Heracles,' according to Megasthenes, 'was especially worshipped by the Suraseni, an Indian people (the (^urasenas), where there are two great cities, Methora (Mathura, Muttra) and Clisobora (Krishnapura), and a navigable river, the Jobanes (Jumna), flows through their country. The garb worn by this Heracles was the same as that of the Theban Heracles, as the Indians themselves narrate ; a gi'eat number of male children were born to him in India (for this Heracles also married many women) and one only daughter. Her name was Pandaea, and the country where she was born and which Heracles gave her to rule is called Pandaea after her [the Pandya kingdom in South India]. She had by her father's gift five hundred elephants, four thousand horsemen, and 130,000 foot-soldiers.... And the Indians tell a story that when Heracles knew his end was near, and had no one worthy to whom he might
* Mwp \eirT0fiep4ffTaT0Vy Diod. n, 36, 1.
2 Nearchus, Frag. 15 = Strabo xv, C. 706.
3 The name of the people is given by Strabo as the Sydrakai (Strabo xv, C. 687). From C. 701 we gather that these are identical with the Oxydrakai on the Beas (Vipa(?a). The Oxydrakai were a people of the plains where the vine does not grow. On the strength of Strabo's assertion that the vine grew among the Sydrakai, to shift the Oxydrakai to the hills, as Dr Vincent Smith does (J.R.A.S. October, 1903), is a questionable expedient.
XVI J Social Divisions 409
give his daughter in marriage, he wedded her himself, though she was then only seven years old, so that a line of Indian kings might be left of their issue. Heracles therefore bestowed on her mii-aculous maturity, and from this act it comes that all the race over whom Pandaea ruled, has this characteristic by grace of Heracles \' Our Greek author tells the story with some disgust and observes im- patiently that, if Heracles could do as much as this, he might presumably have prolonged his own life a little. All this mythology, we may notice, the more critical Greeks, such as Eratosthenes and Strabo, were as prompt as any modern European rationalist to regard as unhistoricaP.
Megasthenes was given at the court of Pataliputra a list of the kings who had preceded Chandragupta on the throne, 153 in number, covering by their reigns a period of over 6000 years. The line began with the 'most Bacchic' of the companions of Dionysus, Spatembas, left behind as king of the land, when Dionysus retired ^
The most interesting part of Megasthenes' account is that relating to contemporary India, so far as he could learn about it at Pataliputra. His description of the seven ' tribes ' or classes u^ into which the whole people was divided is well known. These, as Dr Vincent Smith has urged^ have little to do with the four regular castes of Hinduism. Megasthenes may have got his • number seven from some Indian informant, or he may have simply ascertained the fact that the people was divided into functional castes which did not intermarry, and then have made his own list of various occupations as they presented themselves to his eye. The confusion which he makes between Brahmans and Sannyasis — to both the Greek terms philosophoi or sophistai, ' wise men,' were indiscriminately applied — and his separation of the Brahmans into different castes, according as their employment might be priestly or administrative or political, make it difficult to suppose that he was reproducing what any Indian had told him. But his seven classes may truly reflect the various activities which a Greek resident at Pataliputra could see going on round about him in the third century b.c.^
The Jirst class of Megasthenes consisted of 'philosophers,' \y under which term, as has just been said, Brahmans and ascetics
1 Megasth. Frag. 23=Arr. Ind. 7 f. 2 strabo xv, C. 686 f.
3 Megasth. Frag. 23. •* Caste in India {East and West, 1913, pp. 552-63).
s Megasth. Frags. 35 and 36=Arr. Lid. 11 f.; Strabo xv, C. 703. F. inf., Chapter XIX, p. 477, n. 3.
410 India in Greek and Latin Literature [CH.
•
were confused. It was numerically the smallest class, but the highest in honour, immune from labour and taxation.v^ Its only business was to perform public sacrifice, to direct the sacrifice of private individuals, and to divine. On the New Year all the philosophers assembled at the king's doors and made predictions ^ with a view to guiding agriculture or politics. If any one's prophecy was falsified by the event, he had to keep silence for the rest of his life. 'These wise men pass their days naked, exposed in winter to the cold and in summer to the sun, in the fields and the swamps and under enormous trees.... They eat the / fruits of the earth and the bark of the trees, which is no less >/ agreeable to the taste and no less nourishing than dates.' The second class consisted of the cultivators, and included the majority of the Indian people. They never took any part in war, their y whole business being to cultivate the soil and pay taxes — to the ^ kings or to the free cities, as the case might be. Wars rolled past them. At the very time when a battle was going on, the neighbouring cultivators might be seen quietly pursuing their work of ploughing or digging, unmolested. All the land belonged to the king, and the cultivators paid one-fourth of the produce in / addition to rent. The third class Megasthenes described as herds- "^ men and hunters. They lived a nomad life in the jungles and on the • hills, but brought a certain proportion of their cattle to the cities as tribute. They also received in return for their services a grant of corn from the king. It is easy to recognise in the description low-caste people, who in ancient Pataliputra, as in a modern Indian city, were to be seen performing certain services to the civilised com- munity. The fourth class consisted of the traders, artisans, and boatmen. They paid a tax on the produce of their industry, except those who manufactured implements of war and built ships. These, on the other hand, received a subsidy from the royal exchequer. The fifth class was that of the fighters, the most numerous class w after the cultivators. They performed no work in the community except that of fighting. Members of the other classes supplied them with weapons and waited upon them and kept their horses and elephants. They received regular pay even in times of peace, v so that when not fighting they could live a life of ease and maintain numbers of dependents. The shcth and seventh classes of Megasthenes cannot have formed castes in any sense. The , sixth consists of the government secret inspectors, whose business V it was to report to the king, or, among the free tribes, to the headmen, what went on among the people, and the seventh of those
XV i] Pataliputra 411
constituting the council of the king or the tribal authorities.
* In numbers this class is a small one, but it is distinguished for wisdom and probity. For which reason there are chosen from among it the magistrates, the chiefs of districts, the deputy governors, the keepers of the treasury, the army superintendents, the admirals, the high stewards, and the overseers of agriculture.' When Megasthenes, in talking about the fixity of these classes, stated^ that the only exception to the law which forbad a man changing his class was that any one might become a * wise man,' he was saying something which was true only if by 'wise man' we under- stand an ascetic, not a Brahman. A sense of the difference between Brahmans living in the world and ascetics is implied in the statement of Nearchus that Indian 'sophists' were divided into Brahmans, who followed the king as councillors, and the men who
* studied Nature "I
We may see something of the aspect of the country, as Megasthenes travelled through it, from his description of the towns built high above the level floods. ^ All their towns which are down beside the rivers or the sea are made of wood ; for towns built of brick ' (i.e. sun-dried mud bricks) * would never hold out for any length of time with the rains on the one hand, and, on the other, the rivers which rise above their banks and spread a sheet of water over the plains. But the towns which are built on elevated places out of reach, these are made of brick and clay^' Of Pataliputra itself Megasthenes left a summary description. Built at the confluence of the Ganges and the Son, it formed an oblong, 80 stades by 15 stades (9i miles by 1 m. 1270 yds.) surrounded by a wooden palisade, with loop-holes for the archers to shoot through, and outside the palisade a ditch, 30 cubits (about 60 feet) deep by 6 plethra (200 yards) wide, which served both for defence and as a public sewer. Along the palisade were towers at intervals, 570 in all, and 64 gates ^ He also described the palace of the great Indian king, no less sumptuous and magnificent than the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana. Attached to it was a goodly park,
in which were tame peacocks and pheasants.... There were shady groves and trees set in clumps and branches woven together by some special cunning of horticulture. And the more impressive thing about the beauty of that climate is that the trees themselves are of the sort that are always green ; they never grow old and never shed their leaves. Some of them are native, and some are brought from other lands with great care, and these adorn the place and give it glory — only not the
1 Frag. 35 = Air. Ind. 12, 9. 2 Nearchus, Frag. 7 = Strabo xv, C. 716.
3 Megasth. Frag. 26=Arr. Ind. 10. * Megasth. Frag. 25 = Strabo xv, C. 702.
412 India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
olive ; the olive does not grow of itself in India, and, if it is transported there, it dies. Birds are there, free and unconfincd ; they come of their own accord and have their nests and roosting-places in the branches, both birds of other kinds and parrots which are kept there and flock in bevies about the king.... In this royal pleasance there are lovely tanks made by hand of men, with fishes in them very large and gentle, and nobody may catch them except the sons of the king, when they are yet children. In this water, as tranquil and as safe as any can be, they fish and play and learn to swim all at the same time I
Megasthenes noted dowu a variety of points which struck him in the manners and customs of the people. A noble simplicity seemed to him the predominant characteristic^. Nearchus seems to have described the dress of the people in the Indus region. They wore clothes of cotton,
and this linen from the trees is of a more shining white than any other linen, unless it be that the people themselves being dark make the linen appear all the whiter. They have a tunic of tree-linen down to the middle of their shins, and two other pieces of stuff, one thrown about their shoulders and one twisted round their heads. And the Indians wear ear-rings of ivory, those that are very well-off. , . . Also they dye their beards different colours, some so as to make them appear as white as white may be, and some dyeing them blue-black : others make them crimson, and others purple, and others green. In the summer they protect them- selves with umbrellas, those of the Indians that is to say, who are not too low to be considered. They wear shoes of white leather vei*y elaborately worked ; and the soles of the shoes are variegated, and high-heeled so as to make the wearer seem taller'*.
Megasthenes observed at Pataliputra that in dress the Indians, for all their general simplicity, indulged a love of richness and bright colours, wearing ornaments of gold and gems and flowered muslins, with umbrellas carried after them*.
Nearchus described their guise in war. The foot-soldiers carried a bow as long as the body. To shoot, they rested one end of it on the ground and set their left foot against it. They had to draw the string far back, since the arrows in use were six feet long. In their left hands they carried long narrow shields of raw hide, nearly co-extensive with the body. Some had javelins instead of bows. All carried long two-handed swords with a broad blade. The horsemen had two javelins and a shield smaller than the foot-soldier's ^
Their diet was distinguished from the Greek by the absence of wine, which they drank only in religious ceremonies ; but rice-
^ Aelian, l^at. Anim. xiii, 18.
2 Megasth. Frag. 27 = Strabo xv, C. 709.
' Nearchus, Frags. 9 and 10 = Arr. Ind. 16.
* Megasth, Frag. 27 = Strabo xv, C. 709.
« Nearchus, Frag. 7 = Arr. Ind. 16; Strabo xv, C. 716.
XV i] Laws and Customs 413
beer was generally drunk. Their staple food was pulpy rice (opv^a pocjyrjTi]). Each man took his food by himself when he felt inclined ; for they had no fixed times for common meals \ When a man would sup, a table was placed beside him and a gold dish set upon it, in which first was put the rice, boiled after the manner of the Greek chondros (gruel), and then on the top of it seasoned meats, done up in the Indian way\ Their system of gymnastic exercise differed from that of the Greeks : it consisted principally of massage, and they used smooth rollers of ebony for shaping their bodies^.
Megasthenes, ignorant as he was of Indian languages, could say little of the literature and thought of the country. He only observed the much greater part played by oral tradition and memory, as compared with written documents, than was the case in the Greek world*, though he cannot have asserted that writing was unknown, as Strabo would seem to imply, since in one ^_^ . passage he refers to written inscriptions ^ In the sphere of morals it is interesting to notice that the salient characteristic of the Indian people seemed to this early European observer to be a high level of veracity and honesty. * An Indian has never been lu convicted of lying,' he wrote in one passage^, and in another pointed to the rarity of law-suits as evidence of their frank dealing. »^ * They are not litigious. Witnesses and seals are unnecessary when a man makes a deposit ; he acts in trust. Their houses v/ are usually unguarded.' During the time that Megasthenes was in Chandragupta's camp, out of a multitude of 400,000 men there ^ were no convictions for thefts of any sums exceeding 200 drachmas (about £8)^. In Sind, Onesicritus said, no legal action could be taken, except for murder and assault. 'We cannot help being y murdered or assaulted, whereas it is our fault if we give our v confidence and are swindled. We ought to be more circumspect at the outset and not fill the city with litigation^.'
The laws, Nearchus said, were preserved by oral tradition, not in books ^ — a statement only relatively true. According to
1 Megasth. Frag. 27 = Strabo xv, C. 709.
2 Megasth. Frag. 28=Athenaeus iv, 153 d. » Frag. 27.
* Megasth. Frags. 26, 27= Arr. Ind. 10 ; Strabo xv, C. 709 ; cf. Ehys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 109 f .
6 For the use of writing at this period see Chapter xix, p. 483.
^ Megasth. Frag. 35=Arr. Ind. 12, 5. Cf. Max Miiller, India, what can it teach us ? pp. 84 f.
■^ Megasth. Frag. 27 = Strabo xv, C. 709. » strabo xv, C. 702.
9 Nearchus, Frag. 7 = Strabo xv, C. 716.
414 I^di^ if^ Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
Megasthenes many of them were sufficiently severe. A man / convicted of giving false witness suffered mutilation. In the case of bodily harm being inflicted, not only was the principle of an eye for an eye observed, but the hand was cut off as well. To cause a / craftsman the loss of his eye or hand was an offence punished by deaths
The cultivation of lands by a whole kinship working in associa- tion was noted by Nearchus. Each individual at the ingathering took as much as was calculated to support him for a year, and the ^ remainder of the common stock was destroyed, so as not to encourage idleness^.
The customs would naturally differ considerably from one >^ region to another in India, then as now. Among the Kshatriyas of the Punjab (Cathaeans) and their neighbours of the principality of Saubhiiti (the region of Gurdaspur and Amritsar?), according to Onesicritus, personal beauty was held in such estimation that kings were chosen for this quality, and a child two months after birth, if it did not reach a certain standard of comeliness, was exposed. The dyeing of beards which Nearchus described in the passage already quoted was especially a custom in this part^
Of the marriage system in India Megasthenes only understood ^ that it was polygamous, and that brides were purchased from their parents for a yoke of oxen*. He seems also to have asserted that, where conjugal infidelity in a wife was due to a husband's omission to exercise vigorous control, it was condoned by public v opinion^. At Taksha^ila, according to Aristobulus, a man unable j to get his daughter married on account of poverty would sell her in the market-place^. Nearchus stated that among certain Indian peoples a girl was put up as the prize of victory in a boxing match ; the victor obtained her without paying a price ^. The custom by which the virtuous wife {suttee, sail) was burnt with her husband's body on the funeral pyre naturally struck the Greeks.
^ Megasth. Frag. 27=Strabo xv, C. 710.
2 Nearchus, Frag, 7 = Strabo xv, C. 716.
3 Onesicr. Frag. 18 = Strabo xv, C. 699. Cf, Diod. xvii, 91.
4 Cf. Chapter x, p. 234.
^ The sentence is somewhat obscure — et 5e /t^ ffu<j>povet» ivayKdiraiev, iropveveiv f^earri, Megasth. Frag. 27 = Strabo xv, C. 709.
6 Aristob. Frag. 34 = Strabo xv, C. 714.
' Nearch. Frag. 7 = Strabo xv, C. 716. This may refer to the Kshatriya institution of svayarnvara or ' self -choice.' A princess chose her husband from among the assembled suitors of her own free will or as the result of a contest in the use of war- like arms.
xvi] Suttee : Disposal of the Dead 415
Onesicritus spoke of it as specially a custom of the Kshatriyas (Cathaeans)^. Aristobulus was told that the widow sometimes followed her husband to the pyre of her own desire, and that those ^t who refused to do so lived under general contempt ^ In the year 316 B.C. the leader of an Indian contingent which had gone to fight under Eumenes in Iran was killed in battle. He had with him his two wives. There was immediately a competition between them as to which was to be the satl. The question was brought before the Macedonian and Greek generals, and they decided in favour of the younger, the elder being with child. At this, the elder woman
went away lamenting, with the band about her head rent, and tearing her h^r, as if tidings of some great disaster has been brought her; and the other departed, exultant at her victory, to the pyre, crowned with fillets by the women who belonged to her, and decked out splendidly as for a wedding. She was escorted by her kinsfolk who chanted a song in praise of her virtue. \Mien she came near to the pyre, she took oflF her adornments and distributed them to her familiars and friends, leaving a memorial of herself, as it were, to those who had loved her. Her adornments consisted of a multitude of rings on her hands set with precious gems of diverse colours, about her head golden stars not a few, variegated with different sorts of stones, and about her neck a multitude of necklaces, each a little larger than the one above it. In conclusion, she said farewell to her familiars and was helped by her brother onto the pyre, and there to the admiration of the crowd which had gathered together for the spectacle she ended her life in heroic fashion. Before the pyre was kindled, the whole army in battle array marched round it thrice. She meanwhile lay down beside her husband, and as the fire seized her no sound of weakness escaped her lips. The spectators were moved, some to pity and some to exuberant praise. But some of the Greeks present found fault with such customs as savage and inhumane^.
The Greeks, we find, had a theory to account for the custom, whether of their own invention or suggested to them by Indian informants we cannot say. The theory was that once upon a time wives had been so apt to get rid of their husbands by poison that ^ the law had to be introduced which compelled a widow to be burnt with her dead husband ^
As to the disposal of the dead, the absence of funeral display and of imposing monuments seemed strange to the Greeks. The virtues of the dead — so they understood the Indians to say — were ,y sufficient monument and the songs which were sung over them^ When the Greeks tell us that the dead were exposed to vultures,
1 Strabo xv, C. 700.
2 Aristob. Frag. 34 = Strabo xv, C. 714,
^ Diod. XIX, 34. This description contains many resemblances to the account of the Sail in the Harshacharita of Bana (trans. Cowell and Thomas, pp. 150 f.). * Strabo xv, C. 700 ; Diod. xix, 33. « Megasth, Frags. 26, 27 = Arr, Ind. 10; Strabo xv, C. 710.
41 6 India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
we can only understand it of certain peoples near the frontier who ^ had been influenced by the customs of Iran^
The assertion of the Greeks that slavery was unknown in India — or, according to Onesicritus, was unknown in the kingdom of Musicanus (Upper Sind)^ — is curious. That slavery was a regular institution in India is certain. Indian slavery must have looked so difierent to a Greek observer from the slavery he knew at home that he did not recognise it for what it was. J As to the government, the king himself is, of course, the prominent figure. He took the field with his army in war: in peace his public appearances were of three kinds. In the first place, he spent a considerable part of the day in hearing the cases brought to him for judgment. Even at his hour for undergoing the massage with ebony rollers he did not retire, but went on listening to the pleadings whilst four masseurs plied their art upon him. In the second place, he came forth to perform sacrifice, and in the third place to go a-hunting. His going forth to the chase was like the processions of Dionysus. The road of the royal cortege was roped off from common spectators. There was the king surrounded by a crowd of his women, themselves carrying weapons, in chariots, on horses, on elephants, the body-guard enclosing them all in a larger circle, and a band with drums and bells going on in front. Sometimes the king shot from a platform, defended by a stockade, sometimes from the back of an elephant. Within the doors of the palace, the king's person was tended by the women of his zenana, bought for a price from their fathers. But he was not beyond the reach of danger. A stern custom ordained that should he become intoxicated, any of his women who killed him should receive special honour. And even though he remained sober, he had, like the late Sultan Abdul Hamid, to be continually changing the place where he lay at night, in order to evade conspirators^
Nearchus (?) had already noted that Indian kings were not saluted, as Persian kings were, by prostration, but by the persons approaching them raising their hands — the Greek attitude in prayer*. A gi'eat occasion at court, according to one source before Strabo, was when the king washed his hair. Everyone then tried to outdo his fellows by the magnificence of his presents ^ Clitarchus"
^ Aristobulus seems to have attributed the cnstom to TakBha<?ila, Frag. 34 = Strabo XV, C. 714.
2 Megasth. Fraga. 26, 27; Onesic. Frag. 20=Arr. Ind. 10; Strabo xv, C. 710.
3 Megasth. Frag. 27 = Strabo xy, C. 710.
* Strabo xv, C. 717. « Strabo xv, C. 718.
xvi] Festivals: Officials 417
— a questionable authority — described the pageantry of a court festival — the elephants bedizened with gold and silver, chariots 'drawn by horses, and ox-waggons, the army in full array, the display of precious vessels of gold and silver, many of them studded with gems. Collections of animals of all kinds were also a great feature, panthers and lions. There were great waggons carrying whole trees to which a variety of birds bright in plumage or lovely in song were attached K Animals, according to another source, were a usual form of offering to bring to the king. ' The Indians do not think lightly of any animal, tame or wild.' And the king apparently accepted all kinds, not rare ones only, but cranes and geese and ducks and pigeons. Or one might bring wild ones, deer and antelopes or rhinoceroses^. On one great annual festival amusement took the form of butting matches between rams or wild bulls or rhinoceroses, or fights between elephants^. Races provoked great excitement. They usually took place between chariots to each of which one horse between two oxen was harnessed. There was very heavy betting on these occasions, in which the king himself and his nobles led the way. And their example was followed on a humbler scale by the crowd of spectators ^ LThe king — if Megasthenes is the source, we may undei'stand Chandragupta — had a guard of twenty-four elephants. When he went forth to do justice, the first elephant was trained to do obeisance. At a word from the driver and a touch with the goad, it gave some military salute as the king passed ^ "7
The predecessors of Chandragupta, whose line he' supplanted, had borne, Megasthenes said, beside their personal names, the royal name Patcdiputra, and Chandragupta had assumed it also when he seized the throne*^.
The account which Megasthenes gave of the various officials points to a highly organised bureaucracy. They were, he said, of three kinds : (1) Agronomoi [surely a'ypovoiJLOL should be read for ar^opavofioi], district officials ; (2) astynomoi, town officials ; and (3) members of the War Office. The duties of the first kind were to supervise (1) irrigation and land-measurement, (2) hunting, (3) the various industries connected with agriculture, forestry, work in timber, metal-foundries, and mines, and they had (4) to
1 Clitarch. Frag. 17 = Strabo xv, C. 718.
^ Aelian, Nat. Anim. xiii, 25 ; compare the list of presents seat to the king in the Harshacharita (trans. Cowell and Thomas, pp. 213-5).
3 Aelian, Nat. Anim. xv, 15. * Aelian, Nat. Anim. xv, 24.
^ Aelian, Nat. Anim. xni, 22. Cf. Chapter xix, p. 493. 6 Megasth, Frag. 25 = Strabo xv, C. 702.
c. H. 1. 1. 2,7
41 8 India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
maintain the roads and see that at every ten stadia (the sixth part of a yqjana^) there was a milestone, indicating the distances^ (this is the passage which proves that Megasthenes did not mean to* assert a general ignorance of the art of writing in India). The second kind, the town officials, were divided into six Boards of Five. Their respective functions were (1) supervision of factories, (2) care of strangers, including control of the inns, provision of assistants, taking charge of sick persons, burying the dead, (3) the, registration of births and deaths, (4) the control of the market, inspection of weights and measures, (5) the inspection of manu- factured goods, provision for their sale with accurate distinction of new and second-hand articles, (6) collection of the tax of 10 per cent, charged on sales. The six Boards acting together exercised a general superintendence over public works, prices, harbours, and temples. The third kind of officials constituted the War Office, and were also divided into six Boards of Five. The departments of the six were (1) the admiralty, (2) transport and commissariat, (3) the infantry, (4) the cavalry, (5) the chariots, (6) the elephants. Connected with the army were the royal stables for horses and elephants, and the royal arsenal. A soldier's weapons and horse were not his own property, but the king's, and they went back to the arsenal and the royal stables at the conclusion of a campaign^.
As to industries, it is curious that these early European observers should tax Indians with being backward in the scientific development of the resources of their country. They had, for instance, good mines of gold and silver, yet 'the Indians, in- experienced in the arts of mining and smelting, do not even know their own resources, but set about the business in too primitive a way '*. * They do not pursue accurate knowledge in any line, ex- cept that of medicine ; in the case of some arts, it is even accounted vicious to carry their study far, the art of war, for instanced' On the other. hand, Nearchus spoke of the cleverness of the Indian craftsmen. They saw sponges used for the first time by the Macedonians and immediately manufactured imitations of them with fine thread and wool, dyeing them to look the same. Other Greek articles, such as the scrapers and oil-flasks used by athletes they quickly learnt to make. For writing letters, they used some species of fine tissue closely woven. They also used only cast bronze, but not hammered, so that their vessels broke like earthen- ware, if they felF.
1 Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 265. ^ Cf. Strabo xv, C. 689.
» Megasth. Frag. 36 a= Strabo xv, C. 707. * Strabo xv, C. 700.
* Strabo xv, C. 701. « Nearchus, Frag. 7 = Strabo xv, C. 716.
I
XV i] Brahmans 419
About the Indian ' philosophers ' Megasthenes had a good deal to say^. They might be divided on one principle according as they dwelt in the mountains and worshipped Dionysus ((^iva) or in the plains and worshipped Heracles (Krishna), but the more significant division was that into Brahmans, and ' Sarmanes.'
The Brahmans have the greatest prestige, since they have a more consistent dogmatic system. As soon as they are conceived in the womb, men of learning take charge of them. These go to the mother and ostensibly sing a cliami tending to make the birth happy for mother and child, but in reality convey certain virtuous counsels and suggestions ; the women who listen most wilUngly are held to be the most fortunate in child-bearing. After birth, the boys pass from one set of teachers to another in succession, the standard of teachers rising with the age of the boy. The philosophers spend their days in a grove near the city, under the cover of an enclosure of due size, on beds of leaves and skins, living sparely, practising celibacy and abstinence from flesh-food, listening to grave discourse, and admitting such others to the discussion as may wish to take part He who listens is forbidden to speak, or even to clear his throat or spit, on pain of being ejected from the company that very day, as incontinent. When each Brahman has lived in this fashion thirty-seven years, he departs to his own property, and lives now in greater freedom and luxurj', wearing muslin robes and some decent ornaments of gold on his hands and ears, eating flesh, so long as it is not the flesh of domestic animals, but abstaining from pungent and highly-seasoned food. They marry as many wives as possible, to secure good progeny ; for the larger number of wives, the larger the nimiber of good children is likely to be ; and since they have no slaves, they depend all the more upon the ministrations of their children, as the nearest substitute. The Brahmans do not admit their wives to their philosophy : if the wives are wanton, they might divulge mysteries to the profane ; if they are good, they might leave their husbands, since no one who has learnt to look with contempt upon pleasure and pain, upon life and death, will care to be under another's control. The chief subject on which the Brahmans talk is death ; for this present life, they hold, is like the season passed in the womb, and death for those who have cultivated philosophy is the birth into the real, the happy, hfe. For this reason they follow an extensive discipline to make them ready for death. None of the accidents, they say, which befall men are good or evil If they were, one would not see the same things caxising grief to some and joy to others — men's notions being indeed like dreams — and the same men grieved by something which at another moment they will turn and welcome. Their teaching about Nature is in parts naive ; for they are more admirable in what they do than in what they say, and the theoretic proofs on which they base their teaching are mostly fable. In many points however their teaching agrees with that of the Greeks — for instance, that the world has a beginning and an end in time, and that its shape is spherical ; that the Deity, who is its Governor and Maker, interpenetrates the whole ; that the first principles of the universe are diflferent, but that water is the principle from which the order of the world has come to be ; that, beside the four elements, there is a fifth substance, of which the heavens and the stars are made- ; that the earth is estabUshcd at the centre of the universe. About generation and the soul their teaching shows parallels to the Greek doctrines, and on many other
1 Megasth. Frag. 40=Strabo xv, C. 711 f.
^ This is the dkd^a, or all-pervading element, of ancient Indian philosophy. It may be compared with the ether of modern physical science.
27—2
42 o India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.
matters. Like Plato too, tliey interweave fables, about the immortality of the soul and the judgments inflicted in the other world, and so on.
Such is the account of the Brahmans which Strabo extracted from Megasthenes. It does not completely agree either with the picture drawn in Indian literary sources or with present-day practice. Its discrepancies may be in part due to the misunderstandings of a foreigner ; in part they may reflect local varieties of practice in the fourth century B.C. It will always be interesting as record- ing the impression of ancient India upon a Greek mind. The account which Megasthenes gave of the other kind of philosophers, the * Sannanes,' is more problematic. Their name seems certainly to represent the Sanskrit ^ramana, a term which was commonly applied to Buddhist ascetics. It has therefore been thought that we have in the Sarmanes of Megasthenes the first mention of Buddhists by a Western writer. In the description however there is nothing distinctively Buddhist, and the term ^ramana is used in Indian literature of non-Buddhist ascetics. If therefore the people to whom Megasthenes heard the term applied were Buddhists, he must have known so little about them that he could only •describe them by features which were equally found in various sorts of Hindu holy men. His description applies to Brahman ascetics rather than to Buddhists.
As to the Sarmanes, the most highly-honoured are called ' Forest-dwellers '^ They live in the forests on leaves and wild fruits, and wear clothes made of the bark of trees, abstaining from cohabitation and wine. The kings call them to their side, sending messengers to enquire of them about the causes of events, and use their mediation in worshipping and supplicating the gods. After the Forest-dwellers, the order of Sarmanes second in honour is the medical — philosophers, as it were, on the special subject of Man. These live sparely, not in the open air indeed, but on rice and meal, which every one of whom they beg and who shows them hospitality gives them. They know how by their simples to make marriages fertile and how to procure male children or female children, as may be desired. Their treatment is mainly by diet and not by medicines. And of medicines they attach greater value to those applied externally than to drugs. Other remedies, they say, are liable to do more harm than good. These too, like the Brahmans, train themselves to endurance, both active and passive, so much so that they will maintain one posture without moving for the whole day. Other orders of Sannanes are diviners and masters of incantations and those who are versed in the lore and the ritual concerning the dead, and go through the villages and towns, begging. Others again there are of a higher and finer sort, though even these >vill allow themselves to make use of popular ideas about hell, of those ideas at any rate which seem to make for godliness and purity of life. In the case of some Sarmanes, women also are permitted to share in the philosophic life, on the condition of observing sexual continence like the men.
1 Literally, vanavusins or vdnaprasthas, i.e. Brahmans in the third stage of the religious life.
xvi] Philosophers 421
The fact that women were allowed to associate themselves with the men as ascetics was also noted by Nearchus^. Suicide, Megasthenes said, was not a universal obligation for ' wise men ' : it was considered however rather a gallant thing [roi)? Zl Troiovvraf TovTo veavLKov^ Kpivecrdai] and the more painful the manner of death, the greater the admiration earned^.
Aristobulus in his book gave further details about the holy men whom the Greeks had come upon at Tak8ha9ila. He described two, one of whom had a shaven head and the other long hair ; each was followed by a number of disciples. All the time that they spent in the market-place men came to them for counsels, and they had a right to take without payment any of the wares exposed for sale. When they approached a man, he would pour sesame oil over them * so that it ran down even fi'om their eyes.' They made cakes for themselves from the honey and sesame brought to market. When they had been induced to come to Alexander's table, they retired afterwards to a place apart where the elder lay on his back, exposed to sun and rain, and the younger stood on his right and left leg alternately for a whole day, holding up a staff some six feet long in both his hands. The elder seems to have been identical with the ascetic who afterwards followed Alexander out of India and whom the Greeks called Kalanos^
In one passage* Strabo gives an account of the ' philosophers ' drawn from some other source than Megasthenes. According to this source, the wise men were divided into Brahmans and a class, described as ' argumentative and captious,' who laugh at the Brahmans as charlatans and senseless, because the Brahmans pursue the study of Nature and of the stars. The name given in our texts to this anti-Brahman class is Pramnai. This should not be emended to Sramnai, as was once done, on the supposition that it repre- sented ^ramana^. The people intended are undoubtedly the prdmdnikas, the followers of the various philosophical systems, each of which has its own view as to what constitutes pramdna, a * means of right knowledge.' These philosophers are, as a rule, orthodox Brahmans, but they view with contempt those Brahmans who put their trust in Vedic ceremonies ^ The Brahmans themselves
^ Nearchus, Frag. 7 = Strabo xv, C. 716. The practice is forbidden in the Artha^dstra^, 19 (p. 48).
•■* Megasth. Frag. 42 = Strabo xv, C. 718.
3 Aristob. Frag. 34 = Strabo xv, C. 714. See Chapter xv, pp. 359, 381.
* XV, C. 719.
^ M'Crindle, Ancient India, p. 76. * See Rapson, Ancient India, pp. 58-61.
42 2 India in Greek and Latin Liter ature [ch.
are divided by this source into (1) those who live in the mountains, (2) the naked ones, and (3) those who live in the world. The Mountain-dwellers dress in deer-skins and carry wallets full of roots and simples, making pretence to some art of healing by means of hocus-pocus and spells and charms. The Naked Ones live, as their name imports, without clothes, in the open air for the most part, practising endurance up to the age of thirty-seven. Women may live with them, bound to continence. These are the class most reverenced by the people. The third sort of Brahmans, those who live in the world, are to be found in the towns or villages, dressed in robes of fine white linen, with the skins of deer or of gazelles hung from their shoulders. They wear beards and long hair which is twisted up and covered by a turban. It seems clear that those who are here described as the Mountain-dwellers correspond most nearly to the Sarmanes of Megasthenes.
Of the gods worshipped by the Indians the Greeks learnt little. One writer cited by Strabo (Clitarchus ?) had asserted that they worshipped Zeus Ombrios (Zeus of the Rain Storms), the river Ganges, and local daemons^. As we have seen, ^iva and Krishna are to be discerned through the Greek names Dionysus and Heracles in some of the statements of our sources. One member of Alexander's suite, his chief usher (€l(Tay<y€\ev<;), Chares of Mytilene, is quoted as saying the Indians worshipped a god Soroadeios, whose name being interpreted meant * maker of wine ''\ It is recognised that the Indian name which Chares heard was Suryadeva * Sun-god.' Some ill-educated interpreter must have been misled by the resemblance of surya ' sun ' to surd ' wine.'
The name ' Indians ' was extended in its largest acceptance to cover the barbarous tribes of mountain or jungle on the confines of Brahman civilisation. In noting down what seemed to them odd points in the physical characteristics or customs of these tribes the Greeks were moved by an interest which is the germ of the modern science of anthropology. Megasthenes noted that in the Hindu Kush the bodies of the dead were eaten by their relations^, as Herodotus had already stated of some aboriginal people.
Even Megasthenes depended, of course, mainly upon his Indian informants for knowledge of the peoples on the borders of the Indian world, and he therefore repeated the fables as to the monstrous races
1 strabo xv, C. 718. The god Indra seems to be identified with Zeus.
^ Athenaeus i, 27 d.
^Megasth. Frag. 27 = Strabo XV, C. 710.
xvi] Southern India: Pearls 423
with one leg, with ears reaching to their feet and so on, which had long been current in India and had already been communicated to the Greeks by Scylax and Hecataeus and Ctesias. One would how- ever like to know the fact which lies behind his story that members of one tribe, living near the sources of the Ganges, had been brought to the camp of Chandragupta — * men of gentler manners — but without a mouth ! They lived on the fumes of roast meat and the smell of fruits and flowers. And since nostrils with them took the place of mouths, they suffered terribly from evil odours, and it was difficult to keep them alive, especially in a camp^ ! ' Does the notice reflect some sect who, like the Jains, abstained from all animal food and kept their mouths covered lest they should breathe in minute insects ?
Of the south of India, Europe up to the Christian era knew little more than a few names, brought by merchantmen. So little was the division of India into two worlds by the Vindhya realised that Strabo could suppose all Indian rivers to take their rise in the Himalayas^. It was chiefly as the country from which pearls came that the Greeks knew Southern India. Pearls came from the coasts of the Pandya kingdom corresponding roughly with the modem districts of Madura and Tinnevelly, and Megasthenes had heard, as we know, of Pandaea the daughter of Heracles (Krishna) who had become queen of a great kingdom in the south. With her he also connected the pearl. Heracles, according to the legend told him, wandering over the earth, had found this thing of beauty in the sea, made, it might seem, for a woman's adornment. Where- fore from all the sea pearls were brought together to the Indian coast for his daughter to wear. The origin of the word which the Greek used for pearl, margarites, is unknown.
Some confused knowledge of how pearls were procured had come to the Greek writers through the traders' stories. They knew that they grew in oysters. Two of the companions of Alexander, Androsthenes of Thasos, who had gone in the fleet with Nearchus and wrote a book called liapdirXov^i Ti]<i 'lySi/e^?, and the chief usher Chares, had already some information as to the varieties of pearls and the chief fisheries ^ The oysters, Megasthenes understood, were caught in nets ; they went in shoals, each shoal with a king of its own, like swarms of bees, and to
1 Megasth. Frag. 30 = Strabo xv, C. 711; Plin. Nat. Hist, va, § 25. An explana- tion of the legend is proposed by the Eev. H. Hosten, The Mouthless Indians of Megasthenes, in the J.A.S.B., 1912, pp. 291-301.
•■' XV, C. 690.
3 Athenaeus ni, 93 a-d.
424 India in Greek and Latin Liiterature [CH.
capture the king was to capture the shoal. The oysters, when caught, were put in jars, and as their flesh rotted the pearl was left disengaged at the bottom \ The name of the extreme southern point of the peninsula had also travelled to the Greeks before the time of Strabo. He knew it as the country of the Coliaci^ ; this was derived from the name in local speech, Kori. The legend, when it made a woman the sovereign of the south, was probably reflecting the system of mother-right which has to some extent obtained there even to the present day. Some of the physical characteristics of the people of the south were known by report — that they were darker in complexion, for instance, than the Indians of the north. The facts of early maturity and of the general shortness of life were also known. In the legend narrated by Megasthenes, as we saw, the precocious maturity which Heracles had bestowed upon his daughter by a miracle continued to be a characteristic of the women of her kingdona. They were marriage- able, and could bear children, Megasthenes said, at seven years old. This exaggeration was presumably due to the real fact of child- marriage. As to the general length of life, forty years was the maximum — again a fact, the relative shortness of life, exaggerated ^ In the book of Onesicritus occurred the first mention by a Euro- pean writer of ^ylon. He heard of it under a name which the Greek represents as Taprobane. It lay, of course, far outside the horizon of the Greeks, but Onesicritus must have met people on the Indus who knew of the southern island by the report of merchants, or had perhaps fared thither themselves along the coast of Malabar, and spoke of Tamraparni and of ita.elephani§, bigger and more terrible in war than those which the Greeks had seen in India*. Tapro- bane was seven days' journey, according to the sources followed by Eratosthenes, from the southernmost part of India (the Coliaci = Cape Kori)^ The strait separating Ceylon from India is only forty miles across, but it may have been true in practice that from the port whence the merchants put out to go to Ceylon and the port where they landed was a voyage of seven days. Onesicritus^ put it at 20 days ; we cannot say now what fact underlay the misapprehension. When he said that the * size ' of Taprobane was 5000 stadia the ambiguity of the statement already provoked complaint in antiquity.
1 M^asth. Frag.23=Arr. InA. 8; Plin. A^a«. Jfftst. ix, § 111.
2 XV, C. 689. 3 Megasth. Frag. 23 = Arr. Ind. 9. * Frag. 13 = Strabo xv, C. 691; Frag. 22= Plin, Hist. Nat. vi, § 81.
6 Strabo xv, C. 690.
« Onesicr. Frag. 13= Strabo xv, C. 691.
xvi] Later Sources of Information 425
For many centuries the India known to the West was India as portrayed by the historians of Alexander's expedition and by Megasthenes. Although from the third century onwards there was a certain amount of intercourse between the Mediterranean world and India, although Greek kings ruled in the Punjab and Alexander's colonies were still represented by little bodies of men Greek in speech, although there must occasionally have been sea- faring men in the Greek ports who had seen the coasts of India, or merchants who had made their way over the Hindu Kush, the Greek and Latin learned world was content to go on tran- scribing the books written generations before. These had become classical and shut out further reference to reality. The original books themselves perished, but their statements continued to be copied from writer to writer. Some of the later Greek and Latin works which treated of India are known to us to-day only by their titles or by a few fragments — the works of Apollodorus of Artemita (latter half of second century or first century B.C.), the works of the great geographer Eratosthenes (276-195 B.C.) and of the voluminous compiler, Alexander Polyhistor (105 till after 40 B.C.). But a great deal of the original books is incorporated in writings which we do still possess, especially in the geographical work of Strabo (about 63 B.C.-I9 A.D.), the historical work of Diodorus (in Egypt about 60 B.C., still alive 36 B.C.), the encyclopaedic work of Pliny (published about 75 A.D.), the tract of Arrian about India (middle of second century A.D.), and the zoological work of Aelian (end of second century A.D.). Even Pliny had probably never had the work of Megasthenes in his hands, but drew from it only at second or third hand through Seneca and Varro. In the third century A.D., when Philostratus in his romance brings ApoUonius of Tyana to India, it is still out of the old traditional materials that what purports to be local colour all comes.
So far as the stock of knowledge handed down from the third century b.c. was increased at all during the following three centuries, it can only have been from the source of information just indicated, the source which might have been turned to so much richer account, had the curse of literary convention not rested upon classical culture — ^the first-hand practical knowledge possessed by Greek merchantmen who crossed the Indian ocean. Strabo had suflScient freedom of mind to take some notice of the Indian trade in his own day. From him we gather that, although a considerable amount of Indian merchandise had flowed into Europe by way of the Red Sea and Alexandria, when the Ptolemies ruled in Egypt
426 India in Greek and Latin Literature [ch.xvi
very few Greek ships had gone fiirther than South Arabia. Goods had been carried from India to South Arabia in Indian or Arabian bottoms. By the time however that Strabo was in Egypt (25 b.c.) a direct trade between Egypt and India had come into existence, and he was told that 120 vessels were sailing to India that season from My OS Hormos, the Egyptian port on the Red Sea\ A few Greek merchantmen, but very few, sailed round the south of India to the mouth of the Ganges-. The vessels that went to India apparently made the journey by coasting along Arabia, Persia, and the Makran, for it was not till the middle of the first century A.D. that a Greek seaman, named Hippalus, discovered that the monsoon could be utilised to carry ships from the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb over the high seas to India^ It lies however outside the scope of this volume to survey the additions made by means of this commerce under the Roman Empire to the knowledge of India derived from the companions of Alexander and Megasthenes. The additions never equalled in substance or interest the older books. Far on into the Middle Ages Christian Europe still drew its concep- tions of India mainly from books written before the middle of the third century B.C.
1 strabo ii, C. 118. 2 strabo xv, C. 686.
•'' Schoff, Tlie Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, p. 8.
CHAPTER XVII
THE HELLENIC KINGDOMS OF SYRIA, BACTRIA, AND PARTHIA
The mists of obscurity cling heavily round the course that events took in India during the years that immediately followed the death of Alexander the Great. The statements of the original authorities, besides being meagre, are so fragmentary that they are seldom perfectly intelligible. One fact, however, seems to stand out clearly. As soon as the grip of the master-hand was removed, the native element began to recover strength and courage, a process which must have been materially assisted by discord amongst the Europeans who had been left behind, whether as soldiers or as settlers. As conqueror of the Persian empire, Alexander had inherited the system of government by satraps ; and, so far as can now be gathered, the broad outline of his original organisation contemplated three great Indian satrapies, one corresponding roughly to the modern province of Sind, another covering the whole of the basin of the Upper Indus from the foot of the Paropanisus, or Hindu Kush, to the banks of the Hydaspes (Jhelum), and a third stretching from the southern shore of the last-named river to the northern shore of the Hyphasis (Beas). The first two included the old Achaemenid provinces of * India ' or 'the country of the Indus,' and Gandhara which corresponds to the present districts of Peshawar and Rawalpindi. The third represents probably the region 'conquered' and not merely 'reclaimed' by Alexander. In accordance with the traditional Indian policy (Manu vii, 202) that a conquered kingdom should continue to be governed by some member of its ancient royal family, very important positions were assigned to the native rajas, Taxiles and Porus, the latter being placed in sole charge of the satrapy that included his original kingdom, the country between the Hydaspes and the Acesines (Chenab)\ According to Diodorus
1 For Taxiles, the king of Takshacjila, and Porus (Paurava), the king of the Purus, see Chapter xv, pp. 345, 349.
428 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
(xviii, 3, 4), they were recognised as virtually independent rulers. And they appear to have been quick to make use of their oppor- tunity. The accounts of the division of the empire by Alexander's generals at Babylon (323 B.c.) and those of the subsequent partition of Triparadisus (321 RC.) agree in pointing to a considerable modi- fication of the limits of the Indian satrapies as at first mapped out A Macedonian — Pithon, son of Agenor — seems to be en- trusted with the control of the land lying between the Paropanisus and the Indus ; Taxiles is left supreme in the country between the Indus and the Hydaspes ; and Porus is given a great accession of territory, his sphere of influence now extending all the way down the main stream to the sea. Diodorus more than hints that the recognition thus accorded to the native princes Avas due to a wholesome respect for their material power : Antipater, he says (xviii, 39, 6), felt that it would be dangerous to attempt to circum- scribe their jurisdiction except with the support of an expedition equipped on a scale of the first magnitude and commanded by a general of the highest capacity.
To some the story of this readjustment, and more particularly of the aggrandisement of Porus, has appeared so surprising that they decline to accept it as authentic, and are disposed to explain it away by an underlying confusion. But there is no suflBcient ground for setting aside the written record. Further, if Diodorus (xviii, 3, 2) and Quintus Curtius (x, 10, 4) are right in stating that, so far as Asia was concerned, the momentous assembly which decreed the partition of Babylon did no more than ratify arrange- ments already sanctioned by the dead king, the change must have come during the lifetime of Alexander. That there was unrest in the land almost as soon as he had quitted it, is indeed evident from what happened in the satrapy of the Upper Indus. Before he reached Carmania on his westward march, he was overtaken by tidings of the assassination of Philippus, the Macedonian governor whom he had installed as satrap there. And, though we learn from Arrian (vi, 27, 2) that the immediate cause of the murder was an ebullition of the undying jealousy between Greeks and Macedonians, the incident may well have been symptomatic of more deeply seated trouble. At all events Alexander decided that it was not convenient to fill the place of Philippus at the moment. Instead, he sent despatches to Taxiles and to a Thracian officer called Eudamus or Eudemus, instructing them to make themselves responsible for the government until another satrap should be nominated. Presumably their functions were to be separate. It is
XVI I ] India after Alexander 429
reasonable to suppose that the general conduct of affairs would be delegated to Taxiles, and that Eudamus would be given the command of the scattered bodies of Greek and Macedonian troops, as well as some measure of authority over the various colonists of Hellenic nationality.
Whether the new appointment that Alexander had foreshadowed was ever made, is doubtful. It may be that circumstances proved too strong for him, and that the arrangement revealed by the partitions of Babylon and Triparadisus represents what he had perforce to assent to. In any case the dual system of control, which he had set up as a temporary make-shift, bore within it from the outset the seeds of intrigue and ultimate rupture. Eudamus, it will be observed, is not mentioned in connexion with either of the partitions. Yet he appears to have retained some sort of position as leader of the Hellenic ' outlanders ' in the valleys of the Indus and Hydaspes. Ere long he drifted into conflict with the native Indian element. Before 317 b.c. he had Porus treacherously slain, seized his war-elephants, and marched, with all the forces he could muster, to join the coalition of Eastern satraps who had drawn together to oppose the arrogant pretensions of their colleague of Media (Diod. xix, 14, 8). The thunder of the captains and the shouting had also reached the ears of Pithon, son of Agenor, and he too had abandoned his province to fling himself into the fray. Neither ever returned. Eudamus met his doom at the hands of Antigonus (Diod. xix, 44, 1). Pithon fell fighting by the side of Demetrius at the battle of Gaza (Diod. xix, 85, 2). Nor had either any successor in his Indian command, a fact that is surely full of significance. May not their withdrawal from India be most simply accounted for on the supposition that each had become alive to the hopelessness of his situation?
Such an hypothesis would be entirely consistent with the scene that confronts us when next the curtain rises on the drama of Graeco-Indian relations. Taxiles, like Porus, has disappeared from the stage. But his place is filled by a figure of much more heroic proportions. By the time that Seleucus Nicator, founder of the dynasty that bears his name, had made his position in Babylon so secure as to be able to turn his attention to the extreme east of the dominions he had won, a new ruler had arisen in India. Chandragupta or, as the Greeks called him, Sandrocottus, the first of the Maurya emperors, had made himself master of the whole of the north. In his youth he had seen Alexander the Great, and when he gi'ew to manhood he put into practice some of the
43 o Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
lessons which Alexander's success was calculated to teach. It has been conjectured that he employed Greek mercenaries in his struggle with Nanda or Nandrus, the king of Magadha (S. Bihar) on the ruins of whose power he rose to greatness ; he certainly seems to have adopted western methods in the training and discipline of his local levies. Under his leadership India threw off the last remnants of the Macedonian yoke. And, if we can rely on Justin, the revolution was not a bloodless one : he indicates (xv, 4) that such of the Macedonian prefects as still held their posts were ruthlessly put to the sword.
The date of the Indian expedition of Seleucus I is doubtful. Von Gutschmid placed it c. 302 b.c. ; and, although his calculation rests on what is probably an erroneous view as to the period when the coins of Sophytes (cf. supra, p. 388) were issued, it is quite possible that he has come within two or three years of the truth. It was not till 311 that the Satrap of Babylon — he had not yet assumed the title of king — was free to quit his capital with an easy mind, and devote his energies to consolidating his authority in the more distant provinces. The task must have required time, for some hard fighting had to be done, notably in Bactria. But, beyond the bare statement of Justin (xv, 4) to that effect, we have no details. We may suppose that about 305 or 304, at the latest, he deemed himself ready to demand a reckoning with Chandragupta. Advancing (we may be certain) by the route along the Kabul river, he crossed the Indus (Appian, Syr, 55). The minute topographical knowledge which Strabo (xv, 689) and Pliny {N.H. vi, 63) display, and more particularly the vague assertion of the latter that * all the remaining distances were searched out for Seleucus Nicator ' have led Droysen and others to conclude that he not merely entered the territory he had come to regain, but actually penetrated as far as Palibothra (Pataliputra) on the Ganges, the chief seat of his enemy's power, whence he made his way along the banks of the river to the sea. The premises, however, are scarcely substantial enough to bear so far-reaching a conclusion. Pliny may quite well have had in his mind, not reconnaissances made during a campaign, but information gathered subsequently by the Greek envoys who, as we shall see presently, resided at the court of the Indian king.
Chandragupta could put into the field more than half a million of men, with 9000 war-elephants and numerous chariots to boot. If Seleucus had really forced his way to the shores of the Bay of Bengal in the teeth of an opposition so formidable, his astonishing feat was hardly likely to have been left to a Roman geographer to
XVI i] Invasion of India by Seleucus 431
chronicle. Besides, in that event the upshot of the campaign would surely have been a more decided triumph. As it is, the terms of peace point to a frank recognition by Seleucus that his own arm was neither long enough nor strong enough to govern India from Babylon. Invader and invaded, we are told, concluded an alliance and sealed it by a further compact, which Appian {Syr. 55) calls a KijSo'i, Strabo (xv, 724) an iTnyafiia. According to ordinary Greek usage these two terms are scarcely consistent one with another. The former would naturally signify an actual marriage between individuals, and hence it is frequently argued that Seleucus must have become either the father-in-law or the son-in-law of Chandragupta. There seems, however, to be no room in his family circle, as we otherwise know it, for any relationship of the kind. Probably, therefore, it is safer to fall back on the technical meaning of Strabo's word, and to suppose that what is implied is a convention establishing a jus connuhii between the two royal families. In that land of caste a jus connuhii between the two peoples is unthinkable.
As regards territory, the arrangement appears, upon the face of it, to have been entirely favourable to Chandragupta. Not only did Seleucus acquiesce in his sovereignty over all the country beyond the Indus. He also transferred to him the satrapies of Arachosia (Kandahar) and the Paropanisadae (Kabul), with at least some portion of Gedrosia (Baluchistan) and of Aria (Herat)* In other words, the frontiers of the Maurya empire were extended so as to embrace the southern half of Afghanistan and perhaps the whole of British Baluchistan. The expression ' presented ' (eBco/ce), which is used by Strabo (loc. cit.) to describe the transaction, does not preclude the possibility of the transfer having been made upon conditions. A return gift of 500 war-elephants is, in fact, mentioned. But under no circumstances could that have been looked on as an equivalent. We may take it that there were further stipulations as to freedom of trade and the like, such as would naturally accom- pany an iTTtyafita. There may even have been a nominal and unmeaning acknowledgment of suzerainty. It must be borne in mind that the written record contains nothing to show that Seleucus suffered defeat, nothing even to suggest that the rival armies ever came to blows at all. The probability is that, while he was still endeavouring to gauge the magnitude of the task that confronted him, an urgent call for help reached him from the confederate kings across the 2500 miles that separated him from Asia Minor. The instinct of self-preservation required that he
43 2 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
should assist them. If he allowed Antigonus to crush Cassander, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy, his own turn would not be long in coming. It was only politic, therefore, to make the best terms he could with Chandragupta, whose 500 elephants reached the theatre of war in time to play a conspicuous part in the final overthrow of Antigonus at Ipsus in the year 301.
For more than a generation after that battle there is an almost complete blank in our knowledge of the history of Central Asia. Seleucus himself took up his residence at Antioch on the Orontes. But he soon realised that the new city lay too far west to be a convenient administrative centre for the eastern portion of his empire. Accordingly he entrusted the government of all the provinces beyond the Euphrates to his son Antiochus, on whom after the lapse of a few years he conferred the title of king. We are without definite information as to the exact date of this devolution of authority. It is generally assigned to 293 B.C., and cuneiform documents undoubtedly bear the names of 'Siluku' and 'Antiuksu' as joint-kings from 289 onwards \ In 281 Seleucus was assassinated. According to Memnon {F.H.G. iii, 533, 12, 1) and Pausanias (i, 16, 2), Antiochus had already had his powers as co-regent greatly amplified, the whole of Asia having been com- mitted to his care. In any case his father's death would render his immediate presence in the west imperative, if his heritage was to be maintained unimpaired. To the west he accordingly went. But it seems highly probable that the plan of stationing a viceroy of the east at Seleucia on the Tigris was still continued. Though no inkling of this has survived in any historian, cuneiform inscrip- tions record * Antiuksu ' and ' Siluku ' as joint-kings from 275 (or possibly 280) to 269, and a similar cooperation between 'Antiuksu' and 'Antiuksu' from 266 to 263. 'Siluku' here is clearly Seleucus, the elder son of Antiochus by Stratonice ; we gather from a chance fragment of John of Antioch {F.H.G. iv, 558, 55) that he was put to death on suspicion of conspiring against his father. The ' Antiuksu ' who takes his place, is no less clearly his younger brother, destined to become sole ruler in 261 as Antiochus II (Theos).
Under all of these kings, including Antiochus II, the friendly relations originally established with the Maurya empire remained unbroken. The indications of this, if few, are sufficient. Athenaeus (i, 32, 18 d) has preserved a story of certain strange drugs sent as a present by Chandragupta to Seleucus 1. And it is to the same writer (xiv, 67, 652 F and 653 a) that we owe an anecdote
1 Zdt. fUr Agsyriologie, vn, 234, 226 ; vra, 108 ; Keilintchrift. Bibl. m, 2, 136 f .
XVI i] Relations of Syria with India 433
of how Chandragupta's son, Bindusara — or Amitrochates, to give him his Greek name\ — wrote to Antiochus I, asking him to buy and have conveyed to him some sweet wine, some figs, and a sophist to teach him to argue. Antiochus replied, forwarding the figs and the wine, but explaining that sophists were not a marketable commodity among the Greeks. Nor was the intercourse between the courts confined to such occasional civilities. We know from Strabo and others that Megasthenes repeatedly — 7roX,Xa/ct? is Arrian's word (v, 6, 2) — visited Chandragupta's capital as an envoy of Seleucus, thereby acquiring a mass of information which made his writings on India an invaluable storehouse for later geographers, and that Daimachus of Plataea also went on a mission or missions from Antiochus I to Bindusara, likewise embodying his experiences in a book. Other Hellenic states must have been drawn into the circle of amity, for Pliny {N.H. vi, 58) speaks in the same breath of Megasthenes and of a certain Dionysius who (he explains) was despatched as an ambassador to India by Ptolemy Philadelphus. As Philadelphus reigned from 285 to 246, the Maurya emperor to whom Dionysius was accredited may have been either Bindusara or his more famous son A9oka, whose attempt to convert the Hellenistic kings to Buddhism (see p. 502) is justly regarded as one of the most curious episodes in early Indian history.
It is natural to suppose that such intimate diplomatic relations would rest on a solid foundation of mutual commercial interest. And corroborative testimony is not altogether wanting. Strabo, speaking of the Oxus (Amu Daria), states (xi, 509) that it formed a link in an important chain along which Indian goods were carried to Europe by way of the Caspian and the Black Sea. He cites as one of his authorities Patrocles, who was an admiral in the service of Antiochus I, and thus makes it clear that the route was a popular one early in the third century B.C. Evidence of the prosperity of Central Asia at this period is also furnished by the coins. There need be no hesitation about associating with that region a well-known series of silver pieces, of Attic weight, having on the obverse a laureate head of Zeus, and on the reverse Athena fighting in a quadriga drawn by elephants. The inscription BAIIAEQZ ZEAEYKOY shows that they must be later than 306, when the royal title was first assumed. The denomination of most common occurrence is the tetradrachm ; but drachms, hemidrachms, and obols are not infrequent. We are safe in assuming with Imhoof-Blumer that the majority of them were minted at Babylon
^ For the name, or rather title, see Chapter xx, p. 493. CH.l. I. 28
434 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
or at Seleucia on the Tigris. A minority, which are of a quite distinctive and somewhat coarser fabric, appear to hail fi'om even farther east ; the specimens in the British Museum have nearly all been purchased at Rawalpindi, or obtained from collections formed in India. Generally, though not invariably, these latter have been struck from regularly adjusted dies ( t ♦ )> while a few have mono- grams on the obverse (PL I, 15), features that at once recall certain of the Athenian imitations spoken of in an earlier chapter as coming from the same district {supra, p. 388). One small group of tetradrachms and drachms, from regularly adjusted dies, bears the inscription BAIIAEQZ lEAEYKOY ANTIOXOY (PI. II, 2), in- dicating probably, as Six and Imhoof have suggested ^ that the coins were minted during the viceroyalty of Seleucus, son of Antiochus I. The omission of the father's kingly title has thus a sinister significance. Unlike the rest, they are not of Attic weight, but follow the lighter standard already met with above in another connexion {supra, p. 387) ; the average weight of five tetra- drachms is only 21 2*3 grains (13'82 grammes). The monogram @ is placed on the reverse. Very rare drachms, reading BAZIAEQN lEAEYKOY KAI ANTIOXOY, which are also struck on the lighter standard and show the same monogram (PI. II, 1), are plainly of kindred origin. At the same time their superior style, coupled with the fact that they are struck from unadjusted dies, proves them to be somewhat earlier. In all likelihood they date from the period when Antiochus I himself was acting as his father's viceroy.
If the witness of the coins is an inarticulate one, its cumulative efiect is nevertheless impressive. It proves that there was a busy life throbbing on both sides of the Indian frontier during the forty or fifty years about which history is silent, that merchants were constantly coming and going, buying and selling. When the silence is at length broken, it is by the confused echo of an occur- rence that was fraught with momentous consequences to India's immediate future. The birth of the new kingdom of Bactria was an event of first-rate political importance. Bactria was the rich country between the Hindu Kush and the Oxus, corresponding in large measure to Northern Afghanistan. Beyond it, between the Oxus and the Jaxartes (Syr Daria), lay Sogdiana (Bukhara). The two provinces had cost Alexander no small effort to subdue. Partly on this account, and partly because of their natural wealth, he
1 J. p. Six, Num. Chron., 1898, p. 226; F. Imhoof-Blumer, Num. Zeit., 1913, p. 183, and Rev. Suisse de Num., 1917, pp. 48 ff.
XVI i] Revolts of Bactria and Par thia 435
had planted them thickly with Greek colonies. Probably Seleucus, who experienced at least equal difl&culty in getting his sovereignty acknowledged, had to encounter the determined resistance of colon- ists as well as of natives. In the end, as we know, he triumphed. During the rest of his reign, as well as throughout that of his successor, Bactria and Sogdiana remained quiescent ; the policy of stationing a viceroy at Seleucia was evidently justified by success. Under Antiochus II they shook themselves entirely free. Our chief authority for what happened is Justin. After speaking of the revolt of Parthia, he proceeds (XLI, 4) : * At the same time Diodotus, governor of the thousand cities of Bactria, rebelled and had himself proclaimed king.' In most texts the name of the leader of the movement is wrongly given as 'Theodotus.' The mistake, which goes back to the manuscripts, can be readily accounted for. The chronology is much more troublesome, since the several events by which Justin seeks to date the Parthian outbreak are spread over a period of not less than ten years. In the face of so much inconsistency we may be content with the broad conclusion that the formal accession of Diodotus took place about 250 B.C., at a time when Antiochus was not in a position to put an effective veto on the proceeding. An examination of the numismatic material may enable us to go a little further.
Among the coins bearing the name of Seleucus are very rare gold staters and silver tetradrachms, having on the obverse a portrait of the king with bull's horns, and on the reverse the head of a homed horse (PL II, 3). The same types, with the legend BAZIAEQZ ANTIOXOY, are found on two unique silver pieces-—- a drachm and a tetradrachm (PI. II, 4) — which may belong to the joint reign. All of these are struck from unadjusted dies, and all of them have on the reverse two monograms which, to judge from their complexity and from the manner in which they vary, must conceal the names of individual magistrates. Apparently in direct line of succession to the preceding comes a gold and silver series, beginning under Antiochus I and continued under Antiochus II, which contains staters (PI. II, 5 and 6), tetradrachms (PI. II, 7 and 8), and smaller denominations. The reverse type is the same, but the coins are now struck from carefully adjusted dies, usually \ \ but in one case h f . The magistrate's names show little variation. As a rule, there is only one, that being 0, A I, or @\ The device
^ One tetradrachm (Babelon, B.oi» de Syrie, PI. Ill, 16), which bears the head of Antiochus I and which must, therefore, come early in the series, appears to have (@ and is thus connected with the small group mentioned above (p. 434).
28—2
43 6 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
of a horse's head would be peculiarly appropriate to Bactria, with its famous cavalry, or to Sogdiana ; and it is undoubtedly from Afghanistan and Bukhara that the coins in question usually come. As they cover at least part of the two reigns, they must be to some extent contemporary with certain gold staters and silver drachms which have a head of Antiochus I or of Antiochus II on the obverse, and on the reverse the ordinary Seleucid type of the seated Apollo (PL II, 9 and 10). Here again the dies have been carefully adjusted ( t O- The magistrate's name, too, is obviously the same, being invariably A, ^, or 0. It has sometimes been suggested that the monogram represents the name of a mint rather than of a magis- trate. As against that view it must be remembered that the two parallel series differ not only in type but also in style, the treatment of the ends of the king's diadem being specially characteristic.
There can be no dispute as to the proper local attribution of the second of these two series. In style they have the closest possible affinity to a fairly numerous set of gold staters and silver tetradrachms and drachms, which also read BAZIAEfiZ ANTIOXOY, but which present types that we have not encoun- tered hitherto. On the obverse is a youthful head, markedly unlike either Antiochus I or Antiochus II, and on the reverse is a full length figure of Zeus, thundering, with an eagle at his feet (PL II, 11 and 12); the dies are carefully adjusted {\ \\ but although letters and monograms occur freely, nothing to suggest 0 is ever found. Next in order comes a gi'oup of gold and silver coins, exactly resembling those just described excepting only in the legend, which is now BAIIAEQZ AIOAOTOY (PL II, 13 and 14). We are thus brought into the presence of what is undoubtedly the money of the fully developed kingdom of Bactria, and at the same time we are put in possession of a clue which may guide us to a clearer understanding of some of the ground we have traversed. Gardner long ago pointed out that the head on the BAZIAEQZ ANTIOXOY pieces was identical with that on the similar pieces with BAZIAEQI AIOAOTOY, and a glance at Plate II will demonstrate the soundness of his view. He proposed to recognise it as the portrait of Diodotus, and to regard its appearance on money bearing the name of the suzerain as a stage in the vassal's progress towards complete independence. Von Sallet, while refusing to accept Gardner's theory as to the portrait, agreed with him in assigning the whole of the coins to Diodotus, whose * canting badge ' he discerned in the figure of Zeus. Both scholars seem to be right in their positive contentions : the portrait is that of
XVI i] Diodotus 437
Diodotus, and the figure of Zeus is the king's 'canting badge.' And it may be that there is further help to be got from the coins with the head of the horned horse and from those with the seated Apollo. We found that these two sets were to some extent parallel, and that the latter led naturally up to the Bactrian series proper. The monogram which was so prominent on both can be resolved most readily into AIO[SoToy]. The definite acceptance of that interpretation would enable us to reconstruct the story of the rise of Bactria somewhat on the following lines.
Early in the reign of Antiochus I a certain Diodotus was appointed satrap of Bactria and of some neighbouring province, not improbably Sogdiana. The coins with the horse's head were already being struck in the second province in the name of the suzerain. Diodotus continued the issue and also opened, this tim# in Bactria, a new mint from which he issued, likewise in the name of Antiochus, the coins with the seated Apollo. The country plainly prospered under his rule, for the money \Nith his monogram is far from uncommon, in spite of the remoteness of the region in which it is habitually discovered. His own position, too, must have grown stronger steadily, although for many years he made no attempt to break the slender tie that bound him to the Seleucid empire ; he may have been the satrap of Bactria who, according to Chaldaean documents, sent twenty elephants to assist Antiochus I in his struggle with Ptolemy Philadelphus about 274-273 B.C. Ultimately, however, the centrifugal tendency prevailed and Bactria declared itself an independent state, Margiana (Merv) and Sogdiana being included within its frontiers. The change did not take place all at once. There was a period of transition, and this period had not quite come to an end when Diodotus died, leaving a son of the same name to carry his policy to its logical conclusion ; the Diodotus whose portrait appears on the coins is a young man, much too young to have been a satrap in the days of Antiochus I. The father may or may not have assumed the title of king. The son was certainly the first to exercise the royal prerogative of issuing money in his own name, and even he contented himself at the outset with altering the types, while leaving the inscription untouched^ With the introduction of his 'canting badge,' he abandoned the use of the monogram. Simultaneously he closed
^ A unique gold stater, acquired by the Kev. E. Rogers while these sheets were passing through the press, shows that to begin with he retained the portrait, as well as the name, of his suzerain. The thundering Zeus appears on the reverse, but the obverse bears an unmistakable head of Antiochus 11, closely resembling J.H.S., 1903, PI. I, 3.
43 8 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
the older mint, where the coins with the horse's head had been struck, a step which points to a concentration of his administrative forces. Such a reconstruction is not merely consistent with the evidence of the coins. It also tallies, in a simple and satisfactory fashion, with what Justin (XLI, 4) says as to the original leader of the Bactrian revolt having been succeeded by a son of the same name as himself — * et ipso Diodoto.' Some value attaches to this confirmation of the main literary source whence our knowledge of the episode is derived, for the truth of the statement has occasion- ally been doubted, despite its explicit nature and despite the implicit corroboration which, as we shall see presently (p. 440), it receives from Polybius (xi, 34).
Regarding the detailed history of the reigns of the two monarchs the records leave us almost entirely in the dark. The little we do learn is from Justin {loc. cit), and it has reference to the struggles that attended the rise of the Parthian kingdom. The nucleus of what was in the fullness of time to become one of the most formidable powers that Asia has ever seen, was among the districts that had been included in the sixteenth satrapy of Darius, a land of moun- tain and forest, comparing ill in point of fertility with Bactria. Historians are not agreed as to the race to which its population belonged, although their habits and customs would lead one to suspect a strong infusion of an element closely akin to the wild nomads of the steppes. Nor are the current traditions as to the beginnings of the royal house sufficiently consistent to be worthy of much, if any, credence. According to these the first Arsaces, the founder of the dynasty, is sometimes a Parthian, sometimes a Bactrian, sometimes even a descendant of the Achaemenids. One point in which all accounts agree, is that he made his way to the throne by violence. The name of the Seleucid satrap murdered by him and his brother Tiridates, afterwards Arsaces II, is variously given. Arrian (F.H.G. iii, 587) calls him Pherecles, and Syncellus (ibid.) speaks of him as Agathocles, while Justin — who, by the way, knows nothing of the cooperation of Tiridates — refers to him (xli, 4) as Andragoras. In favour of Justin may perhaps be cited certain gold and silver coins (PI. II, 15 and 16)\ whose style is not unsuited to the middle of the third century B.C., and which bear the legend ANAPAfOPOY. They are very rare, almost all of the known specimens being apparently from the Oxus find (see supra, p. 390). Their genuineness has sometimes been questioned, but on grounds
^ They may, however, have been struck by an earlier Andragoras (c. 331 b.c.) ; see Rapson, N.C., 1893, p. 204, and Hill, Atti e Mem. delV Istit. Ital. di Nvm., in, 2, p. 31.
XVI i] Arsaces 439
that seem hardly sufficient ; the circumstance that they are struck from dies that have been adjusted with great precision ( H ), a peculiarity that is characteristic of the region and the period to which they are attributed, is a strong incidental argument in favour of their authenticity.
Another point about which there is practical unanimity is that the^ revolt _Qf_Parthia took place almost simultaneously with the revolt of Bactria, although probably a year or two later. The explanation lies on the surface : Antiochus II (261-246) like his two immediate successors, Seleucus II (246-226) and Seleucus III (226-223), was too much preoccupied with wars and rumours of wars in the west to maintain a proper hold over his eastern dominions. Probably, too, there were other causes at work. The spectacle of the greatness of the Maurya empire would not be lost upon a satrap of such force of character as the elder Diodotus. And in his case to the promptings of ambition there may have been added a spur of a different kind. It is not unlikely that Bactria was already beginning to be conscious, on her northern border, of the first onset of the pressure before which she was in the end to succumb ; Eastern Asia was just entering upon one of those mysterious convulsions of tribal unrest, which produced the great migrations, and of which the Parthian revolt itself was not impos- sibly a manifestation. If this were so, Diodotus may well have felt that an independent kingdom, strong in its new-born sense of national unity, was likely to be a more permanent bulwark against barbarian aggression than the loosely attached extremity of an empire whose head was in no position to afford efficient protection to his nominal subjects. Besides the native Iranian basis on which he would have to build, the descendants of Alexander's colonists would provide him with a substantial Hellenic framework ready to hand ; and, as a matter of fact, Bactria was, throughout the whole of its brief career, essentially an Hellenic state. In this connexion it is significant to note that, under the earlier Diodotus, Parthia was a potential, if not an actual, enemy. Justin tells us, in the chapter that has been so often quoted, tliat 'fear of Diodotus' was one of the chief motives that led Arsaces, after his seizure of Hyrcania, to keep a great army on a war-footing. He goes on to say that, when the old satrap died, his son reversed his Parthian policy, and concluded an alliance which set Arsaces free to concen- trate his whole forces against Seleucus II, then advancing eastwards on a futile campaign of reconquest. The threat of a renewal of the Macedonian supremacy was enough to bring Greek and
440 Syria^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
barbarian together. The eastern expedition of Seleucus II was subsequent to the battle of Ancyra, in which he was heavily defeated by the Gauls (240 B.C.). It cannot, therefore, have taken place earlier than 238, and it can hardly be put later than 235. This gives us something approaching a definite date at which Diodotus II was on the throne of Bactria.
Beyond the bare facts already chronicled, we have no informa- tion as to the doings either of the son or of the father. It is, indeed, usually stated that the latter assumed the title of ' Soter,' perhaps because of his success in keeping the Turanian hordes at bay. But the only evidence to that efiect is a coin purporting to be struck in the name of AIOAOTOY ZQTHPOI (PI. Ill, 9) ; and we shall find presently that this was not minted in the lifetime of himself or his son. It is probable, therefore, that the title was conferred by a later generation. In any case his own dynasty was destined to speedy extinction. We do not know how long Diodotus II reigned. But, as the portraits on his coins are all fairly youthful, it is scarcely possible to allow him more than ten or twelve years after the peace with Parthia. And it is certain from Polybius (xi, 34) that when Antiochus III appeared in the east at the head of an army, about 212 B.C., determined to reassert the Seleucid supremacy over the revolted kingdoms, the Bactrian throne had for some time been occupied by Euthydemus, a Greek from one or other of the cities called Magnesia, who, in reply to the challenge of Antiochus, explained that he did not think it fair that he should be interfered with : ' He was not a rebel. Others, no doubt, had rebelled. He had put the children of the rebels to death, and that was how he happened to be king.' We may draw from this, not only a confirmation of Justin's statement as to Diodotus I having been succeeded by a son, but also the further inference that Diodotus II came to a violent end.
Our authorities give us no hint as to who Euthydemus was, or as to how he reached a position of such influence as to be able to make a successful bid for the crown. The claim of the Lydian city to be the Magnesia of his birth is perhaps slightly stronger than that of the Ionian one ; for, when he came to strike money, he chose a remarkable type whose selection can be most simply explained by supposing that it had been familiar to him in his youth, as it would be if he were brought up in the Hermus valley. The first real glimpse we get of him is when he comes into conflict with Antiochus the Great. The Parthian campaign of the latter had been arduous, to judge from the picture which Polybius
XVI i] Invasion of India by Antiochus III 441
(x, 28 ff.) has preserved of some of its incidents. But Arsaces III seems at length to have been driven to yield upon terms, and by the year 208 Antiochus was at liberty to turn his arms against Bactria. To enter it, he had to ford the river Arius (Hari Rud), the passage of which Euthydemus was prepared to dispute. When the critical moment came, the Bactrians allowed themselves to be outmanoeuvred. Antiochus made a night-march with a picked body of cavalry, the majority of whom he succeeded in getting over the stream before the dawn was bright enough for the enemy's vedettes to discover them. The footing thus gained was stubbornly held, in the teeth of a singularly fierce attack. From the narrative of Polybius (x, 49) we learn that Antiochus displayed great personal courage, and that Euthydemus was so perturbed by the lesson his troops had received that he retreated at once to his capital of Zariaspa or Bactra, the modern Balkh. A siege presumably followed, and it is generally taken for granted that this was the famous siege of Bactra, casually mentioned by Polybius in quite another context (xxix, 6 a). However that may be, the struggle was a prolonged one. By 206 two years had elapsed without either side having gained a decisive advantage. Meanwhile barbarian swarms were hovering ominously along the northern frontier of the kingdom. If the internecine strife continued, they might at any moment descend upon the country and ruthlessly destroy every vestige of Hellenic civilisation.
The reality of this peril was pressed home upon Antiochus by Teleas, a fellow-countryman of Euthydemus, whom the latter had empowered to use his good offices in working for a settlement. Antiochus, upon his part, was only too glad to welcome the prospect of an honourable escape from a situation that threatened to grow more and more embarrassing. Informal negotiations, conducted through Teleas, ultimately resulted in the despatch of Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus, as a fully accredited envoy to the camp of Antiochus. Polybius is still our authority for details. He speaks (xi, 34) in glowing terms of the favourable impression which the handsome youth produced upon the Seleucid king, who offered him one of his own daughters in marriage and indicated his willingness to waive all objection to the use of the royal title by Euthydemus. A written agreement covering the disputed points was drawn up and signed, and a formal alliance concluded. Euthydemus had been the first to move towards peace, and there- fore it may be regarded as certain that he too made concessions. Unfortunately we have to guess what they were. Not improbably
442 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
they extended to an acknowledgment of the suzerainty of Antiochus, although all we are told is that the expeditionary army, which was now about to direct its march towards India, had its commissariat richly replenished by the Bactrians, receiving at the same time an important reinforcement in the shape of the whole of the war- elephants that had been at the command of Euthydemus.
The second Greek invasion of India amounted to little more than a reconnaissance in force. A9oka, the grandson of Chand- ragupta, had died about 236 B.C., and after his death the power of the Maurya dynasty speedily declined. When Antiophus crossed the Hindu Kush and marched down the Kabul valley, he found himself in the territory of a prince whom Poly bins (xi, 34) calls * Sophagasenos, King of the Indians.' Indian history knows no ruler of corresponding name, and it has therefore been conjectured that Sophagasenus was some local raja who had taken advantage of the decay of the Maurya empire to establish a kingdom of his own in the country west of the Indus \ Whoever he was, he plainly realised that he was quite unfit to offer an effective resistance to the seasoned troops of his adversary. At the same time Antiochus was in no mood to emulate the Indian adventure of his invincible forerunner. He had already been three years in the east. The West was calling loudly, and he had enhanced his reputation so substantially by his prowess that he could afford to be satisfied with a bloodless victory. Accordingly he accepted the submission of Sophagasenus who, like Euthydemus, revictualled his array for him and handed over a number of war-elephants. A heavy indemnity was also imposed. This last, however, Antiochus did not wait to receive. He left Androsthenes of Cyzicus behind to take delivery of the promised treasure, and himself hurried back with all speed towards Mesopotamia, choosing the route that ran through Arachosia and Drangiana (Seistan) to Carmania. Who was the lord of Arachosia when it was traversed by the Seleucid troops, it is impossible to say. It had once been A9oka. Now it may have been Sophagasenus. The numismatic evidence suggests that ere long it was Euthydemus. General Cunningham ^ remarks that the silver of the last-named king * is very common in Balkh and Bokhara, to the north of the Caucasus, and less common in Kabul, Kandahar and Sistan,' while his bronze coins, 'which are perhaps less numerous than the silver, are found in about equal numbers in Sistan and Kandahar, and throughout the Kabul valley.' Other observers describe his bronze as * very common in
»','* For Sophagasenus see Chapter xx, p. 512. ' 2Vmto. Chron., 1869, p. 138.
XVI i] Euthydemus 443
Sistan and Kandahar.' As bronze Avas much less likely to travel outside the area of its actual currency than gold or silver, the significance of these facts is unmistakable. Where the number of specimens is so large, the possible effect of confusion with the rare coinage of Euthydemus II may safely be disregarded.
In addition to what the ' find-spots ' teach, there is something to be learned from a review of the coins themselves, or at all events of the gold and silver. It has already been indicated that Euthydemus on his accession discarded the characteristic type of Diodotus, and substituted for it one which may have been familiar to him in the city where he was born and bred. Zeus the thunderer was replaced by Heracles seated to left on a rock, leaning with his right hand on his club. The device was apparently borrowed from a set of silver tetradrachms struck at the cities of Cyme, Myrina, and Phocaea, in Western Asia Minor, during the reigns of Antiochus I and II (J.H.S., 1907, pp. 145 ff.). It is universal on the gold and silver of Euthydemus, but two varieties of it are readily distinguishable. On the gold and on much of the silver the rock upon which Heracles sits is bare, while the lower end of his club is supported by a short and somewhat unnatural-looking column of stone (PI. Ill, 1). On the remainder of the silver the rock is covered with a lion-skin, and the lower end of the club is apparently resting on the god's thigh (PL III, 2). The whole of the coins belonging to the second class bear the monogi-am g, and have their dies adjusted f f . The first class, on the other hand, comprises three or four different groups, each having a characteristic letter or monogram other than ^. The rule here is for the dies to be adjusted I ^ , but there are a considerable number of exceptions ( M ) which may fairly be presumed to be later, seeing that f fis invariable in subsequent reigns. The appearance of these particular monograms is a new phenomenon on the Bactrian coinage. As they usually persist through a long series of years, they cannot be interpreted as magistrates' names. They should rather be regarded as the names of mints, a view which is confirmed by occasional minor variations of type and by certain subtle peculiarities of style, such as the thin * spread ' fabric which is characteristic of many of the ^ coins of the earlier kings.
The mere increase in the number of royal mints may not unreasonably be held to prove that the dominions of Euthydemus were more extensive than those of his predecessor. It would seem that, soon after the Maurya empire began to crumble away, he possessed himself — it may be at the expense of Sophagasenus — of
444 Syria^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
the Paropanisadae and Arachosia, possibly also — although as to this the coins are less definite — of some of the other districts which Seleucus I had ceded to Chandragupta, His silver tetradrachms are very common, and so too are more or less clumsy barbarous imitations, many of which appear to date from a relatively late period. Without doubt his money must have circulated widely, and must have enjoyed a high reputation for quality. Bactria under his sway clearly reached a pitch of prosperity such as she had never before attained. And his reign must have been a long one. The abundance of his coinage suggests this. The great variety of the portraits proves it. Even after every allowance has been made for the mannerisms of different artists and of different mints, a comparison of the head on PL III, 1, with the head on PI. Ill, 2, will be felt to be conclusive. The latter, which is an admirably realistic piece of work, is obviously intended to represent a very much older person than the former. It is on the strength of this evidence that the death of Euthydemus is genei*ally supposed to have taken place about 190 B.C.
We have seen that under Euthydemus the frontiers of the Bactrian kingdom were pushed southwards until they included at least the whole of the lower portion of Afghanistan. But this was not the only direction in which expansion had become possible. The Indian expedition of Antiochus the Great, if it had had no other result of importance, had revealed the feebleness of the resistance that a properly equipped army was now likely to encounter in an invasion of the Punjab. We may be sure that, after the Seleucid forces had withdrawn, the eyes of Euthydemus were turned longingly towards the Land of the Five Rivers. He may actually have annexed it. If he did, it was probably only towards the close of his reign, for he would hardly have ventured to put so ambitious a design into execution until he felt secure from interference at the hands of Antiochus III, and that he can scarcely have done before about 197, when the latter became hope- lessly involved in the meshes of the anti-Roman policy which was to prove his ruin. In any event the real instrument of conquest was his son and successor, Demetrius, of whose romantic career one would like to believe, with Cunningham, that a far-off echo has survived in Chaucer's picturesque description of 'the grete Emetreus, the king of Inde.' Demetrius had been a youth of perhaps seventeen or eighteen, when he acted as intermediary between his father and Antiochus. He would thus be between thirty and thirty- five when his reign as king began, an age that agrees well with the
XVI i] Demetrius 44.5
most characteristic portrait on his coins (PL III, 3). Years before, he had probably been married to a Seleucid princess, in accordance with the promise made during the peace negotiations. If so, nothing whatever is known about her ; the view that she was called Laodice is based upon evidence that admits of an altogether different interpretation. It should be noted that in the coin- portrait he is represented as wearing a head-dress made of the skin of an elephant, an animal closely associated in those days with India. It is not impossible, therefore, that some of his Indian laurels may have been won, while he was still merely crown-prince. The reverse type which he chose for his silver might easily be interpreted as pointing in the same direction. Heracles remains the patron-divinity, but he is no longer taking his ease on a rock ; he is standing upright, placing a wreath upon his head (PI. Ill, 3). The inference here suggested is identical with that drawn from somewhat different premises by Cunningham, who argued that the subjugation of part of India by Demetrius during his father's life- time would account for certain facts regarding the provenance of the bronze money of Euthydemus. Single specimens of this are occasionally met with in the Western Punjab, and several were found in the bed of the Indus at Attock in 1840, while raising a sunken boat. It is, however, a serious flaw in Cunningham's reasoning that he did not distinguish between the coins of Euthydemus I and those of the grandson who bore the same name.
In whatever circumstances the Indian campaigns of Demetrius may have been inaugurated, there can be no question as to their brilliant outcome. Unfortunately the true extent of his territorial acquisitions can no longer be exactly determined. Strabo, in the passage (xi, 516) which is our chief authority on the point, is quoting from ApoUodorus of Artemita, and the original reference of ApoUodorus is merely a casual one. He is drawing attention in passing to the remarkable way in which the kingdom of Bactria expanded beyond its original limits, and he mentions incidentally that the kings chiefly responsible were Demetrius and Menander. The advance towards Chinese Tartary which he records may well have been the work of Demetrius or of his father Euthydemus. But, as Menander left a far deeper mark on the traditions of India than did Demetrius, it would be unreasonable to give the latter credit for subduing the whole of the Indian districts that ApoUodorus enumerates. Yet there is nothing to show where the line should be drawn. It is probably safe to say that Demetrius
44^ Syria^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
made himself master of the Indus valley. When we try to take him further, we enter a doubtful region. It is, indeed, sometimes stated that he fixed his capital at Sangala or Sagala, which he called Euthydemia in honour of his father. But, if the statement be probed, its value is considerably diminished. It is not certain, though it may be very likely, that the '^ar^^dXa of Arrian (v, 22) is the same as the ^arfoKa rj koX EvOvfiiSeia (cd. FivOvfjuriSia) of Ptolemy (vii, 1, 46). Granted, however, that the two may be identical and may both represent the Pali Sagala (Sialkot), it is necessary, in order to establish a connexion with Demetrius, to resort to conjecture and to substitute Ev6vht)iJiia for the Evdv/jbeBeia of the manuscripts, a proceeding which is plausible enough in itself but nevertheless open to challenge. More satisfactory, if much vaguer, evidence of the firmness of the footing that he gained to the south of the Hindu Kush is furnished by one or two very rare bronze pieces, which have the square shape characteristic of the early native coinage of India. That they were intended for circulation there, is clear from their bearing a bilingual inscription — Greek on the obverse, Kharoshthi on the reverse. It is significant that on these the king employs the title of dvU7}To<i or * the Invincible.' As usual, he is wearing a head-dress made of the skin of an elephant.
The very success of Demetrius appears to have proved his undoing. As a direct consequence of his victories, the centre of gravity of his dominions was shifted beyond the borders of Bactria proper. The home-land, however, was not content to degenerate into a mere dependency. A revolt ended in the establishment of a separate kingdom under Eucratides, a leader of great vigour and ability, about whose rise written history has little or nothing to say. Justin (XLI, 6) tells us that his recognition as king took place almost simultaneously with the accession of Mithradates I to the throne of Parthia. As Mithradates succeeded his brother Phraates I about 171 B.C., we may accept von Gutschmid's date of 175 as approximately correct for Eucratides. The beginning of his reign was stormy. He had to face attacks from several sides, and on at least one occasion he was hard put to it to escape with his life. Demetrius, who was now king of India — that is, of the country of the Indus, — not of Bactria, and who was naturally one of his most determined foes, had reduced him to such straits that he was driven to take refuge in a fort with only 300 followers. Here, if we may believe Justin (loc. cit), he was blockaded by a force of 60,000 men under the personal command of his rival. The odds were tremendous. But his resourcefulness carried him safely
XVI i] Eutkydemus II 447
through ; for more than four months he harassed the enemy by perpetual sallies, demoralising them so thoroughly in the end that the siege had to be raised. This is the last we hear of Demetrius. It is uncertain whether he died a natural death as king of India, or whether he fell defending his territory against Eucratides, into whose possession a considerable portion of it ultimately passed. The close of his reign is sometimes given as circa 160, but the date is a purely arbitrary one. As we shall see presently {infra, p. 457), there is good ground for believing that the conquest of the Punjab by Eucratides was earlier than 162.
At this point it becomes necessary to notice a group of four or five kings, whose existence is vouched for solely by the money which they struck, but who must have been to some extent contemporary with the two who have just been discussed. Appre- ciation of the evidence will be facilitated by a further glance at the silver coinage of Demetrius who, by the way, does not seem to have struck any gold. It will be observed (PI. Ill, 3) that he is the first of the Bactrian kings to be represented with his shoulders draped ; and from his time onwards that feature is virtually universal. But he is also the last to be shown with one end of the royal diadem flying out behind, and the other hanging straight down his back, a method of arrangement that had persisted steadily in Bactria since the reign of Antiochus I (see PI. II, 9-14, and PI. Ill, 1 and 2). Again, on the great majority of the surviving specimens of his coinage, his bust on the obverse is enclosed within the circle of plain dots which had hitherto been customary. On the other hand, in a few cases, the circle of plain dots is replaced by the so-called bead-and-reel border, which is familiar from its use on the issues of Antiochus the Great and later Seleucid kings, and which is invariably found on the tetradrachms of Eucratides and his son and successor Heliocles (PI. IV, 4-9). These differences, coupled with other and less obvious nvxinces of style, will supply valuable guidance in determining the period to which one ought to assign the pieces that have now to be described. It has already been mentioned {supra, p. 443) that after the reign of Euthydemus, the dies are always adjusted f k .
Of the four or five groups of coins to be discussed, we may take first the tetradrachms and smaller denominations of silver which have on the obverse a youthful bust with draped shoulders, and on the reverse a figure of Heracles standing to front, much as on the fcoins of Demetrius, except that, besides having one wreath on his head, he holds a second in his extended right hand (PI. Ill, 4). The
44 8 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
legend on these pieces is BAIIAEQZ EYOYAHMOY, and most of the older numismatists, including Cunningham, were disposed to attribute them, like those with the seated Heracles, to the father of Demetrius. Since von Sallet wrote, however, it has been generally agreed that this view is not tenable. Stylistic considera- tions compel the acceptance of an alternative theory, first advocated by Burgon, to the effect that they were struck by a second and later prince, in all probability the eldest son of Demetrius, on whom his gi-andfather's name would in ordinary course be bestowed. Attention may be called more especially to the draped shoulders and to the treatment of the diadem. Nor is it possible to account for the difierences on local rather than on chronological grounds, inasmuch as the mint-marks on the two sets of coins are often identical. Confirmation is furnished by a few nickel pieces, like- wise reading BAZIAEQ2 EYGYAHMOY, although showing no por- trait. Nickel was not used by Demetrius, and therefore it was presumably not used by his predecessor, Euthydemus I. On the other hand, we shall presently find it employed by two of the remaining kings of the group now under discussion. So peculiar an alloy — it does not appear again in any part of the world until quite recent times — is clearly characteristic of one particular epoch. The case for a second Euthydemus is thus irresistible. And that for a second Demetrius, whom we may suppose to have been a younger brother, is very nearly as strong. The coins of Demetrius II are very rare, but two or three tetradrachms and drachms are known. The obverse displays a youthful bust with draped shoulders and a novel arrangement of diadem ends, while the reverse has a figure of Athena, standing to front with spear and shield (PI. Ill, 5). The legend is BAIIAEQZ AHAMHTPIOY. Here again the appear- ance of a new type is significant, and the differences in the portrait cannot be set aside as due to local idiosyncracy, for the mint-mark which the coins with Athena bear occurs also on coins having the usual types of Demetrius the elder. Lastly, and this is highly important, of the two tetradrachms in the British Museum here attributed to Demetrius II, one has a bead-and-reel border, and cannot therefore be much, if any, earlier than the beginnings of the coinage of Eucratides, when a youthful portrait of Demetrius I would, of course, be highly inappropriate.
No argument is necessary to prove the existence of the other three kings belonging to the group. Their coins speak for them- selves. To judge by the memorials of this kind which he has left, Agathocles must have been the most prominent. On his silver he
xvii] Agathocles : Antimachus 449
appears with drapery round his shoulders and with both ends of his diadem hanging loosely down, the portrait being enclosed by a border of plain dots (PI. Ill, 6). Like all the Bactrian kings we have so far met with, he introduced a characteristic type of his own. On the reverse of his tetradrachms is Zeus, standing to front, holding a figure of Hecate on his extended right hand and leaning with his left on a spear. That there must have been a very intimate connexion — chronological, personal, and local — between him and a second king, Pantaleon, will be evident from PL III, 7, which shows a tetradrachm struck by the latter. In general style the busts are closely related, while the reverse types are also the same, except that, on the silver of Pantaleon, Zeus is seated on a throne. In the case of the inferior metals the correspondence is even more complete. Nickel coins with Dionysiac types were struck by both, and their bronze pieces, round and square alike, are generally distinguishable only by the difference in the proper name. Lastly, on their square bronze money, intended for circu- lation in India and therefore bilingual, both use the Brahmi script for the obverse legend, instead of the otherwise universal Kharoshthi. The portrait of the third king, Antimachus (Theos), is one of the most pronouncedly individual in the whole Bactrian series, largely because of the oddly modern-looking kavsia which he wears (PL III, 8). The standing figure on the reverse of his silver coins is Poseidon, wreathed, and carrying in his left hand a palm-branch with a fillet attached, while his very rare bronze pieces have a figure of Victory. The appearance of Poseidon is remarkable and has been interpreted as referring to a successful naval engagement \ It is difficult to account for it on any other hypothesis. But it is dangerous to fix on the Indus as the scene of the fighting, and to make this a ground for deductions as to the region in which Antimachus held sway. No square bilingual money with his name has come to light — unless, indeed, the coins usually attributed to Antimachus II are really the Indian coins of Antimachus Theos' — although it would be natural to expect an issue of the sort from a king who had ruled in the Indus valley. In this respect he contrasts markedly with Agathocles and Pantaleon, whose specifically Indian coins are very abundant. On the other hand he makes contact, so to say, with Agathocles through the medium of a highly interesting group of silver tetradrachms, which deserve somewhat careful notice.
The proper interpretation of these tetradrachms is due to von
1 Num. Chron., 1869, p. 39. « For this view see Chapter xxn, p. 547.
C.H.I. I. 29
45 o ^y^^^-i Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
Sallet. Since his time the group has received sundry additions, and even yet it may be far from complete. The existence of two parallel series is universally admitted, one struck by Agathocles, the other by Antimachus, and each apparently consisting of a set of pieces reproducing in medallic fashion the issues of the earlier kings of Bactria. The coins were doubtless meant to pass current as money, but it seems certain that they were also designed to serve as political manifestos. The set with the name of Agathocles contains four distinct varieties. The first of these has the types of the familiar silver tetradrachms of Alexander the Great, but the portrait on the obverse is accompanied by the descriptive legend AAEEANAPOY TOY <MAinnOY, 'Alexander, Philip's son,' while the inscription on the reverse reads BAIIAEYONTOI AfAQO- KAEOYI AIKAIOY. This latter formula, which can only signify ' struck in the reign of Agathocles the Just,' is used as the reverse inscription of all the remaining varieties, and thus supplies the common element that binds the whole together. The second variety has on the obverse a diademed head with the words ANTIOXOY NIKATOPOI, 'Antiochus the Conqueror,' and on the reverse Zeus, thundering, with an eagle at his feet (PI. IV, 1). The third shows the same reverse but has on the obverse, beside the head, AIOAOTOY IQTHPOI, 'Diodotus the Saviour.' The fourth has on the obverse a head which is described as EY0YAH- AAOY 0EOY, 'Euthydemus the Divine,' and on the reverse a figure of Heracles resting on a rock (PI. IV, 2). It will be observed that the term BAZIAEQZ never occurs, and that, on the other hand, each of the kings has a special title affixed to his name. It will be observed, too, that except in the case of Alexander, where the lion- skin could not be done without, there is no attempt at an exact reproduction of the royal portrait. In particular, though the shoulders are undraped, the diadem has both ends hanging down, after the manner that was customary on the coins of Agathocles himself, instead of having one end flying out behind, as had previously been usual. There has been some discussion as to who is intended by * Antiochus the Conqueror.' But the consideration on which von Sallet laid stress is surely decisive : in all the other cases the reverse type is characteristic of the individual whose head is represented on the obverse. Analogy thus puts it beyond question that the medals of ' Antiochus the Conqueror ' are copies of the tetradrachms of Antiochus II with the thundering Zeus.
Of the set of similar medals associated with the name of Antimachus, only two varieties have as yet come to light. They
XV 1 1] The Family of Demetrius 451
relate to Diodotus and to Euthydemus, and bear a strong general resemblance to the corresponding pieces issued by Agathocles. There are, indeed, only two points of difference : the mint-mark is new, and the reverse inscription reads BAIIAEYONTOZ ANTI- A^AXOY 0EOY, 'struck in the reign of Antimachus Theos.' Except for certain coins of Eucratides, to be discussed presently, these are usually regarded as completing the commemorative group, so far as surviving specimens go. There is, however, one well-known tetradrachm which has hitherto passed as an ordinary coin, but which ought probably to be reckoned as belonging to the same class. The obverse displays a rather conventional head, unaccom- panied by any legend, while the reverse has the type of Zeus, thundering, along with the inscription AIOAOTOY IQTHPOI (PL III, 9). This is the only evidence for the general belief that Diodotus received the title of * Saviour ' during his lifetime, and at the first glance it would appear to be sufficient. A closer scrutiny will suggest grave doubts. The coincidence of the reverse inscrip- tion with the obverse inscription used on the commemorative tetradrachms of Agathocles and Antimachus is remarkable, the omission of BAIIAEQZ being quite as noteworthy as the addition of ZQTHPOZ. The style and fabric, too, are out of hannony with those of the regular coinage of Diodotus. In particular, the dies are adjusted t f, instead of f |, as is the invariable custom in Bactria before the reign of Euthydemus I. Lastly, the mint-mark ^ is not found on the money either of Diodotus or of his imme- diate successor, whereas it is common on that of all the other kings whom we have had occasion to mention, Demetrius II and Antimachus alone excepted. Taking all these indications together, we can hardly escape the conclusion that the tetradrachm in question does not really belong to Diodotus, but is rather a commemorative piece issued, it may be, by Demetrius I. The mint-mark which it bears makes its earliest appearance on his ordinary coins, while the arrangement of the ends of the diadem is a strong argument against its being later.
If the attribution just suggested be correct, it confirms the view, already highly probable on other grounds, that there was an intimate connexion between Demetrius I, on the one side, and, on the other, Agathocles, Pantaleon, and Antimachus, whom, as we have seen, it is impossible to separate. As Euthydemus II and Demetrius II were almost certainly his sons, it follows that his history must have been closely linked with that of all the five ephemeral kings, of whom no record save their coins remains. His
29—2
452 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
sons, however, can hardly have been contemporary with the other three, for the mint-marks that appear on the coins of Agathocles are to a large extent identical with those that were employed by Euthydemus II. It is conceivable that, when Demetrius I was pursuing his Indian conquests, he may have left Euthydemus II and Demetrius II to represent him in the western part of his dominions, that they fell in the earlier years of the struggle with Eucratides, and that at some subsequent stage he recognised Agathocles, Pantaleon, and Antimachus as kings, in order to secure their support. Alternatively, the three last-named may have attempted to set themselves up against Eucratides after Demetrius died. But all this is mere guess-work. What is certain is that in none of the three cases can the seat of power have been very far distant from Kabul. Agathocles and Pantaleon certainly, and Antimachus possibly {v. sup. p. 449 and note), struck money of a distinctively Indian character ; and the Kharoshthi legend on certain copper coins of Agathocles has been supposed to give him the title ' Lord of the Indians,' though this interpretation is unfortu- nately doubtful ^. Cunningham^ reports of the money of Agathocles that ' single copper specimens have been found as far to the south as Kandahar and Sistan, while they are common about Kabul and Begram.' Of Pantaleon's coins he states that they 'are found chiefly about Ghazni and Kabul, but a few have been obtained about Peshawar and in the Western Panjab....Masson procured seven copper specimens at Begram.' As for Antimachus, he says ' the position of Margiana accords best with the actual find-spots of his coins,' and again * they have been found in about equal numbers in the Kabul valley and to the north of the Caucasus, while two specimens have been obtained in the Panjab.'
Whatever may be the truth as to the territorial limits within l
which they held sway, the simultaneous appearance of so many "
^kings' is a portent whose meaning is not to be mistaken. It is the first clear indication of that tendency towards the creation of petty principalities, which subsequently became so marked a feature of the final phase of Greek rule in India. In the present instance the ' kings ' would seem to have been pawns in a game which was really being played by stronger and more powerful personalities. They were obviously intent on upholding the banner of Demetrius and his dynasty, whose claim to the Bactrian crown the com- memorative coins represent as derived directly from Alexander the Great, heedless of the violent breaks that had marked the
1 Biihler, Vienna Oriental Journal, 1894, p. 206. 2 ify,m. Chron., 1869, pp. 38, 40 f.
XVI i] Heliocles and Laodice 453
accession first of Diodotus and then of Euthydemus. Nor is there any doubt as to the rival against whom their manifestos were aimed. It must have been Eucratides. It would be interesting if we could discover the foundation on which the usurper based his claims. Perhaps the quest is not entirely hopeless. Certain of his tetradrachms and drachms are by common consent regarded as commemorative. The obverse — generally, but not accurately, described as the reverse — bears a male and female head, jugate, to the right, the inscription being HAIOKAEOYZ KAI AAOAIKHI, while the reverse has one of the ordinary helmeted busts of Eucratides, accompanied by the legend BAIIAEYZ MEFAZ EYKPATIAHZ (PI. IV, 3). The close analogy between this obverse and the obverses of the commemorative tetradrachms of Agathocles and Antimachus at once suggests that the appeal to the memory of Heliocles and Laodice is the counterpart of that to the memory of ' Alexander, Philip's son,' 'Antiochus the Conqueror,' 'Diodotus the Saviour,' and ' Euthydemus the Divine.' And when the obverse is given its proper position, the parallel is seen to be much closer than has hitherto been supposed.. It naturally does not extend to the reverse, for Heliocles and Laodice had struck no money, and had therefore left no characteristic coin-type for their kinsman to copy. In the circumstances he utilised his own portrait. At the same time he was careful to differentiate his commemorative pieces from his other issues by putting his own name in the nominative instead of in the genitive, very much in the spirit in which Agathocles and Antimachus employed BAZIAEYONTOZ in place of the normal BAZIAEQI.
Although there is no difference of opinion as to the commemo- rative character of these coins, an acute cleavage manifests itself the moment the problem of identification is approached. Perhaps the view most widely held is that Heliocles is the son and successor of Eucratides, and that the coins were struck to commemorate his marriage with Laodice, a daughter of Demetrius by the Seleucid princess to whom he was betrothed in 206 during the negotiations with Antiochus III. This theory — first propounded by von Sallet, although it had previously been hinted at by Droysen — has about it a certain plausibility that has commended it to historians : it would have been a politic step on the part of Eucratides to try and conciliate opposition, after his victory, by arranging a match between his son and a daughter of the fallen house. But, in the light of the considerations urged in the foregoing paragraph, there need be no hesitation in setting it aside as inadmissible. There is
454 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
very much more to be said for the alternative suggestion, advocated by Cunningham and by Gardner, that Heliocles was the father of Eucratides, and that Laodice was his mother. We need not, however, follow some of those who have accepted this solution, and continue to assume that Laodice was the daughter of Demetrius, an assumption which leads to the impossible conclusion that Eucratides was his great rival's grandson. Laodice was, indeed, a common name in the royal house of Syria, but there is no evidence to prove that it was the name of the bride of Demetrius, or of any of her children. The field of conjecture is absolutely open. One point should not be overlooked before we enter it. While Heliocles is represented with his head bare, Laodice wears a diadem, showing that she was of the lineage of kings, a princess in her own right. It must, therefore, have been from her, and not from his father, that any title Eucratides could advance to the Bactrian crown had come. It may also be recalled that Antiochus Epiphanes, who now sat upon the throne of Syria (175-164) in succession to his brother Seleucus IV (187-175), is known to have cherished the dream of re-establishing the Seleucid influence in Central Asia, as if to redress in the east the balance that had been lost in the west to Rome. Possibly it was in his interest and with his encouragement that Eucratides first raised the standard of revolt. That, of course, is pure speculation, just as are all the other hypotheses that have so far been put forward. But it would explain his appeal to the memory of a Seleucid princess, as well as the otherwise puzzling introduction into the Bactrian coinage of that characteristically Seleucid ornament, the bead-and-reel border.
In speaking of Demetrius, something has already been said of the troubles that beset Eucratides during the earlier portion of his reign. According to Justin (XLI, 6) he had much ado to hold his own, not merely against Demetrius, but also against 'the Sogdiani.' The meaning of the latter reference is obscure. Possibly Sogdiana strove hard to maintain its loyalty to Demetrius rather than submit to the upstart who had presumed to supplant him. More probably the northern tribes took advantage of the absence of Demetrius in India and wrested from Hellenic rule the whole of the country to the north of the Oxus. We find them in full possession of Bactria itself, before many years have elapsed. The Parthians, too, were a grievous thorn in the flesh of Eucratides. They fell upon his flank when his energies were exhausted by the various other wars in which he had been forced to engage, with
XVI i] Eucratides 455
the result that part of the Bactrian kingdom was permanently absorbed in their empire. We shall have occasion presently to try and measure the extent of this success. Meanwhile it will be convenient to follow Eucra tides in his pursuit of Demetrius into India. His victory there was complete in the ancient Indian provinces of the Persian empire. As it is put by Justin {loc. dt.)^ ' he reduced India ' — that is to say, the country of the Indus — ' to subjection.' Strabo (xv, 686) says he made himself master of * a thousand cities.' The princes of the house of Euthydemus had now to be content with the eastern districts of the Punjab. But Eucratides did not enjoy his triumph long. While he was on the march homewards towards Bactria, where he had founded a great city to which he gave the name of Eucratidia, he was attacked and murdered by his son, whom he had trusted so implicitly that he had made him a colleague in the kingship. The details added by Justin (loc. cit.) as to the callous conduct of the murderer in driving his chariot through his father's blood have a suspicious resemblance to the story Livy (i, 48) tells as to the death of Servius Tullius. It would have been more to the purpose if he had mentioned the parricide's name. The date of the incident is quite uncertain, but it is usually given as c. 155 B.C.
The coinage of Eucratides bears ample witness to the prosperity that attended him during his life. His money is even more abundant than that of Euthydemus. Although examples of his gold are exceedingly uncommon, they include one specimen which weighs as much as 2593*5 grains (168"05 grammes) and was thus worth twenty ordinary staters ; no other king or city of ancient times was ever responsible for so ostentatious a display of opulence. His most characteristic types relate to the worship of the Dioscuri. On the reverse of the larger pieces Castor and Pollux appear side by side, usually mounted (PI. IV, 4-6) ; the smaller often show the pointed caps of the Brethren, surmounted by stars and flanked by palms. The Greek legend is interesting. At first it is simply BAZIAEfil EYKPATIAOY, but presently it becomes BASIAEQZ MEfAAOY EYKPATIAOY. As the more pretentious title is in- variably used on the gold and also on the bronze specially struck for Indian circulation, it is perhaps permissible to connect its assumption with a successful invasion of the territory of Demetrius. It may be noted that this is the first certain instance of a king describing himself in the Greek legend on his coinage as 'the Great.' On inscriptions the practice was older. In this case, it is possibly a translation of the Indian title * maharaja ' which is used
45 6 Syria^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
by Demetrius in his KharoshthI coin-legends. There are several well-marked varieties of portrait. On the earlier silver, and on one or two bronze pieces, the king is represented bare-headed and with draped shoulders, both ends of his diadem hanging stiffly down behind (PL IV, 4). Generally, however, he wears a crested helmet, ornamented with the horn and ear of a bull. On the great majority of examples the helmeted bust is draped and looks towards the right (PL IV, 5). But on some very rare tetradrachms the head is turned to the left, the shoulders are bare, and the right hand is uplifted in the act of thrusting with a spear (PL IV, 6). The intimacy of his association with India is proved, not only by the large number of square-shaped bilingual coins of bronze that have survived, but also by the fact that, though he adhered as a rule to the Attic standard of weight, he also issued silver of a class expressly designed to suit the convenience of Indian traders. The standard used for the latter is closely allied to the Persic, which had become established in N.W. India as a result of the Persian dominion. None of the coins of Eucratides bear dates. Notwithstanding this, there are indirect means of utilising them so as to secure a partial confirmation of what Justin says (XLI, 6) as to the usurper's rise to power being more or less contemporaneous with the accession of Mithradates I of Parthia. Mithradates, it will be remembered, succeeded to the crown about 171 B.C., and the emergence of Eucratides has been tentatively assigned to 1/5. He must certainly have been firmly seated on the throne a very few years later. A unique silver tetradrachm, now in the British Museum, has on the obverse a helmeted bust evidently copied from the best-known coin-portrait of Eucratides, and on the reverse the Sun-god, driving in a four-horse chariot. The legend is BAZIAEQZ Eni<l>ANOYl TTAATQNOZ, while in the exergue are letters which, though not altogether clear, are generally read as PMI and interpreted as referring to the year 147 of the Seleucid Era (PL IV, 7). If the date has been correctly deciphered — the first of the three numerals is very obscure — the tetradrachms with the helmeted bust of Eucratides must, therefore, have been in circula- tion for some time previous to 165 B.C., and these were by no means the earliest that he issued. Who Plato was, we have no means of knowing. The one genuine specimen of his money that we possess — modern forgeries are far from uncommon — is said^ to have been 'originally procured from an itinerant goldsmith of Sh4h-ke-Dheri, who had himself procured it somewhere in Central
» lHum. Chron., 1875, p. 2.
XVI i] Parthian Invasion of Bactria 457
Asia, perhaps in the Haztlra country or beyond the Hindu-Kiish.' Its comparatively debased style betrays affinities with the coins of kifigs whose domains were purely Indian. But whether Plato was a vassal or a short-lived rival of Eucratides, we cannot say. His title Enicl>ANOYZ, which reads like an offset to MEfAAOY, is borrowed from the coinage of Antiochus IV (175-164) ; it does not appear in Parthia till nearly half a century later.
Testimony of a similar character comes from farther west. Hardly less rare than the solitary coin of Plato is the silver of Timarchus, satrap of Babylon, who in 162 B.C. declined to acknow- ledge the authority of Demetrius I of Syria, and issued money of his own in all three metals. Both on obverse and on reverse his tetradrachm is an unblushing imitation of the commonest tetradrachm of Eucratides, down even to the title BAZIAEQZ MEfAAOY. If, as was suggested above, the assumption of the epithet 'Great' is to be associated with the conquest of India, 162 B.C. thus becomes the terminus ante queni for that achieve- ment. A less definite but still highly probable reminiscence of the ' Great King ' of Bactria has been detected by numismatists on some scarce bronze pieces of the early Parthian series. Unless the Parthians were simply continuing the types of coins which they found current in districts which they had annexed by force ^, it is curious that they should have borrowed anything of the sort from Eucratides. He and they were bitter foes. The account of their antagonism given by Justin (XLI, 6) is borne out by two brief references in Strabo. The first (xi, 515) tells us that, after defeating first Eucratides and then the Scythians, the Parthians incorporated a portion of Bactria in their empire. That perhaps does not carry us very far. But Strabo's second reference (xi, 517) is more explicit, though its value is largely destroyed by what seems to be a deep-seated textual corruption. The purport of it is that the Parthians took away from Eucratides two Bactrian satrapies, called (according to Kramer's reading) r-qv re 'AaTrimvov koL ttjv Topiovav. These names convey no meaning to modern readers because neither of them occurs anywhere else. We can only conjecture what districts they are most likely to represent. If we decide for Aria and Arachosia, we cannot be very far wrong ; towards the close of the chapter already cited Justin says that Mithradates I
^ The probability of this being the true explanation is greatly strengthened by the fact that coins of the period of Mithradates I (B.M.Cat. Parthia, PI. Ill, 7, 10, 12) seem to be imitated from the coins of Demetrius I or Euthydemus II with the standing Heracles (PI. m, 3, 4).
1/
45 8 Syria ^ Bactria^ and Par thia [ch.
enlarged the boundaries of the Parthian empire until it stretched * from the Hindu Kush to the river Euphrates.' Expansion towards Margiana and Drangiana would be a natural concomitant.
The portentous growth of this semi-barbarian power could not but have the most serious effect on the development of Hellenic civilisation in Central Asia. Parthia now lay like a great wedge be- tween the Bactrian Greeks and their kinsmen beyond the Euphrates. Intercommunication had become difficult, reunion impossible. More than one of the successors of Antiochus Epiphanes — notably Demetrius II (146-140) and Antiochus VII (138-129)— flung them- selves against the rock, only to be broken. And it is not without significance that, if we may trust Josephus {Ant. Jud. xiii, 5, 11 [185]), the enterprise of Demetrius was undertaken in response to repeated requests from 'Greeks and Macedonians.' This should, perhaps, be read in the light of the hint given by Justin (xxxvi, 1), when he includes the Bactrians among the allies who lent Demetrius their assistance in his attempt to break down the domination of the Arsacidae. It was all in vain. The Seleucid kings were hope- lessly cut off from what had been in early days one of the fairest provinces of their empire. On the other side of the impenetrable barrier, Eucratides and his fellow-countrymen, hemmed in by Mithradates on the west and exposed on the north to ever- increasing pressure from the wandering tribes whom they vaguely designated ' Scythians,' were being steadily driven south-eastwards into the plains of India. Even there, they were not to be safe either from Scythians or from Parthians. That, however, is for a future chapter to show. MeanAvhile it remains to summarise the little that is known as to the final relinquishment of Bactria by the Greeks.
Except for the somewhat rhetorical sentence in which Justin (XLI, 6) contrasts the fate of the Bactrians with the phenomenal prosperity of Parthia — 'harassed by various wars, they finally lost, not merelj^ their kingdom, but their independence ' — western historians have preserved hardly any echo of the events that led up to the catastrophe. Had the vigorous and capable Eucratides lived longer, it might have been postponed. It could hardly have been averted; what we learn from Chinese sources proves that it was inevitable. Justin makes Mithradates the main instrument of the disaster, and no doubt his activity was in some measure responsible. But the real cause was the bursting of the storm- cloud, whose appearance on the northern horizon had been pointed out by the envoy of Euthydemus to Antiochus the Great just two
xvii] Scythia?! Invasion of Bactria 459
generations before. Strabo knew the real facts, although he gives us no details, merely saying (xi, 515) that 'the best known of the nomad tribes are those who drove the Greeks out of Bactria, — the Asii, the Pasiani, the Tochari, and the Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of the Jaxartes, over against the Sacae and Sogdiani, which country was also in occupation of the Sacae.' The Prologue to the lost History of Pompeius Trogus (xLi) is even less illuminating : it contents itself with barely mentioning that the main work had told how * the Saraucae and Asiani seized Bactria and Sogdiana.' The inconsistencies of nomenclature here might be easily enough reconciled. But, after all, such an adjust- ment would leave us very much where we were. The Chinese records bring more enlightenment. From them we learn that the Yueh-chi, pushed westwards by the Huns about 165 B.C., displaced the Cakas, who inhabited the country of the Jaxartes to the north- east of Sogdiana and Bactria, and that they then crossed the Jaxartes and conquered the whole of Sogdiana, probably driving the 9akas before them into Bactria and fixing their capital a little to the north of the Oxus. This was the beginning of the end. The struggle may have dragged on for twenty or thirty years, but its issue was never doubtful Bactria had to be abandoned by its Greek rulers to the (^^aka hordes. And the turn of the ^akas was to come. The report of Chang-kien, a Chinese envoy who visited the Yueh-chi in 126 B.C., is still extant. Tliese nomads were then settled in Sogdiana, and the report speaks in somewhat contemptuous terms of their southern neighbours, the Ta-hia, by whom are apparently meant the native population of Bactria : they were a nation of shopkeepers, living in towns each governed by its magistrate, and caring nothing for the delight or the glory of battle. At some date which is doubtful, but which cannot at the latest be more than a year or two subsequent to 126, the Yueh-chi, urged forward by fresh pressure from the East, crossed the barrier of the Oxus, expelled the (^^akas, and occupied all the country as far south as the Hindu Kush. From the Ta-hia no serious resistance was to be expected. But, as the retreating ^akas made their way west- wards, they probably encountered the fierce opposition of Parthia ; just about this time two of the Parthian kings, Phraates H and Artabanus I are said to have fallen in battle with the Scythians.
Obviously the situation which Eucratides would have had to face in Bactria, had he ever returned from his last Indian campaign, would have been peculiarly trying. It is not surprising that his successor should have failed to make headway against the oncoming
460 Syria^ Bactria^ and Parthia [ch.
tide. The numismatic evidence shows that this successor was Heliocles. In all probability he was also the parricide. Cunningham, it is true, was of a different opinion, holding that the unnatural murder was the work of Apollodotus, another king who has left a considerable number of coins, mostly of a strictly Indian character^. But the idea that there was any blood relationship between Apollodotus and Eucratides is purely hypothetical. It is more probable, indeed, that Apollodotus belonged to the rival family of Euthydemus. He may have been contemporary with Eucra- tides, but there is nothing whatever to suggest a closer connexion^. On the other hand, it will be remembered that Justin (XLI, 6) lays the crime to the charge of the heir apparent. And according to Greek custom the eldest son of Eucratides would normally be called Heliocles after his grandfather. If he had any brother, there is a stronger claimant for the honour than Apollodotus. In describing the coinage of Eucratides, no mention was made of a small group of silver pieces, which are usually believed to represent his earliest issue. They are mainly tetra- drachms, the drachms being of semi-barbarous execution. The obverse bears a diademed head within a bead-and-reel border ; on the reverse is a draped figure of Apollo standing to left, holding an arrow and a bow, the inscription being BAZIAEQZ EYKPA- TIAOY (PL IV, 9). It may be that the view generally taken of these coins is correct. But there are two serious difficulties in the way of accepting it. In the first place, it would be unusual, if not unprecedented, for a Bactrian king to use more than one distinctive type for his Attic silver, and the characteristic type of Eucratides was, as we know, the group of the Dioscuri. In the second place, the style of the obverse has the closest possible resemblance to that of the obverse of some of the tetradrachms of Heliocles. A comparison of Plate IV, 9, with Plate IV, 8, for instance, reveals a similarity that is almost startling. It forces one to ask whether Heliocles may not have had a younger brother, who had the same name as his father and who was proclaimed king after the latter's murder. When ancient states were on the verge of ruin, kings were apt to multiply. Nor is it a valid objection to urge that no second Eucratides is known to the literary texts. The name of Heliocles himself has been rescued from oblivion by his coins.
' The silver coins of the Attic standard were struck in the kingdom of Kapiga, which formed the connecting link between Bactria and India. See Chapter xxn, p. 655. 2 lUd.
xvii] Heliocles 461
He is the last king of India whose money is found to the north of the Hindu Kush. Clearly, therefore, it was in his reign that Bactria was abandoned to the (J'akas. This was probably not later than 135 B.C. What the condition of the country then became, is wholly doubtful. The language used of the Ta-hia by Chang-kien, the Chinese envoy, is interpreted by some as indicating that they were largely left to themselves by the intruders, and that they did not acknowledge the authority of a central government at all. But here again we are in the realm of conjecture. Our only definite evidence for Heliocles is numismatic, and the inferences of which it admits are scanty. The characteristic type on his Attic silver is Zeus, generally standing to front, grasping a thunderbolt and leaning on a long sceptre, the inscription being BAZIAEQZ AIKAIOY HAIOKAEOYZ (PI. IV, 8). Very rare tetradrachms and drachms combine a helmeted bust on the obverse with a seated figure of the god on the reverse. The standing Zeus re- appears on bilingual coins of Indo-Persic weight and of markedly difierent style. These are sufiiciently common to show the dimin- ishing importance of the Bactrian part of Heliocles's kingdom, and the corresponding advance of the purely Indian element. With the exception of ApoUodotus and Antialcidas, he is the last of the Graeco-Indian rulers to employ the Attic standard at all. He also re-strikes the coins of Agathocleia reigning conjointly with her son Strato I Soter, an indication no doubt that the internecine struggle between the house of Eucratides and the house of Euthydemus which had begun in Bactria was continued in India. Finally, a faint memory of his name must have lingered on among the barbarian immigrants long after the day when he fled before their approach. Once settled in the midst of a nation of shop- keepers, the nomads speedily learned that a coinage was indis- pensable. To provide it they had recourse to rude imitations of the money of their Greek predecessors, and their most popular models were the bronze of Heliocles and the silver of Euthydemus. Their currency thus supplies a pathetic epilogue to the story of the rise and fall of the Greek kingdom of Bactria. The annals of Hellas abound in episodes as rich in romance as any tale the Middle Ages ever wove. Nothing they contain is more calculated to appeal to the imagination than the fortunes of these heirs of the great Alexander. That their civilisation was a brilliant one, we may safely conclude from the quality of the art displayed upon their coins. The pity of it is that the store of facts for the reconstruction of their history is so slender. The surmises are
462 Key to Plates I- IV [ch.
many, and the certainties are few. Excavation may mend matters some day. Until then the utmost limit of possible achievement is to sketch a rough outline that shall not be inconsistent with such scattered fragments of evidence as survive.
KEY TO PLATES I-IV PLATE I
1. M. Persia. Ohc. The Great King hastening r., wearing kidaris and kandys^
and holding spear and strung bow. Rev. Irregular oblong incuse. [B.M.] Daric. Fifth or fourth century b.c.
2. M. Persia. Ohv. Similar type; punch-mark. Rev. Similar incuse; punch-
mark. [B.M,] Sighs. Fifth century b.c.
3. M. Persia. Obv. Similar type ; but King holds dagger, instead of spear ; two
punch-marks. Rev. Similar incuse; four punch-marks. [B.M.] Sighs. Fourth century b.c.
4. M. India. Obv. Plain ; group of punch-marks. Rev. Plain ; two punch-marks.
[B.M.] Kdrshdparia. c. 300 B.c.
6. M. India. Obv. Similar. Rev. Similar. [B.M.] Kdrshdpana. c. 300 b.c.
6. Al. Persia. Obv. Similar to no. 1 ; but behind, ZTA, with MN A beneath and
^ in front. Rev. Wavy bands. [B.M.] Double Daric. After c. 331 B.C.
7. M. Athens (Asiatic imitation) ^ Obv. Head of Athena r., wearing helmet
adorned with olive-leaves. Rev. A0E Owl r. ; behind, olive-spray and crescent ; in front, ^ . [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 350-300 b.c.
8. M. Athens (Asiatic imitation). Obv. Similar type. Rev. A I V Similar type ;
same symbols. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 350-300 b.c.
9. M. Athens (Asiatic imitation). Obv. Similar type, of different style ; behind,
p^. Rev. Similar to no. 7, with bunch of grapes behind. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 350-300 B.c.
10. M. Athens (Asiatic imitation). Obv. Similar, Rev. Similar. [B.M.] Attic
Tetradrachm. c. 350-300 B.C.
11. M. Athens (Asiatic imitation). Obv. Similar. Rev. Similar, without bunch
of grapes. [B.M.] Attic Didrachm. c. 350-300 B.C.
12. M. Athens (Asiatic imitation). Obv. Similar. Rev. Similar, with oc behind.
[B.M.] Attic Drachm, c. 350-300 B.C.
13. M. Asia. Obv. Similar. Rev. Eagle standing 1., with head reverted. [B.M.]
Attic Drachm, c. 350-300 B.c.
14. M. Alexander. Obv. Head of Zeus r., laur. ; border of dots. Rev. A AE-
GEAN A POY Eagle standing r. on thunderbolt, with head reverted; behind, olive-spray with berry; in front, satrapal tiara. [B.M.] Rho- dian (?) Tetradrax^hm. Probably struck by Seleucus I before c. 306 b.c,
^ All the Athenian imitations illustrated on Plate I came to London by way of India. The ultimate •provena'ixce is probably the Middle East.
XVI i] Key to Plates I~IV 463
15. B^ Seleucus I. Ohv. Similar; behind head, /5^. Rev. BAIIAEHZ
ZEAEYKOY Athena in quadriga of horned elephants r., holding thunderbolt in raised r. and shield on 1. arm ; in field r., above, anchor. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 306-281 B.C.
16. M. Asia. Ohv. Horseman, wearing conical helmet and cuirass, overtaking
and attacking two warriors retreating on an elephant ; border of dots. Rec. Male figure, wearing cuirass, cloak, and sword, standing three- quarter face towards 1., with thunderbolt in r. and spear in 1. ; in field L (^. [B.M.] Attic Decadrachm. c. 300 B.c.
17. M. Sophytes. Obv. Head of warrior r., wearing close-fitting helmet, wreathed
with olive ; border of dots. Rev. Zn4>YT0Y Cock r. ; behind, caduceus ; border of dots. [B.M.] Attic Drachm, c. 320 B.C.
PLATE II
1. M. Seleucus I and Antiochus I. Obv. Head of Zeus r., laur. ; border of
dote. Rec. BAIIAEHN ZEAEYKOY KAI ANTIOXOY Athena in biga of horned elephants r., holding thimderbolt in raised r. and shield on 1. arm ; in field r., above, @. [B.M.] Rhodian (?) Drachm. c. 293-281 B.C.
2. M. Seleucus, son of Antiochus I. Ohv. Similar. Rev. BAZIAEHZ
ZEAEYKOY ANTIOXOY Athena as above, in quadriga of horned elephante r. ; in field r., above, (2), [B.M.] Rhodian (?) Tetradrachm. c. 275-266 B.C.
3. AT. Seleucus I. Obv. Head of Seleucus I r., diademed and having bull's horn.
Rev. BAZIAEnZ ZEAEYKOY Head of homed horse r., bridled; in front, ^; beneath, (g). [K^.^ Attic Staier. c. 306-281 b.c.
4. M. Antiochus I. Ohv. Similar type ; elderly head ; border of dote. Rev.
BAZI AEnZ ANTIOXOY Similar head, without bridle ; in front, ^ and (J); border of dote, {^xmt&r] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 293-261 b.c.
5. K. Antiochus I. 06». Head of Antiochus I r., diademed. ^€??. BAZIAEHZ
ANTIOXOY Head of homed horse r., bridled; in front, @. [B.M.] Attic Stater, c. 281-261 B.C.
6. AT. Antiochus II. Ohv. Head of Antiochus II r., diademed. Rev. Similar ;
but in front, @. [B.M.] Attic Stater, c. 266-246 B.o.
7. M. Antiochus I. Ohv. Head of Antiochus I r., diademed ; border of dote.
Rev. Same inscription. Similar type ; in front, (2) ; border of dote. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 281-261 b.c.
8. M. Antiochus II. Ohv. Head of Antiochus II r., diademed; border of
dots. Rev. Similar; but in front, @. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 261-246 B.C.
9. N.. Antiochus 1. 06». Head of Antiochus I r., diademed. i2g». BAZIAEflZ
ANTIOXOY Apollo seated 1. on omphalos, holding arrow and bow;
in front, star and ^. [B.M.] Attic Slater, c. 281-261 RC.
10. M. Antiochus II. Ohv. Head of Antiochus II r., diademed. Rev. Similar ; but in front, A without star. [B.M.] Attic Stater, c. 261-246 B.c.
464 Key to Plates I— IF [ch.
11. U. Antiochus II. Obv. Head of Diodotus II r., diademed; border of dots.
liec. BAZIAEni ANTIOXOY Zeus thundering 1. ; in front, eagle 1. and wreath ; border of dots. [B.M.] Attic Stater, c. 261-250 b.c.
12. M. Antiochus II. Obv. Similar. Rev. Similar ; but in place of wreath, c^ ,
and between feet of Zeus, (3). [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 261- 250 B.C.
13. Si. Diodotus II. Obv. Similar. Rev. Similar to no. 11 ; but with BAZ I AEHZ
AIOAOTOY and, above wreath, 0Y. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 250 B.C.
14. K. Diodotus n. Obv. Similar. Rev. Similar ; but no letters above wreath.
[B.M.] Attic Stater, c. 250 B.C.
15. M. Andragoras. Obv. Head of City r., wearing turreted crown ; behind, ^^ ;
border of dots. Rev. ANAPA TO POY Athena, helmeted, standing 1., with spear and shield, holding owl in extended r. ; border of dots. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 330 or c. 250 B.C.
16. K. Andragoras. Obv. Bust of Zeus r., draped and wearing taenia ; behind,
^^. Rev. ANAPA rO ROY Warrior in quadriga of homed horses galloping r., with Nike as driver. [B.M.] Attic Stater, c. 330 or c. 250 B.C.
PLATE III
1. M. Euthydemus I. Obv. Head of Euthydemus I r., diademed ; border of
dots. Rev. BASIAEHI EY0YAHA\OY Heracles seated 1. on rock, grasping with r. his club, lower end of which rests on a pillar of stones ; to r., (^. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 220 b.c.
2. M. Euthydemus I. Obv. Elderly head of Euthydemus I r. , diademed ;
border of dots. Rev. Similar ; but end of club rests on thigh, and monogram to r, is ^. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 200 B.C.
3. M. Demetrius I. Obv. Bust of Demetrius I, draped r., wearing head-
dress made of elephant's skin; border of dots. Rev. BAZIAEfiZ AHMHTPIOY Heracles standing to front, placing wreath upon his head with r., and holding club and lion's skin in 1. ; to 1., ^ . [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 190 b.c.
4. M. Euthydemus II. Obv. Draped bust of Euthydemus II r., diademed ;
border of dots. Rev. BAS I AEHS EY0YAHMOY Heracles standing as in no. 3, but wreath held in outstretched r., to 1., ■^. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm,. c. 150 b.c.
5. M. Demetrius II. Obv. Draped bust of Demetrius II r., diademed ; border
of dots. Rev. BASIAEnZ AHA^HTPIOY Athena helmeted, standing to front, holding spear and shield ; to 1., |^, and to r., A. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm,. c. 140 b.c.
6. M. Agathocles. Ohv. Draped bust of Agathocles r., diademed ; border of
dots. Rev. BAIIAEHI ArAGOKAEOYI Zeus, naked to waist, standing to front, holding figure of Hekate in r. and leaning with 1. on sceptre ; to L, T$r. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 150 b.c.
XVI i] Key to Plates I— IV 465
7. iR. Pantaleon. Ohv. Di-aped bust of Pantaleon r., diademed ; border of dots.
R«c. BAIIAEni HANTAAEONTOS Similar; but Zeus seated 1. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 150 b.c.
8. M. Antimachus. Obv. Draped bust of Antimachus r., wearing kausia ;
border of dots. Rev. BASIAEHZ ANTIAAAXOY Poseidon, naked to waist, standing to front, leaning with r. on trident and holding palm in 1. ; to r. (N). fB.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 150 B.c.
9. M. Diodotus (struck by Demetrius I ?). Obc. Head of Diodotus r., diademed ;
border of dots. Rev. AIOAOTOY SHTHPOI Zeus thundering 1. ; in front, eagle 1^ and wreath. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 190 b.c.
PLATE IV
1. Si. Antiochus II (struck by Agathocles). O&a ANTIOXOY NIKATOPOS
Head of Antiochus II r., diademed; border of dots. Rev. BAZI- AEYONTOZ AfAOOKAEOYS AIKAIOY Zeus thundering 1. ; in front, eagle 1., and wreath; behind, f^. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm,. c. 150 B.C.
2. JL Euthydemus I (struck by Agathocles). Ohv. EY0YAHMOY 0EOY
Head of Euthydemus I r., diademed ; border of dots. Rev, Same inscription. Heracles seated 1. on rock, grasping in r. his club, end of which rests on knee ; to r., i^ . [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 150 b.c.
3. Si. Heliocles and Laodice (struck by Eucratides). Obv. HAIOKAEOYS
KAI AAOAIKHZ Draped busts jugate r. of Heliocles, with head bare, and Laodice, wearing diadem; behind, ;^, bead-and-reel border. Rev. BAIIAEYZ METAZ EYKPATIAHZ Draped bust of Eucratides r., diademed and wearing helmet decorated with horn and ear of bull ; bead-and-reel border. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 165 B.C.
4. Eucratides. Ohv. Draped bust of Eucratides r., diademed ; bead-and-reel
border. Rev. BAZIAEHI EYKPATIAOY The Dioskouroi, wearing pilei and carrying palms, prancing on horseback r., with spears at rest: in front, ^. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 165 b.c.
5. Eucratides. Obv. Draped bust of Eucratides r., diademed, wearing helmet
adorned with horn and ear of bull ; bead-and-reel border. Rev. BAIIAEHZ A^E^AAOY EYKPATIAOY Similar type; behind, -$• . [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 165 b.c.
6. Eucratides. Obv. Bust of Eucratides 1., diademed and helmeted, showing
bare back and shoulders ; spear in r. ; bead-and-reel border. Rev. Similar ; but no monogram behind, and in front, ^ . [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm,. c. 165 b.c.
7. Plato. Obv. Draped bust of Plato r., helmeted; bead-and-reel border.
Rev. BAIIAEHZ Eni4>AN0YS nAATflNOS Helios, radiate, in quadriga galloping r. ; to r., above, f^^; in ex., Ml. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 165 b.c.
c. H. I. I. 30
466 Key to Plates I— IV [ch. xvii
8. Heliocles. Ohv. Draped bust of Heliocles r^ diademed ; bead-and-reel
border. Rev. BASIAEHS HAIOKAEOYZ AIKAIOY Zeus, draped, standing three-quarter face towards I, holding thunderbolt, and leaning on sceptre : to 1., |^. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 140 b.c.
9, EncratideB II(?). Ohv, Draped bust of Eucratides r., diademed ; bead-and-
reel border. Rev. BAIIAEni EYKPATIAOY Apollo standing 1., looking along arrow and leaning on strung bow; to 1., [y^. [B.M.] Attic Tetradrachm. c. 140 B.C,
CHAPTER XVIII
CHANDRAGUPTA, THE FOUNDER OF THE MAURYA EMPIRE
With the Maurya dynasty begins the period of continuous history in India, a transition due to a concurrence of causes. In the first place, the invasion of Alexander and some other occasions of contact with the West furnish chronological limits of relative definiteness, to which certain archaeological and literary circum- stances readily conform. Secondly, the establishment of a single paramount power in Hindustan, embracing a part even of the country south of the Vindhya mountains and standing in relation to the still independent areas, supplies a unity which previously was lacking and which, in fact, was rarely realised in later ages. The personalities also of two of the members of the dynasty stand out more clearly than is usual in India, in the case of one, indeed, with a vividness which would be remarkable even in the West. The literary material gain is of exceptional variety and authenticity. Not to mention the information afforded by the histories of Alexander's Indian campaign and the accounts of the Seleucid empire, we have in the memoirs of Megasthenes, a Seleucid envoy at the court of the first Maurya, a picture, unfortunately frag- mentary, of the country, its administrative and social features, which research continues to verify in all its main details. A9oka's own rescripts, graven upon rocks and pillars, are documents of unassailable fidelity. The recently recovered Artha^astra ascribed to Kautilya, otherwise named Chanakya and Vishnugupta, though in principle it conveys no new conception of an Indian polity, is in virtue of its date, which clearly falls within or near the Maurya period, and of the abundant light which in detail it sheds upon the life of the people, especially upon the arts of peace and war, perhaps the most precious work in the whole of Sanskrit litera- ture. Finally, a most skilfully constructed political drama, the Mudrarakshasa of Vi9akhadatta, preserves, in spite of a rela- tively recent date, some outlines of the events which attended the foundation of the dynasty.
30—2
468 Chandragupta [ch.
The invasion of Alexander found the Punjab, as we have seen\ divided among a number of relatively inconsiderable tribes, a state of things which had probably always subsisted. He left it substantially unchanged, except that he recognised two of the larger states, that of Taksha9ila (Taxila), which had facilitated his entrance into India, and the rival kingdom of Porus (Paurava or the king of the Purus), whom he had conquered. The former was maintained in the region between the Indus and the Hydaspes ( Jhelum), while the latter was made to embrace all the more easterly territory as far as the Hyphasis (Beas). The two kings were recon- ciled and united by a matrimonial alliance. Alexander further confirmed, under the title of Satrap, Abhisares, ruler of the Himalayan districts of the Punjab^. The nations occupying the large extent of country about the confluences of the five rivers were placed under Philippus as satrap, and Sind under Pithon. ^''The limit of Alexander's easterly advance was the Beas. The last kingdom with which he came in contact was that of Phegelas^, adjoining the river, whether on the right or left bank does not appear, — possibly it was the country between that river and the Sutlej. The mutiny which arrested the victorious progress occurred in a region which — broadly defined — has in all periods of Indian history been pivotal*. The desert of Rajputana, running up towards the mountains, leaves only a narrow neck joining the Punjab to the rest of Hindustan. Here to the east was the country of the Kurus and Panchalas, the scene of the legendary wars of the Mahabharata ; here was Thanesar, where arose in the sixth century a.d. the dynasty of Harsha ; and here are Panlpat and Delhi. Alexander would have had, so he was told, to cross a desert of eleven days march, in order to reach the Ganges, beyond which lay two great peoples, the Prasii and Gangaridae'^, whose king Agrammes, or Xandrames, kept in the field an army of 20,000 cavalry, 200,000 infantry, 2000 chariots, and 3000 (or 4000)
^ Chapter xv, p. 345.
2 The mountains of the Abisares, from which flows the river Soanus (Megasthenes xx) = the Sohan, corresponds to the Abhisara region, defined by Stein {Bdjatarahgini trans, i, 180 n.) as denoting the hills lying between the Jhelum and the Chenab. But it may at this time have included more, extending to the Indus, as suggested by the king's relations with the Assakenoi {s^lpra, p. 353).
3 =Bhagala(?) ; see Chapter xv, p. 372. * Chapter i, p. 23.
* On the various forms of the name Prasii in Greek and Latin writers, — Jlpdffioi, npalaoi, UpavffLoi, Upd^Loi, IlpaiiaKoi, Bp^aioi, Pharrasii, — see Schwanbeck's Megasthenis Indica, p. 12, n. 6, and Lassen, Ind. Alt. u, pp. 210-1, n. 1. The Sanskrit is Prdchya. As regards the Gangaridae (or Gaggaridae) the view that the name was invented by the ■Greeks (Lassen, loc. cit.) seems improbable.
XVI ii] The Prasii 469
elephants. Upon inquiry, Alexander was informed by Phegelas and Porus^ that the king was a man of worthless character, the son of a barber, and that he had obtained the throne by the murder of his predecessor, whose chief queen he had corrupted.
\Ve learn from Megasthenes (i, 16) and Ptolemy (vii, 1, 82 ; 2, 14) that the Gangaridae occupied the delta of the Ganges. The name Prasii, or Prdchycis, 'Easterns,' would properly denote the peoples east of the Middle Country or Central Hindustan, which extends as far as the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna at Allahabad. Either, therefore, the name 'Easterns' was used by Alexander's informants in a more general sense, as the correlative of 'Westerns,' or it reflects what in any case is the fact, that the Panchalas, (^Mrasenas, Kosalas and other peoples of the Middle Country had fallen under the domination of the power of Magadha (S. Bihar), with its capital Pataliputra, at the junction of the Ganges and the Son. The beginnings of this suzerainty appear already in the early Buddhist books ^; and the dynasty ruling in Pataliputra, which city was founded by Udayin, grandson of Buddha's contemporary Ajata^atru, is recognised in the Brahman literature as represen- tative of Indian sovereignty. Whether it held also the countries stretching westward to the south of the great desert, and in particular the famous realm of Malwa, with its capital Avanti, or Ujjain, we have no means of knowing : but a negative answer is probable. This region, as also the continuation to the western coast of Kathiawar and Gujarat, escaped the purview of Alexander and his historians. Both were well within the horizon of his Indian informants, since the trade connexion between Bengal and the coast regions of (^urparaka and Surashtra had been from of old no less familiar than was the northern route of scholars^ and traders journeying to Tak8ha9ila and Kabul.
In the Agrammes, or Xandrames^, of the Greek writers there has been no difficulty in recognising the Dhana-Nanda of the Sanskrit books ; and the very name, in the form Nandrus, has been conjecturally restored to the text of Justin ^ It is the name of his dynasty, which according to the Puraiias ruled during exactly a century ; Chandramas would be the equivalent of his
1 See Q. Curtius, ix, 2 and Diodorus, xcni ; also by Candragupta ace. to Plutarch, Alexander, lxii.
2 Ehys Davids, Buddhint India (London, 1903), pp. 12 sqq. ; Bee Chapter vu, pp. 182 sqq.
3 Fick, Die Sociale Gliederung, esp. p. 130; Ehys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 8, 28, 203.
* Agrammes in Q. Curtius, Xandrames in Diodorus.
* XV, 4 : quippe sua procacitate Alexandrum {read Nandrum) regem offendisset.
47 o Chandragupta [ch.
Greek appellative. His overthrow, which Alexander was prevented from attempting, resulted from the conditions which the invasion left behind. It established the supremacy of the Mauryas under Chandragupta.
The details of this peripetia are matter for inference ; but the antecedents of the two chief actors in the drama are sufficiently certain. Chandragupta^ is represented as a low-born connexion of the family of Nanda. His surname Maurya is explained by the Indian authorities as meaning 'son of Mura,' who is described as a concubine of the king. A more flattering account^ makes the Mauryas an Himalayan offshoot of the noble sept of the (^akyas, the race of Buddha ; and, apart from this connexion, the sup- position of a tribal name seems probable, since a tribe of Morieis is mentioned by the Greeks^ and will perhaps be identical with the Moriyas of the Pali books*. However that may be, Chandra- gupta had incurred the displeasure of Nanda, whom he had served in the office of sendpati, or Commander-in-Chief. He is said to have made an attempt against his master, instigated by the Brahman Vishnugupta, Chanakya, or Kautilya, who in his person, and perhaps also as representing a disloyal priestly movement, had been disrespectfully treated by the king. The case of Jehu offers a familiar parallel ; but the outcome was otherwise. Chandragupta fled with his fellow conspirator^, who figures in literature as the Machiavelli of India. In the movement which sub- sequently led to the overthrow of Nanda Chanakya is represented as the directing mind.
The abortive attempt must have preceded the invasion of Alexander, whom Chandragupta is said to have met in the Punjabi At that time Nanda still reigned. The dating of the subsequent events depends upon the correctness of the account of them contained in the Mudrdrdkshasa. According to this authority it was as head of a confederacy, in which the chief ally
1 The Indian, and also the Greek, accoants of Chandragupta are quoted and discussed by Lassen, op. cit. n, pp. 205 sqq. The Greek forms of the name, some of them pointing to a Prakrit original, are T^iavSpdKorros, ^avdpdKorros, ZavSpaKirras, 'AvSpdKOTTos, 2iavdp6KvvTos. The identification with Chandragupta is due to Sir William Jones {Asiatic Researches, rv, p. 11).
2 From the commentary to the Pali Mahdwanso (ed. Tumour, Introduction, pp. xxxviii-xlii).
s From Euphorion : see Lassen, op. cit. ii, p. 205, n. 4.
* Moriyas of Pipphalivana {Digha Nikdya, n, p. 167).
" In the Pali account mentioned above Chandragupta meets Chanakya, who is represented as a native of Takshagila, already in company with a Parvata. For the Jain version, see Prof. Jacobi's edition of Hemaohandra's Sthavirdvalicharita, pp. 55 sqq.
" Plutarch, Alexander, lxh.
xviiij The Overthrow of Nan da 471
was the king of the Himalayan districts in the Punjab, that Chandragupta invaded the Magadhan empire. The play dates from perhaps the seventh century aJ). ; but we need not question its evidence, which we are justified by some analogies^ in re- garding as a genuine theatrical tradition : moreover there exists a Buddhist and Jain story which makes Chandragupta's second attempt begin with the frontiers. Further, a conquest of the Punjab by Chandragupta with forces from Eastern Hindustan has little inherent plausibility : before the British power the movement had been consistently in the opposite direction.
A precise date for the overthrow of Nanda seems with our present evidence impossible. It can hardly have been effected without the co-operation of the kingdom of Porus. We have then two alternatives. Either Porus participated in the invasion and is the Parvataka, the ally of Chandragupta, in the drama ^, in which case the year 321 RC. would be not unlikely, as the death of Porus seems to have followed that of Alexander by no long interval. Or his successor, whether a member of his family or Chandragupta himself, was a participator : and then we have no means of dating, unless we allow the indications of the drama to persuade us that Eudamus, the assassinator of Porus, who in 323 succeeded Philippus as Alexander's representative and who retired from India in about 317, was also a partner in the exploit^ As regards the incidents of the campaign, we have no trustworthy information. Nanda was defeated and killed, and his capital occupied.
Here begins the action of the drama. According to this authority, Chanakya, the instigator of Chandragupta, contrives the death of Parvataka, the chief ally, and then of his brother Vairodhaka, which causes the son of the former, Malayaketu, along with the remaining allies to withdraw their troops to a distance. They are joined by Rakshasa, the faithful minister of the Nandas and by others from the capital, in some cases with the connivance of Chanakya. What follows is a complicated intrigue. In the end Malayaketu becomes suspicious of his allies, whom he puts to
^ The plots of some of the recently discovered plays of Bhasa seem to have been appro- priated almost entire by the later dramatists, e.g. by the author of the Mricchakatikd.
2 In that case the death of Porus must have been due to Chandragupta, and not to Eudamus. An identification of Parvata with a king of Nepal is indicated by Jacobi, op. cit. p. 58, n. 1.
3 On this question see the acute observations of Lassen, op. cit. u, pp. 213-17. The names of the allied kings in the drama need not be seriously considered, since Sanskrit literature is rich in varieties of nomenclature, which hardly ever fail, even in closely related versions of a single story.
472 Chandragupta [ch.
death, and also of Rakshasa. The latter has no longer any option but to accept the offers of Chandragupta, who allows Malayaketu to retire in peace to his own dominions.
At this point the Indian tradition takes leave of Chandragupta and his mentor. The latter, his vow of vengeance accomplished, returns to his Brahman hermitage. For Chandragupta the ensuing years must have been strenuous. The great military progress of Seleucus, whereby he sought to consolidate the eastern part of his dominions, brought him to the Indus about the year 305. He found Chandragupta, now master of all Hindustan, awaiting him with an immense army. For Seleucus the task proved too great : he crossed the Indus, but either no battle ensued, or an indecisive one. Seleucus was content to secure a safe retirement and a gift of 500 elephants by the surrender of all the Greek dominions as far as the Kabul valley. Upon these terms a matrimonial alliance was arranged \
Thus the year 305 saw the empire of the successful adventurer of Pataliputra safely established behind the Hindu Kush on the north and the Afghan highlands rising above Herat on the west. At what period it came to include also the Avestern provinces of Sind, Kathiawar, and Gujarat, which, as well as Malwa, we find in the possession of his grandson, we are not informed. But probably these also were acquired by the founder of the dynasty.
Chandragupta maintained his friendly relations with the Greeks. Seleucus received gifts from him ; and his envoy Megasthenes resided for some considerable time, and perhaps on more than one occasion, at the court of Pataliputra^. He was a friend of Sibyrtius, who in 324 was appointed by Alexander to the Satrapy of Gedrosia and Arachosia, and in 316 was again appointed by Antigonus. The date, or dates, of his mission must naturally be later than the campaign of Seleucus (c. 305) and earlier than the death of Chandragupta (c. 297) ; but the time is otherwise unde- termined. It is to Megasthenes that the classical peoples were
1 See Chapter xvii, p. 431. That Seleucus made no great headway against Chandragupta is proved at length by Schwanbeck, op. cit. pp. 11-19, where the authorities are discussed. The surrender of the Kabul valley is also indicated by Strabo, xv, 1, 10 and 2, 9 : see also Lassen, De Pentapotamia Indica (Bonn, 1827), p. 42.
^ Arrian, V, 6, 1 : Meyaadiyris, 8s ^wrjv /lev ZijSuprfv t(^ iMTpdiry r^s 'Apaxwaiaj, iroXKdKis Si \iyei dtptKiffdai vapd liavdpd.KOTT0v rbv 'Ivduv ^a<ri\ia, 'Megasthenes, who lived indeed with Sibyrtius, the Satrap of Arachosia, but several times, as he states, arrived at the presence of Sandracottus, the king of the Indians.' The view of Schwanbeck (p. 33) and Lassen (ed. 1, p. 209, n. 3; but rejected in ed. 2, p. 219, n. 1), who think this statement consistent with several interviews in the course of a single mission, seems untenable : d<ptK^adai could hardly bear that sense.
XVI 1 1] Extent of his Dominions 473
indebted for nearly all the precise information which they have transmitted concerning the Indian peoples.
According to Justin (xv, 4) the rule of Chandragupta was oppressive ; but the judgment is not supported by details or by Indian evidence. The consensus of Sanskrit writings on policy discountenances excessive leniency, and insists upon the retributory function of the ruler, who in maintaining order and protecting weakness should not shrink from severity ; while in time of need he is entitled to call upon his people to bear ' like strong bulls ' a considerable burden of taxation \ The duration of the reign is stated by the Puranas, in agreement with the Buddhist books, at twenty-four years. It would be uncritical, however, to regard these testimonies as from the beginning independent, or to attach any special credence to the exact figure. Moreover, the initial date is uncertain, the Jains presenting a date equivalent to 313 (312) B.C., while the Buddhists of Ceylon give 321, and the Brahman writings withhold any reference to a fixed era. It would be idle to dwell further upon a matter of so much uncertainty. Our defective knowledge of the chronology is in striking contrast to the trust- worthy information which we possess concerning the country and its administration.
The extent of the dominions of Chandragupta has already been stated. But his authority cannot have been everywhere exercised in the same manner or the same measure. Indian conquerors do not for the most part displace the rulers whom they subdue, nor Avas the example of Alexander in India to the contrary. Accord- ingly we may assume that the empire of Chandragupta included feudatory kingdoms ; and even the presence of his viceroys would not necessarily imply, for example in Taxila or Ujjain, the extinc- tion of the local dynasty. It has been acutely remarked by Lassen^ that in a number of cases Megasthenes states the military power of particular provinces ; and he infers that these are instances of independent rule. The inference may have been carried too far ; but it has an undeniable validity as regards the kingdoms south of the Vindhya mentioned by Megasthenes, namely the Andhras and Kalingas, as well as their western neigh- bours the Bhojas, Petenikas, and Rishtikas, who all down to the time of Chandragupta's grandson A9oka remained outside the regular administration. The districts beyond the Indus, Gandhara, Arachosia, and Kabul were similarly frontier states.
1 Mhh.-LH, 87,33, and ch. 121; cf. 130, 36; Hopkins, J.A.O.S., xm, pp. 116, 135-6.
2 Op. cit. n, pp. 219-20.
CHAPTER XIX
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE MAURYA EMPIRE
Concerning the condition and organisation of the vast Maurya empire the Greeks have provided us with a considerable body of valuable information : and, as the Artha9astra furnishes the means of describing the complete polity existing at the time, its land system, its fiscal system, its administrative system, its law, its social system, with some view of literature and religion, we shall not forgo the opportunity, so rare in Indian history — we must wait for the time of Akbar and the A'ln-i-AM)art — of dwelling a little on the picture.
As regards the land itself, we may distinguish the forest, the pasture or grazing-ground, and the cultivated area\ The forests must have been much more extensive than at present, and they clearly comprised both relatively inaccessible tracts inhabited by wild unsubdued tribes and others which were within the reach of the administration, visited by trappers and hunters, utilised for raw material, reserved for elephant-grounds, state hunting-grounds, parks, and Brahman settlements. The pasture must have included both large spaces (vivUa) occupied by the nomad, tent-dwelling^ ranchers, who were the direct descendants of the old Vedic tribes^, and also more restricted areas in the neighbourhood of the villages. The latter, which then as now were the main feature of the country, had their definite boundaries, their village halls, — no doubt repre- senting the forts of ancient times, — and their independent internal economy. Less, if at all, organised were the stations (ghosha)\ or hamlets which formed the headquarters of the ranching class.
1 For references to the chapters or pages of the Arthaqdstra which deal with the main topics discussed in this chapter, see the Sanskrit text.
^ Megasthenes, i, 47 : irbXiv fxiv ^ KCbfiriv oi>K olKovai, aK-qvlrrj di ^lip x/>'i'»'rat.
3 Hopkins, J.A.O.S., xm, pp. 79-80, 82-3; The Four Casta, p. 15. In the Arthagdstra (p. 7) also the Vaigya seems to be connected with cattle. So in Manu (e.g. Tin, 88 and 410) and Mbh. (xn, 60, 25).
* Hopkins, op. cit. p. 77.
CH. xix] The Land 475
Apart from the royal domains, which must have been consider- able, the ultimate property in the land appertained, in the sense which has since prevailed, to the king^ : that is to say, the king was entitled to his revenues therefrom, and in default could replace the cultivator in his holding^. This does not preclude alienation or subdivision by the occupier, the royal title persisting through each change. It was the king's business to organise the agricul- tural productivity by encouraging the surplus population to settle new or abandoned tracts ^ Irrigation was an object of great solicitude and naturally under the charge of the state, which regulated the supply of water and derived revenue therefrom^
The bulk of the population consisted of actual cultivators, and Megasthenes remarks that their avocation was to such a degree defined (by the rule of caste) that they might be seen peacefully pursuing it in the sight of contending armies ^ The higher classes in the country had not a landowning, but an official, qualification, being entitled for their maintenance to a defined portion of the revenue. This corresponds to the jagir system of Musalman times. The assignment might be the revenue of an estate, a village, a town, or according to circumstances ^ On a minor scale the same principle was applied to the ranching class, which received for maintenance a proportion of the stock ^.
Roads were constructed by the royal officers, and at intervals of 'ten stades' were sign-boards noting turnings and distances ^ The Greeks make special mention of the 'royal route ' from the N.W. frontier to Pataliputra^. Communications were maintained by couriers, while in the woods roamed trappers and forest-rangers^**.
Towns were numerous, in so much that the Greeks report as many as two thousand placed under the rule of Porus, and Megasthenes ascribes some thirty to the Andhra country alone ^K They ranged from the market- town {samgrdhana), serving the
* Megasthenes, i, 46 : r^s 5^ ^(i/Nxs fiiffdoi/s reXoOcrt r^J /Sao-tXeZ did, t6 ircurap tt)v IvSiKrjv ^a<Ti\LKT]v eiva.1, IBiurrr) 5i fnjSevl yrjv i^eivai KeKTT)<xOai. • X'^P'^ ^^ ''"'7'' fiiffOuffeui Terdprriv els to fiaffikiKov TeKovffi; cf. Hopkins, J.A.O.S., Xin, pp. 87-8.
2 Arth. 19 (p. 47) ; cf. W. Foy, Die konigliche Geicalt, pp. 58-9 ; Jolly, Recht und Sitte, p. 93.
* Qunyaniveqana (Hopkins, op. cit. p. 127 n. and Arth. 19 ad init.).
* Megasth. xxxiv, 1 ; see Chapter xvi, p. 417, and infra, p. 437.
® Megasth. l, 14 : vapa dk ro&roii rdv yewpyQv lepwv Kal d<T6\wv ioifiivuv o'l wKtjfflov tQv rd^fwi' yeupyoOirrei dvevalcrdriTOi rwv KivSivuv elffiv, cf. i, 44. The Mahabharata (e.g. XII, 69, 38 sqq.) qualifies this picture in practice ; see Hopkins, op. cit. p. 185.
6 For details see Manu, vii, 118-9; Hopkins, op. cit. p. 84.
7 Arth. 46; l^Ihh. xn, 60, 24; Hopkins, op. cit. p. 83.
8 Megasth. xxxiv, 3. » Ihid. iv, 3. "> Arth. 52-3. *' Lvi, 10. In XXVI the towns are too numerous for counting.
47^ ^^T^^ Maury a Empire [ch.
uses of ten villages, through the county towns {Ichdrvatdka and dro'immukha at a river's mouth) for 200 or 400 villages, the provincial capital {sthamya, or Thana), the great city (nagara, pura) or port {pattana) to the royal capital {rdjadhdnl), all provided with defences of varying solidity^. There were also forts on the frontiers or in special situations, such as in the middle of lakes or swamps, hidden in forests, or perched on heights-.
The art of fortification was well understood. As we can learn from the Greek and native descriptions, and as we can see depicted on the monuments of Sanchi and Bharhut, the great cities were provided with ditches, ramparts, and walls of earth, wood or brick ^, having battlements, towers, covered ways, salient angles, water-gates, and portcullises, with a wide street running round the interior face. There were guard-houses for troops (gulma) in the difierent quarters. In principle the towns were of rectangular shape and divided into four regions, each under a special official and com- posed of wards. The houses were generally of wood, and of two or three storeys*, the more splendid ones including several courts, one behind the other. There were royal palaces, workshops, store- houses, arsenals, and prisons^. The streets were provided with watercourses draining the houses and issuing into the moat : against misuse of them, or of the cemeteries outside, by deposit of rubbish or dead bodies, by loosing animals, by. conveyances not under proper charge, by funerals conducted through irregular ways or at unlawful hours, penalties are laid down. The houses were forbidden to have windows overlooking each other, except across the street. The precautions against fire included the provision of vessels of water ' in thousands ' in the streets : every householder must sleep in the forepart of his dwelling, and he is under the obligation of rendering assistance in case of fire, while arson is punished by burning alive. The trumpet sounds the beginning and end of the nocturnal interval, during which, except on special occasions*^, none must stir abroad. Approach to the guard-houses and palaces is prohibited, as also is music at unseasonable times. The city chief reports all incidents, and takes charge of lost and ownerless property.
' On these distinctions see Arth. p. 46 ; Manu, vii, 70-5 ; Mbh. xii, 86, 5 ; and Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 76-7.
2 Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 177-8 n.
■^ Megasth, xxvi ; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 174 sqq.
♦ See the plates in Maisey's Sanchi and Cunningham's Stttpa of Barhut.
' The Sanskrit terms are antahpura (or ni^dnta), kannanta{-dgdra), konhthdgdra, dyudhdgdra, bandhandgdra.
6 Chdrardtri, ' nights of free movement ' {Arth. 56, p. 146).
xix] Industry 477
The imperial capital Pataliputra or Kusumapura, the Pali- bothi*a of the Greeks, which was situated on the south side of the Ganges, to the east of its confluence with the Son, is described by Megasthenes {v. sup. Chapter xvi, p. 411). Its ruins lie for the most part under the modern city of Patna-Bankipore ; and part of its ancient rampart has been found in situ\
The population, as we learn from Megasthenes^ in agreement with the indications of the Artha^astra, consisted of seven classes, which have been already particularised^ : there was no trans- ference from one class to another (except that the philosophers, i.e. the Brahmans, might in case of adversity adopt any profession), nor was marriage between them allowed*. These distinctions of function correspond only partially to those of caste, which in fact must have been already much more complicated : and they take no note of special cases, such as riverine and maritime populations.
In the country, except where undertakings such as mines and other works created exceptional conditions, the second and third classes, the husbandmen and the neatherds and shepherds, must have predominated : the village servants^, such as the potter, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the barber, would belong to the third. In the towns we hear of labourers, craftsmen, traders, inspectors, and officials^. The crafts are numerous^, especially those dealing with the precious metals and with textiles. The professions in- clude the doctor, the actor, singer and rhapsodist, the dancer, and the soothsayer^. The traders are partly state officials in charge of royal merchandise, or in superintendence of matters connected with prices and sales, partly actual shopkeepers or travelling mer- chants ; and not rare among both classes was the rich ^reshthin, or seth, who was an important social factor, and, if a leader in his
1 Waddell, Report on the Excavations at Pataliputra (Calcutta, 1903) ; Spooner, Ann. Rep. of the Arch. Sur. of India, 1912-3, pp. 55-61.
^ I, 40-53 ; cf . Arrian, Indica, xi-xii.
3 See Chapter xvi, pp. 409-11. The equivalent terms in Greek and Sanskrit are: (1) <pi.\6(To<poi, (TO(pi(yTal = Brdhmana, <;ramana, (2) yeupyol = kar8haka, (3) ^ovk6\oi, TTOin^es, vo/jL^es, dr]p€VTal = gopdla, gvaganin, vdgurika, mdrgdyuka, (4) (rrpariCorai, ■iro\efxi(rTal = bhata, (5) ffij/x^ovXai, ffCveSpoi — mantrin, amdtya, mahdmdtra, (6) l(popoi, iiriaKoiroi=prativ€daka, adhyaksha, sattrin, (7) TexfTrat, dr}fuovpyoi, Kdin]\ioi = kdru, Qilpin, vaidehaka.
* Megasth, i, 53 : oi)/c ^^ean d^ yanelv i^ dXKov fj^ipovs, ij irpoanpiaei^ ij rexvas /xeTaxeipL^effdai, otov crrparnlyn]!' 6vTa yewpyelv, ■^ rex''^''"'?*' ovra <f>i\ocro(peiv.
^ Grdmabhritaka (Arth. pp. 47 and 246).
8 The terms are kdrii, gilpin, vaidehaka, adhyaksha, and yukta. Megasth. writes (i, 7) : elvai 8' airrot/s avfi^alvei Kal irpos rds t^xvcl^ iTTiffTT^fiovas.
8 Chikitsaka, kugilava, gdyana and vddaka, nata or nartaka, and ganaka; also vdgjivin ' crier ' (?).
47 8 The Maury a Empire [ch.
guild, received official recognition \ In the workshops and the prisons (the latter periodically emptied^) artisans were engaged on contract or in penal tasks ; and there is a * spinning house ' for the labour of widows and other helpless or unfortunate women ^
Permanent associations in civil life include trader and merchant guilds {(^reni) and clubs {pugaY ; but there were also temporary combinations of workmen and others engaged under corporate responsibility for the execution of contracts ^ Collective obstruc- tion was known and penalised*^.
Trade^ was active, various, and minutely regulated. The precious wares comprise many species of gold, silver, spices^ and cosmetics from all parts of India ; jewels, including pearls from Southern India, Ceylon, and beyond the sea ; skins from Central Asia and China ; muslin, cotton, and silk from China and Further India. The best horses came, as now, from the Indus countries and beyond. The merchant was mulcted in dues at the frontier^, by road-taxes and tolls, and by octroi at the gates of the cities, where the royal officials maintained a douane and watch-house^: he was required to be armed with a passport^*', and severe penalties were attached to malpractices in connexion therewith. The officials record in writing ' who the merchants are, whence they come, with what merchandise, and where it has been vise'd.' The country produce also was subject to octroi upon entry, and, to ensure that nothing might escape, there were prohibitions of purchase in part or in bulk at the place of origin in farms, orchards, and gardens". The amount and price of all goods was declared, and the sale was by auction, any enhancement accruing to the treasury. Combina- tions to affect prices were punishable ^^ ; an army of spies was engaged on the routes in order to detect false declarations ^^ Tlie prices of ordinary goods were fixed and proclaimed daily by the officials^*. Similarly all weights and measures were subject to in-
^ Qrerpmukhya (Hopkins, op. cit., pp. 81 — 2; Fick, Die Sociale Gliederung, pp. 166-8).
2 Arth. p. 146. ^ Arth. 40 {sutrddhyaksha) .
* A puga is defined as ' an association of persons of different caste and unspecified profession for purposes of business or pleasure.' On greni see Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 81-2 ; ace. to Foy, op. cit. p. 14 n., it was a subdivision of a caste.
6 Arth. 66 {SambhuyasamuttMna) ; cf. also 76-7; Manu, vm, 211.
6 zbid. p. 204. *
7 For various kinds of merchandise, see Hopkins, op. cit. p. 91 n.
8 One fifth of the value ace. to Arth. 40.
9 (jiilkasthdna, ghatikasthdna (ibid. p. 110). i" mudrd (ibid. 52). 11 Ibid. 40. 12 ji)ifi, p. 204. i^ Ibid. pp. 111-2.
" Hopkins, op. cit. p. 130 n. Every five days or every fortnight ace. to Manu, ▼ni, 401-2.
xix] State of Society 479
spection\ There were export, as well as import duties and octrois, and certain classes of goods were forbidden to be introduced or sent abroad respectively. The king himself was a great trader, disposing of the output of his factories, workshops, and prisons, and the produce of his lands, forests, and mines, for which he maintained store-houses {hoshthdgdra) through the country^. In particular he reserved the right of coining and other work in silver and gold, which was executed by his officials on behalf of those who brought their raw metaF.
The state of society corresponding to this activity of trade, to the traffic on high roads {rdjapatha * routes royales ') and by-roads {hanikpatha 'merchant roads'), the bustle at frontiers, ferries, tolls, and city-gates, and to the minute regulation of all these, must have been one of considerable complexity. Nor do we lack the means, literary or illustrative, of becoming in part acquainted with it. Beside the statements of the Greek writers, we may gather abundant material from the Pali books of the Buddhist canon*, from the Artha9astra and the code of Manu, from Pataii- jali's commentary upon the grammar of Panini, and from the Ramayaiia and Mahabharata ; while the Buddhist stupas of Sanchi and Bharhut supply ocular demonstrations of much that is recorded in the literature. But from this material large deductions must be made : the Sanskrit Epics, and in a less degree the books of the Pali canon, reflect the circumstances of an earlier period — irrespective of the actual dates of composition — and we run the risk of confusing conditions as widely difierent as those of the Homeric, the Solonian, and the Periclean age in Greece. If we seek to elicit the special features of the Maurya epoch, we shall mark first of all the growth of luxury consequent upon the rise of the great Magadha empire in the east : in the Punjab, no doubt, in spite of the effeminacy which the Greeks observed in the court of Porus, the old tribal system was still prevalent. There the actual cultivator would still be a man of the three upper classes, while in the east he was generally a (^udra. It is to this period, no doubt, that we must ascribe the great complexity of the caste system, and the beginning of the association of caste with craft. It seems not doubtful that a number of castes did arise, according to the Brahman theory, by intermixtures of the old four divisions,
1 Arth. 37 (Txildmdnapotava).
" Manu, vra, 399 ; Kohler, Altindisches Prozetsrecht, p. 54 ; Foy, op. cit. pp. 51-2, 61 ; Jolly, op. cit., pp. 110-1. The king's trade-agent is rdjavaidehaka. 3 Arth. 31-2. * See Chapter vni, and Ehys Davids, Buddhist India, ni-vi.
480 The Maury a Empire [ch,
which still formed the basis : a process natural in itself, when intermarriage between the different classes was still licit, and certain to be specifically noted, while it is evidenced not only by the testimony of theological works, but also by so worldly a treatise as the Artha9astra. But it is only in a few cases that we find a particular occupation assigned to a particular caste ^
In another respect the old system of caste had received a shock. To the contemporaries of Buddha and Mahavira the conception of a king who was not of the Kshatriya order would have seemed preposterous. But the Mauryas were of low extraction, as M-^ere the Nandas whom they succeeded. Henceforth the spectacle of the low-born man in power was never a rarity in India ; and soon it was the foreigner. The vast empire, with its army of officials and spies, introduced a bureaucratic rule in place of the old quasi- feudal system. 1/ Foreign influences also begin to assert themselves. In the
stone architecture, which replaces wood in public monuments, as also in the style of the edicts of A9oka we have clear evidence of intercourse with Persia, which must necessarily have begun well before the fourth century^. And this advance in art affected religion also by its encouragement of image-worship^
As regards daily life, we find the public side of it sufficiently gay. The people were frugal in their diet, and sober, except on occasion of festivals. The chief display of luxury was in dress*. The inns, hostelries, eating-houses, serais, and gaming-houses are evidently numerous ; sects and crafts have perhaps their meeting places and the latter their public dinners^. The business of enter- tainment provides a livelihood for various classes of dancers, singers, and actors ^ Even the villages are visited by them, and the author of the Artha^astra is inclined to discourage the existence of a common hall used for their shows as too great a distraction from the life of the home and the fields^. At the same time there are penalties for refusal to assist in organising public entertainment. The king provides in amphitheatres constructed for the occasion dramatic, boxing, and other contests of men and animals, and also
1 Arth. 60.
' See Chapters xiv, pp. 329, 341; xxvi, pp. 621 — 2 ; Fergusson, Hist, of Indian and Eastern Architecture, index, s.v, Persepolitan Capitals ; Vincent Smith, History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, pp. 58 sqq. ; Griinwedel, Btiddhistiache Kunst in Indien, pp. 17 sqq. and Ch. 11.
3 Konow, Ind. Ant., 1909, pp. 145-9.
* Megasth. xxvii, 8-9.
6 Arth. 56. 8 Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 118, 176.
7 Arth. 19 (p. 48).
\
xix] Domestic Life 481
spectacles with displays of pictured objects of curiosity^ — no doubt the private showman with his pictures of Hades, etc., was also active — ; and not seldom the streets were lighted up for festivals and it was not penal to stir abroad. Then there were also the royal processions, when His Majesty went forth to view his city or to hunt^.
In domestic life the joint-family system prevails : but it can be dissolved. Boy and girl attain their majority at the age of sixteen and of twelve respectively^. Adoption — legitimated by the king — is common. There are the four regular and four irregu- lar forms of marriage, which is dissoluble by mutual consent or prolonged absence ^ The wife has her dowry and her ornaments, sometimes also her bride-gift, which are her private property and to a certain extent at her disposal in case of widowhood. Ill-usage on either side is punishable. Upon failure of male issue the husband may after a certain period take other vrives (of any class) ; but he is required to render justice to all : on the other hand, a widow is at liberty to marry again. Orphans are under the guardianship of their relatives^ The poor and helpless old, and in particular the families of soldiers and workmen dying during their employment, are regarded as deserving the king's care^. Concerning the ganiJcds, or public women, who were the king's servants, and whose practice and rights were subject to minute regulation, the Greek writers have told us enough^. Offences against wgmen of all kinds are severely visited, including the actions of officials in charge of workshops and prisons ; and their various imprudences and lapses are subject to a gradation of fines and penalties*. Refractory wives may be beaten (Manu, viii, 299).
In totally denying slavery Megasthenes went too far^ : in fact seven kinds of slaves are enumerated^" : but it is laid down that no Arya (* freeman,' here including the Qudroi) could be enslaved. A man might sell himself into slavery, and in times of distress children might be so provided for : also there were captives in
^ See Hardy in Album Kern, pp. 61-6, and A(?oka's Eock Edict, iv ; also Manu, ix, 84 and 223, and Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 124-5.
- Megasth. xxvn, 16-7 : er^pa 5' iarlv rj iwl rdj dvcrlas ?^o5oj- Tplrr] S' itri d-ijpav ^aKxiKTi Tts. Cf. Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 119-20.
'^ Arth. p. 154.
* Concerning marriage see Arth. 59. Manu, ix, 76 (absence) ; ix, 97 (bride-gift).
6 Manu, VIII, 27. e Arth. 19 (p. 47), 91 (p. 246); Mbh. xn, 86, 24.
7 Cf. Arth. 44.
** Arth. pp. 114, 146, chap. 87. The offence of killing a woman is equal to that of killing a Brahman: see Hopkins, The Four Castes, p. 98; Jolly, op. cit. pp. 116-7.
* See Chapter xyi, p. 416 ; and Arth. 65. ^° Manu, vn, 415.
C.H.I. I. 31
482 The Maury a Empire [ch.
war. In all cases the slave may purchase his freedom by any earnings acquired irrespective of his master's service, and ransom from outside cannot be refused. The slave woman who is taken to her master's bed thereby acquires freedom, as also do her children.
The progress of literature during the Maurya period is unfor- tunately for the most part matter for inference. Only three works, all in their way important, can with certainty be dated in or near it : these are the Artha9astra of Chanakya, the Mahabhashya, Patafijali's commentary on the grammatical Sutras of Panini, and the Pali Kathavatthu. The Vedic period, including the Brahmanas and the early Upanishads, was prior to Buddha, and the same may be said in principle of the SUtras, or manuals of rites, public and domestic, the Veddhgas, treatises on grammar, phonetics, prosody, astronomy, etymology, ritual, whatever may be the date of the treatises which have come down to us. Nor can the like be denied regarding the various forms of quasi-secular literature which are named in works of about this period, the Pur ana, or myth, the Itivritta, or legend, ATdiydyikd, or tale, Vdlcovdhya, or dialogued Some form of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, the former of which we infer from Megasthenes to have been current during this period, belongs also to an earlier epoch. One philosophical system, the Sankhya, seems to be prior to Buddhism : a second, the Vai9eshika, may have arisen in our period^. Finally, the canon of the Pali Buddhism and also that of the Jains, which is said to have been fixed at Pataliputra in 313 (312) B.C., and the system of the Lokayatas or Ajivikas, are also in substance pre-Maurya^
If we may conjecturally assign to this period any definite literary forms, these would be the ^dstra and the artificial poetry, or hdvya. The former, the most characteristic product of the Indian mind, is the formal exposition of a particular science in dogmatic enunciations accompanied by a discussion (bhdshya). Such are the grammatical work of Patanjali, the Artha9astra of Chanakya, the Kama^astra of Vatsyayana : the Dharma ^astra, or Law, followed an older model, that of the metrical treatise, and the Nyaya ^astra, or Logic, is a later creation. We cannot doubt also that many of the minor sciences {vidyds) and arts (Jcalds), which were from earlier times a subject of instruction, had already attained some systematic literary form*. As regards the artificial
1 Lists are given in the Mahabharata (see Hopkins, J.A.O.S., xiii, p. 112),
2 It is known to A<;vaghosha (SQtrdlamkdra) in the first century a.d,
3 See Jacobi, Kalpasutra, Introduction.
* A number of these are mentioned in the Brahmajdla Sutta of the Digha Nikdya.
I
xix] Writing: Language 483
epic, it is true that we have no positive evidence of its existence in Maurya times. But the Buddhacharita of Acvaghosha, which dates from the first century A.D., presents a perfect and stereotyped form, indicating a long preparation.
That writing was in common use not only for literary purposes, but also in public business, the edicts of Acoka exist to prove. But this is by no means all. Epistolary correspondence was perfectly usuaP, and written documents were employed in the courts of law^ : moreover, the administration was versed in book- keeping and registration on a large scale and systematically arranged ^ And we have already the beginnings of a study of style and a vocabulary of exegesis*.
Sanskrit remained the language of the Brahman schools, of public and private ritual, and also of secular literature, except perhaps in the case of folk poesy ^. In the life of every day and also in administration, furthermore in the sectarian books of the Buddhists and Jains, a vernacular was employed ; and from the Edicts of A^oka three such vernaculars are known, one of which, that of Magadha, probably profited by its central position at the headquarters of the empire to encroach upon the others^ The Sanskrit was perhaps favoured in cultured circles, and especially in the cities ; and social ambition, hampered by insufficient training, began to foster a hybrid form of speech, now known as 'mixed Sanskrit,' which subsequently established itself as a literary medium in certain Buddhist schools, when the canonical vernaculars, them- selves by no means dialectically pure, had already become stereotyped^.
We shall not trespass further on the province of the historian of language and literature. Nor need we dwell at length upon the likewise special topics of religion and law. Nevertheless there is an aspect of these which appertains to general history.
There can be little doubt that the Maurya empire began with
1 Arth. 28; also pp. 29 and 38. Starabo (xv, 67 and 73) mentions writing on eloth.
2 Megasthenea denies written laws. Written documents are well avouched; see Manu, vni, 168.
=* See below, pp. 487-8. In Arth. p. 62, we hear of a Becord Boom {nibandhapug- takasthdna) in the Treasury.
* Arth. 28 and 180.
5 On this subject see the discussion in J.R.A.S. (1913), and reff. ;,also Prof. Jacobi's paper Was ist Sanskrit? in Scientia, xiv.
^ Senart, Inscriptions de Piyadasi, n, pp. 434-5.
7 The priority of the Pali style is clearly shown by Prof. Oldenberg, G.G.N. , 1912, pp. 156 sqq.
31—2
484 The Maury a Empire [ch.
a Brahman, as well as a national, reaction \ The age of Buddha was one in which religious speculation was rife. Originally a product of the Brahman hermitages, it had offered irresistible attractions to a people wearied of ritual formality. Innumerable sects arose ; it became a common undei'standing^ that from any class a man could go forth, abandoning his home, and found or join a sect of wandering disputants or ascetics. The Greek writers combine with the Buddhist and Jain books and the edicts of A^oka in testifying to the ubiquity of the pravrajitas or (^amtianas (Gk. aap^avai, (rapfiavatoiy. We cannot doubt that this would in the end constitute a danger to the established order and an offence to the Brahman caste. The Brahman, in the Vedic age a priest, had long ceased to be primarily so. It is true that in public and private ritual the priestly function was his, and he was entitled to the emoluments thereof: also the Purohita, or king's spiritual adviser, was one of the highest and most indispensable officers of state. It was, moreover, customary to consult the forest-dwelling Brahmans upon high political matters*, and in the law-courts the sacred law was stated by Brahman assessors ^ Nevertheless, as has been well said, the Brahman was not a person who fulfilled a sacred function — in particular, the service of a temple has always been regarded as demeaning him — but a person who was sacred. He was exempt from taxation and confiscation, from corporal chastisement and the death penalty, branding and banishment being in his case the ultima ratio^. His true office was study and teaching, and his proper abode was the forest hermitage, where he maintained the sacred fires and lived for another world. An order such as this, established in customary respect and daily observance, was obviously threatened by the intervention of proselitising sects of impromptu origin, making claims upon the livelihood of the people, and interposing in formal and informal gatherings with fundamental problems. We can therefore well understand why the Artha9astra (Chap. 19) forbids the practice of abandoning domestic life without formal sanction and without provision for wife and family ; and we look forward with confidence to the great doctrine of the Bhagavadgita, that grand pillar of Brahmanism, that salva-
1 Lassen, op. cit. 11, p. 213.
» See Mbh. xn, 63, 23; Megasth. xxxn, 12; and Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, pp. 141 sqq,
3 Rock Edict, xiii ; Megasth. xli, 19. The v\6§ioi are the Sanskrit vdnapratthas.
* Megasth. xmi, 19 ; Mbh. xii, 86, 26.
6 Manu, VIII, 10 ; Hopkins, op. cit. p. 159.
« Arth. p. 220; Manu, vni, 123-4, 380; Mbh. xii, 56, 32-3 ; Megasth. i, 40.
XI x] Religion: Law 485
tion is attainable not by the rejection of civil duty, but in and above the performance of it. Accordingly we see in the Maurya age the beginning of a stage of concentration, in which only a few great sects could maintain themselves by the side of a settled Brahman orthodoxy. And this was a natural corollary of a great empire.
Among the Brahman deities the greatest share of popular adoration accrued to Qiva and Vishnu (under the form of Krishna), whom the Greeks report to us as Dionysus and Heracles respec- tively ^ With the former was associated Skanda or Vi9akha, the god of war. The Buddhist books and sculptures, which give the preference to Brahma and Indra, are in this respect archaising, ^iva was specially worshipped in the hill regions^ ; of the Vishnu cult the great centre was Mathura^ the second home of the Krishna legend, which first arose in Western India. The Jains were probably still mostly to be found in Bihar and Ujjain, while the Buddhist expansion had perhaps even in the lifetime of the founder attained a far wider range.
Of law the bases are defined as, in ascending order of validity, sacred precept {dharma), agreement {vyavdhdra), custom (charitra), and royal edicts (raja^anay, and the subject is ex- pounded rationally, not theologically. Civil law is treated under the heads of marriage and dowry, inheritance, housing and neigh- bourhood (including trespass), debt, deposit, slaves, labour and contract, sale, violence and abuse, gaming, and miscellanea^. Cases were heard — in the morning — before a triad of officials together with three Brahman exponents of law® ; and there were rules as to the circumstances in which agreements were valid, and as to procedure in court, with plea, counterplea, and rejoinder^. We learn from various sources that cases were commonly disposed of locally by reference to a body of arbitrators {panchdyat), per- manent or constituted ad hoc, or by the officials of various grades ; and there was a system of appeals as far as the king, who was regularly present in court or represented by a minister {prdd- vivdka). Offences against caste or religion were tried by com- mittees entitled parishads. Trials by wager or ordeal were also common. The penalties, reasonably graduated and executed by
1 Megasth. i, 29-37; l. 2 j^j-^. j^ 33. ^^ 3 jj,i^, j^^ 13.
* Arth. 58 (p. 150). Custom includes the customs of villages, gilds, and families (Manu, VIII, 41). For a general survey of the history of law and legal institutions see Chapter xii.
' Arth. 57-75. Manu (vm, 3 sqq.) mentions 18 heads of legal action.
8 Arth. 57; Manu, uv, 10. In Manu vm, 60, three witnesses are the minimum.
7 Arth. 57.
486 The Maury a Empire [ch.
royal authority, include fines (these, and also debts, often com- niutable for forced labour^), whipping, mutilation, and death with or without torture. In cases of assault the principle familiar in the modern proverb 'first at the Thana' is already known, but disputed^.
Under the title 'clearing of thorns'^ are included criminal law, political ofiences, in particular misconduct on the part of ofiicials, and the general business of police. Among the cases contemplated we may cite theft, murder, burglary or forcible entry, poisoning, coining, injury to property, criminal negligence, contumelious violation of caste rules*, boycott and other acts of employees, combinations to affect prices, fraud in regard to weights and measures. In all these matters the magistrates (pradeshtri, revenue and police officers) were assisted by an army of spies and agents-provocateurs, who in times of fiscal difficulty were also empowered to adopt the most reprehensible expedients for squeez- ing the well-to-do ^ If the Greek writers are to be trusted when they report a rarity of offences among the Indians^, this was plainly not due to a state of innocence even as regards elaborate criminal acts.
We now come to the matter of government and administration, which we may treat with a little more system.
Beginning with the civil administration and at its base, we find already in operation that system of village autonomy under the headman {gramani, an official nominee), which has prevailed in India at all periods. Through him, no doubt, there was a joint responsibility for the assignment and payment of the land revenue, and consequently for the proper cultivation of the fields, which foiling, the occupier might be replaced by the village servants'^. In consultation with the elders, the village panchayat, he would also decide all questions relating to the customary rights and duties of the village barber, washerman, potter, blacksmith, and so on. His superiors were the gopa in charge of five or ten villages and sthdnika theoretically ruUng one quarter of the realm ^, each attended by executive, revenue, and police officials. By some texts ^ further official gradations are recognised, and in the edicts of A9oka the highest local officials, set over hundreds of
1 Manu, vm, 177 (debt), ix, 229 (fines).
■^ Arth. 73 (p. 196). » ^rth. 7&-88.
* Manu, vn, 267 sqq. » Arth. 90; Mbh. xn, 130, 36.
■« Megasth. xxvn. 7 jirth. 19 (p. 47).
8 Arth. 19.
^ Manu, vu, 115 ; Mbh. xa, 87, 2 sqq. ; Hopkins, op. cit. p. 84.
XI x] Ministers 487
thousands of persons, are termed rdjukas, a designation pointing, no doubt, to functions connected with survey, land settlement, and irrigation \ The superior of all these, to whom they reported successively, was one of the great ministers of state, the samdhartri, or Minister of the Interior and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This important officiaP dealt with the whole income of the state, including that of the Royal domains. The main heads are (1) the proportion of the produce of land, which in India accrues immemorially to the king in lieu of rent, (2) the minor dues and cesses connected therewith^, (3) the special income from irrigated land, and that from pastures, forests, mines, and other works, (4) the customs at the frontiers, the transport dues at ferries, etc., the road dues and tolls, the octroi at the city gates, the profits of coinage, and the various profits consequent upon the methods of sale, (5) the fees exacted as licences from workmen, craftsmen, traders and professionals, gaming houses and passports*, (6) the fines derived from the law courts, also ownerless property^, and (7) special taxes, as it were tithes, for religious objects. In times of straitness there were also 'benevolences'*^ exacted, but in theory only once, from the well-to-do. Under expenditure we understand without difficulty the maintenance of the sovereign and his court, the salaries — which the Artha9astra (Chap. 91) carefully defines — of the ministry and the vast army of minor officials and spies, religious provisions, the demands of the army and its equipment, including forts, the expense of mines, forests, etc., and of public works such as roads, irrigation, etc., which was regarded as the function of the state, the maintenance of the families of slain soldiers, officials dying during employment, and finally of helpless persons". We have here matter for the work of a large establish- ment and an elaborate clerical system ; and we learn in fact from
1 Biihler, Z.B.M.G., xlvii, pp. 466 sqq.
» Arth. 24 and 54 ; Manu, vn, 60.
' See Manu, vn, 127 sqq. The normal proportion is one-sixth; see Hopkins, Tlie Four Castex, p. 77. But one-fourth in addition to rent is mentioned by Megasthenes (v. sup. p. 475, n. 1). The mention of rent is contrary to our Indian information and constitutes a problem.
4 Arth. 52 ; Manu, vn, 137-8.
* Arth. 60; Manu, vin, 30-8; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 122-3.
* Pranaya or priti (to be demanded only once) : see Arth. 90, Hopkins, op. dt. pp. 78, 86, 90-1.
7 Arth. 19 (p. 47), 91 (p. 246); Mbh. xn, 77, 18, 86, 24; Hopkins, J.A.O.S., xra, p. 107. Stolen property, if untraced, was also to be made good by the State; of. Mbh. XII, 75, 10.
488 The Maury a Empire [ch»
the Artha9a8tra (Chaps. 25-7) that the business of the Treasury was carefully and minutely organised, with distinctions of current,, recurrent, occasional, and other expenditure and various checks. Moreover, both in town and country the various grades of officials maintained full registers both of property and of the population \ Thus the bifurcating roots of a vast administration — no doubt more effective in theory than in practice — connected the individual taxpayer with the crown.
Another important minister was the sannidhdtriy or Minister of Works ^, who had charge of storehouses, treasuries, prisons, armouries, warehouses and the like. An interesting item in his. duties was the maintenance of a rain-gauge^. We shall not dwell upon the pradeshtri^, or head of the executive revenue and judicial service, or the pragctstri, or Minister of Correspondence^ who was responsible for the drafting of decrees and royal letters^^ nor, of course, upon the numerous adhyakshas, or superintendents, the Episcopi of the Greek writers, in charge of minor departments. The other great officers of state were the dauvdrika, Chamberlain or Master of the Ceremonies, the cintarvam^ika or Head of the Bodyguard, and the four indispensable chiefs who formed the inner cabinet, namely the mantrin, i.e. Diwan or Prime Minister^ the purohita, or religious adviser, the sendpati, or Commander- in-Chief, and the yuvardja, or Heir Apparent. In the provinces were the various antapdlas, or Guardians of Frontiers, and durgapdlas, or Commanders of Forts, while the great empire of the Mauryas found a place also for the Viceroy {upardja), no doubt attended by his own, minor, court. The functions of ambassadors are clearly recognised, with distinctions of pleni- potentiary, envoy, and instructed emissary, and rules for their behaviour are enunciated^. The chief ministers were in many cases hereditary and, except in the instance of the Purohita, they would be more often of Kshatriya, than of Brahman, caste (Manu, VII, 54).
As regards the government of cities, we hear of the mayor {ndgarakay, under whom as in the country districts are sthdnikas and gopas, whose duties similarly include the keeping of registers-
1 Arth. 54-6. ^ j^jd, 23. ^ j^^-^. p. 58.
* On his duties see J.R.A.S., 1914, pp. 383-6. » Arth. 28.
6 Arth. 12; Manu, vii, 63-7. A list of officials may be seen also in Hopkins^ op. cit. pp. 128, 129 n.
' Arth. 56 ; Manu, vii, 121 ; Mbh. xii, 87, 10. In virtue of his general functions, he is entitled, like the premier, sarvdrthachintaka, ' thinker upon all matters ' ; cf. Foy^ op. cit. p. 76.
XI xj The Military 489
of persons and property. All inns, hostels, serais, and places of entertainment are under surveillance, and reports are received concerning strangers and frequenters. Then there are the various superintendents of works and dues, of sales, weights and measures, of store-houses and so forth. According to Strabo many of these duties were discharged by boards of five {panchdyatsY, and he enumerates six such boards, whose respective functions have already been described in Chapter xvi. No doubt the system varied from place to place, and it may have differed according as the city was capital or provincial, subject to a sovereign or independent {^tjfioKparovfievT], avT6vo/jio<;, as according to Megas- thenes^ most of them had at one time been). We may think of the difference between a royal borough and free town in our own middle ages.
Coming now to the military, we find that the native Indian accounts present a view of the case rather less simple than does Megasthenes^
According to these accounts the military might consist of troops of different kinds, namely hereditary or feudatory troops, hired troops, gild levies, and forest tribes*. In the first named, which were regarded as the most trustworthy, we may doubtless recognise the old Kshatriya division of society, connected by caste, and ultimately by race, with the king himself, such as in later times we find them in the quasi-feudal states of Rajputana. In the second class also the Kshatriya element would probably pre- dominate, though here there would be, no doubt, a career for any bold adventurer with a strong arm and a soldierly bent As concerns the gild troops, which are plainly regarded as having a chiefly defensive character^, there is some room for doubt : were they merely the ordinary trade gilds, as an organisation for calling out the people for service in time of invasion, a sort of militia or landwehr ? Or were they quasi-military corporations^, such as the modern Brinjaras, whose business was to supply merchants and others with armed protection of a quasi-professional character? While refraining from a decisive pronunciation, we cannot but incline in the circumstances to the former alternative,
^ XV, C. 708. A panchdyat is mentioned in connexion with town administration in the passage from the Mahabharata, ap. Hopkins, op. cit. p. 85 n.
2 I, 32; xxxn, 4; xxxrv, 7. * See Chapter xvi, p. 410.
* Arth. 137 ; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 185 sqq.
5 They are for • short expeditions ' and less quickly assembled {Arth. pp. 341 and 346); of. Hopkins, op. cit. p. 94; Manu, vin, 41.
e On these see Arth. 160 (p. 376).
49 o ^'^^ Maury a Empire [ch.
for which the gilds of medieval Europe supply a fair analogy, and which is supported by the defensive character of the force. In any case the gild troops were regarded as in military value inferior to the men-at-arms. The forest tribes, employed like the Red Indians in the French and English wars of North America, or like other untrained auxiliaries in the armies of Greece and Rome, were destined for the service of distracting or detaining the enemy rather than for the actual crises of campaigns^.
The main divisions of the army were the elephant corps, the cavalry, and the foot : to which should be added the foragers and camp-followers. There was a scientific distinction of vanguard, centre, rear, wings, reserve, and camp, with elaborate discussions of formations on the march and in battle, attack and defence, and the value and employment of the several arms^. Equipment was in considerable variety, including fixed and mobile engines, such as ' hundred-slayers '^ Such instruments were, of course, familiar even to the early nations of Mesopotamia, as were also the con- struction and siege of forts. The Indian forts were, as we have seen, systematically designed, with ditches, ramparts, battlements, covered ways, portcullises, and water-gates ; and in the assault the arts of mining, countermining, flooding mines were employed no less than the devices of diplomacy*. In short, the Indians possessed the art of war. If all their science failed them against Alexander, and against subsequent invaders, we may conjecture, in accordance with other aspects of Indian thought, the reason that there was too much of it. In the formation adopted by Porus, the elephants and chariots in front and the infantry in the rear, we may perhaps detect an agreement with the precepts of the books ^ As regards the ethics of fighting, the Greeks received an impression of some- thing not unchivalrous ; and here too we may recall the written precepts as to fair fighting, not attacking the wounded or those already engaged or the disarmed, and sparing those who surren- dered^.
It is in foreign policy that we find the culmination of the Indian genius for systematic exposition, the principles being those of Machiavelli^. Policy has not large aims ; the mainspring is the
1 Arth. 12 (p. 31) ; Mbh. xii, 59, 48.
' Arth. 107 sqq. ; Manu, vii, 187 sqq. ; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 191 sqq., 201 sqq. 3 Arth. 36; Hopkins, op. cit. p. 178 n., pp. 293-4 and nn. « Arth. 168. « Arth. 153-7; Mbh. xir, 99, 8.
« Manu, vn, 90 sqq. ; Mbh. xn, 95, 6 sqq. ; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 227 sqq, 7 Arth. 98 sqq.; Manu, vn, 155 sqq.; Formichi, GV Indiani e la loro scienza Politica, pp. 89 sqq.
xix] Polity 49 1
rivalry of kings and the much applauded desire for glory and imperial rule. Already we find worked out in pedantic detail the not unreasonable principle that the neighbouring state is the enemy and the alternate one the ally. The varying circumstances decide in which of the six gunas, or situations, the monarch finds himself, whether aggressor, defender, or tertius gaiideiis, and to which of the four expedients, war, conciliation, bribery, or dissen- sion, he must have recourse. Here the arts of treachery and overreaching attain a climax : even in war there is a whole science of sowing suspicion among allies, treason in armies, disafifection or revolt in kingdoms (Manu, vii, 199 sqq. ; Mhh. xii, 103).
Of the polity which we have outlined, the only polity approved by Indian science, the keystone was the sovereign. Even in the Vedic age the prevailing system was monarchical^ Nevertheless the Vedas afford evidence of tribes in which the chief authority was exercised by a family, or even, as in the case of the German nations described in the work of Tacitus, by a whole body of nobles, who are actually designated kings ^ Of such ruling oligarchies the age of Buddha furnishes, as is well known, a number of examples : such were the Mallas of Kusinara and the Licchavis of Vesali. To these oligarchical communities the growth of the great kingdoms proved destructive : at the time of Alexander's invasion they had largely disappeared from eastern Hindustan, and in the Punjab also Porus was working for their subjugation^. The Artha^astra (Chaps. 160-1) has even a policy of compassing their overthrow by internal dissension. Nevei-theless, a number of them survived through and after the Maurya empire*, and one of them, that of the Malavas, handed down to later India its first persistent era, the so-caUed Vikrama era, which is still the common era of northern India.
In the monarchies the king controls the whole administration, and by his spies ^ keeps watch upon every part of it. He is recommended^ to check his officials by division and frequent change of functions. Nevertheless, the Indian king is no sultan with the sole obligation of satisfying his personal caprice. The origin of royalty is the growth of wickedness and the necessity of chastisement, the virtue of which the Indian writers celebrate with
^ Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 162 sqq.
^ Rhys Davids, Btiddhist India, pp. 1 sqq. ; Jayaswal, An Introdtiction to Hindu Polity, pp. 3 sqq.
* Jayaswal, op. cit. pp. 1-7.
* See Chapter xxi, p. 528.
« Classified in Arth. 8-9. . « Ibid. 22 (p. 57), 27 (p. 70).
492 The Maury a Empire [ch.
a real enthusiasm \ It is as guardian of the social (including domestic and religious) order and defence against anarchical oppression that the king is entitled to his revenue ; failing to perform this duty, he takes upon himself a corresponding share of the national sin ^. Educated in these precepts among a moralising people, he would have been more than human had he escaped the obsession of this conception of his duties. Hence we not seldom hear on royal, as well as on priestly, lips the expression that the king should be the father of his peopled
His education is in philosophy, Vedic lore, business, and the science of polity*: he is also to receive the ordinary instruction in mathematics and literature ^ He must attain to complete control of his passions by consideration of the errors of famous men in the past. He must never be off his guard or lacking in forced
His occupations are mapped out with a minuteness which in the literature is a subject of humorous comment '^. The day and the night are divided by sundial or water-clock each into eight portions. Aroused by music at the end of the sixth nocturnal hour, he receives the salutations of his Purohita and others, and interviews the doctors and kitchen officials : then he reflects upon the principles of polity and forms his plans, after which he sends out his secret emissaries, and hears reports of his military and financial advisers. Next comes the hour for appearing in the Audience Hall or in the Law Courts ^, and considering the affairs of the public, which has free admission. After this the king retires for his bath and repast ; and this is also the time for religious devotions. The interval passed, he receives those who bring gifts, interviews his inspectors, corresponds by letter with his ministers, and makes plans of espionage. The sixth hour having now arrived, he takes his ease and reconsiders his policy. In the seventh and eighth hours, the cool of the day, he inspects his horses, elephants, and arsenal, and consults with the Commander- in-Chief : at sunset he performs the usual religious ceremony. The
1 Mbh. xii, 59 and 121-2; Manu, vii, 14 sqq. ; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 135 sqq.
2 cf. Hopkins, op. cit. p. 78.
' IbiA. pp. 113 sqq. ; Manu, vn, 80.
* Arth. 1 ; Manu, vn, 43.
' The king Kharavela of Kalinga is educated in writing, arithmetic, law, and all sciences. Cf. Arth. 2 and Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 108 sqq.
8 Energy, utthdna, ' alertness ' (Hopkins, op. cit. p. 125), is the favourite word.
7 See also Chapter xvi, p. 416. Arth. 16; Manu, vn, 145 sqq., 217 sqq.; Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 129 sqq. ; Formichi, op. cit. pp. 65 sqq. For the humorous comment see Da^akumdracharita, viii, sui. init.
* Megasth. xxvn, 16.
xix] The Palace 4.93
first hour of night brings in the reports of spies. Then come the second bath and meal, followed by religious meditation. To the sound of music His Majesty retires for rest.
The palace^ is a walled building, with the women's apartments, gardens, and tanks in the rear. In front of these is the innermost court, where the king on awakening is saluted by the various domestic officials, and, according to Aelian (xiii, 22) also by an elephant. The " next is the station of a sham body-guard of dwarfs, hunchbacks, wild men, etc. ; while the outermost of all, communicating with the exterior, is occupied by an armed retinue, and by ministers and connexions.
Everything bespeaks precaution. The structure of the palace itself includes mazes, secret and undergi'ound passages, hollow pillars, hidden staircases, collapsible floors. Against fire, poisonous animals, and other poisons there is diverse provision, including trees which snakes avoid, parrots and ^drikd birds which cry out on seeing a serpent, other birds which are variously afiected by the sight of poison. Everyone has his own apartments, and none of the interior officials are allowed to communicate with the outside. The women are carefully watched by attendants, male and female ; not even their relatives are admitted to them, except in time of childbirth or illness. All employees coming from without, such as nautch women, undergo bath and massage and change their dress before admission. Material objects, as they pass in and out, are placed on record and under seal. According to Megasthenes (xxvii, 15), the king changes his apartment every night.
The kitchen is in a secret place, and there is a multitude of tasters. The signs of poison in the viands and in the demeanour of the persons are carefully noted. Medicaments must pass similar tests. The instruments of the shampooer and others must be handled by the body-guard, and the persons themselves bathed, etc. : articles of ornament and apparel are inspected by female slaves ; cosmetics, etc., are first tried on those who apply them. If actors are admitted, the orchestra and other appurtenances separate them from the spectator. The king rides or drives in the company of high officials. When he embarks upon a ship, the same is the case ; no other vessel must be near, and troops are stationed on the shore. Similar precautions attend the hunt. Foreign emissaries are received in durbar, and the king inspects his troops armed and mounted on elephant or horse. In his progresses the roads are
1 Arth. 17-18.
494 ^^^ Maurya Empire [ch. xix
lined on both sides by police who keep away all armed persons, ascetics, and cripples : he never enters a crowd ^ Should he take part in a procession, banquet, festival, or wedding, it is in full retinue.
The question of grown-up princes — that problem of polygamous sovereignties — receives careful consideration : for princes, like crabs, devour their parents^. Shall they be kept at hand, or aloof? if the latter, shall it be in a specified locality, in a frontier fort, in a foreign country, in rustic seclusion ? or finally, shall they be put out of the way ? In any case, they are to be under surveil- lance, and at need betrayed by agents-provocateurs. The good son is to be made Commander-in-Chief or Heir Apparent, and in general the eldest is to be preferred. But a single son, if mis- behaving, must by some expedient be replaced. The Arthagastra even contemplates a joint-family sovereignty, as exempt from the difficulties attending succession^.
It would seem that the states contemplated by the Indian science of Polity are of moderate extent. With the great empires, and in particular with that of the Mauryas, comes in the institution of Viceroys, or uparajas^, for example at Ujjain and Taxila. It has been suggested that it was the Alexandrian invasion that gave the impetus to the foundation of a single sovereignty embracing the greater part of India. This is sufficiently refuted by the facts : and indeed the conception of a Universal Emperor is quite familiar in the Vedic period : we may even believe that the conception was brought into India by the Aryans, who must have known of the great Mesopotamian powers. If we must seek for any foreign influence in Maurya times, we should think rather of the Achaemenids, whose dominions extended to the Indus. As is well known (v. sup. p. 480), the architecture of the period, and also the style of Anoka's edicts, show definite traces of Persian influence ; and the expressions ' the king's eye ' and * the king's ear,' occurring in the Arthacastra (pp. 175 and 328), seem to furnish literary indications pointing in the same direction.
1 Arth. 18 (p. 45). 2 jud. 13-4.
3 Ibid. 14 ; cf. Hopkins, op. cit. p. 139 n. * Cf. Pick, op. cit. p. 86.
CHAPTER XX
AgOKA, THE IMPERIAL PATRON OF BUDDHISM
The son and successor of Chandragupta is in Buddhist litera- ture known as Bindusara, whereas the Puranas give the name Nandasara or Bhadrasara : in such a matter the Buddhist testimony would have superior authority. The Greeks use instead of the name a title, Amitrochates = Sanskrit Amitraghdta, 'slayer of the foe,' a form which is quoted, perhaps with reference to this king, in the grammatical work of Pataiijali^.
From Greek sources we learn concerning Bindusara only that he was in communication with Seleucus Nicator, from whom he received an envoy named Daimachus and solicited the purchase of sweet wine, figs, and a philosopher, the last named being refused on the ground that the sale of a sophist was not in accordance with Greek usage ^. The second Ptolemy, Philadelphus, also dispatched a representative, Dionysius, whose memoirs are unfortunately not preserved.
The Puranas attribute to Bindusara a reign of twenty-five years, the Pali books one of twenty-seven or twenty-eight. Whether he earned, or merely assumed, his soubriquet, we do not learn ; but it is clear that he maintained intact the dominions inherited from Chandragupta. He had to deal with disafiection in Taxila, a city which was also to give trouble to his successor. It was allayed by the despatch of that destined successor, his son A9oka^
The events and occurrences of the life of A9oka, as we know them from the sole trustworthy source, namely his own inscriptions, are as follows. In the ninth year after his coronation he efiected the conquest of the Kaliiiga country, i.e. Orissa with the Ganjam District of Madras. The slaughter and suffering which attended the conquest produced upon his mind such an impression that it proved the turning-point in his career. He joined the Buddhist
1 Mahdbhdshya, m, 2, 88. For 'A/wrpox^TTjj (Athenaeus xiv, 67) Strabo has 'AWiTpoxddwt. ^ See Chapter xvn, p. 433.
Agokdvaddna { = IHvydvaddna, xxvi), pp. 371 f.
49^1 Aqoka [CH.
order as a lay disciple, and thus subjected himself to the influence of ideas of which he was destined to be one of the greatest propa- gators. His active devotion to that faith began, however, two and a half years later, about the end of the eleventh year from his coronation, when he became a member of the Saiigha, or order of monks, and in that capacity travelled from place to place, like the wandering Buddhist and Jain brothers, displaying energy, as he phrases \i\ This energy took the form of visits and gifts to Brahmans, ascetics, and old people, instructions and discussions relating to the Buddhist Dharma, or religious rules and principles. At the end of this tour, which he claims to have had important results, not however very clearly indicated, he issued the first of his religious proclamations, an exhortation to his ofiicials to adopt the like principle of energetic action ; and he also orders that his missive should everywhere be engraved upon rocks and on stone pillars, where such existed. The practice of carving Buddhist sentiments in this manner on conspicuous objects was afterwards to receive a very wide extension, as is still visible in Tibet, in Central Asia, in China, and throughout the Buddhist world. During the following two years, the thirteenth and fourteenth, A9oka'8 activity must have been at its height. He issued no fewer than sixteen missives, of which fourteen are found engraved, in one corpus, in places as far distant as the extremities of his empire, at Girnar in Kathiawar, at Mansehra and Shahbazgarlii in the Punjab, and twelve of the same with two others at Dhauli and Jaugada in Orissal In these records, which seem to have been engraved in his fourteenth year, A9oka gives an account of the administrative and other measures which he had adopted. He had been active in causing wells to be dug by the roads, in providing medical aid for men and animals (perhaps a reference to animal hospitals, now known as Panjroles), and in propagating medical or useful plants ; and this not only in his own dominions, but in those of the neighbouring, independent and quasi-independent, states of South India and the north-west frontier, nay, even as far as the Greek kingdom of Antiochus and beyond. Then he had made regulations restricting the slaughter of animals for food and especially on occasions of festivals and public shows. He had issued eloquent appeals for kindness and consideration in family relationships, in dealings with Brahmans and teachers, in the
1 Edict of Sahasram, etc.
2 The Orissa versions omit nos. xi-xin of the other groups and append two special ones.
xx] Benevolent Institutions 497
mutual attitudes of different sects ; further, he had denounced what he regarded as excess of profitless (i.e. Brahman) ceremony in public and private life, and had inculcated economy, earnestness, and mutual exhortation. For the gay progresses of his predecessors on their hunting and holiday excursions (see Chapter xvi, pp. 416-7) he had substituted edifying spectacles and pious conferences ; and he had arranged that he should himself always, even in his most private hours, be accessible to urgent calls — a serious inroad upon the strict apportionment of the royal time which we have detailed above (p. 492). Finally, in his thirteenth year he had instituted quinquennial circuits of the leading officials for the purpose of proclaiming the moral law as well as for the discharge of their normal functions. In the fourteenth year he appointed high officials, entitled dharma-mahdmdtras, with the duty of incul- cating piety, redressing misfortune or wrong, organising charitable endowments and gifts. Some of these officers stood in special relation to the establishments, and benevolences, of his various relatives, and the operations of others extended even to the foreign countries to which allusion has been made above.
The next objects of A9oka's solicitude were the unsubdued frontier peoples, and persons in the provinces who had incurred penalties, concerning whom we have the two edicts addressed to his officers at Dhauli and Jaugada in the Kalinga country. Towards both classes he expresses a paternal regard : he is anxious to win the confidence of the borderers ; and, as regards imprisoned persons, he solemnly exhorts his officials to make justice, patience, and forbearance the principles of their action. At the same time he gives instruction for the periodical public recitation of these admonitions, and repeats, for the benefit of the Kalinga officials, his intention of instituting quinquennial circuits. His sons, the Viceroys in Taxila and Ujjain, would follow a similar practice at intervals of three years.
The ensuing period of about twelve years has left little record in documents emanating from the emperor himself. But we may plausibly conjecture that A9oka now entered upon that com-se of religious foundations which has given him his unique reputation as a builder of Buddhist shrines. Eighty-four thousand religious edifices — a conventional high number in India — are ascribed to him, the chief sites being the places famed as having been visited by Buddha ; and he is said to have redistributed among them the relics of Buddha, which were originally portioned between eight favoured cities. The actual records are not at variance with such C.H.I. I. 32
49 8 Aqoka [ch»
a supposition. We know that in his thirteenth, and again in his twentieth, year he dedicated cave-dwellings in the Barabar hills for the use of monks of the Ajivika sect. In his fifteenth year he enlarged the stupa of the Buddha Kanakamuni, not far from Kapilavastu ; and during the twenty-first year he personally visited this site and that of Buddha's own birth-place, the garden of Lumbini, setting up commemorative pillars and in the latter case granting a remission of taxation. In this period would also fall the inscriptions which attest his growing attachment to the Buddhist order and doctrine, that which ordains ecclesiastical penalties for schism ^ and the address to the community of monks, which among the sayings of Buddha, containing nothing that has not been well said, selects certain passages as pre-eminently suited for instruction and meditation^.
At this point we should doubtless interpolate a series of events which were of high importance for the spread of Buddhism, and which, though not mentioned by the emperor himself, are among all the legendary matter that has gathered round his name the portion best entitled to credence. It is in the nineteenth year from Anoka's coronation, the twenty-first according to a proposed chronological emendation, that the Mahavamsa, the Pali history of Buddhism in India and Ceylon, places the Third Council, held under the emperor's patronage in the A9okarama at Pataliputra. The Council, occasioned by sectarian differences among the Buddhist confession, of which as many as eighteen divisions are named, was held under the presidency of a famous monk, named Moggaliputta Tissa, to be distinguished from another Tissa mentioned in the same accounts as brother and viceroy of A9oka : in the northern texts he is called Upagupta. It deliberated during a period of nine months ; and its ultimate decision is stated to have been in favour of the school of the Sthaviras, which after- wards prevailed in Ceylon. This remarkable gathering, though ignored by the northern Buddhists, can hardly be a fiction : it represents the culmination of the earlier form of Buddhism, which with the ensuing expansion was destined to undergo a profound modification of spirit. The ca6on of authoritative scriptures is stated to have been on this occasion definitely closed ; and in the Kathavatthu, composed at the time by Upagupta, we have a full record of the divergencies of opinion which led to its convention. Its dismissal was the signal for an organisation of the missionary activity which was already, as we have seen, included in the policy
1 Edict of Samath, KauQambI, and Sanchi. * Edict of Bhabra.
xx] Missionary Activity 499
of A9oka. The names of the chief evangelisers of the different provinces are carefully preserved to us. To Kashmir and Gandhara was sent Madhyantika, and to the Yavana or Greek country (Bactria?), Maharakshita ; southern India, in its several provinces, claimed the apostles Mahadeva (Mahishamandala), Rakshita ( Vana- vasa), Dharmarakshita a Yavana (Aparantaka), and Mahadhar- marakshita (Maharashtra) ; Majjhima proceeded to the Himalaya regions, and the fraternal pair Sona and Uttara, linked by the common vicissitudes of more than a single existence, to Suvarna- bhUmi, or a part of further India. That these are no mere legendary names we are permitted to know from some of the earliest sur- viving monuments of Buddhism, the stupas of Sanchi, dating from the second, or first, century B.C., where relics of some of them have actually come to light ^. But their fame has been eclipsed by that of the saints entrusted with the conversion of Ceylon, who are said to have been no other than Anoka's own children, his son the monk Mahendra and his daughter the nun Sanghamitra^. Accompanied by the sthaviras Rishtriya, Utriya, ^ambala, and Bhadi-asara, they received a becoming welcome from the king of Ceylon, Devanampiya Tissa, who with his people was ultimately converted, and founded in honour of the evangelists the Great Vihara, thenceforward the headquarters of Singhalese Buddhism. The special history of the island falls outside the scope of this chapter : the mission of the princely pair was treasured in the memory of Indian Buddhism ; and its dispatch has been supposed to be depicted in a fresco on a wall in one of the caves of Ajanta^.
We now return to Anoka's own rescripts, the concluding group of seven edicts, which are found inscribed upon pillars, the whole number at Delhi and six of them also at other spots in the central regions of Hindustan. They belong to the twenty-seventh and following year from the coronation. In tenor they open out no new courses of action, but repeat and continue the earlier prin- ciples. One of them, however, which will be textually introduced below (pp. 510-1), has an especial interest, as a recapitulation of the aims and measures of the reign.
The whole duration of A9oka'8 rule was, according to the concurrent testimony of the Brahman and Buddhist historians, 36-37 years, reckoned, no doubt, from his accession. He himself
^ See Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, pp. 285 sqq. ; Maisey, Sanchi, pp. 108-115; Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1910, pp. 425 f. For the gtupas of Sanchi see Chapter xxvi, pp. 627 ff. ^ On these relationships v. inf. p. 500. 3 Griffiths, PH. 94, 95. For the history of Ceylon see Chapter xxv,
32—2
Soo Aqoka [CH.
makes mention of his brothers and sisters^, a sufficient refutation of the legend that at his accession he began his reign by putting to death all the hundred other sons of Bindusara. His elder brother, known in northern literature as Susima, and in Pali books as Sumana, doubtless did incur the fate of a vanquished rival : and it is to the son of Susima, by name Nigrodha, that the king's conversion to Buddhism is ascribed 2. A full brother, Tissa, plays a considerable part in the Pali story. He is said to have been for a time viceroy, and to have joined the Buddhist order, along with Agni-Brahma, husband of Sanghamitra, in the fourth year after A9oka's coronation. A Chief Queen and her sons, no doubt the princes referred to as viceroys in Taxila and Ujjain, are mentioned in the edicts^, as also are the second queen KaruvakI and her son Ttvara. The Chief Queen, in the Ceylon records named Asan- dhimitra, may possibly have been the heroine of Anoka's youthful romance as Viceroy of Ujjain, the lovely maiden named Devi, of Vedisa (Vidi9a, the modem Bhilsa), mother of Mahendra and Sanghamitra*. Another romance is connected with the name of Tishyarakshita, represented as an attendant upon Asandhimitra and Chief Queen of A9oka's later years, who, enacting the part of Potiphar's wife, is stated to have occasioned the blinding of the emperor's eldest son and heir, Kunala, Viceroy of Taxila, and in a still later legend founder of the Buddhist dynasty of Khotan in Chinese Turkestan. The jealousy of Tishyarakshita is said to have been aroused also by A9oka's devotion to the sacred Banyan tree at Gaya, under which the son of ^uddhodana had attained to Perfect Enlightenment. And thus on the Sanchi stwpa, where we find carved the propitiatory procession to the tree, by which the threatened mischief was appeased^, we have an actual first or second century representation in art, though by no means a por-
1 Eock Edict v.
* According to the story Nigrodha was at the time about seven years old ! The date is, of course, irreconcilable with the edicts.
3 Pillar Edict vn.
* Mahendra is said to have been twenty years of age, and Sanghamitra eighteen, at the time of their ordination. As the former was bom fourteen years before the coronation, this brings us to the year 6 after that event, which is again hardly to be reconciled with the edicts. It was for Mahendra, who was ordained by Moggaliputta Tissa and who afterwards succeeded the latter as head of his followers, that A9oka built the A(jokarama at Pataliputra. As is well known, Mahendra is in the northern stories made the brother, and not the son, of A9oka, probably through confusion with Tissa. A son of Sanghamitra, Sumana by name, also became a monk. Of a daughter of A^oka, by name Charumati, a Nepal legend will be mentioned below (p. 501).
5 Foucher, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art, pp. 108-9. See also Chapter xxvi, p. 630, PI. XXII, 60.
xx] Foundation of Shrines and Cities 501
trait, of the great propagator of the Buddhist faith and moi-als and the imperially lavish founder of its shrines.
A9oka's activity in this latter respect is not proportionally evidenced by existing monuments. When the Chinese pilgrims refer, as they constantly do, to a ' stiipa of A^oka,' we cannot in strictness understand anything more than one of archaic style, such as are those still more or less intact at Sanchi or Bharhut or figured on their sculptures and elsewhere, nor are we allowed to ascribe en bloc to the emperor himself the pillars at Delhi, Allaha- bad, Sarnath, Rampiirva and in other places, on which his edicts are found inscribed : he himself forbids this, when he orders his edicts to be engraven on pillars, where such should be founds The only works of this nature particularised by him in the edicts relating to the places in question are the double enlargement of the stnpa of Konagamana at Nigllva, the pillar erected at the same place and that at the LumbinI garden : the cave-dwellings assigned to the Ajivika monks in the Barabar hills are not expressly stated to have been constructed by Anoka's orders. When we have added the stone railing round the Bodhi-tree, which seems to be figured on the stupa of Sanchi (v. sup. p. 500), we have completed the list of what can certainly be ascribed to him. But, no doubt, the remains of the palace, the A9okarama, the Kukku- tarama, and other erections at Pataliputra may be plausibly claimed for him^ ; and we may also mention the completion on his behalf, by the Yavana king Tushaspha, of the Sudar9ana tank in Junagarh, which had been begun by his grandfather Chandragupta^. For the rest we must be content to believe that the great reputation which he enjoyed in this respect had a solid foundation.
Two famous cities in frontier countries have a traditional claim to A9oka as founder. The former is ^rinagar, the capital of Kashmir, embracing the site of the old ^rinagari, which is con- nected with his name*. In Nepal the ancient city of Deo-Patan (Deva-pattana) and the adjacent village of Chabahil are associated with a visit of A9oka accompanied by a daughter Charumati and her Kshatriya husband Devapala^ The two latter are said to have remained in the country and to have built respectively a
1 Edict of Sahasram etc. (the earliest edict). Pillars set up by Anoka's own orders are mentioned in Pillar Edict vn (quoted in full inf. p. 510). In other cases style and archaeological considerations must decide.
2 Waddell, Report on the Excavations at Pataliputra (Patna), Calcutta, 1903.
3 Ef. Ind. vin, pp. 46-7.
* Rdjatarahgini, translation of Sir M. A. Stein, i, 11. 101-7, and the notes. » Sylvain L^vi, Le Nepal (Mus^e Guimet, 1905-8), i, pp. 67 and 263; n, 24, 336; in, 161 f.
502 Aqoka [ch.
nunnery and a monastery, the latter left unfinished by its founder. The legend — for such it is — derives some support from the archaic style of the four neighbouring stupas ascribed to A9oka.
The name A9oka occurs in only one of the known inscrip- tions ^ Elsewhere the emperor employs (in conjunction with raj a, * king ') the official titles devdnam priya, ' dear to the gods/ and priyadar^ana, *of friendly mien.' The former style — which in later ages the popular grumbling, so humorously common in India, as in other countries, diverted to the sense of 'fool' — is known to have been employed by contemporary kings in Ceylon, and by A9oka's grandson (or still more remote descendant) Da9aratha, so that it was probably normal ; indeed A9oka himself once uses the plural in the sense practically of * kings.' Priyadar^n also, which has been well rendered ' gracious,' may represent a customary view that the king should wear * a mild, pleasant, and composed aspect'^. But it is certainly quite possible, as M. Senart suggests ^ that it was adopted by A9oka as his ordination name.
The chronology of the reign is fixed within wide limits by the mention in the thirteenth Rock Edict of * the Yona King Antiochus and beyond that Antiochus to where dwell the four kings severally named Ptolemy (Philadelphus of Egypt, 285-247 B.C.), Antigonus (Gonatas of Macedon, 278-239), Magas (of Cyrene, died 258), and Alexander (of Epirus, 272-258 ?).' The fact that these are all sup- posed to be reigning makes it unlikely that the edict was issued long after the year 258 B.C., when one, if not two, of them died. A prior limit of any value does not seem to be supplied by the passage, inasmuch as Antiochus Theos, whose reign began in 261 B.C., was preceded by a sovereign, his father, of like name. The omission of the Bactrian ruler Diodotus, whose independence of the Seleucid empire dates from about 250 B.C., confirms the inference that the edict is not long posterior to the year 258. Adopting 258-7 as its provisional date, and accepting the arguments which assign it to the fourteenth year, we arrive at 270 b.c. as the latest year for the coronation : but plainly nothing in the calculation forbids an earlier date. That the coronation was posterior by four years to the actual beginning of the reign is affirmed by the Ceylon tradition and perhaps also indirectly implied by the same : which would
^ Found in 1915 at Maski in the Baichur Dist. of Hyderabad ; see Hyderabad Arch. Series, No. 1, 1915.
2 Mbh. xn, 67, 39; cf. 57, 19. In the Kharoshthi documents from Chinese Turkestan priyadar^ana is a common form of polite address ; see Kharosphi Inscrip- tions, Part I, 1920, passim.
3 Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi, it, pp. 227-8.
xx] Chronology of Reign 503
give the year 274 b.c. as the latest possible for A9oka'8 accession. But this may reasonably be suspected as an invention made in the interest of a chronological system \ A provisional chronological scheme of the reign might then take shape as follows :
274 RC. at latest: accession.
270 B.C. at latest: coronation.
262 B.O. at latest: conquest of Kaliuga and adhesion to Buddhism.
260 B.C. at latest : entry into the order of monks and beginning of active
propaganda. 259 B.C. at latest : issue of first Edict (that of Sahasram, Rupnath, Bairat and
Brahmagiri). 258-7 B.C. at latest : issue of the fom-teen Rock Edicts ; dedication of cave
dwellings in the Barabar hills. 256 B.C. at latest : visit to Kapilavastu. 253 B.C. ? : Council of Pataliputra.
250 B.C. at latest : second visit to Kapilavastu and visit to the Lumbini garden. 243-2 B.C. at latest : issue of Pillar Edicts. 237-6 B.C. ? : death of Agoka (on the assumption that the reign lasted 36 or
37 years, as the Puranas and Pali books affirm).
According to the Ceylon tradition the coronation of A9oka took place 218 years (i.e. in the 219th year) after the death of Buddha, and the Council in the 236th year. The tradition of Khotan on the other hand, as reported in Tibetan books ^ places the 50th year (out of 55) in the reign at an interval of 234 years from the Parinirvdna. The Chinese and Sanskrit reckonings are, as is well known, vitiated by confusion with another A9oka, Kala- 9oka or Kakavarna of the Qi9unaga dynasty, who is placed one century after Buddha. The number 218 may very well be deserving of credit as a genuine tradition^ ; but it is of value for the deter- mination rather of the date of Buddha than that of A9oka. A much discussed number 256 in the earliest edict has no bearing upon chronology*.
The activity of A9oka lay wholly, so far as we are informed of it, in the sphere of dharma, i.e. according to the Indian definition, the sphere of conduct leading to heaven or to final liberation ^ ; we may say, the spheres of religion and morality. It therefore furnishes a complement to the strictly political system of the
^ A supposition broached and rejected by M. Senart, op. cit. ii, pp. 237-8. But possibly Aijoka may have been de facto ruler during the last years of Bindusara, which may explain the extra three years assigned by the Buddhists to that king (supra, p. 495).
^ Bockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 238, and the Tibetan texts there named.
* Geiger's translation of the Mahdvamsa, Introduction, pp. xxxi sqq.
* F. W. Thomas, Ind. Ajit., 1908, pp. 19-23, and Les Vivdsdh d'Agoka (Jour. As., Serie x, xv, pp. 507-22).
s For the employment of the word by Acjoka see Senart, Les Inscriptions de IHyadasi, ii, pp. 308 f .
504 Aqoka [CH.
Artha^astra. We may consider it under the aspects of the emperor's principles and personal action, his admonitions, and his ordinances and institutions.
It was, as we have seen, the events of the Kalinga war that awoke the humanitarian and missionary spirit in A9oka. He was impressed both by the actual horrors of the campaign and by the interference with the peaceful and moral influence of the religious teachers. The chords which were struck have in Indian life a dominant note : A9oka attached himself to the Buddhist religion, the most important of those which upheld the doctrines of ahimsd and maitri, abstinence from doing hurt to, and benevolent feeling towards, living creatures. Two and a half years later he awoke to the possibilities of his position, joined the order of monks, and entered upon a course of 'activity.'
The importance of energetic action by the sovereign was not a new conception ; the Indian writers on policy make it the subject of constant admonition to their rulers (v. sup. p. 492). Nor was the idea of royal responsibility for the virtue of the people a novelty : the king is, as we have seen (ibid.), the upholder of dharma and incurs a proportion of the sin of the people, if he exacts the taxes without maintaining the social order. But A9oka gives to these principles a new force and direction by calling upon all to participate in his energy and by fixing attention upon moral improvement as a means to happiness in the present, and further in another, life. His position is therefore not merely paternal, as the books would require, and as he himself pro- fesses^: he has also a moral and religious responsibility and mission.
The degree of Anoka's appreciation of Buddhism is not very easily definable ; and it was even at one time contended that his early faith, which laid such special stress upon the doctrine of benevolence, was rather that of Jainism. He emphasises the principle of tolerance, wishes for the real prosperity of all sects, and, while not discouraging discussion, always a prominent feature of Indian religious life, earnestly preaches avoidance of offence. If he discountenances what he considers vain ceremonials and certain popular entertainments, which were occasions of animal slaughter, his attitude to the Brahman system in general is benevolent and respectful : he believes in the gods and would have his people y strive for heaven. Nevertheless, A9oka was undoubtedly a Buddhist : he became a lay disciple and then a monk ; later he
^ Kalinga Edicts i and u.
xx]
Religion
505
proclaims his regard for the religion and his personal faith ^; he addresses the church, naming certain passages from the scriptures as specially suitable for teaching and study ; he denounces penalties for schism ; he holds a council which defines the canon ; and finally he stands out as by far the greatest author of the religious foun- dations of the sect. On the other hand we hear from him nothing concerning the deeper ideas or fundamental tenets of the faith ; there is no mention of tlie Four Grand Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Chain of Causation, the supernatural quality of Buddha : the word and the idea of Nirvana fail to occur ; and the innumerable points of difference which occupied the several sects are likewise ignored. A9oka, therefore, is no theologian or philosopher ; and only in the saying that the gift of dharma is above all other gifts, and in the preference of meditation to liberality, do we find any trace of such modes of thought.
Of A9oka's personal action the most important features were his religious tours and progresses, which began at the end of the eleventh year. They were the occasion of personal intercourse with the people, including discussions and instructions in religious matters. In the course of these, and on other occasions, he was wont to issue religious proclamations, which were published by his officials and inscribed on rocks and pillars. He claims that in little more than a year he had brought the Brahman gods to the knowledge of those people in India, i.e. the wild tribes, who had formerly known nothing of them^. Further he organised shows and processions exhibiting figures of the gods in their celestial cars, of sacred elephants, and fires ^ The practice of earlier times, which made the king accessible to the public only at certain hours, he modified to the extent of being ready to transact business or see officials even in his most private seclusion*. He subjected his household to supervision by special religious dignities : and finally he restricted the diet of the palace practically to the point of vegetarianism^. His activity in causing trees to be planted by the roads, and wells for travellers to be constructed at every half-koss, also his provision of medical aid for men and animals, and his propagation of useful plants, need not be further dwelt upon : only in degree were they a new feature of royal beneficence in India*'.
* Edict of Bhabra {pragdda in Buddhist phraseology denotes ' faith ').
^ Edict of Sahasram eto. , >y^ Bock Edict rv. v^^ * Bock Edict vi.
5 Bock Edict i ; Pillar Edict v.
^ Buhler, Z.D.M.G., xxxvii, pp. 101-2, and as regards trees, wells etc., cf. Artha- gastra, 19.
5o6 Aqoka [ch.
A9oka's relations with the Buddhist Saiigha were, no doubt, friendly and cordial. He had himself been ordained, as had his brother, and by the surrender of his son and daughter also he had acquired a right to the title ' Kinsman of the Faith.' But no doubt the monkish chronicles go too far in representing his devotion I
as without bounds. Even his lavish expenditure upon religious '
edifices is exaggerated in the statement that he thrice gave away, and purchased back, Jambu-dvipa or the continent of India^ ! It can hardly be that an emperor so conscious of the responsibilities of his unique position should have been made more amenable to the authority of a religious order by himself joining it. Nor is there in his actual references to the Sangha any note of special deference ; nor again do his ordinances accord to it any special regard, since the parishads whose affairs were to be supervised by the dharnia-mahdmatras included the managing committees of all sects. On the other hand, we fail to detect even in the advice i.
which A9oka gives to the Saiigha concerning specially applicable 1
passages from the scriptures any note of the arrogance which '
might have betrayed an emperor himself at home in the order. In fact such an attitude would be both un-Indian (as sanctity and learning in India excite a genuine respect) and anachronistic in what was still an age of faith. On the whole, easy as it would be to imagine flaws, one way or the other, in Anoka's relations with the clergy, it would be hard to demonstrate them to a sound intelligence : by his grasp of the essential he rises superior to such personal suspicions.
Of the Buddhist leaders with whom he is said to have been in correspondence the most important is Upagupta or Moggaliputta Tissa. This divine is reckoned as fifth in the succession of Vinaya teachers from the time of Buddha, the series being Upali, Da- saka, Sonaka, Siggava and Chandavajji, Moggaliputta Tissa ^. Tissa was 60 years old at the time of A9oka'8 coronation, and he died 26 years later, being succeeded by Mahendra. Apart from the Kathavatthu he is not known as an author, his great monument being the Third Council. A famous stiipa was built in his honour at Mathura.
Mention has already been made of the missionary leaders,
1 Hiuen Tsiang states that the fact was recorded in an inscription on the pillar at Pataliputra (trans. Beal, n, p. 91).
2 The identity of this Tissa with Upagupta was proved by Col. L. Waddell in the Journal (1897, pp. 76-84) and Proceedings (1899, pp. 70-5) of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Concerning the succession see Geiger's translation of the Mahdvarpsa, Introduction, pp. xlvii f .
xx] Moral Exhortations 507
whose activity is said to have followed upon the Third Council, and of A9oka's several relatives who joined the order {v. sup. p. 499). The Pali books mention also a Mahavaruna, and the two sons of Kunti, Tissa and Sumitta, who are said to have died after A9oka'8 eighth year : they are not otherwise known.
The northern books ^ mention a minister Radhagupta, who is said to have played an important part in A9oka's attainment of sovereignty and his administration ; and another minister, the Arhat Ya9as, associated with the Khotan legend of Kustana. The existence of the minister Yagas seems deserving of credence as he is mentioned in the Sutralamkara of Agvaghosha^.
The moral exhortations which A9oka most firequently addresses to his people refer to the practice of simple virtues, namely proper treatment of slaves and servants, obedience to father and mother, generosity and respect to friends, companions, relations, ascetics, and Brahmans, abstinence from cruelty to living creatures. For this imperial insistence upon such obvious duties we are right to demand some explanation ; and we may perhaps find an explana- tion in his statement that there had been during a long period a deterioration in these respects ^ Not to attribute to A9oka the character merely of a retrospective pessimism, we may think of the social and other changes which might naturally accompany the growth of a great empire, the succession of dynastic tragedies, the subjugation of small states, the Greek invasion, and the initiation of numerous sects. And, apart from the general respon- sibility of a paternal rule, he might have found even in the Arthagastra (19, p. 47) the principle that the royal authority should ensure the observance of proper discipline in the household, an obligation which even the modern state does not decline. As regards the aged and the poor, who are placed under the care of religious officials ^ we have seen that — in the absence of a 'poor law' — the care of such was a traditional obligation of royalty {v. sup. p. 487). These primary admonitions recur also in the latest of the edicts, as they had been prominent, along with the appeal for energy and mutual exhortation, in the earliest But we hear also from the beginning of piety — friendship in piety, liberality in piety, kinship in piety — concord and the growth of sects in essential matters, in a word of religion, dharma, as some- thing more than ^tla, ' morality.' It was to be expected that with
^ A(pkdvaddna ( = Divydvaddna, xxix) and Kundldvaddna {=ibid, xxvii). ^ Translated from the Chinese by E. Huber (Paris, 1908) ; see the Index.
* Rock Edict rv.
* Rock Edict v.
5o8 Aqoka [CH.
advancing years the religious feeling should acquire a stronger hold ; whence we are not surprised to find in the later edicts a special exhortation to self-examination and the view that the chief thing is personal adherence to a man's adopted faith. In a country where during later ages the ecstatic, metaphysical, and fanciful aspects of religion have predominated, the sober Buddhist piety revealed in the edicts (and not uncommonly evidenced in the literature of Buddhism, both of the Great and Little Vehicles) deserves remark.
The measures, enactments, and institutions of A9oka need not more than moderately detain us. His philanthropic activity in providing wells and trees along the roads, in propagating medicinal plants, and in founding hospitals for men and animals — an activity not confined to his own dominions — and further his great role as propagator of his religion and pious founder, also his regulations concerning the slaughter and treatment of animals, have already received due notice. To the same sphere belong his rules con- cerning prisoners, the reservation of capital punishment, and the respite of the condemned during three days with a view to their spiritual welfare and edifying works.
The official system remained for the most part unchanged \ The presence of A9oka's envoys even as far as the various Greek kingdoms is plainly contemplated. The general term denoting the superior officials is mahamdtra, while the lower, especially the clerkly ranks, are entitled yukta. The highest local officers 'set over many hundreds of thousands of people' — corresponding no doubt to the sthdnikas of the Artha^astra — are mentioned as rdjukas^, and with them are associated prdde^ikas, perhaps the pradeshtris whose functions we have already defined. It is to these officers that a number of the edicts are addressed. They are exhorted to adopt towards the people under their charge the mild, patient, and benevolent principles of the emperor himself: they are compared to nurses entrusted with the charge of children. An institution several times referred to is the anusamydna, or periodical tour, still a feature of Indian administration. This was not an innovation on the part of A^oka, but a part of the system which he inherited^. However, he added to the duties of the
^ For a full discussion see Senart, Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi, n, pp. 278 f.
2 Or rajjugrdhakas, as in the Pali books = ' land-measurers,' the dypovSfwi of Megasthenes, concerning whom v. sup. p. 417. Cf. Biihler, Z.D.M.G., XLvn, pp. 466-71.
» This is implied by Apoka himself (Rock Edict ni): cf. Biihler, Z.B.M.Q., xu, p. 19.
xx] The Edicts 509
touring officials, as early as his thirteenth year, that of following his own example in making their visitations the occasion of benevolent activity and religious propaganda. For this purpose, however, he himself organised a special ecclesiastical hierarchy of religious officers {dharma-mahdrndtra), to whom these two functions were primarily assigned, and who moreover superintended the bounties of his own household, and those of his queens, his sons, and other relatives, and organised the activities of the committees and councils (parishad) at the head of the Buddhist, Jain, Ajlvika and other sects. The tolerance of all sects as regards liberty of residence in every district seems also to be a feature of Acoka's own conception, as it is opposed to the rule of the Artha9astra (19, p. 48).
Here we conclude our analytical appreciation of Anoka's rule. But the personality which in so un-Indian a fashion pervades the whole of his proclamations — a personality which in its rather high- strung, and by consequence partly plaintive, energy recalls another flawless imperial saint, the Roman Marcus Aurelius — can be com- municated only in his own words : and we are therefore justified in citing two of his edicts, one a normal specimen of their tone, and the second the solemn review of his measures, which, published in the twenty-seventh year from his consecration, we have ventured to designate as ' the testament of A9oka.'
Rock Edict IV,
In the past, during many centuries, there has been steady growth in the practice of taking life, ill-usage of living creatures, misbehaviour among relatives, misbehaviour towards Brahmans and ascetics. But now through the pious observ- ance of king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, the signal of the drum has become a signal of piety, displaying to the people sights of celestial cars, sights of elephants, bonfires, and other heavenly shapes. In such wise as has not been before in many centuries, there has been at present, owing to the inculcation of piety by king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, growth in abstinence from taking life, in abstinence from ill-usage of living creatures, in proper behaviour towards relatives, proper behaviour towards Brahmans and ascetics, obedience to mother and father, obedience to elders. In these and other manifold ways pious observance has grown, and this pious observ- ance king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, will make still to grow. The sons, also, and grandsons, and great-grandsons of king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, will foster this pious observance until the end of time. Standing fast by piety and morality, they will inculcate piety. For this is the best action, inculcation of piety : pious observance, again, is not foimd in an immoral pei*son. Hence in this respect also growth and no falling oflf is good. To this end has this been inscribed, that men may effect growth in this respect and that falling off may not be suffered. This has been inscribed by king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, having been consecrated twelve years.
5 1 o Aqoka [CH.
Pillar Edict VII.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
The kings who were in the past wished thus: 'How may the people grow with the growth of piety ? ' The people, however, did not grow with a proper growth in piety.
In this matter thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
This thought came to me : In the past the kings had this wish : ' How may the people grow with a proper growth in piety ? ' The people, however, did not grow with a proper growth in piety. Whereby then can the people be made to conform ? Whereby can the people be made to grow with a proper growth in piety ? Whereby can I elevate any of them by a growth in piety ?
In this matter thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
This thought came to me, ' I will publish precepts of piety, I will inculcate instructions in piety : hearing these, the people will conform, will be elevated, and will gi-ow strongly with the growth of piety.' For this purpose precepts of piety were published, manifold instructions in piety were enjoined, so that my officers in charge of large populations might expound them and spread them abroad. The governors also, in charge of many hundred thousand lives, they also were ordered, ' thus and thus catechise the persons of the establishment of piety.'
Thus says Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
With the same object pillars of piety were made by me, dignitaries of piety were instituted, precepts of piety were proclaimed.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
On the roads also banyans were planted, to give shade to cattle and men : mango-gardens were planted: and at each half-koss wells were dug: also rest- houses were made : many watering-stations also were made in this and that place for the comfort of cattle and men. Little indeed is mere comfort : for with various gratifications the people have been gratified both by previous kings and by mysel£ But, that they might conform with a conformity in piety, for this reason was this done by me.
Thus says Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
Dignitaries of piety were appointed by me in charge of manifold indulgences, these both for ascetics and for householders ; also over all sects were they appointed. Over the affairs of the Saiigha also were they set, ' these shall be appointed ' ; likewise over Brahmans, Ajlvikas also were they set, ' these shall be appointed.' Over Nirgranthas also were they set, 'these shall be appointed. Over various sects also were they set, ' these shall be appointed.' According to circumstances such and such dignitaries were set over such and such. Dignitaries of piety also were appointed over both these and all other sects.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
These and various other classes were appointed in charge of the distribution of charity, both my own and that of the queens. And in my whole harem they carry out in manifold fashions such and such measures of satisfaction, both here and in all quarters. The same has been done as regards the distribution of charity on the part of my sons and the other princes, ' these shall be appointed over the distributions of charity,' with a view to ensamples of piety and for conformity to piety. For this is an ensample of piety and conformity to piety, when in the people compassion, liberality, truth, honesty, mildness, and goodnessf shall thereby be increased.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
Whatsoever good deeds have been done by me, thereto the people have conformed, and those they copy. And thereby they have grown and will grow
xx]
Dynastic Successors
511
in obedience to mothers and fathers, in obedience to venerable persons, in conformity to the old, in right behaviour towards Brahmans and ascetics, the poor and wretched, slaves and servants.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
This growth in piety is a growth in two respects, in the restraints of piety and in considei-ateness. Now of these restraint by piety is a little thing, but con- siderateness a greater. The restraint of piety is this, that I have had such and such creatures made exempt from slaughter, and there are other restraints of piety which have been ordained by me. But by considerateness there has been to a greater degree a growth in piety on the part of men, conducing to abstention from ill-usage to living creatures and to non-taking of life. This was done to this end, that sons and grandsons may continue therein as long as moon and sun endure, and that they may conform accordingly. For by so conforming this life and the future life are secured. This Edict of Piety was inscribed by me, when I had been six and twenty years consecrated.
Thus says the dear to the gods :
Where there are stone pillars or stone slabs, there this Edict of Piety is to be inscribed, that it may be permanent.
The dynastic successors of A9oka are by the Brahman and Buddhist traditions diversely reported according to the following scheme :
Brahman Sources.
K\
(Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age,
pp. 27-30.)
1. Kunala or Suya^as, reigned 8 years. *2. Bandhupalita, son of Kunala, reigned
8 years. *3. Indrapalita.
*4. Da9ona, son of 3, reigned 7 years.
5. Da^aratha, son of 4, reigned 8 years.
6. Samprati or Saugata, son of 5, reigned
9 years.
*7. ^ali9uka, son of 6, reigned 13 years.
8. Devadharman or Devavarman or Soma-
qarman, son of 7, reigned 7 years.
9. Catadhanvan or ^a9adharman, son of 8,
reigned 8 years. 10. Brihadratha, reigned 7 years.
B.
{Rdjatarangini, i, 108 f.) Jaloka in Kashmir, son of A^oka.
Buddhist Sources. A.
(Divydvaddna, xxix.)
1. Kunala.
2. Samprati, son of 1.
3. Brihaspati, son of 2.
4. Vrishasena, son of 3.
5. Pushyadharma, son of 4.
6. Pushyamitra, son of 5.
B.
(Taranatha, History of Buddhism, trans. Schiefner, pp. 48 f.)
1. Kunala.
2. VigataQoka.
3. Virasena,
1 The names accompanied by an asterisk appear only in certain recensions"of the Puranic list.
512 Aqoka [CH.
These meagre and conflicting lists are evidently no material for history : but they supply certain indications which may hereafter be verified. One of the Buddhist sources includes in the dynasty the name of Pushyamitra, really the founder of the succeeding line of the ^ungas : he was commander-in-chief to Brihadratha and he availed himself of a grand review of the army to overthrow and slay his master \ Lest this error of the Buddhists should lead us wholly to prefer the Brahman accounts, let us observe that the latter difler in numerous particulars, some naming more kings than others, and all presenting diversities of spelling : moreover, none of them justifies in detail the total of 137 years which they unani- mously ascribe to the whole Maurya dynasty.
The existence of some of the kings named in the list is avouched by independent evidence. Da9aratha is known by three inscrip- tions bestowing on the Ajivika sect caves in the Nagarjunl hills ^ : Samprati is mentioned in the Jain tradition as a convert of their patriarch Suhastin^ Jaloka is celebrated in the history of Kashmir, as a great propagator of Qaivism and for a time a persecutor of the Buddhists, further as having freed the country from an invasion of Mlecchas, who would be Greeks, and a conqueror who extended his dominions as far as Kanyakubja or Kanauj.
The extreme confusion reigning in the legends is probably, as was indicated long ago, to be explained by a division of the empire, perhaps beginning after Samprati*. The Buddhists will then give the western line, as is indicated by the fact that Virasena is represented as ruling in Gandhara^ and further by the fact that Sophagasenus, or Subhagasena, with whom Antiochus the Great renewed an ancestral friendship in 206 b.c.*^, is indicated by his name as a member of this line. This series will then have been terminated by the Greek conquest of the Punjab under Euthydemus and his successors. At Pataliputra the second line may have held out a little longer, until about the year 184 B.C., when it was overthrown by Pushyamitra, whose power may have centred about Ujjain, and who, as is indicated in the drama of Kalidasa called the Mdlavikagnimitra, succeeded to the struggle with the Greeks. But descendants of A9oka were as late as the
1 Sana's HarsJiacharita (trans. Cowell and Thomas), p. 193.
2 Corpus Imcriptioiium Indicarum, i, pp. 103-4, 134-5.
3 See Jacobi's note in S.B.E., xxii, p. 290 {Kalpasutra) .
* Lassen, Ind. Alt. n, pp. 283 fif. ^ Taranatha, op. cit. p. 60.
6 Polybius, XI, 34 ; v. sup. Chapter xvn, p. 442.
xx] Later Descendants 513
seventh century A.D., if we may trust the statement of Hiuen Tsiang, still in possession of small dominions in eastern India : for he relates that shortly before his visit Purnavarman, king of Magadha, a descendant of A9oka, had restored the Bodhi-tree, which had been destroyed by 9a9anka, otherwise named Narendragupta, of Karnasuvarna, or Bengali
1 See the translations of Julian (r, pp. 463-4), Beal (ii, p. 118), and Watters <n, p. 115).
C. H. I. I. 33
CHAPTER XXI
INDIAN NATIVE STATES AFTER THE PERIOD OF THE MAURYA EMPIRE
The inscriptions of A9oka give us, for the first time in history, a comprehensive survey of India from the Hindu Kush to Ceylon ; but it would be a mistake to assume that even A9oka, the most powerful of the Mauryas, maintained full political control over an empire of so vast an extent. His edicts clearly show that there were certain well-defined grades in the influence which he claimed to exercise in different regions. There were first of all * the king's dominions,' by which we must no doubt understand the provinces of the empire — the central government of Pataliputra (the United Provinces and Bihar) and the viceroyalties of Taksha^ila (the Punjab), Avanti or Ujjayini (Western and Central India north of the Tapti), and Kalinga (Orissa and the Ganjam District of Madras). Over all kingdoms and peoples in these provinces the emperor was supreme. He was the head of a great confederation of states which were united under him for imperial purposes, but which for all purposes of civil government and internal administration re- tained their independence. He was the link which bound together in association for peace or war powers which were the natural rivals of one another.
Beyond 'the king's dominions' to the north-west and to the south lay ' the border peoples,' whom the emperor regarded as coming within his sphere of influence. On the north-west, in the North- West Frontier Province and in the upper Kabul valley, these are called in the inscriptions Gandharas, Kambojas, and Yavanas (Yonas) ; and on the south, beyond the limits of the provinces of Avanti and Kalinga, there were the Rashtrikas of the Maratha country, the Bhojas of Berar, the Petenikas of the Auran- gabad District of Hyderabad, the Pulindas, whose precise habitat is uncertain, and the Andhras, who occupied the country between the Godavari and the Kistna.
A9oka's relations with these frontier peoples are most clearly indicated in the Jaugada version of the Kalinga edicts. It was addressed by him to the officers of state at Samapa, no doubt the
c
MAP 5 BHARATAVARSHA
f
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
35
30
25
20
15
10
BHARATAVARSHA
Countriet and Peoples thus
Mountaint
Towns
Rivers
Modern names within brackets.
ANDHRA HIMAVANT Taluha^la. Brahmaputra.
64
72
Map 5
Cam bridge University Press
M
CH. xxi] Peoples on the Frontiers 515
city on the site of which the ruined fort of Jaugada in the Ganjam District now stands :
If you ask, * With regard to the unsubdued borderers what is the King's com- mand to us ? ' or ' What truth is it that I desire the borderers to grasp ? ' — the answer is that the King desires that ' they should not be afraid of me, that they should trust me, and should receive from me happiness, not sorrow.' Moreover, they should grasp the truth that ' the King will bear patiently with us, so far as it is possible to bear with us,' and that ' for my sake they should follow the Law of Piety, and so gain both this world and the next.' And for this purpose I give you instructions. (Kaliiiga Edict i, trans. V. A Smith, Asoka^^ p. 178.)
The emperor's attitude towards these neighbours is one of general benevolence. They are not his subjects : they are ' un- subdued ' ; but in the interests of peace and good government he is concerned in their welfare and their good conduct. He is prepared to bear with them patiently ' so far as it is possible ' : that is to say, he trusts that punitive expeditions or annexations may not be necessary.
The region occupied by the southern * border peoples ' includes what is now known to ethnologists as the Central Belt and still contains the largest groups of primitive tribes to be found in India. In the course of twenty-two centuries the policy of the govern- ment remains unchanged in regard to these representatives of the earliest inhabitants of the sub-continent. They contiime to govern themselves in accordance with their traditional tribal constitutions and are subject only to such control as may be deemed to be in- dispensable :
The policy of the Government of India is to permit no sudden restrictions that
^ may alter the accustomed mode of life of these tribes, but rather to win confidence
' by kindness, and thus gradually to create self-supporting communities, acknow-
y ledging the state as arbitrator of those questions hitherto decided by might rather
than by justice. {Imp. Gaz. iii, p. 124.)
^ j Beyond the zones of border peoples lay realms of whose com-
\ plete independence there is no question. On the north-west
) Anoka's sphere of influence ended at the frontiers of the Yavana king Antiochus, i.e. the Seleucid monarch Antiochus II Theos ; and on the south it probably did not extend much beyond the locality of his southernmost group of inscriptions atlsila,the modern Siddapura in the Chitaldroog District of N. Mysore. The apex of the peninsula was occupied by the ancient Dra vidian kingdoms of the Satiyaputas, the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas. With these independent nations A9oka's relations were merely such as might be expected to exist between friendly powers.
33—2
5i6 Indian Native States [ch.
But, w^ile the invaluable testimony of the edicts thus enables us to estimate the character and the extent of Maurya rule at its height, we have no such trustworthy guide for the period of its declined Its end, according to the Puranas, came about through a revolt which placed the ^uiigas on the imperial throne. It seems certain, however, that the ^ungas succeeded to a realm already greatly diminished. The history of India at this time is still con- fined to the regions which were once known as 'the king's dominions' and 'the border peoples' ; but these are no longer under the imme- diate rule or under the indirect control of any one power. Political conditions in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. were extremely com- plicated. The causes of this complication were twofold — internal strife and foreign invasions ; and both of these were the natural and inevitable results of the downfall of imperial rule. In Central India and in the land of the Ganges the supremacy of the later Mauryas and of their successors, the ^ungas, was disputed by the Andhras of the Deccan and the Kaliiigas of Orissa ; and, now that the frontiers could no longer be held securely against hostile pressure from without, torrents of invasion burst into North- western India through the channels which led from Bactria and from Eastern Iran.
The chief kingdoms of Northern India lay along the routes which connected Pataliputra, the former capital of the empire, with the Kabul valley on the one hand and with the delta of the Indus on the other ; and these routes were continuations of others which passed through Iran to the West. When, at the height of their power, the Maurya and the Seleucid empires were conterminous, intercourse by land between India and the Western World was un- impeded. But already during the reign of A9oka revolts in the Seleucid empire had led to the establishment of hostile powers in Bactria and Parthia, which controlled the two great lines of com- munication. The extension of the Yavana power from Bactria through the Kabul valley to the Jumna in the first quarter of the second century B.C., and the invasion, a century later, of the ^akas from Seistan into the country of the lower Indus (^akadvipa or Indo- Scythia), a position commanding the route through Central India, are described elsewhere^. The land- ways which united India with the West had thus become increasingly diflBcult from the middle of the third century to the early part of the first century b.c. ; but by sea commerce was still maintained with Mesopotamia
^ Chapter xx, pp. 511 ff. ^ Chapters xxn and xxin.
xxi] Kingdoms on the Central Route 517
(Babylon) and Egypt (Alexandria) through the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea ; and the ports on the west coast were connected with Pataliputra through UjjayinT, the great emporium of the period. But the isolation of the sub-continent was now almost complete. The attempt to make India a great world power had failed ; and its history now becomes a complex struggle within its own borders of elements both native and foreign, such as was to recur many centuries later on the downfall of the Mughal empire.
No detailed account of this period of turmoil can be written. All that we can attempt, with the aid of such fragments of historical evidence as have been preserved, is to disentangle the various elements involved in the struggle and to estimate their mutual relations. These may best be understood if we consider the means of communication then available.
Roads in the ordinary sense of the word did not exist ; but there was a net-work of well-beaten routes throughout ; and along these armies in war, like merchants and pilgrims in peace-time, made their way from one city to another^. Through this system ran the two great arteries which have been already mentioned. The chief stages on the more northern of these are described in Chapter xxii, p. 543, in connexion with the progress of the Yavana invasions. The course of the central route, which joined the northern route at Kau^ambi, was as follows :
From (1) Hyderabad in Sind to Ujj'ain (Ujjayini) 500 miles.
(2) Broach (Bhrigukaccha) N.B. to Ujjain 200 „
Uijain B. to Besnagar (Vidi^a) 120 „
Besnagar N.E. to Bharhut 185 „
Bharhut N.B. to Kosam (Kaugambl) 80 „
Kosam B. to Benares (Ka9l) 100 „
Benares B. to Patna (Pataliputra) 135 „
It is in the monuments and coins of the kingdoms of Vidi9a, Bharhut, and Kau9ambl that we find the most unmistakable traces of the ^ungas and their feudatories. That the first ^unga king reigned at Pataliputra is assumed in literature (p. 518) and may be inferred from the description which the Puranas give of the origin of the dynasty. We are told that Pushyamitra, the commander- in-chief of Brihadratha, the last of the Mauryas, slew his master and reigned in his stead ; and it was believed in the seventh
^ For the military importance of this state of affairs which ' made the ordinary business of peace time... a regular training for campaigning,' and which ' explains the extraordinary promptitude with which the wars of the Indian army have been so frequently entered on,' seeChesney, Indian Polity , Chapter xvn (quoted in Imp. Gaz. in, pp. 402-3).
5 1 8 Indian Native States [ch.
century a.d. that this military coup diktat took place on the occasion of a review of the forces \ If the chronology of the Puranas may be trusted, this event happened 137 years after the accession of Chandragupta, i.e. c. 184 B.C., and the reign of Pushya- mitra lasted for thirty-six years^ Fortunately in this instance the statements of the Puranas may be checked to some extent by evidence supplied from other sources. The (^ungas came into conflict with other powers who were eager to share in the spoil of the Maurya empire — Andhras, Yavanas, and ^akas — and what we know of the history of these peoples is in accordance with the view that Pushyamitra was actually reigning during the period thus attributed to him.
The origin of the ^ungas is obscure. Their name, which means * fig-tree,' may perhaps be tribal. According to JPanini (iv, 1, 117) they claimed to be descendants of Bharadvaja, the purohita of Divodasa, king of the Tritsus (p. 82) ; and, as Bharadvaja is asso- ciated with Vitahavya^ from whom the Vltihotras (p. 316) probably derived their name, the two peoples may have belonged to the same region, that is to say, to the countries which, under the Maurya empire, were included in the viceroyalty of Ujjain. It is with the kingdom of Vidi9a, which forms part of this region, that the (^^ungas are especially associated in literature and inscriptions.
The dynastic list of the ten ^unga kings is as follows* :
1. Pushyamitra reigned 36 years. 6. Pulindaka reigned 3 years.
2. Agnimitra reigned 8 „ 7. Ghosha reigned 3 „
3. Vasujyeshtha (Sujyestha) r. 7 „ 8. Vajramitra reigned 9 or 7 „
4. Vasumitra(Sumitra)reigned 10 „ 9. Bhaga (Bhagavata) reigned 32 „
5. Odraka (Andhrakaetc.) r. 2 or 7 „ 10. Devabhuti reigned 10 „
When allowance is made for the uncertainty as to the length of the fifth and eighth reigns and for the fact that the computation is by whole years without regard to fractions, the total duration ascribed to the dynasty, viz. 112 years, may well be correct ; and, if so, the rule of the ^ungas came to an end c. 72 B.c.
In Bu^idhist literature Pushyamitra figures as a great persecutor of the Buddhists, bent on acquiring fame as the annihilator of Buddha's doctrine. He meditated the destruction of the Kuk- kutarama, the great monastery which A9oka had built for 1000 monks to the south-east of Pataliputra ; but, as he approached the
^ Harshacharita (trans. Cowell and Thomas), p. 193.
2 The alternative statement of some versions, 'sixty years,' is manifestly due to textual corruption.
3 Vedic Index, n, pp. 97-8, 316-7. * Cf. Kali Age, pp. 30-3, 70.
XX i] The first (^uhgas 519
entrance, he was met with the roar as of a mighty lion and hastily withdrew in fear to the city. He then went to (^akala (Sialkot) in the E. Punjab and attempted to exterminate the Buddhist com- munity there, offering a reward of 100 dinar as for the head of every monk. The end of this persecutor of the faith was brought about by superhuman interposition ^
Underlying such legends we may no doubt recognise certain historical facts. Pushyamitra was regarded as a champion of the Brahman reaction which set in after the triumph of Buddhism during A9oka'8 reign. He was remembered as a king of Magadha and as suzerain over dominions in the Punjab which had owned the sway of his Maurya predecessors. The subsequent fate of his chief capital, Pataliputra, is obscure ; but ^akala was soon — within his own lifetime as it would seem — to be wrested from the ^ungas by the Yavanas and to become the capital of king Menander (p. 549).
Some of the events of Pushyamitra's reign are also reflected in the earliest of Kalidasa's dramas, the Mdlavikdgnimitray the plot of which turns on the love of Agnimitra, king of Vidi9a and the viceroy of his father Pushyamitra, for Malavika, a princess of Vidarbha (Berar) living at his court in disguise. The play was produced before another viceregal court at Ujjain on the occasion of the Spring Festival in some year c. 400 A.D. during the reign of Chandragupta H Vikramaditya. Like nearly all Sanskrit dramas, it is little more than a story of intrigue. Its main interest is any- thing but historical ; but some of its characters represent real personages, and certain references to the history of the adjacent kingdom of Vidica are appropriately introduced in the last Act It would be unreasonable to suppose that these had no foundation in fact.
The first of these references is to a war between Vidi9a and Vidarbha in which the former was victorious. As a result Vidarbha was divided into two provinces separated by the river Varada, the modern Wardha, which is now the boundary between Berar and the Central Provinces. It seems clear from what is known of the general history of this period that any such incursion of the (^ungas into this region must inevitably have brought them into collision with the Andhras, whose power had at this time extended across the Deccan from the eastern coast (p. 530). It has been assumed therefore with much probability that Yajiiasena, the prince of Vidarbha in the play, must have been either an Andhra or a feudatory of the Andhras^.
^ Divydvaddna, pp. 433-4. * See Chapter xxiv, p. 600.
520 Indian Native States [ch.
The other incidental reference in iheMalavihagnirnitra confirms the account of a Greek invasion of the Midland Country given by the YugaPurana and supported by statements which appear as gram- matical illustrations in Patanjali's" commentary on Panini (p. 544). The Yavana successors of Alexander the Great in the Punjab had evidently forced their way through the Delhi passage and attacked the very centre of the ^unga dominions. In the play a messenger comes to Agnimitra with a letter from Pushyamitra announcing his intention to perform the horse-sacrifice, the traditional Kshatriya rite whereby a king asserted his title to exercise suzerainty over his neighbours. The horse, as was the custom, had been set free to roam whithersoever he would for a year as a challenge to all opponents ; and he was guarded by Pushyamitra's grandson, Vasu- mitra, the son of Agnimitra, attended by a hundred princes. The challenge was accepted by a body of Yavana cavalry, who tried to capture the horse as he wandered along the right bank of the river Sindhu ; and a conflict ensued in which the Yavanas were defeated by the ^ungas. Pushyamitra's claim was thus maintained ; and he proposed to celebrate this triumph by the performance of the sacrifice which Agnimitra, as one of the monarchs of his realm, was invited to attend. An allusion to this sacrifice may perhaps be preserved in another grammatical example used by Patanjali^ ; and, as we have seen (p. 302), it is probably to the solemn recitation of the suzerain's lineage on such occasions that we owe the dynastic lists preserved in the Puranas.
Unfortunately we cannot be certain as to the river on whose banks the encounter between the Yavanas and the Qungas took place ; but the choice seems to lie between the Kali Sindhu, a tributary of the Charmanvati (Chambal) flowing within a hundred miles of Madhyamika (near Chitor), which was besieged by the Yavanas (p. 544), and the Sindhu, a tributary of the Jumna which would naturally be passed by invading forces on the route between Mathura (Muttra) and Prayaga (Allahabad).
Of Agnimitra nothing is known beyond such information as. may be gleaned from the McUavikdgmmitra and the Puranas. The combined evidence of these two sources may be interpreted to mean that, after ruling at Vidi9a as his father's viceroy, he was his successor as suzerain for a period of eight years. Whether the Agnimitra, whose coins are found in N. Pafiichala and who was. therefore presumably king of Ahicchatra, can be identified with the ^unga king of that name is uncertain (p. 525 ; PI. V, 3).
1 Bhandarkar, Ind. Ant., ]L872, p^ 300.
xxi] The later Qungas 521
The fate of the fourth king in the list, Vasumitra or Sumitra, who as a youthful prince guarded the sacrificial horse and defeated theYavanas, is told in theHarshacharita : * Sumitra, son of Agnimitra, being over fond of the drama, was attacked by Mitradeva in the midst of actors, and with a scimitar shorn, like a lotus stalk, of his head'^ Who Mitradeva was we can only conjecture ; but it seems not improbable that he may have been the king's minister and a Kanva Brahman of the same family as Vasudeva, who is said to have brought about the fall of the dynasty through the assassination of the last king Devabhuti. It may be that we have here an indication of the growth of that influence, which so often in Indian history has transferred the real power in the state from the prince to the minister, from the Kshatriya to the Brahman.
The next name in the list appears in many disguises in the MSS. as Odruka, Andhraka, Bhadraka, etc. Mr Jayaswal has given good reasons for supposing that the original form from which all these varieties are derived was Odraka, and he has shown ftirther that this name is most probably to be restored in the Pabhosa inscr. no. 904, which should therefore be regarded as dated * in the tenth year of Odraka.' If these acute and plausible suggestions may be accepted, we must conclude that the region of Pabhosa — the ancient kingdom of Kaugambi, as seems most likely (p. 524) — was included at this period in the sovereignty of the (^ungas ; but at the same time we must recognise that an error has crept into the text of the Puranas, which, as they stand, assign either two or seven years to this king^.
There appears to be no reason for doubting that the last king but one, the Bhaga or Bhagavata of the Puranas, is theBhagabhadra, in the fourteenth year of whose reign the Besnagar column was erected by Heliodorus, son of Dion, the Yavana ambassador who had come to the court of Vidi9a from Antialcidas, king of Taksha9ila (p. 558). This identification enables us to bring the histories of the ^ungas and the Yavanas into relation with each other, and to determine, naturally within limits of possible error, a fixed point in their chronology. If the duration of reigns as given in the Puranas, confused though it is by textual corruptions, be approximately correct, the fourteenth year of king Bhagabhadra (within a few years of 90 B.C., whether earlier or later) may well have fallen
1 Trans. Cowell and Thomas, p. 192.
2 Cf. Jayaswal, Jour, of the Bihar and Orista Research Soc, Dec. 1917, pp. 473-5, with Puhrer, Ep. Ind. ii, pp. 240-3, and Pargiter, Kali Age, p. 31.
522 Indian Native States [ch.
within the reign of Antialcidas, if, as seems not unlikely, he was the successor of Heliocles and came to the throne c. 120 B.c.^
The name of this ^unga king appears as Bhagavata on a fragment of another column which was found at Bhilsa, but which is supposed to have been taken there from Besnagar. The inscription was engraved when the king was reigning in his twelfth year^ Another king of the same name is known from the Pabhosa inscr. no. 905 ; but the two cannot be identified as their metronymics are diflferent : the king at Pabhosa is the son of Tevani, while the king at Vidi^a is the son of Ka9i, i.e. a princess from Benares.
With the assassination of the dissolute Devabhuti the line of the ^ungas comes to a close. Of the deed tlie Harshacharita gives a fuller account than the Puranas : * In a fi-enzy of passion the over-libidinous (^unga was at the instance of his minister Vasudeva reft of his life by a daughter of Devabhuti's slave woman disguised as his queen ' (Trans. Co well and Thomas, p. 193). This minister was a Kanva Brahman ; and the Puranas, in their present form, make him the founder of a line of Kanva kings, who were themselves succeeded by the Andhras. But, as we have seen (pp. 317-8), this is history distorted. The Puranas have been edited, and, in the process, much of their value as records has been destroyed. Certain incidental statements, however, have escaped the editor ; and these seem to show that the Kanvas and the ^ungas were contemporary. The Kanvas, who are expressly called ' ministers of the (^uiigas,' are, in some versions, said to have become kings 'among the Qungas'^; and, as has been observed already, the Andhras are credited with sweeping away not only the Kanvas, but also * what was left of the ^uiigas' power' {ibid.). With regard to the Andhras, the more certain evidence of inscriptions assigns them to a period which is in flagrant contradiction to the position which they occupy in the Puranas (p. 530).
We may conclude, then, that the Qungas were a military power, and that they became puppets in the hands of their Brahman counsellors. They ruled originally as feudatories of the Mauryas at Vidi9a, the modem Besnagar, on the Vetravati (Betwa), near Bhilsa and about 120 miles east of Ujjain. In the letter, which is read in the last Act of the Mdlavikdgnimitra, both Pushyamitra
1 See Chapters xvn, p. 461 and xxu, p. 559.
2 R. D. Bhandarkar, Arch. Sur. of Ind., Annual Report, 1913-4, p. 190; Bama- prasad Chanda, J.R.A.S., 1919, p. 396 ; Memoirs of the Arch. Sur. of Ind., 1920 (no. 5), p. 152,
2 Kali Age, pp. 34, 71.
XX I ] Feudatories of the Quhgas 523
and Agnimitra are ' of Vidi9a ' ; and Vidi9a remained their western capital after no small portion of the Maurya empire had fallen into their hands, and many, perhaps most, of the kings of Northern and Central India had become their feudatories.
The importance of Vidi9a, the chief city of Akara or Da9arna (R Malwa), was due to its central position on the lines of commu- nication between the seaports of the western coast and Pataliputra, and between Pratishthana (Paithan), the western capital of the Andhras on the S.W., and Qravasti (Set Mahet) on the N.E. The ancient monuments in its neighbourhood are among the most remarkable and extensive to be found in India. At various villages within a radius of about twelve miles of the present town of BhTlsa there are groups of Buddhist stupaa, numbering some sixty in all, which are known collectively as the Bhilsa Topes, and of which the most celebrated are those of Sanchl. The inscriptions as well as the style of the architecture and sculpture of these monuments show that they belong to the three successive periods of Maurya, ^uhga, and Andhra supremacy. But the importance of this region may be traced back to a still earlier date ; for at the ancient site of Eran, about forty miles N.E. of Bhilsa, are found the finest specimens of the early punch-marked coinage, and here too was discovered the earliest known example of an Indian inscribed coin, which records the name of a king Dharmapala (PL V, 1). Its Brahmi legend runs, like KharoshthI, from right to left, and was supposed by Biihler to represent an earlier stage in the history of this alphabet than that which appears in the edicts of A9oka^
Some of the feudatories of the (^ungas are known from their inscriptions and coins. The only ancient monuments, on which the tribal name of the imperial dynasty has yet been found, came from the Buddhist stupa at Bharhut, in the Nagod State of Central India, about 185 miles N.E. of Vidi9al Here two gateways were dated 'in the sovereignty of the (^ungas.' One of these (inscr. no. 687) was erected by Dhanabhiiti ' Vacchiputa,' i.e. 'son of a princess of Vatsa (Kau9ambl),' and the other (inscr. no. 688) by some member of the same family. The name Dhanabhiiti occurs also in an inscription at Mathura (no. 125) and may be restored with certainty in the record of a donation made by his queen, Nagarakhita, at Bharhut (no. 882). From these sources combined we may reconstruct the family tree of this king from his grandfather, king Visadeva, to his son, prince Vadhapala ; and we may conclude that this family ruled at Bharhut, and that it was connected in some
^ Indische Palaeographie, p. 8. ^ Chapter xxvi, p. 624.
524 Indian Native States [ch.
way with the royal family at Mathura, more than 250 miles to the N.W. As none of the four names is found in the list of ^ungas given by the Puranas, it is most probable that the kings of this line were feudatories, though they may have been related to the imperial house by family ties.
Acting on Mr Jayaswal's illuminating suggestion (p. 521), we may perhaps venture to trace the feudatory kings of this dynasty to Kau9ambi, 80 miles N.E. of Bharhut, and to Ahicchatra, 250 miles N.W. of Kau9ambi. The question of the site of Kau9a,mbi has been much debated, chiefly because of the impossibility of reconciling Cunningham's identification (Kosam on the Jumna in the Allahabad District of the United Provinces) with the descrip- tions of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims. But in all this controversy it seems to have been forgotten that such descriptions may either have been incorrect originally or may have been misinterpreted subsequently. The tangible facts seem undoubtedly to support the identification of Kosam with Kau9ambl. It must have been a city of great military strength. * The remains at Kosam include those of a vast fortress with earthern ramparts and bastions, four miles in circuit, with an average height of 30 to 35 feet above the general level of the country ' {Imip. Gaz. xv, p. 407). It was also an im- portant commercial centre, as is indicated by the extraordinary variety of the coins found there ; and at a later date the name of the place was unquestionably Kau9ambi, as is proved by at least two inscriptions which have been actually discovered on the siie^. At a distance of two or three miles to the north-west of Kosam stands the sacred hill of Pabhosa (Prabhasa), the solitary rock in this region of the doab between the Jumna and the Ganges ; and on its scarp, in a position wellnigh inaccessible, there is a hermit's cave * cut into the vertical face of a precipice 50 feet \i\^'{J.A.8.B. LVI, p. 31). In the seventh century a.d. it was believed to be the abode of a venomous dragon which was subdued by the Buddha, who left his shadow in the cave. Hiuen Tsiang, who tells the story, adds that the shadow was no longer visible in his day ; but the most recent editor of the inscriptions, which are engraved inside and outside the cave, informs us that the country folk still believe in the dragon^. One of these inscriptions (no. 904) records — if Mr Jayaswal's reading is correct — that the cave was excavated in the tenth year of the reign of Odraka, the fifth of the ^uhga kings. The donor was Ashadhasena, the maternal uncle of Bahasatimitra,
1 J.R.A.S., 1898, p. 504; Ep. Ind. ii, p. 244.
2 Watters, On Yuan Chwang, i, p. 371 ; Fiihrer, Ep. Ind. ii, p. 241.
XX i] Kings of Ahicchatra 525
who was presumably the feudatory king then ruling at Kau9ambi and whose coins (PL V, 2) are found at Kosam. Bahasatimitra was thus, it seems, contemporary with Odraka, whose reign, according to the Puranas, began 61 years after the accession of the first ^uiiga king, i.e. c. 123 B.C. ; and this date is in agreement with the period to which numismatists have, from entirely difierent considerations, assigned the coins of Bahasatimitra. The coinage of the kings of Kau9ambi seems to begm in the third century b.c. and to extend over a period of about three hundred years \
The donor of the cave at Pabhosa traces his descent from the kings of Ahicchatra, the northern capital of the Panchalas in the Bareilly District ; and the inscriptions give the genealogy of his family for five generations beginning with his great-grandfather, ^onakayana, and ending with his nephew, Bahasatimitra. The line is carried two stages farther by the Mora inscription which describes the daughter of Bahasatimitra (Brihasvatimitra) as the wife of the king (of Mathura) and ' the mother of living sons ' (J.R.A.S. 1912, p. 120). In the patronymic, ^onakayana, 'the scion of the house of ^onaka,' we may perhaps see an allusion to the glories of Pan- chala in the heroic age, when, as is recounted in one of the ancient verses preserved by the ^atapatha Brahmana, king ^ona Satrasaha celebrated his triumphs by the performance of the horse-sacrifice^. No detailed list of the earlier historical kings of Panchala occurs in the Puranas ; but coins found in the neighbourhood of Ahi- cchatra— now a vast mound three and a half miles in circumference on the north of the village of Ramnagar — have preserved the names of about a dozen of their successors in the ^uuga period^. Among the kings thus known there appears an Agnimitra (PI. V, 3), who has often been supposed to be identical with the second (^uiiga king. There seems to be no evidence at present either to prove or to disprove the suggestion. The identity of name may well be accidental, or, perhaps more probably, it may indicate that the royal families of Vidi9a and Ahicchatra were related. The name of another king of Ahicchatra, Indramitra, has been recognised in an inscription at Buddh Gay a (p. 526 ; PI. V, 4).
We may infer from the inscriptions at Pabhosa that, in the second century B.C., Panchala (Ahicchatra) and Vatsa (Kau9ambi) were governed by branches of the same royal family, and that both
^ Cunningham, Coiris of Ancient India, p. 73, PI. V, 7-18 ; Bapson, Indian Coins, pp. 12, 13.
2 Vedic Index, n, p. 395.
* Ganningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 79, PL VII ; Bapson, Indian Coins, p. 13.
526 Indian Native States [ch.
kingdoms acknowledged the suzerainty of the (^uiigas. The history of Kau9ambi may be traced back to the time when the Purus (Kurus) removed thither after their capital, Hastinapura, had been destroyed by an inundation of the Ganges \ We now find this city under the rule of a house in which Kurus and Paiichalas had no doubt long been merged.
Mathura (Muttra) on the upper Jumna, about 270 miles in a straight line N.W. of Kau9ambl, may perhaps have been another of the feudatory kingdoms. This sacred city, the MoSoupa r/ tc5j/ ©e«wj/ of Ptolemy (vii, 1, 50), was a stronghold both of the worship of Krishna and of Jainism ; and it was the capital of the ^^urasenas, one of the leading peoples of the Midland Country. Its earlier rulers find a place in the Puranas, but only in the general summary of those dynasties which were contemporary with the Purus (p. 316) ; and coins have preserved the names of at least twelve later kings who reigned during the ^unga period^. One of these, Balabhuti, is associated by the style and type of his coinage with Bahasatimitra of Kau9ambl, whose daughter was married to a king of Mathura (p. 525). The two kings were almost certainly ruling at about the same time ; and it seems reasonable to assume, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that they were both feudatories of the ^ungas. Another king of Mathura, Brahmamitra (PI. V, 6) was probably contemporary with king Indramitra of Ahicchatra (PI. V, 4) ; for both names are found in the dedicatory inscriptions of queens on pillars of the railing at Buddh Gaya, which is assigned by archaeologists to the earlier part of the first century B.O. (p. 626).
Inscriptions show that in the second half of the first century b.c. the region of Mathura had passed from native Indian to foreign (^aka) rule^ ; and their evidence is confirmed and amplified by that of the coins. The characteristic type of the kings of Mathura is a standing figure, which has been supposed to represent the god Krishna (PI. V, 5, Gomitra) ; and this type is continued by their conquerors and successors, the satraps of the ^aka King of Kings. Ranjubula (Rajuvula) and his son (^odasa (PL V, 9, 10) are known also from inscriptions ; and the date on the Amohini votive tablet, if it has been rightly interpreted, shows that the latter was ruling as great satrap in 17-6 RC. (pp. 575-6). (^Jodasa was preceded by his father, Ranjubula, who ruled first as satrap and afterwards as
1 Chapter xm, p. 308.
2 Cunningham, Cmm of Ancient India, pp. 85-90, PI. VIII; Bapson, Indian Coin*, p. 13 ; J.R.A.S., 1900, pp. 109-11.
3 See Chapter xxni, pp* 575-6.
xxi] Kosala and Magadha 527
great satrap ; and Ranjubula appears to have been the successor of satraps who are known only from their coins — Hagamasha (PL V, 7), and Hagana ruling conjointly with Hagamasha (PL V, 8). These numismatic indications all tend to support the conclusion that by about the middle of the first century b.c. the ^aka dominion was fully established in that region of the Jumna river which lies beyond the south-eastern limits of the Punjab.
By c. 72 B.C., according to the chronology of the Puranas, the dynasty of the ^Miigas had come to an end. In the present state of Indian archaeology it seems impossible to trace the extension of the rule of those kings of Vidi9a who reigned after Pushyamitra beyond the region in which the Jumna and the Ganges meet, i.e. the ancient kingdom of the Vatsas (Kaucambi) and the present district of Allahabad. The investigation of ancient sites may no doubt some day throw light on the contemporary history of the countries which lay to the north and east of Kau9ambi — Kosala (Oudh), Videha (N. Bihar), Ka^i (Benares), Magadha (S. Bihar), and Anga (Monghyr and Bhagalpur) ; but the available evidence is not suf- ficient to enable us to determine whether the kingdoms in these countries were still united under one sovereignty, as in the time of Agoka, or whether they had become independent. Kosala is repre- sented by coins of this period which are found on the site of Ayodhya ; but from these little information can be gleaned at present. They represent a line of about ten kings, of whom nothing is known but their names (PL V, 11, Aryamitra ; 12, Miiladeva)\ A king of .Magadha and a king of Rajagi'iha are also mentioned in the in- scription of Kharavela ; but whether the former was still a powerful suzerain at this time, and whether the latter was anything more than a local prince ruling over the old capital of Magadha must remain doubtful until more definite evidence can be discovered (p. 537). The history of the famous kingdom of Magadha, once the centre of the empire, becomes utterly obscure. That for some time Pushyamitra continued to occupy the imperial throne which he had seized is a natural inference from those passages of the literature in which he is mentioned in connexion with Pataliputra ; but that he was able to hold it to the end, and to hand it down to his suc- cessors is at present not capable of proof. No cei-tain traces of the later ^ungas or of their feudatories have yet been found in the region of Magadha.
^ Cunningham, Coin& of Ancient India, p. 90, PI. IX; Eapson, Indian Coins, p. 11 ; J.R.A.S., 1903, p. 287.
528 Indian Native States [ch.
But in addition to the powers which dominated the kingdoms on the great highways of communication, there were in less accessible regions numerous independent states ; and of some of these the coins of this period have preserved a record. These communities were military clans or groups of clans; and they were governed sometimes by kings, but more often by tribal oligarchies. They were Kshatriyas; and by this name, the common designation of them all, they are known to the historians of Alexander the Great in two districts — in the north of the Punjab to the east of the Ravi (p. 371), and in the south-west where the Indus and the Sutlej meet (Xathri, p. 376). They were the ancestors of the Rajputs who played a most important part in the history of Northern India at a later date, and their coins are found throughout the regions to which modern ethnologists trace the origin of the Rajputs :
The cradle of the Rajput is the tract named after him (Rajputana), not, how- ever, as it is limited in the present day, but extending from the Jamna to the Narbada and Satlaj, including, therefore, the whole of Malva, Bundelkhand, and parts of Agra and the Panjab. From the northern parts of this tract there seems to have been an early movement of conquest up the western rivers of the Panjab, as far as the Himalaya and Kashmir, whereby was laid the foundation of the pre- dominance of the tribes still in possession, (Baines, Ethnography^ p. 29.)
Examples of such early Rajput states are the Yaudheya con- federation in 'the southern portion of the Punjab. . .and the northern parts of Rajputana' {J.R.A.S., 1897, p. 887), and the Arjunayanas in the Bhartpur and Alwar States of Rajputana {ibid. p. 886). Both the Yaudheyas, ' Warriors,' and the Arjunayanas, ' Descendants of Arjuna,' are mentioned by Panini in the fourth century B.C.; both* issued coins as early as the first century B.c. ; and both appear among the peoples on the frontiers of the Gupta empire in the Allahabad inscription of Samudragupta c. 380 A.D. Other states struck coins with the bare legend *0f the Rajanya (Kshatriya) Country.' It is impossible at present to determine with much pre- cision the localities in which these coins were issued ; but similarity of type suggests that one variety may belong to the same region as the coins of the Arjunayanas and the kings of Mathura (PI. V, 13) ^
The mountainous fringe of country on the north of the Punjab and the United Provinces was also occupied at this period by inde- pendent native Indian states ; and the names of some of them have similarly been preserved by the coins, which were no doubt the result of commerce between these peoples of the hills and the low- landers. In the Gurdaspur District of the Punjab there lived the
1 Bapson, Indian Coins, pp. 11-13, and PH. in, 20 and IV, 1.
xxi] Rise of the Andhras 529
Udumbaras, who claimed to be descended from Vi9vamitra, the rishi of the third book of the Rigveda^. His figure appears on the coins of their king, Dharaghosha, whose reign must probably be assigned to the latter half of the first century B.C., since his coinage is evidently imitated from that of the (^aka king Azilises (PI. V, 14, Dharaghosha ; 15, Azilises). Of a somewhat later date, perhaps of the first or second century A.D., are the coins of the Kulutas, the eastern neighbours of the Udumbaras, in the Kulu valley of the Kangra District ; and to the same period as the coins of the Udum- baras belong the earlier issues of the Kunindas who inhabited the country of the Sutlej in the Simla Hill States (PI. V, 16, Amogha- bhuti). These three peoples, the Udumbaras, the Kulutas, and the Kunindas, lived on the border between the regions in which the two ancient alphabets, Brahmi and KharoshthI, prevailed : they accordingly used both of them in their coin-legends. To a branch of the Kunindas (or Kulindas, as they are called in the Puranas), whose territories * extended further east along the southern slopes of the Himalayas as far as Nepal' (Pargiter, Mark. Pur. p. 316), are probably also to be attributed the coins of two kings which have been found in the Almora District (PL V, 17, ^ivadatta)^
The * unsubdued ' peoples on the southern borders of the Maurya dominions were, during the (^unga period, united under the suze- rainty of the most powerful among them, the Andhras, whose home was in the coastal region of the Madras Presidency between the rivers Godavari and Kistna^. The dynasty, which is known by its tribal name in the Puranas and by its family name or title, ^ata- vahana, in inscriptions, is traced back to king Simuka, who was succeeded by his younger brother, Krishna. At some date in the reign of Simuka or Krishna the Andhra conquests had extended up the valley of the river Godavari for its whole length, a distance of some nine hundred miles, to the table-land of the Nasik District. This is proved by the inscription (no. 1 144) in one of the Nasik caves which was excavated when Krishna was king. Already the (^atava- hanas had justified their claim to the title, * Lords of the Deccan (Dakshinapatha),' which they bear in their later inscriptions. The third of the line and the best known of the earlier kings was
^ Cf. Pargiter, Mark. Pur. p. 355. For the connexion between ViQvamitra and the country of the Beas, see Vedic Index, n, p. 310.
" For the coins of Kuhlta, see Bergny, J.R.A.S., 1900, p. 415; for other coins mentioned in this paragraph see the references in Bapson, Indian Coins, pp. 10-12.
' See Chapter xxiv, pp. 598-9, The inscriptions from Bhattiprolu near the mouth of the Kistna in the Guntur District (c. 200 b.c.) mention a king Khubiraka or Eubiraka (Kuvera) who is otherwise unknown ; see Bvihler, Ep. Ind. n, pp. 323 S.
C.H.I. I. 34
530 Indian Native States [ch.
called ^atakarni, a name which, to the perplexity of modern students of Indian history, was borne by several of his successors on the throne.
The exact date of the establishment of the Andhra suzerainty cannot be determined from the discrepant accounts given by different Puranas of the kings and the duration of their reigns; but it is clear that the most complete of the extant lists can only be interpreted as indicating that the founder, Simuka, began to reign before 200 B.c.^ To this extent the evidence of the Puranas confirms the opinion of Biihler, who from epigraphical considera- tions assigned the Nasik inscription of the second king, Krishna, to 'the times of the last Mauryas or the earliest (^ungas, in the beginning of the second century b.c.'^ It is therefore possible that Krishna's immediate successor, the third Andhra king, ^atakarni, may have been contemporary with the first ^unga king, Pushya- mitra (c. 184-148 B.C.)- As we shall see (p. 535) this same ^atakarni was probably also contemporary Mith Kharavela, king of Kalinga.
For the history of this period the cave-inscriptions of Nanaghat (nos. 1112-20) are of the highest importance. They prove by their situation that the Andhras now held the Nana pass, which leads from Junnar in the Deccan to the Konkan, the coastal region of Western India, Most of them describe statues of members of the royal family — Simuka, the founder of the line, ^^-takarni himself and his queen Naganika, a Maharathi, and three princes. But most valuable of all is the inscription, unfortunately fragmentary, of the queen (no. 1112). She was the daughter of a Maharathi, i.e. a king of the Rashtrikas ; and we must conclude therefore that the incor- poration of the Maratha country in the Andhra empire had been ratified by a matrimonial alliance between the two royal houses. The inscription records the performance of certain great sacrifices and the fees paid to the officiating priests — fees which testify eloquently to the wealth of the realm and to the power of the Brahman hierarchy at this date — tens of thousands of cows, thousands of horses, numbers of elephants, whole villages, and huge sums of money (tens of thousands of kcirshdpaTias). Twice, it appears, had (^atakarni proclaimed his suzerainty by the perform-
^ The accession of the twenty- third king, Gautamlputra ^atakarni, must be dated 106 A.D. or a few years later; see Bapson, B.M. Cat., Coins of the Aiidhra Dynasty dc, p. XXX. If a calculation be made from this fixed point, the maximum readings of the Puranas would indicate c. 244 B.C., and the minimum readings c. 202 B.C., as the date of Simuka's accession; cf. Kali Age, pp. 38-42, 71, with B.M. Cat., pp. Ixvi, Ixvii.
2 Arch. Sur. West. Ind. xv, p. 98.
xxi] Andhra Conquest of Ujjain 531
ance of the horse-sacrifice ; and, on one of these occasions at least, the victory thus celebrated must have been at the expense of the (j^ungas, if we are right in supposing that the appearance of the Andhras of Southern India in the dynastic lists of the Puranas indicates that, at some period, they held the position of suzerains in Northern India (p. 318). That the Andhras did actually come into conflict with the Qungas during the reign of Pushyamitra appears probable from the Malavikdgnimitra (p. 519). On this occasion the Q^ungas were victorious ; but this was no doubt merely an episode in the struggle in which the Andhras were finally tri- umphant. The progress of this intruding power from its western stronghold, Pratishthana, first to Ujjayini and subsequently to Vidi9a seems to be indicated by the evidence of coins and inscriptions.
Pratishthana, the modern Paithan on the north bank of the Godavari in the Aurangabad District of Hyderabad, is famous in literature as the capital of king (^atakarni (^atavahana or Sali- vahana) and his son (^akti-kumara ; and there can be little doubt that these are to be identified with the king Qatakarni and the prince (j^akti-9ri of the Nanaghat inscriptions. The Andliras in this region were separated by the rivers Tapti and Narbada from the kingdoms of Ujjayini and Vidiga, which lay along the central route from the coast to Pataliputra ; and the lines of communica- tion between Pratishthana and these kingdoms passed through the city of MahishmatT (Mandhata on the Narbada in the Nimar Dis- trict of the Central Provinces). Numismatic testimony, if it has been rightly interpreted, shows that at this period the Andhras had traversed the intervening territories and conquered the kingdom of Ujjayini. Their earliest known coins bear the name of a king Sata, who is probably to be identified with (^atakarni ; and they are of what numismatists call the ' Malwa fabric ' and of that par- ticular variety which is characteristic of the coins of W. Malwa (Avanti), the capital of which was Ujjayini^. If we may suppose, then, that ^atakarni was the actual conqueror, his performance of the horse-sacrifice is evidently explained ; for Ujjayini was one of the most famous of all the cities of India, and its conquest may well have entitled the Andhra kings to a place in the imperial records preserved by the Puranas. It was, and still is, one of the seven holy places of Hinduism^. Such fragments of its ancient
1 Rapson, B.M. Cat., Coins of the Andhra Dynasty d;c., p. xcii.
2 The seven are recorded in the couplet :
Ayodhyd, Mathurd, Maya, Kdql, Kdncl, Avantiku, purl Dvdravati caiva, saptaitd moksaddyikdh.
34—2
532 Indian Native States [ch.
history as may be recovered from the past are given elsewhere^ ; and the indigenous coins which can be attributed to this period add little to our knowledge. The only inscribed specimen yet discovered bears the name of the city in its Prakrit form, XJjeni (PI. V, 18). Other coins have a type which has been supposed to represent the god ^iva (PI. V, 19), whose temple stood in the Mahakala forest to the north of the city. It was destroyed by the Muhammadans in the thirteenth century A.D., and the present temple was built on its site.
It appears most likely, then, that Ujjayini was wrested from the first 9u»ga king, Pushyamitra, by (^atakarni. Of its history for many years to come we have no information. We can only infer from the conditions of the time that its politics cannot have been dissevered from those of the neighbouring kingdom of Vidi9a ; and early in the first century, c. 90 B.C., we find evidence of the existence of diplomatic relations between Vidi9a, which was still under the rule of the (^Jungas, and the Yavana house of Eucratides at Taksha9ila in the north-west of the Punjab (p. 521). There were therefore at this period three powers which were politically important from the point of view of Ujjayini — the Yavanas in the north, the ^urigas on the east, and the Andhras of Pratishthana in the south ; and it is probable, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that Ujjayini remained in the possession of the last of these. But a few years later, c. 75 B.C., there arose another formidable power on the west. The Scythians ((^^akas) of Seistan had occupied the delta of the Indus, which was known thereafter to Indian writers as ^akadvlpa, ' the doab of the ^akas,' and to the Greek geographers as Indo-Scythia. The memory of an episode in the history of Ujjayini as it was aflected by this new element in Indian politics may possibly be preserved in the Jain story of Kalaka, which is told in Chapter vi, pp. 167-8. The story can neither be proved nor disproved ; but it may be said in its favour that its historical setting is not inconsistent with what we know of the political circumstances of Ujjayini at this period. A perse- cuted party in the state may well have invoked the aid of the warlike (^^akas of ^akadvlpa in order to crush a cruel despot ; and, as history has so often shown, such allies are not unlikely to have seized the kingdom for themselves. Both the tyrant Gardabhilla, whose misdeeds were responsible for the introduction of these avengers, and his son Vikramaditya, who afterwards drove the (j/^akas out of the realm, according to the story, may perhaps be
^ Chapters vn, pp. 185-7 ; xni, pp. 310-1.
XX i] Andhra Conquest of Vidiqa 533
historical characters; and, from the account which represents Vikramaditya as having come to UjjayinI from Pratishthana, we may infer that they were connected with the Andhras\ It is possible that we may recognise in this story the beginnings of that long struggle between the Andhras and the ^akas for the possession of UjjayinI, the varying fortunes of which may be clearly traced when the evidence of inscriptions becomes available in the second century a.d.^ With the imperfect documents at our disposal, we can do little more than suggest such possibilities. It is hopeless to attempt to discriminate between the elements which may be historical and others which are undoubtedly pure romance in the great cycle of legend which has gathered around the name, or rather the title, Vikramaditya, ' the Sun of Might.' Many kings at different periods and in different countries of India have been so styled ; and it seems that the exploits of more than one of them have been confused even in those legends which may be regarded as having some historical basis. While it is possible, nay even probable, that there may have been a Vikramaditya who expelled the ^akas from Ujjayini in the first century RC, it is certain that the monarch who finally crushed the ^aka power in this region was the Gupta emperor, Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (380- 414 A.D.). Indian tradition does not distinguish between these two. It regards the supposed founder of the era, which began in 58 RC. (p. 571), and the royal patron of Kalidasa, who lived more than four hundred years later, as one and the same person.
During the first quarter of the first century B.C., such dominion as the Andhras may have exercised over the region now known as Malwa must have been restricted to its western portion, Avanti, of which Ujjayini was the capital ; for the ^unga kings were still in possession of Akara or E. Malwa (capital Vidi9a). But there is evidence that, presumably at some date after c. 72 RO. when the ^ungas came to an end, E. Malwa also was annexed by the Andhras. An inscription (no. 346) on one of the Bhilsa Topes (SanchT, no. 1) records a donation made in the reign of a king Qatakarni, who cannot be identified more precisely, but who must certainly have been an Andhra. The inscription is* not dated; but there is now a general consensus among archaeologists that it probably belongs to about the middle of the first century RC.^
1 These kings belonged probably to the family of Gardabhilas, who appear in the Puranas among the successors of the Andhras ; see Kali Age, pp. 44-6, 72,
■■' B.M. Cat., Andhras i£c., pp. xxxv, xxxvi.
^ B.M. Cat., Andhras d;c., pp. xxiii, xxiv; Marshall, Guide to Sdnchi, p. 13; Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ane. Hist, of the Deccan, p. 15.
534 Indian Native States [ch.
Andhra coins of a certain type have also been attributed to E. Malwa ; but their date is uncertain, and they may belong to a later period \ The conquest of E. Malwa marks the north-eastern limit to which the progress of the Andhra power can be ti*aced from the evidence of inscriptions and coins.
The other great nation, which arose on the ruins of the Maurya empire to take its part in the struggle for supremacy, had also its home in the lowlands of the eastern coast. The Kalingas^, who occupied the country of the Mahanadi, were no doubt connected ethnographically with the Angas and the other peoples of the plains of Bengal with whom they are associated in the Puranas (p. 317). They had been conquered by A9oka c. 262 B.c.^; but at some time after his death they had regained their independence ; and the next glimpses of their history are aiforded by inscrip- tions in the caves of the Udayagiri Hill near Cuttack in Orissa^ The immediate object of these inscriptions (nos. 1345-50) was to preserve the memory of pious benefactors — two kings, a queen, a prince, and other persons — who had provided caves for the use of the Jain ascetics of Udayagiri ; and one of the inscriptions (no. 1345) in the Hathigumpha, or 'Elephant Cave,' contained a record of events in the first thirteen (or possibly fourteen) years of the reign of one of the kings, Kharavela, a member of the Cheta dynasty. This is one of the most celebrated, and also one of the most per- plexing, of all the historical monuments of India. Unfortunately it has been badly preserved. Of its seventeen lines only the first four remain in their entirety. These describe the fifteen years of the king's boyhood, the nine years of his rule as prince {yuvardja), his coronation as king when his twenty-fourth year was completed, and events in the first two years of his reign. All the other lines are more or less fragmentary. Many passages are irretrievably lost, while others are partially obliterated and can only be restored conjecturally. Time has thus either destroyed or obscured much of the historical value of this record.
Even the fundamental question whether the inscription is dated or not is still in dispute. Some scholars contend that a passage in the sixteenth line can only be interpreted to mean that the inscription was engraved in the 165th year of the Maurya Mngs, or of the Maurya king, while others deny the existence of
^ B.M, Cat., Andhras d;c., pp. xcv, xovi. 2 Chapter xxiv, pp. 601-2. » Chapter xx, pp. 495, 503. * Chapter xxvi, pp. 638 S.
xxi] Kharavela 535
any such date^. The discussion of problems of this kind does not fall within the scope of the present work ; but it may be pointed out here that the acceptance of the supposed date would seem to involve no chronological impossibilities, and that, in any case, the inscription probably belongs to about the middle of the second century B.C. We know from analogous instances that the origin of imperial eras is usually to be traced to the regnal years of the founder of the empire. A Maurya era, therefore, would naturally date from the accession of Chandragupta c. 321 b.c. ; and, if such an era is actually used in the present instance, the inscription must be dated c. 156 B.C., and the beginning of Kharavela's reign c. 169 RC. With this hypothetical chronology other indications of date seem to agree.
Epigraphical considerations show that the Hathigumpha in- scription of Kharavela and the Nanaghat inscription of Naganika, the queen of (j^atakarni, belong to the same period as the Nasik inscription of Krishna^. Even, therefore, if it must be admitted that the Hathigumpha inscription is undated, there is still reason to believe that Kharavela may have been contemporary with (^atakarni in the first half of the second century rc. Moreover, a Q^atakarni is actually mentioned in the Hathigumpha inscription as Kharavela's rival; and it appears most probable that he is to be identified with the (^atakarni of the Nanaghat inscription. Like this (^atakarni, Kharavela was also the third of his line, if we may accept the usual interpretation of a passage in the Hathi- gumpha inscription^; and, as the rise of both the Andhra and Kalihga dynasties must no doubt date from the same period when the Maurya power began to decline, the probability that these two kings were contemporary is thus increased.
On two occasions, according to the inscriptional record, did Kharavela invade the Andhra dominions in the Deccan. In his second year he sent a large army of horse, elephants, foot-soldiers, and chariots to the West in defiance of (^atakarni; and in his fourth year he humbled the Rashtrikas of the Maratha Country and the Bhojakas of Berar, both feudatories of the Andhra kings of Pratishthana (pp. 530-1). Such expeditions were undoubtedly in the nature of a challenge to the predominant power of the Deccan ;
1 For the literature which bears on the interpretation of the Hathigumpha inscrip- tion, see the Bibliography.
2 Biihler, Arch. Sur. West. Ind. v, p. 71 ; Indische Palaeographie, p. 39.
3 The different translation given by Mr Jayaswal seems not to be necessitated by the new reading to which he calls attention in Jour. Bihur and Orissa Research Soc, 1918, p. 454.
53^ Indian Native States [ch.
but they appear not to have been pursued beyond the limit of safety. We may suppose that the armies of Kharavela passed up the valley of the Mahanadi and over the water-shed into the valleys of the Godavari and its great tributaries the Wainganga and the Wardha. They would thus invade territory which the Andhra monarch regarded as lying within his realm. But it is not stated, and there are no grounds for surmising, that the forces of the Kalingas and the Andhras came into actual conflict on either of these occasions or that any important political results followed. Such military expeditions, as is abundantly proved by inscriptions, formed part of the ordinary routine in a state of society, in which war had become a profession and the soldier was an hereditary member of a professional caste. They supplied to some extent the place which is occupied by manoeuvres in the training of modem armies ; and they also afforded the king such opportunities as there might be for the fulfilment of that desire to extend his rule which, according to the law-books, is one of the chief qualifi- cations for kingship (Manu ix, 251 ; x, 119 etc.). Our knowledge of this feature in the life of ancient and medieval India is derived from the eulogies of kings which fill so large a proportion of the inscriptions which have come down to our time. These composi- tions are the work of grateful beneficiaries or court-poets, whose object was rather to glorify their royal patron than to hand down to posterity an accurate account of the events of his reign. It is evident that in them successes are often grossly exaggerated, while reverses are passed over in complete silence. The statements of the inscriptions are, therefore, very frequently those of prejudiced witnesses ; and they must be weighed as such if we are to estimate rightly the value of these few scattered fragments of historical evidence which time has preserved. The achievements of Kharavela loom large in the Hathigumpha inscription ; and there is no reason to doubt that, as a military leader, he played an important part in the affairs of the time. But if, as the expeditions of his second and fourth years seem to indicate, his ambition led him to entertain the project of wresting the suzerainty from the Andhra king of Pratishthana, the attempt must be held to have failed. His family has found no place in the dynastic lists of suzerains which were handed down to posterity by the Puranas.
From the West, Kharavela turned his attention to the Xorth. In his eighth year he harassed the king of Rajagi'iha, who fled at his approach; in his tenth year he sent an expedition to Bharatavarsha ; and in his twelfth year he produced consternation
Pixi] Kalinga and other Countries 537
among the kings of Uttarapatha, humbled the king of Magadha, and, according to Mr Jayaswal's translation which is not undis- puted, brought back trophies which had been carried away by king Nanda.
For the present we must be content with this brief summary of the relations of Kaliiiga with other countries after the fourth year of Khara vela's reign; and even these few statements raise problems for which no satisfactory solution can yet be proposed. The identification of the kings of Rajagriha and Magadha is still uncertain. The former bears no personal name in the inscription, and the question whether the latter is named or not is still un- decided \ Both Bharatavarsha and Uttarapatha are often general designations of Northern India ; and it is useless to speculate as to what particular regions they may possibly denote in this instance. All that appears to be certain is that Kharavela repeatedly invaded Northern India, and that on one occasion he won a decisive victory over the king then reigning at Pataliputra. Who that king was we do not know. It seems natural to assume that the ^ungas were still the lords of Magadha; but there is no undoubted evidence that this was the fact. The Yavana invasion of the capital (p. 544) may have taken place before the twelfth year of Kharavela's reign, and decisive events may have happened of which no record has yet been discovered.
The mention of a king Nanda, or of Nanda kings, in two passages of the Hathigumpha inscription seems to supply a link of connexion between the histories of Kalinga and Magadha before the Maurya period. But even this is doubtful; and the doubt cannot be dispelled so long as uncertainty remains in regard to the interpretation of the date, which is apparently indicated in one of these passages^. If ti-vasa-sata in line 6 of the inscription can mean * three centuries before (the fifth year of Kharavela's reign),' we must suppose that, in the middle of the fifth century B.C., Kalinga was under the rule of a Nanda king, and it is natural to
^ Mr Jayaswal holds that the king of Rajagriha was also the king of Magadha, whose name he reads in the inscription as Bahasatimitra, and whom he identifies with Pushyamitra. Apart from the proposed reading of the name, which cannot be verified from the reproduction of the inscription in Plate I of the Jour. Bihar and Orissa Research Soc. 1918, the identification of the Bahasatimitra of the Pabhosa inscription and the coins with Pushyamitra appears not to be possible, if Mr Jayaswal is correct in assigning the Pabhosa inscription (no. 904) to the tenth year of Odraka (p. 521), According to the Puranas there was an interval of twenty-five years between the reigns of Pushyamitra and Odraka (p. 518) ; and Ashadhasena, the donor of the Pabhosa cave, was the maternal uncle of king Bahasatimitra.
* Chapter xm, pp. 314-5.
538
Indian Native States [ch.
associate him with the well-known predecessors of the Mauryas. If, on the other hand, the expression means 'one hundred and three years before (the fifth year of Kharavela's reign),' or * in the one hundred and third year (of the Maurya era)S' the reference must be, in the former case, to a king called Nanda who was reigning over Kalinga before its annexation by A9oka, and, in the latter case, to a predecessor of Kharavela in the Cheta dynasty after the kingdom had regained its independence.
As is so often inevitable in our attempts to reconstruct the mosaic of ancient Indian history from the few pieces which have as yet been found, we can do little more than define the limits of possible hypothesis in this instance. For greater certainty we must be content to wait until the progress of archaeological research has furnished us with more adequate materials.
KEY TO PLATE V.
,' 1. M. Eran : Dharmapala. Obv. Rano Dhamapdlasa in ancient Brahmi^ ' characters written from right to left.
2. M. Elaugambi : Bahasatimitra. Ohv. Humped bull to r. facing chaitya ;
above, symbol. Rev. Bahasatimitrctsa. Tree within railing ; on either side, symbols.
3. M. FafLchala : Agnimitra. Ohv. Agni, with head of flames, standing between
posts on railing. Rev. in incuse, Agimitasa ; above, three symbols.
4. M. id.: Indramiti*a. 06 ». Indra seated on railing. Rev.\wmc\xsQ,Idamita$a',
above, three symbols.
5. M. Mathura: Gomitra. Rev. Gomitasa. Standing figure; on either side,
symbols.
6. M. id. : Brahmamitra. Rev. Brahmamitasa. Standing figure, with r. arm
raised ; on either side, symbols.
7. M. id. : Hagamasha. Ohv. Horse to 1. Rev. Khatapasa HagdmoBhasa.
Standing figure, with r. arm raised ; on either side, symbols.
8. M. id,: Hagana and Hagamasha. 0&». Horae to 1. Rev.Khatapdna Hagd-
nasa H<igdmas?iasa ; to r., thunderbolt.
9. M. id. : Raiijubula. Ohv. The ahhisheka of Lakshml. Rev. Mahdkhatapasa
Rdjuvulasa. Standing figure ; on either side, symbol.
10. M. id. : ^odasa. O&c. Indistinct, probably as on no. 9. Rev. Mahdkhatapasa
putasa Khatapasa ^oddsasa. Type as on no. 9.
11. M. Ayodhya: Aryamitra. 06». Peacock to r. facing tree. i2«». in incuse,
Ayyamitasa. Humped bull to 1. facing post.
1 K. G. Sankara Aiyar, Ind. Ant., 1920, pp. 43 ff.
^ All the coin-legends in this Plate are in Brahmi, except when ' Kharoshthi ' ia specially indicated.
xxi] Key to Plate V 539
12. M. id. : Muladeva. Obc. Muladevasa. Elephant to 1. facing symbol. Rev.
Wreath ; above, symbol ; below, snake.
13. M. Bajanya Janapada. 06??. Humped bull to 1. Rev.Rdjanya-janapadasa.
Standing figure.
14. Mi. Udumbara: Dharaghosha. Obv. Mdhadeva»a rano Dharaghoshasa\
Odumbarisa ; r., tree within railing ; 1., trident battle-axe. Rev. Similar legend in Kharosh^hi characters. Vi^vamitra standing, with r. hand raised ; across field, Vigpa — mitra in Kharoshthi characters.
15. M. 9^ka : Azilises. Rev. {Kh.) Maharajasa rajatirajasa mahatasa \ Ayi-
lishasa. One of the Dioscuri standing.
16. M. Kuninda: Amoghabhuti. Ohv. Rano Kuniindasa Amoghahhutisa
Mahdrdjasa. Deer to r. facing female figure ; above, symbol ; below, chaitya. Rev. Similar legend in Kharoshthi characters. Chaitya sur- mounted by nandipada ; r., tree within railing ; 1., svastika and another symbol.
17. M,. Almora : (^ivadatta. Obv. Railing with symbols between the posts.
Rec. Sivadatasa. Type uncertain (symbol or letter ?) ; in margin, deer and tree within railing.
18. M. Ujjayini. Obv. Elephant to r. Rev. Ujeni[ye] ; above, a hand.
19. M. id. Obv. Three-headed standing figure. Rev. The symbol iisually found
on coins of Ujjayini.
CHAPTER XXII
THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
The disintegration of the Maurya empire was followed by foreign invasions. Now that the unifying power was removed, the frontiers could no longer be held securely ; and the history of N.W. India becomes for many centuries the record of successive conquerors who came along the routes which led from Bactria (N. Afghanistan) over the Hindu Kush into the Kabul valley or from Ariana (Seistan and Kandahar) over the Brahui Mountains into Sind.
The first three of the series, who belong to the period before the Christian era, are known in Indian literature and inscriptions as Yavanas or Yonas (Greeks), Qakas or Sakas (Scythians), and Pahlavas (Parthians). Like other invaders they are regarded by the Sanskrit law-books and epics as degenerate Kshatriyas who had lost caste through their neglect of the religious and social code, and they are supposed to be of Indian origin, the descendants of Turvasu ; but their names alone are sufficient to prove that they were foreigners, and that they came into India from Bactria or from Iran.
The Yavanas are the launa of the Old Persian inscriptions of Darius, which show that the Persians applied to all Greeks without distinction the name of the lonians of Asia Minor who were con- quered by Cyrus in 545 B.C. Greek soldiers and officials formed no unimportant element in the administration of the empire of the Achaemenids ; and it is not surprising therefore to find that the Greeks were known in India at a time when a large portion of the North- West was still under Persian rule. The occurrence of the word Yavana in a grammatical rule of Panini (iv, 1, 49) is a certain indication that it had been adopted into Sanskrit before the middle of the fourth century B.C. Its Prakrit equivalent, Yona, is used in the inscriptions of A9oka to describe the Hellenic sovereigns of Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus, and Syria ; and there can be little doubt that, in all Indian documents earlier than the third century A.D., the term denotes a person of Greek descent, in spite
CH. xxii] The Yavanas 541
of the fact that, like other foreign settlers in India, many of the Yavanas had become Hinduised and had adopted Indian names. At a later date, foreigners generally are classed as Yavanas.
On three occasions have Yavana conquerors occupied the Kabul valley, the North- Western Frontier Province, and large portions of the Punjab. The earliest of these episodes, the Indian expedi- tion of Alexander the Great, has for more than twenty-two centuries been celebrated in the Western world as one of the most amazing feats of arms in the whole of history. Of its progress detailed accounts have been preserved by Greek and Latin authors whose information was derived from the writings of officers who them- selves took part in the events which they describe ; and in all these accounts Alexander himself is the great central figure. No personage of the ancient world is better known ; but of this great conqueror the records of India have preserved no certain trace : he had failed to reach the Midland Country, to which the literature of the period is almost exclusively confined.
On the second occasion, Bactrian princes of the house of Euthy- demus, whose conquests began c. 200 rc, succeeded in rivalling and in surpassing the exploits of Alexander ; and on the third occasion, Eucratides, who had supplanted the family of Euthydemus in Bactria, deprived it of its possessions in the Kabul valley and of a portion of its territory in N.W. India, before 162 B.C. (p. 457).
No connected account of these two rival Yavana houses has been preserved ; and practically nothing is known about the per- sonal character or achievements of the leaders who directed the aflairs of a period which must have been full of stirring events. A few isolated references in literature, Greek, Roman, and Indian, a single Indian inscription, and the coin-legends of about thirty Greek kings and two Greek queens supply the evidence which enables us to retrace very imperfectly a few outlines in the history of the successors of Alexander the Great in India during the second and first centuries B.c.
For about a century after the treaty of peace between Seleucus and Chandragupta, c. 305 B.C., and half a century after the founda- tion of the Hellenic kingdom of Bactria, c. 250 B.C., the southern limit of the Yavana dominions was marked by the Hindu Kush. This broad band of mountainous country, which separates the great river systems of the Oxus and the Indus, was thus also the political boundary between Bactria and Paropanisadae (the Kabul valley and the country north of the Kabul river now known as Laghman, Kohistan, and Kafiristan). The mountain barrier,
54-2 Successors of Alexander the Great [cH.
although a formidable natural obstacle, has never effectually pre- vented Intercourse between the two fertile regions which it divides. In all ages it has been traversed by migrating tribes, by military expeditions, or by peaceful traders and pilgrims. It was crossed by Alexander, from the Paropanisadae to Bactria, in fifteen days, and recrossed in eleven days^ The routes which led from Bactria over its passes converged at a point near the present Charikar where Alexander had founded the city of Alexandria-under-the- Caucasus ; and, so long as this strategical position could be held, invasion was impossible. But already in 206 B.C. the expedition of Antiochus the Great had shown that the way was now open ; and the object lesson was not lost. Within a few years, the Bactrian kingEuthydemus and the princes of his house began their triumphal career, the first stage of which was marked by the occupation of the Kabul valley.
From Kabul ancient routes led, on the one hand, into the provinces of Ariana — Aria (Herat) on the west, and Arachosia (Kandahar) on the south-west — and, on the other hand, into India through Gandhara (Peshawar and Rawalpindi) on the south-east It is probable that the Yavana power expanded in all three direc- tions ; but it was in the second and third of these — to Arachosia and to India — that its progress was most marked. In these directions it must no doubt have followed the routes once trodden by the armies of Alexander the Great. The full extent of the Yavana conquests is described by Strabo (xi, 516) who quotes Apollodorus of Artemita, the author of a history of Parthia which has been lost :
The Greeks who occasioned its (Bactria's) revolt became so powerful by means of its fertility and advantages of the country that they became masters of Ariana and India, according to Apollodorus of Artemita. Their chiefs, particularly Menander (if he really crossed the Hypanis to the east and reached Isamus), conquered more nations than Alexander. These conquests were achieved partly by Menander, partly by Demetrius, son of Euthydemus, king of the Bactrians. They got possession not only of Patalene but of the kingdom of Saraostos, and Sigerdis, which constitute the remainder of the coast.... They extended their empire even as far as the Seres and Phryni. (Trans. M'Crindle, Ancient India, pp. 100-1.)
This passage is not without its difficulties; but the general purport is clear. The conquests of the Bactrian kings are said to have been carried to the south over the Hindu Kush into S. Afghan-
1 (1) M'Crindle, The Invasion of Ind. by Alex, the Great (ed. 1896), p. 39 ; cf. Holdich, Gatet of India, pp. 87-8. (2) Itinerarium Alex. Mag., 104, trans. M'Crindle, Ancient India, p. 150.
xxii] Direction of Invasions 54.3
istan, the North- Western Frontier Province, the Punjab, Sind, and Kathiawar, and to the east over the Pamirs into Chinese Turkestan. Unfortunately the Indian limits of this extension are somewhat doubtful. The Hypanis must certainly be intended for the Hyphasis (Beas), the eastern limit of Alexander's march ; and the Isamus must probably be intended for the Jumna. Patalene, the country of Patala, is the Indus delta. If the reading Saraostos, which has been restored from the mss., be correct, it must undoubtedly re- present Surashtra (Kathiawar). The identification of Sigerdis is uncertain.
The Indian conquests, attributed by ApoUodorus to Demetrius and Menander, were ascribed by Trogus Pompeius (Justin, Prologue to Book XLi) to Apollodotus and Menander. It seems probable that Apollodotus and Menander, as well as Demetrius, belonged to the house of Euthydemus, and that all these three princes were contemporary.
Some of the principal stages in the routes which the conquering armies must have followed, together with the distances between the stages, are known from ancient authorities who derived their information from the campaigns of Alexander and Seleucus. The most complete record has been preserved by Pliny (vi, 17 (21)). Many of his measurements are no doubt correct, when due allow- ance is made for the necessary detours in marches ; but, as others are evidently less exact, it will be more convenient to summarise here such information as is supplied by the Impericd Gazetteer, and to estimate other distances approximately by straight lines drawn on the map (Railway and Canal Map of India, 1910).
From Charikar (Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus) to Kabul (Ortospanum)
40 miles. „ Kabul (1) S.W. to Kandahar (Alexandria-among-the-Arachosians)
313 miles. „ „ (2) S. to Indus delta, in a straight line 725 „
„ „ „ to S. Kathiawar „ 1000 „
„ „ (3) E. to Jalalabad (Nagara) 101 „
„ Jalalabad B. to Peshawar (Purushapura) 79 „
(Stages on the ' royal road ' which ran from Charsadda, ' 16 miles N.E. of Peshawar, to Patna, measured in a series of straight lines.) „ Charsadda (Pushkalavatl) B. to Shahdheri (Taksha5ila) 80 „
„ Shahdheri S.E. to Jhelum (Nicaea) 70 „
„ Jhelum S.E. to Sialkot (^akala) 55 „
„ Sialkot S.E. to the Beas (Hyphasis) 65 „
„ the Beas S.E. to the Sutlej (Hesydrus) at Rupar 85 „
„ the Sutlej S. to the Jumna (Yamuna) at KamSl (old bed) 100 „
544 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
The second great Yavana invasion had thus passed beyond the bounds of Alexander's Indian realm in two directions — beyond the Beas eastwards, and beyond the Indus delta southwards. But it is doubtful if the successors of Demetrius, Apollodotus, and Menander exercised any permanent sway over the very wide expanse of territory indicated in Strabo's Geography. It is more likely that most of the princes whose coins we possess ruled over various kingdoms in the northern region of this area, that is to say, in the Kabul valley, in the North- Western Frontier Province, and in the northern districts of the Punjab. It is certain however that the military expeditions of the Yavanas were by no means confined within these limits. One such incursion which broke through the Delhi passage and penetrated the Midland Country as far as Pataliputra (Patna) is described in the Yuga Purana, one of the chapters of the Gargi Samhita.
As in all Puranic literature, we find here a record of past events in the conventional form of prophecy ; and, however late the work may be in its present form, there is no reason to doubt that, like the Puranas generally, it embodies a more ancient tradition. From the passage in question we gather that 'the viciously valiant Greeks,' after reducing Saketa (in Oudh), the Paiichala country (in the doab between the Jumna and Ganges), and Mathura (Muttra), reached Pushpapura (Pataliputra); but that they did not remain in the Midland Country because of a dreadful war among themselves which broke out in their own country^ — an evident allusion to the internecine struggle between the houses of Euthydemus and Eucratides.
This account is to some extent supported and supplemented by two examples given by the grammarian Patanjali (a contemporary of the ^unga king, Pushyamitra) in illustration of the use of the imperfect tense to denote an event which has recently happened — 'The Yavana was besieging Saketa : the Yavana was besieging Madhyamika' (Nagarl, near Chitor in Rajputana)'. Such incursions brought the Yavanas into collision with the ^ungas who were now the predominant power in the Midland Country ; and Kalidasa's drama, the Mdlavikagnimitra (Act v) preserves the memory of a conflict on the banks of the river Sindhu {v. svp. p. 520), in which a Yavana force was defeated in the reign of Pushyamitra by the king's grandson Vasumitra.
It is clear that such warlike inroads were followed by no per- manent occupation of the Midland Country, and that the period of
1 Kern, Brhat Samhita, p. 37. ^ Kielhom, Ind. Ant. vn, p. 266.
XX 1 1] Bactrian and Indian Coins 545
military conquest, in which they are ineffective episodes, belongs to the earlier part of the second century B.C., when the Yavana power was as yet undivided by internecine strife. But the struggle of Greek with Greek was not long delayed. The conflict between the rival houses in Bactria was decided in favour of Eucratides ; and the third Yavana invasion under his leadership deprived the princes of the house of Euthydemus of their dominions in Kabul and Kandahar (the Paropanisadae and Arachosia) and in N.W. India (Gandhara).
After about 162 B.C. there were therefore two royal houses of Yavanas in India, and several branches of these houses were estab- lished in different kingdoms and ruled at the same time. The names and titles of a number of princes belonging to these families have been preserved by their coins; and a study of the coins enables us to recover a few facts in their history.
In the first place it is evident that some members of both royal houses ruled both to the north and to the south of the Hindu Kush. Their coins belong to two distinct and unmistakable classes. The coins struck in Bactria are purely Greek in style, in language, and jn weight. They are the most noble examples of Greek art as applied to portraiture. No rivals to the lifelike portraits of Euthy- demus and Demetrius appeared in the world until after the lapse of sixteen centuries, when the Greek spirit was again kindled at the renaissance and manifested itself in the medals of the great Italian artists. Contrasted with these, the coin-portraits executed to the south of the Hindu Kush are lifeless and conventional. Between the two styles of art there is a gulf fixed. Neither can be brought into relation with the other. They are the work of different regions and the outcome of difterent types of civilisation. In Bactria the Greeks ruled supreme amid peoples of a lower ^ culture. On the south of the mountain barrier, in the Kabul valley and in India, they were brought into contact with a civilisation which was in many respects as advanced as their own and even more ancient — a civilisation in which, as in that of Ancient Egypt, religious and social institutions had long ago been stereotyped, and in which individual effort in literature and art was no longer free but bound by centuries of tradition. With this deeply-rooted civilisation the Greeks were forced to make a compromise ; and the results are seen in their bilingual coin-legends, and in their adoption ^ of the Indian (or Persian) weight-standard.
Differences less strongly marked, differences of degree rather than of kind, are to be observed in the style of the coinages which C.H.I. I. 35
546 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
the Yavanas issued in the kingdoms south of the Hindu Kush. This diversity is no doubt the result chiefly of varying local con- ditions. The Yavana dominions were very widely extended ; and the influence of Greek models was naturally less strong in the more remote districts.
The House of Euthydemus
The princes of the house of Euthydemus who reigned both in Bactria and in kingdoms south of the Hindu Kush are Demetrius, Pantaleon, Agathocles, and probably also Antimachus.
Of these Demetrius alone is known to the Greek historians ^ whose statements as to his Indian conquests are confirmed, though scarcely supplemented, by the evidence of coins. The district, in which his bilingual square copper coins were struck, has not been determined ; and all that can be said of his round coins, with types * Elephant's head : Caducous ' and Greek legend only, is that they were directly copied by the Qaka king Maues, and that they must therefore have been in circulation in the lower Kabul valley or in N.W. India (PI. VI, 1, 2).
Pantaleon and Agathocles were undoubtedly closely connected, since they struck coins which are identical in type and form. These were borrowed from the earlier native currency which prevailed generally in the Paropanisadae and Gandhara. From a general consideration of the provenance of their coins, which are found in Kabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar, Cunningham concluded that Pantaleon and Agathocles must have ruled over the Western Paropanisadae and Arachosia {N.Chr., 1869, p. 41). They would seem therefore to represent the south-western extension of the Yavana power.
The commemorative medals struck by Antimachus show that he claimed to be the successor of Diodotus and Euthydemus ; but there is nothing to indicate his relation to Agathocles who makes the same claim. The two princes may have been ruling at the same period in different kingdoms. From the recorded discoveries of the Indian coins of Antimachus, Cunningham inferred that he ruled in the lower Kabul valley (the districts of Jalalabad and Peshawar). The reverse type in which the king is represented on a prancing horse and wearing a flat cap {hausia), as on the obverse of the large silver Bactrian coins, is evidently a portrait ; and the same type is continued on the coins of Philoxenus, Nicias, and
1 Chapter xvii, pp. 445-7.
XXI i] Yavana Princes in India 547
Hippostratus, who may have succeeded to the kingdom of Anti- machus. But if these four princes really ruled over the same kingdom, its locality must be sought rather in the country of the Jhelum than in the lower Kabul valley. The coins of Philoxenus are found only to the east of Jalalabad (B.M. Cat, p. xxxviii), and those of Nicias only in the Jhelum District (Smith, Early Hist, of Ind., 3rd ed., p. 243); while the types 'Apollo: Tripod' which are also struck by Hippostratus seem undoubtedly, in later times, to have been confined to the eastern districts of the Punjab (p. 552). The occurrence of the type 'King on prancing horse' on the joint coins of Hermaeus and Calliope may, as Cunningham suggested, indicate the union of two royal houses.
The Bactrian and Indian coins of Antimachus with their types 'Poseidon' and 'Victory' must refer to a naval triumph; and it is difficult to explain the allusion except on the supposition that this king had won a victory on one of the great Indian rivers — the Indus or the Jhelum.
Numismatists usually distinguish between an earlier Anti- machus I @eo9 and a later Antimachus II Ni/ciy^opo? (PL VI, 3) ; but it seems more probable that the coins assigned to these are merely the Bactrian and the Indian issues of the same monarch. The two classes are connected by their types ; and the difference between them may well be local rather than chronological. They represent the workmanship of districts separated by some hundreds of milea and dissimilar in culture. They find their parallels in the coinages of other Graeco-Indian kings, viz. Demetrius, Eucratides, and Heliocles. Like the title 'Ai/iVt/to?, which is borne by Demetrius,, the IS iKr)(fi6po<i of Antimachus has reference to Indian conquests and is not found on the coins struck in Bactria.
Of the Yavana princes who ruled only to the south of the Hindu Kush, ApoUodotus would seem to have been the first. He is twice mentioned by ancient authors, and on both occasions in association with Menander. From such evidence as is forthcoming we may reasonably conclude that the two princes were members of the family of Euthydemus, that they belong to the same period — the period of Yavana expansion — and that ApoUodotus was the elder.
The copper coins of ApoUodotus bear types 'Apollo: Tripod' in evident allusion to the king's name (PL VI, 4). These were re- struck by Eucratides with his own types in the kingdom of Kapi9a (Kafiristan) immediately to the south of the Hindu Kush (p. 555 ; PL VII, 36). The types of the silver coins, 'Elephant: Indian bull* (PL VI, 7) which may have symbolised the tutelary divinities of
35—2
548 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
cities, are commonly found on the earlier native coinages of the N.W., and the Indian bull is more particularly characteristic of PushkalavatI (Charsadda) in the Peshawar District (p. 557). These types continued to be struck by Heliocles (PI. VI, 8). The coins thus show most clearly the transference of the upper and lower Kabul valleys from one Yavana house to the other, and they de- termine the date of Apollodotus I : he was, like Demetrius, the contemporary of Eucratides, who was the predecessor of Heliocles.
From their home in the N.W. the coins of Apollodotus were carried far and wide into other regions. Such distribution may manifestly be the result either of conquest or of commerce : it is therefore no certain indication of the limits of a king's dominions. But in this case numismatic evidence of the kind may well be adduced to confirm the statement preserved by Strabo, that Yavana rule extended on the south-west to Ariana and on the south to the Indus delta and Western India. Cunningham observed that, while •coins of Apollodotus are found in Arachosia (Ghazni and Kandahar) and in Drangiana (Seistan), those of Menander do not occur in these regions ; and from this fact he inferred that these provinces of Ariana were lost to the house of Euthydemus during the reign of Apollodotus and before the reign of Menander {N.Chr., 1869, p. 146). They would appear to have come successively under the sway of Eucratides and of Mithradates\ That Menander did not rule in Ariana seems certain. He is associated rather with the eastern Punjab (p. 549); and in this region he may have been reigning cpntemporaneously with Apollodotus in the N.W. and in Ariana.
The memory of Apollodotus and Menander was preserved in Western India by their coins, which, according to the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (§ 47), were still in circulation in the last quarter of the first century a.d. at Barugaza (Broach). But Yavana rule had long ago ceased in this region. Early in the first century B.C. the country of the lower Indus had passed into the possession of the ^aka invaders from Seistan I
After the conquests of Eucratides and Heliocles the dominions of the house of Euthydemus were confined to those districts of the Punjab which lie to the east of the Jhelum, that is to say, to the old kingdoms of Alexander's first and second Paurava, and to the region beyond. Here the types of Apollodotus, * Apollo : Tripod,' were continued by Strato I, by the ^aka king Maues, and, with some modification in the representation both of Apollo and the
1 Chapter xvn, p. 457. * Chapter xxni, pp. 564, 670.
XXI i] Qakala 549
Tripod, by ApoUodotus II Philopator, Dionysius, Zoilus, and Hippostratus (PL VI, 5, 6, and Swmmary, p. 587).
Menander is the only Yavana who has become celebrated in the ancient literature of India. He is unquestionably to be identified with Milinda, the Yavana king of (^^akala (Sialkot), who is one of the two leading characters in the Milindapanha, the * Questions of Milinda,' a Pali treatise on the fundamental principles of Buddhist philosophy. It is in the form of a dialogue between the king, who had become notorious as 'harassing the brethren by putting puzzles to them of heretical tendency,' and the Buddhist elder, Nagasena, who triumphantly solves these puzzles and succeeds in converting his royal antagonist. It is thus as a philosopher, and not as a mighty conqueror, that Menander, like Janamejaya, king of the Kurus, and Janaka, king of Videha, in the Upanishads, has won for himself an abiding fame.
As a disputant he was hard to equal, harder still to overcome ; the acknow- ledged superior of all the founders of the various schools of thought. As in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valour there was found none equal to Milinda in all India. He was rich too, mighty in wealth and prosperity, and the number of his armed hosts knew no end. (Trans. Rhys Davids, S.B.E. XXXV, pp. 6, 7.)
The capital is described in the same somewhat conventional style in a passage which begins :
There is, in the country of the Yonakas, a great centre of trade, a city that is called Sagala, situated in a delightful country, aboimding in parks and gardens and gi'oves and lakes and tanks, a paradise of rivers and mountains and woods. (,md. p. 2.)
Little is said which might not apply to any other important city lying on the great high road of N. India ^. For more precise information we must seek elsewhere.
Qakala was a city of the Madras, who are mentioned in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (iii, 3, 1; 7, 1) probably as early as 600 B.C., and who appear in the epics to occupy the district of Sialkot between the rivers Chenab and Ravi. Here Alexander found the second Paurava king, whose dominions he annexed to the satrapy of his relation and rival, the great Paurava, who ruled over the adjacent territory between the Jhelum and the Chenab. We may conclude then that the kings of the Madras claimed to be
^ In the Jain literatare such conventional descriptions of persons and places have attained to their complete logical development : they have become stereotyped, and are to be supplied in each fresh instance from the bare stage direction, vanno, • the descrip- tion as before.'
550 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
Punis, and that their dominions together with their capital, Qakala, twice passed under the sway of the Yavanas — under Alexander and under his successor, Menander. At a later date, in the early part of the sixth century a.d., (^akala became the capital of the Huna conqueror, Mihirakula^
At his meetings with Nagasena, the king is attended by his five hundred Greek (Yonaka) courtiers, some of whom bear Greek names which have been slightly Indianised; and, as the chief of these courtiers were no doubt related to the royal family which traced its origin to Bactria, it is not surprising to find among them a Demetrius (Devamantriya) and an Antiochus (Anantakaya).
In the illustrations which are brought to bear on the philosophical topics under discussion, certain facts of a more general interest emerge. Milinda, it appears, was born at the village of Kalasi in the dvlpa of Alasanda. Kalasi cannot be identified ; but the dvlpa of Alasanda is no doubt the district of Alexandria-under-the- Caucasus — Alasanda of the Yonas, as it is called in the Mahavamsa (xxix, 39). Translators have persistently rendered dvlpa by ' island,' and have thus added to the difficulties of identifying the site ; but this is only one of the meanings of this word, which often denotes the land lying between two rivers — the Persian diiab : the district of Qakala, for example, in the Rechna Doab between the Chenab and the Ravi, is often called (^akala-dmpa. There is no reason therefore why the term Alasanda-dvipa should not be applied to the country between the Panjshir and Kabul rivers, in which the ruins of Alexander's city have been recognised near Charikar. No other of the numerous Alexandrias has an equal claim to the honour of being Menander's birthplace, which, in reply to Nagasena's question, the king himself describes as being 200 yojanas distant from (^akala. The yojana has very different values according to the period and the locality in which it is used ; but there is good evidence of the use in Buddhist books of a short yojana, equal to about two and a half English miles; and an estimate of 500 miles for the route from Charikar to Sialkot seems to be fairly correct (p. 543). The statement thus incidentally preserved by the Milindapanha has the appearance of truth. Some branch of the family of Euthydemus would naturally be settled in the district, which was strategically important as constituting the connecting link between Bactria and India, and we may reasonably conclude that Menander, like Apollodotus, belonged to this branch.
1 Chapter xv, p. 370; Vedic Index, ii, p. 123; Pargiter, Mark. Pur. pp. 315-6; JFleet, Tram. Inter. Gr. Gong., Algiers, 1905, i, pp. 164 ff.
XXI i] Menander 551
Menander's fame as a great and just ruler was not confined to India. Some two centuries after his time Plutarch recounted to the Greek world the story how, after his death in camp, the cities of his realm contended for the honour of preserving his ashes and agreed on a division among themselves, in order that the memory of his reign should not be lost. The story is evidently derived from some Buddhist source ; for, as Prinsep first pointed out, it is a reminiscence of the story of the distribution of Buddha's ashes ^
The coins of Menander show a greater variety of types and are
distributed over a wider area than those of any other Graeco-
Indian ruler. They are found not only in the Kabul valley and
the Punjab, but also in the western districts of the United Provinces.
There can be no doubt that Menander was the ruler over many
kingdoms and that he was a great conqueror. It was most probably
under his leadership that the Yavana armies invaded the Midland
Country (p. 544). The statement, that the expedition was recalled
on account of the war which had broken out between the Yavanas
themselves in their own country, is in accordance with what may
be inferred as to his date. Menander and Eucratides were almost
certainly contemporary. Some of their square copper coins are so
^similar in style that they may reasonably be assigned not only to
^\ the same general period, but also to the same region — a region
\ which must have passed from one rule to the other (PI. VI, 13, 14).
The numismatic record of Menander is unusually full, but it is at the same time extraordinarily difficult to interpret. Few, if any, of his types can be attributed to the different cities in which they were struck. The most plausible suggestions are that the * Ox-head ' (PL VI, 17) may represent Bucephala, and the figure of 'Victory* (PI. VI, 15 ; continued on the coins of Strato, PL VI, 16) Nicaea, the two cities which Alexander founded on the Jhelum in the realm of Porus^
The period is one of great historical complexity. The house of Euthydemus, after a career of conquest under Demetrius, ApoUo- dotus, and Menander, was engaged in a struggle, under the same leaders, to maintain its newly won possessions against the encroach- ments of the house of Eucratides. Coins can only have preserved a few indications of the kaleidoscopic changes which must from time to time have taken place in the political situation. Neverthe- less, their evidence clearly illustrates some of the main results of
^ Plutarch, Praecepta gerendae reipublicae (Moralia, 821, d) ; Prinsep's Estays, ed. Thomas, i, pp. 50, 171. 2 Chapter xv, p. 368.
552 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
the Btruggle. They show unmistakably that the dominions of the house of Euthydemus in the Kabul valley and in both western and eastern Gandhara (Pushkalavati and Tak8ha9ila) had passed into the hands of Eucratides (pp. 555 f.) and his immediate successors Heliocles (pp. 556 f.) and Antialcidas (pp. 558 f.). It is in the region which lies to the south and east of the Rawalpindi District that we must seek henceforth the remnants of the house of Euthydemus. Here ApoUodotus appears to be represented by ApoUodotus II Philopator, and Menander by Agathocleia and her son Strato.
The types which these families continue to use in the eastern Punjab, and which are especially characteristic of the house of Euthydemus, are chiefly two : (1) the types of ApoUodotus, 'Apollo : Tripod' (PI. VT, 4) — Strato I (PL VI, 5), and, with some modification in the types which appeal's to indicate a later date, ApoUodotus II (PL VI, 6), Dionysius, Zoilus, Hippostratus {Summary, p. 587) ; and (2) the type of Menander, 'Athene Promachos' (PL VII, 18) — Agathocleia and Strato (PL VII, 19), Strato I (PL VII, 20, 21 and Summary, p. 588), ApoUodotus II (PL VII, 22), Dionysius, Zoilus, ApoUophanes (Summary, p. 589), Strato I and II (PL VII, 23).
In the long and distinguished list of queens who have ruled in India must be included the name of Agathocleia. Her relation to Menander cannot be proved very definitely ; but it is by no means improbable that she was his queen and the governor of his king- dom after his death ^. The fact that she struck coins on which her portrait appears together with the type of Euthydemus, ' Heracles- seated,' shows that she was a princess in her own right and a member of the royal house ; and her name suggests that she may have belonged to the family of Pantaleon and Agathocles (p. 546).. She was undoubtedly the mother of Strato I Soter^.
The coins issued by Agathocleia in association with her son, and by Strato ruling at first alone and afterwards in association with his grandson, Strato II Philopator, supply the most valuable evi- dence for the reconstruction of the history and chronology of thi&
1 The evidence, such as it is, is as follows : — (1) The ' bust of Athena helmeted ' which appears on coins of Menander (PI. VI, 15) is perhaps a portrait of Agathocleia, like the similar bust on coins which she strikes in association with Strato (PI. VII, 25) ; (2) the figure of a warrior king on the reverse of certain coins struck by Agathocleia during Strato's minority and bearing her own portrait may be supposed to represent the late king {Corolla Numismatica, PI. XII, 4) : a similar figure occurs as the obverse type on coins of Menander, where it is most naturally explained as that of Menander himself (Lahore Cat., PI. VI, 515).
2 For the detailed proof see Rapson in Corolla Numismatica (Oxford, 1908),, pp. 247-51.
xxii] Agathocleia and Strata 553
period. They mark most clearly various stages in the long life of Strato. They begin at a time when the conquests of the house of Eucratides had not yet reached their limit ; and they end on the eve of the complete overthrow of Yavana power in the eastern Punjab by the ^akas.
On the earliest of these coins Agathocleia appears as queen regent holding the place of honour with her portrait and Greek inscription on the obverse, while the KharoshthI legend of the young prince occupies a subordinate position on the reverse (PI. VII, 25). Afterwards, the combined portraits of mother and son declare their association in the government (PI. VII, 1 9) ; and, later still, a series of portraits shows Strato first reigning alone — as a youth (PI. VII, 20), or as a bearded man (PL VII, 21) — and then in advanced old age, with toothless jaws and sunken cheeks, both, as the KharoshthI legends indicate, reigning alone {Summary, p. 588) and in association with his grandson, Strato II Philopator (PI. VII, 23). To judge from these portraits, we have here glimpses of a life of more than seventy years. Between the earliest and the latest there is indeed a long interval, and to some period in this interval must be assigned the reigns of ApoUodotus II Philopator, Dionysius, and Zoilus. They are associated by their common use of a peculiar monogram (PI. VII, 22 and Summary, p. 589) ; and it is probable that they were all descendants of ApoUodotus I. Apollophanes, whose name suggests that he may have been a member of the same family, must belong to the period represented by the latest coins of Strato.
Coins of Agathocleia and Strato (PI. VII, 25), and others of Scrato reigning alone (PI. VI, 16), are sometimes found restruck ^rith the types of Heliocles (PI. VII, 35). The restruck coins of Strato bear the reverse-type 'Victory,' which was inherited by him either from Menander or from Agathocleia ruling in the name of Menander (PI. VI, 15 and Summary, p. 588) ; and this type may not improbably be supposed to represent the city of Nicaea on the Jhelum (p. 551). We have here unmistakable evidence of a further transference of the dominions of the house of Euthydemus to the rival house of Eucratides, and a certain indication that the conflict which was begun by Eucratides in the time of Demetrius and ApoUodotus, was continued by Heliocles in the reign of Strato.
The lifetime of Strato witnessed not only the decline in the eastern Punjab of the royal house to which he belonged, but also the downfaU of Yavana rule in Northern India ; for in his reign there came still another great foreign invasion which led to the
554 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
supremacy of the (^akas and Pahlavas. The debased art of his latest coins and of those in which he is associated with his grand- son seems to show that the house of Euthydemus had fallen on evil days ; and other coins clearly suggest the manner in which it came to an end. The familiar type of the house of Euthydemus, * Athene Promachos,' continues to appear on coins ; but the strikers no longer bear Greek names. Their names are either Indian like Bhadra- ya9asa, or (^^aka like Ranjubula {Summary, p. 589 and PL VII, 24). The former is otherwise unknown : the latter was the satrap of Mathura c. 50 B.C.^ It appears most probable that the kingdoms held in the easteni Punjab by the last successors of Euthydemus were conquered not by the first (^dka. king, Maues, but by his successor, Azes I (58 B.C.), who was either contemporary with, or later in date than, ApoUodotus II and Hippostratus whose coins he restruck^.
The House of Euckatides
From such notices of the history of Bactria and Parthia as have been preserved by Greek and Latin writers, a few main facts in the career of Eucratides may be gathered. He deposed Demetrius from the throne of Bactria (c. 175 b.c.); he invaded the countries to the south of the Hindu Kush, and wrested from Demetrius and the princes of his house their dominions in the Kabul valley, in Ariana (Arachosia and Aria), and in N.W. India at some date before 162 B.C. ; he was deprived by Mithradates I of his recently con- quered possessions in Ariana at some time between 162 and c. 155; and, while returning in triumph from an Indian expedition, he was slain by his son, c. 155. None of the princes of the royal house which he founded are named in ancient literature ; all that can be known of them must be inferred from the numerous coinages which they issued and from a single Indian inscription.
The coins show that Heliocles, the successor of Eucratides, also ruled both in Bactria and in India, and that after his reign Greek power in Bactria ceased. Henceforth Yavana princes are found only in kingdoms south of the Hindu Kush, and they are divided into two rival dynasties — the successors of Eucratides in the Kabul valley and in N.W. India, and the successors of Euthydemus in the eastern region of the Punjab.
1 See Chapter xxiii, pp. 575 f.
* Lahore Mus. Cat. pp. 122-3 ; and Chapter xxnx, p. '672.
XXI i] Kapiqa 555
Some stages in the conflict between the two houses are reflected in the types of their coins ; and especially valuable is the evidence which is sometimes supplied by restrikings. Thus certain copper coins of ApoUodotus I Soter, with the usual types ' Apollo : Tripod ' (PI. VI, 4) have been restruck by Eucratides (PL VII, 36). This must surely indicate that territory once occupied by ApoUodotus had passed into the hands of Eucratides, and that consequently Eucratides must have been either contemporary with ApoUodotus or later in date. Other evidence shows that these two kings were contemporary, for each of them was the predecessor of Heliocles (p. 557). This inevitable conclusion is perfectly in agreement with the style of the coins ; for the Indian issues of Eucratides appear to be at least as late in style as those of ApoUodotus. The compara- tively early date of ApoUodotus is moreover proved by his use of the Attic weight-standard.
But these restruck coins not only show that the two monarchs represent the two rival houses : they also give the name of the kingdom which had been lost and won. The reverse type is * Zeus enthroned,' and it is accompanied by two symbols, a mountain and the head of an elephant ; and the KharoshthI legend describes the type as * the divinity of the city of Kapi9i ' (PI. VII, 36).
Kapi9i, the Kdwiaa (mss. Kdnaa) of Ptolemy (vi, 18, 4), was a city of the Paropanisadae ; and, according to Pliny (vi, 23 (25)), it had been destroyed by Cyrus. It is mentioned by Panini (iv, 2, 99) ; and from his time onwards it is best known in Sanskrit literature as giving its name to a spirituous liquor distilled from the flowers of the Madhavi creeper. But our chief knowledge of Kapi9a, as the kingdom may be called in distinction from its capital, Kapi^i, comes from Chinese sources. For the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims it was the frontier country on their long journey to Northern India. It was a fruitful land of alpine valleys surrounded by mountains on every side. It was here that the Chinese princes who were detained as hostages in Kanishka's court spent the summer, while they passed the spring and autumn in Gandhara and the winter in India. AVhen Hiuen Tsiang visited Kapi9a in 630 A.D., it was a powerful kingdom, which, according to his description as interpreted by Cunningham, ' must have included the whole of Kafiristan, as well as the two large valleys of Ghorband and Panjshir ' {Geog. p. 18) ; and on it at that period were dependent the neighbouring king- doms of Lampaka (Laghman), Nagara (probably Jalalabad), and Gandhara.
55^ Successors of Alexander the Great [CH,
Hiuen Tsiang's account includes a notice which furnishes an interesting explanation of the coin-type :
To the south-west of the capital was the Pi-lo-sho-lo Mountain. This name was given to the mountain from its presiding genius who had the form of an elephant and was therefore called Pi-lo-sho-lo. (Watters, On Yuan Chwang, i, p. 129.)
The name is explained as meaning ' solid as an elephant/ and its Indian form has been restored as Pllu-sdra, the first part of the compound being supposed to be of Persian derivation (6*^ = elephant).
In this case, as also in others recorded by the historians of // Alexander, the Greeks sought to identify the Indian divinities
with their own. They evidently regarded the tutelary deity of the city of Kapi9l as Zeus. The coin- type thus inaugurated became characteristic of the house of Eucratides in the Kabul valley. It continued to be used by his successors until all Yavana rule in India came to an end. It is found on the coins of Heliocles, Antialcidas, Amyntas {Summary, p. 591), and Hermaeus (PI. VII, 37).
The conquests which Eucratides carried beyond the Kabul valley into the region of eastern Gandhara (Taksha9ila) seem to be represented by the coins bearing the type ' Dioscuri ' (PI. VIII, 39), which was continued by Diomedes (PL VIII, 40). One of its varieties which shows the pointed caps (pilei) of these deities (PI. VIII, 41) was certainly imitated by Liaka Kusulaka, the (^aka satrap of the districts of Chahara and Chukhsa in the neighbourhood of Taksha9ila (PI. VIII, 42). The * Pilei' appear also on coins of Antialcidas (PI. VIII, 43), Lysias and Antialcidas {Summary^ p. 591), and Archebius (PI. VIII, 44). Whether the type 'Victory' (PI. VI, 13) denotes that Eucratides was at some time in possession of Nicaea on the Jhelum must remain doubtful (p. 551).
Although the evidence for the very existence of Heliocles is purely numismatic, it is almost certain that he was the son of Eucratides, and quite certain that he succeeded Eucratides both in Bactria and in India. That he was the last Yavana king to rule in Bactria is shown by the fact that after his reign coins of Greek workmanship cease entirely in that region, and are replaced by the rude imitations of his coins which supplied the currency of the barbarous ^aka conquerors. That he extended the conquests of Eucratides in India is shown by his restrikings of coins originally issued by rulers belonging to the house of Euthydemus (p. 553).
XXI i] Pushkalavati 557
In the Kabul valley he continued to issue coins bearing the type
* Zeus enthroned,' with which Eucratides had restruck the coins of Apollodotus {Summary, p. 590), and others bearing the types
* Elephant : Bull ' which are identical with those of Apollodotus himself (PL VI, 8). The type ' Elephant ' occurs frequently both on the purely Indian, and on the Graeco-Indian, coinages of the Kabul valley and KW. India. The various mints which it denotes cannot be identified more precisely ; but it may be suggested that the type, like the 'Zeus enthroned,' derived its origin from the elephant-deity of Kapica. The 'Bull,' on the other hand, can be shown to have been the distinctive badge of Pushkalavati (Peucelaotis) in the lower Kabul valley, the capital of western Gandhara. The evidence which makes this identification certain is supplied by the gold piece illustrated in PL VI, 10. On the obverse is seen the goddess wearing a mural crown, the emblem of a Greek civic divinity, and holding in her right hand a lotus as the tutelary deity of ' the City of Lotuses.' The accompanying Kha- roshthi legend describes her as * the goddess of Pushkalavati ' : and it is quite possible that her name may lie hidden in the three illegible Kharoshthi characters on the left. On the reverse is the figure of a humped bull ; and above and below are the Greek and Kharoshthi equivalents for ' bull.' As in the case of the city divinity of Kapi9l, the Greek artist has represented in accordance with Greek ideas an Indian deity who was supposed to bear the form of a bull. Here once again we are indebted to Hiuen Tsiang, who, in his description of Pushkalavati, says :
Outside the west gate of the city was a Deva-Temple and a marvel-working image of the Deva. (Watters, On Yuan Ghwang, i, p. 214.)
The bull, like the elephant, is a common emblem in Indian mythology, and is associated with the deities worshipped by various sects ; but in this case it would seem undoubtedly to be the bull of ^iva ; for the coin-type passed from the Yavanas and their succes- sors, the (^akas, to the Kushana kings who added to it the figure of the god himself The bull continued to appear on the coins of this region for many centuries. It is seen on the ' Bull and Horseman ' coins of the Shahis of Gandhara as late as the eleventh century A.D., and from them it is borrowed by the early Muhammadan conquerors.
The successors of Heliocles who from such numismatic evidence are known to have ruled over the kingdom of Pushkalavati are — Diomedes (PL VI, 11), Epander, Philoxenus, Artemidorus, and Peucolaus {Surnimary, p. 587).
55^ Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
The figure of Artemis, which occurs on the coins of Artemidorus, bears an evident allusion to the king's name ; and, since it is found also on the coins of Peucolaus, it shows that the Greeks identified the city goddess with Artemis. The association of Peucolaus with Pushkalavati is proclaimed by his name, which is simply the ad- jective of Peucolaitis, an alternative form of the Greek Peucelaotis.
The kingdom of Pushkalavati was wrested from the Yavanas by the first (^aka king, Maues, who imitates the types of Artemi- dorus, * Artemis : Indian bull ' (PL VI, 12) ; and the date of this event was probably about 75 B.c.^
The only Yavana king whose name has yet been found on a purely Indian monument is Antialcidas. The inscription on a stone column at Besnagar, near Bhilsa in the Gwalior State, records that the column was erected in honour of Krishna (Vasudeva) by the Yavana ambassador Heliodorus, son of Dio, an inhabitant of Taksha9ila, who had come from the Great King Antialcidas to King Kaglputra Bhagabhadra then in the fourteenth year of his reign. The inscription is full of interest. It testifies to the existence of diplomatic relations between the Yavana king of Taksha9ila and the king of Vidi9a (Bhilsa); and it proves that already at this period some of the Yavanas had adopted Indian faiths, for Heliodorus is styled 'a follower of Vishnu' {hhagavatxiy.
The coins of Antialcidas with the type * Pilei ' also indicate that he was king of Taksha^ila (PL VIII, 43 and p. 556). As all the types connected with the worship of the Dioscuri are ultimately derived from the Bactrian coins of Eucratides (PL IV, 4-6), there can be no doubt that Antialcidas reigned after Eucratides.
Hitherto numismatists have assumed that Antialcidas was the predecessor of Eucratides ; but the assumption, so far as it has any support, rests on an observation of von Sallet which may well have been mistaken ; and what was originally a diffident suggestion on the part of von Sallet has been treated by each succeeding writer on the subject as a statement of fact^.
That Antialcidas succeeded Eucratides also in the kingdom of Kapiga appears from his coins with the type of the city divinity of Kapici with which Eucratides restruck the coins of ApoUodotus {Summary, p. 591). Some connexion between Antialcidas and
1 Chapter xxiii, p. 570.
2 For the inscription see J.R.A.S. for the years 1909-10. For the kingdom of Vidi(;a see Chapter xxi, pp. 522 f.
3 Zeit.f. Num., 1879, pp. 298, 305. The coin on which von Sallet very doubtfully read three syllables of the KharoshthI legend — a U hi — was probably one of ApoUodotus restruck by Eucratides (see PH. VI, 4 ; VII, 36).
XXI i] Takshaqila 559
Heliocles is indicated by their common use of the types ' Bust of king : Elephant/ with which Heliocles restruck the coins of Agatho- cleia and Strato {Summary, p. 590). Heliocles was no doubt the elder, for no Bactrian coinage of Antialcidas is known ; but, even if these two kings were father and son, their reigns in India may have been to some extent contemporary. The dominions of the house of Eucratides included a number of kingdoms, of which some, as, for instance, Kapi^a, Pushkalavati, and Taksha9ila, can be identified by the types of their coins ; and its seems probable that the government of some of these kingdoms was entrusted to the heir apparent and other members of the royal family. It is possible, therefore, that some of the princes whose coins we possess may have been ruling at the same time in different provinces.
On certain coins struck in the district of Takshacila (type 'Pilei,' Summary, p. 591), Antialcidas is associated with Lysias; but there is nothing to explain the relation which one bore to the other, or even to show clearly to which of the two royal houses of Yavanas Lysias belonged. Indeed, since one class of the coins which Lysias strikes as sole ruler bears types, * Bust of king wearing elephant's scalp : Heracles standing,' which are identical with those of Deme- trius, it is usually assumed that the two kings belong to the same family. But in this case, as so frequently, numismatic evidence is ambiguous. It is perhaps equally probable that the types intro- duced into India by Demetrius had become characteristic of a particular district, and therefore continued to be used in that district after it had passed from the house of Euthydemus to the house of Eucratides.
The type * Pilei ' is continued by Archebius (PI. VIII, 44) after whose reign it is no longer found on any coins issued by a Yavana king. It next appears on the small silver coins which the ^^ka satrap, Liaka Kusulaka, struck in imitation of those of Eucratides with the same type (PL VIII, 42, 41). The evidence of coins thus shows that after the reign of Archebius the region of Taksha9ila passed from the Yavanas to the ^^kas ; and the evidence of the Taksha9ila copper plate indicates that Taksha9ila was conquered by the first ^aka king, Maues, who was reigning there in the year 78 of an unspecified era, a date which, until the era can be deter- mined, may be regarded provisionally as the equivalent of about 72 B.C.^
The two great kingdoms of Gandhara, Pushkalavati to the west of the Indus (p. 557) and Taksha9ila to the east, thus passed under
1 Chapter xxiii, p. 570.
560 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch.
the sway of the ^akas during the reign of Maues. The ^aka con- querors, moving up the valley of the Indus from their Indian base in Indo-Scythia (Sind), had come in like a wedge, which for a time separated the remnants of the two Yavana houses. The descend- ants of Euthydemus, the families of ApoUodotus and Menander, still continued to rule in the eastern districts of the Punjab (p. 552), and the descendants of Eucratides in the upper Kabul valley (the province of the Paropanisadae).
The house of Eucratides was now reduced to the possession of the region which represented its earliest conquest to the south of the Hindu Kush. In the city of Kapi9i on the most northern extremity of this region Eucratides had first used the type * Zeus enthroned ' to restrike the coins of the defeated ApoUodotus ; and this type, deprived of the special emblems of the tutelary divinity of Kapici, * Elephant and mountain,' remained characteristic of the coinages of the upper Kabul valley until the chapter of Yavana rule in India was closed. It was continued after the time of Eucratides by Heliocles, Antialcidas^ Amyntas, and Hermaeus {Summary, p. 591, and PL VII, 37).
On some of his silver coins Hermaeus is associated with his queen, Calliope, who, like Agathocleia, must have been a princess in her own right. In the ohv. type which represents the jugate busts of the king and queen, both of them wear the diadem ; and their names are associated in the Greek and Kharoshthi legends. These joint coins are distinguished from the other issues of Her- maeus by the rev. type * King on prancing horse' ; and, as this type is characteristic of Antimachus and his successors, it is probable, as Cunningham suggested, that Calliope was a princess of this family (p. 546 f., and Summary, pp. 586).
With the conquest by the ^akas of the kingdoms held by the last successors of Euthydemus in the eastern Punjab, Yavana rule had already ceased in the north-western region of the sub-continent which is now known as India, that is to say, the N.W. Frontier Province and the Punjab ; and Hermaeus was the last king of his race to reign in India in its more extended historical and geo- graphical sense, which includes the southern half of the present Afghanistan. His kingdom in the upper Kabul valley was the last survival of the Yavana dominions ; and it was hemmed in on every
^ Coins bearing this type no doubt circalated beyond the limits of the region which seems to have been their home. The type as it appears on coins of Antialcidas was imitated by Maues, who was never in possession of the upper Kabul valley {Summary, p. 591).
XXI i] Hermaeus 561
side by actual or possible foes — on the east and on the south-west by the ^akas and Pahlavas of Peshawar and Kandahar, and on the north by the Yueh-chi, who, since their settlement in the rich land of Bactria, had become a great power under the leadership of their chief tribe, the Kushaijas. From one or other of these three possible sources — over the mountain region which is now traversed by the Khyber Pass, over the belt of highland country varying from 12,000 to 18,000 feet which lies between Ghazni and Kabul on the route from Kandahar, or over the Paropanisus — must have come the conquerors who put an end to the kingdom of Hermaeus. It was formerly held by the present writer that these hostile in- vaders were the Kushayas who came over the Paropanisus from Bactria ; and the testimony of coins, on which the names of the last Yavana king, Hermaeus, and the first Kushana conqueror, Kujula Kadphises, are found in association, seemed to justify this conclusion ^ But a fuller consideration of all the available evidence shows that the opinion of Dr F. W. Thomas is almost certainly correct, viz. that there was an intermediate period during which the Pahlavas were in possession of KabuF.
The coins which bear the name of Hermaeus must, if we may judge from their style and fabric, extend over a long period ; and those which were mechanically copied by Kujula Kadphises to supply his first issues in the Kabul valley are themselves barbarous. They are of copper and very far removed from the silver coins which were their prototypes (PL VH, 37 and Summary, p, 591). The earliest coins are of good style and of good metal; and they belong to the period before any of the squared Greek letters had been introduced. Later issues are of coarser work- manship; the silver is alloyed, and the square n appears in the Greek legend. So far, the deterioration of art and the debasement of the coinage are such as might well be expected to have taken place during the reign of a king who was menaced by enemies on every side. But further stages of degradation can only be explained as the result of a complete change in the character of the civilisation of this region. The alloyed coins are succeeded by barbarous issues which are undisguisedly of copper, and finally by others in which the word 2QTHP0I, 'the saviour,' in the king's title appears as ZTHPoZZY and is rendered in the corresponding Kharoshthi legend by the word mahatasa {mxihantassa), ' great' ^. It is clear that the Greek language was no longer properly
1 Kapson, Indian Coins, p." 16. 2 J,R.A.S., 1906, p. 194, note 1.
3 B,&TpBon, J.B.A.S., 1897, p. 319.
C.H.I. I. 36
562 Successors of Alexander the Great [ch. xxii
understood by the die-engravers. These last are the coins which are imitated by Kujula Kadphises (PI. VII, 28 and Summary ^ p. 589), whose date can scarcely be earlier than 50 A-D., since, according to Sir John Marshall's observations, the evidence of the discoveries at Taksha9ila shows that he was rather later than Gondopharnes, who is known to have reigned during the period from 19 A-D. to 45 A.D.^
It would appear then that, while Hermaeus may have been reigning for some time before and after c. 40 B.C., as would seem to be indicated by the square d in his later Greek coin-legends"^, a coinage bearing his name and his types was issued by his con- querors until a much later date, in the same way and for the same reasons that the East India Company continued for many years to strike rupees bearing the name of the Mughal Emperor, Shah 'Alam. That these conquerors were not Kushanas may, from chronological considerations, be regarded as certain. That they were the Pahlavas of Kandahar is made probable by the evidence of the coins which were struck by Spalirises with the characteristic type of the Yavana kings of Kabul, 'Zeus enthroned ' (PI. VII, 38)^ It was probably not until at least seventy years after the death of its last Yavana king that the Kabul valley passed from the Pahlavas to the Kushanas, the next suzerain power in Afghanistan and N.W. India.
1 The four stages in the currency which bears the name of Hermaeus are shown in the B.M. Cat.: (1) pp. G2-3, nos. 1-4, PI. XV, 1, 2; (2) p. 63, nos. 20-1, PL XV, 4; (3) pp. 64-5, nos. 25-40, PI. XV, 6; (4) p. 65, nos. 45-50.
2 Chapter xxiii, pp. 571-2. ^ Chapter xxin, p. 574.
CHAPTER XXIII THE SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
The Scythian ((^^aka) and Parthian (Pahlava) invaders of India are often mentioned in Sanskrit literature, and nearly always in association with each other and with the Yavanas. But, as this literature is not historical, we must turn to other sources — to Greek and Chinese historians, to the inscriptions of Persia and India, and to coins — for information as to their origin and their rule in India.
The Yavanas had come from Bactria over the Hindu Kush into the upper Kabul valley, and thence along the Kabul river into India by a route which has since been abandoned for that which now leads through the Khyber defile. It was formerly assumed that the ^akas came directly into India from the same region and by the same way. But this view is attended with difficulties which cannot be explained. In the first place, if the ^akas came through the Kabul valley, all traces of their invasion must be supposed to have disappeared from that region ; for, among the many thousands of coins which were collected on its ancient sites at the time when the country was still open to archaeological investigation, the coins of the earliest Qaka kings are conspicuous by their absence ; and secondly, it is certain that the Kabul valley remained in the possession of the Yavana princes of the house of Eucratides after the Yavana dominions in N.W. India on the eastern side of the Khyber Pass, that is to say, in Peshawar and Rawalpindi, had been conquered by the ^akas. Ingress from Bactria was therefore barred at this period.
The alternative suggestion that the ^akas may have come into India from their northern home in the country of the Jaxartes through Kashmir involves a physical impossibility. The geo- graphical difficulties of this region are such that an invasion from this direction of tribal hordes or armies sufficiently powerful ta overwhelm the Yavana kingdoms and to conquer the whole of the N.W. Frontier Province and the Punjab is inconceivable^.
1 See the aathorities quoted by Thomas, J.R.A.S., 1913, p. 635, notes 1 and 2.
36—2
564 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
Any direct invasion from the north seems, in fact, to be out of the question. It is therefore far more probable, nay almost certain, that the ^akas reached India indirectly, and that, like the Pahlavas, they came through Ariana (W. and S. Afghanistan and Baluchistan) by the great highway, associated in modern times with the Bolan Pass, which led from the Parthian provinces of Drangiana (Seistan) and Arachosia (Kandahar) over the Brahui mountains into the country of the lower Indus (Sind). This route was well known and comparatively easy. By it Craterus had returned with that division of Alexander's army which included the elephants \
The Scythian (^aka) settlements, which can only have been the result of invasions along this route, gave to the region of the Indus delta the name ' Scythia ' or ' Indo-Scythia ' by which it was known to the Greek geographers, and the name * (^aka-dvipa ' or * the river country of the (^akas ' as it appears in Indian literature. This region still continued to be governed by the Pahlavas, who are inseparably connected with the 9^^^^, at the end of the first century A.D.2 There can be little doubt that Indo-Scythia was the base from which the ^aka and Pahlava armies moved up the valleys of the Indus and its tributaries to attack the Yavana kingdoms of the successors of Euthydemus and Eucratides.
In all ages the name ' Scythian ' has been applied generally to the nomads inhabiting the northern regions of Europe and Asia ; and, according to Herodotus (vii, 64), the term ' Saka,' as used by the Persians, was equally vague. In the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius it denotes no less than three different and widely separated settlements of Scythians. These, enumerated from east to west, have been identified as follows : —
(1) The Saka Tigrakhauda, 'wearers of pointed helmets.' They are so described by Herodotus (vii, 64), who states that they were included together with their neighbours, the Bactrians, in the army of Xerxes. They were therefore the ^akas whose home was in the country of the river Jaxartes (the Syr Daria).
(2) The Saka Haumavarka, the 'Kixvpr^ioL of Herodotus {loc. cit.) who have been identified^ with the (^aka settlers in the Persian province of Drangiana, the country of the river Helmand, which was afterwards known as (^akasthana, *the abode of the (^akas,' the later Persian Sijistan and the modern Seistan.
1 Chapter xv, p. 379.
2 Ptolemy, vii, 1, 55; Periplus maris Erythraei, 38.
3 Thomas, J.R.A.S. 1906, p. 186.
XXI 1 1] Migration of the Yueh-chi 565
(3) The Saka Taradaraya, or * the (^akas over the sea ' ; that is to say, the Scythians of Europe who inhabited the steppes of Russia to the north of the Black Sea.
These three settlements are no doubt merely specimens of the larger deposits left by the waves of Scythian migration which may be traced back in history to about the middle of the eighth century RC. The flood had now for some three and a half centuries been held in check by the barrier maintained in Bactria, first by the Achaemenid kings of Persia and afterwards by the successors of Alexander. But the strength of Bactria had been sapped by foreign and domestic strife, and it was no longer capable of resisting the pressure of barbarian hordes on the frontier.
The initial impulse of the tribal movements, which were destined to overwhelm Greek civilisation in the Oxus country, and to deter- mine the history of N. India for many centuries to come, may be traced to an incident in the turbulent history of the Huns, against whose inroads the Chinese emperors had protected themselves by building the Great Wall. In the neck of country between the Great Wall and the mountains which forms part of the province of Kan-su, lived a people known to Chinese historians as the Yueh-chi. Being attacked and defeated by the Huns, c. 165 rc, the Yueh-chi were driven from their country, and began a westward migration which necessarily brought them into conflict with other nomads, and produced a general condition of unrest among the tribes inhabiting the northern fringe of the deserts of Chinese Turkestan. The pressure caused by the steady onward movement of Yueh-chi tribes, numbering probably from half a million to a million souls ^, forced before it other nomads, and set up a flood of migration which, after sweeping away the Yavana power in Bactria, was only stayed in its westward course by Parthia.
Certain incidents in this migration, which must have extended over some thirty or forty years, are recorded by Chinese authors. In the country of the Hi river, now called Kulja, the Yueh-chi came upon a tribe called the Wu-sun. The Wu-sun were routed, and their king was slain ; and the Yueh-chi continued their journey westwards towards the Issyk-kul Lake in the country which was until recently Russian Turkestan. Here they appear to have divided themselves into two bands — the one, afterwards known as the Little Yueh-chi, going southwards and settling on the borders of Tibet, and the other, the Great Yueh-chi, continuing . their movement to the west until they came into contact with a people
1 Smith, Early Hist, of Ind. (3rd ed.), p. 248.
566 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
whom the Chinese called Sse (Sai) or Sek, and who are probably to be identified with the ^^'kas of the Jaxartes. The Yueh-chi took possession of the country of the (^akas ; and the (^akas being driven to the south-west occupied the country of the Ta-hia or Bactria,
The immediate cause of the downfall of Greek rule in Bactria would therefore seem to have been an overwhelming invasion of 4yaka hordes who had been driven from their own lands. The native inhabitants of Bactria, the Ta-hia or Dahae, are represented as an unwarlike people living in towns and villages which were governed by their own magistrates. The state of society described is such as prevailed also in India : it is a society made up of local groups self-governed and self-contained. In the case of such communities the military conquest of a country merely determines the landlord to whom the customary dues must be paid. It is probable that for a brief period ^aka warrior chiefs took the place of Eucratides and Heliocles as rulers of the Ta-hia. Such would appear to have been the state of affairs when the Chinese envoy in 126 RC. visited the Yueh-chi and found them still in the territories to the north of the Oxus from which they had expelled the (^^akas. The political conditions then existing were in a transient stage of unstable equilibrium. They were the outcome of a disturbance of peoples which began in far distant China nearly forty years before. But the movement had not yet completed its course: it was resumed in consequence of an attack on the Yueh-chi.
The infant son of the Wu-sun king, who was slain by the Yueh-chi in their earlier conflict, had been adopted by the Huns ; and when the boy grew up to manhood and became king of the Wu-sun, he with the aid of his protectors led an expedition against the Yueh-chi and drove them into the country south of the Oxus. The result must necessarily have been a further dispersal of the ^akas. A concise summary of events is given in the Chinese encyclopaedia of Ma-twan-lin:
In ancient times the Hiung-nu having defeated the Yueh-chi, the latter went to the west to dwell among the Ta-hia, and the king of the Sai (^akas) went southwards to live in Ki-pin. The tribes of the Sai divided and dispersed, so as to fonn here and there diflferent kingdoms. (Translated from R6musat, Nouveatix Melanges Asiatiques, i, p. 205.)
This account is supplemented in the Annals of the Han Dynasty which state that the ^aka king became the lord of Ki-pin \
^ 0. Franke, Beitr&ge aus chinesischen Quellen, pp. 46, 54.
xxiii] The Qaka Invasion 567
The summary records the complete annihilation of ^aka rule in Bactria. The king himself becomes king in Ki-pin — a geographi- cal term which is used in various senses by Chinese writers, but which, in this case, would most naturally mean Kapi^a (Kafiristan) ; and the tribes formerly under his command are dispersed. There is no indication that any considerable body of ^akas accompanied their king to Ki-pin. The main movement, impeded by the Yavana power in Kabul, would naturally be westwards in the direction of Herat and thence southwards to Seistan. The tide of Scythian invasion had no doubt been flowing in these directions since the time when the ^akas were first expelled from their territory beyond the Jaxartes by the Yueh-chi ; for there is good evidence to show that the earlier Scythian settlements in Iran were rein- forced about the time when the (^akas first occupied Bactria. The kings of Parthia who now held eastern Iran were engaged during two reigns (Phmates II, 138-128 B.C., and Artabanus I, 128-123) in unsuccessful struggles with their Scythian subjects; and the contest was only decided in favour of Parthia in the reigu of the next monarch, Mithradates II the Great (123-88). Parthia had now taken the place of Bactria as the barrier which impeded the westward course of migrations from upper Asia. But the stream of invasion was only diverted into another channel : checked in Ariana, it forced its way along the line of least resistance into the country of the lower Indus (Indo-Scythia). The ^aka invasion of India, like the invasion of the Huns (Hunas) between five and six centuries later, was but an episode in one of those great move- ments of peoples which have so profoundly influenced the history not only of India, but also of Western Asia and Europe.
On a few of their coins, generally imitated from those of their Yavana predecessors (e.g. B.M. Cat, Pll. XVI, 1; XVII, 7; XIX, 12) the ^aka and Pahlava kings repeat the Greek royal title ^ King ' or ' Great King ' ; but their normal style is * Great King of Kings,' a title which is distinctively Persian. It has a long history from the Kshdyathiydndm Kshdyathiya of the inscriptions of Darius down to the Shahdn Shah of the present day. Like the Indian Chakravartin, * the wielder of the discus,' the Persian 'King of Kings' was the supreme monarch to whom other kings paid homage. In the Parthian empire the title was probably first assumed by Mithradates II the Great (123-88 RC.) in imitation of his predecessors, the Achaemenids^. It was in his reign that
^ Some numismatists attribute the Parthian coins on which the title first occurs to Mithradates I (171-138). See Wroth, B.M. Cat., Parthia, p. xxv, note.
568 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [CH,
the struggle between the kings of Parthia and their Scythian subjects in eastern Iran was brought to a close and the suzerainty of Parthia over the ruling powers of Seistan and Kandahar con^ firmed. In these subordinate governments Parthians (Pahlavas) and Scythians (^akas) were so closely associated that it is not always possible to distinguish between them: the same family includes both Parthian and Scythian names. It is therefore little more than a convenient nomenclature which labels the princes of the family of Maues, who invaded the lower Indus valley, as ^akas, and those of the family of Vonones, who ruled over Drangiana (Seistan) and Arachosia (Kandahar), as Pahlavas. The relation between Maues and Vonones is uncertain ; but it is clear that their families were associated in a later generation.
It has been supposed that the introduction into India of the Persian and Parthian title, * Great King of Kings,' was the result of an actual conquest of N.W. India by Mithradates I; and a statement of the historian Orosius that this monarch conquered all the peoples between the Hydaspes and the Indus has been interpreted to mean that he extended the power of Parthia beyond the Indus as far as the Indian Hydaspes (the Jhelum)^. But to an author who is writing from the standpoint of Parthia, the expres- sion * between the Hydaspes and the Indus ' must surely connote an extension from west to east — from a Persian river to the great Indus which has so often in history been the boundary between Iran and India. Hydaspes is a Persian name, and the river men- tioned in this passage is no doubt the Medus Hydaspes of Virgil {Georgics, iv, 211)^. The theory of a conquest of N.W. India by Mithradates I would therefore seem to be founded on a misunder- standing of the historian's statement. The invasion of India must be ascribed not to the Partliian emperors, but to their former feudatories in eastern Iran ; not to the reign of Mithradates I, but to a period after the reign of Mithradates II, when the power of Parthia had declined and kingdoms once subordinate had become independent. The association to which the coins bear witness is not one between Parthia and eastern Iran, but between Iran and N.W. India. In fact, all through the period of ^aka and Pahlava rule the countries to the west and east of the Indus were governed by members of the same royal house. There were normally three contemporary rulers of royal rank — a King of Kjngs associated
1 Smith, Early Hist, of Ind. (3rd ed.), p. 228.
2 Pauly-Wissowa, Eeal-Encyclopddie, s.v. Hydaspes (2). The remark in Bapson^ Anc. Ind., p. 171, should be corrected.
XX III] The Caka King of Kings 569
with some junior member of his family in Iran, and a King of Kings in India; and the subordinate ruler in Iran usually became in due course King of Kings in India.
The assumption of the imperial title, * King of Kings,' by these ^aka and Pahlava suzerains is most significant as testifying, in a manner which cannot be mistaken, to the diminished power of Parthia at this period. In Parthia itself the title remained in abeyance during the interval from 88 to 57 B.C. which separates the reigns of Mithradates II and III ; and in the meantime it was assumed not only by the ^aka king Maues in the East, but also, in the years 77-73, by Tigranes, king of Armenia, the great rival of Parthia in the West\
In eastern Iran the 'King of Kings' and the prince of his family who was associated with him in the government issued coins bearing the names of both — the former in Greek on the obverse, and the latter in Kharoshthi on the reverse. Greek was the ordinary language of coins throughout the Parthian empire: it was not characteristic of any particular province. Kharoshthi, on the other hand, was, in eastern Iran, restricted to Arachosia (Kandahar). We may reasonably infer therefore from his Khar- oshthi coin-legends that the viceroy governed this province in the upper valley of the Helmand and its tributaries. The other province, Drangiana (Seistan), was most probably under the direct rule of the suzerain.
In India the * King of Kings ' ruled with the aid of satraps and military governors. The first three ^^aka suzerains who succeeded to the dominions of the Yavanas in the N.W. Frontier Province and the Punjab were Maues, Azes I, and Azilises. Their numerous coinages are, almost without exception, copied from those of their Yavana predecessors : and it is therefore probable that the coins represent only those districts of the (^aka realm which were formerly held by the Yavanas 2. The great variety of the types thus imitated indicates the wide extent of these territories; and the astonishing difference of style shown by coins struck in the same reign proves that the art of different regions varied enor- mously at the same period. The best coins belong no doubt to Gandhara (Pushkalavati and Taksha9ila). Inferior workmanship is a sign of remoteness from this region rather than of a late date,
1 Wroth, B.M. Cat., Parthia, p. xxv, note; Head, Historia Numorum (2nd ed.), p. 772; von Gutschmid, Gesch. Irans, p. 81.
2 The province of Indo-Scythia (Sind) appears to be very inadequately represented by coins. It may, perhaps, have been held by the viceroy together with Arachosia.
570 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
as the numismatists have commonly assumed. It was in Gaudhara that the Graeco-Buddhist school of art, the outcome of a fusion of Greek and Indian ideals and methods, grew up and flourished, but it was not until the end of the first century A-D. that this school reached its highest state as seen in the religious sculptures of the Kushaijas. Its beginnings are no doubt to be traced in the coins of an earlier date, and such beginnings were naturally progressive. The finest coins of Maues, for instance, are excelled by those of Azilises two reigns later ^ The early date, viz. c. 120 B.C., which is usually assigned to Maues entirely on grounds of style and on the gratuitous assumption that art was retrogressive from the time of the Yavanas onwards, cannot therefore be maintained. It is far more probable that he invaded India after the end of the reign of Mithradates II (123-88 b.c.) when Parthia ceased to exercise any real control over Seistan and Kandahar.
The precise date of Maues cannot at present be determined. He is undoubtedly to be identified with the Great King Moga, who is mentioned in the Taksha9ila copper-plate inscription of the satrap Patika. The inscription is dated in the reign of Maues and in the year 78 of some unspecified era. None of the known Indian eras seems to be possible in this case ; and it may not unreasonably be suggested that the ^akas, like other foreign invaders at all periods, may have brought with them into India their own system of reckoning, and that this may be the era used in Seistan. The month in the inscription is Parthian ; and from this fact it may be inferred that the ei*a itself is probably of Parthian origin. It may possibly mark the establishment of the new kingdom in Seistan after its incorporation into the Parthian empire by Mithradates I, c. 150 B.C. If so, the date of the inscription would be c. 72 B.C., a year which may well have fallen in the reign of Maues.
The coins of Maues are copied from those struck by princes of both the Yavana houses (Pll. VI, 2, 9, 12 ; VIII, 48, and Summary, pp. 586 fl".). The numismatic evidence combined with that of the Taksha9ila copper-plate indicates that he conquered Gandhara — PushkalavatT to the west of the Indus (PI. VI, 12, and Summary, p. 587) as well as Taksha9ila to the east — and it is possible that he may have invaded the Yavana dominions in the eastern Punjab. But it is clear that in the direction last mentioned the (^^aka con- quests failed to reach their limit during his reign. For a time the remnants of the two Yavana houses in the upper Kabul valley and
I Whitehead, Lahore Mus. Cat., Indo-Greek Coins, p. 93.
XXI 1 1] The Date of Azes I 571
in the eastern Punjab seem to have been separated by the (^aka dominions which lay between them in the valley of the Indus.
The evidence for this is supplied by the coins of Azes I and Azilises, who not only continue the issues of Maues {Summary, pp. 587-9), but also strike a number of additional types which are manifestly borrowed from those of the Yavana princes whose kingdoms they conquered \ The most noteworthy of these is the rev. type 'Athene Promachos' which is characteristic of the families of ApoUodotus and Menander in the eastern Punjab. It appears on coins of Azes I, but not on those of Maues {Summary, p. 589). Such additional types bear witness to a considerable extension of the 9^ka dominions, and seem to indicate that after the reign of Maues the house of Euthydemus was extinguished and Yavana rule in the Punjab brought to an end. The house of Eucratides, now probably represented by its last king, Hermaeus, still con- tinued for a while to hold the upper Kabul valley — the base from which the Yavana power had first extended to Arachosia and to India.
To Azes I has been attributed the foundation of the Vikrama era beginning in 58 RC, and, according to Sir John Marshall, an inscription discovered by him at Taksha9ila is actually dated * in the year 136 of Azes.' This interpretation may well be correct {v. inf. p. 581), in spite of the tradition that this era was founded by King Vikramaditya of Ujjain to commemorate the defeat of the ^akas; and, whatever may have been the origin of this era, the assignment of the reign of Azes I to this period is justified by other considerations. It is consistent with the date ascribed inde- pendently to his predecessor, Maues (c. 75 B.C.), and with the date of his third successor on the throne, Gondopharnes, who almost certainly began to rule in 19 A.D. (p. 576); and it is supported by evidence drawn from the epigraphy of the Greek coin-legends.
On the earlier coins of the Yavanas and on those of the first Qaka king, Maues, the round form of the Greek omicron only is found. On some of the later Yavana coins, e.g. those of Hippostratus, and on the coins of Azes I the square form, a, makes its appearance side by side with the round form. The same change took place in Parthia during the reign of Orodes I (57-38 RC.)^. That at this period there was constant communi- cation between Parthia and India there can be no doubt It is
1 The most complete list of types is given in the Lahore Mus. Cat., vol. i.
2 B.M. Cat., Parthia, p. 73, no. 37, PI. XV, 2, a tetradrachm of the later coinage strack in 40-39 b.c.
5 7 2 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
reasonable, therefore, to suppose that this epigraphical change is due to a fashion which spread from one country to the other, and that the occurrence of the square omicron on a Parthian or Indian coin is an indication that its date is not earlier than c. 40 B.c.^
Judged by this test, the Yavana king, Hippostratus, must have continued to reign after the death of Maues; and he must have been contemporary with the successor of Maues, Azes I, who restruck his coins and continued to use some of his most distinctive monograms, no doubt after the conquest of his kingdom ^
There is no reason to question the almost unanimous opinion of numismatists that Azes I was succeeded by Azilises ; but there was certainly a period in which these two kings were associated in the government. On some coins which they issue conjointly both bear the imperial style, * Great King of Kings ' ; but Azes I, as the elder, occupies the place of honour on the obverse with its Greek legend (B.M. Cat, p. 173, PL XXXII, 9).
On other coins, however, the same two names appear with the same titles, but with a change of position — Azilises occupying the obverse with a Greek legend, and Azes the reverse with a KharoshthI legend (B.M. Cat., p. 92, PL XX, 3) ; and, as degrees of dignity or seniority are undoubtedly indicated by these positions in similar instances, it has been inferred that Azilises was associated with two kings named Azes — possibly with his father and prede- cessor at the beginning of his reign and with his son and successor at its close. The existence of a second Azes might well be questioned if it could be proved by no more cogent argument than this. But the coins which bear the name show so great a diversity of style that, from this fact alone, numismatists have suspected that they must have been struck by more than one king ; and, if our system of chronology be correct, the Azes who succeeded Maues in 58 RC. cannot possibly have been the Azes who was succeeded by Gondopharnes in 19 a.d. (p. 577).
At some time during the period when the first three ^aka kings were establishing their empire in India, Vonones was reigning as suzerain over the kingdoms of eastern Iran with the same imperial title, 'Great King of Kings.' It is inconceivable that such a dignity should have been usurped in this region so
1 This chronological test must be applied with caution. Isolated instances occur earlier; and the squared forms of the Greek letters □, Q, and lu are characteristic of certain regions. In other regions they are not found. See Bapson, J.R.A.S., 1903, p. 285.
2 Lahore Mus. Cat., p. 122, note; B.M. Cat., pp. 59, 73.
xxiii] Vonones 573
long as it remained under the suzerainty of Parthia. Vonones, like Maues, must, therefore, be later than the reign of Mithradates II the Great (123-88 B.C.) — precisely how much later must for the present remain uncertain.
The two classes of coins which bear his name are distinguished respectively by the type of Demetrius, 'Heracles standing,' and the type of Heliocles, 'Zeus standing' (PL VII, 27, 31). They were issued presumably in districts of Arachosia which were once under the sway of these Yavana kings. Their Greek legends show the round form of omlcron which, in some other cases, indicates a date earlier than c. 40 B.C. ; but it appears that this epigraphical test cannot be applied in this particular instance, since the square form seems not to occur in connexion with these types until much later {Summary, pp. 589-90). The most trustworthy evidence as to the date of Vonones is supplied by the coins of Spalirises, ' the king's brother.' If 'the king,' who is not named, was Vonones himself, as is usually assumed, the earlier coins of Spalirises, i.e. those struck by him before he became suzerain of eastern Iran in succession to Vonones, may perhaps afford a valuable historical indication. There are two classes of these, both of them issued in the district in which the type of Heliocles, 'Zeus standing,' pre- vailed {Summary, p. 590). In the first, Spalirises appears alone as ' the king's brother ' without any distinctly royal title. In the second, he as senior (Greek legend) is associated with Azes as junior (Kharoshthi legend), both of them bearing the subordinate or viceregal title 'Great King.' Vonones was evidently still reigning as Great King of Kings at this time. The relationship of Azes to Spalirises is not expressed in the Kharoshthi legend; and in such cases it seems to be assumed that the junior is the son of the senior: otherwise, i.e. when the junior is a brother or a nephew, the relationship is stated. We may conclude, then, that this Azes was most probably the son of Spalirises and the nephew of Vonones, and we may identify him with Azes II who afterwards became suzerain of N.W. India and ended his reign in 19 a.d. Vonones was at least a generation earlier ; that is to say, he appears to have been contemporary with Azilises and possibly with Azes I. Until more definite evidence can be discovered, he may be supposed to have begun his reign c. 30 B.C. It seems impossible, therefore, to identify him with Vonones I of Parthia (8-1 1 A.D.).
The family of Vonones is one in which the two ruling elements of eastern Iran have been blended. The name of Vonones himself is distinctly Parthian ; but the names of his brothers, Spalahores
5 74 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
and Spalirises, and of his brothers' sons, Spalagadames and Azes, are Scythian. For the sake of convenience we may call this family * Pahlava,' in order to distinguish it from the better known * Parthian ' dynasty of Ctesiphon, although in reality the two terms are etymologically identical.
A characteristic feature of the coins of Vonones and his family is, as we have seen (p. 569), the association of the Great King of Kings with the viceroy of Arachosia, whose relationship to the suzerain is sometimes expressed in the Kharoshthi legend of the reverse. Thus Vonones ruled conjointly with his brother, Spalahores, and with his nephew Spalagadames, the son of Spalahores (PL VII, 27, 31, and Summary, pp. 589-90). If we may assume with Mr Whitehead^ that the Scythian name, Spalahores ((j^palahora) appears in a Greek guise as Spalyris, this brother of Vonones and his son also ruled conjointly as viceroys over the district of Arachosia in which coins bearing the type of Euthydemus, ' Heracles seated,' were current. This district had formerly been under the direct government of the Great King of Kings, Azilises {Summary, p. 589).
The rev. type of the coins which Spalirises issued as the suc- cessor of Vonones in the suzerainty of eastern Iran is 'Zeus enthroned' (PL VII, 38); and, as it is evidently borrowed from the coins of Hermaeus, it may perhaps be interpreted as an indication that the kingdom of Kabul had now passed from the Yavanas to the Pahlavas. If so, it would appear that this last stronghold of Yavana power had yielded to an invasion of the Pahlavas of Kandahar. The types of these coins of Spalirises are sometimes found restruck on coins of Vonones as if they were intended for circulation in a newly conquered territory (B.M. Cat., p. 101, note).
The family of Vonones may thus be reconstructed from the numismatic evidence^:
RIS]
VONONES Spalahores SPALIRISES
I I
Spalagadames AZES II
(end of reign 19 a.d.)
The coins and inscriptions of the satraps of the ^aka suzerains of N.W. India enable us to supply a few additional outlines of the history before the Christian era. The names of a considerable
^ Lahore Mus. Cat., vol. i, p. 143, note 1.
^ The names of suzerains are printed in capital letters.
XXI 1 1] The Satraps 575
number of these provincial administrators are known ; but it must suffice here to mention only those whose date and province can be determined approximately.
In the satrapal system of government a Great Satrap was associated vnth a Satrap, usually his son, who succeeded to the higher dignity in due course. The earliest recorded ruler of this kind is Liaka Kusulaka, who, according to the Taksha^ila copper- plate inscription of the year 78 (= c. 72 B.C. ? v. sup. p. 570), was satrap of Chhahara and Chukhsa, districts which have not been identified, but which were presumably in the neighbourhood of Taksha9ila. His coins were imitated from those of Eucratides (PI. VIII, 42). His son, Patika, who made the deposit of relics which is commemorated by the inscription, bore no title at that time ; but there can be little doubt that he must have succeeded his father first as satrap and afterwards as great satrap. His name with the higher title is among those inscribed on the Mathura Lion-Capital (c. 30 B.C. ?).
This remarkable monument of the rule of the (^akas in the south-eastern extremity of their dominions was discovered at Mathura by an Indian scholar. Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji, in 1869, and was bequeathed by him to the British Museum on his death in 1888. It is of the local red sandstone, and represents two lions reclining back to back and facing in the same direction. Its style is strikingly Iranian. The capital must originally have sur- mounted a pillar, and must itself have supported some religious emblem ; but its purpose had long ago been forgotten ; and when it was discovered it was built into the steps of an altar devoted to the worship of ^itala, the goddess of small-pox. The Kharoshthi inscriptions with which the surface is completely covered associate in the religious merit of the foundation the donor herself (the Chief Queen of the Great Satrap Rajula) and all the members of her family together with certain contemporary satraps governing other provinces of the l^aka realm and other eminent personages of the time. The Great Satrap Rajula, whose name appears as Raj uvula in other inscriptions, is unquestionably the Raiijubula who, both as satrap and as great satrap, struck coins in imitation of those of Strato I and Strato II, the last of the Yavana kings to reign in the E. Punjab (PL VII, 24) ; and he was the father of ^odasa in whose reign as satrap the monument was erected. Subsequently (^odasa himself appears as great satrap on the Amohini votive tablet at Mathura, which is dated in the second month of Winter of the year 42. As the month is thus recorded in an Indian style, the
57^ Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
era must probably also be Indian ; and if, as seems likely, it is the era of Azes (58 RC), we may conclude that ^odasa was great satrap in 17-16 b.c.
Among the names of contemporary (^/^aka governors mentioned in the inscriptions of the Lion Capital is found that of Patika, now a great satmp, who during the reign of Maues made the benefaction recorded in the Taksha9ila copper-plate (year 78 of the era of Seistan = c. 72 B.C. ?). At that time he was a private individual without any official title. It may be assumed that in due course he succeeded his father in the administration of Chhahara and Chukhsa. When the Lion Capital was inscribed, he was a great satrap and contemporary with the Great Satrap Ranjubula (Rajula) of Mathura. If a period of about forty years may be allowed for his whole official career, the date of the Lion Capital may be given provisionally as c. 30 RC. ; and we may tabulate the chronology of the two satrapal families as follows^: —
Chhahara and Chukhsa Mathura
Great Satraps. Satraps. Great Satraps. Satraps.
c. 72 B.O. Liaka
[Liaka] [Patika] Ranjubula
c. 30 B.C. Patika Ranjubula ^o^Esa
16 B.C. Codasa
In that portion of Pahlava history which comes after the Christian era, the period of the reign of Gondopharnes may be regarded as almost definitely fixed. The date of its beginning appears to be certain; and it is certain also tHat it lasted for at least 26 years. The evidence for this is supplied by a monument of this king's rule in the Peshawar District commonly known as the Takht-i-Bahi inscription. It is dated in the 26th year of the king's reign, and on the 5th day of the month Vai9akha in the year 103^. There can be little doubt that the era is the Vikrama samvat which began in 58 B.C., and that, therefore, Gondopharnes began to reign in 19 A.D. and was still reigning in 45 AJ).
^ Takshagila copper-plate, Biihler, Ep. Ind., vr, p. 54; Mathura Lion Capital, Ep. Ind., IX, p. 139; Coins of Eafijubula and ^odas^f Bapson, J.R.A.S., 1894, p. 547; Amohini votive tablet, Biihler, Ep. Ind., ii, p. 199, No. 2 and Plate. Biihler originally read the date as 40 (?) 2. He snbsequently corrected this to 70 2 {Ep. Ind., rv, p. 55, note 2) ; but his original reading seems undoubtedly to be justified by the accompanying Plate, and by his own table of numerals in Indische Palaeographie, Plate IX. On grounds of style, Sir John Marshall holds that this votive tablet ' dates from about the beginning of the Christian era ' ; v. inf. Chapter xxvi, p. 633.
For the satrap Zeionises, v. inf. p. 582, n. For Hagamasha and Hagana, v. sup. p. 527. For other satraps -commemorated on the Lion Capital see Thomas, op. cit,; Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1913, p. 1009; Marshall, ib., 1914, p. 985.
2 For the reading of the date see Thomas, J.R.A.S., 1913, p. 636.
XXI 1 1] The Strategoi 577
The king's name is unquestionably Pahlava (Parthian), for the various forms in which it appears on the coins are merely attempts to render local pronunciations of the Persian Vindaphama, ' the winner of glory,' in Greek letters. Many of his types are continued from the money of his predecessors, and, like them, may be traced back to Yavana originals (Pll. VII, 32; VIII, 47, 52, 53). They seem to indicate that he succeeded to the dominions of the Pahlavas and ^akas both in eastern Iran and in N.W. India. That he ruled also in the Kabul valley, which was probably annexed before his reign (p. 574), appears to be shown by the large numbers of his coins which were found on its ancient sites by Masson and other explorers at the time when such exploration was still possible.
Coins show also that his immediate predecessor on the throne was Azes II ; for the two monarchs are associated with the same strategos or * commander-in-chief,' Aspavarman, son of Indravarman <P1. VIII, 46 and Summary, p. 590) \
The Greek title strategos, which is the equivalent of the Indian sendpati, 'lord of the army,' was inherited by the (^akas and Pahlavas from the Yavanas^. Aspavarman is a representative of the (^aka military chiefs^ who are repeatedly mentioned in the inscriptions of Western India in the second century A.D., when this region was governed by (^aka satraps. The names ending in -varman and -datta show that they had become Hinduised, and claimed to be Kshatriyas. To this class belongs the (^aka Ushavadata (Rishabhadatta), the brother-in-law of Nahapana. On the coins of Gondopharnes and on those of his successor, Pacores, we find the name of another of these military governors, Sasas, who no doubt succeeded Aspavarman as commander-in- chief (PI. VII, 33). The sequence of the strategoi thus affords valuable evidence for the order of succession of their sovereigns and for the chronology of the period. Two generations of these military chiefs — Aspavarman and his nephew, Sasas (pp. 580-1) — held office during the reigns of Azes II, Gondopharnes, and Pacores, and for a period which began before 19 A.D. and ended after 45 A.D.
But before he succeeded Azes II as Great King of Kings in India, Gondopharnes had also succeeded him as viceroy of
^ For the detailed proof see Whitehead, Lahore Mus. Cat., vol. i, Indo-Greek Coins, p. 150, note.
2 For another Greek title which was used in India — /xepiddpxv^t * the governor of a province,' see Thomas, FestgrUss Windisch, and J.R.A.S., 1916, pp. 279 fE.
3 For these Qaka families see Liiders, Sits. K.P.A., 1913, p. 412.
C.H.I. I. 37
57^ Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
Arachosia, In this subordinate rule he was at one time associated, under the suzerainty of Orthagnes, with Guda or Gudana (Gudana) who may perhaps have been his brother (p. 579, PI. VIII, 61). The coins, on which Orthagnes still appears as chief ruler but with Gudana alone as his subordinate \ must no doubt be assigned to the period after Gondophames had succeeded Azes II in the sovereignty of N.W. India.
The name of Orthagnes is Pahlava. It is of Persian origin, and the Greek equivalent of VerethrcLgna, ' the Victorious.' The type 'Victory' on his coins may be an allusion either to an actual victory or to the king's name. It is used also by Vonones I of Parthia (8-11 A.D.) (PI. VIII, 50) whose name has a similar meaning — Vandna, 'the Conqueror'; but in this case it would seem undoubtedly to refer to the victory over Artabanus^.
Most of the coins which Gondopharnes struck either alone (PI. VII, 32) or together with his nephew, Abdagases (VII, 34), and all of those which he struck in association with his conmianders- in-chief, Aspavarman and Sasas (Summary, p. 590, and PI. VII, 33), bear the symbol § which is so characteristic of his rule that it is usually called by his name ; and, as this symbol is found counter- marked on coins of the Parthian kings Orodes I (57-38 B.c.) and Artabanus III (10-40 A.D.), it is not improbable that Gondophames may have conquered some of the Parthian dominions ^ There can be little doubt that under his sway the Pahlava power attained its height; and it appears probable that this power was now controlled by a single suzerain who reigned supreme over both eastern Iran and N. W. India ; for the coins of Gondopharnes bear the types both of Orthagnes (PI. VIII, 52) and of Azes II (PI. VIII, 47), and seem to show therefore that he had succeeded to the dominions of both of these suzerains.
The name of Gondopharnes, and possibly those of two princes of his family, Guda and Abdagases, have been preserved in con- nexion with the legends of St Thomas in the literature of the early Christian church. The apocryphal Acts of Judas Thomas the Apostle, which contains an account of the ministry of St Thomas in India, exists in Syriac, Greek, and Latin versions ; and of these the earliest, the Syriac, is supposed to date from before the middle of the third century A.D. The story, as told in this version, begins :
1 Whitehead, Lah. Mus. Cat., vol. i, Indo-Greek Coing, p. 166, no. 75.
2 B.M. Cat., Parthia, p. 144, PI. XXIV, 7.
^ BapsoD, J.R.A.S., 1904, p. 677, referring to Cunningham, Num. Chron., 1890, p. 119.
XXI ii] Gondopharnes 579
And when all the Apostles had been for a time in Jerusalem they divided
the countries among them, in order that each one of them might preach in the region which fell to him and in the place to which his Lord sent him. And India fell by lot and division to Judas Thomas (or the Twin) the Apostle. And he was not willing to go, saying : ' I have not strength enough for this, because I am weak. And I am a Hebrew : how can I teach the Indians ? ' And whilst Judas was reasoning thus, our Lord appeared to him in a vision of the night, and said to him : ' Fear not, Thomas, because My grace is with thee.' But he would not be persuaded at all, saying : ' Whithersoever Thou wilt, our Lord, send me ; only to India I will not go.' And as Judas was reasoning thus, a certain merchant, an
Indian, happened (to come) into the south country from \ whose name was
Habban ; and he was sent by the king Gudnaphar^, that he might bring to him a skilful carpenter. (Trans. Wright, Apocryphal Acts qf the Apostles, ii, pp. 146-7.)
Because of the unwillingness of St Thomas, our Lord appears, and, claiming him as His servant, sells him to the merchant Habban for twenty pieces of silver ; and St Thomas journeys with Habban to the court of King Gondopharnes, who orders him to build a palace. St Thomas spends the money of the king in acts of charity — to build a palace not made with hands, immortal in the heavens; and the disappointed king casts St Thomas and the merchant into prison. While they are lying there, Gad, the king's brother, dies, and being carried by the angels to heaven is shown the heavenly palace which St Thomas had built by his good works. Gad is restored to life; and in the sequel both Gondopharnes and Gad are converted.
There can be no question that Gudnaphar, who is definitely called 'the king of India' {op. dt., p. 159) is to be identified with Gondopharnes; and Gad, 'the brother of the king' (op.cit, p. 162) may possibly be the Guda or Gudana, who is associated with him on coins (PL VHI, 51). The legend of St Thomas has thus been furnished with an historical setting which is chronologically possible. The fact of St Thomas's visit to the court of Gondopharnes may be doubted ; but the story remains to show that the fame of this king had spread to the West A still more distant echo of his name, transmitted through its Armenian form Gathaspar, has been recognised by von Gutschmid^ in Gaspar, the traditional name of the first of the three wise men who, according to the Gospel story, came from the East to worship Christ at His nativity.
Another apocryphal work, the Evangdium loannis de ohitu Mariae gives the name Labdanes to the sister's son of a king to whom St Thomas went. So far as the form is concerned, Labdanes
1 The name is illegible in the us., and it is not found in any other version. ^ Tovvdd(popo$ in the Greek version. ' Rhein. Museum, 1864, p. 169.
37—2
580 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [cH.
may well be a corruption of Ahdagases in the manuscripts ; but the identification of the two names is far from certain. The name of the king is not mentioned: he may have been either Gondopharnes or Mazdai, whom St Thomas also visited, and under whom he sufiered martyrdom; and moreover the Abdagases of the coin-legends is the brother's son, not the sister's son, of Gondopharnes \
As none of the coin-legends of Abdagases bear the imperial title, there is no evidence that he reigned independently at any time. The types suggest that he ruled as the viceroy of Gondo- pharnes in Iran (Seistan and Kandahar) (PH. VIII, 54; VII, 34).
There can be no doubt that, soon after the reign of Gondopharnes, the Pahlava power in India came to an end. Some stages in the disintegration of the empire are clearly reflected in the coinage.
The successor of Gondopharnes was Pacores. His coins show that he was undoubtedly suzerain in Iran; for they bear the imperial title together with the type 'Victory' which was first issued by Orthagnes (PI. VIII, 55; cf PL VIII, 51); and his portrait, combined on coins found at Taksha9ila with the symbol of Gondopharnes and the legend of the commander-in-chief, Sasas, proves that he exercised at least a nominal sway in India {v. inf.). The types of another king, Sanabares, with their purely Greek legend, must be attributed to Seistan. There is no evidence of his rule either in Kandahar or India (PI. VIII, 56).
The passing of Pahlava rule in eastern Gandhara (Taksha^ila) is illustrated by the remarkable hoard of 21 small silver coins, which was found by Sir John Marshall in an earthem jar on the ancient site of Sirkap. The coins belong to four distinct classes, all hitherto unknown — two belonging to the reign of Gondopharnes, and one each to the reigns of Pacores and V'ima Kadphises.
The first two classes bear the portrait and the symbol of Gondopharnes, with the names respectively of Sapedana and Satavastra and the style * Great King, King of Kings,' which is only one degree inferior to the most lofty title assumed by Gondopharnes, viz. ' Great King, Supreme King of Kings.' Such a style can only mean that, even in the reign of Gondopharnes, the allegiance of the governors to the suzerain was becoming merely nominal.
The third class has the portrait of Pacores and the symbol of Gondopharnes combined with the legend of Sasas, who uses the subordinate title, ' Great King,' and is described as ' the brother's
1 Philipps, Ind. Ant., 1903, p. 153.
xxiii] V'ima Kadphises 581
son of Aspa.' There can be no doubt that this Aspa must be the strcUegos Aspavarman, who held office in the reigns of Azes II and Gondophames. During the reign of Gondophames he was succeeded by his nephew, Sasas, who was governor of Taksha9ila in the reign of Pacores. The line of strategoi was no doubt continued under the suzerainty of the Kushanas. It is apparently represented by the coins which bear the title, Swr^p Me7a9, * The Great Saviour,' and which were formerly attributed to 'the un- known king.'
The fourth class marks the transition from Pahlava to Kushana rule in Gandhara. The coins show the protrait of the Kushana conqueror, V'ima Kadphises, wearing the conical headdress which distinguishes him, while the legend describes him as * Great King, Supreme King of Kings, the Kushana Chiefs
The chronological limits of the period covered by these coins are clear. Gondophames was reigning in the year 45 A.D. ; and Vima Kadphises was reigning in the year 78 A.D. Within these thirty-three years must be included (1) the latter part of the reign of Gondophames, (2) the reign of Pacores, and (3) some portion of the reign of V'ima Kadphises.
The period of V'ima Kadphises is determined by the evidence of a Kharoshthi inscription discovered by Sir John Marshall in the Chir Tope at Taksha9ila. The inscription is dated on the 5th day of the Indian month Ashadha in the year 136. If, as seems almost certain, the era is that which begins in 58 B.C., this date would be equivalent to the year 77-8 A.D., that is to say, the last year in the reign of V'ima Kadphises, according to those scholars who hold that his successor, Kanishka, began to reign in 78 a.d.
According to the interpretation of Sir John Marshall this in- scription is actually dated in the era of Azes ; for after the year comes the word ayasa which, on the coins, is the ordinary Kharoshthi equivalent of the Greek AZOY, *of Azes'^ He therefore translates : *In the year 136 of Azes.' This view is probably correct; and, if so, the discovery is of great importance, as it determines the origin of the so-called Vikrama Era and fixes the beginning of the reign of Azes I in 58 B.C. The bald designation of an era by a king's name without the accompaniment of any royal title has,
^ For the coins here described see Marshall, Arch. Sur. of Ind., Annual Report, 1912-13. (1) Sapedana, PI. XL, 35, nos. 35-39, pp. 50, 51 ; (2) Satavastra, PI. XL, 41, nos. 40-44, p. 51; (3) Sasas, PI. XL, 27, 29, 30, nos. 27-34, pp. 49, 50; (4) V'ima Kadphises, PI. XL, 45, 46, nos. 45-47, p. 51.
2 In the inscr. probably = the adjective dyasa, ' (of the era) of Azes.'
582 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
however, appeared so strange to some scholars that they have displayed no slight ingenuity in their endeavours to find some alternative explanation of the word ayasa. But it is doubtful if any real difficulty exists. It must be remembered that the in- scription belongs to a people that knew not Azes. His family had been deposed and deprived of all royal attributes. The throne of Taksha9ila had passed from the ^akas and Pahlavas to the Kushanas. Azes could scarcely have been furnished with his wonted title, 'Great King of Kings,' in this inscription, without prejudice to the house then actually reigning.
The monarch then ruling at Taksha9ila is described in the inscription as 'Great King, Supreme King of Kings, Son of the Gods, the Kushana (Khushana) ' ; and, although his personal name is not given, there is sufficient evidence to show that he is almost certainly to be identified with V'ima Kadphises, the second king of the Kushana dynasty. His titles — except for the substitution of the ordinary royal designation of the Kushanas, * Son of the Gods,' in place of 'Chief — are identical with those which occur in the legend of the small silver coins bearing the portrait of V'ima Kadphises {v. sup. p. 581); and the first two of these titles, inherited from the Pahlava kings, are included in the style usually assumed by this monarch on other coins. Moreover at the end of the inscription is affixed the symbol (the tri^iUa or nandipada) which is likewise characteristic of the coins of V'ima Kadphises \
We may conclude, therefore, that the Kushana V'ima Kadphises was ruling over Taksha9ila as the successor of the Pahlava Pacores in 78 A.D. ; and this year would appear to have been the last of his reign, since it is also most probably the first in the reign of his
1 For the inscription, which was discovered in the Chir stupa, see Marshall, J.R.A.S., 1914, pp. 973 fl. ; Konow, Ep. Ind., xiv, pp. 284 ff., for the coins of V'ima (Ooemo) Kadphises, Gardner, B.M. Cat., Gk. and Sqjth. Kings, pp. 124-8, PI. XXV.
Sir John Marshall (loc. cit.) prefers to identify the king of the inscription with the first Kushana, Knjula Kadphises, on the assumption that both the titles and the symbol occur also on his coins. But the coins to which he refers bear the name not of Kujula Kadphises, but of Kujula Kara Kadphises, who was probably another member of the dynasty; see Rapson, Indian Coins, §68. Kujiila Kara Kadphises seems to have succeeded the satrap Zeionises in the kingdom of Pushkalavati {Summary, p. 588), and he may have been contemporary with V'ima Kadphises.
The royal title, ' Son of the Gods ' (devaputra), was no doubt brought by the Yueh-chi from their home on the borders of China. It is the usual designation of a king in the Kharoshthi inscriptions discovered by Sir A. M. Stein in Chinese Turkestan, see Boyer, Bapson, and Senart, Kharosthi Inscriptions, Part I (Oxford, 1920), p. 76, no. 195. These inscriptions, which belong to the third century a.d., preserve other traces of Kushana rule, e.g. in the proper name, Kusanasena {ibid. p. 2, no. 5).
xxiii] The Kushanas 583
successor, Kanishka, and the starting point of the era used in the inscriptions of the later Kushana kings.
The chronology of this period has been one of the most per- plexing problems in the whole of Indian history ; and the problem can scarcely be said to be solved positively even now; that is to say, it has not yet been placed beyond all possibility of doubt. But the evidence obtained by Sir John Marshall from his excava- tions of the ancient sites of Taksha9ila proves conclusively that the period of Kanishka's reign must have been somewhere about the end of the first century A.D. ; and a comparison of this evidence with the statements of Chinese historians and with the dates supplied by inscriptions makes it seem almost certain that Kanishka was the founder of the well-known era which began in 78 A.D.
Some outlines of the early history of the Kushana empire have been preserved by Chinese writers^. From these it appears that the Yueh-chi, who drove the Qakas out of Bactria, consisted of five tribes, each governed by a prince bearing the Turkish title which is usually translated as 'Chief — the yavuga of the coins. More than a hundred years after their settlement in Bactria, at a date which, according to Dr Franke, must lie between 25 and 81 A.D. and probably nearer to the first of these limits than to the second, the Chief of one of these tribes, the Kushanas, gained the supremacy over the Yueh-chi, and founded a united kingdom which became known by the name of his own tribe. Thus once more Bactria became the nursery of a great power which was destined to dominate N.W. India. History repeated itself; and the Kushanas, like their predecessors, the Yavanas, speedily became masters of the adjacent territories lying to the south of the Hindu Kush, that is to say, the modern Southern Afghanistan, or the ancient provinces of the Paropanisadae (Kabul) and Arachosia (Kandahar), These first conquests were made, as the Chinese authorities state definitely, by the first Kushana monarch, who has been identified with Kujula Kadphises — Kujula being no doubt a title, like the Ktmdaka of the ^aka satrap, Liaka (p. 575), and Kadphises the proper name; and, as they took place after 25 A.D., they were made at the expense of the Pahlava suzerain, who was either Gondophames or Pacores. As other evidence will show, their date cannot be much later than the middle of the first century a.d. at the latest.
^ 0. Franke, Beitrdge aus chinesischen Quellen (1904) in Abhandlungen d. konig. preuss. Akad.
584 Scythian and Parthian Invaders [ch.
Most of the coins of Kujula Kadphises show clearly both by their types and by their fabric that they were struck in the Kabul valley. They are imitated from the barbarous issues of that region which still continued to reproduce mechanically the legends with the name of the last Yavana king, Hermaeus, long after his death. They are found in enormous numbers beyond the limits of the Kabul valley in Taksha^ila, where the stratification of the objects discovered in the excavations proves unquestionably that, in that district, they are rather later than the coins of Gondophames. At first sight the evidence of the finds would thus seem to show that Kujula Kadphises himself was later in date than Gondophames and that he was the actual conqueror of Taksha9ila ; but, since the coins in question manifestly come from xhe Kabul valley, we must suppose rather that they represent the ordinary currency of the Kushanas at the time when the invasion took place, and that they were introduced into Taksha9ila as large numbers of Sassanian coins were brought into the country of the lower Indus from Iran by the Hunas in the fifth century A.D. It is, therefore, by no means impossible that Kujula Kadphises may have been not later than, but contemporary with, Gondophames ; and there is no reason to doubt the statement of the Chinese writers that it was not Kujula Kadphises, but his son and successor, V'ima Kadphises, who ex- tended the dominions of the Kushanas from the Kabul valley to N.W. India.
That this extension had been completed before 64 a.d. appears certain from the evidence of an inscription which was discovered near Panjtar in the Yiisufzai sub-division of the Peshawar District ^ It is dated on the first day of the month ^ravana in the year 122 ; and there can be no doubt that the era is the same as that which occurs in the Takht-i-Bahi inscription of Gondophames, that is to say, the era of Azes which began in 58 RC. The inscription was set up in the reign of a Kushana (Gushana) who is styled ' Great King ' ; but, as the personal name of this monarch is not given, he cannot be identified. If he was not V'ima Kadphises himself, he was, as the subordinate title may perhaps indicate, most probably one of his viceroys and possibly the Kara Kadphises whose coins seem to belong to the region in which the inscription was found (p. 582, note).
The precise date at which the Pahlava suzerainty in India came to an end is unknown, but it undoubtedly lies within the com- paratively narrow limits marked by the years 45 and 64 a.d. — the
1 Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1914, p. 372.
xxiii] Later Cakas and Pahlavas 585
last recorded year of Gondopharnes and the earliest mention of a Kushana king on an Indian monument. But the ^^kas and Pahlavas, although they had lost the proud predominance which they once held, had by no means ceased to play a part in Indian history. Like the Yavanas, they continue for some centuries to be mentioned in Indian inscriptions in a manner which shows that they still formed organised communities; and there is evidence to show that they still governed their own states, no doubt as feudatories more or less nominal of the Kushanas. In the last part of the first century a.d. their original Indian settlements in the country of the Indus delta continued to be i*uled by princes of their own race whom the author of the PeripliLS calls Parthian (Pahlava) and describes as turbulent chiefs perpetually engaged in turning one another out\ But that these princes of foreign origin who governed the country of the lower Indus had at this period been forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Kushanas, is proved by the Sue Vihara inscription in the Bahawalpur State which is dated in a regnal year of Kanishka (year 11 = 89 a.d.)^.
It was from this country, too, and under the leadership of ^aka and Pahlava satraps that the Kushana power was extended to Western India ; and in this manner were laid the foundations of the kingdom of the Kshatrapas of Surashtra and Malwa, the 'Western Satraps,' who are known in the later Indian literature and inscriptions as ' (^dka^E.' This kingdom lasted from about the beginning of the second century to the end of the fourth, when it was conquered by the Guptas. The dates which appear on the coins and inscriptions of its princes are all in the era which starts from the beginning of Kanishka's reign in 78 a.d. They range from the year 41 to the year 310 (119-388 a.d.) and form the most continuous and complete chronological series found on the monuments of ancient India. It was in consequence of its long use by the 9^ka princes of Western India that the era became generally known in India as the ^aka era — a name which effectually disguises its origin, and one which has in no small degree perplexed modern scholars in their endeavours to unravel 'the secret of Kanishka.'
1 Periplus maris Erythraei, 38. ^ Hoemle, Ind. Ant,, 1881, p. 324.
586 Summary of Numismatic Evidence [CH.
SUMMARY OF NUMISMATIC EVIDENCE FOR THE HISTORY OF THE YAVANA, 9AKA, AND PAHLAVA INVADERS OF INDIA
(Chapters XXII and XXIII)
Demetrius
Demetrius
Maues Menander
Pantaleon Agathocles
Bilingual square ^E ; B.M. Cat., Gk. and Scyth. Kings, p. 163, no. 3, PL XXX, 3.
Types ' Elephant's head : Caducevx^ Ohv. Head of elephant to r. ; bell suspended from neck. Rev. BASIAEHI AHA^HTPIOY. Caduceus. M Same types. BAIIAEni MAYOY. M
Same obv. type ; B.M. Cat, p. 50, no. 68, PL XII, 6. M
Antimachus
Antimachus
Philoxenus Nicias
Hippostratus
Hermaeus and
Calliope
Types ' Apollo : Tripod.^ ApollodotusI Ohv. BAIIAEHS AnOAAOAOTOY ZHTHPOZ. Apollo facing, holding arrow in r., and bow in L hand. Rev. Maharajasa Apaladata^a tradarasa. Tripod in square of dots. ^E
Stratol Obv. BAIIAEni Eni4>AN0YZ ZnTHPOZ
ZTPATnNOI. Same type. Rev. Maharajasa pracachasa tratarasa Stratasa. Same type. M
Maues B.M. Cat., p. 72, no. 26, PL XVII, 7. M
Plates.
VI, 1. VI, 2.
Indian types of Pantaleon and Agathocles.
B.M. Cat, p. 9, no. 3, PL III, 9. M
B.M. Cat, p. 11, no. 12, PL IV, 9. M
Kharoshthi legend Hitajasame ; B.M. Cat, p. 12, no. 15,
PL IV, 10; Lahore Mus. Cat., voL i. Indo-Gk.
Coins, p. 18, PL II, 51. M
Ba^trian types 0/ Antimachus. Type 'Poseidon'; B.M. Cat, p. 12, no. 1, PL V, 1 ;
V. sup. Chapter xvii, p. 449. M III, 8.
Commemorative medals ; v. sup. Chapter xvn,
pp. 450-1. M
Indian types oj" Antimachus.
Ohv. BAIIAEHZ NIKH4>0P0Y ANTIA^AXOY.
Victoiy L holding palm and wreath. VI, 3.
Rev. Maharajasa jayadharasa Amtim^khasa. King
on prancing horse r. M.
Sam^ rev. type.
B.M. Cat, p. 56, no. 3, PL XIII, 6. B,
p. 58, no. 1, PL XIII, 11. M
„ p. 59, no. 4, PL XIV, 2. B.
„ p. 66, nos. 1, 2, PL XV, 9, 10. B,
VI, 4.
VI, 5.
XXI 1 1] Summary of Numismatic Evidence 587
Same types varied. ApoUodotusII Olv. BAIIAEHZ SHTHPOZ | AHOAAOAOTOY. Plates. Apollo r, holding arrow with both hands. Mono- gram 4 VI, 6. Rev. Maharajasa tradara»a \ Apuludatasa.
Tripod. M
Dionysius B.M. Cat, p. 51, no. 2. (Same types but diflferent
monogram.) M
Zoilus B.M. Cat, p. 53, no. 11, PL XII, 13. M
Hippostratus „ p. 60, no. 14, PI. XIV, 7. M
Stratolandll Corolla Numismatica, p. 257, PL XII, 16. M
Types ^ Elephant : Indian huW ApoUodotusI Ofro. BAIIAEHI AHOAAOAOTOY ZHTHPOZ.
Elephant r. VI, 7.
Rev. Maharajasa AptUtidutasa tratdrasa. Indian bull r. M
Heliocles 06r. BAIIAEHZ AIKAIOY HAIOKAEOYZ. Same
type. VI, 8.
Rev. Maharajasa dhramikasa Heliyakreyasa. Same type. M
Maues Ohv. BAZIAEHZ BAZIAEHN A\ErAAOY MA-
YOY. Similar type. VI, 9.
Rev. R<yatirajasa maJiatasa Moasa. Same type. M Azes B.M. Cat, p. 87, no. 160, PL XIX, 7. M
Azilises „ p. 97, no. 40, PL XXI, 6. M
T)/pes qft/ie city of Pttshkaldvad, ' City goddess : Indian bull.' City of I*ush- Obv. r. Pakhalavadi devada ; L illegible Kharoshthl kalavati legend. City goddess wearing a mural crown and
holding a lotus in her r. hand. VI, 10.
Rev. above, TAYPOC; below, Usdbhe. Indian bull r. ' N
Diomedes Ohv. BAZIAEHS IHTHPOZ AIOAAHAOY. The
Dioscuri. VI, 11.
Rev. Maharajasa tratdrasa IHyumedasa. Indian
bull r. M
Bpander B.M. Cat., p. 51, no. 1, PL XII, 8 {Rev. type ' Indian
bull'). ^
Philoxenus B.M. Cat, p. 57, no. 13, PL XIII, 10 (Types 'City
goddess : Indian bull ')• -^
Artemidorus B.M. Cat, p. 54, no. 1, PL XIII, 2 (Types 'Artemis:
Indian bull'). M
Peucolaus Lahore Mus. Cat, p. 80, PL VIII, 642 (Types ' Artemis :
City goddess'). M
Maues Obv. BASIAEHZ BAZIAEHN AAETAAOY | A\A-
YOY. Artemis r. VI, 12.
Rev. Rajatirajasa mahatasa \ Moasa. Indian bull L M Azes B.M. Cat, p. 85, no. 137, PL XIX, 5 (Types 'Goddess :
Indian buU'). M
588 Summary of Numismatic Evidence [ch.
Aiilises J.R.A.S., 1905, p. 788, PL 3 {Rec. type 'City goddess Plates.
and Zeus '). M
Zeionises B.M. Cat, p. 110, no. 1, PI. XXIII, 4 {Ret), type 'King
and City goddess '). JEi
KujulaKara B.M. Cat, p. 112, no. 10, PL XXIII, 7; cf. Num.
Kadphises Chron., 1892, p. 65, PL IV, 9-13 {Rev. type
'Camel'). M
Type attributed to the city of Nicaea, ' Victory.^
Eucratides O&c.MErAAOY BASIAEHII EYKPATIAOY. Bust
of king 1. thrusting spear. VI, 13.
Rev. Maharajasa Evukratitasa. Victory r. M
Menander Obv. BAIIAEni inTHPOI 1 AAENANAPOY.
Bust of king L thrusting spear. VI, 14.
[Rev. type ' Athene.'] M
„ 06». Same legend. Bust of Athene (or of Agathocleia)r.,
wearing helmet. VI, 15.
Rev. Maharajasa traidrasa Menamdrasa. Vic- tory r. M [Obv. type ' Bust of Heracles r.']
Rev. Maharajasa tratdrasa Stratasa. Victory r. M VI, 16. (For the type ' Victory ' see also p. 592.)
Type qfthe city qf Bucephala, * Ox-head} 0&». BAZIAEnZinTHPOZAAENANAPOY. Ox- head. VI, 17. Reus. Mandrajasa tratdrasa Menarjidrasa.
Tripod. M
Type ' Athene Promachos.' Obv. BAZIAEHI ZHTHPOZ | AAENANAPOY.
Bust of king r. VII, 18.
Rep. Maharajasa trdtdrasa | Menamdrasa. Athene
Promachos 1. M
Obv. BAIIAEHZ ZHTHPOZ ZTPATHNOZ |
KAI ATAOOKAEIAZ. Busts of Strato and
Agathocleia jugate r. VII, 19.
[Rev. type ' Athene Promachos.'] JR
Obv. BAZIAEnZ inTHPOZ KAI AIKAIOY |
IT PATH N 01. Bust of king r., wearing helmet VII, 20. [Same rev. type.] M,
„ Obv. BAZIAEnS IHTHPOZ AIKAIOY | ZTPA-
TH N OZ. Bust of king r., bearded. VII, 21.
[Same rev. type.] ' M
„ B.M. Cat, p. 40, no 7, PL X, 13. (Same legends and
types. The king represented as an old man.) M
Polyxenus Lahore Mus. Cat, p. 53, PL V, 371. (Same types.) M
ApoUodotusII Obv. BAIIAEni ZHTHPOZ | AHOAAOAOTOY.
Bust of king r. VII, 22.
Rev. Maharajasa tratarasa \ Apaladatasa. Athene
Promachos, Monogram A M
Strato I
Menander
Menander
Agathocleia and Strato I
Strato I
xxiii] Summary of Numismatic Evidence 589
Dionysius B.M. Cat., p. 51, no. 1, PL XII, 9. (Same types and Plates.
monogram.) M.
Zoilus B.M. Cat, p. 52, no. 3, PI. XII, 11, (Same types and
monogram.) vR
B.M. Cat, p. 54, no. 1, PL XIII, 1. (Same rev. type.) B. Ohv. BACIAEnC CnTHPC CTPATnNC [KAI
4>IA0] I CT PATH NO. Bust of king r. VII, 23.
Rev. Maharqjanam tratarasa Stratasa potrasa ca»a
priyapita- \ Stratasa. Athene Promachos L M B.M. Cat, p. 78, no. 56, PL XVIII, 2. (Same rev.
type.) M
Corolla Num., p. 258, .PL XII, 17. (Same tyi)e8.) IB. Obv. BACIAEI BACIAeCOC CCOTHPOC PAIY.
Bust of king r. VII, 24.
Rev. Apratihatacakrasa chatrapasa Rajvibulasa.
Athene Promachos L M,
(Jondophames B.M. Cat, p. 103, no. 5, PL XXII, 7. (Same types,
degraded.) M
ApoUophanes Strato I and II
Azes I
Bhadraya^asa Banjubula
Euthydemus Agathocleia and Strato I
Azilises
Spalyris and Spalagadames
Demetrius Lysias
Maues Azes Azilises Vonones and Spalahores
Vonones and Spalagadames Hermaeus and
Kujula Kad
phises
Type * Heracles seated.^ Bactrian coins ; v. sup. Chapter xvii, p. 444. M III, 1, 2.
(M. BAZIAIIZHI OEOTPOnOY ATAGO-
KAEIAZ. Bust of queen (as Athene) r., wearing
hehnet VII, 25.
Rev. Maharajasa tratarasa dhramikasa Stratasa.
Heracles seated 1. on rock, M
B.M. Cat, p. 95, no. 23, PL XXI, 1. (Same rev.
type.) M
B.M. Cat., p. 100, no. 1, PL XXI, 12. (Same r&e.
type.) M
Type ' Heracles standing.' Bactrian coins ; v. sup. Chapter xvii, pp. 444-5. M III, 3. Ohv. BAZIAEHI ANIKHTOY | AYZIOY. Bust of
king r., wearing elephant's scalp. VII, 26.
Rev. Maharajasa apadihatasa \ Lisikasa. Heracles
standing. M
B.M. Cat., p. 69, no. 8, PL XVI, 5. {Ohv.) M
„ p. 89, no. 187, PL XIX, 11. {Ohv.) M
„ p. 96, no. 39, PL XXI, 5. {Ohv.) M
GUm. BASIAEHI BAIIAEHN MEfAAOY | ON-
HNOY. Heracles standing. VII, 27.
[Rev. Mahdrajabhrata dhramikasa \ (^palahorasa.
Athene standing L] M
B.M. Cat, p. 99, no. 6, PL XXI, 11. {Ohv.) M
[Ohv. BAIIAEHI ITHPniSY | EPMAIDY. Bust
of king r.] Rev. Kuyulakasasa kusanayarmgasa dhramathidasa.
Heracles standing. M VII, 28.
5 go Summary of Numismatic Evidence [ch.
Type * 2jeus standing' Heliocles [06».BASIAEnS AIKAIOYI HAIOKAEOYZ. Bust Plates,
of king r.] Rev. Mahdrajasa dhrarmkasa \ Hdiyakreyasa. Zexis
standing facing. JB, VII, 29.
Azes [0&r.BAIIAEnZBAIIAEnNAAErAAOY|AZOY.
King r., on horseback.] Rev. Mahar€0asa rajarajasa mahatasa \ Ayasa. Zeus
standing facing. M VII, 30.
Vononesand Ohv. BAZIAEHI BAZIAEHN AAETAAOY | ON- Spalahores HNOY. King r., on horseback. VII, 31.
Rev. Mahdrqjabhrata dhramikasa \ ^palahorasa. Zeus standing facing. M
Vonones and B.M. Cat., p. 99, no. 2, PL XXI, 10. (Same types.) M Spalagadames
Spalirises as „ p. 100, no. 1, PL XXII, 1. (Same types.) M
king's brother Spalirises and „ p. 102, no. 3, PL XXII, 3. (Same types.) M
Azes II Azilises „ p. 93, no. 1. PL XX, 4. {Rev. type 'Zeus
standing r.') M
Gondophames Ohv. BACIAELUICIAELUN AAETAAI | VNAO<t>PP.
King r., on horseback. Symbol 9 . VII, 32.
Rev. Maharaja rajatiraja tratara devavrata \ Guda- pharasa. Zeus standing r. M
Gondophames Lahore Mus. Cat, p. 150, PL XV, 35. {Ohv. type and Aspa- ' King L, on horseback.' Symbol 2 . Rev. type 'Zeus
varman standing r.') Bil.
Gondophames Ohv. Gk. legend corrupt King r., on horseback, and Sasas Same symbol. VII, 33.
Rev. Maharajasa mahatasa decavratasa Oada- pharasa \ Sasasa, Zeus standing r. M
Gondophames Ohv. Gk. legend includes [rV]NAI<t>EPO AAEA<t>l- and Abdagases [AECOC]. King L, on horseback. Same symboL VII, 34. Rev, Gvdapharahhradaputrasa maharajasa tradd- rasa \ Avada.ga<^asa. Zeus standing r. R,
Types ' Bust of king : Elephant^ Heliocles Ohv. BAIIAEHS AIKAIOY HAIOKAEOYS. Bust
of king r. VII, 35.
Rec. Mahdrajasa dhramikasa Heliyakresasa. Ele- phant 1. M Antialcidas B.M. Cat, p. 166, no. 1. {Rev. type ' Elephant r.') M
Type of the city ofKdpigi, ''Zeus enthroned^ with emblems representing an elephant and a mountain^ Eucratides 0&^J.BASIAEnI METAAOY EYKPATIAOY. Bust
of king r., wearing helmet. VII, 36.
Rev. Kavigiye nagara devatd. Zeus enthroned ; L, forepart of elephant ; r., mountain. M
XXII i] Summary of Numismatic Evidence 591
Antialcidas Maues
Heliocles Amyntas Hermaens
B.M. Cat., p. 25, no. 5, PL VII, 11. {Obv. Bust of king.
Rec. Same type without mountain.) Si
B.M. Cat, p. 70, no. 14. {Ohv. Zeus enthroned;
1., forepart of elephant Ree. Heracles standing.) M
Zeus
m.
Zeus Bust
Zeus
Spalirises
Eucratides
Diomedes
Eucratides
Liaka
Kusulaka
Antialcidas
Lysias and Antialcidas Archebius
^ Zeux enthroned^ without embletns. B.M. Cat, p. 166, no. 2, PL XXXI, 1. (Rev.
enthroned and Greek legend.) B.M. Cat, p. 61, no. 3, PL XIV, 10. (Rev.
enthroned and Kharoshthi legend.) Obv. BAIIAEHZ ZHTHPOI | EPMAIOY.
of king r. Rev. Mahdrajasa tratdrasa \ Heramayasa.
enthroned. B.M. Cat, p. 65, no. 45. (Same types, degraded, Gk.
leg. BASIAEniZTHPnZIYIEPAAAlDY.) M Obv. BACIAELJJN BACIAEUIC AAETAADY | CHA-
A I P I C D Y. King standing L Rev. Maharajasa mahamtakasa ^palirifasa. Zeus
enthroned. M
Type ^Dioscutn.' Obv. BAIIAEnZ AAETAAOY | EYKPATIAOY.
Bust of king r., wearing helmet. Rev.Maharajasa EvukrdtUasa. Dioscuri charging r. M Obv. BASIAEHZ ZHTHPOI | AIOAAHAOY.
Bust of king r., wearing helmet. Rev. Maharaoasa tratarata \ Diyumedasa. Dioscuri
charging r. JB,
Type qf the region qf Takshagild, ' Pilei of the Dioscuri! Obv. Bust of king r., wearing helmet Rev. BAIIAEHZ EYKPATIAOY. Pilei of the
Dioscuri M,
Obv. Same type.
iJep. AIAKO KOZOYAO. Same type. M
Obv. BAZIAEflZ NlKH<t>OPOY | ANTIAAKIAOY.
Bust of Zeus r. Rev. MaharajasajayadharasalArntialikitasa. Same
type. M
B.M. Cat, p. 166, no. 1, PL XXXI, 2. {Obv. Bust of
Heracles r. Rev. Same type.) Obv. BAIIAEni AIKAIOY NIKH<t>OPOY APXE-
BIOY. Bust of Zeus r. Rev. Mahdrajasa dhramikasa jayadharasa Arkhe-
biyasa. Same type. M
Azes II
^Athene.'
OfttJ.BAIIAEni BAIIAEHN AAEfAADY | AZDY. King r., on horseback.
Plates.
VII, 37.
VII, 38.
VIII, 39.
VIII, 40.
VIII, 41.
VIII, 42.
VIII, 43.
VIII, 44.
VIII, 45.
592
Numismatic Summary [ch. xxiii
Rev. Mahardjasa rc^arcyaaa ma/tatasa \ Aya»a. Athene standing r. M,
Azes II and Ohv. Same legend and type.
Aspavarman Rec. Imdravarmaputrasa Afpavartnasa strategasa \
jayatasa. Same type. Bil.
Gondopharnes Obc. BACIAECOC BACIAeCON M€rAA-|TNAO-
4>6PPO. Same type and symbol 2 .
Rev. Maharaja rajatiraja tratara devavrata \ Ouda-
Same type. M
Type ' Victory^ (see also p 588).
Maues Obv. BAIIAEHZ BAIIAEHN METAAOY | A^A-
YOY. Zeus standing 1.
Rev. Rqjatirajasa mahatasa \ Moasa. Victory stand- ing r, M Azes I Obv. BAII AEnS BAIIAEHN AAETAAOY | AZOY. Same type.
Rev. Maharajasa rajarajasa mahamta^a \ Ayasa. Same type. M
(This type on the coins of Maues and Azes I is perhaps to be attributed to Nicaea, v. sup. PI. VI, 13, 15, 16.)
Obv. BACIAEYC BACIAEAN ONHNHC. Bust of king 1.
Rev. BACIAEHC BACIAEflN | APCAKDY EY-
EPTETDY I AIKAIDY | Eni<J>ANnYC <J>IA-
E A A H N a C Victory standing 1. M
Obc. BACIAEYC BACIACCON AAEfAC OPOAf-
NHC. Bust of king 1. Rev. Maharajasa rajatirajasa mahatasa Gudapha- rasa Guda \sa or na ?]. Victory standing r. ^E Gondopharnes Obv. Fragmentary Greek legend. King seated on throne (cf. 'Zeus enthroned,' PL VII, 37, 38). Rev. Fragmentary Greek legend. Same type. M
„ Obv. BACIAEnC CnTHPGC YNAn[|]EPPOY.
Bust of king r. Rev. Maharajasa Gudapharna,sa tratarasa. Same type. -M
Abdagases Obv. BACIA€COC CCOTHPOC ABAATACOY. Similar tj'pe. Rev. Tratarasa mahar<yasa Avadagagasa. Same type. M
Pacores Obv. BACIAG YC BACI AGCON AAETAC HAKOPHC.
Bust of king 1. Rev. Maharqjasa rcyatirajasa mahatasa Pakurasa. Same type. M
Sanabares 0^. Imperfect Greek legend beginning BAZIAEYZ.
Similar type. iJep.Gk-legendincludingCANABAPOY. Sametype. M
Vonones I of Parthia
Orthagnes, Gondophemes, and Guda
Plates.
VIII, 46.
VIII, 47
VIII, 48.
VIII, 49.
VIII, 50.
VIII, 51.
VIII, 52. VIII, 53.
VIII, 54.
VIII, 55.
VIII, 56.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA
I. The Dravidian Peoples
The great peninsula of India, from the Vindhya mountains southward to Comorin, is the home of the 'Dravidian' peoples. And here at the outset we are faced by a difficulty of terms.
The word 'Dravidian' comes from an ethnic name Dravida or Dramida, in Pali Damila, which is apparently identical in origin with the adjective Tamil ; and thus a title which is strictly applicable only to a single branch, the Tamils, is extended to a whole family. Again, not only is the term 'Dravidian' used some- times to denote all the members of the one ethnic family, but it is also often employed to designate all the cognate languages spoken by that family — the Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada (Kanarese), and various minor dialects — without regard to the possible differences of race among the groups speaking these tongues ; and furthermore, by a stiU more deplorable looseness of terminology, it has been applied by anthropologists to a group of races characterised by common physical features^, who are chiefly inhabitants of the peninsula, and for the most part, but by no means entirely, use languages which are variants of Dra vidian speech. Lastly, we must note that an ancient Tamil tradition speaks of a pancha-dravidam or five Dra vidian regions, under- standing thereby the Tamil, Andhra or Telugu, and Kanarese countries, the Maharashtra or Maratha provinces, and Gujarat. The conclusion which is suggested by a review of all the available data is as follows.
At some very early date, several millennia before the Christian era, the greater part of India was inhabited by a dark negroid race of low culture characterised more or less by the physical features now known as 'Dravidian.' This early people however
1 These features are very dark hue ; long head ; broad nose ; abundant and some- times curly hair ; and dark eyes.
C.H.I. I. 38
594 ^^ Early History of Southern India [ch.
should more properly be termed pre-Dravidian. In course of time another race, higher in culture and speaking a language of 'Scythian' affinities, from which are derived the tongues now known as 'Di-a vidian,' gradually made its way from the north or north-west — probably through Baluchistan — into the plain of the Indus, and thence ultimately passed down into the regions south of the Vindhya. This race may be called the proto-Dravidian. Wherever it came, it mixed its blood to a greater or less degree with that of the earlier inhabitants. From this combination have arisen the Dravidians of history, who have preserved few traces of the physical characteristics of the proto-Dravidians, whatever those may have been\ Most of the pre-Dravidian tribes in the countries south of the Vindhya adopted the speech of the proto- Dravidians, while they absorbed their blood, notably in the centre and south of the peninsula, the Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu regions. In Gujarat the waves of Aryan immigration gradually submerged Dravidian blood and speech ; in Maharashtra the same influences obliterated the language, and the same has happened in Kalinga (now Orissa and part of the Circars), where a Dravidian language, the Telugu, survives only in the southern districts.
Long before the beginning of the Christian era the Dravidian South had developed a considerable culture of its own, and its inhabitants had consolidated themselves into powerful kingdoms, some of which carried on a thriving trade with Western Asia, Egypt, and later with the Greek and Roman empires^. The chief of these were the three Tamil kingdoms, the Andhras, Kalingas, and Maharashtra.
II. The Tamil Kingdoms
The Tamils have retained more tenaciously than any of their kindred the ancient traditions of the proto-Dravidian race. True, they have written no histories until modern times ; but they have preserved a large nmnber of ancient poems relating to the exploits
^ It is possible that the ' Scythian ' features that have been observed among the Maratha Brahmans, Kunbis, Coorgs, and Telugus may be survivals of proto- Dravidian characteristics. For other views see Chapter ii, pp. 40 ff.
2 The Tyrians apparently imported thence ivory, apes, and peacocks (Tamil togai, Greek rac6s), as we know from I Kings x, 22 and II Chronicles ix, 21. Somewhat later we find India— to a large extent Southern India — exporting pepper {iriTepi, Tamil pippali),, rice {6pvl;'a, Tamil arift), ginger (^lyyipepis, Tamil inji-ver) and cinnamon (Kdpiriov, Tamil karuppu or kdrppu), besides spices, precious stones, coral, pearls, cloth, muslin, silk, tortoise-shell, etc. See J. Kennedy, The Early Commerce of India with Babylon, J.R.A.S., 1898, pp. 241 ff.
XX I v] The Tamil Kingdoms 595
and administration of kings and princes in an age far earlier than the oldest existing literature of their Dravidian neighbours.
In the earliest time of which we have any record the TamU- agam or Tamil realm extended over the greater part of the modem Madras Presidency, its boundaries being on the north a line running approximately from Pulicat on the coast to Venkatagiri (Tirupati), on the east the Bay of Bengal, on the south Cape Comorin, and on the west the Arabian Sea as far north as the 'White Rock' near Badagara, to the south of Mahe. Malabar was included in it ; the Malayalam language had not yet branched off as a separate tongue from the parent Tamil. It consisted of three kingdoms, those of the Pandyas, Cholas or 9^1as, and Cheras or Keralas. The Pandya kingdom comprised the greater part of the modern Madura and Tinnevelly Districts, and in the first century also Southern Travancore, and had its capital originally at Kolkai (on the Tambraparni river in Tinnevelly), and later at Madura. The Chola region extended along the eastern coast, from the river Penner to the Vellar, and on the west reaching to about the borders of Coorg. Its capital was Uraiyur (Old Trichinopoly), arid it had a great port at Kaviri-pattinam or Pugar, on the northern bank of the river Cauvery (Kaveri). Another of its chief towns was Kaiichi, now Conjeeveram. The Chera or Kerala territory comprised Travancore, Cochin, and the Malabar District ; the Kongu-de^a (corresponding to the Coimbatore District and the southern part of Salem District), which at one time was separate from it, was afterwards annexed to it. Its capital was originally Vanji (now Tiru-karur, on the Periyar river, near Cochin), and later Tiru-vanjikkalam (near the mouth of the Periyar). It had important trading centres on the western coast at Tondi (on the Agalappulai, about five miles north of Quilandi), Muchiri (near the mouth of the Periyar), Palaiyur (near Chowghat), and Vaikkarai (close to Kottayam).
The races within these bounds were various. To the oldest stratum of pre-Dravidian blood probably belonged the savages termed by the ancient poets VUlavar ('bowmen') and Minavar ('fishers'), of whom the former may possibly be identical with the modern Bhils, while the latter may have descendants in the Mlnas. Another group is that termed by the poets Ndgas, a word which in Hindu literature commonly denotes a class of semi-divine beings, half men and half snakes, but is often applied by Tamil writers to a warlike race armed with bows and nooses and famous as free- booters. Several tribes mentioned in early literature are known
38—2
59^ ^^^ ^cirly History of Southern India [ch.
with more or less certainty to have belonged to the Nagas, among them being the Aruvalar (in the Aruva-nadu and Aruva-vada- talai around Conjee veram), Eyinar, Maravar, Oliyar, and Para- davar (a fisher tribe). A race of uncertain affinity was that of the Ayar, who in many respects resembled the Abhlras of Northern India, and seem to have brought into the south the worship of the herdsman-god Krishna.
The overlords of the Tamil-agam were the descendants of the proto-Dravidian invaders, the Tamils in the strict sense of the term. They with the races subject to them formed the three kingdoms of the Pandyas, Cholas, and Cheras, where the ruling element was the land-tilling class or Vellalar, at the head of whom were the kings. The Pandya king claimed descent from a tribe styled Marar, which however had for many years another important representative in the princes bearing the title Palaiyan Maran, * the Ancient Maran,' whose capital was Mogur, near the Podiya Hill, not far from Comorin. The Chola kings were alleged to belong to the tribe of Tiraiyar or * Men of the Sea ' ; another Tiraiyan dynasty was reigning at Conjeeveram in the time of Karikal Chola. The Chera kings in their turn were said to be of the Vanavar tribe. Lastly we may mention a tribe called Ko9ar, who may possibly belong to the Tamil race. From the references of the poets to them it would seem that they once made an unsuccessful attack on Mogur, and found allies in the Vamba- Moriyar or 'Bastard Maury as' (possibly a branch of the Konkani Mauryas). At one time — possibly in the first century A.D. — they seem to have wielded considerable authority in the Pandyan regions and Kongu-de9a, and to have given some trouble to the Cholas.
Even in the first century of the Christian era the south seems to have felt little influence from the Aryan culture of Northern India. Some Brahman colonies had made their way into the south, and in a few cases Brahmans had gained there a certain position in literature and religion ; but on the whole they counted for little in the life of the people, especially as their teachings were counterbalanced by the influence of the powerful Buddhist and Jain churches, and Dravidian society was still free from the yoke of the Brahman caste-system i. Next to the arivar or sages, the highest place among the Tamils was held by the land-owning
1 The tradition that the Brahman sage Agastya led the first Aryan colony to the P5diya Hill and created Tamil literature probably arose in a later age, after Brahman influences had gained the ascendant in the south, on the basis of the legends in the Sanskrit epics.
XXI v] The Tamil Kingdoms 597
class, after whom ranked herdsmen, hunters, artisans, soldiers, and at the bottom of the social scale fishers and scavengers. Government was under the supreme control of the kings ; but they were considerably influenced by the ' Five Great Assemblies,' bodies representative of five classes of society \ Probably there was also some organisation of the provinces for local administra- tion, as we find in historical times that each shire or nadn was divided into village communities and its representatives met in a shire-mote of several hundred men representing the families of the nddu, which possessed considerable power in the control of local afiairs.
Before the first century of the Christian era there are very few allusions in the literature and historical records of other nations that testify to the vigorous life of these southern kingdoms. Of the evidence of their commerce with the west we have already spoken (above, p. 594). Megasthenes, who visited the court of Chandragupta the Maurya towards the end of the 4th century B.C., has left on record some rumours concerning them, including a legend that Heracles (i.e. the god (^iva) put the south under the rule of his daughter 'Pandaia.' The Sanskrit epics mention them vaguely, as foreign lands outside their purview, though the legendary connexion of the Pandyan kings of Madura with the Pandava heroes of the Mahabharata seems to have been acknowledged in the north as early as the second century B.C., if any reliance is to be placed on the scholion to Panini iv, 1, 168. A^oka in his inscrip- tions speaks of them among the foreign nations who have accepted the teachings of Buddhism^. Lastly, Strabo (xv, 4, 73) makes mention of an embassy sent to Augustus Caesar about the year 22 RC. by a king ' Pandion,' possibly a Pandya of the Tamil country. Even in the next century the history of the Tamils is sadly obscure. Ancient Tamil poems and the commentaries upon them, supplemented by meagre notices in Pliny and other western writers, are almost the only sources of information, and their data are very uncertain. It seems however fairly probable that the course of events was as follows.
1 The actual constitution of these Aim-berun-gulu is rather uncertain. They are said to have been composed of ministers, chaplains, generals, commissioners, and secret agents (e.g. by Adiyarkku-nallar on Cilapp^ -adhikdram, v, 157 ; but see ibid. on m, 126).
2 The references in the edition of Senart are as follows : Cheras, G. n, xm, K. ii, Kh. ii; Cholas, G. ii, J. n, K. xiii, Kh. ii, xiii; Pan^yas, G. n, J. ii, K. xni, Kh. II, xni. The Cholas also appear in the scholion on Panini iv, 1, 175 (possibly dating from the second century b.c).
59^ The Karly History of Southern India [ch.
About the beginning of the Christian era the Chola king was Peru-nar-killi and the Chera Nedufi-jeral-adan. They went to war with one another, and both perished in the same battle. Peru-nar-killi was succeeded by his son Ilaii-jet-9enni, the latter by his son Karikal, a vigorous ruler under whom the Cholas became the leading power of the south. Karikal at Vennil (possibly the modem Koyilvenni, in Tanjore District) defeated an allied army of Cheras under Adan I and Pandyas, and made a successful expedition to the north. At home he suppressed the turbulent Ayar, Aravalar, Kurumbar, and Oliyar, and made his capital at Kaviri-pattinam or Pugar, which he secured against floods by raising the banks of the Cauvery and constructing canals.
After his death the Chola kingdom sufiered grievously from rebellion within and attack from without. The course of events is obscure ; apparently Nedu-mudu-killi, who was reigning some time after him, gained a victory over the allied Cheras and Pandyas by the river Kari, but later was reduced to sore straits by a flood which destroyed Kaviri-pattinam and by an insurrec- tion. He was however released from his diflSculties by the aid of his kinsman the Chera Qen-guttuvan, the son of Adan II by a daughter of Karikal, who defeated the rebellious Cholas at Neri- vayil and restored Nedu-mudu-killi. By (^en-guttuvan the Chera kingdom was raised to the hegemony of the south, and this position it maintained as long as he lived. The defeat of his successor ^ey (Yanai-kat-9ey) at Talaiy-alanganam by the Pandya king Nedun-jeliyan II made the Pandyas the premier power until the rise of the Pallavas. Neduii-jeliyan II was the son of Verri-ver- ^eliyan or Ilaii-jeliyan, and grandson of Nedun-jeliyan I, who is reputed to have defeated an Aryan army of unknown provenance.
III. The Andhras or Telugus
The tribe of the Andhras, now known by the name of Telugus ^ appears early in Sanskrit literature^. But these references are very vague, and only tell us that the Andhras were a non- Aryan people of some importance in the north-east of the Deccan. It may be inferred that their home then, as now, included the modern Telingana — the provinces along the eastern coast between the
^ The word Telugu, Telungu, Tenungu, is of uncertain derivation. Native scholars derive it from the Sanskrit trailihga, 'belonging to the Trilinga' or land of the Three PhaUic Emblems, a title sometimes given to the Telugu country, or from the Telugu word tene 'honey.' It seems more likely to be from ten, 'south,' and to mean » southern ' (probably from the standpoint of Kaliiigajf
2 It is found in the Aitareya Brdhmana (vn, 18) and the epics, and often later.
xxiv] The Andhras 599
deltas of the rivers Godavari and Kistna — together with as much of tiie Circars as they could hold against the rival kingdom of Kalinga on the north. More light is thrown upon them by the statements recorded by Pliny, H.N. vi, 19 (22), from which it would appear that some time before the first century A.D., perhaps in the age of Chandragupta the Maurya, they formed an inde- pendent kingdom and that they possessed 30 fortified towns and an army estimated at 100,000 infantry, 2000 horsemen, and 1000 elephants. Their earliest capital, according to the current view, was ^ri-kakulam (now probably Sreewacolum on the Kistna, some nineteen miles west fi'om Masulipatam)^ Somewhat later we find them with a capital at Dhanya-kataka (Dharanikota or Amaravati on the Kistna, in the Guntur District), and in the first century A.D. again with the centre of their western provinces at Pratishthana (Paithan on the Godavari, in North-western Hyderabad). How far their territories in the earlier period stretched westward into Central India and the Deccan is unknown ; their extent probably varied from time to time. A9oka mentions them in his catalogues of the foreign countries which, according to him, had espoused his doctrine^ ; but there is nothing to show that the Andhras were in any sense subject to him. Soon after his death however their history entered upon a new phase, on which considerable light is thrown by coins, inscriptions, and literature.
After the death of A^oka the Maurya empire rapidly decayed, and neighbouring rulers were left free to indulge their ambitions and enlarge their boundaries. Among these was a certain Simuka, who in the last quarter of the third century B.C. established the powerful Satavahana or C^^atakarni dynasty, which ruled the Telugu country for nearly five centuries ^ In his reign or in the reign
1 This is however denied by Mr P. T. Srinivas Iyengar, Ind. Ant., 1913, pp. 276 fif.
2 G. xm and K. xm, ed. Senart.
2 The origin and the meaning of the name of this dynasty are obscure. Usually the word Qatakarni is regarded as a patronymic from an assumed Qata-karna, * Hundred-Ears,' which however is found nowhere; more probably it is connected -with Sdta-vdhana, which means 'having for emblem the sdta.' One is tempted to connect them with the Satiya-putas mentioned by Agoka (inscr. n), the Setae to whom Pliny alludes directly after his description of the Andhras, and the tribe of the Satakas {Epigr. Ind. vol. x, App. no. 1021) or ^atakas (Mdrkandeya Purana, Lvm, 46). The inscriptions give the following forms of the name : Sdtakani, Satakani, Sadakani, Sdta, Sada, and Sati. If the identification with the Satiya-putas is right, it would seem that the ^atakarnis were originally a tribe living outside the borders of the Andhra country, perhaps on the west of it, who about a generation after Agoka made themselves masters of the Andhradega and played in it a part like that of the Normans in England. Mr V. S. Sukthankar (On the Home of the so-called Andhra Kings, Annals of the Bhandarkar Ins|(fcitute, i, i, pp. 21 fl.) seeks with much probability to locate their original home in the Bellary District.
6oo The Early History of Southern India [ch.
of his immediate successor, his younger brother Krishna (verna- cularly Kanha), the Andhra empire spread westward to at least 74' long., and possibly even to the Arabian Sea^ Under these early Satavahana kings the boundaries of the Andhra dominions were enlarged so as to include a great part, if not the whole, of Vidarbha (Berar), the Central Provinces, and Hyderabad. A conflict between this formidable power and the declining ^unga empire of Magadha was inevitable ; and about 170 B.C. war broke out between Agnimitra, ruling as viceroy of his father Pushyamitra at Vidi9a (Bhilsa), and the king of Vidarbha, who at this period must almost certainly have been a feudatory of the Andhras^. The campaign against Vidarbha is the only event in the struggle which is mentioned in literature ; and in this the (^ungas were successful. There can, however, be no doubt that the Andhras were ultimately victorious. Although no detailed records have been preserved, coins seem to show that the Andhras were in possession of Ujjain (W. Malwa) in about the middle of the second century rc, and an inscription bearing the name of a king (^atakarni proves that they had superseded the (^ungas in the kingdom of Vidi9a (E. Malwa) about a hundred years later {v. sup. pp. 531 ff.).
But the ^ungas and the Andhras were not the only powers which at this period were contending for the mastery in the region now known as Central India. The Hathigumpha inscription shows that, c. 150 B.C., Kharavela, king of Kalinga, appeared in the field as a new combatant. We find here mention of a ^atakarni, who is supposed to be the successor of Krishna and the third monarch of the Andhra dynasty; and, according to the interpretation most commonly accepted of two passages in the inscription, Kharavela in the second year of his reign sent a large army to the West 'disregarding ^atakarni,' and in his fourth year humbled the Rash- trikas (of the Maratha districts) and the Bhojakas (of Berar), who were no doubt subjects of the Andhra suzerain (v. sup. pp. 530-1).
In his twelfth year Kharavela marched into Magadha, and there seems to have forced its king to sue for peace. Whether that king was still Pushyamitra, or indeed any member of the (^ufiga dynasty, is at present uncertain (p. 537). In any case this humiliation of the once powerful kingdom of Magadha was doubtless to the advantage of the Andhras.
^ This is indicated by the inscriptions at Nasik (no. 1144) and at Nanaghat, 50 miles north-west of Poona (no. 1114).
^ The poet Ealidasa in his play Malavikagnindtra, writing some centuries later, gives to this king of Vidarbha the name of Tajnasena ; he may be right.
XXI v] 'The Kalihgas 60 1
The Nanaghat inscriptions of this period record the names of a king ^atakarni, who may be identified with the rival of Kharavela, of his wife Naganika or Nayanika, and of their young sons Vedi-siri and Sati Sirimanta ; but it is not clear whether either Vedi-siri or Sati ever attained to manhood and a throned For many yeai-s after this date Andhra history lies in darkness, faintly lighted only by the uncertain records of the Puranas. Trustworthy data fail us at this point, and the Andhras disappear from sight until the period to which the second volume of this History will be devoted.
IV. The Kalingas
The boundaries of Kalinga, the territory under the Eastern Ghats lying along the coast of the Bay of Bengal on the north of Telingana, seem to have been uncertain. On the north it may at one time have reached up to the delta of the Ganges, if reliance can be placed on the statements of Pliny, H.]^. vi, 17-18 (21-22)^, and thus included Odra-dega, now Orissa ; but usually its northern limit was somewhat lower. South of this it comprised Utkala (Ganjam) and the Northern Circars down to the basin of the Goda- vari, or thereabouts ^ Early literature however distinguishes the Kalingas from the Odras or natives of Orissa. A somewhat unedifying epic legend {Mhh. i, 104) makes the races of Aiiga, Vanga, Kalinga, Pundra, and Suhma {v. sup. p. 317) to be de- scendants of the saint Dirghatamas by Sudeshna, wife of king Bali ; and similarly the grammar of Panini (iv, 1, 170; cf. 11, 4, 62, schol.) groups together Anga, Vaiiga, Kalinga, Pundra, etc. The Odras also appear very early in Sanskrit literature {Taittiriya Aranyaka, 11, 1, 11, and the epics); and the law-book of 'Manu' wrongly classes them, with the natives of Pundra and the Dravidas, as degraded Kshatriyas (x, 44). How far Kalinga is to be regarded as a Dravidian province is not clear. The name Pertalis, which is given by Pliny, H.N. vi, 18 (22), as that of the capital of Kalinga,
^ The name Sati was taken by Biihler as equivalent to Sanskrit ^akti, and hence Sati has been identified with Haku-siri {Ep. Ind. vol. x, App. no. 1117) and Maha- haku-siri [ib. no. 1141). But there are serious phonetic difficulties. Possibly Sati is the same person as the prince Satavahana of inscr. no. 1118, and the name of Haku-siri may perhaps be connected with that of Sakasena in the Kanheri inscription {Arch. Survey of W. India, v, p. 79 ; cf. Kapson, Andhra Coins, pp. xlvii, Ixxv).
^ He speaks of Maccocalingae or MoctocaZingfae as a subdivision of the 'Brachmanae,' of Calingae on the coast, and of Modogalingae on an island in the Ganges.
3 Pliny (ut supra) mentions a cape Calingon, probably Point Godavari, as being 625 miles from the mouth of the Ganges.
6o2 The Early History of Southern India [ch.
has a Dravidian sound, and Dravidian etymologies for it readily suggest themselves \ At the present day the Circars and southern Ganjam are mainly Telugu in speech, and 'Dravidian' physical features are found in their populations, as well as in Orissa.
The only data of the early history of Kaliiiga, apart from un- enlightening references in literature, are those that are supplied by the inscriptions of A9oka and the Hathigumpha cave in Orissa. The edicts of Acoka (xiii, ed. Senart) tell us that early in his reign — about 262 B.C. — he conquered Kalinga and ravaged it pitilessly. The sight of the horrors which he had brought upon • the wretched land caused a revulsion of feeling in the king, and inclined him towards the Buddhist faith. When after his death the Maurya empire began to decay, Kaliiiga asserted its inde- pendence, and rose again to prosperity. The most important of the Hathigumpha inscriptions is the record of Kharavela or Bhikshuraja, to whom reference has already been made (p. 600). From this we learn that Kharavela of the Cheta family succeeded to the throne in the 24th year of his age. He claims to have had a population of 350,000 men in his capital, and to have increased the power of Kalinga by triumphs gained over his western and northern neighbours. He seems to have been a magnificent ruler of liberal tendencies, and styles himself 'a worshipper of men of all sects.' Other inscriptions record the names of king Vakradeva, probably his son, and of a prince Vadukha-. For the rest, all is dark.
V. Maharashtra, etc.
On the western side of the peninsula, south of the Vindhya, and forming approximately the southern half of what is now the Bombay Presidency, lies a group of provinces, which in ancient times were inhabited by a population of more or less Dravidian blood, upon which were superimposed successive strata of Aryan immigrants entering apparently from Vidarbha (Berar). The term Dakshind-patlia, 'southern region,' whence comes the modem Deccan, is often applied to the greater part of this country, but not very accurately, for strictly it denotes only the region around the upper waters of the Godavari and the lands between it and the Kistna, which were also known by the names of Dandakaranya
' The first syllable is most probably per, peru, ' great ' ; the rest of the word may be connected with tali, which in Kanarese means 'covert,' 'refuge,' and in Tamil * temple,' or Tamil talai, ' ofiBce of a district official,' or talai, ' head.'
2 Epigr. Indica, vol. x, App. nos. 1347-8.
XXI v] Maharashtra 603
and Maharashtra, and were the home of the race which in later times became famous in history under the name of Maharashtras or Marathas. With the latter were probably connected the tribes of Rattas and Rashtrakutas who some centuries later played an important part in the history of the Deccan, as well as the Rathikas whom A^oka mentions as having accepted his doctrine (K. V, Dh. V, ed. Senart). West of the Maharashtra lay the realm of Aparanta (the Northern Konkan), with a capital at ^urparaka (now Sopara), also included by A9oka in his list of believers (K. v, Kh. v, Dh. v, ed. Senart). The Petenikas, mentioned by him in the same connexion (K. iii, v, xiii, Kh. xiii, G. xiii), have been plausibly identified with the Paithanikas or natives of Paithan (above, p. 599). Another tribe to whom he alludes is that of the Satiya-putas (inscr. 11). Possibly they may represent the region around Mangalore ; but it is at least equally likely that they were the forefathers of the Satavahana dynasty of the Andhra-de9a (above, p. 599). It is recorded in the Mahavamsa (xii) and Dipavamsa (viii) that Buddhist missions were sent by Moggali-putta Tissa to Maharashtra, Aparanta, Vanavasa (Banavasi, in the extreme south of North Kanara), and Mahisa-mandala (probably Mahishmant or the country of the Mahishakas, who in the Puranas are associated with the Maha- rashtras and are said to have had a capital Mahishmati on the Narbada), and hence it would appear that these regions were fairly civilised ; but no trustworthy details of their history in this period have been preserved.
CHAPTER XXV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF CEYLON^
Legend and ethnographic observation are the only materials for constructing the history of Ceylon in the early period previous to the death of Gautama Buddha (probably b.c. 483). Events from that date onward are recorded in the official chronicles kept by the Buddhist Church after its introduction into Ceylon by Mahinda (Mahendra) in 246 RC. ; and these chronicles were incorporated in the atthakathds or canonical commentaries upon the Pali Scriptures, and thence into the Pali histories known as Dipavamsa, the 'Chronicle of the Island/ and Mahavamsa, the 'Great Chronicle.' These records, while mainly interested in the relations of the kings of Ceylon to the Church, and often erring in important details, are nevertheless on the whole valuable sources of information, to which however the later histories or Rajavaliyas, 'Lists of Kings,' and the inscriptions form an indispensable supplement.
The oldest and purest race in Ceylon is that of the Vaddas, who inhabit the larger part of the Eastern Province, a small region in Tamankaduwa, and nearly one-fifth of Uva, but are known to have been formerly spread over the whole of Uva and a large portion of the Central, North Central, and North Western Provinces, and no doubt were at first undisputed masters of the island. Their ethnical affinities are somewhat uncertain ; but there is good reason for classing them with the Kurumbas, Irulas, and some of the wilder tribes of the mainland as pre-Dra vidian^. A few of them still live under the most primitive conditions as homeless hunters ; others are somewhat more civilised, and practise rude arts of culture similar to those of the Sinhalese peasantry.
^ In this chapter names and titles usually appear in their Pali form, and the following abbreviations are used: Mhv. = Mahavamsa, Dip. = Dipavamsa, Msr. = Maha- sammata-rajavaliya, B. = Eajavaliya, Evp. = Rajavikrama-pravrittiya, Vr. =Vijaya- rajavaliya, Vrv. = Vijayaraja-vamsaya. Dates in these works are given in years of the era of Buddha (a.b.) which probably began originally in 483 B.C. After the middle of the eleventh century a.d. the era of Buddha was reckoned from 544 b.c.
2 Haddon, Baces of Man, pp. 7, 13. Here and elsewhere the terms • Dravidian ' and ' Aryan ' are used with all due reserve.
CH. xxv] Early Immigrants 605
The population of Ceylon however is for the most part a mixed race. Besides Vaddas, both Dravidians and Aryans have con- tributed to their blood ; and in modern times Europeans — Portu- guese, Dutch, and British — and the usual cosmopolitan visitors to their ports have all added something to the strain. The proportion of Vadda blood in the stock is uncertain, but probably consider- able. To judge from the legends recorded in Mhv. and Dip. and from the vernacular ballads, it is not unlikely that in pre- Buddhist times some of the Vaddas had reached a fair degree of civilisation, mingling on terms of approximate equality with the Aryan and Dra vidian invaders, and by this combination producing the main stock of the Sinhalese race. The relative proportion of Aryan and Dravidian blood is likewise uncertain. The stream of immigration from the Dravidian regions of India, especially the Tamil country, has been constant since the dawn of history, some- times proceeding in drops, sometimes in great waves, and at the present day the northern part of the island is mainly Tamil ; but the Sinhalese language, though marked by traces of Dravidian influence, is Aryan, and is descended from a Sanskritic tongue closely akin to the Vedic^. This fact, and certain data of legend to which we shall recur in the succeeding paragraph, suggest that at some early date an invading band of Aryans, conquering part or the whole of Ceylon, imposed its language and perhaps something of its culture and institutions upon the mixed Vadda-Dravidian population which it found there, and then gradually became fused in the racial congeries of the island.
Sinhalese tradition also relates that the Nagas, or semi-divine snake-men of Hindu myth, once dwelt in Ceylon, and gives details of their wars, which are said to have been settled by the interven- tion of Gautama Buddha. These Nagas belong to the realm of fiction ; but as traditions record that they drove out the earlier inhabitants from the North and West, and it is a fact that the name Nagadlpaj 'Nagas' Island,' long clung in early times to these regions down to the neighbourhood of Madawachchiya, it is possible that in these legends there may lie some faint shadows of historical reality.
The Mhv. (vi, viii) and Dip. (ix), with which a number of late histories and popular ballads agree more or less, tell a singular story. According to them, a daughter of a King of Vaiiga (Bengal) and a princess of Kalinga (Orissa) was carried away by a lion,
1 Even the Va^^as now use a dialect of Sinhalese. Only the Tamils who have settled in Ceylon in comparatively modem times speak Tamil.
6o6 The Early History of Ceylon [ch.
who begot on her a son, Sihabahu (' Lion-Arm '), and a daughter, Sihasivali (in Sinh. ballads Simhavalli). After slaying his father, Sihabahu reigned at Sihapura, 'Lion's Town,' in Lala (Lata, i.e. Gujarat) \ His son Vijaya, banished for his lawlessness, departed from Sihapura with a band of adventurers and sailed southward. After stopping at Supparaka ((^Jurparaka, the modern Sopara, in the Thana District, Bombay Presidency), he continued his voyage to Ceylon, where he arrived very shortly before the death of Gautama Buddha, who in a prophetic vision learned of his coming and commended him to the care of the god Sakka (Q^akra, or Indra)^ He found the island in the possession of yakkhas, or fairies. Having overcome the wiles of the Yakkha princess Kuvanna (in Sinh. Kuveni), he took her to wife, and drove away her kinsmen. When he had established himself, he repudiated her and his children by her — who became the ancestors of the Pulinda tribes of the interior — in order to marry a daughter of the Pandyan king of Madura, and reigned for 38 years (c. 483-445 B.C.) with much righteousness in the town of Tambapanni, which he had founded. Anuradhapura, Upatissagama, Vijitagama, Uruvela, and Ujjeni were founded by his followers.
This tale seems to contain the following nucleus of fact. There were apparently two streams of immigration celebrated in the earliest legends ^ The first, which probably was mainly Dravidian, came from Orissa and perhaps southern Bengal ; the second, mainly Aryan, started from Sihapura in Lata (possibly the modem Sihor, in Kathiawar) and Sopara*. The latter band belonged to the Simhalas (Sihalas) or 'Lion-tribe,' and it was probably they who imposed their Aryan tongue on Ceylon {v. sup. p. 605). At any rate, they gave to their new home the name of Simhaladmpa (in Pali Sihaladipa), whence are derived its later titles, the Arabic Sarandlb, the Portuguese CeUdo, and our Ceylon^. Popular imagination combined the two movements by giving the eponymous Sihabahu a home on both sides of India, and so the legend shaped
1 The Mhv. vi, 4 seems to locate Lala in Magadha ; this may be due to a crude recollection of the extent of the early Gupta empire.
2 Buddhist legend relates that the Buddha thrice visited Ceylon, and that after his death his collar-bone was brought thither to be enshrined in the Mahiyangana (Miyuguna) Thupa; see Mhv. i.
=* The same conclusion is suggested by the legends of the coming of the gods — e.g. of Od^isa from Orissa and the Devol Deviyo from Debal in Sind.
* See the Indian Antiquary, vol. xvi, pp. 1 ff. and 49 ff.
* From Simhala or Sihala is derived the term Helu or Elu, which is applied to designate the pure classical dialect of ancient Sinhalese literature, in opposition to Simhala, ' Sinhalese,' the Sanskritised and unclassical speech of modem times.
XX v] Vijaya and his Successors 607
itself into its classical form\ The lion, Kuvanna, and the Yakkhas are pure fiction I
Sinhalese chronology begins with the landing of Vijaya, which, as we have seen, is made to coincide with the decease of Gautama Buddha in 483 B.c. The correctness of this synchronism may well be doubted ; but probably the records on this and other points, if not absolutely reliable, are not very far from the truth. It will therefore be most suitable to base our account of subsequent events upon that of the Mhv., premising that our belief is subject to due reservations, and adding some of the more important variants and supplementary data given in other works.
The death of Vijaya was followed by an interregnum of one year (c. 445-444 B.C.).
The Mhv., a Rajavaliya, and several other Sinhalese histories fill up this inter- r^num by stating that Tissa, a minister of Vijaya, who built Tissanuvara or Upatissagama north of Anuradhapura, near the Kolon Oya (now Malwatta Oya), reigned for that time.
The next king was Pandu-Vasudeva^, the youngest son of Vijaya's brother Sumitta. He married Bhaddakachchana*, daughter of the ^akya Pandu, who bore to him ten sons and a daughter, Chitta. After reigning 30 years (c. 444-414 B.C.) he died, and was succeeded by his son Abhaya, who after ruling for 20 years (c 414-394 B.C.) in Upatissagama was deposed.
The Msr. states that Pandu-Vasudeva died a.b. 74, and assigns 16 years to the reign of Abhaya.
An interregnum of 17 years (c. 394-377 B.C.) then followed, after which Pandukabhaya, an illegitimate son of Chitta by her cousin Digha-Gamanl, established himself after a long struggle as king in Anuradhapura, and reigned 70 years (c. 377-307 B.C.) {Mhv. viii-x). He was succeeded by his son Mutasiva^, who had a
1 It is however noteworthy that there was also a Simhapura on the east, the capital of the ancient kings of Kaliriga (see Epigr. Zeylanica, vol. i, p. 124). This fact probably contributed to the formation of the legend.
2 It is usually supposed that the Yakkhas in this legend represent the aboriginal Vaddas, as apparently is the case in the history of Pancjukabhaya {Mhv. x). But the legend of Kuvanna is strictly myth, being remarkably like that of Circe ; and it seems likely that the Yakkhas in it arose from the same source.
3 In Sinh. Panduvas.
* The Mhv. (ix) relates that her brothers Eama, Druvela, Anuradha, Vijita, Dighayu, and Rohana founded Ramagona and other towns bearing their names. As regards the second, third, and fourth of these heroes the story is obviously a duplicate of the legend mentioned in Mhv. vn (above, p. 605).
' Motasiva or Mota Tissa, in some Sinhalese histories.
6o8 The Early History of Ceylon [ch.
reign of 60 years (c. 307-247 RC). The latter was followed by his second son Devanampiya Tissa^ {Mhv. xi).
The Msr, states that Pandukabhaya, whom it calls the son of Abhaya, built Anuradhapura and reigned 37 years, and that his son Mutasiva constructed the Mahamegha-vana (see below) and died a,b. 187. The Rvp. allots a reign of 40 years to Ganapa Tissa, a son of Pandukabhaya, whom it places after Mutasiva. A R. agrees in making Tissa the son of Pai.idukabhaya and giving him a reign of 40 years ; but the Vr. places him between Abhaya and Pandukabhaya.
In the month Jettha of the year of Devanampiya's coronation (c. 246 B.C.) the Buddhist apostle Mahinda^, son of the Maurya King A9oka (Dhammasoka), miraculously travelled to Ceylon in company with the four friars Itthiya, Uttiya, Sambala, and Bhadda- sala and the novice Sumana, son of his sister Sanghamitta. He alighted at Mahindatala^, where he met Devanampiya and con- verted him and his people {Mhv. xiii, xiv). The Mahamegha-vana, a park south of Anuradhapura, was assigned to the service of the new Church, and the buildings erected in it were known afterwards as the Mahavihara {Mhv. xv). On the spot where Mahinda had alighted was built the Chetiyapabbata-vihara {Mhv. xvi). A thupa (Skt. stupa) and a monastery in connection with it, the Thuparama, were constructed at the south of Anuradhapura to receive the collar-bone of the Buddha {Mhv. xvii), and the southern branch of the famous Bodhi-tree of Gaya was brought and planted at Anuradhapura in the eighteenth year of Asoka's reign {Mhv. xviii-xx).
After a pious reign of 40 years (c. 247-207 B.C.) Devanampiya died, and was succeeded by his brother Uttiya, who ruled for 10 years (c. 207-197 RC) {Mhv. xx).
According to the Msr. Uttiya died in a-r 237.
Next reigned Uttiya's younger brother Mahasiva for 10 years (c. 197-187 B.C.), and another brother, Sura Tissa, previously known as Suvannapinda Tissa, likewise for 10 years (c. 187-177 B.C.). The latter was conquered by two Tamils named Sena and Guttaka, sons of a horse-dealer {as8a-ndvika\ who reigned justly for 22 years (c. 177-155 B.C.), and were then overcome by Asela, the youngest of Mutasiva's nine sons. Asela then reigned in Anuradhapura for 10 years (c. 155-145 B.C.), and was then ousted by Elara, a Tamil from the Chola country, who ruled for 44 years (c. 145-101 B.C.), and was famous for his justice {Mhv. xxi).
^ In Sinh. Devenipd Tisa.
2 In Sanskrit Mahendra, Sinh. Mihindu.
^ Mihintale, about eight miles east of Anuradhapura.
xxv] Saddha-Tissa 609
A Rajavaliya inserts after Sura Tissa an Upatissa with a reign of 10 years, and makes the two brothers Sena and Guttaka into one person, whom it describes as avigchdri (perhaps for agcdchdri) devi kenek ; the printed R. describes them as ' two brothers who were horsemen.' The Dip. (xviii, 47) assigns to them only 12 years. Asela is not said by the Vr. to be a son of Mutasiva. His successor's name is usually given in Sinhalese as Eldla ; the same R. calls him a Malala (Malabari) from Soli (Chola-de9a), and says that he brought over 1,080,000 Tamil soldiers and behaved with great impiety, desecrating the monasteries of Devenipa Tisa.
Devanampiya Tissa had a brother, Mahanaga, who resided in Mahagama^ and governed the province of Rohana^. He was succeeded in this oflBce by his son Yatthalaya Tissa, the latter's son Abhaya or Gothabhaya^, and the latter's son Kakavanna Tissa*. The last had two sons, Gamani-Abhaya, better known as Duttha- Gamani^, and Saddha-Tissa^.
The Vrv. states that Yatthalaya Tissa reigned in Kalaniya and built there a sanctuary ; his son Golu Abha ruled in Ruhuna, and was followed by his son Kavan Tisa. The Vr. gives the succession as Mahanama, Kalani Tissa (apparently meant for Yatthalaya Tissa), Gothabhaya, and Kavan.
When Kakavanna Tissa died at the age of 64 years, Duttha- Gamanl, who had previously quarrelled with him (whence his name, meaning 'Wicked Gamani') and taken refuge in the interior, set himself up as king in Mahagama and waged a successful war against Saddha-Tissa (Mhv. xxii-xxiv). He then embarked upon a series of campaigns against the Tamils, which ended in the con- quest of Elara in Anuradhapura (Mhv. xxv). Duttha-GamanI was now master of the island. To make amends for a somewhat questionable past, he proceeded to patronise the Church royally. He founded the Marichavatti Vihara^, the Lohapasada^, and the Great Thupa, in which he enshrined a casket full of relics said to have been brought from the land of the Nagas by the Thera Sonuttara, and performed many other pious works. His reign lasted for 24 years (c. 101-77 b.c.) (Mhv. xxvi-xxxii).
His brother Saddha-Tissa (* Tissa of the Faith,' so styled from his pious works, one of which was the rebuilding of the Lohapasada after it had been burnt), then ruled for 18 years (c. 77-59 B.C.).
He is said by the Msr. to have died in a.b. 492.
^ Magama, north-east of Hambantota. 2 ginlx. Ruhuna.
" Sinh. Golu Ahhd. * Sinh. Kavan Tisa.
' Sinh. jyutugdmunu.
® His original name was Tissa Abhaya (see below) ; inscriptions style ^n\m Devana- piya Maharaja Gamini Tisa.
■^ Mirisvati Vehera, south-west of Anuradhapura. ^ In the Mahamegha-vana, north of the Mahavihara.
C.H.I. I. 39
6io The Karly History of Ceylon [ch.
Saddha-Tissa was followed by his younger son Thulathana^, who after a reign of 1 month and 10 days (c. 59 B.C.) was ousted by his elder brother Laiija Tissa^, who ruled for 9 years and 15 days (c. 59-50 B.C.). His younger brother Khallatanaga^ then reigned for 6 years (c. 50-44 B.C.).
The Vrv. gives the succession : Sadahii-Tissa (i.e. Saddha-Tissa), Tulla, R&lamin Tissa {sic\ Khallatha Tissa. Lanja according to the Dip. (xx, 9) reigned 9 years and 6 months. The Msr. states that Khallatanaga died in a.b. 444.
Khallatanaga was ousted by a general named Kammaharattaka, who in his turn was slain by Khallatanaga's younger brother Vatta-Gamani Abhaya*, who now became king.
The date of Vatta-Gamanl's accession is given by the Vr. as a.b. 439, and by the Vrv. as 441. Kammaharattaka is called Maharattaka in the Dip. (xx, 13), where he is said to have reigned one day.
After Vatta-Gamani had reigned 5 months (c. 44 b.c.) he was defeated by seven Tamil adventurers and fled, remaining in hiding in the interior of the island for 14 years and 7 months (c. 44-29 B.C.), while the throne was occupied successively by five Tamil usurpers, named Pulahattha (3 years), Bahiya (2 years), Panayamara (7 years), Pilayamara (7 months), and Dathika (2 years). Vatta-Gamani then conquered and slew Dathika, and reigned in Anuradhapura for 12 years (c. 29-17 B.C.). One of his pious foundations was the Abhaya-giri monastery {Mhv. xxxiii).
Khallatanaga's son Mahachiili Mahatissa^ then reigned right- eously for 14 years. He was followed by Vatta-Gamani's sou Choranaga, who had previously been an outlaw, and now ruled impiously for 12 years (c. 3 B.C.-9 A.D.). He was then poisoned by his queen Anula. The next king was Mahachuli's son Tissa*', who after a reign of 3 years (c. 9-12 A.D.) was poisoned by Anula, who raised to the throne Siva, one of the guards of the palace. Siva reigned for 14 months with Anula as his queen, after which she transferred her aflections to a Tamil named Vatuka, and poisoned Siva. When she had reigned with Vatuka for 14 months, she wearied of him and poisoned him, choosing for her new consort a
1 Sinh. Tulnd (for Pali Thulanaga?).
2 Also called Lajji Tissa, and in Sinh. Lamani Tissa from his family, the Lamani (Pali Lambakanni) . Inscriptions style him Devanapiya Tisa Abaya.
3 Sinh. Kalunnd.
* In Sinh. he is styled Valagambdhu (or "bd) Abhd ; in inscriptions his title is Devanapiya Maharaja Gamini Abaya.
' This name appears in Pali as MaM^chuli, "chulika, and "chula ; in Sinh. as Mahasilu and Malmddliya (the former implying a Pali "chuli, the latter a Pali °jdliya).
* Known as Kudd Tissa.
xxv] Kutakanna Tissa 6 1 1
wood-carrier {ddru-hhatika) named Tissa. After 13 months she poisoned him also, and elevated a Tamil chaplain named Niliya, but 6 months later removed him in the same manner, and reigned alone for 4 months. Mahachuli's second son, Kutakanna Tissa ^, who had fled from the court and taken orders in the Church, now raised an army, overthrew and killed Anula, and reigned with justice and piety for 22 years (c. 16-38 A.D.).
There is much discrepancy in the accounts of this period. The Msr. gives the names and dates thus: Balat Sivuva, 14 months; Vatuka, 14 months; the chaplain, 6 months ; Vasuki, an astrologer, 13 months ; Bala Tisu, 13 months ; Anula alone, 4 months ; Kalan Tisa, 20 years. The Vr. has the variant names Balavat Situvaya and Balani Tissa, and calls Kutakanna Kalantika Tissa. One R. gives Sura for Siva, with 14 months (but 1 year in the Rvp.), and places after him a Tamil named Mukalan with a reign of 14 months (in the Rvp. called Mukhanandi, with a reign of 1 year), the chaplain with 6 months (1 year in the Rvp.), Anula with 4 months, Mukalan Tissa with 1 year, etc. The Dip. assigns 3 months to Niliya (xx, 29).
1 Also called Kdlakanni Tissa, in Sinh. Kalan or Mukalan Tissa.
39—2
CHAPTER XXVI
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
It is the misfortune of Indian History that its earliest and most obscure pages derive little light from contemporary antiqui- ties. Before the rise of the Maurya Empire a well-developed and flourishing civilisation had existed in India for at least a thousand years ; yet, of the structural monuments erected during those ages not one example has survived save the Cyclopean walls of Rajagriha ; and of man's lesser handiwork, few objects except the primitive implements, pottery, and tombs of the stone and early metal ages. Moreover, such as they are, the value of these antiquities is still further diminished by the fact that there are none among them to which a precise date can be ascribed, while in the case of the majority, even apart from the remains of palaeo- lithic man, it is impossible to aflSrm within half a millennium when they were produced. This strange scarcity of materials in a country so vast and thickly populated as India is due in a great measure to the custom which then generally, though not univer- sally, prevailed of building in wood, as well as to the destructive agency of the Indian climate which rapidly obliterates everything of a perishable nature ; but it is due, also, to the neglect, until the last few years, of scientific exploration on the ancient town sites of India, which alone are likely to yield the stratigraphical evidence indispensable for determining the chronology of these early ages.
With the palaeolithic peoples of India we are scarcely here concerned. Their rough-chipped implements (PI. IX, 1-5) have been found in large numbers in the southern half of the Peninsula, and in deposits which indicate that countless centuries must have elapsed between their last appearance and the dawn of Vedic history, while the forms of the implements themselves, strikingly unlike those of the Neolithic Age, have suggested to some writers that their authors may not even have had an ethnical connexion with the later inhabitants of the land The neolithic races, on the other hand, are invested with a more immediate interest for
CH. xxvi] Prehistoric Antiquities 613
the historian, not only because there are good reasons for supposing that some of the existing peoples of India — notably the Dravidians — are directly descended from them, but because this phase of civilisation was preserved in some parts of the country until medieval and probably more recent times. The stone weapons and utensils which are specially characteristic of it are found scattered over a much wider area than the more rudimentary palaeoliths, though mainly in regions where the trap rock, used especially in their manufacture, abounds. They exhibit a remark- able variety, illustrated by at least a hundred distinct types, some of which belong to the polished, others to the unpolished class (PI. IX, 6-10). With few exceptions, however, they are identical in form with similar objects from Western Asia and Europe, and this identity has led to the supposition that the Dra vidian peoples, with whom the neolithic culture in India appears to have been peculiarly associated, once dwelt in the highlands of Western Asia and penetrated thence by way of Baluchistan into India ; and, at first sight, the survival in Baluchistan of a Dravidian language, Brahui, would seem to support this view. Other linguistic con- siderations, on the other hand, have been thought to point to the conclusion that the Dravidians were indigenous in the Deccan and spread thence over a part of Northern India. Whatever the truth may be regarding these particular tribes and whether they played a part or not in the introduction of neolithic culture into India, there can be no doubt that this culture was closely related to and, it may well be believed, mainly derived from the culture of the later Stone Age in Western Asia. Among the implements of non-European types referred to, the most noteworthy is a class of curious chisel-shaped, high-shouldered celts which are found in Burma, Assam, and Chota Nagpur, and which appear to have been manufactured by the ancestors of the present Mon-Khmer stock. Similar instruments occur also in Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula, where they seem to have been produced, not by the aboriginal tribes of the interior, but by later invaders who were in a more advanced state of civilisation.
It is to the later Stone Age, also, that are to be ascribed a class of chipped trap implements from Bundelkhand and the pygmy flints that occur in myriads among the ofl"-shoots of the Vindhyas. Some of the caves in which the latter have been found are adorned with rude drawings in ruddle or haematite, and from the outlines of the primitive weapons depicted in them it has been thought that the drawings were executed during the neolithic
6 14 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
period, but though the conjecture is plausible enough and is borne out, let it be said, by the discovery of rubbed specimens of red haematite and palettes for grinding down the material at various neolithic sites in the Deccan, it is by no means certain that these drawings go back to so remote an age. This observation applies still more forcibly to the megalithic tombs, which occur in vast numbers in the central and southern parts of the Peninsula, and to the accumulations of prehistoric scoria, often of considerable size, which are known to antiquarians as * cinder-mounds,' as well as to the so-called ' cup-marks ' or small hollowed depressions in the rocks, which have been interpreted by some investigators as a forgotten system of writing. In Europe, megalithic tombs analogous to the Indian examples are referred to the close of the neolithic period or to the succeeding age of bronze and copper ; but in India there are few such tombs which there is reason for regarding as anterior to the iron age ; and in their case, as well as in that of the cinder-mounds which have yielded smooth stone celts, it is a plausible theory that the people who erected them were still in the neolithic state, when iron had long been in vogue among other races of the Peninsula.
As the stone age passed gradually away in Northern India, it appears to have given place, not to an age of bronze, as it did in most parts of Europe, but to one of copper. Finds of seven bronze implements, it is true, have been recorded from various parts of the Empire, but it has rightly been pointed out by Dr Vincent Smith that out of these seven one only can claim to be of real bronze, deliberately and knowingly manufactured as such, and the evidence of a single specimen, which may well have been imported from abroad, is wholly insufficient to justify the assumption of a bronze age. Copper implements, on the contrary, occur in relatively large quantities and over a wide range through- out Northern India, from Hooghly in the east to Baluchistan in the west. Among them are bare and shouldered celts, harpoons, spear-heads both plain and barbed, axe-heads, swords, and an object suggestive of the human shape (PI. X, 11-20). The last mentioned, as well as some of the swords, which are remarkable for their excessive weight and the form of their handles (PI. X, 18-20), may have been used for cult purposes. One hoard of these implements, which came from Gungeria in the. Central Provinces — the most important, be it said, yet recorded in the Old World — contained as many as 424 specimens of almost pure metal, weighing in all 829 pounds, besides 102 ornamental laminae of
xxvi] The Age of Iron 615
silver. Such a collection, comprising as it did a variety of imple- ments intended for manifold domestic and other purposes, affords evidence enough, as Dr Smith has remarked, that their manufacture was being conducted in India on an extensive scale ; while the distinctive types that had been evolved and are represented both in this and in other finds, connote a development that must already have extended over a long period, though at the same time the barbed spear-heads and harpoons and flat celts, manifestly copied from neolithic prototypes, bespeak a relatively high antiquity. The presence of silver ornaments in the Gungeria hoard has suggested doubts as to its remote date, but there seems little reason for assuming that a race familiar with the difficult metal- lurgical processes by which copper is extracted from its ores, were incapable of smelting silver from the rich argentiferous galenas which occur in various localities.
At what date iron came to supplant copper in the north of India is uncertain, but literary evidence from the Vedas seems to indicate that it was introduced into the north-west during the second millennium b.c.^ It was about the same time, too, that it came into general use in Mesopotamia, and it is probable enough that the knowledge not only of this metal but of copper also in a previous age was acquired from that region. Between the Babylonian, or Assyrian, and Indian civilisations, indeed, many archaeological links are traceable, among which may be noticed, parenthetically, the remarkable resemblance presented by the oblong, short-legged terracotta sarcophagi from the neighbourhood of Baghdad to those of a prehistoric date found at Pallavaram and other places in the Madras Presidency.
In Southern India there was no copper age, and iron probably did not take the place of stone until about 500 b.c. Up to that time the Aryans of the north seem to have possessed no very distinct knowledge of the south of the Peninsula, which was at once isolated and protected against invasion by the natural defences of the Vindhya hills and the trackless jungles of Central India, and when at last they penetrated through these barriers they found the Dravidian and other races in the south still in the neolithic stage of culture. The supposition that iron was first conveyed into Southern India by sea from Egypt, has nothing to commend it^.
1 A date c. 1000 b.c. is suggested in Chapter n, p. 56 ; cf . Chapter iv, p. 112.
2 Besides the works detailed in the bibliography at the end of this volume, the author is much indebted to a very valuable note on the prehistoric antiquities of India by Mr J. Coggin-Brown, M.Sc, of the Geological Dept., whose knowledge of this subject is perhaps unrivalled.
6i6 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
Notwithstanding the wide extent and long duration of Vedic ciTilisation in Northern India, there is but one group of monu- ments now existing to which there is any warrant for assigning a Vedic origin. These are the well-known mounds at Lauriya Nandangarh in Bihar, which were opened a few years ago by the late Dr Bloch and identified by him with the burial mounck (^ma^dna) described in Vedic ritual. Two of these proved to be composed of horizontal layers of clay alternating with straw and leaves, with a post (sthund) of sal wood standing erect in the centre, above which was a deposit of human bones and char- coal accompanied by a small gold leaf. The latter (Plate XI, 21) bore impressed upon it in crude outline the figure of a female, which has been interpreted as the Earth Goddess referred to in the Vedic burial hymn, but both this interpretation and the date (seventh or eighth century RC.) hazarded by the explorer for these mounds must be regarded as tentative only. Of actual structures anterior to the Maurya epoch the only examples, as already remarked, known to have survived until the present day, are the walls and remains of dwellings in the old city of Rajagriha, all built of rough cyclopean masonry. This city was reputed in antiquity to have been forsaken during the reign of kmg Bimbisara, the contemporary of Buddha, who removed the capital to New Rajagi'iha, but as to how long the walls or houses had then been standing, tradition is silent. Such structures, built of durable materials, were certainly the rare exception rather than the rule in ancient India, and were probably essayed only in localities where stones suitable for such masonry were ready to hand. In primitive India, as among the poorer classes of to-day, the materials most commonly in use were mud or mud bricks, bamboo canes, and other kinds of wood. The simplest kinds of dwellings were constructed of screens of bamboo inwoven with palm branches or the like, the roofs being either flat or arched. In the latter case, the bamboos were lashed together at the apex and tied in near the lower end, thus forming a singularly strong framework of curvilinear form, while the walls were strengthened to resist the outward thrust. In other cases, the walls were constructed of unbaked brick or mud, and the latter material was also used as a covering for the flat roofs or for plastering the screens of the walls on the * wattle and daub ' principle. At a later date cut timbers came to be used in the more pretentious dwellings, and afforded opportunities for the development of that exuberant surface decoration in which the genius of India has always excelled.
xxvi] The Earliest Buildings 617
These materials left their character deeply and permanently impressed on Indian architecture. From the use of the bamboo came the curvilinear type of roof which was afterwards reproduced in cut timber and subsequently in stone, and from which were evolved the familiar chaitya arches used over doorways and windows. Log capitals were imitated in stone, and the more finished timbering of walls, roofs, and gateways in the same material, every detail down to the nail-heads being copied with sedulous care and accuracy by the masons of later days. As a protection against destructive insects, wooden posts were set in gharas or jars of earthenware, and from these resulted the * pot and foliage ' base, so beautifully developed in the Gupta age. A striking illustration of the influence exerted by wood as con- trasted with brick construction is to be found in the pillars of the cave temples. In the earliest examples the stone pillars are manifestly copied from wooden prototypes and are relatively slender, though amply thick enough for their purpose. In the later examples, on the other hand, the pillars are heavy and cumbersome, not because extra strength was required, nor yet in order to save labour, but because they were copied from the brick-in-mud pillars of famous vihdras, which necessarily required to be much thicker in proportion to their height than columns of stone. It is stated by Arrian that cities on the banks of rivers and in other low-lying spots were built of wood, those in more commanding situations, where they were less exposed to floods, of mud or brick. This statement refers to the time of Megasthenes, Ambassador to the Court of Chandragupta Maurya, on whose writings the Indica of Arrian is believed to have been based. It has been endorsed by the discovery of portions of the wooden palisades of Pataliputra and of the mud or brick walls of ^ravastl, Bhita, and other towns. But no kiln-burnt bricks have been found in the Gangetic plains which can be referred to an earlier date than the fourth century B.C., and it is improbable that they came generally into vogue in this part of India until after the reign of A^oka ; for the unwieldy size of the bricks used in the buildings of A9oka at Sarnath and other places, coupled with their inferior quality, betoken but little experience of brick- making. The potter's art, on the other hand, had been practised throughout India from time immemorial, and in the Punjab and North- West, which were in closer touch with Persia and Meso- potamia, it is likely enough that burnt bricks were used at a more remote age. In this connexion a special interest attaches to
6i8 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
certain seals of unknown date and origin (PI. XI, 22, 23), which are said to have been found from time to time among the remains of brick structures at Harappa in the Montgomery District of the Punjab. The majority of these seals are engraved with the device of a bull with head outstretched over some uncertain object, possibly in the act of being sacrificed, and all of them bear legends in a pictographic script, which remains still to be deciphered.
With the advent of the Mauryas, the obscurity, in which the earlier monuments are wrapped, rapidly disperses, and from this time onwards we are able to trace step by step and with relative precision the evolution both of architecture and of the formative arts. Of Indian art, generally, it was said by Fergusson, and the statement has often been repeated, that its history is written in decay; that the noblest and most perfect examples of it are the works of the Emperor A9oka ; and that each succeeding monument is but a landmark in the steady process of decline. In reality, as we shall presently see, its history is one of continuous forward progress, and, when the works of extraneous schools have been recognised and eliminated, it is found to follow a clear and logical sequence, in obedience to the fixed and immutable principles which govern the artistic efibrts of all primitive peoples.
As it happens, it is the earliest monuments that have proved the greatest stumbling-block. Yet the fallacies, which have grown up around them, are not difficult to correct. They arise, in a great measure, from the tendency, common in all ages, to magnify the exploits of great heroes, and to ascribe to them feats and achieve- ments in which they bore no part. What happened in this respect to Alexander, to King Arthur, or to Charlemagne, happened also to the Emperor A^oka. In ancient days his name became the centre of a cycle of heroic legends, and the same process of glorification has continued in modern times by fathering on to him a multitude of works with which he had no connexion. The monuments that can with relative certainty be assigned to the Maurya age, or to the age immediately succeeding it, are few. Besides the brick buildings referred to above they comprise the following : a series of isolated columns erected by the Emperor Agoka at various spots in Northern India; the remains of a pillared hall at Patna, which probably formed part of a royal palace designed, perhaps, on the model of the Achaemenian palaces of Persia; a group of rock-cut shrines in the Barabar hills in Bihar ; a small monolithic rail at Sarnath ; a throne in the interior of the temple at Buddh Gaya ; some portions
xxvi] The Maury a Rpoch 619
of stupa umbrellas at Sanchi and Sarnath ; and three statues in the round, two in the Indian Museum at Calcutta, the third at Mathura. Of these monuments, twelve bear records of Acoka himself, and three of his successor, Da9aratha; the age of the others is determined by their style, by the inscriptions carved upon them, or by their peculiar technique, every member but one in the group being identical in two distinct features, namely, in the exceeding care with which they are chiselled and in the brilliant polish afterwards imparted to their surface. Moreover, with the exception of the caves cut out of the natural gneiss rock in the Barabar hills, they are one and all of sandstone from a quarry near Chunar.
The pillars or lats, as they are commonly called, are of singularly massive proportions, consisting of a round and slightly tapering monolithic shaft with bell-shaped capital surmounted by an abacus and crowning sculpture in the round, the whole rising to an average height, from base to summit, of between 40 and 50 feet. One of the best preserved, though not the best in style, is that at Lauriya Nandangarh, illustrated in PI. XI, 24. The crowning figure on this pillar is a lion, and the relief which adorns the abacus a row of geese, symbolical, perhaps, of the flock of the Buddha's disciples. In other cases, the single lion is replaced by a group of lions set back to back with or without some sacred symbol between them, or by an elephant or bull, while the abacus is adorned with a lotus and honeysuckle design or with wheels and animals alternating. Shafts of a precisely similar pattern, but smaller proportions, were employed in the great hall at Patna, but there the capitals and entablature appear to have been of wood. The dignified, massive simplicity of these pillars is common to all the other architectural remains of the Maurya epoch. The rail at Sarnath and the throne at Buddh Gaya are devoid of ornament, but each is cut entire and with exquisite precision fi'om a single block of stone, and the plainness of the umbrellas is only relieved by delicately defined ribs radiating on their under side. Equally chaste and severe are the dwellings and chapels excavated for the Ajivika ascetics in the hills of Bihar. Like the chaityas or hermitages from which they were copied, these consist of a small oblong chamber (in one instance with rounded ends) with or without a circular apartment at one extremity, but in only one example is the timber work of their prototypes reproduced in the stone. The example referred to is the Lomas Rishi Cave, the ornamental fagade of which (PI. XI, 25) is an accurate replica of a wooden model. This
62 o The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
particular cave, however, bears no inscriptions either of A9oka or of Da9aratha, and the fact that its interior was left in an unfinished state suggests that it was the latest of the whole group. Probably, it was not excavated until after the close of Da9aratha's reign.
Hardly less striking than the skill with which these monuments were chiselled and the brilliancy to which they were polished, is the disparity evinced in the style of their sculptured ornamenta- tion. This disparity is well exemplified by comparing the primitive treatment of the statue from Parkham in the Mathura Museum with the highly developed modelling of the Sarnath capital (PI. XII, 26-28). The former represents a stage of art not yet emancipated from the binding law of * frontality ' or from the trammels imposed by the mental prepossessions of the artist. The head and torso are so posed that, were they bisected vertically, the two halves would be found to be all but symmetrical ; while the flattened sides and back of the figure, connected only by a slight chamfering of the edges, are conclusive proof that the sculptor failed to grasp more than one aspect of his subject at a time, or to co-ordinate its parts harmoniously together as an organic whole. These features are not mere superficial details of technique, due to the caprice of the artist. They are the fundamental characteristics of the nascent sculpture of all countries, and the primitiveness of the art which they signify is borne out in this particular statue by other traits, namely, by the subordination of the side and back to the front aspect, by the inorganic attachment of the ears, by the uncouth proportions of the neck, by the schematic rotundity of the abdomen, and the absence of modelling in the feet.
The Sarnath capital, on the other hand, though by no means a masterpiece, is the product of the most developed art of which the world was cognisant in the third century B.c. — the handiwork of one who had generations of artistic effort and experience behind him. In the masterful strength of the crowning lions, with their swelling veins and tense muscular development, and in the spirited realism of the reliefs below, there is no trace whatever of the limitations of primitive art. So far as naturalism was his aim, the sculptor has modelled his figures direct from nature, and has delineated their forms with bold, faithful touch ; but he has done more than this: he has consciously and of set purpose infused a tectonic conventional spirit into the four lions, so as to bring them into harmony with the architectural character of the monument, and in the case of the horse on the abacus he has
XXV i] Persian Influence 621
availed himself of a type well known and approved in western art. Equally mature is the technique of his relief work. In early Indian, as in early Greek sculpture, it was the practice, as we shall presently see, to compress the relief between two fixed planes, the original front plane of the slab and the plane of the backgi'ound. In the reliefs of the Sarnath capital there is no trace whatever of this process ; each and every part of the animal is modelled according to its actual depth without reference to any ideal front plane, with the result that it presents the appearance almost of a figure in the round which has been cut in half and then applied to the back- ground of the abacus.
What, then, is the explanation of the gulf which separates these two sculptures — the primitive unifacial image of Parkham and the richly modelled capital of Sarnath ? The answer to this question is not far to seek, and will readily occur to any one who is familiar with the art of Western Asia. Long ago M. Senart pointed out^ that the decrees of the Achaemenian monarchs engraved on the rocks of Bahistan and elsewhere furnished the models on which the edicts of A9oka were based. It was in Persia, also, that the bell-shaped capital was evolved. It was from Persian originals, specimens of which are still extant in the plain of the Murghab at Istakhr, Naksh-i-Rustam, and Persepolis, that the smooth unfluted shafts of the Maurya columns were copied. It was from Persia, again, that the craftsmen of A9oka learnt how to give so lustrous a polish to the stone — a technique of which abundant examples survive at Persepolis and elsewhere. Lastly, it is to Persia, or — to be more precise — to that part of it which was once the satrapy of Bactria and was at this time asserting its independence from the Empire of the Seleucids, that we must look for the Hellenistic influence which alone at that epoch of the world's history could have been responsible for the modellings of the living forms on the Sarnath capital. Little more than two generations had passed since Alexander the Great had planted in Bactria a powerful colony of Greeks, who occupying as they did a tract of country on the very threshold of the Maurya dominions, where the great trade routes from India, Iran, and Central Asia converged, and closely in touch as they were with the great centres of civilisation in Western Asia, must have played a dominant part in the transmission of Hellenistic art and culture into India. Every argument, indeed, whether based on geographical considerations or
^ Joum. Asiat. 8me s^r., t. v (1885), pp. 269 ft. and Inscriptions de Piyadasi, t. n, pp. 219 ff.
622 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
on the political and commercial relations which are known to have been maintained between India and Western Asia, or on the happy fusion of Hellenistic and Iranian art visible in this monument, indicates Bactria as the probable source from which the artist who created it drew his inspiration. At the time of which we speak the Hellenistic spirit then vigorous in Bactria was mastering and vitalising the dull expressionless forms of Iran. At a later date, as the strength of Hellenism weakened and declined, other elements from the neighbouring steppes of Central Asia asserted or re- asserted themselves in the cosmopolitan art of this region, and, in their turn, were borne to India on the stream of influence which, until the fall of the Kushana Empire, flowed ceaselessly over the passes of the Hindu Kush.
While the Sarnath capital is thus an exotic, alien to Indian ideas in expression and in execution, the statue of Parkham falls naturally into line with other products of indigenous art and affords a valuable starting point for the study of its evolution. These two works represent the alpha and the omega of early Indian art, between which all the sculptures known to us take their place, approxi- mating to the one or the other extreme according as the Indian or Perso-Hellenic spirit prevailed in them. Thus, the two statues from Patna in the Calcutta Museum (PI. XIII, 29, 30) are akin in many respects to the Parkham image, but exhibit a nearer approach to plurifaciality in the moulding of the torso. The lion capital at Sanchi, on the other hand, though not quite as successful as that of Sarnath, shows so close an affinity to it, that there can be little doubt that it was the handiwork of one and the same artist ; and the well-developed modelling of the figures on the other columns of A^oka shows that, in spite of their occasionally inferior execution, they belong to the same Perso-Hellenistic group. It is not, of course, to be presumed that a single sculptor was responsible for all these monuments, nor yet that all the sculptors employed were of equal ability. Probably, there were many Indians assisting the foreign artists in the mechanical part of their work, and these, we may believe, were responsible for some of the sculptures noticed above, but it is incredible that any Indian hand at this period should either have modelled in clay or chiselled from the stone such perfected forms as those of the Sarnath capital.
The contrast between Indian and foreign workmanship exhibited by these sculptures is equally apparent in the minor arts of the Maurya period. Thus, the indigenous coins (PI. XIII, 31-33) known commonly as * punch-marked,' which were current at this time, are
xxvi] yewellers and Liapidaries Arts 623
singularly crude and ugly, neither their form, which is unsymmetrical, nor the symbols, which are stamped almost indiscriminately upon their surface, having any pretensions to artistic merit. On the other hand, the coins of Sophytes (Saubhiiti), who was reigning in the Punjab at the close of the fourth century B.C., are purely Greek in style (PI. XIII, 34), having seemingly been copied fi'om an issue of Seleucus Nicator, with whom Sophytes probably came into contact when the former invaded the Punjab in 305 B.C. It is the same, also, with the contemporary terracottas. Side by side with products of Perso-Hellenic art, such as those illustrated in PL XIV, 35 and 36, the features of which are markedly classical in character, is found a class of coarse primitive reliefs, the execution of which betrays their Indian origin, though in a few cases, such as that illustrated in PI. XIV, 37, the type of the winged figure depicted on them is derived from Persian or Mesopotamian prototypes. Indeed, so far as is known at present, it was only in the jewellers' and lapidaries' arts that the Maurya craftsman attained any real proficiency, and in this domain his aptitude lay, not in the plastic treatment of form, but in the high technical skill with which he cut and polished refractory stones or applied delicate filigree or granular designs to metal objects. The refined quality of his gold and silver work is well illustrated in two pieces reproduced in PI. XIV, 38, 39, which were discovered on the site of Taxila in company with a gold coin of Diodotus, a large number of local punch-marked coins, and a quantity of other jewellery and precious stones. Of the stone- cutter's art, also, some beautiful examples are furnished by the relic caskets of beryl and rock crystal from the stupas of Bhatti- prolu^ and Piprahwa^, the latter of which is probably to be assigned to this epoch (PL XIV, 40).
The art of the jeweller has at all times appealed strongly to the Indian genius, and throughout Indian history has exercised a deep influence upon the national sculpture and painting, supplying them with a variety of rich and artistic motifs which were quickly and cleverly adapted for purposes of decorative design, but at the same time inclining the ideas of the artists towards meticulous detail and thus obstructing a free, bold, anatomical treatment of the human figure.
With the rise of the ^unga power in Hindustan during the second century b.c. and the simultaneous extension of the Bac-
1 Cf. Eea, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities, vol. xv, A.S.R. (New Imperial Series).
2 J.R.A.S., 1898, p. 573 and Plate.
624 ^^^ Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
trian dominion to the Punjab, the national art of India underwent / a rapid development. Foreign and especially Hellenistic ideas now flowed eastward in an ever-increasing volume, and from them the Indian artist drew new vitality and inspiration for his work. At the same time stone more and more usurped the place of wood for architectural purposes, and by reason of its greater durability tempted the artist to expend more pains upon its carving, while it naturally lent itself to more perfect technique. Of the monu- ments of this period, the most notable is the Buddhist stupa at Bharhut in Central India, erected about the middle of the second century B.C. Before its discovery by Sir A. Cunningham in 1873, the body of this stupa had been almost destroyed by the neigh- bouring villagers, but portions of the eastern gateway {torana) and of the railings which encircled the monument were found beneath its ruins and are now deposited in the Calcutta Museum. The stupa itself was of brick, and apparently of much the same design as the Great stupa at SanchI, described below. Around the base was a massive stone railing of the usual type, divided into four quadrants by entrances at the cardinal points, while other railings of smaller dimensions, of which fragments have been found around the structure, once flanked the berm and ascending stairway, and no doubt enclosed the crowning Mi. At the eastern entrance was a gateway about 22 feet 6 inches in height (PI. XV, 41), and possibly similar gateways may once have adorned the other entrances also, though no remains of them have been found. Both gateway and railings are lavishly en- riched with sculptured reliefs, many of which illustrate incidents in the Jatakas or scenes connected with the life of the Buddha, and these illustrations are made all the more valuable by the descriptive titles attached to them, which leave no doubt as to their identification. Thus, one relief depicts the Naga Jataka ; another (PI. XVI, 42), the dream of Maya ; a third, the Jetavana at Qravasti, with its trees and shrines and the ground half strewn with coins which Anathapinda is taking from a bullock cart ; others, again, represent the royal processions of Ajata9atru or Prasenajit visiting the Buddha (PL XVI, 43) ; and in others is depicted the worship of Buddha's head-dress in the Devaloka (PI. XVI, 44), or of the Bodhi-tree by the Naga king Erapata (PI. XVI, 45). Besides these and many other miscellaneous scenes there are a multitude of single images carved in high relief upon the pillars of the rail — Yakshas and Yakshis, Devatas or Nagarajas (PL XVII, 46, 47). The style of the carvings on the
xxvi] Bharhut: Besnagar 625
ground rail is by no means uniform. Some show little advance on the indigenous work of the previous century, the defects of rudi- mentary technique being almost as striking in these reliefs as they were in indigenous sculpture in the round. In such cases the figures are portrayed as silhouettes sharply detached from their background, an eflPort towards modelling being made merely by grading the planes of the relief in severe and distinctive layers, and then rounding oflF the contours of the silhouette or interior details. At the same time the forms are splayed out to the verge of distortion, and the influence of mental abstraction on the part of the artist is still manifest in the treatment of the feet or of hands in the attitude of prayer, which, irrespective of anatomical accuracy, are turned sideways and presented in their broadest aspect In other carvings, the treatment of the relief is more mature. In these, occasional traces of mental abstraction, due to force of habit, are still visible, and they all show the same aversion to depth, but the individual figures are conceived and modelled in general conformity with nature, not in a gradation of separate planes or as mere silhouettes, and are presented, moreover, at various angles and in a variety of natural poses. This superior execution is shared, also, by some of the sculptured balusters between the architraves of the eastern gateway, and it is signifi- cant that these balusters are further distinguished by the un- Indian countenances of the figures carved upon them and by the presence of Kharoshthi letters engraved as masons' marks in contradistinction to the Brahmi characters which appear on the railing. The only rational explanation of these phenomena is that some of the sculptors engaged on this railing came from L '^ the north-west of India, where, thanks to western teaching, the formative arts were then in a more advanced state, and that these sculptors were responsible for the better class of reliefs, the inferior work being done by the local artists of Central India. In this connexion a special interest attaches to a Garuda pillar (PL XVIII, 48) set up about this time at Besnagar near Bhilsa, the ancient Vidi9a, in Gwalior State, the inscription on which states that it was dedicated to Vasudeva by a Greek named Heliodorus, an inhabitant of Taxila and an envoy of King Antialcidas, and thus furnishes incontrovertible evidence of the contact which was then taking place between this part of India and the Greek king- doms of the Punjab.
The next important landmark in the history of the early Indian school is supplied by the weU-known railing round the great C.H.I. I. 40
\l
626 TAe Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
Temple at Buddh Gaya and the pillars of the chahhrama or promenade to the north of it. This railing (PI. XIX, 49) was dis- posed in a quadrangle measuring 145 feet by 108 feet, but in other respects was designed and adorned in much the same way as the rail at Bharhut. On the outside of the coping was a continuous band of flowers ; on the inside, a frieze of animals or mythical monsters ; on the cross-bars, lotus medallions centred with busts or other devices ; and on the upright pillars, standing figures in high relief (PI. XIX, 50) or medallions and panels containing a variety of miscellaneous scenes.
As at Bharhut, many of these sculptures are relatively crude and coarse — the handiwork, no doubt, of inferior local craftsmen ; but it needs no very critical eye to perceive that, taken as a whole, their style is considerably more developed than that of the Bharhut reliefs and, at the same time, more pronouncedly aiFected by the influence of western art. Witness, for instance, in the matter of technical treatment, the freer movement of planes leading to more convincing spatial effect, the more organic modelling of the figures, the relative freedom of their pose and composition, and the efibrt to bring them into closer relationship one with the other; and witness, again, in the matter of motifs, the centaurs, winged monsters, and tritons, the schematic treatment of the animal friezes, and the scene of Surya in his four-horse chariot copied directly from a Hellenistic prototype (PI. XIX, 51). These and many other features of the Buddh Gaya railing prove incontestably that at the time of its erection Indian sculptors were borrowing freely from the hybrid cosmopolitan art of Western Asia, in which Greek and Scythic, Persian and Mesopotamian cultures were blended and fused together, and that, partly under this alien inspiration, partly through their own initiative, they had made important progress since the time when the Bharhut reliefs were executed. On the other hand, in point of development the reliefs of Buddh Gaya fall short of those on the toranas at Sanchi, which, as we shall see below, are to be assigned to the latter half of the first century B.C., and accordingly we shall probably not be far wrong if we assign the Buddh Gaya monuments to the earlier years of the same century. This date, let it be added, is substantiated by inscriptions on two of the rail pillars recording that they were presented by the Queens of King Indramitra and King Brahma- mitra, respectively. These two kings have been plausibly identified with the two rulers of the same names, whose coins have been found in considerable numbers in Northern India, and who, whether
XXV i] Sancki 627
they were connected with the ^uiiga dynasty or not, appear fi-om the script of their coin legends to have flourished not earlier than the first century B.C. (pp. 525-6 ; PI. V, 4, 6).
We come now to the famous gateways of Sanchi, the most perfect and most beautiful of all the monuments of the Early School. Four of these adorn the four entrances to the Great stupa situated on the levelled summit of the hill ; the fifth — a gateway of smaller pro- portions— is set in front of a subsidiary stupa (No. Ill) close by, to the north-east As it now stands, the Great stupa (PI. XX, 53) is about 54 feet high, excluding the rail and umbrella on its summit, and consists of an almost hemispherical dome set on a lofty plinth, the narrow berm between the two serving in old times as a processional path. This was not, however, its original form. The earliest structure, which was erected, apparently, by A^oka at the same time as the lion-crowned pillar near the South Gateway (p. 622 above), was of brick, crowned by a stone umbrella, and of not more than half the present dimensions. At that time, the floor laid around the stupa and column by the workmen of A9oka was several feet below the present level. As years passed by, however, much dSris collected above this floor, and over the debris another floor was laid, and then a third one, still higher up, and last of all — at least a century after the erection of the column — a stone pave- ment covering the whole hill- top. These facts have an intimate bearing on the history of this important monument ; for, simul- taneously with the laying of this final pavement, the stupa itself was also enlarged to its existing size by the addition of a stone casing faced with concrete ; on its summit was set a larger umbrella with a plain stone rail in a square around it, and encircling its base another rail equally plain but of more massive proportions. These works, and particularly the erection of the great ground rail, the pillars, bars, and copings of which were the gifts of many devotees, must have taken many decades to accomplish. Then came the construction of smaller decorated rails round the berm of the stupa and flanking the steps by which it was ascended ; and, finally and to crown all, the four gateways at the entrances between the quadrants of the ground rail, which can hardly be relegated to an earlier date than the last half century before the Christian era.
These two stilpas with their richly carved toraims are not the only monuments of an early age on the hill-top of Sanchi. To the south-east of the Great stupa is a lofty plinth of stone, approached by two broad stairways and surmounted by rows of heavy octagonal
40—2
628 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
pillars, which once supported a superstructure of wood ; the pillars bear inscriptions in early Brahmi, probably of the first century B.C., but the plinth dates back to ^uAga or Maurya times, and was originally rounded at its southern end, having served apparently as the base of an apsidal temple of wood, which perished by burning before the stone pillars were erected. Then, in the south-west part of the enclosure, there is another plinth of a similar type but square in plan ; and on a lower spur of the same hill is another stwpa (PL XXI, 54), designed on the same lines as the Great stupa, but without any toranas to adorn the entrances, and with this further difiference, that its ground rail is lavishly decorated with sculptured panels and medallions. These reliefs present the same phenomenon, but in a more accentuated measure, that we observed in the railing of Buddh Gaya. A few, that is to say — and these are confined to the corner pillars of the entrance — are of a refined style and infused with a strongly classical feeling (PI. XXI, 55, 56) ; but the majority, though remarkably decorative, and, indeed, better adapted to their purpose, are conspicuous for their crude, coarse workmanship (PL XXI, 57, 58). In this case, however, it is impor- tant to observe that the two classes of reliefs were not executed at one and the same time ; for an examination of the rail shows that the whole of it was originally adorned with the more primitive kind of carvings, and that some of these were subsequently chiselled oflf in order to make way for the more finished reliefs.
To revert, however, to the gateways of the Great stupa, in which the interest of SanchI mainly resides. The earliest of them to be erected was the one at the south entrance, opposite to the steps by which the berm was approached ; then followed, in chronolo- gical order, the northern, the eastern, and the western, their succession in each case being demonstrated by the style of their carvings and by the tectonic character of the extensions to the rail, which were made at the time that each was set up. All four gateways are of similar design — the work of carpenters rather than of masons — and the marvel is that erections of this kind, constructed on principles wholly unsuited to work in stone, have survived in such remarkable preservation for nearly two thousand years. Each gateway was composed of two square pillars sur- mounted by capitals, which in their turn supported a superstructure of three architraves with volute ends, ranged one above the other at intervals slightly in excess of their own height. The capitals were adorned with standing dwarfs or with the forefronts of lions or elephants set back to back in the Persepolitan fashion ; and,
xxvi] Interpretation of Reliefs 629
springing from the same abacus and acting as supports to the projecting ends of the lowest architrave, were Caryatid figures of graceful and pleasing outline. Other images of men and women, horsemen, elephants, and lions were disposed between and above the architraves, while crowning and dominating all was the sacred wheel, so inseparably connected with Buddhism, flanked on either side by attendants and triciila emblems. For the rest, both pillars and superstructure were elaborately enriched with bas-reliefs illustrative of the Jcitaka legends or scenes from the life of the Buddha or important events in the subsequent history of the Buddhist religion. Besides which, there were representations of the sacred trees and stupas symbolical of ^^kyamuni and the preceding Buddhas ; of real or fabulous beasts and birds ; and many heraldic and floral devices of rich and varied conception (PI. XXI, 59).
The inscriptions carved here and there on the gateways record the names of pious individuals or of gilds who contributed to their erection, but say not a word, unfortunately, of the scenes and figures delineated, the interpretation of which has been rendered all the more difficult by the practice, universal in the Early School, of never portraying the Buddha in bodily form, but of indicating his presence merely by some symbol, such as his foot- prints or the throne on which he sat or the sacred tree associated with his enlightenment. Thanks, however, to the light afforded by the sculptures of Bharhut, with their clear, explicit titles, and thanks, also, to the brilliant labours of Mons. A. Foucher and Prof. Griinwedel, the interpretation of the majority of these reliefs has now been placed beyond dispute, and it will probably not be long before the meaning of the rest becomes equally clear. A good illustration of the methods of narration followed by the artists and of what has been achieved towards the interpretation of the sculptures, is afforded by the front fa9ade of the East Gateway (PI. XXII, 60). On the right pillar are represented, in six panels, the six devalokas or stages of the Buddhist Paradise, their respective deities seated like mortal kings in each. On the left, starting from the base, is Bimbisara with his royal cortege issuing from the city of Rajagriha on a visit to the Buddha, here symbolised by his empty throne. This visit took place after the conversion of Ka^yapa, and in the panel above is depicted one of the miracles by which Buddha converted the Brahman ascetic. The Nairanjana river is shown in flood, with Ka9yapa and two of his disciples hastening in a boat to the rescue of Buddha. Then,
630 'The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
in the lower part of the picture, Buddha, represented again by his throne, appears walking on the face of the waters, and in the fore-ground the figures of Kacyapa and his disciples are repeated, now on dry ground and doing homage to the Master. The third panel portrays the temple at Buddh Gaya, built by A9oka, with the throne of Buddha within, and, spreading through its upper windows, the branches of the sacred tree. It is the illumination of Buddha ; and to right and left of the temple are four figures in an attitude of prayer — perhaps the Guardian Kings of the four quarters ; while ranged above in two tiers are groups of deities looking on in adoration from their celestial paradises. The scenes on the lintels are still more elaborate. On the lowest we see, in the centre, the temple and tree of Buddh Gaya ; to the left, a crowd of musicians and devotees with water vessels ; to the right, a royal retinue and a king and queen descending from an elephant, and afterwards doing worship at the tree. This is the ceremonial visit which A^oka and his queen, Tishyarakshita, paid to the Bodhi-tree, for the purpose of watering it and restoring its pristine beauty after the evil spell which the queen had cast upon it. The middle lintel is occupied with the scene of Buddha's departure from Kapilavastu {mahabhinishhramand). To the left is the city with wall and moat, and, issuing from its gate, the horse Kanthaka, his hoofs supported by Yakshas and accompanied by the divinities in attendance on the Buddha, and by Chhandaka, his groom, who holds the umbrella symbolical of his Master's presence. In order to indicate the progress of the Prince, this group is repeated four times in succession towards the right of the relief, and then, at the parting of the ways, we see Chhandaka and the horse sent back to Kapilavastu, and the further journey of Buddha indicated by his footprints surmounted by the umbrella. Lastly, in the topmost lintel, are representations of the seven last Buddhas, the first and last symbolised by thrones beneath their appropriate Bodhi-trees, the rest by the stupas which enshrined their relics.
On the execution of these sculptures, with their multitudinous figures and elaborate details, many years of labour must have been exhausted and many hands employed. It is not to be expected, therefore, that their style should be uniform ; yet there is none of the clumsy, immature workmanship here which we noticed in the inferior carvings of the balustrade round the smaller stupa and at Buddh Gaya. These reliefs are the work of trained and experi- enced sculptors, and though they exhibit considerable variety in
xxvi] Varieties of Style 631
their composition and technical treatment, their style throughout is maintained at a relatively liigh level. The finest are on the Southern Gateway, the poorest on the Northern ; but in the matter of technique, the greatest contrast, perhaps, is afibrded by the reliefs of the Southern and Westera Gateways. Compare, for example, the scene on the inner face of the middle architrave of the South Gateway, depicting the Chhaddanta Jataka, and the same scene on the front face of the lowest architrave of the Western Gateway (PI. XXIII, 61, 62). In the former, the figures are kept strictly in one plane, in order that all may be equally distinct to the observer, and the relief low, that there may be no heavy shadows to obscure the design, with the result that the effect is that of a tapestry rather than of a carving in stone. The elephants, again, are treated in broad flat surfaces with a view to emphasising their contours ; the trees sketched in rather than modelled ; and the lotus pond indicated by conventional lotuses out of all pro- portion to the size of the beasts wading through it. In the latter, the leaves and flowers are of normal size ; the water is portrayed by undulating lines ; the banyan tree is realistically true to nature ; the modelling of the elephants is more forceful and elaborate ; and, though the figures are kept religiously to one plane, strong contrasts of light and shade and a suggestion of depth are obtained by cutting deep into the surface of the stone. Both reliefs are admirable in their ovm way, but there can be no two opinions as to which of the two is the more masterly. The one on the South Gateway is the work of a creative genius, more expert perhaps with the pencil or brush than with the chisel, but possessed of a delicate sense of line and of decorative and rhythmic composi- tion. That on the West, on the other hand, is technically more advanced, and the individual figures, taken by themselves, are un- doubtedly more effective and convincing ; but it fails to please, because the detail is too crowded and confusing, and the composition too regular and mechanical The same remark holds good, if we compare the * war of the relics ' on the Southern Gateway, with the somewhat similar scene on the Western (PL XXIII, 63, 64). In both there is abundance of fancy and expressive movement, but the movement and fancy are of a dififerent order. In the earlier, the scene is living and real, because the artist has conceived it clearly in his own brain and expressed his conception with dramatic simplicity ; in the later, the houses and the figures framed in the balconies are stereotyped and lifeless, and the movement and turmoil of the crowd surging towards the city less convincing,
632 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
because the artist has depended not so much upon his own originality as upon the conventional treatment of such scenes. In the earlier, the depth of the relief and the intervals between the figures are varied, and the shadows difiused or intensified accordingly ; in the later, the figures are compressed closely together, with the result that the shadows between them become darker, and a ' colouristic ' effect is thus imparted to the whole. In the earlier, lastly, the composition is enhanced by varying the directions in which the figures move ; in the later, though the attitudes are manifold, the movement taken as a whole is uniform. These difierences in style are due in a large measure to the indi- viduality of the artists, but they are due, also, to the changes which were coming over Indian relief consequent on the deepening of extraneous influences, on improved technical skill, and on the growing tendency towards conventionalism. The extraneous influences referred to are attested by the presence of exotic motifs, which meet the eye at every point and are readily recog- nised— by the familiar bell capitals of Persia, by floral designs of Assyria, by winged monsters of Western Asia, all of them part and parcel of the cosmopolitan art of the Seleucid and succeeding empires of the West, in which the heterogeneous elements of so many civilisations were fused and blended together. But it is attested still more forcibly by the striking individuality of many of the figures, as, for instance, of the hill-men riders on the Eastern Gate, by the occasional efibrts towards spatial efiects, as in the relief of the ivory Avorkers of Vidi^a, by the well-balanced symmetry of some of the groups, and by the 'colouristic' treat- ment with its alternation of light and dark, which was peculiarly characteristic of Graeco-Syrian art at this period. By the side of these mature and elaborate compositions the reliefs of Bharhut are stiff and awkward, and, as we recall their features to mind, we are conscious of the gulf which separates the two and of the great advance that sculpture must have made during the century or more that elapsed between them. The wonder is that these monuments could ever have been classed together or regarded as products of one and the same epoch.
The steady growth of plastic art which we have traced in the foregoing pages derives additional light from the pre-Kushana sculptures of Mathura, which are the more instructive, because they all emanate from one and the same school. These sculptures divide themselves into three main classes, the earliest belonging approximately to the middle of the second century B.C. ; the second
xxvi] Sudden Decadence of Art 633
to the following century ; and the last associated with the rule of the local Satraps. Of these, the first two are so closely akin in style to the reliefs of the Bharhut rail and Sanchi toranas, re- spectively, that it is unnecessary to dwell further upon them. The sculptures of the third class are more exceptional. Their style is that of the Early School in a late and decadent phase, when its art was becoming conventionalised and lifeless. Typical examples are the plaques reproduced in PI. XXIV, 65, 66, the former a Jain dydgapata or votive tablet dedicated, as the inscription on it informs us, by a courtesan named Lona9obhika ; the latter, which is decorated on both sides, from a small torana arch. In all works of the Mathura school of this period the same tendency towards schematic treatment is apparent, but it appears to have afiected the Jain sculpture more than the Buddhist. The dramatic vigour and warmth of feeling which characterised the reliefs of the Sanchi gateways is now vanishing ; the composition is becoming weak and mechanical, the postures formal and stilted. The cause of this sudden decadence is not difficult to discover. A little before the beginning of the Christian era Mathura had become the capital of a Satrapy either subordinate to or closely connected with the Scytho-Parthian kingdom of Taxila^ and, as a result, there was an influx there of semi-Hellenistic art, too weak in its new environment to maintain its own individuality, yet still strong enough to interrupt and enervate the older traditions of Hindustan. It was no longer a case of Indian art being vitalised by the in- spiration of the West, but of its being deadened by its embrace. As an illustration of the close relations that existed between Mathura and the North- West, the votive tablet of Lona9obhika is particularly significant, the stupa depicted on it being identical in form with stupas of the Scytho-Parthian epoch at Taxila, but unlike any monument of the class in Hindustan. Another interesting votive tablet of the same class is one dedicated by a lady named AmohinI in the reign of the Great Satrap ^odasa, which, to judge by the style of its carving, dates from about the beginning of the Christian era.
Wherever important stupas like those described above were erected, monasteries were also provided for the accommodation of the monks or nuns residing on the spot, and chapels or chaitya halls in which they could assemble for their devotions. The monasteries, as might be expected, were designed on the same
^ For an account of another most important monument, the Lion-Capital, see Chapter xxni, pp. 575-6, where the date of the XmohinI tablet is also discussed.
634 '^^^ Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
plan as private houses: that is, with an open square courtyard in the centre surrounded on the four sides by a range of cells. Perhaps the earliest existing example of such a monastery is one by the side of the Piprahwa stuipa (p. 623), which is said to be built of bricks of much the same size and fabric as those employed in the atUpa itself. As a rule, however, the early architects built their structural monasteries and chaitya halls either wholly of wood or with a superstructure of wood set on a stylobate of stone, like the more primitive temples of Greece ; and it was not until about the first century B.C. that more durable materials came into vogue for pillars and walls, and not until a still later period that they came to be used for entablature and roofs. The chaitya halls were remarkably similar in plan to the early Christian basilicas, being divided by two rows of columns into a nave and two narrow side aisles, which were continued round the apse. The only remains of such structural halls prior to the Christian era are those at SanchI and Sonari in the Bhopal State of Central India. In both cases the superstructure seems to have been of wood, and what now survives of the original hall consists only of a lofty stone plinth approached by flights of steps, but the form of the plinth and the plan of the interior foundations leave no doubt that the super- structure must have been similar in design to the rock-hewn chaitya halls of Western India.
While these structural edifices — stupas, chapels, and monasteries — were being erected in Hindustan, the Buddhists and Jains of Western and Eastern India were engaged in fashioning more permanent monuments of the same class by hewing them from the living rock. The practice of hollowing out chambers had been common in Egypt from time immemorial, and by the sixth century B.C. had spread as far east as Persia, where the royal tombs of Darius and his successors of the Achaemenian dynasty up to the time of Codomannus (335-330 B.C.) were excavated in the clifis of Naksh-i-Rustam and Persepolis. From Persia the idea found its way during the third century before our era into Hindustan and resulted, as we have already seen, in the excavation of dwelling places and chapels for ascetics in the Barabar hills of Bihar. These artificial caves of the Maurya period were of very modest proportions, and were at first kept severely plain, or, like their Iranian prototypes, adorned only on the outer fa9ade. As time went on, however, the Indian excavators became more ambitious and, rapidly expanding their ideas, proceeded to copy their structural chaitya halls and viharas on the same scale as the originals, and
xxvi] Chaityas 635
to imitate their details with an accuracy which says more for their industry and patience than for the originality of their genius. So literal, indeed, was the translation of wooden architecture into the new and more durable material, that infinite toil was expended in perpetuating forms which became quite meaningless and in- appropriate when applied to stone. Thus, in wooden structures there had been valid enough reason for inclining pillars and door jambs inwards, in order to counteract the outward thrust of the curvilinear roof, but, reproduced in stone, this inclination entirely missed its purpose and served only to weaken instead of strengthen- ing the supports. Again, it was mere waste of labour to copy roof timbers ; still gi-eater waste was it, first to cut away the rock and then insert such timbers in wood, as was done in some of the earlier caves.
This close imitation of wooden construction affords a useful criterion for determining the relative ages of these rock-hewn monuments, since it is logical to infer that the older the cave, the nearer it is likely to approximate to its wooden prototypes. But this index of age must not be pressed too far; for, though the rule generally holds good, there are many exceptions to it, and in every case, therefore, careful account must be taken of other features also, and especially of the plastic treatment of the sculp- tures and decorative ornaments which are found in many of the caves.
Among the earlier chaitya halls of Western India the finest examples are those at Bhaja, Kondane, Pitalkhora, Ajanta, Bedsa, Nasik, and Karli. The plan and general design of these halls is approximately the same, and the description of one will suffice for all. The finest example, undoubtedly, is the hall at Karli (PL XXV, 67, 68), which is at once the largest, the best preserved, and most perfect of its type. It measures 124 feet 3 inches long by 45 feet 6 inches wide and is of the same apsidal plan as the contemporary structural chaityas referred to above. Between the nave and the aisles is a single row of thirty-seven columns, of which those round the apse are of plain octagonal form, while the remainder, to the number of fifteen on either side of the nave, are provided with heavy bases and capitals of the bell-shape type surmounted by kneeling elephants, horses, and tigers, with riders or attendants standing between. Above these figures and rising to a height of 45 feet at its apex, springs the vaulted roof, beneath the soffit of which is a series of projecting ribs, not carved out of the stone itself, but constructed of wood and attached to the roof. At the apsidal end of the hall
636 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
the vault terminates in a semi-dome, beneath which, and hewn like the rest of the hall out of the solid rock, is a stupa of familiar shape with a crowning umbrella of wood above. At the entrance to the hall is a screen pierced by three doorways, one leading to the nave, the others to the side aisles ; this screen rose no higher than the tops of the pillars within the hall, and the whole of the open space above it was occupied by a great horse-shoe window, within which there still remains part of its original wooden centring. It was through this window that all light was admitted into the hall, the nave and the stwpa being thus effectively illumi- nated, but the side aisles left in comparative darkness. In front of the entrance to the hall was a porch 15 feet deep by about 58 feet high, and as wide as it was high, closed in turn by a second screen consisting of two tiers of octagonal columns, with a solid mass of rock between, once apparently decorated with wooden carvings attached to its fa9ade.
Though similar in general disposition to the one at Karli, the chaitya halls at the other places mentioned above vary consider- ably in their dimensions and details. Thus the halls at Bhaja and Kondane (PL XXVI, 69) are about 60 feet long, the earliest at Ajanta 96 feet, and that at Nasik (PL XXVI, 72) 45. At Bhaja, Kondane, Pitalkhora, and the earliest at Ajanta, the screen which closed the entrance to the hall was originally of wood, and in all these caves, as well as in those of Bedsa and Nasik, the pillars incline inwards to a greater or less degree. In the Ajanta hall, again, the pillars are quite plain without base or capital, and here, as at Pitalkhora, the coved ceiling of the side aisles is adorned with coffers, the ribs between which are carved from the rock, not framed in wood.
From these and other peculiarities in their construction and decoration it has generally been inferred that the earliest of all the chaitya halls to be excavated were those at Bhaja, Kondane, and Pitalkhora, together with the tenth cave at Ajanta ; that next to them in chronological order came the hall at Bedsa ; then the ninth cave at Ajanta, followed closely by the chaitya at Nasik ; and, lastly, the great hall at Karli. On the assumption, moreover, that the chaitya at Nasik is of about the same age as the small inhdra close by, and that the Andra king Krishna, during whose reign the latter was excavated, was reigning at the beginning of the second century B.C., the conclusion has been drawn that the four earliest caves were excavated towards the close of the third century B.C., the cave at Bedsa during the first or second decade
XXV i] Fi haras 637
of the second century B.C., those at Nasik about 160 B.C., and the one at Karli about 80 b.c. Against this chronology, however, there are insuperable objections based on epigraphical as well as plastic and architectural considerations. In the hall at Karli, for example — to take the last of the series first — is an inscrip- tion recording that it was the work of one Seth Bhutapala of VaijayantI, whose age cannot for epigraphical reasons be far removed from that of Ushavadata, the son-in-law of the Ksha- trapa Nahapana. In this cave, too, the form of the pillars and the modelling of the stately sculptures above them preclude an earlier date than the first century of our era. Again, in the chaitya hall at Nasik the form of the entrance doorway, the lotus design on the face of its jambs, the miniature Persepolitan pilasters, the rails of the balustrade flanking the steps and the treatment of the dvarapdla figure beside the entrance — all bespeak a date approximately contemporary with the Sanchi toranas, and at least a century later than the work of Bharhut. Equally strong are the objections in the case of the Bhaja and Bedsa chaityas, the sculptures of which are too fully developed to have been executed before the first century KC, while, as regards the latter hall, the design of the ponderous columns in front of the entrance and the modelling of the figures surmounting them, though mani- festly earlier than the work at Karli, cannot be removed from it by a long period of time. From these and many other indica- tions of a similar nature it is apparent that the chronology of these caves needs complete revision. At present it seems hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that the whole series of these rock-cut halls — from the one at Bhaja to that of Karli — are more modern by at least a century than has been usually supposed, and that Messrs Fergusson and Burgess were not far from the truth, when in their work on the Cave Temples of India they assigned the Nasik Hall to the latter half of the first century B.C.
The above remarks apply in an equal degree to the other great class of rock-cut remains — namely, the viharas or residential quarters of the monks. These viharas call for little comment. The most perfect examples of them were planned like the structural edifices of the same class, but with this unavoidable difference, that the range of cells on one side of the court was replaced in the cave viharas by an open verandah, through which light and air could be freely admitted to the interior. In other cases, and among these are to be reckoned the majority of the early viharas, the plan is irregular, the cells being disposed in one or two rows only.
638 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
and often at erratic angles ; while in one instance — at Bedsa — they are ranged round an apsidal court, manifestly imitated from a chaitya hall. A striking feature of these vihdras and one in which they present a great contrast to those of the Eastern Coast, is the almost total absence of figure sculpture. In nearly all the examples known to us the fa9ades of the cells are embellished only by simple architectural motifs, such as horse-shoe arches, rails, lattices, and merlons, and it is only in rare instances, as at Nadsur (PI. XXVI, 71) and Pitalkhora, that the severity of this treatment is relieved by figures of Lakshmi placed over the doors or pillars, or by pilasters of the Persepolitan type surmounted by kneeling animals. In only one vihdra is there any attempt at more diversified sculpture. This is at Bhaja, where standing figures of guards and more elaborate scenes are executed in relief on the walls of the verandah and interior hall. One of these scenes, from the west end of the verandah, is illustrated in PI. XXVI, 70. It depicts a four-horse chariot with three figures — a male and two females — riding within, attendant horsemen at the side, and monster demons beneath. This composition has been inter- preted as the car of Surya accompanied by his two wives driving over the demons of darkness, but it is more than doubtful if this interpretation is correct. Four-horse chariots of this type are a familiar motif in early Indian art, and in this instance there is nothing special to indicate the identity of Surya.
The composition of these sculptures is strangely bizarre and fanciful, and their style, generally, is not of a high order ; but it is easy to perceive from the technique of the relief work, from the freedom of the composition and of the individual poses, as well as from the treatment of the ornaments, that they are to be classed among the later efforts of the Early School, not among its primitive productions. Their date certainly cannot be much earlier than the middle of the last century before the Christian era.
Of the early caves along the East Coast the only ones that merit attention here are the two neighbouring and intimately connected groups on the hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri in Orissa. Un- like the rock-hewn monuments of Western India described above, which were the handiwork of Buddhists, these Orissan caves were both excavated and for many years tenanted by adherents of the Jain religion, who have left behind them unmistakable evidences of their faith both in the early inscribed records and in the medieval cult statues which are found in several of the caves. To this sectarian difference is due many distinctive features of the archi-
XXV i] The Caves of Oris s a 639
tecture, including, among others, the entire absence of chaitya halls, for which, apparently, there was no need in the ceremonial observances of the Jains. Taken together, the two groups comprise more than thirty-five excavations, of which the more remarkable in point of size and decoration are the Ananta Gumpha on Khandagiri, and the Rani Gumpha, Ganesh Gumpha, and the Jayavijaya caves on the Udayagiri hill. Besides these, there are two caves in the Udayagiri group — namely, the Hathi Gumpha and the Manchapuri cave — to which a special interest attaches by reason of the inscriptions carved on them. Of the whole series the oldest is the Hathi Gumpha, a natural cavern enlarged by artificial cutting, on the over-hanging brow of which is the famous epigraph recording the acts of Kharavela, King of Kalinga. This inscription was supposed by Pandit Bhagvanlal Indrajl and others to be dated in the 165th year of the Maurya epoch, which, if reckoned from the accession of Chandragupta, would coincide with 157-6 B.C. Other scholars have, however, since denied that any such date occurs in the inscription, and, at the present time, there is still a sharp division of opinion on the points In the absence of an undoubted date in this record or in the records of Kharavela's Queen and of his successor (?) in the Manchapuri cave, we must endeavour to determine the age of these monuments from other sources of information. In the case of the Manchapuri cave, the problem luckily derives some light from the style of the sculptured reliefs of the interior. This cave, erroneously called Vaikuntha or Patalapuri by earlier writers, possesses two storeys, the lower (PL XXVII, 73) consisting of a pillared verandah with chambers hollowed out at the back and at one end ; the upper of similar design but of smaller dimensions and without any chamber at the extremity of the verandah.
It is in the upper storey of this cave that the inscription of Kharavela's Queen is incised, while in the lower are short records stating that the main and side chambers were the works, respec- tively, of Vakradeva (Vakadepasiri or Kudepasiri), the successor, apparently, of Kharavela, and of Prince Vadukha. It may be presumed, therefore, that the upper storey is the earlier of the two. The rail pattern which once adorned the broad band of rock between the two storeys is now all but obliterated, but in the ground-floor verandah is a well preserved frieze which confirms by its style what the inscriptions might otherwise lead us to
1 See Chapter xxi, pp. 534 ff.
640 'The Monuments of Ancient India [CH.
suppose : namely, that, next to the Hathi Gumpha, this was the most ancient cave in the two groups. Some of the reliefs of this frieze are illustrated in PI. XXVII, 74. Like most of the sculptures in this locality they are of poor, coai*se workmanship, but in the depth of the relief and plastic treatment of the figures they evince a decided advance on the work of Bharhut, and, unless it be that sculpture in this part of India had undergone an earlier and independent development (a supposition for which there is no foundation) it is safe to aflSrm that they are considerably posterior to the sculptures of Bharhut. Next, in chronological sequence, comes the Ananta Gumpha — a single-storeyed cave planned in much the same way as the Manchapuri, which seems to have been the prototype of all the more important caves excavated on this site. Over the doorways of this cave are ornamental arches enclosing various reliefs ; in one is a standing figure of Lakshmi supported by the usual elephants on lotus flowers (PI. XXVII, 75) ; in another is the four-horse chariot of the Sun-god (?) depicted en face, with the crescent moon and stars in the field ; in a third are elephants; in a fourth, a railed-in tree and figures to right and left of it bearing ofibrings in their hands or posed in an attitude of prayer. The arch fronts themselves are relieved by bands of birds or of animals and Amorini at play or of garlands intertwined, and over each is a pair of triple-headed snakes, while in the inter- mediate spaces are flying Gandharvas disposed in separate panels (PI. XXVII, 76). The last mentioned are more stiff" and schematic than the similar flgures in the Manchapuri cave, and this taken in conjunction with other features, such as the chubby Amorini and the treatment of the Sun-god's chariot, seems to indicate for these sculptures a date not much earlier than the middle of the first century b.c. A further stage in the development of this archi- tecture is reached in the Rani Gumpha, which is at once the most spacious and elaborately decorated of all the Orissan caves (PI. XXVIII, 79). It consists of two storeys, each originally pro- vided with a verandah — the lower 43 feet in length with three cells behind, the upper 20 feet longer with four cells behind ; in addition to which there are chambers of irregular plan in the wings, to right and left of the verandahs. In both storeys the fa9ades of the cells are enriched with pilasters and highly ornate friezes illustrating episodes connected with the Jain religion, of which unfortunately the interpretation has not yet been established. The friezes resemble each other closely, so far as their general treatment is concerned, but the style of the sculptures in the two storeys is
XXV i] Sculptures in the Caves 641
widely different. In the upper (cf. PL XXVIII, 78) the composition is relatively free, each group forming a coherent whole, in which the relation of the various figures to one another is well expressed ; the figures themselves are posed in natural attitudes ; their move- ment is vigorous and convincing ; and from a plastic and anatomical point of view the modelling is tolerably correct. In the lower, on the other hand, the reliefs are distinctly elementary and crude. The best of them, perhaps, is the group reproduced in PI. XXVIII, 11, but even here the figures are composed almost as independent units, connected only by their tactile contiguity ; their postures, too, are rigid and formal, particularly as regards the head and torso, which are turned almost direct to the spectator, and in other respects the work is stiff and schematic. At first sight, it might appear that in proportion as these carvings are more primitive- looking, so they are anterior to those of the upper storey ; but examined more closely they betray traces here and there of comparatively mature art, which suggest that their defects are due rather to the clumsiness and inexperience of the particular sculptors responsible for them than to the primitive character of plastic art at the time when they were produced. Accordingly, it seems probable that in this cave, as in the Manchapuri, the upper of the two floors was the first to be excavated, though the interval of time between the two was not necessarily a long one ; and there is good reason, also, to suppose that the marked stylistic difference between the sculptures of the two storeys was the result of influence exercised directly or indirectly by the contemporary schools of Central and North- Western India. In this connexion a special significance attaches to the presence in the upper storey of a doorkeeper garbed in the dress of a Yavana warrior, and of a lion and rider near by treated in a distinctively Western-Asiatic manner, while the guardian door-keepers of the lower storey are as characteristically Indian as their workmanship is immature. It is significant, too, that various points of resemblance are to be traced between the sculptures of the upper floor and the Jain reliefs of Mathura, where, as we have already seen, the artistic traditions of the North- West were at this time obtaining a strong foothold. The pity is that the example of these outside schools made only a superficial and impermanent impression in Orissa — a fact which becomes clear if we consider some of the other caves on this site. In the Ganesh Gumpha, for example, which is a small excavation containing only two cells, the reliefs of the frieze are closely analogous in style and subject, but, at the same time, slightly
C.H. I. I. 41
642 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
inferior to those in the upper verandah of the Rani Gumpha. Then, in the Jayavijaya, we see the style rapidly losing its animation, and in the Alakapuri cave, which is still later, the execution has become still more coarse and the figures as devoid of expression as anything which has survived from the Early'School (PL XXVIII, 80). The truth appears to be that the art of Orissa, unlike the art of Central or Western India possessed little inde- pendent vitality, and flourished only so long as it was stimulated by other schools, but became retrograde the moment that that inspiration was withdrawn.
It remains to consider the paintings and minor antiquities of the Early Indian school. Of the former our knowledge is the scantiest ; for though many of the buildings described above, both rock-cut and structural, must have been adorned with frescoes, only one specimen of such frescoes is known to exist, and this one, unhappily, is too fragmentary and obscured to afford a criterion of what the painters of that age were capable. The fresco referred to is in the Joglmara cave of the Ramgarh hill within the confines of the small and remotely situated State of Surguja, At first sight, it appears a mere medley of crudely painted figures, destitute alike of coherent composition and intelligible meaning ; but a closer examination reveals here and there a few drawings, from which the colour has vanished, but the line work of which is tolerably dexterous and bold, and it reveals others also quite vigorously outlined, but spoilt by the colours roughly daubed upon them. Evidently, the fresco has been repainted and added to by some untutored hand at a time when most of its colouring had faded, and these few linear drawings are all that is left of the original work. It is to the later period that belong not only the existing pigments — red and crimson and black — with which the older figures have been restored, but the bands of monochrome yellow and red which divide and sub- divide the panels, as well as the numerous ill-drawn and primitive- looking figures applied indiscriminately on the fresco, wherever the older paintings had been obliterated. Of the earlier work, all that can now be made out is that it was disposed in a series of concentric panels separated from one another by narrow bands ; that the bands were adorned with rows of fishes, maharas, and other aquatic monsters ; and that in the panels were various subjects depicted in a very haphazard fashion, among which are the familiar chaitya halls with pinnacled roofs, two-horse chariots, and groups of figures seated and standing, manifestly analogous to those found in the early reliefs, but too much effaced to admit of a
xxvi] Minor Arts 643
detailed comparison. That the fresco appertains to the Early- School is sufficiently apparent from these features, but its more exact date must remain conjectural. The late Dr Bloch, who visited the cave in 1904, failed to perceive the repainting which the fresco had undergone and assigned the whole as it stood to the third century B.C. This was on the assumption that it was contemporary with a short inscription in the early Brahmi character engraved on the wall of the cave. It is very doubtful, however, if the record in question is so ancient, and equally doubtful if the fresco has any connexion with it. More probably the latter was executed in the first century before our era.
With the terracottas of this period we are on firmer ground, for examples of them are numerous, and in many cases their age can be determined not only by the internal evidence of their style, but by the associations in which they have been found. These terracottas consist of figurines of men and animals or toy carts in the round, or of small plaques stamped with figures or miniature scenes. The Indian specimens of the Maurya period were, as we have already seen, very crude and primitive, corresponding in this respect with the indigenous stone sculpture of that age. In the second and first centuries B.C., however, terracotta work steadily improved, and towards the beginning of the Christian era we find it hardly less carefully modelled or less richly decorated than contemporary reliefs in stone. By this time, the use of dies for stamping the clay had come into general vogue, and, as a consequence, even the cheaper toys of children were enriched by pretty floral designs in relief The same thing happened, also, in the case of metal ornaments, which exhibit precisely the same kind of designs as the terracottas. A good illustration of the minute delicacy with which some of these dies were engraved is afibrded by a terracotta medallion from Bhita (PI. XXIX, 81), which might almost be a copy in miniature of the relief work on the Sanchi gateways, so exactly does it resemble it in style. One of the sculptures at Sanchi, it may be remembered, was the work of the ivory carvers of Vidi9a, and it was of ivory probably that the die for this medallion was made. Of about the same age, but of much coarser execution is the copper lota from Gundla in Kulii reproduced in PL XXIX, 82. Here, again, the scene engraved round the body of the vase is the familiar one of a prince seated in a four-horse chariot with a band of musicians in front, a cortege of horsemen and an elephant rider behind. The figure in the chariot has been identified with Gautama Buddha, as
41—2
644 The Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
Prince Siddhartha, but it seems, prima facie, unlikely that this should be the one and only exception to the rule which obtained among the early Indian artists, of never representing the figure of Gautama Buddha.
In following step by step the history of Indian indigenous art during this early period we have seen that much extraneous influence was exerted upon it, and that this influence was a prominent factor in its evolution. Yet, if we examine this art in its most mature form, as illustrated for example in the gate- ways of Sanchi, we can detect in it nothing really mimetic, nothing which degrades it to the rank of a servile school. Many of its motifs and ideas it took from Persia, but there is no trace in it of the icy composure, the monotonous reiteration, or the dignified spaciousness which characterise Iranian art. It owed a debt to the older civilisations of Assyria, but it knows nothing of the stately and pompous grandeur or the grotesque exaggerations in which the Assyrian fancy delighted. Most of all, it was indebted to the Hellenistic culture of Western Asia, but the service which it exacted from the genius of Hellas served to develop its own Tirile character, not to enfeeble or obscure it. The artists of early India were quick, with the versatility of all great artists, to profit by the lessons which others had to teach them ; but there is no more reason in calling their creations Persian or Greek than there would be in designating the modern fabric of St Paul's Italian. The art which they practised was essentially a national art, having its root in the heart and in the faith of the people, ^ and giving eloquent expression to their spiritual beliefs and to
I <. their deep and intuitive sympathy with nature. Free alike from
artificiality and idealism, its purpose was to glorify religion, not by seeking to embody spiritual ideas in terms of form, as the medieval art of India did, but by telling the story of Buddhism or Jainism in the simplest and most expressive language which the chisel of the sculptor could command, and it was just because of its sympathy and transparent sincerity that it voiced so truth- fully the soul of the people, and still continues to make an instant and deep appeal to our feelings.
To complete our survey of the arts of early India, we must retrace our steps, finally, to the North- West and pick up once more the threads of Hellenistic and Western Asiatic culture which became established there in the second century B.C., and subsequently led to the development of an influential school of I Buddhist art. The all-important part played by Bactria and
xxvi] Influence of Greek Art 645
Persia in connexion with the monuments of A9oka has already occupied our attention. Forty years after the death of that Emperor the Bactrian armies of Demetrius overran the north of the Punjab and paved the way for the foundation of an indepen- dent Greek rule, which remained paramount in the North-West for nearly a hundred years and lingered on still longer in the hills of Afghanistan. The antiquities which these Eurasian Greeks and their immediate successors, the Scytho-Parthians, have bequeathed to us, are not numerous, but one and all consistently bear witness to the strong hold which Hellenistic art must have, taken upon this part of India. Most instructive, perhaps, among them are the coins, the stylistic history of which is singularly lucid and coherent (PL XXX, 83, a-V). In the earliest examples every feature is Hellenistic. Their standard is the Attic standard ; their legends are in Greek ; their types are taken from Greek mythology, and designed with a grace and beauty reminiscent of the schools of Praxiteles or Lysippus ; and their portraiture is characterised by a refined realism, which, while it is unmistakably Greek, demonstrates a remarkable originality on the part of the engravers. With the consolidation, however, of the Greek supremacy south of the Hindu Kush, the Attic standard quickly gave place to one — possibly based on Persian coinage — more suited to the needs of local commerce ; bilingual legends were substituted for the Greek, and little by little the other Hellenistic qualities gradually faded, Indian elements being intro- duced among the types and the portraits losing their freshness and animation. And so the process of degeneration continued, relatively slowly among the Eurasian Greeks, more rapidly when added barbarian elements came to be introduced from Parthia. The testimony of these coins is specially valuable in this respect : it proves that the engravers who produced them were no mere slavish copyists of Western models, but were giving free and spontaneous expression to their own ideas ; and it proves further that, though the art which they exhibit underwent an inevitable transformation in its new environment and as a result of political changes, its influence, nevertheless, was long and well-sustained on Indian soil.
Nor does this numismatic evidence stand alone. It is endorsed also by the other antiquities of this age which have come down to us, though in their case with this notable difference — o. difference for which political considerations readily account — that, whereas the coins of the Indo-Parthians evince a close dependence on
I
646 TAe Monuments of Ancient India [ch.
Parthian prototypes, warranting the presumption that the kings who issued them were of Parthian stock, the contemporary architecture and other antiquities show relatively little evidence of the semi-barbarous influence from that region. Of the build- ings of the Eurasian Greeks themselves no remains have yet been brought to light save the unembellished walls of some dwelling houses, but the monuments erected at Taxila and in the neigh- bourhood during the Scytho-Parthian supremacy leave no room for doubt that architecture of the classical style had long been fashionable in that quarter of India ; for, though by that time the decorative features were beginning to be Indianised, the Hellenistic elements in them were still in complete preponderance over the Oriental. Thus, the ornamentation of the stwpds of this period was primarily based on the * Corinthian ' order, modified by the addition of Indian motifs ; while the only temples that have yet been unearthed are characterised by the presence of Ionic columns and classical mouldings. In the example of the former class of structures shown in PI. XXXI, 85, the Indian elements in the design are more than usually conspicuous, but even in this stupa, which is referable to the reign of Azes, they are restricted to the small brackets over the Corinthian capitals, and to the subsidiary toranas and arched niches which relieve the interspaces betAveen the pilasters.
As with the architectural, so with the minor arts ; they, one and all, derived their inspiration from the Hellenistic School, and in the very slowness of their decline bear testimony to the remarkable persistency of its teachings. Of earlier and purer workmanship a charming illustration is afforded by some fragmentary ceramic wares from the neighbourhood of Peshawar, the designs on which are singularly human, and singularly Greek, in sentiment. On one of them are depicted little Amorini at play ; on another, a child reaching for a bunch of grapes in the hands of its mother ; on a third, a scene from the Antigane, where Haemon is supplicating his father Creon for the life of his affianced bride. Equally Hellenistic in character, and equally devoid of any Indian feeling, is an ivory pendant adorned with two bearded heads from Taxila, and the vine- wreathed head of Dionysus in silver repousse (PI. XXXI, 84) from the same site. Then, a little later — about the beginning, that is to say, of the Christian era — we find Indian forms appearing among the Hellenistic, just as they did in the case of architecture. Witness, for instance, the relic casket of gold encrusted with balas rubies, which was found in a tope at Bimaran (PL XXXII, 87).
XXV i] Engraved Gems 647
Here, the figures of the Buddha and his devotees — the chief and central features of the design — ^are in inspiration demonstrably Hellenistic ; but the arches beneath which they stand are no less demonstrably Indian in form ; while the sacred Indian lotus, full- blown, is incised beneath the base of the casket. Doubtless, it was in the sphere of religious and more particularly of Buddhist art, with its essentially Indian associations, that Indian ideas first began to trespass on the domain of Hellenism in the north-west, and this partly explains why the monuments which betray the first encroach- ments of indigenous art, belong without exception to that faith, and why other objects of a non-religious character, such as engraved gems or the graceful bronze statuette of a child from Taxila (PI. XXXII, 86), preserve their classical style intact until a much later date. But it must be borne in mind, also, that it was in architectural forms that the earliest symptoms of Indian influence appeared, and that at the time of which we are speaking India was already in possession of a national architecture of her own and likely, therefore, to exercise more influence in that particular sphere than in the glyptic or plastic arts, in which she had then made less independent progress. The engraved gems referred to are found in large numbers throughout the whole north-western area and are proved by the presence of legends in early Brahmi or Kharoshthi, as well as in Greek characters, to be the work of resident artists. Some typical specimens are illustrated in PL XXXIII, 88, a-k. The first is a cornelian intaglio from Akra in the Bannu district, of pure Hellenistic workmanship, designed and executed with a fine sense of composition and relief. Judging by the persistency with which it was repeated, the motif of the fighting warriors on this gem must have been almost as favourite a one in India as it was in Greece. Next to it and of about the same date is a remarkably spirited elephant cut on a pale sard. Then comes a jacinth (c), the jugate heads on which recall to mind the busts of Heliocles and Laodice on coins of Eucratides, though it is slightly later than they. The lion, also, on pale sard {d) is a fine example of delicate technique ; but in fig. e — a singularly beautiful sardoine — the style shows incipient signs of falling off", and in the three following specimens, a black garnet and two sards, we watch its slow and sure deterioration until the beginning of the Christian era. The next two gems of the series {i and^') are still more decadent. The treatment of the drapery and other details of the seated Athena in the former remind us irresistibly of coins struck about the time of Hermaeus, and we cannot be far wrong in assigning this gem to
'v>
648 The Monuments of Ancient India [CH.
about 50 A.D., and the one which follows it to the close of the same century. The latter is a cornelian from the Hazara District, engraved with a figure of Aphrodite and bearing a legend in corrupt Greek characters. Finally, in fig. h, we have a represen- tative of a large group of gems executed in a meretricious and distinctive style, which appears to have been fashionable in India in the first and second centuries A.D. and which, taken in conjunc- tion with other facts, suggests that a strong wave of influence — due, perhaps, to Roman expansion — set in about that time from Asia Minor.
It was during the Scytho-Parthian supremacy that the local school of Buddhist art, known as the Gandhara School, must first have sprung into being. The story of this school belongs to a subsequent chapter ; for it was under the rule of the Kushana kings that it produced the majority of the sculptures which have made it famous. But that it had taken shape long before the Kushanas came upon the scene, is evident from the fact that the types of the Buddha peculiarly associated with it, and the evolu- tion of which presupposes a long period for its achievement, were already fixed and standardised in the reign of Kaniskha, and that the influence of the school had penetrated by that time as far as the banks of the Jumna. Unhappily, among the many thousands of sculptures by which it is represented, there is not one which bears a date in any known era, nor do considerations of style enable us to determine their chronological sequence with any approach to accuracy. Nevertheless, it may be taken as a general maxim that the earlier they are, the more nearly they approximate in style to Hellenistic work, and, accepting the relic casket from the stupa of Shah-ji-ki-dheri as a criterion of age, it may safely be asserted that a number of them, distinguished by their less stereotyped or less rococo character, are anterior to the reign of Kanishka. One of the earliest of these, if we accept the judg- ment of Mons. Foucher, is the Buddha image reproduced in PI. XXXIV, 89, which is certainly conspicuous among its fellows for its graceful and restrained simplicity. Yet, even of this image the type is demonstrably a well matured one, and, if we would seek for the beginnings of the school, we must look still further back and learn from the Bimaran casket and other antiquities of that time the process by which Hellenistic art came into the service of Buddhism.
The question of the r61e played by classical art in India has been a much disputed one in the past, some authorities maintaining
xxvi] Greek and Indian Ideals 649
that it was almost a negligible factor, others that it underlay the whole fabric of Indian art. The truth, as so often happens, lies between the two extremes. In Hindustan and in Central India it took, as we have seen, an important part in promoting the de- ' velopment of the Early National School both by clearing its path of technical difficulties and strengthening its growth with new and invigorating ideas. In the north-west region and immediately beyond its frontiers, on the other hand, it long maintained a com- plete supremacy, obscuring the indigenous traditions and itself producing works of no mean merit, which add appreciably to our understanding of the Hellenistic genius ; here, too, as Indian influence waxed stronger, it eventually culminated in the School of Gandhara, which left an indelible mark on Buddhist art through- out the Orient. Nevertheless, in spite of its wide difiusion, Hellenistic art never took a real and lasting hold upon India, for ^ ' " the reason that the temperaments of the two peoples were radi- cally dissimilar. To the Greek, man, man's beauty, man's intellect were everything, and it was the apotheosis of this beauty and this intellect which still remained the key-note of Hellenistic art even in the Orient. But these ideals awakened no response in the Indian mind. The vision of the Indian was bounded by the immortal rather than the mortal, by the infinite rather than finite. Where Greek thought was ethical, his was spiritual ; where Greek was rational, his was emotional. And to these higher aspirations, these more spiritual instincts, he sought, at a later date, to give articulate expression by translating them into terms of form and colour. But that was not until the more spacious times of the Guptas, when a closer contact had been established between thought and art, and new impulses imparted to each. At the age of which we are speaking, the Indian had not yet conceived the bold and, as some think, chimerical idea of thus *
incarnating spirit in matter. Art to him was a thing apart — a sensuous, concrete expression of the beautiful, which appealed intimately to his subconscious aesthetic sense, but in which neither intellectuality nor mysticism had any share. For the rest, he found in the formative arts a valuable medium in which to narrate, in simple and universal language, the legends and history of his faith ; and this was mainly why, for the sake of its lucidity and dramatic power, he welcomed with avidity and absorbed the lessons of Hellenistic art, not because he sympathised with its ideals or saw in it the means of giving utterance to his own.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
A. Angattara Nikaya.
Abh. Abhandlungen.
ApT. Agralayana.
Air. Wb. Altiranisches Worterbuch.
Alt. Leb. Altindisches Leben.
Ap. or Apast. Apastamba.
A.S.R. Reports of the Archaeological
Survey of India. (Cunningham.) Arch. Sur. Ind. Archaeological Survey of
India. (Annual Reports.) Arch. Sur. West. Ind. Archaeological Sur- rey of Western India. At. Avesta.
Bab. Babylonian version. Baudh. Baudhayana. Bh. Bahistan inscription. B.M. Cat. British Museum Catalogue of
Coins. Brih. Brihaspati. Brihannar. Brihannarayana. Buddh. Ind. Buddhist India, ^ata. Br. Qatapatha Brahmana. Cull. V. CuUavagga. D. Digha Nikaya. Dar. Pers. Inscription of Darius at Perse-
polis. Dar. Sus. Inscription of Darius at Susa. Dh. 9- Dharma ^astra. Dh. S. Dharma Sutra. Dhp. Dhammapada. Dhp. A. or Dhp. Comm. Commentary on
the Dhammapada. Die ar. Per. Die arische Periode. Dip. Dlpavaipsa. Divy. Divyavadana. El. Elamite version. Ep. Ind. Epigraphia Indica. E.R.E. Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics. F.H.G. Fragmenta Historioorum Graeco-
rum. Gaut. Gautama. G.G.N. Nachrichten v. d. k. Gesells. d.
Wissenschaften zu Gottingen. G.S. Grihya Sutra. Grund. d. indo-ar. Phil. Grundriss der
indo-arischen Philologie und Alter-
tumskunde.
Grund. d. ir. Phil. Grundriss der iran- ischen Philologie.
Hir. Hiranyakeijin.
Hist. Num. Historia Numorum.
Imp. Gaz. Imperial Gazetteer of India.
Ind. Alt. Indische Alterthumskunde.
Ind. Ant. Indian Antiquary.
Ind. Stud. Indische Studien.
J. A. or Jour. As. Journal Asiatique.
J.A.O.S. Journal of the American Orien- tal Society.
J.A.S.B. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
J. Bomb. Br. R. A.S. Journal of the Bom- bay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Jat. Jataka.
J.H.S. Journal of Hellenic Studies.
J.P.T.S. Journal of the Pali TextSociety.
J.R.A.S. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Kali Age. The Purana Text of the Dynas- ties of the Kali Age.
Le Z.A. Le Zend Avesta.
M. Majjhima Nikaya.
Mark. Pur. Markandeya Purana.
Mbh. Mahabharata.
Mhv. Mahavamsa.
Mil. Milindapafiha.
Msr. Mahasammata-rajavaliya.
M.V. or Mah. Mahavagga.
N. C. or Num. Chron. Numismatic Chro- nicle.
N.H. Naturalis Historia.
NR. Inscription at Naksh-i-Rustam.
Num. Zeit. Numismatische Zeitschrift.
obv. obverse.
O.P. Old Persian.
Pac. Pacittiya.
Par. Paraska'ra.
Peta-v. A. Commentary on the Peta-vat- thu.
Proc. Proceedings: A.S.B. Asiatic Societ/ of Bengal; R.I. A. Royal Irish Aca- demy.
Pss. Psalms.
P.T.S. Pali Text Society.
Pur. Purana.
R. Rsjavaliya.
652
List of Abbreviations
Bam. Bamayana.
rev. reverse.
Bev. Num. Bevue Numismatigue.
Bh. D. Bhys Davids.
Bv. Bigveda.
Bvp. Eajavikrama-pravrittiya.
S. Sarnyutta Nikaya.
S.B.E. Sacred Books of the East.
Sitz. K.P.A. Sitzungsberichte d.k.preuss. Akad. d. Wissens.
Sitz. Wien. Sitzungsberichte d. k. Akad. d. Wissens zu Wien.
Smp. Samanta-pasadika.
S.N. Sutta Nipata.
Sum. or Sum. Vil. Sumangala-vilasinl.
Thag. or Therag. Theragatha.
Thag. A. Commentary on the Theraga- tha.
Thig. or Therig. Therigatha.
Thig. A. Commentary on the Therigatha. Trans. Transactions : Inter. Or. Cong.
International Congress of Orientalists ;
B.I.A. Boyal Irish Academy. Ud. Udana. Vas. Vasishtha. Vd. Vendidad. Vin. Vinaya. V.O.J. { = W.Z.K.M.) Vienna Oriental
Journal. Vr. Vijaya-rajavaliya. Vrv. Vijayaraja-vamsaya. W.Z.K.M. (= V.O.J.) Wiener Zeitschrift
fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes. Yt. Yasht. Ys. Yasna. Z.D.M.G. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Mor-
genlandischen Gesellschaft. Z.f.N. Zeitschrift fiir Numismatik.
.tua^-an 4.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Bibliography.
Orientalische Bibliographic (begriindet von August Miiller) hsg. von Lucian Scherman, Berlin, 1887 etc. In progress.
2. Encyclopaedias.
Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde (begriindet von G. Biihler, fortgesetzt von F. Kielhom) hsg. von H. Liiders und J. Wackernagel.
Strassburg, 1896 etc. Berlin, 1920. In progress.
Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, hsg. von W. Geiger und B. Kuhn. Strassburg 1896-1904.
Balfour, E. Cyclopaedia of India. 3rd edn. London, 1885.
3. Histories of Ancient India.
Lassen, Chr. Indische Alterthumskimde. 4 vols. (vols, i and ii, 2nd edn.). Leipzig,
1858-1874. Dutt, R. C. History of Civilization in Ancient India. London, 1893. Hoernle, A. F. R. and Stark, H. A. A History of India. 2nd edn. Cuttack, 1904. Smith, V. A. The early History of India. 3rd edn. Oxford, 1914.
The Oxford History of India. Oxford, 1919.
Krishnaswami Aiyangar, S. Ancient India. Madras, 1911. Bamett, L. D. Antiquities of India. London, 1913. Bapson, B. J. Ancient India. Cambridge, 1914*
4. Chronology,
DuflF, C. M. (Mrs W. R. Rickmers). The Chronology of India. Westminster, 1899.
5. Histories of Literature.
Max Miiller, F. A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. 2nd edn. London, 1860. Weber, A. Akademische Vorlesungen iiber indische Literaturgeschichte. 2 Au£ Berlin, 1876.
Eng. trans, by J. Mann and Th. Zachariae : The History of Indian Literature.
2nd edn. Loudon, 1882.
von Schroeder, L. Indiens Literatur und Kultur. Leipzig, 1887.
Frazer, R. W. Literary History of India. London, 1898.
Macdonell, A. A. Sanskrit Literature. London, 1900.
Henry, V. Les Litteratures de I'Inde. Paris, 1904.
Pischel, R. Die indische Literatur. Die Kultur der Gegenwart, i, vii: Die
orientalischen Literaturen. Berlin und Leipzig, 1906. Wintemitz, M. Geschichte der indischen Litteratur. 2 Aus. Leipzig, 1909 etc
654 Bibliography to Chapter I
CHAPTER I
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
1. Gazetteer.
Imperial Gazetteer of India, 26 vols. Oxford, 1907-9. [Vols, i-rv, The Indian Empire ; vol. xxvi, Atlag.]
2. Atlases.
Bartholomew, Hand Atlas of India. Westminster, 1893.
Stanford, Statistical Atlas of India. London, 1895.
Climatological Atlas of India. The Indian Meteorological Department. Edinburgh,
1906. Railway and Canal Map of India. 1910.
3. Handbooks.
Murray's Handbook to India, Burma, and Ceylon. 10th edn. London, 1919. •Holdich, T. H. India. Regions of the World Series, ed. Mackinder. Oxford, 1905.
4. Blue-book.
Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India. [Annual blue-book con- taining maps of railways, irrigation etc., with reference to the development of the last ten years.]
5. .Text-books.
Blanford, H. P. Practical guide to the Climates and Weather of India, Ceylon and Burmah. London, 1889.
Mackinder, H. J, Eight Lectures on India, prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial OfBce. London, 1910. [The geographical portions of these lectures have been utilised in the preparation of this Chapter.]
Morrison, C. A New Geography of the Indian Empire. London, 1909.
6. Descriptive.
Chirol, V. The Middle Eastern Question, or some Problems of Indian Defence.
London, 1903. Ferguson, J. Ceylon in 1893. London, 1893.
Forrest, G. W. The Cities of India, Past and Present. Westminster, 1903. Gore, F. St J. Lights and Shades of Hill Life in the Afghan and Hindu Highlands
of the Punjab. London, 1 895. Holdich, T. H. The Indian Borderland. London, 1901.
The Gates of India. London, 1910.
Hooker, J. D. Himalayan Journals. New edn. London, 1855. Low, S. J. M. A Vision of India. 2nd edn. London, 1907. Robertson, G. S. The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. London, 1896. Workman, W. H. and F. B. Through Town and Jungle. London, 1904. Yate, C. E. Northern Afghanistan. Edinburgh, 1888.
Khurasan and Sistan. Edinburgh, 1900.
Bibliography to Chapter II 655
CHAPTER II A. PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES
1. Census Reports.
The Census of India, 1901. Vol. l Calcutta, 1903. [The chapter on Caste, Tribe, and Race by H. H. Risley is summarised in Imp. Gaz. i, and illustrated by map 12 of the Atlas, vol. xxvi.]
The Census of India, 1911. Vols, i and ii.
2. Ethnography.
A classified list by W. Siegling of the more important works on Indian Ethnography is given in Baines, Ethnography, pp. 173-211 (». inf^ Anderson, J. D. Peoples of India. Cambridge, 1913. Baines, A. Ethnography. Grund. d. indo-ar. Phil. Strassburg, 1912. Bellew, H. W. The Races of Afghanistan. Calcutta, 1880. Crooke, W. The Tribes and Castes of the North- Western Provinces and Oudh.
Calcutta, 1896. Douie, J. The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir. Cambridge,
19161 Holdemess, T. W. Peoples and Problems of India. London, 1912. Kennedy, J. The Early Commerce of Babylon with India. J.R.A.S., 1898.
[Maintains the western origin of the Dravidians ; pp. 249, 261.] CMalley, L. S. S. Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, SikMm. Cambridge, 1917. Oppert, G. On the Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsha or India. Westminster,
1893. Ramaprasad Chanda. The Indo-Aryan Races. Rajshahi, 1916. Rice, B. L. Mysore. Revised edn. Westminster, 1897.
Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions. London, 1909.
Richards, F. J. (1) Side Lights on the Dravidian Problem. (2) Some Dravidian Affinities and their Sequel. [Two articles contributed to the Mythic Society of Bangalore. In the second of these the author maintains the identity of the Dravidians with the Mediterranean Race.]
Risley, H. H. Tribes and Castes of Bengal. Calcutta, 1891-2.
The People of India. 2nd edn., W. Crooke. London, 1916.
Rivers, W. H. R. The Todas. London, 1906.
Thurston, E. and Rangachari, K. The Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Madras, 1909-10.
The Madras Presidency. Cambridge, 1913.
3. Geography.
Bunbury, E. H. A History of Ancient Geography. London, 1879.
Cunningham, A. The Ancient Geography of India: i. The Buddhist Period.
London, 1871. Dey, N. L. The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India.
Calcutta, 1899. Revised edn. in Ind. Ant., 1919 etc. Holdich, T. H. The Indian Borderiand ; The Gates of India. See Bibl. to Ch, i, 6.
Physical Aspects. Imp. Gaz. i.
Political Frontiers and Boundary Making. London, 1916.
Joppen, C. Historical Atlas of India. 3rd edn. London, 1914.
656 Bibliography to Chapter II
Oldham, R. D. Physical Geography and Geology. Oxford Survey of the British
Empire, 11 (1914). Pargiter, F. B. Markandeya Purana. See Bibl. to Ch. xiii, 1.
The Geography of Rama's exile. J.R,A.S., 1894.
Tozer, H, F. A History of Ancient Geography. Cambridge, 1897.
See also Bibl. to Ch. i.
For the effects of climatic changes see Stein, M. A. Ancient Khotan. Oxford, 1907. Tate, G. P. Seistan. Calcutta, 1910.
4. Migrations and Routes.
Elphinstone, M. Account of the Kingdom of Caubul. 2nd edn. London, 1839.
[Contains a good map with routes.] Foucher, A. Notes sur la Geographic ancienne du Gandhara. See Bibl. to
Chapters xv and xvi, 2. Haddon, A. C. The Wanderings of Peoples. Cambridge, 1911. Helmolt, H. F. Weltgeschichte. Leipzig und Wien, 1899 etc. Eng. trans. : The
World's History. London, 1901 etc. Vol. 11 : Central Asia by H. Schurtz, and
India by E. Schmidt. Vol. iii : Ancient Nearer Asia by H. Winckler. Kennedy, J. The Aryan Invasion of Northern India. J.R.A.S., 1919-20. de Morgan, J. Les premieres Civilisations. 1909. Le Strange, G. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate. Cambridge, 1905.
5. The Caste System.
Bougie, C. Bssai sur le Regime des Castes. Paris, 1908.
Gait, E. A. Caste. E.R.E. iii (1910).
Ketkar, S. V. The History of Caste in India. Ithaca, N:Y., 1909 ; London, 1911.
Lyall, A. C. Asiatic Studies. New edn. London, 1899.
Nesfield, J. C. Brief view of the Caste-system of the North- Western Provinces and
Oudh. Allahabad, 1885. Senart, B. Les Castes dans I'lnde. Paris, 1896. See also Bibl. to Ch. v, 2.
6. Languages.
The Linguistic Survey of India. Bd. G. A. Grierson. 1898 etc.
The results of the investigations of the Lingmstic Survey have been
summarised from time to time by Sir George Grierson: The Languages of
India, Calcutta, 1903 ; The Pi^acha Languages, London, 1906 ; Languages.
Imp. Gaz. I (1907) ; The Indo-Aryan Vernaculars, Bulletin of the School of
Oriental Studies, London Institution, vol. i, parts 11 and iii, London, 1918,
1920. To the bibliography given in Imp. Gaz. i, pp. 395-401, the following may now be added: Caldwell, R. A comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of
Languages. 3rd edn. revised and edited by J. L. Wyatt and T, Ramakrishna
Pillai. London, 1913. Schmidt, P. W. Die Mon- Khmer Volker. Archiv fiir Anthropologic. Brunswick,
1906. [Resume in J.R.A.S., 1907, pp. 187 flF. ; see also ibid. pp. 743 ff.] Linguistic Survey. VoL vin, pt 11 (1919) : The Dardic or Pisacha Languages.
Bibliography to Chapter II 657
B. SOURCES OF HISTORY
1. Prehistoric Antiquities.
See Bibl. to Ch. xxvr, 1.
Summary by V. A. Smith in Imp. Gaz. ii (1908).
2. Ancient Languages.
Franke, R 0. Pali und Sanskrit. Strassburg, 1902.
"Wackemagel, J. Altindische Grammatik : Introduction to vol. i, pt i. Gottingen, 1896.
For various views as to the relation of Sanskrit to the ancient spoken languages see J.R.A.S., 1904.
For histories of literature see Gen. Bibl., 5.
3. Foreign Authorities.
Greek and Latin writers : see BibL to Chapters xv and xvi, 1. Chinese writers : see BibL to Ch. xxiii, 1 (6).
4. Alphabets and Inscriptions.
Biihler, G. Indische Palaeographie. Grund. d. indo-ar. PhiL Strassburg, 1896.
Eng. version : Indian Palaeography. Ed. J. F. Fleet. Ind. Ant., 1904 (App.).
The prevalent belief that KharoshthI inscriptions do not occur in India after the 3rd century A.D. must now be modified. Sir John Marshall in a letter dated 14 Oct. 1920 writes: 'Recent discoveries at Jaulian (Taxila) make it certain that KharoshthI was in use there until at least the middle of the 5th century A.D.' {v. 8up., p. 62). For the KharoshthI alphabet in Chinese Turkestan see Rapson in Trans. Inter. Or. Cong., Algiers, 1905 (i, pp. 210 ff.) and Boyer, Rapson, and Senart, Kharosthl Inscriptions, I. Oxford, 1920.
Fleet, J. F. Epigraphy. Imp. Gaz. ii.
Liiders, H. A list of Brahml Inscriptions from the earliest times to about A.D. 400. Bp. Ind. X (App.). Calcutta, 1910.
5. Coins.
See Bibl. to the following : Note to Ch. xrv (Ancient Persian) ; Note to Ch. xv (Ancient Athenian and Macedonian) ; Ch. xvii, 3 (Syrian, Bactrian, Graeco- Indian, ^aka and Pahlava, and Parthian) ; Ch. xxi, 3 (Native Indian States) ; also additional entries in Bibl. to CL xxii, 3 (Graeco-Indian) and Ch. xxui, 3 (^aka and Pahlava) ; Ch. xxrv, 4 (Southern India).
6. Progress of Indian Studies.
For the interpretation and chronological classification of the ancient literatures see Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature ; Winternitz, Gesch. d. ind. Litt. ; and other works quoted in Gen. Bibl., 5.
For the decipherment of the ancient alphabets see Wilson, Ariana Antiqua ; Prinsep's Essays, ed. Thomas ; Cunningham, Coins of Alexander's Successors article on Ancient India in Quarterly Review, July 1889 (vol. 169).
c. H. 1. 1. 42
658 Bibliography to Chapter III •
CHAPTER III THE ARYANS
1. The Home of the Wiros and the Distribution of
THE Indo-European Languages.
Feist, S. Kultur, Ausbreitung, uud Herkunft der Indogermanen. Berlin, 1913. Giles, P. Articles in Encycl. Brit., 11th ed. — Arj'an in vol. 11 ; Indo-European
Languages in vol. xiv. Hirt, H. Die Indogermanen, ihre Verbreitung, ihre Urheimat, und ihre Kultur.
Sti-assburg, 1905 u. 1907. Hogarth, D. G. Ionia and the East. Oxford, 1909. Kossinna, G. Die indogermanische Frage archaologisch beantwortet. Zeit f.
Ethnologic, xxxiv. Berlin, 1902. Kretschmer, P. Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache. G6t-
tingen, 1896, Meyer, E. Geschichte des Altertums ; see Bibl. to Ch. xiv, 2. Much, M. Die Heimat der Indogermanen im Lichte der urgeschichtlichen
Forschung. Jena, 1904. Reinach, S. L'origine des Aryens. Paris, 1892. Ripley, W. Z. The Races of Europe. London, 1900. Schrader, O. Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde. Strassburg,
1901.
Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte. 3 Auf. Jena, 1906-7.
Eng. trans, by Jevons, F. B. : Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples.
London, 1890. (Translated from the 2nd edn.)
Die Indogermanen. Leipzig, 1911. [In many ways the best introduction to
the subject.]
Taylor, I. The origin of the Aryans. London, 1889. [Written in an interesting manner, but now in many respects antiquated.]
2. Aryan Names (a) in the Boghaz-koi Inscriptions.
Winckler, H. ; see BibL to Ch. xiv, 2.
For the literature dealing with these inscriptions see Ch. xiv, p. 320, n. 2.
(6) IN THE TeL-EL-AMARNA LETTERS.
Hall, H. R. H. The Ancient History of the Near East. 4th edn. London, 1920. King, L. W. and Hall, H. R. H. Egypt and Western Asia in the light of recent
discoveries. London, 1907. Meyer, E. Die altesten datierten Zeugnisse der iranischen Sprache und der
zoroastrischen Religion. Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XLii (1909), pp. 1-27. Winckler, H. Keilinschrifthche Bibliothek, v. Berlin, 1896.
Eng. trans. : The Tel-el- Amarna Letters. Berlin, 1896.
(c) IN Ancient Babylonian and Assyrian Inscriptions.
Hommel, F. Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1899, p. 132.
Grund. der Geographie und Geschichte des alten Orients (Munich, 1904) :
Handbuch der klassischen Altertums-Wissenschaft, iii, i
Bibliography to Chapter IV 659
CHAPTER IV
THE AGE OF THE RIGVEDA 1. Original Sources.
Rigveda, Samhita and Pada text with Sayana's commentary. Ed. by F. Max Miiller. 2nd edn. 1890-2. Samhita text Ed. by Th. Aufrecht 2nd edn. Bonn, 1877.
Translations by H. Grassmann, Leipzig, 1876-7 ; R. T. H. GriflSth, Benares,
1896-7 ; A. Ludwig, Prag, 1876-88 ; in part only, by Max Miiller, Sacred Books
of the East, vol. xxxii, Oxford, 1891 ; and H. Oldenberg, ibid. vol. xlvi, 1897.
Commentaries by Ludwig, v. sup., and Oldenberg, Prolegomena, Berlin,
1888; Noten, i-v, Berlin, 1909; vi-x, Berlin, 1911.
Scheftelowitz, I. Die Apokryphen des Rigveda. Breslau, 1907.
2. Special Works.
Kaegi, A. The Rigveda. Trans, by R. Arrowsmith. Boston, 1886. Macdonell, A. A. and Keith, A. B. Vedic Index. 1912. Pischel, R. and Geldner, K. F. Vedische Studien. Stuttgart, 1889-1901. Zimmer, H. Altindisches Leben. Berlin, 1879.
3. General.
Arnold, E. V. Vedic Metre. Cambridge, 1905.
Barth, A. The Religions of India. London, 1882.
Bergaigne, A. La Religion Vedique. Paris, 1878-83.
Bloomfield, M. The Religion of the Veda. New York, 1908.
Deussen, P. AUgemeine Geschichte der Philosophic. Vol. i, pt i, Philosophie
des Veda. Leipzig, 1894. Hardy, E. Die Vedische-brahmanische Periode der Religion des alten Indiens.
Miinster i W., 1893. Hillebrandt, A. Vedische Mythologie. Breslau, 1891-1902. Hopkins, B. W. The Religions of India. Boston, 1895.
India Old and New. New York, 1901.
Macdonell, A. A Vedic Mythology. Strassburg, 1897.
Sanskrit Literature. 1900.
Vedic Grammar. Sti-assburg, 1910.
Max Miiller, F. History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. 2nd edn. 1860. Muir, J. Original Sanskrit Texts. Vol. v. 3rd edn. 1884. Oldenberg, H. Ancient India. 2nd edn. Chicago, 1898.
Buddha, English translation by Hoey. London, 1882.
Die Literatur des alten Indien. Berlin, 1903.
Rigvedaforschung. Berlin, 1905.
Die Religion des Veda. Berlin, 1894.
Roth, R. Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda. Stuttgart, 1846.
von Schroeder, L. Indiens Literatur und Ciiltur. Leipzig, 1887.
Sieg, E. Die Sagenstoffe des Rigveda und die indische Itihasatradition. Stuttgart,
1902. Wackemagel, J. Altindische GrammatiL Gottingen, 1896 etc. Weber, A. The History of Indian Literature. 2nd edn. London, 1882. Wintemitz, M. Die Geschichte der indischen Litteratur. Vol. i. 2nd edn.
Leipzig, 1909.
42—2
66o Bibliography to Chapter V
CHAPTER V
THE PERIOD OF THE LATER SAMHITAS, THE BRAH- MANAS, THE ARANYAKAS, AND THE TJPANISHADS
1. Original Sources.
Atharvaveda, Samhita text. Ed. by R. Roth and W. D. Whitney. Berlin, 1856 ;
Samhita and Pada text, with Sayana's commentary. Ed. by Shankar P.
Pandit Bombay, 1895-8.
Translations by R. T. H. Griffith, Benares, 1897; W. D. Whitney (with
additions by C. R. Lanman), Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A., 1905; in part, M.
Bloomfield, Sacred Books of the Bast, xlii, Oxford, 1897. Samaveda, Ed. with translation, by Th. Benfey, Leipzig, 1848; by Satyavrata
Samagrami, Calcutta, 1873.
Translation by Griffith. Benares, 1893. Yajurveda : 1. Taittirtya Samhita. Ed. by A. Weber, ludische Studien, xi and xii,
Berlin, 1871-2 ; with the commentary of Madhava, Calcutta, 1854-99.
2. Kathaka Samhita. Ed. by L. von Schroeder. Leipzig, 1900-11.
3. MaitrayanI Samhita. Ed. by von Schroeder. Leipzig, 1881-6.
4. Vajasaneyi Samhita. With Mahidhara's commentary. Ed. by Weber.
London, 1852.
Translation by Griffith, Benares, 1899 ; by A. B. Keith, Cambridge, Mass.,
1914. Aitareya Brahmana. Ed. by Th. Aufrecht. Bonn, 1879. • Aitareya Araiiyaka. Ed. with a translation by Keith. Oxford, 1909. Kaushltaki Brahmana. Ed. by B. Lindner. Jena, 1887. Cankhayana Aranyaka. Ed. by Keith, Oxford, 1909 (books vii-xv); Friedlander,
Berlin, 1900 (i-ii); E. B. Cowell, Calcutta, 1861 (lu-vi = Kaushltaki Bralmiaua
Upanishad),
Translation by Keith. London, 1908. .Pancavimga Brahmana. Ed. by A. Vedantavagl^a. Calcutta, 1869-74. Jaiminiya or Talavakara Brahmana; the Upanishad Brahmana. Ed. by H. Oertel
with translation and notes. Journal of the American Oriental Society, xvi,
79-260. Taittirlya Brahmana. Ed. by Rajendralala Mitra, Calcutta, 1855-70 ; N. Godar
bole, Poona, 1898. Taittirlya Aranyaka. Ed. H. N. Apte. Poona, 1898. Catapatha Brahmana. Ed. by A. Weber. London, 1855.
Translation by J. Eggeling, Sacred Books of the East, xii, xxvi, xli, xliu,
XLiv. Oxford, 1882-1900. Gopatha Brahmana. Ed. by Rajendralala Mitra and H. Vidyabhushana.
Calcutta, 1872. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Ed. with translation, by 0. Bohtlingk. Leipzig, 1889. Chhandogya Upanishad. Ed. with translation, by Bohtlingk. Leipzig, 1889. Kathaka Upanishad. Ed. by Apte. Poona, 1889.
Translation of the principal Upanishads by F. Max Miiller, Sacred Books of
the East, vols, i and xv; by P. Deussep, Sechzig Upanishads, Leipzig, 1897.
Bibliography to Chapter V 66 1
2. Modern Works.
In addition to the books given in the Bibliography to Chapter iv may be mentioned :
Bloomfield, M. The Atharvaveda. Strassburg, 1899.
Deussen, P. Die Philosophie der Upanishads. Leipzig, 1899.
Fick, R. Die sociale Gliederung im nordostlichen Indien zu Buddha's Zeit Kiel,
1897. Foy, W. Die konigliche Gewalt nach den Dharmasutren. Leipzig, 1895. Francke, R. 0. Pali und Sanskrit. Strassburg, 1902. HiUebrandt, A. Ritual-Litteratur. Strassburg, 1897. Hopkins, E. W. Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences,
XV, 21 sq. (on the Pancavimga Brahmana). Jolly, J. Recht und Sitte. Strassburg, 1896. Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, L, 507 sq. (on
the castes). Muir, J. Original Sanskrit Texts, voL i, 2nd edn. (on the castes). Oldenberg, H. Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, li,
267-90 (on the castes). Rhys Davids, T. W. Buddhist India. London, 1903. Senart, E. Les Castes dans I'lnde. Paris, 1896. "Weber, A. Die vedischen Nachrichten von den Naxatra. Berlin, 1861. ludische
Studien, especially vol. i (geographical etc. data from the ^atapatha Brahmana),
III (data fi'om the Kathaka Samhita), x (complete collection of data regarding
the castes). Many papers in the Proceedings of the Berlin Academy, 1889-
1901. Whitney, W. D. Journal of the American Oriental Society, vi and vin (on the
Nakshatras). The Indian Empire (Imp. Gaz.), vol. I, chap, vi (Ethnology and Caste) ; chap, vii
(Languages). Oxford, 1907.
662 Bibliography to Chapter VI
CHAPTER VI
THE HISTORY OF THE JAINS 1. Special Bibliography.
The complete bibliography of European and (so far as is known) of Indian literature concerning the Jains up to the year 1906 is given in Guerinot, Bssai de Bibliographic Jaina, Paris, 1906 (Annales du Mus6e Guimet, Biblioth^que d'Etudes, vol. xxii); further notices given by Gu6rinot, J. A., 1909: 2, pp. 47 flf. All known inscriptions of Jain character or having reference to the Jains are registered together with references to the literature concerning them in Guerinot, Repertoire d'Epigraphie Jaina, Paris, 1908 (Publications de I'Ecole frauQaise d'Extr^me-Orient, vol. x).
2. History and Doctrines op Jainism.
A sketch, by no means exhaustive, of the whole domain of Jain history and literature is given in Barodia, History and Literature of Jainism, Bombay, 1909 (review by Guerinot, J. A., 1910: 1, pp. 378 ff.). A useful summary of the religion is given in Outlines of Jainism by Jagmanderlal Jaini, Cambridge, 1916.
The most important treatises dealing with the older history and the doctrines of Jainism are the following :
Jacobi, H. Kalpastitra of Bhadrabahu, pp. 1 flf. (Abhandlungen der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vol. vii. Leipzig, 1879).
Introductions to S.B.E. vols, xxii and xlv.
Das Kalakacaryakathanakam, Z.D.M.G. vol. xxxiv, pp. 247 flf.
tJber die Entstehung der ^vetambara- und Digambara-Sekten, ibid.,
XXXVIII, pp. 1 flf. ; XL, pp. 92 flf.
On Mahavira and his predecessors, Ind. Ant. ix, pp. 158 flf.
Hoemle, A. F. R. Proceedings of the Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, 1898, pp. 39 AT. Biihler, G. tJber die indische Secte der Jainas. Wien, 1887. (Translated by J.
Burgess, London, 1903.)
Articles on the Jain inscriptions from Mathura in the V.O.J, i-v and x,
Leumann, B. Die alten Berichte von den Schismen der Jaina, Ind. Stud, xvii,
pp. 91 flF. Bloomfield, M. The life and stories of the Jaina Savior Parqvanatha. Baltimore, 1919. [Based on Bhavadevasuri, Par§vanatha Carita, ed. Shravak Pandit Hargovinddas and Shravak Pandit Bechardas, Benares, 1912.]
The canonical writings of the Jains are exhaustively described by Weber, tJber die heiligen Schriften der Jaina, Ind. Stud, xvi, pp. 21 1 flf., xvii, pp. 1 flf. (translated by Dr H. W. Smyth, in Ind. Ant. vols, xvii-xxi), and in his Katalog der Sanskrit- und Prakrit-Handschriften der Kgl. Bibliothek zu Berlin, vol. ii, ii, Berlin, 1888.
The history and doctrines of Gosala are treated with references to the literature by Hoemle in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. i, pp. 258 flF.
Bibliography to Chapter VII 663
CHAPTER YII
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BUDDHISTS 1. Original Sources — Texts and Translations.
Aiiguttara Nikaya. Ed. Richard Morris and Edmund Hardy. P.T.S. London,
1885-1900. Apadana. Not yet edited.
Attha-salinl. Ed. Eduard Miiller. P.T.S. London, 1897. Dhammapada. Ed. Suriyagoda Sumangala Thera. P.T.S. London, 1914.
Trans. F. Max Miiller. S.B.E. x. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1898.
Commentary. Ed. H. C. Norman. P.T.S. London, 1906-14.
Digha Nikaya. Ed. T. W. Rhys Davids and J. B. Carpenter. P.T.S. London, 1890-1911.
Commentary. See Sumaiigala-vilasinl.
Dipavamsa. Ed. and trans. H. Oldenberg. London, 1879. Divyavadana. Ed. E. B. Cowell and R. A. Neil. Cambridge, 1886. Jataka. Ed. V. Fausboll. London, 1877-97.
Trans, by various hands under the editorship of E. B. Cowell. Cambridge,
1895-1913.
Lalita-vistara. Ed. Rajendralal Mitra. Calcutta, 1877.
Ed. S. Lefmann. Halle, 1902-8.
German trans, (i-v) S. Lefmann. Berlin, 1874.
Mahavarnsa. Ed. W. Geiger. P.T.S. London, 1908.
Trans. W. Geiger. P.T.S. London, 1912.
Mahavastu. Ed. E. Senart. Paris, 1882-97.
Majjhiraa Nikaya. Ed. V. Trenckner and R. Chalmers. P.T.S. London, 1888-99. Milindapafiha. Ed. V. Trenckner. London, 1880.
Trans. T. W. Rhys Davids. S.B.E. xxxv, xxxvr. Oxford, 1890-4.
Peta-vatthu. Ed. Minayef P.T.S. London, 1888.
Commentary. Ed. E. Hardy. P.T.S. London, 1901.
Samanta-pasadika, commentary on the Vinaya. Part of the Introduction ed.
H. Oldenberg in Vinaya iii. Samyutta Nikaya. Ed. Leon Feer and Mrs Rhys Davids. P.T.S. London,
1884-1904. Sumangala-vilasini, commentary on the Digha. Ed. Rhys Davids. P.T.S. London, 1886. Sutta Nipata. Ed. D. Andersen and H. Smith. P.T.S. London, 1913.
Trans. V. Fausboll. S.B.E. x. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1898.
Thera-gatha. Ed. H. Oldenberg. P.T.S. London, 1883.
Trans.: Psalms of the Brethren, by Mrs Rhys Davids. P.T.S. London, 1913.
Commentary. Not yet edited.
Therl-gatha. Ed. R. Pischel. P.T.S. London, 1883.
Trans. : Psalms of the Sisters, by Mrs Rhys Davids. P.T.S. London, 1909.
Commentary. Ed. E. MuUer. P.T.S. London, 1893.
Udana. Ed. P. Steinthal. P.T.S. London, 1885.
Trans. D. M. Strong. London, 1902.
Vimana-vatthu. Ed. E. R. Goonaratne. P.T.S. London, 1886. Vinaya. Ed. H. Oldenberg. London, 1879-83.
Vinaya Texts. Trans. Rhys Davids and H. Oldenberg. S.B.E. xiii, xvii, xx. Oxford, 1881-5.
664 Bibliography to Chapter VII
% Summaries.
The historical information aflForded by these original authorities is collected and discussed by T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India (London, 1903).
The summary {supra, pp. 192-7) of the known facts as to the age of the early Pali literature is there stated with the utmost brevity. For longer accounts see Rh. D., Buddhist India, pp. 140-209 ; Dialogues of the Buddha, i, ix-xx, and II, 70-7 ; Winternitz, Gesch. d. ind. Lit. 11, i, 17-139. Oldenberg's introduction to Vinaya Texts, S.B.E. xiii (1881) is still the best critical discussion of the growth of the Vinaya literature. A similar study of the growth of the Abhi- dhamma is much required. Steps towards such a study have been taken by Mrs Rhys Davids in Buddhist Psychology (London, 1914), chap, vii, pp. 134-55.
Bibliography to Chapter VIII 665
CHAPTER VIII
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE
1. ORiGiifAL Sources.
See Bibl. to Ch. vii.
For the Sanskrit law-books see S.B.E. ii (Gautama), xiv (Vasish^iha, Baudhayana), xxv (Manu),
2. Economic and Social.
The following works deal with economic and social conditions in ancient India : Fick, R. Die sociale Gliederung im nordostlichen Indien zu Buddha's Zeit.
Kiel, 1897. Rhys Davids, Mrs C. A. F. Economic conditions in ancient India. Economic
Jour., Sept. 1901. Notes on early economic conditions in Northern India. J.R.A.S,, Oct. 1901.
[With fuller details on money and the consumption of wealth.] Rhys Davids, Buddhist India ; see Bibl. to Ch. vii, 2. Subba Rao, N. S. Economic and political conditions in ancient India. Mysore,
1911. [An analysis of information contained in the Jataka.]
666 Bibliography to Chapters IX — XII
CHAPTERS IX— XII
THE PERIOD OF THE SUTRAS, EPICS, AND LAW-BOOKS; FAMILY LIFE AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS AS THEY AP- PEAR IN THE SUTRAS; THE PRINCES AND PEOPLES OF THE EPIC POEMS; THE GROWTH OF LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS
1. Texts.
AQvalayana Grihya Sutra. Ed. A. F. Stenzler. Leipzig, 1864.
^ankhayana Grihya Sutra. Ed. Hermann Oldenberg in Ind. Stud, xv, pp. 13 f.
Paraskara Grihya Sutra. Ed. A. F. Stenzler. Leipzig, 1876.
Apastamblya Grihya Sutra. Ed. M. Wintemitz. Vienna, 1887.
The Mantrapatha (of the Apastambins). Ed. M. Wintemitz. Oxford, 1897.
Gobhila Grihya Sutra. Ed. F. Knauer. Dorpat, 1884.
Hiranyakegi Grihya Sutra. Ed. J. Kirste. Vienna, 1889.
Manava Grihya Sutra. Ed. F. Knauer. St Petersburg, 1897.
Khadira Grihya Sutra. Ed. with trans, by Oldenberg in S.B.E. xxrx.
KauQika Sutra. Ed. M. Bloomfield. New Haven, 1890.
Gautama Dharma ^astra (Sutra). Ed. Stenzler. London, 1876.
Apastamblya Dharma Sutra, Ed. G. Biihler. Bombay, 1868 and 1872 (two
parts). Baudhayana Dharma ^astra. Ed. E. Hultzsch. Leipzig, .1884. Vasishtha Dharma Sutra. Ed. A. Fiihrer. Bombay, 1883. Manava Dharma Qastra. Ed. N. N". Mandlik with commentaries, Bombay, 1886 ;
J. Jolly, London, 1887. Earlier editions: Calcutta, 1813; London, 1825;
Paris, 1830. Vaishnava Dharma ^astra. Ed. Jolly. Calcutta, 1881. Yajnavalkya Dharma (Jastra. Ed. Stenzler. Berlin, 1849. (Mitakshara. Bombay,
1909). Narada Smpti. Ed. Jolly. Calcutta, 1885. The Dharma ^astra Sangraha. Ed. Jivananda Vidyasagara. Calcutta, 1876.
[Contains the texts_ attributed to Atri, Vishnu, Harlta, Yajnavalkya, Ushanas,
Angiras, Yama, Apastamba, Saipvarta, Katyayana, Bjihaspati, Paragara,
Vyasa, ^ankha, Likhita, Daksha, ^atatapa, Vasishtha, Gautama, and ' Vriddha
Gautama.']
The text of the epics has come down in diflferent recensions represented more or less accurately by diflferent editions. The Mahabharata as published in the Calcutta edition (1834-9) contains the HarivamQa, and diflFers slightly from the Bombay edition (1888), which omits the Harivamqa. The text of the poem according to South Indian tradition has been published in Bombay (1906-10) : it differs materially from the northern recension. The Ramayana (Bengal text, without the last book) was published by G. Gorresio (Paris, 1843-50). Another edition containing the complete text appeared in Bombay (1895), and a third text, but practically identical with that of Bombay though 'according to the southern readings,' was published in 1905.
Bibliography to Chapters IX — XII 667 2. Translations.
The chief Grihya Sutras, those of A^valayana, ^ankhayana, Paraskara, Khadira, Gobhila, HiranyakeQin, and Apastamba, have been translated by Oldenberg in S.B.E. XXIX and xxx. In conjunction with the texts mentioned above have appeared German translations of A^valayana by Stenzler (1865) ; of ^aiikhayana by Oldenberg (Ind. Stud, xv) ; of Gobhila by Knauer (1887) ; and of Pai-askara by Stenzler (1878).
The S.B^., vols, ii and xiv, contain translations by Biihler of the Dharma Sutras of Apastamba, Gautama, Vasishtha, and Baudhayana. The Manava Dharma ^astra, originally translated by Sir William Jones, appeared in a revised translation by Biihler in S.B.E. xxv, and by A. C. Burnell and E. W. Hopkins (London, 1884). The Vishnu Smriti is translated by Jolly in S.B.E. vii ; the Narada Smriti with the fragments of Brihaspati, ibid, xxxiii. The text of the 'shorter Narada' is separately translated by Jolly (London, 1876). A German translation of the Yajnavalkya Dharma ^astra appeared with the text (1849).
Translations of the epic poems : The Mahabharata in the northern recension has been translated into English by various pandits under the nominal editorship of Pratapa Chandra Ray (Roy) in Calcutta (1883-96); also by M, N. Dutt (Calcutta, 1896); and an abridged translation by R. C. Dutt (London, 1899). The Ramayana, text and Italian translation by Gaspare Gorresio (1843-67) ; abridged translation by R. T. H. Griffith (Benares, 1895).
3. General Surveys.
The most important works bearing on the period represented by the Sutras, (^astras, and Epics are as follows :
For a general survey of the subject: R. C. Dutt, History of civilization in Ancient India (revised edn. London, 1893) ; Mrs Manning, Ancient and mediaeval India (London, 1869) ; J. W. M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Mega- sthenes and Arrian (Bombay, 1877); idem, by Ktesias (1882) ; idem, by Ptolemy (1885) ; Antiquities of India by L. D. Barnett (London, 1913) ; Ancient India by E. J. Rapson (Cambridge, 1914) ; Colebrooke's Essays (Life and Essays of H. T. Colebrooke, new edn. by E. B. Co well, London, 1873) contain papers on Hindu Courts of Justice and Preface to the Digest, which are still valuable. West and Biihler's Digest of Hindu Law (Bombay, 1867-9) contains many extracts from later law-books. The best general review of Hindu law (Sutras and ^astras) is foimd in Julius Jolly's Recht und Sitte (1896). For the religious life of this epoch compare M. Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India (4th edn, London, 1891) and Indian Wisdom (1893). J. Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts (London, 1868-84) give copious extracts from the religious chapters of the epics.
4. Special Studies.
Special studies are those of W. Caland on burial practices. Die altindischen Toten- und Bestattungsgebraiiche (Amsterdam, 1896) ; of the same vniter on Altindische Zauberei (Amstei'dam, 1908) ; on the marriage-customs, E. Hass in Ind. Stud. V, pp. 267 f. [containing part of the Kauqika Sutra] ; The Hindu law of marriage and Strldhana (woman's property) by G. Banerjee (Tagore Lectures revised, Calcutta, 1896); see also the references given above in chap, x, p. 233, n. 1 ; on the ordeals. Die Gottesurtheile der Inder by E. Schlagintweit (Munich, 1866) ; Alter u. Herkunft des german. Gottesurtheils by A, Kaegi (1887).
668 Bibliography to Chapters IX — XII
6. The Epics.
For the epic compare in general A. Holtzmann, Das Mahabharata (Kiel, 1892-5) ; J. Dahlmann, Das Mahabharata als Epos u. Rechtsbuch (Berlin, 1895) ; H. Jacobi, Mahabharata, Inhaltsaugabe (Bonn, 1903) ; E. W. Hopkins, The Great Epic of India; and India Old and New (New York, 1901). Special studies: Biihler and Kirste, Contributions to the history of the Mahabharata (Sitz. Wien, 1892) and Die indischen Inschriften u. das Alter der ind. Kunstpoesie (ibid. 1890). Apart from the Bhagavadgita, which has its own literature, may be mentioned inter alia the collection of philosophical texts of the epic by Paul Deussen and Otto Strauss, Vier philosophische Texte des Mahabharatam (Leipzig, 1906). A special study of the Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste was published in the J.A.O.S., 1888, by the writer.
The best commentary on the Ramayana is by H. Jacobi, Das Ramayana (Bonn, 1893). For the synchronous character of part of the Vishnu Purana, HarivaipQa, and Balakanda of the Ramayana compare Lesny in Z.D.M.G. Lxvir, pp. 497 f. On the original linguistic form of the epics see Winternitz, Gesch. d. ind. Lit. I, p. 436 ; Jacobi, Z.D.M.G. xLviri, p. 407 ; and Rapson, J.R.A.S., 1904, pp. 435 f. Compare also Liiders on the Rishya^ringa story, G.G.N., 1897, pp. 87 f.
Bibliography to Chapter XIII 669
CHAPTER XIII
THE PURANAS 1. Texts and Translations.
For a full bibliography see Wintemitz, tJbersicht iiber die Purana-Litteratur (Gesch. d. ind. Litt. i, pp. 450-483). Bhagavata Purana. Ed. with French traus. by B. Burnouf, continued by
Hauvette-Besnault and Roussel. Paris, 1840-98. Markandieya Purana. Ti-ans. F. E. Pargiter. Calcutta, 1904. [The geographical
notes are most valuable.] Vishnu Purana. Trans. H. H. "Wilson (vols. i-v= "Works, ed. Fitzedward Hall,
vols. vi-x. London, 1864-70). [A storehouse of information concerning the
mythology and legendary history of the epics and Puranas.] Pargiter, F. E. The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the KaU Age. Oxford, 1913.
[A most useful collection of the diflFerent texts with various readings and an
English translation. Mr Pargiter's theories as to the literary history of the
Puranas are not generally accepted.]
2. General.
Abbott, J. E. The Topographical List of the Bhagavata Purana. Ind. Ant., 1899.
Bhandarkar, D. R. Lectures on the Ancient History of India. Calcutta, 1919.
Bhandarkar, R. G. Early History of the Dekhan. 2nd edn. Bombay, 1895.
Deb, H. K. Udayana "Vatsaraja. Calcutta, 1919.
Fleet, J. F. The Kali-yuga era. J.R.A.S., 1911.
Jackson, A. M. T. Epic and Puranic Notes. Jour. Bombay Br. R.A.S., Centenary
Memorial Volume, 1905. Kennedy, J. The Puranic Histories pf the early Aryas. J.R.AS., 1915. Lacote, F. Essai sur Gupadhya et la Brhatkatha. Paris, 1908. Pargiter, F. E. Ancient Indian Genealogies and Chronology. J.R.A.S., 1910.
Earliest Indian traditional ' History.' J.R.A.S., 1914.
The North Paiicala Dynasty. J.R.A.S., 1918.
670 Bibliography to Chapter XIV
CHAPTER XIV
THE PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN NORTHERN INDIA DOWN TO THE TIME OF ALEXANDER'S INVASION
I. Original Sources, Texts, and Translations. {a) Oriental.
For Vedic authorities see BibL to Chapters iv, 1 and v, 1. Avesta. Ed. K. F. Geldner. Stuttgart, 1886-96.
Eng. trans. J. Darmesteter and L. H. Mills. Oxford, 1880-7. S.B.E. rols.
IV, xxm, XXXI. (Part I, the Vendidad, S.B.E. vol. iv, also in 2nd edn. Oxford, 1895.)
French trans. C. de Harlez. 2nd edn. Paris, 1881.
French trans. J. Darmesteter. Paris, 1892-3. Annales du Mus^e Guimet,
vols. XXI, XXII, XXIV.
German trans. F. Wolflf. Strassburg, 1910. [Contains all except the Gathas,
for which consult Chr. Bartholomae, Die Gatha's des Awesta, Strassburg, 1905.]
Old Persian Inscriptions in general. Ed. and trans. F. H. Weissbach. Die
Keilinschriften der Achameniden. Leipzig, 1911. Bahistan Inscriptions. Ed. and trans. L. W. King and R. C. Thompson. The
Sculptures and Inscription of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistiin in
Persia. London, 1907.
A. HofFmann-Kutschke. Die altpersischen Keilinschriften des Grosskonigs
Darajawausch des Ersten am Berge Bagistan. Stuttgart, 1908.
Pahlavi Literature. Citations, with references to texts and translations, by A. V. W. Jackson, Notes and Allusions to Ancient India in Pahlavi literature and in Firdausi's Shah-namah. Festschrift Ernst Windisch, pp. 209-12. Leipzig, 1914.
FirdausL Shah-namah. Ed. J. A. Vullers (and S. Landauer). Leyden, 1877-84.
Eng. trans. A. G. and E. Warner. London, 1905-15.
(6) Greek and Latin.
Arrian. Anabasis. Ed. A. G. Roos. Leipzig, 1907.
Indica. Arriani Scripta Minora, pp. 1-55, ed. R. Hercher. 2nd edn.
Leipzig, 1885.
Eng. trans, of both Anabasis and Indica, by E. J. Chinnock. London, 1893.
See also Megasthenes, infra.
Ctesias. Fragments of the Persica and of the Indica. Ed. C. Miiller in Dindorf s Herodotus. Paris, 1844.
Fragments of the Persica. Ed. J. Gilmore. London, 1888.
Eng. trans, of the Indica by J. W. M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by
Ktesias the Knidian. Calcutta, Bombay, and London, 1882. Hecataeus. Fragments. F.H.G. i, 1-31, ed. C. Miiller. Paris, 1841. Herodotus. History. Ed. C. Hude. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1913-14.
Eng. trans. G. Rawlinson. London, 1858-60.
Eng. trans. G. C. Macaulay. London and New York, 1904.
Bibliography to Chapter XIV 671
Isidore of Charax. Mansiones Parthicae. Geographi Graeci Minores, l, 244-56, ed. C. Miiller. Paris, 1855.
Ed. and trans. W. H.. SchoflF. Parthian Stations of Isidore of Charax.
Philadelphia, 1914.
Justinus. Historiae Philippicae. Ed. F. Ruehl. Leipzig, 1886. Megasthenes. Fragments of the Indica. Ed. E. A. Schwanbeck. Bonn, 1846.
Eng. trans. J. W. M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes
and Arrian. Calcutta, Bombay, and London, 1877.
Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Ed. C. Mayhoff. Leipzig, 1892-1909. Strabo. Geographica. Ed. A. Meineke. Leipzig, 1866-7.
Eng. trans. H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer. London, 1854-7.
Xenophon. Cyropaedia. Ed. and trans. W. Millei*. London and New York, 1914.
2. Modern Works.
{The rigns < > indicate that a work was not published at the time when tJis main body of the chapter wa^ written.)
Bartholomae, Chr. Altiranisches Worterbuch. Strassburg, 1905. [Indispensable
for the interpretation of the ancient Iranian texts.] Brunnhofer, H. Urgeschichte der Arier in Vorder- und Centralasien. Historisch-
geographische Untersuchungen iiber den altesten Schauplatz des Rigveda
und Avesta. Bd. i. Iran und Turan. Bd. ii. Vom Pontus bis zum Indus.
Bd. III. Vom Aral bis zur Ganga. Leipzig, 1893. (Also separately issued.)
[Maintains somewhat exaggerated views.]
Arische Urzeit. Forschungen auf dem Gebiete des altesten Vorder- und
Zentralasiens nebst Osteuropa. Bern, 1910. [See note on the preceding.]
Dames, M. L. Article 'Afghanistan,' in Encyclopaedia of Islam, i, 146-73. Leyden and London, 1913.
Article ' Balo2istan,' ibid, i, 625-40.
Geiger, W. Geographic von Iran. Grund. d. ir. Phil, ii, 371-94. Strassburg,
1896-1904. Goldsmid, Sir F. J. Eastern Persia: Journeys of the Persian Boundary Com- mission, 1870-71-72. London, 1876. [See especially vol. i. The Geography, etc.] Hillebrandt, A. Vedische Mythologie. Breslau, 1891-1902. Hopkins, E. W. Pragathikani, I. J.A.O.S. xvii, 23-92. New Haven, 1896. How, W. W., and Wells, J. A Commentary on Herodotus. Oxford, 1912. Jackson, A. V. W. Notes and Allusions to Ancient India in Pahlavl literature
and in Firdausl's Shah-namah. Festschrift Ernst Windisch, pp. 209-12.
Leipzig, 1914. Justi, F. Geschichte Irans von den altesten Zeiten bis zum Ausgang der
Sasaniden. Grund. d. ir. Phil, ii, 395-550. Strassburg, 1896-1904. Katz, B. Cyrus des Perserkonigs Abstammung, Kriege, und Tod. Klagenfurt,
1895. Kennedy, J. The Early Commerce of Babylon with India, 700-300 B.C. J.R.A.S.,
1898, pp. 241-88.
<The Gospels of the Infancy, etc. Ibid., 1917, pp. 209-43, 469-540 (esp.
pp. 219-25). >
<The Aryan Invasion of Northern India. Ibid., 1919, pp. 493-529 (esp.
pp. 495-501, 5 18-1 9). >
Kiessling, M. Zur Geschichte der ersten Regierungsjahre des Darius Hystaspis. (Dissertation.) Leipzig, 1900.
672 Bibliography to Chapter XIV
Kiessling, M. Article ' Gandaritis,' in Pauly-Wissowa-KroU, Real-Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vii, 695-701. Stuttgart, 1910.
Lassen, Chr. Indische Alterthumskunde. Leipzig, 1858-74. (Vols, i and 11 are 2nd edn.)
M'Crindle, J. W. Ancient India as described in Classical Literature. West- minster, 1901.
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian,
Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin. New edn. Westminster, 1896.
See also Ctesias and Megasthenes, in part 1, nupra.
Macdonell, A. A. History of Sanskrit Literature. London and New York, 1900. (The London, 1913, impression is merely a reprint.)
and Keith, A. B. Vedic Index of Names and Subjects. London, 1912.
Marquart, J. Eransahr nach der Geographic des Ps. Moses Xorenacl. Berlin,
1901. Abhandlungen der kgl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, Phil-Hist. Classe, Neue Folge, vol. in, no. 2.
Untersuchungen zur Geschichte von Eran. Heft 1. Gottingen, 1897
(=Philologus, Liv, 489-527; LV, 213-44). Heft 2. Leipzig, 1905(=Philologus, Supplementband x, 1-258).
Meyer, E. Geschichte des Altertums. Vol. i, 2nd half. Die altesten geschicht- lichen Volker und Kulturen bis zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert. 3rd edn. Stuttgart and Berlin, 1913. VoL in. Das Perserreich und die Griechen. Stuttgart, 1901.
Article 'Persia (History: Ancient),' in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edn.
XXI, 202-24.
Modi, J. J. The Country of Mekran — its Past History. In East and West,
vol. Ill, part 1, pp. 494-505. Bombay, 1904. Moulton, J. H. Early Zoroastrianism. (The Hibbert Lectures, second series.)
London, 1913. [Excellent on the religious side.] Noldeke, Th. Aufsatze zur persischen Geschichte. Leipzig, 1887. Pr^sek, J. V. Geschichte der Meder und Pei-ser bis zur makedonischen
Eroberung. Gotha, 1906-10. •Prellberg, K. A. C. Persien: eine historische Landschaft. (Dissertation.) Leipzig,
1891. <Rapson, E. J. Ancient India fi'om the earliest times to the first century a.d.
Cambridge, 1914. > [This work contains a chapter on the Persians and the
Macedonians (ch. vi).] RawUnson, G. The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World. VoL rv.
The Fifth Monarchy (Persia). London, 1867. Rennell, J. The Geographical System of Herodotus. 2nd edn., revised. London,
1830. [See especially vol. i, pp. 303-426, 'The Twenty Satrapies of Darius
Hystaspes.'] Rhys Davids, T. W. Buddhist India. New York and London, 1903. Sarre, F. and Herzfeld, E. Iranische Felsreliefs ; Aufnahmen und Untersuchungen
von Denkmalem aus alt- und mittelpersischer Zeit. 'Text und Atlas. BerUn,
1910. Schoff, W. H. The name of the Erythraean Sea. J.A.O.S. xxxiii, 349-62. New
Haven, 1913.
See also Isidore of Charax, in part 1, supra.
Shepherd, W. R. Atlas of Ancient History. New York, 1913.
Historical Atlas. New York, 1911.
Smith, V. A. The Early History of India fi-om 600 b.c. to the Muhammadan Conquest. 3rd edn., revised and enlarged. Oxford, 1914.
Bibliography to Chapter XIV 673
Smith, V. A. <The Oxford History of India from the earliest times to the end
of 1911. Oxford, I919.> Spiegel, F. Die arische Periode und ihre Zustande. Leipzig, 1887.
Eranische Alterthumskunde. Leipzig, 1871-8.
<Spooner, D. B. The Zoroastrian period of Indian history. J.R.A.S., 1915, pp. 63-89, 405-55. (Based on discoveries made during the excavations on the site of Pataliputra and reported by the author in Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Eastern Circle, for 1913-14, pp. 45flF.)> [These interesting articles have called forth considerable adverse criticism in regard to some of the theories advanced. (1) V. A. Smith, J.R.A.S., 1915, pp. 800-2, while fully agreeing with the likelihood of Persian influence in early India, regards certain of the theories set forth in the articles as ' some- what daring speculations.' (2) A. B. Keith, ibid. 1916, pp. 138-43, in a discussion covering fourteen points, strongly opposes the notion of a Zoroastrian period of Indian history. (3) F. W. Thomas, ibid. 1916, pp. 362-6, accepts certain aspects of Dr Spooner's interpretation of Asura Maya and of Mount Meru, but is far from being satisfied with much of the evidence adduced in the articles. (4) ' Nimrod ' (so signed), in The Modern Review, XIX, 373-6, 490-8, 597-600 (Calcutta, 1916), criticises the articles adversely throughout.]
<Spooner, [Mrs] Ehzabeth C. The Fravashi of Gautama. J.R.A.S., 1916, pp. 497-504. > [Sees Zoroastrian influence on Buddhist art.]
Stein, M. A. Memoir on maps illustrating the Ancient Geography of Kasmlr. Calcutta, 1899. (Reprinted from J.A.S.B. vol. Lxviii, part 1, extra no. 2, 1899.)
Afghanistan in Avestic Geography. In The Academy, xxvil, 348-9. London,
1885. Reprinted in Ind. Ant. xv, 21-3. Bombay, 1886.
<Sykes, Lieut.-Col. P. M. A History of Persia. London, 1915. >
Thomas, F. W. Sakastana. J.R.A.S., 1906, pp. 181-216, 460-4.
Tomaschek, [W.] Article 'Derbikes,' in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie der
classischen Altertumswissenschaft, v, 237-8. Stuttgart, 1905. Weissbach, F. H. Zur neubabylonischen und achamenidischen Chronologie.
Z.D.M.G. Lxii, 629-47. Leipzig, 1908.
Zu Herodots persischer Steuerliste. Philologus, lxxi, 479-90. Leipzig, 1912.
Wilson, H. H. Ariana Antiqua ; a descriptive account of the antiquities and
coins of Afghanistan. London, 1841. Winckler, H. Vorlaufige Nachrichten iiber die Ausgrabungen in Boghaz-koi im Sommer 1907. Mittheilungen der Deutschen OrientgeseUschaftj no. 35, Dec. 1907-
NOTE TO CHAPTER XIV Ancient Persian Coins in India.
On Persian coins generally see B. V. Head, The Coinage of Lydia and Persia (London, 1877), and B. Babelon, Les Perses Achemenides (Paris, 1893), pp. i-xx. The intimate connexion between the countermarks on Persian sigloi and those upon early Indian coins was suggested by E. J. Rapson, J.R.A.S., 1895, pp. 865 flf. Subsequent observations have tended to disprove this view, since it appears that most of the countermarked sigloi were not found in India ; see G. F. Hill, J.H.S., 1919, pp. 125 fi". On the comparative value of gold and silver in ancient India see A. Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India (London, 1891), p. 5. In some parts of Asia in the thirteenth century the ratio was as low as 1 : 5 ; see Marco Polo, Book II, Chapters l and liil
c. H. 1. 1. 43
674 Bibliography to Chapters XV and XVI
CHAPTERS XV AND XVI
ALEXANDER THE GREAT; INDIA IN EARLY GREEK AND LATIN LITERATURE
1. Ancient Authors.
Arrian (Flavius Arrianus), a Greek, or Hellenised native, of Bithynia, and an oflBcial of the Roman empire; consul suflfectus c. 130 a.d. and still alive in 171-2 A.D. Two of his works bear on India:
(a) 'AXf^aj/Spou 'Afa^acrir, Alexandri Anabasis; recent edn. that of A. G. Roos (Leipzig, 1907). [The most trustworthy of the ancient accounts of Alexander's expedition which have come down to us, based mainly on the accounts of Ptolemy and Aristobulus.]
Trans. J. W. M'Crindle. (In The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great.
2nd edn. Westminster, 1896.)
(&) 'ivSiicij, Indica. (Included in edn. of Arrian's Scripta Minora by A. Bberhard. Leipzig, 1885.) [A brief account of the geography, manners, and customs of India, drawn from Nearchus, Megasthenes, and Eratosthenes.]
Trans. M'Crindle. (In Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and
Arrian. London, 1877.)
Diodorus, of Agyrion in Sicily; travelled in the Eastern Mediterranean c. 60 B.C. ; lived till after 36 B.c. [See Pauly-Wissowa, v, 663.] He wrote a history of the world, under the title Bt/SXto^^K?? ; edn. of Books i-xv by F. Vogel (Leipzig, 1888, 1890, 1893), of Books xvi-xviii by C. T. Fischer (Leipzig, 1906). [Book 11, chaps. 35-42, gives an account of India taken from Megasthenes ; trans. M'Crindle in Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian. Book xvii contains an account of Alexander's expedition, derived in part from Clitarchus ; trans. M'Crindle in The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great. Book xix, chaps. 33^, contains the account of the sail {v. sup. pp. 414-15) ; trans. M'Crindle in Ancient India as described in Classical Literature (Westminster, 1901), pp. 202 f ]
Quintus Curtius Rufus ; nothing known of his life, fixed by his style to the first century a.d. ; title of his Latin work, Historiae Alexandri Magni ; ed. E. Hedicke (Leipzig, 1908). [The rhetorical character of the book points to Clitarchus as its main source.] Trans, of the part relating to India by M'Crindle (in The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great).
Plutarch, of Chaeronea in Boeotia ; c. 45-125 A.D. [Chaps. 57-67 of his Life of Alexander are concerned with India. Edn. of the Lives by K. Sintenis (Leipzig ; vol. in, 1881) ; trans, by M'Crindle in The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great]
Justin (Marcus Junianus Justinus) ; second half of second century a.d. ; com- posed an Epitome of the (now lost) Historiae Philippicae of Pompeius Trogus, a man of Gallic origin, who pubhshed his Latin Historiae some time between 20 B.C. and 14 a.d. ; edn. of Justin's Epitome, together with a series of short summaries by another hand of the contents of the 44 Books of the lost work (the Prologi), by I. Ruehl (Leipzig, 1886). [Book xii contained an account of Alexander's campaigns in India ; trans, of Justin's Epitome of the Book in M'Crindle, The Invasion of India. The chief source of Trogus was probably a Greek work Tltpl BaaiXicov by Timagenes of Alexandria (born between 80 and 75 B.C.), who himself drew, for his accoimt of Alexander, mainly upon Clitarchus.]
Bibliography to Chapters XV and XVI 675
Polyaenus, a Macedonian, wrote his Strategemata (in Greek) c. 162 a.d. [Book IV, chap. 3, deals with Alexander ; ed. J. Melber. Leipzig, 1887.]
Two slighter works relating to the campaigns of Alexander seem occasionally to give details derived from the contemporary accounts but dropped in our more important extant sources :
(a) Alexandri Magni Macedonis Epitomae Rerum Gestarum, an abridgement made in the 4th or 5th century a.d. of a lost Latin work of uncertain date, combining history with elements taken from the Romance of Alexander ; ed. Wagner in Fleckeisen's Jahrbiicher fiir klassische Philologie, Supplementband XXVI (1901), pp. 105 flf.
(6) Itinerarium Alexandri, written c. 360 a.d. ; printed at the end of the Didot Arrian ; trans. M'Crindle in Ancient India as described in Classical Literature.
Strabo, of Amasia in Asia Minor; c. 64 B.0.-19 A.D.; his great geographical work (Greek) contains incidental notices of India and Alexander's campaigns. [Book XV, chap. 1, is devoted to India, its geography, manners, and customs, its material being drawn from the companions of Alexander and from Megasthenes; ed. A. Meineke (Leipzig, 1852-3); trans. M'Crindle in Ancient India as described in Classical Literature.]
Pliny the Elder (Gains Plinius Secundus) ; 23-79 a.d. ; his encyclopaedic work in Latin, the Naturalis Historia, contains notices of India drawn from the Greek books or from more recent reports of merchants; ed. D. Detlefsen (Berlin, 1866-73) ; a translation of the passages relating to India is given in M'Crindle's Ancient india as described in Classical Literature.
A collection of the Fragments of Ctesias by Karl Miiller is appended to the Didot edn. of Herodotus ; trans. M'Crindle, in Ancient India as described by Ktesias (London, 1882).
A collection of the Fragments of the contemporary accounts of Alexander (Ptolemy, Aristobulus, Clitarchus, etc.) by Karl Miiller is bound up in the Didot edn. of Arrian (Paris, 1846).
A collection of the Fragments of Megasthenes, Daimachus, and Patrocles is contained in K. Miiller's Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, vol. ii, pp. 397-439. [The references to Megasthenes, Nearchus, and Onesicritus in these chapters of The Cambridge History of India follow Miiller's numeration. An earlier collection of the Fragments of Megasthenes, with notes by B. A. Schwanbeck (Bonn, 1846), now out of print, is still useful. This is the collection on which M'Crindle's translation (». sup) is based.]
2. Modern Works.
An account of Alexandei-'s campaigns is contained in the histories of Grote, Droysen (best read in the French trans, by A. Bouche-Leclercq, entitled Histoire de I'Hellenisme, vol. i, Paris, 1883), Holm (Eng. trans. London, 1894-8), Niese (Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischen Staaten, vol. i, Gotha, 1893), Kaerst (Geschichte des hellenistischen Zeitalters, Leipzig, 1901), Beloch (Griech- ische Geschichte, vol. in, Strassburg, 1904).
For monographs and articles see the Notes appended to M'Crindle's transla- tions {v. sup.).
Smith, V. A. The Early History of India. 3rd edn. Oxford, 1914. [In his account of Alexander's campaigns Dr Vincent Smith makes use of more recent topographical researches than seem to be known to the German scholars, for whom Cunningham is still generally the last authority.] Anspach, A. E. De Alexandri Magni Expeditione Indica. London, 1903. [The most full and thorough arrangement of the literary material]
43—2
676 Bibliography to Chapters XV and XVI
Cunningham, A, The Ancient Geography of India. Vol. i. London, 1871. A work still of fundamental value, though necessarily to some extent corrected by subsequent research.]
Raverty, H. G. Notes on Afghanistan and part of Baluchistan. London, 1880, 1881, 1883.
The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. J.A.S.B., 1892.
Tomaschek, W. Topographische Erlauterung der Kiistenfahrt Nearchs vom Indus
bis zum Euphrat. Sitz. Wien. vol. cxxi. 1890. Haig, M. R. The Indus Delta Country. London, 1894. von Wartenburg, Yorck. Kurze Uebersicht der Feldziige Alexanders des Grossen.
Berlin, 1897. [An examination of Alexander's campaigns by a modern German
military specialist.] Foucher, A. Sur la fronti^re Indo-Afghan. Paris, 1901,
La G^ographie ancienne du Gandhara. Bulletin de I'Ecole frangaise
d'Extr^me Orient. Hanoi, 1901.
Holdich, T. H. The Greek Retreat from India. Jour, of the Royal 80c, of Arts, vol. xux(1901), pp, 417flF.
The Gates of India. London, 1910. [Based on exceptional local knowledge
and written with gi-eat descriptive power; but suflFers from an imperfect understanding of the classical texts.]
Pearson, C. Alexander, Poms, and the Panjab. Ind. Ant. vol. xxxiv (1905), pp. 253 flF.
Stein, M. A. Report of Arch. Sur. Work in the N.W. Frontier Province for 1904-5. [This report 'shattered the plausible identification (of Aornus) with Mahaban ' ; see V. A. Smith, Early Hist, of Ind. p. 57 n.] For the battle on the Hydaspes see reflf. in note 1 on p. 367 {supra).
NOTE TO CHAPTER XV Athenian and Macedonian Coins in India.
For the most comprehensive discussion of the whole subject see B. V. Head, Num. Chron., 1906, pp. 1 flF., and Historia Numorum, 2nd edn., pp. 832 AT. For Sophytes see A. Cunningham, J.A.S.B., 1865, pp. 46 f., and Num. Chron., 1866, pp. 220 flf., as well as other references given by Rapson (Indian Coins, p. 4), to which add Num. Chron., 1904, pp. 323 flF. and Z.f.N. xxiv, pp. 89 f. The 'square' bronze coin of Alexander (p. 388) was first published by A. von Sallet, Z.f N. vi, p. 285, the attribution to Bactria having been proposed by Dannenberg. On the decadrachm (p. 389 ; PI. I, 16) see P. Gardner, Num. Chron., 1887, pp. 177 flF., and on the double darics (p. 390 ; PI. I, 6) see E. Babelon, Les Perses Achemenides, p. XX; Head, Hist. Num. pp. 828 flF. ; and P. Imhoof-Blumer, Num. Zeit., 1895, pp. 1 flF. On the Oxus find see Cunningham, J.A.S.B., 1881, pp. 151 flF., and 1883, p. 258 ; cf. also O. M. Dalton, The Treasure of the Oxus (1905), Introduction.
Bibliography to Chapter XVII 677
CHAPTER XVII
THE HELLENIC KINGDOMS OF SYRIA, BACTRIA, AND PARTHIA
1. Ancient Authors.
Appian. L. Mendelssohn. Leipzig, 1879-81.
Arrian, Ta ^xfTct ' A\f ^av8pov. Ed. C. Miiller, Paris, 1846.
Athenaeus. Ed. G. Kaibel. Leipzig, 1887-90.
Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum. Ed. C. Miiller, Paris, 1878-85.
Josephus. Ed. S. A. Naber. Leipzig, 1888.
Pausania-s. Ed. L. Dindorf. Paris, 1845.
Polybius. Paris, 1839.
Ptolemy, Bk. vii. Ed. C. F. A. Nobbe. Leipzig, 1843.
For Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny the Elder, Justin and Pompeius Trogus, and Strabo see Bibl. to Chapters xv and xvi, 1.
The chief ancient authorities are cited in the text. See, moreover, for the partitions of Babylon and Triparadisus : (a) Diodorus xviii, 3 ; Arrian, Ta fiera 'AXi^avSpov, 5 flF. ; Dexippus in F.H.G. iii, 667 f. ; Curtius x, 10 ; Justin xiii, 4 ; and (6) Diodorus xviii, 39 ; Arrian, Ta fiera 'AXe^avdpov, 35 ff.
2. Modern Works.
H. G. Rawlinson's Bactria, The History of a forgotten Empire (1912), is a handy summary of the main facts and references.
Among modem works of a more general character the following are important : Bevan, E. R. The House of Seleucus. London, 1902. Bouche-Leclercq, A. Histoire des S^leucides. Paris, 1913 etc. Droysen, J. G. Geschichte des Hellenismus. 2 Auf. Gotha, 1877 etc. von Gutschmid, A. Geschichte Irans, Tiibingen, 1888. Niese, B. Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischen Staaten. Gotha,
1893 etc. Rawlinson, G. The Sixth Oriental Monarchy. London, 1873.
For Wilson, Ariana Antiqua, and Smith, Early History of India, see Bibl. to Ch. XIV, 2.
"Various special articles in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encycl. by Tomaschek, W. Otto, and others ; also in Encycl. Brit. (11th edn.) by E. Meyer.
W. W. Tarn's Notes on Hellenism in Bactria and India, J.H.S. xxii, pp. 268 flF., touching on some interesting historical points.
3. Numismatics.
Rapson's Indian Coins, Grund. d. indo-ar. Phil., 1898, gives full references to the numismatic authorities. Here the following may be cited as the more important :
Cunningham, A. The Coins of Alexander's Successors in the East. London, 1873 = Num. Chron., 1868-73.
678 Bibliography to Chapter XVII
von SaJlet, A. Nachfolger Alexanders des Grossen in Bactrien und Indien.
Berlin, 1883 = Z.f.N., 1879-83. Gardner, P. Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India.
B.M.jCat., 1886. Imhoof-Blumer, F. Zur Miinzkunde der Seleukiden. Num. Zeit. xlvi (1914),
pp. 171 if. Smith, V, A. Catalogue of Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Vol. i.
Oxford, 1906. Whitehead, R. B. Indo-Greek Coins. Lahore Mus. Cat Vol. i. Oxford, 1914. Gardner, P. Seleucid Kings of Syria. B.M. Cat., 1878. Babelon, B. Les Rois de Syrie. Paris, 1890. Wroth, W. Coins of Parthia. B.M. Cat., 1903
Bibliography to Chapters XVIII and XIX 6'](^
CHAPTERS XVIII AND XIX
CHANDRAGUPTA, THE FOUNDER OF THE MAURYA EM- PIRE; POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE MAURYA EMPIRE
1. Greek and Latin Authors.
For Arrian ('AXe^avSpou 'Avd^aais and 'IvdiKt}), Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus, Justin, Megasthenes, Plutarch, and Strabo see Bibl. to Chapters xv and XVI, 1.
For Arrian (Ta /nera 'AXe^auSpov) and Ptolemy see Bibl. to Ch. xvii, 1.
2. Brahman Authorities.
Arthaqastra of Kautilya (Kautalya, Chanakya, or Vishnugupta). Ed. R. Shama Sastri. Mysore, 1909.
Ti-ans. by the same: Books i-iv ( = chapters 1-88), Mysore, 1908 etc.;
Books v-xv (=chapters 89-150), Ind. Ant., 1909-10.
Mudrarakshasa of Vi^akhadatta. Ed. A. Hillebrandt. Breslau, 1912.
Trans. H. H. Wilson in Hindu Theatre, ii. 2nd edn. London, 1835.
For Mahabharata and Manu (Manava Dharma Oastra) see Bibl. to Chapters ix-xii, 1, 2.
For the Puranas see Bibl. to Ch. xiii, 1.
3. Jain Authorities.
Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu. Ed. H. Jacobi. Abh. fiir die Kuude des Morgen- landes, vii. Leipzig, 1879.
Trans, by the same. S.B.E, xxii.
Sthaviravall Charita of Hemachandra. Ed. H. Jacobi. Calcutta, 1891.
For the Hathigumpha inscr. of Kharavela see Bibl. to Ch. xxi, 2.
4. Buddhist Authorities.
See Bibl. to Ch. vii, 1.
Mahawanso (Mahavamsa). Trans. G. Tumour. Colombo, 1837. Sutralamkara of A§vaghosa. See Bibl. to Ch. xx, 3 (a).
For the inscrr. of Agoka see Bibl. to Ch. xx, 1.
5. Modern Works. (a) On the Artha^astra.
Hertel, J. Literarisches aus dem Kautiliya^astra. W.Z.K.M., 1910. Hillebrandt, A. Uber das Kautillya§astra. Breslau, 1908.
Jacobi, H. Kultur-, Sprach-, und Literarhistorisches aus dem Kautillya. Sitz. K.P.A., 1911.
tJber die Echtheit des Kautillya. ibid, 1912. ^
68o Bibliography to Chapters XVIII and XIX
Jolly, J. Artha^astra und Dharmagastra. Z.D.M.G,, 1913.
KoUektaiieen zur Kautiliya Artha^astra. ibid. 1914.
Keith, A. B. The authenticity of the Kau^iliya. J.R.A.S., 1916.
K Shama Sastri. Chanakya's Land Revenue Policy (4th century B.O.). Ind. Ant, 1905.
(6) General.
Benoy Kumar Sarkar. The positive background of Hindu Sociology. Allahabad,
1914. Biihler, G. Asoka's Rajukas oder Lajukas. Z.D.M.G., 1893. Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut ; and
Pergusson, Indian and Eastern Architecture. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2. Fick, Sociale Gliederung. See Bibl. to Ch. viii, 2. Formichi, C. Gl' Indiani e la loro scienza politica. Bologna, 1899 etc. Foucher, A. The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and other Essays. Trans. L. A.
Thomas and F. W. Thomas. Paris and London, 1917. Foy, W. Die konigliche Gewalt nach den Dharmasutren. Leipzig, 1895. GriinvFedel, Buddhistische Kunst. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2. Hardy, E. tJber den Ursprung des Samajja. Album Kern. Leiden, 1903. Hopkins, E. W. The social and military position of the ruling caste in ancient
India. J.A.O.S. xiii.
The mutual relations of the four Castes according to the Manavadharma-
gastram. Leipzig, 1881.
Jacobi, H. Was ist Sanskrit ? Scientia, xiv.
Jayaswal, K. P. An Introduction to Hindu Polity. Modem Review, 1913. Jolly, J. Recht und Sitte. Grund. d. indo-ar. PhiL Strassburg, 1896. Jones, W. On Asiatic History, Civil and Natural. Asiatic Researches, iv. [Anni- versary Address to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 28 Feb. 1793.] Kohler, J. Altiudisches Prozessrecht. Stuttgart, 1891. Konow, Sten. Note on the use of images in ancient India. Ind. Ant., 1909. Lassen, Chr. Indische Alterthumskunde. See Gen. Bibl., 3.
De Pentapotamia Indica. Bonn, 1827.
Maisey, Sanchi. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2.
Oldenberg, H. Studien zur Geschichte des buddhistischen Kanon. G.G.N, 1912.
Rhys Davids, Buddhist India. See Bibl. to Ch. vii, 2.
Smith, Fine Art in India and Ceylon; and
Spooner, Excavations at Pataliputra. See Bibl, to Ch. xxvi, 2.
Thomas, Date of Kanishka. See Bibl. to Ch. xxiii, 5.
"Waddell, Excavations at Pataliputra. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2.
Zimmer, Altindisches Leben. See Bibl. to Ch. iv, 2.
Bibliography to Chapter XX 68 1
CHAPTER XX
AgOKA, THE IMPERIAL PATRON OF BUDDHISM
1. The Inscriptions of A90KA.
For bibliographies of the very large literature dealing with the inscriptions see R. 0. Franke, Pali und Sanskrit (pp. 1-5); V. A. Smith, Asoka^ (pp. 202-4); id. Early Hist, of Ind.^ (pp. 172-4); <id. Asoka^ (pp. 227-30). The last appeared after the completion of this chapter. >
The present bibliography includes those works which deal directly with topics discussed in the chapter. Senart, B. Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi. Paris, 1881, 1886. [Still the standard
authority on the inscriptions generally. It is supplemented by the following
more recent editions of individual inscriptions.] Bairat : Biihler, Ind. Ant., 1893. Barabar Hills : Biihler, Ind. Ant., 1891. Bhabhra : Senart, Jour. As., 1887 (ix) ; Senart and Grierson, Ind, Ant., 1891 ;
<see also Smith, Asoka^, p. 228. > Brahmagiri : Biihler, Ep. Ind. iii. Kau9ambl : Biihler, Ind. Ant., 1890. Maski : K. Krishna Sastri. The new Asokan edict of Maski. Hyderabad Arch.
Ser., no. 1. Calcutta, 1915. Nigllva : Biihler, Ep. Ind. v.
Orissa or Kaliiiga (Dhauli and Jaugada) : Senart and Grierson, Ind. Ant., 1890. Pillar and Rock Edicts : Biihler, Ep. Ind. IL Rummindel (Lumbini) : Biihler, Ep. Ind. v ; Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1908. Rupnath and Sahasram : Biihler, Ind. Ant., 1893. Sanchi : Biihler, Ep. Ind. ii ; see also Boyer, Jour. As., 1907 (x) ; Hultzsch,
J.R.A.S., 1911. Samath : Vogel, Ep. Ind. vm ; Boyer, Jour. As., 1907 (x).
2. Other Inscriptions.
Barabar Hills (Da^aratha) : Cunningham, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, i ;
Biihler, Ind. Ant., 1891. Junagarh (Rudradaman) : Kielhorn, Ep. Ind. vm. Kharosthi Inscriptions discovered by Sir A. M. Stein in Chinese Turkestan. Ed.
A. M. Boyer, E. J. Rapson, and B. Senart. Pt. i. Oxford, 1920.
3. Literary Sources.
{a) Indian.
Aqokavadana. See Divyavadana, Bibl. to Ch. vii, 1. Harsacarita. See Bibl. to Ch. xxi, 1. Kalpasiitra. See Bibl. to Chapters xvm and xix, 3. Mahabhasya- Ed. Kielhorn. Bombay, 1880-5. Mahavamsa. See Bibl. to Ch. vii, 1. Puranas. See Bibl. to Ch. xiii, 1.
682 Bibliography to Chapter XX
RajataranginL Ed A. M. Stein. Bombay, 1892.
Trans, by the same. Westminster, 1900.
Sutralamkara. French trans, (from the Chinese version) by B. Huber. Paris, 1908.
(6) Chinese.
Hiuen Tsiang. Trans. 8. Julien. M^moires sur les Contr^es occidentales. Paris, 1857-8.
— S. Beal. Buddhist Records of the Western World. London, 1884.
— T. Waiters. On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India. London, 1904-5.
(c) Tibetan.
Taranatha. Trans, by F. A. von Schiefner : Geschichte des Buddhismus in Indien. St Petersburg, 1869.
4. Modern Works.
Biihler, G. Beitrage zur Brkliirung der ASoka-lnschriften. Z.D.M.G., 1883 and 1887.
Asoka's Rajukas oder Lajukas. Z.D.M.G., 1893.
Bumouf, E. Introduction a I'histoire du Buddhisme indien. 2nd edn. Paris, 1876.
Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2.
Fleet, J. F. Mahishamandala and Mahishmati. J.R.A.S., 1910.
Foucher, Beginnings of Buddhist Art. See Bibl. to Chapters xviii and xix, 5 (6).
Franke, R. O. Pali und Sanskrit. Strassburg, 1902.
Trans. Mrs Rhys Davids : The Buddhist Councils at Rajagaha and Vesall.
J.P.T.S., 1908.
Griffiths, Ajanta Caves. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvr, 2.
Hardy, E. Indiens Kultur in der Bliitezeit des Buddhismus : KSnig Asoka. Mainz,
1902. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde. See Gen. Bibl., 3. Levi, Sylvain. Le Nepal. Musee Guimet. Paris, 1905-8. Maisey, Sanchi. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2. Pargiter, Kali Age. See Bibl. to Ch. xiii, 1. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India. See Bibl. to Ch. vii, 2. Rockhill, W. W. Life of the Buddha. London, 1884. Smith, V. A. Asoka. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1909. <3rd edn. Oxford, 1920.>
Early History of India. See Gen. Bibl., 3.
Thomas, F. W. Les vicdsdh d'A9oka. Jour. As., 1910 (xv).
See Smith, Asoka Notes. Ind. Ant., 1908.
Waddell, L. A. Upagupta, the fourth Buddhist Patriarch and High Priest of Afoka. J.A.S.B., 1897.
Identity of Upagupta, the High Priest of Aqoka, with Moggaliputta Tisso.
Proc. A.S.B., 1899.
Excavations at Pataliputra. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2.
Bibliography to Chapter XXI 683
CHAPTER XXI
INDIAN NATIVE S lATES AFTER THE PERIOD OF THE MAURYA EMPIRE
1. Literary Sources.
Divyavadaiia. See Bibl. to Ch. vii, 1. Harsacarita. Ed. Parab. 3rd edn. Bombay, 1912.
Ed. with notes Gajendragadkar. Poona.
Trans. B. B. Cowell and F. W. Thomas. London, 1897.
Kalakacaryakathanakam. See Bibl. to Ch. vi, 2. Malavikagnimitra. Ed. Parab. Bombay, 1907.
Trans. C. H. Tawney. Calcutta, 1875.
Markandeya Parana. See Bibl. to Ch. xiii, 1.
2. Inscriptions.
Bhattiprolu : Buhler, Ep. Ind. ii.
Hathigumpha: Cunningham, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicanim, vol. i. 1877; Bhagvanlal Indrajl, Trans. Inter. Or. Cong. pt. 3, Leiden, 1883; Liiders, Ep. Ind. X (App., no. 1345) ; J. P. Jayaswal and R. D. Banerji, Jour. Bihar and Orissa Research Soc, 1918 (Dec. 1917). For various views as to the inter- pretation of this inscr. see Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1910; V. A. Smith, id., 1918; Ramaprasad Chanda, id., 1919 ; R. C. Majumdar, Ind. Ant., 1919 ; K. C. Sankara Aiyar, id., 1920.
Nanaghat : Buhler, Arch. Sur. West. Ind. v.
Nasik (Krishna) : Biihler, Arch. Sur. West. Ind. iv.
Pabhosa : Fiihrer, Ep. Ind. ii.
3. Coins.
For summary with bibliography see Rapson, Indian Coins. Bergny, A V. Notes on some Brahmi-Kharosthi Inscriptions on Indian Coins.
J.R.A.S., 1900 Cunningham, A. Coins of Ancient India. London, 1891. Franke, O. Epigraphische Notizen. Z.D.M.G. l. pp. 601 f. Rapson, E. J. Notes on Indian Coins and Seals. Pts. i-iii. J.R.A.S., 1900. Pt. v.
J.R.A.S., 1903.
Coins of the Andhra Dynasty &c. See Bibl. to Ch. xxiv, 4.
4. General.
Baines, A. Ethnography. See Bibl. to Ch. ii. A, 2. Banerji, R. D. Some Sculptures from Kosam. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1913-14. Bhandarkar, D. R. Excavations at Besnagar. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1913-14, and 1914-15.
The Deccan of the Satavahana Period. Ind Ant., 1918 etc.
Bhandarkar, R. G. On the date of Patanjali. Ind. Ant., 1872..
Early History of the Deccan. 2nd edn. Bombay, 1895.
Dey, N. L. Geographical Dictionary. See Bibl. to Ch. ii, 3.
684 Bibliography to Chapter XXI
Fourcher, A. Geographie ancienne du Gandhara. See Bibl. to Chapters xv and
XVI, 2. Jouveau-Dubreuil, G. Ancient History of the Deccan. See BibL to Ch. xxiv, 6. Marshall, J. H. Guide to Sanchi. See Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2. Pargiter, F. E. Kali Age. See Bibl. to Ch. xiii, 1.
Prinsep, J. Essays on Indian Antiquities. Ed. E. Thomas. London, 1858. Ramaprasad Chanda. Archaeology and Vaishnava Tradition. Memoirs of the
Arch. Sur. of Ind., No. 5, 1920. Smith, V. A. Autonomous Tribes of the Panjab conquered by Alexander the
Great. J.R.A.S., 1903. Watters, T. On Yuan Chwang. London, 1904-5.
Bibliography to Chapter XXII 685
CHAPTER XXII
THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 1. Literary Sources.
(a) Greek and Latin. For editions and translations of Justin, Pliny, Strabo, and the Itinerarinm Alexandri see Bibl. to Chapters xv and xvi, 1. Periplus maris Erythraei. Ed. B. Fabricius. Leipzig, 1883.
Trans. J. W. M'Crindle. Calcutta, 1879.
Trans. W. H. Schoflf. London, 1912.
Plutarch, Moralia. Ed. G. N. Bernardakis. Leipzig, 1888-96,
(&) Sanskrit and Pali. Brihat Samhita. Ed. J. H. K. Kern. Calcutta, 1865. [In the introduction Kern describes the Yuga Purana of the GargI Samhita, for which see also F. Max Miiller, India, What can it teach us ? New edn. London, 1892.]
Trans. H. Kern. J.R.A.S., 1869.
Milindapanha. See Bibl. to Ch. vii, 1. Malavikagnimitra. See Bibl. to Ch. xxi, 1.
2. Inscription.
Besnagar : J. H. Marshall, J.R A.S., 1909, pp. 1053 flF. [See also notes by Bloch, Fleet, Barnett, and Venis in J.R.A.S., 1909 and 1910]; Ramaprasad Chanda, Memoirs of the Arch. Sur. of Ind., No. 1, 1919.
3. Coins.
See Bibl. to Ch. xvii, 3. Biihler, G. KharosthI Inscriptions on Indo-Grecian Coins. W.Z.K.M. viii. Rapson, E. J. Coins of the Graeco-Indian Sovereigns Agathocleia, Strato I Soter,
and Strato II Philopator. Corolla Numismatica, Numismatic Essays in honotir
of Barclay V. Head. Oxford, 1906.
4. General.
Bhandarkar, D. R. The archaeological remains and excavations at Nagari. Memoirs
of the Arch. Sur. Ind., No. 4. Calcutta, 1920. Bhandarkar, R. G. A Peep into the early History of India. Jour. Bombay Br.
R.A.S., 1900; revised edn. Bombay, 1920. Fleet, J. F. Sakala, ^akala, the city of Milinda and Mihirakula. Trans. Inter. Or.
Cong., Algiers. Pt. i. 1905. Cunningham, Ancient Geography; Holdich, Gates of India; M'Crindle, Invasion
of India ; see BibL to Chapters xv and xvi. Prinsep's Essays ; Watters, On Yuan Chwang ; see Bibl. to Ch. xxi, 4. Thomas, Sakastana ; see Bibl. to Ch. xxiii, 5.
686 Bibliography to Chapter XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SCYTHIAN AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
1. Literary Sources.
(a) Greek.
For editions and translations of Herodotus and Isidore of Gharax see Bibl. to Ch. XIV, 1 (&) ; of the Periplus maris Erythraei, Ch. xxii, 1 (a).
(6) Chinese.
The earliest Chinese accounts of the ^akas and the Yueh-chi are derived from the reports of Chang-k'ien, who visited the Yueh-chi c. 125 b.c. as an envoy from the emperor Wu-ti. They are contained in the Historical Record of Ssti-ma- ch'ien (bom c. 145 d.c.), in the Annals of the First Han Dynasty (begun by Pan-ku who died in 92 A.D ), and in the Annals of the Second Han Dynasty, an abstract from which is preserved in the encyclopaedia of Ma-twan-lin (13th cent. A.D.).
See the following works: de R^musat, J. P. A. Sur quelques peuples du Tibet et de la Boukharie, tir6 de
I'ouvrage de Ma-touan-lin. Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques. Vol. i. 1829. Wylie, A. Notes on the Western Regions. Jour. Anthropological Institute, 1880. Kingsmill, T. W. The intercourse of China with Eastern Turkestan and the
adjacent countries in the second century B.C. J.R.A.S., 1882. Specht, E. Etudes sur I'Asie centrale, d'aprfes les historiens chinois. Jour. As.,
188.S (ll).
Les Indo-Scythes et I'epoque du r^gne de Kanichka, d'apr^ les sources
\ chinoises. Jour. As., 1897 (x).
ti6vi, Sylvain. Notes sur les Indo-Scythes. Jour. As., 1896 (vm), 1897 (ix).
Eng. trans.: Notes on the Indo-Scythians. Ind. Ant., 1903, 1904.
Boyer, A. M. L'Epoque de Kaniska. Jour. As., 1900 (xv).
Smith, V. A. The Kushan, or Indo-Scythian, Period of Indian History. J.R.A.8.,
1903. Chavannes, E. Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. St Petersburg,
1903. Franke, O. Beitrage aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kenntniss der Tiirkvolker und
Skythen Zentralasiens. Abhand. d. kgl. preuss. Akad. d, Wisa, Berlin, 1904.
See also Ind. Ant., 1906, pp. 33 ff., and J.R.A.S., 1907, pp. 675 flF.
2. Inscriptions.
Kharo§thl Inscriptions (Chinese Turkestan): see Bibl. to Ch. xx, 2.
Mathura, Amohini votive tablet: Biihler, Ep. Ind. ii; cf. also note in Ep. Ind. iv.
Lion Capital: Bhagvanlal Indrajl (ed. Biihler), J.R.A.S., 1894; Thomas, Ep.
Ind. IX. Panjtar: Cunningham, Arch. Sur. Rep. ill; Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1914. SueVihara: Hoemle, Ind. Ant., 1881. Takht-i-Bahi: Senart, Jour. As., 1890 (xv); Boyer, id., 1904 (iii); cf. Fleet,
J.R.A.S., 1906. Taksha^ila, Copper-plate of P&tika: Biihler, Ep. Ind. iv. Inscr. of year 136:
Marshall, J.R.A.8., 1914 ; Sten Konow, Ep. Ind. xiv ; cf Boyer, Jour. As.,
1915 (v) ; Ramaprasad Chanda, J.R.A.S., 1920.
Bibliography to Chapter XXIII 687 3. Coins.
See Bibl. to Ch. xvii, 3. Bhagyaulal Indraji (ed. Rapson). The Northern Kshatrapas. J.R.A.S., 1894. Cunningham, A. Coins of the Indo-Scythians. London, 1892 ( = Num. Chron.,
1888, 1889, 1890, 1892). Drouin, E. Chronologic et Numismatique des Rois Indo-Scythes. Rev. Num., 1888. Marshall, J. H. Excavations at Taxila. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1912-13. [Most valuable
for the evidence supplied by the actual discoveries of coins.] Rapson, B. J. Ancient silver coins from Baluchistan. Num. Chron., 1904. Smith, V. A. The Indo-Parthian Dynasties. Z.D.M.G., 1906.
The Sakas in Northern India. Z.D.M.G., 1907.
4. GONDOPHERNES IN CHRISTIAN LEGEND.
Burkitt, F. C. Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire. Cambridge, 1899.
The original language of the Acts of Judas Thomas. Jour. Theological
Studies, 1900.
Dahlmann, J. Die Thomas Legende. Freiburg, 1912.
Fleet, J. F. St Thomas and Gondophemes. J.R.A.S., 1905.
von Gutschmid, A. Die Konigsnamen in den apokryphen Apostelgeschichten.
Rheinisches Museum, 1864. Kennedy, J. The Gospels of the Infancy. J.R.A.S., 1917. Medlycott, A. E. India and the Apostle Thomas. London, 1905. Philipps, W. R. The connection of St Thomas the Apostle with India. Ind. Ant., 1903. Wright, W. Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. Vol. ii. London, 1871.
5. General.
Banerji, R. D. The Scythian Period of Indian History. Ind. Ant, 1908.
Fleet, J. F. Moga, Maues, and Vonones. J.R.A.S., 1907.
Greiger, W. Geographic von Iran. Grund. d. ir. PhiL ii.
Ton Gutschmid, A. Geschichte Irans. Tubingen, 1888.
Justi, F. Geschichte Irans. Grund. d. ir Phil. ii.
Kennedy, J. The Secret of Kanishka. J.R.A.S., 1912.
Konow, Sten. Indoskythische Beitrage. Sitz. K.P.A., 1916.
Marquardt, J. Erangahr. See Bibl. to Ch. xiv, 2.
Rawlinson, G. The sixth great Oriental Monarchy. London, 1873.
Parthia. London, 1893.
Rawlinson, H. G. Bactria. London, 1912.
Intercourse between India and the Western World. Cambridge, 1916.
Thomas, F. W. Sakastana. J.RA.S., 1906.
The date of Kanishka. J.R.A.S., 1913. [For the discussion on this subject
see also J.R.A.S., 1914.]
For geography and ancient routes see Bibl. to Ch. ii. A, 3 and 4, also Grund. d. ir. Phil, ii, pp. 610-11 (Afghanistan, Baluchistan, India).
Summary of Numismatic Evidence.
For the Kharoshthi coin-legends see : Biihler, G. Kharosthl Inscriptions on Indo-Grecian coins. W.Z.K.M. viii. Rapson, E. J. On the alphabet of the Kharosthl documents discovered by Dr Stein at Niya in Chinese Turkestan. Trans. Inter. Or. Cong., Algiers, 1905. Ft I. Paris, 1906. For the letter tl in the name V'ima Kadphises see Rapson, op. cit pp. 218-19.
688 Bibliography to Chapter XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA Original Sources.
1. Greek and Roman writers. See Bibl. to Chapters xv and xvi, 1.
2. Puranas. See Bibl. to Ch. xiii, 1.
3. Inscriptions: (a) the inscriptions of A^oka. See Bibl. to Ch. xx, 1.
(6) the inscriptions of Southern India generally. South Indian Inscriptions (Arch. Sur. of Ind., New Imperial Series), 1890 etc. Epigraphia Camatica, 1886 etc. Epigraphia Indica, 1892 etc.
Reports of the Archaeological Superintendent for Epigraphy. Burnell, A. C. The Elements of South Indian Palaeography. 2nd edn. 1878.
4. Coins.
Elliot, W. Coins of Southern India. London, 1885. Smith, V. A. Andhra History and Coinage. Z.D.M.G. 1902-3. Rapson, E. J. B.M. Cat, Coins of the Andhi*a Dynasty etc. 1908. Sewell, R. Roman Coins found in India. J.R.A.S. 1904.
Modern Works.
5. Ethnology. See Bibl. to Ch. ii, A, 2.
6. Archaeology.
Madras, Annual Reports of the Archaeological Department.
Mysore, Annual Reports of the Archaeological Department.
Hyderabad Archaeological Series.
Travancore Archaeological Series. Madras, 1910 etc.
The Tamilian Antiquary. Trichinopoly, 1907 etc.
Jouveau-Dubreuil, G. Ancient History of the Deccan. Pondicherry, 1920.
Arch6ologie du Sud de I'lnde. Annales du Musee Guimet. 2 vols. Paris,
1914.
Pallava Antiquities. Vol. i. London, 1916. Vol. ii. Pondicherry, 1918.
Dravidian Architecture. Madras, 1917.
The Indian Antiquary (Bombay, 1872 etc.) contains numerous articles on Southern India. See also Bibl. to Ch. xxvi, 2.
7. History: (a) Chronology.
Garrett, H. L. 0. The Student's Source-book of Indian History. The pre-
Musalman Period. Bombay, 1916. Gopala Aiyar. Chronology of Ancient India. Madras, 1901 etc.
See also Gen. Bibl., 4.
(&) History of civilisation. Oldenberg, H. Ancient India. 2nd edn. Chicago, 1898. Nandalal De. Civilization in Ancient India. Calcutta, 1903. de Lorenzo, G. India e Buddhismo Antico. Bari, 1904. V. Kanakasabhai Pillai. The Tamils eighteen hundred years ago. Madras, 1904.
Bibliography to Chapter XXIV 689
Chintamani Vinayaka Vaidya. Epic India. Bombay, 1907. Radhakumud Mookerji. A History of Indian Shipping. London, 1912.
Local Government in Ancient India. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1920.
P. T. Srinivasa Aiyangar. Life in Ancient India in the Age of the Mantras.
Madras, 1912. Pramathanath Banerjea. Public Administration in Ancient India. London, 1916. K. V. Rangaswami Aiyangar. Considerations on some Aspects of Ancient Indian
Polity. Madras, 1916. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar. The Beginnings of South Indian History. Madi-as,
1918.
Hindu India from original sources. Bombay, 1919.
Ramesh Chandra Majiundar. Corporate Life in Ancient India. Calcutta, 1918. PraphuUachandra Vasu. Indo- Aryan Polity during the period of the Rig Veda. Allahabad, 1919. See also Gen. Bibl., 3.
c. H. 1. 1. 44
690 Bibliography to Chapter XXV
CHAPTER XXV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF CEYLON Original Sources.
1. Pali.
For the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa see Bibl. to Ch. vii, 1. There are other translations of the Mahavamsa by G. Tumour (Colombo, 1837), and C. Wije- sinha (Colombo, 1889). Dathavamsa [a history of the Tooth Relic written by Dhammakitti c. 1200 a.d.].
Kelaniya, 1883. Mahabodhivamsa [a history of the Bo Tree by Upatissa]. Ed. S. A. Strong. P.T.S.
London, 1891.
2. Sinhalese.
Attanagalu-vihara-vaipsaya [a Pali and Sinhalese history of the Attanagalu
Monastery]. Ed. and trans. J. Alwis. Colombo, 1878 and 1887. .Dalada-piijavaliya [a history of the Tooth Relic written in 1295 a.d.]. Colombo, 1893. Mahabodhivamsa [trans, from Pali]. Colombo, 1891 etc. The Mahavansi, the Rajaratnacari [by Abhaya-raja of Valgam-paya], and the
Rajavali. Ed. E. Upham. London, 1883. Nikaya-sai'igraha [a history of Buddhist sects by Dhammakitti]. Ed. Don M. de Z.
Wickremasinghe. Colombo, 1890. Pujavaliya [a collection of legends and stories of worship by Mayura-pada Thera].
Ed. V. Dhamraananda. Colombo, 1903-8. Raja-ratuakaraya [a history of Ceylon by Abhaya-raja Thera of Valgam-paya,
c. 1542 A.D.]. Ed. S. de Silva. Colombo, 1907. Rajavaliya [a history of Ceylon]. Ed. B. Gunasekhara. Colombo, 1899-1900. Thupavamsa [a history of the sanctuary of Ruvanvali by Parakrama Pandita].
Colombo, 1889 etc.
Much of the historical material is still unpublished. The following Sinhalese works may be mentioned :
Dalada-piijavaliya, a history of the cult of the Tooth Relic, written c. 1300 a.d. ; Dajada-sirita, on the same subject, by a priest of the Parakumba Pirivena, written c. 1325; Dalada-sirita, on the same, by Kitsiri Mevan Rajasuudara, in 1485-6; Lakrajalo-sirita, a work on the rules of succession, constitutional powers etc., of the kings of Ceylon ; Mahabodhivamsa (». sup^ [of this work there are two Sinhalese translations, viz. by Vilgammula Thera (c. 1300) and Saranaukara (1725), besides a Sinhalese commentary called Dharma-pradlpikava or Bodhivamga- parikathava by Gurulu-gomi. There is also a Chula-bodhivaipsa by Sumaiigala (1798)]; Mahasammata-rajavaliya, a history of Ceylon; Narendra-charitavalokana- pradlpaya, a modern compilation on Sinhalese history, which however contains some old materials ; Rajavaliya [several histories bearing this name are existent, besides a Rajavali-saiigrahava or abridgment, and two works in the British Museum styled respectively Sulu Rajavaliya or Rajavamga and Rajavaliya or Sulu RajavamQaya] ; RajavaniQa-sankshepaya, an abridged history; Rajavikrama- pravrittiya, another history; Ruvanvali-kathava ; Saddharma-ratnakaraya, on Buddhist doctrine and legends, by Vimalaklrtti or Siddhartha (c. 1410); Sulu Thtipavamsaya, a history of the Ruvanvali sanctuary, also known as Ruvanvali- saya-kathava ; Vijaya-rajavaliya, a histoi7 of Ceylon ; Vijaya-rajavamgaya, another
Bibliography to Chapter XXV 691
history; Vijitavelli-rajavaliya, a modern local chronicle by Yatihalagala Polvatte Vidane, but containing some ancient material.
The Kadaim-pot, or local geographies, sometimes give data of some historical interest. Mention may be made also of Vachissara's Pali version of Parakrama Papdita's Thupavamsa, and of the Pali commentary on the Mahavamsa.
There is a copious popular ballad-literature concerned more or less with the legends of Vijaya, Paiiduvas, and Mala Raja, the legendary hero who is said to have healed the 'perjury-sickness' of Paiiduvas with the aid of the Vaddas. Through him this saga is brought into connexion with the legend of Rama. Among these poems may be mentioned the following: Uru-danaya ; Vijayindu- hatang; Lanka-bodhi-vastuva ; Kuveni-asne; Vijalindu-divi-dos-upata; Vijayindu- puvata ; Palavala-dane ; Simhala-vistare ; Sirahavalli-kathava ; Oddisa-upata ; Maha-asne; Vadi-yak-yadinna ; Malalu-kumaru-kavi ; Yaga-alahkai-aya; Kadavara- vldiya; and Irugal-bandara-kavi.
3. Inscriptions.
Epigraphia Zeylanica. Ed. Don M. de Z. Wickremasinghe. Oxford, 1904 etc. Miiller, B. Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon. London, 1883.
4. Coins.
Rhys Davids, T. W. Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon. London, 1877.
Modern Works.
5. Ethnology.
Seligmann, C. G. and B. Z. The Veddas. Cambridge, 1911.
See also the bibliography given by A. Baines, Ethnography (Grand, d. indo-ar. Phil., 1912), pp. 210-1.
6. Language and Literature.
Geiger, W. Dipavairisa und Mahavamsa. Leipzig, 1905.
Eng. trans. Ethel Coomaraswamy. Colombo, 1908.
Litteratur und Sprache der Singhalesen. Grund. d. indo-ar. Phil, 1900.
7. Archaeology.
Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Annual Repoii».
Burrows, S. M. Buried Cities of Ceylon. Colombo, 1894.
Cave, H. W. The Ruined Cities of Ceylon. 2nd edn. London, 1900.
Fergusson, J. History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. 2nd edn. London, 1910.
Parker, H. Ancient Ceylon. London, 1909.
Smith, V. A. A History of Fine Art in India. Oxford, 1911.
Smither, J. G. Architectural Remains, Anuradhapura. London, 1894.
8. History, Religion, Folk-lore. Geiger, W. Ceylon. Wiesbaden, 1898.
Kern, H. Manual of Indian Buddhism. Grund. d. indo-ar. Phil, 1896.
Parker, H. Village Folk-tales of Ceylon. London, 1910 etc.
Rhys Davids, T. W. Buddhism. London, 1878. [Many later editions.]
Buddhist India. London, 1903.
Tennent, J. E. Ceylon. 5th edn. London, 1860. Tumour, G. An Epitome of the History of Ceylon. 1836.
The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the R.A.S., and the Indian Antiquary contain articles on the history of Ceylon.
44-2
692 Bibliography to Chapter XXVI
CHAPTER XXVI
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA 1. The Prehistoric Period.
Ball, V. On the Forms and Geographical Distribution of Stone Implements in India. (Appendix B of Jungle Life in India. London, 1880. Condensed from Proc. R.I.A. 2nd ser. vol. i, 1879.)
and Foote, R. Bruce. Ancient Stone Implements in India. Proc. A.S.B.,
1888, pp. 192 flf.
Bidie, Surgeon-General (quoted from the Madras Mail). On Prehistoric Graves
near Pallavaram. J.R.A S., 1887, pp. 693 ff. Blanford, W. T. Stone Implements found in India. Proc. A.S.B., 1867, pp. 136 ff. Bloch, Th. Excavations at Lauriya. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1906-7, pp. 119 ff. • Caves and Inscriptions in Ramgarh Hill. ArcL Sur. Ind., 1903-4, pp.
123 ff. Bloomfield, A. Silver and copper objects found near the village of Guugeria. Proc.
A.S.B., 1870, pp. 131 ff. Bodding, P. 0. Ancient Stone Implements in the Santal Parganas. J.A.S.B., 1901,
pt. Ill, pp. 17 ff. Branfill, B. R. Rude Megalithic Monuments in North Arcot. J.A.S.B., 1880, pt. i,
pp. 8 ff.
On the Savandurga rude stone Cemetery, Central Maisur. Ind. Ant., 1881,
pp. 1 ff
Breeks, J. W. An account of the Primitive Tribes and Monuments of the Nilagiris.
London, 1873. Brown, J. Coggin. A Prehistoric Copper Celt fi-om Palamau. Arch. Sur. Ind.,
1913-4, p. 246. A Prehistoric Copper Axe from the Kurram Agency. Ibid.
p. 247.
Grooved Stone Hammers from Assam and the distribution of similar forms
in Eastern Asia. J A.S.B., 1914, pp. 107 ff.
Catalogue of Prehistoric Antiquities in the Indian Museum. Ed. Marshall.
Simla, 1917.
Caldwell, R. Explorations at Korkei and Kayal. Ind. Ant., 1877, pp. 80 ff.
Sepulchral Urns in Southern India. Ibid. pp. 279 f. Carlleyle, A. C. L. Deosa, or Devanasa, or Daivasa. A.S.R. vi (years 1871-2,
1872-3), pp. 104 ff.
Report of ours in Gorakhpur, Saran, and Ghazipur (1879-80). A.8.R. xxii,
pp. 95 ff.
Cockbum, J. Flint Implements from the Kon ravines of South Mirzapore. J.A.S.B.,
1894, pt. Ill, pp. 21 ff. and Smith, V. A. Cave Drawings in the Kaimur Range, North-West Provinces.
J.R.A.S., 1899, pp. 89 ff. Crooke, W. Primitive Rites of disposal of the Dead, with special reference to
India. Jour. Anthropological Institute, xxix (no. 11), pp. 271 ff. Cunningham, A . H arapa ( M ontgomery Dist., Punj ab). A . S. R. v ( 1 8 72-3), pp. 1 05 ff. Das Gupta, Hemchandra. On Two-shouldered Stone Implements from Assam.
J.A.S.B., 1913, pp. 291 ff. Elliot, W. Ancient Sepulchral Remains in S. India. Internat. Cong, of Prehist.
Arch. Norwich, 1868.
Bibliography to Chapter XXVI 693
Fermor, L. Leigh. Note on a Palaeolithic Implement made of Manganese Ore.
J.A.S.B., 1910, pp. 381 flF. Fleet, J. F. Seals from Harappa. J.R.A.S., 1912, pp. 699 flF. Foote, R. Bruce. On the Geology of parts of the Madras and North Arcot Districts :
Stone Implements in Laterite. Memoirs of Geol. Sur. of Ind. x, 43 flF.
Notes on some recent Neolithic and Palaeolithic Finds in Southern India.
J.A.S.B., 1887, pt. II, pp. 259 flF.
The Foote Collection of Indian Prehistoric and Protohistoric Antiqmties
(Madras Govt Mus.) : Catalogue Raisonne. Madras, 1914.
Notes on their age and distribution. Madras, 1916.
On Quartzite Implements of Palaeolithic types from S. India. Proc. of
Intemat. Cong, of Prehist. Arch. Norwich, 1868.
Garstin, J. H. and Walhouse, M. J. Dolmens in the Coromandel Coast. Ind. Ant.,
1876, pp. 159 f., 255 f King, W, Notice of a prehistoric Burial place with cruciform Monoliths, near
Mungapet in the Nizam's Dominions. J.A.S.B., 1877, pt. i, pp. 179 flF. Le Mesurier, H. P. Note on twelve Stone Hatchets or Celts from Jabalpur. Proc.
A.S.B., 1861, pp. 81 flF. Logan, A. C. Old chipped Stones of India. Calcutta, 1906. Markham, A. H. Memoir of the Indian Surveys. 2nd edn. London, 1878,
pp. 248 flF. Marshall, J. H. ; v. inf. 2. The Historical Period — ' Archaeological Exploration in
India ' ; ' Rajagriha and its Remains ' ; and other monographs in Arch. Sur.
Ind. — for incidental notices of prehistoric antiquities. Meadows Taylor. Megalithic Monuments in the Shorapore District. J. Bomb.
Br. R.A.S. Ill, pp. 179 flF.; iv, pp. 380 flF. See also Trans. R.I.A. vol. xxiv
(1862 and 1865) and Jour. Ethnological Soc. i, pp. 167 flF. Medlicott, H. B. and Blandford, W. T. Manual of the Geology of India. Calcutta,
1879-81, pt. I, pp. 440 flF. and PI. xxi. Mockler, E. Ancient Dwellings and Tombs in Baluchistan. Proc. A.S.B., 1876,
pp. 172 flF. Rea, A. Prehistoric Antiquities in Tinnevelly, Arch. Sur. Ind., 1902-3, pp. Ill flF.;
Prehistoric Pottery from Tinnevelly, ibid. 1903-4, pp. 158 flF.; Prehistoric
Remains at Perambair, ibid. 1908-9, pp. 92 flF.
Some Prehistoric Burying Places in Southern India. J.A.S B., 1888, pp. 48 flF.
Catalogue of the Prehistoric Antiquities from Adichanallur and Perumbair.
Madras, 1915.
Rivett-Camac, J. H. Rough notes on some ancient Sculpturings on rocks in
Kumaon, J.A.S.B., 1877, pt. i, pp. 1 flF. ; Prehistoric Remains in Central
India, ibid. 1879, pt. i, pp. 1 flF. ; The Snake Symbol in India, ibid. pp. 17 flF. ;
On Stone Implements from the N.W.P., ibid. 1883, pt. i, pp. 221 flF. Sewell, R. The Cinder-Mounds of Bellary. J.R.A.S., 1899, pp. 1 flF. ; cf. ibid. 1900,
p. 402. Prehistoric Burial Sites in Southern India. Ibid. 1902, pp. 165 flF. Silben*ad, C. A. Rock Dramngs in the Banda District. J.A.S.B., 1907, pp.
567 flF. Smith, V. A. The Copper Age and Prehistoric Bronze Implements of India.
Ind. Ant., 1905, pp. 229 flF. ; ibid. 1907, pp. 53 AT. Pigmy Flints. Ibid. 1906,
pp. 185 flF. Vanstavem, T. Notes on the Antiquities found in parts of the Upper Godavari
and Krishna Districts. Ind. Ant., 1875, pp. 305 f Walhouse, M. J. Archaeological Notes : Miniature and Prehistoric Pottery, Ind.
Ant., 1875, pp. 12 f. Bronze Antiquities in India. Jbid. p. .302.
694 Bibliography to Chapter XXVI
2. The Historical Period.
d'Alviella, B. Goblet. Ce que I'lnde doit \ la Grfece. Des influences classiques
dans I'art de I'lnde. Paris, 1897. Anderson, J. Catalogue and Handbook of the Archaeological Collections in the
Indian Museum. Calcutta, 1883. Beal, 8. Some remarks on the Great Tope at Sanchi. J.R.A.S., 1870. Bellew, H. W. General Report on the Yusafzais. Lahore, 1864, pp. 109-51. Birdwood, G. C. M. Industrial Arts of India. London, 1880, p. 154. Bloch, Th. An inscribed Buddhistic Statue from Qravastl. J.A.S.B., 1898,
pp. 274 flF.
Buddha worshipped by Indra. Proc. A.S.B., 1898, pp. 186-9.
Supplementary Catalogue of the Archaeological Collection of the Indian
Museum. Calcutta, 1911.
Le Bon, G. Les Civilisations de I'lnde. Paris, 1887.
Biihler, G. Votive Inscriptions from the Sanchi Stupas. Bp. Ind. 11, pp. 87 ff., 366 flF.
The date of the Graeco-Buddhist pedestal from Hastnagar. Ind, Ant., 1891,
p. 394 ; cf ibid. 1892, pp. 166 f.
Burgess, J. The Buddhist Cave Temples and their Inscriptions. Arch. Sur, West. Ind. IV. London, 1883.
The Gandhara Sculptures. Jour. Ind. Art and Industiy, viu (1900),
nos. 62-3, 69.
Chanda, Ramaprasad. Dates of the Votive Inscriptions on the Stupas at Sanchi. Memoirs of the Arch. Sur. Ind., no. 1. Calcutta, 1919.
Archaeology and Vaishnava Tradition. Memoirs of the Arch. Sur. Ind.,
no. 5. Calcutta, 1920.
Cole, H. H. Memorandum on Ancient Monuments in Busufzai. Simla, 1883.
Preservation of National Monuments : (1) Graeco-Buddhist Sculptures from
Yusufzai ; (2) The Great Buddhist Tope at Sanchi. Calcutta, 1885.
Cunningham, A. The Bhilsa Topes. London, 1864.
The Stupa of Bharhut. London, 1879.
Mahabodhi, or the Great Buddhist Temple at Buddhagaya. London, 1892.
Deane, H. A. Note on Udyana and Gandhai-a. J.R.A.S., 1896, pp. 655-75 ; ibid.
1898, p. 460. Fergusson, J. On the Rock Temples of India. J.R.A.S., 1846, pp. 30-92.
Age of Indian Caves and Temples. Ind. Ant, 1872, pp. 257 f.
Tree and Serpent Worship. 2nd edn. London, 1873.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. 2nd edn. London, 1910.
and Burgess, J. The Cave Temples of India. London, 1880.
Foucher, A. Etude sur I'lconographie bouddhique de I'lnde. Paris, 1900.
Les Bas-reliefs du Stupa de Sikri (Gandhara). Jour. As., 1903 (11). Les
fouilles de Taxila. Ibid. 1919 (xiv).
L'Art bouddhique du Gandhara. Paris, 1905-18.
L'Art bouddhique dans I'lnde d'apr^s un livre recent. Rev. de I'Hist. des
Relig. XXX, pp. 319-71.
Fiihrer, A. Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's Birthplace. Allahabad, 1897.
Indo-Skythic Architecture and Sculpture of the Mathura School. Jour. Ind.
Art and Industry, v (1894), p. 58.
Griflaths, J. The paintings in the Buddhist Cave Temples of Ajanta, Khandesh, India. London, 1896-1900.
Bibliography to Chapter XXVI 695
Growse, F, S. Mathura, a District Memoir. 3rd edn. N.W.P. Press, 1885.
Supposed Greek Sculpture at Mathura. J.A.S.B., 1875, pp. 212 ff.
Griinwedel, A. Buddhistische Kuust in Indien. 2 Auf. Berlin, 1900.
Eng. trans. Gibson, ed. Burgess, Buddhist Art in India, London, 1901.
Hargreaves, H. The Buddhist Story in stone, an interpretation of thirty-four
Graeco-Buddhist sculptures in the Lahore Museum. Calcutta, 1914. Havell, E. B. Indian Sculpture and Painting. London, 1908. Hultzsch, E. Jatakas at Bharaut. J.R A.S., 1912, pp. 399 ff. Indraji, Bhagvanlal. Hathigumpha and three other Inscriptions. Trans. Inter.
Or. Cong., pt. 3. Leiden, 1883.
Antiquarian Remains at Sopara and Padana. J. Bomb. Br. R. A.S. xv, pp. 273 ff.
Jackson, V. H. Notes on Old Rajagriha. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1913-4, pp. 265 ff.
Jouveau-Dubreuil, G. Arch^ologie du Sud de I'lnde. Paris, 1914.
Kipling, J. L. The classical influence in the Architecture of the Indus region and
Afghanistan. Jour. Roy. Inst. British Architects, i (1894), pp. 134 ff. Leitner, G. W. Graeco-Buddhist Sculpture. As. Quart. Rev. vii (1894), pp. 186-9. Liiders, H. A List of Brahmi Inscriptions from the earliest times to about a.d. 400,
with the exception of Asoka. Ep. Ind. x. Appendix. Maisey, F. C. Sanchi and its Remains. London, 1892. Marshall, J. H. Archaeological Exploration in India, 1906-7. J.R.A.S., 1907,
pp. 993 ff. ; 1907-8, ibid. 1908, pp. 1085 ff. ; 1908-9, ibid. 1909, pp. 1053 ff. ;
1909-10, ibid. 1911, pp. 127 ff.
Buddhist gold jewellery. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1902-3, pp. 185 ff. ; Rajagriha and
its Remains, ibid. 1905-6, pp. 86 ff. ; Sarnath, ibid. 1906-7, pp. 68 ff. ; The Gandhara School and Mr Havell, ibid. 1907-8, p. 39 ; Railing pillars at Bodh Gaya, ibid. p. 40; Excavations at Saheth-Maheth, ibid. 1910-1, pp. 1 ff. ; Excavations at Bhita, ibid. 1911-2, pp. 29 tf. ; Excavations at Taxila, ibid. 1912-3, pp. 1 ff. ; 1914-5, pp. 1 ff. ; 1915-6, pp. 1 ff. ; The Monuments of Sanchi, ibid. 1913-4, pp. 1 ff.
A Guide to Taxila. Calcutta, 1918.
A Guide to Sanchi. Calcutta, 1918.
Mitra, Rajendralal. Antiquities of Orissa. Calcutta, 1875 etc.
Oertel, F. 0. Excavations at Sarnath. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1904-5, pp. 59 ff.
Peppe, W. C. The Piprahwa Stupa, containing relics of Buddha. J.R,A.S., 1898,
pp. 573 ff. Perry, J. T. The classical influence in Indian Architecture. Jour. Roy. Inst. British
Architects, i (1894), pp. 147 ff. Prinsep, J. Essays, on Indian Antiquities ; see Bibl. to Ch. xxi, 4. Rea, A. South Indian Buddhist Antiquities, including the Stupas of Bhattiprolu,
Gudivada, and GhantasSla, and other ancient cites in the Krishna District.
Madras, 1894. Sahni, D. R. Excavations at Rampurva. Arch. Sur. Ind., 1907-8, pp. 181 ff.
Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath. Calcutta, 1914.
Senart, E. Notes d'Epigraphie indienne : sur quelques pierres gravees provenant
du Caboul. Jour. As., 1889 (xii), pp. 364 ff. Simpson, W. Indian Architecture. Trans. Roy. Inst. British Architects, 1861-2, pp. 165-78. Buddhist Architecture : Jallalabad. Ibid. 1879-80, pp. 37-64. Origin and mutation in Indian and Eastern Architecture. Ibid. 1891, pp. 225-76.
Classical influence in the Architecture of the Indus region and Afghanistan.
Jour. Roy. Inst. British Architects, i (1894), pp. 93 ff., 191 ff.
The Buddhist Caves of Afghanistan. J.R.A.S., 1882, pp. 319-331. Some
suggestions of origin in Indian Architecture. Ibid. 1888, pp. 49-71.
696 Bibliography to Chapter XXVI
Sinclair, W. F. Architecture in India. J.R.A.S., 1888, pp. 272-6. Smith, V. A. History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon. Oxford, 1911.
Graeco-Roman influence on the civilization of Ancient India. J.A.S.B.,
1889, pp. 107-98 ; 1892, pp. 50-76 ; 1893, pp. 84-7.
The date of a Graeco-Buddhist pedestal from Hastnagar. Ind. Ant., 1892,
pp. 166 f.
Note on the Piprahwa Stupa. J.R.A.S., 1898, pp. 579-88.
The Monolithic Pillars of Asoka. Z.D.M.G., 1911, pp. 221 flF.
and Hoey, W, Ancient Buddhist Statuettes etc. J.A.S.B., 1895, pp. 155-62.
Spiers, R. P. Classical influence in Indian Architecture. Jour. Roy. Inst. British
Architects, i (1894), pp. 150 flF. Spooner, D. B. A new find of Punch-marked Coins, Arch. Sur. Ind., 1905-6, pp. 150 flF. ; Excavations at Sahri Bahlol, ibid. 1906-7, pp. 102 flF. ; Excavations at Takht-i-Bahi, ibid. 1907-8, pp. 132 flF. ; Excavations at Shah-ji-ki-Dheri, ibid. 1908-9, pp. 38 flF. ; An inscribed Sculpture in the Peshawar Museum, ibid. pp. 130 flF. ; Excavations at Pataliputra, ibid. 1912-3, pp. 53 flF. ; Excava- tions at Basarh (in 1911-2), ibid. 1913-4, pp. 98 flF,
Handbook to the Sculptures in the Peshawar Museum. Bombay, 1910.
Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Eastern Circle, for
1912-3.
Stein, M. A. Zoroastrian deities on Indo-Scythian Coins. Ind. Ant, 1888, pp. 89-98.
Detailed Report of an Archaeological Tour with the Buner Field Force.
Lahore, 1898.
Talbot, M. G. The Rock Caves and Statues of Bamlan. J.R.A.S., 1886, pp. 323 flF. Vogel, J. Ph. Catalogue of the Delhi Museum of Archaeology. Calcutta, 1908.
Inscribed Gandhara Sculptures, Arch. Sur. Ind., 1903-4, pp. 244 flF. ; Exca- vations at Kasia, ibid. 1904-5, p. 43 ; The Mathura School of Sculpture, ibid. 1906-7, pp. 137 flF. ; 1909-10, pp. 63 flF. ; The Garuda Pillar of Besnagar, ibid. 1908-9, pp. 126 flF.
Archaeological Exploration in India, 1910-1. J.R.A.S., 1912, pp. 113 flF.
Waddell, L. A. Discovery of the exact site of Asoka's classic capital of Pataliputra,
the Palibothra of the Greeks, and description of the superficial remains. Calcutta, 1892. — — Report on the excavations at Pataliputra (Patna), the Palibothra of the Greeks. Calcutta, 1903.
Graeco-Buddhist Sculpture in Swat. As. Quart. Rev., Jan. 1896.
Wilson, H. H. Ariana Antiqua ; see Bibl. to Ch. xiv, 2.
CHRONOLOGY
800—600
600—200
The following dates are accepted in this volume. Many of them can only be regarded as approximate, while others are conjectural.
B.C. _
2500 Probable date of the beginning of Aryan invasions (p. 70).
1400 Boghaz-koi inscriptions of kings of the Mitani (pp. 72-3, 110-1).
1200 — 1000 Chhandas period of Indian literature: the earliest hymns of the
Rigveda (p. 112). 1000 — 800 Mantra period, sometimes called the earlier Brahmana period: later hymns of the Rigveda and the Vedic collections — Rigveda, Yajur- veda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda (p. 112). The tradition of the Puraijas places the war between the Kurus and the Pandus in the earlier Brahmana period, c. 1000 B.C. (p. 307). The Mahabharata which celebrates this war belongs in its present form to a much later date (pp. 252 flF.). (Later) Brahmana period : the extant Brahmaiias (p. 1 12). The earliest Upanishads are probably not later than 550 or 600 b.o.
(pp. 112, 147). It is possible that the stoiy of the Ramayapa may have its origin in
the later Brahmana period (p. 317). Sutra period (pp. 112, 227).
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (pp. 171-2, 312). According to Charpentier, 478 (477) b.c. appears to be a more probable
date for the nirvana of the Buddha (p. 156, n. 1). Among the contemporaries of the Buddha were Prasenajit (Pasenadi), king of Kosala (pp. 180, 309), Bimbisara (^enika) and Ajataqatru (Ajatasattu, Kunika), kings of Magadha (pp. 183-4, 311), Pradyota (Pajjota), king of Avanti (pp. 185, 310-1), and Udayana (Udena), king of Vatsa (Vaipsa) (pp. 187, 308, 310). 558 — 530 Qyrus,, king of Persia.
Conquered Bactria and certain countries in the Kabul valley and N.W. India including Kapi^a and Gandhara (pp. 329-33). 543—491 Bimbisara (^renika), king of Magadha (pp. 157, 183, 311-2).
Conquered Anga c. 500 b.c. (pp. 311, 315). 540 — 468 Vardhamana Nataputra, Mahavira (pp. 156, 163). Traditional date 600-528 b.c. (p. 155). Par^va, the predecessor of Mahavira as UrtJiakara, is said to have
died 250 years before him (p. 153). For the contemporaries of Mahavira and Buddha ». sup. 522 — 486 Daxius I, king of Persia.
The Greek geogi-apher Hecataeus lived in his reign (pp. 336, n. 2, 394). Naval expedition of Scylax c. 517 b.c. ; conquest of 'India' = the country of the Indus c. 518 B.C. (pp. 335-6). 491 — 459 Ajataqatru (Kunika), king of Magadha (pp. 157, 311-2).
Probably added Kagi, Kosala, and Videha to the dominions of Magadha (p. 315). 486 — 465 Xecfcw^ting of Persia.
The continuance of Persian domination in Northern India during his reign proved by statements of Herodotus (p. 340).
698 Ch ronology
B.O.
483 B. 0,-38 A.D. Kings of Ceylon.
Vijaya, the conqueror of the island, 483-445 B.c. (p. 606); Pan^u
Vasudeva 444-414 B.C.; Abhaya 414-394 B.C.; Pandukabhaya 377-
307 B.C. (p. 607) ; Mutasiva 307-247 b.c. ; Devunarppiya Tissa 247-
207 B.C.; Uttiya 207-197 B.C.; Mahasiva 197-187 ac; Sura Tissa
187-177 B.C.; Sena and Guttaka 177-155 B.c. ; Asela 155-145 B.O.;
Blara 145-101 B.C. (p. 608); Duttha-GamanI 101-77 B.c. ; Saddha-
Tissa 77-59 b.c. (p. 609) ; Thulathana 59 B.C. ; Laiija Tissa 59-50 B.C. ;
Khallatanaga 50-44 B.C.; Vatta-Garaanl Abhaya 44, 29-17 B.C.;
Mahachuli Mahatissa 17-3 B.C.; Choranaga 3 b.c. — 9 a.d.; Kuda
Tissa 9-12 a.d. (p. 610) ; Kutakanna Tissa 16-38 a.d. (p. 611). 416 — 397 Ctesias, the Greek physician, at the court of Artaxerxes MnemSn,
king of Persia (p. 397). >3^fi — 323 Alexander the Great, king of Macedon.
Conquest of Persia 330 b.o. : a statement of Arrian shows that Persian
dominion in India continued until the end of the Achaemenian
dynasty (p. 341). Invasion of India at the end of 327 or the beginning of 326 B.c. (p. 364). Retreat from the Beas, July 326 b.c. (p. 373). Leaves India 325 b.c. (p. 380). Death 323 b.c. (p. 386). 321=^184 The Maurya Dynasty (pp. 471, 512).
Chandragupta 321-297 b.c. (pp. 471-2).
The Jain authorities give the year of his accession as 313 (312) b.c.,
a date at which the canon of the Jain scriptures was fixed (p. 482). Megasthenes at the court of Chandragupta c. 300 b.c. (pp. 433, 472). Bindusara or Amitrochates, successor of Chandragupta: his reign
variously stated as of 25, 27, or 28 years (pp. 433, 495). A^oka 274-237 b.c. Accession 274 B.C. at latest; coronation 270 b.c.
at latest; conquest of Kalinga 262 b.c. at latest; Buddhist council
at Pataliputra 253 B.C. ?; death 237 or 236 b.c. ? (p. 503). Contemporary Hellenic kings — Antiochus II Theos of Syria 261-
246 B.C. ; Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt 285-247 B.c. ; Antigonus
Gonatas of Macedon 278-239 B.C.; Magas of Cyrene d. 258 B.C.;
Alexander of Epirus 272-258 b.c. ? (p. 502). Contemporary king of Ceylon — Devanampiya Tissa 247-207 b.c.
(p. 608). Successors of A9oka (pp. 511-3). 312—280 Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria (p. 429). Indian expedition c. 305 b.c. (p. 430). Treaty of peace vdth Chandragupta (pp. 431, 472). 250 Approximate date of the establishment of the kingdom of Bactria
by Diodotus (p. 435) and of the kingdom of Parthia by Arsaces
(p. 439). 246 Conversion of Ceylon by the Buddhist apostle Mahendra (Mahinda),
the son (or brother, p. 500, n. 4) of A^oka, in the year of the
coronation of king Devanampiya Tissa (p. 608). 220 Approximate date of the establishment of the Andhra power (Qata-
vahana dynasty, pp. 317-8, 529, 530, n. 1, 599) and of the kingdom
of Kalinga (Cheta dynasty, pp. 534-5). Early Andhra kings— Simuka (pp. 318, 529, 599); Krishna (pp. 529,
Chronology 699
B.C.
535, 600) ; (^atakarni, contemporary with Pushyamitra, probably conquered Avanti from the ^migas (pp. 530-2), also contemporary with Kharavela, v. inf.
King of Kaliuga — Kharavela (ace. c. 169 b.c. if the Hathigumpha inscr. is dated in the Maurya era) (pp. 314-5, 534 f , 602); invaded the dominions of (^atakarni (pp. 535-6, 600); defeated kings of Rajagriha and Magadha (pp. 536-7, 600). 206 Indian expedition of Antiochus III the Great, king of Syria, during
the reign of Euthydemus, king of Bactria (pp. 441-2). 200 — 58 Yavana princes of the house of Euthydemus.
Their Indian conquests began in the reign of Euthydemus early in the 2nd century b.c., and were carried out by Demetrius, son of Euthydemus, and other princes of his family (Apollodotus I and Menander) (pp. 444 flF., 541, 543).
Their conquests in the upper Kabul valley and in N.W. India were wrested from them by Yavana princes of the house of Eucratides from c. 162 B.c. onwards (p. 554). Restruck coins show the trans- ference of certain kingdoms in these regions from one house to the other (pp. 547, 551-2).
Subsequently the rule of the successors of Euthydemus — the families of Apollodotus I and Menander — was confined to kingdoms which lay to the east of the Jhelum (p. 548). These appear to have been conquered finally and incorporated into the ^aka empire during the reign of Azes I (ace. 58 b.c.) (pp. 554, 572).
To the house of Euthydemus belonged Demetrius (supposed limits of reign c. 190-160 B.C., pp. 444, 447), Apollodotus I, and Menander — all contemporary with Eucratides (pp. 548, 551).
Apollodotus I was deprived of the kingdom of Kapi§a by Eucratides, and was succeeded in the lower Kabul valley by Heliocles (pp. 547-8). The later princes of his family — Apollodotus II, Dionysius, Zoilxis, and ApoUophanes — ruled over kingdoms in the eastern Punjab (pp. 552-3).
Menander ruled over many kingdoms (p. 551). He was probably the leader of the Yavana incursion into the Midland Country (pp. 544, 651). Menander and Eucratides may perhaps have ruled at diflFerent times over Nicaea in the former realm of Alexander's Paurava king between the Jhelum and the Chenab (pp. 551, 588). In Buddhist literature Menander (Milinda) is known as king of (^akala (Sialkot) in the former realm of Alexander's second Paurava king between the Chenab and the Ravi (pp. 549-50). The family of Menander seems to be represented by Agathocleia who may have been his queen, his son Strato I, and his great-grandson Strato II. Numis- matic evidence apparently shows that this family was dispossessed finally of the kingdom of Nicaea by Heliocles in the reign of Strato I. Its rule in the eastern Punjab continued until the ^aka conquest in the reign of Azes I (pp. 553-4).
Hippostratus probably belonged to the house of Euthydemus, but his family is imcertain. He was contemporary with Azes I (pp. 554, 572). 184—72 The Quuga Dynasty.
The dates depend on the statements of the Puranas (p. 518).
700 Chronology
B.C.
Pushyamitra (184-148 b.c.), originally king of Vidigaand commander- in-chief of the last Maurya emperor, seized the Maurya dominions and reigned at Pataliputra (pp. 517-8).
Deprived of the kingdom of ^akala by the Yavanas (probably by Menander) (p. 519).
"War between Vidiga, now governed by his son Agniraitra as viceroy, and Vidarbha (assumed date c. 170 b.o.) (pp. 519, 600).
Defeat of the Yavanas on the banks of the Sindhu by his grandson Vasumitra (p. 520).
Invasion of his capital, Pataliputra, by the Yavanas (probably under Menander) (pp. 544, 551).
Deprived of the kingdom of Avanti (UjjayinI) by the Andhra king Qatakarni (pp. 531-2).
Later ^nga kings: — Agnimitra (p. 520); Vasumitra or Sumitra (p. 521); Odraka, probably contemporary with Bahasatimitra, king of Kaugambi (pp. 521, 525); Bhaga or Bhagavata, contemporary vdth Antialcidas, the Yavana king of Takshagila, c. 90 b.o. ac- cording to the Puranas (pp. 521-2, 558); Devabhuti (p. 522).
Feudatories of the Qungas at Bharhut, Mathura, KauQambi, and Ahicchatra (pp. 523-6). 171—138 Mithradates I, king of Parthia.
165 The Yueh-chi defeated by the Huns began their migration west-
wards (p. 565). 162 — 25 Yavana princes of the house of Eucratides.
Bucratides deposed Buthydemus from the throne of Bactria c. 175 b.o. (p. 446).
Conquered the Kabul valley, Ariana (Arachosia and Aria), and N.W. India before 162 b.o. (pp. 447, 554).
Evidence of his rule in Kapiga as successor of Apollodotus I (p. 556), in Takshagila (p. 556), and possibly in Nicaea (ibid.).
Deprived of his conquests in Ariana by Mithradates I between 162 and 155 b.o., the assumed date of his death (pp. 457, 554).
Heliocles, probably the son of Bucratides and his successor in both Bactria and India, ended his rule in Bactria c. 135 b.c. (pp. 460-1, 556).
Evidence of his rule in the upper Kabul valley and in PushkalavatI (p. 557).
Extended the conquests of Eucratides — probably to the east of the Jhelum — in the reign of Strato I (p. 553).
Antialcidas, a member of the house of Eucratides and one of his successors in the Kabul valley (p. 558).
He may have been the son and immediate successor of HeUocles (pp. 461, 559); on this assumption his accession may be conjectur- ally dated 120 b.c. (p. 522).
Evidence of his rule in Takshaqila (p. 558) ; in this kingdom he was at one time associated with Lysias, whose family is uncertain (p. 559).
As king of Takshagila he was contemporary with the Qunga king of Vidiga, Bhaga or Bhagavata (Bhagabhadra), whose 14th year may be estimated from the Puranas as c. 90 b.c. (pp. 521-2, 558).
Ch ronology 701
Later princes of this house: — (1) In Pushkalavati after the reign of Heliocles — Diomedes, Bpander, Philoxenus, Artemidorus, and Peucolaus (p. 557); (2) in Tak8ha9ila after the reign of Antial- cidas — Archebius (p. 559) ; and (3) in the upper Kabul valley after the reign of Antialcidas — Amyntas and Hermaeus (at one time associated with Calliope) (p. 560). The date c. 25 b.c. for the end of the reign of Hermaeus is conjectural : it seems consonant with the view that the upper Kabul valley was conquered in or before the reign of the Fahlava suzerain Spalirises, the brother of Vonones (pp. 561-2, 573-4). 138—128 Phraates II, king of Parthia.
His conflicts with the Scythians (^akas) in eastern Iran (p. 567). 135 Bactria overwhelmed by the (^aka invasion in the reign of the last
Yavana king Heliocles (p. 461). 128 — 123 Artabanus I, king of Parthia.
The struggle with the (^akas was continued in his reign (p. 567). 12* The Chinese ambassador Chang-kien visited the Yueh-chi who were
still to the north of the Oxus. The Yueh-chi expelled the ^akas from Bactria soon afterwards (pp. 459, 566). 123 — 88 Mithradates II the Great, king of Parthia.
His final triumph over the (^akas (p. 567). 75B.C. — 60 A.D. Period of ^aka and Pahlava supremacy in the Punjab.
Earliest ^aka settlements in the region of the Indus delta (Indo- Scythia or ^aka-dvlpa) (p. 564).
Maues wrested from the Yavanas Pushkalavati after the reign of Artemidorus, and Taksha^ila after the reign of Archebius. The date, c. 75 B.C., ascribed to these conquests is conjectural: it depends on the view that the assumption by Maues of the title 'King of Kings' must necessarily be later than the reign of Mithradates II (123-88 B.c.) (pp. 558-9, 569-70).
Azes I ace. 58 b.c. — so dated on the hypothesis that he was the actual founder of the Vikrama era (p. 571).
He extended the conquests of Maues to the more easterly kingdoms of the Punjab (pp. 553-4).
Azilises appears to have reigned (1) in association with Azes I, (2) alone, and (3) in association with Azes II (p. 572).
Azes II: his association with the strategos Aspavarman proves that he was the immediate predecessor of Gondopharnes (pp. 572, 577).
Gondopharnes, the successor of Azes II as viceroy of Arachosia under the suzerainty of Orthagnes ; at one time associated in this office with his brother Guda ; he appears to have succeeded Orthagnes as suzerain in eastern Iran, and Azes II as suzerain in India (pp. 577-8).
He is known to have reigned from 19 to at least 45 a.d. (p. 576).
In diflFerent kingdoms he was associated with (1) his nephew Abda- gases who was probably his viceroy in eastern Iran (pp. 578-80); (2) Sapedana and Satavastra who were probably governors of Taksha9ila (ibid.); and (3) the strategoi Aspavarman and Sasas (pp. 577, 580-1).
702 Chronology
B.C.
Pacores, the successor of Gondopharnes as suzerain in eastern Iran and, nominally at least, in India. In Takshafila he w^as associated with the strategos Sasas (pp. 577, 580-1).
His rule is supposed to have come to an end in the upper Kabul valley c. 50 a.d., and in N.W. India soon afterwards (both dates must lie between 45 and 64 a.d.) (pp. 583-4).
Satraps:— (1) at Pushkalavati— Zeionises (p. 582, n. 1); (2) in the region of Taksha9ila — Liaka Kusulaka (contemporary with Maues) and his son Patika who appears as great satrap c. 30 b.c. (the supposed date of the Lion Capital of Mathura) (p. 575); (3) at Mathura— Hagamasha and Hagana (p. 527), Ranjubula (supposed dates — satrap c. 50 B.C., great satrap c. 30 b.c), ^odasa (supposed date as satrap c. 30 b.c.) great satrap in 16 B.C. (pp. 575-6).
Strategoi: — (1) Aspavarman, son of Indravarman (Azes II and Gondopharnes) ; (2) Sasas, nephew of Aspavarman (Gondopharnes and Pacores) (pp. 577, 580-1). 58 Initial year of the Vikrama era.
Traditionally ascribed to a king Vikramaditya of Utjain who is said to have expelled the ^akas from India. The tradition may have some historical foundation; but in any case it seems probable that the supposed founder of the era has been confused with Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (380-414 a.d.) who finally crushed the Caka power in Western India (the Western Satraps) (pp. 532-3). It seems more likely that the era marks the establishment of the (^aka suzerainty by Azes I (p. 571), and that its use was transmitted to posterity by the Malavas and other peoples who had once been feudatories of the ^akas (p. 491). 57 — 38 Orodes I, king of Parthia.
The squared letters which characterise the coin-legends of the later Caka and Pahlava rulers in India first appear on Parthian coins during his reign (p. 571). 30 Conjectural date of Vonones, Pahlava suzerain of eastern Iran (p. 573).
With him were associated, as viceroys of Arachosia, (1) his brother Spalahores, (2) his nephew Spalagadames : these two (father and son) also held this office conjointly, and (3) his brother Spalirises, who at one time held this office conjointly with his son Azes II (pp. 573-4).
Other suzerains of eastern Iran (in addition to those who ruled also in India, for whom v. sup.) were :
Spalirises, the successor of Vonones. The former kingdom of Hermaeus in the upper Kabul valley appears to have been an- nexed by the Pahlavas in or before his reign (p. 574); Orthagnes, contemporary with Gondopharnes (p. 578); and Sanabares, in Drangiana (Seistan) ; there is no evidence of his rule in Arachosia (Kandahar) (p. 580).
A..D.
8 — 11 Vonones I, king of Parthia (p. 573). 50 Approximate date of the extension of the Kushana power from
Bactria to the Paropanisadae (upper Kabul valley) and Arachosia (Kandahar) in the reign of Gondopharnes or Pacores. The Kushana conqueror was Kujula Kadphises (pp. 583-4).
Ch ronology 703
A.D.
64 The extension of the Kushana power from the upper Kabul valley
to N.W. India (PushkalavatI or W. Gandhara) had taken place when the Panjtar inscription was set up (year 122 = 63 — 4 a.d,). The Kushana king mentioned in the inscription may be either Wima Kadphises or one of his viceroys — possibly Kara Kadphises whose coins are found in the same region (pp. 582, n. 1, 584). Inscription of a Kushana king (identified with Wima Kadphises) reigning at Taksha^ila in the year 136 = 77 — 8 a.d. (pp. 581-2).
78 Initial year of the ^aka era.
The ^aka era appears to have been so called at a later date when it was best known as the era of the Cakas of Western India (the Western Satraps) who were originally feudatories of the Kushanas. It most probably marks the establishment of the Kushana empire by Kanishka (pp. 583, 585).
89 The Sue Vihara inscription of the Uth year of Kanishka proves
that the suzerainty of the Kushanas extended to the country of the lower Indus at this date (p. 585).
INDEX
Abastanes, tribe, 376 . Abdagases, 578, 580, 590, 592 Abhaya, king of Ceylon, 607, 608 Abhaya, son of Yatthalaya, 609 Abhayagiri monastery, 610 Abhaya Kumara, 186 Abhidhamma, 192, 193, 197 -Abhijit, 139 .Abhiras, tribe, 596 Abbisara, 349, 353, 357, 360, 370, 371,
373, 377, 383, 406, 468 •Abhisares, 468
Abhyavartin Chayamana, 84, 87, 322 Abu, mt, 21, 22, 34 A?ani, 237
Acesines. See Chenab Achaemenids, 51, 73, 319,328, 329, 340 ff.,
390, 438, 494, 540, 565, 567, 618, 634 ; _ inscriptions. See Persia Acharanga-siitra, 158, 160
• Agmakas, 315, 316
Agoka, Asoka, 166, 167, 189, 199, 222, 223, 315, 433, 442, 473, 495 ff., 516, 518, 519, 527, 534, 538, 608, 622, 627, 630 ; chronology, 171, 503 ; edicts, 61, 146, 193 ff., 467, 480, 481, 483, 484, 486, 494, 496 ff., 523, 540, 597, 599, 602, 603, 617 ff. ; extent of rule, 514 ff.
• A(?okarama, 498, 500, 501 . Apramas, 246, 281
AQvaghosha, 482, 483, 507 ■Acjvakas, 352
AQvalayana Grihya Siitra, 233, 235, 239, 251, 256
A9vamedha. See Horse sacrifice
A(;vamedhadatta, 302
AQvapati, 124, 126, 127
Agvasena, 154
A<;vattha, 136, 240
Acjvayuja rite, 239
A(;vini, 111
Agvins, 104, 110, 138, 320
Adan I, H, 598
Aden, 1, 2, 16, 36 ^Adharma, ordeal, 283
Adhisimakrishna, 302, 306, 308
Adhrishtasj 37i
Adhvaryu, 107, 114
Adhyakshas, 488
Adi Parana. See BrEihma Parana
Aditi, 105, 232 •Adityas, 88, 105, 232
Adiyariia-nallar, 597 •Adraistai, 371
Aelian, 270, 399, 406, 407, 412, 417, 425, 493
Aemilius Paulas, 71 .Aeschylus, 70, 394
Aesop, 257
Afghanistan, 24, 26 ff., 30, 32, 34, 38, 43, 53, 74, 79, 191, 321, 326, 327, 333, 338,
C.H.I. I.
339, 346, 347, 431, 434, 436, 444, 472,
540, 542, 560, 562, 564, 583, 645 Afghans, 42, 70, 352 ; Afghan War, 1882,
33 Africa, West, 132 Agalappnlai, 595 .Agastya, sage, 596 Agathocleia, 461, 552, 553, 559, 560, 588,
589 Agathocles, 438, 449 ff., 552 ; coins, 464,
546, 586 agghakaraka, 216 Aghora, 238 Agni, 73, 104, 105, 129, 142, 232, 233,
247, 288 ; on coins, 538 Agni-Brahma, 500
-Agnimitra, 223, 518 ff., 523, 525, 538,
600 Agni Parana, 301 Agoranomoi. See Agronomoi Agra, 13 ff., 17, 20, 23, 24, 309 Agrahayani, 232 Agrammes, 468, 469 Agrianes, 351 Agriculture, Indo-European, 68 ; Vedic,
99 ; later, 18, 135, 136, 202, 206, 238,
248, 287, 410, 417, 474
• Agronomoi (for Agoranomoi), 417, 508
Ahicchatra, 316, 520, 524 ff.
ahimsd, 138, 162, 504 .Ahinadabad, 19, 21, 27
Ahura Mazda, 76, 103, 319, 320, 324
Aigloi, 387
A'in-i-Akbari, 474
Aitareya Aranyaka, 115 ; Brahmana, 115, 117, 121, 124, 126, 127, 130, 132, 134, 145, 254, 279, 598
Aiyar, K. G. Sankara, 538
Ajanta 499. 635, 636
Ajata(?atra of Kagi, 122, 123, 127 Ajatagatru of Magadha, Ajatasattu, 122,
123, 156, 157, 160 ff., 181 ff., 189, 218,
310 ff., 315, 337, 469, 624; KOnika, _ 156, 183, 311 Ajivikas, 159, 482, 498, 601, 509, 512,
619 Ajmer, 21, 22 Ajodhya. See Ayodhya akd^a, 419 Akara, 523, 538 Akbar, 474
Akesines. See Chenab Akhuraja, 238 Akhyayika, 482 Akra, 647
Akshavapa, ratnin, 131 Alakapuri cave, 642 'Alam, Shah, 562 Alasanda. See Alexandria-under-the-Cau-
casus
45
7o6
Index
Alasanda-dvipa, 550 Albanian, 71
Alexander =Nandru8, 469 Alexander of Epirus, 602 \ Alexander the Great, 23, 29, 33, 34, 51, 57 ff., 113, 164, 223, 225, 313, 315, 331, 332, 341, 345 ff., 403, 428, 429, 439, 450, 453, 467 ff., 490, 491, 494, 520, 542 ff., 550, 551, 564, 621 ; coin types, 462 ; historians of, 68, 528, 541, 555; successors, 540 ff., 565; coins, 541 ; Itinerarium Alexandri, 542, 675
Alexander Polyhistor, 425 Alexandria, 425, 617 Alexandria = Rhambacia, 380
Alexandria- among - the - Arachosians, 347, 543
Alexandria [Opiana], 376
Alexandria Sogdiana, 377
Alexandria-under-the-Caucasus, 348, 350, 355, 383, 542, 543; Alasanda of the Yonas, 650
All Masjid, 32 Alikhat, 231 Alinas, 81
Alishang valley, 352
Allahabad, 13, 14, 17, 29, 45, 110, 469, 520, 527, 528 ; Prayaga, 110, 520
AUakappa, 175
Almora District, 529, 539
Alphabets, 62, 140, 529. See Brahml, KharoshthI
Alpine race, 46
Alwar, 84, 121, 316, 528
Amarapura, 7
Amaravati, on the Eistna, 599
Amb, 356
Amba, 253, 255
Ambala, 43, 79
Ambhi, 350; Omphis, 350, 357 ff., 361, 367, 377, 383
Ambika, 253
Ameshaspentas, 76
Amitraghata. See Bindusara
Amitratapana ^ushmina, 121
Amitrochates. See Bindusara
Amoghabhati, 529, 539
Amohini tablet, 526, 575, 576, 633
Amorges, 338
Amritsar, 26, 371, 414
amsala, 138
Amu Daria. See Oxus
Amulets, 239
Amun, 374, 379
Amusements, 102, 136, 138, 272, 417, 480
Amyntas, 556, 560, 591
Amyrgioi Sakai, 338, 664
Anagha, 238
Ananda, elder, 201
Ananta Gumpha, Khandagiri, 639, 640
andsah, no-nose, 85, 267
Anathapin^ika, 207, 211, 213, 216, 219, 624
Anatolia, 45
Ancyra, battle, 440
Andamans, 6, 37
Andhavana, 201
Andhradega, 599, 603
Andhraka, 518, 621
Andhras, 117, 124, 223, 224, 227, 249,
274, 279, 299, 311, 317, 318, 473, 475,
514, 516, 518, 619, 522, 623, 629 ff.,
593, 594, 598 ff., 635. See also Telugus Andragoras, 438 ; coins, 464 Androsthenes of Cyzicus, 442 Androsthenes of Thasos, 423 Angas, 48, 117, 123 ff., 160, 172, 173,
182, 190, 309, 311, 315, 317, 527, 534,
601 Angas (Veda-), 245, 482 Anguttara Nikaya, 172, 178, 186, 189,
192, 194 ff., 202, 214,215 Animisha, 231 Animism, 144, 169 Aiijanavana, 199, 202 Annam, 5, 48 Anspach, A. E,, 349, 351, 355, 361, 362,
365, 370, 371, 373 ff., 379, 380, 383 Antaka, 238 Antapaias, 488 Antarvampika, 488 Antialcidas, 461, 521, 522, 652, 558, 625 ;
coins, 556, 559, 560, 590, 591 Antigone of Sophocles, 646 Antigonus, king of Asia, 429, 432, 472 Antigonus Gonatas, 502 Antimachus I, Theos, 449 ff., 560 ; coins,
465, 546, 547, 586 Antimachus II, Nikephoros(?), 449, 547 Antioch, 432 Antiochus I of Syria, 389, 400, 432 ff.,
443, 447, 450, 463 ; coins, 463 Antiochus II, Theos, 432, 435 ff., 443, 496,
502, 515; coins, 463 ff. Antiochus III the Great, 440 ff., 453, 458,
512, 542 Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 454, 467, 458 Antiochus VII, 458 Antiochus in Milindapaiiha, 550 Antipater, 428 Ants, gold-digging, 396, 403 Anu, tribe, 82, 118, 317 Anugasana, 266 AnukramanI, 126 Anula, queen, 610 Anuradha, brother of Bhaddakachchana,
607 Anuradhapura, 606 ff. Anuruddha, king, 189 anusaviydna, 508 Aornus, 356, 357, 369 Apadana, 183, 197 Apala, 90 Apam Napat, 104 Aparanta, 603 Aparantaka, 499 Aparytai, 339 Apastamba, 113, 227, 229, 231, 234, 285,
237 ff., 283, 288, 290, 293, 301 Apaya, 80, 83 Apes. See Monkeys
Index
707
Aphices, Aphrikes, 356
Aphrodite, on gems, 648
Apollo, on coins, 436, 437, 460, 463, 466,
547, 548, 552, 555, 586, 587 ApoUodorus of Artemita, 425, 445, 542,
543 ApoUodotus I, 460, 461, 543, 544, 547,
548, 550 ff., 555, 557, 558, 560, 571,
586, 587
ApoUodotus II Philopator, 549, 552 ff,,
587, 588 Apollonius of Tyana, 425 ApoUophanes, satrap, 380, 381 ; king, 552,
553 ; coins, 589 Appian, 431
Apsarasas, 105, 145, 256 Arabian Sea, 2, 27, 34, 36, 51, 426, 595, 600 Arabitae, 380 Arachosia, 87, 326, 328, 333, 337, 341,
380, 431, 442, 444, 457, 472, 473, 542,
545, 546, 548, 554, 564, 568, 569, 571,
573, 574, 578, 583 Ara4a, 238 Arahant. See Arhat Arakan, 7 ; range, 8 Aral sea, 28, 69, 70 Aramaic script, 62. See Kharoshthi Aranyakas, 114 ff. Arattas, 242
Aravalli hills, 20 ff., 25, 34 Aravas, 380 Arbela,.341
Archebius, king, 556, 559, 591 Architecture, 137, 237, 259, 480, 616 ff.,
624, 647 ; Hellenistic, 646 ; Jain, 22 ;
Musalman, 20, 24 ; chaityas, rock
temples, stupas, 634 Areioi, 340 Argante, 394 Arghandab, river, 80 Argive king, 394 Arhat, 159, 196
Aria, 87, 327, 337, 431, 457, 542, 544 Ariana, 540, 542, 548, 554, 564, 567 Ariaspians, 332 Arigaeon, 353
Aristobulus, 352,367, 399,403 ff.,414ff.,421 Aristotle, 393 Arius, river, 441
Arjuna, 257, 258, 265, 266, 269, 528 Arjunayanas, 528 Armenia, 27, 45, 71, 569 ; language, 71,
73 Armies, 98, 246, 270, 289, 410, 412, 418,
476, 489, 490, 517; modern, 27, 29, 32 Arna, 84
Arnold, E. V., 78, 108 Arrian, 141, 292, 321, 331, 332, 341,
348 ff., 353, 356, 359, 362 ff., 367, 369,
371, 372, 374, 378, 381, 383, 384, 386,
388, 390, 399, 400, 404, 405, 407, 409,
411 ff., 415, 424, 425, 428, 433, 438,
446, 472, 477, 617 Arsaces I, 438, 439 Arsaces II, 438 Arsaces lU, 441
Arsaces of Uracil, 373
Arsacidae, 458. See Parthians
Artabanus I, 459, 567, 578
Artabanus III, 578
Artabates, 340
Artaxerxes Mnemon, 397
Artemidorus, 557, 558, 587
Artemis, on coins, 558, 587
Arthagastra, 113, 151, 157, 294, 295, 421, 467, 474 ff., 504, 505, 507
Aruvalar, tribe, 596, 598
Aruva-nadu, 596
Aruva-vadatalai, 696
drya, 73, 240, 481
Aryamitra, 527, 538
Aryans, 40, 46, 54, 56, 65 ff., 240, 242, 247, 254, 267, 290, 294, 295, 305, 308, 309, 317, 318, 320, 604, 605, 615 ; in South, 596,598, 602, 606; invasions, 23, 36, 42, 45, 49, 51, 52, 79, 119, 124, 222, 275,
_ 594 ; languages, 50, 52, 71, 73, 74
Aryavarta, 51, 242
Aryo-Dravidian type, 45, 46, 48, 120
Aryo-Indian stock, 73
Asandhimitra, 500
Asandivant, 117, 121
Ascetics, 151, 358, 411, 421
Asela, son of Mutasiva, 608, 609
Asha^hasena, 524, 537
Ashtakas, 355
Asia, 1, 496
Asia Minor, 70
Asiani, 459
Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded, 63, 65
Asii, 459
AsiknI. See Chenab
Asoka. See Apoka
Aspa, strategos, 581
Aspasioi, 352
Aspavarman, 677, 578, 581, 590, 592
Aspionos, 457
Assagetes, 355
Assakas 172 173
Assakenoi, 141, 352, 853, 355, 356, 468
Assakenos, 353
Assam, 9, 11, 12, 36, 40, 47, 48, 613
Assamese, 49, 51
Assurbanipal, 76
Assyria, 76 ; Assyrian kings, 141 ; art, 632, 644 ; civilisation, 615
Astakenoi, 141
Astes, 355
Astrologers, 136
Astronomy, 139, 140, 148, 226, 385
Astynomoi, 417, 418
Asura Maya, 673
Asuras, 76, 106, 145, 146, 233 ; epithet of Varuna, 103, 111
Atharvapiras, 245
Atharvaveda, 48, 56, 115, 117, 120, 121, 123, 124, 136, 138, 139, 145, 146, 229, 249, 252, 262, 298, 301, 302, 306, 309, 322
Athena, on coins, 433, 448, 462 ff., 552, 554, 571, 588, 589, 592 ; on gems, 647 ; shield of, 376
45—2
7o8
Indi
ex
Athenaeus, 413, 422, 423
Athens, 346 ; coin types, 386, 462
Atbravas, 125
Atithigva, 82, 101
Atman theory, 142, 151, 249
Atnara, 122
Atthasalini, 193, 207
Attic weight-standard, 388, 433, 434, 456,
460, 555, 645 Attock, 31, 346, 445 Atyarati Janamtapi, 121 Augustus Caesar, 597 Aurangabad District, 514, 631 Auraugzeb, 24 Australians, 41
Austric languages, 37, 41, 48, 49 Ava, 7 Avanti, 172, 173, 185 ff., 274, 310, 311,
316, 469, 514, 531, 533 Avantika, 531 Avantiputta, 185 Avantivardhana, 311
Avesta, 49, 56, 73, 74, 76, 111, 113, 319 ff., _ 323 ff. ; Gathas, 74 Ayar, tribe, 596, 598 ayas, 56, 100, 137 Ayodhya, 305, 309, 527, 531, 638 Azes I, 554, 646 ; another, 572 ; coins,
569, 572 ff„ 587, 589, 590, 592; era,
576, 581, 582, 584 Azes II, 573, 574, 578, 581 ; coins, 577,
590 ff. Azilises, 569, 573, 574 ; coins, 529, 539,
570 ff., 587 ff.
Bab-el-Mandeb, 426
Babelon, E., 343, 435
Babylon, 87, 330, 373, 386, 390, 428, 429,
433; Babylonia, 76, 140, 615; trade,
62, 212, 329, 396, 517 Back Bay, 17
Bactria, 33, 34, 43, 51, 58 ff., 70, 327, 329, 338, 348, 350, 383, 386, 389, 561; Greek kingdom, 34, 224, 225, 427 ff., 540 ff., 550, 554, 556, 563, 665, 621, 644; Bactrians, 340, 341, 351, 385, 387, 564; coins, 446 ff., 545, 647 ff.
Badagara, 695
Baden-Powell, B. H., 101
Baghdad, 615
Bahasatimitra, 524 ff., 637, 638
Bahawalpur State, 585
Bahistan inscr., 327, 334, 336, 337, 621
Bahiya, Tamil, 610
Bahmanabad, 378
Baindas, 129
Baines, Sir A., 528
Bairat, 316
Bakhtrl. See Bactria
Bakony Wald, 69
Bala Tisn, 611
Balabhuti, 526
Balaka, 311
Balani Tissa, 611
Balat Sivuva, Balavat Situvaya, 611
Balbutha, 86
Balhika Pratiplya, 122, 322; Balhikas,
124 Bali, king, 601 Bah offering, 230 Balkans, 68
Balkh, 51, 70, 327, 348, 363, 441, 442 Baloch, 42, 52 Baluchistan, 27, 29, 30, 38, 42 ff., 62, 53,
85, 321, 326, 328, 332, 333, 338, 431,
564, 594, 613, 614 Bana. See Harshacharita Banavasi, 603 Bandhupalita, 511 Band-i-Baian, 327 Banerji, K. D., 314 Bangalore, 6, 15 Bankipore, 477 Bannu District, 647 Barabar hills, 498, 501, 618, 619, 634 Bareilly District, 525 Barnett, L. D., 294 Baroda, 19, 20 Barsentes, 87 Bartholomae, C, 324 ff. Barugaza. See Broach Basarh. See Vesali Ba8ukun(J, 157 Batin, 41
Battle-axe, on coins, 539 Baudhayana, 134, 140, 217, 218, 237, 241,
242, 244, 245, 247 ff., 292, 293 Baveru, 212 ; Jataka, 396 Bayana, 327 Beal, S., 513 Beas, 69, 529; Vip5<?, 80, 81, 324, 341,
345, 408, 644 ; Hyphasis, 345, 372, 373,
375, 383, 402, 427, 468, 643 Bedsa cave, 635 ff. Begram, 348, 452 Bekanata, 87 Bellary District, 599 Benares, 13, 14, 23, 26, 117, 173, 174, 187,
199, 201, 206, 211, 212, 213, 215, 216,
301, 517, 522, 527 ; Division, 308 Bengal, 8, 9ff., 24, 25, 35, 36, 47, 48, 51,
191, 242, 469, 512, 534, 605, 606 ; Bay,
2, 4, 6, 16, 19, 34, 61, 402, 430, 695,
601 ; Nawabs, 24 Bengali, 15, 51
Bengali type. See Mongolo-Dravidian Berar. See Vidarbha Bergny, A. V., 529 Besnagar, 617 ; columns. See Bhilsa Betwa, 522 Bhabra, 498, 505 Bhadda, queen, 189 Bhaddakachchana, 607 Bhaddasala, Bhadrasara, monk, 499, 608 Bhaddiya, 177
Bhadrabahu, 154, 156, 164, 165, 169 Bhadraka, 621
Bhadrasara, king. See Bindusara Bhadrasara, missionary. See Bhaddasala Bhadrasena, 123 Bhadraya^asa, 654, 589
Index
709
Bhaga, god, 238
Bhaga, ^unga, 518, 521
Bhagabhadra, 521, 558
Bhagadugha, ratnin, 131
Bhagala, 372, 468
Bhagalpur, 48, 213, 309, 311, 315, 527
Bhagavadgita, 273, 275, 484
Bhagavata, ?unga, 518, 521, 522
Bhagavatas. See Vishnu
Bhagavatl-sutra, 163
Bhaggas, 175
Bhaja cave, 635 ff.
Bhalanases, 82
Bhamo, 7
bhanddgdrika, 206
Bhandarkar, D. K., 295, 522
Bhandarkar, E. G., 520
Bharadvaja, purohita, 518
Bharadvajas, 82, 84, 87, 202
Bharata, ancestor, 304, 308
Bharata, country, 304
Bharata, Jain, 153
Bharata, poem, 251, 256
Bharata Dauhshanti, 47, 120, 308
Bharatas, 47," 81, 91, 92, 116, 118 ff., 123,
251, 252, 262, 276, 306, 307 ; seven, 174 Bharatavarsha, 304 ; Bharatavarsha, 536,
537 Bharatpur, Bhartpur, 84, 316, 528 Bharhut, 517, 524 ; Stupa, 200, 215, 476,
479, 501, 523, 624, 626, 629, 632, 633,
637, 640 Bharukaccha. See Broach Bhasa, 471 Bhashya, 482 Bhattiprolu, 529, 623 Bhavishya Purana, 249, 301 Bheda, king, 82,' 308 Bhikshuraja, 602 Bhils ( Villa var?), 595 Bhflsa, 500, 600 ; topes, 499, 523, 533 ;
Besnagar columns, 521, 522, 558, 625 Bhima, Pandu, 264 Bhima of Vidarbha, 117 Bhimasena, 120 Bhishma, 255 Bhita, 617, 643 bhojaka, 203, 204 Bhojakas, 535, 600 Bhojas, 274, 473, 514 Bhopal, 634
Bbrigukaccha. See Broach Bhrigus, 82, 121 Bhutan, 11, 47 Bhutapala, seth, 637 Bhutapati, 145 Bhuts, 238 Bihar, 13, 15, 17, 45, 48, 51, 55, 57, 117,
160, 242, 307, 309, 313, 485, 514, 527,
616, 618, 619, 634 Bihari, 51 Bikaner, 21, 87 Bimaran, 646, 648 Bimbisara, 157, 160, 163, 182 ff., 218,
310 ff., 315, 337, 616, 629; Crenika,
157, 311
Bindusara, 166, 223, 315, 500, 503; Amitrochates, 433, 495; Bhadrasara, 495
Biot, J. B., 140
Birhors, 395, 396
Birth ceremonies, 231, 236
Bithynians, 71
Black cotton soil, 18
Black Sea, 69, 70, 433, 665
Bloch, J., 616, 643
Bloomfield, M., 81, 88, 94, 144
Bodhi Kumara, 187
Bodhi Tree, 196, 624 ; in Ceylon, 608
Boghaz-koi inscriptions, 72, 73, 75, 76, 320
Bohemia, 69, 70, 72
Bohtlingk, 0., 88
Bokhara. See Bukhara
Bolan pass and river, 28 ff., 82, 564
Bombay, 2, 16 ff., 23, 27 ; Presidency, 19, 20, 27, 29, 44, 602
Bombay and Baroda railway, 19
Bonner, E. T., 133
Bopp, F., 65
Borghat, 17
Bosporus, 69, 70
Boyer, A. M., 582
Brahma, 249, 303, 485; son of a, 93
Brahma Purana, 300, 501
brahmacharin, 136, 151
Brahmadatta of Kapl, 174, 180, 316
Brahmajala Sutta, 194, 482
Brahmamitra, 526, 538, 626
brahman, 94, 127, 142 ff .
Brahmanas, 46, 47, 57, 82, 83, 125 ff., 135, 138, 142, 144, 147, 220, 252, 254, 298 ; period, 46, 54, 82, 112 ff., 261, 307, 309, 317, 482
Brahmans, Brahmanism, 46, 51, 53ff., 92, 93, 120, 122, 124, 126 ff., 130, 132ff., 204, 209, 221, 239, 247, 259, 266, 280, 304, 309, 377, 409 ff., 484, 488, 521, 522, 595, 596 ; and Kshatriya doctrine, 127, 144, ; literature, 40, 48, 50, 55, 59, 77 ff., 114 ff.
Brahmaputra, 8, 9, 11, 12, 36, 39
Brahmarshidega, 46, 51, 57
Brahmavarta, 46, 80, 81, 93, 110, 308
Brahmi script, 62 ; on coins, 449, 523, 529, 538 ; on gems, 647 ; in inscrip- tions, 625, 628, 643
Brahui, 42, 49, 85, 613 ; mts, 540, 664
Bretzl, H., 405
Bribu, 87
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 116, 121, 136, 143, 549
Brihadratha, 309, 310, 511, 512, 517
Brihaduktha, 121
Brihannarayana Purana, 270
Brihaspati, law-book, 280, 282, 283, 286, 287, 290
Brihaspati, Maurya, 511
Brihasvatimitra. See Bahasatimitra
Brifijaras, 489
Bi-isaya, 82, 87
Broach, Bharukaccha, 212, 213 ; Baru- gaza, 548 ; Bbrigukaccha, 517
yio
Index
Bronze, 56, 100 ; age of, 614 Brunnhofer, A., 323 Bucephala, 368, 374, 551, 688 Buddha, 14, 122, 150, 152, 160 ff., 185,
196, 214, 222, 309, 311, 317, 470, 480, 482, 491, 524, 551, 605, 606, 616 ; date, 112, 156, 163, 171 ff., 604, 607; in sculpture, 619, 624, 629, 630, 643, 644, 647, 648 ; Gotama, Gautama, 150, 183, 184, 605; Siddhattha, 209, 306, 312, 644
Buddbacharita, 483
Buddhaghosa, 176, 181, 182, 192, 195
Buddhavamsa, 197
Buddh Gaya, 526, 618, 619 ; temple, 626, 628, 630. See Gaya
Buddhism, 11, 20, 54 £f., 60, 61, 112, 116, 121, 123, 143, 144, 147, 152, 161, 171 ff., 221, 260, 261, 275, 482, 602; councils, 194, 482, 498, 505 ff. ; disappearance, 65, 169, 170, 225 ; economic conditions, 198 £f. ; missions, 433, 498, 499, 506, 603, 604 ff. ; in south, 2, 596, 697 ; texts, 55 ff., 123, 125, 129, 156, 157, 186, 189,
197, 297, 473, 479, 482, 484, 495, 549, 604 ; their age, 192 ff.
Biihler, G., 62, 113, 140, 152, 167, 199,
214, 241, 242, 243, 245, 246, 249, 250,
261, 283, 317, 452, 487, 505, 508, 523,
529, 530, 536, 676, 601 Bukhara, 32, 342, 348, 350, 363, 390, 434,
436, 442 Bulgarians, 66 Bulls, 176 Bull, 99, 105; on coins, 538, 639, 647,
657, 658, 587 ; on seals, 618 ; Bull and
Horseman, 557 Bundelkhand, 84, 528, 613 Burgess, J., 637 Burgon, T., 448 Burial. See Dead Burma, 5ff., 36, 39, 40, 47ff., 53, 54, 613 ;
railways, 8, 16, 20 Burnell, A. C, 278
Cabaras, 117, 124
yagadharman, 611
^aganka, 613
ga(?igupta, 350, 356, 369
Cadrusi, 348
Caduceus, on coins, 546, 586
Cailusha, 138
Caivism. See ^iva
^akadvipa, 516, 532, 564. See Indo- Scythia
^akala. See Sagala
9akas, Sakas, 44, 60, 224, 253, 274, 304, 329, 338 ff., 459, 461, 616, 518, 626, 627, 629, 632, 533, 539, 540, 546, 548, 553, 664, 557, 558, 560, 561, 563 ff. ; satraps, 168, 224, 225, 666, 574 ff. ; era of Cakas in Seistan, 670 ; era (of Kanishka), 167, 583, 585 ; summary of coins, 686. See Scythians
Cakasthana, 564
Qakra. See Indra
Qakti-(;ri, Qakti-kumara, 531
Cakuntala, 120
yakyas. See Sakiyas
Caland, W., 102, 106
Calcutta, 2, 9, 10, 16, 17, 19, 23, 25, 29,
216 ; Indian Museum, 619 QaliQuka, 511 Calicut, 3, 4 Calingon, cape, 601 Calliope, queen, 547, 586 Qalya, 255 ^ambala. See Sambala
gambara, 82, 84 ambay, gulf, 16, 20, 21
(^^ambhavya Siitra, 251
Cambodia, 48
gambhu, 377
Cambyses, 332 ff.
Camel, 32, 67 ; on coins, 588
^amtanu, 126
Canals, 26, 80
(jJancla, 231
Oankaracharya, 143
Cankhayana, 232 ff., 251
Cankhayana Brahmana, 115
Cannibalism, 395, 422
^anti, 273
Qaphala, 124
Capisa, Capisene, 332. See Eapipa
Cappadocia, excavations, 72
Caravans, 211, 212
Cardamon hills, 3
Carmania, 428, 442
Carnatic, 2, 3, 4 ; Karnata, 165
Carpathians, 68
Cartana, 348
(^aryanavant, 80
gjaryata, 126
Caspian sea, 28, 69, 70, 433
Cassander, 432
Caste, 53 ff., 75, 86, 107, 125 ff„ 130, 234, 235, 241, 244, 246, 248, 266 ff., 279, 280, 284, 285, 287, 314, 474 ff., 479, 480, 489, 596 ; in Vedas, 86, 92 ff. ; in Buddhist period, 208 ff., 221, 222, 260, 266, 294 ; jdti, 56, 235, 244, 246 ; vama, 54, 75, 86, 92, 208, 209, 235, 244
Castor and Pollux. See Dioscuri
Qastra, 228, 277 ff. , 482. See Law-books
Catadaya, 97
yatadhanvan, 611
Catakarni, 223, 318, 530 ff., 536, 599 ff.
^atakas, 599
gatamdna, 137
Catanika, Satrajita, 119, 302, 308, 316
yatapatha Brahmana, 47, 48, 50, 115 ff., 126, 130 ff,, 138,' 140, 142, 145, 146, 148, 252, 263, 305, 308, 316, 317, 525
yatavahana. See Satavahana
Cathaei, Cathaeans. See Eshatriyas
yatru, 231
Cattle-raising. See Pastoral pursuits
Caucasian type, 37, 38
Caucasus, 69, 70, 452
Cauinjikeya, 231
Cauvery. See Kaveri
Index
711
Cawnpore, 13, 14, 25, 81 Celts, 71 ; languages, 72
gen-guttnvan, 598 ensusReport, 37, 40, 48, 50, 55 Central Indian agency, 15, 19, 21, 22 Central Provinces, 19, 48, 129, 519, 600,
614 Cerasus, 67 Cey, king, 598 Ceylon, 2, 49, 54, 60, 62, 173, 195, 196,
213, 424, 478, 499, 614, 604 £f. ; Saran-
dib, 606; Chronicles, 171, 184, 185, 190,
191, 312, 500, 604. See Dipavamsa,
Mahavamsa Chabahil, 501 Chadwick, H. M., 257, 272 Chahara. See Chhahara Chaitra, 149, 232 Chaitya halls, 634 ft., 639, 642 Chakra Revottaras Patava, 122 chakravartin. See Universal monarch Chalmers, Lord R., 156 Chaman, 30, 31 Chambal, 13, 15, 21 ; Charmanvati, 316,
520 Champa, 160, 173, 182, 186, 201, 213 Champaran, 317 Chanakya, 151, 157, 164, 166, 470, 471.
See also Arthagastra Chanda, Ramaprasad, 522 Chandal, 325 Chandalas, 129, 208 Chanda vajji, 506 Chandrabansi Rajputs, 804 Chandragupta, 34, 59, 156, 165, 166, 223,
312, 315, 331, 389, 413, 417, 418, 444,
467 ff., 495, 501, 518, 535, 541, 597, 599;
Chandagutta, 189 ff. ; Sandrocottus, 59,
156 Chandragupta II Vikramaditya, 519, 533 Chandramas, 469 Chang-kien, 459, 461 Chappar rift, 30 Charakas, 136
Chares of Mytilene, 422, 423 Charikar, 348, 542, 543, 550 Chariot race, 102, 138, 141 Charmanvati. See Chambal Charms. See Spells Charpentier, J., 124, 156, 163 Charsadda, 365, 643, 548 Charumati, 600, 501 Chatuma, 175 Chaucer, 444 Chautang, 80
Chedis, 84, 274 ; Cheti, 172 Chellana, 157, 183 Chenab, 27, 31, 83, 118, 121, 468, 649,
550; Asikni, 80, 324, 345; Acesines,
345, 359 ff., 369, 370, 372 ff., 383, 427 Cheras, 515, 595, 596 ff. ; Keralas, 595 Chesney, Sir G. T., 517 Cheta dynasty, 534, 538, 602 Chetaka, 157 Cheti. See Chedis Chetiyapabbata-vihara, 608
Cheyne, T. K. , 391
Chhaddanta Jataka, 631
Chhandaka, 630
chhandas, chhdndasa, 186
Chhandas period, 112
Chhandogas, 136
Chhandogya Upanishad, 116, 117, 120,
133, 143, 262, 299 Chhahara, 556, 675, 576 Childers, R. C, 218 China, 5, 7, 20, 36, 38, 39, 47, 57, 58, 212,
372, 478, 496, 582 ; Chinese sources, 60,
188, 458, 459, 503, 524, 655, 563, 565,
566, 567, 583, 584; Great Wall, 565 Chinas, 274 Chindwin, 7 Chins, 8
Chir tope, 581, 682 Chitaldroog District, 515 Chitor, 21, 520, 544 Chitral, 33, 45, 52, 119 Chitraratha, 84
Chitta, daughter of Pan^a, 607 Chittagong, 9 Choes Valley, 352
Chola, city, 212, 213 ; Chola-decja, 609 Choias, 515, 595 ff., 608; Qolas, 595 Choranaga, 610 Chota Nagpur, 48, 182, 613 Chowghat, 595
Christian communities, 36 ; caste in, 55 Chronicles, Book of, 694 Chronology, 77 ff., 147, 155, 171 ff., 222,
249, 276, 299, 306, 307, 310 ff., 473,
697 ff. See Dynastic lists Chrysostom, St John, 268 Chukhsa, 556, 576 ChuUakasetthi Jataka, 211 Chumuri, 84 Chunar, 619 Chyavana, 126, 231 gibis, 121 QiQunaga dynasty and king, 310 ff., 316,
503 ; Susunaga, 189, 313 gigrus, 82, 85 Cilicia, 344 Qimyus, 85
Circars, 594, 599, 601, 602 Circe legend, 607 Qitala, 575
City goddess, on coins, 587, 588 giva, 104, 145, 238, 255, 303, 422, 597 ;
cult, 225, 272, 274, 289, 408, 419, 485,.
532, 557; givaites, 124, 233, 257, 259;
Mahadeva, 255 givadatta, 629, 539 givaites. See giva givas, 82, 121 Clisobora, 408
Clitarchus, 367, 399, 416, 417, 422 Clive, General, 24 Coal, 35
Cochin, 3, 4, 20, 595 godasa, 526, 538, 575, 576, 638 Codomannus. See Darius III Coenus, 366
712
Indi
ex
Coggin-Brown, J., 615 Coimbatore, Gap, 3, 4 ; District, 595 Coins, 60 ff., 224, 226, 624, 528, 529, 531, 534, 645 ; punch-marked, 343, 622, 623; key to plates I-V, 462, 538; summary of Yavanas, Qakas, and Pahlavas, 586 Colaba Point, 17 Colas. See Cholas Coiebrooke, H. T., 152 Coliaci, 424 Colombo, 1, 2
Comorin, Cape, 2, 400 ff., 593, 595, 696 Comparative philology, 64, 65, 109 Qona Satrasaha, 121, 525 yonaka, Qonakayana, 525 Conjeeveram, 596 ; Kanchl, 631, 595 Cook, S. A., 340 Coorg, 4, 595 Coorgs, 594 Cophaeus, 355 Cophen. See Kabul river Copper,in Eigveda,56, 100; age, 56, 614, 616 Coromandel, 2, 4, 5, 212 Cossa, L., 219 Cotton, 2, 3, 396, 404, 412 Councillors, royal, 271, 288, 290, 411 Courier, ratnin, 131 Cow, 129, 234, 269 ; unit in commerce,
97, 137, 217; slaying, 101, 102, 137, 232 CoweU, E. B., 215, 310, 415, 417, 518,
521, 522 Cowley, A., 62 (^palahora. See Spalahores ^raddha, god, 105 (jramaiia, 420, 421, 484 Craterus, 364 ff., 374, 375, 379, 564 Crateuas, 384 (^rauta sacrifices, 247 grauta Sutras, 116, 227 ff., 231 gravasti, 159, 160, 162, 309, 523, 617,
624 ; SavatthI, 180, 181, 184, 186, 201,
206, 211, 213 ff. Cremation. See Dead ^renika. See Bimbisara greshthin, 137, 477; settU, 207 ff., 260.
See Gilds (J3ri-kakulam, 699 Crimes, Vedic, 97 ; later, 133, 241, 247,
248, 281 ff., 414, 486 (^rinagar, ^rlnagari. See Srinagar Croesus, 331 (JJrutasena, 120 Ctesias, 137, 329, 330, 340, 341, 393, 395,
397, 423, 675 Ctesiphon, dynasty, 574 Cuddhodana. See Suddhodana gudras, 54, 86, 92, 125, 126, 128, 129,
134, 229, 231, 234, 235, 240, 244, 248,
256, 267, 285, 287, 294, 304, 313, 314,
479, 481 Quktimat, 304
Cungas, 223, 224, 317, 318, 512, 516 ff., ' 529 ff., 537, 544, 600, 623, 627, 628 ;
coins, 523, 524 Cunningham, Sir A., 167, 215, 343, 348,
350, 361, 388, 442, 444, 445, 448, 452,
454, 460, 476, 499, 626, 626, 527, 546,
547, 548, 555, 560, 578, 624 Qurasenas, 51, 167, 289, 315, 316, 408, 469,
526; Surasenas, 172, 185; Suraseni, 408 CurpSraka. See Supparaka Currency, 97, 98, 137, 210, 217 Curtius, Quintus, 332, 347, 348, 353, 356,
358, 366, 369, 372, 374, 378, 380, 384,
385, 428, 469, 674 Cutch, 20, 224 ; Rann of, 21, 175, 880 Cuttack, 634 ^utudrl. See Sutlej Qvamukha, 397 gvetaketu, 122 Cvetambaras. See Jains yvetagvatara Upanishad, 274 yvikna, king, 124 Qyapamas, 126 Cyme, 443
Cypriots, 374 ; Cyprus, 344 Cyrene, 540 Cyrus, 29, 51, 141, 329 ff., 540, 655
Dabbasena, 180
Dapakumaracharita, 492
daQapa, 289
Dagaratha, of Ayodhya, 309
Da<;aratha, successor of Agoka, 166, 502,
511, 512, 619, 620 Dagama, 523 Dacca,' 2, 4, 36 Dapona, 511 Dadikai, 339, 340 Dahae, 87, 566 Dahlmann, J., 261
Daimachus of Plataea, 399, 400, 433, 495 daiva, 283; Zoroastrian, 76 Daivavata, 84 Dakshina, 99
Dakshinapatha, 274, 529, 602. See Deocan Dalbha; 119 Dalton, E. T., 395, 396 Damaraxus, 369 Dames, M. L., 328, 339 Danastutis, 78, 84, 96 Dandakaranya, 602 Dantapura, 173 Danube, 69 Darad, Darada, 404 Darbhanga, 317 Dargaka, king, 311, 313 Dardanelles, 69, 70 Dardistan, 396, 404 Dards, 339
Daremberg and Saglio, 391 Daric, 342, 343, 390 Darius I Hystaspes, 23, 57, 58, 74, 141,
213, 327, 333 ff., 342, 393, 438, 540,
564, 567 ; tomb, 634 Darius III, 74, 341, 347, 386, 634 Darjeeling, 10, 11, 25 Darmesteter, J., 324 ff. Dasaka, elder, 606 Dasi, 85 Dasyus, Dasas, 54, 73, 75, 79, 82 ff., 322 ;
Dasa king, 82, 86
Inaex
713
Dathika, Tamil, 610 Davids, Mrs Ehys, 217 Davids, T. W. Bhys, 144, 171, 174, 175, 182 ff., 193, 195, 199, 201, 213, 317, 329, 413, 418, 469, 479, 484, 491, 549 Days of week, 279
Dead, disposal of, burial, 107, 108, 228, 236, 418, 476; cremation, 107; ex- posure, 415 : Vedic remains, 616 Deb, H. K., 311 Debal, 379, 606
Deccan, 2, 14, 16 ff., 24, 35, 40, 48, 242, 516, 519, 529, 530, 535, 598, 599, 602, 603, 613, 614
Deer, on coins, 539 Dehra Dun, 26
Delbriick, B., 89, 351, 361, 363, 364, 367
Delhi, 13, 15, 17, 20 ff., 29, 32, 34 ff., 39, 47, 216, 289, 308, 468, 499, 601, 520, 544
Demetrius I of Baotria, 441, 444 ff., 448, 451ff., 542 ff., 551,553, 554, 645 ; coins, 464, 559, 573, 586, 589
Demetrius II of Bactria, 448, 451, 452; coins, 464
Demetrius I of Syria, 457
Demetrius II of Syria, 458
Demetrius, general, 429
Demetrius in Milindapaiiha, 650
Deo-Patan, 501
Derbikes, 830
Derdae, 404
Deussen. P., 144
Devabhuti, 518, 521, 622
Devagravas, 83
Devadaha, 175
Devadharman, 511
Devajana-vidya, 254
Devamantriya, 550
Devanampiya Tissa, 499, 608, 609
Devananda, 157
Devapala, 501
Deva-pattana, 501
Devapi, 93, 94, 126
Devavarman, 511
Devavata, 83
Devi of Vedisa, 500
Devol Deviyo, 606
Dhamma and Vinaya, 192, 194
Dhammapada, 197, 206; com., 182, 184, 186, 187, 193, 202, 215
Dhammapala, commentator, 183
Dhammapala, elder, 186
Dhamma -sangani, 197, 214
Dhammasoka, 608. See Agoka
Dhanabhuti Vacchiputa, 523
Dhanananda, 313, 469
Dhanya-kataka, 599
Dharaghosha, 529, 539
Dharanikota, 599
Dharma, 280, 281, 496, 503 ff., 507; ordeal, 283
Dharma ^astras. See Law-books
Dharma-mahamatras, 497, 506, 509
Dharma Nibandhas, 278
Dharmapala, king, 523, 538
Dharma-pathakas, 277
Dharmarakshita, 499
Dharma Sutras, 116, 227 ff., 231, 234,
240 ff. ; date, 250, 295 dhama, 284 Dhatarattha, 174 Dhaiili, 496, 497 Dhritarashtra Vaicitravirya, 119, 123,
316 Dhruva, 149 Dhuni, 84
Dhvasan Dvaitavana, 121 Dice, 98, 102, 130, 131, 138, 237, 247,
262, 263, 281, 282 Digambaras. See Jains Digha-Gamani, 607 Digha Nikaya, 156, 173 ff., 177, 179, 182,
184, 185, 192, 194, 196 ff., 201, 205,
209, 211, 214, 470 Dighavu, 179 Dighayu, brother of Bhaddakachohana,
607 Dighiti, 180 Diodorus Siculus, 332, 347, 348, 351, 353,
356 ff., 369, 370, 372, 374, 378, 380,
384, 397, 402, 407, 408, 414, 415, 425,
427 ff., 469, 674 Diodotus I, 435 ff., 443, 450, 451, 463,
546, 623 ; wrongly Theodotus, 435 Diodotus n, 440, 464, 502 Diogenes, cynic, 358, 359, 398 Diomedes, king, 556, 587, 591 Dionysius, ambassador, 399, 433, 495 Dionysius, king, 549, 552, 553, 587, 589 Dionysus, 331, 332, 354, 408, 409, 416,
419, 422, 485; in art, 646; on coins,
449 Dioscuri, 104 ; on coins, 455, 460, 465,
539, 556, 558, 587, 591 Dipavamsa, 174, 184, 185, 212, 312, 603,
604, 605, 609 ff. Dlrghatamas, 601 Distresses, six, 270 Divakara, 306 Divodasa, 82, 84, 86, 87, 94, 95, 101, 120,
305, 518 Divyavadana, 179, 187, 189, 212, 495,
607, 511, 519 Doab, 46 ; Doabs, 31, 550; Bechna Doab,
650 Dogra- mountaineers, 27 Drama, 138, 255, 297 Drangiana, 328, 330, 338, 442, 458, 548,
564, 568, 569 Draupadi, Krishna, 263 ff. Dravidian languages, 15, 19, 36, 37, 41 ff.,
49, 50, 602 Dravidians, Dravidas, 40 ff., 48, 73, 85,
120, 124, 204, 240, 380, 515, 593, 604,
606, 613, 615 ; pre-Dravidians, 41, 594,
604 ; dravida, dramida, damila, 593 Drishadvati, 80, 83, 110, 116, 302, 306 dronamukha, 476 Dronasa, 231
Droysen, J. G. , 372, 430, 453 Druhyus, 82, 118 Duff, M. C, 141
714
Index
Durga, 272
Durgaha, 83, 94
Durgapalas, 488
Darmukha, 121
Dushtantu Paumsayana, 122, 131
Dushyanta, 308
Dutch in Ceylon, 2, 605
Duttha-Gamani, 609
Dvaitavana lake, 121
Dvapara age, 303
Dvaravati, 631
Dyaus, 103, 105. See Zeus
Dynastic lists, 68, 224, 305, 520 ; Andhras, 530, 631 ; ^i?""^^^^* ^^^ > Cungas, 618 ; Ikshvakus, 306, 309 ; Mauryas, 189, 511 ; Nandas, 313
Dyrta, 366
Eagle, on coins, 462
Earth goddess, 230, 616. See Prithivi
East India Company, 24, 63, 562
East Indian Eailway, 13, 17, 25
Easter Island, 48
Ecbatana, 346, 391, 411
Economic conditions, Vedic, 99 ff. ; later, 135 ff., 259; Buddhist, 198 ff.
Eggeling, J., 142
Egyptians, 351, 374, 394, 407; Egypt,
_ 517, 540, 545, 594, 615
Elara, Tamil king, 608, 609 ; Elala, 609
Elephant, 67, 81, 100, 137, 356, 405, 424, 490, 557; on coins, 539, 546, 547, 555 ff., 560, 586, 587, 590, 691 ; in art, 635, 647
elepJias, 391
Elu, 606
Emetreus, 444
Endogamy, 129
enotokoitol, 394
Epander, king, 557, 587
Ephorus, 398
Epics, 47, 58, 119, 122, 278, 479, 483, 666 ff. ; period, 220 ff. ; princes and peoples, 251 ff. ; in South, 596
Epikleros, 134
Epirus, 540
Eran, 623, 538
Erapata, 624
Eras. See Azes, ^akas, Mauryas, Vi- krama
Eratosthenes, 400 ff., 409, 424, 425
Erices, 356
Erythraean Sea, 330
Erzgebirge, 68
Esdras I, 339
Esther, Book of, 325, 339, 340
Esukarl, 203
Ethiopians, 339, 394, 407 ; type, 37
Ethnographical divisions, 37 ff.
Eucratides, 446, 447, 451 ff., 532, 541, 544, 545, 551 ff., 557, 558, 560, 566, 671; coins, 466, 547, 548, 575, 588, 590, 691, 647; successors, 654 ff., 569, 563, 564
Eucratides II (?), 460, 466
Eucratidia, 455
Eudamus, Eudemus, 384, 386, 428, 429, 471
Eumenes of Gardia, 371, 415
Eunuchs, 289
Eupatridse, 125
Euphorion, 470
Euphrates, 27, 70, 458
Euthydemia (Euthymedeia), 446
Euthydemus I, 440 ff., 445, 447, 450 ff., 455, 458, 461, 512, 541 ff., 648, 560, 571; coins, 464, 465, 546, 571, 574, 589 ; successors, 546 ff., 654, 556, 564
Euthydemus II, 443 ff., 448, 452; coins, 457, 464
Evangelium loannis de obitu Mariae, 679
Everest, 10
Exogamy, 53, 243
Exposure of children and aged, 97, 135
Eyinar, tribe, 596
Family, Vedic, 88, 90, 97; later, 134,
243, 287, 481 Famine, 203 Feist, S., 90
Fergusson, J., 480, 618, 637 Fetishism, 97, 106 Fick, R., 198, 203, 207, 209, 211, 213,
214, 260, 469, 478, 494 Firdausi, 325, 328 Fire altar, 142 Fire-weapons in epic, 271 Firozabad, 25 Five tribes, 86, 92, 116 Fleet, J. F., 112, 499, 560, 584 Flood legend, 140 Formichi, C, 490, 492 Fort William, 9 Foucher, A., 500, 629, 648 Foy, W., 475, 478, 479, 488 Franke, 0., 566, 583 Franke, R. 0., 187 Fiihrer, A., 167, 621, 524 Furrow sacrifice, 238 Fyzabad, 309
Gad, brother of Giidnaphar, 579
Gahapati, 190 ; gehapati, 259
Gaikwar of Baroda, 19
gdma, gdma-bhojaka. See Village
Gamani-Abhaya. See Duttha-Gamani
Gambling, 89, 98, 102, 262, 281, 417
Gaming-hall, 237, 247, 263, 272, 480
Ganadharas, 164
Ganapa Tissa, 608
Gandak, 13, 122 ; Great, 309
Gandaxa, Gandaria. See Gandhara
Gandaridae, 370
Gandarioi, 338, 340
Gandaris, 370
Gandaritis, 328, 330
Gandhara, 51, 58, 59, 62, 214, 222, 321, 427, 473, 499, 612, 542, 545, 546, 552, 565 ff., 559, 669, 570, 580; Gandara, 327, 338; Gandaria, 337; Gandharas, 141, 172, 514; sculpture, 385, 570, 648, 649
Inde,
'X
715
Gandhari, Gandharis, Gandharians, 117,
321, 322, 333, 394 Gandharvas, 105 ; in sculpture, 640 Ganesh Gumpha, Udayagiri, 639, 641 Gangaridae, 468, 469 Ganges, 8fE., 12 £f., 25, 31, 35 ff., 40, 45 ff.,
80, 120, 122, 182, 183, 185, 213, 214,
308, 314, 337, 372, 402, 411, 422, 423,
426, 468, 469, 477, 516, 524, 526, 601 Ganjam, 601, 602 ; District, 495, 514, 515 Garbe, R., 144, 273 Gardabhilas, 533 Gardabhilla, 168, 532 Gardner, P., 389, 436, 454, 582 Gargi Samhita, 544 Garo hills, 8, 9, 12 Oaru^a pillar. See Bhilsa Gaspar, 579 Gathas, hero-lands, 251, 254, 255; of
Avesta, 74 Gathaspar, 579 Gauls, migrations, 72 ; battle of Ancyra,
440 Gaupatya, 238 Gautama, law book, 140, 199, 217, 218,
234, 240, 241, 245 fE., 288, 292. See
Buddha, Indrabhiiti Gaatamiputra ^atakarni, 530 Gavamayana, 141 Gaya, 14, 20, 23, 48, 182, 301, 309, 500,
608. See also Buddh Gaya Gaza, battle of, 429 Gedrosia, 87, 331, 333, 380, 431, 472 Gehapati. See Gabapati Geiger, W., 91, 172, 190, 312, 325, 328,
503, 506 Geldner, K. F., 326. See Pischel, R. Gem Lake, 22
Gems, 402, 594 ; engraved, 647, 648 Genealogies. See Dynastic lists Genos, gens, 91, 125 German tribes, 66; Germans, 71 Gerontes, 133 Gersoppa, 5 Ghats, 2 ff., 20, 34, 36; Eastern, 19, 601;
Western, 17, 18 ; of Benares, 14 Ghazni, 33, 328, 338, 452, 546, 548, 561 Ghilzai, 328, 338 Ghorband valley, 332, 555 ghosha, 268 Ghosha, king, 518 Ghosita arama, 188 Gilds, 137, 206, 207, 210, 247, 259, 269,
291, 478, 489, 490. See greshthin Gilgit, 33, 45, 52, 119 Gilmore, J., 329, 330 Giribbaja, Girivraja, 183, 310, 315 Girikshit, 83, 94 Girivraja. See Giribbaja Girnar, 496 Glauganikai, 369 Glausai, 369 Goa, 20
Gobhila, 229, 230, 238, 239 Godavari, 16, 17, 19, 195, 514, 529, 531,
536, 599, 601, 602 ; Point, 601
Godwin Austen, mt, 33
Gogra, 13, 309
Golconda, 18
Gold, 101, 213, 342 ; ant gold, 396, 403,
404 Golu Abha, 609 Gomati, 79, 321 Gomitra, 526, 538 Gond tribes, 19, 35, 395 _Gonda District, 309 Gondophames, 562, 571, 576 ff., 581, 583,
589, 590, 592; Gaspar, Gathaspar,
Giidnaphar, 579 ; Vindapharna, 577 Gopas, 486, 488 Gopatha Brahmana, 115 Gosala Mamkhaliputta, 158, 159, 162,
163 Gotama, clan, 178. See Buddha Gothabhaya, 609 Gotra, 243
Grain, 31, 68, 100, 135, 203, 404 ^TJrama, Gramani, gramika. See Village grdmyavddin, 136 Grand Trunk road, 13 Great Indian Peninsula railway, 17 Greeks, coins, 61, 386 ff. ; historians, 58 ff.,
132, 146, 391 ff., 563 ; Homeric, 56, 96,
101, 133, 391, 479; language, 73, 74;
primitive, 71 : invasions. See Yavanas Grierson, Sir G. A., 50, 109, 110, 119, 146,
182, 275 Griffiths, J., 499 grihastha, 151 Grihya sacrifices, 247 Gi-ihya Sutras, 116, 227 ff., 236, 238, 240,
252, 254 ; date, 250 Griinwedel, A., 480, 629 Guda, Guyana, Gudana, 578, 592 Giidnaphar. See Gondophames Guests, six worthy, 232 Gujarat, 20, 36, 44, 81, 166, 274, 469,
472, 593, 594, 606 Gujarat!, 15, 19, 51 Gumal, river, 43, 79, 321 Gundla, 643 Gungeria, 614, 615 Guntiir District, 529, 599 Gupta empire, 224, 310, 628, 533, 585,
606 ; architecture, 617, 649 ; coins,
342 Guraeus, 353, 355 Gurdaspur, 372, 373, 414, 528 Gurkhas, 11, 25, 27, 190 ; rifles, 26 Gutschmid, A. von, 430, 446, 569, 579 Guttaka, Tamil king, 608, 609 Guttila Jataka, 211 Guttmann, 0., 271 Gwalior, 15, 21, 558, 625
Haas, E., 89, 233 Hab, 380, 383 Haddon, A. C, 45, 604 Haetumant, 328 Hagamasha, 527, 538, 576 Hagana, 527, 538, 676 Haig, Gen. M. E., 380
7i6
Index
Haihayas, 815, 316
Haku-siri, 601
Halahala, 159
Halhed, N. B., 63
Halidda-vasana, 178
Hall, H. B. H., 43
Hambantota, 609
Hamun Lake, 828, 338
Han Dynasty, annals, 566
Hantrimnkha, 231
Haoma, 320
HarahvaitI, 87, 321, 324, 326, 328, 338
Haraiva. See Herat
Harappa, 618
Hard war, 25, 26
Hardy, E., 481
Hardy, E. Spence, 214
Harigcandra, 254
Hari Eud, 327, 441
Harlta, 242
Harivani<ja, 255
Harlez, C. de, 325
Hamai valley, 30
Haroiva, Haraiva, 327
Harpagus, 329
Harsha, dynasty of, 468
Harshacharita, 223, 310, 415, 417, 512,
518, 521, 522 Haryaksha, 231 Hasti, 355
Hastinapura, 263, 306 £f., 526 Hastings, Warren, 63 Hastipala, 163 Hathigumpha, Udayagiri, 314, 317, 534ff.,
600, 602, 639, 640 Haumavarga, 338 Haumavarka, 564 Havis, sacrifice, 231 Hazara, 328, 338, 373, 457 ; District,
648 Head, B. V., 367, 389, 569 Headlam, W., 394 Hecataeus, 336, 393 ff., 423 Hecate, on coins, 449, 464 Hedicke, E., 348, 366, 369 Heliocles, 447, 453, 454, 460, 461, 522,
552; coins, 465, 466, 547, 548, 553 ff.,
558, 560, 566, 573, 587, 590, 691, 647;
successors, 557 ^Heliodorus, son of Dion, 521, 558, 625 Hellenic kingdoms of Syria, Bactria, and
Parthia, 60, 427ff. Hellenistic art, 621 ff., 626, 633, 644 ff. ' Helmand, 28. 328, 564, 569 Helu, 606
Hemachandra, 156, 164, 470 Henry, Victor, 106 Hephaestion, 351, 352, 354,355,357, 370,
373 ff. 379 Heracles', 331, 332, 356, 374, 422 ff.;
Hindu, 253, 375, 408, 409, 419, 485,
596; on coins, 443, 445, 447, 448, 450,
457, 464, 465, 573, 574, 588, 589, 597 Herat, 28, 70, 223, 327, 337, 338, 472,
542, 567; Aria, 337, 542; Haraiva,
338
Hermaens, king, 547, 556, 560 fl., 571,
574, 584, 586, 589, 591, 647 Hermus valley, 440 Herodotus, 34, 52, 57, 192, 327, 329,
332 ff., 387, 392, 393, 395, 396, 403,
422, 564 Hero-lauds, 251, 254, 255 Hertel, J., 138 Herzfeld, E., 327, 328, 335, 336, 338,
339 Hesydrus. See Sutlej Hill, G. P., 344, 438 Hill, G. Birkbeck, 63 Hillebrandt, A., 80, 86, 87, 106, 323 Himalayas, 8 ff., 21, 32, 33, 36, 38, 51, 76,
80, 81, 129, 175, 191, 242, 304, 314,
326, 376, 400, 401, 403, 423, 528, 529 Hindh, 325 Hindi, 14, 15, 50, 51 Hindu (Hapta), 324 Hindu Kush, 20, 28, 32 ff., 43, 51, 52,
79, 140, 322, 326, 327, 348, 350, 351,
354, 364, 374, 376, 383, 387, 422, 424,
427, 434, 442, 446, 457 ff., 466, 472,
514, 540 ff., 545 ff., 554, 560, 563, 583,
622, 645 Hinduism, 15, 76 Hindukan, seven, 324 Hi(n)du§, 338
Hindustan, plain of, 12, 13, 15, 22 Hindustani type. See Aryo-Dravidian Hinglaj shrine, 381 Hingol valley, 381 Hippalus, 36, 426 Hippostratus, king, 547, 649, 552, 554,
571, 572, 586, 587 Hiranyagarbha, 107 Hiranyakepin, 237, 238, 239 Hiranyanabha, 122, 309 Hirok, 30 Hittites, 110, 320
Hiuen Tsiang, 332, 506, 512, 524, 555 ff. Hiung-nu, 566 Hoernle, A. F. E., 45, 110, 123, 138, 154,
168, 585 Hoffmann-Kutschke, A., 334 Holdich, Sir T., 348, 352 ff., 357, 378,
542 Holkar, 15, 19, 21 Holtzmann, A., 261, 265 Homer, 78, 101, 391 ; Indian, 258 Hooghly river, 9, 614 Hopkins, E. W., 79, 81, 147, 214, 265,
269, 272, 273, 323, 324, 473 ff., 478,
480 ff., 484, 486 ff., 492, 494 Horse, 67, 68, 99, 137, 234, 435 ff.; on
coins, 538 ; in sculpture, 620, 635 ;
sacrifice, 102, 106, 119 ff., 130, 142,
223, 255, 262, 302, 309, 318, 520, 521,
531 Hosten, H., 423 Hotri, 107, 108
How and Wells, com. on Herodotus, 329 Howrah, 9, 17, 25 Huber, E., 507 Human sacrifice, 106, 123, 136, 138, 142
Index
717
Humayun, 24
Hunas, Huns, 304, 459, 550, 565, 566,
584 Hungarian, 15 ; Hungary, 69, 72 Hunting, 100, 235, 270, 416, 417 Huntsman, ratnin, 131 Hydaspes. See Jhelum ; battle of, 365 ;
Persian river, 568 Hyderabad, Deccan, 18, 24, 514, 531, 599,
600 Hyderabad, Sind, 21, 378, 517 Hydrakes, 331 Hydraotes. See Ravi Hypasioi, 352 Hyphanis, 542, 543 Hyphasis. See Beas
launa 540. See Tavanas
iQana, 233, 238
Idols. See Images
Ikshvaku, 83, 133, 276, 298, 305 fE., 315 ff.
Ha, 304
Ilan-jeliyan. See Verri-ver-peliyan
lian-jet-Qenni, king, 598
Ili river, 565
Ilibiga, 84
Illyrian, 71
Images of gods, 238, 279 ; -worship, 480 ; monuments, 612 ff,
Imhoof-Blumer, F., 433, 434
Imperial Gazetteer, 39, 40, 42, 43, 50, 52, 85, 109, 110, 515, 524, 543
Incantations. See Spells
Indarpat, 23, 262, 308
India, geography, 1 ff. ; growth of law, 277 ff. ; monuments, 612 ff. ; peoples and languages, 37 ff. ; sources of his- tory, 56 ff., 391 ff. ; Vedic, 77 ff. ; later samhitas, 114 ff. ; siitra and epic period, 220 ff., 251 ff. ; Buddhistic, 171 ff. ; early history of South India, 593 ff.
India, White, 326
Indian Mutiny, 16, 24, 25
Indian Ocean, 2, 28, 336
Indo- Aryans, 42 ff., 56, 57, 73
Indo-China, 613
Indo-Europeans. See Wiros
Indo-European (Indo-Germanic) lan- guages, 37, 41 ff., 49, 56, 64 ff., 69, 71
Indo-Iranian period, 52, 72 ff., 103, 111, 125, 319
Indo-Scythia, 516, 532, 560, 564, 567, 569
Indore, 15, 19, 21
Indra, 72, 97, 99, 103 ff., 110, 111, 232, 233, 238, 256, 257, 288, 320, 366, 422, 485, 538, 606 ; Qakra, 157 ; Sakka, 176, 606 ; Sakka-panha, 194
Indrabhuti Gautama, 152, 154
Indraji, Bhagvanlal, 314, 575, 639
Indramitra, 525, 526, 538, 626
Indrapalita, 511
Indraprastha, 23, 262, 308
Indravarman, 577
Indrota Daivapi Qaunaka, 120
Indus, 21, 24 ff., 31 ff., 40, 43, 44, 46, 51, 79 ff., 118, 222, 324, 325, 329, 336,
337, 345, 346, 354 ff., 372 ff., 377 ff., 383, 394, 395, 400 ff., 427 ff., 442, 446, 455, 468, 472, 473, 516, 528, 532, 541, 547, 559, 564, 567, 568, 570, 571, 584, 594 ; delta, 543, 544, 548, 585 ; Sindhu, 79, 324, 345; Kali Smdhu and branch of the Jumna, 520
Inheritance, 134, 243, 244, 279 ff., 284, 287 ; primogeniture, 244, 284, 287
Initiation ceremony, 235, 236, 238, 239
Inscriptions, 60 ff., 141, 224, 529, 533 ff,, 541
Inspectors, in Pataliputra, 410
Interest. See Usury
Intermarriage. See Caste
Intoxicants, 102, 133, 137, 215, 271, 408, 412, 555
Invasions, 21, 23, 27, 28, 36 ff., 53, 60. See Aryans, Scythians, Yavanas
Ionia, 391; lonians, 212, 225, 540. See Yavanas
Ipsus, 432
Iran, 27, 28, 30, 34, 35, 39, 46, 51, 52, 57, 72, 91, 103, 104, 109, 111, 124, 320 ff., 400, 516, 540, 568, 572 ff., 577, 578, 580, 584, 621, 622, 626, 634, 644; Iranian type, 42, 44; languages (Zend), 49, 52, 7i ff. See Persia
Iravati. See Ravi
Iron, 56, 100, 137, 140, 615 ; age of, 56, 614
Irrawaddy, 6ff., 39
Irrigation, 30, 31, 100,^128, 135, 417, 475, 487
Irulas, 604
Irvine, W., 216
Isamns, 542, 543
Isidatta, 186
IsidasI, 186
Isidor of Gharax, 326
Isila, 515
ilkata, 327
Islam. See Muhammadans
Issyk-knl lake, 565
Istakhr, 621
Itihasa, 251, 252
Itihasa-Purana, 251, 257, 299, 301, 302
Itinerarium Alexandri, 542, 675
Itivritta, 482
Itivuttaka, 197
Itthiya, Rishtriya, monk, 499, 608
Ivory, 391, 594; workers in, 207, 632, 643
Iyengar, P. T. Srinivas, 599
JabaJa, 152
Jackson, A. M. T., 301
Jacob, G. A., 120
Jacobi, H., 110, 111, 147 ff., 151 ff., 160,
169, 178, 183, 255, 294, 320, 321, 470,
471, 482, 483, 512 Jadgals, 42 Jahangira, 336 Jahnus, 126, 298 Jaimini, 251 Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, 116 ff.,
127
7i8
Index
Jains, 22, 55, 57, 150 £f., 275, 423, 485, 504, 609, 612, 526, 632, 534, 596, 633, 638; council, 165, 169, 482; inscrip- tions, 166 fE. ; sculpture, 633, 639, 640, 644; texts, 57 ff., 151, 165, 470, 473, 482, 484, 549 ; Qlvetambaras, 155, 158, 165 ff., 169 ; Digambaras, 154, 158, 165, 166, 169
Jaipur, 21, 22, 84, 121, 289, 316
Jala Jatiikamya, 122
Jalalabad, 348, 543, 546, 547 ; Nagara (?), 543, 555
Jalalpur, 361
Jaloka of Kashmir, 511, 512
Jamali, 158, 163
Jambu, Jain, 164
Jambudvlpa, 304, 506. See India
Jamrud, 32
jana, 91, 92
Janaka, Siradhvaja, 122, 127, 257, 317, 549
Janamejaya, 120, 121, 252, 302, 549
Janapada, Bajanya, 539
Jandiala, 371
Jarasandha, 257
Jarudapana Jataka, 211
Jatakas, 140, 173, 174, 178 ff., 187, 188, 197, 198, 201 ff., 257, 260, 295, 316, 624, 629
jatl. See Caste
Jaugada, 496, 497, 514, 515
Jaxartes, 28, 76, 329, 349, 434, 459, 563, 564, 566, 567 ; Syr Daria, 70, 349, 434, 564
Jayanta, 238
Jayaswal, J. P., 313 ff., 491, 521, 524, 635, 537
Jayavijaya caves, Udayagiri, 639, 642
Jehu, 470
Jeta, 216
Jetavana, 202, 216, 624
Jewish communities, 36
Jhelum, 27, 69, 872, 468, 548, 649, 561, 656 ; Hydaspes, 349, 359 ff. , 369, 373 ff., 383, 406, 427 ff., 468, 547, 568; Vitasta, 80, 324, 345
Jhelum, town, 361, 543 ; District, 547
Jina, Mahavira, 159, 160
Jinacbandra, 166
Jnatri clan, 160
Jnatrikas, 157
Jobanes. See Jumna
Jogimara cave, 642
John of Antioch, 432
Jolly, J., 278, 280, 283, 284, 294, 475, 479, 481
Jones, Sir W,, 63ff., 470
Josephus, 339, 458
Jouveau-Dubreuil, G., 533
Jrimbikagrama, 159
Judicial procedure, 96, 97, 132 ff,, 176, 244, 271, 485 ff. See Crimes
Julien, S., 513
Jumna, 12 ff., 20, 23 ff., 46, 47, 80 ff., 120, 121, 124, 187, 214, 469, 516, 520, 524, 526 ff., 643, 648; Isamus, 542, 543; Jobanes, 408
Jumna-Ganges, 13, 15, 16, 21, 51, 56, 57,
59, 242, 308, 544 Junagarh, 501 Junnar, 530 Justi, F., 325 Justin, 332, 353, 384, 386, 430, 435, 438 ff.,
446, 454 ff., 460, 469, 473, 543, 674 Jyotisha, 148
Eabadian, 390
Kabul, 32, 33, 224, 825, 327, 348, 452, 469, 473, 542 ff., 561, 562, 667, 574, 583
Kabul river and valley, 28, 31 ff. , 43, 51, 52, 79, 110, 322, 332, 336, 338, 3H9, 345 ff., 350, 351, 364, 355, 383, 396, 430, 442, 452, 472, 514, 516, 640, 541, 544, 546 ff., 650 ff. , 564, 666, 557, 560 ff., 570, 571, 677, 584; Cophen, 322, 332, 336, 345, 356 ; Kubha, 52, 79, 321, 345
Kabulistan, 79
Kacchi, 51
Kachins, 7, 8, 39
Ka(^I, KaQis, 117, 119, 120, 122, 123, 126, 172, 173, 180, 181, 184, 274, 310, 315, 316, 517, 527, 531 ; princess, 522
KaQiputra Bhagabhadra. See Bhaga- bhadra
Kaqu (Vasu) Chaidya, 84, 309
Kagyapa, converted ascetic, 629, 630
Kadphises. See Kujula, V'ima
Kaegi, A., 283
Kafiristan, 82, 338, 641, 647, 665, 567
Kafirs, 352, 364
Kafshan, 332
kahdpana. See kdrshdpana
Kaikeyas, 274
kdkanikd, 218
Kakavanna Tissa, 609
Kakavarna (Kala(;oka), 603
Kakkara-patta, 178
Kalabagh, 337
Kalapoka, 189, 313, 603
Kalaka, 167, 168, 532; Kalakacharya- kathanaka, 167
Kalakanni Tissa, 611
Kalamas, 175
Kalan Tisa, 611
Kalani Tissa. See Yatthalaya Tissa
Kalaniya, 609
Kalanos, 359, 381, 421
Kalantika Tissa, 611
Kalasi, 550
Kalasoka. See Kalagoka
Kalatiai, 394
Kali age, 276, 302, 303, 308 ff., 317 ; dice, 303
Kali Sindhu, 520
Kalidasa, 512, 519, 533, 544, 600
Kalingas, 47, 173, 242, 473, 516, 530, 534; Kalinga, 164, 166, 196, 223, 242, 314, 315, 317, 492, 495, 497, 604, 614 ff., 594, 699, 606, 607, 639 ; Calingae, 601
Kallatiai. See Kalatiai
Kalpa, aeon, 303
Kalpasutra, 164, 156, 167, 160, 167, 227, 228, 482
Index
719
Eamagastra, 482
Samara, 212
Kambojas, 117, 172,274, 334; Kambojas,
514 Kammaharattaka, 610 Kampila, Kampilya (Kampil), 117, 119,
121, 316 kamsa, coin, 218 Kamsa of Kosala, 180 Kanakamuni. See Konagamana Eanakasabhai, 213 Kanara, North, 603 ; Eannada, 594 Kanarese, 49, 593, 602 Kanauj, 289 ; Kanyakubja, 512 EanchI, 531, 595 ; Conjeeveram, 596 Kandahar, 28, 31, 33, 326, 328, 337, 338,
347, 364, 369, 379, 380, 442, 443, 452,
540, 542, 543, 545, 547, 548, 561, 562,
564, 568, 569, 570, 574, 580, 583 Eangra District, 529 Kanba. See Erishna Eanheri inscription, 601 Eanishka, 224, 555, 581, 583, 585, 648;
era, 583 ; inscription, 192 Eannada. See Eanara Ean-su, province, 565 Eanthaka, 630 Eanva, sage, 242
Eanvas, 77, 84, 223, 224, 317, 318, 521, 522 Eanyakabja. See Eanaaj Eaoshan, 332
Eapiga, 460, 547, 557 ff., 567 ; Eapisa, 555 Eapi<;i, 555 ff., 558, 560 Eapilavatthu, -vastu, 175, 177, 498, 630 Eapinahan, 390 Eapisa. See Kapiga Eapisa-kani, 333 Eapisoi, 339
Eapishthala Sainhita, 114 Eara Eadphises, 584 Earachi, 2, 14, 23, 27, 29, 31 Earakoram range, 33 Eari, river, 598 Earikal, king, 598 Earikal Chola, 596 karlsa, 200, 202 Earli cave, 635 ff. karman, 143, 162 Earna, 265, 272 Earnal, 543 Earnasuvarna, 512 Eamata. See Carnatio Earoti', 121 kdrshdpana, 248, 285, 462, 530; kahd-
pana, 217 Earuvaki, 500 Eashaka, Ea<;aka, 238 Eashmir, 26, 32, 33, 43, 47, 80, 81, 117,
121, 325, 349, 370, 373, 383, 396, 499,
501, 511, 512, 528, 563 Eashmirl, 51 Easi. See Eagi Easibharadvaja, 202 Easpatyros, Easpapyros, 836, 394, 396 Easpioi, 339, 340 kassiteroB, 391
Eassites, 76
kastira, 391
Eatha, Burma, 7
Kathaioi, See Eshatriyas
Eathaka Samhita, 114, 119, 121, 139;
school, 279 ; sutra, 236, 279 ; Upanishad,
116 Katha-vattha, 194, 197, 482, 498, 506 Eathiawar, 20, 21, 224, 469, 472, 496,
543, 606 Eatmandu, 25
Eatyayana, grammarian, 253 Eatz, E. , 330 Eaugambi, 117, 121, 308, 498, 517, 621,
523 ff., 538; Eosambi, 185, 187 ff., 201,
214 EauQika Sutra, 115, 229 Eaushltaki Aranyaka, 115 ; Brahmana^
115, 118, 145, 148; Upanishad, 117,
120 ff., 143 Eautiliya, 294; Kautilya, 470. See Ar-
thagastra Kautsa, 242 Eavan Tisa, 609 Eavasha, 125, 126 Eaveri, 212, 595 ; Cauvery, 2 Eaviri-pattinam, 212, 595, 598 Eavya, 25i, 264, 482 Eayanians, 328 Eepin, Jain, 154 Keith, A. B., 102, 106, 109, 111, 113, 115,
119, 123, 124, 138, 144, 147, 149, 321,
341, 392. See Vedic Index Eekayas, 124, 127 Eena Upanishad, 116 Eennedy, J., 321, 329, 594 Eeralas. See Cheras Eern, H., 544 ; Album Kern, 255, 481 Eesaputta, 175 Eetkar, S. V., 240, 279 kevala, 159 kevalin, 160 Ehabari, 212 Ehadira, 229
Ehallatanaga, king of Ceylon, 610 Ehallatha Tissa, king of Ceylon, 610 Ehandagiri caves, 638 Ehandava, 116 Ehandhakas in Vinaya, 197 Eharavela, 164, 166, 223, 314, 317, 492,
527, 530, 534 ff., 600 ff., 639 Eharoshthi alphabet, 62, 657 ; on coins,
446, 449, 452, 456, 529, 539, 553, 655,
557, 658, 660, 561,' 569, 573, 574, 586,
587, 591 ; on gems, 647 ; inscriptions,
502, 575, 581, 582 ; masons' marks,
625 kharvata, 268 ; khdrvataka, 476 Ehasi mts, 9, 12, 48 Ehattiya. See Eshatriya Ehawak Pass, 348
Ehema, daughter of king of Madda, 183 khetta. See kshetra. khilya, 90 Ehojak pass, 30 Ehojis, 97
720
Index
Ehomadussa, 175
Khotan, 600, 603, 507
Khubiraka, 529
Khuddaka Nikaya, 192
Khuddaka Patha, 197
Khyber pass, 28, 29, 31 fl., 852, 854, 561, 563 ; JBifles, 82
Kielhorn, F., 544
Kiessling, M., 333, 835
Kikatas, 85, 123
Eimvadanta, 231
Kinchin junga, 10, 68
King, on coins, 342, 435, 547, 559, 560, 586, 588 ff.
King of Kings, 667 fl., 572 fl., 577, 581, 582
Kings, Books of, 140, 391, 594
Kings of the four quarters, 630
Kingship, 94ff., 130 ff., 198, 206, 241, 244 ff., 266, 268, 270, 271, 279, 288 ff., 294, 414, 416, 475, 479, 487, 491, 492, 505, 597 ; rajasuya, 118, 119, 121, 130, 141, 271
Ki-pin, 566, 567
Kiratas, 274, 304
Kistna, 16, 514, 529, 599, 602
Klaproth, H. J. von, 65
KoQar, tribe, 596
Koh-i-Mor, 354
Koh-i-Nur, 342
Kohistan, 541
Kohler, J., 479
Koka, 121
Kolanagara, 178
Kolar goldfield, 4
Koliyas, 175, 177, 178, 199, 204
Kolkai, 595
Kolon Oya, 607
Konagamana, stupa of, 498, 501
Kondane cave, 635, 636
Kongu-de9a, 595, 596
Konkan, 530, 603; Konkani Mauryas, 596
Konow, S., 480, 582
Koratas, 348
Kori, Cape, 424
Kosala, 51, 55, 57, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125, 130, 172, 173, 175, 178 ff., 186, 190, 191, 200, 209, 274, 305, 306, 308 ff., 815, 316, 469, 527; Maha-, 180, 183, 184
Kosala Devi, 183, 184
Kosam, 308, 517, 524, 525
Kosambi. See Kau9ambl
Kosi, 314
Kottayam, 595
Koyilvenni, 598
Kraivya, 121
Krishna, 167, 238, 257, 258, 265, 272, 316,' 366, 408, 419, 422, 423, 485, 526, 596 ; Vasudeva, 658, 626. See Yishnu
Krishna, Andhra king, 600, 635; brother of Simuka, 529, 535
Krishna. See Draupadi
krishnala, 137
Krishnapura, 408
Krita age, 803
Ki-ittikas, 148
Krivis, 83, 118, 254
Krumu river, 79, 321
hshatra, 94
Kshatrapas. See Satraps
Kshatriyas, 61, 54,98, 123, 125 ff., 134, 135, 154, 204, 209, 239, 240, 248, 256, 266, 270, 272, 280, 289, 297, 302, 304, 313, 371, 488, 489, 520, 521, 528, 540, 577, 601; Cathaeans, Kathaioi, 349, 371, 414, 415 ; Eajanyas, 54, 92, 94, 130, 234, 528, 539 ; ratnin, 301 ; Upa- nishad doctrine, 127, 144
Kshattri, ratnin, 131
Kshemaka, 308
kshetra, 90; khetta, 200 fl.
Kshetrapati, 238
Kshudrakas. See Oxydrakai
Kubera, VaiQravana, 233; king, 629
Kubha. See Kabul river
Kubiraka, 529
Ku(;a, son of Bama, 257
KuQilavas, 257
Ku^a Tissa, 610
Kudepasiri, 639
Kujula Kadphises, 561, 562, 582, 588, 589 ; coins, 584
Kujula Kara Kadphises, 582, 588
Kukkutaiama, 189, 501, 518
kulaputta, 190
Kulindas. See Kunindas
Kulja river, 565
Kulu valley, 529, 643
Kulutas, 629
Kumara, demon, 231
Kumaxi-pafiha, 194
Kumbhin, 231
Kunala, 600, 511
Kunala Jataka, 204
Kunar valley, 351 ff.
Kunbis, 594
Kundagrama, 157
Kunika. See Ajatagatru of Magadha
Kunindas, Kulindas, 529, 639
Kunti, 507
Kurds, 42
Kurkura, 231
Kurma Parana, 301
Kurram river, 43, 79, 321
Kurupravana, 83, 94, 120
Kurukshetra, 47, 116, 120, 263, 289, 308, 316
Kurumbar, tribe, 598
Kurumbas, 604
Kurus, 23, 47, 50, 51, 55, 83, 84, 117 ff., 130, 132, 172, 204, 253, 254, 256, 258, 262ff., 302, 306 ff., 315, 316, 468,626, 549; Kuru-Pafichalas, 118, 119, 121, 130, 132
Kusa Jataka, 209
Kushan, 332
Kushan pass, 350
Kushanas, 60, 62, 167, 168, 224, 225, 557, 561, "562, 570, 681 ff., 622, 632, 648; Gushana, 584
I
(
Index
721
Kusinara, 175, 199, 201, 214, 491 Kustana, 507 Kusulaka, title, 583 Kusumapura. See Pataliputra Kutakanna Tissa, 611 Eiitavanija Jataka, 211 Kutb Minar, Delhi, 25 Euvanna, Kuveni, 606, 607 Kuvera, king, 529
Labdanes, 579
Lacote, F., 311
Ladakh, 38
Laghtnan, 541, 555
Lahnda, 51
Lahore, 26, 27, 31, 32
Lajji Tissa, 610
Lake, Lord, 24
Lakhpat, 379
Lakshml, 538 ; in sculpture, 638, 640
LakshmidevI, 293
Lala, Lata, 606
Laiita-vistara, 156, 185, 188
Lambakanni, 610
Lampaka, 555
Landi Kotal, 32
Lafija Tissa, king of Ceylon, 610
Lanka, 213, 272
Lansdowne bridge, Sukkur, 29
Laodice, 445, 453, 454; coins, 465, 647
Lassen, C, 152, 253, 391, 395, 468, 470 £f.,
484, 512 Lata, Lala, 606 Latage, 406 laukika, 186
Lauriya Nandangarh, 616, 619 Lava, son of Bama, 257 Law, M. N., 294 Law, 413, 482, 485 ; Law-books, Dhar-
magastras, 63, 204 ; period, 220 ff.,
277 ff. Leh, 32, 33 Leonnatus, 381 L^vi, S., 350, 372, 396, 501 Levirate, 89, 247, 292 Liaka Kusulaka, 556, 559, 575, 576, 583,
591 Licchavis, 157, 175, 178, 182, 183, 199,
311, 491 Liddell and Scott, 391 Linguistic Survey of India, 50 Lion, 68, 81, 100, 407 ; in architecture,
575, 576, 619 £E., 627, 628, 633 Livy, 57, 455 Lohapasada, Ceylon, 609 Lokayatas, 482 Lomaharshana, 297 Lomas Rishi cave, 619 Lonagobhika, 633 Lucknow, 12 ff., 25 LucuUus, 67
Liiders, H., 102, 255, 314, 577 Ludwig, A., 81, 87, 96, 265, 323 Lumbini pillar, 199, 498, 501 Lunar dynasty, 298, 304, 305 ; mansions.
See Nakshatras
C, H. I. I.
Lycia, 344
Lysias, king, 556, 559, 589, 591 Lysimachua of Thrace, 363, 432 Lysippus, 645
Macaolay, Lord, 304
Maccha, 172
M'Crindle, J. W., 175, 203, 206, 341, 348, 371, 396, 404, 421, 542
Macdonell, A. A., 211, 324. See Vedic Index
Macedonia, 71, 353, 540; Macedonians, 58, 354, 357, 358, 360, 361, 363 ff., 371, 373, 375, 383, 384, 386, 404, 428 ff., 439; coins, 386 ff.
MachiaveUi, N., 490
Madagascar, 48
Madawachchiya, 605
Madda, 183. See Madras, tribe
Madhuparka sacrifice, 232
Madhura, 185, 186
Madhyadepa, 45, 57, 93, 110, 117, 118, 121, 274, 275, 296, 305, 309, 317, 469, 520, 526, 541, 544, 551
MadhyamaQi, 98
Madhyamika, 520, 544
Madhyantika, 499
Madras, 2ff., 17, 19, 23, 117, 223; Presi- dency, 4, 29, 48, 529, 595, 615
Madras, tribe, 121, 274, 549
Madura, 3, 423, 595, 597, 606
Maga, 182
Magadhas, 48, 57, 146, 172, 173, 309, 311 ; man of Magadha sacrificed, 123, 124 ; kingdom, 59, 117, 124, 125, 155, 160, 165, 167, 182 ff., 187 ff., 200, 223, 224, 257, 274, 305 ff., 309, 310, 313 ff., 337, 372, 405, 469, 471, 479, 483, 519,. 527, 537, 600, 606
MagadhI, 187
Magama, Ceylon, 609
Magas of Cyrene, 502
Maghas, 148, 149
Maghavans, 96, 107
Magic, 138, 142, 145, 229, 236, 237 ff.
Magnesia, 440
Mahabharata, 23, 85, 225, 251 ff., 268, 284, 291, 292, 296, 298, 304, 307, 396, 468, 473 ff., 479, 481, 482, 484, 486ff., 502, 597, 601 ; Anugasana, 265 ; South- ern text, 255 ; story of, 262
Mahabhashya, 253, 482, 495
Mahachuli Mahatissa, 610, 611
Mahadeo hills, 48
Mahadeva. See Qiy&
Mahadeva, missionary, 499
Mahadharmarakshita, 499
Mahagama, Ceylon, 609
Maha-Govinda, 173, 183 ; sutta, 176
Mahahaku-siri, 601
Mahajanaka, prince, 213
Maha-Kaccana, 186
Mahakala forest, 532
mahdmatta, mahdmdtra, 199, 508
Mahamegha-vana, 608, 609
Mahanadi, 13, 16, 17, 19, 534, 636
46
722
Indi
ex
Mahanaga, viceroy, 609
Mahanama, king of Ceylon, 609
Mahanandin, 313, 314
Mahapadma, 313, 314
Mahaparinibbana sutta, 184, 188, 195, 196
Maharakshita, 499
Maharashtra, 499, 593, 594, 602, 603.
See Marathas Maharathi, 530 Mahasammata-rajavaliya, 604, 607, 608,
610, 611 Mahasilu. See Mahachuli Mahasiva, 608 Maha-ummagga Jataka, 215 Mahavatnsa, 172, 182, 184, 185, 189 ff.,
213, 312, 470, 498, 603 ff. Mahavana, 177 Mahavanija Jataka, 211 Mahavaruna, elder, 507 Mabavastu, 172, 173 Mahavihara at Anuradhapura, 499, 608,
609 Mahavira, 150 flE., 167, 169, 222, 311,
480; Nataputta, 156; Vardhamana, 150 Mahavrata, 141 Mahavrishas, 117 Mahayana, 224 Mah6, 595 Mahendra, mt, 304 Mahendra, Mahinda, son of Agoka, 213,
499, 500, 506, 604, 608 Mahi, 19 Mahindatala, 608 Mahishakas, 603 Mahishamandala, 499, 603 Mahishi, ratnin, 130, 131 Mahishmant, 603 Mahishmati, 274, 531, 603; Mahissati,
173 Mahiyangana Thupa, 606 Maidan, Calcutta, 10 Maisey, F. C, 476, 499 MaitrayanI Samhita, 114, 131, 139 Maitreya, in Puranas, 301 maitr'i, 504
Majjhima, missionary, 499 MajjhimaNikaya, 156, 178 ff., 185 ff., 189,
192, 196, 197, 203, 204, 206, 208, 209,
213 ff. Maka, 338 Makalan Tissa, 611 Makandika-avadana, 187 Makha, 238
Makkhali Gosala. See Gosala Makran, 29, 338, 380, 426 Malabar, 2, 3, 5, 35, 36, 424 ; Point, 17 ;
District, 595 Malan range, 381
Malavas, 375, 376, 491; Malli, 371, 375 Malavika, 519 Malavikagnimitra, 512, 519, 520, 522, 531,
544, 600 Malay Peninsula, 6, 48, 613 Malaya, mt, 304 Malayaketu, 471, 472 Malayalam, 49, 593, 595
Malimlucha, 231
Mallas, 172, 175, 199, 491
Malli. See Malavas
Malwa, 15, 168, 242, 310, 316, 469, 472,
523, 528, 531, 533, 534, 585, 600;
fabric, 531 Malwatta Oya, 607 mand (mina), 87 Manaar, gulf, 2
Manava Dharma Qastra. See Manu Manava Sutra, 236, 279 mandzil, 139, 140 Manchapurl cave, Udayagiri, 639 Mandalay, 7 Mandhata, 531 Mandhatri, 298 Mandi, 372 Mangalore, 603
Manes (Fathers), 108, 230, 232, 233 Mansehra, 496
Mantra period, 112. See Rigveda Mantrin, 488 Manu, sage, 296, 303, 305 ; flood legend,
140, 305 ; Svayambhuva, 303 ; Vaivas-
vata, 304 Manu, Law-book, 45, 51, 55, 199, 204,
205, 214, 217, 218, 232, 244 ff., 248,
249, 277, 279 ff., 298, 427, 474 ff., 481,
483 ff., 536, 601. -See Manava Sutra Manvantara, in Puranas, 296, 303 Manyu, 105 Mara, 201 Marar, tribe, 596 Marathas, 18, 19, 24, 26, 36, 44, 514, 530,
535, 593, 600, 603. See Maharashtra Marathi, 15, 51 Maravar, tribe, 596 mare, 67
Margiana, 437, 452, 458 ; Merv, 437 Marichavatti Vihara, Ceylon, 609 Marka 23i
Markandeya Purana, 308, 529, 550, 599 Marquart, J., 328,' 330, 332,333, 336,338,
339 Marriage, 88, 89, 126, 235, 236, 243, 280,
292, 294, 480, 481 ; ceremony, 228 ff.,
233, 234, 239 ; child, 88, 424 ; purchase,
234, 268, 291, 292, 414; svayamvara,
293, 414
Marshall, Sir J. H., 62, 214, 533, 562,
571, 576, 580 ff. Martaban, gulf, 48 martikhora, 397 Maruts, 76, 104, 105 mdsaka, mdsha, 218, 248 Mashhad, 70 Mashnara, 121 Maski inscription, 502 Massaga, 353, 355, 356 Massagetae, 331 Masson, C, 452, 577 Mas'iidi, 327 Masulipatam, 599 Mataripvan, 104 Mathava, 122, 317 Mathura, 167, 168, 274, 301, 316, 485,
Index
723
506, 520, 523 fE., 528, 531, 538, 554, 619, 620, 632; Lion-Capital, 575,576, 633, 641 ; Methora, 408 ; Modoura, 526; Muttra, 46, 57, 289, 316, 520, 526
Matriarchate, 424
Matsya Purana, 299, 301, 311
Matsyas, 51, 84, 121, 263, 269, 274, 289, 326 ; king, 121
Ma-twan-lin, encyclopaedia, 566
Maues, 168, 548, 554, 558 ff., 568 ff., 576,
589, 591, 592 ; Moga, 670 ; coins, 586,
587 Maunder, E. W., and Mrs, 326 Mauryas, 34, 44, 59 ff., 164, 166, 199, 223,
224, 309, 314, 317, 318, 385, 429, 431,
432, 439, 442, 443, 467 ff., 512, 514,
516 ff., 522, 523, 529, 530, 534, 537, 540,
599, 602, 612, 616, 618, 619, 621 ff.,
628, 634, 643; era, 635, 538, 539; of
Koukan, 596 Maya, city, 531 Maya, queen, 624 Mazdai, 580 Meat-eating, Vedic, 101 ; later, 137, 232,
271 ; selling, 215, 271 Medalumpa, 175, 181 Media, 76, 429 Medicine, 138, 406, 418, 420 Meerut, District, Division, 308 Megasthenes, 14, 132, 146, 167, 175, 191,
192, 203, 206, 280, 287, 331, 332, 392,
395, 399, 400, 403 ff. , 433, 467 ff., 480ff.,
489, 492, 493, 508, 597, 617 Meghna, 9 Mekong, 39 Meleager, 364, 365 Memnon, historian, 432 Menander of Bactria, 445, 519, 542 ff,,
547 ff., 560, 571; Milinda, 549, 550;
coins, 551, 571, 586, 688. See Milinda-
panha Meroes, 367 Meru, 354, 673 Merv. See Margiana Mesha of Moab, 62 Mesopotamia, 62, 70, 76, 141, 442, 490,
494, 516, 615, 617, 623, 626 Metals, Vedic, 100 ; later, 137 ; mines,
417, 418 Metre, 108, 109, 147, 220, 239, 249, 252,
254 259 Meyer, E., Ill, 320ff., 333, 338, 339 Mhow, 15 Mianwali, 395 Michelson, T., 109 Middle Country. See Madhydepa Ml4hushi, 238 Midland languages, 50, 51 ; Country. See
Madhyadega Mihintale, 608 Mibirakula, 550 Milindapanha, 193, 201, 205, 206, 212,
218, 549, 550. See Menander Military caste. See Esbatriyas Milk-money, 198
Mill, James, 281
Milton, J., 299, 307
Mimi, 317
mina, 88
Minas (Minavar?), tribe, 595
Mitakshara, 278, 293
Mitani, 73, 76, 110, 111, 320
MitbUa, 160, 173, 175, 215, 279, 317
Mithilas, 315, 317
Mithra, 75, 111, 319, 320, 325
Mitbradates I, 446, 456 ff., 548, 554, 667,
568, 570 Mitbradates II the Great, 567 ff., 573 Mitbradates III, 569
Mitra, 75, 104, 105, 110, 111, 233, 319, 820 Mitra, S. M., 271 Mitradeva, 223, 521 Mitratithi, 83, 94, 120 Miyuguna Thupa, 606 Modi, J. J., 338 Modogalingae, 601 Modoura. See Matbura Moeris, 378 Moga. See Maues Moggaliputta Tissa, 194, 498, 500, 506,
603 ; Upagupta, 498 Mogur, 596
Mon-Khmer languages, 48 ; stock, 613 Monghyr, 48, 309, 311, 315, 527 Mongolian, Mongoloid type, 11, 36 ff., 40,
47 ; Mongols, 23 ; Mughal empire, 24,
26, 517, 562 ; Mongolia, 57 Mongolo-Altaic type, 38, 44 Mongolo-Dravidian (Bengali) type, 47, 48 Monkeys, 274, 399, 405 ; apes, 391, 406,
594 Monsoons, 4, 11, 26, 35, 36, 402 Montgomery District, 618 Months, 139 Monuments, 612 ff. Moon, 139, 143, 304 ; and Soma, 104 ;
moon-rites, 236 Mora inscription, 525 Moravian Gap, 71 Morieis, tribe, 470 Moriyas, 175, 470 Motasiva, Mota Tissa, 607 Mote-hall, 176, 177, 199, 200 Moulmein, 6
Moulton, J. H., 321, 323, 326 Mountain, on coins, 556, 590, 691 Mriccbakatika, 471 mridhravdchah, 85 Muchiri, 595 Mudrar^sbasa, 467, 470 Mugbals. See Mongolian Mubammadans, 1, 15, 18, 27, 32; caste
among, 55; conquest, 22, 23, 24, 58,
532, 557 Muir, J., 79, 81, 92, 140 Mujavant, mt, 80 ; tribe, 117, 322 Mukalan, Tamil, 611 Mukbanandi, 611 Milla pass, 29 Miiladeva, 527, 539 Miiller, C, 336
46—2
724
Index
Muller, F. Max, 79, 112, 413
Multan, 31, 242, 326, 875
Mun^a, king, 189
Muii^a languages, 41, 48, 86, 117, 124
Mura, 223, 470
Murghab, 621
Murree, 31
Musalmans. See Mahammadans
Musbikas, 377
Mushkaf valley, 30
Music, 103, 123, 207
Musicanus, 377 ft., 416
Mussoorie, 26
Mutasiva, 607 ff.
Mutibas, 117
Muttra. See Mathura
Muzaffarpur, 317
Mykans, 338
Mykoi, 340
Myos Hormos, 426
Myrina, 443
Mysians, 71
Mysore, 4, 5, 515
Nabha, 26
Nadapit, 120
Nadir Shah, 39, 342
Nadsiir, 638
Nagadasaka, 189, 312, 313
Nagadipa, 605, 609
Naga Jataka, 624
Naganika, 318, 530, 535 ; Nayanika, 601
nagara, 200, 201, 240, 247, 268, 476
Kagara. See Jalalabad
Nagaraka, 175
Nagarakas, 488
Nagarakhita, 523
NagarjuDi hills, 512
Nagari, 544
Nagas, clans, 254, 595, 596
Nagas, snakes, 154, 254, 274 ; king, 624 ;
of Ceylon, 605 Nagasena, 549, 550 Nagod State, 523 Nagpur, 17, 19 Nahapana, 577, 637 Nahus, 84 Nahusha, 298 Naimisha forest, 302, 303 Kairanjana, 629 Naishadha, 117 Nakshatras, 88, 111, 139, 148, 149 ; origin,
140 Kaksh-i-Bustaminscr., 334, 387, 838, 621 ;
caves, 634 Nalanda, 158 Kami Sapya, 122 Nana pass, 530 Nanaghat inscriptions, 318, 530, 631,
635, 600, 601 Nanda of Magadha, 430, 471, 480, 537,
538; Nandrus, 430, 469; family, 470 Nandas, nine, 164, 189, (new) 313 ff,, 317,
318 Nandasara, 495 Nandivardhana, 158, 311, 313
Nandrus. See Nanda
Nanga Parbat, 32
Naonhaithya, 111, 320
Nara<;ainsls, 254, 255
Narada, elder, 189
Narada, sage, 124; law book, 279, 280,
282, 283, 285 ff., 290 Narbada, 15, 18, 19, 81, 241, 301, 816,
628, 531, 603 Narendragupta, 513 Nasatyas, 72, 110, 111, 320 Nasik caves, 529, 635 ff. ; District, 629 ;
inscr., 530, 635, 600 Nataputta. See Mahavira natti, 176 Navigation, 79, 101, 136, 140, 206, 210 ff,,
269 Nayanika. See Naganika Nearchus, 331, 332, 361, 372, 374, 375,
380, 381, 398 ff., 403 ff., 411, 416, 418,
421, 423 Ne4u-mudu-killi, king, 598 Nedun-jeliyan I, 598 Nedufi-jeliyan II, 598 Ne4un-jeral-adan, king, 598 Negrais, Cape, 6 Neolithic culture, 49, 56, 612 ff. Nepal, 11, 25, 27, 47, 122, 166, 190, 601,
529 Nerivayil, 598 New Zealand, 48 Nicaea, on the Jhelum, 348, 350, 368,
374, 543, 551, 553, 666, 588, 592 Nicanor, 350, 355, 369, 383 Nichakshus, 308 Nicias, king, 546, 547, 586 Nicocles, 370 Nicobar islands, 6, 48 Nidana-katha, 156 Niddesa, 197 Niese, B. , 376, 384 nigama, 200, 201 Nigantha (Niggantba) Nataputta. See
Mahavira Nigliva, 601 niyne, 325
Nigrodha, son of Susima, 500 Nikayas, 173, 184, 185, 192 ff., 197, 216 Nile, 372 Nilgiri hills, 3, 4 NUiya, Tamil, 611 Nimar District, 531 Nindita^va, 322 Niramitra, 306
nirgrantha, 160, 166. See Jains Nirukta, 117 Nirvana, Buddhist, 196, 505 ; Jain, 164,
159' Nishadas, Nishada-Sthapati, 182 Nishka, 98, 137, 217, 218 Nizam, 18, 24 North-Western Frontier Province, 31,43,
44, 541, 543, 544, 560, 563 North-Western Railway, 31 Nrimani, 231 Niins, Jain, 167, 168
Index
725
Nyagrodha, tree, 136, 240 Nyaya Qastra, 482 Nysa, 353, 354 Nysaeans, 354
Occupations, 100, 136, 203 ff., 215 £f.,
248, 474 ff. See Agriculture, Pastoral
pursuits, Traders Octades (atthaka), 197 04disa, 606 Odra-de^a, 601
Odraka, Odruka, 518, 521, 524, 525, 537 04ras, 601 Ohind, 357 Oldenberg, H., 81, 88, 92, 105, 108, 111,
125, 144, 147, 149, 230, 236, 320, 321,
483 Oliyar, tribe, 696, 598 Oin, 230 Omarges, 338 _ Omphis. See Ambhi Onesicritus, 358, 364, 398 ff., 402, 405 ff.,
413 ff., 424 Ooemo. See V'ima Ootacamnnd, 3, 4, 10 Ophir, Sophir, 212, 391 Opiai, 336, 394 Oppert, G., 271
Ordeals, 133, 134, 247, 279, 280, 282 ff. Orissa, 13, 47, 48, 117, 301, 495, 496, 514,
516, 534, 594, 601, 602, 605, 606, 641,
642 Oritae, 380, 381 Oriya, 51
Ormazd. See Ahura Mazda Orobatis, 355 Orodes I, 571, 578 Orontes, 432 Orosius, 568 Orthagnes, 578, 592 Ortbokorybantioi, 338 Ortospanum, 543 Ossadii, 376 Ostrovo lake, 384 otoliknoi, 394 Oudh, 13, 14, 51, 55, 57, 117, 123, 182,
309, 527, 544 ; Nawabs, 24 Ox-head, on coins, 651, 588. See Bull Oxus, 20, 28, 33, 51, 58, 70, 76, 338, 390,
433, 434, 438, 454, 459, 541, 565, 566 ;
Amu Dana, 70, 433 Oxyartes, 376, 388 Oxycanus, 377 Oxydrakai, Kshudrakas, 331, 371, 375,
376 ; Sydrakai, 408
Pabhosa inscriptions, 621, 522, 524, 625,
537 Pacinavamsa-daya, 201 Pacores, 577, 580 ff., 592 Pactyes. See Paktues pdda, coin, 218 Padaeans, 395 Padma Parana, 301 Padmavati, 313 Pagan, 7, 8
Pahari, 51
Pahlavas. See Parthians
Pai^achl, 146; Pioacha languages, 52
Paila, 251
Paintings, 642
Paithan, Paithanikas. See Pratishthana
Pajjota. See Pradyota
PakhthQn, 82
Pakhtu. See Pashtu
Pakthas, 82
Paktues, 52, 339, 340, 396 ; Paktyike, 339
Palaeolithic remains, 612
Palaiyan Maran, 596
Palaiyur, 595
Paiaka, 311
Palghat, 3
Pah, 57, 110, 483 ; home of, 187 ; texts.
See Buddhism Palibothro. See Pataliputra Palk Strait, 2 Pallavaram, 615 Pallavas, 598 palli, 268
Pamirs, 27, 45, 52, 68, 343 Pamphylia, 344 pana, 285
Panayamara, Tamil, 610 Panchalas, 50, 51, 55, 117 ff., 121 ff,, 130,
132, 172, 204, 206, 215, 253, 254, 262,
274, 275, 289, 306, 308, 315, 316, 468,
469, 520, 525, 526, 538, 544 Pafichanada, 116
Pan9havim9a Brahmana, 115, 124, 126, 131 Panchayats, 485, 486,489 Pandaia, 253, 408, 409, 423, 597 Pandara Jataka, 211 Pandavas. See Pandus Pandion, Tamil king, 597 Pandu, ^akya, 607 Pandukabhaya, 607, 608 Pandus, 253 ff., 262 ff., 306 ff.; Pandavas,
253, 597 Pandu-Vasudeva, 607 Pandya kingdom, 408, 423, 515, 595 ff.,
606. See Pandaia Panini, 113, 245, 249, 252, 253, 479, 482,
518, 519, 528, 540, 555, 597, 601 Panipat, 468 Panis, 82, 86, 87, 97 Panjkora valley, 351, 353 Panjroles, 496
Panjshir valley, 348, 660, 566 Panjtar, 584 Pantaleon, 449, 451, 452, 562 ; coins, 465,
546,_586 Para Atnara, 122, 309 Parapara' 252, 301 Paradavar, tribe, 596 Parantapa, 186 Para9u, 88 Parapariya, 189 Paraplus of Androsthenes, 423 Paraskara, 231 ff., 235, 236, 268 Paravatas, 82, 87, 124 Parayana, 188, 189, 197 Par9ava8, 322
726
Index
Parpu, 87, 322
Parpva, 163 ff., 160
Pargiter, F. E., 125, 275, 276, 299, 306,
309, 311 fif. , 511, 518, 521, 522, 529, 630,
533, 550 Pariahs, 234 Paricakra, 121 Parikshit, Parikshit, 120 tf., 301, 302,
306 Parinah, 116 Paripatra, 304 Parishads, 485, 506, 509 Parivakra, 121 parivrdjaka, 151 ; wanderers, 186, 189,
196 Parivrikti, 130 Parjanya, 104, 238 Parkham statue, 620 ff. Parnakas, 129 Parnians, 87 Paropanisadae, 355, 376, 383, 431, 444,
541, 542, 545, 546, 555, 560, 583 Paropanisus, Paropamisus, 327, 333, 427,
428, 561 Parthava, 87, 322 Parthia, 59 ff., 87, 322, 342, 370, 427 ff.,
516, 542, 544, 645, 646 ; Pahlavas, 224,
253, 304, 540, 554, 561, 562 ff. ; coins,
457, 569, 686 Paruetae, 87 Paruparesanna, 327, 328 Parushni. See Ravi Parvata, conspirator, 470 ; Parvataka,
471 Parvata, king of Nepal, 471 Parvata, sage, 124 Pasenadi, Prasenajit, 180, 181, 183, 184,
306, 309, 310, 624 Pashto, 52 ; Pashtus, 339, 347, 351, 380,
396 Pasiani, 459 Pastoral pursuits, 99, 135, 177, 202, 269,
287, 410, 474 ff . Pastyavant, 80 Patala, 543. See Pattala Patalapuri cave. See Manchapuri Patalene, 542, 543 Patali, 313 Pataliputra, -putta, 59, 165, 185, 189, 194,
201, 223, 313, 393, 400, 402, 409 ff.,
430, 469, 472, 475, 477, 482, 498, 500,
501, 506, 512, 514, 516 ff., 523, 527, 531,
537, 544, 617 ; Kusumapura, 313, 477;
Palibothra, 430, 477 ; Pushpapura,544 ;
royal name, 417. See Patna Patanjali, 479, 482, 495, 520, 544 Pathans, 27, 32, 351 Patiala, 26, 80, 242 Patika, 570, 575, 576 Patimokkha, 192, 197 Patisambbida, 197 Patitthana. See Pratishthana Patna, 13, 14, 23, 48, 59, 122, 185, 213,
214, 216, 309, 310, 477, 517, 543, 544,
618, 619, 622. See Pataliputra Patrapani, 231
Patrocles, admiral, 400, 433
Pattala, 378, 379, 380 ; Patala, 543
pattana, 268 ; patfana, 476
Paulkasas, 129
Paunika family, 310
Paurava, The. See Poms
Pauravas. See Purus
Pausanias, 432
Pava, 163, 175
Pavariya, 188
Payasi Sutta, 211
Peacocks, 391, 396, 594 ; on coins, 538 ; throne, 342
Pearls, 423
Pearson, C, 362
Pegu river, 6, 7
Penner river, 595
Pepp6, W. See Piprahwa
Perdiccas, 351, 352, 354, 355, 357, 363
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, 212, 426, 548, 564, 585
Periyar river, 595
Persepolis, 334, 337, 346, 621, 634 ; art of, 628, 637, 638
Persia, 26, 27, 51, 70 ff., 87, 213, 321, 322, 392, 394, 395, 426, 617, 618, 621, 645 inscriptions, 73, 74, 334, 540, 563, 626 coins, 342 ff., 386, 456, 462, 645, 673 weight-standard, 545. See Iran
Persian gulf, 27, 28, 329, 380, 517
Pertalis, 601
Peru-nar-killi, king, 598
Peshana; 328
Peshawar, 29, 30 ff., 61, 216, 222, 321, 355,
427, 452, 542, 546, 561, 563; Purusha- pura, 543 ;- District, 548, 576, 584
petaki, 193
Petavatthu, 197; com., 184, 187, 189,
209 Petenikas, 473, 514, 603 Petersen, W,, 109 Peucelaotis. See Pushkalavati Peucestes, 376
Peucolaitis. See Pushkalavati Peucolaus, king, 557, 558, 587 Phalguna, 148 Phalguni, 111, 148, 149 Phallus worship, 85, 233 Pharrasii, 468 Pharnazathres, 340 Phegelas, 468, 469 Phegelis, Phegeus, 372 Pherecles, 438 Philip, officer = (?) son of Machatus, 355,
360, 361, 370, 374 ff., 383, 384, 386,
428, 468, 471 Philipps, W. R., 680
Philopator, title, 549. See ApoUodotus II, Strato II
Philosophy, 107, 127, 141, 143, 144, 273, 274, 482 ; in epics, 272, 273 ; philo- sophers, 419 ff .
Philostratus, 394, 425
Philoxenus, king, 546, 547, 557, 686, 587
Phocaea, 443
Indi
ex
727
Phoenicians, 88, 351, 374, 391
Photius, 341
Phraates I, 446
Phraates n, 459, 567
Phrygians, 71
Phryni, 542
Phur, 380
Physicians. See Medicine
Pipacha, demon, 239 ; languages, 52, 146
Pijavana, 94, 306
Pilayamara, Tamil, 610
Pilei, on coins, 556, 558, 559
Pi-lo-sho-lo, 556
Pilu-sara, 556
Pin^ola Bharadvaja, 188
Pindus, 71
pipilika, 396
Pipphalivana, 175, 470
Piprahwa Tope, 182, 623, 634
Pipru, 84
Pir Patho, 379
Pischel, R., and Geldner, K. P., 79, 81,
89, 92, 94, 99 Pishin valley, 30, 328 Pitakas, 192 ff.
Pitalkhora cave, 635, 636, 638 Pithon, satrap, 376 ff., 383, 384, 428, 429,
468 Plaksha, tree, 240 Plaksha Prasravana, 117 Plataea, 346 Plato, 420
Plato, king, 456, 457 ; coins, 465 Pliny, 332, 373, 385, 397, 402 ff., 406,
423 ff., 430, 433, 543, 555, 597, 599,
601, 675 Ploughing rite, 237 Plutarch, 351, 353, 359, 364, 367, 373,
378, 383, 397, 470, 550, 674 Podiya hill, 596 Polyaenus, 338, 353, 361, 675 Polyandry, 88, 258, 263, 294 Polybius, 438, 440 ff., 612 Polygamy, Vedic, 88 ; later, 135, 294, 414 Polyxenus, 588
Pompeius Trogus, 459, 543, 674 Poona, 18, 19, 24, 26, 600 Porticanus, 377
Portuguese in Ceylon, 605, 606 Porus, Paurava, (1) 349, 359 ff., 367 ff.,
373, 377, 383, 385, 390, 427 ff., 468,
469, 471, 475, 479, 490, 491, 548, 549,
551 ; (2) 370, 548, 549 Poseidon, 379; on coins, 449, 465, 547,
586 Potana, 173 pouruta, 327 Prabhasa. See Pabhosa Pragastri, 488 prdchya, 468, 469 pradattd, 245 Prade<?ikas, 508 Pradeshtris, 486, 488, 508 Pradyota dynasty, 310, 311; king, 185
(Pajjota), 310, 311 Pragjyotisha, 274
Prajapati, 97, 105, 142, 144, 145, 230, 249
Prakrits, 42, 57, 110, 124, 140
Pramaganda, 85
prdmdnika, 421
Pramnai, 421
prdnta, 268
Pr&sek, J. v., 329, 330, 335, 336
Prasenajit. See Pasenadi
Prasii, 313, 405, 406, 468, 469
Prastoka, 84
Pratardana, 120
Pratipa, 120, 121
Pratisarga, in Puranas, 296
Pratishthana, 523, 531 ff., 535, 536, 599; Paithan, 214, 523, 531; Paithanikas, 603 ; Patitthana, 214
Pratisutvana, 120
Pratyavarohana, 232
Pravabana Jaivali, 121, 127
Praxiteles, 645
Prayaga. See Allahabad
Prendergast, Lieut., 395
Primogeniture. See Inheritance
Prinsep, J., 152, 551
Prithi, 87
Pirithivi, 103, 105, 230
Prithu, 87, 322
Property, 90, 95, 97, 98, 128, 132, 179, 198 ff., 247, 268, 287, 293, 476. See Inheritance
Prostitution, 89, 97, 270, 481
Pteria, 72
Ptolemies, 425
Ptolemy I, Soter, 363, 367, 432
Ptolemy II, Philadelphus, 433, 437, 495, 502
Ptolemy, geographer, 212, 469, 526, 564
Pugar, 595
Pulahatta, Tamil, 610
Puiicat, 595
Pulika, 310
Pulindaka, 518
Pulindas, 117, 514, 606
Puncjras, 117, 242, 317, 601
Punika, 310
Punishments. See Crimes
Punjab, 13, 22 ff., 31, 35, 43 ff., 47, 48, 52, 79, 80, 82, 84, 93, 97, 104, 110, 116, 127, 168, 214, 224, 253, 324, 345, 346, 351, 369, 373, 380, 383, 386, 388, 390, 424, 444, 445, 447, 452, 468, 470, 471, 479, 491, 496, 512, 514, 519, 520, 526, 528, 540, 542, 544, 547, 548, 551 ff., 560, 563, 570, 571, 575, 617, 618, 623, 625, 645
Punjabi, 15, 51
pur, 86, 99, 240, 246
Purali, 380
purdna, coin, 217
Puranas, 47, 220 ff., 245, 251, 252, 265, 270, 276, 296 ff., 469, 473, 482, 495, 511, 516 ff., 520 ff., 524, 525, 527, 529, 630, 531, 633, 534, 536, 537, 544, 601, 603
Purdah, 293
purisdddniya, 154
728
Index
Pumavarman, 513
Purohita, 95, 96, 107, 118. 122, 126, 127,
131, 133, 492; royal, 126, 484, 488;
ratnin, 130 Purukutsa, 83, 94, 305 Purus, 82, 83, 85, 120, 302, 305, 307, 308,
309, 310, 316, 317, 349, 427, 468, 626,
550 ; Pauravas, 307 Purusha, 107, 142 Purushapura. See Peshawar Purushasukta, See Bigveda Purvas, Jain, 165 Pushan, 104 Pushkala, 355, 370 Pushkalavati, 336, 352, 355, 361, 383, 543,
547, 552, 558, 569, 560, 570, 582, 587;
Peucelaotis, 657 ; Peucolaitis, 668 Pushkara, 301
Pushpapura. See Pataliputra Pushpottara, 157 Pushyadharma, 511 Pushyamitra, 166, 223, 318, 511, 512,
517 flf., 522, 527, 630 ff., 537, 644, 600 Pythagoras, 359, 392
Quetta, 29 ff., 328 Quilandi, 595
Eadhagupta, 607
Badinger, C. von, 394
Eaghu, 298
Baghunandana, 108
Bahula, 306
Eaichur DiBtrict, 502
Eaikvapama, 117
Bailways, 13, 16, 17, 22, 27, 30 ; of Burma,
8, 16, 20 Bainfall, 9, 26
Baja, Kosalan, 177, 181, 190. Gf. Kingship rdja-bhogga, 179 Bkjagriha, 158, 160, 161, 163, 310, 527,
536; 637, 612, 616, 629 ; Bajagaha, 181,
183 ff., 194, 201, 213, 214, 218; Eajgir,
310 rdjakdriya, 199, 217 rdja-kunidra, 182 Eajanya. See Kshatriyas Eajanya Janapada, 639 Bajaputra, 130 Bajasthani, 61 Bajasuya. See Kingship Bajatarangini, 468, 501, 611 Bajavaliyas,' 604, 608, 609, 611 Eajavikrama-pravrittiya, 604, 608, 611 Bajglr. See Eajagriha Bajjugrahakas, 608 Bajmahal hills, 9, 12, 13, 16, 34, 35 Bajovada Jataka, 180 Bajputana, 20 ff., 36, 43, 212, 337, 468,
489, 528, 644 ; Agency, 22 ; Great desert
(Thar), 21, 29, 40, 46, 468 Bajputs, 21 ff., 27, 314 ; origin, 628 Bajukas, 487, 608 Bajiila, Bajuvula. See Banjubula Bakshasa, minister, 471, 472 Bakshasas, 106, 230, 233
Bakshita, 499
Balamin Tissa, king of Ceylon, 610
Bama, brother of Bhaddakachchana, 607
Bama, hero, 178, 251, 257, 264, 273, 292, 309
Bamagama, 175, 178
Bamagona, 607
Bamayana, 122, 261 ff., 264, 309, 317, 479, 482
Bamganga, 314
Bamgarh hill, 642
Bamnagar, 316, 525
Bampurva, pillar, 601
Bangit river, 10, 11
Bangoon, 2, 6 ff.
Banha, 325
Bani Gumpha, Udayagiri, 639, 640, 642
Eatijubula, 526, 527, 538, 554, 575, 576, 589 ; Bajula, 576 ; Bajuvula, 526, 575 ,
Bapson, E. J., 256, 332, 343, 421, 438 525 ff., 552, 561, 568, 672, 576, 578, 582, 601
Bashtrakiltas, 603
Eashtrikas, 514, 530, 535, 600. -Sec Marathas
Bathaesthas, 125
Bathakara, 125 ; ratnin, 131
Eathikas, 603
raihin, 270
Eatnins, 130, 297
Eatri, 105
Eattas, 603
Eavana, 264
Baverty, G. H, , 375
Eavi, 27, 121, 549, 550; Parushnl or Iravati, 80 ff., 324, 346; Hydraotes, 345, 349, 370, 371, 373, 375, 376
Eawalpindi, 31, 61, 214, 222, 321, 345, 387, 390, 427, 434, 542, 563 ; District, 652
Bawlinson, G., 330
Bea, A., 623
Beborn (dvija), 234, 235, 240, 248, 285
Bechna doab, 550
Bed Sea, 425, 426, 517
Eegling, K., 388
E^musat, A., 666
Benu, 174
Eibhus, 106 — Eice, 7, 10, 135, 202, 413, 594 —
Bigveda, hymns, 52, 106 ff., 139, 144, 147, 202, 223, 224, 229, 239, 249, 264, 301, 322, 529 ; Anukramani, 126 ; Purusha- sukta, 86, 92, 94, 107, i42 ; period, 43 ff., 52 ff., 73, 76 ff., 93, 108, 116, 122, 126, 139, 144, 247, 298, 305 ff., 321, 474, 482, 491, 494, 615, 616
Bijragva, 89
!lflijupalika, 169
Eiksha, 304
Einamchaya, 84
Eipufijaya, 310
Eishabha, tirthakara, 153
Eishabha Tajnatura, 124
Eishabhadatta, Brahman, 157
Bishabhadatta, strategos, 577
i
Index
729
Rishtikas, 473
Rishtriya. See Itthiya
Risley, Sir H. Hi; 40, 44, 110
Rita, 103
Rituparna, 124
Roberts, General, 33
Rockhill, W. W., 188, 503
Rogers, E., 437
Rohana, brother of Bhaddakachchana,
607 Rohana, province, 609 Rohini, river, 178 Rohri, 29, 31 Romaka, 249 Roman Empire, 385 Roruka, 173, 212 Roruva, 174, 212 Roth, R., 80, 108, 284 Rupamas, 84
Rudra, 104, 135, 144, 145, 230, 232, 233 Ruhuua, 609
Rummindei pillar, 199, 498, 501 Rupar, 372, 543
Sabha, Vedic, 96 ; later, 133, 246, 271 ;
sabhasad, 133 Sabus, 377 Sacae. See Qakas 'Sacarauli, 459 Sacrifices, 106, 107, 127, 129, 141, 145,
146, 225. See. Horse, Human, Soma Sadanira, 122, 309 Saddha-Tissa, 609, 610 .Sagala, Sangala, 214, 371, 446; Qakala,
519, 543, 549, 550 ; Qakala-dvipa, 550 Sagara, 298 Sahadeva, 84, 306, 310 tahajatd, 188 Sahajati, 214 Sahasram, 496, 501, 505 sdhanusdhi, 168 Sahya, mt, 304 Sai, 566 Sajjanela, 178 Sakai, Sakas. See Qakas. Saka Tigra-
khauda, 338, 564 ; Haumavarka, 564 ;
Taradaraya, 565 Sakasena, 601 Sakastana, 338 Saketa, 201, 202, 214, 544 Sakiyas, 175 ff., 181, 182, 199, 204, 209;
.^akyas, 470 ; eponym, 306
Sakka. See Indra
Sakkara, 175
Sakulyas, 244
Salem District, 595
Salivahana, 531
Sallet, A. von, 436, 448, 450, 453, 558
Salsette, 17
Salt Range, 372
Salvas, 121
Sal ween valley, 6fE., 39
Sama tribe, 328
Samaga, 159
Samagama, 175
Samahartri, 487
Saman chants. See Samaveda
Samannaphala-sutta, 184
Samantapasadika, 185, 213
Samapa, 514
Samarkand, 32
Samaveda, 114 ff., 124, 229, 234 ; Saman
chants, 107, 108, 136 Samaxus, 369
Sambala, ^ambala, monk, 499, 608 Sambhutavijaya, 164, 165 Sambus, 377, 378 Samgiti sutta, 194 samgrahana, 475 Samgrahitri, ratnin, 131 Samhitas, 77 ff ., 112 ff. Samiti, 96, 133 Sammeta, mt, 154 Samprati, or Sangata, 166, 511, 512 Samudragupta, 528 Samyutta Nikaya, 178, 180, 181, 184, 186,
187, 189, 192, 194, 196 ff. Sanabares, 580, 592 Sanchi, 476, 479, 498 ff., 523, 533, 619,
622, 624, 626 ff., 633, 634, 637, 643,
644, (627 V, Sandal>325
Sandrocottus. See Chandragupta Sangala. See Sagala '
Sangata. See Samprati Sangaya, 355
Sangha, 205, 207, 217, 218, 496, 506 Sanghamitta, 499, 500, 608 Sanjana, D. D. P., 325 Sankha Jataka, 213 Sankhya^ 273, 482 Sannidhatri, 488 Sannyasis, 409 Sanskrit, 15, 42, 57, 62, 63 ff., 71, 73, 75,
225, 264 Sanskritic languages, 15 Santal Parganas, 48 santhdgdra. See Mote hall Sapedana, 580, 581 Sapinda, 243, 244 Sapta sindhavas. See Seven rivers Sapuga, 178 Sarama, 231 Sarandib. See Ceylon Sarangoi, -ai, 328, 340 Saraostos. See Surashtra SarasvatI, 45 ff., 59, 79, 82, 87, 105, 110,
116, 117, 122, 305, 306, 321 ; in Brahma-
varta, 110, 308 ; Indus, 80, 83 ; Sarsuti,
80 Saraucae, 459 Sarayu, 84
Sarga, in Puranas, 296 Sarmanes, Sramnai, 419 ff., 484 Sarnath, 14, 498, 500, 617 ff. Sarre, F., 327, 328, 335, 336, 338, 339 Sarshaparuna, 231 Sarsuti. See Sarasvati Sasas, strategos, 577, 578, 580, 581, 590 Sassanians, 323, 324, 326, 342 ; coins, 584 Sata, Satavahana(9atakarni), 531, 599 ff.,
603 ; Qatavahanas, 529
730
Indt
ex
Satakas, 599
Satavastra, 580, 581
Sati. See Widows
Sati Sirimanta, 601
Satiyaputas, 515, 599, 603
Satlaj. See Sutlej
Satpura range, 16, 21
Satrajita. See Qatanika
Satraps, 67, 225, 383, 386, 437 ff. ; Indian,
337, 355, 427fE.,574fE.,633; western.
See Cakas Sattabhu, 174
Sattagvdae, 322, 328, 338; Sattagydia, 330 Sattras, 141 Satvants, 117, 120, 122 Satyahavya. See Vasishtha Satyakama Jabala, 127, 152 Saubhuti, Sophytes, 61, 371, 372, 407,
414 ; coins, 388, 430, 463, 623 Sanssure, F. de, 140, 149 Sauti, 297 Sauviras, 274 Savatthi. See Qravasti Savitri, 104, 105 Sayce, A. H., Ill, 321 Schiefner, A. von, 511 Schlagintweit, E.,283 Schoff, W. H., 329, 330 Schroder, L. von, 138, 265 Schubert, E., 362, 367 Schwanbeck, E. A., 468, 472 Schwartz, E., 399 Scylax, 336, 393 ff., 423 Scythians, 44, 60, 61, 168, 224, 332, 338,
457ff.,532,563ff.,567fi.,626. See Qakas Scytho-Dravldian (proto-Dravidian) type,
40, 44, 594 Scytho-Parthians, 645 ff. See Parthians Seasons, 4, 135, 206, 404; six, 139 Seistan, 28, 34, 39, 327, 328, 332, 338, 347,
379, 442, 443, 452, 532, 540, 548, 564,
567 ff., 580 ; era, 576 ; Sijistan, 564 Sek, 566 Sela sutta, 215 Seleucia, 432, 434, 435 Seleucids, 59, 385, 440, 458, 467, 502,
516, 621, 632 ; coins, 433 ff. ; era, 456 Seleucus I, Nicator, 34, 57, 331, 363, 389,
400, 429 ff., 435, 444, 462, 472, 495,
541, 543 ; coins, 463, 623 Seleucus II, 439, 440 Seleucus III, 439 Seleucus IV, 454
Seleucus, son of Antiochus I, 432, 434 Semiramis, 29, 331, 332 Semitic alphabet, 62, 141 ; civilisation,
87, 88, 105, 140, 391 ; languages, 37 ;
nakshatras, 88 Sena, Tamil king, 608, 609 Senajit, 306, 307, 310 Senani, 95, 132 ; ratnin, 130 Senapati, 488, 577 Senart, E., 260, 483, 502, 503, 508, 582,
597, 599, 602, 603, 621 Seneca, 425 Seres, 542
Serivanija Jataka, 211
Serpents. See Snakes
Set Mahet, 309, 523
Setae. 599
setthi. See ^reshfhin
Seven holy places, 531
Seven rivers, 46, 51, 67, 324
Shahbazgarhl, 496
Shahis, 557
Shahjahanabad, 25
Shah-ke-Dheri, 456, 543, 648. See Taxila
Shans, 8 ; States, 49
shaonano shao, 168
Shekels. See Sigloi
Shipping. See Navigation
Sialkot, 370, 446, 519, 543, 549, 550
Siam, 5, 6 ; Siamese-Chinese, 49
Sibae, 374
Sibyrtius, 472
Siddapura, 515
Siddhanta, Jain, 166
Siddhartha, father of Mahavira, 157
Siddhattha. See Buddha
Sidgwick, A. , 394
Sieou, Chinese, 139, 140
Sigerdis, 543
Siggava, 506
Sigloi, Shekels, 343, 344, 386, 673
Sihabahu, 606
Sihala, Sihaladlpa, 606
Sihapura, in Gujarat, 606
Sihasivali, 606
Sihor, 606
Sijistan. See Seistan
Sikhs 24, 27, 55 ; feudal states, 26
Sikkim, 11
Sllanisamsa Jataka, 213
Silas, river, 404
Silas, 192, 197
Silavati, 175
Silver, 342, 615
Simalia, 76
Simhala, Simhaladvipa, 606
Simhapura, capital of Kalihga, 607
Sirahavalli, 606
Simla, 17, 21, 24, 26 ; Hill States, 529
Simuka, 224, 318, 529, 530, 599
Sind, 21, 23, 27, 31, 36, 44, 79, 214, 326,
337, 376 ff., 380, 383, 395, 403, 407,
413, 416, 427, 468, 472, 540, 543, 560,
664, 569, 606 Sindhi, 51
Sindhia, 15, 19, 21, 22 Sindhu, tributary of Jumna, and Kali
Sindhu, 520. See Indus Sindhus, tribe, 274 Sinhalese. See Ceylon Sindimana, 378 Sipra, 316 Siradhvaja, 317 Sirhind, 46, 308 Sirkap, 580 Sisara, 231
Sisikottos. See Qagigupta Sistan. See Seistan Sita, 122, 264, 292, 317 ; furrow, 237
1
Inde.
x
731
Sitavana, 201
Sittang valley, 6, 7
Six, J. P., 434
Sixteen Great Powers, 172
Siva, palace guard, 610, 611
Skanda, 485 ; Purana, 300
skiapodes, 393
Slaves, 100, 101, 110, 128, 129, 135, 205,
209, 215, 216, 267, 268, 285, 287, 291,
294, 416, 481, 482 Slavs, 71, 73
Slavonic languages, 71, 73, 74 Smarta Sutras, 228 Smerdis, 333, 334 Smith, V. A., 140, 141, 157, 199, 299,
314, 329, 335 ff., 341, 348, 350 ff., 356,
357, 361, 371, 375, 376, 379, 408, 480,
515, 565, 568, 614, 615 Smriti, 277 Snakes, 405 ff. ; charming, 204, 207, 406 ;
drought-demon, 105 ; worship, 106, 145,
232 ; on coins, 539. See Nagas Soanus, 468 Soastus. See Swat Socrates, 359
Sogdi, Sogdians, 341, 377, 454, 459 Sogdiana, 386, 390, 434 ff., 454, 459 Sohan, 468
Solar dynasty, 276, 298, 304, 305 Soli. See Chola Soliman mts, 322 Solomon, king, 391 Soma, 77, 102, 104 ff., 127, 128, 141, 231,"
232, 320; moon, 89, 104; source of,
80, 81 Somagarman, 511 Somadhi, 310 Somaka, 84
Son, river, 13, 15, 16, 19, 182, 411, 469, 477 Sona Kutikanna, 186, 499 Sonaka, 506 ' ' Sonarl, 634 Sonmiani, 380 Sonuttara, thera, 609 Sopara. See Supparaka Sopeithes. See Saubhuti Sophagasenus, 442, 443, 512 Sophir, 212 ; Ophir, 391 Sophy tes. See SaubhQti Soroadeios. See Siiryadeva Soter Megas, 581 Sovira, 173, 174, 212, 214 Spalagadames, 574, 589, 590 Spalahores, 573, 574, 590 ; Qpalahora,
Spalyris, 574, 589 Spalirises, 562, 573, 574, 590, 591 Spalyris. See Spalahores Spaniards in America, 75 Spartans, 377, 378 Spatembas, 409
Spells, 77, 95, 98, 107, 136, 138, 145, 237ff. Sphines, 359
Spiegel, F., 320, 324, 325 Spitaces, 361, 365, 367 Spooner, D. B., 341, 477, 673 Sramnai. See Sarmanes
Sraosha, 325
Sreewacolum, 599
Srinagar, 32, 501
Srinjayas, 83, 84, 87, 118, 121, 130, 131
Sse, Sai, Sek, 566
Stein, Sir M. A., 39, 328, 336, 468, 501,
582 Stenzler, A. F., 283 Steppes of Bussia, 69, 565 Stevenson, J., 152 Sthanikas, 486, 488, 508 Sthapati, 122, 131 Sthulabhadra, 165 Strabo, 191, 331, 332, 347, 350, 352, 357 ff.,
361, 370 ff., 378, 379, 381, 388, 399,
400, 402 ff., 411 ff., 430, 431, 433, 445,
455, 457, 459, 472, 483, 489, 542, 544,
548, 597, 675 Strato I, Soter, 461, 548, 551 ff., 559, 575,
586 ff. Strato II, Philopator,552, 553, 575, 587, 589 Stratonice, 432 Subahu, 186 SubbaRao, N. S.,213 Subhadrika, 119 Subhagasena, 512 Sugarman, 224, 318 Sudar^ana, tank at Junagarh, 501 Sudas, 81 ff., 91, 92, 94, 95, 126, 306, 308 Suddhodana, 177, 306, 500 Sudeshna, 601 Sudharman, 164 Sue Vihara inscription, 585 Suez Canal, 16, 17 Sugar-cane, 404 Suhastin, Jain, 512 Suhma, 317, 601 Sukanya, 126 Sukkur, 29, 30 Sukthankar, V. S., 599 Su-Kurkura, 231
Sumana, Susima, brother of Agoka, 500 Sumana, son of Sanghamitta, 500, 608 Sumana, sister of Pasenadi, 181 Sumangala-vilasini, 177 ff., 182ff., 188,
193, 205 Sumantu, 251 Sumerians, 43
Sumitra, king, 223, 309, 518, 521 Sumitta, brother of Vijaya, 607 Sumitta, son of Kunti, 507 Sumsumara hill, 175 Sun, 304; worship, 104, 105, 257, 272;
sun-god on coins, 456, 465 ; in sculpture,
638, 640. See Surya Supparaka, Qurparaka, 211, 469, 603,
606 ; Sopara, 603, 606 Sura (Suvannapinda), Tissa, 608, 609 Sura, 102, 133, 137 Surajbansi Rajputs, 304 Siirasenas, Suraseni. See Qurasenas Surashtra, 469, 585 ; Saraostos, 542, 543 Surat, 212, 242 ; first factory, 16 Surguja State, 642 Surya, 76, 104 ; Soroadeios, Siiryadeva,
422. See Sun
732
Index
Surya, daughter of the sun, 89
Susa, 391, 411
Susemihl, F., 398 fif.
Susima. See Sumana
Susunaga. See Qipunaga
Suta, ratnin, 130, 131, 257, 297, 301 ff.
Sutlej, 24, 26, 27, 81, 345, 372, 468, 528,
629, 543; gutudri, 80, 81, 324; Hesy-
drus, 345, 543 ; Zaradrus, 345 Sutralamkara of Apvaghosha, 482 Sutras, il2, 113, 116, 129, 132, 134, 147,
277, 281 ff., 287, 482; family life and
social customs in, 227 ff. ; period, 220 ff. Sutta, division of Pitakas, 192, 197, 198 Sutta Nipata, 178, 183, 188, 193, 196,
197, 202 ff., 214, 215, 299 Sutta Vibhanga, 197 Suttee. See Widows suvanna, 217, 218
Suvannabhumi, 213 ; Suvarnabhiimi, 499 Suvastu. See Swat Suvrata, 159 Suyagas, 511 8va-karma, 54 Svapnavasavadatta, 313 Svastika, on coins, 539 Svayamvara. See Marriage Svishtakrit, 230 Swat,' river, 52, 79, 345, 361, 352, 365,
360, 369 ; Soastus, 345 ; Suvastu, 52,
79, 345 Sydrakai. See Oxydrakai Syncellus, 438 Syr Daria. See Jaxartes Syria, 59, 884, 427 ff., 540
Taboo, 234, 235
Tabriz, 70
Tacitus, 66, 491
Ta-hia, 459, 461, 566
Taittiriya Samhita, 114, 121, 134, 135,
139 ; Aranyaka, 115, 252, 601 ; Brah-
mana, 115', 116, 125 Takht-i-Bahi inscription, 576, 584 Takkasila. See Taxila Takkola, 212 Takshapila. See Tazila Takshan, ratnin, 131 Talaiy-alanganam, 598 Tamalitti, 213 Tamankaduwa, 604 Tambapanni, dipa, 213 ; town, 606 ;
Tamraparni, Taprobane, 424 Tambraparni river, 595 Tamil, 15, 49, 212, 593 ff., 602, 605 Tamils, 593 ff., 608 ff. ; Tamil -agam, 595,
596 Tamraparni. See Tambapanni Tanjore, 3', 4 ; District, 598 ' Taprobane. See Tambapanni Tapti, 16, 19, 514, 531 Taradaraya. See Sakai Tarai, 26
Taranatha, historian, 511, 512 Tartary, 445 Tashkand, 389
Taxation, 128, 131, 132, 179, 198, 199,
245 ff ., 268, 269, 289, 410, 418, 487 Taxila, Takkasila, Takshagila, 62, 186,
214, 345 ff., 349, 350, 354, 355, 357 ff.,
367 ff., 376, 381, 383, 386, 403, 414,
416, 421, 427, 468 ff., 473, 494, 495,
497, 500, 514, 521, 532, 543, 552, 566,
558, 559, 562, 569 ff., 575, 576, 580 ff.,
623, 625, 633, 646, 647 Taxiles, 390, 427 ff. Teheran, 70 Teleas, 441 Tel-el-Amarna, 76 Telingana, 598, 601 Telugu, 15, 18, 49, 693, 594; Telugua,
598 ff. See also Andhras Tenasserim, 7 Tevani, 522 Thalghat, 17 Thamanaioi, 328, 339 Thana District, 606 Thanesar, 80, 301, 468 Thar. See Rajputana Thatagu, 322, 328, 338 Theodotus. See Diodotus I Theragatha, 186, 189, 197, 202, 209, 214,
215 Theravada Canon. See Buddhism Therigatha, 181, 197, 201, 218; Com.,
183, 186, 193, 205, 208 Theriomorphism, 103 Thessaly, 71 'Thibaut, G., 149 Thomas, Acts of, 678, 579 Thomas, E., 152, 651 Thomas, F. W., 310, 329, 332, 338, 339,
341, 415, 417, 503, 618, 521, 522, 561,
563, 564, 576, 577 Thracian, 71 ; Thracians, 351, 369, 370,
384, 386 Threshing-floor sacrifice, 238 Thulathana (Thulanaga ?), 610 Thunderbolt, on coins, 538 Thuparama at Anuradhapura, 608 ; Great
Thupa, 609 Thurston, E., 41 Tibet, 8, 12, 20, 21, 32, 33, 35, 39, 47, 57,
496, 565 ; plateau, 33 ; tradition, 188, 503 Tibeto-Burmese, 39, 49 Tibeto-Chinese languages, 37, 41, 49;
clans, 314, 317 Tiger, 68, 81, 407; in sculpture, 635 Tiger hill, 10 Tigrakhauda. See Sakai Tigranes, 569 Tigris, 27, 70, 432, 434 Tilak, B. G., 149 Timarchus, satrap, 457 Tin, 391
Tinnevelly, 423, 595 Tipu, Sultan of Mysore, 5 Tiraiyar, tribe, 596 Tirhut, 48, 117, 123, 317 Tiridates, 87, 438 Tirindira, 87 tirthakara, 163, 159, 160
I
Index
733
Tiru-karur, 595
Tirupati, 595
Tiru-vanjikkalam, 595
Tisagutta, 163
Tishtar Yasht, 326
Tishya. Set Tissa
Tishyarakshita, 500, 630
Tissa, minister of Vijaya, 607
Tissa, son of Kunti, 507
Tissa (Kuda), son of Mahachiili, 610
Tissa, viceroy of Agoka, 498, 500
Tissa, wood-carrier, 611
Tissa Abhaya, 609, 610. See also
Devanampiya, Ganapa, Moggaliputta,
Sura Tissanuvara, 607 Tivara, 500 Toalas, 41 Tochari, 459 Tod, J., 284
Tomaschek, W., 330, 371, 379, 380 Tondi, 595 Torioua, 457 Totemism, 82, 106 Traders, 129, 136, 211 ff., 410, 426, 433,
434, 478, 479 Transmigration,108, 112, 138, 143, 144,162 Trasadasyu, 83, 94, 95, 120 Travancore, 3, 20, 595 Treasurer of gilds. See Gilds Tree, worship, 105 ; on coins, 538, 539 Treta age, 303 Tricala 157
Trichin'opoly, 3, 4 ; Old, 595 Tri<;ula emblems, 582, 629 Tridhatu (Trivriehan), 83 Trikshi, 83 Trinaskanda, 91 Trinity, Hindu, 279 Triparadisus, 428, 429 Tripod on coins, 586 ff . Trita, 104
Tritsus, 81, 91, 92, 120, 308, 518 Tiivrishan (Tridhatu), 83 Trojan war, 307, 376 Tryaruna, 83
Tsan-po. See Brahmaputra Tucker, T. G., 394 Tugrya, 84
Tulla, Tulna, king of Ceylon, 610 Tura Kavasheya, 120, 121 Turan, 28 Turanians, 440 Turghna, 116 Turkestan, 28, 44, 60, 69, 70 ; Chinese,
39, 57, 62, 500, 502, 543, 565, 582 ;
Bussian, 565 Turko-Iranians, 42, 44, 85 Tumour, G. , 470 Turvapas, 82, 84, 118 Turvasu, 540 Tushaspha, 501 Tuticorin, 2, 5 Tyrians, 594
Tyriespes, 350, 365, 370, 376 Tzetzes, 394
ubbdhikd, 176
Uginaras, 84, 117, 118, 121
Udaipur, 21, 22
Udana, 186, 187, 197
Udayagiri hill, 534; caves, 638, 639
Udayana. See Udena
Udayin, successor of Ajatapatru, 164,311,
313, 469; Udayi-bhadda, 185, 189,
313 Udena, 185, 187, 188 ; vatthu, 187 ; Uda- yana, 308, 310, 311, 313 Udgatri, 107, 108 Udumbara tree, 240 Udumbaras, 529, 539 Ugra^ravas, 297 Ugras, 136, 235 Ugrasena, 120 Ujjain, Ujjayini, 155, 166 ff., 310, 311,
316, 469, 473, 485, 494, 497, 500, 512,
514, 517 ff., 522, 531 ff., 539, 571, 600 ;
Ujeni, 532, 639 ; Ujjeni, 185, 187, 188 ;
in Ceylon, 606 Ulukhala, 231 Ulumpa, 175 United Provinces, 13 ff., 25, 40, 45, 47,
307, 514, 528, 551 Universal monarch, 153, 158, 318, 494,
567 Upa(jruti, 231
Upagupta. See Moggaliputta Upairisaena, 327 Upali, 161, 506 ; sutta, 161 Upamacjravas, 83, 94, 120 Upanishads, 94, 112, 114 ff., 118, 121,
127, 142 ff., 147, 249, 260, 264, 274,
297, 299, 482, 549 Upaplavya, 316 Upapuranas, 300 Uparaja, 488, 494 Upa tissa, king of Ceylon, 609 Upatissagama, 606, 607 Upavedas, 245 Upavira, 231 UraQa, 373 Uraiyur, 595 Urmia, lake, 70 Uruvela, brother of Bhaddakachchana,
607 Uruvela, Ceylon, 606 Urva, 328
Ushas, 79, 104, 105, 109, 113 Ushavadata, 577, 637 Us-Hindava, Usind, Usindam, 326, 327 Ust Urt, 69
Usury, 98, 137, 218, 235, 248, 287 Utkala, 601 Utriya. See Uttiya Uttara, missionary, 499 Uttara, township, 178 Uttara-Kurus, 117, 118, 121 Uttara-Madras, 117, 121 Uttarapatha, 537 Uttara-Phalguni, 148, 159 Uttiya, king of Ceylon, 608 Uttiya, Utriya, monk, 499, 608 Uva, 604
734
Index
Vapas, 117, 118, 121
Vaccha Brihrnans, 209
VaQini, 238
Va^^as, 41, 604, 605
Vadbapala, 623
Vadhryapva, 94, 305
Vadukha, 602, 639
Vaekereta, 327
Vaigakha, month, 159
Vai^ali. See Vesali
Yaipampayana, 251, 252
Vai^eshika, 482
Vai<;ravana, 233
Vaigvanara, 238
Vaipyas, 51, 54, 92, 93, 12511., 131, 132,
208, 208, 239, 248, 256, 260, 267, 304,
474; Vip, 54, 94, 95 Vaijayanti, 637 Vaikarna tribes, 83, 91, 118 Vaikkarai, 595 ^J^aikuntha cave. See Manchapnri Vairadeya, 97 Vairata, 316 Vairodhaka, 471 Vaitahavyas, 121, 122 Vaitana Sutra, 115, 229 Vajapeya, 141
Vajasaneyi Samhita, 115, 129 Vajira, queen, i81 Vajjians, Vriji, 172, 178, 184, 185, 188,
190, 313, 317 Vajramitra, 518 Vaka, 119 Vakadepasiri, 639 vVakovakya, 482 - Vakradeva, 602, 639 .Valabhi, 166, 169 Valahassa Jataka, 211 Valakhilyas, 78 •Valmiki, 257 Valuer,, court, 216 Varna, yife of Apvasena, 154 VamanftsPurana, 301 Vamba-Lioriyar, 596 Vampa, ip Puranas, 296 Vampanucharita, in Puranas, 296, 304 Vamsas, 172, 187 5., 310.' See Vatsas Van, lake, 70 Vanana, 578
vdnaprastha, 151, 420, 484 . Vanavar, tribe, 696 Vanavasa, 499, 603 vanavdsin, 420
Vangas, 47, 51, 212, 242, 317, 601, 605 Vafiji, 595
Vanka, king of Eosala, 180 ■ Varapikha, 84, 87 Varada, 519 Varahamihira, 397 Varaha Purana, 301 Varanavati, 117 Varchin, 84
Vardhamana. See Mahavlra varna. See Caste Varro, 425 Varshyayani, 242
Varuna, 72, 79, 103 ff., 108, 109, 111,
288, 319, 320 Varuni Jataka, 217 ^Vasavadatta, 311 Vasettha Sutta, 204 Vasishtha, rishi, 81, 92, 95, 301 ; family,
89, iOl ; Satyahavya, 121 ; law-book,
217, 218, 245, 247 ff., 289, 290 "Vassakara, 185 Vasu (Kapu) Chaidya, 84, 309 Vasndeva, minister of Cungas, 223, 621,
622 Vasudeva. See Krishna Vasujyeshtha, 518 Vasuki, astrologer, 611 Vasumitra, 223, 518, 521, 544 Vasus, 105, 232 Vata, 104, 230 Vatsa, 125, 126, 134 ; country, 310, 311,
313, 316, 525 ; Vatsas, 527 ; princess,
523. See Vamsas Vatsyayana, 482 Vatta-Gamani Abhaya, 610 Vatiika, Tamil, 610, 611 Vavata, ratnin, 130 Vayu, 104, 288 Vayu Purana, 297, 302 Veda, andAvesta, 319; fifth Veda, 256,
299. See Eigveda Vedangas, 245, 482 ,Vedanta, 274, 274 Veddas. See Vaddas Vedehiputta, 183* Vedic dialects, 52, 57, 605 ; period. See
Eigveda Vedic Index, 48, 50, 51, 79, 84, 127, 146,
152, 308, 309, 317, 323, 324, 518, 525,
529, 550 Vedisa, 188, 500 Vedi-siri, 601 Veith, G., 367 Vellalar, 596 Veiiar river, 595 Vendldad, 323 ff. Venkatagiri, 595 Vennil, 598
Verethraghna, 320, 578 Verethrajan, 111 Verri-ver-peliyan, 598 Veskli, Vaipili, 157, 160, 175, 185, 188,
189, 214, 305, 317, 491 ; Basarh, 317 Vessabhu, 174 'Vetasus, 84 .Vetravati, 522 -Vibhitaka, 247
Vip, canton, 91, 94, 95. See Vaipya -Vipakha (Skanda), 485 Vipakhadatta. See Mudrarakshasa Vippati, 91, 94 Victory, on coins, 449, 547, 551, 553, 556,
578, 580, 586, 588, 592 Vipvakarman, god, 107 Vipvakarman Bhauvana, 132 Vipvamitra, 81, 82, 92, 95, 126, 529,
539 Vipvantara, 126
Indi
ex
735
Vi^ve aevas, 105, 223, 238
Vidarbha, 117, 124, 223, 519, 600, 602 ;
Berar, 117, 514, 519, 535 •Videgha Mathava, 122, 317 Videha, 48, 51, 55, 57, 117, 119, 122, 123,
125, 127, 130, 157, 160, 173, 175, 178,
183, 305, 315, 527, 549 ; Videhas, 309,
313 317 Vidi<?i, 500, 517 ft., 525, 526, 531 ff., 558,
600, 625, 632, 643. See Bhilsa -Tidudabha, 181, 185 Viduia, 255 Vigatagoka, 511
Vihara, the Great. See Mahavihara 'Viharas, structure, 637, 638 Vijaya of Ceylon, 606, 607 Vijaya-rajavaliya, 604, 608 ff. Vijayaraja-vamsaya, 604, 609, 610 Vijita, brother of Bhaddakachchana, 607 Vijitagama, 606 Vikeci 239 'Vikrama era, 155, 156, 167, 168, 491,
571, 576, 581 Vikramaditya, 168, 532, 533, 571 ; Chan-
dragupta II, 519, 533 Village, 90 ff., 99, 177, 198 ff., 225, 287,
240, 241, 288, 476 ; gama, 199 ff. ;
grama, 90, 91, 268 ; gamabhojaka, 199 ;
gamakhetta, 202 ; gramani, 91, 95, 268,
486 (ratnin), 131 ; gramika, 289 V'ima Eadphises, 580 ff., 584; Ooemo,
582 Vimana-vatthu, 197 ; com., 184, 208, 214 VinaQana, 45, 117 Vinaya, 177, 179, 181, 184, 186 ff., 192,
193, 196 ff., 201 ff., 205,' 207, 208, 210,
215 ff . Vinaya Texts, 172, 176, 180, 186, 203,
208, 214, 215 Vindaphama. See Gondophames Vindbyas, 15, 16, 21, 40, 49, 51, 81, 84,
117, 191, 304, 423, 467, 473, 593, 594,
602, 613, 615 Vine, 408
Vipa^, Vipa^a. See Beas Viras, eight, 131 Virasena, Maurya, 511, 512 Virata, 292, 316 Virgil, 568 Visadeva, 523 •Vishanins, 82 Vishnu, 104, 144, 145, 233, 254, 257, 303 ;
cult, 225, 232, 233, 238, 259, 272 ff.,
279, 298, 484; Bhagavatas, 275, 558.
See Krishna Vishnu,' law-book, 249, 277, 279, 287,
289, 290 Vishnugupta, 467, 470 Vishnu Purana, 298, 301, 804 ff. -Vitahavya, 84, 518 •Vitasta. See Jhelum Vitihotras, 315, 316, 518 Vodva tope, 167 -Vonones, 568, 572, 573, 589, 590 ; family,
574 Vonones I of Parthia, 573, 678, 592
Vouru-kasha, 326 -Vrajapati, 95
Vratyas, 124, 146, 236
Vrichivants, 84
Vriji. See Vajjians
Vrishasena, 511 _Vritra, Vritrahan, 111, 320
Vyagghapajja, 178
Vyasa, 252, 297, 302, 303
Vyavahara, 281
Wackernagel, J., 109, 220
Waddell, L. A., 477, 501, 506
Wainganga, 536
Wallachia, 69
Wanderers. See Parivrajaka
Wardha, 519, 536
Watters, T., 187 ff., 513, 524, 556, 557
Weber, A., 79, 87 ff., 92, 94, 119, 140,
152, 233, 236, 251, 252, 253 ff., 323 Wedding. See Marriage Weissbach, P. H., 334, 335 Wellesley, General. See next Wellington, Duke of, 5, 24 Wergeld, 97, 128, 134 West, E. W., 326 Wheel, Buddhist, 629 White Rock, 595
Whitehead, E. B., 570, 574, 577, 578 Whitney, W. D., 149 Widows, 247, 292, 481; burning, 107,
247, 278, 279, 292, 293, 414, 415 Wilson, H. H., 108, 152, 300, 336, 397 Winckler, H., 320 Windisch, E., 187 Winternitz, M., 89, 138, 172, 187, 233,
321 Wiros, 66 ff., 320 Wolff, P., 325 Women, position of, 88, 135, 199, 239,
245, 285, 288, 292, 293, 414, 415, 481 Writing, 140, 413, 418, 483 ; pictographic,
618. 5fee Alphabet Wroth, W.,567, 569 Wular Sea, 80 Wu-sun tribe, 565, 566
'Xandrames, 468, 469 Xathri, 376, 528 Xenophon, 330, 331, 333 Xerxes, 340, 396, 564
Ta^as, arhat, 507
Ya^oda, wife of Mahavira, 168
Yadava, 316
Yadu, 307, 316 ; Yadus, 82, 84, 87, 274,
316 Yajiiasena, 519, 600 Yajnavalkya, 122, 137 ; law-book, 277,
279, 280, 283, 286, 287, 290, 291, 294 Yajurveda, 54, 55, 56, 114, 115, 119, 123,
135 ff., 145, 228, 236, 252, 277, 279 Yakkhas, Yakshas, 606, 607, 624, 630 Yakshus, 82, 85
Yama, 103, 108, 231, 238, 288, 320 Yamuna. See Jumna
73^
Index
Tanai-kat-^ey. See ^ey
Yaaka, 117, 126
Yatthalaya (Kalani ?) Tissa, 609
Taadheyas, 528
Yaugandhari, 121
yava^ 135
Yavamajjhaka, 215
Yavanas, Yonas, 212, 223, 225, 226, 240, 270, 274, 304 ; Greeks of Alexander, 253, 346 ff. ; Greeks of Bactria, 34, 499, 514 ft., 518 ff., 532, 537, 540 ff., 544 ff., 553 ff., 557 ff., 564, 566, 567, 569 ff., 577, 583 ff.
Yayati, 298
Yima, 320
Yoga, 273
yi^ana, 185, 200, 247, 550
Yonas, Yonakas. See Yavanas
Yorck von Wartenburg, H. L. D., Graf, 361
Young, T., 65, 66
Yuan Chwang. See Hiuen Tsiang
Yueh-chi, 60, 389, 459, 561, 565 ff., 582, 583
Yuga, Mahayuga, 296, 303 Yuga Purana, 620, 544 Yuktas, 508
Yusufzai Subdivision, 584 Yuvaraja, 488, 494, 534
Zachariae, T., 233
Zaradrus. See Sutlej
Zarangoi, 328
Zaranka, 338
Zariaspa, 441
Zeionises, 576, 582, 588
Zend. See Iran
Zeus, on coins, 433, 436, 437, 443, 449, 460, 461 ff., 555 ff., 560. 562, 573, 574, 588, 590 ff. ; Dyaus, 103, 105
Zeus Ombrios, 422
Zimmer, H., 80, 81, 88,90ff., 94, 96, 217, 491
Zirrah, 328
Zoilua, king, 549, 552, 553, 587, 589
Zoroaster, 74, 323
Zoroastrianism, 76, 319, 673
Zrayah Kasaoya, 328
PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY J. B. PEACE, M.A. AT XH£ OAUBBIDaE UNIVBBSITT PBESS
The Cambridge History of Jndia^ Vol. 1
2 /R
Plate I
16 Ai
17 /R
16 /R
PERSIAN, ATHENIAN, AND MACEDONIAN TYPES IN INDIA
C.H.I. I.
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Plate II
COINS OF THE SELEUCID KINGS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. 1
Plate III
W/^:>
'S4
\ -^
AK
cn;;;;
r
COINS OF BACTRIA
a2
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate IV
m-:
r^Slf^Vl %
COINS OF BACTRIA
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
I /E
4/e:
5 >€ 6 >E
8/E
9/E
14 /R
15 /R
P/^/^ ^
2 /E 3/E
7/E
lO/E
16/R
•7/R 1 8/E 1 9/E
COINS OF NATIVE INDIAN STATES
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate VI
zm
-- i r*
: A
4/E
^ ■■*>-- ^
J
5/E
15/E 16^ l7/€
COINS OF THE GREEK, SCYTHIAN, AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Plate VII
38 /€ COINS OF THE GREEK, SCYTHIAN, AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Plate Vlll
40/R ^^B JS9
.39 /E
55 /E COINS OF THE GREEK, SCYTHIAN, AND PARTHIAN INVADERS
PLATE IX (Nos. 1-10)
PALAEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS
'The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Straight-edged cleaver of brownish quartzite : from Chingleput District, Madras. 13 cms.
Pebble-butted boucher of quartzite : from Chingleput District. 14 'cms.
Boucher of banded fen'u- ginous quartzite : from Kistna District, Madras. 19 cms.
Polished celt with pointed butt of speckled trap: from Banda District, United Provinces. 19 cms.
Polished chisel-celt of hardened clay slate : from Burma. 20 cms.
PALAEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS
?late IX
Discoid palaeolith of reddish- gi'ey quartzite: from north of the Ghatprabha river, Belgaum District. 7"0 cms.
Guillotine-edged palaeolith of reddish quartzite : from the Bennihalla river, Dharwar District, Bombay. 23 cms.
Polished celt, weathered, with flat- tened butt and crescentic edge of trap : from Mahob.a, Bundelkhand. 9 cms.
10
Core of nummulitic flint with 12 flakes : the Indus at Sukkur. 14-5 cms.
8 from Polished shouldered celt with
adze-like edge, of dark grey slate : from Burma. 10 cms.
PALAEOLITHIC AXD NEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. 1
Plate X
11
12
13
14
15
Celts from Bijnor District, U.P. Scale = t\ .
Barbed spear-head from Bijnor District, U.P. Scale ,\ .
Object of uncertain character from Fateh garh , U, P . Scale = J .
19
Swords from Fatehgarh, U.P. Scale = J.
20
PREHISTORIC COPPER OBJECTS
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Plate XI
Gold leaf from Vedic (?) burial mound at Lauriya Nandangarh.
(Actual size.)
22
23
Seals from Harappa, Montgomery Dist., Punjab. (Actual size.)
Apoka Pillar at Lauriya Nandangarh .
(Height :-}9' 7A".)
ra9ade of the Lomas Rishi Cave.
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate XII
Yaksha(?) Statue from Parkham, near Mathura. (Height 8' 8".)
Capital of A(;oka Column at Sarnfith. (Height 6' lOV'.)
Relief on Capital of Agoka Column at Sarnath.
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate XIII
29 30
(Height 6'.) (Height 5' 4".)
Yaksha figures from Patna. (Indian Museum, Calcutta.)
31
■
33
Indigenous punch-marked Coins.
34 Coin of Sophytes (Saubhiiti).
The Cambridge History of Indicia Vol. I
Plate XI y
Terracotta head from Sarnath. (Actual size.)
Terracotta head from Basarh (VaiQalT). (Actual size.)
i
Terracotta relief from Basarh. (Actual size.)
38 39
Jewellery from Taxila. (Actual size.)
Crystal reliquary from Piprahwa Stupa. (Height 3^".)
The Cambridge History of Tndia^ Vol. I
Plate XV
41
GATEWAY AND RAILINGS OF THE BHARHUT STUPA (INDIAN MUSEUM, CALCUTTA)
C.H.I. I.
I
I
PLATE XVI (Nos. 42-45)
RELIEFS ON THE RAILING OF THE BHARHUT STUPA
b2
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
^'
k
J
mm
42
RELIEFS ON THE RAILING OF THE BHARHUT STUPA
Plate Xn
45
RELIEFS ON THE RAILING OF THE BHARHUT STUPA
PLATE XVII (Nos. 46, 47)
RELIEFS ON THE RAILING OF THE BHARHUT STUPA
The Cambridge History of India y Vol. I
46
BELIEFS ON THE RAILING OF THE BHARHUT STUPA
Plate XVII
RELIEFS ON THE RAILING OF THE BHARHUT STUPA
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Plate XVIII
GARUDA PILLAR AT BESNAGAR NEAR BHILSA (VIDigA)
(Height 21' 3")
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Plate XIX
50 Pillar of Railing,
51
Pillar of Railing.
Pillar of Chankrama.
RAILING AND RELIEFS AT BUDDH GAYA
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Plate XX
X5
Id
^
PLATE XXI (Nos. 54-59)
GENERAL VIEW AND RAILING PILLARS OF STUPA II AT SANCHI
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Plate XXI
o a
H <1
r— I CO
O
«
O
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate XXII
FRONT FACE OF EAST GATEWAY OF THE MAIN STUPA AT SANCHI
PLATE XXIII (Nos. 61-64)
ARCHITRAVES OF GATEWAYS
OF THE
MAIN STIJPA AT SANCHi
C.H.I. I.
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol, I
C3
o
Plate XXIII
o
P4 P
II— I
w
'^
H
<
;^ W
O
<: o
(^ o
o2
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate XXIV
65 Jain votive tablet from Mathnra. (Height 2' 4".)
ST
66
rortion of.Torana arph fi'om Mathura. (Height 'A' W.)
PLATE XXV (Nos. 67, 68)
THE CHAITYA CAVE AT KARLI
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Front view of Chaitya Cave at Kaili.
Plate XXV
Interior view of Chaitya Cave at Karli.
PLATE XXVI (Nos. 69-72)
CAVES AT KONDANB, BHAJx\, NADStJR, AND NASIK
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Front view of Chaitya Cave at KondiUie.
Interior of Vihara Cave at Nadsur.
Plate XXVI
Eelief from Viliara Cave at Bhajn.
Front view of the Pandulena at Nasik.
PLATE XXVII (Nos. 73-76)
MANCHAPURl CAVE AND ANANTA GUMPHA
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
The Manchapuri Cave.
75
Relief from aich of Ananta Gumpha.
Plate XXVIl
Part of frieze from lower storey of Manchapuri Cave.
76 Part of frieze from Ananta Gumpha.
PLATE XXVIII (Nos. 77-80)
RANI GUMPHA AND ALAKAPURI CAVE
C. H. I. I.
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Part of frieze from lower storey of Eani Gumplia.
79 The Ban! Gumpha.
Plate XXVIII
78 Part of frieze from upper storey of EanI Gumpha.
Part of frieze from upper storey of Alakapuri Cave.
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Plate XXIX
81 Terracotta plaque from Bhita.. (Actual size.)
Copper lota from Kulu.
PLATE XXX (Nos. 83a~83/)
COINS OF BACTRIA xVND NORTH-WESTERN INDIA
d3
The Cambridge History of India ^ Vol. I
Demetrius.
Eucratides.
Antialcidas.
Archebius.
83
COINS OF BACTRIA AND NORTH-WESTERN INDIA
Plate XXX
ApoUodotus.
Menander.
Philoxenus.
^-
Hermaeus.
■■^
O^
Maues.
^
r* ■>-*'*'
Gondopharnes,
COINS OF BACTRIA AND NORTH-WESTERN INDIA
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate XXXI
84
Head of Dionysus. Silver repousse. Taxila. (Height 3|".)
Stupa base of Scytho-Parthian epoch. Taxila.
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Plate XXXII-
Bronze statuette. Taxila. (Height 5"
Gold casket from Stiipa at Bluiaian. (Height 2|".
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I
Plate XXXIII
^,
88
INTAGLIO GEMS FROM THE NORTH-WEST OF INDIA
The Cambridge History of India^ Vol. I
Plate XXXIV
89
Life-size statue of Buddha from Gandhara.
I
■ <irii T-miT nr^ft^AjgLJiiKIl
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
DS 436 022 v.l
The Cambridge history of India, v.l
''''■'■ •■v;^"x■x'•v^3*'!^■^^^
V'''.:'Vv'