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THE HISTORY OF INDIA.

CHAPTER I.

THE CONQUEST OF INDIA BY THE ARYAN-HINDUS.

§ 1. Sources of the early history. § 2. The historic teaching of the Vedas. § 3. The legends of the Mahábhárata. § 4. The legends of the Rámáyana. § 5. The historic teaching of the Epics.

§ 1. Sources of the Early History.-In very ancient times in India no one ever thought of sitting down and writing an account of the events which he saw or heard of as occurring in the country; and in consequence of this negligence no trustworthy history was written in India. until after the Muhammadan conquest-i.e. until some period not nine hundred years ago. All we know, therefore, about the earlier history of this country must be derived, not from regular histories or annals, but from other sources, such as legends or ancient popular tales, hints collected from ancient religious or poetical writings, references to Indian affairs by the historiaus of other countries, hints derived from the writings on coins, or ancient inscriptions on stone or metal, and other sources of which we need not speak here.

The information about early Indian history, derived in this way, may be broadly classified as follows:

1. The history of the Aryan origin of the Hindus, and of the Aryan invasion of India, derived mainly from philological inquiries into the Sanskrit language-the speech of these Aryan invaders-and from hints to be gathered from their sacred books, the Vedas (see next section).

2. The history of a subsequent age, sometimes called the Heroic Age, derived mainly from a similar sifting of

incidental evidence to be extracted from the great epic poems of the Hindus.

3. The history of the Bráhmanic Age, that ensued on the subjugation of Hindustan during the heroic period, derived from a consideration of the laws of that age that are still extant.

4. The history of the subsequent Buddhist period, and of the Greek connection with India, derived largely from Buddhist and Indo-Greek coins, from inscriptions on stone or metal (especially the famous inscriptions of Asoka), from a sifting of the evidence of the sacred writings of the Northern and Southern Buddhists (found respectively in Nepál and in Ceylon), compared with the contemporaneous writings of the Chinese pilgrims who visited India during this period, and (above all) with those of the Greek authors who wrote about the invasion of India by Alexander and the subsequent relations of the Greeks with India.

5. The history of the Bráhmanic revival that followed the expulsion of Buddhism, and of the long dark age of 'Medieval Rájás,' who ruled the country for many centuries before the coming of the Muhammadans, derived from the later religious writings of the Hindus (called the Puránas), and also from the annals and ancient poems of the Rájput royal families, which were generally handed down in the traditions of the Rájput bards, and reduced to writing in a later age.

§ 2. The Historic Teaching of the Vedas.-The accounts both of the early Aryan invaders and of their predecessors in the country are mainly derived from an examination of the Hymns of the Vedas, the most ancient religious books of the Aryans, supplemented by the hints derived from investigations into the languages of the various Aryan tribes, and from a comparison of the manners, customs, and languages of the non-Aryan tribes at present inhabiting some parts of India.

It has been stated already (see Introduction, § 76) that

there are four Vedas, called the Rig-Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. Each Veda is divided into two parts: the Hymns or Mantras (Sanhitás), which express the wants and aspirations of the worshippers, and hence throw light on the social condition of the people; and the Bráhmanas, mainly referring to religious rites and ceremonies. Of these writings the most important are the Hymns of the Rig-Veda, which is the oldest of the Vedas, and the oldest work in any Aryan language (its date is supposed to be about 1400 B.C.). The Hymns are addressed to a deity manifested in the phenomena of nature-to Indra, the god of the sky, often represented as the Supreme God-to Agni, the god of fire-to Varuna, the god of the firmament and of rain-to Savitri, Surya, Mitra, names of the god of the sun-to Vayu, the air-the Maruts, or winds-Ushas, the dawn-the.Aswins others.

--and many

From the Rig-Veda we learn that the aborigines of India-called herein Dasyus, Rákshasas, Asuras, or Pisáchas-were a dark-complexioned race, who did not worship the gods of the Aryans. Many of these aboriginal tribes were very powerful and offered great resistance to the invaders. One of their chiefs was called Sambara, who is said to have dwelt forty years upon the mountains, and to have possessed one hundred strong cities. The non. Aryans were, however, ultimately conquered; some were driven to the mountains and forests, where (as we noticed in the Introduction) they are to be found at the present day; some probably retained their power and became highly civilised, in the South of India; and others were reduced to slavery; and, ultimately mixing with their conquerors, formed the lowest class of the modern Hindus.

With regard to the invaders of India language teaches us that they belong to a race (called Aryan or Indo-European) which included the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Persians, and most of the modern nations of Europe, such as the English, Germans, French, and many others. All

these nations originally lived together as one tribe, inhabiting a country abounding in mountains, lakes, and forests, and possessing a rather cold climate-probably the elevated country of Central Asia about the banks of the Oxus. The European tribes were the first to leave, one by one, this early home of their race; the Persian and Hindu Aryans seem to have long remained together. Finally these too separated; and the Hindu Aryans directed their march, through the Hindu Kush and Himálaya Mountains, towards the plains of India.

These Aryan invaders were settled, during the centuries to which the Vedas chiefly refer, in the Punjab. The Saraswati (a small river between the Sutlej and the Jamnah, which now loses itself in the sands of the desert) at this early period flowed into the Indus; and from the sacred character which is usually ascribed to it,1 it is believed to have flowed through the centre of the chief Aryan settlements, which were probably located on its banks during many hundreds of years. They were a people partly pastoral, partly agricultural. That they had attained a certain degree of civilisation is obvious from the fact they they possessed houses, chariots, mailed armour, ships, and merchandise. The system of government was apparently a patriarchal one-the head of the family being the chief of the tribe and also its priest. The country, created or frequented by the Devatas, or gods of the Vaidik Aryans, is called Brahmávartta by Manu; and it is probable that this name was meant to include all that part of the Punjab which was occupied by this race before it penetrated further into Hindustán.

Gradually the Aryan invaders, crossing the Saraswatí, began to push their conquests southward and eastward in Hindustán. The period of their advance has been called the Heroic Period of Indian history, and probably occupied many centuries. They appear first to have occupied

1 Some great authorities identify the Saraswati with the Indus.

the country from the Saraswatí to the Ganges, called by Manu Brahmárshi-desa, or the country of divine sages, the peculiar country of the Bráhmans. Then they passed on to the Madhya-desa, or middle land, extending as far as the junction of the Jamnah and the Ganges, and from the Vindhya mountains, on the south, to the Himálayas, on the north. And finally they became masters of the whole country, from the Western or Arabian Sea to the Eastern Sea, or Bay of Bengal, called Aryúvartta, or the land of the Aryans.

It is obvious that many social, religious, and constitutional changes must have occurred amongst the invaders during the centuries of their slow advance down the valleys of the Jamnah and the Ganges. At the commencement of this period they probably still retained the patriarchal simplicity of the Vaidik times. Gradually, as many clans or families united for purposes of warfare, the heads or chiefs of some of these clans got more power than the rest, and became Rájás or Kings. At the same time they ceased to act as priests for their clans, finding it more convenient to employ substitutes; these substitutes gradually became the hereditary priests of the people; and in this way it is probable that the Bráhmanic priesthood sprang into existence during the Heroic Period. At first they were doubtless subservient to the military class, called the Kshatriyas; and they probably remained so during the times of war and disturbance that accompanied and followed the Aryan conquest of Hindustán. But when the invaders began to settle down peacably in their own country the Bráhmans commenced a series of encroachments on the power of the Kshatriyas, which terminated in the complete supremacy of the former. The establishment of the power of the Brahmans, and the humiliation of the Kshatriyas, probably occupied a long series of years; but it is represented in the legends as having been accomplished in one bloody war. The Kshatriyas are said to have slaughtered a tribe called the Bhrigus; and in revenge Parasu Ráma twenty-one times extirpated the whole race